Radical Radiation
Radical Radiation
Written by Leo_Todrius
Anonymous Commission
When a young man comes across a mysterious cube, he doesn't think much of it... but as his entire life begins to unravel and warp beyond recognition, it becomes clear that the innocuous object is emitting some form of radical radiation and affecting everything around it.
Radical Radiation Written by Leo_Todrius Anonymous Commission
The late afternoon sunlight barely filtered through the oak trees in front of the old brick apartment buildings, creating a dancing pattern on the aged gray cement sidewalks. While some aspects of the neighborhood hadn't changed in a long time, the quality of the neighborhood certainly had. The entire area had been cleaned up and re-zoned. New schools a short distance away had brought in new students and families, and it had been the perfect place for Rory to transfer to after spending a year at a community college at home.
The young man moved down the street, wearing his black jeans and an orange cream shirt. Many of the New Yorkers were acting as if it was still cold, but compared to Minnesota, the spring weather was positively ideal. Rory's wavy light brown hair framed his head in almost perfect style, looking as though he spent neither too much nor too little attention and his black frame rectangular glasses were stylish but not the overly trendy ones. It all worked to be a perfect balance over all.
Rory slowed as he approached the apartment, closing his eyes, just taking a moment to appreciate life. School was going well and he was already lining up internships for his senior year. With luck, he'd be gathering business leads before he even graduated. With that solace in his thoughts, Rory took one last breath of the street air before he continued toward his apartment building. He had almost made it when his black and white skate shoe caught the corner of something and he nearly tripped.
The young man stumbled but recovered, turning around. At first he assumed his accident had come as the result of some sort of acorn or fallen nut, but the only object on the sidewalk was rather peculiar. Sitting innocuously enough on the cement was a small, oddly beautiful, machine crafted cube. It was little more than three inches across with black carbon edges, but the interior was an intensely colorful marbled pattern of blue and green that almost seemed to glow.
Rory looked around to see if the owner of the cube had realized they dropped it, but there wasn't anyone else around. He hesitated for only a moment before crouching down, lifting up the cube in the palm of his hand. He held it up to the sunlight, watching how it played through the center material. The green and blue light danced across his eyes and his face and gave him an odd sense of contentment that lasted just a little too long. Rory slowly closed his fingers around the cube, taking one last glance around.
"Well, it wouldn't be safe to leave it out here where someone else could trip..." Rory said aloud as if to justify his next action. Standing back up, Rory hiked his backpack higher up on his shoulders and moved up the steps to the apartment. He keyed in his code to the lock and disappeared inside, letting the door shut behind him. As it clicked, the street grew quiet again, but something had already started to change. The cube had been there long enough to exert an influence. The cement around where it had rested began to ripple gently, cracking just a bit and developing a faded veneer of graffiti. Even the pansies in the narrow strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the building began to warp and change; the faces on the pedals disappearing as they frayed out, turning into yellow dandelions... But with those changes, the energy had been spent and the street was dormant once more.
The old stairs thumped as Rory moved up them, betraying the age of the building - though it was still in fantastic shape. The cream colored walls with the hip high olive green base boards had been painstakingly kept up over the years, and the newest tenants seemed to be even more infatuated with the rustic qualities of the establishment. Some of the engineering students that took up residence were even working on restoring the turn of the century elevator, though Rory wasn't going to hold his breath.
Rory ascended the stairs to the fourth floor, a level he shared with six other tenants. His room was the second farthest back on the north side. He had hoped for a corner apartment, but the rent was substantially cheaper for the middle unit - and in New York any discount on housing was important. As Rory approached his apartment, keys drawn, he could have predicted the precise second the next door over began to open. He wasn't sure if it was the sound of the stairs or just his luck, but as he expected his neighbor emerged. Leaning against the doorframe was a teenage boy, barely a few days past eighteen. He was almost as tall as Rory but a fraction of the weight. He had mousey brown hair and a baggy Teen Titans shirt on.
"Hey Harper." Rory said in a friendly fashion. Harper had transferred mid year which put him at odds with learning everything he needed to function at the college level. Rory had to give him credit though; he was going after it with gusto.
"Hey Rory, how is it going?" Harper asked with a friendly smile.
"It's going alright. Just coming back from a full day, about to crash." Rory said. Harper looked a bit surprised and maybe even a little disappointed at that, but he nodded readily.
"Oh yeah, nothing better after a long day." Harper replied. Rory almost felt a little sorry for the kid. He seemed to speak in phrases people reserved for encounters in the grocery store or on the train, phrases that didn't mean much at all and couldn't possibly cause offense. On some days Rory indulged the kid a bit more. While he'd never set out to be a campus guide or an unofficial orientation specialist, he'd become a bit of a mentor to Harper to help him fit into campus life. It'd been a simple arrangement considering the fact that they both lived in the same building and went to the same school, but today for some reason Rory's attention wasn't being held.
"I'll catch you around man." Rory said letting himself into his apartment. Harper blushed a bit and nodded, wordlessly returning into his own apartment. Rory shut the door behind himself and double locked it, feeling surprisingly at ease as the dead bolt slid into place. At last he had reached his sanctum. While every day life required certain trappings, Rory didn't like to be pinned with them for a second longer than he had to. His keys were hung up neatly on a hook by the front door, his cell phone went into a ceramic black bowl with oriental print embossed in gold and red lettering, and his wallet went to its usual position on the night stand by his bed. His pockets were empty, his body looser... but there was still one item remaining.
Without even touching it, Rory could feel the weight of the cube in his pocket, resting against his thigh. He debated taking it out for a split second, but then wondered why there was any doubt. His hand plunged into the folds of his pants, descending down into the pocket before his fingers wrapped around the curiosity and withdrew it. There was something satisfying about the carbon frame, as if it was grounding to him, but the interior really had Rory's attention.
Once more Rory brought it up before him, letting the sun from his window play through it. It was as beautiful as ever, though he wasn't sure if the lighting was right for the marbled blue and green interior. It was so precious, he'd have to figure out a way to properly mount it later. For now, though, in his meticulously kept apartment, there was only one fitting place.
Moving over to the row of shelves across from his bed, Rory found a spot between two of his baseball caps for the cube to sit. Somehow the cube seemed perfect counterbalanced between the transformers Autobot emblem and the Obey brand skater slogan. The mix of tech and earth.
Rory briefly wondered once more where the cube had come from, what its purpose was or how it had come into his life, but he pushed the thoughts aside with the mere fact that it was unattended in a public space and he was well within his rights. Rory gave the cube one more nod before he moved over and sat down at his computer, opening up his email to fish around for the homework that had been assigned for the following week. He leaned back in his chair and focused on the screen, as diligent in his duties as ever.
The minutes had ticked by, then hours. The sun had long since set and the stars were lost above a haze of orange light pollution. While Rory had succeeded in pulling off all nighters before, his focus all evening was weighing too much on him. His tear ducts felt as though they were full of sand and there was a very real pressure stabbing into his brain right behind the bridge of his nose. Rory groaned, his attention finally snapping in one single moment.
The young man leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his nose, closing his eyes for a long moment before he reached up and removed his glasses. The black frames were deposited on the edge of the desk, leaving Rory to run his fingers through his wavy hair. He ran the fingers from the root to the tips, feeling the kinks get worked out before it cascaded down his neck. The sensation was cathartic, though it was a little surprising at the same time. His hair was longer than he expected it to be. He might have to move up his next haircut date.
With a quick sigh, Rory reiterated to himself that there was no way he could continue with his studies any later. He forced his eyes open long enough to save his work, bookmark the tabs he had open, and shut down the computer. As the screen went dark, he felt an oddly high amount of relief. Wondering if the gratification could be extended, he dabbled with shutting his humanities textbook with gusto. That, too, gave him a surge of pleasure.
Rory chuckled to himself about his own eccentricities as he stood up and stretched, taking a big open mouthed yawn as he rolled his shoulders and held his hands high above his head. Even his toes seemed to curl in the midst of such a big stretch, digging into the soles of his shoes. With one last flick of his ankles and wrists, Rory moved toward his bed and started to undress, standing in front of his shelves. His shirt went first, then his shoes, and finally his pants.
