Etho grins as he carefully picks his way over to Joe's base. He's heading over to the winery to repay him for the stolen sweet berries.

As he arrives Joe grins as he hands him a few stacks of bones, "Thanks."

"No problem, I did go a little crazy there."

Joe laughs, "You're fine, I have more berries than I know what to do with."

Grinning Etho leans against a tree, "Your fields are impressive."

"Why thank you."

The conversation continues for a while as they walk around the building. They enter the winery and sit down at a table.

The doors shutter open banging against the walls as Cleo kicks them open, "Joe, you need to see this."

With a slight screech, Joe jumps back as Etho flattens his ears against his head.

"Sorry bout that," She nods to Etho, turning to Joe she grins, "It's amazing, isn't it?" She holds out a small model of a centipede.

"Yes Cleo that's very cool," Joe laughs, "Etho, are you ok?"

"Uh, yeah. That just spooked me," He reaches up and rubs at his ears.

Cleo looks over and frowns, "What kind of stuff has happened?"

"Uh, I've got the ears, tails, fangs, and claws."

Humming softly Cleo shakes her head, "Besides that, you're a kitsune right?

Etho nods a bit confused, "Yeah."

"I mean what happened besides the physical transformation."

"Oh, I like the sweet berries, I'll make fox sounds, I can turn into a fox and I think that's it so far."

Joe raises an eyebrow, "So far?"

"Doc thinks the physical stuff is over and I'll just be getting other stuff now."

Cleo leans over and carefully pokes at his tails, "Dude, they're so fluffy."

"I know right it's really cool."

Standing Joe motions for them to follow him, "Do you want to help me with feeding the dogs?"

"Sure," Cleo says as she elbows Etho who nods hesitantly.

The three head out towards the dog park. Etho narrows his eyes as he remembers the events of a few nights before. He continues in silence occasionally jumping into the conversation. As they walk his tails curl up and he holds them close to his body.

Joe unlocks the door and they head in. Etho is expectedly cautious. As they step in a few of the dogs run up and bark. One jumps up onto Etho and attempts to lick his face.

Startled Etho backs up, his tails flicking. His brown eye glows red as a small chicken appears out of nowhere and runs through the dog park. The dogs are distracted.

"Did you do that?" Joe asks Etho who's starring confused at the chicken.

"I think I might have," Etho murmurs as he walks closer to the mystery chicken, "I don't know how I would have done this though."

Cleo grins, "You made an illusion, you are kitsune. Mythology wise they had the ability to make illusions."

"That makes sense," Etho muters turning away from the chicken, "They get more powerful the more tails they have, right?"

"Yep, the most powerful have nine tails," Joe explains as he shoos the dogs over to the food bowls.

"Good thing foxtails are mostly floof." Cloe cackles.

Wide-eyed Etho nods, "Very good thing."

"You don't think he'll get more tails as time goes by do you?" Joe muses, he runs a hand through his hair as he thinks.

"Probably," Cleo shrugs, she turns to Etho, "You've got two tails and illusions, you'll probably get more tails."

Etho looks back at his tails, "Oh, that's, fun."

"It won't happen for a long time," Joe grins, "It would normally take years. With how the meteor accelerates things you'll probably have a few months between tails."

Deadpan Etho stares at Joe, "Joy."

.........

The shopping district is normally a pretty busy place, so Etho's been hanging around there for a while. He's there because Doc is trying to figure out what the meteor is going to do next and he wanted him to stick around. In case he found something important.

As Etho wanders around the district he runs into TFC. The pair strike up a conversation and Etho follows him on his shopping trip.

"So, how's your base going?" Etho asks as his tails flick happily.

TFC grins, "It's going pretty well, I didn't except water columns to be so finicky,"

Nodding Etho agrees, "It is pretty tedious, every single block has to be a source block."

"Yeah, it's not that easy," TFC laughs.

Smiling Etho flicks one of his ears. TFC nods, "Do you know where I can find some wool?"

"Uh, yeah, it's over this way," Etho says as he leads TFC over to the Bone Zone's wool shop.

"Thank you."

"It's not a problem."

The conversation continues for a while, it ends rather abruptly when Doc messages Etho telling him to get to the town hall.

"It's been wonderful talking to you, but I must go," Etho says dramatically as he pops a chorus fruit into his mouth. He bites down on it, and nothing happens, "Uhh, bye?" Etho pops into his fox form and runs up to the town hall.

