EVENT #01 —

[raiamods]

WHO: All PCs
WHAT: Guests arrive at the basecamp
WHEN: June 10 - June 17
WHERE: Basecamp Leviathan
NOTES/WARNINGS: None currently (let us know if we should update this because we missed something)

EVENT LOG 001 — JUNE ❀

CONTENT WARNINGS: None currently (let us know if we missed something and should update this!)

Please note that several of these sections have deadlines, so it's a good idea to prioritize your plotting for the earlier section of the event first.

A calendar of events and deadlines is as follows:

IC:
June 10 - The thessyx arrive with the shell.
June 11 - Dinner with the thessyx, gifts distributed.
June 12 - Scrimmage interrupted by the formation of a sinkhole.
June 14 - Critters emerge from the sinkhole in the gymnasium.
June 13-17 - Two more sinkholes open up, with more critters emerging within the day.

OOC:
June 13 - Last day to ask about your character interfering with the shell.
June 16 - Last day to ask about your character joining the closed-door meeting with Childe and the thessyx.
June 30 - Last day to register the way your character engages with the thessyx and the critters directly. (Mods do not anticipate replying to these comments.)

❀ UNEXPECTED VISITORS

At noon on June 10, a dozen visitors arrive. The Thessyx carry themselves quietly, moving through the base as if they were attempting to enter a body of water without disturbing it. Lightweight robes of some native skein cover their green-grey amphibian skin, but do not obscure the fact that each of them possesses four arms. Once inside the base and in the leviathan’s embrace, they will lower their hoods and additionally reveal fins of varying colors along the back of their scalps. These creatures have slit noses; wide-set, irisless eyes; and mouths that stretch the full width of their skull. With them, they bring a great shell about three meters long and as tall as a small adult human.

The security force of the Adamant greets the visitors on their entry to camp. These strange amphibious creatures inform the security force that they are the Thessyx, and that the shell is full of gifts. The security force is ordered by Chief Security Officer Rémi to lock the shell away until Captain Childe has had the opportunity to decide what will be done with the contents. If you intend for your character to interfere with the shell in some way, please reach out in the QUESTIONS thread below BEFORE JUNE 13TH — this includes if your character would try to stop others from interfering with it.

Three of their number with blue fins on their head go to speak in a closed-door meeting with Captain Childe. If your character would like to attempt to get access to this meeting, please reach out in the QUESTIONS thread below with an explanation of how they would attempt to do so BEFORE JUNE 16TH.

The next day, more Thessyx arrive, and they will remain on the base for about one week. They move around the camp fairly casually, mingling with the Adamant’s crew. They are particularly interested in the hatchlings. If your character would like to ask specific questions of the Thessyx they encounter, please direct them to the QUESTIONS thread below.

Just before dinner the next evening (June 11), Captain Childe announces that there will be a special celebration in the mess hall, courtesy of their guests — all of their guests. The announcement is as follows, and goes out on the communication devices camp-wide:

I'm sure some of you have noticed the Thessyx walking among us. In light of their arrival and the gifts they've brought with them, we've decided to have a joint celebration in the mess. They have agreed to have guards from their city patrol our perimeter, so everyone has twelve hours off. Attendance isn't mandatory, but it's strongly suggested.

They've brought gifts for our new arrivals as well. These gifts are to be distributed later. I know some of you will think it's unfair that the Thessyx are favoring them, and that in three years of being here this is the first time they've initiated contact with us. Tensions are bound to be high — but the first person who picks a fight is getting thrown in the brig, I don't care if you're a civilian or not. We could all use this break.

Don't offend them. No fish jokes.

Childe out.

At dinner, a few crew members get out their instruments, and Captain Childe even looks the other way when Senior Engineer Thorkil Bjørnson opens up a barrel of the moonshine he’s just finished. It means going without later, but they’ll share some of their modest wealth with the Thessyx. The mess hall is cluttered with revelry, and some of the tables have been pushed together to make room for people to dance.

