Work Text:
Mephone never liked the smell of cigarette smoke. Whenever someone asked about it he always went on some half-assed rant of how they “rot your lungs”, but in reality he couldn’t care less about that.
He hated cigarettes for a…different reason.
…
Up high in the clouds, far from civilization, there was a building, but not just any building…It was the one and only Meeple headquarters.
Meeple was a successful corporation, probably one of the most successful out there. Everyone was just dying to get their hands on each new piece of tech that came out each year, to see each new tweak and fix that came along with each model.
In simple words, business was booming.
The owner, Steve cobs, the single smart mind that started the amazing company, was praised by everyone for his brilliant ideas. In the public eye, he was an engineer, a man of science, maybe even a hero to some extent. He was solely responsible for giving simple machinery…life. The creator of the Mephones, mepads, etc. These machines made him rich, and certainly famous.
He had been on many talk shows, interviews, things like that. He would go on and on about how meeple was a business ran on respect, caring for each and every worker. No matter what job they did. Because everyone played a part in helping the company run. Steve had spent years creating a carefully crafted facade, any cracks and mistakes were absolutely unacceptable.
He somewhat stood by his word, But the Mephones weren’t considered workers, they were tools. Nothing more. They were worth the same as the various laptops and gadgets littered around meeple headquarters, or the coffee machine in the break room.
They were never meant to be anything more. Just simple machines, made to provide entertainment, or to gather materials for the upcoming tech.
But one of these “tools” stood out. This one was different from the others. it could “feel” things. It was a brilliant idea. And it was a new feature never seen before in the previous mephones. One thing was clear, it definitely brought in more revenue.
It was a great and successful idea, But…this feature got in the way sometimes.
…
Mephone4 walked around the various long hallways stretching around Meeple headquarters, each door he passed most likely having some very interesting things inside, But he wasn’t interested in any of that. He was looking for a very specific room,
The tall door stood out from the others, it looked fancier. But that was expected, Meeple headquarters was certainly wealthy. And they didn’t pass on any opportunities to show it off.
There was a gold plate screwed tightly onto the door, a few simple words indented on it,
“Steve Cob’s office.”
“Do not disturb unless permitted otherwise.”
Mephone4 stood infront of the door for a moment, his hand raised slightly like he was going to knock. But for some reason, he hesitated. Why would that be? Maybe it was the pressure of always being held to a certain standard, but Steve cobs was very accepting of mistakes. He always used to say that Mephone was a “work in progress” and that he was “destined for greatness”. It made Mephone want to work harder, to prove that he was capable of great things, just like Cobs said.
After taking a breath, Mephone hesitantly knocked on the large door.
It was silent for a moment, and Mephone didn’t know if Cobs was off working on some other project. But eventually, he got a response,
“Come in.”
A voice echoed from the other side of the door, and Mephone had to remind himself to fix his posture and to look presentable before going inside.
The room was long, a long dark carpet leading to a single desk on the other side of the room. The back wall was covered by large windows that overlooked the clouds below.
Mephone was silent as he entered, he couldn’t help but that the atmosphere felt slightly more tense than usual.
Suddenly, a voice broke out,
“Mephone. It’s…good to see you. I presume you’ve finished all of your tasks that I’ve assigned to you?”
Mephone felt himself smile a bit,
“Yes, Sir.”
He took a couple steps forward towards the desk on the other side of the room, a bit hesitant as he did not want to accidentally overstep.
Mephone felt the eyes of his creator on him, almost studying his every move. It was like he was looking for any mistakes, any cracks. but there weren’t any. Mephone made sure of that.
Cobs held a document in his hands, Mephone was a bit curious about what was written on it, but he knew he couldn’t ask.
Before Mephone could sink deeper into his thoughts, Cobs spoke again.
“Come over here for a second, Mephone. I have something I’d like to…discuss with you. Also, bring me that box over there,”
Cobs pointed over to a small box on a shelf on the other side of the room, Mephone didn’t question it and went to grab the box.
