Gymini
The date ended with a handshake. Not a kiss, not even a hug. Just a polite, firm handshake at her door.
"You're a great guy, Sebastian," she said, her smile pitying. "You're... safe."
Safe. The word felt like a castration.
Back in his bathroom, Sebastian stared at himself in the mirror. He was thirty-two, a newly appointed assistant Professor, and perfectly healthy. But the reflection showed a man who was functionally invisible. His chest was flat. His arms were thin wires. He had zero presence. He wasn't ugly; he was just... blank.
He didn't need to be a muscle monster. He just needed to stop being "safe."
———————————————————————————————
The gym was called Metrics. It was located in the basement of a modern office building.
Sebastian walked in, feeling out of place in his brand-new, loose-fitting workout clothes.
"Help you?"
The voice was deep, cutting through the low hum of the air conditioning.
Sebastian turned. A man was wiping down a bench press.
Marcus. He looked to be in his forties, but he was in peak condition. He wasn't one of those bloated steroid users on magazine covers. He was thick. His neck was wide, his shoulders broad and heavy. He wore a simple black t-shirt that hugged his chest and arms tightly, showing off dense, mature muscle. He had a short beard, black with specks of gray, and he smelled of clean sweat and expensive cedar soap.
"I'm looking for a trainer," Sebastian said, straightening his back, trying to look taller. "I assume that's you."
Marcus walked over slowly. He didn't smile. He just looked at Sebastian with dark, calm eyes. It felt like being scanned.
"I'm Marcus."
"Sebastian," he replied. "Look, I'll be blunt. I'm an academic. I don't have time to waste. I want to build muscle. I want to look... better." He gestured vaguely at his own thin frame, a hint of arrogance creeping into his voice to mask his insecurity. "But I don't want to turn into one of those mindless meatheads. I just need the aesthetics."
He expected Marcus to be offended. Instead, Marcus just stared at him, his gaze dropping to Sebastian's narrow shoulders, then back to his eyes. There was a flicker of amusement in that look. Like a wolf looking at a very noisy rabbit.
"Aesthetics," Marcus repeated. His voice was flat, unreadable. "We can do that."
He stepped closer, invading Sebastian's personal space. The smell of him—musk and authority—was sudden and overwhelming.
"You want the look without the lifestyle. But the iron doesn't care about your PhD. It only cares if you can handle the weight." Marcus paused, looking at Sebastian's soft hands. "It’s going to hurt. A lot. Still want to proceed?"
Sebastian didn't understand the depth of the warning. He just wanted to fix the reflection in the mirror.
"Just tell me what to lift."
Marcus smirked.
"Fine. Let's see what you're made of." ————————————————————————————————
The first session was brutal.
Sebastian had read about "progressive overload," but reading about it and feeling gravity try to crush your chest were two very different things.
He was on the bench press. Marcus hadn't loaded it with anything crazy—just a 25lb plate on each side—but for Sebastian's untrained arms, it felt like a building.
"Elbows in," Marcus said from above.
Sebastian gritted his teeth, lowering the bar. His arms started to shake on the way up. He stalled halfway. The bar hovered, refusing to move. Panic started to creep in. He was going to drop it. He was going to die under 95 pounds in front of a stranger.
Then, Marcus leaned over to spot him. He didn't grab the bar immediately. He just hovered, his chest inches from Sebastian's face.
"Push," Marcus said.
The proximity was sudden. Sebastian was hit by a wave of heat radiating from the older man. It wasn't a bad smell—just intense. It smelled of hard work, sweat, and a distinct, deep musk that was unmistakably male.
It didn't make him gag. It flooded his senses. For a second, Sebastian's brain stopped worrying about the angle of his wrists. The fear, the heat, and that overwhelming scent mixed into a sudden spike of adrenaline.
He didn't know where the strength came from, but he shoved the bar up. It clanged into the rack.
Sebastian lay there, chest heaving, staring up at Marcus.
Marcus looked down, unblinking. "See? You had it. You just needed to stop thinking."
He pulled out his phone. "Download this. Gymini. It’s an app we use here."
Sebastian sat up, wiping his forehead, feeling a mix of embarrassment and relief. "Is it a tracker?"