The feast is made up of various mosses and seaweeds, pickled insects, and a few mollusks. Whether this sounds appetizing or not, it’s the freshest food anyone on the base has had for a while, and it seems it’s only intended for the Children of the Leviathan. Some crew members look on jealously or externalize their bitterness. Others may be pushier — after all, they’ve been providing for the hatchlings out of their own supplies for a while now. Still others will be surprised if any of the hatchlings offer trades or pawn the food off on them preemptively — they may be inclined towards favors and good will.

A few notes:

The Thessyx refer to the hatchlings as ‘Children of the Leviathan.’ They do not appear to sleep, nor do they step out from under the leviathan’s embrace when the sun is out. The three blue finned Thessyx who meet with Captain Childe are not the Thessyx’s leaders, only representatives. They prefer to ask the PCs questions about them and where they came from rather than answering questions about themselves.

To interfere with the shell, attempt to be involved in the closed-door meeting between Childe and the thessyx, or to ask questions of the thessyx, please visit the QUESTIONS sub-thread. These options have staggered deadlines so that we can account for each stage while responding to the next; these actions of some hatchlings will reflect on others.

By JUNE 30TH at 21:00 EST, please respond to the mod comment labeled THESSYX GREETING with a brief description of how your character would greet the Thessyx. Feel free to write multiple characters in a single comment. We just want to check the temperature in the room.

❀ A DISTURBANCE UNDERFOOT

On June 12th, the thessyx’s visit is disrupted by the appearance of a sinkhole in the gymnasium. The basketball court, which was already in disrepair, suffers the worst of the damage. In the midst of a scrimmage between PCs and NPCs, which the thessyx observe quite rapturously, a 5-meter hole opens in the middle, with concrete and steel and earth crumbling underfoot. Any injured PCs will have their sprains and scratches treated well by the medical team, and the gymnasium will be closed until further notice. Don’t worry! The Adamant’s engineers are on the case, figuring out how the soil’s stability gave way. This could be bad news for the entirety of the basecamp if it’s an ongoing issue. The engineers could probably use some help addressing the issue — to volunteer, reach out to us in the QUESTIONS thread.

Over the next couple days, two more sinkholes appear — one near the Memorial Wall, and one in the showers (though it thankfully doesn’t seem to have affected the plumbing). Anyone injured by a sinkhole will also have their sprains and scratches treated well by the medical team. Cartagena shares a helpful (“helpful”) PSA about the dangers of sinkholes and how to protect yourself, which is clearly dated and has nothing to do with whatever is going on here on Ethyraia:

Hello, Children of the Leviathan! Isn’t that a silly name? I guess it’s the most accurate, since you did come from eggs. Soon you will be one month old! Hahaha! Biology can be odd sometimes.

It’s not just biology, though! Ecology is certainly strange and confusing, and nothing is stranger and more confusing than the ecology of Ethyraia. I’m sure you have all noticed the sinkholes appearing more and more often these days. Do not be alarmed! Not because there is nothing alarming, but because alarm leads to panic and panic leads to more danger!

For the time being, please follow these helpful tips for sinkholes:
1. If you see a sinkhole, go the opposite direction.
2. If you fall into a sinkhole, try not to cry. Instead, yell for help!

I think these are sufficient enough guidelines to follow, yes?

Remember, be careful out there! And protect your squishy selves. You never know when you might be useful later. Then it would be a shame if your squishy self was gone. We’d all be very sad. Or most of us. Or some of us. At least me, to the capacity that an AI can be sad.

Stay safe! Cartagena out.

On June 14th, the first of the critters emerges from the sinkhole in the gymnasium. These creatures are roughly a meter tall at the shoulder, blind, with enormous clawed forepaws and supernumerary hind-legs that appear shrunken and shrivelled and barely provide function. These creatures have tough, armored hides and truly, truly awful breath. They are capable of tearing through metal with their claws, and small arms fire does nothing to them. Within the day, dozens of them have skittered into the base. They seem as confused and afraid to be in here as the basecamp’s residents are to have them here. However, these are wild animals; they react to their fear with sharp teeth and claws. A few perseverant critters find their way into the cafeteria, sniffing out food, while others can be found gnawing on cables that power the lights for the basecamp.

Chief Security Officer Rémi will be quick to pursue an extermination plan. The problem is big enough that the PCs are encouraged to help out, and those who volunteer will be quickly accepted, as long as they aren't trying to offer their own bright ideas.

