College is over and our pair miss it; reality is making sure of that in a big way.

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Maz © & Artwork:

Clyde ©, Riley © & Writing:

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The high of graduating from college with honors didn’t last a full month. In fact, Maz and Clyde were very, very quickly brought back down into the real world and its woes from the realization that the economy outside of their college bubble had been doing quite poorly. Not a single place was hiring; those prospective emails they’d graduated with were more platitudes for the two rather than actual job offers. Backup lines of inquiry were just fruitless interviews or little more than a phone call to say no. Job sites were plastered with work, but all those listings were either old, or just there to meet a quota for some company or another’s AR department. Connections that had been made during college were all dried up, not a single one able to bring in the pair because of hiring freezes. The two has suspected they’d have some troubles, being fresh graudates, but this? Neither had been ready for it… And neither was really sure of how to handle it. Maz had never seen something like this before, with no jobs available at all for him, and Clyde? Well, the llama was still keeping his distance from his parents, so he was doing all the hunting for work on his own; none of their connections were there for him to get a jump past others.

It was only a couple weeks after gathering up diplomas and going off to their respective new homes that Clyde was struck with yet another bit of horrendous news. The llama, staying with friends for just a few weeks as his condominium was finished, as greeted one morning with a letter. The letter stated that his condo wouldn’t be finished on time… Or rather, ever in fact. The builder had gone bankrupt thanks to the crash of the economy, or so they claimed, and could no longer finish the building. Some yelling, a hefty amount of profanity, and one call into the llama’s lawyer later left Clyde basically out on the street; all his eggs had been in that basket, and suddenly the basket had been taken right away from him. He couldn’t get his money back right away, as that would involve a lawsuit, and he couldn’t take what he had left of his savings to get a new home in the meantime; he had to have the funds in case the suit was lost. He had a hefty amount of savings from handling his own finances and his money in his trust fund, but he wasn’t endlessly wealthy; he did have a budget, and had to be smart with his money now that he was out a very large chunk thanks to being screwed with his condo. His friends were sympathetic to this too, offering to keep him around for a little longer, but… Clyde wasn’t meant to be there for long. So the llama had to look for somewhere new to go, somewhere that he could stay longer term so that he could continue to job hunt, as well as keep a roof over his head while he waited for his lawyer to get back the large amount of money he had seemingly been swindled out of.

Maz had come to the rescue in that aspect of things, both him and Vorax inviting Clyde to stay so long as the llama helped with bills and keeping the place clean. Clyde… Begrudgingly accepted, as he wasn’t one for charity, especially since this was his former college roommate. Sure, he and Maz had grown close over the years, but the two had parted ways thinking they would never share a space again, and yet less than a full month after college ended, they were talking about doing it again. Hell, one month to the day after walking down the aisle to get their diplomas, they were sharing a space yet again. A smaller, tighter, and a bit messier space to boot! It wasn’t what Clyde had wanted, and the llama had a very hard time not spiraling down into depression as he looked at what his life was becoming. How the mighty had fallen… From affording his own home, free and clear, to needing to live with his roommate once again in said brother’s apartment, sharing a room and space. It wasn’t what he had wanted, it certainly wasn’t what he needed when he was starting out, and he was starting to wonder if he was going to be doing anything right.

Maz certainly shared that thought process in his own way, looking back at the last month and seeing all those rejection letters and emails over jobs that he was qualified, or even overqualified, for. Had all that time in college just been a waste? He hadn’t gotten to learn about much outside of the little bubble of campus after all, since he hadn’t needed to get a job thanks to his scholarships and a tidy savings account he had gotten to use to keep him afloat during school. Clyde had been the same in that respect; he’d had a bank account deep enough to keep him afloat too during school. As such, the campus situated between two cities had been perfect to keep them isolated and not knowing anything about the world at large… And now? Now that both Maz and Clyde needed that knowledge to get their lives started? It felt as though they had wasted the time in college being ignorant. Like they had spent the first few years of their adult lives continuing to be children. And it was coming back to bite they in the arse big time because of the simple fact that neither of them knew how to handle so many rejections all at once. Finances? There were classes for that. Putting in job applications? Classes for that too. Polishing a resume? Classes. Job interview? Those had classes as well. But handling getting turned down again and again and again? Nothing could have prepared either of them for that, and Maz felt like he was missing a piece of knowledge to make sure that he could. It was as though life had made sure to find his one blind spot, and making sure to put the screws there and there alone to ensure the last four years of his life had felt like a waste of time.

