The internal monologue running through Katie’s head was still going, telling her to keep eating and growing fatter, and the blonde giantess pear was eager to obey. But as singularly focused as her attention had been for hours now, even the insatiable gluttoness couldn’t miss that something had happened to her.




Something besides the impossible weight gain and height growth, of course.

“

Did they ask if there have been any further changes?”




“

They do every other day. I think they think they’re being sly, bringing it up as

an offhand ‘one more thing’ at the end of their calls, but they’re anxious.”

“

Shut up and feed me!”




Five simple words that changed everything.




Except things had already been changing before that moment. For months one young woman had been experiencing a shift in personality, the transformation not that remarkable

in what it was

Cindy

had once

worried she was too kind, which sounded a lot like answering the job interview question ‘What is your greatest weakness?’ with ‘I

work too hard

’ or ‘I’m too much of a perfectionist.’




Except

it was poss

Goddesses had greater power and wisdom than any mortal, but this did not mean they were above mortal foibles like jealousy and anger and frustration. As Sophronia found a universe with a lifeless Earth and inhabited it with copies of all the people eaten by Dakota during the latter’s ascension, the former cursed her erstwhile fellow goddess for leaving her with this chore in the first place.




“

Eating the sun took Bryce to a size that made her post-Earth figure seem like nothing,

but even as big as she was Tony could see all of her (facing forward, at least)

. From his customary spot on her shoulder

he saw

all the way to the tip of

his goddess-girlfriend’s

nose

Three-quarters of the United States and almost a quarter of Canada was populated by a single woman. Not because every

one else

had abandoned such a large swath of land, but because she had claimed all that territory for herself by covering it with her own fat.

When the sun cleared the apex of her belly the far side of her gut was still in darkness; when she woke up it was neither dawn nor night f

“

In these uncertain times, it’s important that the people know their leaders are still hard at work. This is an unprecedented situation, but the government is still functioning, from the federal-”




F

irestone muted the TV and quietly fumed. ‘Uncertain times.’ ‘Unprecedented situation.’

Goddesses had greater power and wisdom than any mortal, but this did not mean they were above mortal foibles like jealousy and anger and frustration. As Sophronia found a universe with a lifeless Earth and inhabited it with copies of all the people eaten by Dakota during the latter’s ascension, the former cursed her erstwhile fellow goddess for leaving her with this chore in the first place.




“

What is worse than being greedy? Being jealous.




When you’re jealous of someone your entire mindset is poisoned against yourself. You lose perspective, unable to be grateful for what you have. There is no joy in jealousy, no light.




But when you’re greedy, ah...

That was not as bad.

What did a goddess need?




That was the wrong question. A goddess did not

need

anything, she could only want things. And by (her) divine right she was entitled to everything she wanted.




Iris had never wanted many things, and as she had ascended to her current intergalactic form her wants s

As Dakota ate the Milky Way the sight of her growing was being watched from many other corners of the universe. Though she had become the supreme, and then the sole power in her galaxy, there were billions of others out there. Many of them were populated by races ancient when the dinosaurs first appeared; many others had seen empires rise and fall, leaving only artificial intelligences as testament to their existence.




Immort

Cindy and Derek’s relationship seemed almost storybook-like, the high school love affair leading to an early marriage when both

graduated from

college. The blushing bride had wanted to worry it was all happening too fast, but it was al

l

so perfect she didn’t want to question it.

How long had it taken? Since Iris ate the Earth and began

treating the

galaxy

as a whole as one big buffet for her

, how much time had passed?




It was a rhetorical question. As she grew in size and influence Iris also grew in perception. She could see the edges of the universe, peer into the s

Without further

ado, Bryce resumed eating. Lowering her head,

she expanded her mouth as big as a lake and filled it with ice and soil. She swallowed without chewing and took another bite, again swallowing right away.




As the routine repeated it

self Tony

could do little but watch. Being in the

You could see the moon from the moon. It was a lowbrow joke, but the blunt accuracy of it

could not be denied. The people on the moon, mining the satellite for material to build spaceships, could see Iris’ prime feature in all its abundance clear as day.




At the minimum it was comforting to see the empress’ majesty even while off-world

(and for ma

Dakota loved seeing herself with a

million

sets of eyes. It had been so long since a single mirror (even one as wide as a room) was enough to show of

f

her flabulousness, but when your weight gain has reached cosmic proportions, when you’re eating planets and moons and stars and are left unsatisfied, you need a lot of help

As far as Dakota was concerned, there was nothing worth looking at besides herself.