A few notes:

To volunteer to help out with engineering, please visit the QUESTIONS sub-thread.

If your character would volunteer to help security exterminate the creatures, or if they would disregard the security force and go after the critters on their own, please let us know in the QUESTIONS thread so we can talk about what this would look like. Rémi isn’t well-known for liking people who subvert the chain of command.

By JUNE 30TH at 21:00 EST, please respond to the CRITTER WRANGLING comment with how you vote the critters get dealt with — extermination, rehoming, or something else. If someone has already commented with your characters’ IC preference, please add your +1 under other people’s comments, so it’s easier for us to sort.

Comments

[portolan]

[ Her tone and the shift in her body language alert Balthier that she has not taken his comments in the light-hearted and exaggerated manner he intended. He has seen this before in her, and feels a little guilty for forgetting. He remembers being that raw -- or at least his version of it -- and the jarring nature of having the wound salted again. Worse, sometimes, for others not registering it was there. But it also was never quite their fault; he was a stewing pot of emotions and raw nerves; it could hardly be avoided. ]

Touché. I ran away rather than become a martyr. [ Or a tyrant. ] I would also prefer a farm to that, and I quite hate dirt and repetitive manual labor.

Not piracy, not farming, not spending your ample years in abject mystery. What do you idealize?

[portolan]

It's good to be able to help friends.

[ His voice comes out quieter and shakier than he intends. He's been having nightmares, since the Thessyx came, about the Ocurria. About killing his father. About not telling Ashe how he felt because he'd already decided what she'd say -- about leaving her to face the future alone. About abandoning Penelo and Vaan and Basch. About going back for Fran and failing her.

They reach the edge of the Aid Station. Parked beside the entrance is his beloved hovcraft. A few children are inspecting it in awe. One is brave enough to venture forward, touching it then running back. He's grateful for the distraction and the opportunity for a performance. ]

She won't bite. But she won't run for anyone but me either.

[ Not unless he teaches someone, anyway. ]

[neversmall]

[ Oh, Alina, that smile. How you show your pain even in your joy, it's the iron framework for the stained glass.

But then -- Nina winces. ]

Politics. [ A sigh. But. Okay. If Alina's getting back - and she'd better - and Nina's staying with Matthias here - and she very well might - then maybe talking about things that Aren't Talked About is actually the better way forward. She shifts her posture to face Alina more directly and speaks very seriously. ]Anyone with power is going to try to take us and make us their tools, because our power makes them stronger. But we are not tools. We are people, with whatever stuff makes up people inside of us.

I serve the general, and I serve the king, but more than that I've tried to serve Ravka -- and more than that, I want to make the world a place where Grisha are viewed as people. Where we don't have to be separated out of fear, or pressed into service, or limited to where we can go and what we can do because of who we are. I think that's what most Grisha fight for. And the best way of doing that seems to be winning the war, and the best way of doing that [ she hesitates, because, treason, ] does not always seem to be following the king.

[sunmon]

Idealize?

[ she scoffs around the word, trying to think of it. alina doesn't know that she can think of a single ravkan ideal. the crown idealizes strength and money, and the boyars too. the peasants idealize the lives of those same boyars who bicker over little things and fear the day they'll lose that power. the army ... ]

I guess ... Peace. It doesn't matter where I am in the equation. I want peace for my country. [ then, as she probes the thought deeper. ] And for my people.

[ the grisha, she means. she hasn't called them that before, but it's the truth. there is no peace for grisha without peace for ravka. both require the sun summoner. both might demand she martyr herself, no matter her highest wishes. responsibility writhes like maggots in her stomach. ]

[sunmon]

[ alina's eyes grow big as saucers when the craft comes into view. it's like nothing she's seen. the size of a wagon, but sleek and steel. a weapon and a horse and a ship. she rests her hand on what she thinks is the front (it's the back) and inspects it with equal measures fear and excitement etched into her hesitation. ]

Is it tethered to you somehow? [ she walks a little steadier now that the pain is duller, but she's still careful. she doesn't think the injuries are healed. just quieted. ] Does everyone have one of these in Ivalice? Is it like a ship? Does it have a name?

