Chapter Text
It started when Ze had received a letter in the mail, a book signed by both Msak and Ptolemy.
Reading through it, he was somewhat surprised to see that it was an invitation to Msak's birthday party. Ze had just met up with the other man outside of Minecraft to celebrate. But it seems now that his friend had decided to host a whole party in the game.
It made sense. Msak probably wanted to celebrate with Ptolemy, Msak and the entity seemed to be getting closer every time they spoke. Plus the fact that a lot of their shared friends were exclusively within Minecraft, he shouldn't be surprised about the invite.
Reading back over the letter's details written in the familiar messy handwriting, he flipped the page to see a small message written in neat cursive.
"Regect is not invited. - Ptolemy"
That tracks.
The player tried to mentally prepare himself for the tantrum his entity would throw when he found out.
--
It was the morning of the party. Ze found himself wandering around a quiet home. Moe had left extremely early to "help them set up," but Ze had chosen sleep over decorating for a Minecraft birthday party.
But there was still someone else missing.
Ze had thought he would wake to find Regect sulking around the house, groaning about how much he hates his cousin and how the party would be boring without him.
But surprisingly, the house was dead silent.
The other had been angry when Ze had shown him the note, he scoffed and mumbled something about how Ptolemy could "fuck off," but other than that, he had remained concerningly calm.
The next few days, he had started acting completely off.
Instead of constant shouting and random adventures, Regect would be found in his carrot farm or on the couch binging random shows.
But most often Ze would find him just sleeping.
The player hadn't thought entities needed to sleep at first, he could remember nights where Regect would be up all night, causing some kind of chaos. He had been right in a way, Regect had explained it once when he got curious enough to ask. They don't need to sleep to survive, but that doesn't mean it's not nice to rest once in a while.
So stumbling upon the entity while he was sleeping was a rare occurrence, but lately it was the only thing he wanted to do.
It was almost concerning.
As Ze wandered around the house killing time before he had to leave, he found himself unconsciously looking for Regect.
After searching the entire home, he groaned as he realized where Regect was and began to walk to his bedroom.
Knocking softly on the wooden door, he was met with only silence. Glancing at the clock on the wall, it read almost noon. Thinking back, he realized grimly that Regect had retreated upstairs after dinner around 7:00 PM to go to bed.
Ze felt himself growing frustrated- Regect must be messing with him or something, pretending to get sick to get attention. But why should he care? Ze should be grateful to get a rare break from the constant chaos.
Regardless, he pushed the door open.
The room was dark, curtains drawn, with blankets and pillows strewn everywhere. Sure enough, Regect laid on the bed, curled on his side.
"Seriously? Regect it's almost noon! You need to cut this out," He started to scold, walking towards the other.
The entity didn't react at all, only lying still on the bed.
Was he breathing?
The thought caught Ze off guard, but still, he fixated on it, staring at the entity's body to try and see the usual rise and fall.
He was completely still.
"Regect, c'mon man-" He placed a hand on his shoulder.
Only to immediately recoil when he felt how cold Regect was.
"Regect!" He yelled, hand flying back to grip his visible shoulder, shaking aggressively as he continued to yell out.
After a moment or two Regect finally stirred, his visible eye cracking open, glazed over, and confused.
A weak hand came up to grab at Ze's wrist- "...Ze, what're you doing..?" He woke up slightly more and moved into a sitting position, using both hands to shove him away.
Relief flooded over the player, "Fuck man! I thought you died!" his breathing was frantic, angry from Regect's confusion. Regect just blinked slowly at him, "I'm not though," he simply mumbled.
"You weren't breathing! Then you were super fucking cold!"
"I don't need to breathe, dude. What's wrong with you?" Regect spoke slowly, still only acting confused as Ze yelled.
"Are you sick or something?" the player finally asked,
Regect still stared at him, "I can't get sick, dumbass." Ze wanted to punch him.
“Fuck- fine, if you’re not sick, then I’m going to the party,” Ze retorted as he stepped away from the entity’s bed. Regect paid no mind to his words, simply blinking slowly as he lay back down.
Ze came to the grim realization that Regect had passed out again before he shut the door.
Shaking that whole experience off, Ze quickly headed over to Msak’s house.
If Regect couldn’t explain what was happening, then he couldn’t get mad at Ze for asking his cousin about it.
--
The party was actually very well executed, much to Ze’s surprise. Moe and Msak had excitedly led him on a tour of all the decorations they’d set up.
