A slumbering Forest

It’s probably the shock, yeah. Rusty is a fairly average looking dude, all things considered, though he’s got a very frail and thin looking build. His hair long, albeit messy and tangled, barely brushing down past his shoulders in thick brown locks, his eyes are a bit harder to tell the colour of. They could be brown, but in this lighting they look more akin to black. His wings are certainly big enough to fly, but the feathers seem haphazardly clipped. They’ll grow back eventually, but for now are for the most parts useless.

Rusty just glances at Pins, decides he doesn’t think he can fully process it, before moving on to looking more closely to what’s on the cart.

Pins pauses for a moment, blinking at the sight of the winged being. Huh…he kinda reminds him of…Martin… Are the bosses really okay with this…?

“…U-Um…thank you, P-Pins,” Teddy stammers out, quickly snapping the human pincushion out of his thoughts.

“O-Oh, er…no problem, Mr. Teddy…!” the larger man says with a little salute. “…Uh…good luck!” He casts a last look at Rusty, before quickly hurrying out, Teddy waving and closing the door behind him.

After doing so, he moves towards the cart, squatting next to it and checking over the equipment on it with a pleased hum. There are a bunch of tools and spare parts, but the most noticeable thing is a large metallic…thing. It’s hard to tell what exactly it is when you’re looking at it, for its material is twisted into a shape, appearing to form some kind of shell despite the many gaps left uncovered across its surface.

“…It’s finished, right?” Vivil asks, tilting his head at the machinery. 

“U-Um…not…r-really…?” Teddy says slowly, starting to rummage through the pile. “I still h-have to do a f-few things…but it’s g-good to test what I-I-I have so far…a-and we can figure out w-w-what else it can do?”

The mans is free! He is hesitant to move though, but eventually opts to try and push himself up. May as well help them move him, or whatever. Has the room always been this cold? Who knows how cold the circus brothers actually keep this place, it might just be a small shift.

Well, it’s usually a tad colder than typically comfortable in this room, but the coldness Rusty feels may be oncoming shock from the physical trauma he just experienced! In terms of everyone else, well…looks like they’re too distracted to notice if anything changed. 

Regardless, Teddy was going to help Rusty sit up, but seeing as he got it himself, he backs off, moving to the door instead. He pulls it open, Vivil pushing his way out to yell into the hallway. “Oi, Pins! You coming or what?!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it…” Not that he could do anything if he wanted… What weird emphasis. He’s glancing off to the side, slightly behind the ventriloquist. He stares blankly in that direction, before there is a small sound, almost like a sigh, something metallic being dropped to the ground.

Vivil gives Rusty a look, before shrugging, continuing his task. The two are nearly done when this…strange event occurs, Teddy jolting a bit from the sound. He spins around to see what happened…only to find a scalpel on the ground. How did that…?

Rusty cracked open an eye at the little puppet slap, mumbling for a moment under his breath before speaking up.

“…’m… Taking the… Time I have to rest… I doubt… I can sleep.” Not with the pain buzzing through his body.

The oxidized blood flakes off, leaving behind the stains. They can be washed, but that’s not to be found out until later.

…Hhh, his poor suit… Worst case scenario, at least he has a spare… He’ll worry about that later though. As his brother said, there’s still more to be done. Once they finish up cleaning, he moves over to the operation table, reaching for Rusty’s restrains. “…W-We need to get him up f-for this next part…”

His ear twitches, but he doesn’t bother registering anything that was being said, just laying his head back and. Well, trying to get some assemblance of calm back? There’s not much he can do on that front, but he can at least catch his breath and force his wings to smooth back out. 

Rusty’s blood seems to almost turn blue-ish green after a while exposed to air, almost like it was oxidizing. Guess that makes sense if it really is copper… It stains a little though–

…Oh god, that better not stain the equipment or their clothes permanently. This has gone unsaid, but the brothers have been wearing their suits with no other protective gear while performing these…let’s say ‘transformations’. They’ve just gotten really good at washing blood off things, and Vivil claims to like the intimidation factor of a bloodied appearance. But right now…

“...’m... Taking the... Time I have to rest... I doubt... I can sleep.” Not with the pain buzzing through his body.

It definitely feels slower. This whole thing feels like it’s taken several days, even if it’s been only a few hours… Rusty is… Less skilled at holding back pained responses, quivering despite his attempts to hold still as his resolve wears down…

At least it’s over… He’s drawing short gasps, pained hisses accompanying each one. He doesn’t expect it to truly be over, taking his legs doesn’t seem all that dazzling on it’s own… … Pins…? Someone else…?

It isn’t long before somebody comes running over. The other doesn’t enter the room, but Rusty may be able to hear his heavy footsteps as he approaches. “Yes, Mr. Teddy?” asks the new voice. 