Time was all that Maz and Clyde had now, putting out applications and trying their damnedest to get jobs either in or adjacent to their fields of study. There was just nothing, at all, out there for them to get. The two had picked the worst time, and it became clearer and clearer with each and every passing day that they were going to just have no luck anytime soon. This destroyed the pair, and it wasn’t hard to sink into depression because of that. Getting out of bed to go through another day of being told ‘no’ by everyone who could secure their futures felt like a slog. Putting in another round of applications and emails and phone calls to those who had while they did not was soul-crushing. Reaching out to friends to see how they were doing was a punch to the gut anytime the pair got to hear about their new jobs. Speaking to Vorax, who had a steady job that let him afford whatever he wanted, was just a chore that rubbed in the failure both of them were going through thanks to nothing being there to lift either of the two up. Sure, Maz and Clyde both tried to put on their best face and keep on doing what they could to keep their chins up, but even that was a struggle. They were unemployed, fat as they’d ever been, lonely with just one another for company most days, and wallowing in the worst luck anyone could have hoped for… Or so they thought, from their admittedly narrow view of the world.

To at least deal with one of those things, the two called up Riley after a couple months of dealing with rejections and lawsuits and unemployment, inviting the roo over to see them. Riley, who had seen his internship of just a few months turn into a longer one because, of course, the company ‘couldn’t afford to hire him’, wasn’t in much better shape mentally than the two. The bright and bubbly kangaroo was still very much himself, all bounce and no ounce, but there was an edge to him too now. The world was wearing on all three of the trio, and while it wasn’t quite as bad for Riley as it was for Maz and Clyde… It certainly showed when they were out getting lunch. None of them spoke very much, instead with just Riley looking on as Maz and Clyde ate as they always did; fast and in absurd quantities. Four years of NSU’s cafeteria had turned both the llama and the dragon into food dumpsters, and that was a habit neither was looking to break just because food had become their one solace. That solace had seen over a dozen pounds fly onto them since graduation, and Riley… Well, the roo hadn’t changed, but he certainly wasn’t holding back nearly as much as he had been while they were at college.

Some ribbing, some teasing, and a little bit of a rude remark or two had gotten the three into something of an argument. Riley was tired of seeing Maz and Clyde eat themselves into blobs, and he finally let them have it once the meal was over. Clyde, for his part, just quietly stewed and didn’t contribute much as he agreed, but only to a point. Maz defended the two though, pointing out that eating was all that they had, it was a habit they had formed, and there was nothing else going for them to make them feel better. Riley agreed, but pointed out that he was just a phone call away, and he could help them with a gym at the very least. Maybe if they were out being active, something would change and they could lose some of that weight to feel better about themselves. Clyde and Maz both came up with excuses, reasoning that time at the gym would mean less time job hunting, more money spent, less time to answer phone calls… But Riley shot down each argument with ease, since their excuses were little more than that; excuses. Maz even admitted, shyly, that some of the weight did feel good to have on his frame, and Clyde didn’t exactly disagree from that point. Maz had Vorax, and his brother wasn’t exactly a poster child for healthy eating… And Maz liked some of that heft to make him feel bigger than the runt he had always been. Clyde wasn’t going to openly admit it, but he was feeling the same; size was power, and his parents had both made that very clear with their own heavily fattened frames. This was something the llama had said he would never fall into, but now that he had? He didn’t hate it either… But he could see where Riley was coming from, and he didn’t want to stay fat and feeling like he hated himself because of it. Riley agreed with that point too, but some time in a gym wouldn’t kill either one of them, and with nothing else going on, Maz and Clyde agreed to the gym… Begrudgingly, but they did at least agree since they had to try something.

