Practical Effects - Chapter 1

Hi folks! Sorry things have been a little quiet around here the past week. I have a few different pots going on the stove, but it's been taking a little longer for it to be ready to serve than normal. Hopefully that means that this week will have a lot going up to compensate!

Such as the premiere of a new commissioned story!

The plan is for this to be three chapters long, with a possible fourth. I think it's the first thing I've written that has an actual honest-to-goodness giantess, so that's a fun change of pace!

Without further ado, enjoy!

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Chapter 1

The earth rumbled, car alarms blaring as fissures split open down the city street. The giantess rose her foot high and brought it down hard, another earthquake shaking the foundations of the surrounding buildings, utterly dwarfed by the impossibly gigantic woman stomping among them. She put her hands around a four-story apartment complex and ripped it from the ground effortlessly, screams echoing faintly from inside as she rose it high above her head and spiked it downward. The building exploded, a crater sinking into the asphalt as steel, stone and wood flew out in every direction. Somewhere, a gas main was struck, causing an explosion of fire to flood the street. The giantess clenched her fists, an otherworldly avatar of rage and beauty, and bellowed a mighty, primal roar toward the sky, windows shattering and eardrums bursting for miles.

“CUT! Beautiful work, Megan! We’ll reset and get one more for coverage, and then I think we’re good to move on.”

Megan’s shoulders slumped as the film crew immediately flooded the soundstage, sweeping away rubble and pushing the street back into its original shape. A crane slowly swiveled in, setting a new prop building down in the space where the old one had been. I was always mesmerized by how fast the film crew worked, but Megan just looked annoyed. She started walking off the set, not bothering to look where she was going, leaving it to the knee-high people all around her to stay out of her way. From where I was sitting over near the video monitors, I couldn’t really read their expressions, but I could guess them well enough: a combination of frustration and fear.

That’s how I felt on most days, too.

Megan approached, scowling toward the director. Her footsteps were nowhere near as dramatic as they’d been in the scene, but I could still feel a faint rumble every time her foot hit the concrete of the giant warehouse. She was barefoot, her shoulder-length brunette hair meticulously styled to look frizzy and unkempt. The only piece of clothing she was wearing was a ripped and tattered minidress, the same one her character was supposed to be wearing when she was her regular size early in the movie. Realistically, the dress should’ve exploded off of her several dozen feet ago, but I guess they couldn’t have her running around naked.

A shadow fell over all of us as Megan bent over the video village, forcing the director to look straight up to meet her unhappy gaze. I wasn’t sure exactly how big she was now, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty feet.

“What do you mean we have to take it again?!” she asked in a demanding tone. She was angry, so she wasn’t bothering to keep her voice down; I winced, fighting the instinct to cover my ears, knowing how much that annoyed her. The director did the same. “You just said that take was beautiful!”

“Megan, honey, I know.” The director was doing an impressive job looking calm and collected, but he couldn’t fully conceal the quiver in his voice. “But that’s how movies work. We want multiple good takes, just in case there’s some kind of technical issue when we get to the editing bay.”

“So I’m supposed to work harder to cover for you guys fucking up?! That’s bullshit! I’m not doing it!”

“Megan, filmmaking is a collaborative effort—”

“Shut up! How’s this for collaboration: I already did my job, so now you can do yours and make the shot work! This scene is like a minute long and we’ve been shooting it all day. If you don’t have it by now, you’re not gonna get it.”

“...Okay. Okay, you’re right. Maybe I’ve been working you a little too hard.” We got to the set at 10 AM, two hours past when we were due; it was only 2:30 now. “I’m sure you’re right that we have plenty of footage for the rampage scene by now.”

“And another thing!” Megan barked, even louder. I couldn’t help it this time, and my hands clamped over my ears. Luckily, she wasn’t paying me any attention. “I thought we talked about shooting things in order! Why are we doing these 60-foot scenes when we haven’t done any of the 30-foot stuff yet?!”

The set behind her was a city street built at roughly one-half scale. The silent crewmembers working on it towered over the doorways of the buildings, the cars looking like they were built for toddlers. Megan was a giant, but the movie magic at work made her appear even bigger on-screen.

“We did talk about that, Megan. And I explained at the time that movies almost never shoot in sequence. It’s expensive and difficult. The 30-foot scenes will require full-scale buildings, and those take a lot more time to build. The studio is still fighting us on it, they want us to just use CG.”

“Well that’s fucking stupid! The whole reason you hired me for this is so we could do everything for real! Why cast a giant actress if you’re just gonna fake her size anyway? Besides, you know we’re on a time limit here!”

