Slim Bankshot

changed his profile picture

15 hrs

Comment

Load more posts

Info

2 posts
http://Https://Www.Google.Com
Male

About

Here\s the redo — full story with proper spacing between every dialogue beat, pasted right here: THE GREAT MIND MAINTENANCE MELTDOWN An Inside Out Fan Fiction Featuring Ennui\s Complete Cyborg Journey PROLOGUE: THE ACCIDENT Ennui had a plan. A brilliant plan. A plan that required exactly zero steps off her beanbag chair. \Ooh la la,\ she muttered, surveying the tangle of extension cords, phone chargers, and one deeply suspicious Wi-Fi router she\d spent the last hour wiring into the Mind Maintenance generator. \If this works, I will never have to get up again.\ Anxiety paced behind her, wringing her hands. \Ennui, are you sure this is safe? What if it overloads? What if it explodes? What if—\ \Anxiety. Mon amie. It is a remote control. For the console. So I do not have to leave my couch.\ Ennui gave the last cord a triumphant tug. \Nothing bad will happen.\ That was, as it turned out, an extremely bold thing to say out loud in Headquarters. Anxiety, still pacing, caught her foot on one of the loose wires. There was a yank, a spark, and then a BOOM of pure boredom-colored electricity that lit the whole room a sickly shade of lavender. \ENNUI!\ the others screamed in unison. When the smoke cleared, Ennui was lying flat on her back beneath her beanbag chair, completely unmoving, one eyebrow raised in what could only be described as mild annoyance at the concept of an explosion. The Mind Maintenance crew arrived within minutes — small, hard-hatted workers who lived for exactly this kind of emergency. They took one look at the damage, grabbed whatever spare parts were sitting in the recycling bins, and got to work. Nobody thought to ask whether \whatever spare parts were sitting in the recycling bins\ was actually a good idea. It was not. By the time they were done, Ennui had been fused with the gearwork of an old Thought-Train locomotive, the guts of a broken Memory-Scrubber vacuum, and a fistful of loose wiring from a discarded Console Upgrade Kit. When she finally opened her eyes, Joy leaned over her, hardly daring to breathe. \Ennui? Can you hear me?\ Ennui sat up. Gears clicked somewhere behind her ribs. She looked down at her arms, at the faint neon-purple glow now humming under her sleeves, and let out the heaviest sigh Headquarters had ever heard. \Ugh,\ she said. \Now I weigh more.\ CHAPTER ZERO: THE DAY THE SNOOZE BUTTON BROKE It didn\t take long for the new hardware to make itself known. Riley was in chemistry class, staring down a pop quiz on covalent bonds, her brain completely fried. Down in Headquarters, the console was flashing crimson. \She\s crashing!\ Anxiety shrieked, hair standing on end as she jabbed at buttons. \If she fails this quiz she won\t get into the science club and she\ll have to live in a cave!\ \Step aside, frantic-pants,\ Anger growled, shoving her out of the way. \We need power. We need fire. Ennui — hit her with the sigh so the teacher leaves her alone!\ Ennui, sprawled across the floor like a dropped pile of laundry, didn\t budge. Her new limbs had made her heavier, and heavier meant even less inclined to move than usual. \Too loud,\ she groaned into the carpet. \Just let her fail. Caves are quiet.\ \Not on my watch!\ Joy zipped across the room and grabbed Ennui by her coat. \Mind Maintenance didn\t pack you full of gadgets for nothing. Give us a hand — literally!\ She yanked the drawstring on Ennui\s hoodie like it was a rip cord. SPARK. BZZZT. Inside Ennui\s chest, a dial no one had noticed before — labeled, in small stenciled letters, SNOOZE / ACTIVATE — began spinning wildly. The old locomotive gears in her ribs groaned. Vacuum tubes down her spine lit up bright purple. \Oh, sweet mother of fashion, what is happening to her coat?!\ Disgust yelped, leaping back as a holographic screen flickered to life inches from Ennui\s nose, projecting chemistry formulas directly onto her bangs. \Go-go-gadget… chemistry cheat sheet,\ Ennui muttered, completely deadpan. Her voice synced perfectly with a retro computer beep. In the classroom, Riley\s eyes widened. Her pencil moved with sudden, unnerving precision. \It\s working!\ Joy cheered. \She\s acing it!\ But the tech wasn\t finished. With a loud CLANG, three mechanical arms burst out of Ennui\s beanie — one holding a laser pointer, one a magnifying glass, and one, inexplicably, a full cup of espresso she\d apparently been hiding in her hat the whole time. \Too much input!\ Anxiety screamed, covering her eyes. \She\s overclocking!