She wanted to avoid her apartment in the Zoo Corp tower. She didn't want to see all she once treasured and see nothing in them. She knew that even being tossed into the machine once had ripped her personality, her existence to shreds. A cekeki should never go into the machine. It is already transformed by it.

While others who jump into the machine turn into masterpieces whose godly emotions whisk them away to join the machine, cekekis only became ruined masterpieces. Harvested for energy, these cekekis would be spit out, physically and emotionally ripped apart, yet their minds clearer. Sadly, even just one run through the anomaly would forever ground a cekeki. Never able to reach their true potential again.

Madam opened the door to her apartment and was shocked to see Scab inside. She had given him her keys and called him her fiancée but she thought he might have left by now. "Ah.....hello..." She tried to clean herself up, correct her hat, but nothing would hide the damage.

Scab was fussing with his boots, head down as he unwound the laces. His ears were perked up from the moment she set the keys in the door, but he had yet to look at her.
"Hey Ma'am, I just got back from the mail room. Wasn't sure if you were working late again, or- "

He looks up, and his ears immediately drop. He's not entirely sure what he's looking at, to be honest.
"Madam..?"

Madam had run this conversation a hundred times in her head. She thought she would be able to stay calm but she finds herself flustered as she speaks. "I uh. I was wi-with Zookeeper..."

But, just as her emotions build up, they're gone, as if that's all she had to expend. A strange, chilling calmness hits her as she instantly relaxes.

"A guest attempted to end Zookeeper's operation. While I was fully aware that the company would be assured in its safety without Zookeeper, I had gotten in the way due to foolish reasons and fell into the machine."

She trots past Scab, placing a box on the dining room table. "I hope my apartment is to your liking."

His gaze followed her around the room, head turning with stuttering movements as she trotted past. The swell of emotion in her voice as she'd started speaking almost had him rush to her side, but as she slipped into that uneasy calm his approach became much more tentative. "The-- The apartment is fine."

"Do you need a doctor...? You look okay but..."
He really wasn't sure what he was looking at, or just how the cekeki he'd met mere days ago had been so grievously transformed. He reaches out a hand, resting it somewhere on her back that wasn't scarred with the aftermath of the machine.

"If I needed a doctor, I would have gotten one a while ago. These wounds aren't going to heal, I'm afraid."

A paint like substance from Madam sticks to Scab.

There's a slight tremble from her. She suddenly tries to get the paint off of her, but as soon as one handful is removed, it climbs its way from the ground and back onto Madam. "I-...I'm d-disgusting."

She remembers as soon as she got out of the machine she had looked herself in the mirror and spent at least an hour trying to clean herself off. There was no use. She knew there was no use. So why fight it?

"Sorry, Scab. I'm still not used to this. If you touch me, you'll get some of that paint on you. Don't worry, it won't last unless you seal it up. If you don't want to touch me ever again, that is understandable. The texture of paint is..."

She pauses, trying to find a word for her feelings. "...disagreeable." She says with a short nod.

"I've been demoted by the way. Do not worry. This will not impact your current living situation. Mr. Zookeeper just does not want me giving the wrong impression to our guests."

"Hey, hey."
He keeps his hand on her, stepping around so that he can face her properly, rather than having her talk dejectedly over her shoulder. On some level he was grateful to Bones, if it hadn't been for that walk they shared, this might've felt an awful lot worse.

"Don't, uh..."
He never had the words for these kinds of situations. Never knew what to say when the heavy emotions came into play.
"It's not good but, we're okay. We're fine."

There was so much to address he couldn't think of where to begin, so he shifted the focus to the box she'd brought home.
"You brought dinner?"

Even as Scab moves in front of her, she tilts her head down to hide as much of herself as possible. She turns and opens the box. "Sadly, no." The box is filled with various knickknacks and office desk toys.

"These just get in the way of my new cubicle. I was going to throw them out but...."

She drops one of the objects she had grabbed. The sudden emotional jumps were ravaging her mind. She either felt nothing, or her most intense emotions.

"We're not ok. I'm not fine. T-That's just a lie. I'm some...some dumb floozy you met this week, and now I'm like this! I'll never be normal ever again after what the machine did to me!"

Instinctually she tried to brush off the paint again. It just felt wrong on her skin. As if it was invading her space.

"No one...needs to deal with me. Not like this. You already have your job here, you don't need me anymore. I was....I was just toying around.....I can't even give you any of the reasons you started dating me in the first place. I've got nothing!"

"Mr. Zookeeper will give you your own apartment, so you don't have to stay around a disaster like me. Don't feel obligated. You just met me."

He slips his free hand into his pocket, wishing he'd done a better job of repressing a sigh before cutting off her spiraling.
"Are you breaking up with me?"

"........................."

"I know I asked you to marry me, but.....I don't know why I did that. That's such a commitment to ask from someone I just met. Illogical. Marriage doesn't mean anything." Her voice grows more monotoned with each word.

"Marriage means nothing. I suppose I do not care either way, but I understand it is in your best interest to separate. I am not the same person you had a whirlwind romance with. Do not worry. Your job standing will not be affected. Mr. Zookeeper could care no less about what I am doing, and who I am with."

"I suppose..."
Scab rubs the back of his head, scratching at the fur as he finally takes his hand away from Madam.
"I don't really get why you'd do that... I guess I am annoyed, but it's not because of why you did it. Just what it's done to you."

"But unless if you're breaking up with me yourself, then I really don't wanna hear any more 'separation' talk. That's my choice, and I'm not gonna be strong armed into making it for you."

With that Scab moves closer to the dining room table, bending down to pick up the object she'd dropped before sorting through some of the other possessions, setting them out on the table.

"Right now I'm just worried about you. So I think I'd at least like to stay a little longer, even if it's just to make sure you're okay."

"I....." She wants to tell him he's making the wrong choice, but she's just happy someone wants to be around her despite the mess she has become. She moves to hug Scab, but stops as she thinks of all the paint on her hands. "T-Thank you. I needed to hear that, Scab."

"I'm sorry about this. I just was stupid. I felt guilty. Th-there was another zookeeper from another universe and another Monsieur. He made that one go in the machine, over and over.....I...."

"Just got stupid."

"Why do I keep thinking that someone can recover from the machine, Scab? To be able to enjoy the sun again?"

"Now...I get it. I've only gone through the machine once and I know I'm never getting back what it stole from me....." She mumbles out, choking back tears.

He turns, watching her move for a hug before stopping herself short. His expression is more severe than he realizes, having taken a cold turn himself. It was the only way to keep himself safe during moments like these. Regardless, he hugged her, holding her close. The paint covering her body would press into his fur and his clothes, but he didn't care, resting the side of his head against her own.

"I... I don't know how to answer what you're asking me Madam. I don't think it's... You're making yourself upset."

"It's done now. You made your decision, and you're here, with me. We'll figure something out eventually, you just need to give it time."

He smooths a hand up and down her back, trying to avoid paint where he can so she didn't feel it being smeared across her body.
"Do you want to lie down? Can I get you anything?"

There's a moment of silence before she breaks it with her typical laugh and snort.

"How many sorrys do I need to say, huh, Scab? I think it's going to need to be more than 20."

He cracks a small smile to himself, ears lifting to the sound of her 'ugly' laughter. He leans into her more, shaking his head in such a way that his paint soaked fur brushed against her cheek.
"Forget about 'sorry', Ma'am. We don't need 'sorry'."