lostintransmition | IC INBOX (DATABURST)

The next time Mono comes through the TV into the cat tree at the Trojan Housewares, he'll notice that there's a large number of colorful origami boxes created with differing colors and designs and weights of paper in the second level of the tree. Each of them has two holes in one side, neatly formed and identically sized, as if created with a hole punch.

~~They are the perfect size to go over Mono's head.~~

[They're some of the most beautiful things he's ever seen.

No, really. Svelte is full of pretty colors and patterns, cleaner and nicer and better than the black-blue-grey-green dilapidated Pale City ever was. At every corner is something that's at least okay to look at at bare minimum. It's bright and it's alive and brimming with noise and people, and he was so scared of it at first--more light and more people makes it much harder to remain unseen--but now he's glad for it, happy to walk on unoccupied rooftops while the city thrums under his feet. Besides, there's still so much territory in the Dregs that remains uninhabited.

The point is: he would never have found something like this back home. And no one would have ever made something like this for him, either.

Mono picks one out, putting the mini cowboy hat he'd picked up at the Mall in its place, and stares at it for a solid few minutes before he actually puts it over his head. Feels the weight, the newness of the paper. Breathes in deep.

What a gift. He loves it.]

[Coda's on the Coda couch in the lounge when he discovers his present. They don't say anything aloud, not immediately, but watches him try the new mask-boxes on with a sly little smile on their face.]

[Mono’s still silently and gleefully hooting to himself about the new hat, patting it up and down, feeling out every inch of this gift. It takes him a while before he actually turns around and spots Coda on their couch.

But when he does, he brightens up and waves. It sure is something, the sight of the kid with a colorful new box on his head, when the rest of his palette is a bunch of ashy browns that border on gray. Not that he cares.]

Look! [He pats the sides. Isn’t this the coolest?] Someone left a bunch of paper boxes in the cat tree. Was it you?

There was a store at the mall that was selling some good paper for it. Scrapbooking paper, wrapping paper, all sorts of stuff. Bugsy helped me with cutting the eye-holes in them all. I've got enough to make more, if something happens to those, too

[Coda seems pretty smug--it's a good look for the kid.]

Really?

[It wasn’t just them. Bugsy helped, too. And they made them, didn’t just find them, and they’re willing to make more, and, and, and...

Well, he’s a little overwhelmed, is all.

Mono seems to pause for a moment. Then he hops off the cat tree straight down from the second level, crosses the lounge, jumps onto the Coda couch. Hesitates. Then hugs their side.]

Th—... thanks.

[Coda lifts their hand to very lightly, just with two fingertips, pat Mono's back as he hugs them.]

You're welcome. If there's anything you need, you can always ask. These were just something I was guessing you might like.

[A stiffness leaves his shoulders. Coda doesn't reject him or tense up or just let it stand, they even reciprocate somewhat with that little back-pat, and he just... he folds in, just a little, clinging on for a few moments longer. He... he missed this.

He lets go eventually. There's always a possibility they get short with him if he holds on for too long, and it's not something he wants to risk at this point.]

I know, [he says, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to answer with.] They're great. I love them. I had a bunch of hats I picked up from the Mall, but I'm gonna wear these a ton now.

Hm, maybe we should have a little fashion show someday. Put hats on Bugsy and Ms. Mojo and me...

[Coda would be more into playing dress-up than they tend to admit. They took to the formal like a duck to water.]

That might be cool. I'd let you guys borrow my hats, but they wouldn't fit.

[Also some of them are barely hats. Mono somehow punched holes through a small used paint bucket, and it's only one number among the collection he has stored away.]

[ CT isn't proud of herself for practically fleeing Trojan after Coda vanished, even if she makes sure to keep in contact whilst she's gone and she's sure the others understand. It's just that Trojan is full of memories. No matter where she looks, there's a piece of furniture where she and Coda cuddled up to sleep, or where they sat on their laptop, or where some shenanigans of some kind went down, and something in her aches every time. It's too new, too raw.

So she's been crashing on Wash and Carolina's couch for a few days, already, feeling like an intruder in the couple's private lives even though they assure her she's welcome to stay as long as she likes. It's not like she hasn't known loss before, so many people she knew and loved died during the war, but— Coda was special, and they're not dead (god, she hopes they're not dead) they're just not here and it's all sorts of emotionally complicated.

