Origami Alexey

[Long form request]

Alexey Lesukov had been a massive bodybuilder for years–his entire adult life, in fact. His time as a novice competitive athlete was short, and when other men in their early 20s were just settling into their masculine personas, Alexey was filling out 3XL shirts and continuing to pile more mass on his frame. He was turning sideways through doors by age 25. Turning every head in the room as he waddled around, only five and a half feet tall but nearly 300 pounds of full, round muscles… that was this man’s normal state by the time he had turned 30 years old.

But as he disrobed backstage at the charity auction and caught a glimpse of his reflection, he wondered if he was looking into a fun house mirror. “Good god,” he said in his native language. “My bulk has really been putting on the mass!”

It made sense, of course: for the past two weeks, Alexey’s coach Gunther had dramatically upped his caloric intake, doubled his steroid dosages and cut his rep-ranges in half while pushing the limits of Alexey’s strength to mindblowing levels. The result was Alexey’s body blimping out in every direction. He couldn’t even see past his protruding pecs and swollen muscle-gut to the gold posing trunks that, in the mirror, looked tiny on the expansive frame.

Alexey examined his large, full muscles, grabbing handfuls of his pecs. He tended to carry a layer of soft flesh over his enormous musculature, even in competition modes, but he looked extra-pillowy that day. He made a mental note to text his coach: “Maybe one less cheat next week? I can barely clap my hands together.”

When Derrick, the event’s coordinator, set eyes on Alexey’s nearly-nude body, he looked just as amazed as Alexey had. “Goodness! You sure look… SWOLLEN!”

Alexey blushed a bit and smiled.

Derrick waved a hand in apology. “I’m sorry, maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say…”

“No, no, it’s good,” Alexey said. He made his pecs bounce to disrupt the awkwardness of the moment. He was used to regular folks feeling flabbergasted by his size. Derrick wiped some sweat off his bro and fished around in his jacket for some index cards.

“So… I’ll be presenting you soon,” Derrick began as he tried to get his notes in order. “There’s a round dais out there I’d like you to stand on. Just do your flexing thing… the crowd is going to love it! And I’m sure we’ll be raising a ton of money with you looking so… wonderfully immense!”

While English wasn’t Alexey’s first language, he was fluent enough to realize that this man was fumbling through this interaction. Probably just not used to seeing muscles, Alexey said. “So, what is it… that they bid on? What does the winner get?”

Derrick had pulled a wrinkled contract from his pocket and held it up against the wall with a pen. “Oh, they win you! I’m sorry, was the contract not explicit?”

Derrick flattened out the paper and gestured to the fine print. Alexey squinted at it; most of the legal jargon made no sense to him. “Win… me? As in… a photo op? A date? What exactly does this mean?”

Derrick’s phone buzzed and he answered it. “Yeah… yeah, hi. He’s just about to go out. I just need him to sign the legal stuff before we continue. Yeah, he’s doing it.” Derrick gestured to the contract. Alexey hesitated, then signed his name on the dotted line at the bottom.

Derrick hung up his phone and gave Alexey the thumbs up. “Thanks, big man! I’m going to go out there and introduce you.”

“Are there any other bodybuilders–” Alexey began, but Derrick had already rushed out the door. Alexey tapped out a text to his agent, explaining his confusion about the whole situation. “From now on, you need to explain things to me in more detail. I still don’t entirely get what’s going on here.” He considered leaving at that moment, but then again, he’d signed the contract. What was the worst that could happen?

It wasn’t long before Alexey was beckoned out on the stage. He stomped out, waving to the crowd, his huge pecs bouncing with each step. He saw the round dais Derrick had talked about and stepped onto it, noticing a similarly sized disc in the ceiling just above him.

Bidding started immediately and escalated quickly. “$300! $400… $500? Goodness, $1000?” Derrick could hardly keep up.

Alexey scanned the crowd as he hit his poses. The entire group seemed to be wealthy men in their 50s and 60s wearing suits. The fact that each man was wearing formal attire made Alexey, whose posing suit amounted to not much more fabric than a pocket square, feel especially exposed.

Before long, the bids were approaching astronomical numbers. “$1.5 million! $1.6 million! All right, $2 million!”

