Ashley was mildly disoriented by the changes from her forced evolution, but she also knew she was making history. Not only was she the first person to be evolved, she was also the first person to have 2 heads. Her other features were also significant, just less so than having 2 brains. A single consciousness thinking simultaneously in 2 brains in parallel was a major discovery.
One of the benefits of her evolution had been a dramatic increase to the speed and parallelism of her thoughts. With the projectors turned off, Ashley had very little outside things to focus on, and so she found she was able to think about whether to continue with many simultaneous thoughts. The thoughts raced in both of her brains at remarkable speed. Ashley felt she had ample time to think about whether to commit to continuing the experiment, and yet she waited barely a second before answering.
"Stick to the plan" "Stick to the plan"
All 4 of Ashley's mouths cracked into grins - she was becoming more adept at controlling her changed body. When she responded, she had only spoken with 2 mouths, both of them on her left head.
The intercom crackled and the lead scientist spoke through it:
"Are sure? You don't want to think about it any longer? It's okay to cut the test short, we knew it was ambitious from the start. This is already a major breakthrough."
Ashley shook both of her heads side to side. Thanks to her numerous eyes, her field of view didn't shift in the slightest, which caused her to shake her heads a little harder. A momentary dizzyness overtook her as she flung her heads around.
"Whoa. I'm sure. I'm okay." "Whoa. I'm sure. I'm okay."
She had again spoken using 2 mouths instead of 4, but this time the mouths she used were spaced on both heads.
With the projected images inactive, Ashley could see the figures in the control booth. The chief scientist turned and talked to her two assistants. A short time passed while they talked, then the assistants turned back to their controls. The chief scientist spoke to Ashley again,
"Okay, we're going to start it up again. If we get any weird readings, we'll abort."
Ashley nodded both heads in response, and watched as the projectors turned on again. This time, there was a much higher density of media being shown. Ashley's dual brains instantly started parsing the various videos being projected onto the walls, and rapidly focused onto a number of different videos.
The audio from the videos poured into the chamber, but at a lower volume than before. It was still very audible, but low enough that the scientists would be able to hear Ashley if she said something.
A small podium raised from the center of the chamber. On top of it was a pile of laser pointers.
A few seconds after the videos were up and playing on the walls, the intercom flared to life again, "In addition to a higher density of stimuli, we're going to add a critical thinking component to this stage. I'm going to give you a statement, and I want you to respond by finding a video that matches the statement, and point to it with the laser pointers. You will have 5 seconds. If you can find and point at multiple videos, that is worth more points. Your objective is to get as high a point score as possible. Understand, Ashley?"
"Yes" "Yes" "Yes" Ashley sighed softly - despite her greatly increased ability to process multiple thoughts and pay attention to many things, it was clear that the sheer quantity of input was simply too much for her, even with two heads. That realization only pushed her to steel herself further, and to focus even harder on the many videos playing on the walls. Ashley grabbed a laser point in each hand and the podium descended back into the floor.
"First statement. News shows."
Ashley had already been watching 3 news shows, and immediately pointed at them.
"Good. Any others?"
Both of her brains scrambled as she scanned over the huge walls with her multitude of eyes. A number of news shows caught her eyes, and she pointed at them.
"Time. 8 matches, 2 false."
Ashley realized she had been holding her breath, and exhaled. The pressure was palpable - it was clear they were evaluating her capabilities, even if it seemed like just a meaningless game. They must be recording it and would study it for months or years to come.
"Second statement. Cartoons."
Ashley scrambled to point at as many cartoons as she could. Her 8 arms spun around, moving from video to video Five seconds later, the scientist spoke again,
"Time. 11 matches, 3 false." The scientist paused for a few seconds, during which time Ashley managed to focus on a number of videos. "Third statement. Advertisements."
Ads were distinctly harder for her to identify. She had been watching two when the statement was said, and immediately pointed to them, but had a hard time locating more. A now familiar dull throbbing was starting to pulse in Ashley's heads.
"Time. 3 matches, 4 false."
She regained her bearings and focused onto a few of the video streams. The throbbing slowly gained in momentum as she waited for the new statement from the intercom.
"Fourth statement. Documentaries."
Ashley pointed to the 2 documentaries she had already spotted and scanned for others. The throbbing grew in intensity much more rapidly, and spread down through her necks into torso.
"Time. 2 matches, 2 false."
As the scientist stopped talking, the throbbing reached a pitch and Ashley felt like a spear was shoved through her body. Unlike the last time, she didn't black out. Instead, she felt the change rippling through her body.
Her heads split evenly down the middle of her body, splitting each head into 2 halves with a face on each half. The split continued down her torso until it reached her pelvis, at which point it stopped. Her split torso slowly moved out from the center of her body. Flesh rapidly grew from both halves of the split.
Ashley was completely aware of the moment when her 2 brains split into 4 brains - all thought halted instantly and she could only passively experience the change, unable to move, think, or even react. It took nearly a minute for the two halves the shift and to regrow the split flesh. When the growth finished, thought returned instantly to Ashley, once again changed.
Everything from her waist up had been duplicated. She now had two torsos coming up from her waist, and both torsos were identical. One was situated behind the other such that while Ashley now had twice as many breasts, 8 of her now 16 breasts were sandwiched between her torsos. Her 4 heads were also positioned such that 4 of her 8 faces were looking inward at her other faces.
As Ashley started to think with her 4 changed brains, it was immediately apparent to her that she was no longer thinking like a human being, but had evolved into a new way of thinking. Before she had been able to think a number of things simultaneously in each brain, but each thought was separated and discrete. When one train of thought finished, another thought started up - she had clearly had a limit to the number of simultaneous thoughts. And when she didn't think about something, that train of thought was still there, just not active - but she was constantly aware of it.
Now, Ashley's thoughts seemed to be nebulous. They started, thought, and ended without waiting for any other particular train of thought. She was still the one doing all the thinking, but there was no longer any trains of thought, or streams of consciousness.
Despite the abstractness of her new mental state, Ashley felt very rooted and comfortable with her new brains. She was still feeling emotions (4 times as many emotions as this morning), and she felt a bit more comfortable with her body now than she had with her last form.
A part of her comfort was due to her inner breasts' constant contact - which provided her with a constant baseline level of pleasure. It was nowhere near orgasmic in intensity, but it was a strong enough pleasure that Ashley suspected it would keep her in a good mood indefinitely.
Ashley used her 8 inner arms to hug her torsos together, squishing her inner breasts together and greatly amplifying the pleasure she got from them. It also pulled her heads closer together - so close she could kiss herself if she wanted. Knowing she was being watched, she refrained from doing so, and released her hug.
As she released her self hug, she started to idly watch the videos on the walls. To her surprise, she was able to observe and understand a very large number of them, vastly more than twice the number she had been watching minutes earlier.
The intercom crackled open again,
"Uh. How are you doing in there, Ashley?"
Ashley responded with only 1 mouth this time, "I'm fine. It was weird being conscious for that." Smiles at her improved control spread across all 8 of her faces. Being able to see herself smiling with her inner faces only made her smile harder.
"Okay Ashley. Same question as before. Do you feel confident to continue? We're definitely out of planned territory here, so aborting is perfectly fine."