The Stupendous Springer

Episode 2: Detour, Chapter 3

Lunch was, in a word, interesting. The food itself was rather standard, though the amount of it was not. A lot of this was because Tammy, being twice normal scale, had eight times the body mass to feed, so instead of preparing for nine people, the caterers had prepared for closer to twenty, just to be safe. Other than that, it was fajita fixings from a local pseudo-Mexican restaurant. Nothing too special. What made it interesting was the interactions between those who partook in the meal.

Sophie was unsure how to process all of it. Tammy was given an entire platter to use as a plate and a bucket to use as a bowl, with serving utensils serving quite well as standard cutlery for her. Nels piled on two full plates for himself, but with no free hand left, used his prehensile tail to carry his beverage back to his seat. Pamela chose her food efficiently for maximum protein density, managing to fit it on one plate, but leaving a disproportionate amount of non-meat foods behind, which Lenny found mildly annoying, until he realized this meant more cookies were left for him. Phoebe did not even leave her seat, simply wrapping her legs around it and extending her torso along the floor, sliding her upper body along the spread as if she was standing in line with the others, but taking full advantage of her extendable arms to use whatever serving utensils were unoccupied, regardless of where they were.

Sophie, watching this from her spot next to Phoebe's lower body, wondered if she could do that. Did she have the reach? Did she have the control? Phoebe, or "Phlex", made it look so easy, but Sophie had found simply reaching her arm across a room difficult.

Sophie almost laughed at herself at that. Reaching her arm across a room was unimpressive to her now? What kind of reality-breaking fantasy did she think she was living in all of a sudden?

Finally Phoebe's lower midsection went taught as she pulled her upper torso back to her seat, food in tow, giving Sophie a wink as she set her food in her place at the table. Oh right, Sophie thought. This one.

"You impressed?" Phoebe asked as she forked some chicken and peppers, clearly uninterested in wrapping them in a tortilla for whatever reason.

"Uh, little bit, yeah," Sophie said back with a bit of snark, trying to keep her cool. "I've um, never seen anyone do it like that before. Of course, I've never seen anyone else but me do it before, but still."

Phoebe smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Nobody does it like me," she assured Sophie. "Believe me; I checked." Phoebe stuck her food in her mouth, her lips extending and snapping back as she pulled the fork out.

Wait, Sophie realized. Did she--? Was that--? I mean, if it is what I think it is, it's just a pervy joke, no biggie. But still, was not expecting that. I have no idea how to read this one. She was about to ask "did you have to practice a lot?" but realized that was in itself a double entendre, and chose differently. "How long did it take you to be able to do stuff like that?" she asked, gesturing where Phoebe's torso had been, and then taking another bite of her wrapped fajita.

Phoebe was just putting another bite in her mouth as Sophie asked, but rather than wait to chew, she simply swallowed it immediately, the lump passing down her neck with ease. She leaned on the table with one arm, her elbow squashing under the weight of her head resting on her hand. "Not long. I just try to do it and it works. Nothing crazy. Why do you ask?"

Sophie swallowed her food. "Well, I was just thinking that if you're like me, and you can do that, then I should be able to, right? But I don't feel like I could if I tried. You were going pretty far just now. And you made it look so easy, too. I don't know, it just feels like I have a long way to go."

"Going a long way is kinda the point, eh?" Phoebe smirked. "But for real, that's barely anything. That's not rock-wall-climbing hard, that's walking-down-the-hall-to-the-bathroom stuff. It looks easy because it is."