Discord
12-11-2020, 04:34 AM
(CONTENT WARNING: Off screen death.)
I believe context is important to any data, so in addition to a shorter report, I have enclosed relevant Diary entries.
[SP-1-5: What are the different kinds of scrap?]
Day 1
Dear Diary,
Now that I’m out of the lab I thought I’d label the days since I left. I want to treasure each and every one of them. A lot has happened today so I suppose I should start at the beginning.
It began like any other day for me. I woke up, talked with some other body types, and went to take some tests. A staff member told me I’d be up for interview again, but I doubted anything would come of it. I was very wrong.
“This is Jocelyn, an Anatomic Surrealism type, don’t worry about how she looks, it doesn’t hurt her.” One of the staff members said to the large snake person on the other side of the glass.
He slithered over to the seat by the visiting window and sighed when he saw the chair for visitors. He merely moved it aside and coiled up in front of the glass. The first thing I noticed about him, aside from being a snake, was he looked sad. The second thing I noticed was that it wasn’t about me. It was as if I did not bother him in the slightest.
“Hello Jocelyn, I’m Lilly. My pronouns are He/Him” He said holding out a hand of long claws for a shake before realizing both the size difference and the glass divider would make that impossible.
“I appreciate the gesture,” I said, trying not to giggle. “It is a pleasure to meet you Lilly. Would you like to know anything about me?”
“Yeah,” He said, avoiding eye contact. “Does any of your bloo- er, fluid leak out of those gaps in your body?”
“No, I assure you They are quite clean. My body is my body, the parts that appear missing are normal for me and provide no complications.”
“Oh good, the entire house is carpeted, and my dad never taught me how to use the steam cleaner. Is it rude to ask what you can do? Your ability?”
I had to pause for a moment, He was concerned for his carpet? I looked up at him. His eyes were full of curiosity, not disgust, nor pity. None of the other Housing Initiative applicants had looked at me like that. He didn’t even try to ignore it, no, he was curious about me and what I was, what I could do.
“At the cost of some health I can cut a cross section into any surface I touch, revealing the inner mechanisms and/or supports within. The material acts as if the cross section is not there and continues to act normally unless anyone reaches in and touches the inside of the cross section. Internal structures can be manipulated and pieces removed. I can then close the cross section and the material acts as normal save for the changes made while it was a cross section. It works best on bodies.”
“That sounds really useful. If I ever get a bullet stuck in me for gods know what reason, I’d want you there. Or if I need help running new electrical wiring in the house.”
“You do not find it disturbing?”
“No, I’d actually like to give it a whirl. It would be incredible to take a peek inside my own body.”
“You understand perfectly! I am fascinated by the internal workings of bodies and mechanisms, and it is incredible to see them up close. I would be more than happy to use my ability on you. It is a shame practical demonstrations are discouraged here.”
From then on we talked about practical applications for my ability, what I’ve seen using it, and what things I enjoyed doing for fun. Lilly seemed to open up the more we talked and the sad look in his eyes faded a bit. I believe any sad look in my eyes would have vanished as well. At least until he had to go.
***
“Jocelyn?” A staff member asked, stopping me in the hall. “You’ve been approved to live with Twilight’s Lilly, The Selected you met earlier. I’m glad you’ve found someone to appreciate you.”
I could not believe it. I never thought I would get out of the lab. I stopped getting my hopes up a long time ago. I could finally leave. It did not feel real. I just went through the motions of packing. It took me until I was standing in the doorway besides Lilly. He gave me an awkward smile and we were off into the world.
Everything was huge. Not only because of me being a tiny cat person, but because there was just so much of it. Cars, trains, planes, there were so many ways people had figured out how to cover vast distances. The people I saw walking around seemed more diverse than any combination of TCP types.
I had to be picked up several times to be moved on seats or up steps, which Lilly had his own difficulties with. He seemed hesitant to enter my personal space, even when I invited him to. I thought maybe I had misread him and he was afraid of touching me, but it turns out he was afraid of taking away my autonomy. He told me he wanted to make sure I could do as much as I could on my own.
Eventually we made our way to the top of a small hill where an old house stood, among a neighborhood that had many other old houses and quite a few more of the species Lilly was. He pulled out a key and unlocked the solid wood front door, ushering me into my new home.
“I got some TCP scale step ladders you can use to reach things too high for you,” Lilly said, dropping his keys into a bowl on a table in the entryway. “I also tied a string to all the handles of the doors so you can open and close them on your own. Lucky that this old house uses lever style door knobs. I stocked the pantry and fridge with food type products, they all have a cat sticker on them so you know which is which. There are no stairs in the house because My family is Snakes like me, so you won’t have any problem getting upstairs or downstairs. What do you think?”
It was cozy. There was a chandelier in the entryway, where there was a ramp leading upstairs. There were intricately carved wooden panels covering the walls and a soft but firm carpet under my feet that radiated warmth. It was a nice place that had warm lighting and natural colors, a stark difference from the lab.
“It is lovely.” I replied.
