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Today's Document
styofa doing anything

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Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
sheepfilms
Show & Tell
Keni
Acquired Stardust
Sade Olutola

Product Placement
trying on a metaphor
d e v o n
Peter Solarz

Andulka

blake kathryn
tumblr dot com

shark vs the universe
KIROKAZE
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@curious32s
REQUEST FOR @exjocklover5: Love to see one where a handsome fit lacrosse player gets turned into a 35 year old beefy hairy carpenter house framer. Be cool to see a story about Joe who was a lacrosse goalie and captain was about to go pro but ended up with a knee injury. He found a sketchy healing drug online but instead it turned him into an exjock bluecollar man with a family in his thirties and an insatiable thirst for Busch light.
I took a few creative liberties here and wrote a long one lol. Enjoy!
-------------------
“C’mon,” Ethan muttered, gripping the back of the couch as he tried to straighten his right leg. “I’ve got this... I've... fuck!”
He exhaled deeply and collapsed onto the couch, wincing as the pain shot through his knee. It hurt so much, so fuckin' much. And it wasn't just physical. He could hear his phone buzzing, the messages piling up.
"You coming back this season, bro?"
"Tubing Friday. Your knee good enough yet?"
"Scouts still asking about you btw."
Ethan cursed again. He missed going to practice. Missed drinking with bros. Missed the parties, the dumb arguments, the camaraderie. He missed his life before the injury.
“Fuck me...” His head sunk into his hands, "Stupid fuckin' knee."
He glanced up at his stick and the framed photo of the team. Him in the middle with a wide grin and his arm around his bros. Fuck... he wanted to get back to that. And he wanted to get back fast.
"There's gotta be a way..." He muttered.
An hour later he was deep in rehab forums when an ad stopped him cold.
BUILD-U-BACK RECOVERY NOW ENROLLING IN YOUR AREA: A NEW START, LASTING RELIEF
“Sounds fake as hell,” Joe murmured. But when he glanced back at the team photo he felt a pang in his chest. He reached for his wallet soon after.
----------------
This was it. Ethan stood on the empty practice field, stick in hand. The cold night air felt good against his warm skin. The stadium lights already dimming.
"Okay..." He bounced on the balls of his feet, "Okay, I've got this."
He dropped into goalie stance carefully, bracing for the pain. But it never came.
"No way..." Ethan pushed harder, shuffling across the crease before planting sharply off the bad leg, "Oh my god." He laughed with disbelief, "No fuckin' way!"
"Walsh?"
Ethan spun and smiled wider when he saw Luke, "Bro!"
"Dude! You're running!"
"I know! I fuckin' know!" He pointed at his knee, "It's gone, dude! It doesn't even hurt anymore."
"Let's fuckin' go, bro!"
It fuckin' worked. That fuckin' drug actually worked! Ethan stood proud, chest heaving and adrenaline surging. He was back. Practice, scouts, games, parties... it was all back.
-----------------
“Dude! First game back, you feel ready?”
Ethan looked up from tying his cleats and grinned. “More than ready.”
He tugged at the bottom of his hoodie, annoyed again by how tight it felt around his waist and chest. He’d already stopped wearing some of his older shirts entirely after realizing they didn’t fit right anymore. He figured his dryer was doing a number on his wardrobe.
“We won’t be too upset if you fuck up out there,” Luke said while peeling his shirt over his head. “We get you’re a little rusty.”
“Eat shit,” Ethan laughed, tossing a roll of tape at him before reaching for his own hoodie.
The cool air felt warm against his skin, and Ethan scratched absentmindedly at his chest, pausing for just a moment as his fingers tangled with thicker hairs there.
"The fuck...?" Ethan frowned and looked down.
Dark curls spread across the middle of his chest before trailing down his stomach and disappearing beneath the waistband of his shorts. Sweat glistened faintly through the hair despite the cold room, and when Ethan shifted slightly, the waistband dug tighter against a stomach that suddenly looked thicker than he remembered.
"I shaved this shit this morning..." He figured the hair growth was a side effect of the drug, but he'd spent the last few days making sure he kept it under control. But now...?
Luke whistled low. “Damn, Walsh. Didn’t realize the recovery plan involved growing a lawn on your chest and blowing out your waistline.”
A couple guys laughed awkwardly before looking away again.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ethan muttered, pulling his jersey on faster than usual. The fabric stretching tighter around his waist than he remembered.
Nobody really said anything after that.
Ethan forced a grin anyway and slammed his locker shut. “Alright, boys,” he called out. “Let’s do this.”
-------------
It was supposed to feel normal again. Friday night. Sports bar packed wall-to-wall after the game. Music too loud. Ethan sat wedged between Luke and Dylan with a cold Busch Light in his hand before realizing halfway through the bottle that he didn’t even remember ordering it.
“You looked like shit tonight,” Luke laughed.
“Appreciate it.”
“Seriously though, you good?”
Ethan scratched at the rough stubble on his chin. “Just playing bad.”
His phone buzzed against the table.
"CONGRATULATIONS ON ONE MONTH! YOUR NEXT PHASE OF RECOVERY STARTS TONIGHT!"
Ethan frowned at the notification before locking the screen again, "Next phase?" He stared at his arm, now dusted with dark hairs.
"Hey Ethan." Luke nudged him, "Someone's staring."
Ethan spotted her across the bar. Blond. Gorgeous. Smiling at him. For the first time all night, something loosened in his chest.
“There we go,” Dylan laughed when he caught Ethan staring. “That’s the Walsh we know.”
Ethan grinned and took another sip. Soon after, he was fumbling with his apartment keys while she laughed softly beside him in the hallway. They moved to his bedroom, clothes discarded quickly.
"Fuck..." Ethan whispered, as she kissed slowly along his neck, "I needed..."
"Standby mode protocol upload."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
“What?” she asked softly.
“It's uh... Nothin’.”
Her hands slid slowly across his chest and draped around his shoulders before pausing.
“Wow,” she said with a small laugh. “You’re kinda hairy.”
Ethan glanced down automatically, eyes widening at the sight of the dark hair curling across his shoulders and down his back.
"That's not..." He knew it wasn't there five hours ago.
“Sorry,” she added quickly, still smiling. “You’re just hairer than most guys I’ve been with.”