\ Before anyone could stop her, rocket boosters kicked on in Ennui\s boots. She lifted three inches off the ground and drifted backward across the control room, face frozen in a look of total, unbothered boredom. \Someone shut her down!\ Anger bellowed — right as the shoulder-mounted laser fired a stray beam clean across the room and sliced his favorite mug in half. \That\s it. I\m pulling the plug.\ He lunged, slammed a fist onto the enormous blinking EMERGENCY SNOOZE button on her belt— The rockets sputtered out. The arms folded back into her beanie with a sound like a collapsing lawn chair. The holograms vanished. Ennui dropped straight out of the air and landed flat on her back with a heavy metallic THUD. In the classroom, Riley blinked, snapped out of her daze, and realized she\d filled out the entire quiz in flawless handwriting — along with, on the back of the page, a suspiciously detailed blueprint of a helicopter. Back in Headquarters, the room went dead silent. Joy crept over and peered down. Ennui lay perfectly still, her scarf draping itself over her face like a sleep mask. \Ennui?\ Joy whispered. \Are you okay?\ From beneath the scarf came one long, deeply put-upon sigh. \That was terrible,\ Ennui groaned, mechanical eyelids clicking shut. \I think I burned three calories. Nobody touch me until Tuesday.\ Later that night, once the console had gone quiet and Riley was fast asleep, Joy sat down on the arm of the beanbag chair. \You scared us today,\ she said softly. Ennui, propped up against her own cybernetic elbow, shrugged — gears whirring faintly under the motion. \I scared myself a little too, if I am being honest.\ \You don\t have to use the gadgets if you don\t want to. We\ll figure out the quizzes some other way.\ \Non, non — it is fine, Joy.\ A small, genuine almost-smile. \It is exhausting, being wired for excitement I did not ask for. But I suppose… it is nice, knowing I can help without getting off the couch.\ Joy laughed and bumped her shoulder gently against the metal one. \That does sound exactly like you.\ \Oui,\ Ennui said, closing her eyes. \It really does.\ CHAPTER ONE: POWERED ON The first thing Ennui felt, before she even opened her eyes, was cold. She was lying on something hard and metal, not her beanbag chair. A steady beeping filled her ears — not her phone, not the console, something else, something clinical and unfamiliar. Bright light pressed against her eyelids. \H-hello?\ Her voice cracked. \Ouoi… where am I?\ \You
e in Mind Maintenance\s repair bay, sweetheart,\ came a gentle voice from somewhere above her — one of the hard-hatted workers, wiping grease off a wrench. \You
e all patched up. Try not to move too fast.\ Ennui pushed herself upright — and stopped. Her arm didn\t move the way an arm was supposed to move. It moved a half-second late, with a faint mechanical whir, like something underneath her skin was catching up to the rest of her. \Ouoi—\ She froze. Flexed her fingers. Heard the click of tiny gears turning in her wrist. \Ouoi is that sound?\ \That\s just your new hardware settling in,\ the worker said cheerfully, like this was completely normal. \You
e a whole new model now! Give it a minute, you\ll get used to—\ \Get used to it?\ Ennui\s voice rose, thin and shaking. She looked down at her own arms like they belonged to someone else. Small vents she didn\t recognize sat along her forearms. A faint purple light pulsed beneath the skin of her wrist, visible right through it. \I did not ask for this! I did not ask to be — to be fixed! I just wanted to sit on my couch!\ \Ennui—\ \Non! Non, non, non!\ She scrambled backward off the table, and the sudden motion made one of her boots lock rigid with a clunk, throwing her off balance. She hit the floor hard, and the impact made something in her chest whir and spin, completely without her permission. That was the moment she started to cry. Not her usual sigh, not her usual flat little frown — real tears, the kind that came fast and confused and frightened, her breath catching in her throat. \I don\t — I don\t know what is happening to my body,\ she choked out, hugging her own arms to her chest like she could hold herself together by force. \Ouoi if I cannot turn it off? Ouoi if I am not — not moi anymore?\ The door burst open. Joy skidded in first, Anxiety right behind her, both of them stopping short at the sight of Ennui curled up small on the floor, shaking. \Ennui!\ Joy dropped to her knees beside her. \Hey, hey, it\s okay—\ \It is not okay!\ Ennui sobbed, and the words came out ragged, nothing like her usual bored drawl. \My arm moves by itself, Joy! There is a light under my skin! I do not know what these — these buttons do, or these wires, or why my boots just locked on their own! I am scared! I have never been scared like this and I do not know how to make it stop!\ Anxiety, of all people, was the one who knelt down slowly on her other side, hands trembling but voice steady. \You
