Interactive: Climbing the Ladder, ch. 9 (Patreon)

“You did well,” Benton said, nodding approvingly as he watched a series of odd symbols and calculations scroll up his monitor.  The bottom-heavy executive shifted in his large leather chair, a constant tick he’d developed since having his muscled globes expanded to mammoth proportions.  “Management is quite pleased now that the flow has been restored.”  

“They’re pleased?  Look at me!” Duncan roared, his fear of Benton forgotten against the humiliating tide of fury.  He’d been forced to lumber naked from the Tower to his boss’s office, the older man somehow making it appear as if Duncan was clothed the way he did with Taylor.  But despite what others saw, the inflated hulk was well aware that his altered body was entirely exposed as he felt his unwanted muscle rub and shift against itself, his limp monster swaying and wagging in the open air while he stomped awkwardly on widened legs.  “I’m a goddamn freak!  I can barely move with all this muscle...and look at my face!  It’s like a boxer fucked a neanderthal!” he cried, running his hands over the sloping brow and blunted features that had replaced his formerly handsome visage.  “You knew!  You knew this would happen and you sent me in blind like a fucking canary in a…”

Duncan’s tirade cut off in a choking gasp, his widened neck tensing as his throat seized.  “I know you’re upset, which is why I’m being patient with you,” Benton said, his blazing eyes betraying his calm tone, “but don’t forget who you’re talking to.”  He smiled as he came around from behind the desk and slowly looked Duncan up and down, circling the frozen pillar of flesh to inspect every lumpy, solid new inch.  The frozen giant shivered under his touch, the impossible cock surging to life in his presence as he toyed with the fat, nubby nipples on Duncan’s new shelf of a chest.  “I know it’s jarring.  I know you didn’t ask for this...no one does, that’s not how it works.  But that’s not how life works either, is it?”  Benton gave Duncan’s twitching beast a few gentle tugs before sliding his hand up the younger man’s burly barrel of a torso to trace his fingers along the wide jaw and over the flat, broad nose.  “Every second of every day, we’re all dancing along the razor’s edge.  You’re frustrated because something was done to you?  Something out of your control?  That’s the anger clouding your thoughts, Duncan.  Believe me, I’ve been there,” Benton laughed, giving his fat cakes a bounce.  “But you and I both know control is an illusion.  No one has it.  Ever.  I know you were fond of that pretty body of yours, but it’s gone for good.  The real question isn’t how you get it back, but whether or not you let this destroy you,” he said, running his hands down the piston arms hanging at an angle from Duncan’s cannonball shoulders.  

The frozen brute glared, his enlarged nostrils flaring like an angry bull before finally calming under Benton’s gentle, stroking hand on his bulging new muscle gut.  “You could have warned me,” he rumbled quietly, his voice finally returning.  

“Believe it or not, I actually didn’t know this would happen.  All I knew was that we needed to restore the flow as quickly as possible.  There wasn’t time to look into it before sending you in.  That razor’s edge I just mentioned?  Nowhere are you closer to the void than right here.  There are no margins of error.  If we let things spiral too far out of control there’s no fixing them.  We can either keep the food supply steady or be eaten along with everyone else.”  

Duncan wanted to argue that the choice hadn’t really been his.  Once he was close to the spiraling tower he’d barely been able to keep his thoughts together, let alone stop to carefully consider any potential dangers.  And even had he been able, the current outcome never would have entered his mind as a possibility.  “What is that...thing...down there?  I knew the higher ups were different, but that’s…” 

“Not something you need to know at your level,” Benton said, his firm tone turning friendly as he gave Duncan’s granite rear a slap.  “But keep this kind of performance up and I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later.”  

“So what am I supposed to do now?  Do I still need to stay in the Tower? I don’t even have any clothes that fit,” Ducan said, shifting uncomfortably against himself.  

“Your new wardrobe is being finished as we speak.  They do quick work,” Benton said as he undid his own slacks that had been tailored to house his round, supple rear.  “Unfortunately I need you to stay in the Tower and keep an eye on things.  We still need to figure out where the box you described came, and who put it there.  You’ve proven yourself capable so far...I have every faith that you’ll be able to turn up some leads in no time.  And don’t worry, you’ll be compensated for your extra duties.”  

Duncan hated the way his stomach fluttered with anticipation as Benton peeled out of his tiny thong.  “Compensated by getting my dick back full time?”  

Benton laughed and shook his head as he gave Duncan’s solid club a rough tug, his own thick hose hanging soft and limp.  “This still belongs to me, but I can give you something else that will make your time in the Tower more enjoyable.”  

“OOHHHHHHHH!”  Duncan roared and spasmed when Benton reached around and slipped a hand between his overly muscled cheeks.  As soon as his boss’s fingers made contact with his tight hole an electric bolt of pleasure shot through him.  “Wha...what did you just…” he panted, eyes wide.  

