pawnstorm | [Open] It's getting hot in here

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[Open] It's getting hot in here

Who: Caren and anyone visiting the hot springs!
When: Post dungeon, could be right after fail/success, could be days after
Where: Hot Springs of course
What: There's a hot springs, so now there's a hot springs episode.
Rating: Could be a p-13 and beyond because some people are only wearing towels in this place.

[Win or fail, everyone needed a reason and a way to relax. With the fall of the towers, there was all sorts of good things to come from it. Some would say it was the birds; and others would say it was the hot springs.

The large, large pools of heated water. Sure, they could be used as a way to get all steamed up (or even steam punk) but after all that hard work, everyone deserves a break!

Bring your swimsuits, your towels, your drinks and snacks-who knows, you should be able to find them in the bazaars, or even on Airy. It's time to soak in the heat!]

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Isn't that the point? We do work for it though, that dungeon was a doozy.

[She had a great time! But it was still Something.

Aisha watches the man with a casual eye, recognizing him in the way she had others. Like he was out of a dream. But that hadn't disturbed her the first time and it certainly wouldn't now, not when she was in the best place she'd found here yet.

His grumpy expression doesn't phase her either, as she takes sip of her drink. It's good, adding to her considerable glee.]

First time in one of these?

[ He's kind of gotten used to discounting that feeling. Like the many other mysteries surrounding this situation, it's not worth much. Though that isn't to say he doesn't keep the clue in the back of his mind. Seems like just about anything can classify as a mana irregularity, and he's no expert, but it's gotta add up to something...

In the meantime, her response has him flipping his stare back to her. ]

Huh? Forget about that. Don't you feel the least bit sorry?

[ Not that it may not be true for some "heroes," but he's surprised to hear it said so bluntly. While the entire concept is a bit heavy-handed, to be sure, he still doesn't take conquest of luxuries over duty lightly. So he screws his mouth up and sinks further into the water. ]

Nope.

[She doesn't even take a moment to think about that.]

I'm fighting for them because I'm not the type of person to just sit on my ass, but feeling bad about what I gain for that is ridiculous. Not enjoying myself isn't going to make me a better person, or superior. It would be different if it was taking away from someone else, but that's not the case here.

[People respect her here for so much less than she did back home. Aisha would have killed for the Empire to acknowledge her efforts half as much. The fact that he's reminded her is bothersome, so she stuffs a meat bun in her mouth.

What a charmer.]

[ Feeling bad about what she gains? No. He doesn't think she should. Nor for her enjoying herself. It's seeking it out, against some greater sense of urgency. The problem is that he seems to be the only one feeling it.

But he doesn't raise his voice. Actually, he rests his elbows back against a warm, flat stone. He's supposed to be "enjoying" himself, too. Never mind how he's criticizing it. ]

How do you know that?

I don't. But you don't know for a fact that it is, do you? Because if not, that just puts us at an impasse.

[Aisha doesn't have the information to feel urgent, to think their attention is best placed elsewhere. This war isn't hers, and back home she's essentially traveling with her crew for her own pleasure. There are troublesome things, but they aren't breathing down her neck.

Shrugging, she offers pours another cup of sake and offers it to him. If he's determined to have this talk right now, she might as well.]

Want some? Since we're having a serious conversation and all?

[ Exactly. Neither of them do. What they're not doing now could always hurt someone tomorrow. In the case of researching Enprise's mana, there's no telling if this settling down harms or only slows their efforts. If she gets that, then... clearly she can see the situation better than her being here, being a hero, as some gateway to living it up. Or is he misreading her after all?

Levi's eyebrows raise, and he reaches out to accept the sake. ]

You're right. There's no way to know. Do you want to be the one to take that gamble? Or is the "point" of being a hero really whatever you please?

[ Because he doesn't want to take it. Especially not over something like this. (Which begs the question... why is he.) It seems like it happens among these heroes all the time, and yet many of them had the balls to criticize the Prime Minister's inaction in the same breath. ]

[Her eyes shut, it's almost impossible to keep the tension like this. It's something easy to be grateful for at the moment. Aisha's almost certain she's chatting with the least fun person in the whole hot spring, but that isn't as much of a problem for her as it would seem on the surface.

At least he's drinking now.]

Stressing yourself out for the sake of a fact that you don't know is true isn't noble. You can't expect everyone to see it the way you do. Some of the heroes here are really just civilians doing their best, you're going to tell them that's not enough?

[Some of the things she had to do in the dungeon were hard, she can't imagine how it would seem to less experienced people.]

The point of us being here is to do what these people can't do for themselves, right? So innocent people don't get burned to death by dragons, or pulled into conflicts they can't handle. But we only have what intel we get from the top, unless you know something I don't.

[ He is drinking. No reason not to, and this stuff is Ma Jiang. Good stuff.

That said, he suffers under no delusions that his way of thinking is noble. Everything that he does here, all of this searching he goes the extra mile for—none of it is for this act of being a hero, for serving Blanc and its people. He serves Blanc and its people so that he might best serve his own people. He keeps the trail towards a solution back home as a top priority, and whether or not it's fair to or not, has expectations that the others will do the same.