e allowed to be scared, Mon Amie. This is a lot. This is — this is exactly the kind of thing that scares me, and you
e always the one telling me to calm down. So. Let me try telling you, for once.\ Ennui let out a wet, hiccupping laugh despite herself. \T-that is very kind of you, Anxiety.\ \I\ve had a lot of practice,\ Anxiety said, managing a small smile. \Now — breathe with me, okay? In… and out…\ It took a while. Ennui\s shoulders kept jumping with small aftershocks of tears, her new mechanical parts whirring faintly every time she flinched, which only made her cry harder for a moment — until Joy gently took her hand, plain and human and warm despite the metal now woven under Ennui\s skin, and just held on. \We
e not going anywhere,\ Joy said quietly. \Whatever you
e made of now — gears, wires, purple lights, all of it — you
e still you. You
e still Ennui. We
e not going to let you figure this out alone.\ Ennui wiped her face with the back of one hand, sniffling. \Promise?\ \Promise,\ Joy and Anxiety said together. CHAPTER TWO: THE FIRST TEST It took two more days before anyone worked up the nerve to actually test what Ennui\s new body could do — and it was Anger, of all people, who suggested it. \Better we find out in here,\ he said, \than have you short-circuit in front of Riley\s whole chemistry class again.\ Ennui, wrapped in a blanket on her fixed-up couch, eyed him warily. \Fine. But if anything explodes, it is your fault.\ \Deal.\ They started small. Joy asked her to try the holographic screen first — the one that had shown Riley the chemistry answers. Ennui took a slow breath, held very still, and thought about turning it on. Nothing happened. She thought harder. Still nothing. \Maybe you have to say something,\ Envy offered. \Like a magic word.\ Ennui rolled her eyes — and the screen flickered to life an inch from her nose, definitely not on purpose, showing a random diagram of a light bulb. \Oh!\ She yelped and swatted at it. It vanished. \It — it responds to my expressions? Ouoi kind of nonsense is that?\ \Try the arms next,\ Anxiety said, then immediately looked nervous about having suggested it. \Just — carefully. Please.\ Ennui tugged the drawstring of her hoodie the way Joy had, bracing herself. This time, instead of panicking, she tried to stay calm the way Anxiety had taught her to breathe. Click. Click. Clang. Three small mechanical arms unfolded from her beanie, slow and almost graceful, each one holding something different — a laser pointer, a magnifying glass, and, once again, an inexplicable cup of espresso. \Why is there always coffee,\ Disgust muttered. \I do not question it anymore,\ Ennui said. But there was something new in her voice — not quite excitement, never quite excitement, but something a little lighter than before. She turned the magnifying glass over in one small mechanical hand, examining it. \Huh. That is — actually a little bit interesting.\ Joy beamed. \See? You
e getting the hang of it.\ \Do not push your luck,\ Ennui said, folding the arms carefully back into her beanie. \I still weigh more than I would like, and I am still deeply unhappy about the rocket boots.\ \One thing at a time,\ Anger said, almost gently, for him. \You did good today.\ Ennui looked down at her own hands — steady now, purple light humming faint and quiet beneath the skin — and let out a long breath that was almost, almost, her old familiar sigh. \Oui,\ she admitted quietly. \I suppose I did.\ CHAPTER THREE: PHYSICAL THERAPY \Absolutely not,\ Ennui said, for the fourth time. \Ennui, it\s just walking,\ Joy said patiently, standing a few feet away with her arms out, like Ennui was a toddler about to take her first steps. \Across the room. That\s it.\ \I know how to walk, Joy. I have been walking my entire life. It is the — the legs that are the problem now.\ Ennui gestured at her own boots with visible betrayal. \They lock. They whir. Yesterday one of them tried to launch me into the ceiling.\ \That\s exactly why we
