i hate me cuz i ain't me (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
doppleman) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
returnjourneylogs2022-04-10 05:33 pm
doppleman) wrote in returnjourneylogs2022-04-10 05:33 pm
it’s only natural… clearly he saw me as special.
Passengers: Timothy and Rhys
Location: Center Axis, near Infirmary
Date: Immediately after this.
Summary: A familiar face comes back to haunt Rhys.
Warnings: Emetophobia per Rhys 👀
[ Unfortunately for Rhys, this is one of the few occasions in recent memory where Timothy's actually had the time to prepare a little bit. You don't run screaming through a massive casino-turned-tomb for seven years without learning to value things like, oh, the helpful floor plans you're given when you wind up in a new place! So when Rhys lets slip infirmary, he realizes it's actually just as simple as a few minutes of walking and a somewhat unnerving elevator ride to get him from where he was to where he needs to be.
It also means he's had a few minutes to cool off a little and for the panic to subside, but all the same? He needs this guy to not be a problem. Maybe if he can just explain everything, it'll all be hunky dory and he can go back to what's proving to be a really nice life of not constantly getting shot at.
For a guy whose purported goal is to hide, he's not very good at it. Tim's not sure how long he's been out here pounding at a sealed door, but it's not subtle. ]
Hey, numbnuts! You with those twiggy lil legs!
[ Then again, for a guy whose purported goal is to not scare the living shit out of someone who clearly thinks he's Jack, Tim is similarly not very good at it. ]
Location: Center Axis, near Infirmary
Date: Immediately after this.
Summary: A familiar face comes back to haunt Rhys.
Warnings: Emetophobia per Rhys 👀
[ Unfortunately for Rhys, this is one of the few occasions in recent memory where Timothy's actually had the time to prepare a little bit. You don't run screaming through a massive casino-turned-tomb for seven years without learning to value things like, oh, the helpful floor plans you're given when you wind up in a new place! So when Rhys lets slip infirmary, he realizes it's actually just as simple as a few minutes of walking and a somewhat unnerving elevator ride to get him from where he was to where he needs to be.
It also means he's had a few minutes to cool off a little and for the panic to subside, but all the same? He needs this guy to not be a problem. Maybe if he can just explain everything, it'll all be hunky dory and he can go back to what's proving to be a really nice life of not constantly getting shot at.
For a guy whose purported goal is to hide, he's not very good at it. Tim's not sure how long he's been out here pounding at a sealed door, but it's not subtle. ]
Hey, numbnuts! You with those twiggy lil legs!
[ Then again, for a guy whose purported goal is to not scare the living shit out of someone who clearly thinks he's Jack, Tim is similarly not very good at it. ]
no subject
It's not hard to put two and two together. Jack spent his last few years on an accelerating warpath—one Timothy was less and less privy to as time went on, but even from the distant lap of luxury he managed to glean the broad strokes. It was Jack's casino, after all; rumors traveled fast among people connected enough to afford being there in the first place, but... also, well. Jack couldn't keep his mouth shut about his true ambitions if his life depended on it. Not to Timothy. Or Nisha, or Wilhelm. His team. His people.
His people.
The last time he saw Jack, he came to celebrate. Unwind a little, bask in the warm afterglow of the news that Lilith had been killed in Wilhelm's purge of some Pandoran town, New Haven maybe. Wilhelm's gotta be dead too, right? If not Vault Hunters, there's gotta be some massive surgery that did it sooner or later. How many parts of yourself can you have replaced before the person you were is gone?
He doesn't even notice Rhys's odd little slip of the tongue. For a brief moment, wherever Tim is, it's not here. ]
D'you know any of their names? Jack hired me to be a Vault Hunter, actually... a long time ago. Jack, he, naturally he took all the credit, but.
[ Another short, pensive silence. ]
After Jack took out Lilith, y'know, I knew Roland would lose his shit. You could just see it in his grumpy-ass, mega-serious face. Think I heard he was a Crimson Lance guy once upon a time, too, so...
[ Hey hold on. Crimson Lance. Atlas. Atlas.
