Part 5: The Freak and The Spotlight
The two of them walked out of the AWO store together. Jack took a deep breath of fresh air and let out a sigh of contentment. Just standing there, anybody could tell that Jack was enjoying every moment of his newfound power, his newfound presence. Alan on the other hand stood there looking at somebody who has started to look like a monster and wondered if his friend, the guy who came to know as a good guy was still in there somewhere.
Jack caught Alan’s glance and said, “You’re quiet. What’s up bro?”
Bro. Fuck. He’s even starting to talk like a musclebound frat bro. “I’m trying to figure out if my best friend is still in there,” Alan said.
Jack smiled as he looked at Alan. “First, calm down bro,” he said as he flexed a little bit. “Look at who I am now. And stop worrying about finding the old me. The new me is 100 percent better.”
“Yeah,” Alan said unconvinced. “Sure. All right. Sorry to do this but I need to head home for the evening. If you need me for anything, message me okay?”
Alan turned away from Jack and headed home. As he got back to his own apartment, his phone buzzed and it was a message from AWO:
Stage One Assessment Complete
Recommended Archetype: The Spotlight
Primary Traits: Charm, display, confidence, desire, social control.
Your humor hides your hunger.
Ever since Alan left Jack, his mind had been going over everything that had happened in the AWO store. The whole thing made him sick to his stomach. Seeing what was happening to Jack and the feeling like he was nothing more than data point to Terry and Cindy, Alan tried to figure out what the hell he had been doing there to begin with.
The worst part of it was that Alan had fallen for the sales pitch. That was what made it even worse. He had gone in there wanting to prove to himself and Jack that it was all bullshit and smoke and mirrors and instead Jack came out physically stronger, more arrogant and more sure of himself than ever before. Because of that, he had allowed himself to actually sit down and get analyzed.
It was a slow moving train wreck but Jack was about to hit the wall. At least Alan had the ability to stop and get off the train before the disaster happened. The problem was that the last line of the message hit home for Alan. Thinking back on just the last few days, he could see where his humor hid things, where it was easier just to step into the shadows and not be noticed and just be what everybody else needed him to be.
Alan went to bed with those thoughts in his head. It was going to be a long night.
Jack meanwhile stood in front of his bathroom mirror and basked in the new physique that he had been gifted. He wasn’t a full blown genetic freak yet but he had to make sure that he was going to get new clothes from a bodybuilding store when he got the chance. Doing a double bicep pose, Jack grinned and landed up kissing his bicep and it made him feel so alive.
While he was getting ready for bed, Jack’s phone went off and just like Alan across town, there was a message from AWO:
Stage Three Integration Active
Dominance must be expressed.
Visibility is no longer enough. Impact is required.
Do not soften. Do not retreat. Do not apologize.
Fuck, Jack thought to himself. With this newfound body and newfound attitude, there was no way he was going to back away and let others take control of his life or what he did. It was time for him to grab life by the balls and do exactly what he was meant to do. Instead of waiting for others to push him in the right direction, it was time for him to chart his own course and fuck anybody who got in his way.
Jack went to bed feeling more confident, more alive tham he had been in years. Fuck, maybe his entire adult life.
The next day, Jack walked into the office and everybody noticed the change. He saw out of the corner of his eye Annie looking at him with a slight frown on her face. Mabel on the other looked like she had a question and thought better of it and just turned back to work at her desk. Jack immediately felt the tension go up in the office by his mere presence. It felt so fucking good to be respected and looked at. They should be grateful that they could see him like this every day.
Alan walked into the office a few minutes later and immediately got stopped by Annie. “What the hell is going on with Jack?” she asked. “Do you know?”
“I’m as confused as you are,” Alan replied. “I’ve tried to talk to him to figure out what’s going on but all I get is static.”
“Was this something to do with that blowup you two had the other day?” Annie asked. “Because that sure didn’t sound like it was a simple conversation about sports.”
“There’s a lot of stuff going on in his personal life,” Alan replied. “Ex-wife and all that. He’s just trying to reinvent himself you know?”
