Fruiting Bodies, ch. 6 (Patreon)

“It’s weird how right this feels,” Tyler said, staring at the backs of his increasingly unfamiliar hands.  They were attached to equally foreign arms, which themselves hung off a torso that should have belonged to someone else entirely.  He still had an impressive amount of definition, but since he and Dave had entered the cave as willing participants that morning his overall bulk had been diminishing at a steady pace.  The same couldn’t be said for his dark-haired lover, who seemed to be gaining everything he was losing.  “I really thought this would be scarier.  I mean, I’ve heard the others talk about how great it is, but I still expected…” the shrinking blonde trailed off, grinning as he gazed at his illuminated skin.  Naked as he was under the blacklight bioluminescence, Tyler stood out like a radiant angel, guiding Dave deeper into the underworld.

“First time since we found the place that I feel like we can actually enjoy it,” the broadened man sighed.  His darker, olive-hued skin didn’t pop the way Tyler’s did, but their interlaced fingers were still a shining knot as he reached out and swallowed the other man’s smaller hand.  Where his partner was shrinking, Dave was swelling.  His lean, toned frame had begun to inflate, his definition gradually disappearing as his body started to feel heavy and rub together in unfamiliar ways.  Even his voice was starting to deepen where the other man’s was softening, and though he couldn’t see it, he could feel in the way his jaw moved that the structure of his face was changing.  Tyler’s certainly had, and while the blonde’s features were still more or less recognizable as his own, they’d taken on a refined edge, going from “boy next door” to sharp and pretty.  Dave didn’t like what that implied for his own looks given the contrasting nature of the changes they’d experienced so far, but the thought didn’t bring with it the sense of dread the swelling man expected.  His understanding of concepts like “vanity” and “embarrassment” were already undergoing a drastic shift as his mind expanded, leaving him free to enjoy the experience without the baggage of terror.  “It really is amazing, isn’t it,” Dave said, running his free hand along the bristly trunk of a towering mushroom.  Unlike the trees of a traditional forest it had a soft give to it, feeling more like skin than bark.  “No matter what happens after this, we really did get to see something spectacular down here.”  He shivered at the phantom sensation of a hand stroking along his back as he continued to absently caress the fungi while they strolled, as if he felt it along with them.  Tyler did the same next to him, giving a light chuckle like he’d been tickled.

“We did more than see it,” he winked, reaching over to grip Dave’s rigid cock.  Whether it was due to his hand shrinking or the extra girth his lover’s organ had acquired, he could no longer close his hand all the way around the fattened club.

Dave grinned and pulled Tyler in for an embrace, having to look slightly down as he gazed into his lover’s sparkling eyes.  They’d always been the same height, but now he wasn’t sure if he’d grown taller or if Tyler had lost a few inches.  Or both.  “You’re really, really hot like this,” he said, his stomach fluttering at the new size difference.

The shrinking blonde traced his now-dainty hands along Dave’s meaty slab of a chest before letting them drift up the other man’s widened neck and along the comically square jaw.  His lover had always had distinguished, handsome features, but like the rest of his expanding frame they’d taken on a rugged edge.  His jaw was large and wide, offset by soft, full lips, round cheeks, a blunted nose, and a drastically receded hairline that made him seem at least ten years older.  “Oh god, I just realized we’re going to be one of THOSE couples,” Tyler said, rolling his eyes.  “A little blonde twink and his big, beefy daddy.”

Dave reached down and gave the smaller man’s softened rear a squeeze.  The perky, supple little mounds were a far cry from Tyler’s formerly firm globes, but the burly bruiser loved them just the same.  “I think I like you calling me that,” he said with a bashful grin before going serious again.  “But…are you really okay with this?  You worked hard at the gym all the time.  To have that effort just go away has got to be…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Tyler interrupted.  “The others were right.  Can’t you feel that?  All around us?  This…all of this…is us now.  These bodies are the same as those bodies,” he said, motioning to the variety of gargantuan, surreal fungi around them.  “And they serve the same purpose.  Plus, look how big my dick seems now,” he laughed, stepping back and wagging his solid cock.  What had appeared slightly above average on his formerly athletic build now seemed huge jutting off his slender new frame.