"Pleasure directives stem from labor initiatives."
Ethan winced hard enough that she finally pulled back slightly.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. I just...” He rubbed at his forehead. “I don’t feel right.”
She kissed him again anyway, her hand sliding lower across the thicker, softer shape of his stomach before slipping beneath the waistband of his boxers and around his flaccid cock.
“Oh,” she laughed gently, trying to mask her confusion.
Ethan glanced down, a wave of sickening humiliation washing over him. His cock stayed completely dead. Buried in a dense, coarse mat of newly thick pubic hair and a rapidly expanding fat pad, his dick looked distinctly shorter, stubbier, and entirely useless
“You okay?” she asked again, quieter this time.
“Yeah. I just...” He swallowed hard. “I dunno. It's not working... I... Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly, “Seriously. It happens.”
A few minutes later he stood awkwardly by the door while she slipped her shoes back on.
“Maybe just stress?” she offered gently.
“Yeah.” Ethan forced a laugh. “Probably.”
After she left, the apartment felt painfully quiet again. Ethan stood there shirtless for another minute before walking to the fridge automatically and grabbing another Busch Light.
------------
A week had passed, and Ethan exhaled heavily as he stepped out of the shower. He’d stopped changing in the locker room after practice a few days ago, tired of catching teammates staring too long at his stomach or shoulders before awkwardly looking away. Now, alone in his apartment, there was nobody else left to notice except him.
“Jesus Christ...” he whispered at his reflection.
The mirror across from the bed reflected somebody that looked wrong. Dark curls spread heavily across his chest and shoulders now, while rough stubble shadowed his jaw despite shaving before practice that morning. Even standing still, his body looked heavier than it used to.
“I’m exercising,” Ethan muttered weakly. “I’m eating healthy...” His eyes drifted toward the empty Busch Light cans scattered across the nightstand, “I...”
"Standby initiating."
Ethan’s breath caught as the voice echoed in his head.
“What the...”
"Standby mode active."
Every muscle in his body locked instantly.
Ethan jerked hard against it on instinct, but nothing responded correctly. His fingers twitched once beside his thigh before going still again. His chest continued rising and falling normally. He could blink. Breathe. Swallow. But that was it.
“What... the fuck...” he forced out weakly.
Hours passed as Ethan sat frozen on the edge of the bed staring into the mirror. The rough hair across his chest thickened slowly while his stomach pushed heavier against his lap with every shallow breath. His face itched constantly as a dark beard spread across his jaw until he looked like he hadn’t shaved in weeks.
A knock on the door and the sound of heavy footsteps entering his apartment made him tense. He watched as two men in BUILDING-U-BACK jackets entered his room and stopped mid-step when they saw Ethan in nothing but a pair of tight sweatpants.
“Jesus,” he muttered. “That’s the lacrosse kid?”
“Yeah. CRW-57F.”
The younger guy kept staring. “Still got some of that frat-boy face left.”
“Not for too long.”
The younger rep shook his head slowly. “Weird seeing one this young.”
“Don’t worry,” the older rep said casually. “Give it a week and you won’t even be able to pick 'em out from the others.”
Ethan strained against the paralysis hard enough that his jaw twitched once.
“You know what’s crazy?” the younger rep continued. “Six months from now he’ll be drinking beer after shifts talking about kids that don’t exist like the rest of ’em.”
“Yeah well, the whole family-man thing makes clients comfortable. People trust workers who look settled.”
One of them glanced toward the empty Busch Light cans beside the bed.
“Damn,” he muttered. “He’s already self-reinforcing.”
“Good sign.”
Ethan let out another whimper as he tried to reach for his phone, but his arm wouldn't budge.
“Oh shit,” the younger rep said suddenly. “You think he knows what we’re saying?”
“Nah,” the older rep replied casually. “The lab guys say there's not much left going on upstairs during standby.”
Ethan felt something cold settle quietly in his chest. The older rep finally looked directly at him and nodded toward the hallway.
“C’mon CRW-57F," He tossed him his old lacrosse hoodie, "Housing assignment’s ready.”
Ethan stood automatically.
------------
Ethan barely remembered the drive to the facility. He had been packed into a van shoulder-to-shoulder with a few other hirsute guys sporting beer guts. His eyes remained fixed on the man across from him, and Ethan realized with growing dread that it was like looking in a mirror.
"There's been a mistake!" He tried to call out, but the words in his head wouldn't leave his mouth, "Please..."
When they did finally arrive at the facility, he was walked to a featureless room with a table and a few bins.
"This is CRW-57F." A man said to his colleague, entering the room, "Originally Ethan Walsh. Signed up for the program for an injured knee." He looked down at his clipboard, "Worker identity is officially Joe Mercer."
"Joe Mercer? That's not..." He thought, but the name Ethan was already starting to feel distant.
"Alright, let's get him in the system." The man continued, "We're going to need your personal belongings, CRW-57F."
Joe felt as he reached into his pocket and gripped his phone. He quickly dropped it into one of the bins, along with his keys, wallet, student ID.
"Oh shit, that's the college kid?" One of the men said, looking down at the ID.
"Yeah, lacrosse player, if you can believe it now."
"Damn, that drug did a number on him." The man sighed, "Okay, CRW-57F, need the clothes too."
Ethan winced as he gripped his team's lacrosse hoodie and yanked it off. Cool air hit the thick hair covering his chest and stomach, and he heard one of the employees exhale quietly through his nose.
“Damn,” he muttered. “Hope the knee was worth it.”
"Update on the apartment?"
"Cleaning crew is taking care of that, lease will terminate tomorrow."
"N-No..." Ethan thought, imagining them clearing it out. His team photo. His lacrosse gear. The clothes crammed into the closet. Every piece of evidence that Ethan Walsh had ever existed.
"Family updated?" The other man nodded, "And..."
"What do you think? Took it poorly." The other man sighed, "Kid’s barely old enough to drink and now he’s gonna look older than his dad."
"Visitation scheduled?"
"In a month."
Ethan felt his stomach twist. The thought of his parents seeing him like this made him want to disappear.
"By then he'll be settled enough that it won't matter much." The rep muttered, "They all stop trying eventually."
One of them picked up Ethan's student ID and looked at the picture for a second before tossing it into the bin with the rest of his belongings.
"Poor kid."
