Chapter Text
Regect remembers the first time he took off his cloak in front of his new friends.
Moe, who had been the first to see what he looks like underneath the cloth, immediately honked in distress, rambling about how skinny Regect is. He looked as if he was just bones.
The entity had panicked, his mind starting overworking himself to think of any logical excuse until Ze chimed in.
“Regect is an entity Moe, he probably was meant to look like that. Hell, even I could admit that he looks ‘normal’ compared to other entities we've encountered.” the player had reasoned at the time. Thankfully, Moe had calmed down a little and offered Regect for some snacks instead.
Perhaps she doesn't entirely believe in Ze's reasoning. Clever girl.
How kind she was to do that. However, hunger has become much more than just familiar to Regect. He can manage just fine.
“Nu uh, there's no way that I'm going to that party.”
Ze tried to bite down any over-aggresive to response to Regect as he pinched his temple. He could already feel a headache forming from just having a conversation with this entity.
It still surprised Ze on how much they both could really get along based on their ‘trauma bonding’ situation a while ago.
“Honk Honk honk honk honk!” Moe, fresh out of the shower, wearing her outfits of the day chimed in as she walked through the archway into the kitchen.
“Moe’s right. It wasn't always that Ptolemy actually made an individual invitation card for you. We both know that he hates you as much as you hate him, Regect.”
Ze can't help but grumble the last part to himself—though he's more than just sure that Regect could hear him just fine. Just this morning, the three of them received an invitation card to Msak's dessert party. That guy probably learned some new recipes and wanted to share them all again.
The fact that the invites arrived at their mailbox three days before the actual party instead of it being tomorrow like usual implied that Msak had probably learnt a lot more recipes than he always did.
Nothing weird about this, Msak does often sent some invites to them whenever he wanted them to come to his place.
The weird thing is that this time, instead of having his name being mentioned in Moe’s or Ze’s letter, Regect got his own invitation card.
It is odd because all of them know that Ptolemy is the one that usually writes the invitation cards most of the time. Which means that he had written Regect one this time.
“Which gives me more reason to not come. That guy is probably planning to mess with me.” Regect sneered as he crossed his arm on his chest. He doesn't look like he's about to rethink his decision for now.
Ze groaned internally as he tried to reason with Regect, “Dude. It's probably because Mason asked him to do so. You're acting like you don't know them at all.”
To be honest, Ze is also suspicious about why Ptolemy suddenly started writing invitation card for Regect too, but he'll just believe in the possibility that it's just Msak asked him to at least be decent around his cousin. That's not impossible.
“Besides, you only said that because that's exactly what you would've done—” the player’s eyes for some reason are drawn towards the window, his view locked onto the trees outside.
Ze immediately fell silent when he saw the trees glitched out, yellow distorted particles formed around the glitched trees as it shifted from looking like alpha Minecraft trees into realistic real life-trees before finally going back to its normal form, the yellow particles disappeared almost immediately as it did.
What the fuck? The player thought in his head before the sound of Moe’s honks pulled him back into the reality. The clown is now near Regect—his eyes are gone again—honking loudly to snap the entity out of whatever trance he's in while her hands holding onto the entity's arm and shakes it.
Ze had theorized that Regect's eyes would go invisible whenever he's in deep thought. Though right now, he doesn't think that Regect is currently thinking. For some reason, Ze also thinks that this—whatever this is—is completely out of the entity's control.
“...Regect?”
He was more than just taken aback when the entity suddenly inhaled sharply as his eyes snapped back open, a flash of bright golden glow appeared for a second before his black pupil dilated, dimming the golden glow as it constricted back when the glow slowly dissipated.
Ze totally wasn't observing how the entity's ocellus underneath his main eye lagged a bit behind to respond, which is something that almost never happened.
Regect, while looking a bit dazed—does not look confused at all. As a matter of fact, he looks like he knows exactly what just happened to him. He looked quite horrified nervous now.
The entity's eyes trailed down to look at Moe, his pupils locking onto the clown’s fluffy curly hair.
“Heyyy.. so uh, want to start our routine now?” Regect's eyes formed an upturned shape as his voice cracked while he spoke.
This guy sure does have the guts to absolutely ignore what had just happened.
Ze and Moe quickly shared a glance towards each other before the clown honk in agreement. Ze watches as Moe heads towards the living room, followed by Regect who's already holding a hairbrush, not bothering to speak up about the glitches he just saw.
