IC CONTACT.

[meouch]

video / voice / text / action

Hey, this is Adrien's voicemail. Sorry I couldn't get to you, leave a message. OR THE MORE EMBARRASSING EDITION: Chat Noir here! Or, well, not here. Crimes to solve, people to save, don't take it personally. Leave a meowssage! [ beep. ]

Comments

action; 5/26

[geophile]

[ as people begin to trickle back into the populated parts of the colony, steven's pokémon do the same - all without their trainer. their natural instincts can lead them to a point, but each of them have other humans in cerealia that they've bonded with; ones that steven told them to rely on, should they ever be separated.

in skarmory's case, it's adrien. while the rest of the pokémon have all gone their separate ways upon reaching the main colony once again, the steel bird stays by his side in silence. he knows that its fellow teammates are going where they feel safest, but he himself feels safest with the young man.

when the others have dispersed, he turns to adren and gently bows his head to him. it's an oddly docile movement, but it's one of trust. ]

[meouch]

[ a little before they finally got back, adrien had allowed the transformation to fade away. his body feels bruised and he feels exhausted—needless to say, plagg was the same (his current position: napping in adrien's pocket). he'd already admitted he was adrien in front of steven's pokémon in the heat of the moment, so... there really wasn't any harm releasing the transformation in front of them.

well, now they were gone, and he was left with skarmory. that bow of the head gets a nudging of some kind of feeling underneath his slightly frazzled mental state, as he thinks about everything that happened. steven... and that alien... and...

think about that later. for skarmory, he pieces together a weak smile. ]

Skarmory. [ ah. ] ... You're staying?

[ he'd be more amazed at the fact that skarmory trusts him this much if it hadn't been on the wake of steven's death. ]

text, post-event;

[zerotohiro]

[There's a link to a post sent to him first, followed shortly by a message.]

Promise is a promise dude. Find anymore creepy altars out there before we ended up back here?

[meouch]

[ thanks for the lighthearted message, man. he'd actually forgotten about this at the wake of shit hitting the fan later on, but he sure remembers it now.

the last thing he wants to see is more blood??? he sucks it up and opens the link with a wince. ]

hey, hiro with an e
1) thanks for the link
2) kind of though i wouldnt call it an altar. creepy yes

[ he isn't sure if that's something he should talk all willy nilly about via text though so ]

text, post-event;

[pseudonyms]

Monsieur Noir!! (=^･^=) I wanted to see how you were doing. Things were pretty rough the last couple of days. Did you make it home safe?

[meouch]

[ well, rise's energy is certainly enough to get something of a tired smile from him, even if she can't see it.

he didn't see this right away so the response is delayed (and even then he has to figure out how to respond) but then it comes: ]

fortunately
everything ok on your end mademoiselle rise?
(^._.^)ﾉ

text; a few days post-event

[majinken]

[it's taken stahn a few days longer than he would have liked to start contacting the people he knows—but he's pretty meticulous in checking the contact list to find all the people he knows and ran into while they were on the other side of the wall.

not checking up on them would be terrible, so at the first opportunity to do so that he can, there'll be a text that comes adrien's way.]


Hey! !! This is Adrien, right?
It's Stahn! !! We met underground... now that everything is kind of back to how it was before, I wanted to check and make sure you got back ok! !! Let me know when you can! !!

[he sounds so much more energetic than he really is. maybe this is the true blessing of text.]

text;

[meouch]

[ oh—

adrien's a little better than he was given that the full magnitude of things have taken time to settle, but that has both upsides and downsides. he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in a while but... well, text is useful for those things.

and it's nice for stahn to check up on him, honestly. "okay" could be debated, but he's just hoping that things were okay for stahn too. ]

hey stahn. yeah, it's adrien
thanks for checking up on me, it's nice to hear from you
i got back okay. i'm just... you know, still a little tired 😴

[ AND EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED ]

how about you?

( video ) ic 6/13

[geophile]

[ honestly, the message isn't meant to be anything special. steven, being the good not-big brother he is, just wants to check up on adrien to make sure all is well. it just so happens that CERES has been kind enough to bring another one of his partners into the colony, and this is an easy way to introduce it. carbink is still trying to get used to the new setting (especially after having to be dug out of the ground), but it's more than comfortable with staying in steven's lap.

but as much as steven would like them to, things with his more curious pokemon rarely go as planned. he's about to call adrien before beldum distracts him with something, leaving his cerevice open while highlighted over the young man's name. while he's still gone, the rock floats upward to tap the holographic button with its head, starting the call.

when adrien picks up, he won't see steven on the feed, but a floating, living rock with a fluffy collar, twitching its ears curiously. how odd! ]

[meouch]

[ well! adrien'd been working on some homework though it wasn't even worth more than half an hour's time, really, and that was being generous... but of course he can put that aside for the time being for a call from steven. it's not like he's making much progress on the homework department anyway. so, he picks up pretty quickly.

