un: 2ndmass; video

[chemlocked]

[ Ben had spent most of the night reading the information he'd been given after he recovered from making his way to the lighthouse. It hadn't offered nearly enough answers to the questions swirling in his head. About how, and why, and where everyone else was.

Or if he was even really here or was this some nightmare game of the Espheni to keep him distracted when his unit and people needed him most?

That thought keeps creeping into his head, along with the glimpses that seem as if his vision is darkening, and he can't find proof if it's real. Not enough to calm the thoughts in his head. ​ ]

Hey. I was brought here by Enam? That's the name, right? I somehow washed up on the beach. Name's Ben Mason. I'm with the 2nd Mass out of Boston.

Truth is none of this makes sense. I want to believe it's a game, trying to make me believe it's real but it's only doing the opposite.

[ He hates putting this out there, but if it is all a dream, then would it matter?

There's glimpses of the wall behind him, soft reflections of light from the shards and bits of mirror in the room behind him. The pain of touching those shards without a cut driving him to reach out. again but he's started this video instead of trying again. ]

I think I'm seeing things. Hearing them too. Nothing seems right. Doesn't seem real either. Hell, maybe I'm just losing my mind.

[ Or his mental connections with the Overlords has screwed up his brain. Could be that too.

He sighs, rubbing at the back of his head and fighting the urge to rub at the top spikes he's keeping hidden behind his jacket's collar. ]

How do you know the world's real when nothing's right?

Comments

[downswing]

Decide an anchor. Trust in instinct.

Sorcery cannot steal your conviction.

[chemlocked]

Right. Fair enough.

[ Though his concern comes not from what he'd call sorcery but definitely from forms of mind control. ]

You've dealt with a lot of sorcery trying to screw with your head?

[downswing]

No.

Only... distractions of the senses. Incense. Drink.

[chemlocked]

I dealt with it before. Not what I would call sorcery but probably close enough.

Incense can screw with your head? Is that like made from opium or something?

[downswing]

At times. Cloying at others.

[chemlocked]

What do you use it for? With your head and all?

[downswing]

To ease nerves.

You believe incense might assist you?

[chemlocked]

People have eased nerves? It's been years since I've had that.

Honestly, maybe? I'm still trying to make sense of this and worrying it's screwing with my system somehow.

[downswing]

We are on strange waters. Your nerves have merely rattled.

[chemlocked]

Yeah well... this is a whole other story than what I've dealt with. War seems less unsettling.

[downswing]

You headed into war?

[chemlocked]

Have been for about three years. A soldier with the 2nd Mass militia since I was rescued as a prisoner of war months after the invasion started.

[downswing]

How long imprisoned?

[chemlocked]

I was harnessed and enslaved for about six months before my family rescued me.

[downswing]

( Now, how to ask this delicately. )


Imprisonment... is not kind on the body.

[chemlocked]

Yeah, especially the way they do it.

They trap you in your own body and then use it for slave labor.

But I was rescued and saved from what they were doing to me.

[ Not entirely. He's still changed by it and coping with that but he's in charge of his own body and, to him, that's what matters. ]

[downswing]

I pity your body's hurts.

Envy your mind's strengths.

[chemlocked]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Sometimes you just have to do what you have to and count your blessings afterwards.