Work Text:
There are many things in this world that can make a man break, making them think that nothing can be worse than hell. But who defined hell? Why does everyone have a different interpretation of hell?
Hell, for many, is to see how in many stories, such as this one, a skinny man has been chosen over a lean man. What is the reasoning of it? It is not more attractive a lean man. The answer has little to no thought, there is a writing difference between desire and heart.
Men of desire will mostly choose either lean or muscular men, whereas a man of heart will choose on the fragile, skinny man. However, both can mix. Who will punish a writer for combining vulnerability with desire? There are many cases of that.
This one narrates the story of a man with a fragile body but a kind heart. He was Elliot. He is not the tallest, not the perfect body, but the kindness in his heart, the kindness of giving, is what makes his beauty. It is not the gift of blondness, not the gift of the yellow body, not the gift of the black eyes, it is the gift of the soul who will prefer to starve than to let others do.
Nonetheless, even the kindest of souls will have enemies, as no one is money enough to be loved by every person alive.
A strange man, and that red thing he calls son, caused many misfortunes in the pizza place, Elliot’s place of work. For him, his time at the pizzeria was not only work to be done, was an honor, the honor to serve. But then, the pair came and destroyed everything. His name did not deserve to be named, his name did not deserve to be in Elliot’s mind, what the name deserves is to be lost in history.
How could he pardon them?
There is not a single pure living thing that could even pardon them. And so, Elliot kicked them out, banning their entrance for the rest of their lives, forever.
That was the past.
There is an existing place in Robloxia, worse than hell, that only those Robloxians who committed something of great madness would be in there. However, Elliot ended up with them, how does a pure soul end there? No one really knows.
And so, just like Elliot’s case, there are some other Robloxians who are in the eternal game of hell when they did not do anything of harm, and because of it, a harsh truth surfaced; being too nice can also be one’s demise.
In present-day Robloxia, Elliot is with the Forsaken, trapped, playing to die repeatedly. His flesh burning every time, his bones breaking every time, his mind breaking every time, and so his soul. He had no reason to endure it, as there is not a single way to escape that hell of a place, or was it?
The place could not be hell enough, since after dancing with the flames of the netherworld, there was a face Elliot thought gone, the man that caused a catastrophe to his pizzeria, that father of that child who was the accomplice, the wicked soul; his name was 007n7. How dare he think of that name? When he said that he wished for the man to be vanished, he never said to vanish himself with him, as he solely wanted the pizzeria to be at peace, but maybe he, Elliot, is paying the price for dooming 007n7, and now, his punishment is to “survive” with that fat-ass people call a man.
Elliot could not say no, but as his ability is to feed his teammates, when it came to feed 007n7, something in his gut twisted, as nothing could be worse than feeding the man who bit into that hand long ago.
But there was something Elliot could not ignore, 007n7 was too nice.
Why, after causing such much adversity did that man decided to be nice?
Does 007n7 think that what he did could be pardoned because of a few pleasant words?
“He is insane,” Elliot thought to himself as another game started. As he ran around to check on his teammates, an idea came to his mind. They are in eternal flames; hence he has free will. This means that even though he loves feeding others, he can make the exception with 007n7. Nonetheless, there was something in his gut that stopped him from doing it; how cowardly of him. How could he refuse to feed a man, letting him rot further? He could not, and so he thought of another idea to make him pay, humiliation.
Elliot can make the man do everything for a pizza. He can make 007n7 bark, sit, walk in circles, having to call him things, and everything that comes with power play. Elliot’s blood started to rise at the possibilities; he can get revenge without having to sacrifice his principle.
And so, the game continued.
Eventually, a few remained, including Seven, who was critically wounded, and needed the slice of resurrection, that quiet warmth that brought life back, uniquely obtainable by Elliot’s hands, his own hands. However, it was time for Elliot to make it even more difficult to obtain, as now what gave others the power to continue, came with the price of stripping away one’s dignity, and so Elliot did.
“If I am the father that fed you by my hand, you have to call me so,” Elliot said, a tone strange to himself, but something he thought of, as necessary.
“W- what do you mean?” 007n7 said rapidly, his bloody body agitated on the verge of collapse.
“I am the father who will give you hand, you better not disrespect me,” Elliot insisted.
“I am sorry for what happened in the past,” Seven said, falling to the floor, looking at the grass. He thought Elliot was right, how does he deserve to live more if he is who he is?
“Call me as what I will be to you, your father, your-” and Elliot got interrupted.
“Daddy,” completed 007n7, guessing that all Elliot wanted to be called of was a father, a dad, and why not call the man that feeds you in such a childish way.
And, in the end, he uncovered the truth, as that was all Elliot wanted to be called like that.
“Look at me, O’Seven,” Elliot commanded as he kneeled in front of 007n7 to cup his face into his hands. “Say it again.”
