God of Marriage Saga: Chapter 9
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Mobians were dainty beings, by comparison with humans.
Even coming in as one of the taller of her race at nearly twice Sonic's height (though nowhere matching giants like Canus and Drago), Lupe Wolf only came up to just above my shoulder, with her mohawk, but her proportions were sleek and muscular athletic--toned by her life of hunting and dodging out of scraps with swat-bots and other fiendish mechanical threats. Despite this, she was still dwarfish to the point that she could be mistaken for an adolescent human, were it not for her adult bust. It would be apt, if not a touch impolite, to call her a noble wolf fairy. That was as accurate a label as any, for what Mobians were... strange, mutant, animal fairies, brought about through... well, now I was beginning to sound like Hojo. I relented from the analysis.
When the mad doctor saw her, though, he emitted something that was partway between a wolf-whistle of approval, a baby's coo of delight, and the crow of a carrion bird looking at his next meal. And unexpectedly, he grabbed her in a labcoated embrace.
"My. New. Specimens." Hojo, practically glowed. I could smell the cigarette smoke on his body, and it was nauseating. I couldn't tell if it was just the Shinra execs he'd been meeting with, or a hobby he'd taken up while no one was looking, but the man had the odor of every vice known to man, and a greasy complexion to go with his tan, that was only complimented by his slick hairstyle.
Something was different about the doctor. I could see, already, he'd been listening... taking my notions about 'marriage' to heart. I could see the glimmer of red threads dangling in the reflection of his round glasses... as if he'd already seen how he would tie us all together.
It wasn't as bad as I'd predicted, at least. He'd not managed to absorb all of the values and obsessions of Emperor Zhou of Shang--he wasn't 'head over heels' obsessed with a woman I cared for. He was a very obsessive and focused sort, Hojo, and while he was hungrily ambitious, his world, pent up in the laboratories of the Shinra Electric Power Company's headquarters building, wasn't quite large enough to encompass what a god could do, even with time to get out for a vacation. Theories of a Reunion and a Promised Land were plenty enough to pull him in the direction of an assortment of ancient tribes and strange species, but it seemed he wasn't yet 'imaginative' enough to do more than see the glimmers of potential, and realize that he was onto something new he could molest with his intellect.
He thumbed his chin... as if he'd been taking in my thoughts. And I began to see that imagination, combined with intellect, was like fuel and fire together. They had to be maintained, curated... directed... or they would turn in on their owner and ruin everything around them.
I suddenly began to feel like a sort of ruler, myself. And I wasn't sure what that was supposed to feel like, yet...