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Gooey Feathers
By Featherfriend24601
The man screamed as the monster approached. He desperately yanked on the handle of the door, but it was locked shut. Yelling, he pounded on the metal door hopelessly. Then the man turned around, flattened himself against the door, and wailed at the sight of the monster. It looked like a pile of angry red and white goo, and it was coming right for him! Within seconds it was on him, and the man was dissolving into it, but then the goo began going up him, and now he was part of the goo!
A man watched as this occurred, his thin and frail body hidden deep within his green baggy clothes. The frail man chuckled as he grabbed a few salted peanuts from a paper bag and popped them into his mouth. Even though he had seen this movie six times before and knew exactly what would happen, he still loved this scene every time it came up, for this was the part where the bad guy was defeated. The bad guy was a smarmy looking white dude with slicked back hair, who wore a fancy suit and talked a big talk about profit and evolution, and who always showed up at every twist and turn to stop the good guys. But eventually he gets eaten by one of the monsters he made and is defeated like all bad guys are, and this always made the frail man feel good.
The end of the movie came, and the frail man leaned forwards. He knew what was going to happen, for this was the part where the hero wins and celebrates. The hero, he was a handsome man, also white but not smarmy looking. With him is a young lady, and the two of them ride off into the sunset on a red hotrod ride. Then the credits rolled, and the theater was plunged into darkness. The frail man looked around and noted that he was the only one in the room. This was how it had been the past six times he came here, but whatever thoughts he might have had about this always disappeared once his gaze was transfixed on that magic screen. Now, he gave thought to this. Some of the guys had been saying things about some virus that was making people drop left and right, and it was making people real scared. They were even saying that the theaters would close soon. This thought made the frail man sad, because then he wouldn't be able to see the movie no more.
He got up, stretched, and made his way out of the dark room. As he walked through the small lobby, he passed by a man who was sweeping up popcorn. The man looked up and nodded, and the frail man nodded back. The folks at the dollar theater were always so nice. They always waved and said hi to him, and though the theater didn't allow anyone to bring food in the workers didn't care and let the frail man bring in a bag of peanuts. Sometimes they even gave him a bit of popcorn for free. As he left through the double doors of the building, he paused in the middle of the sidewalk and looked back, staring up at the front of the theater. Every time he came a couple more lightbulbs on the big sign of the building went out, and the letters of the movie titles were falling off, but it did not change the fact that this was his favorite place in the whole wide city. Perhaps the theater was going to close soon, and its magic screens would go dark forever as the nice workers left, but the frail man still had a few dollars on him, so he could look forward to seeing the movie right up until the lights of the big sign went out.
Turning, he walked down the sidewalk and across the street. He kept walking, turning every now and then, until he came upon the alley which he was familiar with. Smiling, he turned around the corner of the alley then stopped. In front of him was a large person who blocked his path like a menacing wall of shadow. Before he could even think about running or fighting, he felt a sudden sharp pain from behind, and everything went dark.
~~
The frail man crashed to the floor, his entire body heaving as he violently coughed up clear fluids. When he had finally managed to empty his lungs of the stuff, he lay on the ground for a while, catching his breath. He did not know how long he was in that state, but it must have been some time. Eventually a modicum of strength returned to his limbs, and he slowly pushed himself off the ground and sat up. He looked around and saw that he was in a room with stark, sterile white surfaces. Strange instruments and devices were littered atop shelves, and there was a grey pod on one wall with a wide-open door. Looking down he noticed that he was sitting in a puddle of clear fluid and realized that he must have fallen out of the pod. But how did he end up here? And why? The only thing the frail man could last remember was that he was headed towards his sleeping spot when he ran into a large figure, then he felt pain from behind, and now he was in some sort of lab looking place.
He brought his gaze back up and noticed that some of the glass things in the lab were broken, and blotches of white stuff clung to the walls. The frail man did not know where he was, or what was happening, but he knew from the movies that these lab places were no good, so he needed to get out of here. Shakily, he got to his feet, then he noticed that he felt cold. Looking down again, he saw that he was wearing nothing except for a pair of black skintight shorts. Then a horrifying realization came upon him. All his belongings were gone! His backpack filled to the brim, his large and warm coat with pockets stuffed with things, his plastic basket loaded with food and gear, it was all gone, and nowhere to be seen in the room.
While some people might say otherwise, the man was rich, and had accumulated a great wealth over the years. He remembered clearly, he had a good book which he enjoyed reading, given to him by a friendly man on a bike wearing a white shirt, a pair of comfy sneakers which he got from a nice old lady, sized for children but which fit perfectly on him, a sturdy black military machete from a surplus store which he used to cut wood in the morning, and which one time scared off a ruffian who had a wicked knife in his hand. These and many more he had, but now they were gone, all gone. The frail man was rich and dressed as a king, but now he was poor and naked, and this made him feel sadder and lonelier than waking up in the strange room did.
He shook his head and thought about what the heroes in the movies would do. No matter how bad things looked, they always put on a brave face and made do with what they had. At this thought he straightened his back as best he could and determined that he would get out of here and recover his belongings. He noticed a door and walked to it. There was no handle, but next to the door was a red button. The frail man pressed it, and the door opened with a whoosh. He backed up a step, then walked forwards and leaned his head out. The door opened out into a hallway, white just like the room. There were cardboard boxes and metal carts scattered all about the place, and there were globs of white goo on the floors, walls, and ceilings. The frail man thought that this was looking an awful lot like those movies he had seen as he stepped out and went down the hall.
The frail man carefully made his way down the hall, glancing warily at air vents and corners which led to other hallways. He was disconcerted by the smell, or rather the lack of smell. He couldn't smell anything, and even though it was clear that something had happened here he couldn't smell even the faintest amount of blood or sweat. Eventually he came upon a large puddle of white goo which stretched from wall to wall. Its surface had a rubbery latex-like texture, and as the man stared into it, he noticed that the goo was moving and shifting in a disturbing way. At that moment he thought back on the movie, and his head was filled with images of people screaming as they were eaten and transformed into goo. The frail man did not know what would happen if he stepped into that unpleasant-looking alien mass, but it couldn't be anything good. Immediately he turned around, made his way back, and turned down to another hallway.
