You can buy this story here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Written Edition
Art Edition (art by Cuddle-Beam) available here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Art Edition
Voiced Edition (VA by Cat and LilliPuff) available here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Voiced Edition
Multi-Media (Art AND VA) available here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Multi-Media Edition
The Story So Far
Eric is an 18 year old high school senior living in a fairly regular suburban neighborhood. He lives with his biological father Norbert, along with his step-mother Camille, and step-sister Selina. One day, in the middle of September, Eric receives an invitation to play an early build of his favorite simulation game, Live-Sim; a game that allows the player to essentially act out a quasi-realistic interpretation of real life. Within the game, Eric recreates the women in his life, including his step-mother and step-sister, alongside three others: his step-mother’s friend, Camille; his attractive Biology teacher, Julia; and his school crush, a cheerleader that he tutors named Chalsey. Within Live-Sim, Eric attaches various traits to the characters he creates. Of particular note, he assigns all of the women the ‘bodybuilder’ trait; which allows characters to both gain muscle faster than the average person, and grants them a far higher maximum muscle potential than an average person. Additionally, he gives other beneficial traits to the girls: Nurturing for Camille, Competitive for Selina, Seductress for Maya, Dominant Leader for Julia, and Super-Scholar for Chalsey; each of which grant bonuses similar to what one would imagine associated with them. Finally, Eric gave each girl a life-goal similar to their personalities and the traits he assigned them.
After creating his virtual town, Eric then directed the girls’ avatars towards becoming immensely muscular, before his virtual self seduced each one. He felt somewhat guilty during the process, but reminded himself it was just a harmless fantasy, and that none of the characters were related to him by blood. Weeks passed, and Eric began to notice strange things occurring. His step-mother displayed a sudden interest for fitness, Chalsey began complaining that muscles were sprouting on her frame, and his biology teacher’s legs looked thicker and thicker every few days. Things continued for a while until suddenly Eric was confronted with the sight of his now-muscular step-mother in the kitchen one morning. In a short amount of time, she had gained a significant amount of muscle. To make matters even more complicated for Eric, his step-sister discovered him touching Camille’s abs, and quickly understood Eric’s secret tastes. The chapter ended with Camille announcing she had outgrown their home gym, and would be bugging Norbert about upgrading it.
1.) A week after the end of Chapter 1, the first week of December: Eric and Chalsey’s latest study session.
“Check it out!” Chalsey exclaimed with a huge grin, confidently shoving a paper towards Eric. He glanced down and noticed that it was a biology quiz; an ’89’ was written on top, along with the message ‘Good Job!’.
“Dang, great work Chalsey!” Eric replied with enthusiasm. “That’s a huge improvement.”
She flashed him a toothy grin. “I have to admit though, I kind of wish I did better, and finally got that damn A!”
Eric was surprised by her apparent determination. “Well, I’m sure if you study enough, you’ll make it.”
Chalsey nodded. “I think that spending all of this time with you is making me… smarter. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like my mind is getting better at absorbing information. I was never really one to study before, but now it’s way easier than ever before.”
Eric quietly gulped, thinking back to the Live-Sim character creator. Not wanting to come across as too awkward, he started up another conversation string: “Well, finals are coming up. With some hard work, I’m sure you can get an A on that, and really prove your new knowledge.”
A strange look met Chalsey’s face, “yeah, finals…” she replied wistfully.
“Something wrong?”
Chalsey lingered for a moment before responding: “With the semester ending, what do you think will happen to our study group? We won’t have biology anymore…”
Eric blinked a couple of times. Unless he was mistaken, Chalsey seemed legitimately upset that their time together would come to a close. “Well, Miss Julia is teaching Biology II next semester as well, so as long as you take that, I don’t see why our study group would have to come to an end.”
Chalsey’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! Duh! Oh man… just think about it Eric, what if I keep getting smarter? Do you think that maybe I could become the best student in the class next semester? I mean, I’ve already done too much damage to my average this time around, but next class…”
Eric’s face turned a shade red and he gave a light gulp. Muscles weren’t the only thing that he secretly admired; a woman with a powerful brain was similarly arousing to him. “If you keep trying hard, then that could quite possibly happen.” He explained with a mile.
