The Proteus Effect Chapter 5 – Preview
By MagnusMagneto
Original outline by Corssan1
1.) Shortly After Chapter 4
As part of the family effort to afford more time to Camille in preparation of her photo shoot, Selina was begrudgingly washing dishes – a task that Camille typically took care of.
Eric decided to help Selina with her task, and was standing side by side her in the kitchen. Despite standing the same height as Eric, Selina was vastly larger. Her mammoth arms, measuring in the low 20’s of inches in their circumference, absolutely dwarfed Eric’s which measured around 11 or 12 inches. The rest of her muscles were proportionately gargantuan when compared to her step-brother’s: huge trunk-legs—
Her body exuded heat without any need for exertion. Just by standing next to her, Eric could sense the sheer amount of potential energy dormant within those overwhelming limbs.
And yet… despite her immense size and presence, Eric couldn’t help but think about how Selina ultimately seemed comparatively small next to her mother. Camille had pulled ahead in terms of muscular development in a way that hadn’t imagined was possible. All five of the girls recreated in Live-Sim were superhuman monoliths of feminine power; but for the first few months they all remained relatively competitive with one another in terms of size and strength. Something shifted however. Eric hadn’t been able to gauge where Chalsey, Julia, and Maya fell on the spectrum, but Camille had definitely surpassed her daughter by a fair margin.
“Ugh! It’s just not fair!” Selina exclaimed, “I’m here, washing these stupid dishes, while mom gets to pump her muscles up even more!” Her lips snarled and she was becoming more visibly agitated by the moment.
“Haven’t you already worked out multiple times today?” Eric asked.
“Yeah…”
“It’s not like you’re really missing out. Would another workout today actually help you? I’m pretty sure you’ve done what you can, just have to eat well and wait.” Eric thought his appeal to logic would sooth his step-sister, but…
Selina’s grip on the plate tightened, “I don’t know Eric. I just don’t friggan know anymore! Mom keeps growing faster than me!” The plate shattered in her hand – sending ceramic pieces flying all over the sink “Dammit!” she exclaimed.
“Selina!” Eric exclaimed, “Are you alright?” Without a second thought, he grabbed onto Selina’s hand to inspect it for any shards. Numerous chunks of glass were deeply lodged within her palm. “Oh shit, I’ll go get a first-aid kit!”
Selina remained silent. She hadn’t uttered a word, nor let out a cry of pain. Eric left the kitchen and made his way to the bathroom where he retrieved some bandages and antibiotics. When he returned, he found that Selina had already picked out of the glass, and was barely bleeding at all. “Kind of surprised at how little that hurt.” She commented with a chuckle.
Eric drew close and examined the hand – “Remarkable… you barely look hurt at all, but if I had glass lodged that deeply in my hand, I’d probably need to go to the emergency room…”
Selina shrugged. “I’m a goddess. You’re a mere mortal. Now tend to my wounds!”
Eric chuckled a bit. Selina’s joke was at his expense, but he was glad to see that she still a sense of humor despite her anger. “If you’re a goddess, then what does that make Camille?” he joked while placing a bandage on the cut.
Selina audibly growled. Eric remained steadfast and continued his task.
“Just you wait Eric.” Selina started, “I’m going become so strong, so powerful, so unstoppable, that even my mom looks weak!”
“Sure, yeah. Pretty sure you’ve said that like five times now.” Eric finished the task at hand, “Alright, you should be good to go. Want me to handle the rest of the dishes for you?”
“Hmmph! I can handle such a trivial task, Eric!”
“Jeeze, fine.”
Despite her apparent bluster, Eric could tell that Selina was grateful for caring about her injury and his offer to handle the dishes.
–
A few minutes passed by, and the duo nearly finished with handling all of the dishes.
Suddenly a loud rumbling came from behind them. Eric instantly knew what it was. “How are my two favorite kids in the world doing?” Camille’s voice boomed cheerfully.
Eric cheerfully turned to greet his step-mother, while Selina hunched further over the sink, clearly not wanting to deal with the larger woman.
Camille had emerged fresh off of a recent workout, and her body was appropriately pumped up as a result. Camille had come to pack so much mass on her 5’5” frame that Eric was amazed that she was able to function so well. He figured that as part of whatever force allowed her to become so strong, her body was adapting to holding so much muscle – becoming more flexible as a whole.
