Chapter Text
The sound of flesh emerging from the protagonist's back, Hearing the breaths of a friend being choked out by a force of groans.
It's a pretty horrific scene. Just think about it, seeing your friend in a tub having their back being pried open by two meaty lumps? Not a pretty site. Which was why the entity body froze still.
“I- w.. I was coming to see what was up- Holy.. shit.. HOLY SHIT” Regect losing his breath, the entity taking a step back from the bloody tub. Being panicked he quickly closed the curtains to hide the bloody man.
wtf WAS THAT or IS that?? He opens the curtains again, “Ze- ZE WHATS GOING ON?? I- II heard SCREAMING so I thought to- to check on you!” Regect says unbelievably fast. “y- you need HELP LIKE NOW” No shit Sherlock. Ze was shaking violently, unable to fully look up at the man who stood above him.
It was practically no use to ask for information of the situation, he seemed to be barely responsive, flinching every time the raw skin pulled upwards.
But.. this seemed familiar, if only Regect would calm down to think about it. No hope for him though, his mind was racing, thinking about all the blood spasmsing and flowing everywhere. Was this is? Was he going to die?? No- this can’t happen again!.. not like-
Regect opened his mouth to call out for Moe before he stopped. Moe wasn’t home, she previously left to go out with her circus friends. She wouldn't be back until tomorrow!
Regect took a step back- looking around for anything that could be useful. a first-aid-kit. No.. what the hell is a first aid kit going to do? Regect breathed heavily in panic, finally spotting Ze's towel.
The entity runs out of the bathroom opening the closet full of towels. Regect never knew why they needed so many, him, Ze and Moe only used one. But there was really no time to question stupid stuff like that.. His friend is literally bleeding out in the tub!
Running back with the towels in hand,Regect stared at the hurled player. It was difficult looking at Ze, struggling to maintain eye contact.
.
Regect always loved to always see Ze annoyed, angry and purposely starting fights with him. But this- this is something he never wanted to see in Ze, the terror in his trembling eyes as he struggled to keep awake, his back all open and exposed, raw in the moist air
Regect takes the showerhead down, unknowingly giving Ze a slight relief, and starts to gently place the towels on top of Ze's back.
With disappointment, the towels instantly stoaked with blood. “Oh, come on!” Regect paused for a sec, scared that thinking if he talked too loud it would cause more unnecessary nonsense. Holding his breath for a few seconds Regect could see that Ze was at least breathing, he sighed.
Regect had doubts about bringing him to a hospital, what would they even do? Stitch him up? He had a gut feeling that if he brought him there he wouldn't survive.
Hearing the weakened man cry loud in pain, pained Regect, it was disgusting. Every nerve in his body told him to run, to forget that this was happening, to forget ALL OF IT and come back to a time where Ze would yell at him to sleep.
“okay.. Hey!- hey i.. everything's going to be okay” it was NOT going to be “okay” his back is busted! Who knows how long he was like this for?
Regects recalls a foggy memory with Ptolemy, an old one at best.. it was before meeting Ze, a conversation that he never really paid attention to “if it looks like nature let it happen, don't fully engage” if Regect had to take a guess on why this was happening it was being caused by a force, a force that did not rely on medical care, a force that needed to be done and finished by Ze himself.
He’d need to take this gamble. Turning the water into a lukewarm instead of its hot form.
Regect steps into the tub that's covered in muddy blood. He needed to reposition Ze into a better position, he needed his body more straightened out.
Grabbing Ze's sore waist, the man yelled. Regect tried shushing him, reassuring him that he'd be okay and it's only a second before it ends, like going to the doctor to get a shot and ending up blinking for it to be all over. Saying so, it seemed Ze was ready to endure the pain, for Regect picking him up, ready to feel his skin feel like a soggy napkin, ripping softly.
Regect now, on his knees, slowly turning Ze's body towards him. Laying back into the tub together
Ze, wraps around his arms around Regects waist, softly crying in his half visible stomach.
Regect looks at the damage, the constant moving bulge of meat with tiny feathers poking through, seemed to only be half way out. Regect hesitates before taking his hands and rubs Ze's neck and shoulder, lightly pouring water on his arms instead of his opened back, trying to show comfort. But it may seem like Ze will need to soon take control of the situation.
“Cmon man, you gotta somehow control these and force them out!” He whispered closely.
He couldn't, his body was nearly fully numb, if he can barely feel his body then how can he feel THOSE things. Ze didn't even know what was peeling out of him. But to make things worst Ze was also going in and out of conscience, even trying to take control of whatever Regect was asking him to move he couldn't even stay awake to do it for long..
Everything was so sore, Ze didn't even care that he was naked with Regect.. maybe he should have called for help before, maybe everything could have been planned better, maybe if he went to the doctor like Moe suggested to him countless times, he could have prevented this from happening.
