Another Day, Another Dollar (post-round mingle)

[midpointmods]

PLAYERS: Everyone!
LOCATION: Midpoint, and anywhere else people want to explore
GOAL: Time to relax after some hard-won rounds.
WARNINGS: None
OTHER: The setting post for those who want to explore

The stagecoach reaches the Ranch... and the cargo isn’t with it. A large, feathery dinosaur reaches the Ranch a little later, with only some of their cargo, having been hit mid-route and between transformations by the bandits.

“Well, we’ll take what we can get,” Lee says sourly at what’s left after the bandits’ raiding - maybe half of the empty crates. He hollers at his ranch hands, “Come get 'em, boys!” Between him and the other workers, and any of the remaining driver team able to be pressed into service (which is mostly just Groot), the crates are unloaded and stacked and filled with supplies for the next train out. Looks like they were useful, after all.

At the end of the day, Lee sends the drivers on their way back to Midpoint, and the bandits can do what they will with their portion of the cargo. Got any use for sturdy wooden crates, friends?

In Tycoon Depot, Tiffany Jamesson has spent a(n enjoyable) day and a half in hiding with Inara, Daylight, and Irene, peppering Daylight with questions and flirting demurely with Inara and Irene, presumably out of boredom. The hand-off with her father goes pretty smoothly, with only Fuwa on the outside - he might be furious, but he's not willing to interrupt and risk the target’s life in a firefight.

Exchange made, kidnappers and bodyguards are free to head back to Midpoint.

In the saloon, North has laid out a buffet of everyone’s favorite foods to choose from, with beer and wine on the house for two days only: the traditional post-round congratulations-or-consolations feast. There’s someone on the piano almost all night providing music, and extra hot water for baths whenever people finally retires to their rooms. Most Players make good use of the additional free food and drink for as long as it lasts; whether for enjoyment, self-medication, or to stave off boredom is their own call.

The dead don't remain so for long, and wake up in jail cells - the same ones they started their round at - at the edges of the game arena around the same time as the round ends, ready to be collected by friends - if there’s anyone who wants to come get them.

The next week and a half belong to the Players to do with what they please, be it sleep all day, spend their hard-earned points on more alcohol, ask lots of questions, or explore the arena. There are no events planned, nothing to steal, no one to murder (unless you really want to, anyway), and plenty of things to learn about and try to get to the bottom of, for any Players not too jaded to try and search. Good luck with that, anyway.

Oh - did you want to know if you won, or how badly you lost? Gonna have to ask North or Booker for your points totals, because there’s nobody who actually announces whether you won or lost...

Comments

[chalicejoker]

[I - Locked to Fuwa]
Ryo's been hanging out with Fuwa until Hajime got back. There's not much else he can do, and Fuwa had been nice to him after The Very Bad Thing had happened. At the moment, he's a ball python draped around Fuwa's neck, but when he realizes Hajime's back, well. "Hajime! He's here! Gotta go! Gotta go!" And the overexcited mantis-turned-snake immediately starts tugging and pulling Fuwa in the direction of the jail.

Or trying to, anyway. He's really only succeeding in wrapping himself around Fuwa's neck...and constricting. (But it is constricting in the direction of the jail. That is something, right?)

[II - Saloon, OTA]
Ryo's much happier once Hajime's back out of the jail and walking around amongst the living once more. He's in high spirits the entire ride back to Midpoint. Hajime is...well, not exactly happy he both didn't get a straight fight and ended up leaving poor traumatized Ryo alone, he's handling things okay. Having infiltrations die on Jaunts back in his last round of being jerked around by too-powerful beings certainly helped, even if he hadn't really been himself in those cases.

And now, there is gossip to contend with. In his haste to get at the other Undead he'd been sensing since he arrived in this world, he had ended up abandoning his team to go to the brothel for perfectly innocent fight-picking purposes.

It's just that it's a really hard thing to explain away and Hajime's allergic to properly explaining things even at the best of times anyway, oops. He's just. Going to try to ignore any chatter about that.

This is fine.

