Archive of Our Own ^beta

The repetitive melody of fingers meeting metal, tugging at wires and moving gears back into place, was a little sickening after one too many rounds. All the sounds of vaults being jumped, the silent scent of petrichor the mist provided as it formed the exits, the sounds of screams marking the death of a fellow survivor… a full day of it, and seemingly a life destined to be nothing else but such for the rest of eternity. Though, luckily, it seemed that this was the last round of the day for the tired survivors, and possibly for an equally exhausted killer.

Jack yawned, eager already to go back to his cabin, and take off this… ‘costume’ he’d been gifted by the Mist at some point. It wasn’t a bad costume, but the belts clinging from one side of a jacket to another, the lack of glasses, the beret that kept being adjusted after every chase… yea, it got tiring. He never once thought he’d ever prefer his work clothes over another option, but they sounded REALLY nice to wear right now.

However, Chaoxing was wearing them for the sake of ‘dress up,’ so he’d have to wait. He sighed as he recalled that thought, and looked to his left to find a generator perfectly placed for him to start on. But before he did, he knelt down, and waited until the usual detection happened. As it did, ‘Avoided Detection’ points were given to him, and he started on the generator without another word.

Feeling the beret on his head shifting again, he groaned and grabbed it, throwing it onto the ground and deciding to ditch it for now. He just wanted to get this game over with; make the mist arrive a little faster, and then go to sleep. As he yearned for his bed, Jack failed to notice the skipping girl headed straight his way, with an outfit to match his.

She quickly knelt down to the same generator, turning her head to Jack, who was forced to try and focus in on her face with a squint since his glasses had been confiscated for the ‘outfits sake.’ Yeona gave him a wave, maybe a smile; he couldn’t really tell with that black face mask on her.

“Hey, dress up buddy! How’s your outfit? I love your belts– oh no, where’s your beret?” She blinked and looked around the floor, not paying attention to the skill check which arrived, causing her fingers to jolt back as the generator made a loud BANG in response.

“Oops…” She pouted as Jack frowned, shaking his head and pointing to the floor as he shifted a gear into the right place.

“That thing’s annoying to keep on your head for too long, I just took it off. At this point, I’m sure it won’t matter if I lose it– the mist will just bring it back to me.” That was one good thing about the mist. Anytime anything was lost, it always ended up right back to the original owner somehow. So Jack ignored the beret still, even as Yeona insisted he try to put it back on, that maybe its placement was incorrect.

“Did you put it on right?”
“Yea, I even double checked with Chaoxing last round since she knows more about–”
“Oh. My. God. You talked to Chaoxing?! Oh, do you think she’s in this round with us?” Right. She was the ‘Fangirl,’ the title the mist had deemed her. He sighed as she continued to blab on about how great Chaoxing’s songs were, ‘Especially the one where she collabed with STAR*STRUCK!!’ So Jack silently picked up his beret, hitting one last skill check before he opted to just… walk away.

Keeping his bits of sanity with him, Jack made his way to another generator, only to find it already taken by three other survivors. But he had to pause, staring at them all with furrowed eyebrows as he made dead eye contact with Nathan, who he hadn’t really seen wear pink before. However, his hair was pastel pink, and he was covered from head to toe in jewels, gems, sparkles, and frills. That look applied similarly to the others; Iris whose colors were a lovely shade of blue, and Dae-jung’s as well, but in a lighter pastel tone of crystal blue.

“Hey Jack!” Iris smiled, as per usual, and Jack couldn’t help but feel obligated to at least smile back at her. She was far too kind for him to just brush off sometimes, with the offering of her pot of life all the time when he needed it, it felt wrong to just reject her greeting. But as he smiled at her, he looked at Nathan and Dae; who were… yea, tired. Nathan still gave a curt nod regardless as Dae offered a small smile and a chipper, “Hello!”

“Hey… uh, the mist put you guys in outfits too?” Iris sighed and nodded, a bit tired as she fixed her pigtails over her shoulders.
“Yea… but hey, at least we’re really cute, matching and all!” She motioned to Dae and Nathan.

“I have never hated frills more than I do now.” Nathan frowned, and looked down at his outfit. “This thing’s actually pretty itchy… at least it’s not that one outfit, though. The…” He shuddered at the sheer thought of it, and everybody knew exactly which one he was talking about. God forbid the mist made him wear that outfit.

