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The Mirrorskin -- back to being a Mirrorskin -- has barely spoken to anyone since the end of the fight. They haven't let their Icon out of their reach: they have carried it, and Baby, everywhere with them. They eat with it on their lap, they hold it while sleeping, they carry it into the shower in Downtime, when they remember to bathe, which they haven't, really.
Now they're laying in the pillow pit in Downtime, sort of staring off into space, rubbing a thumb over the half-melted face of the cowboy lump.
It seems the entire motley has been isolated in the aftermath. The explosive death of the Armsmaster was a great and terrible victory, and it's only normal to spend some time recovering afterwards. Glitch has been holed up in his room, occasionally seen shuffling out to get a bowl of cereal in the middle of the night, which isn't much different than usual. When he shows up in the doorway of Downtime, however, there's a quiet look of concern on his face. Teagan, after their years together, can easily tell the slight shift of pixels on his mouth mean he's worried, but trying not to do so too much. "Player Two," he greets them, wandering over to the edge of the pillows and sitting down to remove his sneakers.
The Mirrorskin sits up, both hands wrapped around the Icon protectively. The minute they step back into the mortal world with it, it'll absorb back into their soul, but they haven't set foot in the Real World yet. Probably on purpose. "Hi," Teagan answers, and their broken-mirror eyes reflect him back. There's suspicion writ subtly across their face. Laura made it clear to the rest of the motley after the time she spent with Teagan that the Mirrorskin is displaced mentally.
Glitch calmly removes his shoes, jacket, and jeans, leaving him in shorts and shirt. He slips into the Pillow Pit at the edge but doesn't make the usual beeline for Teagan that he normally would. There's a moment of staring into his own reflection in their eyes, until he looks away, trying to be nonthreatening and relaxed. "You mind some company right now?"
They sit up a little more, hunched their hands around the Icon, and their face tips up, then down again. It's tough to tell where Teagan is looking, but it's very obvious at least in this moment that they're looking Glitch over, from top to toes. "I don't mind," they answer, tone guarded and quiet. "You're good."
Glitch looks uncertain himself. He's not good at hiding his emotions like Teagan, so the discomfort in this interaction shows. "Are you...okay?" he asks, glancing around. The Sprite stays where he is, and ends up flopping out across the pillows at a safe distance, doing his best to look lazy, open, and nonthreatening.
"Under the circumstances, I'm fine," Teagan replies calmly, the corners of their mouth tightening. "Waiting for them to come and send me out again." Their shoulders set calmly. "I'm not sure why it's taking so long, but. I'm not hurt anymore."
That causes an eyebrow to slightly rise. Glitch proceeds carefully, voice somewhat quiet. "I'm...glad you're not hurt. Who's coming to send you out?" He can't help but glance back at the Mirrorskin, briefly betraying his attempt at nonthreatening posture.
Their shoulders shift, and curl in subtly, when Glitch asks the question that he asks. Teagan's mouth goes into a flat line, and their head ducks forward. For all the world, they look like a student at a magical British boarding school which shall not be named trying not to say the name they cannot say.
That has Glitch sitting up. He can't remember the last time he's seen the Mirrorskin like this, and his rasterized face washes over with tight concern. "Teagan," he says. "You're in Downtime. This is your Hollow. Our Hollow. We killed the Armsmaster. We won. You got your Icon back. Nobody's coming to get you or send you out again." He stares them in the eyes this time, not yet closing any distance. "It's me. Glitch. Player One. Who do you think I am...?"
The look they give Glitch then is kind, and almost pitying, the corners of their mouth turning down. "You're very good," Teagan answers, tightening their hands around the Icon until the lead edges cut into the palms of their hands -- no blood is drawn, but the metal presses into their skin. A tiny little shake of their head. "I won't sell you out. But I know."
Glitch stares at Teagan for a moment, and the air begins to shimmer around him like heat rolling off sunbaked asphalt. His brows furrows, and his look of anger is so sudden that it might encourage Teagan's delusion, which is why he turns his head away as his fists clench as well. Nostrils flare. He gets up from the pillow pit and starts wandering around Downtime, looking for something, ending up near his own pile of junk in one corner. "So we're playing a Game," he intones more calmly. "Why don't you tell me what you know? May as well be on the same page." He pulls out what looks like a common notebook with a white-speckled black cover, and a ballpoint pen.
