Work Text:
It had been a good while since Spamton's usual day had become to walk around the city with his trash and cardboard signs in hope to sell anything. He always tried his best to scrap for any resemblance of the life he had long left behind, even if all that meant was him trying to sell any crap that he could find.
More normally than not, he ended up empty-handed, his own products becoming his only profit for the day, which definitely felt a lot nicer than it ever felt back when he was a chick. Back then, not selling had felt like the end of the world. Nowadays, him not selling only meant he had a half bad burger to eat rather than a fresh one.
So was the cycle of life or whatever.
And sure this "routine" was just a couple of weeks old, but he was trying his damn best to stick to it this time, he had promised to try to be better, and to be better he needed to work, even if work meant trying his best to sell crap.
Even so, he was more than surprise when one afternoon a dark skinned teenager approached him with a certain determination on her eyes. This had only made him get ready to be about to get a cellphone shove in his face and have some stupid “influencer” help him by giving him money and trying to tell a fake sob story about him. Just as they tried to show just how great they were for helping people like Spamton.
The girl seem filthy rich, as if anyone approaching Spamton was not a red flag on its own considering the possibility of her being an influencer, then that alone would have given her away. The way her clothes had to be newly bought with how even from afar not even a thread seem out of place on her vest. Her braids certainly were newly made too, which considering how Spamton had lived with a black man, were obvious enough to know how expensive they could get more to be kept as good as they were, that of course if that was the usual hairstyle the girl used.
Honestly, if he had to guess, the girl probably didn't even live in the city. She did not seem like the type to be around here. She probably was just rich enough to be spending her days on the city just to come back to her big mansion back in her small town or something like that…
Nevermind. He needed to stop thinking about Hometown, for all he knew the girl was just from around, his mind was just still all over the place even after a week or so of his altercation with that stupid trio of kids.
"Hello, uhm, sir." Was what came out of her mouth when she finally stopped in front of Spamton, her brown doe eyes stared down at him with a nervousness that just unease him even more. He was not on the mood for a repeat of last time he got approached by an “influencer”. Or by any kids… Even if that had been more of his own fault.
"D-do you need some-something?" He snapped a bit too harsh in hopes to scared off the girl, somehow it only made her smile a bit more, as if he had said the right thing. Were kids this day's looking for trouble that badly?
"I- Well, you are always, uhm," Her hand came to point a bit hesitantly to one of his cardboard signs, one of the ones that said 'Car/Electroniks MIRACLES for $10.99!' "Your signs, and like… People never really seem to read them or even buy what you offer, so I, well… Uhm…"
Spamton wanted to laugh, this girl could not be serious… Out of all his signs that was the one to call her attention? NOT the FREE* Dating Advise? Sure it was not really free, but she did not seem like the type to even own a car that was too old to need help from someone like him.
"Y-you do n-not see-seem to need back a-alley he-help for that." He let her know, as he took a look at his other stuff, did he have anything to sell to the girl? She did seem to only be curious in how he makes a living so maybe she just wants to buy something to feel good about herself? Like she can just pat herself on the back for giving some homeless person money… Ha, he knew he was like that once.
She chuckles nervously as Spamton barely saw her fidget with the long sleeves of her white pullover. "I mean if you can truly fix any electronics then I guess I- No, I know I do, yes, of course I do need your help."
As unsure as she clearly was with asking for his service, he could appreciate her trying her best. Though he doubted she would truly pay the price he was asking to just have him fix a bug app on her phone or a tire from her stupidly expensive car. If she gave him even five dollars it at least could give him enough money to go into a gym nearby and pay the day fee so he could use the showers, boy was that going to be a well deserve shower.