He tried to keep walking, but breathing became hard and he was beginning to feel dizzy. He had never been particularly energetic even when he was full, and spending God knows how much time in that science pod doubtlessly did not help. Soon he had to stop and put a hand on top of a large cart, catching his breath as his heart pounded in his ears, blocking out all sounds around him. Then a strong hand came over his mouth and he was thrown to the ground, coming face to face with his assailant.
The man who filled his view was large and broad shouldered, heavily muscled. His mean face was covered with scars, one of his eyes was blind, and his mouth was contorted in a snarl. His eyes radiated malevolence, and the frail man saw that this was a cruel man.
This is it, thought the frail man. He had seen the movies and saw what happened when the bad guy's minions got their hands on good people, and it was never good. In a moment the cruel man would put both hands around his neck and squeeze till his eyes popped out, and there was nothing that he could do about it for he was entirely at the cruel man's mercy. The cruel man raised up a hand, but instead of gripping the frail man's neck he instead put a finger to his mouth in a silencing motion. The frail man was confused, but followed suit and ceased his struggling. In the silence which followed, he noticed a new noise, a strange squelching and shifting sound. It grew louder, and as it did so the cruel man reached down with his free hand and gripped a heavy red crowbar which he had silently put down on the floor, holding it with practiced ease. Eventually the sound diminished and disappeared. The cruel man raised his head over the cart and looked out, before wordlessly grabbing the frail man by the arm, and pulling him up.
The coast was clear, so the cruel man immediately began marching forward, holding onto the frail man who struggled to keep pace behind him. The frail man did not know why he was being taken with the cruel man, but he was certainly not doing so out of the goodness of his heart. But the hands of the cruel man were strong, and so the frail man had no choice but to keep up lest he be dragged.
He did not know how long they had been walking, it felt like forever, hallways and rooms, doors and corners blending together into a living nightmare. After some time, they came to a closed door and stopped. The cruel man walked forwards and put his head to the door, listening to whatever was on the other side of it. As he turned from the door the frail man saw the wicked look on his face, and he realized why he had been dragged this whole way against his will. If this was a movie, he would have thought of some clever plan to trick the cruel man, or perhaps even turn the cruel man's scheme against him. But this was not a movie he was in, this was real life, so the only thing he could do was steel himself and hope for the best.
The cruel man hit the button and violently threw the frail man through the doors right as they opened. Immediately a blob of red and blue latex leaped through the air at him. Somehow, the frail man ducked just in the nick of time and the latex blob sailed over his head. At this point he knew nothing except that the latex monster was now behind him, and so he ran forward. The room was not especially long, but it felt like he had been sprinting forever as his heart pounded and sweat poured into his eyes. He came to an open doorway and began to step through it, but then he paused and looked back. The cruel man was still there, standing in front of a different open doorway. The latex leaped at him, but it was met with a strike from the crowbar and sent flying backwards. He leaped through the doorway and shut it just as the latex jumped again, crashing into the metal surface. At this moment the frail man thought that now would be a good time to run away, but something made him stay. Peeking out from around the doorway, he saw that the latex appeared to be motionless in front of the door, as though it was staring intently at it. Then it moved towards an air vent next to the door, and it fell through the cracks and went out of sight. The frail man turned and fled.
~~
The cruel man rested against the door, panting. That was close, he thought. It was supposed to be easy; the frail man would be the bait as he made a clean break. But that idiot was faster than he thought, and he almost ate a face full of latex for underestimating the guy. Now that latex was probably hunting him down. Growling, he pushed himself off the door and made his way down the hallway. As he did so he thought back on how he got landed in this sticky situation.
He did what he was told, he killed the guy's wife and children in front of him to make him cough up the money, but he kept screaming that he didn't have it, so he had to go as well. Well, the police were on him almost as soon as he stepped foot out of that building. It must have been a setup, get rid of some unwanted people and deal with him at the same time. Anyways, at the prison he got an anonymous note telling him that some lawyer guys were going to come by and get him out. As he was waiting in the meeting room, he sniffed some sort of gas, then next thing he knew he was falling out of a capsule straight from a sci fi movie, soaked in strange fluid and wearing nothing but a skimpy pair of black shorts. He did not know where he was, though it was clear that it was some sort of lab, and it was overrun with latex goo things which attacked on sight. Before he met that limp shrimp of a man, he had only met one other survivor, a pudgy guy who kept blabbering on about his wife and children. That man was stupid and stuck his head in a cardboard box and was too slow as a bunch of latex shot out and covered him. In what seemed like a split second, the guy had turned into some sort of seven-foot-tall humanoid shark covered in gooey fur, and the cruel man had to scram.
Now here he was, marching down more of those damned white hallways, not knowing what would be waiting for him around the corner. He went down several hallways before coming upon a doorway. He hit a button next to it and the door opened, revealing a hallway which ran side to side. The cruel man paused, standing there for a good minute as his ears strained for the slightest noise. He heard nothing, but he knew that those latex beasts were smarter than they looked, so he took the end of his crowbar and stuck it out through the doorway. Latex beasts were almost blind and tended to attack anything that moved. Nothing happened, so the cruel man leaned through the doorway, looking left and right down the hallway. There was nothing, so he stepped out, and at that moment he heard a squelch come from above him. He looked up to see a mass of red and blue latex come down atop his head.
Before he knew what was happening the latex was wrapped around his head, blocking his vision. He clumsily tried to club it with his crowbar, but it caught the weapon in a rubbery tendril and wrenched it out of his hand with surprising strength. The cruel man wrestled with the thing, desperately trying to throw it off, but it held fast and clung tightly to his arms and head. No matter how hard he pulled it would not come off, and he realized in horror that it was now glued to his body. He knew what was coming next, but he refused to believe it and continued to struggle futilely as the latex spread down his body, covering all his arms and upper torso. As it continued spreading, he felt it enter his body. Tendrils pierced his skin and burrowed deep into his bones, though strangely there was no pain. Flesh dissolved, and his bones melted and reformed. He was still struggling when the tendrils came into his brain.
