MMBN RP - don't be afraid of what you can't see (lan party pt0)

Meiru closed her window into the chatroom and sighed; nothing today, either. Its activity had been all long pauses followed by the most disturbing conversations, lately, and that hadn’t helped either her nerves or Netto’s. But at least now she was back home, in her own bedroom. Learning that the chatroom app itself could generate Fossa Ambiences had helped Netto’s work on the Fossa Tracker along, too; it was to a point where it only needed testing against outsiders trying to open a portal in, and then they could monitor the chatroom in shifts together with Rockman and Roll. Just a new, otherworldly threat to watch, to add to all the ones originating from their own world. The chatroom was undeniably bad news, after what had happened to Triese and everyone who’d gone after Triese, and Netto had unilaterally decided that they needed to only interact with it when necessary. The thought made Meiru sigh; they’d been trying to get Netto to relax his guard, but now he was apparently as closed-off as he’d been when Rockman had re-established contact. Between her vanishing act and Rush’s continued absence, she really couldn’t blame him, and that was all on her. She was only supposed to be monitoring the chatroom, herself, but she couldn’t help interacting with the chat as normal. It was easy enough to justify, since there wasn’t any sense making her actions seem different until the Fossa Tracker was ready and they were better prepared against intruders. But even if she hadn’t had that excuse, she didn’t want to close herself off from the chatroom entirely; there were still plenty of nice people like Pat there, too. And the thought of that Netto from the same world as—the son of—the twisted Hikari-hakase she’d tried to fight filled her with concern. He was always in there lately, uncowed by what his father, Regal, or anyone else in the chat said. He seemed to be so young. Surely there had to be something they could do for him…

4:47 PM

(She was pretty sure, between what Rockman had said and what she’d seen for herself, that Netto had started avoiding the chatroom because he was reminded too much of his younger self.)

4:50 PM

And speaking of Rockman, he was clearly in the Sakurai home network, from Roll’s delighted greeting. “Rockman! What’s up?” Meiru usually closed the window into her home system for conversations like this, to give Rockman and Roll more privacy, but the subject gave her pause. “This’ll probably sound weird, but I was just thinking about Netto-chan,” Rockman said. “I don’t know if she ever patched things up with that other Rockman I met.” “The one with the dog icon?” wondered Roll. “I’m not sure if they get along in general. She seems to blame him for what happened to Triese-chan.” “She does?” Rockman asked, surprised. “He seems a little strange and, uh, awkward, but I don’t think he’s a bad person…” Roll nodded, pensive. Meiru waited for the truth to come bursting out. “This is so weird!” Roll fussed. “There are all these Nettos and Rockmans in there, and they don’t get along at all! Well, maybe I see why the Nettos don’t, they’re Netto, and he can be kind of… scrungly. But still!” “No, I feel the same way,” Rockman admitted, at about half Roll’s volume. “The versions of Netto-kun I’ve met so far through the chatroom seem to have a lot in common. I think it’d be nice if they could all talk to each other more openly.” “The one who organized the rescue operation, too,” Meiru added. “I don’t think I’ve ever met him,” Rockman said. “Just his Rockman.” Meiru explained, “I haven’t talked much to him, but it seemed like he was doing his best with what he was given. He just seemed a little overwhelmed.”

4:53 PM

(Of course, her Netto had not been nearly so unassuming when he’d heard what had happened. “He didn’t do any recon at all, did he?” he’d asked after Meiru had given him her side of the story. “You and Roll were looking for a totally unfamiliar signal on the fly, with no clue as to what it’d be.” “Well… yeah,” Meiru had admitted. “He put you in danger like it was nothing,” complained Netto. “And you said he was about our age?! How could he be so careless?” “He didn’t do it on purpose, I’m sure he didn’t,” Meiru pushed back. “So he turned out to be unreliable,” Enzan summarized, blessedly neutral. “That just means we need to be the ones taking the lead next time something happens, rather than waiting for the perpetrator’s home world to pitch in. Now that Meiru and Roll can open Fossa Ambiences for themselves, that shouldn’t be a problem.” “He was just trying to do the right thing, just like we would’ve done, so don’t go giving him a hard time,” Meiru asked Netto. “Everybody else already seems to be doing that, anyway.” “Hey, hang on! I don’t see you giving Enzan any grief, and he just called him unreliable,” Netto pointed out. “Which he totally was.” “I’m not the type to waste my time sniping at people in chatrooms, so I don’t need the warning,” Enzan said dryly. “Well… fine! Good for you!”)

“…The Fossa Tracker just needs reliability testing,” Rockman said, carefully, thoughtfully. “It can be against anyone, and it’d be more efficient if it got done over a single evening.” “Against… the other three Nettos!” finished Meiru. “We can let Netto test it in the living room, since we need somewhere away from Hikari-san and Hikari-hakase. But then, the twist! We’re there, lying in wait with a sleepover party ready to go!” Roll gasped. “That sounds so cute, Meiru-chan! All the Nettos together!” “I don’t know if we should force them to stay, or anything. We’ll just let them talk it out as much as they need to,” Rockman cautioned. “But it’d be really nice for that Netto-kun to have a break from whatever’s happening in his world, and for Netto-chan to have some time to relax after everything. So... if they want to stay the night, they can.” “That means we’ve gotta plan this out right, so they’ll want to stay,” Meiru finished. "We've never hosted a sleepover party before. I'll look up snacks, and activities, and... oh!" It seemed Roll already had a new idea. She was, as always, running away with this scheme faster than Meiru or Rockman could keep up. “We can have a sleepover with all the Navis, too! All the Rockmans, and Rock, and Punk and Blues can come, too!” “I’m not sure if this is Punk’s scene, but it’d definitely be fun to see,” Rockman admitted sheepishly. “Oh, I’m so excited!” Roll thought aloud, “We can do party games, and have a piñata, and—“ Turning to Rockman, she asked, “—oh, do you think we could use your homepage, with the cave and stuff? We could play hide-and-seek, or have a test of courage!“ Meiru couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of the pair running with this idea. She supposed she had some planning of her own to do, if they were really going to do this…

scenegraph changed the channel name: don't be afraid of what you can't see (lan party pt0) 6/23/2024 10:09 PM