[002] Video

[biteouttagrimes]

[ Rick appears plain exhausted on the video. He's had a hell of a time recovering from the whole LACKEY ordeal and it shows. For a moment, he stares into the camera and debates turning it off. But instead, he rubs his face with his hand and goes forward. ]

I got a few things to say. You ain't gonna like 'em. But I think you need to hear 'em.

[ There's a pause as he mulls over which one to start with. ]

First off, I was a part of the team that put LACKEY in a human body back in Lithuania. 'Cause of that choice, the Soviet Union was able to have their porter here an' put us through hell. Maybe we didn't make the right call, but I still felt responsible for the him. So much so that I wound up gettin' imprisoned alongside LACKEY for the duration of the Soviet occupation.

When you people came up with your plan to extract LACKEY, no one came to me. Shouldn't have been hard to find out that I was there. To communicate with me. But I promised LACKEY I'd protect him an' that's what I did until I was killed by someone I thought was on my side.

[ A beat. ]

An' that wouldn't've been so much of a problem except for one thing. I got a virus inside of me. A virus that when I die, I revive an' turn into a....guess the term most of you I talked to have called it is a 'zombie.' But we call 'em walkers. They're jus' walkin' corpses, no life left to 'em except to eat living flesh. No one put me down in that room for good. An' it coulda been a disaster. This virus is in every single person from my world. So if ever there comes a time where you have to kill any of us or one of us dies, make sure you destroy the brain. If you don't, well -- it don't take long for the virus to spread through a single bite.

[ He lets out a prolonged sigh. ]

I get it. Why you did what you did an' took me out. Which also leads to the other thing I wanna say:

I come from a world where the dead outnumber the livin'. Every day is a struggle to survive. Food is scarce, resources even moreso. I understand war better than many of you can imagine. I understand the horrible things you have to do in order to survive. Hell. I did 'em myself.

People died in Debrecen. That's the reality. There ain't a damn thing we can do to change it. It's just the way war goes. I've lost a lot of people along the way. Good people. People who didn't deserve the die jus' like those civilians. But it ain't realistic to think it won't happen in war. Gettin' angry about it ain't gonna change things. And doin' somethin' stupid definitely ain't gonna change things. What it all boils down to when you're in a war, what you gotta remember is: there are no good guys, no bad guys. There're jus' people, tryin' to fight to protect themselves an' their own, doin' whatever it takes to do that. The Russians wouldn't've done it any different if the situations were reversed.

[ He rubs at one of his temples as though he can sense the indignation he's about to stir up. ]

Guess what I'm ultimately gettin' at is we have to live here. Don't go on an' do somethin' stupid that reflects on us all. 'cause trust me on this much: when you go on an' do somethin' stupid, it only leads to way more people bein' killed. That is a reality, the only reality, you have in your hands to control.

Comments

[ video ]

[hostage]

Before anybody gets too worried, there was never any way that virus was gonna spread as long as I was in the room.

[ video ]

[biteouttagrimes]

But you sure as hell didn't know I had one before you pulled the trigger.

[hostage]

So what? Makes no difference.

[ video ]

[112ounces]

You don't get to talk to him and pretend like nothing has ever happened.

[hostage]

Who's pretending anything?

video;

[fayzedandconfused]

[ To be quite honest, Brianna tunes out the stuff about LACKEY. Blah, blah, blah. But the zombie talk makes her perk right up, and even prompts her to reply. ]

Oh, dude, I knew a zombie once. Two, actually.

video;

[biteouttagrimes]

You...knew 'em...? You mean you knew 'em before they turned?

[fayzedandconfused]

Yeah. I knew both of them. And then I had to deal with them.

permatext

[hypnotherapy]

Well, for what it's worth, it should have gone better than it did. [ He certainly didn't mean to cause LACKEY trauma, but...well, that happened. ]

I suppose I should thank you for your kindness to someone that you had no reason to be kind to. [ He doesn't like Rick, but he dislikes Jesse even more just from that conversation he's seeing. ] It's important for them to learn what such a thing is.

permavid!

[biteouttagrimes]

[ Sorry, Magicman. Rick doesn't do text. ]

No. You're wrong. I had every reason to be kind to him. We brought him back here. He suddenly found himself in a human body, an' he needed to see we weren't all bad. He needed to make the call himself, not basing his knowledge on whatever he was programmed to think.

[ He shakes his head, disappointed. ]

I have no way of knowin' whether my message got through or not. But I sure hope it did.