She was just starting to recover enough to consider at least braving the store for some more clothes and maybe have lunch with the others when she realises Bugsy and Gil's network IDs have been deactivated, too. What follows is another pang of loss that her poor temporary roommates have to help calm her down from, but when the initial shock passes her first thought is— ]

Mono.

[ She doesn't even tell Wash and Carolina where she's going, and she'll apologise for that later, but she's not wasting time, not when she doesn't even know for sure how long it's been since they disappeared. She hadn't texted them since last night. So, she slings her bag over her shoulder, tugs on her boots, and then beelines for Trojan to try and find Mono. ]

Edited 2021-09-01 16:49 (UTC)

[ Mono had gotten into the habit of checking his phone. He presses the buttons that he knows will tell him if they're gone or not--a message prompt opened to a username. He can't read a thing on the screen, but he knows what it looks like when someone is gone, because it looks just the same as when Yakko disappeared.

So everyone's gone. Everyone except CT, and... him.

He'd been expecting this--nothing good ever lasts for him--but it still hurts. It hurts like nothing else.

He doesn't want to leave, but there isn't much for him here anymore, besides his literal belongings, but the screen in his bedroom makes them easily transportable. He knows it's high time to move. There's too many strange adult NPCs and none of his guardians to ward them off. He just doesn't want to go.

So he's stayed, but he hides too, and when CT arrives he's skulking in the rafters like a ghost as he has so many times. He sees her, of course, but... he doesn't know if he wants to talk to talk yet. Not just to her, just at all. ]

Edited 2021-09-02 05:23 (UTC)

[ She’s never known Trojan to feel empty, the way it does when she steps inside. It’s not like they ever occupied the entire place, not like it couldn’t be quiet when no one else was around, but it never really felt like this. Maybe it’s all in her head, maybe just knowing the others are gone is enough to make it feel that way, but she doesn’t like it.

The worst thing is the signs of life left behind. Everyone’s most personal belongings may be gone, but there’s blankets on the couches, doors to bedroom spaces left open, the soup still on the stove. This is—was?—their home, and now everyone’s… ]

Mono?

[ Her voice cracks, slightly, and she curses at herself. Get it together, CT. Focus on the one of them that’s still here. The Changelings looked out for Mono and maybe she can’t understand him in quite the same way as they could, mundane as she is, but he’s part of this little… whatever they are—family?—and if they’re the only two left, she’s going look out for him, too. As best as she can. As much as he’ll let her.

She’s not sure if he’s here. He’s so small and she still has trouble spotting him even when she knows roughly where he’s hiding, sometimes, but she calls out as if he is, anyway. ]

You don’t have to come out right now if you don’t want to. Hell, I can even leave if you want. But I can wait, too.

…I’m sorry I wasn’t here.

[ No. No, he doesn't want her to leave.

A TV--one of the many still scattered around Trojan--flicks on, a familiar blank white screen with a familiar crackle of noise. Something to let her know he's here, so that she doesn't leave before he can get himself together and show his face.

It takes a while, but he does, eventually. Slips silently out of the roof beams and turns up in the shadows between shelves, just out of the light, silhouetted by the way it reflects dimly off the floor.

He doesn't say anything. He doesn't even look at her, just staring downwards. ]

[ She jumps slightly when the screen crackles into life, but then she exhales—alright, that's a sign; she can wait. And wait she does, wringing her bag strap between her hands, trying not to let the strange atmosphere get under her skin.

Then she sees him, and her face softens another notch. She takes a step closer, but doesn't go all the way up to where he's standing. Crouches down. ]

...hey. Guess it's just you and me now.

[ She swallows the lump that forms in her throat at putting it into words, but her voice stays steady this time. She's done more of her fair share of reining in her emotions; that's what being CT means, really. Connie was the one who cried, who felt things so deeply. CT could never afford to feel much more than righteous anger. Though these days, what it means to be CT is... muddled; she really thought she was learning how to be Connie again. ]

I know I'm not... [ she presses her lips together, rephrases ] I know you've known me the least time, but as long as we're both still here... I'm here.

