After a long day of work, Red finally managed to find time to relax. He grabbed a snack from the fridge and went to his computer to play some games. While he waited for his computer to boot up, he debated what games he should play. Maybe Risk of Rain? He hadn’t done that in a hot minute. Perhaps he could ask Sarge if they wanted to join? Red knew that Sarge’s job usually kept him pretty busy, and he was the manager for Chomby, the DJ Soundbyte as well.

“Probably too busy,” Red mumbled as he flicked his mouse to click on the discord icon. He saw a notification immediately. It was coming from Sarge and Chomby’s discord server.

Chomby was needing some last-minute help with moving some of his things into moving truck.

“Moving?” Red asked himself. He tried scrolling up through the chat to get more context. To his dismay, there didn’t seem to be anything else. Were Sarge and Chomby no longer affiliated? Did something happen?

Red scratched his head in contemplation. He noticed that the soundbyte’s announcement had no one replying to offer assistance. Not even Sarge said anything. Why was that?

Gumming up the courage, Red answered the request. Within a few seconds, Chomby replied with a thank you and instructed him on where to go.

“Well, guess I’m helping him move to… wherever he’s going.” Red immediately locked up his apartment and left.

“I could probably get some answers from Chomby himself. I sure hope there wasn’t a falling out. Or something worse.” Red nervously arrived at Chomby’s house. With a gentle knock on the door, he heard a set of heavy footsteps on the other side. Within a moment, Chomby peaked out from behind the door.

“Ahh, Red, thanks for coming by,” Chomby opened the door. “I figured I wasn’t going to get a reply, so I started moving the boxes myself, but this makes things a lot easier! Thank you so much.”

“No problem, Chomby. I’m a pretty in-shape wolf, so I figured I could offer some help,” Red said. He walked inside the house and scanned the area. There were dozens of boxes everywhere. Some of them were taped up with labels while others were wide open.

“So, I’ve got a van coming by soon. I was thinking of putting the boxes near the door so it would be an easy point A to point B scenario. That alright with you?” Chomby asked.

Red nodded and walked over to one of the open boxes. “Sure, though, if I may ask, what’s the occasion? You’re leaving? This feels rather sudden.”

“Leaving?” Chomby asked. He stopped next to the front door with a box in his hand. “Oh, no, just moving stuff to storage. Sarge was planning on doing this all himself, but I told him he’s too busy for that.” Chomby chuckled. His frown was less frown-like. “So, I’m just gonna help him out a bit while he’s, uh, off doing one of his assignments.”

“Oh, okay, I was worried for a second.” Red hoisted up the open box. He noticed it had a few records in it, some sort of light thingy for Chomby’s DJ set, and a pair of green headphones that looked very similar to Chomby’s. “I thought you and Sarge had a fall out or something.”

“Nah,” Chomby dropped the box by the door and ran to pick up another. “If I was gonna move anywhere, it’d just be a temporary thing. Like… going on tour! Been meaning to do that for a while. Sarge was setting up venues and everything.” Chomby’s eyes seemed to light up. Red knew that Chomby couldn’t ever smile, so this was the closest Chomby would get to actually looking happy.

“Oh neat. Do you need to clear any of this stuff out because of that?” Red asked as he gestured to the box. He then reached a hand in and pulled out the headphones. He examined them closely. They certainly looked similar to Chomby’s headphones, but they were missing the trademark Fluffmaster Logo.

“Just old mementos. I collect things I like. But, we’re running out of room, so we’re getting a storage place set up.” Chomby flicked his head toward the box. “Those records were given to me by fans.”

“These your old headphones, then?” Red asked. He used one hand to lift them over his head. “I didn’t know you actually took them off at all.”

“I don’t. To be honest, I can’t.” Chomby lifted a hand to his headphones and yanked them. They didn’t budge. “It’s kinda a part of me, really.”

“So these aren’t yours?” Red asked.

