The Rendering Pit Chapter 25 (Patreon)

When a door closes, a window opens, and Nathan finds himself face to face with an important member of the faculty, here to offer him a deal...

This story was written by RabidBadger and illustrated by me! We thank you for your continued support, you've helped make this series what it is <3 

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The visit to the Nurse had not been quite as simple as Nathan hoped, or at least it looked like it was rapidly getting more complicated as he sat uncomfortably in his new (still faintly pulsing) garment. The Nurse had argued with someone outside his sight briefly, then she’d gone to her communications panel and started speaking to one of the professors, though he wasn’t sure which. After that he’d been left to wait, which was a profoundly uncomfortable thing. Not just in terms of his seating either (though the drake was finding it difficult to fit his ass properly on the large round table he’d co-opted for a chair) – Nathan kept imagining what was wrong, and every time something other than a resolution to the situation happened his projections grew more dire.

At the moment Nathan was picturing the badger his room mates had talked about, the one who’d gotten in over his head with something that had co-opted his body and ended up a massive heap of school property. That was as bad as he’d let his mind get about the matter so far, though it wasn’t for lack of his imagination attempting desperately to go darker places. The Nurse’s office wasn’t exactly conducive to that resistance either, Nathan found. It was after all a dark, humid place – and where else would they send him if they had to literally take him apart to figure out what was going on?

Would they put him back together? Could they? Were they obligated to, or would he end up some helpless thing in a tube that blinked at people who wandered past because it was the only stimulus left in his existence while-

“Nathan, I presume? Yes, that must be you – we only have so many cargo sized lizards in the blue spectrum. Two, I think.”

Both surprised (which left his heart skipping a beat) and grateful to be shocked out of his own thoughts, Nathan jumped in his seat – or tried to. It really didn’t accomplish much past causing his vastly swollen frame to twitch and wobble a little while he craned the several chins that had grown in to replace his neck toward the door. 

Not recognizing who it was left Nathan a bit perplexed, he was fairly sure he knew most of the professors. This ivory-furred bear though, he couldn’t place her – though he couldn’t mistake the air of authority she exuded either. She was holding, of all things, a wooden walking stick. One that sported a large bismuth geode at the top wedged into the gnarled wood. It seemed to be for more than just visual affect as well, the bear was quite hefty herself and had a slight limp in her left leg that the tool helped her deal with. She walked up a couple of lazy, yet obviously difficult paces and turned sharp green eyes on him that left Nathan with that horrible ‘seeing into my soul’ creeping sensation.

“Hrm… had to see that for myself under the circumstances.”

Nathan slid right back into the anxiety-induced terror of wondering just what that meant, and how bad it was for him. The whimper that played out in his mind must have been loud enough to hear outside of it as well given the immediate reaction of the bear, but much to Nathan’s relief the smile it brought out was neither sinister nor falsely comforting.

“Junk data. All of it. Garbage files. The most absurdly literal example of bloat-ware I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something.”

Watching the bear laugh was a strange thing, Nathan could swear he saw light dancing around inside the geode during it – but there was no light source in the room to accommodate that degree of brightness. It also broke the tension he’d gathered up like a sword to the Gordian Knot.

“I am going to have to pick that code apart and see how it works… but that’s actually not why I’m here. Well, it kind of was, I had to see if there was anything risky in the data.”

Blinking slowly, Nathan fidgeted a little. He still couldn’t precisely figure out who he was dealing with, the bear wasn’t wearing anything terribly ostentatious or even informative. The clothing looked simple, tailored probably but simple. Sturdy material, a dusty shade of green that might be due to actual dust, pockets everywhere – some of which were clearly full. One of which she reached into and pulled out a small brightly colored orb from, which she promptly tucked into her mouth before holding one out in Nathan’s general direction.

“But… wait. What, then?” 

Nathan took the offered sphere, blinking slowly at it as that small part of the conversation left him a little befuddled. His outfit pulsing once more dragged him back to the more important aspects of the issue though, especially since it eclipsed most of his field of view if he looked even a little bit downward. Luckily his guest seemed to be following along with his inner thoughts quite nicely.

“The signal catching material – the University would like to talk to you about making more of that and putting it to use around campus. It’s uniquely suited to screen for a problem we have, but at the end of the day you came up with it.”

Another slow blink followed, with Nathan looking down to the expensive and gently heaving sea of flesh he’d grown into in such a short period of time. He pawed at a bit of it, watching his hand sink in like he was clutching a pillow, feeling it slowly flow back into place after he released the pressure. All that softness brought about a paradoxically sharp bit of focus for Nathan, one that had him half-snap at the woman with him. Something he held up for about four words before starting to trail immediately into a more timid and apologetic tone.

“But what about my- my uhm… that is-”

There was a brief flash of something fierce in the bear’s eyes, but it didn’t hold up past the withering of Nathan’s own intensity.

