lostintransmition | IC INBOX (DATABURST)

... We'll get by.

[ They don't have a choice. They'll do what they can.

A thought comes to him. Mono breathes in. Sighs.

He lets go, looks up at her for a moment, then glances out over the rest of the store. Mono clambers onto the stand where the nearby TV still hums with white noise, motions for her to wait, then disappears. It takes about ten or fifteen minutes--she can probably spot him teleporting around the Changeling's old haunts, looking for something all the while--but soon enough, he comes back with a collection of things in his hands.

A small bouquet of pressed white wildflowers. A bright red, incredibly soft tattered shred of cloth. A necklace wire-wrapped around a piece of gravel. ]

Here.

[ At first, she takes his departure as a moment to breathe, to let her brave face fall away for a second before she puts it back on again. Then, she watches the progress of his search curiously, head tilted, never standing up straight from where she's crouched down no matter how much her legs may protest.

When he comes back, hands full of objects and— well, the thing she really recognises is the gravel necklace, she's seen that around Coda's neck. From there, it's a short leap to remembering seeing the other gifts around. To what he's gathered.

The dice he left her are back at the apartment, by her laptop in the living room. She's become so used to using them to keep her hands busy she took them with her even in her haste to leave. ]

...oh.

[ That's all she manages to get out, because she thinks if she tries to say more she might just start crying, and she's really trying not to do that. Mono's had to comfort her once before and if she can help it he won't have to again.

She freezes up, for a good few seconds, before first gingerly lifting the gravel from his hand by the chain. Hesitant, almost, to take anything; like she's making sure. ]

...I think I thought everything would be gone. Even things like this. [ she swallows, closes her eyes for a second, opens them again ] Wonder if they're just so small the clean-up program doesn't care or if everything they got whilst here is still around...

[ It's a coping mechanism, of a sort. Asking questions, thinking instead of feeling. She hopes it's the latter. Maybe she can find those colourful PJ pants Coda once let her borrow, if so. Maybe they can reclaim some things, take some other little bits of this home with them when they leave. ]

No. Some things stay. The ones from the city usually stay, or even... even some things from their world, too.

[ Spoken with authority, because the disappearance of the changelings wasn't his first. He's still holding on tight to the dinosaur tooth he and Yakko stole from the museum and in his backpack is Bugsy's vest pin from all those months ago. Of course he knows. Of course. ]

I think... Coda's tree is here.

[ You know. In case she wants to go and get it. ]

Edited 2021-09-06 04:02 (UTC)

[ Everything she’s heard is second hand. Coda was the first person to disappear that she really knew, really noticed the loss of, but she knows they weren’t the first for the others. She knows there was someone else in Trojan before her. And now… now it’s just her and Mono. Fuck.

She nods, acknowledges what he’s saying, and still takes a long, long moment to keep herself composed. Finally, she slips the gravel necklace around her own neck, and takes off her bag, setting it down open in front of Mono. ]

Anything like those [ she nods at the gifts ] that— that we want to keep with me, can go in here.

[ Not everything will fit. This will have to be about reclaiming the little things, first. And Mono will have things of his own and from the others he’ll want to take himself, she’s sure. But whatever they can’t take with either of them now will have to be later. For her, that means her own belongings, her armour, her clothes… ]

Okay. Okay.

[ She stands up. It’s not far back to Coda’s room, and she knows Mono can reach her easily enough, but it still feels weird to turn her back on him at first—a feeling forgotten as soon as she steps over the threshold of the room and forgets to breathe for a second.

God, pull yourself together, CT. She inhales, exhales, and her eyes land on the tree. It was important to Coda and if she takes it with her, it won’t get deleted in a data dump or something. So that’s what she’s here for, focus on the rest later.

…she allows herself a detour to grab those PJ pants, but that’s it. Those are the items she returns with. ]

[ Aside from what he already has, he isn’t super sure of what exactly CT wants to take back with her. All her key belongings she has right now and he’s not got a clear picture of what she deems important enough to get; it’s a little hard when he’s only recently been able to really establish any belongings of his own, and he’s well aware that the things that grown-ups keep are very much not the same as what he does.

