Etho hums as he quietly works on his Redstone. It has been going pretty well so far and aside from a few small hiccups, everything's running smoothly. It's a fairly simple contraption. He's making a door today and while it's fairly useless as he doesn't really have walls it's the principal. It's a pretty fun design with a few bits that make it look a lot fancier than it is.
Grinning Etho tries the door. With a wince he hurriedly covers his ears, "That was loud," he murmurs to himself. Before shrugging and getting back to work, every so often wincing at loud sounds. He just brushes it off as feeling kinda off that day and continues working.
As he works his communicator starts buzzing with an important message. Unfortunately, it's located in a completely different area of his base so he doesn't hear it. He really should keep it close by, but in his excitement, he had forgotten it.
It's really unfortunate that he doesn't hear the device going off. It's a server alert message from Doc, saying the meteor's active once again and telling them to be on the lookout. He also asks everyone to confirm that they've received the message. Everyone save for Etho responds. Doc smiles to himself and sends a message saying that he would go and check on him.
As Doc draws near he furrows his eyebrows, something's off. He can't quite place a finger on it but something about the ninja is different.
With a slightly startled hiss, he realizes. Where are his ears? Walking up to Etho Doc realizes. He's got fox ears, and they perfectly match his hair, "Are you ok?" Doc asks clearly referring to the ears.
"Uh, yeah why wouldn't I be?"
It dawns on Doc that Etho might not have noticed what's happening, "The meteor's active again," Doc says slowly, "You didn't respond to the message so I came by to check on you."
"You really didn't have to, you have more important things to do than to sit around and talk to me. You could be figuring out who's getting affected."
Internally Doc screams as he fully realizes that Etho has no idea that he's been affected. He quickly thinks of a way to tell him that wouldn't be overly exaggerated, "I was worried that you never responded. I thought you had been affected."
"Me? Nah, I would tell you immediately if I got affected," Etho states matter-of-factly.
Somehow Doc manages not to burst out laughing at the total absurdity of the situation. That plans out the window, "I'm sure you would."
One of the ears twitches and Etho runs a hand through his hair, "You look really stressed."
Doc smiles, "I'm a little overworked from the meteor stuff," the creeper admits as he sits on the edge of the small pit Etho's working in.
Etho hums, somehow not noticing his ears pinning back against his head in concern, "Do you want to hangout?"
With a slightly off grin the creeper nods and helps Etho clamber out of the hole. "Do you want to head over to my base?"
"Sure," Etho chirps as he pulls his mask down to drink some water.
As the pair head for the Goat Father's base, Etho pushes up his headband and his fingers almost brush his ears.
Doc progressively gets more and more stressed about how to tell him, until he decides to see just how long this can go on without Etho noticing. He sends a message to the others telling them what had happened and that Etho somehow didn't realize that he had fox ears.
Zedaph immediately sends a message back, "To be fair sometimes you don't realize your ears have changed."
Tango: I remember that
Impulse: That was funny
Zedaph: Hush you. I was very confused.
DocM77: Did anyone else not realize they were being affected?
Beef: Sorta, I thought my hair getting a more fur-like texture was it just being fluffy for some reason.
Grian: Who dyed my sweater blue?
Grian: sorry...
Stress: Is Etho ok?
DocM77: He's fine for now I'm taking him to my base.
Xisuma: does he know that he's affected?
DocM77: I don't think so, he could be messing with us but I don't want him panicking either.
The conversation ends here and they start placing bets on how long it would take for him to realize. The shortest being an hour and the longest being a week.
Biffa admits that he found a blue sweater in the same style as Grian's and had dropped it off in the bird's base a few days ago after he had finished adjusting it for wings. Grian then thanks him for the new sweater."
.......
As Etho is getting ready to leave Doc's base; Beef, and Bdubs show up. He's a little confused as to why they've shown up but overall he's not complaining, he's surrounded by his friends, what could go wrong.
Bdubs gives him a sharp-toothed grin as he pulls him back down into Docs basement with a deck of playing cards, "We haven't had the chance to talk for a while," He explains as he pushes his glasses to the top of his head. His green eyes sparkling with excitement.
"We really should talk more often," Beef remarks as he carefully grips the wall and very carefully makes his way down the stairs. He can't really see the ground so stairs are an unfortunate hazard.
As they enter the game room in the basement, Doc looks up and rolls his eyes, "You couldn't resist could you?"
"Nope," Beef laughs as he carefully lays down on a couch. The others gather around and they start playing card games. Bdubs is stretched out halfway under the table his tail flicking every once in a while.
