Chapter Text
John Grace was falling, once again.
The menu to choose his items and traits opened up, like usual.
He didn't need to ponder on it long, his usual choices of the flashlight, brick, and the lamp for the items already picked out, along with the traits as firework, nulldive, steel toed, sinth sense, and cangorrae.
He faintly remember asking Him, a long long time ago, if there were any preferred traits he should use. His Grace had only laughed and told him to 'go wild'.
And so, he preferred using things that would make him faster.
Firework made him faster every time he slid and didn't need to be charged fully to use. Nulldive let him wall kick in the air, making him 'dive', wich usually made passing rooms quicker. Steel-toed made him have to slide to open every door, but it gave him 'love' every opened door, wich gave him a speed boost. Sinth sense gave him the ability to see the entities as they spawned.
And cangorrae... Bound Dozer to him.
Now, John wouldn't go as far as to say he hated that yellow smiley face, but he hated them.
While he couldn't exactly say why they infuriated him so much, he did know he should only be kneeling to his Lord.
Once John opened his eyes again he was surrounded by the, too, familiar red bricks.
He dusted himself off of any imaginary dust and took out the lamp.
At one point He had introduced 'cool skins' for the items available. Though he needed to exchange these spray paint can esc things, that were sometimes in random corners of Grace, to the skeleton running the shop.
Once again, he had asked his Lord for the reason for such things. He had only said it was so he could 'brighten his run with silly designs', and so he, naturally, got every skin for the lamp.
The current one he was using was the Kookoo one since he had forgotten to change it, yet again.
John looked down at himself,at his priest like black and white clothing, making a a face at the crown charm now hanging from the same necklace as his cross. A blue dainty butterfly was pinned on his chest, as was a firework, he had steel-toed shoes, and the weigth of a broken chess piece rested in his robe pocket
He let out a silent sigh, before looking up. Up at the single star across the dark, dark sky, surrounded by rings.
He knew his Lord was watching, the thougth filling him with determination.
John took a few steps, before starting on a sprint.
Rigth before the wall he lowered himself to slid under it.
He stood up and walked on the pressure plate.
1/1.
Would he ever have anyone else by his side?
He didn't dwell on the thougth longer as he continued on the easier rooms before the first saferoom.
He slid on every door, forcing them open. He dove over a few walls between rooms if he had the hight leverage, flapping his wings to soften his landing.
He could feel his curls touching his back and neck as they bounced with his motion.
Not before long, the usual breaker room appeared. John completed it swiftly and proceeded onwards.
The usual note attached to the door was ignored, John already knew how to survive Carnation.
The disgustingly familiar pink tentacles tugged at his vision, the flower entity roared somewhere in the distance.
John ran, bursting open doors with force, before he found the yellow spray paint.
The forsaken yellow ball made their appearance, making him slid to a stop a few steps away from the opening.
The sin opened their eyes, glinting smugly, and let out their usual horrid chuckle.
They dissapeard.
He ducked into the safe spot and waited.
He didn't need to wait for long as Carnation sped past, flower petals in their trail.
The rest of the way was easy, the First saferoom opened quickly.
------
John ran, already sensing Heed appearing in the not so distant future.
Carnation was hot on his heels, he had crashed into a wall from sliding down a slope with love almost to the max.
He had to take a pause, and almost too late he noticed the pink tentacles.
He kicked open the next door, no yellow paint.
John let out a strangled groan, voice weird from disuse.
Another door, no paint.
He wall kicked to dive over the wall, almost missing the hiding space.
He scrambled back, Carnation roaring past a second after.
A relieved sigh left his troath, before he realized his internal clock was blaring.
30 seconds.
John's eyes widened and he slid under the entrance before kicking the door open.
Heed.
He didn't have time for them.
John took a brick out of his pocket and threw it at the sin.
His brick...
That was a miserable thougth for the 4th saferoom.
Or was it 5th if the first saferoom counted?
No time..
Doors after doors were opened in a hurry.
Dozer made an appearance at 10 seconds, making John want to kick and scream.
