“Whaddya mean?” James asked.
“Oh, hush, my puppy,” the Madame said to him, as the men in the audience looked on with morbid interest. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and nodded toward the crowd. “You’ve come for a show, right? Well, so did they!”
The crowd, including some of the guys he came with, were roaring and hollering for something to start. James sensed something ethereal about the area he stood in; it was giving him a headache. Stephan walked up from the side of the stage.
“How old are you, James?” Stephan asked.
“... Twenty-four.”
“And it looks like you eat well, you exercise… do you lift weights, too?”
“Mmm, I mean… (hic) sometimes…”
“What can you bench, James?”
“175.”
“Hear this, all! James here benches about 175 pounds... and men surely love those who lift, right?” There was audible hoots, hollers, and whistles of approval.
“Thank you, Stephan, that will be all…” The Madame said, and her young assistant stepped off the stage to the side of the tent.
“Now, James, how would you like it if I said I could make you even more of a man? A man who has the qualities that others desire...”
The crowd cheered happily at this, but James increasingly felt like he had been drugged.
“Well… that’d be cool… I think.”
“Cool, yes! And furthermore,” she stopped mid-sentence, for dramatic effect, “I shall give you these things… with some help from our audience.” The crowd laughed and applauded. James just tried to keep conscious.
“Yes, three of you will help make James the ideal man. But…” she halted, adding more suspense: “It is Madame Illusia’s fervent duty to assist James in any way possible. He himself admitted that he was drunk… so certainly we must take advantage of this situation, right?”
The crowd again cheered in support of the Madame. James turned to Stephan, who only nodded and smiled.
“Do I … do I have to?”
The Madame stepped in front of James and said a few words under her breath, and with her left hand she waved in a downward motion in front of his body, only once.
“I think you’ll want to, James. Now…”
She never made contact with his skin, but it felt like a rush of cold air had run entirely over him. She looked directly into his eyes for a couple of moments, then smirked, and then turned back to the crowd.
“Alright, we are ready... You sir, up front… with the blond hair.”
A younger-looking guy, possibly 19 or 20 years old, cocked his head in response. “Me?”
“Brady, yes?”
He was taken aback. “... Wh… yeah!...”
“What is your favorite quality in a man?”
He looked a bit uncomfortable, but only briefly, as the bravado fueled by attention took hold.
“A… Arms! Strong arms… with big muscles.”
“Perfect! Brady likes strong, muscular arms. Oh... but James…” Madame Illusia stopped, a tone of concern in her voice, “You’ve got quite strong-looking arms already!”
James gulped.
“Well, no matter. The more, the merrier!”
She mumbled a few words in that same strange language, and made two small motions with her hands. James looked to the audience… and in a matter of moments, the mood of the crowd turned from chatter and laughter to complete silence. They were astonished… and they pointed right at James with confused mutterings.
He looked down at his body. Something must be happening? The entire audience looked… awestruck. They wouldn’t stop looking at him! But he wasn’t sure what for... He looked the same. He felt the same, if not just more drunk… more than he’d been in a long time.
“What… is something… when does it start?”
The nervousness of this situation was getting to him. He frantically looked to the Madame for hints. Should he try to run out of there? … No, he had to stick it out. He had to prove he was a real man. His inhibitions may be taking a hit right now, but he wasn’t going to pussy up in front of … all these guys… his friends… that Brady kid, who was… really hot…
And he had liked his arms...
“The magic, as you see before you, is nothing but one hundred percent real, gentlemen. Your eyes do not deceive…”
The shirt he was wearing had been torn from both sides of his chest. James was unphased.
If anything, he increasingly felt like he was on display, only to be gawked at for … his unique body.
“It is a real doubling of fortunes for our James. He does not feel a thing, rest assured. But, indeed, this is not an illusion!”
“What are… What am I looking for…”
He started picking at his fingers. It was a bad habit, so he forced himself to stop by looking up and down each of his four arms, analyzing his hands for clues. Whatever he could do to distract himself from seeing the crowd’s eyes...
Madame Illusia turned to him. “Oh, James, are you feeling alright?”
“Am I stronger? Hairier? … I feel drunker...”
“Perhaps a little of each, young man.”
Each reaction James had seemed to trigger the crowd in some way, which only added to his confusion.
“Now, James, show the crowd what you’ve got, hmm? A little flexing?”
He looked at her, and then the audience. It was strange, he thought: what did they see that he couldn’t? I mean, yeah... he had a bit of a different body type than most. But he obliged, and flexed each of his arms, spacing the four out so every man in the tent could get a wholesome view. He had practiced before in front of mirrors, and other guys, after all. The crowd whooped and hollered.
“And as a final test… please tell the crowd, James. How much can you bench?”
“I already said, didn’t I? 300.”
The crowd gasped and applauded loudly. Some were even catcalling. James scratched his head with hands on his hips.
“Three-hundred pounds! No longer 175, but 300! You’ve heard it directly from James, my dears!”
The crowd erupted in raucous applause. Were… what did she mean, ‘no longer 175’?
The Madame took a bow. “Yes, thank you, thank you… Brady, do you approve?”
Brady, the boy who she had called on earlier, was frozen silent, too stunned to speak. James looked down and saw almost vacant eyes, and his jaw hung open.
“Y… y… yeah…”
“Wondrous. Now… on with the second round, yes?”
“YEAAAHH!!!” The lustful audience went wild.
Madame Illusia smiled. She had complete control over her crowd, now. As expected.
“Stephan! Please find us the next one to call on…”
The assistant surveyed the crowd…