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Downtime is the home Direct Action has made for itself and maintained over the years. It isn't big: a sleeping area big enough for five or six Lost that's basically just a pile of pillows and blankets sunk into the floor, an antique phone hanging next to an icebox, a ridiculously well-appointed and huge shower and bathing area. The ceiling twinkles with a million tiny faux stars.
Teagan has reached the point of sadness and recovery where they're just laying in the pile of pillows, wrapped up in blankets, hugging their machete in its holster in one arm, and holding a bowl of ice cream with their other hand. Glitch brought them home, fed them, made them shower, and put them back to bed.
Glitch is there to parallel play, letting Teagan slowly equalize without putting demand on them. That is to say, he's gotten them squared away, and he's just vibin'. Laying next to them in black shorts and tanktop, his usual lounging attire, he has his earbuds in and is clutching the fat off-white brick of an original Nintendo Gameboy. The chunky old piece of technology seems to be working reliably enough for his tastes, even here in the Hollow.
There are times that being more Story than Person does not work to one's advantage, and this happens to be one of them. The two in the Hollow are aware of Vorpal's approach before he arrives, the sense of his Strange familiar, if not welcome. Deepening shadows, that sense that every door could lead someplace it shouldn't, the simple magnitude, settle in a few moments before the door creaks and opens to reveal exactly who they both know is coming.
He steps in and closes the door behind, taking the time with his normal old meathands to take off his longcoat and hang it up, moving to crouch and unlace his boots after. Then, if nobody's said anything yet- not that he'd blame them- he straightens after setting his boots by the door.
"Hi."
The Mirrorskin doesn't move from their spot when he comes in. They just keep eating their ice cream, the spoon clinking against the bowl rhythmically, until it's done. It's impossible to tell where they're looking, but they don't get up. Glitch could see them shrink momentarily when the Hedge announces that he's incoming, but they uncurl on purpose before Johnny appears.
They turn their head a little bit towards Glitch when Vorpal is in the process of taking off his boots, possibly - and how strange this is - deferring to the digital boy on this. Teagan doesn't say anything yet.
Glitch signals his attention by pulling the little black speaker-bud out of his ear when Vorpal enters. His attention stays on the screen. Just as the sheepish Lost might think he's being snubbed. Glitch's head lifts to stare past the screen at him. He sits up, giving him his full attention, while the light continues to shine on his face from the screen and his fingers keep squirming across the buttons.
He even turns his head, to regard Teagan, and when they return his gaze he looks back to Vorpal. There's a long pause.
"Start with I'm Sorry," he beeps.
Glitch thinks, frowns, and clears his throat with a digitized CZGH, and looks back down at his screen, breaking eye contact. "I mean. I think you should start with that. Do what you want."
It's not particularly surprising that Teagan doesn't say anything. A corner of Johnny's lips twitch inward, a minute grimace, but it passes. He gets it. And he only bristles a little at Glitch's suggestion. He does, however, think about that, and frowns harder- but not at the other Elemental.
"Shit. I thought it. More than once. I thought it came out. No, you're right. That's the place to start." He folds down where he's standing, just beside the door, puts his back to the wall. "I am. Sorry, I mean. I apologize, and I'm sorry. This shouldn't have happened."
They sit up, then, and for the first time Johnny might actually be sure that they're looking at him. The Mirrorskin looks - disconnected. Unwell. Not just sad but - scattered, somehow. The way a fractured mirror scatters light, their attention seems scattered, too. They pull their blanket closer around their shoulders, hugging Baby tightly in its sheath.
Some people have security blankets, some Mirrorskins have security machetes and fellow murderhobos.
"Why are you sorry, J- ... " and they pull their lips into their mouth. As if not certain what name to use. "Why are you sorry?"
Glitch slips to his feet. He actually tucks his sunglasses on, as if he's ducking right out of the conversation. Not even there, not even looking. He turns the gameboy off, stands up, and stretches before walking over to the fridge.
"Tell them what you did and why it was bad," he murmurs to Vorpal as he passes by him. "Try not to make excuses."
Vorpal actually pauses for a moment as Glitch murmurs, looking in his wake with a bemused blink or two. "Ah-" Then it's back to Teagan. He didn't miss the stuttering start of his name, but neither does he press it.
