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Jumpy Discovery
Those damned expendables found a way to jump onto him, at first he didn’t think much of it. They would just climb onto the desk to get a bit closer but never jumped.
Then one of them decided to jump onto him.
He immediately threw the expendable across the room screaming at them to not do that again. They of course didn’t stop and just kept doing it again and again. Each time making him get closer and closer to tears.
It burned. Every little graze or poke he could manage, they were either curious or did it by accident. They never did it on purpose, some of them actually had standards and apologized or asked at least.
But now they were fully jumping onto him. It hurt. Every jump it burned. Burned. Burned. IT BURNED!
Every little touch felt like the surface of the sun was grazing him. Every little touch. Majority of them would keep doing it even after he yelled at them. Finding his reactions entertaining. He would put up a blockade but it just gets in the way and makes it more cramped.
His facade was cracking each and every time they jumped back onto him. He couldn’t do any damage as their fall was cushioned, and the delirious mind he had with all the memories kept the thought of the shotgun away.
Over and over they grabbed onto him, his skin burned. The little touches made him feel sick now. He just wanted to leave.
One of the nicer expendables explained to him what it was that caused his skin to feel like it was sick and burning at every little touch. He had a thing called haphephobia, something about the fear of touch.
Apparently there is a way to get over it but he’s not taking that chance. Not after all of those experiments and other bad memories. For now he would have to get through it.
…
Dark Troubles
He just went out to get more supplies. He was running low and the amount of expendables coming through lowered for a bit so he had time. He would just get what he needed and go back.
So far the expedition was going well, not a single entity in sight and a good haul at that. That of course did not last long. He came across a red room which flickered out a moment later. The silhouettes of the Squiddles could be seen for just a bit only to disappear into the darkness.
Attempting to remember where they were was a terrible idea, and the glow from his lure got in the way of his vision. He was able to make his way through quite easily for a bit only to just slightly graze one of the Squiddles.
Immediately he pulled himself back, bumping into another and his skin exploded in the burning sensation again. He felt hot and cold at the same time making his mind go numb. Curling onto himself got rid of some of the feeling but not all.
One of the Squiddles went to touch him only for him to reel back in fear. He didn’t know when but he started crying, his brain was just so fuzzy and tired. None of the other Squiddles touched him after that. They just watched far enough away that they wouldn’t accidentally touch him.
He doesn’t know how long he stayed there but some time definitely passed, the burning sensation finally came down to a slight sting. Hauling himself back up he trudged out onto the next room.
He never ran into a Squiddle again, almost as if they were clearing a path for him.
…
Adopted Angler Mom
It was supposed to be just another day, selling to expendables, dropping off their pre-ordered items, and collecting from the dead expendables who didn’t make it.
Of course the last thing he had to do for the day was drop off an order for a late group of expendables. There was the occasional Angler variant that would run by on his way back, he always grabbed onto pipes when they came by.
It was late and he was tired so the occasional yawn would come out. Blinking away the groggy ness he made his way back to door 50. Feeling another yawn coming he stretched and closed his eyes trying to wash away the consistent tiredness.
Continuing on his way he was getting closer to his shop. The small doors were starting to bother him and so was the closing in screaming. Wait. Screaming? Did he miss the flashing? Panicking, he looked around. The only problem was this tunnel was so tall that even he couldn’t make it.
Going to the next room would be too unpredictable… while in his thoughts he didn’t realize the Angler was already in the door behind him. Swiftly looking behind him, he covers his face and slightly curls himself up.
Sharp teeth just barely graze him with the resounding thud of the Angler hitting smack dab into his abdomen. Once again the burning sensation came exploding back, it hurt so bad. He screamed. At least he thinks that’s whatever that sound is.
Curling up onto himself more he tries to scratch away the fiery feeling seeping deep into his chest. Clawed marks start to form slightly dripping blood the more he scratches the agitated skin.
The Angler was completely stunned, it had no idea the amount of pain just touching her caused. It goes and taps a part of her tail possibly trying to see what was happening.
Immediately the spot of contact tensed and exploded with the burning sensation. Screeching he goes to tear out the spot only to be stopped by a loud scream. Looking up he sees the Angler doing some sort of shaking dance, trying to distract him.
Regrettably it was working.
He’d never seen this before so he had no idea what it was doing. Tilting his head he goes to touch the top of its head but pauses, would it burn…? To be fair he would be the one initiating so maybe not?
Deciding to at least test it out he goes to pat the top of its head. He waits for one. Then two. Then three. Nothing happened. This was okay… continuing to pat its head he could feel the smoothish scales it had and the way his hand just glided over it.
