ECHO DIARY ENTRY #2: FIVE WEEKS AFTER THE FALL OF HELIOS
[ when rhys shows up again, he looks a bit healthier. there's no gauze but there's an empty scabbed over hole in his head for his port and his eye is covered with an eyepatch. his arm is still missing and he wears a hyperion sweater -- the right sleeve hanging loosely on his side.
he's sitting on a bed but this time, it's not in a hospital but what looks like a house -- the bedroom furnished in homey yet impersonal decor. his tablet is held in his hand and he smiles sadly, tired. ]
Hi, uh... me. Future me. I highly doubt I'll be sharing these with anyone -- maybe Vaughn?
[ a pause and his face twists in grief before he looks down at his lap. then he shakes his head and back to the camera, hint of a smile gone once more. ]
Future me. [ . . . ] So, you're back with your parents for a... moment. That sucks? Not that they're bad but, well, I miss my apartment. My home. My life. They turned my bedroom into a guest room, can you believe that? I mean, I guess you can. You're me. But, right, Eden-5 isn't really how I remember it, I think I've been away too long and people -- they keep... I don't know how people figured out I came from Pandora but they stare at me now, like I'm the freak here? Which, what the fuck?
[ he looks frustrated for a moment before huffing, hard enough to blow the bangs out of his face and he sighs. ]
I'm just here to get my cybernetics back. With Helios gone, I had to come back here and -- and my dad said he'd pay for them which, admittedly, is pretty great right now since I lost all my identification in the wreckage. I have money, I just need to access it and once I can --
[ he pauses again and again, looks frustrated. ]
This isn't what I want to talk about. Who cares about fucking errands I have to run? No, I've gotta talk about Jack. I have to -- I have to say it. Out loud. Say what happened or it doesn't seem real.
[ there's a minute or so of silence as rhys thinks before finally, in a calm voice he goes for it. ]
My friends are all dead. Jack is dead. I destroyed Helios. I killed thousands and thousands of people. It's all my fault.
[ a nod then as he seems to accept this and turns off the video. ]
[ These are going to take a while to get through if he can only watch one a day. He knows that, and he knows it's stupid, since who cares. The guy is dead, and Jack killed him! That should be more than enough for this to not mean shit, and yet it manages to piss him off all the same. It's almost like a ritual now, as if the third time is the charm, so there's another glass of liquor and another set of data to dig through.
And this video is much easier for him to parse through.
It's mundane, almost boring, and if not for the fact that Jack is a thorough guy, he would probably skip this one. He listens to Rhys talk about his parents, about Eden-5, and Jack doesn't feel much of anything beyond a "oh, that's where the kid is from," since there's no source of connection in the rest. The way Rhys talks about his family and his home planet is an experience is so far removed from Jack's life that there's simply not anything for him to think on. ]
There we go. [ Jack speaks up once Rhys starts to correct himself and get back on track, though his eyes do narrow when Rhys says he has to talk about Jack. He's expecting something more like the first video, and it's clear that Jack is almost waiting to get angry in that long silence. He watches Rhys on the screen like he'd like nothing more than to reach through it and strangle him.
But when that confession comes, it's different from what Jack expects.
The anger fades away to something neutral, and Jack taps his fingers against his glass thoughtfully. Like Rhys's in the video, his silence lingers for a while while he looks to the hard drive with a hard to read expression. Finally, Jack shakes his head. He sits forward to reach to his datapad and pull up the next video, but as he does, Jack at least has one simple comment. ]
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> vid_002
[ when rhys shows up again, he looks a bit healthier. there's no gauze but there's an empty scabbed over hole in his head for his port and his eye is covered with an eyepatch. his arm is still missing and he wears a hyperion sweater -- the right sleeve hanging loosely on his side.
he's sitting on a bed but this time, it's not in a hospital but what looks like a house -- the bedroom furnished in homey yet impersonal decor. his tablet is held in his hand and he smiles sadly, tired. ]
Hi, uh... me. Future me. I highly doubt I'll be sharing these with anyone -- maybe Vaughn?
[ a pause and his face twists in grief before he looks down at his lap. then he shakes his head and back to the camera, hint of a smile gone once more. ]
Future me. [ . . . ] So, you're back with your parents for a... moment. That sucks? Not that they're bad but, well, I miss my apartment. My home. My life. They turned my bedroom into a guest room, can you believe that? I mean, I guess you can. You're me. But, right, Eden-5 isn't really how I remember it, I think I've been away too long and people -- they keep... I don't know how people figured out I came from Pandora but they stare at me now, like I'm the freak here? Which, what the fuck?
[ he looks frustrated for a moment before huffing, hard enough to blow the bangs out of his face and he sighs. ]
I'm just here to get my cybernetics back. With Helios gone, I had to come back here and -- and my dad said he'd pay for them which, admittedly, is pretty great right now since I lost all my identification in the wreckage. I have money, I just need to access it and once I can --
[ he pauses again and again, looks frustrated. ]
This isn't what I want to talk about. Who cares about fucking errands I have to run? No, I've gotta talk about Jack. I have to -- I have to say it. Out loud. Say what happened or it doesn't seem real.
[ there's a minute or so of silence as rhys thinks before finally, in a calm voice he goes for it. ]
My friends are all dead. Jack is dead. I destroyed Helios. I killed thousands and thousands of people. It's all my fault.
[ a nod then as he seems to accept this and turns off the video. ]
no subject
And this video is much easier for him to parse through.
It's mundane, almost boring, and if not for the fact that Jack is a thorough guy, he would probably skip this one. He listens to Rhys talk about his parents, about Eden-5, and Jack doesn't feel much of anything beyond a "oh, that's where the kid is from," since there's no source of connection in the rest. The way Rhys talks about his family and his home planet is an experience is so far removed from Jack's life that there's simply not anything for him to think on. ]
There we go. [ Jack speaks up once Rhys starts to correct himself and get back on track, though his eyes do narrow when Rhys says he has to talk about Jack. He's expecting something more like the first video, and it's clear that Jack is almost waiting to get angry in that long silence. He watches Rhys on the screen like he'd like nothing more than to reach through it and strangle him.
But when that confession comes, it's different from what Jack expects.
The anger fades away to something neutral, and Jack taps his fingers against his glass thoughtfully. Like Rhys's in the video, his silence lingers for a while while he looks to the hard drive with a hard to read expression. Finally, Jack shakes his head. He sits forward to reach to his datapad and pull up the next video, but as he does, Jack at least has one simple comment. ]
Yeah, kiddo. It is.