Eventually ending up at their kitchen, which was overrun with an array of appetizers, cakes, and pastries- all made by Ptolemy that morning.
Soon enough, the area was crowded with guests, all chatting and laughing as music played softly. Gifts were piled high on the assigned table. Ze rolled his eyes- he’d given Msak his birthday gift outside of the game.
As much as he wanted to relax and enjoy the party, he couldn’t get a certain entity off his mind.
Moe caught on pretty quickly- she’d been concerned as well.
“He was cold to the touch, Moe! Then he woke up acting all confused- I just don’t know what’s wrong with him.” He ranted while sipping on his drink. Moe nodded along and then let out a string of honks. “He doesn't even realize anything’s wrong, he just thinks we're crazy for being concerned!” She shouted.
“Are you two talking about Regect?” A voice cut in.
Ze snapped his head towards the voice, only to see Ptolemy, who seemed to have wandered over to escape the crowd as well.
“Yeah.. I think he’s sick or something, he’s been acting really weird,” Ze admitted.
Ptolemy nodded, “Well, we can’t get sick like you humans, but we can be unwell- what has he been doing?” The entity asked. The player felt relieved that Ptolemy was willing to give advice on this. He was waiting until the party quieted down to ask, but even then, he was half expecting Ptolemy to scoff at his cousin’s condition.
“Well, for one, he’s been sleeping constantly, most of the time, he’s just in his room passed out,” Ze rambled. Moe honked loudly, “And he’s groggy all the time! Every time I talk to him, he just zones out!” Ze nodded in agreement, “Plus, earlier today I tried to check on him, and he was ice cold, I thought he died… or something.” The player huffed.
Ptolemy’s many eyes narrowed in thought, “Well, when was the last time he fed? Those all sound like symptoms of malnutrition.”
Ze’s eyes went wide, “Malnutrition? He eats with us all the time, maybe not as often since he’s been sleeping, but-” Ptolemy cut him off, “No, that’s not how entities get their energy, we can eat food, but it doesn’t give us any nutritional value- I mean, when was the last time he actually fed?”
Ze gripped his drink, confused at what he meant, “I… I’m not sure, he’s never mentioned any of that.” He looked to Moe, “We just thought he ate normally like us?” Moe looked horrified.
Ptolemy sighed heavily, running a hand over his face. “My idiot cousin,” he mumbled. Shaking his head slightly, he returned his attention to Ze, “Regect in the past has had issues with feeding himself, but I didn’t think he would go as far as not to tell you two about it.” Dread began to fill Ze- why would Regect not tell them this?
The entity began to explain, “We entities don’t get energy from normal food, we have the ability to feed off of very strong emotions- mainly fear or panic since those are extremely strong and relatively easy to achieve. You may ask Msak about this, but if we get hungry enough, we have the ability to temporarily leave the digital world to feed off of players”
“Wait, you’ve fed off Msak before?” Ze nearly shouted, Ptolemy’s eyes widened, “Well- yes, but we’ve spoken about it and found a compromise…” “Wait! Regect can leave the computer?” Ze’s mind was racing- if Regect was starving himself, why didn’t he just leave the computer to feed?
As if Ptolemy could read his thoughts, “He can, but he has more of a moral issue with it.”
“Moral issue?” Moe honked quietly, “I’m not too sure on the details, you would have to speak with him about it. I knew he had qualms with it, but I didn’t think he’d refuse to eat completely.”
Ze could feel himself getting more and more pissed at the entity. How could Regect not tell him about this? That messed-up Picasso painting was constantly oversharing with him and Moe. How had this never come up?
“Thank you for telling us, Ptolemy. I’ll talk to him after the party,” He said through gritted teeth. The taller entity, seemingly sensing his frustration, nodded in agreement, “Of course, if you need anything else, please contact Msak or me.” Ptolemy walked away, heading to where Msak was laughing with Avery and a few other entities.
With a huff, Ze turned back to Moe, “I guess we should enjoy the party before I kill Regect,” He mumbled. The clown honked aggressively at him, “Be careful! This is clearly a sensitive subject for him. We need to be careful if his health is at risk,” She quickly scolded his attitude.
Ze looked down, he supposes she’s right, if Regect is essentially starving himself over a moral issue, then he should approach with at least some caution.
“Yeah… Don’t worry, Moe, we’ll talk to him when we get home.”