That's gonna be a problem for Tomorrow Ze.
What had just happened is probably just a one time thing anyways. A lot of weird things that had occurred to them ended up being that way.
Universe sure does love to jinx Ze’s words once in a while.
While the day before is completely uneventful aside from the glitch and Regect's sudden change in behavior, nothing weird really happened next. They went on their day, visiting Wakafonte for a bit before going into the interdimensional mall—yeah it's complicated —Regect had brought them in the past, stuff like that.
The real shit happened last night.
After dinner, Moe excitedly shows the two a new horror movie that she wants to watch tonight.
The horror factors that any movies that had ever produced no longer terrified Ze thanks to the shits he'd been through ever since living with Regect and Regect had seen AND experienced some of the horrors is pretty much immune to horror movies considering that he is the horror factor. At least supposed to be of course, he's a defect after all.
With that being said, they two agreed without really thinking much and went straight up to the living room, heading to sit at their respective spot; Moe her on a cute bean bag that is placed next to the couch, Regect on the said couch and Ze right next to Regect, to his dismay.
The movie itself was great. No crappy storylines or mediocre jumpscares, Ze actually enjoyed watching it. Some of the jumpscares actually did take Ze off guard.
However, the movie was not the most terrifying thing that night.
Ze had known Regect to be ridiculously warm. Like a good, comforting type of warm—despite what he is. Ze always feels cringed out everytime he catches himself wanting more of it—sometimes he wishes to be Moe from how she could enjoy Regect's warm hugs without getting embarrassed.
Imagine how taken aback he was when that warmth was replaced with unexplainable coldness when Ze had brushed his hand against Regect's.
The player looked up to see yet again, Regect's eyes had disappeared. What's more concerning was that the guy looked like he had stopped breathing.
Which is weird because Regect doesn't have to breath. Ze had tried to drown and suffocate him—he knows that better than anyone. Perhaps it's how the entity often acts like he does breath most of the time.
Totally not scared shitless at the time, Ze tried to snap Regect out of his trance again by shaking the entity’s shoulder, at first slowly before he started to straight up trying to give the entity shaken adult syndrome.
Regect was still not out of his trance.
Moe quickly joined after seeing that her friend was acting weird again, honking loudly to get his attention only for the familiar golden eyes that often looked at her with such profound gentleness remain invisible.
The entity remained like that for an hour and a half, much longer than he did that morning. Moe was panicking, Ze was panicking, the whole house was mad as hell at the time to make it short.
It was when Ze and Moe were trying to chill each other out despite being absolutely nowhere near being calm themselves that Regect's eyes finally snapped back open just like how it did in the morning, only this time—the entity seemed more worn out and breathless for some reason.
Neither of them even had the chance to ask what the hell had just happened when Regect stood up abruptly, muttering a few excuses to Ze and reassurances to Moe before he practically sprinted to his bedroom, the sound of the door slamming echoed loudly in their house.
Both Ze and Moe had experienced how softly and kindly Regect could speak to them when he wanted to. Neither of them however were familiar with how weak he could sound like..
Ze was starting to think that something is going on with Regect, and the fact that that chud had overslept this morning just proves his point even more.
Despite how much of a chud Regect is, Ze could admit that he's still good at many things Ze doesn't like building and waking up before sunrise.
That and the fact that Regect doesn't have an appetite for breakfast. Even though that mf doesn't have to eat—never once had he ever refused food, ESPECIALLY when it was Moe who cooked it.
Not to mention that Regect had just refused the fluffy pancakes he had been talking about nonstop in the past—this guy is definitely unwell if he's not straight up dying.
Ze may not be religious, but he had prayed for any deity out there that might listen to never take his first actual friend in a long time from him.
So let's see, Regect looked absolutely tired, he lost appetite to eat, he's WAY quieter than he should be.
If Ze said he wasn't worried, his pants would be on fire and his nose would be growing long as a telephone wire.
With that being said, Ze once again decided to lower down his ego and act decently towards the clearly unwell entity.
Which is why Ze decided to bring Regect to go do some normal Minecraft stuff. He hadn't done that in a while. He went into his bedroom and looked into the chest that contains his items from the earlier time he was in this world. The diamond armour and pickaxe he remembered crafting are still there and in a good condition—so the player wasted no time to grab it and throw it on.
After grabbing more items like torches, food, etc, Ze went into the living room to ask Regect the question.
Upon walking in, the player saw that Regect is wearing his cloak—the one he would wear whenever they goes outside.
