PC: Libby

[westedge]

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weekend 0, saturday

[westedge]

[ he'd been here the day before, but jonas is doing due diligent and wandering around japanifornia to check for anything new or unusual. this is how he finds himself descending the stairs to the subway platform, looking at the tunnels and seemingly waiting for a train that may or may not come.

this is also how he finds out he isn't alone, and he blinks in surprise upon recognizing her. ]

Oh, hey. Uh...Libby, right? We met yesterday.

[medeian]

[also waiting for a train, looking kind of lost in thought as she does, but she snaps out of it when he addresses her.]

Oh, uh - yeah, that's me. Hi. [...] How're you holding up?

[westedge]

Ah, you know... [ does she. does she know? he seems to be fidgeting around in his pockets, looking down the tracks as he shrugs. ] Fine? Things are fine, even if we still don't know any more than we did yesterday. So I wanted to take a train and see if I can find anything new.

[ there's a pause. ]

How're you after yesterday? [ with your...magic...block... ]

[medeian]

Sounds like a good idea... Better than doing nothing, I guess. But - um, I'm glad you're fine, at least.

[pausing for a moment as he asks, thinking over her answer.]

I don't know. There's a lot to think about, you know? [idly starts toying with a strand of hair] And not a lot of answers to find, like you said.

[westedge]

[ there's a slow nod of understanding. ]

For any answer we are getting it's like brand new questions come up. Plus there's all the stuff about teams and those new abilities and everything. It's...kind of hard to know where to start.

[medeian]

Right. It's the team thing that's really throwing me. Like - how are we supposed to pick people that are a good fit after just a few days?

[westedge]

Pick whoever pisses you off the least and hope for the best? [ he does not sound too thrilled about the option either. ] Almost everyone I've asked kind of feels the same way. You can't pick teams with strangers.

[medeian]

There's that angle... But I'm wondering if it might be better to pick based on skills. We don't know exactly what the tasks they're going to ask us to do are yet, but there's something to be said for a balanced group, right?

[sighing, though, as she thinks about it more.]

But maybe I should at least be considering who might need the most help, too.

[westedge]

The thing about picking based on skills is you could find someone who's the best at what they do and they're a real asshole. [ bluntly said. ] I'd rather work with someone who's willing to work together and come up with solid plans than someone who knows what they're doing but refuses to help or disagrees with everything.

[ but...ah. ]

You don't think it'd be a liability to take one someone who needs help? [ he doesn't sound like he has an opinion, but more like he's curious about hers. ]

[medeian]

Well, I'm used to working with assholes, at least. But - I agree that ideally none of us would have to.

[thinking it over.]

I don't know. Probably, it would be? But sometimes people can surprise you.

[westedge]

There's enough of us that we might be able to spread out personality types and make sure like-minded works with like-minded. But we'll see.

[ he takes a moment to consider that, too. ]

...for better or worse, people can surprise you. I think it's too early to say if somebody would slow a team down, but in a situation like this we also don't know what people are capable of. [ again, for better or worse. ]

[medeian]

...Some of us seem coordinated enough to do that.

[some....... but anyways.]

Yeah. Well - if I end up making a bad call and it comes to it, I'll just think of it like the worst group project ever and make sure we get the tasks done myself.

[westedge]

Some, sure. It's everybody else I'm worried about accidentally, or on purpose, sabotaging everything.

[ ah. a type-a person. a very eli character. god is this just natalie with magic. anyway. ]

That's not a bad strategy either as long as we're not being judged on individual contribution to get the max points. Probably something we should ask whoever we can ask.

[medeian]

You think someone would do that?

[it is a mystery...

but anyways, she's biting her lip as she continues.]

...That's a good point. [ugh.] I'll add it to the increasingly long list.

[westedge]

If they think it could give them an upper-hand, yeah. I think people are capable of doing all sorts of stuff with this kind of prize on the line.

[ ...hah. ]

I'm a little scared to ask how long the list really is, but they would've made this easier on themselves if they showed up at the same time we did.

[medeian]

...I guess people have done some pretty bad things for smaller rewards, before.

[frowning a little.]

Well, it's not short, I'll say that much.

[westedge]

Good. It means at least someone is thinking about covering all of the things that should be covered while the rest of us scramble to figure out what's next.

[medeian]

What about you? What's the approximate length of your list?

[westedge]

Oh, no. I'm not really an actual list kind of guy. More like, uh, "figure it out as I go"? So right now it's about the length of my hand and what I can remember when I get that far.

But the good thing is a lot of people have the same questions I do.

[medeian]

Well - improvisation can definitely come in handy, too.

[westedge]

Yeah. Alex is more of the list-person and even then the list usually gets bigger before she checks anything off of it. [ very funny. ] Improvisation sometimes is the only wya.

[medeian]

She sounds like a smart kid, then.

[list people represent.]

But you're right that sometimes you have to put that aside if things go wrong.

[westedge]

She's a lot smarter than me. [ case in point, i typo'd way. ] It might be one of the only ways I can play the game right.

[ mmm. there's a slow sigh. ]

Shouldn't that be "when" things go wrong here?

[medeian]

...Probably, yeah.

[chewing on her lip.]

You think people are going to go for it, then? The - erasure thing.

[westedge]

Yeah. We don't know how long we'll be here or how this competition's going to work, and we've been given an answer to expedite stuff. I don't know how many people will, but I'm almost positive it won't be zero once things start.

[ because people are selfish sometimes, and people will do what they can for their goals. ]