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Next Us Valley Chapter 1 “Five.” “Six.” “Seeeeeeven.” Matt let the weight drop with a thud and stood up. He looked at himself in the gym’s mirror. Feeling pumped and drained after the set, his reflection was impressive. He caught a pair of eyes from a skinny kid behind him, they both pretended to be looking at something else. Matt smirked in self satisfaction, even though he wasn’t lean and ripped, he drew his fair share of staring in the gym. “What’s up big guy?” Matt felt a large calloused hand thump him on the shoulder and looked up to see Stu, the biggest bodybuilder he knew and had the pleasure to call his friend. “This is it,” he said, looking with jealousy at his friend’s vein-corded arm. “Arm day today?” “Nah man, leg day.” Stu hiked up his shorts for Matt who rolled his eyes, of course it was leg day. “See?” Stu said as he hiked up his shorts. Matt ogled his friend’s pumped tree trunks with jealousy and perhaps more than a little bit of lust. “Oh.” “What about you big guy? What are you working on today.” “Chest.” Stu looked briefly down at his friend’s abdomen. “Good good. Gotta make those titties grow!” he said, giving Matt a playful punch in the pecs. “Look, I’ve gotta get back to it. See you later!” He lumbered back to the squat rack. Matt’s eyes widened as he watched his friend lift the bar, which bended slightly over his back. Matt’s eyes narrowed as he tried to dismiss thoughts of his friend. He tried to focus on the rest of his lifts, and succeeded mostly. Though in between sets his eyes wandered in the mirror to the squat rack, leg press, and then calf raise as Stu made his rounds. And Matt wasn’t his only admirer. As the heavyweight bodybuilder moved around the gym, heads turned, like predators watching their prey. Matt grunted as he re-racked his last set. He wasn’t sure what he felt more for his friend, jealousy or lust. Did he want to be him or did he want to be with him? He saw how Stu attracted the attention of seemingly every other man in the gym, even if they tried to hide it. That’s what happened when you were the biggest man in the gym. Matt gritted his teeth and admitted to himself, he wanted to be the biggest guy in the gym. But if he wanted to be the biggest guy in the gym, bigger than Stu even, than what would he do to get there? He considered this as he walked into the locker room, as he showered, and was still mulling the question as he stepped out into the gym’s dusky parking lot. At home, he slung his gym bag onto the couch. He followed the same post-gym routine that he had for years. Rinsing the preworkout from his shaker bottle, dumping an overladen scoop of whey, and shaking it into a shake with water. He downed it unceremoniously. After years he didn’t even think about the taste, it’s only purpose was to deliver protein to his exhausted muscles in the hopes that they would grow. The sad reality was that his muscles had almost completely stopped growing. He was only gaining a few pounds a year, and it was up for interpretation whether it was fat or muscle. As he had done many times before, he sat on his couch next to his gym bag and flipped open his laptop. He needed to release some pent up testosterone from the gym. He tapped on private browsing mode and began typing tumblr into the address bar. He thought back to Stu. He tapped backspace a few times and instead typed in beginner steroid cycle.’ He’d been down this rabbit hole before. Hours later Matt lay passed out on the couch, his face harshly lit by the screen of his laptop. He hadn’t made any decisions. He wanted to take his body to the next level, but something stopped him from taking the plunge… Matt grunted. The glow of his laptop screen stung his eyes. When his vision cleared he saw an ad for the new 24 hour gym down the street, it was a franchise he had never heard of. He glanced at the time, 4:00 AM. He rolled his eyes and got up to make his way into bed. Bed was warm, familiar, and he could stay there until he had to go to get up for work. As soon as he stood up however, he felt different, agitated perhaps. Angry? No. He gritted his teeth, motivated was the right word. He didn’t need drugs to change, he just needed to put in the damn work. With this thought, and no other thoughts, he slung his gym bag over his shoulder and left his dark apartment. The gym ad shined brightly for a few seconds before the laptop’s screen dimmed to black. --- Matt only began to feel a little foolish when he pulled into the gym’s parking lot. It was a quick drive, only ten minutes away, but it was a part of town that he was surprisingly unfamiliar with. Also, he had forgotten that he would likely only be able to buy a membership during business hours. He sat in his car for a moment contemplating without thinking.He thrummed his fingers across the steering wheel as he looked at the building. Despite the light pouring out of the gym’s windows the place almost looked abandoned. He gripped the gear shift with the intention of backing out of the parking lot and heading back to bed. He felt a pang of agitation, something between anger and motivation. Instead of shifting into reverse he shifted into park, took the key out of the ignition and opened the door. The night was dark and cool, he walked into it, letting the car door close behind him. He pressed the lock button and jumped at the sound of his car horn in the silence. Shivering slightly he made his way to the gym entrance. He didn’t glance around to notice that his car was the only one in the lot. “Hello?” Matt called weakly. He stood just inside the entranceway, next to a small office window where he assumed a staff member would normally be to let clients into the gym. He looked into the gym itself, surely he couldn’t just walk in… Feeling irritated at himself he turned to head out. As he reached for the door that feeling of agitated motivation swelled in his chest again. No thoughts. He turned and walked into the empty gym. Matt shivered as he stepped under the gym’s bright fluorescents. Tinny pop music played from some unseen location. The gym was empty but well equipped. He shoved his gym bag into a locker, not bothering to lock it, and walked up to a squat rack. Images of Stu with a bent bar draped over his back flashed through Matt’s mind. No stranger to heavy weights himself, Matt loaded a couple plates on each side of the barbell. With a grunt he loaded the weight onto his back and stepped back a couple steps. “One.” “Two.” “Three.” He muttered each rep under his breath until he hit 12. He grinned, it was easier than he remembered, maybe these weights were slightly lighter than at his regular gym. He loaded another plate on each side of the bar, aware that he wasn’t warming up as much as he should have. He didn’t care. “One.” “Two.” “Three.” The bar rose and fell faithfully with every rep. Matt grunted from effort as he pushed up another 12th rep. He re-racked and leaned against a bar of the squat rack panting. He had lifted heavier, but never for so many reps. “Damn,” he breathed as he felt his quads tightening with a heavy pump. He loaded another plate on either each of the bar. He knew he should probably have a spotter for squatting over 400 lbs, but he didn’t care, and for some reason he woesn’t worried even though he was approaching his one rep max. He noticed with satisfaction thick veins beginning to show themselves under the flushed skin of his legs. “No problem,” Matt said to himself as he hoisted the bar up. He didn’t notice the slight sag in the bar as he steadied himself in the center of the squat rack. He gritted his teeth and sank into a squat. His eyes shut tight into a grimace as he strained to lift the weight back up. The fluorescent lights overhead seemed to flair brighter for a moment as the bar rose again. He opened his eyes, he felt like he could go for another rep. He didn’t care how impossible the thought would’ve seemed to him the day before, he began to sink into another squat. “Agggghhhh!” He roared as he began to rise with his second rep. The lights flickered, Matt didn’t notice. The tinny pop music skewed and skipped as the bending bar returned to its starting point. Matt opened his eyes again. He saw himself in the mirror panting and dripping with sweat. His pumped quads strained the fabric of his shorts causing them to ride up a bit. He didn’t have a lot of muscle separation or vascularity, but he made up for that in sheer bulk. The corner of his mouth rose into a small grin as he began to sink down into another squat. “Third time” he thought to himself as he sank deep. He felt the bar on his back pushing him into the ground and all the muscle fibres of his legs straining to keep him up. He began to rise again. He let out a quiet guttural grunt as his legs bulged with the effort. The air around him seemed to still. The world went dark and the music grew quiet and then silent. Matt opened his eyes. He was standing solidly in the middle of the squat rack, weight balanced solidly on his back. But instead of his reflection in a mirror, he stood facing a metal door. Matt took a few small and careful steps forward. He let the bar drop onto its spot on the rack. There were no thoughts. He didn’t think about opening the door, he only felt the need to do so. There was no agitated feeling to tug him forward this time, his hand grasped the metal handle. He was surprised to feel a pleasant warmth radiating from it. He stared forward as he turned the handle and slowly swung the