Chapter Text
The bed was soft, and silk. Carefully sewn burgundy duvets covered his body, while his head rested on feathery pillows. It’s the kind of opulence that c00lkidd is not used to, nor was he made to endure. Despite this being the ‘better’ option, is it wrong for him to long for the rustic, thrifted blankets with fun patterns his dad had found and held onto for many years? A room that smelt vaguely of pizza and an old milk stain that never exactly faded was what he should have woken up to, with various video-game posters on the walls, action figures laid across the ground haphazardly, and a cheap gaming laptop in the corner.
His room within Noli’s place felt more like a luxury hotel room that he’d see his dad look at longingly on his laptop, presumably dreaming of the day he won the lottery and would be able to take c00lkidd on a vacation across the world. It’s too clean here. Everything is polished and tidy, expensive and carefully placed. Everyone treats him like royalty. Well technically, being the Void Star’s prophet’s adopted son does put him in a role of superiority. Whatever!
A knock at the door is what woke him up, and c00lkidd responds to let whoever's on the other side let them know he’s awake.
“It’s 7am. Breakfast will be served for you soon, young lord,” an anonymous cultist says.
“Thank you!” he calls out, still wanting to be well mannered. He doesn’t like the tight scheduling the place runs on. It’s the weekend, why can’t he sleep in?
His feet hit the floor, cold tiles covered by thick, fluffy rugs – they’re quite comfortable to lie on and he only wishes that the temperature in this place went above 5 degrees Celsius so he’d have an excuse to sleep on them.
He decides to get changed first before heading out into the communal dining hall. He doesn’t really like the clothes Noli gets him. He can’t say no, Noli’s kind to him, and they seem really happy dressing him up like one of their own. They get him really nice clothes that okay by his standards. But they don’t get it. That’s all c00lkidd can say about Noli. They just don’t understand why.
His dad did. Dad understood everything. He’d know what clothes c00lkidd liked; preferably red, with a graphic of something he liked on the centre for shirts, and thrown in the wash several dozen times to make sure it’s loose and comfy. The only time he’d worn something half as fancy was because of a dress code for a school play.
He’s about to reluctantly head out when he remembers something. He fiddles with the white ruffles on the edge of his sleeves while looking at it. It’s a comedy mask, one that only covers half of his face, dyed a ghostly white with small black swirls on the cheek. A staple of Noli’s image that everyone in his current life wore. It would be seen as blasphemous to not wear it. Once it is secured on his face firmly, he steps out of the bedroom.
The large halls of the temple are intimidating and cold. Spacious, held up by tall black pillars. He can hear commotion echoing through the stone and marble walls. His tail wobbles nervously behind him. He passes polite smiles to those who come across him:
”Head high, c00lkidd! You’re important here, you have to show it! I can’t let my image be ruined by you looking sad here,”
The dining hall is a place for community for the worshippers of the Void Star. People all coming together, usually if there’s an announcement a higher authority figure will state it at this time. He doesn’t really like the looks people give him, even if they’re meant to be positive. He doesn’t like to be stared at. It reminds him of his days at school, how people would stare at his skin, his horns, his tail. The comments they thought he couldn’t hear but no, he could hear very well that the girl in the front row called him a word she most definitely learnt from her divorcing parents.
Already coming to breakfast with a grumble. Dad would have noticed, and probably tried to crack a bad joke at him to cheer him up; pinching his cheek, ”Being grumpy in the mornings is a parent’s job, not yours kid!” he’d say.
“Good morning, c00lkidd,” Noli says, a content smile upon their face, “Good sleep?”
“It was fine…” he mumbles as he steps towards the table reserved for him and Noli.
“Fine?”
“Yeah.”
“If you say so,” they brush off the child’s negative mood, “so, would you want to come exploiting with me today?”
His head tilted upwards from watching his hands mindlessly pick at the tablecloth, “Exploiting? You never go exploiting anymore!” A number of reasons why Noli didn’t: They were too recognisable to go committing crimes without having an admin alerted almost immediately, they always had some business to attend to at the temple, and they themself had lost the joy after years of the Void Star’s power given to them.
They chuckled, “Yes, that is true, but I want to make it up to you. You showed such potential, following in your father’s long forgotten footsteps. Don’t you deserve a proper mentor from someone like me?”
“...wasn’t it Dad who taught you how to exploit in the first place?” c00lkidd says confused, and Noli laughs at the child’s words.
“Yes, I suppose that’s true.”
“Yeah. I’d like to,” he scrapes mindlessly at the golden french toast with his claws – stomach feeling dull – and mumbling into his hand.
“Speak up, I can’t hear you when you mutter, kid,” Noli huffs with an innocent chuckle in their tone.
“I said I’d like to go!” he exclaimed.
“No need to snap at me, goodness-”
“I’m not snapping!”
“c00lkidd.”
The child huffs, before leaning back in the chair, “You’re not my dad.”
“I have custody over you now. That makes me your guardian, so close enough.”
