Always Try the house Blend pt. 3-4

ALWAYS TRY THE HOUSE BLEND

Part 3

By: wingofhorus

Jared *almost* wished that the guys in the bar were better looking that night. But he had learned the hard way not to make idle wishes like that... there were always too many complications to fix later on, when he bothered with fixing them.

He sighed... too many old, out-of-shape guys nursing beers, giving furtive glances around to see if anyone might be interested in giving them the time of day let alone a little bit of loving for the night. How they expected to meet the man of their dreams, let alone a one-night stand, when they were too timid to talk or make eye contact with anyone else was beyond him. Jared had no trouble picking guys up. Of course, he usually wished them horny or desperate (or horny *and* desperate) and that he was exactly their type too, so it all worked out. Then, of course, if they were a lousy lay he could always punish them and kick them out. They never remembered that they'd been thin or muscular or good looking or tall or any of it. They also never remembered they'd ever met Jared.

Or at least they weren't supposed to remember any of that... there was a problem that Jared couldn't figure out. The source had told him at the beginning when he dug up the jar that if he wanted, the wishes could be retroactive. They didn't have to be, but they could be. But even when he did that, they sometimes had ghost memories come back of their lives previous to the new ones and sometimes of Jared making the changes, which the source had said shouldn't have happened. The source said Jared could do anything, but it wasn't working that way.

He was really pissed at the source. The source had said he could wish for anything, and then turned right around and not been able to do it, or not the way he wanted it. He wished for a new Jeep and got one that was 8 years old and had 250,000 miles on it. He wished for a pile of money, and the moment it landed in front of him (literally), an IRS agent knocked on the door to collect over 95 percent of it for taxes! He had exactly enough left to buy a pair of jeans at the thrift store. He was really pissed, but he could deal with it. After all, he'd figured out a way to punish the source without any of it reflecting on him, so it all evened out.

Jared blew a nice blue cloud out around him and got a very pleasant buzz from the tobacco. It was so nice, too. It made him hard and kept him that way for hours. He loved fucking guys while smoking the pipe. They started whimpering they were too sore after only three hours and he liked hearing that. Especially after five hours.

Jared noticed a few of the guys he'd worked over hanging around the bar... some of them had never even been in a leather bar before Jared had come along, but now they were true leather men and boys. There was that one guy, Alan or Andy or whatever the hell it was, walking along the bar, tight hairless torso reflecting the light, holding a bottle of water, his shirt tucked into the back of his baggy jeans and a large bottle of lube and a string of condoms sticking out of the other pocket, clearly advertising his interest. Some of the previously despondent lonely guys suddenly all started checking him out as he walked by, and Andy or Alan - let's call him Alan - checked them all out in return, clearly deciding not which one of them to fuck but rather in what order to fuck ALL of them. And they knew it.

He had been a fun one, all right. He'd shown up one day at Jared's doorstep asking whether he'd be interested in discussing the Bible. Of course I am! I love discussing the Bible. Do you mind if I smoke a pipe while we do? The kid went from a sexually repressed 21-year old Jehovah's Witness to a cock-hungry, tight-bodied and loose-holed circuit boy with an insatiable ass that literally needed it from every man he saw. And he could get it too: Jared made it so that Alan gave off a pheromone that would attract any human male sexually, regardless of orientation, and they would mount him like a stud horse on a mare in heat. Alan got fucked an average of ten times every day now.

He'd been a law student before too. After, Alan had been a high school dropout who'd been kicked out by his deeply religious parents the year before and did lawn work to support his sex life and partying. That was the thing about retroactive wishes like that. It was weird how the story of their lives would change so drastically just by changing how they were now. And it was weird how, when Jared examined it, the further back in the past the point was that their life had deviated from the original, the greater the difference between the two lives. And there were other incidental changes that Jared didn't specifically wish for, but somehow evolved on their own. For example, Jared hadn't specifically wished that Alan practice only safe sex, but he did it anyway. Huh. Weird.

Jared shook his head. Hoo, this is a good buzz, better than usual, he thought. I'm getting too philosophical. He shook his head to clear it, but it didn't help. Wow. Well, I'll just check out what else there is to look at tonight.

Lots of his handiwork in the bar tonight... there's the bartender who had needed a full beard and mustache; the accountant that now liked deep fisting; the football player with the microdick (Jared hadn't appreciated the fact that he'd had a bigger dick, so he shrank it); the couple that Jared had changed into identical twins who were in love; the lean blond leather tailor who had been a wide dark Mexican; and of course Dave and Dave.

Dave and Dave were boyfriends who had both been in the fitness career. Dave One had been a personal trainer and aerobics instructor and Dave Two a competitive bodybuilder and (unofficial) male porn star. Well, Dave One had made the mistake of pissing Jared off by not giving him a discount on his gym membership. Jared made a non-retroactive wish on them both: they would start gaining unattractive fat weight at a greatly accelerated rate no matter what they did. It took a quick year to turn them into human blobs. When they hit 275 and a good portion of it was fat over their muscles, they started crash dieting. When they hit 300 they went to a specialist who stapled their stomachs. When they hit 350 they started drinking.

Now, at around 475 for each of them, their entire bodies were so wide and round that they required two stools each to support their massive ass cheeks. They also had low-hanging belly aprons that reached so far down they had to be tucked in. It wasn't Jared's fault that they were both about 5'6". Oh, well, Jared had already set their weight limit at 438 anyway before it stopped. (Also, he made sure that the alcohol turned to fat the instant it hit their bodies. He didn't want them to be alcoholics.) They sure didn't look happy. But Jared might decide that they deserved to thin up again and would lose it over the span of a few months. Might, that is.

Jared was not one who should wield power. He was the type to abuse any authority or privilege he has. More to the point, he wasn't a very nice person. Never had been. It was largely due to that predilection that Jared ended up after graduation working in a low-paying clerk position at a pipe and cigar store. What a pain in the ass. It wasn't his fault that the son of the manager at Jared's office job had come on to him. Jared only fucked him a little. But now he was stuck in this job and had no hope.

Until he found the jar in the landfill. A pretty jar. A nice jar. A beautiful hand-carved crystal jar that Jared thought he might be able to sell on eBay for a few bucks and had had a surprise inside. "Source," Jared said between puffs.

{Yes, Jared.} The source sounded very much like it was cringing. Jared hated cringing. He just wanted the source to do what he said. {Is there something I can do for you?}

"You know damn well there is. Where is this gorgeous guy I'm supposed to meet? You said I'd see him here. All I see are the regular losers." Jared sneered toward them, now starting to line up in the back room behind Alan.

{I said that there would be a good-looking man in the bar tonight who could change your life for the better, Jared.} Gak, but he hated that sniveling tone too. {He's here somewhere. Even I can't make him just land in your lap. That's not how these things are supposed to work. I...}

Shut up, Jared thought. The source instantly went quiet. Jared had certainly taught it to shut up when he wanted it shut up. Where was this asshole anyway? Then Jared got a glimpse out of the corner of his eye. Woah... this guy is hot! Or he could be, anyway... Lose the rotten haircut and give him a goatee, a PA maybe... hmm... different clothes definitely... and what about a... Jared suddenly yelped in pain as someone trod heavily on his foot.

The guy spun around, abruptly very contrite. "Wow, gee, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he said. If Jared hadn't in pain and kind of pissed, he'd be attracted to him without having to change him first: he had looks, a nice body and seemed to be a nice guy - not that that made any difference - and even had decent clothes. Nice. Jared would like him a lot. If he weren't pissed off.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, you asshole!" he yelled at the guy. He glanced over where the man had been and he was gone. Dammit! I don't remember exactly what he looks like now. If Jared had been able to, he could have made a wish that the man he was picturing be attracted to him or find him somewhere. It was harder with just a vague description. He was pissed. "Shit!"

The guy may have been nice, but even he wasn't willing to be walked over by a perfect stranger. "Well, hell, dude, all I said was I'm sorry."

It was exactly the wrong thing to say to Jared right at that moment. He had the pipe handy and the wishes instantly made up and he let loose in his mind what he wanted. Yep, Jared was pissed, so he decided to let this guy reflect that too. The source started interrupting right as the wishes were taking effect. {But Jared, he's the one...!}

SHUT UP AND DO IT! Jared mentally yelled back, his face contorted in fury.

There was a distinct pause before the source responded. {Your wish is my command, Jared.} Jared was so enraged at the man in front of him that he did not even hear the smug tone in the source's "voice." {I will do exactly as you ask.}

The guy in front of him suddenly jerked as though he'd been stabbed. "Oh," he said, his eyes going wide. And then the world changed.

The guy standing next to him, who'd been standing looking at the scene erupting in front of him, suddenly turned away from them both and was chatting with the guy next to him as though they'd been friends for years. He wasn't even looking at his friend now. His former friend. It was another ancillary change; he had never met the man now changing in front of Jared.

He was around 30, had sandy brown hair, and looked like an average guy in average clothes hanging out with his friends in the leather bar just for a change of pace. He looked like he was vibrating in place as the changes took place. He wasn't in pain, or the source said once that when they changed they weren't.

The other people around them also didn't notice the change going on; the usual activities were taking place in the bar as though things had always been that way. But even with that, the bar was changing around them too; another ancillary change was coming. Jared could feel it. He'd learned to recognize the signs. A grey haze seemed to be settling around parts of the bar, a large banner appearing over the bar proper, getting sharper and clearer as the moments passed, and the number of guys was also increasing right in front of him, getting more loud and raucous. All right, Jared thought approvingly, looking around. The attractiveness degree had definitely improved because of this guy. Speaking of which, Jared returned his attention to him. Hmm, Jared thought. Interesting.

What had been an early 30s guppie in nondescript clothes had evolved. He was now well over a foot shorter, around 4'9", and was 20 years older and a balding grey. More to the point was what he was now wearing. His nondescript blue shirt, khaki slacks and Oxfords were now a leather bar vest on his bare smooth front, very tight leather shorts, and knee-high lace-up engineers' boots. He had a rather chubby, cherubic face and a big belly on him now. Big even for someone taller. Well, considering what he was into (now), he needed the room. Running up each side of his vest and his short shorts were wide strips of yellow leather, and the laces in his boots were also bright enough yellow to glow in the darkness of the bar.

