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There were footsteps upstairs. Heavy ones.
"GOOOOOOD MORNING EVERYONE!"
He was already playing the drums.
"UP AND AT 'EM! I know there's an expedition today and you aren't sleeping through it!!"
The clock strikes 7.
Does he stay up? Can’t sleep with drums. Probably can’t. Wouldn't put it above him.
I was awake already. Definitely awake before him. I didn’t hear him getting ready. Does he sleep in a band outfit? Would explain it.
It's annoying now.
I don't hear the fans. Maybe Adren turned them off. Hopefully they were up already. They might be. They wouldn't leave the fans off all night. They've never done that. They wouldn’t now. I should leave the vents soon.
Other people are waking up now.
I hear Loveshot saying, "Kid, ya know you don't need t' do that for us to wake up."
Noisemaker responds. Responds the same way they always do.
“I mean, Sulfur needs us ready for these expeditions! Think about it like… having more time to prepare!!”
“Yer not gonna be on the mission.”
“I know… but I can help however I can!”
A few taunts interjected.
“Yeah! He’s gotta help!”
“YOU should teach me the drums sometimes! I’d love to help wake people up!” I think maybe, Tauntpunch said?
Now they’re talking. About making a band. Happens every week. Bugles, Taunts, Noisemaker. Maybe Bananas. All come together. Keeps happening. Buglebanana, Tauntpunch, and Noisemaker usually come together the most. Haven’t even made one song yet. Tauntpunch asked me to join. To be vocals. He’s not new to the bunker. He didn’t forget. Just rude. Like the other taunts.
Adrentaker knocked on the vents. As quiet as they could. But not very quiet. It’s metal. Can’t knock on metal quietly. Best they can do though. Makes them know I’m awake. Still. Think I can’t hear it. Maybe they should check their ears. Clearly hearing it wrong.
“You’re awake, right?”
I knocked. It was on the vents. Loud enough to hear.
“Good morning! You should probably get out of the vents soon. If- If fans are off for too long everyone’ll think somethings broken.”
They’re right. I’ll cloak. It’d give me an excuse to be here. And not be in bed. ‘I was just cloaked’ works a lot. Pretending I just got here. It gets me off the cameras. Helped. Before the fans were here. Adrentaker is still talking.
“Or, at least Carepad will notice. But once he notices, everyone does… They don’t realize at first, then he points it out and everyone agrees.”
I uncloaked. They flinched. They always flinch. Odd. They know me. Why flinch?
“Can I turn on the- turn the fans back on?”
I nodded. Why ask. They’d have to do that anyways. If I said no? Can’t keep the fans off. I have to leave anyways.
“I… I looked at the music bot earlier.”
What. Why. You don’t care. About robots. Or the music bot. When did you care. What. Have you always cared?
We’re in the basement. Near the stairs to get down here. Adrentaker was in front of me. I looked past them.
The music bot was. Supposed to be in front of the stairs. It usually was. Who moved it.
“I know you’ve been trying to fix it, but- I don’t think it’s a good idea to just… leave it in the open.”
In the open it could be stolen. Or broken.
Still. Where is it.
I should show I agree. Then ask where it is.
I give a thumbs up. Then tilt my head. They’ll understand. They would explain anyways.
“Oh, I thought I’d just keep it in my office! It’d be out of the way, and not many people would see it either. I don’t think many people would ask.”
I point at the vent. Office could work. But. Vent is more out of the way. I haven’t ran into anyone.
“Hm. We could move it into the vent tonight? Then you wouldn’t get caught.”
Okay. I’ll wait. Need to.
I nod. They go to work soon. I’ll follow them.
“There’s an expedition today, you aren’t going right?”
Thumbs down. Not assigned. Don’t think I am. When I am someone looks for me. Or Adrentaker. Asks them to wake me up. I don’t think I need to go. Not this time. I have more to do.
They smile. Gestured at me to follow them. Started walking upstairs.
“I should probably show you where I put the prototype then.”
They lead me to their office. Its small. Very small. Thin too. Windows are dirty. Light is usually off. Or dim. Has a few computers. Maybe three. Or four. Terrible cable management. Carepad offers to fix it for them. He likes doing that. Adrentaker likes it organized. Can’t organize things well. Papers are everywhere on their desk. In stacks. Don’t know if they’re categorized. Stacks have some papers in every direction. All have small drawings. People. Clocks. Foods. References to games.
