therushingsky | IC Contact Post

[Brightening up a bit]

Hey, maybe I could give you some pointers? I did this for like, a year and a half and got a guy out of here before I got demoted!

Point one: There's probably going to be some stuff in my file that I don't want to talk about and get hypersensitive on. My inmate killed me for cracking a your mom joke. So tread carefully, dude.

[Not said like a threat. Just like this is a top tip!]

Ooh, I also let him have a gun for self defence. Sooooo... is the thing you have for me a gun?

Edited 2020-05-30 22:59 (UTC)

[Stan actually laughs - maybe he shouldn't laugh at his inmate getting killed but hey, he's alive now.]

Maybe the question I oughta be asking is where you stand on your mom jokes! And no, it's not a gun. What's with you guys and immediately asking for weapons? My temp did too!

[He knows damn well what's with that, but they can make shivs or something like in real jail.]

Anyway, where you wanna do this?

[No, he's not sharing what he has over the network.]

I think they're great when I make them!

[Hux did not agree.]

And I just think having a gun would be a strong entrance into the inmate blackmarket for me. I could give it to one of the cowboys for protection!

[He doesn't wanna actually shoot people, that's gauche.]

And-- Hmm. Lounge, I guess?

Black market, huh. I could get into that.

[Is he joking? Who knows!]

Lounge sounds good! I'll meet you there, let you in and all that.

I'll be there.

[And he will be. He feels tense in a way that he hasn't for any of his temp pairings, partly due to seeing how hard the pairing seems to have hit Bill. How certain he is that the Admiral only paired them to take a cheap shot at his friend.

Maybe it's fine. At least Stan can tell that the place is a hustle. Either way, they can talk about it once he makes it to the lounge.]

[Stan's outside waiting for him when he gets there, leaning against a wall and looking at something in the palm of his hand. Just by the size it seems like it would be a pocket watch, but it's actually some kind of compass hanging off a string. He looks like he wouldn't be out of place on a regular sort of shipyard. He also doesn't look like he's carrying anything extra, but he also has a long jacket on.

He looks up as Rhys arrives and he grins, and gives a friendly wave.]

There you are! Lounge was a good pick, y'know. Let's grab a drink, my treat.

[It's funny because there's no economy and he's not paying! But he takes the compass - his warden item - and uses it to open the door.]

Oh, hey, a compass, you shouldn't have.

[You said you had a gift for him. Maybe it's your warden item, for him to have, forever?

Seems unlikely, Rhys slips his hands into his pockets, and flashes a little smile.]

Or, y'know. Margaritas? Like, a full pitcher of Margaritas? Since you're buying?

[From the open bar.]

[He slips the bearing compass back under his shirt and follows in after Rhys.]

Ha - nice try, kid. But eh, I could go for margaritas. Go grab us a table and I'll make that happen.

[Something more private than just sitting at the bar, in other words.]

Okay, go pull some strings for us then.

[Rhys probably shouldn't be playing up to this like Stan is actually going to do anything other than receive drinks free of charge from whoever the hell is working today. It's just too easy to lean into the act.

He casts around, before finally selecting a booth, and sidling into it.]

[Stan soon returns with a pitcher of margaritas and a couple glasses after what looked like a pretty friendly conversation. He slides right into the seat across from Rhys and pours himself a drink before sliding the pitcher to Rhys.]

Alright so, I told you I've got something for you, but it's actually two things. Three if you count the drinks.

[So, two things, because the drinks were free and definitely don't count.]

[Rhys accepts the pitcher. There's something kind of comfortable and familiar about all of this. Like he's in a business lunch with someone trying to cut a deal with him.]

You needed the drinks to get me to the table, dude. They're the cost of admission.

[Lightly. This isn't really true, it's just a thing to say.]

So what are you pitching?

[Stan knows how this song and dance goes, even if he was never a big corporate guy, and he laughs along. There are other less savory industries where this sort of thing comes in handy.

Hm, what to do first though...? Stan decides to aim small, and fishes in his pocket for a bag. He places it almost suspiciously carefully on the table and gently slides it to Rhys.]

I know it's gonna be real tempting after a margarita or two, but do not throw these in here.

[If he opens it, he'll find the smoke bombs Stan said he'd make!]

[Rhys looks immediately, and hey guess who's completely forgotten that he asked Stan for those smoke bombs, and also who's never seen a smoke bomb before? He picks one out, immediately curious.]

