Nexifem Inc. - Chapter 25 (Patreon)

Chapter 25

The rights of the people are therefore greater than those of either employer or employee. And this third great party should be given its proper share of any gain. In fact, a glance at industrial history shows that in the end the whole people receive the greater part of the benefit coming from industrial improvements. In the past hundred years, for example, the greatest factor tending toward increasing the output, and thereby the prosperity of the civilized world, has been the introduction of machinery to replace hand labor. And without doubt the greatest gain through this change has come to the whole people—the consumer.

-“The Principles of Scientific Management”, by Frederick Winslow Taylor

Chad’s consciousness faded in and out, shifting him between different states of mind. He slid between a deep dreamless sleep into a muddled half-conscious dreamy state that occasionally bubbled into lucidity, but it was a lucidity that fostered a delusional state of being, where he wasn’t sure what was real. Wet cloying sounds surrounded him, underlaid by a deep regular rhythm of heartbeats. Chad could not understand how he was still alive. He should have suffocated by now, drowned and smothered in the depths of Ms. Belmont’s vagina. Emotions rippled through Chad’s mind and he sought to cling to his sense of self. He’d lost his visual tactile grip on the outside world, but was desperately resisting the urge to surrender further.

He could feel Ms. Belmont’s powerful womanhood around him, squeezing him, surrounding his entire self, trying to break down the barrier between him and her, trying to invade his body and mind. Chad didn’t want to give in, but it was growing increasingly difficult to think straight. There was no difference between his eyes being closed or open. Juices filled his mouth and eyes and ears and lungs, tingling around and in him. Chad knew that eventually she would win. He could feel it. She would absorb him into her, subsume him in a final voluptupram-fueled orgasm of obliteration, rewriting Chad’s entire being into just another pleasurable tingly ambition-fuelled gain for Stacy Belmont. Whether he would survive such a process was unknown. The Chadwick he had been before would be gone either way.

His high-school teachers had been right. He should have studied harder. He should have worked harder. When the other students and the girls he had crushes on all studied so hard, he should have joined them instead of playing video games and taking the easy path for so long. Chad wished he’d never agreed to the Affirmative Wage Scale, to work at a company where women had clearly hired him just so they could look down on him figuratively and literally. He’d been so desperate for a job and they’d exploited his obvious failure and outdated assumption of privilege.

Chad weakly pushed out with his hands against the dense wet slippery walls that ensconced his body. He heard a soft moan and the walls pulsed, drawing him deeper. Chad felt a rounded warm torus shape press against his toes, felt it pulse, and he slipped back into a state of blurred lucidity, struggling to stay clear-headed and present.

There seemed to be no escape. Even if he could get out, where would he go? Nexifem was achieving its corporate vision. He’d helped them do it. The world outside Ms. Belmont seemed to be changing to suit her world view, just as his body had changed to please her and other women with similar mindsets. Any struggle he made only gave her pleasure. He had become an object of pleasure and satisfaction for powerful women.

Maybe it was time to let go and make way for the new world Nexifem was creating.

———

Blinding light and freezing air.

Chad gasped and coughed up viscous juices, shivering in the harshness of the outside world.

He cried in shock.

Chad reached for the pulsing blurry shape of a vulva that filled his vision, crawling on all fours, coated in wet oozing fluids as his eyes struggled to focus. Ms. Belmont’s thighs loomed on either side of him like the walls of a canyon. Her pussy loomed over him. He doubted he was even 4” in height as he reached toward the wet puffy lips.

“Mmmm….” Ms. Belmont’s voice filled the air. “Yes, little vibrator boy. I wanted to keep you inside too. I love your attitude now! As usual, making you smaller has only improved your personality and behaviour.”

Ms. Belmont peered down at Chad from above her breasts. She was partially dressed and was wearing a dark blue lace bra. Her thighs and pussy loomed all around him. As Chad peered around, his weakened eyes still struggling, his body slick with juices, he wondered how long he’d been inside of her. His mind struggled to return from the timeless state it had been drifting toward.

“But you see, I got a call from Nexifem,” Ms. Belmont continued. “Your so-called girlfriend was even on the line. They want me to bring you in. I guess someone remembered you exist!”

Chad weakly tried to stand up, but Ms. Belmont reached down and scooped him up in her palm. She cupped her hand and brought him up to her face. Chad was able to sit in Ms. Belmont’s palm, sitting up slightly and holding his knees to his chest as he shivered in the cool outside air of the world. He was reminded of his experiences emerging from the Adtenuo Tank.

Ms. Belmont’s face loomed like a billboard as she brought him close. She was wearing her usual stylish glasses as she peered down at the small wet naked man in her palm.

“Look at you…you’re so wet and frightened,” she whispered. “You should have stayed inside. I could actually feel you shrinking in my vagina. It was perfect. You’re finally learning where you belong in life….you actually wanted to stay inside me, didn’t you?”

Chad nodded and whimpered, placing a tiny hand on Ms. Belmont’s curled manicured middle finger.

Ms. Belmont moaned. She sounded sexually frustrated and yet also turned on in an animalistic way he never thought possible.

Chad felt weirdly in sync with her urges. The sound of Ms. Belmont’s moan made him break into needy whimpers, and he started to suck on his fingers, longing for the taste of her.

“Oh fuck me, this is so unfair,” Ms. Belmont sighed. She leaned closer, parting her lips and opening her mouth. Chad felt the tip of Ms. Belmont’s warm tongue push against his side. She slowly licked his small body like he was a tasty morsel in her hand. Tasting Chad. Tasting herself.

Chad gasped and swallowed back his fluctuating wild emotions as he was pushed about by Ms. Belmont’s tongue.

“Mmm…a tasty bite-sized man,” she sighed.

Suddenly, Ms. Belmont tilted her palm and Chad plunged downward into an open ceramic cylinder with muddy brown liquid at the bottom.

Chad let out a scream and tried to grab at the smooth ceramic walls as he fell down wide shaft more than twice as deep as he was tall. Chad’s pussy-drowned mind slowly ascertained that Ms. Belmont had dropped him into her coffee travel mug. He looked up toward the round opening above and saw a section of Ms. Belmont’s smiling face as she looked back down at him. Lukewarm coffee and oat milk swirled around Chad’s legs, up to his mid-thighs in depth.

