Lisa Alhubu, 23, rolled over onto her side to reach out and turn off the alarm on her phone. Since it is a Saturday she normally would have slept in closer to noon but today is a big day for her. Lisa looked at her phone which read 9:01 AM, behind the time was a selfie she had taken of herself and her partner Trish Valentine, 24, smiling and embracing each other shortly after they had finished moving into their apartment together. Looking at the weather update she saw it was going to be a cool autumn day with overcast and a slight chance of rain. A perfect day to find an excuse to hold onto her darling. She got up out of bed with her phone in hand and made her way over to the dresser to grab a plain gray tee and some black sweatpants to change into.
Lisa walked out of the rather small bedroom to the bathroom which was down the hallway. As she walked down the hall Lisa looked at the plain white walls.
'I should probably have Trish pick out some photos to hang up here,' she thought.
Though they have been living together for around two and a half years, there was not much in regards to decorations save for a few posters on the bedroom walls and framed photos on a few desks and tables throughout the small home. The lack of decorations made the house feel like less of a home but so long as she had Trish, Lisa felt happy about their living situations. Trish’s parent’s had helped the couple find this little apartment for the most part out of love for their daughter but also because if they did not make the effort to push her in the right direction she would most likely never leave home.
Lisa flipped on the light switch as she walked into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror she saw last night's bedhead. Her chin length black hair was a bit messy but not too tangled as she could fix it enough with a brush and a bit of water. Her tannish brown skin complimented her beautiful hazel eyes. Lisa stopped to really look at herself as she rinsed her face with some cold water and was content with her physique but figured they should try and find a good gym set up for their place if she wants to maintain her slim-buff appearance. After she changed into her fresh clothes and brushed her teeth, she walked out of the bathroom towards the kitchen. While walking she stopped to look into the room next to her. Her office space. It was a mostly empty room with only a desk that held her computer and monitor, her personal printer underneath her desk, her chair, and a few files containing some work related documents. Normally Lisa would have made the turn here and begun her at-home office job which had been the majority of the couple's source of income, the other part coming from Trish's art commissions which came few and far between, but today was her day off and nothing was going to get in between her and Trish.
While walking past the fridge, Lisa had considered making a quick little breakfast before starting her day but had decided that she should get something to eat with Trish in a bit seeing as she should be waking up soon enough.
"Even though it's our big day, I'm sure she'll probably be sleeping in until noon," Lisa said to herself.
So to pass some time she decided to go for a bike ride around her area. With that thought in mind Lisa grabbed and put on a pair of socks from a small dresser near the front door and a pair of tennis shoes. She got her bike which she keeps in her living room and opened the front door. Upon doing so she was greeted with the sight of a large black mass of black fabric right outside of the doorstep.
Immediately she was hit by the smell, "Seriously, here of all places?" Lisa knew exactly what was in front of her, one of Trish's dirty socks. Lisa continued on and went around the large mass which could have barred the front door leaving her within her house if it was just a bit closer as it nearly dwarfed the small house she lives in. Had she not been used to the smell of Trish's dirty clothes due to being blinded by love and years of knowing Trish and her poor hygiene habits, her eyes would certainly be watering. Any other person would have instantly covered their nose in response to the smell but for Lisa she had not only grown used to it, but slightly liked it albeit only because it belongs to Trish. After circling around to the other side of the mass, Lisa looked onwards to the vast expanse which was her and Trish's apartment bedroom.
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Only a month or so ago, Trish and Lisa fully shared this whole apartment but ever since the plague started around eight months ago. The S1-Z3 mutation, also referred to as the 'Redux virus', had appeared seemingly out of nowhere affecting around two percent of the world population. Those affected had gradually shrunk down from their original height to anywhere between six inches and a quarter of an inch. They were considered the luckier ones as others were shrunken near instantaneously, leaving behind only a pile of clothes as proof they were ever at a normal size. However not only the height of the individual was affected but also their durability and physical abilities were enhanced. The smaller they had become the more enhanced their attributes to the point where the larger ones could recover from a serious bodily injury in less than a minute while the smaller ones were nearly indestructible besides being obliterated through extraordinary means. Although this was not the case for every person affected as some remained as fragile as they were before shrinking which some people found out the hard way. There were even a few studies conducted to see how well tinies can function in low air environments and surprisingly enough, it turns out the smaller they are the less air they need. That doesn't mean they cannot feel pain however and while the pain that they feel has been severely reduced, those shrunken are not putting themselves in danger's way for fun, most of them anyways.
