FA+
Shop
1382 submissions
Chomby had decided to spend the night at the bar. Sarge was certainly right, he needed somewhere to be that had people. Though there were few people at the bar, he managed to make small talk with the bartender. This distracted him long enough to pass the time, but he unfortunately had to head back to the hotel, as Choomb’s battery was low.
“Will you be needing company still, Chomby?” Choomb asked. “If we allow me to charge for two hours, I should be able to allow you to go speak with people again.”
“No, I should be okay… maybe. Infomercials again?” Chomby grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. He started changing through the channels.
“If that is your wish, I would love for one about slow cookers. It is fascinating that a chemical change is made when you drop an item into a location for an extended period of time.”
Chomby finished going through every channel. He unfortunately couldn’t find one that seemed focused on cooking. Most channels he found were late-night sitcoms or melodramas in a language he couldn’t recognize. The closest option he had was an infomercial about a multi-tool with a meat thermometer in it – which they were currently showcasing.
“Sorry, Choomb. Not much tonight. Multi-tool sound fun?”
“Uncertain, but I thank you for your consideration, Unit_Anomaly_Chomby.”
Chomby grabbed his zipper. “Good night, Choomb.”
“Good night, Chomby.”
When ten o’ clock in the morning hit, Chomby was put back on. Choomb zipped up to allow Chomby to come out. It then started instructing Chomby on what today’s tasks were but also mentioned something about a motorized vegetable peeler.
“Are vegetables truly this easy to cut, Unit_Anomaly_Chomby?” Choomb asked with a hint of excitement in its voice.
“Uh, yes. Most of them. I think. I never really cooked. Sarge did all that, really. You may have to ask him.” Chomby grabbed his performance outfit and stared at it. He noticed it was looking a bit tattered. He’d been using it for almost three years in total and for several days every week. It certainly was starting to show its age.
“Perhaps during our next recharge I could ask – if Detective_Sergeant_Wolf is awake.”
“Maybe?” Chomby said, though he was only half paying attention. “So no performances today?”
“None, Unit_Anomaly_Chomby.”
“No dressing up, then.” Chomby sighed and put his outfit away. “Don’t know if I could perform anyway. I’m too stressed.”
After getting his suitcase packed for his late night flight to the next city, Chomby left the hotel and headed to the museum. It was a decent walk away, but he managed to occupy his thoughts by thinking about the recorder. He questioned what he’d do if he, somehow, found a third recorder. It felt unlikely at this point, as there were no clues to a third location that he could discern. Sure, the recorder was already a weird anomaly, but if Chomby didn’t interact with it, let alone find any more, there wasn’t anything left to continue. Besides, Sarge was going to take care of it, right?
Chomby shoved the thought to the back of his mind as he made his way up the museum steps. The building was a large, red-brick building that looked unassuming for the most part. The only reason Chomby recognized it as the museum was a black-painted sign with an array of incandescent bulbs that spelled out the name, “Frankstein’s Museum of Illusory Delight”. On one of the glass, sliding doors that led inside, Chomby could see a poster that advertised some hypnotist performer named Demitri Spiralizer. It was a bit too showy for Chomby’s tastes, but he did want to see how hypnotism worked.
Upon entering, he was immediately greeted by an overly-friendly voice.
“Hello, welcome to Frankstein’s Museum of Illusory Delight! Over 100 years of illusions and exhibits that will bend your mind! How can I-” the voice trailed off. Chomby already knew why and just decided to pretend nothing was weird about him.
Chomby turned his attention to the front desk. He saw a dark-skinned woman with frizzy hair staring at him. He assumed she was the one who spoke and immediately waved at her. “Hello! I had a reservation to the show today?”
The woman looked Chomby up and down. “Are you… performing in it?”
“No, uh… just watching. Should be under the name Sarge… or was it Chomby?” Chomby walked over to the desk and noticed the woman’s name tag said Veronica.
“Oh!” Veronica said. “Yes, Sarge just called. Can I get the ticket number? It should be on the app.”
Choomb took a moment to grab the information before saying it to Chomby. Chomby relayed the number to Veronica.
“You had that whole thing memorized?” Veronica typed on the computer and then grabbed a neon-green wristband. She ushered for Chomby to lift his arm.
“Yes,” Chomby lied. He held his arm out and Veronica placed the band on it.
“Musta been really excited then! Well, hope you enjoy the museum and the performance. It starts in fifteen minutes. It takes around three hours to see all the exhibits here, so you can either see them before or after the show.”
“Thanks.” Chomby nodded his head politely before turning toward a nearby turnstile. He knew his body shape was too large to fit properly, so he began to plan how to get through.
Veronica must have noticed his hesitation and called out to him. “There’s a disabled entry if you can’t fit.”
