Strange and Unusual [Panini, Monitor]

[Deleted]

((April 27th. Morning. Open to Panini and Mr. Monitor. Again, if you want it. Iiiiii don’t have muse for Vitani atm sothatsitforthethreadsfornow))


There was no sleep for the ghoul. His internal state of panic made sure of that. Mr. Monitor was, as always, concerned for the security of his job. Did the ratings drop while he was stuck here? How would he explain his absence? What would the Head of the Network do to him? He spent the better part of the night laying in a bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. It was quiet at night and that helped him to calm down at least a little. He dully noticed that the sky was starting to get brighter.

Soon he was heading down a hall, nervously staring at his flip phone, muttering and trying to button his suit with a hand. He stopped once he reached the kitchen. Mr. Monitor gulped before dialing the Head’s number.

“We are sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service at this time. Please check the number and try again.”

Mr. Monitor lowered his trembling hand. He made a pathetic-sounding whimper. Now what? He dropped into a nearby chair, which creaked beneath his weight.

“The Head of the Network is going to have my necks,” he groaned miserably, half sobbing.

[Panini Antwiler]

Like Mr. Monitor, Panini was up bright and early. Not from panic, but from instinct. Panini loved to cook and she begged the army to make her one of the cooks. Which meant she had to get up early to make breakfast for the army, let alone herself. She didn't mind though. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy and wise, she supposed. The young little rabbit gave a cheerful tune, humming a song she made up, getting a apron. She then noticed Mr. Monitor and started to say "Good morning mr...." Suddenly she noticed the older figure distressed and seemingly like he was crying.

Panini's ears noticeably drooped. This man reminded her of Endive. He was familiar to her and Panini liked familiar. Which meant she liked him. A lot. Sure he was grouchy, selfish and a bit hot-tempered, but Panini was used to that. The little pink bunny didn't know what to do, except comfort. So she walked over and patted her hand on his and replied "Are you ok?" She looked around, anxiously, trying to find something to do to help "Um, are you hungry? I can make you some pancakes. I love pancakes, they're very good"

[Deleted]

Mr. Monitor sank further into the chair before he snapped himself back to reality. Noticing his hand had been touched, he tilted his heads down. He looked bemused and slightly drained from his little conniption. He remembered the rabbit girl from yesterday. If he’d been approached by someone he didn’t recognize, he would likely have been much more defensive, but presently he didn’t feel the need to get that way.

“No. Hah hah. I’m not okay,” he responded with some edge in his voice, and parted his mouths again in an attempt to elaborate, “I -- I’m a very important man where I work, you see.”

He trailed off and pocketed his phone. His eyes shifted as he thought for a few seconds. Clearing his throat, he tried to look more relaxed.

“Hmm. It is breakfast time, isn’t it?” he said, making a very bad attempt at a smile, “I’ll have a plate, I suppose.”

[Panini Antwiler]

Mr. Monitor didn't need to confirm that he wasn't alright. Panini knew he wasn't. It was just common courtesy to ask. Panini nodded understandingly as her friend, yes to her he was a friend, explained his situation of panic. Panini patted his hand again, desperate to show her support. She then responded softly, trying to seem cheerful but was more realistic. Cheerfulness might not do good with someone's anxiety of home. Panini replied "Well I can definitely understand why you would be worried then. I would be if I was in your place. You can talk to me about it if you want" It was all she could offer. Support. She didn't know what else to do.

She beamed a little as Mr. Monitor accepted her invitation to eat, even smiling. It wasn't the best smile but to Panini it was progress. "One plate of pancakes coming right up!" Panini rushed immediately, due to constant demand, she was trained to be quick and to make food fast. So she got the supplies, even getting the pancake mix and started making a batch. While she did so, she turned to Mr. Monitor and replied "Would you like strawberries with your pancakes? I like strawberries"

[Deleted]

Mr. Monitor looked at the girl unsurely. This was a ghoul who most definitely wasn’t used to dealing with children. Panini offered to hear out his issues but part of him knew he couldn’t burden a kid with that. Since when did he care about anyone’s feelings? Since, frankly, there wasn’t anything in it for him to be a jerk right now. On top of that, Monitor felt bad that Panini had to be caught up in this war. And that it seemed like she was alone.

The smiles he wore became less forced, but more sad in a way. He seemed to know she meant to help but wasn’t about to rant at her. This took Mr. Monitor an incredible amount of restraint. As Panini was making the pancakes, he watched, feeling a little bit of a protective instinct kick in. This wasn’t exactly his realm of expertise, but he thought kids were supposed to be supervised when using a stove.

“Hm? Oh, yes. Please. Whatever you’d like,” he muttered.

The chair creaked as he stood up from it.  He, as he often does, took it upon himself to oversee the task at hand.

