Leaning 02: Emotional Contact (Carlos, Hannah, Sal)

Angst in the Mim Repair Center as two BLADEs try to visit an injured friend.

Swears, hurt, mim body horror. Editing? (evil laughter)

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft.

Carlos is walking through the mim center. People stop and stare, check him out because he really is more handsome than humanly possible, something about how his tan skin shimmers like it should be golden, like how stars should dust his blue black hair. Usually he's vaguely aware of it, catches the viewers with his own cool stare, and people manage not to be rude. Today he's completely focused on something else, beyond noticing, and so people watch him.

His friend, Hannah, is next to him and notices the staring, but her glares at strangers mean nothing. She's holding his elbow and glaring and steering him through the corridors because he can't see anything through his tears.

His tears are beautiful, glazing his face and highlighting his perfect cheekbones. That much grief shouldn't be beautiful, but his pain looks so pure and it touches strangers' hearts to see it.

They have no idea why he's crying, but they feel sympathy and connection. They feel closer to humanity and life. They want to celebrate anything that can bring sorrow with such purity.

They have no idea, which is why Hannah is glaring.

What they don't know is that inside he is feeling angry. And guilty. He had cut Sal off with the briefest of words, telling Sal it was nothing personal, it was just not what Carlos wanted. Carlos had left him him at the cafe table with his untouched coffee still hot.

Stupid prick kept Carlos listed as his emotional contact, the equivalent of next of kin in a city that has almost no families. So he was pulled back from a mission to stand in the Mim Center hallways to listen to medics tell him they thought it would be okay. Carlos didn't care about Sal the way they wanted him to.

He might be less angry if he could stop crying. He might be less angry if he could stop worrying about a guy he didn't care about.

Hannah, bless her heart, was saying NOTHING about why Carlos was crying. She'd followed him back when his mission was pulled and stuck by him. She does check to see if there is someone else, anyone, that could be the one making decisions for Sal's future. Finds out that the first contact on Sal's form is still MIA, the search party hasn't given up, they definitely have not stopped, but that leaves Carlos as the remaining person that Sal trusted enough to be there, to be here, at the end.

Hannah decides that Carlos doesn't need to hear that right now.

The staff lets them see Sal for a minute, from the edge of the room. He's floating in a tube, not a recovery tube but an active tube, horizontal and open along the top, medics (or are they repair technicians) swarming and jabbing and at one point yanking something so hard there was a dull metallic snap.

Hannah has to look away, but Carlos keeps his eyes on the lump of mim that keeps growing smaller somehow. More like a heap of leftover parts than a living being. Hannah glances at Carlos, to see if he needs to leave and it is her turn to stare.

Eyes black and overflowing with tears, he can't possibly see anything, but there is a look on his face like he is willing Sal back to life. Prometheus has nothing on Carlos at that moment.

A monitor display changes from dull and steady red to whispering blue. Something expands and contracts in the heap. The staff grow agitated like an ant hill stirred with a stick.

Hannah and Carlos are hustled out to make more room for the medics.

Shortly after that is when a medic tells them they think Sal might be okay.

a/n: I should introduce these OCs from other stories. Hannah and Carlos showed up in "Drunkard, Hobo, Liar." Sal teamed with Frye in Inktober 2019/16-28. Izzy teamed briefly with Frye in "Secret Santa with Frye and HB", and popped up in Apriltober 2020/28. The concept of Emotion Contact has its own story of the same name, sadly incomplete.

Next up: that fluff I warned you about? Enter Lila Brown the OC and Commander Vandham.