day 365 ● this space to rent

[scattershot]

[So sometimes all you can think of to do about a situation is steal a horse and ride it anywhere.

[There's something not quite right about it, admittedly - the foursquare shape of it, the solid barrel of the body, the close, velvety hide. But Alisaie finds she knows how to saddle it; knows, after a brief period of hang-about-wait-what adjustment how to make it start and move and go; it's something the body doesn't know how to forget, for all her mind is a stubbornly intractable blank on the subject.

[After that it's simply a matter of working out where to go, and since all she wants to do is get lost, that's straightforward enough.

[At least a coastline is a coastline, no matter how strange the land it borders might be.]

Comments

[inspiteful]

Well ... [ He pauses to think on this. ] ... Honestly, most of the time I put a lid on them, especially if trying to voice them to the people won't be met constructively. Afterwards, I vent to someone who's willing to listen and who I can trust won't spread around what I say. It helps keep the frustration manageable.

[scattershot]

Mayhap that is the best way.

[It all sounds extraordinarily trying to Alisaie. She sighs, and retrieves another stone, and wings it into the water.]

I'd like to believe 'twill be easier, when it's just the unit working together. And yet it seems to me that it would simply raise the stakes still further, if I were to disagree with the one group here I'm supposed to be able to trust...

[inspiteful]

[ There's the pause of someone who's trying to not flashback, just a little. Ye gods, first Tsukasa, and then Alisaie bringing up the possibility of it happening in the future...

Man, just when he thinks it's been put away into a box for good. ]

Do you have any reason to think you might disagree with them one day?

[scattershot]

Nothing so concrete. Everyone has been perfectly kind, so far - but I've yet to be seriously tested, and these games we play are designed to cause friction. And, should our values fail to align perfectly? Such clashes will be only inevitable...

Every time things get difficult, everybody disappears.

I did.

[inspiteful]

[ Right, Skylark. Get a hold of yourself and try to maintain perspective. ]

Disappear as in, taken away from the show?

I can't say I know much about the current unit, but does anyone give you the impression they'd be unwilling to try and reach a compromise in the event of a disagreement?

[scattershot]

Nothing so final. Merely leaving. Yet how are we supposed to resolve our difficulties if nobody admits we have them? Zhongli was so concerned I simply wouldn't return I'm out here with a shopping list!

[inspiteful]

[ ... Well, he has some guesses as to who are the culprits, or at least some of them.

Still, he's relieved that Zhongli apparently has tried to deal with that. ]

Let me guess, Hurricane is one of them? The shopping list is a pretty good idea, actually.

[scattershot]

Hurricane?

How did you know?

[inspiteful]

[ ...

Hey Skylark this is what you get for just speaking your mind without thinking further ahead. Fuck. ]

I don't think anyone needs to have masterful powers of observation to notice he can get highly avoidant and guess it's him.

[scattershot]

No... no, you're right. That was something of a foolish question.

I'm hardly surprised he might not wish to talk to me. I'm all but a stranger. And yet, if I am ever to be more to him than that - won't we have to take a chance on one another, sometime?

[inspiteful]

Mmm ... [ ... Even now, he isn't really sure how he would advise this sort of situation. Damn. ] Well, it's tough when at the end of the day, it's about not wishing to burden you or anyone else on the unit, as ridiculous as it is when you think about it. Though, I'm not sure how one is supposed to proceed from there.

[scattershot]

Well, I don't intend on giving up before I've started. Even if we can never become friends, I do at least desire to prove I can be trusted.

[inspiteful]

[ The thing he has to wonder is whether it can work like that with Hurriccane, though he supposes that may just be his own cynicism giving him a dim view. ]

I wish you good luck, then.

[scattershot]

I'm probably going to need it. But thank you, Skylark.

[inspiteful]

Are you feeling a little better, at least?

[scattershot]

I am. Simply talking these things through helps a lot.