[III - Around Town, OTA]
In an effort to distract Ryo (and himself, but mostly Ryo, let's be honest), Hajime decides to take one of the forms he picked up on a Jaunt to take Ryo on a run--it's Ryo's favorite, one that looks like a seven-foot-tall mantis. Hajime's not the most graceful runner, but that's okay. Most of the running isn't going to be on the ground. Hajime makes the change behind the saloon, Ryo climbs up on what passes for his mantis shoulder, and off they go. Hajime quickly climbs up the building, gets up to the roof, and proceeds to hop from building to building, thinking that he is totally subtle and that no one will think to look up and spot the giant mantis. Or if he does think about it if only for a moment, he decides that he doesn't care.

From the ground, the much smaller mantis clinging to the larger one may not be visible, and it just might look like Ryo's had a sudden, massive growth spurt. A faint, Ryo-like "wheeeee!" can be heard from the ground during the jumps, and the eagle-eyed among the Players may very well spot him having a bit of much-needed fun.

I

[ragingwolf]

"Ryo--!"

Excuse you, baby snake boy, Fuwa is sitting innocently here trying to eat and you're wrapping very tightly around his throat. He drops his fork to try and work his fingers between Ryo and his windpipe. "We don't have to leave right now, he's fine!"

[chalicejoker]

Ryo has been patient enough, thank you very much! He is also far too excited to think of anything else and far too unaware of his own baby snake strength. "No! Gotta go now! Gotta make sure he's fine!"

[ragingwolf]

There is a lot of snake to try and untangle and he is very tight around Fuwa's neck. This is not a grea combination, and Fuwa is making very little headway trying to remove the snake gently. Which is bad, because he's also got very little air.

"He is, now stop--" please Ryo.

[chalicejoker]

"Can't stop!" Ryo whines, "Got to go! Go now!" He thinks he might have accidentally tied himself in a knot, he is so excited!

Sorry, Fuwa. He's not going to be able to relax until he's on his way to go see Hajime.

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa might be getting a little blue in the face now. If this is how he does he's never going to live it down...

...so it's a good thing Naki takes over.

In two swift movements Ryo's own neck is grabbed, and he is gently, but firmly, unwound with unrelenting force until he is held in both hands in front of Fuwa's face.

The body's expression is very blank, and there's a soft, higher edge to his monotone voice. "Kindly restrain from killing Fuwa-san. We both require his assistance."

[chalicejoker]

There's a soft gasp from Ryo. (Okay but what is up with that voice? One thing at a time, one thing at a time...) "Would never kill anyone! Just want to go to Hajime!"

[ragingwolf]

"You appear to not know your own strength. Human necks are fragile, and you exert a significant amount of force with your grip."

Ryo is placed carefully down on the table, and Fuwa's hands grip the edges of it firmly - so the man can do a full-body flinch and look suddenly annoyed again. "Fine." This time when he grabs Ryo he's a lot less cautious and wraps the snake none-too-carefully around his forearm and heads for the door. "Let's just get him."

[chalicejoker]

"Oh!" Ryo gasps a little. "Not spend much time as snake, and even then, only with Hajime! Undead much sturdier than humans!"

And fortunately, spirit animals are much sturdier than normal snakes. Ryo doesn't even register the manhandling. (Or maybe it's just because he's so hype to go get Hajime.) "Yay!"

II.

[unofficial_ambassador]

It does not particularly help Hajime’s reputation with Inara specifically that she had spent the better part of a day with Irene, who had been frustrated with him for immediately taking off for the brothel instead of working. Luckily for him, she's too polite to bring it up, especially so soon after being involved in his death.

That's why she's here right now, actually. "Are you all right?"

[chalicejoker]

Ah. She'd been on the other team. Fortunately, Ryo's extreme displeasure from the other team mostly seemed to be extending to their sniper. "I'll live." Hajime pauses. "Apparently."

Ryo still looks pretty clingy, but he's not saying anything just yet. Still so many feelings to process!

[unofficial_ambassador]

Talking to people about the circumstances of their own deaths is still a very strange experience. "That's good. I'm sorry about... all of that."

[chalicejoker]

Try being the guy who died, especially when your base state of existence assumes an inability to do so. Hajime grimaces. "Were all of you in on that plan, then?"

