taph…
ah, yes. the newest survivor in the group, the one that had been found by dusekkar at the base of a tree, tangled up in his own tripwire. builderman found the new addition to the group rather.. intriguing. he believed he’d be the only person in the group who’d build stuff to keep the killers at bay, but ever since taph joined the team, he’d been proven wrong. taph built… tripwires. tripmines too？ & subspace tripmines, things that could send a killer into a concussion. it had happened numerous times, according to taph. well, not according to his own actual words—-taph was mute, so he had to communicate with the others through dusekkar, who was the only one in the team who understood & “ spoke “ sign language. builder had made an effort to learn sign language earlier on that year just so in case he did ever encounter a deaf or mute survivor, but he’d given up early on, so his sign language was pretty broken up. even he didn’t know whether he as gesturing legible words to taph half the time when he attempted to communicate with taph at intervals.
builder wanted to get to know the mute guy a bit more. taph really only ever communicated with dusekkar—-“ speak “ wasn’t an appropriate term, as only dusekkar ever did the speaking. dusek —- that being what people in the group called dusekkar as a nickname —- was a bit of a chatterbox, so taph couldn’t really get in a word edgeways, even if he could speak. taph didn’t seem to mind, however. he seemed pretty content with having someone to listen to, & that alone only drew builder closer to taph—-metaphorically. he hadn’t even greeted the guy properly yet, only ever waving at him occasionally as he passed by taph, either when outside or in the cabin.
taph’s silence was a stark contrast to builder’s own friend, shedletsky. shed was practically the complete opposite of taph.. shed was the most talkative person in the group, always chatting nonstop even in the most bizarre of situations. builder mostly stuck around with shed more than anyone else in the group, so he knew of shedletsky’s chattering habits all too well.
builder was a stubborn sort of guy, despite his softie attitude. when he’d set his mind on something, his goal wouldn’t waver or alternate until he gained it… & his current goal was to befriend taph & to potentially learn more about the man—-such as why he was forsaken in the first place.
builder’s curiosity of taph wasn’t the only reason he wanted to befriend him. builder knew taph. before they were forsaken, taph had worked under builder’s command in the ROBLOX corporation. builder had appointed taph as his right-hand man, always helping out taph with leading ROBLOX as a functioning & thriving city. taph was appointed a job by builder; & that was to blow up terminated users’ houses after they were eradicated from ROBLOX by the hand of builder. builder wasn’t entirely sure as to what happened to taph after builder got forsaken & transported here, but he guessed it wasn’t something positive, especially if taph seemed avoidant of builder. at least, builder assumed that.
” hey, taph.. “
those words left builder’s mouth as he stepped closer towards taph.
he was outside of the cabin, but not too far off from the location of it. he wouldn’t stray too far since there was the very real risk of being discovered & eliminated by a killer, but the area surrounding the cabin was pretty much devoid of killers, so he knew he’d be safe.
he’d spotted taph setting up his traps in the vicinity of the survival cabin, & that had piqued builder’s interest. could taph sense when killers were nearby？ if so, then dusek certainly hadn’t told them about taph’s ability to do so… it would be an extremely useful contribution to the group.
he stopped a couple feet away from taph, his hands now on his hips. he held a hammer in his right hand, as he’d just come back from setting up a turret somewhere further off.
he smiled, extending a hand in an offer of a handshake. he’d never properly greeted you before, & now he was doing so.