Chapter Text
“Healing is a process, that’s the truth.” The words echo in Taco’s mind every day. She doesn’t think she could forget them if she tried. She was in a more than dark place when he said them, and yet, even though she’s doing better, she still remembers them. Recently though, the words have been more prominent in the back of Taco’s mind, as the days blur together, she can’t help but think about them more.
Things in the OSC have been uneventful, sure, there’s some drama, but OJ, Suitcase, and Cabby stop it quickly, pushing their Order, Safety, and Cooperation rules in their faces. Taco has tried to talk to Pickle, not that it does much of anything. He hates her, he will always hate her. Things with Microphone have been looking up, Taco and Mic are much better friends now, they’re slowly learning to trust again—moreso Microphone is learning to trust Taco.
—
Taco jolts awake in bed, breathing heavier than she should for having a fairly pleasant dream. It’s just MePad being in her dream, whenever she’s there, she tends to panic. She doesn’t know if he’d be proud of who she is now. He’s been dead for so long. Taco looks at Microphone in the next bed over, sleeping peacefully. Taco smiles a bit before hesitantly getting out of bed.
She slowly creeps her way to Test Tube’s lab. Test Tube doesn’t like Taco that much, but she does have MePad in her lab. Taco enters the lab and knocks on the wall, there’s not much of a door. She takes a breath before speaking. “You have MePad here, right?”
Test Tube turns around, towards Taco. She doesn’t know Taco all that well, seeing as Test Tube joined the show after Taco’s competition days, but she knows Taco’s bad, and that’s enough for her to hate the Brit. “I do, why?” She replies simply.
“Can I see him?” Taco asks. MePad is a robot, sure, but he had real human emotions and he was a source of comfort for Taco. Test Tube has been attempting to bring MePad back, but to no avail. If Cobs were alive, maybe she’d succeed, but Cobs is dead—that’s more of a good thing than a bad thing though.
“Fine.” Test Tube sighs.
Test Tube leads Taco into the room housing MePad’s body. The sight isn’t pretty, there are a lot of wires and cords connected to him. He’s not alive, obviously. She sits next to his body. She begins to talk, “Microphone is too much, I think.” She pauses. “Like, okay, don’t get me wrong, I adore her, but she–she forgave me when I didn’t deserve it. She’s too forgiving!” Taco says, hugging herself. “I love that I get a second chance, of course, but I hate that I feel like I might mess it up.”
Taco sits with MePad for a while after talking. When she’s done, she leaves the room, thanking Test Tube before leaving the lab and beginning the walk to her room in Hotel Hoot. The sun is rising now. Microphone is still asleep when Taco gets back.
—
Taco wakes up the next morning—she says it’s morning but it’s really one PM—alone. That happens more often now, seeing as Microphone wakes up early, she likes to get brunch with Soap, the brunch is more of a fancy breakfast, seeing as they have it at eight AM, which Taco finds insane. The sun shines through the curtains and she groans. Taco is not a morning person, she’s not a waking up person, really. No matter the time, she hates waking up.
She sits up and the collar of her shirt falls off her shoulder. She doesn’t worry about formality when she’s asleep. She gets into her usual outfit, consisting of flared dress pants, boots, an off the shoulder sweater with a dress shirt under it, and a bowtie for old times sake. She keeps her hair down, but wears a headband.
She leaves her room and finds Microphone talking with Test Tube in a somewhat hushed tone, as hushed as Microphone can get. Taco approaches them, asking, “Are you talking about something important, I mean, I’d hope it’s not a secret seeing as the space is public.”
“Oh! Golly Taco! We’re just talking about how we’ve decided to quit helping MePad for now. We’re not making much progress so I think it’d be best for us to take a pause for now.”
Taco’s expression falls at this. She put her trust in Test Tube to bring MePad back, and now this? This is what happens when she trusts people, this is what happens when she’s good.
“I– You could try harder! Maybe trust Poppy? They’re obviously good with tech, they helped Bot!” Taco snaps. “I trusted you to help MePad, so help him! You can’t do anything else anyway!” That last bit came out harsher than she meant it to. She’s not good at being kind when she’s stressed or upset.
“That’s rich coming from you, Ms. Steal the million and manipulate the next season!” Test Tube retorts. Taco’s expression morphs from upset to pissed in the matter of a second.
“I’m making up for it! Why don’t you make up for—” Taco starts, but gets cut off by Cabby, mediating the situation. Of course, as previously mentioned, the OSC is boring when there’s drama, because OJ, Suitcase, or Cabby come and shove their Order, Safety, and Cooperation rules in your face.
“Now what is all this about?” Cabby asks, disappointed. She reminds Microphone of a mother separating two children from an argument, and that sight is extremely funny.
“You don’t even have an argument!” Test Tube responds, ignoring Cabby.
“Ugh– Don’t you realize how selfish it is to stop helping MePad right now?” Taco asks. “What if he’s needed? What if this is the only time you can bring him back?”
“You’re the selfish one here! You don’t care about what anyone else needs, just your needs. I need to pause the work on MePad so I can do research—”
“Just ask MeTag! They’re a Meeple product! You could ask Poppy, they’re good with tech! But no! You have to inconvenience everyone who loved MePad!” Taco says before storming off. She walks to the woods. The same Woods she stayed for ages. She likes the woods. She knows them well.