Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  He should’ve known they were pushing themselves too far. Between the swords having physical effects on them and the drained, hateful look that swam through their eyes, he should’ve caught on sooner.

 He knew first hand the effects of one singular sword, and they were wielding all of them. That shouldn’t have been possible in the first place! 

 He should’ve known they were pushing themselves too far. 

Shedletsky was pushing them too far.

 None of this would’ve happened if he didn’t immediately try tossing them to the side once they weren’t useful.

 All of that work they did for him just to be cast aside. All of that trauma for nothing. 

He should’ve been there.

He could’ve helped.

But he wasn’t there.

And for Telamon’s sake, that’s something he’ll never forgive himself for.

  The adrenaline rush following a narrowly avoided entanglement was a feeling the survivors still couldn’t get used too. Then again, they couldn’t get used to the feeling of getting hit by said entanglement either. It was a lose-lose situation, really. But having your insides stay on the inside and not having to crawl to Elliot and beg for pizza was always better than an adrenaline rush any day.

  Except this round, 1x seemed to be missing her mark. The timer had gotten down to 1 minute and there had been no kills thanks to sentinels having managed to keep him stunned and looping him for a while. 

 This was the first time in a good week or so they’d have everyone survive a round without anyone taking near fatal damage (much to Elliot’s relief). Especially since Noli and Guest666’s addition to the line up. Noli’s unpredictability was impossible to counter and Guest666 was a literal tank. And once the Spectre noticed the survivors struggling extra on the two killers in particular, he started sending those two out more often to watch the survivors scramble around and panic.  

 But now, due to the fact that 1x1x1x1 wasn’t having the best run, the air in the map didn’t feel as heavy, for the survivors at least.

  Of course, 1x was royally pissed about this. Being outshined by the two newcomers when he’s been here for how long? Especially when they were the Spectre’s favorite when it came to being able to wipe out a whole round. Not a good look. But they couldn’t seem to just get a grip this round. So as the clock ticked down to 40 seconds and 1x suffered another stun at the hands of Guest1337 and his spectre-forsakened ability to block, she just decided it would be best to take a loss here. They’ll do better next time they are picked. This just wasn’t their day. Everyone has bad days, after all. Even if the spectre gets mad at them, it can suck it up.

 Noli wasn’t going to let them hear the end of this though, that’s for sure.

  As they raised their head to stand up from another stun, messy hair being pushed back by their free hand, he spotted something he wasn’t exactly expecting to see. Shedletsky was walking towards 1x, sword holstered and Builderman shouting at him not to do anything stupid. The sounds of his feet crunching against the dying grass was especially annoying right now for some reason.

 Was Shedletsky willingly approaching him? So he had a death wish, hm? No matter. A quick and easy kill to get more time may just be what 1x could u-

“I just want to talk,” Shedletsky spoke with a tone that was much softer than his usual over-confident and cocky one. The last thing 1x wanted right now was to be treated like she was a scared kitten. Especially not with such a devastating defeat and 30 seconds left. 

 Plus, who wants to talk with the man that constantly stuns them when they’re inches away from catching a survivor? 

 In all actuality though, Shedletsky did just want to talk. Nothing more. He wasn’t trying to get at anything else. He knew his chances were slim at getting 1x to actually listen to him speak though. Not that he blamed him, neither of them were exactly on talking terms to begin with.

“What.”

  It was a simple answer but the tone said everything that needed to be said, causing the air around them to almost thicken. The slight reluctance to approach that crossed Shedletsky’s face didn’t go unnoticed either. 1x couldn’t resist letting a smirk cross her face at that.

 She also decided that they were not in the mood to talk. Especially not with that tone Shedletsky used. He wasn’t a child.

 With a swift motion, a mass infection was launched at Shedletsky. It hit Shedletsky for sure, but also somehow managed to one shot a certain survivor with weakness 43 in the back, much to 1x’s surprise.

 The realization his attempts at peace were not even getting the chance to play out quickly dawned on the former admin. With the timer back at 50 seconds, Shedletsky pulled his sword back out, the metal of the blade slicing against the leather of the holster on his back. He quickly raised the weapon as he saw Elliot from the corner of his eye, running over, no doubt armed with a pizza.

 But with one swift motion, 1x changed his angle and fired. Both Elliot and shedletsky were hit by entanglement, stopping them both dead in their tracks as tiny pop ups plagued their view and thick gashes bled out. As Shedletsky scrambled to get out of the momentary stun, 1x ran up to deliver the final blow, eager to hurry and finish off the oversized chicken before Guest1337 could get over with a block or tank a hit.

 And as a panicked heat-of-the-moment reaction, Shedletsky would call out a name foreign to most of the survivors, but oh so familiar to him.

“PLAYER!“

 1x’s eyes immediately widened in surprise before her hand tightened around their sword’s hilt, nails digging into their palm.

 Turns out one name can lose the survivors an entire round even with the timer at a measly 40 seconds. Because the fury that enveloped 1x’s face as he struck down Shedletsky’s sword and dug her daemonshank into his chest was a clear indication the tables had turned and 1x was back on their feet. Her eyebrows furrowed and she scoffed as she mercilessly kicked her heel into Shedletsky’s corpse and tore her sword from his ribs. 

Her attention was then turned back to the survivors. A look far more furious than usual now plastered across her face.

Chapter Text

With the recent disappearances of several admins, he couldn’t help but wonder if they had anything to do with this. He sure did hope they had something to do with Shedletsky going missing in particular. That asshole deserved whatever bad karma catches up to him.

 But with the disappearance of the admins came new local chatter, naturally. Chatter about how people wondered if their “hero” would come back, find them, and return them home like they did with Builderman. 

 He would almost always choose to ignore the chatter. In all honesty, he hated listening to people talk about Player like they knew him. 

 They didn’t. If those admins weren’t disappearing they wouldn’t give a single shit about them or where they went.

 They really are only remembered when they can contribute something to someone else, huh?

 Very few people knew what actually happened to them anyways. Not even Kyoko knew. It left a bitter taste in his mouth whenever he thought about the fact no one knew the real betrayal that ended their precious hero’s story.

 He knew the full truth, obviously. But the admins and sword guardians were the only other people that knew. He remembered that only one admin truly seemed to care about someone who wasn’t Shedletsky in that situation too. Crazy how Builderman didn’t give a single crap about the person that went to hell and back to find a way to save him. But he digressed. 

 At the memorial’s resurrection there was only one admin who didn’t seem almost bothered they were memorializing someone who “fell from grace.” Except for Shedletsky, who actually looked guilty, but he refused to look at Shedletsky at that moment. 

 He couldn’t remember her name for the life of him. He only spoke to her once and didn’t even get her name from her. He got it from his dad. Rainboweyes or something along those lines. 

 The first thing uttered after that mess of a round back in the cabin was, “what the hell just happened?!”

 Chance was the one who spoke up. They had been spectating the round after being accidentally slaughtered while their weakness was stacked.

 Shedletsky was oddly silent following that question, sitting on the far right of the couch.

 Both Noob and Elliot sat at the dining table where Elliot seemed to be helping Noob process her strangely-more-brutal-than-normal death, along with trying to calm himself down as he had just respawned in from LMS about a minute ago. 

 Two Time was off in a corner praying to spawn, they tend to do this particularly after rough rounds, and Dusekkar was standing beside Chance in front of the couch. N7 seemed to have scampered off somewhere, which wasn’t uncommon for the outcast. 

 The silence that followed Chance’s question was almost palpable, that was until Builderman broke it.

 “I have an idea of what happened,” Builderman replied as he straightened up from where he was leaning against the log wall and crossed over to the worn out couch where Guest1337, Shedletsky, and Taph were sitting. 

  Now turning his attention to Shedletsky, Builderman spoke up again, “But I think the main cause was the name Shedletsky called her.”

 Shedletsky’s fingers found the arm of the couch as his grip around it tightened, “I didn’t mean to call him that.” That wasn’t exactly a lie either. Shedletsky really did let that name slip by him.

 “Shedletsky you know better.”

 And that wasn’t exactly a lie either.

 “It was a force of habit.”

 “What habit? It’s been years, Shed,” Builderman’s voice was laced with worry. He didn’t know all the details about what happened between Player and Shedletsky, but he knew more than the other admins. Player was responsible for Builderman’s safe return after all, it was only fair he knew about them. And after the whole 1x1x1x1 situation, Builderman pressed Shedletsky for more details a few days after everything went down. He was worried about the other man’s mental health after the ordeal and how things escalated that far to begin with. But he never did get all  the answers to his questions.

 “I didn’t think they’d react that way to me talking to them either way. And if I knew Chance had that much weakness stacked I wouldn’t have risked it. You know well enough that the last thing I try to do is get someone killed.”

 “Stop changing the topic, Shed. Seriously, you need to let them go, that’s not them anymore.”

 Builderman’s voice had a bit of a stern tone to it, but it was clear he was just worried for the other individual and his long time friend.

 Shedletsky bit back a remark about a certain cultist survivor here not letting someone who is now a killer go either. He also considered arguing with Builderman that N7 hasn’t let C00lkidd OR Noli go either. But it seemed a bit pointless to drag them into an argument that they didn’t even understand.

 Nearby, the rest of the survivors sat in silence and confusion, except for Dusekkar of course. Personal drama wasn’t often brought up out in the open like this, so everyone was being a bit nosey to say the least. 

Back in the dining room, Elliot and Noob had peaked over into the living room to see the situation for themselves as well. 

 Chance, seeing those two in the dining room, took the opportunity to get out of the living room and get everyone else’s attention away from the bickering old people to give them some privacy. It was getting a bit too emotional for their liking anyways.

 They also felt a bit bad by posing the question that got Builderman on Shedletsky’s ass about something. The gambler just wanted to know why they got killed out of the blue, not Shedletsky and 1x’s family drama. 

“Oookay, that’s enough drama for me right now. Elliottttt! Are you cooking dinner tonight or is it someone else’s turn!” The gambler waltzed over to Elliot and threw an arm around the delivery boy’s shoulders.

“No, it’s my turn tonight. Guest went yesterday. But it is your turn for dish duty,” Elliot teased Chance with a smug smile across his face, all the while leaning slightly towards him. Chance audibly groaned and their shoulders sulked forward, pausing momentarily to push their sunglasses back into place.

“It’s like you hate me. I’m hurt, Elliot. Emotionally injured I might even say,” they dramatically grabbed their suit above their heart and pouted, which earned Chance a giggle from Noob.

 At the mention of food and the arrival of a new conversation, the other survivors collectively decided to follow Chance’s lead and leave Builderman and Shedletsky by the couch, except for Two Time who was still praying. They can ask questions later. Right now did not seem like the time for that. Also the increasing tension was unpleasant to be around. 

 Taph was the first to comment on the argument going on in the living room. The demolitionist waited for everyone else to enter the dining room before raising his hands to sign, “I haven’t seen Shedletsky and Builderman fight like that,” before turning to face Dusekkar who sat down beside him.

 Elliot nodded at Taph’s statement, leaning back into his chair and Chance’s arm that was around his shoulders in the process. 

 After a short moment of silence, Elliot spoke up,“It’s weird seeing them argue, seeing how close they are normally. But I don’t think it was necessarily fighting, they weren’t really yelling or anything.” He shrugged a bit after saying that last sentence.

 Noob listened intently to what Elliot said and hummed in agreement. They then turned to face the only person in the room who might know a little bit of what was going on, “Hey, Dusekkar…? You wouldn’t happen to know why 1x suddenly got so angry at what Shedletsky called him? Or at least why Builderman seems disappointed-..?”

 Dusekkar, who was speaking to Taph when Noob prompted that question, paused for a moment before turning his blue pumpkin head to face Noob. 

 “It is not my place to give you answers about a hero’s fall from grace. If it is an answer you strive to find, ask Shedletsky for a glimpse into his mind. But I do put forth that Builderman is not mad, heavens no. He is simply worried about something Shedletsky has yet to let go.”

 Chance blinked at Dusekkar a few times as Noob smiled awkwardly, both visibly confused about what Noob was just told. Shortly thereafter the gambler let a remark slip under their breath.

“And I always considered Two Time the weirdest.”

 Which promptly earned them a light snack and a “be nice” from Elliot who was the only one within earshot. Guest raised an eyebrow at Elliot’s light smack against Chance, but smiled warmly upon realizing it was a playful smack. It wasn’t uncommon that Guest scolded the other survivors for picking on each other. That usually ended in a disgruntled, “ok mom” though.

 Elliot stood up from his chair at the dining table, the worn out wooden legs creaking from every little movement, “I’ve got to get a move on with dinner. And someone should probably go see if Shedletsky and Builderman are done arguing-….”

 There was a reluctance over the group at the thought of bothering the two close friends while they were having a disagreement. Thankfully though, Dusekkar volunteered and found his way back to the living room to check on the other two admins. 

 Just as Dusekkar left, Two Time entered the dining room, their tail bobbing behind them with each step, seemingly having finished up whatever they were doing in their post-round prayer. Taph waved them over and the cultist paused for a moment before ultimately deciding to join Taph and sit beside him.

 Just as peace seemed to be finally settling over the cabin once more, the door was abruptly slammed open. 

 The loud bang caused everyone in the cabin to nearly jump out of their skin, especially Guest1337 in particular. The survivors all quickly turned to face the potential threat, only to be greeted with an out of breath 007n7 who was holding onto the doorframe for support.

“THERE’S A NEW SURVIVOR OUTSIDE-!”

Chapter Text

 The last thing he remembered was getting asked by some disembodied voice if he wanted to know where Player was. The short answer? Of course he did. The long answer? 

“WH0 4R3 Y0U!? G3T TH3 H3LL 0UT 0F MY H34D!”

 Last time he listened to a random voice, he got turned into an oversized plant monster. And almost killed Player. And threw his dad across the room. He’d seriously prefer the “venomshank” situation doesn’t repeat itself. But the voice didn’t seem as ill-intent as the ones that convinced him to take the venomshank…

“I’m who many call “Hell Incarnate” but you can call me the Spectre.”

 He takes it back. The voice does seem ill-intent.

 What kind of name even is that? If you’re actively trying to get someone to follow you, the last thing you should do is tell them that people refer to you as hell. Not that Griefer exactly knows much about being inviting and friendly, but his point still stands.

“WH4T3V3R Y0U’R3 TRYING T0 F0RC3 M3 INT0, I D0N’T W4NT T0 BE 4P4RT 0F IT.”

“I’m not forcing you to do anything, dearest Brad. But this may be your last and only chance to see your Player.”

“I’M N0T STUPID.”

“I never said you were, you’re certainly very smart, my friend-“

“I’M N0T Y0UR FRI3ND.”

 The voice seemed to carry a twinge of annoyance now that it was getting interrupted. It’s got to stop trying to get people via influence and just start kidnapping them. That would certainly avoid annoying interactions like this.

“…Well, either way, it’s clear you miss Player dearly. Oh, I’m certain he misses you too!”

 Griefer hesitated, he didn’t like where this was going. But he couldn’t deny the fact the idea of seeing Player again was alluring. The idea of making things up to them after he wasn’t there for her during the final battle…

 Telamon, he’s actually going to agree to this, isn't he? Even if the thought of another venomshank situation made it feel hard to breathe, he couldn’t resist a chance at finding Player, could he? Ok, maybe he is a little stupid.

