Chapter Text
BEEP
BEEP
BEEEP
“Ugh, can somebody take the battery out of that thing? I can’t focus!” Peppermint snaps. “If I hear it go off one more time I’m going to throw it at a wall.”
808, ever the wonderful assistant, jumps onto the table where they’d put Chai’s pager the first time it started ringing and grabs it in her paws. She flips it over and with a quick swipe pops the battery out.
“Thank you.” She gets a chipper chirp in response.
Sadly the peace and quiet don’t help her make any more sense of what she’s seeing. Peppermint scoots back from her desk and starts to pace.
They’d returned to Macaron’s hideout about two hours ago. Though she’d had doubts, in the end their plan went off without a hitch and they were able to grab Chai and whisk him away from the scene before anyone even realized something went down. Macaron carried him back and CNMN tied him to a chair with a blanket and duct tape the moment they got here.
She asked CNMN to leave Chai’s right elbow accessible and plugged a cable into it to access the SPECTRA code inside his arm to see what she could do about it. She didn’t expect any of this to be easy, but what she got was just confusing.
The first time she’d hijacked Chai’s body through a wired connection it’d been simple to get him to say a few sentences. Now the only command that actually went through was when he started waking up and she panicked, commanding him to go back to sleep.
He hasn’t woken up since, not even when his pager started going off, and she doesn’t know enough about actually using SPECTRA to know if she did something wrong.
Because something’s clearly wrong. When she made Chai say she was better than him he snapped out of it the moment 808 pulled the cable away. They’ve unplugged and plugged him back in twice and he hasn’t woken up. The only reaction they got was some harsh static sound from his music player that did nothing to reassure them.
She’s been pouring over the files they stole from Zanzo since the day they lost Chai. None of them mention anything about static, so it has to be something with his music player.
“808, can you show me Chai’s vitals again?” Peppermint asks as she makes her way back to her chair. “And the current track?”
808 nods, then picks up a usb and puts it in the port under her collar. Peppermint sits down and pulls up the data 808’s sending her.
It’s the same thing. She can see the frequency SPECTRA’s operating on and the one that 808’s synced with Chai on that he calls the beat.
For all the work she’s done with and on Chai’s arm she still doesn’t understand how the beat works. Chai’s explanations haven’t helped much either. The best he could give her was an eight minute explanation that can be summed up as “everything moves in time, it’s all connected, and moving on beat feels so right .”
He’d told her that, pre-surgery, he didn’t stim even half as much as he does now. He’s always been restless and fidgety, yeah, but after he got the music player he couldn’t help himself. He’d match it without even noticing if he wasn’t doing anything else.
Sometimes he’d even make things sync with the beat accidentally the way he did with 808, or on purpose like he did with the nodes and generator. As far as she can recall the only time he’s synced up with anything else was when he broke the harmonic barrier, and he’d had to work hard to do that.
Wait a minute.
She moves the feed to a second monitor and tries to wake Chai again. She watches SPECTRA’s behavior closely as the command goes through.
SPECTRA passes the command along but Chai doesn’t stir even a little. Then-
Static crackles loudly from Chai’s chest, but Peppermint doesn’t turn around to look. Instead she watches as something really weird happens.
The frequency changes. Not for long, but she sees SPECTRA sync up with the beat briefly before going back to normal. The static stops as soon as it does.
She might have something here.
It’s been a while since she’s cracked a book on electromagnetic frequencies, but she knows what interference sounds like. Now that she knows she’s looking at radio waves everything makes a little more sense.
She needs more data to be sure. As uncomfortable as using SPECTRA to influence Chai makes her, it’s all for his benefit. The sooner she figures out how it interacts with him and his music player the sooner they can help him fight it.
Because he is fighting it, she finds, in the most roundabout way possible.
From what she’s come to understand, Chai is receiving SPECTRA signals through his arm like it’s a radio antenna. His arm (and, by extension, all Project Armstrong tech) is designed to pick up on SPECTRA’s specific frequency, which is then sent to his brain where it gets interpreted as an impulse, a stray thought, or an outright command. This lines up with what she’s read in the files they stole on SPECTRA.
What Kale and his people probably failed to account for is the fact that Chai’s not just picking up SPECTRA’s frequency, he’s got a foreign object lodged in his chest that’s transmitting all the time. The music player operates on a different frequency than SPECTRA and it didn’t even matter before because SPECTRA wasn’t active. Now that it is, there are complications.