"Yeah."
The lid snapped shut. A folded stack of clothes landed in Ethan’s arms a second later. Gray work shirt. Plain jeans. Steel-toe boots. The employee checked another box on his clipboard.
“Alright CRW-57F,” he said casually. “let's get you downstairs.”
------------
Ethan barely slept.
The worker housing smelled like sweat, musk, sawdust, and stale beer. The bed made his back ache. Men wandered the halls at all hours wearing gray shirts and work pants, scratching at thick stomachs or rubbing sleep from heavy eyes while they talked about wives, back pain, football games, and their kids.
“Tyler’s putting on weight. Gonna join the football team like his old man.”
“Yeah? Mine just turned thirteen. Kid's eating me out of house and home already!”
Ethan sat quietly on the edge of his bed with a Busch Light in his hand, staring toward the floor while his body moved through routines his brain still hadn’t fully accepted. Every few hours that same pressure built behind his eyes again, and afterward his thoughts always came back slower.
"Who are these people?" He wondered, "They all look... the same..."
But when he looked down, he realized how much he looked like them too. Even more than the night he was brought to the facility. The gut, the hair, the beard, the weathered skin... what the fuck had they done to him?
“Tyler’s putting on weight. Gonna join the football team like his old man.”
Ethan looked up slowly. A different pair of workers stood near the vending machines now.
“Yeah? Mine just turned thirteen. Kid's eating me out of house and home already!” The exact same laugh followed.
Ethan felt his stomach tighten. It was the same conversation, the same cadence… the same everything. They all talked like that. All looked the same. Nothing to distinguish them...
"Lacrosse." He thought suddenly.
He closed his eyes and tried to picture the locker room. The smell of the gear. The roar after a clean save. He could almost see the jersey. Blue. Or green? No... Red?
Ethan shuddered and took another swig of his beer.
------------
He couldn't recall the drive out here. One moment he was climbing into his assigned bunk, the next he was hauling lumber across a chaotic job site. Sweat drenched the thick hair across his torso. He reeked, too... of sawdust, exhaustion, and that stale musk clinging like the rest of them. He craved a shower, but knew better. Management preferred them this way.
"57F?" Two reps walked past him, "Still not meeting his quotas."
"Really? You'd think with him having been a star athlete..."
"Eh, you would think." The rep muttered, "We've found it really doesn't."
"Shame. We'll ship him out to Ohio tomorrow then, they're looking for more men and he's slowing us down."
He continued to work, but their words kept repeating in his head. A month ago, he was a star. Always getting positive feedback, always being commended. Now, he was failing at whatever this nightmare was.
"Joe?" He turned immediately to see one of the workers approach him, "You remember my boy, yeah?" The man smiled, "Tyler’s putting on weight. Gonna join the football team like his old man."
"Yeah?" The word left his mouth before he could even think about it. In fact, he didn't even really process it. Everything slowed suddenly, simplified in his brain. Lacrosse? Old apartment? Friends? Suddenly, it felt far from reach, "Mine just turned thirteen." He'd heard those words before from the other workers. The exact same words. Delivered in the same cadence, with the same gravely voice. Now... those words were coming from him, "Kid's eating me out of house and home already!"
Both men laughed. But as the other worker stepped away, Ethan's eyes widened.
"Fuck... no..." His thoughts were slower than they had been just two minutes prior. But so was his anxiety. Everything suddenly felt so much simpler, "La-lacrosse... lacrosse... not this..." He repeated for as long as his mind let him.
The pressure behind his eyes returned immediately. Ethan squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the lumber until his knuckles turned white. He tried to hold onto the panic, tried to hold onto the certainty that something terrible was happening to him, but even that feeling seemed to be slipping away. The fear was still there. He could feel it. Yet every second it felt smaller, duller, less important than the work waiting around him.
"Joe!" He looked up automatically. One of the workers waved him over, "Quit daydreaming. Grab this end."
He did as he was told and the pressure vanished. Relief flooded him, washing away the confusion, the panic...
"Appreciate it," the worker said.
"No problem." The answer came naturally, "I ain't no slacker."
The two men carried the load across the site together while talking about football, kids, weekend plans, and just how good the cold beer at the end of the day would taste. Across the yard, one of the reps glanced up from his clipboard.
"Huh... Looks like Ohio's getting him just in time."
"I guess so..."
Joe adjusted the lumber on his shoulder and laughed at something one of the other workers said. The sound blended effortlessly with the rest of the crew as they disappeared into the noise of the job site.
Delta Alpha Delta
This is a sequel to the Apron Costume Shop story.
By the time Connor found the aprons again, he’d already forgotten ever seeing them before. Well, some version of Connor had seen them before…even if not this one.
They were in the back seat of Mason’s car in a crinkled costume-shop bag, wedged between a half-empty case of hard seltzer and a book bag. Connor dragged the bag out by one handle while they were parked in front of the Delta-Alpha-Delta house, both of them half-dressed and already late for the brothers annual costume bash.
“Dude, you promised to get us real costumes!” Mason huffed. “Tell me these aprons aren’t our costumes!”
Connor reached into the bag and pulled out the red one first. It unfolded in a bright square of cotton and cheap black lettering:
KING OF THE GRILL
He laughed immediately. “Oh, absolutely these are our costumes.”
Mason took the second apron and held it up by the neck loop. Dark blue denim, big stitched pocket, silver letters across the chest:
ASK ME ABOUT MY MARINADE
Mason stared at it, then at Connor, and started laughing too. “This is so bad.”
“Exactly! It’s perfect.” Connor draped the red apron over his bare chest. “We go as two dads!”
Mason slipped the blue one over his head and started creating a back-story to help his general disappointment in his friend’s decision in costumes subside. “Two divorced dads, specifically.”
“Two hot divorced dads” Connor retorted before Mason could even finish.
“From a cul-de-sac in Ohio!”
Both men laughed for a few seconds - proud of their addenda to the underwhelming presentation of the aprons. Connor adjusted the neck strap and frowned for a second. “Do these feel… weird to you?”
“Weird how?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know.” He tugged at the apron front. “Familiar? Maybe?”
Mason looked down at his own apron and shrugged. “Probably because they’re the most spiritually correct costumes we’ve ever had.”