The computers have different rooms on them. Security cameras. None in private rooms. If there are, person covered them. Adrentakers seat was a rolling chair. Black, 4 wheels on the bottom. Comfortable but. Hurts back after a while.
Under the desk in front of their chair was the musicbox prototype. It had a pillow behind it. A blanket on top. Tucked in.
“I should get to work now, but first you should take this, right?”
They gently took the blanket off it. Tried picking it up. Struggled a little. Then gave it to me. I took it to the end of the room. Put it against the wall.
I pointed at the pillow. They threw it to me. I put the pillow down underneath where it sat.
I tried fixing it. Or even finding what was wrong. I didn’t get anywhere. I found where it collected the points people would feed it. Part of how it’s powered. I took them out. Can’t use them for much. Would have to explain how I got so many.
While working on this, I sometimes felt Adrentaker looking at me. Anytime I’d look behind me, I’d realize I was right. They smiled and waved. Maybe I should show them how this works. They’re clearly interested. They aren’t watching the prototype much. Just what I’m doing. Might be trying to learn. They do this with a lot of things I do.
After a while I check the time.
The clock strikes 8:55 AM.
I need to leave. But, first. I should let them know.
I walk over to Adrentaker. They were writing. Or drawing. Their paper still had some drawings from before. People. Some scribbles. Foods. A drawing of me. Of points. Various things.
They look up at me.
“Did you get anywhere with the musicbox?”
I shake my head. I point towards the door.
“It’s almost 9?”
I nod.
“Okay then, I’ll uh see you soon!”
They wave goodbye. I wave back. I walk out of the door. I might be a little early. Maybe I could cloak. At least for a few minutes. Uncloak at 9. Might be awkward if I’m early.
I walked to the cafeteria. Just far enough, I cloaked. So he wouldn’t hear. Then I walked in. Quietly though. Won’t hide your footsteps. Or noise you make.
Sweet Tooth was humming. A timer was set for something in the oven. Finishing in about 3 minutes. I look at the clock. 9:00 AM is in 3 minutes. He’s preparing something else. Lemon flavored? There was cake batter out too. A lot happening.
The timer went off. I uncloaked. She was taking cookies out of the oven.
He noticed me. Waited to put the cookies down.
“So, how long were you there?” He asked.
I put up 3 fingers. I went to go sit down. I sat near the edge. Stack of napkins and a marker was there. Hate the texture of marker against napkins. Never told him. Might bring paper soon.
“That’s not bad, but I wouldn’t mind you being here a little early! Also, I’m sorry about the cookies. You have to wait for them to cool down. I had a lot to do this morning.”
He stops talking for a second. He started using a stand mixer. I cover my ears. She turns it off.
“A lot of revolvers are going out on a mission today, probably the most excited I’ve seen them! Gunslinger was telling me, that today’s the day they’ll finally get Artful. Loveshot said to not aim that high, but with what I was hearing I think that they could catch her! Yesterday, she had to run off after stealing something from a Caretaker. Sounds like a good sign!”
He looked at me. I nodded.
She checked on the cookies. Then gave one to me. Chocolate chip. Still warm. I took a small bite out of it.
“You could take all of these if you want, maybe share them with Adrentaker? I could also give them out to people who get back though… if that went well I’m sure they’d love them! If it didn’t… it might soften the blow at least?”
I kept eating the cookie. Slowly. It wasn’t crunchy. I could pull it apart easily. The chocolate was a little melty. Around the size of my hand. I picked off some of the cookie. Then ate the part I picked off. I kept doing that. Pausing while he spoke.
“They’re at least responsible though, but, that’s only cause Loveshot forced them to be responsible. She’s pretty good about that! They only wanted to bring her as a caretaker, but, she got Carepad to come instead of one of the newbie revolvers. Which, that kid got a little sad about. Probably for the best though! We shouldn’t bring high schoolers on Artful missions… they gotta get a little more used to their surroundings before that.”
All killers had PSA’s about them. Shown to everyone. Happened before first expeditions.
Artfuls went,
‘Know your environment -> Know how to escape’
‘Know the landscape -> know how it can be manipulated.’
It went over wall size. And music boxes. Said to stay away from corners. Learn dead ends, avoid them. But she’s changed. Wonder if her PSA did.
I wrote down PSA on the napkin. Drew Artful next to it. Held up the napkin. Waited for Sweet Tooth to look.
While he was still baking, he went on about the work this morning.