It takes him a little while- a few moments, really- to push his pride down and speak. Between the directions and what feels like a pop quiz, it'd be easy for the force of nature in him to rise up and rail at the indignity of it all. But he doesn't let it, and the struggle- the victory, minor as it is- shows.
"I am apologizing for not speaking to everyone when I had the idea to ask someone to get close with me. I'm sorry because doing that upset and hurt you." He sits back a little, straightening against the wall. "I think they're technically two different things."
They watch Glitch moving, and for a moment it looks like they're going to reach out and grab for him. Noooooooo, that's my tiny edgelord woobie, I meed itttttt. But they don't. They just sit there for a while, waiting out Johnny's struggle with his Story. They might not even notice. Damaged Clarity makes it harder to see what's happening right in front of you.
"Do you -- understand -- that I don't... that it doesn't... I wouldn't -- you don't need to ... clear things with us... if they're Lost?" Teagan asks, the sentence all disjointed. "And... that... you... I mean. Green and... and Franklin. Do you remember Franklin? What she did? Who she was?"
Glitch is happily getting stuff out of the fridge, loading his arms with a small pile of incongruous snacks, like a bulwarks against the potent Feelings brewing in the room now. When Teagan starts talking, he turns around, a rice krispy treat stuck in his mouth with both hands full. Closing the door with his foot, he makes a beeline back for the pillow pit, dumping everything at the edge of it and clambering back to within arm's reach of Teagan.
He looks over to Vorpal with a slight frown. This might not be a good time. But they've started. He pats Teagan on the shoulder with one hand and pops the rice krispy treat from his mouth with the other. "It's getting mortals involved," he says, giving Teagan his tutorial guidance as well. His face is concerned, but determined, in that 'A Unix system! I know this!' fashion.
"It's messy. It's way harder to...untangle. And...that group has their own baggage. We have...enough."
Johnny shakes his head. "No. I mean- Green, I remember, sort of. She's the one that wanted your Mask, not the truth of you. I know she was awful, and she's why you don't date mortals anymore. But I haven't got a clue who Franklin is. I would have guessed it was a guy, if I didn't hear you say "her.""
Something Glitch says puzzles him, though, and he tips his head. "What do you mean harder to untangle?"
"Franklin was literally psychotic. She was Green's... kind of ex. Kind of best friend. Kind of... still her girlfriend. A metamour. A human. I was stuck with her in my life. No consent or ability to not consent. No understanding of who ... who we are." A living example of the phrase it's complicated. Teagan goes quiet, looking for a way to explain it succinctly.
"She stole Baby from me. For fun. To see what I'd do."
Yes, that, they think, should explain it. And why Teagan doesn't talk about her.
Then Johnny turns his attention to Glitch and Teagan reaches for a bag of no-name potato chips. Tears them open. Stuffs a handful in their mouth. Shuts up.
Glitch blinks and looks back to Teagan, mouth open. Shit. He thought they were going to handle this one. He looks at Vorpal, sucks in a breath, and frowns. "Fuck. Joh...Vorpal, you know what I mean. I know you need a limiter. I know you need chains to tie you down so you don't float the fuck away, or a sheath to keep the knife in or whatever...metaphor you like best." He says that flatly, without any hint of disdain. He knows the words are important, he just doesn't know which ones work, like he's rattling around a giant ring of keys. "But you know romance is too far. You know we can't get that attached. It's not fair. It's not fair to Teagan, or to me, or to anyone else in the motley, and it's not fair to them, either."
He sucks in a breath, and stares back at Vorpal. Vorpal can see there's a bit of actual fear in him, if only at how that will land and whether it will make everything worse. He holds steady despite the worry, waiting to see what the results will be.
The person of Franklin doesn't make it through the mists, but the example Teagan gives does, at least in concept. He can understand the loss of control involved in the situation as described to start, but it's not until the statement of the theft of Baby that he boggles. "That's- unthinkable. Like I literally cannot imagine someone doing that. I believe you, but-" He trails off and nods a little. "I can understand more, though. Having someone like that, chained to you through someone else... I still don't remember her, but I can understand the aversion."
