secondhandsome | ic inbox

Oh I don't think I like where this is going.

[Jack blanches, his mind taking that information and building on it. Messing with weird Eridian artifacts is never a good idea. What was wrong with him? Of course...yeah, he does know what's said to be in that Vault. Something of incredible power. He can see himself getting excited and maybe not being as safe as he ought to be.]

[When faced with discovery and fame unlike anything dreamed of, okay, sure, common sense can take a back seat.]

So...I'll cut ya off here, cuz I can guess why you're not wanting to give me the whole story...you're saying I did this to myself. I fucked with something I shouldn't have been fucking with unless I had a ton of safety tech, and I got bit. Okay, I can deal with that....

But what the hell happened to you? Cuz I saw me and Nisha's wedding pics, she looked fine.

[...Well, he's not entirely wrong in it being because he fucked up. Tim's real tempted to just leave it at that.]

Yeah, no, uh. Everyone else was fine. What happened to me wasn't the Vault.

What happened was you, actually.

So...I melt off my own face with a weird Vault artifact and get a new face or whatever, okay. That...is not at all any of the scenarios I was imagining, but okay. That's at least a cool story.

[He can work with that, some badass alien thingy messing him up. That's the sort of thing that happens to cool hero adventure types.]

[That last bit, though....]

What do you mean I was what happened to you? Oh...wait, do you just wear the mask cuz I wear the mask in the future? That makes sense.

Yeah, no, that'd make sense. Contract and all, I mean, that's kind of what I expected.

[This is the part where he's definitely sounding bitter.]

No, uh. No. When everything in the Vault... happened... Well, your face was kind of on fire for a bit there. And it left a scar in the same shape as that artifact.

After all that, you gave me the same one.

I what now?

[The mask he gets. The mask makes sense. Tim's his double, they have to look the same. Perfectly logical, sound move that. It'd be stupid to have visible differences, defeats the whole point.]

[Scarring the dude's face? That seems a little excessive. If he goes around with a mask of his own face on, obviously no one's seeing his actual face. And by that logic, no one was seeing Tim's either. Well, he guesses if he wanted to be extra super careful and sure....]

Uh. Sorry about that, I guess. So...could I see it? Ya know, under the mask.

Twice, actually. You, uh. You did that twice. Once over here, when I was here my first time and it was... you, from later. And then again, on Helios, when I was over there and didn't remember my time here. Physical stuff doesn't really transfer from here to home.

[Double the trauma!]

...Anyway, uh, no. I mean, not-- I don't care about you seeing it? It's just, it's kind of all stuck. The hinges got all messed up at some point.

...Okay twice is officially too much. I mean I can understand why I did it back home - I mean I probably didn't have to, I wouldn't do that to you now, but...I get why. Here? What the hell does it matter here?

[A pause.]

I mean I did kind of get a death threat recently, but...I don't think it was serious? And it's not like you're my body double here. Right? That's...that's not what you do here, is it?

[That's really sad, if it is. As far as Jack can tell, he isn't even a noteworthy Pokemon Trainer around here. He had a paper supply company or some shit. And that isn't even touching Tim's mask.]

....Okay, so...there's like blacksmiths around, right? People who work with metal? Or doctors? Holy shit, Tim, how long has that stupid thing been stuck on you? What is wrong with you? You're supposed to be the other me, we're smarter than that!

Oh, god, no. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, uh... you know, Hyperion contracts don't really transfer between dimensions? Didn't... really stop, uh, the other you, but. I never really did any actual body double work here.

I dunno how much of it was because of that. I think mostly you just had issues and you decided to work them out that way.

[On his face.

Healthy!]

I-I mean, uh. Well, before this, I was kind of stuck on a space station next to a black hole and there wasn't really anything to be done, and--

I've mostly been kind of worried about someone fucking it up worse, I guess!

So do I do some bad mushrooms and just...never come back from it? Cuz I gotta say, I'm having a hard time making some connections between me and the me I apparently am in the future. I have a cabinet full of body parts, Tim. I'm a lotta things, but collecting body parts guy isn't one of them.

[What the hell happens to him? Actually...no, he doesn't really wanna know right now.]

Don't actually answer that, I got enough to process as it is. But for fuck's sake, buddy, you...you gotta get that thing off. Look, the clasps look like pretty thick metal sections, this world's far enough along the tech curve that they've got lasers and shit, I don't think it's gonna cause damage to just cut through'em. Go see a doctor, get the stupid thing off, your face'll thank you.

[And also, Jack doesn't want to see it. It's dumb and creepy. Maybe if it weren't all messed up, but it's like looking at himself if he was getting the bad end in a horror game.]

Body part cabinet is a lot to process for both of us. I mean... ugh...

[Thaaaaat's a lot.]

I mean, I... yeah. Yeah, probably! I mean, more than probably, you're right. [Oh that feels wrong to say.] I don't exactly like it being on, it's, uh, pretty awful? I've just been... preeeetty paranoid about it.

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