Long Road Ahead (1x1 with Sori)

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

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• Jack easily takes hold of rhys mechanical arm with his own good one, using it as a bit of leverage to pull himself up and into a sitting position. It thankfully wasn't as painful with the assistance as when he did it himself. Thought he still tentatively rubbed at his shoulder when released.
  
  
• But he's sitting up, so he takes the little plastic cup of water as carefully as possible and took a few small sips. He's learned not to chug it from previous surgeries. So once his mouth doesn't feel like he licked the dirt of pandora, he mumbles a small 'thanks' and sets the cup aside.

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[Sori]

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"No problem," Rhys said with a nod and stepped back over to the other side to grab his own cup of water- which he drank rather fast. He tapped his fingers against his empty plastic cup, and decided it might be a good idea to offer Jack another chance to ask questions to hopefully avoid another breakdown. Besides, if Rhys slipped up and said something he wasn't supposed to there was a chance Jack would forget about it by the time the medicine wore off. "I really can't tell you everything still due to company policies and the amount of paperwork I'll have to fill out, but I'm sure you've got some questions by now. About Atlas, or this timeline? Or me, I guess if you're curious about anything." Rhys already knew Jack pretty well between the obsession he 'used to' have, having that AI in his head, and even what he'd learned today, but this version of Jack didn't really know anything about Rhys yet. It was wishful thinking on his part that Jack wanted to get to know him in the first place.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

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• Jack was alittle curious. Ashin was drfinitely something new, far as he was aware the bandits just used something kind of similar but called them Hypos. He wants to know what happened leading up to his death, he really wants to know how angel died, when she died, what happened between the mining deal and his death. He wanted to know everything and why it all declined so quickly. Why the AI that was created seemed so... off. How old was the AI version of him? Maybe that would explain it.
  
  
• But he starts off on a completely different note. "You mentioned a vault a while ago. I'm not asking for details on the fight. I just want to know if it had any special abilities and how it died? Maybe even some kind of picture of it I could see?" He asked. Maybe that vault beast had something to do with why he was here. If it was, then maybe somehow jack could get a hold of a few pieces and go home.

[Sori]

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Rhys had to think it over for a moment before responding. Showing him The Traveler wouldn't hurt as long as Rhys didn't mention he was one of the ones who helped fight it and open the vault. He nodded, and pulled up a projection of the vault beast with his hand. "This is The Traveler, and its vault was opened a while after Helios fell. It's special abilities that we know of are that it could teleport, and the vault teleported with it around the universe. It was, um, weakened by a blow to the core crystals that powered it's teleportation." Rhys pointed to the glowing center of the vault guardian. "And then it was taken down and fell apart." He shrugged and kept the projection up for Jack to look at. The thought had crossed Rhys's mind that Jack's sudden appearance and the crystal he touched were related to the vault, and it seemed that Jack had gotten curious about that too. If it was because of The Traveler, Rhys had some sort of idea of where to start looking for a way to get Jack home.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

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• Jack looked over the projection, head tilted ever so slightly, but when rhys pointed out the crystal core he made a noise. It definitely looked a lot like the crystal he'd grabbed. "this thing might be the reason why i'm here. The crystal i grabbed looks a lot like that core on the beast." He stated. Least he was able to recognize such in his drugged state, which meant the drugs were most definitely wearing off. And if it had fallen apart, then he just needed to know where it'd fallen apart and snag a few of the crystals.
  
  
• "So if this thing is the reason why i'm here, then i'd make sense that if i got ahold of another crystal, then it should send me back." He stated with a nod of his head as he looked at rhys. As much as he actually kind of liked it here, he really needed to get back to his timeline and fix everything that went wrong.

[Sori]

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Okay, the crystal looking similar confirmed Rhys's little theory. He looked at Jack and returned his arm to his side, the projection flicking off. "Possibly, yeah. Lucky for you I know where The Traveler was defeated. I'll work on getting a group together tonight and we can head out, let's say, around 10 AM tomorrow?" He assumed Jack didn't want to waste any time, and Yvette and Vaughn probably didn't either with how bad they wanted Jack out of their hair. Rhys would probably try to snag a few of the crystals from the traveler himself- if they were the cause they could be useful to have around or put research into.

"I'll have that ECHO brought back to you by the way," he said, idly looking around the room. "As long as you promise you won't try hacking past the security again." He refocused on Jack, with a more serious expression on his face. If he was going to trust Jack, he needed Jack to trust him that there were just things he didn't need to know yet.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

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• Jack nods his head in agreement to going early in the morning. "Sounds good to me." he stated. This was good, really good. Take the rest of the time to relax, maybe catch alittle sleep, then first thing early morning they go hit up the traveler. He could pocket a few of the crystals himself, take those back to his time in helios, get R&D to study them and get sent back home with all this new information. He could completely change the game and everything.
  
  
• When rhys states he'd give him the new ECHO back if he didn't hack it, he gave a more broad grin of amusement. "I'll make an effort. But i can't make any promises. New toy and all." He teased. Thought rhys was being much more open and giving him the information he wanted, so he had no need to try hacking it as long as he got what he wanted. "One last thing. What happened. To me, two years go? Why'd i drag hyperion through the mud and end up dead?" He asked after a few moments.

[Sori]

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"Alright, I guess that's good enough." Rhys rolled his eyes and smiled a little. Made sense he wouldn't get a promise out of Jack for that. Then Jack asked a more serious question, and Rhys let out a soft, defeated sigh. "Look, I know you're asking since you don't want to die." He looked Jack in the eye- a man who probably thought he was invincible until earlier that day. "I can't tell you the specifics, but my suggestion is don't go after another vault if you have the chance to. And as for Hyperion's name, clean up Pandora with a method other than murdering half of the planet and people won't hate you as much." He shrugged. Hopefully that answer was good enough for Jack- Rhys still had to let Jack make his own decisions in what he let happen in his own timeline. If he didn't end up listening to him that was his own fault.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

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• Jack snorted a bit. "I can't promise any of that either if an incompetent bandit decide to try and shot and or stab me." He answered, thought the look he got made him lift both hands despite the agitation to his shoulder. "Okay, okay, okay. I was just joking, i'll invest in some non-lethal weapons development. I don't know, maybe some batons or something." He stated before dropping his hands.
  
  
• But the comment bout going for another vault made him remember some of the things Elpis showed him. The interior of a volcano, the massive vault beast, him standing before it. It gave him pause as he thought about that. "Hypothetically speaking, what if i was supposed to go for another vault? Is that what causes everything? Going for another vault?" He asked. Rhys obviously didn't know anything about Elpis or what its vault showed him, just that he'd been there and that the vault/siren marked him.

[Sori]

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Rhys doubted Jack was going to reform Pandora with some other way, even if he researched non-lethal weapons- violence seemed to be what Jack knew best. He raised an eyebrow at the hesitation before Jack asked follow up questions. "Going after the vault is what kills you if that's what you're asking. So if you're supposed to open another one, then you're supposed to die." Rhys put his hands on his hips. "I'm just saying, if you want to try changing fate so things don't turn out like they did here then you shouldn't go for the vault." He didn't know why he was trying to help Jack right now. It was probably because he had a chance at stopping Jack from becoming who he did and staying this person that Rhys used to admire greatly.

Rhys stepped over to the mask on the table. "You should rest up for tomorrow, handsome," he teased in the sorta-pet-name to see if it was allowed or not. Rhys picked up the mask and looked down at it for a moment before holding it up to Jack. "Do you need me to put this back on before I go?"