Greece (Patreon)

This was a fun one. I got two chapters in before I fell off of it but it did end up being the inspiration for one of my published captions! Enjoy!

I remember dying.

I can remember the feeling of the cold pavement on my back and the smell of iron thick in the air. Something wet was dripping down my face. Blood. It had to be. Probably from where those thugs hit me over the head. They must have ran for it after that, I was pretty sure I was alone now. I was pretty sure I was about to die, alone.

Of course, that was before she intervened and saved my life. Before she gave me this powers. This amazing gift.

This curse.

“There is work for you yet in this world.” They were the last things I heard before the darkness closed in. Those words melted over me like sex covered in honey. They were the words of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and knew exactly how to get it. Those were the words of a Goddess. I just didn’t know it yet.

The next thing I knew I was waking up in my hotel bed, drenched in sweat and wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. There were no visible wounds on my head, nor any lasting effects from my perceived mugging. Maybe it had all been a dream?

But it had all felt so real.

I made my way into the cramped hotel bathroom and splashed some water on my face as I tried to get the image of the dark alley out of my mind. Hopefully a cup of coffee and some room temperature eggs down in the lobby of the hotel would help. I threw on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and headed down the hall to the elevator.

Five floors isn’t a long ride down. Unfortunately, it can feel like and eternity when you are trapped in small box with two other people who clearly didn’t want to be together. He was a dirtbag with a capital D. Muscle shirt, tattoos, torn jeans with a packet of cigarettes sticking out of the pocket. She was a small mousy looking woman with frizzy hair that was pulled back in a ponytail.

And she had a bruise on her cheek. It was fresh and it looked like she had tried to cover it up with makeup, but it was still visible.

Like I said; Dirtbag.

The tension between the two was almost suffocating and by the time the elevator reached the ground floor I was desperate to get out of the situation. But, as luck would have it, Dirtbag and his punching bag had the same idea I did that morning and followed me to the breakfast line.

I did my best to make haste in line and grabbed a seat in a far off corner of the lobby to scarf down my food. The entire time I ate, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the couple, specifically the poor woman. She looked so defeated and scared of Dirtbag. I watched the way he ordered her around and seemed to chastise everything she did. My grip tightened around my fork as my heart rate began to climb.

That son of a bitch would just keep pushing her around until she was nothing more than a broken husk. No matter what she did, it would never be good enough for that broken man.

I took a deep breath and looked down at my plate. To my shock and confusion, I somehow managed to twist my fork out of shape in my grasp. Moreover, where my fingers had been wrapped around it, the metal was now glowing red hot. I brought the twisted utensil up close to my face and I could feel the heat coming off of it.

My confusion only lasted a few moments however, as I was quickly overcome with a terrible pain in my stomach. I left my plate behind and bolted for the elevator where, thankfully, I was all alone on my return trip. By the time the car reached my floor I was doubled over in pain and scrambling for my room key.

Back in the bathroom, I threw myself against the sink as the pain began to spread throughout my body. I thought I was about to pass out before I heard a very familiar voice in my head.

“Be calm.” The voice purred. “The pain is temporary. You will not experience it again. Many of my avatars have told me that the first time can be… painful.”

The voice spoke in the same honeyed words I remembered from my dream. I took a deep breath and tried to do as the voice advised.

“You are a conflicted man.” The voice continued. “I see both goodness, and evil in you. It was no dream last night, had I not saved you, you would be dead and before the judges in the underworld right now.”

“Judges?” I stammered though gritted teeth. I glanced down at my arms and saw to my horror that my skin had taken on a more tan tone and now resembled the long, slender arms of a woman.

“I have chosen you to be my avatar in this world.” The voice said. “You will possess great powers the likes of which no mortal would be capable of. And you will use these powers in service to me, your goddess, Aphrodite.”

My stomach lurched as I felt several cracks and pops running up my body. The entire bathroom shifted around me, or rather, I shifted entirely a few inches down. My shoulders narrowed along with my waist while my hips flared out. There was a terrible pulling sensation in my groin followed by two small pops as I felt an alien new opening emerge. I let out a pained moan and listened as my voice shot up several octaves into a soft feminine register. And as my chest expanded beneath my shirt, the pain finally disappeared.

I was left gasping for air at the sink and staring back into the reflection of a complete stranger. To say the woman staring back at me was attractive was like calling the Titanic a dingy. Everything about screamed perfection from her body to her face, her long shinning hair.

“Is that…” I asked in an unfamiliar voice, as I reached out my delicate hand to touch the mirror. “Me?”

