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12-23-2008

Thanks. I appreciate any feedback I can get.

I'm trying not to go too fast with her shrink, but if I'm overcompensating and going too slow, let me know. I do plan on it getting faster as she gets smaller, since there's less mass to deal with, but not to the point of "we've got 30 minutes before she shrinks out of existence, doctor!" with a big countdown clock and a heroic ending at .01 seconds.

--------2--------

The next morning, Tammy was feeling anything but rested. The alarm was blaring inside the headboard of her bed and her head was beginning to throb in time with the nose. Reaching a hand out from the blanket, she tried to hit the snooze alarm as she did every morning. A dull thump and pain in her fingers brought her fully awake. She had missed it by a good inch and a half and had hit her fingers on the faux wood instead. Sitting up, she stuck her injured fingers in her mouth and flipped the alarm off with her other hand. Another great morning had begun.

She slid out of her bedclothes, finding them a little cumbersome across her chest, but otherwise cooperative. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she slid off the bed and reached her toes to the floor. Still feeling a little out of sorts, she scooted over the edge a bit and onto the floor. "Shower" she said to herself. "No sense fighting Murphy's law until I've had my shower."

Already having shed her bedclothes, she trudged towards the bathroom, dragging her feet. At this point it didn't seem at all odd to her that the doorhandle felt somehow wrong in her hand. The shower was all she wanted to think about for now. With no effort, she stepped out of her underpants as they slid off at her barely coaxing the waistline. Her bra wasn't so loose, but she dismissed it as not shower related. Finally she stepped into her shower and pulled the curtain behind her. The initially cold water did help to wake her, but it did nothing for her coordination. She had barely begun when she fumbled for the shampoo, knocking it off onto her foot and following it with a curse. She was more careful with her soap, though, watching what she was doing this time, the success reassuring her for the first time the entire morning.

Moments later she shrieked and thrust open the curtain, ignoring the water pouring behind her and the soap dripping off of her. Frightened, she rushed to the mirror and stared, holding her chest with soapy hands. Sure enough, something had changed. It wasn't as dramatic as her dream, but they were noticeably larger. Where they had been a mere bulge before, there was defined shape and roundness, even the beginnings of a divide between them. Her mind raced as she looked over the rest of her body. She couldn't quite make out a difference, thought her complexion seemed clearer and she might have lost weight. The one change, though, that she couldn't deny was the roots of her hair. While the majority of her hair was a deep brown, nearly an inch of transition was clearly showing red beneath it.

Her program, at its earliest phases. There was no denying it. She tried to think back of who might know about it, but she had told no one. No one would have gotten onto her machine without Michael knowing about it... "Michael!" She was horrified. How could he have broken into her computer? How could he have experimented on her like this? How could...

"Calm down." She said to herself. This was no time to panic. So long as it didn't have to sustain nerve tissue, particularly the brain, it would just run its course and she might be a little hungry at worst. She just needed to get to the lab and shut them off. Frazzled, but at least beginning to grasp why she was so out of sorts, Tammy returned to her shower. Blushing, she took extra time washing her newly enlarged chest. The sensation of new flesh was unmistakable and all too addictive. Maybe it wasn't so important that she stop Michael's little experiment with her right away. It might be fun to see him squirm, wondering when he'd be found out.

After an unusually long shower, she stood admiring herself in the mirror. The red wasn't progressed far enough yet, but the color was exactly right. In fact, it seemed as though it had advanced nearly an inch while she had been showering, meaning the nanobots dedicated to that mission were working independently as she expected from the model. In terms of her hair color, that meant it would be fully red by the end of the day as the bots picked up speed with the root work already completed. From there they would be reassigned and her other "attributes" would take shape more quickly. Her underpants had been too large, she realized, because of the changes to her waist and bottom. Just a little cosmetic reduction, but enough to make them loose. To be sure they didn't fall down during work, she slipped them on and used a safety pin to separate out about an inch and a half slack, making the band at least feel tight. As expected, her bra was no loose fit, but strangely it wasn't too small either. Too elated by the change to think much on it, she finished getting dressed, taking out a ballcap from her closet for the finishing touch. She bunched her hair up into it and turned it around backwards, making sure to cover her roots well. Glancing at her belt, she counted two notches from the well worn notch she had used yesterday. That part was nearly finished, with only another notch before she reached her goal. It did seem strange that the rates were so off, but she didn't know how Michael had done it. Perhaps the method hadn't allowed for enough nanobots to start replication normally. Otherwise, she'd have expected the process to be half completed already.

