Chapter Text
The Spectre, for some reason, has decided to let the survivors have a few weeks to themselves. It didn’t say why, it just…let them go. Spectre truly is quite the strange entity.
Now, the survivors are just chilling in the lobby, doing basically whatever they want. Chance and Elliot are playing a random card game. Builderman and Shedletsky are chatting upstairs. Veeronica is probably outside, vandalising things again, like she always does. Two-Time is spacing out in the corner, which seems to happen to them nearly all the time. Dusekkar is showing Noob how his magic works and what it can do, much to their amazement. Jane is sitting on the couch upstairs, silently glaring at Builderman—she’s definitely judging him. 007n7 has…wait…where even is he? Probably disappeared somewhere random again. Guest keeps glancing over at Two-Time, wondering what on earth could POSSIBLY be going on in that head of theirs.
And then, there’s Taph. The only one of the group that never speaks, not even a simple word. They’re just glancing between Elliot and Chance, wanting to join the card game that they’re playing. However, they lack the words to ask if they’re allowed, so they just keep watching. Their dark, gold-trimmed wings shuffle against their back as they fiddle with the sleeves of their black coat, the hood up as always.
“Hey, Taph! Wanna play tag?” Veeronica calls from the doorway.
Taph flinches just slightly, but looks up at Veeronica’s robotic yet eerily human-sounding voice. They process her question for a moment, and seeing how fast her cord tail is wagging, she obviously really wants to play a game of tag with them. But, they aren’t really in the mood for such a game as tag.
“No, sorry. I don’t want to play tag…” They sign in reply, a pang of guilt stabbing them in the heart as they see Veeronica’s tail stop wagging.
“Aww…that’s okay! I’ll just find someone else to play tag with!” She says quickly before skating away outside on her skateboard.
Despite knowing that it’s okay to say no, Taph still feels bad for rejecting Veeronica’s request to play tag together. The sudden yelp of Two-Time snapping out of their daze because Guest finally decided to tap them on the shoulder startles Taph. Their wings fluff up defensively, even though there’s no immediate danger. The lights are suddenly too bright, the sound of light chatter is suddenly too loud, the smallest nudge from Elliot is too much. They close their eyes tightly, hoping that they calm down. Unfortunately for them, that doesn’t work at all, and seems to just make it worse, because now their ears are ringing.
Taph’s vision blurs at the edges, the sound of voices getting muffled into white noise. Even breathing is hard now.
“Taph? Taph? Taph!” Elliot shouts worriedly, waving his hand in their face, but getting no reaction.
The sound of Elliot’s worried voice snaps Taph out of whatever just happened to them. That’s never happened before, so they’re still a bit shaken.
“I’m okay! I’m fine, thank you, Elliot.” They sign a bit too quickly.
Thankfully, Elliot is scarily observant, and has already caught the fact that Taph is not okay, at all.
“Uh-huh. You were shaking and staring at nothing not even five seconds ago. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem very ‘okay’, to me.” Elliot retorts, not harshly, but firmly.
“…I was cold?” Taph signs weakly.
“Taph, you don’t have to lie. We’re here for a reason, y’know. C’mon, what’s wrong?” Elliot presses, not believing Taph for a second.
Taph looks at the floor, clutching their arm tightly. They really don’t wanna talk about their little moment. They don’t think that it means anything important; they’ve already just put it under one of the random things they do all the time, like disassociating and trembling violently are totally normal things to do. They don’t sign a reply to Elliot, and instead, they head off to their room.
Once they’ve locked themself in their room, Taph sits in the back corner and silently wonders what happened earlier. They didn’t like how everything seemed brighter and louder than usual, how oddly anxious they had been. Again, that’s never, ever happened to them before. They just really hope it doesn’t happen again.
[POV: Elliot]
Elliot, after having gotten no response from Taph, is now talking to Jane about what happened. Jane is one of the few people that Taph trusts completely, so he believes that Jane might know something about the situation.
“It was so odd. Taph hasn’t ever stared so hard at something, let alone tremble like a kicked puppy…they’ve always been calm and collected, but something about Two-Time yelping set them off…I did try asking them what happened, but they said they were fine and they were just ‘cold’…they’re a terrible liar.” Elliot says to Jane, who tilts her head in thought.
“…hm. I promised Taph I wouldn’t tell anyone, but…perhaps telling you and the others would be the better way to go,” Jane murmurs is her usual soft yet gruff tone, “Taph is autistic, and sometimes sudden loud noises set them off. It’s never happened before…well, until now, that is.”
Elliot stares at Jane in shocked silence. He’s not completely surprised that Taph has autism, but it does come as a small shock.
“…I see. Thanks for telling me, Jane.” He replies before heading off to Taph’s room.
When Elliot tries opening Taph’s bedroom door, he finds that it’s locked. He’s not surprised—they do have a tendency to lock themself in their room. He knocks gently, not wanting to startle them.
Taph doesn’t open the door. In fact, there’s not much sound from inside to show that they’re moving around, which sends a wave of panic down Elliot’s spine. His mind races through several different scenarios; what if they’re hurting themself? What if they’re crying and have no one to comfort them?