Etho barks out a laugh as he wins yet another round; one of his ears twitches, "I guess you just can't beat me."
"I guess we can't," Beef says as he stands up. Everyone starts heading towards Joe's portal. They've agreed to walk over there together, then head their separate ways.
As they pass by the sweet berry field Etho gets distracted and walks over to the prickly bushes.
"Etho, what are you doing?" Beef asks as he walks up to the oblivious fox.
"I don't know how I never noticed this," Etho mutters as he eats some of the sweet berries."
Yawning Bdubs asks, "What didn't you notice?"
"They're so good," Etho chirps as he walks further into the field.
Rolling his eyes Doc calls after him, "Etho come back here."
One of his ears flattens against his head as he ignores Doc's call in favor of exploring. Hearing all the commotion, Joe runs outside and over to the NHO
"Howdy, what can I do for you?" He happily beams at his visitors.
"Hey, Joe, sorry about this," Doc motions to Etho who's sitting happily in the field surrounded by berries, "We'll get him out of your stuff."
Joe laughs, "He's fine I'm happy to share. He can have as many berries as he wants."
"Thanks," Beef says as he kneels down letting Bdubs climb onto his back as he falls asleep. He nods to Doc and starts walking over to the slumbering phantom's base.
"My pleasure, I've got more than I know what to do with," Joe nods and disappears back into his winery.
Eventually, Doc gets fed up and walks into the field himself to pull Etho out.
Etho looks like a kicked puppy as Doc drags him to the nether portal, "Doc, why?"
"Because I have things to do today."
"You know you don't have to hang around with me," Etho jokes.
Doc grins, "But I do."
Etho stares blankly at him for a minute, "Do you want to make a sweet berry farm?"
"Eh, why not. Let's do it."
The two redstoners rush around gathering supplies and some foxes for the farm. Etho chooses a spot near his ice farm to construct the berry farms.
As they work Etho starts to feel kinda weird, almost like his energy was being sapped away. He yawns and brushes it off and keeps working.
........
Etho and Doc work late into the night. The basic outline of the farm is nearly complete. They continue work until a message from Bdubs comes through, saying they should sleep.
The next morning they get right back into the work. As Etho stands from crawling around placing the mine carts down his back makes a horrific cracking sound.
Doc's head snaps over his eye filled with concern, "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine, I probably just need to stretch more often."
Doc nods but starts keeping an eye out for something else happening. Almost an hour later it makes itself known. Etho's stumbling and tripping all over the place and honestly, it's pretty concerning.
"Hey, Doc? Is this looking good?" Etho calls over as he's crouched by some blocks for the exterior of the farm.
Doc wanders over and looks the block pallet over, "That looks awesome."
Etho looks over grinning at Doc before returning to his work.
The snowy ground crunches behind him, as he turns to look one of his ears smacks him in the face. With a panicked yelp, he falls to the icy ground clutching at his ears. He scrambles to his feet and over to Doc.
"Doc, we might have a problem..." As he says this his breath catches in his throat, as he stifles a scream. His back explodes in pain as his tailbone splits into two.
Cursing under his breath Doc catches him and pushes him just inside the nether portal. Etho whimpers as his evident tails grow longer and slightly thicker, when the tails get a bit longer than his legs they stop growing.
Fur swiftly overtakes them as Etho grunts in pain. The tails are pure white except for their tips which are a light gray. The tails are extremely fluffy and almost look too big for his body.
As Etho struggles to stand without holding the wall Doc gently helps him get over to his base. They have to stop several times as Etho isn't walking very well. He keeps tripping and over-compensating for the added weight.
Etho has a somewhat pained expression, as he thinks, Doc clearly knew he was affected so why didn't he say anything?
They reach someone's nether hub and take a few minutes to see how much Etho can control the tails. He can't really stand on his own and the tails seem to be reacting more to emotions than to what he wants them to do.
He reaches back and touches the tail, "Oh," he whispers, "It's soft."
Doc looks up from his communicator, "May I?" He asks as he reaches towards Etho's tails.
Nodding Etho lets him carefully touch the fluffy appendages.
"I think you deserve an explanation," Doc starts, "When you said you would have noticed if you had been affected, your ears had changed. I didn't want to say otherwise so I didn't say anything."
Etho nods still a bit hurt that no one had told him, he carefully rubs his ears. His tails are pulled onto his lap as he carefully brushes the fur, "I get that, but you could have put mirrors around or something."
"I should have," Doc sighs as he helps Etho stand and helps him back to his base.
"Yeah," Etho says as he almost steps on his tail. Doc smiles at him before helping him through the nether portal and into his base.