For one thing, Chai’s arm isn’t designed to transmit anything. The fact that he even can is as big of a miracle as the music player being compatible with Vandelay tech in the first place. She is happy to handwave that one and focus on what matters more here.
When she sends Chai the command to wake up, it gets sent by SPECTRA and picked up on by his arm. The command hits his brain and Chai starts to comply because he’s being mind controlled. That part makes sense and works as intended.
Chai does try to wake up every time… for a split second. After which he starts subconsciously syncing up with SPECTRA because he’s being mind controlled and swayed to fall in line and obey. That part also lines up with what she knows about how his powers work.
The unexpected happens when he does sync up with SPECTRA: he recoils, in a sense, and starts trying to make SPECTRA sync up with the beat instead. Peppermint isn’t sure why he doesn’t stay synced with SPECTRA and her best theory is that the vibes are just really off or something. She can’t imagine SPECTRA feels anywhere near as nice as the beat that makes him happy-stim constantly.
At that point he’s already received and internalized the command, that ship’s sailed. But when SPECTRA syncs with the beat and starts operating on the same frequency that’s when the static comes through. That also makes sense on its own because when two transmitters play at the same frequency and get picked up at once it causes interference (read: static).
She has no idea what this is like for Chai on his end but, looking at the numbers, her only thought is of a car radio picking up two stations at the same time. Sometimes both stations can be heard at once or one more than the other, but other times the accompanying static is so thick you can barely hear either.
Whatever he’s experiencing is probably not pleasant. 808 winces every time the static comes on and that’s as good an indication as any that Peppermint should piece this together faster so she can stop causing it.
SPECTRA sends a command, Chai gets it, he starts syncing up with SPECTRA then turns around and tries to make it sync with the beat, and then there’s a lot of white noise. But that can’t be true all the time or else there would’ve been a lot of static during their fight. What else is she missing?
She finds the answer she’s looking for as she logs the commands that SPECTRA is trying to send him in his sleep.
Kale knows what’s best for this company. This company is doing what’s right. I owe everything to this company. Working here is a privilege I barely deserve. I have to work hard to keep it. I have to do anything to keep it. I belong here and nowhere else. I want other people to feel like they belong here.
As horrifying as all of that is, Peppermint picks up on a pattern. None of those are overt commands. They’re all very strong suggestions, sure, but none of them tell Chai to do anything directly. SPECTRA apparently uses subtler commands by default.
And none of them make Chai try to sync up with SPECTRA, like he doesn’t even realize they’re thoughts he’s getting from somewhere else.
So the conclusion Peppermint’s drawing here is that her command didn’t actually get carried out, it was just too heavy-handed and overloaded Chai to the point where he passed out. She feels really bad about that now but the only thing she can do is try to wake him up. She tries to be more indirect about it.
It’s time for me to wake up. I’ve slept long enough.
The command goes through, no static follows, and Chai rolls his neck as much as he can and opens his eyes. They’re still gray.
For a moment it’s clear he’s confused. He looks around the hideout like he’s not seeing any of it. Or he can’t understand what he’s looking at.
Then he spots her and it’s like watching a switch flick in his brain.
Peppermint does her best to ignore the curses and threats he hurls at her as he tries to break out of the chair. Her heart hurts a little to hear Chai say all those things, but one look at the monitor and she can steel her resolve.
I don’t know where this is. I’ve never been here before in my life. I don’t remember being here. I don’t know where I am. None of this is familiar. None of it sparks any memories. I am not safe here.
Peppermint is the worst. She hurts people. She’ll hurt me. Kale hates her. Kale knows what’s best for this company. She wants to bring down the company. She’ll use anyone she has to to make it happen. I think I hate her. I know I hate her. I’ve always hated her.
Well, that explains why there wasn’t any static when he was fighting them. SPECTRA probably didn’t even have to tell him to fight them, with thoughts like these it would’ve been the obvious conclusion.
Now her problem is no longer not knowing what’s going on, it’s that she’s not sure that blocking SPECTRA will be enough to get him back to normal if he’s been fed this kind of poison for three straight months. Would making him forget all the SPECTRA suggestions let him remember? Can his brain even tell them apart from his own thoughts?