Tim straightens and twists his body to better face Rhys, eyes searching his. ]
Um, say, the name "Athena" wouldn't happen to mean anything to you, would it?
[ Maybe Hyperion's the least of Rhys's problems nowadays. ]
no subject
"Y'know, I was almost a Vault Hunter once" he's about to say, equal parts joking and sad, but he's quickly distracted by Tim brining up that name. ]
Yeah, actually. She was travelling with us for a bit, before she got captured.
[ Er. ]
Sssssorry if that's bad news. And congratulations if that's good news?
no subject
[ And at that, another long look at Rhys. Whether he wants to meet it or not. Athena was like, literally the only good person with them back then.
Mmm... maybe Aurelia. He could never quite tell, and it's not like good or bad even matters when you're that rich, right. ]
And you're sure she didn't sail back up to Helios and just burn it straight to the... uh. N-not—? Ground? Because, I mean. Not gonna lie, she really had it in for Jack by the end there.
[ There's a particular note to the way Tim speaks about her. It's unmistakable; it's the one where you know the subtext of what's being said is "ohmygodshe'ssocool."
Please be alive, Athena. You were one of his last hopes for getting him out of there. ]
no subject
[ A short, chuffed laugh ]
As far as I know she didn't go down easy.
[ He can feel Tim's gaze burning dual holes into the side of his face, but Rhys keeps his eyes averted. Still, Tim will be able to see the way they crease with his brow at that next part. ]
I'm sure. If it's any condolence that means she wasn't on it when it did actually crash.
no subject
Uh. I'm–I'm sorry. What.
[ Get used to this particular Tim Sound: the bewildered and only sometimes slightly hysterical mirthless half-laugh. ]
Ahah, see, cuz, cuz like, I thought I just heard you say Helios crashed, heh, which would beeee...!
[ Crazy? Horrifying? Amazing? ]
no subject
Rhys worries at the back of his collar, presses his fingertips into sweaty flesh in an effort to ground himself better, and more importantly grant himself enough self awareness to not say too much.]
I did. I guess it's been about a year now. It's sub-systems failed and the whole thing went down.
no subject
That's. That's...
[ Whole thing went down. The words echo, ricocheting around the inside of his skull. Whole thing went down. Wreckage and fire, Jack's office reduced to girders and glass shards and Pandoran dust. ]
Thaaaat's FREAKING AWESOME!
[ Tim sort of pitches forward a ways toward Rhys, palms clapping sharply against the floor. ]
Hooooleee shit, I could friggin' kiss you right now—y'know, if that wasn't clearly the most inappropriate and disgusting thing that could ever happen to you, but OH MY GOD I hated that place, and all my paperwork and junk was in there, and if that's all gone in a pile of rubble, then I'm pretty sure I'm not technically a Hyperion employee anymore, so—
[ The words get cut short, choked by a well of unexpected emotion. He swallows, a thick sound, and rakes a hand through an already messy head of hair. By this point in his life, he's started to go gray—the same places Jack did. ]
Like, how even? God, I missed a hell of a lot while I was locked up in that hellhole.
no subject
He doesn't know what to do with himself here, how to respond to the mans unbridled joy at the news versus how he personally feels about how it all went down. A lot of people probably celebrated Helios's fall, if they weren't downright jealous that they weren't the ones to do it, but this is the first time Rhys is experiencing those effects up close.
Too close. ]
Yyyyep, yeah. You're free- or free as it gets since you're in this place now. That kinda undercuts the sentiment...
[ He's bracing himself against the wall as he tries to shimmy up it and to his feet. He...he needs to get away from everything that's happening right now. He needs to not be around what feels like the walking corpse of the man who tried to murder him. Who made him-forced him into a position where a lot of lives were lost. Who's now talking to him about it with unabated glee.
The real Jack would never, the real Jack would kill him just for being the messenger. That doesn't stop it from feeling wrong. ]
But you can at least consider any of your outstanding contracts null and void.
[ He gives a shaky thumbs up at he finally fully stands, eyes still darting around and past Tim's mug without actually meeting it. ]