Bring the bodies closer

The next day, and the days following that, you felt a little closer to Jan each time. You still needed some instruction every so often at first for what to do and how to do it, but your awareness about her body, and her about yours, kept growing. You were cooking her favorite foods without having attempted them before, she was watching TV you liked, your music playlists became an intermingled mashup of different styles you both were starting to like more and more... you kept two apartments tidy, did a few hours of your job remotely each day, helped take care of Jan's own preparations for gardening in her apartment, in anticipation for a job she was going to do next week at the local farmer's market. You were immensely productive, and felt like you had the energy of two people to do it all!

And, yet... there were problems. You couldn't go outside like this, at least not anywhere that someone might spot you. They wouldn't understand what they were looking at when they saw your two heads, back to back... you didn't have a good, sensible way to hide that. Maybe you could fashion one of those tall hiking backpacks to hide your back half? And then what, claim that you were just this huge girl with arms that were clearly a different skin tone and size, hiking around the city? It would look silly.

The times you did have to split up were growing more and more agonizing. This felt like it was somehow part of Jane's plan, who was conduction her own experiment on you two, staying quiet and observing most of each day as you two worked together. Having to go out and shop for groceries, for example, ended up with Jan clinging to your arm, like if she let go she might drift away forever. At least with one free arm with either body, you were still synchronized enough to work together to grab groceries. While you got odd looks in the store, most people just thought you were a particularly clingy couple.

But it was more than clingy. The need to be together with Jan, physically occupy the same space, it kept growing. The more synchronized you two became, the less you felt like two people, and then more distressing it was that you occupied two spaces. Even the tightest binding that Jane could do didn't seem like enough!

The phone rang on the sixth day, and you picked it up, holding it to Jan's ear, who spoke at your instruction. "Hello? Oh, Emilia! This is John. Yes, it is, it's kind of an unusual thing. Hey, maybe you might have some thoughts on something that could help me out here." You relayed your story to Emilia over the phone, detailing things about your weekly check-in as promised, so she could get a good assessment of what your ghostly girlfriend had been up to. She was surprised that there was now a third person in the mix, but she didn't have any concerns about that.

"Come to think of it, I do think I have something that might help in this situation," Emilia said over the phone, and both you and Jan started to shake with anticipation that there might be a way to satisfy these desires! "Come by the mansion in an hour or so, I will ask my staff to prepare something for you. And I want to see this combination of yours, so please be prepared to show me before I authorize any other experiment."

Excited, you and Jan did have to take the dreadful step of dressing as unique individuals for even a short period of time. Jane, fortunately, was eager to help bring clothes and such to you two, walking possessed outfits to both of you to slip them on. She folded her stretched-out outfits into a neat pile, which Jan knew to carry while you knew to drive. Jan's hand never left your shoulder, needing that anchor the whole while. The constant need for touch was so strong that Jan couldn't climb into the passenger seat of your car, instead she took the backseat right behind you, so she could use one hand or another to maintain contact with you for the whole drive.

You drove as quickly as you could to Emilia's mansion, at least as quickly as was legally allowed--the last thing you needed was any delays like a speeding ticket! You parked, and knocked, both you and Jan looking like your closeness addiction was getting worse the longer you two stood apart in separate outfits. Emilia stood near the door as one of her staff opened up. "Welcome, you two." She glanced at the pile of clothes Jan was holding, and then back at Jan. "And this must be the third. Or, perhaps, not for much longer, if things go to plan. But please... show me this tandem-body thing you've described. The library to your right is free for changing.

You hurried in quickly, removing all your clothing down to what Jane could use to adjust Jan's height and bind you together, wrapping you up in a bra and panties again that held you two firmly together. You went with the casual jeans and tee again, just to make it simpler to demonstrate the configuration. When done, you walked back out, holding your arms out in a sort of 'ta-da' pose as Jan smiled, because you wanted her to smile. She would have blushed furiously at anyone else seeing her like this, otherwise.

"As you can see," Jan started, though it was your words as you strolled around Emilia effortlessly, "the clothes hide almost everything, thanks to what Jane has done. And it feels so... so good. But we can't go out like this, plus for as good as it feels, we still feel too... separate. The fact that we're using 'we', even, feels like it's not exactly accurate. It's more like..." you tapped Jan's chin, working in sync to make it look like she was thinking. "It's more like I am existing in two adjacent spaces, and it doesn't feel right anymore."

