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It was the usual day— wake up, go through the same old, boring routine, gather up in the main cabin, eat breakfast, await the rounds start, enjoy whatever break you're given between rounds, rounds end, eat dinner, disperse to do God knows what, and then finally, sleep. Just to wake up and do it all over again.
Taph threw himself upright with a heavy sigh, this was getting pretty boring lately... He should find something different to do. One day...
He sat at the edge of his bed, long enough to assure that his vision wouldn't black out once he got up entirely. Raising himself on wobbly legs, still tired from sleeping, he made his way to the clothes draped over the chair across the room.
He felt oddly lighter today, literally and figuratively, but his eyes were nearly shut closed from sleeping just minutes ago, so he ignored it and kept going with his routine. He changed from his pajamas to his usual outfit, securing his robes with his belt and lastly, raising his hood to cover his head after putting his hair in a ponytail with all the grace of a falling ragdoll.
'This should be presentable enough, not like we'll have much time to worry before being sent to the slaughter grounds...' Taph giggled internally, as if it was a joke, which it sort of had grown to now that they'd gotten used to this.
Ding, ding, ding.
Taph jolted at the sudden ringing of the bell by his door, frantically looking up at the sky through his window. It had grown darker, taking a shade of nearly blood red— a sign of the rounds nearing their start. The bell usually meant "breakfast is ready", but seeing that he had gotten up so late it might as well have meant "if you don't come over and eat now, you won't be able to at all".
His hands ran over his body, quickly double-checking that everything was were it was supposed to. After confirming such, he half-jogged half-ran to the main cabin, only to find everyone but him already sat at the table, breakfast served. Nice going Taph, they were waiting for you too, you might've just doomed us all.
He bit his tongue and swiftly made his way to the kitchen, finding and taking his seat at the table after throwing apologies every and each way, being met with dismissal and understanding.
Breakfast was over shortly, everyone spreading out to do Spectre knows what before the rounds start, the sky getting bloodier by the minute. Taph found himself chatting away with Chance and Noob, though it was mostly them doing the talking as he nodded along. At some point, after a playfully mean comment from Chance, Noob started the theatrics, throwing their hand on their forehead and faking a fainting. They leaned onto Taph, their "savior" from Chance's "inexcusable verbal offenses", but upon their head landing on his chest, they paused abruptly.
"👇🚫?" (Something wrong?) Taph asked, hoisting them upright. To the surprise of all three of them, Noob extended an arm and pat Taph around his chest area as if searching for something.
"Taph, um, sorry to ask- are you wearing a binder today?" They kept their hand over his chest for no particular reason other than forgetting to move it.
"🚫... ❓🫵🤔?" (No... Why do you ask?) Gears started to turn in Taph's head, his brain working overtime, but for some reason the pieces weren't connecting. What was he missing? He was too sleepy still for his mind to work it's full potential.
"Are you sure..?" They slowly peeled their hand away from Taph. He didn't mind it being there, currently he was more confused than anything.
"...💯." (...Yes, I'm sure.) He raised an arm to also search the area, only to find Chance touching the place already. At this point he was extremely bamboozled, the answer was at the tip of his tongue. Just what could be wrong about his...
"Taph, where are your boobs?" Chance asked, hand shamelessly groping him still as if they couldn't believe it.
Taph now shot both hands up to pat at his own chest, suddenly being very aware that some part of him was missing. Seriously, how did he not notice sooner? That's not something he in specific just forgets.
"👆💣💣... ❓📍?" (My boobs... Where did they go?) A chill ran up his spine, but at the same time he was enveloped by a strange feeling of euphoria.
"You better not be asking me." Chance joked, chuckling a little at the absurdity of the situation. His hands were still on Taph, but now sat stationary over his heart, feeling it pulse under Taph's skin and clothes, just because he hadn't swatted them away, yet.
Builderman and Shedletsky walked past the scene, and rightfully stopped dead in their tracks. Their jaws hung open, their eyes not believing the sight in front of them— Taph, Chance and Noob all patting around Taph's chest as if searching for gold. They shared a look that more or less said "Are you seeing this? What do we do?" before Shedletsky decided to speak.
"Hey, how about we don't grope the demolitionist-"
"The Spectre gave Taph top surgery." Even more shocking, it was Noob that interrupted. They also had half a mind to take their hand off of Taph.
"WHAT?!" Shedletsky screamed just before Builderman put a hand over his mouth.
"Shush, you. But do share, what the 'ell?" Builderman was just as confused by this, looking over to Taph to gage his reaction.
"👆🔍👇, 👆🤔⏰👇." (I didn't notice until now, I think I woke up like this.) Taph finally decided to push Chance's hand off of him, seeing the gambler make a playfully disappointed expression out of the corner of his eye.
"That it?" Builderman asked, entirely perplexed.
"Well, congratu-"
The sky suddenly glitched into sands of blinding white and pitch black, bold red dominating most of the sky still. In the blink of an eye, they were somewhere unfamiliar.
"-lations...?" Shedletsky finished, finding himself all alone in some sort of forest. He looked around once before shrugging and running off, although he'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious.
