Rhett wasn’t the brightest, but that didn’t stop him from putting 2 and 2 together. Something about this stone drew him in. All these sudden changes and some mysterious glowing rock shows up? Nah, something was up. Jeff was clearly falling asleep, and though he and Rhett had their fun, Rhett couldn’t help feeling a little bit betrayed by his best friend just abandoning him, especially since he now knew how well he understood.
Rhett ultimately decided that the two of them would need to talk again, and that he would borrow the stone until then, whatever it was. He slid the thing into his pocket and after taking a moment to clean up, left the way he came, through the window.
A few days later he found the rock in his pockets again, he kinda forgot about it. Jeff had forgotten too, in his mind he wanted the sex change surgery and went through all the hassle of getting it. He had forgotten the stones power.
Rhett on the other hand was about to find out. He squeezed the stone tightly and closed his eyes. Right away the bulky boy felt like someone had sucked all the air out of his body, and reopened his eyes in a blurry world. As his eyes focused the first Rhett noticed was the buzz, it sounded like someone was getting their hair cut. Rhett wasn’t in a hair salon though, he was in a tattoo parlor.
His eyes focused on his arms. They may have been as big as ever but instead of the blonde ish fuzz and pale skin he was used to, they were completely free of any trace of hair and covered all the way up to his wrists in geometric tattoos. They almost looked solid black from a distance. As he moved closer, Rhett realized that the details that could be seen were very clear and detailed. One of the designs appeared to be a spiderweb, and one of the dangling tendrils was being pulled tight. Another design resembled the planet Saturn or maybe Pluto. Rhett wasn’t sure, but it gave him a headache even looking at it.
Rhett lifted his gaze to the nearest table where he saw a young, heavily pierced and tattooed but kinda cute guy prepping something shaped like a scalpel, and throwing a blood soaked tissue away. Strange, his arms were held to the chair with some kind of belt. He still wasn’t sure what was going to go on here but it couldn’t be too bad, just a bit of ink, he thought.
He was wrong of course. Rhett Walker had just signed the waivers for a less standard list of body modifications, and had explicitly asked to feel the whole thing, no anesthetic. He was here to have his nipples and belly button removed.
At least it seemed that’s why he was here. His bellybutton was almost gone, and judging by the blood soaked tissues around his nipples it looked like he was done with that too. That’s when the pain kicked in. The searing pain. He felt like he was being split open. At the same time it felt like everything else got lighter and easier to handle. Suddenly his fingers seemed heavier than they should. His arm weighed as if it were full of rocks and stones, like his tattoos. Rhett had passed out from the pain.
When he woke up he was lying on the floor, facedown on a bare mattress. Next to him stood the guy from before, the tattoo artist.
“Hey, how are you doing man? I hope it was worth it. The aftercare sucks but you can get that stuff anywhere. You want me to leave your old clothes here?”
Rhett didn’t understand what he was talking about, so the man tried to clarify. “I mean, that’s why you got your nips cut off right? So you could live entirely shirtless, all the time?”
This struck a chord. It made sense. Rhett remembered being totally opposed to such body mods when Jeff brought it up. It was weird, not only did it seem cool but like having such intimate control over his own body? Kinda nice. Then there was the idea of living naked, always warm, and free of anything embarrassing. Yes! If Jeff said so, he must be right. He was better off without nipples and belly button.
“Go ahead and keep ‘em” he said but the modder stopped him. “You’re still gonna want these, unless you wanna come back in for downstairs, stud.” with a wink he handed Rhett his shorts.