day 5 | bigby

[jackhole]

[ this morning, while nursing a wicked awful hangover, rhys finds his way to the gym with a cup of coffee. he's got someone to talk to before the rest of the complex wakes up and hadn't had a chance to hit him up last night between all the... you know, booze.

god, he drank so much.

so, he heads into the gym, grateful for the earthy color tones on his sensitive eyes right now and heads straight over to wherever bigby is, clearing his throat to announce himself. ]

Hey, did you eat breakfast yet?

Comments

[puffing]

[ Bigby doesn't need an accelerated sense of smell to pick up on the mixture of old alcohol and coffee approaching him in the gym. at least it wasn't vomit, because... yeah, that's just. gross. he doesn't turn around to see who's coming for the time being, far too occupied with the idea of wailing his fists into the punching bag in front of him until he starts seeing the sand begin to pour out.

he hasn't gotten it to that point yet, but it wasn't from lack of trying. and he's shirtless too?? because of sweat and exercise. and because i need a use for all of these half naked icons, dammit.

Rhys' question is heard and he punches the bag one last time before catching it mid-swing to bring it back to the center. he turns around, wiping his forehead of its sweat and catching his breath. ]

No. Haven't really had an appetite. I'm surprised you didn't want to sleep in later while you have the chance.

[ they kind of have to deal with long nights, after all. ]

[jackhole]

[ look, he showered. and brushed his teeth! he knows better than to walk around with vomit still staining his mouth. that would be... well, that would be sick.

he plops down on a bench nearby, taking a sip of coffee and watching bigby continue to let out his frustration. he's also going to take a bit to admire the muscles on the guy because damn. damn, that dude is ripped. rhys is into it, actually. he wants to make a swole comment but he decides better. ]

Spoiler alert, bro. The more exhausted I am, the less energy I have to be terrified all the time. I got a few hours at least. It's, uh. Well, it sucks but I can deal with it.

[ he shrugs even though bigby can't see it, taking a sip of his coffee and letting out a content sigh. at least he still has this. ]

You should eat though. Preeetty sure you're our muscle now, just in case anything goes south. Also, I wanted to say sorry about everything I did yesterday since you actually seem to be the only one with good intentions here and I know I risked a... lot by mistake and it might be my fault Luke died because of it. But yeah, breakfast. Most important meal of the day!

[ rhys, you don't just... squish something like that between nonsense words. but he does actually feel pretty guilty for being... himself. he knows how hard it is to deal with and last night had him thinking a lot about fiona and how much she had to deal with him. if she was here... well, maybe things would be different. she's not though and he's really fucking this up.

so, he might as well apologize for it to the one guy who seems to be genuinely frustrated with him because of it. he never got a chance to apologize to her, after all. ]

[puffing]

[ okay, okay, fine. he smells more like soap and coffee than alcohol. better? not like Bigby would have judged. regardless of which side they were standing on last night, a lot of foul shit happened, and Luke of all people got caught up in the middle of it. it was a good reason for just about anyone to drink.

Bigby probably notices the eyes looking at him shirtless and he could say something, but he'd rather not. Rhys has a habit of not only vomiting old food, but words that both of them would immediately regret. he instead goes to pick up the undershirt he had worn on his way to the gym, wiping it across his face and neck to soak up the excess sweat. ]

Preeetty sure things have gone south already. But yeah, I'll eat something in a bit. Thanks. [ Rhys will probably get the idea that he was purposely being a dick, but the thanks was at least genuine. his words at least get him thinking, enough to lean back and sit on the edge of the boxing ring. talk of Bigby having good intentions makes him just snort a huff of air through his nose. ] Good intentions? That's... I don't know how true that is. Kind of having a hard time figuring out what intentions we should have here.

[ they were killing people, after all. in the name of science! ―Bigby didn't even fucking like science. he's lying to a bunch of confused individuals as they're picked off one-by-one. don't get him started on the fact that it's been only children up until recently. ]

Wasn't all on you. Prosecutor lady took a wild guess and got it half right. It could have very well been a tie between him and you.

[ but then he's reminded of Lara. poor bb. ]

Kind of wish we could have at least... saved Lara for a while longer, though. No reason to go so soon.

[jackhole]

[ yes, totally better. absolutely.

still, what bigby says about his intentions makes rhys pause for a moment and he wonders what to say. he really did think that, of all of them, at least bigby was a decent person. he knew ciel because he knew himself and they were two sides of the same coin. ava was hard to read and luke -- luke was dead. bigby though, he seemed to have some sort of moral compass underneath everything else and that was nice. rhys would never say it, but he felt better when he seemed to have the same idea as bigby during the meetings -- like maybe he, rhys, wasn't so bad after all either. ]

This is -- this is a weird question, I guess, but do you want to leave? Or would you die to let someone else leave instead?

[ rhys isn't actually sure where he falls on that scale, all he's sure of is he needs to stick with jack because... because whatever. this is his second chance to make jack see things the right way, the good way, make him realize they were supposed to be partners. but is that partners in death or partners in living? rhys isn't really sure, helios' crash still hanging over his head like something suffocating and all consuming.

but. right. rhys nods his agreement and takes a sip of his coffee for lack of things to say. he wishes lara were still here but does it even matter? aren't they just delaying the inevitable? why wait one more day or kill someone who's gonna die anyway? god damnit. ]