Expanse Ch 1 Piece 1

Series: Expanse (Original Series)

Characters: Carmine, Madeline

Contains: Barely mobile, VERY light health mentions

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Carmine felt herself gradually awaken. She struggled to peel her eyes open and gasped for breath. It felt like there was an incredibly heavy weight on her chest. It was so much that she had to focus all her strength on drawing in air. All she could hear was the labored wheeze of her breath as her eyes finally peeled open. Harsh fluorescent light stung her eyes. She wanted to raise a hand to block the source, but her arms refused to move.

Carmine’s eyes gradually adjusted to the light. The blur of visual stimulus stabilized, and she took in her limited view. Her eyes sluggishly dragged up. She spotted red, her hair. Just below that was the ceiling and the damn light that shone down on her. That was all she could clearly identify. To the left and right was something round and flesh colored, and in front of her were two lumps in an off-teal color. She focused and noticed…a seam. The lumps were covered in a teal hospital gown. Carmine’s brain was still frazzled, but she tried to think about why a hospital gown would be laid over two curving lumps larger than yoga balls.

Now the memories came back to Carmine. They crept in like the breeze through a rickety door. Slow, whistling until a harsh gust knocked the door wide open. Carmine’s breathing became faster but no less labored. She tried to grab anything to steady herself. She struggled to so much as bend her fingers, and they squished against something soft.

To make matters worse, Carmine felt where her fingers touched, but the sensation couldn’t be true. The stimulus felt so far from her. Her side shouldn’t be near whatever space her hands were in. The flesh colored lumps to her left and right…those couldn’t be her cheeks, and those giant lumps in front of her couldn’t possibly be her chest. Yet Carmine noticed how those mounds rose and fell with her increasingly anxious breath. She tried to move her body, any part would do, but nothing obeyed. It was as if she were buried under marshmallows that weighed as much as a solid block of lead!

Carmine felt like her body was a prison. It was because of that drug, Expanse! Big Madame had forced her to take Expanse and then placed her in front of a mountain of pink food. The thought of all the sugar cloyed at the back of her throat, and she opened her mouth, but hardly any sound came out. She had no idea what she had last spoken, or maybe her neck was too thick to let any sound out.

More visions of food, the returning sensation of how her body filled out rapidly with fat, the unseen hands that touched her and stuffed her. She couldn’t tell when her hands stopped, but there were undoubtedly more shadowy hands that did this to her. Carmine tried to wriggle with every bit of strength she had. Somewhere, deep, deep muscles burned with overwork. She could feel herself jiggle, but then she couldn’t stop. Her body rolled like a toiling sea. Something pushed her chest up, which then squished her extra chins, and that pushed her mouth shut. Now she could only breathe haggardly through her nose. Carmine felt her body break out in a frantic sweat, and she huffed faster and faster and then…

Relaxation. It was quick and involuntary, but Carmine felt a sense of relaxation. Her eyes became half-lidded but didn’t close. Her vision lazily drifted to the left, where she saw just the top of a head of black hair.

“Settle down, won’t you? I've already put in too much effort on you. I don’t want your heart stopping the second you wake up.” A dull, unenthused voice droned.

There was the sudden sound of mechanical whirring. It built into a shrill scree as Carmine noticed her field of vision change. It felt like her body was dragged downward, but this was because her back was being propped up. She was still overcome in the sudden haze, but she felt her heart try to hasten as she saw beyond the curve of her chest. There was a massive lump, partially covered in her hospital gown. This had to be her belly. Then, lumps at her sides must have been her upper arms. It was no wonder she couldn’t move them…

The whirring stopped as Carmine’s hospital bed could lift her no further. She wasn’t seated fully upright, but she felt some relief. Now her massive chest lurched forward and didn’t rest solely on her. It made it easier to draw in air. Not easy, but easier.

