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]

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.

[marmoron]

[She's getting a raised eyebrow.]

...What does being a traveller have to do with any of this?

[As detached as Keith tends to feel from people as a general rule, this still manages to sound like bullshit.]

If your friend is acting like an idiot, you're supposed to yank 'em back on their feet. That's what you do.

[quickpersuader]

Because travelers are outsiders.

[The answer comes simply and immediately.]

It depends on each traveler, but for the most part, it's understood that we are only guests in the countries we visit. We might get to know the people there, and we might learn about the culture, but it isn't our place to try to say we know better than the people of the country. In some places... trying to do so will just get you killed.

[And seeing that once was enough to make her vow to never meet the same fate.]

Our relationships are temporary. So- even if we're friends, no, I don't think I'm the best person to tell anyone what they should or should not do with their lives unless they ask me first.

It shouldn't be up to someone who just plans to leave.

[marmoron]

[A beat.]

So why'd you hold Natalie back from getting close to Olympia during that trial then. Was that a mistake too?

[quickpersuader]

That was also me meddling. But...

I also think holding someone off from a split second choice is different from trying to tell someone what to do with their life.

[marmoron]

Interfering with someone's choices ends up being the same thing as telling them how to live their lives, you know.

[But tomato, tohmato -- that's really not the point.]

I plan on leaving too. That doesn't mean I have to be a passive observer in everything that's going on here -- that doesn't make sense. This isn't some random town that you can bail on in three days; you've been here for a month and a half. Sometimes caring about people means you're going to interfere in their lives because they mean something to you and you want to keep them safe.

[There's a pause. Keith looks away from Kino and back towards Cosmo. He has no idea when the hell this trend of having to talk about bonds and friendship fucking started, but he kinda hates it intensely. He concludes in the most tsun way possible by talking through clenched teeth and scowling.]

That's just fucking normal.

[quickpersuader]

[Kino continues to look over at him, expression the same impassive as usual. She does give a thoughtful hum however, though it may be something of an understated reaction anyway.]

Is that so?

[She wouldn't know.]

[marmoron]

[Kino pls. He's already having a goddamn headache from having to lecture another person on friendship crap, don't make it worse.]

Have you seriously never had a friend before?

[quickpersuader]

[Kino tilts her head a bit in thought before shaking it.]

There's people I grew fond of in the countries I visited, but I only ever got to know them for the three days. Even in my original country, most of the other kids preferred to tease me over my name.

[marmoron]

[Perhaps getting sidetracked here, but...]

What's wrong with your name?

[quickpersuader]

It's not Kino, but... the name I was given when I was born. It's the name of a flower, but if you changed the pronunciation slightly, it became an insult.

[She actually looks... thoughtful.]

For a long time, I actually forgot what the name itself was. It wasn't until I got here that they reminded me what it was.