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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He hoped there would be some semblance of peace now, at least between them since the unexpected negotiations were solved. Ignis hadn't planned on letting the boy know how he truly felt about him until a longer amount of time had passed. But then the world forced him to be without the boy and without the bond he'd treasured.

And he'd been nothing but angry. There had been so very many nights that he asked whoever was listening to return the boy and he'd confess. Of course this hadn't been the way Ignis had thought it would go at all, but the words were out and the feelings were known.

"I hope so too." There was a smile after he said those words and he sighed, feeling the burden of worry tumbling off of his shoulders. And after looking at Mono once he heard the question, that smile got bigger. "Yes, by all means let's go home." And after a moment he looked at him a little better. "Are you hungry? When was the last time that you ate?"

“Um…” He paused a little awkwardly at the question. He was ready to go home, of course, but Mono couldn’t really say the last time he had eaten. He didn’t remember. “You don’t really gotta eat when you're stuck in the tower, and… I think I was there for a few months?” Time was a bit broken in the Pale City, so that was the best that Mono could guess on the subject. So it had at least that long, give or take… “But something you made sounds good?” He added, not wanting to dwell on it too much. Going home and getting to have something Ignis had made sounded really good, after all. Made it feel a little more like he was really back.

"Months?" Ignis asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his tone. That answer had him running through the things he could cook in a hurry in order to get some food into Mono. But at hearing that reply, Ignis felt relief. "You know I always keep plenty of food in the house and it won't take any time at all to get you fed."

He sighed. "If you're ready to go, we'll head on home and perhaps we can throw something of a small party for your safe return."

“Yeah, I got kinda stuck there.” He responded with a small, awkward shrug. It was where he always ended up. They were honestly just lucky he wasn’t there for longer, because Mono might not have come back even remotely himself at all after a certain point. “Never got hungry while I was there, though, so I guess you just don’t gotta eat.” He wasn’t sure about Six’s experience beyond what the tower had done before he saved her, and he never got to ask because she’d left him behind… He nodded, though, at the comment. “Yeah, you always got really good stuff.” And Mono really did enjoy Ignis’s cooking. Chances were, now that he was here again, it wouldn’t be long before he really was hungry again.

The boy was more than ready to go home. “Yeah, I think I want to go home now.” And not look at what he’d done to this part of the harbor district, hopefully no one would be mad about the broken windows… It was mostly abandoned or in ruin anyway, so it was probably okay as long as he didn’t do it again somewhere nicer. He wasn’t sure about a party, though. Parties seemed a bit festive and like an award for doing good things, and while being back was definitely preferable to being there, he wasn’t sure he deserved anything like that at the moment.

"So you were somewhere for months with no appetite." This has Ignis definitely concerned. A boy not eating for that long could be fatal. Of course fortunately that wasn't the case here, but it did rankle him. How in the world could the boy go without eating? Ignis wasn't sure he should ask and let Mono explain that somehow another day. What was most important was getting the boy home to Nida and where he was safe.

A small smile appeared at Mono's compliment and he nodded at hearing the other was ready to go home.

"Alright, I'm sure Nida will be wondering where we've been, and I'm sure Ebony, Julia and the chocobos have missed you as we have."

The advisor wasn't going to bother to hide it, because when he'd said those earlier words to Mono he'd meant them. And he wasn't about to go back on them not ow try and pretend that it was otherwise.

“Uh-huh, yeah. It was a kinda weird place… Stuffs not normal in the signal tower. It’s not the same as when you're outside in the Pale City.” The boy responded with a tiny shrug of his shoulders. He couldn’t really say how it worked, exactly. But the eldritch entity that called it home probably had something to do with it, but time was often wrong there… Physics also weren’t what you would call average either. Then the fact that no one (aside from the entity) really needed to eat was just one of the many oddities. “Still kinda started growing, so I guess not eating didn’t stop that.” He added with a little awkward gesture to his slightly more gangly and spindly self, having shot up a couple of inches in the time he was there already. Even that was weird, since… Six had gotten really big while she was trapped there, and she hadn’t been trapped as long as he was. He fixed that, though. Saved her… For all the good it did.

The boy scuffed his foot against the ground lightly as he looked down. He didn’t really want to focus on that topic for long, so he focused on what Ignis was saying. “Yeah, I miss them… Now that I remember them, I guess.” He added, still feeling a bit bad that he hadn’t remembered anyone when he was back in his world. In some ways that might not have been a bad thing, since it would be frustrating to know there was somewhere better than he could be than there… But in other ways, it might have been a comfort.

The only thought that kept crossing his mind when Mono mentioned this signal tower was the boy somehow strapped down and forced to sit and do terrible things. But that was a mental picture that he wasn't about to share with the other. So he sighed and looked back over when Mono mentioned still growing. There were a few inches that hadn't been there before but that didn't make him any less him. And Ignis didn't love him any less because of it. Nida wouldn't either, and of that he was certain.

"So when you went back you forgot everyone." Ignis hesitantly placed a hand on Mono's shoulder. "It's alright. You're safe here, but I daresay we may have to remodel your room to accommodate your height."