“Yea, frills are usually like that.” Dae-jung frowned as he carefully connected the wires of the generator. “They’re really nice to look at, but when it comes to wearing them all day long? Almost as bad as skin tight leather…” he pouted at the memory.

“Skin tight–?”
“Trust me, you don’t wanna know.” Nathan nodded as he let it slide by, assuming it was just as bad as the ‘outfit we do not speak of.’ Iris hummed as she hit her skill check, and Jack opened a nearby locker for the sake of convenience if needed.

“Hey, have you seen the killer, actually? I don’t know if they’re chasing anyone right now, but none of us have seen who it is…” She pondered with a hum as the delivery boy turned his head, trying to fix his beret back into place.

“Huh? Oh, no, I haven’t… they’re probably far from here, cross the map, so you’re fine anyways. I’ll let you know when I see ‘em.” He paused, and looked at the amount of generators done. Right, he was tired, but as usual– he still had to go do his job. “I’m gonna go find another generator. Good luck. Don’t get stabbed.” Jack walked out of the building as his eyes scanned around, seeing no generators in his direct line of sight.

So he crouched and continued to wander across the plains, moving through grass as his eyes scanned from building to building, looking for a machine which lay untouched. Then, the sound of his heartbeat sent a shiver of adrenaline through his spine, and he stood still as the feeling of eyes seeking out, trying to detect, laid just above him. However, as he looked up– oh.

The Werewolf, usually just referred to as ‘Cole’ by Eiji, was standing right above him with a deep frown. He also seemed to have the misfortune of having a costume forced onto him; and unlike Nathan, he didn’t get as lucky when it came to avoiding skins. The cow print and the revealing parts of the clothing looked like it made him cold despite all the fur which clung to his body in thick clumps.

“Aw, jeez.” Jack stood up as he looked at him, watching as he whimpered and scratched behind his ear, clearly willing to just throw the round to get it over with. So, Jack turned on his radio, and spoke into it.

“It's Werewolf. But he ain’t interested in killing us right now.” He clicked his radio again as a sigh of relief came from– the bush?

“Thank god! I was hiding for no reason…” The creaking of metal caught his attention, then he furrowed his eyebrows as an entire suit of armor popped out from the leaves. Quickly taking the front of the helmet and lifting it, he recognized those entrancing eyes anywhere. Elijah sighed as he moved his way through the branches, awkwardly placing one foot in front of the other through the suit of armor, which made his movements entirely stiff like he was a doll without knees.

“...the mist is so mean to us today…” Cole could only whine as he quickly hugged himself, shifting away as he sat on a fallen tree, whimpering as Elijah tried to fix the armor best he could.

“Talk about it– agh… couldn’t have even given me my casual wear, no. It's gotta be the one outfit I can’t move in.” Elijah sat next to him, sighing in relief as he stopped moving for a second as the sound of a generator being completed rang out in the distance.

“At least Chaoxing got lucky.” Jack crossed his arms and huffed, shaking his head as he turned to walk off towards the woman. “I’m gonna ask her to switch outfits at this rate. She’ll probably fit this better than I do.” Then he considered it, and decided that since it was the last round anyways, the mist probably wouldn’t care enough to stop them.

“I saw her in the cabin over there with Seoung.” Through the whining, Cole pointed a clawed finger to his left, and Jack only gave a nod of thank you in return while he walked off towards the aforementioned location. The buzzing of his radio continued as Nathan attempted to talk to Seoung; whose radio was probably off the entire time, as it usually was.

So as he grabbed the device, walking past a tree that hadn't crashed down into the ground; he didn’t notice the very low branch clinging to his shirt as he continued forward.

“I’m headed towards them; don’t hear their radios, so they might be off. I’ll pass whatever you need to say to–”
RIIIIIIIIIP–

Dead silence rippled through the woods as Jack stood there, staring blankly forward as he slowly moved his hands to his chest. He felt nothing but skin down there. He whipped his head around to see the white cloth hanging from a branch; the entire front part of his shirt had been torn off into a mere strip of white dangling from wood.

