A Big, Beautiful, World

Chapter 1 a new day, in a new life

Belle was a model. Well, she wanted to be one anyway. She just had difficulty staying thin enough for it. But Belle was otherwise perfect for the job. She had platinum blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, and flawless skin to match her brilliant smile. But, she had a fairly large bust, and her butt wasn’t very small either. Belle was told that she was “girlfriend pretty,” and not, “model pretty.” By a man who she would have called a sexist pig, except that Belle was pretty sure he was gay. “Fuck it,” she said, as she stared into the mirror, pinching herself to find where she could, even theoretically, lose any body fat, “He’s a sexist pig anyway.” Belle said as she looked in her mirror, and frowned, the woman said “I am plenty skinny,” and stuck out her tongue angrily.

Belle was six feet tall, exactly, and she weighed one hundred and fifty pounds. Belle tried to stay skinny, she really did. But, no matter what the woman did, it would not bring her weight below one forty. Belle had gone through countless diets, exercise programs, pills, and even bulimia. Then, after a month of hellish suffering, during which Belle only lost three pounds, she stopped purging. When it came to weight, it was like there was a line on the scale’s readout, one her weight simply would not go beneath, no matter what. Belle was starting to suspect that she could hack off a fucking leg, and somehow gain weight, or stay over a hundred and forty pounds anyway. After looking in the mirror for what felt like hours, Belle figured that she may as well go to sleep. A feat that took her over an hour to pull off, an hour in which Belle begged God, a demon, genie, or ANYTHING to let her be a model. Belle fell asleep begging anything that could hear that may be listening that a bigger girl could be beautiful.

The next thing she knew, Belle was waking up in her bed, she stretched and yawned before hopping out of her bed. Belle practically skipped to her kitchen, saying, “Man, it’s crazy how much better a good night’s sleep can make you feel.” She got to her kitchen, then popped a toaster strudel into her toaster. Belle decided she’d check her phone, and was given a recommendation of news articles to read, as always. Today she saw one titled, “Weight gain tips, and how to handle a tiny tummy.” Belle said “Huh. I’m surprised such an obvious typo made it this far” As her toaster popped.

Belle currently worked as a receptionist at “Thoughtful life,” a local office that a handful of therapists worked out of. She wanted a more glamorous life, but had to make ends meet for now. She got to work about an hour before the doctor’s first patient. Belle’s boss, Dr. Ann, had recently lost her Monday morning client, and the other three psychiatrists at this location only had one client between them before nine. Belle would sometimes use these lazy moments when work was slow to read the magazines that the doctors kept in their waiting room. So, she read the covers of the magazines aloud, “Talks with a recovering cancer patient.” Then she said” Well, that’s sad.” And she put the magazine down, reading the next one, “Tricks to maintain a healthy appetite and keep eating through the pain. Huh, must be about the same cancer patient. Let’s see the next one. How this woman manages to keep on the pounds: Ways to stay thicc.” Belle chuckled, “Wow, is that silly trend getting that popular?” she said before deciding that she’d be better off looking through her emails on her phone. The first Email had the subject line “Sorry,” and was from a guy named Dimitri, the man who had recently seen her about a modeling gig, so Belle opened it up and read it aloud, “I’m sorry for being so blunt during our interview yesterday. We are looking for a model who embodies the ideals that our target customers wish they could live up to. You absolutely aren’t ugly. It’s just your weight is,” Belle felt like she was going to puke if she read one more word of this nonsense. She knew that she was too heavy for the uppity fop. Belle didn’t want to read one more word of it.

