Bradley "Brad" DiLaurentis was a man in a substantially difficult position for an eighteen year old young man. His phone buzzed with a message from his girlfriend, and even though it wasn't a negative one, he still sighed in memory of the recent rows they'd had.
A senior in high school in suburban California, looking to graduate at the top of his class - a dumb jock he was not! - and with a track & field athletic scholarship at that...and yet. He was dealing with what felt like a mountain of problems in his personal life. His girlfriend Janet Laney, who had been mostly supportive, had began making comments that started seeming like teasing, but increasingly it became clear she was serious. Janet liked Brad's scholarly aptitude, and adored his commitment and dedication to his craft...but she also disliked the body that came with that craft.
Brad was a lean young man, he had to be in order to run cross country. His black hair was trimmed down to a buzz cut, and his light blue eyes gave him a certain boyish quality even with all the tight, lean edges to him. His jaw line was strong but he had a certain overly thin look to his face. He was handsome, but not in the way everyone appreciated. Some girls said Brad was way too gaunt, especially when they thought he wasn't listening. Standing at six foot even, Brad considered himself not entirely a bad looking guy - certainly good looking enough that he felt no shame in peeling his shirt off during the longer runs during the summer months.
But it was the lean body he had to have that decidedly turned off Janet.
She was a "muscle fan". When he visited her house he should've seen it coming. She had old magazines depicting the muscle men of latter years - Reg Park, Bob Paris, Ahnold himself, Frank Zane, Tom Platz, so on. As she put it, the 80s were when bodybuilding was beautiful. Brad just saw a bunch of people who were...well. Still bigger by far than himself. He could get why she'd be into it - but he couldn't be. He couldn't exactly put on a hundred pounds of muscle and still have his scholarship.
But at the same time, Brad was increasingly feeling needled. She couldn't stand his "thin boy" abs, his tight but small arms, and his chest. She at least spared his legs from criticism, but she reserved her harshest critique for his glutes. Which she said "lacked firmness or thickness, and vanished beneath anything he wore". While he appreciated her scholarly nature despite appearances, it also meant when she wanted to criticize you, she was absolutely savage.
He swore she learned everything about it from Oscar Wilde!
Brad looked at his phone again, and saw Janet wanted to go on a date to check out the local traveling market. She always had these weird sorts of interests. He didn't want to lose her - she was beautiful, blonde, buxom, and just .02 or .03 points away from being the Amberville High School Valedictorian. 18 years old and she outshined several professional models. They'd been together for two years, as well. But it was looking increasingly like Brad was in a Catch-22. He could keep his girlfriend and try to put on some muscle, but then he'd probably lose his scholarship and not place as well in any running events. He could keep his running going, but then he'd lose the most beautiful, smart and charming woman at the school.
Just because they hit a difficult patch in the relationship didn't mean he respected her any less. It just made things...complicated.
Sure thing, Janet. I'll meet you by the market entrance. Be over in like ten minutes. Brad made sure he brought a responsible amount of money he'd garnered from a lot of experience mowing lawns around the neighborhood. Along with a number of other tasks. Some of the people around the suburbs paid him as much as he requested, others, like the woman he referred to as "Mrs. Robinson", paid him exorbitantly. But he wasn't exactly going to load up his wallet when he was visiting a traveling market place.
The market was probably home to more than a few traveling thieves who followed along trying to take advantage of any big spenders.
Brad put on a light jacket over his polo shirt, slid on his slim fit jeans, and after slipping on his slightly beaten up looking runner shoes, he was up and ready to go. As Brad left his room and began going downstairs, running a hand through his hair, he saw another recent issue walking in downstairs. His younger brother, Ethan DiLaurentis, his stepmother's son from another marriage.
Whereas Brad had short trimmed dark hair, Ethan wore his bright blond hair long, to his shoulders, and bushy. His amber colored eyes were usually covered by a pair of sunglasses. Ethan wore a big jacket even on the hotter days, and a sleeveless shirt that read "OUT AND PROUD", and a set of tight gym pants. Two years younger than Brad, the slightly effeminate and pretty faced Ethan was openly...well, something. Ethan mostly preferred guys, but he also went for muscular, athletic women. And Ethan didn't seem to get the message they were stepbrothers - making a litany of lewd comments about Brad. To which his mother ignored any complaint, and his dad just shrugged and said he'd need to just ignore him - "everyone's been an annoying sixteen year old once".
