No Free Mass (Patreon Commission for DesertScales)

TAGS: Shortstackification, "Growth"/"Expansion", Equivalent Exchange

---===---

It felt too good to be true, but by then, Aleksi didn’t quite feel like caring anymore.

She had a good body, period. She knew that, intellectually speaking, in the sense that when she looked in the mirror, she could recognise that her proportions were exactly what she’d once wanted them to be: puberty goals, really, of being able to become a bombshell whose presence was enough to cause everyone in a room to go wide-eyed and lose their ability to speak coherently. And she’d achieved, through no small effort on her part.

Of course, it was one thing for the lizardess to know this was true, quite another for her to feel it was… and for her to feel it was enough. She had once told herself that once her form and figure filled out whatever clothes she bought for herself, then that would be enough; a pair of tits plump enough to park on top of someone’s head, hips to provide that perfect heart shape, and a rump with just enough plush that she could afford to leave the tiniest bit out from the top of her pants, an inkling of what was there for any brave enough to actually look.

Add to that an athlete’s physique, and she was, by all means, hot. She knew this, and recognised it as being as factually true as any physical descriptor of beauty could be, at least as far as her current context allowed. But as she perfected herself, as exercise and careful dieting allowed her to create and maintain this figure, Aleksi also had to ask: was it enough? Was she done? Because the more she asked those questions, the more the answer came back that no, it definitely wasn’t, and no, she absolutely was not.

Alas, there was only so much one could do to augment one’s form without resorting to invasive procedures, and Aleksi’s obsession was far too much of a subtle one to have her go to those lengths. She’d gotten to where she was through her hard work, crafting for herself a natural set of proportions for others to feast their eyes upon; she wasn’t about to ruin it just for a shortcut, nor was she going to spend fortunes further improving herself just because she couldn’t be satisfied with first prize.

But the need for more was still there, and she couldn’t rid herself of it no matter how much she tried. The lizardess would occasionally find herself perusing through online catalogues of dubious authenticity, trying to find any supplements or methods to employ that would allow her just that extra bit of curve, that additional scrap of bustline; anything, really, that would give her an even more perfect figure, that she could walk into a room and not just stun, but outright madden with her presence alone.

Months were spent in this search, years in fact; she was how she was precisely because she was constantly attempting to improve herself, and her gains were only there on account of her never finding anything more drastic. But persistence was bound to pay off, and though it took so long that Aleksi couldn’t even remember what she looked like before embarking on that journey, she did eventually stumble onto something that just might give her exactly what she wanted… assuming she was ready to pay for it.

In her hand was a single pill. It came wrapped in multiple layers of cloth, entombed within so much styrofoam that Aleksi felt genuinely awful for it being so wasteful, itself contained in a cardboard package so large that it almost looked like it was trying to disguise the tiny thing as something else entirely. She had acquired it through an acquaintance of an acquaintance’s business contact’s friend, who claimed the pill possessed the “correct chemical balance” to achieve what the lizardess wanted.

Now, even Aleksi wouldn’t have taken this at face value, but along with the initial business pitch came a series of videos provided via email, ones that contained multiple before-and-after pictures that, oddly enough, didn’t look poorly photoshopped. In fact, judging from the way they were arranged, they could very well have been taken straight from a professional catalogue; the seller simply stated that their work was private and not for public distribution, hence why they only released their “results page” to those willing to purchase their products.

It could be an extremely convoluted ruse, but Aleksi trusted at least two levels out of that confusing scheme, and trusted them to at least know a scam when they saw one. She trusted them not to fuck with her or try to grift her out of her money, as did she trust them to understand that what she was going through was important to her; hence why, when she parked herself in front of the bathroom mirror, the lizardess did genuinely expect something to happen when she took that pill, even if she didn’t quite know what that was.

