week 6, post trial

[robitussin]

[Their numbers keep falling. Three people have died already this week, with two more on the way tomorrow. With the outburst the townspeople gave them once the results came through... If anyone were feeling downhearted, it's to be expected at this point. Things continuing at their current pace is a frightening thought, after all. Like last week, the offer to spend time together or meet in a central location doesn't come.

Hawks and Dabi wait for the morning in their cells, but the rest of the tourists are free to wander about the town as they please; free to rest, to talk with each other, and to try to gather strength wherever they can. So, where does the evening find you, Cartesio?]

Comments

[quickpersuader]

[It's Kino's turn to approach him this time, pausing to watch Cosmo for a moment before she calls out:]

Hey.

[marmoron]

[Looks over shoulder.]

Hey.

[He only sounds vaguely grumpy really.]

[quickpersuader]

[That's good, because Kino has something for him. She reaches into a pocket, holding out an envelope.]

Here. For you.

[marmoron]

[Okay, he wasn't expecting mail of any sort and that confusion kinda makes the grumping difficult to maintain.]

...What's that supposed to be?

[Kino, did you write him a letter apologizing for this confusion or something....]

[quickpersuader]

It's from Mr. Dazai. A parting letter, I assume.

[marmoron]

[How does that explanation somehow make more and less sense simultaneously.]

Why was he writing these things in the first place...

[Getting up to take this letter from Kino though.]

...And what were you doing in Dazai's room anyway?

[quickpersuader]

Looking to see what he left behind.

[What. What did you expect from her, Keith.]

And according to mine, he wrote it because he expected he might die.

[marmoron]

[Keith's going to mutter something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like that idiot, but there's no real venom behind it. He takes the letter from Kino, but doesn't open it right away.]

If I die, you better not go poking through my stuff.

[quickpersuader]

Why not?

[marmoron]

[...]

Because it's my stuff?

[quickpersuader]

The things from the hunting store could be really useful if we needed to launch an attack, though...

[marmoron]

An attack against who? The Sergeant? Kino you don't even believe that.

[quickpersuader]

I'm prepared for most outcomes, actually.

[An attack on the Sergeant included.]

[marmoron]

With conventional weaponry? You're out of your mind.

[A beat.]

And you're still not going through my stuff if I die.

[quickpersuader]

Sorry, but I make no promises. If you want me to stay out of your stuff, you'll just have to be alive to keep me out.

[Kino gonna Kino.]

As for my things - feel free to take them if I die. Most travelers loot any corpses we come across anyway, so it's pretty much expected.

[marmoron]

[He's just gonna loud sigh as he starts opening this mysterious Dazai envelope.]

What's the most interesting thing you've found?

[quickpersuader]

Here, or in general?

[marmoron]

Both.

[He doesn't start reading this letter yet. If anything, he actually seems a little reluctant to do so. He's never had to read anyone's farewell letters, he's not even sure if the other paladins have them all pre-written and... somehow, he halfway dreads it.]

[quickpersuader]

Here... probably the fire station badge. It's pretty much a toy, but I noticed that if I drop by to look around with it, the workers don't mess with me as much.

In my world, it was a whole stash of portable rations.

[marmoron]

That's weird about the badge. ...And don't you hate portable rations?

[He starts reading this letter though and seeing that bit about Natalie kinda gets him to tense real fast like this letter has to be corrected immediately, but the moment passes in silence. Once the unexpected surprise of it recedes, Keith is also beginning to feel a bit more somber.]

[quickpersuader]

I hate starving to death more than I hate portable rations.

[Survival is important. But she'll fall silent as he actually reads, giving him time to absorb the content.]

[marmoron]

[He;s quiet for another moment, letting Dazai's letter sink in before re-folding it.]

Starving to death isn't a fun experience, no.

[A beat.]

Neither is what happened to Dazai.

[quickpersuader]

...No, it's not. But he did fight back.

[And here, she sighs.]

...I don't typically get involved unless I have to for myself. It's... not really my place to tell people what they should or shouldn't do with their lives unless they ask. But with Mr. Dazai, I forced him to eat that first day after the execution and told him to live long enough to help us.

[Her gaze goes up to the sky now, troubled.]

I think I probably meddled too much. Well, it isn't as though I can do anything about it now, either.

[It's just another reminder of her place in the world.]

[marmoron]

[That's as close to an emotional outburst as he's heard from Kino, and it throws him for a few seconds.]

You meddled too much.

[That's a funny thought. If funny means something else entirely.]

The night before he was supposed to execute Olympia, I asked him to draw out her death so we could have more time to look inside the Lodge. [He's just going to sigh deeply.] Telling him to eat and try to stay alive a little longer.... that's what anyone who cared about Dazai would have done.

[quickpersuader]

[Kino looks at him as he speaks before giving a small shake of her head.]

Whether or not I cared about him doesn't factor into it.

[Because even if she did...]

It's not really my business in the first place what he decides to do - or any of you. The only time it becomes my business is if it directly affects me.

[It's accompanied by a frown.]

It can't be helped now, and it's not like it's the first time I meddled with something. It's just... [vexing.]

I overstepped bounds I probably shouldn't have, as a traveler. That's what I mean.