aterat | Signal Interference

Entry tags:

Signal Interference

Who; Mono and whoever happens to be around
What; Log
Where; Harbor district sewer entrance to start
When; Mid September
Warnings; I will update if specific warnings are necessary. To start I would say: Mentions of solitary confinement/isolation, and abandonment
Note;Mono is now canon-updated to the end of game, and he is not going to be particularly rational atm, so it'll probably take a while for him to calm down and get both himself and his abilities under control depending on the way your character approaches. For more information, see his canon update here.

A young boy stumbled out of the sewers in the harbor district, looking disorientated and somewhat skeptical of the world around him. He shouldn’t be there, really. Not in the ‘children should not be in dangerous places in the dead of night’ kind of way, so much as the… he shouldn’t be in this world, kind of way.

This couldn’t be real, after all. He’d spent months in that room. Months feeling eyes on him despite the presence of the walls he’d built up around him with his powers. Months alone to ponder and let the hurt and anger gnaw at him after his friend… After Six dropped him. After she abandoned him to make her escape from the tower alone, letting go of his hand in the last moment. Just as he had thought that they were going to be free and could resume their joint escape from the city in search of a better place.

This had to be a wishful delusion of a place far better than the Pale City. A place he would much rather be, with people who cared about him (or could they betray him as easily as she had?).

But it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real. The more the thoughts spun in his head, the more anxious and angry he got at whatever had changed the appearance of the space around him to look like something he couldn’t have. “It’s not real.” He mumbled, the light static that flickered in his sclera more pronounced as he frowned at the sight of the harbor district around him. “It’s not fair. It’s not. Stop trying to trick me.” He balled up his hands into fists. Seeing a place like this, it was too upsetting. He didn’t want to see something he couldn’t have. Mono needed to change it back, to stop being taunted by it. “CHANGE BACK!” He yelled in a desperate and unsteady tone. Energy rolling off of him in waves that seemed to thicken the air unchecked as the already small, rundown harbor buildings around him shuddered almost as though they might really change back.

If he had been more clear minded, he might have remembered that if he’d been in his world… he wouldn’t know or remember this place at all. That fact didn’t even begin to edge its way into the child’s mind as a few windows nearby exploded in shards of glass from the strain. The illusion wasn’t changing, the surrounding images weren’t changing like they should be… It was more like when he’d been outside the tower still and trying to get the hang of his abilities to get to the tower faster before everything had gone south.

Why…? This couldn’t be that place. This couldn’t be real, right? So why…? Was that thing behind this? Was it taunting him out of boredom? Could it even do that?

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Confusion touched her expression for just a moment before it faded away to sympathy. She knelt down, trying to meet his level and attempted to make some sort of eye contact. There was power around him, rising power that she could feel prickling her skin but she had felt worse. She had felt so much worse. All she cared about at the moment was finding out what was wrong with him. He seemed so anxious, so frightened, and so confused. What had happened to him?

"I am as real as you are." Once upon a time she had found her brother suddenly after his alleged death. Her reaction had been similar to this. Fear. Anxiety. And ultimately she had fled convinced that he hadn't been real. That none of it was real. Whatever had transpired had to be quite a lot for him. She gave a gentle smile. "My imps have missed you. And I have been disappointed at our lack of a movie night. I thought we had an agreement."

It wasn’t quite as hard to get on his level anymore; the boy seemed… Slightly stretched, a bit more spindly than he had been last they saw. The tower had sustained him, somehow, but it had also begun to change him… Not much, not enough to say it was significant… But still not quite as short as he had been. His eyes darted to her and then away, then back again. It was a frantic and uncertain pattern as he wanted to believe that she was really there and that this wasn’t all some kind of cruel prank, but not quite being able to believe it.

“No, ‘cause you can’t be in the tower. You can’t be there, no one can be there unless they get dragged in and then you’re not even a person anymore. And you’re not from there. You’re just someone I wanna see.” He babbled slightly, edging away and feeling a prickling of tears in his eyes. He’s not really sure who he’s trying to convince though, and his form flickers and stutters slightly as the urge for flight was truly settled into him on instinct.

