CYOA: The Twins - Chapter 1 (Story) (Patreon)

 All right, so the pretty definitive winner of the poll over what I should do with my Other End of the Rainbow slot was a choose your own adventure story.  I decided to switch up the way I do it a little, though. Partly so I can maybe get out more than one chapter per month, and partly to allow you all more chances to make choices, I decided I'd make the chapters shorter than what I'd do for a typical story (most will probably be a little shorter than this, even, since I had to set stuff up). That also means I'm going to make the story available to all my Patrons, and have the poll be a separate thing for those on the $5 level. I'll probably post what the options are at the end of each chapter, so everyone can see what they are, but only votes in the poll will count, not responses to the chapters themselves.

"All right, everyone, it's time for snacks!" Emily announced, watching as the crowd of littles glanced up from their blocks and dollhouses and climbed to their feet, almost every one hindered by the extra thick diapers she insisted be used for anyone not deemed potty trained enough at one of her centers. It was for the best, really... The workers didn't have to worry about having to clean up leaks, even for the stubborn littles that didn't like to admit they'd had an accident, or hid from diaper checks. The babies could keep playing longer without having to be interrupted for changes. And she made even more money, since it was her brand of diapers, and a lot of families wound up buying some to use at home, too.

She observed the workers passing out snacks, making mental notes on how well they handled the littles, both when they were being sweet and grateful, but also when they complained they didn't get the flavor they wanted, or that they were lactose intolerant and they would be having accidents all day if they hate that, or any little's favorite refrain, that they didn't deserve to be in diapers, or treated like a child.

Emily didn't work here, of course; she hadn't worked in a daycare for years now. Sometimes she missed it, getting to look after the cute little things day in and day out, watch their progress from defiant divas to diapered darlings. Back when it had been just her and a couple employees, she'd enjoyed putting bets on how long it would take for their new charges... It always happened, eventually, it was simply a matter of time. 

Now, she spent most of her time in her office, managing all her locations, ensuring they ran smoothly. Sometimes, she missed this, which made days when she got to get out and visit in person, extra special. She missed the distinctive smell of a daycare at times, the faint ammonia, and almost overwhelming baby powder, and the sound of littles laughing, or crying, but almost definitely crinkling loudly whenever they made the slightest move. And, besides being necessary, since she had to make sure everyone working for her was up to her standards, she got a definite thrill from calling an employee to the office and berating them about a job badly done until they looked as sad as a little who was being told they had to stop playing a game for naptime. 

That wasn't the real reason she was here this time, although she couldn't help keeping an eye out anyway. The snacks were her main focus, but if she spotted a worker misbehaving while they handed them out, she'd be all too happy to handle that as well. Like the diapers, she'd developed the snacks in-house, too, and had been hoping they would be the next big hit for her, to give her the capital to open a few more daycare locations... 

Instead, just like in the last test, she saw a bunch of wrinkled, up-turned noses. A few of the more notoriously picky eaters were loaded into high chairs, and force-fed, but, otherwise, she didn't see anyone take more than a couple bites. She shook her head, grumbling to herself about how picky littles were, how unsophisticated their palates were, positive that was the reason... She wasn't going for anything fancy, and had dumbed the recipe down more than once, yet the ungrateful brats still didn't like it.

What was she going to do?! Her company wasn't in trouble, by any means, but there were only so many littles... The other Amazons already had their minds made up whether they wanted to enroll them with her, at one of the mechanical places, or somewhere smaller, so, other than fresh captures, she wasn't getting many new clients in her current locations. The revenue stream she could have gotten from launching her line of snacks - which, ideally, the littles would beg to have at home after tasting and loving them at daycare, until their Amazonian parents caved in and bought them - would have made her feel so much better about her newest location, the first in that city, and its slower than usual growth.

There had to be something else she could do... She'd had other ideas, but the snack line had felt so right, so easy to integrate into what she was already doing. Perhaps she could start requiring uniforms, then spin off a fashion line that fit within the uniform requirements, while being cuter than the regular ones so the littles would want to upgrade? She'd been very close to using the newest location as a test for that, only to change her mind at the last minute. Now, especially with her older locations, she was afraid, no matter how she spun it, suddenly demanding her clients send their littles to daycare only in clothes that were sold by her company would be too obvious a cash grab.