That felt like enough of an answer. Connor snorted, grabbed a backwards baseball cap from the dash, and slapped it onto Mason’s head. Mason retaliated by swiping Connor’s plastic sunglasses from the cupholder and shoving them at him.
Two minutes later, they walked into the ΔΑΔ house with a swagger and the undeserved confidence of two young men who had planned their costumes well in advance.
The party was already in full swing. Music thumped through the floorboards. The downstairs smelled like beer, sweat, and whatever someone had burned in the kitchen an hour ago. Brothers were everywhere - Roman togas, cowboy hats, football pads, fake mustaches, jerseys, nothing coherent or cerebral. A few shouted as soon as Connor and Mason came through the front room.
“Holy hell,” someone yelled from the couch. “It’s the grill masters!”
“Delta Alpha Delta!” another brother shouted. “More like DAD!” That got a bigger cheer than it deserved.
Connor spread his arms theatrically, red apron on full display. “Gentlemen, I’m here to discuss propane and propane accessories!”
Mason patted the pocket on his blue apron and said, dead seriously, “Don’t ask me what’s in the marinade if you’re not prepared for the answer!”
Someone, probably already wasted, nearly fell off a barstool laughing. For the first half hour, that was all it was: a dumb bit, a good bit, the kind of costume that got funnier the drunker everyone got - and you can be sure people were plenty drunk. Connor and Mason played into it shamelessly. Connor stood in the kitchen with one hand on his hip telling a pledge made up stories about the tragedy of overdone burgers. Mason accepted a beer and immediately started lecturing nobody about optimal meat refrigeration times.
Every now and then, though, one of them would glance down at the apron he was wearing and feel a tiny useless twinge, like when you heard part of a song you almost knew. Something about the fabric. Something about the cut. Something hovering just out of reach.
Then Tyler and Eli cornered them by the stairs. Tyler was in a pale blue polo and backward white cap, already flushed from drinking, carrying a giant foam cup like it was part of his costume - which otherwise seemed non-existant. Eli stood next to him in jeans and an old fraternity T-shirt, glasses slipping down his nose.
“You guys have to let us try those on,” Tyler said, pointing between them. “Just for a minute.”
“For what?” Mason asked.
Tyler grinned. “Because I want to see if we can pull off "Father of the Year" energy! I have dad jokes for days!”
“And I want to see if this one,” Eli said, flicking the blue apron, “can make me look like I refinance boats for a living. And besides - our non-existent costumes are lame and you guys have had enough attention already! Spread the love!”
Connor looked at Mason. Mason looked at Connor. Both shrugged.
“Fine,” Connor said. “But if you spill anything on King of the Grill, I swear to God…”
Tyler saluted and snatched the red apron. Eli took the blue one more carefully.
“There’s a mirror upstairs, let's use it to take some selfies” Tyler said. “We’ll be back in two minutes.”
Connor watched them head up the stairs shoulder to shoulder, aprons hanging from their hands. He felt that odd twinge again, stronger this time, and rubbed the back of his neck.
“What?” Mason asked.
“Nothing,” Connor said. “I just had the strangest feeling.”
“About?”
He watched Tyler and Eli disappear down the upstairs hall. “No clue.”
⸻
The upstairs half-bathroom at the ΔΑΔ house was barely big enough for two men to stand in shoulder to shoulder without elbowing each other, which made it exactly the kind of place Tyler and Eli would choose for a joke selfie.
Tyler put the red apron on first, still laughing. “Tell me honestly,” he said, turning toward the mirror. “Am I giving neighborhood cookout dad?”
Eli, already looping the denim apron over his head, smirked. “You’re giving ‘asks if the beer in the fridge is for everybody.’”
Tyler barked a laugh. “That’s the same thing!”
Then he stopped. His smile lingered a second too long on his face before slipping. He tugged at the neck strap. “Dude.”
Eli was staring at himself now too. “Why does this suddenly feel tight?”
The room seemed to shrink around them. Tyler’s shoulders jerked first, broadening under the red apron not with youthful gym definition but with the heavier, denser width of an older man. His chest thickened. His waist pushed outward, not soft exactly, but settling into a substantial, middle-aged solidity. The pale blue polo beneath the apron tightened, then changed with him, seams stretching and reshaping into an older cut that fit a thicker torso.
“Connor got the wrong size or something,” Tyler started to joke, but his voice snagged halfway down into something deeper, rougher. He grabbed the sink.
In the mirror, a dark blur spread over his jaw. Beard stubble pushed through smooth skin all at once, not in patches but in a fast, bristling wave, thickening up his cheeks, darkening his chin, filling into a full beard that framed a face broadening by the second. His cheeks got heavier. The easy, loose planes of a college kid’s face settled into the lined, lived-in structure of a man around fifty. His nose looked more pronounced. Crow’s feet pinched into the corners of his eyes. Beneath the backward cap, the front of his hairline crept backward, temples clearing, then the crown thinning until the cap sat oddly over less hair than it had a second ago.
“Eli!” Tyler said, and the name came out in the voice and tone of his father.
Eli lurched back against the towel rack. “No, no, no.”
His own change was racing him. The glasses on his face shifted as his features thickened underneath them. His jaw got broader. His cheeks filled. The bridge of his nose hardened into a stronger line. Beneath the blue apron, his slim torso filled out, shoulders becoming denser, chest fuller, stomach firmer and thicker. Dark chest hair pushed up under the collar of his T-shirt and spilled higher as if it had always been there. His hairline retreated in a smooth, merciless line at the temples, leaving the front slightly higher, more mature, more undeniably his father’s.
Across his upper lip, a thick dark mustache grew in dense and fast, heavy enough to change his whole expression. His forearms roughened. Hair spread darker over them. Even his posture changed, settling lower and sturdier.
Tyler stared at him in horror. “You look like—”
“Don’t say it,” Eli snapped, except it didn’t come out like Eli anymore. It came out like a man in his early forties who had spent years answering work calls on speakerphone. He clutched the sink next to Tyler, the mustache on his face making the motion look absurdly natural. “You look like your—”
Tyler’s cap no longer fit right. He pulled it off and stared at the thinning hair beneath it, then at the beard shadow swallowing the lower half of his face. Hair had started creeping out at the open neck of his shirt. His arms were thicker, dusted with more hair. His stomach pressed solidly against the apron front.