There is one thing, though.

When CT comes back, he’s holding the buzzer she kept in the shared bathroom. ]

Edited 2021-09-07 16:44 (UTC)

[ Honestly, she isn't even entirely sure herself. She's gathered more bits and pieces since moving to Trojan than she's owned in years, but either she has them with her, or they can't be moved yet. So, she left it open, in case Mono felt there was anything between them that would be safer with her for now, and isn't surprised or off-put that he hasn't grabbed much.

Her hand goes instinctively to touch the shaved side of her head, fingertips against the softening texture of its slow growth. ]

...thank you, I hadn't even thought about that.

[ She rolls the PJ pants up and tucks them into her bag, tucks the buzzer in beside them. Makes sure the little bits and pieces are safe and won't end up buried under something else already in there or damaged. ]

I'll— I'll have to come back for my clothes, and stuff like that. And when I have a place, we can maybe move some other things there.

I guess that— [ inhale, heavy exhale ] —I guess that the soups and such should... should be cleaned up.

[ Another thing she almost hates to do, clearing away signs of what made Trojan what it was, but she'd rather deal with it than it sit and rot or the sim wipe it. Maybe one day, after they've moved everything they can somewhere else, doing all this will amount to some form of closure. Maybe. ]

[ Mono nods resolutely. It's... not a fun decision, but he recognizes the need for it. He'd already been getting itchy and trying to think of how to deal with the pots over the past day with the thought of the ongoing, open food going bad, and the rot that would come with so much stuff being left to waste. If he couldn't take care of it and the sim didn't clear it up, he'd definitely have to leave.

He's also never cleared up food before, so he has no idea what she's gonna do and how he's supposed to help. Probably a first good step is being in the kitchen, so... well. He turns around and starts heading off. ]

[ CT closes her bag and carefully picks the tree back up, setting it back down on a counter once they're in the kitchen and her bag down beside it. Turns to look at the soups on the stove, at the fridge, at the cupboards, her hands on her hips. Sighs. ]

Okay. Not everything's an immediate problem. I can take some of the stuff from the cupboards with me to the apartment, maybe the fridge too... same goes for you, if you want, from the cupboards, at least. But the soups and anything neither of us would eat will have to go.

[ She drags her hands over her face. Okay. Okay. Just clear out the pots and wash them. Easy.

She thinks that, then still starts with going through the cupboards first. Things like the hot chocolate mix, coffee, snacks, she can pack up some of those to take. No point in letting the stuff that lasts go to waste. ]

[ He... isn't really sure what he can take. He's seen the others prep food, of course, and there's a fair amount of stuff that--for example, while he's never used stuff like the water boiler himself because no one would let him near it--he's pretty sure he'd be able to figure out how to make them just fine on his own. But he's still not 100% on what is and isn't immediately perishable. And he isn't very keen on bringing anything to his hideout that could rot; that invites sickness and it invites pests. (Not that the white spiders haven't already basically claimed all the corners for themselves, even if they have cooled down...

In short, even though he's been invited to grab what he thinks he can take, the issue is that he doesn't know what he can really take. And...

Quietly, very quietly: ] ... if you make food, can I still come and take some too?

[ He will never starve in a city like this. But. It's nice to not have to scavenge and steal for it. It's nice to eat something that's fresh and warm and not someone's leftovers, made for him, instead of scraping out the afterthoughts. ]

[ CT's face softens, again, and she looks back from where she's tucking some of what she's gathered into her bag to give him a very certain nod. ]

Yeah, of course. I'm not... the best cook, on my own, but I can do simple things. I'll set some aside for you, always.

[ She can do that. If she's going to live alone soon, without it being the default housing where room service was her go-to, she's going to have to start preparing more of her own food, no matter what, and making sure Mono's got something fresh to eat is damn good motivation to really learn. ]

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