The hackerspace felt hollow without the usual chaos—just the hum of servers and the sterile glow of monitors. Josh stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing his temples, and froze.

Wrench was perched on his desk, ranting wildly to no one. “—the whole freedom fantasy is a scam! You're stuck in debt cages just to get a goddamn burrito!”

His LED mask flashed between outrage and manic joy as he gestured to the empty air.

Josh blinked. Then sighed. “Wrench.”

Wrench perked up, mask flickering to ^ ^. “Josh! My dude! My favorite awkward code wizard!”

Josh pointed. “Who were you talking to?”

Wrench tilted his head. The mask flicked through confused icons before settling on a sheepish grin. “Uh. You?”

Josh stared flatly. “I was in the bathroom. For seven minutes.” He gestured to his desk. “You're sitting on my notes.”

Wrench quickly shuffled to the edge. Josh sat down and resumed typing like it was a shield.

Wrench’s mask showed a loading icon. “Then… who was I talking to?”

Josh didn’t look up. “You weren’t. You were yelling about cars. To nobody.”

Wrench glanced down, peeling a sticky note off his leg. “…Huh. Shit. Maybe I got a little carried away.”

Josh caught a rolling pen without breaking rhythm. “You think?”

Wrench shrugged. “Boredom’s a hell of a drug, man. One second I’m debugging spaghetti code, next I’m spiraling into late-stage capitalist horror.”

His mask went blank, then showed a single :( “I miss Marcus. Where the hell is everybody?”

Josh sighed. “They’re not gone. They’re just… doing normal people things. For once.”

“Marcus is at that dumb tech expo—”

“Spying on that dumb tech expo,” Josh corrected.

“Sitara’s painting some mural, Horatio’s ‘networking’—”

“Infiltrating,” Josh said again.

“And T-Bone is… I don’t know. Probably drinking whiskey in a junkyard and flirting with servers.”

Suddenly, Wrench gasped, clutching his chest. His mask blinked to 😱. “We’re alone! Josh. Do you know what this means?”

“No. And I don’t want to.”

Wrench leaned in, conspiratorial. “We could vandalize Marcus’s desk.”

“No.”

“Reprogram the coffee machine to only serve espresso?”

“No.”

Josh turned to give him that deadpan, soul-tired stare.

“Wrench.”

Wrench’s mask flipped to an innocent smile. “Yeah, buddy?”

“Please.”

Wrench collapsed in defeat, sliding off the desk. “Uuuuugh. Fine. You’re boring and responsible. Probably super fun at parties.”

Josh mumbled, “I don’t get invited to parties.”

Wrench’s mask glitched into a 😈. “Exactly.”