As the late night student moved toward the dresser that held his night shirt, something caught him off guard. His stomach rumbled. While it wasn't uncommon for him to have a gurgly stomach every once in a while, he was unaccustomed to having hunger pangs so late at night. In fact, it was the first time he could think of having any so close to bed. Normally he avoided eating late at night for health reasons, but honestly he couldn't remember when during his intense studying that he had made time for dinner.
Rocking back and forth on his feet, Rory debated the pros and cons... but as he stood there in the faint glow of the cube he had picked up that morning, he wondered what harm there would be in breaking the rules just once. After all, most of America was obese. He had been diligent and dutiful in his pursuit of health so far. If he couldn't break the rules every one and again, who could?
With the decision squarely made, Rory abandoned his search for his night clothes and padded into the kitchen barefoot. His fingers clutched the edge of the fridge door expectantly before unveiling the contents. Illuminated by the small cream colored bulb, there weren't a lot of options in there that seemed even half appetizing. His normal menu seemed unbearably bland, tasteless, and textureless... but there was one option that he hadn't paid attention to in a while - a gallon tub of red skin potato salad.
It had been a purchase for friends coming over, friends that had failed to actually arrive. So the food had sat there for several days, unattended and unappreciated. For some reason the thought of that potato salad remaining uneaten all the way until its expiration date seemed both wasteful and incredibly lonely. Rory wasn't sure if food could even fall into the lonely category, but he didn't want to be the one that found out.
With an impulsive swipe of his hand, Rory retrieved the tub of potato salad and a spoon from a near by drawer. He made it as far as the small table at the edge of the living room before he realized he had forgotten something. With a quick pivot on his heel, he spun around - and forgot what he had forgotten. Debating for a moment, he neglected to realize he had originally intended to grab a modest sized bowl, and instead assumed that it was a beverage that would be paired with the potato salad. Once more Rory returned to the fridge and peered inside.
Searching with a purpose this time, Rory's analytical mind was stretching out to explore new avenues of thought. Rather than caloric intake or fat content, his mind tried to determine which drink would couple best with the savory cream of the potato salad. Orange juice was ruled out, and his unsweetened ice tea would likely be too tart. The only good option was the milk he reserved for an occasional bowl of cereal or oatmeal. It would have to be enough.
With his newest conquest, Rory returned to the table and sat down. The tub of potato salad was unceremoniously torn open and the spoon plunged in. There was something oddly satisfying about penetrating the virgin, untouched surface of the food. It was almost as crippling of a blow as being the first one to dish up peanut butter. With a bit of a swirl and a hoist, Rory brought the spoon full of salad to his lips and popped it in.
Every ambitious eating experiment Rory had tried before had resulted in shame and guilt, self imposed, at his indiscretions... but this was unadulterated pleasure. The potato salad wasn't like the kid he'd eaten growing up. It was almost a puree rather than chunky, though there was just enough heft to it that using his teeth was still necessary. What it was, though, was a satisfying flavorful paste full of spices and herbs, of starch and fiber. Rory let out an inexplicable moan as his eyes shut and he sat there, munching away on the spoon full... but soon the amazing flavor had been replaced by a rather neutral, slightly metallic one. It was the taste of an empty spoon.
Discarding the utensil from his mouth, Rory grabbed the jug of milk from his side. The lid was quickly unscrewed and the jug brought to his lips. A quick gulp was all it took to blow his mind. All of the rationing and careful pours of his last two years of dieting seemed wasteful. Was it drinking it right out of the bottle that made it taste so good? Rory was beside himself in shock... but then the guilt finally managed to start creeping back in.
Rory's gluttony came to a screeching halt. The one time he went off his program, he found food this delicious? His strict discipline had apparently been well placed to keep him from temptation, but he had to hope that tasting the forbidden fruit, or in this case potato, wouldn't send him down a dark path from which there was no return. Rory carefully closed the milk jug back up and sealed the potato salad container once more before returning them to the fridge. He gave the meal one last furtive glance before the fridge was shut.
Rory shook his head as he moved back toward his bed, wondering what came over him. It wasn't like him to be so careless with his health or anything else. Rory shook his head, deciding it just had to be the repercussions of studying too hard. Surely the next day would bring clarity. Rory pulled his covers back and slipped into bed, sliding down lower on the sheets until his toes dangled over the edge.
It didn't take long for Rory to feel the comfortable embrace of sleep starting to wrap around him. In fact, his bed felt better than ever. It was so soft, so freeing, so big. Rory had forgotten one more detail from his night's routine; his night shirt. For the first time in years he was sleeping in only his boxers. There was something about the skin on the fabric that made him feel so much more alive and less restrained.
As Rory's conscious mind gave up and he was surrendered to the mercies of his subconscious, the room fell quiet. The motion sensor lights in the kitchen triggered and snapped off and the light on Rory's night stand was casting nothing more than ambient illumination. The room was almost dark enough to glow with the city lights, or even the light being cast off from the cube sitting on the high shelf.
The cube had been resting there, on its perch, for almost the entire day. While it had not moved, nor been touched, it was not without activity. Steadily, ever so steadily, it had been acting on its environment... but the levels of its influence were only just starting to build.
The evening had come and gone, and before long Rory was well into his weekend. It had been a lazy morning, trying to plod along with his homework, but it had broken down around lunch time. It seemed he was always hungry now and he'd been trying hard to stick to his diet. In the end he had decided to compromise, making a healthy pasta dish from scratch. He'd used the healthiest oils, spices, and gluten free noodles. Everything had been prepared with love and care before being placed in the microwave to heat the last of the ingredients.
The bowl spun around on the clear platter, the light casting out from behind the metal mesh that acted as a faraday cage for the contents. As the microwave ran, the television had been left on in the other room. Rory paid it no mind as he cooked, but the report changed to something live and local.
"A sight not seen in years, a protest that had once been considered all too common. Today on the eastern edge of our fair city, a group of protesters have gathered to demonstrate against the installation of a new cell phone tower. While some demonstrations of this nature have achieved success based on natural access rights or even sight lines, the resistance to this particular advance is a bit old fashioned - fear of radiation." The reporter said, trying to use his inflections to make the demonstrators sound a bit crazy.
"The truth of the matter is that we can't escape radiation, not on this planet at least." Another voice said, the footage cutting away to an expert. The name placard appeared with the man's credentials beneath, "There's radiation everywhere. Most of us know that the sun emits radiation, as well as old televisions and cell phones in limited amounts, but even bananas and certain nuts are radioactive. If you take a plane to get anywhere, you're that much higher in the atmosphere. Less protection, more exposure." The expert said simply.
"From cell phone signals to radio waves, GPS feeds and wi-fi internet, we live in a buzzing incursion of cyberspace. Demonstrations and protests against cell phone towers were more commonplace in the eighties and nineties, but in recent years they have been accepted as necessities of an advanced age. While scientists are fairly certain that there is a limited effect on us humans, new reports are citing a hefty impact to insect populations reacting to our digital footprint. For the moment, though, it seems that these protesters won't be able to stand in the way of progress and technology will take yet another indomitable step forward. For channel six news, I'm Kyle Itanabe." The reporter said.
As the news story wrapped up, the microwave too seemed to draw in a little more power. The high frequency waves were mostly trapped in the metal box, but some got out into the apartment over-all. It was just enough to trigger a sympathetic release in the cube where it rested on the high shelf. The steady flow of energy it release picked up, the marble striped core glowed brighter, and there was a faint flicker around the room.
The most distinct change came from the objects the cube had been placed between, the ones exposed to its presence the longest. The stitched patch of the Autobot hat started to change. The very threads changed color at first, darkening from red to purple before the threads seemed to rethread themselves, taking on far more angular shapes, becoming the logo for the villainous Decepticons rather than the heroic Autobots. The other hat's 'obey' slogan had changed as well, shifting to 'Anarchy' instead.
It was little more than a glitch in reality itself, a soft error in the makeup of the universe, but the cube was radiating something far more powerful than simple ions. It was reshaping the universe itself, contaminating and degrading everything around it with a more profound and interactive influence than a mere energy source. If it could decode the social significance of a hat's purpose, the effect it could have on the living would be undoubtedly more powerful.
There were few feelings in life like being up way too late, trying desperately in vain to fall asleep. Rory wasn't even sure why, unless he had relaxed too much all weekend. He felt a bit tired, his stomach was uneasy. There was something about being up so late that felt like his brain was sitting inside of warm Jell-o, just jiggling around. His body didn't seem to be the right temperature either. Rory rolled over and wiped the sweat from his brow, knocking down the postcard he'd used to block the steady green glow of his alarm clock.
