ON HIATUS

TomTord

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He didn't scream. He didn't say anything. For a moment, he didn't even think. All that left his mouth when he turned around, his prior conversation abandoned, was a sharp inhale. A gasp.

“We need to start moving again, immediately!” He chirped, beginning to pull Tom along, finding the pizza slice, “How much pain are you in? I can heal it right now if you need…!”

Where there was one, there was usually another in pursuit, they wouldn’t be hard to outrun- But the killer would be, he knew this well enough that getting hit with one of those practically marked you for death…

“We should find a sentinel too-“ He chirped, eyes flicking around, biting his lip hard enough he was sure the metallic taste was blood in his mouth, pulling Tom along, head swiveling, trying to look for c00lkidd- But it didn’t help this map was dark, and red, so sometimes he could blend in.

Focus Elliot, eyes snapping to check who was alive, who had lowest health… chewing on his lip for a moment, “Is the pain unbearable?” He questioned, eyes flicking around, moving Tom in front of him, putting himself as a barrier between any of those creatures that might come up again.

He paused, shaking out his hand, “That was a pizza delivery bot, for some context. They go after the nearest survivors to them- Which means Kidd is probably somewhere nearby. Hence, need to find a sentinel. As you saw, kinda light you on fire. And… we’re guessing it shows your location to kidd. Every time we’ve been hit by one, Kidd usually isn’t too far behind in attacking…”

He straightened his visor, pushing Tom ahead, looking back behind him, then around, straining his ears for any footsteps, or maybe a gun firing, or any sign of C00lkidd approaching.

“If he pulls up a screen thing, move. Move fast and unpredictably. Get behind a wall if you can. He’ll slide across the map… But once he’s going he cant move in any direction but straight until he makes contact with something— And beware of flying bricks. He throws bricks sometimes. I… guess what I’m saying here is, if you want to survive this round, you’ve gotta be unpredictable for kidd, watch him and his moves and such…”

It really wasn't that bad. He wasn't exaggerating - Tom had been hurt worse. This was just... new. It struck him that this was the first time he'd gotten hurt in a while. The first real situation he'd been in for months. He hadn't been out for any negotiations since... well, since he'd gotten married.

Shit. He had gone soft, hadn't he? What an idiot. There was precisely one point in time when he could have afforded to laze around all day taking naps in sunbeams and chewing on bones, and that was something like ten years ago. He'd always thought his own world was getting worse, getting more dangerous, but if something like this -- getting Forsakened -- could just happen to anyone, at any moment? Or worse, if something else could show up in their timeline, in their home, and go for T--

He couldn't even finish that thought. He was just getting too worked up.

Tom looked up, focusing on Elliot. The poor guy was so worried. Tom wasn't any smaller than he was; in fact, he was quite a large guy by most standards, tall and generally bearish in build -- but Elliot was so intent on looking out for him that he had literally pulled him along by the wrist. He could see the fear on his face, the way he positioned Tom in front of him in case the killer began pursuing from behind. He knew that nobody here would die forever, but he was still so intent on looking out for everyone, sparing them from the pain. He was wearing himself to shreds trying to protect the others.

Tom had to get his head in the game.

Tom's head swiveled to track the movement before he even realized where he was. Not enough time to ask himself why a bright red child was holding a sword, but enough time to note the weapon, the speed at which the kid was moving, and the fact that nobody seemed to have noticed him yet. That was all thanks to the visor, of course.

Something was very wrong here.

In seconds the two figures disappeared from sight, skipping behind the shell of a wrecked house. It was then that he took in his surroundings. Outside. Cracked asphalt road. Street of houses, destroyed. The sound of waves. It looked like there was a waterline in the distance. Open ocean? Was he on the coast somewhere?

He didn't have time to wonder about the geography of the area. If he didn't want to catch that deranged kid's attention, he had to get out of sight. Immediately he went for a car. The few on the street were rusted and could barely be referred to as cars, but they would make for alright cover.

It was only a short few paces to the heap of metal. With his back against a rusted door, Tom took a second to think. He still couldn't understand how he got here. Just a minute ago he'd been... brought to somewhere in the woods, a cabin? He didn't even get through the door before everything went red again, and he ended up here. He could barely figure out what he was feeling. It wasn't fear, exactly. It was moreso... surprise? He was just confused. A little angry, honestly. The gall of this Spectre thing. It couldn't have picked anyone else from his universe?!

Disconnected thoughts whipped through his head while he tried - and failed - to make sense of things. He found one suddenly stuck, like a very important piece of paperwork to the intake grill of a fan by the bin. That stupid movie he'd just watched with Tord. Airplane. One of the quotes.

He laughed to himself.

He could see people getting hurt, checking for any injuries- It was hard to tell considering Spectre loved messing with them, especially when there was a new survivor in the round, slowing to a walk so he could catch his breath, scanning the area for anyone who didn’t look familiar-

And there! Target acquired.

He hurried over, glancing at his cooldown for his pizza, skidding to a halt behind the stranger. Heres to hoping they don’t get too alarmed and end up… punching him or something.

He tapped the others shoulder, sucking in a breath, looking around for c00lkidd for a moment before looking back at the stranger, giving his best of a friendly smile, though… probably looked forced.

“Hey there- Are you injured at all?” Elliot questioned, his cooldown was almost over so he began digging in his bag, inspecting Tom for any injuries as he dug, “I’m Elliot, welcome to… Uh… Put it simply, hell. I… I can give you an explanation of everything… Don’t know if it’d help- We shouldn’t stay still for long though.”

"Uh... I'm Tom. No, I'm fine. I... just got here. The kid hasn't got me yet."