“I know, Megan, I know. That’s exactly what I’m telling them. I’m on your side! We’re all on your side here. But we also all have our roles to play. You’re the expert at being Megan Lambert, but I’m the expert at making a movie. I know how best to do this, and you need to listen to me. Do you understand?”

His tone was calm and measured, but he was nevertheless trying to assert control over the situation, and that was the last thing you ever want to try with Megan Lambert. I flinched away as her arm shot down like some kind of gargantuan serpent, her massive hand ripping the director right out of his chair and lifting him up to eye level.

“No, you need to listen to me.” The director was silent, too stunned to speak, too stunned even to scream. I jumped out of my chair and ran to her leg, hoping that maybe I could do something to calm her down, something to…

Oh no.

As I got closer, I felt an intense wave of heat radiating out from her, and high above my head I could hear the sound of cloth tearing…

  *

“Are you sure about this, Megan?”

I was crawling down the street in my car, looking for a good place to drop her off. We were in front of a large, nondescript office building, with no exterior markings at all save for its address in big metal letters bolted above the top-floor windows.

“What? Of course I’m sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Megan had always dreamed of being a model. She was pretty enough for it, no question about that. She was an absolute knockout, and even 8 months into our relationship, it still felt a bit unreal to me that I was dating someone so far out of my league.

But models are tall. And Megan Lambert was 4’11”.

It had become a pretty regular routine: a few times a month, she’d come bursting into my apartment, hugging me tightly and sobbing. Sometimes she was clutching a crumpled, tear-stained rejection letter, but usually the agencies she’d sent her headshots to didn’t even bother writing back. I tried my best to console her, but she’d be miserable for days on end, before talking herself into trying one more time. And then the cycle would start all over.

How do you tell someone that they need to give up on their dream? It sucks, but… it was clear that it just wasn’t going to happen. Perseverance is great and all, but the only thing she was accomplishing was making herself miserable. She was gorgeous, but she hated her body just because she was so short.

Which brought us to today. A pharmaceutical startup had an office in this building, and they were reaching out to any adults under five feet in height; they were trying to develop something that would make a person taller.

At least, that’s what the ad said. Looking them up, we could barely find any information on them, beyond a barebones website with some stock photos of smiling doctors. They’re so generic that I can’t even remember what their name is. Truth be told, I was a bit surprised to see that the address led to an office building and not a vacant lot.

I sighed as I found an open spot on the curb to pull into. “I just… The whole thing just gives me a bad feeling. What if, I don’t know, what if you grow a third arm out of your head or something?”

“Then people will make fun of me for the arm coming out of my head instead of making fun of me for how short I am.”

“Megan, no one makes fun of you. You’re amazing.” I showed her a warm, sympathetic smile, but it wasn’t doing anything to dissuade the determination in her eyes.

“If there’s even a 1% chance that this makes me taller, I’m taking it. I… I never get what I want. Today, that might change.” I could sense that pushing the issue any further would turn this into a fight.

“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you.”

Megan stretched across the car to give me a peck on the cheek. “You’re very sweet, but mind your business.” She stuck her tongue out at me as she opened the car door. “I’d ask you to come in with me, but they said that only I’d be allowed in. Trade secrets, or something like that. I’ll be like, thirty minutes, tops!”

“I’ll be here. Love you!” She was out of earshot before I was even done with my sentence, practically sprinting for the front door.

Not long after, she was back in my passenger seat, giddy with excitement as she walked me through every minute detail of the appointment. There really wasn’t much to the story; from the sound of it, it wasn’t much different than a normal doctor’s appointment. They’d had her fill out some paperwork, gave her a quick physical, then injected her with the drug.

“God… Ah!!” Megan cried, practically bouncing up and down in her seat. “I can’t believe this is really happening!”

“How uh… How much taller did they say you’re going to get?”

“Well, I mean, you know… they don’t know. It’s a trial, after all.”

So in other words, she might not—she probably wouldn’t—grow an inch.

She caught the look on my face and frowned.

“You know, you could try to be excited for me, for once.”

“Hey, c’mon, that’s not fair. I love you, Megan. I just… I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”

“Ugh. Can you let me be optimistic for one second?! God.” Her mood killed, she crossed her arms and stared out the window, pouting. I felt bad that I’d upset her… but I just didn’t want her to get hurt.

As I pulled up to Megan’s building, she shot me a look that made it clear that I wasn’t welcome to follow her. Sighing, I drove home, texting an apology while waiting at a red light.

She didn’t answer. In fact, she didn’t answer any of my texts or phone calls for the next week. At first, I was worried that I’d made her so upset that she’d dumped me… until I noticed that she wasn’t posting on social media at all, either. 