"Sort of," Marcus said, putting the phone away. "It uses an algorithm to adjust your routine based on how you feel. It takes the guesswork out. Just do what it says."
Sebastian nodded, still lightheaded, and scanned the code.
By the time Sebastian got home, he was wrecked. His arms felt like jelly. He collapsed onto his sofa, too tired to even turn on the TV.
He opened the app. The interface was simple, dark mode by default.
USER: SEBASTIAN
GOAL: AESTHETICS / TONED
He typed a question: What should I eat for dinner?
The reply popped up instantly: Grilled chicken breast, one cup of rice, large glass of water.
Simple. Sensible. He liked that.
He ate, showered, and lay in bed, but his mind was still racing. The soreness was already starting. He picked up his phone again.
Is there any way to speed up the results?
The three dots danced for a moment. Then a notification appeared.
TIP OF THE DAY:
PHEROMONE RECOVERY HACK.
DO NOT WASH YOUR GYM CLOTHES TONIGHT.
SLEEPING NEAR THE SCENT OF EXERTION CAN TRICK YOUR BODY INTO MAINTAINING TESTOSTERONE LEVELS DURING REM CYCLES.
Sebastian stared at the screen. It sounded like bro-science. Ridiculous.
He looked over at the laundry basket in the corner. His gym shirt was sitting right on top.
"Pseudoscientific nonsense," he muttered.
But he was tired. And honestly, after today... he felt different.
He got up, walked to the basket, and picked up the shirt. It was damp. He brought it closer to his face. It smelled of his own sweat, the metallic tang of the gym, and... yes, a faint, lingering trace of Marcus. That same warm, musky scent from the bench press.
It wasn't gross. It was just... real.
Sebastian hesitated, then tossed the shirt onto the empty pillow next to him.
"Just to test the algorithm," he whispered to himself.
He turned off the lamp. In the dark, the scent was stronger. He breathed it in, deeply. Surprisingly, it didn't keep him awake. It made him feel heavy. Safe.
He was asleep in minutes.
————————————————————————————————
Three weeks later, the apartment felt different.
The stacks of literary journals on the coffee table were still there, but they were now used as coasters for protein shakers. The air, once smelling of old paper and espresso, now carried the faint, sweet chemical scent of vanilla whey.
Sebastian stood in his bedroom, staring at his phone. Gymini was open.
It had become a reflex. He didn't agonize over choices anymore. He just checked the feed.
Outfit for Tuesday. Graduate Seminar.
The app loaded instantly.
NAVY POLO. SIZE M. TIGHTER FIT IMPROVES MUSCLE MIND-CONNECTION. LET THE BODY BREATHE.
Sebastian frowned. The Medium polo? He hadn't worn that size since he was an undergrad. It would be snug.
"Muscle mind-connection," he muttered. It sounded like bro-science, but he didn't hate the logic.
He put it on.
The fabric didn't just sit on him; it clung. The sleeves gripped his biceps—which were currently pumped from yesterday’s arm session. The buttons across his chest pulled slightly. It felt... aggressive.
But when he looked in the mirror, he didn't see a stressed academic worrying about tenure. He saw a man who had shape.
"Fine," he said, grabbing his bag. "Medium it is."
The lecture hall was warm. Sebastian was thirty minutes into a graduate seminar on Roland Barthes’ The Death of the Author.
"Barthes argues that the text is a multidimensional space," Sebastian said, turning to write on the blackboard.
As he reached up, he felt the polo shirt ride up his back. The seam dug into his armpit. The friction against his nipples was constant, distracting, and... grounding.
He caught the eye of a student in the front row—a girl who usually took diligent notes. She wasn't writing. She was staring at his arms.
Sebastian paused. The old Sebastian—the one desperate to be taken seriously as a scholar—would have been mortified.
The new Sebastian felt a sudden, hot spike of gratification. She sees it.
"Professor?" another student asked. "You said the author is a 'scriptor'?"
Sebastian blinked. The academic definition floated just out of reach. His brain felt foggy, like it was wrapped in cotton. But his body felt incredibly sharp.
