Follow your Nose - Commission

A short commission recently finished featuring Nose Growth and Nose related transformations

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Anna and Alexa were not what you would call “best friends.”

In fact most days, you would probably call them enemies, but fate has its funny way of bringing people together. In this particular case, it was a college assignment that neither of them was particularly excited about, and somehow the professor had selected them to be partners.

Anna was a tall and slender girl, her body thin and smooth, cutting through most crowds like a well sharpened knife. On this particular day she wore a flowy blouse-like shirt that fit tight around her midsection and chest, but was loose and airy around her shoulders and arms. Designer jeans encapsulated her legs, and on her dainty feet, she wore a pair of heels, but nothing too high. Just right, to her liking.

Her hair was long and blond, draping over her shoulders, taking on a shimmering almost white quality in the light. She had small but elegant lips that were always slightly pursed, and her eyes were a deep brown that almost glittered when looked at.

Between her eyes and her lips was her nose, a prominent feature of her face. It was a bit rounded at the tip, but it wasn’t something she was ever self-conscious about. In fact, she was kind of proud of it. Her mother had always said to follow her nose, a figure of speech she never quite understood, but it was a good nose, worth following.  She thought it was especially cute when she would scrunch it up when she was made to truly smile. She wasn’t currently smiling as she sat across the table from Alexa, who also was not much for smiling at the moment

Alexa was a short but well built woman who took pride in her physique. She hit the gym almost every day, and she would let almost anyone know about it. Her long blond hair (which currently had the tips dyed hot pink) rested on her toned shoulders as she sat, glaring at her project partner.

She wore tight leather pants to show off her equally toned legs, which she was perhaps the most proud of. Leg day was her favorite day. Her face was a bit harder to read then Anna’s, her emotions a bit hidden, although today's anger was probably clear. Her full lips sat tightly together as if keeping a secret, and her light blue eyes staring daggers towards almost anyone who caught her gaze.

Beneath the eyes was her nose, which was a bit more full than Anna’s, a bit wider, but still not something anyone would make much of a fuss of, although in her younger years, Alexa had thought about possibly seeking surgery when she was older, but that desire had gone away with age. She had accepted it as part of herself. She now glanced over that nose, looking up at Anna, finally parting her lips to speak.

“So, this project. Is it really worth putting up with each other.” she asked.

“Well it is a large portion of our final grade, so I’d say so.” Anna added, sighing after.

“Okay, fine, let’s get it over with.” Alexa said. “What did we even have to do?” she asked, adding her own sigh.

“We have to do a prepared speech about the environment and our effect on it as humans.” Anna said, rubbing the tip of her nose with her index finger, something she did when she was anxious, and right now she was more anxious than she had been in a while.

“Glad we picked the mall as the place to plan this out. The amount of plastic here could choke all the sea turtles in the ocean.” Alexa joked as she gave Anna an odd look about her nose rubbing.

“Can you please take this seriously. Like I said, a large portion of the final grade.” Anna said with a grimace as she stopped rubbing, and turned her head away in embarrassment.

“Sorry for trying to lighten the mood, I’ll just go f…”

“Was that store there before?” Anna interrupted. When they had sat down, the nearest store was a closed Spencers gifts, but now it was open, had a new red and white awning and it said “Chuckle’s Joke Shop”

“Of course it was, stores don’t just appear. I thought you were the smart one.” Alexa said.

Anna ignored the comment and stood up and walked over towards the store. Alexa sighed and shook her head, getting up to follow after her.

“We gotta get this done, I know you are good at school, but if I flunk I’ll never hear the end of it. Are you listening to me, Anna?”

Soon they both entered the store, a loud horn honking above them as they entered, which gave them each a bit of a startle.

“Well, hello” said a friendly voice. Looking at the checkout counter, there stood a tall slender man dressed head to toe as a clown, with a tightly gelled blue hair-do that looked like it was trying to emulate Elvis.