Five thirty two in the morning, Monday. Rory glanced back at the apartment window. The skyline was still lit up for night with littering street lights and half illuminated business windows, but the distant horizon was starting to grow brighter with the coming sun. There was no way he was going to get enough sleep before classes, and he had always been raised to think if someone was bothering to do something they should do it well. Rory would just have to take a sick day.
The idea caused an initial pang of guilt and disappointment in Rory, as it always had, but as that faded there was an odd infectious giddiness riding the wave behind it. He'd been in the grind for so many years, maintaining perfect attendance, doing everything that was required... The only time he had taken sick days before had been due to incapacitating illness. Mere fatigue, sleeplessness, as a reason... Once he slept through his class, he'd have the rest of the day, an entire day for himself.
A grin crossed Rory's lips and he laid in his bed, rolling onto his back, basking in the idea. He wasn't even aware of the glowing light faintly radiating from the cube on his shelf, washing over him and shining brightly on the wall behind it. The grin on Rory's face was already a little deformed. His canine teeth were longer and sharper than they ever had been before, and Rory's fingernails had grown just the same. They poked into the fabric of his blanket as his hands rested there, threatening to tear the fabric beneath.
Rory murmured happily and closed his eyes, just hoping the sun wouldn't rise and become so bright that he couldn't fall back asleep in time. He let his heavily lidded eyes drift shut and began to feel like he was floating, but something wasn't quite right. The sounds of the city at night were louder than Rory remembered. He could hear police and fire sirens in the distance, the sound of cars passing by. He could hear the homeless scuffling along on the sidewalks, and he could hear a steady thumping coming from the wall across from his bed. It was light, but quite rapid, enough to be rather distracting.
What had been a giddy guilty pleasure, the idea of a free day, was now a source of anger in Rory. Whatever Harper was up to in the next apartment over, it was putting his own personal pleasure at risk. Rory threw his cover off and stepped out of bed, his long curved toenails scratching on the floor a bit. Rory burped as he rose up to his full height, feeling the extra weight of his weekend around his mid-section, his stomach still a bit distended.
The student padded across the bedroom floor, stumbling over a stack of Dominoes boxes. He had the remnants of almost their entire menu in the form of pizza boxes, cardboard cartons, metal pasta trays and plastic cups. Rory waded through the garbage before he reached the wall, trying to bang on it with his fist. Despite his aggression, the sound continued. Rory growled, bearing his fangs a bit more.
"Harper, knock it off!" He shouted. Still the sound persisted, ever rapid and quick like something knocking against the wall in rapid succession. Rory grunted in dismay and turned, heading to his front door in nothing but boxers and a food stained grey tank top. He unhooked the deadbolt on the door and emerged, moving down the hall before he pounded on Harper's door. Somewhere at the edge of his awareness he heard the rapid thumping become irregular before finally stopping. Rory even closed his eyes as he listened, hearing a muffled stumbling through his neighbor's apartment before the door finally opened and revealed the occupant.
Rory stood in shock for a moment as he looked at Harper. The meek boy certainly looked different. A silver ring hugged his right nostril, his ears had been adorned with black spacers showing a pencil sized gap through the hole, he had a diagonally faced black baseball cap pulled on over his sweaty hair, and his long jersey like night shirt was positively moist. The scent of accumulated semen leaked into the hall like spoiled cheese, and Harper looked at Rory with an odd glaze in his eyes.
"H-hey Rory... What's up?" Harper asked, looking up into Rory's eyes. Rory stammered a bit, his brain trying to process the information, but the shock at the changes disappeared as Rory struggled to hold on to what his neighbor had looked like before. The details in his memory were starting to fragment, shifting and warping until they mirrored the somewhat trendier, hornier boy that stood before him now.
"I hate to interrupt anyone's good time, but I can hear what you're up to over there from my room and I need to catch some sleep." Rory said. Harper blushed at that and nervously grabbed the bottom of his night shirt, tugging it down lower - which only served to outline his erection in a tent of fabric.
"Sorry Rory, I'll try to keep it on the down low... unless you want someone to help you sleep." Harper offered coyly. Rory smirked.
"Not tonight, I think. Goodnight Harper." Rory said, returning to his own apartment. Harper stood there, watching the door shut. He remained even as he heard Rory's deadbolt returned to its secure configuration. With a soft sigh Harper moved back into his apartment, wondering if he would annoy a neighbor if he masturbated in the bathroom instead. Thinking about it made him a little hungry, prompting the boy to lift his shift up and lick at the moist spots, moaning as he tasted the salty moisture trapped inside.
One sick day had become two, but on the third day Rory started to get threatening emails from his professors. It was enough to shake him free of his reverie and force him to face the truth. He'd started getting ready, though it was truly interesting how fast such routines could feel alien. His shower had felt almost unnatural, washing off the comfortable film of four days lived comfortably. His hair seemed too fluffy, his skin too clean. Rory padded out of his bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. The pudge forming on his stomach had gotten even bigger over his sick days, rounding out to the size of a small melon. His pecs had not escaped the deterioration either, plumping up and rounding a bit.
Rory rounded the corner and moved past his bed, opening the drawer to fetch some clothes. His hand instinctively reached for his favorite shirt, but something was off. It was almost like someone else's wardrobe. His button up shirts were missing, his slacks were gone. He had an ample supply of denim, but they were all well worn. Some had blown out knees, others had pockets so faded that the fabric was ready to fray and come apart. The shirts were little better, left as a collection of graphic t-shirts depicting various food products, internet slogans, and beer companies.
Rory's face screwed up at that for a long moment, trying to come to grips with it. Yet again, something in his life seemed to be just a bit off, like reality itself had glitched... but who would have broken into his apartment and swapped out his clothes? Maybe his sick days had left him truly sick, unable to remember changing his own clothes... Yes, changing his clothes. That's why he had come to the bathroom after all. As Rory grabbed a shirt, he started to forget about the discontinuity. He slid on his shirt and grabbed his old pair of underwear and put them back on.
As Rory felt the snug denim slide up over his groin, he hesitated. His thoughts drifted back to the late night with Harper, how he'd clearly been enjoying himself. The smell had been so potent that he was sure his fellow student had been jacking off for days... That kind of freedom seemed almost envious. Rory's cock started to get hard in his pants and Rory's discretion began to wane. He unzipped his jeans again and fished out his cock, wrapping his clawed fingers around the meat. He began to pump his rod, picking up the pace, loving how it felt to have his foreskin slide back and forth over the sensitive flesh.
Slowly Rory's eyes closed and his lips curled back, revealing his fangs. He stumbled a bit in the pleasure of it all, his back bumping into the shelves across from his bed. The thump was enough to cause the glowing cube to shudder and then topple, landing between a lower shelf and Rory's shoulders. Rory hissed at that, knowing if he moved that whatever fell would hit the floor, so he stayed where he was... but his cock was too good to resist.
Rory kept pumping it, feeling the blood flow into his shaft. It stretched out longer and thicker, the flesh becoming rougher. His foreskin seemed to ripple a bit, growing hotter and looser and softer. There was a texture change as well, like something was growing bumpy and sharp beneath his sliding flesh. The sensations were even more alluring, keeping Rory from holding back.
The young man's focus on his cock made it easy to ignore the faintly burning sensation where the cube touched his shoulder blade. The fabric of the green shirt he had put on was changing again. The color was sun bleaching out and stains were appearing, but the effect of the cube was reaching deeper than that. Soft curls of hair started growing out all across Rory's back, both making him seem more masculine and hirsute, an hinting at something else entirely.
Rory's face tingled as well, his stubble emerging at a faster rate. The fuzz spread across his cheeks and his jaw bone, the color of dark straw, pushing out more and more. The face Rory had been putting on for his wank session caused his nose to wrinkle up, but soon even that was going too far. The bottom of his nose softened, the nostrils changing shape. His nose widened and his upper lip began to change shape, coming up in the center and rounding out on the sides.
The snarls coming from Rory's face seemed to match his ever more feline face. The sand colored hair that was naturally wavy seemed to stand up ever more on end, blending into the ever thickening beard growing out from his jaw, forming a true mane of sorts. Golden fluff grew out across the backs of Rory's ears as well, blending into the forming fur - but still Rory focused only on his cock.
