EVERYBODY STAY CALM I'M NOT CONTINUING THIS STORY JUST CALM DOWN RELAX AND DON'T PANIC. EVERYBODY GOT THAT? OK SO HERE'S THE DEAL.
I enjoyed writing Growth Potential so much I wrote the damn thing twice. But both times I feel like I got it wrong. In fact, I think the greatest lesson I've learned from writing my first creepy sex pervert fetish story is that you don't really know what your story is until you've finished it. It's easy to see why so many writers make multiple revisions to their manuscripts before shipping them to a publisher. So if I had to do it again - WHICH I WON'T BY THE WAY, SO EVERYBODY CHILL - here's how a third version of Growth Potential might look.
ACT ONE - PRELUDE:
We meet our protagonist, Ben. I wouldn't change much about his character. He's opinionated, principled, kind of an asshole, and deeply anti-establishment. He works at AllTec, a Department of Defense contractor developing some project called Growth Potential. Ben's girlfriend, Heather, becomes the project's test subject. Ben knows the project has something to do with size modification, but it's shrouded in mystery and he's starting to feel isolated from his girlfriend. He gets a bad vibe off it.
Heather, conversely, deeply believes in the project. As we learn, the world is in the grips of a war without end. While Heather won't reveal much to Ben, she tells him the project is the only way to end the war, and to do it with as few casualties as possible. She believes the whole project will bring about lasting peace.
We meet Heather's ex-boyfriend and Ben's rival, Jason. The three hangout, and Heather and Jason both share views on the importance of Growth Potential. Jason doesn't know much about the project other than rumors, but he believes the project is about creating a godlike being. Ben thinks absolute power is abhorrent, but Jason says if he and Heather were gods the world would exist in perfect harmony.
We get the view that Jason might be a bit of a meathead, but he isn't the evil power-craving maniac from the previous story iterations. He seems to have good intentions, but still has a vision for what he would do with all that power. Heather is a sweet girl but has a hard-line view on how God should punish the wicked, and Ben just hates authority, believing that absolute power corrupts absolutely (he is right, as we shall see). The differences in philosophy drive a wedge between Ben and Heather, and nudge her back in the direction of her ex.
Note: I don't really want to turn a fetish story into some sort of philosophical exercise, but I think it's good to establish character motivations to propel everyone in their own respective directions. In this case, Ben sees the love of his life being propelled away from him. Furthermore, it's been oft-noted that every GTS story that contains violence almost requires the woman to be a psychopath. I'm guilty of this too (see: Growth Potential version 1), and I'd like to supply a believable reason as to why a giant woman would be destructive.
Anyway. Enter AJ. She is the chief psychologist assigned to Growth Potential, with considerable influence within the project. She's brilliant, a bit neurotic, has a dark sense of humor, and is an unapologetic sex fiend. She and Ben have their own past, and she still has a soft spot for him, though no longer a romantic interest. She hears Ben's complaints about his own situation, and offers a solution. He could participate in Growth Potential too, and join Heather in a history-making endeavor, the result of which would surely bring them closer. AJ makes it clear that Ben would have to be Heather's subordinate, whatever that means, but Ben accepts anyway.
Ben is inducted into Growth Potential. He learns that the project has enhanced his girlfriend, giving Heather the power to modify the sizes of any object she desires, at will. Every person seems to have their own growth potential that she cannot grow them beyond, including herself. Ben, as we learn, has zero growth potential. He can only be reduced or restored to his former size. His new role is to be Heather's test subject, to be the first human trial in the use of her size reduction capabilities. He is horrified, but it's too late to go back.
Heather and Ben initially have some fun with this. She shrinks him and uses him however she pleases. He becomes her sex toy at times, at others he's simply her shrunken servant (leaving ample space for foot fetish hijinks of course). Ben relents and allows himself to enjoy his new position in life, and since Heather starts to prefer having Ben at his newly reduced size, she keeps him that way, even at home. We start to see hints that Heather enjoys indulgences of her power. After a few weeks of "fun," Ben softens his position on Growth Potential, and begins to support Heather, and her future role as the military's giant-sized avatar. Heather takes his support deeply, and it further galvanizes her own view that Growth Potential will save the world. Ben and Heather fantasize about what a world would look like under Heather's loving boot. Naturally, Ben will later regret all of this. But he's having too much fun, and the size-mismatched couple settle in to their new normal.
Of course, this is only temporary. Jason reenters. With his old rival shrunken and powerless, Jason sees an opportunity to get back with Heather. He starts spending more and more time hanging out with Heather and Ben. He and Heather continue to identify ideologically, and he inspires her with great speeches about what he would do as a giant. Heather, having grown herself a few times for the Project, explains that being gigantic is the most euphoric experience imaginable. Naturally, Jason wants to share that experience. Jason also clearly enjoys being bigger than Ben.
As Heather and Jason grow closer, he eventually talks her into using her power to grow him, just to see what it's like. Ben protests, but Heather reminds him that Ben supported Growth Potential earlier, but now he's just objected to human growth out of jealousy. A whole new world has been opened up for Heather, and she tells Ben that if he really loves her then he won't stand in her way, even if it means he can't grow with her. Ben is annoyed, but knows he's in a box. He assents. Heather and Jason go to a remote location outside of public notice. She grows Jason, and they share a tender moment where he holds her in the palm of his hand. Her heart flutters under the protection of this gentle giant.