It's been so long since the last time Ze saw Regect wearing that white with purple edges—that he swore sometimes actually glowed—garment indoors. He almost thinks that there's a reason why the entity actually wore that thing.
….
Actually no, maybe Regect just got cold and decided to wear the cloak anyways despite being indoors. Yeah, that's totally it.
“Hey.” Ze called out after him. Thankfully, Regect actually responded to Ze by moving his main eye from the TV—while letting the ocellus stay locked on it—to look at the player.
Seeing that Regect is not going to say anything about how Ze just interrupted him from watching his show, Ze decided to just continue speaking right away, his voice fully hesitant and a bit awkward.
“Um.. I'm going out to find some coal and other stuff. Wanna come?” he asks.
Ze wasn't sure why, but there's something different with how Regect looked at him. Perhaps it's how he looks exhausted and much more closed than often.The entity looks like he's considering Ze’s kind offer he shrugged and grabbed the remote control to turn off the TV.
“Yeah sure. I could do that.” The entity replied as he stood up straight from the couch. Now that he's sure that Regect is really coming with him, Ze turned on his heels and walked towards the front door to leave the house, Regect followed close behind him. They're ready to get this adventure going.
Well, after they told Moe about where they're going, of course.
For some reason, Ze ended up going to the very first cave he had gone into in this world.
Considering that he hadn't been playing Minecraft like he should be, Ze is understandably a bit rusty, especially his swordsmanship skill.
He tried to be fair and square and tried to eliminate the hostile mobs that had spawned in the caves using a normal Minecraft sword.
Too bad that the skeletons were actually getting on his nerves that he ended up pulling out his gun anyways.
Regect is still quiet through the journey into the caves. The only time he spoke up is when he's telling Ze where and what ores are in the area and when he's telling Ze to watch out for the cave spiders.
While Ze does appreciate the gesture—this chud of an entity is finally using his ability for good—he still misses the old Regect he knows. It got real awkward quickly when only the sound of some bats and water dripping from the roof of the cave among many other things are accompanying them at the moment.
Ze is mining yet another diamond Regect had helped him to find—seriously, that entity could do that this entire time yet he just watched as he used to struggle to even find iron back then?—while the entity sat on the makeshift bench he made.
For some reason, Ze feels irritated at Regect. It sounds stupid, considering that the entity hadn't even looked in his direction except for earlier.
He can't help but feel guilty again. After all, this whole ordeal kinda began to happen after he snapped at Regect after having a horrible conversation with his father awhile ago.
He doesn't even know what is wrong with Regect this time.
“So.. is everything okay?” His voice cracked, feeling himself cringed out at how awkward he sounds. He got even more flustered when Regect didn't respond to him, letting the silence made Ze even more irritated.
“REGECT!” he can't help but raise his voice, feeling way too embarrassed at having to become vulnerable for this chud again.
The said entity yelped as he straightened up his body, clearly snapped out of whatever trance he was in. Again.
“Wha—What was that for!?” Regect shouted back. This guy sure has the guts to ask that question.
“What was that for?” The player repeated what the entity had said, his voice almost mocking to hide the concern he had for the entity. “You’re the one who keeps zoning out! What is wrong with you?”
Regect stared at the player for a good second before sighing and looking away, his eyes now forming a downturned shape as he stared at the stone floor. “It’s nothing Ze.”
Oh this mf is actually denying it—
“Nothing my ass.” Ze slammed his pickaxe onto the ground, letting the tool’s blade dig deep into the stone as he fully faced the entity he called his friend. “Who the hell are you trying to deceive Regect? Because it's really obvious that you're not okay, I can see it, Moe can see it, even Wakafonte could see it—and we only saw that guy for a few seconds yesterday.”
Regect is stuttering now, his mind working overtime to think of something to say that won't make Ze push for more explanation. “I’m serious Ze! I'm just tired.”
That wasn't entirely a lie.
Too bad that Ze ain't having it. “Is it about Mason’s party? Dude, if you're really insisting to not go then fine! Don't go! You don't have to throw a tantrum like this—”
“NO! I-it’s not about that—” even though Regect doesn't exactly want to tell Ze the truth, he is not going to let misunderstanding happen either.
“Then what is it!?” the player yelled, his voice so loud that the floor of the cave shook as the sound echoed through the chambers.
Unintentionally gaining the attention of a few hostile mobs in there.
