tummy kink blog: writing edition

"Make yourself at home!" Jake smiled wide, waving Dirk off as he left the room. "I'll be out once I've washed up a little, sorry for the delay."

"Don't sweat it, man." Dirk shrugged, watching Jake step into the hall. "I get it, I should've called ahead. Don't rush yourself just for me."

"All the same, I won't be long!" Jake retreated down the hallway and out of sight, leaving Dirk alone in the trophy room as the sound of running water reached his ears.

They hadn't been on Earth C for long, but Jake had already managed to amass a notable collection. It was missing the pelts, heads and horns that he'd bragged to Dirk about collecting on his island - apparently hunting was only fun when the creatures were truly dangerous, and being a god took away from that somewhat - but the space had been more than filled with various cultural artefacts. Running his finger across the edge of a shelf, Dirk could see medallions, casts of wall carvings and other small trinkets taking up every bit of space in the room.

Jake was clearly proud of his collection, but he hadn't done much to keep it untouched. Nothing was behind glass or cordoned off, probably so he could pick up any of his prizes without delay. Dirk had watched Jake heft many of the objects in this room while regaling him with a story of its provenance, almost always ending with Jake relieving it from a lost ruin or rescuing it from being lost under a new development project.

Dirk was familiar with most of the items in the room, but there was always something being swapped in or out that caught his eye. Today it was a statuette still on Jake's work table, apparently so recent it hadn't even been found a place yet.

As Dirk approached to look at it, he was reminded of photographs he'd seen of old Venus statues from his own Earth. The figure was squat and lacking in details, only identifiable as a woman by its large breasts. These breasts sat on top of a round belly, which seemed to be the most carefully carved part of the whole statue. Dirk could see the shape of multiple defined rolls cut into the grainy stone, as well as an indentation for the statue's navel.

There were disposable gloves left on the table next to the statuette, but it looked clean enough. Interested in a closer look, Dirk reached out and grabbed it.

Click!

---

Shutting off the tap, Jake frowned as he dried his hands. He could've sworn he'd heard something, but the sound wasn't familiar and it didn't repeat. Shaking his head, he made sure he was totally clean before opening the bathroom door and walking out.

"Dirk, are you still in the trophy room?" He called out, heading towards the room in question. "I'm all washed up now, so we can get-"

His breath caught in his throat as a figure stepped through the doorway, barely fitting. "Get what? If it isn't 'get food' or 'get to bed', it can probably wait."

The man standing in the hall couldn't possibly have been Dirk, except for all the ways it had to be. He still had the same gelled hair, and the same pointed shades, but everything else was completely changed.

For one, he was taller than Jake now. The two had previously been of a height, with Jake less than an inch taller. Now Jake needed to tip his head up to fix Dirk with a look of disbelief, the other man having more than a full head of height over him.

As tall as Dirk had gotten, though, he'd grown twice as much in width. There was no polite way to say it - in the space of a minute, Dirk had gotten unbelievably fat. His clothes had been reduced to shreds, scraps of denim stuck between his thighs and the remains of a shirt hanging off his shoulders speaking to an explosive growth.

Every part of Dirk was fat, from a round face that wobbled when he spoke to tree-trunk thighs that had dragged against each other as he stepped into the hall. By far his largest feature, though, was his massive doughy gut. It hung in front of him, an apron of flab sagging down to his knees. Jake swallowed thickly, realising that belly was all that currently preserved Dirk's modesty.

Dirk's belly was indulgently round, its surface only marred by the deep navel currently making eyes at Jake. Jake knew Dirk had scars, but the miles and miles of skin on display for him was all perfectly unmarked. Not a single cut or ripple or speck of acne distracted from the most basic fact of how huge Dirk's middle was.

Jake tried to tear his eyes up to Dirk's face, but they got caught along the way. Sitting splayed across the top of Dirk's gut were a pair of equally affecting breasts, larger and more shapely than any he'd seen before. They were fat, yes, but that only meant they were rounder, heavier, sitting more appealingly on top of Dirk's belly. As Jake stared helplessly, he realised that each of Dirk's large, puffy nipples was starting to leak fluid.

Well, he definitely wasn't going to think about that!

"Dirk, what - what on Earth happened to you?!" Jake asked helplessly, taking a step back as if that would make him easier to take in.

"Me? Who knows." Dirk shrugged with an uncharacteristic lack of care, putting his hands on his hips. He looked down, seeming to notice for the first time how wide he was and how much his flabby fingers sank into his body. His only reaction was to smile, leaving his hands where they were. "If I knew I'd do it again, are you seeing me right now?"

"Er, yes, I certainly am 'seeing you'. I could see a little less of you if you wanted to find some clothes that fit?"

"Sounds boring." Reaching up, Dirk began tugging the last scraps of cloth off of his body, even the slight motion causing his breasts and gut to sway from side to side. "I'm not interested in covering up. Is it distracting you?"

"Quite a bit, yes." Jake's voice came out squeakier than he'd intended it, especially when Dirk took a lumbering step closer. Jake could only watch as his body bounced with the motion, Dirk's gut swinging up and plunging down only a foot away from Jake's body.

This close, Jake could just about see Dirk's eyes through his shades. There was all the sharp wit and intellect of normal in them, but as Jake stared, he thought he could see… something else. Something simpler. "Good," he drawled, reaching out and cupping Jake's face in one soft, pudgy hand. "Do you want to let me distract you some more? If you keep acting cute, I might let you have a taste.

