What if I told you that today there was another city in existence with a population density that was almost the same level as that of the old Kowloon Walled City? Perhaps you would imagine that this place was also a crowded slum, shrouded in eternal darkness and filled with the poorest people in the area like the old Kowloon city was.
What if I told you that in this densely populated city the average inhabitant was only fifteen centimetres high, one tenth the size of a typical Kowloon inhabitant? Suddenly the amount of space that each of these little people needs to be comfortable would decrease by a factor of one hundred, or more accurately one thousand if you can build more than one storey high. This gives everyone plenty of room, turning what would have otherwise been a crowded slum into a pleasant, spacious paradise.
Every weekend I visit this city, the Lilliput District. Its population is over three hundred thousand and it is spread out over an area of twenty hectares. Every single one of its permanent residents have been shrunken down to a height of about fifteen centimetres so that they can live, work, shop and play in the city. Anyone who would like to move into the city or use its various amenities must be shrunk to the same height.
The process for this is easy, all you need to do is find someone who has ‘The Gift’, that is the ability to shrink people and ask them to shrink you. Within seconds they will then reduce you to the target size. The residents of the city have hired many of these ‘Gifted’ people to stand around the outside of the city to provide this service to all who come and go. They also double as security guards and do various other odd jobs for the residents.
Now, if for some strange reason you ever need to leave the city, just approach one of these ‘Gifted’ people and ask them to reverse the process that shrank you in the first place. The process of getting in and out of the city could not be any simpler than that, unless of course you are one the ‘Gifted’ yourself. Alas one of the limitations behind ‘The Gift’ is that those with it cannot shrink themselves or anyone else with it.
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view I am one of these ‘Gifted’ people, which means that I cannot live, work, shop, play or go to a licensed dentist inside the city. My size is an unchangeable one hundred and sixty centimetres. I have to go live in a big person city as a result, with a big cost of living. That means that when I enter the city I must walk the whole way inside, to get where I need to go, to visit who I need to visit. I cannot sit or lie down at any point and I cannot stay overnight anywhere in it. These are the cruel restrictions that our Gift imposes upon us.
To enter the city I first start on the outskirts by checking in with the security guards that patrolled the perimeter and manned the numerous checkpoints. They issued me a badge that authorised a giant like me walk around the streets. To the little people I was an enormous sixteen metres high, as tall as a six storey building by their standards. This makes about one quarter of the buildings in this city shorter than I am. The tallest building was thirty metres high, or from their perspective three hundred metres high!
My size therefore, as you may guess represented a potentially enormous safety hazard for those who lived here, hence why I needed to check in with security so that they could track my every movement, monitor my health while inside (can’t have any fainting spells or seizures when you’re this big!) and keep out the other giant riff raff that had no good reason for visiting the city. Overall it makes for pleasant and safe living for all concerned.
Of course there were other precautions taken. Throughout the city there were specially constructed roads that only ‘Giants’ were allowed to walk on. I had once raced one of the little residents in the city, who bet that their public transport was faster than me. Since I was a very sportswoman-like giantess I let him use the city’s public transport system while I walked at a leisurely pace to the same location we agreed to meet at. It was hardly even a real challenge; bipedal motion of a giant was the fastest method of transport in the city, even when it was illegal to move faster than a powerwalk.
As I walk along these roads I have a bird’s eye of view of almost everything that happens. I see the little people in their office buildings, working away at their little jobs that keep the city’s economy alive. I see the people in their little apartment complexes sleeping, eating, watching television, sometimes even making love! Sometimes a few of them might even wave at me, if they even notice me passing.
When I look down I see more lives in miniature. I see the children going to schools and playing in the many parks of the city. I see their parents shopping at the outdoor fruit markets. I see little police officers issuing little tickets for little cars that are illegally parked, sometimes even in the same lane I walk in! I see cyclists moving along the intricate bike trails of the city’s largest park; a park so large in fact that it almost takes up a whole hectare of space in the heart of the city. The park is large enough that most of the residents of the city once gathered here during a political protest. Can you imagine thousands of doll sized protestors with their little signs, protesting everything under the sun? From my perspective I felt as though I were in a news helicopter, watching it all unfold.
As I near my destination in the heart of the city I came across the ‘Giant Crossing’. This was an immense pedestrian scramble near the train station in the CBD of this city. Imagine if you will an enormous intersection, like the famous Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo that allows both big and small pedestrians to cross from one side to the other. When I arrive at the crossing I am greeted with a red light. It has a picture of a big person standing with a little person walking, a unique traffic signal that is only ever seen in this city.
