WEEK 3: April 15th - April 19th

[cartesio]

Third Week

The peaceful times are over. Moloch von Zinzer was murdered, and Nine was sentenced as his murderer. Everyone in Cartesio knows that.

Although life goes on, it seems the town of Cartesio isn't going to forget the tourists' transgressions. Not only they commited larceny in the cinema, they also murdered and executed in their town! It's no surprise their hospitality towards the visitors has cooled down considerably.

Not only they're maintaining a tense cordiality with them, they also have started talking behind the visitors' backs. All kinds of rumors are starting to sprout, yet nobody seems to be willing to say it to the tourists' faces. Talking directly to most passerby makes them distrustful, and nobody seems to want to be in close quarters alone with them.

It's only matter of time before the relationship between tourists and Cartesio starts degrading even further.

In the lobby of the motel there's a few more brochures, and the maps have been updated once again.

Links

IC Rules
Guestbook
Room Assignments
Events
Locations
NPCs
Activity Check

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

[Welcome to the third week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Comments

[marmoron]

Up to you.

[He's got no problems with her company or whatever.]

Room's a bit of a mess though.

[BOXES EVERYWHERE. His room is a fire hazard.\

[robitussin]

[She continues following in his stride, then, head tilting in curiosity.]

Yeah, I'd bet. How'd you end up sorting out all the stuff you bought, anyways?

[marmoron]

I haven't really. A lot of it's still in the boxes.

[Admittedly it'd just been easier to just keep things in the boxes instead of having guns, knives, camping supplies spill over everywhere....]

I need to move some of the safer stuff out so I can use the window as an escape route if I have to.

[....Said totally straight faced. They're only a few blocks away from the motel so it's short-ish walk over.]

[robitussin]

If it helps, I don't think anyone would try to break in your room. Too many people in the motel to hear or see a commotion if one broke out.

[But it's not a bad idea to have the windows clear all the same. As they approach the motel, she heads inside.]

[marmoron]

Depends how you approach the situation.

[Keith reaches for his key as they make their way into the motel lobby.]

Someone could just come knocking at the door and stab you repeatedly when you open it.

[Can you tell he's been having fun with these hypotheticals? He stops at Room #2 and turns the key in the lock.]

[robitussin]

[A pause; it's clear she wasn't expecting that, but she continues after a few moments.]

...And then everyone would hear you screaming and come to see what was happening, right?

[marmoron]

Heh. Hard to scream if you get your trachea slashed. Any good assassin would going for the neck.

[The door's being pushed open and Keith switches on the light. The boxpocalypse is real, Natalie. As in boxes piled up high, almost to the ceiling, boxes literally on his bed, with just a narrow path that's been cleared so you can go from the bed, bathroom and the door. Kid is quite possibly literally sleeping on boxes of knives.]

[robitussin]

...I get that you're all combat trained and stuff, but you seriously have to give me some warning before you start with that.

[She gives a surprised glance to the inside of his room, though, blinking.]

Okay, I get that you haven't had that much time out of jail, but... Jesus, dude.

*would be, mrr typing..

[marmoron]

I'll be quiet.

[Seeming fairly unperturbed, Keith walks right into the room, glancing around the armory. Each box is at least labelled with what's inside them, so finding the pepper spray isn't the hard part.]

There.

[Problem is it's sort ... in the middle of a stack by the door, sandwiched between "ammunition" and "camping supplies."]

Hold on, I'll get it. [He leaves the door open and starts lifting the top box up and out of the way.] What would you rather talk about?

[robitussin]

[She leans against the door frame as she watches him go to retrieve it. There's a slight pause when he asks what she'd like to talk about, but she goes with the first question that comes to mind.]

What's your home like?

[marmoron]

[Ah, so they're back to these types of more personal questions, huh. There's a brief pause, but Keith doesn't turn to look at Natalie. Next moment, he's pulled the top box down and sets it on the floor. He supposes he can't blame her for the curiosity.]

Probably filled with dust and cobwebs by now. I haven't exactly been home in three years.

