#the friend sonic knew and that drew him to nine is tails. but nine is not tails. and he cant *be* tails either

[haunted-xander]

MILI DROPPED ANOTHER BANGER WOOHOOOO Anyway it made me think of Nine so. yeah :)

+ as a bonus, the original sketch that I ended up completely scrapping bc the vibe didnt fit

[infernobot]

TEETH?

Teeth?

By InfernoBot

I had just finished recording, and was carrying my dog in from the office, when my mom handed me an envelope. Once I had my sweet pupper nestled into a blanket, I joined her on the couch and slit open my mysterious delivery. Inside was no note, just a brochure to something called ‘Furnal Equinox’ and an accompanying plastic badge bearing the image of a anthropomorphic dog, (maybe it was a wolf), wearing a graduation cap and gown.

As my eyes scanned the glossy pages, my excitement grew; some lovely person had sent me a weekend pass to a furry convention! This was my big chance to make a video detailing my adventures through a mass gathering of one of the internet’s most maligned and misunderstood subcultures. Over the coming weeks, I studied the brochure, read up on the panelists online, noted every question about the furry fandom that popped into my head. My itinerary for the whole weekend was mapped out. 

Super chats and KoFi tips managed to cover the cost of a bottom-barrel airline ticket, and I got a great deal on an Air B&B from a charming indiginous woman named Semide, whose sisters had enrolled in college and left their rooms vacant. She was even kind enough to include meals as part of the deal. The weekend of the con finally rolled around; I threw my things in a bag and I was off to Toronto.

Eighteen hours and three layovers later, I was sitting at my host’s kitchen table with a warm towel draped over the back of my neck, sipping a cup of coffee. It turned out Semide was a naturopathic healer and knew some kickin’ remedies for aches, pains and jet lag. I don’t put much stock in essential oils, but damn if I didn’t wake up feeling fresh and ready to face the day the next morning. The convention was being held on the waterfront about nine blocks from Semide’s place, not too bad for a walk, and I reckoned I could make the trek each day. 

I left late in the morning, well after the con had opened. No sense waiting in line, I figured. It was three blocks from the Westin Harbor Castle, when I saw the first fursuit. 

There was no explaining the rush of exhilaration I felt. This was real. This was happening. I was gradually being surrounded by dozens of people decked out in bright, elaborate costumes. Some that couldn’t afford full suits wore just heads and gloves, giving a ghoulish Frankenstein’s monster appearance to their character. Or the wolf-man caught mid transformation after being bitten by a neon fox in a rainbow pride shirt. The less daring, or particularly destitute, settled for headbands with animal ears and strap-on tails. 

Waiting to cross the last street, I was elbow to elbow with a giant Sonic the Hedgehog and a seven-foot tall purple giraffe sporting a quadruple-XL adult diaper. Something told me before the weekend was over, that particular garment would get filled. Before I could contemplate the logistics further, the light changed and the extremely polite, if curiously dressed herd moved into the street and we sorted into a semblance of a line being steadily processed through the doors into the main convention hall. I was in.

The lead-up to the main event hadn’t prepared me for what lay inside. A teenage girl in a ‘volunteer’ shirt thrust an opaque plastic bag into my hands before Big The Cat shoved me aside and began professing his undying love for her beauty. I stumbled into the row of booths on the main floor, further progress blocked by an electric green armadillo strumming an acoustic guitar with a stuffed fish tucked in the strings. 

This was it, I weaved my way between con-goers and took it all in. Clip-on LED cat ears. A custom-fit fang booth. Stacks of comics focused on humanoid animals. Racks upon racks of faux-leather collars and leashes. The waifu pillows. I pulled my phone from my pocket and approached the nearest open booth.

Time for an interview, I thought.

Eight hours, two energy drinks and a box of granola bars later, I was dead on my feet. There was no way of knowing how many people I’d talked to as the day progressed. Or just how strange my conversations had become. I think I spoke at length with Cool Cat about the merits of various vape pens, despite the fact I don’t smoke. But it hadn’t all been nonsense. 

Before I had degenerated into a gibbering wreck, I had chanced to be standing beside a fountain near the food court and heard a familiar warbling voice behind me. To my great delight, when I turned around I found a young woman with jet black hair, a hawaiian shirt and a black & yellow long-Furby draped over her shoulders; I instantly recognized her as Teya from Strange Aeons. After she’d finished speaking to her friend, I politely tapped her on the arm and introduced myself. She turned out to be super cool, excited to meet another youtube creator, and talked to me for about ten minutes as her girlfriend went off to wait in line for the bathroom. 

