index


Message-ID: <33397asstr$1005516614@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: "Raoul Duke" <curelom22@hotmail.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Subject: {ASSM} Special Effects (ff, mf, transform, bimbo, be)
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 17:10:14 -0500
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d


SPECIAL EFFECTS - Part 1

WARNING: This story is basically a rip-off of a couple of other BE stories, 
with maybe a couple new ideas ... maybe not ... I haven't read every story 
there is. What do you think I am some sort of BE obsessed freak?!

Note: This story may be hazardous for anyone under the age of 18.

By L. Ephante Shuez

Colin stood at the counter of the strange shop, examining the bottle of 
pills held in his hand carefully. If this bottle did what it said it 
would...no that was stupid. How the hell could someone make a pill like 
that? No, these were fake, but still, they were only five dollars. What harm 
could it do to buy them? They'd at least be good for a laugh. Hell, maybe 
he'd even be able to sell them out to his friends for a tidy profit. After 
all, what guy wouldn't be even just a bit curious about a pill that 
supposedly alters a girl's mind until they are little more than sex toys? 
And even if you weren't into warping people's minds, the pills also claimed 
to have a breast-growth related side effect! Of course nothing would happen, 
but Colin would just blame it on the guy who sold them to him, this old, 
dirty looking man wheezing away behind the counter...("Hey, there's nothing 
I can do about it guys--I'm sorry! Look, I lost money in this, too! I'll pay 
you back soon...") yeah, like hell he would. Anyway, before he even 
considered any of this, there was always the slight possibility...well, he 
could try it anyway. What possible harm could it do? Colin looked at the 
small plastic bottle closer. Hmmm ... addictive, were they? He read the 
message: "First pill may give little or no addictive tendencies ... however, 
more than one is not recommended." Well, he better not give more than one to 
anyone, just in case ... that would get a little bit too crazy for him ... 
if, that is, they worked ...

Colin smiled when he saw Danielle walk into the lunchroom that day. Danielle 
smiled back at him right before he snuck a quick glance up and down her 
body. He paused a second when her breasts, which had to be somewhere around 
a C-cup, bounced ever so slightly. Danielle never even noticed his quick 
scan of her. She and Colin had been good friends for the past couple of 
years. He was the last guy she would expect to look at her in that way. She 
didn't even notice him slipping the pill into his Cola before handing it to 
her.

"Thanks," she said, taking the bottle from his hand, and taking a drink, the 
tiny pill unnoticeably being swallowed along with it. She should have 
noticed it, in fact she almost did feel like there was something else in 
that drink she had just taken, but either way it was too late now. Colin 
smiled and slid the pill bottle back into his coat pocket. Danielle stayed 
and talked with him for a few more minutes, and then got up. "I have some 
homework to do tonight and I'd better get started on it now, OK?" Colin 
nodded, "Sure, I'll talk to you later." He wasn't exactly why, out of all 
the girls, he had picked Danielle. Possibly because she was the one girl who 
he thought would never act in a sexual way at all by herself. Yes, that had 
to be it. He hoped they worked.

By the time lunch was over, Danielle had not even been able to do half of 
her homework. For some reason it was taking her somewhat longer to do today. 
Most likely she was just tired. Sighing, Danielle packed up her books, not 
especially looking forward to another class, with possibly more homework. 
She lifted her backpack over her shoulder and walked out into the hall. She 
spotted her friend Cindy as she was walking by. "Hey, Cin!" she called, 
smiling. Cindy waved and smiled back. Cindy had been attracted to Danielle 
for years now, but had never had the courage to tell her about her feelings. 
She probably never would either. She pretty much knew that she wasn't into 
that kind of thing anyway ... in fact, she didn't think Danielle really had 
many sexual feelings at all.

Danielle had a difficult time trying to do her homework that evening. The 
problems seemed harder than usual for some reason. And, just when she 
thought she was getting somewhere, her mind would become distracted. She 
wasn't exactly sure what was distracting her, but there was some small 
feeling inside of her that she couldn't shake. It wasn't bad - it was just 
distracting. Eventually, she just got tired of trying and gave up. She 
called Cindy.