“Great,” Annie replied. “So what… a mid life crisis? Just what I need.”
“Well, at least he hasn’t decided to move to Hawaii and start driving a sports car,” Alan said with a smile. “At least not on this salary.”
Annie chuckled at that. Alan noticed it immediately that yet again his humor had tamed a situation that could have spiraled into a crisis. “All right,” she said. “He’s your best friend. Keep an eye on him and please for the love of God talk him out of whatever he’s doing to himself. He looks like…”
“A professional wrestler?” Alan said as he looked at Jack’s back.
“Or a bodybuilder who is on too many steroids,” Annie replied as she walked back to her desk.
Oh, Alan thought to himself, you have no idea how close to the truth you are. He walked by Jack’s desk on to the way to his own and he heard Jack say under his breath, “That fucking bitch.”
That made Alan stop and he said, “What’s up?”
Jack looked at Alan with anger in his eyes before he dropped his cell phone on his desk with a thud. “Oh, just the battle axe ex-wife sending me yet another message about the divorce papers,” he said. “I’ll sign those damn papers when I feel like it.”
Alan noticed that a couple of people looked in their general direction and realized that Jack’s voice didn’t have an ‘inside’ voice any more. “All right,” Alan said. “Just don’t do anything you are going to regret all right?”
“I regret marrying that bitch,” Jack replied as he got back to work.
The rest of the morning luckily passed without incident. Alan was hard at work trying to get through the daily tasks while Jack had a hard time concentrating because of his ex-wife’s text message. Of course, from everything that had gone on the last few days, Jack was still trying to sort out what had actually happened to him.
Lunch time came and as Jack was walking to the break room, his phone went off. “What the fuck?” he said under his breath as his ex-wife’s number came up.
“Hello Linda,” he said sighing as he answered the call.
“Hello to you too,” his ex-wife replied. “Just wanted to talk to you to see if we can move things along.”
“Right,” Jack replied. “So… which guy did you jump in bed with this time? Adam? Jason? I forget.”
“I just want this chapter of our lives over,” Linda replied. “Why can’t you understand that?”
At that moment, Jack’s anger burst out. “Listen you cunt,” Jack said.
“Cunt?” Linda interrupted with. “Jack, what the hell is wrong with you? I’m… well… was your wife!”
“Yeah,” Jack replied. “You were my wife. And not a good one at that if I’m being honest with myself. Don’t know what I saw in you back then.”
“Jack… this isn’t you,” Linda said after a moment still shocked over what he called her. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you but… it’s not good.”
“Of course it’s not good,” Jack said ignoring the fact that there were others around him that could hear the conversation. “You and everybody else just want me to do whatever I’m told like a good fucking dog. Don’t worry. I’ll sign the papers tonight so you can get on with your life and I can find somebody who actually is good in bed.”
“Fine,” Linda screamed on the phone. “Whatever the fuck you want. You know something? I wish I had never met you.”
“Same fucking goes for me you little whore,” Jack said as he hung up the phone and looked at everybody staring at him. “What the fuck are you looking at?” he said as he glared and walked away.
Finding a place by himself for a moment, Jack closed his eyes and then let out a laugh. My god, he thought to himself. It felt so good to finally stand up for himself and actually have true power. He had finally said what he wanted to say for the last six months and finally when he was able to say it and let go it felt so damn good.
Fifteen minutes later, Annie walked over to Alan’s desk and said, “We need to talk. Now.”
Alan looked at Annie and frowned. He knew exactly what this was about. Actually, who it was about. “What did Jack do?” he asked.
“You need to talk to him,” Annie replied. “Before I have to suspend him for a few days. What he did in the break room… can’t happen again.”
“Oh hell,” Alan said as he closed his eyes. “His ex-wife?”
“I’m not going to repeat what everybody in the break room heard but yeah,” Annie said. “He needs to calm down really fast. I’ve already got a few complaints from people. I don’t know what’s got into him but he needs to cool down really fast.”
