Right Back After This

Episode 1

Riz looks through his lashes at the shadow that falls across his wall. His pink-tinted windows paint the silhouette a dark magenta, over the posters and polaroids that Riz never chose to put up. Riz watches the outline sway like there is nothing more interesting in a thousand worlds. The shadow lifts something to its mouth, a moment, and then blows out a slow cloud of smoke. Riz is careful not to open his eyes too much, not to let it show that he's awake.

There is one camera in this room, almost invisible in the corner. There are no microphones, aside from the one that's implanted just under Riz's jaw. That one, right now, can only pick up his gentle breathing.

It probably can't pick up the quiet phone conversation Colian is having, that Riz can just barely make out. He's not having it in a language Riz understands, nor does Riz even know what that language is, what world Colian is from. It's clipped and fast and intensely melodic and cut by occasional laughter. Colian's voice is softer than he looks.

This is how Riz is able to hear him. The kindness Riz gives to burly, silent security guards paints him as friendly and innocent, so the managers approve it; they let him call his personal guard by name. The leash extends that far, but not far enough for a response. Silence is part of the role Colian plays, whether or not he wants to act.

In the camera's blind spot, right underneath it, is a clock, and that tells Riz he has seven more minutes before he's allowed to wake. They don't usually micromanage like this, so Riz sure as fuck hopes it's important.

He watches that smoke curl out of Colian's mouth again. The pictures his shadow falls across are all of Riz with the rest of Saccharine- selfies, semi-staged group photos, at verdant parks on goldworlds, candids taken on stage, candids taken when all the rest of them were drunk. They're his closest friends, and that's why they 'chose' each other to do this- all the glamour and freedom and fun of this life built the deepest bond. Riz and Wrenley and Shia and Amello are best friends forever and ever and ever, and you must be imagining the bitter taste in your mouth.

Riz has memorised his lines well, but he repeats the story inside his head anyway. In fairness to the others, he does like them; it's not a complete facade, from what Riz can tell when he's so entrenched in it.

Colian's shadow moves, disappears, as does his voice. Riz rolls over slowly, like he's just shuffling in his sleep; he faces the roof, now, and shuts his eyes for real. It's best to make the written parts feel organic, lest the audience realise that even the most organic parts are, in some way, scripted.

Light bursts through his door, stark artificial daylight, and immediately there's a body upon him, shaking him awake. Amello's always got this distinct smell about him, of pancakes, of caramel, of sweetness. It's part of their branding, really, as Saccharine- at the meet-ups, people always have to be surprised at how good you smell, to connect these things to the group forevermore. Riz's signature scent is fake strawberry, to the extent he can't smell it anymore.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Amello's excitement sounds as honest as it ever does. "Are you waking up?"

"I am!" Riz exudes a similar level of excitement, and not annoyance. He doesn't even know if he feels annoyance. His jaw could be clenching in anxiety. "What's up? What's wrong?"

Amello pins him to the bed, makes crazed eye contact, in the way that only a member of Saccharine can. Riz will never quite get used to those heart-shaped pupils looking at him, even though he shares the same patented modification. Riz's never been able to tell if Amello's honey coloured irises were dyed that way, or if he was lucky enough to escape the agony Riz went through to turn his pink.

"It's 2v2s today," Amello says with a grin, and Riz actively bites back a groan. "You and I, we're going to get revenge for last time."

"Last time?" Riz's brain fog is often misunderstood as stupidity. Hot idiots are popular. Lucky for him. "But last time we went against..."