[unofficial_ambassador]

She doesn't answer right away, which is an answer on its own. "They felt that our groups weren't evenly matched if it came to an all-out fight. That's why I wanted to apologize."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime awkwardly accepts that apology with a nod. "When our team first had that idea, I asked them how bad the other team's eyesight was; I knew it would never work. I'd have preferred a straight fight." And not getting fatally sniped. That too.

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara gives him a sympathetic little smile. They really had figured it out right away. "You must have been melting, dressed like that."

[chalicejoker]

He's been known to wear a trenchcoat in all weather, but that still gets a grimace out of him. "I'm pretty sure they gave me all those petticoats just to be annoying; no one would willingly wear that many." He refrains from mentioning why they might have decided to be annoying.

II

[worthallthis]

And there's one person they need to check in with. Soldat spies them on their way back from a third serving from the buffet, and pauses at North's counter for a pair of beers. It's worth the points, in this case, they figure. At least the rest of dinner is free.

They sets one on the table in front of Hajime. And a mochi ball in front of Ryo, at North's whispered suggestion and offered platter of the things. Their expression is hard to read, subtle and maybe with shades of a lot of things. But it's not remotely hostile, even if it's hard to see it as apologetic.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime's own expression is also a little hard to read--he didn't know what hit him and really had only others' accounts to go off of. Ryo's expression, however, is very easy to read. At Soldat's appearance, he immediately springs into a mantis threat display (that would probably be more effective if his wings weren't a pastel heart pattern and he weren't a foot tall) and starts trying to get in between Bucky and Hajime. "What do you want?!"

That Ryo is getting angry and protective is really a strange and unusual new thing, and Hajime can only stare down at his Spirit Companion in surprise. (At least it gives him a chance to think on how the hell to handle this?)

[worthallthis]

It is, unfortunately for Ryo, the cutest threat display ever, and since Soldat doesn't actually know anything about mantises, it takes his words to make them even understand it is supposed to be threatening. The moment of perplexed bemusement slips into something flat and neutral, and they look down at the tabletop.

"To give Hajime a beer. And apologize. I don't hurt people outside missions."

[chalicejoker]

"Wasn't just hurting! Was killing!" Ryo is so far out of his depth here; he is upset and still hopping around a bit in his adorable little threat display. "Why beer? Makes more fighty!" He pauses. "Or more smoochy if Second Daddy is here! But he isn't! So fighty!" Gosh, hooking Hajime up with a drink is just a terrible idea and clearly more evidence of Soldat's clear treachery.

Hajime's in the unfamiliar position of having to calm the little mantis down. "Ryo, it's. It's just a thing you do in a situation like this." (Odd, that he's taking it better, considering how that had played out.) He's just going to pick Ryo off the table now. "It was a bad situation."

[worthallthis]

This is the most awkward situation. Soldat has no idea what to do. Beer is just standard, for situations like this. For a guy at a table in a saloon where you need to apologize but aren't very good at it. Isn't it? "It's going to happen again. Maybe not by me. But by somebody. A round where only one person on each team dies is. Pretty good, actually. Usually it's more. I've died. So many times, now."

[chalicejoker]

It is so awkward. So very awkward. "People could die and get better the last place we were at, too." That seems more meant to placate Ryo than to explain anything to Soldat. "Doesn't make it any easier to deal with. For anyone."

Ryo's trying to scramble back onto the table now. "But why do what they want? Why not just refuse to fight?"

[worthallthis]

Soldat hesitates, but in the end answers. They need to know. It may not help them understand Soldat, but it's not like they deserve forgiveness anyway. They'd just rather not have made new enemies-for-life like Fuwa. "There's punishment. I didn't do my first two assigned missions. Years ago. It was. Pretty awful."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime's still keeping his hands busy trying to settle Ryo down, because there's a lot of mantis scrambling and attempting to threat posture again. "How awful?" His tone's grim. "Because if the alternative is killing or being killed..." Not for the first time, he wishes he didn't have Ryo to worry about here. That's such a weak spot...makes him stronger in some ways, but oh, he doesn't want to see the little guy get hurt.