#pwppal

(TW: Slight bodily harm, gross themes in general, suic*de references)

Ever since Nick left Pal (for extremely reasonable reasons, don’t get him wrong), waking up in the morning has been…hard. Even worse with the fact that guilt was racking his mind. Constantly. He felt so awful because of his actions. Not to mention he had permanent reminders in the form of burns all over his body.

Finally, he got out of his bed and approached the mirror in his room. He just looked awful all over. His hair was raggedy. Taking off his pajama shirt and looking in the mirror revealed sickening scars on his back that looked charred and blackened from the explosion. Pal almost threw up. 4th degree burns at best (Author’s Note: Yeah, apparently 4th degree burns do exist, they’re just usually grouped in with 3rd degree burns). Pal quivered before he put on a soft, cotton candy blue sweater. He liked this sweater and luckily, it hid the gorefest that was his back. Looking at his hands, they were covered in blisters and deep scars that Pal wanted to pick and tear apart. He knew he couldn’t though. It didn’t want to get blood over his sweater. Hmm…his scars looked a little off?

The scars looked to have the slightest green tint to them. Those were either the stains of his stupid green tears or…no, it couldn’t be something else, right? Maybe something just got stuck under the scab? Stuff like that happened all the time and it always annoyed Pal.

Despite his better judgment, Pal picked at it until the blood came. Tis not like it hurt, the nerve endings must’ve been burnt off considering his hands were completely numb along with most of his back. Pal stared at the blood as it trickled down his arm a little and soon to the ground. That’s a concerning and almost unrealistic amount of blood. It looked so disturbing despite everything Pal had seen. Wait…

Pal looked closer at the blood and noticed…strange bits of green inside of it. A lot of green. It looked like blood in water. As more blood ran from his hand, the more green it became. Shit, no-! Pal rushed to grab a towel. His blood was green! GREEN!

His eyes were already starting to blur a little from incoming green sludge. Why did he have to build that mech- why did he have to try to kill Nick. There was no one Pal wanted more by his side than his best friend Nick. He felt so scared and worried. Trailing down his cheeks and his bleeding hand was green sludge…

Once a towel was grabbed; a plain white one at that, Pal pressed it to the bleeding scab only to discover that..the blood was gone other than what was already out. The scab that stopped it was green now..and also closed up much faster than most cuts ever should’ve. In fact, Pal could see it actively healing! It was healing at such an accelerated rate that Pal thought he was hallucinating.

‘What…is…happening to my body…?’ Was the only thing going through Pal’s head. Instead of thinking about how cool the fast regen was, all he could think about was needles, horrific tests and creepy scientists. He was almost considering a hospital too! Looks like that was a NO. No way he could go outside and be a human with green blood and REGENERATION.

Stop. Stop panicking. Think about this Pal. No one has to know. Going outside would be risky but it’s not like he can just isolate himself with his tamas and-...Dogatochi.

Pal had completely forgotten about that stupid android. He was..so annoying. He talked all the damn time! It’s even worse that he chose SUCH an annoying voice! Percy in his sludge form sounded so much more intimidating. Was he actively TRYING to piss off Pal just so he’d have an excuse to kill him??

Whatever. What was important now was figuring out this whole regen thing. Was it really true? Should he really plunge a knife or something else into him just to test a hypothesis?? Maybe he should just sit down and calm down. Or maybe he should just stab somewhere nonlethal? But what if it hurts? …OF COURSE IT’S GOING TO HURT!! NOT ALL YOUR ENDINGS ARE BURNT!!

Pal raised the knife to his arm, he was shaking. If he went slow, it would hurt more. He took a deep breath. “Time to rip off the bandaid, Pal…i-it would hurt that bad if you just go quick-!!” He plunged the knife into his arm, expecting awful pain to shoot through his body.

Nothing…

Nothing…?

Pal paused, staring at the stab wound. The flesh under the blade felt awful. A squishy discomfort that he hated. He pulled the knife out, watching the green ooze down his arm and then…he watched the cut heal up in seconds. The knife was stained green but this green wiped off easily without staining. …So this was something different then…

He stabbed the knife (Euck!! There’s that shredding squish) into his leg. He pulled it out and watched again as it healed. This was…creepy but somehow, Pal wasn’t all that scared. I mean, he just stabbed himself and didn’t feel a single thing! He was kinda invincible in a way! This was…wow. This didn’t mean he was immortal right? God hope not! That sounds awful! Did this theoretically mean he could chomp off limbs and it would come back? Mmmm, that sounds like an experiment for a different day. He needed a moment to really realize this.