“H0W D0 I KN0W Y0U’R3 N0T LYING?”

“You don’t.”

How reassuring. 

 He really shouldn’t agree to this. This is the plot to a really cheap, poorly written horror movie. Or maybe a poorly written fan fiction. But what if this truly was his only shot at finding Player? His one shot at maybe even finding the admins too. If he can find the admins he’s definitely letting Shedletsky know how he feels about him. There’s no venomshank in sight so it can’t be that speaking to him again. And some of the sword trips he accompanied Player for were definitely a hell-hole, so he has experience adventuring to some degree. 

 Almost as if the voice could sense Griefer becoming more welcoming to the idea of finding Player, it spoke again.

 “Last chance, Brad.”

“FIN3. WH4T D0 Y0U 3V3N W4NT.”

 And that’s the extent of what he remembers. As of now, he was rubbing the back of his head while sitting up from the dirt underneath a darkened, mildly threatening sky. 

 The air felt thinner and crueler than the warm, wet air of Turitopulis, and a strange sense of dread seemed to come over Griefer’s body. 

 “WH4T TH3 H3LL…..?” He muttered under his breath as his hand traveled to his forehead.

 Ok, so he woke up in a strange place after listening to a voice that contacted him out of nowhere. What’s the worst that can happen from that?

 Removing his hand from his head, he looked around quickly, trying to get his bearings and figure out where the hell he was and what the hell happened. But before he could figure anything important out, his thoughts were interrupted by a startled gasp and footsteps running off somewhere behind him.

“WHAT!?”

 The unified exclamation rang out through the cabin as n7 ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his face.

 New killers weren’t that uncommon. It happened a lot actually. But there hasn’t been a new survivor since Noob and that was spectre knows how long ago.

 Taph was the first to speak, well, sign.

 “And they’re still outside by themselves…?”

 The survivors exchanged glances before the soldier stood up, “I can go get them. I don’t think all of us rushing out there at once is a good idea. We might scare them.”

 Two Time nodded in agreement, “Spawn will thank you for your kindness, Guest.” Guest quietly shook his head with a slight smile at that. He never quite understood them and the “spawn” thing, but he grew used to it over time. It was just one of the things that came with talking to Two Time.

 Guest made his way to the door and shot a quick glance to Shedletsky and Builderman, who both seemed to have calmed down and were now sitting beside each other, before leaving the cabin, the door gently clicking shut behind him.

 He quickly saw the new survivor, despite the darkness outside due to the lack of sun. The man looked to be in his 20s. Though, this was hard to tell from the back of his head and Guest was going off of height and clothing here. But his hunch was confirmed as the man swiftly spun around upon hearing more footsteps in the grass behind them, allowing Guest to better see their face.

 Guest1337 quickly made a mental note of two things after getting a better look at the newcomer. The first being that they seemed strangely plant-like. They had various vines wrapped around their body as well as leaves seemingly sprouting from them. The second thing Guest noted was that the new survivor’s torso looked almost identical to 1x’s. The strangely familiar, bright shade of translucent green and blackened ribs visible on the inside.

 The soldier couldn’t help but let an intrigued “hm” slip from his mouth. But before he could think about the torso similarities any longer, his thoughts were interrupted by the newcomer speaking rather abruptly. 

 “WH0 4R3 Y0U!?”

 Griefer went to reach for his crowbar but was surprised to find it was absent from his belt where he normally hangs it. He was mildly alarmed, not liking the feeling of being without a weapon.

 Seeing the stranger now on the defensive, Guest quickly raised his hands, “Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m Guest1337. Welcome to the forsaken realm, kid.”

 Griefer took a moment to look around again, still not lowering his guard, “TH3 WH4T??”

 Guest smiled awkwardly, “The forsaken realm. It’s basically a purgatory hell, but that’s a lot to explain out here. Why don’t you come into the main cabin? It’s warmer in there and you can actually see further than 7 feet in front of you.”

 Still refusing to lower his guard, Griefer took a hesitant step back. Not liking the situation he found himself in, he spat back, “WHY SH0ULD I!?”

 The blue haired soldier paused for a moment, chewing on the inside of his mouth momentarily as he paused to think. He was a bit at a loss for what to say, but spoke again nonetheless, “You don’t have to come in if you really don’t want to, but I ask that you do.”

 Griefer hesitated once more but relented, realizing there wasn’t exactly a way out of the equation here. But yet he still stayed on guard, “FIN3. BUT I W4NT T0 KN0W WH3R3 TH3 H3LL I 4M.”

 Guest smiled despite the slightly aggressive request, “I can explain everything once we get inside.” He can't say he wasn’t surprised. No survivor has seemed this ready to start a fight upon entering the realm before. But who was he to judge? Everyone here came from different backgrounds, and they had no clue what the new guy’s story was.

 And plus, if things started to escalate, Guest could easily restrain the newcomer. Not that he would like things to come to that.

 Though before the two got too close to the cabin, Guest posed another question, “Can I get your name before I introduce you to everyone?”

“GRI3F3R.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Griefer.”

Chapter Text

 Saying 1x was fuming after that round was putting it lightly. The other killers quickly noticed that and steered clear of him. None of the killers were overly fond of each other to begin with so none of them exactly wanted to get in her line of rage. She was sitting in her room, currently sharpening her daemonshanks in frustration.

 The nerve of that admin. After throwing them to the side and sealing them away, he had the audacity to refer to them as “Player” still? 

 He scoffed and tossed his hair back behind his shoulders, still in sheer disbelief at Shedletsky and his behavior. 

 Calling them that after everything he’s done to them? After everything he went through for Shedletsky, just to be thrown to the side once he was no longer useful?

 Every scar she earned for him. Every life she took for him. Just to be treated like a toy that no one wanted to play with anymore once she did what she was told.

 Captain Trotter, their emotions, the Cruel King, all of them were for nothing.

 And even after all that, they still clung to the hope that Shedletsky cared about them, that he wasn’t using them.

 How pathetic.

 She yelled out in frustration and stabbed her swords into the ground beside where she was sitting. The force of the impacts splintered the planks of wood below. 1x leaned forward to put his face into his hands, feeling their once blonde hair falling through their calloused fingers. 

 She didn’t even get to say goodbye.

 Shedletsky, more rather Telamon, didn't even let them have a goodbye. He just sealed them away without another thought the moment 1x was weakened. Sealed them away with those painfully cold chains holding them back, no contact to the outside at all. No light, no one to talk to, no nothing. Just dark cold and silence.

 Hot tears of rage welled up in his eyes and quickly fell into his worn and scarred hands, despite his silent pleas for them not to. Telamon didn’t even let them say goodbye to Griefer, for crying out loud.

 1x dug his claw-like nails into his face and gripped the long bangs of his hair. His expression was almost crazed and pooled with years of built up anger and frustration. Yet, there was still an underlying sadness in their expression.

 He loathed that admin.

 Back inside the cabin, Shedletsky, Builderman, and Dusekkar were all sitting on the couch discussing something in a quieter tone. While Noob, Taph, and Two Time were drilling n7 about what the new survivor looked like. The ex hacker seemed to be sweating bullets at the interrogation and kept reiterating he couldn’t see much due to the lighting, other than that the person had some sort of plant-collar on their jacket. But the trio continued to bombard him with questions nonetheless.

 N7 was the last person to speak up when he was uncomfortable, no matter how much he would like to. He felt like it was unnecessary to speak up a lot of the time. Other times, he simply felt like he didn’t need to or even deserve to. And this was playing out to be one of the times he would choose to keep his mouth shut and silently hope the others would get tired of talking to him and leave him be again.  

 Though once it became clear the 3 survivors weren’t going to let up on n7 anytime soon, and n7 looked ready to die right there, Chance decided to step in and give the poor guy a chance to breathe, “You three should lay up a bit. You’re not going to get any answers from him at this rate. Especially not while you’re scaring the hell outta him.”

 Chance wasn’t the biggest fan of n7 after hearing his history with Elliot and Noli. But they couldn’t deny that he was trying to change, and that was more than a lot of people did. No one was getting out of here anytime soon anyways, so Chance’s personal belief was that holding grudges against someone here was a bit useless. Especially since you would have to help the person you “didn’t like” in a round at some point whether you liked it or not.

 Chance snickered slightly as they watched Noob note the look on 007n7’s face and apologize frantically for invading his space. This wasn’t the first time Noob got excited and carried away about something, despite him normally being shy and decently anxious, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the last.

 N7 smiled awkwardly and adjusted his glasses back onto his face, “It’s alright kid-.. You just got excited. I don’t mind-..” He shot a slightly nervous smile back towards Noob who still looked embarrassed that she didn’t notice n7’s discomfort sooner. Noob always thought that n7 was way too forgiving when people pushed him past his comfort zone, but she wasn’t going to voice that now and make this situation anymore awkward for the both of them. 

 Taph would also take a guilty step back, signing “Sorry” while doing so. Two Time followed Taph’s move and stepped back shortly afterwards, giving n7 more space to catch his breath. Though, Two Time wasn’t as close as the other two were to begin with, they enjoyed having their own personal space after all.

 An awkward silence fell over the group. Only for Two Time to break the silence, “We do not know much about this newcomer. But we may try to predict their role, no? I see it fit that they are a support. Maybe another support with traps like Taph, possibly. Or a support that can present healing similar to Elliot and his pizzas.”

 Elliot excitedly cut in, “I’m rooting for Sentinel! Another Sentinel that can block hits hopefully!”

 The demolitionist nearby nodded enthusiastically and signed in response, “Or maybe the spectre will finally hand out a ranged attack that isn’t a 50/50 to a sentinel!”

 “Really feeling the love, Taph,” Chance folded their arms as Taph silently giggled at them again. Despite the backhanded remark, Chance couldn’t deny the appeal of another sentinel, “But I have to agree. It would be pretty nice to have another ranged sentinel in our team. Let alone any sentinel to take a killer off of someone like Elliot or Noob’s backs.”

 Taking a moment to think before cutting in, Noob disagreed with Elliot and Taph, “I doubt the spectre will give us anyone to fight back right now. Especially with how on top of stuns Guest and Shedletsky have been recently.”

 Before long, the group were loudly debating about what the new survivor’s abilities and role would be. Elliot, Chance, and Taph were betting on Sentinel, n7 and Two Time were betting on support, and Noob was betting on survivalist. 

 Chance was pretty convinced that the new survivor was going to be sentinel, even going as far as betting their flintlock on it.

 Two Time spoke up back to Chance, “Now I am just praying you lose this poorly placed bet to see a sentinel that relies on their gun attempt to participate in a round entirely gunless.” Taph raised a hand to his mouth and seemed to silently laugh beneath his many layers at Two Time’s comment. Taph’s wings ruffling quietly behind him were really the only thing that gave away his silent giggles.

 Chance famed offense as Noob also snickered quietly at the picture forming in her head. Elliot chimed into the joke as well, adjusting his visor before adding on, “I think I’d be saving on pizza’s honestly. No more gun explosions when someone tries to shoot on 1 charge.”

 Chance rolled their eyes behind their thick sunglasses, leaning back in their chair as they dramatized their offense once more, “Oh come on Elliot! You’re supposed to be on my side here.” 

 Noob did interject to Chance’s defense, thankfully, “Hey, they haven’t had a gun blow up in a good 4 rounds! Progress is progress!” He was still quietly giggling though as he propped their head up on his hand.

 Right as Elliot opened his mouth to reply back though, the familiar creak of the main cabin door and footsteps entering the cabin took everyone’s attention off of the current conversation. 

 Entering the doorway was Guest1337, the new survivor successfully in tow. Griefer was still visibly on guard and confused but still stood firm.

 “Everyone, this is Griefer.”

 Upon hearing Guest introduce him, Griefer reluctantly stepped out from behind the man and came further into view.

Guest turned his head towards Griefer and put one hand on Griefer’s shoulder before he began pointing out the other people in the cabin, “Griefer, that there is Elliot, Two Time, Chance and-…..”

 Griefer had tuned out the soldier for the most part. He wasn’t interested in learning everyone’s names, in all honesty. He wasn’t here to make friends, just to find Player and leave. Plus, he was busy looking around and still trying to figure out what was going on. As of currently, he was staring at the blank slot machines in mild puzzlement as he folded his arms. Who would put slot machines in a cabin? Especially slot machines that don’t seem to work?

 The other survivors had looked over curiously by now but Griefer was still pretending like their stares weren’t freaking him out or uncomfortable at the very least. Especially the one with a tail. Their smile had an uncanny valley effect to it that almost made Griefer shudder. 

 Griefer was also silently making note of the way all of them were taking in his presence. He was still in foreign territory and he wasn’t looking to be attacked by anyone here. The other people in the room didn’t seem to be aggressive though, from what he could tell at least. Especially with the way one of them seemed to quite literally be hiding from him but still wanting to see him. He attempted to rack his brain for what Guest said that one’s name was, but he wasn’t getting anything. He should’ve been paying closer attention, huh?

 As Griefer realized he probably should be listening to what the soldier is saying, he decided to put his attention back onto Guest, who seemed to be finishing up his run down of everyone’s names. He had just gestured towards the strangely cloaked one and the pizza guy, referring to them as “Elliot and Tap” or something like that. So now, Griefer’s eyes were following the blue haired man’s hand as he gestured towards the couch.

 “Aaaaaand that is Builderman and Shedletsky!”

 Griefer did a double take back to the couch where Guest gestured after hearing that name. Sure enough, the retired admin sat there, staring at Griefer with a strangely firm expression. Though there was an underlying layer of guilt to that expression that Griefer hadn’t caught. The man narrowed his eyes at the admin, his hands involuntarily closing into tight fists and his expression hardening. 

 So this is where Shedletsky has been? Hiding out in a cabin in the woods. All while the rest of Robloxia is none the wiser and still trying to figure out where their precious admin went. Just wait until Griefer manages to get his hands on him. Not that Griefer actually thought he could exactly win against a literal god and a sword fighter champion, but he’ll damn well try.

 The sudden tension between Shedletsky and the newcomer was immediately picked up on by the other survivors. Especially as Shedletsky spoke and the latter looked ready to lunge forward, “Brad? Sheesh, the Spectre just grabs anyone, huh?”

 Shedletsky’s voice carried a hint of concern in it. Shedletsky still saw Mayor Thanyiel as a friend and he knew the poor man would be horribly upset at his son, who’s already been through one catastrophe, going missing without a word. Though, his concern was cloaked by him attempting to sound more lighthearted.

 Meanwhile, Builderman had also recognized Griefer as Mayor Thanyiel’s kid. He had met Griefer when he was little once when Shedletsky gathered the sword guardians for a meeting. Though, Builderman doubted that Griefer would remember him from that.

 But after everything went down with Player, or more rather 1x1x1x1, Shedletsky had revealed to Builderman that Griefer was also friends with Player during their journey. Player never told Shedletsky all the details, but apparently Player was the reason Griefer was even still alive after the venomshank turned him into the bubonic plant. And as a result of Player saving Griefer and them traveling together, the pair grew closer. 

