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They shouldn’t let it get to them. They shouldn’t be bothered by it. Everyone else is going through the exact same thing, and they’re doing fine. But here Noob is, laying on their bed, wrapped tight in a blanket trying their hardest not to have a panic attack. The past few rounds had been brutal on them. Getting mauled by their ex best friend, getting decapitated with a chainsaw, and getting pierced with swords had not exactly helped their already fragile mental state, leading to their current predicament.
It was all just so loud and big. Every single day they had to endure this nonstop torment, both from the killers and from the other survivors. They could tell everyone else hated them, this was obvious, from the way they looked at Noob when they died first, to the way they had to watch on the sidelines with no way to help their team while they were being massacred. Everyone hated them, and everyone wanted them gone. It just didn’t feel safe.
But here, right in their bed, snug in a blanket, it felt a little better. In here, nobody could get to them, their door was locked, nobody would yell at them, and nobody could hurt them. It felt nice.
Noob popped their head out of the tightly held blanket, looking around for any potential dangers, but none were seen. Instead, all they saw were two small plush stuffed animals. They felt their face shift from a frown to a smile as they saw the two plushies. They didn’t know where they had come from, but one day, they found them on the bed, right where they were curled up right now. Noob giggled as they pulled in the two plushies, now having even more things to hug in there. They'd get like this sometimes, where all they wanted to do was cuddle and touch soft things. Of course they never let anyone know that, that’d be embarrassing.
Noob held both plushies tight, snuggling them close before another idea entered their head. Their safe space was the confines of their blanket, right? Well what if they just made that… Bigger? A blanket fort! Noob felt their face shift into a smile at the idea, and popped their head back out of the blanket to look for more materials to build this fort with. Around them, off to the side of the bed, were many pillows that they had kicked off when they were feeling less… Good, and over in the closet they could spot some more blankets for the colder months!
After popping out of their safe haven for just a moment, and taking a few minutes to set it up around the bed and nearby furniture, the fort had arisen. It wasn’t much, but it was sizable, spanning the entirety of the bed and the surrounding floor. There were even little pockets out to the open air so that Noob could look around and take in their surroundings! It was perfect, and Noob smiled. It felt like all the previous worries they had were just… Melting away. Now that they were alone, safe, and in their… littler state of mind, it just felt like everything was better for them. They even started to make their plushies move and dance, playing with them freely and happily.
Suddenly, a bright purple flash struck in the corner of the room, and what once was a safe, comforting space immediately turned hostile as the form of Noli made itself apparent.
“Huh. I thought for certain this was Shed’s room… My bad… Noob?” Noli stopped in his tracks, looking down at the yellow robloxian on the floor. They were frozen in fear, understandable, but what was more intriguing to Noli was what their hands were stuck on. Two little plushies, held like they were being… played with? “Dude. Are you playing with stuffies? What are you, nine? Hell, c00lkidd doesn’t play with toys like this, and that guy’s y’know, an actual kid!” Noli let out in a semi-laugh, watching with delight as Noob’s face trembled, and tears started to fall. “Aww, what’s wrong, baby’s little playpen got disrupted by the big bad Noli?”
“S-Stop… S-Stop t-talking… Yo-You’re too loud…” Noob whimpered out, curling into a ball, wrapping one of the many blankets in their vicinity around themselves as they started to suck on their thumb. Noli stopped. Wait, what was going on? He thought he had just appeared in the midst of Noob being a loser, but this was… much sadder than that. Oh goodness. They were regressing. Noli had heard of that before, but never once did he think that he’d be seeing it happen, right in front of them. Especially to someone they’d killed several times.
“Uhh… You doing good, Noob? You’re kinda like… Acting like a kid… Not in a bad way, I’m just noticing.” Noli said, awkwardly. He didn’t know what to do! He stumbled in this situation completely uninvited, completely accidentally, and kind of fucked up this whole thing Noob had going for them. He grabbed at his void star, setting up the command to teleport away, when he felt a tug on his robes.
“M-Mister Noli… C-Can you s-stay with me?” Noob whimpered out, cancelling Noli’s teleport, mainly out of pure confusion. First off, Noli was a killer, second, he came here uninvited and freaked the hell out of Noob, and now he was being asked to… Stay with them? Because they were acting like a kid?
“Uhh… Why? I mean, I’m not like, too opposed to it, just… Why me?” Noob blushed, completely embarrassed.
“I-It’s too scary to let anyone know about this… H-How I get like this sometimes… O-only Sixer ever knew, and they’d t-take care of me… C-Could you? A-At least until I feel better.” Noob looked up at Noli with little puppy eyes, begging as hard as they could to be heard out. Noli looked around, hoping silently that someone else would be here and deal with this problem for him, but no one showed up.
“Don’t you, uh, have any survivor friends you trust more than… Y’know, me? I’m not exactly a model caregiver in the best of situations, and I certainly don’t know how to handle… This.” Noli winced slightly as he spoke. He was starting to feel bad for Noob. More than he already did. They were usually a weak link in his killer games, easy to pick out, easy to take down, a free timer extension. But now, seeing this sad, teary eyed Robloxian on the ground, begging for his help, he couldn’t help but feel really, really bad.
“N-No… I-I didn’t tell anyone I g-get like this… They’d all be m-mad at me and h-hate me and-”
“Woah, woah little buddy. Don’t uh… Don’t say that stuff. The other survivors like you. I can tell, man. I’m good at reading people.” Noli crouched down next to Noob, and patted them on the head. That was a nice thing to do, right?
