IC Contact Post

[therushingsky]

"Heyyyy, you've reached the head office of the Atlas Corporation, leave a message and your number, and one of our people will get back to you."

Comments

SORRY IN MY BRAIN THIS WAS A TEXT MESSAGE BUT IT IS NOT. So no all caps

[therushingsky]

Don't be sorry. I can't pretend that I'm not angry with him right now.

But I also just--

I don't think he should have graduated, and not because I think he's an evil person who doesn't deserve to be out of here. It's just that he-- literally seems like he just spent the last week starving and living in bins and crying all the time and making really bad decisions.

I don't want to defend him because I feel like total shit, but I also know what he was like when he left and it was like-- Turn human, raw panic, vanish.

He just-- so obviously wasn't okay.

[And he so obviously still isn't. Rhys has a bit of low key terror that he's going to just vanish again.]

[14thcommander]

I know. I know. You're right, and he is not an evil person who doesn't deserve freedom, and he wasn't ready for it but - now he's here, and he's a warden, and I think it's really imperative for whoever winds up paired to him that he gets on top of some of this as fast as he possibly can. He didn't decide to graduate, and I didn't decide he should graduate then, and I - I just don't want to have to take care of him right now. He's an adult, Rhys, he had a bad beginning and it wasn't fair or right but - but I have things I'm struggling with too and I can't rely on him for help and I am so tired of taking care of him!

I know he's not okay. This is all appalling. But I'm so, so tired.

[therushingsky]

I know. I really, completely get it.

I just can't make myself leave him alone right now.

Can we give it a day?

[14thcommander]

We can give it a day or several. The invitation stands. Let me know and I'll fit you in.

[therushingsky]

[He gives it a couple of days. Long enough for the worst of the shock to wear off, then:]

Hey, this offer still open?

[14thcommander]

Of course, Rhys. You want to go now?

[therushingsky]

If you're free, sure.

I'll meet you at the door?

[14thcommander]

Yeah! You want to go fishing or anything? Should I bring something?

[therushingsky]

I literally wouldn't even know how to string the-- the rod? The net?

Didn't spend a huge amount of time by open water back home.

[14thcommander]

I can fish, but... then we have to worry about cooking it, unless you want to eat it raw.

[which, no judgment. She can eat it raw!]

So maybe just the beach right now?

[therushingsky]

Just the beach.

Should we invite Bill or do you want to keep it small?

[14thcommander]

I already took Bill out! Let's make this one just you and me.

[therushingsky]

You're good people, Hange.

See you there.

[14thcommander]

She's there in a jiff. She does have a big ol' picnic basket, acquired when she realized she was going to be taking a lot of people into the enclosure to blow off steam and probably plying them with booze and tea and food while there. Goodies are enclosed within, and otherwise she has the destination coded!

"Ready?"

[therushingsky]

Rhys, for his own part, has just brought himself, an open shirt, some swim shorts, and a towel. He flashes Hange a big grin and waves a hand at her.

"Good to go."

[14thcommander]

"Yes! I love this place."

Hange is smiling and seems pretty normal and okay, but she is a maestro of the game face tbh. It's a cinch to key in what she wants on this case, and when she and Rhys go in through the door a short strip of sandy beach is revealed in front of them, and a much longer spread of volcanic rock covered in tide pools. A grassy bluff rises behind them, and the sea sloshes around past the rock field.

"There's a reef not too far out from here, too."

[therushingsky]

Rhys doesn't say anything at first. He just takes it in. It's not that there weren't beaches back home - golden, artificial sands and perfectly dyed blue waters churned out of wave machines - but like this? With it's walls of dark rock and it's white foaming tides.

Yeah, they don't make holiday destinations like that in Hyperion.

"You think we can swim out to it? Swimming for me tends to be a trade off, either I'm really heavy, or I'm going one armed."

As they make it down onto the sand, he reaches up to begin unlatching his arm from his shoulder.

[14thcommander]

"We can! I have before."

Hange is wearing a simple black one-piece suit under her clothes, and also starts to disrobe, revealing scuffed lines across her thighs, visible across her check, back, and shoulders - tactical gear calluses.

"There's a place where the current cuts through very fast, though most of it is calm - it's fun to ride but will you be alright with one arm?"