[ video ; open ]

[how_i_tease]

They said this isn't the end of the world. Sure had me fooled.

[ The image hovers strangely, like the device is floating in front of him as he lights up a cigarette. The man in the feed is scruffy and pale looking, with thick coke-bottle glasses. He runs a hand distractedly through dark, shaggy hair as his gaze flits to the side to take in the ruined city around him, peering this way and that. ]

Woke up to worse, though.

So any word yet on what that's supposed to be?

[ He turns the camera to point towards the domes in the distance. ]

Comments

[how_i_tease]

Looks like you've been in need of one for a while.

[seesobserves]

Weeks.

[Of course he'd been using patches during all that time, but now he's been deprived of even those for forty-eight hours.

He supposes he could make some attempt at conversation. Part of his expression of gratitude.]

You say you've woken up to worse?

[how_i_tease]

When I say 'worse', I think I mean 'weirder'. Not 'in greater ruin'. Just so we're clear.

[ He scratches idly at his chin, head tipping up with another puff of smoke. ]

Thinking of heading down after a while, sniffing out a good place to hide. Maybe some food. Figure out what's what. What about you?

[seesobserves]

Food and shelter. Take care of the necessities first.

[The next drag he takes has a thoughtful air.]

Whole new culture to learn. Apparently they run on a barter system. Not surprising for post-apocalyptic...

[how_i_tease]

And cigarettes. Won't have these forever.

If barter's the system, it'd be good to get in touch with the right people. Work for them, get whatever's needed. Supplies. Information. That sort of thing.

[seesobserves]

[That first point gets a nod of agreement. Sherlock examines the cigarette, rolling it between his fingers.]

Skill is the greatest bargaining chip one could have, at the outset.

[how_i_tease]

It's all we really have. How useful we can be to someone else.

[ He clucks his tongue. ]

Dull, but hey, just starting out we don't have much of a choice.

[seesobserves]

[An incredulous chuckle.] Dull?

[But then he thinks about it.]

...Depends on the task. Pity if the only use they can find for us will be laying brick, only to have it bombed down again.

[how_i_tease]

Well, I don't mind doing grunt work, as long as it gets us somewhere.

What about you?

[seesobserves]

I'll do what I have to. [Though it's said through half-gritted teeth.]

[how_i_tease]

[ Tyki smirks faintly at that, almost looking sympathetic. ]

Don't we all.

[ He's done his fair share of 'what has to be done'. He's quick to drop that topic, though, tapping the end of his cigarette. ]

So what's your name?

[seesobserves]

[As he taps some ashes onto the ground:]

Sherlock Holmes.

[how_i_tease]

Tyki Mikk. Pleasure to make your acquaintance then...wait, you prefer Holmes or Sherlock?

[seesobserves]

Oh, we've been through an alien abduction together. I think that qualifies us for a first-name basis.

[how_i_tease]

[ And he laughs openly at that. ]

That what it is, then? Well, then I'd say so.

I'm still not sure what's going on. Though if this is some kind of trick, I don't know what more they'd have to gain from it. Maybe less people trying to escape.

[seesobserves]

Setup would be too elaborate and too difficult to hide. Someone would have had to have noticed either the ship or the dome via satellite.

[He looks up at the dome.]

Brave new world.

[how_i_tease]

[ Tyki follows his gaze, pensive for a moment. ]

With such people in it. That's how it went, isn't it? Truer words never spoken. There's an interesting collection of people coming off of that ship, from the look of it.

[seesobserves]

And most of them out of their minds. Although so far we seem to have avoided the criminally insane.

[how_i_tease]

I don't know about that. Desperate situations bring out the ugliness in people. It can change people.

[seesobserves]

[To reiterate:] So far.

Meanwhile the natives think we ought to know why we were on that ship. [Scoff.] I certainly didn't go voluntarily.

[how_i_tease]

It doesn't sound like anyone did. Well, there'd be no reason to tell us anything if they didn't need our permission.

[ He snorts softly. ]

Maybe it's...I don't know, some weird experiment. We're still all drugged up and imagining all this.

[seesobserves]

I'd call this an incredibly lucid hallucination.

[how_i_tease]

Compared to? Obviously you've tasted better stuff than I have.

[seesobserves]

[Have a Look, Tyki. 'Obviously?']

Who said I had?

[Which is only defensive if Tyki chooses to take it that way. Really, he's just curious how Tyki reached that conclusion.]

[how_i_tease]

You're saying you haven't?

[ Now he's teasing you, grinning around his cigarette and puffing a long trail of smoke. ]

Hey, does it look like I'm the judgmental type? You seem keen on the world, real intellectual type. Thinking outside the box. And most of the creative types I know have at the very least dabbled. Hell, if I knew as much as they did, I'd probably be on something too.