Dave watched the wagging rod bounce, his mouth watering.  As with all the others he could feel a change that went deeper than his appearance, an aching need to have someone, or something, plugging the painfully empty holes at his top and bottom.  Both were things he’d already enjoyed, but now they’d grown beyond simple pleasures into actual necessities.  “Looks…looks great…” he stammered, licking his lips.

“If only there was somewhere I could put it,” Tyler sang, tapping a thin finger against his sharpened chin.  He was fighting the urge to order, not ask, Dave to turn around and bend over, or to drop to his knees and get to work, an unfamiliar streak of dominance surging through his slight new body.  While they were both incredibly aroused, their reactions to the changes had been more measured than the rest of the group, not resulting in the uncontrolled explosions of lust that the others had experienced.  They guessed that it was due either to their existing relationship status, or the fact that they’d so willingly engaged in the process, but regardless they were able to approach the situation with something resembling restraint.

“I think I could…I could help you out with that,” Dave sputtered, fighting a similar urge to throw himself on the ground and beg.  He felt himself toying with his mouth before he even realized it, a pair of fingers threatening to slip between his lips as he squirmed, his plump pecs heaving.

Tyler stepped forward, tweaking one of Dave’s inflated nipples while the bigger man slurped his dainty fingers into his mouth and began sucking.  He raised an eyebrow and grinned at the copious liquid that began oozing from his lover’s fattened cock, using it to lube his own eager rod.  “Daddy need a pacifier?”

Dave just whimpered and let himself be guided to the warm, spongy ground before hefting his thickened, tree-trunk thighs into the air.  There was an awkward moment as they both adjusted, Tyler now struggling to support the heavy limbs with his bony new shoulders, and the prone hulk’s thick frame fighting against itself as his cock, distended stomach, and legs all vied for space.  They eventually fell into a workable rhythm, with Dave holding his legs up while the blonde twink rolled his slender hips, one hand in the penetrated beefcake’s mouth while the other rubbed the bulky muscle gut.

“Theeeeeere it is,” Tyler sighed, marveling at the way his tiny new body could reduce the pug-faced wall of muscle to a mass of wide-eyed whimpers.  He’d always been able to make Dave howl, but now there was a primitive, desperate edge to his lover’s response, all of which was magnified by the other man’s beefy new body and roughened features.  “I was…joking…but we might have…to get you…something to suck…on…” he laughed as Dave furiously worked the fingers in his mouth.  “Oh…oh fuck, baby…your new body is…this is so, so good…”

Dave could only grunt and whimper in response, his eyes locked on the lithe, glowing beauty that reduced his world to pure ecstasy with each thrust of his little hips.  The petite figure was nothing like the muscled jock that had entered the cave, but neither was he the same toned hunk he had been.  He was a desperate, burly bottom, the perfect complement to Tyler’s smug, slender beauty.  Together they’d become a part of something vast and ancient, now connected to the cave and the other four on a primal level.  Dave had theorized that the impossible changes had been the fungal network’s way of communicating, and that was confirmed as his head swam and his body hummed.  He felt more than heard the deep, throbbing pulse of the thing surrounding them, its safe, comforting embrace keeping the embarrassment he should have felt at the thought of walking around in his lumbering new body with constant desire to wedge a thumb in his mouth at bay.  Likewise, Tyler didn’t seem at all disturbed by the fact that instead of broad shouldered and handsome, he’d now be small and pretty, with the constant temptation to plunge himself into any of the men who’d be surprisingly eager around him.

They fucked until the changes were complete, experimenting with position after position.  Dave was taken in every conceivable manner, his thick new frame practically absorbing each of Tyler’s plentiful eruptions.  For his part, the blonde little twink had seemingly endless stamina, the other man’s desperate whimpers fueling his insatiable thrusting in a frenzied feedback loop.  They could feel their connection to the fungal forest growing the entire time, their minds expanding the way the others had described.  There were no words to describe the understanding, only a deep-seated awareness that something much larger than themselves lurked at the edges of their perceptions.