Brad had nothing against gay guys, but he had everything against his stepbrother getting incesty with him. He didn't buy the "Not Blood Related" meme. It was gross, and inappropriate. And speaking of which... As Brad walked toward the door, trying to give no indication of his intention, Ethan shouted, "Looking sexy today, big brother!"
Just say nothing, just say nothing. Brad figured. The inappropriate behavior only got worse if he responded. What was more, before Ethan got his own computer, he would go on Brad's. And thus Brad would end up opening his laptop and seeing several tabs full of Ethan's favorite stories on...CYOC.net? A cursory check confirmed the site was all about transformation, and in the most erotic sense. While he could kind of understand a few things, others made him outright tilt his head and wonder Why? Just...Why?
He hadn't known his little brother was into that sort of thing, and while he didn't judge or kinkshame, he didn't particularly like having it open on his laptop and one of the first tabs he saw.
Thankfully of late, Ethan got his own computer, and so, the young man was capable of enjoying his material without Brad having to deal with the knowledge of what his annoying little brother "liked". As if compounding Brad's recent issues, it seemed his little brother ALSO enjoyed muscular guys - though preferring the mass monsters that Janet didn't care for.
As Brad left the house, he breathed in...and then out, leaning forward.
He just hoped the trip to the market would be less eventful than some of his recent outings. As he walked off, he hoped Janet would keep her eye on whatever weird, New Agey shit she thought was cute or charming this time. Not on his frame, or anything related to their love life.
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"Oh Brad, look, a shop full of dreamcatchers!" For a woman as intelligent as she was, Janet Laney was ponderously involved with curiosity in the New Age movement. She didn't go overboard, but it was a sense of curiosity that just seemed somewhat odd to Brad. His girlfriend, a blonde, athletic stunner of a woman, was dressed today in a short sleeve t-shirt, yoga pants, and platform shoes, making her already pretty imposing height seem moreso.
"Sure thing, babe, check it out." Brad had zero interest in any of this nonsense, being more focused on making sure none of the urchins lurking around tried to pilfer her purse. As she enjoyed the sights of the shop, listening to the mystical mumbo jumbo of the store owner about how the dreamcatcher worked, Brad drifted back and forth. Still watching her, but starting to look around.
The curiosities in the corner stores were all varied, and consisted of artifacts from ye olde days, purporting in some cases to have a sliver of wood from the crucifix Christ was nailed to, and other stores peddled more modern curiosities. People dressed in shabby clothes hawked their goods from behind desks with clear lids, showing a variety of smaller items inside.
Brad tried to keep his curiosity in check, and still look around to satiate his own sense of adventurousness. He wasn't interested in some piece of wood purported by a weirdo to be from the cross. He was however drawn to a nearby strange little curio that had a variety of necklaces, bracers, rings, and even the likes of old style VHS tapes and such. Brad had an old VHS player hooked up to the TV in his room, due to a sense of nostalgia for the old days of VHS. Not that he had much to play on it...well, unless he went for something here.
Though he was still wary of any promises that couldn't realistically be kept.
"Excuse me, young man," A syrupy and charming voice - sounding like it could convince anyone to buy even the most ratty and beaten down old car - issued from the curio owner. The man was tall, thin like a scarecrow, and he covered his features in a trenchcoat, an extra large black shirt, pants, and multiple scarves, bandannas and bandages wrapped around himself. "Are you perchance interested in one of these fine items...? Yes, perhaps these interesting tapes...? They have quite the interesting subject matter."
"If you're selling me pornography, I can probably get better online." Brad responded with a light chuckle.
"Oh, no pornography here...at least not strictly. You may enjoy it regardless. Trust me, these video tapes will give you the strength you need." The man (?) said in that same voice...but then turned to look at something. He simply nodded and then kept on with the attempt at a sale.
"I don't know why you'd think I might need some sort of old fitness video tape, man," Brad said dismissively, "But I'm listening. It sounds like something pretty interesting indeed..." Something I could probably sell on the market myself if the folks in the tape are famous enough now. Brad, drawn into the sales pitch, was snapped out of it when he heard something more drastic.
