Daycycle Day 23 [ FEB 29-MAR 5]

[computerized]

DAYCYCLE 23

[ FEB 29 - MAR 5 ]

MORNING

This morning even the most vehement of those Special haters seem to be preoccupied at the briefing.  The whispers aren’t about the new arrivals but the opportunity to go to the surface.  The Briefing Officer doesn’t waste any time in announcing those that were chosen.  Out of the twelve Troubleshooters selected three specials, Tony Stark, Ray Palmer and Barry Allen, are named as part of the expedition.  Some Troubleshooters seem disappointed while others look extremely relieved at not being named as part of the group.  The expedition will set out at noon with a projected return time of 48 hours.

Troubleshooter Team: D. Grayson and R. Lynch

This particular mission is considered a high-clearance level despite being assigned to RED troubleshooters.  Dick and Ronan will be selected for the mission and immediately led out of the Commissary in order to be told in private.  They are to travel to Bingham’s Arms Emporium located on the outskirts of the Armed Forces sector.  There they are to render the supervisor, Victor Bingham, unconscious and take him to one of the scrub bots located at Internal Security headquarters.  They will be required to wear masks provided when obtaining the traitor in order to protect their identity from retaliation.

All other Troubleshooters:  You are to report to your Service Firm positions for the day, until called on for Troubleshooter duty.

Intel: The word glitch has begun appearing on confession booths in the Technical Services sector.

AFTERNOON

At approximately 1400 a small explosion will occur in the R&D sector, causing it to be evacuated for the rest of the day.  It is unknown what caused the explosion, but rumor has it that anyone introduced to the invisible gas in the area will begin to go into convulsions before losing consciousness.  That will not stop some people from getting masks and searching the abandoned warehouses for products that will gain money on the black market.

EVENING

At 2000 the Genuine Credit Opportunity Club will hold a special presentation in the Commissary for those interested in earning astonishing amounts of credits for minimal work.  THIS IS NOT A TRIANGLE SCHEME.  Sleeping gas will be expelled at 2100.

Comments

Daycycle 23: Debriefing

[computerized]

You are welcome to play out missions from any point (beginning, middle, end) but are not required to. You will, however, need to provide information on the debriefing post below once you've determined with the other players involved how the mission played out. You can indicate if the mission is complete (finished), pending investigation (still being discussed occly), or in progress (currently being threaded out.) You are encouraged to approach other characters for assistance with missions whenever possible, as almost every sector has a playable character. They may be able to provide you with valuable information from their roles within Alpha Complex or assistance in tracking down a traitor. You'll soon find out that the more avenues you have through the bureaucratic nightmare that Alpha Complex is, the better.

Reward and punishment will be determined by the outcome of your missions, though they may depend entirely on the current processing power of The Computer at the time and classified information not available to you. In other words, everything is never as it seems, so be prepared for anything.

Please debrief The Computer and your Briefing Officer on your mission using the form below.

<b>Mission Status:</b> Complete (Finished), Pending Investigation (Being discussed oocly) or <a href=THREAD LINK>In Progress</a> (link to your thread, if there is one). <b>Troubleshooters</b> <b>Mission outcome:</b> <b>Alpha Complex Damage:</b> <b>Traitorous Casualties:</b> <b>Citizen Casualties:</b> <b>Intel gained:</b>

Allison Argent | OTA (morning)

[jeprotege]

When she wakes up, Allison is confused. She knows she is supposed to get up, eat a RediMeal, and report to her position as a Weapon Effectiveness Assessor in the Armed Forces. Unless she gets assigned a Troubleshooter mission. Why does today feel different? There's a nagging feeling that she's forgetting something, something important, but she's unable to put a finger on what it is and it's driving her a little crazy.

Maybe she'll feel better after she eats. She heads to the Red Level common area, hoping to find someone who can explain this uneasiness she feels. If the wrong person picks up on her feelings, she could be found guilty of treason. She certainly doesn't want that to happen.

'Focus, Allison,' she tells herself. Get dressed, get food, and go to work. Things will make sense if you follow your routine.

[sanguinescry]

As usual, Lydia gets up in the morning and dresses in the God awful red jumpsuit to start her day. Normally, she'd see if Dick — or now, Matt — wanted to walk with her to the morning briefing, but she's running a little late. She doesn't even really have time to pull her hair up, so she just goes, ponytail holder around her wrist to throw her hair up while she's in the meeting.