When the light turns green the image changes to a big person walking and the little person is now standing. I then take my first steps into the intersection, sometimes a few other giant people follow me through. It takes someone my size less than ten seconds to cross the intersection. When I look down at the waiting pedestrians they look up at me, a tower of moving flesh that could flatten them or any of their vehicles; a fate that would never befall them as long as they avoided crossing when the light turned red.
Sometimes of course, some daring young people would jaywalk in the intersection, trying to run or walk around feet half as big as their cars. So far however we had never collided as we were almost always careful to watch our step; this never meant that a jaywalking miscreant would never get a tongue lashing, however. I have lost count at the number of times I have publicly scolded some idiot I nearly stepped on. No matter where you were in this city you could never let your guard down as long as you towered over its people.
You will meet all sorts of people in this city of course, those daredevils I mentioned earlier, but among others there were elderly people that needed help crossing the street or moving heavy groceries. There were car drivers that had breakdowns or accidents and needed their vehicles moved. People who needed fast transport to the hospital and of course those that just liked being carried around by a giant.
It was legal to hold people or their property with your hands, provided of course you had their permission or there was some other compelling reason to do so. Surveillance cameras on the buildings and even orbital satellites tracked my every move in addition to the countless mobile cameras these little people held. I was happy to help whenever possible but always mindful of my immensity and the ease by which I could cause a tragedy.
In addition to the benevolent side of human nature, there was a less than optimal side. I have for example encountered more than my fair share of annoying drones, buzzing about like flies around me. But there were also catcallers in the top floors of many buildings, as well as the perverts that would get as close as they could to take photographs of my boobs (on a side note, this is why skirts are against the dress code for unshrunken visitors, take a guess as to why), as well as annoying salespeople and religious preachers that would preach hellfire or the virtues of multi-level marketing to someone ten times their size.
Would you judge me if I said that I occasionally fantasied about squishing these annoying little pests underfoot? Alas, we live in more civilised times and I would certainly not be allowed back if I started attacking every little one that annoyed me.
After I pass the Giant Crossing I only need to walk down one extra block to reach my final destination, the very reason that I visit this city to brave the buzzing drones, perverts, preachers and even just the normal people that inconvenience me by asking for my help.
My final destination rested on the fifth floor of one of the many apartment blocks in the CBD. These spacious apartments were conveniently adjacent to a giant’s lane. If anyone decided to walk over to their balcony I could easily reach over and pluck them off into my waiting hand.
I peered into the window of the building to watch him, the man that I came all the way out here to see. A pale skinned sixteen centimetre tall man wearing boxer shorts looked back at me and smiled. He opened the door to his balcony and stretched his hands out, as if he had just woke up.
“Morning Goddess Amber. Another blessed Saturday to grace me with your beautiful presence!” he said as he leaned over the balcony, perhaps getting a good look at my chest. “Good morning to you my little worshipper” I said to my miniature boyfriend as he reached his hands out, as if to embrace me. “Take me, my Goddess, bring me back to your vast palace in the Land of the Giants!” he said as I reached a finger out. “You need to change into something decent, Chang” I told him as I pointed at his boxer shorts. Completely inappropriate attire if he was going to walk with me at the same size out of the city!
“No need, I don’t want to be unshrunken today. Just carry me in your gentle and vast hand, my Goddess” he said. I rolled my eyes and held out my right hand. He then jumped up, sliding over the balcony railing. “You remembered to lock all the doors, right?” I asked as he lay down in my palm. “Of course, my Goddess” he said. “Just checking” I said. As I began to turn around and begin my journey back he asked me “Did you buy the cage with the hamster wheel?” I looked down at him “I did, along with the doll scale cuffs and shackles” I told him. “Oh, perfect” he said.
A few of his neighbours seemed to have heard us, or rather, me. They stared at us and rolled their eyes. I waved back at them “I’ll take good care of him” I said as I walked away from them.
He knew that I would take good care of him, that I would protect his little body from any harm that could befall him on his way back to my cramped apartment in the Land of the Giants. In this little world he lived in he had a job with an income that vastly exceeded his small expenses, a big (to him) apartment and a girlfriend that loved him.
In his public life he was a taxpaying citizen with a programming job, he had the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the riches of freedom and human dignity. When I took him back to the privacy of my own home however he was nothing more than my little pet. A worshipper to a temperamental goddess that could change his size at her whim; a goddess that could make him do whatever she pleased.
Until the end of the weekend that is. I am after all, only a part time Goddess.
The End.