“...Jack? What was that?” Nathan’s voice crackled through the radio, but he didn’t even bother responding. Jack just stared at the cloth with wide eyes, then looked down at his torso. Torn into shreds, his bare chest was basically revealed for the whole mist to see. The creaking of metal indicated someone was arriving, and his gaze snapped up, only to see Elijah flushing and quickly shoving the metal part back to cover his eyes.

“Shit! Uh–” The camp counselor creaked his way over to the branch, tugging at the fabric before releasing it from the branch. Well, most of it. The other half of that piece was dangling, even shorter than before– and the armor didn’t allow him to properly reach his arms up enough to get to it.

“Oh, good god. I’m so sorry Jack– ok, crud. Just–” Elijah looked at Jack, looked down, only to look back up to the sky instead as Jack quickly hugged his arms around himself to cover up the open area.

“Don’t look, idiot!! God– turn around; do you have a spare shirt under that armor or something..?!” The feeling of the belts now resting on top of his skin was dreadful, the texture digging a pattern into his flesh.

“No, I don’t! They made me go shirtless with this thing..!”
“Gross, don’t tell me that– just say you don’t have a shirt and… and– ugh, just go, don’t look this way!!” Elijah squeaked and quickly spewed out lines of apologies, every once in a while interrupted by ‘shit’ and ‘oh god’ in between as he creaked away.

“Jack? Jack, what– OH, GOD.” Nathan was quick to rush over, only to quickly turn around at the sight of Jack trying to cover his now exposed skin. Dae-jung took no time and quickly moved in front of the delivery boy, turning his back towards him and moving as Jack shifted slowly to the side.

“Chaoxing’s right behind us, right??” He blurted out as he motioned for Nathan to move along; despite the fact his nose may have been bleeding as result of the… incident happening before them. “Does that jacket have a zipper, or– something?!”

“No, because god forbid the mist give me a zipper!! Get away from me, I’ll–” Suddenly, as he jerked to the side, the rest of the shirt made a tearing sound. Now, there was no shirt to even cover his stomach area- the entire thing had just… torn. Jack let out a hiss of annoyance as he quickly grabbed the ends of the jacket and hugged them together within his fists, looking around for Seoung and Chaoxing’s location as he heard a generator being completed.

“Chaoxing, Chaoxing get over here!!” He was practically screaming for the pop idol as the sound of her footsteps drew near.

“Jack, sorry– I’m here! What–” Chaoxing gasped and covered her eyes as she realized just what was happening in front of her, and Seoung walked over only to pause in her own steps. The two were also in outfits; luckily, Seoung’s ‘Covert Ops’ outfit hadn’t torn, and Chaoxing was wearing Jack’s usual outfit. Seoung took a quick look, and covered only her right eye, as the left eye was already obscured by the eyepatch which she bore anyways.

“Did they give you an extra shirt or something?!” He looked at her so desperately, but she shook her head quickly and peeked from behind her hands for a moment.
“No, they didn’t– my clothes are in the cabin..!”
“You’re fucking kidding me.” Jack hugged the jacket closer as the sound of his heartbeat banged in her ears, Dae-jung behind him still trying to assure that the situation was fine, that it wasn’t just super embarrassing for anybody involved.

The sound of his heartbeat only echoed as Cole approached with Yeona and Iris tailing him, confused by the sudden noise and rush of survivors into one area. Yet when the werewolf arrived, he too suddenly yelped, and quickly ran the opposite direction as Iris gasped at the sight. Her jaw remained dropped in shock as Yeona wasted no time, taking off the ‘face mask’ around her neck and quickly unfolding it into what was almost like a full blanket, covering it around Jack’s shoulders. For once in this entire round, he let out a sigh of relief, and muttered a ‘thank you,’ to Yeona as he clutched the blanket onto him tightly.

Then, the mist suddenly rolled in; and it was quite noticeable that the Werewolf had run into the woods, thus ending the round early for everyone at the choice of not wanting to leave Jack… well, shirtless, for any longer.

Jack flushed as he returned to the ‘lobby,’ or more like town, which the survivors rested in. Though most of the others not participating in the round were asleep, there were a few exceptions. Arlo was one of them, usually running in to try and tend to survivors whose wounds the mist had neglected or missed, and usually just staying up out of pure nature. The other notable survivor that was often awake was Saadiya, who liked to say goodnight to everyone, including those who were dragged into the last round of the day.

