A Little Change In Attitude

By Nomdreserv

“A wishstone? What the hell is a wishstone?” Sally demanded, holding the robin’s egg-sized stone in her hand. It was smooth but gray and otherwise nondescript.

“What do you think?” Máire shot back, setting her drink back on the table. “It grants wishes.”

She and Sally tried to meet occasionally to discuss favorite, if peculiar, topics of mutual interest. Today, it was a quick lunch together. You might not have guessed they were alike by their appearance – Máire was tall with auburn hair, whereas Sally was a petite blonde, but both shared the same acerbic humor (and the same sexual preferences), in addition to those less common interests that had initially brought them together.

“OK,” Sally answered, clutching it theatrically and squeezing her eyes closed. “I wish you’d pick up the check for a change.”

“Ha! Dream on,” Máire laughed. “Even wishes have limits. Besides, you think I’d give it to you if it worked?”

“Figures,” Sally dropped the stone carelessly.

“Hey, watch that,” Máire complained.

“But if it doesn’t work…?”

“We just don’t know HOW it works,” Máire explained. “That’s what we’re researching.”

“You call that magic stuff research?” Sally smiled.

“Hey, you know very well…” Máire started to reply hotly before realizing it was a joke. “OK. Yeah. We know what these are supposed to do, but we can’t figure out what the power source should be.”

“In other words, it’s a rock.”

“It’s not a rock. It’s a…well, OK, until we find out how to power it, it’s a rock. But if we do, watch out.”

“Promises, promises,” Sally sighed. “You don’t have much to show for your decision to go the magic route.”

Máire was defensive. “They don’t let you just start out playing with medallions and potions and stuff. You have to finish the basic knowledge curriculum first. It’s like college, not one of Nom’s stories.”

“Unfortunately,” Sally interjected. They both laughed.

“Besides,” Máire continued. “I don’t see you shrinking anyone yet after three months at the Realm.”

The Reducer’s Realm was a small, privately funded company specializing in miniaturization. What people didn’t know was that the publicized work of reducing the size of electronic components, batteries and such was really a cover for their true, and as yet unrealized goal: to shrink people for sexual perversions.

Hey, I said it was privately funded.

Thanks to the surface story, however, Sally Reynolds had been able to get an internship position through her college while she was still working for her degree. The great divide in the shrinking community was whether the goal should be accomplished through magic or science. Sally had chosen the scientific route since it fit her college studies so closely. Her friend, Máire Flynn, had chosen the sorcerous path since it promised quicker if less predictable results.

“I don’t think we’re much closer than when I started,” Sally admitted ruefully. “I really thought I was onto something with those KL rays I discovered. I mean, those mysterious ore samples Toyogub brought in are just glowing with unknown powers, and the KL radiation seems the dominate energy signature. Needless to say, as soon as it looked like I might have found something, Barbie the Bitch took it over. I don’t know how much longer I can stand working for her.”

Barbara Montgomery - she would have been livid to hear Sally refer to her as Barbie - was the lead scientist in the Realm’s secret project. She had extraordinary credentials as a research physicist, and had actually once, under recorded laboratory conditions, obtained a 0.03% mass reduction in a head of Romaine lettuce. Although skeptics claimed the weight and size reduction were due entirely to wilting and inevitable after the exposure to the hot, flashing strobe lights that seemed to make up the entirety of Dr. Montgomery’s apparatus, the shrinking community had been so desperate for any success, they had instantly seized on the experiment as their Holy Grail and appointed her chief scientist with total control over resources. Naysayers attempted to prove their objections by having the lettuce tested more extensively, but were thwarted after an unfortunate accident with the lab rabbits resulted in the complete loss of the evidence.

Montgomery was as overbearing and arrogant as she was beautiful. At first, Sally had counted herself lucky – or hoped she might get lucky – at being teamed with the sexy scientist, but that illusion had been shattered the first morning when she’d been ordered to fetch coffee. Despite Sally’s own considerable academic standing, Barbie no more considered her a colleague than she did the animals they used to test the scientist’s various shrinking rays, all spectacularly unsuccessful thus far.

“Still the Ice Queen, huh?” Máire commented.

“How can anyone so gorgeous be such a bitch?” Sally asked.

“Um, hello? You do live on planet Earth, right?”

Another laugh. “OK, granted. But she takes it an extra step. I think she dresses just to tease people, and she’s raised it three notches since I started working with her. I think it’s because she knows I’m a lesbian, and wants to bait me. Heels, stockings, short skirts, silk blouses – the whole power femme bit. But if she catches me looking, she’s like, ‘Oh, I keep forgetting I have to watch out for sexual harassment with you. I do hope you can keep those perverted hormones of yours in check and keep our relationship professional.’ Yeah, right. Like I’d even have that amazonian bitch.”

“And would you?” Máire asked.

“In a second.”

They laughed once more. Then Sally picked up the stone.

“So, why bring it to me?”

Máire looked around conspiratorially.

“You’re our link to the world of science,” she answered. “The Institute forbids any official contact or research with scientific outfits, but we thought you could find out something about the thing’s nature if you used those spectrothermometers and massomatic thingies and stuff.”

