Private Solvale Not So Triumphant Return

[Jin]

The long march back to Astorea felt almost like a walk of shame. While they had been victorious in their campaign and managed to both ascertain the cause of the encampment's disappearance and seemingly rout it, they had lost no small number of lives in the process. Some of them were on their first deaths. Others were not so lucky. For Jin, it had been a positively invigorating experience. He was almost certainly alone in that. There were a handful of them who left at the same time, and much to his dismay, one of the other Adventurers who shared a wagon with him was the loudmouthed wench who deigned to antagonize him not once, but twice.

Jin, in his usual mode, elected not to respond to her cutting words. Still, she had persisted beyond the first instance. Now it was a matter of keeping to himself until they finally reached their destination. Just hearing about how "edgy" he was or that he was "creeping her out" or "disgusting" didn't necessarily bother him. The opinions of his peers had always been like that. They were sharp, scornful, cruel, and barbed with judgment. One more voice on a list meant nothing to him.

"Capital's about a half day's ride now," the cart driver called back to the group. They continued to busy themselves with naps and card games, the occasional pull from a canteen, but only managed to groan back a response. None of them were particularly enthused. It was hard, he imagined, to get excited after you watched people die. He remembered that somber, awkward sensation from a funeral he had attended once. There had been another boy crying.

Boys aren't supposed to cry, though. His dad told him that. And when he did cry, he got hit. No one hit that boy.

Theo had hated him for that.

No one in the wagon here was crying either, though. Perhaps they cried when no one was looking. The younger Jin had found that was the best time for it, until eventually the tears stopped flowing altogether. Perhaps, he mused, the tears inevitably stop for everyone. Or they just get better at holding them back.

His thoughts were interrupted as a canteen thrust in his face, and he glanced up to see one of the other members of the Adventurer's Guild looking him over. "You doing alright? I heard you were one of the ones that got trapped inside the damn thing, you must have been terrified."

Jin shrugged.

"I felt a lot of things," he responded, noncommittal. In truth, they all had. Fear simply was not among those things for Jin. Oddly, it never was. "I think that's true for most of us, though."

"Oh, nice dude! You're cool as a cucumber!" The man gave him a pair of thumbs up, and Jin blinked in response. What a strange expression.

"Thanks."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

Hanno's warnings were crystal clear in her mind ever since the anti-climatic finale left a barren waste of a battlefield with one final boom. It made her skin crawl, anger rather than chills to know they barely made it with their tails between their legs, in a literal sense for those who chose to fulfill their fur fantasies by picking that race. But these thoughts about the 'boss fight', about the many who risked themselves and died...

It left her with moreso in her mind than usual, as the faerin's words chirped at her psyche once again. It troubled her that this would happen again and again. A click glance around the group on this wagon left her enough to be desired, despite the games she played with the few Landers and travelers alike willing to humour her, and the drink she earned. One of the last that carried the unsavoury tingle of a journey's conclusion, and the last tankard full of ale that carried the scent of Tangleweaves and the red fever like a somber reminder.

Emerald eyes pierced through the rest to focus on Jin himself, the man's conversation went over her head, but his answers and implications did not, and she awaited for him to conclude before approaching with heavy clanks from plated boots, stretching her mug out for him, the foamy liquid dangerously edging the corner as if to escape from it's little prison.

"So you were part of these, huh? Colour me impressed, I imagined you would run away as soon as we got you outta there." Sincerity when credit had to be given, bitter if anything. It hurt her pride to address him like this after the last opinion she voiced. "Come on Light, I ain't holdin' it like this forever." She wiggled the tankard just a little more. Yet whatever he did, Fiora would sit opposite of him, elbows against her knees, leant forth. "Alright maybe I misjudged you just a tiiiny bit.-" Or a tiny much... "I ain't apologizing for that, but I'll recognize you did your part back there. Even if I can't call it a victory at this point, we barely made it out of this whole mess."