Chomby looked to his left to see the gate with the familiar disability symbol. He felt a bit embarrassed but walked over to the gate anyway and pushed it open. “T-thanks,” he said.
He started to walk further into the museum but stopped when Veronica called to him again. “Why are you wearing a costume anyways?”
“It’s not,” Chomby said. He thought it’d be better to avoid talking too loudly and just walked over to the counter without going back through the door. “Well, most of it isn’t. I’m a soundbyte.”
“Like an mp3?”
“No, it’s just what I’m called. I eat music. People say I look like a fat kangaroo or something.” Chomby shrugged. “I’m just on tour right now. Finished my shows here and will be heading out tomorrow. Taking the day to enjoy the museum.”
“Oh, okay,” Veronica nodded. She seemed unsure how to continue the conversation. “Take care then.”
Chomby nodded and walked inside. Now with that encounter out of the way, he could see that the stage set up was directly in the open area adjacent to the entrance. Hundreds of fold-out chairs had been set up and several rows of seats were already filled by audience members. Chomby grabbed one of the chairs on the back row and scooted it back and away from the rest so he could sit down without causing anyone else difficulties by his body size and tail.
While he waited, he took a look at the most notable exhibits that were visible from his seat. Immediately to his left he could see a single, glowing sign that said, “Interactive Exhibits”. A floor above that, there was a sign that said, “Visual Exhibits”. The remaining three floors above that one didn’t seem to have any signage. But he could see on the top floor, which he assumed was the fifth floor, there was a net of ropes and wood that people could walk out onto if they wanted. He wasn’t too sure on how safe the net was.
Trying to pass the time, Chomby decided to ask Choomb about this new burning question. A couple in the row next to Chomby must have overheard him, as the two looked up at the net themselves, then at each other.
“Regulations are in place for the safety of patrons, according to image searches of this structure on the internet. Unit_Anomaly_Chomby, are you worried you may hurt yourself if you fall? Your body weight is only as heavy as my body is, which is approximately one-hundred-and-forty-seven pounds. With my skeletal structure, we would survive terminal velocity with merely a broken leg.”
Not wanting to drag more attention to himself, Chomby decided to whisper this time. “Thanks for the info, Choomb, but no. I was just wondering.”
Chomby continued to ask Choomb more questions about the museum. Choomb had found a review site and started listing off the amenities to Chomby. He idly listened to Choomb while making himself more comfortable. It took him several minutes to find a comfortable position, given how small the chair was to his frame. Once he had done this, the stage lights flickered on and the crowd became silent.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” a voice announced over the speaker set up on stage, “please welcome to the stage the Great Demitri Spiralizer!”
Music began to roar over the speakers. The audience started to clap respectfully.
A sudden flash of light hit the stage. A bit-crushed thunder sound effect crackled through the speakers. Two fog machines shot out a thick layer of fog that enshrouded the area. Everything became silent as the music faded.
The audience held their breath in anticipation.
From within the fog, Chomby could see a cape appear. It swiped around quickly and fanned away enough of the fog for a fully-dressed man in top hat and a tuxedo to reveal himself.
“Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen! I am Doctor Spiralizer! A master of hypnotism and illusions! How are you all doing today?”
The audience applauded. Chomby did so as well. He knew people would cheer for him whenever he’d appear on stage, but he’d never applauded someone before, not even at any concerts he went to. He was usually too busy enjoying the music, so this felt new to him.
Doctor Spiralizer began the show with a few simple tricks. Cards, psyching people out by guessing their answers to questions. According to Choomb, these tricks were exceedingly simple. Choomb started to explain how they worked, but Chomby hushed him. The couple from before stared. Chomby looked away and tried to avoid eye contact.
The next few tricks started to add a few hypnosis elements. Doctor Spiralizer invited a few volunteers up and explained the term ‘induction’ to them. He then explained he was going to hypnotize them all, but they had to be willing.
Willing? Chomby sure would be willing to try it. The thought seemed fun to him. He hoped that he would get called up, but he knew that would drag a lot of attention to himself.
Chomby heard the audience begin to laugh, but his mind had already started imagining scenarios where he’d get called up to be hypnotized. He wondered what Doctor Spiralizer would do. Would he make Chomby act like an animal? Forget how to count? Tell his darkest secret?
“Darkest secret? Eugh, I sure hope not. I’m sure he wouldn’t do that. That’s not good showmanship.” Chomby muttered under his breath. He was about to continue watching the show, but noticed all audience eyes were staring at him now.
Chomby jumped in surprise. He had to right his balance before fully falling out of his chair. “Uh, ah, hi! Y-yes?” Chomby asked. He felt himself flush hot with embarrassment. Did something happen? What was going on?
Some of the audience laughed.
“I need an audience member for my next act,” Doctor Spiralizer said from the stage. “If it’s alright, I chose you because you are quite interesting! Are you wearing a costume?”