Emilia grinned, fascinated by the woman before her. She touched at the fabric, herself willing to be a little handsy for the sake of understanding what the three of you have done. She let her hands sink into one of the more massive breast-shapes the shirt formed, or into the side of the larger rear of the jeans. "I'm actually very impressed. This is a lot of coordination. Jane did this?"

"I did, yes! Sorry, I'd been quiet for a while, I don't talk much lately. I'm so used to helping coordinate their outfits, that it's like a full time job... I take it back. It's like full time play! I'm constantly up against them, rubbing against them, it's impossible to describe just how good it feels to be their clothes."

Emilia motions for you to follow her, as she starts walking with careful steps down the main hallway. At first, you thought you were going to the Ghost Machine room again, but Emilia seemed to have a new destination in mind. "So, from what I understand, everyone in this situation is happy, but everyone would like something... more. Or at least, that's true for the two bodies in the outfit."

"I wouldn't mind a little more as well," Jane said. "It would feel better to not have all these gaps in the clothes, I want to be up against skin..."

Jan also nodded. "I think... if there is a way to somehow be closer than we are now, I want that. I desperately need it... it feels like my brain is split in two, not that two brains are connected, if that makes any sense..!" You held Jan's forehead for dramatic effect, the other hand resting on the hips of the jeans, in your totally coordinated mega-body.

Emilia thought for a moment, and then nodded to her staff. "Open the door, please."

The staff pulled the doors open and everyone stepped inside, to what looked like a tank of glowing blue liquid. "This, my friends, is what I call Distortion Gel. It's a very unusual liquid, but what's important about it is that organic matter, such as yourselves, can be molded like silly putty within it. You can stretch, fold, grow, shrink, split... and merge with another. That last part is the critical part for what you are after. If you want to be closer than you are now? enter the gel, press together however you'd like, exit the gel again. There's no limit to how often you might go in and out of it, but it seems for your purposes you know precisely what you want."

Jan looks over at Emilia, biting her lip. It does sound like it would help... "Is it safe?"

"Oh my, yes. Of all the things my grandfather has found, this is perhaps the best-understood from a scientific perspective. Hideki Laboratories studied it at my grandfather's request a few decades ago, so long as they could use samples of it for their biopolymer research. Sadly, it seems that research has discontinued, they only seem to have learned enough for their 'smart gel' medical distribution substance, but that's beside the point. The key is, this material is well-understood, and well tested."

"Have you been able to test it yourself?" Jane asked.

Emilia paused. "...for medical reasons, I have not been able to try it. I have a particular... incompatibility with some of the properties of the substance. I can assure you that it is safe for this case, however. If you're not comfortable, then simply don't step inside it. You can enter too, Jane, though you will not be affected by its properties, nor will the clothes. Only living biological matter. In fact, Jane, you should probably be the one to 'sculpt' them, since you can do so objectively."

You hesitated, looking down at the liquid. This could be it, what you want and need right then... but that was a big step. Still, you could separate later by re-entering the goo...

You took a step forward, then another. You felt Jan's fear as well as thrill at what you were leading her towards--after all, these were still your legs that you were moving! She was just along for the ride... you stepped down into the cold goo, and you and Jan were submerged.

You couldn't believe you were doing this. Would you have wanted to do this had Jane not tinkered with your head? Argh, that's a frustrating thought! Yet, here you were, suspended in this liquid. You felt... dissolved, partly. Or at least, no longer fully solid, more like you'd melted. And then you felt a new constricting feeling on your body...

Jane was pushing on you and Jan, deliberately bringing you two together--at first it felt like you could go no further, the divide between your chest and Jan's back was still insurmountable, but with a tight enough squeeze from the tee and pants constricting around you, you felt... a new connection. Your hand reached down, feeling under the fabric, where there should have been a gap between your waists. And... there was none! It still felt like roughly two distinct body shapes, but it was seamless at that spot.