While most of our conversation centered around videos and our special boy Greg, my eyes kept getting drawn back to Thursday Plurbonym Boyporridge. His black and yellow checkered belly, his luxurious black fur, those piercing green eyes; it was all so captivating. I couldn’t quit looking at the charm necklace below his little yellow beak spelling out his name; Thursday. Eventually, I complimented her on her videos and her handsome long-son one last time and we parted ways. It had been a pleasant break, but even here, the persistent strains of Insane Clown Posse that permeated the space were grating on my nerves. 

When the time had come for all the furry folk to close up shop and head home, I staggered out into the street with all the lingering con-goers. Despite the initial culture shock, most of the people I’d met had been great. I could stand here, elbow to elbow with ponies, foxskies, giant pomeranians and adorable cat girl maids on the steps of Westin Harbor Castle, and just enjoy the last moments of the sun setting over Toronto. That is until the moment was shattered by an obnoxious voice that sounded more like it belonged outside a Patriots game accompanied by the echo of shattering beer bottles. 

“Now that the party’s over, we can get down to the afterparty at my place; which of you bitches wants to come home with me?”

My head swiveled like a tank turret toward the source of the voice, my face bearing the expression which must have read did this motherfucker just?

A man-child wearing a My Little Pony t-shirt that had been stretched over his prodigious girth, a pair of denim jorts hanging past his knees and sweat-stained socks encased in mandles, slid his oily bulk up behind a group of teenage girls dressed as some kind of anime cat maids. He leaned his acne-studded face in close to them and said, “Since you’re dressed as maids, how about I take you home and make you change my cumm-y bedsheets after a night of passionate love-making.” 

The overly-polite locals may have been in shock, but I knew a neckbeard when I saw one and knew immediately what to do.

“How ‘bout you back the fuck off bro, they’re kids.”

Maybe he wasn’t expecting resistance, but he seemed genuinely taken aback by someone speaking up. Once he got a look at me, he re-adjusted his fedora and stared me down. I admit, I might not look terribly intimidating; bulky, but not muscular, with my hair dyed bright teal and swept to one side. At least I had on a Pink Floyd t-shirt, that felt a little like a layer of protection against his fed-aura. He drew in a snot-choked breath and continued,

“They’re dressed as the maids from Painappuru No Oshiri, they’re harem girls that’re totally thirsty for the main character. Each maid is eager to bend over and present their ripe ruby star-fruit to their master. They’re, like, practically advertising how much they want it in the ass.”

“Why don’t you leave them alone, fuckmuppet?” I retorted. “You look like you're forty and they’re a bunch of teen girls.”

He was not pleased with my argument. The group of cat-maidens had shaken off their surprise and closed ranks. But they weren’t ready when he lunged forward and grabbed at the petticoat of the red cat-maid on the outside, lifting her skirts up to expose the shorts underneath.

“It’s not even a chick, it’s a dude. Chill out.”

A glance at the cosplayer’s face revealed a mask of burning red embarrassment, fear and confusion. Their friends were moving to grab at the neckbeard’s hand, but I was quicker. I swatted his arm like I was chopping down the internet itself and pushed right up in his face. Practically nose-to-nose, I couldn’t avoid the stench of fermented funyuns rolling off his breath.

“Keep. Your. Fucking. Hands. Off of them.”

His chins quivered slightly. 

“Oh, you wanna start something, Rainbow Brite? I bet you like it in the ass, prancy-boy.”

“For a supposedly straight guy, you sure are obsessed with getting your dick in a guy’s butt.”

The flab of his cheeks reddened to match his acne.

“You’re gonna regret that. I’m a man with a very particular set of skills…”

I cut him off; I didn’t have the patience for a real-life copy pasta.

“Is one of your skills getting punched by me? Cause if you keep talking, you’re going to be teaching a master class.”

I could feel that neckbeardy-bravado wavering. Perhaps he could sense the crowd around us had turned against him, moving to shield the cat-maids and staring daggers into his lumpy flesh. With one last snotty huff, he turned and stormed away; the sound of his mandles slapping on the concrete echoed off the face of the convention center. 

