//------------------------------// // Measuring, For Science! // Story: I Am a Pet Changeling // by Queen Sanguine Dreams //------------------------------// "By the way," Stern abruptly said, turning around to face all of us, "Just because you're a huge bug from space doesn't mean that you don't have to help clean up your mess." They pointed to the cocoon I had emerged from, the pool of ooze held at bay by the carefully arranged towels, the pieces of broken cocoon laying around everywhere and the dented shovel they had carried in. "I'm going to make Mac and Cheese." When Stern had dissapeared around the corner, the other three breathed a sigh of relief. "Ooh, I thought we were done for!" Soft exclaimed. Rough was looking at the cocoon behind me and frowning. "That's one heck of a mess..." "We should hoard it all in the basement!" Timid blurted, their camera poking around on the inside of the cocoon while their feet tried to stay clear of the goo. "Then we can take it to the college in the morning!" "Uh, why would we do that?" Rough asked, raising their eyebrow at Timid. "For science; duh!" Timid sassed back. "If Blue doesn't even know whats happened to her, then we need to figure out everything we possibly can. Her height, her weight, what she's capable of, if she'll need more love right now or later, or if this cocoon thing will happen again!" "Speaking of love, how are you doing, Blue?" Soft asked, looking up at me. I stared blankly at Soft for a moment before replying, "You're so small..." Soft raised their eyebrow. "You're giant, Blue. You used to come up to our waists and now... Oh screw this, I'm getting a tape measure from the garage." They huffed, weaving around me and running off into a nearby room, the door closing behind them on its own. "I mean, I guess we could do some of that stuff here..." Timid pouted. "The science equipment is just so much cooler looking than a tape measure!" "I'm gonna get a marker." Rough announced. "Gotta compare our heights, right?" "Uh, for an alien? I'm not really sure that applies..." Timid replied in confusion. "Well, she came up to my belt before, so we can use that as a reference for her past height." Rough reasoned. "Oh! I forgot about that. Sure! I'll have a talk with Blue while you're gone." Timid replied eagerly with excitement. I used my magic to levitate a mostly unsoiled towel from the floor, wiping off most of the ooze, slime and goo that I had been covered with. I had to lower my neck to avoid impaling the ceiling and it was starting to get annoying, so I opted to lay on the floor away from the mess I had made in order to clean myself in peace. "Okay, recording?" Timid asked themself, pointing the camera at their face. "Yep!" They flipped the camera around to face me. "Alright, Let's get all this science stuff started! What is your name?" "Blue Sun." I replied. "Age?" "I have no idea." "Wait, seriously? How do you not know how old you are?" Timid asked, caught off guard. "I was a tunneler. I tunneled. There was no reason to keep track of time in the Hive." I explained plainly, towelling off my horn. I found that it had grown considerably and was also angular and forward facing. "Okay... Ricky and Maria are working on the height part... Oh! gender?" Timid asked. "Female, I think." "Hmm... I'm worried what would happen if we put you on a scale." Timid hummed. A nearby door opened and Soft came through, a metal square in their hand. "Found it!" Soft declared, holding it above their head in triumph. They grabbed a slim part of it and pulled, a long yellow strip with tiny markings coming from it. "Now we see how tall you are!" I set the towel I had been using to clean myself on the floor, set away from the other towels that were quickly becoming soaked. As I stood I was careful to not impale my horn through the ceiling, but it presented some problems. "Yeah, we're gonna need to go outside for this..." Soft said with a frown, glancing out of the window. "At least it's dark outside. Come on Blue, lets go for a walk! They said with a snicker for some reason. Soft lead the way, opening the door and leading us out with Timid behind the both of us, still recording. The front steps to the house were tiny now, so I opted to skip them entirely and step from the house itself without trouble. When we were clear of the house, I took the opportunity to stretch and flex my wings, making circular motions with them now that I had enough space to do so. "Oh, thats another thing! We have to get your wingspan." Timid noted with a smile. "Alright Maria, let's get to measuring!" Soft rolled their eyes and flipped the metal thing, the metal hook towards the ground. "Hey Blue, could you step on this for me?" "Hopefully I won't crush it..." I replied with concern, carefully stepping on the fragile looking thing. "Okay, there's no way I'm going to reach your horn without a stepladder, so could you lift this part of the tape measure with your weird levitation powers until it goes just past the tip of your horn? Try to stand as straight as possible as well." Soft requested, and I complied. The metal thing made a strange sound as it unraveled which I thought was funny. I may have gotten side-tracked in making silly noises from causing the measure to slide up and down. "Blue, seriously. You can play with the tape measure later." Soft jokingly grumbled. I focused on the task at hoof, pulling the tape towards my horn and keeping it perfectly straight. "Okay, can you use the camera to zoom in on that, Karol?" Soft asked. "On it!" Timid replied, moving close to my side and staring upwards at my horn with their camera. "Holy... It's saying that Blue is Eight