but then I got high

[sicklypriest]

Who: Rhys and you. ~*OPEN LOG*~
What: Rhys was gonna somethingorother but then he got high.
Where: Everywhere he shouldn't be.
When: 4/20.
Why: because cats
What: dank u

The stairway to recovery was a steep climb, but Rhys had been inching up each rise a baby step at a time. He'd only gotten less than halfway there before someone pushed him back down again. Someone who went by the name of Seth.

He didn't want to do it. It would kill him for sure this time if being sent to the hospital the first time wasn't bad enough. He absolutely refused at first, but with a combination of defeated will and a lack of options, he could not escape the pressure his abuser crowded him against. The sight and the smell of that solid black candy both enticed and repulsed him at the same time. When it was pushed into his mouth, he could feel his insides twist but his mind soar to a height it had been quietly craving. All the fearful thoughts he housed within him after that moment of consumption jolted his system awake, shook him like a fizzy drink locked inside a bottle, but when the drugs finally began to think for him, they unleashed all his jitters in a satisfying burst as he plunged into the fantastic world of sensational illusion. He left this world and all the cares he had about it behind.

The lamps above brightened and dimmed, flickering almost like giant balls of starlight, and they started to light up one by one and drift across the room, popping up like ethereal bulbs of glowing energy that coerced him into rising from his seat to let them guide him. If he listened hard enough, he would catch snippets of whispers; they had a secret message to tell him and if he would just lumber along the trail they made, he would soon unravel their mystery. He ran into walls often in his eagerness to leave the room and groped around them, tried to peek over them like they were fences, smelled a grassy meadow upon feeling like he should be climbing a fence and puzzled to himself why he couldn't get over and see any green until he laughed at himself for remembering he was indoors.

He found the door and let himself out, the hallways stretching on either side of him an endless narrow cavern, full of doors and more doors with uncertain but compelling outcomes. What had happened to the faculty dorms? This maze breathed danger and intrigue, wobbling and changing shape like wind was blowing it and pulling his vision in different directions. But the danger part wasn't even a concern for Rhys right now. He felt invincible, above pain and fear, and with a boldness he didn't ordinarily get to experience, proudly ambled down the halls with his heightened sense of adventure, the longer he strode, the wider his grin stretched.

In his drugged-up state, Rhys wanders campus without a care in the world. He's hallucinating something fierce. He'll start hearing strange noises that don't really exist and concoct bizarre realities for himself that don't apply to other people, like whoa Phoenix when did your hair get so big and also dangerous and nooo it's too sharp you should have got it cut before it was too late because now you're bleeding too?!? (all he did was spill grape juice). His behavior will often be very uncharacteristic of him and his mood may change at the snap of a finger. He'll be fully incapable of interacting with reality and basically be a strange nuisance to anyone who encounters him. You can find him anywhere, from him opening the door to your private quarters to him flapping his arms on the roof madly.

Have fun throwing your characters at this one-man disaster parade.

Comments

[majorjealousy]

[Well, this encounter was bound to be a beautiful thing, indeed.]

[gentlesaint]

[This isn't beautiful at all. I don't think anyone is prepared to see Rhys hopping from one cafeteria table to the next, crawling all over them on all fours, and yelling "wheee".]

Wheeeeee!

[Like that. Oh, but what's this?! He takes a flying leap and.....! he falls flat on his face with a sound thud.]

[majorjealousy]

[Well. You don't see that every day. /laughtrack

Rhys lands not far from Jin's feet. He stares down at the nurse.]


... Rhys.

[sicklypriest]

[The next second he starts pivoting around on the ground like he's playing on an invisible sit n' spin with his hands clasped to his nose. Stop that, Rhys, you're getting your clothes all dirty!]

Ow, ow ow ow, owww...

[majorjealousy]

[This was really, really weird. The only word that could really describe the situation. He was hesitant to touch the other man, giving him a nudge in the shoulder with his foot.]

Rhys. Get up.

[gentlesaint]

[It seems this action was wildly misinterpreted, and Rhys, unable to focus correctly through his squinty, bloodshot eyes, gazed up at Jin in fear, hand clutching the shoulder he tapped.]

I'm sorry!! I didn mean to go in... Jin, whoa, is that... How did you get so high...?

[majorjealousy]

[Jin looked down at Rhys, arms crossed over his chest.]

You're sick.

[Not quite right, but he never in a million years would have guessed that Rhys was high. That didn't seem much like him at all. Never trust a giant, red eyed cat.]