A group of several of the more adulty-er people had ringed the victims and were doing their best to calm them down. I shuffled over and started to apologize for the beardo’s behavior, when the red cat-maid began thanking me profusely and asked for a hug. Apparently, this was not the first time their group had been approached at the convention. We stood around chatting for a while, and they promised to check Evangelion when they got home. Once the cat-maids were safely in their Lyft, I waved them goodbye and turned to make my journey home for the night.

I started back up the street I'd taken this morning, but as I approached the doorway to a grimey building, I became aware of a fully-suited Yogi Bear propositioning a man dressed like Linda-Carter-era Wonder Woman. I was pretty wiped out and didn’t have it in me to process an altercation like this if they noticed me and instead took an abrupt right turn down an alley, intending to zig-zag back to my Air B&B. 

I was nearly out the other side when my ears picked up the slapping of mandles on pavement rushing up behind me. A searing pain burst into existence in my lower back, like someone put a cigarette out on my spine. 

I went down, hard. 

The mylar swag bag I’d been swinging around all day splashed into a puddle off to one side. I was barely able to heave myself over onto my back to get a look at my attacker. It was him. The Neckbeard. He stood over me, grinning, his yellowed teeth visible in the night. The little black box in his hand flickered with a blue spark as he triggered the taser again.

“Heh heh. You like that, princess? I aimed a little high so I wouldn’t damage your sweet ass.”

“Fuck….you….” I gasped out through the pain. My muscles were cramping like someone had dug a burning fork into my lower back and twisted it up like a plate of spaghetti. 

“Heh. You’re the one taking it in the ass, rainbow bitch.” He stepped over me, squatting like a linebacker, bringing the taser close to my face. “Maybe I’ll push this in your eyeball and see if I can make it boil.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of movement between his legs. Something thin and dark darted up from the shadows, toward his exposed back. He let out a cry of surprise, and shot upright, swinging his arms wildly behind him, grabbing at something. He hopped wildly from foot-to-foot across the alley, the tail hanging from the back of his pants swaying wildly with the movement. I thought it was weird I hadn’t noticed the tail before, especially with how long it was, practically sweeping the ground. The fuzzy black appendage was moving...wrong. It kept curling up and twisting out of his hands as he grasped at it, almost as if it were...alive. 

“Oh Goddamnit!” He screamed. “What the fuck, dude?!” 

He dropped the taser and got a grip on the tail with both hands, tugging on it. A ripping sound echoed through the alley as the seat of his pants tore out. The thing was, the tail wasn’t attached to his pants, it was going in through his pants, nestled between his prodigious posterior cheeks like one of those fetish plugs. As he violently jerked it side-to-side, it was ripping at the fabric of his trousers, the same went for his less-than-tidey whiteys. 

“Get this fucking thing off of me!” He howled. 

He grunted as the tail slipped his fingers and wriggled another foot inside him. Tears were welling up in his eyes and he collapsed back against a green dumpster. Like a man who had gambled on a street taco truck and lost, he bit his knuckle and gripped his abdomen through his stained t-shirt. It might have been a trick of the light, but I swear I could see his belly distend and squirm; the words ‘Friendship Is Magic’ bulging as something rolled under them. 

His mandles dug into the alley grime as he feebly kicked his legs, and I could only watch in disgust as the rest of the fuzzy, black, thing slithered up inside him, forcibly dilating his leather cheerio. It was incredible. I could actually see its progress as it wormed its way through his body. He blubbered something about God and Jesus as his hand clawed frantically at his own belly, before his voice abruptly went silent. 

There was a long, drawn-out wheezing sound, like one of those novelty rubber chickens, as the bulk of the thing moved up his throat. I don’t know how his flesh distended and deformed without bursting, but it reached his mouth and his jaw opened wide. First one small black, fuzzy ear lined with black and yellow plaid popped up, then another, followed by the crown of this thing’s head, pushing his teeth outward like flower petals blooming. 

It rose before me, straight up from his mouth, its black and yellow belly slick, but not stained by his juices. His dislodged teeth clung to its matted fur like an obscene necklace. It swayed slightly in the moonlight, a pair of luminous green eyes fixed on mine, and its beak opened. With the rising inflection of someone asking a question, it uttered one word: 

Teeth?