They don't flinch, but they do draw away a little bit. It certainly doesn't hurt Teagan's delusion to see that reaction, no. Their hands close harder around the icon, and then they almost visibly pry one hand away from it in order to reach and touch Baby, as if to reassure themself that the machete is still there. The look that Teagan gives Glitch is suspicious, and they clear their throat. "What do you want to know? You already know I'm -- between missions."
Glitch sits down at the edge of the pit, looking more sad than mad now, and starts scribbling in its pages, as if writing down what Teagan's saying like an armchair therapist. He pauses and looks up at them curiously, a brow raising. "You think you're back...there," he murmurs softly. There's a long silence, and the look on his face is more frustrated than anything, lips bowed down into a frown. He thinks, and writes, and considers. "How many times have you killed the Armsmaster?"
In delusions, sometimes the things that don't fit are just rejected. Like they just didn't happen. There's a moment where Teagan's forehead wrinkles up in confusion, and then smooths out again, like Glitch had never even said 'you think you're back there.' As if those words never happened. "Him or things like him?" Teagan just rolls their shoulders liquidly. "Ninety years is a long time."
Glitch puffs his cheeks out. "Teagan," he says again, hoping that name might still break through in parts. "Him specifically." He keeps writing, even though Teagan hasn't given him any actual answers yet. "How many times have you killed the Armsmaster?" This time his gaze settles right on them. "How many times have you seen him die? Explode in a huge blast like that?"
Irritation flashes across Teagan's face. "I don't. Know," The Mirrorskin answers sharply. "What's the point of this?" They reach for their machete and pull Baby into their lap, too. "It's not like you get to remember whole-ass missions afterwards. It's all... scattered."
Glitch huffs in slight defeat. "Because I thought that you'd never killed him before. Or recovered...that," he says, gesturing to the clutched Icon. "So maybe asking you that would help you remember..." His brow furrows. "That you got out. Would help you remember Direct Action. Remember me. We helped you fight. We got it together. You didn't meet us for years after you escaped..." He glances down at Baby again and scribbles something else in the book. "June isn't around. I'm...bad at this. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm afraid I'm going to make it worse. But if you think I'm...some kind of spy? I don't know what to do or say."
He lets out a sigh. "Regardless....you're safe now, here. You're not on a mission anymore. I'm not going to....hurt you or take anything away from you. And uh. If you really want, I'll...leave. I might have to go ask someone for help. But I won't stay here if you don't want me to." He says it as earnestly as he can, looking Teagan in the eye now that he realizes just how serious their state is.(edited)
In the broken mirror, anyway. Teagan hasn't got eyes, so mostly what Glitch sees -- has always seen -- are his own eyes reflecting back at him. "I don't remember," Teagan answers, and what that applies to might be a lot of things. "I -- know who you're supposed to be." Their shoulders hunch again, hard. "I know I did get out, once. But -- "
But somewhere in the middle of that, when Teagan was keeping people from dying, they managed to fuck up their head. "You don't have to go."
His shoulders relax just slightly at that last bit. He slowly nods. "Alright. Look, whether or not I'm an imposter...I just want to talk to you. Ask you some questions. Is that okay?" He scribbles a few more things in the book before looking back up at his fragmented face in their gaze, a hundred distorted Glitches staring back. "You can still change people's kiths, right? You did that for...your missions?" He pauses, taps his pen, and adds, "And...I'd like you to remind me what the rules are here. What your....leader said you can and can't do, or say."
As this drags on, Glitch tugs his shirt off, leaving his scarred chest and back on display. He stands up and starts looking around the room again, returning to his pile to pull out some long black electrical cords and fuss with them.
They close their hand around the handle of the machete, loosen their fingers, close it again. "Right." Teagan turns their face, offering Glitch their profile, the way that they so often do when they're not certain what they're supposed to say and can't just close up their Mask in order to shut off all perception of what they're thinking or feeling. "Yeah, I can do that. For myself, for others. For missions. Sometimes you have to."
"I don't know. We don't see him. We get letters. Someone reads them to me." Which is its own little clue as to why Teagan refused to learn to read for so long: an easy way to avoid getting messages from the Keeper they left behind. "The rules come in the messages."