Today though, there was an extra survivor still up– Lyndon came walking out just behind them, intending to give them a goodnight after his parrot Rauhm gave him hell the entire morning by flying around, too antsy to get into another round. However, Arlo squeaked, and quickly ran over to Jack at the sight of the ‘blanket’ Yeona had given him so quickly.

“What happened? Are you okay, what are you–?” But before Arlo could even move the blanket, Elijah cleared his throat behind him, having thrown off the helmet and revealed his red face. Slowly, his hand lifted the piece of fabric he still had from the remains of Jack’s shirt.

Arlo blinked, looking back and forth between the two before he quickly jumped back, his mouth opening and closing, little stutters of words and apologies spilling out. “I’m sorry, s-s-s-so sorry!! I shouldn’t have touched you without permission in the first place on the shoulders or anything so– sorry!! Sorry!!” Arlo quickly waved his hands around as Saadiya came over with the usual smile.

“Hey, it’s no sweat, the mist will give it back overnight, right??” She tried to comfort him as she looked to Lyndon behind her for assurance; but the pirate seemed a tad faster, and covered his left eye as Rauhm squawked and tugged at the rope upon his right eye’s patch.

“Aye,” Lyndon quickly rushed away to his cabin as Saadiya sighed, urging Jack to go back to the cabin. Elijah, of course, offered to escort him for the case of anything happening. As the two walked, the creaking of the armor only caused Jack’s mood to sour a bit more– but he couldn’t complain, since it was just Elijah’s outfit; and being around Elijah wasn’t so bad.

“Uhm… I’m really sorry for looking at you when it happened.” The camp counselor shook his head as they made it back to his cabin.

“Yea, it’s… whatever. It happens.” Rolling his eyes, Jack walked up the stairs and folded up Yeona’s face mask, handing it over to Elijah, whose gaze still shot straight back up towards the dark sky. “Give this back to Yeona for me– and dear god, maybe tell the mist not to give you that outfit anymore…”

“I can try the second half, but no guarantees.” That made a dry laugh come out of his throat as Jack turned to his door.

“Whatever. Goodnight, Elijah.”
“Night, Jack… l–” he was cut off by his own tongue, and he cleared his throat. “See ya later..!” Elijah then took off into the distance, leaving Jack to watch him pathetically hobble away in the suit of armor as he shook his head with a sigh.

Entering his cabin and looking at his bed, which had neatly folded clothes upon them, his original out– he hoped that the mist would give him a new shirt at least, or let him drop the outfit entirely.

Of course, it gave him the shirt for the outfit back, hanging with the rest of the outfit in the closet. But the note next to it instructed him to, once again, wear it for the entire day. Groaning, Jack slapped his hand against his face, sighing into his palm with a drawn out breath before he grabbed the belts and walked into his bathroom to change. He could only win so many fights, he supposed.

Jack pushed his hair behind his ears as he entered the main area they were allowed to hang out in, sitting down in a corner and looking out into the sea of survivors. A few eyes flickered over to him, but only the eyes which had been the witnesses of yesterday’s events. Seemed none of them were going to spread it around or talk about it like a rumor– but he knew if he was paired up with just one wrong person, that would change. There were quite the gossipers in the general lineup; some being Yronica, for example, who was still in high school by the time she–

“Hey.” He jumped and turned his head towards his right, just to see Seoung had seemingly just appeared right next to him out of thin air. Jack sighed, and looked at her outfit; she was still wearing her version of Covert Ops, matching with his outfit, but in a completely black coloring instead. And notably, her shirt was completely covered underneath the jacket, unlike his own outfit which was seemingly held together by belt after belt. Jack gave a nod of hello to Seoung, before she opened her mouth once again.

“About yesterday.” He let out a drawn out sigh as he shrugged, looking down at his completely fresh shirt, and looking over at her again; a slight warning that if anything she was about to say was even ever so slightly meant to embarrass him, he wasn’t going to have it. But the expression on her face remained the same, so he couldn’t even read if that was the case.

