"Wait."
That was the only word Brad could get out of his mouth as he thought about what happened to him - and what might be able to happen to Janet. He knew what he wanted in using that tape - and despite the confusion that had occurred when she felt him up, Brad still felt a sense of liking and desire for Janet - though there seemed to be something that occasionally cropped up during his mind. Something he couldn't quite place yet, but he just figured it was nerves or something related. He was a muscular stud now! Why would he not want to enjoy his body to the best of his ability...?
"Why?" Janet seemed bothered by his recalcitrance, breathing a sigh of frustration as she realized what it likely was, "Listen big boy, I think it's sweet you're worried, but I have got to try this sooner rather than later and see what's going on. For science!"
"None of the great science experiments," Brad retorted, "Involved the scientist experimenting on themselves. There was always an experiment group. Someone who was agreed to be involved in that capacity." He didn't want something weird to potentially happen to his girlfriend. There was little he knew about this whole thing. Let alone that weird name he vaguely remembered from the dream. What if someone other than him using it had some unforeseen effects...?
He couldn't really live with himself if something happened to Janet. Especially right after he'd done something like this with such a drastic effect to please her.
Janet sighed - knowing that Brad had made a great point, but she just didn't like to admit it. Especially with such an amazing wellspring of testbed material right in front of her. "...Yeah...yeah you're right. I don't like that you're right about this. But you're right." She moved over and the two kissed, Brad noting that his confusion seemed to come in waves. Sometimes it ebbed, other times it flowed. Maybe it was somehow related...? Nah, he was probably just nervous and kind of on a particular kind of edge with the results of his own experience in recent memory...
"So we still want to test it out, right? Before we make any more moves with it." Though as Brad looked at the old VHS tape player, holding the tape that had somehow done him this much good, he wondered if he might be able to sneak in one more viewing without Janet objecting too much. After all, it had done this much, Brad thought with a subtle flex of one of his arms...though not quite so subtle as Brad thought he was being.
"Admiring yourself?" Janet teased him, running a hand on his shoulder, "I swear, you get nice biceps, and you just want to flex and flex. Not that I mind. Just...if you're going to do it, let me watch you go." Her hand trailed over his bicep, and Brad took in breath as he felt her hand on actual solid muscle. Oh yeah, there was no way he could go without another viewing. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. He wanted to get to know this new physique before he went ahead chasing another new one.
Oh, Janet...maybe next time I can see how well this new body of mine fucks. "Would you blame me for it? I mean, you add this much muscle to a guy and he's gonna be excited." Brad then thought about it, and picked up one of the tapes, "So as far as the experiment..."
"Yes..." Janet stated, "We have to find someone where we can observe the effects on someone in decent shape, I think. I want to know whether the effect is stronger if you start with less, or whether the initial effect is strong regardless. We also each need to bring a notebook to the occasion. Write down any effects we notice." As she said this, Janet picked up one of Brad's auxiliary notebooks for his schoolwork. As with many parents, Brad's had bought him quite a number of notebooks for school.
Not all of them were in use. Some were in reserve in case any of the notebooks in his backpack were filled up. But now it seemed they were going to be used differently.
"You know I hate taking notes, Janet." Brad said with a slight chuckle as he picked out a yellow notebook, checked to make sure it wasn't in use at all, and then slid a pen from his backpack into the rings holding the paper in place.
"I know, but we have to do this..." Janet said as she picked out a blue notebook, likewise checking for any schoolwork that might've by some chance gotten in. Neither wanted their notes to be interrupted by having to switch between pages too much amidst the activity. "After all, rigorous note-taking is part and parcel of a scientific discovery. And what are we doing now but trying to ascertain the mechanics of these strange magical tapes you've come into possession of...?"
The word possession got Brad thinking of that name again. One that managed to stick in his head as he thought about the viewing he did. Vertael. The name had the "ael" suffix that was common among demonic or at least dubious beings in Biblical myth. Vertael however did not match up with any of the theological creatures that showed up in the good ol' book's accounts. Not even in the Apocrypha, as far as Brad remembered at least. But then, he wasn't a particularly studious theology expert. He'd just taken one class in mythology for the units once.