“And I swear when I get over there I’ll rip your- “ Chai doesn’t finish that sentence.
The sudden quiet has Peppermint turning around to see why Chai stopped threatening her.
808 is sitting in Chai’s lap, a paw rhythmically tapping at where his music player sits in his chest. He looks uncomfortable with how close she is, but she’s undeterred. She starts purring and dilates her pupils, eventually chirping softly like she’s counting the beat. It takes Peppermint a moment to clock why she’s doing it.
CNMN took restraining Chai seriously. He can’t even tap his foot in case he tries to build up reverb that way. It occurs to her then that, independent of SPECTRA making the place feel like it should be hostile, not able to act on the beat must be fraying his nerves. Good on 808 for catching that.
Peppermint can’t read Chai’s actual thoughts, but what she’s getting from SPECTRA paints a pretty clear picture.
This isn’t cute. This isn’t comforting. I’ve never seen this cat before in my life. It could hurt me. I should be scared. I should be mad. I shouldn’t want this. This doesn’t feel right. I should tell it to leave. Tell it to leave!
But Chai isn’t telling 808 to shove it. He hasn’t started struggling again. He’s just sitting there staring at 808 stimming for him like he’s not sure what to make of her.
Did- Did he not hear those suggestions?
Peppermint starts typing and hopes she’s right.
I’m so tired. I’m so sleepy. I could go for a nap right now. Sleep.
But when she turns around, Chai’s still wide awake and actually smiling a little. There’s no static either.
“Huh, how ‘bout that.”
Chai hears her and startles like he forgot she was there. The moment he sees her he freezes like he’s buffering and then looks livid again.
“You can’t keep me here! When I get out of here I’ll- I’ll-”
He loses that train of thought abruptly when 808 bonks her head against his music player and meows loudly. She starts purring and rubbing her face against his stomach, a paw patting his thigh to the beat. 808 does her absolute best to look friendly and adorable.
“I don’t- You’re not cute. I hate this.” Chai says with none of the heat he’s been showing Peppermint. The way his shoulders slump in relief betrays what he’s really feeling. “Bad kitty. Go away.”
Peppermint wants to ask what he’s thinking so badly but she turns to the data instead. If he remembers she’s here again it won’t help anything.
Out of all of them, it was 808 who Chai spent the most time with. Peppermint’s surprised that the idea of her hasn’t been poisoned the way Chai’s perception of the rest of them has been, but maybe she shouldn’t be. Why would Kale care what Chai thinks about a cat, even if it’s her cat? Yet another oversight of his that’s going to be his undoing.
Why? Because when 808 syncs with Chai on purpose she has his entire focus. He is tuned into their bond completely and SPECTRA’s brainwashing goes unheard and unreceived on the other frequency. Peppermint is reminded of the car radio analogy and wonders if there’s a way to jam SPECTRA signals the way Chai’s been doing subconsciously or to keep him from tuning into it. She’ll have to do some research, but it should be possible.
In the meantime, 808’s doing a fantastic job of keeping him calm and distracted. Enough so that Peppermint feels he’s secure enough that she can grab a tablet and some headphones and go just outside of Macaron’s hideout to start a call.
It takes a few rings but Macaron does pick up the call. He’s patched himself up and in the background she can see Korsica taking a nap on the couch with her leg wrapped as well. They’d gone to the other hideout after dropping off Chai so there wouldn’t be as many people present when he came to and because Peppermint’s hideout has better medical supplies.
“Peppermint! Good to hear from you. How’s Chai doing?”
“Well, there’s good news and bad news.” Peppermint starts. “The good news is I have an idea on how we can keep SPECTRA from messing with Chai’s head any further. I’ll share it with you when I come over there later.”
“That’s great news!” Macaron says. “But what’s the bad news?”
Peppermint looks around the empty hallway. “Well, what I’ve found makes me think that recovery won’t be a one and done thing for Chai.”
CNMN can be heard but he’s not in the frame. “Yes, I suspected as much.”
“What do you mean?” Peppermint asks.
CNMN crouches a little to be in the frame.
“Even in the best case scenario where all of SPECTRA’s influence could be removed cleanly from Mister Chai’s mind, this whole ordeal would still be likely to leave a negative impact on him. The odds of Mister Chai returning to us without a need for cognitive behavioral therapy and support for his mental and emotional health dropped considerably after the first two days.” CNMN informs them with a worried expression. ”It has been three months.”
