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

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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

"Good." No temporary pause, a genuine plateau has been reached. Damp as her eyes are they're not getting worse. "You're so important to me, and I don't like thinking you're still so little in your own head. This place won't let me hover around."

Uniquely hellish, that.

Hmm. She can't be with them all the time, but... hmm. Soldat gives her hand a squeeze, looking thoughtful now rather than worried. "I know. I want to be watching over you all the time, too. But there's not a lot of missions they leave me off of, anymore. I'll work on my planning and how I think about it, though."

They let her hand go, hesitate a beat, then lean over to use a finger to wipe away one of those tears. "I'm sorry, Misty."

It's not the first he's done it, but it's just as rare as a hug so she falls still and silent to appreciate it properly. He is attentive, and caring, and willing to bend, and good.

"I know. I think if you had a callous bone in your body it's long gone, I know it isn't something you intend. Just hurts, and I hate that we keep getting...stuck, in shit like this. Wish there was better for you."

"I know." They decide not to say that for the past few years, all they really wanted was to just be able to stop, to just not be anymore. It doesn't apply anymore, because if Misty is here, and Sam and Daylight, even Jo and now Inara, it doesn't seem quite so bad. They also decide that tossing it back to her, that they want better things for her, won't go over well. Not right now. Maybe later.

Instead, they say, "It's already better. We'll make it. More better? That doesn't sound right but I don't know how else to say it."

Damn him, it's hard not to smile just a little.

"Articulating really never stops being a battle, for the big stuff. But I get your meaning just fine, and it's probably the best one to have. It'll be better. Whatever extent we can make improvements, we will. Slow steps."

"And the first step is a bath," Soldat says, with feeling. They reach over one more time to give her wrist a little squeeze, gently, more for nostalgic comfort than because it's all he feels comfortable giving, then toss her reins back over to her. "After a long-ass ride to get to it."

"Ain't that the truth," she murmurs, expression settling into something more relaxed. Reins taken up, she starts slowly toward a trot. They do need to get moving. "Then dinner, socializing maybe, sleep. No more heavy talk until we hit all those."

"Oh no, is there more heavy talk coming?" They manage to make that sound light, like a joke, even if it does make them a little nervous.

"I mean statistically, in the future, probably? But not for awhile. We're tired, sweaty, and hungry. Priorities. Won't necessarily be bad, either. Congratulating you would count. How far you've come, remember."

There's always the lurking possibility. But for now: hunger.

Doesn't feel like they're very far, right now. It feels like they'd never been closer to just being the Asset again, up until Misty reappeared. And that they're still thinking like it, when that upsets her. Acceptable losses and collateral damage and....

(You ain't that bad. Aren't I?)

Soldat nods, and settles back into the ride. "How did your mission go?" Clearly she's alive, still, so it must have gone okay.

"Fair enough. I think we won? Bandits, and we got some cargo. I've got a couple spare crates back in the suite. Break them up, good for...firewood, stakes, I don't know." Doesn't like them going to waste, anyway. "Alive, which is good. No casualties on our side at all, even better. I saw a dinosaur today, Soldat. Honest to god."

"A. Dinosaur?" Soldat knows what dinosaurs are (thanks, Jason and Sora!) but the idea of one actually being in the game arena is a little weird. The sound vaguely skeptical when they ask, "Wasn't a dragon?" They've had dragons before. The last one disappeared in the last batch of missing players.

"A dinosaur! Honest to god, Soldat! No wings, just a straight-up T-Rex walking around with cargo on its back. It's one of the new guys, he must be a wizard or something, oh, it was amazing."

Is she excited? She's excited.

T-Rex. Tyrannosaurus Rex? Soldat can't help but smile back over at her for the enthusiasm. "That's pretty neat. Maybe next round I'll get to see it. Or you can point out who it is at the saloon."

"Oh, for sure. I'm not getting that out of my head for ages, easily the best thing I've seen since, I mean, you again." Shit as everything is, it's a valuable little personal win. Fighting is the worst way to engage with anything new, but just spotting it...

"Someday I'm gonna watch Jurassic Park with you," she declares, "And this'll make more sense probably. It's...incredible."

The best thing since seeing them. Soldat might be a little pink under the shadow of their hat. Awww, Misty. "Is that a show?" She'd said "watch" so it must be a show of some sort. Movie or something. There's a theater in town, but they're pretty sure none of the shows it's ever shown have dinosaurs in it.

"A movie, mhm. Science fiction, it's about this company that takes DNA out of fossilized mosquitoes and clones dinosaurs out of them. They set up this big park with them on display, like a zoo, but obviously it all goes sideways. Really, really amazing, it all looks so real." There is clearly no shortage of positive experience with this film. Child Misty had taste, and present Misty has maintained that. Some spring returns to her not-currently-employed step at the upgrade in topic.

"How many points would I have to waste on something like that, huh?"

It's only a little bit in jest.

Soldat isn't in much position or mood to laugh, really, but they do smile. "We'll see what they have in the theater. Doubt they have that, it's mostly older stuff, my time and a little after. But maybe Booker can order it or somethin'."

"That'd be nice. You'd like the special effects if nothing else, it all looks so real. It's amazing." It's happy, it's brilliant. Something truly removed from their surroundings. "Wouldn't mind sitting through some stuff you know, though. That'd be nice."

"They have Wizard of Oz." Which... actually they watched all of one time, and cried quietly through most of it. It might be easier with someone here who knows them. "And a bunch of Marx Brothers shit." Those, they did not cry through. Didn't laugh as much as the films deserved, though.

"Haven't seen the Marx Brothers, but I've seen Oz? I'd like to try all of them, sometime when we're both a little more rested." A fun outing, or the closest this place will readily provide at little personal cost. It's enough, really. She's happy to have something mundane to do with him. "Happy stuff, funny stuff. We deserve a good mood for an afternoon, yeah? Gonna acquire some old humor for myself."

Fun might be over-stating it, if it's Oz, but they'll see how it goes. At least Misty will be understanding. "Got a good week and a half until the next round. Should be plenty of time." Time for everything. A patrol around the game arena, attempting to be social, and a movie or two.

And maybe a gift. If they can swing it.

She'll make fun out of anything, old films included. So the tip of her head is characteristically hopeful. "Good. Time to make the most of it, and take some really ridiculous, luxurious baths in the meantime. I want to decompress."

"Hard to be luxurious when I hardly fit in one," Soldat points out, but it's amiably. They're used to the tubs here, and are pretty good at managing to use them to relax. "Still better than the ones in Brooklyn, though."

"There we go, there's the silver linings I like to see so much." Not that she can't laugh; everything's always just a little unideal, isn't it? "And we've got time enough, we'll fix something better when we're bored enough. Hot water's enough for now."

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