After hurriedly going to grab what he was asked, Mephone couldn’t help but read the label on the little red box,
“Filter Cigarettes” Is what the label said, he was confused for a moment, but by using various databases that were available in his systems he knew that this box held a thing called a “cigarette”, something commonly used for stress relief. It confused Mephone slightly, What would Mr. Cobs need anything like that for?
But even with his confusion Mephone didn’t wait to follow the orders he was given, hurriedly walking up to the other side of Cob’s desk, setting down the small box.
“Yes? What do you need?”
Cobs was silent for a moment, which sent a bit of anxiety through Mephone’s systems.
“It’s just that I’ve been looking at the records of your performance of the last 30 days, and I noticed that productivity has gone down quite a bit. Is there a reason for this?”
Cobs leaned forward a bit as he grabbed the tiny box Mephone had brought over, taking one of the cigarettes out and lighting it with a spare lighter he had, taking a drag.
Meanwhile, he just stared at Mephone with an unreadable gaze, Mephone resisted shivering right where he was standing due to the pressure.
Mephone tried to reply,
“Oh- It’s nothing, Sir. My apologies. I’ve just been so caught up with-“
“Don’t lie to me, Mephone. Is this because I’ve given you more privileges? I knew I never should’ve let you watch that trash on Tv. It is severely affecting your progress. But I should’ve known to not expose you to things like that. It’s giving you the wrong ideas.”
Cob’s voice cut through the air like a knife, And Mephone felt himself speak before he could stop it,
“No! That’s not it at all, Sir!”
Mephone raised his voice slightly, but once he realized his slip-up he had the urge to apologize, but the words just wouldn’t come out.
Cobs however, was silent after Mephone’s slight outburst. That was until,
“Hold out your arm for me, Mephone.”
Cobs lowered his tone enough to strike fear within Mephone, he couldn’t bring himself to follow orders, Frozen from anxiety.
“I won’t ask you again.”
Mephone had been slightly confused at the request, but he forced himself to take a step closer to the desk, afraid to get himself in even more trouble.
“I-I didn’t mean-“
Mephone tried to explain himself, but before he could finish speaking he felt a tight grip on his wrist as Cobs grabbed Mephone’s arm, Pulling him closer and making him stumble slightly.
Mephone was shocked at the sudden contact, Cobs never usually put his hands on him like this. It was unfamiliar, and kind of scary for the young robot.
Mephone tried to pull away,
“W-Wait, Sir I’m-“
Mephone wanted to speak out, to apologize, but before he could even finish his sentence he felt a sudden burning pain on his wrist. Mephone couldn’t help but cry out due to the burning sensation, but as he did the pain only got worse. The cigarette he was being burned with only being pressed harsher into his metal skin.
Mephone felt tears prickle up into the corners of his eyes, but he didn’t dare cry. Not now.
After a moment, the burning sensation was lifted, but there was now a new oval shape burn decorating his arm.
Mephone couldn’t bring himself to look up, trying to compose himself and hide all evidence of emotion to no avail. The silence seemed to be louder than usual, and the smell of ash filled the robot’s nose.
But as Mephone tried to collect himself, a now softer voice broke through the tense atmosphere,
“Look what you’ve made me do…”
Mephone felt himself look up, tears still threatening to fall from his eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to speak, only letting out a choked noise of pain as he tried not to cry.
He felt a soft pressure on his wrist, the pressure of Cob’s lightly rubbing his thumb over the burn in a half-assed attempt to soothe the pain.
“I’m sorry for that…But let’s just let this be a lesson for the future, hm?”
Mephone still couldn’t bring himself to speak, and when Cobs noticed this Mephone heard him let out a slightly aggravated sigh, but shortly after that he spoke again,
“I take back what I said about the whole…Tv thing, how about I give you a break for the rest of the day, Wouldn’t that be nice? I think you deserve some time to relax after working so hard.”
Cobs spoke in a softer voice than Mephone had ever heard from him before, which meant that what he was saying was genuine…right? Mephone tried to force a smile,
“O-Okay…”
Mephone said as he sniffled slightly, still a bit shaken up from the burn.