“There, that should keep you warm and safe,” she said. “I know it’s not as nice as my pussy, little vulni-vibrator, but it’ll have to do for now.”

“W…wait!” Chad croaked. But a lid slammed down, covering the top of the tumbler. Chad could hear the sound of Ms. Belmont twisting it securely into place. The only light came from a small sipping hole at the edge of the lid. The tumbler jostled around, causing the lukewarm coffee around Chad’s calves to slosh and splash about as he was rocked from one side to the other.

Then the movements stopped with a sudden vibration. Ms. Belmont had set the tumbler down. Chad heard the sound of a zipper. She was getting dressed for the office.

Chad hated to admit it, but he did feel safer in the tumbler. It was dark and warm and wet. He had been traumatized by being so abruptly pulled back into the world. He still felt the deep desire to go back inside of Ms. Belmont, where it was safe and where things felt…right.

Chad shook his head. What was he thinking? What was happening to him? He started to realize how close he’d come to something very frightening. He’d never seen Ms. Belmont so filled with approval for him, felt such a connection with her. But at what cost? He’d been reduced to a vibrator desperate to please her.

Chad fell to his knees as the tumbler lurched and slanted. Coffee and oat milk splashed over his naked body and he heard the sound of Ms. Belmont’s high heels on hardwood. She was on the move. Chad let himself slip down into the swirling liquid. He listened to the sounds of the outside world and awaited his fate.

———

Chad heard many familiar voices and sounds as Ms. Belmont arrived at the Nexifem tower. No one she talked to had any idea she was carrying a fellow employee in her coffee tumbler. It had become a theme. She seemed to enjoy shoving him into confined spaces - handbags, panties, coffee mugs - and taking him wherever the she wanted. She liked deciding things for other people. It was no wonder she’d risen to managerial status so fast.

“Good morning, Stacy.” Chad recognized the voice of Ms. Pratt - the head of HR. He recalled how she’d brought him up to a board meeting after his hiring, just to rub his diminutive stature and AWS status in John Fairview’s face. Chad swallowed in humiliation at the idea of what she would think of him now.

“Good morning, Valerie! Is HR sitting in on this meeting too?”

“Yeah, have you met my former assistant, Nicole Tait?” Ms. Pratt replied. Chad realized that Ms. Tait was also standing nearby. He began having flashbacks to the day he was hired. He’d felt so small and nervous that day. Little did he know what the women at Nexifem really wanted from him.

“Not directly,” Ms. Belmont said. “But I’ve heard about you, Nicole. You were on the original hiring committee for the Adtenuo Project interviews, right?”

“Yup!” That was one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve had at Nexifem. “I’ve never seen so many pathetic underachieving small men.”

The three women all laughed.

“Well, now they seem to be multiplying in number!” Ms. Belmont said. “The news has been crazy lately.”

“You’re not kidding.” Chad heard Valerie Pratt agree. “You know, we actually had some men apply to work in janitorial the other day, and it was amazing to see how intimidated they were by me. None of them managed to clear the height of my boobs!”

“Well, that’s good enough to clean toilets, empty trash bins, and polish floors,” Ms. Belmont said.

“True,” Ms. Pratt said. “Now even Chadwick would seem kind of…normal, if he applied. The new normal.”

“Except…” Ms. Belmont said. Chad heard a silence. He realized she must have been making some sort of gesture.

“No fucking way…” Chad heard Ms. Tait gasp.

“Ladies, they’re ready for you inside now.” Chad heard an unknown woman’s voice cut in. The tumbler began to bounce as Ms. Belmont started walking. After a moment, Chad felt the tumbler shake as it was set down.

“Good afternoon everyone.” Chad heard a smooth, silky woman’s voice and tried to identify it. “We’re here to settle a legal matter over the ownership of a company asset, and also potentially to consider some structural changes to Nexifem’s board.”

It was the CEO of Nexifem, Cassandra Payne. Chad recognized the woman’s confident detached voice and he cowered in the now cold coffee at the bottom of Ms. Belmont’s tumbler. His last encounter with this woman had been brief and indirect, but it had initiated a spiral nearly leading to a total loss of self. She was the architect and driving forcing behind Nexifem’s vision for the world. Chad felt a sense of intimidation being in the presence of such a powerful woman.

“Stacy, did you bring him with you?” Ms. Everhart asked. She was here too.

“Yes,” Ms. Belmont said. The lid came off the top of the tumbler, allowing light to flood in. She tilted the vessel and Chad scrambled against the ceramic tube as it slanted over and downward. He slid down toward the opening as though he was in a short waterslide and plunked into a clear glass made for drinking water.

“Oh my gawd, my little guy!” Chad heard Kelly. He cried out at the sound of her voice, feeling a thousand emotions welling up inside him.

“As you can see, he um…got smaller,” Ms. Belmont said. “I didn’t even give him anything. It seemed to happen just from his proximity to me or something.

Chad knew she wasn’t being completely honest. But he felt tongue-tied as he looked around. Beyond the curve of the drinking glass he could see that numerous Nexifem executives were seated at the table, each wearing stylish business attire and staring at him with a mixture of shock, glee, or cool fascination. Chad was the only male present, naked and in a puddle of cold coffee, exposed to their view.

Ms. Belmont, Ms. Pratt, Ms. Tait, Ms. Payne, Ms. Everhart, and Kelly were all seated at the table. Several other women were also present, but Chad didn’t even know who they were. Nexifem had become such a huge company that it was impossible to keep track of its growing pool of fempowerment-committed executives and department heads.

“Good gawd, Stacy,” Ms. Everhart said. “You went a bit far. You should have told us what you were planning to do.”

“I know!” Ms. Belmont said. “It just kind of…happened.”

“Fuck that!” Kelly exclaimed. “You stole him!”

“Oh come on,” Ms. Belmont sighed. “You seemed a bit busy and I thought it would be better to keep him safe at my place rather than left alone in the back of the studio.

Chad shook his head and tried to interrupt. “That’s not true, you did steal me!”