Just like she always does, Lydia moves into the common area and scans the crowd in search of Barry and Ray. Easily, they're her best friends here, and without question, they're the two people she trusts the most. Steve and Tony come in a close second, if she has to rank, with Root close behind. Everyone else, really, is kind of superfluous to Lydia so far. She acknowledges that they're there, has spoken to a handful of them, but hasn't made any real connections.

Her eyes catch sight of a familiar face and Lydia stops dead in her tracks, her breath catching, throbbing in her throat.

It's just like Ronan, she tells herself, but even that doesn't really calm her down any. He looks like Jackson, but he isn't. She looks like Allison, but she isn't; she can't be. Shake it off, just go find Ray, you'll be fine.

With that silent pep talk, Lydia runs a hand through her long, red hair and then pinches the bridge of her nose, continuing to scan the crowd for her friends. They'll distract her. If nothing else, Ray's overwhelming and often inexplicable level of general cheerfulness should do the trick. So she keeps walking, past the girl with a strained effort not to look at her more closely — Ronan had a tragic hair accident and some tattoos to differentiate him; maybe she has piercings or a birthmark, or something — and she finally stops a few yards later, turning and looking back toward the door, thinking maybe she's missed them both or maybe Ray and Barry are even later today than she is.

[jeprotege]

Allison senses that someone is staring at her. Is that the source of her uneasiness? Has someone been watching her? Did she do something wrong to be put under surveillance? Her mind races, thinking back over the past few days, unable to think of anything she may have done that would have roused suspicions about her loyalty. She closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath to steady her nerves. Whoever is watching her will soon realize that she's not a threat and she won't be in danger.

A flash of red catches in the corner of her eye makes her frown. Everyone in this room is wearing a red jumpsuit, so she's not sure why her brain registers it as something important. She turns to examine it closer and lets out an involuntary gasp.

Lydia.

There are hundreds of moments flooding her mind, memories of a life that is not in Alpha Complex. Without realizing it, she finds herself walking towards the girl, stopping in front of her and opening and closing her mouth. She has no idea what to say.

[sanguinescry]

At the movement in the corner of her eye, Lydia looks up and it feels a little like her heart stops for a second, her stomach dropping heavily, and her chest tightening. Why do they always come to me first? she finds herself thinking and she takes a shaky breath, looking back up at the taller girl wearing her dead best friend's face.

"What?" she finally asks, frowning, trying to keep her expression from looking too much like she feels slapped in the face.

Lydia & Matt (open to Dick?) | Evening

[sanguinescry]

Lydia suspected all along that the glitch wasn't a glitch at all; that it was memories from life before Alpha Complex. Her beliefs were shaken a little when Ray died and came back, just like the clones they were all taught to believe they were, but now she's sure again. Whatever is going on with Ray is going on with Ray and Ray alone. She's real. She's been kidnapped. She isn't like him, she isn't a clone. She can't be. And she feels that way, because of Allison.

Allison remembers her just like she remembers Allison and it isn't like when Ronan had no idea who she was; Allison isn't just some other person who looks like her dead best friend. Allison Argent is real and she's Lydia's and she's alive, and the fact that they share the same pieces of glitch means that they're not glitches at all. They share memories because they lived important moments of their lives together. She hated to finally leave her friend but it was damn near 21:00 and Lydia doesn't want to find out what happens to people who fall get hit with the sleep gas when they aren't in their own quarters. So she goes and she's crying when she gets back, but she doesn't really care if Dick sees or Matt hears or if anyone notices it at all. It's not because she's sad. It isn't entirely because she's happy, either. There's relief in those tears, because she has her best friend back and there are no Oni or nogitsunes here to take her away again. There's fear in those tears, because she's afraid that if she wakes up and goes to tomorrow's morning briefing, Allison won't be there at all and she'll have to endure that loss all over again. But she isn't sad. That's one thing that Lydia isn't feeling, finally, in this place with it's hate groups and shitty accommodations and worse food.