They pried into his thoughts, one by one at first, but soon countless alien thoughts were intruding into his mind. He tried to resist and push back, but they dug into his mind, and soon his once well-ordered mind had turned into a pell-mell tumult. The skill of how best to split a skull and knowledge of hideouts were gone, taking their place were the skill of reaching high notes, and knowledge of how best to spread one's wings to catch the wind. This and more were happening all throughout his mind, and he came to the horrifying realization that he was not dying, but rather changing. His irrational ego screamed out, demanding nothingness, but this only emboldened the tendrils, and they gripped his mind tight and did not let go.
His vision cleared, and he looked around. He was sitting in an unfamiliar hallway, the walls stark white and covered with alien gadgets. Looking down, he saw his bright red feathers, and noticed something off. Raising up a wing, he saw that it was covered with sticky goo. "Ew", he whined, and was only too relieved when the goo dried up and disappeared, leaving behind only clean feathers. He glanced around again, and realized that he was alone, his wife nowhere to be seen. But he was certain that she had been there just a moment ago. Shaking his head, the Nevrean man stood up, brushed off his feathers and chuckled to himself. He was not afraid, he knew what was happening, for his wife was playing a game of hide and seek with him. She was very stoic and disciplined, but her one weakness was that she loved indulging him in his games.
Looking up, he saw a strange creature at the end of the hallway. It ran and disappeared. The Nevrean man followed it. It was not his wife, but it must know where his wife was hiding.
~~
The frail man ran blindly down the hallway. So much had happened so fast. He had been walking silently when he heard sounds of struggle from up ahead. Not wanting to risk heading back, he continued, then a new hallway opened on the side. He looked down the hallway and some distance away saw the cruel man, struggling helplessly with the same latex from before. The frail man watched in horror, unable to move as the latex appeared to melt the large man into a mass of red goo. Then the goo began to take shape and eventually turned into some sort of bird creature. If he was smart, he would have left, but he just stood there and gaped until the bird man turned to him. As he ran down the hall, he could hear talons click against hard surface behind him and knew that the bird creature could not be too far behind. He was feeling unsteady and knew that he could not keep up this pace.
He turned a corner and paused momentarily. It was a dead end, and there were no doors to be seen. The sound of clicking grew louder, and he knew that he was trapped. Frantically scanning the hallway, he saw only two things of note. There was a puddle formed by dripping water from broken ceiling pipes, and on the right was a large cardboard box of a design which he was very familiar with, the open end turned away from the frail man. Running towards it and crawling in, he drew his legs in close and hid in the darkness of the box. The frail man silenced even his breathing, and now the only thing he could hear were those talons. He silently prayed as the clicking and scraping came closer and closer. Soon the sounds could be heard around the corner. Now they were coming from behind him, and then he saw it. He saw the bird creature walk past the box he was in, its gaze focused forwards, and the man somehow drew himself up even tighter. It stopped, looked at the dead end, then turned around.
This is it, thought the frail man. The creature was going to spot him, then throw itself upon him and seize him, and subject him to the same horrid fate which that cruel man suffered. He had resigned himself to the inevitable when the most unexpected thing happened.
The creature turned not to the right, but to the left in a very slow manner, beginning to walk back as it did so. It passed the box right as its gaze returned to the direction in which it had come, narrowly missing the frail man huddled deep within its recesses. The sounds of talons slowly receded into the distance and disappeared.
He remained where he was, counting each second. A minute passed, then two, five. Perspiration made his entire body wet. After some fifteen minutes had gone by the frail man carefully and unsteadily got out of the box and stood up. Looking back, he saw nothing, but he did not even risk a sigh of relief. It was gone, but he did not know where, and for all he knew it could be just around the corner, and the slightest noise would summon it, and then there would be no escape, no hiding. He stood still as a statue for another minute, still uncertain, before risking a step forwards. That was when it leapt out from behind the box.
He fell backwards in shock, barely catching himself with his hands as the creature stood before him, and the frail man understood what had happened. The whole time the creature knew he was there but knowing that it had already won it wanted to play with its prey, and so it had walked off a short distance before returning silently and hid behind the box, waiting all this time for the frail man to leave so that it may destroy his meager sense of safety. He crawled backwards as fast as he could, the creature walking forwards slowly but steadily. From this distance the frail man could now make out the details of the creature. It was some sort of bird man, small and delicate looking. He was covered in bright red feathers mixed with yellow, his beak and short horns were navy blue as were his scaled lower legs, and waving behind him was a long tail tipped with colorful feathers. Folded against his arms were long wings, feathers ran down from his head and past his shoulders in a feminine manner, and his eyes were purple like shiny gemstones. He reminded the frail man much of those tropical birds he saw on advertisements for the zoos, and the man thought of what kind of horrifying power the latexes must possess to change even a large and mean man into such a thing as this. The bird man looked soft and fragile, but the frail man couldn't even summon the strength to stand up anymore and assumed that the bird man must be stronger than he looked. As he continued to desperately scramble backwards, he wondered why the bird man was not already attacking him, then the realization hit him. The bird man was not playing with his pray, he genuinely thought that he was playing a game of hide and seek with the frail man. His victory was assured, but he wanted to drag out the game for his amusement, and the frail man had no choice but to play along.
Then he felt a cold, hard wall press against his spine, and he knew that he had run out of space. The bird man continued to advance; his beak slightly open in what the frail man could only guess was a bird version of a smile. As he came to the feet of the frail man, he lowered himself down onto his claws. First the bird man's hands touched the frail man's legs, then he gasped as the bird man reached up to his chest. His fear began to be matched by his embarrassment as the bird man came to rest atop the man, the frail man's legs nestled between those of the avian creature as his beak was only inches away from the frail man's face. Though the bird man's claws were on bare skin, they were not even slightly digging in, and the frail man had to admit to himself that the thick feathers of the creature's inner thighs felt good against his cold frame. The bird man's eyes stared into those of the frail man, and he found that those avian eyes did not hold even the slightest amount of malice, but rather were filled with mirth and amusement. The frail man began to wonder if the creature was going to do anything when it leaned in and kissed him.