“Don’t get technical with me,” Sally warned with a chuckle.

“You know what I mean. You may be able to find out something we couldn’t.”

“I guess,” Sally agreed with a sigh, pocketing the stone. “Well, I’d better get back or she’ll start screaming.”

Her prediction was very nearly borne out.

“About time you got back, Reynolds,” Dr. Barbara Montgomery said severely as Sally entered the lab. “Don’t lesbians wear watches? Or is that too traditional for you?”

Dr. Montgomery, or “Barbie” as Sally always irreverently thought of her, as much because she knew it would drive her crazy as for her resemblance to the almost impossibly statuesque doll figure, was an imposing figure even when she wasn’t angry. Tall at 5 foot eleven, she usually wore 3 inch heels to make sure she could look down on almost everyone, men as well as women. This allowed her to virtually tower over the petite Sally, something she took every opportunity to flaunt. As Sally had said, she had a fantastic figure, with long legs that showed the tone and strength of regular exercise, a flat stomach, but almost disproportionately large breasts, and a still full, round ass. She dressed provocatively for a scientist: a short skirt that came a few inches above the knee and was tight to show off the movement of her behind, with her exposed, long legs set off even more by the preferred high heels, and a silky blouse that blossomed from the full, firm breasts, encased in a lace bra that was just visible through the fabric. As Sally had also conjectured, she did it as much to catch people looking at her so that she could threaten and harangue them as for the style. She especially loved to trash any men ignorant or foolhardy enough to hit on her. Even if she couldn’t physically shrink them yet, she left many a formerly confident male feeling very small after their encounters.

God knows what she’d do to a woman.

“Sorry, Bar…I mean Dr. Montgomery,” Sally apologized. “But since you kept me that extra hour this morning, I thought I could take a half hour now.”

“Never mind,” the imperious scientist cut her off. “If you’re going to make excuses, I’d rather not hear them. I’ll just add it to the list on your evaluation.”

Sally fumed. If this woman didn’t start shrinking something soon, she’d forget the internship - and her own chance to experiment with the KL rays - and just find another job.

“Besides, your log entries on the delta wave experiment were all wrong. Luckily, I checked them myself. You forgot to factor in the air attenuation coefficient properly.”

“No,” Sally explained patiently. “We used the 80% hypobaric parameters for that experiment, remember? You thought the nitrogen might be causing excessive absorption.”

“Oh, did I? Montgomery said carelessly. “Maybe I did. Anyway, I deleted all your entries in the computer. You’ll have to do it again.”

Sally tried to control her temper. She felt the wishstone in her pocket and thought, “I wish this woman would suffer various personal, sexual, and social humiliations, including a form of self-fornication which would not even be generally considered physically possible.”

Well, to be honest, her thoughts were loosely along those lines, but phrased in somewhat more colorful language. Still, you get the idea.

Needless to say, exactly nothing happened. Well, perhaps it is necessary to confirm that. After all, we all have a certain idea where this story is going. One doesn’t just hand wishstones to abused and sexually frustrated lesbians without a certain amount of foreshadowing. So, let me repeat, despite this golden opportunity for entering its influence into the story, the stone did nothing whatsoever.

Yet.

“And pick up those notes I left in the vault,” Montgomery ordered, referring to the special chamber used for their experiments. “I need you to organize those. And did you bring me that double latte I wanted?”

“What?” Sally asked, puzzled at the last question.

“Do I have to spell it out for you every day?” Montgomery grumbled. “Last Friday I told you to get me a double latte after lunch, and here it is Friday again, and yet I don’t see it.”

“But…”

“Really, Reynolds. Monday, straight Kona. Tuesday, Columbian. Wednesday, cappuccino. Do I have to print out a calendar for you?”

Sally clenched her fists.

“Dr. Montgomery, I didn’t come here to work as your coffee girl.”

“Oh, really? I don’t see what else you’re qualified to do. Or is it just beneath you as a lesbian? I’ll just discuss your attitude with Scidram or Dr. Parisa and see if we can’t get you transferred somewhere less taxing.”

Sally counted silently to ten.

“Sorry, Dr. Montgomery. I’ll try to remember. It’s just so…exciting to have the chance to work with you.”

“Exciting? Of, God, don’t go there. Leave me out of your perverted little fantasies, if you please. Now, pick up those notes before I forget about them.” She turned away and started to put on her lab coat for the afternoon’s work.

Sally seethed as entered the shielded test chamber, unsure how much longer she could put up with the scientist’s arrogance. And sloppiness. The notes were scattered over the room, making her spend several minutes collecting them. It was almost as though they’d been deliberately scattered to take the longest possible time to pick up.

What seemed a mildly paranoid but idle speculation suddenly grew into something much more when she noticed Barbie through the observation window, smiling in triumph. Her heart froze when she saw that the room’s door had been silently closed.

And then she saw the generator light come on.

With an appropriate expletive, Sally ran to the door to find it sealed. In horror, she saw the electrostatic generator and the twin DDUs (Dollmaker Discharge Units) power up. She closed her eyes involuntarily and felt, rather than saw, the EM pulse a second later. Tingling as much afterwards from a combined sense of anger and betrayal, she heard the DDUs ramp down, and the door open a few seconds later.