Lilly smiled at me before giving me the tour. The first floor had a sitting room facing the street, a library, with a reading nook facing the street, a kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom, and a living room with several game consoles attached to the large tv and a computer sitting on a cluttered desk in the corner.
Upstairs was a lot of empty rooms, excluding Lilly’s, which had walls covered in posters, and a much nicer computer on a much more cluttered desk. The master bedroom was off limits, but he said I could choose any one of the other five rooms I wanted. I chose one that overlooked the street rather than the backyard. I loved looking out at people, I just needed to get up to window height to do it.
The room was fairly plain, with a bed built into the floor for easy snake acces, and now easy TCP access. It was huge for me, I could have easily slept on the pillow with room to spare. The closet seemed like an entirely different room separated by a sliding door. I had, and still have, no clue what to do with the space.
I got a stepladder so I could look out the window and then went to explore the bathroom. The shower had a basin gently recessed into the floor with controls I could reach, but the sink proved to be harder to get to, requiring another step ladder. I didn’t need the toilet, so I just left it as it was.
Content with my living arrangements, I dropped off my bag on the bed and walked downstairs(Downramp?) to find Lily in the Kitchen, cooking. He seemed to be making two different dishes. He had two pans out, but from the angle I was looking at, I couldn’t tell what he was making. I noticed that there was a single chair around the kitchen table, I wondered why that was when I realized that This was a house for Snake people. They didn’t use chairs. The chair was for me, and had a smaller chair sitting on top of it that would allow me to reach the table. I moved a step ladder over to it and sat down, pulling out my Kick Phone and snapping it open to browse the net.
“How do you like your room Jocelyn?” Lilly asked, looking away from the stove for a second.
“It is… large” I said, “Nice, but large. It will take some getting used to.”
“Well if you need anything just ask. I’m sorry I couldn’t make my home more TCP friendly, I don’t have much extra money these days. Dinner will be ready soon.”
“Dinner?” I asked, confused.
From my new vantage point I could see the smaller pan held a variety of colorful, small ingredients. He seemed to be making some kind of stir fried noodle dish in both, but the mix of eccentric TCP food type ingredients seemed to be presenting a challenge. I had never thought to cook food type food. I didn’t even need to eat unless I got hurt.
“I apologize, but I do not need to eat. I can if I want to, but I do not get hungry like you.” I said.
“Well if you don’t want to eat that’s fine, but I thought I’d cook something up for both of us, mealtime has always been important in my family.” Lilly said, turning off the burners and opening a cabinet to get plates.
“No, I mean there is no reason for you to cook for me.”
“By that logic there’s no reason to cook for myself either, I could just stock cubes of meat in the fridge and eat them whenever I got hungry. I cook because I like tasting good food. Don’t you enjoy good tasting food?”
“Yes, it just seems like unnecessary effort to go for me, especially considering your financial situation.”
“I’d rather spend time enjoying your company and half the years I can live off my inheritance than spend the rest of my life alone in this big empty house.”
He punctuated that by setting down a small plate of colorful noodles in front of me. He then rummaged around in a drawer until he pulled out a small fork. He handed me the fork and I relented. It was… well, fantastic really. I hadn’t had anything like this back at the lab. You usually just eat something straight from a food type TCP. there are a lot of nice sweets, but something was different about this. Maybe cooking changed something about TCP food type food. Whatever the reason it stopped me from complaining anymore.
I retired to my room shortly after, where I am currently sitting typing out this diary entry on my mobile device. I feel strange in a lot of ways, but also good. There is much about the world I still do not know, a life I have not had the chance to lead yet. By the grace of a kind and saddened soul I can finally live. What to do with that life is a question for tomorrow
Day 2
Dear Diary,
Waking up in a room I didn’t recognize, one far larger than necessary, was a jarring experience. I felt hopelessly small in the face of the world. Once I remembered where I was it quickly faded, but there was still the feeling of being small, being tiny.
I went down into the kitchen to find Lilly eating a plate of some kind of meat, neatly cut into cubes. In one hand was his phone, which had most of his attention. Every now and then he’d push his fork into a meat cube and bring it up to his mouth, before swallowing it whole. I decided to be polite and take my place at the table.
“Good morning Lilly.” I said.
“Oh!” Lilly exclaimed, having not noticed my arrival “Jocelyn, good morning to you too. Do you have any plans for today?”
“I do not. A new life begins for me today, but I do not know what to do with it. There are so many possibilities I barely have any clue. At the very least I should look for a job, to pay the rent you asked for in your application”
“That wasn’t a requirement” Lilly said, putting his hands up in a defensive gesture “You can live here as long as you like, no strings attached. If your direction in life takes you somewhere where you’re earning money, then I’d like at least a little rent.”
“As kind as that is of you, I feel I must repay you for giving me a place to live. At the very least a job is a concrete goal that narrows down the scope of what I should do today.”