e doing this,\ said the Mind Maintenance therapist waiting by the parallel bars they\d rigged up out of old console railing. She had a clipboard and an unreasonably calm smile. \Your new components need to learn to move with you instead of on their own timer. Small steps. Literally.\ Ennui eyed the bars like they\d personally wronged her. \Fine,\ she muttered. \But if I fall, I am blaming everyone in this room.\ \Duly noted,\ Anger said from the couch, arms crossed, refusing to admit he\d come to watch. She gripped the bars and took the first step. Her boot locked halfway through the motion — that same awful clunk — and her whole leg buckled sideways. She caught herself hard on the railing, metal scraping metal, and let out a sharp hiss of pain. \Ennui!\ Anxiety was up instantly. \Do you need to stop? You should stop. This is too much, this is—\ \I am fine,\ Ennui snapped, though her voice wobbled. She forced her weight back onto both feet, breathing hard. \I just need to — try again.\ She tried again. The boot locked again. This time she didn\t catch herself in time, and she went down hard on one knee, the impact sending a jolt of grinding pain up through gears that hadn\t fully settled into place yet. \Ow — OW—\ The sound tore out of her, higher and rawer than she meant it to, and for a second she just knelt there gripping the bar, shoulders shaking. \This is — this is stupide, why does it hurt like this, it is not supposed to hurt like this —\ \It\s supposed to hurt a little,\ the therapist said gently, crouching beside her. \You
e retraining hardware that\s brand new to you. That takes strain. I know it\s awful. I\m sorry.\ \I don\t want to do this anymore.\ Ennui\s voice cracked completely now, tears spilling over before she could stop them. \I don\t — I don\t want new legs, I want my old legs, the ones that just sat on the couch and did not fight me every time I tried to move them!\ Joy dropped down in front of her, taking both of Ennui\s hands in hers. \Hey. Hey, look at me. You don\t have to want this. You
e allowed to hate every second of it. But I promise you, the only way through it is through it — and we are going through it with you.\ \I am so tired, Joy.\ A sob broke loose, raw and unguarded. \I am so tired and it has barely been ten minutes.\ \Then we rest for a second. And then we try again. That\s all today has to be.\ Joy squeezed her hands. \One more step. Just one.\ Ennui wiped her face against her shoulder, smearing grease and tears together, and hauled herself back up on shaking legs. \One more step,\ she repeated, like a vow. This time, when her boot locked, she didn\t fall. She strained against it — jaw clenched, whole body trembling with the effort — and with a grinding shriek of metal that made everyone in the room wince, the joint finally gave and clicked forward into place. She let out a scream that was half triumph, half agony, and staggered the last foot into Joy\s waiting arms. \I DID IT,\ she wailed, voice cracking somewhere between sobbing and shouting. \I HATE IT, BUT I DID IT!\ The room erupted — Envy cheering, Anxiety crying almost as hard as Ennui was, even Anger managing something that might have been a proud nod. It took a week of sessions like that — crying, straining, the occasional scream that had Anxiety pacing outside the door — before Ennui\s new legs finally started listening to her instead of the other way around. The real test came on a quiet afternoon, with no bars, no therapist, no audience but Joy. \Watch this,\ Ennui said, and walked the full length of Headquarters in one smooth, unassisted line — no lock, no lurch, no whir out of sync with her steps. She stopped in front of the couch, turned around slowly, and gave the smallest, most exhausted bow anyone had ever seen. \Ladies and gentlemen,\ she announced, deadpan as ever, \Ennui\s legs. Making their official debut.\ Joy burst out laughing and pulled her into a hug before she could even sit down. \Do not get used to the enthusiasm,\ Ennui warned, muffled against her shoulder. \This is a one-time performance.\ \Wouldn\t dream of it,\ Joy said, grinning. \Welcome back, Mon Amie.\ EPILOGUE: THE CLAP-OUT One month. That was how long it had been since the Great Mind Maintenance Meltdown — one month of repair bays and grinding gears, of physical therapy sessions that left her voice hoarse from screaming and her cheeks raw from crying, of learning to trust a body that kept surprising her in ways she never asked for. And now, finally, Ennui stood at the doors of the Mind Maintenance recovery ward with her bag packed, her scarf back around her neck, and her legs — her own legs, finally, properly hers — steady beneath her. \Ready?\ the therapist asked, clipboard tucked under one arm, smiling in that unreasonably calm way she always did. \Non,\ Ennui said honestly. \But I am leaving anyway.