Still, he was going to have to remember to watch for any mention of Vertael among the account of their test subject.
Though that still got to the heart of the matter. Who, indeed, was their test subject going to be...? "It occurs to me," Brad said, "For all our talk of scientific rigor, we still have not gotten any idea down about who we're going to be testing this out on."
Janet leaned forward as she got an idea. Someone who fit the need to test in terms of someone with a decent to good amount of fitness. Someone pushy, kind of mean, aggressive, and dull. And she wasn't saying this just because she had been put off of dating him when they were in ninth grade due to his nasty temper. "Idea - how about Douglas Bryant?"
"The football jock?" Brad crossed his arms and contemplated it. "You think he might ever consent meaningfully to watching this kind of thing? I mean, he's already a muscled guy. Why would he watch a supposed fitness VHS tape."
"And I answer that question with another question," Janet said with a mischievous smile, "We know these things pump up your libido, as I can tell by that enduring hard on sticking out of your pants..." Brad for his part tried to adjust it to be slightly less obvious as Janet kept talking, "And what do we know about jocks and something about them to never underestimate?"
Brad nodded, and replied, "Never underestimate the sheer libido of an eighteen year old football player who thinks he's on top of the world." And he knew in particular Douglas was prone to being both competitive and extremely eager to prove he was THE star student of Grayson Everett's class. He swore, that guy looked up to Grayson almost like a-a surrogate older brother or something. Which did admittedly provide quite an easy access point.
"Exactly," Janet stated and picked out one of the tapes, noting none of them seemed to have labels, "We can tell him that these are those really fanservicey tapes from like, the 80s and 90s where the women were wearing really tight sports bras and short shorts. And implore him to try it out, that it can probably get him in exactly the right shape to be the star athlete. Make Grayson Everett proud. After all, one of them took Brad here..." Janet gestured at her beau and smiled, "And turned him into a certified stud."
Certified stud...ohh yeah. Brad grinned a little bit. As soon as he got back from this little mission...well, he'd try. For some reason the wane had turned to wax again, and he wasn't suddenly feeling too sure about the sex with Janet idea. Maybe he'd get too excited, he reached for some excuse. What if he disappointed her? What if she wanted him even more buff? He didn't know what was causing this odd disruption of his sex drive, but he hoped that it was just nerves.
"Well," the new muscle man said as he crossed his arms, "Let's see if we can meet up with Mr. Bryant."
"You know he still holds out hope I'll find him more impressive..." Janet said and showed Brad her phone, "He gave me his number a while ago, trying to get with me. Even though I find that overcompetitive and pushy bully boy act he puts on a turn off. Because I think we all know it's an act to make himself seem even meaner. Even when he picks on Dylan and Stu at school, he never directly hurts them. After all, too much trouble and he might get in trouble with his other coach."
"Yeah, go ahead and see if he's up for a get together. If he wants to try out the tape..." Brad leaned back.
Janet for her part left the room to begin talking to Doug. Brad for his part ignored the fake sweet act she put on for him, knowing that this was ultimately just so as to let them test out the tape on one dull and aggressive dude. Still, as Brad leaned against the wall and contemplated, he did admit that Doug put in a lot of effort in the gym. If the tapes had taken Brad and made him into this sort of muscled up dude, what would they do to Doug? Well... he found himself thinking, Doug's already a great looking dude. He'll probably look even better afterwards.
By the time Janet got back into the room, she said with a coy smirk, "He's in. He was kind of confused at first, but once I spelled things out for him about what kind of tape it is, supposedly, I got him to agree. Our guinea pig is go!"
Admittedly, Brad did find that Janet was a little bit scary when she wanted to get all scientific. He just hoped she didn't go full on Madame Frankenstein and rope some poor guy with a hump on his back into creating a monster or something. Brad suppressed a chuckle at the mental image...though not too well, and he ended up making just enough noise to have Janet notice.
"What's so funny...?" She asked as the two of them headed out to her car.
"Just...don't go full Frankenstein on me," Brad said, "I don't think I could deal with Igor and Adam around."
"I make no promises." Janet responded with a sly little laugh as the two of them entered her car, and shortly after, drove off. Not knowing as they did that their exit was monitored by someone peeking out from the curtains of his room in Brad's house. Ethan pulled away from the window and contemplated everything he had ended up hearing...