Jake swallowed thickly, watching milk pool atop Dirk's gut before dribbling down his front. He knew it was on him to be the voice of reason, to say that something was obviously amiss and Dirk's opinion on the matter couldn't be trusted. He needed to pull the brakes on this whole situation and get things sorted.

Wetting his lips, Jake said, "Do you think you'll still fit on the bed?"

Jake shifted around, doing his best to make room for both himself and Dirk in the small bathroom. "Thank you again for the extra pair of hands. I'm a steady hand at sewing myself up, but apparently this is where my nerves draw the line."

"You're fine, man," Dirk replied, shutting the door behind himself. "I do this for myself all the time, I don't mind helping you out. You get the stuff?"

Nodding, Jake offered the packaged needle and vial to Dirk before sitting on the edge of the tub. While Dirk measured out his dose, he rolled the waistband of his shorts down, trying not to think too hard about what was about to happen.

"This doesn't look like mine at all," Dirk hummed as he set the vial down. "Where'd you get it from? Small pinch."

Jake clenched his jaw and shut his eyes, doing his best not to tense as he felt Dirk's hand on his waist. There was a pinch, then an unpleasant feeling, before the pinch subsided.

When he opened his eyes, Dirk was flattening a small plaster over the injection site. It wasn't from Jake's first aid kit - he must have brought his own. Smiling at his boyfriend's forethought, he finally released his jaw enough to speak. "Well, that was more efficient than I would've gotten it! Oh, and I alchemised it myself. Much less overhead that way, you understand?"

Dirk frowned at the explanation, turning to look at the vial he'd just injected Jake from. Jake knew what he'd see; the small bottle had a long chemical name on it, directions for the proper dose, and then a large block of what looked like text but was actually just vague squiggles across the rest of the label. "Are you sure you should be dosing with shit from the alchemiter? It's not predictable."

"Oh, toff!" Standing up and pulling his shorts back up, Jake waved away the concern. "We put plenty of alchemised guff in our bodies after fights, and nothing ever happened from that. I'll be right as rain, and my best self in no time!" With a grin, he angled himself in a cheesy bodybuilding pose, both arms pointed outwards to show off.

Of course, that was the exact moment Jake started to get fat.

The timing was almost too perfect. No sooner had Jake flexed his arms than a thin layer of flab appeared on them, the same as was now pushing off of his stomach and legs. Staring dumbfounded at the new growth, all Jake could think to say was, "Um!"

Dirk sighed, quietly but with feeling. "You'd better not be having an allergic reaction to that. Come on, there's more space in the living room." Reaching out, he grabbed Jake's wrist and tugged him along out of the bathroom.

Whatever was happening to Jake, it was at least fast. By the time he opened the door and stepped out of the room, his clothes felt snug in multiple places, the doorway seeming much closer to his head. His shirt was riding up, uncomfortably tight around his shoulders, and his shorts had begun to make worrying creaking sounds - as had the floorboards beneath him.

As Jake stopped in the living room and looked down at himself, he realised it wasn't simply fat that was appearing. His legs were larger, but while he would've usually worried about large thighs making him appear feminine, instead the growth was even above and below his knees, his legs filling out with flab over a frame of new sturdy muscle.

It was the same looking at his arms, and similar over his middle. While his chest was fattening (and when he'd only flattened it a few months ago, too), it was in a completely different shape to how it might have been before. His moobs were small and squashy, forming a sort of shelf on top of his new belly. Cautiously Jake tweaked one nipple, and found… well, it didn't feel bad?

"Do you think that's gonna stop before you hit the ceiling?" Dirk asked, bringing Jake's attention back to the practical concerns. While he hadn't gotten as much taller as he had wider, his head was definitely closer to the ceiling than it'd been before.

"I have to hope so, seeing as I can't exactly tell it to hold its horses." Truth be told, Jake was more interested in continuing to watch the new changes to his body. His clothes had torn off a minute or so ago, leaving him with a much better view to do so with. He watched as the thin hairs across his arms thickened and multiplied, the same happening across his legs and, to his delight, down his gut. His rear filled out noticeably, but not that much more than his back did, rolls of flab sagging to sit on top of the new shelf he had behind himself.

In all, the effect was more affirming than Jake had expected. This certainly wasn't his previous image of masculinity, but standing in the middle of the room, observing the strong muscle allowing him to easily flex and wobble his flab, with thick body hair over it all… in hindsight, it was exactly what he wanted.

After what could've been five minutes or twenty, Jake declared that his growth had likely stopped. He was about a foot and a half taller than he had been before his shot, and what felt like a foot wider in the shoulders and three deeper in the gut. The only thing that hadn't ripped off of him were his socks, and even those were creaking as the elastic pulled tight over round, flabby calves.

"Maybe I should… reconsider my dose, before next week," Jake mused, admiring himself as he flexed his jiggling arms. "Though I should say, for all this cushion, it feels almost easier to comport myself now."

"I guess your muscle grew faster than your fat," Dirk replied, sounding subdued. He'd simply watched as Jake ballooned up and out, but now that it ended, he reached out hesitantly and brushed a hand up the thick fur of Jake's gut. It tickled a little.

Smirking at the consideration in his expression, Jake couldn't help but tease. "Don't tell me you're thinking of switching to my own formula yourself, Dirk."

"Nah, that's not my goal." Dirk shook his head easily, though his face did colour slightly. "I'm just thinking if it's worth you getting any new clothes before next week's injection."

In the end, Hal took a few days to decide what else to do. He allowed Jake to change his clothes back in the meantime, but Jake still found himself hiding away, worried that Hal would change his attire at a bad moment for the hell of it.