“I uh-” Chomby began to say.
Doctor Spiralizer ushered for Chomby to come forward.
Because all eyes were on Chomby, he felt he had to oblige and did as he was told. As he walked past the aisles, he felt several kids reach out to touch his hands, tail, and even his belly. Some parents slapped their kids’ hands away, others just told the kids to stop. He did his best to ignore it all and climbed the steps to get on stage.
“So, sir, what’s your name and what do you do for a living?” Doctor Spiralizer asked. He gestured to a microphone that seemed to have been placed there when Chomby wasn’t looking.
Chomby walked up to the microphone. “Uh, hi, I’m Chomby… and I’m a professional DJ. I’m currently on tour right now and-”
Someone in the audience cheered. “I love you, Chomby!”
Chomby blushed and waved.
“Wow, a DJ?” Doctor Spiralizer gasped. “And when is your next show?”
“Uh, two days from now. I forgot the town name-”
“Portland,” said Choomb.
“Portland. A bit of a ways away, but I wanted to see the museum before I left,” Chomby said aloud.
“We’re happy to have you here with us, Chomby.” Doctor Spiralizer turned to the audience. “Let’s hear it for Chomby!”
The audience applauded.
Doctor Spiralizer turned back to Chomby. “Now, Chomby, are you ready to be hypnotized? This is gonna be a little trick to make you believe your something else. Now, can we get a suggestion from the audience?”
The audience started to call out words. A dog. A car. A Salesman. A super hero.
“Super hero!” Doctor Spiralizer repeated. “I like that one! Now…”
Doctor Spiralizer pulled out a remote and dimmed the lights. “Stare into my eyes, Chomby.”
Chomby did as he was told. His mind started to race with excitement. He’d wondered what it was like to be hypnotized. Now, he’d finally get to see it in action.
After around a minute, Doctor Spiralizer snapped his fingers, jolting Chomby out of his own thoughts. He looked around at the audience, then back at Doctor Spiralizer. He’d completely missed what was said.
“Now, Chomby,” Doctor Spiralizer said, “you’ve just saved the day and now the press is here to interview you. What’s your super power?”
“Uh…” Chomby blinked. What was he supposed to say? He knew that being a soundbyte, let alone a jacket, made him have weird ‘special abilities’, but he never called them super powers. “I’m able to produce a sonic scream that’s able to completely dismantle a destructive robot that was hellbent on destroying humanity.”
Doctor Spiralizer looked a bit confused for a moment. “Oh, really? You don’t have super strength or anything?”
Chomby heard an audience member call out a word… but he didn’t know what it was, nor did he know where the voice came from.
Chomby realized he must have said something wrong, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to say. “Uh, maybe above average? If I angle my ears a certain way, I can be really fast, or have louder screams-” Chomby noticed Doctor Spiralizer tilt his head to the side. He was saying something wrong, he just knew it. He backed away from the microphone and leaned over to Doctor Spiralizer. Doctor Spiralizer noticed this and turned off his microphone so Chomby could ask him something privately. “Am I… doing this right? I’ve never been hypnotized before.”
“Probably just a bad choice of induction, Chomby, sorry.”
Chomby could have sworn he heard someone in the audience scream. Were they mad at him? He lowered his ears. “Oh, sorry. I ruined the show.”
“Oh, it’s nothing you did! Don’t worry about it.” Doctor Spiralizer poked the top of his head. “It can be difficult to be hypnotized. Usually doesn’t work if you’re too distracted or feel ill-at-ease. I’ll get you back to your seat now. Thank you for coming up. I’d love to hear your music after the show!”
Doctor Spiralizer took a step back and turned on his microphone to address the audience now. “Can we get a round of applause for Chomby, everyone! This DJ certainly has a lot going on, as such, I was unable to hypnotize him!”
The audience applauded. Chomby heard the scream again. Who was doing that? He looked around at the audience. When he imagined the direction of the scream, he realized it wasn’t coming from the audience.
“Hypnotism is quite a fascinating thing. Chomby happens to be the first person I’ve been unable to hypnotize this year! Usually, that’s because the person was actually a robot!”
Chomby froze. “Wait, really?” He asked.
“I jest, Chomby!” Doctor Spiralizer patted Chomby’s back. “Though, you still never told me about your costume!”
Chomby turned back around to address Doctor Spiralizer. “Well, it’s hard to explai-”
Chomby heard the scream again. This time, however, it was laced with more panic. He felt the fur on the back of his neck raise. He immediately identified where the scream came from this time. He didn’t want to believe it was happening, but he knew the sound was coming from above.
He looked upward and found his gaze was immediately drawn to a pair of legs that he saw dangling over the large net he’d examined earlier.
Now that he was focused, he could clearly hear the person screaming for help. How long had they been stuck there? It seemed like people on the top floor had noticed, too and had started making their way over. By Chomby’s estimates, it would take them half a minute to traverse the wooden planks and ropes that dotted the netting. He hoped the person could hold on for long enough.