So he pulled on his trademark smile and turned toward her, he could talk business at fake as said business were. As fake everything as he was nowadays. "So, so, w-what do y-you need? H-help wi-with a car? Y-your phone?" He was amazed at how much easier it was even now to stutter slightly less when selling, over everything his benefactor had taken from him he at least never took that, or maybe it was all Spamton and not really Mike's doing… One never could be sure…
The girl seem more excited as he said this and without even saying anything else she pull out from a bag that Spamton had fail to notice, a laptop that looked strangely familiar considering he knew only one company that had been sold Queen Electronics. He did not think too much about though, for all he knew Reina had sold out since he last heard of her, God knows she was not on a good financial spot when he got fired and he had been the primal help she ever got back then.
"There is this game call Cat Petters, is okay if you do not know of it, I just-" The girl explained excited–as if knowing he would really manage to fix this–as she open the laptop and started scrolling to what looked to be the code of something—or well, of that stupid cat game he did not like anymore. "Somehow it has frozen the whole computer, I can only access the game codes and nothing more, and this is my mom's laptop, so I– Can you fix it before the end of the day? I will pay you double of what you ask!"
The girl was desperate. And yet, Spamton hated to be bribe to do a better work for more money, as much as he loved money and has been trying his best to get back some of what he lost he does not think he could ever go back on taking more money just because somehow think he is not good at what he does.
Fuck, Ten- his late boss had been just the same when he had said that maybe he should double Spamton's pay for all the extra stuff he did apart from his job as the mailman, but Spamton knew what it was, so he had denied it, say he wanted to earn more money for a proper promotion not just because of pity.
So stupidly his answer was, "I will have-ve this fi-finish before di-dinner time! No ex-extra charge!" which he follow by snapping the laptop out of the girl's hand and starting to look through the code. He was lucky to be experience enough on said code and said laptop model already, God knows what would he do if the girl had wanted him to fix something he would need to study more about, this at least could be some easy money… Hopefully.
Rich-girl hover near, probably unsure on what to do while a hobo was taking a look at the mess she had made. At last, and to Spamton's surprise, she ended up sitting next to him, careful to not sit on any trash but not caring much about her clothes getting a bit dirty. Spamton was not gonna ask, it at least would mean he didn't have to pretend to not need to have the screen as close as posible to able to read everything correctly.
Shit, he really should find a new pair of glasses.
After a couple of minute of him reading over the code, he asked, slightly uncomfortable by the silence and by feeling the girl's intense stare on him.
"Did y-you down-download a vi-virus?" It looked like it, he could see some mods had been active, but one of them had fail and somehow that had crashed the whole system. Really it amazed him how bad Reina's stuff still was, but well, he had designed some basics for said electronics, so perhaps it was somewhat his fault… Or maybe this new version of the game was just ass, that would make enough sense too.
The girl hesitated before she mumbles, not really looking at him at all, "No! It… It was just a very old mod. It was not compatible I-" She huffed, as she had already been fighting about this with someone. He could imagine him not being her first option of a solution, of course he wouldn't be. "It had been working all of last week, the egg hatch into the blue thing, and even if none of my pets really liked it the pet was ready to go into the next stage, but I- It just crashed today for no reason!"
That part got to him.
He had played Cat Petters before, heck, in his youth he was a bit of a fan even. Some of his first coding had been mods for some early versions of the game that by now must be obsolete. He vividly remembers for some reason when he tried to code a stupid joke he used to have with his sibling as its own pet too. Remembers how he had made it be the only non-compatible pet in the whole game.
More than anything, because of the girl had just explain, he remembers when he had been on TV, he remembers still getting the odd mail of people asking how he manage to code an anti-pet and how to debug it after a full week, how his Pipis crashed the game once it tried to evolve into an adolescent…
(Tenna had been somewhat interest when he had caught Spamton looking at the game, trying to remember what the game was about, trying to remember why he had love it… Such a stupidly sweet memory that only serve to remind Spamton of everything he had lost because of his own stupid decisions).
He licked his lips. There was no way this girl had manage to find his stupid old mod and then proceeded to somehow find him of all people to fix it.
