The Seven Year Retrospective #18 - Characterized by Envy (Patreon)

My pick for #18 on the Top Twenty list was released just a little under a year ago on Patreon, "Characterized By Envy". It tells the story of a young CEO who ends up being tricked into a bodyswap with the personal trainer he hires to get him into shape.

One of the main things I like this story for is that the bodyswap also results in Graham, the CEO, being unable to communicate his distress as Porter, the trainer, walks away with his body to enjoy his affluent life. There's a distinct difference in how Graham and Porter portray themselves and Graham being forced to act like a total 'bro' with even his own thoughts betraying him was - and still is - a definite turn on! I feel like it's a perfect balance between bodyswaps where the parties involved forget their true identities and swaps where they remain fully aware, plus it's just evil enough to please the little devil on my shoulder!

Like many of my ideas during that period, the story started as a single paragraph story prompt that I shared with my good friend JW Ripley. It's a little thing we've done on-and-off for the past few years and has helped spawn a far number of longform stories on my part (I continue to bug him to write more, as his prompts are always a delightful read). I knew from the off though that the story of Graham and Porter was something I could expand on though, as I soon followed it up with two more paragraphs that really helped convince me that it was an idea worth developing out into a full-length story. 

Those paragraph prompts are here for your enjoyment:

Graham had picked up in the fact that his personal trainer envied him pretty early on. Considering he was a young CEO with quite the fortune to his name already and an endless parade of women attempting to earn his affections, it wasn’t uncommon for Graham to be an object of envy for other men. In contrast Porter had a muscular body but didn’t seem to have much else going for him. He wasn’t even all that smart, something Graham had knowingly teased him for previously. The young CEO had never expected his trainer to outsmart him with a body swap then, especially one that had him thinking, talking and acting like Porter. All he could do was watch as the other man left the gym with his life and success in tow, promising that a return exchange would be impossible...

At first Graham had been mortified when his CEO body had been stolen by his personal trainer but he’d long since come to terms with it. He had a great body and got to spend a lot of time at the gym and in front of the mirror checking out his thick muscles. Sure, he didn’t have nearly half as much money as he once had and his body could only get horny for chicks but that wasn’t so bad. At least it hadn’t been the office janitor to steal his body! 

Porter couldn't help but chuckle every time he saw his old Instagram account uploading yet another shirtless selfie. Graham had really taken to his new identity - not that the switching spell had given him much choice - and now that he was in the body of a successful businessman Porter couldn't help but consider such posts to be trivial. Sure, he wanted to have a decent body but he loved having mountains of wealth attached to his name and didn't feel the need to strip off on Instagram for 'likes'. He supposed that was just what separated the real men from the pretenders... although he was a little embarrassed to find that he had inherited Graham's attraction to other men and in doing so, had suddenly begin to find himself aroused by his own former body!

The two guys featured in this story are both some delightful pieces of eye candy I discovered on Instagram, which is where I find most of the guys who inspire characters in my stories! Graham's real life face is Trevor Franklin and Graham's personal trainer Porter is actually Dyan Thomas who, if I'm being honest, is like an even hunkier beardy Chris Evans. Perhaps I'll have to use him and Chris in a story together in the future...

I hope you enjoy revisiting this mischievous little bodyswap story - I know I certainly did! I'll see you all on Friday for #17...