Some of the audience members, and even Doctor Spiralizer, must have noticed Chomby’s gaze, as they all started to look up in awestruck horror. Some of them gasped, and others pulled out their phones to record.
To Chomby, the seconds passed by like minutes as he watched. In most cases, what could an audience of people do? A fall from that height could be lethal, even if someone tried to catch them. But what if Chomby did it? His body was robotic now. Would it work? Could he save them?
Chomby saw the person drop a few inches. They seemed to be losing their grip.
“Hold on!” someone said from the net.
At that moment, though, the person seemed to completely lose their grip and they began to plummet.
Several members of the audience screamed in horror.
Chomby felt his hands lift up to his ears instinctively. He yanked his ears backward. The world around him seemed to slow down more than it already had been. He took this opportunity to watch the person fall and analyzed their speed. He knew he only had one shot to do this, so he needed to make it count.
Chomby took a deep breath and bunched up his legs. He then calculated where he would be and where the person would be. Once he had a proper idea in his mind, he kicked off the stage at an upward angle. The audience and stage quickly dropped beneath him.
He wasn’t certain how high he could jump up like this, but based on how fast he was moving, it must have been enough. He’d tested out his abilities with Choomb before. Because he was a lot lighter now than he was when Sarge wore him, he was able to jump higher.
Chomby kept his eyes on the person. When he got closer, he found it was a black-haired woman. He could see the fear in her eyes as she looked upward and flailed her arms desperately to grab hold of anything she could.
Chomby started to feel his momentum decrease as he approached her. This made the moment feel all the slower. He reached out an arm and managed to grasp around the woman’s waist. The rest of his momentum pushed him into her, now allowing him to fully grasp his arms around her and hold tightly onto her. The angle of the woman’s decent didn’t change much. Rather, Chomby ended up falling down with her.
Was this how he was supposed to do it? He never looked up what to do to catch someone if they fell while you’re approaching in mid air. It wasn’t exactly something people could do outside of movies. Did it even work at all?
Chomby gritted his teeth as the two plummeted. He tried to readjust her to be cradled in his arms. He hoped that if he could land down on his feet, the mechanisms inside Choomb’s legs would function as a shock absorber. He swore Choomb had mentioned this at some point.
Chomby finished his adjustments and looked down. He saw the ground was quickly approaching. It only took another few seconds before he finally touched down on the ground. He felt his legs bend. The woman’s body began to weigh on his arms more. He knew this was going to happen, but he was still surprised when it did.
His legs compressed heavily. He swore he heard some sort of metal snapping. The pressure became too much for his legs and he ended up slipping and falling onto his backside. The woman’s continued force started to press into his belly. He felt the wind get knocked out of him. He also felt his ears pop back upright from the force of the impact.
After those few moments of extreme pressure, the weight suddenly subsided and Chomby found himself sitting on the ground with a terrified woman in his arms. For the most part, she seemed to be in tact? He wasn’t much for medical stuff, so he wasn’t sure what to do.
“A-are you… okay?” He managed to wheeze out.
The woman’s terrified stare seemed to lessen as she looked at Chomby. “W-who. Wha… am I dead?”
“Urgh,” Chomby groaned. He tried to move his legs but found they wouldn’t respond as he hoped. If Choomb was correct about that velocity stuff, then he probably just broke them. “If you’re dead, then I’m dead, too… which is unlikely. Can you stand?”
“Uh,” The woman shakily got to her feet. Her legs wobbled, but she seemed to be able to move. “I… I can. H-how? I… I… f-f-fell.” Her eyes began to water. She seemed to be barely holding it together.
“I caught you,” Chomby said. He tried to stand up. His left leg seemed to respond, albeit a bit slowly. His right leg, however, was completely unresponsive. If he could feel pain from Choomb’s body, he’d definitely be in excruciating pain right now.
Chomby pushed himself to his feet and put all the weight on his left leg. The woman stared at him and gasped. “Oh no, are you hurt?!”
Chomby was about to respond, but both he and the woman were immediately surrounded by people. Chomby could hear clapping. Someone even whistled. He wasn’t sure why they were doing this, but he found that everything had gotten extremely loud.
“Broken leg, I think,” he tried to say over the crowd. “Beats dying, at least!”
Chomby felt someone grab under his right shoulder and hoist him up.
“Easy now,” a familiar voice said. Chomby turned his head to see Veronica was hoisting him up. “I’ve got you. Need me to take you to a bench? Someone’s called 911. Paramedics should be here shortly.”
“Uh, thanks. That would be nice.” Chomby felt Veronica start leading him away. The crowd parted enough for Chomby to hobble his way over to a nearby bench.
Next Chapter is up. Sorry it took so long. Ahhh!