Bigger tits? A fatter ass? Wider thighs? All of these and more, perhaps, coupled together with a larger body so she could dominate whatever space she was in, regardless of what it might be. She’d like that; if nothing else, it’d be the least she deserved for her dedication to sculpting herself through raw perseverance and physical effort alone. But as she took the pill and swallowed it, as the coarse, rough exterior of it combined with its bitter taste to make her gag as it went down her throat, Aleksi couldn’t help but feel like she’d just been ripped off.

What sort of magical pill could summon up mass from nowhere? She was still herself; at no point was she told she’d have to eat more, or at least change her diet to compensate for a larger, fuller body. Rather, she was simply informed that all she had to do was take the pill, and the rest would take care of itself, which was literally impossible for non-hypers as far as she was concerned; and she lacked the gene, making it even more of a ludicrous proposition for her to spontaneously develop a bigger body.

But she still expected it. She expected it with such fervent belief that she parked herself in front of that mirror and stood there waiting for it to happen what felt like hours, her eyes growing painfully dry as she often forgot to blink, truly thinking that the moment she looked away, it would happen. What “it” was had yet to be determined, but Aleksi wasn’t going to let that stand in her way; in fact, it just gave her more of a reason to stare, so as to not miss anything at all!

But even she had her limits, and these would rapidly be reached once it became clear nothing was actually happening. Grumbling, ready to give up and make a call with a few choice words to her supposed “friends”, Aleksi turned around and promptly wobbled to the side after losing her balance.

A short yelp and an emergency flattening of the hand against the wall later, and the lizardess was standing at a precarious angle over the dirty clothes basket, one leg in the air and her whole body ready to fall down. Returning to a proper standing position as slowly as possible, Aleksi looked down at herself, perplexed, wondering just what in blazes had happened; it’d been a while since she lost her balance like that, and it hadn’t been with a simple one-eighty turn.

It was too convenient not to be related, but when she looked at herself in the mirror again, Aleksi couldn’t see any differences… at least, no obvious ones. She was still the same height, still at the same size elsewhere on her body, and nothing seemed to have outwardly changed about her, so, perhaps, it had just been her losing her balance? Maybe she needed to sit down, take an aspirin to help deal with that mounting headache she felt pounding on the back of her head.

It was here that the lizardess noticed something was definitely off: she had to stretch her arm to reach the medicine cabinet. Yes, it was further up the wall than it had to be, but she hadn’t ever needed to actually reach for it, she was tall enough as it was; yet, Aleksi was clearly having to stretch herself to open the cabinet door, and the more she looked at it, the more it seemed to slink away from her, as her perspective of the world sunk closer to the ground.

Panic took hold as the lizardess flailed about, jumping for the medicine cabinet before realising how ridiculous it was to be wasting time with aspirin of all things; locking eyes onto her reflection, Aleksi stood and watched as the sink grew closer to her, and the tall, statuesque form she used to so proudly put on display was reduced, inch by inch, as her height was sapped away from her!

With no frame of reference for what was happening, the lizardess could do little but keep watching as she kept on shrinking, as her body was made smaller and smaller and… shorter, actually. It wasn’t immediately obvious, but she wasn’t being shrunk as much as her height was being made more compact; an important distinction, given that when Aleksi looked down to make sure her tits weren’t being flattened out, she instead saw them plumping up, covering more of her field of view!

Bizarre, inexplicable, and the moment her hands ran over her ass and thighs, the lizardess immediately picked up on what was actually happening. Of course the pills didn’t need her to eat any more than she used to; she had plenty of mass to be cannibalised and used elsewhere: she just needed to sacrifice something about herself in order to grow elsewhere, and what better way to ensure her proportions were augmented than to make them bigger, and the rest of her smaller?

“God fucking damnit Karl!” she snarled through gritted teeth, “I fucking swear!”

Of course he’d give her a shortstack pill, what else would that asshole do? So willing, so helpful, so desperate to help, of course he had something up his sleeve; the picture were all probably real as well, just taken from different angles to make it less obvious that the “before” and “after” states had several inches of vertical difference. Hell, her eyes were close to level with the sink already!