But the women were uninterested in his tiny objections. They talked over him like he wasn’t even there.

“Ladies,” Ms. Payne said. The room quieted as she interrupted. “It’s not worth getting so worked up over a little vulni-toy like this.”

Cassandra Payne peered down at the glass by Ms. Belmont’s hand with disdain. “This is a business meeting. Chadwick Eaton remains under contract with Nexifem Inc. I am aware of the Affirmative Guardianship Status claims on him, but given how small he is now, it seems like a more permanent solution to his fate needs to be decided in order to avoid legal drama.”

The women all nodded. Chad saw Kelly hesitate, but then she nodded too.

“I’m sorry,” Kelly said. “It’s just…he’s more than just a company asset to me. We had a connection. I promised to take care of him.”

“It’s like if your dog or cat got lost and someone else didn’t tell you they’d taken them back to their house,” Ms. Tait offered.

“Um…yeah, I guess, kinda,” Kelly said.

Ms. Belmont laughed softly. Chad hung his head in humiliation. Her fingernails clinked gently against the glass.

“I’m sorry,” Ms. Belmont said to Kelly. “I got carried away.”

Her eyes flicked toward Ms. Everhart. “But you know, I was on the edge of proving your Absorption Theory, Christine.”

Ms. Everhart perked up, her eyebrows raised. “Are you serious? You mean your endometrium was—”

“Remember,” Ms. Payne interrupted once more. “This is about settling the issue of ownership. Other discussions about whether a relationship can be maintained with a trinket like that, or various scientific theories can wait.”

“Yes, Cassandra,” Ms. Everhart said, settling back into her seat. “You’re right.”

While Chad had half-listened to the conversation, he felt Kelly staring at him. He looked back at her from inside the glass and they locked eyes. Chad needed Kelly. She was one of the few anchors left that reminded him of a possible future outside of Nexifem and outside of Ms. Belmont’s smothering domineering ambitions.

A door opened and a woman brought in a cart loaded with food from a local sushi restaurant. “We have sushi for anyone who would like,” Ms. Tait said. “It’s on the corporate account.”

Women murmured in approval and began getting up to get food.

“Stacy, why don’t you let him out of that glass?” Ms. Payne suggested.

“Hmm? Oh, sure,” Ms. Belmont said. She tilted the glass slowly and Chad scrambled out of it. He ran across the table toward Kelly, leaving behind little droplets of coffee on the boardroom table. Chad ran toward the shape of Kelly’s large breasts, which were constrained in a sensible yet tight halter top. Kelly cupped her hand around his naked body and cooed softly, pulling Chad’s tiny form into her cleavage.

“Aww…” Several women watched and sighed at the sight of Chad’s reunion with Kelly. But most were distracted by the sushi and were busy filling their plates with the well-prepared food. Several years ago, such a sight would have caused panic and screaming. Now it was still a shocking thing, but nothing that broke the rules of reality.

“He really likes you!” Ms. Pratt said. “That’s adorable.”

Kelly stroked Chad’s tiny back with her index finger. “Thanks, I like him too.”

“She’s trained him well,” Ms. Belmont said. Several women giggled or smiled at the idea.

“Well, I guess that’s a way to frame it,” Kelly said. “He’s always been pretty eager, you know.”

“Oh, I know…” Ms. Belmont said, before standing up and heading to the food cart.

Chad wanted to get away. He felt the clawing desire to be inside Ms. Belmont, still lingering in his being. He hated that he felt that way. He wanted only to be with Kelly, but he couldn’t shake what had happened. Why had Kelly left him alone at the television studio?

He tried to push the thoughts out of his mind and nuzzled against Kelly’s cleavage.

“Kelly, could you put Chad in the middle of the table?” Ms. Payne asked. “Just until we finish the meeting, so we can all see the situation clearly.”

Her tone was crisp and business-like. “I guess,” Kelly said. She gently picked Chad off her chest using her fingers, delicately lifting him to her lips and kissing his chest.

“Don’t worry,” Kelly whispered. “It’s going to be alright. Kelly’s here now.”

Chad was gently set down in the very centre of the boardroom table. He was completely naked, standing just under four inches in height. He looked around as women re-seated themselves at the table. Piles of sushi, sashimi, tempura, edamame, gyoza, gomaae and other items sat on plates in front of each woman. Bowls of miso soup and cups of hot sencha green tea wafted on the air. Chad felt his stomach growl at the scent of the food all around him. He watched as women used chopsticks to pluck up pieces of food that were almost the size of his entire body.

A woman Chad didn’t know set a plate of food down in front of Kelly.

“Thank you, Brianna,” Kelly said.

“Now,” Ms. Payne said. “You’ve indicated that you want to attain full ownership of Chad. You want his contract with Nexifem to be shifted to your oversight and you want to be consulted on anything that happens to him.”

Kelly nodded. “Yes. I am willing to offer quite a large amount.”

Ms. Payne swallowed down a mouthful of sashimi. “Indeed. You’re offered to pay quite a lot.”

“I can pay, too,” Kelly said. “I am a lot more wealthy than I once was.”

“Thanks to Nexifem,” Ms. Belmont interjected.

Ms. Payne raised her hand, quieting Ms. Belmont.

“Of course,” Ms. Payne said. She sipped some tea. “But you have to understand. We have a lot invested in him.” She used her chopsticks to point at Chad.

“I know, but I’m willing to pay. I have millions,” Kelly said.

Ms. Tait blinked in surprise. “You’d really pay that much, just to…”

“Own him?” Kelly said, her eyes locking on Chad. “Oh yes.”

“As much as I respect your desire to completely own this little creature, I think it is unseemly to pay so much for a man. None of them are worth that kind of money,” Ms. Payne said.

Ms. Belmont smirked, looking down at Chad as she ate a piece of California roll.

“Besides, there are too many corporate secrets wrapped up in his existence now,” Ms. Payne continued.

Ms. Everhart nodded. She picked up a grain of rice in her chopsticks and held it out toward Chad, close to him. “Ms. Payne is correct,” she said. “Nexifem needs to be able to keep tabs on Chad and monitor him for research purposes. He also remains an important marketing asset.”

