Week 1, Sunday Evening; Noctis

[alcobrawlic]

[ She's pretty much been parked at the saloon after dinner. Not only is it way cleaner than how it'd been over the past couple of days, but it's been fairly quiet, with the occasional visitor and not just people slamming in en masse to get horrendously drunk.

Not yet, anyway. For now, Sara's once again behind the counter, although it's not to drink so much as it's to check and make sure she got all of the glass picked up.

It's just something else to focus on. ]

Comments

[alcobrawlic]

How's your life back home? Easy, carefree?

[ She'll ask him that first, raising an eyebrow as she leans against the counter. ]

[elemancy]

...Only if your idea of "easy and carefree" is totally different than a normal person's.

[his life has been anything but, especially recently.]

[alcobrawlic]

Yeah, no, that much about me is normal.

[ with a wry smile. ]

And whatever's going on... are you dealing with it on your own?

[elemancy]

[something about sara is normal—crazy talk.

okay, but really. noct just shakes his head.]

Not until this place threw a wrench in it.

[alcobrawlic]

Well. I mean, this is going to sound kind of stupid when the entire premise is basically that we're supposed to kill each other, buuuut...

You're not alone here, either. I'm not saying any of us can replace a hot guy with tattoos and facial hair and whoever else you had, but the people who get jaded about things like unfairness and death are the ones who don't know what it's like to not be alone.

You were there for Tiara. It's only gonna get harder from here, but if it's any comfort, it's probably not going to hurt any less.

[ ... which is not really comforting at all, but she's sure of it. Noct doesn't seem like the type who won't be able to care, no matter what happens. ]

[elemancy]

It's... just a little different.

[not that he's trying to brush off what sara is saying.]

The people back home are people I trust with my life. Have to trust them with my life. [that's kind of how it is when your best friends are also staffed with protecting you—some of which being literal crownsguard.

he sighs a bit, throwing back some of that beer.] Think you know as well as I do that some of these people would turn to protect their own lives. Good people have a breaking point too.

[and he knows he's not entirely alone. he's met good people, people who see eye-to-eye with him on a number of things. but trusting people he's only known a week with his life?

that's pretty tough to do, given his nature.]

[alcobrawlic]

Oh, yeah, I know.

[ Of course she knows. ]

But the main point is, you're still capable of caring about them-- maybe not as much as your friends back home, but you're still making connections here. And a connection, strong or thin, is still a connection.

Someone like you... I can't really imagine shrugging off a death.

[elemancy]

[he gets it—and really, it's not like she's wrong. a guy like him is someone most may not be able to tell that with unless they take a few minutes to talk to him.

he's not cold or very brooding in a lot of ways, but it does shake him when innocent people lose their lives.]

Guess you're not wrong there. Still... pretty big assumption to make, isn't it? [it's... spoken a little lighter.

he knows it's not really an assumption so much as an assessment, which is why he'll follow it up with a question.] How many of us do you think are like that? Able... to shrug off a death, I mean.

[alcobrawlic]

Mm... [ she straightens, stretching her arms behind her, and then slowly shakes her head. ]

I couldn't say for sure. For now, at least one. Likely more than that, if that's any consideration on why we were brought here.

[ There are some bleeding hearts, yes. And there are some who have taken a more pragmatic approach to it. And some who absolutely don't care... yeah, she can believe that. ]

[elemancy]

[it's not entirely the response he wants to hear, but he lets out a sigh—there's probably not too much to be done about it.]

"At least one." Sounds... promising. The ones like that, probably the ones we have to be pretty careful of, though.

[of course, he's considered that the kind people may turn too, if they have motives of their own.

but the ones who don't care at all when another dies—they can't be ignored either.]

[alcobrawlic]

Well-- give me another few days, I'll do some investigating.

[ Although chances are they'll out themselves sooner or later anyway. ]

[elemancy]

It'd be nice if we can catch it early. Maybe stop someone from doing something too stupid.

[he sighs, and after a minute of thought, he ponders something else while he sips at his drink.]

Those... roles. I wonder what they're going to mean in all this. [it's something nobody's really talking about—maybe because nobody even knows what to say about them at this point.]

[alcobrawlic]

Well, if they're calling it a game... probably there are going to be people who are going to try and help end it, and people who are going to make it difficult to 'win'.

[ Oh, joy. ]

[elemancy]

...Wonder if we'll find out who's who. The quicker we can side with whoever's on our side, the better off we might be.

[he thinks.]

Guess it'd help if we actually knew anything about them at all, though.

[alcobrawlic]

Yeah, it would... I imagine people with roles are probably still trying to feel out who they can trust in the first place.

... So I guess, look as trustworthy as you can?

[elemancy]

Kind of sounds like a tall order here. But... I guess I'll see what I can do. You should probably do the same.

[he guesses? one can never really tell what sara is all about anyway.]

[alcobrawlic]

Don't worry about me, I'll be radiating goodness alllll day.

[ uh-huh. ]

[elemancy]

That... sounds convincing.

[sara............]