[network] night 332, @dickcheese: doing about as well as can be expected

[headjacked]

[ Denial is strong.

Reality is, eventually, stronger.

Rhys is facing the camera, set just a little bit back. Enough to see a few things wrong with the picture, with the most glaringly obvious being the glow of his left eye visible through a couple layers of bandages. He's trying to muster up a glare of his own, uphold his pride, though it's obviously a struggle. ]

Okay. I m-might -- might be considering that this is all actually, really happening. Except if it is, I-I'm pretty convinced it must actually be hell, not limbo. There's no food -- [ that he likes ] - freezing would feel balmy right now, a-and...

[ The shoulders slump. He lights a cigarette with Dumpy's overturned thrusters, a slow and clumsy process that barely works. He isn't a smoker, but what else does he have to calm his nerves? ]

What am I supposed to be doing?

[ A puff, a cough. The robot hand holding the cigarette is lined with red, certainly something that SHOULD NOT be happening on inorganic matter. Yet there it is, plain as all the other pit divers. ]

...I burned my tie.

Comments

@guardian; video;

[phaseshifter]

[ There are a lot of things Angel could say about this. "I told you so" is a big one. "Stop wrecking your lungs" is another. "I'm going to throw a party to celebrate the demise of the tie" is near the top of the list, too.

She doesn't say any of those things, because Rhys' eye is

1) glowing,
2) not attached to Dumpy any more. ]

What did you do.

[headjacked]

Well, I walked, m-mostly. Ate something that tasted like cardboard. Walked some more. Didn't really sleep, did-- I guess that's more what I didn't do...

[ What else could she possibly mean!! ]

[phaseshifter]

[ Angel doesn't laugh. She just raises one red-swirled finger and points to her eye.

It seems she's forgotten how to blink. That cold stare, dude. ]

Whose idea was it.

[headjacked]

[ Okay. The doofy Rhys vanishes for a few moments as he meets her cold stare, inhaling deeply.

Then coughing for almost a full minute. ]

N-not your business!

[phaseshifter]

That means that it was his idea, he's floating around telling you that it's okay, buddy boy, you've got this, she can't stay mad for long, and put that freaking cigarette out right the eff now or I'll make sure you regret it.

[ seriously angel blink this is not good for your eyes ]

@hexappeal, voice

[sleight_of_fate]

[So Rhys and...other Rhys hadn't talked an awful lot since their initial chat about names, and a couple of brief meetings in between, including the disastrous stabfest at the high school, but this has got Ink-Rhys's interest, just for the sheer confusion factor. He can't help but respond.]

You, uh. You back with us?

If you went someplace, I mean. Not that there's really anyplace to go.

Frozen hell pretty much sums it up, though some places have better food than others. And sometimes it gets as warm as twenty degrees?

[Which is almost a normal winter in some places!]

[headjacked]

According to the whiny chick with the big hands, no, b-but. Dead and in a literal snow hell sounds like the m-most... most plausible explanation here. And..

[ If they're all dead, though, doesn't that make this real enough? He inhales hard enough to finish one cigarette, then shakily tries to light another. Doesn't seem to be working this time around.

His lungs are cheering. ]

...maybe I did lose some m-mmm... memories, I just. Don't know anymore.

[phaseshifter]

I CAN'T BELIEVE *YOU* ARE CALLING *ME* WHINY--

[headjacked]

-- she whines, whine-ily!

[sleight_of_fate]

...are you alone right now, or did you catch back up with people?

[Okay, now Rhys is sort of worried. Rhys is way out of it.]

None of us have figured out what this place really is, but Hell is definitely in the top three guesses. We might also be digital copies of ourselves in a virtual simulation of a nuclear wasteland, but...tomato, tomato.

It sounds like you're definitely missing some memories, man. You don't sound right.

[headjacked]

Oh, I'm not alone anymore, but Jack says I should b-be meeting back up said chick, which... I mean, I trust his judgement. Absolutely!

[ u fool ]

She's really his daughter, huh.

[sleight_of_fate]

[Okay, wait a minute here.]

Jack might not be a great person to be listening to. I've heard he's got some pretty extreme ways of dealing things.

...and why did you burn your tie?

@Enoch; voice (warnings for potential eye squick/unwanted surgery discussion throughout thread)

[warriorscribe]

[This night is the absolute worst. It feels like his consciousness is about to cave in on itself with its maelstrom of repetitive, panicked, defeated, sickening thoughts. When Angel points out the eye during her conversation, it just adds more turbulence to the storm.]

How...

[He knows that's complex. Impossible to do to oneself, surely? It must be. It must be, and how he knows how impossibly difficult it would be is like a kick to the gut when it finally hits conscious thought. He can't complete that sentence.]

