Stray - Entry 5: The Notebooks

In the apartment is a companion wearing a long jacket with tropical pattern and a paille hat hitting the TV to get a better signal or make it work. This must be Momo. 

As I approach, Momo looks very unhappy. When we meet each other he asks what we want and we show him the picture on the post card:

"This is a picture of the Outside? Do you want to go there? Well don't bother, it's a waste of time. It will bring you only loneliness and despair. My friends had this dream too. But now they're gone and I'm all alone. I don't know where they ended up. I tried to contact them but that ******* Transceiver doesn't work. My friends and I took notes of our research about the Outside. Here, take my notes if you really want to go out there."

He then gave us a Notebook with his name on it. 

"That's my notebook. I was the last to join the Outsiders. And I'm also the last remaining one."

B-12 then turns to me:

"Momo seems sad and he misses his friends."

B-12 then looks at the notebook to see what is written.

"The Outsiders Manifesto: We must go Outside at any cost. We must protect our brothers and sisters. ~Clementine, Zbaltzar, Doc, and Momo"

B-12 then has has idea.

"We should go look for additional notebooks from these other Outsiders."

Before we leave, we stay awhile.

Momo’s apartment is wide and open, undivided by walls. A sofa faces the television. A workspace sits nearby, cluttered with tools and papers. A glowing neon symbol—Outsiders—casts warm light across the room. Behind curtains is Momo’s bed and a poster of a video game.

B-12 goes quiet when he sees it.

“I remember this,” he whispers. “The scientist and I used to play this. It was fun. I miss him.”

Beyond the kitchen, plants grow in a corner under a window—green and alive. A small storage room (once a bathroom) holds stacked boxes, quiet and untouched.

I jump through a nearby window, and B-12 and I pause together on the ledge. From here, the Slums spread out beneath us. As we look across the rooftops, B-12 highlights three glowing symbols in the distance. They are the same mark I saw in Momo’s apartment.

The Outsiders.

B-12 suggests we focus our notebook searches there.

We start with the closest one — an apartment with a blue exterior wall, the Outsiders symbol painted boldly across it. I leap through the open window and land softly inside.

The apartment is small, but warm. One large room holds a table at its center, with pictures hanging above it — photographs of other Companions, frozen in moments of friendship. Narrow corridors branch off to a sleeping area with a bed, and a cooktop tucked into a corner. Beyond that, a second slender room stretches out, lined with bookshelves. At the far end sits a desk with a computer.

On the table, something waits.

Another notebook.

B-12 scans it, his voice growing quieter as the words come into focus.

“Everything is going according to plan, we managed to contact the upper level before the Transceiver went down. They are in a place called Midtown and apparently its controlled by some oppressive force. I talked to Momo earlier. His eyes. I know this look. He will not come with us~Clementine”

We leave the apartment and move on, bounding across rooftops toward another glowing Outsiders sign.

Near a stack of old suitcases, I stop short.

A Companion lies slumped beside them, motionless. Its body is dusted with grime, its posture frozen in a final moment of waiting. I circle slowly, tail low.

B-12 hovers closer, and a memory surfaces.

“It looks like this poor guy also wanted to go to the upper level. Yes I remember. Midtown is up there away from all the garbage and sickness of the Slums. Even in dire times humans could not help but divide themselves by social class. Back then a lot of people from the Slums were prepared to do anything to move up there. Apparently robots also copied this behavior.”

We move on in silence.

When we reach the next neon Outsiders sign, there’s no obvious way inside. No window. No door. Just solid metal walls glowing faintly beneath the symbol.

I search the rooftop above and find it — a ventilation shaft blocked by a spinning fan. The blades slice the air with a constant hum. Nearby, tucked against the wall, an electrical panel, labeled for the ventilation system.

I paw at it. The switch pulls free.

The fan grinds, slows, and finally stops.

I peer down into the vent, then jump.

The darkness catches me — and releases me gently into the apartment below.

The apartment opens into one large space, cluttered and chaotic. Stacks of boxes rise unevenly against the walls, and everything feels hastily abandoned, as though someone left in a hurry and never returned. There is no notebook sitting neatly on a table. Still, I’m certain it must be here.

I begin searching — nudging boxes aside, hopping onto shelves, pushing through the disorder. At last, buried beneath a heavy stack of boxes, I find it.

Once again, B-12 scans the notebook.

“All trace of organic life has disappeared except for what we call the ‘Zurks.’ They seem to eat almost anything that moves and breed at an inconceivable rate. As if being locked in this city wasn’t bad enough. ~Zbaltazar”

The words leave a hollow silence behind them.

I push open a window shade, letting faint neon light spill in, and we slip back out onto the rooftops. One last Outsiders sign glows in the distance.

The final apartment is overwhelming the moment I land inside. Books. Everywhere. Floor-to-ceiling shelves line every wall of every room, completely full. More books lie stacked in leaning piles across the floor, spilling into walkways and corners.

How are we possibly going to find a notebook in here?

I weave carefully through the maze until we reach an office space tucked into the far corner, nearly sealed off by towering stacks of books. On the desk lies a set of keys, beside a note referencing a safe.

With renewed purpose, I continue searching. Eventually, I spot it — a small safe hidden on a bookshelf, almost completely concealed behind piled volumes. B-12 uses the key and the lock clicks open.

Inside is the notebook.

This one reads:

“After weeks of research I’ve combined a spectrometer and a powerful UV lamp. With this, we should be able to ward off the Zurks on our way out. The initial attempt was explosive. I might have to test it under real conditions. ~Doc”

B-12 hovers closer, then notices an additional note tucked inside the cover.

“I’ve found a design flaw in the transceiver but I think I figured out how to fix it.”

Below it is an equation.

With everything gathered, we leave the apartment behind and begin to make our way back across the rooftops toward Momo’s place, ready to share what we’ve learned.

However, I decide to make a quick detour first. During our exploration of the Slums and Outsiders' apartments, we found multiple music sheets that I want to share with Morusque. When we hand over the sheets, Morusque plays each song for us with his instrument. In his gratitude, he clips a badge of a music note on my harness.

For the first time since the fall, I am not just surviving.

I am belonging.