[ she looks just like one of the children like this. young enough to be speechless, but old enough to see in it a potential weapon or potential escape. for a flicker of a moment, she thinks of stealing it and disappearing out of the basecamp, alone. but he's already warned her the futility of that — it won't answer anyone else. ]

[sunmon]

[ treason, then. nina doesn't say it lightly. it wells out of her like water from a broken dam. alina lets herself get caught in the flood, lets the words wash over her, filling in every little crack that baghra's lecture had left.

alina has not been a grisha long enough to know deeply what nina describes. but she has been on the other side of it, the side that fears and even hates them — less than fjerdans and shu and anyone else hates them, but still hates them. she knows it to be true.

which is how nina's ideals sound good, promising, righteous. and that's how she finds herself asking, not arguing. ]

What would you be willing to do to get a world like that? [ would she weaponize the shadow fold? would she kill all the women and children who'd been innocently swept up into the merzost that created the fold in the first place? would she watch more otkazat'sya die to the volcra, even the innocent or ambivalent? kirigan would. ]

[portolan]

[ He thinks of Ivalice, of Archades and the past two years, of Ashe. He wants peace too, fought for it even if that wasn't what he thought he was doing, but he's not sure he believes in it. Not over time. He had the privilege to escape -- more than once. He doesn't want to care about all those who could not, and yet he did. He does. How long until the next war? How long until his friends are fighting again? How many more will die? He wants Ashe's rule to be calm and strong, but he knows how Empires work. He knows how strong the Occuria and the war machines are. How greedy the hearts of men can be. He shouldn't care -- he's a pirate. He's free to do whatever he wants; serve only himself.

But he can't go back to the one place -- the one group of people -- he wants to protect. ]

Peace is beautiful dream. And safety for those we love.

[ For all his bravado, all his recklessness, wasn't that what it was always about? For Fran too -- they weren't safe at home; not truly. No one who is leaves. ]

[portolan]

[ It's nice to see her perk up. But he also knows the hunger in that look. Vaan never lost it, and Balthier has seen a hundred other excitable youth eyeing some ship or other. She'd steal it right this minute if she thought she could operate it. Which pulls a laugh out of him. ]

Indeed, it's like a small ship. It's not tethered to me persay, but it requires training in both magick operation and flight steering that I confidently assume no one else here can access. I could teach someone, of course, but it would take time.

[ He leaves the last bit lingering, watching Alina's hunger. He wants her to have a reason to stay, something to work toward. It's selfish. He enjoys her company, for one, and for another he sees himself, young and lost. A powder keg waiting to explode. What he would have given for someone to have cared about him, someone who wasn't Ba'Gamnan or his father, waiting to betray him.

He'd found that in Fran, of course. But that was different -- friendship. He'd wanted a mentor.

He wasn't that much older than Alina; was this even an appropriate relationship to pursue? He didn't know, but it was already out of his mouth. ]

This one technically belonged to my partner. [ He puts a gentle hand on the side, as if it were a creature, or a memory. ] I don't know if she named it -- she never said. Not everyone has one on Ivalice, no, but it is certainly not the only one.

Now the Strahl, my airship, she was one of a kind.

[ He stoops down, fingers laced. Alina may recognize the gesture from mounting a horse; he means to help her get in the back seat. ]

[neversmall]

[ Her brow furrows. ] I'm not sure what you mean.

[ What has she already done? Killed, lied, betrayed, manipulated, even hurt enemies when fear needed to be her weapon. She's also starved, been captured, lost friends, grieved and kept going.

Now she's taking the risk to build something instead of fight, and it isn't The Reason, but it's not as though she can unsee what she's seen, and what it would mean for a former drüskelle to accept that Grisha were not evil, and learning how to reach others as opposed to simply having to defend. She'd much rather try to change a culture by leeching out the hatred somehow than have to work to defeat it. ]

[sunmon]

How far would you be willing to go to ensure a safe place — freedom — for all Grisha?

[ it's a noble goal. or it might have been, once. but she doesn't know that it's truly at the heart of what kirigan is doing. how could it be, if he was willing to do so many terrible things to get there? baghra's voice beats like a drum in the back of her mind. ]

East and West Ravka are fracturing. West Ravka tried to have me assassinated. Would you go to war with them? [ she grapples for more specifics, something that at least brushes up against the real horrors in question. ] Would you support the King if he put their cities to siege, and innocent people starved no matter how they felt about Grisha?