------------------------
"I know what you told me, Jan," Douglas propped himself up on the table as he, Janet and Brad stood in his house, backpacks on their backs borrowed from among Janet's packs she used for any of the books she needed - alone but for the three of them. "But I fucking swear, this dude is on steroids. No tape can help someone get this ripped this fast."
Douglas' parents were...not ideal, and most often enjoyed extensive vacations when they weren't trying to make sure they could live vicariously through their own son. From what even Brad could hear going around the school, Mr. Bryant would often get very, very drunk and rant and scream at Doug for so much as failing to score a plurality of points in a football game. It was plainly obvious where Doug learned his aggressive tendencies, though far from an excuse for them entirely.
"But you're willing to try it...? Right?" Janet asked, looking Douglas over.
As troubled as Doug was, there was no denying he was at least a handsome jerk. He stood six foot three inches tall, his sandy blond hair styled back in a fauxhawk, face shaved clean, but a tuft of blond hair was visible out the front of his tank top. His broad, muscular physique was well built but more made for his intensive placement as a linebacker than for looking good. His pecs rested over a tight but untoned midsection that almost pushed out - though if he really flexed his gut, he could show some abs. The rest of him though was large if lacking in much tone.
"Yeah, yeah I'll try it out..." Doug grumbled, "Not like it'll do anything to make ME more buff." He smacked his chest and grinned. "You still sure you don't wanna be my---"
Before Brad could even say anything, Janet interjected with a curt and succinct, "No."
This seemed to shut down Doug, and the athlete gave a disappointed sigh. "Just gimme the weird-ass alleged muscle growing tape. I wanna get this over and prove that Mr. Track and Field here..." Doug gestured somewhat angrily at Brad, "...just took some D-Bol and is a skip and a step away from being, as you put it so well when you rejected me back in ninth grade...just some angry jock." Did...did Doug seem like he was actually upset about that...?
Janet realized as he said that, his voice wavering, he might've internalized more issued about that incident than she might've thought. She handed over the tape to the athlete, and watched him get up and stomp away from the table in a decidedly "getting this over with" kind of way. She hoped he did watch the tape, if only so she could observe and see for herself what kind of effect it had. And whether each one was indeed capable of that kind of transformative capability.
"Is it just me...?" Brad whispered to her, "Or does tall, blond and full of himself seem kinda..."
"Yeah." Janet looked toward where Douglas had stomped off upstairs, "He has more issues than Time. I just hope we didn't prod one of those issues over the line with this move."
-----------------------------
Douglas Bryant hurried up to go ahead and put the VHS tape into his player. His TV was an old thing, and whereas Brad's was a stylistic choice and something playing to nostalgia, Doug's VHS player was the only thing he was given for videos. His parents...weren't great. Whereas he had to subsist off of this thing, and an old TV set, they got HD TVs downstairs that they happily watched movies on - and only let Doug watch if he was doing well enough. If they had even one complaint he was barred from joining in any "family movie night".
Of course right now he had to be reminded of everything he had done wrong. He couldn't help but be angry when he lived like this! Sure someone could say it was wrong to push people around - but then, those same people didn't do a thing when Doug was the one getting pushed around. Either when he got hazed as part of joining the football team, or by his parents. So fuck it. He needed to achieve catharsis somehow.
Well, if he was gonna watch this thing, this weird-ass thing, he was gonna need to be ready. Janet said that it was some sorta really good tape that had all these hot babes in it from the eighties and nineties. Regular vintage stuff, as far as Doug was concerned. Sure he could look at porn any time on his ratty ass computer, but this...this kind of appealed to him. Made him feel like he was doing something any other teen might've been doing before.
As he slid the VHS tape into the player, Doug took off his jacket and t-shirt, his jeans shortly after joining them. Leaving the eighteen year old sitting on his ass in his room in a pair of tighty-whities. "Here's hoping," Doug murmured to himself as the tape started loading, "I at least get a good wank out of it. A good workout? Less sure about that. I hate the body weight shit."