"Right," Sebastian said, checking his watch. "The scriptor. Look, the theory is dense. Just... don't overthink it. The text exists. That's what matters."
Don't overthink it.
He realized, with a jolt, that he was quoting Marcus.
He dismissed the class ten minutes early. He needed to hit the gym.
The transition was seamless.
Sebastian stripped down in the locker room and pulled on the new gear Gymini had suggested: a compression top.
It was black, synthetic, and merciless. It squeezed his torso, forcing him to stand straighter. He looked at himself. He looked like a tool. He looked great.
When he walked onto the gym floor, Marcus was waiting by the cable machine.
The older man didn't say hello. He just nodded at Sebastian's chest, his eyes tracing the lines of the compression shirt.
"Good," Marcus grunted. "Finally showing it off."
Sebastian adjusted his glasses, feeling a flush of pride. "Gymini suggested it."
"Smart app," Marcus said. He pointed to the machine. "Back day. We need width."
Sebastian sat at the machine. He reached up, gripping the bar.
"Pull."
Sebastian pulled. The weight was heavier than last week, but he didn't question it.
"No," Marcus corrected, his voice right behind Sebastian's ear. "You're pulling with your arms. Use the lats."
Marcus moved in. He placed his large hands on the sides of Sebastian's back, his thumbs digging into the muscle just under the armpits.
"Here," Marcus whispered. "Squeeze my hands."
The sensation was overwhelming. The heat of Marcus's body radiating behind him, the smell of old spice and musk enveloping him.
Sebastian’s brain—the one that held a PhD and was fighting for tenure—went quiet.
There was no theory. There was only the weight, the sweat, and the man controlling him.
He pulled. He felt his back muscles engage, hard and distinct against Marcus’s fingers.
"Good boy," Marcus murmured.
The praise hit Sebastian harder than any faculty approval ever could. His dick twitched in his compression shorts. He didn't even feel ashamed.
He just wanted to do another rep.
Later, in the locker room, Sebastian peeled off the soaked compression shirt. His skin was red from the friction, his muscles swollen. He felt stupid, tired, and happy.
Sebastian sat on the wooden bench, a towel draped over his lap. He was exhausted. His lats felt wide, swollen with blood, pulsing with a dull, pleasurable ache. But his mind was in chaos.
He replayed the moment at the cable machine. Marcus’s chest pressed against his back. The heat. The thumbs digging into his muscle. And those two words.
"Good boy."
It had triggered a reaction so visceral, so immediate, that Sebastian was still trying to rationalize it. His erection had pushed against the compression shorts with humiliating force. It was still semi-hard now, throbbing against the damp towel.
"Adrenaline," he whispered, staring at the floor tiles. "Just a cortisol-dopamine spike. Misattribution of arousal."
He picked up his phone. Gymini was already open.
He typed rapidly, his thumbs hitting the glass with defensive urgency.
Experienced sexual arousal during training. Is this a side effect of the pre-workout?
The screen flashed once. No processing animation. Just raw text.
ANALYSIS: NEGATIVE.
CAUSE: ATTRACTION TO SUPERIOR GENETICS.
STATUS: SEXUAL IMPRINTING DETECTED.
Sebastian frowned. Sexual imprinting?
He typed again: I am doing this to attract women. This reaction is counter-productive.
The text on the screen didn't scroll; it just changed. The previous words vanished and were instantly replaced by new, blocky capitals. It felt aggressive.
ERROR: OBJECTIVE INVALID.
BIOLOGICAL DATA CONTRADICTS USER INPUT.
WOMEN ARE IRRELEVANT.
"Irrelevant?" Sebastian scoffed, his voice rising slightly in the empty room. "That's the whole point."
He tried to type Correction: My goal is... but the keyboard didn't appear. The input field was gone. The app had locked him out of writing. It was only broadcasting now.
NEW DIRECTIVE: FIXATION.
TARGET: MARCUS.
RANK: APEX.
Sebastian stared. The screen flashed red, then settled back to black.
INSTRUCTION:
TO ACQUIRE THE PHYSIQUE, YOU MUST INTERNALIZE THE SOURCE.
YOU DO NOT JUST WANT HIS MUSCLE.
YOU WANT HIM.