His surprise was fleeting as he marveled at how wonderfully soft and warm the beak of the bird man was, and he felt compelled to return the favor and lean into the kiss himself, resting his hands on the creature's fluffy hips as his eyes closed. The keratin surface of the beak slightly melted where it met the man's lips, and goo began to spread, the blue latex turning black as it spread over his face, but he was so enraptured that he did not notice. Soon his entire face was covered in goo, and it began to harden and elongate, soon forming into a black beak, but the kiss only grew in passion as the warmth from the bird man entered him and permeated his body. The stuff continued spreading from there, white feathers emerging from his bald head and extending down to his shoulders. But while the most drastic changes were happening where the goo was touching, his entire body was now changing. White feathers were sprouting up all over his body, and his legs bent and twisted as the bones reformed into a digitigrade stance. The shorts briefly cut into his waist before tearing to pieces as his thighs swelled with muscle, pushing him a few inches off the floor as the black fabric was absorbed by the growing feathers. He was pushed away from the wall as his spine elongated and formed into a tail, but instead of being shocked at such a strange sensation, he merely used this as an excuse to lean into his avian lover even further.
As they kissed passionately, he thought back on all those movies he had seen where the prince walks into the room and finds the sleeping princess, and he kisses the princess, then they get married and live happily ever after. For all his life had never understood why a princess would want to marry a guy just because he kissed her, but now he knew for the Nevrean was the prince and he the princess. Though, he had never envisioned himself spending his life with another man. As though in response to this small doubt, his privates squirmed sensitively. Curious, he took a hand off his lover's hip and reached down with it, but instead of feeling the usual stuff he felt a slit. Gingerly probing it with a claw, the man realized that he was now she. She removed her hand and placed it back where it was. She would have time to explore her new plumbing later, for she now had a husband to please.
She rose to her full height, keeping her beak interlocked with her husband's even as she towered over him. The last patches of bare skin on her sturdy body disappeared, and soon the changes were complete. She removed her beak from that of her husband and opened her eyes, revealing them to be red. Looking down at her husband, she saw the happiness in his eyes, and felt that the happiness he felt was the same happiness within her. Though he was the one who found her, deep down she knew that she was ultimately the winner of the game. Then she noticed her arms, and she took her hands off the Nevrean's hips and raised them up to the level of her eyes. Her hands were now scaled and down one finger, and her arms were covered in white feathers. But they were not white like skin, the kind with pinks and sunburned tans, but actual white like unblemished paper or fresh snow. Wanting to get a better look at herself, she noticed the puddle and walked towards it, propelled forwards by incredibly powerful legs. She looked down into the puddle, saw her reflection and squawked, not in horror but rather amazement.
She was covered from the knees up in white feathers, nicely accentuated by black markings. Her tough beak and horns were also black, and her lower legs and four-toed clawed feet were covered with hard black scales. White feathers came down from her head like hair, done up in a ponytail which was slung over her left shoulder in a relaxed manner, and as she moved her arms, she could feel the great strength within them. She thought that she looked very regal and majestic like those queens she had seen in the movies.
Who am I? she thought to herself. Memories flooded through her mind, and she somehow both remembered clearly, yet not at all. She remembered everything before the lab, but those memories felt distant, alien, like they belonged to someone else, and her memories of the past hours were very dim and confused. There was a cruel man who had threatened her, and she wondered what had happened to him, though she reckoned that he must have run into a bad end as all bad guys do as she looked at her husband, his innocent eyes gazing back at her. Taking her eyes off him, she looked down the hallway, determined and unafraid. Whatever had happened just recently did not matter, what mattered was that they needed to get out of this strange lab. She went to her husband, took him by the hand, and the two of them walked down the hall together.
~~
She breathed deeply of the fresh air, watching the sunset. In her right hand she gripped a black military machete, her left holding onto the hand of her husband, who was staring out in awe at the view. Wrapped around her was a green jacket which fit her well and slung on her back was a large backpack with a plastic basket strapped tightly to it, the contents held in place by a well-fitted cloth cover. While she might not have remembered much of the prior hours, she knew for certain that she needed to recover her belongings. Thankfully it did not take them long before they had found a storage room filled to the brim with odds and ends, and buried amongst the mess were her things, miraculously untouched and undamaged. Afterwards they trekked through countless miles of hallways, ladders, and stairs while following signs and maps. They eventually found the exit and left the building. What they came to find was most surprising.
The landscape was bleak and barren, the sky broken by the outlines of dead skyscrapers which loomed like monuments to long forgotten gods. There was no sign of Human life in sight, and the only movement came from plants and vines which grew in the ruins. But the sun was there, the same sun which had greeted her every morning, and though it was going down she knew that it would always rise again, and this made her hopeful. She looked at her husband, admiring how beautiful he looked in the fading light, and she thought that this really was like one of those movies she had seen so many times. Except that this was not a movie, it was better for this was real, more real than anything those magic screens had ever shown. Once she had been poor, but now she was richer and better dressed than she had even been in her entire life. She might not have a red hotrod, but she didn't need one. She doubted anything on tires could make it over that rubble, her legs would undoubtedly be faster and more surefooted than any old rubber, and judging from the length of her husband's wings she had no doubt that he would be able to keep up. Looking back up at the horizon, she did not know what the future would hold, but whatever happened she and her husband would be together, and that was all that mattered.
With that, the two of them walked off into the sunset together.