The older woman’s body was so massive that clothing had become an issue. She wore an old t-shirt stretched across her upper-half, ripped and tied to strategically act as a makeshift bra. Despite her efforts to cover up, the bulging array of muscles that comprised her chest – a pair of thick, wide, straited pectorals – each individual half containing three times as much muscle as Eric’s entire chest – propped her sizable breasts up so much that their bottom half peaked through underneath the jury-rigged garment, and her nipples were easily visible.
With each measured breath that Camille took, her entire upper half contracted significantly, that massive chest of hers looked like it had become its own living entity from the life pulsing through it.
“Wow, you look like you really went all out!” Eric chirped. “Want me to whip you up a protein shake for your re-feed window?” A lifetime of curiosity regarding woman and muscles, coupled with direct exposure to specimens like Camille, had led Eric to gain a fair bit of bodybuilding knowledge – even if he would never use it himself.
Camille blinked a couple of times, “Why Eric, I had no idea you knew about that stuff. But yeah, that would be awesome, thanks!”
Without another word, Eric moved over to the cabinet and started his task. Selina glared at him, seething with anger. She was still flabbergasted at how her mother had pulled so far ahead in her training the past few weeks, and hated the way that Eric happily tended to her. I should be the one with those muscles, and Eric should be serving me instead! she thought to herself.
Eric finished making the shake and delivered it to Camille. As she reached for the glass, he was confronted by the juxtaposition of her hand – which was smaller than his – and her forearms, which were proportionately staggering, easily thrice the size of his own. Eric considered stories he read during his research of how people would eventually destroy their tendons and wrists from lifting too heavily; yet Camille seemed entirely unaffected by this. Similar to his theory about flexibility, he decided that the Live-Sim Five must have enhanced bones, tendons, cardiovascular systems, and so on to accommodate all of their strength. That would explain why Selina was so unaffected by the cold when she sunbathed before the bodybuilding competition, and how the glass did so little damage to her.
Camille brought the beverage to her lips and drank deeply, “Mmmm, did you load in extra protein again Eric?” Camille asked in between gulps.
Eric nodded, “You caught me.”
Camille continued to drink.
Eric spoke again, “You’re a growing girl, so I know you need all of the nutrition you can get.”
Camille had finally finished the drink and let out a refreshed ‘ahh’ before replying: “Oh stop it you. I’m a 36 year old woman! And I’m not really in the age bracket for ‘growing’.”
“Nonsense. You don’t look a day over 20.” Eric’s ‘game’ kicked in.
The older woman couldn’t help but giggle and blush a bit in response. There was some truth to Eric’s statement. Camille looked markedly better than she did before her transformation. She hadn’t actually become younger, but her body was in incredible shape, and her diet had added enough nutrients to make her skin and hair appear more vibrant. It wouldn’t be that unreasonable for someone to mistake her as being a decade younger than she was – especially compared to her peers.
Eric continued, “Plus, you’ve like tripled your weight in the past few months. That’s definitely some grade-A growth if I’ve ever seen any!” His last remark was fairly goofy, but it still worked. Camille grinned.
“Well, I think most women would scold you for saying such a thing, but in my case… well, I’m glad you noticed!”
“Right, so we have to make sure you get as much nutrition as you can so you can grow up big and strong, right?”
Camille giggled again, “Oh Eric, you’re such a joker.”
“What, you don’t want to keep getting bigger?”
“Of course I do, you know that.”
In truth, all of this talk was getting Eric a bit too excited, so he decided to pivot the conversation, “By the way – Selina had a bit of an accident, but we have it under control.”
Camille suddenly looked extremely worried, “Accident!? What happened?”
“Nothing mom.” Selina finally spoke up, having finished her sulking session. “I just broke a plate is all.”
“Some glass got into her hand,” Eric explained, “But there was remarkably little damage done, and she’s all bandaged up.”
Camille closed the distance to her daughter. “Come on dear, let me look at it.” Camille drew closer to her daughter, but Selina adamantly kept her hand away.
“No!” The younger girl snapped, “It’s fine. Really.”
“Young lady. I’m your mother, and if you cut yourself on glass in my household, then I need to make sure you’re ok. Now stop being difficult!” Camille’s desire to become a “#1 mom” was kicking into overdrive – perhaps a bit too much.
“No!” Selina snarled.
Now Camille was angry. It was no longer about the injury, but the principle of it. “Selina.” She snatched the younger girl’s hand into her own, “Knock it off young lady.”
