Plurk paste

The situation continued to deteriorate, with Winter (actually an AI, like her android GF Andromeda) going offline, seemingly for good. Running into a dead end, the gang decided to lead another techno-seance, reaching out to the ghost collective somewhat desperately for hints. This... did not go well at all, with anyone trying to use their tablet for the seance losing power. Rhys, thankfully, kept his tablet offline and scurried around frantically trying to keep people from getting locked outside (powered tablets being required to open the bunker door). There was also much fussing over Angel, who decided to plug the tablet into her head to keep its charge and got KO'd for a full day. No, they never learn to stop sticking things into their brainports, so stop asking.

Would you believe that things got even worse? They got no help from the ghost gang, as they were by this point gone, and instead got a whole host of symptoms ranging from tinnitus to hearing voices. Well, one voice. Robert Miller's voice, telling the afflicted tablet-drained people that he was going to "borrow" them. Cue the terror. Cue mass unconsciousness and MORE terror amongst the few people left awake, who had no idea what to do.

Squalo and his BFF/BF/we're not sure took this opportunity to "kidnap" Angel, in a weird bid to keep her/everyone around her safe by keeping her away from the bunker crew. This did NOT sit well with Rhys. Damn his Pain Level III, Illness Level III, and mania -- he marched across the tundra in pursuit and peppered the kidnappers with snowballs. This made people very... well, not angry with him, but definitely irritated, and he got a minor ass-whooping for his trouble. And then Angel basically told him to fuck off, in the nicest way possible, so she could get down with the sharky clown. I mean, stay safe and not murder him if she got all brainwashmurderhappy or something. Yeah.

Feeling pretty dejected, Rhys went back to the bunker and hung out with Jared Rhys, who also went by Rhys, who I will be referring to as Inky for the rest of this app because otherwise it'll get confusing. They'd been engaging in back-and-forth friendly bickering re: who had the right to go by Rhys, which eventually turned into flirting. They connected further through shared battles with substance abuse, something Rhys realized was beginning to get a bit out of control, just like it had in the false future event. This led to something a little more intimate, and Rhys became just a little more independent, proving that you CAN solve some things with sex. Or, rather, make things just a bit better in a shitty situation.

Too bad this is Norfinbury and every little bit of happiness and growth gets stomped on eventually by cirsumstance. In this case it was the repeated loss of consciousness the seance participants experienced, of which Inky was a member. These characters found themselves in a room with increasing sensory and bodily distortion. Turns out these weren't the originals; they were copies, being twisted and turned into anomalies as an expiriment by Robert Miller. These anomalies varied in aggression but were all dangerous, with Enoch, Angel, and Beckett's stumbling upon the pair of Rhyses and seriously injuring them. Nearly squeezed to death and with chunks of a dangerous alien element embedded in his chest, the duo limped their way back to the bunker and had it removed by the orignal, non-monsterfied Angel.

They had to figure out what to do about the copies, as even the less aggressive ones were still prone to injuring people. Rhys stayed somewhat reluctantly on Team Angel, emphasizing the importance of choice and freedom while Dr. Watson argued for imprisoning them.