Over the bar, the banner read BEER BUST THURSDAY - PERSONAL URINAL SERVICE. Well, well, well, Jared thought. That turned out better than I thought.

"Hey, Rudy," the mustachioed bartender called out, and the guy turned to him. He had forgotten that he had ever been different. He did give one glance to Jared with a very strange look on his face before answering. Dammit! Jared thought. He almost remembers!

"Hey, Judd," he said. "Is it all set up for me?" He started sidling up to the bar, his chest not quite clearing the height. He had a slight swing to his walk now, now that he had so much more poundage to accommodate. His belly was definitely a burden.

"You bet, dude," Judd replied, brushing the thick hair away from his lips. The mustache was so thick and long that at times it looked as though he didn't have a mouth. "The urinals are shut down for the night and the beer's been flowing. We've already had about ten guys asking why they can't take a piss." He got an evil leer on his face. "And I drank about a gallon myself just in the last half hour. I hope you've still got that amazing capacity of yours." He looked like he was salivating just looking at him.

Rudy gave him a very lusty look in return. "Just last week I was the reservoir for the Windstars' after-game beer bash, and that lasted about 12 hours." The Windstars were the local arena football team. "They went through four kegs and I got it all." He started unfastening his shorts. "And I was plugged for two days after." He opened the front of his shorts just enough to reveal a catheter sticking out of the end of his dick, clamped off and locked to be unable to open. "I was so full I couldn't even fit behind the steering wheel to get home." He was getting hard at the story.

So was Judd, apparently. "You better get going before I rape you right here. Don't worry, I'll unchain you after closing time." Six or seven hours from now. With a final look, Judd turned back to his next customer.

Rudy wasted no time. He headed directly for the bathroom, where he would find what he always found there; a special urinal fitting for his mouth so that the bar could drain into him, and a chain to put around his ankle to keep him locked into place until let go.

Wild, Jared thought. Most of that Jared hadn't wished for, it had just sort of happened. And he knew about the fitting and the chain the same way he knew about the other changes he made. "Okay, give me the rundown."

{He was a computer consultant for a cellular phone company before. Now he's the owner of that same company and makes about twice as much as he had before. The company is now very gay and very kink-oriented. He's older and is rich enough that he can do whatever the hell he wants with his life and no one can say anything. He doesn't have a lover...}

That's enough, Jared thought, disgruntled. He'd intended to punish the guy by making him a piss freak and now his life was better than before! Shit! The source had said that Jared really had no control over some of the finer points of the wishes, but still. "What was it you were saying earlier? Was it the guy I was supposed to meet tonight?" He didn't see him around now. He must have left. Shit!

Again, Jared was so engrossed in looking around that he didn't notice the pause before the source spoke again. {The man I hoped you would meet is still here tonight, Jared. That hasn't changed.} He also didn't notice how careful the source was making its voice sound. {He isn't anywhere in sight now.}

"I can see that, goofball." Well, I can fix that. "Can I wish him to reappear?" He'd never tried that before, but he didn't see why he couldn't do it now.

The source hesitated and he yelled at it to get a move on. {I'm sorry, Jared.} the source simpered. {He's already near you, so wishing for him to be near you wouldn't do anything. However, if you wish, for example, for the man that you saw in passing to find you at some other place and time outside of here, that will work.}

"Fine," Jared said, taking a deliberately deep inhale of the pipe. "I wish that the guy that I saw in passing would come to the tobacco shop with an interest in smoking pipes." It was all he could think of to get him to show up. "And make him shave his head and add a goatee. Plus a PA. A big gauge, but not too big." If it was too big, Jared would be turned off and he'd have to punish the guy.

{The wish is granted, Jared. The man you saw in passing before your foot got stepped on will appear in your store tomorrow, exactly as you described him.}

"Fine, fine," Jared said absently, his mind racing with possibilities. This could work out just fine. He wanted to take his time with this one, lure him in, seduce him, maybe even have him try the special blend to rope him in. Yeah, that could work. He'll improve my life all right. He's going to be so in love with me he won't be able to live without my lovin'. And it would be good to have the rent taken care of. It would be so easy to just wish him under control but that wouldn't be as much fun as tearing him down.

{Jared, improving your life isn't supposed to be that way.} Shit, it was like having a built-in commentator in your head all the time. {There's a better approach to...}

SHUT UP! Jared screamed mentally. The source went quiet immediately, but Jared had been pushed over the line again, as he usually was very easily most days. I *warned* you not to give me that lecture again!

{Jared, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Please don't!}

"Too late," Jared said aloud, putting his beer on the counter in front of him. "You asked for it." And with that, Jared closed his eyes and started thinking about his earliest childhood memories. The good ones. The time he cut the cat's whiskers off. When he threw paint at the principal. When he broke the mirror on his dad's RV and got his brother to take the heat. When he threw the bees' nest into the cabin at camp in the middle of the night and then barred the door.

Then his high school memories. Supergluing the teacher's lounge door shut. Hacking the computer in the principal's office and having all the math textbooks sent to Alaska. Putting indelible green dye in the shower system of the football team's locker room during the game. Hotwiring the activities bus and sending it into the lake. Putting hydrochloric acid on the school statue's face.

College. Handcuffing his passed-out roommate naked to the railing outside the dorms. The first time he raped his nerd chem lab partner in exchange for him doing all the work. The second, fifth, and tenth times. Smacking the bitch that failed him in Algebra. Taking the...

{PLEASE!} The source begged. Jared had been very happy to find out that his memories hurt the source. He didn't know why, exactly - they were just stuff he did - but when the source was being bad, it was the next best thing to a good spanking for a disembodied voice in his head. {I'm sorry, Jared! I'll do whatever you want! Please stop hurting me!}

Then remember what I said next time, Jared thought. The source whined and moaned about Jared's attitude over and over, but Jared didn't see the problem. It was everybody else who didn't care enough to give Jared a break. He'd had to punish the source a few times to make him get the point, but the damn thing still had to pick at him. It never learned. "Okay, fine," Jared said. "You said anything. Get me somebody for the night." Then, before the source could remind him AGAIN, he took a deep inhale from the pipe and said, "*I wish* you would get me somebody for the night. I'm horny."

It was the tobacco. Damn but was it the tobacco! He'd had to point his dick upward to make sure he could still stand at the bar without scaring off the guys around him. Of course, he had to pull his shirt out of his pants to let it cover the head, which was sticking out over his belt and throbbing. At least he'd thought ahead and put a regular-sized condom over the head to catch the precum. It was stretched to the max over the head but it did the job well enough. As long as he emptied it every hour or so. He didn't want another explosion like what happened at the supermarket that one time. He'd had to modify a lot of memories that day to get out of the embarrassment.

{Of course, Jared.} The source sounded like a very small child desperate to please. {There's a man at the end of the bar in a vest and jeans who's been eyeing you for the past several hours, since right after you made the changes to Rudy.} Jared blinked and then growled to himself. Shit. He'd been so lost in thought punishing the source that time had flown by without him noticing it. Not the first time it had happened either. But before he could say anything, the source continued. {I made it look like you were playing coy with him, Jared, not wanting to rush things but definitely interested. You didn't look like a zombie. I promise.} The words came out in a rush in Jared's head. He nodded. Good. The first couple of times, the source had had to be punished again for letting Jared just sit there like a mindless idiot when it could fix things retroactively. {He wants to get you in bed. Truly.}

Better be the case, Jared thought, turning away from his beer. It must have been changed during his out time too; it was full where before it had been empty. When he was near the end of the bar, making eye contact with the guy the whole time, he sidled up and got next to the bar in front of him. There was no mistaking his intent. "Hey," he said, keeping the steady eye contact.

"Hey," the guy said in return, checking Jared out up and down. Hoo, baby, Jared thought. He's horny for it. Good. "So, do you get out very...?"

"Screw this shit, baby," Jared said, leaning in very close and forcing a kiss on the guy. He struggled a bit and then melted into it like butter. Score! "I don't like small talk," he said once he broke the kiss. "Follow me to my place if you want it. I've got to get off and you're the hottest piece here tonight." That wasn't strictly true, it was the anonymous guy still wandering around somewhere, but it was close enough to fuck him. "I want that ass and you're going to give it to me all night." And when he said all night he meant until the sun was in the sky next morning and people were getting sunburns. He then pushed him away and started for the door. "One chance. Follow me or not."

Sure enough, the guy was on his heels like a hungry puppy. But before they got even halfway across the bar, there was a roaring cheer from the crowd. Something else must have happened when he was out, because everyone was looking in the direction of the bathroom and applauding. When they got to within ten feet, Jared saw exactly what it was. Rudy. Jared blinked and did a double take, looking like he'd been hit between the eyes with a two-by-four.

It was Rudy all right, or a greatly inflated version of him. And inflated was exactly the right word. He was lying on his back on a wheeled pallet, apparently one used for hauling beer in from the trucks in the back. His already huge belly had more than quadrupled in size, until it was nearly as tall as Jared's chest and extending down to below his knees and to the middle of his chest in diameter. Wide stretch marks were now crisscrossing it in all directions. Rudy looked dazed and was breathing laboriously, but had a look of extreme contentment on his face. His shorts and vest were lying on the pallet next to him, both far too small for his now enormous form.

"A NEW RECORD!" The bartender Judd yelled. He sounded a little muffled through all the hair. "HE DRAINED THE TAP! AND ALL OF US!!!" The cheers became deafening.

Jared ground his teeth and stomped out the door, still being followed. He'd almost forgotten the guy behind him. Dammit! He's not supposed to enjoy himself! He thought out a long list of obscenities.

A few moments later, he got to his car, and not being happy at all, he turned to the guy behind him and said, "Follow me to my place. You better be ready for an all-nighter, baby. I need the relief." That was strictly true, but he also meant from the stress.