 The former admin had also once mentioned to Builderman that Griefer was a good kid at the end of the day, which was to be expected from someone whose father was a sword guardian. But, he was still rash and a bit quick to jump to someone’s defense. Especially when one of his few, truly close friends got involved, he was always quick to come to their aid. And thinking back on this, Builderman could only imagine how the next set of interactions were going to play out. But most definitely, they weren’t going to go smoothly.

 “Y0U C0W4RD!” 

 Griefer took a firm step forward as his nails dug into the palm of his hands, “H1D1NG 0FF T0 TH3 S1D3 WH1L3 M4K1NG 0TH3RS D0 Y0UR D1RTY W0RK 4G4IN. H0W PR3D1CT4BL3.”

 Telamon be damned if Griefer let go of the fact that Shedletsky made Player go through all of that without helping much at all.

 The other survivors in the cabin were taken aback by the newcomer’s outrage directed towards Shedletsky. Guest was already on the defensive, ready to intervene if things continued to escalate. Elliot had glanced at Taph who had covered his non-visible mouth with his hand to portray his surprise. Meanwhile Chance had leaned over between the two and whispered, “Why is there so much Shedletsky drama today??”

 Noob, who had heard Chance, shrugged in response before turning his attention back to the argument. The other survivors were certainly nosey, that was for sure.

 Shedletsky had stood up by now and was facing Griefer. “No one here is hiding from anything right now, we’re all stuck in this lovely place against our will.”

 He gestured towards the cabin with his hand slightly. He had thought about moving out from behind the couch and in front of Griefer, but that didn’t seem like the smartest move with how mad the other was right now.

 Griefer made a silent note about the “stuck here against our will” comment. He didn’t like the repetitive theme of trapped in purgatory he was starting to pick up on. But nonetheless, he wasn’t letting Shedletsky off the hook that easily.

  “Brad, I’m aware we are not on talking terms by any means but you need to calm down for one moment so we can explain some things, then you can be mad.”

 Shedletsky folded his arms as he spoke. Despite usually trying to remain lighthearted and flippant, he did know when he needed to be serious. Now was one of those times. He didn’t want a round to start with Griefer not knowing what’s going on or what to expect. Especially if the killer is someone like Noli who still makes the experienced survivors feel insane. So, his priority list was debrief now, handle the long held grudge later.

 “..WH4T 4R3 Y0U T4LK1NG 4B0UT.”

 Guest understood why the younger man was so hesitant to believe anything anyone was saying, especially after he clearly has a rocky past with the admin that’s trying to tell him things about the realm. Everyone here reacted differently to realizing they were stuck here or being told they were stuck here, not believing it to be true is how almost everyone responded initially. 

 So, the blue haired soldier from earlier walked up beside Griefer and spoke up, “I don’t know what you two’s background is, but we need you to listen to at least someone here. We aren’t lying when we say we’re trapped here.”

 A few of the other survivors that had been watching this unfold responded to Guest1337 with a nod or a hum in agreement.

 They had all been here for Telamon knows how long, maybe even a year or two at this point. It was safe to say all of them wished they were lying. That they were just hiding away and free to leave once they got tired of dodging their responsibilities.

 Brad was starting to grow slightly alarmed. It wasn’t possible that he was actually trapped here with these people, was it? Especially since there are admins here, aren’t they supposed to be super powerful? How could anything trap them anywhere without access to something like the SFOTH swords?

But, it didn’t seem like these people were trying to pull his leg or were all dodging their responsibilities. 

 Neither did it seem like this was going to be a “get in and get out” mission. 

 And it certainly didn't seem like finding Player was going to be easy.

“JUST 3XPL41N WH4T’S G01NG 0N 4L34DY.”

Chapter Text

 All the killers could tell when the Spectre was up to something. The air in the cabin in which they stayed always felt heavier when it was planning to screw with one of them.  

 And as a new weight fell over the room 1x had been breaking down in a moment prior, he knew that, unfortunately, they were definitely the one going to be messed with.

 They let too much of their personal feelings show in that last round and a few moments ago. She had made it too obvious her past can still get to her. He knows better than that. No matter how alone he feels, the Spectre is always watching their every move.

 There were no safe spots here. There was nowhere to hide from the prying eyes of the Spectre here, as this was its hand-crafted hell. 1x1x1x1 picked up on that very quickly and found a coping mechanism in silence and violence. They used silence to prevent the Spectre from learning new ways to terrorize them, and violence to scare off others from trying to figure out if 1x was some tragic charity case that needed saving.

 A hand moved up and wiped any stray tears that had managed to escape her eyes from her face. She scoffed to herself and stood from the chair they had slumped down in during their small moment of vulnerability.

 He knew better than to act out like that. Security was a luxury she could not afford in this world, nor her world prior. How could he forget that? 

 1x ran their fingers through their long, now messy, hair and pushed the loose strands back with an annoyed sigh. She should know better by now. 

 Jeez, they were really regretting not keeping themselves in check concerning the emotional department.

 His hands fell from his hair and naturally found their way around the handles of her weapons, which were still stabbed into the ground from earlier. They weren’t entirely sure why they did that, to be honest. Contrary to what most of the survivors and other killers thought, he could still care about things. And she cared about her swords dearly. Stabbing them into wood would no doubt dull the blade to an extent and risk damaging the metal in some way, so a definitive answer on why she did that couldn’t be pinpointed currently. She mentally chided himself for that move as he tightened his grip around the cool handles.

 A crack sounded from 1x’s back as they flexed their shoulders before pulling the weapons from where they were stuck. 

 They had no intention of being caught off guard by the Spectre. She had been vulnerable enough for one day.

 Whatever it was plotting, they would deal with it swiftly, efficiently, and pay it no mind.

 Guest had been the one to volunteer to explain everything about the realm to Griefer. It made the most sense for it to be him anyways. Obviously, it wasn’t smart to let Shedletsky explain due to the clearly rocky relationship. And Griefer hadn’t talked to anyone else in the cabin besides Guest. So, Guest1337 made for the least awkward option to try and explain to the other man what all happens in this place. 

 The pair had returned to the couch by the fireplace while everyone else went into the kitchen to give the newcomer space while he took everything in, as well as get ready for dinner. Guest had covered the vast majority of things so far. He took a quick mental tally, noting he had covered the overall round set up, killers, generators, survivor roles, and timer mechanics. He quickly realized he had left out the actual function of the abilities that everyone had and how cooldowns work specifically. Opening his mouth to speak, the soldier quickly shut it upon seeing the younger man’s expression. 

 Guest was pretty certain Griefer wasn’t fully listening, or at least not taking this well. Griefer’s gaze was distant and not all there. Come to think of it, he hadn’t said much of anything other than an occasional “Actually??” or, “You’re lying.” Pausing, the veteran studied the Griefer’s expression for a moment.

 Guest’s assumption wasn’t too far off.

 Griefer couldn’t get his mind away from Player. This whole time, there had been no signs of Player being in this group of people whatsoever. The soldier guy referred to their group as the “survivors” of this game, so was it possible Player was in the killer group? 

 He highly doubted that.

 Player had grown a bit numb to death towards the end of their journey, sure, but they weren’t a murderer. Griefer still remembers catching them crying over the people she killed when she thought she was alone. Even if some of those people weren’t directly his fault, Player always carried a heavy guilt for every single life taken on their journey. He wouldn’t turn into a rampaging murderer, would they?

 Griefer’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as he struggled to shake that thought out of his head. 

 No, Player wouldn’t do that. He hated senseless murder, it disgusted them. Why would Griefer even consider that a possibility? It was more likely that Shedlestky did something to her more than anything. That slob sealed her away once already, what’s stopping him from doing it again?

 A voice startled Griefer from his thoughts suddenly, “Griefer? Are you alright? We can take a moment if you need to. I’m sure the others are itching to say hi to you personally anyways.”

 His eyes immediately snapped to Guest, who was looking at him worriedly, “UH, 1’M F1N3. BUT UH- SUR3. N0T TH4T I N33D A BR34K 0R 4NYTH1NG.” He chided himself silently for stumbling over his words, real smooth, Griefer. This guy is totally going to think he’s a total loser for that one.

 Guest smiled at him gently. Telamon, Griefer hated it when people looked at him like he was fragile. 

 Guest had already begun to stand up from the sunken-in couch and offer Griefer a friendly hand to help him up, “Elliot is probably making everyone settle down for dinner by now, are you hungry?” 

 Griefer reluctantly took Guest’s hand, despite being perfectly capable of getting up himself, “N0T R34LLY... I 4T3 B3F0R3 3ND1NG UP H3R3.” That wasn’t entirely a lie. He hadn’t eaten a full dinner, only snacks. He was supposed to meet his dad for dinner tonight.

 His dad.

 Griefer momentarily froze, which earned him an eyebrow raise from Guest. His father was probably worried to hell and back about where he was. And there was no sign of Griefer coming home any time soon. He already scared his dad half to death once during the venomshank accident, he couldn’t do that to his old man again. 

 “Griefer?”

 Once again, he was snapped out of his thoughts by the veteran, “S0RRY… JUST TH1NK1NG.” 

 Guest chuckled lightly, “You’re good. I’m going to go head into the kitchen and see if Elliot saved me a plate. You’re welcome to come with.” he gestured towards the kitchen entryway with his thumb. The bustle of chatter coming from the room could be heard from where they were standing. Personally? Griefer wasn’t too keen on joining that mess right now. Especially not when he considered the stares he’d get from everyone in there. Or the fact that Shedletsky was still here and probably in the pizza-scented dining room and kitchen with everyone else. 

 “1’M G00D. 1’LL JUST ST4Y H3R3 F0R 4 WH1L3.” He awkwardly shuffled his feet before moving to sit back down on the worn, blue couch. The other nodded, “Just let me know when you’re ready to continue with me explaining. Not to push, but I ask that I can continue here shortly just due to the fact we have no idea when a round will start except for a minute prior to it starting.” 

 And with a final glance back at Griefer, the sound of boots hitting the creaky, wooden floor filled the living room as the blue haired man walked away and towards the kitchen.

 Griefer let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. The older man didn’t appear to have an ill-intent, or hiding under the guise of someone sweet for that matter either. But, Griefer has had enough with dealing with people for today and didn’t like how babied he felt. He was a grown man, not someone you have to handle warily in fear they'll start crying or blow up on you. At that thought, a snicker stretched across his face. 

 He found his eyes wandering the cabin once more, scanning the room, attempting to commit it to memory. The decorations in the small building weren’t exactly organized, that much was certain. Between the blank slot machines, sporadically hung photos, and drakoboxxer with its head stuck in the wall, Griefer wondered who was to blame for the chaotic layout.  Though, he couldn’t really speak on the topic of decorating. There was a giant pile of old witches brew cans just laying in the corner of his room from Telamon knows how long ago. He snickered at the thought of Player scolding him the first time she got the chance to talk about his mess. 

 However, he had picked up on more than just the decorations of the room. The weight the air around him seemed to carry when he first got here never left. He still felt that same sense of dread, despite not knowing where it was coming from. Did it have something to do with that “Spectre” thing that brought him here and the others say keep them trapped here? Whatever it was, it was weird. He couldn’t help but let a chill run through his body at the unwelcoming feeling that this world brought down on him. 

 Griefer shifted in his seat slightly, inhaling deeply as he momentarily shut his eyes. He enjoyed being alone to process everything that has happened and what he was just told. Even if he knew this moment to himself was going to be brief. No doubt the other people here are finishing up their dinner and getting ready to return to the living room and talk amongst themselves before they head to wherever they go to sleep. Guest1337 also had yet to finish explaining, so Griefer expected that he was going to come back and finish telling him about this odd place here shortly. 

 Opening his eyes and exhaling, he found his gaze settling on the fireplace while he folded his arms over his chest. He was attempting to get lost in his own thoughts, but that was difficult when his ears were betraying him and attempting to listen into what's going on in the kitchen. The chattering from the dining room and kitchen carried over into the living room, though he couldn’t make out full conversations from the noise even if he wanted to. Everyone was having a different conversation on top of each other, from the sound of it. 

 That brought another thought to Griefer’s mind.

 Everyone here was already very close to one another, at least that’s how it seemed to him from an initial point of view. As a result, he had his doubts that they would take kindly to him as a newcomer, especially with how he responded to Shedletsky being here. 

 Great, he already screwed things up with mostly completely new people that don’t know his history. Whatever, it’s not like he needed others anyways. Not like anyone here would even like him after speaking with him anyways. His personality was a lot to handle, so he’s been told. He just needed to figure out where Player was and get them and himself out of this place in one piece. 

 Get in, and get out. Even if it’s going to be a little difficult. Even if he’s going to have to talk to that son of a-

“Heyyyyy, new guy!”

 An expressive, loud voice dragged Griefer out of his thoughts unwillingly. He held back an annoyed glare as he looked up to see who had come to introduce themselves or figure out who he was. 

A person donning a sleek suit, fedora, headphones, and sunglasses walked up behind the couch, resting one arm on the back of the beat up piece of furniture. Griefer remembered Guest referring to the man as ‘Chance.’ Beside them was an exasperated pizza guy, who was referred to as ‘Elliot’, and the strangely cloaked one named ‘Taph’. An eyebrow on Griefer’s face quirked at the 3 suddenly deciding to pay him any mind, along with the way the suited one said hi. 

 “The names Chance, though I heard my buddy Guest over there already told you our names.” Chance flashed a grin at Griefer and leaned in with a hand held out for him to shake. 

 For a brief moment, Griefer hesitated, mainly due to the fact this person was a little too close for his liking. But he ultimately decided to be respectful and shake the person’s hand, “GR13F3R. 1 TH1NK GU3ST 4LR34DY T0LD Y0U TH4T T00 TH0UGH.”

 The other nodded and let go of his hand, “He did. Feels more respectful to hear it from the man himself though, you know?” They were still smiling at Griefer. Their smile didn’t feel as warm as Guest’s did, but it was still friendly enough. 

 The pizza guy walked up beside Chance and smiled, “Sorry, Chance seems to forget not everyone is used to them being up in their personal space sometimes.” Elliot placed a hand on his hip and smiled over at Griefer. 

 Chance looked over in mild offense, “I was just being inviting! It’s rare that we see a new face here to begin with, we can skip the formalities!”

 “1T’S F1N3..”

 Griefer awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck before glancing over to the cloaked one, who was making signals with his hands. 

 Huh. Sign language. That’s going to be a problem in the near future, especially if Griefer got stuck with Taph in one of these “rounds” Guest kept describing. Griefer had no clue how to use sign language, let alone understand it. 

 Elliot seemed to pick up on Griefer’s expression changing at Taph’s sign language, “Don’t worry, Taph is just mute. He can hear you just fine, he just can’t reply back fully.”

 Taph nodded back at Elliot’s comment quickly and signed something else. Chance spoke up to translate, “He says he’ll teach you the basics sometime. He had to teach most of us here sign language as well, nothing to be ashamed of, really.”

 “UH, TH4NKS F0R TH3 0FF3R. 1’LL R3M3MB3R 1T F0R TH3 FUTUR3...” Griefer was starting to feel bad about the fact he was still planning on finding Player and getting out of this ‘realm’ without spending much time with the others or trying to bring them with. They didn’t seem like bad people from what he could tell, other than Shedletsky, of course. If they were truly stuck here, they didn’t deserve it. Especially from what he was told about these “rounds” of this game they were forced into. No one deserves to go through something like that, especially not eternally. 