“Reynolds! What were you doing in here?” Dr. Montgomery asked in a not very convincing tone of surprise.

Sally opened murderous eyes on her. She hurled the collected notes at the smug woman.

“You bitch!”

“You were STILL in there picking up those papers?” Barbie continued, obviously unperturbed. “I had no idea. I assumed you were long finished. I just wanted to test the new KL impulse generator.”

“You could have killed me!”

“What nonsense. KL radiation is harmless to animals. You’ve seen the test results.”

“You had the broadband modulator on!” Sally declared, still furious.

Barbie looked evasive. “Did I?”

“I know the equipment, remember?” Sally spat. Her eyes went wide as she realized. “You were trying to shrink me!”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous.” Barbie looked even more uneasy.

“Damn it! That’s a higher dose than anything we’ve tried,” Sally observed, looking at the room’s instruments. “You said that would solve the mass dispersion problem. You were really trying to shrink me.”

Barbie regained her composure.

“Don’t flatter yourself. Why would I? It was an accident.” A shifty gleam to her eyes. “Of course, if I had a successful human trial to show the board, we wouldn’t have any more of these nagging finance problems.” She swept her gaze up and down, trying to determine if Sally was any shorter. “Damn. You look about the same height. Maybe we should measure you, just to be sure.” She produced a measuring tape. Sally knocked the hand holding it aside, drawing an angry rebuke. “Reynolds, get over this personal modesty. This is for science.” She held the tape up again.

Sally didn’t know whether to hit her or just report her to their supervisors to ruin her career. As she struggled to accept the enormity of what Barbie had attempted, she asked.

“Why me?”

“Who else?” Barbie admitted. “Besides, you’re so short already, I figured losing a few inches would hardly matter. You’d just go from short to very short. It’s not a big deal like it would be for a woman like me.” She shrugged, disappointed at the lack of results, and turned away.

Sally felt a primal urge for a gesture of retribution. She reached into her pocket to find something to throw, her fingers finding the unexpectedly warm wishstone.

Almost as though she were anticipating the attack, Barbie turned with a sneer.

“And if you have any bright ideas about reporting this incident, forget it. I’ll claim it was your carelessness, and that the experiment had been scheduled and posted. It was, you know. Posted…oh, just about when you left for lunch. The word of the institute’s chief scientist against her jealous intern. Who do you think they’ll believe?”

Sally sagged, her hand still in her pocket. Her anger hadn’t abated, but was under control.

“Why don’t we change places if you’re so interested in human testing?” Sally finally asked acidly. “Maybe I could shrink you.”

“Ha!” Barbie threw her head back. “I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Probably one of your dirty little fantasies. Now, pick up those notes again, and we’ll forget this happened.”

“Arrogant bitch!” Sally thought, still idly fingering the stone. “I wish I could shrink people. It would serve her right if her experiment backfired and she ended up smaller than me.”

The stone suddenly felt very cold against her skin. She pulled it out and looked at it. Had it changed color slightly?

“As if,” Sally thought to herself, dropping it back into her pocket. Máire had her imagining things with her talk about magic and wishes. Still, it was hard not to daydream along those lines. For example, she wondered if Barbie would be as arrogant if she were average height instead of being so much taller.

And didn’t notice as Barbie shivered slightly as she stalked away, or the way her coat settled just a bit lower past her knees.

She picked up the research notes while muttering to herself, and then walked into the main lab to find Dr. Montgomery talking on the phone.

“I don’t care. I want that sample now, Richards. Get it down here in five minutes or I’ll have your ass.”

She hung up with a snort and pushed her lab coat sleeves back up. She didn’t even deign to look up at Sally as she started to work at her computer. A few minutes later, a harried young man hurried into the lab.

“Here’s that material you asked for, Dr. Montgomery,” he announced breathlessly.

“Took you long enough,” Barbie sneered, walking over to take the parcel. She intended to stare down at the flustered assistant imperiously as she was used to, delighting in the look of fear she could instill, but was surprised to find her own eyes a bit below his level. She quickly darted glances at both their feet to confirm standard shoes.

“What’s going on, Richards? You look…different.”

He shrugged, also noticing something different. For some reason, Dr. Montgomery didn’t look quite as intimidating today.

“Never mind. Be quicker next time.”

He left, glad to get away this easily from the bitch goddess. Sally, vaguely aware of the exchange, thought to herself, “No, she’d be just as arrogant. She’d have to be shorter than average.”

Barbie stumbled as she walked back to her workstation. Her shoe had slipped as she pivoted, and she checked to make sure the heel was intact. It was, and the shoe looked fine, except it still seemed a little loose. Could the idiot in the store have given her the wrong size? No, a quick check confirmed the size was right – or rather, the printed size was. The shoes themselves still felt a bit large. Possibly mislabeled, in which case she’d raise hell with the store’s management. Maybe they had stretched a bit as a side effect from the humidity. Either way, it didn’t really matter for now. She pushed her sleeves up again and absent-mindedly went to sit down.