“Fair enough” Lilly shrugged, swallowing another cube. He perked up when he remembered something “Oh! A tiny package arrived in the mail this morning. It’s from the lab and addressed to you. Here-”
Lilly fished a small for him, normal for me sized package from one of his skirt pockets. He set it on the table in front of me. I picked it up before realizing I did not have a knife. Knowing food was in easy reach I activated my ability and made a cross section of the box disappear, pulling it’s contents out before restoring the box to normal. It’s never pleasant to use my ability, well at least not on my body. Personally I love using it.
It was a set of bracelets sized for my wrists and a note. Reading through it the not specified a research opportunity for former Lab TCPs. the bracelets were made to detect scraps and give info about them and wirelessly link to my KickPhone. Rewards for research include cash and company store credit.
It seemed strangely convenient, but I did do a lot of testing in the lab. They probably thought I would want to do research for them. They were right. Either that or they just sent it out to every lab TCP. I could already faintly sense Scraps, but intuition was not reliable, so I was glad to have these bracelets.
I let Lilly know what was up and his eyes widened when I mentioned how much you could earn for each report. He and I looked over the list of requests to see what I would do first. Lilly was Wary of the Horror research requests, even if it was just talking to people. I felt as if there was a story there, but I let it be.
“You could probably knock out all the SP requests by heading to Cube Tower.” Lilly mused.
“What’s Cube Tower?” I asked.
“Oh well about thirty minutes out of the city in the brushlands, there's this huge tower made of cubes of sandstone that clip into each other. No one knows where it came from, there isn’t even any sandstone around here other than that. It’s not actually that interesting, given all the other weird stuff you can find in the wilderness.
“What makes it interesting is that about six months back it got a TCP spawn point. And it’s stuck. Kinda. You see it disappears sometimes, or moves a little ways from the tower, but most times you can find a spawn point on top of the thing.”
I considered it for a moment as I looked over the requests again. It did seem ideal, as the spawn point would not be likely to move. Still… It seemed hasty. I looked through the requests again and noticed something about SP-5. It did not have anything to do directly with spawn points. Only scraps.
“I think I will leave that for tomorrow. SP-5 seems possible by staying in the city and I could ease into life here, explore the neighborhood while looking for scraps.” I said.
“Alright, are you going to be ok on your own?” Lilly asked. “Do you have a map on your phone? Do you want money for trolly fare since you don’t have a transit card yet?”
“Yes, I will be fine on my own. Yes I have a map application on my mobile device. No thank you, I plan on just seeing what is within walking distance.”
“Ok, but be safe out there, watch out for people who might not see you, don’t jay walk, and make sure to be back before dark.”
“That is reasonable, I will do my best.”
***
I snapped on the bracelets and Synced them with my mobile device. It took me a bit to figure it out, but the bracelets seemed to amplify my natural Scrap sense. I still couldn’t see them, but I could feel where they were by concentrating and holding a hand out.
There was one in the foyer. I cannot believe I had missed it, it was something powerful. I could not see it though, and the application on my mobile device did not have much information for me. The letter that came with the bracelets said something about them being designed for my type and ability in mind, therefore I decided to attempt to use said ability on the scrap.
It is difficult to try and figure out a way to put into words how the effect worked. The best I can come up with is that there was a cross section of reality cut open, and the scrap was sitting before me, impossible to describe visually. I saw emotion. Loss. the powerful weight of grief, weighing down a weary soul. Then I decided to cut a cross section into the scrap itself.
It was like watching a window into the past. A cross section of the world that existed in memory only.
The scene began with Lilly closing the door behind himself, taking off a heavy coat, gloves, hat, and other assorted cold weather gear. He sighed, throwing his keys into a bowl on the table next to the door. He began to slither upstairs when his phone rang.
“Hello?” He asked. “Oh, Hey Orchid! Just got home from class. Calculus is kicking my butt.”
“...”
“Yeah I’m doing pretty ok, How’s dad?”
“...”
“Orchid? Are- are you ok?”
Something was said over the phone and Lilly started trembling. The voice on the other end grew silent, and Lilly dropped the phone. It landed softly on the carpeted floor, without Lilly even seeming to register it was gone from his hand.
“No. This- I can’t believe it.” he mumbled.
The person on the other end of the phone, Orchid, said something I could barely hear.
“Lilly?! Please, it’s going to be ok. Lilly? Are you there? LILLY!?”
With shaking hands, Lilly bent over to pick up the phone. He told Orchid he was there, that he was fine. I didn’t believe him. There were tears in the corners of his eyes.
“He can’t be dead!” Lilly snapped, yelling into the phone. “He still needs to be here for me, to show me how I can get through College. Be there to talk with my advisors, make appointments, remind me to take my meds, and give me advice! I only ever made it this far because he was supporting me! He can’t be dead! He can’t!”
Lilly began to break down sobbing at that point. Seeing that, I felt like I had intruded onto something personal. I closed the cross sections and checked my mobile device. It reported that the scrap type was Void, it’s emotional contents were grief and/or loss, and it’s power was 8.5/10.
I sighed, and put away my mobile device. I felt I desperately needed that walk, seeing that scene gave me a lot to think about.