\ She pushed the doors open. The hallway outside was lined on both sides — every Mind Maintenance worker who\d fixed her, every nurse who\d checked her gears at odd hours, the whole PT staff who\d watched her fall and scream and get back up again, day after day. And at the very end of the hallway, unmistakably, the 8 Emotions, jumping up and down and waving with everything they had. The clapping started slow — one worker, then another — and built into a full, echoing wave that rolled down the hallway to meet her. Ennui froze in the doorway, one hand pressed to her mouth. \Oh,\ she said, very quietly, and then her eyes welled up all over again. \Oh, non, I promised myself I would not cry today—\ \You
e allowed to break that promise,\ the therapist said, laughing, giving her a gentle nudge forward. \Go on. They
e all here for you.\ Ennui walked — really walked, no lock, no whir out of step, just her, moving under her own power down a hallway full of people clapping for the fact that she\d made it through. Through the crying and the straining and the screaming and the distress of every session in between. Joy reached her first, nearly tackling her into a hug. \You did it! A whole month, and you did it!\ \I had excellent motivation,\ Ennui managed, voice thick. \Mostly spite. Some of it was you.\ \I\ll take it,\ Joy laughed. Anxiety was next, hugging her so tight it nearly knocked the wind out of her, already crying harder than Ennui was. \We missed you so much, Mon Amie. Headquarters was not the same without you complaining on the couch.\ \I missed complaining on the couch,\ Ennui admitted, and that got a real laugh out of everyone, rippling down the hallway along with the last of the applause. Anger clapped her once, firmly, on the shoulder — his version of a hug. \Proud of you. Don\t make me say it twice.\ \Wouldn\t dream of it.\ Envy threw both arms around her from the side. \We are unbreakable, remember? You proved it!\ \I suppose I did,\ Ennui said, and for once there was no sarcasm in it at all — just quiet, worn-out, genuine pride. The workers kept clapping until the doors finally swung shut behind the whole group, the sound following her out into the hallway light one last time. Ennui walked out surrounded on all sides by the people who\d stayed — through every scream, every collapsed step, every long night — and hadn\t once let go of her hand. \Home?\ Joy asked, once they reached the elevator. Ennui leaned her head against Joy\s shoulder, exhausted in the good way now, the way that meant it was finally, finally over. \Home,\ she agreed. \And Joy — moi phone had better still be exactly where I left it.\ \…We\ll talk about that in the elevator.\ \JOY.\ CHAPTER SIX: THE GADGETLESS SHOCK It happened so fast Ennui didn\t even have time to be annoyed about it. One second she was lying on her couch—half-recovered, still feeling the faint under-the-skin hum of her new parts, still half-expecting some dial somewhere to start spinning just because she\d blinked wrong. The next second, the purple glow under her wrist sputtered once, twice— —and went out. Ennui sat up so abruptly her scarf slipped down her nose. \Ouoi…?\ Her voice came out flat, as if the words had forgotten how to wear their usual boredom. She flexed her fingers. No click. No whir. No tiny gear-train trying to catch up to the rest of her. Her arm felt normal. Her legs felt normal. Her chest didn\t beep or thrum or remember how to spin up rocket boots out of spite. Ennui stared at herself like she\d been replaced. \Non,\ she said, too calmly. \Non, non, non. That is not—\ She reached up to pat the faint outline where her hoodie drawstring used to feel like a power trigger. Her hand met fabric. Nothing happened. No mechanism remembered what it was supposed to do. No gadget answered. Ennui\s breath hitched. She tried to sigh—half expecting the old familiar sensation of gears settling behind her ribs— —but it was just her throat. Just her lungs. Just her body doing body things without extra features. Then she felt it: the sudden silence, the sudden absence. Like a language she\d been speaking without noticing had been taken away mid-sentence. Her face tightened. \Oh,\ she whispered, and the word sounded smaller than it had any right to be. \So that is what it is like… to be without the problem.\ But the feeling wasn\t relief. It was wrong. Her eyes flicked around Headquarters, searching for the place where a button should have been there, where a switch should have waited, where some clever engineer had hidden a backup option. Nothing. Her hands began to shake. \I was—\ Ennui\s voice cracked, gears-less and powerless. \I was fixed. I was built. And now I am— I am missing!