 Griefer was startled by a shift in weight on the couch beside him. The gambler had plopped down beside Greifer and crossed his legs, “So. What’s the Shedletsky beef?”

 That caught Griefer off guard. He had to bite back a snarky reply in response to the bold question. 

“CHANCE!” The pizza man looked at a loss for words, but by no means did he seem mad. There was an underlying layer of fondness in his expression that reminded Griefer of how Player looked at him whenever he did something stupid in public. He had to hold back a smile at that memory. 

 Chance winced and chuckled slightly, rubbing the back of his head apologetically, “Sorry if that was a bit direct, Griefer. But I haven't seen someone hate Shed that much since 1x4.” 

 “1x4?”

 “Did Guest not tell ya the killer’s names? 1x1x1x1 is one of the killers here that absolutely despises Shedletsky. They have this cool last man standing theme and everything. I think the spectre plays into their drama, honestly. Shedletsky refuses to tell us the exact reason they don’t get along too. That’s part of the reason I just came to ask you about the drama between you two.”

 Griefer raised an eyebrow at that. So he wasn’t the only person who hated Shedletsky’s guts? Good to know. But on the contrary, he wasn’t too keen on telling these people he barely knows his personal business, even if it involved dirtying Shedletsky’s name. They didn’t need to know everything about Player, and he didn’t personally feel like disclosing the pair’s relationship to people who were still technically strangers to him. 

 “W3 JUST H4V3 N3V3R G0TT3N AL0NG. TH4T’S 4LL.” Yea, as if they’d believe it was petty beef with the way he responded to seeing Shedletsky initially. He mentally slapped himself for that one.

 Chance, to Griefer’s surprise, shrugged and seemed content with that answer. Elliot, however, seemed a bit skeptical. Meanwhile Taph’s reaction was impossible to gauge due to the fact his face was entirely covered. Not being able to see Taph’s reactions whatsoever was going to take a bit of adjusting to, especially since he couldn’t speak. 

 The four of them suddenly picked up on the sound of boots against the wooden floors of the cabin drawing near. The uncanny-valley person from early, who Griefer had learned was named Two Time, was joining them in the living room. 

 They tilted their head slightly before speaking to Chance, “Builderman sends for you and tells me to inform you that you’re not getting out of cleaning the dishes again. So return to the kitchen, dear friend.” There was a snicker from Elliot before Chance let out a loud groan and slouched down on the couch, “This is unfair. Everyone here hates me.”

 “Maybe you should stop skipping your chores and we wouldn’t have to be on your case about getting them done,” Elliot retaliated back. 

 Griefer caught a glimpse of Taph’s wings shifting up and down slightly, along with his shoulders. He seemed to be giggling, maybe? If his wings responded to Taph’s emotions, that could give Griefer at least something to work with to narrow down how the other is feeling. That would definitely make things less awkward on Griefer’s end. 

 Two Time’s grin seemed to get more mischievous as they turned around and walked back into the dining room, their tail flicking behind them, “The Spawn thanks you for your service, oh great dishwasher.” 

 “They totally know what they’re doing,” Chance spat under their breath as they pushed themselves off the couch. The worn out piece of furniture groaned under the sudden change in weight distribution. 

 Taph signed with his hands, not that Griefer could understand him still, “I guarantee Noob put them up to it. She’s still mad about you popping out from behind the door and scaring her.” 

 Elliot let out a loud laugh while Griefer raised an eyebrow at him, “If Two Time and Noob want to be the ones to make Chance do their share of the chores, they can be my guest.” 

 Griefer was a little lost, to say the least. He shifted his position on the couch, attempting to seem less awkward about the fact he had no idea what Taph was saying still. 

 The now disgruntled gambler groaned again, dragging themselves back into the dining room before dragging themselves to the kitchen area. They made sure to drag their feet the whole way and shoot Elliot a betrayed glare before disappearing into the dining room. 

 Elliot shook his head with a snicker before turning back to face Griefer once more, “I’m sure Guest will be back here shortly. He told me you two still have a few things to cover concerning the rounds.”

 He almost forgot about that. Guest hadn’t finished explaining and Griefer had tuned a good chunk of what he said out as well. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have done that. 

 Hey, he still listened to most of what the veteran had to say. He’ll probably be fine.

 The pizza boy moved a bit closer to where Griefer was sitting on the couch, Taph following close behind him.

 “You look really cool, by the way. I’ve never seen someone with plant features like that,” Elliot smiled warmly at Griefer. He really did think that the other man looked cool. Him and Noob had come to that agreement over dinner.

 Griefer flashed a grin in Elliot's direction, “H3H. TH4NKS. 1 TH1NK TH3Y L00K PR3TTY B4D4SS MYS3LF.” 

 He always loved it when someone complimented his plant features. Especially since he felt they often made him look more intimidating than he used to look. Another part of the reason he loved compliments on his plant-appearance was that it reminded him of how often Player used to tell them how cool they looked. Their comments always made him flustered to some degree, but he would never admit that out loud.

 Turning his head and shifting his seat to better face Elliot, he opened his mouth to speak, aiming to talk about the venomshank, while at the same time intending to leave out a few details on how exactly the sword caused the plant features. But, before he could get a word out, he was interrupted by the looming feeling of dread hanging over him suddenly increasing tenfold as his stomach sank drastically. 

 A glance at Elliot told him that he also felt the feeling. Elliot had paled ever so slightly and looked alarmed as he shot a glance at Taph, whose wings seemed to now be brought tighter against the demolitionist. Did Guest1337 mention this too? Griefer didn’t recall him mentioning it. Then again, he wasn’t listening to the older man well enough to remember if he did or not.

 “ROUND’S STARTING!” Builderman called out from the dining room.

 So that’s what that feeling is? 

 Griefer made a quiet “hmph” sound at this revelation. He silently made a mental note of the fact that the feeling of dread increasing dramatically was a sign that one of these “rounds” that everyone kept talking about was starting. What a pleasant way to start a round.

 Following that announcement, there was a lot of movement from the dining room. Chairs scraped against the wooden floors and footsteps quickly began moving as everyone got ready for the sudden round. 

 Taph’s hands quickly moved up, “This late at night? Did someone tick off the Spectre again?”

 Elliot shook his head and spoke quickly to Griefer, “Try to find one of us when you spawn in. Nothing is permanent there. If you die, you’ll respawn. Don’t panic, whatever you do.”

 He knew the Spectre was up to something but didn’t want Griefer to know that just yet. The Spectre hadn’t sent them out for a run right as they were about to go to bed in ages. Last time it got on a streak of doing that, the survivors grew sleep deprived very quickly and began letting themselves die to the killers so they could hurry up and get back to bed. The Spectre got bored of those minute-long-rounds very quickly as a result and stopped sending them in right before the survivors were trying to settle down for the night.

 Griefer was mildly alarmed but didn't have enough time to respond before his vision blacked out and nausea overcame him. 

 When his vision came to, he was sitting on the damp grass by a gravesite, more than puzzled. He felt a weight on his belt loop and looked down to see his crowbar had been returned to him, much to his pleasure and comfort. He also looked down to see he now had a watch on his wrist, one that he had not put there. What kind of weirdo puts a watch on an unconscious person? Did one of the other people here do that or was it that Spectre thing?

 While Griefer was trying to regain his bearings, the other survivors were all scattered across Warwick’s Resting Place and already up and moving, preparing for any identifying qualities of who the killer was or where the newest addition to their group spawned.

 The indication of a killer they were looking for quickly rang out through the deathly-silent night of the map.

 Shedletsky tensed as the warning sound of “Unstable Eye” being used echoed through the air. 

Chapter Text

Two rounds in a row, one of which was spontaneous and later than normal.

 Shedletsky should’ve realized that this was entirely intentional. He quickly looked around the map, seeing if he spawned near anyone. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t see anyone.

 Lifting his hand to run it through his hair, an exasperated sigh left his throat. This was going to be another rough round. 

 He couldn’t help but silently curse at himself for not catching onto the Spectre’s plan upon first seeing Brad here. He knew he had more than likely upset 1x by calling him Player, and the Spectre was abusing that. The Spectre was terrorizing 1x1x1x1 with his past by bringing in someone that would definitely cause them distress.  

 Robloxia forbid Shedletsky gets his hands on the Spectre after this. 

 He didn’t stand still for long. He needed to get to Brad, quickly. If 1x got her hands on Brad before Shedletsky could find him, there was no way to predict how they’d respond to seeing him.

 Shedletsky’s main worry was that 1x would lash out again and tunnel her vision on Brad exclusively before anyone could step in and get him out of there. He was aware Brad didn’t like him, but he wasn’t going to leave Brad alone in his first round against an enraged 1x. 

 Dragging his hand from his hair and shaking his head slightly, the former admin holstered his sword at his waist and began walking quickly across the map. The dying grass crunched underneath his feet as he increased his pace and kept an eye out for anyone nearby. 

 He just needed to get to someone like Builderman and tell him about this mess this round was about to become. He also needed to find Brad before Player did. Leaving the younger man alone was not an option here. Especially not with the million and one negative outcomes of 1x seeing Brad here for the first time. 

 He needed to, at the very least, try to protect Brad.

 If Player was in the right mindset, they would’ve wanted Shedletsky to protect Brad too. 

 The first thing Griefer picked up on was how cold the air felt. A shiver ran through him as he glanced around. The cold air gently blew against the leaves and vines that were on various parts of his body. 

 Griefer rubbed his forehead with one hand while examining the watch on his opposite wrist. It had a digital face, but no display. That’s relatively useless. What was he supposed to do with a broken watch? He removed his hand from his forehead and moved a finger over the face. A hologram screen suddenly popped up slightly above his watch. Did Guest mention this? Or was he just not paying attention… 

 Whatever, strange watch first, question how much Griefer really didn’t pay attention to later.

 Looking at the holographic screen face, he noticed 4 things. The first was a timer at the top of the screen. As of him looking at it, the timer was counting down from three minutes and thirty seconds. After that, he noticed two circular icons on the left of the weird screen thing. One had a small crowbar in the circle with the words, “Crowbar Rebound” on it. And the other depicted  someone standing in front of another person and blocking a sword strike, the name, “Protect,” underneath it. He made the quick assumption that these were his "abilities" that Guest told him each survivor had during a round. 

 The third thing he noticed was that at the bottom of his screen was a green health and stamina bar, he’d played enough video games to recognize what those were. His health had the number 110 by it, resulting in a small, “hell yea,” from Griefer. More than 100 health in a game was good news to him. 

 The final part on the screen he noticed was several small pictures of the people he had met back inside the cabin on the right side of the screen, each picture had a 100% percent and their name by it, presumably their health.

 While he was looking at the screen, he noticed something had changed.

 007n7’s health suddenly jumped down to 75%.

 Seems like someone had already been caught by the killer. 

 He paused for a moment, glancing up from the screen, weighing his options. He could attempt to find n7 and help him, but what would he do? He didn’t even know how this game even fully worked. Plus, Elliot told him to find someone upon spawning in. But, going to someone who was right by the killer when he still had no idea how killers worked wasn’t a good idea, was it? 

 The hologram screen closed automatically as Griefer lowered his arm and thought for a moment. Wouldn’t the people here be mad if he didn’t at least try to help them? Why was he even considering leaving someone to fend for themselves when he can help, even if this was a game? 

 He took a deep breath, the cold air biting at his lungs. He needed to get a grip on himself. Imagine if Player saw that he was going to willingly leave someone to die? Exhaling, he steeled himself for the very real possibility he was walking right into his death by trying to find this guy. 

 Where the hell was he even supposed to start-

 A loud, pained shout echoed from nearby. 

 An amused sound left him. Well, that makes his job easier. 

 Griefer began walking, and eventually running, towards where he heard the shout, attempting to pinpoint the location of the struggling survivor. He raised his wrist and the hologram screen popped up once more. Now, the percent by n7’s name was a red 53%. 

 An odd round rang out. Griefer didn’t recognize it, but the sound of something wooshing nearby followed by rapid footsteps running away told him something had been thrown and someone had been spooked. He picked up the pace, running towards the sound that was coming from an area that seemed to be a gravesite. 

 Sure enough, Griefer spotted a figure, primarily donning green and black except for their striking white hair, and a limping 007n7 who was attempting to loop who Griefer assumed was the killer. Before rushing in, Griefer ducked out of the way and took a mental recount of everything he could conclude. He swore he heard something being thrown, so the killer could have a ranged attack. 

 What sort of noob tries to loop a ranged enemy? He learned that in his first ever video game. 

 N7 took another hit with an anguished shout and changed directions to run Griefer’s way, causing Griefer to snap back out of his thoughts. He shook his head and stopped trying to be smart here. He’s played enough video games, he’s probably got this. 

Hopefully. 

 He glanced out from behind the wall he was hiding behind and waited a moment. He needed the killer to turn their back, just for long enough for Griefer to hit them with his crowbar. Griefer braced himself and removed his crowbar from his belt, gripping it tightly while eyeing the bloody n7. 

 He needed an opening.

 Griefer watched as the ex-hacker turned on his heels suddenly and began running away from where Griefer was, the figure chasing him following in close pursuit. 

 Bingo.

 Griefer smirked and darted out from where he was, throwing his crowbar at 1x. The killer didn’t get stunned, only gaining slowness, poison, and confusion on what just hit them. He had noted 11 survivor beacons while using Unstable Eye, but she hadn’t expected another sentinel. Let alone a sentinel that only applies slowness?

 But before they could process anything that just happened, the crowbar rammed into the back of their head again, stunning them. 

 1x1x1x1 kneeled forward as n7’s face lit up in hope. 

 A familiar laugh came out from behind where 1x1x1x1 was kneeling, “H4H! T4K3 TH4T, L0S3R!” 

 N7 watched as 1x’s eyes widened and her face darkened. It didn’t take a genius to realize they needed to get on the move. 

 “Er- Griefer, right?” 

 1x’s breath hitched hearing that name leave 007n7’s mouth. 

“Follow me!” N7 immediately began sprinting towards the central area of the map. In the far distance, he could see Elliot already running towards the pair and guiding Chance and Dusekkar alongside him. 

 Griefer was caught off guard by the sudden exclamation, but didn’t give it a second thought. He assumed that the killer wouldn’t stay stunned for long anyways, considering his past experiences in video games. 

 He threw a quick glance over his shoulder and saw that the killer was already shaking off the stun and standing up. He snickered slightly as the killer was clearly a bit disoriented from the stun. 

 On a more serious note, though, Griefer didn’t waste any more time than that quick glance on the killer. He didn’t want to be in the next line of rage when they recovered. Especially not after seeing how quickly they depleted n7’s health. So, he turned his gaze back to 007n7 and ran. 

-

 1x1x1x1 had momentarily stopped chasing the survivors that were now quickly getting away. There was no way in hell that he just saw what they thought they saw. 

 Hands clenched around the cool metal of sword handles while his breath quickened. 

 This is outright sickening. 

 The Spectre somehow managed to know about Griefer and create some fucked-up copy of him for this damn game, just to torture 1x further. Just to get a reaction. 

 How much of the past did this fake Griefer even remember? Did it even remember who Player was? 