[sicklypriest]

[In his distorted mind's eye, Jin was only getting taller and more imposing, and crossing his arms looked like he was about to attack. "You're sick" became an insult. It was starting to scare him half to death. He cowered in his place and shakily defended himself with an arm.]

P-Please spare me!

[stay_classy_cat]

Young Master Rhys had troubles of his own
He had a yellow cat which wouldn't leave his home
He tried and he tried to shoo the cat away
He coughed and bleed on it until he collapsed where he lay

But the cat came back the very next day
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away

Poor Rhys let it give him those dirty ol' pops
All for thinking he could save the day like the cops
The cat said 'too bad', this is the price he had to pay
Where that sucker's mind is now, well I dare not say

But the cat came back the very next day
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back; it just couldn't stay away

[lovesclearlakes]

[In which this blue merdog will wonder with worry if this man was alright or not and watch him carefully and curiously.]

[sicklypriest]

[Yeah, he was... not alright. His adventures had taken him to the kitchen, where there was a pantryful of trouble to get into.

He was gonna make a pizza.

He was gonna make an ice cream pizza.

This is something someone who is lactose intolerant should never do. Ice cream pizza is a horrible marriage between dairy products and a lactose nightmare waiting to happen. But Rhys thought hey, since he's feeling so ADVENTUROUS right now and unbelievably hungry to boot, he should be daring and try TWO THINGS he's always wanted to try but couldn't really eat ordinarily.

Then he came up with an idea only a stoner could have. WHAT IF...

Ice
cream
pizza

!!!!!

And so, with this in mind, he fumbles around in the kitchen with a halcyon giddiness and procures a pie pan. Seeing as he doesn't know how to make pizza in the first place, he grabs a bunch of pie crust fixings and mixes them all together in a bowl. So far so good. Since pie crust is hard to tame, it came out looking a little wonky and uneven and maybe a bit crumbly, but to him, it was perfect as an angel. He set it inside the pie tin and dove into the freezer for his "sauce". And pulled out a tub of ice cream.

Is he... dumping ice cream on top of a glob of dough? What does he think he's doing?]

[lovesclearlakes]

[Chiyo...

Chiyo was....

Well, she didn't know what to feel watching Rhys in his halcyon giddiness. Shock? Astonishment? Speechlessness? Maybe all of the above and so much more. No matter how eccentric a person could be, she certainly didn't feel that this behavior was normal at all. Her instincts told her that something was off, that this would not result in any bit of good news.

She took a hesitant step forward.

Grandmother, as she would call her trainer, always loved to make sweets, so Chiyo who grew up watching her do her magic knew that Rhys wasn't technically making proper use of his ingredients. The blob of ice cream on a glob of dough was proof of that, lest it be some peculiar baking method of another dimension she didn't know about.]

V-Vaporeon.... [She called out to him meekly and tugged on his clothes with her mouth to attract his attention. She felt a bit bad for disturbing him, though, considering how remarkably blissful he appeared in his baking endeavors. But she was worried, and he was sure making an awful mess.]

[gentlesaint]

[This really was a peculiar baking method from another dimension.

Rhys felt a tug and snapped out of it, but in his shock accidentally dropped a glob of ice cream on Chiyo's face.]

Huh? Oh, hello there! You must be hungry too!

[lovesclearlakes]

[Ack. The glob of ice cream landing on Chiyo's face caught her off-guard and she staggered away, releasing her hold on his clothes. In her surprise, she shook the ice cream off. But upon hearing it plop on the ground, she stared at it having realized what she'd just done.

Ice cream.... I just wasted it. And so much of it, too.

She continued to stare at it, working hard to refrain from licking it off the ground. No, there were more pressing matters at the moment. Dropped ice cream was nothing worth fretting over. She could try having some later now that she knew where it was stored.

She glanced up at him once again and shook her head to signify that she wasn't hungry. Instead, she looked at him worriedly.]

Are you alright...? [It felt strange to ask that to someone who was abnormally happy, but she had to be sure nothing was wrong. She briefly wondered if changing into a human would make things better, but decided against it unless absolutely necessary. She still wasn't accustomed to the form and didn't want to risk frightening him with the sudden transformation in his state.]

[gentlesaint]

[Rhys looked apologetic, but for the wrong reason. He'd pictured something completely different take place.]

Oh... I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't like ice cream. Here, hold my scoop.

[He put the scoop on her head.]

I'll clean it up in a jiffy!

[And that's when Rhys, in all his competency, grabbed a towel hanging on the handle of the fridge and squatted down on all fours to... rub the towel all over the ice cream. All he really succeeded in doing was smearing it all over the floor.]