As they lost themselves to the blissful sensations of their altered bodies and new connections deep within the glowing cavern, both began to experience visions of something massive.  It occurred to them that the tendrils of the forest didn’t just snake away into the earth but into something else altogether, until what seemed like a massive jungle appeared as no more than a tiny cluster of mushrooms sprouting on an entity of cosmic size.  The sudden shift in their perception of space and scale came just as they did, fortunately fleeing just as quickly when their overloaded brains were pulled back by mundane, orgasmic ecstasy.

Finally spent, they lay dozing in each other's arms, one of Tyler’s fingers resting against Dave’s lips as he nestled into the other man’s bulky torso.  “Still think this was the right choice,” Dave asked, gazing up at the glowing moss that twinkled like stars on the ceiling.

“It was the right move, but it’s not like we had a choice,” Tyler reminded him.  “At least now maybe we can actually study this place instead of fighting against it.”

“I half expected to feel like a zombie after this.  The way everyone kept talking about a connection and being part of something…I thought we’d come in here as Dave and Tyler and leave as totally new people.  But that’s not it at all.  I mean, I feel different, but I still feel more or less like myself.  Same wants and desires as always…just a few new ones thrown in there,” he said, his lips closing around the smaller man’s fingers.

“Right?  I thought this place wouldn’t LET us study it afterwards.  Like all of this was a defense mechanism or something.  But I think it actually wants us to.  Makes sense why Tom and Will have been calming down a little more with each passing day.  Once their bodies adjust to the new ‘language’ they can self-correct back to center.”  Tyler sat up, a stunned look on his pretty new face.  “I don’t know if that’s comforting or terrifying.”

“It doesn’t feel terrifying,” Dave said, lumbering upright.  “Just feels heavy and awkward,” he laughed as he stumbled to his feet.  He hadn’t become round and rotund like Will, but neither had he become strapping and chiseled like Franco, landing somewhere in the middle with a burly, power-lifter build.  He flashed a bashful grin as he looked down at the squat, thick club his cock had become and the equally heavy balls underneath, the package prominently thrust forward instead of hanging between his toned thighs the way it used to.

“That’s what I mean.  I actually WANT to give in to that, to let myself go and just, I don’t know, ‘be’ in this new state.  But that feels too easy.”

Dave bent and kissed the top of Tyler’s head before taking the blonde’s tiny hand in his own again.  “There’s my cynical guy,” he rumbled, leading them back towards the entrance.  Though they’d wandered at random deep into the cavern, they could sense the opening as clearly as if they’d had an internal gps.

“I’m not cynical, I’m just being cautious,” Tyler said, shaking his head as he looked down at his supple new frame and missing muscle.  “Okay, maybe not ‘cautious,’ but you know what I’m saying.  I wasn’t fully on board at first when you said this place was communicating, but you were absolutely correct on that one.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to open Pandora’s Box just because it tells me to.  But, our situation aside, I gotta be honest…I’m more excited than ever about the possibilities.  As messed up as all this is, if we can exert some control over it…figure out how it works…this is going to change the world.”

“Which makes us those assholes people read about in the history books and wonder how they could have been so stupid,” Tyler sighed.  “What if it forces us?  What if it has its own agenda?  Look at us, hon.  Look at the others.  Does this look like control to you?”

“Any discovery brings growing pains.  That doesn’t mean you throw it all away and run.  If this is the price we have to pay to eradicate cancer, or fix a broken spinal cord, or wipe out disease, then I’m happy to have paid it.”

Tyler shook his head and reached over to give one of Dave’s heaping, ample new globes a squeeze.  “Of course you are.  That’s why I’m standing here too.  But I don’t think you could run too fast anymore even if you had to,” he grinned.

The burly mountain shrugged.  “I was getting sick of it anyway.  You always told me I needed to lift more.  What about you?  Planning on starting over?”

Tyler lifted his thin new arms.  “Maybe.  I don’t know.  Let’s see how I like this first.”  The sight of Tyler’s skinny flexing drove a finger to Dave’s lips again.  He stopped himself before he pushed it inside, but only barely.

They walked in silence after that, continuing to adjust to the way their altered bodies moved and felt.  By the time the entrance came into view the pair had to remind themselves that they hadn’t always been as they were, the unnatural contentment easing their transition. “It’s not like we’re going to be figuring this out alone, either,” Dave finally said.  “We have some serious money backing us.”