[ Maybe she'd have found a less clumsy way to say it, another day. Maybe her words wouldn't feel so stuck in her throat if she had more time and distance. But they don't have that luxury. Their friends, family, are gone. It's just them. And they need to figure out what that means. ]

[ It's. He's feeling a lot of complicated things right now.

He wishes she were here sooner, he wishes she'd been around when he needed someone to turn to when he realized that everyone else was gone, but there's nothing in him that can be mad at her. He knows it's hard to stick together sometimes; he's surprised that the lot of them had made it this far at all. He guesses the clock finally ran out. Really, he's just... glad she came back, and came back for him. He wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been abandoned completely, but she came back.

Mono shuffles over, stiffly. Grasps at the fabric of CT's pants, and just. Rests his forehead against her leg. He accepts this. He accepts her. He wants to stick together, as much, as long as they can. Please. ]

[ Her chest aches terribly with that horrible pain that has absolutely nothing to do with injury and everything to do with guilt and loss. She should’ve been here when it happened, but— she can’t change her past self’s decisions. She’s here now, and Mono’s silent acceptance makes her breath catch for just a second. Carefully, gently, she rests her hand on his back. ]

I’m sorry, [ it’s quiet, but it bears repeating ] I’m not going to leave again. Not in any way I have a say in. Wherever I am, you’re welcome to be, Mono.

I’m— I’ve been staying with some friends of mine. From my world. They’re a little older than me, but they’re… they’re good people. I know you probably won’t want to stay in a place with strange adults full-time, but… I’m sleeping on the couch. The TV’s there, my laptop…

[ Ways for him to get in, whenever he feels safe to. Wash and Carolina are safe, she knows they’d never hurt him—but they’re strangers, and she doesn’t expect Mono to trust strangers right off. ]

They won’t mind, really. And I won’t be there forever. It’s just… raw, right now. When it isn’t— [ she takes a deep breath, steels herself; she’s making a promise, here ] when it isn’t, I can find somewhere of my own. Our own, if you like.

[ So they're leaving Trojan.

Mono takes a deep breath. Yeah, that's... about what he expected. They can't stay here with three of them gone, can they? They can't stay. He'll... have to move his things. Go back in the meantime, to the dusty maintenance attic in that old building in the Dregs. He's not going to stay here on his own with all these NPCs wandering about.

It hurts, but it's not new. At least he has a place at all.

And at least she still wants him around. At least he'll still be able to find her and get to her, but… he doesn’t know if he’d really settle in with that offer.

He nods, the motion rubbing on the fabric of her pants.

Mono would like to say the yes is definitive; he prefers to hold tight onto anybody who even gives him the time of day, but he just… CT is still an adult who he doesn’t know like he knew the others, who isn’t weird like him in the way they were, even if she is (so far) accepting of what he is. But even if he can’t see himself staying full time, it’d be nice to have a place where he knows he’s welcome. Somewhere to retreat. ]

Glad you’re still here, [ he mumbles. ]

[ She truly hates to abandon the store. Trojan was, is, the first place that really felt like home in a long, long time—but a lot of that was the others, was having them all together. Being with people. Now it's a big, empty store and she'll probably visit, sometimes—maybe that'll keep the sim from refreshing the changes they've made, keep the memories around—but being here full time...

She just couldn't do it. She wishes she could, but she couldn't. ]

...me too. [ she swallows thickly ] I'm glad you're still here too.

I can show you where my friends' apartment is. But I'll be out and about as usual, too; I'll check in with you even if you don't come by when I'm there, you know? And— and when I do find somewhere, you can help me pick. So it's got somewhere suitable for you.

[ She remembers the way he used to come and go even more before he officially moved in, got his own room. So she expects him to be in and out, really, even when she's away from Wash and Carolina, and a retreat is exactly what she wants to offer. Somewhere safe, somewhere he can come whenever he wants.

It won't be... ideal, living mostly alone, but she can't stay with Wash and Carolina forever, no matter what they say. It's a one-bedroom apartment, and they deserve their privacy back as soon as she can give it to them. She'll just have to find somewhere close enough to visit easily, and get by with that and Mono's stays for company. ]

We'll get by, yeah? [ then, putting the effort in to sounding less uncertain ] We'll get by.

... 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. ]

IC INBOX (DATABURST)

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action, after the others vanish

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