A few minutes later he had to leave back to his shop.
Ever since that day different Angler variations have shown up at a slower pace and made sure not to touch him. It was weird at first but he found out fast that they wanted pats.
…
Comforting Touch
Running into Good People was a very rare occurrence, but one that unfortunately happened from time to time. He was able to evade their attempt to swat him usually. They never looked at who opened the door before attacking them, they just attacked first and talked later.
He was unfortunately having an off day today from all of the large groups recently. They weren’t helping with the new discovery of being thrown without any consequences.
Sighing he opens a random door completely not taking notice of the slight spark that flew. Looking up though he is met with a large clawed hand to the front of him. If the larger than usual body size wasn’t noticeable him getting thrown back with a resounding thud definitely did.
Good People immediately paused, actually looking at what they just hit, all they saw though was a mass curled up near the end of the hallway. Going Good People stops the closing door and grabs the mass pulling it toward them.
He tensed from the touch and when it didn’t stop he started to thrash and scream nearly hurting himself in the process. His skin was on fire and felt like his veins were melting. He wanted them to let go. Let go. Let go. LET GO!
The agonizing few seconds felt like they stretched on for hours. Constant thrashing and screaming, and Good People trying to get her to calm down. When that didn’t work they picked her up by the waist and hugged her. It’s a weird gesture they had seen some of the expendables do to calm one of the others down.
To their surprise it worked and she calmed down though still tense. His entire body was on fire till he was suddenly picked up, panicking he tried to get away. This could end really badly if Good People wanted to kill him.
What he wasn’t expecting though was to be hugged by the mass of flesh. His skin was on fire exploding with bubbles of pain at every point of contact. But as the makeshift hug continued the burning turned into a slight buzzing heat and his body relaxed just a bit.
Trying to get Good People to stop hugging him took a bit more effort than he’d like to admit. But he was able to get away a bit after. Watching her leave they made a note to make sure to look before attacking.
After that day if he was having a bad day, he would go find Good People for some sort of comfort. He didn’t mind their touch and over time he was able to not feel like he was burning alive.
…
Like Trying To Budge A Bolder
Trudging through the tunnels of the underwater facility he came across a room lined with large and small lockers alike. A perfect area to find some stuff or data that was left behind.
Going through each locker was troublesome but worth it for the trinkets and data he found. Snatching a few batteries he debated if he should just dispose of them to get extra profit but decided to think about it.
Looking around there was a locker with blood seeping out of it, most likely from a Pandamonium attack, going over he opens it expecting a body to be slumped over.
What he wasn’t expecting though was for a mass of tentacles to grab him attempting to pull him into the locker. Struggling the thing tries to drag him, failing miserably but still scaring the ever living daylights out of him.
Void-Mass was incredibly confused to say the least. It couldn’t keep the void goop out of its face so they were currently blind, but whatever they were latched onto wouldn’t budge in the slightest.
It tried to pull whatever it was in again only for the thing to slightly move forward. It definitely didn’t feel like a expendable, and it was too warm to be one of those Statues or Wall Dwellers.
They finally decided that seeing was an essential in figuring out what was happening. What it wasn’t expecting though is for a large mutant with a lure to be in their grasp.
She stood there frozen almost as if she wasn’t fully there. They went to put her down and almost immediately she fell back clawing her way away from it.
They didn’t mean to scare her, it just was trying to protect itself from a possible threat. She was shivering, holding onto her abdomen as if there was some excessive wound there.
It hurt. The cold feeling was able to cancel out the burning but his body racked in strain from his body locking up. Then he was released, instantly he went to move himself to the other side of the hall.
Then the burning started to come crashing back with the coolness of the Void not grabbing him. Grabbing his abdomen he pulls on himself trying to curl up.
Both of them just wait there as he gets over his episode. Shakily getting up he goes to continue looking for items, albeit more cautious this time.
The Void-Mass goes and closes it’s locked doors but not before seeing her pick up some spare data and trinkets.
From that day on he would find items and data piled outside of random lockers. Though he also made sure that a locker was not occupied from now on, even if his height got in the way.
…
Drip Drip BUZZ!
A pipe had broken and was starting to cause a problem in his shop. Expendables were complaining that the water would ruin the wares, and honestly if he wasn’t trying to keep an image then he would have left it till it messed with a wire.
Trying to find a way out was easy, the hard part was finding the leak. To start his search he checked around some of the windowed halls to see exactly where he was. Door 48, not bad, so this leak should be easy to find.