“Don’t remind me,” Tyler groaned.  “None of my opinions have changed on that matter.”

“I still think you’re being too quick to…” Dave stopped short as they climbed out through the opening and he saw the handsome, well-dressed man waiting for them on the other side.  A shadow of the embarrassment he could no longer muster flashed across his mind as he looked at his and Tyler’s naked, erect bodies, and back up at the smiling hunk.  His chiseled torso was half exposed through the open, upper buttons of his linen shirt, accentuated by the muscled arms folded underneath, while his tanned, toned legs jutted out from a pair of small khaki shorts.  “Ethan!  When did you get here?!”

The man smiled, letting out a slow whistle as he looked at the pair.  “We arrived shortly after you two decided to go for your little walk.  That’s…quite a look you’ve developed.”

“So you’ve seen the others, then,” Dave asked, realizing the full extent of his enhanced desires as his body quaked at the sight of the middle-aged stud.  “Did you bring a crew? How many do you have?  What about equipment?  We…wait!  You…you shouldn’t be out here!”

Ethan’s smile was sympathetic as he stepped forward and clapped the burly young man on a beefy arm.  “If you would have waited, we could have inoculated you against the effects.”

“Convenient,” Tyler said, folding his slender arms defiantly.  He purposely aimed his jutting cock at the older man in an accusatory fashion.  “So you can fix us?”

“No…or at least not yet.  Though our responses obviously didn’t, some of your messages managed to make it through.  We came prepared with a variety of antibiotic, antiparasitic, and antifungal agents, so while you two were on your walkabout we studied the samples you’d gathered and whipped up a cocktail that, for now, seems to be working.  I’m sorry we couldn’t get here in time to prevent you two from succumbing.”

“No, no, it’s okay.  I know how this looks, but it’s really not that bad,” Dave said, another quiver running through him when a pair of fit, polo-clad men came down the trail behind Ethan.  The naked hulk’s hungry eyes traveled over their athletic builds, tracing along the cresting ridges of the perky bubbles filling out their shorts, a finger in his mouth before he even realized he was doing it.

One of the men stepped forward, his eyes going wide only for an instant before he turned his attention to the unnaturally handsome older man.  “Excuse the interruption Mr. Hadley, but you wanted us to let you know when the entire crew had been inoculated.”

“Ah, perfect,” Ethan clapped, looking up at the late afternoon sky before returning his attention to the naked pair.  “This should give us time to set up a proper base camp and get everyone situated.  Once you two have reacquainted yourselves with your friends we can take some fresh blood samples and debrief.  No pun intended,” he chuckled, his hard, hungry eyes a sharp contrast to his charming smile as he looked past the duo at the cave behind them.  “I understand you all have been…preoccupied…but now that we have this under control the real work can begin.”

**********

Dave sighed as he looked at the four, fresh-faced friends grinning back at him from the small frame on his desk.  They’d taken the group selfie on the deck of the yacht just before disembarking on that first, fateful trip into the cave nearly a decade earlier.  Tom was still the broad, beefy jock, Will chiseled and strapping next to him, but it was always Tyler his eyes landed on first.  He missed the blonde’s easy smile and quick laugh more than the athletic body they were attached to.  He missed everything about his former lover.

It had been nearly eight years since Tyler left, and they hadn’t spoken since the day of his parting.  Though he’d tried many times, and had devoted considerable resources to the endeavor, Dave had never been able to turn up any clues as to where the blonde twink had gone or how he was staying so far off the radar.  Their company, Spore, had grown exponentially in that time, leaving Dave and the others with more wealth than they knew what to do with.  But the brawny brute would have given it all up in a heartbeat if it meant having his partner back.