\ The panic arrived like a sudden cold wave. Ennui scrambled to her feet, then immediately sat back down again—like her body had forgotten how to negotiate the floor. She pressed both palms to her thighs, staring at them as if she could command them back into working order. \My legs,\ she choked out. \My legs are… uncooperative now, and nobody is wired into them —\ Her breath came too fast. Her thoughts tripped over each other. And before she could finish a full sentence, she started to cry. Real tears. Hot and helpless, spilling before she could decide whether she wanted them or not. \Oh, Joy,\ she sobbed. \I don\t understand. They take the gadgets, and they leave the fear! They leave the— the shape of it!\ The door burst open. Joy was there first, of course, but behind her came the Mind Maintenance engineers in a cluster—like they\d heard the silence break and raced to catch her before it swallowed her whole. Edwin \Eddie\ Fusefield hovered near the console with a worried frown already forming. Marta \Mars\ Memorywright moved with her clipboard hugged to her chest, as if paperwork could replace panic. Franklin \Frank\ Gearson looked almost offended by the situation—like the failure had insulted him personally. Caleb \Cal\ Clampwell steadied himself at the edge of the room, prepared to fix anything that could be fixed quickly. And Zelda \Zap\ Zapperton—the one who always joked about labels—stopped mid-sentence because Ennui\s face was too raw to joke at. Ennui turned toward them, mascara-less tears running, voice thin and trembling. \I\m normal,\ she said, as if it were an accusation. No one answered right away. Because it didn\t sound like she wanted to celebrate. It sounded like she\d been pushed off a ledge and asked to smile at the landing. \Ennui,\ Joy said softly, stepping closer. Ennui flinched at the closeness, as if comfort itself might trigger something broken inside her. \They
e gone,\ she whispered. \The gadgets are gone. And now I can\t— I can\t—\ Her sentence fell apart. And that was when the engineers did something very different from what she expected. They didn\t reach for tools. They didn\t say \it\s okay, we\ll repair you\ like it was a schedule. They didn\t try to explain the sudden loss or the likely cause. They simply moved closer—one by one—then all at once. Eddie wrapped an arm around her shoulder with careful gentleness, like he didn\t want to startle a frightened animal. Mars slid her hands around Ennui\s back, holding her steady. Frank—who usually looked like he could wrestle a machine into behaving—rested his forehead against Ennui\s head for half a second before squeezing her in a firm, grounding hug. Cal hugged her from the side, his grip warm and solid. Zelda pressed in last, shoulders tight, eyes shiny. \Okay,\ she murmured, voice suddenly sincere. \Okay. We\ve got you.\ And in seconds Ennui was surrounded. Five bodies. Warm and human and real. And the shock hit her again, but this time it didn\t push her away. It broke her. Her crying turned louder, not because she was getting worse, but because she couldn\t hold it in anymore. \Oh, non,\ she sobbed into their sleeves. \I thought I would feel… safe. I thought normal was supposed to be— easier. But I feel— I feel like I\m falling without the thing that catches me!\ Joy knelt in front of her and cupped her face with both hands, thumbs wiping tears like it was the most ordinary task in the world. \You don\t have to be brave about this,\ Joy whispered. \You don\t have to earn comfort by understanding it. Your body changed. That\s scary. And you
e allowed to be scared.\ Ennui\s eyes squeezed shut. \I promised I wouldn\t cry today,\ she muttered, voice cracking into a pathetic laugh. Zelda let out a choked sound—half laugh, half sob. \You
e allowed to break promises.\ Mars rubbed Ennui\s back in slow circles. \We
e not leaving.\ Eddie nodded against her hair. \Gadgets or not. You
e still Ennui.\ Frank squeezed her a little tighter, like he could physically keep the world from tilting. \You
e allowed to miss what helped you, even if it wasn\t perfect.\ Cal\s voice was low and steady. \You
e not broken just because you