Not for the first time Peppermint wishes they could have rescued him sooner. It would’ve been easier to find a time and place to corner him if Korisca hadn’t finally been taken off the management mailing list.
“It looks like it might be better late than never for that, CNMN. Do you think you can make your way over here?”
“Certainly. Sir Macaron and I will-“
“Um, actually, it might be better if it’s just you, CNMN.” Peppermint interjects. “Chai still thinks he hates my guts but he’s okay with 808. I’m hoping that because Kale probably still doesn’t think you’re a threat even after the giant robot arm thing…”
“That I might also be exempt from Mister Chai’s ire and thus able to get through to him. I sure hope that is the case.” CNMN says with his hopeful and wide-eyed expression.
Peppermint nods. “That’s also why I’m going to be heading over there to work on the jammer. I don’t want him to see us together and ruin your chances.”
“I’ll get your workstation ready, then.” Macaron leaves the frame.
“And I will be there as soon as I can, Miss Peppermint!” CNMN says.
Peppermint smiles. “I’ll be here to get you settled and then I’ll make the trip. Over and out.”
She ends the call and leans back against a wall. With a sigh she turns and makes her way back to the doorway.
808 is still in Chai’s lap, happily chattering away and batting playfully at her own flicking tail. Chai still looks uneasy but he’s smiling.
Peppermint hopes he gets to be okay.
—(POV: Chai)—
Chai’s not sure what to make of his current situation.
He should be terrified. He got lured into an ambush and kidnapped by Peppermint’s people. They’re holding him captive here and he’s helpless to stop anything they might do to him.
But they haven’t done anything to him yet. Maybe Cocoa can find him before they get around to interrogating him or whatever it is they want him for. Because if they didn’t finish him off on the spot then they’ve got to want something from him.
It’s also just really hard to be scared when there’s a cat in your lap purring up a storm. Chai has no idea why there’s a cat here or why no one’s taken her away from him yet, but she is comforting. He wouldn’t call himself a cat person but he’s warming up to her anyway. There’s just something about her that feels right.
He glances around to find that Peppermint’s still nowhere to be found. As much as he wants to seize this opportunity to try to escape, he does have to admit that he can’t even twitch his fingers. Whoever wrapped him up in tape and what feels like a soft blanket knew what they were doing. He’s not going anywhere.
Again, that should alarm him more than it does. He has no idea where he is or how long it’ll take Cocoa to track him down. He’s in enemy territory and he’s not safe.
A meow brings his attention back to the kitty in his lap. She looks up at him with her wide eyes and then stands up to nuzzle into his shoulder. Her weight is solid against him and she’s so affectionate. Is she like this with everyone or does she feel it too?
“Wish I could pet you. Is your body hard like plastic or soft like an actual cat?” He murmurs mostly to himself.
The kitty pulls back from his shoulder and meows, then presses a paw to his cheek.
“Oh, wow.” Her little toe beans are surprisingly squishy but the rest of her paw is kind of firm? Regardless, Matcha is going to be so jealous. She loves cats.
Oh, shit, Matcha . She’s probably so worried about him. Cocoa too.
How long has he been out? His bruises don’t hurt as much but when he presses his weight against his tape cocoon just right he can feel they’re still there. The paw on his face baps him as if to scold him, the kitty’s stern meow selling it.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop.” Chai moves so he’s sitting as comfortably as he can again. “Happy?”
The kitty seems very pleased. Chai can’t help but smile a little at how proud of herself she looks.
She seems like she can understand him so he might as well ask. “Hey, you seem pretty smart, kitty. Think you can get me out of here?”
The kitty gives him a slow blink. Then she walks in a few circles in his lap and lays down.
“Eh, worth a shot.”
He has no way of telling the time so he has no idea how much of it passes. At one point the kitty moves from his lap to drape herself across the back of his neck and purr. Having her on his shoulders makes him feel safe to the point where he’s severely tempted to take a nap.
He’s supposed to stay alert and look for a chance to escape. He’s not supposed to cozy up to this cat. He’s got a job to do and people he can’t disappoint. He was kidnapped .
But, in spite of all that, he falls asleep with his head laying on the kitty’s tummy anyway.