It was surreal, feeling his foreskin loose its anchor. The flesh was reduced to little more than an exterior tube over an internal cock, Rory's clawed hands pulling the flesh back more and more. What emerged from the meaty interior was far from human. The head of the shaft was almost purple, bloated and tapered... and the flesh behind it was even more alien. Tiny fleshy barbs extended from the cock on all sides, curved in such a way that would make it hard to remove from any ass it found itself buried in. The foreskin was pulled back more and more until it rested against his groin like a sheath, letting the powerful cock remain exposed.
Rory's hand shot forward, leaving the sheath behind, grabbing his immense feline cock directly. As he did, it was almost like lightning. The young man's fingertips began to swell, puffing up and rounding, growing pillow like pads on his palm as well. Golden hair began spilling out of his knuckles and across the back of his hands, the hairs growing into the forest of thickening gold on his arms.
Presented with direct contact, the cube's effect on his back was ever more dramatic. The hair sprouting turned to fur, thick enough that his human flesh disappeared beneath. It covered his back and crept outward in every direction like a flood. It covered his shoulders and crept up his neck, growing into his hairline. It rolled over his ribs and trickled down across his ass, his fattening cheeks soon covered in soft downy fur. It grew in until it connected to his pubic bush, though the fur there remained thicker and much more curly.
Rory hissed louder, feeling his heart race in his chest. He looked down at his cock, feeling a mix of panic and pride, watching it grow larger and larger still. It stretched past ten inches, making him feel incredibly proud, but when it surged again and passed fourteen he felt like a manly beast... and still it grew. Rory wielded it like a weapon, a club in his paw. Soon both paws were on it, feeling the barbs dig into his paw pads. Drool leaked from the corner of his proto muzzle, his face still reshaping.
Soon the young man's balls were covered in fur, then his legs. The jeans he had put on grew tighter, barely able to contain the fur within, but the pressure on his legs made Rory feel as if he was getting a hug all over. His feet, though, were still unrestrained. While his clawed toes remained the same length, the width of his feet started to increase dramatically. The heel bloated out, then the ball. The flesh strained, the bones grew and gold fur came sprouting out all over.
Rory threw his head back and let out a roar like moan as his feet grew past size ten, then twelve, then fifteen and showed no signs of slowing. They were so much boxier than before, so much more animal. Rory's writhing and shifting was enough movement that the gap between his shoulders and the shelves widened and the cube fell to the floor, clattering against the wall beneath. Rory was beyond caring at this point.
The shifting man grunted and roared, his clawed toes cutting into the floor as he jacked off with both paws. His face continue to reshape as bones popped and flesh shifted, a soft thin layer of fur spreading over his cheeks and nose and around his eyes. It was barely thick at all, offering quite the contrast to his thick and robust mane. Rory's lion ears stuck out more, his face and torso slowed on their changes, but his cock continued to grow. Both paws together couldn't close around it and it had stretched to an obscene two and a half feet long.
Milky yellow precum was starting to dribble from the urethra, falling to the floor, leaving Rory feel like he was drunk out of his mind. Even the massive growth above his ass cheeks filling the seat of his pants couldn't rouse him from his stupor. The flesh wriggled around the ass of his jeans, snaking one direction and then the other until, like a proud animal freed from confines, a lion's tail extracted itself. It whipped out from the jeans, the fluffy brown tassel sliding across a lower shelf, sweeping figurines to the floor.
As the plastic collectibles landed next to the cube, they wobbled and warped, turning from heroic superheroes to vile misshapen villains. Reality itself was changing all around the cube, and Rory had received his biggest dose yet. Rory grunted louder and louder until he finally threw his head back, opened his muzzle wide and let out a roar that shook the windows. His huge lion cock twitched and unleashed hot, thick torrents of lion jizz across his bed, the wall, his night stand and more. Rory had started out spraying accidentally, but something deep down in his brain started to feel territorial. His paws began directing his cock, hosing down his possessions, making sure everyone would know that it was his apartment...
Even after the walk to campus, Rory felt the after glow of his amazing masturbation session. He walked down the winding cement path like he owned the place, putting one huge paw before the other. His wardrobe had required one last minute change, finding another pair of pants to accommodate his hyper endowment. Luckily he'd managed to find a pair in the drawer that supported his watermelon sized bulge, letting him strut his stuff.
The other students watched in amazement as the wind carried through Rory's beard like mane and his wild hair, but there was still something regal about the lion. He seemed so confident, so in charge. Rory slowed as he approached the quad, his feline nose sniffing at the air. The source of the appealing scent wasn't hard to track down. A number of food carts had been set up around for the students to fend from as they went from class to class.
Rory approached the hot dog cart, his eyes half lidded with pre-feast glee. He came up, leaning against the cart enough that the bulge of his jeans oozed over the edge of the top. While it had been the cube that had started the changes, like any radioactive substance it had contaminated Rory himself. Just by touching the cart, the changes were starting to spread. The mustard glitched, the bottle turning darker brown as it became spicy. The mayonnaise got thicker and fattier, the cart looked less clean and even the hot dogs got thicker and greasier, growing longer and thicker as they rolled on the metal tubes. Rory licked his lips, his whiskers twitching just a bit as he looked at the vendor.
"Give me everything you got..." he murmured.
"One with everything?" The vendor asked, looking stunned as he looked at the lion man. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew this wasn't right or normal, but being close to the lion just made it seem like another day. The vendor blinked as his mind was affected, "Oh, right, everything I have... Right, boss." The vendor said, starting to dish everything up. Rory licked his lips, imagining all the great food he was about to have... but being called boss was a nice bonus as well.
Harper's apartment had been utterly destroyed. Every scrap of food had been eaten, and in the quest to find it the cupboards had been thrown open. Garbage was spread across the floor and the bed... the bed was beyond any hope for sanitation. Harper laid on his soiled and stained mattress, looking far from his ordinary self. Unnatural amounts of body hair had grown from his pits, his chest, even his groin. The dense curls of brown fur were almost as thick as a wig... but his cock had done its best to avoid being eclipsed by such human foliage. It was long, meaty, caked with head cheese and oddly dark in pigmentation. In fact, much of Harper's skin wasn't the color it should have been. It was beyond tan, almost looking brown in places.
Harper panted softly, his breath passing over swollen, elongated front teeth. Scruff covered his baby cheeks and his ears were misshapen, rounded and large, standing up taller on his head than they should have.
In Harper's hand, a hand possessing black fingernails at irregular length, was the last Oreo. Every other piece of food and every drop of fluid had been consumed to give him the stamina to masturbate for almost five days straight. Harper's nose sniffed the air and he smelled the appetizing aroma of the Oreo before finally popping it in his mouth.
The young man greedily munched on it until nothing was left but black mush in his mouth - and even that disappeared with a swallow. Harper sighed softly and rolled onto his side, his long cock extending before him. For a moment he mourned the passing of the last snack food, but then his eyes caught something rather peculiar. Clinging to the edge of blue plastic over the Oreo container was a morsel he had somehow missed - a crumb, an incomplete cookie.
Harper lunged for it, but in his haste he bumped the package. The crumb fell down to the floor and rolled up against the wall. Harper yelped and dropped to his knees, deciding in the end that all fours might be more beneficial.
The student rooted through the garbage and squeezed under his bed, groping and clawing for the treat. He wedged himself in under the bed, his ass wagging behind him. He rooted and pushed, squeezing even more before something caught his eye. In the darkness beneath the bed, there was only one source of light. A faint bluish green glow was coming through a hole in the molding at the base of the wall. Mesmerized by the light, Harper forgot his crumb for a moment and crawled over, trying to peek through the hole., Inches away, on the other side, the cube rested in place where it had fallen.
The cube seemed so clean and perfect in comparison to Harper's dirty nest, but somehow he felt like he knew it, like it was already a part of him. Truthfully, he'd been closer to it than Rory had with the exception of the wall, but for days it had been resting just on the other side, just above his head. Harper reached for the hole, his fingers digging at the wood. As they got closer, his black fingernails sunk down into his fingers, forcing the flesh to hastily knit together over the surface. His claws grew longer and longer, extending from the tips of his finger. He grunted and groaned, straining. All the while, Harper's long cock was dragging through TV dinner trays and paper plates, knocking the garbage around. He roared in effort before he gave up, pulling his hand back for a moment.