"Hey, Cindy, what's up?" she asked when her friend picked up the phone.

"Nothing much, just finished up my homework, you?"

"Uh, yeah, I just got through with mine, too," Danielle said. This was 
weird. Cindy usually wasn't very good in school at all. She only took time 
to do the easiest of homework assignments. "Do you think you did OK with 
it?" she asked.

"Oh, sure, it wasn't that bad at all. It's about time we got some easy 
homework!" Cindy remarked.

Danielle was now puzzled. "Well, that's good," she replied. She opened up 
her book and glanced through the problems again and found that they still 
seemed quite difficult for her.

That night, as Danielle lied in her bed trying to get to sleep, her mind 
kept wandering. She didn't know exactly why, but she felt like she was 
getting aroused for some reason. Danielle had never had sexual thoughts in 
her life, but tonight...She brought her hands up and placed them on her 
breasts, her breathing now getting heavier. She squeezed them softly, 
imagining that it was Colin touching her. Sweet, innocent Colin...she really 
should let him do this sometime...he'd probably really enjoy it. It was the 
least she could do to let him do something as simple as touch her 
breasts...and it would feel so good. Danielle slipped one hand into her 
panties slowly, now thoroughly horny for the first time in her life and then 
stopped herself--What was she doing?! She was about to masturbate! Why did 
she want to do that? Danielle knew that this was totally out of character 
for her. She lied there for a few moments, part of her alarmed by the idea 
of touching herself in such an erotic manner, and part of her desperately 
wanting it. Her hand was still half-way into her panties, and as she 
thought, she started to softly glide her fingers over the small, curly hairs 
of her vagina, testing her reaction to it. She shuddered with the sensations 
that went through her body. Suddenly, she found she didn't care anymore. She 
slid her legs slightly wider apart, and began masturbating, soft moaning 
sounds escaping her lips as she relieved herself. She lied there afterwards, 
her hand still lightly stroking herself, and wondered why exactly she was 
feeling this way. She fell asleep wondering.

Danielle woke up the next morning to the feeling of a strange weight on her 
chest. She reached her hands up to fell her chest and froze as her hands 
felt her breasts. This couldn't be right! She sat up hurriedly and quickly 
pulled the straps of her nightdress down. She couldn't believe what she saw. 
Her breasts, which just last night had been just a small handful, were now 
the size of quite large softballs! Danielle gasped as she hefted one in her 
hand. She was huge! How had this happened? Danielle was really starting to 
wonder what was going on now. Just last night, she had pleasured herself for 
the first time in her life, and now, her breasts had grown amazingly 
overnight! Danielle traced her finger around one of her newly enlarged 
nipples. What was she going to do? She couldn't walk around like this. She 
would have to wear one of her baggy tops until she could figure out what to 
do. Suddenly Danielle realized that she had been playing with her nipple, 
and that it had started to feel good...and that she was going to masturbate 
before she thought about anything else this fine day.

"Who the hell do you think you're trying to fool, boy?" Todd laughed, the 
little bottle of pills held up in his hands, "Screw you!" He tossed the 
bottle back to Colin and grinned.

"Look, " Colin stammered, wanting desperately to at least get his money back 
for these stupid things. He had seen Danielle today--he had TALKED to her. 
She was the same. Those damn pills hadn't done anything at all. "I'm telling 
you, these things work! Hey, I'll give you a discount: take 2 for the price 
of 1, how does that sound?"

"Fuck you!" Todd turned around and walked away, laughing his head off. Colin 
tossed the bottle of pills into the trash can and walked off to the 
lunchroom, to talk with Danielle who was seemingly no different than she 
ever was.