[ Location: Planet Voss ]
[ Killer: Slasher ]
[ 0/5 ] - [ 10:00, 09:59, 09:58... ]
Taph opened his eyes inside a structure that resembled a rocket. It would be a very nice spot to set up a nest in and sleep, if there wasn't a beast on the loose, hunting for their heads, he considered. He shakes off the thought, quickly getting to work on setting up a tripmine inside before darting through the map.
The plan was to find a teammate or two and stick close, maybe set up a few tripwires on the way. He couldn't help but notice how much easier and most importantly comfortable running was today. Maybe their captor had decided to do a good thing for once.
Run and run more is all he did, not counting the breaks in between the sprinting to catch his breath, but he had still found no one. With a defeated sigh, he checks the round status, already unfortunately aware of what he might see.
[ Shedletsky, Taph, Dusekkar, Noob, Two Time, Builderman, 007n7, Elliot ]
[ 2/5 ] - [ 2:57, 2:56, 2:55... ]
'What the #### could have possibly happened out there.' Taph had stopped running by now, his curious walking turning into a halt of perplexity. Was it even worth it to set up more traps? Going in blind, while not knowing where anyone is and if they'll benefit from his guessing placements?
Taph switched paths. Instead of moving around the border of the game grounds, he now headed straight for the center of the map, keeping an eye and ear out in case he heard, well, literally anything. It was oddly quiet, considering Shedletsky is in this round.
Taph checks the round status again.
Shedletsky was in this round, yes.
Okay, maybe he should give up and find somewhere to wait the game out. Taph walked to the nearest castle looking structure, finding a machine which he quickly started working on. If Jason's blade didn't kill him, boredom surely would. His fingers swiftly connected wires with their corresponding other half, the two parts blurring together as if they weren't cut apart moments ago. He would never understand how that worked, but he didn't really care to.
The machine was completed in minutes, and now only a few seconds remained for the round to come to an end, so he sat and waited.
...
It was really boring actually, he'd do just about anything to occupy himself, thinking in circles can only save you for so long. What could he think about...
He leaned onto the machine, pressing his chest onto the side of it while placing his arms on top of it. Huh, he was much closer to it than he thought.
Wait.
Right, he got boob-be-gone'd that morning. Seriously, how does he keep managing to forget about that? Whatever.
This... This wasn't bad at all actually. Usually he'd be in a constant state of slouching to some degree, but now he can straighten his back way more comfortably and he.. doesn't feel as disgusting anymore. Maybe he can start getting better like this. Maybe. That'd be nice.
The piercing screech of steel purposefully dragging against cold white concrete snapped him back to the present. With a quick scan of his surroundings, he easily spotted Slasher slowly scratching the wall across from Taph with his machete, trying to grab his attention. Unaware prey was no fun after all. Taph stared ahead, right at Slasher, realizing now that he was more or less cornered if the beast chose to take just a few steps closer.
Finally, entertainment!
The Slasher tilted it's head to the side with the curiosity often seen in children rather than bloodthirsty hunters. He waited. Taph was confused, but not afraid, not anymore. Death was unavoidable as he was right now, so all he could do was try and not waste his last moments in the round. He slowly brought his hands up to sign.
"👋." (Hello.)
The Slasher did not move, but Taph could feel his cold eyes running all over his body, analyzing him. He was observing, searching. The Slasher finally replied after what felt like hours.
"🫵🚫🪞." (You are not the same.) Its eyes never left Taph, the poor survivor attempting to look back at him. Taph didn't realize what the Slasher could be talking about at first, until the pieces connected and he felt as if a lightbulb just dinged over his head.
"🌑🖐️✊👆💣💣." (The Spectre took my boobs.)
The Slasher visibly stiffened from shock.
"👆⏰💣💣🫥. 👀?" (I woke up and they were gone. See?) Taph turned his torso to face the Slasher, patting and petting the front of his chest to show it's flatness. The Slasher tilted his head once more before starting his approach.
Slasher stopped in front of Taph, who was still on the ground, leaning down and lifting him with a single arm and motion by grabbing the front of his clothes. Taph was dropped upright on his feet just as quickly as he had been picked up, the Slasher apparently confirming a specific missing part on his bust with that short contact. Despite the confirmation, the Slasher didn't stop looking at Taph, specifically, his eyes kept switching between his covered face and a part of him that was usually inappropriate to stare at. Taph sensed indecisiveness behind his eyes, and tried to answer the question he assumed the Slasher had.
"👇😳, ☝️👍." (This was unexpected, but good.)
The Slasher claps in short, excited motions. Then in the blink of an eye, roughly snatches Taph by the front of his shirt and pushes him up against the wall, so far up that he was not touching the ground anymore.
For a second, Taph thought that it was over for him. But that's all the time that this feeling lasted, because a few moments later, he opened his eyes to find himself back at the main cabin, at "home" as they call it. Breathing, alive, unharmed. He looked lower, just to confirm...
Yep, boobs are not there.
He pumped a celebratory fist in the air, then got up and headed towards the door before stopping himself. Maybe today, he could handle spending time with the others, especially now that he had one less issue stopping him from doing so.
Perhaps things would get better from now on. Besides, hoping never hurt anyone.