As Harper gazed through the hole into the heart of the cube, the light washed over his face. His right iris turned from brown to black before the color spread across his entire eye, and then the other. The pierced teenager's eyes were soulless and beady, matching the deterioration of his personality already. As he was bathed in the light, his body continued to change. The thick forest of hair on his chest began growing outward, over his shoulders and around his ribs. The pit hair he had started to smell more musty as he sweat more, and Harper let out a squeak as he felt a strange sensation in his face.
It was abrupt, obtrusive, and generally odd. While his brain had been trained to ignore his nose in the center of his face, it didn't help that the nose was getting further and further out there. The nostrils turned upwards, the flesh rounded, and the bulbous extension darkened from peach to brown to black. The only thing that remained was the nose ring he had gotten as a human. Likewise, the black spacers in his ear now rested in much lager, more animal ears that continued to grow longer and rounder.
While Harper's nose had grown, his mouth had seemed hesitant to catch up until that moment. His jaw elongated, moving first with the top and then with the bottom. As his jaw grew, his teeth were further apart but new calcium began to ooze into the gaps, allowing the teeth to regain condition and grow larger, wider, and flatter. Harper's claws dug into the floor beneath his bed, feeling his feet ache and throb. His big toes started to flex in ways he hadn't known possible, the digits becoming longer and more segmented. The skin toughened up like leather, but the hair on his legs was getting more wiry and bristly, surging out in a dusty brown color.
A long, flat tongue hung out of Harper's muzzle as he basked in the glow of the cube. Ever so slowly his hips lowered to the ground, his cock squeezed against the debris accumulated beneath. He started to apply more pressure and relax only to do it again, humping the floor. The movements accentuated the muscles in his thighs, hips, and ass - an ass that was quickly growing.
While Harper had remained unclad for days, the night shirt was riding up over his swelling ass cheeks. The meaty hunks parted slowly as they grew, revealing the sweaty ring of muscle waiting the presence of another male... and above it was a lump. The lump, at first, seemed just like a swollen tailbone. The flesh was a bit irritated and red, protruding more than usual, but that changed as something beneath the skin moved.
New muscles anchored around the nub of bone and tissue, allowing it to truly start to move on its own accord. The tailbone pulled away from the body and strained against the flesh. The skin became pink and irritated as it was stretched, but then it seemed to bounce back and resist. The skin toughened up, growing calloused and firmer. The tailbone struggled again, the bones cracking as they separated and new ones grew in between - causing the tail to crinkle, forming a cord like ridge. The tail's growth hesitated, stopping for just a moment before doubling and doubling again in intensity. Harper let out a scream as the tail whipped out above his ass, thickening and toughening, becoming a true force to contend with.
The tail snaked out behind him, whipping around. It was strong and firm, powerful to say the least. A sense of urgency twitched through the changing rat boy's body from the tip of his tail to his dangling cock to his twitching pierced mouse nose. He'd been jacking off for days and he felt better than ever, but it wasn't his cock that needed working... it was his ass. He groaned, hating how empty and alone it felt. He needed something to fill him properly, and he could only think of one person to do it. Harper crouched down and stuck his nose up to the hole in the wall beneath his bed.
"Rory, are you there?"! He called out hopefully, though the rat was left to silence. A soft whimper escaped his lips as he resumed humping the garbage in his rat's nest, waiting for his neighbor to return.
Normally evening on campus was a time of quiet reflection, contemplation, and freestyle Frisbee... but tonight it was something else. The intellectual conversations that normally carried on the wind had been replaced by murmurs, groans, grunts, and the dissatisfied ramblings of a rather hungry collective of students. Every food cart had closed up early, depleted of their supplies - and many had been affected by their patron as well. The carts seemed far less healthy than they had been when they arrived, just the same as Rory.
The lion sat on the back steps of the university president's building, cleaning the last scraps of meat off of a barbecue chicken wing. His fingers were tipped by the sweet smoky brown sauce of his last meal, his claws etched with misplaced fang scrapes as his paw barely cleared his muzzle as he ate. Even as the other students glared at him as they passed, Rory couldn't have been happier. The quad had served his purpose, feeding him and only him. There was an odd sense of accomplishment at eating an entire food court's worth of food, though it had taken its toll in a variety of ways.
Rory's clothes were unrecognizable. The shirt he had been wearing was covered in a layer of food so thick that the original material was completely hidden. There was ketchup and mustard, teriyaki and barbecue sauce, soy and caramel and curry. It was an edible tie die, but all the food that landed on his shirt was a fraction of what Rory had consumed. The shirt had ridden ever higher as Rory's belly grew larger. The fabric hugged his fatter man pecs now like a bra.
Even Rory's pants seemed to be struggling more with just what he'd managed to do in a short hour. Furry lion ass cheeks peeked out of the top of his pants, and the groin was wet with some combination of precum and urine leaking out steadily from the behemoth trapped within. Rory had never been so dirty or disgusting in his entire life, but somehow it made sense... It was all a means to an end, to a gratification and pleasure he'd never known before. After all, college was a time of self discovery.
The young man sat on the steps, letting the food digest in his rotund stomach, reflecting on everything around him. Eating all the food had been one thing, asserting his dominance as the king of the campus in a metaphorical sense, but it wasn't enough. There was the cafeteria on campus of course, and some nights they even had buffets, but more than that Rory was starting to wonder if this place was right for him... It was all about learning, all about the future, but so much of it was a distraction from the present. Rory wasn't sure if he wanted to leap without thinking, but just like his pants, the college was starting to feel too tight and constraining. The lion pushed himself up and stretched a bit, letting out a fang filled yawn.
"Fat fucker..." One of the other students mumbled as they walked past. Rory's brow arched up.
"If you think you're on for the challenge, I'll give you a fuck you won't forget." Rory called out after. It had been a defense mechanism, a snap response. The jock continued on, but the thought seemed lodged in Rory's brain. He could see it now, holding the asshole down, fucking his ass, his fat legs oozing over the sweaty athlete's body. For the first time, Rory suddenly felt hungry for something other than food.
Rory reached down and ran a paw over his impressive bulge, wondering just who might be worthy of his fat fuck stick. He looked at some of the cheerleader girls, at one of the campus advisor ladies, and even at the hippie kids huddled up on a retaining wall over by a campus garden. He had expected to be biased toward the luscious ladies, but it seemed his lust was dedicated for something more integral. It had to have significance in the target, or more specifically, it had to have significance to Rory.
Uncertain just what that meant for him, Rory turned and started waddling back toward the parking lot. It wouldn't be long before he was hungry again, but perhaps that would be just enough time to contemplate his feelings and just what course of action might bring him the most pleasure. Rory's steps were slow and deliberate, not expending any more energy than he had to - at least physically. The radiation he had absorbed from the cube had tainted him, making him just as dangerous. The steps he had sat on had grown over with a strange orange moss, and the few places not coated were sprawled with graffiti that had generated on its own. The radiation had reached as far as the president's office itself, but there it had stopped - at the lead lined, stained glass windows. The metal had acted as a barrier, keeping the ill effect at bay, at least for the moment.
The door to the apartment building opened with a lingering creak, followed by several more as Rory crossed the threshold. He moved in with every intention to return to his domicile, though as he laid eyes on the stairs he started having second thoughts. Still, something else seemed different. It was usually easier for humans to detect the presence of something new rather than a something missing, but Rory realized it was just that - caution tape was missing.
The turn of the century elevator was no longer crossed over and locked up with tape. It seemed after some effort that the engineering students had gotten it working after all. Rory waddled over and entered, pulling the metal grates down. His paw wrapped around the lever and depressed the tongue like latch, raising it up to the appropriate position. Somewhere high above the engine sputtered to life and the fat lion began his ascent.
If time was money, then the duration of the elevator journey would have been quite expensive. It did, however, give Rory time to reflect on his neighbors. They weren't the same pretentious types like the other students at his school. They had their problems, they had their pursuits... Rory knew he didn't have to like his neighbors to live there, but it certainly helped. The fact that they were alike kept them from getting in his way which was the most important thing.