“Oh man. I never thought I would regard studying as so much fun before. It’s so satisfying though; after a long night hitting the books, feeling your mind pulse and pound a bit, knowing that the next morning you’re going to be even smarter. It really IS like lifting weights, but for your brain.”
Truthfully, Eric had no idea of what the girl was referring to. He figured that it must be another side effect of whatever was happening to her. Perhaps this was the effect of the ‘super scholar’ trait? “Y-yeah. It’s good stuff!” he managed to lie in an attempt to seem empathetic.
As he pondered this, Chalsey began speaking again: “Say, Eric… have you noticed anything different about me? Physically, that is.”
He thought about it for a moment. It was true that Chalsey was filling out her sweater a bit more than he thought she usually did, but knowing how self-conscious she was regarding her muscles, Eric didn’t want to say anything. “Uhh… I’m not really sure to be honest.”
“Really?” She asked, her voice slightly disappointed. “I mean… are you suuuure?” Chalsey brought her arms up and placed them behind her head casually, before tensing and untensing her arms a few times; the heads of her biceps danced in response, pressing against the fabric of her long-sleeves.
“Are… are you intentionally doing that?” Eric sputtered.
“Doing what?” Chalsey started with a teasing tone, “Fleeeexing?” she enunciated before bringing her arms down and entering a classic double bicep pose; her arms were nearly fully visible due to the thinness of the sweater’s fabric. “I dunno Eric, am I?” she rhetorically inquired before repeating the motion. “I thought you liked this stuff? Muscles on girls like me.”
“I.. I do.” Eric admitted, his face turning a tone red.
“Well, in that case, I bet you’ll be very happy to learn that I’ve actually started lifting weights in addition to all of my cheer-leading practice.”
“But… what about, well, you know-”
Chalsey immediately knew that Eric was referring to her boyfriend, who absolutely did not approve of nor like her changing body. “Who cares. Fuck him. In the, uh, non-literal sense.” she gave a little cough and regained her composure, a rare slip up for someone like her. “The truth is Eric, after watching my grades go up, after feeling my strength increase, after looking at my muscles get bigger and harder… After hearing you admit that you like the way it looks. Well, let’s just say that I want to keep improving. Not that I need your validation or anything. I just want to see what I can turn myself into. Become the best possible me, you know?”
Eric nodded, explaining that he understood. The truth was, he understood far more than Chalsey could imagine. After all, he had unwittingly given her that very desire.
2.) One week later, December 8th: in the household living room
Camille was on the phone. Her choice of attire, a tank-top, showed a thick, pulsing arm that bunched up from the mere act of holding the phone to her ear. Camille had gained numerous pounds of sheer muscle in the past two weeks alone, which resulted in plenty of accidental gun-shows for Eric to ogle. It was fairly rare for Camille to use telecommunications at length, so Eric knew that it had to be someone that she was good friends with. The conversation began veering towards personal fitness. Camille went on at length about how she had been really hitting the weights, finding great results in a short span of time. The next few sentences indicated that whoever Camille was talking to also experienced a great deal of muscle growth. Eric’s stomach churned as he wondered just who this mystery person was.
A few moments later, his question was answered: the woman was Maya. Camille explained that Maya had found a new lover that was a personal trainer, who had been pushing her to the absolute limits. She was currently on a business trip at the Caribbean, that was panning out to be more of a vacation, and an excuse to pump herself up to new heights in public view on the beach. This trip was all thanks to a hefty promotion she had obtained, which combined with her new body granted Maya all kinds of new found confidence; not that Maya of all people needed a shred of added self-assurance.
Camille then explained that apparently Maya had been posting a great number of pictures on her new PictureGram account, a popular social media platform for sharing photographs. At Eric’s suggestion, the family huddled around the living room desktop, accessed the internet, and quickly found what Camille was talking about. With a few deft clicks, Eric opened an image of the woman standing on a picturesque beach, proudly donning an incredibly revealing bikini.
Eric’s jaw physically dropped as he looked at the picture of Maya. How could that possibly be her? Saying that Maya had gained a relatively large amount of muscle would be a gross understatement. Based off of his extensive experience with the subject, Eric would wager that Maya was similar in size to a Ms. Olympia competitor; that was to say, she was easily on par with a professional female body builder.
