Long Road Ahead (1x1 with Sori)

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

----H A N D S O M E J A C K ----

• Jack looked at rhys with furrowed brows, curious and confused to the question. How long has it been? "What do you mean by that? Its been a year Princess. Have you missed me that much that you can't tell how long its been?" He retorted with a smile on his lips and a light laugh escaping him. "I'm flattered." He stated, smiling still as he looked at rhys.
  
  
• When told about his tailcoat and sweater, he shrugged a bit. "I don't know, they haven't been claimed by anyone else have they? Because i would like them back for a little while. Cause i'm pretty sure no one here would appreciate me walking around in a blood covered shirt and coat." He stated with another rough chuckle a he brushed his fingers through his hair, neatening it just a small bit. He looked at Rhys to faintly look him over. Hair disheveled, eyes were red and puffy. Had he actually worried over him?
  
  
• Thus he instinctively does reach a hand out to lightly brush them through Rhys hair, neaten it ever so faintly as well. "Ya know, i was joking when i asked if you missed me since i figured a lot of you still hated my guts but getting a better look t you know, i'm beginning to have second thoughts on if i should of been joking. so something tells me, i might not actually get my sweater back." He stated as he looked at rhys, a light smile on his lips.

[Sori]

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Rhys was getting flustered rather quickly at the mention of him missing Jack, which he tried to deny. "I- no, it's just the dates on the ECHOs made me think your timeline might be moving faster than ours, which I seem to right about, actually. It's only been three months here." Rhys looked down at his hands for a moment, fiddling with the metal bits on his right hand. He smiled to himself at the question of anyone claiming Jack's clothes- since he kind of had. Then there was a gentle hand brushing through his hair, and he looked back up at Jack in wonder. Jack was literally the last person he thought would've been able to be gentle. It was a bit of a tender moment- for Rhys anyway- and his heart had started beating faster for much different reasons than it was earlier.

Jack seemed to have caught on that he actually did miss him, and it made Rhys go red in the face. He tried not to miss him, of course, but with all the ECHOs it's not like he could help it. "Yeah, I don't- I don't hate you, Jack." Rhys shook his head with a quiet laugh and looked toward the ground again, rather embarrassed by himself. "I can set you up with new clothes. So unless you really want it, I would like to hang on to that sweater," he mumbled with a small smile on his lips. God help him, Rhys was in deep at this point.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

----H A N D S O M E J A C K ----

• Jack looked at rhys with a grin on his lips when he tried defending himself about not missing him or anything as well as wanting to keep the sweater and chuckles a bit. "Its fine Princess, but you'll have to let me see you in it first. Bet you look good in yellow." He stated, not hesitating in his flirting once more before finally taking his hand away. He leans back a bit on the bed once more however, smile still plastered on his lips because now rhys is flustered and looking rather adorable.
  
  
• "But I would appreciate change of close and at lest my old tailcoat back." He stated with a nod of his head. He'd definitely prefer a change of close seeing as what he did wear was not only full of holes and tears now, but also covered in blood. which wasn't very attractive most of the time.

[Sori]

▀▄ ʀʜʏs ▀▄

"That's fair. And I like to think I do, but it's up for debate- specifically by my friends who not so silently judge me when I wear it." Rhys chuckled and glanced back up. He had a big dopey grin plastered on his face- man, he was really happy to have Jack with him again. "Mhm, that should be doable." He paused and chewed at the inside of his cheek in thought for a moment, trying to decide if he was actually going to offer Jack one of his own shirts or not. Rhys chose not to, but only because he thought of something better. If he brought Jack one of his own shirts as part of the change of clothes, Jack wouldn't be given the chance to deny the offer. To Rhys, Jack really didn't seem like the kind of person who'd willingly accept to swap shirts with someone he was probably only vaguely interested in. And Rhys very much wanted to see Jack in his clothes, too, since it was only fair. It was an extremely cheesy and dumb plan, which meant it was perfect for Rhys.

Then curiosity started to pick at him about what led to Jack appearing so banged up up Atlas's doorstep in the first place. And what he'd missed in this last week of silence. "So, um, what's happened since the last ECHO you left me? Like I said I was worried since you got all silent- is Angel okay?" With how concerned Jack was about his daughter the last time he was there, and how he reacted to her death in this timeline, Rhys sure hoped she was alright for Jack's sake.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

----H A N D S O M E J A C K ----

• Jack chuckled a bit as he nodded, amused with the answer. "Oh really now? Bet its gunna be fun for them knowing i'm back and probably not going anywere this time." He stated in amusement as he looked at rhys. He seemed to be thinking about something with the smile on his face. He doesn't question it however.
  