When Hal knew what he wanted, it didn't take long for Jake to find out. The android arrived on his doorstep with no great rush, but Jake was quick to let him in and shut the door behind him, not wanting to be outside for any length of time.

"You've probably been thinking about this non-stop, haven't you?" Hal didn't have the good manners not to sound smug about it, watching Jake hurriedly latch the door again.

"It's hard not to, when you've demonstrated such disregard for my boundaries," Jake groused in return.

"Good, so you haven't forgotten what we did. Imagine yourself back in what you were wearing before."

Click! To Jake's dismay, he apparently remembered his humiliation enough to recreate it in complete detail. His adult clothes vanished, replaced by very little indeed; a golden bib and bonnet, a large green pacifier fixed in his mouth, a rattle in both colours clutched in one hand, and a thickly-folded cloth diaper in pale green, held in place with a large safety pin.

Jake knew Hal's trick by now, but knowing only made it more effective. By making Jake humour a thought, he'd believed it just enough for Hal to leverage his surprise and confusion into enforcing changes on Jake. Now that he'd seen it done, it seemed almost impossible for him to convince himself Hal could no longer alter him in this way; he'd need a lot of time and self-talk to regain sole control over his powers.

"Get rid of the pacifier and rattle, you won't need those." Click! Those two parts of his ensemble vanished into motes of gold light, leaving Jake working the discomfort out of his jaw. "So the other day, what were you trying to do with your powers?"

"I was hoping that believing enough might let me change my body itself. You know, make me stronger, stop needing to cut my hair, helpful little tweaks."

"Not bad. I was wondering the same thing, but I think I can make it work." Of course - Hal rarely failed in his attempts to undermine people. "So first of all, imagine that you're holding a baby bottle."

Click! The bottle appeared in Jake's hand, clear plastic with a green lid. It was already filled with milk - warm milk, Jake could feel it through the walls.

"Imagine that the bottle is bigger." Click! Jake could no longer wrap a hand around the bottle. "Bigger." Click! The bottle gained handles at its sides, needed since Jake could no longer grip its smooth walls. "A little bigger." Click! Jake now needed to hold it with both hands, the bottle now the size of his head and sloshing with milk. "Perfect."

"Seeing where this is going, can I say right now that I don't intend to drink a drop from this?" Jake asked, not expecting much.

"Will it make you feel better if I agree that I'm doing this entirely against your will? Imagine that you're painfully thirsty." Click! Jake's breath hitched, his knees buckling slightly as his stomach let out a loud growl. "Drink up, English. I can make this more uncomfortable."

He was right, was the problem. Grumbling, Jake hefted the bottle up enough to seal his lips around its nipple, beginning to drink.

Hal didn't say anything immediately. Jake's view was blocked by the oversized bottle, but he could only assume Hal was enjoying the indignity of the sight in front of him. A grown man, almost naked and dressed like a baby, sucking from a bottle in his own home. What part of it wasn't perfectly humiliating?

Apparently Hal still wasn't satisfied, as he spoke again. "This is a longer one, Jake, are you listening? Don't miss a word." Jake had no way to respond with his mouth full, but Hal didn't wait for it. "All of that milk you're drinking - which you'll keep drinking until I tell you not to - is going to make you gain weight. Sometimes a swallow will only be a few pounds, but sometimes it'll be more than a dozen. And if I say so, that weight will go right where I want it to."

Click! There was no immediate change, but Jake could still feel something shift. He tried to still his throat, but just as Hal had said, he was stuck drinking until told to stop. With his next swallow he felt something in his stomach churn, and while he couldn't see himself clearly, he didn't need to see to know what had happened.

With every swallow, Jake was gaining weight. He could imagine it easily; at first it wouldn't be that noticeable past his muscle, but once he gained enough, the flab would make him look even more infantile and ridiculous.

"Lower your arms a little, and look forward." The instruction didn't trigger his powers, but Jake still obeyed, flushing when his vision was no longer restricted. While he'd been distracted Hal had gone into his bedroom and moved the full-length mirror, so that he could see himself fully. It was his first time really looking at himself in the embarrassing outfit, and as heat rose to his cheeks he wished he wasn't wearing his glasses, just to avoid seeing what was happening to him.

Already Jake looked chubby, with his abs softened by a layer of paunch. Still forced to drink, he watched as every swallow thickened him up somewhere. Sometimes it would only be a slight thickening of his arms, while at other moments he'd see his face wobble as new fat settled on his still-red cheeks. Hal stood to the side, simply looking for a moment, but once Jake was looking helplessly into the mirror he began to move.

"As amusing as this is to watch, it's slow. That milk is going to make you gain more weight now, really start softening you up." Click! Again no immediate change, but before long Jake could tell he was getting fatter faster. "Much better. Now let's start shaping you."

What followed was perhaps the most like a piece of meat Jake had ever felt. Walking casual circles around him, Hal threw out comments on where Jake could stand to get fatter. His face. Click! His ass. Click! His arms. Click! Actually, more on his ass. Click! And with so much skin on show, Hal certainly wasn't shy about pinching or poking to demonstrate just how much fatter Jake was getting, leaving him wobbling in every direction once he was large enough to do so.

The bottle felt like it would never empty, but thankfully that was only a feeling. After minutes that felt like years, Hal told him, "Lower your arms and let go." Jake happily obliged, letting the now-empty bottle thunk onto the floor beneath him. "Now look at yourself, take as long as you need to get used to it."

