Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Mostly exposition in this part, but still a smidge of fetish content.
Nell sighed and stretched, slipping out of her pink satin sheets. The dream had felt so real it ached. Like if she only wished hard enough, the world would conform itself to the dream, and she'd be able to live it.
The fact was, most things in the world conformed to Nell's wishes. As far back as she could remember her family had been wealthy. Her father had always had enough money to give her most anything she desired -- and now he had considerably more than that. They'd moved into the mansion when she was six, she'd begun private home schooling soon after, and spent her free time as she wished.
Whole rooms of the mansion were devoted to hobbies Nell had picked up and dropped on a whim. The flight simulator. The raquetball court. A warehouse's worth of priceless musical instruments. Another room decorated with lavish furniture dating back from her antiques phase.
But Bill Winthrop had never been able to give his daughter the one thing she truly desired.
Standing barefoot, Nell was just four and a half feet tall. She'd grown to that height at the age of ten, and while she'd developed in every other regard and was now unquestionably a beautiful young adult, she never grew any taller.
With a nearly unlimited supply of custom-made high heels, she was able to look most other girls of her age in the eye. But she wanted to truly tower over others, have them look up at her in awe and admiration, leave them standing in her shadow. And while she'd idly considered surrounding herself with midgets, that just wouldn't cut it.
So her father searched for an alternative. But as of today, Nell's eighteenth birthday, he still hadn't found anything.
Nell struggled to hold on to the details of the dream, but they floated away like feathers hit with a swift breeze. She remembered walking around the mansion, then the ground suddenly shifting away as she sprung upwards, the mansion dwindling beneath her until it was the size of the scale-model dollhouse in her room. As she loomed over the mansion, she felt powerful, comfortable -- ready to take on the world. Winston and her father had come rushing out the front door. They stood no taller than her ankles. Her father had made quite the fuss, kept telling her to stay still, and she had just laughed... Then she had promptly remembered she was dreaming, and woke up.
As Nell yawned and stumbled toward the bathroom, it struck her as odd; normally on her birthday, Winston would arrive early and wait until she woke to serve her breakfast in bed - to mark the special occasion. She found it a little chilling to wake up alone on her birthday, but soon figured that everyone was probably waiting downstairs. She quickly finished brushing her teeth, combed her corn blond hair into something more passable than bed-tangle in case her Dad wanted to take photos, then rushed downstairs, still in her silk pyjamas.
Sure enough, the light was on in the kitchen. Nell rounded the corner and saw her Dad and Winston standing behind the granite counter-top. Her father was beaming.
"Nell-bell! Happy birthday!" He bent down to give her an aftershave-drenched hug.
"Daddy! What are you and Winston doing down here?" This was all very different from the norm: no presents or cake that she could see. Maybe now that she was eighteen they thought she'd like a more grown-up celebration. A fair guess, although she would miss the usual streamers and festivities - there was just something so cheerful about all the fuss.
"Well, honey, this birthday your present is going to be something special."
Nell caught Winston fretting behind her father. "Mr. Winthrop, sir, perhaps Nell should change to more appropriate attire -"
"Easy, Winston," Her dad scoffed. "This is her house too, there's no need for her to change for anyone. Nell, I have someone for you to meet."
Nell nodded. Sure, her PJs weren't the best thing to be wearing right now, but she was too caught up in the moment to care. This was so very different - so exciting!
Her father opened the kitchen's back door to reveal a slight, well-groomed young man with brown hair. He had a very youthful face - at first, Nell thought he was around her age, but the white lab coat indicated that he was at least a good five years older. He stepped forward to shake Nell's hand. "Hi Ms. Winthrop. I'm Daniel Farmer, human growth specialist."
***
Daniel had risen two hours eariler, the stars still fading from the sky as he hopped on the Metro. He didn't have a car, and it took three connections and two hours to make it from the city out to the suburbs. He wasn't looking forward to the weekly commute. But when someone like Bill Winthrop called, you didn't blink, you didn't worry about the distance. You said yes.
In fact, Daniel had been very nearly on the edge of poverty when Winthrop had called him. His work didn't have much scientific merit, and as a result he didn't get much in the way of grants. Every time he applied for one, he saw the wheels turning in the head of Foundation Member X: "Sure, you think you can make humans grow taller, now let's get back to our cure for cancer." And despite his sister's constant urges to go commercial, he'd always been too embarrassed. So he was thanking his lucky stars to finally have a private benefactor like Winthrop on his side. He had visions of succeeding in his research, helping people, all the while being able to afford a car.
