Friends in small places remaster 2023

Attempted to recreate this image by rendering it at a higher resolution with softlamps and more!

Story

It had been a couple of months since Dawn had volunteered to help Cynthia with her shrinking experiment, but still Cynthia couldn't find a way to grow Dawn back to her normal size. At first the young trainer had loved being smaller than a doll, even the most mundane things like watching TV became exciting. But after the niche of everything being bigger wore off, the helplessness of not being able to do anything without help, almost getting crushed or stuck multiple times and most of all, the loneliness started to be too much for Dawn.

Cynthia's Perspective

Cynthia missed seeing Dawn's smile and knew she had to do something, but what? 'The shrinking is irreversible... But I've made progress, I can solve this in the next few days! Maybe weeks... Or a month?' She thought to herself. That's when a risky plan came to mind. 'I couldn't! Surely that's too far! But perhaps with the right person...'

The next day Cynthia got the orb ready, the same one that had shrunk Dawn months ago. She was waiting for a certain trainer. He was always quiet and had been helping out Professor Rowan so he was allowed access to the whole building. But in passing one day he walked into Cynthia's office and saw Dawn. Since the boy never spoke he was unlikely to go around telling everyone what he saw, but still Cynthia had been worried that others would find out about the tiny fragile Dawn. The boy would come around to check on Dawn at the same time everyday. They even played a few times but he seemed unfamiliar with the activity as if he hadn't spend much time with others.

Cynthia's plan was to shrink him down to Dawn's size. 'Of course I'll ask him if he's willing to help Dawn. It's standard procedure to not tell subjects the details of an experiment... It's not just for Dawn either! He seems lonely too, and it'll be fun at that size! No one will miss him? It's only for a while...' Cynthia tried to convince herself that she was no matter how she phrased it, what she was about to do sounded malicious.

The boy arrived right on schedule and as Cynthia predicted, he agreed to help Dawn. She activated the orb and began to shrink him, it'd only take a moment for him to reach Dawn's size. But as soon as he noticed that he was getting smaller, the trainer sent out a caterpie to use tackle and stop Cynthia.

'Argh! Wait, you don't want to do that!' Cynthia said with a little squeal. Of course the bug pokémon's attack was too weak to hurt much. But it was enough to startle the champion and cause her to drop the orb which continued to shrink the boy. She quickly picked the orb back up and deactivated it, but it was too late...

Cynthia looked around for the trainer but couldn't see him. After she realised what happened, it took her 15 minutes and a magnifying glass to find the shrunken trainer who had fainted from shock.


The boy's perspective


He woke up an hour later but couldn't recognize his surroundings. There were a few weird buildings around, but they were huge! 'I could probably almost fit under one of those doors!' He thought to himself. That's when he remembered, Cynthia had shrunk him! He panicked for a moment but figured out Cynthia's intentions. He was angry but the thought of spending more time with Dawn calmed him down. He knew how lonely she'd get and wanted to make her happy. The boy picked up his Xtranceiver and sent a message to Cynthia asking where she was.

'Oh, you're awake. I'm really sorry about this, I swear it's not for long!' Cynthia boomed in the distance. He jumped, startled at the voice from nowhere that literally shook the ground beneath him. It took him a second to make out the collosal Cynthia in the distance. He knew she'd look big to him but he didn't think she'd look that big!

'Dawn! Come on out! I brought a friend for you!' Cynthia called out pointing where the tiny boy was standing.

He smiled at the thought of her reaction when Dawn see's him, though the thought of being eye level with her felt a bit awkward.

He saw Dawn walking towards him in the distance and let out a shy wave, but she didn't seem to see him yet. 'Ha, she looks so cute next to those toy towers.' he thought. Then he paused. 'Wait. If these buildings are toys, why are they so big? Is Dawn taller than me now?' He turned red at the thought. She continued to walk closer.

His vision was a bit blurry but she seemed to be moving really fast. 'You don't have to run Dawn!' But as she came into focus, he noticed she wasn't running. In fact, she seemed to be growing? No, he just wasn't used to the perspective yet. She wasn't growing, she was just bigger than him, a lot bigger, and she wasn't stopping. 'H-hey Dawn, slow down, I'm over here!' She took no notice. He had no time to react to his situation, he just instinctively began running, she could crush him without even noticing!

'Oh hang on Dawn, you might want to look down and watch your step!' Cynthia called out. In his panic, the boy had completely forgotten that Cynthia was watching from above. He turned around to see a big pink pillar in front of him, Dawn's boot. He slowly looked up. Dawn, who had appeared so small and helpless to him a moment ago now towered over him with a grin and snatched him off the ground. With the smallest amount of effort she squeezed all the air out of his body and he could feel his bones almost give in to the pressure of her grip. The last thing he saw before he once more fainted of shock was the wall of flesh in front of him letting out a fearsome roar and the goddess Cynthia covered in shadows in the distance literally watching over his whole new world that he once knew as a table.


Dawn's perspective


Dawn looked around confused while walking towards where Cynthia was pointing in the distance with a soft smile. 'It's embarrassing Cynthia keeps trying to get me to play all the time, I'm not a kid anymore!... Though there's not really anything better to do around here.' She thought to herself.

She kept walking but couldn't see anything till Cynthia told her to look down.

'Huh, down? Why? Even the smallest pokémon would probably be at least shoulder level to me?'

But as she glanced down her heart nearly skipped a beat. That cool trainer that always came to visit now stood in front of her feet. Dawn's thoughts were racing 'Oh no! I nearly stepped on him! That's not funny Cynthia! For an adult she's so immature. But omg he looks sooo cute!! Is that what I look like to everyone else?'

Dawn almost let out a little giggle at the sight of the tiny boy, but held it back into a little smile. She remembered how fun it had been the first time Cynthia had picked her up so reached out to do so. After a brief moment of awe with the insect sized trainer in her hands she realised she hadn't said anything yet, so she let out a playful 'Boo!'

But the boy fainted in her hands! 'Huh? Who knew such a tough looking trainer could be so dramatic?'

'Careful Dawn! He's as small to you as you are to me now, you've got to be gentle!' Cynthia said with worry.

'Why did you shrink him so small anyway?! Actually why'd you shrink him at all?!' Dawn said grumpily, shaking her fist at Cynthia.

'Uh haha sorry I thought you'd appreciate the company, now you get to take care of a little one too!' The clumsy champion said, scratching her head nervously.


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