Work Text:
— Purps?
It had been a few weeks since Purple replied to any of Red's text messages, which surprised them, but even more than that, scared them. Purple had promised to text Red daily after the incident that occurred on the Skeld, since they wanted to make amends as they left the Skeld being a little wary of their relationship, but willing to improve it.
They promised they’d make amends. They promised they’d leave behind their intern days and look towards a new future. Even if that future was rough and painful. Even if the scars never left, metaphorically and physically, they’d still have each other, standing side by side, hand in hand, facing the cruel, harsh world that they called home together. But they couldn’t do that if Purple refused to talk to Red.
This would be all the less tragic if Purple had simply ignored Red from the start. Lured them in with false promises of repairing the bridge that had been burnt down many years ago and simply began decomposing. Lured them in with the concept of building their friendship back up only to turn around and leave Red in the dust, chasing the life they wanted to live and giving Red a taste of their own medicine.
But it wasn’t like that. Nothing at all like that. It was fine at first. It was a real, genuine attempt at repairing their friendship. And that was the scariest part about all of this.
Purple did return texts, hell, sometimes they even initiated the conversations! They called, which usually lasted half an hour at longest. They texted, sometimes for hours on end. They sent photos and videos of their life slowly improving- getting a new job, a new fish, a comfortable home to live in without fear of eviction. Hell their last text was them telling Red to stay safe.
For the first week, Red simply assumed Purple was too busy with work to focus on them, which the latter didn’t take to heart, they did the same in their intern days after all. They’d be a hypocrite if they were angry at Purple, haha!
For the second week they got worried that Purple was overworking themself. Red told Purple to take it easy after their days on the Skeld since Purple did have some nasty injuries from the events that had occurred on the ship.
Seriously, getting thrown onto the ground hurts a lot, even if it was nothing compared to the injuries the others had sustained. Their arm was lucky to be just fractured and had to be in a cast for a month, even if Purple ignored that sometimes as shown by their photos with them rocking the castless look.
Red texted others Purple was semi-close with. Cyan said that Purple did text them, but that was only a few minutes before they had texted Red, so that wasn’t anything helpful. Black had a bit more luck, receiving a text three days after Reds, though it wasn’t anything substantial, just a selfie at Flaming Focus, some.. clothing-adjacent store that Black was a fan of, though that did mean that Purple was out of the house, which was comforting.
For the third week, Red was panicking, they didn’t know how to handle this at all. They weren’t used to being ghosted, instead being the one who usually ghosted others. Red wanted to go over to Purple's new place, but they never gave the ex-captain their new address, leaving them in the dark. From what they remember, Purple said they wanted to clean their new place up before inviting everyone over for a big party, but they never did give out their address. Due to this, Red had no idea what to do in the situation they were currently in.
For the fourth week, they gave up. They didn’t know how to go about this anymore. It was mentally draining to worry about someone for weeks on end. Hell, even Lime told them to calm down. LIME! Do you know how humiliating it is for someone who essentially lives off of paranoia to tall you to calm the fuck down?! Extremely humiliating! Albeit, it was mostly a message passed on from Blue to Red from Lime, but that wasn’t important. What was important was that Red was lying on their bed, alone, with their phone on two percent because they didn’t want to get out of bed and charge it, but that didn’t matter, it was just lying on their chest anyway. The last thing it was used for was reading a text message Yellow had sent them.
— Listen, Red, I know you’ve been worried recently, we all are, but you need to take care of yourself at some point, okay? If you need help, just call me. I’d be happy to help you anytime <3
— I am not making more pizza though. I need cash and you do not pay me, so I’ve gotta stop the handouts. My bad.
They chuckled just slightly at Yellow’s texts. Yellow did care, they really did, even if they tried to hide it under some guise of disinterest and dumbassery. They did want what was best for Red, even if it wasn’t always obvious. But Red didn’t care about Red anymore. Nothing seemed to really invigorate them anymore, it was just a cycle of forcing themself out of bed to survive, but at some point even that ended. So they were content (that wasn’t even the right word, they wanted to live, but that energy had long since dissipated into nothingness) with simply rotting away in their bed until someone–
Ding!