Tyler’s distrust of Ethan, along with the older man’s partners at HB&L, had only deepened with time.  While on the surface the plans hadn’t changed, the goal was still to utilize the discovery for medicinal purposes, the supposed “accidents” that occurred while setting up the floating facility on the island, and the growing discussions about novel and recreational uses for the fungi, never sat well with the shrunken stud.  Despite being back in the States, the connection they felt with the ancient organism, and each other, was still present, an intuition that Tyler was quick to tap into.  Dave and the others still felt it, though to a much lesser degree than immediately after their changes.  Now it was like a pleasant, vaguely remembered dream instead of a compelling, consciousness raising drug trip.  They all picked each other’s brains in the months that followed trying to recall the details that had seemed so important when they were on the island right after their transformations, but being caught up in the whirlwind of discovery and founding a company and adjusting to how their warped bodies functioned back in society, their attention was quickly focused elsewhere.  And it wasn’t that Dave didn’t believe or credit Tyler’s suspicions.  He simply accepted the potential downsides as the cost of doing world-changing business.  It was that schism, the way his ex accused him of selling his soul, that led to their split.  Now, more than anything, Dave wished he’d listened.

“Another late night?”

The beefy bull hated the way his stomach still fluttered at the sight of Ethan’s impossibly handsome face smiling at him from the doorway.  The older man’s perfect physique was poured into a plain, navy t-shirt that cost more than some of their workers made in a week, while his gravity defying rear pushed out the back of four-figure slacks.  Dave’s own thick frame hadn’t changed in the decade since it had been warped into its current configuration, but neither had the other man’s.  “Just giving the data one more pass before we launch,” he said, squirming in his seat to work the plug in deeper.  He constantly had to have one inside him or he couldn’t focus, and he wasn’t proud of the numerous pacifiers that filled his top desk drawer.  They were sleek and monochromatic, not the bright, colorful kind used for infants, but, classy appearance aside, their purpose remained the same.

“Dave, Dave, Dave…we’ve been over this a thousand times.  The launch is happening in the morning.  Those numbers won’t change anything now,” Ethan said, strolling across the spacious office to settle on the edge of the bigger man’s desk.  He reached out and ran a hand through the rugged hulk’s thinning hair before tracing a finger down to the pursing lips.  “The time for science has passed.  Now is the time for celebration.”

“I just want to…I’m a little worried about some of the side-effects…” Dave said, a hand already slipping up beneath his straining tank-top as he fought the urge to wrap his mouth around Ethan’s finger.  He’d lose the fight, that wasn’t in question; it was only a matter of how long the battle lasted.  At a baseline, the beefy hunk simmered just on the right side of control, but once he started revving up there was no revving down until he wore himself out.  Clothing was precarious at the best of times, and it was the first to go at the slightest provocation.  That was the reason his office doubled as a penthouse on the top floor of the Spore headquarters.  Will and Tom also had a similar setup, and they all had several additional homes of their own, though, given the fast-paced world of bleeding-edge pharmaceuticals, they inevitably spent the bulk of their time at work.

“There are always going to be side-effects, but the numbers were well within the acceptable range,” Ethan reminded him, his tone gentle as Dave finally sucked the finger into his mouth.  He nodded down at the photo, his expression sympathetic.  “I know how nostalgic these launches make you.  That’s what brought me up here.  I thought I could take your mind off the past for a while, yes?”

Dave whimpered, already sliding off the chair and dropping to his knees as he undid Ethan’s pants.

**********

“Did you get it?  Please tell me you got it.”

Tyler grinned, feeling as jealous as ever.  Shawn sat in the middle of the bustling coffee shop wearing nothing but a pair of fluorescent sneakers, a hot pink thong, and a cropped, turquoise tank, an outfit that showed off every inch of his fit, athletic frame, but other than a few hungry glances no one batted an eye.  Tyler longed for that kind of freedom, though he knew that wasn’t the word his friend would have chosen.  While he could use his twinkish frame to influence other men, and routinely wore as little as possible to show that frame off, he was still bound by the societal reality that Shawn was apparently no longer part of.  “Of course I got it,” Tyler said, sitting at the table just as he lost control and his cock surged to life in his tiny shorts.  Shawn’s exposed muscle, coupled with the memory of what he’d done to obtain the USB drive in his pocket, had him achingly on edge.  “When have I ever NOT come through?”

“Never doubted you for a second,” Shawn said, giving Tyler’s hand a squeeze as the drive passed between them.  “Was this fun or work?”

