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“Where the hell are you,” Nefarious quietly utters to himself, traversing the castle hallways. It wasn’t like N.Gin to ignore phone calls. Texts, sure - a man can be busy. Important matter? Call. Urgent matter? Call multiple times. Well, it had been kind of urgent. Nothing.
It had Nefarious mildly irritated, at having to pause, disconnect, and power off the core of the new time twisting machine, meticulously lock it all back up according to safety procedure, let the thing cool off, all when he had simply needed to borrow the engineer’s eyes and hands for just a few minutes, after having run into an unforeseen inconvenience. He’d be able to sort it out himself, but not without preparing a few extra steps and fabricating a quick little tool or two. It would’ve been so much more time-efficient if N.Gin had picked up his phone and hopped by. Let alone the lovely little excuse to see the always helpful lad.
Outside of office hours, Nefarious wouldn’tve expected N.Gin to be reachable unconditionally. But it was the middle of a Wednesday afternoon. What could possibly be the reason for his absence? A slight worry, definitely outweighing his mild annoyance, fueled the pace of his steps.
“N.Gin?” He calls, the heavy doors of the mechanic’s hangar shutting behind him, loudly resonating in the high metallic hall. There’s no music, a sign that the engineer wasn’t working on any mechs, hardware, or software. It rarely was this quiet in the hangar. Was he even here?
“Where are you…” He whispers, striding into the open.
“N.GIN??”
When he reaches the entrance to the cubic little office inside the hangar, a faint flicker coming from inside draws his attention. The metal door is just slightly ajar, a strip of dim light spilling out, flashing every few seconds or so.
“Gin? You alright mate?” He gently knocks the door, not waiting, pushing inside.
He is quickly met with the sight of the chubby little ginger laying back, cradled in his office chair, in front of his large monitor.
Nefarious’ chest tightens - he better just be sleeping. Approaching in large strides, he then processes the fact that there’s headphones covering the motionless man’s ears. He relaxes, pausing his steps.
Then he carefully ghosts closer, until he is next to N.Gin’s left side, to see his peaceful face, seemingly fast asleep, chest rising and falling with a softly rasping breath. Finally, Nefarious’ brow relaxes, his eyes crinkling up as he can’t help but smirk at the adorable sight.
“Tsk, got me all worried, have you…” he murmurs to himself.
The screen flashes, a familiar shade of blue washes over him. Nefarious’ eyes instinctively dart to the monitor, to see muted video footage of … himself.
“What the hell..?” he quietly utters, squinting.
It’s … confusing, and a little discerning.
“You little oddball, ‘vyou been recording me..?” he softly murmurs with a crooked awkward grimace on his lips, before shortly glancing back at N.Gin.
The screen flashes, drawing his eyes back to the screen. It’s the timelord himself again, laughing heartily, looking right into the camera, shaking his head in amusement.
As much as Nefarious didn’t mind looking at himself at all , it was very strange to see himself from this angle, and … in such raw emotion.
His eyes shift lower, noticing a small set of progress bars at the bottom of the screen.
The top bar fills, and resets as another clip appears. The bottom bar seems to progress very slowly, and has a percentage beside it. Nefarious leans in to read a small text in a tiny black box in the bottom left corner.
>READF NG:/COREMEM.GIN -C -B
INTEGRITY CHECK … 100% OK
INCREMENTAL BACKUP …
[STATUS: UPDATE IN PROGRESS - DO NOT DISCONNECT]
The screen flashes to a cup of coffee; The cyborg’s hands on the table, the image dimmed by a hanging eyelid. A blue hand coming to gently squeeze around N.Gin’s, the image moving up to Nefarious’ concerned face. Turning into a soft, warm smile of relief and compassion.
His heart fluttering, Nefarious’ face shifts to deep sincerity, realizing he's walked in on something personal. N.Gin is backing up his most important recent memories. ‘And it’s full of … just me.’
He’s leaned in right beside the sleeping little cyborg, the faint noise of soft vaporfunk leaking from his modified headphones, comfortably wrapping the lad’s ears. The timelord looks at him with adoration, feeling his eyes get wet. Only then does he notice the thick cable hanging from N.Gin’s right temple, his cyberware plugged in to the terminal on the desk. And the faint little sigh between his crooked teeth, as his thin lips curl into a smile, his weary face happy, at peace.
Nefarious feels his lip quiver, a tear spilling out, a molten smile on his face. He carefully backs away and leaves without another sound, leaving his beloved N.Gin to his digital dreams.