And nearly fell on the floor when her butt pushed the chair away.

“Reynolds!” she exclaimed angrily.

Sally walked over warily.

“Is this your idea of a joke? Or some kind of petty revenge?”

“What?” Sally asked, genuinely puzzled.

Barbie ignored the bewildered look and pointed at her chair.

“Somebody’s been messing with my chair. They adjusted the height, and I nearly fell. You know how particular I am, and you’re the only other person in the lab.”

Sally was exasperated. “Are you kidding? Why would I bother to…”

Barbie walked up closely – too closely – to stare down at her assistant. It was a trick she used to help her overbear others, using her height to advantage.

Except this time, it didn’t seem to work quite so well.

“I have no idea why you’d do it, Reynolds. But let me restate the rules so you know exactly what your place is here. Number one…”

She continued haughtily, but Sally wasn’t listening. Barbie was trying to pull her usual combination of physical and verbal intimidation, but the physical part just wasn’t working today. Normally, she towered over Sally by over a foot in her heels, reinforcing the amazonian image she liked to foster. She was still taller – tall enough that the decidedly petite Sally had to look up to meet her eyes – but not by as much. She seemed almost average height for some reason. Maybe even a bit…

Shorter than average.

Copyright 2001 by Nomdreserv

A Little Change In Attitude

part 2

By Nomdreserv

Sally’s heart jumped as the implication hit home, and she did a quick check. Barbie’s lab coat seemed at least two sizes too large, the sleeves half over her hands, and the bottom past her knees. Her other clothes were temporarily hidden, but her shoes looked a little too large as well - a gap around the sides visible to even a casual look.

Sally’s heart was racing now. Was it possible? Had Barbie been affected by her own experiments? It seemed preposterous, if not outright impossible. Even if the KL rays worked, Barbie had been outside the test chamber and shielded from their effect. It was Sally who should have been affected. And yet, here was the once imposing Dr. Montgomery looking almost petite in her too large coat, almost exactly as Sally had imagined her. What a marvelous thought. Sally could just imagine the scientist’s reaction if she found herself slowly shrinking through the afternoon.

Unfortunately, the smile that resulted from the thought caught Barbie’s attention.

“Reynolds? Are you listening to me?”

“Of course, Dr. Montgomery.” Sally tried to shake the fantasies that had sprung to mind. “I believe you were about to tell me about respect for authority and paying my dues.”

Barbie hesitated. That was exactly the next part of her speech. And as if being anticipated so exactly wasn’t disconcerting enough, she also had a vague uneasiness that something wasn’t right. Something about the way Sally was looking at her – the gleam in her eyes, or perhaps, how close those eyes seemed to be. She decided to shift tactics and handed her a folder.

“Here, make yourself useful and bring these to Scidram’s office. And then get that coffee I wanted. Maybe I can get some work done while you’re gone.”

Sally took the papers, glad of an excuse to organize her thoughts. Barbie looked shorter, no question about it. Would the process continue, and how had it happened? As the picture of the imposing Dr. Montgomery dwindling to resemble the doll for which she had been nicknamed came to mind, Sally wondered even more actively over how far it would go.

Or rather, how far Sally herself might go under those circumstances.

She was daydreaming as she walked down the hall, trying to decide whether to tell Scidram or the other higher ups about the news yet, and when Barbie would finally realize what had happened (and how much fun it would be until that happened), and thus didn’t notice as another worker homed in on her.

“Sally!” a grating male voice hailed her. “I’m free tonight. Whadda ya say I show you the error of your ways?”

It was Brad, an annoying sales rep who covered the “legitimate” business of the institute. He also fancied himself an irresistible ladies man. To say he had set his sights on Sally would be inaccurate – he had them set on every female between the ages of 18 and 45 in his acquaintance. Since Sally worked in the same building, she unfortunately showed up on his radar frequently just as a matter of proximity. And since Sally was quite attractive, she had been marked as an actively acquired target from their first meeting. Sally’s obvious lack of interest and open lesbianism had served as virtually no deterrent at all, since Brad was one of that group of males who are convinced a woman could be a lesbian only because she hadn’t yet experienced the soul-shattering power of sex with the “right” man.

And he never failed to imply that he knew exactly the right man.

“I’m busy, Brad,” Sally replied, trying to hurry past.

“Hey, no one’s too busy for the Bradster,” he shot back, blocking her path. “The secretaries were just fighting over who was going out with me next.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. Loser gets you.”

“Sally, Sally,” he remonstrated condescendingly. “You just don’t know what your missing. One night with me and you’d never think of men the same way.”

Sally smiled. It was nice when he did the work himself. “THAT I can believe. Excuse me.”

“Sally,” he continued to hound her. “Face it, it’s nature. You can’t argue with nature, baby. Now, maybe you’ve just had a bad experience. Some kid who didn’t know what he was doing. You’ve got to have the right tools to find paradise, sweet stuff, and another lady just ain’t carrying the right equipment as standard, you know? Now, I don’t blame you for fragging most of these losers who hit on you. But we’re talking Bradster, here – a round trip ticket to a heavenly body. You owe it to yourself to ride this rocket. We’re talking super-size, baby.”