Belle was surprised to hear a woman’s voice speaking behind her as she read, saying, “Sorry miss, but it’s my first time here, is this the office of Doctor Mayhue? I have an appointment with him at eight thirty.” Belle jumped slightly in surprise and turned around to see a thin redhead with green eyes. Belle said “Yes it is, the doctor should be ready momentarily.” Belle then motioned the patient to the seats in the waiting room, and said, “Why don’t you have a seat while you wait?” the woman nodded and said, “Oh thank God I got the right place this time.” Belle smiled, the woman had probably gone to the wrong office first. Then the patient said, “I’m sorry, I just went to the weight gain clinic down the hall first and,” she had probably scrambled her words a bit, there was a weight loss clinic in the building as well, Belle figured there was no need to correct the woman’s error. Dr. Mayhue had previously asked Belle not to correct clients, apparently it can seriously mess with somebody who has anxiety. The woman had kept talking as Belle thought, Belle only realized it as the woman said, “I just can’t keep the weight on, I needed to see the doctor about how skinny I keep getting.” Belle silently asked herself why these people always want to spill their guts to her. She then thought that they have issues, it was why many came here after all. She figured this woman must have an eating disorder. After saying goodbye, the woman sat in a chair to wait, Doctors Mayhue and Ann were having a friendly chat in the back of the office, Belle couldn’t help but eavesdrop as they spoke. “And that’s why people used to find skinnier women attractive, but now it’s just the opposite.” Came a woman’s voice. Belle had previously told doctor Ann that she should be a professor with her obsession with tests, but she seemed to have her info wrong today. People used to like the skinny look, but now it’s reversed, Pft, students have failed tests for less than that before.

Until lunch time, Belle’s day went more or less normally. But then, as Belle went to her lunch break she saw a Billboard that read, “Too skinny? Sick of people making fun of you? Show them who’s skinny with Gain-a-Day!” followed by a picture of a bottle of pills, the text then continued “Clinically formulated to help the pounds fly onto you, and stay on!” Emails and magazines came flooding back to Belle’s mind. People had said things about gaining weight time and time again today. Belle had to be sure she was right before concluding. So, she read the billboards out loud as she walked. “Thickfast, help your diet with one easy shake a day.” The next read, “Try our new Jumbo Jack, now with three hundred more calories. More fattening and less filling, now you can be the Jumbo one!” she then stopped moving as she stared at a sign with only three letters on it.

B B W

Above the picture of a fat woman. Even stranger, it was a fat woman eating what appeared to be a cheeseburger.

Belle felt like she was in a dream as she walked into a Jack in the Box to have lunch. She ordered a jumbo jack meal on autopilot, to have a teenage girl working there say, “Don’t worry, you aren’t too thin. Just enjoy your meal!” with a cheerful expression, Belle ignored her, and went to a booth, sitting down without saying another word.

As she waited for her food, Belle decided to look at her Email from Dimitri again. This time she skipped the first paragraph entirely, to see the second. It read as follows

I repeat, your only issue is with your weight. If you could just put on ten pounds, the job is yours. Please respond to me as soon as is possible. If you take too long I’ll have to hire somebody else. But if you can even add three pounds to your weight this month, I’ll take it as a sign that you’re serious about this, and stop looking elsewhere. But first I need you to tell me.

-Dimitri

Belle stared at the email in silence, till she heard the woman at the counter say that her order was ready. Sue got up and walked to the counter, before saying, “Hey,” and reading the girl’s name tag, saying, “Susanne.” She sighed as she grabbed the tray, then grinned as she said “Can I get another Jumbo Jack? Just the burger this time, not the meal.” The girl said, “Hey, you don’t have to go broke or make yourself sick to gain weight. You are beautiful just the way you are.” Belle smirked and bit back the urge to comment at how much like a children’s show moral Susanne sounded right now. Instead Belle smiled and said “Don’t worry, I’m not.” The look on the girl’s face showed that she absolutely did not believe this, but Belle just put a twenty-dollar bill on the table and said, “Here, keep the change.” The girl solemnly said “Okay. Thank you.” And Belle took her tray back to her table.

Maybe Susanne didn’t believe her, but Belle absolutely did believe what she’d said, every word of it. So, she went back to her table to have her first burger and fries, “First burger.” She said to herself with a smirk. Belle had wanted to get a second order at places like these more times than she could count, but had never actually done it before. But, now Belle had weight to gain. To GAIN, a thought that made her smirk. Belle sat down at the table and took a handful of fries with one hand as she pulled out her phone, opening the Dimitri email as she continued to eat with her other hand. Belle typed out the following as she ate with her other hand,

Dear Dimitri

Thank you so much for your offer! Yes, I absolutely will take you up on that. I am literally eating at Jack in the Box as I write this. Just name a time and place, and I’ll show you how much weight I’ve gained by month’s end.

