Chapter Text
The scenario had been on his mind for weeks, though you can’t exactly call it a scenario when you already have all of your bags packed, a job ready, and a flight for tonight. It was stupid. He knew this could fuck up everything he had been doing. But he needed to give the other closure, he needed to help him forget. It was obvious the man was struggling, Shedletsky saw him on the news-hair raggedy and wild, beard overgrown and unkempt, eyes sunken and dark. This was for the best, even if it could possibly screw him over.
It was final
.
.
He was going home.
Getting off of that plane felt like a fever dream, Shedletsky had to pinch himself a few times to make sure this was all real, and seeing the city for the first time in over a century didn’t help with his derealization. It was bright and beautiful, the fact that he arrived at sundown was perfect as-well. Glowing neon lights, cars, people, food- speaking of food.. Grabbing a small bite wouldn’t hurt.
He left that small little burger truck with 2 bags worth of goods, talk about a small bite. When he got to his apartment he immediately unlocked the door, he was on the 7th floor, wanted to have the nice city view. When he got in it was small, quiet and plain. But it was cozy and subtle, you’d never expect a vandalizing ex-god to be living here. Oh yeah, speaking of the vandalism, his first order of business was to go and destroy every temple and castle, every church and statue built in his name. He needed Builderman to forget about him, of course, if it all just disappeared overnight it would raise suspicion and anger in the man, so he’d probably have to be in the city for a few years.
He quickly built his bed, it only took a few seconds, he didn’t need to worry about with nuts or bolts were the right size, just the flick of his finger and everything was put together. Next order of business was to sleep, he’d figure out everything else in the morning. Flopping down on his cheap—nowherenearwhatbuildermancouldvebuilthim—bed, he switched off the lights and fell asleep.
Ugh.
He had work in a week.
Shedletsky woke up bright and early, throwing on a grey hoodie and jeans, the most basic least suspicious fit possible, he was going to map out the city, could he have just looked up one on the internet? Probably. But he trusts himself more than anyone else, and he’d like to have everything 100%
This includes the schedules of every worker, in which places he would need to sneak in, the layout of the city, the grid of all security cameras, the closest restaurants, and most importantly—when Builderman would come to check up on places. When Shed saw that Builderman was struggling to forget him, he didn’t just see on the news that Builderman looked gruff and tired. He had read shitty articles, poorly made social media posts, and seen images of Builderman checking up on everything and anything related to Telamon. He’d circle around buildings at night or day occasionally, if anyone was caught anywhere he would give them a fine, and not a small 100 bux.
If you were lucky the smallest it would be is 10,000. If he or any guards caught you doing anything as simple as spilling a drink on his sweet sweet statue of Telamon, then there’s a chance he’d give you community service, if you were vandalizing it then you’d be put in jail. Builderman was determined to keep everything pristine and untouched. God forbid anyone touch his sacred worship temples.
Even in this day and age, over 100 years since Telamon left, people would still worship and pray for his return. It upset Shedletsky. The whole reason he abandoned everything in the first place was to be forgotten. But clearly no one is smart enough to pick up on that, not even his own husband.
He planned to take a walk around the whole city, he’d have to span his exploring throughout months. While he used to live here he didn’t know everything about the place, and even if he did, the blueprint had changed by at least 50% since he’d left. Things like the sewers and borders of the city remained, but everything else? A mystery to him. God. Just the thought of running into Builderman scared him. There’s no shot that his lover wouldn’t recognize him even a little bit, and once he did, he’d do everything in his power to prove he was Telamon.
Shedletsky strolled past small cafes taking note of their structures, a bus stop, a bank, another apartment building, parking garages, small shops, everything he walked past he would make a poor drawing of in his little notebook.
Then something caught his eye. After an hour of walking he came across a temple. They were scattered throughout the city. You wouldn’t expect it at first- for random beautiful and breathing taking cathedrals to be scattered throughout such a modern and to-date city. But they were there regardless.
He resisted the urge to explore it. Really he was just curious to see how Builderman was taking care of the places. If the rumors and articles were true about it being pristine, or if he had gotten lazy over the years. He had hoped for the latter. He scribbled down a note beside the drawing to take a look at it later and continued walking.
When he got home he took off his hoodie and spread his wings for the first time in days, let all energy go, big brown wings extended from his back and the sides of his head, softly dabbled with a slightly lighter tannish color on the ends of the feathers. Oh yeah and his chicken feet of course. He flopped back down on his bed, thinking of exploring and looking around that abandoned temple of his, you really couldn’t call it “abandoned” but it was abandoned by him. So to him it was long gone. He shut his eyes and curled up— tomorrow is another day.