Daniel had figured this was his big break, until Winthrop told him what he was there for.
"You want me to develop a growth serum for your daughter?"
Winthrop lifted a finger to his lips. "Not so loud, Dr. Farmer. The kitchen has an awful echo, and you could wake Nell." He stretched his hands above his head, then smoothed out his tartan robe. "There's bound to be a better word for it than serum. That sounds like B-movie science fiction stuff. Let's call it a treatment. Yes, I want you to develop a growth treatment for my daughter."
Daniel looked down at the table. "Mr. winthrop, you must understand, my, my work was years from human testing..." Damnit, he'd started stammering. He always stammered when he was nervous.
"I thought you'd already done successful animal trials?" Winthrop shot him a stern look.
Daniel thought back to Snuffles the mouse, who had started out as long as his pinky and finished the serum course as the size of a city sewer rat. "Well, yes, but usually such experiments are conducted on animals with longer lifespans before the human testing phase begins. Even then, the results could be unpredictable..." Daniel cringed, waiting for Winthrop's response.
The billionaire just laughed and clapped him on the back. "Relax, Dr. Farmer, no one's saying you have to produce this treatment tomorrow. But I'd still like you to work with Nell. This is her present, after all, and I want her to be happy with it more than anyone."
"Uh, I see, sir. It'll be a privilege to work with your daughter." Daniel spluttered. What was he expected to do with a teenage girl around the lab? "I can come in weekly on the 6:30 train -"
"You took the train here? Cripes, I thought they paid you science types more than that. Anyway, a commute won't do. We've got plenty of space here in the estate, I'll have Winston make up a room for you."
"Ah, um, but I left my stuff, and my research -"
"We'll send someone down there to get all of that." Bill was waving his hand, like all of Daniel's problems could be wiped away with a flick of the wrist. For a man with Winthrop's money and power, perhaps they could.
"Then I guess I'm good to go." Daniel concluded somewhat sheepishly.
"Good. Now quiet, I heard the steps creak." Winthrop whispered. Daniel could hear it too. A hesitant padding turned into a confident trot down the staircase. "Get 'round the corner. You're a surprise!"
Daniel obliged and hid himself behind a nearby cupboard. But he couldn't resist leaning out from behind his cover to catch a glimpse of Nell Winthrop. The poor girl had been the subject of fevered rumor and speculation almost since she was born, especially since her father did his best to keep her out of the public eye.
Daniel had been expecting some kind of dwarf, but Nell was hardly deformed. Had she been around one and a half times her current height, she probably would have been called statuesque. She was slender, and of elongated, willowy proportions. She just seemed to have been scaled down to miniature. With her light blue eyes, pale complexion and curtain of blond hair, there was an almost fairy-tale princess look about her. Beautiful in an unusual way.
Daniel pressed himself back against the cupboard and tried to avoid looking nervous.
***
Nell shook Daniel's hand - his skin was surprisingly soft, though he had something of a weak handshake - and looked up at him, trying to gauge whether or not this was some kind of setup. Her father had looked at all the options, and never found anyone who could help her before. Surely this was an elaborate practical joke on his part.
She glanced over at him quizzically, and he nodded back. Yes, this was really her gift. Nell looked back at Daniel, realized she was still shaking his hand, and abruptly withdrew hers. Now was one of the few times she was with company, so as usual, she completely forgot her manners. All the etiquette lessons Governess Lenette had drilled into her head just seemed to vanish whenever she met someone new. "Um, Nell Winthrop, pleasure to meet you." She forced out.
"Your father's hired me to see if we can work on developing some, er, treatments for you," Daniel said. "Height treatments of course. That's what I've been researching."
Nell nodded. "I've always wanted to be taller, as I'm sure Daddy told you. So, you really have something that works?"
"Well, preliminary trials suggest that maybe Compound P-282, coupled with coenzyme theta and a specific radon isotope, could -"
"We think so." Her Dad said, cutting him off. Dad hated technical mumbo-jumbo, he always interrupted anyone who tried to talk to him about it. He was always more about the ideas and less about the particulars, but so far that strategy had worked for him.
Nell's heart felt like it was about to beat its way out of her chest. "Well, when do we start?"
Her father's smile faltered slightly. "It's not quite ready yet, sweetie. But Daniel's going to work with you to make it."
"Oh." Nell tried her best to avoid looking disappointed. Of course, her dream wasn't going to come true just like that. She knew this whole thing was too good to be true.
"Hey, don't look so glum," Daniel said. "I'm - we are - going to work very hard on this. We're going to make it happen." His smile was a little shy, but very honest.