“Welcome. I am Chuckles. What brings two fine ladies like yourself into my store?”

“Curiosity,” said Anna. “It uh, how long have you been here in this mall?” she said, rubbing the tip of her nose. Chuckles noticed her little quirk and smiled.

“Well, hard to say really. I lose track of time so easily in this place. But this is my joke shop, and we sell all sorts of products to make life just a little bit sillier. Can I offer you a demonstration, my dear?” he said

Anna looked over to Alexa, almost as if to ask if it was a good idea. Alexa simply shrugged with frustration. “You wanted to come in here. Might as well.”

“Indeed!” said Chuckles as he grinned and reached down beneath his counter and produced what looked like a fancy perfume bottle with a little squeeze bulb to apply the fragrance.

He walked out and approached Anna and he smiled. “This is called “Parfum du Nez” and is a speciality from some clowns I know in Paris.” he stated as he smiled.

He then squeezed the bulb, which sprayed poor Anna directly in the face. It had an intense aroma, smelling sweet and flowery as it filled her nostrils. She instinctively inhaled, her nostrils flaring and as they did, her nose began to change.

At first it was subtle, not noticeable by her or Alexa, but Chuckles let out a big grin when he saw it. The nostrils flared and the nose itself began to swell on her face, getting larger. It stretched out and widened, taking up a lot more space on her pretty face.

That’s when Alexa began to take notice. At first her face was frozen in a look of shock, but then her lips cracked that look, carving into a grin.

“Oh my god.” She said, pointing.

“What?!” Anna asked with a panicked voice.

“Your nose!” She said.

Chuckles smiled. “A pleasant side effect of the perfume, I must say” he added as he held up a hand mirror for Anna to see what had become of her nose, now a prominent part of her face, and still growing.

“Now, if it were Parfum du Nez de Clown, this would be when it poofed up into a big red rubber orb, but I wanted to give you a simple demonstration rather than dive right in.”

“MY FACE!” shrieked Anna. “What did you do?”

“I would think that’s obvious.” Chuckles said. “Your nose is growing. I thought it would be fitting because it was the facial feature that stood out to me most when I first saw you.”

“Oh this is too good.” Chuckled Alexa. “Goody Two Shoes gets herself into one hell of a mess. This is far more interesting than our presentation would ever be.”

“Shut up, this isn’t funny.” Anna screamed. “You can fix this, can’t you?”

“I am not sure, actually.” Chuckles said with a thoughtful look. “This is a rare product and this is honestly my first time using it.”

“Are you KIDDING ME?” she asked the clown with eyes wide and filled with anger.

“Well, I am a clown, and kidding is one of my main job requirements, but no, I honestly don’t know. Let me go look in the back for the instruction booklet the bottle came with.” he said.

He quickly strolled back through a beaded curtain at the rear of the shop.

Anna could feel her nose stretching forward. It was now like a massive beak of a thing, hanging heavily on her face. What surprised her most was that suddenly her sense of smell was dialed up to 11. She could smell the lingering perfume, the dust on some of the shelves, even the scent of Alexa’s cheap deodorant swept into her open nostrils and she couldn’t help but take it in. It wasn’t pleasant at first, but it was…interesting. She had never had such a good sense of smell

She felt the growth stop, now sitting on her face at least four times its original size and jutting out several inches from her face, it was comical and inhuman looking. She made herself go cross-eyed looking at it.

Alexa simply continued to chuckle. “You’ve always reminded me of some sort of obnoxious bird, now you have a beak to match” she said laughing.

“You better shut your mouth, Alexa.” Anya said.

“Oh?  Are you gonna make me, Pinocchio?” She said with a chortle that filled Anna with rage. She had constantly suffered verbal abuse at the hands of her classmate, but this was the angriest she’d ever been.

“My My…” said the voice of Chuckles as he re-entered. “What’s got you two quarreling?”

“She is laughing at my nose. She always makes fun of me!” Anna said with a snort. “And this is just making it worse.”