In a daze, Jake did. He'd crossed from fit, past fat and into borderline obesity in barely any time at all. His belly sagged low, almost but not quite obscuring his diaper from view. His bib didn't even touch his middle, instead hanging over a pair of soft moobs that splayed atop his gut. His face had the roundness and wobble of baby fat, with the straps of his bonnet digging in between his chins.

As Hal instructed him to turn around, he got to see his backside as well. It seemed his imagination had ensured the diaper still fit, hugging his large and blocky ass like a bright green bullseye. He watched it wobble for a few seconds after he turned, thankful that at least cloth didn't crinkle or rustle too loudly.

"Look at you, a proper big baby now." Hal didn't have the good grace not to be smug over his victory. "Now get crawling."

"Excuse me?" Jake resisted the childish urge to cross his arms, knowing he'd only make a fool of himself. "You've been a proper ass to me today, not to mention last time, so why should I?"

"You're right, I guess there's no reason you'd choose to do that. So, imagine yourself without your muscle mass."

"Now hold-" Click! The lack of muscle made Jake look slightly slimmer, but it also caused his fat to wobble much more. Barely a moment later his knees began to quake, locking up with the sudden struggle of supporting his own bulk without his physical tone. Jake glared, but his options were limited now; either he lowered himself to the ground, or he'd fall in the space of a minute and make an even bigger fool of himself.

Carefully and reluctantly, Jake dropped with a thud onto his fat calves, wincing as his whole body bounced with the motion. A moment later he felt a firm shove between his shoulders, sending him unceremoniously onto all fours. His flabby arms quivered slightly at the effort of holding himself up, while his belly quivered what seemed like barely an inch above the floor.

"Well? Get crawling." Jake felt another shove, this time a solid foot pushing on his backside until he began an ungraceful crawl across the hard floor. "And imagine your ass bigger, it's not wobbling enough." Click! Jake ducked his head in shame as his rear fattened further, disrupting his balance and, indeed, wobbling with every shuffling move across the floor.

"This was definitely a good idea," Hal gloated, staying directly behind Jake. Not wanting to risk stopping and incurring displeasure, Jake settled in to follow a slow circuit around the perimeter of the living room, doing his best not to bump into any furniture while keeping his head low in shame.

"I couldn't start to guess where this perverse streak comes from, because it certainly isn't Dirk," Jake retorted as best he could around his heavy breaths. Without any proper muscle, lugging himself around was physically draining as well as mentally taxing, and already his flush was turning into one of exhaustion.

"Maybe I programmed it in myself, as a treat. If you have the breath to talk, you aren't crawling enough. Stick your ass out more or I'll make it bigger again."

Jake kept his breathing as steady as possible, even as he lifted his hips higher. It made crawling difficult, especially as his belly now brushed the floor with every step, but there was really nothing to be done about it.

Jake gritted his teeth, shutting his eyes tight and focusing all of his thoughts inward. If he cleared his mind, thought only of what he wanted to…

"Do I even want to know what you're doing right now?"

Jake frowned, posture loosening as his concentration fled once more. Turning to address Hal, he asked, "What does it look like? I'm trying to practice my powers!"

In fairness to him, the answer was pretty obvious. The room Hal had just entered was dim, with the lights off and curtains drawn, but a diffuse glow spread out from the repeated use of Jake's Hope powers. They cast faint reflections on Hal's metal body as he closed the door behind him, once more shutting out any sounds from beyond the threshold.

"I see. Mind if I ask you a few more questions? I never could square how your powers actually work." With his concentration not likely to return while he was accompanied in the room, Jake waved him on. "Awesome. So your powers are totally based on what you believe to be true, right? That's the only limit?"

"As far as I've been able to figure, yes. Anything's possible if I can believe in it enough." Jake nodded, pacing the room impatiently.

"Alright. But if someone convinced you that they were in control instead, how would that work?" Hal asked.

"I can't say I catch your drift, pal."

"Think about it. Hypothetically, if somebody convinced you that they were in control of how you used your powers, would that work? Seeing as you believed that your belief alone wasn't enough?"

"Hm…" He could never be quite sure that he followed what Hal was saying, but Jake thought he got the point. "I suppose that could work, if I believed it. Why do you ask?"

"Scientific inquiry. I told you, I don't fully understand your powers. But then, for instance, if I was in control of your powers, I could tell you what to believe with them, and you'd need to think that way." Slightly confused now, Jake nodded along. "And I could, hypothetically, make you believe that you believe something, such that you wouldn't be able to undo it unless I told you to."

"I suppose so? You're starting to lose me, but I think that sounds consistent enough. Are you done with the hypotheticals?"

"I am, yes. What were you practicing before I found you?"

"Oh, that! I was curious if I could use my powers on my own self-image. You know, imagine myself stronger, smarter, that sort of thing. I thought it was a clever idea."

Giving both Jake and the room a considering look, Hal nodded. "It is clever, you're right. Anyway, now that we've established that I control how and when you use your Hope powers -"

"-sorry, that you do what?"

"-how about you go ahead and believe that you can only use them for things I directly tell you to do."

Click! Jake paused for a moment, taking that in, then laughed. "I can't say that made a lick of sense to me, Hal! What on Earth was that meant to achieve?"

Moving to lean against the far wall, Hal's unblinking eyes remained fixed on Jake. "Exactly what I said, that you only use your powers for what I tell you to. Now imagine yourself wearing a diaper."

