"Absolutely! We'll make the suits, sell them online, and we'll split the profits. It'll be great!"
"Earth to Joseph. Fur-suits are niche. Like, SUPER niche. It'd be really difficult to even begin to make a profit from those. Plus, we haven't even made one yet!"
"It's never too late to start. But Derek, I thought you would be happy about this. You're my only fur friend around here. Even if we don't make that much money, life isn't about money. It's about the experiences, and I've always wanted to do this. Don't you want to do it too?"
"Well...yeah, but it's too much money. Too much effort. Too small of a pay-off. It's not worth it. Let's just forget about it."
"Derek, plllleeeeeaaaassssseeee, please help me. You're the only person I know who's a fur, and I can't do it with anyone else in this town."
"Umm...I dunno..."
"Derek, c'mon! We're the two fur buddies! We can do anything if we put our mind to it."
"I guess so..."
Later that day, we went to a crafts store in our town, and I helped him pick out materials for his fursona, which he called "IceFire, the Snow Wolf". After we found some fabric that looked suitably "furry" and some boots that he could later modifiy into wolf paws, we made our way back to his house. He was so excited. I'd never seen him more happy in my life. I figured that, being a constant procrastinator, Joseph would eventually give up on his fusuit dreams. Unfortunately, he didn't.
In the period of a few months, he worked tirelessly on his fursuit. It looked amazing. He consulted a bunch of internet guides on how to do it, and the end result was fantastic. I'm not even a furry, but even I could admire the sheer amount of detail that went into it. When he had the suit on, he looked like a walking, talking wolf. And it scared the f*** out of me.
Not in the sense that the costume was so realistic that I mistook him for a real wolf, but in the sense that I felt that he and I had crossed a certain societal boundary that I felt deeply uncomfortable with. You'd think that being a brony would've numbed me to thoughts about being "too different" or "too weird", but this...this was too much.
"Well, I was thinking we could start working on your suit now. And before you start saying how it's not worth the money, or how it's not going to be fun, just think about what it will be like to be at Anthrocon. You saw those videos I sent you! It looked fun, right? Everybody there was having a good time. Furries are the happiest people on the planet. We could get away from all the negativity here."
"I don't know...I guess."
"Look, are you a fur, or are you not? Because I've been seriously wondering lately."
"I AM a fur!" I insisted, not wanting to hurt his feelings. "It's just that I need more time to think about it, okay? I've never been to a con before, and it makes me nervous."
"Don't be nervous! It's fun! And everyone is accepting."
"I know, but...look, I have to go, okay? I have to take care of something."
"Ok..."
I left his house, feeling terrible. I have to tell him. I'm just not into the furry fandom. It creeps me out. I don't like the feeling of being "close" with a particular animal. It's cool with the ponies because they're sort of like, I dunno, fictional aliens in a way, but fursuits are based of of real animals. It just doesn't sit well with me. It's too deviant.
What should I do? Should I tell him how he feel? That I've just been going along with his furry antics to make him feel good about himself? That I lied to him all this time?