My Family & The Shrinking Virus
Note: this story was originally created by myself on Writing.com under username 'Brooooa'
My Family & The Shrinking Virus
Prologue:
In June 2020, the world was afflicted with a Global pandemic called the SRK19 viral strain, otherwise known by most as THE SHRINKING VIRUS or simply “The Shrink”. The origin of the virus was hotly debated due to its irregular infection patterns. It appeared that thousands of people all over the world caught the virus all at once, there was seemingly no patient zero to pinpoint.
The virus affected adults over the age of eighteen and caused the cells within their body to rapidly contract after the initial infection. This would effectively shrink the space between the carrier's cells and thus cause the carrier to reduce in size as a result. Suddenly anyone who had caught the virus and tested positive for the strain would be expected to shrink within the next 24 hours without warning. The sizes of those who would shrink would vary on many factors including their exposure to the virus and also their rate of cellular contraction. Most however shrunk between the size of 3in to <1 inch, and in extreme circumstances, even smaller.
Scientists around the globe rushed to find a cure for the virus but their findings were slim. Their only discovery early on was an immunity built within billions of people across the globe. Some people's genetic makeup would repel the effects of the virus and prevent the cells from contracting, effectively making them immune to the SRK19 strain. This was good news as it gave people hope that a cure or vaccine would be developed, as well as gave individuals a way to test their shrink risk through an official test. However as research dredged onwards, global experts were unable to create a viable cure or vaccine from this data, and ongoing attempts have remained unsuccessful. Within 6 months of the first reported cases, an estimated 80% of the non-immune world had shrunk down.
For the time being however, world governments struggled to contain the spread of the virus. The infection was seemingly spontaneous and symptomatic shrinking was delayed in such a way that made contact tracing nearly impossible. Immediately after the initial infection date, many radical governments quickly washed their hands of the responsibility for those who had shrunk. Shrunken individuals were deemed “non-human property” of those who were not shrunken. The person who was shrunk was pronounced dead and their “property” would be transferred to those who claimed them. The claimant would then resume all responsibility and ownership of the shrunken person and their assets.
These radical policies were, at first, almost unanimously rejected in the United States as people were convinced that their loved ones were more than property and their responsibility lay in caring for their shrunken family members. Still, without options, the United States implemented the “Shrinking Individuals Property Transfer Act”, a ratified law that removed the responsibility of federal and state governments to offer assistance to individuals afflicted by the shrinking virus. Effectively deeming that shrunken individuals were property unless their condition could be reversed. As time passed, the public mentality towards tinys began to shift. As tinys left their positions in their companies, full sized individuals took their places. Food shortages ended and prices across the world dropped as demand lowered for nearly every product. People who’d shrunk had new people move into their homes who previously could not afford to have those homes. As more and more people not immune to the virus disappeared into the possession of their family members, friends, and random strangers, the public began to recognize that the shrinking virus had many benefits to their lives.
Around this time an underground world of “shrink torture” and “shrink porn” began to surface on the internet and even gain mainstream attention. Initial production of this content was made to satisfy sick fetishists who enjoyed the idea of being shrunken and played with. However, regular people who were taking care of tinys were fed up with having to treat tinys like people at all, and began to use their sizes and dominance over their captives to their advantage. People found that caring for tiny people was degrading, while tinys taking care of them was embowering. For most people, this shift was gradual as they used their predicament to benefit themselves more and more, but as the mainstream normalized shrink related humiliation and degradation in the media, the mentality of the masses shifted accordingly. People reported in large numbers in anonymous polls that they were using their captives as sex toys and slaves for their own pleasure. Soon a whole world of shrink centric products were marketed to the masses, not to care for their tinys but to turn them into TOYS. Leashes and bondage's and even sex toys meant to put tinys in their places as the new hottest products on the market. This also lead to a world of tiny buying and selling. People who found tinys shrunk in public or who had gotten tired of their own tinys could now sell them online for a large premium to the highest bidder or even rent then out. Specific identified tinys could fetch top dollar to the right buyer. Soon people flooded the internet looking for tiny websites, curious if they could find their ex-husbands, old friends, and even celebrities to purchase and make their slaves.
