A Little Glitch - Part 1 (Patreon)

Maisie was running late. It didn't bother her.

"What time are we supposed to be meeting Steph again?" The less than punctual girl asked Tina.

Tina was already leaving. "Twelve thirty, she said. I'm walking to my car now. Where are you by the way? Did you move somewhere much nicer without telling me?"

"Think I could afford this? I'm house-sitting for a friend."

"Ooh-la-la. Looks nice! Wait, are you even dressed?" A hint of accusation in Tina's voice.

"I'm wearing the jumper-dress thing you bought me!" Maisie said with a grin.

Tina was glad to hear that. "You're harder to buy for than you say you are by the way. Does it fit?"

Maisie was nothing if not honest. "Uh, mostly? Could be a little tighter in the sleeves."

Tina thought for a moment, her shoes crunching into the pebbles of the driveway. She might be able to help with that problem. "Okay, bear with me but I'm sending you a link - click it."

The familiar ding of Maisie's phone sounded as the message came through.

"Weird links in text messages? Danger-danger, Tina."

Maisie's friend rolled her eyes. "Very funny. Would you just click it?"

"I already have."

Springing to life on Maisie's phone was a barebones user interface - it looked almost entirely placeholder, a few large buttons and sliders and some strange version number pasted along the top of the page.

"Okay." She drew out the word.  "What is this?"

Tina was excited to actually share this with someone. "It's an alpha version of this new app my team has been working on. It sounds weird but it's designed to actually make clothes and objects smaller!" She tried to use her excitement to cover up the absurdity of her words.

Maisie wasn't convinced. "Tina..." She said, with faux exasperation.

"I know, I know! It actually works though! Tell it to scan your jumper, put it in the percentage you want it reduced by, there will be a small flash and it should happen pretty quickly!"

The shorter of the two knew her friend was into some experimental tech at her job, but this was the most far-fetched yet. "You're so full of shit." Maisie said wryly. "Fine, but if my bank account ends up in the possession of a Nigerian Prince then lunch is on you."

Maisie didn't believe her friend - an app that could what, shrink things? Yeah, right. Without much care, and partly confused by the interface, she hammered a few buttons and hit confirm.

...Nothing happened.

"Wow." She said sarcastically. "Kudos to your team, Tina. What's next, x-ray glasses? How much are they paying you to--"

The punchline of Maisie's joke became a shriek as her screen burst with light, the girl stepped back in shock.

"Maisie? What the hell was that?!"

Tina had never seen the app do that...