@Jin

 

[Jin]

"I prefer to stay out of the spotlight, but I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty."

He watched the woman for a moment as the Traveler who spoke with him a moment before bid them farewell. She was apparently hell on wheels and people who recognized it took the hint and cleared out, especially the ones who had witnessed the one sided criticisms that she flung toward the man she was now offering a drink to.

It amused him that she thought he was the type to run; but honestly, he had given them cause to believe that with his actions in the contest against Toko. His half-hearted withdrawal, his readiness to ingest the strange fungal appendage- it was easy to misinterpret that as an aversion to difficulty, and he couldn't fault any of them for their contempt.

Most of the others he had waved away when they offered drink, though not rudely. Company useless went stale quickly, in his experience. In this instance, however, if she wanted to be nice then he was not going to spit on the olive branch. Jin reached up and accepted the flagon with a slight nod.

"Survival's plenty victory for those who manage it," he reasoned. "We can't all be heroes, and we won't get lucky every time."

He took a long sip of the ale to express that he did not hold the woman in contempt or have any distrust. If there was poison, he had the means to render it ineffective with his Blood curse. In all, it was the proper series of social conventions to at least keep them away from each other's throats.

Jin glanced up at her finally, locking eyes with the woman who saw fit to harass him for his very existence, and even now refused to apologize. That part didn't really surprise him, nor did it really upset him. As the amber fluid slid down his gullet, he rested the forearm that held the flagon aloft over one an upraised thigh, lounging back against a crate.

"You like picking fights, huh?" he asked suddenly. There was no way she hadn't intended to incite his anger with the comments she'd made the day before. It reminded him of the sort of rage that the more hardcore players of various games exhibited when something lit their short fuses. Goading that type was easy, but he couldn't tell what type Fiora was.

Nor was he particularly interested in goading her.

"It doesn't particularly benefit you to burn bridges with the people on your side, you know," he said as he finally glanced away from her, out toward the retreating tanglewoods. The grasslands were like a beautiful jade sea as they slowly overtook the forest on the horizon. The sky was hazy as late day sunlight poured out across his field of vision, the same color as the ale they were drinking. "I don't care about getting an apology, but I will give you some free advice. It takes much less effort to say nothing than it does to scream insults."

He took another sip. It tasted much better with a view. "Enjoy being alive," he told her after a moment. "Cherish every day you have. Don't worry about things you can't change. That's the best way to honor the people who did not walk away to ensure that we could."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

"Cheers for that, I ain't about to keep myself out of trouble if I can either." Something they had in common apparently, yet she assumed this to be a mere misunderstanding of his words, but he would surely correct her assumption if so.

The rest decided not to get in the way, smart choice if anything, specially when she did nothing but throw a bone after the many verbal daggers she deliberately offered him on their past encounters. And she found her drink strike true unlike many others who tried- An approving smirk that lasted for but seconds crossed her lips.

"That thing wasn't even a real demon. Just some bug that probably got corrupted by eating it." She retorted, a frown set square on her features. "This wasn't a victory, this was mercy. All these fuckers made it out alive and started to celebrate, what do you think it's gonna happen once we meet the real deal?" She didn't even need an answer to a rhetorical like that.

Bloodshed. It would be like pigs sent to a meat grinder.

Fiora blinked twice, leaning back at the sudden eye-contact and question alike, perplexed for but a moment right as she hunched into a shrug. "A fight every now and then does make life a little more interesting, don't you think? But what would others know about PvP, when it's so shunned upon." Non-chalant, her sight cast around for a moment to meet eyes with some of their fellow companions on this miserable wagon, and many averted their gazes as the very concept of Player versus Player got brought up, only to confirm her own statement with that reaction alone.