The woman with black hair cleared her throat. “I’m Dr. Madeline Hawthorne, and you are lucky to be…well, conscious and alive.” She placed her hands on her hips and looked over Carmine with a bored expression.

Carmine looked at Madeline, taking in her details. Long black hair in a ponytail, grey eyes with bags under them. ‘Dr, hair out of the way, makes sense. Those bags, this woman hasn’t slept in days. Maybe a few winks at her desk, but she’s going purely on caffeine and…nicotine.’ Carmine observed as she looked at the cigarette that hung from the corner of the doctor’s mouth. Even in her twilight state, Carmine made note of various minute details. She was a detective at heart, after all.

Carmine opened her mouth to speak, but she hardly had the breath. She wheezed like a worn-down squeaky toy. Madeline seemed to understand what Carmine wanted to say.

Madeline walked toward the window. This put her back in Carmine's sight and unintentionally revealed her figure. A long, white lab coat hugged her silhouette, but it didn’t hide the fact that this doctor was curvaceous. Carmine might have been massively obese, but Madeline was naturally curvy. Even “thin,” Madeline’s hips flared out exaggeratedly, and her butt was clearly padded with ludicrously thick cheeks. Carmine’s eyes widened as she stared. She barely managed to yank her gaze up as Madeline turned.

The doctor sat sidesaddle on the windowsill, barely able to balance one cheek. She opened the window and blew smoke from her cigarette outside. It hardly mattered as a gust of chilly wind carried the smoke back inside. “We found you in a back alley a few blocks away. You were practically stuffed between the buildings, wedged in tighter than an elephant in a circus cage.” Madeline glanced at Carmine, who felt the metaphor was a little too literal and aimed toward her.

Carmine instinctively tried to move. She didn’t manage anything significant, but she felt her fat press and roll over the bars on the side of her hospital bed.

Madeline waited for the furniture to stop squeaking before she continued. “Anyways, you were delirious and naked. If not for all that fat insulating you, you probably would have frozen to death. Though a little frostbite hardly compares to the rest of your condition.” Madeline didn’t need a clipboard. She proceeded to recite the obvious. “So fat you could hardly breathe, all of your muscles are so overwhelmed that you can barely move, and don’t get me started on your heart.”

Over time, Carmine managed to steady her breathing. It was hardly easier, but it was a steady rhythm. The lack of wheezing allowed her to hear the erratic beep of a heart monitor. Suffice to say, she was well aware of how bleak her current state was.

“It was obvious that you were under the influence of Expanse.” Madeline ashed her cigarette and stood up. She approached Carmine and stuck to the side so she could be seen. “The sclera of your eyes was bright pink, and your stomach wouldn’t stop rumbling. That’s how you were found by the way.” She muttered the last part and reached out to pat Carmine’s belly. The fat easily morphed around her hand, and Carmine felt the jiggles spread throughout her. “Normally, Expanse junkies are moved to a separate facility to hopefully come to, but you’re one of the fattest we’ve seen at our hospital. So, you ended up stuck under my care. You were in a delirious state for about…three months.” She took another drag of her cigarette.

“Should…” Carmine wheezed. “You…huff…be smoking…wheeze inside?” She slowly managed to ask. The effort left her breathless for nearly half a minute.

Madeline chuckled, a soft flutter of a sound. “You should worry about your health before mine.” She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. She opened the camera app and held it over Carmine’s face.

Carmine immediately scowled at the state of her face. Just one cheek was so engorged and swollen with fat that it could have completely smothered her previous visage. The two cheeks combined with a thick extra chin and a roll of neck fat. Overall, the size of her face had nearly tripled since she last gazed into a mirror.

Something else Carmine noticed was that her eyes were still pink. It wasn’t the vibrant pink someone had when exposed to pink. Instead, it was dull like a winter rose. Then, just above her left eye, a lock of hair was now white. The bundle of strands stood in great contrast to the natural, vibrant red of her hair.