Sniffing and wiping her eyes with the palms of her hands as she walks back into her room, she feels a pang of guilt for feeling relief that it's Matt there instead of Dick. Matt can hear her, but she can write that off. The important thing is that he's blind and he can't see all of those emotions swimming in her eyes or the fact that tears are still welling in them and threatening to fall because she's still, even all these hours later, so overwhelmed by the possibility of being able to keep Allison just a little bit longer and thinking maybe, just maybe if she begs Tony and Ray, they can find a way to sort of "bottle" the medical technology in this place so that she can give it to Allison to take with her...and then maybe she won't die from that attack. Maybe everything will be okay, that way, and definitely things would be so much better if Lydia didn't have to try to wade through them alone — and, besides Stiles, most days since Allison's death, alone is a feeling she knows better than most.

"It's just me," she announces, because it's probably rude not to give the man a head's up when she's entering the room, since he can't see it and he can just hear someone coming in. She can't imagine that sort of disability now. Not after what she's been through in this place so far. She's reminded of the night the power went out and she'd sneaked into the forensics lab and she remembers the crippling fear she felt when she heard Ray entering but couldn't see that it was Ray to know that it was someone safe and not another person from the hate group. "Do you need anything before the sleeping gas? I'm up..." she offers.

[preemptiveforgiveness]

Matt wishes he had his phone here to record notes. someway to capture his thoughts and try to make some sense of all the information he's gathering about this place. As it is, he's only got his memory and while it's good, it's completely human and not at all eidetic. He's got no way to take notes in braille either. Really he'd love to have some of his technology from home. Of course, there's a lot that he'd like to have from home. As it is, he tries to go over the information every evening, compile it, sort through it and determine what's important. It feels like he goes to bed with a headache more often than not.

He hears someone approaching the room then the door opening. He takes a deep breath almost out of habit, but to his (highly developed) human senses, everyone smells pretty much the same. The only difference here is that Matt can smell the slightest tang of salt. His brow furrows as he sits up. He knows from her footsteps that it's Lydia before she speaks. He smiles gratefully at her announcement. He remembers vividly that fear from before he learned how to use his powers and from the first day here. He hadn't known anyone and had had to rely on Ray, whom he'd just met, to tell him who was there and whether they were amicable or not. He struggles for a moment, wondering if he ought to let her have her space, but he's fairly certain from her voice that she's emotional, but he can't tell what emotion the way he could with his powers. After a moment, he shakes his head. "No, thank you. I appreciate it though."

He hesitates again. "Are you alright?" He doesn't know Lydia very well, but they are sharing a room and she seems to be nice enough.

[sanguinescry]

Lydia gives him a small smile and moves to her bed, sitting down on the edge of it and, as she does every night takes her hair down to cascade over her shoulders and massages her fingertips deeply against her scalp to loosen that twinge of pain at the top center of her head where her hair's been tied up for the whole day. "No problem," she replies when he says he doesn't need anything. "If that changes before they release the sleep aid..." she offers, trailing off before actually finishing the sentence, because she's sure he gets the jist.

When he asks whether she's all right, Lydia looks over at him, eyes moving over him as if looking for something, even if she doesn't know what. Reflexively she wonders whether he's a werewolf and can smell the chemosignals she's giving off, but that's stupid, she thinks, because even if he is, he still won't smell them, probably. Not if he'd lost his sense of smell the way she's lost the voices in her head.

Clearing her throat as she finally looks away when she realizes that she's been staring while trying to figure it out, she nods, a weak smile that falls just short of her eyes tugging at the corners of her mouth. Belatedly, she actually vocally responds because nodding her head at him is dumb, she's not even thinking straight tonight. "I'm fine, it's just been...a day," she confesses in a surface-level fashion.

[preemptiveforgiveness]

Matt can hear her moving around, but he can't see that world on fire that he's so accustomed to seeing and he can't tell what she's doing. He assumes getting ready for bed since it is close to lights out. He nods a little at her offer. "Thank you. Do they always put a sleep aid in the air?"

No, he can't smell the chemosignals. He's just accustomed to listening to little inflictions and differences in voices and while his senses aren't anything like what they were, they're still highly developed for a human so he can smell something different about her.

He didn't know she was staring so there's no harm done. He only knows that it takes her a moment to answer. She really doesn't need to worry. He assumes she's not accustomed to being around the blind. He nods a little. "It seems like there might be a lot of those here." He's only been here two days though so...

