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Rachel wakes up one morning feeling hungy.

No, really hungry. Maddening on-the-brink-of-dying-from-starvation hungry, hungry in a way even Rachel has never felt in her entire life. You truly believe you may die if you don't eat... but you also know if you start, you don't think you could realistically stop.

The fact that, somehow, a box of peanut-and-chocolate power energy bars is sitting next to your bed.

((Action Required: Would Rachel eat? Resist? Or contact the labs, thinking she was sick?))

It was like heaven. The pain in your stomach is temporarily releaved, and its a beautiful feeling. Like releasing a breath you've held in for far too long. But its fleeting. Seconds, a few minutes at most, after finishing the first bar, the hunger is back and, though you couldn't believe it possible, its worse.

The vicious cycle has now begun, and as hard as it was to resist the temptation of the food sitting right there with her first craving, it only gets worse... and worse. The interem period of feeling sated becomes shorter, the amount she needs to eat in order to feel alright for a little bit grows until Rachel is overpowered by an unending hunger that doesn't yield until she's scraping at the bottom of the box (which is rather sizeable), and still yearning for more to eat.

However, within half an hour into this process Rachel would start to notice the beginings of the weight gain - her workout suit fitting more snugly... then a jiggle in her arms and thighs, then the workup suit riding up over a distended belly. The food she is eating isn't being digested as normal - she has no urge to use the restroom. Instead, the food seems to be almost immediately converting into body mass.

By the end of the horrifying process, the box is empty and her fate is sealed as her body goes through a delayed reaction as the rest of the foodstuffs continues to transfer to mass. Even if she tries to regurgitate, nothing comes up. She swells and swells - like a twised version of the Blueberry girl from Willy Wonka. But instead of a azure hue, a few lighter patches begin to emerge on her stomach and over her doublechins.

Then, in a painful bursting, part of her spine seems to pull away from her body, swelling blubberily into a miniature version of a whale's fluted tail.

Natsumi was off doing Natsumi-ish things for the day, and Thom had quickly grown bored wandering the jungle on his own. He and the gecko girl had been all but attached at the hip for the past few days, and now...well, he wasn't entirely sure what to do with himself. He had a snack of lizards more out of boredom than anything, debated going to the beach, decided it would be boring and headed back towards the duplexes, of all places.

He was half way back to the duplex he shared with Natsumi when he remembered the conversation he had had with Rachel and changed directions, heading to her duplex instead. He would find Rachel, drag her to help him find Natsumi, and they would all drop whatever they were doing to quell his boredom by beginning work on the gymnastics area. Brilliant.

Though he could remain near the duplexes without much more than a shiver nowadays, it was still an effort to approach them, especially without Natsumi there. He very nearly discarded his plan and headed back to the jungle when faced with the task of approaching Rachel's duplex, and had actually paled a great deal by the time he managed a knock, shifting his weight nervously from foot to tail as if ready to bolt should anything startle him.

Not that he could bolt.

The voice was muffled, but clearly upset. He had gotten the right duplex, hadn't he? It certainly sounded like Rachel...sort of. It was hard to tell between the clear despair in the tone and the door between him and his source. But if it did happen to be the wrong place, he reason, he could always leave and find the right one. It wasn't that big of deal.

Reassured by this fact, he twisted the knock and pushed open the door, hesitating momentarily at the fact that he was entering a duplex attacked his thoughts. However, he brushed it aside without much difficulty and continued in, pausing and beginning an apology at the sight of the large, large woman....only to pause once more when the woman began looking oddly familiar. "I'm sorry, I must've...ah... Rachel?" he attempted, but left it at that. From what he could tell...she was still changing. There really wasn't anything he could do at this point except wait and see if she needed help afterwards.

Thom was completely at a loss for what to do or how to help. What was he supposed to say to a girl who had already doubled in size and was continuing to grow? At least it didn't seem painful? Not physically, anyway... Giving his head a little shake to refocus on the issue, he risked a step inside, closing the door behind himself.

"You're changin'," he offered shortly, glancing to the few remaining protein bars. He was half tempted to tell her to stop eating, but if she continued to grow this way she would need the nutrients, so he left them alone. "Just...relax, if you can. You're changin' quickly, it'll be over soon. Then we'll figure out what t' do about it, alright?"

Okay, that had probably been the wrong thing to say. Grimacing, Thom started after her, only to pause once more when he heard her attempts at throwing up everything she had just eaten. The sound was mildly sickening, but...she didn't seem to be vomiting up anything, and he took some satisfaction in that. If her change had ceased, say, when he had first opened the door, he would probably said she looked better for it. As it was...he pitied her, but maybe it would serve as a reality check to exactly how thin she had been before.

He was about to continue into the bathroom after her, but the tear of splitting seams warned him away, and instead he turned his back to the bathroom to give her some privacy. He wasn't sure how badly the tears were, after all, or even if she had stopped growing. "It's not fair. But there's not much we can do about it, now is there?"

No reply was forthcoming, but he hadn't exactly expected one. He doubted she was in any mood for conversation, and he really hadn't much to offer to cheer her up, so, all in all, he was rather thankful for the silence, especially since it meant nothing worse was happening. And then she screamed, and he jumped, whirling around and immediately covered his eyes with his hand. Oops.

He turned away from the bathroom and let his hand fall, glancing around the room before stepping over to the bed and pulling off the blanket. Holding it high enough to hide Rachel from his immediate sight, he returned to the bathroom and draped it over her to her shoulders, only then aware of the growing tail by the lump appearing beneath the blanket. After a moment, he set a hand on her shoulder, giving a light squeeze before dropping to sit on the floor with his eyes facing away from her. "It'll pass. Just 'old on, it won't be long."