But then she was talking about the imps, and… The movie night… That thing couldn’t know about the movie night, that was something they’d talked about here. That was something only the two of them knew…

Comfort was not something Illyana was used to offering. For Mono though she would try. He looked strange, somehow just a bit different and not just because of the flickering power. The differences were not as pronounced as hers had been when she had returned from Limbo, but they were enough to cause her concern to grow.

"The Tower?" Ah, he had mentioned that before. That was where he was trying to get to in order to save his friend, wasn't it? Clearly something had gone wrong there. Though she was a bit uncertain if she should push that particularly subject at the moment.

She shook her head. "We are not in the tower, Mono." Her voice was gentle but firm. "You remember me so you remember Aterat." Was that too harsh? Or was that the proper amount? Why was this so difficult. A little frown touched her lips. "Did you forget about our movie night then? A shame, I had the snacks planned." Perhaps this was the correct path to take. He seemed to react at least a bit to it.

Even as Illyana was unsure of her approach, it actually seemed like the right one for the moment. Her gentle words but firm tone were holding his attention about as well as anyone could hope for now. He still seemed to be on the edge of bolting, of course, but he was hearing her out. Listening as she reinforced what should have been obvious to him. That this wasn’t the tower, that he wouldn’t remember her or Aterat if he were there.

It took a couple moments for it to click properly, to settle in place and to feel… real… But it does all the same, and even as he was still panicked and anxious, he shook his head. “I didn’t forget! Or I did… I did ‘cause I wasn’t here. I was… There…” He mumbled, eyes unfocusing for a moment. “I’m sorry.” Escaped as he fussed with the ragged edge on his coat.

Mono glanced at her, and then suddenly his gaze widened. The static in his eyes buzzing a little as a new fear struck him. “But I shouldn’t be here! I should be there. If I’m here, bad stuff could happen here, I can’t… You should go!” He began babbling again, and his form flickered and seemed to stutter a bit before it solidified a couple of steps away like a tape that had skipped forward when you sped the image up.

"But now you're back here," she said with a light squeeze of his shoulders. "Calm down, Mono. You're back here and you can make it up to me. So no apologies." Apologies were for when one had done something wrong and he had done absolutely nothing wrong here. Though she was starting to wonder if perhaps that was a different story where he had come from.

She watched him carefully and even as his powers flickered she stayed still and calm. Whatever had happened he certainly seemed to have unlocked more of his abilities. Now the problem seemed to be a distinct lack of control. Though that would need to be something spoken about when he had calmed down some. If he would.

"I have never been afraid of bad stuff. What could happen?"

Mono tried to take a few deep breaths, trying to calm down and pull back some of his control. What little there was, there was always a little bit of him bleeding out around him, even before… He just realized it now, and perhaps that was making it worse, or perhaps it was from being so fresh out of the tower than amplified everything.

He wasn’t calm enough to get everything under control, but… Illyana was smart, she understood his situation perhaps a little better than other people did, given her own childhood… And she didn’t lie to him, maybe she could help him figure out what to do. Or maybe she would realize how dangerous he was and decide to do something about it, to leave him somewhere like Six had. One part of him panicked at the idea, felt angry that it might happen again, the other part of him thought that might be smart… “You should be afraid though, ‘cause… Illyana I figured out why that man in the hat can do the stuff I can do… And I think I kinda know why people kept watchin’ the tvs and losing their faces.” He admitted anxiously in a mumbled tone. “It’s me, he’s me and I’m gonna be just like him ‘cause of the tower.”

Edging back again, he gave her an uncertain look. “So people should be scared of me, what if I do it here too? I dunno how to stop it!”

Ah. Well, that certainly explained his panic. What he said was relatable to her in a very distant way. Thinking back to the how the Darkchilde had taken over stirred similar emotions in her. Similar emotions and similar thoughts. People should be scared of her. People should run from her. After all she had done terrible things, both as a child and a soulless reconstruction.

"I see..." she frowned as she looked at him, still trying to keep some degree of eye contact. "But you're not him now." The most observant observation one could ever possibly make. "Whatever you do here, there are people who could stop you. I killed Elder Gods. I could stop you." Was she actually certain of that? No. Not at all. Was she able to sound completely confident of it? She certainly was.

