“I’m so bored!” Sara whined, sitting upside down at the foot of her bed.  Her roommate, April, was at work; while she had the day off.  She had finished all of her homework, and couldn’t think of a single thing to do.  “Ugh.” She moaned, pushing herself up.  She walked over to where they kept the videogames, hoping to find one she hadn’t played in a while that would be interesting.
“’Last Tense’?” she asked herself, pulling out a game she’d never seen before.  “What the hell is this?”  She looked at the back, it looked like some kind of post-apocolyptic action-RPG.  She racked her brain trying to remember if she’d even heard of it, but couldn’t come up with anything.  “Huh.” She said, and with a shrug, popped it in.  The game loaded up, and she got a soda.  The intro was interesting, the graphics looked decent but not top-of-the-line; it could’ve just been older or maybe newer with a lower budget.  It was hard to say.
She went to “new game” to get started, and was surprised to find she had to create a character.  “Hmm.” She said, impressed.  The character creation was incredibly robust, and she was able to create an avatar that resembled her almost to the point of being creepy.  Once that was finished, she got started on the game.  The story was a little hackneyed but interesting enough to keep her playing; the game mechanics were a bit flawed but passable, the camera was a little sticky, and the combat took some getting used to but it was actually kind of fun.  Intrigued, she kept playing, surprised at the amount of side-quests and distractions you could get involved with.  It reminded her of Shen-Mue or GTA.  
She became so engrossed she didn’t even realize at first when April got home.  “What’s this?” April asked, walking up next to where Sara sat on the couch.  “It’s called Last Tense.”  Sara told her, not looking up.  “Is it new?” April asked, watching the game.  “I don’t know, actually.”  Sara said.  “I found it with the other games, isn’t it yours?”  She looked up at April for the first time.  “No.  At least I don’t think it is.  I don’t remember ever seeing this.”  She told her.  “Huh.”  Sara said, turning back to her game.  “Huh.”  April said, putting her stuff away.  When she was finished, she came and sat next to Sara on the couch, watching her play and occasionally asking questions.  
Later on, one of Sara’s friends called, and after a brief conversation she decided to go out.  “Alright, I’ll be back in a few hours.”  Sara told April.  “Cool, can I play your character?”  April asked.  “No, make your own!”  Sara told her, sticking her tongue out at her roommate.  “Oh come on, just let me play for a little while and if I like it I’ll make my own.  I just want to try it!”  April pleaded.  Sara sighed, “Fine.  Just don’t save it!”  And with that, she was out the door.
“Sweet.” April said, picking up the controller and getting comfy on the couch.  She too was amazed at all the myriad diversions available to you outside of the actual storyline.  You could do everything from playing smaller mini-games if you found a working arcade machine or console laying around; to going out to eat.  The different types of foods even had slight effects on your stats.  “Cool.”  April said to herself.  “I wonder what tacos do?”  
And so she ran through all the different types of food, one after the other, to see what different stat effects they had.  They were all pretty minor, but the big thing that happened, was that after she finished the last meal, Sara’s character leaned back and her stomach bulged outwards.  And then her entire body became slightly fatter.  “What the?”  April said, laughing.  “You can get fat?”  She went to the stat menu and looked it over, and indeed, not only was ‘weight’ a stat, April was pretty sure it was higher than it had been before.  “That’s awesome!” she said.
And so she forgot all about creating her own character, and played the rest of the night on Sara’s character, eating as much food as she could and giggling to herself as the digital Sara look alike got fatter and fatter.  But then, after she completed the next story objective, the game paused itself, and the word “saving…” popped up in the bottom right corner of the screen.  “Oh shit.”  April said.  “Shit shit shit shit shit.”  She said.  When it was finished, she reset the console, and reloaded the saved game.  And sure enough, the character was exactly where she had left her, and just as morbidly obese.
“Sara’s gonna kill me!” she said, running a hand through her hair.  Then, looking around to make sure no one saw, she shut off the console and TV and walked back to her room, whistling an innocent-sounding tune.  When Sara got home that night, she looked longingly at the TV, wishing she could play Last Tense some more, but it was late and she had school the next day, so she simply went to bed.

