snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival

And I suppose we don't conquer you Americans again, do we.

[He's teasing; he knows that they don't.]

[She laughs, genuine and deep.]

I'm pretty sure if you could see it from my time, you wouldn't want to anyway.

[That makes him chuckle too, just a little.]

And here I thought the future was wonderful.

In a job like mine, cynicism is kind of a necessity. It's got its ups, like 12 years old scotch and constantly evolving human rights, and its down, like police brutality and global warming. I imagine it's the same for you.

I imagine it is.

[Pause.]

This global warming thing, though; never heard of that. I suspect Norfinbury missed the boat on that one.

It actually could be a consequence of it, too. Global warming has been playing up with the poles' ice cover, ocean streams, and all that good stuff, which means more extreme weather and stuff like tornadoes and polar vortexes.

[She looks down with a crooked smile.]

Who knows, maybe in the last hundred years they found a way to right wrongs, but they might also have made it worse...

We'll write them a strongly-worded letter. I'd rather have the heat, I think.

[She chuckles again, smiling at the camera.]

Oh, how very British of you. If we were stuck in the heat, it probably would bring us all sorts of other problems. At least here there is very little chance to die of dehydration.

[Sure, drinking melted snow isn't the safest, but in a place like this, what is?]

No, just to freeze your own insides, or give yourself infections by not taking care of your skin properly.

[He might not be anything close to a doctor, but ex-trenchsoldiers know this shit.]

Any extreme environment has its dangers.

[The way he talks, it's not that hard to put two and two together. How would a mobster know about this kind of affliction? The timeframe explains it all.]

You said you come from the 20's? Did you fight in the Great War?

I did.

[He gives her a nod.]

Over in France, yeah. People tell me this place is like war, and I laugh at them.

[Norfinbury is far worse, to him.]

At least you know to keep your feet dry.

[Tilting her head, she wishes, not for the first time their conversation started, that he'd had his camera on. To satisfy her curiosity.]

You laugh at them because it's not comparable?

They're nothing alike. They're two bad things, yeah? That doesn't mean much.

We had purpose in the war. And then, we had an end to it all.

I guess there is also a purpose here, but it's all so... [She waves a hand in the air before running it through her hair, at a loss for words.] vague? Unsettling? None of it makes any sense? Who knows.

[She doesn't mean to let her panic rise up to the surface; she'd been doing a god job keeping it under control. But that's what gets her, too - the fact that they seem to have no control whatsoever, here. Pawns in some game.]

Yeah.

[That's exactly it.]

Yeah - we've got clues, right, but no goals. We had goals in the war - but ah, you know that.

[People have made it pretty clear that they remember the Great War in the future.]

Get out before we all die might be a good goal, but it sure is daunting.

[She doesn't say the next words that come to her head, I don't want to die, instead taking a deep, measured breath.]

I'm sorry. I'm trying to keep together, but this is all...overwhelming.

[On top of the seedy vigilantes world she's discovered recently, this just feels like too much.]

[He grunts, because there's not much he can say to that. It is overwhelming - even for the people who have been here for months.

But she's not doing a terrible job at keeping it together, from what he can see.]

If anybody tells you it gets better, they're lying.

[She barks out a laugh, rubbing a hand over her face. It's definitely more to take in than finding Matt in her dumpster was, and it's definitely an overload of information, but she'll get there.]

Yeah, I'm not expecting it to. I appreciate your honest about it, by all means. I imagine too many people are willing to lie about this.

Fewer than you'd think. We've got a lot of nice people, but we haven't got many coddlers.

I suppose there is very little time for coddling. [She knows some might need it, to cooperate, or to even be able to function, but it's not much in her blood either.]

There is very little time for anything, probably.

[Not that's ever stopped anyone, and it shouldn't. Adversity brought her Matt, after all.]

Oh - there's time to rest a bit. After lockdown, closed up in the houses, we relax as much as we can. It doesn't get easier, but it does get habitual.

[Raising an eyebrow, Claire smirks.]

People have time to get close, huh?

Very quickly. Yes. Hardship does it.

It's not hard to imagine, nor to understand.

[She's lived it before. Give a stranger an emergency, illegal pneumothorax on your couch and get kidnapped for him, and suddenly you feel pretty close to the guy.]

I'm glad if anyone gets to find comfort, especially in a place like this.

Mm. You've got people deciding they want to go home with each other, if we ever do find our way out.

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[private] WHOOPS and that was me forgetting that he *didn't* have it on lmfao

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[private] WHOOPS and that was me forgetting that he didn't have it on lmfao