Axel Wolf novelization
My fursona was used for the comic and this story was made by a friend of mine on DA named LycanDID. I have permission to post this up. The comic was made by a friend on FA named Kenzik. Here's the link to the comic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/755468/
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He's described it to me once or twice, but I had to meet him again...it's hard to believe, and indeed, I wouldn't believe it if I couldn't see it with my own eyes. We were sitting in the diner, some throw back to the 50's at the edge of town (easier for him to get to from the ranch). He'd beaten me there, as a matter of fact (I got stuck at some red lights and behind a train) and it was hard not to see the glances and looks from the other customers as I made my way across the black and white checked linoleum and took a seat on the overstuffed red pleather of the booth, elbows on the table and looking at...
Well, it's hard to decide what I was looking at. On the other side of the table was...well, you would've thought it was a guy in a suit. And from a distance, without looking at it closely, that would be easy enough to believe. The impossible part came from looking more closely, and seeing the slight flare of the nostrils as he breathed the subtle shifts in his brow, the creases of his lips an muzzle and the motion of the ears. His tail was curled onto the bench next to him, and it twitched ever so slightly as he surveyed me over his cup of coffee.
The waitress (I think relieved to see a "normal" person at the table) approached, chewing a toothpick furiously. "So, what can I get you...uh...boys?"
I looked at the wolf. "This story should cover the tab, so it's on me."
He smiled (a not entirely unsettling visage of teeth) before turning to the waitress. It was almost comical to watch her stuck somewhere between afraid and fascinated. I placed my order, then turned back to the wolf, pulling a tape recorder from my pocket and, checking to make sure it was on, put it on the table.
"I guess I should start. This is recorded interview, October 27, 2007...I am interviewing..." I paused, gesturing to him.
"Axel Wolf."
I continued, "Axel Wolf, who has asked me to get some details recorded of his story. That's not your real name, of course, but some sort of on-line alias?"
"It's what I'm calling myself now, anyway, yes."
His voice was, to me, surprisingly clear. A little throaty, but warm enough. To be honest, I couldn't imagine something like that sounding any different.
"We'll get some photos and video later, but the gist of this is so you can tell me in as much detail as possible how you came to be as you are. How would you describe yourself, Axel?"
I presume he had this answer figured out in advance, as he hesitated not one instant before replying, "I'm a rubber wolf."
"And why a 'rubber wolf?'"
"It's what it feels like I'm made of."
I gestured to his hand (and indeed it was, regardless of the canine claws on his fingers...because they were still fingers as opposed to paws or some such), "Do you mind?"
He shook his head no and bared his arm, and I spent a moment examining his physique.
The texture of the skin was very much a rubbery one, like someone had dropped a werewolf in a vat at some latex plant. The muscles in his forearm were well defined, and I decided to inquire about that as he pulled his sleeves back into position and I sat back. "Well, you certainly have the 'rubber' part down. Do you work to stay in this good a condition?"
"I exercise some, yes, but a lot of it happened when I transformed."
"Ah, so you weren't always like this? I know you've told me this over the phone, but for the recording, please..."
"No, I wasn't always like this. I used to be just another person, and not as well built as this."
I nodded slowly. "Well, would you like to describe for me this 'transformation'?"
He began to tell his story, with enough detail that I could visualize it easily.
Moving day was the apparent beginning. He was moving out of his parent's home and into his own place for the first time. As part of this process, shifting boxes and deciding what to unpack and what to store in the new place, he had stumbled across an abandoned item in the back corner of the new attic.
"So, someone had left something behind?"
He nodded, "Yes."
"Do you think they meant to leave it behind?"
He shrugged. I realized I should've been shooting video to capture the expressiveness of the "costume" he wore. "I don't know, I never really thought about it."
"Please continue."
As attics tended to be, this one was dusty, poorly lit, little more than boards screwed down over the insulation that poked through here and there, functional for storage and not much else. The floor had creaked as he made his way to the abandoned pile, which looked like little more than a sheet or rag bunched up in the corner. He had picked it up to throw it away and revealed a box underneath. The box had some markings on it, most of them illegible, damaged by age or water or whatever. What was still clear, however, were the instructions "DO NOT OPEN."
