Wake Up; Stay Awake

Fog

Staring into his reflection, Mephone could barely recognise who was looking back at him.

He looked different when he was clean.
Now, he wasn't exactly... clean, he hadn't the energy to have a full shower or anything yet.
But what he did do, was brush through his hair properly and put fresh clothes on.
He'd also washed his hands, and his face. The feeling of water touching him was highly uncomfortable, but there wasn't exactly anything that could be done about it.

Breathing in to steady himself, the robot blinked once before staring into his own eyes again.

Dull, navy eyes studied him carefully.

He could swear they used to be glowing.

Shutting his eyes, Mephone let go of his desk, with a built up exhale that came pushed out of his lungs.
It'd only be some socialising. Mephone could do that—, he was an expert at that! He could be funny, he could smile.
...
He could smile. It would only be a couple hours, at most.
Smiling wasn't supposed to be difficult.
So now, why did it feel like his skin was hardened around his mouth? Cracking even the smallest grin felt near impossible—, the artificial muscles failing to curve into the physical interpretation of 'happiness' really sent him a message.
Now he couldn't even get that slither of pretending to be fine in his own body. It was like the love he had for being happy was unrequited; not at all reciprocated.

It was such a bother.
It was such a bother, molding his own face into something it wasn't so nobody could see what it actually was.

Gazing down at the dulled down wooden floor, Mephone just breathed in—
And breathed out. Now wasn't the time to get into emotions. That was a think for another day.
Another day he wished he'd never be around for. The idea of it made him feel like a thorn bush was growing inside of his heart.

Lifting his head back up, he examined the plain door ahead.
Light seeped through the small gap in the bottom, just asking to be let into his blackened, dirty room.
He seriously had to clean it soon. The pile up was getting bad— those wooden floorboards were barely noticeable anymore upon first glance.
He could suddenly recall when he got the carpet replaced.
Keeping the carpeted floor clean was too hard for him.
Which is another thing that made his room different. Nobody else had troubles with keeping their carpets clean. So why was it ever so challenging for him? The task was only simple.

... It was a ridiculous thing to ponder on, right now.

Eyes wandered from the floor to his legs, the basic ruffled-up denim blue jeans reminding him of how half-assed the outfit was. Practically, he'd just grabbed whatever his eyes landed on first. His drawers were much more similar to abandoned laundry baskets at this point.

—But, he'd found a nice hoodie he forgot he had. It was a short sleeved one.. though wearing something long sleeved under could be passed as just a fashion choice, rather than a cover up.
It was a worn down white, tints of blue along with the rectangular image on the front that was a cartoonish scenery of the sky at nighttime, focusing on stars.

— It was a more 'childish' outfit decision.. but he liked stars. Even if Nickel or something would probably comment on it.
Ah, right.
Nickel. Mephone always had a comeback to his empty remarks. He felt like he was running out, but maybe ignoring him completely could class as one just for today.
He wasn't bothered to deal with snide comments.

Now twisting open the handle, the light partially made him already begin to regret the choice of showing his face.

—————-

Clanks and clinks of dishes being loaded into the dishwasher made a racket, but nobody dared to say a thing about it. Not to him. OJ in the morning was a force not to be reckoned with—, the moment the complaints desk opened was when people were allowed open their mouths.
If there was a peep of negativity before 10am, there'd be issues.