Walking through the neighborhood was relaxing. There were trees along the sidewalk and many interesting old buildings to look at, or buildings that were built in an old style. It was labeled on the map as being the ‘Historical District’ but what history it had I did not know of.
I eventually crossed a road to find an end to houses, and a beginning to shops and restaurants. Everything seemed to be leaning into the rustic charm aesthetic of days long past. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Was it people celebrating the past, or yearning for a time long since gone? Then I saw a candy shop and ceased my pondering to do some window shopping.
I went to enter the building, but I was barely too short to reach the handle. It seemed the city was not that TCP friendly, which made sense. We were still new. I briefly entertained the idea of constructing some sort of grappling hook to reach the handle before I did the obvious thing and Knocked.
I stood outside the door and waited. Soon enough an aging grey long haired Karacel opened it. He was wearing a red uniform with a whilte apron, and a set of gold rimmed reading glasses. He looked around for a second with a confused look before I made a sound approximating coughing. He looked down and flinched when he saw me. That was understandable given my appearance.
“Oh, sorry I didn’t see ya there” He said. “What can I help ya with?”
“Your sign says you are open, but I lack the height required to reach the door handle. May I come in?” I asked.
“Oh! Right, ‘course. So long as ya don’t mind I got no TCP candies.”
“I was planning on window shopping. I enjoy the aesthetic of sweets very much.”
“Well ya won’t get a very good window shopin’ experience down there, would ya care for a ride?” He smiled, kneeling down and holding his arms out as if to give me a hug. I nodded and walked up to him. He pulled me into a hug and lifted me up from under my arms. I was shifted until he was cradling me like a baby, letting me see in front of him.
The shop was… incredible. A rainbow of possibilities laid bare in front of me. Wooden baskets filled with mountains of hard candy, shelves of candy bars stacked upon each other, Giant lollipops swirling with color hanging from walls, machines with canisters of candy waiting to be dispensed into paper bags, and a glass counter displaying fudge and other freshly made confections.
“This is a lovely shop, and you are a very kind man.” I said.
“Thank ya, I do my best,” He said, smiling, “name’s Benzen. He/Him. May I kindly have the name of the little cat interested in my humble confections?”
“Jocelyn. She/Her. I would shake your hand, but I think we are a bit beyond that.”
“Ha! Yea, I guess we are.”
I asked questions about the various sweets on display, and Benzin explained his craft to me. Most of his stock was brand named stuff. RockinChoc, Wonderfun, Zaprocks, amongst others. He did make some of his own candy though. Jawbreakers, lollipops, and other hard candies. Fudge, peanut brittle, Truffles, and gumdrops. If I had a mouth it would have been watering. As it was I could only look and appreciate as Benzin handled a customer, a Pockitt kit who spent all of their money on a massive jawbreaker.
While I waited I played around with my bracelets. I started noticing something once Benzen handed the kit the jawbreaker. My bracelets were almost pulled in that direction. I thought I might have missed a Scrap when I came in, but then I realized… I was seeing a scrap being made!
“Benzin?” I asked, watching the kit run outside excitedly with their purchase. “That kit just shed a Scrap. Would it be alright if I took a look at it? I have some experimental tech I’m testing for the Hoopla TCP research facility.”
“What?” He asked, looking confused and slightly concerned. “Ain’t that just urban legend stuff?”
“No,” I replied. “Scrap based phenomena are well documented, at least that was my impression when I was living at the facility.”
“Just, don’t bring it up, ok?” He said, giving me an intense look that shocked me.
I simply nodded. I supposed he couldn’t be entirely jolly about everything, but the look he gave me still hurt. I decided it was best to leave the shop for the time being.
I encountered a few more scraps whilst wandering, noting their qualities for my report later, but don’t feel it’s important to mention these encounters in this Diary. Eventually I went home and ate a piece of a caramel TPC.
I’m sitting in the living room writing this with the TV on, playing some drama about horror hunters. Tomorrow I head off to the Cube Tower, to see what a spawn point has to offer.
[Research Report]
[SP-1-5: What are the different kinds of scraps?]
[by Jocelyn]
Scrap found at Twilight House
Scrap type: Void
Emotional contents: Loss, Greif
Strength: 8.5/10
Memory contents: Death of owner’s father, conveyed by sister over the phone.
Scrap found at Colloquial Candy shop
Unknown, shed when owner bought a large jawbreaker
Scrap found at Parlay Park
Scrap type: Noise
Emotional contents: boredom, disappointment
Strength: 3.1/10
Memory contents: Owner waited all day for a date to show up before accepting they were stood up.
Scrap found at Callie’s Clothes and Accessories
Scrap type: Hair
Emotional contents: anger, stress
Strength: 4.7/10
Memory contents: Owner fitted for a wedding dress. Dress rips due to the owner's bulk. No other dress like it was in stock.
Scrap found at the corner of 14th St. and Tenor Ln.
Scrap type: Neon
Emotional contents: Joy, trepidation
Strength: 6.6/10
Memory contents: Owner receives a call, they had just won a lottery, unsure of what to do with the prize money.