[Panini Antwiler]

(OCC: I love these two so much ugh, so cute. Also, couldn't help but make panini cut herself. Because why not)

Mr. Monitor seemed not so willing to talk about what was bothering him. Panini was worried she was pushing her boundaries so she forced herself to let the problem be. She turned to see his smile change into something sad. Panini's ears drooped but she smiled back, trying her best to be as comforting as she could be. Sure, she was alone in the war, but Mr. Monitor was someone she could feel safe with. It felt familiar and she enjoyed that.

She beamed brighter as Mr. Monitor accepted the idea of strawberries. She turned back to the stove and proceeded to fix up the pancakes. She managed to get two finished before making at least two more. Eventually, the pancakes were complete. She put them on the table. Before setting Mr. Monitor up with a fork, knife and napkin. She then rushed to the refrigerator to get syrup, butter and strawberries. She proceeded to give syrup and butter before going to the kitchen to cut up the strawberries. As she talked, she cut them up, she turned to speak to Mr. Monitor "Oh I hope you like them. I think I make the best pancakes. My teacher endive even loves them. She'll go far to say as to say--Ow!" She was so focused on talking she forgot the knife was aiming less for the fruit, and more for her finger.

She did her best not to cry, because she knew Mr. Monitor was in a bad mood. Panini made it a duty to cheer him up. Her little pointer finger bled and Panini tried to ignore it "Oh shoot. Always need to pay attention, panini. Stupid bunny is what you are, panini" She then washed her finger before grabbing the strawberries and putting it on the pancakes. Still, the sting of the finger started to get worse and Panini proceeded to look around for something to heal herself. She tried her best not to cry.

[Deleted]

((This old hack can’t handle responsibility lol))

It wasn’t long before he assumed one of his typical poses: arms folded grumpily. He tilted his heads down, watching like a hawk. He wasn’t called “Mr. Monitor” solely for how he looked. In most circumstances, this was an unwanted trait, given his tendency to be overbearing and even downright meddling at times. For once though, his watchfulness was beneficial.

He moved near the dining table, but wasn’t interested in sitting. When he was in monitor-mode, he tended to be single-minded. He didn’t really notice he was hungry even when most of the food was set down. He was only half-listening to Panini when she was talking before flinching upon hearing the “ow”.

It didn’t take him too long to guess what had happened. The first thing Mr. Monitor did was glance to either side of him. Upon realizing he was the only adult, he began to feel tense. Well, he didn’t know how to respond. He never had children. He wasn’t a doctor; he was just a network exec. Hell, he hadn’t even been alive for decades.

“Are -- you hurt?” he asked, his brows furrowing.

He habitually started to reach for his suit pocket before realizing something. Pulling his handkerchief from his pocket and holding it out toward her, he glanced off to one side.

“Here. It’s clean. Keep pressure on your cut, I--” he stuttered, “I think they should have, er, bandages somewhere.”

[Panini Antwiler]

(OCC: That's ok Mr. Monitor. It's still cute in a way though)

Panini was actually finding bandages. Since her duty to make breakfast was over, her focus was to heal now. She sniffed a little more before hearing Mr. Monitor's question. Like a child, she couldn't really hide her pain forever and she nodded meekly. But she still was going to criticize herself "Oh I do this all the time. Endive yells at me to pay attention, otherwise I get hurt. Stupid bunny, Panini" Well endive certainly would yell at her quite often, especially if she was angry. But Endive meant well, she was all Panini knew. She had no parents. She was taken in as Endive's child and pupil. But even then Endive didn't seem to be her parent, more like her master. So she didn't really know exactly how to complain about her pain.

Suddenly Mr. Monitor handed her his handkerchief, Panini's ears rose up in shock. Quickly, and gratefully, she took it and applied pressure. She looked around and sniffed again, tears starting to finally show "I can't find them" She got up and forced herself to walk about but unfortunately, it was still a bit dark even with the sunlight so she found it a little hard. She didn't really get too much of the show of the place. As kind as Dark Nella was, the healing factor wasn't there. The young bunny just kept applying pressure and searched. Eventually she gave up "Oh darn you panini, why can't you do anything right?" Then she softly began to actually cry

[Deleted]

For a while, a while longer than was probably necessary, the big ghoul just watched. Mr. Monitor was still at a loss for how to respond. It definitely was not normal for him to be kind. His stressful job more often than not led him to be grouchy to his coworkers. Though, since he wasn’t “on the clock” and being ruled by his precious ratings, he was completely lost.

He wired his fingers as his faces began to glance nervously at each-other. Conceding that he needed to do something, his shoulders slumped and his monitors all changed to a single phrase, “sigh”. His faces changed back and he began to walk behind her. While he’d heard Panini scold herself, he didn’t acknowledge it aside from looking more guilty.