The lion man gazed out at the slices of life he passed, watching a pair of hyena teens try to hustle some drug money from an old elephant man who seemed quite interested in giving them a sniff with his trunk. He saw a gazelle woman flaunting herself for a horse boy across the hall. All in all, it seemed like a right bunch of people in Rory's eyes - and then there was his floor. The lion pulled the lever back down, locking it into place as he came up to his own floor... more or less. He pulled the grating up and stepped up onto the ledge about half a foot higher, not bothering to send the elevator back to its original location.
He made it a few steps toward his apartment before, once again, Harper's door opened. The figure that emerged, though, was nothing like Rory remembered. He was tall and lithe, almost painfully skinny for the most part except for his extremely rounded hips, fat ass, and huge rat cock. The gauge earrings in Harper's ears were bigger than silver dollars and the ring in his nostril was quite thick. His rat nose twitched and he ran a clawed hand up his stomach, pausing to pinch his own nipple. Rory was taken aback for a moment, but somehow his brain started to push through the confusion, convincing him to accept his neighbor as who he truly was.
"Hey Harper." Rory said. The rat boy licked his lips slowly.
"Hey Rory, lookin' fine." The rat said, pinching his own nipple harder.
"I am looking fine, aren't I?" Rory said proudly, reaching down to pat his huge belly. Harper moaned at that.
"Oh yes you are..." Harper replied, "Best damn guy I've ever seen." He added. The words floated into Rory's head and lingered there. Rory growled a bit in pleasure, feeling that pride and exceptional exclusion at being the best of the best. The fact that Harper had been the one to give him that compliment made Rory feel more positive about him as well.
"Hey, I don't know if you're busy, but wanna hang out at my place for a bit?" Rory asked. Harper's solid black eyes widened at that.
"S-s-sure, hot stuff." He squeaked happily. Harper's stomach growled a bit.
"Bring over some food if you have any." Rory added. Harper nodded eagerly.
"Oh yeah, wouldn't dream of depriving you." Harper whispered. Rory chuckled and moved back toward his apartment to open it up.
"Better see that you don't." Rory smirked. Harper darted back into his apartment, intent on finding every last morsel or robbing the neighbor if he didn't have a gift suitable enough for Rory. The rat was intent on getting laid even if it killed him.
Watching Harper move around the apartment felt to Rory like he was on a wildlife safari, trying to pick out his next meal. He wasn't sure if his neighbor had always been that hot, or if it had happened recently. Maybe it was the way that Harper always needed so much help, guidance, and attention... or, in short, how much he needed Rory. Rory stood in the doorway of his apartment, watching the rat boy move around. Harper was taking it all in, sniffing the scents and shivering every so often. It was amazing to see since the effect started with his emo boy hair and traveled down his lanky rat body past his huge, fat ass and down his long corded tail to the very end. Just watching it quiver made Rory's huge cock fight against the confines of his pants.
"Oh wow Rory, I never knew you lived like this. I guess I always thought you were more... anal." Harper considered. Rory chuckled at that and moved over, clapping a huge lion paw down on Harper's rather enormous ass cheek.
"The only thing anal about me is that it's on my to do list." Rory growled. The joke felt odd as it left his lips, parts of his mind at war with themselves. Part of him felt strange that he was being so overtly sexual, while another part found it odd that he'd even consider the existence of a to do list.
"Oh Rory..." Harper squeaked softly, "Ever since you moved in, the guidance that you've given me... It's really made all the difference. You've had such an affect on my life." Harper said. Rory grinned at that.
"Well, maybe it's time to start taking that effect to the next level. Do you think you're rat enough to take what I have to offer?" Rory asked. Harper bit his lip, his body shivering again. He nodded meekly but managed to quickly shed what little remains of clothing he had.
Seeing the rat boy's body there, so tall and furry, his tiny pierced nipples and his solid black eyes - it made Rory even more horny. This was going to be his slut, his own personal play thing... Not so much a person as property he had to claim with his cock. The thoughts were dirty and detestable, but they turned him on all the more. Rory groaned as he felt the button of his pants cutting into his cock. The zipper felt like a blade pressed against the coiled man python, but the battle was short lived. The fabric broke loose, from the zipper first but then all the way up. The lion's mighty cock flung free, sending out a wet splatter of precum that hit the apartment window and the wallpaper all the way up to the ceiling.
Standing there, seeing the cock revealed, Harper began to drool without restraint. The saliva was thick, dribbling over his chin before dangling down to the floor in long, slimy strings. If his eyes hadn't already been focusless, they would have easily glazed over. He charged forward, but skidded to a stop as Rory lifted his hand.
"If you want this, slut, you have to promise yourself to me... You live for my pleasure, no one else's." Rory commanded. Harper nodded eagerly.
"I live for your pleasure, no one else's." He repeated.
"You exist to bring me joy, to bring me pleasure, to give me whatever I need." Rory commanded. The words leaving his mouth felt powerful, his voice deepening as he said it. Harper almost cowered before the lion, his tail wrapping around his own right leg.
"I exist to bring you pleasure, power, whatever you need..." Harper murmured, so horny he could barely remember any of the words. Rory thought about pushing him even further, but some small shred of him had mercy at least. He reached down and pulled his sheath the rest of the way back, revealing the barbed feline cock.
Harper moved forward again, prying his muzzle wide as he approached - but even then it didn't seem wide enough. Rory hissed and gasped as he felt the blunt rat teeth grazing along the upper side of his shaft, but soon the rat boy started to get used to it and relaxed more. Rory loved the feeling, but whatever sense of restraint he had was quickly disappearing. If a little felt good, a lot more had to feel great.
The lion started to push forward, wedging his dick into Harper's mouth deeper and faster. The rat moaned, especially when Rory switched tactics to humping back and forth. Harper's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he felt the lion barbs tugging at his tongue and cheek, struggling to stay lodged in him. Rory grunted and moaned, clawing at the rat's hair, tangling his fingers up in it all... but he needed more. He needed to be deeper, but his cock was simply too big.
"Get on the bed, slut!" Rory panted hard. The words felt alien in his mouth,, but so right at the same time. Harper carefully pried himself off the cock before he pranced over to the bed and hopped on, dropping onto all fours, his ass presented. As his rat tail raised up like a flag, he glanced over his shoulder hopefully. Even with his jaw sore from being stretched so wide, he knew that he had made the right decision.
It was true that Rory had been fixated on food recently, far more than eve before, but for the first time since he'd found the cube, he stopped thinking about food completely. His eyes were locked on the undulating grey ring of flesh placed dead center in the rat's huge fat ass. It was as if all of Harper's neediness, all of his passive tendencies, his receptive attitude were all summed up into this specific spot - a spot perfectly designed for Rory.
The lion reached down with both paws and hoisted up his enormous member. Rory got almost a deranged look in his eyes, knowing that if he used his rod irresponsibly that he could wreck the poor helpless rat boy - but he didn't care. That ass was going to be a receptacle for his pleasure. Without warning, Rory speared in, letting the head of his shaft plunge into that tight, hot hole. Harper arched his back and moaned, clawed hands digging into the bed.
As rory started to push in inch after inch, Harper gasped and writhed, his eyes squeezing shut. He could feel the coiling of his intestines being undone, straightened out around that enormous cock. It pushed in along his pelvis and arched up higher, finding a rather strange anatomy inside the rat boy. Harper hadn't realized that his tall, lanky nature had served any purpose but apparently he had been preparing for this moment as soon as the cube started weaving its influence upon him... and he loved it.
Harper drooled a bit from his muzzle, his rat tail slowly wrapping around the huge, fat lion behind him. He had hated to be so needy before, to bug his neighbor for so much, but Rory had always amazed him. He was so talented, so capable, so grounded... and now he was so manly. Somehow he felt more manly than he ever had before. Somewhere in the sexual haze, Harper still remembered his neighbor as being anal and overly organized - but now? Just looking around the apartment revealed it for what it was. It was a lion's den, a place where Rory could do whatever and whomever he wanted... and Harper loved that.
The rat boy squeezed down, letting his ass muscles massage the cock intruding up higher and higher into his torso , slowly starting to make his belly distend. He squeaked and cooed, basking in it all, but he wasn't aware just how much Rory was enjoying it. The lion's head was tipped back, his jaw hanging open, his eyes gazing up at the ceiling with no focal point in particular. He rammed his hips forward and back, feeling his fat jiggle with each movement, but his cock felt like it was getting the best massage of its life.