His girlfriend yelping and shouting "Oh no! My purse!"
Broken from the trance long enough, Brad saw a shirtless, crazed looking middle aged man with an enormous beard and bloodshot eyes rushing past his girlfriend and carrying her purse. Not even thinking about the purchase, Brad shouted, "Motherfucker!!" as he ran after the guy. Intent on stopping this, using his speed and dynamic form to easily catch up with the thief as the two of them rushed through crowds that immediately protested at the sudden violent intrusion in their business.
Brad gained on the man quickly, aiming to try and tackle him down...
But the moment that Brad tried to wrestle the guy down, he realized the tweaker was likely on PCP or something. He fought with the strength of a man possessed, and while Brad each time got back up and grabbed on for dear life, he repeatedly got knocked back on his ass with just one swing of the thief's arm. The man wasn't even strong looking at all, but the psychotic nature of what ran through the man's body made him capable of feats beyond the meager frame of a simple drug addict.
The diligent boyfriend however pulled himself back up every time and kept attempting to get the purse free of the spider leg-like fingers of the thief, who screamed inarticulate and barely human sounding noises. At one point Brad even heard the guy start barking at him - outright barking at him like some sort of dog.
However Brad was not the only person the tweaker had to deal with.
Janet entered swinging a metal baseball bat - knocking the guy out cold in one swing. Both teens were left breathing heavily, the young man starting to feel a dawning sense of shame. He couldn't even fight off one lousy tweaker, and he'd needed his girlfriend to save him. Him! While Brad usually had a reasonably good sense of his own masculinity, today he was suddenly feeling so much more inadequate. Like all the things Janet said about his body were all just...sinking in at once and combining with this incident. He was weak. Thin. He probably had negative amounts of testosterone in his body.
"Hey, Brad..." His morose self regard was interrupted by his girlfriend's concerned voice, "You're not hurt, are you? I'm calling the police, they'll be here soon to deal with this prick. I'm sorry if I was being inconsiderate of you lately, I just---"
"I'm fine." Brad put on a fake smile, and nodded, putting up two thumbs up and moving to go back toward one area in particular.
"You're sure, Brad? The dispatcher wants to know if---"
"I'm fine." Brad said more coldly than he'd meant to as he walked off.
He entered the curio again, and saw the man he'd been talking to earlier hadn't moved an inch. He'd been expecting Brad to come back, as if he knew that something of that nature would happen. Did he know somehow about Brad's issues? Well, Brad was in a mood right now to just---deal with his issues as best as he could. He knew what he needed to do to feel better. Whether it would indeed have any effect, and whether it would even work---Brad just wanted to feel stronger. He wanted to feel like he wouldn't let his girlfriend down again - even as she didn't particularly feel let down in reality.
"I'll be buying those tapes." He said in an even and unemotional tone.
"Four dollars and forty nine cents for a collection of ten of them." Brad didn't even break a sweat at the low, low prices. He just pulled out a five dollar from his wallet, and handed it over as the owner slowly oh so slowly put one tape after another into a brown bag he pulled out from behind his see through desk. After a certain point Brad swore it seemed like he'd been given way more than just ten VHS tapes. But he didn't exactly feel like looking a gift horse in the mouth.
The more the better, as far as he was concerned.
Before long, Brad returned to his girlfriend's side - seeing the police already there, hauling the druggie off, already feeling better - or at least, feeling like he could possibly finally start living up to what she wanted. And be stronger for her. Be the man she wanted him to be. "So...did you buy something back there?" Janet asked him with a curious, inquisitive expression. She seemed weirded out by his behavior.
"Ah, yeah, just something to help me with my exercises for track and field. Nothing too weird." He said as the two of them walked off.
Janet however cast a wary look back where Brad had bought his tapes...
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By the time Brad got home after talking to the police for a while and walking his girlfriend back to her place just two blocks down from his own, he hurried upstairs and felt a sense of relief that his oblivious parents and his annoyance of a little brother were all it seemed out of the house. [AT ETHAN'S SKATING EVENT. BE BACK LATE~!] was scrawled on a note he found in the living room on his way up. Shaking his head, Brad locked his door behind him and threw his polo and jacket on to the bed.