Click! Jake went red, mouth hanging half-open but words forgotten as his shorts suddenly felt snug against him. Had Hal really just-?

"Oh, I forgot. Imagine yourself not wearing any other clothes." Click! Every other scrap of clothing on him disappeared, leaving his new plastic diaper exposed. "Now imagine that the diaper's bigger." Click! "Bigger." Click!

Jake's face burned as he felt himself thinking these things in time with Hal. The thoughts weren't subtly implanted, but all the same, he was helpless to stop willing the changes into existence. "I'd suggest you stop yanking me around sometime last week, you mechanical menace!"

"Imagine yourself with a pacifier in your mouth." Click! Any further protest was muffled by a large silicone bulb, attached to a thick green mouthguard. He puffed his cheeks up indignantly - "And imagine that it won't come out unless I want it to." Click! - and released his breath in a large huff, not dislodging the pacifier at all.

Jake felt pinned down, goosebumps appearing on his bare skin as he glared furiously at Hal. He wasn't sure exactly how it had happened, but he knew he'd been tripped into making a mistake somewhere, and that these were the consequences of that mistake.

Hal responded with a minute quirking of his lips, looking Jake up and down obviously. "Not bad, but you can imagine better. Imagine that diaper looking a bit more cartoonish." Click! The plastic diaper turned to forest green cloth, folded over and over itself into a thick layer between his legs held in place by a single oversized safety pin at its front.

"Much better. Now imagine yourself wearing a bib and bonnet." Click! The bib fluttered as it appeared over his chest, a cheery gold colour with the Hope symbol emblazoned mockingly on the front. He couldn't get a good look at the bonnet, but he could feel it pinning down his messy hair, as well as the ribbon tied snugly under his chin.

"This is really improving your creativity, isn't it? Everything you make looks sillier than the thing before." He paused for a moment, as if deciding his next move. "Imagine yourself holding an oversized baby rattle." Click! The rattle was a mix of gold and green, with a thick plastic handle clutched in Jake's clenched fist and a bulb almost the size of Jake's head. Surely Hal was done, he'd had his fun now?

Apparently not, as he kept speaking. "Imagine that you can't take any of that off, or let go of that rattle, without my permission." Click! "Imagine that anything you try to wear to cover your clothes will turn into something just as embarrassing." Click! "Great. Now I need a minute to plan shit. Sit tight, English."

With that Hal turned, opening the door - was he just going to leave Jake like this?! As overwhelmed by everything as he was, Jake resolutely put one foot in front of the other. The thick cloth padding between his legs changed his stance and the giant rattle shook childishly with each step, but all the same he marched towards Hal. Even without speaking, there were plenty of ways he could give Hal a piece of his mind-!

"Imagine that you can only crawl." Click! Jake tumbled forwards with a crash as his legs became too weak to hold him up, leaving him sprawled on the floor with his diaper-clad rear up in the air. "Relax, Jake. I'm not going off to invite all of your friends to see you like this. I just need a minute to decide what else to do with you." Stepping out of the room, Hal turned to look at Jake on the ground. "I'll undo all of this before I leave for good, does that make you feel better? So stay there and imagine you can't open this door yourself."

"Just stand still, I'll get you measured for your costume."

Jake shifted from foot to foot, but eventually did as Dirk had asked, holding still as Dirk took measurements and made notes. He didn't technically have to do any of that, but Jake was at least bright enough to notice if Dirk wasn't doing any of the things he was supposed to be doing.

Really, all he'd had to do after Jake had swallowed that candy was bide his time and say the right things.

"So! What kind of costume were you thinking of making for me?"

Dirk shrugged. "I haven't decided yet, these are just the basic measurements. But I was thinkin' maybe some sort of villain or henchman, play on your masculinity."

"…my masculinity?" Jake asked, clear scepticism in his voice. It wasn't unwarranted; with his smooth skin and lean build, Jake was about as masculine as Dirk himself, with an Adam's apple and not much else to show for it.

This was where Dirk would come in to sell it. "Yeah, obviously. With the right outfit, all your real tough guy features can come out and pull their weight."

"Stop pulling my leg and tell me what the real plan is, Dirk! I can't well pull off anything like what you're suggesting."

"No way, you definitely can." Here was where Dirk mentally crossed his fingers, hoping he'd given his preparations long enough to take hold, that Jake would be properly suggestible. Running one hand over Jake's arm, he said, "Like all this muscle you've got here, you've got those big brawny arms henchmen always have in movies."

Jake opened his mouth to protest, and Dirk worried he'd spoken too soon, but then he paused, a slight glaze coming across his features. "My… hm. What was that?"

"Your arms." As he spoke, Dirk felt the effects of his words; Jake's arms were swelling with new muscle, growing rounder and firmer as Dirk's hands could no longer find bone. "You look like you carry fridges for a living, man, how does that not fit the part? I mean, you're built all over, but they're definitely where most of it goes."

"Hm… hm, yes, I suppose you're right." Looking down at himself, Jake didn't blink at the change coming over his body, simply flexing one of his arms curiously. "They are rather big, aren't they?"

"Huge," Dirk agreed immediately, nodding as well. "I dunno why you aren't prouder of these things, they're really something."

"Yes, well." Jake literally puffed up with pride; the more he thought about himself the way Dirk implied, the more he resembled that implication. "I don't want to boast, you know, it'd be unsporting."

"Boast all you want, bro. You think people aren't jealous you've got all this hairy muscle on show all the time?" Dirk was laying it on thick, but he didn't care, focusing more on watching Jake's muscles begin to put strain on his shirtsleeves and the legs of his shorts, short hairs sprouting from previously smooth skin. "Definitely makes up for you puttin' on the pounds."