Rory thrust deeper and deeper, having already buried a foot and a half inside the rat, but there was just as much to go. Rory had been so caught up in everything that he hadn't kept track of his cock's growth, but it was obscenely large just like him. There weren't many on the block that could take his rod, but it seemed Harper would be the perfect fit. Out of purely selfish motivation, Rory started to wonder about keeping the boy around for whenever he wanted to fuck something... Maybe he'd get the boy a collar, keep him on a leash, train him like a pet rat to do nothing but serve that behemoth cock. Such dirty thoughts made Rory purr and moan louder.
Harper shuddered in delight as he heard the male fucking him enjoy himself. It seemed all around that life was getting better every day. It was in that moment that Harper had an idea. If Rory could get so much more manly and messy in such a short time, perhaps there was a way to help him... Harper grinned slowly, knowing that it was his destiny to help Rory reach his full potential, and if he could help the lion become all he was meant to be, then perhaps they could live together happily. Harper dug his claws into the mattress more and pushed his ass back, gasping as he felt his hips spread wide by the sheer girth of such a massive cock.
The lion thrashed and roared, his clawed hands digging into the rat's hips as he went at it. Rory loved everything about the encounter from the tightness of the rat's ass, to the pressure of the tail wrapped around him, even the way his man boobs and belly jiggled. The way the flesh slapped back and forth was almost hypnotic, though it wasn't enough. Rory wanted to be even bigger, fatter, bolder. He moaned as he tried to picture that, almost forgetting that Harper was wrapped around his cock for a moment.
With every passing moment, the two got more lost in their pleasures. Sweat collected in their fur, adding another layer of moist dank musk to the air of the dirty apartment. Neither beast knew what the other had in store, how Rory viewed Harper as nothing more than a pet and a plaything, or how Harper had hatched his plan to guide Rory into the biggest, dirties behemoth he could. All they knew was that the sex was fantastic - and quickly surpassing their abilities to restrain themselves.
Harper was the first to lose, gasping in shock as he suddenly felt a hot wetness blossoming beneath his groin. His orgasm had been unexpected, his cheesy semen spraying out of his long skinny cock. It smeared into the mattress and clung to his tummy fur, but before he could revel in it, Rory was thrusting again, squishing the rat into the mattress. Rory howled, feeling the undulating body around his shaft as he pushed in even more. Harper was so full that his belly was sticking out from cock alone. It made him feel so full, so right.
"Fuck... Fuck! FUCK!" Rory roared, driving his cock as deep as he could go before his mammoth sized balls tingled and his body began dispensing his potent leonine seed. The flood hit Harper's stomach like a hot wave, splashing around inside him before steadily filling him up. Harper's beady black eyes were completely lost. He looked at the wall before he wobbled and went limp, passing out in a pool of his own juices. A soft chuckle came from Rory, not out of concern in his partner particularly, but an odd sense of pride that he had outlasted the rat.
Rory felt the encroaching haze of a post-coitus nap and decided to indulge in it, though he had to be careful as he laid down, still speared deep into Harper's ass. If he smothered his play thing in his sleep he wasn't sure he'd be able to get a new one, so it made the most sense to take care of the rat that far at least. Rory cuddled up next to Harper, letting the after glow carry him off into a deep slumber.
It only took three weeks for the school to realize that Rory and Harper were never coming back. From that point it had been with shocking efficiency how fast their room and board had been suspended. The scholarships and grants and financial aid were pulled so fast, the landlord had to scramble to put up their eviction notice. It had been an irritating turn of events after such a wonderful marathon of self indulgement, though Rory knew he had to at least do something to keep the ride going even if it wasn't in the apartment any longer.
There was a small bit of vengeful satisfaction at what the landlord would have to deal with when they left. The place was practically knee deep in filth. It was a sea of food cartons and wrappers, of jugs and bottles, of discarded bones and sticks. Rory had gained almost three hundred more pounds, a walking ball of fat and barbecue soaked fur. His mane had grown down to his hideously oversized man boobs, his nipples stretched as large as pancakes. The weight had aged him a bit, making the lion seem to be quite a bit older than he truly was, though he was still having the time of his life.
Across the apartment, Harper was rooting through the trash, trying to gather up the last few possessions that mattered. He too had been warped by their pleasure, growing to almost seven feet tall but still remaining stick thin from the waist up as if his body was little more than a sex toy for his lion mate. His cock dragged along the floor as he walked, looking almost as strong and robust as his rat tail. Cantaloupe sized balls hung in his furry sack and heavy metal rings hung from his nipples. Harper had even grown a thick black mustache on either side of his muzzle, the ends curled with head cheese and semen rather than wax. The rat even had on a spiked black collar, showing off that he was nothing more than a pet to the beast he had helped push that much further. Rummaging through the filth, the lion winced as his paw hit something metal and incredibly heavy.
"Fuckin A', mother fucking piece of shit foam..." Rory growled. His vulgarity had increased just as quickly as his weight.
"You alright?" Harper asked, wading through the trash towards the lion. Rory just waved his paw.
"I'm fine. Think I found it though. With the cash inside we'll have enough to get some place comfortable to hold up for a while." He murmured, plunging his arms down through the garbage before he hoisted up a small safe. The dense metal case was placed onto the kitchen counter and Rory spun the tumbler, entering the code dutifully before he opened it up. Resting inside was the nest egg that Rory had been after, but there were other contents that he had neglected to remember. There were mementos, small relics that he held precious... and pictures.
Despite the constant effect of the cube on the apartment, the decay had not been able to penetrate the led lining of the safe. The contents inside had been protected. The pictures were of a reality that had been eroding, of an anal, wavy haired human boy in a clean apartment on his first day of college, as well as several more from his youth. Rory looked at the pictures with stunned awe, reaching down to rest a claw on them.
The evidence was enough to make his brain hurt, forcing brain cells to try and remember a time before their corruption. As much as Rory wanted to cast the photos aside, declare them someone else's useless garbage, he knew deep down that it was him. He had been that frail human boy, deprived of a monolithic cock and rolls of fat... able to move so easy and think so well.
It was a biting comparison, one that made it easy to see how much he had changed in such a short time. His life had become one of excess in everything, of selfishness and arrogance, of vulgarity... and it had all felt so good and so freeing, but he had lost himself completely in such radical decay. A single tear dropped down his cheek as he clutched the photos and looked around at the abomination his apartment had become. Rory turned and fled for the door, barely able to get it open before garbage spilled out onto the landing.
"Rory?! RORY!" Harper's voice called after him, but the lion didn't respond. He stumbled out, looking at the elevator briefly before he remembered what his life had been before, how he'd used the stairs. Rory turned to try and recapture that moment and moved down them. His paws were so big they barely fit on the steps, and even more terrifying was the heavy groan as they tried to adjust to the lion's weight.
While one or two steps started to cave, Rory made it all the way down to the front of his apartment building and onto the street. He'd been spending so much time sequestered away that the sudden street noise was assaulting to him, but that stunned shock carried over in more ways than one. Just looking around the neighborhood, Rory realized how blind he had been to how much it was changing. There were vines climbing up the buildings anywhere graffiti hadn't coated every viable surface. There wasn't a single bicycle anywhere that hadn't been robbed of its wheels and seat. There were clouds of smoke coming from gangs of hooligans gathered at every alleyway, and lewd moans came from a couple of zebra boys having sex on the bus bench in open daylight.
Rory broke into a fast waddle - the closest he could manage to a sprint - trying to get away from it all. Something had happened to his life, something had changed it irrevocably, something had taken away his essence and soul and replaced it with an entirely different reality. Rory's tired, fat bathed brain struggled to remember, to pull back to the moment it had started to unravel... but reality had presented its evidence on a silver platter, or rather a silver chain.
The lion stopped dead, looking ahead at a figure leaning against a wrought iron fence, showing off his rather amble crotch bulge. The pig seemed to be in his mid-thirties, sporting a ragged green beard and a tall mohawk, a huge ring hanging from his pig snout. His belly was rotund, his arms tattooed, but Rory didn't care about any of that. He cared about the trinket the pig had hanging around his neck - a carbon cube with a blue and green marbled core seated inside of it.
The fear, the doubt, the confusion over his lost life disappeared in an instant. The void was filled with a blinding rage, a jealousy and an anger. The lion snarled, baring his fangs before he lunged forward. The pig was so busy trying to look sexy for the horse boy across the street that he didn't see the punch coming until the paw connected with his face. The pig toppled to the street, a small spray of blood landing on the cement. He barely had time to register what had happened before there was another punch, then another.