Laughing TFC continues on his way, not the weirdest thing he's seen with all the affected hermits. That probably would have been that one time about a week ago when Zedaph, Tango, and Impulse had managed to fall in some bushes and Zedaph was really freaked out about something.

They couldn't figure out why Zedaph was so freaked out until a few minutes later. Doc had flown by, to check up on how Tango was doing. He landed on the ground next to Tango. He wrinkled his nose up when he smelt the weird plant they had gotten into. Now TFC never got the full story but apparently, it repels creepers and it was making Doc freak out. Zedaph was panicking because when a creeper panics, it normally ends in explosions.

Rolling his eyes TFC looks back at the shopping district.

Etho almost stumbles over his paws as he jumps up the steps of the town hall. Grumbling slightly he turns back into his human form, "Doc? Are you in here?"

"Over here," He calls from one of the offices, "Sit down, we need to talk."

Etho balks nervously, "Is this about the meteor, or is it about the whole Goatfather thing?"

"Meteor," Doc grumbles, "We have a problem."

Sitting down Etho's ears flick back, "Explain."

"The problem is you're not just turning into a Fox, you're a kitsune. They weren't people that had the ability to turn into Foxes. They were foxes that could turn into people."

"I see how that's an issue," Etho murmurs, "What's going to happen?"

Doc huffs slightly, "So far all I can tell is your default respawn form is going to be the fox."

"So if I die I'll turn into the fox and have to turn back?"

"Yes, but I expect your instincts will get stronger and you might act more like a fox than human."

Etho shrugs, "It'll be fine."

Nodding Doc agrees although he couldn't help but worry. Etho's just a little too accepting about what's happening, it's not morbid fascination and he's not resigned to what's happening either. It's a little concerning.

As the conversation continues it shifts to decked out. Etho is very excited to run the dungeon again, it's got the black market now.

Grudgingly Doc follows him to the giant ravager head, "You really should wait until the meteor goes dormant."

"But the others will get so far ahead," Etho chirps as he jokingly flattens his ears.

Doc hisses slowly, "If you get stuck as a fox..."

"I'll be fine, even if I die to the ravagers I'll just respawn."

"Yeah, as a fox."

Etho shrugs as he prepares to walk into the dungeon. Doc sits back and watches as he enters, it looks like he's just going to have to learn from experience.

As he slowly makes his way through the game he seems to be doing pretty well. He's getting soul flames and a decent amount of loot. Once he gets the loot box token he starts making his way out.

On his way back he rounds a corner he comes face to face with a ravager, with a screech he disappears in a flurry of lavender colored particles, "That's where the chorus fruit went. I can store it. Cool"

The ravager growls as he thumps forwards, "Right, how are ya doing, Cuddles?" Etho murmurs as he turns tail and bolts. The ravager is hot on his heels as he stumbles through the dungeon. He enters the stone swamp area and runs right into another ravager. With a roar the ravagers kill him before tearing his body apart, it's a brutal cycle. After a few seconds, his body fades into shadows as he respawns.

Blinking Etho groans softly looking around he realizes two things, He's not in Decked Out and he's oddly small. He carefully rolls to his paws, "Doc was right," he mutters to himself before hoping down and padding off to find out where he is. He stays close to the ground and the walls.

He only makes it a few feet out of the room before a cold hand plucks him up, "Where do you think you're going?"

Etho squirms around trying to find the hermits face. As he blinks up at the face he squirms out of his hands and pops into his human form, "Hey, Biffa."

"Hey Etho, come back over here. Doc's going to be back soon."

"What happened? I lost Decked Out and now I'm here?" He asks as he follows Biffa.

"You were still asleep after you respawned. You were also a fox so Doc was able to pick you up and bring you here. You're at my base."

Etho looks around and nods, "You seem pretty fried, how long was I out?"

"It was only a few hours, nothing too drastic."

One of the doors swings open and Doc stumbles in, "Etho you're up."

"Yo."

"When you were stuck in respawn the meteor flared and went dormant again, I think it may have given you all your instincts at once."

"And that wouldn't be good," Etho deadpans, "Something's different about the meteor. It's like he's getting bolder."

Doc nods, "I've noticed that. I don't like this."

.....

In the few days since the weird respawn, Doc and Etho have been trying to figure out what's been happening. So far they haven't had much luck. The only new thing they found out is Etho has a slight tendency to shake his fur dry. Which of course annoys everyone else.

