I absolutely love the detail in your writings especially your most recent with aether. I know you've mentioned aethers weight gain throughout each nation previously, but would it be possible to visually see how hes actually grown though his journey up to this point?
Thank you so much, and of course! Here's a very long and detailed look through Aether's weight gain journey while on his travels through Teyvat and all the things he's found out about these nations:
Before Teyvat:
Aether is a guy who's lived hundreds or even thousands of years traveling through different universes before descending into Teyvat and its nations.
His body has remained lean and greatly taken care of through decades, and he's never dealt with any issues regarding his weight throughout his long life.
When his twin sister was kidnapped by the Unknown God in the skies of Teyvat, Aether was forced down into its lands to begin his adventure in search of his sister.
But maybe he could've been luckier with the nation he woke up in first. Maybe, if it wasn't Mondstadt, his fate would've been different, but Aether stepped foot into the land of wind unaware of the transformation he would begin to go through from that point onwards.
Mondstadt (Before Teyvat):
Immediately, Aether realized this was unlike most previous worlds he had traveled to the moment he saw a carriage of struggling horses carrying a heavy breathing man of a size he had never seen someone before on his way to the Mondstadt capital.
His suspicions were quickly realized the moment he stepped foot into the city. Almost every man his eyes darted towards sported a stomach that had been let to expand without any care in the world, protruding and hanging way past their waistbands, stretching the fabric of their clothes to their limits.
But nothing could have prepared him for by far the largest person he had seen at that point; a jovial bard who went by the name of Venti.
The youthful looking bard could only be described as a mountain of flesh. His clothes had long given up, pale stomach fat spilling down from his ill-fitting tent-sized shirt to the ground, with rolls so swollen with fat it was hard to understand which part of his body was what.
Between shallow breaths and grunts of exertion, Venti sluggishly introduced Aether to Teyvat, and by extension, Mondstadt, the land of "freedom", manifested into a communal culture of hedonism where someone's weight represents their happiness and prosperity and not their health or self-control.
Aether was obviously still in shock for the first couple of hours, but... he didn't know what it was about the city, he quickly got used to everyone's appearance, and as days went by, wanted to try understanding their culture?
That was Aether's big mistake.
Kaeya, the CavalryΒ Captain of the Knights of Favonius who seemed to maintain a slimmer figure in comparison to most men in the city and had gotten to know the Traveler by now, smiled when Aether absentmindedly suggested joining one of the commonly held eating competitions in the Angel's Share tavern.
He didn't even realize it, but he was starting to eat a lot more than he usually did. His mission of finding any information about his lost sister went by smoothly thanks to the energy all those meals were giving him. Some might say it might've been too much energy, others will just say he was understanding what Mondstadt's culture was all about.
He got visibly chubby over the year he stayed there, that much was clear. Every man around him ate massive amounts of food, he didn't even realize how much he was eating himself since it still seemed like very little in comparison. But the mirror didn't lie, his figure had turned soft.
But it wasn't anything to worry about, right? I mean, it was only 60 extra pounds or so in a year, that's not too bad, and he can always lose it. There's a reason he's been able to stay thin for centuries!
He had more important things to worry about anyways, especially after having helped Mondstadt with their current crisis and gaining the title of regional hero, his sister was still missing! With Venti's advice, he began heading out to Liyue.
But not before stopping by to buy more food than he needed for the journey, "just in case".
Liyue (After Mondstadt):
He was surprised for a moment, Liyue was much, much different than Mondstadt.
Most men's weight was completely healthy! It became apparent to Aether he might have just happened to stumble upon the weirdest nation of all first. Whew, at least things are normal over here now!
There were still some exceptions, though. He met a friendly young man in his early 20s named Gaming whose weight couldn't really be glossed over, considering most Liyueans were of healthy sizes and he really stood out.
Aether never found a reason to bring up Gaming's size due to how many Mondstadtians of his size he had seen the whole previous year, something Gaming felt extremely grateful for, as everyone in his life kept telling him to lose weight, and they quickly became friends.
Thanks to Gaming, Aether was able to learn a great deal about Liyuean culture and customs.
For better or for worse, Aether's presence and in Gaming's life and lack of judgement alleviated some of the pressure he had to urgently lose weight, and he unconsciously began slowly giving into his cravings...
Aether's journey throughout Liyue went by smoothly, he just needed to meet the Geo Archon and... Oh my god, he died in the summoning ceremony? (referencing the events of the canon storyline)
Aether, with the extra padding he still needed some getting used to, pulled out his blade and extended his support for the Qixing in order to restore peace to the imminent threat to Liyue. And their plan was successful!