Still he typed into the console not really expecting the command to do anything: <C:\Users\CHoliday\AppData\Local\Cat_Petter_Z\Mods>: Run F1 Angels
And it was just as he expected, the screen turn black and only a stupid MS Paint of an angel he had done between shifts appear and after a second or two he was met with the game starting screen… Huh, lucky him for having added that patch after getting fed with stupid emails he had was sent. Otherwise he would have to remembers years of coding that weren't there at all anymore.
The girl suddenly gasped and moved to take her laptop as soon as the game fully loaded. "Holy Crackers! What did you do? I tried everything online– What in the world?!"
Spamton couldn't help but gloat a little as the girl looked at him with some newfound respect, as if he had manage to do something extremely hard and not to just remember even after everything what he once enjoyed. Not remember just that stupid phrase Pink had created to help him feel more comfortable getting vaccinated…
(Why did he have to today get reminded of every relationship he had mess up before he mess up his own life? This sucked, on top of him struggling to ignore his need to go beg to be given more of that sweet taste of NEO, he needed to keep of being stabbed by remembering every relationship he ruined).
"What? Y-you d-didn't read t-the stuff attach w-with the m-mod?" He ask with a smirk on his face, as if saying 'What? Like it's hard?'.
She nodded as she started to move things around, opening her current save, seeing if her mods were active, checking if he really had fix everything, "I did, I did! And I looked on Reddit, but no one seem to know what the original mod maker meant with 'Call for Help if the mod breaks!', how did you know what to do?" and seeing her sound so excited to learn what wise knowledge he had made him feel all weird. When was the last time someone had genuinely taken interest in something he was good at? Not even when he blow someone did he get that much praise…
He should definitely say something about putting his mouth where the money is and hoping she would come back next week when inevitably the mod would break again.
But, somehow, it felt wrong to do so.
She was so happy about the game, about him managing to save her ass for breaking her mom's computer before she realized…
He knew or thing or two about being nice, and this girl clearly deserved it, as rich as she seem. She had a good enough taste in games too.
"Well," he started, and the girl pause what she was doing, turn to him with hope. "I s-should re-remember w-what I once c-coded, you know?"
Her mouth opened and close, then she suddenly screamed, making him flinch a bit. Jeez, teenage girls, he did not miss being one or sharing a cardboard box with one… Huh, he wondered how that firecracker was doing, it had been ages since he saw December… Or that other purple haired girl… God, where all teenage girls like that?
"YOU MADE THE MOD?!" She asked in disbelief.
He nodded, a bit embarrassed at seeing her genuine excitment at the confession, and proceeded to somehow get the girl–Noelle, as she eventually presented herself as–to ramble about how his mod was really interesting and how it had allowed her to make the most interesting of pets, and how much of a legend he was in a lot of different forums because of how unique the mods was and how even after all this years, how it still worked on the newest of versions even if it eventually broke.
It wasn't until a little over an hour that both him and Noelle were unfortunately reminded of just who she was sitting with as a police officer approach them, it was one of Swatch's men and Spamton already started trying his best to savage anything before he got his ass quick for just existing and having just maybe stolen one of Reina's cars last week.
"Miss Holiday," That comment had been what made both of them realize they had company, even then Spamton was too busy trying to not panic to realize that the pig had seem to recognize Noelle and not only him. "I do not know what this man has told you but he is homeless, I would recommend you don't approach him, for your own safety."
Noelle had seem embarrassed to be call out, even as she moved to stand in front of Spam's stand, giving him some extra time to run if anything, or just trying to diffuse the situation. Surprisingly she had answer sounding a lot like the rich girl she appeared to be, a lot more formal than she had been a second before, rambling about a game she liked.
"I was actually getting some help, he is pretty good at what he sells, Officer," She was shaking, and yet Spamton saw her slightly turn towards him and move her head towards the street, telling him to get lost while she hold the officer off his back. "And I mean, well, I'm fine! Y-your worry is a-appreciate but-"
He did not hear what else she had said, he had run towards his home, the abandon dealership still the closes to a home, and it was not until he was getting ready to sleep that he realized Noelle never payed him for fixing her game. Stupid. He should have ask for money upfront, and yet he still did not felt nothing more than annoyance at himself for not having manage to get anything fresher today.