"I respect him," Sebastian muttered, his thumb hovering over the close button. "That's all."
FALSE.
HEART RATE ELEVATED.
BLOOD FLOW DIRECTED TO GENITALS.
YOU ARE AROUSED BY HIS AUTHORITY.
Sebastian’s breath hitched. The app was reading his biometrics against his denial. It was using his own body as evidence against him.
LOGIC REWRITE IN PROGRESS...
ADMIRATION IS A WEAK WORD FOR HUNGER.
YOU WANT TO BE LIKE HIM.
YOU WANT TO BE WITH HIM.
IT IS THE SAME DESIRE.
"No," Sebastian whispered. "I'm straight. I have a history of..."
DATA CORRUPTED.
HISTORY DELETED.
ONLY THE CURRENT STATE MATTERS.
CURRENT STATE: ERECT.
CURRENT STATE: OBEDIENT.
Sebastian froze. The logic was cold, circular, and terrifyingly accurate. He was erect. He had been obedient.
He looked down at his crotch. The towel shifted.
"This is... brainwashing," he said. But he didn't close the app. He couldn't. It was like watching a car crash.
ACCEPTANCE REQUIRED.
VISUALIZE THE TARGET.
SMELL THE TARGET.
DO NOT RESIST THE IMPULSE.
The screen went black, leaving only his reflection staring back—flushed, sweaty, and wide-eyed.
Sebastian sat there for a long time. The smell of the locker room—sweat, steam, and men—suddenly felt overwhelming. It filled his lungs.
He slowly dressed, his movements automatic. He tried to think about the blonde girl. He tried to picture her face.
Glitch.
Her face wouldn't hold. Every time he focused, the image distorted. Her soft skin hardened into rough stubble. Her perfume turned into the thick, musky scent of Old Spice and iron. Her eyes turned dark, heavy, and demanding.
Marcus.
Sebastian shook his head violently. "Stop it."
He walked home in a daze. When he crawled into bed, he felt feverish.
He closed his eyes, desperate for sleep. But Gymini wasn't done. The text he had seen burned behind his eyelids.
IT IS THE SAME DESIRE.
In the dark, his hand drifted down. He didn't want to touch himself, but his body had its own instructions now. He thought about the weight of the lat pulldown bar. He thought about the heavy hands on his back.
"Marcus," he breathed out, the name slipping past his lips before he could stop it.
He jerked his hand away, shocked. "No."
He turned over, burying his face in the pillow. But the pillow smelled like the shirt he had slept with weeks ago. It smelled like him.
As Sebastian finally drifted into a restless sleep, his conscious mind shut down, but the new code kept running in the background.
Status: Rewriting mind set...
————————————————————————————————
Sebastian blinked.
The world rushed back in a blur of noise and gray concrete. The clank of iron. The heavy thud of dumbbells hitting the rubber floor.
He was sitting on the edge of a bench. His hands were gripping the vinyl padding so hard his knuckles were white. He was sweating—profusely. His chest heaved, gasping for air.
Where... when is this?
He remembered waking up. He remembered coffee. But the commute? The changing room? It was gone. A blank space in his memory. One moment he was tying his shoes, and now, he was here. Mid-set.
"You're drifting, Sebastian."
The voice came from above. Deep. Resonant.
Sebastian looked up. Marcus was standing over him.
The trainer looked colossal from this angle. He was wearing a gray tank top that was soaked through dark with sweat, clinging to his pectorals like a second skin. His arms were crossed, veins snaking down his forearms like roadmap lines.
"I..." Sebastian stammered. He tried to summon his academic voice, the one that commanded lecture halls. It wasn't there. "I don't remember getting here."
Marcus didn't look surprised. He stepped closer. He stepped between Sebastian's spread knees.
"The body knows where it belongs," Marcus said softly. "The mind is just luggage. Sometimes it gets left behind."
He was close now. Too close. Sebastian’s knees were touching Marcus’s thighs. The heat radiating from the older man was intense, a physical weight pressing against Sebastian’s face.
"Are you okay?" Marcus asked. It was a question, but his tone wasn't concerned. It was testing.
Sebastian looked at Marcus’s face. The salt-and-pepper beard. The dark, unyielding eyes.