I interjected again, "So the box was hidden?"
"It wasn't hidden, just under some stuff."
"And why would you open a box that said 'DO NOT OPEN' on it?"
"I was in a new apartment, and I wanted to know what the last people left behind. Besides, I figured that a box that size couldn't contain anything really dangerous."
He continued that he had examined the box before opening, and discovered the parts to a costume inside. Specifically, he found the hands and feet, chest and head. The head was frozen in a rather gruesome and toothy grin, ears laid back.
"So it looked like what?"
Axel grinned as widely as he could and gritted his teeth, his eyes squinted a little. I shuddered, it was not a friendly expression, and was totally contrary to the person I was speaking to now.
"Got it, carry on..."
He had pulled the mask out of the box and studied it for a bit. The amount of detail was astounding, the teeth, skin and ears rendered in great detail. Apparently, the idea of being a wolf had appealed to Axel for some time, and the discovery was a good one, however frightful the mask looked. Satisfied with this discovery, he had moved to put the mask back when he realized, much to his chagrin and horror, that the other parts of the costume were lifting themselves out of the box and moving towards him.
"Wait," I interrupted again, "they were moving? By themselves?"
He pondered a moment. "Well, yes, they were moving by themselves, but it was more floating than, say, crawling across the floor."
He continued by saying that this (understandably) surprised and shocked him, and he stumbled backwards and ended up on the floor staring at the animate costume parts. Before he could get to his feet, the costume's boots had affixed themselves to his feet, and he found himself rooted to the spot. Even as he reached to remove the footwear, the gloves had encased his hands and arms up to the elbows, and he found himself caught by the costume.
"Wait, you were caught? So, the suit was preventing you from using your hands, or you just panicked?"
Axel didn't seem to like either option, which I could understand, I suppose. One option meant something a little malevolent, the other meant he had freaked out (and no one would want to admit that).
As he struggled to regain enough control to pull the gloves and boots off, the chest piece had thunked onto his chest. With that, there was only one piece left, and the mask dropped over his head and closed in around his face.
"Are you claustrophobic?"
He shook his head, no.
"Still, were you able to see and breathe? Didn't the whole situation seem a little scary?"
A moments thought as I watched his ears and face for expression (the ears were like some sort of semaphore, though I wasn't really used to reading emotions from a human-sized bipedal wolf). Yes, he conceded, there had been some fear there as the mask closed on him and blocked out the world, leaving him deprived of his senses while the boots and gloves kept him unable to get up or remove anything.
Time passed, and he described in intricate detail the feelings that had come from the suit (unbeknownst to him at the time) molding him to his new body, extending his face into the muzzle, growing his spine to fill in the tail. The claws merging with his finger-nails, the shifts in his musculature as the suit added its own muscles, the crawling feeling of his ears being redirected to the top of his head and the buzzing in the back of his eyes as it reconfigured his sight. For a time, the world was nothing but odd sensations and darkness, and then nothing and darkness, until finally he blinked and found himself staring at the bare light-bulb glowing in the middle of the attic.
He said he'd been unsteady on his feet at first, not entirely sure what had happened. The light seemed brighter, he could smell the age of the wood and all the ingredients in the curry the neighbor next door was making...and his hands were gray with slight paw-like pads and blunt claws. As quickly as he safely could, he had made it down the ladder from the attic to the nearest mirror. The human features he'd grown up with were gone, altered, hidden and replaced by the gray wolf.
The first instinct was to try and pull it off, and Axel said he spent some time looking for any seam, zipper or stitch that he could use to pull the suit away from his body. He even contemplated trying to cut it off, but since it seemed to have fused to every inch of him, wasn't sure it could be done safely. Finally, he had accepted that, for the time being, this was the state of things and he would have to deal with it.
"How long did it take you to accept that?"
He explained that he'd had a few days off work to move, and that it wasn't until he realized it was time to go back to work and he was still as stuck in the suit as ever that it had occurred to him that it was permanent.
"How did people react when you finally went out?"