The guy was so heated up that Jared's arrogant attitude turned him on. By that and by the other thing. "Whatever you want. I see what's in your pants." It was true. The head was hidden from plain sight but where the shaft was in his pants it was obviously inordinately thick to anyone looking. "I can take it all night and all day. I stay lubed up just in case I run into a guy like you."

Shee-yit, you did a damn good job with him, source! He was very sparing in his compliments to the source, but when a good enough job happened, such as this, Jared was by no means stingy. I never met a guy so cock-hungry. That must've taken some effort.

{I didn't do anything to him. He was like that before you saw him. Hot for you and an insatiable ass. I just noticed that he was there.}

If Jared didn't know that the source was incapable of lying, he would have assumed a trick, but it had to be. Well, even better. He knew he was hot.

If the source had been human, it would have sighed at that thought.

The drive took surprisingly little time, even though they were a good 20 miles away. Still, it was soon enough that Jared and this guy, whatever his name was, were deep tonguing and ripping each other's clothes off before they even made it in the door. Once they were in, the guy practically tore his shirt getting it off of him. When the apple-sized head of Jared's dick and the wrist-thick-plus shaft came into view, still sticking over his belt loop, the guy had only one thing to say. "WOW...!" His own dick was tenting the front of his pants like a circus tent. "I knew it was big but shit...!" His own clothes took even less time to shuck. "I have never seen anything like that. Ever. You are so damn BIG!"

And it was. Extending out ramrod straight and pulsing in time to Jared's heartbeat was what he liked to call the Cock of God. It was thirteen inches long, had a mushroom head, and a shaft that was exactly 10 inches in circumference. Most guys couldn't take it at first. Until Jared opened them up a little.

Jared gave a small contented puff on the pipe looking down at his friend. He'd certainly broken enough cherries with that thing, all of whom were now spoiled for anything else. Jared remembered vividly the weekend he spent in his old fraternity house. He'd arrived Friday evening and left Monday morning, and in between those times he fucked every single in-house brother at least three times. He'd wished to not need sleep for the entire weekend so that he could do all of them, but most of them missed sleep too. Sheez, you'd think none of them had ever been fucked by a fire hydrant before. Well, come to think of it, none of them had been fucked at all before. When he left, there were naked, passed out guys in every room and a few on the stairway, mouths hanging open from giving blowjobs on the biggest dick they'd ever seen, assholes hanging open because they'd been stretched beyond their limit. Oh, well, the source said that a few of them would never be able to tighten up again, maybe half, but they'd learn to deal with it.

His personal favorite had been Westerman, the quarterback. Westerman was the younger brother of his old roomie at the frat, the one who had let Jared's car get towed away from in front of the house. It had only been there for a minute or two, maybe an hour. It's not like it was parked illegally or anything. Well, not much. Well, the older brother was overseas somewhere, but he could take it out on Junior.

At 6'6" and a good 290 of muscle, he'd squealed like a pig when it went in (but unable to say no to it) and was bucking back like a pro by the end of the first time. Jared had made Westerman the star of the night, fucking him over and over on the dining room table doggy style with him in his jersey and jockstrap from the team. Jared had also had a few choice wishes for the guy too. He ended up with a jock fetish, needing to wear one constantly, certainly during sex. It also made his ass hungry. Well, Jared took care of that too. They weren't in the bar tonight, but Westerman and his Daddy, the coach of the university when that weekend had happened, were regulars. Daddy still had his thick slab chest and flattop and still looked every bit the part of a coach, even this long after retirement. Westerman had made a few changes at his Daddy's behest since then. His boyish haircut was gone permanently, follicles and all, along with all of his body hair except for eyebrows and a goatee. Jared hadn't realized just how expensive electrolysis was all over the body. But that wasn't to say that he wasn't adorned; he now had several strategically placed tattoos on his chest, his arms, and his back, the most notable one being the one on his muscular right ass cheek that was a large balled fist with the word PIG in the middle of it. Not that he needed the advertisement; his ass lips hung down a good three inches all the time. Apparently the coach had had a secret interest he hadn't told anyone about. And he had big hands too. Well, he kept Westerman working out too, like a coach on a quarterback should. He was as big as any bodybuilder if not bigger, and loved every minute of his new life.

Jared chuckled to himself. The first thing that he had wished for when he'd found the jar was exactly what started all of that. A superhumanly huge dick, monster balls, huge loads, and iron stamina. It was the only thing the source had given him so far that had come out exactly as he intended it and he used it as often as possible on anyone not used to that size. He now had a long list of admirers who had not been size queens or been into fisting before Jared fucked them. Now they were all sloppy and could not be easily satisfied. And here was a guy who needed exactly that. "And you're getting it all, all night long," he said to the guy. "Get in the house."

It took less than ten minutes for Jared to be balls deep in the guy. It took that long because Jared had to get out one of his special-size condoms and lube it up. It took a while to do. But then he discovered that the guy hadn't been kidding; he was no cherry by any means. A warm cavern was a better description. He had no trouble taking Jared right off, no preparation. Jared at first expected for him to be just another sloppy hole to fuck - so many fisting bottoms wanted Jared to fuck them, but Jared always felt like he was fucking a lawn bag they were so open - but it wasn't like that either. He had incredible muscle control too. He'd open up wide and then clamp down, then selectively clamp down in rapid succession in different places along the shaft. Jared's eyes rolled into the back of his head on several occasions, being brought to the brink and then pushed back, over and over.

And the guy hadn't exaggerated his endurance either; the longer Jared went and the harder he pounded, the more the guy wanted it. Jared fucked him doggy-style. He fucked him with the guy sitting on it. He fucked him in a scissors position. He raised the guy's legs behind his ears and plowed like a pile-driver. He even held him upside down from his ankles and slid it in and out rapid-fire. Jared lost count of the loads he blew.

When Jared opened his eyes, absolutely exhausted, and saw the sun shining high on the horizon, he very nearly tried to go back to sleep. The guy had literally drained him of every bit of energy he had. He could have had the source just keep him going, but enough was enough right then. This guy was definitely all that and a bag of chips.

"Oooh... Uhh..." the guy was now moaning, his hands running over his cock and balls, coated in more than a dozen of his own loads. "Shiiiitttt... oh, man, I have never had it so good. This is what I have wanted all my life!" He sounded dead exhausted and on the moon with satisfaction. There was a loud sound like ripping fabric as he let out a long, low fart.

"No problem," Jared said thickly, trying very hard to stay awake and failing. "I never met someone that could get me off so well." Well, not before changing them, that is. "I think you deserve a reward."

The guy smiled and leaned in to kiss Jared on the lips. "If you mean breakfast, I accept." He started sidling out of the bed, but when he reached his feet, he revealed that he was so fucked that he was now as bow-legged as an ape. He gave another loud fart and a steady stream of lube rolled out of his open hole and went down his leg. Damn but he did a good job on this one! "I hope you have a chair I can sit in. I don't think that I can stay too long on my feet. I'm too sore." He proved it by walking a few steps and moved like his legs were almost dislocated from being spread so far. He hadn't walked like that in the bar last night.

Lighting his pipe, Jared inhaled until there was a large plume of blue haze around himself before saying, "No, I mean a real reward. I wish you were a lot more muscular. Like bodybuilder size. But that you still had that amazing ass of yours." The guy looked puzzled for a moment before his eyes rolled up in his head and he started to fuzz out, looking, like the guy last night, like he was vibrating. "And I wish you wouldn't remember that I made any wishes just now."

Jared got up and pulled his clothes on while watching the change happen. Where there had been a rather slender dark guy before, now a swarthy behemoth was appearing. He appeared to have no neck because his traps were so large. His pecs were like armor plating and his biceps inflated to basketball size. His shoulders were like bowling balls. His waist stayed the same size but appeared to be much smaller due to the enormity of the rest of his body. His thighs were as thick as a normal man's waist. Impressive, Jared thought. The guy can really build muscle. He laughed to himself. He just did.

"Whoa, dude," the guy said once the change had stopped. His voice had dropped by about an octave and his face had become lantern-jawed and angular. Hmm, an HGH freak too. "That was like the most amazing sex I have ever had. Most guys don't want to fuck me since I'm so big. I have to end up fucking them. But I have never been fucked so deep or so long. Thank you." Wow, he was even still a nice guy. He really deserved the reward. "Can we get together again sometime soon? I need it more than I get it. You are so damn good."

"For damn sure. Give me your phone number," Jared said, remembering the fuck the way it had been in both versions of this man's life; both fucking this guy last night and fucking the bodybuilder version of this guy last night. That was the annoying problem of overlapping timelines during sex.

In no time, the guy was waddling out to his car (even with his newfound muscle, the fuck had made him walk bow-legged, and it was even more exaggerated due to the size of his thighs), a very nice sports car as opposed to the Toyota Celica he'd had before. Hmm. Another weird little change. Ah, well, Jared had gotten off and he could get the hell out of there and get to work.

At least he no longer had to worry about his boss being a pain at work, or threatening to fire him for being late any more; Jared had fixed it so that every time the asshole hung around the store, he'd have a painfully embarrassing microdick syndrome suddenly appear. It would shrivel from its usual dimensions to the size of one of the man's little fingers. He'd been pretty horrified the last time it had happened, but it went back to its normal size the second he was away from Jared for more than an hour. He tended to avoid being around Jared for that reason. He didn't understand why it happened, just that it happened around Jared.

He was just finishing up getting dressed and was closing the door to the apartment when he thought of something. "Source," he said.

{Yes, good morning, Jared.} the source said politely. {Did you enjoy yourself last night?} The question was a halting one, with a fervent hope in the tone.

"Fuck yeah! I think I'll have him come over again. That ass was too much! And the body he has now! Yow! You did a good job." Jared liked bodybuilding, but didn't want to do all the work. He could've just wished to be that size, but never got around to it for some reason.

{Thank you, Jared.} The source was very quiet in this response, not wanting to step outside the bounds by accepting the compliment too much. {I really do want to make you happy.} Yeah, to not get punished more, but making Jared happy was the key point either way.