She had a few options, none of which would really do anything to help her so much as they’d serve as a way for her to vent her frustrations; at least now that she knew what was happening, it was easier to process it, even if she wasn’t exactly sure how to react to something that drastic when she didn’t even know whether it was permanent or not. Nevertheless, wanting it to stop wouldn’t make it go away, so it was either deal with it, or… well, nothing else, she just had to deal with it.

At least the changes weren’t so drastic that she’d need massive readjustments to her life; granted, they weren’t done yet, but given the general direction, Aleksi figured she could handle the thought of losing feet vertically and gaining a couple horizontally. It was a good look on her! If only she managed to keep those proportions while not shrinking down to nearly four feet tall, then that would’ve been perfect, but apparently beggars couldn’t be choosers, and she couldn’t trust her friends not to pull a fast one on her.

The transformation itself was quick enough that, by the time the lizardess had come to terms with what was happening with her, it had begun slowing down, performing the finishing touches on her form to round her out properly. It was obvious, then, that thermodynamics could not simply be ignored if one wasn’t a hyper: much as Aleksi was well aware of people whose opinion on conservation of mass were iffy at best, she wasn’t a hyper, and she had to obey it; thus, what she gained must be lost elsewhere, hence why her brand new rack, ass and thighs came at the cost of her needing to hop to reach the edge of the sink.

Kobold-sized, that’s what she first thought. Kobold-sized and living somewhere designed for someone nearly twice her current height… but those were some good gains elsewhere, she couldn’t deny that. Looking down at her bust, it was impressive how much of her torso it covered, as well as how heavy it felt; were it not for her compact frame, they might’ve actually been a bother to carry! Same with her rump and thighs, both of which had packed on so much mass that she could sink her hand into them and watch it vanish from sight, to say nothing of the nigh-endless jiggle that came from each of the many, many slaps Aleksi gave herself.

Trying to move, however, was a different matter altogether, and turned out to be the point where the true consequences of her transformation became obvious. Aleksi was used to a certain body plan, and while she hadn’t ever thought of it before, this body plan came with a very specific centre of gravity and gait, neither of which were retained now that she was significantly shorter and far more stacked. Turning around was, on its own, destabilising enough that the lizardess ended up splatting onto the floor, landing with her head straight between her tits and leaving her entire body aching from the impact.

Rolling over then proved to be one hell of an issue as well, seeing as there was so much ass in the way that just getting one cheek to make room for the other left her flailing on the ground while trying to disentangle herself from her cleavage. Like a tortoise on its side rather than back, Aleksi tried as best as she could to pull herself up, only to stumble and fall multiple times on her way to the bathroom door… and then getting stuck in the frame when she did try to push herself through it.

At first, she refused to believe it. Her ass was big, yes, but not that big; plus, she was overall smaller, so even an increase in size meant her rump was, if nothing else, technically smaller than it had been… or something of the sort, she wasn’t a maths type of person. So, clearly, her ass couldn’t be so large that it got stuck in the doorframe… but she was still there, and no matter how much she tried walking forward, she definitely wasn’t going anywhere.

The red on her cheeks was quick to rise, quicker to set, and yet somehow managed to lag behind the stupendous amounts of self-denial employed when Aleksi refused to accept what was happening. She just needed to walk, that was all; if she just moved forward, then she’d be able to go forward, and just as long as nothing was in front of her, then she should move from point A to point B with no issues. Yes, her legs were getting sore, and yes, the scales around her lower body were aching somewhat, but that meant nothing; she was just cramped up from the shortstack transformation, was all!

Five minutes she spent in that position, doing her level best to ignore reality as it was presented to her. Five minutes she spent, trying to go through a door that her ass didn’t fit through, until she was too stuck to even move back. Five minutes, after which she simply hung there, almost floating in midair as her thighs kept her well and stuck, thinking on how she was supposed to get out of there now that her body was unable to go through doors for no good reason.