[preemptiveforgiveness]

Matt looks a good deal less confused and panicked today than he did yesterday. He's still not comfortable here and he still feels like he's half deaf, blind and numb but he's figuring out that he does still have his senses and he can determine a certain amount about a room or a person with them even if he can't hear their heart beating or know what they ate for dinner the night before (that last one seems pretty pointless here).

He doesn't have any credits to buy anything at the commissary, but he has showed up to get his nutritious breakfast. He'll take a seat at one of the tables on the edge of the room and listen to everything that's going on around him as he picks at his food. He won't mind company, not at all.

After breakfast, it's straight to the legal services office and try to figure out exactly what it is he's supposed to be doing there (he doesn't have a clue). If things are quiet there, he's likely to make a trip to the library. He's not hopeful that there are braille books, but he's got to at least make certain. On his way to both places, he walks careful, cane tapping in front of him, hand against one wall. He's not going slow because he's wary; he's going slow because he's trying to absorb as much as possible about the layout of this place.

At lunch, it's back to the dining hall, not because he likes the food but because it's the best place to see everyone and hear what's going on. His afternoon is a repeat of his morning before he hits the dining hall one last time. He'll attend the Credit Club meeting out of curiosity then possibly leave early before retiring to his room to try and work out what (if anything) he's learned that day.

[jeprotege]

When she returns to the dining hall for lunch, Allison notices a blind man sitting alone with what passes for food around here. Her conversation with Lydia has caused memories of real food to surface, of delicious things that are nothing like the RediMeals they are forced to eat here. It makes it harder to choke down her lunch, but she knows she needs the nutrition.

After a moment of hesitation, she decides to approach the young man. She isn't planning to trust anyone other than Lydia, but she figures it can't hurt to at least get to know some of the other Specials.

She clears her throat to announce her presence. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

[preemptiveforgiveness]

There's far too much noise for Matt to separate anything as subtle as someone approaching him. He supposes he'll eventually learn to isolate sounds even with his diminished senses the way he had with his super ones.

He does hear her when she clears her throat. He's busy picking at food that he's not crazy about eating, but that he knows is necessary. He looks up, brows raising and lips curving in a genuine, if small, smile. "Please, be my guest." He gestures to what he assumes is a free seat. "I'm Matt."

[jeprotege]

"I'm Allison," she says, smiling at him before realizing that he can't see her. Good move, Argent, she mentally berates herself. "Does the food taste any better when you can't see what you're eating?"

Oh god, that's probably rude to ask. What is wrong with her? "I'm sorry," she apologizes. "It's been a strange day so far." She shoves some of her food in her mouth. She can't put her foot in it if it's already full.

For Ronan and/or Ray

[adamparrish]

The interrogation had been intense. Adam has never been interrogated like that in his life. Granted, he's never so blatantly broken the rules either. In a strange twist of luck, Adam has tricks when things get too intense for him. There's a place in his mind that he can go and hide away to take the brunt of most anything in any situation. He's perfected that place and goes there as they try to get him to turn on Ronan. He doesn't turn on Ronan. He doesn't answer they questions except to admit his own curiosity and try to persuade the interrogators that he'd drug Ronan along with him without Ronan knowing what they were getting into. That's as far as he goes while he's in that little space in his mind where nothing can get to him.

He's medicated differently while he's held overnight and something in him turns absolutely complacent. His nerves are soothed and he sleeps the night through. Breaking into the cloning facility seems like a distant nightmare. He shouldn't have done it. But he did. Why did he do it? He can't remember right now. He dreams of the interrogation, only this time the one asking the questions is Robert Parrish. Adam knows all too well how it will feel when those fists collide with his face, and eventually they do.

Adam wakes with a start and is set free. He goes numbly to the room he shares with Ronan Lynch and Ray Palmer. He can barely remember what happened, why he had been held and what the people had been asking him about. He's in trouble for something. Is Ronan in trouble too? Is Ray? Does he care? Yes. Yes, he should care. He makes himself care.

He steps into the room and looks blankly around. "Ronan? Ray?"

[shrinkage]

"Where the hell were you?" Ray doesn't really do anger so much as fear and worry cranked to 11. He's at least successful at looming in this instance, large frame towering as he stands away from his own bed.

It wasn't so much the disappearing in the night that Ray worried about -- he can't be so hypocritical as to expect that no one else would take advantage of post-curfew privacy. It was that when he returned from his own escapades, it had been to an entirely empty room.