I have had no luck at this point finding a scrap type I am aligned to. more reports to follow.
I believe context is important to any data, so in addition to a shorter report, I have enclosed relevant Diary entries.
[SP-1-5: What are the different kinds of scrap?]
Day 1
Dear Diary,
Now that I’m out of the lab I thought I’d label the days since I left. I want to treasure each and every one of them. A lot has happened today so I suppose I should start at the beginning.
It began like any other day for me. I woke up, talked with some other body types, and went to take some tests. A staff member told me I’d be up for interview again, but I doubted anything would come of it. I was very wrong.
“This is Jocelyn, an Anatomic Surrealism type, don’t worry about how she looks, it doesn’t hurt her.” One of the staff members said to the large snake person on the other side of the glass.
He slithered over to the seat by the visiting window and sighed when he saw the chair for visitors. He merely moved it aside and coiled up in front of the glass. The first thing I noticed about him, aside from being a snake, was he looked sad. The second thing I noticed was that it wasn’t about me. It was as if I did not bother him in the slightest.
“Hello Jocelyn, I’m Lilly. My pronouns are He/Him” He said holding out a hand of long claws for a shake before realizing both the size difference and the glass divider would make that impossible.
“I appreciate the gesture,” I said, trying not to giggle. “It is a pleasure to meet you Lilly. Would you like to know anything about me?”
“Yeah,” He said, avoiding eye contact. “Does any of your bloo- er, fluid leak out of those gaps in your body?”
“No, I assure you They are quite clean. My body is my body, the parts that appear missing are normal for me and provide no complications.”
“Oh good, the entire house is carpeted, and my dad never taught me how to use the steam cleaner. Is it rude to ask what you can do? Your ability?”
I had to pause for a moment, He was concerned for his carpet? I looked up at him. His eyes were full of curiosity, not disgust, nor pity. None of the other Housing Initiative applicants had looked at me like that. He didn’t even try to ignore it, no, he was curious about me and what I was, what I could do.
“At the cost of some health I can cut a cross section into any surface I touch, revealing the inner mechanisms and/or supports within. The material acts as if the cross section is not there and continues to act normally unless anyone reaches in and touches the inside of the cross section. Internal structures can be manipulated and pieces removed. I can then close the cross section and the material acts as normal save for the changes made while it was a cross section. It works best on bodies.”
“That sounds really useful. If I ever get a bullet stuck in me for gods know what reason, I’d want you there. Or if I need help running new electrical wiring in the house.”
“You do not find it disturbing?”
“No, I’d actually like to give it a whirl. It would be incredible to take a peek inside my own body.”
“You understand perfectly! I am fascinated by the internal workings of bodies and mechanisms, and it is incredible to see them up close. I would be more than happy to use my ability on you. It is a shame practical demonstrations are discouraged here.”
From then on we talked about practical applications for my ability, what I’ve seen using it, and what things I enjoyed doing for fun. Lilly seemed to open up the more we talked and the sad look in his eyes faded a bit. I believe any sad look in my eyes would have vanished as well. At least until he had to go.
***
“Jocelyn?” A staff member asked, stopping me in the hall. “You’ve been approved to live with Twilight’s Lilly, The Selected you met earlier. I’m glad you’ve found someone to appreciate you.”
I could not believe it. I never thought I would get out of the lab. I stopped getting my hopes up a long time ago. I could finally leave. It did not feel real. I just went through the motions of packing. It took me until I was standing in the doorway besides Lilly. He gave me an awkward smile and we were off into the world.
Everything was huge. Not only because of me being a tiny cat person, but because there was just so much of it. Cars, trains, planes, there were so many ways people had figured out how to cover vast distances. The people I saw walking around seemed more diverse than any combination of TCP types.
I had to be picked up several times to be moved on seats or up steps, which Lilly had his own difficulties with. He seemed hesitant to enter my personal space, even when I invited him to. I thought maybe I had misread him and he was afraid of touching me, but it turns out he was afraid of taking away my autonomy. He told me he wanted to make sure I could do as much as I could on my own.
Eventually we made our way to the top of a small hill where an old house stood, among a neighborhood that had many other old houses and quite a few more of the species Lilly was. He pulled out a key and unlocked the solid wood front door, ushering me into my new home.
“I got some TCP scale step ladders you can use to reach things too high for you,” Lilly said, dropping his keys into a bowl on a table in the entryway. “I also tied a string to all the handles of the doors so you can open and close them on your own. Lucky that this old house uses lever style door knobs. I stocked the pantry and fridge with food type products, they all have a cat sticker on them so you know which is which. There are no stairs in the house because My family is Snakes like me, so you won’t have any problem getting upstairs or downstairs. What do you think?”
It was cozy. There was a chandelier in the entryway, where there was a ramp leading upstairs. There were intricately carved wooden panels covering the walls and a soft but firm carpet under my feet that radiated warmth. It was a nice place that had warm lighting and natural colors, a stark difference from the lab.
“It is lovely.” I replied.
