snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival

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.

Let me guess: they're young, a little foolish, probably falling in love?

[She pauses.]

Either that, or they have no home to go back to.

Any of it. All of it. And if any of them do have homes to go back to, they'd likely regret leaving them eventually. This is an awful place to be making big decisions.

It is. It might not be better back home for them, though.

[She shrugs a shoulder, pulling the coat over herself a little tighter.]

In the end,we're not sure we can even make that kind of choice. And if we can, well, it's theirs to make. Are you worried for them, Mr Solomons? More soft spots?

I don't know any of 'em well. But I hear whispers from time to time.

This one man - a boy, really - he talked about taking one of the kids home. I suppose he didn't mean it how it sounded, but that's alarming to hear, innit?

Hm. [She tries to think it through, imagining circumstances. She's heard doctors and nurses before talking about taking kids home with them, taking them from their families - often with good reason, but still. She gets where Alfie is coming from.]

Might have been with the best intentions in the world, but yeah, it'd worry me, too. At the end of the day, it depends on what the kid wants, if they're old enough to make that decision. It's not something to just toss around lightly, that's for sure.

Children belong with their families.

I agree, to an extent. What about orphans? Abusive households? Street urchins?

[She bites her lip.]

I don't know about this particular kid, so I'd expect letting them go back to their own world is the best option, but. Some families are broken.

So you break it even more? No, no; that's not a solution.

You'd rather leave a kid with a parent that beats them?

[Her curiosity shows in her voice; she wants to understand his thinking more than she's judging it. It's not the first time she's heard this argument, but he doesn't sound like someone who'd appreciate abuse, either.

But then again she could be wrong about that, since he is from the 20's, after all.]

There's usually others in the family who would intervene; sort things out. If not, then that's a special case, innit.

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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