Just in case his subtlety was lost on her, he thrust his pelvis out and tried to draw attention to the sizable bulge obvious even through his pants. Disgusted and impatient, Sally shot it a withering look.

Literally, as it turned out. While she was thinking up the proper retort, she saw the bulge in his pants start to dwindle. It became less obvious and smaller with each passing second, until she could just barely make out a peanut-sized dimple at the crotch of his intentionally tight pants. She giggled.

“I don’t know, Brad. Looks more like a happy-meal size to me.” Another giggle. “Maybe just the toy at that.”

He frowned and glared, then glanced down. He looked puzzled, then tried to concentrate, as though something didn’t feel right, and finally reached down to unostentatiously pat himself. The next instant, he turned very pale.

“Excuse me,” he stammered, looking desperate. “I…I need to go check something.”

He all but stumbled over his own feet as he hurried away, already unzipping his disturbingly empty pants as he raced into the restroom.

Sally, though initially laughing at his plight, soon realized the implication with a start. Maybe Barbie’s experiment hadn’t affected the chief scientist at all.

Maybe it had done something to Sally.

That seemed impossible, but just to test it, Sally concentrated on a nearby planter, willing it to shrink. Nothing. No result with a picture on the wall, or the papers in her hand either. Brad’s problem must have been coincidence after all. She hurried on with the folder, eager to get back and see how Barbie was doing.

She stopped behind two women waiting for an elevator. Both were professional model-tall and elegantly dressed, wearing expensive dresses, cut perfectly to knee length, one with short sleeves and the other with a decorative jacket, and fashionable heels. They also had rather flashy jewelry accessories. One of them glanced at Sally waiting with them, particularly her neat but practical and decidedly more casual clothes, then raised an eyebrow to her companion.

“Love your outfit, Jen. It’s so important to dress properly for a professional appearance, don’t you think.”

The friend caught on immediately.

“Absolutely, Melissa. I know some people can’t be bothered, but it really doesn’t take that much more effort to make a good effect.”

“Of course,” Melissa pointed out with a smirk. “It’s easier for some of us, isn’t it? I mean, you’re just a fashion designer’s dream with your height and figure. I suppose the short ones might not be able to find things as flattering.”

“You’re right,” Jen agreed. “And it’s the same with you. We could make anything look good.” A theatrical sigh. “Though sometimes it just gets so frustrating not being able to just walk in and buy things in the store. You know, like regular women.”

“The price of having a runway figure,” Melissa laughed. “Life is hard.”

They both glanced again at Sally, and laughed as the elevator arrived.

They all walked on while Sally glared in stony silence. She stood in the back while the two other women watched the floors move by in the front.

But, a very odd thing started to happen. As the elevator went up, the two women seemed to go down. Each floor robbed them of another inch, and Sally stared in shock as the perfectly tailored dresses started to drift lower, moving towards mid calf. The one with the jacket felt her sleeves move and shrugged them back up, but didn’t notice that they still half covered her hands. The diamond-highlighted watch on Jen began to slide down her arm, just barely holding on at her wrist.

The elevator dinged as it reached their floor. They nodded at each other as they split up, each suddenly noticing that the other’s clothes weren’t nearly so perfect as they had seemed, but since they had shrunk in tandem and their relative heights were still the same, the reason why didn’t occur to them. Each woman a bit self-consciously adjusted her own clothes in turn, noticing that everything seemed just a bit loose, even their underwear which was decidedly peculiar. Nonetheless, they walked on, still confident and serene in their superior appearance, not realizing that they had rather the look of young teenagers playing dress up with their mother’s clothes: dresses that hung like sacks and almost to their ankles, shoes that slipped a bit with each step, and sleeves that threatened to cover their hands.

Sally watched in awe as the now junior-miss-sized models disappeared. A quick guess was that they were now hardly more than five feet tall, nearly Sally’s size. She couldn’t resist a smirk at the thought. At least now they’d be able to buy off the rack.

Sally finally reached Scidram’s office as her thoughts still whirled. So, Barbie was shrinking after a run in with Sally, and so were those women in the elevator. Brad now felt a certain shortcoming after his confrontation with her. It all pointed to her as the obvious cause, yet she produced no change on the planter or papers. Almost like she could only shrink…

People.

Somehow, her subconscious replayed her thoughts after Barbie’s experiment. The wishstone felt very heavy in her pocket.

As she made the connection, her first thoughts were such that a huge smile formed on her face. She made a silent thought to her friend. “Thanks, Maire.”

She needed to confirm it, plus find out if it was reversible. A man coming towards her in the hall served as a final test subject. Sure enough, his pants’ cuffs began to pile onto his shoes, then drag the floor, and he stood barely taller than Sally as he drew abreast, his suit hanging on him like a sail. He looked confused as to why the normally petite woman suddenly seemed so much more imposing, but he nodded in greeting to her mysterious smile anyway. More importantly, by the time he reached the elevator, he was almost back to normal.

Almost. After all, fun was fun. He might find life interesting and even educational from a shorter man’s perspective. Besides, she’d confirmed the more important finding. The process worked both ways.