[sunmon]

Not original, I'll grant you. But ...

[ she nods. if alina has an ideal, that's it. she isn't sure she knows what it looks like. the war is older than she is. older, stronger, better, more patriotic grisha than her have fought in it. but they all see her light as the light at the end of the tunnel.

maybe it's selfish to hide that hope, to refuse the shackles that kirigan would put on her. ]

Can I ask you something? [ she studies balthier. he's a reasonable, moral person. alina doesn't necessarily trust her judgment in people right now, but no one who's so honest about being a pirate is worried about hiding their worser qualities. she believes, at least, that he won't pretend to be something he's not, or mislead her. ] What would you do to get it? Wars are fought all over the world in pursuit of peace. It justifies all kinds of atrocities. Hate. Death. How much is too much for your hands to touch?

[sunmon]

[ when she turns to look at him, patiently crouched to help her on, alina notices that look in his eyes. he's reading her. some of her excitement melts away, shy now that it has seen the light of day. ever since she arrived here, she has been practicing how to hide her reactions, and she'd just —

well, she couldn't have failed more utterly.

some of it lingers, mingled with confusion and suspicion in the crinkle of her brow as she takes his assistance to climb up onto the hovercraft. she braces herself like she expects it to buck and move, but it's much more stable than any horse she's ever been on. she exhales, letting her hands instead rest on her knees. ]

What was she like? Your partner. [ if he's looking for another, alina might just convince him to teach her. she could get out of here. ]

[neversmall]

[ Nina looks horrified. Her instinctive reaction is to cry: ] No! [ and she is just enough inside her own skin with Alina to actually do so.

But then -- to be practical. ]

Innocent people starve in war, civilians get killed, but it should never be a goal, an acceptable loss. [ She doesn't know all the consequences of her actions, as a soldier, as a spy. She can only speak to what she's done with her two hands -- and they're red enough already, but she has never directly harmed a civilian and she does not intend to. Especially not her own people, what a horrifying thought. ] It happens, but it's one of the worst things that happens. It's not an acceptable method. We don't prove them right. Gaining our freedom by losing our humanity only looses monsters on the world.

[ Would she go to war with West Ravka to keep it from seceding? ...she would, though she'd hope that would be the last resort. And that was only because East Ravka would be doomed without it. But that wasn't what Alina was asking, not really. This is a clarification, an example to How far would you go? Nina can't help but wonder why this is what she asking. ]

[needfully]

Frankly, I disagree.

[ Despite the other man's hardened expression, Illumi's tone remains light and casual, as if disagreeing about how nice the weather is outside. His feeling towards the Adamant's survivors is apathy; he doesn't feel wronged by them, but he certainly doesn't feel inspired to do any heavy lifting for them without some kind of payout. So the difference of opinion isn't a serious one, to him. ]

They may have not done it on purpose, but I heard some scientist's mistake is what caused our arrival here. Whether they expected us or not, they did bring us here— allegedly. The Captain said so.

[ If what the Captain said can be trusted, that is... he takes it all with a grain of salt. ]

So, I don't see what they're doing as hospitality. It's responsibility, which doesn't necessitate being paid back.

[needfully]

[ telepathy..... no, turns out he didn't know this #realfact about the Thessyx. Hmmm. That certainly throws a wrench in things, if true, but he won't let it get to him - he'll just have to adapt. ]

Then, we'll know very soon the extent to which they can read minds. [ If they see right through him, that is. Illumi remains nonchalant despite the reveal, and despite the potential for him to get exposed as a weirdo who purposefully bent himself out of shape to disguise himself. ] It should provide us with some useful information.

[ That should be his course of action here, if the their telepathic powers turn out to be real; he needs to test to what extent they know what he's thinking, then. Would they know his true name, without him telling? How easily could they connect him with his disguise? Maybe he can spin this into a good turn of events. ]

I doubt anyone else on the camp is taking such measures. [ It's said without condescending or judgment, but it is true that his current impression of the Hatchlings is that they are not inclined to being sneaky and to the right of nefarious like this. ] So this would be the only way we'd find out for certain, anyway.