Human nature tended to be predictable, so his answer was predictable. At first it had been seen as a joke or a bet or a dare, until he'd finally managed to get it through to them that the suit was sealed and he hadn't been able to find to remove it. Disbelief, shock...then the divide that surprised me...some people, it seemed, were afraid it and some people seemed to think it was amazing and wanted to find out more about it. Then there were those that were indifferent, largely by just ignoring the 6 foot wolf. I could understand the fear, I suppose. Wolves were predators, and here was a wolf with the dexterity and intelligence of a person...plenty to fear, yes? But even my few conversations with this wolf convinced me that he was no more or less dangerous than anyone else, and that he'd suffered under the stereotypes.
"How long ago was this?"
He had been a wolf for several years now, he said.
"That is...impressive. I take it that you've found good things about your new form?"
He had, apparently. Senses were better, and he illustrated by identifying the type of oil in use in the kitchen, the salad dressings on the table 3 booths away (I got up and asked the people if he was right, and he was) all by scent. Having a tail, he said, was a lot of fun, although there were some difficulties with modifying clothes. He could hear better, see in twilight and was basically maintained in tip-top shape with almost no effort. Any exercise he did was for fun, because it didn't seem to be required. He flexed his arm with a slight rubbery creak, and it was obvious that the suit was in perfect form.
"Certainly," I mused, "that is an appealing trade. And probably safer than those gimmicks you see on late-night TV."
He chuckled, both an amusing sight and sound, considering, and agreed.
"So, those are the positives...what about the negatives?"
Those came back, not to what the costume had done or anything in his own life, but to others who were scared of someone different and not willing to take the time to meet him. Fortunately, it didn't matter much as he spent a great deal of time ranching and surrounded by cattle, sheep and crops...none of whom really seemed to care that he didn't conform.
"How deep are the changes, Axel? I mean, you say 'rubber wolf,' and the moniker fits...but is it only skin deep? Have you had X-rays or scans or anything?"
He shook his head at the scans, and said that he wasn't sure how solid the "rubber" part was. He had sliced himself on a knife or caught himself on barbed wire once or twice, and apparently didn't bleed as the wounds closed up almost instantly.
"I guess that leaves the big question...would you reverse it if you could? Or if you could go back and not open the box, would you?"
He smiled and shook his head. No, this was his life, and he was enjoying it. He had been transformed long enough to be comfortable and at peace with it, and had neither the desire nor the intent to go back.
I nodded, reaching across the table to click the recorder off. "By the way, did you bring that scan?"
He pulled a picture out of his pocket, the smudged and damaged lid to the box. "I don't recognize the symbol, but I'll ask around, see if anyone has seen it before or since. You're the only rubber wolf I know, though, so maybe it's all one of a kind."
That made him chuckle a bit, and he asked if we were done. I nodded, "Yeah, I think that's enough information for now."
He picked the cow-boy hat up off the seat next to him and put it on, taking a few seconds to make sure his ears fit through the slots he'd added. We both stood, and I shook his hand (slightly odd, the rubber texture and the claws digging just slightly into my hand) and said our good-byes. He headed out into the parking lot while I settled the bill. The cashier seemed a little disdainful of me, since I had associated with the town monster. I suppressed a grin as she started: "How can you feel safe around that thing?"
"It's not a thing. It's a he, his name is Axel, and he's quite friendly."
"With those teeth? That thing is a wolf! A predator!"
"Again, not THING. HE. And yes, he is a wolf. No, he is not a predator. You ought to try speaking to him for more than his order."
"Never!"
I shrugged. "Your loss. My change?"
She was holding me hostage over 87 cents. "And what's with his getup? Why can't he dress all normal-like?"
I looked around the diner, feigning bewilderment and misunderstanding. "Lots of people wear jeans and cow-boy hats out here. It's farm-land and ranches for miles..."
She scowled at me, apparently not finding my comment funny. "That's not what I meant! That wolf thing...why is he got to hide behind that?!"
I decided I didn't need the 87 cents, and turned to leave. "Ma'am, he's probably the most honest and open guy who's been in the diner today. You have a good afternoon."
I headed out the door and down to my car, sliding into the seat and pulling out the scan Axel had provided, studying it for a minute. "Huh..." I thought as I tossed it and the tape recorder onto the seat next to me and starting the engine, "...I wonder if whatever company that is takes requests..."