When the shrinking virus struck, Esther was a popular Twitch streamer. She spent her days playing popular games for thousands of followers, happy to provide entertainment and earn good money without ever leaving her home. She prided herself in not being a “titty streamer” like many attractive women on the platform were. Even her Instagram and Twitter were very classy and tame. And she didn’t even consider expanding to Only Fans. The virus didn’t really change much in her life at first, but she decided to play into the “raise awareness” trend. She included links to charities taking care of shrunken women, donated some money to the local shelter for the tinies, openly criticised the Shrinktech company and, of course, she always wore a pretty mask during her streams. The mask became a bit of an icon for Esther. “If you’re a girl”, she told her audience, “then I’m sorry, but that’s the reality, we gotta protect ourselves”.
Of course, one day it all changed. She ordered pizza with delivery and later it turned out that the female courier had been exposed earlier that day. Esther shrunk at night and woke up in a new, magnified world. While shocked and paralysed by fear at first, she gathered her wits and managed to use her smartphone to call for help. She dialed her friend, Danica. Danica was obviously not coming to pick her up - she didn’t want to shrink too - but she sent her boyfriend, Kevin, who was a hotshot in the advertising industry, with a fresh MBA under his belt. Esther always felt a bit intimidated by the man. She was just a girl playing games.
Kevin arrived in an hour and helped her. He rented her a personal tiny apartment close to where he and Danica lived, and carefully brought her over there in a cardboard box.
Over the next few days, Esther adapted to her new life by spending most of her savings on appropriate clothing and household appliances. Life would be hard from now on. She emptied her bank account and she obviously could not continue streaming because there was no PC suitable for her. However, Kevin came up with a plan. He thought that since she already had some popularity, some of his connections in the industry could put her to something cool. He pitched the idea to her, on the condition that he could be her manager. Esther agreed, eager to be earning money again.
Using her popularity, Kevin landed her some sweet little deals. Some of them were related to advertising; gaming gadgets and the like. In a little costume and her trademark mask she’d hop around on the keys of a keyboard or “ride” the computer mouse. She made appearances on some gaming shows, talking about her experience now that she was tiny, and even worked a bit as a mascot for an e-sports team. It was all good fun, and it paid well, although the money wasn’t all hers because Kevin was taking a fair cut. She didn’t mind it at all; she had enough to live pretty well and she was thankful to him for his help, since without an agent of sorts she’d never be able to continue on her own. Kevin also arranged a crew that worked with Esther on creating a gaming podcast. All was well for a time.
But, as always happens with streamers, Esther’s popularity was fading, since she was out of the spotlight and people moved on. She couldn’t help it much. Kevin was frustrated, too, and in an attempt to remedy the situation he started looking for opportunities a bit outside of her zone of comfort. First Esther took part in an ad for cigars which featured a team of shrunken women in pin-up clothing. Next she was in an ad for ice cream, where she was actually dunked into a milkshake. She communicated to him that her thing was gaming, to which he replied people just were not all that interested anymore, and reminded her that it’s up to him now to figure out what she can even do to bring money in. The way he worded it was a bit concerning to Esther, but she didn’t want to argue with him. She noticed, though, that Kevin started taking a bigger cut of her income. The girl figured that was fair, too - he was doing most of the work…
One day, he called her and told her (sarcastically) to clear up her schedule. “I found something”, he said. “We’re meeting him in a restaurant. At noon. Dress well and get ready.”
At the appointed hour, they were at the restaurant - it was a table for two, and the waiter installed a tiny little table for her in the middle. The man they were meeting was large, athletic, attractive, with a dark trimmed beard. He shook hands with Kevin and nodded at Esther. The conversation quickly switched away from pleasantries and down to the business.