Duality - Chapter 24 (Novel Commission for Code-Shark101)

TAGS: Anthro, Transformation/TF, Slice-Of-Life, Milk/Lactation, BE, Hyper, F/F

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Several hours later, Rue was tripping out of her car and landing on her front right on her driveway, too tired to care, too tired to even think about the pain of slamming into asphalt at full velocity. There was a cut on her cheek, but the sheer, unfettered annoyance at being forced to work for so long with no rest very nearly made it heal up instantly in fear of what the woman might do to it if it caught her attention. Instead, a small trickle of blood fell down towards her neck, easily washed off once she closed herself in her bathroom and splashed about a gallon of water on her face, handful after handful removing the accumulated grim of four days without any sort of self-care. She looked like an absolute mess, and yet lacked the mental capacity to really appreciate just how deep the bags under her eyes were, or how shaggy her hair had become, not to mention the slump on her shoulders which bordered on the unnatural. Everything about her screamed a single word… or two, now that she thought about it: “Bed. Now.”

But she couldn’t just go to sleep, not even after spending a whole day trying to rack her brains for a solution to their still-present problem. She had paperwork to sign, things to look at, and stuff to consider whose name she couldn’t quite recall at that time. Were they more papers, or maybe videos on a flash CD? What even was a disk drive, and why was her mind going around in circles and feeling like it had just been put in a blender? Perhaps the most important question was why her back was flat against the ground and her muscles felt as if they were refusing to move, or why her entire body now had as much power as a big blob of gelatin left in the sun for too long. All of these questions and more didn’t go through Rue’s head, who was far too occupied with the singular need and drive to sleep to really care about anything else; the poor gal had to effectively drag herself across the ground over to her bedroom, pulling herself onto the mattress and almost immediately collapsing the moment her head hit her pillow. It was only six in the afternoon and she should’ve at least eaten something before her brain turned off, but it was stronger than her.

She woke up… some time later. It was extremely bright outside, or maybe that was just the fact that she forgot to draw her blinds and now the noon sun was shining directly in her face, either-or; whatever the case, Rue turned around and grumbled loudly enough to annoy even herself, only to end up falling off the bed and ending up in a crumpled heap on the floor. Mumbling expletives under her breath, the young woman took a long amount of time before she even remembered what she was doing at home so late; surely, if it was so bright out, she was supposed to be at work, no? It was only after bumbling her way to the bathroom and drawing a hot bath for herself that she recalled she’d been given the day off, though the reason for it still eluded her; for that, it took her dipping herself in the water and almost falling asleep again before the memory resurfaced, after which her eyes shot wide open and Rue practically jumped out of the tub, intent on sprinting to the lab in order to fix things, right up until the point where the last piece of the puzzle dropped in and reminded her that there was no solution to be thought of. It was odd, having her reality come to her in bits and pieces that didn’t really work together until her brain rebooted properly, but then again, Rue hadn’t had such a long stint without rest since her college days, and she wasn’t exactly a young twenty-something anymore. Cursing herself for not getting some proper sleep, she then attempted, and promptly failed, to relax in the hot water, only to end up fidgeting as she remembered there was a massive, warehouse-sized panda to deal with, and a smaller, but still curvaceous one to also attempt to fix. Even in this state, she couldn’t see what happened as anything less than a draw, victories being for people that didn’t have to deal with what she did; as far as Rue was concerned, they were only to “win” when Linda was back on track to getting her old size back.

At the very least, her first idea actually worked, though how exactly was still up in the air. Little did everyone know, but Rue had absolutely no faith whatsoever in her Hail Mary beyond the one she fabricated from whole cloth, so to see it work rode the fine line between giving her the confidence to proceed forward and a certain amount of existential dread at how aimless she was now. One thing was for certain though: regular methods were just not going to work. If the team was to have Linda go back to her old size, they were going to have to break with certain promises and use tools they had previously decried as inadequate for the purposes of the study… such as more genetic manipulation. Rue sighed, rubbing her temple with both hands as she imagined what everyone’s reaction would be like: the Board would raise their eyebrows and ask if it was wise to further tamper with the panda’s genetic code, her team would shit their collective breeches and beg her not to do it, and the couple themselves… well, they’d probably be fine with it by now, assuming they were as desperate for a solution as she herself was. Fact was, there was no way they were going anywhere without fixing the very things that were broken in the first place, and seeing as what was wrecked happened to be Linda’s genetic code, they’d have to go back to that at some point; and now was that point.

