![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[He's backing away the second he sees her storming towards him, nails picking nervously at the polished metal of his right arm; there's something inherently terrifying about her when she's livid and switched entirely on, and it doesn't matter where she means to direct it.] I-- he-- he-he uh, there was...
[Deep breaths, Rhys. Deep breaths.] We built a ship to get us to Helios but there was a uh, there was a problem. With the engines. And my dead boss.
He got stuck in it and Fiona detached it and he... [It's so agitated an explanation that it's barely coherent, but eventually Rhys manages to get out an entirely sincere, weighted:] I'm sorry.
[Deep breaths, Rhys. Deep breaths.] We built a ship to get us to Helios but there was a uh, there was a problem. With the engines. And my dead boss.
He got stuck in it and Fiona detached it and he... [It's so agitated an explanation that it's barely coherent, but eventually Rhys manages to get out an entirely sincere, weighted:] I'm sorry.
Eeesh. I'm real sorry. Like genuinely, that literally like is never not gross.
Edited 2015-09-24 11:11 (UTC)
[ It's bad, a raging storm barely contained underneath her skin. There was worse, she has been worse, back at the facility for instance but there is something more desperate about this. Less uncontrolled anger, more fear.
Scooter is dead. Something happened and all she can think about is Springs was with him. Close proximity to a man that died, whatever happened to him could have befallen her too. It makes her stomach sink and her throat close.
People like Athena, Vault Hunters, they don't have connections. They don't have relationships. People tend to die around them, dropping faster than flies. How many has she lost now? If there is one more ─
Rhys' voice comes in like a detached echo, faded at first, then progressively louder. His words sinking in a few second later. For a moment she forgets to breathe, sucks air through her teeth and holds it there. ]
Springs isn't─ [ Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. ] Fuck.
Scooter is dead. Something happened and all she can think about is Springs was with him. Close proximity to a man that died, whatever happened to him could have befallen her too. It makes her stomach sink and her throat close.
People like Athena, Vault Hunters, they don't have connections. They don't have relationships. People tend to die around them, dropping faster than flies. How many has she lost now? If there is one more ─
Rhys' voice comes in like a detached echo, faded at first, then progressively louder. His words sinking in a few second later. For a moment she forgets to breathe, sucks air through her teeth and holds it there. ]
Springs isn't─ [ Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. ] Fuck.
Edited 2015-09-24 11:27 (UTC)
[He'd never really met her, Springs, that is. It was Fiona that dealt with them more than he ever did, and aside from being barked at by Scooter, the two hadn't shared all that much. But he catches on, then, that it's Janey Athena's worried about, and it shifts him away from his own panic to something more attuned to hers - voice low and careful.] Oh, no no no she-- she's fine.
She wasn't up there with us. I promise.
She wasn't up there with us. I promise.
Yeah sorry I'd like to be encouraging but uh, yeah.
sorry.
sorry.
Uh yeah sure. I've got people coming over so I should clean up anyway.
Also ps, if that's you, you're not so bad looking.
See ya, Hyperion.
Also ps, if that's you, you're not so bad looking.
See ya, Hyperion.
[ All at once the anxious energy that has kept her upright since she set foot in this city, the storm of anger and fear, leaves her limbs like water gushing from a broken damn. Leaves her numb, weak, legs unable to hold the weight. Athena stumbles, instinct throwing a hand out to grip something; a tree, a bench, Rhys himself, whatever she can reach.
Janey is fine and Scooter is dead. A bitter mix of relief and grief mix in her mouth. On Pandora it's only a matter of time, everyone expects their own deaths. Always been a matter of when not if. Even so. ]
He was... [ Inhale, exhale. She forces breaths, focuses on them, it's all too much otherwise. An overload of emotion she can barely control. ] Scooter was a friend.
[ Her girlfriend is alive and a friend is dead. ]
Janey is fine and Scooter is dead. A bitter mix of relief and grief mix in her mouth. On Pandora it's only a matter of time, everyone expects their own deaths. Always been a matter of when not if. Even so. ]
He was... [ Inhale, exhale. She forces breaths, focuses on them, it's all too much otherwise. An overload of emotion she can barely control. ] Scooter was a friend.
[ Her girlfriend is alive and a friend is dead. ]
Gotta keep you guessing right?
But relax, just take it for what it is, okay.
But relax, just take it for what it is, okay.
