Not A Toy 100

Maisie sunk lower into the make-shift bath, trying to push the image of her surrounded by cereal and milk from her mind. The girl was careful to keep her hair from getting drenched, she had thick locks which always took an age to dry - besides, the wine had mercifully stained her mostly from the neck down. As she cleansed herself of the alcohol, she was unable to cleanse herself of the leering gazes of the teacher and the scientist.

Sophie for her part was fascinated by this display. She had so often considered the notion of matter compression - or shrinking - through the lens of scientific breakthrough, the ways it would affect society, and of course, how it reflected her own genius. However, there was another facet that was unveiling itself as the shrunken Maisie bathed herself: the pure novelty. What did it feel like to ease yourself into a cereal bowl, to be carried in a purse, to wear a doll's clothing...

Of course, just as she often did, the human component was missing from her romanticizing. The vulnerability of having to bathe naked in a cereal bowl, the chaos and danger of being carried in a purse, the stiff awkwardness of wearing a doll's dress. Was it a lack of empathy on the redhead's part? Or was it a stiff hierarchy of priorities stacked in her mind?

Without thinking, the scientist took a finger and pressed it against the shrunken woman's sole as she raised her leg in the water. The redhead's fingernail was nearly as long as Maisie's foot, and Sophie held there for a moment, quietly revelling in this connection. The graduate however, looked glumly up at the giantess - sharing in none of Sophie's inspiration.

"Look at you - enjoying your spa day?" Jenna teased, leaning on the edge of the bowl - her reduced weight unable to shift the makeshift bath.

Maisie made a face, her mouth flapping for a moment in mockery of the older woman's constant prodding. "Don't make me pull you in here."

Sophie enjoyed this back and forth. "Be nice, you two." She chided playfully.

Neither of the shrunken duo enjoyed that motherly tone, yet the younger of the pair felt safer in indulging herself. "Yeah, Jenna." Her tone sarcastic.

The teacher just rolled her eyes, stepping away from the bathing woman as it looked as though Maisie's patience with her exhibition wore thin. "Okay, I'm getting out."

Sophie watched the girl rise and step from the bath. "Squeaky clean. Now dry off with this and get dressed."

Maisie was trying to decide whether being snatched and dropped in a purse was preferable to being spoken to like a kid. Before she could voice any irritation though, a hand towel was dropped just beside the drenched woman. Clearly this was something that would normally rest near a sink in a bathroom, but this might as well have been a blanket to the dwindled woman. It was stiffer and denser to her scaled down self, but seeing no other option the tiny Maisie began drying herself off. Despite the overwhelming sense of exposure she felt, the graduate was thankful to be free of the scent of red wine from her body.

Jenna watched her shrunken companion, drying herself, quietly captivated by the ways Maisie had to do what Sophie said. The teacher caught some movement from the giantess though, and her eyes traced to now unveiled garment that was laid bare. Unable to suppress it, the teacher began to snicker.

Maisie dragged the courser-than-expected material across her body, looking over her shoulder as she finished. "What's so funny..."

The naked woman set down the towel and prowled towards the source of Jenna's amusement. It was Sophie who spoke, retrieving the hand towel as she did. "It was all I had left that will fit you. Or I assume will fit you. Go on then." She urged.

Maisie looked down at the garment, it was a seething pink, and looked part fabric, part plastic, part spongey material that she couldn't really identify. Maisie remembered how she felt when she had seen Jenna's new outfit and had told herself Sophie wouldn't ask her to wear something like that - yet that had been when the graduate's outfit wasn't soaking with red wine.

"'Well, it's better than no clothes?', right Maisie?" Jenna's voice thrust into Maisie's mind like a knife as she mimicked the graduate's empty consolation when she had faced her polka dot fashion nightmare.

Sophie grinned. "It makes little difference to me, but I doubt you want to be running around naked while I test er, fix, the right device, right?" The scientist continued, trying to conceal her minor slip-up. "Just hurry up and get dressed, okay? You'll look cute and pretty and yadda yadda."

Maisie groaned, the two older women having little in the way of sympathy for the girl. With a great deal of reluctance, and her most dramatic groan yet, the woman began sliding her body into the rigid bit of doll's clothing. The item had to be peeled down her figure, and it squeaked more than once. As the shrunken woman tried to force the very short dress into some kind of modest fitting, she just threw her hands up and glared at the giantess. "This thing barely fits me!"

Sophie shrugged. "The doll it was on might have been a bit smaller than you..."

Jenna didn't need to speak; the smugness was practically oozing off of her.

Sophie leaned back and took in the sight. "Look at you two - the cutest toys I ever did see." 

She knew it was condescending, she knew it was patronizing - but she also knew something else - there was very little the duo could do about it.