The actual details would be best left for when she went back to the lab, which would only be the day after anyway; Rue had to fight against herself to prevent her legs from marching her all the way to the car though, and for once in her life experienced the urge to not go to work, not necessarily because she wasn’t needed, but mostly due to knowing full well that if she tried to do anything productive her brain would turn to mush from how overtaxed it was. As much as it left her feeling antsy, Beth and Linda would simply have to deal with one another for a whole day while she rested and recuperated; besides, after the sort of troubles they all went through, it was only fair to give everyone some proper time to get their bearings back and not have to worry about someone undergoing a growthsplosion, even if the mere thought of that was enough to leave Rue on edge, convinced that the moment the thought entered her mind, the universe would conspire against her and she’d be getting an urgent call from the lab about an imminent structural collapse.

Thankfully, no such call materialized, and the rest of her day was thus occupied getting her home back in order after four days away from it, all while trying to come up with decent solutions to apply to the case at hand. It was impossible to design anything without having access to the research data, but drawing up a general plan of action was still within her reach, especially as she had much of the initial project notes burned into the inside of her eyelids from sheer repetition; whatever it was they decided on doing, it’d have to be something that both Beth and Linda could incorporate into their daily lives, since it was almost certain the genetic damage done to the latter was effectively irreversible. They could do a great number of things to mitigate its impact and even fix some of the more outlying effects, but given the sort of experiences that the panda had gone through, as well as the effects her milk and presence had on others, any thought that she might go back to the way she once was were little more than fantasy, and not even the sane variety. Hell, Rue was having a hard time imagining how Beth would return to her previous state, much less her much larger partner; it was all just a mess, and not one that she was happy to solve.

As for the two test subjects, the day off was spent doing what they always did back when they didn’t have to worry about sizes and massive growth spurts: hours upon hours wasted talking about nothing in particular, all while snuggling up together and basking in one another’s warmth. Granted, their new living arrangement was slightly more excessive and boob-centric than even before, given that each of Linda’s mounds were still big enough to need a literal warehouse to store, but once they got used to it, the unfortunate reality of their situation became surprisingly easy to ignore… for Linda at least. Much as Beth liked to put on a strong face and reply to her better half with the same sort of enthusiasm they always expected, it was impossible for her not to think about what was going to come next; she wasn’t a geneticist, nor a pharmacist, nor anything that might give her an inkling of a clue as to the solution to their problems, but a simple waitress, and one going to law school at that. Could she maybe sue the company in about ten years after getting a degree and acquiring the resources necessary to take them to war in court? Maybe. Could she divine a way to make Linda not be colossal? Not really. It was almost distressing how little the full panda seemed to care, though Beth couldn’t really fault her; it was either succumb to the same kind of despair that had permeated her very being during the last few days or at least try and move forward while refusing to look back. It was brave, in a way, albeit extremely foolish to say the least, bordering on magical thinking: that if they just believed hard enough, Rue would swoop in and save the day… even if she herself loved to fantasize about just that herself. Feeling helpless was never a good time.

The good doctor made her entrance the following day, looking about as restored and ready for battle as anyone could after trying to recover four days of no sleep in twenty four hours plus a single extra night: the bags under her eyes were still there, her hair was obviously frazzled and those clothes could use a good washing and ironing, but at least her mind was back on track and ready to deliver on yet another miraculous solution to an impossible dilemma. As predicted, everyone on the research team balked at the idea that they should try to tamper with Linda’s genetics even further than they already had been; did Rue not understand that they were playing with fire, that they’d potentially unleash a veritable tidal wave of boob upon the whole compound if they got things wrong by even the smallest, most minute amount? Did Rue simply not comprehend the complexity of what she was asking for, and thus assumed it to be much easier than it truly was?

