Móno (
monochromatically) wrote in
aterat2022-09-16 09:46 pm
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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?
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?
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.”
no subject
"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?
no subject
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…”
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
“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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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?
no subject
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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
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!
no subject
"We can start as soon as you'd like." The problem seemed like something that should be tackled sooner rather than later.
no subject
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.
no subject
"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?"
no subject
Though he blinked a little, that was Harry’s last name... right? “Oh, why? Did he do something?” Harry was okay now that he’d gotten to know the guy better after their awkward meeting. Plus, he decided to wear a cowboy hat when they were building snow men last winter. Those were pretty cool hats.
The offer gets a pause, before he nodded. She could get there faster without having to walk all the way, and her portals hadn’t needed her to pick him up or anything... So that sounded like a good way of going. “Can you...? I kinda just wanna go back. I think I probably gotta talk to people... And I don’t wanna run into anyone else on the way.”
no subject
"Not yet. But he over worries about everything. Makes him no fun at all." Plus he might do something. Probably not, but he might! He'd probably do it in a way that made it look heroic but really it was just boring. Boring and fun ruining.
"Sure," she didn't even really pause before the portals appeared around them both, swiftly transporting them both to his home and plopping them down. It only took a few seconds to go from where they were to here and she gave him a smile. "I'm a taxi back home sometimes too."
no subject
“Oh…” the boy mumbled thoughtfully, with a confused little tilt of his head. Harry had seemed kinda fun last winter, after all! But he also trusted Illyana more than he trusted most people, so it wasn’t hard for the boy to accept that maybe Harry was boring or had become boring since he last saw him! Maybe something had changed since he saw the giant guy last. People and things changed a lot around here, after all.
It was a little disorientating for the portals to suddenly appear and transport them without much more than a word of confirmation from Illyana, and he blinked in surprise as suddenly they were plopped down near the house where he lived. “You’re really good at that. I still never got any better with TVS yet.” He responded as he finally glanced back up at her. “Thank you for bringing me here, though.” Even if he was still a little apprehensive, at least having a plan with her meant going home was a little less scary or worrying.