door open. He gasped as he stepped into the bright light beyond the door. --- The first thing Matt noticed was the heat. It wasn’t oppressively hot, but dry heat that didn’t feel right for an Ohio winter. As his eyes adjusted to the light he realized that it was orange sunlight streaming in from large windows in front of him. He turned to survey his surroundings. Another part to the gym? This section seemed to be for serious lifters only, he thought. A row of squat racks occupied one wall, the rest of the gym was a mix of benches, barbells, and dumbbells. There were no weight machines or treadmills in sight. Matt whirled around at the sound of the metal door banging shut. He tried the handle, stuck. “Uhh,” he muttered nervously. “Hey!” Matt yelped at the sound of another man’s voice and his hand on Matt’s shoulder. “Woah sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Matt looked up to see the other man, and then down. His eyebrows arched and he sucked in a breath. The stranger was 5 and a half feet of solid muscle. He wore a batman shirt with the logo stretched beyond copyright infringement by a solid pair of pecs and boulder delts. The yellow under armour logo on the sleeves was also stretched by the two monstrous arms hanging by the man’s side. The shorts did little to hide the man’s thick quads and “Hey.” Matt looked up at the man’s face and blushed at being caught so blatantly admiring the other man’s physique. The stranger just smiled. “My name’s Nick. I own the place.” He motioned around at the empty gym. “I just opened up, feel free to ask me questions if you have any.” Nick smirked knowingly. “No need to show your membership ID, I know you’ve got it with you.” “Well actually,” Matt began. “Right there big guy.” Nick pointed at Matt’s feet. Sure enough there was a plastic card there with his name on it, the words THE BASTILLE were splayed across the top in block letters. At the bottom in a pleasant green font it said Welcome to Los Grandes Picos, California! Where life starts anew. California? Matt looked up to Nick, who looked back at Matt with his little smirk. Oh boy, Matt sighed to himself. “I’m not really from around here.” Matt said, instantly feeling stupid with his cliche statement. “Oh and the name’s Matt.” “Well it’s nice to meet you Matt, and nobody’s from around here. Our little community, Los Grandes Picos, is home to lots of people just like you.” He winked. “I know you’ll fit in nicely.” And with that he turned and walked towards The Bastille’s front desk. He shouted over his shoulder, “don’t forget to let me know if you need anything! We can arrange for most things to be delivered to your room.” ‘My room?’ Matt opened his mouth to ask, but decided better of it. He felt like he would find out soon enough. He stuck his hand in a pocket on his gym shorts and felt a little metal object. Sure enough it was a small copper key with the words Halfway Motel and the number 5 on it. “What the fuck,” he whispered to himself. “Oh yeah. Change rooms are over there big guy.” Nick pointed with his oversized corded arm to a door with a male bodybuilder’s silhouette on the front. “You can lift with me for a bit before you check in to the hotel.” He smiled warmly. “If you like of course. Otherwise your stuff is in locker five. Nobody here bothers to lock their lockers, so feel free to grab it and go.” More mysteries and more questions, but Matt continued to hold his tongue. “Thanks.” He looked around at the equipment, his quads felt warm and full of blood from the squats. “I think I’ll take you up on that lift.” “Excellent!” Nick clapped his meaty hands together and then put one on Matt’s shoulder. “Looks like you already got the legs covered for today, chest and arms?” For emphasis Nick flexed into a double bicep pose and then a most muscular. Matt stopped himself just short of drooling. Nick relaxed his pose and tapped Matt on the chest as if to remind him where his eyes were. “Uh yeah.” Matt said. “That looks, I mean sounds, great.” He tried to look Nick confidently in the face. “Well great then. Let’s pump some fucking iron.” This time his grin was mischievous. Nick plopped onto a bench. He swung a meaty, vascular calf over the edge and straddled it. He let himself drop under the bar. There were already a few plates on either side of the barbell so Matt just had to stand behind and spot. After completing an impressive set of lifts Nick stood up and motioned for Matt to get under the bar. His chest was flushed with the beginning of a pump, Matt could see a few veins beginning to protrude in his neck and coming out of the top of his tank top. “This weight okay for you bud?” Matt nodded, though in reality he wasn’t sure, he hadn’t lifted that much since his powerlifting days. “Don’t worry bro, I’ll spot you. You won’t need it though.” He winked and punched Matt’s chest playfully. When he was under the bar Matt’s hesitation dissolved. He gripped it firmly feeling the power he needed to lift the weight surging from the soil of the valley, into the floor, and through his feet all the way up to his chest and arms. With a grimace and deep grunt he unracked the weight and let it descend to his chest. He tapped his lower pec and pushed the bar back up. “One,” he grunted. “Nice man. Look I should have mentioned something before.” Matt wasn’t listening, his vision had tunneled and Nick’s voice was a distant drone.“Two.” “This place. This valley. It changes people man. “Three.” “I mean, they’re mostly good changes.” “Four.” “Whatever you want really.” “Five.” “You see, the issue is-” “Six.” “-most people don’t really know what they want. They think they do.” “Seven.” “But they don’t really.” “Eeeight.” “Me? I knew exactly what I wanted… Oh? Need some help there buddy?” “Nine,” Nick said proudly as he pretended to help Matt lift the bar and rerack it. He gripped Matt’s meaty hand and helped him off the bench. Nick’s eyes flit between Matt’s face and pecs. “I better watch out,” he said with a sly grin. “Or I might not have the biggest pecs in the valley anymore.” Matt laughed. “Might take a few years before that happens, especially at the rate I’m going.” “I wouldn’t be too sure about that big guy.” Nick winked and then left to retreat back to the front desk. Matt shrugged. He was more than satisfied with the weight he had just put up. Maybe this gym had lighter weights than what was written on them? He sighed and lifted his hand to wipe the sweat from his brow. “Ughh. Huh?” He frowned, his hand hovered an inch away from his forehead. He looked down to see the reason it had gotten stuck. Two impossibly large mounds of muscle were in the way of his forearm. His eyes widened with the discovery, and then he felt the weight of the massive pecs. He poked one gingerly. It was hard and squishy at the same time. He flexed and instantly felt the newfound power in his chest. He placed a hand over the granite muscle, his granite muscle, and felt veins and striations mounding up as he flexed. He felt his face growing red as a began tenting his gym shorts. “Uhhhh.” He found a mirror and stood in front of it. “Holy shit.” It wasn’t just his chest that was bigger. He was bigger everywhere. His shoulders formed round boulders and his neck was noticeably thicker and corded with muscle. His newly grown mountainous pecs pushed his tank top to its limits. And he let his thick and veiny gorilla arms hang dumbly by his side as he stared at his reflection. “I gotta get out of here,” he whispered to himself, eyeing the package in his shorts, which was bulging obscenely. “Thanks for the lift” he blurted to Nick as he strode past, determined to reach the front door without revealing to much to the bodybuilder at the front desk. He didn’t pause to consider how much deeper and louder his voice seemed. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” Nick called back. Matt pushed the front door open. He couldn’t help noticing the meaty thud his larger hands made on the tinted glass and the mass of veins and muscle in them that bulged under his skin. He instantly squinted and covered his eyes from the bright sunlight. It was warm and comforting on his sweaty skin. He slowly opened his bulky fingers and allowed the glare of the sun to filter through. A large orange sign with blue letters began to sharpen into focus. Welcome to Next Us Valley

