Secondhand Smoke (Smoke Force)

Rob didn't smoke. At least, not anymore. Having quit a while back, he couldn't understand how everyone else in his department suddenly picked it up. It had to be from the new recruit that had started bringing cigars to the office. Everyone seemed to want to be like him. It spread like wildfire, all his coworkers now with a cigar permanently stuck in their mouths. The office space was contaminated with a constant haze, forcing Rob to want to spend almost all his time outside of the building. He only headed in when he needed to.

Rob had been a smoker previously, having quit for his health. He remembered how it affected his job, his energy. It had previously caused him to gain weight and grow apathetic to everything. He was happy to have turned himself around, able to continue his career hoping to be more successful. Seeing how smoking spread among the force, however, scared him, especially given how fast they all were changing. He watched as it affected them all the same way as it had affected him. Almost the entire department was growing increasingly overweight, looking much alike to the pigs cops were often associated with. Not to mention the beards.

Rob had been taught to keep himself clean-shaven, which was crucial as a cop. It was unsettling how many of the officers suddenly decided to start growing out their facial hair, ignoring the code. He was almost certain some of them couldn't have even grown beards before, but now they all sported manes suited for mountain men. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't been experiencing the same thing too, his chin sporting a five o-clock shadow every day by noon.

Rob had his suspicions it had something to do with the smoke. Just being around the other men made him feel light-headed, the familiar apathy he'd previously felt setting back into his mind much more intensely than he expected. He could feel it for the rest of the day whenever he was exposed to it. He wouldn't have worried if he hadn't watched his scale start to climb again, his body beginning to fill out his uniform with weight. He felt the constant exhaustion from being out-of-shape returning. He'd be constantly sweating into his uniform, easily growing out of breath heaving his heavy body around the city. He didn't know how secondhand smoke could have affected him this much.

Rob felt helpless watching his smooth face filling out roundly with his old second-chin. He could tell his appetite had grown, seeming to match the same appetite the rest of his precinct had. They were growing much faster than he was, but he guessed that was due to being around the smoke more and an increased laziness of sitting around all day doing squat. He tried to fight it by being outside as much as possible, but he could still feel the changes affecting him. He considered the option of changing precincts or retiring, but that all changed when the Chief Deputy called him in for a meeting.

Luke seemed to be the only officer not affected by the smoke, despite having joined the rest of the crew in fuming up the office. Being second in command, Luke seemed to be able to keep his shit together. An announcement had gone out to start reporting directly to him instead of the Sheriff, to hand completed cases to the Chief Deputy. Rob hadn't felt anything by it, the thought that Chief Deputy would be taking over as Sheriff a possibility.

What Rob was worried about however was spending an extended period of time inside the building for the meeting. He felt anxious as entered, his access to fresh air cut off as the door closed behind him. He passed men he could now barely recognize, blown up like plush toys as if they'd been filled by the clouds they continued providing to the eternal haze inside the room.

The walls were a significant shade darker from when Rob had last been inside. Rob made his way up to the Chief Deputy's desk in the bullpen, finding the only person who seemed downright normal in the room despite the cigar lodged in their mouth. That thought changed once they opened their mouth.

"R'b!" Luke mumbled loudly, speaking around the thick roll. "A've been wait'n f'r yuh."

Luke pulled his feet off the desk where they'd been placed, pulling his chair forward and sitting up.

"Well I'm here now." Rob replied. "What's this about?" Rob regretted having opened his mouth, feeling the smoke quickly drawing into his system. He made a choice to start speaking as little as possible, keeping his breaths as shallow as possible to not breathe anymore in.

"Well a've notic'd yuh seem uh little cold late'ly, a 'tad distant. Yuh haven't been 'n th' office."

Rob nodded, trying not to open his mouth.

"Do ya no long'r want t' be uh cop? Yuh seem as if yuh jus' don' care. D'yuh need help? Ah bet ah can g've yuh a desk job tuh getcha in here mor'."

Rob felt shocked hearing those words. He'd been out working hard every day just to avoid the office, and Luke thought he just didn't care? Especially compared to the rest of the force who just sat on their ass all day and barely got anything done? Rob's anger flared up, his increasing heart rate forcing him to breathe.

"You think I don't care about my job?" Rob growled, drinking the poison. "I'm out there every day getting my casework done, and everyone's here just smoking dip!"

Luke looked at Rob with a layer of sympathy, cold eyes underneath watching the officer in front of him gasping the air.

"So yer feel'n left out?"

Rob felt something snap in his brain. Left out? Left out?? How the hell could the Chief Deputy come to such a bullshit conclusion. Rob's anger finally came through the emotions he'd managed to keep under wraps, goaded by the soiled air.

"Yuh think ah'm feeln' left out!?" Luke shouted, not comprehending the change in his voice. "Ah'm out work'n ev'ry day wh'le ev'ryone els' doin' jack sh't, an' yuh think'  don' care?"

Luke smiled at his success, watching the officer in front of him sway.

Rob raised a hand to his head, feeling a wave of dizziness take over his head. He felt the rush of blood in his body, a wave of heat from his anger. He hadn't ever lost control like that except when he'd been smoking. As Rob breathed in the haze of the room he felt a recognizable dull numbness in his head returning, his nerves shutting down causing him to lose focus of what he had been saying.

"Ah need uh chair" Rob said, looking for the closest one before crashing down in it. Signals were firing in his head that something was wrong, brief sparks of panic before being snuffed out just as quickly by the smoke he inhaled. He could barely sit straight, the weight of his body feeling significantly more heavy. He couldn't see his figure expanding, filling out to the armrests as he struggled to get comfortable in the seat. He couldn't stop himself from panting, gasping for something he didn't know he needed.

Luke had gotten up and approached, standing in front of his officer and holding out his roll. "Need a smoke?"

Rob didn't think twice as his hand reached out for the cigar and pulled it to his mouth. He quickly brought its vapor into his head, letting the clouds roll around his tongue and sink into his gums. A dull buzz spread from there to the rest of his head, his mind relaxing to the numbness gripping his senses. He let out a satisfied hum as everything began to feel right again.

He couldn't stop himself from bringing in more and more of the fumes, letting the prickly feeling take over his face ignorant of the beard that had begun spreading ear to ear. He enjoyed the sensation of his stomach pressing more firmly into the front of his uniform, the tight confines on his soft growing belly somehow comforting. He felt like a giant inflatable, filling with the smoke, filling out more and more of his outfit with mass.

Luke watched as another unit was turned into a compliant smoke machine, apt for continuously puffing away at the pipe. There was no escaping with a ballooned body like that, their smoke-riddled lungs making it impossible to ever lose the weight again if freed from the fumes' clutches. Rob had been a sore spot for Luke, an officer that seemed to be resisting the fog. As expected, it didn't take much to get them under wraps. No, Rob would make a perfect addition to the team in the office.

"So you'll be moving to a desk role from now on, sound good?" Luke mentioned, seeing if any bit of his old subordinate was left.

Rob mumbled an affirmative response, his mind incapacitated from the constant fumes he willingly pulled into his head. Just another pawn in the takeover of the precinct.