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

[worthallthis]

"I enjoy it. It's calming, having defined steps to follow, and getting something nice at the end. Like cooking, only I can't do that here so much." North is pretty protective of his little kitchen area, there. "Kinda the only thing I really did, for me, for a long time."

Which is to say, they are very, very practiced at it, now.

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Ah, I take it those sabres aren't just for show, then?" All things considered, it's probably better for him to be armed than not, and to keep people who might be looking for revenge out of the kitchen.

"I understand, though. That's why I like music, though I haven't had a chance to play in a long time." Instruments don't take well to all the nearly crashing their ship tends to do, it seems, and the shuttle has a pretty strict weight limit.

[worthallthis]

Soldat shuts their eyes a moment. They miss music, too. There's the demon-kid playing at the piano now, but it's not really the same as curating their own music experience. "Booker might have an instrument to buy. And there's the piano." They look back over in her direction, not starting a new origami piece yet. "What do you play?"

[unofficial_ambassador]

"I mostly trained on string instruments: guzheng, harp, dulcimer, that sort of thing." The dulcimer at the guild house had met an unfortunate end thanks to Nandi, but Inara hadn't really minded it. "I can play a bit of piano, but I don't know many songs for it." They had mostly used it to practice scales.

[worthallthis]

Wow, the only one of those Soldat recognizes is a harp. Either she's very fancy or very eclectic. "I picked out a little on the piano, my first year here. Mostly I don't play anything, though." They hold up the metal hand, wiggling the fingers a little. "These don't really. Work well. For music. But I can dance."

(Jesus, we ain't danced in-- Forty-eight rounds. --yeah, wow. You still remember? Shut up, Sarge, of course I remember. If HYDRA couldn't wipe it out of me, a stupid murder game won't do it. Just askin'!)

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara isn't particularly surprised that the metal hand makes music difficult. She's honestly impressed that it has the fine motor control to create the delicate origami creatures. It probably also resonates against the keys a bit, on the piano - he could likely handle mallets, but she can't quite picture him playing a dulcimer.

"Oh, really? A gentleman?" She's teasing a bit, but they had danced a lot on Verdana. It was fun, but also a form of cultural exchange: people seemed to at least have a bit in common no matter where they came from.

[worthallthis]

Soldat ducks their head a little. "I. Dunno about that. You might know fancier dancing than I do." And they don't remember a lot about how to treat a lady in a public place, anymore.

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Oh, I'm sure I do. But that isn't really my style anymore." A lot has happened in two years.

[worthallthis]

(Are you actually considering dancing? Not... really. Not out here in public. Aw. I know. Sorry.)

"Not sure what counts as a gentleman for you, anyhow," they admit.

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara smiles wryly. "If you can get through a whole dance without punching someone in the face, you're already doing better than some men I know."

[worthallthis]

"I've done that," they say with a blink. "I've done a lot of that. Is that all it takes?"

[unofficial_ambassador]

"It seemed the most applicable to dancing." Though there hadn't really been any gentlemen involved at all in that situation. "Courage, integrity to one’s convictions, respect for others... I've met more than one self-described gentleman who can't even claim one of those."

[worthallthis]

Soldat frowns at the list. Thoughtfully. Probably not them. They're not courageous, nor do they have much integrity really. Respect, they've got plenty of, at least. "I take it one of them punched someone at a dance."

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara rolls her eyes. "It was extremely stupid. He said that he was defending my honour, from a name that he also called me - much more frequently - and he ended up almost dying in a ridiculous sword duel."

[worthallthis]

"A sword duel. Really?" That definitely fits the description "ridiculous". "People still do that?"

Then again, they have no idea where she's from. Might be medieval times, for all they know.

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Yes, people still do that." If this sounds like a conversation she's had before, that's because it is. Last time it was with the person who nearly died in a duel. "It's not commonly practiced anymore, but it's popular among a certain subset of wealthy people on the frontier."

[worthallthis]

Well. Soldat does know rich people are weird. They sure did like having a private assassin, but the idea of them putting themselves in actual danger in a duel seems kind of stupid. "That's. Kinda dumb," he has to say. "Why would anyone want to duel. When they could resolve differences in so many other, better ways."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Atherton’s a bully. He felt that I had embarrassed him in front of others, and he needed a way to simultaneously restore his honour, show me what he could do to people who crossed him, and remove what he perceived as the final barrier to having me to himself." She had only briefly considered staying with him, and that was mostly because he was so terrible that she couldn't imagine him being upset by her death, but of course he hadn't known that.

[worthallthis]

"Oh." Romantic shit. Gross. They're glad they don't have to worry about that. Their scattered memories of dating back Before seem very stressful, now, and the idea of somebody dueling someone else over him sounds exhausting. And embarrassing. "Sounds unpleasant. Hope you weren't planning on letting him have you."

[unofficial_ambassador]

Oh, it was absolutely both exhausting and embarrassing, between Mal refusing to back down even when she had tried to rescue him and the reaction back home to her outburst on the field.

"For a while, it looked like yielding to him was going to be the only way to keep everyone alive, but fortunately it didn't come to that."

[worthallthis]

"So the one who wasn't the bully didn't know how to fight," Soldat guesses. Because if some rich idiot decided to pick a fight with them, they'd be in trouble.

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Oh, the bully was a much better fighter, at least with a sword, but he wanted to show off instead of just ending things quickly, and was too easily distracted when I offered him something he wanted." She hadn't exactly intended to win the day with her desperate attempt to keep Mal alive, but she's not about to complain about the results either.

[worthallthis]

"Good. Bullies oughta be stopped," Soldat agrees with a little nod. That's a Steve-ism. They know that. But it's still a good thing to believe in. "Glad you got your friend out of there safe."

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara smiles fondly. She's far enough removed from it now that it's actually kind of funny. "Me too. He's our ship’s captain, so it would have made things complicated. I tried to rescue him beforehand, you know, and he wouldn't leave. Just as caught up in honour as the rest of them." She had been so frustrated with him then.

[worthallthis]

"Well. If that's important to being a gentleman, and all." That might actually be a light tease. It's said very blandly, which is a tell for him; Inara hasn't seen him make jokes yet, but she's probably had more than enough training in reading people to guess it's what he's doing.