“It’s just your shirt. Mine didn’t tear.” She pointed at herself, and Jack furrowed his eyebrows. Had she tested it? He supposed that made a bit of sense where it should also be a concern for anybody else in a matching outfit, but why was she telling him this? He stayed silent, thinking about it before–

“Oh.” It was just his shirt. The gears clicked, and Seoung’s statement was clearly trying to make him wonder– was the mist doing this on purpose? He pursed his lips, rolling his eyes and letting out a groan. Before he could open his mouth again though, Seoung held out a similar white shirt to him. He stared at the neatly folded cloth, blinking twice before his fingers carefully rested upon the soft fabric.

“If it happens again, you can change. I washed it last night.” Seoung gave him a curt nod, which he returned with a slightly softer look. He had to admit, it was nice of her to do, to even consider giving him a replacement shirt.
“...well, thank you.” He mumbled as he placed the shirt onto the table. She only gave another nod before she got up, leaving him alone, and causing him to turn around and see who else was in the lobby at the moment. Nathan was… unfortunate today, it seemed. He frowned as he tugged at the ‘MILK’ necklace which adorned his ‘Moo’ outfit; Yan only laughed at his misery since she’d gotten lucky with her plain clothing.

Most of the men who had gym clothing outfits seemed to be wearing them, with a few exceptions, and… well, Elijah was still creaking his way through the crowd, whining as Gabrielle tried to put oil on some of the stiffer joints to help. But before she could finish, the announcement dinged, and the list of the first survivors for the round were listed. At the same time, Jack assumed the killer had been chosen for the round; and he sighed as his name blared through the speaker as well.

“Good luck!” Callum called out to Aaaqil from across the room, watching as he walked off in his prom wear. The jock had also been put into his own prom king outfit, but that bitter smile on Aaaqil’s face as he was waved off implied that the title wasn’t shared with him, and might never be. Jack couldn’t help but frown and glance over his shoulder at Yronica for a moment, before moving his way forward behind the boy in a purple blouse and tie.

Part of him just hoped this round would be normal.

Yea, of course they weren’t. They never really were, so what was he expecting to be different? It had started off fairly mundane; figure out who the killer was, hear somebody say it through the radio, their voice broken up by static, and hard breathing. Then, while they were running for their lives, play around with a few gears and wires until it was your turn to be on the running field, or if it was time to go save somebody’s ass, or until it was time to run off to another broken machine.

The hospital smelled of chlorine; or at least the room he and Nathan were in did. The poor man was still, sadly, stuck with that god forbidden outfit. However, Jack had the bright idea to just be a little nice, even after yesterday– an awful mistake, really. He knew the shirt Seoung had given him most likely wouldn’t fit over the larger build of the bodyguard, but his jacket could at least hang on his shoulders and cover up everything a little bit more.

So he was there, repairing a generator in a room smelling of cleaning supplies, with only a t-shirt and an exposed man next to him. About as normal as any match would be, really.

The ding of a bell indicated someone had been hit, and he quickly drew his hands away from the machinery and crouched down for a second. The avoided detection notification blessed his ears as Nathan felt a shudder, the eyes of the killer bore into him as though they were knives themselves. Jack sat back up and quickly found his focus again on the areas of the machine, sighing as he looked down to his walkie talkie.

A weak cough rippled through the static,
“...eugh– it’s… Polluted..! He left me, but–”
Yan coughed out her words with the strength she had left before the end went quiet, indicating that was all she had to say; or had the chance to say. Nathan’s head shot up and he quickly stood, the generator rippling and letting out a loud, explosive noise in response to the neglect.

“Sorry, crud– it's Yan, I need to go.” He didn’t wait for a retort from Jack if there was any, and he was turned on his heels, off with the jacket as well. He wanted to open his mouth to call after him to at least hand it back, but now wasn't really the time for that. Sighing, he shook his head, and slammed his fist into the generator as it popped, signaling its completion.

Jack stood up and stretched, crouching back down eventually and beginning to carefully make his way through the abandoned hospital areas. The crumbling drywall surrounding him created holes in which he carefully made his way through, only to find that Serena and Dakari were already on it. Giving them a nod of confirmation, Dakari took a second glance over to Jack with a frown.

“Where’s your jacket?” He sighed, and remained crouched even as he turned his head over to him.