As she listened, Fiora crossed one leg over the other, plated hands resting over her lap. She felt his advice, needless as it were, and gave it consideration as her own body had long lost the intensity and adrenaline of the past battle. The grotesque was left behind as beauty became all that surrounded them, the very sun added a dramatic finale to his words, accompanied by a sip, and she squinted for a second at how it struck her down, like a vampire who just left her lair, a hand rose up to instinctively cover her eyes at it.

"You think they gonna care? Some still see this as a game. Hell, have you ever met this girl Regan? Girl lost a few screws, fancies herself a vampire or some crap and won't log out. Not her, not you, not me." And she paused at that, left hand instinctively rised to her lips only to realize with a huff that her drink was no more. Right, it was his. "I'm the kind of girl people hate but need. And with how bad that whole rodeo went?" Her thumb pointed to the road well left behind them, marked by the wheel's tracks. "I'll say they gonna need all the muscle they can get now." She concluded, with a cheeky little look on her face and a quirked up eyebrow.

"Stop being so dramatic, I bet you didn't die a single time yet. And even if you did, what's there to worry when you got one extra life? And same for the ones who died today." Playfulness set aside for a moment as once again she locked eyes with him. "People playing Terrasphere do it because they got real issues out there. We are all a bunch of weirdos willingly playing a death game. Me? I just wanted to experience something real, with real PvP, with real stakes." Who would play an ilegal game like this in the blind? Ignorance wouldn't be a bliss for those poor souls.

@Jin

 

[Jin]

He continued to smile as she spoke, still watching the golden-green scene play out. The smoothness was interrupted every once and again by the bobbing of the wagon as it passed over a rock or dipped into a divet in the path. That was at it should be. No peace without chaos. Perfect balance.

"An apt assessment," he allowed. "No, you're absolutely right. In the tactical sense, that victory was pyrrhic to an embarrassing degree. We lost more lives to it than anyone in their right mind should have been comfortable sparing, and the leadership we were expected to follow had little to no control of the forces granted to it."

If she wanted to speak frankly, that was a game he had no problems with. "The difference I find is that we had no way of mitigating those circumstances. If we could have communicated better, we would have. If we had more capable leaders, they did not speak up. If people could have avoided dying, they chose not to."

Jin closed his eyes for a moment and went for another sip. His drink was empty. With a sigh, he returned his arm to its resting place and let the flagon hang limp. "It's a simple matter to assign our expectations to others, and a much more difficult thing to see those expectations actualized. Failure is a real thing. Even if it is difficult for you to stomach- but then, you've said yourself that you enjoy PvP."

For a moment, it was hard to discern which of them was more cruel and wicked. Talking about the potential for taking a life in a game where the act was tantamount to assault or murder was far and beyond something the others were willing to entertain. There were grimaces, pointed turns of the head, but ultimately, the rest of the wagon's riders decided it was an unwinnable fight.

"Yes, perhaps that makes us more alike than I initially thought," Jin dared to draw the comparison. "Both willfully drawn to this place, fully aware of the risks, both looking for the cheapest of thrills. Yet when I do it, you decry me as dramatic, all the while you're the one actively making enemies."

He looked her over now, the blonde woman who seemed hellbent on throwing criticisms and verbal abuse.

"The nail that stands out most gets hammered down the hardest," he warned. "While there are considerably fewer rules to follow than in the real world, your actions still have consequences. To take a life, the willingness to take a life, the desire to take a life- these are sentiments and actions that will get you attention, but it won't be glorious."

He offered her a wry smirk.

"Be judicious when choosing your audience. Just because they need you doesn't mean they can't decide that you're not worth the risk." There was, after all, a reason Jin did not go completely rogue. There was a reason he played within the confines of social decorum, and kept largely to himself. In this world, no one made it far on their own. He had learned that quickly.

"The difference between you and I is that you're pretty," he said with a drawl, "and it will get you farther than me, certainly; but even that has its limits. You would do well to learn to be a bit more graceful."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

Boiling blood became cold fury for her. Still at edge, still ready to pull a blade on anyone on this wagon if needed, just now more levelheaded than before as she gave him the benefit of the doubt she didn't grant him on their first meeting, with newfound interest.