With an immovable smile on her face, she left her apartment and stepped into her pod. The entire trip was spent trying to compose herself so she didn't let Michael know that she knew. She had needed to disuade him from a romantic interest when he was still a student, and it had occurred to her that they no longer had that restriction. Maybe he saw her construct and liked what he saw.

Her smile faded, though, when the main door balked at her entrance. She realized immediately that she'd forgotten to call up a lab coat, but the building should still have let her in. When it insisted upon alternate ID, she pressed her palm to the glass and growled. "Work, you outdated piece of crap, I was having such a good day until I ran into you."

With a chime, the machine responded "Within parameters", rather than it's usual "Match" status when it glitched like this. Once inside, she went to the lab, calling up a lab coat and resetting the destination as she did so.

Michael, hard at work as always, didn't look up as she came through the door. Seeing him there, though, brought back her good mood. His little prank was reckless, but she knew he had good intentions, and she was loving the result. Slipping in behind him, she yelled, "Wake up! No sleeping on the job!"

The surprise made him jump out of his seat. He looked up at her standing over him and grinned. "You're having a good morning, aren't you, Doctor V?"

Feeling generous, she decided the name was a little distant. "We're colleagues now, I guess I can let you call me Tammy." His head clear of the screens, she could see a little of what he was working on, diagnosing the remains of yesterday's fiasco. Realizing that was a side effect she hadn't considered, a knot formed in her stomach. Then again, if it was a risk, why hadn't he said anything? "Umm, what's the verdict on Bess?"

He shrugged. "Simple one, actually. A human profile was loaded into it rather than a rat's. It started at the core doing a complete reconstruct of the heart, and ran out of parts before it finished. Until we burned it, it was still keeping her mind alive in a microbrain, just unconscious. If it'd had enough material, we'd have seen a human walk out with all the experiences of a rat."

Both relieved and curious, she pressed for details. "Any idea how it happened?"

He smiled at her and didn't respond for a moment. Confused, she stared back. "You uploaded it. I think we know who botched this one. If that weren't enough, I looked at the model that was in the nodes still. I think I recognize the base model." He added, beginning to blush. "Though there's parts of it I hadn't seen before."

It still didn't sink in, till he switched frames on his screen, showing a familiar brown haired version of herself she'd seen yesterday, with black bars crudely drawn over key parts. Seeing his censorship, she caught on, blushing herself. "Thanks for that." Reviewing in her mind her steps yesterday, she realized her mistake. She had left her simulation running and had forgotten Bess's test wasn't loaded yet. Another realization hit her. "Wait, you've not seen this before?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Nope, but don't worry, Doc...I mean Tammy, your secret's safe with me. Everyone here has their pet project, and this skeleton in your closet is no worse than mine."

Briefly, she wondered what he was hiding, but now she was worried. Michael hadn't done this to her, so how had it gotten into her? Her fears played out on her face and she didn't respond.

Seeing her taking it more seriously than he expected, he frowned. "Is something else wrong?"

She nodded.

He prodded for more information, after glancing at her hat, loose clothing, and lack of lab coat. "Does it have something to do with why you're not in uniform today?"

She nodded again, but replied. "I thought you did it."

Now growing worried himself as the pieces fit together, he asked more directly. "Did what?"

She took off the hat, letting her hair fall out from under it. Unmistakably, nearly four inches were already red, just like the construct. Another inch was in transition, and it was clear from her face that it wasn't some sort of prank.

All he could manage was "Oh crap."

Again she nodded.

-----------------------

I've started posting these on DA (http://illun.deviantart.com/) and have posted parts 3-5 there. If you want, I can continue posting them here as well, but I felt uncomfortable bumping my own topic with just story updates.