“Nathan needed it more than I did at this point.” He shrugged it off, letting it be as Serena watched him leave for a second, only to turn back to the machine with a furrow of her eyebrows at the memory of Nathan’s outfit. The bodyguard was–

“It’s time to go.” Dakari had heard that voice enough to know who it was, and the fingers which were so careful on the generator drew back with a yelp as Serena got up and made a break for it without another word. Jack cussed under his breath as he stood and began to run, not looking behind him and only relying on the vision in the side of his eyes to indicate if the fish boy was after him or not.

And of course, he just had to be. Not Dakari, not Serena, no– with his luck, it had to be him. He spoke it through the radio as his feet took him past a set of two lockers.

“The killer is near me, focus on your damn ge–”
BAM.
“Agh–!” The cry of the water creature made him turn around for a split second to see what the hell had just happened.

Elijah gave him a thumbs up through the thick suit of armor before he began to try and bolt away, Finley turning to face Elijah’s direction instead as a result of the locker door slamming into his face. Jack pursed his lips, holding down his smile as he cracked a thank you into the device before his feet were off once more. He didn’t care much for the detection he received, because he knew he wasn’t the one on the chopping board just yet anymore.

Finding himself back to the mundane rhythm of clicking on generators, Jack looked over to see if his companion on the machine was anybody interesting. He was with Aaaqil, who silently worked away at the generator without worry, like it was as easy as cutting a piece of cake out. His hair seemed a little disheveled though, so Jack let him be without another word, and continued to tug machine part after machine part.

“...I like your outfit.” He mumbled, as the nerd quickly whipped his head up before facing his eyes back down with a flush.
“...uhm, thank you…” Aaaqil let out a whisper before the two fell back into silence. That moment of tranquility was broken with the sound of what could be described as a gong, a nearby cry of pain– close enough to signal that Jack needed to get out of there, now. So he quickly stood, ignoring the rumbling of the machine as Aaaqil shot up the same way, the sound of their heartbeats drumming against their chests as the two bolted for opposite doors.

And of course, he took the unfortunately, closer door to Finley. Jack held his breath as Finley’s harpoon raised up, and he shot himself backwards before–
RIIIP.

The sound was quick this time. The dead silence filled the air once again, and Jack couldn’t help but feel his face heat up. He didn’t even have a belted jacket this time to cover him, and Finley’s eyes obviously shot straight down to his now exposed chest.

He sat on the ground, and took no time to grab the ends of the shirt and quickly shove them back together as he glared up at the Polluted, who was almost frozen in time as Aaaqil’s mouth remained gaping. But the nerd snapped out of it as Jack shot him a glare, and he quickly ran off towards Elijah without another question as the radio crackled out from Adriana’s end. He couldn’t hear her though, he was too busy yelling at Finley.

“Don’t look– what the fuck is up with you killers and looking at it just as soon as you see it?!” Sure, it was unreasonable to be upset about that; he’d do that too, out of pure shock, if it were him. But, the anger blinded him, and so he tried to defend himself by shouting out as loud as he could. “Get the fuck away, you piece of tuna!!” He threw a spare piece of rubble at the Polluted, who stumbled back and quickly looked into the air with a pursed frown.

“...you’re a… boy..?” That made him pause.

“...You’re actually kidding me right now.” Jack wanted to laugh so badly, but the silence which followed the Polluted was deafeningly telling him such was the case.
“...Get out, get out, get out!!” Jack screamed as he grabbed another stone, letting his shirt loose as Finley only turned the hell around and booked it out of there, as though he were the one being chased, all while looking a little more flustered on the way away. Elijah peered into the room, cussing and quickly cracking into the radio again for Nathan to get back down with the jacket.

Jack let out a long sigh of relief as Seoung’s shirt fit snugly over him; a little tighter than the one originally, but he couldn’t complain anymore. He just had the concerns of if it would tear again. As he made his way out, he was met with Aaaqil smiling at him rather timidly, looking at his shirt and looking back up at his rather… unimpressed face.

“Uhm… I’m sorry for looking for so long.”
“Don’t talk about it. Ever.”
“Alright, ok– I won’t, I promise.” Aaaqil stuttered out as he held up his hands and looked at the ground as Jack clicked the belts of his jacket together again, his heartbeat going crazy as Finley seemed to also be waiting for him to get done changing.