"You wanna know why? People are stupid. -I- chased Terrasphere and came here knowing half of the rumours and confirmed a dozen of them as I played. But there are still some out there that don't take death or this game seriously enough." She added, only to push a hand against pursed lips. "Sure, doesn't have to be the case when you got sights like these." Her right hand gestured at the horizon, to the world that surrounded them and many more which they were prived from by the wagon, impairing visibility depending which direction one faced. "Eh, guess it's just a matter of perspectives. Differences, like you said. But then, these NPCs that played leader should have known better- One of them did at least, that big cat woman. Can't remember the name right now..." A hand rubbed her temples. The face lived clear on her mind, but how she addressed herself still eluded the memory.

Interlocking her fingers together, Fiora let out a loud 'tsk', caught red-handed as she glanced away. "Don't get it wrong, I ain't some psycho wanting to kill people." Defensive and with irritated tone upon her voice. "And neither am I picking up fights with everyone, as shocking as that may come. Some really are braindead though, and that doesn't leave me much of a choice don't you think?"

Courage finally got back to her to meet him dead in the eye.

"I'm willing to risk my neck for others, I did it and will do it again. But if you then go ahead and get yourself killed five minutes later, then you can kiss your ass good bye because I'm not dealing with dead weight." Right index finger firmly pointed at him, accusatory despite the rant being aimed to anybody but him in this case.

Although she could see the truth on his words, and the impact of them had her second-guessing the next set of words, at least until she found an opening to laugh at on spot.

"Oho, Mr. Bleeding Edge got some pick up lines. Gonna take me as your prom date? Take me out to the dance floor maybe? No kimonos or any of that bullcrap though, I like a man that showers twice per day."

She teased, her very finger gauging him up and down. And then it dropped, her elbow resting against her thigh, left palm against the knee, sight fixated on him like a bird of prey.

"You are one smart piece of crap, know that right? I like it. But it makes me all the more wary about you now. You talk like you eat books for breakfast, and while you may be a weirdo, you still got some grey matter in that skull of yours." And her voice grew somber, hollow almost, as playful banter turned to warning. "There's always some idiot wanting to rule the world. And if they get the power to do so? Someone's gonna have to stop 'em. And these PvE babies ain't as ready to take a life as I assume you and me are." Her words lingered for a second, the air grew thick on the wagon as silent ruled, all until her back hit the wagon and she stretched herself with sluggish abandon. "Just don't be that idiot, and we are chill. Got my word on that one!"

@Jin

 

[Jin]

No argument there, Jin mused as Fiora asserted that people were by and large stupid. It was true, there were those of them who did not take this world seriously enough, and others who preferred it over reality. The range of sentiments among Travelers varied so widely that it was virtually impossible to keep track of every single one.

What amused him was how she assigned any level of attachment to those others who she had just relegated to the ranks of the foolish. "You want me to believe that you have no choice but to pick fights with them?" He brought his hand up and rested his chin on his wrist as he stared at her. "To what end? In the hope that your aggression will free them from their own stupidity?"

Sophistry was sophistry, whether or not it seemed benign.

"You can save a man from death a hundred times, but if he does not stop doing the thing that brought him to that point, he will inevitably find his way there again." He closed his eyes now, enjoying the cool breeze that washed through the wagon ahead of nightfall. "If we are to operate under the pretense that people are stupid, does it not stand to reason that even your well-intended intervention only serves to delay the inevitable?"

A scathing report, perhaps, but not an unfair assessment. "For someone who does not care for dead weight, you carry an awful lot of it." Jin offered her a smile.

As his eyes closed entirely, he spoke up again, this time on the topic of her final words. "Power is a responsibility," he explained slowly. "Building it takes time. Effort. Resources. Such a waste," he clicked his tongue in earnest disdain. "I came to this world for freedom, not to bind myself to more constraining rules and laws and expectations."