For one brief, impossible instant, both men understood exactly what was happening. Tyler saw his own father in the mirror wearing his expression and Eli saw his father’s mustache settle onto his own face.
Then the understanding loosened. The panic didn’t vanish so much as slide sideways, becoming confusion with nowhere to land.
Tyler blinked at the mirror. “Why am I…” He frowned. “Whose house is this?”
Eli touched his mustache, puzzled but no longer terrified. “I was looking for a bathroom, I think?”
Tyler peeled the red apron off automatically, as if it were the least important part of the situation, and dropped it on the sink. Eli unlooped the blue one and hung it on a hook near the sink. Then they looked at each other.
“Do I know you?” Tyler asked.
Eli squinted. “Maybe? Why are we in the bathroom together?”
After a few seconds the two middle-aged men walked back into the party like they had taken a wrong turn at a neighborhood cookout.
⸻
Connor noticed Tyler first. Or the man who had been Tyler first anyway. There was a thick-built, bearded man standing by the chips in a better-fitting version of Tyler’s polo, turning slowly in place like he had entered the wrong address. He looked about fifty, broad through the chest and waist, hairline receded, beard neat but full. He had Tyler’s eyes.
Connor laughed out loud before he could stop himself. “Okay, who invited somebody’s dad?”
Mason, coming out of the kitchen, followed his gaze - and then froze. At the far end of the room, another older man had just emerged from the hall. Early forties maybe. Glasses. Receding brown hair. Thick mustache. Sturdier build than Eli had had by a wide margin. He looked around with calm, low-grade confusion and accepted a beer from a passing brother without asking questions.
“That’s not funny,” Mason said quietly.
Connor turned. “What?”
Mason looked from one man to the other. “Where are Tyler and Eli?” Connor’s grin faltered.
The red apron was back downstairs twenty minutes later, crumpled on the arm of a couch. Nobody knew how it got there. The blue one turned up in the upstairs hall, then vanished again.
At first, Connor and Mason tried to find some rational explanation, mostly because the irrational one would have required saying sentences neither of them wanted to say out loud.
Maybe Tyler and Eli had gone home and someone’s actual dads had shown up. Maybe alumni were invited. Maybe the whole house had gotten more drunk than either of them realized.
Then Brandon disappeared into the downstairs laundry room with the red apron over one shoulder, shouting to somebody that he was going to “see if the dad energy hits different.”
He had already been one of the hairier brothers in the house - shirtless under an open flannel, dark chest hair, thick legs, built like he spent more time squatting than he did studying - which he did by a wide margin. Connor almost called after him. Mason actually started to. But by the time they got to the laundry room door, it was shut.
From inside came a muffled curse, then a heavy thump.
Connor knocked once. “Brandon?”
A long pause. Then a gruff: “One second.”
The voice that answered was not Brandon’s voice. Connor and Mason looked at each other. The door opened a crack first, then wider.
Then out popped a man with Brandon’s dark eyes and hairy torso but absolutely nothing else in common. He was broader, thicker, built like the older version of Brandon had been buried inside him all along and had finally gotten his turn to break free. Hair covered his chest in a dense dark spread that disappeared down over a full, powerful belly - more muscle than softness beneath it, but unmistakably a dad gut now. His scalp was mostly bald, the top cleared out and shiny under the overhead light, with only heavier hair around the sides. A thick mustache dominated his face, dark and blunt over his mouth. His forearms were huge and shaggy. He held the red apron in one hand like he had forgotten why.
He blinked at them. “You boys in line for the washer?”
Connor’s mouth fell open. The man frowned, looked at the apron, shrugged, and draped it over a chair before lumbering past them into the party.
Mason grabbed Connor’s forearm. “It’s the aprons!”
Connor shook him off automatically, still staring after Brandon’s father. “No shit, Sherlock!"
By then the party had started to tilt. Not all at once, not with a scream or a flash of lightning. It tilted the way a room tilts in a dream - so gradually that you only noticed once your drink slid off the table.
A skinny sophomore Connor barely knew went upstairs in the blue apron and came back as a narrow, graying man in the frat t-shirt, patting his pockets for car keys and asking if anyone had seen a Honda double-parked on their way in.
A broad-shouldered lacrosse bro vanished into the bathroom with the red apron and emerged later as a ruddy, barrel-chested father with a salt-and-pepper goatee, immediately complaining that the music was too loud.
Another brother came out of the downstairs bathroom older, balder, and deeply offended by the quality of the paper towels.
Some of the transformed men clustered automatically in the kitchen. One found the thermostat and turned it down. Another stood by the snack table talking to no one in particular about propane tanks. A third ended up out back examining the house grill with the solemn concentration of a monk.
Every so often one of them would stop, look around, and ask a question in complete sincerity.
“Is this a fundraiser?”
“Whose basement is this?”
“Why is everybody wearing costumes?”
“What's the password for my phone, my son always tells me...”
They were confused, yes - but not enough to panic. Their minds kept smoothing over the inconsistencies in their existence. A fraternity house party became, in their heads, some hazy event they had probably meant to attend at their son's request. Something odd, but survivable.
Connor and Mason tried to keep track of who was still themselves and failed almost immediately. Faces got slippery. Names blurred. Someone Connor swore had been on the couch earlier was now a bald man in orthopedic sneakers talking about mulch. Mason started a list in his phone, but the names stopped meaning anything halfway down.
Around one in the morning they finally found both aprons together again, abandoned in the upstairs bathroom where Tyler and Eli had changed. Connor picked up the red one. Mason took the blue. The mirror above the sink showed two flushed young men in a tiny fraternity bathroom, scared enough now to be quiet.
“Do it,” Mason said.
Connor nodded. They pulled the aprons back on. Nothing happened. They waited. Still nothing - but they somehow knew nothing would happen and not just because they wore the aprons to the party.
The silence in the room deepened. Mason stared at himself in the mirror, blue apron against his chest. “Why doesn’t it work on us?”
Connor gave the kind of laugh people used when they wanted it to cover everything else. “Maybe we’re just imagining everything and we attended a party that was always full of middle-aged dads?”
Mason turned and looked at him. “Connor.”
There was something in his face then that made Connor look back at the mirror. For one impossible second, the reflection changed. Not fully. Not like the others. Just a flicker.