Chad stared at the pearly white grain of rice stuck to the tip of the chopstick, tantalizingly close to his head. He couldn’t stand just looking at it. He ran up and grabbed the grain of rice. It was sticky in his hands. Chad bit into it, holding the rice grain like a banana or apple.

“Oh my gawd,” Ms. Tait said. “Look at that.”

Chad ate the rice, ignoring the stares of the women. He was too hungry to care.

“Aww…he’s really hungry,” Kelly said.

“Didn’t you feed him anything?” she asked Ms. Belmont.

“He was kind of occupied with other things at the time,” Ms. Belmont said. Ms. Everhart glanced toward her as she withdrew the chopsticks from Chad and resumed eating.

Chad took another bite of the succulent grain of rice, while Nexifem executives continued talking about him like an object.

“I have a proposal for you, Kelly,” Ms. Payne said. “We will allow you to have custody of Chad if you agree to some terms and pay a small feee.”

“I’m listening,” Kelly said.

Ms. Everhart sipped at her miso soup and pulled something from her lab coat pocket. It was a magnifying glass with a lens at least as wide as Chad was tall. She set down her soup and held the magnifying glass up while Ms. Payne talked.

Chad ate his rice grain as Ms. Everhart scrutinized him. He ignored her, munching on the glob of carbs, while a distorted eye loomed overhead behind the magnifying glass, watching. He was totally exposed, but there really wasn’t anything he could do. He’d learned long ago not to interfere with Nexifem’s chief of R&D.

“Would you be willing to join Nexifem’s marketing department as a department-head and help us promote our new line of vulni-chic lifestyle brands? We would pay you quite well. I’m even willing to offer you a place on the board,” Ms. Payne explained. “An opening may be coming up in the near future.”

“Are you serious?” Kelly sounded surprised. “I thought you were going to make me sign some sort of elaborate contract or non-disclosure agreement or something.”

“Well, naturally you will have to sign some things if you join the firm at that level. You’ll become part of the team but you’ll also be trusted with company secrets.”

“Fascinating,” Ms. Everhart said. Chad looked up and felt a sudden surge of insolence and frustration. He lifted his hand and shoved his raised middle finger toward the distorted eye peering down at him from above behind polished glass.

“Oh my!” Ms. Everhart exclaimed, lowering her magnifying glass. “He still has a bit of spunk in him left. He just gave me the finger!”

The women all burst into laughter and Chad dropped his hand, humiliated.

“Chad!” Kelly gasped. “You shouldn’t do that! That’s disrespectful.”

Chad actually felt guilty. But this was the woman who had literally run the lab that had shrunk him. He regretted his impulsive act, but felt a small sense of satisfaction in showing he still had some level of independent thought.

“I had that ironed out, you know,” Ms. Belmont said. “You all spoil him, like some precious pet.”

“He IS a precious pet,” cooed Kelly. “He’s my pet. I’ll take the job.”

“Excellent!” Ms. Payne smiled. She turned to Ms. Tait and nodded. Ms. Tait went out of the room and soon returned with a pile of documents and several pens.

“Well then, you’ll need something to carry him home in,” Ms. Belmont said.

“Oh, you’re right,” Kelly said.

Chad had already started to walk toward Kelly, away from Ms. Everhart’s magnifying glass and evaluating gaze. Suddenly two pieces of wood clamped down on Chad’s waist.

“Not so fast,” Ms. Belmont said. “You weren’t excused yet.”

Chad squirmed between Ms. Belmont’s chopsticks.

“Don’t hurt him!” Kelly said.

“I’m not evil, Kelly,” Ms. Belmont sighed. She released Chad and prodded him back to the centre of the table with her chopsticks. “I could have fucking swallowed him down whole like this sashimi if I was.”

“Oh!” Ms. Pratt exclaimed. “Finally, someone said it.”

Chad rubbed his waist. He was certain he’d develop a bruise later from the pressure of Ms. Belmont’s chopsticks. He looked up at Ms. Pratt and saw that she was staring intently at him, slowly eating a piece of tempura. She looked hungry and excited.

“Sign here, and here,” Ms. Tait said, standing beside Kelly.

Ms. Belmont chuckled. “Seriously, can you imagine? He’d probably kick and scream all the way down.”

Ms. Pratt moaned softly and pushed a piece of sushi into her mouth, her tongue slowly curling around the rice and fish. She swallowed slowly and gently touched the subtle hollow of her smooth neck, keeping her gaze locked on Chad.

Chad began to feel afraid. The same woman who had first hired him to Nexifem and had revelled in his small stature, now stared at him without blinking. No one else seemed to notice Ms. Pratt’s eyes. They were too busy with their own meals or chatting about the idea itself.

“An interesting idea,” Ms. Payne said. She tilted her head, looking at Chad. “Kelly, you should think about some CGI version of that for a future advertisement or maybe we could include it in one of shows on our new streaming platform.”

Kelly nodded, scribbling a note on her tablet and initialling several pages more. “Yes, um…Ms. Payne.”

“Call me Cassandra,” Ms. Payne said, smiling. Her gaze shifted back to Chad. “Now, run to your owner, like a good boy.”

Chad ran away from Ms. Everhart’s magnifying glass and onto the smooth white pages of the Nexifem contract that Kelly was reading and signing.

“Chad, honey, you have to get off the contract,” Kelly said. She pushed him with the back of her fingers gently until he stumbled off the page.

“Here,” Ms. Tait said. She handed Kelly a take-away container that had held edamame beans but was now empty. “You can put him in this.”

“Oh, thanks Nicole!”

Ms. Tait smiled and held the container at the edge of the table.

“Come on, little bean, get inside,” Kelly said.

Chad obeyed, walking toward the container and dropping down into it. Ms. Tait snapped the clear plastic lid onto the container.

“So obedient,” Ms. Pratt said.

“A serious change from the way he used to be,” Ms. Belmont said.

“Actually, that’s true to an extent,” Ms. Everhart added. “Not all of it is learned behaviour. Some of it is neuro-chemical and comes straight out of the Adtenuo Treatments.

“We’re doing good work here, ladies,” Ms. Payne said. “Important work.