"Why were they watching the TV?" Perhaps it would help to know a bit more about his power.

Was he not…? Mono wasn’t sure if being younger and smaller didn’t make him the man in the hat already, just… Not a grown up one, right? “I’m not tall like him, but I still kinda am, aren’t I?” He voiced with an uncertain tone, shaking his head a bit. It was all rather confusing, even months later. “You really think so?” Illyana’s words were a small comfort, though, in their own weird way. She didn’t lie, and she was really strong… And she knew lots of other strong people here, too. So maybe they could stop him if stuff happened. “… You gotta promise you will, ‘cause I don’t wanna do anything to people here!” Not now, but considering his feelings towards people in his world? The boy was afraid that might change too.

The question gets a little rise of his shoulders, picking at the edge of his coat again. He has had a lot of time to think about the answer, too much time. “I think it’s ‘cause of my power. I don’t think I ever turn it off. I don’t think I can. Everyone always chases me and knew to look at me when I was around, and then when I got to the tower the thing with all the eyes… I realized it wasn’t looking at Six at all when we were trying to escape. It was looking at me.” He responded carefully, staring down at his feet. “I think that’s what the signal tower does. I think I’m supposed to be in it, so it can broadcast to the TVS and draw the people in. And… And their faces go first, right? And people made me think I had to hide mine, so...”

He stopped rambling there, a small bitter tone in his voice. He wasn’t sure he wanted to admit the rest of his line of thought, because that would be admitting that the angry hurt part of him felt like they all deserved it.

"Kind of is not a certainty." There was a firmness in that statement. "What you are back there doesn't matter here." Here they could be different people if they wanted to be. That was what people told her and that was what she would tell him. Perhaps it would be enough to convince him of it. If not then perhaps enough time back here would. She met his eyes directly and in a confident voice she said: "I promise." Though...truthfully she hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"I see." She wouldn't tell him that was impossible, that everyone could turn their powers off. That would be a lie. There were plenty of mutants who couldn't turn their abilities off no matter how hard they tried to learn. "What is this tower though?" Was he trying to say he created it? Or was there something else to it. Really, he wasn't making too much sense but she was trying to follow.

Mono wasn’t sure if that was true, it mattered here if he could potentially do to this place what he had done to his own world… As much as he wanted it to be true, to be who he wanted to be here instead of becoming that man… Instead of ruining the good place and hurting the people who’d only ever been kind to him since he appeared here. “Okay… I trust you.” He responded, though, as she promised to stop him if it came to it. That shouldn’t be comforting, it shouldn’t be something he had to ask of anyone, but it helped to know someone wouldn’t just let it happen. Illyana didn’t lie, after all. She’d only ever been honest, and she did what she said she’d do. So Mono was sure he could believe in her word.

The tower was probably one of the last complicated subjects that he wasn’t sure could be explained in a satisfying manner. “It’s at the center of the city… I don’t… I don’t know where it came from, but I also don’t remember it ever not being there…?” There were things that were always going to be a bit fuzzy, and the tower was one of those things. “But I think I always end up there, I think I’m supposed to, cause of what I can do… And I can change it, at least the part of it I was in. So I wouldn’t have to see the thing with all the eyes watching me.”

"Thank you." In most cases she'd have thrown out a sarcastic comment or maybe even a warning that someone should. Not with him though. With him she wanted to be trusted, she wanted him to believe her, and to believe in her. No matter what happened she would try to protect him. There had been much worse foes that she had fought against besides a child with powers he didn't fully understand.

"How strange." Not knowing where it came from certainly complicated matters. Though more so for him in his city than for here. For here it only made it more complicated to try to understand his abilities and what he was trying to explain to her. Still, she listened. "The thing with all the eyes? Is that what controls the tower?" He could change it to cover up the thing with all the eyes. She repeated what he said in her own mind and looked as though she was thinking silently for a few seconds. "Then it's luring you." Her expression twisted slightly as she considered the things with many eyes she knew. All of them with few exception had been some sort of eldritch being. Was it possible that was what had ended up on his world? Something eldritch that then used his power?

