(no subject)

[wotanon]

Who: EVERYONE
Where: EVERYWHERE
When: Day 507 AFTERNOON

The afternoon is dark and weird. Things are spooky. Monster mingle or regular mingle!

Comments

[at_heart]

It means wolf, yeah, but it's also a flower.

[ Beat. ]

...Met a lot of new people during the game, since I was always on the lookout for someone else who was playing. Made friends. It was — nice. Third game ever, and a much better time for most people. Everyone was in a good mood.

[ergospheric]

Oh. That's good.

[ i don't know if mind reading has a visual cue but he's doing it now because he just remembered. ]

[at_heart]

[ Well, Lupine's thoughts are wandering back to Hunger Games 2, sorry about that S. :( A blur of impressions: innocent people getting hurt all around him, but also his own friendlier meetings with Alex (Emet) and Amaranth... he can still hardly believe she offered him protection, even knowing now that she used to be on LiliS herself. ]

'Course, I didn't have such a bad time in my first game, either.

[ergospheric]

[ not really reacting visibly to that, just kind of cocking his head like a bird ]

What was that one like?

[at_heart]

Huh?

[ Pulling himself out of his thoughts, and. Oh. ]

—That one was, uh. PVP. A murdergame. ...A traumagame.

[ and oh hey here's a regret ]

So many people had a really bad time, but not me. Heh. If I could trade what I went through for any of the kids in that game — I would.

[ergospheric]

It was a murder game, but you didn't have a bad time in it?

[at_heart]

...I really, really didn't.

[ Flashes of Amaranth, Alex, Serenity and K, Valor... meeting up with Zhongli and the twins. ]

Went through the whole game expecting other units to attack me. But I was — I don't know. Personable. And lucky. Even when things got more dire in the second half and everyone was starting to get desperate for the points we could only get from killing each other...

[ A tight shrug. ]

I got a few people to agree to friendly — duels, technically. ...And we were all — friends after it was over, more or less.

[ergospheric]

I don't get it, but okay.

[at_heart]

[ ...Kind of. Looking at S from the side of his eye. Man, he hopes he didn't scare you. ]

Don't get me wrong, I've had bad times. That just wasn't really one of them.

[ Beat. Remembering one thing in particular. ]

I got to run into a bunch of people who were interested in allying up, meanwhile this one kid came out of it feeling stupid for ever having trusted anyone who wasn't on his unit.

...It didn't seem fair, that's all.

[ergospheric]

[ he appears to have had a reaction of faint confusion and nothing else! ]

It would be crazy if a forced death match was fair.

1/2

[at_heart]

[ Lupine notes that, but shrugs. ]

When I first got here, I didn't really get them setting up games where the teams weren't evenly matched. Couldn't really imagine an audience wouldn't prefer both sides to have a fighting chance — isn't that part of the fun? Not being immediately sure who's gonna win?

[ Slightest pause. ]

I was underestimating how much the audience just wants to watch us take turns getting smashed to pieces.

[at_heart]

[ .......................................................he's. Saying this to someone who just got here. Good job, Lupine. ]

—Welcome to Imeeji. I swear there's some not-completely-crappy parts about this place, too.

[ergospheric]

Well...

I'm going to say something maybe a bit weird. Maybe this is just a newbie's opinion on these things and I don't really know yet.

[at_heart]

[ ...Rubs the back of his neck. ]

Go for it.

[ergospheric]

Ever since this morning, the big thing everyone warns me about is 'sometimes we could die or get hurt'. Not just you but basically everyone. Sometimes we could die or get hurt, in specific events.

And, um... how to put this...

[at_heart]

[ Waits. ]

[ergospheric]

That's not like... different. Than real life. Where you could also die or get hurt.

[at_heart]

[ ...Hums. ]

Slightly better, I guess, since we come back here.

[ergospheric]

Right. So I'm not really scared or upset by it.

[at_heart]

Heh. That's fair.

[ A beat. ]

I think we're just — all a little worried about underselling it. No one wants their newbies to have a nasty shock in their first bad game.

[ergospheric]

I guess that would be bad.

[at_heart]

We try to avoid it where we can. [ Beat. ] Nothing like a shellshocked newbie on endgame, missing parts.

[ Oh hey it's another regret. ]

...But we can fix that. And nothing ever really lasts longer than five days.

[ergospheric]

So there you go, it's less dangerous than real life.

[at_heart]

[ Purses his lips. ]

I hope you'll still feel that way after a few bad games.

[ And he means this genuinely. ]

[ergospheric]

I probably will.