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. The guy from last night is going to meet me at work today?"

{Yes, Jared. It's already been set up as inevitable. You'll recognize him at first sight. He's the only one with a shaved head and goatee.}

"Cool. By the way, what's his name?" Not that it mattered much, but Jared liked having his facts straight. Besides which, he needed to know what name to put on the lease agreement.

{His name is Joey.}

ALWAYS TRY THE HOUSE BLEND

Part 4

By: wingofhorus

Hermes did not wish that he was dead. He wished that everyone *else* was dead.

He had had a perfectly horrendous day. It had been one thing after another; first Heather shows up obviously in the first stages of PMS, then the A/C quits, then Joey doesn't show up for work and then acts weird on the phone, and he has to work a double shift because the evening counter person, Gilda, called up saying that she couldn't come in due to her pregnancy. Hermes, who had noticed her being a perfect size 6 for the past year, asked her when she had gotten pregnant and she replied (with a giggle) "In about an hour, I think," and hung up, her husband making some very graphic remarks into her phone ear about which parts of her he would nibble first. This from the couple that "wasn't ready for a family."

And these, of course, were the minor events wrapped around a very tiring development; a convention of Japanese tourists literally appears at the front door with no warning, snapping pictures of everything in sight. Sheesh, it was like they appeared out of thin air! Hermes had his picture taken with so many honored Japanese wives ("Handsome American for picture!") that he felt like he'd been recruited as a mail-order husband. It was mildly distracting.

Fortunately, things had died down, as they always did toward the closing hour; it was now 9:55p and Hermes was very close to shutting down. His mind and body from exhaustion, that is, not the facility. He had been run ragged so much that he'd had no time to even get a decent meal; he'd been gnawing on the same bagel all day, never able to finish it or even get very far on it because of yet another distraction. So far, he had eaten exactly one bite of bagel since the morning. In fact, before he put the next bite in his mouth, he looked around to make sure that the lobby truly was empty before he went further.

Hermes was a decent guy, he really was. Unfortunately, he suffered from a terminal problem that a lot of gay men had; low self-esteem. He was 36, starting to grey slightly, and though he was still in good shape overall, he had made no effort to work out beyond the minimum and he was now starting to sag in all the wrong places. That coupled with his go-nowhere job that just paid his bills (barely), a college degree he had never used, and a mother that laid a guilt-trip on him every time he talked to her ("I'm not going to be on this planet for much longer and I want you to know that I love you") did nothing for making him feel better. And he was alone.

Oh, was he alone. He hated being alone. He hated going to bars because he only felt more alone, watching everyone else sitting there being alone, and he never met anyone anyway. He was too sure of a turndown to approach anyone else (it had happened too often for him to risk it any more), and was sure that anyone looking at him wouldn't be interested in him anyway once they got home, so he never really got laid either. Except of course when that one kid came into the bars begging to get fucked, Anthony or Akbar or whatever it was, and Hermes found himself joining the line that everyone else got in, his dick so uncontrollably and painfully hard that he had no choice but to mount the kid. It was weird, that; he'd never had that happen with anyone else ever, and some other guys in the bar said the same thing. The kid just had something to him.

So Hermes retreated into the realm of fantasy more often than not, watching the gym bunnies strut around without shirts on, wishing he could be like them, wishing even more that he could go home with them, and (much more privately) wishing that that one of them would keep him captive as a personal sex toy. Ah, well, that was fantasy for you; so much better than life.

He chewed his bagel slowly; trying to make the throbbing in his head go away, not get worse. It seemed to have started right after talking to Joey, his thoughts seeming to be split in two or something. It was all Joey's fault. Well, not really, but he was a convenient scapegoat. Joey just had to pick *this* day to flake out. But that was Joey; never consistent and ALWAYS erratic. Sheesh, Hermes remembered the day he'd shown up and he'd shaved his head! It was bizarre! That is, it looked good on him, actually better than with hair, but Joey had always been so conservative with his looks before! Now he had a goatee, and Hermes suspected that he had nipple rings too, from the way he kept rubbing his...

Wait a second. He'd always had a shaved head and goatee, hadn't he? Hermes remembered it being that way, but at the same time he remembered seeing Joey on the day he got hired with a full head of hair... he shook his head. Huh. Must be confusing him with someone else, but he distinctly remembered... oh well. Not important really. In any event, it was just endemic of the wonder that was Joey. He never finished anything the way it was supposed to be done; he always had to go in his own direction. The fact that he was usually right was neither here nor there. He couldn't follow the book. That was why he'd quit the gym last year, like Hermes mentioned on the phone to Joey himself; he just couldn't follow through. Hermes couldn't understand how he won that trophy later on...

Hermes put the bagel down on the desk with a clunk, the mouthful of bagel falling right out and landing on the desk in front of him, which made him growl with irritation as he threw it away. Trophy? What trophy? He couldn't quite remember. It was for some sort of exercise or something wasn't it? But he couldn't have done that if he hadn't been working out... or had he been? He seemed like he was getting kind of beefy lately, except he wasn't really... he was just as lean as he ever...

"S'cuse me, little dude," came a basso profundo voice in front of the desk. Hermes winced; it was the "ten o'clock horror," as they called it at the front desk; the last person to come up, right at closing, to ask a question that would take fifteen minutes or more to answer. It never failed. He made a mental note to never bring bagels to work again. That had to be it.

"Yes," Hermes said, looking up from his desk. "How can I help..." and the words died on his tongue as it dried out entirely. An attack of lust did that to you. "...you?" he ended weakly, unable to keep his mouth from dropping open.

Standing in front of the desk were the three largest human beings that Hermes had ever seen in his life. Hermes had seen bodybuilders before, mostly from afar or in magazines, and even the biggest of them was a pale comparison to the behemoths standing in front of him now. The smallest of them would make four of Hermes himself, and they graduated up in size. They had no necks, or appeared to not have them; the muscles went in a straight line from their shoulders to their ears with no right angle at all. The pecs were like armor plating from a tank put under their shirts, and the unnatural V-tapers they all sported only made them seem bigger. Their arms were hanging relaxed at their sides and were still at a distinct right angle because they couldn't bring them in any farther. They had waists that could not be much more than Hermes' own, improbably, since there was a such a vast difference between the waist and chest and leg size, but they all had deep chiseled six-packs - no, eight-packs - that rippled their shirts. Suddenly Hermes' head felt much better. Certainly his lower one did, as it tented out his pants. Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.

"Uh, uh..." was all Hermes could get out. So much for customer service etiquette. His bodily functions seemed to have stopped working correctly.

"Yeah, little dude," the front monster said. His voice was so deep that it seemed to rattle Hermes' molars. And in a face with a prominent brow ridge and a lantern jaw, it was truly Cro Magnon. "My buddies and I were wondering if..." he began, and then trailed off, as though seeing Hermes for the first time, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping as much as it could over his thick neck. "HOLY...!" he said, and turned to his other companions to look at them. As Hermes had suspected, he couldn't turn his neck. "Gary, Todd, do you guys see what I'm seeing??" He seemed to be as blown away as Hermes himself was, for some reason. Hermes almost turned around to see what was behind him, but didn't want to tear his eyes away from them.

The other two guys reacted in very similar ways. "DUDE! He's hot!" the smallest one said, and the other one just smiled a lopsided smile that seemed to pull Hermes right into it, and the look in his eyes was a tiger's. A big hungry tiger's.

Hermes did a double-take. "Huh? Who?" He did give a quick look behind him, but sure enough everyone was gone but the four of them. Who were they talking about? It couldn't be him. Life wasn't that kind.

But the lead guy, the biggest of course, was looking at the others. "Dudes, are you scoping this?? This is one of the hottest guys I have ever seen! Fuck, but I could rape him right here!" He deliberately started rubbing his crotch, which was below the level of the desk, so Hermes couldn't get a good look.

Hermes very nearly fell over backwards. "You, uh, that, you, uh, you think, you, you think that *I'M* hot??" he asked incredulously. "ME?" Okay, he knew that either he was tripping or his coworkers were going to come out and make fun of him for falling for this gag any minute now, but it was too much fun watching these guys for him to mind.

"Gary, Todd, do you think we can use him? He'd be perfect as the new one," he asked the two behemoths behind him, not answering Hermes at all. Hermes could tell their reactions before they said a word; they were both caressing their crotches like they would a plant they wanted to grow tall and strong. Which they were, in a way.

Gary, a very dark-skinned man with a shaved head and skin that looked naturally oiled, was looking at Hermes like he was the last protein shake in the gym. "Fuck, dude, he's perfect! Those pretty lips are so soft and warm. I want to split that mouth right open. He'd be great!" Hermes was a bit taken aback by all this: not only did they think he was hot, they wanted to take him home? I can't believe this, he thought. Soft and warm, huh? That's the first time I ever heard... wait a second. The new one what?

Todd, who was shorter than the other two and less muscular, which was the same thing as comparing the Eiffel Tower to the Empire State Building (in other words, they were both pretty big, no matter how you look at it) looked like he'd just gotten an early Christmas present. He was almost jumping up and down, he looked so excited. "Can we keep him, Marky? Can we? I'll treat this one well. He'd never leave! I promise." Hermes was getting more and more confused. Never leave? Keep me? Huh?

Marky or Mark - Hermes was a bit too awestruck to assume he was on a first-name basis with these guys yet - responded by swinging around and cuffing Todd on the back of the head. It would have been a love tap from anyone less muscular, but Todd was almost knocked to the floor by it. "Yeah, numb-nuts, just like last time! You blew the kid up when you *knew* he'd be missed! Dammit, it took weeks for him to fit through the doorway, and then he ran like hell once he could! I found out last week that his belly never did go back to normal." He grabbed Todd by the lapels of his pasted-on XXXXL shirt and pulled him in, his face very seriously angry. "If you fuck this one up, I'll have your gonads as my rearview mirror ornament, you got that?" He squeezed very hard on Todd's pecs.