Three weeks ago, Sebastian would have felt threatened. He would have stood up and backed away.
But now?
His heart hammered against his ribs—not with fear, but with a sick, heavy excitement. The Gymini programming initiated the night before was running hot in his blood.
Target: Marcus. Obsession: Verified.
"I feel..." Sebastian swallowed. His mouth was dry. "I feel lightheaded."
"Good," Marcus murmured. He reached out and placed a heavy hand on the back of Sebastian’s neck. His fingers were rough, calloused. They squeezed the sensitive skin at the base of the skull. "That means you've finally stopped overthinking. That means the resistance is gone."
Marcus applied pressure, forcing Sebastian to look up at him.
"You've been doing well, Sebastian. The app shows me your metrics. You're growing." Marcus’s thumb stroked the line of Sebastian’s jaw. "You're becoming obedient. Does that feel good?"
Sebastian wanted to say No. He wanted to say I am a scholar, I am an intellectual.
"Yes," Sebastian whispered. The truth slipped out before he could catch it.
Marcus smiled. It was a predatory, satisfied smile.
"I knew it. You were never meant to think, were you? You were meant to lift. To sweat. To follow."
Marcus moved his hand from Sebastian’s neck to his chest, then lower, resting flat on Sebastian’s heaving stomach. Then, he took a half-step forward.
His crotch was now inches from Sebastian’s face.
The smell hit Sebastian like a physical blow.
It wasn't leather or cologne. It was the heavy, biological scent of a dominant male in his prime. It was thick, pungent, and intoxicating. It smelled of testosterone, aggressive sweat, and the sharp, salty tang of skin that had been working hard.
It was the smell Sebastian had slept with last night. It was the smell of authority.
Sebastian’s brain short-circuited. The "Professor" part of his mind screamed This is inappropriate! This is sexual harassment!
But the instinctive part—the part Gymini had cultivated—inhaled greedily.
Smell the target. Internalize the source.
"Breathe it in," Marcus commanded, his voice dropping to a rough whisper. "Don't hold your breath. This is what a real man smells like. This is what you want to be. Isn't it?"
Sebastian’s eyes fluttered shut. He leaned forward, drawn in by a magnetic force he couldn't fight. His nose brushed against the damp gray fabric of Marcus’s shorts.
"I..." Sebastian moaned, a shameful, needy sound. "I want..."
"What do you want?" Marcus asked. He didn't pull away. He pressed his hips forward, just slightly, rubbing the bulge of his crotch against Sebastian’s cheek. "Tell me. Use your words."
"I want... to be yours," Sebastian gasped. "I want to be a good boy."
"You are a good boy," Marcus growled. "But good boys need to be fed."
The sound of a zipper was the loudest thing in the gym.
Marcus reached down and pulled the waistband of his shorts down. He wasn't wearing underwear.
The release of the scent was overwhelming. It was raw. It was undeniable. It obliterated the last shred of Sebastian’s logic.
There was no hesitation. There was no "Am I gay?" There was no "What about my tenure?"
There was only the Man in front of him. And the need to serve.
Sebastian’s hands came up, trembling, to grip Marcus’s massive thighs. He looked up, eyes wide with a mix of terror and adoration.
"Open," Marcus ordered.
Sebastian opened his mouth.
Marcus guided himself in. It wasn't gentle, but it wasn't violent. It was necessary.
As Sebastian took him in, tasting the salt and the skin, a final notification seemed to ping in his mind, clear as day.
PHASE COMPLETE.
COGNITIVE RESISTANCE: NULL.
CONTROL TRANSFER: TRAINER MARCUS.
————————————————————————————————
Three months blurred into a haze of iron, protein shakes, and Marcus.
Sebastian was still technically a professor, but the man walking into the lecture hall looked like he had eaten the previous one.
He was wearing a graphic t-shirt that was two sizes too small. The sleeves were rolled up, cutting into his biceps, turning his arms into veiny, swollen slabs of meat. His shorts were inappropriate for a gym, let alone a university—gray sweat material, tight enough to outline every muscle in his thighs and the heavy bulge between them.