The young blond guy in the red apron was gone, and in his place stood a middle-aged man with a thicker chest, stronger hands, rougher face - someone older, heavier, deeply familiar. Beside him, Mason flickered too: not brown-haired and twenty, but older, broader, with a more mature face and a darker apron stretched over a much larger body. A costume shop mirror. Narrow changing rooms. Fluorescent light.
A shopping bag. Laughter in voices that were not these voices. Driving home with the aprons. Connor jerked backward so hard he hit the toilet. The image vanished.
Mason grabbed the sink with both hands, breathing hard. “You saw that.”
Connor swallowed. “Yeah.”
Neither of them said what it meant. They didn’t need to.
⸻
By the time dawn started whitening the windows, the ΔΑΔ house no longer felt like a fraternity house. It felt like the after-hours lounge of a suburban rec center that had somehow swallowed a keg party.
Middle-aged men sat on couches rubbing their temples. One of them had started wiping down the kitchen counters. Two others were on the back deck beside the grill, speaking to each other with intense concern about whether the propane line was secure. Somewhere upstairs, a man with a thick mustache was asking if anyone had aspirin and why his son wasn't at the party.
Connor and Mason slipped outside with the aprons folded between them. They sat side by side on the curb in front of the house, the sky just beginning to brighten over the roofs. Empty cups littered the lawn. From inside came the muffled sound of dads talking over one another in confused, practical tones. For a while, neither of them spoke.
Then Mason looked down at the blue apron beside him.
“If it turned all of them into their dads…” he said slowly, “why didn’t it turn us into ours?”
Connor stared at the red apron. The flash from the bathroom had already started to fade, slipping away like a dream right after waking. But the feeling of it remained - older hands, a different body, the terrible certainty that the aprons had recognized them once already. He rubbed his thumb over the word GRILL.
“Maybe,” he said, and had to clear his throat before trying again, “maybe it did...and we have to tell our dads!”
Dad U
Jeremy was excited to be going to his first frat party this evening. Sure he never got along with the frat boys but they always had the hottest chicks there and when he got the invitations he couldn’t turn it down. He just had to figure out what he was going to wear. Problem was that he didn’t have the build of a frat boy. He didn’t have the muscle or tanned skin. He was the average pale twinkish looking boy. Out of shape. But still good looking enough he though to catch the eyes of a girl. He was hoping that tonight he would get lucky.
When Jeremy arrived at the party everything was in full swing. Girls were dancing half naked. Dudes were all beer kegging and howling like the party animals they were. He went unnoticed as he strolled through the crowd of alphas and tits ready to find his nearest drink to calm his nerves. That’s when one of the frat bros came barging through the crowd looking right at him.
“You! Haha I can’t rebel I e you actually came !” The whole crowd of people in the house got quiet. “This here little weakling actually thought we invited him to have fun!” Everyone started laughing. Some of the frat bros appeared beside him without him even noticing. “You see here everyone. Jer wants to try and be like us so we are going to give him the frat boy treatment tonight tonight !” One of the bro held his arms back while one of the others put a beer funnel to his mouth and forces it down his throat. Everyone was cheering and laughing. Jer was horrified that he was seeing abused like this in front of everyone. And no was helping. The whole time beer was being poured in the funnel filling his stomach. He even seen one of the girls that he had a crush on laughing at him while pointing.
When the funnel was removed from his throat a torrent of vomit came with it and he struggled to make his way to the bathroom. Unable to keep the room from spinning. Throwing up everything that he had. Beer foam along with it. And when he managed to get his footing he would be knocked down. And had to crawl. The world was getting dark around Jer. And then....he passed out. ——-mean while everyone should know that Jaks is a twat. He stood in the corner and just held his hands together the whole night. He wasn’t really anyone’s friend. He wasn’t even a student at the college. But yet he was there. Taking up space. Being a twat. You would think that he would at least help Jeremy out but nope. He’s a twat.——
Jeremy woke up. In the bathroom that he was so desperately trying to get to. He managed to sit up feeling his stomach making turns as he was about to vomit again. Making it to the toilet this time he was able to vomit right into the porcelain throne. He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror. Damn the night before had to be rough. His eyes and nose were red and his face was a little puffy. He felt swollen from the amount of beer he was forced to drink last night. First frat party. And definitely his last he decided. He went to the door and was about to turn the handle when he seen some smoke wafting up from the crack at the bottom. It smelled strong. Like tobacco. He cracked the door open and peered through. He didn’t see anything at first but then he felt the vibration of something heavy walking down the hall. And then before he knew it a large hairy older man walked by the bathroom door with a huge stogie his mouth. Puffing away.
It wasn’t long before another another man of equal size passed the door doing the same. Dressed in leather though. And was that the frats tattoo symbol he had ? And then he heard one of them call the other by their name. The name of one of the frat boys. The smoke was wafting up thicker now and starting to spill into the bathroom more. He started coughing and that’s when 2 of the men turned to looked at him Perrin through the door and a big grin spread across their face.
It wasn’t long before Jeremy was drug from the bathroom by the larger hairy men. He could feel their massive guts in his back as the hair tickling him too. “He so tiny !” The two men were cheering as they brought him to the main room where he was now surrounded by large bearish men. All sporting the tattoo of the fraternity. “This young pup is so for a lesson !!” Said one of the older men with a really large mustache. He put the cigar he was holding in his mouth making him look even older and mean. He took his shirt off and you could see that thick grey hair covered every inch of him front and back. He threw his shirt to the corner and came over to Jeremy who was still being held by the rep other men. With a large inhaled on his corpse he could see the ember glow bright red. And when the man remove the cigar he held his breathe. Grabbing Jeremy by the back of the head the man pressed his lips onto him and exhaled the thick smoke from the cigar into his mouth forcing it down into his lungs. Jeremy tried to break free to fight but all the men over powered him forcing him to stay. When the man was done he released his grasp from Jeremy. Jeremy was choking now. Try to breathe out the smoke but it would come out. They released him and he fell to ground coughing. He tried to speak. He tried to cry out. He wanted to know what the me. Had just done to him but nothing would come out of his lips other than coughing. The man that did this to him didn’t have shoes ob and when he was on the ground a large hairy foot came to his face pressing on his cheek. “Dirt belongs on the ground there boy” said the deep brassy voice. As his foot pressed hard on his chest his vision began to shift. And the smell started to over take him. Jeremy felt itchy and he didn’t understand why. “It’s starting !” He heard the men yell. Jeremy managed to get up from the floor and staggered back to the bathroom. The men following him. He didn’t know why he felt so weak. Every part of his body hurting. Jeremy didn’t realize that the smoke had taken an effect on him. Every step. Every second. The smoke was changing him from the inside out. His hair falling out. Skin sagging slightly. Hair growing across his body to match the same pattern of the man that did this to him. His vision getting worse and a craving for something Smokey he had never wanted before. When he got to the bathroom he noticed his hand being that of an older man. “No!” He screamed in his much older voice. He turned around only to be ambushed again by the older men in the fraternity. He was forced to smoke cigars. As new leathers were placed on him. His mind clouding as his new persona took over. Smoking leather daddy. When he came to this last time though. Daddy jer was in full control. Putting on his leather boots abs lighting up his 5 cigar of the day he was on the prowl for a boy. He wanted to make others just like him. Older. Hairy men. Obsessed with smoking and being the daddy a boy needs.
