Midpoint Mods ([personal profile] midpointmods) wrote in [community profile] midpointsaloon2020-05-27 01:25 pm

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...
worthallthis: (squint)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2020-06-03 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, nice. They'd been sure that knife wasn't ever going to come back. They step over to collect it, dusting it off, but the look that goes Fuwa's way is vaguely baffled. "Holding out?"

Possibly they don't understand the metaphor, possible they just aren't sure how he means it, in this particular case.
ragingwolf: (say that to my face)

[personal profile] ragingwolf 2020-06-03 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
"You could have killed me well before we spotted you." Stern, but no anger yet. "I know you're that good a shot. And I've seen you in proper battle, you were playing defensive during that fight. You were holding back - I wanna know why."
worthallthis: (sad 2)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2020-06-03 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
Ah. Well. Yes, they could absolutely have shot Fuwa before he got his armor on. But that would defeat... part of the purpose, anyway.

They are silent a moment, toying absently with the knife, looking at the ground in front of Fuwa as they organize their thoughts.

"Needed a distraction," they say at last, slowly, "to give Inara and Daylight time to get Tiffany. And. You're angry. You deserve to be, I shot you in the head." They give a little shrug. "Thought maybe if you got to return the favor. It would help. And besides. Someone had to look after Ryo until end of round." They sincerely doubt Ryo would have let them collect him and carry him around.
ragingwolf: (eAT SHIT)

[personal profile] ragingwolf 2020-06-03 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
Now Fuwa's face wrinkles. "Are you an idiot? I'm angry because you shot me when I was on your team! Starting a fight with me when we're on opposite sides isn't going to magically fix that, it's just playing into the damn runners' hands!"

He goes to take a step forward, but suddenly flinches and grabs at his temple. Well, he did ask Naki to keep him in check, but it doesn't improve his mood. Instead he just yells, "You killed a newbie just to get a rise out of me and screw us both over, it barely had anything to do with your damn team plan!"
worthallthis: (Default)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2020-06-03 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
The step gets a pause from Soldat, half-expecting a fight... but no, he stops. Good. Misty would probably be pissed if they got into a fight outside a mission. (So would I. Thanks, Sarge.) "That was the plan," Soldat says with a cautious little shrug. "Even if you didn't hate me, it was still tactically smarter to take out the unknown threat before the known threat. And I knew I could keep you distracted. That it might have made you feel better to kill me would have been an added bonus."

Clearly a bonus that didn't actually pan out. Well, they suppose it's okay. They've been in Asset-mode for so damn long, it's hard to tell sometimes how people will react when things get more complicated.
ragingwolf: (say that to my face)

[personal profile] ragingwolf 2020-06-15 11:10 am (UTC)(link)
"How does tricking me into killing you make you any better than the bastards filming us?!" Everything about this place was entirely too complicated and Fuwa is a very simple man. Humagear are bastards. Anything with a wolf on it is his. And you don't kill your own fucking team.

He doesn't look any less angry in general, but he's not trying to move forward again. "And if you can't even tell the difference between you killing me then and me killing you now, no wonder they haven't let you go. You just make everything worse for us."
worthallthis: (told you so)

[personal profile] worthallthis 2020-06-15 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Jesus Christ, is Fuwa intentionally misunderstanding them? Or just so angry that it makes him stupid? Soldat looks and sounds a bit more bland when they say, "No. It was good tactics. Take out the unknown threat, then take advantage of the grudge to keep you distracted, so my team could complete the mission. Which they did."

Of course they can tell the difference. But sometimes taking your anger out on the source of that anger helps. Or on anything convenient, for that matter; Soldat has done a lot of punching of trees in their time. Apparently that is one way in which Soldat is not like a normal human? It's not like they're not different in a myriad of other ways, too.

Because whatever this conversation was meant to do, it's clearly not doing it for Fuwa, Soldat adds a (vaguely frustrated-sounding): "What exactly is it you want from me."