“Can’t you see that you're freaking Moe out? That you're freaking me out!? What the hell is going on with you!?”
“Oh that's rich coming from you—We’ve literally only learned more about you after that QnA session we had that one time. You out of many people here don't deserve to be saying these shits the most!”
Ze gritted his teeth as he thought twice to not say anything he’ll regret at the moment. He doesn't want to make this situation any worse.
“Well God forbid I actually act a bit nicer to you instead of tormenting you 24/7 like you usually would do to me!
The player’s getting almost pissed at Regect. Can't he see that Ze’s lowering his guard once again just to comfort whatever is bothering Regect since yesterday?
He doesn't even bother lowering his voice now, letting the loud sound echo through the chambers.
Makes it easier for the horde of the mobs to find them both.
“You don't have to worry, okay!? It's nothing that big—like I said, I'm just tired!”
“BULLSHIT! You overslept this morning Regect! You never do that!? And also—you literally got into some kind of ‘trance’ yesterday, and not just once—twice!”
Ze's is on his fullest volume by now, his voice completely overpowering the sound of the bubbling lava in the background, the sounds of the bats and other critters in the caves—with emotions that the player could label to be a form of concern.
Though it might just seem like Ze’s just being a jerk. After all, he's not good at showing his emotions—especially the much softer ones like concern. He never really has to worry about someone like this.
Well, besides that one time with his mum—
Regect was taken aback, by what Ze wasn't really sure—but the player could see that the entity was about to give his own piece of mind before the pupils of his locked onto something behind Ze that his golden eyes widened.
“Ze, DUCK—”
A sharp sound of something akin to an arrow flying through the air cut through the atmosphere as it went past Ze, barely missing his head.
The player whirled his head around as he looked behind his back.
There's a literal horde of zombies and skeletons heading their way. Shit. Maybe he was a little bit too loud.
Instinct that he had gained from joining the bootcamp kicked in immediately as he reached for his gun in his inventory and wasted no time to start shooting.
He would use a sword, but again—he’s rusty at using that thing.
Besides, he's better at using his babies—all of his aims hit right where he wanted them to be. The sound of the mobs hitting the ground after the loud bang is like music to Ze’s ears.
Ze couldn't even look back to see how Regect is holding on behind him from how much the monsters are coming into his face. He wasn't even sure if that chud is still behind him—he could've teleported away, leaving Ze behind. That had happened before.
As he once again tried to turn around to check if the entity's still with him, the loud bang of the gun stopped as the sound of the trigger clicking replaced it.
Shit—Ze forgot to bring some ammos with him!
The player cussed under his breath as he hurled the gun and the nearest zombie in frustration, admittedly feeling a bit satisfied at the sound of the metal hitting the rotting flesh of the monster’s head.
The horde is getting closer and closer, Ze—and Regect if he really is still here—are practically up against the cave wall with nowhere to go.
Ze couldn't get his eyes off the approaching mobs as he continues dodging the skeletons' aim, but he really need to look at Regect right now (for some reason).
“Rege—!”
Before he could truly turn his head fully to look behind, Ze could feel a familiar blunt claws gripping him by the hood of his sweater as yanked the player backwards against the wall.
The player gasped in surprise and pain as he felt pain on his spine. Maybe he had bruised something? Regect's pulls aren't exactly that hard—for Ze—so he's confident that the entity hadn't hurt him that much.
That statement was shaken a bit when Ze could feel faint cracks at the spot where he had hit the wall.
Ze's temper raised up a little once again as he felt pissed at Regect's sudden harshness… and also the nasty pain he had caused him.
Ze felt a tiny hint of fear as well. Regect hurt him like this, even the punches he gives when they're wrestling aren't as rough as this one.
“What the fuck Regect!? What is up with you—”
Ze left his word hanging when he saw how… Well—intimidating Regect is standing in front of him against the zombie-skeleton horde. He could see that the entity's cloak is swaying with motion as if there's some wind blowing on them.
Which makes it weirder. They're so deep in the cave chamber that no wind could actually be present there.
What the hell is Regect's doing??
As the horde is getting into their radius, Ze saw how the band thingies on both Regect's arms, one on his invisible leg and one acting as a collar on his neck shined brightly for a moment.
With it, Ze once again saw a familiar looking glitch texture forming around Regect's feet. What? He thought.