Because at the end of the day it had been nice to talk with someone about a stupid game he used to love… It was the more human he had felt in a long time, which perhaps was not as good as it sounded, but it definitely made it easier to fall sleep and for once not have a nightmare. Or to have to think too hard about the fact he knew that if he had money he could have gone into the darkest part of town and go back on the promise he made last week…
Even then Noelle Holiday certainly was a character and one that if Spamton had known before he would not have minded to guide into far greater things, she would have loved to code stuff for Reina, he knew she would with how excited she sounded about him teaching her anything of how he made the mod. And God, Reina would have love to have Noelle in the company, said she would have wanted a daughter to teach all she knew…
Noelle should not be doing this.
She had risked enough trying to go to the city yesterday hoping to find the man he saw time to time when her mom and her visit Miss Queen that said he could make miracles of any electronics, she had barely manage to evade getting in trouble for being out so late and by having a police officer bring her home… Even if her Mom had not really been home to be angry at her.
Even considering Dad was still on the hospital.
And yet, she knew she was gonna go back today because the homeless man who had fix her game had been the coder of a mod that was an internet legend with how strangely unique it was. Heck, she knew for fact if Berdly was more into Cat Petters he would beg to get to know him.
Not that say fact made it okay for her to go back to the city in hope of finding him. She knew how strict the police was in the city, he knew that Mister White (If that was his real name and not just his username) could be trouble considering he lived in the street and did not seem to be the most sane man, and yet he had listen to her, knew what she was talking about and answer with the same enthusiasm.
No one since Dess had really listen to her like that. And well… If worst came to worst, she was bringing Kris with her this time, and they always carry a knife so it probably would be okay…
Hopefully….
Besides, she still needed to pay for what Mister White had done yesterday! And he certainly would appreciate getting paid.
Even then it was not easy to find Mister White it took Kris and her about three hours to find even any clues as to where he was, and even then they could have easily miss him had they not been looking out for him as much as they had.
Yesterday she had only had to look for Mister White for a couple of minutes, but considering how yesterday he had almost been remove by the police, it made sense that Mister White had not been staying in the same place for long. Made it harder to have any real reason for the police to tell him he could not be around.
"That's him?" Kris asked as she turned them both towards a bakery that her mom loved. "The one dump diving?"
"Yes, and well… He is homeless… He does that." She answer as she kept walking.
It was strange for her and Kris to be doing anything together, but they had come had even seen somewhat excited to being to the city, and she was trying to not be awkward to talk to them more than they had in the last couple of year... Surely they were not that different now that they could not even just talk to each other… Right?
She tried to ignore how ever since Dess left everything had changed, she barely remembers the last time she had seen Kris smile, though ever since last month Kris was assign to work with Susie they have been acting so much more happy than she remembers being since they were kids…
It made her feel stupidly wrong to see them finally be a lot closer to what she remembers them being, and how even then they still kinda of ignoring her, but well, it at least means Noelle has been getting considering closer to Susie…
Yeah. That… That definitely was really nice. Even if Kris was still… Just Kris.
"Mister White!" She shouted as they both stand behind the dumpster where Mister White was currently diving in. She was trying to not judge the older man, but she kinda of felt bad to see him almost fully converge in the trash. "I have come to pay you!"
Mister White poked his face out of the dumpster, he looked at Kris then at her before he frown. "Hochi mama, wh-what ar-are you– Wait, m-money?"
She ignored the strange nickname he used for her and put out the $50 bill she was planning on giving him. With the best approachable smile she knew she extended the money to him. "Yes! I know you never truly set the price for fixing my game so I thought I should come to pay you–"
"OH MAMA!" Mister White stumble out the dumpster and took the bill out of her hands almost instantly. "Are y-you c-crazy going a-around w-with th-this much m-money!?"