In fact, he'll make them, if he can. For the Survey Corps, that's the part he's willing to play. That you could almost mistake it for being more on task to Blanc than anyone else here is an unintentional side effect. ]

I do. [ Intel? No, nothing about that. But his tone is bleakly firm. ] I know that it's not enough. If we listen to them, everything we do is for a country we have no fealty for—and if we care about that [ as he does ], if we place our trust in the brass, who's left to blame when they're not up to the task?

Many people died in Palamede. In Graupera. If we don't keep a step ahead of our enemies, that's not going to change.

[ A solemn topic, and one he clearly takes seriously despite the setting... but he doesn't speak to her like they're fighting, or like he's trying to prove something. This is just the way it is, and he didn't at all approach with the intent to see this conversation through to this point. ]

Aisha wasn't at those places, but I don't doubt that you're right about that. When you're reacting to what your enemy does instead of acting, you're limited in the actions that you can take.

[If she knew what he was really making this fuss about, she would respect it. Protecting your people above all others is something she gets, in fact it's second nature to her. If the Ctarl-Ctarl were facing a conflict, where else would she want to be but with them?

Her eyes open, and she takes a good long drink of her cup. The whole topic was hard, it was war. There were no simple answers in something like that.]

So either we accept it's that way and live with the consequences, or take other actions. [A beat, then-] You have experience with this, don't you? It's why you're so mad at the thought of me being a luxury gouger.

[That's pretty obvious, everything about him screamed it.]

Edited 2016-05-27 03:02 (UTC)

[ Experience beyond this, she means. Well, it's not a secret. So many of them are from backgrounds of fighting. Even she seems to be able to understand it—the importance in retaining their fallback. Levi exhales a wry huff of air from his nose at the revelation. ]

It'd be a disaster if most everyone didn't learn that lesson eventually. [ It's analogous to more, after all, than just fighting in this war. But if it helps his case, ] Protecting the innocent and living in luxury... they don't mix. Try to do both, and you're always going to be screwing one up.

[ He won't fight her if she wants to be all about herself, not more than in asking why she doesn't feel sorry... but this half-assed heroes reputation they seem to be gathering is something else. Why's no one managing them better? Is doing the bare minimum all that's needed? And if so, couldn't they be doing more to speed the process along, at least? It really burns his biscuits when nobody seems to mean what they say. ]

Visiting a hot spring you helped open isn't "living in luxury." It's just a break, and I really love hot springs! But that's not what all I meant when I said this Hero work isn't so bad.

[He seems more disgruntled with the situation in general than with her specifically. That isn't something she can help, and she isn't trying to justify herself... it's more that he's made Aisha want to open up about something, so he can very well sit and listen to it. ]

Back home, Aisha had just finished a pretty big assignment. I decided to take a bit of a break from working, because some jerk owed me and I wasn't gonna let him cheap out. But I've spent my whole life in service to the Empire, so... [Who knows how to take a break?] Here, I have something to do, something that actually matters again. Meeting new people, seeing new places, fighting for a cause, I enjoy all of that. Literally, the work isn't so bad.

[Meaningful work is what she enjoys the most. Having said her piece, she grabs another bite to eat.]

[ She's right, of course. He just thinks there's more to it than that. The hot spring they "helped open" hasn't been properly nailed down. For all they know, there could be complications of getting into this water—it'd formed in place of a mana distortion, after all.

That said, seeing as she's being reasonable, he's willing to admit he's being a little... over intense. And by admitting it, for now that means he just won't make any further arguments. Instead, he'll take the rest of his glass of sake while she explains herself, and listen. When she's done, it's on the subject of serving her Empire that he mulls over. ]

That stuff you did didn't matter? Why's that?

[ To him, it almost seems like it's this stuff that doesn't matter by comparison. Not to them personally. It's just a stepping stone towards making their way home, if they're going to. ]

Well, I didn't actually get to do anything yet, we'd just left the spaceport. But traveling the universe would have been just for Aisha, and I'm not used to that idea.

[Workaholic that she is. Her loyalty to her people is absolute even though she seems selfish. Once her duty was done, what then? There hasn't been an answer yet that satisfied besides joining the crew of the Outlaw Star, being with people that would be lost without her.

And just like she's not the type to worry about what might be wrong with the water, she isn't philosophical enough to think about what another goal might be. Aisha just lived, and fiercely. Everything else tended to fall into place.

She bets Levi doesn't have that luxury.]

So I might as well be doing this. 's why I didn't try to kick someone's ass for being brought here.

[ So from what she's said, his basic understanding of the situation is that she left her job with the Empire not necessarily because she wanted to. And traveling the... "universe"? That was the alternative. So being in Enprise gives her some kind of purpose beyond herself. He guesses he can relate to that, if his assumptions are right. Then again, it's only now that some feeing of purposelessness might really nag. Back when he used to live that way... he's not sure he ever thought twice about it.

Maybe that makes her worldly... or maybe it just makes him simple. He won't question it, aside from seeing her point of view a bit differently now. It does, at least, seem to imply one thing: ]

Guess you could say you're fortunate. I don't think most of us could be so nonchalant about up and leaving our homes.

[ Who knows if she's just downplaying that though. Now that he's not bothered by it, he's not going to press her. He's just going to raise the sake cup in her direction. ]

You got any more of this?

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[Open] It's getting hot in here

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