Purity of Thought and Deed
Author's Note: This is one of my older stories -- about three or four years old, if I recall correctly. It was probably my first foray into snuff-vore... not a fetish I plan on visiting often. However, I wanted to share some non-Mashara stuff with the YiffStar community, so here it is! Usual Warnings: - Macro/Micro themes
Vore
Physical domination
Holy crap, sex! * * *
Mae was cute. Well, okay, she was a lot more than cute. She was a hot, sexy, sweet, spunky, lithe cat. She was overlooked by most guys because she wore glasses and dressed a bit conservatively, but that's their loss. Myself, I worshipped the ground she walked on, and I'm sure she knew it. But I'm a mouse, and she's a cat, and some things are frowned on by society in general. Oh, forgive me. My name's Jimmy. I'm -- or rather, I was -- an intern at BioTek Labs, Inc. That's where I met Mae, and it's where this story takes place. At BioTek, an intern is basically a glorified gofer. Unlike most internships, it was a paid position, and I was paying my way through college with it. BioTek does medical research. Developing medications, radiation therapy. If it has anything to do with medicine, they've got their hand in it. For example, that new passive scanning that's replaced MRI in the last two years? They hold the patent on that. Mae and I worked on something quite creatively called "Project A4,",in the division of R&D everyone called "Frankenstein's Lab." It was a very hush-hush project, and the stack of paperwork I had to sign, swearing me to secrecy, would have given any lawyer a nervous twitch. I think I may have sold them my soul. I'd never know, the legalese was that thick. The basic jist of Project A4 was straight out of an old sci-fi movie, or a comic book: a shrink ray. Corny as hell, but it looked like they were going to make it work. The physics are way over my head, but I'll break it down as well as I can as the story goes on. We'd been testing on lab rats for some time, with increasing success -- larger doses of the beam led to an increase not only in effect but in duration. A measurable, predictable increase. Testing on simple target objects was abandoned as hopeless, as was testing on plants. I have no idea how they got the approval for animal testing. Perhaps they had hopes that what I believe was happening was true. Something to do with the electromagnetic field surrounding an animal's living body was making the beam work. On a whim, I took some Kirlean photographs of an experiment in process. The beam showed up in the photo, and the aura surrounding the exposed animal was a different color. I showed the photos to Dr. Mitchell -- whose experiment this was -- but he dismissed Kirlean photography as unscientific. The real shocker took place a few days later, when the lab rats were being checked for side-effects. One of the rats was larger than it used to be. A good two inches larger. That was when Doc Mitchell started to act strangely. Any time Mae -- Doctor Arness, I mean -- was around, he was quieter, a little wary. The next day, BOTH rats were larger. I took some more Kirlean photos of them, and when I developed them, I could see that the color-change in the aura had remained. The beam was still affecting them. I told Dr. Mitchell about it, and he shrugged it off. He seemed a bit distracted. I was sick of being dismissed, though, so I showed the pictures to Mae. She seemed stunned. "You may be on to something, Jimmy. We'll see if it continues. Keep taking those pictures." The third day, both rats had grown another three and a half inches. They were more than twice their original size, and the Kirlean imagery showed that the aura change hadn't faded in the slightest. It looked permanent. "What the devil is causing these rats to do this," murmurred Mitchell. "And why isn't... the other subject?" This piqued my curiosity. I didn't know what he was avoiding mentioning, but I did know that there were no other official subjects, which meant he had been experimenting with the ray on something -- or someone -- else. It was Mae who came up with the idea of running a C.A.T. scan on the rats. The image came out blurry because the rat grew another quarter of an inch while the scan was being made. "Is the C.A.T. scanner causing that?" I wondered aloud. Mae took my question seriously. "Not likely, it's a passive reading of electrical impulses, not a projective device. Well, this is interesting... Look at this, guys." She beckoned us both closer, and I leaned over her shoulder. It's not every day an intern is included in a discovery. "The guy's pleasure centers are in overdrive." Mitchell snorted. I spared him a glance, despite Mae's overwhelming proximity. His lupine features radiated disdain like a palpable force. "Of course they are, it's a side-effect of the sedative." Mae scratched her chin, her whiskers twitching. I knew that look -- she'd gotten it several times during the course of the project. She had an idea. "I wonder..." She picked up the syringe of sedative, and injected the other