But, she was different. So different in fact that she was in the girls 
washroom at that very moment, not too far down the hall from where Colin had 
been bartering with Todd , her new tits bouncing happily up and down under 
her top, braless since she had none that would even come close to fitting 
her, while she masturbated herself frantically. She had been in class, 
having a difficult time trying to concentrate on anything the teacher was 
saying since for some reason her thinking was all foggy, when the urge 
suddenly hit her. Lunch had only been ten minutes away, but she couldn't 
wait. She had to do it NOW! She excused herself from class and hurried to 
the washroom, her new boobs jiggling away under the loose top she had had to 
wear that morning. She finished with a loud moan, which she hoped nobody 
else had been around to hear and got herself dressed again. She walked out 
of the bathroom after double checking that no one else had been in there to 
hear her embarrassingly erotic sounding moan and went down the hall to the 
lunch room. For some reason she noticed the pill bottle lying in the trash 
can. So this was what she had heard Colin and that Todd guy yelling about. 
She picked the bottle up to get a better look at what all the fuss was about 
and gasped when she read what they were for. Colin had bought these? He must 
have somehow given her one secretly, then. That would explain things. That 
would explain things very well. Colin had made Danielle very angry. She 
stuffed the bottle in her pocket and continued walking to the cafeteria...to 
have a little talk with Colin - what she thought would be her last talk with 
Colin.

Colin followed Danielle out of the cafeteria and around the corner. "What is 
it? What do you want?" he asked her. She wasn't answering him. For some 
crazy reason he expected her to want to have sex with him. Maybe the pills 
worked he thought to himself. Oh, they worked all right. Colin's face went 
white when Danielle pulled out the bottle and shoved it in his face.

"What on earth were you thinking when you bought these? No, wait, I know 
what you were thinking! Well, guess what? They worked," Danielle pulled her 
shirt tight over her breasts, "And I am never talking to you ever again!" In 
spite of the situation, Colin felt a slight stiffness in his pants. Danielle 
stormed off into the cafeteria, leaving Colin standing there wondering if 
the pills had actually worked. I tcertainly looked like it, didn't it? Yes 
... yes it did. He'd just have to wait and see.

This next night was worse. Danielle tried as hard as she could to go to 
sleep without thinking about sex, but she just couldn't do it. Maybe if her 
boobs hadn't been so big she might have been able to concentrate on 
something else. But all she could feel was how far she was bulging out and 
how much she wanted someone to touch her. She was still so mad at Colin for 
doing this to her, but despite herself, she brought herself to orgasm three 
times that night thinking about him. He was so sneaky to give her that pill! 
After she had finished, she was so tired that she fell right asleep.

Danielle woke up and giggled. Her head felt all light and giddy. She liked 
it. Her boobies had gotten bigger again too! Danielle smiled as she cupped 
them. She was starting to like having big boobs. Maybe Colin was right to 
give her that pill. Colin was nice; he would never do anything bad to her. 
And she had yelled at him yesterday! What had she been thinking? She would 
have to make it up to him today. Oh yes...he would be so happy! Danielle 
squeezed her breasts in her hands as she thought of all the different things 
she could do for him. But, wait...she couldn't do anything like that in 
school! She would have to call up Colin now, and tell him to come over. She 
searched through her room frantically until she found her phone book, and 
looked up Colin's number. It was difficult to concentrate on the words, but 
she eventually found his number, and called him up. It rang three times 
before Colin picked it up, "Hello?" he asked.

"Hi, Colin!" Danielle cooed as sweetly as she could, "I'm SO sorry about 
yesterday! You were right to give me that pill."

Colin cleared his throat, "I was?" he asked.

Danielle rubbed her hand in between her legs as she talked, "Of course you 
were! And I feel so bad about yelling at you yesterday. How would you like 
to come over...and I can make it up to you?" she giggled.

"Really?!", Colin stammered, "Uhhh...sure! That'd be great!"

"OK, please hurry Colin!" she giggled again. It was fun to talk like this, 
all erotic and breathy. She hung up the phone, and laid back on her bed. Her 
bulky breasts spread out against her body. Her nipples were poking two 
points into her nightdress. She pushed the points in with her fingers only 
to have them spring right up again. She cooed at the sight of this, and did 
it again. The red color of them was faintly visible through the thin, white 
fabric. Reaching over onto her night table she picked up the small bottle of 
pills she had taken from the trashcan the day before. With great difficulty, 
she managed to sound out most of the words on the back of it. The bottle 
seemed to say it was bad to take more than one. She had better not take more 
than one then, even though for some reason she wanted to. Maybe it was 
because the pills were...she couldn't remember how to say the word. She saw 
it on the bottle though and knew what it meant. "Addictive! That's it!" she 
proudly cried and giggled at herself again, "You knew that, stupid! Now, 
don't take anymore because its bad for you!" She lied back and rested her 
head after all that thinking, that swimmy, giddy feeling making her grin 
happily.