[Not what she's getting at, he realizes, but he's generally a lot better with direct questions than open ended ones.]

[robitussin]

Oh.

[She continues on after a moment, her voice remaining mildly curious.]

Why's that?

[marmoron]

[He's grabbing the next box.]

Hard to make regular visits back home when you're fighting a war millions of light-years away.

[It's stated fairly matter-of-factly, like that's just... normal.]

[robitussin]

...Well, that sucks.

[A very large understatement.]

What were you fighting?

[marmoron]

[That's another box on the ground. The next one's the one they want, so Keith's picking that one up and moving it over towards Natalie.]

An advanced race of aliens that want to either take over or destroy entire planets.

[Kneeling down, he starts opening the box. Again it's all matter-of-fact. He knows how this all sounds, and his tone seems to be getting dryer and dryer for it, like an unspoken yeah, call it crazy whatever. He looks up at her.]

The Galra. [A beat.] I was fighting the Galra.

[robitussin]

[She's been operating on a base assumption that everyone here is from somewhere incredibly strange, but it's the last thing he says that really throws her off. It shows in her expression.]

I... But, your biography thing?

[marmoron]

[Natalie's sharp -- good memory, inquisitive as fuck. It's the main reason why Keith's avoided much conversation about the subject with her in particular. Not that any of this stuff is "secret" exactly, but explaining things is something he doesn't have a tremendous amount of patience for. For what it's worth, he is trying now, but....]

...I'm half-Galra, yeah. Doesn't mean I support the destruction of the universe.

[He'll hand Natalie her pepper spray as he stands up again. It's not really her fault that he's so tired of Galra sympathizer accusations, but... it's tiring.]

Not all Galrans are in lockstep with central command either. It's not like all Galra are the same, you know.

[robitussin]

[She takes the pepper spray, but listens until he's finished talking.]

...I'm not accusing you of anything. And - you can tell me to back off anytime you want, just so you know.

[She's curious, but she has enough boundaries of her own to know just how aggravating it can be to have them disregarded. She doesn't want to do that.]

But I don't know, actually. That's why I was asking.

[marmoron]

[There's a pause at that though; Keith glances away for a second then:]

Sorry.

[Feels awfully like their first conversation, huh.]

I don't mean to get irritable. It's just -- a lot of people back home make being part Galra out to be some big deal and think it's okay to just assume we're all out to do them dirty, but ... [Sigh.]

Our most valuable allies in the war are Galrans who've formed a network of informants trying to take the empire down from within. It's never all good or all bad.

[robitussin]

...Sounds like those people are dicks.

[It's blunt, but she means it to be understanding in her own way.]

You don't have to apologize, though. Sounds like there's a whole ton to be irritable about there.

[marmoron]

[Keith shakes his head.]

It's because people have been enslaved. Or they've had their home plane destroyed. Galra don't have a bad reputation for nothing.

[There's an attempt at a smile, but it's not all that convincing. It took Keith a pretty long time to accept his own heritage really.]

Not that any of that really matters here. But what about you? This the longest you've been away from home?

[robitussin]

Maybe they don't, but it sounds like you might have a bad reputation for nothing.

[And that's an important distinction, to her. All the same, she nods.]

Family vacations usually last a week at most, so I'm not in the habit of being away from home for nearly a month. Besides, those aren't on nearly the same level as this.

[marmoron]

[Bad reputation for nothing, huh. Removed from context, it just gets Keith to smile -- a touch more genuinely this time. He did, after all, just spend about half a week in jail for breaking and entering. Not what Natalie means at all, but still.]

Heh. The people in Cartesio need a vacation from Cartesio.

[Just saying. They're all just so distressed about everything. But more seriously:]

You miss your parents? Home?

[robitussin]

If only we could talk the Sergeant into giving us a day pass or something.

[It sounds lightly amused, too, but the question removes some of that from her voice. She pauses for a moment too long for it to be natural, before pushing the words out.]

Yeah, sure. I mean, basically anywhere beats being here, right?

[marmoron]

[He considers this for a moment, but doesn't pursue it.]

Home's never a good topic, seems like.