Glitch approaches the pillow pit once more, holding a long length of cable, its surface soft black rubber. It's the cord to a video game controller, and with Teagan watching he fashions it into a simple slipknot. Hanging it loosely around his own neck and cinching it up gently from the bottom as if it were a necktie, he wanders into the pit with the controller itself dangling by one hand, the free end that will cinch the entire thing like a training lead. Slowly, he approaches Teagan, wearing just this and his shorts with no weapons to be seen. He stands just out of his own, shorter reach, and dangles the controller out towards the Mirrorskin from its cord in one hand.
"I'm unarmed. And now I'm giving you control." He lets go, letting the controller drop near Teagan even if they don't take it. "All you'd have to do is pull on that to strangle me." Setting the written journal aside, he slowly crouches down to the pillows and tucks his hands underneath himself to literally sit on them. "I'd...like you to change me," he says, after he's rendered himself as helpless as he can imagine. "Make me something else. Something not dangerous. Would you be okay with that?"(edited)
There's a very confused look on Teagan's face as Glitch makes what could be a leash out of a controller, but the expression on their face changes to carefully blank again once he crosses over to hand them the end of the noose and the control over his life that it represents. He speaks and they listen, holding on to the icon and letting Baby rest in their lap. They're exhausted and kind of smelly, honestly, an unusual thing for a person who normally bathes at least twice a day.
"Okay... " Teagan replies carefully, and then looks down at their hands, which are both occupied. "There are options there. Uh. What... is the need for the mission?" Changing people into something harmless isn't usual for the missions that Le General sends people on, after all.
The made-helpless Sprite closes his eyes to center himself a moment and think. "Support," he beeps. "I need to help someone stay focused and clear-minded. So they can be strong, and fight, and know where the real battle is." His face is flat and relaxed now, nearly matching Teagan's careful blank expression, mirroring the mirror. "Can you do that?"
If June or Sigrun or Laura or... well, any of the others were here, they'd applaud the manner in which Glitch carefully circles in on the target, playing the game and playing along with Teagan's delusions. But they're not, which is probably for the best. But someone will have to tell them about it later, because it's just Teagan staring at Glitch suspiciously right now. "Yeah. I can. Just, uh... "
This is a trap, the expression on their face says. And it is, for their delusion.
Carefully, they take the Icon and sit on it, so Glitch can't lunge and steal it. Baby gets put behind them, and they wrap the control around their wrist so they keep hold of it, before reaching for his face with both hands.
Glitch's eyes close when Teagan affirms his request. He sits there still and silent, mien flickering and scrambling here and there as usual, cord wrapped around his throat, to give Teagan time. To let them do whatever they need to feel safe. As the Mirrorskin's hands slide onto his face, his appearance shifts slowly and subtly. The myriad of pixels making up his skin and hair gradually slow their stuttering. Some of his scars and corruption fade away entirely, but much of it swims around on his form as if moving freely, arranging themselves into neat and exact patterns, until he's perfectly symmetrical. His scars and flickering bits now mirror perfectly across his left and right sides.
His eyes open slowly, staring with their perfectly matched pixels into Teagan's mirrored gaze. "Thank you," he says, letting out a long slow breath of relief, his face still held in their gentle grasp. He reaches one hand up smoothly but not too slowly, laying its still-tingling touch against the mirrorskin's fingers.
It doesn't take long: as soon as Glitch reaches to touch them - Teagan starts to pull back - the softness of his voice curls into the back of their brain, touching some point of memory, some part of them that knows that no one but the actual factual Glitch would ask to be turned into a TrueBalm for the purposes of looking after them. And as the dissociation eases, Teagan pulls in a sharp breath, a slow shudder sliding down their spine. They drop the wire that gives them the power of life and death over their motleymate as if they'd discovered themself holding a giant centipede, and let out a small, short, pained sound. Still kinda gross but not particularly caring, they curl up and put their head on Glitch's lap.
Glitch lets out a sigh of relief as it works. He tuck Teagan into his lap easily, glad they won't see the splotchy bruises appearing on his chest, the physical cost of removing their mental burden. His hands come up to wind around them in a tight hug, whispering down at the much larger Lost. "I'm here. It's me. It's okay. You're okay. We're safe and free and alive. Holy fuck I was worried that wouldn't work." The words drop out of him with a small shiver. "You're okay, Teagan. You did it. We did it. We killed the Armsmaster and got home. We won."