Why not, are they dangerous?

[He could throw it right now, whatever it is. Just to establish from the off that he won't be told.

But he does want to graduate. He glances up at Stan, waiting for an answer.]

Edited 2020-05-31 15:52 (UTC)

No, but it'll prolly piss off the staff here if we fill the whole lounge with smoke, and if you get us kicked out of here I'm not gonna make you any more.

[He also doesn't want to get demoted, but he suspects a little mischief isn't quite enough for that. ...Probably.]

Wait, these are the smoke bombs?

[Rhys's entire face lights up, then he glances down at the one in his hand. No. No he shouldn't. Remorsefully, he places it back in the bag, and glances back up to Stan.]

Okay, I'll be careful with them.

[Careful to use them when Stan isn't looking.]

What else have you got for me?

Yep! Made 'em myself!

[Saltpeter and the heads of a lot of matches, among other things. Sometimes you just don't have the cash to buy smoke bombs!

The second thing is secret enough that Stan casually glances around the lounge first. He hasn't been on the barge all that long and doesn't know if this is a thing wardens do, or if they're supposed to hoard all of their secret knowledge of their inmates. But Stan, who has been an inmate in places where getting out is trickier than graduating, thinks that's stupid.

He's supposed to get Rhys graduated, and a more honest person might make their inmate play more guessing games, so they can try and figure out for themselves what angle the Admiral's going for. But Stan is a cheater through and through, and if they're going to do this his way, they're going to do it the cheating way.

So, he slips his hand into his jacket and pulls out Rhys' file...and hands it directly to him.]

Figured you might want this.

[And, there it is. After six months of hectoring the Admiral, and cycling through temps, it takes two minutes of being paired with Stan to get it back.

It's a relief. But it also kinda stings. In the same way as being paired with Stan at all stings.]

Thanks. I guess you read it already, right?

[Not an accusation. It's the smart thing to do. Rhys turns it over in his hands, once, then flips it open.

It starts young. He flips it shut again, glancing up at Stan.]

Hey, let me ask you something: What's going on with you and Bill?

[Stan just shrugs at the first question.]

Would you believe me if I lied and said I didn't?

[It wouldn't be the smart thing to do here. Of course he read it. The follow-up question trips him up though, and he actually looks pretty surprised.]

Bill? Why?

[Maybe he should have seen this coming though, since Bill was so ticked off in the first place.]

I'd give it back to you and tell you to do your job better. I want to graduate, dude. And this is the program.

[Said with a bit of resignation. Before glancing up at Stan.]

I was actually at the point where I was going to start brute forcing getting paired with someone. Me and Bill went through a list of names of unpaired wardens. I'd started messaging them to try and get cozy enough with someone to get the Admiral to make it official.

Two weeks ago I was doing this, and the second we get started, the Admiral sticks me with the guy who killed Bill back in his own world?

[He glances back down at the file.]

Making this work is trying to scrape something good out of a move that the Admiral only made to mess with us. That's why.

[Or to punish them for trying to get any kind of control over being imprisoned here.]

[That's...interesting. Stan's not really sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that he's been working with Bill, mostly because he has no idea why Bill would be invested in someone else's graduation. It's definitely a cause for concern though.]

Oh. That.

[There's a strange tone to that though - not guilt or annoyance, but as though Rhys literally reminded him that it was a concern at all.]

Look...I'm not the guy who can fill you in on most of it. I don't actually know most of what happened, and I know that sounds like bullshit, but this is what I've got.

[Ugh. He doesn't like having to fess up to this, but he and Rhys have to be on the same page if they're going to get anything accomplished here. Plus the whole thing gives him a headache if he thinks about it too hard.]

So I guess he...tried to take over the world? In some...Weirdpocalypse thing? And in all that he tried to kill my great niece and nephew, and definitely messed with Ford a bunch too. I probably cared a lot more about that than the whole wrecking the world thing? Anyway, you know Bill, probably better than I do right now. Little pointy demon guy, so you can't really kill him the normal human ways.

[That would have made things so much easier!]

He wanted into Ford's noggin for...something. So, me and him tricked Bill and switched places, so he actually made that deal with me. And...uh. That's where it gets kinda complicated. We had this memory gun...thing? Don't ask me how it works, but basically I took a bullet for the team and had my whole memory erased, and took Bill down with me. 'Cause he was in my head, 'cause he thought I was Ford.