Having saved Liyue, he went out to meet the real Geo Archon, the dragon who forfeited his godhood and became a human, Zhongli. But no sight in Mondstadt, not even Venti's appearance, could have prepared him for Zhongli.
The ex-archon of Liyue's body was an expanse of several tons of shameless lard, covered in massive angry stretch marks. There was no need for clothing, one could not even tell what part of his body was what.
The dimly lit room he resided in was extremely humid, and Aether didn't know which of the several sounds that created an oppressive atmosphere in the air his ears wanted to focus on; The relentless, aggressive gurgling that rumbled throughout his whole stomach, or the heavy, shallow breaths and grunts from a permanently red-faced man, or perhaps the sounds of men dressed in formal clothes climbing through his glistening, swollen flesh to fill his mouth with as much food at a time as possible, accompanied by Zhongli's hopeless cries begging with his life for more if he spent any second doing anything other than chewing and swallowing, with a desperation Aether had never seen in his life.
Zhongli refused to speak to Aether, he could not afford the luxury of speaking anymore, uttering a word was done in life or death emergencies, like only to beg for more food, and he could not allow himself even two seconds not eating, he couldn't, because he committed the grave mistake of forfeiting his draconic body for a normal human's without taking into consideration the appetite he carried over from his dragon body.
Nothing in the world can make him feel full anymore, he is physically incapable of eating what he would normally eat as a dragon with a small mouth like a human's, and he has felt an unimaginable amount of pain the moment he turned into a human. The only way to even slightly alleviate the pain in his stomach was forcing himself to drown in food for the rest of his life, and this has done extreme damage to his body.
Zhongli lost the ability to walk merely a month into becoming a regular, thin male, and things just escalated from then on. Months later, and at an impossibly gigantic size, Zhongli still feels like he's starving to death, as if he had not eaten anything since he was born, but pausing even for a moment from eating sends sharp pains everywhere in his body, that's why he needs to be fed every waking moment for the rest of his life.
This was too much for Aether, he got out pinching his nose from the overpowering smell and rubbing his eyes to confirm what he had seen was real. He didn't even know humans could get that big.
Perhaps, he shouldn't have seen Zhongli at all, because he didn't even notice he was growing heavier as well in comparison anymore, and at a much faster rate now that his body started getting used to newer, more gluttonous eating habits.
With a properly fat body and an exposed stomach that was hard to miss, he made his way into his next stop; Inazuma, the land of thunder.
Inazuma (After Liyue):
Things were rough in Inazuma from the getgo. Aether, the savior hero from Mondstadt and Liyue, felt like he was now being watched constantly by the residents, who simply looked at him with curiosity instead of welcoming him to their nation.
It became apparent to Aether that being overweight was seen very negatively in Inazuma. Most men he saw on the streets were quite malnourished, and those who weren't spent all of their free time training together to become stronger soldiers for the nation.
But that was fine, he hadn't really put on that much weight since he left Mondstadt. If anything, he's sure he might've slimmed down a bit through his time at Liyue!
He expected to find a disturbing surprise like Zhongli in Inazuma, but he just... didn't. Men were all very conscious of their bodies, and had to follow the Raiden Shogun's mandate to prioritize their health for the good of their nation instead of indulging in selfish gluttony.
But Aether somehow managed to find ways to grow fatter even when food was harder to come by. His stomach had gotten used to his new diet, he simply had to eat something, what kind of famished, poor adventurer let's himself go hungry? It was considerably less than in Liyue, but his weight still shot up throughout his stance in Inazuma as he dealt with the nation's crisis and finally was able to reach the Electro Archon to seek her help in finding his lost sibling.
They never said anything to him about it, but some Inazumans envied Aether's carelesness for his body and how he was eating so freely he didn't even realize he had grown obese.
Sumeru (After Inazuma):
" *Huff* ... *Huff* ... *Huff...* ", the sound of huffing. Aether was very familiar with it from his first stop at Mondstadt, maybe he became too familiar with it, though, because he didn't realize it was coming from him this time around instead of others.
After leaving Inazuma, his next stop was the Sumerian rainforest, a hot and human tropical area, and most importantly, Sumeru city, where he'd hope to find the Dendro Archon in search of any crumbs of information about his twin.