Now that she knew, she decided she’d better hurry back and see how Barbie was doing. She opened the main office door to deliver her report. Scidram’s office was closed, but she found another of the officers, Kylia, standing outside.

“Where’s Sci?” Sally asked.

“Away for meetings,” Kylia answered. She noticed Sally’s poorly hidden excitement. “You got anything?”

It was an indication of how she felt that Kylia didn’t ask Sally if Dr. Montgomery had found something, but rather Sally herself. Although several others felt the same way, Barbie’s public experiment had pulled a lot of the less discerning board members to her side. Even so, Sally thought she’d better hold off on her announcement until Scidram himself could hear it.

“Um, a report,” Sally offered the folder. “One of Barbie’s.”

Kylia smiled at the nickname. “Oh well. I guess I’ll look at it anyway.”

They both walked into Kylia’s office. Kylia sat down at her desk and started to flip through the pages. She was a woman of average height, and her shoes tapped the floor lightly as she read.

In a sense, she was also the mirror image of Sally. Not in looks or temperament, but desires. The institute tended to draw people interested in one of two things: shrinking others, or being shrunk themselves. (There were perhaps also a few who were more interested in giantesses, but they were in the minority here. After all, they had their own board.) There were the shrinkers and skrinkees, and Kylia had made no secret of her desire to experience life from the shrinking side.

As Sally watched her, noting the way her skirt had ridden up a little to display nice legs as she sat at the desk, she had an idea. Slowly – so slowly that she didn’t notice it – Kylia’s feet rose slightly off the floor. At first, she continued to unconsciously tap her shoes as the toes pointed down, but finally, her feet cleared the floor altogether and dangled in the air. One shoe nearly slipped before she reflexively caught it on her toe. Her toned legs began to gradually slide beneath her increasingly roomy skirt.

She suddenly shifted in the chair, not feeling quite right. The collar of her shirt began to gap slightly as her shoulders and neck shrank, and Sally almost regretted the way her breasts could now barely be discerned in the sagging shirt front. A sleeve covered her hand, but she shrugged it back up and turned the page, glancing up at Sally as she did so.

“Not much her,” she reported, then paused, her voice sounding odd to her. She cleared her throat. “I hope you have something you’re working on yourself.”

“You could say that,” Sally admitted with a smile, watching Kylia’s feet continue to creep up off the floor. They swung at least eight inches above it now, and her shoes were beginning to expose her heels as they drooped down, barely hanging on by the toes. Even the pantyhose underneath were beginning to look a bit wrinkled.

“Hmm,” Kylia went back to reading. Something about Sally looked different. She would have almost guessed she was wearing heels, but she knew Sally too well. She idly adjusted her watch which had spun around upside down on her wrist for some reason, then checked to see if the band was broken. It seemed almost too large to hold on. She went to lean back in the chair, but misjudged where the back was. She ended up almost falling backwards, tilting the chair, with her head finally hitting the mid back and her feet flying up to counterbalance.

And, of course, that sent both her oversized shoes flying off, leaving her dainty feet in their wrinkled hose kicking in the air.

Kylia stared at her feet in shock. The pantyhose had slipped down over the toes, leaving the ends flopping over her feet. Her legs, on the other hand, were almost invisible under the puddle that was her baggy dress. She looked at the watch that now hung loosely suspended from her wrist, then up at Sally, her mouth open in shock. Her hands reached to grip the chair arm rests for support, and she received another shock as the movement sent both her wedding ring and her watch sailing to the floor.

By now, Kylia was child-sized, no more than three feet tall, nearly lost in her oversized, baggy clothes, and dwarfed in the executive chair with her tiny feet sticking straight out. Her blouse had started to slip over one shoulder, leaving an equally loose bra strap precariously exposed. She could barely see over the desk, and everything in the room now began to look gigantic.

Including Sally, who came to stand next to her. The normally petite Sally loomed over the seated woman, looking positively amazonian in comparison. Kylia met her gaze with wide eyes.

“Wh…wh…how…”

“Yup, that’s about what I thought you’d say,” Sally laughed.

Kylia looked around the room and then at her sagging clothes again in disbelief. She picked up a pen from the desk. It felt as wide as a highlighter marker but was twice as long. The papers looked poster size.

“You did it,” she finally breathed in astonishment. “You really did it.”

“Guess I should have put that in the report, huh?” Sally winked.

Kylia’s reaction surprised her. The tiny woman jumped up in her chair with a happy squeal, not even bothering to catch at her skirt which immediately fell around her feet, then launched herself in to a hug with Sally.

“Am I the first? Oh, this is so wonderful! Just look at me!” Indeed, standing in the chair, she was just about Sally’s height. She emphasized her condition by flopping her loose sleeves over her hands and waving them around, then dancing in her baggy shirt which fell past knee level. She pulled it up to reveal her sagging pantyhose. “So much for the control in these tops,” she giggled. “They’re not exactly ‘Silky Sheer’ anymore.”

She unexpectedly jumped off the chair, looking around the room in delight.

“Look how big everything is,” she chirped. Her mouth opened wide as she saw she was only waist-high to Sally. “And how BIG you are! Wow, Sally the warrior queen.”