... when he answers, however, a... cute... rock? isn't exactly what he expects. he's surprised for a moment, mostly because he's never seen this one before... he thinks (no, he's pretty sure), so. ]

Hey there, Fluffy Rock.

[ wow. original nickname, adrien. he can be sure that the floating rock's a pokémon... obviously. but, as he's looking at it a little closer, he can definitely be sure he hadn't ever seen carbink.

where is steven hiding all these pokemon. ]

Messing with Steven's phone?

text; 7/4

[geophile]

Please tell me you're back.

[ he could be talking to nobody, but... well, it's been three days. athena had told him that if he had disappeared for the reason that others had in the past, he should be back in the colony by now.

if he doesn't get a response, he'll really start to worry. ]

Marinette and I are concerned for your well-being.

[meouch]

[ nope, adrien's followed his evil twin into the void.

... just kidding. it's weird to wake up after what seemed like months but was, in reality, actually a few days. weird enough that things still need to settle down somewhat... though it isn't as if he can't immediately muster up some kind of encouragement as soon as he gets this text. marinette's concern was more convenient to alleviate considering they live together, but steven isn't quite the same case—adrien's honestly a tad guilty for not messaging him immediately.

so. ]

Sorry... I'm back.
They really don't give you a chance to give a heads up here, huh?

[ the life of cerealia. ]

7/6ish text

[pseudonyms]

[Is it creepy to check on someone like this? How do you explain "I have a monster in my soul that helps me track down people's energies" without sounding completely insane? Maybe you just...don't. So it's for that reason that Rise hems and haws over whether she should send this message before she crafts it in a way that's a little less suspicious.]

Hi Adrien! o(〃＾▽＾〃)o It's been a little while since I saw you, so I just wanted to say hi and see how you've been!

[There. Totally non-intrusive.]

[meouch]

[ well, probably the same way you can explain "several months passed for me but it was actually just a few days and in that time i broke into my dad's super secret batman safe then lost the stuff in his super secret batman safe, rode a giant mecha, and fought a supervillain in high heels. also i wear a catsuit for a living". so... yeah, you don't say anything.

which is why adrien's simple response to that totally non-intrusive question is: ]

Rise! Hey.
I've been good, besides the... you know, killer robots and other confusing Cerealia stuff.

(=ↀωↀ=)✧|

[ wait fuck that's a cat emote he's too tired for this shit

BACKSPACE BACKSPACE BACKSPACE ]

Hanging in there, like this: (•̀o•́)ง
What about you?

backdated text flood; 7/1 ► 7/3.

[buginette]

[ welcome back to cerealia, adrien! your cerevice is about to go crazy— ]

7/1 @ 9:59: Good morning, Adrien! (◠‿◠✿) Ready to go shopping?

7/1 @ 10:20: You're not in the house. Did I mistake the time? Sorry! ٩(××̯)۶

7/1 @ 10:21: Or maybe something came up and you're busy. That's fine, too! ヾ(´︶`♡) I'm not mad or anything! If that's what you thought. You didn't, right?

7/1 @ 10:21: You can just message me what you want me to pick up and I'll go get it! No problem. (•̀o•́)ง

7/1 @ 11:07: It's been about an hour now, are you okay? (•⌂•)||

7/1 @ 11:08: Not that I don't think you can handle yourself or anything! Of course you can because you're so cool. It's just you know. Robots and all. ┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘

~*~
[ and amidst all of this mess is a single text from ladybug (aka marinette made a mistake while on her search): ]

7/1 @ 12:37: Adrien, are you alright? I'm really worried about you! Please message me ASAP.

~*~
[ yea a a h . . . marinette is definitely going to wish she could delete all of these bless (spoiler: she already does and may or may not have—with tikki's help—rooted around his room during his absence to see if his cerevice was laying around. to note, it was not. why does this always happen to her???). ]

1/3

[meouch]

[ well, that sure was... a thing. not marinette's texts, no... though when he checks what's with the crazy amount of notifications he gets the moment he returns, the ??? settles into a mix of not-so-lowkey guilt, a small minor bit of confusion, and something like his heart skipping several beats at the unexpected text from an unexpected someone ( cue the fangirl squeal: LADYBUG??? ). really, the "thing" was him leaving in the first place, being gone for... apparent months, and then returning a few days later.

so... damage control! as he heads back to his and marinette's shared apartment, he's shooting out responses as soon as he can. first, for ladybug (with hands that are just a bit shaky): ]

Hey, Ladybug. I'm fine|

[ that's too goddamn casual what is this (also, he hadn't actually ever interacted with her as adrien here yet, so...)

backspacebackspacebackspace ]

Ladybug, you're here!
Where'd you hear I wasn't all rig|

[ ... don't ask too many questions, adrien. it's too nosy, and she enjoys her privacy.

backspacebackspacebackspace. ]

Sorry I couldn't message you back, Ladybug, I was... away, kinda.
Thanks for worrying about me, but I'm fine.|

[ ............

backspacebackspacebackspace. he tries so hard. ]

[meouch]

[ ......... ok. after a few choice words from plagg and a realization that he can't be here all day trying to craft something for ladybug through his nerves because he needs to reassure marinette who was also worried and didn't deserve his enormous fuck up— ]

Ladybug?
I'm fine, yeah, it was just... weird Cerealia stuff.
I didn't know you were here.