Lilly smiled at me before giving me the tour. The first floor had a sitting room facing the street, a library, with a reading nook facing the street, a kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom, and a living room with several game consoles attached to the large tv and a computer sitting on a cluttered desk in the corner.
Upstairs was a lot of empty rooms, excluding Lilly’s, which had walls covered in posters, and a much nicer computer on a much more cluttered desk. The master bedroom was off limits, but he said I could choose any one of the other five rooms I wanted. I chose one that overlooked the street rather than the backyard. I loved looking out at people, I just needed to get up to window height to do it.
The room was fairly plain, with a bed built into the floor for easy snake acces, and now easy TCP access. It was huge for me, I could have easily slept on the pillow with room to spare. The closet seemed like an entirely different room separated by a sliding door. I had, and still have, no clue what to do with the space.
I got a stepladder so I could look out the window and then went to explore the bathroom. The shower had a basin gently recessed into the floor with controls I could reach, but the sink proved to be harder to get to, requiring another step ladder. I didn’t need the toilet, so I just left it as it was.
Content with my living arrangements, I dropped off my bag on the bed and walked downstairs(Downramp?) to find Lily in the Kitchen, cooking. He seemed to be making two different dishes. He had two pans out, but from the angle I was looking at, I couldn’t tell what he was making. I noticed that there was a single chair around the kitchen table, I wondered why that was when I realized that This was a house for Snake people. They didn’t use chairs. The chair was for me, and had a smaller chair sitting on top of it that would allow me to reach the table. I moved a step ladder over to it and sat down, pulling out my Kick Phone and snapping it open to browse the net.
“How do you like your room Jocelyn?” Lilly asked, looking away from the stove for a second.
“It is… large” I said, “Nice, but large. It will take some getting used to.”
“Well if you need anything just ask. I’m sorry I couldn’t make my home more TCP friendly, I don’t have much extra money these days. Dinner will be ready soon.”
“Dinner?” I asked, confused.
From my new vantage point I could see the smaller pan held a variety of colorful, small ingredients. He seemed to be making some kind of stir fried noodle dish in both, but the mix of eccentric TCP food type ingredients seemed to be presenting a challenge. I had never thought to cook food type food. I didn’t even need to eat unless I got hurt.
“I apologize, but I do not need to eat. I can if I want to, but I do not get hungry like you.” I said.
“Well if you don’t want to eat that’s fine, but I thought I’d cook something up for both of us, mealtime has always been important in my family.” Lilly said, turning off the burners and opening a cabinet to get plates.
“No, I mean there is no reason for you to cook for me.”
“By that logic there’s no reason to cook for myself either, I could just stock cubes of meat in the fridge and eat them whenever I got hungry. I cook because I like tasting good food. Don’t you enjoy good tasting food?”
“Yes, it just seems like unnecessary effort to go for me, especially considering your financial situation.”
“I’d rather spend time enjoying your company and half the years I can live off my inheritance than spend the rest of my life alone in this big empty house.”
He punctuated that by setting down a small plate of colorful noodles in front of me. He then rummaged around in a drawer until he pulled out a small fork. He handed me the fork and I relented. It was… well, fantastic really. I hadn’t had anything like this back at the lab. You usually just eat something straight from a food type TCP. there are a lot of nice sweets, but something was different about this. Maybe cooking changed something about TCP food type food. Whatever the reason it stopped me from complaining anymore.
I retired to my room shortly after, where I am currently sitting typing out this diary entry on my mobile device. I feel strange in a lot of ways, but also good. There is much about the world I still do not know, a life I have not had the chance to lead yet. By the grace of a kind and saddened soul I can finally live. What to do with that life is a question for tomorrow
Day 2
Dear Diary,
Waking up in a room I didn’t recognize, one far larger than necessary, was a jarring experience. I felt hopelessly small in the face of the world. Once I remembered where I was it quickly faded, but there was still the feeling of being small, being tiny.
I went down into the kitchen to find Lilly eating a plate of some kind of meat, neatly cut into cubes. In one hand was his phone, which had most of his attention. Every now and then he’d push his fork into a meat cube and bring it up to his mouth, before swallowing it whole. I decided to be polite and take my place at the table.
“Good morning Lilly.” I said.
“Oh!” Lilly exclaimed, having not noticed my arrival “Jocelyn, good morning to you too. Do you have any plans for today?”
“I do not. A new life begins for me today, but I do not know what to do with it. There are so many possibilities I barely have any clue. At the very least I should look for a job, to pay the rent you asked for in your application”
“That wasn’t a requirement” Lilly said, putting his hands up in a defensive gesture “You can live here as long as you like, no strings attached. If your direction in life takes you somewhere where you’re earning money, then I’d like at least a little rent.”
“As kind as that is of you, I feel I must repay you for giving me a place to live. At the very least a job is a concrete goal that narrows down the scope of what I should do today.”
