Fang's Requiem - Zeydaan — Story

“Okay, okay, good job, everyone! Now let’s take five,” Zeydaan directed her fellow employees. It was a busy day at the local Maiden Menagerie in the bustling city of Mailor. Granted, that could be said about every day (to say that running a business period was mentally taxing was to make a rather obvious joke), but there was reason to feel particularly stressed out at the moment, for it was today that the humble establishment hosted its first major event in quite some time: a Pride Memorial Concert. This had been something that Zeydaan had been pushing for a good while, since her trans upbringing and empathy for her kin in the queer community made her quite vocal about advocating for civil rights on her world of Schism Earth. In the current state of her state’s politics that actively marginalized “alters” and currently had no plans to change that, the fae-witch had taken great pride in establishing events like this to make the minorities of her world more heard.And to that end, what better place to promote solidarity than at her current place of work?

Zeydaan had proudly worked at the Menagerie for years. It wasn’t the most high-paying job in the world, but it certainly kept the lights on for her (her career as a “superhero” in the Hawkmoths often dealt with more ‘fate of the world’ than starting political conversations), and she had a certain amount of rapport with her coworkers/coven as well as her superiors. Upper management was thankfully all for her concert idea, though in her initial pitch to the other staff, it was brought up that the musical talent that her budget could allow was on the smaller side. In lieu of established musical talent in town, however, Zeydaan graciously volunteered to be the one performing a concert’s headlining song. There was one snag, though: she didn’t exactly have the qualifications to do so. She was far from musically illiterate or unskilled with instruments, but she had only picked up the guitar a couple weeks ago and had only learned a couple of elementary chords by now. Her singing voice was slightly above average, but to pretend it was anything more than that would be to embarrass herself. However, she would not have signed up if she didn’t already have a plan in place, and all she needed to do was see if the decorations would suffice before she went back home.

“Hmm…does this look good?” Her fellow dragon employee, Blue asked as they took a step back and admired the job she did. It’d taken all morning and even a bit of the afternoon to set all this up, but her work definitely paid off. From the hanging lanterns providing just the right amount of mood lighting to the assorted collages of photos from all of Zeydaan’s work with her team, in her rallies for alter and queer rights, to the pride flags on the wall with complimentary miniature flags for every denomination she could think of. At this point, the staff (which barely was more than half a dozen people) felt like calling it a day 

“Alright, I think we’ve done a good job so far…how are we doing for time?” Zeydaan asked, getting a bit antsy about if she could work out her plan in time.

“Concert starts at eight, so…like seven hours?” Another employee enlightened her.

“Oh, thank goodness…” Zeydaan sighed as she rushed out the door. “Take your time, give me about an hour and I’ll be back!”

Quickly, she raced to the other side of town to her humble cottage, where her instruments and the next step of her plan awaited her. Once to her chair and with her guitar in hand, though…hmm, she couldn’t quite do it just yet. Was it anxiety? Maybe. Either way, Zeydaan couldn’t help but have her mind drift back to the not so distant past.

“Hm…are you sure you’re going to go through with this?” Zeydaan’s fellow Hawkmoth Alvis warned her as she was about to conjure up a portal to a different dimension. “I just want you to know full well that you’re entering ‘incoming apocalypse’ territory. Many people are as good as dead already.”

“Yes, I know, I won’t try to tear myself up that much about it,” Zeydaan nodded. Earlier, when she had spotted this dimension through her scanners, an unstoppable fleet of asteroids were headed for collision with the planet she was now traveling toward. 

“Plus, if on this trip, you somehow die—”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. It’s just when I saw the scan of this dimension…I couldn’t help but feel like it’d be a waste to have it all disappear without a trace. All the people with no one to tell her stories. I’d like to at least document some things before it all goes down.”

“Alright then, just be back at the earliest opportunity. You wouldn’t want to worry us.”

“Got it,” Zeydaan said as she ventured into her portal. At the other end lay a seemingly normal town, the name of which she gleaned as Caldera Bay. Not wanting to attract more attention than she already would have (being someone who made her entrance through a swirling dimensional portal), she used her shapeshifting abilities to blend in with the prehistoric-looking population. Walking around the city was a healthy population of dinosaur people, and this opportunity granted Zeydaan the privilege of seeing a multitude of people go throughout her final days. Granted, there were a fair share of people who wanted a way out (to which Zeydaan gladly allowed them a ferry through one of her signature portals), but herself certainly taken aback by the number of people gladly coming to terms with her own mortality. 

During her travels, though, she had found herself in a celebration called Calderafest, among a sizable crowd. Truthfully, she’d been just going wherever the wind took her for the afternoon, but the clamoring of the people around her made her think herself about to see something good. 