“More tea?” Ms. Tait asked, moving around the room with a teapot full of sencha.

The Nexifem executives and department heads nodded, getting refills and launching into discussions about the future of the company and recent events in the news.

“I believe the time has come for us to move formally into the political realm,” Ms. Payne said. “I plan to create a new political party around the ideas Nexifem stands behind: fempowerment, vulni-chic, and a new era where men will find a better role in a more advanced society. I will run to lead the country in the next election under that platform. I’ll be hiring new campaign managers and staff next week.”

Kelly pulled Chad’s container into her lap and sipped tea, joining into the conversation. She was one of them now, a part of Nexifem, and technically another one of Chad’s bosses. But she’d also said that she owned him. It was true. Chad sat down in the corner of the container and listened.

“With your money, we could actually win,” Ms. Belmont said.

“We will win,” Ms. Payne answered. “Once we have control of the legislature, we can begin to replace the supreme court justices and completely transform the country. We can enshrine in law the things we’ve talked about for so many years. It will take time, but the foundations have been laid. Now we need to take the first steps into government and free up Nexifem to take our research and product development to the next level. The vestigial aspects of the old system are holding the company back. I’m done with trying to work inside the old structures. It’s time to begin shaping the wider society in a more open way.”

Ms. Belmont began to laugh. It was not a warm laugh.

Chad had escaped Ms. Belmont, but it felt like a slightly hollow victory. He began to wonder what would happen to him now. Chad tried to think of what kinds of social changes Ms. Payne imagined the country needed. Hadn’t Nexifem done enough already? Millions of people now followed Nexifem’s promoted lifestyles and consumer habits. What else did they want?

———

In the car ride home, Kelly took Chad out of the edamame container and tucked him into her cleavage. He had started to shiver a bit. He felt her fingers scoop him up from the container and slip him into the cushioned space between her breasts.

“Here you are, back where you belong,” Kelly said, as she tucked him into the warm valley, bridged by brassiere fabric and constrained in her tight top. “I almost freaked out when I saw you this size. But I’m happy I got you back at all. I thought I’d never see you again!”

Chad began to talk, but his voice was very small. Kelly’s music drowned him out and he gave up. He pushed himself back into the comfort of her cleavage and watched the city go by outside the car, or at least what he could see beyond the curving mass of Kelly’s breasts.

The city seemed both normal and strange. It felt like a long time since Chad had been exposed to the outside world. The new order that Nexifem was helping fund and create had grown more entrenched, while other aspects still seemed fairly normal. Automated cars with tinted windows glided quietly down the streets. The latest models sported cutting-edge paint jobs that came in a variety of popular shades - both matte and glossy. As usual, a steady flow of pedestrians thronged the intersections in the downtown core, close to Nexifem’s headquarters. But Chad noticed that almost none of the pedestrians were male.

The sun had just set and the gloaming blue-hour gave the streets a surreal quality. Windows and streetlights were beginning to glow as night crept slowly over the city. Women walked confidently across the crosswalks in heels, listening to headphones, or chatting with their friends. Every now and then, Chad spotted a man weaving between the women. Almost all the men he managed to spot appeared to be five-feet tall or less, their heads rarely up to passing women’s shoulder-level. Chad noted how often a women would turn and look down at the passing man, as if surprised to see him out and about. Some women simply stared in an unsettling way. Chad also noticed the occasional heterosexual couple out together, but in such cases the woman often had her hand on the man’s shoulder or held his hand in a leading position as she guided him down the sidewalk.

“Look,” Kelly said, as if reading Chad’s thoughts. “There’s still men out by themselves. I hear it’s still common in rural areas, but you see less and less of it in the big cities like ours. Those guys are pretty brave to do that after the riots. A lot of women are really angry at what happened and its become a lot less safe for overly-cocky men to be out at night thinking they have an inherent right to go around and smash things or assault people. There’s even been talk of a curfew for men.”

Chad tilted his head back and looked up. He saw the underside of Kelly’s jaw and the bloom of her bottom lip as she talked to him, while she gazed out the window at the passing city. Chad looked back to the car window, listening to Kelly’s explanation of recent events and the growing desire for political change.

Their electric car came to a smooth stop at an intersection between several commercial towers. Then Chad noticed something that made him gawk in surprise. Several young men were standing on one corner, next to a graffiti-tagged wall. They were all dressed in lewd outfits. One wore a fur coat with nothing but a small red speedo and sneakers underneath, displaying a toned and shaved smooth physique. Another strutted about in tight jeans, with only tattoos covering his upper body. There were at least five different obvious male prostitutes Chad could see, and none of them looked to be taller than five feet in height. One young man was leaning toward the open window of an expensive black car, chatting with someone inside. He didn’t look much over four feet tall and was dressed in a snug black t-shirt and light bluejeans, with expensive leather shoes on his feet.

“Oh my,” Kelly exclaimed. Chad glanced up and realized she was watching the same scene as him. “This is the first time I’ve seen this out in the open.”

A woman’s manicured hand came out from the car and stroked the left bicep of the young man in the black t-shirt. Chad saw him nod and then the door opened. The man slipped into the cab just as the light changed to green. Kelly’s autopilot-guided car went into motion and Chad lost sight of the prostitute amid the traffic. They soon left the intersection behind.

“This has always been a bit of a sketchy part of town, but that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that kind of thing with a woman as the customer!” Kelly shook her head and let out a little giggle.

Chad wasn’t laughing. He felt himself sink down a little bit further into Kelly’s cleavage as she laughed. He squirmed a bit, pushing his hands to either side, but the soft swell of her breasts only yielded slightly as his tiny hands sunk into the layer of healthy fat and silky skin.

Questions swirled through Chad’s mind. What did it mean that there was now an actual market for men as sex workers, where successful women would actually want to hire them? Why wasn’t the activity all online? He considered this questions, realizing just how long it had been since he’d been out society at anything close to a size where he could interact with regular women without gasps and wide-eyed pointing. The new normal had shifted considerably. Women like Selina were gradually getting the world they wanted.

Kelly seemed to be thinking about what they’d seen too. But she had considerably different thoughts.