[shadowsfascination]

YAAU - chapter nine - Showdown

“You!” The door to Sonic’s house was slammed open and the handle brutally bounced from the wall when it touched it. “Chill! What’s that door ever done to y-?!” The black hedgehog’s eyes were filled with fury as he seized the blue hedgehog’s throat with one hand and punched him with his free hand. Shadow was also released from the hospital two weeks ago, two weeks after Sonic.They had been taking it easy as they needed to rest, still. Shadow had been staying at Amy's place for almost two weeks and returned to his own home last night. Sonic wondered what had gotten into him all of the sudden, showing up like this and raging all over the place and he started spinning as soon as Shadow’s fist hit his face and threw him off. He landed elsewhere in the room, but immediately started building up energy to jump in the air and fire off chaos spheres at his blue opponent. He surprisingly dodged them off by spinning, warding them off with a blue shield the speed that the spinning created. “Don’t be such a coward, Sonic! Fight me!” Shadow screeched in anger. The blue hedgehog grunted. “I thought we had outgrown this, Shadow.” The ebony and crimson striped male was visibly angered more by his comment. “Last night I finally remembered what really happened to me.” Shadow phrased, showing his almost exploding anger towards Sonic, who glanced at him, not knowing what he meant. “I came to settle things between us.” He opened his clenched fist and let a bolt of energy appear inside of his open palm. This caught Sonic’s attention since he never saw Shadow do this before. Shadow’s eyes locked with Sonic’s and before he knew it, they were suddenly located in one of the fields just outside the village. “Wow! Where did you learn that? You didn’t even use a Chaos Emerald.” His opponent closed his eyes, but still had a tormented, agitated expression on his face. When he opened his eyes, he placed his left feet one step back and sped off towards Sonic. “Chaos distortion.” His voice was as calm as if there was nothing going on, but the impact from this new attack on Sonic was as big as the impact from his speaking had lacked. As if there were multiple Shadow’s coming at him, Sonic was swayed into the air and smashed into a tree. “You’re not in a position to wonder about that right now, Hedgehog.” Sonic smiled with that signature smile of him from when he was facing an enemy, seemingly enjoying the fight. He dashed towards Shadow and drew a punch. It hit him in the stomach, but he pulled his knee up to hit Sonic in a similar way. Sonic grabbed Shadow’s pulses and pushed him down, but just when he raised his arm to stump him, he disappeared in a flinch and Sonic ended up smashing his fist into the ground. Sonic immediately looked up, squinting his eyes a little in annoyance and saw Shadow viciously smile at him. They jumped up at the same time and the blue blur started spinning in an attempt to attack Shadow, while Shadow did the same. The hedgehogs clashed into the ground together with an enormous impact. The sound from their clash could be heard in the village and as soon as the sound caught the ears of Miles Prower, he looked out the window to see clouds of dust rise from the fields in the distance. He grabbed one of his high-tech gadgets that functioned as binoculars and saw something black and blue. This alarming vision made him act immediately and he tried to find Sonic’s location. “I figured as much.” The fox sighed and jumped into his plane to fly off towards the battlefield. “What’s your problem anyway?!” Sonic shouted, while cupping his left hand around the black male’s neck and punching him with the right one. Shadow’s eye was swollen and his face was scratched all over the place, just like Sonic’s limbs. “You seriously gonna play dumb on me now?!” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “How unwise.” The blue blur pinched his eyes together and growled at the one beneath him, running out of patience. “Distortion.” “Heh?” He vanished from the position Sonic was holding him in and re-appeared, standing in front of him. “Don’t play games, Shadow…” Sonic closed his eyes and focused himself, suddenly opened his eyes and roared: “Fight like a man!” His quills changed shape, just like they were shaped when he was in his super form, but they surprisingly, didn’t turn yellow. The ends of them were darkened and a white shiny and sparkly glow surrounded him. Happily taken over by the discovery that he mindedly could use Chaos Energy, even without a Chaos Emerald, he threw himself at Shadow, who just smirked angrily and held his hand before his body to wield Sonic off. “Chaos Shield.” The black and red striped hedgehog got knocked over when Sonic broke through the barrier, but was quick to recover. Shadow made that light bolt appear again in his hands. Sonic could hear the crackling of electricity coming from it. 

