[Axel3.14]

Interesting thought, Lingster, but riddle me this: if clothing represents the restraints of women, why do men have to wear it too? 🙂

[Axel3.14]

In a genre full of magery and superscience, it’s a refreshing change to see an FMG story featuring a product that actually exists.

[Axel3.14]

Inhaling deeply, I concealed myself behind the package of tissues and peered out of the handbag. The scene was inauspicious, to say the least.

Stephanie stood so close to me that I could not see her clearly, but she was trembling. She also seemed to be crying. A thug who stood about six inches shorter than she breathed laboriously on the asphalt of a parking lot. His nose was thoroughly broken. In fact, his face looked as if it had been slammed with a sledgehammer. A team of paramedics moved him carefully away from my view. Some policemen walked toward Stephanie, but they kept a distance of about four feet and kept their hands near their waists. The giantess grabbed her handbag and clutched it close to her chest with bloodstained hands, which I found momentarily disorienting.

"Ma’am, could you tell me what happened here?" An officer asked.

His addressee became so agitated that I ran to the side closer to Stephanie and clutched for stability. She stammered heavily. "I… H-he took my… bag. I st-topped him."

"Don’t you think your reaction was a little extreme?"

Stephanie’s voice spiked up two octaves as she blurted out her answer. "Lii-fe or death!"

"Life or death, you say? Perhaps you’d like to tell me what you have in that bag." He pointed directly at me, sending a frisson down my spine.

"No one is in there!" I could feel Stephanie’s breath accelerating as her breasts pressed against the bag.

The police officer’s voice slowed as he began to gesticulate. "I want to know what is in the bag."

Stephanie froze, then contrived a cover. "My Mmmedicine…" She looked at me, slid her hand slowly into the leather interior, and produced an esoteric looking perscription bottle."

The man scrutinized it and returned it to her. "Theophiline. I know this medicine is important, but in America you may not claim self defense for it. Do you understand?" Stephanie nodded.

"Okay madam, you didn’t seem to understand the law, so we’ll just give you a warning this time. Good day." The policeman smiled cordially and vanished.

Dr. Aspera hurried back to her office and shut the door behind her. She plucked me from here tote and gazed at me with an expression that I would always remember. "Are you okay?"

I blinked, stretched and said, "I’m unhurt."

"Oh… thank God." She exclaimed. Stephanie sat cross legged on the floor, and cradled me against her bosom. "I’m sorry…" she whispered, stroking me.

"It wasn’t your fault." I hugged her the best that I could. Those breasts were much firmer than I could recall.

"Thank you.." I squeaked, plunging my face into her.

"Are you all right?" I looked Dr. Aspera in the eye.

She sniffled and coughed a few times. "I’ll be fine." She massaged her temples. I heard congestion in her chest, until she administered a dose from a white inhaler. "That furacious miscreant stole the food. We’ll have to eat in the cafeteria."

"Wouldn’t that be conspicuous?"

She shrugged, bringing me to my knees. "Most of the physics department knows about you. You made the front page of the school newspaper!" Stephanie showed me a recent edition of The Quark. It showed the grandisonant misadventure in mutilated granular photography.

"Why haven’t I seen anyone else today?"

"Well, since you are the first documented case of a miniaturized human, the department decided that I should help you adjust to the psychological ramifications of your size before you’re reintroduced to the community."

"Why you?"

Stephanie scratched the back of her head and looked away. "I guess they determined that you were emotionally close the me."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

"What measures did the department take to ensure your psychological health?" My brow furrowed.

"What are you talking about? I’m eight feet tall."

"One would surmise that a sudden influx of stature might be a source of disquietude. What about your clothing, your health, your relationships?"

Stephanie pondered. "Clothing is not a significant problem. I can smiply wrap commodious sheets of fabric around myself and you are legally permitted to be naked. As for our health, we had extensive medical tests while you were unconcsious. You are in perfect health, and I’m- no worse for the wear." Stephanie coughed slightly. "I hope this doesn’t damage your relationships."