She’d gotten an “experimental” injection from a sketchy “clinic…” and I hadn’t heard from her since. I felt like an idiot for not realizing something might be wrong sooner, and immediately started getting my coat on to go check on her when I heard a knock at the door. I threw it open, and breathed a massive sigh of relief.

“Oh my God, Megan! I was getting worried something had happened!”

She responded by shoving something small and metal into my chest. A tape measure.

“Tell me how tall I am.”

“Megan…”

“Do it! I haven’t measured myself yet.”

I gave her a sympathetic look. Even if she hadn’t measured herself, surely she’d know if it worked, right? She must already know that the whole thing was a scam.

…Did the top of her head always come up that high on my chest?

“What are you waiting for? Measure me!”

I swallowed, hands suddenly shaking slightly. I kneeled down and Megan stepped on the tab at the end of the tape as I slowly dragged it up the wall, the soft sound of metal-on-metal the only thing penetrating the dead silence of the room.

After what felt like an eternity, I reached the top of Megan’s head, eyes widening and jaw dropping as I took in the number.

“5’2”.”

I dropped the measuring tape and recoiled away from how loud Megan shrieked. Before I could recover, she leapt up and threw her arms around my neck, alternating between laughing, kissing me, and shrieking some more.

“I can’t believe it worked! Oh my god, oh my god!” She was slowly trending toward hysterical, manic and joyful tears welling up in her eyes. I hugged her tightly, hoping it might calm her down. It didn’t.

Suddenly, she felt warm in my arms. Not just warm, hot. So hot that I reflexively let go of her, her feet hitting the floor with a soft thud. She was hyperventilating, rivers of sweat running down her body as she doubled over.

“Megan! Megan, what’s wrong?! God dammit, I knew this was a bad idea. I’ll call 911!”

“No! No! Just…” she paused, panting heavily. “Just… wait...”

I was already getting my phone out, preparing to argue with her more as I dialed… and then I froze. Megan was growing. Her chest swelled as she inhaled, but didn’t deflate again as she breathed out. Breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat, she was getting larger right before my eyes.

The growth stopped after a moment. Her clothing was completely soaked through with sweat and looked uncomfortably tight. She started to waver slightly, and I shot out to catch her as she collapsed. She weighed more than I expected her to, causing me to nearly drop her. As best as I could, I gently guided her to the floor, grabbing a pillow from the couch to put under her head.

“How… how tall now?” she muttered, before passing out.

I couldn’t deny that Megan was happier than I’d ever seen her in that ensuing week. She had a near-constant smile plastered on her face as she shopped for new clothes, filled out modeling applications with a renewed gusto, and… well, made good use of her increased size in the bedroom.

“This is so cool, she whispered sleepily as she cuddled up into the crook of my arm. “I don’t feel like a little china doll anymore. It’s probably a relief for you too, right? I mean, you don’t have to be quite so careful with me anymore.

“Yeah,” I acknowledged, though my thoughts were elsewhere. Megan picked her head up to look at me, hand running across my chest.

“What is it?”

I opened my mouth to speak, then thought better of it. “Nothing.”

“Oh, come on, tell me.”

“I just… I’m happy for you, Megan, I really am. But… aren’t you a little worried?”

Megan blinked slowly, brow lowering. “Worried about what?”

“You know… side effects.” I was happy for her, that was the truth, but the fact that the drug actually worked was almost more alarming than if it didn’t.

“You really know how to find the cloud in any silver lining, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry! I’m not trying to—... I just—”

Megan silenced me with a finger to my lips.

“Listen. Okay? I mean it, listen to me. Right now, this is good. Great. The best thing that’s ever happened to me. Can we just… enjoy it? Please? Let’s worry about problems as they arise instead of stressing out about them in advance, okay?”

I sighed, before shrugging and nodding. “Okay. You’re right.”

“Good. Now get dressed, my appointment is in an hour.” Suddenly she was out of bed, disappearing into the bathroom.

“...What appointment?”

“At the clinic, silly! I’m getting another dose today!”

I felt a surge of ice through my veins. I didn’t realize that she’d signed up for multiple doses. That… that couldn’t be a good idea, right? Who knows what kinds of complications even the first dose might end up having…

I sighed again, realizing that I really couldn’t object so quickly after promising not to worry about this so much. Maybe I was being overprotective. Megan felt good about this, it was making her happy, who was I to get in the way of that? Nodding to myself at the resolution I’d reached, I crawled out of bed and grabbed some fresh clothes from the dresser.

And turned around to find myself eye-to-eye with Megan.

“What? Wh… I don’t… did you…?”