"That's my fucking property, I found it! How did you get it? Are you trying to steal from me? You fucking piece of nasty ass bacon!" Rory roared, punching the pig over and over again. The pig squealed in shock, but that was wearing off quickly. A cloven hoof kicked Rory in the knee, coming dangerously close to breaking the bone. The lion gasped in pain before he was clocked in the face, toppling backwards. The pig scrambled to get back up, his eye already blackening, his lip puffing up.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" The pig questioned, snorting in dismay before he turned and started walking away. Rory growled and laboriously rolled over onto all fours, working with some effort to force himself back up onto his hands and knees.
"Don't you fuckin' walk away from me, you bring me back my cube right now!" Rory roared, but there was no response. The pig disappeared around the corner, leaving the lion in his heap of sweat and fur. Rory panted hard, feeling more bedraggled than he ever had. His lips had swollen, his neck fat was sagging more, even the flesh beneath his eyes was drooping. He felt defeated, lost, confused and now robbed. He started to slowly push himself up again, but stopped in his tracks. Something caught his eyes, sitting off to the side, nestled in the roots of a tree.
Rory focused in on the light before his jaw dropped. Resting in the dirt, just like before, was another cube... and another, and a third. They were littered over the ground, resting like nuts that had fallen from the tree above. The lion slowly turned his head and looked around, realizing it wasn't just the pig. A lot of his neighbors had the cubes... Some wore them on necklaces, others clipped them to their wallet chains. Everyone had taken them in, thinking they were cool or fashionable or unique, and they had started to rewrite reality, to change it for everyone.
"Rory?" Harper's voice was soft and concerned. The lion looked up at Harper slowly, feeling an odd combination of his old and his new life for a moment; touched that Harper had come to make sure he was okay, and hungry for more of his rat's ass. The latter started to dominate the former as all sense began to fade from his mind again. Rational thought eroded beneath the hot, burning presence of so many cubes, filling him with nothing but greed.
"Help me get as many of these cubes as we can, we have to see what we can make them do." Rory said with a hunger in his voice, craving the power of reshaping reality itself to his whim. The lion beast was back, wanting nothing more than ever increasing pleasure and power even at the expense of his old life. Whatever faint inkling Harper had that Rory was remembering who he had been, he wanted to see the lion continue on his journey to what he was becoming even more. If the cubes had been the source, then he'd bathe his master in them just to see what happened. The rat dropped down to all fours, gathering up as many of the cubes as he could, even snatching some away from other collectors down the street with an angry hiss. Rory smiled a bit to himself, rolling onto his fat ass, glad that he had such a good pet to serve him.
It had been little more than a month since the cubes had appeared, but their impact was clear. The skies were no longer filled with a rich and indomitable blue. Like the core to the insidious objects, it was mixed with an emerald green. The clouds seemed fewer and farther between, and a steady haze lifted up from the smokestacks of factories as environmental regulation crumbled away. The humans had started to become more like animals, but several species had either disappeared outright or started to mutate themselves. The cities were in chaos and fires had started along the eastern seaboard. It was a dangerous time to be alive, but in the midst of it all, Rory and Harper had found some solace.
The sanctuary for the lion and the rat took the form of an old abandoned ranch style home built at the edge of a vast landfill. The mountains of garbage were seen as unwanted refuse, ignored and forgotten by society... It made for a good hideout as far as Rory was concerned. It had been nice to have the conveniences of a big city apartment, but at the same time the technology that Rory had embraced so easily seemed to be too dangerous and untrustworthy now. As long as he could make it to a store for food, Rory knew he had everything he needed right there.
The lion was immense now, filling en entire sofa as if it was a small chair just for his wide ass. His beard like mane had food particles, his face drooped from the aftermath of the fight, and his cock was as thick and long as either of his legs. The air was pungent with the scent of the steadily leaking pre the lion emitted, though Harper wasn't making the place smell any better himself.
The rat boy had done his best to forage for their new life, finding an old television to set up on a table. The image flickered every so often, requiring a firm fist to get it back in line. Harper had yet again struck the television, bringing back into clarity the news report - or at least what was passing for news. It seemed the degradation had affected all life. The newscaster seemed to be a heavily pregnant hippo woman now, gossiping about the celebrities and how they were showing off their own cubes. It seemed the reality stars were getting the most attention, showing off a range of looks both hideous and diverse. Some were so disproportionate it was a wonder they didn't break their own spines crossing a room while others were as corpulent as a blimp. What fascinated Rory, though, were the glimpses of the cubes they got.
It seemed that worldwide, the standard issue cubes had appeared all over the outdoors. They covered streets, parked cars, roofs... They were all the same size, the same dimensions, and it seemed they all shared the same reality warping effects. Across the board people had taken them in, thinking they were a curious novelty... and the changes had taken place steadily over days and weeks. It seemed brilliant, but there was one aspect that had not yet been revealed. Where had the cubes come from? What was their true and ultimate purpose? And why was one of them bigger?
The coffee table between the television and the two lovers was covered with the purloined exploits of the rat boy thief and his greedy master. They had collected many cubes, both back at the apartment and on their travels to their new home. Normally Harper was quite careful in how he transported them, but in his scuffle with the pig during their escape from the apartment, many had been dumped in a bag together. It had been that batch that produced the larger than average cube, the one that towered over the rest.
Rory had been looking at it for almost two days, wondering if they'd gotten lucky or if something stranger was at work. As if the gears in his mind simply turned at a different rate than the rest of the world, when the lion finally came to a conclusion he started to act. Harper slid off of his master's lap and moved over to the corner, crouching down on all fours. It was hard for him to manage to speak most of the time. His mouth and his anus had been so stretched by the lion's huge phallus that he felt more like a sex toy than a living creature now, but he watched with wonder as his master went about his business.
Rory waddled up to the table and reached out, lifting up a cube in his bare hand. He looked at it closely, examining the flawless carbon shell covering the top, bottom and the corners and then he focused on the glowing blue and green center. With meticulous care he set the cube down on another and lined it up exactly. When nothing happened, he set it down along one of the sides and waited again. Still, nothing happened.
The lion looked back and forth between the regular cubes and the one giant one. The proportions were fairly clear, but there was only one way to tell if his theory was true. Rory began gathering up more cubes, lining them up two by two by two. It would take eight cubes in all, but he had to know. Harper inched forward in wonder as the lion worked, reaching up toward the table slowly as Rory set the last cube down.
As the eight cube touched the rest, it began to ripple. The carbon shell moved like liquid mercury, pulling away from the center of the fusing cubes, reforming around the outer edge. The radioactive cores touched and a flash of light washed out across the room. The already battered couch sagged and sunk more, the color fading from the fabric. The metal toolboxes in the room gained years of rust and dust, the spider webs became more robust, and the living occupants of the room were effected too.
Harper squeaked out slowly, watching in awe as the claws he stretched toward the table started to stretch on their own. They grew out from his fingertips like blades, extending to four inches, then five, and finally six. His belly began to sag more, distending outward, hanging like an empty pouch waiting to be filled by another enormous cock. His asshole was altered as well, prolapsing just a bit more, the flesh undulating in need of its huge occupant to return. Harper drooled and whimpered in need, his lust climbing to new levels.
Rory, meanwhile, was filled with a great glee. He felt the power of the cube rushing through him, filling his fat belly and tubby arms, radiating like lightning down his huge phallus. The only question that remained was which aspect of his new personality was stronger. Was he greedy enough to use his knowledge for profit, or was he lazy enough to rest on his laurels? Rory knew it might be a lot of work, something he absolutely hated, but he still had to know. He started to combine more cubes, preparing another fusion. Harper squeaked in realization and scrambled around to gather them himself.
His long corded tail wrapped around Rory's ankle in support of his master. Piece by piece, the lion forged the next cube, knowing just how many it would take until he had eight of the larger ones... There was no telling what he could unleash if he managed to combine them into something still larger. Whatever it was, though, he wanted to be at the center of it. Rory wanted it all to revolve around him. The glee filled his swollen heart and his hardening cock. Whatever purpose the cubes served, it seemed their radiation had a radical effect on reality itself... and Rory wanted a piece of that action no matter what it took to get it.