Everything was quiet. Good…good…he liked the quiet. That was something he definitely needed after…all of this. He had no idea how long Nick would be gone for this time. No need to think about him, not like he’s coming back after that. Maybe Pal would find some other friends. Hopefully. He loved his Tamas but y’know…they could never replace a human. Maybe he should go out and hang out somewhere. Those people from the week before were his friends. Maybe he could hang out with them? No…not with this weird voice thing. He sounded like a toy now. They’ll definitely notice. They also, most likely, have already heard about the whole thing. He probably had to start over from square one…find new friends. Friends sounded like the best thing in the world right now! Someone to talk to. Did he have therapy today? Maybe he could talk to someone.

Pal approached the calendar and checked the day. He had a therapy appointment in 3 days…dammit! He could try talking to his tamaterrorz but there was no doubt in his mind that Dogatochi wouldn’t be shutting up.

He never does. Once Percy got his body, Pal swears he stays on all night and day. Pal didn’t use that powerful of a battery. How was he still on?? Maybe that goop on his motherboard stopped him from losing power. He couldn’t stay in his house JUST to avoid Dogatochi.

For now, Pal just sat on his couch, looking tragic faced as usual. He was shocked that his house survived the fight honestly. They battled in the front lawn and he’s also shocked no one came to watch the battle, not even a passerby. Unless they had and Pal just hadn’t noticed. It was high stakes for both sides. Nick for his life and Pal against the winding down clock of Percy. Most of those attacks were probably from desperation to either kill/weaken Nick before the thing blew up or get him to stop trying to run away from Pal again.

Pal shuddered. The sound of his own laughter echoed in his mind. That laughter of pure malice and selfish desires. The feeling of power he had in that mech…the confidence that Nick wouldn’t be getting away. It was a looping sound at this point.

“Gouggh…and it was so damn stupid of me to do that. I’m stronger than Nick, I literally just could’ve done what all kidnappers in those criminal documentaries, I used to watch, do! Maybe I wanted a little Pizzazz??” Pal did mild jazz hands before slouching on the couch and sighing. “Not to mention the entire attacking Nick and thinking he would stay…at least he didn’t leave me in the rubble.” Pal felt drowsy from the sheer boredom. A nap would feel nice right now…

So Pal laid down slowly on the dusty couch. Has the dust always been there? Maybe he just hadn’t noticed until Nick left? Everything felt so much more lonely now. Did…Pal really theme everything around some guy from highschool?

‘Shut up thoughts…Especially about Nick…’

Pal felt himself drift back to sleep only to notice a strange tingling sensation near his tail bone. Pal’s calm expression immediately dropped to a rough scowl. He turned away and forced himself to ignore the dumb feeling. He could just sleep in his bed but he felt too tired and annoyed with everything to do that.

Pal woke up faster than anything when he felt someone yank on…something and shoot pain through his body. Pal shot awake and he hacked, “I’m awake!! I’m awake!!” He looked over and saw a very, very annoyed looking Dogatochi. “Nice try at avoiding me!” He knocked his head to the side with a cruel smirk. He had a long, black cable wrapped around his hand. Before Pal could ask about it, Dogatochi spoke, “By the way, I’d suggest hiding this tail if you ever want to go outside and pretend to be a human,” Dogatochi glanced at the cable that he still held in his tight grasp. “Wh-What??” Pal was too scatterbrained to fully hear what Dogatochi had said.

“Your tail! Look at it!” Dogatochi laughed before jerking on the tail as hard as he could again. “OW–! STOP THAT!” Pal yelled at him before it began to dawn on him what Dogatochi said. He looked back and saw with horror that it was, in fact, attached straight to Pal’s tail bone. Dogatochi smirked, even more pleased that Pal had finally seen it. He tossed it into Pal’s hands.

When Pal held it, he almost wanted to toss it. It was heavy and felt awful. It felt like a limp body in his hands. Pal also quickly learned that he could feel his hands holding it which was WORSE. It wiggled a little as if trying to wretch its way out of Pal’s hands like a cat’s tail would. It felt like a cable but moved like a real tail. Pal finally dropped it, causing it to thump on the floor and swish behind him.