"Well, you two will have plenty of time to get to know each other as you work on the treatment. For now, let's show Daniel the lab." Dad stood up, towering over both her and Daniel. Everyone looked tall to Nell, but when she got a good look at Daniel and her father next to each other, she realized he was definitely on the short side. No wonder he'd spent his life working on a growth treatment.
She couldn't help but like him.
***
"Winston should have your stuff over here by tomorrow at the latest..."
"Are you sure he can do it alone? I have an awful lot of equipment..."
"Anything that's extremely specialized Winston will bring back, but we should have enough here for you to work with."
"You already have a full-featured lab set up?" Daniel tried to make his jaw shut but it kept threatening to flap open.
Bill led the three of them down a winding set of corridors. "Yes, it was Nell's Christmas present a few years ago. You remember that science kick you were on, Nell-bell?"
The blonde girl shrugged. "I never could use all that equipment, Daddy. I didn't really know what I was doing."
"Always best to keep your options open, though, I say. Anyway, Dr. Farmer, the lab should have everything you need."
Daniel was ready to say that he doubted the average kid's playset had a refrigerated extraction centrifuge, when Winthrop opened the door to a sparkling white scientist's paradise. "Is that a Schlick anti-mass spectrometer?" He blurted.
"Yeah, it's not the top-end model, but I figured it was close enough," Winthrop said casually, as if he'd purchased a less-than-spectacular microwave.
Daniel took a moment to survey the lab, and allow himself a few oohs and aahs. This caliber of lab equipment would easily cost four times the amount he'd earned over his entire life. "This is an incredible laboratory, Mr. Winthrop."
"It's all yours, Farmer. Well, yours and Nell's."
"When will I be working with him, Daddy? Will this be instead of lessons with Lenette?" Nell looked a little concerned.
"Hmm, maybe we'll substitue this in for science class. But other than that, lessons go on as planned," Winthrop said before turning to Daniel. "You'll work with Nell for an hour or two each day. Give her some background on what you're doing, have her read up on the subject, and eventually start preparing her for the process. The rest of the time, you work on whatever you need to do to complete this thing. Sound good?"
"Sounds fine to me," Daniel mumbled. What was he going to do, negotiate?
"Wonderful," Bill exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I'll go tell Winston to prepare the room, then retrieve your equipment. There's a binder on the counter with the lab's floor plan and manuals for all the equipment in case you're unfamiliar with these models. For now, however, you and my daughter should get better acquainted. After all, you're an integral part of her birthday present." Chuckling softly to himself, Winthrop left the room.
An awkward silence quickly descended over the room.
"So..." Nell murmured, looking off to the side.
"Um." Daniel said by way of reply.
"You really have this growth thing worked out? How does it work?" She looked genuinely interested.
"Well, in theory, there's this organic compound, P-282, which I bind to a low-radioactivity isotope which degrades the stability of the compound..." Daniel saw Nell's eyes glazing over. She wasn't asking him to give her his standard scientist pitch, she just wanted a simple explanation.
Daniel stood up, fumbled in his messenger bag and seized a notebook and pen. He quickly sketched the outline of a rough molecule. "See, this is P-282. Because of the way it's shaped, it can easily enter the cell walls of each cell in the human body. Once inside, it encourages growth factors evenly across each cell - it even seems to activate the osteoblasts that help form and reshape your bones. The result is uniform growth and an increase in the strength and size of bones and musculature. So the body grows in even proportions and remains strong enough to support itself - maybe even stronger than that."
Nell's eyes had widened, but suddenly her brow furrowed. "So what's the point of the radioactive part?"
"Good catch," Daniel laughed. "The radioactive isotope allows me to trace the path of the compound through the body, and eventually degrades the enzyme. Otherwise, you might have unlimited growth. And who knows what would happen then? So the isotope breaks down the molecule and allows it to be flushed out of the system..."
Daniel noticed Nell's eyes had kind of glazed over again. He'd been surprised by how quickly she'd picked up on what he was talking about, however. Daniel had sort of assumed upon meeting Nell that she'd be a stereotypical billionaire heiress - snobby, spoiled, and too full of herself to listen at all to anyone else. He was coming to realize that anything that looked like arrogance from her might just be social awkwardness. Given how fully her Dad had kept her away from public scrutiny, it was entirely possible that she'd met only a few people over the course of her life, and most of them paid servants at that. She was just a bit sheltered.
"So," He said, clearing his throat to get her attention. "That's the basic idea of the serum, but there's still some kinks that have to be worked out. That's where I'm hoping you can help me."
