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Crumbling Apart

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Written by Arian Mabe (AmethystMare)

Commissioned by Daniel18

Diane Foxington muttered under her breath down in her lair, which was a good name for her underground secret base. No one entering her house would have ever expected the mayor to have something like that right there, though that was not honestly her concern. That she had a secret life, before and in the present too, was her business and her business only.

But the problem that the fox anthro had encountered was a cursed item from her collection, stolen, of course, that had somehow activated, reducing her body to crumbling grains. No matter what she did, she was prone to breaking apart at any moment and it had taken all her energy to get down the stairs. She didn't even know how long it had taken her to get down there, step by step, grunting, pressing on, her body aching and itching and making her jerk around as she was tickled by a horrifying, unseen force.

She did not even dare lean back against the wall of the stairs where she sat, having tripped the breaker and made it down to the entrance to her lair. Yet she was so tired that she couldn't make her fingers reform fully - well, not enough so that she was able to grip the handle. Her fingers ached and tingled and the fox even had to resist the urge to yank her hands violently away. For it tickled viciously every time her fingers crumbled away, her mind tried, wanting to give up - at least for a little while. She needed to conserve her energy, for she had made a phone call to Wolf, Moe Wolf, and, well...she needed him. As much as it pained her to admit that...

She heard him coming, though did not waste her energy in turning her head to see, the wolf skittering down the stairs, in his pyjamas as if she had just gotten him out of bed. His limbs, gangling as always, seemed too long for his body, though the snake-print pyjamas were something that she filed away in the back of her mind for later perusal. If there was one more little thing that she could get over on him, she would. She wasn't as well-known as she was as The Crimson Paws as she was for nothing, after all.

"Diane! Oh my - what the - huh?"

He flinched from her, Diane's legs crumbling where she sat, though she tiredly pointed to the door to her underground base, the wolf scrambling to get it open. It was one that he had the code to, thankfully, and he swung the door wide as the keypad beeped, trying to usher her in, though not even Diane had seen Mr Wolf sweat like that before. If things weren't as weird, perhaps even dire, as they were, she would have laughed at him.

"I think..." Even talking was difficult, though she didn't honestly feel the need to breathe and take air into her lungs. "It happened...with a cursed...object."

Mr Wolf rolled his eyes, though she shook her head at him, slowly standing, taking her time, concentrating hard on keeping her legs together. Her toes and feet itched terribly as they crumbled with every step, trying to get through the door. Sitting on the stairs was hardly comfortable in the slightest and she yearned for her bed, for a comfortable chair, somewhere that she could rest and relax, despite everything that had happened so far.

"So, what now," Mr Wolf said, flapping his hands about, though that only made things worse, Diane's leg crumbling and dropping her to both knees. "Are you, like, totally made up of sand or what? That's crazy!"

The door swung closed after them, though her concentration faltered, her body crumbled, sand-like grains streaming from her shoulders, down her arms, losing both for a moment. Even the features of her face itched terribly as if her muzzle was crawling with a thousand insects, sucking in a deep breath and fighting down the terrible urge to rub her face. Despite the terrible itching, she couldn't possibly give in to reflex, no, not when it would only end up in her falling apart completely. She could, of course, reform her body, after practice,

"Hm..."

Mr Wolf looked her up and down, his head cocked a little, stroking his chin. Diane tensed, trying to reform her fingers, even though her arm felt numb, as if it was cramping. With the sheer amount of ticklish sensations and the itching too, other, more subtle sensations were starting to come into play, the hint of hidden muscle contractions that moved to the point that she was trying to hold together or move with at any given time.

Oh, dear... What is he thinking?

_ _

The wolf grinned - his wide grin that covered his entire face, stretching his lips further than they should naturally have gone.

"So...you're struggling to hold everything together, huh?" He said, though it was more for confirmation to himself rather than making her answer and tell him. "So, you keep falling apart, huh?"

Diane tensed, her hips crumbling, waist narrowing as smooth grains streamed from her and she gasped, the ticklish pulses ramping up. It was as if a million fingers were dancing over her waist, itching and tickling, every last one of them trying to make her lose control.

But the wolf had seen his chance to take payback on Diane for all the times she had annoyed him, all the times that she had got one over on him. Rubbing his hands together, down in her lair, safe with her collection, the wolf advance, the soft, yellow lighting strip glowing above.

Diane pulled back, standing there, though it took all her focus to keep her body from crumbling, feeling like it was sifting, streaming through the mental fingers that she tried to keep herself together with.