Mono watched as Illyana seemed to fall silent for a moment, thinking over what he’d said. The boy fidgeting a little as he tried to work out if she was maybe deciding something was good or bad… But he nodded to her questions. “I think so. It’s really big. Like it covers entire parts of the inside of the tower, ‘specially down near the bottom where I was… And I think the people that get pulled in join it.” The ones who didn’t meet other ends before they were entirely absorbed, that was. The boy could remember treading across it after falling. In a way, it had probably broken his fall when Six dropped him, but he hardly counted himself lucky considering he’d never found his way out. Instead, finding that chair and then giving up, to pull walls around him to at least block the eyes trained upon him.

When she suggested it was luring him, Mono paused at her expression before he slowly nodded. “I think so… Before I was there, like before Six got taken and we were just trying to get through the city… Sometimes one of the TVs would turn on and I couldn’t ignore it.” It had been like a static filling his head. It hurt, and it hadn’t gone away till he gave in to the television. It was like he was supposed to go back, like he was being called in… Back to the room and the part of himself that he’d become. “Six kept pulling me out of it, kept trying to stop me…”

"Eldritch abomination." Her eyebrows scrunched up and her mouth twisted in disgust. What other option was there? Again, she found herself hesitating for a moment, unsure of what to say or how much to share. Sharing helped sometimes, didn't it? Comparing a similar experience was meant to bring people together. But her experiences were ones she rarely spoke about and so they were slow to come out. "I traversed time to find a solution to my problem with my soul. In doing so I ended up in different realities at time. Different places that will not come to be in my own. One the Elder Gods had won. Giant creeping eldritch creatures were absorbing those they ate, causing too many eyes to pop up on them with each new addition." It'd been the worst timeline she'd visited. For a lot of reasons. "Too many eyes seems to be a calling card for them. That and tentacles. Too many tentacles." But, it sounded as though what he was describing fit into the ancient eldritch abomination type of category. Which was....unfortunate for him and his world. Even if it did explain why he knew so little about it, how it worked, and what it wanted. It was nearly impossible to know those things about creatures like that.

"Interesting. That seems to confirm it's trying to lure you. Or to get your attention. Maybe it needs you." And time travel seemed involved somehow too. Odd how similar their lives seemed to be and yet how different they were too. "People with power are often coveted by Elder Ones. They want that power for their own use." Perhaps that was what it wanted with him: his power. Or perhaps it even needed it's power to fully take over his world.

Mono listened very intently as she started to speak, eyes widening some to hear her describe something so very familiar to him. He’d never really had a name to put to the thing before, only being able to vaguely describe it at best. “That’s what it does, the people lose their faces and then the rest of em slowly… Like they get pulled in ‘cause of the signal from the tower broadcasted to the TVs and then after a while they’re just part of it.” He mumbled quietly, a frown on his face. So the thing was using him because he could bring it more food?

Fidgeting slightly, he turned the idea over in his head a few times. “So maybe if I wasn’t there it wouldn’t be able to keep doing that…” Glancing up, the boy hesitantly continued. “Since my power might be what it needs to get people…” He seemed to be thinking on the subject rather hard now, if only because he was here instead of there… “Since it’s there, it can’t get here can it…? Like… I couldn’t accidentally start the same bad stuff happening here ‘cause of my power, right?” Mono’s tone wasn’t exactly hopeful so much as grasping for a potential answer, wanting to figure out what he should do now that he was here again. “Since there’s no tower and nothing, no one could get sucked in… and no one could end up warped in the tower?” There was that little detail, of course. The way the tower warped those within it's walls, and he wasn’t sure how much was him and how much was the entity… But it was hard to forget the monstrous version of Six, the thing she’d become from only a short time there.

Knowing more about his abilities was perhaps good, but it also came with a certain amount of fear given what he realized about himself… And at the moment, he didn’t want to cause anything bad to happen in this world.

With more gentleness than Illyana usually showed anyone she squeezed his shoulder. "I'm sorry." He shouldn't have to go through that. Nobody his age should. But shouldn't wasn't how the world worked, that she knew all too well. The world of eldritch entities had no malice but it also had no concern for who her what it used. The more he described the more certain she was that was what he was dealing with. It was something that consumed without thought.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps it would simply hibernate until it found another that it could use." His line of thinking was logical, but she had too much experience with creatures like that to believe it was that simple. A part of her felt guilty for not being able to offer him more comfort, but she didn't think he'd prefer her lying just to make him feel better. One thing she could offer him comfort for was the idea that it couldn't be here.