“Nice to meet you, Tom.”

He went silent for a minute while Elliot kept talking, lost in thought as he leaned to step over an awkward pile of debris. Somewhere nearby, he heard the sound of childish laughter. That made him pause for a minute, but it didn't seem to be getting any closer. They continued.

"... This really is a game. The message I got said I would be, uh... 'playing it's twisted game'. With the wrong 'its'; I just felt like that was important. If nobody can die..."

He flexed his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists, shaking them out just like Elliot had done.

At Toms words, he went quiet, listening before giving a dry laugh, tilting his head, “Least they gave you a warning its a twisted game,” He muttered, adjusting his visor for a moment before breathing out slowly.

Elliot tapped his fingers against the strap of his bag, eyes scanning the horizon before beginning to move, running into a worn down building where a generator was, pulling open the panel and beginning to repair it.

“Yeah… The ways you can die here is… extremely unpleasant… Very painful… burned, torn in half, chainsaw through the chest— Sorry… probably not important for you to know that,” He gave a small shudder, hand going to his neck to rub at it before pulling away from the generator, looking at Tom, “Oh- Yeah… This is a generator. We can repair them to decrease the time on the timer for this round,” He paused, scratching his neck.

Right, rundown, going back to working on the generator, “We’ve kinda realized there like… three classes? Sentinels, supports, and survivalists. Sentinels are people you want to run to when you’re getting chased, they can hurt and stun the killer.”

Stupid wire, work with him here, “Sentinels are Guest, Chance, Two time, and Shedletsky. Guest is the white man with blue hair in an army uniform, Chance is the grey person in a suit, usually they’re flipping a coin. Two time is white with black hair- They’ve also got a tail, and Shedletsky is yellow with brown hair, wearing a white shirt.”

He finishes up that section of the generator, moving on to the next one, “Supports are myself, I can heal people with my pizza… so if you’re ever hurt and you see a pizza thrown at you, eat it. Builderman, Taph and Dusekkar. Taph is the fella in robes, they set tripmines and stuff… Great for slowing the killer, Dusekkar can protect with his spells and attack too… He’s the one with a pumpkin for a head.… Builderman can build guns and healing towers… Grey with an orange hardhat, usually.”

Is he yapping too much? He’s getting a little worried now, chewing on his lip, peeking to see if he can see c00lkidd, “Then survivalists. They’re great at being sneaky. It’s noob and 007n7… 007n7 is the one with the burger hat and the weird shirt… and noob is yellow with a blue shirt and green pants usually.”

So how did they win?

“To win you… Just have to outlast the timer, or kill the killer,” He murmured, lowering his hands, eyes flicking to watch something, muttering something to himself before beginning to move again, glancing back to make sure Tom was following. Didn’t want him to get caught by c00lkidd.

“Before you say anything about the “killing the killer” thing, its really rare to do. Sometimes you can do it when Spectre gets bored and lets us go haywire… but under most normal circumstances, it’s really rare to do, we’ve only managed it once,” He chirped, beginning to walk along the wall of the map, gaze flicking around for any generators to do.

His gaze flicked to Tom, expression softening for a moment, opening his mouth like he was about to say something before biting his lip, turning back to finding a generator as he searched his mind for the proper words.

He frowned for a moment, but all things considered this didn't sound impossible. Just had to avoid attracting attention.

Tom turned to give Elliot a curious look, almost shocked. The thought of fighting back in a real sense, killing the killer, hadn't even occurred to him. Honestly, he was embarrassed. That wasn't like him. It should have been his first idea! What did that say about him? ... He didn't want to think on it.

"... Right," was all he said on the topic.

Elliot's talking kept him on track. Tom looked at him again, this time really studying him. He looked nervous. Afraid. He figured it was understandable, given the situation, but beyond that... Elliot didn't seem like the kind of guy that would relish hurting someone else.

It sounded like he really believed what he was saying.

Tom sighed, and his own expression softened too. He looked at the ground.

"You're right. It's us or them. None of us can die, but we can still be hurt. Sorry, I... guess I'm just not used to this yet. Do what you have to do. I'll back you up when I can."

This time his eyes - the little pixelated representations on his visor - met Elliot's. He nodded, just slightly.

He kept walking, making sure Tom was behind him as they went, eyes landing on another generator, rushing over to it, crouching in front of it and beginning to fix it, freezing for a moment before gesturing for Tom to join him in doing the task.

“It’ll be important to know how to do these… It’s uh… Simpler than it seems, just connect the wires. They’re all color coded so…” He trailed off for a moment, lifting his head and looking around, “Theres only ever 5 in total… If you run into more than 5, that means Nolis in the round- Uh— Actually, don’t worry about that. We can explain back at the cabin because that information won’t really help right now.”

Elliot focused back on the generator, startling at the sound of a gun, moving to stand up straight again, eyes flicking around, “I… Uh… Can give you a run down on kidd…”

Tom shot him a grin, ignoring the wires for now. He could confidently say that Elliot wasn't a liar. Rewiring the generators definitely seemed simple, simpler than it had any right to be -- but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. As long as it didn't involve any math, he had no complaint.

He took a step back, rubbing his own arm with his left hand while he looked out over Elliot's other side. The temperature on this island was weird. Anywhere near anything on fire was skin-pricklingly warm, but away from the burning trash piles the air was cold. There was a cold wind blowing in from the water. And yet... It was the weirdest thing. It was like he felt two different atmospheres. One was blowing in off the ocean, and one was dry and stuffy. Like he was trapped in a box.

"Yeah, tell me what you can about c00lkidd. Anything that can get us through this roun--"