Art/Story/Chomby (C)
Juntarhenogu Me
“Will you be needing company still, Chomby?” Choomb asked. “If we allow me to charge for two hours, I should be able to allow you to go speak with people again.”
“No, I should be okay… maybe. Infomercials again?” Chomby grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. He started changing through the channels.
“If that is your wish, I would love for one about slow cookers. It is fascinating that a chemical change is made when you drop an item into a location for an extended period of time.”
Chomby finished going through every channel. He unfortunately couldn’t find one that seemed focused on cooking. Most channels he found were late-night sitcoms or melodramas in a language he couldn’t recognize. The closest option he had was an infomercial about a multi-tool with a meat thermometer in it – which they were currently showcasing.
“Sorry, Choomb. Not much tonight. Multi-tool sound fun?”
“Uncertain, but I thank you for your consideration, Unit_Anomaly_Chomby.”
Chomby grabbed his zipper. “Good night, Choomb.”
“Good night, Chomby.”
When ten o’ clock in the morning hit, Chomby was put back on. Choomb zipped up to allow Chomby to come out. It then started instructing Chomby on what today’s tasks were but also mentioned something about a motorized vegetable peeler.
“Are vegetables truly this easy to cut, Unit_Anomaly_Chomby?” Choomb asked with a hint of excitement in its voice.
“Uh, yes. Most of them. I think. I never really cooked. Sarge did all that, really. You may have to ask him.” Chomby grabbed his performance outfit and stared at it. He noticed it was looking a bit tattered. He’d been using it for almost three years in total and for several days every week. It certainly was starting to show its age.
“Perhaps during our next recharge I could ask – if Detective_Sergeant_Wolf is awake.”
“Maybe?” Chomby said, though he was only half paying attention. “So no performances today?”
“None, Unit_Anomaly_Chomby.”
“No dressing up, then.” Chomby sighed and put his outfit away. “Don’t know if I could perform anyway. I’m too stressed.”
After getting his suitcase packed for his late night flight to the next city, Chomby left the hotel and headed to the museum. It was a decent walk away, but he managed to occupy his thoughts by thinking about the recorder. He questioned what he’d do if he, somehow, found a third recorder. It felt unlikely at this point, as there were no clues to a third location that he could discern. Sure, the recorder was already a weird anomaly, but if Chomby didn’t interact with it, let alone find any more, there wasn’t anything left to continue. Besides, Sarge was going to take care of it, right?
Chomby shoved the thought to the back of his mind as he made his way up the museum steps. The building was a large, red-brick building that looked unassuming for the most part. The only reason Chomby recognized it as the museum was a black-painted sign with an array of incandescent bulbs that spelled out the name, “Frankstein’s Museum of Illusory Delight”. On one of the glass, sliding doors that led inside, Chomby could see a poster that advertised some hypnotist performer named Demitri Spiralizer. It was a bit too showy for Chomby’s tastes, but he did want to see how hypnotism worked.
Upon entering, he was immediately greeted by an overly-friendly voice.
“Hello, welcome to Frankstein’s Museum of Illusory Delight! Over 100 years of illusions and exhibits that will bend your mind! How can I-” the voice trailed off. Chomby already knew why and just decided to pretend nothing was weird about him.
Chomby turned his attention to the front desk. He saw a dark-skinned woman with frizzy hair staring at him. He assumed she was the one who spoke and immediately waved at her. “Hello! I had a reservation to the show today?”
The woman looked Chomby up and down. “Are you… performing in it?”
“No, uh… just watching. Should be under the name Sarge… or was it Chomby?” Chomby walked over to the desk and noticed the woman’s name tag said Veronica.
“Oh!” Veronica said. “Yes, Sarge just called. Can I get the ticket number? It should be on the app.”
Choomb took a moment to grab the information before saying it to Chomby. Chomby relayed the number to Veronica.
“You had that whole thing memorized?” Veronica typed on the computer and then grabbed a neon-green wristband. She ushered for Chomby to lift his arm.
“Yes,” Chomby lied. He held his arm out and Veronica placed the band on it.
“Musta been really excited then! Well, hope you enjoy the museum and the performance. It starts in fifteen minutes. It takes around three hours to see all the exhibits here, so you can either see them before or after the show.”
“Thanks.” Chomby nodded his head politely before turning toward a nearby turnstile. He knew his body shape was too large to fit properly, so he began to plan how to get through.
Veronica must have noticed his hesitation and called out to him. “There’s a disabled entry if you can’t fit.”
Chomby looked to his left to see the gate with the familiar disability symbol. He felt a bit embarrassed but walked over to the gate anyway and pushed it open. “T-thanks,” he said.
He started to walk further into the museum but stopped when Veronica called to him again. “Why are you wearing a costume anyways?”