His voice grew fat with mirth as he chuckled. "No, I fear I'm more critic than artist. I haven't the patience to leave behind a masterpiece. I've learned to enjoy beauty from afar rather than up close." Biting back a yawn that threatened to escape, Jin now scratched at his chin. "It has saved me a great deal of disappointment. I find beauty to be a fickle thing, and fleeting. I lack the hubris to brave the company of a woman of your stature, frankly. That does not mean that I can not appreciate you as you are, without an ulterior motive."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

"You want me to believe that you have no choice but to pick fights with them?"

He got her right there, and Fiora took a sweet second to reply as hands clenched to fists. "People learn the hard way, don't they? I'm just speeding up the process, that's all." Truthfully? She knew it couldn't be justified, not when her anger outbursts kept happening as naturally as they did, merely projecting hatred onto others. But these were not issues for him to know.

Rather be known as a brute than vulnerable.

Bitterness took over her like poison she so readily spat out "And what do you suggest then? Leaving them to die? I agree I wouldn't waste time and effort like that but some just need a reality check to get set on course. Once they get locked out and can't come back, that's when their senses will come to them." She clinged to that much hope, just like the sun descends and the night rises in a fashion much like it was happening soon enough in the actual world and not just in a metaphor.

Yet his consistent darts all hit their target, as she folded her arms under her bust with clear displeasure. "You sure I'm the only one with dead weight here? I could swear you are being a hypocrite right now. Can't prove it though, I didn't give you a close look back when we fought the big ugly bug." She scoffed.

"I dunno chief, I would dare say that the more power the more freedom you got. No one can stop you, no NPC can just put you down, you could go anywhere unrestricted from anyone so long as you are powerful." With genuineness upon her tone, the question had no mocking undertones, despite the short-lived surprise on it. "But eh, I drank a bit too much and I'm not in the mood to nitpick words. You owe me a mug by the way." She grinned, puffing her chest out in fully fledged superiority.

And as he chuckled, Fiora scratched the back of her neck. Why did it felt so awkward? Or did she just misunderstand him? The more he spoke, the less she knows, the more she hates.

People just couldn't be simple, couldn't they?

"Of all the people out there I didn't expect you to come out with a lack of 'hubris'- Seriously, who talks like this?" She tried, but misdirecting her own nerveousness didn't work well, quirky as it is. "Well, you ain't so much of a bad guy in that case. Not many would admit that kind of stuff, specially when they look like you do. Eh, maybe we ain't so different afterall, just got different ways to get what we want." Which, in hindsight, felt logical.

Fiora smiled back at him. "Callin' you 'weirdo' or 'weeb' is getting old. What's your name?"

@Jin

 

[Jin]

Bullies were all the same in his experience. People who made themselves stronger at the expense of those who they thought were weaker, and when they found them, they drank up the false feelings of superiority that they derived from the exchange.

The key lay in the reaction. When you gave them the negative response that they were looking for, they won. Jin did not feel anything from the insults. They were words. He felt no anger when she called him names. He felt no rage when she implied things about his person she could not possibly know. Jin understood only logic, and logic was the bane of aggression. Fiery, passionate rage, directed at whoever the aggressor saw first. It left her wide open.

His eyes closed slowly as he listened to her, the little tears in her proverbial armor ripping wide to reveal the vulnerable woman beneath. Jin spoke pointedly and poked holes in order to provoke a response, much in the same way she did; but instead of insults, he found the things that stung most, and he used them. Now, she had given him all the information he wanted, and he had only to lay the framework.

Fiora wasn't being entirely true to herself.

"Everyone's a hypocrite at some time in their life," he smiled knowingly. Unlike Fiora, Jin's actions were not born of kindness or of a desire to do good. His motives were not altruistic. He felt no compulsion to save anyone from anything, including themselves. No. He was a creature driven entirely by self-interest. If something did not serve his purposes in any way, he simply did not do it.

