Post-It: ETD 00:01am

[maced_eggs]

[Spam for the Dining Room, Morning]

[Last night, Mason, Grim Reaper, age 27 and dead for the last forty years, shucked off his muddy, blood-stained clothes and fell asleep on a couch in his Union Jack underwear.

This morning, Mason, still dead, wakes up on the Barge.

Mason's never been much of what anyone might call "consciously aware", or "observant." For example; he fails to observe he is not in his home when he wakes up. He fails to observe that all of his clothes have gone missing.

What he does observe is that he is bloody starving, and needs a very, very large breakfast to erase the nightmare of the day before. So after failing to observe that he is completely pantsless, Mason shuffles out of his room and off to find food.

Which is why, still half asleep and very nearly naked, is a man barging through the breakfast bar gathering up as many miniature cereal boxes in his arms as he possibly can. He doesn't merely stop when they're all gone: systematically, he goes around to every table he nears and plucks them from unsuspecting eaters when he guesses they're not looking.

Arms loaded with cereal, the mysterious, nearly naked man attempts to make a retreat.

He doesn't yet have the capacity to guess where he is at the moment, aside from the completely unhelpful "Not at home." But at least there will always be Fruit Loops.]

Comments

[this_corrosion]

Yeah, well, you gotta watch where you're going.

[Gary bends nearly in half to peer under the table.]

Anyone ever tell you you look like Richard Hammond?

[maced_eggs]

I was always told I looked like a young, slightly more attractive Sean Connery.

[Mason squints back at Gary, half hidden under the table and rubbing his leg]

Can you please tell me where the fuck I am?

[this_corrosion]

[Gary snickers at that and almost tips over.]

Yeah, right! Uh, you're on the Barge, mate.

[He knocks on the tabletop to indicate it. Yes. This. The material plane.]

You died, but you're not good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. Somewhere in the middle.

[maced_eggs]

[Mason glances up to the table as Gary knocks on it, before looking back]

Yeah, all right, I know that. Where the fuck - [he begins to make hand gestures back and forth, like he's trying to indicate distance] - is "The Barge" in relation to Seattle? I'll take Seattle. Or, y'know. Any general continent because I don't do well on boats, sir, I really don't.

Waking up in strange places, issnot new, issnot even the first time I've woken on a boat but you know how it is, Boss Man is going to be pissed off if I don't find my way home soon. Right?

So when's the Barge make port?

[this_corrosion]

Space. Annnnd I was told port would be soon but I'm still waiting on that.

[He jams half a donut in his mouth, continues talking.]

Shite if you ask me.

[maced_eggs]

...Space.


[Mason copies Gary's motions, popping a few more Cocoa Puffs in his mouth as he looks disbelievingly onwards]

Yeah, right. Whatever you say.

Seriously, I'm not playin' around. I dunno how long it's been since I had a proper breakfast and that means it's been a day longer than I'm supposed to be away and if I don't make it back to der fuckin Waffle Haus, my boss is going to....do something not very nice to me.

I don't know what. But it won't be nice.

[this_corrosion]

I can prove it if you'd come out from there.

[maced_eggs]

...Yeah, all right.

[Mason clamors out from under the table, rubbing his arms up and down as he suddenly realize how at a lack of clothes he is. There are some cocoa puffs still in his hair from when he'd fallen]

Go on, then. Prove we're in space.

[this_corrosion]

[Gary jerks a thumb over his shoulder and swallows the last of his donut.]

Got to go to the roof. Come on.

[maced_eggs]

[Reluctantly snatching up his only box he'd managed to hold onto, Mason follows after Gary, shivering a little in just his underoos]

Ooh, trespassing.

[this_corrosion]

Yeah, well, after indecent exposure it's really just a bonus for you.

[He swings around the doorframe to the lift, and punches the button to call it. Excessively.]

[maced_eggs]

[Mason watches Gary press the button, raising his eyebrows and giggling at him]

Does that really make it go faster?

[this_corrosion]

Yeah.

[Of course it does. Idiot.

The door dings open and he strides inside. See? Lift is here already.]

[maced_eggs]

[Mason follows after Gary easily, like a curious puppy]

Fair enough.

[this_corrosion]

[Gary lights a cig on the ride up in quick, practiced movements and talks around it. No smoke detectors anywhere on the ship, it's awesome.]

How'd you die, then?

[maced_eggs]

[Mason looks on in clear jealousy; he doesn't have any of those lying around, even though pills are more his thing]

...S'abit embarrassing.

Back in 1966, someone told me once that the more oxygen you've got flowing to your brain, the better the high.

So I figured there was a way to get even more oxygen going, right? An' I took this power drill, and I, uhm.

[he mimes drilling a hole. Into his own head]

[this_corrosion]

[For some reason, this startles a little cackle out of Gary. Also, no, these are his smokes, get your own you cereal thief.]

You fucked up. Oh, come on!

[The doors are only half-open when Gary shoots through the gap like he's been launched from a cannon.]

[maced_eggs]

[Mason makes a face at Gary, flipping him off. But when the man runs through the elevator gap, he follows gladly, curious to find out just where the hell he is]

Oi! Wait up!

[this_corrosion]

[Gary waits up, indulgently, and then gestures to the wheeling cosmos over the rail and above them. Ta daaaa.]

[maced_eggs]

[Mason somehow manages to make it to Gary without looking at what's around him, panting as he gets closer]

Jesus, how about waiting up for a guy, yeah? You can't just-..

[and now he's catching sight of what's all around him.

And now he's dropping to his knees in shock.

And now he's grabbing for Gary's leg for purchase, feeling like everything is reeling around him]

[this_corrosion]

Ey.

[None of that, he's going to try to wiggle out of Mason's grip and inevitably end up overbalancing.]

Fucking-

[Thud.]

[maced_eggs]

[as Gary drops to the ground, Mason still hugs onto the man's leg, gaping out at the great beyond]


....Space.



We're in fucking space.

[this_corrosion]

Get off my leg, you poof.

[Gary grumbles, trying to lever himself back onto his feet.]

Told you we were in space, didn't I?

[maced_eggs]

[Nope, Mason is clinging and damn near about ready to sob]

We're in space. Holy fuckin' shite, we're in fuckin' outer space. I can't be here. I cannot legitimately be on this planet any longer. Oh god. I'm going to throw up.

[this_corrosion]

Jesus, mate.

[Ok, patting him on the shoulder gingerly is go. Clearly Gary is not going to be able to get up until this is done with.]

Just breathe, it's not as bad as all that.