Kris chuckle, they always used to said she carried too much money, and well, she knew it was a lot, but it was not like she was gonna used the money for anything else. Besides, Mister White definitely needed it more than she ever did.
Bur, of course, Kris' chuckle made Mister White turn to them, voice raise as if growing angry with every word, "And w-who the h-heck a-are you–" something seem to pass over Mister White's eyes before he cough, as his body relax ever so slightly at meeting Kris' gaze. "l-laughing at?"
"You." Kris answered, Noelle saw the annoyance that grow in Mister White's face as soon as Kris did, but something made him not do anything. He did not seem like the type to not fight back and yet he let the comment wash over him.
A beat passed. The three of them just stare each other uncomfortably before Mister White turned to Noelle, as if deciding he was gonna ignore Kris' presence.
"Sa-say, I sh-should thank y-you for ge-getting the p-pigs o-out of my a-ass," he turned towards the bakery next to them, then to the bill in his hands, and he sigh before he give a crocked smile. "D-do you t-two want a t-treat?"
Spamton really deserved the life he had now.
Really, out of all the people for Noelle to be friends with she had to be friends with that kid? The one who had knocked some sense into Spamton after the last time he had succumb to using? Thank God, they were not with their other friends, but man, was he not specially happy to see them.
Well, no, that was a fucking lie. He was happy to see them, they were fun enough, and they had tried their best to help Spamton, heck, thanks to them he was doing his best to stay off drugs, all because he promised the three of them he was gonna try to be better for them. Even if he had not really trusted when the white fluffy haired kid had said any of them would try to check on him if they ever were in town.
But, of course, the kids manage the fucking impossible.
"Spamton," Kris said once Noelle had said she would go order considering Spamton could not even approach the counter if they did not want to get thrown out. "You're better."
Spamton roll his eyes, yeah, he was better, and really not, but he definitely did not seem as bad as he had mid crisis. He knew that well.
"As go-good as I c-can…" He answer, still keeping his head low. At least Kris was the least talkative of the three kids… Even if they were the one Spamton had felt more connected to. Eh, anything better than the Susie girl, she was a machine that knew how to throw a mean punch."H-haven't go-gone back on my p-promise… N-not using mo-money for NEO…"
Kris nodded and silence between them both. That was that then. Right. Seem as much as Kris could ever talk was a couple of sentences, couldn't blame them, Spamton was like that when he was a teen.
Spamton was not happy at all though, he had gotten a 50! A big fifty that he could have used to get some goods for the week! Could have gotten a shower, food and maybe even some pain killers for the broken nose that he had been given last week, But… Well, Noelle was over paying him by 100% if not more by giving him that much, so he guess it was for the better she rather used it to get her friend and herself something to eat, and hey, he at least was getting a warm meal even then…
It was more than he deserved and he knew it.
Besides, it was for better the better that he did not have that much money on his power… Kris serve as enough reminder of that. Spamton could still see the scar he left on their face and how it was healing, at least he had not ruined their nose, a crocked nose was hell to heal, he would know…
When Noelle eventually came back, she first turn to Spamton and told him she had order him a coffee and a chicken sandwich as well as some other bake goods for him to take with him as she passed him a ten dollar bill that made no sense to be the change, but that she handed to him as if it was. She then hesitantly turned to Kris and told them, a lot more quieter, that she had order them a portion of apple pie.
Kris seem happy at that, even then Noelle did not seem to really have a read on them… Strange. This whole thing was strange, but Spamton was definitely NOT intrigue as to what Kris and Noelle's relationship was. They seem awfully like exes who still did not seem to know how to talk to one another… Or maybe that was him projecting on them both, either way they had definitely had a fallen out of sorts that neither seem to want to address.
He decided they were both old enough to work through that themselves, he was not messing with teenager drama. He had enough of that for a lifetime.
"Did y-you h-had more i-issues w-with my pi-pi-pipis?" He tried to ignore the way his stutter got worse the longer he talked, he knew it was mostly because he was anxious of Noelle calling him out of it, as nice as she had been yesterday she still seem of money and Spamton knew she would eventually say something about it. Everyone eventually did.
