ataraxion | video;

"Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain."

[Harvey's got his mask in his hands, turning it over. He's standing outside his door in 011 as he does so. It's clear that the aforementioned quote from Harry Potter is in relation to the eerily nondescript mask in his hands. He appears calm and collected, though really - the featureless mask seems... angry, in a way. He tried binning it, it didn't work. It came back stuck to his door. Which is why he is choosing to make this transmission, using the network for the first time.]

Someone went a bit happy with the paper mache and put some witchery on it. If anybody's found a way to get rid of it permanently, let me know. That kind of information should be shared because I don't know about you, but I don't want to see this thing again. I know I'm not alone in that.

[Tooootally ignoring the fact that it gives him the creeps, a bit. He hasn't even put it on, so he sticks it back on his door before turning off the transmission.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh yes. It's sentient. Try throwing it away and see what happens.

[There's a hint of mocking and sarcasm in Harvey's tone.]

[ oh, oh, he hears that tone, mister. With his gaze fixed on the video feed Cambridge idly throws up one hand, tossing the mask away somewhere off camera where it lands on the floor with a heavy clatter. With the hand still upraised he lifts his eyebrows in a silently expectant 'And?' ]

Oh, yes, very clever.

If you're going to do that at least put some effort into it.

[He would tack "asshole" at the end of that, but nah. Not now.]

[ there's a brief moment of smirking before Cambridge's gaze is quickly drawn down and away from the video feed to actually look at where his mask had landed - for all the cocky bastardry of throwing it away so nonchalantly to spite Harvey's words it feels oddly wrong to have done so. In fact, leaving the mask on the floor feels just as wrong and soon Cambridge is ducking away from the video feed briefly to retrieve it from the dark corner of his cabin, carefully flick away a non-existent speck of dust as he returns. ]

Perhaps not. I'll just take your word for it in the hope that this supposed master race of hyper-intelligent masks may surprise me yet.

I'm surprised it hasn't. You seem like a smart man, you've been on this ship. I don't need to explain to you that something is amiss in the Kingdom of Denmark.

[Well, Kingdom of Tranquility, more like.]

Rotten in the state, [ Cambridge corrects idly from the other end of the video feed as he inspects his mask. One didn't hang around with bloody Oxford of all people without picking up on a bit of Shakespeare through whatever knowledge-osmosis Oxford's telepathy made for. ]

They're rather unsettling, yes, but intelligent? It's hardly going to solve the Telegraph cryptic crossword. Or murder us all in our beds.

Look, maybe you're taking this whole "think for itself" business a little too literally.

[Harvey puts a hand to his forehead and rubs his temples with his fingers.]

Let's try that again. There's something unsettlingly sentient about these masks. Better? Your crosswords are safe.

You're the one with the melodramatic Shakespeare, darling.

[ but okay, let's try again then. Cambridge settles his shoulders and puts the mask aside as he smooths his expression in to something more serious. ]

They're all a little unnerving, certainly. But in the grand scheme of the ship's more horrifying lines of recent history I'm sure a few masks are nothing but a side-note.