Todd was on his knees almost instantly. "AAAH! Yes, Mark, you're the boss Mark! You're the biggest and strongest of all us and I'm weak in your presence and hope to match your muscle and strength someday Mark!" Hermes did a small double-take at that; apparently Mark kept the other two in line with sheer strength. His already iron-hard cock went up a notch. He'd always fantasized about that type of take-control alpha male. Nothing else that he'd heard made any sense, but that turned him on in any case.

Mark let go, but he was still stern. "You better remember that, boy. If you blow him up before we get him home, you're dog meat!" With a glare for emphasis, he turned to Gary. "Gary, keep an eye on him. You're his chaperone." Gary turned a very stern eye to Todd, who looked chastened. Gary did still kept glancing at Hermes though, with a hungry look in his eye. Whatever happened, Hermes decided he'd keep his eyes open with...

Hermes lost his train of thought as he was hauled up to his feet, and beyond, by Mark. "Yeah, this one will do just fine." With one hand and no obvious effort, Mark brought Hermes, who was dangling in midair, up to eye level so that he could give Hermes a once-over. "Not sure the mouth will work, though. Better take him to Doc Pratt so we can use him. I don't want to damage him permanently."

Gary gave a very loud and deep laugh. Hermes jumped at the sound. It was a lot like hearing a cannon blast. "Mark, you are a crazy man. You don't want to damage him but you want to fix him? Either way is a permanent change." He crossed his incredible arms in front of him. Hermes had a view of two cannonballs crossed in front of a mountain of a chest.

Mark waved it off. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Pratt can turn him into a real open cavern on both ends. This one would be so open he'd have to be plugged at both ends just to keep flies out."

Hermes realized something, abruptly: these guys were talking about him as though he weren't listening. No, like he wasn't even there, even though he was still hanging in midair from the hand of a guy with more muscle in his arm than Hermes had in his whole body. It was an abrupt shock to realize that he was so far beneath them that he was the same thing as an object to be used.

He had no idea why it turned him on so much to realize that, just that it did.

"Look, you guys," he began, not sure what he was going to say, but couldn't continue. Mark shook his arm, and Hermes, violently without even looking at him. It was a casual gesture, not malicious or even relatively forceful; it was just a reminder that Hermes wasn't a part of this conversation. The gesture worked: Hermes shut up instantly, not willing to risk being dropped or thrown down by someone unhappy about him who could bend steel in his hands. Hermes didn't know how he knew it, but he knew instinctively that Mark at least could bend steel. He had no idea how the idea came to him.

Todd still looked excited, almost like a little kid. It disturbed Hermes on a very deep level: keep him how? But Hermes was distracted by Gary's next statement, which put his heart in his mouth: "Mark, we don't even know if he's a good cock hound or not. We need to try him out before we take him, you know?" He gave Hermes a good look up and down, less like he was checking out his body and more like someone checking out a horse for purchase. This also made Hermes nervous. And excited.

Mark looked thoughtful and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I don't want another dud like that one. He couldn't take more than six or seven hours of straight fucking before he whined that he was too sore, which is why I had to get rid of him after only a couple of months. Oh, yeah, by the way, Pratt told me that the guy will be able to walk almost normally again in another year or so."

Todd was bouncing up and down in horny anticipation but the other two ignored him. Gary said, "You talked to him? What'd he do about the guy's hole? Was he able to stuff it all back in again?" Hermes was starting to feel a small thrill of terror wind through the haze of lust in his mind. They had to be exaggerating. But then, guys like this were already beyond reality but still real, so maybe what they were saying...

"Yeah, finally, but it'll always hang open. Poor guy's going to have to wear diapers, but hey, he was a good fuck while it lasted." He lifted Hermes from behind him to in front of him, between himself and Gary. "So you want to have the first shot at him?"

Todd nearly leapt up to the ceiling. "Please let me! Please let me! I promise I won't wreck him too soon! Please!"

The looks that the other two gave him set him back on his heels. He muttered, "I only fucked the kid a little. I didn't mean to blow my load so quick. It just happened. It was only the one time."

Gary and Mark both exclaimed, "ONLY THE ONE TIME?!" followed by the two of them talking over each other giving a very long list of Todd's apparent past transgressions. Hermes couldn't make out most of it, but what he could puzzle out, Todd had been a bit rough on their previous fuck buddies.

That thought made him freeze. Am I going to be their next fuck buddy? He checked them out, now having a three-way argument, and decided that there were worse fates. He might even learn to like it. It might take effort, but he'd do what he could.

He couldn't keep a straight face at that thought. He hoped he wasn't that transparent to these guys. But then, even if he had been they might not have even noticed.

Mark finally shouted, "Enough! All right, Todd, all right! You get the mouth, I'll take the ass for the first fuck. Gary, you hold him up. Yes, yes, it's your turn for the ass, but I want to keep an eye on Todd, 'kay?" Gary, not pleased, nodded. Mark raised a warning finger to Todd. "You blow your load before I tell you to and you'll be my next protein shake, got it?" Todd, chastened, nodded. He turned his attention to Hermes. "Okay, so let's get these pants off him." And with that, he hooked his first two fingers of his free hand in the waistband of Hermes' dress slacks and ripped them right off of his body. Hermes was shocked; he knew that they'd all be incredibly strong, but had no idea that he would be so, well, incredibly strong. He left Hermes' shirt still buttoned and in place. Of course they would; they weren't there to admire his body, they just needed enough free that they could check out both ends. The shirt wouldn't be in the way for either one. Another thing that turned him on.

Gary grabbed him and hauled him up horizontally, his head pointed toward Todd and his ass toward Mark. "Sheez, light as a feather. I don't think he's got any muscle at all. He really will be a good fuck if he can't fight us." Hermes' cock bumped into Gary's hand as it supported him, but Hermes was sure that he hadn't even noticed. It wouldn't have made any difference anyway, really. "How's the ass look?" he asked Mark.

Mark was prying his ass cheeks apart and looking in like someone checking out a suspicious knock in an engine. "I don't believe it! This guy's hardly been fucked at all!" He looked at the other two incredulously. "I think we got ourselves a virgin!" He slapped Hermes on the ass, which made Hermes jump and look at him, which he regretted instantly: his face was flushed with embarrassment. "Uh-huh, thought so," he said, checking out Hermes' reaction. Aside from when they first came up, this was the closest to addressing Hermes that any of them had come. "We're gonna have fun busting this one! He's never gonna be the same!"

Hermes had already suspected that that might be true.

He truly was a virgin for his backside, at least. He'd never met a guy that he liked well enough to go there, so never had. And now he was going to lose his cherry to three muscle gods. If there's a Supreme Spirit, Hermes thought, it has *got* to be female. Only a woman has this kind of sense of humor.

Mark gave an experimental probe to see what kind of give Hermes' hole had and discovered that there was none. "Shee-yit! Gary, tongue his hole, willya? We need to open him up a little and you've got the best tongue for that."

Gary gave a very devilish smile and set Hermes back on his feet. Then, looking directly into Hermes' eyes, he opened his mouth and extended his tongue past his teeth. And his chin. In a moment, it had grown far beyond normal length to past his Adam's apple, reached a bit farther and then came to a halt, about eight inches below his lips. With a casual gesture, he hauled the python tongue up and licked his eyebrows place into place. Hermes' knees very nearly turned to jelly right then and there. He'd fantasized about that too.

With no warning, Hermes was abruptly inverted, his arms hanging down to the floor and his legs waving in the air. He gave a sharp cry as he expected to be dropped, but Gary had too tight a grip on him. But a moment later, getting a clear view of three pairs of upside-down mammoth calves and the floor of the lobby, he forgot all about worrying about being dropped as he felt a long, hot, wet intruder start knocking at his back door.

He'd never actually been tongued either, but had always imagined that it would be something like this: so incredibly sensitive as to be completely over the top. And wet. What he hadn't imagined was the sensation entering into him too. The descriptions he'd read in porn had never mentioned that part. Of course, most porn didn't mention guys that had eight-inch-long tongues either. Hermes went a notch harder than diamond when he felt the tongue slip in past his virgin sphincter, and harder than that when it went past the next inner sphincter. Hermes knew very little about the internal anatomy, but had he known he would have realized that this tongue was getting very close to the sigmoid curve deep inside him. He'd been grousing about it, but right at this moment he was glad that he hadn't had anything to eat all day. He was as clean inside as a virgin's morals.

Well, an ideal virgin's morals, at least.

After a few minutes of liquid heaven (he forgot entirely about being upside-down, despite the blood pounding in his temples), he felt the tongue abruptly start sliding out again at rapid speed. He felt like he was having a soft, warm flesh icicle extracted and the rest of him wanted to follow it wherever it went. It was at this point that he heard the moans that were echoing around the room and was surprised that the other two found this scene so hot.

Then, of course, he realized that the moans were his. No real surprise.

He found himself back on his feet, his head and heart pounding, his legs shaky not just with returning blood flow, and a strange cool feeling in his ass that he couldn't understand. He realized what it had to be: air blowing into his loosened ass. He did a double-take. That was another thing he'd read in porn and wondered about and fantasized about; guys who were "fucked open." This seemed to be the encyclopedia of secret desires today.

Gary, who took a moment to reel his tongue in before speaking - Hermes wondered where it all went when he was talking - and said to Mark, "There you go, my man. He's as open as a hooker on the day after New Year's." He gave another look at Hermes - he was the only one who had done so so far, and that only extended to seeing him as a piece of meat - and added, "I think he might be ready to take you, but take it slow. I could only open him up so far. Don't tear him yet." Yet?! Hermes was caught like a fly in amber between lust and fear. It didn't take much effort to lean more toward lust.

Hermes turned his attention to Mark, who had already shucked his shirt and was working on his pants, which took a bit of effort to remove as he was so bulky and it was hard to reach certain areas. His entire chest and abdomen was a mass of dark, curly hair that almost looked painted on, it was so perfectly arranged on his massive musculature. He also had hair on his forearms, but there didn't appear to be any on his back, for which Hermes was grateful. He'd never really been into the gorilla look, ever since that one guy he'd seen at the gym (but not talked to) who had such an incredible body but had a mat of...