e different.\ Ennui tried to pull away for half a second—then gave up. She melted into the hug as if her whole body had been waiting for someone to simply hold her until the panic passed. Her breathing slowed, little by little. The tears didn\t stop instantly, but they became softer—less like alarms and more like water finally allowed to flow. When she finally managed to lift her head, her cheeks were wet, her scarf was crooked, and she looked furious with the universe for making her feel so much. \Can I have my boredom back?\ she asked weakly. Joy laughed through her own eyes. \We can work on that later.\ Eddie kissed her forehead like he was trying to fix a circuit with kindness. Mars smiled. \Right now we start with the important part.\ Ennui blinked. \Which is?\ Zelda grinned, and this time it reached her eyes. \The part where you don\t have to do it alone.\ Ennui let out one last hiccuping sob, then clung to their hugs like she was afraid they\d disappear too. And for the first time since the gadgets vanished, the silence didn\t feel empty. It felt shared. Ennui woke up with a start, blinking against the dim Headquarters light. Her chest felt… quiet. No faint hum under her wrist. No purple pulse. Just her breathing, and the sudden, terrifying stillness inside her body. She sat up fast enough to make her scarf slip. Eddie stood beside the repair bench, wiping his hands on a cloth like he\d been working the whole time. \We disco—\ Eddie paused, then corrected himself with an engineer\s seriousness. \We discontinued from your gadgets. That\s why the lights went out.\ Ennui stared. Eddie nodded, like the explanation was simple enough to fit in a checklist. \And the shutdown worked. It stopped the rest of the system from firing.\ Frank was already there, arms crossed, looking pleased in that annoyingly competent way he had. \You are normal now.\ Ennui\s eyes went wide—then wider. \Normal?!!!!\ Ennui\s voice shot up, sharp and horrified. Frank held up a finger. \Yep.\ Ennui\s hands flew to her chest and her arms, patting herself like she expected to find the gadget parts hiding under her skin. \No, no, no—\ she sputtered. \Wait. Wait. You took them out?\ Frank stepped closer, gentler than his tone had suggested. \We extracted all of your gadgets out of you.\ Ennui froze mid-breath. Her face scrunched. Her mouth opened. Then she just—gasps—again, because apparently that was all her body could do right now. \Y-you… took them out??\ she whispered, like the words might explode. Eddie gave her a sympathetic look. \It\s okay. You
e okay.\ Ennui stared at him for a long second, then looked down at her hands again, searching for the familiar mechanisms that used to make her feel like she had control. But all she could feel was skin, warmth, and nothing whirring to answer back. She swallowed. \…I hate this,\ she said, voice wobbling. \But… I\m alive.\ Frank\s expression softened. \That\s the point.\ Ennui\s breath hitched—and then it broke. She started crying full-hard gushing sobs that she couldn\t even breathe through. Her scarf slipped down her neck. Her hands clutched at nothing, like she could hold the feeling in if she grabbed hard enough. \M-M-Merci!\ she choked out, the words dissolving into another wave of tears. Frank\s voice cut in immediately, steady and gentle. \Hey hey—take it easy, ma\am. We
e right here.\ Eddie moved in closer without grabbing, just existing as a warm, steady presence beside her. And then the doors to Headquarters practically flung themselves open. The 8 Emotions came running all at once, piling into the room with a kind of urgency that usually meant trouble—except this time it meant comfort. Joy rushed first, kneeling in front of Ennui with her arms open. \Oh, hey—shh, shh. We\ve got you.\ Anxiety hovered close, face tight with emotion, then carefully took Ennui\s hands in both of hers. \You don\t have to be strong right now. Breathe with me—slow.\ Anger stepped in like a wall, firm and protective. \No one\s going anywhere. You hear me?\ Disgust made a face—then softened instantly and wiped Ennui\s tears with her sleeve like she hated how tender she felt. \We… we
e here. Okay?\ Fear swallowed hard, voice small but determined. \You
e safe. I promise.\ Envy pressed in from the side, eyes shining. \We wanted you back. We didn\t realize how badly you needed it.\ And Ennui couldn\t even answer—only sob and shake and gasp, over and over. Zelda leaned in last, arms tight around Ennui\s shoulders. \Merci is enough,\ she murmured. \You don\t have to do anything else.\ For a little while, the only sound in Headquarters was Ennui trying to breathe through the crying—until her breath slowed, until the sobs turned from drowning to drifting. She finally managed, barely, through wet lips and trembling voice: \…I thought normal would hurt…\ Joy hugged her tighter. \It can,\ she whispered. \But you