Chapter Ten Mikey visited Pete in London several times before the bodybuilding competition at the Annual Superpower Games. Each visit would result in Mikey being worshipped, and both lads shooting their loads. Usually multiple times. Other than making each other cum with their worship sessions, things remained platonic between the pair. Mikey had tried to be affectionate with his muscle loving worship buddie on a couple of occasions, though it was never planned. Pete was never very responsive to these attempts though, and so Mikey quickly expelled any thoughts which crept into his head that things between he and Pete could take a romantic turn. Instead, Mikey reasoned that they had an amazing and special relationship, and their worship sessions were amongst the hottest and most unique of his experiences in his 300 pound muscle monster form, and that was more than enough for him. Up until the day of the show, their posing and worship sessions had remained a secret between the two of them. But now, on the evening of Mikey’s first ever appearance at the Annual Superpower Games, the pair had unexpectedly invited a third person back to Pete’s flat. The mystery man who, with the use of a superpower still unknown to Mikey and Pete, had transformed into the body of Mikey’s favourite bodybuilder; ridiculously good looking, twenty-five year old, 320 pound American meat mountain Jackson James Jones. Within five minutes of entering Pete's flat, both Mikey and the Jackson James Jones impersonator had stripped back down to their posing trunks. Pete sat on his sofa, looking up at the two phenomenal muscle monsters, still bronzed from their competition tan, standing side by side in the middle of his living room, both pumped and shredded to a shocking degree, all the time wondering whether he'd ever see such a magnificent or surreal sight again. "Okay, lads. Let's get a front double bicep!" And with those words, both of the muscle freaks sprang into action and started flexing at Pete's command. All of the mandatory bodybuilding poses followed, climaxing with Pete instructing both of the lads to hit a most muscular. While Mikey bought both of his fists together, released an outrageously cocky "YEAARRGHHS!" and aggressively scrunched his face up like some kind of animal, the Jackson Jones impersonator went straight for a crab most muscular. Bending down low, his enormous, hard traps erupted up to his earlobes and he released a loud, obscene, "OOOOOOHHH." "THAT'S IT, LADS! HIT THAT POSE!" shouted Pete. Mikey responded by outrageously slapping both of his enormous, and insanely detailed quads, before placing both of his hands on the side of them, and cranking down hard into another most muscular, his eyes shut tight, his face contorted to a comical degree, and his teeth gritted as he released another grizzly, animal-like growl. "GRRRRRRRRR!!" Jackson was imitating Mikey in a similar pose, but all Pete could focus on was his mate, and regular worship buddie, squeezing like crazy with all of his might as his thick pecs tightened and erupted from his chest, his gorgeous, blocky abs burst though his tummy, and the hard on stretching his now mucky, tan stained posing trunks visibly jolted underneath the shiny pink material. "COME OOOOON!" Pete outrageously shouted, in an attempt to encourage Mikey to crank out his next most muscular pose with even more aggression and force. Pete's efforts worked brilliantly, as Mikey lifted both of his arms up, and cranked them back down with brutal force into a crab most muscular, while releasing his loudest, and cockiest shout yet. "ARRRGGGHHHH!"! Jackson responded by belting out his own crab most muscular with an indecent "YEEEEAAASSSS!" and Pete watched on from the seat of his sofa, his dick juddering, and pre-cum dripping into his boxers as the two flexing muscle bulls before him tried to outdo each other in the most outrageous and erotically charged display of testosterone fuelled, attitude packed posing he'd ever witnessed. When the monsters had stopped posing, the atmosphere immediately lightened, and all three lads were grinning wildly and chuckling to each other. Jackson was bent over with his hands rested on his ridiculous quads, panting and trying to catch his breathe after posing so hard. Mikey, meanwhile, wasn't showing any signs of exhaustion. As part of his superpower, he could pose for as long as he wanted and never get tired. Pete knew that, if Mikey could, he would just carry on cranking out most musculars until he finally blew a load into his bright pink, mucky pup posing trunks. "Awesome job, lads," Pete said, still grinning. Mikey had placed his hand on Jackson's ridiculously broad back. Jackson straightened up, still panting slightly, his big abs moving in and out of his ever so slight turtle tummy. Mikey's hand had dropped to his side, and as the two shredded muscle bulls standing in the middle of Pete's living room looked at each other, the atmosphere in the room seemed to shift once again. Jackson was the first to make a move. Wrapping one of his huge arms around Mikey’s enormous back, he invited him into his hulking mass of monstrous muscle. Responding by wrapping his own arms around Jackson, Mikey sank his own freak show worthy body into Jackson's, becoming completely engulfed by his hard, shredded mass. Mikey’s thick, bumpy abs pressed against Jackson’s, his huge, balloon-like tits squeezed against his, their quads fought for space, and his rock hard, bright pink posing trunk covered hard on pushed as tight as it could against Jackson’s big, purple trunk covered bulge. His fingers dug into Jackson’s thick lats and, as he sunk his head into Jackson’s bull-like traps, he groaned with pleasure. Having his 300 lbs body engulfed by the huge mass of muscle belonging to one of the world’s top bodybuilders, Mikey felt like his cock was going to explode at any given moment. After their initial embrace, Jackson invited Pete over to join them, and he and Mikey proceeded to touch, explore and worship every inch of the Jackson James Jones impersonator's magnificent, beast-like physique. Mikey had touched his own huge muscle many times. He’d even touched Pete’s flexed bicep and modestly thick pecs before. But nothing compared to the sensation of feeling the gigantic sized, fully flexed mass of the American muscle God before him. Mikey had never been attracted to anyone as much as he was attracted to Jackson. It was like his ultimate fantasy had come to life. In turn, Jackson was as equally attracted to Mikey. Jackson also loved seeing Pete’s over-excited and awe stricken reaction to his mass and the fact that it seemed like he was on the verge of cumming in his pants any moment, as he worshipped the two magnificent muscle bulls in his living room. But what Jackson really loved was seeing Mikey in a state of pent up ecstasy as he squeezed Jackson’s tits and dug his fingers into his biceps. There was something slightly more sensual in Mikey’s touch too. In turn, Jackson was a lot more attentive and affectionate towards Mikey than he was with Pete. Mid way through being worshipped by the two lads, Jackson, with his arm still wrapped around Mikey, and their huge, bronzed bodies pressed up against each other, pushed his face towards Mikey’s, and gently brushed his nose with his, inviting him to draw his lips to his. Mikey took the invite, and the two muscle monsters were suddenly lost in a deep, passionate kiss. At the same time, Pete drew his lips to one of Jackson’s ginormous sized muscle tits, and began to passionately suck on the obscenely thick pec muscle. Before long, all three lads had made their way to Pete’s bedroom. Together, they were just one big heaving mass of pent up, sexually charged muscle. Three men completely lost in the act of extreme muscle worship. All ready for their cocks to explode with cum at any given moment. Jackson and Mikey could not take their hands and eyes off each other, while Pete was completely lost in the freaky muscle exploding and bulging off both of their monstrous bodies. With his hands running over Jackson’s barn door back, his torso, quads and pink posing trunk covered cock pressed tightly against his, and his wet tongue passionately dancing with Jackson’s, Mikey released a muffled groan. He couldn’t hold it in any longer. He was sure he was about to unleash the most tremendous sized load of spunk in his mucky, tan drenched posers. But Jackson had other plans for Mikey. Sensing that neither of them were going to be able to hold their spunk in for much longer, Jackson spun around, pulled down his shiny purple posers so they were wedged half way down his gigantic sized quads and pushed Mikey’s torso and trunk covered bulge against his obscenely sized arse. As Jackson climbed onto the edge of Pete’s bed so he was bent over on all fours, Mikey yanked down his tan stained posers, and pushed his huge, hard, throbbing cock into the tight, pink, twitchy hole nestled in the crack of Jackson’s ridiculously huge glutes. Loud groans of ecstasy filled the room, and as Mikey thrust his cock in and out of Jackson’s fleshy hole, Pete turned his attention to Mikey’s muscles; squeezing, feeling and worshipping his bronzed balloons of indecent mass. Fucking a man who had somehow transformed into one of the top pro bodybuilders in the world, while simultaneously having his muscles worshipped by his eager and very sexy muscle loving mate, Mikey had transcended to a whole new level of pleasure. Plunging his dick deep into Jackson’s enormous ass, Mikey suddenly came to a halt. He knew that his cock was about to explode in the next few seconds. One more thrust into the 320 pound muscle monster's tight hole and it would be game over. But Mikey had another idea. He lifted both of his arms up, Pete’s fingers still gripping into his right bicep, and, with his dick still in Jackson’s arse, Mikey cranked down hard into one more final brutal crab most muscular, while opening his mouth wide and releasing the loudest and most animalistic bellow he could. “YEEEAAARRRGGHHHH!!" As he hit the peak of his pose, Mikey’s whole body started trembling. He groaned and growled louder as pleasure consumed every ounce of his 300 lbs freakishly muscular body and his cock exploded with the most magnificent sized load, filling up Jackson’s hole, and giving Mikey the most intense orgasm he’d ever had. Jackson groaned and yelled with pleasure as his own dick exploded with cum, and a few seconds later, the room was filled with Pete’s orgasmic cries. Still gripping onto Mikey’s obscene mass with both hands, fountains of spunk started erupting freely from Pete’s dick and drenching the two sweaty, heaving, interlocked muscle Gods before him.

