James and Kieran (Patreon)

I wrote this story after I had encountered a tumblr blog of someone who was actively trying to be more "chav". It made me think about how you would go about doing that in real life. How can you do it in small steps? How can you make them reinforce each other? How can you make them as difficult as possible to reverse. There are four different areas I try to address: body, mind, accessories and social. In a way I probably address them in the reverse order of permanence. Swapping in chav clothes is about as easy as swapping out of them, at least when not considering cost. The body alterations here are minimal, haircut, getting in shape and nicotine addiction. The mind part is harder. If you manage to lose respect for something, to ignore social cues or to rid yourself of a fear, you can't really get that back. You can still control how you act, but its voluntary now, not a given. And finally, setting up a social network with friends all around, to push him in a certain direction just as much as keeping him in place.

I went back to the tumblr guy and had him name the characters to make a bit of inspiration for him. Rob and Dwaine were the names I originally had in the story titled "Chav coach". I also had the @scallywag as the name of the coach before I asked scallylad89 if he could be part of the story.

I guess the inspiration wasn't enough, because the tumblr blog isn't there anymore, but I have had private messages from more than one person saying that this specific story is the scenario they are citing in their online dating profile.