He had to stop midway through Liyue for a couple of weeks to recover from Inazuma. Man, he just felt hungry all the time now, he hoped Sumeru had good food to offer, he would definitely not hold back as much as he did in Inazuma.
It had been a year and several months since he had last seen his good friend Gaming, and he couldn't wait to eat something together. And... well, it was apparent Gaming couldn't wait to eat in general.
Aether saw his friend sitting on the stone bench where they last ate dumplings together before Aether left Liyue, but his weight had clearly spiked up since last time. He had put on way over 200 pounds in the time Aether was away.
With a shirt that barely covered his belly and shorts that were torn at the seams, Gaming noticed Aether and got really flustered and anxious. He couldn't believe his friend was here to see things had gotten even worse.
"H-Hahh... hahh... A-Aether! Man... *wheeze* It's, been some time..." he muttered between shallow breaths. The extra weight had really started to take a toll on his energy.
"I-I'm... *huff* ... *huff* sorry for...this, haha..." He paused to breathe. "I g-guess old habits... *huff* d-die hard... am I right?". Gaming said in a joking voice.
All of his family members and neighbors were growing even more concerned at Gaming's inability to stop his weight gain. It had taken a very sudden, sharp spike in speed right after befriending Aether, and he was heading into a very specific path if he doesn't manage to change things before it's too late. He just felt extremely embarrassed, he knew Aether must've thought he's a helpless hog.
"So how's work been? Have you had the chance to escort any interesting people since I was gone? I still remember the story about that mother with the kids you told me last time, haha." Aether said, in a friendly tone that hit Gaming like a bullet.
He didn't comment anything about his appearance, he...really doesn't mind? His ripped clothes, his constant panting, the absurd size of his legs, he didn't even lay his eyes on them, he just wanted to talk to his friend.
"*Huff* Haha... I-I... I... You see... *Huff* M-Moving around too much... *Huff* Isn't... my thing anymore, haha... ahh.." He paused. "My boss... *Huff* He was... k-kind enough to hire me...as a stationary vigilant instead... So now... *wheeze* I just.. spend most of m-my days... sitting... hahahh..." Gaming admitted, and it was true.
He could still manage to get around, but he had gotten way too big to even think of leaving his village anymore. His legs could only handle very brief walks, making his job as an escort impossible. His boss felt great pity for Gaming, so instead of firing him he gave him some money to sit in one of the benches in the main plaza and told him he'd be a "vigilant".
"That sounds great, you must feel really lucky, eh? Not everyone gets paid for sitting around. It looks like things have improved a lot since we last met, I'm really happy." Aether said.
"H-Hahh..? *Huff* I-Improved...?" Gaming was taken aback by Aether's comment. Has his life improved? No way, everyone around him keeps yelling at him about how bad things are looking for him, why would Aether say that?
I mean... He's not totally wrong, I guess it's kind of nice that my job is just sitting around and enjoying the breeze every day... Some people would kill for that, wouldn't they?
And the food in the plaza is just so good too... Ever since I got this job, I've been able to eat so many delicious meals every day without having to move much anymore...
Gaming was deep in thought about Aether's words, by the time he had come back to his senses, he was already gone, he did mention he was going to Sumeru, right? He wished him safe travels.
On the chair Aether sat in, a very large lid had been left with a note. Gaming rocked his body back and forth and with a heavy grunt reached forward to read it.
"Hey, Gaming! If you're reading this, it means I managed to get away with dropping this letter off without you noticing. I'm still on my way to your village as I'm writing this, and I can't wait to see you again. I'd love to spend more time with you, but I need to head to Sumeru to continue my journey."
Gaming continued to read.
"By the way, I didn't really know how to tell you in person back then, but I thought I'd leave it here cause who knows when we'll see each other again. Well, here it goes... I think you're really cute, Gaming! I've been thinking about you many times throughout this past year, and I catch myself blushing more than I'd like. You've told me you don't like the way you look when we last talked, and I haven't wrapped my head around it since then, so I hope you're able to feel a little more confident with my words! Trust me, you'd be pretty popular with girls in Mondstadt!"
"You should open the lid now if you haven't already."
Gaming leaned forward and lifted the lid of the huge container on the chair. Suddenly, a large, extremely greasy cloud of steam fills the air around.
"You told me stuffed wontons were one of your favorite cheat foods, but that you tried to eat them as little as possible. Maybe you've changed that way of thinking, but why were you even thinking that? If you like something a lot you should enjoy it, no?"
"That's why I tried saving a lot of mora from my adventures throughout the year, and I got in contact with a nearby restaurant to start delivering them to you every morning, evening and night, every day!"