Alexey couldn’t believe this. Surely he’d heard this incorrectly; what exactly were these men bidding millions of dollars on?

The bidding finally ended, the winner offering $22 million. Alexey was thrilled to hear how much he’d raised but completely stymied by the sheer magnitude of money.

“Sold to Evan Van Castleon!” Derrick said, knocking a tiny gold gavel. Alexey smiled and waved at the crowd as the man approached–an elderly gentleman, probably around 80 years old, licking his lips as he approached the dais.

Alexey smiled, wary of Evan’s hungry expression. If the old guy gets too close, Alexey thought, I may have to defend myself. He doubled up his fists and pumped his massive arms as Evan approached, ready to throw a powerful blow if need be.

“Now!” Evan said, clapping his hands together. Derrick, at his podium, pointed a remote at Alexey. The dais the big bodybuilder stood upon started to whir loudly. Before Alexey could move, the disc above him and the round pedestal below slammed together.

It happened so quickly, Alexey thought he’d been killed. His whole body felt warm and tingly but he couldn’t move. He heard the sounds of hydraulics engaging–the dais he was on separating from the section of ceiling that had smashed down on him, he realized–and then the crowd before him roared with applause.

“Beautiful!” Derrick commented. Alexey tried to turn to see Derrick but he couldn’t turn his head–couldn’t move any of his body, in fact. He shivered as Evan peered down upon him. Somehow the old man seemed GIGANTIC, towering over the massive bodybuilder. Alexey wanted to squirm away as the old man reached down and snatched him, lifting his 280 pounds with ease.

The audience gasped. Alexey was horrifyingly disoriented, staring out at the crowd but somehow hanging from Evan’s fingers. It wasn’t until Evan turned him around and held him in front of a mirror that Alexey realized what had become of him.

In the reflection, Alexey saw a dark tan disc. It took him some time to recognize the two eyes in the center of the flattened circle as his own. He started to see the shapes of his muscles, now squashed flat. Any depth he had was gone, and the curvatures of his muscular body were now just details on the disc, as if they’d been painted on.

Alexey was in shock; how could that flat, circular thing be him?! He must have looked up at the last moment as the pedestal squashed him because his face was at the center. THe bottom edge of the disc was his round pecs, while the gold-tinged top of the disc was the shelf of his glutes, smashed paper-thin.

“Let’s show Alexey the underside, shall we?” Derrick’s voice came from behind them. While Alexey couldn’t move, he watched in the mirror as Derrick wheeled another mirror around to show him the underside of his disc-body. Alexey could see his feet, the roundness of his quads surrounded by the underside of his chest and ass, with his gold-covered cock visible near the edge. Just before his three dimensions were smashed into two, his balls must have popped out of his posing trunks. They were clearly visible, and Evan reached down and gently rubbed them with his thumb. Alexey shuddered. In the mirror, his disc-body started gently wriggling.

“I think he likes it!” Derrick said, now only barely audible over the cacophony of the crowd’s cheering and laughter. Alexey wanted to scream, to squash these men, to run away, but he was helpless. Evan tossed him in the air like a pizza as he silently begged to be left alone.

Derrick produced a briefcase and flicked open the latches. “To transport your new acquisition,” Derrick explained to Evan, who neatly folded Alexey into a tight square. The bodybuilder screamed silently as he was tucked into the briefcase. Whatever process had reduced him to this had made his body incredibly sensitive. With every inch of him now tightly pressed against other parts of his body, squeezed so tightly and compressed even further, his entire being pulsed with erotic pleasure… as if his entire body were as sensitive as his cock and he was getting tickled all over.

The world tilted to its side and Alexey felt the dark briefcase swinging back and forth.

No! Let me out! Someone will notice I’m missing… someone will come looking for me!

The thought of the hastily signed contract came to mind. What was in that fine print?!

After moving for awhile, Alexey heard a car door open and felt the briefcase prison rest horizontally. The vibration of the car was pleasant, but the fact that he was immobile was almost too much for him. He wasn’t breathing, but he could still smell–and now, all he smelled was the powerful musk of his sweaty, muscular body.

Alexey’s concept of time was warped by his distorted perspective. He had no idea how long he had been in the briefcase when he finally heard the clasps click open. He was grateful for the light and the fresh air. Evan grabbed him with gloved hands and carefully unfolded him.