Of course someone had to be at the door now. Of COURSE. They had to have jinxed themself with this. They (very begrudgingly) got out of bed and opened the door to their room, wincing at the light that spilled into their very dark bedroom. In response, they squinted while adjusting to the onslaught of light flooding their eyes. They walked towards their front door while trying to avoid the boxes upon boxes of empty pizza from Yellow and Brown’s pizzeria scattered across the floor amongst the towers of empty bottles of various drinks left behind as well. Mostly empty soda cans but there were a few alcoholic drinks they weren’t all that proud of.
They slowly opened their front door, the old thing giving a very loud creeaaakk as it was opened, revealing two unknown people dressed in formal attire. The one on the left seemed just as unenthusiastic to be here as Red, slouched over with a clipboard in hand, glasses tilted and crooked, very much screaming informal, whereas the one on the right seemed uptight and serious, with their hair slicked back and a fake smile plastered across their face.
Red did not look the part. Their hair greasy and unkept, their beard growing out more than they’d like to admit, the shirt they wore was some 2000’s T-Shirt they got at half-sale along with nothing but boxer shorts and their crocs they wore everywhere along with very apparent eyebags. They let out a groan of confusion with the two people standing right in front of them.
“If this is about the Skeld incident, I’m not signing that NDA.” They spoke, voice gruff from not speaking for days on end. Had they even drank water? The last thing they remember drinking was a can of monster at 3am at some point. That explains why their voice felt so dry and husky, actually.
The more formal one of the pair of strangers shook their head and gave an even brighter corporate grin, “Not about the incident per se, but the contract that came with dismissing the NDA.” The said, voice silky smooth. They practiced this, Red was sure of it! The corporate one, as Red is calling them, nudged the shoulder of the other stranger. The sloucher of the pair suddenly straightened up and held out the clipboard with the intention of Red taking it from their hands, the thing having at least twenty papers. Red gave a distasteful glance at the papers before taking them with a long and drawn-out sigh.
The corporate one continued, “Moreso the agreement that if you did not sign the NDA for a month, MIRA corporation will seize all belongings bought with MIRA money. As well as your water, electricity, and-” They rambled on with such calmness that it would make anyone sick to the stomach. Red blinked, once, twice, perhaps out of shock or horror. Or even a mix of both. They scanned over the documents quickly, their phone dropped onto the ground. The thing was probably dead by now anyways. It wasn’t, but it was absolutely close to it.
“Per policy, we are giving you a 24 hour notice to pack any belongings purchased after the Skeld trip, as everything else will be confictated.” They concluded, a hand slightly extended out, as if it was meant to resemble a final bow. Their coworker did not seem amused, instead rolling their eyes like they were sick of the others' corporate facade.
“This is BULLSHIT!” Red screamed, throwing the clipboard at the corporate stranger's face, causing them to tumble backwards and fall onto the concrete sidewalk leading up to Red's home, getting a snicker out of their supposed coworker. “YOU ALL GAVE ME A YEAR! A YEAR! NOT A MONTH!” They continued their angry ramble, the corporate stranger standing up with a loud groan and a sharp glare to accompany.
“L- Legally speaking-” The stranger coughed heavily, rubbing the back of their head. “..that agreement was verbal with no recording to accompany it, therefore it is not viable in the court of law. Meanwhile this contract, which you signed in exchange for the NDA, states the–”
Before they could finish their sentence, Red screamed in their face, something akin to an angry sailor rattling off swear words like their life depended on it, before slamming the door shut in the faces of the two strangers. With the two individuals gone, Red started looking around their home and frantically flicking the light switch near the front door, but to no avail. The power had been cut. They didn’t know for how long, since they hadn’t left their bed in a few days, but it had been cut.
A day. A singular day.
They had a single day to grab everything they could into a suitcase and move. They didn’t even remember what they had that wasn’t bought pre-Skeld trip. All they know is the T-Shirt they wore and the phone that was probably broken on the floor were presents. Presents bought after the Skeld for their birthday. Hah, what a way to spend your 30th, huh? They heard a few more knocks on their door before the two MIRA employees probably got tired and walked away, which left Red in a shaking mess on the ground.
