m/m The Orgone Accumulator : Part Two

[Hialmar]

The story begins in: The Orgone Accumulator : Prologue

The preceeding chapter is found here: The Orgone Accumulator : Part One

 

The Orgone Accumulator: Part Two

The music made it difficult to hear what the other man said.

"Could you repeat that?"

Jim, the muscular forty-year old repeated, what he had just said:

"I said, that the leather scene has changed. When I found the leather scene as a teenager, it was an entire subculture: Everyone made an effort to look like one's fantasy, and there weren't any visitors from the outside, like you."

Visitors from the outside. John hadn't expected that to sting, but it did. His facial expression must have changed.

"I didn't mean any disrespect. I just meant, that those who attend these clubs nowadays don't identify with the culture I and the middle-aged and the oldies does. Today you frequent some vanilla club with a rainbow flag one day, attend some gay rights manifestation another day, and wear a cheap harness for laughs at some surviving leather bar a third day. Community is falling apart. The apps are also a part of it. With Recon and similar apps, the need for leather bars is disappearing, and a lot of old bars and clubs have closed, not just here in the US, but also over in Europe. Gentrification has hit a lot of leather bars: The old Eagle had to move to the present location, and that's not the only one. Beginning to sound like someone twice my age, am I not?"

"That's time, isn't it? Everything changes."

"Everything. Not limited to the leather scene. Take bears, like yourself, for instance ..."

"Wait a minute. I'm not a bear."

"Sorry. You gave that impression. Take the bears, for instance. The movement began when some gay men felt left out, when all gay men were expected to be twinks, and when men were supposed to shave and style their hair, look like Ken-dolls and not share any hobbies with straight men. The bear movement emerged, when some men attracted to other men wouldn't accept to be forced into the twink stereotype. Or be forced into the mindset of the more built circuit crowd. Unlike the circuit crowd, bears didn't fear some chub nor the scent of honest sweat, but change happened, and today there exist muscle-bears, which runs counter to some of the original ideas."

"You don't have to tell me. I'm writing about the history of the LGBTQ movement. Well, to be honest, more G than any other letter. Some B and Q, perhaps."

"Don't say that aloud among the Trannies. They will kill you."

"Speaking about history. You could show me the ropes and introduce me to the oldies you mentioned."

"The oldies? Daddy chaser? I though we were have having something here."

John took a step forward, put his hand at Jim's leather-clad bum and squeezed. It was obvious, that Jim enjoyed to work out, and his glutes were firm and unyielding. A lump grew in John's throat, and he felt how his own denim jeans became uncomfortably tight. Another hard bulge grew inside Jim's intimidating black and shiny leather-jeans. They pressed each other's groins against each other.

"We are having something here, but I just wanted to know more about the changes you mentioned. Old times. Before your time."

Jim lowered his head and kissed John. Smiling, he answered:

"I'm interested in the past, myself. I know exactly which ones you ought to ask. Follow me."

Their hair were grey or white and buzzcut. One of them had a beard, the other one an old-fashioned moustache. Similar to Jim, but unlike John, they were entirely covered in black leather, and, unlike Jim, they were wearing leather caps. Age had its imprint on them, but they obviously spent time to remain in good shape, and there was something intimidating about them. Jim introduced them to John. They enjoyed being called "Sir".

"... all those changes. I remember, when you had to be initiated to belong to the community. Some call it hazing today, but it was a way to keep the standards up. Today they let every twink with a harness in, no offence, well, you don't look like a twink, more like a cub, than anything else ..."

"I'm not a cub, Sir."

"Good to know. Well ... let anyone in, and it all began when rubber was allowed, not to mention that modern "Jockstrap Wednesday", what sort of nonsense is that supposed to be?" 

After half a beer, John steered the conversation in the right direction. One of the elderly men had only seen the infamous photographs -- seldom or never included in any recent photo art books -- but the other man actually did remember:

"Stud of Dakota ... Well, that was, uh, a specimen. Amazing man. Brings memories back. He looked like he had just stepped outside from one of Tom of Finland's drawings -- I suppose you youngsters still know Tom's art, yes? And you have to remember, that weight-training hadn't become mainstream back then. If you wanted to lift weights you joined one of those old-fashioned gyms which began as boxing-clubs, and rest of society looked at you like you were weird. Middle-class men were supposed to pretend like their bodies didn't exist, and the working-class, despite admiring feats of strength, well, they regarded the human body as a machine performing tasks, not as a piece of art to be shaped and nurtured, perfected and admired. When bodybuilding emerged in the 1950s it freaked most of society out. When gay men began to work out and wear leather ... Rest of society had expected us to be nellies, and we turned out to be hard, beefy leather-clones, well some of us, anyway, and Stud ... Well, that was not his real name of course -- I even doubt that he grew up in Dakota -- he and his friends inspired us, me and some of the other guys at The Eagle in the early 1970s. It was just some months after the Stonewall Riots, I think. Things begin to blur. Stud arrived from somewhere on the west coast and we all wanted to look like him, be like him ..."

The elderly man fell silent and took a mouthful of his beer. He was visibly aroused. He took another mouthful of beer.

"AIDS changed all that. It was an era that died with all those young and rather young men in the 1980s ... Died. Lost."

Some more beer.

"But what happened to the man, who called himself 'Stud of Dakota'. Did he die, too, or why did he disappear like that?"

The old man watched John in silence, estimating him.

"I might be able to help you, but there is a saying among some of my people ... You will not find Stud of Dakota. He will find you."

John left The Eagle leaning on Jim's assuring glossy shoulder, surrounded by the scent of Jim's leather-clothes and with a California address in his pocket.

* * *

Next chapter is found here

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by Hialmar
Added another link, spelling

[WrestlejockCT]

I like where this is coming from and the hints about where it's going.  Great start, well written and interesting.

[Hialmar]

1 hour ago, WrestlejockCT said:

I like where this is coming from and the hints about where it's going.  Great start, well written and interesting.

Thank you. I don't expect this story to attract everyone, but I wanted to use the MG genre to mix LGBTQ history and general American and European modern history with the MG theme, with some bits and bobs of counter-culture, sub-cultures and social criticism. This story will sooner or later become slightly more philosophical in tone, than your general MG story. The legacy of the eccentric Dr. Reich lend itself easily to become an amusing plot device in a MG story.

I began to approach some, but not all, of the themes of this story in a different way in my yet unfinished multi-chapter story The Company. Despite being a GenXer myself, I'm glad to give The Silent Generation and the Boomers a voice through some of my characters, since the MG genre otherwise is so obsessed with sporty college youth. Millennials got their share, when I wrote With a little help from magic, though, thinking about it, John/Brad in this story is a Millennial, of course.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Hialmar
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