“Well, aren’t you just a pathetic little thing now, aren’t you?” Evan said in a raspy voice. He wore a jeweler's eye and inspected Alexey’s helpless flattened out form with intense focus. “Well, you’ll do nicely as a curio in my collection, but not in this form. Do you remember what you looked like before? All puffed up and bulky–no man needs all that extra muscle! I did you a favor, my pet. I relieved you of that bulky burdensome body! And now, I’ll make you absolutely perfect. Just watch…”

Evan reached out and started to carefully fold Alexey, sealing each crease as he made it. Alexey screamed silently but it was to no avail. Every time his body bent and flexed, every time Evan shaped it, his mind was overwhelmed. It wasn’t long before Evan had finished folding Alexey. Only one of Alexey’s eyes was exposed in this new folded shape, a small favor Alexey found himself grateful for. His other eye was buried under layers of his flattened shape somewhere, effectively blind.

“Let’s see how you like your new shape,” Evan said as he held up a small mirror. The transmogrified bodybuilder refused to believe what he saw: Evan had folded him up into an origami swan.

No! That’s not me… There’s no way that’s me! I’m a massive man, a huge bodybuilder… You didn’t fold me up into a little swan!

Though he refused to believe it, he could see that the swan was colored with his tan skin. Glints of his gold posing trunks were visible throughout. He could clearly make out his eye on the swan’s neck, and a nipple on one of the swan’s wings.

Evan looked gleeful as he carefully lifted the origami creation. Alexey couldn’t believe how easily he was lifted. He had no idea where Evan took him, but his maniacal captor placed a glass dome over him. “There! Part of my collection. And no one who gazes upon you will have any idea who you used to be.”

Evan walked away. The silence of the room made Alexey want to scream, though he knew he couldn’t make a sound. He couldn’t see much of the room around him, though he could make out other origami items nearby. There was a lotus flower near him, similarly displayed within a glass dome, and a frog. The “paper” used to create each was the same tan color as a man’s flesh; had they each been men before too before Evan transformed them?

Alexey couldn’t fathom how long he’d been there before a person finally ventured in to look at them. “Exquisite,” said the young man with an English accent as he leaned in to admire them. “The swan is particularly brilliant.”

No! I’m not a swan, I’m a… I’m huge. I have massive muscles. I’m not a thing!

While he bristled at the young man’s admiration of his new shape, he found himself yearning for the man to return as he walked away.

No! No, don’t leave me… please, pick me up. Unfold me. Make me a man again!

Sometimes the lights in Evan’s insane museum were on and sometimes they were off; to Alexey, that was the closest concept of “night” and “day” he could conceive. People came intermittently, and each time Alexey was ashamed at how thrilled he was to be “admired” and how desperate he wished these folks, mocking him as if he were just an ornament, would stay and pay him compliments.

One day Evan finally lifted the globe away and plucked the swan-shaped man from within. “I think your days as a swan are over, my good fellow…” Evan said.

Yes! That’s right, turn me back! Turn me back into a human…

When he was normal, Alexey thought as Evan unfolded him, he would pound the man into a pulp. As soon as he was his full size, with his large, bloated muscles, he would squash Evan without a thought. But when Evan had unfolded him and smoothed him out with his hands (which, to Alexey, felt like a deep-tissue massage), Alexey was horrified to find himself being folded again.

As Alexey quietly pleaded, Evan reshaped him for what seemed like an eternity. When it was over, Evan produced a mirror. “Look at you! A fearsome dragon!”

Alexey now had wings, a long tail, a protruding snout with sharp teeth… Alexey searched the mirror for a trace of his human form. He could see glints of gold, which he recognized as part of his body (although he could no longer remember what they used to be) and his two eyes on the dragon’s neck, but nothing else. He found himself imprisoned beneath a glass dome again, back to being gawked at by wealthy folk who perused the origami creations in Evan’s museum with detached amusement.

One day, a man who looked to be around twenty years old approached and removed the glass globe above Alexey.

“Ah, is this the one grandfather had promised me?” he said, smiling. “I can’t believe THIS is my inheritance,” the young man said, clucking his tongue as he roughly grabbed the dragon in his fist, crumpling Alexey’s tail.