There. Now no one will ever know.

[lovesclearlakes]

[Ah.... what? Chiyo was stumped at having the scoop suddenly placed on her head. She froze in place so that she could maintain her balance with it. Seeing Rhys's reaction, the last thing they needed was for another scoop to splatter on the floor.]

U-Um... it's not... [Chiyo didn't know what to say and she nearly went back into a state of shock... until she saw the growing sticky mess Rhys was creating. Now, her instincts to clean were really starting to kick in.]

Maybe you shouldn't do that.... [She said, discouraged, and hoped he would soon take the scoop off her head. She glanced at the rag and wanted to take it from him to clean. But, as that may not be possible, she tried to look around (without moving her head so much) to see if there were any other cleaning materials around. After a scan of the area, she concluded that they may be stored in one of the cabinets, but ultimately, she really need that scoop off her head for her to be able to do anything. And without arms and hands to reach up and remove it, she was stuck.]

[gentlesaint]

[He rose to full height again after a sigh of relief and... completely forgot about the ice cream scoop. Instead, he focused on his forming culinary masterpiece, hunger taking over once again.]

Sauce... both pizzas and ice creams have the sauce, right? Hmmm...

[TIME TO GO LOOK IN THE PANTRY. For "the sauce". He peered around the space disoriented, amusing himself with transforming shapes and colors and words until he came across the thing that most closest resembled the object of his imagination: hot sauce.]

Tomato sauce! Heeheehee! Oh, this is just the thing I needed! My scavenging skills are sharp as a tack.

[will_be_god]

Type type type. That had been the most distinct sound in Cyrus's room for the past hour, as he furiously documented every thought in his head as he was wont to do, for use in future speeches and classes.

So of course when the door opened with a slight squeak, the noise was far more noticable.

Of course, the fact that it slammed against the wall a second later was also a clue that something was amiss. Instinctively he released a pokeball--Honchkrow this time--as he whirled about in his chair.

"...Rhys?"

[sicklypriest]

The intruder blinked at the large black bird confusedly, posture askew and sagging. "Whu... Cyrus...?" He took a step, then another, balance not being his forte. Then, when he was within Honchkrow's personal space, he reached out to touch the Big Boss Pokemon's head in wonder.

"I didunt know you were a bird..."

Something was definitely amiss. Rhys should have known better. He was no stranger to the knowledge that Cyrus owned a Honchkrow. Yet here he was, confusing the trainer for his Pokemon.

[will_be_god]

Honchkrow stared back, the unusual sense of massive confusion running around in its head. It stared over at its trainer, their intense training not covering anything remotely like this situation.

"Rhys?" Cyrus asked with a surprising softness--he as well was confused by this behavior. When he asked again, his voice had returned to the normal flat tone. "Rhys, something...what has gotten into you?"

[gentlesaint]

"Oh, I can say the same for you, my friend!" he responded cheerfully, but not at Cyrus. "You were pretty good at hiding your bird-ness from me all these years!" He was busy marveling at Honchkrow, and once he touched the top of his head, he could not seem to stop.

"Also, you're soft."

[will_be_god]

Honchkrow certainly didn't care for that, and squawked loudly, fluttering out of the way.

Cyrus remained in place, watching him carefully. "...You are hallucinating. You have met Honchkrow before, and though it is an extension of my will, we are not the same being. You are aware of this."

[gentlesaint]

As the Pokemon drifted away, Rhys's arm extended out uselessly, the kind of yearning motion usually coupled with words of "don't go".

"I'm... hallucinating?" Wow, what a scary thought. The room was bending precariously; one side of the room sloped as though the floor should be inclining like a slide. It made him feel a stab of panic in his heart and he lost his footing, but saved it before he fell backwards.

"Where am I? Is this... your apartment?" he asked incredulously. Where in the world was Cyrus? It felt like he was speaking from somewhere above, like the ceiling, so he kept sending his eyes in that direction.

[will_be_god]

Weavile supported the wobbly man from the back, keeping the blunt curve of its claws against his rear as a sort of tripod. Once Rhys was reasonably steady, Cyrus approached, putting a tenative hand to the man's face. "That is my hand," he said flatly, waiting for a reaction.

By this point, he was, of course, standing directly before Rhys.

[gentlesaint]

Everything snapped into a different sort of reality (or pseudo-reality) when he could register Cyrus's location. He brought his own hand up to feel the unexpected contact, surprised at first, then relieved a second later. "Oh, there you are. Thanks for stopping the room from swirling. Can you believe for a second I thought you were a bird?"