"I think it's safe to say that. The circumstances are very different here. You're safe." And she strongly doubted they could be the same here. That didn't mean she thought his powers definitely couldn't hurt someone, but from what he said it seemed less likely that it would cause the destruction he seemed so afraid of.

There was something oddly comforting about the gesture. Mono himself wasn’t sure why she was apologizing since it wasn’t anything she’d done, but the fact that she seemed to understand… To actually know what he was dealing with when it seemed like so few understood? It made him feel a little less alone, a little less out of place…

“Oh…” He mumbled, though, at her explanation. So it wasn’t as though it would just die off without someone to use to draw in its food, it might just sleep for a while. Not that it mattered, he guessed… One way or another, he was always going to end up back in the tower. Either at the end of whatever number of times he tried to stop it, or when he inevitably was sent away from Aterat again. He’d just go back to when he left.

It was nice to at least hear that he wasn’t wrong about the fact that it couldn’t get here, couldn’t use him while he was in this world to ruin things… “That’s… That’s good. I don’t wanna make the same stuff happen here.” No one here deserved that, at least no one he’d met yet. Everyone had been nothing but nice to him, and seemed to accept him regardless of how different his experiences were compared to theirs. And if it did happen… Well, he believed Illyana would help like she said she would.

"I'm sorry..." Something inside of her stirred and knotted in her stomach. Guilt? Perhaps it was guilt over not being able to give him more. Anything else she might have said in regards to what might happen with the creature from his world would just be a lie. From what she knew about him he wouldn't want a lie just for comfort. Besides, he was a smart kid. He'd know it was a lie. He would also know that whether he wanted to or not he'd go back to his world just like he'd never left.

"I don't think you will cause anything like that here." She understood being concerned about hurting people here, far too well. But in all the time she'd spent here she'd yet to actually hurt someone. In a way it brought a certain realization to her that she might have gotten a bit complacent here.

"I understand worrying. But there's no need to. The circumstances aren't the same here. You're safe here." Or as safe as someone could be.

“You don’t gotta be sorry. You’re just telling me the truth, right? That’s better than pretending.” He responded finally with a little shake of his head, still frowning lightly at the idea. He really would have hated to be lied to, especially by one of the adults he actually trusted and looked up to here. It would have made it harder to accept what she told him for a start, and it would have hurt as well.

Mono took a deep breath, though. That was at least helpful to hear that Illyana didn’t think he would cause things like that here. She would know best, after all. Probably better than most people, in his opinion. That said… The boy fussed with his coat again slightly. Even if he was safe here, even if people were safe from him, that didn’t mean it would stay that way. Especially when he didn’t know how to really control his abilities, or how the signal he gave off worked fully. If it could be shut off or not…

So he glanced up with a serious expression. “I… That’s good… But I should still try to make sure it can’t, right…? Like figure out how what I do works better and if I can um… Turn it off?” He explained, taking the explanation on a slightly winding path. “Do you think… Do you think you could help me figure it out?” He wasn’t sure who else to ask exactly, considering how things worked and how awkward he sometimes felt talking about his world to people who had experienced… more normal places… Illyana at least had some idea, and Mono believed she would stop him if it came to it.

"It is. But sometimes the truth sucks," she said with a light shrug. What a childish thought for her to be having. She might be a tiny bit disappointed with herself if she didn't feel so bad for him. Still, she also couldn't bring herself to lie. Not to him and not about this. It might have been easier if she could have. Though maybe lies were never easy, at least not if you actually had a soul.

Life might have been easier without one.

"You should. Having a power you don't understand can be dangerous. It's always better to understand them." She thought again about lying to comfort him. Watching him fidget with such uncertainty made her want to comfort him. She felt like she could at least try to comfort him with a follow up: "I don't think you'll be dangerous." Just to clarify so he might not worry more. "I can try. I went to a mutant school, we all had different powers but were taught the same." This shouldn't be too different. Right?