The distorted golden particles appeared too, just like with the trees he saw the other day. Though Ze couldn't think much about it when suddenly—
A loud, piercing shriek of the zombies and the skeletons echoed through the chamber, an almost deafening scream of pain that Ze never heard the mobs make took Ze off guard.
The loud shriek had caused Ze to take off his headphone in real time as he hissed in pain, his ears ringing from how loud it was. What the fuck is going on.
Ze tried to focus on the screen to see that Regect is still standing statically in front of the now writhing mobs, their bones and rotting body looks like they're on… fire?
How the hell did that happen—THEY’RE IN A CAVE??
and what the hell is wrong with Regect—is this his doing!?
As if to answer his question, the surroundings of the cave started glitching horribly, the golden particles appearing alongside it… and the screams of pain became louder.
It is so loud that despite not having his headphones on anymore, the sound of it managed to make it reverberate through his bedroom.
What started like a normal shrieking suddenly turns guttural and blood curling almost sounding like a human screaming. Ze was so horrified by the sounds these undead mobs are making. Did Regect seriously the one who's doing this?
The shrieking slowly got louder and higher in pitch and with that, Ze’s laptop screen started to go crazy as well. Flashes of glitching texture that goes from something realistic, something that came from the alpha Minecraft and some he couldn't explain go through his screen.
Just before he could call out for Regect—
The screaming stopped. Same goes with the glitches on his screen.
The most obvious difference would be that the large horde of zombies and skeletons are gone completely. Though not a single item drops or levels are on the ground.
It's as if they were never there.
Now that the screen is clear, Ze could see that Regect, who had earlier stood so tall is now wheezing on the ground, the white cloak highlighting the entity's spine completely.
Ze scrambled to put back his headphone on and moved his key to sprint towards Regect.
“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?” He shouted, though his hands straight up went to hold onto Regect gently to help him up.
The entity shoved his hand aside.
“No. Just… don't.” The entity whispered, his usually deep voice is now accompanied by some cracks in it. Ze couldn't even see Regect's eyes to properly read his emotions.
“Regect, what did you just do!? I mean—was whatever that just happened is your doing? Are you hurting—GOSH you look even horrible now—” Ze can't help but start rambling as he frantically inspects his friend without actually touching the guy. Ze is actually HORRIFIED right now—PETRIFIED even!
The said entity ignores Ze completely as he tries to stand back up, his body shaking as he does as he uses the cave wall as a leverage.
Ze is still shooting more concern words and questions—it makes him look out of character for him to worry for Regect like this. The same goes for Regect with how he's acting right now.
CRACK!
A sound of something cracked open startled Ze as he suddenly got quiet while Regect immediately froze.
Ze, while confused, glanced at Regect who’s back is facing him while his position makes it look like he's looking down at something.
The player approaches the entity slowly to not startle him—he wants to see what Regect is looking at.
His eyes widened at the sight of Regect holding one of his golden hand band thingy—one that was on the side of his invisible arm.
It is cracked upon.
Ze is confused on how clean the crack on the band is. It almost looks like a perfect cut. Almost.
Regect however, was quiet as he stared at his broken band.
… Is he upset about it? After all, Ze had asked Regect about why he's wearing all of these golden bands stuff on him before. He had answered that it's fashionable and it makes him look cool.
The way the entity had said it at the time made it obvious that it's not the only reason for him to wear those bands but Ze hadn't pushed much.
Maybe the broken band happened to be Regect's favourite one? Regect is the most dramatic entity Ze had ever known.
“Regect—”
“I think..”
Ze, for some odd reason, got goosebumps on his body. His back immediately straightened up, and dread… for some reason, is felt inside him.
“... It's time to go home.”.
Regect's voice is different. It is still deep, yes, but it sounds clearer. As if he's actually saying it next to Ze’s ears instead of from a speaker—if it makes sense.
It felt.. unnatural.
Scary—
Regect drop the broken band on the ground, letting the sound of the impact bounce off the cave wall.
Before Ze could say anything, his sight blurred—not his screen, but his literal sight—and when it was clear again, they're no longer at the cave.
They're at home. In front of the staircase to be exact.
Regect had teleported them home.
The entity glanced at Ze for a second before going upstairs so quickly that the player didn't even realize that he's already moving.
The sound of the door slammed shut echoes through the house, the silent, lonely house.
Moe must be out to run some errands.
Ze deeply inhaled as he pinched his temple. He's not even going to try to talk to Regect today.. maybe let him cool down a bit.
Gosh, today is really weird—and it's not even midday yet.