“Your giant derriere? That’s really not high on my priority list right now, but since it seems to be something we have to address before this can go anywhere productive; you’re familiar with what hard pudge is, yes? Apart from an oxymoron.”

Nathan fidgeted, trying to recover gracefully didn’t seem possible. He wasn’t sure doing anything graceful was possible right now come to think of it. 

“That uhm, yes – and kind of. I know it has to do with the school’s cybernetics program.”

That got an approving nod from the bear, or maybe just a tolerant one.

“Correct, if a bit lacking in finer detail. It’s body fat repurposed to act as high-density data storage, which is how we handle the necessary housing of drivers and other operational software. It’s also the vast majority of what is currently glued to your little blue bottom, dear.”

None of this was exactly outside of what Nathan knew. He’d read at least enough of the school brochures and picked up enough discussion (and listened to enough griping) to osmose that much. Which is probably why Nathan felt his frustration spike again, and too quickly to get a grip on it before it escaped.

“But how do I get rid of it?!”

This time the bear definitely looked sympathetic when she smiled, at least a little. It might have been a tiny bit condescending too, but it might not – Nathan felt like there was a layer of disconnect between what he saw and what he was trying to read on her features. 

“You don’t. The conversion process is permanent and includes hard coded protocols preventing it being lost. Otherwise someone could go on a diet and their spatial manipulation hardware could go haywire and cause a disaster. We can format the garbage data out of there though and provide you with some enhancements to actually make proper use of it if you’d like. The usage of your invention there around the campus is worth that and more to us under the circumstances.”

Nathan shook his head again, trying to deal with the notion that had just been presented. He didn’t get rid of it. Ever. This monstrously immense ass was his to keep. Even in this, of all places. 

“That – that can’t be…”

For a brief instant he saw what he knew to be clear annoyance on the bear’s face, before the bismuth’s rainbow lattice flared into a blinding radiance for a moment. After it, Nathan’s vision cleared only slowly. The room looked a little wrong when it did, slightly off color, like a sepia filter had been laid over the whole thing. The air felt off as well, Nathan turned his head and the whole thing felt… it wasn’t exactly humid, but it was heavier than it should be.

“Nathan, I don’t want to be this blunt with someone who has been maligned so recently but time is of the essence. We are prepared to offer you assistance with your body – in the near future – and extend you a good deal of credit for the use of your material. It would remain owned by you in terms of the intellectual property, it’s yours to do with as you please elsewhere, but the University needs it now. So if you’ll agree to that I can get to work and you can take the day off to collect yourself and start browsing our cybernetics and High Science catalogues – or just the simple assisted mobility hardware if you prefer that. Blink twice for yes, I know it’s getting hard to breathe in the dilation field.”

It hadn’t even registered until the woman said so, but there was a bit of labor involved in pulling air into his lungs. Nathan blinked once just out of reflex, then made a rapid decision to do so again and complete the answer. The deal sounded good after all, and the situation didn’t seem to support any delay to speak of. 

The instant he did so the world’s odd tint vanished, and the air went from being heavy and humid to just humid. Nathan shuddered visibly while the bear put a finger to the side of her skull, near her ear. 

“Every compatible textile fabricator we have, yes even if it means putting time-sensitive experiments on hold. If you need help coaxing the drones talk to the badger, he’s the only one of the vectors down there still in a verbal communicative state and we ought to be encouraging him to stay that way anyway for convenience’ sake.” 

Nathan felt like he’d instantly been left by the wayside there while the bear began communicating with someone else – professors from the sound of it. Ones who were taking orders from the large, white-furred woman who was now making her way rapidly out of the office while still dictating commands. He remained fidgeting meanwhile, not quite knowing what to do with himself, and feeling very lost – not to mention grateful when the nurse peeked in over his shoulder. Granted, that also startled him half to death, but at least it was still a bit of a help on some level. That, and she was holding something out to him. An actual lollipop. A knob of blue sugar on a stick.

“Headmistress Seraphina didn’t scare you too much, I hope?”

Taking the treat was only polite, though Nathan did stare at it for quite a bit in silence. The silence likely indicated that yes, he’d been plenty freaked out – more so given that the woman had been identified as the Headmistress. He was however pretty sure he hadn’t been rude or anything, which meant he probably wasn’t doomed. If anything, it sounded kind of like the opposite. Nathan nestled the little treat up against his tongue, noting that it tasted just as blue as it looked – and possibly a little ‘medicinal’ too. 

“I guess she did – don’t worry about it dear. You’ve got a lot of options now, and we’ll take good care of you. Now, why don’t you ease yourself up off that cushion.”

Blinking, Nathan tilted his head, trying to ignore the feeling of the flab around his neck bunching up in the process.

“Err, sorry. I can… one sec. Wh- why am I getting up again?”

