Shawn turned hi s head angrily to the man, who was responding to his loud outburst rather calmly, telling him exactly why what he was doing was incredibly stupid. He dare he try to tell him that he was doing something wrong?! It wasn’t like any of this was actually happening. ‘Beasts’, ha what a goddamn joke. ‘Kill someone within 24 hours’. It was the biggest crock of shit he had ever heard.

“How the [i]fuck[/I] can you be so stupidly goddamn…” he trailed off as he realised what he was doing.

[i]… What am I doing? Jesus, just how stupid am I?[/I] he thought bitterly. Getting all pissed off would solve nothing, and he realised that taking his anger out at a man who was trying his best to stay calm and pleasant hardly reflected himself well. He still didn’t believe everything that was happening, and still held hope that the person over the collar was just playing some incredibly stupid prank, but he was smart enough to realise that the situation was messed up either way. He rubbed his eyes, and took a deep breath. His words were still shaky, and took several seconds to come out, but it lacked his previous malice.

“I… uh, Shawn,” he paused, and took another deep breath. “I’m Shawn. It’s, um, nice to meet you, I guess.” He looked away, trying to hide his embarrassment, finding it difficult to look Rahj in the eyes. “Uh, sorry. About before. That was… that wasn't... I’m sorry.” He still avoided eye contact, and instead properly looked at his tarot card.

“’The Lovers’,” he almost laughed, but instead landed on a half-hearted, soul-less chuckle. He could at least appreciate the irony. “Better listen to the recording, then, huh? Amuse our benevolent captors and whatnot,” he said, voice laden with deadpan. He brought it out, and pressed the play button.