**After School Detention**
Max trudged down the hallway of Eisenhower High, his sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floors. Transferring schools was tough enough, but being stuck in detention on his first day was the cherry on top of a terrible sundae. Max wore his usual attire: a letterman jacket, jeans, and a white t-shirt underneath, the epitome of a jock. He'd ended up in detention for bullying a kid in the cafeteria, a scrawny nerd with glasses that seemed too big for his face. It wasn’t the first time he’d been in trouble for that sort of thing, but this school seemed to take it more seriously.
As Max pushed open the door to Room 207, he expected to find a bunch of other troublemakers. Instead, he found a group of nerds. They all had thick, black-rimmed glasses, neatly combed hair, and a uniform of sorts: button-up shirts with sweater vests or cardigans. Max felt a twinge of unease as they looked up at him, their eyes gleaming with something he couldn’t quite place.
"Uh, hey. I'm Max," he muttered, scanning the room for an empty seat. The nerds exchanged glances and then smiled, but it wasn't a friendly smile.
"Sit here," said a boy with neatly parted hair and braces, patting the seat next to him. Max reluctantly complied, feeling a growing sense of dread.
"I'm Brent," the boy continued. "So, what did you do to land in detention?"
Max shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant. "Just a misunderstanding with a kid in the cafeteria. What about you guys? Why are you all here?"
Brent's eyes twinkled with amusement. "We all have our stories. For example, I got into detention for tripping a kid on crutches in the hallway."
Another boy with red hair and freckles leaned forward. "I got caught spray-painting graffiti on the gym wall. Used to be quite the rapscallion."
Max's eyes widened. These guys didn’t seem like typical nerds—they had once been troublemakers like him. But something still felt off.
Before Max could dwell on it, the detention supervisor, Mrs. Henderson, entered. She was an older woman with a stern expression, who gave the room a quick once-over before settling at her desk with a book. The room fell silent except for the occasional rustle of paper and the ticking of the clock.
Max shifted uncomfortably, trying to ignore the nerds’ stares. Then, he felt something strange on his face. He reached up and found a pair of glasses resting on his nose. He hadn't been wearing glasses when he walked in.
"What the—?" Max ripped them off, but the glasses wouldn't budge. He tried harder, but they wouldn’t come off. The nerds around him chuckled softly.
"There's no use fighting it," Brent said, his tone almost soothing.
Panic set in. Max jumped up, trying to run, but the nerds were surprisingly strong. They grabbed him, forcing him back into his seat. "Let me go!" he shouted, struggling against them.
"Relax, Max. It's easier if you don't fight it," Brent said, his braces glinting in the fluorescent light.
Max felt his clothes start to change. His letterman jacket began to tighten, the sleeves shortening and transforming into a sweater vest with a diamond pattern. His white t-shirt morphed into a button-up shirt with a bow tie appearing at the collar. His jeans turned into high-waisted slacks, a belt with a polished buckle cinching them at his waist. His sneakers shifted into loafers, polished to a mirror shine.
The changes weren't just physical. Max's mind was being invaded by thoughts that weren’t his own. He felt an inexplicable love for chess and calculus, a passion for comic books and science fiction. His hair, usually messy and unkempt, slicked back neatly with a part on the side. The transformation was detailed and meticulous, down to the argyle pattern on his socks.
"No! This isn't me!" Max screamed internally, but his resistance was weakening. The nerds’ voices blended into a single, soothing chorus, coaxing him into acceptance.
As the clock ticked away, Max's protests grew weaker. His reflection in the window showed a complete transformation: from the rebellious new kid to a picture-perfect nerd. His eyes, once filled with defiance, now sparkled with curiosity and eagerness to learn.
"Welcome to the club, Max," Brent said, patting him on the back. "You're one of us now."
Max's internal conflict began to fade. The thoughts and feelings that had invaded his mind felt more natural, more like his own. The transformation was not just skin deep; it was altering who he was at his core.
*Two Weeks Later*
Max walked down the hallway, his letterman jacket now a distant memory. He wore a neat cardigan, glasses perched perfectly on his nose, and his hair styled impeccably. He greeted his fellow club members with enthusiasm as they gathered in the science lab for their weekly meeting.
"Hey, guys! Did you see the new issue of *Amazing Science Monthly*? It's the bee's knees!" Max exclaimed, his voice filled with genuine excitement.
The transformation was complete. Max, now fully embracing his new identity, was an integral part of the nerd club. He relished their activities, from solving complex equations to planning the next big science fair project.
As he settled into his seat, Max couldn’t remember why he had ever resisted. This was where he belonged, surrounded by friends who shared his passion for knowledge and discovery. The new kid had found his place, and he couldn’t be happier.
Would you like any cream or sugar sir?
Why do I feel the need to crunch numbers?
A day by the pool…
It’s the perfect spot to catch some rays and watch the water, the only draw back was the chair was sandwiched between two fat old guys. I figured the worse thing that would happen was they would fall asleep and start snoring. I figured I would take my chances and claim the spot. I sit down and they are non stop talking about a fishing trip they’re going on. Cod, snapper, haddock they would not shutup about the fish they wanted to catch. The only positive was they did offer me a beer which I gladly accepted. After about an hour I really started enjoying the conversation and found their knowledge about all the different types of fish fascinating. At one point one of the guys looked at me and said, “Are you excited about the fishing trip Harold?”. I responded and said, “I can’t wait!”.