He shakes his head, though, when Glitch insists he knows what he means. "If I knew, I wouldn't be asking." The limiter, the chains, the sheath? There, he nods. That's true enough. "They all work. More the chains than anything else. Or like ballast on a balloon." He frowns again, though, when Glitch keeps talking about what he 'knows.'
"I mean- I know it's too much for Teagan, now- and it makes a lot more sense hearing about Franklin- but. All I remembered before was that they don't want to be involved with mortals themselves. You're talking about this like it's some broadly established thing and I don't think I've ever heard it from outside our Motley." He holds a hand up pre-emptively. "I'm not arguing the point because I plan to deviate, the fact it bothers Teagan is reason enough to avoid it, it's just-"
He pushes his hands against his face and scrunches it around a moment, forestalling frustration before he speaks, continues. "-you keep saying this stuff like I should have already understood all of it, but none of it sounds familiar. I don't know if that's because we haven't discussed it any time recently, and the last times we did are in times I try very hard not to think about anymore, but to my ears- and I don't argue what you remember, just want you to know what I'm going through- a lot of this stuff either sounds fresh to me or doesn't match what I know."
There's sort of a weak, tired gesture with one hand as Teagan responds to Vorpal realizing how fucked up it is that Teagan had Baby stolen from them by someone they couldn't keep out of their life. They stuff more potato chips into their mouth, absently adjust the silver bracelet on their left wrist. That is new in the last two years, wired on to their wrist so they can't take it off.
"Too dangerous. They don't understand. I don't care if you date or fuck every Lost from here to Lancaster. Doesn't need my consultation... my consent."
"No humans." They pull their blanket up like a hood, shadowing their face.
Glitch gets to talk about whether this is something Johnny should Just Know. Teagan isn't doing great right now.
"Okay," he interjects gently. "I already broke it off. I texted her and went to talk it over. Said I shouldn't have asked her out without talking to anyone. She's disappointed, but glad we're still friends. No humans, no casualties. It's all good."
Glitch lifts his hands and waves them in front of him, and then slides his hands down his face. "That was just...I thought it was..." He stops himself before he makes it sounds like Vorpal "should" know, because he doesn't think that way. "My bad. I'm not good with words." He looks from Teagan to Vorpal and back, looking relieved that things are seeming to at least be resolvable. There's not going to be lines drawn and sides taken. This is a wound that can heal.
"I'm not the expert. But..even I can explain to you why it's bad for us to be too attached to them. Both for us...and them. And that's not just the edgelord talking," he admits. "That's not...look at me be a cool loner shit. That's just a sad truth."
"It's okay. If you just meant like, "this is evident to me," it's fine, just. I didn't know, and I wanted you to know that." Glitch comments on things being immutably bad, and he frowns again. "I mean... and again, this is academic, I'm not gonna chase mortal tail anymore, but like. If that's enough reason not to get involved with humans, we should all go sit in caves by ourselves. We're all from different Keepers. They send different Huntsmen after us. It's no safer for us to get involved with each other than it is to get involved with them. And it's -important- to have mortal connections. Not necessarily romantic ones, but those associations are dangerous enough, that's enough contact to make them targets."
He watches the other two quietly. He's not sure they're going to agree with him on that, though- thankfully- it is just an academic debate, and he seems open to hearing other perspectives.
"It's okay. If you just meant like, "this is evident to me," it's fine, just. I didn't know, and I wanted you to know that." Glitch comments on things being immutably bad, and he frowns again. "I mean... and again, this is academic, I'm not gonna chase mortal tail anymore, but like." He heaves a touch of a sigh. "I dunno. It feels like a bad idea to just sit around in the Hedge and disconnect from the real world entirely. It's an option, I know, but I don't think I could have kept a hold of myself if I spent all my time traipsing about assorted magical realms looking for new adventures." Which is, after all, exactly what he would do, given his druthers.
Glitch hears that and sighs. "Like...yeah. That's what I meant." He looks at Vorpal, gets up, and actually crosses over. He sits with him. Teagan gets a look to make sure they understand he'll be right back, but Vorpal gets his focus and proximity, so he knows this isn't just some kind of criticism. "There's...I know it's easy. To think digital. On and off, black and white. But there's a lot of room in between not talking to anyone and...dating." He sighs. "You can get contact and relationships without...going that far."