“Great…Now, off you go now.”
Shortly after that, Cobs ushered Mephone out of the room.
…
Even long after Mephone had escaped from Meeple, and even long after Cobs had died, Mephone still carried the memory with him. It was one of many. Mephone wanted nothing more than to forget, to be blissfully unaware. But since running away from his problems and making himself forget everything was apparently “unhealthy”, he was just stuck with these memories.
But unlike back then, he had a support system now. He had a real home, inside of the hotel.
But even with all these things, the memories still haunt him sometimes.
…
Mephone had stepped outside for some fresh air, enjoying the feeling of the cool evening breeze. Usually all of the residents were getting ready for bed around now, but not him. And that’s now he liked it, because sometimes he could get periods of time alone like this. And Mephone took advantage of these moments whenever they were available
But this time, he wasn’t alone.
His boyfriend, Oj. Was also outside, they both shared similar (and unhealthy) sleeping habits, so they were always awake around the same time.
Once Oj noticed Mephone, he turned to him with a soft smile on his face,
“What are you doing outside so late, Mephone? I never expected you to actually go outside for once.”
He teased, chuckling calmly.
Mephone however, was not calm. Probably the opposite actually. And for some reason his anxiety only got worse when he saw the lit cigarette in the other’s hand. Oj must’ve come outside for a smoke break. But what confused Mephone was why he was feeling like this, he was perfectly fine with Oj’s smoking habits before, why did that change now?
Oj noticed something was wrong when Mephone didn’t respond and how he stepped back as Oj tried to come closer.
Oj then had some type of a realization,
“Hey…Are you alright?”
Oj put out his cigarette in a nearby ashtray, and then tried to approach the other again, he was glad to see that Mephone didn’t try to step away from him this time. But there was still something going on, and Oj wanted to find out what it was.
Mephone didn’t know how to go about this,
“I’m fine. Really.”
He tried to reassure Oj, but it almost immediately fell flat.
“Well that’s certainly not convincing at all,”
Oj wanted to push for more information, but at the same time he knew that he didn’t want to force Mephone to do anything that he didn’t want to do.
It was silent for a moment, the only noise being the light breeze in the background
Until,
“Do you wanna…talk about it?”
Oj’s voice was soft, one final offer to see if Mephone was ACTUALLY okay,
Mephone however, wasn’t okay. And suddenly, he couldn’t bring himself to fake it anymore.
A sudden choked sob echoed through the air as Mephone tried and failed to hold himself together.
Oj noticed this immediately, and took a step towards the other, but hesitated. He knew that Mephone was on the fence about physical touch, Oj wanted to comfort him, but at the same time the last thing he wanted to do was make Mephone uncomfortable, especially in that moment.
But before Oj could say anything, He felt a pair of arms tightly wrap around him.
Mephone held onto Oj tightly, almost as if he was scared to let go. He buried his head in the other’s shoulder, not daring to say a word. Because he knew he would break down at any moment, and he didn’t want Oj to see that side of him.
Meanwhile, Oj didn’t know what to do. Mephone never usually opened up like this, he always had a bad habit of ignoring his problems. But now, it was like a complete 180 degrees switch.
“It’s…one of those days, huh?”
Oj calmly said, trying to get a grip on how the other was feeling. He knew that everyone had bad days, and maybe today was just one of those days for Mephone.
Mephone didn’t try to answer due to the fear of sounding pathetic, so he just nodded.
Oj lowered his arms, moving to rub Mephone’s back.
“That’s okay, we don’t have to talk about it.”
His voice was soft, accepting. More accepting than Mephone thought he deserved.
Mephone just held onto Oj tighter, attempting to pull him closer, if that was even possible at this point.
The two just stood there in each other’s presence, not saying a word. But there were no words that needed to be said.
…
Mephone still hated the smell of cigarette smoke, but the smell didn’t remind him of Cobs anymore, someone else had claimed the title now. And he was glad for that.
He wasn’t going to let his memories haunt him anymore.
He wasn’t going to let Cobs control his life any longer.