On Pointe (Chapter 2)

Emilia remained unapologetically stoic in the face of the others’ repulsed irritation, seemingly set upon the authenticity required for this unique fundraising opportunity. Meanwhile River, being the sweeter more-sympathetic one of the five, blushed hard and gritted her teeth, wondering if she ought to do as Jade suggested and give her feet a bath before they filmed, followed by a deceptive makeover. The last thing she wanted was to upset her fellow dancers, whom she considered dear friends. And she definitely wouldn’t have considered putting them in such a tiny vulnerable position – so exposed to her body’s more-unpleasant functions, experienced in a disgustingly microscopically-focused fashion – if Emilia hadn’t made such a convincing case for the money this amateur fetish porn production would bring in. On the other hand, River knew that if they delayed too much longer, the others might have second thoughts. Plus, as bad as she pre-emptively felt for the time these four were about to have, it wasn’t enough to make her volunteer to swap roles in the video. River made no mistake: this wasn’t exactly going to be a picnic for her shrunken cohorts. Especially considering what Emilia’s script required of them.

“Maybe, errr, we should just get this going, then?” River humbly suggested, much to Emilia’s nodding affirmation. Naomi, Melanie, and Jade looked like they were considering fighting back again, but then all collectively huffed, having already committed themselves this far and unfortunately understanding just how much financial trouble the studio was in. They really did need this. And so, with the illegally-tampered PMRD retrieved and primed from River’s duffel bag, the three unluckier actresses plus Emilia lined as closely around the tiny city as they could gather, standing in a circle with their toes touching the outskirts, shoulder-to-shoulder. Though it wouldn’t remain that crowded for long. River politely gave them all a countdown before she shrank them down to their planned-upon dust mite statures, and reminded them all that she’d have her phone in her pocket the whole time, if any of them needed to text her for an emergency regrowth. Not that this gave much reassurance to the trio of lesser-convinced dancers. Emilia encouraged her to go ahead, much to the others’ ongoing reluctance, and River pulled the trigger on each of her targets in quick succession.

Once the four had effectively vanished down to their new sizes, now correctly scaled with the incredibly small toy-like cityscape, another entire half hour was required before they were anywhere close to ready for the actual work to begin. Emilia had allowed herself to shrink several days prior in order to scout locations and angles down on the model town, so they’d all be ready to follow her plan for the upcoming videos, and that practice combined with her general steeliness meant the camerawoman was largely unfazed by the experience of abruptly returning to a stature which would’ve made even an ant elephantine by comparison. The other three, however, each had to work through their own individual freakouts as they shrank for the first time. Even though the experience was pain-free and played out precisely as they’d all consented to endure, of course there was no real way to prepare for occupying a helpless handmade city while one’s previously-equal friend loomed above so at such an utterly titanic deity-approaching scale that she didn’t even appear to exist on the same plain of reality from their micron-level perspective. It just had to be experienced to be known. River seemed to intentionally keep a distance of several paces away from the city at first – the equivalent of multiple miles – not moving or even making much sound, as if afraid of spooking her friends while they adjusted to their excessively demoted scopes. This gave Emilia a chance to coordinate with the others over the phone, guiding them to the chosen rooftop meeting spot and calming them down with her typical lack of bedside manner.

“Why are you filming already?” Melanie asked, when she saw Emilia already operating the camera.

“Yeah, what the heck? Are we even in the right spot?” Jade added.

“This is sooooooo freaking crazy…” Naomi gawped, wide-eyed and barely listening, as she repeatedly revolved in place to take in the mind-blowing immensity of not only this city but also the palpably yawning void of the ballet studio that stretched to virtually galactic proportions in every direction beyond its borders. Though naturally she was especially captivated, astonished and more than a little intimidated, at the still-blurry visage of River standing off in the technically not-so-far distance like a living mountain, or rather a dozen living mountains stacked atop one another. “W-Wow. She’s just… just… um, guys, I’m worried I’m gonna lose it. This is TOO insane!”

“Save it for the video,” Emilia suggested, as she panned in a circle. “And I’m going to edit this, anyway, don’t worry. We just don’t want to miss any good footage. I mean that literally, in every way.”

“Was that supposed to be a joke? Because it wasn’t funny.”

“Sure it was,” the camerawoman dryly retorted, then sent off a text to River. “Okay, get ready. Here she comes. Time to get into character.”

“CHARACTER? Since when do people need character in a video that’s only supposed to get them horny?”

“Relax, it’s not that hard,” Emilia answered. “Remember, the script I gave you is just a guideline. The story in this first clip is just that the three of you are all perverted little super-fans of giant women and their feet. The look, the sweat, the smell, the size of them. As in, you’re pretty much a cult, and they’re like goddesses to you. So you all convinced one to come visit your city, by promising her you’d worship her like your own personal higher power. Except, even though she knew you’d be smaller, she just wasn’t expecting you to be THIS tiny. And… well, I didn’t put much else in your scripts, since I wanted to keep your reactions genuine. River will give you stuff to work with, and I’m gonna text her some cues. Just go with the flow, okay?”

“Uh-huh, that definitely makes me feel good about this,” Jade sarcastically snorted.

“I don’t know why your movie has to make us be weirdo creeps for her feet. Why didn’t you let us be grossed out? At least then we could’ve acted it honestly!” Melanie asked.

“H-Here she comes…” Naomi muttered, still with her gaze glued to the horizon.