He'd though it had struck again: the Curse of the Palmer. He almost immediately deflates a little: "Are you OK?"

[adamparrish]

Almost as if in afterthought Adam turns to look at Ray. He likes Ray, he thinks. Ray's helped him and Ronan more than anyone else here. He's a good roommate. He stares blankly at him for a moment, trying to process the questions. Genius level IQ over here, and a simple question has been made so far.

"I got Ronan in trouble." He says, because that's the gist of it, isn't it? He'd been questioned for hours, an attempt to get him to turn on Ronan. But he hadn't. And now everything is kind of fuzzy in his mind. Like he knows what happened, but he might have dreamed it.

Is is dad here? That had seemed so real. It's okay if he is. Everything is okay.

"I'm okay." He answers, right in line with his thought process. Everything is okay. All is well. All is as it should be. He even feels just a little bit... happy. Adam Parrish is not usually a happy person. And he kind of wants a drink. Beer makes him think of Robert Parrish. Alcohol makes him think of Ronan. "Ronan's probably okay too."

[shrinkage]

"Probably?" There are way too many unanswered questions flying through Ray's mind. On the one hand he's not responsible for these guys. On the other...

"You look like you need to sit down, come on. What's the last thing you remember?" Probably a lot of drugs, which is why Ray is doing his best border collie impression and trying to herd Adam toward a bed to sit.

For Adam

[fictor]

Ronan had been interrogated like this before. He's sat in an interrogation room at the Henrietta while the police fired questions at him. He crosses his arms over his chest, tilts his chin up and doesn't give them anything except fuck and you. He even tells them his name is Ronan Fucking Lynch. Honestly, he's accustomed to that being enough to get him out of the deepest of trouble and if that doesn't do it, he can always count on Gansey, except that he can't. Not here and his father's name and money doesn't mean anything here. Neither does his reputation as the scariest thing in Henrietta. The only other thing he says to the people interrogating him is "Where's Adam? You can let him go any fucking time because any dickdouche with a brain knows that he's the trouble maker, not Adam." Of course, it doesn't seem to do any good (imagine that) and he's shuffled into a cell to be held overnight.

Sleep isn't something that Ronan expects (though he should in this place because he's slept every night he's been here), but it comes for him and for the first time since arriving in this place he dreams; he dreams of night terrors and being ripped apart. He dreams of watching the night terrors rip into Gansey, Adam, Blue and Noah. He wakes with a muffled scream feeling like he didn't get any sleep at all. He's not in the least surprised when he's released (though he ought to be, oughtn't he?). He's completely surprised to find that despite getting into trouble and being detained, he's got a mission. The mission takes most of the day and it's evening before he returns to the room he shares with Adam and Ray.

When he does return, he's got a bottle of unidentified alcohol with him. The top is off and he's already had a couple of slugs of it. There's something dangerous and sharp-edged about Ronan tonight. In some ways, he's more Ronan than he's been since arriving. He's got a fuzzy memory of the interrogation, his crime and all of the events before waking up this morning. He doesn't realize that his sense of smell is dulled a bit and oh yeah, his skin has an orange tint to it.

A sharp grin cuts across Ronan's face when he sees Adam in the room. He should be feeling relief (and in some ways he is) but instead, he's feeling pleased to see Adam there and possessive somehow. He unzips his jumpsuit, shrugs it off and lets it hang around his waist. "You're okay," he says almost as if he's confused about why Adam wouldn't be okay. He takes another swig out of the bottle and holds it out to Adam as he approaches him.

[adamparrish]

Adam had thought to go back out in search of Ronan, but then he remembered that saying that the best way to be found is to stay in one place. Eventually, Ronan would have to come back to the living space they share with Ray. On top of that, Adam knows that Ronan is okay. Because everything is okay. They're all okay. Nothing is wrong. Is it? He's a little confused about whether or not anything is wrong. He thinks he might have gotten Ronan in trouble. How, he isn't sure.

He's sitting on his bed, staring intently at his hand, which, strangely, has an orange tint to it, when Ronan enters the room. Adam looks up and smiles. Yes, he actually smiles when he sees Ronan and the bottle he's carrying. Everything is okay. He's even, dare he say, happy.