Something like that

Was trying to quote "Hotel California"

"You can check out any time but you can never leave' XD

Thank you so much! Chapter 2 coming up just as soon as it's done

Pat 1: The Golden Ticket Crawling through the thick brush, Thoven’s thick masculine body wasn’t designed for stealth… The snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves gives away his position to the previously unaware orc camp. Thoven, realizing his cover was blown, stands to his full 6’4” height. His 240lb frame of solid muscle wrapped in tight fitting leather armor and a marvelous chrome breastplate barely big enough to cover his pecs creates quite an imposing figure. The orcs pause at this, despite outnumbering the Elven Paladin 10 to 1. That pause was enough for Thoven to take a long lunging step forward at the group of orcs. He raises his massive sword preparing for a long sweeping strike and… “…It’s a critical failure.” I hesitantly say as my d20 rolls to a stop on a one, the worst possible roll. I wince as a devilish smile creeps up on the DM’s face. Derek is known in our group for having the most severe ideas when it comes to critical failures. We’ve already lost 2 of our characters to his sadism at the beginning of our play through. Hopefully now at level 13, Thoven can withstand what Derek has thought up. Hopefully… With a strike that could have decapitated half the orcs in front of him, Thoven swings wide but loses the footing for his lunge. Grazing cleanly over the heads of the orcs, giving them haircuts in the process, Thoven’s sword lands in the trunk of a large tree to the left. Although, “land” might not be the right word as it doesn’t come to a stop until it’s cut clean through the tree trunk. With an earthen creak the massive tree comes falling down towards Thoven, the sound of it’s slow decent to ground sends chills down Thoven’s spine. So much so he stands there shell shocked until the tree slams into the ground, his massive body but a bug underneath. Dealing him… 58 points of damage. “Come on dude… at least let him roll to dodge if you’re going to deal 58 points of damage for a single failed roll…” pipes in Travis, his low quite voice coming to my defense as I myself am shell shocked after coming within 10 points of a knockout. His rather small frame dwarfed by Derek’s own hulking one. “It’s not like this is an important encounter to the campaign… We already beat your boss for the day.” Snickering, Derek just shrugs his overly grown shoulders, “A one is a one. If I didn’t do this, they wouldn’t be CRITICAL FAILURES anymore. And a near death AFTER the boss? THAT’S GOTTA throw you for a loop! It’s called suspense for a reason.” Ignoring his inaccurate use of the word suspense, I motion for Travis to back down. I’ll just graciously take the damage as none of us really want to deal with Derek’s bull headedness this late into the day. It’s something we have just come to accept as part of our after school sessions anyways. Not that we could kick him out of our group if we wanted to… This D&D campaign is actually put on by our school’s Gay-Straight Alliance as one of our guidance counselor’s (oh so often NOT) “Great Ideas”. So unfortunately we’re not some random group of friends who can start another campaign behind The Annoying One’s back. Our Guidance Counselor felt roleplaying cooperatively would be a great way for members to immerse themselves in the thought processes of others. A novel idea albeit, but the one who needs that sort of empathy training the most ended up as Dungeon Master and is always focused on the “me” rather than the “we”. A way of thinking that might just be reflex for him as the school’s football team captain and self-proclaimed number one go-getter (AKA he’s loved by the teachers too, something none of us at the bottom of the food chain can quite figure out...). “WHAT DO YOU MEAN by spell shaping?” booms Derek, bringing me back to reality just in time to see Jastivan (Travis) save Thoven’s ass from a small hoard of orcs with a massive fireball. A small grin on Travis’ face as Derek can do nothing about the nat20 sitting neatly on our game mat. “Looks like we’re both pretty lucky, in our own ways.” I laugh, giving Travis a high five which he meekly returns. With the last of our battles out of the way, Derek grumpily leads our group back to town so we can cash in our treasures, rest and level up before our next session. With all his chances to kill us out of the way, what is usually a pretty lively part of the game turns into just a conversation in the meta game as Derek leaves his character voices behind and basically just deals with our characters as himself. Packing up our stuff for the day, me and Travis skedaddle before Derek hones in on us to relieve some of his pent up frustration. We laugh together about today’s victory over the boss (AKA just Derek trying to seriously kill us with some random monster from the monster manual) on our way to our local board game store “High Adventure”. They have a massive selection and everyone there is super knowledgeable. This one guy who works there named Jordan has been playing D&D since the game first came out! We always go to him for the best news on what adventures to try and what we really need in order to play. “Oh guys! Over here!” we hear Jordan as we walk into High Adventure, whispering at us from the D&D shelves as he frantically moves books around. “I was just ‘restocking the shelves’ before you get here. Didn’t want anyone but you guys to get their hands on this.” he says secretively, pulling out a very thin gold trimmed D&D book. “I was shocked when I saw this on the shelves this morning... I got a copy a long time ago, and it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to me.” Both Travis and I look at each other, neither of us knowing what to make of Jordan’s excitement and this apparently great buy. “So uh… What’s with the book Jordan?” I ask, noting by the gleam in his eyes that he was clearly waiting for me to do so. Rather than actually saying anything though, he simply pulls us behind the shelf and hands over the small book. Travis and I thumb through the surprisingly few number of pages, realizing quickly they are all just the same thing; gold inked character sheets on aged paper. Shocked and disbelieving I say, “Really Jordan? You’re this excited about some dumb character sheets with gol…” until Travis slaps his hand over my mouth, both him and Jordan glancing around frantically as if to make sure no one overheard me. “What?!?” I gasp as I pull Travis’ trembling hand from my face. “Is… Is this really?!?!” Whispers Travis, his excitement now on par with Jordan’s as he seems ready to jump up and down, quite literally. They share quite, reaffirming nods with one another, clearly privy to some sort of knowledge they have yet to share. “Guys… At least let me in on what’s so great about these dang charac…” “SSSSHHHHH” they both scream at me in whispers. “OK! Ok, I get it… These are The Shit. Excuse me for being a bit curious…” I bite back sarcastically, confused as to why they don’t just tell me what’s up with these damn old, gold character sheets! With a seriousness I don’t think I have ever seen in him, Travis breaks me from my pouting and asks “Do you trust me?” Taken aback by his serious tone, I just nod. “These… There is no way I can explain the details, but if these are real… You’ve just got to trust me here. This purchase could change our lives. We’ve always been the kids at the back of class playing our little imaginary games, ever since we were little. But this! This will make all that time worth it.” Stunned to silence, I try and wrap my mind around what the implication is here, but these guys are being way to vague. If Travis is this set on it though... “Well then,” I say decidedly to Jordan. “I guess you’ve got yourself a sale.” Leaving the store and Jordan behind, our new purchase in hand, Travis and I head towards my place since it is only a few blocks from High Adventure. Travis and I don’t talk along the way like we usually would, Travis being too busy shaking with excitement, while I for the life of me couldn’t understand what was causing that. There’s no way that some fancy character sheets would cause Travis to freak out like this. So then what is it? Travis’ excitement feels infectious as I conjure my wildest imaginations to play with the idea, which gets me nowhere fast. I just get some dumb ideas like these being part of some super high-tech new game system for D&D, or that the gold leaf is real gold? Neither of which sound convincing enough to explain Travis’ current state. After a few minutes of walking in silence with our minds abuzz, finally we get to my house and we run up to my room. With no more walking to distract from the topic at hand, I open my mouth to speak. Before I get the chance to vocalize my thousand questions, Travis pipes up, “Don’t bother Caleb. I know it’s strange, but I really won’t be able to explain anything to you until we make a character using these