“Sharing the joys of a new perspective,” Benton grinned.  “When you’re not with me, you can find someone else’s dick to enjoy.  And with the tweak I just gave you, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding willing partners.  You’ll have the pick of the litter!  See?  Who needs a pretty face?”  

Duncan blushed as he rooted his ass back against Benton’s hand, his ravenous backside suddenly seeking out whatever stimulation it could find.  It was far from a reward, and despite how Benton presented it, he knew his boss was well aware.  Instead of a dick that worked, now if he wanted to get off without the older man he’d have to find someone willing to fuck his ugly, meathead frame.  His stomach sank as he pictured it, his bloated, muscle-swollen body on all fours, his brutish new face grunting and moaning while a guy who looked the way he should pounded into him.  

“I can tell you’re dubious, but trust me,” Benton purred, his exposed cheeks bouncing and shaking as he walked back to his desk and pressed the intercom.  “Taylor, could you come in here?  Duncan’s helping me out, but he could use a hand.”  

**********

“Okay...something is definitely going on here,” Shawn muttered as he watched the elevator doors close on a pair of chiseled strangers with familiar faces.  He’d seen the men before in the showers, and while they’d been fit, he was certain they didn’t have the kinds of strapping bodies he’d just been staring at.  The shirtless duo was all pecs and shoulders, with tight, tapering waists and thick, solid arms.  Their plastered on shorts could have given Shawn’s underwear-size trunks a run for their money as they stretched tight over the men’s impressively built ass and thighs.  They seemed almost giddy when they invited Shawn to come join their workout, pawing at each other with surprised expressions as they flexed for the now-smaller man.  

Having just finished his own workout Shawn declined, not even registering the prominent outline of his solid cock against his shorts as he stared at the muscled studs.  It was less and less important to him, the waves of embarrassment he used to feel becoming increasingly absent whenever he caught himself hard in public.  Whether they were his tented chinos or slacks, or a solid club snaking off to the side in his little shorts, he was actually starting to like the idea of people seeing him in such a state.  What he dreaded now was the thought of getting dressed in the first place.  His clothes felt confining and uncomfortable, and even his tiny shorts were too much.  It had taken all of his willpower not to strip down to the bright bikinis he had on underneath as he’d been working out, his fear of what he’d do once exposed the only thing keeping him in check.   

Like the pair from his floor, the gym had been filled with a surprising amount of large, ample men, more so than he ever remembered seeing before.  They came in all shapes and sizes; some were ripped and chiseled while others were thick and round, but the one thing they all had in common was the stunned, dazed look on their face.  Some of the men seemed elated.  They flexed and posed and hefted free weights with gleeful abandon.  Others were significantly less enthusiastic.  The beefier men especially seemed to be having a harder time, poking and prodding their rounded muscled guts and full faces like they were trying to convince themselves they were real.  

Shawn thought it was odd, but like so many things that happened around his new home he didn’t really pay attention until being confronted with men he knew sporting drastically different looks.  Something about the entire situation made him think of Cayden and the quiet voice in the back of his head trying to convince him that his roommate was shrinking.  It was a long thread when pulled, and it inevitably led Shawn back to his own strange behavior, so he left it alone.  If that meant living on a floor with bigger guys then so be it.  

Even as he thought it, one of those bigger guys lumbered out of the showers ahead of him down the hall.  Shawn didn’t recognize the beefy redhead at all from behind, but whoever he was, the thin towel was having a hard time wrapping all the way around his thick midsection.  Shawn thought he would have remembered seeing such a burly ginger on the floor, especially given how striking the man was.  His back was broad and lumpy with unpolished muscle, his round shoulders leading to a pair of equally rugged pistons that framed in his bulging, hefty muscle gut.  Watching the man waddle down the hall, the thin towel seemed almost useless as it left one of the stranger’s tree-trunk thighs entirely exposed and barely covered the shifting, meaty backside.  

Shawn felt his cock throb, thoughts of what the pale power-lifter’s body would feel like against his own racing through his head.  It was a reaction he had around most men lately, but in the presence of such raw masculinity he was left dizzy and overwhelmed.  It was a sensation that only got worse when the man paused at a familiar door and let Shawn get a better look at his face.  “Er...Eric?” he stammered before he could stop himself.  

The exposed ginger’s frame turned the same color as his hair as he turned his rounded face in Shawn’s direction.  “Oh, uh, hey man,” he said with forced ease, his eyes betraying him as he watched Shawn stare at his arched back and protruding gut.  

“What...I mean...you’re...huge!”  Shawn shook his head and put a hand against the wall to steady himself, the mental thread he didn’t want to pull wrapping itself around his neck like a noose.  Eric should have been toned and athletic, his features sharp and lean, not thick and round.  