The next morning, Sara woke up to get ready for school with a groan.  “Oof.”  She grunted, it seemed much harder to get out of bed than usual.  She was scratching her head as she sat up, when she stopped cold, instantly awake.  What had stopped her was the sight of her stomach bulging outwards.  “What?!” she said to herself, jumping up and running to the bathroom.  She looked herself over in the mirror, panicked at her appearance.  
Apparently overnight, literally, she had grown chubby.  There was no other word for it.  Her breasts were at least a cup size larger, she had a full-on potbelly, complete with love-handles; her ass stuck out behind her and jiggled when she walked, everything about her jiggled now!  Even her face was rounded slightly with a hint of a double-chin.  “What the hell!?” She cried, pulling her pajamas up and looking at her soft gut.
In a panic, she ran out to her dresser and began looking for baggy clothes that could hide her mysterious gain, but found that somehow, all her clothes were bigger.  All the tags on her pants read almost double the size, as if they had always been that way.  A little frightened, Sara dressed casually and somewhat concealed, and nervously walked out of her room for breakfast.  
“’Morning.” April greeted her, casually fixing herself food.  “’Morning.” Sara returned the greeting.  She stood anxiously for a moment, then asked her roommate: “April, do you notice anything different about me this morning?”  April calmly looked up, looked her over, and then shrugged.  “No, why?” she asked.  “Just felt a bit bloated this morning, that’s all…” Sara said, trying to appear casual.  “Well you look the same to me.”  April told her and went back to her food.
The whole day it was the same, no one at school said anything, or acted as if anything was different.  Midway through the day, she had to leave class and go to the bathroom, and looked at herself in the mirror.  “What the hell’s happening?”  Sara asked her reflection.  “I know I wasn’t this fat, I was skinny!” she said.  She lifted up her shirt and poked her stomach.  “What’s going on here?”  she asked no one in particular.  When she heard a toilet flush, she rushed out the door, not wanting the girl to see her after what she had said.

When she got home from school, it had become so surreal to her that she went through her daily routine in a kind of daze.  Maybe I’m just going crazy. she thought to herself.  Maybe I’ve always been like this and I’m just hallucinating.   With a sigh, she set her books down and went to play Last Tense, hoping it would take her mind off of it.  What she saw when she started the game almost made her heart stop.
Her character was big and fat, much fatter than she had left her.  “April!”  She yelled.  In her room, April cursed to herself.  I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear. she thought.  “April!”  Sara yelled again.  “Yeah?” April called back, trying to sound innocent.  “Come out here!”  Sara yelled.  “Why?”  April called back, clenching her eyes shut.  “Just get out here!”  Sara yelled again.
April sighed and walked out into the living room, trying to look casual.  “What’s up?” she asked.  Sara gestured at the TV.  “Wow, really let yourself go, huh?”  April asked, trying to laugh as if she was joking, but even she knew it sounded fake.  “Did you do this?”  Sara asked her sternly.  April hung her head.  “Yeah.” Sara sighed.  “Damnit, I told you not to save!” she said.  “It was an accident!”  April retorted.  “I just did one stupid story-thingy; and it autosaved on me!”  Sara leaned back on the couch.  “Shit, I did forget to tell you it did that.”  She looked at the TV for a second.  “But did you have to make me so fat?”
April giggled.  “I couldn’t help it, you just looked so funny all big and fat like that.”  Sara sighed again.  “Jerk.”  She went to options and quit.  “Alright, I’m making a new character.”  She said, starting the process of doing just that.  “If you want to see somebody get fat, start your own character or something!”  April stuck her tongue out at Sara and left the room.
Sara created a new character, making her as thin as she had been yesterday.  It took most of her time between school and work, and she only had time to play through one objective before she had to leave.  She shut the console off and went to work, where no one else said anything about her weight either.
Meanwhile, April now had the day off, and was sitting home incredibly bored.  “What to do?  What to do?”  She walked through the apartment, looking for something to do.  Her eyes fell on the TV.  “Heh heh.” She laughed to herself.  “I shouldn’t…” she said.  But on the other hand… she reasoned, she did finish all that stuff already, so it’s not like she’d be too pissed about me playing for her.  She leapt over the couch and reached for the controller.  In fact, I’m really doing her a favor, helping her play through the part she already did so she doesn’t have to do it again.  She turned on the TV and console and watched the opening cinema.  She sat in silence for a moment and then said: “…and I’m sure there’s a way to lose weight.”