How was this possible? Eric’s mind was already jumping to the conclusion that had been haunting him ever since the encounter with Chalsey at the study session, and his step-mother in the kitchen: it was the game. Maya was one of the five girls he recreated in Live Sim, and every other girl other than Selina had packed on a considerable amount of muscle since he played the closed test. Well, Eric wasn’t entirely sure if Julia was gaining muscle, but he was pretty certain the continuous thickening of her thighs was the kind he preferred.
Eric turned his attention back to the picture. Her muscles aside, Maya looked even more attractive than before; there was an irritable allure in the way she gazed at the camera. The older woman looked more youthful and vibrant as well, even more so than Camille who had shown similar improvements.
“Say…” Eric started, “What was that you mentioned, that Maya got a promotion or something?”
Camille nodded. “That’s right. Maya’s making bank! Well, more bank than usual anyways. She’s up to the six figures now. I have to say I’m pretty envious of that bod and her paycheck, but, I guess this is how it’s always been. My desires aside, I’m happy for her.” she said.
Norbert chimed in: “Maya looks great, but no need to compare yourself dear.”
Seline spoke up next: “Daaamn. Well, I bet this will be some motivation for you to hit the weights and pump up your guns even further, huh mom?” she asked, winking at Eric.
Camille nodded again. “That’s true. I’m glad to see that big muscles do look great on a woman. I was a little afraid of how I’d look, but as long as I end up half as attractive as Maya if I get that big, then I don’t think I have much to fear.”
Norbert spoke up again: “It’s settled then! We’re going to all be as supportive of Camille’s muscle growth as we possibly can as a family.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Eric spoke up, “While I’m all for Camille getting as buff as she wants to, doesn’t this all seem kind of weird to you guys? That Maya suddenly gained that much muscle? I mean when was the last time we saw her anyways? Isn’t it a bit suspicious that she got that huge so quickly?”
Camille shrugged before responding: “Well, Maya was always in great shape thanks to her pilates, yoga, and aerobics classes. It makes sense she’d gain a bunch of muscle after lifting weights.”
Eric blinked a couple of times. “Yeah, but… that much, that quickly?”
“What’s the matter Eric?” Selina spoke up, “Don’t think that girls can get strong like guys? Haven’t you been watching my mom here turn into a champ? I thought you were a big fan…”
Eric turned a shade red. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against the look at all… just, aren’t you guys like phased at all by these changes?”
The other three members of the family looked at each other with quizzical smirks. Finally Norbert spoke up: “Son, I think you’re overanalyzing things. I know you don’t have negative intentions, but it’s a bit rude to raise questions like that.”
“Sorry. I hope you didn’t take it the wrong way.” Eric responded toward his step-mother.
“No problem Eric!” The older woman cheerfully replied, playfully ruffling his hair.
A collection of emotions welled within the young man. He thought for sure that people should be reacting to the changes in the bodies of these women. Sure, Chalsey’s boyfriend wigged out, accusing her of taking roids… but nobody else has bothered mentioning or questioning anything. It’s almost as if they’ve suddenly accepted that these women are effortlessly gaining muscle like it’s their job.
On one hand, this made life a little easier for Eric, as he didn’t have to worry about the girls or anyone around them raising a fuss over the changes. On the other, Eric felt a tinge of fear of just what he had done when he recreated the girls in Live-Sim. While he seemed to have improved their lives for the most part, he wondered just how strong they would become. Then his mind wandered to their secondary traits and goals.
That’s when the connection first truly settled in: Maya just got a huge promotion, AND she was looking extremely attractive in her picture. He gave Maya the “Immense Wealth” life goal, and the “Seducer” trait. Was the promotion tied to this? Eric wondered in what way they were connected. He quickly came to two primary theories: the first of which was that perhaps Maya was more motivated to do whatever it took to get a promotion and increase her wealth; the other was that perhaps the reality shifts caused by the game were making it easier for Maya to acquire wealth. Both options presented their own set of consequences. Following this train of thought, Eric recalled the other secondary traits he gave the girls, as well as their goals; a chill ran down his spine as he imagined all of the possible outcomes if either of his theories were true.