“You go off and do a generator or something, I don’t wanna let that entire thing just… stop the round. Again.” He groaned at the memory of Cole running straight off as soon as it had happened the first time, and he approached the Polluted again as soon as the nerd had run away towards a distant machine to fix.

Adriana was giggling to herself as Finley’s head remained flesh against the wall, groaning as he lifted it, only to meet with the drywall again outside the bathroom as though he were hoping the force would knock him out cold. Jack couldn’t help but squint, almost a glare as he looked over towards where Adriana was. She waved her hands at him assuringly as she opened her mouth.

“Not you, sorry– haha! Finley here was telling me how he really thought you were a girl!”
“...and you still looked?” Jack retorted back quickly towards the killer, who whined and shook his head as he rubbed at his eyes.

“It wasn’t on purpose, I swear– sorry about your shirt… Why'd you even have an extra? Did you wear a fake one on purpose?” Finley paused, and glared over his shoulder. “...was this to make me so flustered that I just couldn’t continue to kill–”

“It happened yesterday.” Jack groaned as he admitted it, and turned on his heel to head towards another generator. His eye twitched as he heard Finley calling out to him again as Adriana’s giggling went still in the realization this was the second rodeo he’d had with this outfit. Letting out a groan again, he found himself on a half finished generator, looking at the parts and not noticing Elijah looking directly at him.

“You ok?” His voice cooed out, sending a slight shudder down Jack’s spine as he couldn’t find it in him to be snappy to the camp counselor. So he gave a silent nod in response, slowly finding his rhythm again as he allowed Elijah to fill the empty space.

“Uh… you know, it… really isn’t a big deal. I just wish they gave you a better shirt, honestly.” The clicking of the skill check rang out in the back of his mind. “...tell you what– I’ll sneak a t-shirt under this outfit tomorrow, or maybe I’ll get lucky and get my normal outfit back, so I’ll put an extra shirt in there too. Or maybe I’ll carry three, who knows.” He slowly raised his head and stared at the knight in shining armor before him.

Slowly, Elijah lifted the helmet and flashed a smile.
“You’ve done a lot here in the mist, I think it’s the least I can do for you for all those times you saved my ass!” Jack stared at him, and couldn’t help but let a smile slip on his face for a moment, the barrier slowly crumbling into pieces of rubble on the ground.

“...thank you.” He muttered as the final generator popped between the two.

It happened again. Of course it did. He didn’t even bother to think of what the round was like before that– all he knew was that he was so sick of it. Jack once again sat against the wall, Elijah covering him with his body as the Slasher stared down with furrowed eyebrows, backing away at the sight of the delivery boy’s ripped shirt.

“...sorry?” That questioning tone, that stupid mask, this stupid game, the stupid mist– the stupid outfit, the stupid beret, the stupid shirt, the idiot in front of him, his stupid feelings– he couldn’t keep his boiling anger down anymore. His shirt wasn’t even ripped, it had only torn slightly down, but Elijah still jumped straight in front of him as soon as it happened as though that would save anything.

Jack just slammed his fists down and hoisted himself up as he grabbed his shirt,
RIIIIIP.
It was quick and easy, at his own hands this time as Elijah looked up, staring with a dropped jaw as Wren cleared his throat and looked at the ceiling.

“Listen, it really–”
“Shut the fuck up!” Jack pointed at the killer, who put his hands up in response, refusing to look down at his now exposed skin.
“I’m keeping this shirt the fuck off from now on! It’s never getting close to this outfit again– god it– ugh! That– you–” Jack was out of words, slamming the torn up strips of fabric on the ground as he kicked a locker, leaving a dent as he stormed off, shirtless, into the mist-covered gates.

Wren decided to just… give up that round. Just as every other killer had. Jack didn’t care though– he was tired.
Elijah, though… honestly, the dent in the locker from just one kick? He bit at his fingernail slightly, looking to the side to where Jack had run off to.

'Damn,' was his only thought.

And so was the mist, apparently. The next morning, he’d simply gotten the letter, notifying him that they would not be offering him more shirts. His outfit would go shirtless, and that was that. Flushing, Jack threw the note into the trash and mumbled, not wanting to tear his casual clothes, with a defeated sigh.

And that was why his Covert Ops skin was doomed to never be given an undershirt.