Work Text:
The timer strikes the end of a resting time for the souls in vain trapped within this realm, their body can feel it, the dread.
It’s routine now, to appear in some of the maps that have now characterized their infinite routine of torment, and Elliot recognizes it, the place as: ‘Horror Hotel’ one of the places that was kind of always there, he doesn’t dislike it that much, as it brings a familiar feeling… It is true, they have gotten a bit too comfortable between pain and suffering.
What he is not familiar with, is the blue shirt with a ridiculous picture on it that he is wearing for some reason. Well, that would be a lie, he is familiar with it, very much so, but he usually sees it on another man, not on himself. “...This is odd.” A small smile of amusement crawls onto his face, maybe it’s an error in the coding of this place they are trapped in, something went wrong during the teletransportation.
He wonders if he is the only one with this 'issue.'
Funny enough, his mental question is answered when he sees someone walk into the pit of plastic, colorful balls, and now, he sees where his outfit ended up while a can of paint is shaken and then sprayed on the wall near the stairs.
As he walks closer to get a better view of the whole picture, he sees it, Veeronica without her usual hat, gear and clothes, only her skateboard remains with her, instead, she has his visor, his red uniform shirt and black pants. She notices him too, and lets out a pixelated laugh, “Looks b3tter on me, doesn’t it?” Vee snickers, tilting his… Her? visor up with a grin on her screen.
Elliot lets himself laugh at the comment, “I don't know… I don't think that tone of red suits you.” He teases, taking a look at her, he squints and then glances up, he gasps. “How do you think the others look?” He says with a huge smile on his face, suddenly eager to see everyone.
Thankfully, Vee seems to be on board with the idea and drags him with her, looking for the others. She quickly memorized every generator spot in some of the maps so she is very quick to find a small group of three of their teammates. There, they spot 007n7 hunched over one of the machines, connecting wires as Chance stands beside them, leaned against a wall and doing their usual routine of flipping their coin countless of times before running off to shoot the killer, and lastly, there is Taph, crouching and placing a tripwire by the hands that peek from the wooden floor, trying to slow any of them down.
None of them are wearing their usual outfits.
So with an entertained expression on her face, she taps on a graffiti she left near one of the entrances and enters riding her skateboard. “Pizza delivery!” She announces, smiling further when Elliot stifles a laugh behind his palm and walks behind her to meet the others.
“Nice shirt.” Chance teases Elliot, who raises a brow with his smile still not gone, and decides to tease them right back. “I don’t think the clothes of our hardworking Builder go with your personality, Chance.” The pizza boy snickers.
“Huh, yeah, I should start hosting meetings, right? To follow the theme and all…” Chance hums, flipping his coin one last time before giving it a rest, how unusual. “Hey, Seven, you should convince Shed to lend you his sword, it’ll be the cherry on top of your outfit.” The gambler comments, making 007n7 blush further, who is also doing an awful job at avoiding Elliot’s gaze.
Vee makes a disappointed sound in the background, making everyone turn and saving Seven from being included in a conversation he does not want to join, well, it isn’t as if he ever wants to join. “I thought, we’d get to see you underneath all those layers of fabric, bud!” She makes a digital sound that appears to be imitating a huff, Elliot takes a mental note on how Taph is wearing Dusekkar’s clothes, all the way to his pumpkin hat, which shadows his whole face somehow.
Huh, that mystery remains. Good, Taph would not be themselves if they weren’t a walking enigma.
Taph just shrugs, the cloak resembles their own, so it is not a big change of wardrobe for them, not like the others, Vee does not look like herself without her hoodie, and skateboarding gear, 007n7 looks odd with Shedletsky’s comfy outfit, Chance looks very out of place with Builderman’s clothes on, and it is uncanny to see Elliot without his uniform.
This makes everyone curious on how the others look…
—
It was only a matter of time before the two biggest instigators of the team and their positive pizza boy tagged along with them to check out the others, luckily, it does not take long as–
“I w0ndered where my clothes w3nt…” Vee enthusiastically announces, pointing at one of her favorite people in the group, Noob, who jumps a bit at the sudden voice and quickly turns around to see their new company.
They visually un-tense and tilt their head, squinting with a bit of confusion. “I… How did this happen?” A small smile is brought onto their face at the sight of the team’s gambler, healer, and their friend without their usual look.
Meanwhile, they have Vee’s said ‘usual look.’ They think it looks nice on them, so they don’t mind at all, they are used to sharing when it comes to her anyway.