 Hell, did the real Griefer even remember, let alone care about, Player still? 

1x4 stared silently at the ground in front of him. 

 No, he probably didn’t. 

 Maybe that was for the better too, considering everything 1x put him through. 

 Feeling an oncoming bout of wet beginning to pool in her eyes, he quickly shook those thoughts free of his mind. Crying in the middle of a round was a quick way to get babied by survivors, targeted by the Spectre, and picked at by the other killers. They needed to get a grip. 

 This wasn’t the real Griefer, he needed to focus on that. This Griefer was a repulsive, soulless, copy of the real one. It was created with the sole purpose to torture 1x and nothing more. 

 Taking a drawn-out breath, they loosened their grip on their blades and attempted to calm down. She wouldn’t give the Spectre the joy of getting a reaction to seeing its insult to the memory of his former partner. 

 Swiftly and efficiently, that’s how they said they would deal with this. 

 And that’s how they would deal with this. 

 With that, he used Unstable Eye and took off towards the direction that n7 and the copy went.

-

 Meanwhile, n7, Griefer, Elliot, Dusekkar, and Chance had made it to the large rock formation the older survivors often found themselves looping at. Elliot had handed n7 a pizza, which he was now eating. Griefer was watching the ground below, but turned around as the pumpkin-headed man spoke up. 

 “Those who asked for more sentinels to come by, it seems to your request the Spectre saw fit to comply,” Dusekkar glanced at Elliot and Chance who shared a high five. 

 Griefer raised an eyebrow at the two, silently asking for an explanation, as well as questioning if the rhyming was necessary. 

 Elliot saw the expectant look on Griefer’s face and filled him in, “We placed bets on what skillset you’d have. Chance and I were betting on sentinel, and we were right.” Griefer noticed the smug expression on the gambler’s face as they mindlessly flipped the coin they were holding. 

 “I’m rubbing this into the other’s faces,” Chance snickered as they fixed their sunglasses. The shades had fallen forward slightly, so they pushed the glasses back so they rested where they were supposed to. 

 After another positive ding came from their coin, they pocketed the metal disk, glancing back at n7, who was looking much better after that pizza. Griefer followed the other’s gaze to 007n7, who had looked incredibly pale and was a bit incoherent from blood loss moments prior. 

 Griefer had been told by Guest about Elliot’s pizza and its magical properties before the round. Guest had specifically told him about the pizza so he knew who to go to if and when he gets dangerously low on health.

 But that was about the only ability he had been told in depth about. He knew what survivors could heal and which ones could stun, but not the specifics. He really should’ve been paying attention and asking more clarifying questions.

 Looking back behind him, he saw the other 4 survivors talking amongst themselves, either forgetting he was there or choosing to not invite him into the conversation. Despite understanding they were probably talking about this game or what to do with the killer, he couldn’t help but feel a pit in his chest begin to form. 

 He knew that the other people here wouldn’t grow used to him, especially not after they see his full personality. He was aware he was insufferable and immature, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed knowing that people he was going to have to put up with for a while were making no real moves to get to know him or befriend him. Chance had only spoken to him earlier because they wanted to hear about his drama with Shedletsky. Elliot was only speaking to him to fill in the missing blanks of information when necessary. And Guest was only talking to him to explain what this place was and what to do during rounds. 

 In the end though, Griefer couldn’t blame them. He wasn’t exactly trying to be overly friendly with the other survivors either. He couldn’t expect the others to try and get to know him when he doesn’t do the same.

 He should really work on that. Player always said he needed to stop being so defensive towards anyone trying to get close to him. 

 He tore his gaze from where the others were and glanced down to the map below. His expression quickly changed to one of mild startlement, “TH4T K1LL3R L0S3R 1S B4CK. H3Y, WH4T’S TH31R N4M3 4NYW4YS?”

 Chance walked up beside Griefer and glanced down at 1x1x1x1, who was definitely getting closer to them, but was being stalled by Guest1337, who was giving Taph time to escape. 

 “1x1x1x1. Most of the time we shorten his name to 1x or 1x4, though. Real piece of work when she’s mad. And before you got here, Shedletsky pissed them off. Looks like they’re still mad about it too,” Chance scowled as Guest charged into 1x and took a hit in the process.

 N7 cut into the conversation, “He’s definitely mad about something again. You should’ve seen their face when Griefer got a stun on her.”

 Elliot looked over towards the three of them, “Crap, we should’ve been already moving instead of talking. Who here is all on cooldown?”

 Cooldown? Griefer raised his wrist and checked his watch, staring back at the ability icons. His Crowbar ability was on cooldown, apparently. Guest had told him about cooldowns, but he didn’t believe it until now. How could a real person be on a cooldown? This place was weird as hell. 

 Griefer caught a glimpse of a red and black control panel appearing in front of n7 before facing him dead on, “I’m good to go. Teleporting now. I’ll keep an eye out for Noob, Shedletsky, or Builderman.” 

 So that’s what n7 did? Teleport? Jeez, being a survivalist with no way to protect yourself other than teleporting must suck.

 Dusekkar nodded in response to the hacker, “I can protect those who are in need, or grant them the gift of speed.” 

 “S0RRY. TH1S C0ULD T0T4LLY B3 RUD3, BUT, WH4T’S W1TH TH3 RHYM1NG??” Griefer stared back flatly at the floating pumpkin-headed person behind him. He didn’t want to piss anyone here off already but the rhyming was getting ridiculous. Plus, he could barely understand the other man.

 Chance barked out a laugh, “He won’t tell us. None of the admins will tell us why Dusk’ here keeps rhyming everything he says.” Dusekkar didn’t seem too amused at the nickname. 

 “So speaks the one with weakness stacked in mounds, when they should be more worried about their survival rate in rounds,” Dusekkar folded his arms.

 Griefer snickered slightly at the remark from Dusekkar. Was Chance really that bad at this game? Good to know. 

 “Touche,” the gambler held his hands up in surrender as Elliot let out an exasperated sigh. 

 “I’m on pizza cooldown, but getting to Taph is still a priority due to the fact we have no idea if Builderman placed a dispenser yet. Chance and Griefer, can you two cover me while I try to get to Taph? I think Guest is running low on stamina down there too.”  

 “1 H4V3 10 S3C0NDS 0N C00LD0WN. 1 SH0ULD B3 F1N3 BY TH3 T1M3 1 N33D T0 US3 MY STUN.” 

 Elliot nodded, “Me and Dusekkar will try to group with the other survivors after we locate Taph. You two stay safe, got it?”

 Chance gave Elliot a grin, followed by a thumbs up, “I only have 3 seconds of weakness left. We’ve got this, don’t we, Plant Man?” 

 An elbow was thrown onto Griefer’s shoulder, catching him mildly off guard. He resisted the urge to shove their elbow off of him, “D0N’T C4LL M3 TH4T.” 

 The gambler grinned, “Noted, my sincerest apologies. Now let’s get a move on it! Guest can’t dodge attacks forever!”

 Chance took out their revolver and ran down the rock tower while Griefer scrambled to catch up. Out of his peripheral vision, Greifer saw Elliot and Dusekkar running towards a large manor positioned on a hill. 

 1x1x1x1 had, unfortunately for them, managed to get a good hit on Guest. A Mass Infection flew by and managed to strike the soldier in the back, causing him to cry out in pain. 

 Griefer winced slightly at the sound. Debriefed beforehand on the fact that you can feel the pain these attacks caused, despite the wounds not being permanent. But, Guest didn’t give specifics on how bad getting sliced like that felt. Personally, Griefer wasn’t too keen to find out after seeing how bad 7n7 looked after having a run-in with 1x. 

 As Chance and Griefer finally got close enough to try and do something, they both noticed Guest randomly stop running.

 Considering this was a game and they had stamina bars, and by Chance’s “shit,” Griefer put two and two together and figured out that it was more than likely that the soldier’s stamina had hit 0. 

 Griefer watched as Guest raised his hands to block in a futile effort to get some time to stamina regen, but the hit he tried to block never came. Once Guest lowered his hands, he was met with a sword to the chest. 

 The slash sent the soldier stumbling backwards. But he managed to spot Chance and Griefer, who were ducked behind a wall nearby, before he fell to his knees, clutching his chest. His eyes met Griefer’s, and seeing the pain in them coupled with the deep wounds spewing crimson, was all it took for Griefer to do something stupid. 

 He was the last person to admit that seeing the pained look in someone’s eyes or someone losing even a little blood could make him fold on the spot. 

 Darting out from behind the wall, he raised his crowbar in front of the attack and used his ‘Protect’ ability, right as 1x raised one of his swords to bring it down into Guest and deliver the final blow. 

 The blow hit both of them but only did 10 damage to Griefer and 10 to Guest instead of 20 damage to just Guest alone.

 Griefer smirked, “H4H! B3T Y0U D1DN’T S33 TH4T C0M1NG, PUNK!” Mocking the guy with two swords right in your face as someone dies behind you probably wasn’t the best move, but oh well. He also made a mental note that this was the reason why he most likely had 110 health. He could tank half of an attack’s damage for another survivor. Not the best skill, but he’ll take it. 

 1x, to both Guest and Chance’s surprise, stumbled back upon seeing Griefer intervene. 

 “You.”

 The air seemed to thicken under the anger in 1x’s voice. He glared down at Griefer with a disgust that none of the other survivors had seen from them, even when concerning Shedletsky. 

 Chance’s face immediately contorted into concern. Having 1x target the new player, isn’t good. Having a pissed off 1x target a new player, is downright horrible. Chance wasn’t even certain that Guest finished telling him everything about the actual rounds yet. 

 Griefer steeled himself, gripping his crowbar tighter, despite it being useless while he was on cooldown. He wasn’t about to be intimidated by some hot-shot who expects everyone to run from them, “M3.”

 He straightened his posture, raising his head to meet the killer’s eyes. Griefer was taller than the killer. But, his constant, slight slouch made it appear otherwise. 

 1x’s glare seemed to falter for a moment as Griefer looked him dead in the eyes. While Griefer’s face seemed to shift into an unreadable expression. 

 He was unsettled. Looking at the killer’s eyes, there was a strange feeling forming in Griefer’s gut once more. They felt…familiar. 1x1x1x1’s eyes gave him an odd sense of security that Griefer knew he shouldn’t be feeling from someone so clearly ready to kill him. 

 1x’s expression darkened quickly, a look of disgust and anger covering their face.

 The spectre really nailed its replica, huh? Even down to the distinct green in those eyes 1x missed oh so much. 

 But the Spectre messed up one thing. There was a recognition in the fake’s eyes that they knew would not be there in the real Griefer’s eyes. No one could recognize them in the state they were in, not even Griefer. 

 The momentary stall between the two was ended abruptly when 1x1x1x1 raised her sword , preparing to end the life of the person before them, only to then feel a bullet pierce her back followed by their body involuntarily moving into a kneel. He scowled angrily, not liking that they had the clear chance to kill Griefer and lost it to Chance of all people. Not because she was distracted and left an opening or anything. Why would it ever be that?

 Meanwhile, Griefer had snapped out of the trance he found himself in at the loud bang and sudden movement, glancing down at 1x hesitantly before looking back up to see Chance waving their arms and motioning for Griefer and Guest to come their way. Shedletsky and Two Time were running up towards Griefer and the fallen soldier, most likely here as a way to keep 1x busy so Guest1337 can get away and heal. 

 Sensing the urgency, he quickly knelt down, put one of Guest’s arms over his shoulder to help him stand up, and began running towards Chance while Shedletsky ran past them towards the quickly recovering 1x. 

 Shedletsky threw a glance Griefer’s way and called out towards him, “Get up to the house! Guest can guide you there, we’ll cover for now.” 

 Griefer reluctantly nodded. He wasn’t exactly too keen on taking orders from Shedletsky. Not now, not ever. Especially not an order that required Griefer cowering away when he could still fight perfectly fine. Hell, he could probably defend the others better than Shedletsky could too. But seeing as how Guest’s life was on the line, he listened begrudgingly while throwing a spiteful glare at Shedletsky. 

 He glanced over at Guest, who was still out of it due to the fact he was bleeding out, but was now guiding Griefer’s footsteps in a specific direction. Griefer winced seeing the crimson red staining the soldier’s clothes.

 He had never seen that amount of blood on anyone but one person, and that was a one-time thing that he wished to never see again. Unfortunately for him, it looks like he’ll be seeing red coating people’s bodies a lot during his stay in this realm. Part of him felt nauseous at the sight directly to his left, but he pushed that feeling way down. The last thing he needed right now was to appear weak. 

 Behind him, he heard Shedletsky say something inaudible, followed by the deep voice of the killer, “Your attempts to protect that vermin are in vain, Shedletsky. I will have its head on my sword by the end of this round whether I have to kill you first or not.” 

 Griefer didn’t like that he knew that statement was almost most definitely about him.

 Jeez, what did he do to tick this guy he’s never met before off so bad? And why did he feel that way when he looked at her? He felt a frown form on his face at the thoughts circling around in his head. He can think about this and ask questions later. Right now, he needed to figure out where Guest was leading him and if Elliot had another pizza ready for the poor guy. 

 “WH3R3 4R3 W3 3V3N TRY1NG T0 G0?” 

 Guest’s speech was slurred, but somehow still coherent enough for Griefer to understand him, “t’find the others-.. Just follow my lead.” Internally, Griefer wanted to protest about blindly following a guy an inch away from death. But realistically, he had no clue how many times Guest had been in this situation or how well he knew this map. But however much he knew, it was more than Griefer knew for sure. So, he bit his tongue for the time being. 

 Up at the top of the hill the pair were now walking up, was the house that Griefer assumed was the same house that Shedletsky was talking about. Elliot was running out of the house towards the soldier and Griefer, armed with a pizza in hand, “There’s a dispenser inside the house to finish capping out your health, Guest.”

 Guest smiled graciously at the pizza man before him and took the pizza, taking a large bite out of it. Griefer couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised at how quickly the effects of the pizza took over. The large gashes on the soldier’s body began closing almost instantly and he seemed to come back to his full senses. 

 “H0LY SH1T TH1S PL4C3 1S W31RD.”

 Elliot laughed at that comment while Guest finished off another bite of the pizza, “Tell me about it. But hey, when magical pizza is one of the few solutions we have to keep us alive, we learn not to question it.” Elliot motioned for Griefer to follow him as Guest stretched his shoulders with a wince. 

 Guest spoke up, “I’m going back down to check up on Shed and the other two. 1x is pissed off still and we know how this always plays out.” His arms folded across his chest, eyebrows moving together to create a scowl across the veteran’s face. 

 Elliot nodded in response, paused, and looked behind him at the direction Griefer and Guest previously came from, his eyebrows furrowing. “Shedletsky and Two Time are taking major hits. I won’t be off cooldown for a good while and you’re only at 60%-.. Do you want me to go try and get Dusekkar to give you guys some help down there?”

 Griefer raised an eyebrow and looked down at his watch. Looking down, he saw that, sure enough, Two Time was at 57% health and Shedletsky was at 64%. How did Elliot know that without looking at his watch? Was it another one of these weird abilities that the “Spectre” thing hands out? That would be helpful to have in order to help someone out with a stun. 