As Doc wanders into Etho's base he hisses angrily.

Yelping Etho shouts, "I didn't do it!"

"I know you didn't," The creeper grumbles, "I was talking to Hypno and Max, they think Xb's next."

Etho frowns, "Not good."

"It's not, I need you to come with me."

"Why?"

"I'm heading to Xb's base. I want you to come with me. I do have a reason but I can't actually tell you."

Shrugging Etho agrees and follows Doc into the nether.

As they approach the towering mega stuchser floating above the shattered savana. Doc pulls Etho through the town and towards the floating base.

Upon entering they find Xb nervously pacing around the room. Biffa is standing nearby frowning softly.

"Breathe," Biffa instructs as Xb panics.

Xb slumps down next to his guardian tank and groans into his hands, "I don't think this is going to end well."

Doc walks over and brings the smaller man into a hug, "We can't be sure that you're going to be affected."

Nodding Etho sits down next to him, carefully wrapping him in his tails, "Whatever happens, we won't let you get hurt."

Pulling Xb up Doc grins, "So, let's see what have you been doing?"

Thankful for the distraction Xb smiles and starts showing the others around his base.

"Thank you," Biffa tells Doc, "He's been like that since we heard he might be next."

Doc nods and turns his attention to Etho, he's hugging the wall as he walks around the base. Carefully flicking his ears so he can hear better. His tails are flicking softly as he looks at the incredible base. He's not talking as much as he normally is either.

He pulls out his communicator and shoots some of his Watcher friends a message, asking them about how foxes behave in new places.

A few minutes later he receives an answer. One of the Watchers sends him a response, saying that foxes are pretty cautious new places and wouldn't make much noise. Satisfied by the answer Doc continues listening to Xb ramble on about his base.

......

Doc jokingly glares at Etho as he crawls under one of his ice farms mechanisms to fix something, "You done yet?"

"Not quite, I need to reattach this thing."

Sitting down in the snow near Etho Doc shivers, "I will never understand why you like the cold."

One of his tails flicks at Doc, "It's better than being too hot."

"Naa, if it's too hot you just find water," Doc grins, "It's not fun when you shrivel up."

"Not all of us are plants..." Etho murmurs from his spot under the redstone.

Doc bursts out laughing, "Fair."

Laughing, Etho wiggles out from underneath his redstone, one of his ears is splattered with redstone dust, "So... what was that?"

"What was, what?"

"Shush, I heard it again," His ears swivel looking for the source of the noise.

Doc stops moving and listens.

Etho carefully moves, his tails flaring out. Something shifts the snow a few feet away. Etho looks over and starts running towards the nearby snowdrift. As he jumps at the mouse, he turns into a fox. With the mouse clamped in his teeth, he proudly pads over to Doc.

Doc scoops him up and gently forces him to open his mouth and free the mouse, "You can't just eat that."

Shaking his head Etho looks completely disgusted, he pops into his human form, "That's awful."

"The taste or the fact that you almost ate a mouse?" Doc asks as he watches Etho repeatedly wash his mouth out.

Looking up Etho flicks his ears back, "Both."

Doc laughs, "You caught the mouse, first try. Good job."

"Are you mocking me?" Etho shoots back in a mock offended tone.

"Of course not. I'm actually very impressed with how fast you caught the mouse."

"Oh, ok," He chirps as he walks back over to the snowdrift and falls backward into the snow.

Doc rolls his eyes and polls him up, "Let's go, you're done with the Redstone and it's really cold."

Etho pouts mockingly as he follows Doc into the nether, "You never let me do anything."

Laughing Doc ushers him back to his base, "I'll be back tomorrow don't try anything. I want to get a full description of what's happened."

Shooting Doc a thumbs up Etho nods, "Will do."

As he starts falling asleep, his tails flick nervously. Brushing whatever's bothering him off; he doesn't really know what's happening, he falls asleep. By the time he wakes up it's late morning.

Yawning he starts getting ready for the day and gets some food. Wandering aimlessly he ends up at the entrance of his base. Gingerly he shifts into the fox.

Doc shows up a few minutes later and they head inside, they have a lot to go over.

Notes:

And that's a wrap, next up will be something very special. It will be the 28th when I upload and if you look that's when I started writing the Meteor Effect. It's been almost a year, and I'm proud of what I've created.