“It’s not,” Chomby said. He thought it’d be better to avoid talking too loudly and just walked over to the counter without going back through the door. “Well, most of it isn’t. I’m a soundbyte.”
“Like an mp3?”
“No, it’s just what I’m called. I eat music. People say I look like a fat kangaroo or something.” Chomby shrugged. “I’m just on tour right now. Finished my shows here and will be heading out tomorrow. Taking the day to enjoy the museum.”
“Oh, okay,” Veronica nodded. She seemed unsure how to continue the conversation. “Take care then.”
Chomby nodded and walked inside. Now with that encounter out of the way, he could see that the stage set up was directly in the open area adjacent to the entrance. Hundreds of fold-out chairs had been set up and several rows of seats were already filled by audience members. Chomby grabbed one of the chairs on the back row and scooted it back and away from the rest so he could sit down without causing anyone else difficulties by his body size and tail.
While he waited, he took a look at the most notable exhibits that were visible from his seat. Immediately to his left he could see a single, glowing sign that said, “Interactive Exhibits”. A floor above that, there was a sign that said, “Visual Exhibits”. The remaining three floors above that one didn’t seem to have any signage. But he could see on the top floor, which he assumed was the fifth floor, there was a net of ropes and wood that people could walk out onto if they wanted. He wasn’t too sure on how safe the net was.
Trying to pass the time, Chomby decided to ask Choomb about this new burning question. A couple in the row next to Chomby must have overheard him, as the two looked up at the net themselves, then at each other.
“Regulations are in place for the safety of patrons, according to image searches of this structure on the internet. Unit_Anomaly_Chomby, are you worried you may hurt yourself if you fall? Your body weight is only as heavy as my body is, which is approximately one-hundred-and-forty-seven pounds. With my skeletal structure, we would survive terminal velocity with merely a broken leg.”
Not wanting to drag more attention to himself, Chomby decided to whisper this time. “Thanks for the info, Choomb, but no. I was just wondering.”
Chomby continued to ask Choomb more questions about the museum. Choomb had found a review site and started listing off the amenities to Chomby. He idly listened to Choomb while making himself more comfortable. It took him several minutes to find a comfortable position, given how small the chair was to his frame. Once he had done this, the stage lights flickered on and the crowd became silent.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” a voice announced over the speaker set up on stage, “please welcome to the stage the Great Demitri Spiralizer!”
Music began to roar over the speakers. The audience started to clap respectfully.
A sudden flash of light hit the stage. A bit-crushed thunder sound effect crackled through the speakers. Two fog machines shot out a thick layer of fog that enshrouded the area. Everything became silent as the music faded.
The audience held their breath in anticipation.
From within the fog, Chomby could see a cape appear. It swiped around quickly and fanned away enough of the fog for a fully-dressed man in top hat and a tuxedo to reveal himself.
“Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen! I am Doctor Spiralizer! A master of hypnotism and illusions! How are you all doing today?”
The audience applauded. Chomby did so as well. He knew people would cheer for him whenever he’d appear on stage, but he’d never applauded someone before, not even at any concerts he went to. He was usually too busy enjoying the music, so this felt new to him.
Doctor Spiralizer began the show with a few simple tricks. Cards, psyching people out by guessing their answers to questions. According to Choomb, these tricks were exceedingly simple. Choomb started to explain how they worked, but Chomby hushed him. The couple from before stared. Chomby looked away and tried to avoid eye contact.
The next few tricks started to add a few hypnosis elements. Doctor Spiralizer invited a few volunteers up and explained the term ‘induction’ to them. He then explained he was going to hypnotize them all, but they had to be willing.
Willing? Chomby sure would be willing to try it. The thought seemed fun to him. He hoped that he would get called up, but he knew that would drag a lot of attention to himself.
Chomby heard the audience begin to laugh, but his mind had already started imagining scenarios where he’d get called up to be hypnotized. He wondered what Doctor Spiralizer would do. Would he make Chomby act like an animal? Forget how to count? Tell his darkest secret?
“Darkest secret? Eugh, I sure hope not. I’m sure he wouldn’t do that. That’s not good showmanship.” Chomby muttered under his breath. He was about to continue watching the show, but noticed all audience eyes were staring at him now.
Chomby jumped in surprise. He had to right his balance before fully falling out of his chair. “Uh, ah, hi! Y-yes?” Chomby asked. He felt himself flush hot with embarrassment. Did something happen? What was going on?
Some of the audience laughed.
“I need an audience member for my next act,” Doctor Spiralizer said from the stage. “If it’s alright, I chose you because you are quite interesting! Are you wearing a costume?”
“I uh-” Chomby began to say.
Doctor Spiralizer ushered for Chomby to come forward.