  
• Then rhys' expression changes and he's asking about the week of hell. More specifically, about angel. His grip tightened drastically on the edge of the bed. "She uh... She's with her mom now..... The uh.... The vault hunters made it a mission to take everything from me. They took me leg, they took down helios. Executed everyone I cared about infront of me. Including angel. So I guess I couldn't escape that fate." He stated, voice a bit dry and bitter as he explained what happened during his month of no communication.

[Sori]

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Rhys's heart felt heavy, and there was a short silence before he said anything. He'd considered grabbing Jack's hand, but that felt too intimate of a thing to do. Rhys's hand curled itself into a fist on his lap instead. "God- I'm really sorry, Jack, that sounds like a nightmare. If there's anything I can do for you let me know okay?" He gazed at Jack with sorrowful eyes. Jack had been through so many things that Rhys couldn't begin to imagine how he felt. "You'll be safe here, I promise. You really deserve a break." Rhys looked away, and let out a small sigh before continuing. "Also, since I know basically your whole life story, I think you deserve to know mine too, if you want to hear it." He'd been wanting to tell Jack everything for a while. Since he'd shared so much personal information with Rhys, Rhys fully trusted him. And as much as he hated talking about it, he was ready to trust Jack with everything involving Helios, the AI- and even the vault.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

----H A N D S O M E J A C K ----

• Jack looks at him and offers a smile when Rhys seems to sympathize or even see pity on the information, shrugging a small amount. "Things happen i guess." He mumbled before rhys seemed to offer to tell him more bout themselves. Jack seems pretty content with that. "I know a bit bout you. I kind of got to know you a little bit from my timeline. But i don't mind hearing everything again. Your voice is always a delight to hear." He answered, giving as charming of a smile as he could manage.
  
  
• Jack isn't going to lie, he's a hopeless flirt, especially with someone as cute as rhys. So he was going to take any chance he could to flirt with the other. It also didn't help that it was a near instant crush the first moment he saw rhys. Can't change that one little bit. It was that crush that made it somewhat awkward at times to have a friendship with his timeline's version of rhys. Bless be him and ll the others of his now ruined timeline.

[Sori]

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Rhys smiled at the comment before he turned serious again. "The more important stuff is more specific for this timeline, so it's going to be all new. But hang in there- it's quite a long story." He took a deep breath before beginning, a little bit nervous about how Jack would react to it all. He started at the beginning of everything, back when the plan was to majorly screw over Vasquez by taking that Vault Key deal. He told him how it went south, and they lost the money. "Since I was shut out of Hyperion's systems, we needed a way to track the money, and uh. I happened to come across Nakayama's ID drive. I uploaded it to get higher clearance which has probably been my biggest mistake to date." Rhys looked down and shook his head a little. Here was the fun part. "Because..." he dragged out the word, "that ID drive contained an artificial intelligence version of you." His eyes flicked back up to Jack, waiting to see the realization on his face that Rhys was talking about himself when he briefly explained Helios's fall the last time Jack was here.

[Agent Maine(Meta)]

----H A N D S O M E J A C K ----

• Jack listened closely to everything rhys told him, nodding here or there just to show he was following along. Thought now everything was explained, jack greatly understood. Especially when he remembered what rhys had told him about the AI, how it'd gone crazy and all. He shifts a bit as he takes in a deep breath then slowly lets it out. "Well.... What happened to the AI then? Did it get destroyed with helio or....?" Jack can only assume something happened. The rhys of his timeline hd a blue echo eye and a hyperion standard, the rhys before him had two brown eyes and a much different and highly improved mechanical.
  
  
• He can't help but feel in his gut that the AI didn't go down with helios thought and it almost angers him to know that in a way he had hurt rhys. God he's fallen hard already.

[Sori]

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Rhys shook his head again with an amused but sad smile on his face. "Not exactly. After Helios crashed, I heard the AI in the wreckage. I thought everything was finally over, but when I wasn't paying attention he plugged himself back into my head and tried to strangle me with my own arm." Rhys shuddered at the memory. This last interaction with the AI is what had given him the most nightmares. "Only way to stop him was to remove all my cybernetics. Ripped the arm off with part of the wreckage, and removed the rest with a shard of glass." He shrugged. "The AI didn't get destroyed though. That was, uh, kinda up to me. I replaced all my cybernetics since then, obviously-" he tapped the port on his left temple. "But after I ripped it out I kept my old eye implant. Still have it locked up in a drawer." Rhys was finished with that part of the story, and was ready to move on to a topic that wasn't as emotionally taxing to think about."So yeah, that's the gist of why my friends don't like you too much," he laughed lightly.