He shakes his head vigorously, telling himself that Taph’s probably just sleeping. Yeah, they’re probably just taking a nap after the earlier incident. He exhales softly and slowly walks away from the door. He won’t bother them if they’re asleep.
[POV: Jane]
After hearing of what happened from Elliot, Jane is in a bit of a panicked state. To her, Taph is her child, the only ‘family’ she has left after losing…him. The last time she was this panicked was when Taph was being hunted down and protested against for their demolitions of old experiences without much moderation. She rarely saw them once they’d locked themself inside their own house after completely rigging it with their own subspace tripmines and tripwires.
Now, here she is, panicking over them again because they’re suddenly having mini-panic attacks. The fact that they’re hiding it is an even bigger cause for concern. She has to talk to them about it, whether they want to or not. They are her child, and she refuses to let them suffer like this. That’d be cruel, and despite her somewhat thorny personality, she isn’t cruel. She fiddles with the pen in her hand, clicking it repeatedly.
Jane knows that she shouldn’t be this worried, as Taph is an adult, and can take care of themself. But, considering that they struggle with eating, let alone remembering to do so, she can’t help but wonder if their birth parents even bothered to actually raise them or if they just ignored them and let them learn things the hard way. She highly doubts Taph’s parents raised them, especially because she found them making homemade tripmines in an alleyway, all by themself. She had noticed, back then, that Taph couldn’t talk properly; though they did try, their words came out too quiet to hear, and their voice was quite strained. That told Jane one thing—Taph wasn’t taught how to speak.
Jane silently questions why such an incompetent pair of people were responsible for a sweet kid like Taph. If anything, they deserved better than what they got; the first thing they ever held was one of their dad’s tripmines. She’s incredibly disappointed in the fact that parents like that exist, but equally happy that Taph accepted her as their mother on day one. She wishes that he had’ve been there to meet them.
She remembers watching Taph trail after Builderman in complete silence. They were so quiet that Builderman never even noticed them. Even when they started their demolition mission, he basically ignored them, which only made them more desperate for his attention. In fact, he may as well be the reason that they had to rig their own home, and deal with hundreds of very angry Robloxians throwing bricks through their windows every time they got them fixed.
Right now though, Jane just hopes that Taph’s alright. She’d hate for them to not be okay. Their happiness and comfort is her main concern on a daily basis.
[POV: Builderman]
Shedletsky has just gone off to bed, leaving Builderman on his own upstairs. He’d faintly heard about something happening with Taph; not that he really cares. He does remember Taph, but only vaguely. The main thing he remembers is their unauthorised demolitions. In all honesty, he thinks that they deserved to be treated like some kind of monstrous criminal—because they were. They’d killed hundreds of innocent NPCS, and then had the audacity to state that they didn’t mean to? He thinks it’s a pathetic excuse.
However, he’s still unaware that Taph views him as an idol, a hero. He’s neither of those by any means, but they believe it wholeheartedly, thanks to that innocent heart of theirs. They have absolutely no idea that Builderman is the main reason that a certain someone got out and handed out exploits like candy on Halloween.
[POV: Dusekkar]
Of course, when something happens to one survivor, the others are notified immediately. Dusekkar, having been informed of the incident regarding Taph, is now hovering around in anxious circles. He didn’t know Taph very well in life, but has gotten to know them quite well in this absolute hellhole.
Dusekkar has always known Taph as calm and collected, so for him, the fact that they had a mini-panic attack is quite a shock. The autism part, on the other hand, was obvious for him since meeting the mute demolitionist; the way they’d sometimes fixate on one thing for a while, the way they’d have a particular like for certain things.
Dusekkar himself isn’t autistic, but he’s seen it in many other people before. He’s noticed signs of it in Veeronica, despite her being a robot. Nonetheless, autism and its traits aren’t new to him. He cares quite a lot about Taph; they’re a sweet and gentle soul, despite their somewhat concerning obsession with Builderman and their own subspace tripmines.
He hopes that they’re doing okay. He’d be upset if they weren’t, as they don’t deserve to feel any kind of pain whatsoever.
[POV: Taph]
Taph is still locked in their room, without any idea that the others, excluding Builderman, are worrying about them. People worrying about them isn’t something that they’re used to—they’re used to being yelled at and attacked, not cared for and treated nicely. They’ve moved from the corner to their bed, where they’re curled up under the covers, wings tucked against their back. They yawn softly, their eyes drooping.
The events of the day have drained all their energy. They slowly drift off, their breathing slowing to a steady, gentle rhythm. They hope that no nightmares decide to haunt them.
Unfortunately, nightmares are inevitable. Taph’s hands twitch as their wings shuffle and flare slightly. Their expression is uncomfortable, frightened almost. They keep twitching like their dodging invisible projectile until they startle awake with a sharp gasp. They bite down the lingering fear, not wanting to seem dramatic.
Taph lays back down, shuts their eyes, and forces themself to fall back asleep, like they always do after a nightmare. They hope they get to something fun tomorrow.