35,000,000 women.
Out of 7,000,000,000 humans on Earth, so far only roughly 35,000,000 women are genetically susceptible to the very thing I have begun researching. A mere 0.5% of the world population can be affected, a number I hope to raise as soon as I can. And it all begins with this sugarlike substance. A sugarlike substance that has so many hypnotically enticing properties. Sucrosium.
It wasn't a hard discovery, but the circumstances that resulted in its discovery were rather... fortuitous you could say. I was a part of a candy company's research and development team made up of about ten people. We were on a scouting trip in the tropical jungles of South America on the lookout for potential new and exotic flavors. One member of our troupe, a young woman I'll name Pearl to protect her identity, related to the rest of us one day that she had just the strangest premonition that our excursion would be a successful one. Sometime the next day she said she could smell something sweet coming from a strange cavern out in the middle of the jungle. We of course followed her into the innocuous looking cave, trusting her judgement.
About a minute or two into the cavern later, we discovered an enormous chamber filled from top to bottom with aqua blue crystalline structures that reminded a great many of us of rock candy. Pearl was the first one to sample the crystals, revealing that not only were they edible, but were the sweetest and tastiest rock candy crystals that she'd ever eaten. Having tasted the sugary crystals for ourselves, we had to agree with her. Despite only really tasting like regular unaltered sugar, it was exceedingly delicious and would make as a high quality ingredient in our confection production. We decided to set up camp for the night, planning to eventually claim real-estate ownership of the cavern and whatever sweets within, hoping to construct a factory in the ares within a reasonably swift time-frame. Over the course of the night, we soon discovered two things: One, that whenever you broke off a piece of the crystal from the cavern, it would soon regenerate itself. Two, Pearl seemed to be somewhat addicted to the stuff, unlike the rest of us. In fact, we were just then realizing how uncanny it was that Pearl was able to pick up on these crystals so keenly. She stuffed herself on about two pounds of the stuff before she went to sleep.
By the time the morning came, she had suddenly developed a fair bit of weight. Certainly a lot faster than a regular human, and definitely a lot more than just for eating two pounds worth of pure cane sugar. For context, Pearl started out as a lithe, petite little thing, couldn't have weighed over 150 pounds. She'd seemed to have doubled in weight overnight, beginning to tip scales at 300! On top of that, she just kept eating the aqua blue crystals! We were all amazed to be sure, but also a bit worried. We were doubting whether we should go through with our original plan, when Pearl suddenly started venturing deeper into the cavern. Of course we had to follow her, no man gets left behind after all.
Pearl had eventually lead us to another chamber filled this time with many pink crystals, also apparently quite delicious. Not to mention equally as effective at getting Pearl addicted to them. Only Pearl seemed to be addicted however, and we soon noticed that none of the other researchers seemed affected at all. It was then that I proposed an experiment to the team. Each of us would gorge ourselves on two pounds of the crystals each before we went to sleep that night and record our findings in the morning. Everyone present, especially Pearl, agreed.
The next morning, everyone seemed normal, albeit a bit queasy and only an extra pound or two heavier, like a normal person. Pearl on the other hand had drastically transformed. She suddenly appeared to weigh 500 pounds worth of fat tissue for a start, but that was nothing to the rest of her changes. Namely her skin had turned a literal pure snow white. She had gotten two inches taller than before, and was so fat that she could no longer fit into her either her uniform or undergarments. We observed that her nipples and areola had turned bright purple, as well as her lips, irises, tongue, and hair. Her hair seemed a lot less like individual strands of hair, and more like a solidified mass of soft purple marshmallow fluff that acted like hair. In fact, she seemed to resemble a marshmallow that had been shaped into a person.
It was then that my research into these crystals we then dubbed "sucrosium" began. I discovered that Pearl was one of only 1% of women who could be affected by the substance like this. It also seemed that only women could be affected by it, and even then only after they had gone through puberty. On top of the increase weight, I discovered that sucrosium had the potential to turn susceptible women into any manner of sugary treats or fruits, not just marshmallows. This was a trait unique to the pink variety of crystal, as opposed to it's aqua blue counterpart. What kind of fruit or confection varied from individual to individual. I also noticed slight changes in personality, dampening in perception, and other mental augmentations. Overall, those affected ended up with a heavily increased appetite, becoming sweeter in disposition, slightly unaware of their own size, easier to manipulate, among other things.
Eventually, many of the handful of people I tested on had surpassed becoming large to the point of immobility, their growth eventually petering out and stopping somewhat. They all seem to be in an uncaring state of bliss, apparently happy to be sedentary lumps of candy or fruit. Pearl in particular, who we'd renamed Marsh-Milla, had gotten as tall as a two story house and about as wide if not slightly wider. Her arms and legs had fattened out so much that they practically melted into her rounded form, leaving her now tiny hands and feet to poke out of little divots. Her breasts had grown as well, each about as big as two or three U-haul trucks. Amazingly, she still possessed an intergluteal crease in her posterior, which had swelled out but still molded well into the rounded curve of her body. Her head seemed rather small in comparison to her now gargantuan sugary body, but even it had fattened features, like puffier cheeks and lips and the beginnings of another chin.
Indeed, Marsh-Milla was the first, but I'll see to it that she isn't the last.
35,000,000 women.
35,000,000 women were genetically eligible from the outset. Only 0.5% of the Earth's human population. Soon, I hope to make that number higher, and affect more people with the sweetifying powers of sucrosium. Through my research I'll rid the world of starvation, end all international conflict, and extend my vision to the stars above!