As the video loaded up, and started, Doug was taken by the video quality. Less like some old 80s or 90s tape, but more some kind of freaking internet video. Like it was taken professionally using a really high grade camera in the modern day, but played through a VHS tape somehow. A montage began of a large number of a variety of female bodybuilders doing a number of exercises - seeing them clad in just a pair of short shorts and a sports bra...
Ohh yeah.
It did things for Douglas Bryant. Already Doug could feel his cock erecting, proud and long, in his underwear. A lascivious grin worked on to his face. He liked this already. He gave his cock a squeeze, and was somewhat surprised by the masculine grunt that pushed through him - he was a sensitive guy today it seemed. If anything however, his sensitivity and arousal was kicked into high gear as a sensuous and androgynous toned voice began. Doug couldn't even move, he was so transfixed; "Welcome to the Dream Halls, fitness traveler. I am your lovely host, Vertael..."
Doug could feel his sweat pouring down his back. He could feel his cock pulsing in his underwear, pushing at every single fiber in his tighty-whities. And it made him moan - when everyone who ended up having sex with Doug knew he didn't really moan all that much. "Ahh, you want for strength, liberty, determination and grace. You desire to free yourself from expectation. To partake in what is deemed "forbidden"..."
Doug wanted to whip his cock out and pump it. But something was stopping him, even as his arousal escalated to the point that he almost wanted to cry from how needy he was feeling. He couldn't even kick a leg as he felt his thigh spasm. Vertael continued, "Yes, we will be giving you the path of Heather Armbrust...ahh, the power, a star flaming bright...disappearing, but perchance you might pursue...?" Doug didn't know any of these names.
Vertael, Heather, none of them. What he knew was he wanted to fucking cum already. But something in this voice, this seductive and indeterminate crooning...it set him in his place and left him unable to handle the need he so obviously displayed in his underwear. "I just---I wanna---wanna fuck---"
"Of course you do, Dougie...mm, boy..." Vertael seemed amused by its deed today, "You will, one way or another, have all the sexual needs you'll have in any state you have fulfilled. That's my promise as your lovely guide to fitness, my dear..." And with that, Doug fell into a strange dreamspace. Seeing all his fellow jocks on the football team exercising around him. Clad only in their athletic protection for some reason. And despite being the straightest of straight guys, the idea of seeing this. Seeing this display of macho jock behavior...it got Doug feeling decidedly aroused - even more than before - but in a new way. A way foreign to him. Which wouldn't translate yet to his waking form. And he'd been turned on to a painful extent before...
Yet when he finally saw in the mirrors on the walls, where his friends all preened and flexed and showed off to one another... it wasn't Douglas Bryant he saw in the mirror.
THUD!
-----------------
By the time Brad and Janet heard the thud, they'd been waiting about thirty minutes there, hoping that the infamously terrible Bryant Parents weren't gonna suddenly be back from whatever vacation they'd taken this time. With the kind of people they were, both Brad and Janet figured they had reason to worry. But then the thud happened, and both figured it might well be the end of---of something that happened up there. Brad for his part didn't remember much about what happened after his big transformation he guessed. But this might be a chance to see for themselves what might've happened.
It didn't take much work to find Doug's room - aka, a repurposed storage room that had been turned into a young athlete's home. As soon as they approached the door, Brad stopped - he could hear intensive breathing and near on moaning going on from inside the room. It sounded...like Doug, but different in some way. It occurred to Brad that they didn't even know what kind of effect the tape might've had on him. For all they knew it might've been something crazy going on in there.
"We ready to see for ourselves," Brad whispered to Janet, "What happened? I mean, I don't even remember anything after my time finished."
"Ready as I'll ever be. Let's see what kind of job was done on our angry boy." With that, Janet opened the door - and saw what had become of Douglas Bryant.
The jock was laid out on the floor on his back, groaning. His body hair seemed to be all or mostly gone, his thick set features seemed slightly thinner and prettier. His hair on his head though seemed slightly longer, like he'd let his fauxhawk grow out a bit. Whereas before he had been kind of stocky and thick rather than toned, now he looked much more well formed. His muscles were more toned, and his gut had diminished into a very nice set of six pack abs. His pecs even seemed to be more formed up, though Janet noted with some curiosity that his nipples looked sensitive.
