Chapter Text
‘The other addisons said they would love to have you if you’re okay with it!’ The prince had told him. Yeah right. He didn’t hear about what the addisons had said to him before, he doesn’t know how much they could’ve helped him back then. Why would they want him back now? Do they just want to see what happened to him? To see the condition he ended up in. Desheveled, glitching, traumatised, and now with a missing finger.
Yet, he still agreed to it, he still wanted to see them again. The four of them were his family after all. And it has been over a decade now, he had to admit that he did miss them quite a bit.
Which is why Spamton now found himself standing in front of a pristine, two story building, with large displays full of mannequins, electronics, and accessories. He hadn’t even gotten to the glass doors before the blue addison at the counter noticed him and immediately ran over, hugging Spamton tightly. It made Spamton feel really uncomfortable, like at any moment she could hurt him. He knew there was no way his younger sister would do that to him but Spamton couldn’t get rid of that feeling, it felt etched into his brain by now.
“Jeez, miss me that much Laces?” He tried not to sound distressed as he hesitantly hugged the shorter addison back.
“How could I not! It’s been years, Spam, what do you expect!” She hugged him tighter, only adding to Spamton’s discomfort, “And you look like you haven’t preened a single time since then,” Laces slowly let go and Spamton quickly put his hands back in his pockets after adjusting the scarf Ralsei had given him so it fully covered his mouth. He could be questioned about the stuff that’s happened to him when he wasn’t still trying to process it himself. “But I’ll let that go for now because first I need to show you where everything is, then, once the others are back we can start setting up your room!”
The blue advert grabbed his right arm and Spamton flinched at the sudden contact. It’s just Laces, she wouldn’t hurt anyone. He tried to remind himself. Laces probably saw how uncomfortable Spamton looked because she immediately let go of his arm and apologized quietly before showing him around.
The place was quite nice, most of the first floor was taken up by their store in the front but in the back was a storage area and a sort of breakroom/living room and kitchen. Upstairs was four surprisingly large bedrooms, it confused him at first before Laces explained how she and Hem were sharing the biggest one with the ensuite, his room being the most barren of all of them. Laces had just started asking him about what he wanted in his room when they heard the sound of the little bell above the door followed shortly after by the very familiar voice of an orange addison.
“Laces, if you're going to abandon the store while the rest of us are out, at least put the closed sign up!” They called out as Spamton heard three sets of talons clicking against the smooth tiles, “You're lucky it’s slow today.”
When the other addisons had walked up the stairs, Spamton got to see their faces for less than 3 seconds before he was enveloped in a bear hug by the three of them. It made Spamton feel nauseous and his vision start to swim with static.
It’s too tight. I can’t move- There’s a sharp stabbing pain in his chest -I can’t escape, can’t do anything to stop it- It’s getting harder and harder for him to breathe -It’ll just keep getting tighter until it starts to hurt, I can’t say anything to get him to stop until the inevitable crack that grants me my freedom for a bit.
“-mton?-” He could faintly hear a voice, “-lright?”
“Let go of him,” Another voice, he could hear it a bit clearer and was actually able to make out all the words but only barely. The arms around him loosened and Spamton curled up in a shaking ball as tears ran down his cheeks. “Just focus on breathing alright?” This next voice was quiet, calmer than the rest of the noise in his head. He tried his best to follow its instructions, his breathing slowly but surely getting steadier. The same voice kept talking for however long it took for his breathing to get better, whether it was a few minutes or a few hours, Spamton didn’t know. But he used that voice as an anchor to ground himself. The static slowly faded from his vision and he was brought back to the reality of 4 addisons sitting around him, all with mixes of fear on their faces. “Are you okay?” Laces asked him in the same calm voice as before but her volume was barely above a whisper. Out of the four of them, she looked the least scared, mostly just concerned.
Spamton hadn’t been crying for a while now and his breathing was a lot steadier but he was still a trembling ball of anxiety. “Better…” He mumbled under his breath, “Thank you.”
“So are we going to pretend that nothing happened or can you actually explain what the fuck happened to you.”
Now that he was both emotionally and physically tired, all Spamton wanted to do was flop down on his newly made bed but he knew his siblings probably wouldn’t let him. His left hand had ended up out for all of them to see the bandaged up nub of a finger he now had, not to mention the fact that his scarf had also fallen off his face a bit during the same panic attack. Laces especially wouldn’t let him just say it’s a long story, she may have helped him during that episode but he saw all the little looks of ‘you better fucking explain’ she shot him. So he wasn’t at all surprised that after Lixir had cooked dinner and they had all sat down in the loungeroom, the first thing that came out of anyone's mouth was Cameron saying that.
“It’s a [10 Metre Long Extension Cho-]” Spamton sighed, “Long. Story.”
“No. I’m expecting an actual explanation on what happened, not just an ‘It’s a long story’.” Hem said, their feathers starting to puff up in frustration, “And what just happened with your voice! It’s obvious something happened to you Spamton, so spit it out!”
“You were on TV with the Mr Ant Tenna! Then suddenly you just stop appearing on the show for an undisclosed reason, you never return to cyber world, and don't contact anyone. Then after 10 years, you show up in castle town with your jaw wrong, feathers that look like you haven’t preened for almost that entire time, randomly spouting advertisements while talking and with one of your fingers missing! And you just call it a long story!” Spamton tried to keep it together, Hem’s yelling feeling too familiar to a certain [CRT]’s.
“Spamton.” Laces cut Hem off, “Why did you flinch at Tenna’s name? Did he do something to you?” Her voice was full of concern. Spamton didn’t know what to say, well, he did know what to say he just didn’t know how. So he didn’t say anything at first, just replying with a tiny nod.
Spamton finally seemed to be able to get the words out after a few minutes, “You guys know what the ThornRing is right? Tenna decided it would be a wonderful idea to make sure I didn’t [Run Away Baby!] him by putting it on me.” Spamton didn’t look up, keeping his eyes fixed on the food in front of him as he continued recounting what happened.
“There, it’s signed Ant, ya happy now?” Spamton placed the pen down next to the freshly signed contract. But before the TV headed darkner could respond, there was the shrill ringing of a phone.
“Always at the worst times, huh?” Tenna chuckled as Spamton rose from his feet and answered its persistent call.
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Spamton’s face was somehow even more pale than usual as he let go of the phone. Every instinct inside him told him he needed to run, go back to cyber city but there was a small stabbing pain on a single finger that somehow made him stay with Tenna. Even when he heard a crack as his jaw was replaced with a puppet-like one, even when his eyes felt like they were burning until it hurt to even look directly at the TV’s screen without sunglasses, he still stayed.
His memory is foggy after this, all he remembers is the pain, the yelling and the… other… things Tenna would do to him many times over the years. The next memory that wasn’t foggy was a whole ten years later after one of the lightners cut off his finger to give him his freedom.
The whole room was quiet for a while after that until Hem broke the silence, “And where is that TV headed fucker?”
[Dead As A Doornail], the [Night] cut his arms off and he fell into the snow. I went back inside to try and process what happened after that but I don’t think the kids would’ve tried to [Can He Fix It?] him.” Spamton finally looked up to see the others, their faces ranging from, sadness to anger to utter horror.
“Wait so your benefactor caused your voice thing and the jaw, and Tenna caused the other stuff?” Cameron asked.
“[*Correct buzzer*] except [Answer The Phone] also damaged my already bad eyes so now they’re really sensitive to light.”
They continued questioning Spamton for a bit until he was truely and utterly exhausted and finally got to pass out on his bed.