When Sara returned from work, she had almost come to accept her new weight.  There just didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it, it had taken on a dreamlike quality.  She would just have to hit the gym or something.  With a sigh, she made herself some food, played on the computer, and then sat down to play Last Tense.
As she loaded up her game, she yelled: “APRIL!!”  “Yeeees?” April called from her room.  “Come here!”  she yelled.  April walked out, grinning evilly.  “You jerk.”  Sara said.  “Oh relax.”  April told her.  “I was just getting you back to where you were yesterday.”  Sara stared at her for a second.  “But you made me fat again!”  April laughed.  “Come on, I’m sure if there’s a way to gain weight there’s a way to lose it.  You’ve still got a few objectives to go, you can lose it before you get back to where you were and it’ll be like nothing happened.”  Sara stared at her.  “…You win this round.”  She conceded.  April gave her a big grin and Sara stuck her tongue out at her; then April went back into her room.
Sara played a few more objectives, vaguely looking into some way to lose weight, but none of the restaurants had any diet foods; and she didn’t see any gyms anywhere.  She hoped maybe by not eating and doing lots of combat it would maybe help, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.  Finally it came time to go to bed, and she cursed as she had to leave her character fat.  She resolved to just start a new one tomorrow and not tell April, and went to bed.

The next day she felt it instantly.  As soon as she sat up, she felt her stomach form into rolls.  “Oh shit.”  She said.  She jumped up and looked at herself, and sure enough, she had grown genuinely fat.  Her stomach bulged forward, forming rolls, and her breasts jutted out before her.  Her hips were wider than her shoulders, and her thighs rubbed together.  She had a moon face and a pronounced double-chin.
She checked her dresser again and sure enough, all of her clothes were now big enough to fit her.  Something was going on.  As she walked out into the living room, she was greeted by April, again making breakfast, and again oblivious to any change in Sara’s size.  What the hell? Sara asked herself.
All day the things in her classes went in one ear and out the other as she pondered what could possibly be happening to her.  What was different in her life?  She looked around at her classmates.  None of them were any different or paying her any undue attention.  But then again, if no one was noticing her changing, why would she notice them?  Was one of them a witch who had used to be hugely fat, and she had made fun of her, so she was getting her revenge by exchanging their weights?  Now you’re just being silly. Sara told herself.
It wasn’t until that night after work that she realized it.  She loaded up her game and said: “Stupid April making me fat-“ and it hit her.  That’s what was different.  The game, she had been playing the game and gotten fat in the game, and now she was getting fat.  But how was that possible?  Did that even make sense?  As she played, she searched desperately for a way to lose the weight, but just couldn’t figure it out.  Finally she had to call it a night, and on a hunch, deleted her character.

The next day, she awoke at the same size as she had been the day before.  “Crap.” She said.  “Well, at least I didn’t get any bigger.”  She went about her day, trying to treat it like any other day, but she couldn’t help feeling different with such a radically different body mass.  She was constantly bumping into things and becoming frustrated with how much exertion it took to do physical activities.  “This sucks.”  She said.
As she got to work that day, she began asking the employees about Last Tense.  “Nope, never heard of it.” One of her co-workers said.  “It’s not on the new releases list.” Her manager told her.  “I’ve never heard of anything like that.” Said her walking-dictionary, uber-nerd co-worker.  And he usually knew everything about every game!  She even tried looking it up in the store’s database, but it didn’t come back with any results.
When she got home, she was feeling very uneasy, and stared at the TV as if it were possessed by a demon.  It had to be the game, she knew it.  That’s what was making her fat.  But now, how to fix it?  She started up the game and created a new character, and kept her well away from any food.  She even stayed up playing until April went to bed to make sure she couldn’t get her hands on her.  Once she was sure April was asleep, she went to bed as well, crossing her fingers that she’d solved it.