He stood in his room, shirtless, his toned if far too thin frame shivering in the chill from the oncoming night seeping in his open window. The house and his room in particular always ended up too hot if he left the window closed - the trade off of a chilly room seemed worth it. He picked one of the VHS tapes, and remarked to himself, "Well time for cheesy slogans and possibly a bunch of muscle men swaggering around working out..."
He didn't exactly have much in the way of weights in his room. He mostly subsisted off the school weight room - as it was open access to anyone enrolled. Well, when the coach needed him to lift at all. Mostly it was just cardio, cardio, and more cardio. Sculpting the body that had until today seemed adequate for what Brad needed in his day to day life.
As he put the VHS tape in and turned on the player, he was astonished by how crisp and clean the resultant images and sound was. It almost made him think of more modern DVDs or computer related video players. Not a VHS tape likely made in the old days of the seventies or eighties going by the thing's wear and tear. Brad was immediately drawn in by the soothing soundtrack, and a seductive and androgynous tone speaking through the tape - all while a footage reel began showing a wide variety of workouts and weight training routines.
"Welcome, fitness traveler, to the Dream Halls. I'm your lovely host Vertael..." The tone seemed to vacillate between feminine as can be and just masculine enough to give the impression. He couldn't see who was speaking, but he did know that as he sat there, he could feel drawn into it. Tingling. Like he was hearing some kind of really good ASMR or relaxation software. He was dimly aware on some level he shouldn't be feeling this way from VHS audio, but he was too drawn in at that point to care.
"You want for strength? Size? Masculine beauty and pump and power..." The voice seemed to drift over Brad's skin like a snake's tongue, cold yet delicate - and weirdly arresting. He could feel his body twinging, he gulped as he felt his cock pumping up to full erection. A modest six and a half inches - modest indeed. "We'll be giving you the path toward one Bob Paris - giving you the motivation, the drive, the muscle, the development..."
He remembered that name from among the bodybuilders Janet loved to fawn over. He didn't remember all that she said about him. But what Brad knew right now was that this voice was somehow turning him on so much, yet he couldn't bring himself to reach down into his jeans, pull out his cock, and beat off like he desperately wanted to. "Ahh..." He couldn't say much in the course of the spellbinding voice's effect on him, outside of an embarrassing sexual moan.
"Oh, don't you worry, Braddy-daddy...you'll be able to cum cum and cum again as you make your journey toward a most vivacious and beautiful prime." Whose prime? Brad wanted to ask. He felt dizzy, almost too good, his eyes were wavering, and the images on the tape were blending together. Showing him a figure of black, red and white light, melded together in the bizarre panorama the video had degenerated into. A singular human eye at the center, with four black bird-like wings extending off the back of its light form.
Vertael...Vertael sounds like the name of a demon... That was all Brad could manage to so much as think before the onslaught of sensitive overexposure sent him careening into a strange dreamspace. A world of him - and mirrors - and a gym he barely recognized despite proceeding into the doors of his school gym. Extending outward in all directions, the walls covered by mirrors. But the images he saw as he walked toward the bench press despite never really doing that exercise very much---he could tell.
It wasn't Brad DiLaurentis in the mirrors...
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"Ohhh fuck me, what the hell---? What the hell was that?" Brad moaned as he got up the next morning. He felt like he'd just hit the gym harder than he had in literal months. Somehow, he'd gone from resting on the floor to view his VHS tape to in his bed - as if there was time he didn't remember spending. Thankfully, it was a Saturday as of today, so he didn't have many if any obligations. As he pulled himself up out of his bed his feet seemed to issue a bit louder than usual, noting his sheets were much more cleanly worn on his bed - much different from the haphazard look his bed usually had.
He yawned and pulled on a pair of shorts, noting as he did that it seemed like his shorts were tighter this morning than they had been before. Dammit did that brat Ethan shrink some of his clothes in the wash just to make him look lewd when he left his room...? Brad shook his head and walked on anyway - not even bothering to try putting on a shirt as he carried his phone in one hand. He just knew if any of his shirts were so affected, he was gonna directly register his displeasure with Ethan.
Regardless what mom and dad thought about the matter.
But it was what Brad saw that morning in the mirror in the upstairs bathroom just down the hallway from his room that made him immediately mouth the words "What the fuck...!?"