I sighed. "I only really have my family… and Weed Rat, I guess. What about you?"

"You have more than I do. I guess you can’t have time for others when you are solving the world’s energy crises." She laughed bitterly.

"What about your family?"

"They are all dead. So you don’t have a significant other of any sort?"

"Not really, but tu quoque" I frowned.

"No, no! I wasn’t deriding you, I was just… surprised. Anyway, let’s go to lunch."

I moved toward the handbag, but Stephanie picked me up gently. "That bag is potentially dangerous, would you prefer to ride on my clavicle?"

"Would I?" I suspected that my eyes were profusely dialated.

The ivory hand lifted me to her neck. Her frame was disproportionately large, even when calculating the height increase. Tucking my legs in position, I grasped Stephanie’s collarbone like a rollercoaster rail.

"Are you ready?" She murmured.

"Let’s go." I grinned.

[Axel3.14]

I thought the girls overloaded the pendant by wishing for pizzas.

Anyway, I appreciate the clever etymological wordplay of the title. The story pertains to the issues that are corollaries of sexual dimorphism. 😆

[Axel3.14]

That belongs here. You might want to post it on Other types of growth, though. I’m certain you can also find a home for it in DTV if you want.

[Axel3.14]

Nice. Is that Alyssa Milano?

[Axel3.14]

Dr. Aspera looked down at me. "You don’t remember?"

I grabbed my temples and tried to recall. "Our exhibition… I was doing something, then… I’m drawing a blank."

The doctor sighed. As the room became clearer I realized that my perspective seemed distorted. Her head seemed to approach the ceiling, and her proportions seemed different. She spoke in a gentle voice, but it still caused the windows to shudder.

"Do you remember the time space recalibrators in the generator."

I nodded, "Yes, I… no! That could not have possibly transpired!"

She nodded slowly. "I’m afraid it did. We thought that an organism caught in the time space disparities would be killed, but they obviously remain viable."

"This defies all our models!"

"Models are only as good as the imputed assumptions, Eric." Dr. Aspera sat down and looked over a stack of papers. After watching her shuffle them incessantly, I finally spoke up.

"Why am I in a cage?" I shouted. Stephanie seemed disconcerted. She replied, "I just thought you would be safer in there." She frowned.

I exhaled and looked around. "Maybe so, but I’d like to leave this room now!"

"If you wish." She opened the door of the hamster cage, placed me in the palm of her hand, and lowered me to the floor in the hall. She then returned to her work. I barrel rolled to avoid a shoe’s heedless tread. I looked up to see a familiar face.

"Dennis!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. He looked down. I began to say something, but he shouted premptively. "No! No! I’ve been clean for four days! Clean!" He ran away in incoherent fright.

"Great, that was productive" I grumbled and returned to the office. I ran into Dr. Aspera’s heel. The towering woman smiled at me. "I believe the purpose of the cage is now elucidated. I only care about your safety."

"Yes, Doctor." I hung my head and mumbled. She probably saw my body language, because she continued with a slight chuckle. "You shouldn’t be so morose. Are you hungry? You haven’t eaten for days.

The stabbing feeling within my viscera lent credebility to her claim. "Yes, I’m famished."

"I’ll purchase us some lunch." She put me in her handbag, much to my dismay, and walked to a pantry next to the campus. Nearly insensate, the bag affored only a small slice of the firmament above my head. Outside the store, I nearly suffered whiplash as a the handbag abruptly changed hands. All I knew was that I was closer to the ground and moving at a disturbing rate.

"Stephanie! What are you doing?" I screamed, clinging to the padded interior. My carrier did not relent. "I can’t take much more of this!" my eyes were tearing. The only response was that the world moved even faster, and I had to wedge myself inside a rip in the lining to remain inside the bag. Suddenly I heard it. Faint from distance, yet unmistakable was the rasping. My skin crawled as I assimilated the situation: I was being unwittingly transported by a purse snatcher.

Pure white, palpitating, and thrashing against the sides of the purse I shrieked, "Help! Police! Help me! I’m being kidnapped!" Suddenly the bag slammed against the ground. I was flung against a bag of tissues. When I stood, I aware of much, but I could hear a man being thrashed.