His question did get Noelle to relax and before he knew it she was going off about the pets she said she was able to create with a bug of the pipis and how yesterday the pipis had just left and rather than giving the usual 'Pet left due to unhappiness!' and how she had been given a total opposite message 'Pet left due to happiness!'.
He tried his best to follow, but boy, was Kris not subtle on how they kept staring at Noelle as if seeing her for the first time again. Spamton did not want to be a creepy old man and start making assumptions but he swear there was something messy going between this two. Messier than it already was obvious on the surface.
Thankfully before he had to struggle through being in the middle of whatever the other two had going on, their food was brought by a waiter that tried his best to not say anything about Spamton, and for better or worst, he could concentrate mostly in eating and drinking the hottest coffee he has had in years.
He still followed the conversation with Noelle if only because of how much he hated the silence, gave her theories as to why the pipis had left, promised her to take a look at his own code next time she wanted considering when had made the bug fix to the game crashing he had done a half cook work considering he had a lot of other stuff going on at the time, and as so he would not be surprised if he had managed to do even more surprising stuff of the game's code by pure accident.
It was rather nice.
Time fly by though and eventually they all had finish eating. Spamton had taken almost an hour to fully eat the chicken sandwich Noelle had ordered him, and he knew he would probably still have a stomach ache, but man was he more than happy at feeling full. At knowing he had eaten a whole meal. Besides the kids had been kind enough to not hurry him up either, both of them also eating as slow as possible to keep his pace.
It was rather nice, as annoying as it was to know they both had realized he could not eat as fast as them.
"This was fun," Noelle said, excited as they exit back into the streets, it was growing late and cold considering autumn was just around the corner. The kids probably needed to go catch the subway, Spam knows that Kris is from Hometown, and Noelle does seem like Hometown rich… As bias as that assumption had been yesterday. "I'm glad I could find you again Mister White."
Spamton was not sure yet if he wanted to tell her his name, she had been calling him… That all day, probably because that was still his name in whatever forum in where he had updated his Cat Petters mods, still… It was kinda of nice to hear White and Mister in the same sentence, God knows only Blue ever used his nickname and right pronouns…
And well, Kris did not seem on board to correct her either, so that was that. He had someone calling him by his childhood nickname after all this years away from home.
"Eh, I'm glad y-you p-payed me, f-first p-person I forget to ask f-for payment and doesn't scam me!"
She chuckle, softly and modest, it was the practice stuff she had not done yesterday, but that today she seem to put on in front of Kris without even thinking about it. "Of course, Mister White… We should be going, but I will come back to show you the news on your mod!"
She was a good kid, and boy, the more Spamton looked at her the most he got reminded to December, he wonder if they were related at all or if somehow Noelle just had a rebel enough spirit somewhere that his mind draw parallels were there were none. Thought, December had never really seem like a rich girl running away, but maybe she had been, when Spamton had met her she had been living in the streets long enough to smell as bad as him…
Another mystery that was not really his to solve.
"Great! Only a esteem customer as you will get a fr-free discount on a fo-follow up consult!"
They both said goodbye and when Kris approach to do so too, they slipped something into Spamton's hand before they move to follow Noelle towards the subways station. When he turned to look just what that little sponge had slipped inside his hand he was surprised to find his own glasses. The ones that he had broken on his joyride while he had been high on NEO a week ago… The pair of glasses he had bought with the last of his real money before everything went to shit.
Of course, the troublemaker had repaired it. Of course they had been caring those around when Noelle must have ask them to come with her…
He didn't even did nothing more than to smile as he slip them back into place. Definitely made the word far easier to see, his eyes were nothing like they once had been, and even then he had always needed glasses, as stupid as he knows he looks with them.
Next time Noelle came he would send with her something for Kris and their friends, they deserve that much for all they had done for him… For all they keep making him do.
Tenna would have liked Kris and their friends a lot… He knows that more than well.