Etho yawns as he grips the wall and shuffles towards his room, "We'll finish this in the morning."
"It's like noon?" Doc hisses confused.
"I'm going to sleep, we'll finish this in the morning."
Doc shrugs and lets him be. He wanders over to Xisuma's base to check on Exy. Before heading back to Etho's base to check on him. He's fast asleep, his tails wrapped around himself like a blanket. Doc yawns and decides to give in to being semi nocturnal for a while wouldn't hurt and he falls asleep.
........
It's a few days later and Etho has forgiven Doc for not telling him about his ears. Since it did take him quite a while to notice that he had fox ears, he agrees to be supervised. If he didn't notice his ears for over a day who knows what kind of trouble he can get himself into.
It took quite a lot of practice, but Etho's tails are causing a lot fewer problems. He learns how to walk. That took a lot of trial and error to get right. The process involved much tripping over things and some amounts of pain to the foreign limbs. Whether it be them getting stepped on or shut into doors the tails suffered quite a bit of unintentional abuse.
Another part of having such fluffy tails is the time spent taking care of them. To maintain proper hygiene they need brushing, washing, drying, and fluffing. The first time the tails get washed goes about as well as one would expect. Horribly. Etho had gotten quite a few thorns and leaves caught in the thick fur. Doc and Beef manage to corner him and drag him over to his base where Beef teaches him how to take care of his tail and properly manage his fur.
That all happened days ago and now Etho's going to meet up with Bdubs in a few minutes to work on the Netherlands gaming district. Etho had contracted Bdubs to do the grand entrance and would be accompanying him. For both protection and company.
As expected the phantom is right where they said they'd meet, he's currently trying to sleep, but Scar is there and keeps stealing his blankets. The Vex is startled by Etho and flits up before landing on his head.
"Hey, Etho. Woah, your fur is super soft," The Vex murmurs quietly, as he talks, Bdubs mockingly glares at Scar sticking out his tongue before curling up and falling asleep. His sleep sequence only lasts around thirty minutes so they don't really mind waiting,
"Thanks?" Etho mutters, "I'm still pretty confused about everything."
Scar nods, "Yeah, it doesn't make sense... and you've got two tails, how's that treating you?"
Etho groans and carefully shakes his head, "It sucks, I don't have much control over them. Thankfully they're mostly floof so it's not too bad."
The conversation continues for a few more minutes until Bdubs wakes up. Then they bid Scar farewell and head over to the Netherlands.
As Bdubs excitedly explains his idea Etho grins.
"Man, that sounds awesome."
"I know, a train shooting out from the nether into the sky. It's going to look awesome," As he speaks his tail flips excitedly.
Etho nods, "let's get started."
The pair get to work, Bdubs starts on the overworld segment and Etho starts work in the nether. As he works in the tunnel he gets kinda an odd feeling. It's almost like some sort of extra energy, it's unnoticeable at first but it slowly increases. Carefully looking around his tails twitch in excitement. He crouches near the ground and swats at a stray piece of ash floating lazily towards the ground.
As he realizes what he's doing he quickly finishes up and swiftly runs through the nether portal. He almost stumbles as he walks out. He wasn't quite expecting there to be a hole. Jumping out of the vertical train car, he almost trips over one of his tails; in saving his face from hitting the ground he steps on the tail. Yelping softly he draws the injured limb up to his chest.
Looking around Etho spots Bdubs. Who is completely passed out. He's curled against a wall and has wrapped himself in blankets. Smiling softly Etho walks over and carefully puts a shulker down next to him.
Digging around for a moment he finds a pile of blankets. His grin shifts under his mask from a well-meaning friend to something more chaotic. One by one he carefully drapes the blankets over Bdubs.
As he adds more blankets he yawns; ever since this started it seems that he's getting tired earlier. He adds a few more before curling up next to Bdubs. With a yawn, he falls asleep.
Stretching Bdubs squints at the added weight of the blankets. He pushes them off and frowns when a particularly fluffy one swings back and lays across his chest.
Blinking slowly he realizes that's not a blanket, "Etho."
The fox groggily picks his head up, "Hm, yeah?"
"Did you do this?"
His ears flatten against his head in guilt, "Yeah..."
Bdubs face stretches into a smile, standing he pulls Etho into a hug, "You're fine, thanks for the extra blankets. Your tail is really soft by the way."
Under his mask, Etho blushes and laughs, "Sorry about that."
Notes:
Updates will be moved to Wednesday's in October because I started writing this on the 28th last year and I want to make something special for it.
If you've enjoyed please leave a comment.