FENNEXphones (TF Request)

    DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!


    The blaring sound of the doorbell jerked Phil Adler awake. Groggily, he opened his eyes, looking over at the clock next to his bed. 10:15, it read. Had he really slept for that long? He groaned, slowly getting out of bed. “Alright, alright, I’m coming” he said. “Just give me a few minutes to get dressed…”

    Phil opened up his drawers, getting out one of his standard outfits: a pair of blue jeans, some red sneakers, and of course, a tee-shirt featuring his absolute favorite sports team, the Philadelphia Eagles. He smiled, gazing down at the number 00 displayed boldly across the shirt. His number. It seemed appropriate, since he actually had a rather… unique tendency to transform into a giant, anthropomorphic eagle at times, very similar to the mascot for this football team. And since the mascots often wore that number, Phil had taken to wearing it as well. Eagles weren’t the only thing he had ever turned into, though: throughout his life, Phil had taken more forms than he could recall. But his eagle form remained his favorite, as well as the form he seemed to take the most often

    But he didn’t have time to dwell on that now. After getting dressed, he immediately rushed downstairs, eager to see who was at his door. “Alright, I’m here!” He said, throwing open the door. “Sorry I took so lo... huh?”

    To his surprise, the other side of his door was completely deserted. The only thing he could see was a small box, just sitting there on his doorstep. The box was gray and white, and pictured a pair of headphones on the the front. Also on the front was a bit of blue text, telling the name of the headphones. “FENNEXphones?” Phil thought to himself, picking up the box. “Huh… never heard of them.” Frowning, Phil examined the box, looking for more information about the product he was holding. Noticing some more text on the side, he quickly began reading.

    “Tired of headphones not working the way you want them to? Tired of getting ones that you can barely hear sound from? With FENNEXphones, those grievances will become a thing of the past! Just put them on, turn up some music, and you’ll be hearing better than ever before! So start listening, and experience music in a completely new, life-changing way!”

    Phil grinned to himself. He loved listening to music, but he always seemed to end up using the cheap, crappy variety of headphones that stopped working after just a few uses and never seemed to sound quite right. Because of this, he never felt like he could fully enjoy listening to his music… until now.  He didn’t quite know why, but he got the feeling that these headphones might actually work for him. Still smiling, he rushed up the stairs, eager to try these new headphones out.

    Back in his room, Phil quickly opened up the box, pulling the pair of headphones out. They didn’t appear to be anything special: just a normal pair of black and blue headphones. Nonetheless, Phil was still eager to try them on. Excitedly, he plugged them into his phone, then quickly selected a song from his playlist to listen to. Once he found one that worked, he hit the play button and sat back, ready to completely immerse himself in the music.

    Closing his eyes, Phil felt the music flow throughout his body, making him feel relaxed. However, as he listened, he couldn’t help thinking that the headphones didn’t really seem like anything… special. They worked fine, and they certainly weren’t terrible, but they weren’t particularly great, either. They just seemed… normal, like most of the other headphones he had used. Still, he had already unboxed them, so he figured that he might as well keep using them.

    The music continued, causing Phil to smile. Even though the headphones didn’t seem all that special to him, he found the music coming out of them rather… soothing. He felt completely entranced by the music, so much that he didn’t even notice the… rather strange changes that his body was going through. As he closed his eyes, he vaguely noticed an itch appearing near his stomach. He scratched at it a bit absent-mindedly, not noticing what was causing the itch: fur. Tan, sandy fur was sprouting all around his stomach area, and was beginning to spread across his torso. His ears were also beginning to grow a bit larger, causing the headphones to slip off of them slightly.

    Phil frowned, noticing that his headphones didn’t feel quite right. As he reached up to readjust them, the tan fur began growing on his arms as well, spreading all the way to his hands. While he re-positioned the headphones, his hands began to change even more: the fingers began thickening, and the fingernails began pushing out into claws, making his hands look a bit paw-like. His ears also began to grow into points, though his headphones managed to stay on this time.

    While Phil failed to notice any of these changes, he did notice one thing: those headphones were beginning to sound much better than before. Somehow, the sound quality seemed to be improving beyond any of the headphones he had owned in the past. He found himself smiling again, which somehow seemed to trigger even more changes. The back of his pants ripped open as a small, brown-furred tail broke through, waving to the beat of the music. The tan fur also spread down to his legs, making his jeans feel a bit uncomfortable. But once again, Phil was too engrossed in the music to really take notice.

    After the fur had completely covered his legs, his shoes began to feel a bit… tight. However, he somehow still didn’t notice, not even when they ripped apart as his now much larger feet emerged through them. Of course, they had gone through some additional changes: tan fur had grown all over them, his toes had grown larger and merged into four, and his toenails had grown out into sharp claws. His feet had become paws, to an even greater extent than his hands.

    His shoes weren’t the only part of his clothing to get damaged, though. The changes seemed to causing a growth spurt in his body, and his clothes were paying the price. His jeans began to rip open, his legs growing too large for them, and his shirt was beginning to tear apart from his growing body as well. By this point, his ears had moved all the way to the top of his head, causing the headphones to fall off completely. But this time, Phil didn’t notice: the sound quality had increased to the point where he could still hear them perfectly.