And that was good, because even before she came to this new world she had been unable to look at much besides herself. Her belly rose higher than her head, and with her chins spreading out from her face as thick as mattresses moving her head was difficult; then again, with her shoulders a pair of fleshy mounds her vision to either side was ob

This wasn’t Dakota’s home, but it was her world now.




As it should be. She had always known she was special; not merely spoiled or entitled, but truly special, better than everyone else.

It was intuitive knowledge.




She needn’t have been transported to another universe to realize that, and if she consider

‘

Where am I?’ was the expected first question to occur to the unfathomably huge Dakota upon finding herself mysteriously transported somewhere else, followed by the equally expected ‘How am I going to get more food now?’




The second question was characteristically

selfish; you don’t get to be the size of a city without putting yo

Chad wasn’t looking away, which Dakota took to mean he was rapt with pleasure.




So she kept eating, giving him the best show possible. Her belly already had over 250 tons of fatties inside it, raising her towards the ceiling, and she didn’t feel full yet.




“

Keep feeding me,” she yelled down at her m

Was Dakota naturally greedy and self-centered and insatiable, or was it the result of everything in her surrounding environment lining up just right?




Being born to wealthy parents, she was never going to know want for the basic essentials. And with her mother and father inclined to never deny her anything, she was never going to know what it was like to not have a desire instantly satisfied.

“

So have you figured out how this is happening yet?”




“

I’m as in the dark as you are, babe.”




“

Really. I would have thought you’d have some idea. I knew you got taller as you got fatter, but I thought there would h

Perched on the shoulder of his almost 400-foot tall girlfriend, Tony had a pretty nice view of the island. Bryce, on the other hand, had an almost supernatural view of it.




“

There’s not much left here worth eating,” she proclaimed.




“

There’s the island itself.

There is a lot of discourse that talks about romantic relationships in terms of stages or levels; degrees of seriousness and commitment. While handy for separating casual flings from long-term couplings, the

idea of relationships as elaborate projects to achieve bit by bit has had the effect of interjecting no small amount of neuroses into the modern dating scene. Concepts like sex on the third date or moving in after X months are treated as rules, if not gospel

A person is not a monolithic entity. They are,

rather

, the sum total of all their thoughts and emotions and experiences, with many contradictions contained within. A person could give to charity while secretly angry that

they

should have to give up their hard-earned money to people who probably don’t deserve it, while the self-centered could deep down wish

Being everything that Iris had become – queen to almost a billion people

in the eyes of the world at large, goddess in the mind of herself and so many of said followers

– came with its burdens. Heavy is the crown and all that.

From doing all the prep work before she even started this undertaking to keeping an eye on the countless variables once the wheels were in motion, making sure

Iris could eat all day. She wanted to eat all day. To never stop the

river

of food in its endless array of flavors flowing across her tongue, to never let her belly experience emptiness again. To always be taking in more calories, fueling further growth out and up, and all the pleasures that came from a body that never stopped growing bigger...




But she was a

Things were happening fast. Almost faster than the Three Gorditas (as Lilith called them, despite the veto from the other two) could keep up with, even though their alpha was keeping them in the loop every step of the way.




True to the trio’s assumptions, Iris had planned everything out ahead of time. She had, in fact, been dreaming of all this for years; it was only in the past couple years that she got serious about w

“

So it’s ready?” Edenn asked.




“

It was ready a week ago. Iris told me to wait, though.”




“

You should know me by now, ladies. I always think and plan before I undertake any project. And this? This will be world-changing.&

“

And how is she psychologically?”




“

If I have to give an answer, very well. We open the roof every day, weather permitting, to allow her sunshine and Vitamin D. She gets regular visits from her girlfriend. And there are a TV and sound system with satellite radio in her living space, for entertainment purposes, but she does not quite make use

It wasn’t what the advertisements promised.




It rained the first two days they were there. On the third day some people got sick from the macaroni salad at the buffet; this wouldn’t have bothered Bryce and Tony, except the people chose to get sick out on the bar patio while the couple were having their breakfast. And on the fourth day high winds blew up sand all day; like the first two days the two had to entertai

“

Yes, mother. No, mother. Of course, mother. Did you ever feel like you were living your whole life under your parents’ thumb?”




The man in Katie’s grasp continued to utter nothing beyond chocked gasps and frightened grunts, squirming uselessly. The blonde mini-giantess ignored his attempts to get free and continued talking, more to herself than anyone else.

A mortal of no great imagination would be able to conceive that beyond all that there is... is something more. Infinity plus one, a formula that could be spoken or written out or held inside one’s head, even though it was contradictory.




But then, infinity itself was too much for a mortal to grasp. Only as an idea could a being of finite lifespan and perception wrap their head around everything that is, was or will be.