Bdubs smiles, He's back in his village and is staring up at the incredible cliff. Doc had decided that he would be fine being in his area and as long as he checks in every so often. As long as he properly checks in he'll be allowed to stay without constant supervision.
As he stops working for a moment his tail flicks sporadically and he almost falls off of his scaffolding. Clambering down Bdubs frowns and flexes the odd new limb. Deciding that it would be safer to work on the ground he starts planting some flowers. He starts to feel a bit drowsy after a while so he heads back to his house and passes out for a while.
Once he wakes up he frowns, something doesn't feel quite right. He sends a quick message to Doc asking him to come over. It's a good thing he messaged when he did, as moments later he collapses to the ground clutching his ribs.
Bdubs screams in pain. The same bone ridges on his tail have started to extend out along his spine. Burning tears drip down his face as the ridges grow up to his neck. Gasping he reaches over and feels them. They don't hurt when he touches them so he carefully stands up and stumbles into his sitting area.
Doc runs in a few minutes later, just in time for the transformation to pick up again. Bdubs shows him what had happened with his back and winces as his tail smacks into a table. He laughs it off and draws the slightly injured limb over and gently curls it up on his lap.
"Is your tail ok?" Doc asks as Bdubs rubs it.
"Fine, it's fine," he laughs waving Doc's concern off.
Hissing a bit Doc looks over, "Can I see your back again? Something seems off."
"Uh, ok," Bdubs turns so his back so it's facing Doc. He rolls up the hem to give Doc a better line of sight.
Doc immediately notices what's happening. Scales are creeping up his back most of them staying near the bone ridges. Some of the scales are further from his spine. The few scales that have appeared on his Side are the same creamy flesh as the ones on the underside of his tail. The rest are the dark blue that's on the rest of his tail, "Bdubs, don't freak out ok. You have scales all over your back. They don't appear to be spreading."
Bdubs face drops from absolutely terrified to relaxed, "Ok. I thought you were going to tell me that my ribs were poking out."
"Well, that might happen."
"I've probably just jinxed myself," He grumbles.
Doc gives a small laugh at that, "Hopefully not."
The pair take some time and continue to talk with each other until Bdubs goes back to sleep. Doc sticks around while he's sleeping. Once he wakes up they realize exactly what was happening. He's getting all the typical markings of a phantom.
He pulls a face and looks over at Doc, "This probably isn't going to end well."
Doc shrugs in agreement, and hisses softly, "Bdubs look at your ribs."
"What? Why would- oh, that's disgusting," Bdubs looks down at his chest and sees bones that had grown from some of the ridges. They wrap around his chest like a secondary set of ribs. There are a few 'ribs' encircling his tail and he flicks it experimentally. The new bone structures aren't impeding the tails movement at all so he stands up and moves his back, testing his flexibility.
................
A few days pass without further incident, Bdubs learns how to properly deal with his tail and speak with his fangs. Everything has calmed down and things are pretty chill.
It's almost night time and Bdubs is yawning suddenly overwhelmed with a wave of fatigue. He looks a bit confused for a moment then shrugs and goes to sleep.
He squints his eyes in the morning light, he makes a very confusing noise and pulls his communicator over. Thankfully his eyes have been able to adjust to the relative darkness of the indoors. He calls Doc.
"So, you suddenly went back to a somewhat normal sleep schedule?" Doc asks as he checks Bdubs back.
"Yeah, it's weird, I got exhausted right as the sun started going down," He explains as he yawns.
"Well, it looks like you're back to your normal sleep schedule. I'll come back tonight to see if anything happens, ok?"
"That'll be great," Bdubs says as he stands up and stretches.
As the day progresses he seems to have gone back to sleep for thirty minutes every four hours. He gives Doc a sharp-toothed grin as he comes closer to completing part of a road that reaches out to the cliff then has a bit of a roundabout and loops back into itself.
Of course, he drags Doc into helping, "So, what do ya think?"
"This looks amazing," Doc murmurs as they sit down for a break next to the river. A fish catches his eye and he tracks its movement with his head.
Seeing that he's hunting Bdubs stifles a laugh as his tail flicks.
Doc glares at the fish and pounces. Water splashes everywhere, Bdubs tries to see what happened. Doc looks over with the fish clamped in his jaws and hisses happily. As he tilts back to swallow the fish flails and smacks his face with its tail.
Startled he drops the fish back into the water and it zooms off. Bdubs is laughing his head off, "Your face when you got smacked, that was priceless."
Doc grins evilly and walks over to him. He pulls him over and hugs him.
Screeching Bdubs attempts to wiggle out of the normally tactile avoidant creeper's hug, "Why! What did I do?"
Doc laughs and lets him go, by now the sun is about to set. Bdubs runs off to sleep for a bit then rejoins him in a while after he wakes up. As the sun dips below the horizon a scream sounds from his house. Doc's eyes go wide as he runs towards him.
