The Big Apple.
3 AM.
A lone feral fluffy walks through Central Park. Strangely enough for New York, he seems to be alone.
He’s an earthie. They’re the most common kind. Red fluff, blue mane and tail, grey eyes.
“Huu… Tom am hungwy… nee fine nummies…”
Tom used to be a house fluffy.
But then his owner, Michelle, abandoned him when she moved to San Francisco.
Tom’s been scraping together a miserable existence on the streets of New York ever since.
It’s a lonely, sad, dangerous life. While Tom’s met a few humans who were nice, he’s also met a few who weren’t.
He was lucky to get away with his life every time.
He’s seen the worst of humanity.
Tonight, however, Tom’s life is going to change.
CRASH
Tom jumps when he hears the noise.
Most fluffies would crap themselves and run away at this point.
But Tom hasn’t eaten today, and he knows he’s got nothing to lose.
So he heads towards the source of the noise.
In a clearing, he sees what made the noise.
A rock. A big rock. In a crater.
Had Tom been paying attention to the skies, he would have seen the rock fall from space.
But Tom doesn’t pay much attention to the skies. There’s no nummies up there, and nummies are his top priority.
Nobody else was paying attention, either. It’s New York. They don’t care if a rock falls from space if it won’t make the already severe traffic problem any worse.
As Tom carefully waddles into the crater, towards the rock, he notices something.
Black slime, oozing out of the rock.
“Tom hope dat am nummies.”
Tom, like many feral fluffies, apparently doesn’t notice that he’s surrounded by edible flora.
Really, how many feral herds have ignored all of the flora they passed on their way to a fatal appointment with the homeowner they intend to harass for nummies?
But that’s fluffies for you.
When Tom gets up close to the rock, he pokes the black slime with a marshmallow hoof.
Then it latches onto him, and starts spreading over his body.
“Wut–”
Everything goes dark for Tom.
You are Tom, and right now, you are so…
Confused.
The last thing you remember is walking up to a big rock you found and touching the black sticky stuff coming out of it.
Oh, that’s right.
You were going to num the black stuff, and then it nummed you.
Now you’re somewhere black and sticky.
So, is that it? Did you just go forever sleepies?
Then you hear a deep, dark, growly, slimy voice talking in your head.
Forever sleepies? How juvenile. But no, you’re not dead. And I didn’t… I’m assuming num means eat?
“Hu say dat?!? Whewe am Tom?!?”
Who am I? Let’s just say I’m a visitor from another world. Tom, is it? Are your kind the dominant species of this planet?
“Wut am dom-eee-nunt spee-sees?”
I’ll take that as a no. I was hoping to snag a host of the dominant species. But I suppose you’ll do. For now.
“Du fow wut?”
As a host, stupid. My kind need to bond to other organisms, that means living things, to survive. But it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, I can assure you. In exchange, I’ll make you stronger, faster, BETTER. With the power I can grant you…
The voice chuckles.
…we could do whatever we want.
“Wut Tom wan am sum nummies. Tom am hungwy.”
Now that you mention it, I could go for a snack too. It was a LONG trip on that lump of rock. If your plan is to get a meal, I’m totally on board with that.
“Den Tom wiww be yu host, mistah swimy fwend.”
Mister… slimy friend? No. That won’t do at all. Neither will Tom. Nobody will take us seriously with names like THAT. We need a new name.
“We can wowk dat owt watew.”
You’re right. Food comes first. And there’s PLENTY to eat on this mudball.
Tom wakes up in the crater, unsteadily stumbling out.
A few minutes later, as he stumbles down the path, he passes a garbage can.
Then he does a double take, and turns around.
He sees his reflection in the trash can.
His entire body has turned pure black. His fluff has a slimy quality to it. His eyes are jagged and pure white, his teeth are sharp and yellow, and his tongue is long and slithery.
“Wut happund tu Tom?!?”
Tom jumps when he hears what he sounds like now.
He hears the voice in his head again.
“I happened. Beautiful, aren’t we?”
Tom decides to let the matter drop, because it’s not as important as getting some nummies.
A few minutes later, Tom runs into an abuser, prowling the park for ferals to play with.
“Ah, looks like it’s my lucky night-- wait, what the fuck are you?!?”
The symbiotic fluffy smiles. A perfect name has just come to the fluffy and his new friend.
They speak as one.
“We… am Venom.”
Two tendrils of the alien entity’s slimy mass extend from the fluffy, grabbing the abuser.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!?”
Then, the newly dubbed Venom opens his mouth, much wider than a fluffy’s mouth should open.
“WHY DIDN’T I JUST STAY AT HOME–”
NOM
And the symbiotic fluffy devours the abuser whole.
GULP
“…Wut wuz DAT?!?”
“Just a taste, heh, of the power I have to offer you.”
Tom shrugs off the fact that he just nummed a hoomin.
It was a bad hoomin, so Tom thinks it’s a win-win: there’s one less bad hoomin in the world, and Tom isn’t hungry anymore.
Venom moves on, out of the park.
“Let me take the wheel, Tom. I wanna show you something.”
Tom obliges his other.
When the alien entity takes over, it runs towards a wall, leaps, and sticks onto the wall, running up it.
thwip
It fires a strand of the black ooze, latching onto another building, and swings away.
“How am yu duin dis?”
“I bonded to an Arachnoid, once. They’re a race of spider-people, from Arach. It was fun, until he realized I was sentient and got rid of me. Eh, but if they ain’t the One, they ain’t the One.”
Venom lands in an alleyway, and the black slime retracts into Tom’s body, restoring the fluffy’s body to its original appearance.
“Am yu stiww hewe?”
“I’m still here. We should probably lay low, Tom. For now.”
Tom waddles off.
“Tom am finkin we shud git owtta town.”
“Good thinking. Stay on the move. But do you have a destination-- I mean, do you know where you wanna go?”
“San Fwan-sis-koh. Owd mummah am dewe. Mebbeh Tom can fine mummah nao.”
Tom still doesn’t realize that his old owner deliberately left him behind.
“I have no idea where it is, but it’s as good a destination as any.”
Tom strolls off into the night, food in his belly, a new friend by his side, and a clear goal in mind.
As far as Tom is concerned, this is the best night he’s had in a long time.