Yeah I-- [He licks his lips, feeling like an intrusion - feeling guilty for the fact that yet again he'd been on the spot and dropped his nerve. He wanted to tell her the truth about Jack, but not over the network, and not when she was storming for his neck, and now...
Now she's upset because he'd thrown her and Fiona and a host of excuses under the bus to protect himself. There's no getting the truth out.
Not like this.] I know.
He was a good guy.
Now she's upset because he'd thrown her and Fiona and a host of excuses under the bus to protect himself. There's no getting the truth out.
Not like this.] I know.
He was a good guy.
[ A moment passes, then another, before Athena forces herself to stand straight. It is a trial but she does her best not to show it, not to show the aches and pains she had been ignoring finally coming to the surface. Compounding upon ontop of another.
But she is a soldier, she pushes it all aside and keeps on going. Bottling up emotion and pain until there is nothing left on her face but her flat piercing stare. One foot in front of the other, no time to sit and grieve. This isn't the first loss she has suffered and it won't be the last. ]
Don't mention this to Gaige. [ She sounds cold, emotionless, her tone hard as she re-focuses. Scooter was close to the Vault Hunters, anyone with half a brain knew that. And with what little she knows of the youngest of that group? She won't take it well. Especially coming from someone who works, or worked, for Hyperion. ] If she hears about it, it is better from me.
But she is a soldier, she pushes it all aside and keeps on going. Bottling up emotion and pain until there is nothing left on her face but her flat piercing stare. One foot in front of the other, no time to sit and grieve. This isn't the first loss she has suffered and it won't be the last. ]
Don't mention this to Gaige. [ She sounds cold, emotionless, her tone hard as she re-focuses. Scooter was close to the Vault Hunters, anyone with half a brain knew that. And with what little she knows of the youngest of that group? She won't take it well. Especially coming from someone who works, or worked, for Hyperion. ] If she hears about it, it is better from me.
Edited 2015-09-26 05:24 (UTC)
You know you're...[It's hard to get it out, exactly what he wants to say. In part because it's a shield and in part because there's no good way to ask someone else to stand in as a sort of scapegoat for his own dug ditch, but there it is, and he'd be stupid not to seize an opportunity when it rears its head.
Hyperion taught him that much, at least.] kind of kicking up the whole burying the truth thing again, right?
From her, I mean. [Squints just slightly, working his jaw.] What if she gets suspicious?
Hyperion taught him that much, at least.] kind of kicking up the whole burying the truth thing again, right?
From her, I mean. [Squints just slightly, working his jaw.] What if she gets suspicious?
This girl had a hand in Jack's death, she is apart of the group that took down the Warrior. [ She gives him a flat look, crossing her arms across her chest. This is as much for Gaige as it is for Rhys, a product of her own ill-advised desire to protect. ] A girl who apparently likes to make death robots for fun. Do you really want to tell her that you took her a friend up to Helios and he died?
[ Every version of that scenario popping up in her head right about now all end in one way: Rhys knocked onto the ground. And that's the best case scenario. ]
You are Hyperion, Rhys. Or you still look it. Do I have to remind you what your company did?
[ What Jack did but too most, if not all, Pandorans it is all one in the same. ]
[ Every version of that scenario popping up in her head right about now all end in one way: Rhys knocked onto the ground. And that's the best case scenario. ]
You are Hyperion, Rhys. Or you still look it. Do I have to remind you what your company did?
[ What Jack did but too most, if not all, Pandorans it is all one in the same. ]
N-no. No no no no. Nnnnooo. [There's no faking that response, not by a long shot. Needs it as much as he wishes-- just at the edges of his own thoughts-- that he didn't, lifting his hands to wave off the idea entirely.] Believe me I am literally the last person that needs a reminder of how it all went down, okay.
Or-- you know, how pissed off every single person on Pandora was about it. [Like it was personal. Like every last Hyperion employee was dead set on breaking into the cardboard boxes they call homes and murdering them in their sleep.
Which: totally untrue. It's like 60/40 at least.] I just need to know if she goes all crazy, that you're going to be there to watch my back.
Or-- you know, how pissed off every single person on Pandora was about it. [Like it was personal. Like every last Hyperion employee was dead set on breaking into the cardboard boxes they call homes and murdering them in their sleep.
Which: totally untrue. It's like 60/40 at least.] I just need to know if she goes all crazy, that you're going to be there to watch my back.
Page 3 of 4