The muffled droning of the drizzle beyond the apartment walls, the occasional sound of a distant vehicle, the faint moonlight coming in through the window, and the light of the phone clutched in the resident's hand. Another sleepless night. He was no stranger to insomnia, but with his mind so preoccupied with the fate of his roommate, it was difficult to relax. This roommate, a friend of his, had gone across the city for an "important medical procedure", though no further information was given. That was the last he heard from his roommate, who had now been gone for just over a week. He asked around, but his roommate wasn't the outgoing type, so it's not like there were many people who might know more than him anyway.

The rain was soon accompanied by another sound - the low rumbling of heavy footsteps outside. As they approached, he could feel the ever so slight shaking of the ground. He lifted himself to his feet, and walked over to the window. Upon glancing out, he immediately recoiled at the sight of the massive creature outside. "Oh, shit!" He ducked down, then after a few moments calmed himself, and peeked outside the window once more. "Oh. Just a mutaped. Phew." By this point it had been several years since the mutapeds first came about - huge, sentient, raptor-like bipeds, former humans afflicted and warped by a genetically engineered parasite. Even though he'd seen his fair share in the city, though, he could never quite get used to the sight of such monstrous creatures.

As he stood up once more, and looked closely at the mutaped outside his window, he felt a strange sense of familiarity from it. Wait. "...Rez, is that you? Did you-" He was interrupted as the mutaped's hanging tongue, almost like a giant scarf in appearance, darted at the window, licking at its panes. "Oh, right." The man opened the window, and leaned out. "Rez..." The creature looked back at him with its four amber eyes, and it nodded slowly. "So, it really is you, huh." Rez stretched his head closer to the window. "So, you, uh... You chose to get the operation, right?" He nodded once more. "Oh, well... That's good to know. If I found out one of my best buds got turned into a mutaped against his will, I'd..." As Rez edged closer, he reared his head, and in one motion withdrew his lengthy, scarf-like tongue back into his mouth, his purple neck-pouch swelling with its mass.

"So, why'd you do it? I never understood why anyone would want it. I mean, normally it's the poor and desperate folks, but I know you, and you're neither of those." Rez looked around the street, then back at his roommate, and replied softly, "I've wanted this for as long as I can remember. It feels so good to finally be like this." "Really now? Why's that?" "Oh, it's just... Honestly, I've never felt much attachment to the idea of being human. Whenever I walk past a mutaped in the streets, it's like... Just a feeling of 'I wish I could be more like that.' I guess it's kinda weird, but that's just how I am." Rez was blushing from a mixture of emotions - the feeling of embarrassment from exposing his inner feelings far more than he was used to, the inner euphoria he'd felt ever since his metamorphosis was complete, and a warm happiness from his friend's seeming acceptance of his decision.

"Hey. Rez," the human said with a stern tone in his voice, "I'm not sure this is gonna work. I mean, where are you gonna stay? Can't just leave you out on the street all day and night, and there ain't room in here for you." "Oh, I... I didn't even think about that, heh. Maybe, umm..." The human glanced over at the saddle-like middle area of Rez's back, and an idea sprung into his mind. "Hey, how's this sound to you? I'll lock up here, hop on your back, and then we can go find some shelter to spend the night. Then, in the morning we see about finding a long-term place for you to stay. Sound good?" The mutaped nodded, and reached out with a foreleg. "That sounds great. Just hop on when you're ready." "Sure thing, I'll just be like 5 minutes." The human went off to lock the place up, leaving Rez to sit on his own for a few minutes, and appreciate the feeling of the pouring rain on his smooth, porous skin.

---

So, I spent some time away from home, and in that time I had some ideas. What started out as an idea for a one-off drawing had, by the time I got home, become a species concept. And so, the mutapeds were born. I'll upload a reference image with the full details on them (tomorrow probably, I'm tired), but for a basic explanation, in this alternate world a scientist genetically engineered a parasite to combine with its host and transform them into a massive creature, known as a mutaped. These mutapeds have a defined base form, and each individual one inherits physical traits from their original form, including hair and clothing (the clothes physically fuse with the wearer during the transformation process). They retain full sentience and speech capabilities, and coexist with humans as equals, often serving as all-terrain mounts and beasts of burden.

You can probably guess it from the name, but 'Rez' is my own mutaped-sona. I'll probably draw more of him, and I do intend to draw other mutapeds in the future too (after all, what use is a species with only one member). I make no guarantees because my drawing mood is fickle as always, but between this and my new avatar I feel like I've kinda committed to it already.