Veeronica walks over to them and scoops them up to spin them around by lifting her arms up straight with them in her hold, “I guess this place decided you needed better clothes!” She yells as Noob screams, telling her to be careful. In front of them, Chance and Elliot snicker at the scene. Deciding to let them do their thing, they keep exploring the map in search of seeing who got Chance’s clothes.
As they walk away, they both hear the familiar sound of a dispenser coming to life, and with a huge grin on their face, the gambler grips Elliot’s wrist to pull him with them, looking forward to Builderman's reaction when he sees them.
It is worth it, to see his face go from surprise to a deadpan. “You’ve got to be kidding me…” Builderman groans, and makes a tired expression when he sees his two teammates’ faces squeeze a bit in an awful attempt to not laugh when his accent slips out more strongly than usual.
They fail, bursting out in laughter, how could they not? The accent, his expression… And most importantly, the fact that he is wearing Guest’s attire, it’s so unfitting it makes their stomachs hurt.
With a grumble, Builderman stands up to push them out the room he is in. “Come on, go do something productive, won't you?” He mutters, they are all interrupted by a sudden voice entering the room.
“Moody as ever, Builder.” Shedletsky snickers from the entrance, acting like his usual self, and Builderman would have answered if it weren’t for…
Shedletsky tilts his head, the cloak following his head’s movement. “What? Do I look that bad?” He laughs a bit, it is between uncomfortable and teasing-sounding.
Elliot’s and Chance’s gazes switch between the two men, wondering what is up with Builderman’s sudden pause, only then does the gambler squint, and– Oh… Yeah, this was like meeting one of Robloxia’s historical figures, apart from the three they already met here.
Shedletsky looked exactly like Telamon, popularly known to be Builderman’s old right hand man before Shedletsky, who was publicly announced to be his successor, a creation made by Telamon. The information everyone knows is very little, and the admin’s disappearance was never really explained any further than that.
With the tense vibe coming from Builderman, they both sneak away, or well, they just leave, it was easy to go unnoticed when it was those two, their attention is usually on each other anyway.
—
It was odd to interact with Shedletsky as if he didn’t just give him whiplash by wearing Taph’s uniform. He is sure his bad excuses for his reaction were not believed by the others, and so he stays silent as he fixes a generator beside the swordsman who insisted on tagging along.
Builderman can’t help it, he looks awfully like his old friend, well, he already did, but the clothes helped a lot, not to mention his personality, Telamon was moodier, sure, he had some traces that were passed on Shedletsky, but he was never that calm or lazy, he was very dramatic, and easily annoyed, not to mention egocentric.
He always amused him, and he remembers he kept him around because he used to claim he was fun, ah, yes, their old dynamic, when he was the one teasing the other, poking them, and making sure to get a rise out of him, after all, Telamon had always been bitter upon realizing he didn’t hold as much power as he thought in the sandbox that used to be Robloxia.
Flight, skills, and weird abilities were nothing against him after all, he could morph reality into his liking, he did not know where he came from, and for a long time, he was sure he was alone, and so he had been ecstatic to find someone.
“Is this your making?” Builderman could sense how uncomfortable the cloaked figure was after being literally kept in place by an unknown ability, he could probably feel it, how with only his will, Builderman could just rearrange him into whatever they wanted, probably make their limbs rotate until they were broken with a sickening crack.
The mysterious robloxian had not answered, keeping their face stoic despite what they really felt, deciding to keep to themselves, in their eyes, this was a harsh situation, what could he do against someone who seems to be in charge of shaping this world.
For all they knew, he could have just been a manifestation to cure Builderman’s loneliness, of course, the childish, overpowered being was not aware of this possibility, if everything was tracked back to him then… It was only natural to think he was made by him.
With a simple statement he was ‘hired,’ for what? Who knows, and Telamon never got it, but he was sure that someone that powerful did not need any help.
“Hey–” Telamon Shedletsky calls out before a hand reaches to pull the cloak’s hood off his head, which makes him stop his sentence altogether.
Builderman stands up. “Just leave it.” He sighs, sounding a bit bored and a bit conflicted. He takes his leave, unaware of how Shedletsky’s expression turns into a hurt one for a second, before the man shakes his head and walks the other way, in search of something to keep himself entertained.
—
“I knew that just another handsome face could do my clothes justice!” Chance announces with a grin, his expressions carry a lot more emotion now that he does not have his shades on, which… He is not a fan of, so when he is close enough, he takes them back from Guest’s face.
