"Huh?"
Hannah looked up from whatever browsing she had been doing on her phone. "Yeah, if you want to get in your workout before our date tonight, you should probably head off soon. Unless you switched your rest day and I forgot?"
"Oh, no, no." Jack was still trying to mentally catch up to what was happening here, but he at least had enough cognizance to recognize that he should at least try and act normally, lest he worry Hannah with how 'off' he was acting. He stood up from his chair, incredibly aware of the way his calves bulged as they swelled to support his very increased weight - god, how much DID he weigh now? - and straightened out his shirt... though there was only so much he could straighten it without tearing, given how supremely stretched it already was over his gigantic torso. "Yeah, I was just getting going."
"Cool. Remember to shower before you come back," Hannah chuckled with a teasing tone that indicated that was some inside joke he should be getting. "Love you."
"Love you too." Saying that to her was still easy as ever, at least.
Almost robotically, Jack grabbed his keys, phone, wallet, and the button off his desk, stuffing them into his pockets... or at least whatever space his pockets had with how much his quads bulged up against them. God, it was still so weird feeling all this hard, tight muscle and knowing that it was HIS... but if for no other reason than to get himself some personal space to think things over, he gathered himself and left the apartment.
It wasn't until he was out on the street, trying to ignore all the obvious looks he was getting from passerby, that Jack could actually start to properly process this situation. Okay, obviously the button had grown him, and the way that it worked meant that everything changed so that this new him would be totally normal and expected, like some sort of Back to the Future history change scenario. It sounded absolutely insane just thinking it in his head, but at the same time, what had happened to him WAS insane and there was no more realistic explanation he could think of.
Jack became incredibly aware of the button in his pocket - not just because he was worried about accidentally clicking it down with how tight it was against his thigh, but also because he was now more aware of the extreme power that it held. Was this too dangerous to use? Or should he being taking MORE advantage of this incredible tool he now possessed?
But that was a very large, bordering on philosophical question. Right now, he had more pertinent things to deal with... like where the hell he was going. He didn't technically have to do what Hannah expected of him, but he would feel bad lying to her... and besides, people might worry about him if he was acting too out of place, so it seemed like it was best to follow the routine set out in front of him and try and pick up more about his own life that way. So he just had to go to the gym... and though technically it could have been any gym, he had a pretty good intuition about where he should be going.
After all, the campus gym was free for all students, and given the amount of funding the sports teams received, it was very well maintained and decked out for cardio work, light exercise, and heavy lifting... though Jack sure seemed like he was a lot more focused on the latter. Jack had spent a very scarce amount of time in there in his current memories, but he still walked past the building on his way to classes often enough to know where it was, so it was only a couple of minutes before he was stepping through the glass sliding doors and letting the constant flow of air conditioning cool down his now somewhat sweaty body. He approached the front desk, spotting the electronic scanner where students would swipe their IDs to get access rather quickly.
"Hey Jack!"
He looked up, realizing he was so dialed in on making sure he could get in that he had barely even noticed the front desk attendant. He didn't recognize the short, petite Asian girl with large, rounded glasses and frazzled black hair... and yet she knew him by name. Figures, if he was a regular here...
"Hey," he said plainly with a smile, figuring it would be weirder to try and scan her body for some sort of name tag and opting to just try and avoid names altogether.
"Same old same old?" the receptionist asked him.
"Same old same old," Jack responded, trying to sound like it was true.
"Alright, have a good day big guy!" she beamed at him.
In the few seconds of conversation, Jack managed to dig out his wallet and pull out his student ID (noting at a glance that even his picture there was noticeably more handsome and stronger looking now, matching the new him) to swipe himself through. He did so, giving her a polite nod before moving on through to the gym floor. He noticed his heart pounding a bit harder... but not from anxiety, not directly anyways. No, it was just so foreign for him to be called 'big guy' so genuinely... but he did like it. Really liked it. It reminded him that, as confused as he was, he did still seem to be living in a fantasy.
... That was, until he found himself staring out at the gym floor, seeing rows and rows of treadmills and free weights and exercise machines of all kinds, all brand spanking new and looking primed to use. It wasn't really a social anxiety at this point - if anything, it only emboldened him further to look out at his fellow college students and realize that all of them looked smaller than he did. Not just because of his now towering height, but also mass-wise as well. Some of the hardcore jocks over by the bench presses looked quite strong and tanky as well, but Jack had an extra bit of definition to him that really made him pop, as well as what level of bulk advantage he might still have. He really did have to weigh himself at some point...
But no, the main thing that snapped him back to this new reality was the realization that he had no idea what the hell he was doing. Jack had pretty much never been in a proper gym in his life - his old life, at least - so this was all foreign territory to him. He had no idea what sort of exercise routine he should be following, how to execute any sort of exercise moves... hell, he had no idea how even half the machines here were supposed to function. And it would look hella weird for such a huge, strong hunk to be going around reading the instructions like a dolt...
Jack took a deep breath, really stretching out the front of his Batman shirt. Almost before he realized it, he found himself instinctively reaching for the button.
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