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The inside of the Apartment was dark. It was already late, and the only thing illuminating the room were the flashing lights coming from whatever it was that Infected was playing, from the way he was shouting at the screen, one could only guess it was some sort of PVP game. In the middle of the room, far away from the bright light emitting from the tv, was Unpleasant, lying flat on the ground like a halfway crumpled up Poster. They usually made an effort to at least remain upright, but tonight they simply didn’t have the energy to, which was odd given that Infected was still around.
Infected.
It really was Strange how such an outwardly chill Robloxian could be filled with so much hatred, enough hatred to live off for several months. Strange, but Unpleasant never really questioned it, lots of people had all kinds of hidden sides to them, so it wasn’t all that odd, and besides, most people don’t tend to think about where their food comes from.
And so here they were, starving. Infected’s hatred turned out to be not such a bottomless well after all. This had happened before, and whenever it did, they could easily do *something* to push his buttons and allow them to leech off him for another few weeks or so. Well, now that they were thinking about it, there was a subtle… escalation, to their actions. Really, it was only a matter of time til the only way to get on Infected’s nerves would be too much work for the (relatively) little return, maybe it was time to move on to someone new, tho the gradient doubted it could find someone as easy to ragebait anytime soon.
They slowly began moving upright, their shadow like appearance twisting and contorting itself to try and mimic anything human looking. The human look seemed to creep most out more than the square gradient did, Infected specifically hated it when Unpleasant tried to mimic their, sadly departed, cat, although lately even this trick was wearing thin.
Their arms dragged behind them as they stood up. In the darkened room, one could almost mistake their silhouette for that of the apartment's owner, maybe Infected was rubbing off on them.
Infected was still focused on his game, looking at it more clearly did not help at all in understanding what he was actually doing. All Unpleasant ended up focusing on was the pink checkered splotch in the corner of the tv. Infected should really get that checked out. Despite them covering half of the screen, something that would normally get a controller thrown at them, Infected didn’t even bother to address their “roommate.” Maybe he was too focused on the match, maybe he’d grown tired of their antics, they silently hoped it wasn’t the latter.
They really should consider finding someone else to feed off.
It was cold out, not that Unpleasant could feel any of it. There were small blotches of halfway melted snow all around and the various Street Lamps barely lit the alleys, the brick apartments seemingly stretching out infinitely into the dark sky. One could still see the many bright colours coming from Infected’s tv even all the way down in the street. There weren’t any people out this late, with the (assumedly) cold weather, even a night owl would likely prefer to stay inside. Not that that was a problem, Unpleasant’s body was flat enough to be almost 2d, so they didn’t need things like “keys” or “consent” to enter someone’s dwelling, that’s how they became Infected roommate after all. Although they’d prefer to leave breaking and entering to a time more desperate than this, they fed on hatred, not fear. Someone skilled might be able to turn fear into hatred, but Unpleasant was not especially skilled.
How long had it been anyway? They’d been at Infected’s apartment so long they’d almost forgotten what it was like to not be attached to one person for survival. Was it more stable or less? Likely a little bit of both. Shaking their head to get rid of the thought, they continued their lurk onto the Main Street, surely, they’d find someone easy to anger there.
When they first saw Infected, he looked quite different, less pink, definitely looked healthier for one. Although the same hatred that kept the two tethered for so long was already there, Unpleasant could feel it. At the time, they were an uncomfortable looking mural, most simply spared a glance before turning away, either from disgust or simply having something better to do, but not Infected, he seemed almost offended at Unpleasant’s mere existence, barely paying attention to what their lamp headed friend was saying to stare at it. That was why they followed him, why they kept bothering him, why they tried to stay even after his weird virus thing developed, long after this stopped being sustainable for them.
Their pondering was rudely interrupted by a snowball directly hitting where their face would be. There were some Robloxians standing near the apartment's parking lot, right in front of them. Unpleasant quickly realizing they had been staring (as much as you can stare with no eyes anyway).
Despite being only a little taller than the average Robloxian, they were seemingly intimidating enough to get the two to almost cower behind one of the blocky Cars.
The two gave off only a little hatred (mostly apprehension), far less than the gradient was used to, both with Infected and on their own. But they’d been out far too long for their tastes, and they hadn’t got anywhere, yeah, this would have to do for tonight. As they turned for the short walk back to the apartment, they were immediately hit with another snowball to the back of the head.
The stairway was only dimly lit, one of the breaker boxes in the stairwell was halfway opened, its valve sending out the occasional spark due to years of disrepair. As they ascended the steps, they noticed a set of footsteps made of a familiar checkered pink sludge. He should REALLY get that checked out. The amount of pink seemed to increase as they went up the stairs. It had been what, five minutes? Did Infected fall down the stairs or what? That was really the only explanation for the amount of pink covering everything, although that would imply Infected’s blood was pink as well.
The Hallway looked almost like a crime scene, pink and black and checkers everywhere. This wasn’t what Unpleasant had hoped to get out of their short walk, but this was certainly more interesting than watching Infected sit on the couch and play games.
And as they walked through the hallway, there he was, ostensibly normal looking, although not in his apartment but rather in an elevator, a modern looking, downright clean one. There was another person in there too, some kind of construction worker maybe.
Unpleasant had seen the elevator before, they were pretty sure they’d seen Infected enter it once or twice too, but they were never interested in it, yet now it seemed almost inviting.
They were still standing in the doorway to the apartment that had the elevator in it, realizing they were blocking it only when a shorter Robloxian shoved past them. Their cheap graphic tee had an infinity symbol on it, which was covered halfway in that missing texture, making the text above downright unintelligible. And as they walked past, Unpleasant felt it: distaste, aversion, disgust. Hatred. As the first passenger entered the elevator, another followed, and then another, and another. And then Unpleasant entered in after them, following the troupe almost without thinking. As the door closed and the elevator went up (or down?) a floor, they felt at ease for the first time in a while.
If this elevator stuck around, maybe they wouldn’t have to ditch Infected after all.