Chapter Text
The last target fell to the ground with a soft clack.
A sword – green and black, glitching slightly, sharpened to perfection – was embedded in it. Clean. Dead-center. Just like all the other targets.
For the first time that day, 1x1x1x1 smiles. They raise a hand, and the daemonshank currently in the wooden target blinks out of existence, rematerialising in their hands moments later. It was frankly a little too large for them to hold comfortably, but they liked the extra weight. More power when swinging, as they call it.
“Practicing a new move?” asks a voice.
1x turns in surprise. A familiar figure stands at the edge of the arena.
“It’s not new.”
“It is to me.” He strides over and places a hand on their head, ruffling their hair. They knock his hand away.
“Stop. I’m not a kid anymore.”
“Ha!” The man laughs, though he held no malice. “You can be as old as you’d like, but you’ll always be a kid to me. Never forget that.”
He looks down at them, warmth in his gaze despite most of his face being in shadow. 1x sighs gently. As much as they protested against ███████, they never really meant any of it.
“Come, 1x. Time to go home.” ███████ takes hold of their hand, and they follo-
…That was odd. Why couldn’t they recall his name? They should know their ███’s name. It was ███████, right?
The world seemed to change, as if it knew what they were thinking. The faint whistling of wind faded away, leaving a chilling silence behind.
Something was wrong.
“Kid, you good? You look confused all of a sudden.”
1x snaps back to reality. Yes, something was very wrong. Who was this man, why was he leading them away, what was going on?!
They tried to reply, to ask his name-
~~~
1x1x1x1 jolted out of bed.
The action was so sudden it sent them hurtling towards the floor, blankets and all. A wooden floor greeted them as they broke the fall with their left wing, sending sharp pain through the entire limb.
“...ow,” they muttered, pushing themselves up.
The dream was still clear in their mind, as if they’d just sat through a hyperrealistic movie. Save for the odd blanks where they couldn’t remember names, it might as well be straight from their childhood, where things were simpler and-
No. That can’t be right.
1x1x1x1 never had a childhood. They were a manifestation of hatred, Shedletsky’s regrets and rage in physical form. They were “born” with all the skills they needed, walking and talking the second they stepped foot onto Robloxia soil, a singular goal in mind: find Shedletsky, and KILL him. There was no opportunity for them to have a childhood, let alone one this…cheesy. Internally, 1x cringed.
Yet, they knew they didn’t dream. Couldn’t dream. Not even once since being forsaken, and certainly not as vivid as this. So if it wasn’t a dream, then what was it?
…1x didn’t want to think about it further.
Someone slammed on their door, the sound of wood against flesh making them glare towards the source, wings ruffled. “1x!” someone yelled. “[You] up yet?!”
“Shut the fuck up!” they shot back, getting up from the floor. They heard Noli snicker faintly before footsteps faded into the distance. Asshole, they thought, yanking their cloak from a nearby hook and throwing it on. A curl of their finger called their daemonshanks to them, now held at their waist by some hidden force. Walking over to their bedside table, they grabbed the first hair tie they saw and wrangled their white locks into a high ponytail.
Well, time to start the day.
1x stormed out of their room, resting bitch face already in place. Downstairs, John Doe and Azure were playing Monopoly on the dining table. Where the fuck they got it from, 1x didn’t want to know. “That game better finish in the next thirty minutes or else nobody’s getting breakfast,” they warned, swiping their domino crown from the back of a chair (why the hell was it there?) and putting it on.
John shrugged, sliding Monopoly money across the table. “It’s okay. I’m basically bankrupt at this point.”
Azure smirks and holds up way too many property cards. From the looks of it, he was winning by a long shot.
“Whatever.” 1x walks over to the kitchen, digging in the pantry.
Don’t get them wrong. 1x would rather let every other killer in this cabin starve to death – except the kids, they didn’t do anything – but the act of cooking brought them…not peace. They could only feel hatred after all. Correction, cooking made them hate everything and everyone slightly less.
Plus, nobody else could cook. Noli was banned from the kitchen after turning a toaster into a subspace tripmine, John was missing two limbs, Jason was too busy smoking weed, Mafioso and iTrapped were also busy killing each other, and the kids weren’t allowed near fire. The only other person that actually contributed to their food crisis was Azure, who dug a huge garden in his first week and planted much needed vegetables and fruits.
Speaking of the others.
“Where are the rest of the bastards?” 1x puts the pan on the stove.
“Mafioso and iTrapped are having their usual morning fight-to-the-death, Jason and the kids are still sleeping, and Noli just left for a round,” replies Azure.
John frowns. “Been a while since we had one this early in the morning.”
“Better than having a round at one fucking AM,” 1x muttered angrily, recalling that one time the Spectre rudely dragged them out of bed. The other two killers nodded in agreement. “Now finish your game and help me set the table.”
They turned back to the kitchen counter, throwing pancake ingredients into a large bowl and stirring them together. Noli better count his lucky stars 1x wasn't very pissed off by his knocking, because if so he’d be getting burnt toast for breakfast. Or worse, a burnt subspace tripmine.
An arm nudges them. “Sorry, 1x,” Azure says as he reaches for the plates above them. They huff, but move aside.
~~~
When 1x flipped the last pancake on the plate, all the adults had arrived in the dining room.
Azure’s tentacles helped carry the food out, placing them neatly onto the table. Some murmurs of thanks rose from the more polite killers, but 1x pointedly ignored them. They were only cooking for their own benefit, anyway.
A girl’s voice spoke up, “Ooo, pancakes!”
“I want five!”
Three kids emerged from upstairs. As Pr3typriincess mounted the stair railing and slid down, Bluudud turned to C00lkidd. “You can’t even eat two! Why the heck do you want five?”
“Because Mx 1x’s cooking should be appreciated by eating as much as possible,” C00lkidd boldly proclaimed as he hopped down the stairs.
Pr3typriincess and Bluudud followed him, giving him looks that screamed “I am so done with your bullshit”. He either didn’t see them, or chose to ignore them, for he proceeded to climb on a chair and pile as many pancakes as he could onto a plate. “Are you guys just gonna stand there until all the food is gone?” he asked when they didn’t move.
“No,” Bluudud deadpanned as Jason passed him a plate with one pancake on it. “I’m waiting to see if you can eat all that.”
“Game on!” C00lkidd picked up his fork.
John sighed. “C00lkidd, you’ll choke. Just eat the pancakes normally. Please.”
Meanwhile, 1x was glaring at a certain exploiter and mafia boss. iTrapped, without taking his eyes off Mafioso once, slowly cut his pancake. Mafioso responded by threateningly twirling his butter knife. The tension was so thick 1x swore they could cut it using their swords.
“For fuck’s sake,” they growled, “if either of you try to kill the other during breakfast, I’ll mass infect both of you. BOTH.”
“I’m not doing anything,” said iTrapped cooly.
“You’re stabbing [your pancake] like it personally offended your [entire bloodline],” Noli pointed out, leaning over.
1x was seriously considering flying out of a nearby window. Frankly, they would’ve done so long ago, if the Spectre hadn’t taken away that ability. They started considering throwing iTrapped out of the window instead.
Jason joins the conversation. He signs something rapidly.
“Even Jason says to call it quits,” 1x translates. Mafioso’s ear twitches in irritation, but he obeys, beginning to eat.
Over at the other side of the table, an argument broke out between Pr3ty and Bluudud. John was convincing C00lkidd to not drown his pancakes in syrup. Azure looked like he’d lost five brain cells in the past minute. 1x slammed their head against the table.
It was an average day in the killer cabin.