Thanks for that. Ingrid loves, cares for, and has the deepest protectiveness of Tanner, but she's pretty candid in the fact she loves him platonically. And Ivory... well she has her own slough of issues. Progress has been fairly slow with the story, and sometimes it takes me a minute to write/rewrite/plot how I want things to turn out, which is more of a struggle for some chapters than others. But, I think the next chapter will be an easier write than this one. Thanks for the review!

The deck certainly seems be stacked against Tanner, who knows he'll find his way out of this conundrum. Thanks for the review.

Sorry for the long delay, a combination of writers block, wanting to pay some focus to other works in progress, and interning over the Summer left me wanting to take a break from this story for a while.

Thanks for the comment, I admit to that being shortcoming (no pun intended) I try to juggle.  I don't like feeling as if I'm padding at a story with filler; I typically try to stop once I think a message has been properly conveyed. However it's also tricky when I'm typing out the chapter in a word document and it seems longer to me because I'm the one writing it, plus the formatting of the document, etc. Then it doesn't always translate when I paste it here for posting and for other readers who share the same opinion as you do.
I'll keep it in mind for the next major hallmark coming soon, which as you referenced will be trying to shut down Marcelle. I've written some rough drafts on what will occur now that it's closer on the horizon I'll work out the finer details with what you said in mind.

Honestly, I was apprehensive about making Ingrid's flashback the majority of the chapter. I  initially considered having the chapter being about Tanner come home first and his reunion with Ingrid happening in about 2 more chapters. As I attempted to outline and write it, things just felt like they were dragging and I would've been writing a whole lot of filler, whereas Ingrid's flashback had purpose for establishing more of her relationship with Tanner (This one was actually supposed to come a little later).

Thanks for the review. Ever since I've conceived the falling out between the stepsiblings, I've outlined how I wanted there reunion to take place. Next chapter won't be a long wait.

In my opinion, put in the simplest of terms people enjoy the domination aspect and being treated like they're lesser (which doesn't always have to be physical). Personally I never understood much the "Woman has tiny man she makes him a slave because...why not?" That just doesn't resonate with me from a story-telling standpoint unless you were writing a sociopathic character; nonethless it boils down to you just have to be into that sort of stuff to like it and I think most people can distinguish fantasy from reality.

As far as my story is concerned, I wanted to hit a variety of notes. In long stories, I get bored reading and writing stories that are too one-note whether it's predicated around gentleness, cruelty, or some other subfetish. I can understand you liking the gentler side more, but too much of it narrows down the options for tension. Despite there always having to be some suspension of disbelief to buy into fiction, I want there to be some semblance to the varieties of humanity and its complexities that exists in real life.

Ingrid who tries her best to accomodate and treat Tanner well, but aware she wasn't always kind to him. However, there's lingering bitterness of what she feels his inclusion to the family costed her. In her third reminiscence she recounts taking it out on Tanner and realized it was wrong of her.
Marcelle is different, since she wasn't in my initial drafts or outlines. I don't consider her the main antagonist, but an antagonist who stirs the pot a lot and sex up the story with behavior that would be out of character of Ingrid. I know a lot of it comes off as her being cruel and needling Tanner for the sake of it which he has questioned why she gets jollies off of messing with him so much in previous chapters. While it is partially true that she does it because she's a fairly mean spirited person, there is another reason that'll come to light within the next few chapters.

Don't sweat it though, you're entitled to your opinions and tastes. I won't lie and say that was the last 'cruel' chapter, but I assure you that's not the overall center of the story that  "Tanner is small everyone will be cruel to him just because."

Thanks for the comment

Thanks for the well thought out review, I'm almost having a hard time believing I'm coming up on a year since I posted the first chapter. Grand scheme of things I think we're around the halfway mark. You and I both share the same viewpoint in regards to story telling on this site. Whether it's short piece, novel-esque, series of vignettes, etc. A story first and foremost needs to be a freaking story. That's one of the peeves that'll almost instantly tune me away from a story, when I get the sense that it's something that's haphazardly thrown together with little thought. Some of my favorite writers on the site have managed to blend story with erotica, such as Cayce, Jacksmith, etc.

With that minor tangent over I'm glad you appreciate how the characters are written. Quite a few of them evolved in ways I didn't have outlined in there initial conception and characters like Abigail or Marcelle were not in my initial thoughts either.

From the start though I was certain I didn't want the story to come off as mean spirited in the sense that everyone is out to devalue Tanner's life and treat him as a toy like you mentioned. While there is a niche for that and I enjoy it sometimes, a lot of times it simplifies characters too much into being one-note jackasses.  As noted in a previous chapter a major theme was Tanner trying to cope with living his life at his size and the people around him learning how to deal with his size as well. 

The next chapter will wrap up Tanner's arc with Blake's family. After that Ingrid and Tanner's first interaction will be coming very soon, where both parties have a lot to get off their chests to say the least. Stay tuned, thanks again for reading.