With that, Belle took a big bite of her burger. The, intentionally fattening, food was freaking delicious. Belle wondered what was done differently to make it have more calories and fat. Belle didn’t know what was done differently, but, whatever it was, it didn’t make the burger any more filling. As she ate, Belle noticed one thing that caught her off guard. The prices were all absurd here, the meal that she’d swiped a card for without a second thought was apparently $25, the burger on it’s own? $16. Suddenly Belle realized her “keep the change” statement was not nearly as generous as she had thought. As Belle thought about it, it made sense. This was like, super effective diet food in this world. Supply and demand sucks when the demand for what you want is high. By the time she finished eating, Belle had made one other discovery about the food in a world where fat is desirable. It was less filling than expected. Belle had just eaten a gigantic meal, but she didn’t feel nearly as full as she’d expected. In fact, Belle felt like she could have more.

So, Belle got up to leave, with two burgers and fries in her belly. Belle returned to work, acting like it was an ordinary day, she technically had a half hour break for lunch, then a fifteen-minute break later in the day. But she got back to work with another ten minutes before the office had it’s next customer. Belle sat in the empty waiting room, and wondered what this all meant. It was like the world had been turned upside down overnight. Belle had no idea what this all meant. As she wondered Belle saw doctor Ann come into the office alone and said, “Hey doctor, I have something I need to talk to you about, but it will-“ and was cut off by a phone ringing, Belle held up a finger and answered “Hello, Thoughtful life, front desk speaking, how may I help you?” a masculine voice said, “Name’s Bramston, I know it’s too late to get a refund, but I won’t be able to make my appointment with doctor Ann today, I just wanted to let you guys know.” After a polite goodbye the man hung up. Ann asked, “So, what did he say?” Belle simply replied “A man named Bramston called. He said he wouldn’t be able to make it here today.” The doctor said “Aahh, well, he was my next patient, so I’ve got time now. What’s up?” Belle said, “Well, this is going to sound weird, but hear me out,” then Belle took a deep breath, before finishing, “I, uumm, let’s say that a person lived in a world where models were supposed to be skinny, but always had trouble keeping off the weight she had to. Then suddenly, she found herself here, what should she do?” Belle mentally kicked herself for how obvious she was being, she’d planned to think of a cover during the day at work, but she had a little bit of plausible deniability, enough to make Ann disbelieve such a weird scenario anyway. After thinking for a second, Ann said “Wait, is everything reversed? Like, does this person also enjoy fatty foods more than say, veggies?” Belle felt like her heart was going to explode, did people here dislike fattening foods? Belle said “Yes, let us suppose that is true.” Ann said, “Then, you should just enjoy yourself. Countless people here suffer every day to choke down food they hate, and even make themselves sick in the attempt. So, if you actually like burgers and ice cream, then have fun with the wretched diet foods. If your natural inclination is to be heavier anyway, be glad.” Belle said “Thank you doctor.”

Doctor Ann went to her room, thinking to herself. Belle never corrected me in presuming that she really meant herself. That’s a common sign that it’s her own belief. Does she actually believe that she’s from another dimension? Well, that is frankly absurd, but this may be an interesting case to observe, I may even learn something useful. Who knows, maybe her belief will change her ability to think and act in relevant fields. I’ll have to take note, and track whether she is able to gain a significant amount of weight. After all, discomfort, displeasure, and psychological drives are the main thing preventing most people from having a better control of their weight, maybe this will be a useful study in fighting that.