Megan burst out laughing, leaning forward and steadying herself on my shoulder. I looked down, and saw that she was wearing a dramatic pair of new heels.

“Oh my god, that was so worth it. These things aren’t gonna fit me after I grow again but I don’t care, I just got my money’s worth.” She laughed again and I tried to play off my shock as she suddenly kissed me passionately.

“You’d better get used to seeing me like this though,” she whispered into my ear. “It’s not gonna be too long before it’s the new normal.”

Goosebumps rose like a rolling wave from the base of my neck down my arms, stunning me into silence as we finished getting ready to go. On the drive to the clinic, Megan eyed me the entire way with a Cheshire grin.

“I think I get it now. I know why you’re so fussy about me doing this.”

“Huh?”

“You’re kinda scared of the idea of me getting taller than you, aren’t you?”

“What, no! I—that’s…. No.”

“Ohhhh no, I’ve hit the nail on the head, haven’t I? Me getting bigger intimidates you.”

“It doesn’t! I just… I’m worried about—”

“When I’m done with my appointment… I’ll take you home and show you just how little you have to worry about.”

“Megan! Megan I’m trying to drive!” She’d leaned over and started nibbling on my ear, but with my admonishment she retreated back to her seat, giggling. 

Like two weeks prior, I sat in my car on the curb and waited impatiently while she went inside. I tried to use the opportunity to do more research on the clinic while I waited; as far as I knew, adults just didn’t get taller like this, so surely if they’d invented a drug that made it happen there should be some news about it, right?

Walker and Associates, that was what the place was called. Sounded more like a law firm than a clinic. Their website was just as bereft of details as it had been the last time I looked them up; no staff page, an “about” page that just had a paragraph of hollow fluff about pushing the boundaries of medical knowledge. Besides that, nothing but a phone number, an address, and a call for test subjects under five feet tall. I tried googling the name with the word “growth,” and got nothing but a low-detail article in a local paper about some ethics controversy at the university uptown.

Frustrated at the lack of answers, I set my phone down just in time to see Megan walking out of the building… barefoot, for some reason, carrying her heels in one hand. She looked so happy she might just start to float.

“What happened? Shoes hurting you?” I asked as she climbed into the car.

She just laughed at me. “Can you seriously not tell?” She hadn’t finished her sentence before I started noticing other details—the way her knees pushed closer to the glove box, the way her head was only an inch or so away from the roof of my sedan, the way the buttons of her blouse were straining against her, and the blouse itself was soaked through with sweat.

“...You grew? Right now?!”

“Yes!” She held clenched fists up to her face, literally shaking in excitement. “Ahhh! I’m… well, you’ll see, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But I’m taller!”

“But… last time it took a whole week before the drug kicked in, didn’t it?”

“They said it’s erratic. Last time, it started about as late as it ever will, and this time it started immediately. They also said that of all the test subjects in the trial, I’m the only one the drug is working on! Isn’t that awesome!?”

I set my eyes on the road and focused on pulling out of the parking space, not quite ready to process the fact that my girlfriend was already bigger than she’d been a half hour ago.

“I didn’t pass out this time, either. They said that I should acclimate to the effect the more it happens. Which is great news because lemme tell ya, it’s not fun being this sweaty.”

“The… The more it happens?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Megan… how many more doses are you planning to get?”

She didn’t answer, and when I turned to look at her, she was just smiling innocently.

“Megan?”

She shook her head, still smiling, refusing to speak.

I turned my focus back to the road.

Unfortunately, the drive back to my apartment was pretty short, and soon I once more had nothing to focus on but the fact of my girlfriend’s growth. With a deep breath, I unbuckled my seatbelt and started climbing out of the car.

“Come open my door for me. Show me what a gentleman you can be.”

I paused, eyeing her suspiciously for a moment before shrugging and walking over to her side.

I hadn’t really been able to take in the full effect of her growth in the car; I’d been focused on the road, and she was sitting down. But now, as one long, shapely leg emerged from the vehicle, and then another, as her entire body slowly stretched to its full height, long, toned arms stretching out dramatically in a “ta-da” motion, I swallowed as I stared directly into the Megan’s forehead

In bare feet, she was nearly as tall as I was. I stammered a little, until both of our eyes went wide, a surge of heat flowing out of her. She stumbled woozily, falling into me and nearly knocking me over as I scrambled to brace myself against her weight.

Against… her growing weight. I could feel her body shifting and expanding, skin sliding under the surface of her sweat-soaked blouse stretching ever more taut, stitches ripping and buttons bursting.

She panted in exhaustion, her fatigue quickly giving way to excitement as she stood up straight once again, and I found myself looking directly into her grinning lips.

“Hi there, shorty.”