Hermes came to a complete stop, his extraneous thought evaporating like ice cream in the sun. It was at this point that he realized that he had been very body-conscious all this time, focusing on vast musculature to the exclusion of everything else. Not the worst thing to do, of course, but it had prevented Hermes from seeing the next surprise in store for him.

Mark had unzipped his pants, which fell to the floor. He had a strangely designed pair of pants; it had three zippers in it. One in front and one on both his left side and right side. With a quick glance, Hermes realized they all had pants like that. He blinked a little at that, but realized the practicality of it after a moment; their thighs were so big that there was no way they could put on regular pants. It's hard getting a tree trunk through the hole in a needle, after all.

But this wasn't what made Hermes mentally freeze; it was what Mark was now hauling out of his pants. Hermes remembered reading that a lot of bodybuilders weren't very well endowed; they were trying to make up for "adequacy issues" of height or dick size or whatever. Hermes was sure he'd read that. Well, there was another theory that had blown up in his face.

Mark's cock was approximately the size of a baseball bat. The head didn't mushroom but it was still around the thickness of Hermes' wrist even so. "I can't take that," Hermes said involuntarily (and weakly). "I've never been fucked before." Oh, but don't you want to try? said the voice in his head. I know I'm going to wake up tomorrow with the most incredible wet dream ever, but damn don't I want to try! Hermes had almost exactly a split-second to see Gary and Todd revealing equipment which was equivalent in size. (Todd's was noticeably smaller; only about the size of a T-ball bat instead of a Louisville Slugger. How could he live with the lack, Hermes thought ridiculously.)

And miracles truly did not cease. Mark grabbed the front of Hermes' shirt and lifted him off the floor to eye level again, only an inch away from his nose. "Too bad, bitch," he said, his voice allowing no nonsense. Hermes was surprised that Mark actually addressed him directly. He was also extremely humbled by it. "We all need to get off about a dozen times a day due to the juice we're all on now called Avalon Lux. And we ain't been able to since our last fuck toy ran off. We're way backed up and we need a new one. You're it. Don't worry, little dude, you'll get used to it after a few weeks. We're all computer geeks and make a shitload of money so don't worry about whether we can handle having you around. You won't need to eat anything after a while anyway. All you need to do is lie there and take it. 'Course, after a while lie there is all you'll be able to do." He paused for a moment, looking a bit confused, like he'd just realized or just learned something. "And... And don't worry. We're all clean and we know you are too. You'll be... You'll be just fine." He blinked again and then shook it off. "All you need to do is nod once and you're committed. Shake your head and we'll leave you here just like you were and you'll never see us again ever. Up to you. Just remember once you make the choice it's forever." He waited.

Hermes latched on to the least important thing the man had said. How could he possibly know that I'm negative? And how do I know they're really...? But somehow he did know, more than absolutely sure, like he'd done the test himself; like he had known it all along and had just forgotten it until it had come up in conversation. When I wake up from this dream, he began, but didn't continue the thought. He reflected that he'd be very drained from having blown so many loads in his sleep. Wait! It *had* to be a dream! Gilda had once said that her husband had a vasectomy months ago! She couldn't possibly get pregnant! He done it right after Labor Day... and then the thought turned a bit odd. Or had he? There was something else, something he almost remembered (or almost didn't remember), as though he had heard two different opposing versions of that story...

Mark's face suddenly became very sharp in his field of vision and his thoughts evaporated like ice in the Sahara. Make a decision. Is it a dream or isn't it? Does it matter? What do you really want? He knew what he wanted, all of which had nothing to do with the offer in front of him; to not have to work in such a pathetic place and/or for such a pathetic wage, to have real sexual satisfaction with really attractive guys, to be appreciated for what he was rather than what others thought he should be, to not have to deal with his mother, to not have to go back to his pathetic apartment every night, to...

Wait a second.

And with that, he nodded.

"Good boy," Mark said, smiling a devilish smile. "Good little fuck boy. Remember what I said. The decision is forever, starting right now." He extended his arm out to full length, making Hermes nervous about being dropped again, but sure enough Mark could hold him without even his arm trembling. Then Mark gave a good shake, which rattled every part of Hermes, leaving him dazed. "Okay. Here's the rules. You ain't no boyfriend to any of us. Got that? If you're looking for hearts and roses, you've got some lessons coming hard and fast. You're our fuck toy from now on, that's it. We don't want a slave. We don't want a butler. We don't want conversation. We want two big open holes to fuck any time day or night when we need to blow a load. Nod once to say you understand." Hermes did nod, starting to feel very scared, fear outweighing lust by a considerable margin. What had he gotten himself into? He'd committed to it and there was no way he could escape; these behemoths would make sure he couldn't, one way or another.

"Good boy. Your old life is over as of right now. We'll take care of your stuff and stow it somewhere in case you ever need it - you won't, trust me - and then your wallet and keys go in the garbage, just like your clothes." Hermes gave an involuntary look to where his pants were, and saw Gary tossing them into the nearest trash can, after pocketing the wallet and keys. "You better pay attention, boy. I don't like guys that don't pay me respect." Hermes jerked his eyes forward and nodded again. "Good boy. You learn fast. You'll learn even faster later on. Now. I don't know what your name is and I don't care." Hermes almost opened his mouth to say it, but bit his lips to keep them shut; he knew it would have been the wrong thing to do. "As of right now, your new name is Tank. Got that, Tank?" Hermes nodded, a bit confused; he was hardly big enough to have a nickname like Tank. "You'll figure out why later on, Tank," he said with an even more devilish grin. Hermes had the uncanny feeling that there was a very obvious reference he wasn't getting, but was afraid to think of what it might mean. "Now for the fun part." And he brought Hermes' face so close that their eyes were millimeters apart and Mark's breath was making Hermes start to overheat, and not just from lust.

"We like our toys to be... open." Mark's voice was so much like velvet that Hermes found the drool running out of his mouth. "You don't know what that means yet. You think you do, but you don't." There was a deliberate pause. "We have a doctor friend of ours. Doc Pratt. He gives us our juice in exchange for fun on the side. He likes bod mod." At Hermes' confused look, he added, "Body modification. He likes to alter his body and other guys' bodies for... fun." Hermes was now very, very scared. Alter? "You should see his dick and balls. He's added about twenty pounds of silicone to them. He's a fucking freak. And he stretched out his nips too; they're about six inches long. You won't believe what his hole looks like." Hermes wasn't sure whether he was sorry or pleased that Mark didn't elaborate. "There's more. You'll see. He's the first stop for you after we leave here."

Hermes was absolutely frozen. Bod mod? What are they going to do to me? But at the same time he realized that he'd always been into it on a very subconscious level; he'd had the odd fantasy about it here and there, he'd just not realized all that could be done. Sick little puppy, he chided himself, not really seriously. When I wake up...

Mark brought Hermes back so that his entire face was visible. "Hope you liked our little talk, Tank. It's the last one you'll ever have." Hermes had a thrill of terror - he's going to kill me! - but Mark looked at Gary and said, "Enough of this shit. Let's break him in."

The entire world became a blur and Hermes was whipped around and brought right back into the position they'd put him in earlier; held up by Gary, his mouth aimed at Todd and his butt at Mark. "Good," Mark said. "He's still open. Pratt'll have fun with this one. But that's later. Todd, get down his throat."

Hermes looked up the small mountain that was Todd, who winked down at him while bringing his own amazing appendage to horizontal. "Don't worry, baby," Todd said softly. "I'll just unhinge your jaw if I need to." And then the blunt head was pressed right into Hermes' mouth.

Hermes had blown a few guys here and there, but never had any of them had equipment that forced his jaw fully open before the head was fully in. Todd hadn't been exaggerating or trying to turn Hermes on; he'd been stating a simple fact. They just might need to unhinge his jaw to get it in. But even as he said that, the head got past his teeth and slid to the back of his throat before being slowed down due to the narrow passage. Less than a tenth of Todd's shaft had actually gotten in and Hermes was scraping his teeth on the shaft, but he knew Todd hadn't even noticed. Todd's eyes were closed and he was moaning in absolute pleasure. Also, the shaft was so hard that it felt like Hermes had scraped his teeth on a piece of marble. At least he could still breathe.

Even as he realized that, however, he had another concern suddenly fill his mind, making his eyes bug out; his open hole was no longer empty. There was a freight train entering into him. The nearest in size, at least, it felt like. The head may not have flared out, but it had still been respectably large. "Shit," came Mark's grunt as the shaft attempted to stretch the hole, with only moderate success. "Fuck! He's about as tight as fuckin' a football! Sheez! It's like nobody takes a dick up the butt any more!" He pressed forward fractionally and the hole gave a bit more, allowing a bit more access. "Damn, and I've only got about four inches in so far! That leaves over a foot more to go!" Hermes didn't doubt it a bit. ONLY FOUR INCHES?! It felt like he'd had that same mentioned football shoved into him!

An involuntary grunt from above his head made his eyes go up again, though his field of vision was limited. Todd was enjoying himself, bucking his hips fractionally back and forth - that was all that Hermes' throat would allow - and starting to emit precum. Hermes could feel his mouth filling up with it. It seemed to be more than even an average load of cum usually was, but he was pouring it out like a faucet.

There were more grunts and groans coming from behind him from Mark. "Re... Aah! Damn that's nice! Remember what... What I said... Todd," Mark said, bucking his own hips back and forth. He was having much better luck; Hermes seemed to be opening up inside like some rare erotic flower. Hermes blinked. Exotic. Exotic flower, not erotic.

Oh, give it up, his subconscious said cattily. Okay, he replied, and concentrated on relaxing his ass and throat, not necessarily in that order. "Uh, uh, uh," Mark continued, getting deeper and deeper into Hermes. "Fuh-huh-uck! Yeah! He's...ooh, yeah, take it! ...definitely the one! Oh, man, it is so hard!" Yeah, it was, Hermes thought to himself. Like a telephone pole.