‘Did they do this to Purps?!’ is what kept floating around their head. Purple didn’t buy themself a new phone, they felt sentimental towards the phone from their intern days. That phone was, by technicality, MIRA property now. It makes sense- Purple wasn’t ghosting Red, they couldn’t talk to Red. But.. that made no sense- why didn’t Purple just ask someone to get them a new phone? It’s not like no one knew their old phone was running on good wills and prayers. Unless-
Purple was never on good terms with MIRA. They denied the first NDA, and that pissed the company off. This- a second denial- that would surely lead to horrible things. Would MIRA hurt Purple? Would they go as far as to hurt an individual who didn’t comply with their demands? Someone who wasn’t afraid to speak up against the oh so horrible corporation overlord they had to live under. Someone who was a rulebreaker, a trailblazer in denying norms, it was admirable but…
… Red didn’t have the luxury to sit around and ponder. They picked up their phone and called the person they trusted the most to help them pack up. Well- more to help them figure out what they could and couldn’t keep, Red wasn’t good when it came to reading small, fine print. (They were going to invest in purchasing reading glasses, but now they couldn’t be bothered.) They needed a space to stay as well, even if it was temporary. They didn’t have a job- their whole life was dedicated to being a captain, they didn’t have that anymore, so they were mostly living off of what little money they had saved from before going aboard the Skeld.
With a single battery left, they opened their contacts list and called, the ringing was almost piercing to their ears.
“Hello? You have reached Doctor Azure Blue’s personal cell. If you would like to speak–”
Red cursed under their breath, the more time this stupid phone kept rambling on about work or personal life the less time they could talk with Blue. They pushed whatever buttons the stupid voice mailbox forced them to before being met with that silky, heavenly voice they adored.
“Hello? Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with currently?” Blue. Ah, Blue. The wonderful, elegant Blue. Even with the hints of sleep deprivation behind their tone, they still sound as lovely as ever. No– focus, Red. They cleared their voice before speaking.
“Blue- hey. Haha- nice hearing your voice again.” Damn, they sounded awkward. In fairness, they hadn’t actually spoken with anyone in quite a while, so of course they sound a little off.
“.. Red?” Blue replied, a little shocked. Red wasn’t one for calls- at least in Blue’s experience. They’d usually just show up to people’s places unannounced with their usual flair. But Red called Blue. Blue heard an audible sigh of relief on the other side of the phone before the ex-captain spoke up.
“Hey, uh, I know this is coming out of nowhere, but can you- come over?” They started, voice surprisingly shaky and uncharacteristically panicked before continuing with a- “I- I need your help. Like- I really need your help.”
Red wasn’t one who usually asked for help. “I’d be happy to help, truly, but may I have some context?” Blue asked, already grabbing some of their clothing that was suited for outdoor wear, as currently all they had was their nightgown they preferred to sleep in. Admittedly, they had only woken up when Lime screamed at them saying someone was calling them. It was quite early in the morning- 8 AM- so they were still slightly groggy.
Red took a deep breath before quickly rattling off anything that came to their mind that might explain this awful situation they’ve found themself in. “I- okay- okayokay I’m getting evicted and I can’t read any of the small fine print on any of my items that show date of purchase and-”
Blue quickly cut Red off, mostly because they were worried about the fact Red hadn’t taken a single breath throughout their entire ramble. “Slow down, Red!” Blue shouted before clearing their throat and returning to a calm, empathetic tone. “I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
This seemed to fall on deaf ears, as Red simply continued to ramble on. “My phone’s about to die I have to rush, they- they took my electricity an- and I can’t charge my phone and-”
“Alright- just explain the situation to me when I arrive, alright?” Blue asked, opening their car door and starting the engine, putting their phone on the dashboard. “Just stay calm.” They added on. A calm instruction.
Red nodded, seeming to finally catch their breath as they let out an airy- “Oh- okay-” -in response before the battery of their phone finally gave out. It was holding on for dear life anyways. With a groan, Red sat on their couch in defeat. Hopefully Blue would get here soon.
Eviction, they really didn’t want to think about that. Is this how Purps felt during their intern days? The fear of losing your home, of losing everything you had? Of everything you worked for crumbling around you because of the greed of others?
.. ah well. That’s something they could dwell on later on. When they had somewhere to stay.