Because all eyes were on Chomby, he felt he had to oblige and did as he was told. As he walked past the aisles, he felt several kids reach out to touch his hands, tail, and even his belly. Some parents slapped their kids’ hands away, others just told the kids to stop. He did his best to ignore it all and climbed the steps to get on stage.
“So, sir, what’s your name and what do you do for a living?” Doctor Spiralizer asked. He gestured to a microphone that seemed to have been placed there when Chomby wasn’t looking.
Chomby walked up to the microphone. “Uh, hi, I’m Chomby… and I’m a professional DJ. I’m currently on tour right now and-”
Someone in the audience cheered. “I love you, Chomby!”
Chomby blushed and waved.
“Wow, a DJ?” Doctor Spiralizer gasped. “And when is your next show?”
“Uh, two days from now. I forgot the town name-”
“Portland,” said Choomb.
“Portland. A bit of a ways away, but I wanted to see the museum before I left,” Chomby said aloud.
“We’re happy to have you here with us, Chomby.” Doctor Spiralizer turned to the audience. “Let’s hear it for Chomby!”
The audience applauded.
Doctor Spiralizer turned back to Chomby. “Now, Chomby, are you ready to be hypnotized? This is gonna be a little trick to make you believe your something else. Now, can we get a suggestion from the audience?”
The audience started to call out words. A dog. A car. A Salesman. A super hero.
“Super hero!” Doctor Spiralizer repeated. “I like that one! Now…”
Doctor Spiralizer pulled out a remote and dimmed the lights. “Stare into my eyes, Chomby.”
Chomby did as he was told. His mind started to race with excitement. He’d wondered what it was like to be hypnotized. Now, he’d finally get to see it in action.
After around a minute, Doctor Spiralizer snapped his fingers, jolting Chomby out of his own thoughts. He looked around at the audience, then back at Doctor Spiralizer. He’d completely missed what was said.
“Now, Chomby,” Doctor Spiralizer said, “you’ve just saved the day and now the press is here to interview you. What’s your super power?”
“Uh…” Chomby blinked. What was he supposed to say? He knew that being a soundbyte, let alone a jacket, made him have weird ‘special abilities’, but he never called them super powers. “I’m able to produce a sonic scream that’s able to completely dismantle a destructive robot that was hellbent on destroying humanity.”
Doctor Spiralizer looked a bit confused for a moment. “Oh, really? You don’t have super strength or anything?”
Chomby heard an audience member call out a word… but he didn’t know what it was, nor did he know where the voice came from.
Chomby realized he must have said something wrong, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to say. “Uh, maybe above average? If I angle my ears a certain way, I can be really fast, or have louder screams-” Chomby noticed Doctor Spiralizer tilt his head to the side. He was saying something wrong, he just knew it. He backed away from the microphone and leaned over to Doctor Spiralizer. Doctor Spiralizer noticed this and turned off his microphone so Chomby could ask him something privately. “Am I… doing this right? I’ve never been hypnotized before.”
“Probably just a bad choice of induction, Chomby, sorry.”
Chomby could have sworn he heard someone in the audience scream. Were they mad at him? He lowered his ears. “Oh, sorry. I ruined the show.”
“Oh, it’s nothing you did! Don’t worry about it.” Doctor Spiralizer poked the top of his head. “It can be difficult to be hypnotized. Usually doesn’t work if you’re too distracted or feel ill-at-ease. I’ll get you back to your seat now. Thank you for coming up. I’d love to hear your music after the show!”
Doctor Spiralizer took a step back and turned on his microphone to address the audience now. “Can we get a round of applause for Chomby, everyone! This DJ certainly has a lot going on, as such, I was unable to hypnotize him!”
The audience applauded. Chomby heard the scream again. Who was doing that? He looked around at the audience. When he imagined the direction of the scream, he realized it wasn’t coming from the audience.
“Hypnotism is quite a fascinating thing. Chomby happens to be the first person I’ve been unable to hypnotize this year! Usually, that’s because the person was actually a robot!”
Chomby froze. “Wait, really?” He asked.
“I jest, Chomby!” Doctor Spiralizer patted Chomby’s back. “Though, you still never told me about your costume!”
Chomby turned back around to address Doctor Spiralizer. “Well, it’s hard to explai-”
Chomby heard the scream again. This time, however, it was laced with more panic. He felt the fur on the back of his neck raise. He immediately identified where the scream came from this time. He didn’t want to believe it was happening, but he knew the sound was coming from above.
He looked upward and found his gaze was immediately drawn to a pair of legs that he saw dangling over the large net he’d examined earlier.
Now that he was focused, he could clearly hear the person screaming for help. How long had they been stuck there? It seemed like people on the top floor had noticed, too and had started making their way over. By Chomby’s estimates, it would take them half a minute to traverse the wooden planks and ropes that dotted the netting. He hoped the person could hold on for long enough.