But the more he gave someone, and the more they understood him, the more leverage they had against him. So, he opted to speak much less moving forward. He got what he came for.

Instead, he thrust his flagon upward and called out, "Another round, gents. The lady's throat is getting dry."

"W-well we can't be 'avin that, can we!" one of the other Travelers hurried back and snatched up their drinks, eagerly, quickly refilling them. Jin took that moment to match the woman's gaze as she finally decided to ease off the bravado for a moment and ask his name.

He took his own drink as it was offered, and the man offered the second flagon to Fiora. "Call me Jin."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

These are always the kind of people that get under her skin, and yet she has the hardest time to get them off. Too smart for their own good- For anyone's good in general. But she learned to pull up her defenses, to form a wall between them since weakness infront of someone so unpredictable was not ideal, not in the slightest. Not even in this wagon did she feel that safe, but why, if she relies fully so on her own strength in this game?

He disarmed her with words, that's why. Words cut deeper when they are the one tool she relies on.

"That's your answer?" After keeping her waiting for an answer and pulling a display of boldness, that only tickled the spark on her fuse. "You are right though, everyone is at least once. I admit it, because I still worry for all these jackasses out there. I promised someone I would do what I can to bring back his friends from the dead, so I'm kind of obligated to care, to be a hypocrite, and honestly? I don't give a damn at this point." She concluded, confidence surging once again as she tapped at her temples. "I ain't hiding much over here, but don't go around telling everyone I'm not that much of a bitch, I got a reputation to uphold." Fangs flashed at him.

Once his request was heard loud and clear and a bunch of the same idiots she's been talking about this whole time approached, or a generalization of them, Fiora kept her tongue at bay at his lack of discretion on this one. They did got her a new drink she accepted with a cutie's fake smile, right before she took a gulp down like she could outmatch potbellied drunkards with attitude alone. "Fiora- So tell me, what are you a hypocrite about, huh?" She leaned back, straightening her back if only to stare down at him. "I mean, you can keep a secret, I can keep a secret." She rose her hands on defeat, comically at that. "Trust me on that one. I ain't nice, but i'm no snitch." With her head turned to a side and her left ear facing him, one finger gesturing towards it to get him to spill the beans.

Or at least she tried to, that is.

@Jin

 

[Jin]

Secrets were a currency.

His blood colored eyes watched Fiora as their drinks were replenished, and the Bloodsworn took a sip. He smiled over the lip of the flagon at her, hiding everything but his gaze. At this point, in terms of the game, she'd unintentionally laid bare more of her hand than he had. There was no reason for him to turn his cards. He'd already won the pot. But--

There was no way she'd be satisfied with that. No, in order to close the situation out, he had to give her something. He had to determine what pittance he would throw her as a consolation prize. He used the lengthy sip to buy himself time to make that decision.

"My secret?" he asked idly as he looked down into the flagon at the ale within, swirling it around. His smirked. "I don't trust anyone," he answered as the drink came to rest in his lap. "Especially not people who tell me that they deserve to be trusted."

There was no lie in his words, and though he felt no need to elaborate, he did in spite of himself. "Never give anyone more than you're willing. Not even if you want something they have." Jin closed his eyes. "And never give them something they can use against you. Because they will."

When he glanced up at her again, his expression was more neutral. He kept his concentration on evaporating the alcohol content in his blood, assuring that he had nothing inhibiting his judgment. His momentarily heightened metabolism brought sweat to his brow, and he took another swig of ale deliberately.

The coin he threw was advice to live by.

"I don't have a reputation. I don't want one. If you want to live free, live quietly."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

The silence worked best for her, the lack of words between their quiet exchange of sips on their respective mugs, the alcohol tickling down, cooling her off... It dealt greatly with her worries, and it gave her an excuse to close her eyes and leave him alone for a second or two, no doubt earning eachother some time before the conversation sparked again.