12-23-2008	#3
Illun Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Short Story: Microbrain Thanks. I appreciate any feedback I can get. I'm trying not to go too fast with her shrink, but if I'm overcompensating and going too slow, let me know. I do plan on it getting faster as she gets smaller, since there's less mass to deal with, but not to the point of "we've got 30 minutes before she shrinks out of existence, doctor!" with a big countdown clock and a heroic ending at .01 seconds. --------2-------- The next morning, Tammy was feeling anything but rested. The alarm was blaring inside the headboard of her bed and her head was beginning to throb in time with the nose. Reaching a hand out from the blanket, she tried to hit the snooze alarm as she did every morning. A dull thump and pain in her fingers brought her fully awake. She had missed it by a good inch and a half and had hit her fingers on the faux wood instead. Sitting up, she stuck her injured fingers in her mouth and flipped the alarm off with her other hand. Another great morning had begun. She slid out of her bedclothes, finding them a little cumbersome across her chest, but otherwise cooperative. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she slid off the bed and reached her toes to the floor. Still feeling a little out of sorts, she scooted over the edge a bit and onto the floor. "Shower" she said to herself. "No sense fighting Murphy's law until I've had my shower." Already having shed her bedclothes, she trudged towards the bathroom, dragging her feet. At this point it didn't seem at all odd to her that the doorhandle felt somehow wrong in her hand. The shower was all she wanted to think about for now. With no effort, she stepped out of her underpants as they slid off at her barely coaxing the waistline. Her bra wasn't so loose, but she dismissed it as not shower related. Finally she stepped into her shower and pulled the curtain behind her. The initially cold water did help to wake her, but it did nothing for her coordination. She had barely begun when she fumbled for the shampoo, knocking it off onto her foot and following it with a curse. She was more careful with her soap, though, watching what she was doing this time, the success reassuring her for the first time the entire morning. Moments later she shrieked and thrust open the curtain, ignoring the water pouring behind her and the soap dripping off of her. Frightened, she rushed to the mirror and stared, holding her chest with soapy hands. Sure enough, something had changed. It wasn't as dramatic as her dream, but they were noticeably larger. Where they had been a mere bulge before, there was defined shape and roundness, even the beginnings of a divide between them. Her mind raced as she looked over the rest of her body. She couldn't quite make out a difference, thought her complexion seemed clearer and she might have lost weight. The one change, though, that she couldn't deny was the roots of her hair. While the majority of her hair was a deep brown, nearly an inch of transition was clearly showing red beneath it. Her program, at its earliest phases. There was no denying it. She tried to think back of who might know about it, but she had told no one. No one would have gotten onto her machine without Michael knowing about it... "Michael!" She was horrified. How could he have broken into her computer? How could he have experimented on her like this? How could... "Calm down." She said to herself. This was no time to panic. So long as it didn't have to sustain nerve tissue, particularly the brain, it would just run its course and she might be a little hungry at worst. She just needed to get to the lab and shut them off. Frazzled, but at least beginning to grasp why she was so out of sorts, Tammy returned to her shower. Blushing, she took extra time washing her newly enlarged chest. The sensation of new flesh was unmistakable and all too addictive. Maybe it wasn't so important that she stop Michael's little experiment with her right away. It might be fun to see him squirm, wondering when he'd be found out. After an unusually long shower, she stood admiring herself in the mirror. The red wasn't progressed far enough yet, but the color was exactly right. In fact, it seemed as though it had advanced nearly an inch while she had been showering, meaning the nanobots dedicated to that mission were working independently as she expected from the model. In terms of her hair color, that meant it would be fully red by the end of the day as the bots picked up speed with the root work already completed. From there they would be reassigned and her other "attributes" would take shape more quickly. Her underpants had been too large, she realized, because of the changes to her waist and bottom. Just a little cosmetic reduction, but enough to make them loose. To be sure they didn't fall down during work, she slipped them on and used a safety pin to separate out about an inch and a half slack, making the band at least feel tight. As expected, her bra was no loose fit, but strangely it wasn't too small either. Too elated by the change to think much