“A tonnn of people ordered a big breakfast, all split the check too! I guess they’re gettin used to Noisemaker waking them up. Noisemaker’s really sweet, I just wish he’d get that not a lot of people are fans of being woken up early. He’s got good intentions. Only a few other pies were awake, and we had to make breakfast for maybe 16 civilians, not the best, not the worst either, but, we were so. understaffed today! I hope everything came out well for everyone?”
Sweet Tooth looked over, saw the napkin.
“Ohh, those videos they show us before our first few times going out? They don’t prepare everyone, but I’d rather have them than go in blind. Adrendash watched the video for Artful when there was a risk of seeing her, they were looking everywhere a wall could fit… I think me and-whatwastheirnameagain…-maybe Careblock, calmed them down. They- um. Moved to another bunker a while ago… you two would’ve gotten along!”
He cleared his throat. Went to wash his hands. Every time he completed a step, washed hands. Even when not touching any food. I knocked on the counter when he took too long.
“I’ve been trying to get better with that.”
I nod. Gave a thumbs up too.
She continues to bake. Talking about missions he’s been on. I’ve heard about some of them. Other Pie civilians. Almost talked about Carepad. I gave a thumbs down. Esterflowers teaching him and Adrentaker about caring for the garden better. Would be nice, not relying on rations.
After a while, he set a timer, and put something in the oven. He stretched, and sat down a seat away. Gave me personal space.
“So, could ya do me a favor?”
I shrugged. Wouldn’t mind.
“It’s Adrentakers birthday today, and uh, you two are getting a lot closer. I’ve been making them some desserts, could you deliver it?”
They never told me about their birthday. I still agreed, with a thumbs up.
“And I don’t think this’ll be a problem, but I wanna be safe, they don’t love big celebrations about this. Do you think they’d want me to deliver a card with it?”
I nod. I don’t think they’d hate that. Not public. They’d be fine with that.
“Thank you! You’re the best, y’know that?”
I smile.
“So, I should probably clean up a little bit. Just, come back in an hour or an hour and a half? Unless you’d wanna help.”
I shake my head. Hate wet food on my hands. Water on my sleeves too. I could do other things in this time.
I wave goodbye.
“See ya later!!” Sweet tooth says, before going to wash dishes.
I walked to the garden.
The flower lady was here. Usually she helps grow food. Her and Pie civilians always do that. Guess she sells these for a hobby.
Red looked nice. Usually people like red roses. But. Blue and black got my attention. Not usually colors here.
I left. I tried hiding the roses from any cameras. I need paper. Should be upstairs. Carepads office is up there. Near it is a supply closet. Everything practical we have is there. Only need one thing. Need paper.
I started walking upstairs. Carepad shouldn’t be here. Nothing to worry about. I walk past the closer. Towards his office. I try opening the door. Locked. It’s always locked. Worth a shot.
Walk back to the closet. Messy. The light doesn’t work well. Smells bad. Lot of cleaning things. Paper should be somewhere.
I find paper. I fold it in two. Vertically. I open it up.
“happy birthday.”
I draw them sitting at their computer. It’s messy. I think it looks okay. They draw me sometimes from their desk. They draw me too well. I hope this can compare.
It looks basic. I don’t have colors. Or decoration.
I look in the closet more. No art supplies. Besides the basics. Things for everything. Nothing to make anything look nice.
Someone has to be an artist here. They better have an unlocked door. Or have supplies somewhere.
I put down the bouquet and card. I cloak before leaving the closet. Want this to be a surprise. Adrentaker might be on cameras. Also, might help to not get caught.
I try walking as soft as I can. You can still be heard. Probably why cloaks never meet up. Stealth. Don’t want anyone to really know each other. Usually stay quiet.
I skip Carepads door. Already knew it was locked. Always locked. A workshop can’t be that important. Maybe if it’s sharper tools. Or weird blueprints. But why would he have those. Maybe sharp tools. Not blueprints bad enough to hide.
I walk downstairs. There’s two separate room areas. There’s shared rooms. And rooms for one person. I don’t think I’ll have to look for them long before I find anything. Just need something to color with. Markers or pencils. I’m supposed to have a shared room. Never pay for it. Don’t use it.
Adrentaker has a room. It’s decorated nicely. Can’t use it much on days with expeditions. Hates when Noisemaker wakes them up. I try telling them about expedition days. They stay in their office the nights before them. I should maybe check if they sleep. I can show them the room in the vents. They’ll get sleep. I can cover for them. I should warn them it’s cold.