What? Inheritance? Did Evan die? No, don’t… don’t take me! You need to put me back! Do you even know I’m a person?

“Stupid origami,” the young man said as he examined Alexey’s tightly formed dragon shape. “I only know how to make one thing–a snowball!” He roughly crumpled Alexey’s body between his fists.

No! No… AAGH! Oh god it… it doesn’t hurt, why doesn’t it hurt? Oh this feels bizarre… STOP! No, I can’t see… I can’t see! Uncrumple me, please!

Alexey found himself roughly smooshed into a small ball, his few remaining senses effectively dulled. He had no sense of direction as he was jostled around, finally tossed somewhere dark and cold.

Alexey was now completely hopeless. Had the younger man thrown him away? How long had he been trapped there? While he knew he used to be a man, he struggled to remember what he used to look like. He remembered he was “big” and “strong”--but those words seemed meaningless after having been rendered inanimate and reshaped so many times.

When someone finally touched him again, he panicked. Strong fingers pulled at him, stretching him back out. They carefully smoothed at his hopelessly wrinkled body until he was, once again, just a disc-shaped man. He blinked at the person staring down at him. It looked like the younger man from before, but much older, as if he’d aged twenty years or so.

“Ah, Alexey. There you are,” the man said. “My name is Paul. I must apologize; my grandfather never revealed to me exactly what you truly were before he passed. You’ve been crumpled up in my attic for decades! But I’m here to restore you. See, I read my grandfather’s journals and joined the secret society that did this to you… although I’m not allowed to reveal their true nature, of course! But through them, I’ve learned a way to reshape you. Grandfather may have wanted you to stay a helpless ornament, but I’m here to restore you to the powerful form you once had! How does that sound?”

Alexey couldn’t respond, but the idea was thrilling. He would have wept if he’d been able.

Paul produced a small canister and started spraying Alexey with its contents. The flattened bodybuilder felt a sharp tingling all over. Something was happening, he knew, but he couldn’t tell what… until he started to rise.

Alexey’s face finally lifted from his pecs as they regained their dimensions, his body unfurling like an accordion as his limbs finally extended once again. When it was over, Alexey lay back limply, peering down at his body. It was still misshapen; one of his pecs had caved in, and his left quad had collapsed. As he pawed at himself, he watched his fingers bending and crumpling. He wasn’t human yet… but at least he looked the part.

“Perfect!” Paul said, grabbing Alexey by the shoulders. He shook the bodybuilder like he was rustling a blanket, then set him on a device behind him. Alexey found himself drawn along a conveyer belt to two large rollers that pressed him flat as he passed between them. Alexey found himself squashed once again… and as he came out the other end of the machine, he fluttered to the floor, helpless paper once again.

Paul lifted Alexey and admired the bodybuilder, now his former height and width, with his massive muscles, handsome face and gold posing trunks clearly visible. He looked like a paper cutout now. Alexey’s hopes for freedom were dashed as Paul mounted him between to panes of glass.

“See, grandfather couldn’t truly admire a man such as yourself. His thrill came from taking a monstrous, brawny man and reducing him to an artfully crafted trinket. But I am NOT my grandfather! I appreciate all that it took to grow to the beast you are. And while I have no place for a fully formed man, I can admire your incredible shape until the end of time.”

Alexey wanted to shiver between the cold panes of glass, but he was as motionless as ever. Paul hung him on a wall and stepped back to reveal a mirror on the adjacent wall. In the mirror Alexey could see other bodybuilders, each flattened paper-thin, displayed on both sides of him. “You are my prize possession, Alexey! I hope that knowledge thrills you as much as it does me. And the least I can do now that you’re here is allow you to stare at the body you worked so hard to create.”

Paul started walking toward the door. Alexey was shocked as he found himself silently pleading for Paul to return.

“Oh, don’t worry, big fella! As the others around you have already learned, no one can see this private collection but me. You’ll be preserved here forever with no one to bother you, basking at your own reflection forever. Isn’t that nice?”

A door slammed. Alexey could only wonder what the men around him were thinking. Despite his situation Alexey couldn’t help but reflect that he was bigger than all the others around him. He wondered if they were jealous. Somehow, that thought comforted him.