No, she was going to have to do something different... And she knew exactly who to ask for help.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Natalie lifted her head from the microscope, heart pounding as she pushed her glasses up to wipe her eyes. Had she really just seen that?! Or was she going insane from staring at it for so long? At this point, either possibility seemed equally likely.

As much as she wanted to go right back to it, she forced herself to calm down so she could think clearly. She'd known this was possible for months, years even, and that it was only a matter of finding a way to implement it... She'd been starting to suspect she'd never figure out what that was, until now.

This was insane... This could change everything! Even just the concept of it had the potential to change the way the world worked, and how people interacted.... If she wasn't hallucinating, or seeing what she wanted, thanks to a lack of sleep and human interaction.

It would have been nice to have someone else to talk to about it, but that ship had sailed long ago. She'd had a wonderful little who worked with her for a while, until someone from another lab mistook her for an assistant, got the poor thing all worked up, then, after the little tripped and dropped the the tray of empty vials she'd been carrying, snapped her up and forcibly adopted her. The last time Natalie had seen her, she was being dragged off by the ear, receiving a lecture over how dangerous that could have been if the wrong chemicals had been in those tubes.

It was definitely a pity... She'd been very smart, and gifted. Natalie didn't like to say, 'for a little', since she thought most of them didn't get a fair chance to show off how capable they were... In general, the girl had been a huge help to her. Most of the other scientists Natalie considered working with said it was impossible when she told them what she was working on, or shied away from the idea of it... She had been all for it, from the start.

Natalie was about to check her findings again, to confirm this had all been worthwhile after all, when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Generally, when she was working, she didn't notice it - indeed, when she looked at it, she saw she'd missed a call, and several text messages - but the timing had worked out perfectly this time.

The face on the caller ID was almost the same as hers, other than the glasses perched on Natalie's face being missing in the picture. The hair was much different... Her twin kept her hair cropped shorter, more professional, and dyed red, while Natalie's was their natural brown, quite a bit longer, and desperate for a trim to tame her split ends so it didn't look quite as messy.

"Hey, Em," Natalie answered. "What's up?"

"You are still alive," her sister said. 

"Sorry, I was in the middle of something," Natalie replied. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Emily answered, in a tone that would have tipped Nat off she was lying even if they weren't twins. "We just haven't done supper in a while. I thought we could get together."

There was a reason for that... Natalie loved her sister, of course, and, though she didn't completely support what she did for a living, since she suspected a lot of the littles in Emily's daycares didn't need looking after in that way, she was still mostly proud of how successful she was. That didn't mean she wanted to help her develop a drug to get people addicted to her snacks, though, or find some other way to trick them out of even more money.

"You know what?" Natalie mused out loud. "You're right. Do you want to get together tonight?"

She was used to Emily, after all, and could deflect her attempts to suck her into her schemes; she'd been doing it all her life. And she wanted to either celebrate her victory, or mourn another dead end, with somebody... 

"Yeah!" Emily sounded surprised, clearly having expected her to put up more of a fight. "I'd love that."

They decided on where and when, and Natalie hung up, turned back towards the microscope, feeling better already. Whichever way this went, she resolved, it would be all right... She took a deep breath and pressed her eye to the lens, holding her breath.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Emily knew her sister well enough to know she was hiding something from her, but she waited until dessert to ask, or bring up business at all. Natalie was expecting it, after all... It was better to at least ply her with some cake first.

"Okay, so what's up?" she asked. "I haven't seen you this antsy since we were waiting to get our ACT scores back."

Natalie blushed, obviously having convinced herself she'd been hiding it. "I-It's nothing big," she lied. "I just got some good news at work."

"Come on, Nat," Emily scooted closer to her in her chair. "Tell me!"

"I-I don't think you'd really be that inter..." Natalie stammered.

"I'm your sister," Emily told her. "Of course I'm interested. I might not understand it, but I'd love to nod and smile while you tell me. I can tell you want to talk to somebody about it."

She was right; she always was, when it came to reading Natalie. "I-I don't know why I brought it with me," she blushed, reaching into her pocket to pull out a capped syringe. "I guess I was afraid... I-I mean, I've been working on this for years, so it's not like somebody was just going to break into my lab and steal it tonight, since I didn't tell anyone I'd finally cracked it, but..."