I don’t check their room. I could just ask. I think they’d prefer to do that. Theres a few rooms leading up to it. Sweet Tooth. A Rerollpunch made a shop to afford a bigger room. Loveshots supposed to be here. Or near Carepad. She just chooses smaller rooms. It’s odd. I think a Blockpad took her room. Then a Cloaktaker. Just the mortician.
I tried checking their rooms. Minus Adrentakers.
Sweet Tooth didn’t have much. Only a mini library. I never see him reading. Maybe he does more in here. One of the books is annotated. It’s also painted. Red room. Or maybe pink. The rooms are always white. Must have lots of points. His bed was made. Had a few plushies too. I wonder if he cleaned it recently. No art things though. Colored hi-lighters is the closest there were. Most were warmer colors. Not any greens, or blues. I need those to color the card.
Cloaktakers door was locked.
Reroll punch had too much. Their room was a mess. A lot of spray paint. And ammo. Small collection of certifications. I think just the government giving permission to be a reroll. A lot of cards too. Playing cards and flashcards. Bed was made though. They had started stacking the bottles caretakers needed. Even had armor. Everything they planned on selling was in their closet. Didn’t organize or clean up very well. I guess there’s spray paint. Can’t use it. It would ruin the art. I’ll remember it’s here. In case I ever need it.
Blockpad’s room was okay. No decoration designs, besides some posters. All were government related. Or a photo from an expedition. Buisiness related books were everywhere. Had an armor stand though. That’s it. There’s paper. And colored pens. I take a dark blue one. The green was dry. All the rest are low on ink.
I go to Reroll punches room and take a small index card. I write a small heart on it. Signed my name. Then slid it under Adrentaker’s door.
I think somewhere is a few hallways of just the smaller rooms.
Tauntpunch and Noisemaker share a room. So do Tauntcloak, Tauntpeel, and Taunttaker. Taunts agreed to living together. They don’t make many points. A lot usually have to live together.
Loveshot and Gunslinger share a room. Gunslinger. His abilities don’t complement each other. Wonder why we call him that. And not Revolverpunch.
A Rerolltaunt, Hotdogpeel, and Blocktaunt live together. Bananabugle and Tauntpeel live together. They argue a lot. Thin walls here too. Adrentaker spent money on a better room because of that. Had to get something to block out noise.
I don’t want to check Tauntcloak’s room. Anything but that. I don’t think I want to see whats inside. That’s my last resort.
I know some people are home. Blocktaunt isn’t. Rerolltaunt might be working. Any bananas are home. Not allowed on Artful missions. At least planned Artful missions. The only rooms I could check is Loveshot’s and Gunslinger’s, or Tauntpunch and Noisemaker’s.
I thought Loveshot locked the door. But Gunslinger unlocked it. The room wasn’t painted. But had a lot of collages on the wall. Gun collection too. Loveshot always painted her guns. Hot pink usually. But had a green cross on there. Green paint somewhere around here. Just have to be quick.
I find it. It’s in a drawer underneath Loveshot’s bed. I pick it up. But. Do I want to steal from Loveshot? She can’t be the only one with green paint. There’re other rooms. If I don’t find any, I’ll ask her when she’s back. Or I’ll use something else to color this.
I leave Loveshot and Gunslingers room and uncloak. I should ask Noisemaker and Tauntpunch. It’s about as bad as stealing from Loveshot. Noisemakers loud. Tauntpunch is…. Tauntpunch. Loveshot would know if I stole though…
I know what to do.
I knock on Noisemakers door. I cover my ears.
He opens the door. He’s already yelling.
“HI!!!!! YOU NEVER VISIT! IT’S SO COOL TO SEE YOU HERE! Wait… DOESNT THE MISSION NEED A BONUSPAD??? What are you doing!!”
I hear Tauntpunch. “Who’s at the door.”
“Cloakpad!”
“Ohhh she’s totally considering being the lead singer, man!”
Fuck off.
“why do you keep saying that?!?”
“Pfft. Why else would she be here? Think about it.”
I saw Tauntpunch put a finger to his head and tap it.
“OKAY!! So what are you here for!”
I flinch. He waited for me to respond. I point into his room.
“Yeah? I think? You’re asking to come in right?!”
I nod quickly.
“YES!!! I’m so smart.”
“Hey now, don’t-“
I’m not listening to Tauntpunch.
