video - this is stupid

[knaval]

Uh-- is this working? Hello?

[the screen picture is perfectly showing riptide's panicked expression.]

I have absolutely no idea-- uh. My name is Riptide! I was with the crew of the Moira, but now I have no idea where I am. Crazy, right? I think I passed out? I have no idea. Anyway, this is a call for help! I've been approached by people and-- it's awful! I need an extraction immediately!

[he groans dramatically.]

They want me to get a job! [he was recommended to get a job.] A job! Like-- like being employed somewhere! Being paid to have responsibilities! I think one of them even said I can buy a-- a place to live?! I... I need to sit down. I have literally been tortured before and I've never, at this exact moment, been more uncomfortable in my entire life!

Comments

[warandpeace]

[Kaz grunts a little at that. He can't judge. Not really.]

No. Probably not.

But I started out as a different guy. Turned into the asshole I am now. I used to be pretty decent. [He really misses the person he was, before everything went bad.] But I've always tried to keep in mind I wanted my men to be safe.

[knaval]

Yeah... I get the feeling whatever happened I was just thinking about myself.

[warandpeace]

Maybe you're both that guy and the man you think you are. Who knows. I guess every one of us has a shitty side. The guy you hated obviously had sides to him he didn't give a shit damn for the longest time.

[knaval]

He did, Megatron almost caused us to go extinct and only just now cares.

But...

That doesn't mean my friends and Cyclonus deserved to be brought down with him.

[warandpeace]

I really liked Cyclonus. For being a big metal guy, he was actually pretty gentle with me. Not a lot of people had been that for a while. It was a welcome relief at the time. He made me reconsider my reactions to metal gears. Hell, I trusted him with a weapon I wouldn't have trusted to anyone else.

I just wish that he didn't leave with that ahead of him. [Not that Miller's fate is much better. He wants badly to avoid it. He doesn't know that he'll be able to.]

[knaval]

Yeah he's... he's a real good guy. I'm sorry.

[warandpeace]

I wish-

Hell... I wish we could remember each other. [His greatest dread about this place.] I kind of hate that he won't know I put a lot of confidence in him.

You said "zombie". Was he still mostly him?

[knaval]

He was, yeah. He just-- had a rough time.

[riptide is very cleary very ashamed of all this.]

I'm just... I'm really sorry.

[warandpeace]

I guess a decent fate is too much to hope for sometimes.

Is there going to be any way to fix him? What happens to people like that?

[He's can tell he's ashamed. It's not an unfamiliar feeling. Miller's practically destroyed himself trying to make up for his own fuck-ups. But still, he can't help being upset for what happened to yet another lost friend.]

[knaval]

I don't know. I don't even know entirely what was wrong with him, just that he'd been to the Dead Universe...

[warandpeace]

[He remembers seeing what he looked like when he came back from the dead universe. When they had that strange Ingress at their disposal. At the time he'd been up his own ass, mind lingering on the man he'd spent so much of his life and love on and really shouldn't have (still couldn't shake all of his thoughts on him). But he remembers that big metal man crumbling as he came back out of the gate.]

I think... If I remember correctly, he said there was something that could be done. When it happened to him here. I could be remembering wrong. But I gotta hope.

[Cyclonus has lived a long life but living it out differently has to count for something.]