[ that's

a goddamn lie

and his thumb goes over the backspace again before plagg swats it away with a VERY FIRM LOOK because "you have got to be kidding me, this is worse than your valentine's day poem". guess who has a point?

so, he leaves it. he sends.

he stares at the screen for a bit in disbelief because he just sent a text to ladybug as not chat noir and it really shouldn't be as big of a deal as he feels it is.

(who is he kidding, it's a big deal.) ]

[meouch]

[ now that he's done being a lovesick liar who lies (why you always lying) and feeling slightly bad about that, he moves onto marinette.

and instead of texting her, he decides to give her a call.

because, well, it seems very indirect to text when she's been worrying so much. which he... appreciates. though he wishes she didn't have to worry for all those days about a dumb disappearance trick that he couldn't warn her about.

now!

ring, ring, marinette. ]

text; 7/16

[youraffection]

[ Any senpai worth his salt isn't just going to leave their kohai wallowing in guilt and shit, you know? So mid-morning the day following their return, Yosuke shoots a text. ]

hey
how r u doin?

[meouch]

[ he's friggin' dying senpai.

... okay, he's not friggin' dying, but he's tired and definitely wallowing in guilt and shit like every fifteen-year old should. and like every fifteen-year old does, he hides it like a pro. ]

Hey, Yosuke. I'm okay. I mean, I've been better? But I'm okay.
How about you?

[ okay maybe not like a pro but he tried ]

action; event?? or not event?? either way this is for chat

[kirkwalled]

[ we can also do pre-interlude if you don't want him to angst

anyway hello, chat. if you're anywhere at all in that stupid cat costume, have a hawke who is... not very fond of cats and is chilling up on a fire escape, having a drink. she's almost done her beer when she spots the wild cat in the distance and just frowns.

is that a teenage boy dressed in a leather cat costume? no way. hawke can't accept that.

so that means, chat, you better duck because someone's throwing a full can of beer at your head. ]

Oi, catboy!

action; amazing

[meouch]

[ POST-INTERLUDE, IT'S OKAY, HE WON'T ANGST TO HER.

especially because it's hard to angst in the face of someone throwing a beer can at your head when you're minding your own business doing Look Out™ Superhero things in your embarrassing leather outfit. that's definitely not a cat hiss that comes out of his mouth, but he does bristle somewhat like a cat and lets out an embarrassing teenage yelp as he moves to avoid that can as he perches on the fire escape across from her.

... guess who fails! it's him! ]

Hey!

[ guess who has to shake like a cat to get beer out of their hair

IT'S HIM. ]

If you wanted my attention, just yelling catboy was enough, you know—! I'm not going to get confused!

[ THERE'S NO OTHER CAT BOYS AROUND ]

text

[beaconed]

[ Now that Jaune has finally been put back together and got his CereVice back, he can have what he predicts is going to be a heavy conversation with his fellow Frenchman. ]

hey im not dead anymore lol

[ This is some serious shit. ]

text

[meouch]

[ woah. loosen up on the darkness there buddy.

but adrien wasn't going to be surprised, except he is now. look, he expects people to come back, but he doesn't expect someone's first comment to be that upon returning. ]

... I didn't think I'd ever see lol at the end of a sentence like that.

[ GOOD OLD JAUNE. ]

Welcome back, Jaune.
How're you feeling?

[ there's A Lot more he wants to say besides that, but that can probably wait. ]

Voice

[zombiedude]

Adrien,

I know it's been awhile [A really long while for him] but I wanted to say thank you for getting me back to my apartment. Sorry for the trouble.

Voice

[meouch]

Nico—

[ a mix of surprise and relief on this end, but he's definitely quick to shrug off that thank you with this hint of gratitude: ]

—I think I'm the one who needs to say thanks. You saved us, after all—I think that was probably the least I could do. [ a pause. ] ... Are you doing okay?

audio; evening of ic 8/11

[geophile]

[ ring ring, it's dad. ]

Hello, Adrien. I hope you're having a pleasant evening.

[ something about his voice sounds a little more relaxed than usual... but it's probably nothing. ]

I was wondering if you could do me a quick favour.

[meouch]

Hey, Steven. It's pretty quiet.

[ adrien's pure bean thoughts: oh, it's steven, first, which is obviously a good thing since he sounds a little chipper when he first responds.

and then the second thought: ]

It sounds like yours's going pretty well, though. [ he had to say that. it's a good thing. ] But, um, yeah, of course! What is it?