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Chosen coughs, dust obscuring his vision.
Why did he decide to do this again?
Keeping this question in mind, he picks up a stack of cardboard boxes that are wearing away with time. The contents remain untouched. Time has not found its hold on them yet.
Time has definitely found its hold on Chosen and his and Dark’s house. He probably hasn’t cleaned this house in months.
Due to some random burst of inspiration in the morning, he’d decided to take on the horrors of the dust besieging the place.
And now said dust was retaliating. It’s worth it, he thinks, if he can set the place in order once more.
His eye catches a specific dusty box. It isn’t anything special, just looks like the other boxes.
But he notices the handwriting:
Dark’s stuff! DO NOT TOUCH, OR ELSE I WILL UNLEASH MASS DESTRUCTION, SPIDERS AND DISCORDANT MUSIC!!
Chosen’s heart tightens slightly. He should have expected this to be somewhere around anyway; he doesn’t remember throwing anything out.
Curiosity getting the better of him, he carefully opens the box, not sure what to expect. Viraband prototypes? Notes? On making Virabots? On mass destruction? Code? Plans for reven-
They’re old vinyl discs. Records.
Packed carefully in plastic, they’re leaning next to an ancient-looking gramophone? Is that what those things are called?
Chosen stares at them for a minute, before shrugging and placing the gramophone on the nearest table. It feels oddly heavy for him.
It isn’t the literal weight that makes it feel heavy.
He picks up the first disc he can find, and places it in what he hopes is the correct manner.
A bit (well actually, a lot) of fidgeting later, the disc starts spinning. Chosen peers at it expectantly.
Before long, it starts playing a strange melody.
Chosen isn’t sure what he’s feeling, but he’s heard this before.
Dark would play this all the time whenever he wasn’t working. Chosen remembers his annoyance at the constant sound.
Now, he wants to hear that sound more than ever.
Chosen feels melancholy and nostalgia.
If he closes his eyes and listens, he can still see Dark tapping his foot to the beat, oblivious to the world around him.
And so he does.
For those brief moments, Dark is alive once more.