The veteran chuckles as Chance puts his characteristic accessory on, “I’ll let you keep the fedora, just because it makes the suit look better.” They smirk.
“Thanks.” Guest raises a brow, finding this amusing. “I have to say, I am feeling it.” He shrugs.
“Well, I am feeling the sight too.” The gambler says, looking right at the parts where his suit looks the tightest, since it is on a more toned body. They know how to appreciate some good biceps, chest, and if Guest was willing to turn around… Then he could appreciate a nice ass too.
The veteran does not get the comment, but Chance does receive a light elbow to his chest, making him laugh out loud at Elliot understanding his comment. The pizza boy is about to say something when he points at someone entering the hotel’s kitchen area, “Who’s that?” He tilts his head at the figure.
They are wearing what seems to be Two Time’s outfit, but they are… Well, their face is… It’s on, uh– fire?
Guest’s eyebrows go up in surprise, “I think that’s Dusekkar without his pumpkin hat.” He chuckles, noticing how the Robloxian is floating, that had to be their magic expert. Evidently, it is Dusekkar, no expression in sight as he floats over to them, it is a bit creepy.
“Could I be told just who in Robloxia has my attire?!” Yup, totally Dusekkar, who sounds awfully disappointed to see them all wearing any other outfit that isn’t his.
Chance laughs and shares a knowing look with Elliot, but none of them speaks up to tell Dusekkar that Taph is the one in possession of his beloved pumpkin hat, which is probably what he is so annoyed about.
Instead, Guest speaks up, “I think the real question here is where the killer is…” He says, which makes them realize that they never stopped to wonder why they weren’t hunted by any of their usual tormentors. Of course, only the veteran would be hyperaware of the killer’s absence, for all they know, he was probably trying to search for them before encountering Elliot and Chance.
“Perhaps the Spawn has blessed us with mercy for our vessels.”
“Fucking hell, Two Time!” Chance jumps to hide behind Elliot as Dusekkar tenses up and Guest puts his fists up, all of them facing the new attribution to the gathering, who is wearing colors way too bright for them.
Even from a huge distance away, anyone would recognize that outfit was Noob’s.
Two Time appeared out of absolutely nowhere, they should have probably been used to it by now, as it seems they had this unspoken ability to poof out of thin air whenever there was an opportunity to mention their glorious Spawn.
“Sorry… Man?” Two Time tilts their head, trying to copy the gambler’s way to speak, since in their mind, this can make them more likeable to their audience.
Still, even after that scare, the question still stands within the others’ minds.
“... Whatever!” Chance huffs, throwing his hands up in the air, exasperated and a bit ashamed to have gotten the most scared out of everyone. “Let’s just look for the killer, there’s still a minute left.” They sigh, thankfully, everyone follows behind without saying anything.
—
None of the ones present thought they would ever hear 007n7 laugh, even Elliot hadn’t thought he would ever hear that sound again in his life, but it is happening right in front of them.
And it’s because of his son, that uncanny looking child was the only one that could bring that many emotions out of the ex-hacker, whether they were negative or positive.
“Don’t laugh!” The boy whines, if he wasn’t already red, they were sure he’d be more than so at this very moment. The group just watches as 007n7 tries to say countless apologies through laughter to C00lkidd, who sounds like he is on the verge of crying and throwing a fit because he was found hiding from everyone out of shyness of being found in a very puffy, bright pink dress.
Which they all knew belonged to the brattiest kid any of them have ever met.
Chance has a shit-eating grin, obviously entertained, and Guest just looks fond of seeing their usually emotionless looking member displaying something near happiness. Elliot himself tries to stop his laughter by pressing a palm against his trembling mouth.
Dusekkar finds this a waste of time, even if it’s amusing, he’d rather find his pumpkin, so he eventually leaves after having enough of the funny sight.
Of course, the gambler is the one to speak up from the four that remain. “You’re looking like royalty, kid.” They chuckle, a little bit thankful that it wasn’t the blue one, they were less sadistical than C00lkidd, probably being the chillest out of the three murderous children, but he wouldn’t have taken this disrespect for so long.
His mistake was to underestimate the boy, and to think he’d let anyone but his father make fun of him.
A brick is thrown right at his face.
And it’s safe to say that the round’s little remaining time was extended because of his accumulated weakness and the fact that he never bothered on pulling a ‘hat fix.’ Obviously, he died from one singular hit, so now he stands in the lobby alone like an idiot.
…
At least he has his own clothes back on.
Take that C00lkidd!