rat with a smaller dose. We huddled around it, and its eyes drifted shut. "Well," Mitchell said, oozing smugness. "So much for that--" I was only to happy to interrupt. "It's working, she's growing... looks like she's growing a little more than he did..." She did. Mae nodded. "This sedative triggers endorphin production. It works slightly better with females than males." I swear to god, Mitchell's eyes widened for a moment. He hastily excused himself and left the room. "Dr. Arness," I said -- I never called her Mae. She looked at me, a bit distracted. "Yes?" "What's with Dr. Mitchell today?" She thought for a moment. "I don't know. Wait. Oh, god. Jimmy, can we talk?" "Sure," I said, a bit nervously. "Not here. Can I come over to your place tonight?" It took a lot of effort not to let out a cheer. "Certainly." That night, she showed up at my apartment just as I finished dinner. I let her in, and she complimented the apartment, which I found odd, because it's a ground-floor efficiency in one of the cheaper complexes in town. "Jimmy," she said, "I need your help." "Sure," I said. "What with?" "I... Doctor Mitchell. He... he raped me." "JESUS! When?" "The day we tested the beam on the rats." "Mae -- Dr. Arness, that's almost a week ago! Why the hell didn't you report him?" I got up. "I'm calling the cops." "Jimmy, no." I stopped and looked at her, curiously. "Jesus, Mae, do you want him to get away with this? What if he rapes someone else?" "Jimmy, I need this project. If Mitchell goes to jail or gets sacked, the project is finished. Think about it. If we succeed with this thing, the word 'inoperable' will vanish from the language of every surgeon in the world." I sat next to her. "Doctor Arness," I began. She smiled at me, beginning to cry a little. "Call me Mae. I like it when you call me Mae." "Mae. We can't just let him get away with this." "No. But we have to wait until the project is finished." I shrugged helplessly. I put a hand on her shoulder, and she broke down, crying. "I hate it, it's not fair, but that's the way it has to be. God, Jimmy, every time he touches me, I cringe." Mae and I sat there for a few minutes. She cried on my shoulder, and I was there for her. If the situation weren't so horrible, I'd have been jumping for joy. She came to me. When she was down, she came to me. I fixed her a hot cocoa and sat down beside her, putting a comforting hand on her knee. "How did it happen?" "Well, after the first successful test, we stayed to celebrate, and you left early, remember?" I nodded. "I had class in the morning." "Well, he got a bit drunk, and he started... he was groping my chest, and..." "It's okay, it's over, it won't happen again, I won't leave you alone with him. Just, keep talking, get it out of your system." She smiled weakly, took a sip of cocoa, and started to tell the rest of the story, in fits and starts. "I pushed him away. Told him it wasn't appropriate. He just kept insisting, and insisting, and he... he... hit me..." I tensed up. If Mitchell had been there right then, I'd've decked him, no question. For a wolf, the guy's a bit scrawny. Runt of the litter, I guess. "I... I kicked him in the balls, and he just lost it. Went nuts. He... he grabbed my wrist," she held up her arm, and I could just see the bruises under her fur, "and dragged me over to the work table. He tore my blouse open, started groping my tits again." I was literally seeing red, but I nodded to her to continue. "I tried to fight back, but he was too strong for me... Then I noticed, he was taller. I looked around, and I saw he had turned the beam on and moved me in front of it. I really started to struggle then. He just laughed and bent me over the work table. My skirt just slipped off, I'd gotten too small for it. "I was scared -- I'd never been so scared in my life -- and he just pulled my panties down around my knees. They were getting baggy as it was, almost fell down on their own. Then, he unzipped his pants, and he pulled his penis out." She paused, wincing. I put a hand on her shoulder and she flinched away. It was awkward, but I wanted to be there for her. I gently lifted the cocoa towards her face, and she sipped at it, then began guzzling it, as though it were her only chance of survival. She set the mug down and continued. "It was horrible, he just started screwing me, and the more I struggled the more he liked it. And then, the worst part happened." I waited, while she tried to work up the courage to say more. She sniffled, and picked up the mug again. "Here," I said, "let me get you a refill." While I did that, she continued. "The really bad part is, as I got smaller, and his... penis... felt bigger inside me, it started to feel good. I hated it, I hated it, but it started to feel good, and I started to push up against him." I sat down, passing the cocoa back to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, it's not your fault," I said, but she wasn't listening. She broke down into tears, collapsing against me. "I hate myself! I hate myself, I wish I were dead!" I