Without even thinking about it twice Adam reaches out for the offered bottle and takes a healthy drink of it. It burns down his throat and he coughs. But he wants more. So he drinks more before handing the bottle back.

"I knew if I sat right here you'd find me." He says.

Mission: Tag Ronan

[utilitybelted]

It was kind of nice to be wearing a mask again, it felt comfortable on his face and reminded him of home... if only he wasn't wearing it to go and apprehend somebody for unspecified reasons on behalf of the faceless ruler that was the computer.

If he'd been working with Steve or Barry or any of the others that he'd interacted with before now, he would have felt pretty comfortable suggesting they find out exactly what this Victor Bingham knew before they handed him over. As it was, his partner in this particular mission was an unknown, and while he still intended to do it, feeling out whether or not Ronan would agree to it without turning him in as a traitor was going to take some delicacy.

"I'm Dick, by the way, I don't think we've met before," he introduced himself as they made their way to the emporium.

Sorry I just got to this!

[fictor]

It was a little weird for Ronan to be wearing any kind of mask at all. He was unusually chipper today and a little out of it, thanks to the medication they forced on him as part of his punishment for breaking into the clone facility with Adam. Of course, he could't really remember that he got in trouble or even that he'd been medicated, just that he was happy here. Things were good and they were doing a good thing here, apprehending this guy, whomever he was.

Ronan would normally suggest such a thing, but right now he was too drug-hazed to consider such a thing. However, he wouldn't turn Dick in. He'd simply suggest that they might get in trouble (something Ronan could give a rat's ass about most days).

"Seriously? That's your name? Dick?" he smirked a little but continued, "Ronan Lynch," he nodded in response. "Yeah, I haven't been here that long." Yeah, he didn't know Dick, but (unlike usual) he was open to making friends. That was a good thing, right? Making friends.

Re: Sorry I just got to this!

[utilitybelted]

"Yea, Dick, as in Richard, by all means make any joke you like, I'll be surprised if you come up with something new," he replied good naturedly. Most jokes based on his names were puns, and he generally approved of puns as a rule, even ones at his expense. "I've been here... a few weeks, since the beginning of the specials I think, at least nobody seems to have been here longer than me."

"What did you do, before?" he asked, it seemed to be the best way to try and feel somebody out, finding out who people were before generally helped him figure out what kind of person they were now, and whether he could trust them. So far, he'd yet to find a special he didn't trust at least a little bit.

Evening: Tag Ray

[utilitybelted]

Getting back in the habit of patrolling had been easy, he'd been getting itchy feet every evening since arriving here, and the discovery of the invisibility tech had just given him the outlet he needed to explore every inch of the complex without being seen.

It didn't mean he was careless, of course, Batman would have his head if he just assumed they had no other ways of detecting him, so he still worked on moving as stealthily as he always would even if they could see him.

He didn't really have any specific aim in his patrols, other than mentally mapping the place, occasionally doing what he could to help people who seemed to be in need, but it still felt good to be out there doing his thing.

This evening, apparently, he wasn't the only one, and he'd been tracking Ray for the past ten minutes, trying to work out what he was doing and if it was safe to reveal himself.

After a little while though, it didn't seem like Ray was doing anything particular, and Dick's curiosity was piqued so much that he was prompted to find out more directly.

He dropped down behind Ray as silently as possible and turned off the invisibility.

"Looking for something?" It wasn't only Batman who could show up behind people unannounced.

DC22 → DC23

[shrinkage]

Ray's been clumsily prowling around for about 2 weeks now, looking for a suitable abandoned area to use for a base of Specials operations. It's not terrible work aside from the ever-present panic that he won't have a good enough excuse or enough credits to bribe whoever catches him out after curfew.

So the shriek that Ray emits in surprise is nothing considering he loses his footing when he spins around to find the source of the sounds and faceplants.

RE: DC22 →

[utilitybelted]

Dick may have mastered the art of sneaking up behind people like Batman, but he most definitely had not mastered the art of standing by impassively and looking imposing (it was hard to look imposing when you were a shorter-than-average sixteen year old), because when Ray shrieked and fell over, Dick burst out laughing.

"Oh man, sorry, I didn't..." he could barely speak for giggles "Didn't mean... to startle you..." which was technically a lie, since he had, but he still felt bad for how much he'd surprised Ray.

Once he'd finally got his laughter under control, he held out a hand to Ray to help him up.