Her head barely came up to the desk level, and she ran from one piece of furniture to another, testing her height against them, climbing up and out of the chairs, then finally just skipping and dancing through the now huge room. This last suddenly caused her pantyhose to lose their grip entirely, and she collapsed onto the floor as they bunched up around her feet. She was still laughing, however, and just kicked them off happily. Sally couldn’t help noticing that her panties had come off with them, and Kylia’s tiny legs looked extremely cute and inviting as they kicked beneath her shirt. The shrunken woman finally stood back up and walked back to Sally.

“How’d you do it?” she asked in awe, taking one of Sally’s hands to see how small hers looked in comparison.

“I don’t know…exactly,” Sally hastened to add when the first part of the statement made Kylia look up in alarm. “Magic. My friend, Maire, gave me something called a wishstone. Something in the experiment we ran today activated it.”

Kylia nodded, as though that made perfect sense.

“I always thought our artificial separation into science and magic techniques was wrong. Maybe now we’ll be able to bring the camps together.” She stopped to peek into he gaping shirt front. “It’s so weird,” she added. “They LOOK normal to me. It’s the bra which looks all wrong. Feels wrong, too. You don’t mind, do you, Sally?”

Kylia had already started to reach under her capacious shirt, even if Sally had voiced an objection. Something Sally had no intention of doing. A moment later, the oversized bra joined her other undergarments on the floor, leaving Kylia naked except for her loose shirt. Sally couldn’t resist taking an appreciative peek beneath the still gaping collar, now seeing two plum-sized breasts topped with stiff, pink nipples. Kylia noticed and blushed. To be honest, they both felt a sexual thrill at the situation. Perhaps to relieve the tension, Kylia continued.

“How long does it last?”

Sally shrugged. “Don’t know. It’s reversible though. You want me to change you back?”

Kylia took step back.

“No way! I’m going to enjoy this. I mean REALLY enjoy it.”

Sally looked a bit worried.

“I may have made you too small. You can’t even walk around without everyone noticing, and there’s no way you could drive. Maybe I should…”

“Forget it.” Kylia actually ducked under the desk, as though that would protect her from any attempts at re-expansion, then realized how fruitless it was. She reappeared looking rather mischievous. “Have to catch me first!”

She dove back under the desk, almost immediately reappearing on the other side. Sally ran around to grab her, only to have her dive to cover once more. Even though she was under average height, Sally couldn’t come close to matching her quickness in the confined space, and by the time she had crawled through it herself, Kylia was already across the room. Sally, fully into the spirit of it, ran towards her, quickly closing the distance, only to have Kylia dart around her outstretched arms. It seemed that her reflexes were even faster at this size, and she led Sally a merry chase, occasionally flashing her shapely legs and pert, little bottom from beneath her flapping shirt, though this last, no doubt, was accidental.

Of course, Sally could have returned Kylia to normal at any time without catching her, or shrunk her enough so that she couldn’t escape, but where would be the fun in that? Instead, after five minutes of laughing and games, Sally finally collapsed into the chair Kylia had originally vacated.

“You win,” she called breathlessly. “You can stay that small. But how the hell are you going to get home.”

Kylia came up with a huge smile. Her cheeks were flushed pink (as was the rest of her body, Sally noted warmly), and she was rather out of breath.

“Already way ahead of you.” She stood onto her tiptoes to reach the desk and push the speed-dial for her husband on the phone, then had to stretch even farther to wrestle the handset off. She held it awkwardly, since it was about twice its normal size and weight to her. “Hello? Yup, it’s me. I know I sound funny. Guess why. Yes. No, I’m not just playing this time. Yes. Yes, really. No, I’m not kidding. Just come and take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me. Oh, and we’ll have to share your car. I won’t be driving mine for a while.” She hung up laughing. “I suspect he’ll get two or three tickets for speeding on his way here. We are going to be VERY busy tonight.”

Her laughter stopped as she saw Sally’s face, staring at the open report.

“What’s the matter?”

Sally pointed at the page with Barbie’s summary of the latest experiment.

“She’s taking credit for my idea!” She slammed a hand on the desk. “This is unbelievable. I’m the one who discovered the KL rays, not her! I knew she’d take over as primary researcher – that’s understood when she’s the lead scientist and I’m the intern – but to start writing her memos as though she was the one who found them. Damn! She’s worse than I thought. She’s going to try to freeze me out of this entirely.”

Kylia became serious. “We won’t let her, Sally. And don’t worry. Scidram, myself, everyone here knows more of what’s been happening than you think. This may just give us an excuse to act. Meanwhile, hmm. We shouldn’t just let this go. What should we do to take her down a notch?”

Sally’s eyes lit up as she remembered.

“I think I may have already done that. I’d better get back down to the lab. You sure you’re going to be OK? Should I stay, or…?”

Kylia beamed happily, hopping up into the chair as Sally stood to leave, and spinning around with her tiny, bare feet just reaching the edge of the seat.

“I’m going to be wonderful. And I think my evening’s spoken for, thank you. You should celebrate with someone though. Have a little fun.”