“C-Can you please g-go to my workshop and bring back the p-project I’ve been working on? …A-Ask Igni and Conto to help you, t-t-they know which one t-that is…”

Theatrics… Though he supposes that makes sense for circus folk… Honestly he has more of a reaction to Teddy cleaning the wound than anything else. Raw flesh stings like hell, especially being cleaned… Though luckily, Teddy’s efforts keep him from bleeding out.

He’s more or less trying to catch his breath before this continues. He never had the breathing issues his brother did, but this whole ordeal has knocked the wind out of him.

Vivil repeats the process all over again, slicing through flesh, muscles, and nerves, sawing through bone, and severing what’s left. It’s just as bad as the first time, if not, worse. If you could believe it, the puppet may be taking this one slower…at least Teddy’s there to keep things clean and under control.

As soon as both legs have been amputated and the stumps have been bandaged, the two straighten up, looking over their handiwork. “…How’s that? Clean enough for ya?” Vivil asks, glancing up at Teddy.

“I… am u…unfortunately… used t… ignoring pain…” Rusty mumbled breathlessly, a shaky sigh leaving him afterwards. “… was… always m…more important…” Part of what he was saying was an unintelligible mumble as he drew a deep breath.

It’s easy enough to cut through the bone. It’s hollow after all…

Vivil is a bit surprised about how easy it saw through the bone, but soon shrugs it off, disregarding Rusty’s mumbles. A tortured man’s ramblings are usually just that. Rambles. He retrieves the scalpel once more to severe the connections of any more tissues, before Teddy reaches out to carefully pull away the amputated leg, placing it aside for…potential reuse. 

Rusty was right no amount of bracing could prepare him for this– As the cut got deeper, he was more obviously trying to keep his breathing in order, instead of panicking. Passing out from hyper ventilation wouldn’t be fun right now either. The nerves finally being cut did little to numb the pain, but at least there was less surface area in agony. He was trying to refrain, but he couldn’t stop the small twitches of pain his body did involuntarily.

He’s practically disappearing in how fluffy his feathers are–

“…Wow, not even a scream?” Vivil comments, seeming just a little bit impressed. “…Hmph. Tough guy, eh? Let’s see if you can keep it up.” He places the stained scalpel aside for a moment, retrieving what appears to be a thick string made of metal, winding it between his bloodied wooden fingers, before pulling it taut. 

“I’m fully aware I’ll have something worse to worry about. I’m mainly trying to distract myself.” Another attempt to brace himself mainly. He blinks at the two’s back and forth, confused for a moment… No time to really dwell though as the scalpel is pressed against his skin. Weh… He tries not to go with his instinct to wiggle away and forces himself to settle. 

The blood that bubbles from the cut is metallic, almost looking like copper. It’s shiny…

The two pause for a moment, staring at Rusty’s blood in fascination. Interesting…they could do something with this…but they’ll figure that out later. No time to be thinking of new things to do when there’s work right in front of them to be done. 

Vivil works slowly, using the scalpel to work his way deep into Rusty’s leg, meticulously slicing through everything in his way, from muscles to nerves, until the blade reaches bone. This is done all the way around the marked area until the flesh is ripped away, the bone the only thing keeping the limb attached. 

…He makes a small face at the tourniquets. He’s seen enough of those in his life time…

“…I know it’s kind of the point of them, but I’ve always found these way too tight to be comfortable…” Absentminded mumble himself, just letting his head fall back instead of straining to look. It’d be easier if he didn’t pay attention.

“You’re about to have something worse to worry about,” Vivil says with a low chuckle. A scalpel is placed in his hands, and he blinks, looking up at the ventriloquist. “…The hell is this?” 

“W-Well, um…I n-need…a c-cleaner cut…”

“…Ugh, you’re killing me, Ted…”

“S-Sorry…y-you could, um…t-take your time…?”

“Fish people yeah–” He agrees, nodding a little. “They can survive on land actually, they’re only half fish. Got fish tails, maybe gils. I never could see one up close.”

Oh boy here we go. There is no real amount of braced for this he can be huh? His wings start to bristle despite his attempts to smooth them before.

“Sounds like a freak…” Vivil mutters absentmindedly, watching as his brother begins to wrap a tourniquet around one of Rusty’s legs. “…What are you doing? We don’t need to use those.”

“E-Er, well…this’ll j-just make it…easier…”

“Easier for what?”

“…(Mumble)…”

… Well okay then, he won’t really. Need those if they’re taking his legs though that does raise a question–

“So… Is this gonna be like. What’s their name mm–” He mumbles quietly under his breath for a moment. “Mmmmermaids? That’s why my legs are being taken? Or something else?”

“…The f*** is a mer…maid?” Vivil immediately responds, pausing from his task.

“O-Oh, um…t-they’re the…f-fish people…” Teddy responds softly.

“How the hell is a ‘fish person’ supposed to survive on land? …Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Let’s think more about that later.”