Finally, just after the timer stopped, he got to the bunker esc door to the saferoom.
He opened it quickly and jumped inside, barely being able to roll once he hit the ground in his haste.
John breathed out another sigh of relief and sagged, exhausted, on the floor. His head pounded painfully.
From what he could see of his pitch back wings they were toussled, feathers all over the place.
John huffed. He should groom himself himself properly someday, it would probably help with actual flying with his wings.
After a few moments of heavy breathing and his heart pounding loudly, he stood up.
The domains-
There were four domains he could choose.
John squinted, had he accidentally hit himself with the brick?
But no, the icon of a door did not go away.
Should he choose it?
It would be a change of pace, and his Lord said if he beat domains he was closer to getting to him.
John hesitated for a bit before choosing it anyway.
He stepped on the pressure plate that was always infornt of the next door in the Bunker.
As normal, the door groaned as the handle spun it open, with a loud thud it fell on the floor.
John walked through the dark void like place with brisk steps.
Fairly quickly, he stood infornt of the yellow paint displaying instructions.
The first picture had a person with... A shark tail? The text above read 'Interact'.
The second picture had another person, this one John knew wasn't himself because they were lacking his wings and wore a wide rimmed hat with charms,
It also had the word 'interact' above it.
The last picture was of a closet, 'survive' written above.
What was his Lord trying to tell him?
This was very confusing to John.
He lowered himself to his knees. He grabbed one of his wings softly and tried to sort out the disshelved feathers.
The black feathers were covered in red dust, so were his robes.
What could the people mean? What would he have to do in this new domain? John pondered.
The person with the tail...
He looked back up at the wall, his fingers mindlessly sorting out feathers.
They also had some sort bar covering their eyes, there weren't any other details painted.
The other person had a flower on their chest and a crescent moon in their hair-? Head? John didn't know if they were bald- almost covered by the hat.
He looked up at the gate, the ligth bulbs he needed to flash shone in the dim ligth.
With a sigh he heaved himself up.
The instructions were confusing, yes, but he could figure them out. Like he always did.
He flapped his wings a few times, dust falling off of them, before folding them neatly so they wouldn't be in the way, that much.
He grabbed his lamp and flashed it on every bulb, forming a cross of ligth. The gate broke away and a pressure plate was in it's place now.
John stepped on it and waited.
His vision faded to the familiar white.
----------
It was so dark in here, was Expendable's only thought as it tracked trough another room without a flashlight.
Seriously, when would the next room with ligth come? It was definetly not liking this one bit.
It took another step with its hand on the wall, and another. On the third one there wasn't any floor to greet it, Expendable yelped as it fell into a pit.
Sharp pain filled its senses the tumble down, sharp rocks making cuts and bruising jabs.
It died from its neck snapping.
Expendable waited for it to be magically transported to the desk, for Sebastion to belittle it for falling in an obvious pit
That didn't happen.
Instead, it was floating in some kind of void. A crescent moon hanging proudly in front of it.
"The hotel is not an easy place-" an echoey voice started, pausing abruptly.
Expendable got the idea the moon was looking at it curiously.
"You aren't from the hotel, are you?" it - they?- Asked, though it was more of a statement.
It felt obligated to answer anyway. "Yeah, no. I have no idea what hotel you're even talking about??" it could hear its own sligth accent in its voice, something akin to longing ached in its chest.
Longing for its native tongue, rolling far easier than English, easier than Swedish, wich was a faint memory of its school years.
Would it be able to speak the ö's and ä' s after so long? God, it should probably speak more to itself like a creep.
The moon seemed to pause, processing, before speaking once more. "I do not know where you're originally from, I will place you into the hotel."
What.
Placed in the hotel? Away from the hadal blacksite's god forsaken mangled fish?
Before Expendable could say anything as a response, a thank you, a question, a demand, it didn't know, its vision was once again fading.
When it was able to, you know, see again, it was in some sort of hotel reception.
Expendable was laying on plush red carpet. It propped itself up before sitting fully.