“Better, in my opinion,” Alexa said.

“Is that so, young lady?” Chuckles said as he walked towards them, perfume still in hand. “You like this little demonstration I’ve provided.”

“Oh very very much” she said. “Funniest shit I’ve ever seen.”

“Shut up!” Anna repeated.

“Never in a million years, Beaky!” Alexa taunted back.

Anna shot her a dirty look, but she was more concerned with her own face than getting any sort of retribution. She squeezed her nose, and noticed how much softer it was, squishier. It felt like a sponge almost, springing back to it’s full, expanded position after pinching it.

Alexa continued to chuckle and laugh about the scenario, not noticing the clown approach from behind.

“So you really like it that much, huh?” he said, catching her attention. She turned and noticed that he had unscrewed the main perfume bottle from its lid and spray bulb. He smirked and then dumped the entire contents of the bottle onto her head, soaking her instantly in the intense smelling liquid.

“What the hell?!” She shrieked. She was dripping with the stuff, and she turned to throw a punch at the clown but she felt very strange.

“Oh…oh no.” she muttered as her nose started to swell up, but this was happening much faster than had happened with Anna. It was soon bigger than Anna and still growing.

“What did you do?” Asked Anna

“She was so amused by your change I assumed she’d like one of her own”

“MY NODE!” she said as it began to wobble and swell and soon it was bigger than her face, and in fact, her head started to seem different, as if it were being absorbed into the growing nose.

“NO!” She cried as her hair began to suck up into her scalp until only a small tuft of dyed pink hair remained. Soon her face was purely nose, except a set of lips just sitting underneath the flaring nostrils.

“What is happening to meeeee?” She cried as they then watched her body start to shrink, her clothing starting to sit loose on her frame as it diminished. As it did, her arms started to shift up as they shrank and began to sit on the side of the nose. Her hands shrank at a slower rate, as did her feet. Her legs however shrank and shriveled up leaving her large feet almost legless as they dangled below her body which was also vanishing as its mass was absorbed into the still growing nose-face.

“Help me, Anna!” the little mouth cried as the nose-headed…thing began to step out of its clothing that no longer fit.

“HA! That’s rich. What did you do when I had my nose grow? Laugh. Well…”she inhaled “HA HA HA!”

“Anna this isn’t funny” Said an almost unrecognizable squeaky voice.

“No. It’s hilarious.” Anna said with a glare down at the odd creature her partner had become.

“I thought you might think so!” Chuckles said. “She was rather rude to you, I felt, and I wanted to see if the instructions were correct about an overdose of the perfume. If anything, they undersold it.” he said with a grin.

Now all there was left of the mean girl Anna had entered the store with was a basketball sized nose with large feet and hands, and silly little lips trying very hard to scream about being fixed.

“This isn’t…um…ooooh…head feels funny” she said.

“I mean it should, your head is just a nose,” said Chuckles. “Not much for a brain in the nose, but it’s okay. You are quite amusing so you’ll make up for it.”

“No want be Amusing, want be pretty girl.” she said, stomping her large foot.

“That won’t be happening any time soon. The perfume has no known antidote.” Chuckles stated.

“What?” Anna said. “Are you serious!”

“Now, don’t worry. I have something to help.” Chuckles said. “Well, it’ll help you. She’s beyond help at this point.” He admitted.

“No fair!” Alexa shouted.

“Oh hush.” Chuckles said as he produced a purple velvet pouch and took some dust out of it and sprinkled it on Anna’s nose.

For a moment it tingled, then it stopped, but it remained massive on her face.

“That didn’t seem to do anything, Chuckles.” She said.

“Not at first, but do me a favor. Envision your nose bigger for me, in your mind’s eye”

She looked at him oddly but she did as he suggested and she felt her nose growing larger on her face.

“Now imagine it longer,” He added.

Just the sound of him saying that made her think of it stretching forward becoming even more beak-like, and it did, stretching outwards, but not any larger.

