"Hey, can you go for another round? I've got a birthday on Saturday and need something to post; if I get it edited by then, I mean."

It's 3am. Ryan looks down at the bag of carrots he brought into the room to eat before bed, so that he could get up in the morning. They're pressed up against the plastic of the small bag and it reminds him of dogs in a shelter - their muzzles squeezing against the cold glass, breath fogging up the transparent surface. Hope abreast in their dark eyes. He throws the food on his unmade bed.

He can eat later.

"Yeah, sure."

"Why doesn't Cry ever show his face?"

The words print out on the screen and Ryan's fingers twitch to the mask covering his features, feeling its smooth edge give out to rough locks of hair. He can't remember the last time he showered, though he really should. He doesn't like it, though, the awareness of his lumbering form below him, the starkness of scars and scabs and the harsh sting of reality which could just be the shampoo in his eyes. Or something dumb like that.

There's a burst of text - people agreeing, defending, changes of topics. Ryan's flicks through it all, listening to the low hum of someone's voice. It's late, or early - he can't be sure, and distinguishing who's speaking is more of a chore than hours before. Words slip into each other, blurring little by little till consonants could be vowels in a flick of an eye.

"Cry?"

He clears his throat.

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?" Felix sounds vaguely concerned, and Ryan feels inexplicably guilty.

"Yes, friend. Just a little tired. May have to head off to sleep." There's a flurry of text, blocking out the talk of his mask, and Ryan's vaguely aware of something being said in return before he clicks off the live stream and is faced with the blank expanse of his desktop background. It's a sudden silence and it's profoundness reflects on his buzzing mind, penetrating the fog of exhaustion. He feels like he should be having a revelation, an epiphany; anything to fill the sudden emptiness that stretches on and on like the rolls of his fat.

Instead he reaches for the power down button and doesn't fall asleep for the next five hours.

A/N:

This is just a teaser chapter, to test the waters. Anyone interested aha?