But the next day she woke up the same.  So it looked like creating a new character wouldn’t fix it.  All through school that day she pondered how to fix herself, and finally at work realized that maybe if she made her character fat and then lost the weight, she could fix herself.  So as soon as she got home, she took her character straight to a restaurant and ate and ate until she was hugely fat.  
“Alright, step two.”  Sara said resolutely, and began looking for some way, any way to lose weight.  She talked to all the NPCs, explored every inch of map she could get to, and still nothing.  She felt like crying.  She left the game on, hoping maybe she’d lose weight if she simply didn’t eat for long enough; and went to her computer.  She looked desperately online for anything on Last Tense.  Hoping to find a strategy guide with tips on how to lose weight, or even anything relating to the game.
She found a band called Last Tense, a pornographic site with the name off by one letter; and some website about breeding horses(somehow); but nothing on the game.  Finally, on the bottom of page eight of her Google search, just before she gave up, she found a link for the game’s official site.  Her heart racing, she clicked on it.  It was definitely the site for the game she’d been playing, it contained images from the game and a summary of the story.
But it was the worst kind of promotional game site.  No real information, just a simple throwaway page with a few screenshots and flashy animations to hype the game.  She did find it odd that under the promotional info for the game, one of the bullet points was: “Ultimate Character Customization!  Make Your Character As Fat As You Please!”.  With a frown, she browsed the page for any contact info.  The best she could find was something linking to the studio who had designed its’ website.
Upon clicking on it, she was taken to the website for “Caffienated Studios”; but all it had was a message saying “under construction: will return shortly”.  Sara pounded her fist on her desk and felt like screaming.  She closed her browser and walked defeatedly back to the living room.  She stared at her character, still just as fat as she’d left her; standing in the center of the screen doing her “impatient” animation.  With a sigh, she shut the console and TV off, and went to bed.

The next morning, her eyes snapped open as she realized her mistake.  “Oh shit!” she said, and tried to sit up.  But she couldn’t quite make it, her stomach got in her way.  “Oh shit.” She said in awe, looking down at herself.  She was immense. She had to build up some momentum to roll herself out of bed, and then waddled to the bathroom mirror.  She barely even recognized herself.  Her face bulged outwards, round and bloated with fat.  Her stomach had grown so huge she almost looked like a ball with arms and legs.  Her arms stuck out to her sides slightly, and her enormous breasts were starting to rest on the opposite sides of her belly.
In a state of shock, she waddled to her dresser and sure enough, found all of her clothes large enough to fit.  It was crazy, her favorite jeans looked like a denim parachute!  Her shirts looked like bedsheets!  She began to cry.  April knocked on her door, and Sara wiped her eyes; she couldn’t explain it to her.  It would just make her look crazy.  “Are you ready to go Sara?”  April called.  Sara took a deep breath to calm herself.  “I’m not going today.”  She responded.  “Of course you are, get out here!”  April called.  Sara laughed, at least April was the same.
But even though that had made her feel better, school made her feel worse.  Now the other students did react to her weight.  But not with shock at its sudden appearance, they reacted with disgust at its existence.  She had to endure disgusted stares and whispered comments of “fat-ass” behind her back.  It made her feel like crying all over again.  On the ride home, April asked her about it.  “What’s wrong Sara?”
“Nothing, it’s just, all the kids there, they’re so mean.”  Sara replied, almost on the verge of tears again.  “…About your weight?”  April asked her.  Sara nodded.  “Well so?”  April asked.  Sara stared at her, shocked.  “They’ve always been that way, you never let it bother you before.”  April told her, completely serious.  “As long as I’ve known you, you’ve been proud of your weight, and anytime someone made a crack about it, you made it sound like they were wrong for being so skinny.”  She looked back at the road.  “You’ve been acting weird the last few days, have you been feeling alright?”  
Sara sniffed, at least April was there for her.  “No, I think maybe I am getting sick or something.” She said.  “I think I’m gonna call out of work today.”  April turned and gave her a supportive smile.  “Alright, I have to work, but if you need anything, you know where the medicine cabinet is!”  Sara laughed.