 Guest had responded after a short moment, “That would probably be helpful, yea. I’ll try to send Two Time your way. No guarantees that I’ll even get down there before they’re killed though.” With that, Guest turned on his heels and ran back the way he came. Elliot gave one final glance at Guest before moving to walk back into the house. 

 Griefer moved to quickly follow the healer, side stepping the sentry in the doorway in the process. He had multiple questions on his mind. The main question right now being, why are these guys so calm about death? Yes, nothing is permanent. Guest had reiterated that to him multiple times, but they can obviously still feel the pain of getting killed and attacked, no? He chewed on the inside of his mouth while making his way up the stairs to the manor on the hill, still following behind Elliot. 

 It was unsettling, putting it nicely. Griefer could never get used to the pained yelps of anyone, let alone watching them bleed out. Feeling another bout of nausea come over him, he forced his thoughts to focus on another question he had. 

 Why wasn’t he sent down with the other sentinels? He was new to this game, yea, but he wasn’t trash. He’d absolutely wrecked enemies in normal games and he already was getting a hang of the mechanics, they didn’t need to baby him. 

 Part of it was also that he didn’t like that he was hiding away with the ability to fight back while Shedletsky got to play hero too. But that’s another thing he would never admit out loud. 

 Upon entering the manor, he first noticed Builderman, who was looking up from his watch’s hologram screen to speak to Elliot.

 “Two Time’s at 1%, we’re ‘bout to be back at two minutes and thirty seconds,” the admin’s face was unreadable. 

 Elliot sighed, “I’m assuming no second life?” Builderman shook his head, looking back down at the screen and watching Two Time’s health hit 0% and their icon turning red.  

 “1 C4N G0 B4CK D0WN TH3R3 4ND H3LP D1STR4CT TH3 K1LL3R.”

 Builderman was oddly quick to shoot that down, “No, we need a sentinel up here ‘case 1x catches us off guard or the other sentinels get taken down. People like Noob and Elliot here have nothin’ to defend themselves with and leavin’ ‘em without defense isn’t how we’d like to run this.”

 An annoyed huff left Griefer involuntarily.

 A smaller robloxian came around the corner and towards the doorway the other 3 were standing by, their watch screen still open and arm raised so they could see it, “Chance just died again-..”

 Elliot looked over at Noob and visibly seemed to look more downtrodden, “I swear, if they were gambling mid chase again or shooting on one charge-..” 

 “WH4T K1ND 0F SK1LL 1S G4MBL1NG?” Griefer hooked his crowbar back onto his belt and folded his arms. 

 Noob giggled quietly but answered his question, “It’s how Chance gets charges for their gun-.. But if they get tails, they just get weakness stacked up.”

 “...TH4T 1S TH3 W0RST SK1LL I’V3 H34RD 0F 1N L1T3R4LLY 4NY G4M3.”

 Builderman barked out a laugh at that comment, “Don’t let Chance hear ya sayin’ that. They used to own a casino and hold that damn coin and broken flintlock of theirs close to their heart.”

 Elliot bit back a laugh of his own while looking out into the distant area of the map. Griefer followed his gaze in an attempt to see what he was looking at, but saw nothing. 

 “Taph got caught by 1x again and is taking damage. Damn it, I should’ve convinced him to come up here instead of trying to hide more bombs. I’m off of cooldown, I’m going out there.” He raised his arm and opened his own watch screen, expression firming slightly. On the screen, Shedletsky was at 45% health, but was healing, most likely due to his chicken. Dusekkar was dead, Guest was at 40%, and Taph was at 87%. 

 Watching as Elliot appeared to grow frustrated, Griefer raised an eyebrow at the pizza man. 

 “I shouldn’t have been sitting here, I’ll be back. Guest needs a pizza again.” Before anyone else could get a word out, Elliot had kicked little wheels out from beneath his shoes, transforming them into roller skates, and taken off at a freakishly fast pace. 

 A sigh could be heard from Griefer’s right as Builderman stepped beside him. “I hate to be the person that sends you on a death march, but you might wanna go tail Elliot. He gets a bit rash when he feels like he hasn’t done his job right.”

 “F1N4LLY. S0M3TH1NG T0 D0 0TH3R TH4N ST4ND H3R3.” Griefer reached for his crowbar and spun the cool metal between his fingers. A smirk forming back across his face. He needed to do something other than sit alone with his thoughts right now anyways.

 He stepped forward, starting towards the stairs at the entryway of the manor. Behind him, Builderman spoke up, “Be careful, kid. 1x1x1x1 ain’t going to take all that kindly to ya bein’ here.”

 Griefer paused for a moment but replied, “H4H. I H4V3 N0 1NT3NT10NS 0F L3TT1NG S0M3 H0T H34D3D L0S3R B34T M3.” He kept moving towards the base of the hill, keeping an eye out for anyone. Silently, he thought about the way Builderman worded his warning. Maybe he was overthinking it, but the way the admin worded it made it seem like Builderman knew something Griefer didn’t. 

 Now scowling, Griefer raised his arm to look at his watch’s screen. His eyes widened slightly at what he was looking at. 007n7’s health was rapidly dropping and Elliot was dead now too. A “Y1K3S” left Griefer as he watched n7’s icon turn red and Guest’s health drop from 65% to 40% once more. 

 He really needed to get over to where the others were. 

 Picking up the pace, Griefer began sprinting across the map to where he last saw anyone. He finally heard and saw something back by the gravesite as he got closer.

 1x1x1x1 was targeting Taph, who was now at 50%, while Shedletsky and Guest were both trying to help him gain distance. Rushing forward, Griefer gripped his crowbar tighter right as 1x pulled back a charge on Entanglement, “H3Y, PUNK! C4TCH!” 

 Shedletsky was the first to look over as Griefer threw the red weapon forward as hard as he could, successfully landing the first hit on 1x. Catching the crowbar, he threw it back towards the killer equally fast, mere seconds before the Entanglement could launch or 1x4 could spin around towards Griefer. 

 1x1x1x1 let out an angry shout as he kneeled forward as their attack was canceled. Taph looked up, his wings bouncing up as well, and gave Griefer a thumbs up. He wasted no other time and took off back behind several of the brown walls, most likely trying to get to where the other survivors were camping out.

 Both Guest and Shedletsky took this stun as a moment to reset the chase and gain a bit of distance from 1x1x1x1. Griefer followed the same strategy and spun his crowbar effortlessly while cracking his neck. 

 The killer quickly recovered from the stun, standing back upright and looking at the three survivors in front of her. She decided then and there, he was saving that insult of a clone for lms. 

 The three sentinels were momentarily stunned as 1x4 used Unstable Eye before taking off in the direction of the manor and the way Taph was running. Griefer didn’t know what the move 1x1x1x1 just used did, but he did know that almost all of the remaining survivors were up there, and there were no sentinels to help them. 

 Shedletsky turned to face Griefer and called out, “We’ve got to get up there. I’m assuming the others are still up there and none of them can defend themselves except for with Builderman’s sentry.”

 Griefer’s expression firmed, and he took off back towards the manor on the hill without another word, despite Shedletsky yelling at him to let him and Guest take the lead here. He’d be damned if he let Shedletsky tell him to slow down when people’s lives were on the line. Game or not, it was obvious everyone here could feel the pain of the attacks, and he wasn’t about to let someone go through an experience like that without a way to protect themselves when he could do something.

 He’d made that mistake once, and he would never, could never, do it again. 

 Guest ran up beside Griefer, who was now at the top of the hill and running towards the manor a few feet behind 1x, “They’re targeting Taph all the way up there.”

 “BU1LD3RM4N 4ND N00B 4R3 UP TH3R3 T00,” Griefer called out to Guest, looking ahead to see 1x1x1x1 land another hit on Taph.

 The sentinels, who were all still out of range or on cooldown, watched as Taph stumbled forward and was swiftly greeted with a sword twisted into their neck, a sharp twist of the blade finishing him off.

 Involuntarily, Griefer averted his eyes from the scene and struggled to fight back his nausea. He hadn’t really seen any of the survivors die in front of him yet, only how they looked wounded, but still alive. 

 The sight brought up unpleasant memories, to say the least.

 Guest’s face hardened. In response to watching that brutal death, he hurried forward and used Charge, running full force into 1x and knocking him back against the stair’s rails. Griefer couldn’t fight the grimace that formed when he heard the sound of 1x’s back cracking from the force of the charge slamming her into the railing. 

 1x destroyed the sentry and still chose to ignore Guest. 

 Jeez, targeting the defenseless? That was low even for a bloodthirsty killer. 

 Griefer’s stun was still on cooldown, so he attempted to scout out a way to get to another survivor and block part of a hit for them if necessary. He spotted a gap around the right side of the manor, mainly due to a small, blonde person peeking out from around the side of the house very briefly before ducking back out of sight. 

 Glancing at 1x, who was preoccupied with Guest still getting in their way and being forced to fight back coupled with Shedletsky finally coming up the stairs with a ready stun, he decided to go for it. 

 He ran around the side of the house, where he saw Builderman listening intently, most likely for these audio queues Griefer had been hearing, and Noob, who was holding a strangely colored burger. 

 “TH0S3 TW0 SH0ULD G1V3 Y0U 3N0UGH C0V3R T0 G3T 4W4Y. 1 C4N T4NK P4RT 0F 4 H1T F0R Y0U T00.” He kept it brief, knowing he had very little time before 1x got done with the other two sentinels. Especially as he heard the sound of fabrics hitting the ground and another shouting in pain. 

 Noob nodded, deciding to make a run for it after eating their ghost burger. 

 In theory, Noob should have been able to sneak away.

 If 1x hadn’t made quick work of Guest, killing him rather quickly after baiting a block, and sending Shedletsky to try and get 1x to chase him through the house on 40% hp. 

 1x sprung around the front of the house, surprisingly Noob, Builderman, and Griefer alike. Despite being mostly invisible, 1x could still locate the faint outline of the robloxian before him and struck her with a daemonshank to the shoulder. 

 Noob stumbled back as Griefer rushed forward and got in the way of the next attack he was anticipating, raising his crowbar. No attack came though. He felt his arms involuntarily lower the crowbar, much to his frustration. 

 Looking behind him, he saw Builderman attempting to help Noob up. 

 Looking in front of him, he saw 1x4 quickly pulling back an attack and launching Entanglement forward. 

 The three survivors were all struck with the attack, all being momentarily paralyzed.

 Griefer had not been informed about entanglement and began to silently panic as 1x drew back Mass Infection. Tiny pop-up windows had pierced his vision, his actual vision, and he couldn't figure out how to get them out of the way or move. 

 He hated this feeling. He needed to move, before he began to panic. He needed control of his body back, now. 

 Builderman attempted to shout ahead the way to get loose to Griefer, as he had already broken free. But the only thing Griefer heard was a loud ringing as a Mass Infection sliced a gaping wound into his abdomen alongside Noob crying out. Thankfully, the pop ups did fade from his vision. Not thankfully, he was bleeding out and in immense pain. 

 Shedletsky had run up behind 1x1x1x1, albeit a bit late, and brought a sword down on the killer, momentarily stunning him, “MOVE IT!” 

 Griefer noticed the shout was mostly targeted at him, but he wasn’t pissed off at the demand for once. Shedletsky’s tone wavered and he seemed oddly desperate for the 3 survivors to get out of there before 1x could get up. Didn’t mean that Griefer planned on listening though. 

 Builderman knelt down to help Noob up again, looping an arm around his waist and standing back up, pulling Noob’s weight with him. Griefer looked over at the duo for a short moment, just long enough to see Noob’s blood now staining part of Builderman’s clothes before he looked back at the threat in front of him. 

 The killer was forcing themselves up, shaking off the slash sending shooting bursts of pain down her back. He was going to kill these last two survivalists and save the insult to his intelligence and ex-admin for last. 

 1x1x1x1 was fuming as he chose to shove Shedletsky out of the way, watching Griefer back up slowly, still standing in front of Noob and Builderman. 

 “Kid, get out of there!” Builderman shouted at the plant-donned man in front of him. Griefer was holding his bleeding gut, but also reaching for his crowbar, an action 1x had already learned to counter. 

 The weapon was raised.

 And it clattered against the ground as 1x rushed forward, shoved past Griefer, and stabbed his blade into Noob’s chest. Builderman had stumbled back in surprise as Noob crumbled into a lifeless heap before him. The admin’s brows furrowed at the sight. Seeing these kids die never got any easier for anyone. 

 Looking up at Shedletsky, Builderman shared the same expression. They both knew 1x was going to leave Griefer for last. Builderman didn’t know all the details why, but Shedletsky had told him the important parts before this round started and he had enough background knowledge to make an assumption here. 

 Builderman turned around quickly and just ran. He ran back around the house with little to no prior thought, just aiming to buy Griefer and Shedletsky time. He knew that 1x was Player. He knew that Player had some sort of background with both Griefer and Shedletsky. If the two sentinels attempted to keep Builderman alive, they would be easy kills right after Builderman inevitably died.

 It wasn’t the most desirable way to go out in a round. But he knew that Griefer most likely held some sort of meaning to Shedletsky with the way he spoke about keeping him safe at the start of the round. 

 Meanwhile, Griefer watched as 1x4 gave chase to Builderman. Motioning forward, he began to attempt to follow in pursuit but was quickly halted by a hand on his shoulder.

 “We need to move. Builderman won’t keep them busy for long,” Shedletsky attempted to spin Griefer around to face him, but Griefer fought back and shrugged his hand off.

 “4R3 Y0U CR4ZY?! 1’M N0T L34V1NG BU1LD3RM4N T0 D13 4L0N3 T0 TH4T GUY,” He turned to face Shedletsky, grip tightening on the cool metal in his palm. 

 “Nothing here is permanent. We need to move, he’ll be okay.”

 “1F N0TH1NG 1S P3RM4N3NT TH4N Y0U C4N L3T M3 G0 H3LP,” he hissed through his teeth, attempting to mask the pain in his voice.

 “Brad, you aren’t understandi-”

“N0, Y0U 4R3N’T UND3RST4ND1NG. 1’M N0T TH3 S4M3 CRYB4BY C0W4RD Y0U 4R3. 1 D0NT JUST L34V3 P30PL3 T0 D13 4FT3R 1’M D0N3 US1NG TH3M.”

 Shedletsky grew quiet at that.

 Griefer’s breathing had quickened from a combination of adrenaline, pain, and anger. He had waited for so fucking long to let Shedletsky know how he felt about him. 

 “1 KN0W D4MN W3LL AB0UT TH3 TRUTH 0F WH4T W3NT D0WN. Y0U D0N’t G3T T0 S34L Y0UR ‘PR0BL3MS’ 4W4Y W1TH Z3R0 C0NS3QU3NC3S.” 

 Shedletsky paused before speaking, “This isn’t the time, nor the place to discuss this. And no, you don’t. You’ve made assumptions about the truth. Because if you knew the truth, you would have already recognized who 1x1x1x1 is.” 

 That was oddly cryptic. What the hell was he talking about? 

 The sound of a body hitting a wall nearby distracted both people before either could say anything else to the other. Both of them turned to face the source of the sound

 Builderman was slumped, lifeless, against the front of the manor where 1x had rather aggressively tossed him. His whole body was mangled and stained in crimson with the smell of metal wafting from the stains. Shedletsky’s brows furrowed at the sight. He still wasn’t entirely used to seeing his best friend maimed like that, in all honesty. 