It wasn’t easy to do, getting up. Nathan’s first attempt failed utterly. The stations’ artificial gravity clung tight, laughing at the feeble efforts of his slim muscle trapped under all that scale-sheathed lard. All it accomplished was to leave him wobbling precariously as he wound up to try again, leaning back first and heaving forward all at once.

There was a distinctly high-pitched squeak sound when he felt the Nurse’s hands plant themselves against his butt and push, but it did help, and she was the Nurse.

“Well we need that outfit of yours I’m afraid, so it’s going to have to stay here. The original notes are proprietarily yours but the level of urgency going on has prompted the Headmistress to take what we can for now and make more as we go. Sooo we need you up, hard to get that thing off your butt otherwise! Plus, I’d wager you might need help getting into your replacement clothes.”

Nathan felt a furious blush in his cheeks since that statement was followed up by the Nurse’s hands not leaving his ass but meandering around him to start working his new garment off him already. He wiggled a little in place, indecisively flirting with protesting, but even that kind of half-hearted movement was so bogged down by the sea of flesh around him that by the time he’d wrestled the urge down the doe was half done. 

“That – I – this… is all happening way too fast! I still don’t even know who did this, or how to handle it, or-“

The Nurse paused for a moment, clutching one bunched up bit of the strange fabric as she circled around toward Nathan’s front. All in one motion she let it go, which set the whole thing sliding easily off his body. Pooling around his feet and leaving him quite nude, though Nathan knew his gut was hiding most of the view. The Nurse leaned in after that, wrapping herself around as much of the drake’s belly as she could in an awkward, inadequate, but clearly heartfelt hug.

“You’ll be okay, promise! You’ll get used to not seeing your feet, and we’ll make everything easier.”

The blush intensified, leaving Nathan fidgeting further as he tried to reach around and return the gesture, but his thick arms and equally swollen chest made it less effective than he’d have wanted. Nathan wasn’t totally sure if the idea of them helping made up for the notion that he’d never see his feet again, and then there were the other things he’d likely never see and probably couldn’t reach. Then again, he mused, he had to take stock of where he was. 

It was entirely possible they could, and he just couldn’t picture it yet.

“I… yeah. Alright. Thank you. No uh, can we – can I get covered up again, please? I’ve been having a crazy hard time with that today and I think I’ve had just about all I can take of my butt being exposed, or glowing, or whatever.”

The milky-eyed doe smiled brightly, giving Nathan a pat on the belly.

“Certainly dear. I’ll get you something right away.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Nathan nodded and settled in as much as he could. He did hope it was fast – all this standing around was starting to get difficult.

It wasn’t terribly long before Nathan was on his way, in somewhat broken in but ultimately serviceable, sturdy, and more importantly – fitting clothing. His tablet was full to the brim by then of full listings of every kind of body modification and hardware or cybernetic assistance and augmentation the University had to offer, along with the promise that as soon as the textile fabricators weren’t busy he could make himself a new wardrobe. 

All of that didn’t change the fact that he wanted to get somewhere he could sit down for a long while. Right now. Nathan was pretty sure the cafeteria was closer than just about anywhere else, which might not necessarily be the wisest of destinations, but the drake was feeling thoroughly burnt out on trying to think straight any further today. 

Life was complicated. Tacos weren’t. Nathan wanted tacos, among other things, like a bit of time to clear his head with his roommates, who he wouldn’t be terribly surprised if he found out there waiting for him.

*** 

The Nurse ambled back to her desk but did not sit in it. Instead, the doe reached down and brushed the edges of a strange little plant. A pinkish thing with no leaves to speak of on it that quivered at her touch, but otherwise stood still and content.

“See? He’s fine. I told you the substance was safe after processing. He didn’t get the least bit bigger or bluer than he already was.”

Looking up at a small mirror pinned to the wall, the doe’s expression rapidly shifted gears to a smirk that had none of the softness or gentility it had moments before.

“And how would you tell? You really think that ‘plant’ of yours would’ve changed too? I mean it’s not like you could just eyeball if that giant heap of scales was changing, it’d be a drop in the bucket.”

The expression shifted again – the sharp harshness faded, but there was a new strain of annoyance nestled on those damaged features.

“Rigel’s changed significantly, so yes I believe it would have. Honestly, your disrespect for our garden is distressing Doctor. Need I remind you it was you who insisted we try it on a student? I simply felt Nathan had less to lose than most, if it went wrong, and thankfully it didn’t. You owe me for that.”

The smirk returned in force, but with an air of concession to it, if not defeat.

“Make the best of it, worm. Isolate the mycological agent and start reverse-mapping what happened to the scaled wine cask with legs. We’re not getting any younger, or more amicable.”

Another snort came from the doe’s nose, fogging up the mirror. This time the derision was haughtier than anything else.

“Speak for yourself, Doctor.”