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Gooey Feathers
By Featherfriend24601
The man screamed as the monster approached. He desperately yanked on the handle of the door, but it was locked shut. Yelling, he pounded on the metal door hopelessly. Then the man turned around, flattened himself against the door, and wailed at the sight of the monster. It looked like a pile of angry red and white goo, and it was coming right for him! Within seconds it was on him, and the man was dissolving into it, but then the goo began going up him, and now he was part of the goo!
A man watched as this occurred, his thin and frail body hidden deep within his green baggy clothes. The frail man chuckled as he grabbed a few salted peanuts from a paper bag and popped them into his mouth. Even though he had seen this movie six times before and knew exactly what would happen, he still loved this scene every time it came up, for this was the part where the bad guy was defeated. The bad guy was a smarmy looking white dude with slicked back hair, who wore a fancy suit and talked a big talk about profit and evolution, and who always showed up at every twist and turn to stop the good guys. But eventually he gets eaten by one of the monsters he made and is defeated like all bad guys are, and this always made the frail man feel good.
The end of the movie came, and the frail man leaned forwards. He knew what was going to happen, for this was the part where the hero wins and celebrates. The hero, he was a handsome man, also white but not smarmy looking. With him is a young lady, and the two of them ride off into the sunset on a red hotrod ride. Then the credits rolled, and the theater was plunged into darkness. The frail man looked around and noted that he was the only one in the room. This was how it had been the past six times he came here, but whatever thoughts he might have had about this always disappeared once his gaze was transfixed on that magic screen. Now, he gave thought to this. Some of the guys had been saying things about some virus that was making people drop left and right, and it was making people real scared. They were even saying that the theaters would close soon. This thought made the frail man sad, because then he wouldn't be able to see the movie no more.
He got up, stretched, and made his way out of the dark room. As he walked through the small lobby, he passed by a man who was sweeping up popcorn. The man looked up and nodded, and the frail man nodded back. The folks at the dollar theater were always so nice. They always waved and said hi to him, and though the theater didn't allow anyone to bring food in the workers didn't care and let the frail man bring in a bag of peanuts. Sometimes they even gave him a bit of popcorn for free. As he left through the double doors of the building, he paused in the middle of the sidewalk and looked back, staring up at the front of the theater. Every time he came a couple more lightbulbs on the big sign of the building went out, and the letters of the movie titles were falling off, but it did not change the fact that this was his favorite place in the whole wide city. Perhaps the theater was going to close soon, and its magic screens would go dark forever as the nice workers left, but the frail man still had a few dollars on him, so he could look forward to seeing the movie right up until the lights of the big sign went out.
Turning, he walked down the sidewalk and across the street. He kept walking, turning every now and then, until he came upon the alley which he was familiar with. Smiling, he turned around the corner of the alley then stopped. In front of him was a large person who blocked his path like a menacing wall of shadow. Before he could even think about running or fighting, he felt a sudden sharp pain from behind, and everything went dark.
~~
The frail man crashed to the floor, his entire body heaving as he violently coughed up clear fluids. When he had finally managed to empty his lungs of the stuff, he lay on the ground for a while, catching his breath. He did not know how long he was in that state, but it must have been some time. Eventually a modicum of strength returned to his limbs, and he slowly pushed himself off the ground and sat up. He looked around and saw that he was in a room with stark, sterile white surfaces. Strange instruments and devices were littered atop shelves, and there was a grey pod on one wall with a wide-open door. Looking down he noticed that he was sitting in a puddle of clear fluid and realized that he must have fallen out of the pod. But how did he end up here? And why? The only thing the frail man could last remember was that he was headed towards his sleeping spot when he ran into a large figure, then he felt pain from behind, and now he was in some sort of lab looking place.
He brought his gaze back up and noticed that some of the glass things in the lab were broken, and blotches of white stuff clung to the walls. The frail man did not know where he was, or what was happening, but he knew from the movies that these lab places were no good, so he needed to get out of here. Shakily, he got to his feet, then he noticed that he felt cold. Looking down again, he saw that he was wearing nothing except for a pair of black skintight shorts. Then a horrifying realization came upon him. All his belongings were gone! His backpack filled to the brim, his large and warm coat with pockets stuffed with things, his plastic basket loaded with food and gear, it was all gone, and nowhere to be seen in the room.
While some people might say otherwise, the man was rich, and had accumulated a great wealth over the years. He remembered clearly, he had a good book which he enjoyed reading, given to him by a friendly man on a bike wearing a white shirt, a pair of comfy sneakers which he got from a nice old lady, sized for children but which fit perfectly on him, a sturdy black military machete from a surplus store which he used to cut wood in the morning, and which one time scared off a ruffian who had a wicked knife in his hand. These and many more he had, but now they were gone, all gone. The frail man was rich and dressed as a king, but now he was poor and naked, and this made him feel sadder and lonelier than waking up in the strange room did.
He shook his head and thought about what the heroes in the movies would do. No matter how bad things looked, they always put on a brave face and made do with what they had. At this thought he straightened his back as best he could and determined that he would get out of here and recover his belongings. He noticed a door and walked to it. There was no handle, but next to the door was a red button. The frail man pressed it, and the door opened with a whoosh. He backed up a step, then walked forwards and leaned his head out. The door opened out into a hallway, white just like the room. There were cardboard boxes and metal carts scattered all about the place, and there were globs of white goo on the floors, walls, and ceilings. The frail man thought that this was looking an awful lot like those movies he had seen as he stepped out and went down the hall.
The frail man carefully made his way down the hall, glancing warily at air vents and corners which led to other hallways. He was disconcerted by the smell, or rather the lack of smell. He couldn't smell anything, and even though it was clear that something had happened here he couldn't smell even the faintest amount of blood or sweat. Eventually he came upon a large puddle of white goo which stretched from wall to wall. Its surface had a rubbery latex-like texture, and as the man stared into it, he noticed that the goo was moving and shifting in a disturbing way. At that moment he thought back on the movie, and his head was filled with images of people screaming as they were eaten and transformed into goo. The frail man did not know what would happen if he stepped into that unpleasant-looking alien mass, but it couldn't be anything good. Immediately he turned around, made his way back, and turned down to another hallway.