After April had gone to work, Sara started up Last Tense.  She had to find the way to lose weight!  It had to be there!  She set to work creating a new character, starting her out as heavy as she could make her.  The first thing she did was walk to a restaurant and eat and eat until she blew up to maximum fatness.  She was about to leave the place and start looking for a way to lose the weight, when some music started playing.
The chef came out from the back, he was a thin young man with long blonde hair, and he looked pleased with her.  He came over and gave her character a big hug and said: “Congratulations, you’ve unlocked Supersize Mode!  Keep eating!”  And set some food in front of her with a wink and an “on the house.”  Then he returned to the back.  With a snort, Sara made her character get up and leave the restaurant, leaving the food on the table.
She searched for hours, trying everything to get herself thin.  But she couldn’t find it, and she was getting frustrated.  With a sigh, she got up and walked to her room, leaving the console on to try the not-eating over time thing again.  And hopefully with the console still on, the weight wouldn’t transfer to her this time!  She fell on her bed and went to take a nap.  It was exhausting work hauling all that fat around!  Please… she thought to herself as she passed out.

As she woke up, she heard April in the living room.  “Haha, awesome!” she was saying, and Sara’s blood ran cold.  She tried to get to her feet and then remembered she had to roll herself out of bed.  She shifted around, making the bed creak, then waddled out into the living room.  “What are you doing?” she asked April.  “Oh, Sara, you’re up!  Feeling any better?”  She asked, but Sara wasn’t paying attention, she was staring at the television.  
Her character stood in the center of it, far fatter than she’d ever been before.  “What are you doing?”  Sara repeated.  “Hmm?  Oh, this.”  April turned to the TV.  “Check it out, it’s so cool, I don’t know what I did but somehow I can get fatter than before!”  Sara waddled over to the couch.  “No, you can get me fatter than before.”  She said.  “Oh so what?”  April asked, oblivious.  She guided Sara’s character into a restaurant and made her wolf down a burger right in front of Sara.  As Sara watched, her character expanded even larger.  April looked up at her and stuck her tongue out.
“Please stop.”  Sara said quietly, staring at the TV.  “Why?”  April asked, laughing.  “You’re making me fat!”  Sara almost yelled.  “It’s just a videogame.”  April said.  “No, it’s not.”  Sara said, sitting down next to April and looking into her eyes.  “I can’t explain it, but a week ago I was as skinny as you are.”  April looked at her, a mix of confusion and amusement in her eyes.  “Every time you make me fat in that game, I wake up the next day even bigger, and look at me now!”  Sara leaned back and put her hands on her enormous stomach.
“What are you talking about?” April asked her, “You sound like a crazy person.”  She paused the game and turned to face Sara.  “Sara, I’ve known you for years, and you’ve always been big, and you’ve always been proud of it.  You must really be sick if you think you’ve only just gotten fat this week.”  April was completely serious.  Sara stared at her, how could she shake a belief like that?  
“April, please, just believe me.”  Sara pleaded with her.  April shook her head.  “Have you been doing drugs without me?”  She asked.  “What?  No.”  Sara laughed in spite of herself.  “Look, just calm down.  Videogames do not make me people fat.”  April said seriously.  She turned back to the console and unpaused it.  “This videogame has not re-written years of reality just because I’m making digital you eat digital cheeseburgers.”  Upon saying this, April made Sara’s character eat another one, which caused her to grow even fatter.  Sara turned to face her bloated avatar, watching as she ate another cheeseburger.
When she put it like that, it did sound crazy.  One bizarre videogame having that kind of power?  But how could she explain the past few days?  She looked down at her monstrous stomach.  She had been rail then, except… When she thought back, she could almost remember… she and April on a swing-set; when she got on the thing creaked a little and they both laughed.  But that didn’t happen, did it?  Or her boyfriend in high school, who’d seemed cool until he finally showed his true colors and told her to lose weight; and she’d dumped him on the spot and she and April had gone on an ice-cream binge just to spite him.  Except she’d never had a boyfriend who told her to lose weight, she was just fine, even a little thin…
Sara leaned back and put a hand to her head.  “Maybe you’re right, I think I should see a doctor tomorrow.”  April looked over at her and smiled.  “Yeah, maybe you should.  Or just make sure you get enough to eat.”  April made her character eat another burger.  “Will you stop that?!”  Sara said, laughing.  “Aren’t I fat enough already?  I can barely even walk, look at me, I’m pathetic.”  She gestured to her character, who’s movement speed had slowed to almost nothing.  April laughed as well.  “Never!”  She responded, “I won’t stop until you have to be rolled around!”  She cried valiantly and moved Sara’s character back into the restaurant.  “Oh no you don’t!”  Sara cried, and the two wrestled for the controller on the couch.
