CATCHALL: Todomatsu

[solesuccess]

Comments

wknd 0, saturday

[solesuccess]

[ honestly? this is still very much not cool. so maybe some of the senior crew showed up. maybe they gave some answers. maybe they have a timeline.

but this still sucks? this is sort of where his thoughts are as he wanders the ship, mostly walking for the sake of walking with his robot wheeling along on its own behind him. while shoma himself isn't actively watching where he's going, roboji does notice todomatsu ahead of them and recognizes him as someone it doesn't have any information on.

so that is to say, whatever totty's doing, there is a robot rolling up to him and lifting its arm in a wave. hey. ]

[drymonster]

[ those are very valid thoughts, and todomatsu kind of shares them, because it pisses him off that he doesn't seem to have a say in this... except also he had fucking nothing going on back home and if he can get paid a bunch of money to boss postal workers around for a couple of months and then not have to think about working again for a while he can probably live with that.

anyway. glances at the robot. waves back...? ]

An AI...?

[solesuccess]

[ honestly that's also very fair and a decent way to look at this. the robot seems pleased with the acknowledgement and glides a little closer to get a better look. this is about the point shoma tunes back in, head turning to face the two of them and watching for a moment.

the robot does not touch, but it is Observing. ]

Robot, yeah. [ and because he's been asked: ] It...was in the pod next to mine when we first woke up. So it's not part of the ship or anything.

w0 monday

[solesuccess]

[ he's actually sitting in the hallway somewhere, probably on the floor with roboji propped against the wall with him. he's scanning through the messages on the i.r.i.s. board, and the more he reads the more his expression changes to something exhausted.

some people just shouldn't be allowed on the internet...

but roboji notices todomatsu's presence first and it means the robot lifts an arm to wave. hello! ]

week 0, saturday post-trial

[drymonster]

[ HELP I FUCKING MISSED THE LAST STARTER EVEN THOUGH I TAGGED BACK THE PREVIOUS THREAD AFTER THAT..... TRACKS THIS POST FOR THE FUTURE aaah

anyway, todomatsu's just kind of wandering around in the evening, because lol, going back to his room is a really depressing prospect, actually, and while he's tired as hell, he's kind of dreading going to bed. all of which he's probably projecting just now.

but he puts on a smile and waves at shoma when he sees him. ]

Hey... are you feeling okay? [ after, like... the coffin, and scien's everything... ] Everything was such a rush at the end there...

[solesuccess]

[ IT'S FINE, IT'S FINE, FRESH START.

it's not like he can blame todomatsu for avoiding his room, actually. so yeah, the emotion hits and there's a soft reflect of almost understanding in a sense before he returns the greeting with a light smile of his own. it's like. mostly an effort rather than actually feeling any sort of happiness. ]

...I think all of us are kind of feeling some way right about now. None of this is what we expected, huh?

[drymonster]

Nnnnnope, definitely none of it...

[ sighs ]

In the end, it's all just... sad, I guess.

w1, monday

[drymonster]

[ me gazing at these planet locations like where can i legally go with a 12 year old and thus we end up at the bookstore. he's looking snazzy in some of his new clothes and takes off his respirator as he steps inside and looks back at the city scenery on the other side of the door. ]

Techno vampire planet's sure a new one...

[solesuccess]

[ that's honestly fair. inside they are in the bookstore, and shoma's busy reading over the spines of several books to see if he catches anything interesting. ]

When they said we were doing an intergalatic tour, I was sort of expecting the planets to be...y'know. More normal than this. I'd say it could be worse but I'm also kinda scared of jinxing it.

[drymonster]

[ wanders over! ]

Yeah? [ a little headtilt. ] What's your idea of "normal" for another planet? Like, more like Earth, or more like traditional sci-fi aliens?

...Though yeah, I think this one's kind of weird no matter how you look at it. Definitely feels more like the setting for a YA series or something.

w1 sunday

[solesuccess]

[ okay considering the man is on crutches, shoma is going to do him a mercy and actually go to try and find him instead. ]

...I wanted to give you a couple of days to recuperate from your mission, and then everything got kinda worse. [ man. ] How're you holding up?

[drymonster]

[ AT SOME POINT HE WILL GET A SECOND HEAL... but yeah, he's probably watching stuff in the rec room or something because he needs a distraction from his entire existence right now. ]

Haha, it really did just keep getting worse, didn't it...

[ woof. ]

I'm... okay? Relatively speaking, anyway...