Starting the next week, Maz and Clyde went with Riley to the gym. The trio all went and did cardio, lightweight of course because Maz and Clyde weren’t exactly capable of more, and they talked. The social outing helped immensely with keeping all three of them on an even keel, giving them time with friends and with some fresh air. Sure, Maz and Clyde were both miserable after the first few times, sore and complaining that they would die from the exertion of it all, but they did at least keep on going at the behest of Riley, and because they were getting out of the house and actually doing something. Giving them control over at least something as what the depressed duo needed to feel less like failures, and more like luck was just shunning them for a while. It was better than nothing by a large shout, and so they continued on with going… Even though their weights didn’t really drop. Sure, they were getting some muscle under all that pudge, and they were definitely losing some water weight from all the time spent on treadmills and with light weights, but muscle weighed more than fat. That, and neither was changing their diets. An hour at the gym always meant a binge at the closest fast-food shop to undo all that weight lost. Nothing quite like stuffing one’s face after a day of working out, or at least as far as Maz and Clyde were concerned, so the two just enjoyed what they could of it and kept right on going.

This routine continued on for months, once a week at the gym with Riley and plenty more applications into places that were just going to tell them no. The rejections, at this point, were little more than flies on an elephant now; swatted away like they were less than nothing. This didn’t mean that Clyde and Maz weren’t trying; they were trying harder than ever now that they had a routine, some social life, and had strengthened themselves mentally to handle getting told ‘no’ again and again and again. Still, it wasn’t very fun… It was a routine that was mere survival, and both of them knew it. They weren’t thriving at all, and wouldn’t be until one of those no’s, just one of them, was a yes instead. Both the dragon and the llama knew this, deep down they knew it like they knew that the planet was round and the sky was up. However, jobs were out of their control, and their appetites and time at the gym were, so they took those in their little sphere of influence and control and just clung to those two little things like they would leave if their grip slipped even the tiniest bit. Riley could see that, Maz and Clyde could see that, but not a one of them actually said something about it; even mentioning the fact that the pair were hanging on by a thread would likely make that thread snap. So the routine continued on, and nothing was mentioned about changing it. Nothing was said about changing their diets, about trying to go to the gym more than once a week, about trying to shift away from their industries into just getting a job at one of the eateries they frequented so often… Not a word. This was denial at its finest, coping at its strongest, and just surviving at the best that all three of them could manage. So they stuck with it, and stuck with it as best they could.

Six months after graduation, and Maz and Clyde had hit a wall at long last. They were so tired of the same again and again and again, nothing changing. Something had to change, it simply had to. The gym was doing nothing but keeping them from getting winded on stairs or on longer walks. The job search was all but over, with nothing that they could find within over 500 miles around them. The weeks out with Riley were getting a little more sporadic, as the roo was starting to gear up to get hired as the hiring freeze at his company, while still in effect, was about to be lifted for him and him alone because he was that good of a worker. The life with Vorax was becoming contentious because the older dragon was getting busier with work. The economy was starting to show signs of life again, but still nothing was readily available for work. The depression that had been keeping them both down was starting to come back, rearing its head as the world started to warm back up again around them. Maz and Clyde didn’t know just how to cope with it all at once; the ebbs and flows of society were lost on the two of them. They tried, and Riley and Vorax both tried too to keep the pair’s chins up as things slowly improved around them, but realistically? Both Clyde and Maz were just tired and needed a win, so as they took loss after loss… They were just circling the drain of being broken, fat, and shut-in losers who had degrees but nothing to do with them at all. Hell, Clyde was considering actually patching things up with his parents; things were getting to be that draining on the two of them.