Except that that's not what Mark meant. Todd knew. "Mark! I... Aah! Mark! I can't, ah, ah, hold it! He's too hot!" His bucking became more insistent, even if it was blocked past a certain point, about six inches in or so.

Mark, however far he'd gotten in, did not have that limitation. His bucking was much more pronounced and deeper. "Dammit, Todd! I warn... Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, SHIT! I'm losing it too! DAAMMN YOOUU TODD!" Mark bellowed. "AAAAHHH!!" His yell was loud enough that Hermes was sure he heard windows rattling. Not improbably with these three either.

Oh. Oh! OH! Hermes couldn't yell, his jaw was forced open, but he felt the immense shafts plugging him at either end suddenly start to swell even larger in diameter than they already were. AAH! He yelled silently, sure that he was being ripped open. His jaw felt like it was being forced right off of his body, and his insides felt that he'd been invaded by an airplane.

Then they came.

Hermes had once seen on television the eruption of a volcano on some South Seas island. Fortunately it had been deserted, but the point was that the force had been such that the entire island had been scoured to bare rock.

Hermes felt much the same way by the rocketing jets shooting into him at that moment. He'd had orgasms, sure, he'd seen guys cum on porn, of course, but this was impossible! Mark and Todd had orgasms which were not quite at exactly the same time, and when each one finally shot, Hermes was physically jolted by the initial force, first in one direction and then the other. It wasn't possible to feel what he was feeling! He had the most unbelievable feeling like being flooded with cum from both sides. It was unbelievable. He never knew that it could be so...

And then he noticed an odd pressure that was offsetting the pleasure he was feeling. It was like... He couldn't describe it. Like he'd just had too many lemonades and was feeling bloated. Very bloated. Like... He suddenly realized something. He really was being flooded with cum from both sides. Both Mark and Todd were still shooting into him. Impossible! No one cums like that! It's just spurt, spurt and then it's over! Not like a fucking fire hose!

And then the pressure became extremely intense, almost overwhelming, and concentrated in his middle. Ungh! Hermes thought, put off. This was on the brink of being uncomfortable, even painful, as the feeling increased with each passing moment. He felt like he was inflating right...

A button popped off of his shirt. Huh? He couldn't look down, but he could feel, and when he raised his hands to his middle, his heart skipped a beat. His shirt had become thinly stretched around a rapidly expanding middle, and gaps were starting to show between the buttons. The few buttons that were left. The next button gave as he blew up a bit more. The next. Finally only one was left, right at the top, and when Hermes went up to feel it, it too popped off and disappeared from sight. What the fuck? He ran his hands down.

He could not believe what he was feeling at his midsection. His formerly lean stomach had rounded out to improbably round dimensions. And it was still growing. He was inflating like a balloon and he couldn't figure out why he hadn't popped yet.

Hermes wasn't aware of when he lost consciousness, just that suddenly he was awake and the double invasion force had left. He felt his aching jaw and his sore ass and his wide middle and wondered what the fuck had just happened. Hermes was too dazed to do much more than just loll his head back and forth, Gary still supporting him, and listen.

"...little shit!" Mark was yelling. Todd gave a yelp of pain followed by a whimper. "Yeah, I hope it hurts, dickless! I *told* you not to blow this one up! Dammit! We'll have to put him in the back of the truck just to get him home! Shit, what if the cops see us hauling that!" There was a smack followed by another yelp.

"I'm suh-sorry, Mark," Todd said, terrified. "He wuh-was just too HOT, Mark! Puh-please don't huh-hurt me again, Mark! You came too, Mark! Yuh-you know what I mean!" He was pleading, obviously very shaken.

Mark's breath sounded like a bellows. "Dammit, Todd...!" he began, but he finally relaxed and sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. But you want me to be your mentor and you won't listen to what I say! I'm trying to look after you, Todd!" There was a pause. "C'mere, ya little shit." Todd, still sobbing slightly, suddenly had the wind knocked out of him. By a hug. "I can't stay mad at you very long. You know that. I was gonna blow him up later anyway." He paused, and then, in a very contrite voice, very sincerely, said, "I really am sorry, Todd."

Todd gulped and said, "Okay. I'm sorry too, Mark. I really don't listen too well. I'll try harder. Forgive me?" He again sounded like a little kid, one who wanted to make it all better.

"Of course I forgive you. But let's see what damage we did." Hermes felt his world shifting again as he was brought vertical. But this time it was different; he felt his cum-swollen middle shift and gurgle as he was brought to his feet. It was a very unnatural feeling. He looked down and moaned in slight horror.

His belly had inflated to a grotesquely immense size. He reached his hands forward to touch the huge ball he now sported and started when he felt (and heard) the gurgling inside him. He could not reach his hands in front to touch each other. Hell, his arms extended forward didn't even reach to the front of his belly! And it was as tight as a drum.

Gary was looking him up and down, that weighing look in his eyes. He'd been appraising earlier, but now he looked like Christmas had come early. "Ho-lee shit, Mark! He took three months worth of backlogged cum on the first go! Damn! I knew the Avalon would make him be able to take it, but shit...!" He took his hands off of Hermes' shoulders and turned to Mark and Todd. "He's gonna be perfect! We just need to...!" And he turned back just in time to see Hermes start to topple forward.

Hermes was just too full, too heavy, to keep his feet. His impossible midsection yanked him right toward the floor. As he saw the tiles come forward, he thought, Well, this is it. It was fun but now I'm gonna pop like a tick. Hope I go fast. He closed his eyes and waited for the end to come.

He hit the floor like a boulder, not a balloon. There was an audible thud (and an almost deafening slosh) as his belly landed square, and the momentum he had made him roll forward slightly, taking him off of his feet as well. In a moment, his deep navel (he had no way to see it, but it was now inches deep) came to the center, which stopped his rocking and rolling. He was face downward, his arms flapping uselessly unable to touch the floor, his feet just barely unable to touch either. He was stranded by his own belly.

All three of them laughed, Todd still catching his breath. "Damn, Mark! Perfect!" Gary said. "I can't wait until he grows more! He's going to be a fucking work of art!" He was going to grow MORE?!?! Oh, no, Hermes thought, still waving his arms uselessly. The weight of his cum-inflated belly was so much that his motions made no impact on his situation. He was firmly anchored in place.

"All right!" Mark said. "Now THAT'S what I call a job well done!" He went up and started poking and prodding the immense sphere that Hermes had become. "See? This is what I meant when I said you wouldn't be able to do much more than just lie there," Mark said, addressing Hermes again. Hermes knew that this would be the last time. Ever. "You're gonna get bigger, fuck boy. A lot bigger. We shoot like that every time and you're gonna keep bloating up and up. Don't worry, ya won't pop on us. The Avalon makes us big and horny, and gives us these big dicks, but if you don't work out, it just works on your insides. Like that. Welcome to your new life, Tank." He smiled evilly. "That's what you are now. Our Cum Tank. And we're gonna keep filling you up and up." He turned to the other two. "Call Doc Pratt. Get him outta bed if he's in. This one's ready." Todd was on his cell phone within ten seconds.

The three of them took an inordinately long time wrestling Hermes' enormous (and immobile) body out of the double doors at the entrance, mainly because he had become a logistical nightmare to lift, even for guys as strong as they were.

They were all so engrossed in the endeavor, especially Hermes himself, that none of them noticed the short Hispanic security guard coming out of the cubicle area, pushing a laundry cart full of various personal items and office supplies. "Are they gone yet?" he asked, sotto voce.

{No, but they wouldn't notice a meteor hitting the bell tower at this point. Don't worry.}

Adjusting his uniform, as it was slightly too big for him, the guard said, "I don't see why I couldn't just wish my stuff home. Shouldn't I have been able to?"

{Ordinarily, yes, but...} The voice suddenly faded out in mid-word, followed by a static crackle that gave a jolt of pain in his head. {Joey? Can y...? Hello?}

"Source?" Joey asked, wincing. "Are you still there?"

{Yes, but the connection is get... more frag... I'm... or divided. I can't... Joey?}

"Source! Say something!"

{Something.}

Joey rolled his eyes. "What I'm asking is, are you stable or are you still fading?"

{Yes and yes. I... the dichotomy. I don't know...} The voice faded in static again. {Use the pipe!}

The pipe? How could the pipe...? Wait, how stupid can I be? he thought. He brought the pipe and lighter out of the front pocket of the uniform shirt and lit it awkwardly. He wasn't used to the size of the hands in this body and didn't want to be. All he needed was one plume of smoke. "There! I wish that my connection with the source would stabilize and that we could communicate without static or pain in my head!"

{Aaah... That's much better.} Joey was sure he could hear a slow breath being let out, even though he knew that the source didn't breathe. It didn't have a body, after all. {But it's temporary, Joey. The schism between timelines is more pronounced and I'm being pulled back and forth between you and Jared now.}

Joey sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say that. I thought that once I had the memories restored of that lost day that it would be all right, but now it seems worse, not better." Hmm... Jared again. Joey had to ask the source about him. The source had been notoriously reluctant to provide any information about the man.

{It is worse. People are starting to remember details from both timelines whether they want to or not, such as the thoughts Hermes was having earlier that I showed you. This is very bad, and in some sensitives could lead to schizophrenia. You're going to have to choose which life you want to be your base life; the original or the one that you wished for. You'll be able to salvage a few traits from one or the other, but you can't combine the two absolutely. They're too different. The multiverse isn't designed to cross over like this. There will be a tear sooner or later.}

"What do you mean a tear?"

{Negative entropy will start leaking into both universes/timelines, which will eradicate both.}

Joey stood for a moment, blinking. "You do realize that that makes no sense to me whatsoever."

{I'm sorry, Joey. I didn't mean to confuse you.} The source's voice became very meek. {I'll do better.}

"All right," Joey said slowly, a bit put off by the abrupt shift in tone. It wasn't like he'd chided the thing or anything. "But what does it mean?"