And as they walked on, he smiled. "So that means another shopping trip to see if your tastes have changed."

Mono’s height hadn’t been that exaggerated by the tower yet, but he had gained a few inches. It was more that he was a bit awkward and spindly looking than anything, much longer, and it might have been a different story. For the moment, new clothes would definitely be necessary for most. The boy’s favoured trench coat that had been oversized now fit him slightly more naturally than it had when he was last here.

The other’s words were a comfort, though. The reminder that he was safe here was a welcome reminder that he wasn’t in that other world anymore. The Pale City and the tower were far away, and that entity wasn’t here… And Mono hoped it couldn’t get here.

“I dunno if I like different stuff or not, but I like going out with you and Nida.” He added with a little tilt of his head. It was fun to go shopping with them, even if it was just to help with getting stuff. Though Mono would likely have a few… odd changes in his preferences for things. His favourite colour would have changed again, or at least gotten a bit conflicted considering the person it had been tied to. Hard to like something if it now reminded you of the person who betrayed you.

Ignis only smiled as Mono mentioned that he liked going out with them. And of course the married pair would clear their schedules for him along with anything else it took to get Mono settled back in. "Well that's good to hear, because we rather enjoy our outings with you as well."

He knew that it might take some time to adjust and Ignis wasn't about to ask Nida to take time off of work. So the advisor would do so after arranging it with the staff there. There was more than one person that owed him some work shifts and he always took the extra shifts, knowing one day they would need repaid. Well now that time was here and that was comforting that he could be gone. And if needed he'd wait until Nida got home and ride to work.

Whatever it took.

"So we'll get home, get you fed and tucked in for the night if you're tired. And you can let me know when you're ready for a shopping trip."

That actually made the boy feel kind of good to hear they liked going out with him… Especially at this point, where the boy had been in a place where he wasn’t used to being wanted. Not for good reasons, anyway… He just hoped they didn’t eventually regret it.

The offer of food and sleeping in his own room was a welcome one, even if it would be rather weird to be in a home with people again… It was maybe a good weird, even if it was still a bit scary knowing what he did about himself now. He wanted to make things turn out okay, wanted to figure things out and not lose all this if he could help it. “Yeah? That sounds good… I think I missed eaten the food you make.” Missed eating in general, now that he was back and remembered how much he’d been missing in the months he’d been in the tower. “Cause it’s really good. Um… And I am tired, kinda.” An understatement. The boy looked as tired as he sounded, really. The display had expended a lot of energy, energy he hadn’t needed to worry about while in the tower.

Mono's comment about missing his food had Ignis laugh. "Well I'm certainly at your disposal as far as food goes. And of course on our shopping trip we can pick up ingredients for whatever you'd like. But we'll get you fed and put to bed since you mention being tired."

Ignis knew that after he expended a lot of energy he was beat. Most of the time he could cover it but there were days such as when they'd gone on the Royal Yacht he'd caught himself sleeping with the gentle rocking of the waves. And after the display of powers that Mono had done, the boy had to be pretty wiped out.

"Any preference on food for the evening?"

“Yeah, that would be great.” Mono responded with a nod, sounding every bit as tired as he’d said. Food would be good, and there were definitely specific things he’d missed more than others, but tonight he was likely going to be less fuss for food in favour of sleeping. Or at least the boy hoped so, even now a little afraid of waking up elsewhere again. But even curling up somewhere comfortable and just enjoying the fact that he wasn’t in that room would be nice.

So the question gets a small rise in his shoulders. “I dunno. I kinda like all the food you make? Maybe one of those cheese sandwich things?” A grilled cheese sandwich, simple, but the boy really did like them. Plus, it was small enough that he could see how he handled food, given his appetite might take a little while to get back to normal.

Ignis smiled, feeling the fear and uncertainty coming off of his shoulders. And it felt lighter as he realized it. But he stifled a yawn because the tiredness was starting to hit him as well as they walked the remainder of the way home together.

He would have to speak to Nida about perhaps them taking turns simply keeping an ear out for Mono in case he had a bad dream or something. Of course they couldn't look as if they were taking watches. But Ignis did want to be available just in case.

Looking at the other now when he mentioned the cheese sandwhich. It took a moment before he figured out what the other was talking about and he nodded. "I can make one and keep the ingredients out on standby in case you wish for another."

Yes, Mono might feel bad if he thought they were going out of their way and troubling themselves on his account. Even if it was reasonable for any adults to do so for a child, given the situation. But he wouldn’t understand it that way, so secrecy and being inconspicuous about it were the way to go. There was definitely the risk of nightmares, and catching on to them could be difficult considering the boy was once again used to being silent and muffling his louder reactions to things in favour of not attracting attention from those who would do him harm.

But he nodded gratefully. “Thanks Ignis, that sounds really good.” He added with a small, stifled yawn.

( ooc: I think we can wrap this here since they’re going home and are two very tired beans. Thanks for the thread! )

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Signal Interference

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