Colin knocked softly on the door to Danielle's room. "Hello? You're parents 
weren't home so I--" Danielle opened the door, still in her skimpy nightie 
and let Colin in. Her hair, which she usually kept back in a ponytail, was 
hanging freely down to her shoulders. Colin saw how large Danielle's breasts 
had grown in the past couple of days.

"Hi, Colin! Come on in!" Danielle jiggled as she stepped aside to let him in 
her room. She closed the door behind him. "Well...what do you think?" she 
asked, holding her arms out to her sides and thrusting her breasts out.

"They're nice," Colin said, feeling a stiffness in his pants. It got stiffer 
when Danielle undid the buttons on her nightgown, and exposed a generous 
amount of cleavage to him. Her straps threatened to slide off her shoulders 
any second.

"Want to feel?" she asked, picking up his hands, and placing them softly on 
the large hills of her breasts. He squeezed them. A quick moan escaped her 
lips. She reached up and put her arms around him, placing her soft, red lips 
against his. He returned the kiss, still exploring her ample cleavage.

They fell back onto Danielle's bed, which hadn't been made yet that day, and 
continued to kiss, Danielle making small pleasing cries as she breathed. She 
brought her hand down to Colin's crotch, and undid his jeans, slipping her 
hand into his underwear and around his cock. She tugged on it gently while 
she slipped her tongue into Colin's mouth. Their kissing was getting slower, 
more passionate. Colin slid one of Danielle's straps down her arm. Her 
breast popped out and Colin grabbed it in his hand as Danielle broke off the 
kiss, sucking on his lower lip for a second before she lifted herself up. 
She sat straddling his waist, her right boob still bared. When she spoke now 
she sounded out of breath and her cheeks were flushed bright red, "Oh, 
Colin! I hope you're not mad at me for yelling at you! That pill you gave me 
makes me feel really good!" She giggled, and reached down into Colin's pants 
again, pulling his erection out. She lowered her head down, and parted her 
lips, a small stream of saliva falling out of her mouth before she wrapped 
it around his throbbing erection. She could feel the cool air blowing up her 
nightie as she sucked him. Colin stroked her hair while she blew. He came in 
her mouth, and before she could swallow, her mouth overflowed, and her chin 
and nose got soaked with cum. She looked up at him, a strand of sperm still 
attached from her lips to his cock, and giggled again, "Oops!" she said, cum 
flowing out of her mouth. She quickly wiped it up with her finger and 
swallowed it. "That was yummy!" she said when she was done. Then she slid 
her other strap down. "Would you like to suck on me now?" she asked, 
dangling her breasts over his face. Colin grabbed one of her breasts and 
suckled her nipple. Danielle loved it. She let him suck on her tit until she 
couldn't take it anymore, and then slid off the rest of her nightie. She 
lied back on the bed, and let Colin straddle her. Danielle couldn't believe 
how good it felt to have sex!

They both showed up at school later that afternoon. Danielle didn't 
especially feel like being there, but if she was home when her parents got 
back from work, they would know she had skipped. She was proud of herself 
for realizing that. In the middle of all that fun she had actually been able 
to remember that - of course she had, she thought to herself--after all, she 
wasn't stupid. She sure felt stupid today, though. It seemed like just when 
she was about to get a clear thought put together in her head, it would 
burst apart, and that fuzzy lightness would cover it up. Usually after that 
she would get the urge to giggle, but she tried to suppress it as much as 
possible. She and Colin had made a quick stop at the mall before heading to 
school, to pick up a couple of DD sized bras for her to wear while in 
school. Over one of those, she had on a clingy white t-shirt and also had a 
pair of jeans on. When she put those on, she realized how much her behind 
and hips had changed, too. The jeans almost didn't fit her.

