World-changing - Tumblr Posts
The Clothes
The clothes make the man, or so they say. Lance had been wearing the same shirt to his workout for years. He’d used the gorilla as his standard, his ideal. He was FOCUSED. He was DRIVEN. He was a BEAST.
And he was alone.
He sighed to himself as he stared into the mirror. The veins and striations stood out in sharp contrast with help from the single emergency light that flickered behind him. Yes, he had worked hard to get where he was, to earn his place as the top dog in the gym, to start his own business.
He loved his muscles, and was grateful for them. But that didn’t make him an invincible giant, despite what the size of his biceps and traps might say to the contrary. And words have the power to strike in places where one is still weak, even after making everything else strong.
Fuck you, man. At least I actually have a life. The only thing you have is your stupid weights. It’s people like you that give gym goers a bad name. You’re just a stupid fucking gorilla! Get your head out of the weight room and get a life, then talk to me about goals. I’m done with this.
“Is that ... really all I am?” He stared at his face intently. The bright red beard helped to accentuate the defined square aesthetic that he had worked so hard to develop. He could feel the weight of his muscle rising and falling with every breath. The tanktop straps stretched over his broad shoulders and brushed against the boulders his pectorals had become. His hands clenched on the edges of the dumbbells that rested on their rack in front of the mirror. “Am I just some ... dumb animal?”
The light flickered and he grunted as the shadows licked over his face, obscuring his eyes and casting them in darkness, so only the barest glint of light shone through. His brow furrowed as he felt the phantom tingling of a thousand tiny hands massaging, kneading, pricking.
He hunched forward as his traps tensed and he grit his teeth. “Am I really just a gym gorilla? Is that all there is to me?”
His ears tingled. His toes flexed in time with his clenching hands. His calves felt engorged, both from the workout he’d just finished and the tension that now held him captive.
The light flickered again. He leaned forward to get a better look at himself. His gym shorts hugged tightly against his glutes as he bore his sharpened canines. Sure, they were bigger than the average human,but was that really justification for such an insult? He’d worked so hard to get where he was. He should be proud. Why didn’t he feel proud? Why didn’t he feel angry?
He grunted as he light flickered again and reached up with a thick finger to scratch at the higher skull ridge. He’d heard it all his life.
Neanderthal, missing link, cave man.
It wasn’t his fault.
His unibrow bunched up in front of his flattening forehead. “I can’t help what I am,” he rumbled as his thick neck vibrated with his chest. He struck against the chest with a fist as tears blurred his vision. “Why can’t they just see me?”
He roared as the light flickered again. His dark leathery skin shone dully as a hooting sob faded and he regained control. A thick coat of fiery red hair had consumed his shoulders and chest to meet the beard and spread in a carpet over the rest of his body.
“You try supporting a body this big some time, kid. Tell me what free time you have.”
The gym rang with the sound of shattering metal, and he looked down to see the chunk he’d broken off the dumbbell.
“Damn it,” he growled. “Not another one.” He grunted his frustration as the lights flickered again and dropped to his knuckles. “That’s coming out of your deposit, you speciesist scumbag.” He lumbered away on all fours past a number of awards and certificates that seemed to appear with every flickering step. He burst into his office, where custom furniture designed for a big ‘rilla like him could take the brunt of his anger.
He yanked his phone from its receiver and jabbed the sticky-note-sized buttons angrily as he held up a card to his flickering desk lamp.
Simian and Jackman, Attorneys at Law.
“Call me a dumb animal, will you?” He reached down and withdrew a jumbo sized strawberry-banana smoothie from his cooler as the proud logo of Gorilla Wear clung tightly to his massive furry frame. “Let’s see how you feel after I haul your ass to court.”
you don’t understand this look changed the entire trajectory of my life