Chapter Warnings: Language
AN: FYI, I take inspiration from my grandparents as to how Jameson treats his cellphone. :I
December 20th, 2030, 10:09 AM
Los Angeles, California
"What do you mean, you can't fuckin' Track him?" Anti growled into the phone pressed to his ear. "I thought that's what your cards were for!"
"Exactly as it sounds, Anti," Marvin answered from the other end of the line. "H-he did somethin' to his card, and now I can't get a lock on it!"
"Why the hell didn't you tell me about this sooner?"
"We tried getting a hold of you, but you've got to keep your glitching under control! The call wouldn't go through when we'd tried 'cause've interference on your end and couldn't get through Jamie's either since his phone's probably fuckin' dead again."
The glitch clenched his fist and ground his teeth. "Is there anything we can do to find him?"
The pause on Marvin's end had Anti's stomach in knots. A pause wasn't good, not with something like this. "I…" A sigh. "I don't know anymore. We can't call him, we don't know what he looks like for a police report. I can tell that his card's still intact, so I…I think the only chance we have is if I stretch my magic to find it."
Anti was shaking his head, and couldn't help but jump and bare his teeth when Jameson's hand was suddenly on his shoulder. He locked eyes with Jameson momentarily, noting the way his brows knit together with worry, usually cheery smile pulled into a deep frown. He had to force himself to look away from the unnatural expression plastered over Jameson's face. It didn't belong there, and Anti couldn't bring himself to look at it for too long.
"Couldn't that kill you?" he finally asked with eyes set on the wall above the television.
"I… Well, yeah. Maybe. But it's the only chance we've got to find him. I-I know my limit. I'll stop if I need to."
Jameson started shaking the glitch's shoulder, then pointed upward at the speech slide that had appeared above his head. "Why not contact Yan? I do believe he has a tracking ability?"
Anti relayed the words to Marvin with a widening grin. It didn't last long, however, as the glitch's shoulders sagged. Well, there went that option, "He'd need one of Schneep's belongings to Track him. We don't have any of them, and we can't send anyone back to our plane. S'far as we know, we'll be so faded when we get back there we'd be gone soon as we stepped foot back inside."
"We could send Wilford?"
"Time passes faster out here, remember? Even he could be too faded to go back."
"And if he's not?"
"We're not sending him, and that's final, Anti."
"Fuckin'..! Mark? FaceTime 'im to show 'im where Schneep's stuff is?" He was grasping at straws by that point.
"That kinda stuff doesn't work between dimensions." Anti knew that. Of course he did! FaceTime, Skype, texts involving images or videos—the images got warped beyond recognition, audio lagged and cut out. Doing it between the human and Egos' planes just didn't work. They'd never really been able to figure out the reason. Why couldn't it work, though… "I-I wish it did, 'cause we would'a asked Mark already. B-but…" An odd noise came from Marvin's end of the line. Sniffling; Marvin was crying.
Another voice, too far from the phone to actually make out what it said, could be heard. Marvin's sniffling quieted, then stopped altogether—the other must have been Jackie, Anti guessed—before the line went dead as the magician hung up. Anti just stared at the black screen of his cellphone for a long moment. That couldn't be it. There had to be some other way to find Schneeplestein. There had to be. If not, Marvin was going to wind up hurting himself trying to Track the doctor.
When Jameson snapped to get Anti's attention, it took the glitch a moment to realize what it actually was. The younger Septic had been "shielding" himself with his silencing aura a lot less lately, but the little sounds he would now make because of it still took some getting used to. Without a word, Anti glanced up at the speech slide above his companion's head: "Perhaps we could speak with Seán over the matter again?"
Anti shook his head. "Signe's family's there. Marv, Jackie, Bim, an' King are at a hotel 'til they leave, an' Seán doesn't want us contactin' him until they're gone." The reasoning made sense, but it was still a pain in the ass. One of the Hansens could easily overhear something they weren't supposed to or catch sight of a text—but still. Having their creator available would be kind of nice considering the circumstances.
A sigh was all that left Jameson as the slide disappeared. His foot was tapping over the carpeted floor, brows scrunched together. "What—" Whatever else he wanted to say never showed up on the new slide that appeared in a wavering shake above him.
When Anti stood, Jameson's eyes followed him. "Let's go for a walk, yeah?" All he got in reply was a shrug, so the glitch huffed softly. "C'mon, James. It'll take our minds off things for a while."
Anti leaned down to adjust the Velcro on his shoes before standing to his full height again. He pocketed his phone and wallet, then patted his companion on the back. "C'mon," he said as his hand moved to the back of Jameson's neck as a means to guide him out of the room. From there, they just wandered for a while. The younger still wasn't smiling, and his shoulders were sagging slightly. It just looked so unnatural on him.
By the time they actually sat down again, it was as a cafe with outdoor seating after they had ordered pre-made pastries. Donuts, to be exact. While Jameson cut his into smaller pieces to make eating it without choking a possibility, they both kept their cellphones within view on the table. Jameson made show of "texting," but actually just made his slides appear on the screen of Anti's phone so that they could communicate while still letting the younger Septic use a hand to eat rather than sign. Truth be told, Jameson's phone had actually been dead the last week or so. He just used it so rarely that he neither noticed, nor cared, to actually remember to charge it.
