Tilly Morrison followed her boss down a hall in the university labs, concrete painted an off-white that had yellowed under years of students passing through.
Laura Mark, director of the university engineering department, was tall, pretty in a sort of upper-middle-class trying too hard to keep time at bay sort of way, and her face was pinched in a frown as she pushed into a door with a placard announcing it as the current laboratory of Elizabeth Moroh.
Along with a yellow triangle warning of 'Planck Radiation'.
Doctor Moroh, red hair tied in a disintegrating bun, met them at the door.
"Director, I'm working on something sensitive at the..." she began, but Laura pushed past her.
"Look, Liz, your department hasn't reported any progress in months now, and the board is pulling funding unless you can show something useful that can be, y'know, monetized." Laura said.
She paced around the lab, tables full of tools, 3d printers and odd machinery.
Tilly kept up behind Laura, holding on to two coffees.
Laura grabbed one out of Tilly's hand and took a drink.
"I'm sorry, but the university can't keep funding a project that doesn't have any results." Laura said.
"The school just raised tuition by four hundred percent to buy the dean a private helicopter." Liz snapped. "There's plenty of money, the board just wants to steal my work to fill their own pockets."
Laura shook her head. "The robotics and physics research departments both produce results, unlike yours, Liz." Laura said, handing her coffee back to Tilly wordlessly.
She reached for an arcane device half-constructed on the table.
"Wait, don't, that's not..." Liz called out, and Laura yelped as a jolt of static electricity snapped off the object and shook her hand. "Ow." she hissed.
"Y'know what, fine, go ahead." Liz said, the tension on her face suddenly and inexplicably fading. "touch whatever you like." she gestured expansively. "Nothing dangerous going on here, no miss. In fact, why don't you invite the dean down here to play with the unfinished experimental hardware." she said, eyes narrowing.
Laura sighed. "Look, its nothing personal, but the board is going to pull funding from your project, and I just wanted to give you some warning." she said.
Doctor Moroh shook her head. "Warning huh? Well, consider me warned. Watch your step as you leave,
boss
." Liz said.
Laura shrugged as she walked out, trailed by her secretary.
[]
Laura barely noticed that her shoes felt a little looser, as she returned to her office, casually snatching her coffee back from her secretary... sorry, 'executive assistant'. She stepped into her office and plopped into her office chair.
After nearly an hour, she felt increasingly uncomfortable as her forearms began to press on the desk as she worked on her computer.
She adjusted her chair up, and kept working.
Two hours and two adjustments to her chair later, she was startled when her rolex slid off her wrist and clattered on the table.
Laura frowned, and adjusted her chair again, and as she moved, she felt her shoes slide off her feet.
"Huh?" she said, standing up. She had to slide off her chair to do so, and found she was not as high above her desk as she expected.
"Weird." she said.
She stepped out of her office, and went to the nearby executive restroom, and stared at herself in the wall mirror. Her clothes were all loose, and walking there had been difficult thanks to the looseness of her shoes.
"What did I eat?" she wondered, brushing off the most obvious change as ridiculous.
It was late in the day, and she decided to go home. She had to adjust the seat of her car and the position of the wheel.
-
Tilly frowned as her boss exited the bathroom. Usually her clothes were tight enough to be a bit... risque, highlighting her lean form and enhancing her otherwise average butt and breasts, but her clothes seemed oddly loose.
She shrugged it off as Laura informed her she was leaving for the day, and Tilly now had more free time than she expected.
[]
The next morning, the floor seemed farther from Laura than she thought was right, and everything in her closet was too loose. She dug up an old sports bra to cover herself and the smallest clothes she had, from a few years back.
The blouse was still too loose, and skirt needed a few more notches on the belt to close up, and she found herself having to adjust her seat in her car
again.
-
Tilly came in that morning with the day's coffee order in hand, and stepped into Laura's office, where she was met with a peculiar sight as she placed the coffee on her desk.
Somehow her boss looked small in her expensive chair, and Tilly found she loomed over her strangely.
That and, like yesterday afternoon, Laura's clothes were unusually loose. Even more so than they had been yesterday.
"I need you to cancel my in-person meetings for today." Laura instructed.
"Understood, ma'am." Tilly said, "Are you... uh..." she began, but when Laura glared at her for the informal tone, she subsided and hurried out of the office.
-
Laura had been brushing off the peculiarities for over a day now.
She couldn't brush it off anymore. As lunchtime approached, she felt her blouse slip off and grabbed at it absently, and stared. She had her chair as high as it would go, pressed up against the desk, and still felt like it was too far away from her desk.
Then she heard the door crack open, and Tilly poked her head in.
"Shit. She can't see me like this." Laura muttered.
-
Tilly poked her head into her boss's office, and blinked.
She couldn't see Laura anywhere.
"Uh, miss Mark, you uh... haven't ordered lunch yet..." she said, stepping in nervously and looking around.
It wasn't until she approached the desk that she finally saw her boss.
Her boss was tiny, practically buried in her blouse and coat, holding the shirt up one-handed to keep some semblance of modesty.
"HEY!" she shouted, though it came out as more of a squeak. "What are you doing in here? Get out!"
Tilly did, frowning.
-
"Shit." Laura muttered. "She saw me." Laura had to pull the desk phone towards her to call out to Tilly with her lunch order, managing to keep her voice more or less normal sounding, and told her to just leave her lunch on her desk.