Sara moved over and pinned April under her enormous stomach.  “Aaah!  Aaah!  Stop, I’m gonna die!”  April yelled, still laughing.  “Are you gonna stop making me fat?”  Sara asked.  “If I don’t you’ll flatten me!”  April laughed.  “That’s right.”  Sara said authoritatively, and sat back down on the couch.  April sat upright and looked at her, and then made her character eat another cheeseburger.  Sara gasped and looked at April in shock.  “YOU!”  April sprang from her seat and ran around the couch, and Sara heaved herself up and waddled after her.
As they chased eachother, neither noticed the chef coming back onto the screen.  “Maximum Fatness Achieved!”  He congratulated Sara’s character, and gave her a big hug.  The word “saving…” appeared in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  
Finally Sara ran out of breath, and the two stared at eachother across the couch, giggling between gulps of air.  “Truce?”  April asked her.  “Truce.”  Sara agreed.  “See, I won’t even save it.”  April said, turning off the console.  “You’re still a jerk.”  Sara told April, who stuck her tongue out at Sara.  The two sat back down on the couch and watched TV until they went to bed.  And for the first time, Sara didn’t feel bad about her weight or disturbed with the situation at all.

The next morning Sara awoke and tried to get out of bed, but found she couldn’t move.  She looked down at herself and saw she was nothing more than a huge blob of fat, completely immobile.  “I knew it!”  she cried.  She tried moving around and only succeeded in making her titanic body jiggle.  She looked around and saw that her room was different than it had been before.  Her computer was right next to her, with a specially made keyboard, half of it by her left hand, the other half by her right.  
The TV and console was also in front of her, the controller at one of the nightstands by her side.  April pushed her way through the door, a heaping tray of food in her hand.  “Morning sunshine.”  She said.  “April, what’s going on?”  Sara asked her.  “What are you talking about?”  April asked her.  “What happened to me?”  Sara asked.  April looked her over, even walking around behind her to get a full view.  “Nothing as far as I can see.”  April said.  “But I’m huge!”  Sara said.  “Where’ve you been?”  April asked, setting the tray on Sara’s stomach.  “You’ve been that way a couple years now.”
“A couple years?”  Sara asked, she tried to remember… yes.  She’d had a thyroid problem, the worst the doctors had ever seen.  She’d always been big but it seemed like as soon as they diagnosed it she’d blown up like a balloon.  Luckily April had been there for her, she’d agreed to move in and take care of her.  Even gotten certified as an RN to do it.  
“Sorry,” Sara said, “just had a weird dream.  You know, one of those ones where it’s so realistic you think it really happened the next day?”  April smiled at her.  “Don’t worry about it.”  Sara looked down at her breakfast tray.  “Mmm, that looks delicious.”  She said.  “It should be, I spent an hour on it.”  She made sure everything was as it should be and then prepared to leave, “anyway, I’ve got to go to school, make sure you do your online coursework today and don’t just spend all day playing that Last Tense again!”  She wagged a finger at Sara.  “I won’t…”  Sara said.
April turned to leave, then stopped, “Oh, what was your dream about, anyway?”  She asked.  Sara swallowed a bite of the food, “Oh nothing, I just dreamed that I was as skinny as you.”  She said.  April laughed.  “Yeah, that’d be the day.  Then I could eat myself into a blob and you could take care of me!”  Sara gave her the puppy-dog eyes.  “But it’s not my fault, it’s my thyroid!”  April glared at her.  “Oh yeah, all the greasy, fattening food you eat has nothing to do with it at all.”  She said.  “But you’re the one who cooks all my food!”  Sara retorted.  April grinned at her, “You’re right, I guess I am.”  And then she left.  Sara smiled at the closed door.  “Meanie.”  She said.