set her mug aside and put my hands on her shoulders, drawing her to me. Her racking sobs tore me apart inside, as I listened to this woman whom I worshipped bare her pain for the world to see. Finally, the crying and the cocoa did their job, and she smiled up at me, eyes a little bloodshot, but still lovely. "That's when it stopped, you know." "Huh?" "I stopped shrinking when I started..." She shuddered, obviously disgusted with herself. "When I started enjoying myself." "Endorphins," I said, remembering their discovery earlier today. She nodded. "Endorphins. Certain sedatives trigger their production, as does sexual release." I sighed. "Jeez. So that saved your life." She nodded, but continued her original train of thought. "As does chocolate." I winced. "Oh, shit, I completely forgot." She sighed. "It's okay, you just wanted to comfort me." I looked down at my feet, and she put her paws on my cheeks, turning me to face her. "Really, it's okay." She shifted uncomfortably. "Um. Speaking of comforting... My shoes are pinching, do you mind if I take them off?" I nodded, and she bent down to untie her shoes, which was accompanied by a tearing sound. I could feel the blood rushing to my ears -- and other places -- as I realized she was outgrowing her clothing, and it was my fault. She gasped, and sat up quickly. I tried to resist, but my eyes were drawn to her chest, which bounced deliciously. She looked at me, and I could tell she was getting another idea. "You know," she said, "I could get back at him without involving the police, or the company. But I'd need your help." As she said this, she wiggled a bit. I assume it was to relieve some of the pressure of her tightening clothing, but it also might have been to keep me interested. Either way, it worked, as the sight of two of her blouse buttons popping off, revealing more of her delightful bosom, certainly provided a distraction. "Wh... what do you need me to do?" I stuttered, ears positively burning. She put a paw on my groin, causing me to shudder. "Make love to me." She smiled gently at me. "I've seen the way you look at me, Jimmy. I like you, and if you make love to me, you'll be helping me get back at Mitchell." "How?" I asked, still too stunned to take her up on her offer. She smiled at me and started pulling off my T-shirt. While I worked on the buttons of her blouse, she answered. "You must really be distracted, cutie. Obviously, if I'm bigger and stronger than HE is, I can turn the tables on him, can't I?" I looked her in the eye, and if I hadn't sold my soul to the company, I certainly sold it to her right then. "You sure could," I said, burying my face in her hair and nibbling at her neck. She moaned and I felt her grow just a little in my arms. Any rational thoughts either of us had went out the window right then. While I worked on her bra -- which was too tight for me to unfasten -- she tugged at my pants desperately. I wasn't sure if the growth was making her horny, or I was. Honestly, I didn't care. She said she liked me, and gods knew I liked her. While she slid my pants off of me, I gave up on the bra and slid her skirt down her legs. She leaned forward, pressing her ample bosom against my chest and kissing me voraciously. I was so absorbed in the kiss that I almost didn't notice her paw on my shaft. Almost. I'm not quite THAT dense. She guided me into her waiting pussy and started thrusting violently against my hips, lost in passion. I could barely keep up with her, to be honest, but I did my best. We'd barely been at it for a few seconds, when I felt her weight shifting over me, as she arched her back. And grew. I was so absorbed in watching her slowly but visibly expand over and around me that I nearly forgot to participate in the sex we were most assuredly still having. I winced, but continued thrusting, as her overstretched panties slipped out of her paw and snapped against my rigid phallus. To be honest, it actually helped. While her moist cunt was becoming looser around my shaft, the panties tightened, keeping me from slipping out, until they snapped, shredding with the intensity of her relentless growth. Her bra's clasps and straps gave out almost simultaneously, causing the bra to fall down onto my chest as we continued to thrust. She hadn't grown much, but it was enough to cause problems, as my shaft slid out of her. She pouted, then reached down with both paws, one massaging her clit while the other guided my shaft back into her, between her fingers. It was too much to bear, and I came, nearly blacking out with the intensity of the orgasm. I certainly saw stars, explosions of light dancing in my vision, while I watched her bring herself up to her own orgasm. If her growth had been incredible before, it was nearly alarming now, as she shot up at least a foot and a half in height in under a second, collapsing to the floor, spent. The next day, a few hours before work, we dug out some of my nicer sheets and spent the time collaboratively working on a new blouse and skirt for her. Underwear was out of the