I would like to warn herewith that I make speculations about the end and do not want to spoil anyone's fun if I should have cracked the "code" (Even if I do not believe that, but warning does not hurt).

However, to explain my wishful thinking, I must first classify how I see the story systematically. It becomes more and more apparent with each chapter, from my point of view, that there is not just one major strand of development, but two. The first development thread is the more obvious one and from my point of view a trap for us readers. Annabelle loses her humanity in competition with Poppy with each chapter. (Here one should not only pay attention to the body, it is about the "idea" Annabelle). At the beginning Annabelle stood among many other shrunken humans as a representative of a human being, the idea of being a subject, but with each chapter she becomes more and more a "pet", the idea of being an object. This is what the debate is about, whether Annabelle in the end preserves her humanity and escapes (subject) or eventually becomes a will-less slave (object).

However, this debate necessarily presupposes that there is a legitimate reason for Annabelle to escape, which of course seems obvious at the beginning of the story. However, one must pay attention to the second plot line, which changes the "rules of the game" more and more. The "rules of the game" because of which there is a debate about the first storyline. Namely, while Annabelle loses her humanity, the FF will - I suspect - gain more and more humanity and stop being pets of their parents (+ world) themselves - so that these four, of all people, end up reaching the ideal state of humanity that Annabelle is trying to preserve. The FF are not only portrayed more and more human, they BECOME more and more human, that is to say self-autonomous beings. However, I'm afraid that the FF's humanity will only finally come through when they lose Annabelle to the object. The moment they lose Annabelle, the human Annabelle, the "idea" Annabelle will live on as a subject in the FF, because Annabelle will have made the FF from pet to human, while the FF will have made Annabelle more and more from human to pet (by the way, you pet animals, too, you don't just torture them through. Just because the FF become nicer and nicer to Annabelle does not make Annabelle human to the FF). For the turn, however, a bond of the FF to Annabelle is necessary, which is built up more and more. At the same time a world is necessary, from which the FF will emancipate themselves at the end and fight for the idea of Annabelle, the subject position of all (!) humans. The realization will probably take place with the FF, however, only when Annabelle is "gone" as a material being. In the moment where Annabelle finally becomes a pet, the FF will finally see in Annabelle the pet what they have always been to their parents (+ world) and break out. The person Annabelle is then gone, but the idea Annabelle will live on eternally with the four.

Or to explain it another way. The FF, without realizing it, make Annabelle what they actually are. To the pet. The FF break Annabelle so that Annabelle becomes what they are to their parents (+ world). Annabelle on the other hand breaks the FF more and more to the human being, means to the subject. The FF will become more and more the self-autonomous acting being, what Annabelle has been in the beginning. At the beginning of the story Annabelle was the subject, the FF the objects. At the end, Annabelle will be the object, but the FF will be the subjects. Annabelle will worship FF as Poppy, but the FF will cry about it, that's why they will hold up the idea of Annabelle. Poppy will have no one to desire at the end, maybe even Annabelle will be "saved" with it at the end.

In my theory, the *person Annabelle* may be gone then, unfortunately, but she has achieved what she always wanted. To preserve her humanity, carried by the FF. It is not only a competition between Poppy and Annabelle. It is a competition between Poppy (body/desire) and idea Annabelle (spirit/idea) for the person Annabelle, her legacy. However, it may also be that Poppy wins, but still dies in the end, because the FF want Annabelle back, from the moment Annabelle becomes Poppy. Maybe this will even make Annabelle grow again and become the fifth in line. Poppy, after all, can only survive as long as the FF are specifically pets (of the parents and the world) and therefore want to be desired by the pet (Poppy). However, the moment the FF become the idea Annabelle, when Annabelle becomes the objects Poppy/FF, Poppy dies, since Poppy will have no one left to desire. Annabelle can therefore defeat Poppy, to return to the first plot line, not by escaping, but by the FF becoming Annabelle. However, Poppy loses if Poppy ends up being able to desire NONE of the four.

(Don't wonder, deleted the post several times to correct it).

Poor Nell. Has to do without despite a possible size fetish due to a moral code. No wonder she is obsessed on Annabelle, since Annabelle is virtually THE solution to the moral dilemma. Annabelle should just beware, since Nell can likewise only see her as a "means to an end". 

Nell's good nature to Annabelle in the end serves less to take Annabelle's will into consideration, but to satisfy her own moral gut feeling, to finally be able to live out her size fetish without "bellyache". 

Poppy also seems to have sensed that Nell has the potential to degrade one into an object. 

Love it. Very lovely especially the detailed description of the devastation.