Dorothy laughed, getting up to switch out the games. "Like you need to ask, my loyal subject," she said grandly, not dropping her 'Nerd Queen' bit. "Your Queen demands we play until our thumbs bleed--argh!" She suddenly flinched, paws going to her eyes before she could grab a new game.
R.J. got to his feet, worried. "Woah, you okay there?" He got closer, trying to ignore how he had to tilt his head up to see her face. WithDorothy's 8-foot height, he was at eye level with her ample chest.
Growling and cursing under her breath, Dorothy rubbed her eyes. "I'm fine. Just some eye-strain after playing video games for so long. Stupid to not take a break..." She blinked a few times; R.J. could see a red tinge to her yellow feline eyes.
He suddenly noticed his eyes hurt, too; they were even tearing up. They must have been playing that game for hours...his legs hurt from sitting so long, too.
"Okay, maybe that's enough video games for now...ouch!"
==One Eye-Wash Session Later==
After the ocular ordeal, the pair decided to shelve gaming for the moment. After VERY pointedly telling him not to touch anything, Dorothy had taken R.J. on a tour of her lab. It turned out the place wasn't as haphazardly set up as it looked: every boiling beaker and flickering screen was labeled, the more dangerous hardware...which was admittedly most of it...sectioned off and marked with warning signs.
R.J. had even started to see patterns in how everything was arranged--safer, less hazardous experiments were strewn around the kitchen and living room; more dangerous set-ups were walled off in special closets or, most ominously, Dorothy's bedroom. (THAT room was locked behind a steel bulkhead and needed a keycard; Dorothy said whatever she was working on within was "classified" and refused to include it in the tour. R.J. knew better than to pry about it.)
The tour eventually took them to a workbench tucked away against the living room's back wall. Taking up most of the station was a contraption resembling a scaled-down jet engine set on a swiveling mount--almost like it was meant to aim at a target. Its generator let out a low hum as if powered on, but the row of sceens nearby were showing steady, low readings. It was inactive, then.
"Ah, now THIS is a marvel!" Dorothy beamed, patting the barrel. "It can alter the atomic structure of its target; reducing the space between atoms but otherwise keeping it unchanged. Whatever it targets gets smaller and denser!"
R.J. had been fascinated listening to Dorothy describe the contraption, but suddenly something clicked. "Making it smaller and denser...wait; you mean it's a shrink ray?" He couldn't help laughing--it sounded ridiculous, even knowing Dorothy's reputation. "Pull the other one, Dorothy."
"That's what they told Jonas Salk, and he cured polio." Dorothy quipped, sounding a little offended.
R.J. put his hands up. "Woah, easy. Curing a disease is one thing. But zapping stuff with some beam and making it smaller--"
"And denser! I'm reducing the space between the target's atoms."
"--Smaller and denser with the push of a button? Come on, that's comic book stuff! I get it; you're playing up the 'mad scientist' bit to mess with me--"
Dorothy stamped her foot and gave a petulant snort. "Hmph! A skeptic, huh? Fine, time for a demonstration!" She produced an apple from somewhere and set it up against a target. Shoving past R.J. she activated the device and fiddled with the controls, taking aim at the apple---
Until the swivel mount sparked, the ray suddenly lurching and spinning erratically even as it charged up. Frantic, Dorothy pounded the controls--and got it to stop!
...Right when the ray was pointing at R.J.
It fired before she could kill the power, and R.J. was enveloped in bright light. He felt like he was falling....
===
R.J. didn't know how long it took to clear the spots from his vision. What he DID know was that he wished he hadn't, because now he found himself looking at a pair of gigantic cheetah feet.
"Goddamn it," he mumbled. Sighing, he looked up...to find Dorothy towering over him like a colossus, a worried but still smug look on her face. He could now see that she wore a bright red bikini under her lab coat. It hugged her hourglass curves quite nicely, and was so tight it looked like it was painted on.
Not a bad view, but it wasn't worth being small as an ant.
"Still skeptical?" Dorothy quipped, leaning down to smirk at the shrunken human.
R.J. took a step back. Some of the more vicious Anthros didn't have problems eating normal-sized humans; he'd barely be a snack right now. Dorothy hadn't hurt him, and this shrinking thing seemed to be an accident, but still...
"So, uh; what happens now?" he asked, trying to keep his tone light.
"Well, with your enhanced durability and strength, you're safer at that size than you think," Dorothy explained, squatting to get a better look at him. She giggled, "You're cuter now, too! Anyway, you're kinda like Ant-Man, minus controlling bugs--tiny but tough. And that gives me some ideas...!"
What does Dorothy do?
1.) For Science! - It turns out Dorothy has
some tests prepared to properly test a shrunken volunteer's enhanced durability and strength. R.J.'s available and shrunken, so why not "volunteer" HIM for her research? It might even help find a way to un-shrink him sooner.
2.) Unsanctioned Research - She COULD find a way to return R.J. to normal, or even just take notes...but Dorothy wants to "research" how fun playing with a shrunken human is--and she has plenty of "experiments" in mind!
3.) Scientific Ethics - Dorothy just wants to un-shrink R.J. ASAP for his own safety, putting any experiments aside.
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