Week 5

[airlockedmods]

[As with the weeks before, life in the Fantasy Sweet returns to something resembling normalcy with shocking efficiency. The second floor rest area and Adventure Zone Death Orb Room are spotless again, the demon glitter has been vacuumed, the deflated orbs have been replaced. It's like none of it ever happened, like three more friends aren't dead and stored away in the guest house morgue.

There's a new floor to explore, their "reward" for a job well done.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your activity for week 4, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[brokencode]

[Man, everything has happened so much over the past few days. She's just gonna... give him a look. Really, she should be more supportive, should have gone over to hold his hand but... right now? She's just exhausted.]

Rhys...?

[plugout]

Yeah?

[ He takes a breath. Looks at her. ]

It's just-- everyone's sharing stuff. I don't--

[ --know how to do that, when it comes down to it. ]

[brokencode]

People here are... understanding. [Even if Angel herself didn't see how or why.]

If you have something important to say, they will listen.

[plugout]

... Yeah?

[ He certainly doesn't sound sure. But... Rhys takes in a breath. Okay. ]

So... a lot of you know I work-- used to work for a company. Hyperion. It was pretty much my dream job, and I'd wanted to work there for... for a really long time. The CEO after Harold Tassiter died, he was... he was my hero.

He was also Angel's dad, Handsome Jack.

But after Jack died, Hyperion pretty much... it went downhill. It wasn't the same after Jack died. I still wanted to climb the ranks. Wanted to make something of myself. I was in line for a promotion, but when I went to go get it... someone else was there. That asshole Vasquez, he stole my promotion and made me a janitor.

So I went down to Pandora to screw up a deal he'd made. I thought it would get back at him, thought I'd soar up the ranks when Hyperion found out I was the one who made the deal. It, uh.

Things went wrong.

Stuff happened--it's kind of a blur, honestly--and I found out-- wait, I forgot, I uh. Lost access to Hyperion's assets. Soooo... I took an ID drive from a dead scientist and plugged it into my port.

[ He taps the side of his head. ]

Anyway, I found out that, uh. The ID drive? It had an AI in it. An AI of Handsome Jack. Things happened... I don't know what, I haven't remembered between, you know, the guy showing himself and going back up to Helios, but I guess I did a lot of things. A lot of really... bad things. And then Jack told me he wanted to-- to take over my body, and then he'd make an army of Handsome Jacks.

[ He looks sick. ]

I told him no, because that's insane and-- he plugged himself into Helios, the space station-- Hyperion's base. Uploaded himself into its systems. [ His hands shake, now, and he looks paler. ] I needed to get him out, needed to stop him from going through with his crazy plan, so...

In the end, I crashed Helios into Pandora. With most of the people on it still there.

[brokencode]

[Though Angel cringed as his description drew on, she hardly looked surprised. This was a story she heard before, one that she had already reacted to. She did, however, summon the energy to stumble over to him, to take his hand into hers and squeeze it.]

I'm sorry.

[plugout]

[ He squeezes her hand lightly. Rhys manages a tiny, shaky, but genuine smile. ]

Hey, it's... definitely not your fault.

[brokencode]

I... I know. But no one should ever have to... [And Jack being her father...]

Someone from this bloodline should apologize, I think

[plugout]

Yeah, but... you shouldn't have to feel guilty for anything he did.

... But. Thanks.

[brokencode]

Of... of course.

[Ugh, how does she even have this talk.]

It... is not forgiveness for their deaths, or a way of absolving your guilt but... Jack would have done far worse to both you and everyone else, had he remained in control.

[plugout]

[ He can't deny she makes a good point. ]

Yeah. Like... making a million other Jacks. [ He gives her hand a squeeze. ] ... Thanks, Angel. I'm pretty lucky I have you to, you know. Talk sense into me.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...

[There's a lot of fucked up things going on with that, but this is Church, and Church first and foremost focuses on the most important things.]

Listen. Rhys. I have to ask.

Was his first name seriously Handsome? I thought that was just like, a common adjective, or you having a crush on him.

[hey roland told him to keep bringing the laughs]

[plugout]

Wooooooow, I didn't have a-- A crush, that's-- stupid. That's stupid, Church.

[ And, because that isn't convincing enough, he gives a nervous laugh. ]

Nah, his-- his name was Jack. "Handsome" is just a... I don't know. Him being a narcissistic jackass?

[motherfucking_ghost]

We all have problematic crushes. It happens. I'm also really glad that's not his actual name, because for what a smart shit this guy sounds like he was, that would've been a terrible choice of legal name to make.

He also sounds like he was just as shitty and no less handsome as an AI. What the fuck is with some of these fucking guys jumping into people and making takeover armies? At least with the one that did in my world, it was just a bunch of robots.

[plugout]

It wasn't a crush!

[ It was totally a crush. ]

He was... uh, really shitty. Like, the worst. And I had to deal with him in my brain for... a while. He was so obsessed with making the world Handsome, because he thought he was the best.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Making the world Hands--" [He makes a gagging noise.] What the hell. What was so great about him that you had no idea he was an actual cockbite until you put him in your head?

[myocordial]

[He knew some of this already, from previous memories Rhys had told him about. But crashing the space station, that... is definitely new. But it makes sense. Awful as it is, he can understand the thought process.]

I really wonder what it is about the worst scum of humanity that causes it to be drawn to AI.

[Like. Seriously.]

...Awful as all this is, it sounds like you stopped him. Good. That's what's most important for now.

[plugout]

He wanted to be immortalized somehow. So if he died, he wasn't really gone.

[ Rhys shrugs. ]

Yeah. I stopped him from getting more control over Helios, at least, and... I don't know. Doing something incredibly insane?

[myocordial]

Yes, of course. Because finally being rid of him would have been such a great loss to the universe.

[Hmhmmm he's never met Jack but wow he despises the man.]

Who knows how much harm he could have done... Do you... know if he's dead? Well. Dead once more.

[plugout]

That's... what he thought, yeah. I mean--I can guess.

[ He pauses. ]

I'm pretty sure he is. I... don't remember much after I got out of the escape pod.

Or... anything at all.

[myocordial]

Well, I'm sure that will change again soon enough. [You know, next week. Like freaking clockwork.] It seems safe enough to assume that he's been well and truly dealt with.

And if not, then that's something to fix later.

[Jack better be dead or else Heart's just gonna travel all the way to the Borderlands universe to personally end him.]

[everylittlesecret]

... well now I know why you went from in love with Jack to not. That's rough, buddy.

[Rhys... she doesn't know what else to say.]

[plugout]

I wasn't in love with him, why does everyone keep saying that?!

[ because it's true? ]

.... Way more than rough, Nari.

[everylittlesecret]

........ I know. But you're like... one of the many people here that have been the reason for a ton of people dying. Kinda running out of ways to say "That sucks" without being like "Wow you killed a lot of people, what the fuck"...

[plugout]

... Yeah. [ He groans and sets his head in his hands. ] Yeah. I know.

It's... it's not good.

[everylittlesecret]

Question, though... those people you killed. Would.... they be the type to deserve death, or would they be more innocent bystanders?