Shrunken and afraid, but thankfully not naked.....
[Note, even though Raphael is the main acting character here, I didn't switch the POV to him because this can still be Blaise's story, so, unless it's been prompted, this is still from Blaise's POV and Raphael is either described from his perspective or in third person. As a side note, due to the nature of this chapter, there can be some measure of foot content, but I'd rather keep it to a minimum and transitory]
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[Path for choices 1 & 2]
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The father and son had been shrunken by a mysterious light. The older man was the first to wake up, feeling as if he had been run over by a truck several times over. Thankfully, the pain and soreness in his body quickly disappeared, but his head was still spinning. He felt dizzy and disoriented, and when he finally opened his eyes and began looking around, nothing made sense anymore.

"What the freaking hell just happened?" He muttered, finding himself alone on a vast landscape of sorts, an utterly bizarre one. All around him was just a seemingly endless amount of open space, the floor beneath his feet appeared to be tile, similar to his son's school, but it was just one single, massive tile.

As his vision regained its focus, what he saw, he couldn't believe. There were massive structures, larger than any buildings he had ever seen, all around. In the distance, he could even make out their shapes, benches and lockers. It looked like a gym's changing room.

"But that's ridiculous, nothing can ever be that huge" He muttered, and then he saw something even more unbelievable, a car-sized fly passed by, completely ignoring him, and soon it disappeared into the hallway, but that sole sight served to sink this new terrifying reality in: He was shrunken, smaller than even a bug. He looked at his own hands in disbelief, pinched his face, but everything began to make sense in the worst possible way.

"No... no no no no..." Raphael despaired, and after walking a few meters (in his scale) forward, he found a house-sized penny on the floor.
"This has to be a joke! There is no way this is real..." He said "...yet it is" he sighed in defeat. The next thought that came to his mind was you, his son.
'Does that mean he shrank too? W-Where is he?' He frantically began looking around, searching for any signs of another shrunken person, and after a short while, he found you...

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[Path for Choice 3]
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[Switch to Raphael's POV]

You were unable to find your son anywhere around, and much to your dismay, the floor began shaking, and you could only guess what that meant. To your horror, larger than mountain sized girls began entering the room, obviously to change clothes, either they were going to start P.E or they had just finished and were going to go back to class, but regardless, this spelled almost certain doom for you, now you had to run for your life to avoid getting trampled beneath their unknowing feet.

As much as you were concerned about your son, possibly being shrunken like you and alone, you needed to survive yourself first in order to even try to rescue him. You couldn't let yourself get killed here and now like some bug. Adrenaline flooded your bloodstream, making you ready to flee for your very life. Somehow, as annoying as this situation was, in addition to being horrific, you were somewhat thankful it had been the girls' changing room instead of the boys' whom you'd think would be larger and more careless... but then again, you probably wanted to stay undetected if you could help it.

Your body, toughened by years of hard physical labor, but also softened by the passing years and a more relaxed lifestyle, somehow felt refreshed. You weren't sure if it was only the adrenaline, but you felt like you were back in your physical prime.

'It's okay, you got this. Just escape these huge girls' feet and look for Blaise when they're gone...' You thought
'He's a smart boy. I'm sure he'll either flee or hide if he can't escape... God please protect him...' You sort of prayed, and prepared to run like you never had before, hoping Blaise would be smart enough to keep himself from getting killed in the mean time.

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[Path for choice 4]
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[Stay in Blaise's POV]

You woke up, your body feeling as if a trailer truck ran you over, with your head pulsating and spinning. In a way, it felt as if someone had punched you really hard in the face, although there was no punch. It took you a moment to stand up and regain your balance, then you opened your eyes, which got a little hurt by the harsh lights from above.

"What the...? Dad, you ok?" You asked while opening them again, but to your surprise, there was no one around. You were in a vast, strange place that seemed to defy all reason. As you looked more and more at your surroundings, the weirder they seemed to be come, and yet, as odd as it may sound, the more real they seemed. You couldn't describe the feeling, it was like seeing a color that should not exist, a contradictory view, your brain unable to logically process what your eyes relayed.

"What kind of place is this?" You muttered in disbelief. But as time passed, one inevitable conclusion came to mind... somehow, you had been shrunken, really small, maybe as small as an ant, or a flea... but that made little sense, people don't suddenly shrink.

'Oh god, this is like one of Zuemy's weird fantasies or whatever those were...' You shuddered, recalling that Lillian's friend teased you quite a few times with such an idea, and she made it all the more terrifying because as she narrated the scenario, she would often grab a very small ant and get you relate to it, being that small and helpless in her hand, only for her to drop the innocent insect down the back of her pants, and either squash it with her enormous cheeks, or blast a humongous fart, which surely annihilated it as well. You knew she was just messing with your head, but that kind of scenario had suddenly become real, and that realization sent cold shivers down your spine.

"I need to figure out where the friggin hell I am, where's my dad, and get some help to undo this..." You said, taking a mental note, and as a way to reaffirm that, as bizarre as this all was, it was real, and you needed to seriously make sure you'd survive. You wondered if your dad had been hit with the same thing, and if he was also shrunken, maybe he was still unconscious somewhere. You needed to find him without getting killed in the process.

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[Chapter end notes: The path for Blaise in Choice 4 is an alternate story to the one for Choices 1 - 3. In that case, Blaise can be literally anywhere, like mentioned in a previous choice in the previous chapter, he could be in the changing room, but it hasn't been specified where, or he could be somewhere else, the possibility including being on a body, with him not knowing. The girl may know or not, up to whoever takes on this path.

Raphael's situation can be left as a mystery, or you could develop 2 simultaneous stories going on at once, if you're up for the challenge that would represent.]
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May 12, 2023