Childish or not, Mono agreed, and it was put in a way that he could at least understand. The truth did suck. Lots of stuff about his situation sucked! So it… was a good way to encompass the entire mess. It sucked.

He nodded, though, as Illyana explained that not understanding your powers could be dangerous. His powers were dangerous, after all. If the truth that had come to light was anything to go by. He didn’t want bad things to happen here, and if learning might help to prevent that? Then he was going to do his best, even if he wasn’t sure how to go about it.

Mono’s shoulders relaxed some, though, at the confirmation that she didn’t think he would be dangerous here at least. The boy latched onto those words as they were meant to be a comfort. Something that made him feel just slightly better about all the unknowns and uncertainties around himself. “Okay…” he nodded, confirming that he believed her.

There was even a vague beginning of something hopeful in his expression at her agreement. It was still tentative at best… But this was Illyana he was talking to. He knew she would try if she said she would, and he at least… felt slightly more comfortable exploring this option with her, since she knew better about his perspective and experience than most. “Thanks, Illyana. Even if I can just… learn how to control some of it better, I’d be less scared, I think…” Mostly, some of that fear might never leave.

Once she felt his shoulders relax some she took a step away from him and straightened herself back up. For a while she'd wondered if she could really give him any comfort or not and it was somewhat of a relief that she'd seemed to manage at least something. Even if it was a small something it was much more than she'd ever seen herself capable of. Maybe she was getting a bit better at this whole interacting thing after all.

"Okay," she confirmed with a half-smile. "I understand. That's why I tried to learn even more about magic in Limbo. Dark magic corrupts." And she was corrupt enough. This was about as close as she was going to get to admitting that she sometimes scared herself. "We'll learn together." Maybe she'd finally be able to do something to make her own mentor proud.

Mono would probably tell Illyana she was the best, at least for him, at this whole thing than most. But perhaps it helped that they could see similar perspectives and had experiences that most would not consider the norm for their childhoods. It made her a safe person to speak to, and he looked up to her quite a bit.

The boy nodded though, his unsteady smile having gotten a little less practiced in the time he was gone… But he did make the attempt, because she had. This was perhaps one thing that wasn’t terribly hard for him to grasp the idea of what she meant when she spoke… Power could corrupt, and he knew just how bad it could get now. And being scared of yourself and what you could do… Well, he nodded with a serious little expression. “Yeah, I wanna learn together and figure stuff out.” Because maybe between the two of them, they could. And at least if it got out of hand, he could trust her to make sure it didn’t get too bad.

“You can tell me when you wanna, though, and where I should go?” Because that seemed important, adults did have things to do after all!

"The Academy would be the best location." It slightly away from things and it'd been used for the study of magic before. That was close to the studying powers. Besides, it made it feel a bit more like the school she'd gone to. There were memories there and not all of them were bad for once. Some were good memories of good friends doing things she hadn't done in a very long time. Or maybe she'd never done it. How she was brought back to life left a lot of that as a question.

"We can start as soon as you'd like." The problem seemed like something that should be tackled sooner rather than later.

“Then I’ll visit you at the academy. I remember where the road to it is.” Mono added with a little nod, knowing it had been something people were trying to clean up after all the excitement around it. He simply had never really had a reason to go that far, and he tended towards avoiding places that sounded like a place in his world. But if Illyana was going to be there, then it wasn’t going to be like the school in the Pale City. It would be safer now, he was sure… She wouldn’t invite him somewhere dangerous, not without making sure he’d be okay.

Starting soon was, of course, ideal. The boy nodded more vigorously at the idea. “Then I wanna start soon, maybe in a couple days? I should… probably go home first.” He added, a little nervous about that, but also feeling better for having had the conversation with Illyana now.

"Good. And if you ever get lost I can teleport you in. Just message me." And he too can be the recipient of being magically transported out of nowhere by a portal that kind of vaguely smells. At least it'd never seemed like he'd had too much of a bad association with the smell. Most people from her own world associated sulfur with demons and hell, evil things. Which wasn't entirely inaccurate, but that didn't mean she had to like the comparison.

"Just ignore Dresden if he's there." She had absolutely nothing against Harry Dresden. She just kind of found it funny to pretend that she did though.

"Sounds good to me. Do you want me to take you there?"

Signal Interference

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