“Hellooo, Caldera Bay! How are we feeling tonight?” The announcer walked up on stage to say as hype slowly started to build around her. “Welcome to the last concert you’ll ever see! I know you’re all dying to see Worm Drama right now, am I right?”

Crickets. 

“That got dark,” the announcer replied. Failed attempts at an introduction aside, Zeydaan stood patiently as the three-piece band got up on stage and started to play, with the crowd noticeably quiet and letting the music speak for itself. And what music it was, Zeydaan thought, allowing the tones to wash over her like the tide.

We won't sit around and let the world go by

We're gonna fly around the big, black sky tonight

And when the fire falls from on high,

We can be the pretty heroes if we try, tonight

As the song continued on, Zeydaan’s appreciation for it only grew, with the fae-witch appreciating the lush instrumental, powerful lyrics, and especially the soulful vocals by the lead guitarist. She'd certainly have to meet with them after the show, she thought as she continued with another song. 

Back seat baby with the wind whipped high

When we said goodbye

Got my eyes up baby with the pulling tide

I did not know why

I had my eyes up looking for a flag or a sign

Just a sunset sigh

With the concert coming to a close, Zeydaan was one among dozens of people clamoring and applauding at their marvelous performance. After Worm Drama had gone backstage, she couldn’t help but flag the band down to engage in a bit of casual conversation. 

“Hello, don’t mean to intrude, but I just wanted to say I was a huge fan of your performance back there,” Zeydaan greeted them. “Who are you, anyway?”

“Oh, thanks!” The guitarist of the trio was taken aback slightly by her praise. “Well, I’m Fang. Those are Trish and Reed back there. I like the outfit, by the way.”

“Thanks,” the fae-witch replied as she looked down at their distinctly goth getup this run around. “My name’s Zeydaan, and I did actually want to ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

“If you were given the choice to start anew somewhere else with all of your friends, would you do it?”

“Nah. I mean, I wouldn’t wanna take the easy way out, honestly. I did all I could in this life…it’s not worth thinking about all these ‘what ifs.’ We just had the best performance of our lives just now, and I wouldn’t have any other way to go out.”

Zeydaan admittedly kind of knew that Fang would respond that way (that was kind of what they were singing about in the first place), but their response touched her heart all the same. The two proceeded to talk it up further about the life they had lived up until that point, and how they harbored little regret as she was about to witness their incoming demise. Perhaps the fact she’d just listened to their wonderful song was at play, perhaps it was their chill tone of voice, perhaps it was the comfort in talking with a fellow queer being, but that talk with Fang and their fellow bandmates was probably the best they had in quite some time. As Zeydaan departed on their portal back home on Schism Earth, she waved Fang goodbye. She'd made a new friend that day, even if she only knew them for a couple of minutes.

Their memory came to a close as Zeydaan looked at all the photos that she had taken that day once more. There had to be at least a hundred different photos of locales and people of this dimension, yet it didn’t feel like enough to Zeydaan. At the end of the lengthy list, however, were the couple of photos she had taken with Fang. 

Even though they were…well, dead, Zeydaan didn’t exactly feel the most comfortable appropriating their lyrics like this, so she decided to start playing another song she thought would fit the concert well. Pulling up a bit of sheet music, helping herself to a couple of meat-fruit, and having a quick change of clothes, she started to practice their song. 

“So take the photographs and still frames of your mind…” Zeydaan sang, getting through the first part of the song as the first inklings of transformation were about to unfold within her body. It began to take form within her hair. Their shoulder-length haircut cascaded down to her waist, with her having to flick her head back to get it out of her eyes as to not take her hands off her guitar. In addition, it lightened itself to a luminous silver color, as did her eyebrows. From the back of her scalp sprouted a good-sized white horn with triangular gray stripes lining its top, giving her profile a distinct silhouette, especially as a thick, spiked bracelet materialized right on top of her hair. Zeydaan blinked her eyes as her irises became striking amber and her pupils gained a reptilian, almond shape. Subtle bits of makeup appeared at her top, her red and blue color sticking out next to the rather plain gray and white. Zeydaan could hear the quality of her vocals improve in real time as the changes descended down her mouth and throat, the distinct voice of Fang beginning to come through. Along the way, her snout was about to transform as well, becoming much more angular, with her nostrils migrating to the base of said snout. Within her mouth, her rather unassuming teeth at least doubled in her number as she shrank down to compensate, creating a new set of pointy little things as Zeydaan’s mind momentarily drifted to how Fang’s dental appointments must have been. She digressed, however, as the changes departed from affecting her head.

“Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time…” Zeydaan continued to sing as the transformation soon moved on to her torso, leaving a new set of off-white down in lieu of her coat of fur she had before as well as a prominent choker on her neck. Zeydaan continued to go off on her guitar as well, her timing and execution getting better by the second as she could feel Fang’s skill build in her mind. As she did, she felt her jacket she’d loosely worn on her person begin to fade away, as well as the yellow shirt she’d worn underneath shading itself to be jet black. The sleeves soon deprecated themselves, along with its lower half to become a crop top, complete with a couple of tears at the bottom. A small skull necklace also appeared on her chest and wrapped its string around Zeydaan’s neck. From this part of her body, sge could also feel herself getting quite a bit thinner. Granted, Zeydaan wasn’t very heavy, usually, but she couldn’t help but notice the rather thin physique her body now possessed as it became that of Fang’s.

“Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial…” Zeydaan felt her arms beginning to change, with them similarly replacing the pelage she had before with the white down that the pterosaur possessed. Their muscle and bone structure altered themselves as well, several prototypical avian elements inserting themselves into the anatomy of her appendages as the down feathers grew particularly thick near her elbows. Reaching her wrists as a thin Calderafest bracelet popped up on one of them, the transforming fae-witch momentarily felt herself get off-groove as her hands were becoming more petite and delicate-looking, coinciding with long, black claws sprouting at her fingertips. Thankfully, she was able to get back into the swing of her song as soon as she could. In fact, she was starting to really get a kick out of it, so much so that she could feel her fae wings appearing, though this could’ve also been because she was about to undergo a transformation herself. Their butterfly-like shape was soon disappearing as a wide array of feathers was coating itself around her paper-thin surfaces. While the sections close to her body were covered in a relatively thin down, on the lower edges of her wings grew several long feathers, which along with them generally expanding outward, allowed a wingspan that was easily double what she had before. For a brief moment, she actually wondered if she could fly with these things…another time, perhaps.

“And for what it’s worth, it was worth all the while…” The changes reached Zeydaan’s legs, with them similarly thinning out as the fashion there refined itself to match the rest of the clothes on her body. The comfortable pants Zeydaan usually wore grew a leathery texture as several holes were torn around the pair, not out of the transformation pushing the limits of her resilience but simply to match the style carried by the rest of her garments. The magenta-and-pink sneakers she had on became a uniform black as she became similarly leathery, along with her length extending way past her ankles and her laces extending and criss-crossing along the way. As her tail shifted to become a relatively short appendage that matched the shape and colors of her horn, Zeydaan could feel the magical energy that accompanied all of her shapeshifting subside.

As her transformation came to a close, Zeydaan was in the groove, entering an utter flow state of music where she felt invincible on the guitar. Pretty much any riff she could think of, she could do without as much as a thought. A chord progression appeared in her mind, and boom! with sheer muscle memory, it was good as shredded. In fact, she had a certain amount of fun improvising new things right off the cuff. Yet, she managed to curb her enthusiasm after a while, managing to have a look at herself in her mirror. Hey, looking great, she thought. She recalled Fang complimenting her goth-inspired outfit back at Calderafest, but Fang certainly had an impressive look themselves.

Their vision drifted to her wall-clock soon enough, however. 4:07? she’d been at this for a couple hours longer than she thought! The other menagerie employees must’ve been worried sick at this point. Noting the half a dozen missed calls on her phone at this point, she hastily rushed out her door, guitar in hand. 

Back at the Maiden Menagerie, the other workers were quite impressed at her form, yet not so impressed at her relative tardiness. Yet, the preparations for the concert continued without a hitch, with her even setting up signs advertising “Zeydaan/Isabella as FANG from Worm Drama” around where they would perform. As the time of her performance came, she couldn’t help but appreciate the number of people, regardless of gender or species, that showed up.

“People of Mailor, queer folk and allies alike! Are you ready for a night of fantastic performances?” The concert’s announcer hyped the crowd that had formed around the stage, with her attempts at hype thankfully landing much better than the emcee at Caldera. “We wouldn’t want to keep you waiting, so we’ll start off with a bang. Let’s give a hand for our very own Zeydaan as Fang from Worm Drama!”

Zeydaan confidently strutted on stage as she didn’t give one moment of hesitation before starting. After all, she had the skill on the guitar of someone who’d been practicing it all her life! she felt she could do song after song, yet she put the most effort into her final one of the night. As the crowd reactions reached an all time high, she could only smile as she sang her last few lyrics.

“It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right…I hope you had the time of your life…”