“T-They do?” Noob sniffled out, to which Noli nodded.
“Uh, yeah? Whenever you get…” he had to make his language less violent right now. “Taken down in a round first, I can see it on their faces, they get really angry that I did that. Or sad, depends on who it is. And they seem to really appreciate your generator skills at least?” Noli hoped he was doing a good job at comforting Noob. They seemed to stop actively crying, so that was good.
“R-Really? W-wow, I didn’t know… I just thought they were m-mad I couldn’t do anything to help.”
“Noob, you being alive is enough to help them. I’ve seen you get medkits to Elliot, and bloxy colas to all your friends. You do a good job in the rounds.” He left out how much it infuriated him to see them do that stuff, but this wasn’t about him right now.
“H-Heh, yeah. Yeah! I-I’m pretty c-cool, right?” Noob said with a smile. Okay so he was doing a good job.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re cool.” Noli said, passively still patting Noob on the head gently, before a thought crossed his mind. “Hey, you uh, want anything? Like a snack or a pillow or something?” Noob thought for a moment, tongue poking out as they racked their brain for ideas.
“Can you go get me a bloxy cola? A-And a slice of leftover pizza? I-I’m hungry.” Noli chuckled, and ruffled Noob’s hair.
“Sure thing, little buddy. I’ll be right back, okay? Just stay here and keep uh… Playing with your toys?” Noli didn’t really know what words would be comforting right now, but thankfully Noob seemed to still be happy even as he walked out of their room, right into the hallway.
Noli was only gone for about a minute before coming back, cola and pizza in hand, much to Noob’s delight.
“Here you go, Noob.” Noli handed the ice cold can and the similarly cold pizza to Noob, who let out a little squeak in reply, causing Noli to chuckle. Noob was growing on him, much more than he thought they ever would. They were somewhat… Cute when they were like this. It somewhat transformed all of their pathetic energy they usually emitted into something that made Noli feel parental around them.
“Mister Noli?” Noli looked back down at Noob to see them staring up at him, still wrapped in their blanket.
“Yeah, little fella?” He leaned forward, getting close to Noob like he was about to hear a secret.
“T-Thank you… I-I really do feel better now if you want to… G-Go and what not.” Noob said, clutching the blanket not as tight as before, with a slight smile on their face, though Noli could tell from their voice what they really wanted.
“Mmm… Nah. I think I’ll stay for now. At least until you go to sleep.” Noli said, not so subtly suggesting what Noob’s next course of action should be. They sighed, whined, and rolled on their back, pouting a little.
“But I don't wanna go to bed yet! I wanna stay up and play with my toys!” They said, face contorted into a little pout that Noli found absolutely adorable.
“I know, I know, but think of it this way. You go to sleep now, you can have all the time you want in the morning to play! At least until… well, you know.” Noob sighed, ultimately giving in to their caretaker’s wishes. They disentangled themselves from their blanket, and crawled into bed, scurrying under the sheets quickly as Noli watched on.
“Now, do you need anything from me before you sleep?” Noli asked, and Noob blushed.
“U-Uhmm… C-Can I have a goodnight kiss?” Noob looked up with hope, causing Noli to freeze for a second. He didn’t expect that, especially considering how he looked, having no lips and all. Regardless, he was going to try to fulfill Noob’s wish, so he moved closer, pressed his masked side to Noob’s forehead, and made a ‘mwah!’ sound. Assumedly this was enough for Noob, as they giggled and scooched further into bed.
“Goodnight, Mister Noli….” They mumbled out, yawning after. Noli smiled as much as he could with his skeleton face, and reached down to give one final pat to Noob’s cute little head.
“Goodnight, Noob. Enjoy your dreams.” Noli said, before slinking silently out of Noob’s room, careful not to disturb them as they drifted off into sleep. “Heh. That was odd. Kinda liked it though. It felt nice to be… Nice to them.” He mumbled to himself as he entered the hallway.
The hallway was thankfully empty, to his knowledge at least, so he set up the teleport to take him back to his own room back at the killer manor.
“Did you do it?” A voice immediately accosted him as he appeared right back into his own room. Noli whipped his head around to see 1x1x1x1 standing right there, their arms crossed as they looked down at him.
“Huh? What?” Noli said, confused. He’d completely forgotten about 1x being in here!
“Did you do it?” They said again, this time slightly angry. “Did you or did you not slap Shedletsky in the face like I asked!”
“Oh. Ohhh! No, I like, totally forgot about that one. Soooorrryyyyy~” Noli said in a singsong voice, a voice that 1x very much did not like. They scowled at Noli, and stepped closer.
“Dude! That was the entire reason I sent you over there! What the hell did you even do if you didn’t slap him?”
Noli paused for a moment. “I… I guess I made a friend over there?”
“... You what? Is it Shedletsky? I swear to the Spectre if it’s him we’re not friends anymore.”
“No, No, it wasn’t him, that guy’s a loser. It was… Well it was Noob.” Noli could feel 1x’s eyes burning into his skull in judgement. “Hey, they’re nice! And it just so happened I messed up the teleport into their room instead of Shed’s!” 1x scoffed, and rolled their eyes.
“Fine. Just don’t let this ‘friendship’ get to you. You’re up next in the morning.” 1x said, then left the room, quietly muttering about friendship and its uselessness. Noli felt his heart sink at that information. He liked being in rounds, yes, it was fun to put on a show for everyone… But now he’d have to hurt Noob! He didn’t want to do that. Not after tonight.