“What?  What’re you talking about,” the inflated man said, forcing the words out as another sculpted adonis strutted down the hall.  

Shawn couldn’t let himself accept it.  Not this.  His heart started pounding, the quiet voice in his head becoming a deafening roar.  Every instinct told him to turn and flee from the building as fast as he could, but memories of the strange woods outside and the disorienting walk to his boss’s office made him doubt that escape could be so simple.  Instead, he shoved Eric’s widened body through the door and followed the other man into his room.  

“Whoa, uh, okay,” Eric laughed as he looked down at Shawn’s tented shorts and let his towel drop.  

The dark haired man shook his head and shut the door behind them, forcing himself to look away from Eric’s equally thickened cock and fuller balls.  “No, not that, I mean, not right now...I just need to know, I need you to know...what the fuck?” he stuttered, trying to find the words.  “We both know you didn’t look like this yesterday.  You do know that, right?”  

“But how could I not...that’s not possible…” The beefy ginger’s veneer of desperate calm started to crack, his voice shaking.  

“Just tell me what happened, no matter how crazy it sounds.”  

Eric winced when he sat on the edge of his bed and the frame groaned loudly under his new weight.  He stared down at the thick thighs that pressed together and at the round belly where his trim abs should have been with the same stunned expression Shawn had seen in the gym.  “I was off today, so I slept in.  I heard Alex leave this morning and he seemed normal.  Everyone did...nothing was out of the ordinary at all.  I got up and hit the gym...have you been down there?  Have you seen those guys?  They weren’t like that this morning!  None of them were!”  Eric paused and pawed at his meaty new chest as it rested heavily on his protruding gut as he collected his thoughts.  “I’d just made it back here when everything went crazy.  There was this weird rush, like you get when you’re on a rollercoaster, and then…” He lurched off the bed and started pacing, purposely avoiding the sight of his naked reflection.  “I started growing.  I know it sounds insane but that’s what happened!  One minute I look like you, and the next I’m ballooning up.  I couldn’t do anything.  All I could do was stand there and watch my thighs puff up so big they exploded my shorts and briefs right off me.  Before I even knew what was happening I was staring down at a fuckin’ gut with no neck and the start of a double chin.”  The thick ginger gave a short laugh and rubbed at his softened jawline.  “But that can’t happen, right?  I mean, if that really happened my shorts would be where I left ‘em,” he said, pointing to a bare patch of the floor before opening a drawer and pulling out a pair of grey briefs.  The brawny young man didn’t put them on but held them out for Shawn to read the “XL” on the label.  “And I wouldn’t have clothes that fit, right?  These should be way, way too big, not tight.”  He pulled the briefs up and let them settle into place, the elastic biting snugly into his thighs and waist.  He started to open another drawer but Shawn stopped him.  

“They all fit.  I know.  The same thing happened to me and Cayden,” Shawn said, tugging his pointlessly small shorts down to reveal his bright, tiny underwear.  “I didn’t wear shit like this.  Ever.  Then one day it’s all I have.  Even my work clothes are tighter and fitted.  And Cayden, he’s...he’s getting smaller.  Or at least shorter.  But his clothes all fit, and no one’s freaking out, so is it really happening?  We’d all be panicked if it was real, right?”  The fit young man looked down at his exposed body, his aching cock precariously covered by the tented pouch.  He let it slip free and shivered with relief even as he forced himself to try and see it as wrong.  “It’s weird for me to be standing here like this, isn’t it?  I don’t even really know you...I shouldn’t just be naked and hard in a stranger’s room.  Should I?”  

Eric shrugged his burly new shoulders.  “I was engaged when I started here.  Me and Lisa had been together for five years, but once I moved in things just started to feel...off.  I still loved her, I just didn’t want to…” he trailed off.  “It took a week before Alex and I started fucking regularly.  I haven’t even thought about a woman since.  Same for you and Cayden?”  Shawn swallowed hard and blushed.  He didn’t want to say it out loud, so he nodded.  “This place was always weird, man, but something’s happening.  We always kept it in our rooms, but now guys are changing?  They’re openly going at it in the showers?  And it’s only getting worse.”

Shawn walked over to Alex’s bed, his trembling legs threatening to give out.  All the dread he’d been blissfully ignoring welled up all at once, leaving him with the unshakable realization that he’d gone from an average, straight jock to an oversexed exhibitionist who couldn’t stop thinking about other men.  Even now, all he wanted to do was throw himself at Eric, or at least start pumping on his long cock while the other man watched.  “So...so what do we do?  It’s more than just this building, dude.  This place is…” Shawn was cut off by a loud knock on the door.  He and Eric froze, unsure whether they should pretend they weren’t there or see who it was.  The relaxed, contented spell the building seemed to be under told them it was fine, that they should get up and let the person in, but the timing told them otherwise.  

They knocked again, and the door started to open.