Jan grew excited, you could feel her heart beating faster as the blood pumping in the bodies were now shared between the two interlinked forms. But, it wasn't enough! Jan pushed against you, you pushed back. Jane pushed and molded you both, until your legs and Jan's legs were solidly and cleanly the same body part, larger due to the mass of two bodies of course. Then the waists came together, forming a singular lower half. Your erection was somewhere drifting about within Jan's body, you could feel it still, but it was fully internal now as it combined with Jan's own internals. Things just seemed to naturally line up... and you felt everything feel not just normal, but better than normal, as you and Jan truly were occupying the same space from the waist down, one pair of legs and waists between the two of you.

The shirt was next, pushing you into Jan's back after gripping hard! Jan's arms were briefly freed from the confines of the bra, solely so your arms could connect with hers. This was only to make sure hands and fingers lined up, before you felt the putty-like existence of your body shift some of that extra mass from the arms into the core of the body. Much of the excess, wherever Jane found it in her sculpting session through the outfit, seemed to be feeding into Jan's breasts... they were growing in size at a rapid pace, truly stretching towards the actual massive defined shape that Jane had created in the shirt and bra earlier!

And last... the heads. This one was all on you, as you buried your head into Jan's from behind. You pushed inward, because there was little else for you to do as the rest of you had already been combined so effortlessly. You didn't want to disturb her actual facial shape, so much of that excess mass again seemed to transport down into the breasts, the excess-storage of your body apparently. It wasn't much longer, before you felt... whole. You really were one person like this! Jan's mind and yours were linked powerfully now, partly because your brains overlapped and interleaved somehow. You didn't know how, you didn't care how. You just knew that this was how you were meant to be right then.

You started to climb out of the liquid again when Jane stopped her work and settled back into just being your clothes. You took that as your cue to exit the strange gel, climbing out of the little pool with a nearby ladder. When you reached the top, climbed out fully, and looked down at yourself without gel all over...

You felt actually very similar in build to how you felt before. You still had quite wide hips, and a fairly enormous rear, which was to be expected from two bodies connected in the way you had. This time, though, you filled out Jane's jeans perfectly, which held onto your body tightly. Your waist pulled in, exaggerating that hourglass shape, especially as the body arrived at the breasts... no longer were they just an illusion, these heavyweights on your chest were absolutely real! And given that your shoulders were further forward like this, you could actually reach out and grab and hold onto their significant mass...

Your hand ran along your opposite shoulder, feeling behind you. Just one set of shoulders, just one neck, just one head. You knew the contours of your face, as they had been Jan's before, you felt no need to change what worked. Her face and neck were recognizable to your hands by now, feeling as precisely as beautiful as she had been before. But now, her cute head sat atop a tall, incredibly curvaceous body that felt amazing to touch, and to be touched by, as you noted Jane was finally tightly pressed along any patch of skin she could manage!

Emilia stepped a little closer, examining you carefully. You lifted up arms, or shifted legs, on her request. You leaned over, given that you were still quite a bit taller like this than Jan previously had been, now standing at roughly six and a half feet after the combination--even a bit taller than you'd been, with how the mass of your bodies was distributed.

"Interesting," Emilia said, when she examined your face last. "These look like John's eyes, though most everything else it looks like you took care to keep intact. And..." Emilia reached up to touch at your hair. "Your hair color shifted as well, a bit. I'd say it's John's hair only to about the length he had it, and then the longer hair after that. And if you don't mind my asking..." Emilia stepped back, pointing between your legs.

You blushed a little. "Oh, uh, that's all Jan's on the outside," you said, hearing your voice for the first time as if it resonated from in your own head, though you recognized it as Jan's--just with your speech patterns. "It seemed like it made the most sense, since you said we could go back into the gel if we needed adjustments later..."

Emilia nodded. "Indeed. Well, John, or Jan, or... what is most appropriate for you now? Anyway, this is an unexpected turn, so now I will be monitoring this group for two experiments. One for the Ghost Machine updates, one for anything related to this distortion gel. I would like to have my medical team check you out, just to be certain nothing internal is out of place, otherwise you will run into other problems later, and we don't want that. Agreed?"

You nodded, with a smile, and wrapped your arms tightly around your waist. You weren't sure who was hugging whom in this case, but you squeezed the possessed shirt underneath you in delight. This was going to be the start of an even more unusual week!