"Mm, what was that you said? I mustn't have heard it right, I thought you said-"

"-that you've been putting on weight, you heard right. You eat like someone twice your size, you're gonna start catching up to that. You think I didn't notice?" Dirk slapped Jake's currently-flat stomach, taking a moment to feel his abs before they went away.

What came next was out of Dirk's control in the best way possible. With that one thought inserted into Jake's self-image, the man began to pad out in almost every direction. He'd been growing taller already, shoulders broadening and his middle filling out, and all that height became easy ground for width and depth to take hold of him.

Jake's stomach curved out immediately, pushing out his singlet top until a large slice of fuzzy flab sagged in open air. His shorts grew tighter at the thighs as his legs gained some thickness, making up for the lack of new muscle that had settled there. His arms, while still visibly strong, lost some of their definition and gained a slight wobble as he continued to flex them curiously. Even his face softened, his previously-squared jaw rounding out as stubble bloomed across newly sagging cheeks. He was by no means obese, but Jake was definitely overweight now, and he'd stay that way if Dirk had any say in it.

"Er - now, hold on." Jake continued to frown at his jiggling arm, some lucidity entering his gaze again. "I don't think I recall looking like-"

"You're thinking too much." Dirk interrupted Jake without hesitation, cutting off the thought before it could cause any damage. "You shouldn't think about things this much, you aren't good at it."

"W-what?"

"Think less. Pay less attention. That's what I'm here for, I keep an eye on the small stuff so you don't have to bother."

This was a harder sell than what Dirk had said before, and it showed in Jake's continued frown, the way his body tensed as if resisting the suggestion. But Dirk leaned in, his slimmer hands groping Jake's thick arms and stroking through the new hair there, and he could see Jake's resolve dimming. "I suppose you've never steered me wrong before…"

"And I won't now. So stop trying to impress me with those big words, I know you've got not clue what half of those mean. You're the guy in charge, you just say what you feel."

"Yes… yeah, I do." Jake began to smile again, his eyes unfocusing as the concern left his expression. Dirk reached up and took the spectacles right off his face; they didn't look right on him any more, with so much less intelligence to light up his eyes. "Dunno why I ever bother with that crap, really."

"Neither do I," Dirk replied, tucking Jake's glasses away into his sylladex where they wouldn't prompt any difficult questions. "I got all your measurements by the way."

"Huh?" Jake barely turned his head towards Dirk, still watching himself flex idly.

"We're done here. You can go push shit around in the basement or whatever you do all day, I'll make your costume in time for Halloween."

"My… oh! I forgot about that," Jake explained, as if Dirk couldn't have guessed. "Thanks for doing all that, I really just don't care for that fiddly shit."

"You're still talking too much." Dirk might have been pushing his luck, but the power he had over Jake in that moment was compelling, and he pushed without hesitation. "It's easier to talk to you when you don't talk back."

Jake opened his mouth to respond, then paused, the words clearly fleeing him. He stood in place for a moment, and Dirk wondered if he'd have to repeat himself, but eventually Jake responded with a simple, "mmh," and began to trudge away.

No sign was left of the person Jake had been before Dirk's suggestions got in his head; physically, emotionally, not to mention his personality. He looked like an older, more rugged, less sensitive version of himself, the kind of man that belonged in the rough climates Jake had grown up in. His steps thudded through the house as Jake went off to find something simple to occupy himself with, and Dirk let himself feel accomplished for a minute before returning his attention to his work.

Jake paced a wide circle around his bedroom, casting his eyes to Dirk every time he turned to face him. He’d been alternating between interest and boredom for the past hour as Dirk tinkered and teased at his current project, but in this moment he was decidedly impatient with the lack of visible progress being made.

“Dirk, chap, is there anything new to say about it? Anything at all, you know I’m not above begging.”

Dirk almost certainly rolled his eyes at that, but he did lean away from the control panel, rolling his stool back a few feet to safety. “I don’t wanna encourage this, but yes, actually. Think I’ve figured this out.”

‘This’ was Jake’s personal wardrobifier, which he’d gotten plenty of use out of for as long as he could remember. He’d never had any issue with it before, which made its complete failure to work that morning all the stranger. Of course, Jake had simply dressed himself as he would’ve without it, but the machine’s refusal to work meant that any of Jake’s fancier or more complicated outfits were sealed away within it, out of his reach should he want one.

Dirk rolled his chair to the side, letting Jake approach and peer at the device’s opened-up control panel. “I think your surge protector blew in that storm last night,” he explained, indicating one part of its mechanism with his screwdriver. “Looks like it didn’t get to the actual clothing database, but all your biometrics got wiped, so it doesn’t know how to actually dress you.”

Jake nodded, nudging Dirk’s screwdriver aside to look at the panel himself. “Would that just be from age, then? Stick another surge doohickey in and everything’s good as new?” It didn’t look as if anything had melted or fused, and Jake likely wouldn’t have even known that one of the surge protectors had blown if Dirk hadn’t pointed it out.

“I know you know what a surge protector is, you can’t just call everything a doohickey.” Dirk sighed, but when Jake just blinked guilelessly at him, he moved on with his explanation. “It should though, yeah. I’ll replace all of them just in case, then it just needs to get your measurements and it’ll work the same as before.”

“Excellent! I’ll let you get to it, then.” Jake beamed, giving Dirk a friendly back-slap before stepping out of his space again.