The rest of the day went normally for Belle, until she got off of work and decided to go check the spot where she remembered a weight loss clinic being at in her old life. Despite actually expecting it, Belle was more than a little taken off guard by the sign that read “24-hour Fatness,” with a logo of a hefty woman eating a sub under it. Belle had another idea, and went to the mall next, it was buried in ads and storefronts that would give a good snapshot of this world. The snapshot was a bit of a shock. There were only two or three signs about weight loss in Belle’s previous life, but now almost half of what Belle saw was about weight gain. They had not only taken the signs and stores previously held by weight loss related storefronts, but also those that were held by other stores entirely, clothes, makeup, video games, countless stores were gone. Heavier women even painted the ads for things completely unrelated to weight normally. Ads for clothing promised to make you look bigger, ads for makeup showed how their product could create an illusion of chubbiness. But most jarring was the, nigh omnipresence of food advertisements and stores. It seemed that the things that Belle remembered being eaten for pleasure, despite being unhealthy, were now replacing beauty and health products. Pizza, burgers, and ice cream ads were everywhere, and all swore that they would bury that skinny girl you once were under a mountain of fat. The only thing that changed in the opposite direction was the lone candy shop that used to hold a spot on the edge of the mall, so kids would beg their parents for some on the way in and out. It was now a “Veggie Galaria,” displaying carrots, tomatoes, even whole boiled onions, along with a dozen products made of these sorts of things.

As Belle walked back to her car, she even passed by a stand that rented out electric scooters so shoppers could, “conserve calories,” that would be burnt by walking around the mall. Thinking back, Belle had noticed a few people riding such vehicles in the mall. The one thing that Belle practically sprinted away from was the mall’s food court. It smelled even better than she had remembered, and was buried in prices that nearly made Belle scream, as she realized that the $25 burger meal really was the cheap option, somehow.

As she drove home again Belle noticed that the one thing that seemed largely unchanged was fast food, surprisingly. Other than signs touting being fatty, greasy, and high in calories as good things, they were very similar on the outside. The Panda Express was still an inauthentic Chinese food place, the Jack in the Bix, McDonalds, and Burger King had the same burgers, locations, and mascots. Even the fancy sit down restaurants seemed unchanged, though Belle imagined that all of their menus were different.

All of this focus on food was making Belle feel very hungry, in fact, for the entire day she’d felt a bit peckish, almost like she’d skipped lunch. So, Belle went into a local pizzeria, and ordered a personal pizza to herself, shyly telling the woman working there, “I, I’ve got a modeling gig, they want me to put on weight though. The woman nodded, this was probably normal for her. She then said “Then I would recommend the meat lover’s pizza, with Alfredo sauce instead of tomato, if you can deal with feeling sick from the extra fat that is.” Belle nodded and said “Yeah, better make that a medium on second thought. I can eat the leftovers later.” The woman nodded, and said “Just don’t make yourself sick,” Belle said “Don’t worry, I won’t.” and nodded sternly. The worker told Belle they’d bring her pizza out for her when it was done, and she silently decided that she’d do a quick study break on her phone while she waited. So, Belle typed “History of food,” into her phone’s search bar. It would be the first search of many that day.

By the time her pizza arrived, Belle had learned a few interesting things about this place, according to the consensus of pseudo academic Google searches anyway. It seems that, in this world, eating too much seems to cause nausea that worsens the more the eater pushes through it. Evolutionary biologists largely believe this was valuable for our ancestors because it discouraged gorging, hoarding, and inefficient food use among group members. Especially because the feelings seem to subside after extended periods of hunger, or for poorly understood psychological reasons that Belle didn’t fully understand the theories of. But one fact mentioned grabbed Belle’s mind like an angry pit bull's jaws. Apparently under eating was a common problem here. Was one. Most western nations in this world practice drugging their food slightly. Not enough to make anybody high, but enough that it subtly pushes them toward eating more. Apparently it was done to counteract people’s hesitancy to eat more than the amount physically necessary to live. The theorists believe this to be necessary now that nearly everyone lives in a city. So, the instinct born of human interconnection was amplified many times over, growing into a broken thing akin to anorexia in many, when left unchecked.

So, as the server brought Belle her pizza her mind went through a few thoughts. This is drugged, it is like a poison, I’m sure I can find food that isn’t like this. But, it looks like everything in the city would be the same, and I’ve already eaten the stuff, would quitting put me through withdrawals? Stranger still, I got an offer for my dream job, if I gain weight. I stared at the pizza with suspicion.

Belle said, “But I have to gain weight,” as she reached out to take a slice. Even as the words left her mouth Belle knew they weren’t true, yet her decision was made. She lifted a slice to her mouth and took a bite.