Boxcutters. Tails hated that word with a passion. Tails always disliked incredibly sharp things, as he had a very bad experience with them back on West Side Island. One of the bullies always chased him around with a sharp object in hand, and it wasn't a pleasant experience when the bully caught up to him.
Eventually, his discomfort towards sharp objects had manifested into certain key items that caused him great distress whenever it was mentioned in a conversation or whenever it just caught his eye. They were tools. Potato peelers, needles, awls, but especially box cutters. Whenever anything involved boxcutters, that would occupy Tails' mind rent-free for as long as it desired. Sometimes it was as quick as a minute, but sometimes it lasted for an hour.
The thoughts varied from object to object, but the premise was the same. It involved him being punctured or sliced by said objects in spots he hated the most. His Achilles heel, his cuticles, his wrist, his lower neck and shoulders, his gums, and his eyes. All of these areas would be in constant torment by his mind whenever it had the chance. And as one would suspect, it was difficult to function normally when the only thing that your mind could come up with was the sensation one feels when their wrists were being pressed.
Currently, Tails had been watching a video in his spare time when the video in question started showing an image of a boxcutter. Tails tried to ignore it, but he knew that he would have to close the video. the moment those things appeared on the screen. Tails closed the tab, turned on some music, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He put on a playlist of dumb memes that would hopefully take his mind off of things. It worked, but it took huge mental fatigue on himself just trying to end his pain. Tails sighed. Thinking about it more would only lead to him being in more pain, but it was so difficult to stop thinking about something.
Tails curled up into a ball, hugging his legs and trying to hide his sensitive areas from the open air as much as he possibly could.
This was a regular occurrence.
Another short chapter. I wanted to ease people into this, and I wanted to spend the first couple of chapters emphasizing what it's like to be in Tails' situation. Not gonna lie, writing this was really hard for me as well. I promise that chapters will eventually be 2k words long like usual, but I have something specific in mind here with these early chapters so I hope you stick by to see what happens. It will get more interesting.