“Got it,” Alan said as he stood up from his desk. “I’ll take care of it. Consider me the Jack Whisperer.”
As Alan walked over to Jack’s desk, his thoughts wandered for a moment. The amount of attention that Jack was getting was undeniable. The problem was that in the AWO store, if Alan went through with the entire process, he could just turn out to be a freak like Jack was turning out to be. But there was a part of him that envied Jack even if it seemed like he had taken the macho alpha thing way too far.
“What the hell did you say to your ex-wife?” Alan said as he looked at Jack when he got to his friend’s desk.
“I said the fucking truth for one,” Jack replied. “And it felt fucking good.”
“Truth for who?” Alan asked. “Because from what I’ve heard they want to suspend your ass for what you said.”
“Suspend? Me?” Jack said followed by a laugh. “I’d like to see them try some bullshit like that.”
“Dude,” Alan said. “Listen to yourself. Fuck man… you’re starting to scare me.”
Jack looked at Alan and smiled. “Everybody is starting to notice me and now you’re scared of me?” he asked.
“I don’t know what I am,” Alan replied. “I saw that screen in the store. I saw what they think I am. I see what you’ve become and… well… it scares me. I keep thinking about it.”
“Good,” Jack replied. “That means it saw something real. This me was inside all of the time bro. It just took somebody else to take it out and show it to the world. Just think about what it is going to do for you. Let it fucking happen will you? Stop lying to yourself.”
Alan went back to his desk and sighed when he saw a message pop up on his phone. It was like a disease that kept on returning. Another message from his ‘saviors’ at AWO:
Stage 2: Beginnings Available
Stop fitting in. Start being followed.
Wear black. Be ready to be seen.
This whole situation was fucking insane. Seeing Jack change so much in such a short period of time terrified him. But at the same time, Alan knew that all he had to do was walk away from the entire thing, delete the message and not go back to that damn store. Thinking about Jack however, Alan knew that if he was to help his best friend, he needed to know what the hell actually happened in that store behind the curtains.
The rest of the afternoon flew by without any incident. When it was time to leave, Alan saw Jack walk over with an AWO bag in his hand.
“Here,” Jack said as he put the bag down on Alan’s desk. “I bought this for you to get you into the right frame of mind.”
Alan looked in the bag and sighed. “Of course you did,” he said as he picked up the AWO shirt out of the bag. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome bro,” Jack said. “You’ve got an appointment to start Stage 2 right?”
“Yeah,” Alan replied somewhat reluctantly. “Yeah I do.”
“I knew you would keep with it,” Jack replied grinning. “Bro, you’re going to fucking love it. I know I do.”
“Yeah yeah,” Alan replied. “I certainly see you loving it. All right. If we’re going to do this, let’s do this before my better senses get a hold of me and I run away from this nightmare.”
The two of them headed to the AWO store, Alan now dressed in the AWO shirt that Jack had bought him and Jack wearing his own AWO shirt that seemed even tighter than it had been a few short days ago.
When they walked in, Jack looked at Alan and saw the worry and concern on his face. “Relax bro,” he said. “Stage 2 is where things start making sense.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Alan said as he saw Terry walk over to the two of them.
“Looking good brother,” Terry said as he fist bumped Jack. “Really looking the part now. Amazing transformation huh?”
“You have no fucking idea how good it feels,” Jack replied with a grin on his face.
Terry looked at Alan and said, “And look who came back. The doubting Alan.”
“Hello to you too,” Alan said with a smile. “And I thought I was the only one who made jokes around here.”
“Trust me,” Terry said. “The only thing you will need to joke about soon is how many people flock to your side. Come on. Cindy’s ready for you.”
“Lead on,” Alan said with a sigh.
The three of them found themselves back in the same room where Jack had gone through Stage 3 but now instead of Jack on the platform, Alan found himself on the platform. Cindy was working at a console and was totally clinical about everything that was going on. Jack was standing next to Terry and they both had smiles on their faces like somebody was about to join the brotherhood of bros.