The lithe blonde shrugged.  “A little of both.  I love it when they beg for more once I’m inside.  And the guy has no idea what he’s really working for.  I encouraged him to seek employment elsewhere, so hopefully he follows through on that.  If they find out what he did, things could get…”

“Real interesting, real quick.  Been there,” Shawn sighed, looking down at himself.  “Did you get a chance to look this over yet?”

Tyler shook his head.  “I came straight here.  I know I’m supposed to be a blind spot, but the sooner that info gets back to the others the better I’ll feel.  God only knows what they’re pushing out this time,” he sighed.  To everyone else, Spore was a health and wellness company, a purveyor of boutique supplements ranging from muscle builders, anti-aging creams, weight loss pills, sexual enhancers, hair growth products, and the like.  And while the company he helped found actually did produce said products, Spore had a seemingly supernatural ability to avoid scrutiny.  That left most of the world oblivious to the unanticipated outcomes, the often dramatic “side-effects,”  that sometimes occurred, to say nothing of the underground black market that had sprung up around the expensive products.  “Do we have any idea what they’re doing yet?”

It was Shawn’s turn to sigh.  His broad shoulders slumped as he leaned back in his chair.  “No.  But we do know that we’re officially running out of time.  The more people that take these pills and get connected to this…thing, the closer we get to it waking up for real.”

Tyler buried his face in his hands and gave a quiet groan.  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“Hey now…you had no way of knowing,” Shawn said, leaning forward to give Tyler’s slim arm a squeeze.  “I know how it feels to think you’ve landed something good only to have it blow up in your face, but no one ever sees shit like this coming,” he laughed, stripping out of the crop-top to prove his point.  Other than a few more lingering eyes, no one reacted as if it was all out of the ordinary.  “All we can do is try and fix it.  And sometimes we can’t even do that.  Sometimes all we can do is run.”

Tyler nodded.  He knew what Shawn had been through and knew the stripped stud understood on a level that few others could.  There was something about the handsome jock’s essence that had served to fuel an “incident” at the HB&L headquarters a few years prior, and though Tyler didn’t have all the details, he’d learned it had been a threat to reality as a whole.  What he didn’t know, and what they were currently trying to learn, was whether or not Spore was headed in a similar direction.  It had already cost him his friends, his love, and his body, just as it had for countless others who’d had an “adverse reaction” to a Spore product, and Tyler was determined to keep it from consuming anything else.

One thing was certain - a new product launch meant more customers, which meant more connections.  Unlike his former friends, Tyler’s connection was still strong enough to let him feel the thousands and thousands of Spore users dotting the globe, and he didn’t need a clandestine organization like The Learned to tell him they were running out of time.  He could feel something massive stirring, an encompassing presence that hovered just at the edges of his vision.  It didn’t feel warm and comforting as it had at first; it felt oppressive and smothering.

Tyler kept his mouth shut, but he wanted to correct Shawn.  If what he felt was real, if even a fraction of this thing woke up and turned its attention to their world, there wouldn’t be anywhere left to run.

********************

Voting Options

********************

Remember how I said we’d have the opportunity to pepper in some one-off chapters?  Now that we’ve jumped ahead I thought it would be fun to take a break from the ongoing story and do a Spore product feature.  These will drop in every so often, highlighting either the side-effects that people could experience, or the risk of trying to use a bootleg versions, or even some of the expensive, custom-tailored options Spore can create for wealthy clients.  

(And if you haven't read Shawn's story in Climbing the Ladder, now might be a good time to brush up.)  

For this new product rollout, Spore releases:

Option 1: A male sexual enhancer that causes some unlucky men to grow unwieldy, hyper-sensitive cocks that demand attention from others.

Option 2: An anti-wrinkle cream that smooths out more than skin, erasing inhibitions and worries while leaving the user strikingly beautiful.

Option 3: A hair-growth treatment for thinning scalps that causes the opposite in some unlucky men, leaving them bald headed while the rest of their bodies are coated in hair that refuses to be covered.

Option 4: A bodybuilding supplement that causes muscle groups to not only develop at uneven rates, but also shifts that disproportionate, sensitive size around a man’s body every few days at random.