In class, she had the hardest time concentrating. And so did most of the 
guys in the class, too. She watched with glee as they each took turns 
sneaking glances at her huge melons. She even put on a little show for them, 
stretching and thrusting her chest out every now and then. Then she noticed 
something which sent a new thrill through her. It almost seemed to her like 
she had just seen someone else looking at her. But, what was really neat 
about it was that it was a girl! Danielle stretched again, and sure enough, 
the girl darted her eyes over in Danielle's direction for just an instant. 
Then, suddenly, she realized that it was Cindy. Cindy had been looking at 
her! Danielle excused herself to go to the washroom.

She couldn't believe it. She had turned on another girl! Not only that, it 
had been Cindy! She didn't exactly know why this excited her, because she 
never ever used to like girls before, especially not her friend, but now 
everything seemed so arousing. Part of her was so angry at herself for 
thinking like this about Cindy, but she just couldn't help it. She 
masturbated quickly, and then got ready to go back to class. Then the pill 
bottle fell out of her school bag. She looked down, getting ready to kick it 
before she remembered what it was. She reached down, a large amount of deep 
cleavage being flashed to the empty room, and retrieved the bottle. She 
wanted another one. There was some reason she couldn't take one though. She 
didn't remember why, but it couldn't have been very important. That light, 
giddy feeling was gone from her head and she wanted it back. It made her 
feel so warm and comfy. Plus a little extra sex drive couldn't hurt her, 
could it? Surely, her sexual appetite wasn't THAT bad yet, and there were 
plenty of people she could easily get if she needed a little extra sex. She 
popped a pill into her mouth, and swallowed it, trying to remember what else 
they did..."Oh yeah! They make my boobies grow!" she cooed and hefted her 
two bulging melons in her hands. "I'm gonna get bigger!" she cried hugging 
herself. She waited for a few minutes, and sure enough, her head was soon 
flooded with those strange, tingly sensations again. She could handle 
sitting through class better now, she thought. She picked up her backpack 
and had to stop for a second to get her balance, "Woah!" she cried and 
steadied herself against the wall. The giddiness was turning more into 
dizziness now. She laughed at how much the room was spinning, as she walked 
out of the room, her head feeling like it was floating.

After class, Danielle went over to her friend, "Hi, Cindy!" she said with a 
little hop that created a nice bouncing motion on her chest.

"Hi," Cindy said. Her gaze briefly dropped to the bulges on Danielle's 
chest, then back up again. Danielle looked around to make sure everyone else 
had left the room. She leaned in close to Cindy, and whispered into her ear, 
"Meet me after school..." She licked Cindy's ear quickly with her tongue, 
letting her breast press against the girl's arm. Danielle thought it was so 
weird that she was doing this, but at the same time, she wanted Cindy so 
badly right now she just had to.

Cindy looked at Danielle with a mixture of surprise and confusion on her 
face, "What? After school? Why?" She found she was whispering too.

"I don't know ... I just think it'd be fun, that's all ... don't you?" She 
took Cindy's hand as she said this, and pressed it firmly against her right 
breast. She felt Cindy squeeze it slightly.

"Um ... yeah, I guess it would be," Cindy said, surprised at what Danielle 
was implying. "How-?" She smiled, and cupped Danielle's breasts again, this 
time without Danielle's help. She couldn't believe how big her friend's 
breasts were! She closed her eyes, and explored every inch of Danielle's 
huge bosom.

"So, I'll see you later then?" Danielle asked. Cindy nodded. "Yeah ... " she 
said wistfully--she would definitely see Danielle later.

Danielle walked out of class, her new DD sized breasts happily bouncing away 
under her t-shirt. The new bra she was wearing really made them stick out. 
She purposely walked so that they would bounce more. Everyone stared at 
them. Danielle wondered why the pill was so much stronger this time. 
Everything looked all hazy, and her stomach was jumping all funny. Actually, 
the more that she thought about it, the more she realized she couldn't 
actually remember what exactly the effect had been like before. That was OK, 
though, because she was starting to like thinking less and less, unless it 
was about sex.