It's not like they don't know, since they've seen June break her own arm absorbing the damage that Johnnie did to herself healing the Tree, after all. Part of the problem of being a Mirrorskin is you get to aggressively know how easy it is for your motley to hurt themselves in the process of taking care of themself.
"I never killed them before," Teagan answers the question that their delusion kept them from really understanding or answering properly before now. "I couldn't, without ... without all of us." They wrap their arms around Glitch's waist, their head still resting on his lap. "Thank you, Player One."
Glitch holds them tight a while longer, one hand gently petting down their back. He looks over to the book he'd been writing in. "I've been there," he admits very quietly. "Thinking it was a trick. That I hadn't really escaped. That believing anything was improving was dangerous and foolish. Did that lots when I first came out. Just another Game." There's a pause before he adds, "It was fucking awful." Leaning over to kiss the top of their head, the Sprite straightens back up and pats their back. "Now come on. You need...a shower. I can read what I was writing to you after. That was part of my backup plan."
They do stink, and as Teagan realizes that, they sit up, wrinkling their nose up in mild horror at themself. "I've been in your dreams," they agree. "I know how that is." Letting out a soft sigh, they rub their hands over their face. "I need you to do a favor for me," Teagan asks, adding, " another one, once you're feeling better." The expression on their face is a sheepish one - they can see those bruises now. Pushing themself up to their feet, they leave the Icon where it is - this is Downtime. No one will touch their things here.
He stands with them, glancing down at his own bruises with a dismissive face. "I'll be fine. You hit me harder than this when we first met," he offers. He pushes a hand into Teagan's to lace fingers with them and squeeze. "And that wasn't a favor. I did what I had to do to help my Player Two. How can I help you?"
Glitch blinks to himself after that last bit, as if realizing it sounds odd coming from his mouth. He stares back down at his own body again. "Forgot for a second. That's so weird, I'm all...mirrored."
The corner of their mouth turns up a little bit, and they answer, "I did, didn't I? I kicked your skinny ass." A wash of silver slides over their cheeks, briefly, as though that statement was made with the intention of flirting with them and not just a statement of fact. They squeeze his hand. "I know," they answer, and lean to kiss the corner of his mouth, their usual benediction.
"Oh. I can put you back to how you were," Teagan answers, without touching on whatever they were about to ask him. Instead, they squeeze his hand again and add, "Take the thing off your neck, it's freaking me out."
Glitch laughs. "You did. It was hot." He glances down at the cinch around his neck with even less registration. "Really?" he asks, tugging it off without further debate and tossing it aside. "You'll have to show me how to tie it safely sometime," he comments offhandedly, adding his own blush. He doesn't push about the favor, if they want to leave it for later. "Don't put me back yet," he mutters, kissing them back as they make it to the shower. "I have some ideas."
If there's one way to make Teagan feel more like themself, it's by making a sex joke. They're sort of chronically unable to resist. "It was," they agree, and then tip their head to look up and down the Sprite. "I will, will I? I suppose if you ask nicely I can be convinced." They let go of his hand and pad for the Hollow's shower, pulling their tank top and boxers off and stepping in.
"I'm dying to hear what your ideas are," they comment over their shoulder, "but ... before we talk more about knots and ideas... " They tip their head back and let the water pour over their head, down their shoulders and back. "... I need to ask you to go find Bailey tomorrow or the next day and bring them here. I can't take that out of the Hollow, and... I need Bailey to see it."
Glitch is relaxed as he casually tosses his own boxers aside and joins them under the pouring water. "No problem. Was thinking of fetching them already until this worked. I'll get them ASAP, you've been stuck in here long enough." And with that taken care of he winds his arms around the tall Mirrorskin and leans against them, cheek against the back of their shoulder, heaving out a sigh. "I love you, Player Two. Welcome back."
They wrap their arms over his and just kind of stand under the water. "If I go into the real world with it, it'll become part of me, and I can't... " Teagan lets their voice trail away into quiet and sighs. "I couldn't remember them, and Bailey was afraid that I was going to remember that I resented them, or... " It has never been easy for them to talk about Feelings, and this is not any different. "I love you, Player One. That was clever as hell."
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