"Stephanie" I mused, feeling blood rush to my face. I waited for her to take the bag again, but I lay on the sidewalk for a disconcertingly long time. Only when I heard approaching sirens, however, did I begin to worry.

[Axel3.14]

What does TG stand for?

[Axel3.14]

Leaving my roommate in the mail room, I glanced down at my watch and immediately changed course, flowerpot still in my hand. In five minutes, the curtain would rise. If I were not behind it, my prospects of a career would be compromised. Through the campus I jogged, keeping a hand around the relatively fragile stem. Inside the physics building, the starshield bloom began to pivot. I followed the flower’s homing ability to the machine, which had been reassembled in an auditorium. On each side of the stage, several yards from the spiral stood an ornate row of starshields displaying the university’s colors. Before I could reclaim my bearings, a peal of applause erupted, and the curtain ascended, revealing an enthralled audience. I set down Dr. Aspera’s botanical gift under the lecturn and began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I presume that you have studied the articles in the scientific journals, so I will not draw out this demonstration with a detailed description of the machine’s penetralia. Instead, I will provide a summary for your benefit and for that of the television viewers" I noted at the news cameras that committed my every move to film. Preferring not to think of the proportions of the lecture I was delivering, I turned my back to them and walked to the machine. It hummed eagerly as I attached the conduits with the superconductors to the scale model of the capacitor used in the preliminary tests.

"These tubes convey the electric charge generated by this generator to the capacitor. You will note that the capacitor is equipped with a voltimeter to display when it is being charged. Now, at the other end of the conduits I will place a rod of graphite contiguuous to each superconductor. You may wonder why we do not use an applicator of gold, silver, or the material of the superconductors. There is a cogent reason for this. The infundibulum, as this opus is called, does not only discharge electricity, but it also distorts time-space with gravitational fields at the focus. Any titre used is deformed and eventually disintegrated, so we used graphite, a common, nontoxic substance that can be synthesized with great ease.

Without further ado we shall initiate the demonstration."

I concealed my eyes with my visor, and the whole audience followed suit. On my side of the machine, a few meters spewed a ceaseless stream of perplexing data. Still I inspected it, calibrated the meters accordingly, and placed my key in my side of the activation panel.

"Ready, Doctor Aspera?" I looked at her near the top of the funnel.

"3 2 1- Now!" We turned our security keys in unison. Overhead, the lights dimmed to accentuate the splendor of the energy accumulation. As expected, the current trickled down the sides of the generator. Its progress was especially slow due to the lessened scale of this demonstration. Not a word was uttered as the electric serpent wound its way to the offering of carbon below. Even the heliotropic plants seemed to bear witness to the event. It almost seemed like a miraculous transfiguration, until I realized the impending peril.

"This machine should not be shaking this much!" I shouted above the humming cacophony to Doctor Aspera.

"Check the connections! I’ll power down." She shouted. I scrambled around the labyrinthine circuitry rigged for the sepctacle until I finally tightened a loose wire lock. The energy field was slowly dissappating, and the fleeing crowds mostly returned to their seats.

"The potentially lethal repercussions of this oversight have been averted." I assured the crowds with an unknown degree of success. Then I stretched my arms to relieve the building anxeity.

"Crap!" I cried as a rogue jolt arched through my graphite marked hands to reached the surface of a starshield. The shock rippling through my body was not extremely painful, but I felt my heart in my throat as the outside world became a blurred, screaming pandemonium. As I lost consciousness, I thought I heard someone else being sucked into a pocket of distorted gravity as well.

When I finally woke up, I felt my heartbeat in excruciating meterage in my head. When my vision cleared, I looked up at a quivering white hill. At the summit of the hills stretched the neck of Stephanie. She was looked down at me.

"What happened?" I moaned, suddenly realizing that I was in a hamster cage.

[Axel3.14]

I also enjoy the eerie feeling in this post apocalyptic sci fi story.

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