Colin sat in class, thinking about the morning he had spent with Danielle. 
He still couldn't believe that those pills had worked - and so quickly, 
too!! Just yesterday, she had been yelling at him for giving her that pill, 
and now she was calling him up horny as hell wanting to apologize. The only 
problem was that she still had the bottle. Colin knew so many other people 
he would love to give one or two of those things to. Maybe he could get them 
back, though. That is, if Danielle hadn't thrown them out after she had 
freaked out at him. Colin marveled again at how completely different 
Danielle had suddenly become overnight.

Danielle stood outside the doors to the school waiting for Cindy. The 
effects of the pill were wearing off again. Or at least it seemed like they 
were. Or maybe they weren't at all, and she just wanted more ... she didn't 
really know. Danielle started to pull out the bottle and then stopped 
herself. "I don't want my breasts to grow TOO big, do I?" she said to 
herself, stretching her T-shirt over her inflated bosom. She did a double 
take as she realized her breasts had grown more! She didn't quite understand 
why until she thought about it for a second. Then it clicked, "Oh yeah! That 
other pill I took! I forgot I didn't grow yet!" She giggled and noticed with 
delight that her new boobies jiggled right along with her tittering! She 
felt for the first time how her bra was digging into her shoulders, too. The 
second pill had made her a bit numb for a while. "I wonder how big I can 
make them ... " she asked herself and then spied Cindy walking over towards 
her. Danielle bounced happily over to meet her.

Back at her house, the girls retreated quickly to Danielle's room. Danielle 
had quickly introduced Cindy to her parents as a new friend she had met at 
school. Danielle had noticed strange gazes from both of her parents, and 
realized that this had been the first time she had talked to them since 
before the pills had started working. She wondered what they thought of her 
breasts.

Once inside the bedroom, Danielle quickly closed the door behind them, and 
grabbed Cindy, kissing her passionately on the lips. Cindy was taken by 
surprise, but responded quickly, slipping her tongue into Danielle's mouth. 
She moaned softly. Danielle led her over to her bed. She was surprised at 
how horny she was, considering she had, just fifteen minutes ago, 
masturbated for about the fifth or sixth time that day. Cindy sat down on 
the bed, and Danielle stood in front of her, sliding her T-shirt over her 
head, and unhooking her strained bra. She uncupped her newly expanded boobs, 
and giggled with delight at Cindy's wide-eyed reaction. She picked up one of 
Cindy's hands and slid it softly over one breast. Then she undid Cindy's 
blouse, and helped her slide it off.



By the time Cindy left, later on that night, Danielle finally felt relieved 
for the first time in a long while. She lied back on her bed, staring up at 
the ceiling with a goofy look on her face. Her cheeks were still flushed, 
and she was panting heavily. But for the first time in a long time she had a 
chance to sit back and think about what had happened to her. She knew she 
was becoming addicted to the pills, and in such a short time, too. What was 
the last one , her second ... third??? It hadn't been many anyway. Plus 
there was that, too. Danielle knew she was supposed to be smart, but her 
brain didn't seem to want to work right anymore. The only thing she could 
focus on for long periods of time was sex. She remembered that it had been 
Colin who had given her the pill ... or at least she thought he had ... it 
had been his bottle hadn't it??? She hoped not, because Colin was fun.

Danielle wanted another pill. She knew it would make things worse. Part of 
her didn't care. She wanted bigger breasts too, because, hey, if she was 
going to get hornier, it was best that she have a good way to get what she 
wanted, right? Danielle thought so. Plus she thought she looked good with 
big breasts. She could remember not liking them at first, but the pills were 
making her like them. Those pills sure were convenient. She rummaged through 
her school bag until she found the bottle and pulled it out. "Here we go," 
she whispered, dumping one into the palm of her hand. She almost knew that 
if she took this one now, there was no going back ... she would be 
hopelessly hooked. She was already pretty gone ... if she hadn't have been 
she might have wondered what she was going to do when the bottle ran out. 
The pill went down her throat smoothly, and Danielle felt a wave of calmness 
sweep through her. She moaned softly, and lied back on her bed. Soon her 
head was spinning again, and she drifted off to sleep.





TO BE CONTINUED ... WHEN OR IF I GET THE CHANCE ...


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ----- send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com> |
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html>  Moderator: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Archive: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org> Hosted by Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository |
|<http://www.asstr-mirror.org>, an entity supported entirely by donations.         |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+