“Those poor things,” she sighed. “They must not have jobs or a family to take them in. Not even a woman to vouch for them so they can rent a real room I bet. I wonder if they have, like, a pimp. What if their pimp is a woman?”

Chad hadn’t even considered that as a possibility. The idea horrified him, but was it that strange? Madams had always existed. Maybe this was just a natural evolution of the vulni-chic movement.

Chad shook his head. The sight of male prostitutes was the least shocking thing that had happened to him in the last year or more. He’d barely survived disappearing inside a woman’s vagina. He didn’t have time to feel concern for some men making pragmatic choices to afford food. He’d basically done the same thing when he’d signed the contract with Nexifem. He’d just been too stupid to think about the longterm consequences.

Chad leaned his head against the curve of Kelly’s left breast and sighed. He was tired. Kelly seemed to feel his emotional state, and stroked Chad’s head gently with her index finger.

“We’re almost home, my little pet,” Kelly said. “I’m going to take care of everything. You never have to worry about ending up like that.”

Chad smiled. It seemed almost like a dream to have escaped the dark hunger of Ms. Belmont’s power. Even though Kelly was working with Nexifem, Chad felt certain he was better off with her. He didn’t want to think about what might have happened if Nexifem and Kelly hadn’t sought to settle his situation when they did. But was it really Kelly who had rescued him? Chad felt a gnawing concern that Nexifem’s corporate interests had played more of a role in his “rescue” than his own girlfriend’s concern.

No, that wasn’t healthy thinking. Kelly loved him. She cared for him. He was with her now and she would keep him safe.

Chad closed his eyes, nestled tight between Kelly’s breasts as the car sped through the city. Darkness had descended outside and the cabin was lit only by the soft glow of the car’s instruments and screens. Kelly had pulled out her phone and was texting someone. Chad was too tired to try and see. He fell into a gentle sleep.

———

“Here we are!” Kelly exclaimed, startling Chad from his slumber.

The car pulled up to a large house with expansive windows and at least three offset floors, in a modern yet elegant design. They began to roll up the tree-lined driveway, past trimmed hedges and tasteful garden lighting.

“Check out my new house, Chad,” Kelly said.

“Wow!” Chad said. Kelly had turned off any music or other sounds in the car. She grinned at the tiny voice of her amazed toy-sized “boyfriend”.

“A lot of this is due to my social media income, but also the shows I’ve been on and now I have the new Nexifem job! I bet I’ll get stock options too. Of course, I did have some equity in my townhouse, but that wasn’t worth even a fraction of what this house cost.”

“It looks new,” Chad said. He felt stunned. The difference between his life and Kelly’s was startling. Chad considered how the vulni-chic craze had played out so differently for men like Hank Powell or himself, versus how it had changed the lives of Ms. Belmont and Kelly. Chad suspected that even Selina had likely continued to capitalize on her new found fame and power in a world that was increasingly configured to her values and preferences.

“Oh yeah, it only had one prior owner,” Kelly said. “I think he was some sort of tech bro, but he seemed desperate to sell. I guess his software business is in difficulty. He said it had something to do with video games. I don’t know. I never understood all those games about shooting and war.”

Chad blinked and wondered who it was that Kelly had purchased her house from. The car came to a halt in front of several steps leading up to a set of large double doors made of dark wood.

“I guess he needed to downsize,” Chad said.

Kelly laughed. “Yeah, that is one way to put it. He barely came up past my belly button! You should have seen the look on his eyes when I came to view the place. Actually, I made quite a bit of money yesterday just by selling off a lot of the junk he left behind. The house was filled with a bunch of tacky toys and cards in these little binders. Some sort of game I think? I don’t know.”

Chad blinked, considering that Kelly might have been able to get even more money for such items if she had known what they were. She stood up out of the car and began walking into the house. Chad felt Kelly’s breasts bounce slightly on either side of him as she walked.

“Why didn’t he take those things with him?” Chad asked.

“He left almost everything behind,” Kelly said. “He seemed to be desperate to leave and was all alone in this big house. Poor weirdo. He told me that he used to have friends over a lot, but that it was too much house for him now. He even tried to hit on me!”

Kelly laughed at the idea, shaking her head. “It was super awkward,” she explained. “I told him I already had a small guy in my life, but that he should try and embrace his vulni-side more and maybe he’d get a date. I don’t think he liked my advice.”

Chad looked around as they walked into the house. Furniture and boxes had been piled up in large room near the front door.

“I had all his stuff put in there. I’ll figure out what to do with it later. I was surprised how fast his little toys and games sold, but this other stuff will need movers. The painters are coming later this week and then I can finally get this place closer to how I want it.”

Chad nodded, thinking about what a transfer of wealth this represented. It was fuelled in part by his own complicity in Kelly’s “brand”, not to mention his involvement in Nexifem’s grandiose plans for society. Was he responsible, even indirectly, for yet another man’s undoing? Or had this nerd’s failure in the gaming industry come because he’d failed to adapt to the market?

Kelly climbed up some stairs, passing stacks of boxes and framed pictures propped up against the wall. “I still have a lot of unpacking to do. Maeve will help, and maybe some of my friends will come over as well,” Kelly explained. “This house has a good security system, which was on my checklist. A lot of creepers and angry trolls seem intent on finding me these days, especially after we were on TV.”

“Kelly, we should really talk abo—”

“Here we go,” Kelly interrupted. While she could hear Chad, it was hard for him to convey his tone or hold her attention while talking to her with such a tiny voice from between her boobs. Chad struggled to remember the last time he’d really had a true conversation with someone in a normal fashion. Maybe it had been when he’d spoken to the lawyer Theresa, back when he was 4’6”. Chad remembered how insecure he’d felt at that size, a notion that seemed ludicrous now.

“I’ve set up my bed and dresser in the master bedroom. This is the only room where I’ve gotten anything really unpacked so far,” Kelly explained as she walked into the room and dropped her bag on a chair.

The master bedroom was bigger than Chad’s entire apartment had been, back when he still lived on his own. A huge floor-to-ceiling window along one side looked out on the shadowed privacy of a garden, but it was hard to make out at night. In the distance, Chad could see the tall glittering spires of the downtown core, lit up in the darkness. Kelly pressed a switch on the wall and a an automatic fabric shade lowered over the window, creating a sense of privacy.