In reality, she knew all of those things; she just didn’t care. It was about time to give up tip-toeing around the problem and actually address it properly like the folk of science that they were, rather than allow their fears to get the better of them. After all, get everyone involved in the project together in one room and they’d probably have a few hundred years of experience in the field, so why was everyone so panicky about things? Within hours she had the whole staff mobilized and working on every possible research avenue they could find, mostly to buy herself some time to go through the notes and papers that she had in her office in order to cook something up herself; it was little more than performative theater, whereby everyone on the team could pretend to be doing something useful until Rue came up with some brand new and insane idea that would miraculously fix everything despite it sound like it would only make it worse… just like the last time! To her credit, the good doctor was nothing if not fully aware of this, intending to make sure whatever idea came to her could stand on its own merits rather than a frankly undeserved reputation. Besides, most of the work was done by the software on her computer, not even by her; trying to design a genemodding solution by hand would probably take years, time that they simply did not have. Thus, she slapped as many variables as she could into her personal workstation and told it to run the numbers and spit out the results as quickly as possible, hoping that a chance look at the print-out would cause some sort of revelation to hit her.

Instead, what she got were… plenty of solutions, so many that she felt genuinely irritated at herself for not having tried this method before. Literally all that she had to do was feed the damned machine the data they already had and it promptly shat out at least a dozen different ways they could’ve fixed their problem, albeit not without risk of side-effects; perhaps this is why everyone before her hadn’t even thought to try, being too terrified of the prospect of making it worse to take that risk… and not with reason, as soon as she calmed down and began to approach things more rationally. Rue couldn’t really blame her predecessors for not wanting to proceed in that direction, especially given that Linda’s condition was itself the result of genetic experimentation gone wrong; trying to ally that with a chemical delivery was bound to end in disaster… or so they assumed. For her, a five percent chance of failure might as well be a hundred percent chance of success, especially after her last desperate move paid off so well; there was no longer any time for her, Beth, Linda or anyone else involved in that farce to be worrying about what might happen when they knew what would: as soon as one of those compounds was administered to the colossal panda gal, she would start shrinking. No nonsense, no ifs, ands or buts, just the certainty of her size going down and nothing else; as long as that was achieved, nothing else mattered.

The chemists were quickly put to work after a specific compound was identified as the one with the highest chance of success, while Rue prepared her speech for when she had to deliver the news to Beth and Linda; she couldn’t lie, nor even remotely obfuscate the truth, not after everything the three had gone through. Sincerity and honesty were not so much a requirement as a base assumption at that point… but perhaps it’d be best for her to call Beth up first, seeing as she had been able to deliver the news a lot better than Rue herself ever had. Nevertheless, the doctor made sure to painstakingly go through every single detail when she called the half-panda to her office, including the laundry list of potential side-effects, no matter how unlikely their manifestation might be, all while making sure to emphasize just how important it was for Beth to be as open and clear about it to Linda as possible, because their continued well-being was the most important factor going forward. To Rue’s distress, she could tell Beth was incredibly reluctant about the whole thing, though she refused to say why until she was needled about it for nearly ten minutes straight, at which point the young woman admitted that Linda would never take any medication if she knew that it would mess with her genetics just like the last time, having become far too scarred by the whole experience to ever trust anything synthesized by Rivtech again.

This posed a slight issue, especially since Rue had no intention of keeping Linda in the dark about anything any longer, doubly so considering their mental state had been fundamental in determining how their growth progressed… though this did open up a very, very curious possibility, and one that could potentially result in everything being fixed without the need for side-effects at all. Even better, given the nature of it, it would be possible to make both Linda and Beth think they were both being fed the truth, when in reality the pill that the latter would be surreptitiously feeding to the former would be naught but sugar in a capsule. It was insanity to think it could work when Linda’s body was the way that it was, but they could always try it out for a couple of weeks and then change to the real thing if nothing happened, disguising it as an attempt to “adjust” the real dosage. It was just slightly shitty, but it was worth a shot; it was perfectly safe at least, and allowed her to reassure Beth that their plan to “sneak” the medication onto Linda’s drinks was one that she was fully on-board with.

