For hours now she had been fighting back that urge, trying with all her might to resist the urge to go consume anything loaded with surcose that her body was now demanding. With her four mammaries now emptied, the urge only seemed to have gained strength... at after the exhaustion of her rapid mutation, Jennifer could no longer resist. Her body's fatigue had become a mental fatigue that was finally breaking her willpower, pushing her on to step away from the bench and towards the door.
She would have barged right out had she not heard someone call from behind her. "Doctor Xiao, wait!" Madeline's voice snapped her back into awareness, bolstering her will long enough that she could stop and turn to look at her assistant. "You, ah... you probably shouldn't go out there, where the security cameras can see you."
The cameras. Right. That... that could have been a bit of a disaster. There were several cameras between her lab and the vending machine, and while security could be spotty about checking the footage, that wasn't a dice she needed to roll. There were, at least, none in her lab - she'd thought herself unlucky when informed that her lab would be the least secure in the building. Ironic how it now helped her.
"You're right..." She nodded, four hands trembling slightly as she forced herself away from the door. "The urge for sugar... it's... it's grown very difficult to resist..." She motioned to the beakers filled with her honey. "Some of the new bodily processes, they... they consume a great deal of it..."
The blonde looked worriedly between Jennifer and the honey, pondering a course of action for several moments before she made an offer. "Let me go out and get you something, then. Do you think you'd be okay to wait here a few minutes?"
Honestly? She couldn't bring herself to say yes, because she wasn't sure if that would be an honest answer. Instead, she merely made a slight nod with her head, that seemingly being enough for Madeline. "Alright, I'll be right back." She put a hand on the doctor's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze before she crept out the door, making haste to the vending machines.
In the meantime, she needed something to focus on. Something to keep her from pacing around in hunger. The best distraction, she had always found, was work, and an important task quickly occurred to her. Scurrying over to the corner of the room where they had a couple of laptops set up, she set about testing whether or not her mutated hands could work the keyboard. It was odd to try and type, with only two fingers per hand available, and no room to make using all four viable, but after a bit of practice she managed to get the hang of it. Her fingers, it seemed, no longer conducted electricity properly to use the integrated mousepad, but an external mouse was at least still usable.
Jennifer's antennae twitched towards the door, but with a deep breath, she forced herself to remain at the laptop. Quickly she opened up a new spreadsheet, and set about mapping out columns for various values that would be found on whatever food she was about to consume. Brands, types of food, sugar content, other ingredients, weight, time of consumption - anything that might be relevant to document. The more they knew about her altered body's processes, the more data they'd have available for working on a way to reverse what had happened to her.
She was nearing completion when the scent of glucose and fructose began to draw closer. Madeline was returning, she assumed, and it was causing her body to flush with excitement. She had to grasp the edge of the table with all four hands, trying to hold herself back from busting down the door. As soon as the blonde stepped through, carrying an armful of sodas and snacks, Jennifer was rushing over, practically salivating at the sweet scents.
"This uh... this was all I could carry." It was difficult to hide her apprehension at how the doctor was behaving. Her eyes wandered around for something else to focus on, and spotting the laptop, she moved over to take it. "Why don't you uh... get started, ma'am. I'll handle documentation."
She didn't need to say it twice. In a flurry Jennifer grabbed one of the candy bars, practically ripping it open and hurling the wrapped towards Madeline. Both hands rushed to stuff it down her starving mouth, barely chewing up the chocolate before it was being swallowed. The way she assulted the bar was borderline animalistic, a fact that Jennifer was unable to pay much attention to as she dove in for another bar.
The pile of foodstuffs that Madeline had brought in shrunk rapidly, as Jennifer found herself ripping into everything like a starved beast. Every part of her body seemed to be twitching with excitement, from her trembling hands to her shivering antennae, and even the four breasts that now heaved as they were able to resume their new function. Barely a quarter of what had been brought in remaind by the time she regained her senses, finishing off a soda and setting it aside as her mental faculties returned.
Digust set in immediately. She had prided herself on having a clean, healthy diet - this was the first time she'd even had a soft drink. The absolute mess on her hands and face, and the deplorable quality of the processed foods she'd been scarfing down, brought with them pangs of guilt that marred her feeling of satisfaction and fullness. Slowly she looked back up towards Madeline, her gaze mostly still focused downwards as much as possible. "I'm sorry. I... lost control."
As worried as the blonde had been, she did her best to hide it. "It's alright, Doctor. I've uh... I've got everything documented, at least." She turned the laptop towards Jennifer, allowing her to see the carefully-filled spreadsheet, complete with notes on several rows. "Did it... help, at least."
A long sigh passed her lips, creating an odd whistle as air rushed around her mandibles. "It... sated the urges I was feeling." She stared down, tracing one hand worriedly through the mess of empty wrappers and aluminum cans on the table in front of her... and suddenly, a small giggle could be heard. A giggle that grew into a laugh, much to the confusion of her assistant.
"Doctor? What's... what's so funny?"
She swallowed audibly. "I just... I just realized." She had to stop to chuckle again. "With how much this is... imbalancing by body's sugar intake and usage... well, assuming the rest of the hybridization causes no other dangerous effects... the worst consequence, for my health, will be... diabetes."
It took a moment, as the blonde processed things, before she burst into her own small laugh. The little moment of humor, amidst this sea of uncertainity and terror... it was nice. A relief, one far greater than even the relief of satisfying her need for sugar. They both became lost in that moment, leaning on each other as the laughter became hysterical - and for just that moment, Jennifer wasn't some horrifying bee-human hybrid monster. She was just a woman having a laugh with a friend, amused at an absurd fact of her situation.
In a short time, however, the laughter died down, and the morbidity of tonight's events settled in once more. More tired than ever, Jennifer sat down at a stool, leaning against the bench with all her arms as Madeline rubbed her eyes. This ordeal had been exhausting for both of them, and a quick glance at the clock above the door revealed that they were now in the early morning hours. Far too soon, the first students and staff would be filtering into the building.
"We... should try and keep anyone from finding out about... this," Madeline pointed out, to a nod of agreement from Jennifer. "I can uh... I can bring your mattress, Doctor? I think... I think it'd fit in here..."
"Probably." It would help in the long term, but there was another problem upcoming. "I... was supposed to have a review by the dean next week. And... I can't really put him off, unless I want him to just kick me out entirely."
The blonde's brow furrowed. "Well... maybe that's an opportunity." She had that look in her eyes, like she was getting another big idea. As much as Jennifer could get anxious at Madeline's ideas, they usually had some strong basis - and her last big idea had saved the doctor's life. "We can find out a lot about what happened in a week, document things, maybe even do some more testing... I'm pretty sure if you show him a breakthrough like this, he won't care if you're an insect or not." She rubbed the back of her neck. "It'd be safer, probably, then trying to rush to fix this before then, or trying to get it delayed."
She had a point. As much as she wanted to avoid discovery, out of fear of what the natural reaction of your average person would be... the Dean of Sciences was an academic, and a very open-minded one at that. If anyone in this school's administration understood the ramifications of what had happened to her, and the importance of carefully investigating this breakthrough, it would be him. The only question was whether she wanted to risk him declaring her a monster, or worse, thinking it was all some prank and kicking her right out of this university.