Brighteyes McStabbass, Party of Two

[myironeyes]

[Spam in the infirmary, shortly after this thread.]

[Marsh arrives gingerly bearing an unconscious, injured Riddick. He has several damaged ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and possibly a conscussion. Marsh answers questions curtly and does not interfere with Infirmary staff, but nor does he allow himself to be sent any farther that a few feet from Riddick's bedside. He's angry and worried and agitated, not that anyone who didn't know him well would be able to see it among his usual scowls.]

We have reason to believe he is not in his right mind. Are there restraints available?

[OOC: open to Infirmary people, whether official or just hanging around there, and to anyone who knows about the fight and wants to check in on Marsh and Riddick before Zane's announcement.]


[Spam slightly later, near/after Zane's public query, for Riddick and then Ben]

[Riddick wakes up, ribs taped, his shoulder back in its socket and wrapped with an ice pack, wrists and ankles in metal cuffs, with Marsh looming attentive and still beside him.]


[Private to Iris]

[He's even more shut down than usual.]

Please come to the infirmary. Riddick appears to be one of those modified.

You can...help. Right?

[Please.]

Comments

[myironeyes]

[He returns to his chair, a little slower than normal, slumps into it, and rubs the very center of his forehead, where Vin once pushed her earring through his skull. He eases back on the soothing, gradually, watching Riddick carefully for changes.]

[warisart]

[Ben doesn't know what's going on for certain, but he sees it all. He came straight to the infirmary once he finished speaking with Zane, slipping in as quietly as he knows how, which is very close to perfect silence. His fear makes him cautious above and beyond what he would normally consider sufficient, leaving him silent and still against the wall as he watches.

He doesn't, exactly, know what Marsh is doing that first quiets Riddick and then lets him rage and then soothes him again, but he hates it. Riddick himself is, currently, as good as a stranger to him: it's in every line of him in a terrible way that Ben recognizes, the almost clumsy raw power and strength that he's seen the past couple of weeks and mistook for stress or grief or fatigue; mindless in a way he knows his friend is not. A part of him has already denounced this person before him as Riddick, as his friend; he's not anymore. That much is clear.

But he is. Ben watches, paralyzed by his lifelong terror of a corporation he's never going back within the reaches of, until Marsh sits down again. Then and only then does he move forward, still cat-silent except for the strangely detached, absolutely toneless voice in which he makes a demand that is both a statement and a plea.]

Whatever you are doing to him, you must stop.

[myironeyes]

[He doesn't react immediately, continues to watch Riddick through the sharp detail of tin as he lets the last flicker of brass taper off.]

I have stopped now.

[with_my_teacup]

[The well of adrenaline is tapped out for a while and won't come back; the Soothing had been having only the most muted effect on the personality riding in Riddick's head, working more on his body and primal emotions.

Riddick looks at Ben for a moment, then deliberately turns his head and dismisses him. He might as well be furniture as far as the sullen figure in restraints is concerned.]

[warisart]

[Everything about Ben, already drawn stress-tight, goes tense when Riddick looks at him. He doesn't know what is better: the fact that he says nothing or the possibility that he might have. He's terrified for his friend, for what may have happened and what may never happen.

He doesn't even try to sort it out right now. Just stands silent while the seconds tick by, draws a single step closer, and then stops.

His voice is nearly toneless when he finally speaks again to Marsh.]

He is not himself.

[myironeyes]

That seemed very likely. But I did not know him well enough to be sure.

[His voice is nearly as blank as Ben's is. Riddick is not his friend, but the snarling creature he pinned - an even the sullen, slumped thing he is now - reminds him so much of his time as Ruin's hand it almost feels as if the two years in between have been stripped cleanly away.]

[warisart]

[Ben is aware of who Marsh is in the most general sense of the word, though he has not had as much time lately for combing the network as he normally does. He doesn't trust him, but that's common for everyone he's never officially met. He doesn't know enough about him or what's happening here.

But the fear makes him young again in a way he never quite left behind. His life on the Barge gives him an expectation: that if he asks a question, he will receive an answer.]

What is to be done now?

[myironeyes]

Unless you have an objection on his behalf, I will contact Iris Wildthyme. I hope she will be able to determine how he may be restored.