It was so cold.
.
“Jesus Christ man, I- It is going to last so so much longer if you don't!"
he'll try.. if only he could just feel where it is, where it connects.
“God.. shit man… c’mon!” Regect was trying to steady his breath, trying to not let too much panic show
It had to have been hours of muffled screams, agonizing headaches, after what felt like all night.. Ze was finally able to make a twitch on his right wing– doing so sent pain down his spine making him jolt his body. Regect flinched, but understanding what he just did, he encouraged Ze to keep going
…
Another rip, god it felt like hell. Not knowing how to move the wings made it all so much worse, bending it the wrong way, making his body flinch. The throbbing was unbearable, Ze's heartbeat pounding in his ear, hearing a dark muffled voice coming from Regects small speeches towards him.
It was nice being able to hear some things instead of a ringing blocking all sound.
Luckily, Ze was almost done! Just a near single string of thin fresh wrapped around the raw wings. At this point Regect was covered in blood, Ze's back had a deep dark glaze of blood on his back. Some dry, some fresh.
Pulling his wings more finally got the last bit of his flesh to break off, with the last bit of his strength finally being able to breath better, headache disappearing, Ze nuzzeled up closer to the entity, hearing his breathing before eventually passing out from exhaustion
Regect looked down at the now fragile Ze, stroking Ze's hair “How did this even turn out to be?..”
—-
Half an hour goes by and oh boy.. the struggle Regect had picking this guy up. He’s now 10x heavier than before!! I guess that's what happens when you add another patch of bone, muscle, and skin to humans..
“Jesus man.. you did not need to gain weight” Regect complains, almost dropping him from how slippery the guy was. Must of been caused by the shower
Stepping out of the tub Regect angrily spouting about every little thing that made things difficult, the air being muggy, how dirty the place was, how he was gonna need to clean everything up because Ze cant to shit! But with every little complaint helped with the stress of the situation.
After trial and error Regect FINALLY got Ze into his bed, scouring for his clothes to force onto him. But as he gets a (Z)-shirt, Regect miraculously gains a brain cell and realizes that Ze's t-shirt had been stopped by his wings, having it hang weirdly. Not wanting to take off his shirt Regect lightly tucks the t-shirt the best he can around the humans body and leaves it there.
Regect flops next to Ze, resting his head as he thinks about what he's gonna tell Moe.. That Ze almost has a death experience? He'd just.. It's a future problem for him!
But.. How did this even happen? Regect thinks.. was Ze secretly a bird guy? Did he try to do some weird ritual in the shower but failed miserably? Did someone plant golden seeds that made him fly up into the air and sprout win- okay.. Regect was thinking too much out of reality.
Even with how hard Regect thought on how this could have started, he couldn't think of anything plausible enough to feel like it's true. For now though he needed to sleep. And sleep he did.
–
Waking up from one of the best sleeps yet, Regect looked to his side to see Ze still asleep peacefully. Giving a big sigh of relief that he didn't just kill someone last night. Looking upon the player, Ze's wings seemed to become white!- or while Regect got up, they were fully covered in feathers.
Regect slightly lifted Ze's shirt to find that feathers have scattered everywhere, from his chest to his back, and even some on his shoulders. Putting Ze's shirt down like the gentleman Regect is, and gets up to prepare for the mess around the house.
Regect personally didn't think it was too bad, but looking around the room, and outside Ze's door, clothes and dry blood stained towels were everywhere. Taking a big breath, Regect started to clean up the place. “Only time I'm ever doing this” Regect annoyingly mumbled.
Entering the bathroom that looked like a crime scene, he picks up the leftover towels, Regect heads downstairs to place the red(brown) laundry in a basket.
Knock knock knock.
Someone at the door.
“It's Ptolemy!”
That motherfucker.
“Why is this bastard knocking at the door at this hour??” Regect jumped at the knocking. Looking at the time it was 9:30am.
Approaching and opening the door Regect was met with a really ugly centipede… It was Ptolemy! Regects LEAST favorite person and was NOT pleased to see him of all people at this time. Regect literally just went through hell all night. Regect still needed time to process last night.
“Hello.. Regect.. is Moe around?” Ptolemy asked, trying to sound decently nice towards Regect.
Ptolemy held a few clean food containers, twitching his antennae, he stepped forward bring the containers outwards to Regect
“These are from Christmas, Mason wanted me to return them to her”
“It's… June.” Regect replies, sounding tired.
“I am quite aware…” He paused “I know I couldn't care much but you look awful” he said in disgust, even quickly forcing the containers in Regects hands, pulling them away to his torso
“Woow thanks. You know you could of thrown these out, we wouldn't have cared” Regect said rolling his eyes
He walked towards the kitchen placing the clean containers down on the counter.
