PC: Shu

[westedge]

Comments

[westedge]

[ leaning into the flame for the light before the cigarette is lit. there's immediately a little bit of relief just because this is something normal, and he pulls back again. ]

Thanks. [ there's a quiet moment. ] ...what the fuck, man.

[ what a day. ]

[roseoftexas]

[ pff ]

What the fuck's a good way of putting it.

[westedge]

Why does it feel like we managed to do something and also simultaneously wasted a bunch of time?

[roseoftexas]

Because we get in the hamster wheel, and run around for nine hours and hope that somehow gets us answers.

[ and it DID the past few weeks which is truly the most baffling thing. ]

[westedge]

[ that gets a laugh, albeit a little, strained one. ]

That's not wrong. The worst part really is knowing we had an answer really early in the day and still almost talked ourselves out of it because we started second-guessing everything we knew. That somehow keeps happening, too.

[roseoftexas]

[ stares into the distance. ]

Might do that a few more times. Just as long as we don't forget those initial ideas and remember to roll back to them later on.

[westedge]

Think something like...I don't know, a checklist would help? If we could display stuff on the screens in McDonald's to make sure people stay focused.

[roseoftexas]

You think they’d let us mess with the electronics there? [ … ] I’m not a computer guy anyway, so that’d be all on you.

[westedge]

Man, I'm not either. But somebody has to be. If that doesn't work, I'll barter with Aika to buy a whiteboard then.

[roseoftexas]

Or a pen and we use napkins. If they start charging more than a dollar or two for something it's not worth it.

[westedge]

The only thing I worry about with using napkins is having somebody else grab them and throwing them away without thinking about it. Or using it to wipe a corpse's mouth. [ just throwing that out there. ]

[roseoftexas]

[ MY DUDE DID YOU HAVE TO SAY IT THAT WAY? ]

... Delegate some napkins to mouth wiping duty then?

[westedge]

[ IS THAT NOT WHAT HAPPENED. ]

...that would probably be a lot smarter, yeah.

[roseoftexas]

[ NO REMINDERS OF THIS WEEKEND I AM BLANKING IT AND AKI FROM MY MIND FOREVER. ]

That we can do without it costing cash or our dignity.

[westedge]

And we just lose our dignity in other ways? [ dry. there is no trust. ]

[roseoftexas]

At least we can control this way?

[westedge]

That...is a very good point. If nothing else, at least controlling what we do with our dignity and reputation is good enough for me.

[roseoftexas]

There's not much else we have control over. Might as well let it be that.

[westedge]

The real question is if that's ever going to change. Like...the longer we're here, will we ever be able to regain control over stuff. That sort of thing.

[roseoftexas]

...

Do you feel like we've regained much so far?

[westedge]

If anything, it feels more like we've lost little by little. But the optimists would say that we still have enough to keep going and turn stuff around.

[roseoftexas]

[ heh. ]

It’s not a bad thing. Having people around that keep trying and trying even when you’d step back and say there’s no point.

[westedge]

[ there's like. a weird little blip of fondness when he says that. ]

Oh no, it's not. It's just about balancing it out. They keep trying and pushing for better, and you're there to keep things realistic and help keep moving when things get in the way. It's just about also making sure those people don't get too beat down and won't be able to handle it.

[roseoftexas]

[ there’s a pause and a little, knowing look. ]

Alex is kinda like that.

As in, she chewed me out when she thought I was “giving up” and not going to keep looking for a way out of this.

[westedge]

[ ...he sort of looks at the grass and shrugs. ]

Yeah, well. [ yeah he has no excuse for that. ] Alex is stubborn about the stuff she feels strongly about. And she feels pretty strongly about finding a way to save as many people as possible to get out of here.