He pulls out a joint, hand rolled, oddly physical and archaic for the digital sprite, and lights up, passing it to Vorpal after his hit in a peace offering. "I know it feels like a restriction. Like holding back. But it's just a good idea. It's not even about shit coming for them, it's..." He sighs and looks Vorpal in the eye.
"You are the dark alley now. You lead somewhere dangerous. We all do. They need a...boundary."
If Vorpal was expecting the ability to debate the safety of dating Lost vs Mortals from someone still toting around several levels of Clarity damage, he's going to be very disappointed. Teagan just pulls their blanket up to make a giant hood that Marjorie would be proud of, except that her hood isn't fuzzy, plush and orange. They make a sort of strange sound in the back of their throat, a frustrated little whine, and shove more potato chips into their mouth. Chomp.
Chewing through the mouthful of chips, they play with the bracelet on their wrist, the thing that reminds them of the beauty of the world, because their people will always be there for them. "I ... " they just kind of stare at Vorpal for a bit. "When did I ever say that was what we should do?"
They pull the blanket down over their face when Glitch goes to sit by Vorpal, sighing heavily.
"Huh?" Vorpal blinks back at Teagan, puzzled. "I- you didn't. If I implied you did, it wasn't intentional. I was just debating something Glitch said." He passes on the offered hit- which is normal. "Thanks, I'm okay."
He lets Glitch talk through a few more points, listening. "I guess. It's- not really worth debating right now. I'm getting distracted and I think it's frustrating Teagan all over again. The short of it is that I know what went wrong now, I won't make the same mistakes again, and I'm sorry that making them in the first place hurt people." He's not got much of a poker face, and it's pretty clear he's still not in complete agreement on the theory, but he seems willing to accept the boundary all the same. His tone's a touch flat, though.
Glitch blinks as Vorpal refuses his offered--oh right. He visibly remembers, yet again, that Johnny Don't Play That. He sighs and takes another hit himself with a nod. When Vorpal says that he looks relieved. "Oh. Good. Yeah. You get it, fuck, I was really worried that I wasn't doing this right."
He leans over to Vorpal, careful not to get the burning joint on him, and tucks him into a hug. If he's allowed, he'll even steal a quick kiss from the other sprite's lips. Then he stands, returning to Teagan, his hips swishing just a bit more than usual. Slipping back down into the pit, he curls them up in his arms and lays the next kiss on Teagan's cheek right at the corner of their mouth. The spot Teagan always kisses their motley, when others are watching at least.
"We're still glad to have you back, J. Come here and give Teagan a hug already...and me."
The heavy Disconnect in Teagan's world cannot be overstated. They're not quite to Clarity Coma yet, but they definitely are not their usual self. "Okay, sorry," they mumble from inside their hood of orange fleece, and flop over onto one side.
The Mirrorskin pulls the edge of their hood up just enough to have one broken mirror eye peek out, enough to watch what's happening, almost shyly. A little fragile. And then Glitch is swishing and kissing the corner of their mouth, and they murmur, "Mmhm," still mostly covered up in the giant blanket, being held very close by the tiny edgelord.
"It's alright," he offers quietly. He recognizes the symptoms presenting, and understands where they came from. Glitch gets his kiss, though the swish is lost on Vorpal- his thoughts, just now, are on other things. He rises when called, flowing with liquid grace towards the two, sliding into the pillows and finding a good place to curl his arms round the both of them. He's quiet for a long while, just Being against them both. Then.
"I'm sorry, Teagan."
Glitch curls his arms around both of them. Both of them at six feet tall, and him an entire half a foot shorter. The tiny edgelord runs his hands fondly along both of his favorite edges, the shadowy knife and the shattered mirrorglass. They're his, and they are safe now, and resting against each other and his body.
He runs his hands through their hair on each side of him as he leans down to whisper into both their ears: "If I had to be the adult here five seconds longer I was gonna absolutely lose my digital shit," he whispers fondly.
Then he nips each earlobe with his tingling teeth, and takes hold of the blankets to draw them up over all three. Perhaps he winks to an unseen audience, or perhaps that's just the starlight in his dark eyes. Either way, the only detail left is clear: the three of them are together in each others' arms once more.
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