Dirk rolled his eyes, but Jake knew he wouldn’t have let Jake do it himself even if he’d asked. He was too single-minded to give over a project once he started on it, obviously he was going to do the repair himself as well.

Jake went back to pacing, his impatience reset now that he knew progress was being made. He saw Dirk taking out two slim bundles of wire, one visibly blackened, and replacing them with a pair of identical devices before carefully reattaching their cables and closing the panel up. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but paused, frowning at something on the now-visible display.

It was another minute of silent staring before Dirk opened his mouth again, speaking to Jake with a noticeable hint of confusion in his tone. “Alright, I… think that’s gonna be good to go now, bro.”

“You’re certain?” Despite his words, Jake was already crossing back to the device. “It’s not like you to hesitate over these things.”

“No, yeah, it’s probably fine.” Dirk shook his head, his expression firming up as he reassured himself. “The wardrobe just did a software update, I wasn’t expecting that. But everything looks good now, so. Give it a test run so I know it’s good and I’ll pack up.”

“Can do!” After Dirk had retreated from the control panel, Jake tapped at it to start measuring him anew, watching as holographic grid-lines and callipers appeared and disappeared in the process of creating a model of him. “I wouldn’t worry about the update, SkaiaNet is always tweaking and toying with things. Half the time I don’t know what they’re even doing in there, but it’s never anything dangerous!”

The wardrobifier let out a short, high beep, and its miniature lightshow came to a close. Once the screen displayed its usual clothing options, Jake mashed his thumb against the ‘random’ button.

Immediately after, he shivered as every article of clothing save for his underwear disappeared.

“Er!” Jake’s voice cracked briefly as he folded his arms over his chest, heat rising to his cheeks. He wasn’t shy about his body, least of all around Dirk, but being disrobed so suddenly elicited feelings similar to what he imagined being pantsed felt like. “That’s certainly never happened before!”

Dirk frowned at the unexpected behaviour, but didn’t have a chance to respond before two large cushioned pads appeared midair in front of Jake. They reminded him somewhat of the inserts for car seats, or the padding added to a practical effects costume; large shaped masses of firm cushioning roughly the same colour as his bare skin.

Jake watched, a mixture of confused and curious, as the pads floated forwards until they touched the fronts of his thighs. As if being manipulated by invisible hands, each pad began to slowly fold to encircle one leg, covering him from immediately above his ankles to just below his hips. The sensation was similar to wearing freshly-ironed trousers, for the two seconds they were in contact with his skin before they converted into pure fat.

There was no other way to describe it; as Jake watched, both of the cushions pressed firmly against his legs and transformed into flesh. His newly-fat legs sagged immediately, thankfully not disturbing his centre of gravity, but forcing him to instinctively widen his stance to give his thighs more room to breathe.

If Jake had been blushing before, now his face was red. Hesitantly, he reached down to poke one flabby thigh with a finger, his breath hitching as it sank into the flesh easily. He could feel it, as well as he would have felt anything touching his leg - this was no illusion, the cushioning had fused with his legs to give him the lower body of someone hundreds of pounds heavier. “Dirk! Explanation, please!”

“I don’t know why you think I’d have one.” Even Dirk’s well-trained facade of nonchalance had gained a crack at the sight of Jake like this, a small crease to his brow as tiny spots of colour rose on his cheekbones. “It’s like - they looked like clothing inserts, to change your figure, but I’ve never had one of these spit those out.”

“And I’ve never heard of clothing inserts meant to make you look so portly! Oh, come off it, there’s more?” As Jake had spoken, he’d watched yet another of the so-called ‘inserts’ materialise in front of him. He tried to back away, but he wasn’t comfortable enough with his legs to move quickly, and the insert simply continued to approach him until it could press against his firm stomach and fuse in much the same way as the last ones.

Unlike the first inserts, this one didn’t wrap around Jake, so all the weight it added went straight to his front, causing him to buckle forwards with a winded “hoof”. Jake had never been particularly attached to the idea of a flat stomach, but there was a large difference between having some slight padding over his abs and what hung from them now. His gut dangled down to his knees, dimpling around his navel to form two main rolls; one above and one below. The new tanned flesh stretched across his front was completely unmarred, not a single pale stretchmark to indicate that he’d gained all of its weight in the course of three seconds.

Before he had time to worry about overbalancing completely, Jake felt his briefs being tugged back behind him, and the now-familiar sensation of more inserts being pressed against him; one against his back, and two for his rear. The higher insert didn't affect him much, and in fact balanced him out somewhat as the slight increase in weight behind him made it easier to compensate for his new belly, but the individual cushions for his rear end were a different story.

"Damn," Dirk intoned, the single word making Jake's face flush as he felt twin sensations of heat before his ass fattened. Each cheek sagged immediately, though either due to some natural shapeliness or the slight support of his briefs, they remained rounder than other parts of his new figure. As he struggled to keep his back straight and find equilibrium, he could feel his underwear's waistband being settled back in place as best it could - and leaving a good third of his rear on show.

"Don't - don't you go having opinions on this, Dirk!" Jake pointed accusingly, only for his arm to freeze in place as if from a firm hand gripping him at the wrist. The inserts that materialised this time were smaller, one each for above and below his elbow, and like the leg inserts they wrapped completely around the limb, looking alarmingly sausage-like before they turned to flab and distributed more naturally along his arm. At his side, his other arm was extended for a similar treatment, evening him out before he could look too silly.