“Oh, no, that’s just a prototype I used as a prize for some concert attendees.” Chomby pulled out his phone. “Or, moreso, that’s the only one left. I had a hundred. Figured I’d keep it as a memento for myself.” Chomby flicked through his phone. “Strangely enough, I think it’s still connected to my bluetooth. Let’s see if I can play music through it still…”

“But it isn’t even turned on-” Red began to say, but then he heard music come through. It was one of Chomby’s mixes. He remembered listening to it before. It didn’t quite pique his fancy then, but something felt different now.

Red couldn’t fully explain it, but he had the urge to dance. He placed the box on the ground near the door and started tapping his foot. He then lifted a hand to the headphone and pressed it further in so he could hear the music better.

Strangely, he felt his pants tighten a bit. Maybe he was just moving around a lot. He always wore tight pants, especially since it showed off his belly a bit more.

Belly? Red bobbed his head up and down but took notice of his midsection. He could see his gray jeans were starting to rip at the seams. His belly appeared as if it had been ballooning outward. But it was always like that, wasn’t it? It was a part of being half-soundbyte.

Half-soundbyte. That word felt odd to Red. He wanted to think about it more, but the song suddenly shifted to a higher-intensity portion. Red became distracted. “Oh, hey! This song is really catchy!” He started swaying his hips back and forth. With each swing, he felt his pants grow tighter. His belly began to sway more and more. Its motion matched his tail as he could feel it begin to sway more heavily.

A few more sways back and forth was all it took for the pants to completely rip off of him. He must have been enjoying the song too much. He questioned why he ever wore such ill-fitting pants in the first place. He was a soundbyte, after all. Most pants wouldn’t fit both his belly and his large tail. It didn’t help that he was prone to gaining weight from songs he loved.

Red lifted his arms and started jumping in place. “Woohoo! Wow, this song rocks!” He felt his legs become exhausted the more he jumped. Confusingly, with one final jump, he felt his belly smack into the ground. He wanted to say this was unusual, but a good meal of Chomby’s trance soundtrack was certainly bound to fatten him up one day. Might as well be today.

Red knew he was already rather fat for a soundbyte, but that just meant he was healthier. At least, that’s what he remembered hearing about himself. Though, he figured it would become difficult to help Chomby move boxes if he got too big.

“Shoot, Chomby, you’re really gonna fatten me up more with these songs you made!” Red said. He felt his hands instinctively lift up to the headphones so he could pull them off, but he stopped. Why was he pulling them off? They were his. If he took them off, then he wouldn’t get to hear such great music.

“Then again,” Red said as he looked down at his belly. He could see its massive figure rest on the ground below. “I don’t know why I offered to help you out when I clearly have been pigging out on music a bit too much.” Red tried to bend over and pick up the box he placed down moments ago. He couldn’t figure out how he managed to place it down so delicately in the first place. Clearly, he wasn’t able to reach it over his belly now. How did he do it before?

“A fat soundbyte is a healthy soundbyte, Red,” Chomby said. Despite the DJ’s words, Red noticed that Chomby seemed confused. He didn’t understand why.

“You good, Chomby?” Red asked.

“Yeah, uh,” Chomby paused the music on his phone. He then looked around the room. “Uh… how did you even get in here? You wouldn’t have fit through my door.”

Red put a hand to his cheek and thought. That was a good question. “I have no idea.”

Chomby tilted his head to the side. “Call me stupid if you think this is a dumb question, Red, but… were you always a soundbyte? I can’t seem to remember.”

“Uh,” Red scratched his head. “That is a bit of a weird question to ask, because, yeah, I’ve been one my whole life.”

“Oh, okay,” Chomby put his phone away. “Well, can you help me find my give-away headphones? I thought I put them in the box you were carrying.”

~~~~~

Here's a fun commission I did for  Red Maigc of himself turning into a Soundbyte via some reality warping shenanigans.

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Red (C)  Red Maigc
Chomby/Art/Story (C)  Juntarhenogu Me