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First of all - let it be known that Ren's not stupid.
Irresponsible? Maybe. Reckless? Absolutely. Willing to ride the bit wherever it takes him? You know it. But he will defend to the death the claim that he does have a brain cell. Doc's not the only one here who can have any bright ideas.
To be fair, though, Doc is the one that actually signed up for a hivemind.
"And of course Mango has to argue with me about it, you know he always does."
"Right," Ren nods. "But you shut him down?"
"Absolutely. It's my Perimeter, I get to make the rules. If he wants to change things, he can come and build it himself."
"Well, I mean, he can't, not with the whitelist."
"Actually! Hivemind can access remote control of my cybernetic components if I enable it. Comes in very handy when I just want to take a backseat and let one of them do all the work."
"Dude. That sounds amazing."
"It's pretty sweet, yeah," Doc nods. "You know, offer's still on the table if you ever wanna get connected."
"Uh - no thanks, brother, I'll tell ya a hundred times. That kinda thing's not for me. Plus I reckon Renbob would kill me. Or at least be very pacifistically disappointed."
"How's he doing, by the way? Recovered yet, after last season?"
"I think he's chillin', yeah. Haven't heard from him since he told me he'd be takin' the van to the shop, and not to worry if he went a little quiet. I miss him, of course, but there's only so long you can spend in a van together -"
"Yeah, dude, I know," Doc says, gesturing between them.
"Oh. Yeah," Ren grins, sheepish. "In my defence... uh. I forgot?"
"How do you forget three months in a van?"
"It's been a rough year for me, man, you know that. Plus the King came back, so you can't blame me if that part's a little blurry."
Doc stops. "What?"
"The King. You remember that, right? That wasn't a fever dream?"
"No, no, I remember. Why would it be blurry, though?"
"I, uh." Ren's smile fades. "Why wouldn't it?"
Now Doc actually looks confused, and a little bit concerned. "Because you were playing a character, right?"
"Yeah! But that's how acting goes for me, dude, always has been."
"Describe it for me."
"Is this an issue? Is there something wrong with me?"
"No, no, you're okay, don't worry. Just - it sounds a little, eh. Familiar."
Ren frowns. "Okay. I guess. Uh." How would he describe his acting process, then? Wasn't Doc there for a lot of it? "It's like... I dunno, I think of a character, I get into it, and then I just kinda ride the wave wherever it takes me? And yeah, I don't remember everything when it's over, but that happens when you're pretending to be somebody else. I'd be more concerned if I could remember it all, 'cause that would mean I wasn't in-character enough."
"And when you say you think of a character - is that... like, are you being inspired by something?"
"Not all the time. Mostly they'll just show up when they feel like it. Like the King - that started in Third Life, right, when I had a base to defend, and it kinda turned into my little kingdom once I got far enough into things. Bdubs brought it back a little different when he asked me to be king of this server. And then, uh, he showed up again yesterday, actually, when I went over to Cleo's and they let me put the cloak back on."
"Huh."
Doc is looking at him like a scientific specimen. Ren's not sure if he likes it. "Seriously, dude, give it to me straight - what's this about?"
He grimaces. "Are you sure you want to know?"
"Of course. If somethin's buggin' you about me, I wanna be able to walk you through it."
Doc mutters, "It's not me that has the problem."
"Talk to me," he insists.
"Alright. You, eh - sounds like you've got something a little bit like the Hivemind going on. Most people are aware that they're playing a character the whole time they play it."
"What? Dude, I'm acting."
"You can keep telling yourself that, or you can hear me out."
"If other people aren't getting caught up in their characters like I am, then that's just a skill issue on their part, as far as I'm concerned," Ren argues. Upsettingly, the suggestion is making his brain start overheating. He really doesn't wanna blue-screen-of-death on Doc while he's trying to defend his acting process. "You were there for some of this, man, don't act like it wasn't me."
"Eh..." Doc wiggles a hand in the air, upsettingly casual in the wake of such a bombshell insinuation. "Looking back... I kinda see it?"
"What are you talking about?"
"There's no way Grimdog was you, for one -"
"That was a bit of silly, goofy game participation -"
"- and I'm sure you don't know as much about mycelium as Renstein did."
"That was made up! I just -" it had just come into his mind, unbidden, un-researched, and -
"You were completely correct," Doc fires back.
Ren looks down at his hands. He's not sure why, but in that moment he really, really expects to see metal.
"I'm not saying anything has to change," says Doc, a little softer, "just that you might want to think about it. And that maybe, if there are some other people in there... they might want to be respected as such."
"You're kidding me," he manages, and it's - oh, god, it's not even in his own voice. It's something rougher, something that can't go as low as it wants to go on his vocal cords. It's something else.
"Hey. Ren," (and is that even right?), "look at me, man."
He looks. Doc is as terrifying as ever; the part of him that's wholly familiar with and loves that terrifying face is not all there, and fights to calm the rest of him.
"You're okay. Take a minute, yeah? Then, if you have questions, I can answer questions. I know my stuff."
"Yeah," Ren laughs, still largely uncomfortable, "yeah, you've been around the block, huh?"
"And I can be patient while you're catching up," he reassures. "It's okay if somebody else doesn't trust me."
And, dang, the fact that Doc can read him like that is equal parts heartwarming and freakin' scary for someone. (And isn't that weird? Somebody who doesn't know Doc. Somebody that cannot possibly be Rendog, if only by virtue of that fact.) "It's just you. Of course I would trust you."
"The King would say different," Doc says, just the tiniest hint of a smile.
"What? He didn't like you?"
Except - no, he can remember that now, the King did hold a certain hostility towards those who would not bend and submit to his rule, and he faintly remembers Doc being one such person.
"You got a looong afternoon ahead of you, bro," his best friend grins, letting it fall into a laugh at the end.
Ren, despite his (somebody's) inhibitions, and the heat on his cheeks that he definitely didn't put there, laughs as well.