As for the shrunken individuals, they continued to hold out hope and advocate for the fair treatment of tinys while they all waited for the cure. However, their demands fell more and more on deaf ears. Their demands for accommodation sounded like complaints to their owners. Most owners began to believe that tinys should focus on being grateful for their owners keeping them alive and less on their demands for servitude. More and more owners began to believe that as the virus continued to claim some, and not others, that the ones chosen to be owners were chosen for a higher purpose. Some churches adopted the shrinking virus as a metaphor for the scripture. SRK19 wasn’t some virus, but rather a gift from God to reward those who were worthy of better lives, and punish those who didn’t deserve the privileges of freedom. This mentality permeated into the zeitgeist in the USA and other parts of the world. After nearly 5 years of research into the cure, most regular sized people polled didn’t care if one was ever found.
In this Story:
The Andrews family lived a normal life leading up to the outbreak of the shrinking virus. However in the months following the outbreak they struggled to dodge infection. In early August 2020, the family is alerted that the virus has made its way into their town and everyone must be tested for immunity and infection. This prompts the Andrews to all get tested. The results will shake their family dynamic to the core and determine their fates. Will the family make it through? Whose going to be the head of the house after the Andrews have finished shrinking? Will there ever be a cure? The Andrews may never be the same again!
Steven Andrews: 48 year old Male, 6 foot 2 inches 200 pounds, surprisingly well built for his age and takes pride in his appearance. Dedicated father to his children Mathew and Maddy. Though he and his wife had some rocky marital problems over the years, especially as their kids grew older, they still stayed together and worked on their relationship everyday. He works as a software engineer for a large tech company and brought home a large salary. He’s always trying his hardest to be a role model for both his kids and isn't afraid of using tough love to teach them a lesson if needed.
Mara Andrews: 47 year old female, 5 foot 4 inches 180 pounds, has been slowly gaining weight over the past few years, developing some thinker features in her thighs, chest, and a belly. Shes a loving mother of her two children. Her husband of 26 years, Steven has seemingly lost interest in her as she's aged, leading to strain and conflict in their relationship, including her catching Steven cheating on a business trip just 2 months ago. Still shes dedicated to being a full time mother to both her kids and loves them dearly, even if they don’t pay much attention to her. Her goal has been to help shape her daughter into a strong young woman, something that Maddy and Mara don’t always see eye to eye on.
Mathew Andrews: 20 year old male, 6 foot 1 inches 190 pounds, (Matt for short) takes after his father in looks and size but not in success. Mathew recently got kicked out of his college for plagiarizing an essay. His parents were extremely disappointed but are allowing him back home while he gets back on his feet. Though nothing has materialized in the past several months, he spends most of his time at home playing video games and teasing his little sister and her friends whenever he gets the chance. Mathew, like a lot of young men his age, is also addicted to porn, something he hasn't told his parents about but is gladly using his moms credit card to pay for it without telling her. He particularly has a fetish for extreme domination, and loves watching people online get sat on, spit on, peed on, shit on, and enjoys content where others are forced to do things they don’t want to do. While he likes seeing these things, the one time he tried any of them himself with his ex-girlfriend he got so grossed out he vomited all over her, and they never had sex again after that day.
Maddy Andrews: 18 year old female, 4 foot 11 inches 125 pounds. Maddy just turned 18 mere days before the first outbreak was reported. Maddy is a typical senior in high school and is a strong student and a promising athlete even if she isn’t D1. At home she's often overlooked and feels like everyone sees her as the baby in the family because she's younger than her brother by two years. Her brother makes sure she knows she’s the little sister and has harassed her since they were kids. These pranks ranged from innocent heckling in public, to full blown humiliation rituals. For instance he recently snuck into her room while she was away to cover the crotch of each pair of pants in a dark stain, making it look like she peed herself in every single pair when she put them on. Upon discovering this Maddy made her mom buy her new clothes, what Maddy didn't expect was Matt then followed her to school the next morning in his car. When she was walking into the campus entrance during the passing period, Matt shot a well placed water balloon full of his pee at her, which then exploded in front of everyone and covered her pants in pee again, looking and smelling as if she had peed her pants to passer-byers who didn't see what happened. Her relationship was also rocky with her parents too, Steven and Maddy particularly had gotten into some bad arguments as of late over her continued use of the car late at night, even recently in the heat of the moment after hearing her come in late, spanking her on her rear in an attempt to punish her. Mara and Maddy's relationship wasn't much better either, with Mara constantly criticizing Maddy's style and also her taste in both men and women. She still told herself she loved her family but deep down she didn't feel like she belonged and sometimes fantasized about her family apologizing and showering her in praise in affection.
Interactive Cover Art From SOSComics on Subscribstar!
(https://subscribestar.art/soscomics)