e not alone in it.\ Ennui was still hiccuping through tears when the sound of footsteps hit Headquarters like thunder. The doors swung wider. Her parents came rushing in—faces terrified, voices unsteady, but arms already open like they\d been waiting for the exact moment Ennui would need someone to hold her down into safety. \Ennui!\ her mom cried, and she was there in an instant, scooping Ennui into a tight hug that smelled like home and warm blankets. Her dad followed right behind, kneeling so he could wrap his arms around her too, pressing his forehead to hers. \Oh sweetheart… we
e here. We
e right here.\ Ennui\s body jolted at the contact—then melted. The sobs turned from sharp and frantic into big, unstoppable crying again, only now they had somewhere to go. \Merci…\ she choked out, clinging to them like she\d just come back from somewhere far away. Her parents rocked her gently, over and over, talking in calm, broken phrases. \We\ve got you.\ \Don\t worry.\ \Breathe, honey—breathe.\ \You
e okay. You
e still you.\ The 8 Emotions and the engineers stepped back just enough to give her family space, but they stayed close—still watching, still ready. Joy whispered, \She needs this.\ Frank gave a solemn nod. \Yeah.\ Eddie wiped at his eyes, pretending he wasn\t emotional. \Can\t fix everything with gadgets,\ he muttered. Ennui cried until her chest stopped feeling like it was tearing. When her breath finally steadied, she looked up at her parents through wet lashes, voice small. \…I was scared.\ Her mom kissed her forehead. \We know, mon amour. But you
e safe now.\ Her dad squeezed her hands. \Normal or not—your family is still your family.\ And for the first time in what felt like forever, Ennui let the panic drain out of her—held, comforted, and surrounded. Ennui sat on the edge of Headquarters like her body didn\t know where to put itself yet—scarf back in place, eyes red, cheeks still damp. But the room didn\t feel empty anymore. Her parents were on either side of her, holding her hands and kissing her forehead whenever she flinched too hard, their voices soft and steady like a blanket she could lean on. Every time she tried to apologize for crying, her dad just shook his head. \No. You
e allowed.\ Her friends crowded in too—close enough to be real comfort, not so close they smothered her. Joy had her arms around Ennui\s shoulders, whispering, \You
e okay, you
e okay,\ like it was a spell. Anxiety sat in front of her, thumb rubbing slow circles over Ennui\s knuckles, careful not to rush the breathing back into place. Anger stood behind her like a guard who didn\t know how to relax, while Disgust leaned in with a shaky smile and said, \Ugh… I hate that you hurt,\ which somehow made Ennui laugh through tears anyway. The 8 Emotions were all there—hugging, hovering, wiping her face, passing her tissues, offering warm words in whatever way they could. And then the Mind Maintenance engineers rounded the circle as if they belonged there, too. Eddie sat closest, still greased up from working, but his eyes were gentle. Frank stood with the calm stubbornness of someone who refuses to let fear be the loudest voice in the room. Mars held a diagnostic pad in her lap like she was ready to catch any problem before it grew. Cal and Zelda made space, quiet and supportive, occasionally exchanging looks like, we got this—even though none of them could possibly \fix\ how frightened Ennui had been. Ennui wiped her face with the back of her sleeve. \I cried so much,\ she said, voice wobbling into something almost cheerful. Joy laughed softly. \You did.\ Ennui sniffed again, then her shoulders shook one more time—happy, relieved crying this time, like the tears had finally changed jobs. \I thought… normal would mean I lost everything,\ she admitted. \I thought I was less me.\ Frank nodded once. \You
e still you.\ Eddie added, \And you
e safe. That\s the important part.\ Her mom leaned in, hugging her again, stronger this time—as if to say the hug was also an answer. Her dad pressed a warm hand to her cheek. Ennui let herself be held by all of them. Family on one side, friends and emotions on the other, and the mind workers close enough that she could feel their care like steady light. She took a deep breath—long enough that it finally didn\t hurt—and smiled through tears. \Merci,\ she whispered again, but this time it came out like joy instead of fear. Then she laughed—wet, hiccuping, genuinely happy—and cried happily all over again, surrounded by everyone who stayed. THE END

Albums

(0)

Friends

(0)

Likes

(0)

Groups

(0)

15 hrs

15 hrs

Language