( video )

[dudebro]

[ The feed flickers on and there is a disembodied hand being held in view, waving in a friendly sort of way. Jason dips his face into view, he's grinning wildly; ]

Anybody need a hand??

[ He starts laughing as if the joke is the funniest thing in the world. Somewhere off-screen, Vaas can be heard chanting "Soylent Green is people!"

The hand waves again before the feed flickers off. That's it. That's the post. ]

( ooc: sorry. replies will come from both jason and vaas! )

Comments

[hellshot]

[Death Humor is the only humor he can't help himself with. You got him this time, Jason. This time.]

'Fun'. Are you talking about the heart in the box? [A scoff.] Must be good at hiding bodies, but bad at clean-up.

[dudebro]

[ He'll get him all the time. 8) ]

Kind of fairy tale a bit, isn't it? Heart in a box. [ lmao ] But, I meant more, you know—the decoration. Ours was pretty... [ he shrugs ] I dunno.

Tame.

[ Pictured: Jason Brody who finds finding body parts in his food tame. ]

[hellshot]

The first death and this one both seem markedly tamer than the 'fairy tale' one.

Wonder if there's something to that.

In the mind of a psychopath, a killer only makes a display of their victims if they either have something to prove, a message to send, or a personal connection with the victim.

[Rook's single arm, some hands... bodyparts lying around compared to a heart in a box and a mulched up Rey... it was suspect.]

[dudebro]

[ He hums in thought for a moment, clearly contemplating something. ]

You trying to tell me something? Feeling a connection to the alleged psychopath, huh?

[ Clearly he's not contemplating what it's like to keep his life because he's probably going to lose it by one ( Grim ) Reaper. ]

[hellshot]

[Where is your sense of self-preservation, man.]

It takes a psychopath to recognise another one.

And I'm not the one playing with dead bodyparts, so maybe I should try telling you something.

[So much for talking civilly.]

[dudebro]

[ Back in California. ]

What?

[ Please. Jason, stop before you go too far. Don't do it, ho.

He's doing it. ]

You want to play with me? Get all up inside me and mess around?

[ He leans forward, resting his chin in his hand. ]

Pretty bold, Grim. I don't know if we're there yet.

[ Why? ]

1/3

[hellshot]

[He has to think about this. About this individual he's chosen to speak with.

Was he really an idiot, or was there some sort of malfunction. Some sort of need to flirt with LITERAL DEATH to get his kicks.]

2/3

[hellshot]

[He'd already threatened him once. He's made it no secret that he's not afraid to cause the guy bodily harm. He just has reeled in his psychopath tendencies long enough to keep from actually shooting out his kneecaps.]

3/3

[hellshot]

[And yet, here he is, still dogging around like a rabbit playing near a wolf's den. Finally, he looks right at the camera, a single shake of his head. Disbelief. This motherfucker right here.]

You've really got a fixation, don't you, Jason.

If you want to die that badly, I can have it arranged.

[dudebro]

[ Maybe he does have some sort of fixation on death. Before Rook it wouldn't even be something Jason considered much because it was just something natural that happened to people who were old. Nothing really major happened. Distantly he was aware of murder and torture and every other unpleasant thing he'd heard of or experienced on Rook. But, in his little trust fund baby life, none of it really mattered because it wasn't happening to him.

Then it did.

Then death became something major. Life became something major. And maybe pre-Rook Jason would've handled this whole situation differently. But, he's not pre-Rook Jason anymore. He's a man who has had his very essence changed by the jungle. He's a man who still hasn't dealt with everything that happened. He's a man who is likely headed right for self-destruction because he doesn't know how to handle everything yet. Maybe he's just playing at some form of annoying normalcy because he doesn't know what the fuck else to do. ]

Well, duh. I mean, that's your job, isn't it? Reaping the souls of the living or some dumbass morbid shit like that. You getting anything out of all these deaths? How does it work if it's not done by you? [ It's all seemingly genuine. Then he just ruins it because he's Jason Brody. ] Need a little nibble on some dead flesh, buddy? Or is sucking out their soul the shit that gets you going?

[hellshot]

Little more complicated than that, Jason. [He's not really surprised to hear Jason talking about his 'Reaping' or 'soul-sucking', given that he's realised that Vaas seems to be pals with this guy or... something. Vaas had seen first-hand what he did to the corpses of the fallen, after all, but...] It doesn't matter if it's done by me or not. So long as it's the corpse of a living being, I can draw the life force out of it.