question, but we were able to cobble together something usable in just enough time to get us to work. Her measurements were unbelievable. Standing at eight feet, three and a quarter inches tall, her figure was every bit the curved delight it had been, but on a grander, somehow more lovely scale. Our first problem was when we discovered her glasses no longer fit her. That was easily solved -- from her point of view -- when she realized that somehow during her growth, her myopia had been corrected. I felt it was a damned shame, I really liked the way she looked in them. Our second problem was a little tougher to solve. She had to sit in the back of her Range Rover and trust someone else -- me -- to drive it, for the first time in her life. I think maybe my infatuation turned into real love when she beamed at me and said, "go ahead, Jimmy. I trust you." Sneaking her into the lab unnoticed was remarkably easier than we'd anticipated, as we managed to beat everyone but the security guards to work, and they were concentrating on their morning crosswords, or cartoons, or whatever it is security guards do when they're slacking off at work. Our only remaining problem was getting to Doctor Mitchell without alerting him. Mae solved that by spending her time studying the oversized lab-rats, further confusing any first impressions of her scale Mitchell might get. We were ready, the machine was ready, our plan was ready. All we lacked was Mitchell. Punctual prick Doctor Mitchell was late. I offered to go look for him, but Mae waved me back to my usual seat. "Have you ever gone to look for him before?" "No." "Then don't do it now. If he's late, he's late. If he doesn't show up, we'll be ready tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next." "Mae," I said, my conscience finally catching up to what we'd talked about the night before. "Mae, are you sure we're doing the right thing?" Mae sighed, and looked over at me tenderly. "Jimmy, I know you're worried. But that man is going to get away with rape, as well as endangering my life with that damned machine of his, unless we can stop him." I nodded. "But..." "But what? We can make sure he leaves and never comes back. Never calls. We can take the credit we've earned. This is my design. You're the one who figured out what made it work. Mitchell's just a name that got tagged on to give it credibility." I nodded. "Hey," she said, thinking for a moment. "You still have that camera?" I nodded again. "Always. Never know when you may need some photographic evidence of a test result." She grinned. "I'd love some Kirlean photos of what happens today, see what changes take place while the process is happening." I grinned back at her. "It'll take a few seconds to set up." I got to work on that, and almost didn't notice when Mitchell walked in. "Right," he said. "You, there. Rat boy. Quit diddling yourself and get back to your terminal. I've got some theories I want to run some data on." "I'm not a rat, sir," I growled at him, but as I'd finished with the camera, I did as he asked anyway. "And I wasn't diddling with myself, as you can obviously see." "No, you were playing with that ridiculous camera again. What is it this time, comic book X-ray specs over the lens so you can take girlie pictures of Mae?" I glared at him, as Mae slid over to the door and drew the privacy screen. "He hardly needs to do that, Doctor. He's got a lifetime pass for the show." While Mitchell spun to face the angry cat towering over him, she continued. "You, on the other hand, simply took. And I didn't appreciate it one bit. Now, Jimmy." I grabbed Mitchell from behind while he was still staring up at Mae. "Come on, Doc," I snarled. "Time for a lesson in manners." Mae grinned, and slapped him. Lightly, for her, though he reeled, and I nearly dropped him. "Rule one, William. You do not take without asking. It's simply not polite." "Rule Two," I growled, "is that you treat people around you with respect." Mae grinned ferally, and nodded towards the shielded area of the lab where the device was charged and waiting. "Rule Three, good doctor," she said slowly, rolling each word off her tongue, "is that there are no second chances. You lose." I wrestled him into place, and Mae switched on the device. Immediately, I felt a chill, and my grip on Mitchell started to slip as he shrank in front of me. Unfortunately, this meant he was no longer shielding me from the device, and I started to shrink as well, barely keeping my grip on him to keep him in the path of the beam. The room expanded around us, and Mitchell thrashed desperately, but I held on to the one thing that was helping me keep my sanity: my grip on him, and my part in Mae's revenge. I felt an earthquake, and dropped Mitchell, realizing we'd stopped shrinking a few seconds ago. Judging by the distance to the edge of the floor tile we were on, we were well under a foot tall, somewhere between one and three inches. Closer to one, most likely. I felt another quake, and looked around in a panic, expecting the now gigantic lab