Kelly sat down on the edge of her bed and kicked off her designer shoes. “Normally, I would take my shoes off at the entrance, but this house doesn’t feel like home yet. This is the only room I feel kind of relaxed in at all so far,” Kelly said. “It’s been a crazy few days, hasn’t it?”

Chad didn’t even know what to say to that. He nodded, but could Kelly even see? A part of him wanted to break down into screaming tears while another part was so relieved to be safe with Kelly that he just wanted to sleep and recuperate from the experiences he’d had.

Kelly reached in between her breasts and plucked Chad out, using her thumb and index finger to gently lift him by the torso until she could cup him in her palm. Kelly lifted her hand to eye level and stared at the small man in her hand.

Chad turned to face his giantess girlfriend and stared back into her eyes. Kelly tilted her head to the side gently and stared at him. Several moments passed.

“This is so…”

“Weird?” Chad said.

“No, not weird. I mean, given what your work at Nexifem has involved, I kind of wondered if something like this would happen. It’s just kind of intense. Like, it changes so much of what I thought was possible in life.”

Chad swallowed and put a hand on the tip of Kelly’s curled ring finger for balance as he stood up in her palm. Kelly bit her lower lip and smiled. “Oh gawd, that is so cute,” she cooed. “You’re like a little fairy. You just need a set of translucent wings!”

Chad blushed. How could his girlfriend be so calm about this? He was at most four inches tall, possibly less. She seemed aware of Ms. Belmont’s intentions, and yet while she’d fought to get him back, did not seem to even consider how close Chad had been to a disturbing fate. Did she understand how close Ms. Belmont had come to permanently ensconcing Chad, to gaining total physical dominion over him to the point that his existence had seemed to be blurring into hers. Did she know that Ms. Belmont’s sex drive and lust for control had almost re-written Chad’s personhood?

Yet Chad couldn’t keep up the thought. Thinking of Ms. Belmont sent his body down a worrisome route now. He began to long for her in in the same way an addict longed for a hit of something so dangerous and yet so hardwired into their chemistry - like heroine perhaps. Chad had never tried anything like that, but he could not longer deny that Ms. Belmont had stamped herself permanently on his being. Even though he wanted to be with Kelly, he felt mildly frustrated that she had allowed him to nearly slip away. She didn’t even seem to realize it. She was busy with her social media accounts, her career ambitions, and her new house.

Chad realized that while Kelly cared about him, he seemed to have become something closer to a valued accessory in her life, an erotic and pleasing pet, and maybe a bit more. Or so he hoped. In some ways, Kelly was the ultimate consumer of Nexifem’s products, the ultimate model of the new woman they envisioned, or at least one version of their average user, client, and now executive. For a brief moment, Chad wondered if Kelly was as much a victim of Nexifem machinations has he was. From the first day they’d met, she’d been fully into the whole vulni-chic trend, into all the latest fashions and online hashtags. The idea seemed insane and it really didn’t matter because Chad was four inches tall. That mere fact shaped everything for him now.

“But Kelly, I’m not a fairy,” Chad said. “I’m still me, your boyfriend.”

“Are you sure if I give you a shake, pixie dust won’t sprinkle off of you?” Kelly smiled. It wasn’t a smirk, but a warm smile. Kelly’s eyes betrayed her mirth.

Chad folded his arms over his chest, sighing.

But that just made Kelly giggle, as she looked down at the serious little man in her palm. “Oh, very serious now,” she said.

Chad stuck his tongue out at Kelly.

She gasped in mock surprise. Chad felt the air move around him as Kelly inhaled deeply. Her pretty mouth was open. Chad noted that it was almost big enough that he could fit inside. The memory of Ms. Pratt flashed in his head and he fought down a series of dark fears.

“Oh, I guess not so serious after all!” Kelly grinned. “I’m glad you can take a joke still, my little pixie-prince.”

Kelly leaned over and rested her hand, palm up, on the top of her dresser. “Here, I need to go shower, and then I think Nexifem sent me something they said you could use as a bed.”

Chad stepped off of Kelly’s palm onto the dresser. He hugged himself as a chill went through him, but suppressed the instinctive thought of Ms. Belmont’s vagina that immediately bubbled up in his mind. No. This was where he belonged.

“I’ll be right back, precious,” Kelly said. Chad watched as she walked into the ensuite bathroom and turned on the light. Soon, he could hear the sound of the shower running. The door was left open and the bedroom air slowly became more humid and warm as steam billowed out from the ensuite.

Chad sat down, resting his back against a nearby paperback novel. The book appeared to be some sort of pulpy romance novel. Chad was too lazy to investigate. He struggled to keep his eyes open in the dimly lit bedroom.

———

Kelly came out of the bathroom completely naked, emerging from a cloud of steam. She patted her long wavy dirty-blonde mane of hair with a light blue towel and hummed in contentment. Chad had nearly drifted off to sleep, but the sight of Kelly emerging from a backlit cloud of steam, like some goddess from the heavens, brought him back to life.

It also brought his penis back to life.

“Well hello there to you too,” Kelly giggled as she looked down at the tiny erect man on her dresser.

Chad gazed into the triangle of trimmed pubic hairs below Kelly’s smooth taut tummy. Her glistening skin was so alluring. The scent of soap and shampoo wafted off Kelly’s body and surrounded Chad. He began to stroke himself, looking up at his girlfriend, seeing her gazing down at him with an approving smile on her lips.

“Oh my, touching yourself now, right in front of me,” Kelly said. Her hand lowered to her mound and she began to stroke herself. Chad nearly gasped as he saw Kelly’s finger slip between her folds, right in front of him. Her hourglass hips loomed in his field of view. Somehow, touching himself and connecting with Kelly like this was a place of comfort for him. He wanted to push away the events of the past few weeks and just dwell in this place, this mental zone of sex and intimacy with his goddess-like giantess girlfriend.

“Oh fuck,” Kelly moaned. “You’re such a good little sex fairy. Look what you have me doing.”

