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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Mono looks up at that again, still huddled on the ledge he was balanced on. That didn’t sound right to Mono. It didn’t really match up with the Nida he knew… So he looked a little confused, listening very carefully even as he shifted uncertainly. The concept of a mercenary wasn’t something that he knew particularly well, of course, but he knew what everything else meant… Could guess from there what the man was trying to say. At the very least, having something to try to think about and understand seemed to interrupt the panic that he’d been spiraling into.

The flicker in his form seemed to calm some, and he shook his head a little. “But you still chose to, right? What if that’s… what if some people don’t get a choice?” He’s not sure if he would ever get one, somehow…. somehow he always ends up back in the tower. Someday he’s going to be that man, angry and bitter and letting the signal he gave off ruin the city and its people, letting that thing feed.

"I still choose to," Nida says, and he frowns, considering Mono. Considering long and hard.

"I've seen that too," he says at last. "In Edea. In Rinoa. In Seifer. In my world there are darknesses that can grasp and grab and possess a mind. That doesn't mean that someone can't get free of them. That they can't choose good after that. Sure, then they spend their time trying to atone for what they did, but that doesn't mean they didn't choose to do better in the now."

Mono listened quietly as Nida explained what he’d seen of people like that in his world. So there were other people like him…? Or… Not like him, he supposed, but near enough that they had their choice taken from them, at least for a while. “Oh…” He mumbled, clearly considering that carefully. “I think I’ve tried a few times to stop it.” He finally admitted, some of his conflicting memories having started to make some sense in a way. “I still always end up where I started, though. I still always become that man.” He ended with a little shake of his head. “I don’t wanna do that here… I don’t wanna hurt anyone like that, but…” It could happen, the boy thinks. If the wrong thing happened here, he thinks it could. He still felt angry inside, still felt the bitter need to make people pay for making him feel as he did or abandoning him…

But no one had made him feel like that here, at least not yet.

And here was Nida, so pointedly not abandoning him. That's never going to happen.

"Yeah, well there you don't have me and Ignis and that Luna girl Ignis talks about, right? And your boss Tommy. I've heard him talking at the Lodge. He's supposed to be, what, a literal superhero? Think he'd let you do any of that? Nope. You've got something here you don't have there. Family. Friends. Support."

And so your other points are moot. Clearly that's what he's saying.

"Oh, and there's something else you have. A home with two chocobos, a cat, a peacock cat, and your own room, and SO MANY cookies that I helped Ignis stress bake. Well, more like he did the hard work and I bought all these cookie cutters to make shapes."

That was… Very true… He didn’t have anyone like the people here, back in his world. Part of him thought that was best, because he knew what happened to people in his world now. Knew a little too much about what was going on there to not be afraid of it and the idea of it happening to people he cared about. But… Nida was right. “I… I guess that’s true.” He mumbled with a small sniff, eyes stinging lightly. One thing Nida would notice, that while the energy had at least calmed down somewhat around the boy, his eyes remained the same and there was still the faintest power radiating around him. It wouldn’t be going anywhere, not now.

But at least there wasn’t the sound of glass cracking or buildings creaking. He seemed to have calmed down somewhat with his attention so focused on the conversation and puzzling over the point being made. “If I could make sure it won’t happen, if people could stop something bad from happening…” He mumbled, more to himself than Nida. Seeming to be trying to come to a decision himself now. If he could trust people to stop the bad things from happening here, then maybe it would be okay…? Maybe… He could stay with them.

Drew his knees up closer to himself before glancing up at the reminder. A reminder of things that, now that he remembered them, he missed desperately. He missed helping to take care of the chocobos, he missed sitting quietly with the cat or watching Nida’s peacock cat strutting around. He definitely missed the cookies. “I’m sorry…” Finally escaped, his voice cracking slightly. He was sorry for making a mess on his first night back, and sorry for not considering that maybe he could trust people here to take care of things.

Not that it was easy to, considering how quickly the adults had given up in his world to the signal in the first place.

There it was. The kid was calming down. Nida leaned more against his window ledge, happy to just hang out there casually. Better not to pry or push on the power Siren was almost ringing with in the air. Better to just play it cool.

"Don't apologize. It's very clear you did not want to leave, so we're not upset over that. And honestly? Guards thought it was you, so they told me to come and get 'that quick little boy of yours'. Guess they think Ignis and I adopted you.

“They did?” The boy sounded a little confused at that, if only because adoption was still a weird concept to the boy. He knew what it was in theory, but in a world like his? It was as much a fairy tale as any other children’s story was. His earliest memory, one that he sometimes thinks predates even the tower and the cycle he was caught in… was in an orphanage, and that hadn’t gone any better than any other experience around the Pale City had. So, because the boy was distracted, and it was helping to talk about anything but his fears… “Is adoption actually a thing people really do?”

"It is," Nida said, and his expression went... dark for a while. "I've known other orphans that got adopted. But me, I never did growing up."

He'd just been yet another war orphan

“Yeah…? Kinda sucks not getting picked if people were getting picked.” Mono hummed, falling quiet for a moment or two as he thought about the idea. It really was an odd thing for him to think about. “There was an orphanage where I was… I think I was there first, before… Before everything started.” He mumbled, shaking his head a little. “But we never saw anyone get adopted. Even if it was talked about sometimes, then something happened and… I my powers started working then.” But he’s pretty sure that was before the cycle started, and was something that he only remembered vaguely. The sadness, the uncertainty, and then the fire and the subsequent chase as something was after them all. Then his powers happened to work on a tv, and he would be thrown out into the hunter’s forest for the first time.

But when things started anew, and the cycle repeated, he always ended up in the Hunter’s forest instead, skipping that portion of his life entirely.