“Fair enough” Lilly shrugged, swallowing another cube. He perked up when he remembered something “Oh! A tiny package arrived in the mail this morning. It’s from the lab and addressed to you. Here-”
Lilly fished a small for him, normal for me sized package from one of his skirt pockets. He set it on the table in front of me. I picked it up before realizing I did not have a knife. Knowing food was in easy reach I activated my ability and made a cross section of the box disappear, pulling it’s contents out before restoring the box to normal. It’s never pleasant to use my ability, well at least not on my body. Personally I love using it.
It was a set of bracelets sized for my wrists and a note. Reading through it the not specified a research opportunity for former Lab TCPs. the bracelets were made to detect scraps and give info about them and wirelessly link to my KickPhone. Rewards for research include cash and company store credit.
It seemed strangely convenient, but I did do a lot of testing in the lab. They probably thought I would want to do research for them. They were right. Either that or they just sent it out to every lab TCP. I could already faintly sense Scraps, but intuition was not reliable, so I was glad to have these bracelets.
I let Lilly know what was up and his eyes widened when I mentioned how much you could earn for each report. He and I looked over the list of requests to see what I would do first. Lilly was Wary of the Horror research requests, even if it was just talking to people. I felt as if there was a story there, but I let it be.
“You could probably knock out all the SP requests by heading to Cube Tower.” Lilly mused.
“What’s Cube Tower?” I asked.
“Oh well about thirty minutes out of the city in the brushlands, there's this huge tower made of cubes of sandstone that clip into each other. No one knows where it came from, there isn’t even any sandstone around here other than that. It’s not actually that interesting, given all the other weird stuff you can find in the wilderness.
“What makes it interesting is that about six months back it got a TCP spawn point. And it’s stuck. Kinda. You see it disappears sometimes, or moves a little ways from the tower, but most times you can find a spawn point on top of the thing.”
I considered it for a moment as I looked over the requests again. It did seem ideal, as the spawn point would not be likely to move. Still… It seemed hasty. I looked through the requests again and noticed something about SP-5. It did not have anything to do directly with spawn points. Only scraps.
“I think I will leave that for tomorrow. SP-5 seems possible by staying in the city and I could ease into life here, explore the neighborhood while looking for scraps.” I said.
“Alright, are you going to be ok on your own?” Lilly asked. “Do you have a map on your phone? Do you want money for trolly fare since you don’t have a transit card yet?”
“Yes, I will be fine on my own. Yes I have a map application on my mobile device. No thank you, I plan on just seeing what is within walking distance.”
“Ok, but be safe out there, watch out for people who might not see you, don’t jay walk, and make sure to be back before dark.”
“That is reasonable, I will do my best.”
***
I snapped on the bracelets and Synced them with my mobile device. It took me a bit to figure it out, but the bracelets seemed to amplify my natural Scrap sense. I still couldn’t see them, but I could feel where they were by concentrating and holding a hand out.
There was one in the foyer. I cannot believe I had missed it, it was something powerful. I could not see it though, and the application on my mobile device did not have much information for me. The letter that came with the bracelets said something about them being designed for my type and ability in mind, therefore I decided to attempt to use said ability on the scrap.
It is difficult to try and figure out a way to put into words how the effect worked. The best I can come up with is that there was a cross section of reality cut open, and the scrap was sitting before me, impossible to describe visually. I saw emotion. Loss. the powerful weight of grief, weighing down a weary soul. Then I decided to cut a cross section into the scrap itself.
It was like watching a window into the past. A cross section of the world that existed in memory only.
The scene began with Lilly closing the door behind himself, taking off a heavy coat, gloves, hat, and other assorted cold weather gear. He sighed, throwing his keys into a bowl on the table next to the door. He began to slither upstairs when his phone rang.
“Hello?” He asked. “Oh, Hey Orchid! Just got home from class. Calculus is kicking my butt.”
“...”
“Yeah I’m doing pretty ok, How’s dad?”
“...”
“Orchid? Are- are you ok?”
Something was said over the phone and Lilly started trembling. The voice on the other end grew silent, and Lilly dropped the phone. It landed softly on the carpeted floor, without Lilly even seeming to register it was gone from his hand.
“No. This- I can’t believe it.” he mumbled.
The person on the other end of the phone, Orchid, said something I could barely hear.
“Lilly?! Please, it’s going to be ok. Lilly? Are you there? LILLY!?”
With shaking hands, Lilly bent over to pick up the phone. He told Orchid he was there, that he was fine. I didn’t believe him. There were tears in the corners of his eyes.
“He can’t be dead!” Lilly snapped, yelling into the phone. “He still needs to be here for me, to show me how I can get through College. Be there to talk with my advisors, make appointments, remind me to take my meds, and give me advice! I only ever made it this far because he was supporting me! He can’t be dead! He can’t!”
Lilly began to break down sobbing at that point. Seeing that, I felt like I had intruded onto something personal. I closed the cross sections and checked my mobile device. It reported that the scrap type was Void, it’s emotional contents were grief and/or loss, and it’s power was 8.5/10.
I sighed, and put away my mobile device. I felt I desperately needed that walk, seeing that scene gave me a lot to think about.
Walking through the neighborhood was relaxing. There were trees along the sidewalk and many interesting old buildings to look at, or buildings that were built in an old style. It was labeled on the map as being the ‘Historical District’ but what history it had I did not know of.
