"If I start screaming, I'm not gonna stop," Rhys says firmly, There's no debating that point: Rhys can feel panic and the breakdown that comes with it bubbling close to the surface but not quite giving in. He intends to keep it that way.

He breathes in slowly, breathes out again, and a tumble of colored pebbles fall from his cascading earth to the ground to scatter like dice.

"I don't know. Maybe this is still an illusion and we're still in a room somewhere. But there's no way to be sure, so I think I'm just gonna...keep trying. Whatever it's worth. Even if it's just to kill the time, you know?" He rubs at his scarred forehead. He misses his hat.

"If I think too much, that's when I start to lose it, and it's not like we can fuck it up here anymore than it already is."