[headjacked]

[ Oh, joy, This Guy. The man of many issues and hilariously outdated verbage. ]

What, like it's h-hard?

[ It is, in fact, hard, and he's just lucky he didn't have to do a full reinstalltion, 'just' a reattachment. Which was plenty painful, feels loose, and continues to send waves of pain shooting through his general cranial area.

Still. He likes to brag. ]

[warriorscribe]

[He swallows heavily.]

I'm n-not an expert on the technology. [That is a vast understatement. His only knowledge comes from...well. That stutter was an involuntary clench of his jaw, a reflex that helps him fight the urge to vomit.]

But it must be. The most obvious... [He suddenly has to pull off his mittens, exposing fingers feeling memories of gruesome warmth to the reality of the cold air.] ...problem is that you wouldn't have been able to see what you were doing!

[Why did this conversation have to happen the night he and Angel decided to move over to the house with all the cult tapestries? Why is he falling apart now after spending so long in cult territory before? Why can't he be stronger than this?]

eye squick intensifies

[headjacked]

You know, reflective surfaces exist. And it isn't like I had to dig in there reeeeal deep, extract the whole system, like --

[ This is when he pantomimes the action, as if Enoch really needs a visual. ]

Pop! Whole fake eyeball! Nah, j-just... just the iris.

so much eye squick

[warriorscribe]

[Enoch audibly shudders. When he speaks it comes out quickly, barreling through the nauseating content and the horrific nightmares of his memory to the concern he knows through them.

Jack must be laughing at him.]

Just- I know that isn't all- Rhys, are you all right? Any problems with your memory, or blackouts? Seizures? Those could all be- alone as you are right now those could be terribly dangerous.

@Mnemonsyne; video; private

[bookofnope]

[Why is he involved.

This is the measure of how too late it is for Beckett: that he doesn't even stop at don't get involved. He tries, and fails. He's weak. He's tired. He doesn't know how to handle this damn problem anymore. If he's gone he should just stay gone.

The camera is tightly focused on his face so it's impossible to see where he is. Focused on his snarling lips, the faint red glow of his own eyes.]

Take it back out.

private

[headjacked]

[ This is

unsettling.

He pulls away, as if Beckett is in the room with him, once again encroaching on his personal space. He is visibly intimidated, good job. ]

D-dude, don't tell me you care all of a sudden.

And back off, I can see your pores.

private

[bookofnope]

[It can never be easy with you kids, can it. He doesn't want to work on intimidation, but he's not seeing his options right now.]

Even if I didn't care about you, I care about the safety of plenty of others. Take it out. You'll thank me later.

private

[headjacked]

Tell me what your issue with me is, and then maybe we'll clear the table for n-negotiations.

[ Rhys puffs himself up and literally puffs on a cigarette, trying to shake the intimidation. ]

private

[bookofnope]

[Clearly he's not going to vampire his way out of this one. Beckett backs away slightly, not cowed but perhaps struggling. He's not even sure how to describe their relationship to Rhys as it stands.]

I have no issue with you. [There's a tiny trip at the end that betrays he was perhaps about to say Rhys's name. But he's good at control and it doesn't quite get there.] Somewhere past our current respective... issues, you are my friend. But I really do not have the free time to be dealing with Handsome Jack just now.

@superbia; audio

[sharktrash]

[ Oh hey, nice username. ]

[ Is this... amnesia? Or maybe it's how the noodle guy always acts under stress? He hadn't seemed all that stable back in at the pit either. ]

[ He'd totally looked like a complete pushover though and that obviously doesn't change overnight (right?..) so Squalo is just going to helpfully answer the one actual question Rhys is asking. ]

You were supposed to find me whiskey. No idea how, but you sounded awfully convincing.

[ He manages just the bare amount of disappointment and indignation of a righteous citizen who's paid for goods and services and has received none in his voice. Nailed it. ]

audio

[headjacked]

That doesn't sound like something --

[ ...waaaaait.

He's heard this voice.

Not enough to have dredged the whole memory up, but he knows he's heard it. Reflexively, for reasons he hasn't pinpointed yet, he curls a protective arm around his stomach. ]

I've never been an errand boy.

[sharktrash]

[ it's a pretty awful voice. it's not easy to forget once you've had the misfortune of hearing it even once. certainly not due to trivial things like amnesia. it just drills through the layers of denial and forgetfulness like a blender powered by ten suns. ]

[ ...What is this. Character development? ]

I didn't mention anything about delivery. That's alright, I'll just take a rain check then.

[ ??? ]