“H-How did this happen-? These are your side effects. You gotta know why this happened!” Pal hissed at Dogatochi’s dumb, smug face. “Ha! I wouldn’t know a thing about those side effects. I’ve never actually had a host before…” Dogatochi’s look became awfully curious as if Pal was a thing to marvel at.

“Get out if y-you’re just gonna mock me!” Pal jabbed Dogatochi’s chest. He suddenly slapped Pal’s hand away. There was a lot of force behind that slap even if Pal couldn’t properly feel it. “I don’t want to hear you talking all day.” Dogatochi glared at Pal something with disappointment. “You’re a lousy host, y’know. I expected better from a brilliant inventor,” Pal could tell by that tone that Dogatochi was trying to manipulate him again with comments. He glared down at Dogatochi. “Well, I think you forgot the problem is that I just want to be seen as a normal human! Not- Not a weird creature!” Pal finally turned away and decided to make some food. “I’ve always wanted to be seen as normal. …Just get out of my house now. I don’t like talki-!”

Dogatochi suddenly wrapped his arm around Pal’s waist and held him up. ‘Oh my god, how does someone smaller than me pick me up–!’ Pal glared back at Dogatochi. “I wasn’t done talking…” There was that angry expression again, “Let it be known, those tamaterrorz of yours have the same capabilities as I do. I actually doubt that tail comes from me. Knowing them though, they hadn’t meant it. Ever since what happened to them, they’ve been utterly pathetic. Then again,” Dogatochi perked back up, “Humans are naturally pathetic creatures! I’m shocked they’ve survived as long as they’ve had,” Dogatochi suddenly dropped Pal and reeled his arm as he started walking away.

‘W-Wait-, what does he mean by that–?? Did he just suggest my Tamas used to be human? …Please, I hope not…’

Pal watched Dogatochi leave his house like it owned the place. His tail rested on the ground, completely motionless as if it too gave up on existing.

Honestly, Pal wished he could just give up too but he knew if he tried, he would just end up healing in a second, wasting material, end up with green everywhere, and a serious headache if it didn’t go straight through. Assuming he would still feel it too, it would hurt like hell on earth for a long…long while, worse than the explosion and crash.

He wanted to go in today and talk to someone about everything. He’d have to hide the tail…unless he could just cut it off…? No Pal, don’t try it. It’s only been a week. Stop moping about. You’ll be fine as long as you take the time to improve and get better. Just keep going…

His tail writhed behind him and Pal stared at his hand. Seeing Dogatochi made him angry…he clenched his hand and watched as a black patch formed on the palm of it. He hadn’t noticed it until now but he could feel even more anger than expected building up inside him. The black patch grew and soon turned his hand into a blackened claw. His other hand followed along with black patches forming all over his body.

Pal would be even more scared of this if he couldn’t feel himself being slowly blinded by his anger. His head felt weird. Everything felt weird right now and he could only scream with fury. He couldn’t see it personally but his teeth had grown sharper and his headband turned into 2 eyes on stalks that looked like TamaLanki’s. His hands were blackened claws. His cable tail lashed behind him. How lucky for anyone, hypothetically, near him, he was, kinda, very blind like this.

Swiping the closest thing by him, Pal could feel his new claws dig into the couch’s leather. It ripped rather easily under his claws. Shockingly easily actually considering how tough leather can be. He didn’t like being angry like this but by now, he wouldn’t know how to fix it.

He hissed to himself…he could hear his house’s door open.

TamaLanki was leading the group before he completely stopped in his tracks and held out his arms, signaling the others to stop immediately. TamaBruti bumped into TamaLanki’s back and cooed, clearly confused by TamaLanki’s sudden halt. TamaOpti peeked from behind TamaBruti and TamaLanki, staring at the cold shadow in the hallway. The only hint that this was, or used to be, Pal was his size. The TamaRoachis looked annoyed by them all stopping in their tracks.

