#downyau

[storm337]

X with Anti

“Again?”

Anti sighed and nodded his head, shuffling past Schneep to hop onto the exam table.

“Again.”

“And you did not pick at it?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“No twisting? No straining?”

“Nope,” Anti popped the P, keeping his head down, watching Schneep’s shadow get closer, then his shoes appear. The doctor’s wings ruffled in agitation as he grumbled to himself, cold gloved hands gently cradling Anti’s jaw as he carefully inspected the neck wound.

When it came to the slit throat, there was little Anti wasn’t willing to try. Schneep had started with simple sutures, to get the wound to heal up and close, but Anti’s hectic glitching existence made short work of the simple materials. Then it was something stronger, then a nonstitching variety, then staples, then cauterizing- Anti just wanted the damn thing closed, was that too much to ask for?

It was, apparently, because it never healed. As much as Anti tried, as much as he calmed himself down and stopped himself from picking at it, it never. Healed. It made sense, in a way that really pissed Anti off down to every last molecule of his crazy code. He was made like this, was supposed to look like this- of course, his body wouldn’t want to change that, despite how inconvenient it was for him.

Schneep gently coaxed Anti’s head up with careful pressure along his jaw. He too looked personally offended by the slowly weeping blood staining Anti’s chest.

“Well?”

“For now, I think we will simply bandage it. It will be like Edward does.”

“What?”

“Dr. Iplier. With the Host. The bandages, yes? Just wrap it up for now. It works for him.”

Anti didn’t get much time to protest before Schneep was dropping his head, turning his back to collect quite an impressive array of bandages. They were….colorful, much to Anti’s surprise, and came in a variety of patterns and colors.

“What would you like?”

Wordlessly, the glitch pointed to the bright green bandages with the blue polka dots. Schneep hummed and set it to the side, leaning in to begin cleaning Anti’s neck. He tried his best not to squirm, keeping his little hisses and hitches to himself as Schneep gently dabbed around the edges of the wound.

“So, Hostie and I are gonna match?”

“I do think that you will.”

“He’s gonna hate that.”

“Most definitely.  I do believe he will be more jealous, however.”

“Why?”

“He will not look nearly as fashionable.”

[storm337]

“Don’t look at me like that, like you’re afraid of me.” The Discord chose Chase and Anti for this one. They have no one to blame but themselves.

“Wh-why are you looking at me like that?”

Chase dropped his mug. It slipped from his suddenly lax fingers, crashing to the kitten tile and breaking into pieces. It was the last sound before the long silence, a silence that descended upon them with the weight of tension and the sharp foul stench of fear. Chase starred. He stayed frozen and he stared.

This wasn’t a new ego. This couldn’t be a new ego. This…this was him. But it wasn’t him? It was something new, something terrifying, something horrible-

Because it looked back at him with an expression that could only be described as soft, and a concern that Chase never knew could exist in corrupted code. It looked at him like it cared, and Chase suddenly wanted to throw up and cry and scream all at once.

“Chase?”

Chase stumbled back, crunching over the broken mug, and screamed. He screamed with all the strength in his lungs, with all of his horror and fear and pain thrown into it, just so his brothers would run faster to come save him. The creature flinched, looking around, behind itself, like the threat was somewhere else, wasn’t it. It turned a full circle, letting Chase get a good look at it, and it was different. It wore different clothes. It had wrapped up the ugly deadly wound, it only seemed to have one eye, it didn’t glitch and spasm with every step.

It was stable. It held itself firmly in reality, and Chase cried. He sobbed and tripped over his own weak feet, scrambling back against the floor until he wedged himself in a corner. Where had it gotten this power from? Where had it fixed itself, made itself stronger?

The creature was still taunting him. It turned around, put its back to Chase, and looked around, looking for the threat. Protecting him? Saving him. Waiting for his brothers to come, to come stumbling into this trap. Chase cried harder, curling in tightly on himself. Oh god, oh god-

“Chase, what’s wrong? Where is it?”

The way it said his name- like it had said it a thousand times before, like it loved him, like his brothers said his name. Chase gagged and it turned back to him, looking panicked. It stepped closer and Chase screamed again, scrambling back. Where were his brothers? Where had they gone?

“Ch-chase, don’t look at me like that- don’t look at me like you’re afraid of me. It’s me- it’s Anti. Chase? Chase, can you hear me? Chase?!”