Inside the box is big bottle of some sort of lotion. While you appreciate the house warming gift... lotion has never really been your thing, you don't have dry skin issues or really any reason to use the stuff. Still, even though she’s already left, you know it would be polite to at least try it, and as such pop the cap and give it a sniff. A pleasant, mild mixture of cinnamon and peaches greets your nose, and puts a smile on your face, you wouldn’t mind smelling like this, and so you put a little on your hands and rub them together.
The effect is immediate: a soothing warmth sinks deep into your hands’ joints and bones followed by an odd, but pleasant tingle, chasing away the soreness that your 9 to 5 job behind a computer screen and keyboard inflicts on you every Monday through Friday. You sigh in contentment, maybe you should give lotions and the like another shot, this stuff is great! Your hands feel awesome, stronger even!
You give the bottle another once over and... find that’s it’s blank, save for for a simple logo: “Enhancement Lotion” and an address on the back and simple request underneath it to return the bottle to them when it’s empty. Huh, that’s kinda odd, given this day and age of consumerism, you expect the thing to be covered in all sorts of info... half of which most people couldn’t understand. Instead the bottle is otherwise clear, both in the sense you can see the peach colored lotion inside and that there’s nothing on it, again, save the logo, address and request. You shrug it off and figure it to be one of those family made, mom and pop things, which would explain why they would want the bottle back when you’re done with it; to be clean and reused.
Eh, you suppose it doesn’t matters who makes it, it works, and it lives up its name, not only has it chased away your aches and pains, but your hands really do feel stronger and more limber. You rub a little more into your hands, then frown... what the? Your hands, you almost don’t recognize them! Before they fair, supple even, despite the fact you spend so much time typing. They still are, to a degree, but your veins are more prominent now and your hands look stronger... like those of a martial artist or something.
You stare at the bottle... did it do that? You can’t think of what else would cause this change... Hmmm... Maybe it’s not the smartest idea but... you put a good dollop in your hand and rub it it into your right arm and watch the result. Sure enough, as soon as your arm is all lotioned up and you flex it, your bicep grows just a tiny, almost imperceptible bit larger, your arm a bit leaner. It’s such a small change, you wouldn’t notice otherwise if you weren’t paying attention to it... and it lasts even when you let your arm relax.
You flex and stretch it a few more times and continues to slowly grow for a bit, before the effect tapers off and the warmth and tingle from the lotion goes away... but even though they’re gone, the changes they caused remain. You put lotion on your other arm, but this time leave it relaxed. The lotion improves your muscles and definition again... but this time it’s minuscule compared to your other arm, the one you moved and flexed. Hmm, maybe this lotion is some sort of exercise cream? Just put some on and flex the spot you want tone up? Exercise in a bottle?
It sure seems to be the case, as you reapply lotion to your left arm and this time flex it as you do so. Bingo, the changes is far more pronounce and noticeable, and you keep flexing your left arm until it’s very close to your right in size, then let the fading power of this application of lotion handle the rest. With your arms now even you ponder the bottle, what should you do?
You doubt your old geometry teach would give you something dangerous, and you have half a mind to treat yourself with it; get naked and rub it all over your body, let it chase away your aches and pains and at the same time give yourself a work free workout... who knows, maybe it even enhances stuff “down there”.
On the other hand it wouldn’t be all that surprising to find that something like this has side effects... maybe you should give your old (but not old) teacher a call or go visit the place they make the stuff to find out if there’s anything you should know about. What do you do next?
(In truth it does have side effects: if you rub the lotion into a joint or place where a limb sprouts from your body and trace circles around it, it feels really damn good, and the sensation gets more and more intense until... “Pop!” The limb comes off! This isn’t harmful, the limb still works as though it were attached and there’s no blood or gore, just smooth, yet magically magnetic skin on each side of where it came free that can stick to things, even “cement“ to them at your command, which you can reverse. Naturally you can use this to reattach limbs semi-permanently. It’s actually pretty useful if you are clever with it... but you (as the main character) have no way of knowing this at the moment.)
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