There was something up about Doug's hips and ass - they looked a bit different. Though she couldn't really put it.
Seeing as Doug was still out of it, both Brad and Janet took out their notepads and started writing down what they noticed. For his part, even the noise of the two of them writing and taking out ringed notepads seemed to be ignored by the blissed out and dozing Doug. The blond did seem to be having a nice dream though. His white underwear seemed to have a trail of what Brad guessed was pre, meaning the guy was definitely having a good time at least.
Though Brad and Janet couldn't have noticed the smaller detail as it were that the eight inch manhood Doug took a degree of pride in was now slightly diminished to a 7.5 incher. Still a very impressive tool, but it portended things to come should Doug continue.
Once they were sure they had everything, they made sure to stuff their notepads away as it seemed like Doug was stirring. The guy at least this time seemed to be in a good mood as he started to get back up. "Woah...did I fall over or something? Hot damn that was a nice dream. You didn't lie, Jan, that was an awesome erotic flick. Whatever it was."
Doug seemed to be feeling so good he didn't even mind Brad standing there, seeing him in just his underwear. Brad for his part decided to ask, "And uh, what do you remember if anything about it? Any names you remember?"
"Uhh...Vert-something..." Doug cupped his chin, biting an oh so slightly thicker lip, "And there was some bodybuilder's name I guess. I dunno what was going on in that shit, but it was definitely the hottest thing I've ever seen."
So that answered what likely happened to Brad after his viewing - likely some sort of thud or something, as if he was being dropped by some greater force. But his tape and Doug's tape seemed to have vastly different effects. He was curious - and a little worried. Even though he saw Douglas as a jerk, a bully, a haughty guy and so on...that didn't mean he wanted anything untoward to happen to the guy. "And you're uh, you're sure you feel okay?"
"Okay!?' Doug grinned, seeming happier than he'd been in some time, "I feel amazing, Brad. Just...amazing. Hot damn, I gotta call my girlfriend up. See if she's down for a date night tonight."
"I mean, we were just gonna take the ta---" Janet started, only for Doug to look at her and shake his head.
"No." He stood up and interposed himself between the two of them and the tape, "That shit is the hottest porno I've ever enjoyed. Whatever the hell it is, it is the best at getting me worked up. Like...fuck. Look at me. I believe you now about Brad! I have abs now!" Doug ran a hand down his midsection, enjoying the sensation of having abs instead of a gut. He shook his head again, "I'm fucking keeping this thing. Cuz I want it."
Brad and Janet looked at one another. Brad had worried something untoward might happen with the tape itself. And Janet had no idea he'd actually like it to the degree he was showing now. "Alright, alright," Janet conceded even as Brad glanced at her and then back over at a grinning, smug looking Doug. "I'll let you have it. Let's go, Brad, we're done here."
"But---But Janet!" Brad protested, remembering bitterly enough the experience with that drugged up mugger. "We could---"
"But we're not." Janet gave Brad a look that immediately convinced him to follow her along.
------------------
"So why did we just let Douglas Bryant have one of my tapes?" Brad asked, crossing his arms in front of his broad chest.
"Well, just look at the effects, Brad," she said to him as the two of them got into her car to drive off. "Look at all the evidence we logged down. Hips seem slightly wider, the nipples, no body hair...Brad, I think the tapes might be capable with enough exposure to go as far as inverting someone's birth sex. Do you want to have one of the tapes around that could, with a bit of mischief, end up costing you your manhood?"
That made Brad stop and consider it given the things that Ethan had gotten up to. The vaguely incestuous things. And despite being mostly gay, the exception as it were was muscled women. So in a way it was dealing with something that could be a dangerous factor in the context of his home, AND it might put Doug in a position to consider how his friends treated women. All in all...mostly a win. Mostly.
Still, it stung to see how Doug had so easily pushed for his way.
Though Janet could tell Brad was still troubled by something, and looking back at what brought all this craziness on, she could probably guess as to what. She admitted she probably could've been more understanding of Brad's position. She had been fixated on what she wanted to such an extent it made Brad pursue something that had effects neither of them properly understood. Well, with some time they might be able to understand.
Vertael. That was at least a start. Both Doug and Brad both had the same name crop up, she guessed, in the dreamspace of whatever happened with the tapes.