Selina struggled, trying to escape from her mother’s grasp. Camille tightened her grip and kept her in place. Both of their arms bulged to massive proportions from the effort being exerted. Selina, despite so easily shattering that plate earlier, despite her ability to bench press hundreds upon hundreds of pounds, despite dwarfing most men with her musculature, was entirely stopped by her mother’s superior strength.
Camille investigated the hand, “Alright, it does seem everything is alright. Try to be more careful with the dishes, ok?”
The younger woman snatched her hand away after sensing Camille had loosened her grip. “It’s just not fair! You keep growing bigger!” Selina whined, pouting as she stared at her mother’s bulging arms.
“Sweetie, it’s not a competition. We’re supposed to be supporting each other.” Camille swallowed another bite, more nutrition entering her body – more protein that would be converted into muscle – more carbohydrates to keep her going through her excruciating workouts – more vitamins and minerals to keep her looking and feeling great.
“I’m supposed to be the bigger one! Or at least we should be like the same!” Selina groaned.
“Selina.” Camille’s voice grew serious, which was fairly terrifying coming from her hyper muscular body, “To be very blunt, you sound like a spoiled brat right now. I thought I raised you better than that. It’s not nice to hold others in contempt for doing well for themselves. You’re much stronger than most other people. You’re also still young, and probably aren’t fully finished growing. In due time you’ll have muscles like mine.”
Selina sighed, “Yeah, sure, whatever.”
Both Eric and Camille were glad that the older woman had pulled ahead in terms of strength. Selina wasn’t by any means a bad or evil person, but her selfishness, jealousy, and insane drive to be the best could have a bad outcome coupled with so much strength. For the time being Camille could keep her daughter in check if needed. In fact, Camille’s superiority seemed to act as a deterrent against Selina doing anything out of line – the younger girl knew her mother was stronger, so she didn’t dare act badly.
Selina sulked off to her room, and Eric volunteered to finish the dishes.
2.)
The last few days before the photo shoot went by without much event. Camille desperately tried to gain as much size and strength as possible before the big day. Eric ended up doing even more chores around the house to facilitate his step-mother’s dreams, and to keep Selina from growing to ornery. It was a losing battle, because the added time meant Camille could grow even larger, and Selina’s sour attitude had actually spoiled her own training, causing her to slow down further.
–
The day of the photo shoot finally came. Eric was to go with Camille and watch her have photos and videos taken of her incredible body.
Camille was stunning. She bought a black dress and had it tailored to fit her abnormal body shape, and managed to slip into a pair of fortified high-heels – which brought her height above Eric’s by a few inches. The combination of the small amount of added stature, massive physique, and beautifully styled clothing nearly gave Eric a nosebleed when he first saw her.
In the car, which now bent to the left due to the weight Camille exerted, she told him a story of how the tailor couldn’t believe her body was real. She noted how she hadn’t gotten out of the house much, and wasn’t quite ready for the reactions her appearance brought. Generally she felt they were positive however, and served to add to her confidence.
They reached the location of the photo shoot. There was simply a single man with camera equipment – a large guy who was a little over 6 feet tall and fairly overweight. He introduced himself as Mick, and had difficulty keeping his eyes off of Camille. Secretly, Eric had indulged in the website the man ran, dembiceps.com. He knew that Mick had interviewed hundreds of models over the years, and for him to be so blown away by Camille was yet another sign at how special she was.
Eager to get things going, Mick started off by recording a video interview.
“So we’re here with Camille. Tell us about yourself.” He started the segment.
Camille drew a bit of a blank. She realized how boring the truth would be. Still, there was no point in lying, “Hi, I’m Camille Thompson-Anderson, I’m a mother of one.”
“We won’t put him on the camera unless he wants to be, but I’m guessing that’s your son over there?”
“Oh, no. Yes! Err… Well, Eric is my step-son, whom I love very much indeed. I also have a daughter – a biological one. Guess by mother of one I meant I had one child, but I take care of two. Though they’re kind of adults now? It’s all a bit weird I guess” she nervously laughed. It was cute to Eric that this hypermuscular woman was camera shy.
“I see, I see. So a bit of a mixed family arrangement?”
“Yup!”
“That’s good. So… What do you do Camille?”
“Oh, well, you know… I maintain the house. Keep everything going. That sort of thing.”
“So you’re a housekeeper. That’s good. You must exercise a lot to keep that body of yours. Speaking of which, would you like to show off a bit?”