“Feed me, daddy,” 007n7 said, his tone barely above a whisper, as the pain that ran through his body was gaining strength.
“Good, my boy,” Elliot said, and then, he fed the man in front of him.
Elliot earned power.
And so, the following games were equal to 007n7, he had to implore the man that now he called father for a slice of pizza. While Elliot was pleased, 007n7 thought that he deserved to be humiliated.
And, after everything, there was something that Elliot was not prepared to face; the result of coexistence between him and the man he despised, he started not to. Hatred cannot longer be sustained. Elliot, even though their interactions were more like power play, he started to grow on the older man. Eventually, he stopped calling him O’Seven and just called him Seven, and there were one or two occasions in which he forgot to impose the rules of the feeding hand to 007n7.
He cannot grow on him, he could not grow on him, and nevertheless, he did. This was more shown during what happened not during the survival eternal hell, but rather on those rare occasions on which the Forsaken could rest.
It could be that one day Seven cleaned Elliot’s cabin, sometimes it could be Elliot trying to further enforce his position of false authority, and even if Seven said that this was the price of his past life, he grew on Elliot as well.
The words Daddy and Father, those who were used as a form to claim authority, started to sound more as who is the man to him, and called Elliot by it not as a command, but as gratitude for staying close to him despite of his past. There could be a few times that he forgotten to address Elliot as such but seeing how the man did not punish him for that, he felt that the bond grew stronger, and the tension lighter.
He is a man who lost a child but now has the chance to playhouse with Elliot; this, he thought, was his way to purge, to heal his own flesh, his own soul.
“Father,” Seven would call when he felt elegant, “I already cleaned your place.”
“Well done, my boy,” Elliot said by patting the man’s right shoulder, “you have earned my gratitude.”
That gratitude that started as a sole favor, ended as a change of game. Elliot started to simply give 007n7 a pizza when he was on the verge of passing, without having him humiliated in the middle of the field. Sometimes, Seven could not accept it and asked Elliot multiple times if he was sure to just give the pizza. “Just like a domesticated dog,” Elliot whispered to himself.
However, there were days in which Elliot thought how denigrating it was to call Seven “dog” or for making him beg for the pizza. And those nights of haunting thoughts about how the pure soul he had once started to stain, were the exact nights in which he would use those moments of “gratitude” to convert them into moments of feeding 007n7 without asking for anything in return; no humiliation, no cleaning one’s cabin, nothing.
However, it was late to turn back from what was already done, because as he tried to go back to the innocent, pure soul he used to be, something stopped him from doing it. As the bond between Elliot and Seven grew, Elliot started feeling what he always denied on even the closest of people, which was desire.
Again, in those moments of peace, Elliot would from time to time use the restroom, take his shirt off, try to cool it down, use the paper to get his sweat off from his body. He cannot desire a man, specially not a man like him.
Who desires such a doomed body? Seven was older, had a fat, round belly that was anything but attractive. His brown hair was badly trimmed, looking like a crackhead. His legs, oh dammed hairy legs, were as disproportionate as his upper body.
His clothing, something that no young man would wear, a blue polo with some rare drawing, then switch the pants depending on the occasion. One day he will wear blue jeans that made him look older, and some other days, he will wear khaki bermuda shorts, and that is when he will see the horror of those legs.
And yet, he wanted that body for himself. Was it because of the soul? Was it because in these eternal games he will not have another one to rely on? Even if there were others to rely on, no one ever felt as close as the man that was disrupting his rationality, the mind became a jungle, because no one can dare ignore what the soul wants.
And as many thoughts rose, finally, something that he will never admit happened took place.
It was during one of those rare occasions of peace that he asked once again for Seven to clean his cabin. As expected, Seven’s presence was there as soon as Elliot made the call. And while Elliot was watching him clean, his soul kept telling him how much he desired that man, since, in the end, the mind only wants those who have a change of heart, and share it with the world, and that was the spark of desire all this time.
There were two scenarios, to not say anything or to go for it. Elliot, unable to control his thoughts no longer, chose the second option even if that meant that his soul could not be pure again and gained a stain that no holy thing could ever clean.
To his surprise, Seven accepted, leaving the cleaning gear behind, and took Elliot’s hand, then whispered to him that even though he never was the best man on earth, he will take this chance to show him that he was to be good, he wants to do good, he wants to be gentle.
And so, the power play at the beginning of their story in the world of the forsaken shifted from a dominant Elliot to a submissive one. Soon, in a few minutes, Elliot became the one who gave his flesh to Seven.
The act itself, doomed by humanity, it is solely the proof that, in the end of the day, bodies are vessels from the truth of a possible eternal life, since what matters the most is not what the body felt, but what their souls felt at such connection.
Sometimes, a soul can be cleaned in what humanity named filth.