He tried to keep walking, but breathing became hard and he was beginning to feel dizzy. He had never been particularly energetic even when he was full, and spending God knows how much time in that science pod doubtlessly did not help. Soon he had to stop and put a hand on top of a large cart, catching his breath as his heart pounded in his ears, blocking out all sounds around him. Then a strong hand came over his mouth and he was thrown to the ground, coming face to face with his assailant.
The man who filled his view was large and broad shouldered, heavily muscled. His mean face was covered with scars, one of his eyes was blind, and his mouth was contorted in a snarl. His eyes radiated malevolence, and the frail man saw that this was a cruel man.
This is it, thought the frail man. He had seen the movies and saw what happened when the bad guy's minions got their hands on good people, and it was never good. In a moment the cruel man would put both hands around his neck and squeeze till his eyes popped out, and there was nothing that he could do about it for he was entirely at the cruel man's mercy. The cruel man raised up a hand, but instead of gripping the frail man's neck he instead put a finger to his mouth in a silencing motion. The frail man was confused, but followed suit and ceased his struggling. In the silence which followed, he noticed a new noise, a strange squelching and shifting sound. It grew louder, and as it did so the cruel man reached down with his free hand and gripped a heavy red crowbar which he had silently put down on the floor, holding it with practiced ease. Eventually the sound diminished and disappeared. The cruel man raised his head over the cart and looked out, before wordlessly grabbing the frail man by the arm, and pulling him up.
The coast was clear, so the cruel man immediately began marching forward, holding onto the frail man who struggled to keep pace behind him. The frail man did not know why he was being taken with the cruel man, but he was certainly not doing so out of the goodness of his heart. But the hands of the cruel man were strong, and so the frail man had no choice but to keep up lest he be dragged.
He did not know how long they had been walking, it felt like forever, hallways and rooms, doors and corners blending together into a living nightmare. After some time, they came to a closed door and stopped. The cruel man walked forwards and put his head to the door, listening to whatever was on the other side of it. As he turned from the door the frail man saw the wicked look on his face, and he realized why he had been dragged this whole way against his will. If this was a movie, he would have thought of some clever plan to trick the cruel man, or perhaps even turn the cruel man's scheme against him. But this was not a movie he was in, this was real life, so the only thing he could do was steel himself and hope for the best.
The cruel man hit the button and violently threw the frail man through the doors right as they opened. Immediately a blob of red and blue latex leaped through the air at him. Somehow, the frail man ducked just in the nick of time and the latex blob sailed over his head. At this point he knew nothing except that the latex monster was now behind him, and so he ran forward. The room was not especially long, but it felt like he had been sprinting forever as his heart pounded and sweat poured into his eyes. He came to an open doorway and began to step through it, but then he paused and looked back. The cruel man was still there, standing in front of a different open doorway. The latex leaped at him, but it was met with a strike from the crowbar and sent flying backwards. He leaped through the doorway and shut it just as the latex jumped again, crashing into the metal surface. At this moment the frail man thought that now would be a good time to run away, but something made him stay. Peeking out from around the doorway, he saw that the latex appeared to be motionless in front of the door, as though it was staring intently at it. Then it moved towards an air vent next to the door, and it fell through the cracks and went out of sight. The frail man turned and fled.
~~
The cruel man rested against the door, panting. That was close, he thought. It was supposed to be easy; the frail man would be the bait as he made a clean break. But that idiot was faster than he thought, and he almost ate a face full of latex for underestimating the guy. Now that latex was probably hunting him down. Growling, he pushed himself off the door and made his way down the hallway. As he did so he thought back on how he got landed in this sticky situation.
He did what he was told, he killed the guy's wife and children in front of him to make him cough up the money, but he kept screaming that he didn't have it, so he had to go as well. Well, the police were on him almost as soon as he stepped foot out of that building. It must have been a setup, get rid of some unwanted people and deal with him at the same time. Anyways, at the prison he got an anonymous note telling him that some lawyer guys were going to come by and get him out. As he was waiting in the meeting room, he sniffed some sort of gas, then next thing he knew he was falling out of a capsule straight from a sci fi movie, soaked in strange fluid and wearing nothing but a skimpy pair of black shorts. He did not know where he was, though it was clear that it was some sort of lab, and it was overrun with latex goo things which attacked on sight. Before he met that limp shrimp of a man, he had only met one other survivor, a pudgy guy who kept blabbering on about his wife and children. That man was stupid and stuck his head in a cardboard box and was too slow as a bunch of latex shot out and covered him. In what seemed like a split second, the guy had turned into some sort of seven-foot-tall humanoid shark covered in gooey fur, and the cruel man had to scram.
Now here he was, marching down more of those damned white hallways, not knowing what would be waiting for him around the corner. He went down several hallways before coming upon a doorway. He hit a button next to it and the door opened, revealing a hallway which ran side to side. The cruel man paused, standing there for a good minute as his ears strained for the slightest noise. He heard nothing, but he knew that those latex beasts were smarter than they looked, so he took the end of his crowbar and stuck it out through the doorway. Latex beasts were almost blind and tended to attack anything that moved. Nothing happened, so the cruel man leaned through the doorway, looking left and right down the hallway. There was nothing, so he stepped out, and at that moment he heard a squelch come from above him. He looked up to see a mass of red and blue latex come down atop his head.
Before he knew what was happening the latex was wrapped around his head, blocking his vision. He clumsily tried to club it with his crowbar, but it caught the weapon in a rubbery tendril and wrenched it out of his hand with surprising strength. The cruel man wrestled with the thing, desperately trying to throw it off, but it held fast and clung tightly to his arms and head. No matter how hard he pulled it would not come off, and he realized in horror that it was now glued to his body. He knew what was coming next, but he refused to believe it and continued to struggle futilely as the latex spread down his body, covering all his arms and upper torso. As it continued spreading, he felt it enter his body. Tendrils pierced his skin and burrowed deep into his bones, though strangely there was no pain. Flesh dissolved, and his bones melted and reformed. He was still struggling when the tendrils came into his brain.