The centipede took another step forward towards the door entrance. “May I come inn?” he asked, he didn't really mean to say ‘in’ for that long
“I'd.. I'd rather you fuck offf” the entity said, slightly mimicking Ptolemys tone but better.
Regect looked back, sighing in defeat. He was too tired to start a fight. “I- I guess whatever.. Moe's not around” finally answering his question
“I am aware, I would have heard of her by now.” He softly chuckled, fully stepping inside of the house closing the door behind him. Ptolemy hummed “you look like you've spilled jam on yourself, you smell terrible too, has anyone mentioned that to you?”
“Are you just here to be a bitch?” Lightly slamming his hand on the counter.
“I’m just very worried” Ptolemy smiled.
“no you're not” he knew damn well he didn't, they have strictly accepted that they hated eachother, thats how its always been.
“I-” Regect sighed “look i have THINGS to do! Much more imporTANT than you right now”
“And THANKS for bringing in these containers but you can leave now! I cant-” Regect covers his face, heavily sighing, breathing in a bit to loudly then he intended
Regect slammed himself in the wall, sliding down, curling up into himself. I think the night is starting to get to him.. :/
“What happened? I've heard from Ze that chores around the house have been causing some stress, Mason has kicked me out so I wouldn't mind helping out..” Ptolemy suggested, actually sounding a bit pitiful towards the asshole
Looking up towards the man who hovered above him tearfully. “I.. I don't know what happened to him- i-” …. “IT JUST CAME OUT OF HIM, THE SOUNDS, I-”
“Who??”
Regect led him towards Ze's room, it was a mess, lots of clothes everywhere, drawers open, Regect probably could have at least pushed the stuff to the side but its whatever.
“Jesus christ..” the centipede spoke up “what happened?..” now sounding generally concerned.
“Shit man, i- I dont know.. last night I heard screaming in the washroom- I went to go check to tell him to be quiet, when I opened the door he was..” Regect cutted himself there, he didn't want to relive what happened.
Ptolemy approached Zes bed, getting a better view of his back. “I didn't know Ze was an avian..”
“Though, aren't they born with wings?” He added
Regect was about to reply but before he did..
A what??
Regect looked at Ptolemy in confusion “a what?”
“An.. avian?” he repeats himself saying it more cautiously “though, avians have more feathers on their body. Not sure if its because it happened now or something else”
“What the hell is an avian????” Saying more freaked out then confused “Ze’s human! or- or WAS human..??” he took a step back, nearly tripping on his tail.
Ptolemy was walking around the bed, casually going over to Ze to see his current condition, rolling him on his back and checking the durability of his wings “an avian is a bird, or in his case a humanoid bird-like species.. kinda similar to angels if compared them by looks, but avians are more feathery” he slightly chuckled
“Huhh???? He.. ?????????????????” Regect was CLEARLY confused and unable to form a proper sentence “So this wasn't caused by someone planting golden seeds that made him fly up into the air and sprout win-”
“What are you even talking about??” Ptolemy looked at him confusingly. Regect was for sure losing it and Ptolemy was about to win a bet very soon.
Regect explains the situation to Ptolemy, hoping he could gather another mind to help out. They do say two minds think alike..
“I see.. you said this started last night?” Ptolemy asked, he was still at Ze's wings, moving it up and down and checking around the now grown feathers “I will have to admit, im very impressed on how fast his feathers grew in. It's nearly full grown, but I do suggest washing them. Yes, the dried- I'm assuming blood.. will come off but its better to get it done and over with” Ptolemy was basically rambling, he seemed to know A LOT about what was happening to Ze.
“You.. you seem to really know a lot.. About this i mean.."
“I've met many avians before, they were at our family reunions.” Ptolemy explains
“I never really paid attention.. I was sorta beefing with you..” Regect admitted.
A bit of silence had passed, Ptolemy uncomfortably close to Ze, nearly examining every part of Ze. “Dude, would you back up??” Regect aggressively said. Ptolemy listened, fighting right now would not be very good. Sure! Ze was knocked out in a deep slumber but the odds of him waking up are still possible and if he were to wake up, it would lead Ze either in pain or panic.
“You should take a shower.. again, you look…” before Ptolemy could finish what he was saying, Regect mumbled “okay..” and walked out of the room to do so.
It was truly nice to have someone to talk to about what happened.. and Ptolemy helping him in this was refreshing. Regect does kinda feel bad not informing Moe on the pretty significant situation but maybe it is for the best.. Regects gonna tell her soon, when she gets back.
Entering the bathroom, he could feel the tension. Some of the blood was on the walls, dried but that didn't make much of a difference. Regect sighed, turning on the shower and stepping in to wash the left over blood that clinged to his fur.
All Regect wanted to do was shower and try to pass out for longer. But thinking about his friend made him feel selfish for his desires.
Not wanting to put himself in anymore despair Regect closed his eyes..