"To show my gratitude as your friend, I also asked them to try a different recipe I'm sure you'll love! I'm gonna read it out to you, I'm sure your mouth will start watering like it did for me!"
"Each wonton is stuffed with a mixture of ground pork belly and fatty duck liver mixed with a rich cream cheese base and caramelized onions cooked in grease with a hefty spoonful of sugar. The dough is kneaded with duck fat for a very rich, buttery casing, and each wonton is made to be thrice as large with generous stuffing. Then, they're all deep fried, not in oil, but on heavy pork fat to ensure a perfect, golden and crispy wonton. After frying, each one is dipped in batter made out of heavy cream, eggs and butter, then deep fried again to achieve a delicious golden crust. After the double fry, they're slathered in a sauce made from highly sweetened condensed milk and melted brown sugar for a caramel-like glaze. And to finish it off, they're served atop a bed of deep-fried pork cracklings, with a drizzle of melted cheese sauce."
"Haha, I only asked them to make sure they were tastier than the original version of the dish, but they really went all out! I guess that's a benefit of being the hero of Liyue..."
"Uhh, you might've realized the container is pretty huge and bursting with wontons. I only asked them for a medium one, considering you'll be getting them three times a day and were only meant as a snack, but the cooks insisted too much I just couldn't say no! So all of them come in family sized containers, I hope you don't mind too much!"
"I think that's all about that, oh right! It's not a one or two week thing, this will be going on for the whole year, tada!! I had to save up a lot of Mora for it, but I hope it shows how much I appreciate your friendship."
"- Aether"
Gaming sat in silence. He had no words. He just let his body move on its own and do what it felt it had to do.
He stuffed the first wonton of thousands to come into his mouth.
Aether set off, happy with leaving such a gift to his friend, and ready to move to the next point of his adventure.
What people said about Sumeru was right, the moment he stepped out the border of Liyue's mountains into the rainforest in the distance, he felt the rising heat and humidity in the air.
"Whew... Sumeru's scorching hot. I was starting to feel the heat in Liyue already, maybe it's just a climate thing." Aether told himself as he traversed the rainforest through the road to the city, reassuring himself that the constant sweatiness he was beginning to experience was something out of his control and not because of his obesity.
"Hey, at least some Sumerians are kind of chubby too", he thought the moment he reached Sumeru City, happy that things weren't as dire as back in Inazuma, though he still missed the atmosphere in Mondstadt a bit...
Unfortunately for Aether, Sumerian food was irresistible, he just didn't have a chance to fight back, immediately becoming addicted to their traditional foods... Butter chicken, samosas, gulab jamun, pan puri... it was all just so delicious.
He no longer had as many restraints as he did in Inazuma, so he just let himself go a concerning amount throughout the year. His journey through Sumeru was going decently, but it was clear things just... started to slow down a bit for Aether.
He just needed to pause to gorge on food all the time, his hunger just kept getting worse day by day. He never paid mind to it, though, being hungry means you need to eat, that's just how it works.
Not to mention, he was starting to struggle to run at all, he would immediately start sweating rivers and panting. Not to mention, it is quite the sight to see Aether's huge belly slosh around with any movement.
His appearance isn't something that can be glossed over anymore, he was actually starting to get seriously big, well into true morbid obesity.
His exposed torso did help with the Sumerian heat, but wow if it wasn't a display of obscene levels of fat. He was forced to take out he ornaments he wore on his chest since they dug into his skin painfully, leaving now the remains of a crop top which has riden up to only cover his shoulders, His massive moobs now on full display all the time.
Nobody wanted to point it out to him, but Aether now waddled instead of walked. His fat sloshed from side to side and bounced freely with each heavy step.
Tighnari offered some comments hidden as weight loss advice, but it went completely over Aether's head.
The only person with a peculiar reaction was Alhaitham. The stoic muscular man had been crucial to solving the crisis around Sumeru, and he surely took every possible opportunity to invite Aether for food every single time they bumped into eachother. Most of the times he wouldn't order anything for himself, or just a small salad, but he would pay for all of Aether's meals and always choose them for him.
Aether found this very kind of him! He also noticed he would take the menu card every time and read how many calories each item had, then always order the one with the highest count without fail! He was really grateful for all the food he has paid for him, but sometimes wished he would've stopped ordering more plates after he said he was already full and insist it was disrespectful not to accept a friend's gifts...