[solesuccess]

[ sometimes...you simply must disassociate for a while. understandable. ]

It would almost be impressive if it weren't kind of terrible to watch. [ a half-grin. ] But that's good. I heard a little about your mission from Owner and Kazuki...and it's not like we really had much of a break between when you got back and when the stay in place order went out.

w2 sunday

[solesuccess]

[ man...this was literally the worst outcome of the weekend, so he's really out here sort of just wandering. he should maybe sit down and be resting still, but he's pretty sure if he sits he's just going to be thinking about terrible shit for a while.

so. distractions. it's why he doesn't veer off when he sees todomatsu, and instead comes to a stop wherever they are. ]

...how're you holding up?

[drymonster]

[ he's been flickering back and forth between color and grayscale all day, so maybe that's something of an answer. ]

As well as can be expected, I guess.

[ i.e. not that great given what they just watched today and how he still kind of feels responsible for it after bringing up shouxue's dye in the last 15 minutes of trial.

he shrugs, deflecting. ]

...Anyway, that's a better question for you, isn't it? Whatever happened to you guys the other day looked pretty rough.

[solesuccess]

[ oof. yeah that is an answer. ]

Sounds about right. [ he allows the deflection because they are really all just out here trying their best. sometimes you use an eight ball to narrow down a list. sometimes you point out a person's home item. you do things on chance, and then you're just...stuck.

normally he would deflect right back, but...things have changed and he thinks a lot about what happened on thursday and the way he should maybe be changing his approach on everything. ]

It wasn't great, no. I'm still not entirely over everything that happened, and there's a lot that I still don't really get. But we made it out and that was what mattered at the time. [ a pause. ] It wasn't a mission like the one you guys went on. We were just sort of pulled away from the ship after seeing this weird light and woke up on a bus.

w3, saturday

[drymonster]

[ godddd he's still so on edge. wherever he sees shoma, he'll kind of motion him over to a corner and lower his voice. ]

...Once that anger thing takes hold, it doesn't leave, right? That's the working theory?

[solesuccess]

[ hey. ]

That's the working theory, yeah. Kind of resides until...well. Sunday's over. [ i.e. when a person dies. ] But no, it doesn't disappear on its own. Dion's just...really good at controlling his feelings, I think.

[drymonster]

[ nods ]

Okay, that's what I was thinking. So even if it's not really their fault, it's dumb as hell to vote for anyone besides the person who did it.

w5, tuesday -> wednesday

[drymonster]

totty

hello, shoma-kun!
hope you've been staying warm today!
i've been meaning to ask about this for a while, but things keep happening... i got one of our support AIs from home a few weeks ago and wanted to see if you could take a look at it and maybe fix its programming or something to make it less useless?

i can bring it by sometime tomorrow before this week's job if that works for you!

[solesuccess]

bats534

surprisingly yeah haha
but yeah, sure! i can take a look and see what i can do to bring it online and try to adjust some stuff
come by my room whenever, i'll be here and my tools are there anyway
gives you time to think about what you might want to do with it functionality-wise too before tomorrow so i can work on it

[drymonster]

totty

awesome, thank you!

i think we mostly just need to like, adjust its personality settings
because its actual capabilities used to be pretty good, it just refuses to do the support things it was designed for now

w7, monday

[drymonster]

[ jumping right into this because it's endgame week — whatever plot discussion might have been about to happen here, it's getting delayed by a memory (06:25 - 10:25).

there's a brief moment of silence afterward, but then he quickly speaks up to answer the obvious question: ]

He's fine now.

[ ... ]

And we all just went back to being trash again.

[solesuccess]

[ this is. so wholesome that it very nearly knocks him on his ass actually. his jaw clicks shut softly, the question curbed when todomatsu answers immediately and for a moment shoma's thinking about this. ]

I'm glad for that, at least. Parents are pretty good to have around. [ it's idly said, and he's aware it sounds stupid out of context but he does have thoughts on family. wow. wonder why. but there's a little amused noise that follows. ] To be completely honest I wouldn't say you're missing much. Being independent's not exactly easy. But...it'll have to happen eventually, right? You'll be a little more prepared then.

[drymonster]

[ this anime is truly 85% crazy bullshit and 15% feelings. ]

I don't know. Maybe? [ if they were from a normal world, yes, but maybe they'll just stay in their twenties forever and their parents won't get any older either. ] There've been a couple of times where we actually made legitimate steps toward independence, but then everything just got reversed in the next episode and we fell back into the same rut again. Feels like we make less of an effort every time.

[ they're all shit, what else is new.

he frowns a little as he thinks over what shoma just said, though. ]

You don't live with your family, huh?