“Dad never talked about you, why would he want you to take care of me?” Noli was always claiming that his dad would want him to be cared for by his old friend if times got rough, but then would that same person also try and remove all remnants of Noli from his life at the same time? c00lkidd didn’t want to think too hard about it.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t want you going off to an orphanage. Besides, it’s not like he’s saying much now.”
If c00lkidd already didn’t want to eat, then he sure as hell didn’t want to now.
Despite the commotion of the dining all around them, the throats of both felt dry, and a piercing silence came through.
Noli’s slender fingers tapped anxiously on the table in a hasty rhythm.
“Ah- You know, jokes are jokes aha-? Kid?” they chuckled nervously.
C00lkidd’s knees came up to the chin, balancing on the edge of the chair. He didn’t like to swear. He’d only heard it a few times when his dad thought he wasn’t around, as he looked at bills and muttered curses into the dim kitchen lighting at night. Or maybe when his dad had to try and reason with the man on the other side of the phone that, yes, he had changed, and no, he wasn’t going to try and kill everyone at his workplace.
”I haven’t murdered anyone! I don’t know what exploiters you were reading about, but have a moral code just like anyone on this fucking planet. I did vandalism, and-
Hollow, yet furious and bitter eyes came up to meet Noli’s crescents.
“Fuck you.”
“Language. Don’t run your mouth around here. It’s a bad habit. Trust me, I’d know.”
“Fuck you.”
“c00lkidd. If you’re not going to listen, you can go right back to your room.”
Cool. Great. Anything but sitting with you. It’s what he wanted to stay but he also did want to see outside the temple for reasons other than school. He was grateful he even was allowed. Most cultists wanted to get him tutored within the temple, ‘to keep his mind pure like the Void Star’ or something like that. It was Noli who argued for him to see the outside world.
“...I’m sorry!” he exasperated
“Good.”
His tail flicked angrily back and forth underneath the chair, “So we’re going?” he tried to sound a little cheery, he didn’t want Noli to be that mad at him.
“Later. I’ll have to do some small work. You can be patient.”
As c00lkidd departed from the table, he felt a familiar itching in his hands. The few times he’d used the c00lgui himself felt like he was at the top of the world. Dad never found out, but he’d secretly look for information on what his father did when he was in his prime hacking days.
”On the run: If these individuals are spotted, alert your local authorities immediately.”
Images of a person with a red outlined black censor, with a simple emoticon smiley face, shoddy dyed hair, and a black jacket. Alongside it, a person with a black and white comedy mask, dyed blonde dreads and a few hairpins wearing a black scarf and hoodie.
c00lkidd scrolled the article with intrigue, making sure to watch the clock for when his father would return home so he could hide the evidence. His father already gave him a lecture before on why he doesn’t hack anymore, and how change is better.
The way the pizzeria burned. How spraypaint seemed to spawn out of nothing; merely only numbers on a screen just moments before. The urge to do more, be greater, be more powerful.
He thought Noli would be at least a little more fun than this. Noli does all this boring structure and planning before everything, god no wonder his father left them! They’re more tiring than his math homework!
The child strolls into his room, flicking over to the messy desk of scribbles, paper, and a turned off c00lgui; a small reminder of himself and his suddenly uplifted life. He gently turns the hacking device on.
”h3110 u53r! x3"
He smiles at the small greeting, before tapping the introduction away to see all the commands. A product of the time, seeing as many buttons failed to function now. Or if they did, it would set off a thousand alarm bells and basically be more of a hazard than just lighting a stick of dynamite and chucking it at a building himself.
Noli promised they’d improve it together, but ended up just rambling to themself for most of it, as c00lkidd nodded and pretended to be interested. Before he learnt he really could care less about their stuff.
As the device hums, c00lkidd folds his arms on the desk and leans his head down. He’s tired, but not in a sleep-deprived way. He wants a break, but from what? Being spoiled? Isn’t this what he wanted? Somewhere stable? The nights of his father having to awkwardly word that they’d be moving again. It was why c00lkidd didn’t have many personal belongings, it was difficult to keep moving around and storing them.
‘Why am I sad?’ he thought aimlessly.
A corpse. The child desperately shakes at it. Pleads and cries spill out of his mouth. It’s impossible to fathom what’s in front of him, but the smells and sights say otherwise. He grinds his claws against the ground, hoping that they’ll slip through and reveal it’s all a horrible nightmare. His dad isn’t dead. His dad is just sleeping. c00lkidd just sleeping. He’ll wake up and there will be school tomorrow so his dad has to nudge him up until he reluctantly does.
But that’s not what is happening. His father is pale with cold and rigor mortis had set in a short while ago. The blood staining his clothes and the walls had turned brown and the small bits of brain splayed around had rotted. A small photo frame of him and dad lays in his arms, cradled next to a missing poster of c00lkidd and a wanted poster for the Void Cult.
The memory intrudes, and c00lkidd doesn’t even realise when he’s begging for a distraction. He doesn’t want to cry. He’s a big kid. He shouldn’t cry. He begs himself under his breath to stop. What if Noli saw him like this? He just doesn’t understand anymore. He wants his dad to come in and tell him everything will be okay. Dad was smart. Dad would know what to do.
The child sobs into the neat carpet, yearning for a comfort which had already left.