midpointsaloon | Another Day, Another Dollar (post-round mingle)

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...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

Inara can't keep from laughing at that. At the height of her career, she’d had two apprentices whose only job was to help her dress for appointments. "You'd be surprised."

"That's entirely too much clothing to exist in," Hajime insists. "You can't move, let alone fight." Priorities. He has them.

"Sometimes that’s not the goal." She's fought while dressed up a couple of times but none of those situations had exactly been ideal and the only one that had actually gone in her favour had mostly been won through trickery.

"But why?" If Ryo hadn't asked it, Hajime likely would have...quite possibly in a similar disbelieving, childish tone.

Inara laughs quietly. These two would definitely get along with most of her friends just fine. "Occasionally it's nice to go to a party where no one punches someone in the face and almost gets killed afterward. A quiet evening isn't always a bad thing."

"...quiet evenings are fine, but...parties." Parties are not fine and Hajime hates them, thanks.

"Is not good at parties," Ryo says. "Will make food! But not good at the other parts!"

This is pretty much an exact conversation she's had with Mal before, and suddenly Inara is relieved that he had missed Kaylee’s wedding. "What other parts? Talking to your friends?"

Granted, some people can strain the politeness of even the most patient person, but usually you're not spending all of your time with them.

"Parties are lots of people all at once." This is said with a tone that suggests the why of his dislike of parties should be totally obvious. Hajime pauses. "I'm a member of a species that's not exactly known for its sociability. Parties are...they just don't happen there."

A cultural aversion is a better excuse than most people who cause problems at parties seem to have, at least. "How do you celebrate things?"

Hajime shakes his head. "That would assume any of us could tolerate the rest long enough to gather for such things. We just fight each other."

"Reasons Hajime's living as a human," Ryo says solemnly.

"I see." No wonder he can't see the utility in dress clothes. "Is it difficult in here then? With the crowds?"

"No, not really." Hajime shakes his head. "I've gotten used to them. Plus, no one really pays attention to you in a crowd if you don't stand out." Perhaps that explains why his own wardrobe is a study in bland. "Is it crowded in space?"

"Oh, space is so vast that you could wander just slightly off course and no one would ever find you." Though that's probably not what he means. "Inside the ship, however, you do get to know one another very well." She's honestly surprised that she managed to last nearly a year without anyone discovering her secret.

"Yeah, I thought it might get crowded in there." Hajime grimaces a bit. Man, he misses being able to duck into Liminal when the outside world got too people-y.

"Not a lot of room in the middle of a lot of room!" Ryo declares.

"I was a renter, so in theory I had my own space, but the crew were in pretty close quarters." Inara would be impressed with how long Zoe and Wash had managed to keep their marriage a secret if she didn't know Mal as well as she does. They could have had the ceremony in front of him and he still might not have noticed.

"Doesn't surprise me. If you're selling limited space, keeping the crew in close gives you more space to sell." Hajime's seen that often enough.

Another Day, Another Dollar (post-round mingle)

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