Reblog if you want to be hypnotized ;)
oooh, pretty spiral
Original image taken from @preppymuscleboys
I’ve been taking to him on my personal account. He got me to the gym in a polo and khaki shorts like a good preppy muscle boy 💪 for sure would recommend giving him a follow.
They only went into the costume shop because Connor had forgotten Father’s Day…again.
“Gift card?” Mason suggested, pushing through the door beneath a hanging rubber bat and a faded plastic skeleton.
Connor, blond, lean, and smug beneath the little mustache he’d grown mostly to annoy his dad, rolled his eyes. “For my father? He’d use it to buy socks and then tell me I ruined the surprise.”
Mason laughed. He was dark-haired, sharp-jawed, with a few days of stubble and the relaxed confidence of someone whose dad had never met a grill he didn’t try to dominate. “Then get him something stupid. Something he’ll actually wear once and pretend to hate.”
They found the aprons in a back corner beneath a sign that read DAD CLASSICS — HALF OFF. One was bright red and said KING OF THE GRILL in peeling yellow letters. The other was denim-blue with fake grease stains printed across the front and ASK ME ABOUT MY MARINADE stitched over the chest.
Connor held the red one against himself and made his voice deeper. “Boys, the secret is propane and emotional distance.”
Mason snorted and grabbed the blue apron. “No, no, you need to stand wider. Dads always stand like they’re guarding a cooler.”
There were changing rooms beside the novelty costumes. Neither of them knew why grill aprons needed changing rooms, but that made it funnier.
“Hey!” Connor said. “Take off your shirt and go try it on for the full effect. We can snap a couple selfies and use them as a prank later.”
“Gotcha, man! Good idea.”
They ducked behind the curtains, still joking through the thin partition as they tied the aprons around themselves.
The two young men stepped out to admire their aprons and take a sarcastic selfie.
After returning to their dressing rooms Connor fumbled for the knot on the back of the apron but before he could undo it he felt the knot tighten at his waist. Then his stomach lurched.
At first he thought the room had tilted. His knees cracked, his shoulders thickened, and a heavy warmth spread across his chest. Pale hair burst beneath the apron straps, crawling over his sternum and shoulders in dense, uneven patches. His blond hair thinned, then retreated, pulling back from his forehead until only a sparse ring remained around a mostly bald crown. His neat little mustache swelled outward, darkening, bristling, curling at the ends into a proud, ridiculous handlebar that dominated his face.
“Uh,” Connor said, but his voice came out deeper. Rougher. Familiar. “Are you feeling ok over there, Mason?!”
On the other side of the partition, Mason made a startled choking sound. “Not really, dude!”
His own body had softened almost instantly. His flat stomach pushed forward into a round, heavy belly that pressed against the apron. His arms grew thicker but less defined, covered in dark hair. His stubble lengthened down his cheeks and jaw, spreading into a thick beard that tumbled over his mouth until his lips nearly vanished behind it. His dark hair receded at the temples but stayed thick enough to look neglected rather than stylish. When he stumbled out of the changing room, he looked like a man who had spent twenty years saying he was “getting back to the gym soon.”
Connor stepped out at the same time, one hand on his bald head, the other gripping the edge of his huge mustache.
For a moment, they stared at each other.
“Mason?” Connor whispered.
“Connor?” Mason’s voice rumbled through the beard, muffled and older. “Why do you look like your dad?! You’re bald dude! You even have his mustache!”
“What about you, bro! Did you gain 100 lbs in there? And that beard!! You look just like your dad!”
They remembered everything. The shop. Father’s Day. The joke. Their real faces. Their real ages. The horrifying fact that Connor now looked exactly like his father, right down to the slightly squinting expression he wore whenever he tried not to admit he was confused. Mason looked like his own dad after Thanksgiving dinner: soft, bearded, hairy, comfortable in a way that felt impossible to fight.
“We have to take the apron’s off!” Mason said.
But neither of them moved.
Connor looked down at the red apron stretched across his broader, hairier torso. His hand settled on his belly, then rose to smooth the curled end of his handlebar mustache. The panic in his eyes weakened, replaced by irritation. Not fear. Just the vague annoyance of a man who had forgotten what errand he was running.
“Why were we here again?” he asked.
Mason frowned beneath the beard. “Grill stuff, I think.”
“Right.” Connor nodded slowly. “Need charcoal.”
“Already got charcoal.”
“Then steaks?”
Mason considered this, his memories sliding away like receipts tossed into a junk drawer. College apartments, group chats, late-night burgers, the urgent knowledge that he had once been someone else—all of it blurred and thinned until it seemed less like memory than a strange dream he had no reason to mention.
He patted his apron. “Could use a new spatula.”
Connor grunted approvingly. “Good spatula’s important. Better put our clothes back on and buy these new aprons. They are hilarious!”
A bored clerk watched the two middle-aged men leave the dressing rooms and approach his counter - still wearing the novelty aprons.
One was mostly bald with a grand handlebar mustache and a satisfied dad squint. The other was pudgy, dark-haired, and buried behind a long beard that swallowed his mouth. They paid in cash, argued amiably about whether lighter fluid was cheating, and walked out into the afternoon sun without once remembering they had come in as sons.
Across town, two older men woke up from accidental naps they had not meant to take.
Connor’s father jolted upright on a couch, suddenly blond, smooth-skinned, and twenty-two, his hand flying to a mustache that was far too small.
Mason’s father staggered back from a bathroom mirror, dark-haired and lean again, rubbing at the stubble on a jaw that had not been that sharp in decades.
For several seconds, both men stared at themselves in separate mirrors, stunned by the impossible youth looking back.
Then Connor’s father blinked and whispered, “oh shit, Father’s Day is coming up soon and I didn’t buy my old man anything yet!”
And Mason’s father, across town, touched his flat stomach with dawning horror - quickly fading into submission as he forgot his old life and responsibilities. His phone buzzed on the sink nearby. A text from Connor’s dad’s phone.
Dude! I need to buy my Dad a Father’s Day gift. Wanna join me?!