Given his heads were giant screens, he cast a greenish glow in front of him. Mr. Monitor knew he could help a little by providing light. Just as he was starting to feel proud of himself for being so useful, he noticed the girl had actually begun crying.

“N -- now. Don’t you d-do that,” he stammered at first, “Now, they probably keep bandages in the medicine cabinet. Hm? I’ll walk you there.”

[Panini Antwiler]

Panini's soft crying began to cease, at least she stopped vocally crying. Her tears streamed still as she felt both humilated and physically hurt. Sure it was a cut, but in the child's mind, a cut was just painful. However she looked up as Mr. Monitor pointed out that maybe there was a medicine cabinet. She nodded with a soft reply "Y-yeah, that's a very good idea. Thank you Mr. Monitor" Panini was very appreciative of the tv headed man's kindness. She proceeded to follow him to where they eventually found it.

[Deleted]

For a while, Mr. Monitor didn’t say anything. He knew he ought to try and be mindful, at least partly aware he tended to be mean by default. But he could justify that. It was because… ratings? Ugh.

Upon reaching the medicine cabinet, he took it upon himself to take things out, given he was much taller. It’d been a while since he’d been alive and had to tend to a wound, but Mr. Monitor thought he remembered what to do; he removed a box of band-aid’s and a little tube of medicated cream. He knelt down to hand them over.

“There you are. You should be alright,” he said, before finally smiling somewhat and adding, “Really, I, hah hah, I don’t know the first thing about kids. I never had any. Is it obvious?”

The smiles on all four of his mouths began to droop and his brows furrowed. He was sure he knew the answer, but he didn’t have much self-control and asked anyway:

“Don’t you have any parents?”

[Panini Antwiler]

Panini saw Mr. Monitor pull out the cream and band aids. Expertise was thankfully in Panini's side, so she put the cream on quickly before putting a band aid on. She was about to thank Mr. Monitor when he asked his rather intimate question. The young pink bunny hesitated at first before shaking her head sadly "No. My parents... I, well, I don't know where they are. Endive told me they left me on her doorstep. So I've only known my teacher Endive my whole life" The realization she wasn't here sunk in and Panini grew a bit anxious. She fiddled with her fingers and softly replied "But now not even she's here" She sniffed again, tears started to resume streaming.

She sighed to Mr. Monitor "I don't know if I have anybody.." She then began to smile hopefully "Except you. Right?"

[Deleted]

The ghoul’s faces gradually became less severe. For as hard as he was forcing himself not to get attached, he persisted in feeling sorry for the rabbit girl. He would go on at length about how his own parents weren’t the most supportive, but he couldn’t fool himself and pretend he knew what it’d have been like to not have them at all.

Mr. Monitor suddenly squared his shoulders, his screens briefly displaying an exclamation point.

“Me?”

Why him?

His screens returned to normal, showing confused faces. Panic crawled up his spine, as it tended to when he had to do something but didn’t know what to do. He stuttered before forcing himself up from his knelt position, slamming his heads into the medicine cabinet door that he left open. The damaged door clattered to the ground. Mr. Monitor rubbed the top of his heads gingerly, whimpering.

“Ohh. I -- Yes. Yes, I suppose you do have me,” he muttered, “Until we find your teacher, Endive, anyway.”

[Panini Antwiler]

Panini was rather confused by Mr. Monitor's panicky response. She didn't really expect this kind of reaction. But then again, she supposed it was a lot of pressure considering the two met only recently. She gasped notably as he hit his head on the cabinet door. Immediately she put the broken door away first. "I'll get something for you!" She noted before grabbing a unused pack and filled it up with ice before putting it on his head "Here hold this, it'll prevent immense swelling!"

She was about to apologize for somehow causing his reaction until his comment. Her eyes lit up though as Mr. Monitor accepted her proposal and, until Endive was around, he had her back. Panini beamed "Oh that's wonderful! Thank you!" She then remembered his comment and nodded "Well yes, but even then we can still be best friends" She then pulled his hand "Now come on, your pancakes are getting cold"

[Deleted]

Mr. Monitor doubted the ice pack was completely necessary, given he was partly made of electronics -- enigmatic ghost-based electronics, but still. He didn’t say anything though and just let it rest atop the flat surface that was his head.

It was around that point when it really sunk in what he was doing. He was getting sentimental. He was getting attached. During his long history at the Network, he’d done more than his fair share of back-stabbing, manipulating and treating others like garbage in general. He had a reputation, dammit.

“Ackkhem.  N-now let me make this clear!” he only stuttered as he was being led back to the kitchen, “I am not wonderful! Or friendly! Or in any way kind!”

He continued to glower before looking away.

“But I am a smidgen hungry.”