They pried into his thoughts, one by one at first, but soon countless alien thoughts were intruding into his mind. He tried to resist and push back, but they dug into his mind, and soon his once well-ordered mind had turned into a pell-mell tumult. The skill of how best to split a skull and knowledge of hideouts were gone, taking their place were the skill of reaching high notes, and knowledge of how best to spread one's wings to catch the wind. This and more were happening all throughout his mind, and he came to the horrifying realization that he was not dying, but rather changing. His irrational ego screamed out, demanding nothingness, but this only emboldened the tendrils, and they gripped his mind tight and did not let go.
His vision cleared, and he looked around. He was sitting in an unfamiliar hallway, the walls stark white and covered with alien gadgets. Looking down, he saw his bright red feathers, and noticed something off. Raising up a wing, he saw that it was covered with sticky goo. "Ew", he whined, and was only too relieved when the goo dried up and disappeared, leaving behind only clean feathers. He glanced around again, and realized that he was alone, his wife nowhere to be seen. But he was certain that she had been there just a moment ago. Shaking his head, the Nevrean man stood up, brushed off his feathers and chuckled to himself. He was not afraid, he knew what was happening, for his wife was playing a game of hide and seek with him. She was very stoic and disciplined, but her one weakness was that she loved indulging him in his games.
Looking up, he saw a strange creature at the end of the hallway. It ran and disappeared. The Nevrean man followed it. It was not his wife, but it must know where his wife was hiding.
~~
The frail man ran blindly down the hallway. So much had happened so fast. He had been walking silently when he heard sounds of struggle from up ahead. Not wanting to risk heading back, he continued, then a new hallway opened on the side. He looked down the hallway and some distance away saw the cruel man, struggling helplessly with the same latex from before. The frail man watched in horror, unable to move as the latex appeared to melt the large man into a mass of red goo. Then the goo began to take shape and eventually turned into some sort of bird creature. If he was smart, he would have left, but he just stood there and gaped until the bird man turned to him. As he ran down the hall, he could hear talons click against hard surface behind him and knew that the bird creature could not be too far behind. He was feeling unsteady and knew that he could not keep up this pace.
He turned a corner and paused momentarily. It was a dead end, and there were no doors to be seen. The sound of clicking grew louder, and he knew that he was trapped. Frantically scanning the hallway, he saw only two things of note. There was a puddle formed by dripping water from broken ceiling pipes, and on the right was a large cardboard box of a design which he was very familiar with, the open end turned away from the frail man. Running towards it and crawling in, he drew his legs in close and hid in the darkness of the box. The frail man silenced even his breathing, and now the only thing he could hear were those talons. He silently prayed as the clicking and scraping came closer and closer. Soon the sounds could be heard around the corner. Now they were coming from behind him, and then he saw it. He saw the bird creature walk past the box he was in, its gaze focused forwards, and the man somehow drew himself up even tighter. It stopped, looked at the dead end, then turned around.
This is it, thought the frail man. The creature was going to spot him, then throw itself upon him and seize him, and subject him to the same horrid fate which that cruel man suffered. He had resigned himself to the inevitable when the most unexpected thing happened.
The creature turned not to the right, but to the left in a very slow manner, beginning to walk back as it did so. It passed the box right as its gaze returned to the direction in which it had come, narrowly missing the frail man huddled deep within its recesses. The sounds of talons slowly receded into the distance and disappeared.
He remained where he was, counting each second. A minute passed, then two, five. Perspiration made his entire body wet. After some fifteen minutes had gone by the frail man carefully and unsteadily got out of the box and stood up. Looking back, he saw nothing, but he did not even risk a sigh of relief. It was gone, but he did not know where, and for all he knew it could be just around the corner, and the slightest noise would summon it, and then there would be no escape, no hiding. He stood still as a statue for another minute, still uncertain, before risking a step forwards. That was when it leapt out from behind the box.
He fell backwards in shock, barely catching himself with his hands as the creature stood before him, and the frail man understood what had happened. The whole time the creature knew he was there but knowing that it had already won it wanted to play with its prey, and so it had walked off a short distance before returning silently and hid behind the box, waiting all this time for the frail man to leave so that it may destroy his meager sense of safety. He crawled backwards as fast as he could, the creature walking forwards slowly but steadily. From this distance the frail man could now make out the details of the creature. It was some sort of bird man, small and delicate looking. He was covered in bright red feathers mixed with yellow, his beak and short horns were navy blue as were his scaled lower legs, and waving behind him was a long tail tipped with colorful feathers. Folded against his arms were long wings, feathers ran down from his head and past his shoulders in a feminine manner, and his eyes were purple like shiny gemstones. He reminded the frail man much of those tropical birds he saw on advertisements for the zoos, and the man thought of what kind of horrifying power the latexes must possess to change even a large and mean man into such a thing as this. The bird man looked soft and fragile, but the frail man couldn't even summon the strength to stand up anymore and assumed that the bird man must be stronger than he looked. As he continued to desperately scramble backwards, he wondered why the bird man was not already attacking him, then the realization hit him. The bird man was not playing with his pray, he genuinely thought that he was playing a game of hide and seek with the frail man. His victory was assured, but he wanted to drag out the game for his amusement, and the frail man had no choice but to play along.
Then he felt a cold, hard wall press against his spine, and he knew that he had run out of space. The bird man continued to advance; his beak slightly open in what the frail man could only guess was a bird version of a smile. As he came to the feet of the frail man, he lowered himself down onto his claws. First the bird man's hands touched the frail man's legs, then he gasped as the bird man reached up to his chest. His fear began to be matched by his embarrassment as the bird man came to rest atop the man, the frail man's legs nestled between those of the avian creature as his beak was only inches away from the frail man's face. Though the bird man's claws were on bare skin, they were not even slightly digging in, and the frail man had to admit to himself that the thick feathers of the creature's inner thighs felt good against his cold frame. The bird man's eyes stared into those of the frail man, and he found that those avian eyes did not hold even the slightest amount of malice, but rather were filled with mirth and amusement. The frail man began to wonder if the creature was going to do anything when it leaned in and kissed him.