Kelly reached down and gently picked Chad up in her fingers, letting him slip into her palm. She was panting slightly.

“I can’t do this now little fairy, but I want to continue this later, okay?” Kelly said.

Chad saw that she was holding something in her other hand. Her fingers around him were wet, and the subtle aroma of Kelly’s pussy hung cloyingly in the air. Chad barely noticed as Kelly placed him onto a circular copper-toned platform and set him back on her dresser. It was only when she withdrew her moist digits that Chad’s mind began to clear slightly. He looked away from Kelly’s looming naked body to see what she had set him on. It was like some thick oversized drink coaster made of metal. Kelly tapped a switch on the side of the platform and around twenty-odd thin copper arms emerged from the sides of the disk. Spider-like, they extended upward in a spherical shape around the platform. Chad looked up and saw a gap around the same diameter of the platform above him at the top of the sphere of copper splines.

“Kelly?” Chad asked. “What is this.”

Chad could see a small logo embossed in the metal of the disk under his feet. It was the Nexifem logo, not one of their many subsidiaries, but the main parent company: Nexifem Inc. Beside the logo were the tiny letters “R&D”.

“Don’t worry, Chad,” Kelly said softly. “You can trust me. I’m one of the executives now, remember? I’ll keep you safe. Christine gave this to me earlier today. She’s done so much for us already.”

Chad shook his head, the reality of his predicament bubbling up and reminding him of how much Nexifem had changed his life, how ambitious Christine Everhart’s “research” had proved to be.

“What? K-Kelly, wait,” Chad said. Kelly tapped another button on the side of the thick copper disk under Chad’s feet and a sudden amber glow surrounded him. A sphere of amber light seemed to fill the space within the millimetre-thick arms that curled up around him. A strange silence seemed to suffuse the air around Chad. He looked up at Kelly, standing beyond the light of the sphere. She appeared like a shadow or silhouette. Chad could tell she was talking, but he couldn’t hear her. The light around him seemed to be thickening, growing denser, transitioning from light to matter. Everything seemed to be getting quieter and quieter. Chad found it difficult to see anything other than a solid amber glow in all directions. He couldn’t even tell if his feet were on the ground, if he was moving.

Everything was still.

Static.

Stasis.

———

Kelly looked down at the sphere of solid amber on her dresser. She bent over with her hands on her knees and looked in fascination at the globe of translucent material, housed inside copper splines, atop a circular copper base. It was about 10 inches in diameter. The initial glow had faded and now it resembled a large spherical piece of glass or crystal, perfectly polished. In the centre, floating and suspended like an insect in literal amber, was her tiny boyfriend. Chad was there, naked, gripping his tiny penis, with a mystified expression frozen on his tiny face.

Kelly bit her lip, feeling worried. She tapped the amber sphere and then grabbed her phone, tapping Christine’s number.

“Key, it worked,” Kelly said. Her voice was laden with a mix of worry and curiosity. “Are you sure he’s okay like that?”

“Absolutely,” Ms. Everhart answered. She sounded like she was on the edge of laughing. Kelly knew that this technology had remained unproven for months, due to a lack of suitable test subjects. Christine was likely thrilled to know that progress could finally move head.

“The Adtenuo Stasis Technology is closely related to the same technology we used to shrink Chad in the first place,” Ms. Everhart explained. “This device will keep him preserved and safe. You can release him whenever you want, but know he’s safe when you want to go out on your own.”

“Wow,” Kelly said, smiling. She liked the idea of being able to keep Chad physically safe. It had been worrying to have him repeatedly end up in other women’s hands as he’d gotten smaller and smaller. Now she would always know where he was. “He’s like my private little guy. Plus, I can keep him this size a lot longer now.”

“Exactly!” Ms. Everhart said. She let out a small laugh. “In theory, you could also sell him or leave him with a friend too. The access code to the Stasis Sphere is yours to keep or give out as you wish.”

“Oh wow, you make it sound like he’s my—”

“Property?”

“Yeah,” Kelly said. She gazed closer at Chad in the amber sphere as she held her phone to her ear. “He’s so cute in there.”

“Mmm…yeah, I bet,” Ms. Everhart said. “It’s kind of like we’ve come up with a whole new consumer product. Can you imagine what a woman might pay for a sphere-trapped man? He could be shipped, stored, studied, traded, or even sold. We have affluent contacts overseas in the Middle East and Asia who would pay tens of millions just to like, borrow him.”

Kelly’s brow furrowed. “I guess,” she said. “But I don’t want to sell Chad. He’s special. We have a connection. I still remember the first day I saw him, trying to reach yogurt in the grocery store, so helpless and vulni…”

Kelly’s voice had become breathy.

“That’s…hot,” Christine whispered. “You should see the video we took of the Adtenuo tests when we first shrank him. I re-watch them sometimes. It’s still the hottest thing I’ve ever done or experienced, seeing him come out all shrunk and vulni.”

Both women moaned softly.

Kelly pressed her hands on either side of the sphere, her fingers splayed possessively across the warm smooth amber surface as she stared at the tiny figure frozen within.

“He belongs to me now,” Kelly said. “Thank you Christine. Maybe you can show me those tapes when you come over to take your readings.”

“You’re welcome,” Ms. Everhart replied. “I’ll see if I can get authorization. You’re an exec now, so it’s much more likely. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Kelly hung up and slowly stood back to her full height. She opened a drawer under Chad and pulled out a pair of panties. Her mind raced through the possibilities. So much had changed today and she had a lot to do. She pulled on her underwear and kissed her fingers, gently touching them to the amber sphere on her dresser. “I’m sorry, Chad,” she said. “This is for the best now. You kept asking me to protect you from the other women at Nexifem. Now you’re safe as can be, like a precious stone. My precious sex-fairy toy man. I’ll be back soon.”

Kelly left her room, relieved to know exactly where her cute little accessory of a boyfriend was for once. A secret thrill lingered inside her, knowing that she had a tiny sex-toy sized man at her disposal whenever she wanted. Chad would understand, once she explained it to him. That could wait until later. She walked through her expansive new home and headed to the kitchen for some tea, humming to herself and thinking about all the events of the day and what she had planned for the future.