“A little fun?” Sally smirked. “Now, where have I heard that phrase before? Definitely gives me a few good ideas though. See you tomorrow.”

“Maybe,” Kylia piped cheerfully. “Depends on how good – and how long - the night is. Thanks, Sally.”

Sally nodded, happy to be able to fulfill another person’s fantasy. Now, it was time to work on a couple of her own.

Copyright 2001 by Nomdreserv

A Little Change In Attitude

By Nomdreserv

Sally returned without further delay to their lab, excited and ecstatic. Despite the new evidence of betrayal from Dr. Montgomery, or perhaps from Kylia’s implications that her own work was being recognized, Sally was convinced they could still work together. She thought the first step was to confess what had happened to her, and the resulting effect on Barbie. Although the scientist would probably be angry and jealous, they at least had a whole new line of research to keep her distracted. Besides, she would probably be relieved to know the cause if she had finally noticed her early shrinking.

Alas, relief was not the first emotion that Sally encountered. In her eagerness to explain everything, Sally made the mistake of using her own nickname for the researcher as she burst into the lab.

“Barbie! You’ll never guess…”

“Barbie?” Dr. Montgomery all but screeched. “Did you just call me ‘Barbie’?”

Sally froze. “Um…”

“How dare you? That’s probably what you call me behind my back, isn’t it? Well, Ms. Reynolds, I’ll have you know that I will tolerate no such disrespect from my assistants. Consider yourself on report.”

If Barbie had realized her predicament, she made no self-conscious gesture to indicate it. Her oversized lab coat still hung almost to her ankles, with her hands half hidden by the sleeves. She came over to fix Sally with an icy stare. Sally realized with some shock that Barbie had shrunk even more in her absence. They were nearly the same height. She was about to point this out and try again when Barbie sealed her fate.

“And where the hell’s my coffee? You were supposed to bring me my latte!”

Sally was genuinely astonished that not only had Barbie not noticed what was happening (or refused to admit it), but that she could still be fixated on her afternoon coffee. The combination left her literally speechless.

“Oh, never mind!” Barbie finally said angrily, shrugging off her coat and handing it to Sally. To be honest, she was glad to take it off. It didn’t feel right, and she was going to complain to housekeeping that they must have sent her the wrong size. “I need a break. I’ll just get my own coffee. You get back to work on those recalibrated data sets.”

She stalked haughtily out of the lab, or at least as haughtily as someone can whose shoes keep slipping with each step. The damned leather must be defective. The store manager would hear of this. It just contributed to the downward spiral her mood had been taking.

It was this general exasperation with the world that had contributed to her continued ignorance or more likely her unconscious denial about what was happening. To her, it was the world – both animate and inanimate – that was conspiring against her. Her chair, the funny feel to the keyboard when she had been typing, the way her clothes kept sitting wrong, and especially her inability to properly intimidate people with her patented stare-down. Sally had seemed almost exuberant after her visit to the offices. That troubled her even more.

Her walk through the complex did nothing to improve her mood. She had to walk slowly to keep her shoes from slipping. That seemed to affect her confidence or perspective. Everything looked just a bit off or strange.

But, obviously she, Dr. Barbara Montgomery, the center of the universe was its one fixed point. Anything else that seemed strange meant that the world, not her, was wrong.

And speaking of the world gone wrong…

As she passed a mirror, she unconsciously checked her reflection and stopped in frustration. Somehow, her tight, silk blouse had pulled up from her skirt and seemed to be sagging like a deflated balloon. Her skirt didn’t look right either, it hung a bit looser than it should and completely covered her knees. She was hardly projecting the image of a dominating, powerful woman whose sexuality was barely contained. In fact, she looked positively average.

That was something she could barely tolerate. In fact, she actually considered going out to buy some new clothes, but realized how ridiculous it seemed. It would be different if there was a board meeting, where she’d want to hold center stage, but for a day in the lab, it hardly mattered. She contented herself with pulling her shirt down more tightly and her skirt up and walked on. At least the skirt seemed loose. Losing some weight meant she could have a Danish with her coffee.

Their building was set in a small business complex near the university, which meant there were several nearby coffee shops and casual eateries. She stepped outside and walked across the street to the nearest, where she ended up in line behind a very tall teenager and his girlfriend. The girl looked to be no more than 18, and stood at least an inch taller than Barbie, despite her sneakers compared to the scientist’s heels. This unconsciously bothered Barbie no end, but still not yet for the reason it should. She looked around at the mostly college age or younger crowd, and again found herself to be one of the shortest people present. She knew that succeeding generations tended to be taller than the last, but if this was any indication, her height of which she was so proud would hardly be remarkable at all. She grumbled to herself and drew herself up, imagining that she could actually see over the girl’s head now that she stood straighter.

This only helped a little, for other things began to make themselves noticed. The menu seemed higher than usual, and she had to tilt her head to read it. The counter was taller, and when she finally reached the front of the line, she found herself looking noticeably up into the cashier’s eyes.

This made her gasp. While not seemingly unusual in itself, Barbie remembered this girl from her last visit, and more specifically, being able to look down and notice the glittery hair bauble that held her hair.