Randomized Voretober day fourteen! Prompt 13 - Jam

Something simple with a hungry tailmaw and an unlucky dog. Be careful not to lose focus during a jam session, lest you have to find yet another new member.

Comments welcome and appreciated

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Socks bobbed his head with the music. The band was absolutely rocking out tonight! The red panda pounded the bass drum pedal as their music spilled out of his garage and into the vacant alley. His long tail swayed behind him, helping him keep time. The eagle in front of him, Tom, was absolutely shredding his guitar, while Jenna bounced with the music at her keyboard. Even the new guy on the bass was killing it!

Socks bit his tongue in anticipation. His drum solo was coming up. The energy between them all tonight was electric and he was going to fucking rock! Tom and Jenna were on the last few words of the chorus; that was his cue!

He leaned into the energy, wailing on his drum set. Socks tore up his solo with insane energy. His sticks were moving faster than most folks could ever hope to do. He let the music take control of his body. His eyes closed as he threw his body into his movements. Thumping bass and crashing symbols rang out as he crushed his solo.

“Socks!”

He thought he heard a crashing sound coming from the new guy’s direction, but he paid no mind. The dude was probably so in awe of how great his mad drum skills were. He wasn’t gonna let anything stop him from rocking out hard!

“SOCKS!”

Somebody grabbed his arm mid-movement, “Wha?” He looked up in confusion to see a feather hand grabbing his wrist. He followed the arm up to the frowning beak of Tom. “Dude what gives!? I was in the zone! You never break a guy out of his zone!” He tried to tug out of his grasp.

Tom held firm on his hand and simply pointed over at the new guy. Rolled his eyes and looked over. Not before giving Tom an annoyed look of disapproval.

“Oh.”

“Yea, dumbass, you did it again.”

Beside him was the new bassist’s ripped jean-covered legs kicking in the air, hanging out of his tail maw. The maw’s lips were sealed around his midriff. Jenna had managed to grab him by the ankles of his chunky, black, punk boots. The curvy cow was fighting not just the tail maw’s grip but the panicked fighting of the dog as well.

“You’re not doing this again! He was good!” She exclaimed to the tail. She yanked as hard as she could, throwing all of her weight into it. A well-timed shake from the tail combined with a strong kick from the dog broke her grip. She fell flat on her ass with a grunt. The tail grinned triumphantly around its prize. It lunged forward, taking him in up to his butt.

“Soooocks!” She groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “Why can’t you control this thing? He was so good!”

“I’m sorry guys, but I told you. It literally has a mind of its own.” He gave a half-hearted, apologetic smile. Tom had let go of Socks’ arm and walked over to Jenna. The maw snapped up the dog’s thighs.

“Dude, this is the third one. We can’t keep replacing bass players.” Tom said flatly

“Yeah, man. Also, I can’t keep finding them. Not sure if you’re aware, but musicians start avoiding you when the last three you invited to join get eaten!” She huffed.

“Don’t blame me! Blame him!” He said pointing to the tail, which now had consumed the dalmatian up to his boots.

“We do. Listen, we love you, Socks, but this is the last straw dude. You either gotta muzzle your tail or find us a new bass player that you can’t eat. It’s either that or you can’t play with us anymore.”

“Tom’s right. We can’t keep this up, Socks. We tried. Now it’s your turn.”

“Aww, guys… I’m really sorry.” Socks looked down at his paws. He felt like crap. They were right though. He couldn’t keep this up. Tom sighed. Socks felt his feathery hand lightly karate chop his head.

“We know, dude,” Tome gave him a sympathetic smile, “I’m gonna go cool off inside. You better clean up when your tail is done. If you don't, I'm eating your ass.” He teased, making socks snicker. The eagle walked back inside the house.

“I’m gonna head in too. My ass kinda hurts after your tail knocked me over.” She shrugged with an awkward smile, “I’m sure you’ll find someone.” Jenna patted his shoulder and gave him a small peck on the cheek. With that the cow let herself inside as well, shutting the door behind her.

Socks’ sighed. He looked over at his tail which just pulled in the guy's boots and was licking its furry lips. “What am I gonna do with you?”

“H- hey dude! You gotta spit me out, man! It’s all gross and slimy in here” The dalmatian called from inside the tail. His voice was muffled, but the red panda could hear it in the new quiet garage. The tail was tight on the inside which heavily restricted its prey’s movement. Still, socks could feel his wiggling.

“Ehhhh, I’m sorry, guy. I don’t really have that much control over my tail. It kinda does what it wants.”

“What! No, dude, get me out then! Can’t you make it barf or something!? It’s starting to hurt!” Socks winced.

“Ah, geeze. If it’s hurting it’s kinda too late? Normally it would take longer before it started digesting you. Guess it was really hungry or something.”

“Digesting!? No no no no!” His squirming rapidly picked up. Socks could imagine how unpleasant it was in there right now. The dalmatian started screaming for help, but slowly those became less and less defined. His shouts and cries gradually became wetter, before fading into sloppy burbling.

It was a very odd sensation. Socks never quite adjusted to it, feeling a whole person break down into mushy slop. The dalmatian’s form became less defined. He was rounding out and smoothing over as powerful enzymes dissolved him. In no time at all the dog was gone. He was just a nutrient-rich chyme for him and his tail to share. There was only one step left now.

His tail raised up, tip still aimed at the ground. Its mouth opened wide, and it burped. Smaller items flew out to clatter along the floor, mostly piercings and jewelry. Socks could see a dog tag necklace, some metal spikes from a dog collar, and a couple of rings, but mostly a lot of bars and rings clattered to the floor. Jeeze, how much metal was this dude wearing, he thought. He remembered seeing pierced ears and a septum ring, but there was much more than that. From the looks of a particularly thick and large ring piercing, the dalmatian was packing metal all over his body.

The tail reared back as it hacked out some of the larger pieces now. The jeans and the guy’s tank top hit the ground with a wet splatter. The tail coughed a few more times. Something was stuck. With heavy retch, it coughed up two slobbery black boots. The deflated socks were still inside. It all lay there in a soggy heap on the floor, sans the former wearer; digested right out of them.

“Happy now?” He asked grumpily. The large fluffy mouth turned to face him with a dumb smile stretching across it. The tail came close and started nuzzling itself against his face.

“Ugh, I’ll take that as a yes. You have no shame, you know that?” It gave him a slobbery lick across his cheek in response, “Ack! Down boy!” He cried pushing it away. His tail returned to position behind him. Seemed like it was content for now.

Socks sat there alone in the garage. He really had to figure something out. Maybe he could find a non-organic bass player? He looked down at the wet mess of metal and fabric scattered across the garage floor.

“I should get a broom first.” He grumbled. Before he got up, he stared at the boots, curiously. They looked like his size. His eyes flicked between them and the broom for a moment.

“Fuck it, not like he’s using them anymore.” He shrugged and began tugging at the laces of his sneakers. Boots, then broom, then bass player, he thought.