“Okay, here’s the final test, imagine it back to the size it was when you came in here.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and thought of her nose as it was before, not the smallest of noses, but certainly not what she had now. She thought of the rounded bit at the tip, how she loved admiring it in the mirror, and how she would fiddle with it. She reached up to touch it and her eyes shot open when she felt it had returned to its normal shape and size, mostly. It still was a touch bigger than it had been before the perfume.

‘Oh my god, you fixed it!” She said.

“Well, sort of. That size you have now, what you think of as your normal size isn’t any more. The big nose I gave you is, but you can change the size at will to be whatever you like. I think you’ll find it a very fun little party trick.

“Oh wow.” She said, thinking of it growing, and sure enough it started to fill up space on her face once more. “Neat.”

“And what of my little friend?” She asked with a giggle.

“Well, she won’t be of much use in your world, but in my world I can find a place for her.”

“I still hear you even though I Nose!” complained Alexa, her little tuft of pink hair wiggling with fury about at the top of her nose-body

“Your world?” asked Anna, ignoring the nose-girl.

“Oh yes. I come from a world of clowns like myself.”

“Now that I would love to see.” She said.

“Well, you are more than welcome to come.”  Chuckles exclaimed with excitement. He picked up Alexa who kicked her feet in protest, but she couldn’t manage to get out of the way

He took Alexa and led Anna through the beaded curtain and then they vanished in a flash of colorful light.

SEVERAL MONTHS LATER

“We have only the finest of perfumes!” said Alexa as she greeted a few customers in the perfume shop she now owned and operated. “We have the sweetest, strongest scents from Paris and around the world!”

“Take a whiff!” Said the squeaky voice of the odd nose creature standing on a display table surrounded by bottles of perfume.

“That’s a really neat puppet!” said a customer’s child who looked up at the nose. Alexa waved at him.

“Hi kiddo!” She said.

At the counter, Anna fiddled with her nose, which was just about as large as it had been when Chuckles first spritzed her. She was approached by a young woman who was paying for her purchases.

“You always have the best stuff, how do you do it?” She said.

“I have a nose for good products,” she said, tapping her schnozz with a giggle.

“That you do. Always grateful for it. I have never smelled better.” the woman said as she handed Anna the cash.

After the transaction was over, Anna wandered over to the table where Alexa stood.

“Having fun?” she asked.

“Actually, kind of!” The little thing squeaked. “I thought I’d hate this, but…it’s kind of fun. Kids light up when they see me like I am some sort of cartoon character, and even the adults always want to see how real I feel. Gives me a shiver of a thrill each time” She said.

“I am glad you are warming up to it. Thank goodness Chuckles was able to get you back some of your IQ when he tried to turn you back. If I am being honest I am glad it didn’t fully work.”

“You would be.” Alexa retorted, sounding for a moment just a bit like her old self before she laughed.

“Not keep the talking to a minimum. I don't want to scare off anyone.” She added with a chuckle.

“You got it, boss.” She said as she posed to show off the merchandise.

“Excuse me miss” said a young woman, around Anna’s age who had a very similar nose to the one Anna used to sport. “This may seem odd, but I must say your nose is…quite lovely”

“Oh! Thank you! I am rather fond of it myself.” She said.

“I’m honestly a bit jealous.” she said.
“Is that so?” She said with a smile as suddenly her nose sucked down and shrank back to its normal size.

“No need to be jealous, we have very similar noses now!” She exclaimed.

“How did you do that?!” She asked.

“Would you like to find out?” Anna asked as her nose re-inflated to its oversized look.

“Very much so.”

“Follow me” She said with a big grin on her face, leading the girl to the back room which had a familiar beaded curtain instead of a door.

Anna loved her new job, and while the chance didn’t come often, she loved introducing some girls to the joys of Parfum du Noz. This certainly wasn’t the path she expected her life to go down, but her mothers words, Follow your Nose, rang in her mind. Her big nose had led her right where she needed to be.

THE END