Chapter Text
Wake up.
Eat.
Die.
Sleep.
And repeat.
The cycle is burned into Noob’s head by now. They don’t know how long it’s been. At this point, they’re not even sure they want to know.
How many years has it been? Has it even been a year?
They hope their cat is still around. That it hasn’t been longer than her lifespan can handle.
Noob can’t help but wonder if they’ll ever see anybody other than the survivors again. Will they escape? Or will they be trapped forever in this eternal purgatory, left to lose their minds?
Whatever happens, it’s no use dwelling on it. If they think too much, they really will lose their mind.
So they should really get out of bed. Do anything but sit alone with their thoughts.
But they can’t bring themself to.
They’re alive, but they certainly aren’t living.
In fact, they’d rather be dead.
That’s not an option though.
…
Noob sighs, rolling onto their side. They squeeze their eyes shut, trying to imagine escaping. They don’t care where they escape to, anywhere is better than here.
They aren’t even sure if they care about escaping anymore. They just need to hold on to the futile hope so they don’t go crazy.
Maybe they’ve already gone crazy.
…?
The bed underneath them begins to feel odd.
Beds in the forsaken realm are stiff and uncomfortable.
But not… whatever this is.
The feeling begins to spread, and Noob’s body begins to sink into whatever the bed has become.
They panic, trying to wriggle out of the bed.
But they can’t.
They can’t move their legs.
Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, Noob summons their slateskin potion. They use the last bit of motor function in their arms to lift the bottle to their lips, swallowing down all the bitter liquid inside.
In just a moment, they become like a stone statue. They’re so cold, so still. If they hadn’t already experienced the real thing over and over again, they would’ve thought this is what it feels like to be dead.
Their heavy stone body sinks faster, what they now recognize as some kind of rift devouring them whole.
The feeling is odd, it’s almost like when they’re being transported into a round. But the feeling lasts more than a moment, a prolonged feeling of unreality rather than just a snap.
A blur fills their vision, eyes unable to comprehend the mess of brightness surrounding them. Every attempt to view their surroundings ends with the light assaulting their retinas, dragging emotionless tears from their aggravated eyes while they slam their eyelids shut.
The slateskin slowly begins to crack, but something else is taking its place.
Their head hurts. Their hands hurt. Everything hurts.
It’s like something is hatching out of their skin.
Slateskin slides away in chunks, leaving their skin a patchy mess of yellow and grey. Discomfort ebbs from their very cells, painfully aware of everything as their yellow skin is drained of all color.
Inside their body, there are changes that Noob couldn’t identify unless they were ripped open and dissected. All they know is that everything inside burns as if it were dissolving. Their heart beats arrhythmically, squirming in their chest with every pulsation. Agony strikes them below their stomach, like the organs in their lower body were shrinking in on themselves.
Their skin is shifting, covering newfound holes in their body. They shake as parts of the void inside them are replaced with muscle and other internal tissue.
Fingers ache, nail beds pushing out their original fingernails in favor of claws, still bloody from piercing through their fragile skin.
It hurts, but their nerves begin to dull. The sensitivity in their body slowly shifts to their skull, which they can feel pulsing around their scrambled brain.
They can feel buds of sensitive bone-like tissue worming their way through the skin on their forehead. Noob gags horribly from the pain, a scream caught in their throat that their body can’t be bothered to release. The buds bloom outwards, splitting the surrounding skin in their wake. The growths continue to expand, shoving more and more of Noob’s skin aside. Eventually the pain ceases. Noob touches a finger to the structures, noting the hardness and shape of what they assume to be horns.
Blood drips down their forehead, legs, and arms. The sticky red liquid soiling their clothes.
Normalcy returns to Noob’s body at once as they fall unceremoniously onto the damp ground. Water seeps into their clothes as they blink, trying to regain their senses.
They’re in a dark alley. Alone. The only company they have is the large buildings framing either side of the narrow path, and the small critters scurrying around their body.
Noob sits up, scanning their surroundings. The puddles in the alley glow multicolored, reflecting the flickering lights. Noob props their clawed hand on the wall to stand up, flinching as the filthy bricks shift with the weight of their body leaning on it.
It feels like one touch will make it collapse. That’s not safe. Noob isn’t safe.
Heaviness plagues their upper body as they try to get away from the decrepit building. Their legs simply can’t keep up when it feels like they’re wearing patches of armor all over.
Waves of exhaustion roll through their body as Noob forces themself to keep moving. The alley feels like it never ends, a labyrinth of graffiti tagged walls.
Noob absentmindedly kicks rocks as they walk, mind too captivated by the odd sensation of the feeling in their new horns. They’ve lost body parts plenty of times in that realm, but they’ve never gained any.
Their mind still feels fuzzy from the transformation, barely even comprehending the world around them. They kick a stray rock with a little too much force, letting it hit the wall with a loud THUNK.
Noob is violently snapped out of their thoughts as the building beside them shakes. Bricks fall out in several places, one barely missing Noob’s head.
They cover their head with their arms and attempt to run.
But they aren’t fast enough.
The entire building lurches sideways, about to tumble onto Noob. The survivalist desperately fumbles for their slateskin potion, panic gripping their body as they fail to find it.
All they can do is hope for the best as the building comes crashing down above them.