“Hey, get close to the mirror.” Riley said after one of their trips to the gym, a week or so after that six month mark had passed. Clad in just underwear and nothing else, Maz and Clyde complied as though they were zombies, not saying a word as they moved their mostly-nude forms over to the floor-to-ceiling mirror which was by the door in Vorax’s apartment. “Come on, come on,” Riley said, moving over to the mirror with the pair. Maz and Clyde both stared vacantly at the reflections that looked back that them, seeing two fat lumps of fur and scales just looking back at them with blank eyes and tired, worn down expressions. Maz looked even more doughy and fat than he ever had, a stack of pancake rolls on his torso that highlighted how much weight he had put on without leaving even a single ounce of his hefty self to the imagination. Clyde looked softer and heavier than he had ever before, his bloated look from constant stuffing gone thanks to his hide finally having a chance to catch up with the amount of fat that he was putting on himself. Both sagged and sloshed and wobbled, their bellies bouncing with each step and staying movement even after those steps had ended. Heavy, large moobs that rose and fell with each deep, tired breath. Thighs that rubbed together for Clyde, and fought for space that simply wasn’t there for Maz. Chins that sagged under where they should have been and wobbled faintly whenever they spoke. Cheeks that looked to be stuffed with food even though the duo hadn’t eaten in hours. Biceps that had bigger bulges of blubber than muscle. Light sheens of sweat all over their furred and scaled frames from the simple act of getting undressed from the gym.

Simply put, both Maz and Clyde looked like fat sacks of garbage, and felt like it as they stood there and blankly stared at the llama and dragon looking back at them.

CLICK

The sound of the camera going off, which neither Maz nor Clyde had even noticed in the mirror as their vision had been too busy drinking in the sight of themselves, shook both of them out of their stupors. Maz wanted to be annoyed, and Clyde wanted to be mad, but both were too tired and downtrodden to even feel that. Instead, both of them turned around to look at Riley, annoyance on both of their faces as they did so. They hadn’t been asked for a picture, they were in underwear that was as unflattering as possibly could be imagined, and the roo had been hiding behind them to make sure there was not a single bit of llama and dragon that the mirror missed. Both just glared for a moment, but only a moment before sighing in unison and looking at Riley with tired faces.

“Don’t share that, please… I don’t need another reason to feel like shit,” Clyde said, looking down at his stomach and then hefting it in his arms, giving it a couple wobbles before dropping it down with a loud, heavy slosh. Maz too was playing with his stomach, lifting and dropping it a couple times before looking at Riley and Clyde with a bit of a frown. “What?”

“I… I dunno, I don’t feel that bad looking like this?” Maz said, looking up at Clyde with a bit of a blush on his cheeks. “I kind of am getting used to it. Like, I don’t hate it… And it’s kind of nice being soft like this. All that gym time has made me less tired and stuff too, so like… I dunno… I guess its starting to grow on me.”

“Grow on you is right,” Riley said, getting a light chuckle from Maz and Clyde as they both nodded in agreement. “I’m not gonna share this one with anyone but you two, just figured a picture was worth a thousand words an’ all that.”

“Huh? Whaddya mean?” Maz asked, getting a nod from Clyde in agreement.

“Like… Look, if you two actually hated being that big, you’d both have lost weight by now, right?” Maz and Clyde shrugged, both looking down at their own bulk before looking to the others… And then shrugging again. “Seriously, you would have. You both know how to, right?”

“Y-Yeah, I do!” Maz said, blushing faintly at the implication of that comment. Clyde simply shrugged and then nodded, still quiet as he stood there and waited to see where Riley was going with this.

“So… That means you two like being like this. You woulda dropped all this weight like, forever ago, if you hated it, right? I mean… Maz, you’ve always kind of been like, wanting to say you like it, an’ Clyde always clams up when this shit comes up, right? So like, both of you like this… And you just aren’t admitting it.”

“I-I…” Maz started, only to get cut off by Clyde finally speaking up.

“You’re right,” Clyde finally said, both Riley and Maz both snapping their gaze to the taller llama with open mouths and wide eyes. “I do like this, as much as I hate that I like this.”

“Why hate it when you can just like it an’ like… Stay likin’ it ya know?” Riley said, leaning in and giving the llama a bit of a poke in the stomach. “You can admit it yeah? Like, you know I won’t be all judgy and shit.”