Heather grows herself to match Jason's height, and the titanic twosome gaze at the horizon, lost in the moment. As the sun sets, Heather confides in Jason that she sometimes wishes she wasn't in this alone, that the responsibility of saving the world didn't fall only on her shoulders. The weight of that obligation is nearly crushing. Jason remarks that they were a great team once (back when they were dating) and could be a great team again. He takes her hand in his. Heather laments that Ben couldn't grow like she or Jason. Jason tells Heather she's a big person, and Ben seems content to just be a little person. The insinuation is clear. They don't kiss, but the connection has been reestablished.
ACT TWO - WAR:
We rejoin the story two months later. Jason has just gotten good news, which he hurries to tell Heather. He's been inducted into Growth Potential. We learn that Heather had petitioned project management to take Jason on, but it wasn't until his own potential had been measured that anyone seriously considered him as a candidate. Jason's growth potential is massive. A lead scientist remarks that "we're in uncharted territory here. It's difficult to be certain just how big Jason can grow." The team in charge of the project is elated at the possibilities.
AJ reveals to Ben that there are no safeguards in place should the giants go AWOL. The military is so desperate to bring this conflict to an end they will unleash a godlike weapon with zero ability to stop it. Ben is furious. No one seemed to be taking seriously the moral hazard of unleashing that kind of power. AJ sides with Ben, however, and she lobbies the company to approach the situation with caution. A bargain is struck. Jason will lack the power to control sizes, and will instead rely on Heather's power.
There are training scenes, showing the giants against soldiers, and the bond between Heather and Jason grows ever closer each time they ascend. Heather is instructed to keep their maximum heights to 100 feet. Tests have not been conducted at this point showing their full heights, for fear the whole project will be discovered by enemy satellite surveillance.
Finally the time arrives for Heather and Jason to get their first several deployments. If I had the time to write a longer story I would've really liked to have started these off small, with the duo being 100 feet tall fighting against normal sized armies. Their first appearance on the world's stage is frightening, and the enemy immediately surrenders in the initial conflict, out of sheer terror.
But just as Americans rally around their two titanic heroes, the enemy nation of Koskau is inspired by hatred. They keep fighting, forcing the giants to use force in return. Heather stomps her first tank, killing its drivers. The experience rattles her, but she quickly recovers, remembering her own hatred for Koskau and its wicked ways. She wants them punished. She becomes the sword while Jason becomes the shield. He doesn't revel in destruction like Heather, instead strategically disarming enemy weaponry rather than wantonly smashing armies.
The conflicts escalate each time, eventually crescendoing with the nuclear explosion seen in Redux. The twosome emerge from the mushroom cloud bigger than ever, revealing their true forms, which are a half mile high each. Though Heather and Jason are unharmed, the explosion causes them great pain, which they return tenfold onto Koskau by rampaging through a nearby city. Their rage turns to passion, and Heather and Jason make love on the ruins of a Koskau metropolis. Insignificant enemy bodies are smeared into paste between Heather and Jason's million megatons of flesh. Heather's moans of ecstasy carry across the country, as Jason drowns survivors in his semen.
A second nuclear bomb is dropped, this time on the ruins of the city decimated by the giants. Heather and Jason emerge once more, unscathed. The two laugh at their situation, realizing that they are invincible. Heather acknowledges that she has truly become a god.
The war is ended. At home, Ben, Jason, and Heather discuss their new reality. Heather and Jason are in love. Ben is a mere mortal amongst gods. He has no place now. Heather still loves him, their relationship is meaningless and lost. Ben suspects that Heather intends to force the military to unlock Jason's growth power, but that the two are worried the military can also take their powers away. He warns AJ that he thinks something is afoot. He's caught by Heather, who is infuriated and betrayed. She makes a threatening comment, that she's absolutely through with him, that he almost ruined everything, and that he will be punished.
ACT THREE - A NEW HEATHER:
We rejoin Ben in a dingy bar, as he impatiently tries to describe to the bartender how to make a proper martini. His friend sitting beside him, who Ben just calls "Frankie" because he doesn't know his real name, tries to help translate for Ben. Nobody speaks English in this bar, except for our hero. Liquor supplies are running dangerously low, and Ben is inventing mixed drinks on the fly using whatever limited resources are available, through an impenetrable language barrier. He is the only American in a Koskau city.
Frustrated, but sufficiently inebriated, Ben stumbles out of the bar with his comrade Frankie in tow. Though both have been taught to hate each other over the past 10 years, recent circumstances have made them unlikely friends. They stumble down the street, continuing a conversation that neither understands, walking past a labor camp, where Koskauns erect marble monuments in the likeness of Jason and Heather. Ben shouts some profanities at the statues, but Frankie tugs him away for fear of reprisal.
The ground shakes, and a siren blows. Frankie tugs Ben into a nearby building, until the shaking stops. Ben peers out a window to see Heather's monumental form looming over the city. We learn where we are. The city was once a prosperous Koskau town. It's been renamed New Heather. She shrunk it, along with its 40,000 inhabitants, and kept it in her apartment. The tiny denizens serve out their penance by carving statues for their new gods. Heather leers at her subjects, finding a few that meet her particular disapproval of the day. She snatches them up, and carries them off. They become the objects of pleasure between her and Jason. Ben watches in disgust as he plots his escape.
TO BE CONTINUED