it started like it always does in these cold days, him favoring a fire inside rather than frostbite in wounds, slowly burning away the most human parts of him.

if he had to guess, the reason humanity is always the first thing to leave him would be how wrong it is in him. he doesn't remember the creatures that made him become what he is, but is almost entirely certain people were not part of it.

time ticks on, he feels less and less "right". as the human part of his mind fades, the fact his body hasn't changed makes it terrifying. that has always been the first sign of a shift, paws or talons forming, teeth changing shape, but that was always from fresh kills and this is the utter lack of it.

he blinks and the fire is out but his eyes are still locked onto it. nothing has changed and everything is wrong. he claws at the stone floors that now feel like they are made to stop him. his nails aren't sharp or long enough to scratch, the blood coming from his fingers barely mattering. his surroundings feel unfamiliar, forcing him to watch every shadow for why. nothing moves but him.

he watches. he doesn't understand what's happening and can only feel how wrong everything is. the walls tell him nothing, the base completely silent.

a ringing cracks through his skull bringing him out of the depths of silence. he fumbles for the source of the noise, only vaguely recognizing how to use it. pressing a button, different noises come out, some sound like they could be words but his mind can't keep up. he tries to respond with anything, only a muffled whine making it's way out. the noise from the device stops, calming him for a moment, until there's something in the room with him and he doesn't know what.

his reaction was fast, backing up against the wall farthest from the yellow form, barring his not sharp enough teeth and trying to hide his bleeding wounds. he didn't understand what had found him, squinting at how bright it was. the glow took a step closer and he tried his best to growl and snap it away but was much too weak when it reached him, easily avoiding his attempts to bite.

he was now held back by the shoulders, trying his best to lunge forward on his attackers neck. he almost did when they pulled out a cold, teal form, having had to release one hand, but pulled back the moment it was pointed at him.

words came out of the other once again, inaudible to the creatures ears. they seemed to understood, smiling wide as he plunged the sword into himself.

as ichor trickled out, pieces came forming back, the living corpse speaking now, "thank you, zam."

when they show up to zaun the first time, zam immediately spots the signs of his regeneration fading from mapicc. it hurts, wounds obviously opened for a few hours, bandages around his legs are tighter, and the ones on his arms are messier.

the next time they talk, on the hill with a single daisy, mapicc is trying to avoid zams questioning gaze, picking at badnages on his arms. they don't have enough trust anymore for zam to help him, perhaps that hurts more than the rot itself. he wants to avoid zam, hide from him until things settle down, but he cannot in any world do so, so he continues staring towards the sea.

No one outside of the server knows about what he is, no matter how close they are to others. It's not something you want to be well known when it can easily be a great weakness. What this means however, is when new players are added, he has to go through the wholeee process of explaining himself. Or he could not. If they find out, they find out.

Chief, being his teammate, was the only one to get even half an explanation. They had finally started getting comfortable on the server day 1 and he started to pick at his skin, parts that were previously flayed were coming back together finally, with so much new blood around him.

Chief saw this and thought he was Actually Hurt and called out to the rest of the team to try and help them. Spoke laughed, that giggle he does when hes fully joking around. No one else seemed to be reacting with any sense of urgency, not even mapicc.

Eventually, mape got tired of the stares chief gave him, cracked a joke ("What, never seen the flesh of a corpse repair itself before?") and went back to ignoring his teammates worry. it was fine, it was normal for him.

Flame and mane would likely only find out during battle, but theres not enough time for questions there. once mane tried to say he somehow got advanced regen potions and everyone laughed it off. the next time during a yap when mane could see the wounds not just repairing, but also reappearing, he decided to figure it out another time.

I honestly havent decided exactly how kab finds out and reacts. she'd probably try to not bring it up, think its something she can use against him, but then zam offhand mentions something about helping mapicc stay human and puts that idea away.

I dont really have new things to add to it so I guess I'll just recap it lolz

corpse mapicc comes from an idea i had revolving around non-humanity with gore thrown in because. it's fun. also important to note that he is inspired from Pandora Hearts and To You, My Immortal, both of which have similar characters of object turned 'human(?)'.

my first post about corpse mapicc on tumblr is here and describes his very beginning as the corpse of an animal come alive. I also have commissioned art of him here showing his official design.