The room was warm and cozy, a fire crackled to its rigth. Three elevators lined the wall to its left.
Was it actually in the hotel that random moon was talking about?
"Oh my days." it did not know if it was exasperated at being in this new place it knew nothing about, mind you, or at the pure hope filling his insides.
Expendable began standing up, just as the middle elevator opened with a 'ding!'.
-----------------
Tourist opened his eyes for the option to choose something to buy with their knobs.
They groaned slightly in the empty elevator, he had died such an embarrassing death..
But the painting was defientaly weird, depicting a shark (?) of some kind with many eyes across it's body.
Tourist took out some knobs from their bag placing them on the dish thing that made itself known to take them.
He picked the lockpicks before pressing confirm. The screen, and his knobs with it, dissapeard from the elevator door, making them wait a few seconds in the annoyingly familiar elevator music.
Impatiently, and slowly going insane, they pressed the 'skip' button next to the doors.
They briefly adjusted their wide rimmed beige hat, the charms, each shaped and colored to correspond to each of the lights, jingled with the movement.
The doors opened slowly, Tourist closed his eyes and took a deep breath-
"What!? Why's there more??" an accented voice yelled in annoyance.
He snapped his eyes open. There was a person who appeared to be made of something pitch black -like seek- dressed in priests clothing with odd accessories they couldn't fully make out, standing near the reception desk with their arms raised. Another person, this one gray with a mullet and some sort of blue uniform, was standing near the fireplace, hands clutching their head.
"What?" Tourist exclaimed, what was happening? "Who are you???"
The gray skinned person was grumbling something to themselves, in a language he couldn't figure out.
Tourist turned their gaze towards the priest Seek, for a lack of a better name, looking at their wide expressive eyes, their hand clutching the cross attached to their necklace, and the literal wings slightly dragging the floor.
He was so confused, what were these random people doing in the Hotel? Even at the thought Tourist couldn't help but feel a bit excitement in his gut, they could finally have some company.
The loud sigh made Tourist look back at the other person in the room.
"Okay so, you look like you know what's going on. Where the hell are we??" they crossed their arms with a large frown, eyebrows furrowed but Tourist couldn't see their eyes, blocked by a censor bar.
He jumped slightly before clearing his troath. "I- uhm. You're all in the Hotel. It's uh- a... place I've been dying endlessly for..." a sigh. "A while now."
The other paused before letting out an 'oh' and their frown lessened, slightly.
"I've never had other people here," Tourist mumbled, mostly to themselves, staring down at their brown dress shoes.
"Oh! You can call me Tourist, I, uh, I don't remember my name," he raised his head with a sheepish laugh.
The gray skinned person blinked before opening their mouth, hesitating. "You can call me... Expendable, I don't remember my name either." they sighed.
Both of them turned to the last person, their wide eyes blinked before they rased their arm, making specific motions with it while the other clutched their cross.
Now it was Tourist's turn to blink, before it clicked. They were signing.
"Oh uhm I don't know any sign," he rubbed the back of their neck.
Expendable was silent for a minute as the only unnamed person slumped. "... I know a bit, part of the protocol or something. I'm pretty sure they fingerspelt 'John'?" they finally stated, turning a questioning gaze towards the maybe John.
Their eyes widened slightly, before closing completely in what Tourist thougth was a smile as they nodded their head eagerly.
Expendable smirked, clearly proud of themselves.
------------
John clutched his cross, the edges of the small bricks made pain flood his senses.
It was a grounding pain.
John reached with his other hand to run his fingers through the few front curls not tucked to the side with his cross pin.
A nervous habit.
"-and that's basically it!" John heard Tourist say as he zoned back in.
".. You're telling me, you were in the mines with giggling things called giggles?" Expendable deadpanned.
Tourist nodded.
".. And a thing that rushes past you is named Rush?"
" Yeah! "
Expendable put a hand over their face and turned around in shame. The tail he had spotted earlier tucked low.
John felt his cross warm, as his Grace's voice echoed in his mind.
It, he spoke.