Carmine tried to reach for the phone, hoping to angle it and get a better look at the rest of her. Her arm refused to budge. She tried to look to the right, but her cheek fat obscured practically all of her view. She just saw a sliver. It wasn’t enough, dammit!

Madeline noticed and angled the phone slightly. This gave Carmine the view she desired. Though…it hardly comforted her. Carmine’s arm was such a bloated affair that she hardly considered it a limb any longer. It was a feeble appendage overburdened by fat. The connection from her shoulder to upper arm was seamless and formed a globular lump larger than the pillow under her head (although she only assumed she had a pillow beneath her head). The only thing that interrupted the bulging curve of her upper arm was the band of a blood pressure monitor. It squeezed the fat, causing it to bulge around both ends of the strap. Carmine only guessed, but it looked like the entire strap could have been large enough to act as her belt in the past. She cursed under her breath and looked further. Her forearm barely emerged from her upper arm. It was stuffed and bound in a cone-shaped lump of fat that ended at feebly puffy wrists. Carmine grimaced at the state of her hand. It, too, was dreadfully swollen. It looked like a glove had been inflated with air. She managed to curl a fat finger, but it failed to touch her padded palm. It was clear she wouldn’t be able to do so much as sigh her damn name anymore. Let alone use a gun… What sort of PI couldn’t jot down notes or quick draw on a perp?

“I understand this isn’t a comforting view, but I assure you it's less surpassing than the rest of your makeover,” Madeline said bluntly as she tucked her phone back in her coat pocket.

Carmine leaned her head back and sighed. “What…comes next?”

The tiniest sliver of a smile crossed Madeline’s face. “Not asking how much time you have left? Color me impressed, but your reputation precedes you.” She met Carmine’s gaze. “Yes, yes, I know who you are. Private Detective, one who’s made a career out of dealing with Expanse. It’s obvious you weren’t a junkie who got a little too high. The Expanse levels in your system were off the charts. Your exposure was an acute event of a formula more intense than anything we’ve ever seen. Frankly, I’m shocked you’re able to understand anything I’ve said.”

“Answer…question.” Carmine cut in, using as few words as necessary.

“Right, it involves an experimental drug.” Madeline lifted a small vial. “This has no government approval and hasn’t gone through a single trial. Yet, the person who whipped it up is a friend of mine, so I trust…” The woman clicked her tongue and furrowed her brow. It was clear she was thinking deeply. “A not-zero chance of success. Basically, it’s a strength booster. This is the only way you’re going to be able to move at your weight. Your best chance is to use it, exercise a bit, and we’ll wean you off gradually.”

Carmine looked at the vial. It didn’t have any sort of label. Just a blank, brown glass bottle. She felt herself break out into a nervous sweat, coating her in an additional layer of moisture. The idea of taking an unknown substance agitated the fresh wound of her Expanse exposure. “What about…physical augmentation? I have…a couple.”

It wasn’t uncommon for people to have body modifications. This city wasn’t as rife with them as some of the others, but there were much more hidden augments as opposed to surface-level flashy ones. Practically all police had the official enhancements to boost speed, endurance, and reaction time. Carmine had gotten them in the past and slightly upgraded them once she became a private detective. If the law had them, then so did criminals.

Madeline shook her head. “Your enhanced muscle fibers are completely smothered. In the simplest terms, you have a muscle-to-fat ratio of one to fifty. There’s not even a way to get past all of this to modify those, let alone add new ones.” Again, Madeline touched Carmine. She pinched a handful of fat.

Carmine stared in awe at how small the woman’s hand seemed compared to the limited curve she saw of her stomach. She was not simply fat, even morbidly obese, paled in describing her. Carmine was immense, titanic, gargantuan. “Give me the drug.” Carmine eventually murmured. She was so certain in her decision that she managed to speak all in one breath.

With a nod, Madeline produced a syringe from her pocket and added the experimental drug into Carmine’s IV.

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