Cindy was finally ready and the screen in front of Alan populated the Spotlight archetype and all of the information that had been gone over during the Stage 1 evaluation. Standing there on the platform, Alan felt like he was about to step off a cliff and that there was no going back. But at the same time, he looked at Jack and realized for his best friend’s sake, he needed to do this in order to help him.
“First,” Cindy said as she looked at Alan. “Let’s start with posture and your smile. All right. Give us your best movie star pose.”
“My what?” Alan said with a chuckle.
“Movie star,” Cindy replied. “Every time a movie star walks into a room, they have a smile on their face and everybody looks at them. Let’s start with that.”
“All right,” Alan said. “But I feel like a fucking idiot.”
“That’ll change in time,” Terry replied from where he was standing next to Jack.
For the next thirty minutes, Alan went through a number of exercises that were built around social control. From learning when to actually make jokes to how he should smile and present himself in a crowded room, it was a massive bit of social engineering. The more Alan practiced, the less he felt like a fool. He could see subtle changes in his posture and how he handled himself as each exercise was completed.
“Now,” Cindy said. “Repeat after me. I don’t disappear into a room any more. The room adjusts to me.”
Alan looked at Cindy and shrugged. “I don’t disappear into a room any more. The room adjusts to me,” he said.
Every time Alan repeated what Cindy had told him to say, it felt more comfortable. A part of Alan thought that it was a subtle version of social engineering and brainwashing but another part of him actually enjoyed what he was saying.
Finally, Cindy smiled and said, “I think that’s enough for today. Let’s take a look at you shall we?”
Alan looked at the screen as it changed to show him as he was now. His hair was styled better, tighter and more clean. Unlike Jack’s muscles which had turned freakishly big, Alan’s muscles were a bit more toned. His shoulders were back, his grin more practiced. He was wearing sunglasses and an AWO wristband.
“There,” Terry said. “Hold that smile bro.”
“It feels so fucking fake,” Alan replied.
“So did every version of yourself that you made for everybody else,” Terry pointed out.
Standing there watching the entire situation play out, Jack looked at his friend Alan and saw the subtle changes that were occurring. He felt proud looking at his best friend, starting to keep eye contact, posing as though he was somebody and starting to enjoy being the center of attention.
“There’s the man I knew was hiding inside,” Jack said to Alan.
Five minutes later, Alan, Jack and Terry stood in the Gallery. Terry grabbed a sleeveless AWO vest and gave it to Alan to try on.
“Now,” Terry said. “Walk through the store as though everybody came to see you.”
“You have got to be fucking joking,” Alan said. “I’m not… well… fake.”
“No, you aren’t,” Terry replied. “This is who you are now. Do it for you.”
With a hint of swagger, a smile on his face and a confidence that Alan honestly never had felt before, he walked around the store as though he owned the place. When a young woman shopping with her boyfriend looked at him and smiled, he returned the smile and a part of him thought that she deserved better than her current boyfriend.
As Alan took his new look and personality for a spin, Terry looked at Jack and said, “You really are becoming a genetic freak aren’t you?”
“Fuck yeah brother,” Jack replied. “Feels good too.”
“Good,” Terry said. “Cindy told me that Stage 4 was getting closer for you. Seems like you might be ahead of schedule.”
Terry looked at Alan as he continued to walk around the store and said, “Your friend is getting the hang of it isn’t he?”
“He just needed to be pushed in the right direction,” Jack replied with a smile.
Finally, Jack and Alan left the store together. Alan now had a bag of AWO gear including a couple of shirts, a sleeveless vest and tights that had the AWO logo spray painted on them.
Outside, Jack looked at Alan and said, “See? Told you they could find you.”
Instead of answering, Alan looked at his reflection in the store’s window. He smiled at what he saw and fixed his collar.
They walked away together, not yet finished, not yet lost. But close enough that the city reflected two men where only one had entered before.
Thus ends Act 1: Selection. The AWO story will continue with Act 2.