Huh? John felt his brows furrow in confusion.
Expendable uses it/it's pronouns, his Lord graciously explained.
Oh.
John felt bad, so he inwardly apologized to Expendable, using both hands to clutch his cross this time.
"What's that?" he heard the mentioned person's accented voice, cutting trough his train of thought.
John opened his eyes to see Dozer floating across from Expendable.
Their eyes were still closed, thankfully, and that frustratingly familiar smug smile was etched across their face.
His eyes widened and he quickly dropped to one knee.
"Huh- what are you doing John?" Tourist questioned, sharing confused glances with Expendable.
John let go of his cross and pointed at the both of them, before quickly making a downwards motion and pointing at his own legs.
When that didn't get them moving, he widely pointed at Dozer, then at the ground.
"uhhh. I think what they're trying to say is that we have to kneel before tha' smiley face.. ?" Expendable wandered, John nodded.
Hesitantly, the both of them lowered themselves to similar positions as John's.
Dozer opened their eyes, their laugh already starting before they paused abruptly.
" This isin't Grace, " they spoke out loud, before turning to John's kneeling form.
"Sinner, where are we?" Dozer practically demanded, causing John to roll his eyes.
He raised his eyebrows in question, wich caused the sin to huff in annoyance.
"Yes, yes, I'm pretty sure I cannot blow your brains out, what a tradegy!" they sighed dramatically.
John rose tentavely, gesturing at the others to do the same.
'We're at the hotel, picked a domain and got sent here.' he signed.
Dozer took a moment to process before scoffing. "I didn't know his Grace found you so pitiful that you needed a friend, I though you and that Mime were buddy buddies but I guess not. Ha!" John rolled his eyes once again.
'I am not friends with the mime' he made sure to sign a bit more forcefully, a disgusted sneer across his face, making his thoughts of the theory Clear.
" Wait, wait, wait. What's happening? Who's this yellow piss ball, what's happening???" Expendable questioned, sounding extremely confused.
Dozer opened their mouth to stay something, definetly offended, but John turned to them with a sharp glare. The sin shut up, not that they wanted to.
John turned towards it at last.
'They are D-O-Z-E-R, Pride, Entity from where I come from, " He made sure to sign more slowly, not exactly sure on it's fluency, and fingerspelt the name of the sin.
Expendable took a bit to process the statement. " Dozer, an entity from your place?" its accent made it butcher their name. John nodded at the unsaid question if it understood correctly. "Why did you call it pride?" it's eyebrow rose.
'in my world the entities are sins, D represents pride. I call them Pride when I sign.' that seemed to be a sentence the gray person couldn't quite make out.
John deflated and looked down, before an idea struck him.
He turned to Dozer, making sure to make his eyes as wide as they went and clasped his hands together.
The sin looked confused for a moment before they let out an 'oh'. "You want me to translate for your new buddies?" they deadpanned.
John unclasped his hands to sign. 'Please? It's not like you gain anything from not doing it' he made sure to make the 'not' more forcefully.
The sin contemplated before sighing. "He said that in our world the entities are sins and I represent pride, and that he uses that to refer to me when he signs," they practically grumbled.
There was a pause.
"What??" Tourist cried out, taking off their wide rimmed hat and clutching it close to their chest.
"Oh my days, I swear to Ahti. What do you mean sins!? Aren't priests supposed to be squeaky clean??" Expendable groaned, clutching at its back hair with both hands on either side.
John just shrugged and pointed at Tourist.
They seemed a bit startled but stayed quiet.
" You sould Start Leading The Way, " Dozer spoke his signs aloud, not sounding very happy.
"Oh okay, I guess we are just going to go past that.." they mumbled before walking past the others and crawling under a luggage carrier, behind the reception.
Expendable sighed. "Eikö voi yhtää tarkentaa? Okei..." it mumbled in a language John did not know.
The Tourist stood by the door with a key. "So uh, I hope your listened to what I was talking about, because we're going now." they said, swinging the door open after unlocking it.
May his Grace quide us.