returnjourneylogs | lend a (robotic) hand?

Passengers: Rhys and YOU
Location: Dorms, Infirmary
Date: April 7th
Summary: Rhys wakes from the sim with low robo-part batteries
Warnings: none (yet)

Dorms (OTA)

[ Rhys wakes with a start like it was all a bad (really bad) dream, breathing hard and drenched in sweat. It's all pure panic for those first few moments as he comes back to himself, back from his "death", organic hand patting over his face and robotic arm to assure that they're intact and normal.

Finally he sits up, moves the scrub both his hands over his face....but the robotic one doesn't follow the organics lead. He pauses mid motion, one hand in his hair, the other unmoving beside him. ]

Oh...oh shit.

[ He scrambles up from his bed in an attempt to quickly get to his trunk of belongings and get at the tools he needs for a recharge (please please let it only need a recharge) but the dead weight of the arm messes with his balance, making him unsteady in his haste, barely catching himself on the mattress when he falls. ]

Infirmary (OTA)
[ He doesn't want to leave the infirmary if he can help it. It's safe in here, warden protection gur-an-tee, no chance of some asshole looking for the opportunity to get him while he's down an arm or take the arm himself. He can't help but feel pretty vulnerable while he's in a state like this, even as he sits securely in the infirmary on one of the beds, scrolling through his commlink balanced on his lap and occasionally glancing at his arm to check the charging status.

The one issue with wanting to seek shelter while doing this is that he is BORED, and he'll welcome (almost) any company at the moment, especially if it prevents him from having to think hard on what happened in the Simulation. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Lucifer snorts faintly as he sits, crossing his legs casually. His relaxed posture somewhat belies the seriousness of what he's saying, though. ]

Everything is more impactful when you're vulnerable to hurt. Not just the pain.

Oh yeah, the emotional pain stuff was pretty uncalled for too. Like, I just found out Vaughn isn't dead so why-

[ He lets out a hard sigh. ]

I don't like being screwed with like that. Uncool.

No one does. But that's life. Things happen that we can't control.

[ Lucifer's had to figure that one out, too. ]

You can sit around being pissed off at the universe, or the Navarch, or whoever you want, or you can do something.

I'm not not doing anything! I mean I am right now because, y'know.

[ He gestures to his charging arm. ]

But I have plans to do things! And I can have those plans and not want to have my head messed with at the same time, cause I'm really sick of that happening.

What sort of plans do you have?

[ A curious tilt of his head accompanies that question. ]

I was thinking a rebrand tour. Companies do it all the time! And since I'm the face of a company

[ He nods like Lucifer must get it. ]

Tidy up my image a bit, then I can work on promoting the one good idea the Simulation gave me.

Right. Your image.

And, what, you think if you have the right image, then you'll be able to get out of here?

C'mon, I'm not an idiot. I know its probably not that easy.

[ Or maybe it is. Maybe he'll get lucky here. But it sounds too easy, that's at least certain, and things that sound too easy are usually the polar opposite of that. ]

I'd really love to get out of here before the next simulation though so if it is that easy it's worth a shot.

I don't think anyone is getting out of here before the next simulation, not in any meaningful way.

[ Sure, a couple of inmates (and wardens) have disappeared, but presumably that's because the inmates were deemed irredeemable and thus just sent back to their deaths. Lucifer is talking about graduation of course. ]

Wow, okay. You don't have to say it like that? Some "yeah Rhys I totally believe in you!" would be a lot more helpful.

I believe everyone is capable of changing for the better. But you don't seem to want to, and that's sort of necessary to get started.

[ Necessary for all of them, frankly. ]

That's not- I mean it isn't totally true. I want to get out of here, so I'll work within that system. It's like I said, I have some plans to help with my image around here. That's a starting point isn't it?

[ The plan is that new coke rebrand network post which will be a total success he's sure of it! ]

It might be.

[ But if so, almost certainly not in the way Rhys thinks it will. The fact of the matter is, most of the inmates seem to have no fucking clue what it will actually take to graduate. They're all in for a very rude awakening, if the sim didn't do it for them. ]

Did something happen in the simulation to bring this on?

Does "it sucked so bad I don't want to be around for the next one" not count as good enough motivation?

[ That and learning how Vaughn was faring without him shortly before. It had been rough to hear how life went on without him, seemingly for the better. It didn't seem right, or fair. He needed to get back there. ]

Maybe, maybe not. I'm curious, though. I mean - this place has always sucked, and you've always wanted out. But now you're changing tacks.

[ He leaves that open-ended. Not exactly a question, but definitely waiting for more information. ]

We just got off on the wrong foot.

[ Nevermind...everything else. The botched escape, the loss of Volk and how that forced him to come to terms that he was dead for real. ]

I'm not escaping here by force, I get that now. So I'm trying to work within my means.

[ For a while it had seemed so impermanent, especially with how Volk liked to confirm his biases (he'll never know how genuine all that was.) He'd get out of here and hop on the next transport back to Pandora- or anywhere else in the galaxies! Being on the Peregrine was an error that was to be resolved soon, either by those in charge or by himself.

Now it was clear that things wouldn't be so easy, he was going to be here longer than planned. There was nothing left to do but change course and carve out some kind of space for himself to survive, and if he was lucky, benefit in. ]

A very... practical sort of response to a very impractical situation.

[ He sits back in his chair. Yeah, this is going to go badly for Rhys, he can feel it. ]

Deal your way out of it, or something like that?

[ Rhys smiles because he takes it as a compliment. ]

Work with what you know, right?

And yet, be prepared to be forced outside your comfort zone.

[ Yeah, Rhys, that wasn't a compliment. Not in the slightest. ]

lend a (robotic) hand?

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