(“Pal?”) TamaLanki stepped forward, staring at them. As TamaBruti saw him, he covered his face a little as if he had a mouth. ‘Did The Tamas do this to Pal?’ Flooded TamaBruti’s mind. It had only happened once before during an escape, TamaLanki had done it when he slammed into one of the guards’ sides and splattered black all over them. TamaBruti could tell by the look in TamaLanki’s eyes at the time that he hadn’t meant to. As they ran, they could hear the guard get shot down and their body melt the second the slime left behind had a chance to. They had only heard from Filos later that day that they got a new TamaHuman hybrid thingy that wasn’t given much of a chance to live before they incinerated it.

TamaLanki slowly stepped back, still staring at the form before them. Pal took careful steps forward towards The Tamas. TamaBruti finally shoved passed TamaLanki, slinking his body between TamaLanki and the wall. TamaLanki suddenly squawked at TamaBruti but he didn’t care. The sound caused The Form to stop in his tracks and cause recognition to enter its false eyes. “Tamas…it’s just you…” He mumbled before suddenly rushing forward.

TamaBruti squawked and jumped, accidentally landing on Pal’s claw. He hissed loudly and drew his claw back. His false eyes looked annoyed at TamaBruti at worst and betrayed at best, sending a shiver down his back. The other Tamas remained frozen, scared of fighting Pal. Slower this time, he wrapped his arms around Bruti’s small body. It was slow but still fast enough to cause TamaBruti’s “heart” to race. Every bit of him was tense and shaky before…he noticed something. Pal wasn’t hurting him. ‘Hug. This…this is a hug. O-Of course… Pal would never hurt The Tamas.”

Pal hissed in a breath, tightening his hold on TamaBruti. “It’s bad. I can’t see. What’s happening? Why did this happen??” Questions fell from Pal’s mouth as the other Tamas slowly began to comfort him. They hushed him and eased his nerves finally.

The changes faded with the appearance of green tears falling from his eyes. His headband went back to normal. His claws became scarred hands once more. “Please tell me why this happened… Dogatochi alluded to 4 of you having similar abilities to him. Did…did you do this to me? I will not hate you. I mean this but please, did you guys have something to do with this?” The Tamas glanced to themselves. They wouldn’t know for sure other than comparisons. TamaLanki stepped back slowly, (“Wouldn’t know for sure. Barely know The Tamas own abilities.”)

Pal only sighed. “It’s fine…not to worry,” Pal smiled softly, trying to feel better. The Tamas grew closer, making sure it was warm for the inventor. Soon enough, the group fell asleep there..

Over the course of the next month, Pal sat through Dogatochi “checking up” on him and “making sure he was okay”. He was tired of it, constantly racking him and making sure he never forgot he was no longer human. It was annoying…

Pal grumbled to himself as he heard the sound of Dogatochi entering. Today however…he had a plan. “Still have a tail?” Dogatochi smirked, leaning in. “Y’know, I’m shocked you haven’t tested a single thing with your new body! I mean, you can regrow your limbs, you can reattach them! And yet, nothing! What are you? A coward?” He poked Pal’s nose. Pal hissed and turned away, standing up. “Do you seriously not have any other BETTER jokes than that? It’s always the same thing. ‘You still have a tail? Oh wowie! You do! Hahahah! I’m gonna leave now!’” Pal mocked, throwing his arm aside to hit Dogatochi’s.

Dogatochi stepped back, clearly offended. “Who-!” Pal cut him off, quickly taking his antenna. “I can’t believe I never EVER told you about your 1 drawback,” Pal gained a sick grin as Dogatochi tried to pull Pal’s hand away with both his wires and hands. “Let go, you rat!” With a sudden yank, Pal pulled Dogatochi’s antenna directly from him. Dogatochi let out a hiss, patting the area. His body started to glitch horribly. His hand twitched, his screen was buggy. “Wh-What i–i-i-isss this–!!?” Pal glared at the android. “It’s what your body needs to function!” Pal tossed the antenna; they both watched as it thudded across the far off wall.

Dogatochi’s hands clawed at where his antenna once was. Spotting it, he tried to grab it, only for Pal to stomp on his arm, causing an even worse shock to shoot back into Dogatochi. Pal could see he was growing weaker and weaker.

Dogatochi hissed loudly and fell to his knees, clearly in pain. “You- you will–! …!! You–...!” Pal crossed his arms, looking smug at Dogatochi’s display…until he started to giggle softly, wires came from his back panel, holding up his head and hands together.