equipment to start toppling onto us, crushing us both. I was comforted by the thought that at her new size, Mae would easily survive anything that didn't destroy the whole building. As I felt a third quake, and Mae casually strolled around the shield that separated us from the control room, I realized three things. The first thing I realized was that I could see right up her skirt, which directed my attention to the second thing -- Mitchell and I were totally nude, having shrunken through our clothing. The third thing was awe-inspiring. What I'd thought were earthquakes were the soft, normally almost inaudible sounds of Mae's feet as she made her way over to us. Mitchell screamed. I could understand that. After all, I thought, looking up at her, this must be how my ancient ancestors felt when faced with their natural predator. Except without the sexual tension. Mae slowly went down on one knee, making me realize just how incredibly huge she was. "Doctor," she said to Mitchell, who was gibbering next to me, "do I have your word that you will leave Jimmy and I alone?" Mitchell regained some semblance of sanity, staring up at her in shock. "You're mad," he shouted at her. "You're utterly insane! Do you have any idea how dangerous that device could be?" Mae hissed at him, and he fell onto his rump. I could smell the tangy odor of him urinating on himself. Or maybe that was me, she certainly did give my heart a jolt. As he sat there, whimpering, she started to laugh. Long, loud, clear belly laughs, as though he had just told the greatest joke in creation. "DANGEROUS?" she almost screamed, still laughing. I realized she was a little hysterical herself. "Dangerous?! And you used it on me?!" Mitchell hung his head. "Get it over with," he said, defeated. "Step on me, whatever you're planning, just get it over with." She dropped to the ground quickly, putting one forepaw on either side of him, and bringing her face within inches of his -- which was still a great distance for Mitchell and I. "Is that genuine regret I hear?" Mitchell glared up at her. "Faugh. I did what I did because I could. Given the opportunity to go back and change things, I'd've done it without the assistance of the device, but I wasn't thinking clearly at the time." Mae's eyes widened in shock. "That's IT?! Your one regret is having given me the power to fight back later?" She scooped him up quickly, and stood up, tossing him from paw to paw absently while she discussed her options. "I could just step on you, yes." He whimpered. I couldn't hear him, but I could still see his face. "I could pop you in the microwave, see how long it takes before your blood boils and you explode," she said, grinning viciously. I felt ill, listening to her, but I couldn't turn away. She nearly stepped on me as she paced back and forth. Well, nearly from her perspective. She missed me by at least three inches, which to me seemed about ten or fifteen feet. I sat there, horrified, listening to her list things that she could do to him. Insertion of various pieces of lab equipment -- ohm meters, syringes, toothpick -- into various orifices was a particular favorite of hers. "An eye for an eye," she said, and he winced visibly. Finally, she stopped, winking at me before saying, "I've got it. I simply won't make the same mistake you did," and tossing him into the air. She caught him with her teeth, and I heard him scream in agony as she crushed his legs with her powerful jaws. She continued to gnaw at him, careful never to break the skin, and never to injure anything vital. Soon enough, his screams became ragged, and faded from my hearing as his vocal cords gave out on him. At that point, she gave her head a toss, throwing him back into the air, and caught him one more time in her jaws, chewing him up quite thoroughly before swallowing. I did get sick then. I threw up on the floor, losing a very small version of my breakfast that morning. While I knelt there, doubled over, I felt a gust of wind and saw my world darken. "Jimmy, oh, gods, Jimmy, are you all right?" I retched more, dry-heaving agonizingly before I was able to turn and face her above me. "You... you..." "I lost control," she said, sorrowfully. "I became far worse than he ever was." I sat down hard, and thought very carefully about what I would say next. "I'm not so sure," I said. "Come again?" "You don't leave an incurable madman in a position of power. You don't coddle a rabid dog. Killing Mitchell was the only way to keep him from doing the same thing -- or worse -- to someone else. Someone who wouldn't be able to fight back later." She considered this for a long time, and I judged it safe to continue. "The only thing you did wrong, Mae, was in torturing him. And that's as much my fault as yours." She peered down at me, seemingly from hundreds of feet above, though I knew she was on all fours with her face low to the ground. "I should have stopped you," I finished, not realizing until she'd scooped me up that I'd never have stood a chance at doing that. "Stopped me? I would certainly