Hmm.

[That's exactly the kind of over complicated explanation he'd have to give to someone about half the stuff that happened at home. He's happy to just draw a line under it all being messy.]

I think I saw video of him trying to fight your great niece and nephew, and just getting nailed in the eye repeatedly by them.

[It was a flood. And it was pretty funny (Sorry Bill).]

I don't really-- look, me and Bill are really close but it's hard for me to blame anyone for not wanting to have their family killed by a triangle with a god complex. But what's going on with you two here? He said you're taking everyone he cares about?

[A pause, then, slightly cooler:]

Wait, are you sleeping with Betelgeuse already?

[Because he's seen the smoke signals on the horizon, but if that's already going down and he missed it then he'll be annoyed.]

What?! No! I mean, technically I owe the guy a date, but it's not like he's called to collect on it.

[Stan, who doesn't quite know exactly how connected Bill and Betelgeuse are, is caught off guard by the jump from point A to point B.]

Anyway here? Bill's just being a baby. We were gonna pull the trigger and have me actually remember what happened, but I backed out of it. You see, if I remember? He gets to come back to life. Ford said the guy's changed and I wanna believe him, but...look, even as Bill's friend, you've gotta know the guy's got conman written all over him, right?

[He's not really trying to be insulting. That's just how Bill comes off and Stan figures it's obvious to everyone who isn't a complete sucker.]

So I told him I wanted to see for myself if he was a decent guy now or not, and he didn't like that. After a few weeks he got sick of it and told me he tried to kill the kids. So...I was kinda pissed off and I told on him to Ford and made Ford just tell me what happened - with the memory gun stuff, it only really comes back from looking at photo or video of what happened. Basically, Ford's told me a story about it and Bill's still dead and has to actually graduate like he's supposed to.

[The whole thing is extremely complicated, and Stan seems annoyed by how complex it is, even as he tries to explain it.]

Ford thinks it's more about him thinking that Ford's gonna choose me over him and...eh, it checks out. I don't think that's all of it by a long shot, but it checks out. Now he's acting like I'm going around stealing all his friends on purpose and throwing fits about it. I mean, think about it - I didn't steal you, right? You got assigned to me!

Hmmmmmmm.

[Sus pi cious. Rhys tenses a little more when Stan describes Bill as being a baby about this.]

Yeah, Bill's a conman, but so is the Admiral-- and, y'know what, you know that probably better than any other warden I've talked too. But yeah, Bill's being a baby because he doesn't want his chances of existing again to all be on that guy, and when it comes to him, you're suddenly very trust the system about making sure he graduates like he's supposed to.

[Rhys leans back in his seat, gaze flicking to the side, obviously annoyed.]

Y'know your brother was an inmate here too. If someone had shown up and held the exact kind of power you have here over his head - then used him being mad about that fact to justify keeping that power? I bet that would have brought out the best in him too, right?

Edited 2020-06-03 13:12 (UTC)

[Stan bristles at being accused of complying with the system. How dare you!]

Look, it's not about that. What you're not getting is that I gave him a chance and he blew it! All he had to do was show me what Ford saw in him, and sell me on him actually being a changed triangle - whether or not the Admiral thinks so. And--

[Stan frowns. This part, he hesitates on. He hasn't admitted it to anyone yet, not even to Ford, and part of him was kind of hoping it would have just gone away if he buried it deep enough.]

...He's an idiot. He doesn't know how close he was, or he never would've done it.

[Stan had been mulling it over mere moments before Bill told him he tried to kill the kids.]

He figured that if he told me that much, I'd run off to Ford and demand he give me back my memories - and thus Bill wins and gets back his life, and pretty much hasn't changed at all. I don't care about what the Admiral thinks - I care that he's trying to play me and my family like fiddles. He can work with us or he can work with the Admiral, and he's the one who decided he doesn't wanna work with me here.

You can't see what Ford's seen in him because you only showed up yesterday, while the rest of us have been here for years. Of course you're not going to be able to tell how much he's changed. Maybe he blew it, but you were running a rigged game.

[Rhys sits back, folding his arms, looking at Stan narrowly.]

If he'd gone to you playing the nice guy and trying to be someone he wasn't, you would have smelled a fake. Instead he told you the worst thing you could possibly know about him and of course you decided to burn his bridge outta here. You're just-- one more guy keeping him stuck here because he can't guess what your vague standards for having changed enough are.

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