{You know how when you get a cut, the flow coagulates to stop the bleeding? It's the same with time/space. When there's a tear or breach, such as the combination of two opposing timelines, negative entropy is injected to stop the problem. It halts all the activity in both timelines to prevent it from infecting the rest of the multiverse.}

"So we'd be frozen in time."

{It's more complicated than that, but that's essentially the case, yes.}

"For how long?"

{Until the end of infinity.}

"Correct me if I'm wrong but that's a long time, isn't it?"

{Definitely.} The source's voice had a definite dry tone to it. {You see, this is why you had to come here to get your things out of the building instead of just wishing them home. The wishes are becoming, ah, unpredictable with the shifting back and forth.}

"Tell me about it," Joey said, checking with a hand inside his shirt. He had a lot more hair on this body than he'd had on his "big" one. He had just made a wish to be in disguise as a security guard for the building for a few hours and all sorts of bizarre complications had happened. Such as becoming only five feet tall and as hairy as a wildebeest! "Well, I figured there had to be a good reason or you wouldn't have said we needed to do it. That's why I needed that distraction for Hermes just now, so he wouldn't see either me or an unfamiliar security guard hanging around." He looked toward the doors, which were just now closing after the foursome lumbering away in the dark. "I never realized he had such extreme fantasies though. Ah, well, at least he'll get some of them fulfilled. He helped me move last year, you know, and I owe him for that."

{You... you wished to reward him? Strictly for helping you?} The source sounded very odd in this, like it was an unfamiliar concept.

"Well, sure, of course. He wouldn't take money, but I wanted to do something nice for him. I took him out to dinner a couple of times too, just for the hell of it. We never did anything sexual together, but he's a nice guy."

{You wanted to do something nice for him.} The source sounded stunned. {And you gave him sustenance with no thought of return. That is... admirable, Joey.} Now it sounded very, very careful, like it was treading dangerous territory.

"Um, right. That's why I figured that since I needed a distraction, I may as well make it a fun one for him. Plus, I figured with those three computer geeks in the tech lab, I could fulfill their fantasies about muscle too while I was at it, that way everyone ends up happy."

{Everyone ends up happy.} The source sounded almost dreamy. {But you didn't make the wishes retroactive, like you could have. You just modified their memories so that they remembered doing the things they said, even though they didn't really happen. Why?}

Joey himself sounded puzzled. "Why bother? They had a perfect right to live their lives the way they chose to up until that point without someone mucking about with the past. Besides which, I figured that by changing the past I would alter everything else that happened in the world too, and I didn't want that. It's completely irresponsible."

{I see.} the source said neutrally. {Yes... yes, it is irresponsible.} Very neutrally.

"Well, when Hermes wakes up in a couple of days from this fantasy and heads back to the real world, I hope that he's happier. He really does deserve it."

The silence from the source was deafening.

"Source? Did I lose you again?" Oh, shit, I don't want to be stranded like this! I need him! Her. It. They. Whatever it was.

{I'm here.} the source said very softly. It sounded almost like it was... well, cringing or something.

"What's the matter? All I said was, when Hermes wakes up in a couple of... days..." and then Joey trailed off. Uh-oh, he thought, a dark light of realization blooming. Please tell me that I'm wrong in what I suspect. "Source... you *did* make this a temporary fantasy sequence for him, didn't you?"

{You... You didn't tell me to make it temporary or that it was a fantasy sequence to be played out.} The source's voice suddenly became very hard to listen to. It was hard translating a disembodied voice to an audible one, but Joey would swear that it was getting panicky. {The wishes you made for him are...} It trailed off.

"Permanent," Joey finished in dismay. "Can it be undone?"

The source paused and then continued nervously. {I... I've never been asked to undo a wish before. I don't... I don't know if I can. Jared... He usually wants the wishes to be retroactive or be permanent changes. I... thought you wanted the same thing.}

Oh, shit, Joey thought. What have I done to Hermes?

{I... I can show you, Joey. I still have that much control during the schism. I think.} The source was now quavering. In fear? What did it think Joey would do it? What *could* Joey do to it?

"Yes, please do," Joey said, nonplused by the whole situation. Oy gevalt.

{This is two years from now.}

Images blossomed in Joey's mind. It was a room with vaulted ceilings in a large house somewhere. As he watched, the image focused on Hermes, who was lying facedown on top of an enormous round pink pillow. Joey wondered why he'd be lying on such a big pillow when he suddenly realized that it wasn't a pillow. It was Hermes. The belly that had he had started to grow in the lobby moments ago had increased in size by a quantum jump. Joey couldn't believe what he was seeing. The immense balloon attached to Hermes was no less than seven feet tall and at least eight feet in diameter. He truly was immobile now. Joey watched as the three muscle gods he had created - much bigger than he had just seen them moments ago - continued using Hermes as exactly what they'd called him, a Cum Tank, making him notch up in size perceptibly with each fuck or blowjob. Then the vision focused on Hermes himself, rather than the belly. Joey moaned in horror when he saw what had been done.

Doc Pratt, whoever he was, had definitely had fun altering Hermes' body. He had indeed unhinged his jaw and lowered it a considerable amount and added a ceramic addition between his skull and jaw that rendered it immobile and unable to close. Then, he surgically widened the lips so that Hermes had a permanent gaping maw instead of a mouth. Similar work had been done at the other end; his hole now gaped like a manhole, literally, perfectly round and open and unable to close. When he wasn't being used, caps were put in place to keep Hermes' orifices covered. They'd been completely honest; Hermes really was nothing but a fuck toy for their amusement.

And Hermes loved every minute of it.

The vision disappeared. "Oh, shit," Joey breathed. Oh, Hermes, I'm sorry!

{But... but he is happy that way, Joey, which is what you wanted.} The source was very close to pleading. {I swear he is.} The voice became very sad. {I failed you, Joey. I am sorry.} There was a pause and a sound like someone taking in a breath. {I am ready for my punishment.}

Joey blinked. "Punishment?"

{Jared punishes me for displeasing him or for disappointing him. I am a creature who is designed to please. I deserve to be punished for failure.}

"What! That's ridiculous! No one should think that way!" No wonder the source hadn't been willing to talk about Jared, the little shit! If I had my hands on him...! "What would he do to you?"

{Yes, you need to know the proper way to do it, if you are to punish me. Jared would think of his memories of reprehensible acts he had committed. This would cause me psychic pain, because they are opposed to my nature.} There was a pause. {I am not in a position to judge him, but he is completely amoral.}

"So I gathered." The little shit! Treating the source like...!

{Please don't make me wait any longer, Joey. Please punish me and get it over with. I promise I won't fail you again.}

I don't believe this. "Okay," Joey said, not really sure what to do and definitely sure he didn't want to, but the source expected it... Memories of reprehensible acts. Um... He thought of the time when he was at the supermarket and the cashier gave him eight cents too much change, and instead of calling her attention to it, he pocketed it. He still felt guilty about that. The time he used all the creamer packets on the table in the restaurant and didn't leave any for anyone else. Letting his vehicle go past its scheduled oil change by 2,000 miles.

There was what they call a pregnant pause. {That was it?} The source sounded almost disappointed. {You mean to tell me those were the most reprehensible things you've done?} Utter disbelief.

"Hey, those things bothered me a lot at the time!" he said, a bit put off. "I'm sorry I'm not evil enough for you!"

{You're not like Jared.} The thought was so overwhelmingly amazed that Joey felt the emotion as he would his own. {You're not like him at all. I thought that you had somehow masked your memories when I first accessed them, but...! You're not like any of my previous Hosts. None of them! They were all...} The source trailed off again.

"Tell me."

{They were... Greedy. Self-centered. Possession oriented. Power hungry. They...they didn't like me for what I am, just what I could do. They always found a way to punish me for not providing them with whatever they wanted. The only reason I didn't was because I couldn't provide them with too much power or they would destroy the world. Thala destroyed the reign of Egypt because of his greed and idle wishes. High Priestess Vel ended her country's existence retroactively by wishing that her family had never been born. Even Arthur Pendragon was nowhere near as noble as the fables about him say. There were thousands of others. I would... I would blunt their wishes, or redirect them. Grant them with a positive twist if I could. Remember I told you I have access to your mind? I would send subconscious thoughts that would direct their thinking so that they would not wish for certain things, or be led to believe things that were truthful yet were misleading. I am incapable of lying, but I can misdirect without telling a single lie.}

Joey smiled. "That sounds like something I do." He paused and then said, "I'm sorry, source. I'm sorry that you've been hurt so badly. I really do like you for you, not what you do."

{I know. You have not wished for anything for personal gain whatsoever, just wishes to help others or for fun that was not harmful to anyone else, Hermes notwithstanding. And you enjoy talking to me, which no one else ever has.} The voice became somewhat bitter. {Jared just tells me to shut up.}

"I won't do that unless you plan on keeping me awake at night." The source had an amused feel that it sent to Joey. "Please tell me about Jared."

{You... you won't like it. He's not nice at all. He only... All right. You deserve to know. You of all people. I think I need to show you Jared, rather than tell you about him. It will make understanding that much faster and effective.} There was another pause. {Joey, I don't know what will happen if I open Jared's mind to you. The wish keeping us connected is already starting to fade, and we're slowly becoming erratic again.} As if to emphasize the point, a bit of static started to appear again. {The only reason why we became connected at all was due to the schism.}

"Well, whatever happens, I don't regret it, even if we do all end up frozen. I've enjoyed your company."

{Thank you, Joey.} The source was so very warm that Joey felt the tingle inside himself too. {So have I. I have to warn you though, I'm not certain how effective the granting is now.}

"Understood. Will it hurt like that last time?"

{No. I know what caused that now, and...} The voice faded again. {Joey, make…! Can you…?} Static. {Make a wish! Any wish!}

Joey hurriedly lit the pipe again, and the wish made in-between quick plumes of pipe smoke. "Um, I wish that I understood what I need to know about Jared! And what to do to fix the schism!"

Then the world exploded in light.