As he arrives he sees Bdubs shirt has been torn off by, "Are those wings?" Doc asks as Bdubs pokes at the bat-like wings.
There's a thick membrane of skin stretching down his arm ending at his wrists, it connects along his spine. Looking curiously he moves his arms around testing the wings.
As a few days of testing later they've figured that Bdubs isn't going to be able to fly with the wings. This was determined after multiple accounts of him falling. The wings materialize at night and turn to dust as the sun rises.
Naturally, Bdubs complains about this and Keralis nods in sympathy, buzzing his own wings. If he wants to fly he has to pin them under a pair of elytra and that's uncomfortable to the point of almost being painful.
..............
As the sun rises high over the shopping district Bdubs walks over to the lama shop, he's helping Beef restock. He helps carry the hay bales over and stacks then around the barrel that's full of collapsed versions for sale.
"Thanks for the help."
"It's no problem, really," Bdubs says as he finishes adjusting the hay, "What else do we need?"
Beef nods, "More lama blankets."
"Let's go," Bdubs grins, his tail flicking happily.
The pair walk over the bridge and head towards the part of Beef's, lama storage that houses the blankets. As they gather the blankets something starts happening with the meteor.
It glows a bright green and bits of ash start to flake off, Doc looks at it for a minute before snatching his communicator and messaging Bdubs in a panic.
DocM77: Bdubs, you need to get somewhere safe. Now
Error message not sent
The meteor sends a message moments later, "You can't warn him like that. You have five minutes to find him."
His eyes go wide as he realizes what the meteor means. Heart pounding he rushes out and jumps into the air opening his elytra with a snap.
Bdubs grins as he and Beef cross the bridge to the shopping district. They make it almost halfway across when Bdubs falls to the ground unmoving.
"Are you ok?" Beef asks as he extends a hand to help him up he pulls it back when he notices what's happening.
His back arches as his scales swiftly cover the rest of him. His wings materialize and immediately start smoking. Black ash floats off as his legs disappear and his head changes shape.
Panicking Beef stomps his hooves and covers the phantom in blankets.
Bdubs lets a small trill out in thanks for getting him away from the blistering hot sun all though his wings are still hurting. It's about midday so trying to move him in either direction across the bridge wouldn't work.
Spotting Beef, Doc drops from the sky and lands next to him, "Is that Bdubs?" He asks, gesturing towards the lump of blankets on the ground.
"Yeah, He fell then became a full phantom he's pretty small for one though."
Doc glares, "Call X. See if he'll turn it to night so we can move him."
Beef nods and pulls his communicator out, after a few minutes Xisuma replies, "He says he'll send a message to the chat and then he'll do it."
"Good," Doc growls as he receives a message from the meteor.
"He's not going to burn up completely. He's not a full phantom. He'll just get horrible blisters and even if he did die you people respawn so it's not like he would stay dead."
"That's not the point," Doc shoots back, "It's not fun to die and it's just plain cruel."
The sun flickers for a moment before it fades past the horizon as Xisuma turns it to night.
Doc gently takes the blanket off of Bdubs. Who gives him a happy purr and nudges him with his head. Looking over at Beef who nods, Doc picks Bdubs up and puts him on his back. They enter the first house they see. Which turns out to be Jevin's starter base.
Bdubs manages to flop over, off of Beef, and lands on the floor of the building with a dull thud.
"You ok?" Doc asks as he flips the phantom over so he's on his stomach.
He nods his head and screeches softly.
Beef carefully steps over the squirming phantom and takes a look at his wings, "Doc, are his wings supposed to look like this?"
"Let me see," Doc mutters as he carefully brushes his hand over the wings. The normally thick scaly wings are burnt and have blisters popping up from the short time he was in the sun, "That's not good."
"It looks like he can't feel it or he's ignoring the pain," Beef murmurs, "Healing potion?"
"Good, can you get me a harming one as well?"
"Yeah, wait, why?"
"Phantoms are technically undead so health Potions might have the opposite effect."
Beef nods and heads off to retrieve the potions. Doc sits next to Bdubs, the phantom is looking at his wings sadly. He puts his chin on the ground and gently wiggles his tail. He stops quickly as it hurts to pull his wings.
"Bdubs, can you think of something you love to do as a human?" Doc asks.
The small phantom looks confused before he realizes what Doc is trying to do, he nods.
After almost five minutes a mostly human Bdubs is sitting on the floor scrambling to get his pants back on. As he twists his wings freezes as pain shoots through.
Beef returns moments later and hands him a two of the potions, "You're you again, we don't know if the potions have switched for you so can you tell us which one works for you?"
Bdubs nods and studies each potion intently he settles on the healing potion. When he drinks it the burns on his wings fade-away leaving some pretty nasty scars. He yawns and stumbles over to a couch and falls asleep.
Notes:
Thank you for reading I hope y'all Have enjoyed And have a good day/night