His time at Sumeru came out to be pretty enjoyable, he managed to get some new information about his sister. Weighing over 600 pounds and constantly wiping the sweat off his brow, Aether took a week long break to fully dedicate himself to eat as much as he could as a last goodbye to Sumeru before heading out to his next destination.
To Fontaine.
Fontaine (After Sumeru):
Fontaine is likely one of if not the most permanently life-altering nation in all of Teyvat. Not because of the views or the land's history, but because of beyond extreme obesity.
A nation completely overtaken by gluttony, where tens of thousands of men fatten up to the size of buildings, and one is only considered to be getting chubby after reaching a metric ton of fat.
Fontaine's history of mass extreme obesity is centuries old, and it has become completely irreversible.
On New Year's Eve, a very important chart for the people of Fontaine is updated; The Fontainian Weight Classes. A system which classifies the people of Fontaine into specific weight classes based on their weight and an analysis on the population.
A second chart is also updated on this day; The National Fontainian Average Weight, which year after year shows, like its name indicates, what is considered by the government to be the "average" weight of a "healthy" Fontainian person.
Unsurprisingly, this number has always gone up, the people of Fontaine get heavier and heavier on average year after year, but the chart has begun to show a spike in this number in the last decade.
When Aether first stepped into Teyvat 4 years ago, a healthy Fontainian male was considered to weigh 921 pounds. Currently, though, it has blown up to 980 pounds in a very short amount of time. Men grow more and more sedentary as machinery takes over any semblance of hard effort with time, resulting in progressively heavier people generation after generation.
Being extremely obese is just part of Fontaine's culture, as well as extreme hedonism, which is why almost every establishment in the capital city are massive restaurants. Feasting for hours every single day with family or friends is the national standard for everyone. People of Fontaine communicate through food more than words. You can't ask to talk to someone about anything without first inviting them to the nearest buffet, as it is incredibly rude, and you have to bring at least one cart of food if you're visiting someone.
Thanks to the centuries of adaptation to their extreme sizes, Fontainians are considerably much more mobile than any other nation's people. It takes the average man around 10,000 pounds of fat to finally lose the strength in his legs to stand up, but up to that point men will carry their blobby masses through the streets in slow, sluggish movements.
This results in... very interesting sights and sounds throughout the streets of Fontaine. Every single corner of the city is filled with struggling panting and wheezing of thousands of men simultaneously. Nonstop ear-shattering belches that can last a whole minute coming from dozens all the time, and the intense sounds of inner gurgling and groaning from from men's stomachs as they digest dozens of pounds of food they consume every day that drown out any conversation inside one could have in an interior.
Ventilation is a top priority in Fontaine. More than half the population of men sweat at least 100 liters a day, which is why Fontainian men's skin is always glistening, touching their flesh will drench your hand as if you put it into a bathtub of grease. Interiors need several ventilation windows and grates on all walls, otherwise the establishments will steam up very quickly and the humidity will quickly rise to over 95. In order to keep their gigantic bodies from overheating too much, they have to live with the permanent dampness in their whole bodies.
And how to forget Neuvillette, the Hydro Sovereign dragon who forfeited his draconic form to gain a human body, not knowing that each time it rained in the nation he would blow up in size due to a miscalculation. After 500 years, he has exploded to half the size of the capital city.
He can't feel his body, he can't see nor talk, the fat on his face weighs hundreds of tons on its own and there's only a small sliver for his mouth to breathe. He does not eat, the rain feeds him and makes his body expand further. He is able to telepathically communicate with the Melusines, who carry out giving out orders and updating Neuvillette on the current affairs of the nation.
He is the heaviest living being in the history of Teyvat, and his massive growth is becoming a political and geographical issue, since he is immortal and his body will some day cover tens of thousands of miles in every direction.
But long before that day comes, Fontainian's average weight will continue skyrocketing in the following decades, with 980 pounds going from the average healthy weight to the size of the most malnourished of the entire population. Men's bodies will continue breaking limits.
Fontainian researches have speculated that in the following years a massive increase in the average size will occur now that they've invented and globalized all the machines needed to take care of men of any size, allowing a larger percentage of the population to let themselves grow irreversibly massive. Twenty years from now, the healthiest light-weight size for men will have more than doubled, with 2300 pounds becoming that year's new health standard. People will physically be incapable of weighing less than 600 pounds, which will be considered an extremely concerning level of low body mass, and instead of the current 14% of men who've reached the immobility class, it will go up to 27%, making more than a quarter of men completely unable to move or feel their bodies anymore under tens of thousands of crushing pounds.