like to know how," she said, lowering me by my tail towards her gaping maw. I remember counting those perfect teeth, thinking how much they would hurt piercing my skin and organs, then blackness. I came to -- if I was really awake, if I'd really passed out -- in a moist, warm, dark cave. There was no light at all to indicate which way was out, but I could feel a hot wind rush past me from somewhere to my left. Figuring the wind had to be coming from outside SOMEWHERE, I took a wobbly step towards it, the spongy floor of the cave making my progress difficult. Suddenly, the cave collapsed -- or the floor of the cave raised up, pressing me against the ceiling -- and the hot wind became more forceful, pushing me away from it quickly. I started tumbling through the air, and light invaded the world, stabbing my eyes. As my eyes quickly adjusted, I saw stalagmites and stalactites lining the opening of the cave. The floor of the cave, reddish pink, pulsed and writhed, and a strange red formation hung from the ceiling towards the back. As I tumbled through the air, I had an impression of tawny fur and green eyes, and I realized that I'd neither blacked out nor been in a cave. Mae had popped me into her mouth, and I had nearly stumbled down her throat trying to find a way out of it. She'd spit me out when she felt me walking towards the back of her tongue. She caught me gently, bringing me up to eye level, and the look in her face was the most incredible combination of horror, amusement, and worry. "Were you trying to kill yourself?" she asked, incredulously. I shook my head, unable to answer. "Gods, Jimmy, I'd never hurt you. Never. I was playing, I thought it would be funny. You have to admit, the thought of you stopping me from hurting Mitchell was pretty ludicrous." I nodded. "Yeah. Of course, the thought of falling into your stomach like a lost spelunker is kind of funny, too," I said, trying to keep her happy, dear gods, keep her happy so she doesn't kill me too. "Anyway," she said, her mood sobering as she realized how close she'd come to killing me, "that's not what I was going to do." She walked back into the control room, setting me on a desk, and took two steps back, facing me with the strangest smile on her face. "What I was going to do, dear mousie-man, was cure you." I blinked, and she started to writhe, slowly sliding her hips from side to side, unbuttoning her blouse one gigantic button at a time. As she slid her blouse down her arms, pulling down on it with her nimble tail, I felt myself becoming aroused. This amazing woman, this unstoppable force, was doing a striptease, just for me. Her teasing changed mood and tempo when, instead of sliding her skirt down her incredibly toned legs, she simply tore it apart with her bare paws, exposing herself to me while at the same time demonstrating just how powerful she'd become. My paws were on my member, massaging it, before I was even aware of what I was doing. My eyes were half-closed in ecstasy, but I forced myself to keep them open, watching her as she reached down into the folds of her vagina, parting her labia to give me a view of a clitoris easily half the size of my entire body. If not larger. My already raging erection became even more desperately swollen, and she purred at me, taking slow, purposeful strides. "Oh, no," she chuckled. "That is MY little toy." And she bent down, licking my entire body with that incredibly powerful tongue of hers. I could feel the surface of the desk sliding across my fur, and I worried for a moment that I might fall off the desk, until I realized, I was growing, reverting to my normal size as the electrical field generated by my pleasure-focused nervous system interacted with the field from the shrink ray. I'd thought that feeling and watching Mae grow on top of me had led to an incredible orgasm, until the feel of her massive tongue stroking my phallus sent me over the edge into an orgasm so powerful that I literally had to recover my senses afterwards. I awoke to find Mae's mouth clamped down on my penis, sucking hard, my forepaws massaging her breasts, and her paws running over my body. Realizing I had not only recovered my original size, but grown a few feet more, I had the most incredible feeling of power. Then we both came, and she collapsed on top of me. As I slipped into unconsciousness, I realized we were both growing again. When we woke up, it was dark outside. The building had been abandoned, even the security shift leaving the place in the virtual hands of an automated security system. She grinned at me. "You know," she said, eyeing me playfully. "We still don't know when, if ever, these side effects will wear off." I nodded. "They last longer than a couple of weeks, that we know for sure. They might even be stable." She purred into my chest. "Stable... we could go on like this forever..." Somehow, the realization that neither of us could return to work after obviously using the shrink ray on ourselves -- regardless of circumstances -- didn't seem like such a major loss after all.