Whoever brings me ibuprofen and weed first gets to be my best friend for the next week.

What'd I miss? Needy, where the fuck are you? Where's my cat?

private } daneca

Was there a flood? I heard there was a flood. Did it get you?

spam } open

[The first thing Cassel does - after a really solid lunch and a long shower - is get down to the gym. He doesn't know what's happened to Mindy, but it seems like he's on his own here for a little while. So he meanders through the gym equipment, cleaning, re-organizing, and very obviously brooding.]

Czeslaw's gone. His door and everything is blank.

. . . I don't really think he made many friends while he was here, but. I'm going to light a candle for him, if anybody wants to join me.

spam } chapel

[It's quiet and still in here, which is good; it matches how Cassel is feeling. Quiet and still, like a windless world. He doesn't know what to make of this reaction. He can feel himself grieving, but it's muted, as though muffled by layers and layers of cloth.]

[With aching fingers he carves Czeslaw's name into a white candle, uses his lighter to light it. After a moment of watching the flame, he carves another name - Slevin's - into another candle, and Daneca's into a third, and hopes (doesn't pray) that they wake.]

deck spam } open

[It has been said in the past that Cassel walks like a leopard dressed up as a house cat. This is still - very applicable. It's just that he uses his claws more these days and cleans them less, and he only really makes an effort to seem nice when he wants something he can't get with threats or bribes.]

[He doesn't care about the deck, but he does spend a decent amount of time on deck even now, even with everyone milling around like assholes trying to claw their way to the top of the mountain. He has a plan. He will be living like a king regardless, when this place falls apart; it's just a matter of pressing the right buttons and getting certain stubborn assholes graduated before the end goes from nigh to right now.]

[When he isn't committing violent acts of overwrought and symbolic discipline, he arranges a folding deck chair by the starboard rail and occupies himself with one of two equally important tasks. First, mending holes in his gloves - the less-than-deliberate ones; there's a small hole in the forefinger of his left and the ring finger of his right that were arranged on purpose, bless Shandra's rotting heart. Second, sketching. He possesses a honed fascination with the human form, what it can become, how far it can be stretched - literally - before bones break. Before the psyche does. Here, he's been working on his pencil drawings for years. They're horrific. Some of them are probably familiar.]

( private } anya & harvey )

public } video

[For those who are old hat on this Barge, this display is nothing new. Cassel did it a couple of times with Anya - a whole lot more with Harvey. He's taken time after the blowback to collect himself, to grind his teeth until the pain flies off his face, to shake it off and push his hair back and adjust the cuffs of his gloves. He looks long-suffering, though bright-eyed.]

I realize we're all really excited about the door, but I still happen to have a job to do here, so - well. You all know how this goes.

[There's a cage approximately mid-deck, on a stand as tall as a podium, with a flat shelf. Something shifts inside it, then goes still.]

( cw; body horror, gore, torture )

[The camera shifts back to Cassel, then pans out to display the both of them. He gestures widely at the cage, a put-upon Vanna White.]

As usual, if you have any grievances to air with Harvey Dent, this would be an excellent time to do so. If you have any frustrations you'd like to take out on, you know, whoever, knock yourself out. He'll be on deck for eighteen hours.

Just restrain yourselves from killing him, if you can help it. I know it's trying.

( private spam } chris & slevin )

[Video clicks on: Cassel looks decidedly calm, leaned back against the white wall of his bedroom. Which he's not, but he's been thinking about this for a while - especially after fourth wall day - and he wants to pick people's brains.]

I never finished high school. This is not a political science lesson. Don't call me on my basic misunderstanding of the democratic process. I just have some questions.

Where I come from, people who can do [the briefest of pauses] magic are illegal. Or - performing it's illegal. And it has been for a hell of a long time. The problem is that you don't know if you can do it or not until it manifests, all by itself. You don't know if you can do it until you've already done it, by which time you're already a criminal. Surprise!

I don't know the order of history where you people are from. But for us, these laws have been in place for, like, a hundred years. Which is when things started getting bad. Some big-deal government asshole in a suit and tie tells you you're a criminal for doing something you can't help doing, I guess you just think: sure. Why not. I'll be a criminal.

Explain the point of this to me, somebody. Do people really not think this shit through? Maybe people just really want to have a bad guy. I'm okay with that answer. [He kind of believes it himself.] I'd just really like to take a survey, since nobody's asked a moral question for 0.5 seconds and I haven't had the pleasure.

[He goes to switch off the feed, and then remembers something.]

Oh, and if anybody else has similar crap to share, yadda yadda. We're building an environment of mutual un-der-stan-ding on this cruise. [Eyeroll, and feed cut.]

filter | kon + charles

I'd like to get started on this memory thing. Whenever you both have time. Kon said it was cool but he wants to sit in.

private | zane

You know that feeling like you're about to do something incredibly stupid? I have that. [He's so pissed B(]