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[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

[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.

[seesobserves]

[Shrug. Fair enough.]

It is possible for a hallucination to be fully immersive, but the landscape here is too consistent. There's no distortion; everything sounds and smells and feels exactly as it should. Well - within a predictable scope.

And if this were drug-induced, there'd likely be an associated emotion, one that the user wouldn't have control over. Ecstasy, delirium, terror... Living inside an opium dream or an acid trip isn't the same as simply walking down the street. Everything becomes heightened. Brighter, sharper, hyper-real. This... this is only real.

[One last tiny puff, and his cigarette's down to a stub. Sherlock flicks it away into the dirt.]

[how_i_tease]

That's true.

[ Tyki's eyebrows lift, as though mildly impressed with the analysis. Or simply recognizing that he hadn't thought of that. ]

So bad dream's probably out then, too. So this is all real. Kidnapped, shipped off to some strange piece of rock like cargo, and not a clue how it happened or why.

[ Silently, he offers him another. ]

[seesobserves]

[Sherlock takes it, regards it, thinks about pocketing it... and lights up instead. The rationing can start after this one.]

We weren't just cargo. Each of our chambers was labeled with our name, and they wouldn't have gone to the trouble unless it mattered.

[how_i_tease]

So there's something about us, specifically, that they wanted?

[ He snorts quietly. ]

That's hard to believe. But it would make sense.

[seesobserves]

Otherwise, why bother? Why not give us organized designations, or leave off the labels entirely? If they'd wanted, they could've chosen any random assortment of people and stamped them with individual numbers. They chose us.

[how_i_tease]

It's a shame they can't just come out and tell us what for, make it easy or anything.

[seesobserves]

The crash could have been deliberate. We won't know for certain until we can access other parts of the ship.

[how_i_tease]

That a plan, then? I'll come with, if you need an extra set of hands to dig around with.

[seesobserves]

[Sherlock glances over, makes a lightning-quick assessment of Tyki.]

Better not to go in alone.

[how_i_tease]

Hey, I've got nothing better to do.

[seesobserves]

Good.

[Said as though there were even the slightest possibility either of them had something better to do.]

We'll need a torch. Tools, if possible.

[how_i_tease]

Got matches. I imagine I could put together torches pretty easy, if the right stuff's lying around.

[seesobserves]

I meant a flashlight... I imagine Edmund can provide, if he's even a fraction as resourceful as he claims.