Exactly. Nida... got that pain quite a bit. Sure, he'd never lived in a proper orphanage, but he'd seen others who had been adopted and still attended Garden. And those that hadn't been who had been tossed there like him.

"Well, here's the thing? Maybe Ignis and I aren't your parents, but we did pick you. We pick you every day. No matter your powers or mine or his, we choose you. We choose you are our family."

Mono listened very carefully to that. Parents were an odd concept still… Something more out of stories than anything he’d ever seen. Not all the stories were good, either… And he knew his friend Luna’s father was a very bad person, at least in his opinion. But the fact that even knowing as much as they knew, Nida and Ignis really would still pick him as family? Mono wasn’t sure if that was a good idea for them, or not… But he also didn’t want to lose them, either. Not like how he’d lost Six when she’d decided he wasn’t worth keeping around for whatever reason she’d decided to drop him. “I…” He mumbled a little, “I like having you guys as my family, if that’s what we are… I don’t want you guys to decide you don’t want me like Six did.” He shook his head finally, taking a deep breath. “I still gotta figure stuff out though, gotta make sure people will be safe… But if you guys still want me while I figure stuff out, then… can we go home?”

"I'd like that," Nida said, his voice soft and fond. "And if you want, when we get down from our awkward positions, I'll give you a piggieback ride the whole way there. Or we can race. Or we can go slow."

Either way Ignis was So going to get a text.

Mono was definitely glad at the idea of getting down from the wall at this point, and had already started to move to make his way back the way he’d come carefully. It was a little hard to remember some of the things he’d learned, being rusty after a few months… But he was going to do his best.

The question gets a little pause, though… “Going slow? I… I think that’d be good.” He was a bit drained for a race, and the boy might need a little more time to warm up to the idea of being that close to or carried by people again. Which was a bit sad. He’d been doing pretty well with contact and stuff before he’d been sent back… But he’d get back to where he was again, hopefully sooner than later.

Nida moved back from his window sill and let himself fall to the ground on light feet. There, he was down and ready for Mono. From there he could go slow.

"So we got new cookie cutters. I got some that look like pumpkins. I don't know why they look like pumpkins. But they're nice."

Mono carefully made his way back down the side of the building, breathing a little sigh of relief to be back on solid ground. It was going to take him a little while to both adjust to his inactivity and growth spurt, as well as the uncomfortable feeling he got when up high after Six’s betrayal.

“Yeah?” He asked curiously, tilting his head up before lowering it again to hide his eyes. “I wonder why their pumpkin shapes, maybe ‘cause of pumpkins, grow at this time of year?” He thinks it was around this time last year that there were a bunch of pumpkins around. Not that he knew why, of course, but it was fun to wander around the pumpkin patch when some of them were easy to hide behind. “As long as the cookies still taste the same, I guess it’s neat to have em in different shapes.”

"Maybe. I also got ones that look like little cats. I've been making cat treats in that shape of course. Not that the cats are allowed to have a full one at the same time. Oh! And I've started to frost them."

Isn't that fun? It should be fun for the kid. Look at him, trying to talk about fun.

That does sound like fun, and little cat shaped cookies sounded pretty neat compared to pumpkins. Visually, pumpkins were just kinda lumpy. But cats were sorta cute and all, at least, he liked the cats Nida and Ignis had. “I bet they really like those, ‘cause they look like they’re made just for em right?” Though his little face scrunches thoughtfully, frosting things was fun because frosting tasted great… But… “Can cats have frosting?”

"You know, I'll have to research that, but I can't imagine why not. It's mostly just sugar. And cats can't taste sugar well."

So there isn't really any benefit to them with it.

This was all unknown to Mono, either way. So he was going to be curious about what their feline friends were able to eat, especially since he sometimes saw people sharing snacks with their pets around Aterat before. It was something worth learning about, just in case, after all! He nodded, though, “Okay, I guess that kinda makes sense.”

"And you know how picky and regal Julia gets. She barely wants anything other than her lovely sashimi."

Truly the peacock cat was the most spoiled member of their household other than Mono, in part because she would absolutely leave if she wasn't. And Nida loved her anyway.

“Yeah, I guess she kinda likes that best, huh?” Mono commented thoughtfully, remembering how very picky the peacock cat was. It kinda made sense with how pretty she was. She probably wouldn’t bother with something unless it was exactly the kinda thing she liked.

"Indeed," Nida confirms, and his voice is full of deep fondness. "Back where we first met her, my friends and I, we took her in as a kitten. You couldn't get the adults to spend time with you. And the kittens abandoned some people who didn't pamper them."

“Wow… So you had to show her how much you liked her, so she’d like staying with you, huh?” That was how it kind of sounded, but she seemed like a really good peacock cat, even if he hadn’t met one before. She was close to Nida, so that meant something.

"Yep," Nida said. "She accepts me, even though her mistress, and former master, aren't here. Even though it's just me. And now you guys."

Still, it leaves him thinking. He and Ignis both had a bird and a cat...

"Have you ever considered if you want a pet, Mono?"

Mono seemed to tilt his head at the question. In his world, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind for obvious reasons. Well… That wasn’t strictly true. He’d found a building once that had strange creatures within that had been kind of sad looking, but survival and the goal of moving forward made lingering impractical. Then being here at Aterat… The boy shrugged. “Nope, I do think the animals are neat here, though. I like watching them in the park? But I dunno about having a pet. You guys already got pets, and… I dunno if I would do a good job taking care of something?”

It seemed like a big responsibility, after all. What if he didn’t do a good job, and they stopped liking him?

Signal Interference

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gladly!