There was a simple way out of there, not that it was any less embarrassing; Aleksi’s face grew ever redder as she moved her hands to the walls on the inside of the bathroom, flattening her palms and slowly beginning to push back, hoping to pop out of the frame from the one side she still could. It took some effort, and plenty of painted grunts, but there came a point where even her rotund cheeks couldn’t hold her up anymore, and with a soft thud, she landed on the ground, ass wobbling like gelatin.

Grumbling, not knowing whether to feel elated or despaired, Aleksi sat there staring at the door, racking her brain for a plan of action. Surely, there had to be a way to go through the damned thing; she was smaller, but she didn’t lose mass, she still had all of her weight behind her… and it was packed together into one convenient, easy to propel package, now that she thought about it.

One ass. Two enormous cheeks, and a pair of thighs that carried enough power to actually move them around. It stood to reason that she should be able to do it, and with nothing else to do, Aleksi turned to the door… and stepped through.

Not like before, where she’d been too afraid to do anything and ended up stuck for her troubles, but with the same kind of carefree attitude she would were she still her regular size. That was her house, that was her bathroom, that was her door, and if she wanted to waltz straight through it, cracking open the frame and leaving naught but splinters and plaster in her wake, that was exactly what she was going to do.

Hips getting stuck in a door? No. Hips wrecking a door, leaving Aleksi covered in dust in the hallway.

She’d freed up her whole day precisely so she could enjoy herself after taking the pill, having “planned” to do nothing beyond whatever her instincts told her to do; Aleksi knew herself well enough to know she wouldn’t be able to resist a body of greater proportions, hence why she’d ran herself ragged getting her chores done the day before. Unfortunately, this now left her with a surfeit of free time in which to do… what, exactly?

Stare at herself in a mirror? Run her hands across her frame and marvel at how soft it was. Try to walk and learn how to take a step without tumbling over from how screwed-up her centre of gravity was? None of these addressed the main issue, which was the fact that she was shrunken down and had several years of hard work just thrown into the toilet and flushed away on what she could only hope was a reversible prank. Sure, her tits and ass and thighs and everything were at the right state she wanted them to be in, and they were definitely pleasurable enough to sink her fingers into and knead and roll and squeeze, but what was she talking about again?

Right, right, of course: being mad. Being mad at her friends for betraying her and leaving her in that state, as well as finding some way to get her height back… maybe without being rid of her proportions, she quite enjoyed those. A little bigger than what she expected, but it looked good on her, especially around the waistline; honestly, anything more and she might’ve had to actually object to it, so it was good that it stopped when it did.

Which was why, of course, the universe decided to pull a fast one by having her tits suddenly feel like someone was squishing them from within. Her hands drawn to her bust, Aleksi momentarily believed she was about to have a heart attack… at least until the first droplets of milk began to pour from her slowly-engorging nipple buds, and the truth became apparent.

To call the colour on her face scarlet would be to do it a disservice, but to her credit, the lizardess recovered quickly enough that there was only some minor milk damage to the carpeting once she found her way back to the bathroom, squeezing in one cheek at a time once again; that go-around, however, Aleksi also got to feel her tits rubbing against the doorframe, the sensitive buds sending electrical spikes up her spine.

But she needed to be there, because how else would she grab the amount of tissues and toilet paper needed to stem the flow and keep her milk from falling on the floor? Not that she wanted to plug herself so her cream had nowhere to go but in, thus forcing her tits to bloat, of course not; she just needed to make sure she was clean and dry, was all, before anything else definitely didn’t happen.

Because nothing would happen, surely. Everything that could happen already had, and the universe had nothing else to throw at her, because that would be ridiculous; she’d already been shortstacked and made milky, so clearly, whatever the cosmos had in store for her was over and done with, and she could rest easy knowing she’d have the rest of the day to herself with no further surprises.

… right?