 Griefer tore his eyes from the scene. Looking up, Griefer saw 1x staring directly at Shedletsky and himself.

 “I suggest that you accept your demise now and spare yourself the struggle, Shedletsky.” 1x began slowly approaching the pair, “I plan to keep my word and not let either of you make it out here alive. Resistance is futile.” 

 Shedletsky gripped his sword and sidestepped in front of Griefer, who scowled in response.

 “You know I’m too stubborn for that.”

 A loud, cruel laugh left 1x. Though, there was another undertone in the laugh that Griefer couldn’t quite place.

 He wasn’t given the chance to sit on that thought, though. As both Shedletsky and 1x lunged towards each other in a clash of swords. As much as Griefer hated Shedletsky, he had to admit, he was a good sword fighter. Those stories of him on the heights certainly weren’t exaggerating. 

 But 1x wasn’t bad either. In fact, Griefer was almost entranced by 1x’s fighting style. It was like watching a dance that Griefer had seen a dozen times over in a distant dream. Motions that left a nagging feeling of longing and familiarity behind in their wake. 

 1x1x1x1 managed to land a hit on Shedletsky, who stumbled back and shouted at Griefer to get out of there.

 He could leave. He wanted to leave Shedletsky to suffer.

 But that would make him no better than Shedletsky, wouldn’t it? 

 Griefer was many things, but he wasn't a hypocrite.

 So, he made the only clear choice here. He begrudgingly raised his crowbar and moved to Shedletsky’s side, even as the wound on his gut screamed at him in protest. Shedletsky looked over, finally accepting he would not be able to get Griefer to save himself.

 Forcing himself back standing up straight, Shedletsky rushed forward again. 1x1x1x1 dodged and went to hit Shedletsky in the back. Unfortunately for her, their attack was blocked by Griefer using Protect, even as his health was already incredibly low. Shedletsky spun around and spared Griefer a glance, just trying to make sure he was at least staying alive. 

 Griefer was wincing, the 10 damage felt like 30 damage when you’re already this injured.

 Shedletsky moved from behind Griefer and attempted to land a stun, but missed drastically due to 1x moving backwards, out of the way. Griefer and Shedletsky both just stood there in silence, processing that absolutely fail of a stun. 

 “W0W.”

 “I don’t want to hear it after the crowbar you missed earlier.”

 “1’M G01NG T0 K1LL Y0U MYS3LF 4FT3R TH1S.”

 No response could be thrown back from Shedletsky’s end. His face had met the end of 1x’s blade thanks to the momentary stall in order for the pair to bicker. Griefer was startled, quickly moving to react and get to Shedletsky before 1x could land another hit. 

 Shedletsky’s cut off cry as 1x slammed their sword into his chest stopped Griefer in his tracks.

 A glowing outline formed around 1x4 as he turned around to look at Griefer, a twisted smile plastered across his face. 

 Griefer was in pain, panicked, and quickly trying to figure out how he was supposed to get out of this. 

 “The Spectre’s attempts at terrorizing me are growing more amusing.”

 What?

 “What’s next? A copy of Kyoko?” The killer was slowly approaching. One sword was shouldered and the other was being held firmly in her opposite hand.

 Kyoko? How much did this killer know about Griefer’s personal life? Was this even in regards to Griefer? It couldn’t be, 1x referred to themselves here. 

 “WH4T 4R3 Y0U T4LK1NG AB0UT, PUNK?” He sputtered out, backing up at the same pace that 1x was approaching. The fear in his tone was barely masked. He really hoped no one could notice how terrified he was right now.

 “Don’t play stupid. I know you’re just another vessel for IT.” 1x’s voice sounded like they were almost trying to convince themselves that what they were saying was true. 

 “1’M N0T STUP1D, DUMB4SS-”

 In a blur of green, a sword was swung and he was knocked over. He barely had enough time to raise his crowbar to prevent the sword from coming down and striking him as 1x shoved him to the ground. Every wound on his body sent bolts of pain through him as he collided with the ground. 

 He looked up at the face above him, at the person pinning him. That nagging feeling was back.

 He couldn’t place it, but something about 1x1x1x1 was so painfully familiar. And once again, Griefer felt that sense of security, a sense of comfort, that he knew should not be the feeling he’s getting from being pinned down by a literal murderer. 

 “...WH0 4R3 Y0U…?”

 A sharp, bitter laugh left 1x as he pressed his sword down on the crowbar harder.

 “Maybe the Spectre isn’t as good at filling in its clone’s memories as I thought it was. I owe you no response. I know you will just tell it whatever I say.”

 “1 D0N’T 3V3N KN0W WH0 TH1S D4MN SP3CTR3 IS. TH3 0NLY 1NT3R4T10N 1’V3 H4D W1TH 1T 1S 1T C0NV1NC3 M3 T0 L3T 1T DR4G M3 H3R3.”

 Griefer felt a slight break in the force being applied to him as he said that and tried to use that to push 1x off, to no avail. 1x scowled down at Griefer and pushed against him harder, making Griefer cry out in pain as his arms finally gave out. 

 Part of 1x4 wanted to stop at that cry. In fact, he almost did stop. He hated that sound, even if it wasn’t coming from the real Griefer. But he couldn’t let the Spectre know that. Admins above, who knows what it would do with the information that 1x1x1x1 couldn’t bear the sound of Griefer in pain. 

 Looking down at the survivor below the, 1x saw that the crowbar was now pressed tightly against his chest. He wasn’t getting out of this. 1x had the upper hand. 

 “Griefer wouldn’t listen to any disembodied voice, he’s not a dumbass.”

 Boy, would this guy be surprised.

 “Especially not after the venomshank. Why don’t you add that to your list of memories, huh? I’m sure the Spectre would get a kick out of torturing me with the time I almost killed my future partner.”

 Griefer’s eyes widened at that comment.

 Holy shit.

 That’s what Shedletsky meant earlier by, “If you knew the truth of what happened you’d recognize who that was” or whatever he said. 

 Holy fucking banlands.

 This was Player.

 Dear heights, their prediction about Player being a killer was actually right. 

 Oh, admins hold Griefer back once he sees Shedletsky again.

 Worry immediately found itself pooling inside of Griefer’s throat as he called out in surprise, “PL4Y3R???”

 1x’s rage multiplied tenfold at being addressed by that name again, “You don’t deserve to use that name, parasite.”

 Griefer’s vision blackened as he felt a sword slice his throat. 

Chapter Text

 Shedletsky winced as he landed flat on his ass outside the cabin. The grass was cold beneath him and let out loud crunches as he stood up. Looking at the stairs before him, he braced himself.

 The admin knew Brad was going to figure out the full truth to an extent by the time the round finished. And there was a very slim chance that Brad wouldn't be absolutely livid. He also knew that the other survivors were most likely spectating, and probably still are. They were all particularly nosey about the drama between their fellow survivors and the killers, even if they wouldn’t admit it out loud.

 The survivors were also most likely going to have a shit ton of questions to bombard Shedletsky with. The truth was finally about to be weaseled out of him, whether he liked it or not. Griefer would make sure of that. 

 A sigh left his lips as he stepped up the creaking stairs and approached the cabin door. Opening the door, he saw the survivors all crowded around the dusty old couch and watching the screen above the fireplace. 

 They were watching the LMS between Griefer and 1x. Shedletsky looked up at the screen and saw that 1x1x1x1 had Griefer pinned beneath a sword, preventing him from being able to fight back. There was no way the kid was going to win this, especially considering that 1x is practically certain that Griefer isn’t real. 

 Dusekkar noticed Shedletsky’s entrance, moved back to create more room, and waved him over. He didn’t seem as intrigued in the drama as the others were per se. That just wasn’t the type of person Dusekkar was. It was more likely that he was one of the few here that would feel most hurt by being left in the dark by Shedletsky and were trying to piece together the truth. Guilt tugged at Shedletsky when he thought about how hurt Builderman and Dusekkar would be. Especially considering how Builderman was another person who thought he knew the whole story.

 In reality, only Shedletsky, Brighteyes, and Player themselves knew the full extent of what went down that fateful night. Looking back at it, he regretted not telling the full truth. But nothing he could do or say would change the past, no matter how much he wanted it to. 

 Walking over to the couch, he looked up and listened to the conversation going on between Griefer and 1x. 

 What he heard, however, made Shedletsky inhale sharply.

 “-the time I almost killed my future partner.”

 Dear Robloxia, he was going to be in hot water once Griefer respawns. 

 Shedletsky warily moved his head to look at the expressions around him.

 Taph was covering his mouth, his wings fluffed up in surprise. If he could speak, he’d probably be making an “ooooooo” sound by now. Guest had coughed into his hand, holding back a surprised remark. Meanwhile both Builderman and Dusekkar had unreadable expressions, something that Shedletsky didn’t like. 

 Two Time’s grin had faltered momentarily at that revelation. It was likely they had thought about Azure just now. 

 Both Noob and n7 looked sympathetic. The two survivors had a relation to some extent with a killer here and felt bad for the newcomer. They knew what it could be like when someone you cared about so dearly doesn’t recognize you or kills you in cold blood. 

 The last two people that Shedletsky looked at were Chance and Elliot. Chance was choking on a bloxy cola that was now spilled down their suit. Elliot had his hands raised, unsure if he should attempt to pat Chance or just let them sort it out themselves.

 Shortly thereafter, Chance sat upright and gave the pizza boy a thumbs up. Elliot sighed in relief but smacked the back of the gambler’s head. 

 Shedletsky raised an eyebrow at the pair as Chance shot up and called out, “Holy HELL, you have a lot of filling in to do, Shedletsky.”

 They spun around to look at the chicken-obsessed man behind the couch, the others throwing him a glance for a moment or two too, now that the screen had faded to black. 

 Shedletsky felt himself tense as the eyes of his peers were now looking at him with a variety of expressions. Confusion, hurt, intrigue...

 The door suddenly swung open.

 .. And anger. 

 Griefer felt a lot of emotions right after respawning. Many he couldn’t quite place. But there was one he could place.

 And that was rage. 

 His eyes immediately found Shedletsky’s, his expression shifting into a deep scowl, “WH4T TH3 H3LL D1D Y0U D0. T3LL M3 TH3 G0D D4MN TRUTH, ASSH0L3.”

 Griefer took a step forward, not exactly caring that he was making a scene. His mind was clouded by the overwhelming thoughts about what had actually happened to Player. 

 Why did they look like, well, that. 

 It wasn’t that he was disgusted by the way they looked or anything, hell, he had the same torso as him now. More so that Griefer was caught off guard. Last he saw Player, she didn’t look like a literal ghost with red eyes and an insane thirst for murder.

 He needed to know if that hurt. If they suffered through that. 

 Shedletsky stood firm, even if he wanted to begin deflecting once more. He was a grown ass man and these were the consequences of his actions. He was laying in a grave he dug himself. The admin knew he had to admit the truth eventually, he just hoped it wouldn’t be this soon.

 “I didn’t do that to them, Brad.”

 “ST0P C4LL1NG M3 BR4D,” Griefer’s fists curled on themselves, nails digging into his palms. “WH4T. D1D. Y0U. D0.” He wanted to retaliate physically, but that would get him nowhere. He refused to stoop that low to strike first on an unarmed opponent as well. 

 “It was the swords.” Shedletsky took a step forward, choosing to ignore the looks of the other survivors in the room. 

 “Player managed to find those daemonshanks after handing over The Heights swords to me. I’m not entirely sure how they got to them to this day, but you’re welcome to try and find out for yourself.”

 Griefer didn’t like the tone Shedletsky was using when he added in that last bit.

 “WH4T 4R3 Y0U T4LK1NG 4B0UT?” The younger man didn’t know anything about the daemonshank. But he did know he already hated it if it was responsible for transforming Player like that. Griefer fought back a shudder thinking about how Player’s transformation felt. If it was anything like how his own sword-fueled transformation felt, he was going to absolutely strangle Shedletsky for letting Player find that thing and use it. 

 Shedletsky was eyeing Griefer’s body language, careful for any signs of the other lashing out physically.

 “They’re a break in coding. An accident, I guess. Builderman and I discovered them ages ago and sealed them off in the banlands after trying and failing to get rid of them. From what we figured out, the swords stem off of the venomshank. Which would explain you two’s similarities when it comes to the results of the sword’s transformations.”

 Griefer’s eyes narrowed at the mention of his own run-in with one of the swords. He didn’t like being used as an example or the tone that was used to refer to him. 

 “4ND Y0U D1DN’T TH1NK T0 M4YB3, JUST M4YB3, N0T US1NG PL4Y3R T0 D0 Y0UR D1RTY W0RK 4ND TH3N TRY1NG T0 JUST G3T R1D 0F TH3M 0NC3 TH3Y R34CH TH31R BR34K1NG P01NT?” His voice was rising in volume now. Guest looked ready to step in if things continued to escalate. But Builderman and Dusekkar both looked ready to tell Guest to not get involved. 

 “I had no choice,” Shedletsky was trying to keep his personal emotions down, but it was not working. 

 “BULLSH1T.” 

 “Brad, for the love of Robloxia, listen to me for once,” Shedletsky folded his arms and spoke before the other man had a chance to interrupt or speak over him again. 

 “They were going to kill me. And then they were going to kill everyone in that god damn headquarters the admins stay hauled up in. Don’t you dare think for a second that they were going to stop there either. You know EXACTLY what those swords can do to someone. I know Player told you about Captain Trotter.”

 The admin inhaled, his face heating up and guilt bubbling in his gut once again. He regretted his former self’s actions. But no amount of regret could undo what he caused. 

 “I admit, I should’ve gone about handling Player differently. I shouldn’t have sent them to find those swords in the first place, if I’m being entirely honest. And I sure as hell should have taken other steps before sealing them away. But you weren’t there.”

 Shedletsky wasn’t wrong. Griefer wasn’t there. And he hated himself for that. But, Player had resisted all 7 swords at once and managed to get them to listen to him in the end. Yet one sword, bugged or not, was able to push them over the edge? One measly sword was able to send Player on a bloodthirsty rampage after a year of resisting some of the most dangerous weapon’s control? Something wasn’t adding up.

 “Y0U’R3 L34V1NG 0UT D3T41LS.”

 The man was taken aback at the direct accusation. 

 Griefer moved forward, now only a foot away from Shedletsky.

 “Y0U S41D S0M3TH1NG 0R- F0R FUCKS S4K3, 1 D0N’T KN0W. BUT W3 B0TH KN0W TH3R3 1S 4N0TH3R F4CT0R 1N PL4Y H3R3.” 

 Shedletsky fell silent.

 The air in the cabin was painfully stale.

 Guest braced himself for the very real possibility he was going to have to break up a fight between the two men. Meanwhile, Builderman and Dusekkar listened intently to what was being said, realizing they hadn’t been told crucial details about what happened between Shedletsky and 1x, despite being two of Shedletsky’s closest friends.

 The admin before Griefer was the only one who risked breaking the silence. His next words were carefully chosen. They were all truthful, but missing some details. Not that anyone would know whether he left out details or not. He and Player were the only two present during that fight. 