Yet the wolf moved before she could react, slamming his arm into hers, all to make her fall apart, grains of "Diane" streaming to the floor, falling as if the pull of gravity was so much stronger than anyone could have appreciated. She let out a cry, though that only made her muzzle fall apart, crumbling back down to her face while her brow furrowed with anger.

But there were no words that she could pull to her lips while they were still reforming, the pile of sand that had been her arm streaming smoothly back to her, though it still felt like a big, clunky pile of numbness in the meantime, as if it had become completely disconnected from her body.

"What the hell, Wolf?" She snapped, ears back, her body reformed. "You can't just do that to me! You're supposed to be helping me!"

He only laughed, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Yeah, but you can't do anything about it for once - it's not like it hurts you! I'm just having some fun, and a little revenge..."

She parted her lips to reprimand him further, though Mr Wolf was too quick for her, karate chopping her shoulder to make her fall apart, the itching spreading through her entire body with her shaking concentration. Diane yelped as he struck her legs too at the same time, a side sweep from his foot knocking them clean out from under her.

She couldn't hold onto herself right then, numbness swamping her, dragging her under, leaving her gasping and heaving, even though she was fine, yes, still okay. It just felt ridiculously itching, as if she was cramping, as if there was tension in her even at the moment that she was crumbling apart, falling apart at the seams. The itching prickled, stabbing her as if she was being constantly jabbed by a thousand needles, though the numbers weakly flung around her head didn't really mean anything. It was just one way that Diane tried to make sense of everything, even though it was quite as if things were not to be made sense of at all. Of course, she couldn't move any part of her that was broken apart and crumbled, or even currently reforming, effectively putting her at Mr Wolf's mercy.

It was not a position that the fox at all appreciated being put in.

"Stop it!" She shouted, ears pinned, though the fox was really in no place to demand anything from him. "Come on, Wolf, this isn't even funny!"

"Oh, yeah?" He grinned, grabbing a vacuum cleaner and waggling the solid head on the end of a long, flexible hose tauntingly at her. "It's preeeetty funny from where I'm standing!"

The vacuum cleaner roared to life, sucking in air and any debris it could find, though Diane was not in control of herself anywhere near enough to run away. She turned, legs half reformed, but the wolf was too quick for her as her body prickled and itched, crying out softly. The roar of the noisy vacuum blared as he sucked up what was left of her legs, the piles of her grainy body left on the floor.

Numbness swamped her, though he was merciless, laughing, all a joke to him. Of course, even then, Diane knew that Mr Wolf meant no harm to her at all, but that by no means stopped her from being infuriated with him. Oh, that wolf would never change! But perhaps she would not have felt such an affinity with him as she did if he did change so easily. There was a difference between personal growth and straight-faced change, after all.

Though she wished he had matured enough not to suck up her entire body as she crumbled, her body alternately itching and cramping up with numb "chunks" of her, not even knowing where to start reforming herself. What she did feel, however, was the rush of air over her itchy, painful body as she was sucked up as nothing more than a pile of Diane into the bag of the vacuum cleaner, which swelled larger and larger to contain her.

"Hey now..." Wolf's voice came through the bag, the machine struggled as it clunked and hissed with sputtering power. "Agh, damn it!"

BANG!

The bag of the cleaner exploded, scattering Diane over the floor. Even though she did not have eyes at that time, she still had a sense of where she was, her sense of where her body was in the space it inhabited intact. That was something, at least, cursing inwardly and already thinking of how she was going to get payback on him - well, when everything was back to normal again, that was.

But she couldn't see any way to get things back to normal, grains of her body streaming towards one another to form a big pile, though the numbness irritated her anymore. It felt as if she was losing her ability to feel, though that was not true, only a different way of registering sensation. Fury burned inside her, flickering where her belly should have been, though she formed her head first, cursing out the wolf as he spun the flexible hose and head of the vacuum around with a grin on his lips.

"You!" She all but spat, head rising from the pile of her body, grunting at the furious, prickling itching. "Stop doing that! I thought you were coming here to help me!"

Wolf grinned more widely, if that was even possible, watching her reform herself, pulling her arms and shoulders out, flinching from the ticklish sensations. Ugh, it really was just like insects, so many creepy-crawlies, all over her, making her jerk and jostle from the imagined threat, even as she struggled up, drawing her crumbling, sand-like body into a single form again.

"Nah... Well, I will, but come on - wouldn't you?"