Some of the audience members, and even Doctor Spiralizer, must have noticed Chomby’s gaze, as they all started to look up in awestruck horror. Some of them gasped, and others pulled out their phones to record.
To Chomby, the seconds passed by like minutes as he watched. In most cases, what could an audience of people do? A fall from that height could be lethal, even if someone tried to catch them. But what if Chomby did it? His body was robotic now. Would it work? Could he save them?
Chomby saw the person drop a few inches. They seemed to be losing their grip.
“Hold on!” someone said from the net.
At that moment, though, the person seemed to completely lose their grip and they began to plummet.
Several members of the audience screamed in horror.
Chomby felt his hands lift up to his ears instinctively. He yanked his ears backward. The world around him seemed to slow down more than it already had been. He took this opportunity to watch the person fall and analyzed their speed. He knew he only had one shot to do this, so he needed to make it count.
Chomby took a deep breath and bunched up his legs. He then calculated where he would be and where the person would be. Once he had a proper idea in his mind, he kicked off the stage at an upward angle. The audience and stage quickly dropped beneath him.
He wasn’t certain how high he could jump up like this, but based on how fast he was moving, it must have been enough. He’d tested out his abilities with Choomb before. Because he was a lot lighter now than he was when Sarge wore him, he was able to jump higher.
Chomby kept his eyes on the person. When he got closer, he found it was a black-haired woman. He could see the fear in her eyes as she looked upward and flailed her arms desperately to grab hold of anything she could.
Chomby started to feel his momentum decrease as he approached her. This made the moment feel all the slower. He reached out an arm and managed to grasp around the woman’s waist. The rest of his momentum pushed him into her, now allowing him to fully grasp his arms around her and hold tightly onto her. The angle of the woman’s decent didn’t change much. Rather, Chomby ended up falling down with her.
Was this how he was supposed to do it? He never looked up what to do to catch someone if they fell while you’re approaching in mid air. It wasn’t exactly something people could do outside of movies. Did it even work at all?
Chomby gritted his teeth as the two plummeted. He tried to readjust her to be cradled in his arms. He hoped that if he could land down on his feet, the mechanisms inside Choomb’s legs would function as a shock absorber. He swore Choomb had mentioned this at some point.
Chomby finished his adjustments and looked down. He saw the ground was quickly approaching. It only took another few seconds before he finally touched down on the ground. He felt his legs bend. The woman’s body began to weigh on his arms more. He knew this was going to happen, but he was still surprised when it did.
His legs compressed heavily. He swore he heard some sort of metal snapping. The pressure became too much for his legs and he ended up slipping and falling onto his backside. The woman’s continued force started to press into his belly. He felt the wind get knocked out of him. He also felt his ears pop back upright from the force of the impact.
After those few moments of extreme pressure, the weight suddenly subsided and Chomby found himself sitting on the ground with a terrified woman in his arms. For the most part, she seemed to be in tact? He wasn’t much for medical stuff, so he wasn’t sure what to do.
“A-are you… okay?” He managed to wheeze out.
The woman’s terrified stare seemed to lessen as she looked at Chomby. “W-who. Wha… am I dead?”
“Urgh,” Chomby groaned. He tried to move his legs but found they wouldn’t respond as he hoped. If Choomb was correct about that velocity stuff, then he probably just broke them. “If you’re dead, then I’m dead, too… which is unlikely. Can you stand?”
“Uh,” The woman shakily got to her feet. Her legs wobbled, but she seemed to be able to move. “I… I can. H-how? I… I… f-f-fell.” Her eyes began to water. She seemed to be barely holding it together.
“I caught you,” Chomby said. He tried to stand up. His left leg seemed to respond, albeit a bit slowly. His right leg, however, was completely unresponsive. If he could feel pain from Choomb’s body, he’d definitely be in excruciating pain right now.
Chomby pushed himself to his feet and put all the weight on his left leg. The woman stared at him and gasped. “Oh no, are you hurt?!”
Chomby was about to respond, but both he and the woman were immediately surrounded by people. Chomby could hear clapping. Someone even whistled. He wasn’t sure why they were doing this, but he found that everything had gotten extremely loud.
“Broken leg, I think,” he tried to say over the crowd. “Beats dying, at least!”
Chomby felt someone grab under his right shoulder and hoist him up.
“Easy now,” a familiar voice said. Chomby turned his head to see Veronica was hoisting him up. “I’ve got you. Need me to take you to a bench? Someone’s called 911. Paramedics should be here shortly.”
“Uh, thanks. That would be nice.” Chomby felt Veronica start leading him away. The crowd parted enough for Chomby to hobble his way over to a nearby bench.
Next Chapter is up. Sorry it took so long. Ahhh!
Art/Story/Chomby (C)
Juntarhenogu Me
Category Artwork (Digital) / All
Species Exotic (Other)
Size 2033 x 1170px
File Size 491.7 kB
Comments