His surprise was fleeting as he marveled at how wonderfully soft and warm the beak of the bird man was, and he felt compelled to return the favor and lean into the kiss himself, resting his hands on the creature's fluffy hips as his eyes closed. The keratin surface of the beak slightly melted where it met the man's lips, and goo began to spread, the blue latex turning black as it spread over his face, but he was so enraptured that he did not notice. Soon his entire face was covered in goo, and it began to harden and elongate, soon forming into a black beak, but the kiss only grew in passion as the warmth from the bird man entered him and permeated his body. The stuff continued spreading from there, white feathers emerging from his bald head and extending down to his shoulders. But while the most drastic changes were happening where the goo was touching, his entire body was now changing. White feathers were sprouting up all over his body, and his legs bent and twisted as the bones reformed into a digitigrade stance. The shorts briefly cut into his waist before tearing to pieces as his thighs swelled with muscle, pushing him a few inches off the floor as the black fabric was absorbed by the growing feathers. He was pushed away from the wall as his spine elongated and formed into a tail, but instead of being shocked at such a strange sensation, he merely used this as an excuse to lean into his avian lover even further.
As they kissed passionately, he thought back on all those movies he had seen where the prince walks into the room and finds the sleeping princess, and he kisses the princess, then they get married and live happily ever after. For all his life had never understood why a princess would want to marry a guy just because he kissed her, but now he knew for the Nevrean was the prince and he the princess. Though, he had never envisioned himself spending his life with another man. As though in response to this small doubt, his privates squirmed sensitively. Curious, he took a hand off his lover's hip and reached down with it, but instead of feeling the usual stuff he felt a slit. Gingerly probing it with a claw, the man realized that he was now she. She removed her hand and placed it back where it was. She would have time to explore her new plumbing later, for she now had a husband to please.
She rose to her full height, keeping her beak interlocked with her husband's even as she towered over him. The last patches of bare skin on her sturdy body disappeared, and soon the changes were complete. She removed her beak from that of her husband and opened her eyes, revealing them to be red. Looking down at her husband, she saw the happiness in his eyes, and felt that the happiness he felt was the same happiness within her. Though he was the one who found her, deep down she knew that she was ultimately the winner of the game. Then she noticed her arms, and she took her hands off the Nevrean's hips and raised them up to the level of her eyes. Her hands were now scaled and down one finger, and her arms were covered in white feathers. But they were not white like skin, the kind with pinks and sunburned tans, but actual white like unblemished paper or fresh snow. Wanting to get a better look at herself, she noticed the puddle and walked towards it, propelled forwards by incredibly powerful legs. She looked down into the puddle, saw her reflection and squawked, not in horror but rather amazement.
She was covered from the knees up in white feathers, nicely accentuated by black markings. Her tough beak and horns were also black, and her lower legs and four-toed clawed feet were covered with hard black scales. White feathers came down from her head like hair, done up in a ponytail which was slung over her left shoulder in a relaxed manner, and as she moved her arms, she could feel the great strength within them. She thought that she looked very regal and majestic like those queens she had seen in the movies.
Who am I? she thought to herself. Memories flooded through her mind, and she somehow both remembered clearly, yet not at all. She remembered everything before the lab, but those memories felt distant, alien, like they belonged to someone else, and her memories of the past hours were very dim and confused. There was a cruel man who had threatened her, and she wondered what had happened to him, though she reckoned that he must have run into a bad end as all bad guys do as she looked at her husband, his innocent eyes gazing back at her. Taking her eyes off him, she looked down the hallway, determined and unafraid. Whatever had happened just recently did not matter, what mattered was that they needed to get out of this strange lab. She went to her husband, took him by the hand, and the two of them walked down the hall together.
~~
She breathed deeply of the fresh air, watching the sunset. In her right hand she gripped a black military machete, her left holding onto the hand of her husband, who was staring out in awe at the view. Wrapped around her was a green jacket which fit her well and slung on her back was a large backpack with a plastic basket strapped tightly to it, the contents held in place by a well-fitted cloth cover. While she might not have remembered much of the prior hours, she knew for certain that she needed to recover her belongings. Thankfully it did not take them long before they had found a storage room filled to the brim with odds and ends, and buried amongst the mess were her things, miraculously untouched and undamaged. Afterwards they trekked through countless miles of hallways, ladders, and stairs while following signs and maps. They eventually found the exit and left the building. What they came to find was most surprising.
The landscape was bleak and barren, the sky broken by the outlines of dead skyscrapers which loomed like monuments to long forgotten gods. There was no sign of Human life in sight, and the only movement came from plants and vines which grew in the ruins. But the sun was there, the same sun which had greeted her every morning, and though it was going down she knew that it would always rise again, and this made her hopeful. She looked at her husband, admiring how beautiful he looked in the fading light, and she thought that this really was like one of those movies she had seen so many times. Except that this was not a movie, it was better for this was real, more real than anything those magic screens had ever shown. Once she had been poor, but now she was richer and better dressed than she had even been in her entire life. She might not have a red hotrod, but she didn't need one. She doubted anything on tires could make it over that rubble, her legs would undoubtedly be faster and more surefooted than any old rubber, and judging from the length of her husband's wings she had no doubt that he would be able to keep up. Looking back up at the horizon, she did not know what the future would hold, but whatever happened she and her husband would be together, and that was all that mattered.
With that, the two of them walked off into the sunset together.
A man is enjoying a normal night at the movies when he is knocked out and taken against his will. When he wakes up he finds himself in a strange place filled with threats human and otherwise. Now he needs to find a way out, though it will be impossible to leave without being changed.
Inspired by the video game Changed
Nevreans ©
Inspired by the video game Changed
Nevreans ©
Category Story / TF / TG
Species Nevrean
Gender Any
Size 50 x 50px
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