sheets.” I try to argue, but not knowing anything here I just sit down on my bed defeated. I at least manage to give Travis an annoyed stare, my patience for all this vague talk about to evaporate. Picking up on this and knowing my more than inquisitive nature, Travis grabs the book. Removing a character sheet with surgical delicacy, he hands it to me and takes a deep breath. “Ok now, the fastest way to explain is to just do.” He says, his voice trembling, “Close your eyes and imagine your dream D&D character. What do they look like; are they muscular or skinny, gruff or graceful? Are they tall and heavy, or small and light? What are they wearing; a knight’s full garb, a wizard’s robes, or nothing at all? Get as much detail as your imagination can come up with.” I sit for a minute taking in his words, trying with all my might to decide on what I’d want my dream character to be. “Well?” pipes up Travis, a crazy grin on his face. “What did you imagine?” Before I managed to put it into words he’s looking over my shoulders, pushing down with his full weight in order to see. “This… This is just Thoven’s character sheet.” “Well it’s pretty hard to come up with something on the… Wait? What do you mean by that? How did you know I pictured Thoven?” Shocked, I tentatively look down at what really is just Thoven’s character sheet, exactly the same as the one in my backpack but written in gold. Weirdly enough, written in my hand writing too. “Dude, what the hell is this? I didn’t write this!” Freaked out, my voice comes out in a higher octave than it has in years. I drop the sheet to the ground and look at Travis, “Explain. Now!” Picking up the sheet, Travis returns it to me with a sigh as he says, “I guess that reaction is to be expected… This really isn’t something you could expect.” Glad to be reaffirmed that I am indeed not crazy, but terrified further by the route this conversation is taking, I take a deep breath. Seeing me calm down, if only a little, Travis continues slowly, “So, I know this isn’t what you want to hear… but these sheets really aren’t something I can totally explain either. Up until just now, they were just some wild rumour I had read on some small D&D forum. It’s hard to believe that they might be real…” Taking a few breaths, Travis spends a few moments to reorganize his thoughts into what better be how he plans to explain this. “I… Actually,” a thought popping into his head, “I’m just gonna bring up that forum post and you can read it yourself.” And with a few quick and practiced motions, he has the forum up on his phone, holding it out for me to see. Reading over the post a few times, I try to wrap my brain around the idea of becoming Thoven… Knowing this is ridiculous, I hand the phone back to Travis, a little upset and confused as to why he’s so dead set on getting me to believe this idea. “Come on Caleb! Where’s your sense of adventure. This is amazing!” Travis’ excitement keeping him ignorant to my lack of enthusiasm. “With these character sheets, we can actually LIVE OUT our D&D campaigns. I have so much stuff I want to try with you.” Blushing, he pauses to catch himself. “Just imagine what we can do. The possibilities are...” “Enough Travis…” The lack of belief in my voice makes it come out tired and impatient. “What are you and Jordan doing this for? I’m not dumb enough to be fooled by some crazy conspiracy theory and some trick character sheet.” “But the sheet… it knew…” ‘What? It knew what I was thinking? I don’t get why your doing this… Did you use some heat sensitive ink to make Thoven’s character info appear? You think I’d believe all this?” waving the character sheet around and pointing at his phone. “It’s insane. We don’t live in a world where something magical comes along to just make it all better.” “Yeah, but with these we can experience another world.” “Just stop… I don’t get why your pushing this so hard, but I’ve had enough for today.” I hand the character sheet over to Travis and walk him to the door. He slowly follows behind, not wanting to give this up but not knowing how to continue the conversation. “Can you go peddle your magic to someone else? I’m not buying.” I say, opening the door and waving Travis through. Just before he crosses the threshold of my front door, Travis stomps down and turns to me with what looks like a teary eyed determination. “Fine, I get how crazy it sounds. Just… next time we have our D&D session at school bring this character sheet with you. Then you’ll see.” He say as he shoves the character sheet into my arms once again. Before I get to protest he turns around and makes a very grandiose un-Travis like exit.

Part 12: Tyson Act II: Noon “Wait a second…” Paul looked up from the keg, “this is the guy with the black eye?” he fastened the line into place and rose to his modest height, dusting his hands off. Tyson stood a foot taller than him. “No, you weren't working that night. And it was his only time here.” They navigated around each other in the cramped cellar and climbed the stairs back up to the bar. “I mentioned him… at the time.” Thanks to Pride, the bar was busier than usual for a Thursday afternoon but was still pretty quiet. Paul had plugged in his ipod and was playing early nineties easy listening. Paul washed his hands thoughtfully. “Who had the black eye, then?” Tyson sighed. “Blair.” “Ahh,” Paul smiled wistfully. “Lord he was ever cute.” “Paul…” Tyson whined. “Okay so Blake… riiiiiiight, little miss Frank and Oak. The hookup to end all hookups,” Paul got them back on track. “...is missin'.” “Is, like, POLICE missing,” Tyson stressed. “I've been thinking about him all day. I know it's so stupid to…” “All right now stop it,” Paul chided, “you're not being stupid it's just… d'ya know anything about this guy? What's he do?” Tyson shook his head, feeling embarrassed. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. “All right, well,” Paul gesticulated. “Look, you're not being foolish to worry about 'im. I mean, obviously. I'm just sayin, maybe he's the kind of guy who, y'know… goes missing.” “What does that even mean?” Tyson protested. Paul was about to answer when Daniel strode up to the bar. “How's me boys?” “Good,” Paul smiled politely, grabbing him a bottle of Keith’s. “I'm so tired, but pretty good.” He twisted off the cap and set the bottle down in front of him. “An’ Tyson?” Daniel nodded at Tyson, picking up the bottle. “Seem a bit gloomy.” He shrugged. “Yeah I just… got some bad news.” He pushed himself off the wall and jerked his bangs out from his eyes. He managed a civil grin. “I'm fine. Cliff running late?” “Called in sick,” Daniel growled. “Shit,” Paul shook his head. “So it's just you tonight?” Daniel sighed. “Left message with that boy Hugo. Won't be no trouble neither way.” He took a swig of beer, nodding to Paul. “Thanks,” he grumbled, and went back towards the patio. “Look Ty, I'm not trying to give you a hard time but I mean, y'know… it was a hookup,” Paul shrugged uneasily. “I know it can…” “I know, man, I know,” Tyson silenced him impatiently. “I just… it felt… more important and like, sincere.” “Well, maybe it was,” Paul proposed quietly. “Things… aren't always that… I dunno. Straightforward.” He sighed. “Look either way it sounds like you were a total gentleman or whatever… I'm just sayin’ whatever happened you didn't do anything wrong. I hate to say it like this but y’know… maybe you should just, y'know… forget about 'im.” Tyson groaned. “Don't say that, man…” “Well I mean bloody look at you,” said Paul, gesturing at Tyson. He had raised his voice and a couple of patrons glanced over at them, so Paul moved in closer and said quietly. “I'm just sayin, you're beating yourself up over… I don't even know, love. It's just not healthy.” Tyson nodded. “I guess…” “It's Pride, man,” said Paul. He grabbed Tyson’s shoulder and shook him vigorously. “It's fuckin’ Pride!” he grinned. “And you're the hottest bartender at the coolest bar in the city.” “Don't say that…” Tyson rolled his eyes. Paul held up his hands. “Hey, I'm doin fine but you've got a good foot on me and all the, y'know, hair.” He gestured to Tyson’s chest. “Honestly some days I'm amazed they even hired me.” He clapped his hands together. “Anyway. All I'm sayin is it's a time for celebration, you shouldn't be sulking.” Tyson grimaced. “I'm not sulking.” “Oh please,” Paul rolled his eyes, “you're the bloody… mayor of Sulk City.” Tyson grinned bashfully, and Paul returned the smile. “That's more like it.” He slapped the bartop and slipped past Tyson towards the bathroom. “I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead.” Paul was helping, and he was right. Whatever happened to Blake or wherever he was now likely had very little to do with Tyson. The cops were dealing with it, there wasn't anything Tyson could do about it, and worrying about it, or wondering what he could have done differently, or wondering if everything he had felt had all been unfounded - all of that was pointless. All it did was make him miserable. If Blake ever