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"I know this sounds crazy," Natalie lowered her voice, although there were a few tables between them and the next diners, who were too busy staring at each other, starry-eyed, to care what the sisters were talking about. "I know people say that you're born the size you're supposed to be, but... Well, I wasn't sure that was completely true."

"What are you saying?" Emily frowned, lost in her sister's rambling.

"This can shrink cells," Natalie told her. "I-I don't have any test subjects yet, but I'm pretty positive this could shrink an Amazon down to the size of a little... And I have a feeling, with a little more tinkering, I can figure out how to reverse that, and grow a little up to the size of an Amazon. This could do wonders for equality, and littles rights, and... I mean, it could change the world, I think!"

Emily could always tell when her sister was lying; Natalie could do the same with her. She was right that it seemed insane, but she definitely believed it. "Wow, Nat," Emily shook her head. "That's..."

She wasn't sure what to say, although the dollar signs were already swimming through her eyes. This was perfect... There were certainly some immature Amazons out there who deserved a stay at one of her daycares, and surely plenty of littles who would want to get revenge on Amazons who had mistreated them... If that was something she could provide exclusively at her daycares, she wouldn't have a choice - she'd have to build more locations to accommodate all her new clients!

"Wow," she said finally, reaching out to touch the syringe. "And you're sure it works?"

Natalie saw the look in her eyes, tried to pull it back, out of her reach. "I shouldn't have brought this here," she shook her head, glaring as Emily's fingers closed around it tightly. "Let go, Em!"

"Natalie, I need this," Emily pleaded. "I swear, I wouldn't let it get abused, but it's exactly what I need to save my business... I'd give you a cut of the profits, of course, and you'd have plenty of money to keep working on finding that other stuff..." She already had plans for how she could take advantage of the growth serum as well, by having Natalie find a way to make its effects last a certain amount of time. It could be a reward, for littles who were especially mature one day, or maybe they'd sell it by the day, so any of them that wanted to be big would have to keep coming back for a fresh dose, or risk everyone finding out they'd been a little all along, simply posing as an Amazon. Maybe she'd do the same with the one that shrunk the Amazons, too, so it would work as a temporary punishment, or, if a little was keeping a former tormentor small, they'd have to keep paying for the drug, or risk the Amazon getting big and showing them who was really in charge.

"I don't think you understand what I made this for, Emily," Natalie glared. "This isn't some money-making scheme, I'm trying..."

"Oh, of course I don't understand," Emily shot back, rolling her eyes. "I'm not a genius like you, huh?"

"That's not what I meant," Natalie sighed. "I just..."

"I am your sister!" Emily told her. "And I need your help! That's all I want!" 

She heard something bounce off the table, and looked down to see the cap of the syringe lying there, then back up at the shining needle, caught between the hands of the two sisters. Her heart began to race; she would have loved to do this with her sister, yes, but it would also be nice to see the little nerd back in diapers, enrolled in one of Emily's daycares where she couldn't feel superior to anyone. Honestly, for refusing to help her family, she kind of deserved it... And there had to be someone else who could replicate the formula Natalie had made, who was willing to work with Emily.

"Emily, stop it!" Natalie ordered, noticing that her sister was starting to push the needle towards her arm, and shoving back. "This isn't funny!"

"You said you didn't have any test subjects," Emily teased, sweat starting to form on her brow as she fought to keep the drug away from her. "Why not volunteer yourself?"

"Why?" Natalie sneered. "You'd be so much better as a candidate... I bet nobody would ever guess you were ever anything but a baby."

Emily was a little shocked at the venom in her sister's voice. She'd always suspected Natalie looked down on her, but she hadn't expected anything like that. She really would benefit from being shown she was too big for her britches, by making her too small for them. It would be fun to see her trying to show up how smart she was, with all the employees just looking at her like she was spouting out meaningless baby babble... 

The sisters stared daggers at one another, each struggling for control of the syringe, locked in combat, hands growing sweatier, more slick, more tired, until, finally, one of the girls was able to snatch it away with the triumphant grin of a victor. But which one was it?

Was it Emily, to teach her uppity sister Natalie a lesson, and start to expand her daycare empire even further?

Or Natalie, to give Emily a taste of her own medicine, and try to make the world a better place?