While there was a large amount of global panic in the air during the first few weeks when the plague started, the fear died down as scientists discovered the effects of the Redux virus were only present in those with a specific strand of genetic codes which was luckily a rare abnormality. Since then immunologists have been working tirelessly to help prevent the spread of Redux. Though the virus was initially believed to be transmitted through surfaces and close contact, it was found to only travel from person to person in close contact with one another through droplet transmission with many people who do not have the specific genetic code being asymptomatic carriers for a short time. While it was recommended that people wear face coverings while in close spaces with others to prevent the spread, quite a few people didn't out of forgetfulness or ignorance. With that Lisa found herself a carrier who is susceptible to the Redux virus as her shrinking spells started a few days after testing positive.
As Trish and Lisa knew fully well what was to come, they started making accommodations all throughout the apartment for Lisa starting with sectioning off areas on the floor with tape along the walls for only Lisa to travel through to avoid her being stepped on accidentally which was easy enough. From there it was finding out what size to have her own mini house at so she could take care of her necessities in a home her size and when she stopped shrinking at around an inch tall they figured a smaller "doll" house would work well. The last part was setting up a system of areas for Lisa to safely traverse beyond just the floor and with that they set up mini ladders for her to use in case she needed to get off the floor. Besides that all that was left was getting small devices for Lisa to continue living a normal enough life such as a computer for work, a communicator for the two of them to talk at a moment's notice, and a near unbreakable, waterproof smartphone for other communications and whatever else she needed.
It had been rough for the couple as Lisa had been the one who enjoyed keeping their place in order. As the days went on after her diagnosis she gradually got shorter and shorter. At first it was simply a few inches but within the first week she found it difficult to keep up with the house chores as she had been reduced to a mere two feet tall, let alone even leave their apartment. As she could no longer efficiently or even safely in some cases do daily tasks such as making food for herself and her partner or even reach their laundry machines, she felt more and more useless. Luckily enough her work place was able to accommodate Lisa as she began shrinking nearly a year into this sickness. Trish on the other hand did her best to support her girlfriend in this trying time offering some assistance early on but soon returned to her NEET ways as more clothes, boxes of takeout, and other random food items were left wherever Trish had been around their tiny apartment by the time that Lisa had been reduced to around eight inches. As of the middle last night Lisa found herself at a whole 1 inch in height, luckily most of the accommodations they bought were made for people around an inch and a half to a bit less than an inch.
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Lisa looked out over the dresser her miniature house resided on with her bike by her side. She took in the view as the partially cracked curtain allowed some light to shine into the room and reveal just how much of a mess the room had become. Normally Lisa looked after the house and made sure that Trish would clean up after herself which was never really a problem but now that she had been shrinking for a few weeks the dirty clothes and empty food containers had begun to pile up. She could barely see the floor beneath her in a few spots throughout the room; the rest was Trish's dirty laundry which no doubt smelt the same way or even worse than the "fresher" sock in her front yard. The rest of the dresser top around her had been covered in loose papers and video game cases along with a framed picture of the couple shortly after they graduated highschool and had gone hiking together to celebrate.
Lisa smiled softly looking at that photo and soon turned to look at the bed which they used to sleep in together. It was empty except for the messy blankets, pillows and the stuffed shark plushie that Trish had bought for Lisa when she had opened up about transitioning back in highschool. The only thing the bed was missing was Trish herself who would still normally be sleeping around this time. With that thought in mind she figured after doing a few laps around the dresser top which was her front and back yard she would go find out where Trish was at as Lisa didn't expect her to be up this early, even on a special occasion like today.
As Lisa was breaking a bit of a sweat cycling around the mess on the dresser like an obstacle course, she was happy that even with the big change in her life of getting Redux she was still able to keep up some sort of normality in her life such as living with Trish. In the month following her shrinking, Lisa often found herself thinking about what her life would be like if she had shrunken while never meeting Trish back in highschool. Her parents, more particularly her mother, wasn't the biggest fan of her daughter coming out as trans a few years ago. Hence why she moved out to find a place with Trish. Her mother's view on other groups of people didn't leave too much room for interpretation on how she might view her daughter, especially now that she is smaller than her thumb. While people who shrunk were technically still people in the eyes of the law, quite a decent amount of people viewed them as a new form of second class citizen while some just viewed them as pets or toys. Lisa didn't want to know how her mother would view her.
Finishing up her last lap through the cluster along with that thought, Lisa made her way over the edge of the dresser facing the door. She wanted to focus on the here and now and right now that meant finding out what her partner was up to. She made her way over to the plastic ladder which connected the floor to the dresser so Lisa could get around with Trish needing to be awake. She made her way down the ladder with one hand on the ladder while holding her bike with the other. While it would have been easier to toss the tiny bike over the edge and have it land on Trish's dirty laundry, Lisa didn't want to risk climbing through her dirty clothes on the off chance Trish finally does her laundry for the first time in the past three weeks. After reaching the floor, she started pedaling on her bike through the carpet fibers which came up to her sides towards the doorway while staying near the wall and avoiding the clothes thrown haphazardly around the floor.