Shortly thereafter, the real work began. Even with the real deal being fed to the gigantic panda, things wouldn’t just be solved by them sitting around waiting for their tits to start shrinking down; after so long stuck atop them or beneath them, there was some genuine work that had to be done in order for Linda to return to a normal life, or at least hope to dream to go back to one after a while, and as much as she complained about it, she had to start exercising. At the very least, being told that the brand new “supplement” she was being given was supposed to act as a lipolicide to get rid of all the excess fat in her tits gave her some degree of motivation to start moving in more than just gentle squirming, even if Beth was very clearly uncomfortable with having to perpetuate what she assumed to be a lie; little did either of them know that what the large panda was doing was literally nothing more than drinking sugar water, a thought that warmed Rue more than it really should once it became clear that, against all odds, it was actually working.

The doctor knew for a fact that Linda’s psychology was extremely important to how her bust developed; after all, it had been a stress reaction that started it all, and a stress reaction that left her in a warehouse-filling state, but even still she couldn’t have imagined that a simple placebo effect would’ve had such a profound effect… mostly because doing so would require her to beat herself up for not having tried it before, though her previous desperation could probably serve as an excuse for why it wasn’t considered as an option. Along with a strict diet that was actually properly enforced that time, the continuous exercise served to not help reduce the fat deposits on Linda’s body, but also to impose a certain degree of routine back into her day-to-day life, and, perhaps most importantly, one that she could continue doing even after being released from Rivtech’s care. No more complicated machinery to milk her back to an acceptable size, no need for complex chemical compounds require multi-million-dollar machinery just to produce, just good old-fashioned gymnastics and physical exercise, there to help burn away all the unnecessary pudge. To a certain degree, it was genuinely mind-boggling just how effective the placebo was, though having her productivity be ground to a halt the way that it had been probably helped; even better, the small victories of her new life helped to propel Linda forward, with each inch she helped remove from her tits being one that motivated her to get another one burned off. It was confirmation that it could happen, that she wasn’t cursed to be stuck with that chest for her whole life, and that all she needed was a heavy dose of determination and love of her life by her side.

A love that remained steadfastly resistant to any attempts at reversing the damage done to her. Beth wasn’t as reluctant to take genemodding medication, but no matter how hard the team tried, none of the many compounds they tried had any effect on her whatsoever; the one silver lining was that they didn’t worsen her condition, but it was nothing if not baffling that bombarding her genetic code with agents designed specifically to mess with it yielded no results whatsoever… at least until she began shrinking. It just… happened one day, when one of the routine check-ups discovered that Beth was a few inches smaller on her bust than she had been the previous day, her proto-fur coat having receded just enough for closer inspections to reveal the change. No one could explain why that had happened, nor could anyone know for certain which experimental medication had done the trick, until one of the junior researchers suggested, more as a gag than anything else, that now that Linda was starting to shrink down as well then it only made sense for Beth to go along with. Everyone in the meeting room looked at the poor guy like he had just said the most enlightened thing in the history of humanity, whereas he only saw intense stares, growing increasingly worried that he was about to be booted out of the project. Nothing of the sort though; instead, he was assigned to correlate the data retrieved from Linda with the one collected from Linda, in the hopes of finding a pattern, any pattern that could be used to prove that the two of them were in any way related. Indeed, running the numbers through a simple spreadsheet was enough to let them see the effects at a mere glance, and calculating the actual relevant values confirmed what everyone had been thinking: against all odds, and without any sort of explanation, Beth’s body was shrinking back down in the same proportion as Linda’s, completely at odds with what the genemodding compounds were supposed to have done to her.

Rue couldn’t help herself: this presented a wonderful research opportunity, especially considering the two of her test subjects were on a placebo to begin with. She had to be cautious though, so as to not suggest anything might be out of the ordinary, especially considering that the couple’s psychological state seemed to be the most important aspect of their size at any given time; if Rue were to do something stupid and blow the lid on the whole operation, there was a non-zero chance of everything going to hell and not coming back, and of Rivtech suddenly needing a much larger warehouse to house what could very well be two immense pandas. Still, if Beth was in synch with Linda, then all the team had to do was make the latter shrink back down to her original size and the former would surely be dragged along for the ride; it didn’t make the slightest amount of sense and would most likely get them laughed out of any decent, reputable publication, but they had it all on file and on tape, so… well, the thought of a Nobel Prize wasn’t out of her mind just yet, even if Rue did try not to think about such silliness; there was no way the Committee would ever give her anything. She was lucky if the company wasn’t sued to oblivion by the end of this.