——
When Chai wakes up he almost goes right back to sleep again. He’s comfortable and the kitty’s got a beat inside her that matches the beat around them. It’s soothing.
Then he notices he’s not alone anymore and jolts in his chair, accidentally startling the kitty awake. Was she even sleeping?
“Hello there. How are you feeling?” Asks the robot in front of him.
“I don’t- How long have you been standing there?” Chai asks.
“Approximately forty-seven minutes.” The robot replies. He then pulls out a dry erase marker and draws a curious expression on his face. “I was wondering how much longer you would be asleep. That position cannot be comfortable.”
It’s then that Chai remembers he’s tied to a chair.
“Hey, can you get me out of here?” The kitty moves from being draped across his shoulders to just sitting on one of them. He shifts to accommodate it easily. “I asked her to do it but she doesn’t want to.”
The robot clears his face and then draws a remorseful expression. “I’m afraid I cannot do that.”
Chai seriously doubts that. “Are you sure?”
He can understand the cat not even trying, she’s a kitty. But this guy clearly has hands! He could try.
“Allow me to rephrase: I should not help you escape.” The guy wipes his face of ink. “I do not know when the person who brought you here will be back.”
Chai can kind of understand that. He has no idea where they are or how this guy got here, but he’d hate for this guy to get hurt trying to help him out if Peppermint got back soon.
“So, is there anything you can do?” Chai asks. Because if the guy can’t let him go then maybe he can do something else to help.
“There is!” The guy draws a starry eyed expression on his face. “I am a Consciousness Review Allocation Personnel, but you may call me CNMN.”
“My name’s Chai.” Chai squints. “But doesn’t yours shorten to-“
CNMN draws a stern look on his face. “It shortens to CNMN, yes.”
Okay then. Chai shifts in his cocoon.
“Are you sure you can’t help me out of here? Like, not even just my arm?” Because there’s a cable stuck in his elbow that he really doesn’t like having there. He has no idea what Peppermint was doing with it but if he could take it out soon that’d be great.
“I will not, Mister Chai! However, I can offer you assistance in another way.” CNMN walks over to the desk with many, many monitors on it and grabs the chair there to sit down across from him. “You see, one of my primary functions is providing psychological analysis and assisting in self-improvement.”
“You’re a therapist?” Chai looks over the shoulder the kitty isn’t sitting on. “How did you get here then?”
“Through that door. Now, as I was saying-“
“Look, it was really nice of you to come say hi to me, but I need to get out of here. My friends are probably worried sick.” Chai watches the cat drop down into his lap. She looks saddened. “If you won’t help me escape and you can’t tell me where we are, then you should probably get out of here.”
“Mister Chai, just because I cannot help you escape from here does not mean I cannot help you at all. I understand that you may find this to be an inopportune time, but my offer stands.” CNMN crosses one of his legs. “My decision to remain here is my own. My decision to extend a hand to you is my own. If you truly wish to decline my assistance then I will simply keep you company instead.”
“ Why? ” Chai asks. The cat in his lap starts rubbing her face against his shoulder. “Why do this for me?”
“Simply because I want to. And, frankly, I think you could use some help.” CNMN says. “That is all..”
Chai doesn’t have anything to say to that.
He hates that he can’t just rip his arm free and book it while Peppermint’s away. This place makes him feel uncomfortable and there’s static creeping in. He doesn’t want to be here. He wants to go home.
But he can’t go home. He’s stuck here and all he has to make him feel less scared about that is a robot cat and a robot therapist that won’t help him leave. He wants to be mad. He’d rather be mad than feel helpless ever again.
But he’s just tired. The static in his brain starts going away when the kitty starts patting his core and CNMN is waiting patiently for his decision. He’s so tired.
“Could you fix me?” Chai says before the fading static can make him think better of it. “If I tell you what I think is wrong with me, can you fix it?”
“Mister Chai, it is my job to inform. It is up to the individual to change.” CNMN scribbles a determined expression on his face. “I can help you understand the behaviors or thoughts that you find concerning and from there we can work out what you can do with that information. I cannot promise you it will be easy or pleasant, but I can promise to do my best to help you help yourself.”
Chai takes a deep breath and sighs. Well, if neither of them are going anywhere any time soon…
“Okay."