showed up again… well, he wasn't really sure what he would do. But that was beginning to seem less and less likely, and he wasn't going to - he couldn't - just wait around wondering what the proper reaction would be. He had to get over the whole thing. That was becoming clear. “Hey… Hey Tyson! You with us, buddy?” Andy, the big burly leather daddy regular, had materialized in front of him and was tapping on the bar. Tyson took a breath, adopted the same smarmy smile that had become reflexive, and set his hands on the bar. “Hey,” he grinned, “what'll it be?” *** After what seemed to Cassidy to be too long a time, they arrived at the restaurant/bar Drew had been aiming at, which was a place called Java House. Cassidy would have assumed it was a coffee joint but it turned out to be some sort of bohemian, vaguely Mexican pseudo-dive. Drew presented the place like a wizbang salesman, waving his arns dramatically at the banner that was painted over the entrance. “No one's gonna give you a second glance here, man. You're all set.” The walk over, however, had raised Cassidy's spirits somewhat, and he gestured to the door. “After you.” Drew looked a bit uncertain. “If you like… want to be alone it's cool. I'm not…” “Oh my god,” Cassidy rolled his eyes. “Shut up and come drink with me.” Drew shrugged and led him inside. It was sparsely populated, and looked like it had one bartender and two servers. The hostess told them to sit anywhere and they slid into a booth opposite each other. “The food’s pretty good, if you're hungry,” said Drew with a shrug. “Yeah maybe…” Cassidy slid the laminated menu in front of him. “We got room service but I didn't finish my breakfast.” Drew nodded but didn't respond, and after a few seconds a waiter showed up. They ordered a pitcher and a thing of nachos. “So…” Drew said slowly. “Is everything… sorry, it's none of my business.” Cassidy sighed. “It's fine it was… I dunno, it's no big deal. Like, it was just about last night with Corey… Or, fuck. Maybe it wasn't.” He rubbed his temple and grimaced. “Yeah… I guess this is, y'know… uncharted relationship issue territory,” Drew surmised grimly. “He just… he's like this with everything. My god, he can be so impressionable. Like, I don't even think he realizes it. But he totally is.” Drew shrugged. “Nobody's perfect.” “But I'm like… he wants something impossible, and I'm GIVING it to him. And I'm happy to do it. Like, I'm excited to do it, but then he's not sure anymore or like, he starts thinking about what other people think and…” Cassidy sighed. “No offense to Jamie. I mean I'm glad they reconnected, totally, but like - oh my god - he's so afraid that this has… like, that Jamie doesn't respect him or… thinks he's being silly. And then he second guesses himself.” “Yeah…” Drew nodded slowly, “I think…” he paused as the pitcher came in the hands of a lanky, scruffy, olive-skinned waiter with a spiky mess of artfully tousled hair atop a crisp fade. He poured two pints as they sat in silence, then set down two side plates with a neat pile of napkins atop them. “Nachos on the way, guys,” he said, winking at Drew before departing. “Man,” Drew watched him go. “What is it with waiters winking at me?” Cassidy grinned. “Oh my god he winked at you?” Drew waved the query aside. “Nevermind. Okay, so you know how Jamie and I… like I went and stayed with my friend for a bit. Okay, wait. Some backstory. So like…” he paused. “I… I've kind of always had this… I guess attraction… you could call it a fetish, for like, growing into a huge muscle freak.” Cassidy smirked. “Since I was a kid,” Drew continued. “Like, I didn't even equate it with anything sexual but like, I found that exciting even before I realized I was into dudes. But…” he paused bashfully. “So I never told Jamie about any of this but like, I found websites for people who were into the same thing and I'd like, roleplay with them and… it was just like this other thing I was doing and I guess… I dunno, I thought about bringing it up to Jamie but it felt like… juvenile, I guess. And like, Jamie's retarded too about a bunch of stuff but I still felt like the same thing as Adam. He'd think I was being silly or shallow or whatever.” He sighed. “So when he told me what happened that night, up at your place, I thought he'd like, gotten into my browsing history and come up with this ridiculous story just to… I mean I don't even know. But I felt like he had violated my privacy and was using this secret I had against me.” Drew shook his head. “It seems so… I said some really awful shit to him.” Cassidy shrugged. “Well, like… like you said it's pretty uncharted territory.” “I know but still…” Drew paused. “He isn't holding it against me and every time I apologize he like, won't even let me but I felt so betrayed. Trust has never been easy for me - for either of us - but once we had it between us…” Drew paused mid-sentence, and smiled abashedly. “Sorry I shouldn't be unloading all this.” Cassidy waved his hands. “Oh my god, it's fine. Seriously.” “Hey guys,” the waiter returned with a platter of nachos. They cleared space on the table and he set them down. “There we go. Enjoy!” he chirped before sauntering off again. “Did he wink again?” asked Cassidy. Drew shook his head. “Must be losing my touch.” He peeled a cheesey nacho off the top of the pile. “Okay my point is: ever since that night we reconciled, I've been opening up more about it. We've played around with size fantasies and… I guess what I'm saying is, Jamie's getting into it now too. I mean last night after you, y'know,” he mimed a flex with a grin, “we had a really great time, and Jamie couldn't get enough of it.” He sipped his beer. “If Adam talked to Jamie about it now? I feel like he'd get a very different impression.” “Really,” Cassidy sounded dubious. “Well Jamie can be difficult to predict sometimes so I can't say for sure,” Drew admitted, then shrugged. “But yeah.” Cassidy leaned forward. “You like the waiter?” Drew casually turned his head back to glance at the server who was leaning against a doorframe talking to another employee. He shrugged. “Yeah he's all right.” “He'll be better the next time around,” Cassidy winked. Drew grinned, his eyes lighting up, and he leaned in. “Seriously?” he asked quietly. “You just like, go around pumping up strangers?” Cassidy shrugged, wary of disapproval after everything had been going so well. “Yeah…” Drew giggled. “Man that is so fuckin cool!” Cassidy smiled in relief. It was fun being able to talk to someone about it who wasn't constantly riding him to tone it down. “Y'know… if you ever wanted something more permanent,” he shrugged again. “I'm game. Just say the word.” “Oh man,” Drew shook his head with a wide smile. “You cannot do that to me.” “Oh my god I'm totally serious,” Cassidy protested. Drew exaggerated a nod, laughing. “Oh I know. You just don't understand what you're getting into, saying that to me.” “Jamie told you I can do it so it's permanent right?” Cassidy raised an eyebrow. He held up a cautionary finger. “Oh my god, BUT if it's permanent it's permanent. I don't even know how to reverse it. Yet, at least.” “Dude, shut up. Seriously,” Drew held up his hand. “You’re giving me an erection.” Cassidy laughed. “Sounds like a yes to me.” Drew chuckled, then grew a bit more serious. “… I mean I should probably run it by Jamie…” Cassidy rolled his eyes. “God. Like, Jamie's a great guy and all but he's really ruining all my fun.” Drew shrugged apologetically. “Have you ever… like, done it to anyone before? Made them, like, permanently huge?” Cassidy's grin widened, and he dug his phone out of his pocket. He swiped through a few menus before he found what he was looking for, then passed the phone to Drew. “Keep the sound off,” he advised. “It sounds like a porno.” Drew chuckled as he hit play on the video, but almost immediately his brow furrowed. “Wait a minute, I've…” his eyes widened. “Holy shit this is real?” Cassidy beamed. “Yup.” “I've seen clips of it all over the forums I go to,” Drew explained. “I just thought it was a really good effects job.” Drew watched the video of clothes tearing off Josh as he grew too swollen with muscle to be contained, fighting the urge to turn on the sound so he could hear the groans of pure ecstasy evident on his expression. Drew hastily shoved the phone back across the table, nearly pitching it into the nachos as he went. “If I watch any more I'll jizz myself, guaranteed,” he chuckled under his breath. Cassidy smiled as he put his phone back in his pocket. He shrugged. “Anyway. You want something similar you know where to find me.” Drew shook his head. “Man, I still can't get over it. Magic and shit. It's so fucked up.” Cassidy shrugged. “I dunno. You get used to it.” Drew laughed. “If you say so.” The waiter sidled up next to their table, sleeves now hugging thicker arms and pants tight around a modest bubble butt. “Everything all right here, guys?” They nodded. “All good, thanks,” Cassidy said with a thumbs up. “Great,” said the waiter, and turned