“I don’t want to like it because it is so far from normal.” Clyde said matter-of-factly, then sighed and shrugged. “I don’t want to admit that all this just feels so good when I hated it just a few years ago. You both know how much I hate being wrong.”

“So be wrong!” Riley said with some enthusiasm in his voice, leaning in and giving the llama’s stomach a firmer poke, which forced a light belch out of Clyde. “Like… Is there something wrong with not being normal? Look at me! I look like candy came along and fucked a roo silly.” That comment got laughs from all three of them, Maz and Clyde almost doubling over with that little joke. Both of them had been dying to make that crack for years… And yet never did because they weren’t about to say it aloud because that was pretty darn offensive, or at least it could be. To hear Riley say it out loud though? That was hysterical, so they both just were giggling for a solid minute before catching their breath and straightening back up, still chuckling lightly. “Seriously though… Be wrong, cuz there’s nothing wrong with bein’ wrong.”

“I know, I know…” Clyde agreed, shrugging a bit and then looking to Maz. “I guess Maz has been rubbing off on me more and more. Kind of like how he rubs on doorways.” Another giggle fit ensued with that comment, though this one with Riley and Clyde giggling as Maz tried to become a tomato with how red his cheeks were.

“H-Hey! At least my belly doesn’t hit the door before my hands!” Maz shot back, this getting more laughter from Clyde and Riley simply because of the indignation and the weak comeback it was. Sure Clyde was blushing a little at that fact because, well, it was true… But it was too funny for him not to just be laughing. Maz joined in after a few moments, and it wasn’t long before jabs were being thrown left and right from all three. Rainbow leftovers, stress ball wanna-be, pancake pretender… Laughing and giggling came with each comment, as none of them were made in malice. Each comment about themselves, to put themselves down but at the same time to get some of what they had been having doubts on out into the open, felt like a cathartic release in the biggest way. Dye stock holder, bloated beach ball bod, walking bakery… None of it stuck, and all of it just felt like something that had needed to be done months earlier.

It was almost a full ten minutes before they’d calmed down and were just wheezing and sighing as they got their breaths back. Even Riley, the runner and fit one of the trio, was panting lightly from all that laughing as they stood there. One look in the mirror and some more giggles came back, but they died down nice and quick as the group looked right at the mirror and at themselves, each drinking in just what they were, and starting to, at long last, drink in what they weren’t.

“I suppose none of us are normal, are we?”

“Nope,” Maz replied, patting his stomach and then starting to rub at his lovehandles. “And I’m pretty okay with that.”

“Yeah… I’d have to spend too much on dye to be normal,” Riley said, getting a couple chuckles from Maz and Clyde. “Legit though, like… I don’t mind. I think we’re just fine like we are ya know? If you two are comfy bein’ all fat n’ stuff, then be fat! Who cares what others think?”

“Recruiters care…” Clyde said, sighing and shrugging. “But I guess that doesn’t matter right now, does it? Not like anyone is hiring.”

“Have you looked in like, New SaggingTon? I bet that place cares if you’re not fat when they hire you.”

“Uhm…” Maz said, and then shook his head. Clyde did the same, shaking his head as well. “No, I didn’t uhm… I didn’t think anywhere there would hire us.”

“Neither did I,” Clyde agreed, and then shrugged. “That’s a spot for the world’s elite, not a couple of fresh faces like us. Even the college told us not to bother with there.”

“Well, since you’re ignoring the normal stuff now an’ enjoying bein’ fat, why not ignore all that hiring stuff too right?” Riley asked, getting a shrug from Maz and Clyde in unison.

“Guess we could like, try, right?”

“Wouldn’t hurt anything to be told no again,” Clyde replied in agreement, then turned to Riley with a bit of a grin. “Thanks Riley, I needed that.”

“Yeah, me too… I haven’t laughed like that in a while.”

“Yeah, yeah… I still owe you both for all those candids.” Riley said, getting another laugh out of the group. And an idea to maybe see some more of those candids for later…

Yeah, definitely some of those candids later.