[Report This]Date: May 21 2025 6:07 AM Title: Chapter 9 - The Ethics of Ambiguity
I think it was an interesting choice to start the chapter at the end of Ben's hands-on training with Dr. Rivera. I like the decision, actually. It might have been tempting to use this scenario to get to some "action" a bit quicker, but I feel like that would have taken something away from that first scene between tiny Ben and Angie. The way you wrote this let us know that Ben is better than the average new technician without taking away that special feeling of Angie being his "first time." Well done!
Speaking of Angie, that text from her sure was intriguing, wasn't it? It could be taken a few ways, I think, but, to me, it seemed as though she was trying to give him a compliment without opening herself up or looking weak to her rival. From what little we've seen of Angie so far, I've definitely come to the opinion that she's into him, even if she won't let herself admit it. I wonder if she's afraid he'll reject her or if it's just them butting heads the whole time that makes her doubt Ben's feelings for her. Or maybe I'm just wrong!
In any case, I'm already enjoying their dynamic a great deal already, especially since it seems pretty clear that Ben is into her but refuses to let himself fall for the enemy! Him pulling out the "broken clock" line in his response to her was really interesting, too. It's like he's conceding that she's right this time but finding a way to be insulting anyway, which is probably his way of being diplomatic. Although somehow I doubt Angie sees it that way.
Just a guess, but I imagine a lot of her bravado and being "extra Angie" has to do with her frustration over not earning his respect (at least in her mind), which Ben is misinterpreting as smugness and annoyance, thinking she hates him. It's one of those "put on a brave front" kind of things, I think. This is why I think this first session with Angie will really open Ben's eyes to some stuff he's been missing this whole time.
On the other hand, Ben's starting to feel confident that he'll get through this without a problem, which means that there's probably going to be a problem! I wonder if that problem will be at the session or if something happens at school that day to zap his newfound confidence. I'm guessing the next chapter will take place at school before the big session, as there's a lot of potential for how that could go.
Hmm, so the clients have a tendency to get protective and affectionate with their tiny technicians, huh? That sounds promising! I have to say, though, that I love your take on this! A lot of this fetish tends to assume that the worst in people would come out if a normal-sized person found a tiny one (or a giant found a normal-sized person or whatever), so I really like that, in this world, it's those better tendencies that rise to the surface when someone big is in the presence of someone so much smaller than themselves. It's a really nice thought!
It was a lesser thing, but I found it interesting that this job is already starting to affect Ben's debating activities. Morgan is already starting to worry (she seems like a good friend already), and I'm curious if Dustin indeed was just being random with that comment about Tiny Treatments. Who knows, maybe Ben will one day be helping Dustin out during his own orientation, having a friend as a co-worker as well.
And I'm still curious if I was right about all of them being fairly wealthy aside from Ben. Those few comments at the start seemed (at least to me) to imply that Ben was going to some fancy private school, having earned his way in there through hard work. It's not super important, but I'm just curious. Or maybe I just want to know if Morgan might end up on Ben's client list as well!
It was nice to see Ben's mom feel a little relief. She didn't want to pressure him, so she just asked him how it went, but her being happy that he decided to keep working there on his own was great. She deserves a little relief and for her family to get ahead a little bit!
The rules are pretty basic and all make sense. I can't say too much about Valerie, Lily, or Marcus, as we didn't see much of them. I'm curious if they'll play a role in the story at all or if they're just mentioned because it makes sense story-wise to have people there for the ethics training and people obviously have names! Either way, I think throwing a lot of characters at us during this orientation process makes sense, as it would feel weird if the whole thing was Ben and one trainer by themselves the whole time.
We're getting close to seeing tiny Ben and Angie together, and I'm really hyped for it now! I've said this a few times already, but it's worth repeating: You've done a masterful job of building up to this moment between them. Once it happens, there's so many different directions you could take the story, but that first session really feels like a big moment that's coming. Excellent work making it feel that way!
Author's Response:
I haven't shown much of Angie so far to keep her personality kind of ambiguous, you don't know how she really is as a person or how she feels about Ben,, but she'll be around more pretty soon! Also on the opposite end, Ben isn't entirely sure how he feels about her yet either, but that's something that has to be explored more.
Well, it is a gentle theme story at the end of the day, much like my first one, so these do tend to be worlds where regular people are a bit more... lenient and nicer to tinies in general, hah. I know that's not everyone's cup of tea and a lot of people love it when the mean or power dynamic abuse comes out in full force. I actually love reading those too, but when I do my own stories I tend to stick to my comfort zone.
Some of these characters are there for story purpose presence, like you put it. There wasn't much else that they're needed for or at least, that I think I could use them for. It's more for bringing life to the world instead of, like you said, only having Ben and one instructor or something.
I'm glad that the build-up to the meeting has created some kind of suspense, I just hope that the moment itself will be good enough to deliver!