"Oh, yeah. Sure." Nell smiled widely.
There was something different about her, Daniel thought to himself. Like she wasn't quite of this world. But in a good way.
***
Nell tried her best to listen to Daniel's lecture, but she found it hard to wrap her head around the strings of numbers and letters. She got the basic concept - thingy goes into cells, thingy causes uniform growth, radiation eventually stops thingy - but the rest of it sounded like some impenetrable code. She guessed she was like her father in that regard - better with the general idea than the specific science.
Every time Daniel started back into the hard science, she found herself leaning back, trying to get a good look at him. After the fleeting moment before they went down to the lab, Daniel hadn't been standing next to her father. But she kept thinking back to the moment when she'd seen the two of them standing next to each other. Daniel was short - she estimated him around 5'2" at best. That still had him seven inches taller than her, but he was still closer to her size than anyone else she'd met. Even Lenette was 5'4".
Nell tried to imagine herself at that height. Two inches taller than Daniel, barely anything. Still not even shoulder-height with Winston, much less her father. No, when the growth serum was worked out she'd want to be much bigger than that. Maybe her father's height. She imagined towering over Daniel the way her father did. He'd be so cute like that - almost boyish. If she held him close, he'd barely come up to her chest.
She snapped back to attention as Daniel cleared his throat. "That's the basic idea of the serum, but there's still some kinks that have to be worked out. That's where I'm hoping you can help me."
"Oh, yeah. Sure," Nell said, trying not to trip over her tongue. "What can I do?"
"Well, basically, with this kind of laboratory, we can chemically analyze each potential mixture of P-282 and a respective isotope, and then simulate the results. No organic subjects necessary, though we'll still want to inject it into a number of live tests before we move on to anything like human subjects. So, what you'll be doing is combining the different raw materials in this centrifuge..."
***
After showing Nell around the machines, then ogling each piece of expensive equipment for a while himself, Daniel collapsed into an office chair. Nell had picked up on how to work the injectors fairly quickly. She wasn't an airhead, although her lack of focus was a bit troubling. Ultimately, he was glad to have an assistant - preparing the injectors was basically busy work, and it would save him some time to have Nell do the preparations for him, while also giving her father the sense that she was really participating.
With a sigh, Daniel flipped open the tech manuals and began to read up on the new lab equipment. Most of it was more straightforward than what he was used to. Three button pushes instead of ten here, a little extra automation there, all the bells and whistles he'd penny-pinched his way out of in his old lab.
Two hours later, Winston arrived with a small cart full of the remnants from Daniel's old lab, and his clothing in heaps.
"I took the liberty of picking up your personal effects as well. Additionally, I'd like to note that Mr. Winthrop has private accounts at several premium clothiers -- I have a stack of catalogs you can browse..."
Daniel plucked self-consciously at the ratty T-shirt he was wearing. "Uh, yeah, I'll make sure to take a look over those. You found everything in the lab all right?"
"I transferred everything that seemed unique to those circumstances," Winston said slightly archly.
Daniel suddenly remembered what a mess he'd left his lab. He clearly hadn't made Winston's job easy. "Thanks very much, Winston, I really appreciate -"
"No need to thank me, Mr. Farmer," Winston said with a slight, stiff bow. "But if you feel you owe me any gratitude, I would ask you to keep in mind just one thing."
Daniel scratched his head. "And what would that be?"
"I've known Miss Penelope for all of her young life." Winston seemed to drift out of the intense focus he normally displayed, as if looking inward. "As far back as I can remember, she's sought a remedy for her stature. And I feel I can speak for all of us at the Estate when I say there is nothing we'd want more than for her to have her wish fulfilled."
"Well, I'm glad I can -"
"But," Winston interrupted, suddenly stern. "If something were to go wrong, if she found herself harmed by your experiments... I daresay everything good that has happened to you today would be reversed, and then far worse." Winston took a deep breath, and his glare softened once more. "All we ask is that you be very careful, Mr. Farmer. Our hopes and dreams depend on you."
Daniel didn't quite know what to say. He wasn't sure Winston even wanted a response. He looked down at the cart Winston had towed into the lab. "Did you manage to find Snuffles?"
"Who, sir?"
"The rat, Snuffles. A white lab rat. He was in a wire cage."
"I found no live specimens on site, Mr. Farmer. However, I did find a wire cage." The butler rummaged in the cart, and fished out an object. It looked less like a cage, and more like a piece of modern art. The wires were bent and twisted out of place, and a gaping hole was left in its side, as if a miniature explosion had blown clear through the cage wall.