Mostly Harmless
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Xanadu story universe |
Report on Samantha Reynolds
The subject was part of the Xanadu incident, and has since suffered severe depression. Having been repatriated to the UK at the expense of her family she was cared for at home by her mother and father for a period of three years until they found it physically impossible to manage her, both physically and emotionally. She is now being cared for at Lymingstone Hospice where considerable modifications to her ground floor room and the surrounding environment have eased her physical and mental symptoms. Lymingstone was favoured, even though it is more expensive, as the overall architecture of the building facilitated more easily her special needs, especially as it has an on-site swimming pool.
In order for new care assistants to be prepared to assist in her care additional orientation is now given. An excerpt from the orientation materials will give the local authority an insight into the current and future needs of this care client.
Samantha was involved in the Xanadu incident, and at the time of the magic event she was dressed in a mermaid outfit and lying on a plinth as part of an underwater latex fetish store. Since it is well established that the subjects transformed into a physical and mental form that was their internal representation of the costume, it is understood that every attendee transformed in a unique manner. As in the case of many mermaids transformed on that day she no longer has a human skeleton below her pelvic bones, her hip sockets are empty and the tail moves entirely under her control in all directions. It is covered in skin that has a slight scale texture and is brightly polished black. Her tail fins are under her control, as is the dorsal fin that projects from the base of her spine. From the waist upward she maintains a human frame. Her jet black hair, if cut, grows to a length of 1500mm overnight without apparent side-effects. This has proved to be a source of income for her which offsets some of her care costs. She has empty shoulder sockets and has no arms, which necessitates that she is fed at every mealtime. The greatest inconvenience, and the one which is causing her the greatest difficulty in the past year is that her breasts have been very slowly growing larger, and are now of such a weight that she is no longer able to sit up or roll over unaided. She reports that there is considerable pain where the breasts attach to her body, and that the only relief she gets from the pain is when floating in water, however a vigilant watch must be maintained at all times as the weight of the breasts means that now she can only suspend herself in an upright posture in the pool. If she now moves onto her back, her head is submerged by their weight, and if lying face downward the slight negative buoyancy drags her head under the water. Aqualung equipment has been provided and this appears to be her one pleasure left and which she enjoys, although again constant attention must be made using a human diver as she is unable to re-site the mouthpiece should it become dislodged. Much progress has been made in the past year to slow the rate of breast growth, and once the link was made between food intake and energy expenditure we have regulated her metabolism considerably. It seems that any weight loss between meals is taken from the rest of her body, which is lean, and any weight gain from eating a meal is laid down in her breast material where it is never lost. This is apparently a reaction to the observation that ‘it’s the first place to lose weight and the last place to gain it’ – it seems she is living the opposite. She is highly sexually aroused the majority of the time, and makes continuous requests to carers to provide sexual stimulation to the human vagina and clitoris that is mounted six inches below her belly button and on the flat latex surface directly level with where her clitoris would have been. Medical tests have proven that she is fertile and should she become pregnant the only alternative for a successful birth would be by Caesarian Section. She defecates through an anus six inches below her vagina on her front side, and urinates through a conventionally arranged urethra, both of which require cleaning as required. Since she suggests sexual intercourse almost all the time, there have been a number of instances where a care assistant has succumbed to her advances, and a number of relationships, serial in nature, have occurred, and since she is a consenting adult these have been cautiously and discreetly monitored to minimise the chances of abuse.
Her mental disposition has deteriorated as her physical immobility has become more profound. Despite having no arms she used to be able to move about quite effortlessly, and the latex skin has proven to be very tough. Her tail is moveable in all directions and is extremely strong, and there is no requirement to keep her wet. She learned to use a computer voice to text system and could operate it successfully with her mouth and the tip of her left fluke, and kept in touch with many of her old friends and Xanadu friends via the internet. Six months ago she had an operation to remove both breasts, and the operation was initially a complete success, but within three months her breasts had regrown and where before they were filled with fatty breast tissue, they are now nothing more than huge bags of strong and stable skin containing blood and fluid, which has made them less structured and heavier for their size than before. An interim measure to remove fluid using medical fluid drains has only increased her thirst to intolerable levels and conventional medicine has not decreased her symptoms. She has recently become depressed and again modern medicines seem unable to improve her mood. Her outlook without some permanent removal of her oversized breasts looks bleak.
As with other Xanadu attendees it is expensive to keep Samantha alive and with a reasonable quality of life, and we are watching with interest the Class Action in the US against the Xanadu organisers by the healthcare authorities.