"Well I'm no expert on language, chief." She paused for yet another sip, a droplet trailed from the corner of her lips, which she quickly got rid off with one swipe. "But that sounds like an oxymoron over there." And she went quiet once a piece of his mind came out, an advice. She could tell this is no pun, no mere silly gag of his. He is dead serious about it, little elaboration but she could piece things together on her own.

And she laughed, cackled almost, a hearty chuckle that had her lifting her feet off the wagon's surface and set a free hand over her stomach, while she balanced her mug (Fortunately almost empty) to keep the contents inside.

"So that's what this is about?" She remarked, slamming her feet on the ground, a wide smile across her features, Fiora took a last chug down, and one refreshed 'Aaah' later, she set her sights on him. "Ya' gonna make me blush a pretty pink- Alright lemme give you this one straight, since you were this nice, I'll do the same for you and tell ya' that whatever you got in your mind right now? Probably wrong." Laughter stopped, smug non-chalance left behind, it felt right to drop the act right now that he proved his point.

He ain't to be triffled with.

"What I want, I'll find it on my own. Not you nor anyone else has it. And what I need of you? You will hand it over to me no matter if you like it or not." Placing her mug on the ground, right between her feet, her forearms switched position to rest on her thighs and let her hands hang on the air. "You don't want to attract attention, and yet you risked your life out there to kill that bug, so I know I'll see you again in the middle of trouble, and you gonna help us cut down the next obstacle, that's all I need."

And then came an apologetic smile to spice the neutrality on her face "I doubt you are stupid enough to use anything of what I said against me." An idea came to mind, giving light on her features as she snapped her fingers and pointed one finger gun back at Jin. "I don't think I gave you anything worth using, and neither did you. You don't trust me, I don't trust you, but damn you sure are a hella of a talker, got me in the mood of conversation even!" She gave him props for that. She wasn't here to be lectured, but he made it fun to her at least.

He gave his two cents, so did she.

"Well, you sure gonna make one yourself if you keep showing up around. But I guess that's where we are different, I love the recognition. It's a roleplay game, isn't it? I'm the badass knight, you are the silent scheming guy that wants to live in peace and quote it outloud. That's who we are."

@Jin

 

[Jin]

He smiled again.

Not because she was off the mark with the assumption that he was being overly cautious, but because he was made content. If she saw things in such a simple way, then far be it for him to elaborate further. There were people who were skeptical of others on first meeting, and who eventually warmed to them. Jin was not one of those.

Ultimately, she had drawn the correct meaning out of the many things he said, and she was willing to speak more plainly than he was. There was no reason for him to confirm, and he made no effort to deny.

"So long as you never stand in the way of what I want," he told her as he placed the flagon on the floor of the wagon, "you'll never need to worry about what I can or can't use against you."

The Bloodsworn closed his eyes and let those words settle. She didn't know what he learned, and he doubted that she would figure it out. He had gleaned it in an extremely subtle way. And if she wasn't paying attention, she would never have seen the signs. Be that as it may, she was a simple creature by contrast to Jin. What she wanted wasn't hidden. She wore her heart on her sleeve. She just wanted a thrill. She came to this world to gamble with death.

Only, unlike Jin, she had emotional attachments. She formed close bonds. There were morals that dictated her actions.

His own actions were erratic. She had seen him risk his life, and yet, much of the latter portion of his actions had been spurred on by the Red Fever. It had not been a desire to help others. It was a brutal contempt for the creature that placed him in that situation, compounded by the high he got from gambling with his own life.

Jin was content because he knew she had missed the point entirely, and he had no desire or intention of correcting her.

"Just remember, there are things in this world, things we haven't seen yet. Things we can't see without people taking a chance and risking their lives." He didn't care about those lives, or if they were lost. Not even if he was among them. "If we don't take those chances, we're not really alive anyway. It's not living if you're not getting the most out of the experience."

That was as close to his truth as she was going to get.