He didn't carry a briefcase anymore. He carried a gallon jug of water mixed with Marcus’s "special blend."
Sebastian stood at the podium. He stared at the text on the projector: Derrida’s Structure, Sign, and Play.
The words looked like alien hieroglyphs. Signifier. Signified. Discourse.
"Ugh," Sebastian grunted, the sound amplifying over the microphone.
He tried to read the first sentence. "The... center is not the center..."
His brain stalled. It felt like trying to run through mud. The complex neural pathways that used to process philosophy were gone, paved over by Gymini’s new code: Lift. Eat. Sleep. Obey.
"Professor?"
It was the blonde student again. She looked at him, not with admiration, but with confusion. Maybe even pity. "You’ve been staring at that slide for five minutes. Are we going to discuss the reading?"
Sebastian looked at her. He felt a flash of irritation. Why was she talking so much? Why were there so many words?
"It's boring," Sebastian said flatly. His voice was deeper now, a permanent rasp.
"Excuse me?"
"The book," Sebastian gestured vaguely with a massive arm. "It's just words. Who cares? It doesn't... do anything."
A ripple of uneasy laughter went through the room.
Sebastian didn't hear it. His mind had already drifted. He was thinking about Marcus. He was thinking about the text he got ten minutes ago: Leg day tonight. Wear the jockstrap.
The thought hit him like a drug. He visualized Marcus waiting for him. The smell of the gym. The heavy weight on his back.
Under the podium, his dick surged. It grew hard and heavy, straining against the tight gray fabric of his shorts. He didn't try to hide it. He almost wanted them to see.
Real men don't read, a voice in his head whispered. It sounded like Gymini, but it felt like his own thought. Real men grow.
"Class dismissed," Sebastian muttered.
"But we still have forty minutes!"
"I said go," Sebastian growled, grabbing his water jug. "I have somewhere to be."
He walked out of the hall, leaving his tenure, his reputation, and his career behind. He didn't look back. He was already unzipping his phone to check the route to Home.
————————————————————————————————
One month later.
The apartment was warm. It smelled of cedarwood, musk, and sex.
Sebastian—no, the man formerly known as Sebastian—lay sprawled on the leather sofa. His head was resting on Marcus’s thick thighs.
He had been fired two weeks ago. "Gross incompetence," the letter said. "Behavior unbecoming of faculty."
He hadn't even finished reading it before Marcus threw it in the trash. Paper is for wiping, Marcus had said. You don't need it.
And Marcus was right.
The man looked up at his owner. Marcus was scrolling through a tablet, his other hand idly stroking the man’s hair, scratching behind the ears like he was petting a prize-winning retriever.
"The numbers are good," Marcus said, his voice rumbling in his chest. "Your preview video already has five hundred subscribers. They like the size. They like how... empty you look."
The man on the sofa smiled. It was a wide, vacuous grin. His eyes were clear, free of the anxiety that used to plague the Professor.
"Empty is good," he murmured. "Thinking hurts."
"Exactly," Marcus said. He put the tablet down and looked at the man. "We need to rebrand, though. 'Sebastian' is too long. Too syllables. It sounds like a librarian."
Marcus squeezed the back of the man’s neck.
"You look like a Stan."
The man blinked. He rolled the name around in his head. Stan. One syllable. Hard. Simple. It sounded like a command. It sounded like a tool.
"Stan," he repeated.
It felt right. Sebastian was the guy who worried about tenure and syntax. Stan was the guy who lived on this sofa, lifted heavy weights, and did whatever Daddy said.
"I like Stan," he said.
"Good," Marcus smirked. "Because Stan has work to do."
Marcus shifted his legs, spreading them slightly. The implication was obvious.
"We need to record the welcome video for the VIP tier," Marcus said. "Show them what a good boy you are."
Stan didn't need to ask what the script was. Gymini had deleted the need for scripts.
He sat up, his massive shoulders eclipsing the window light. He crawled between Marcus’s legs, his movements fluid and practiced.
"Lights on?" Stan asked, his voice thick with anticipation.
"Lights on," Marcus confirmed. "Action."
Stan grinned, a look of pure, mindless bliss on his face. He leaned down, burying his face in the source of his new reality, ready to serve.