The voice in my head laughed. “The Goddess of Love should have an avatar to match, don’t you agree.”

I didn’t know how to respond. My mind was stuck trying to connect the beautiful woman in the mirror to me. Every sensation from the weight of my new chest to my new curves and the presence of something entirely different in my jeans told me this was real. Meanwhile every synapse was telling me that I was somehow still dreaming.

“I can assure you that this is very real.” Aphrodite responded. “As is this.”

I felt a surge of energy course though my body and I watched as my clothes seemingly melted away and were replaced with what appeared to be ancient greek battle dress uniform with studded grieves and gold plated armor. The hem of the, call it a skirt, came to my mid thigh and showed off a generous amount of smooth, toned leg. My teeshirt morphed into an armored bodice with an omega symbol perched between my prominently displayed breasts.

“Whoa.” Was all I was able to muster as I stared at the reflection of what resembled a proper greek goddess.

“I must say so indeed. You turned out rather nice.” Aphrodite said with a chuckle. “Now, feel my power within you. Let it course though you.”

I listened to her words and, despite my brain screaming at the absurdity of the matter, I closed my eyes did as she asked. It’s hard to describe what I felt. Almost as if it was instinct, I felt myself reach down within my being to a wellspring of power. I could feel it coursing though me.

And I liked it.

When I opened my eyes and looked down, my hands were glowing with a coursing golden energy that seemed to arch between my fingertips. What little hair I had on my slender arms was standing on its end as power raced up and down my body.

“There is so much evil in the world.” Aphrodite said, her voice turning somber. “Violence against women, violence against men, violence against the innocent.” She said, her voice booming in my ear, filling me with her words. “You will use this power to protect the innocent and defenseless and give a voice to those who cannot speak and a become a sword for those who cannot fight. Do you, Thomas St.Cloud, swear to carry out my will?”

I gazed at my reflection in the mirror and watched as my lips turned up into a grin. “I do.”

“I thought you’d say that.” Aphrodite purred. “Now, go forth my avatar.”

Chapter 2

I wasn’t sure at what point I had fallen asleep. Actually, now that I was thinking about it, I wasn’t sure what day it was. I rolled over in bed and checked my phone. It was Sunday. But I had gone to sleep Friday? Hadn’t I?

“Long night?” Aphrodite’s voice echoed in my head causing me to jump. I caught myself just in time before falling out of the bed. I heard Aphrodite let out a soft giggle. “Don’t worry, it’s a normal response, you had quite the day yesterday.”

“It was all real?” I asked. My hands quickly did an inventory of my body and found all my bits back where they should be. “But I’m…”

“A man.” Aphrodite confirmed. “Yes, your avatar state is a temporary one, if you wish it to be.” She explained.

“So you’re… like in my head?” I asked.

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“Okay, so now what?”

“Well, now you go home.” Aphrodite said rather matter-of-fact. “And when the need arrises for you to act, you will know, and you will do so.”

“So what, I’m like an on-call superhero?” I asked.

“More or less.”

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. “How do I do it?” I asked.

“Become my avatar?” Aphrodite asked.

“Yeah.”

I heard a sigh. “Will it into being.”

I walked over to the large mirror in above the bed and stared at my reflection. I imagined myself as I saw myself yesterday in the bathroom and focused my mind.

“No, no.” Aphrodite chastised. “You have to actually do it.”

“I’m trying here!” I exclaimed.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I found myself able to reach the wellspring of power I found yesterday. I imagined it like a door. A simple wooden one with an ornate doorknob. Oddly enough there were no walls connected to the door, it was just simply… a door. My hand reached for the knob and I felt a crackle of energy flow through my wrist. As I turned it, the energy grew stronger until I was able to open the door and was met with the image of Aphrodite’s avatar on the other side. When I opened my eyes, she was staring back at me exactly as I had been including my ill fitting boxers with now hung loose around my wide hips.

“Far out.” I said in my other voice. “Wow.”

“Wow indeed.” Aphrodite responded. “Let’s try something a little more presentable, shall we?” She asked.

“What do you mean?”

“This body, your battle armor, it’s all a construct of you.” She said. “Let’s put you in something more presentable.”

I closed my eyes and focused my mind and felt energy rippling though my body. When I opened them I was shocked to see that I was now wearing a white wedding dress that hugged my body very tight. The dress had an open back and was displaying my breasts in a way that would make me feel iffy entering a church.

Aphrodite giggled in my ear. “Well, that’s a start.” She said. “How about we dial it down a notch.”

I gulped and nodded as the gown morphed and shifted around me and became a pair of yoga pants, a sports bra and a tank top.