All of them were marionettes, happy to dance when their strings were pulled. Jin just enjoyed grabbing the scissors every now and again. "I did nothing that anyone else in that fight didn't do. I did nothing that anyone took notice of, because it was nothing any of them would not have done in my position. Ultimately, when we part ways, you won't remember me except as the long winded guy who said a lot of things you didn't agree with," he smirked.

"And I can't think of a better outcome than that."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

"What if I want do, edgy boy? You better come packing more heat than a few words if that happens. I'll give you a good fight, I promise." She chuckled, lenient like she never felt before, if only because she already spat every insult under her sleeve and out of her system, and surprisingly? She ran out of ideas for these at the moment.

Jin closed his eyes and she let hers wander elsewhere as night had begun to fall, if the orange on the sky and the sun's edges on the horizon served as indication of such, and yet her ears paid close attention to so much of a mutter out of his lips. It felt like turns were taken and lapses in-between, whereas she needed not a second, he took as many as he wanted before speaking up.

When he did, Fiora turned to face him yet again, stoic like a rock, despite the meaning behind his words intriguing her- No, she didn't understood shit what he said, and yet she pieced together her own definition, careless of how wrong it could be. "Why do you think I said what I said?" She smirked, baffled in reality. "The fact you cared to explain yourself... Did I struck a nerve? Maybe tickled your pride a little bit?" Oh that was comedy in her eyes. For so little information he could give, Jin went one step further to reassure her. "Heh, you are right you know? No pain no gain, why not take your chances in this game when you got three chances? That's what all the players will go for. Those who stay are going after every world boss, every 'special event', every expedition like this one. And you know what?" Fiora smiled. "I know you will be there. Maybe not the next one, but you will, and so long as you do, you are being useful to me." Plain and simple to understand, as everyone were but extra bodies in her eyes, bodies to go ahead and bring down the next obstacle. Those who die would get revived, the ones on their last life? They gonna back off, and those who don't? Their choice is their own, all she has to do is make sure to mitigate some damage and her conciousness will be clear.

Finally she stood back up and stretched out her hand out to him, wide grin curved her lips.

"I'll log off soon. Let's make it official, eh? Next time we meet I hope it's on good terms. Else... I wanna see if your magic is just as edgy as you are, Jin" She teased. "Couse mine sure is"

@Jin

 

[Jin]

"I've no doubt," he said when she insisted that she could give him a fight. And to her credit, the notion was entertaining. If he felt the itch when that time came, he might even acquiesce. "But one should never discount the efficacy of words as weapons."

There was a moment of shared silence between them, and Jin glanced out again toward the grass as the breeze gently moved it. She was wary of him, and he new it. She made him very aware of it, such to the point where she came dangerously close to taunting him, just to see if he would snap back like a rabid dog.

"Why do you think I said what I said? The fact you cared to explain yourself... Did I struck a nerve? Maybe tickled your pride a little bit?"

He allowed himself a quiet chuckle. Jin watched the woman, listening, waiting patiently. The smile never left his face.

"I know you will be there. Maybe not the next one, but you will, and so long as you do, you are being useful to me."

"And that feeling is mutual." There was no harm in confirming or denying that much. It seemed every Player in the game shared that agenda. It was hardly news. "If your worries are based in the presupposition that I will sabotage any effort to expand our horizons as a collective, they are misplaced."

"I'll log off soon. Let's make it official, eh? Next time we meet I hope it's on good terms. Else... I wanna see if your magic is just as edgy as you are, Jin. Couse mine sure is"

He glanced at the woman properly and let his smile fade, his expression serious. "I have nothing to gain from turning the entire playerbase against me and effectively ostracizing myself. If that be the case, you can consider me beneath your notice entirely."

He took her hand, giving a shake that was firmer than anything he looked capable of managing. After that, he shrugged and leaned back to relax once more.

"But... I'll never say no to a fight if it's fun."

@Fiora Di Angelo