[Because that's not fucking creepy. And yet, as he watches Jason--the joking, txt-tlking American White Boy, he doesn't react like the aforementioned breed should. What kind of shit have you seen, kid.]

You'll find it less 'gets me going' and more 'keeps me from rotting', brat. Keep it up.

[dudebro]

[ He's seen some literal crazy shit. And done crazy shit. His life wasn't hard until he got to Rook. ]

Gross. Also what the fuck, man. Are you serious??

[ The unfortunate truths of making Grim Reaper jokes. Whoops. ]

1/2 video -> private

[hellshot]

Why would I go through that much effort to explain something that's untrue. [There's just a touch of wryness to his tone, and you can almost hear him smile.

The clawed ends of his fingers reach up, tapping the side of his owl-like mask, almost in a moment of contemplation before the video screening turns private, away from the general public. And that's when his fingers slip under the seal of his mask, and he pulls it up, away from his face.]

[hellshot]

[When he drops it away, facing the video feed--Jason isn't met so much with the face of a man, but one of a monster. Something you'd see in a newfangled boogeyman movie, a creature that hid in the shadows and fed on the corpses of the fallen.
Skin dark, but pallid and greying--like something that has been dead for days--long lines that look like scars deep on his face. Eyes an endless black, pitted with a dull glowing red, and a smile that's simply too long.

That black smoke rises from his mouth, the sides of his face rotted away and pitted, teeth showing on his cheeks that should be covered with flesh. Where the smoke rises, the flesh is almost glowing red, like it's burning just underneath the surface of his skin.]

I wasn't kidding when I said you should be careful when dealing with Death.

[dudebro]

[ Whatever Jason is expecting, thus isn't it. Which becomes pretty clear by the expression on his face. It ranges from curiosity, to shock, to something even he can't name then right back to curious. Obviously he's never seen anything like this before outside of a horror movie spectrum.

Maybe there's a little part of him that's grossed out. But, it's so negligible that it doesn't even register. Maybe, eventually, Reaper will learn he's not exactly dealing with a normal guy when it comes to Jason.  ]

Sick! [ But he's almost laughing ( ??? ) as he says it. ] Shit, dude, that's weird. Definitely more skin than I thought the Grim Reaper had. Smoke's pretty cool though, gotta say.

[hellshot]

[Yeah, he recognises the tone of that exclamation of 'sick!' It was the same way Jesse had yelled when he'd given him his first carbon-fibre sweater. The word means one thing, and the tone another. Which is just as baffling as everything else Jason's done since he'd first met the guy face to face.]

And you realise that's not exactly a normal reaction for some white boy from California to have. [Yeah, he's finally calling you out on your shit.]

[dudebro]

[ For a second Jason doesn't do much of anything beyond basic human function. He breathes. He blinks. He sits there and probably sheds a few skin cells. But, then he sniffs and clears his throat before doing a there-and-back glance to the side. There's likely plenty he could say here. He could get annoyed. He could get angry. He could act like he doesn't know what Reaper is even talking about.

But, this is Jason. And in spite of pausing like that for the briefest of moments, he's still going to be very Jason about this. Reaper should really expect this by now. ]

Yeah, well. [ he leans his chin in the palm of his hand; an easy smirk curls up one side of his mouth, ] I'm not just some normal guy from California.

[ And, yes, he does wink after that. Eyyyy. ]

[hellshot]

[Of course he should have expected it. And the annoyance that the other won't see on his face nearly leaks out from underneath it in the form of that odd, black haze.

God damn it Jason, is this a coping mechanism or something.]

When you respond to me like that, it's damn hard to see you as anything else but a hapless brat, you realise. [A low snort escapes him, and he eyes him a bit.]

You're familiar with Vaas. You one of his pirates, then? [It would explain his carefree attitude around corpses and danger.]

[dudebro]

[ Why, yes, yes it is a coping mechanism. Thanks for noticing!!!

As much as he'd like to laugh off the comment about—yet again—being called a brat, he doesn't. Because the annoyance and disgust vie for attention first and ultimately win out. He is offended. ]

Fuck no! Are you nuts? [ He gestures with his chin toward the screen. ] All that vape shit getting to you or something?