Diane didn't get the chance to say anything back as he grabbed a bottle of water - what she had left down there in case she needed to hydrate abruptly - and sloshed it over her. Her arm crumbled like the sand it felt like, losing its consistency and streaming down, soaked and even more difficult to reform. With her body breaking apart so much, barely able to get her torso and midsection, down to her previously furry belly button, she couldn't even fight back, the wolf stamping on the piles of her that were left on the ground, Diane only a head, torso and partial arms, reforming as quickly as she could. At least it seemed that the pressure of trying to get him to stop sharpened her concentration and focus in reforming her body. If only she could keep herself together though!

He gave her time to put herself back together again, on her feet, though she left some of the details out of her body out, smoothing over the features a little. Though that didn't help her in any way more than holding herself together, for if she did not perfectly reform part of her body, like her soft, twitching nose, it would ache and itch and tickle so viciously that she would want to rub it off her face. The urge to rub her face and body with so much tickling prickling all over her was obscene, though she had someone, at the very least, that she could turn that frustration on.

Lunging for Wolf with a suppressed growl, she made as if to grapple with him, forming her thighs as she bit back a cry at the sudden, sharp intensifying of itching, almost stabbing. Her body broke apart as she tried to hold him down, falling easily into her old fighting skills, yet Mr Wolf, pushed onto his back, laughing all the while, merely drove his knee up into her middle, shattering her form and forcing her to drag her crumbling apart legs back to her body when she had still been in the process of reforming them.

"You're just like powder, Diane," he laughed a hand to his head, nothing malicious in him. "Jeez, wait until I tell Mr Snake about this!"

She growled, showing her teeth, though they didn't seem as formidable, even as rage burned through her, forcing her concentration into her hands and fingers. Of course, she realised that he was just playing with her, giving her some time to reform before breaking her apart again, though, that time, he allowed her to get all the way back up to her feet, her full height, again.

Diane took a breath, her hands running down her smooth form, though there was nothing on her body to be ashamed of there. Her tail vibrated faintly as, finally, she focused on reforming that, though the wolf grinned and lunged for her, sweeping his hands down through her shoulders, knocking off her arms. She was left with her tail and armless, snapping at him, bristling at even the slightest movement from the canny wolf.

"You're going to have it when I get out of this," she growled, though Moe Wolf did not heed her warning. "I swear, Wolf, you're going to..."

Yet he didn't allow it, flicking her in the nose to make her muzzle crumble, though her eyes shone with self-righteous indignation, not being given any time at all to get herself back together that time. How dare he? That stupid smirk of his, how he laughed and laughed, so hard that he was practically rolling about on the floor. Yet the wolf seemed done with her, for the moment, or perhaps it was his lungs needing some rest after laughing so much at her for so long.

She couldn't help but hate her body, the weakness it left her with, though Diane could at least be grateful that she had the strength of mind to keep reforming herself. It wasn't even as exhausting as it had been before the wolf had gotten there, though she still resented him for putting her through everything that he had been. It wasn't right, though he was, at least, still the kind of friend that she could count on when it was needed.

Shooting him a venomous look as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes, she walked, very carefully, lifting one foot after the other, forcing her toes to remain formed, whole, to a mirror at the side. It was one that had been stolen late in her career, gilded in gold, but the reflective surface was clear, allowing her to take everything in.

Standing completely still, she felt, in a way, that her body was normal, even though she could not feel the texture of fur over it anymore. Her hands ran down her body, rubbing her sides, her hips, even her thighs, everything that she could reach, fascinated and horrified at the same time. The itching was gone, temporarily, blissfully, though she was constantly aware that it would only take a wrong breath or another strike from the wolf to have her scattered on the ground all over again.

Diane shivered, ears twitching, her nose crumbling and itching as she lost her concentration for a fraction of a second.

I hope this is not permanent, she thought to herself, keeping a wary eye on the wolf. I can't...no. I cannot live like this forever.

_ _

For she already yearned for her old body, how strong she had been, the physical feel of her muscles. Now, everything was shaky, unconsciously knowing that she had to take care, so much more care than she usually would.

"Don't worry, Diane," Wolf said, finally coming up to her with the aid of a friend in mind. "I will help you."

It was simply put, but that was just how Moe was: simple. He didn't need grand words or gestures in any way, but he could be there for her, despite her fury at him. That was just ever-present in their relationship, the fox pressing her lips together, shooting him a look out of the corner of her eye, but not saying more than that.

All she had to do was to concentrate. All she had to do was to stop herself from falling apart. Then everything would be okay.

But Diane still didn't truly know that.