Brad looked at Janet and said, "Well, if we've got nothing else we're doing...maybe we could make this a date day and night?" He was confident at least that with all this muscle he should be capable of satisfying her. Whatever weirdness happened with him notwithstanding. He just had to hope it wouldn't crop up during the course of any sexual encounter. He did however hope to have tonight's date night though be more than just wham bam thank you ma'am.
"That sounds like a great idea. You deserve to enjoy your new body." Janet looked Brad over, clearly enjoying the sight - though again some of the exact striations and muscular developments had left her feeling reminiscent of...someone. She couldn't place it yet. Like an early impression of someone she should know. But she was such a muscle enjoyer as it were that she had difficulty with an early look.
"How about we go to the swimming pool? I can take off my shirt and borrow a nice, tight swimsuit that'll show off my tightly muscled ass---" Brad grinned all the more as he went on.
"You convinced me, you convinced me!" Janet laughed as she started heading toward their destination, the local swim and fitness center. The two of them could enjoy the swimming pool there, and, if Brad felt like it, the fitness center was shirts optional - and thus he could show what he'd developed. Probably stun a few people there - more than a few of their fellow students in the senior class liked to hang out there especially on the weekend.
-----------------------
Ethan DiLaurentis was conflicted.
On the one hand, this was like one of his CYOC stories coming true in the flesh. He'd watched from his hiding spots as the couple went about their business in the house, openly discussed something about that bully Douglas Bryant, and then left. And the ever so delectable Bradley DiLaurentis had gone from "pretty jogger" to well muscled gym-rat with the promise of a bodybuilding future. And due to his spying, he knew what caused it.
So on the one hand, this was incredibly, incredibly hot. And it gave Ethan hope that Brad would change even more. Could he change even more...? But at the same time, this was his stepbrother. He may have acted the pervert, and crushed on his stepbrother even when it was forbidden to undertake that kind of relationship...but he still knew vanishingly little about this. He didn't know if it might change Brad in a less sexy way going forward.
But at the same time, Ethan wanted to try it himself. His body it seemed stubbornly refused to muscle up. Any calories went in his mouth out his ass. So he'd just settled for the path of the skater. And that still let him be reasonably successful dating other guys. But never the kind of guy he wanted. Ethan wanted someone insanely buff. Big beyond big. The kind of mass that was just scary.
And he wanted to be that kind of guy.
Ethan found himself pilfering one of the unused tapes, thinking about the various bodybuilders that he could end up approximating. Somehow, these tapes had turned Brad much hunkier. And they could probably do the same kind of thing to him. He did want to find out for himself what was going on with Brad... So he went with his admittedly half perversion fueled plan.
He went to his room, turning on his small TV and looking at several video players - trying to find one that would work with VHS. The only one that could was an older DVD player that Ethan had always been meaning to replace. It was just...kind of fun having it around though. It reminded him of his really young years with just mom. Dad had skipped on them, and Mom didn't want him involved. Ultimately, Ethan had gotten a new house. A new home. And a good looking stepbrother he could crush on the whole day long.
After a little while getting it working, Ethan, not knowing the true nature of the tapes, leaned back as he put the tape into the DVD player's VHS slot. As the imagery began, astonishing the young man with the clarity of the images and the crisp sound, he was left looking at a large number of incredibly muscled bodybuilders posing and working out. Most likely for Mr. Olympia or something. Ethan gulped and found himself feeling hot below the collar.
"Ohh...fuck..." The gay teen moaned to himself.
And so as the androgynous voice started, Ethan outright had a hand stuffed down his pants, crudely gripping his thin masculine endowment, which nonetheless felt so hard as to be uncomfortable. "Welcome, fitness traveler, to the Dream Halls. I am your host, Vertael..." The voice teased Ethan, made him squirm in his place, unable to move for fear of busting his nut then and there. He couldn't let himself just do that when the tape was this hot already.
"You desire pure strength, mass, size, the presence on the stage...your body, so full of pump, so very enormous...in every place, to every degree..." It was just teasing him on, more and more, "We will be putting you on the path of one Ronnie Coleman..." And the voice ushered Ethan into his fantasy...