I eventually crossed a road to find an end to houses, and a beginning to shops and restaurants. Everything seemed to be leaning into the rustic charm aesthetic of days long past. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Was it people celebrating the past, or yearning for a time long since gone? Then I saw a candy shop and ceased my pondering to do some window shopping.
I went to enter the building, but I was barely too short to reach the handle. It seemed the city was not that TCP friendly, which made sense. We were still new. I briefly entertained the idea of constructing some sort of grappling hook to reach the handle before I did the obvious thing and Knocked.
I stood outside the door and waited. Soon enough an aging grey long haired Karacel opened it. He was wearing a red uniform with a whilte apron, and a set of gold rimmed reading glasses. He looked around for a second with a confused look before I made a sound approximating coughing. He looked down and flinched when he saw me. That was understandable given my appearance.
“Oh, sorry I didn’t see ya there” He said. “What can I help ya with?”
“Your sign says you are open, but I lack the height required to reach the door handle. May I come in?” I asked.
“Oh! Right, ‘course. So long as ya don’t mind I got no TCP candies.”
“I was planning on window shopping. I enjoy the aesthetic of sweets very much.”
“Well ya won’t get a very good window shopin’ experience down there, would ya care for a ride?” He smiled, kneeling down and holding his arms out as if to give me a hug. I nodded and walked up to him. He pulled me into a hug and lifted me up from under my arms. I was shifted until he was cradling me like a baby, letting me see in front of him.
The shop was… incredible. A rainbow of possibilities laid bare in front of me. Wooden baskets filled with mountains of hard candy, shelves of candy bars stacked upon each other, Giant lollipops swirling with color hanging from walls, machines with canisters of candy waiting to be dispensed into paper bags, and a glass counter displaying fudge and other freshly made confections.
“This is a lovely shop, and you are a very kind man.” I said.
“Thank ya, I do my best,” He said, smiling, “name’s Benzen. He/Him. May I kindly have the name of the little cat interested in my humble confections?”
“Jocelyn. She/Her. I would shake your hand, but I think we are a bit beyond that.”
“Ha! Yea, I guess we are.”
I asked questions about the various sweets on display, and Benzin explained his craft to me. Most of his stock was brand named stuff. RockinChoc, Wonderfun, Zaprocks, amongst others. He did make some of his own candy though. Jawbreakers, lollipops, and other hard candies. Fudge, peanut brittle, Truffles, and gumdrops. If I had a mouth it would have been watering. As it was I could only look and appreciate as Benzin handled a customer, a Pockitt kit who spent all of their money on a massive jawbreaker.
While I waited I played around with my bracelets. I started noticing something once Benzen handed the kit the jawbreaker. My bracelets were almost pulled in that direction. I thought I might have missed a Scrap when I came in, but then I realized… I was seeing a scrap being made!
“Benzin?” I asked, watching the kit run outside excitedly with their purchase. “That kit just shed a Scrap. Would it be alright if I took a look at it? I have some experimental tech I’m testing for the Hoopla TCP research facility.”
“What?” He asked, looking confused and slightly concerned. “Ain’t that just urban legend stuff?”
“No,” I replied. “Scrap based phenomena are well documented, at least that was my impression when I was living at the facility.”
“Just, don’t bring it up, ok?” He said, giving me an intense look that shocked me.
I simply nodded. I supposed he couldn’t be entirely jolly about everything, but the look he gave me still hurt. I decided it was best to leave the shop for the time being.
I encountered a few more scraps whilst wandering, noting their qualities for my report later, but don’t feel it’s important to mention these encounters in this Diary. Eventually I went home and ate a piece of a caramel TPC.
I’m sitting in the living room writing this with the TV on, playing some drama about horror hunters. Tomorrow I head off to the Cube Tower, to see what a spawn point has to offer.
[Research Report]
[SP-1-5: What are the different kinds of scraps?]
[by Jocelyn]
Scrap found at Twilight House
Scrap type: Void
Emotional contents: Loss, Greif
Strength: 8.5/10
Memory contents: Death of owner’s father, conveyed by sister over the phone.
Scrap found at Colloquial Candy shop
Unknown, shed when owner bought a large jawbreaker
Scrap found at Parlay Park
Scrap type: Noise
Emotional contents: boredom, disappointment
Strength: 3.1/10
Memory contents: Owner waited all day for a date to show up before accepting they were stood up.
Scrap found at Callie’s Clothes and Accessories
Scrap type: Hair
Emotional contents: anger, stress
Strength: 4.7/10
Memory contents: Owner fitted for a wedding dress. Dress rips due to the owner's bulk. No other dress like it was in stock.
Scrap found at the corner of 14th St. and Tenor Ln.
Scrap type: Neon
Emotional contents: Joy, trepidation
Strength: 6.6/10
Memory contents: Owner receives a call, they had just won a lottery, unsure of what to do with the prize money.
I have had no luck at this point finding a scrap type I am aligned to. more reports to follow.