    The final changes began. The tan fur began spreading across his face, covering it completely. The middle of his face began pushing out, growing into a short muzzle. His nose shrank into a small, black dot. His ears grew massive, taking up most of the top of his head. As the song playing through the headphones drew to a close, Phil was feeling overjoyed. He couldn’t believe that he had ever doubted those headphones. Not only did they sound fantastic, they sounded better than anything he had ever listened to before! He could hear everything, make out every single detail! One thing was for sure: he wouldn’t be getting rid of these headphones for a long time!

    Happily, Phil unplugged his headphones from his phone, then stood up to put them away. But as soon had he did, his ears were suddenly blasted with a jarring ringing noise. “Gah!” He yelled, recoiling from the sound. Turning around, he realized that it was coming from… his phone? That was strange. He didn’t remember turning the volume on his ringtone up, so why was it ringing so loudly? Wincing from the noise, Phil reached for his phone to see who was calling him. Unknown number. Frowning, Phil held the phone up to his ear. “Hello?”

    “Hello?” said the voice on the other end. “Am I speaking to Philip Adler?”

    “Gah!” yelled Phil once again, jerking the phone away from his ear. “Yes, that’s me! Why are you shouting at me like that?”

    The voice chuckled. “I didn’t shout at you, Philip” it said. “It’s just that your sense of hearing is far more… sensitive than it was before.”

    “More… sensitive?” said Phil. “What are you talking abou-” He suddenly stopped talking. He had just noticed that the hand holding his phone didn’t look quite… normal. “Wait... what the…” His eyes widened, sudden realization overtaking him. He immediately looked down at his body, seeing everything that had happened to him while he was listening to the music. The fur, the claws, the tail, the… torn clothing. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” he yelled. “Can’t I ever get a break?” Another outfit ruined… and he had really liked that shirt!

    The voice on the other end laughed. “Surprised?” It asked. “Yes, fennec foxes do have highly sensitive ears. Rather large ones, too. But don’t take my word for it. Why don’t you have a look in a mirror, and see for yourself?”

    Frowning, Phil turned to the mirror in his room… and gasped. His ears… good god, his ears were massive! His muzzle wasn’t anything special, since his face had been through far worse, but those ears… they were something else entirely. He could hardly believe that they were even his!  “So… I’m a fennec fox…?” He frowned once again, turning his attention to the phone. “Okay, time to start talking. Who are you, and why are you calling me?

    The voice cleared its throat. “I suppose I should introduce myself. The name’s Martin Fortsona, and I’m calling you because… well, I was just curious to see how those headphones I sent your way are working out. Judging by your reaction, I’m guessing that they did exactly what they were supposed to do.”

    “Wait… you mean…” Quickly, Phil got up and ran over to the box that the headphones had been in. Scanning the box again, he noticed some small white text on the side. “Warning… FENNEXphones are not responsible for any hearing damage, torn clothing, or spontaneous transformations that may result from using this product…” He stood up, feeling a burst of anger surge through him. “Damn it!” He yelled, throwing the box across the room. “Stupid fine print!”

    Martin laughed again. “Sorry, Philip” he said. “But I needed to do this. See, I’m running a sort of… experiment, where I’m studying the effects of certain sounds on people with different levels of sensitivity to sound. And since fennec foxes have such sensitive ears, I decided it would be a good idea to test one of them, too. And because I happen to be a bit of a TF enthusiast, I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to… put those skills to use, if you get what I’m saying. So… I ended up developing those new headphones of yours. I thought you’d be the perfect test subject, given your personal experience with TF. That’s why I sent them to your place.

    “Um… okay” said Phil. He’d met some pretty weird TF enthusiasts in his life, but this guy… this guy was weird on a whole different level. “So… what do I do now?”

   “Oh, not much” said Martin, still chuckling. “You just need to listen to some of the sounds around you for the next few days. You’re also going to need to update me at least once every day on exactly how those sounds affected you. You should be able to hear quite a bit more than you would be able to otherwise, thanks to those big ears of yours. And if my hypothesis is correct, you should interpret sounds differently as well.”

    “And what if I refuse?” asked Phil.

    “Oh, I wouldn’t recommend that” replied Martin. “Because if you don’t cooperate… well, I sure hope you like that new body of yours, because you’re going to be staying like that for a loooong time. Now, I really need to get going. Call me tomorrow with some results, okay?” Before Phil could say another word, the line clicked off.

    Phil groaned. Now what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t leave the house like this, or his neighbors would freak! But as he was thinking about how to handle this, his now massive ears suddenly perked up. He began to hear what sounded like… voices? Cautiously, he stood up and walked over to his bedroom window, noticing two people arguing on the sidewalk below. And… he could hear them. He could clearly hear every single word out of their mouths, even though his window was closed!

    A grin stretched across Phil’s face. With hearing this accurate, he wouldn’t need to worry about being seen, since he’d know almost instantly if someone was about to see him. If he needed to leave the house, he use his hearing to be absolutely sure that no one was around before doing so. He was probably pretty fast, too, so he could duck out of sight if he was about to be noticed. It was perfect! “Well, that’s one problem solved” he said, looking back down at his new pair of headphones. “Now, I guess I should probably begin collecting data for that guy….”