to leave, his ass bouncing along behind him. Cassidy raised an eyebrow. “You like?” Drew chuckled and nodded. “Very nice.” *** Adam lazed around the hotel room trying to distract himself. He played on his phone, watched TV, and perused his Facebook wall but kept wondering what he was supposed to do. Go looking for Cassidy? Send him texts? Just forget about him and do his own thing? He thought about seeing a movie, grabbing a drink, or just going for a walk around the city, but didn't really feel like doing anything. Instead he just killed time and waited for Cassidy to come back, rehearsing lectures and apologies in equal measure. Fuck, he thought, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. Maybe I AM wishy-washy. When Adam had first proposed going big full-time, it had seemed like such a fantastic idea. He felt so good when he was gigantic. It felt so natural. When he'd wake up after shrinking down to normal he felt so crestfallen, and missed it immediately. Cassidy had been taken aback at first but once he got on board there was no talking him down. But all these factors that hadn't seemed like a big deal… he'd have to quit his job, and wasn't sure where, if anywhere, he could get a new one. They'd probably have to move. They'd have to get his entire wardrobe - not to mention utensils, computers, hell even his phone - custom made… Cassidy kept insisting that funds were no issue but he'd grown up a rich kid and had a fucked up idea of money and virtually NO idea how much things actually cost. Becoming a giant was an incredibly expensive prospect, aside from all the other practical problems it would entail, and aside from all the attention he would inevitably get that he didn't want. There was a knock at the door and he glanced over at it. “Cass?” he shouted. Maybe he'd forgotten his key. Adam rolled off the bed and padded barefoot over to the door. He opened it to find two people standing outside and thought for a split second they were hotel staff inexplicably dressed in casual clothing but then he recognized them. “Mahtab? Russell?” he frowned. “What- hey!” Mahtab roughly shoved him back in his room and Russell closed the door behind them. Adam rubbed his chest where she had hit him. “What the fuck, Mahtab?” “Is he here?” asked Mahtab. Russell pushed by him and checked the room, peeking his head in the bathroom. “Cassidy?” asked Adam, bewildered. “No, he…” Adam shook his head. “Look, whatever. Get out of my fucking room, you psycho!” “Adam, we are not fucking around. Where is Cassidy?” Mahtab asked again. Russell had stepped up next to her, arms folded and head raised archly. Adam glanced back and forth at them, agape. “Look… I don't…” he thought back to that last day at the dojo, with Harry fuming at Cassidy and Adam briefly scared he was going to kill him. He shook his head. “I'm not telling you shit. Get out of my room. What… who do you think you are?” “We have to talk to Cassidy,” said Russell. “Just talk. For now, anyway.” “Oh yeah, THAT sounds encouraging,” Adam spat. “Hey!” Mahtab pointed a finger at him so close to his face he leaned back. “This is serious!” Adam was at a momentary loss for words before he managed to clumsily blurt out: “Why?” Russell glanced apprehensively at Mahtab, who vigorously shook her head. Russell seemed to protest, raising his arms in supplication, but Mahtab was apparently not budging, and folded her arms with an arch glare. Russell sighed, and turned to Adam. “Look, lives are on the line.” Mahtab batted him across the arm. “Jesus, Russell!” “Well what are we supposed to do here?” asked Russell. “Let's assume for a second that we're right about Cassidy. Either Adam is in on it or he's in the dark.” “You guys know I'm standing right in front of you, right?” Adam raised an eyebrow. Mahtab sighed with annoyance. “Look… people have been going missing, and… well things ended badly between Cassidy and the rest of the coven so....” “Wait what?” Adam blinked. “Who's missing?” “Roddy, Mohan, Sarah…” Russell listed them off. Adam shook his head. “Roddy’s in Mexico for the summer.” Mahtab clenched her teeth. “No he's not! Look we've been looking into this for a while now and…” “What about the Circle?” asked Adam. “It's the fucking Circle. Leave us alone.” Russell sighed. “It's not the Circle, they've been losing people too.” “Then what…” Adam stopped, and sat down on the bed. He paused for a moment, then looked up at them. “Is Liam alright?” Mahtab looked dubiously at Russell. “Yeah. He's fine.” “I just…” Adam looked between them. “I mean I know things got… strained, but… I mean c'mon guys. You really think Cassidy would do anything to hurt any of you? After everything?” “According to Corey he was pretty brazen about practicing in public.” Mahtab put a hand on her hip and gestured with the other. “Like he doesn't give a shit about any of our codes.” “Well sure he doesn't,” Adam shot her a glare, “but that's on Harry. You guys kicked him out; why should he have to follow all your rules?” “What?!” Mahtab shouted. “Adam, if you guys went public it would put us all at risk. It can't be a decision you make on your own.” “So instead it's a decision the rest of you get to make for us?” Adam pointed a finger at her. “Y'know, Cassidy would sit down with Harry if he came to him. But there's been no outreach, no peace offering, there's been dick all. It's almost a year now.” “I don't see anything come out of your camp,” Mahtab countered. Adam ignored that and continued. “We're on our own. That's pretty clear. You don't want to have anything to do with us, that's fine. Whatever. But don't come to us asking for our dues.” Mahtab sneered and was about to shout back at him but Russell intervened. “Okay wait. Calm down. This isn't what we're here for.” Adam shook his head. “What's it say about you that you think your friends turn into psychos and monsters the moment your back is turned?” Mahtab’s expression softened. “It's been a while, Adam. This wasn't just… I dunno, a little spat. We thought if Cassidy felt he was in danger he might… protect himself.” “IS he in danger?” asked Adam pointedly. “No. Well I don't know,” Russell admitted. “But the only people who would be moving against our coven AND the Circle would be someone working outside both of them.” He crossed his arms. “You know any other practitioners who are?” “What about Robyn?” asked Adam. “I mean she never made it official but she was definitely talking about going out on her own.” “She's gone missing too,” Mahtab reported. Adam grimaced. “Doesn't rule her out.” “Then help us rule HIM out,” said Russell. “If he's not involved then he should be aware of all this anyway.” Adam paused, biting his lips, glancing between them, before he sighed dejectedly. “Look I don't know where he is,” he admitted. Mahtab rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh?” “I'm serious,” Adam insisted. “We had a bit of a fight and he stormed out.” “What about?” asked Mahtab. “Well we got into a pretty heated discussion of none of your fucking business,” said Adam, throwing up his middle finger at her. Russell got between them. “Do you know where he went?” Adam sighed, looked at him flatly. “Do you normally give people your itinerary before you storm off in a huff?” Russell held up his hands. “All right, I think you need to cut back on some of this sass.” “Fuck it,” Mahtab shrugged. “We're staying here until Cassidy gets back.” “Cuz that's not awkward at all!” Adam threw up his arms. Russell pointed at him. “What'd I just say about sass?” Mahtab strode over to a chair, scooped some clothing off it, throwing it on the floor, and sat down, defiantly crossing her arms. Adam shook his head. “Fucking god,” he grumbled, and lay down on the bed. Russell leaned against the desk, and the three of them sat there in silence for a minute until finally he proposed: “You guys wanna order a pizza?” Mahtab and Adam exchanged glances. They shrugged in unison. “I guess.” “Yeah sure.” *** Cassidy leaned against the wall of an alleyway that led to a complex of back entrances to shitty-looking apartments attached to buildings with storefronts on the streets. The odd passerby shot him a curious glance but generally he was ignored. He was too preoccupied with his phone to care one way or the other. im so hard right now, one of Cassidy's Grindr chat partner reported. Cassidy sighed, and dutifully replied: Hot. The Grindr guy operating under the handle “Amigo” continued: im so thick U want to watxh me jerk it?? Cassidy made a face. Who the hell says “jerk it”? Nevertheless, that was the response he'd been hoping for so he typed with a grin: Fuck yeah “Any luck?” Drew called as he approached from down the alley, a plastic grocery bag swinging from his hand. Cassidy grinned. “Oh my god! Plenty! Grindr is like, clearly experiencing the Pride effect. This one guy's about to send me a link, I'm pretty sure.” Sure enough, the next message was a hyperlink, which Cassidy triumphantly followed to a video chat invite, but first he had to create an account