"You… Do you think we can find Schneeplestein soon?" Jameson asked. His fork was stabbed into the piece he'd just cut from the donut as he dragged it distractedly around his plate. If his free hand wasn't positioned over his phone to look like he was texting his companion, there was a pretty good chance he would be leaning on it instead.
Anti, who had finished his pastry a little while ago, now, stared down at his empty plate after reading the message. He dragged his shoulders into a shrug, combed his fingers through his hair, then glanced up to meet Jameson's eyes. The usually stunning blue seemed so dull with the sad expression the dapper Ego wore, Anti noted. "I seriously don't fuckin' know anymore…"
"He has to at least be safe, hasn't he?"
"We can hope." The glitch lowered his head, shaking it slowly. "We at least know he's alive, an' Jackie's taught him to defend himself." Despite his words, Anti shook his head again. Hopefully Schneep could keep himself safe until they found a way to get to him.
The pair sat in silence for a long time as Jameson picked at his food with little interest. By the time Anti actually checked the time again, it was almost eleven-thirty. It…would be a long day, he mused with an irritated curl of the lip and a start when Jameson hit his palm against the table to get the glitch's attention. The younger then proceeded to point at something to Anti's left, so he turned with brows furrowing.
"He bumped your chair," Jameson said through Anti's phone as the glitch took in the sight of a man practically face-first on the ground next to him. The man was quickly gaining the attention of the other humans in the immediate area. "The chap collapsed as soon as he brushed past you."
The man wore roller skates, dark sunglasses, and a baggy sweatshirt that immediately made the glitch think of Bing when he tried to look more human than he really was. His brows were scrunched up, teeth bared in a way that made him appear to be in pain; the muscles in his back and arms kept twitching like he was trying to push himself up, but just couldn't get his limbs to cooperate.
Anti noted a thin line of…was that static?…race across one of the man's visible hands just as he gasped. Collapsed as he brushed past you. With furrowed brows, he inched a foot closer to the man, and through it sent a glitchy burst of pixels, unseen by the gathering crowd, at the man. If he was human, then he shouldn't react like it was any more than a static shock—
The glitch jumped when the man tensed and screamed.
Not a man. Oh, God…not a man!
Anti stood and, with a calmness that surprised even himself, grabbed Jameson's arm and pulled the other Septic to his feet. Without a word, they walked, and kept walking until they were well away from the scene at the cafe. No more drama with unknowns, he thought as he remembered Infelix. The Septics and Ipliers just couldn't deal with any more of it.
Jameson pulled his arm free and turned on the glitch with an extremely disapproving look plastered on his face as soon as the glitch's steps slows almost two blocks from the cafe. As Anti's phone was still in his hand, he sent his next scolding words to its screen: "What ever are you doing, Anti? We could have at least attempted to help the poor man!"
"James." Anti took the other by the shoulders and leaned in close to Jameson's ear as his voice dropped to a near-inaudible whisper, "That wasn't a fuckin' man. That was an android, an' trust me when I say it wasn't one of ours!"
AN: Um. Oops? I do wonder who this other an͡droįd could be, don't y-
-There has been an e̡r̝̼̯͈r̶͙͚o̪r in relaying the rest of this message.
-R̷͈͎ͪeplacement message available.
-Would you l̹i̡̠̰̞k̝͝e͏̯ ̴̱̗̼͉̺to̴͈̱̙ ͍̮̥̭̝̟r҉̙̤̺̟̯͔e͏͙v̞̯͓̟ͅi̙̼͕̠̼̺͝e̮̙͠w͈̲̼̗̭̭ ͍͇̯͖̠̜i̼͝t̥̼̣̩̮͉?̞͈̞̬̭
NO Y͝E͜S
-Playing new m͟essage.̷
"-̧-͢-͡-͢-played ẉ̝̭̘̪͡ͅị̛̯͜t̻̖̯͉ḥ̶̸̙̗̤͓̮̟͞ ̘̫͘f̶͍͍͍͕̯̣̩i̧̲̘r̞̤͈͠e̴̶̘̰̩̫̻-̛-͜-͘-͟-͘-̯̭̭͇͗-̨̰ͫͧ̀͐̏ͨ̚-̨̥̬̱̞͍̂ͫ̔ͭͅ-̗̰̞̮̫͓͎̑́͡-̲̮̠̳̱͠-̫͎̭̬̞ͧ̉ͭ͠-̹̙͖̰̮̐͢-̺̖͔̠̜͓̂ͬͤ̈́͐̋͋ͅ-͔̥̮͕̮̼͈͑͠-̄ͣ͞-̢͇̹͎͔̉̂̍ͦͅ-ͤt̞͖̣̮ͩ̇͋õ͎̬̖͙̖͉̗͑̑͋́ͩ̕o̜̲͕̤̙͓̍̀̄̓̃ͅ ̰̼̬̚m̹̝͙̞̜ͅaͯ͒̓ͯnͪ҉̱̹y̨̭ͣͪ͆ ̠̝̭̘̱͓͕t̤̺̩ͫ̐̆ͤi̤̿͛̑̌͂̂̕m̙ͬ̔̄͌̚ȅ̴͓ͪ̀̉͂ͨ́s̮̝͚̹͔̋̿ͮ̅-͔̹̜̭͖̬͍̔ͤ-̬͔̦ͦͮ̌ͮ̓̾͂ͅ-"