 “The swords themselves have minds of their own. I’d assume my action of stripping them from an owner that they deemed had won their obedience didn’t go well with them – they sought out a form of defense that would allow Player to take them back into her possession. I didn’t think they would actually lead him to the daemonshanks, let alone that she could make it there and back in one piece. What they convinced Player to do was beyond my control.”

 Griefer’s heart dropped. All 7 swords united for one cause in order to bring Player to an eighth one. That’s why Player fell victim to the blades. 

 In the past, Player said that the swords never got along. But when even just two of them did, she found it a lot harder to resist listening to what they wanted. Especially since whenever they agreed on something, Player found it almost always ended up benefitting them. The swords didn’t want their chosen wielder to die, after all. 

 His hands clenched tightly on themselves to prevent them from reaching for Shedletsky’s throat. 

 “Y0U FUCK1NG KN3W TH1S C0ULD H4PP3N.” 

  “I didn’t think it would actually happen.”

 “Y0U C0ULD’V3 PR3V3NT3D TH1S.”

 “I’m trying to make up for-”

 “TH4T D03SN’T CH4NG3 4NYTH1NG.”

 Griefer was starting to get emotional. His voice was cracking and his thoughts were spiraling. The idea of hitting Shedletsky over the head with a crowbar was becoming increasingly appealing. The Spectre taking that thing from him while he was in the lobby was starting to make sense.

 Shedletsky let this happen out of his own neglect. He quite literally threw Player away and left them alone to deal with the consequences of his actions.

 Player could still be ok, there was a way to avoid this. If Shedletsky had just swallowed his own ego and helped Player, asked if they were ok, asked if they needed a break, or did anything for her, they could still be back in Robloxia and living. They could be out adventuring with kyoko, or babysitting Red and Blue, or fighting enemies.

 Or laying in Griefer’s arms. 

 “I H4T3 Y0U.” 

 Another voice cut in, “Shedletsky, I ask that ya come and talk to me in private for a moment. It seems you two need to separate for a sec, before either of you can say or do something you’ll regret.” 

 Builderman walked up behind Shedletsky and put a hand on his shoulder. 

 Shedlesky felt both anxious and relieved. Griefer was going to be off his case for a bit. But now Builderman was definitely going to interrogate him for an explanation. 

 Griefer let out a loud exhale, glaring daggers into Shedletsky and taking a step back. He didn’t want to let this go. He wasn’t done trying to pry answers out of the immortal coward. But he was quickly realizing that this was a losing fight here. Especially considering everyone here didn’t know what a total loser that Shedletsky was and would more than likely take his side if things continued to escalate. 

 He’ll accept defeat for now, but in no way was he letting this go. Especially not after hearing more about what actually happened in that awful battle between Player and Shedletsky. He wouldn’t just let Shedletsky get away with doing something like that to someone and still try to claim he was the victim here. 

 “F1N3.”

 A small nod came from Builderman, “We’ll be in the kitchen.” His hand lingered on Shedletsky’s shoulder as he turned, encouraging the other to hurry up and follow behind him. 

 Griefer’s eyes narrowed as he watched Shedletsky turn around and follow Builderman. Coward.

 Several of the other survivors in the room let out breaths that they had subconsciously held in. Guest relaxed a bit too, seeing that the argument wasn’t something he needed to break up. A beat of silence followed Shedletsky and Builderman leaving the room. 

 “I am going to ask about this story I have yet to hear and as to why it has never been given the chance to be heard by my receptive ear.” 

 The pumpkin-headed man was the first to speak, motioning towards the kitchen as a few other survivors let out small, “alrights” or nods. Nobody fought him on his choice to join Shedletsky and Builderman. It was only fair that he was included in a conversation that clearly revolved around things to do with the admins and the SFOTH swords. He was an admin too, after all. 

 Griefer was remaining standing still, silently fuming and staring at the door to the dining room that Shedeltsky had left through. His knuckles had turned white from how tightly he was clenching his fists.

 The eyes of the other survivors in the room lingered on him, each waiting for someone else to make the first move.

 It was awkward and humiliating, for Griefer at least. They had all watched him blow up like that and now they were staring at him like he was going to start trashing the place or burst into tears. He hated that.

 He hated that he felt his eyes actually glazing over. He hated that these random people know such a personal part of his life. He hated that he couldn’t leave this stupid realm. He hated that he couldn’t just hold onto Player again and refuse to let go. 

 He needed to be left alone for a while.

 Realizing he was still close to the door, he quickly made a decision on what his next move would be. Throwing a quick glare around the room, he turned and stormed out the door of the cabin entirely, shutting the door far more aggressively than needed. Part of the aggression was a feeble attempt at getting the nosey survivors to be intimidated out of coming to bother him.

 He just wanted his dad.

 The survivors listened to the heavy footsteps outside make their way off of the wooden porch by the door. 

 “..Wow. Okay, so, that was a lot,” Chance attempted to poke a joke and lighten the mood, to no success. Only a small, awkward laugh came from Elliot and Guest.

 “.. I feel bad.. Griefer was clearly upset over whatever Shedletsky did,” Noob piped up as he adjusted the way she was sitting on the couch. The remaining survivors in the room nodded or muttered words of agreement. They all had the same nagging question, what was the actual story between 1x and Shedletsky? The furthest that everyone in the living room knew was that 1x1x1x1 was a direct result of some of Shedletsky’s actions and had attempted to kill him before. That’s it. 

 They each had their own conspiracies about what exactly could’ve caused 1x to be “Shedletsky’s creation” or his number 1 hater, but no one had an exact answer. Whenever they asked Shedletsky, he would change the topic or say he would explain at a later date. 

 Guest straightened up his posture and spoke, “I’m going to check on him.” Guest was slightly ashamed to admit this, but he had already started growing attached to the younger man.

 “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, he seemed pretty mad when he stormed out of here.” 007n7 was wary about the idea of Guest going to bother Griefer. Not because he was actually concerned Griefer would attack Guest in anger, he knew if that happened the soldier could more than likely defend himself. The ex-hacker was worried for Griefer himself. When n7 had first seen C00lkidd here in this realm, he was distraught and angry. All he wanted after that round was to be left alone with his thoughts, and he highly doubted that Griefer felt any different.

 N7’s wandering thoughts were interrupted by Guest speaking again, “I’ll be fine, if that’s what you’re worried about. I just don’t think it’s wise to leave Griefer alone right now, considering what just transpired.” 

 “I agree with Guest. It’s not like all of us are going out there or he’s going to nag him about what he and Shedeltsky were talking about,” Elliot added to the conversation. 

 Realizing that he wasn’t going to win this argument, he quickly thought of a compromise. 

 “I’ll go check on him.”

 That offer surprised the soldier and other survivors alike. N7 barely interacted with everyone else, and he’d been here with them for an extended period of time, but he was willingly going to try and comfort the newcomer?

 Once the idea was given more thought though. Guest realized it did make more sense for n7 to go check on Griefer. He had his own personal experience with having someone he knew being warped into a killer here and could probably relate to how Griefer was feeling more accurately than Guest could. 

 “N7, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you avoid talking to us at all costs, and you know us. And you think talking to an aggressive stranger is going to go well for you?” Chance was quick to point out the thing that was holding everyone back from accepting. 

 Taph put his hands on his hips at that remark and glared at Chance from beneath his hood, silently shaming the other for being rude. Chance mouthed a “what?? I was just saying…” in response.

 “Perhaps I should go. It seems Griefer and I share the common theme of a partner fighting for the opposite team,” Two Time had appeared mildly lost in thought and silent since the revelation that 1x1x1x1 were partners. Azure was still a touchy subject for them, after all. 

 “That won’t be necessary, Two Time. N7 can go check on Griefer, he asked after me and I don’t mind letting him have the job of checking in on our new teammate.”

 Guest was quick to shoot down Two Time’s offer. Not that he was intending to be rude, but rather Two Time could get a bit awkward and pushy. It was more so that they were slightly tone deaf when it came to comforting people coupled with the fact that the soldier was certain that Griefer didn’t want to listen to one of Two Time’s sporadic religious-tangents right now. 

 007n7 gave Guest a quick smile before moving towards the door, hand reaching for the cool metal of the doorknob.

 With a final nod from Guest, n7 pulled open the door, and left the cabin, shutting the door behind him. 

 A beat of silence followed before Noob broke the quiet.

 “Soo… Anyone care to share thoughts on what just happened?” 

 The people in the room all shared a look before fabric shuffling filled the air. Everyone was huddling closer around the dirty old couch so as to not be heard by the admins in the room over, preparing to attempt to piece together what just happened between Griefer and Shedletsky. 

They all had different reactions to what just happened. Some of them were confused, others were slightly mad at the fact Shedletsky had clearly been hiding something from them.

 But one thing was true between them all.

 They were extremely nosey. 

 Meanwhile, n7 was making his way down the creaking stairs of the porch, looking around for where Griefer had stormed off to. Finding his gaze landing towards the lake, he saw the green outline of a familiar man sitting on the edge of the dock.

 He looked like he was sitting with his knees to his chest and staring out into the distance silently. Having no clue how this interaction was going to go, n7 was silently worried about the potential outcomes as he grew closer to the docks. He inhaled deeply, bracing himself for the very real possibility that Griefer was going to yell at him or tell him to go away. After all, there was no guarantee whatsoever that Griefer would be open to n7 intruding on him while he’s upset like this. 

 “WH4T D0 Y0U W4NT.”

 A voice startled n7 from his thoughts. 

 He hadn’t realized Griefer noticed him approaching. Hesitating before speaking, n7 stepped forward onto the old dock, “I’m just coming out here to see if you’re alright.”

 “1’M F1N3.”

 “…I know, you don’t want to be bothered right now, I wouldn’t either. But Guest was going to come out here no matter what and-“

 “1 D0N’T N33D Y0U T0 C0M3 P1TY M3.”

 This was going to be harder than 007n7 thought. But he wouldn’t back down. Walking a bit closer, he was now right behind Griefer. The sound of small waves across the lake prevented a perfect silence from falling over the realm.

 “I’m not trying to pity you. I know what it’s like, to have someone you know as a killer.”

 “….”

 N7 took the silence as a sign to keep trying to talk to the other.

 “It’s-…not the exact same as your case,” he hesitated, “But I understand how you feel-“

 “N0 Y0U D0N’T,” Griefer brought his knees closer to his chest. He wanted to be left alone. And n7 was preventing him from being alone. 

 The older man was starting to regret his choice, but gave it one last shot as he sat down on the dock edge beside Griefer.

 “My son, C00lkidd, that was his name, went missing before I ended up here.”

 He glanced at Griefer, who was still staring into the distance with a slight glare on his face. He wasn’t sure if he’d just get cut off again, but he continued anyway. 

 “I’ll spare the details about how I got here, but I saw C00lkidd on my first round. He was warped, twisted into a monster.”

 Almost every part of n7 was telling him to stop talking. To just go back inside and let Guest try and talk to Griefer.

 He wasn’t a very open person himself, and here he was telling an unwilling listener about his personal feelings. But part of him told him that Griefer needed to hear this. That he needed someone to relate to, to understand him. 

 “I didn’t recognize him at first. And I didn’t understand who did that to him, or why it happened. He was a sweet kid, a lively thing before all this. But the C00lkidd here was completely different. He was violent, and blood thirsty. At first, he didn’t understand what he was doing, thinking it was a game of tag. But he soon figured it out, and something clicked. He started killing for fun.”

 Griefer had looked over towards n7 now. 007n7 gave him a small smile in response.

 “WHY 4R3 Y0U T3LL1NG M3 TH1S.” He was suspicious of n7. Nobody ever willingly told him personal things to begin with, so why would a stranger tell him something like this without a catch? The ex-hacker had to want something from him. 

 “…It just seemed like something you needed to hear.”

 The pair fell silent for a moment. Both had turned to stare back out at the lake while lost in thought. Griefer was still reluctant to say anything to n7, wanting to just shout at him to go away and leave him alone. But his mind had picked up on a sense of comfort that 007n7 was trying to provide and was desperately clinging to it. He didn’t want to find comfort in this random guy, but his mind and feelings were apparently not on the same page today. 

 His mind kept yelling at him to lower his guard, that he could be vulnerable here, but he knew that wasn’t true. He couldn’t ever lower his guard, especially not for some stranger. 

 “Look, I know I’m a stranger to you, but you’re also a complete stranger to me. And I’ll be honest, I don’t entirely know why I’m telling you all of this either. But I know what it’s like to feel alone during some of your hardest times, and I’d never want that for someone else.”

 Griefer’s shoulders lowered slightly. His eyes were starting to sting and he was desperately trying to keep the tears back. He just wanted to go home, to see Player alive and okay again. 

 “1 D0N’T N33D Y0UR P1TY,” he repeated his earlier statement.

 007n7 was finally starting to reach the point of giving up. He wanted to help, he really did, but Griefer did not want his help. Reluctantly, he gave Griefer the option to tell him to leave. 

 “I know you don’t, and I promise you I’m not trying to pity you still. But if you’d really like, I can go back inside and leave you alone for a while.”

 To n7’s surprise, he wasn’t met with Griefer quickly agreeing to him going away and leaving him alone.

“….JUST….C4N Y0U JUST S1T H3R3..”

 Griefer’s voice was starting to crack. He prayed to any god out there that the man beside him couldn’t hear his voice giving out on him. 

 He didn’t know why he asked that. Now he looked like a weak loser. Why did he want someone he didn’t even know in the slightest to sit out here with him while he’s about to start crying?

 “Of course.”

 Unfortunately for Griefer, his voice cracking didn’t go unnoticed. 007n7 made a note of the oncoming tears silently and quickly thought of a new approach on how to handle this. He gave a small nod to Griefer before speaking again, “.. If you’d like, I can tell you about the time I burned down Elliot’s pizzeria.”

 Griefer paused, caught off guard by the sudden offer and its bizarre contents. Where did that even come from? Though, he had to admit, his curiosity was piqued. 

 “Y0U BURNT D0WN BU1LD3R BR0S?” He slowly turned to face the man beside him, the skepticism barely hidden in his voice. From what he gathered, 007n7 seemed very reserved and quiet, not like someone who’d commit arson.

 Seeing that his attempt at a distraction worked, n7 smiled and quickly sought to continue his tactic of getting Griefer’s mind away from everything that just went down, “I used to be a hacker. Trust me, there’s been worse. Like the time I had Shedletsky chasing down false leads for months straight while destroying his admin panel’s firewalls.”

 Griefer stared in disbelief. His tears that were previously threatening to fall now drying up as a surprised laugh leaves his mouth, “DUD3. TH3R3’S N0 W4Y.”

 The ex-hacker nodded slowly, taking a breath and mentally preparing himself to start going back into his past and sharing stories of his shenanigans from before he found C00lkidd. 

 The smile now crossing his face was partly from him remembering how much of a pain in the ass for the admins he used to be.

 It was also partly from the knowledge that he could distract the younger person beside him, even if it was for a short while. 

 He himself knew firsthand that just one person speaking to you and trying to help was a lot more valuable than others let on. And now, as he sat on the dock beside someone much younger than him, he was just happy he could be there for someone going through something similar to what he went through. 

He was happy that he could prevent them from suffering alone.