[hypnotherapy]

[ it's ok, rick, magicman rarely does video. YOU CAN BOTH STICK TO YOUR FORMATS TOGETHER. ]

Then you understand a little better than some. [ He understands the reason why an imPort might want to destroy LACKEY, rather than let them live. But he's glad they were spared. It makes him feel like this world will be a little kinder. ]

They did mention that some imPorts had shown them kindness. I think you were successful in teaching them something of it, at least.

Also I suppose I should thank you for one more thing. I'll make a note not to lend my efforts to anything Jesse is involved in from now on. He seems to forget that perhaps calling an AI a thing and a machine is something of a faux pas when he was cooperating with another, but that's his loss.

Video

[bindsthedead]

I'm sorry. While I don't regret taking LACKEY out of that room, things- should have gone better than they did- you shouldn't have died, we should have explained what was happening.

And if you do end up dying, I'll do what's necessary. The last thing this world needs is to be troubled by the Dead.

Video

[biteouttagrimes]

I appreciate it, Sabriel. It's why I made this post in the first place. I want people to know -- so they can put me down if needed. We were lucky things turned out the way they did. It could've gone down a whole lot worse.

video

[mousquetaire]

[ This is an interesting perspective on what happened. It's one that d'Artagnan, unfortunately, has very limited sympathy for.

He was, after all, there. ]

What you fail to say is that the man who 'killed' you only did so after we warned you to stand down. Then he brought you back with his own powers. None of us had any intention of taking out our own. He only did what he did because he could bring you back.

What happened in that room was your doing, not ours. We had no intention of hurting LACKEY, and if you had trusted us instead of standing in our way, no one would have hurt you. Don't blame him for doing what needed to be done.

video

[biteouttagrimes]

[ D'artagnan receives the dryest of looks. ]

I ain't blamin' him. Did you even listen beyond the first part? I said I get it. Why he did what he did.

video;

[assays]

I think you hit the nail on the head, Rick.

[ She gives him a sombre smile, thinking about her own experiences.]

Glad to see you back with us.

video;

[biteouttagrimes]

Thanks, Peggy. Wasn't down for the count too long. But I'm glad it's over.

( audio )

[chancetoatone]

[It's a moment before Thane responds, absorbing everything this man had to say.]

This sounds as though it would have been important information to have beforehand.

( audio )

[biteouttagrimes]

You mean about the virus? 'cause yeah. I agree. I shoulda come forward sooner. Guess I got complacent -- thought there was no chance of me dyin' here.

[ And he also did it out of respect for his son, who didn't want to be viewed with horror. ]

private/video

[resipiscent]

Rick.

[Riku can't make any judgments about what went down with LACKEY. He wasn't there and he's not sure he wants to have been there. But what he can have an opinion on is the man in front of him right now. He's not upset with him, or mad at anybody for this situation, he's just... concerned, honestly.]

... You're okay now, though? Physically.

private/video

[biteouttagrimes]

I'm fine. Physically. Feelin' worn down, but that's probably jus' exhaustion after the whole thing went down.

How'd you make out of this whole thing?

[ video ]

[enucleation]

[ there is a lot to be said and honestly, Kaneki won't get into all of that for so many reasons. If he is angry, he doesn't show ]

Are you alright, Rick?

[ video ]

[biteouttagrimes]

I'm alive. Guess that's all that counts, huh?

[ He says it with a faint smile, though his expression becomes more concerned. Kaneki is another one Rick didn't manage to get in contact with during this whole thing. He has no idea what struggles the other had to face. ]

What about you?

text;

[itstheirworld]

[Okay, firstly, Enid looks at this post a good long while before replying via text.

See, she doesn't get WHY Rick would want to announce that people from his world have the walker virus inside of them, except she sort of does in this case, and isn't sure how to feel being that much closer to outed. She's warily thinking of the potential of this turning into a witch hunt, though.

And so rather than typing 'should you be telling people that?', she eventually decides to completely ignore that part to disassociate from it.

Instead, she types and leaves her thoughts at:]

are you ok now?

[She's just asking for Carl's sake, alright. Whatever.]

permavoice;

[biteouttagrimes]

[ Rick's about to make this pretty awkward for Enid because he doesn't text. He only texted once and hated it. So he opts to respond like an old man with the phone version. She can keep on texting him. He'll just reply aloud. ]

Yeah. I'm good. How about you? Come outta that mess okay?