with the website and it needed his credit card information. Drew made a face as he fished a mickey of Canadian Club out of the bag. “Fuck that.” “Right?” Cassidy agreed. “It's okay I had another guy… yeah here.” Drew took a swig from the mickey and passed it to Cassidy, then opened a bag of all dressed Ruffles chips and offered them to Cassidy. luv showin off my big cock, Grindr User informed him. Cassidy took a shot from the mickey, typing: I bet a stud like you puts on quite a show Like nothing u ever seen, Grindr User confidently replied. Cassidy smirked. “And away we go!” he chirped, typing: Show me Drew munched a handful of chips as they waited for Grindr User to respond. “Go to his profile?... Whoa. Holy abs.” “Right?” Cassidy rolled his eyes. “I totally would've preferred the last guy with a face pic but like, y'know,” he shrugged. “Grindr be grindin’.” Drew chuckled. “Oh my god, jackpot!” Cassidy exclaimed as a hyperlink popped up. He followed it to a still shot of a familiar set of abs and a countdown on the expiration of their invite to join the video chat. He needed to set up an account first but this one didn't require any credit card information. Before long they were signed in and ready to go. The blurry image of Grindr User’s chest came into focus before he turned the webcam up to his face. “Yeah you want a show, huh? Mmm,” he licked his lips theatrically. He had some kind of Scandinavian accent, though it was fairly mild. He was sitting naked in what looked like a dimly lit basement apartment. There was a Death Becomes Her poster next to what looked like a Green Bay Packers calendar on the wall behind him. Cassidy typed: Dazzle me Peering over his shoulder, Drew laughed. “Dazzle me?” “Yeah I'll dazzle you,” he said breathily, then he image shuddered as he adjusted the webcam down then rolled backward on his desk chair so they could see him splayed across his desk chair stroking his erect cock. “This has fireworks going off in your crotch, yeah?” Cassidy smirked, typing: Yeah it's not bad, I guess “Ha! Not bad?” Grindr User laughed, holding his cock against his abs and letting his hand continue past the tip and along his abs. He smirked confidently, licking his lips again. “Admit it. This is the most beautiful cock you've ever seen.” He waved his hand at his five inch cock like he was presenting a work of art. “Jesus, this guy really gets into it,” Drew noted. Cassidy held up his finger. “Okay now pay attention,” he said, typing: It could use some work Gindr User’s expression faltered for a moment before he laughed again. “You want me to work my cock, eh?” He shifted in his chair, stroking his shaft slowly. “You… you want…” he paused, looking down at his cock, and it suddenly throbbed larger in his hand. His eyes widened as it lengthened to nearly a foot long and grew as thick as a beer can. “What the shit?!” he exclaimed. Drew covered his mouth with his hand as he laughed aloud. now THATs a beutiful cock, Cassidy typed, and quickly shut down the browser and Grindr before he could respond. Drew glanced down, “Fuck, well, now I’m hard,” he observed. He laughed again. “Man that is so hot! You must do that all the time!” Cassidy chuckled, shaking his head. “Like, only when I’m in a real good mood.” “Thought you were in a bad mood,” Drew winked at him. “The afternoon really turned things around,” Cassidy smiled. “Yeah man it's been fun hanging out with you,” Drew nodded, then tilted his head. “On that note though I should probably get going. As much as I'd love to watch you blow up guys all day.” “Aww,” Cassidy pouted. “You guys doing anything tonight?” “Nah we got Fit Primpin tomorrow so we're gonna take it easy tonight. Stay in, smoke a joint, watch a movie,” Drew shrugged. “Hope to cap it off with a nice dirty fucking.” Cassidy laughed. “How romantic.” He sighed. “Well, like, thanks for cheering me up. You've got, like, a very refreshing attitude.” “Add me on Facebook man, we should hang out again sometime.” “Oh my god totally!” Cassidy opened his arms for a hug. Drew came in for it but as he went to put his chin over Cassidy's shoulder, Cassidy suddenly moved to intercept and their lips locked in a kiss. Cassidy moved his hand down to Drew's crotch, feeling the hardon under his shorts. Drew shuddered as he felt his cock grow heavier and snake down his thigh. He drew his lips away. “What are you doing?” he whispered. “Don't worry,” Cassidy assured him, glancing around the alley. “Jamie will be fine with it.” Drew leaned back with a moan, dropping the plastic bag as he felt his torso thicken, arms tightening up into guns that stretched his T-shirt, thighs inflating with beef, chest heaving into two slabs of muscle. Cassidy seemed to dwindle in front of him as he felt his vertebrae rubbing against each other as they stretched longer, inching him taller. His feet strained the straps of his sandals. His growth subsided just as he was about to burst out of his clothes, leaving him dressed in a far too small T-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts that looked almost like posers painted over a supple bubble butt and a slightly obscene bulge. He was even bigger than he'd been the night before. “Wow,” he breathed. “I never get tired of that feeling.” he ran his hands down his newly formed abs, exposed an inch or two at his midriff. “Glad you like it,” Cassidy smirked. “Though, like, try not to bend over or flex too hard on the way home,” he added. “Good advice,” Drew agreed. “Umm… with that in mind could you grab that bag?” Cassidy chuckled as he scooped up the bag, pausing to help himself to one last hit from the mickey and a final handful of chips. “There's totally Skittles in here!” he noted as he handed it back to Drew. “Shit I forgot the Skittles,” Drew frowned. He looked himself over again. “Glad I don't have far to go. Thanks a ton, man.” “Oh, my pleasure,” Cassidy purred. “Have a good night.” “Later, Cass.” Drew resisted the urge to wave and instead just nodded, then turned and walked stiffly out of the alley, feeling his clothing ready to give out with nearly every move he made. Cassidy chuckled to himself as he watched him go, congratulating himself on his handiwork, but severing the link as he found himself tempted to give him another boost. He had to keep a leash on things when he'd had so much to drink. It was so nice to just hang around someone who was as into his abilities as he was. He leaned against the wall and glanced back at his phone. Noting the time, he realized he'd been gone from the hotel since the morning. Adam was probably worried but didn't want to be the first to break radio silence. Cassidy sighed. Frustrating as he was, Adam didn't deserve that. He decided to be the bigger man. Hey We'll talk when i get back I'll be like an hour or so He sent the texts one handed, finishing the remaining chips in his other hand as he did. He waited a few moments staring at his phone, and just as he went to put it away it buzzed in his hand. Cool, Adam replied. Cassidy rolled his eyes and put his phone in his pocket. “God like don't gush or anything, Adam,” he muttered, clapping all dressed flavour dust from his hands. “Hey Butch.” Cassidy froze, feeling a chill run up his spine. He turned to see a big burly guy wearing a huge white shirt that draped loosely over his thick muscles cushioned by a fair layer of flab. one hand was in his pocket and the other was smoking a cigarette. Cassidy recognized him but couldn't quite place him. He called him Butch. Cassidy had already been staring at him too long. “Like, are you talkin to me?” he asked, tapping himself in the chest. The big man took another sidling step towards him, the hint of a grin on his otherwise glowering face, equal parts mischievous and triumphant. “‘Course I am, Butch. You don't remember me?” It was that bouncer from the Black Eagle. It came to him suddenly. Cliff. How could he know? It was impossible. He couldn't know. “Like, sorry man,” Cassidy forced a chuckle. “Think you got me mistaken for someone else.” “Naw man don't be like that,” Cliff took another step closer, flicking his half-finished cigarette away. “Let’s catch up, man. You remember what you did to me that night we met? Cuz fuck, man. I sure as hell do.” The alley was beginning to feel very claustrophobic. Cassidy shrugged. “Sorry man. Like, I don't know what you're talkin about.” He turned and headed for the street as evenly as he could, the booze suddenly hitting him harder than he'd anticipated. He felt a thick hand clasp around his arm, and before he could twist free, a second hand clamped a rag over his nose and mouth and pressed him tightly against the burly body.Panic set in immediately, but the chemical fumes flooding his lungs plunged him into a haze. Cassidy tried to collect his energies, make himself bigger so he could escape, but already consciousness was slipping away from him. He tried to fight it but the strength left his limbs and he felt his body go limp in the grasp of his captor before sensation left him entirely.