“Release.” The moment Shadow said that, the bolt hit his opponent with high impact and Sonic got dragged into the air again and landed on the ground with a loud thwack. It took Shadow less than a second to jump on top of him and give him a countless number of punches. “Don’t you dare telling me to fight like a man, bastard!” He smacked him again. “It’s your fault that I got locked up there! It’s your fault that I got tortured…” His eyes widened and Sonic could see the anxiety build up inside of him, drawing away the anger. It made place for a much more powerful force: insanity. Shadow’s eyes got all weird and he got this red glow around him, which Sonic knew was Chaos Energy as well. “What the heck are you talking about?” “Like you don’t know!” “I honestly don’t!” “LIAR!” Shadow yelped at his enemy. Both taken aback by the energy that was released from his shout, they jumped away and watched as a huge bolt of chaos energy grew and crackled in the air above them. “Sonic!” A familiar voice came from above as well. “Tails!” “What on earth is happening, guys?!” Sonic and Shadow shared a look. “Our Chaos Energy became unstable.” Sonic mumbled. “Sweet Chaos!” Tails screamed when the bolt began shooting Chaos Spheres randomly. “Watch out, Tails!” Tails skillfully steered the plane between the spheres coming at him and activated the auto-pilot when he was out of the shooting range. “Guys, can you read me?” The voice of Miles echoed through both of their contacting devices. “Yes.” “Hm.” “You have to try to get your Chaos Energy back inside of you. Focus.” The hedgehogs locked eyes together and nodded at each other. Both of them closed their eyes and took a deep breath. Shadow was the first to try and separate their Chaos Energy by opening his hands and trying to drag his energy back in. “Concentrate, Shadow! It keeps mingling with Sonic’s”. “Grrr.” “Concentrate.” “Stop telling me to concentrate!” “You can yell at me later, Shadow, but right now: you have to fix this.” “Ya think?” He spread his palms to try and draw in the energy. “Just a little more.” Sonic suddenly jumped up and spun through the air, hitting the bolt of energy, hoping it would separate itself, but instead it dodged Sonic and sent an electrical shock through his body. Tails sent his plane after his now falling friend to catch him- and he did. Pressing the auto-pilot button again, Miles searched for a device that he made a while ago. It was a prototype, so he wasn’t sure if it was gonna work, but at this rate, he had to try. “Shadow, step back.” “What are you gonna do?” “I’m going to throw this device at it.” “How will that help us?” “Hopefully it’ll swallow all the Chaos Energy and store it inside. We don’t know what effect that’s gonna have on you guys, but it’s becoming more unstable. We have to act right now!” “Fine, I’ll get outta the way.” “Hm!” The fox threw a tiny translucent box at the bolt, which absorbed the energy right away. It gently landed on the ground. “Phew” “So, what caused your Chaos Energy to go berserk?” … “You fought, didn’t you?” … Miles sighed with a desperate expression on his face. “Guys, I thought that you had outgrown this kind of thing a long time ago.” “That’s exactly what I told him”, Sonic said cynically. “You son of a bitch”, Shadow lashed at him angrily. “Wow, what’s going on?” “What’s going on is that this bastard, you call your best friend, has betrayed me.” “I don’t understa-“ Tails couldn’t finish his sentence. “He sold me out to those maniacs in our military to abuse and torture me until I was at the point of insanity. I’m not even sure how long it lasted because I believe I dissociated in the end. I couldn’t bear… no more.” “Sonic would never do that!” “That’s what I had made myself BELIEVE TOO!” Speaking those last words, he drew a punch at Sonic, leaving a bloody scratch at his cheek. “Now you’ve done it!” “You have no right to speak! NONE!” “Oh yeah?!” He slammed his fist into Shadow’s face and continued: “How about you were so F*CKING delusional from the sh*t they had done to you that you didn’t even see me undergo the F*CKING. SAME. THING?!!” Shadow’s eyes got bigger as those words came out Sonic’s mouth and was smashed in the gut by him a split second later. “HOW ABOUT THAT, EH?! TELL ME!”

Here goes nothing xD It's been a while as I've faced some distractions. I aimed for this chapter to be exciting and dynamic and I hope that I did well. I also wanted the artwork to be lively. The artwork belonging to this chapter has been drawn with a tablet instead of the mouse I normally use. I had to teach myself from scratch, but I think I did fine in the end. I have yet to start with the artwork for the next chapter and I need to write out more chapters. I have been thinking a lot about the story and how it'll go from here. It'll take time as usual^^