on it, she finished getting dressed, taking out a ballcap from her closet for the finishing touch. She bunched her hair up into it and turned it around backwards, making sure to cover her roots well. Glancing at her belt, she counted two notches from the well worn notch she had used yesterday. That part was nearly finished, with only another notch before she reached her goal. It did seem strange that the rates were so off, but she didn't know how Michael had done it. Perhaps the method hadn't allowed for enough nanobots to start replication normally. Otherwise, she'd have expected the process to be half completed already. With an immovable smile on her face, she left her apartment and stepped into her pod. The entire trip was spent trying to compose herself so she didn't let Michael know that she knew. She had needed to disuade him from a romantic interest when he was still a student, and it had occurred to her that they no longer had that restriction. Maybe he saw her construct and liked what he saw. Her smile faded, though, when the main door balked at her entrance. She realized immediately that she'd forgotten to call up a lab coat, but the building should still have let her in. When it insisted upon alternate ID, she pressed her palm to the glass and growled. "Work, you outdated piece of crap, I was having such a good day until I ran into you." With a chime, the machine responded "Within parameters", rather than it's usual "Match" status when it glitched like this. Once inside, she went to the lab, calling up a lab coat and resetting the destination as she did so. Michael, hard at work as always, didn't look up as she came through the door. Seeing him there, though, brought back her good mood. His little prank was reckless, but she knew he had good intentions, and she was loving the result. Slipping in behind him, she yelled, "Wake up! No sleeping on the job!" The surprise made him jump out of his seat. He looked up at her standing over him and grinned. "You're having a good morning, aren't you, Doctor V?" Feeling generous, she decided the name was a little distant. "We're colleagues now, I guess I can let you call me Tammy." His head clear of the screens, she could see a little of what he was working on, diagnosing the remains of yesterday's fiasco. Realizing that was a side effect she hadn't considered, a knot formed in her stomach. Then again, if it was a risk, why hadn't he said anything? "Umm, what's the verdict on Bess?" He shrugged. "Simple one, actually. A human profile was loaded into it rather than a rat's. It started at the core doing a complete reconstruct of the heart, and ran out of parts before it finished. Until we burned it, it was still keeping her mind alive in a microbrain, just unconscious. If it'd had enough material, we'd have seen a human walk out with all the experiences of a rat." Both relieved and curious, she pressed for details. "Any idea how it happened?" He smiled at her and didn't respond for a moment. Confused, she stared back. "You uploaded it. I think we know who botched this one. If that weren't enough, I looked at the model that was in the nodes still. I think I recognize the base model." He added, beginning to blush. "Though there's parts of it I hadn't seen before." It still didn't sink in, till he switched frames on his screen, showing a familiar brown haired version of herself she'd seen yesterday, with black bars crudely drawn over key parts. Seeing his censorship, she caught on, blushing herself. "Thanks for that." Reviewing in her mind her steps yesterday, she realized her mistake. She had left her simulation running and had forgotten Bess's test wasn't loaded yet. Another realization hit her. "Wait, you've not seen this before?" He laughed and shook his head. "Nope, but don't worry, Doc...I mean Tammy, your secret's safe with me. Everyone here has their pet project, and this skeleton in your closet is no worse than mine." Briefly, she wondered what he was hiding, but now she was worried. Michael hadn't done this to her, so how had it gotten into her? Her fears played out on her face and she didn't respond. Seeing her taking it more seriously than he expected, he frowned. "Is something else wrong?" She nodded. He prodded for more information, after glancing at her hat, loose clothing, and lack of lab coat. "Does it have something to do with why you're not in uniform today?" She nodded again, but replied. "I thought you did it." Now growing worried himself as the pieces fit together, he asked more directly. "Did what?" She took off the hat, letting her hair fall out from under it. Unmistakably, nearly four inches were already red, just like the construct. Another inch was in transition, and it was clear from her face that it wasn't some sort of prank. All he could manage was "Oh crap." Again she nodded. ----------------------- I've started posting these on DA (http://illun.deviantart.com/) and have posted parts 3-5 there. If you want, I can continue posting them here as well, but I felt uncomfortable bumping my own topic with just story updates. Last edited by Illun; 12-25-2008 at 10:17 PM. Reason: DA link at bottom.