“Yes! I lift weights a few times a day actually.” Camille turned a quarter to the side, brought her arm halfway up, and flexed – replicating a bodybuilder pose she had seen a few times.
“Wow, that is just amazing. You work out a few times a day you said?” Mick replied.
“Oh yeah. I push my whole body to its limits. Usually in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The sessions usually take an hour or two, so it’s a lot of time, but I think the results are worth it!” Camille turned her back to the camera and spread her lats out, the sprawling web of muscle presenting itself for a future audience to behold.
“That’s… a very unconventional approach, but I do have to admit that the results don’t lie.”
Camille giggled a bit before turning back around.
Mick continued, “Good, good. So, did you have an athletic background growing up?”
Camille shook her head, “Nope!”
“So… what got you into weight lifting, when did you start training? You must have been at it for at least ten years, right?”
Camille laughed, “Are you trying to mess with me? Very flattering, but no. I started working out…” she turned to Eric, “When was it honey? Oh, right, about four or five months ago.” Camille extended her right leg, allowing her colossal quadricep to bunch up, rippling to life.
The camera shook a bit as Mick tried to recover from what he heard, “Surly you must be joking…”
“Nope!” Camille cheerfully exclaimed as she turned to reveal her calf, which was similar to a bowling-ball in size, with a huge diamond-like carve to its shape.
Mick still didn’t believe her exertion, but didn’t want to press the issue too far. “Alright, so, you started working out fairly recently. What’s it like? Are you as strong as you look?”
“Oh yeah, I’m super strong! I do have to admit that all of this muscle really helps around the house. Why, just the other day I was doing some vacuuming and on a lark lifted up the couch to finally get all of that stubborn dust underneath!” Camille giggled, flexing her arms a few times for emphasis, the unreal balls of muscle dancing in response.
“Speaking of those arms, how about we measure them on camera? I bet the viewers can’t believe they’re real. No offense intended.”
Camille giggled, “alright, sounds like fun!”
Mick retrieved a measuring tape and brought it over to Camille. They struggled to get the tape around her massive arm, but with a combined effort managed. It read just a little below 30 inches, but Mick still declared “Looks like 30 to me!”.
After putting the tape away, Mick resumed asking questions, “So… what do you think is your strongest feature?”
“Ah, my strongest feature? Well, probably a little cliche, but probably the bad boys you just measured!”
“I don’t think it’s cliche in your case considering those are the largest biceps I’ve ever seen on a woman.” Mick explained.
“Really?” Camille replied, genuinely surprised, “I don’t buy it. I think you’re just trying to flatter me!”
“N-No, really. I don’t think there’s ever been a woman with 30 inch arms that were all muscle before. Not until now at least.”
“Well, I’ll have to keep my friend and daughter away from you then so I can stay in the spotlight.” Camille laughed. “Say… Only 30 inches?” She started again, “Sounds kind of small when you say it out loud. Maybe we can do something about that… You got anything actually heavy around here Mick?”
The host scratched his head, “Unfortunately not. I brought a few small things for you to test your strength with, but no weights or anything.”
“Well, mind if I use you?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ll use you as a weight, how’s that?”
“Err… sure, alright.”
Mick placed the camera on a tripod. Camille walked over, placed her comparatively small hand on his bottom, and with one motion hoisted him into the air. “See! Not too tough at all!” She announced before pressing her arm down and back up, still holding onto the host; her bulbous shoulder grew larger, becoming engorged with blood from the effort. Her back and triceps also flared out, erupting with newfound vitality.
Camille swapped Mick’s weight to her other hand, and continued using him as a massive dumbbell. “Say, how much do you weigh anyways?”
“I’m well over 200 pounds…”
“Yeah, that’s a bit too light to really challenge me.” Camille explained, “Oh well, I guess some pump is better than no pump.”
As Eric watched his step-mother lift this man and use her as a living weight, he felt something strange: envy. He was actually envious that step-mother was giving attention to this strange man and that he got to experience her strength first hand like that. Eric lived with Camille, and had daily brushes with her might, but nothing like this. It concerned him that he felt this way, but he couldn’t deny it.
After using Mick as a shoulder press weight for a dozen repetitions on each arm, Camille finally put him back down on his feet.
“We have a few other tools to test your strength, if you’re interested.” He explained.
“You know it! Let’s do this!” Camille cheerfully responded.
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The Proteus Effect Chapter 5