Part 02: How I became Nigkala
I look fake, but I'm very real
Thanks to my editor kenjisato. Also, to LanguageTool. Combined, they put me right. Any problems left all belong to me.
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You know the Nigkala Tales, powerful stories of sex and violence in Sumeria. How Nigkala of Kish, seven foot tall, four breasted guard captain proves her strength on the field of battle and in the bedroom. You also know of me, Helen Asher, the actress who plays her. But I have secrets I have kept my whole life. Some the paparazzi have never discovered. The greatest secret is how I came to have four breasts and grew so tall. I assure you, I have never been under the knife, nor taken drugs or hormones to achieve this. It all began in my childhood....
I was born Becky Sue Tate, daughter to a pair of hypnotists. One worked on the stage, the other worked in a therapy office. My home life was filled with discussion on hypnosis, how it worked, and what it could do. Being so young, I didn't understand much beyond it could do nearly anything if you believed. They even taught me to hypnotize people. They tried to give me a well-rounded life, and that included reading me stories until I learned to read. The stories I loved most were those of the Sumerian Guards. I loved the adventure, intrigue, and mystery. The stories they read to me were children's books, meant for kids a few years older than me. Seems my parents thought I was really smart. I practically memorized those books, and can still quote large parts of them. I also would pretend I was one of the guards, spoke a little Sumerian and wrote short notes in cuneiform.
It wasn't long before I learned about the other books about guards. First the ones for older kids that told darker tales with greater heroics, and years later, the adult ones about Captain Nigkala. Sometimes, when one of my friends was reluctant to play 'guards', I would try to hypnotize them. Usually they called me on it, but with practice, I learned to be subtle. At seven, I could reliably hypnotize a willing subject. A few months later, tragedy struck. A semi didn't stop for the car crossing the intersection at night, killing my parents instantly. The next few months I remember only as a confused series of foster homes before my mom's sister and her husband accepted me into their family. They even formally adopted me, so I could call them ma and pa. (I had called my birth parents mom and dad.) I later learned they couldn't have children. While my home life settled down, culture shock set in. Going from middle-class suburbia to country poor meant getting used to a lot of changes. My new parents also held me back for a year since I lost so much schooling that year.
My new neighborhood was improving economically, due to the recent discovery of mineable radioactive minerals nearby. The discovery also explained the significantly higher incidents of mutation and stillborn babies. Most of the mutations were extra fingers and toes, but sometimes mismatched eyes or other mutations. I knew a few classmates with extra parts, and one with mismatched eyes. With a small school, I soon learned everyone's name, and even found a few fans of the guard stories. I realized no one knew my skill at hypnotism, so I kept it a secret, using it very carefully and subtlety, and therefore, maintaining deniability. I quickly learned the signs of going under and of noticing. If I saw the latter, I changed tack to make what I had been saying seem something other than an attempt to hypnotize. I used it on my new parents to let me get the more adult stories, but I also hypnotized my fellow students to help them study and learn. Reading the Nigkala books did confuse me with many of the adult themes, but they still had lots of action and heroics. They also introduced me to her hypnotic stare, where she would look someone in the eyes and give them the whammy.
When I was ten, my pa got sent overseas. Since it was the same town as some extended family, he managed to make it a family vacation of sorts. On the flight back, my folks slept nearly the whole way. I amused myself listening to the other passengers and watching them. The man behind me talked about using hypnotism to control the body and change it, capturing my attention. I was fascinated, and soon realized he was dictating a report. I waited until he finished before speaking up.
"Wow, hypnotism can really do all that?"
"Huh?" He looked around a bit before spotting me. "You were listening?"
"Yes. I know all about hypnotism, and have even hypnotized some of my friends. How come I never heard of this?"
"Well, I doubt you know all that much, as it is not too hard to hypnotize a friend. What I was talking about is some very advanced stuff, and how hypnotism can affect the mind."
"Well, maybe I don't know everything, but I know you can't make someone do what they don't want to do."
"Actually, you can, but it is tricky."
"Really?"
"Sure. You just have to make them think they want to do what they don't want to do. That can be easy or hard, depending on just how solid their will is."
"Oh. What about this changing of the body? I'm really interested in that!"
"Well, when the body is hurt, it starts to heal itself. But it usually takes time, and the healing generally likes to be fast. This is why we often get scars. But if I hypnotize someone, I can instill an image of their body whole and without scars. The healing can take a bit longer, but sometimes, they will heal without scars. Once, a guy I worked on had lost a fingertip, and I instilled an image of a replacement fingertip. Two months later, his finger was whole, complete with fingertip. My thesis is that this technique can be used for ever greater changes, but it does require a very strong self-image to work."
"So you mean if I really believed I would grow seven feet tall, that I would?"
"Yes, but that would take years, and a very potent self-image. Something you are not likely to have for a time you would be unwilling to commit."
"Oh, I can do it. I want to become just like my hero, Nigkala. She is a powerful warrior and defender of her city back in ancient times."
"Well, maybe you will. But it is getting late. I need to sleep."
"Yeah, I probably should too, but wow, I can become her!"
He chuckled, and we both got ready to sleep.
That night, my head was so filled with this idea, that when I finally slept, my dreams included growing up to actually become Nigkala by using hypnosis. The next morning, I forgot much of what the man said, but I remembered that he said hypnosis could convince someone into changing their body. And with that dream, I wanted to make it happen. It took a month to learn self-hypnosis and to get it to work for me. I felt the easiest thing would be to change my hair from dark brown to the mixed black and blonde shoulder-length hair of Nigkala. The book covers showed it as some strands were blond and other black, with the overall mix not favoring one or the other. In just two months, I noticed my hair color was changing. I saw some black strands and some blonde, as well as mostly dark brown ones. That was when I decided to go all in.
My first objective was to get a big poster of Nigkala. My parents even helped me (although she was wearing her armor and not a sexy outfit). Still, it would do. I spent weeks building my self-image to be that of her. She was over seven foot tall, so I wanted to be over seven foot tall. She had a long tongue, I wanted it also. She had emerald green eyes that glinted like true emeralds, so I wanted them also. While it wasn't technically body image, I also decided to include her hypnotic stare. Oh, how naive I was. And I knew so little about how biology works. But I was also stubborn, as part of my hypnosis was to make myself believe it would all work. I must have taken three months building my self-image. Every night, I meditated for a few minutes on changing my body, and I focused on the poster of Nigkala.
I began to exercise, run, and lift my pa's weights. Pa loved spending time with me getting fit. Ma didn't see the need for someone as young as me to do all that, but did like me spending time with pa. At first, I couldn't do much, or run very far, or even lift much. But I persisted, because I was seeing my body grow. Some, I figured, was normal for any young girl, but other things I knew were due to my body image. I also decided that with all these changes, I should also dress more like Nigkala. I had to use hypnotism to ease my parents' concerns and allow me to be the new me.
For my birthday, my parents took me to a big-city bookstore, and I convinced them I was old enough to read the graphic novel I saw of Nigkala. Even more important, was the coupon in the back for a life-size poster of her. It took a few weeks to save up, but I sent away for it. It arrived as two posters: an upper half and a lower half. I mounted these inside my closet, so I could look at my reflection and the poster at the same time. Reading the book showed me some stuff I didn't understand. But the combat and detective stuff was real interesting. I got several more graphic novels that year, and I started to act more like her. I practiced my stare on the boys to let me join them in their rougher play. Soon, I didn't need to because they saw I fit right in and was big enough and strong enough to be their equal.
