ic contact;

[echoistic]

❝Yoooo! Ain't here right now, which means I'm probably sleeping, eating, doing something I can't mention out loud, or something really awesome and attention-consuming, but whichever it is, I'm not here right now! Wait, I already said that. So yeah, do what you gotta do, which I guess is—❞

[ video | audio | text* | action ]

[ *Note that Rhys can't read very well, so texting him might, uh, not have the intended effect. ]

Comments

[coastal]

[She feels dizzy.]

You're... You're the absolute worst. Don't you dare...!

[echoistic]

[In the background, there may or may not be a faint whizzing noise.]

Too late! I'm already doing it!

[coastal]

[Wait. No. She hears that noise and there's something in her that just can't handle.

Sharply:]

Rhys.

Stop it...! Stop toying with me!

[echoistic]

[...]

Are you actually upset? Should I apologize right now...?

[coastal]

[Immediately:]

Yes!

[To both!]

[echoistic]

Then I sincerely apologize!

[Because he actually does feel bad! He's not used to people being this worried about him doing potentially dangerous things, since, well. Mercenary.]

I was just teasin' you. All in good jest! Didn't mean to, uh, seriously worry you like that.

[coastal]

[ . . . . well.

It's an apology and there's a long silence from her end. It's... upsetting that he'd be so careless and joke about things like that. Then there's a quiet sigh as she settles for just running a hand over her face.]

You're... truly well, aren't you?

[Even with all the mask business....]

[echoistic]

No point in being down! ... Even if things are kinda gettin' creepy.

[coastal]

[ . . . . a sigh.]

What a simplistic answer.

Should I really have expected anything else?

[echoistic]

Is there a reason to complicate things more than they need to be?

[coastal]

Well, it's just--

... Isn't making things simpler easier said than done?

[echoistic]

I'm a trained expert at it! When things get tough, you've got no choice but to keep it simple or else you'll wear yourself out over all the details, right?

[coastal]

That's what I'm saying though.... isn't it still difficult to put such a mentality into practice?!

[echoistic]

It's super easy when you've been doing it all your life!

[coastal]

.... So you've tried to be a simpleton?

[echoistic]

Why not? Life's simple, so there's no point in complicating things. All you really need to survive is food, water, and to be happy enough that you don't kill yourself, y'know?

[coastal]

[ . . . . . what-]

No, I'm rather sure that you need far, far more than that!

[echoistic]

... Well, I guess you could throw shelter on that list too! But it really depends on how you define shelter—I mean, you don't need a building to live in, but it's definitely handy to have some means of creating a campfire or some kind of roof above your head in the winter...

[       —> what was probably Lili's point

Rhys's head]

[coastal]

[ . . . . . and Lili's just amazed at this point.]

Were you a beggar?

[POOR PEOPLE. STILL AMAZING.]

[echoistic]

Yep! For a few years!

[A fact that he sounds maybe a little too cheerful about, despite those having been very bitter years of his life (and then he also spent a couple of years as a bandit, but he won't drop that out of the blue like that).]

[coastal]

That's absurd.....!

[Lili, stop revealing just how 1% you really are.]

And you're so cheerful about it!!

[echoistic]

Uh, what's absurd about it? Plenty of people are beggars.

And 'course I am—it was like, what, ten years ago? No point in being upset over something that long ago. 'Sides, it taught me a lot.

[None of it good things, but Lili doesn't need to know that.]

[coastal]

Did it....?

Such as how to survive in the wild with very little resources?

[is that all she thinks beggars know how to do]

[echoistic]

... Well, yeah, that's one of 'em. You learn to be really resourceful when you don't have much! I mean, that's why I taught myself how to sew, so I could fix my clothes instead of having to try and get new ones.

[Things he probably shouldn't mention: being a beggar (and, especially, being a bandit as a child) taught him how to manipulate people's perception of him if need be. He knows that he doesn't struggle as much as Alun does in turning this off, but he still sometimes does it, and he'd rather Lili not be aware in that case.]