Continuing to the next 2 tunnels he was able to find the leak at door 50 pretty easily. Unfortunately the hole causing problems was a bit bigger than he expected. Looking around he was able to find a decent sized piece of metal.
Struggling for a bit he wasn’t able to get the piece detached from whatever it was attached to. So he opted to just rip it off of the bigger piece. Said bigger piece finally came out falling onto him.
He was stuck, to say the least. Trying to pull himself out was a terrible idea seeing as more debris fell onto him the more he moved. Sighing he thought about any way to get out.
His tool box was back at the leak, and no one could really get out here to help, even if they wanted or could. So he was really trapped. Maybe if he… another piece fell. Okay maybe not.
Covering his face with his two still available hands he screams in frustration. Was he throwing a tantrum? Yes. But he was stuck and couldn’t do anything.
Apparently said screams of frustration were heard by a certain someone. Eyefestation could be seen making its way toward him. He hasn’t had a chance to speak with the shark, but has seen it around before.
It was just swimming around its low pressure prison when it heard the loud crash. The shark didn’t pay much attention to the crash just thinking another part of the facility was falling apart. What it did pause for was the loud scream that reverberated in the water.
Deciding this time to take notice the shark makes its way to the crash, expecting anything but what it saw was the expectation. It was not expecting to see an angler variant (or maybe the first angler).
He looked up at Eyefestation only to immediately cover his eyes, a bad idea to look at the bioluminescence shark. Now not only could he not get out but he couldn’t see.
She was funny, that was for sure. She made frustrated faces when moving didn’t help her. Maybe it could help her? It would have to make sure she doesn’t move to look at the shark though.
The shark goes and slightly grazes against her while attempting to move the first piece of metal. What it wasn’t expecting though was to be launched a bit away and for a bubbly screech to echo through the water.
It touched him. Why did it touch him? He couldn’t look at it and he couldn’t even get himself out, but it touched his face. His face burned from the contact, he just wanted to tear off his skin.
Though he will admit there seemed to be less weight on him now. Was it trying to help him? That could be possible… but why would it touch him??? Maybe it was an accident? No that didn’t seem right, it seemed to be too purposeful to be an accident…
Maybe it was trying to make sure he didn’t look at it? That might be it. If it was helping him then it wouldn’t want him to accidentally pop his own brain. The only problem was the touch still burned even under the freezing sea.
The shark looked behind itself again, seeing her looking around for something. She snatched what looked like a flimsy piece of pipe, then covered her face. Oh. Oh. She was keeping herself from looking at it!
Now it could work ten times faster! Getting back to work the shark pulled off any huge pieces that were trapping the smaller fish. Every so often when the shark ever so slightly touched the smaller fish she would tense or flinch.
It thinks she believed it didn't notice but it did. Continuing its able to get the last big piece, trapping the smaller fish off. Swimming back the shark tapped her tail one last time to get her moving.
He absolutely hated the touch that the shark was doing, and it most likely didn’t go unnoticed. He didn’t know when but Eyefestation did finish getting everything trapping him off, if the tap on his tail was any indication.
His tail immediately swatted at the giant shark but at that point it had already moved away. Lifting himself up was a bit of a struggle because his body fell asleep but he was able to after a while. He then goes and grabs the piece he came to grab in the first place.
The shark did watch him most likely confused by what he was doing but he still made his way back to the leak. The piece was a bit bigger than he expected so he was having some trouble but he was able to drag it along pretty well.
Little fish did struggle to pick up a piece of scrap metal and drag it away, for what the shark didn’t know. None the less it followed her to both find out and figure out what it was needed for. When they came across the leak it made a bit more sense.
So she needed to fix this? How though? It has never seen someone fix something out here. It must be important though. The shark watched her work, using a thing that glowed a bit too bright and these other metal things to flatten it.
Soon enough he was done and able to go back in. Leaving the shark he heads back in from where he came from back to his shop.
After that day if he ever needed to fix anything on the exterior Eyefestation would hover around him while he worked keeping a safe distance away so no accidents happened.
…
Painter had seen the fish guy around before. He’d seen all his interactions and how he actively avoided touch. He’d make sure that when they finally got out he’d keep everyone out of arm's length of the fish.
The fish Sebastian promised to get him out of here so he respected him enough to stay out of his space. He’d talked with him about it before but he never gave a clear answer, so he was left wondering.
He went easy on the ones who didn’t torment him and destroyed any who hurt the man. He’d seen what they did to him, he knew every little detail. He wasn’t able to do anything then but with the power Sebastian gave him he would be able to help him now.
Sebastian doesn’t know why but when he goes to collect from the dead expendables the ones who jumped on him always died much quicker than the nicer ones