003 (Video) ; I'm a word that no one ever wants to say...

[andblockbuster]

 [Hello, Tranquility. Here's Topher, recently exorcised and looking... Well, let's be real here. Topher looks like he got hit by a truck. His hair's messier than usual, he's ashen-faced, and there's a bandage around his left hand, which you can only just barely see because his hands are tucked tightly under his arms, like he's trying to pull himself into the smallest possible space.]

Is it over yet?

[He swallows.] ...Are they gone?

[For a moment, he looks like he might say something else, but there's just a long silence where nothing happens and he flips the communicator off with an aggravated and exhausted sigh. This has not been the best few weeks of his life and he's had a lot of terrible few weeks.]

Comments

[voice]

[doggedly]

[...not all of that makes entire sense to Sirius, but he takes the meaning of it well enough to snort.]

Well, y'know. There's philosophies, mate, and then there's real-life experience, which are generally unpleasant.

You were really carrying one around in your head?

[voice]

[andblockbuster]

More like it was carrying me. Which, I guess that makes me... The guy in shotgun. [Pause. Uuuugh.] Also... Not a really non-oogie concept, BTW.

[voice]

[doggedly]

Oogie meaning--what, precisely? If it's referring somehow to wanting to pop out your brains and give 'em a wash, I dunno that anyone's going to be able to help with that one. Sorry.

[voice]

[andblockbuster]

Yeah, I don't know what the British term is for that. [You can practically hear the shrugging] At least it's gone now. Now the healing of half a month worth of horrible psychological scars can start.