This is why stepping foot into a nation like Fontaine could cost you your life if you are not extremely careful.
Any person that travels to Fontaine will gain weight, without exception. Those who stay for a week will only come back home with a spare tire, but spending more than a month in there is a hard limit any adventurer sets for themselves.
The popular saying of "a pound gained in Fontaine is a pound maintained for life" in Teyvat is no exaggeration. Almost everyone who gained weight as a result of staying in Fontaine and returned home were never able to lose a pound for the rest of their lives. In many cases, Fontaine will have affected people to a point where even after leaving and never returning, they will continue growing fatter and fatter.
This happens to a point where a term was coined to describe it, "Adiposed fathers", as it almost exclusively applied to regular family men whose jobs had them stay at Fontaine for several months, returning with two or three hundred extra pounds of fat, but then their real growth will begin back home, as their obesity gradually worsens and they end up bedridden for the rest of their lives. This happens majorly in Liyuean and Sumerian families, as they dominate international trading and need a lot of people to deal with economic matters in Fontaine.
But those are uncommon cases, and most people will only go on to become moderately overweight after their visits to Fontaine, which is why Aether's extremely rapid growth is highly concerning.
Liney, one of the few Fontainians who could manage their weight and was much slimmer than Aether, was the first to greet him to Fontaine.
Aether had heard stories about Fontainian people, and how the absurd extremity of their mass obesity could never be understood until you've been there in person. He was very curious, he thought Mondstadt was already a crazily fat nation, but it turns out Fontaine makes even them look like a famished population.
All the rumors were true, Fontaine was genuinely insane. Aether had to cover his ears from the harsh cacophony of sounds coming from the streets until he got used to the noise. He didn't really have any words, he had seen "skinnier" Fontainians in other nations before, but watching the streets packed with thousands of panting men carrying thousands of heavy, sagging pounds on their bodies and dragging their spilling fat with sluggish waddles had him shocked.
But then he walked up to the nearest restaurant, and tried Fontainian food for the first time.
And any remaining semblance of the old, lean, health-conscious Aether before his descent to Teyvat vanished forever.
One week into settling into Fontaine, Aether had signed up for 11 different restaurants and buffets, which awarded him points and discounts for choosing to eat at their locations. He would rent self maneuvering robots to constantly bring him food while he was in his bedroom and not eating outside. He had fallen flat into the inescapable rabbit hole of Fontainian gluttony.
And he started to get big, really big. He gained over 100 pounds in just his first month, and each passing month he would progressively gain more than the last one as his stomach expanded and his sedentarism grew.
It was a vicious cycle. The people of Fontaine adored him, they saw his rapidly worsening obesity as a sign of respect and love for their culture and cuisine, and would invite him to meal after meal after meal, making Aether grow fatter and fatter and making the people more and more eager to keep increasing the amount of food for him to gorge on.
This would happen day after day for weeks and months, and by the time his yearly stance had finished, he was unrecognizable, weighing a staggering 3180 pounds.
He had long forfeited a semblance of clothes. partial nudity wasn't too uncommon in Fontaine, and he made use of super stretchy shorts and his old crop top which didn't do anything to cover his massive expansive flesh anymore. The people of Fontaine highly preferred this exposed look for him, as it showed just how much permanent damage the region had done to his body, and how even the mightiest heroes can't help themselves around Fontaine's cuisine.
He just struggled to move, his arms limited to a tiny range of motion as they lay spread open on top of his gigantic sagging moobs. His cellulite-ridden legs swollen with fat and a field of vision occupied by the massively protruding lard hanging off his torso.
His growth had been so sudden he lacked the agility Fontainians his size had grown up with, but thankfully for his great strength as an otherwordly traveler, he could still stand up moderately fine, whereas most other men from any other nation would have already collapsed under the crushing weight.
But it was over for Aether. Every pound gained in Fontaine is a pound forever maintained. The size he currently is will be the lightest he will be for the rest of his life, and he'll have to live life as a massively cumbersome pile of rolls exploding with lard forever.
A good ending for Aether would be for him to maintain his current size and prioritize his health now that he will finally leave Fontaine. He can still manage to live a relatively normal life albeit with extreme struggles everyday.
But that won't happen. Aether is too far gone. He is convinced he only gained 100 or 200 pounds during his stay at Fontaine and that he can lose weight once his adventure is done with. This is just the start of his spiral into levels of extreme obesity nobody had ever expected him to reach.