It seemed, in the procession of inserts that followed, that the largest points of Jake's physique had already come. The cushions now were smaller, padding out parts of his frame to make his fat appear more natural. Love handles were added for his arms to rest against, small bits of padding were applied to his fingers and palms, and thankfully the bust that was attached to his once-flat chest was still overshadowed by his middle and rear, though the new breasts still sat rather heavily on his gut.

Through it all, while Jake could at times move, there was the sensation of his body being pulled and positioned to better work with. Whichever part of him was being padded out was generally rendered immobile, with limbs either stretched out or held away so he couldn't interfere with the inserts as they appeared. When a small but thick ring was wrapped around his neck, his whole head was immobilised by the process, and it stayed that way as pockets of flab were applied to his cheeks - which instantly heated up just as his face had been before.

Eventually it seemed that no more changes were to be made. Jake held himself still for five seconds more, then ten, but no more inserts appeared, and his body moved as he willed it to. Letting out a sigh of relief, he looked down at himself as best he could, trying to assess the damage. "Hopefully I don't look like too much of a sideshow now."

"For what it's worth, it all looks pretty natural." Dirk said. "I mean, you're gonna turn heads, but nobody's gonna think you were messed with or anything."

For what little it was worth, Dirk was right. Jake looked genuinely and naturally fat, from his widened waist to his slightly quaking face. His whole body swayed slightly but noticeably as he shifted about, his sense of touch extended out into the new flab for a veritable wash of new sensations. There wasn't a single stretchmark or spot of cellulite on him, but somehow the new fat had kept Jake's natural freckles and few scars in place, and he couldn't find a single point where anything was obviously amiss.

"Well, I suppose that's something," Jake griped, crossing his arms stiffly and trying not to feel like a piece of meat under Dirk's admittedly reassuring lack of expression. "Even if I haven't the faintest how I'll find anything fitting now that I'm fun-sized."

"I mean…" Pushing off from where he'd been leaning against the wall, Dirk stepped around Jake to the wardrobifier's panel. "Call me a sucker here, but I've heard of this cool machine, it makes all kinds of clothes…"

"Oh, come off it," Jake said, staring the machine down with distrust. "You really expect me to put my trust in this doohickey ever again?"

"It's kind of your only option, bro. Unless you know how to alchemise clothes from scratch and make them actually fucking look good."

Jake continued to glare, but there was an unfortunate amount of sense in what Dirk was saying. Really, for all it could do, this was his only shot at clothes that fit him…

Gritting his teeth and fighting the urge to close his eyes, Jake pressed one pudgy digit against the machine's interface.

This time, there was no fancy lightshow to warn of something strange about to happen, but there were also no strange inserts that appeared from nowhere. Instead, a pair of black short shorts materialised around Jake's waist, in the same style (and covering almost the same proportion of skin) as his usual wear. They were a snug fit, hefting his belly up over the waistband and fitting so tightly that Jake didn't even realise at first that the zipper wasn't done up yet.

That changed quickly when an unseen force yanked the zipper upwards as fast as it would go, his pants button doing itself up before it could sag back down again. Jake sucked in a sharp breath, not prepared for the new pressure on his nethers as the shorts held tight against the pressure being applied to them. He couldn't hear a single stitch or panel tearing, for all that the shorts appeared to be simple denim.

Even with their refusal to rip, Jake fully expected the shorts wouldn't last; looking over his shoulder showed the waistband already beginning to sag past his wide rear, and that was before he'd even taken a step. As if sensing this scepticism, a pair of clips appeared and attached themselves to his waistband in the front, connected to two deep green elastic straps.

The straps manipulated themselves, coming up on either side of his obstacle of a gut before wrapping over his shoulders and pulling downwards to reach his waistband in the back. Like the shorts before, the suspenders seemed to be a touch undersized for him, needing to expend some of their stretchiness just to attach themselves in the first place - something that would've been a mere discomfort, if this didn't entail the straps clinging and dragging across his front and directly over his bare nipples in the process.

By the time his outfit was apparently finalised, Jake was technically modest, but he certainly didn't feel it. Even breathing put pressure on his shorts, which he had very little room in due to the suspenders keeping them hiked up, but at least they covered… nearly all of his rear end, and weren't at risk of sagging as he took a few experimental steps. The suspenders themselves hugged and hefted his belly, making it appear rounder and leaving it more prone to bounce or wobble with any shift or squirm. There was plenty of squirming, as each strap seemed practically glued to its place over each nipple; for all they remained covered, he could feel them firming up as the sensitive skin was brushed again and again by the expanding and contracting elastic.

"This get-up is a total wash," Jake whined, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops to avoid compulsively pinching and prodding himself. "I look like a specialty dancer now!"

"Am I an asshole if I suggest trying the machine again?" Dirk approached Jake's aimless shifting about, poking the new outfit curiously. Thankfully that seemed to be taking up most of the blond's curiosity at the moment, as Jake felt he'd explode if those deft fingers touched on any sort of bare skin.

"No, but you might just be a rube. I'm not pressing that button any more often than I have to until every one of its kinks is ironed out to total flatness! In fact!" Raising one arm to accent his point (and wincing as the stretching made his suspenders flex again), Jake declared, "I intend to spend as little time as possible in the same room as this beastly thing!"

Turning in the direction of the door, Jake made quick strides towards it, trusting that Dirk would follow close behind. "Come out, I'm sure we can find something to do somewhere else."

TT: C’mon, English, two slices left.

GT: But im- im- huuOOOA~AaAarrggh… Im so *full*!