feet, four inches!" Soft whistled. "Dang, Blue. You sure grew up quick." "How much is a feet?" I asked. "Also, can I move now?" "One Foot," Soft explained, shrinking the measuring tape down, "Is this long. You are eight of those," They shrunk it again, "And four of these, which is an inch." "Okay, stretch out your wings to the sides as far as they'll go, Blue!" Timid asked, moving further away. I did as they asked, stretching out my wings to the sides and leveling them parallel to the ground. "I'm going to hold this end," Soft explained, "And you're going to use your magic to take it to the other side. Karol, you're going to have to read the measurement again." "On it!" Timid exclaimed, lightly jogging to the other wing. The measure stretched out across the length of my wings, held in my magic until reaching the other side. "Hooo-boy. Hey Maria?" Timid called out. "Twenty feet, six inches! Good thing those wings are so close to your sides all the time!" "Hey Blue, did I ever tell you that you were massive? 'Cause you're freakin' massive!" I heard Rough call from the doorway. "How tall is she?" Rough asked, moving down the steps and towards us. I retracted my wings to my sides, buzzing a little in irritation from having them stretched out so awkwardly. "Eight foot, four inches!" Timid replied with excitement. "This is so great!" "Hey Blue, do you think you're a Queen now?" Rough asked, their question throwing me off. "W-what? Why would I be a Queen?" I blurted in surprise. "I think I get what Rough's going at." Timid explained, "At least here on earth, we have things called 'Ant Colonies'. They usually have a single queen that controls the rest of the hive, but there's still other female ants in the hive in case the queen dies. The ant queen will release pheremones to ensure that the other female ants don't lay eggs and become a queen as well, and since you're probably the only alien bug thing on earth, there's nothing to stop you from becoming a queen, is there?" "But... before Chrysalis, we had another Queen. Queen... um... why can't I remember their name?" I scratched my chitinous head with a pointed hoof, my magic crackling and startling me. Setting my hoof carefully on the ground, I continued. "Anyway, the point is that it didn't take one cocoon for her to mature into a full queen. It took at least... three in total, I think." Their mouths were open in shock. "You mean you're a baby queen!?" Rough exclaimed. "I think Proto-Queen is more accurate?" Timid suggested, also shaken. "You're so massive though! Does that mean you're going to get even bigger!?" Soft cheered in excitement. "I guess that's possible? Queen Chrysalis didn't grow that much after the first cocoon, though our hive was constantly starved for love." "That sort of makes sense on why you became so huge then!" Timid chirped, causing us to look at them in curiosity. "Oh, well, let me explain it like this: You know those Islands out in the ocean with a bunch of mini-sized animals?" "Uh, no?" Rough blurted. "Okay, anyways, if you go on google you can find out about these super neat mini-critters that are tiny because of the lack of resources on their island. So, instead of starving, all the critters evolved to be miniature versions of their larger selves over time. This meant that there was an abundance of food and everything to keep them alive, but they couldn't be as huge as they were before, kinda. I'm glossing over a bunch of super important science reasons for everything, but that's the gist." "So... Blue was so small before because they were starved?" Soft asked with worry. "That's horrible!" "How large was Queen Chrysalis, Blue?" Timid asked, pointing the camera to me. "Well, how small was I when I was a drone?" I answered in question. "This is so strange... How am I a queen?" "Well, you came up to about here." Rough said, holding a hand flat to their belt. "So, I'd say about... three foot eight inches, including your horn?" "Hmm... Actually, I wonder if I could copy her form now? I'm certainly large enough." Timid's eyes grew wide with awe. "Do it, Do it, Do it!" they chanted in excitement. "Alright." I replied, my hooves lighting in a bright blue flame that wicked up my body, burning along the carapace and ending at my horn tip. I felt... squished. "How do I look?" I asked in the voice of my Queen. "Eugh, this is strange..." "You look awesome!" Timid cheered. "You look really different. Like, almost fragile by comparison..." Rough noted, interested. "I think you're smaller, too." Soft added. I moved my legs around a bit, chittering my wings. "I feel compacted... Do you mind if I turn back?" I asked with a raised brow. "By all means!" Timid replied, focusing their camera on me intently. In a quick flash of blue, I reverted to my now regular form. "I don't think I'm going to get used to being this large very soon..." "Okay, time to write all of this down for the camera! Here, hold this." Timid blurted, shoving the camera into Rough's hands and pulling out a small stack of papers and a pencil. "Give me a moment, okay?" Timid asked, turning away from the camera and furiously scribbling. After a shared moment of awkward glances, Timid was finished and produced a paper. "Here, take a look!" Species: Changeling Height: 8'4" Weight: ?? Age: ?? Role: Proto-Queen, former Tunneler Drone Demeanor: Friendly, Helpful, Friggin' Cute (Scientific term) Origin Planet: ?? Time on Earth: Barely two days. Seriously. "How's that?" Timid asked with a smile. "Very 'scientific', Karol." Rough snarked. I turned from the group to see Stern standing on the front of the house's steps. "Alright everyone... and alien... Dinner's ready!"