“IDIOT!” Dogatochi launched out his arm, grabbing Pal and throwing him into the door. “I DON’T NEED A POWER SOURCE!! I’m a parasite!! I can control this body effortlessly!!” Pal kicked about, trying to break free. Dogatochi grinned when he saw black patches form on his hands as he tried to use his wires. Dogatochi slammed him into the ground and drew back his arm. “But I’m a fair person~! I won’t use my arms if we’re about to fight~!”

Pal glared at Dogatochi, listening to his mocking laughter echo through the air. “...You do remember I can’t die right?” Pal cleared his throat before quoting Percy’s exact words. “‘You shouldn’t’ve been able to live through that explosion OR crash! But that substance... It let you live through that!’ And seeing as I have fast regeneration now…I think we all know who’s going to win this.” Dogatochi just scoffed. “You couldn’t even beat Nick despite using a GIANT mech suit to do so!”

“And who was controlling most of my actions while I was in that thing? Who wrapped wires around me to fully control my every action because they’re an utter control freak?!” This argument between the two went on until Dogatochi couldn’t take it anymore and just started attacking Pal with everything he had. Pal wasn’t the best when it came to fighting…but Dogatochi had SO many glaring issues in his design!

Honestly, Pal was disappointed in himself!

Weak grasp, gaps in between the shell that Pal could worm wires into (not that Dogatochi let him ever) and a head that, even with wires holding it up, could be easily knocked off and stun it.

Pal seized one of Dogatochi’s arms with his wires before Dogatochi grabbed his leg and shook him about upside down and then slammed him against the wall, the ceiling and then the ground. Pal hissed sharply and reeled back, forcing Dogatochi to let him go. Pal felt exhausted, spitting up some of the green blood from his mouth. “I may not be able to kill you~, but I can tire you out until you COLLAPSE!!” Dogatochi laughed and charged Pal quickly. The look in his eyes showed he was ready to tear him limb from limb, ready to make him suffer!

Pal wrenched Dogatochi’s arms away from him, slamming his head to the ground and trying to wrench it out of the wires’ control. More wires started to wrap around him as he did, already starting to wear him down.

Tick

Tick

Tick

Tick…

Pal stomped his foot down on the back of Dogatochi's head. The wires kept wrapping around him, trying to choke him out and make sure he could never break free ever again. Pal whimpered softly, starting to…faint…

With a final stomp, the disk (possibly the motherboard) containing Percy came free. Dogatochi’s screen shut off…the wires slacked…Pal heaved and grabbed the disk. “No toy you'll ever be in needs limbs again…” Pal gruffly huffed, getting off Dogatochi and entering the warehouse.

The Tamas were hanging from the ceiling by wires, cooing and begging Pal to get them down. Pal huffed and used his wires to pull his precious friends down from the ceiling. With that, he asked to be left alone. The green glow in his eyes and back of his throat faded along with the black places the wires emerged from.

Pal picked up a different disk as he set down Percy’s disk. This disk was labeled ‘Prototype’. “Welcome back, Tochi,” Pal whispered and loaded up the model for the Tamas’ shells. With that, he started to print it.

He stared at the disk a little longer before tucking it away and going back inside his house. Green slime trailed from where Pal wretched the disk out. Pal grabbed a rag and cleaned up the entry point as much as he could. Next, he picked up the antenna he threw and started to fix it back to the toy’s head. It was easily detachable just in case Dogatochi ever tried to attack him like he did just then. Finally, Pal inserted the prototype disk.

The wires fell away and Pal could hear static coming from the toy’s speakers. It held its head as if it could feel pain like a human. ‘The human you no longer are,’ Pal rubbed his head. The toy sat up slowly, rubbing his head ever more. “I-..I’m in..pain. What…happened?” The toy used his magnetic hands to spin his head around backwards. “Hello…?” Pal stood, holding the rag. “Hi. Do you feel alright?” The toy spun its body around correctly and stared at its body, staring at its make-up and buttons on its chest.

“Hi,” The toy tilted its head, going upside down. “My…my name is,” The toy raised a hand and moved his head back up correctly. “I don’t remember a name,” The toy remarked. “Not the question I asked…” Pal frowned. “Sorry. …My name is GP^^!” GP smiled finally.