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[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."

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[therushingsky]

"Look at it this way," Rhys says, picking up done extremely small tool and bringing it up to the shell of Elijah's ruined eye, "Elijah hacked your computer, and you-- you nuked it. You definitely need a new computer. Doesn't necessarily mean you also ripped the plug socket out of the wall. Meaning you don't necessarily need your whole house rewiring. You might not need another surgery to fix this and get him out."

[magician_king]

"Oh- he is going to need his whole house rewired."

For the record.

"My temper kind of got away with me, and I went into the circuitry. If it weren't for cabin protections I would probably be owing apologies to his neighbours right about now."

Yes, he knows it's a metaphor. Still, though.

[therushingsky]

Components come loose, part of the shell of Quentin's eye falls away, and Rhys moves a hand to the top of the other man's head, tipping it forward slightly. Enough that some of the burned wiring and electronics literally fall out of his eye.

"I'm going to go in with some compressed air. Might feel a little weird, but it shouldn't hurt."

Rhys reaches for another canister, keeping one hand on Quentin's head.

"And-- I don't think anyone could lose control of something like this and not completely freak out. Like-- Elijah wants to talk about the human body not accepting things-- having someone grab the steering wheel inside your head is like-- a direct line to your fight or flight response."

[magician_king]

He turns his face up, and grimaces as the cannister clears out more scorch, dust and debris.

"I don't know what I'm going to do about him."

[therushingsky]

Rhys clears out the debris, before reaching into the back of Quentin's eye, to test that the optic nerve connection is still in place.

"You mean, about him being the kind of asshole who'd do this, or about the fact that he's-- just-- completely in the middle of a breakdown right now..."

[magician_king]

"Either. Both. He told me this when I was trying to get him to talk about his feelings, transparently to make me stop. And frankly-"

Well, he doesn't want to say it, but his teeth grind a moment. He tempers down to a more mild;

"I don't want to do more harm than good."

[therushingsky]

Rhys withdraws the tool from Quentin's eye socket, brushes his thumb over the other man's cheek, withdrawing a little.

"I don't think he'd be better off with anyone else on this ship instead of you in his corner. Hell, I couldn't help him any better than you did. And I-- I always kind of figured--"

He stops, pulls a face, then looks away.

"I didn't think he'd do something like this, but I guess I figured-- I figured if he was going to do it, I was a way lower risk target for it than you were."

[magician_king]

"I knew there was a chance. More than half a chance. I just- I really hung my hat on the fact that he had those breach memories of hurting me to begin with, and then being given the chance to use his specific skillset to make it right-"

Well. He tilts his head down a little against Rhys's thumb, into the touch.

"I think if it'd been a year later it might have worked perfectly."

[therushingsky]

Rhys gives Quentin's cheek a warm, fond little rub.

"I don't know. I-- I really, really like Elijah. He's crazy driven and crazy smart-- and I think he's done some incredible things..."

His tone is building in a way that makes the impending but feel completely obvious,

"But-- Look, I kinda knew going into this that he was probably only really interested in me as like-- a mashup between a groupie and a science fair project. I just don't know if he cares about other human beings. I know his go to line about that breach was that it wasn't him so it shouldn't have to feel bad about it, but I wonder if that's just something he says to justify the fact that he doesn't really feel anything about it."

Translation: Maybe he actually is a sociopath and Rhys doesn't know what to do with that either.

[magician_king]

"I don't want to erode his social network or anything- not when I've already blown up his cabin and given him as bad a panic attack as I've ever seen anyone have in real life, and cut off his existing access to food by stopping playing dining-hall go-between. But all that said-"

Drawing in a deep breath.

"-don't let him this be a symptom of or a cause of deeper self-esteem issues, okay? Fucking sociopaths is a fun roller coaster to ride, if you know that's the ticket you're buying. But you've gotta be careful, Rhys."

[therushingsky]

Rhys laughs, too warm to be dismissive, but-- reassuring, at least.

"Don't worry, I'm sticking with him. I mean-- his first post was during that singing flood, and he did this song about how he'd rather fuck a robot than a person? And I just immediately started hitting on him, so I don't think I get to pretend that I didn't know what I was signing up for."

Plus, he likes Elijah. And sometimes it's nice to be appreciated for your various robot parts. Rhys does not consider himself to be above being someone's fetish fuel.

[magician_king]

"Okay. But if it starts feeling like bad-news-bears, you come find me. Us. I've got a household that will give you a very soft landing if you find yourself having a bad day."

Promising him, sincerely.

"No time soon, hopefully- don't don't go around thinking you're alone, or anything like that."

[therushingsky]

"Thanks." Rhys replies, his tone soft, "Honestly, once you both got off my list of people to have screaming rows with-- you and Jedao skipped way up the list of people I call in a crisis-- actually I think Jedao might have been on both lists at the same time, now that I think about it."

He flashes a lopsided little grin, finally bringing his hand up from Quentin's cheek to ruffle his hair.

"Same to you though, right? This place can be-- tricky. If you ever need to unload and you can't find the right husband for the job, I'll be about."

Completely forgetting about the fact that he's been pretending that he's going to leave.

[magician_king]

"So I take it you're staying?"

He says, mouth curving into a wide, quick smile. Quentin very seldom smiles outright, tends towards a reserved affect (when he isn't in a screaming row) but he grins at him now.

"Good. This place is better with you in it."

[therushingsky]

"Huh?"

It takes a moment for that to land, the grin is a bit of a distraction. That flash of bright sharp light in the mists that are Quentin. Then he laughs again, glancing down, immediately awkward.

"Well-- I mean, I guess I'm not rushing to go back to the terrifying desolate deserts of Pandora..."

[magician_king]

"And thank fuck."

He agrees, gesturing vaguely towards the eye.

"I'd be in trouble without you. For this- and the fact that I'm going to recruit you to team 'casually buffer Elijah from Fives and Jedao.'"

They won't do anything, but they're sure as hell not going to be thrilled.