Standing there in the mirror was a substantially more muscular Brad DiLaurentis. His mouth hanging open in the mirror increasingly as he took in everything. His body hair seemed to have been outright lasered off of him, his pectorals swelled larger and more impressive than he'd ever seen them before. His thin boy abs were slightly thicker, stronger, more even, each one precision toned and muscled, matching up with the sculpted obliques to the sides. His shoulders seemed larger, broader, and started to have a certain kind of rounded shape, though not quite as much yet as the guys he saw in his girlfriend's magazines.
He flexed a pair of sixteen inch biceps, shifting from a double bicep flex to cupping one of them, feeling the muscle tense under his grip - offering precious little give at even his now stronger hands. He saw his triceps without even having to flex them, pushing off and out from the underside of his arm, all heads looking tight, toned and strong evenly. "...Seriously what the fuck...?"
Brad checked his lats, noticing his back seemed broader, the lats flaring out and visible when he raised his arm up.
Even Brad's facial features had altered drastically. He'd gone from having thin, tight features to a more fleshed out, handsome and macho look. His jawline was well formed, over a broad neck, those weird "trapezius" muscles pressing up to each side of his neck. His features were broad and strong, and he'd never once seen himself as being so---so handsome! Even his hair seemed different. Slightly lighter, styled differently, and a bit more of it - there was even a slight curl to it that he'd never seen before in himself even when his hair was normal. "Holy shit..." he murmured to himself, careful not to wake Ethan - who usually slept in toward noon on weekends, "I-I got bigger. Buffer. But---but my---?"
And then he thought about Janet. How after all of last night's problems, the issues she'd registered with him, all the things that went on---he looked stronger. He was capable of being the muscular man she wanted! Even if it meant he'd need to fall back on an academic scholarship, it meant he would never need to worry about losing her - or being tossed around in such an embarrassing fashion again.
His thoughts slowly turned toward thoughts of his and Janet's sex life. How dry it had been due to her lack of enthusiasm for his body. "Well," Brad whispered to himself as he cupped a growing erection in his shorts, "She won't have the problem of my body's lack of muscles any more." A mischievous grin showed on his face as he quickly moved back into his room, locking the door behind him. Pulling his shorts off, he started texting Janet.
You wouldn't believe what happened to me. As he texted he pumped his manhood with one hand, confident but restrained - not wanting to pump one out before his girlfriend got a taste of the new Brad DiLaurentis. After all, he wanted all his libido to be focused on her today for the first cum of his new take on life.
[Oh? Is it something bad? Were you hurt by that tweaker?]
Oh no, nothing like that! Just you wouldn't believe it. One of your New Agey things from that traveling marketplace. It worked! You should see me.
[I demand pictures for proof. You have to be teasing me.]
One picture, coming right up. Brad grinned and took a picture of his new rippling body using the reflective surface of his TV - the physique of a devoted gym rat, with aspirations of bodybuilding some day sooner than one might think - and noted he looked happier than he'd been in a long time. For once it seemed like things were looking up for Brad. He sent the picture and a cheeky comment with it. You wanna touch my biceps?
The next text didn't come for three minutes.
[Literally. Defies. Physics!!!]
[You have to be editing these. There is no way. There is no way. You oh my god oh my god it's like]
[I want to verify this. I'll be driving over. Meet me out front. I want to see those pectorals for myself.]
[And you swear this isn't some super steroid or anything? Your balls aren't gonna fall off, right?]
Brad sent her a message immediately back, By all means, verify. Let's go on the road together, girl! I'm looking forward to this.
[I swear Brad, this is either the best photo editing software, or you somehow did put on thirty to forty pounds of muscle overnight in defiance of the Law of Conservation of Mass AND Energy. Also I hope you know if this is real, I want to touch everything.]
And I'm ready for you, babe. And with that Brad leaned back on his bed, confidently smiling, eager to see his girlfriend arrive. As he rubbed again at his manhood, the young man didn't really think twice about the strange, dream-like event that came before his astonishing fitness transformation - or the name of the guy whose "path" he'd supposedly follow or something.
All he knew was that he felt the happiest he'd been in such a long time, and he looked forward to giving his girlfriend a taste of this...