Chapter Text
It had been a long time since 007n7 ended up in this hell. From the bang and burning pain from a bullet flying through his skull, to the endless cycle of repeating death that dulled the experience greatly. Sure, the first few times were just as agonizing as the first. But after hundreds of endings all written the same way, by the same hands… it all felt so distant. There was nothing left for his soul to stick to, not pain, not sorrow, not even lack of warmth from a team that already decided he was dead weight.
It was a burden, getting up each morning just to repeat the cycles he’d much rather leave behind again. Wake up, get ready to die, be killed or narrowly survive, sleep, repeat. It was just so boring, he’d rather feel the fresh pain from the newfound loss of a loved one, rather than wrinkle his empty heart with the stagnant water of lives and a love lost so long ago.
And yet he got up again, rising reluctantly out of his less-than-ideal bed. He rubbed his eyes, laden with heavy eyebags that weighed his entire being down. He hated the feeling of first waking up, the weakness only made him feel worse than usual, yet falling asleep felt like his best friend. How Ironic…
“Good morning, cruel world.” 007n7 said, his groggy voice crackling out the joke in a futile attempt to somewhat lighten the mood.
It was a routine, didn’t ever actually help but it made him feel less like a walking corpse, devoid of life. And so he just had to convince himself that the little comments getting lost to space were actually making him happier.
He slipped on his usual wrinkly, white button-up shirt, covering it with his faded blue vest. He then grabbed his tacky burger hat and pulled it on over his horns, stubby from being half-way filed down one too many times. He then went over to his mirror to check his appearance, but apparently he’d forgotten that— of course, he couldn’t see without his glasses. Yet the colorful blob staring back at him didn’t look too bad so he shrugged along towards the door. He opened the embarrassingly creaky door before grabbing and struggling to fit his clawed feet into his worn out shoes. Though, as he was fighting to cover his own unique anatomy, a strange noise caught his attention. He quickly got up, throwing off his ill-fitting shoes to inspect the noise. It sounded like some kind of small animal, what if it was hurt? He identified the source of the sound to be a nest right beside his porch stairs. He carefully knelt and picked up the creature vocalizing its fear and confusion.
He couldn’t identify the bird exactly, but its soft, black downy feathers lead him to the idea of it probably being a crow. Well, he wasn’t exactly a bird expert. Yet it was like the bird was going through a thought process before getting comfortable in the warmth of his cradled hands. 007n7 looked closely at this creature, trusting such a dangerous monster with its whole life, and something cracked. A warm feeling emerged from the crack, spreading through his whole body until it tugged the corners of his mouth into a warm smile. It reminded him of his and Coolkid’s first meeting. The poor infant crying as it was soaked in the freezing rain, being found on the porch of a well-known criminal. Yet… said criminal raised the infant anyways, despite the danger of opening his closed off heart to something so fragile.
Maybe this time he could do a better job of protecting and raising this new loved one…
So he took the small hatchling inside and sat down criss-crossed on his bed, bunching up his blanket into a makeshift nest. He gently rested his newfound responsibility upon the blanket, cooing at its small shape. He then got to work pulling up his C00lGUI and searching up tips on how to care for a crow as he subconsciously kept his hand loosely curled around the chick, protecting it from the cruel world it was dropped into.