[In the full story, there is a scene describing some changes to Julia]3.5) The next morning, breakfast
Over the past few weeks, breakfast at Eric’s house became an increasingly exciting event. It often started after Camille had her first workout of the day, which meant that her muscular body was not only fully displayed thanks to her attire, but her muscles were pumped up further than usual. Due to the increasing amount of food that Camille consumed to maintain her growth, the house often entirely filled with the aroma of protein-packed eggs and bacon. Selina had taken a liking to watching her step-brother acting weak and awkward around Camille. Even when Eric tried to avert his gaze, it was all but impossible for him to not catch glimpses of Camille’s muscular body bulging from even the slightest of efforts.
Per usual, Camille placed two huge plates onto the kitchen table: one with eggs, the other bacon. In the process, her arms – easily bordering on 16 inches in circumference, sprang to life. Camille noticed that her step-son was, once again, staring slack-jawed at her midsection. At this point it was something of an automatic response, so she didn’t hold it against the boy. “What do you think dear? Are my abs looking a bit tighter than usual today?” she asked with a warm giggle before sitting down.
Eric, Camille, and Selina all began taking food from the center of the table, putting it onto their plates. Another phenomenon that Eric was becoming increasingly fascinated by was Camille’s appetite. Despite possessing next to no fat on her body aside from her breasts, Camille kept eating larger and larger portions; seemingly all of it went directly into her developing musculature. Sensing a bit of awkward silence, she decided to spur some conversation: “Mmm. It’s a good thing your father bought those new weights, now I can really bring my body to the next level! In fact, I hit new personal bests on every single lift this morning!” she proudly declared.
Eric cleared his throat and collected himself. “That’s great Camille! I’ve read that by now most people who are new to working out start experiencing a ‘plateau’; basically, their progress slows down. Do you think that sort of thing is happening to you?” This question intrigued Eric on multiple levels. First he wanted to try and understand just how much potential Camille really had, and secondly he wanted to know how Camille perceived the changes occurring in her body.
Camille looked slightly confused at Eric’s statement. “Really? Honestly dear, I think that I’m getting progressing at a faster rate. It seems like every day I wake up and I’m bigger, stronger, harder… all of that good stuff! Plus, my energy is through the roof. I’m so glad that you encouraged me to do this. I mean, just look at this arm!” She announced before flexing her prodigious limb, which caused a thick cord of definition to ripple beneath the bicep’s head.
“Can I feel it mother dear?” Selina asked with a mischievous tone.
“Sure thing!” Camille replied before bringing the flexed arm over to her daughter.
Selina wrapped her hands around it. “Wow mom… this arm is so hard and strong!” she squeezed the limb, completely unable to make it budge. “I can’t dent it at all, it’s like pushing against a big, warm rock! You can’t imagine what this feels like Eric, such a firm, powerful arm, all covered in velvet soft skin.”
This time it was Camille who was blushing, as she did not expect such a performance from Selina. The rest of the breakfast went by without much incident. After finishing their meals, step-brother and step-sister moved into the living room. Once outside of earshot, Selina decided to begin teasing her brother once again:
“Wow step-bro, I’m pretty sure that my mother’s muscles are like… twice the size of yours now. Doesn’t it bother you? Living in the same house as a woman like that? Knowing that her muscles are constantly bulging, squirming, and jumping around? Those firm, powerful limbs that are completely packed with pure power? That every time she works out she’s getting bigger, and stronger, and harder?”
Eric’s face was beat-red. “W-why would th-that be a problem!?” he stuttered.
“Oh, I dunno. Just the thought of someone like that being around. Constantly all… buff and stuff. Well, don’t worry bro, your good little step-sister would never think about following in her path. I mean, wouldn’t that just be too awkward? If I started pumping up, letting the blood flow to my muscles, growing bigger and stronger just like my mom? Can you even imagine trying to eat breakfast while being flanked by two immensely powerful female bodies? Ha, just imagine Maya coming over now that she’s all huge; you’d have to deal with being around THREE huge, buff beauties. THAT would be too much for you to handle, now wouldn’t it?”
Eric gulped. “I… I’ve gotta go do some homework.” he managed to spit out before taking off.
You can buy this story here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Written Edition Art Edition (art by Cuddle-Beam) available here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Art Edition Voiced Edition (VA by Cat and LilliPuff) available here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Voiced Edition Multi-Media (Art AND VA) available here: The Proteus Effect Chapter 2 Multi-Media Edition