The room had a lot of posters. They had a bunk bed. Tauntpunch was sitting on the bottom bunk.
“I’m usually on the top.”
“Huh??”
I notice there’s a lot of art on the walls. Stuff from old kids shows. Don’t think they can be shown anymore. Badware.
Some were also of a family. A dad and a daughter, usually. Rarely showed a mother.
“Hey uh, just ignore those okay man?”
A lot was from animes.
I point at them.
“Oh yeah! He’s pretty good at making stuff right!!”
“Shuuut the fuck uppp.” Tauntpunch looked away.
I point at a fully colored one. Neither of them get what I’m asking.
“Uhhh… wait Tauntpunch do you have paper??”
“Yeah just uh… gimme a sec…”
Tauntpunch gave me some notebook paper and a pen. I wrote.
COLORING. GREEN MARKER?
“Oh!! Yeah, we have tons of those!!”
Noisemaker went into Tauntpunches stuff, while he told them to ask first, while Noisemaker laughed.
“Sooo, I THINK this is all you need! Right??”
I nod. I give a thumbs up before rushing out of the room. I hear Noisemaker yelling to ask me to give them back soon.
I cloak, then go back up to the closet. I think Adrentaker should have a break soon. At least if their schedule is like normal. They have a lunch break soon.
I get to the closet and finish up the card. It has some choppy coloring. I was able to give it a nice background. Looks less… empty now. They’re at their desk. I decorated it more.
I added the flowers I’m giving to them on their desk. I added a lot of flowers. I decorated their outfit. Not much. Just added random dots.
It’s weird how they’re outside and at their desk. But I didn’t think about that. I think they’d like it. They would love to find some kind of deeper meaning in this. I take the bouquet and card, then visit Sweet Tooth. She gave me a card to give Adrentaker. And a takeout box.
I go to Adrentakers office and knock on the door.
Nobody responds. I do hear something.
I open the door, and the musicbox prototype is. Moving slightly. Maybe trying to talk?
I turn it off. I can figure that out soon. I’ll visit them first.
My hands are a little full. Someone asks me, “who’s the lucky person?” While I walk by. Annoying. Not wrong. But annoying.
I think they’re in their room. Not in the office or the cafe.
I knock on their room door.
It takes a second, then they answer the door.
“Cloakpad!”
I give them the bouquet. They notice I’m holding two cards, and some food.
They look at the roses for a moment. All the thorns were taken out. By me.
“You really didn’t have to do this, you know… I don’t need all too much. I, really don’t deserve you.”
I put down the cards. And food. Then try hugging them. They hug me back.
“Thank you, Cloak.”
I step back to grab everything else.
“Would you, uh- want to come in?”
I nod.
Their room is spacious. It has a bedroom, dining room, and living room. Technically all one room though. Queen sized bed too.
It was warm. It was comfortable.
I put the food on the table and give them the cards. They opened mine first. Then the one from Sweet Tooth.
“When you were in my office, were you making this?”
I shake my head.
“This is from memory?”
I nod.
“I look nice. I… didn’t realize you could draw so well.”
How wouldn’t they look nice? Even if I couldn’t draw at all. They’d still look beautiful in art.
I go to sit on the couch. When I do, I wait for them to sit next to me.
They hesitated. Then started to walk towards me, then stopped. They stayed for a second, then went back to get a book and now sat down next to me.
“I’ve wanted to start this for a while, would you… want to read it with me?”
Oh.
I nod, that’d be nice. Not expected. But nice. I lean closer to look at the cover of the book. They move closer to me, and open to the first page.
It was a collection of short stories, and poems. We didn’t read out loud, but Adrentaker would turns towards me when they finished. They’d wait to know when it was okay to move on. If I liked the story, they’d always try to explain details they caught. Otherwise, we’d skip it.
Sometimes it was hard to focus. I’d be more focused on them than what they were saying. Sometimes they’d notice and repeat themselves. It was always nice.
We started sitting closer together. Until I was almost leaning on their shoulder. They moved towards me and leaned so I could lay my head down on their shoulder. And I did.
They were smiling. Not like during expeditions, or work, it felt. Softer.
Their coat was soft. I could hear their heartbeat a little. While reading they kept looking back at me. I wasn’t focused on the book.
They stopped offering some explanations. Only the sound of our heartbeats here. The feel of their coat. How they kept looking at me. Being inside their room. It was perfect.
I relaxed more. I rested my eyes. And drifted off.