[sunmon]

[ alina shows no such horror. rather, her gaze probes nina like fingers digging into a wound. does she trust this reaction? nina is a spy. she could invent whatever reaction she wanted. alina's pulse ticks up. she's out of her depth. she's so out of her depth.

after too long in silence, alina nods. she accepts the answer. it's uncanny, really. the way that her stoicness bears shadows of kirigan himself. like, absent anyone else to model her reservations off of, she has inherited from him that eldritch calm which he had cultivated over centuries. ]

Hopefully the King finds a better way to stop West Ravka from seceding. [ that's all she says. ] He may tolerate our presence, but he already sees us as monsters and weapons. It's no wonder which tools he would use if he decided to prove a point.

[ she had realized at the winter fete that if she was not a jewel in his crown then she was a weapon in his hand. perhaps the war could be won with diplomacy. but alina's presence seems to have terrified the worst out of everyone. she averts her gaze to the ground. ]

If things escalate further, I'm afraid it will be my fault.

[baum]

And you don't think it's worth fostering some good will for the future? The time might come when we need them to like us. Sharing what we have, the same way they have, doesn't seem like a big ask.

[ He can't understand why anyone would be selfish enough not to want to. It just doesn't make sense to him. If people can't band together and support each other when lives are literally on the line, what hope is there for humanity? John has to believe there's more than this. ]

[portolan]

I killed my father. [ He hadn't meant to say it. He hasn't said it out loud yet, though it haunts him in his sleep and sometimes when he's waking. ]

He was manufacturing a material that was later used to decimate an entire city. Hundreds of thousands of people, gone in a moment. [ A material Balthier now has stashed in the Leviathan because he has no idea how to safely dispose of it and is afraid of keeping it too near to camp. ] I say that like I'm justifying it. Maybe I am. He'd been...less than fatherly for a long time. Drove my mother away. That's not why I killed him, though I'd certainly fantasized about it after she left.

[ He knows he should stop. Alina doesn't need to hear any of this. It could come back to hurt him. But it's been over a month since he talked about any of it, more than a month since he lost Fran and the others. More than a month he's been stewing on these questions. It's as though being asked has burst a dam he barely knew he was holding. ]

He made me a Judge -- a sort of government official and solider -- when I was 16. A huge honor. I had the power to change things. The people of Archades, the people I was born into, were attacking the countries around us, killing thousands and putting thousands more into poverty. I thought I could stop it. I thought I could show my mother that it was worth coming home. But I was young and naive. I had little political affiliation; my appointment was a gift to my father to keep his research going, research that I didn't realize was dangerous. I should have seen it. But I was too busy missing the freedom of boyhood and clutching my pearls that I'd bloodied my hands by agreeing to a vote that led to the bombing of a city.

I don't know what the price of peace is. I ran rather than face that responsibility. But the war got worse -- directly as a result of my father, and from the council that I left. I had given up what power I had to stop it. Or at least I told myself I had. I went and robbed tombs and fought bandits and ate and drank my way across the countryside. I had no obligation to any of them. Just to myself, and my partner. Other people got to live small, selfish, private lives. Couldn't I? [ He knows he's rambling. Does he have a point? She doesn't need all these details. ]

And then I found myself suddenly in a position to help someone who did have an idea on how to make things better. I wanted to walk away; I wanted to maintain this aloof persona I'd bee building for years. I found myself finding excuses to stay. Treasure. Payment. Fulfilling promises. They got thinner until we all knew I was lying. It feels good, to work for a cause. And it feels good when someone else is making the hard decisions. I think I would have done things Ashe had asked me, if I really believed they would help, even if they were terrible.

Maybe I am more like my father than I realized.

[portolan]

[ Balthier helps Alina up, noting that she is not quite as gentle on her injured leg though she is still being cautious. Good. She won't reinjure it that way.

As she settles, he mounts the craft. He's getting used to being in the driver's apparatus instead of the gunner seat. He barely has to think about reaching for the Mist despite it being quieter here.

The craft whirs to life, filling with light as it begins to lift quietly from the ground. The nearby children gape and laugh in delight. He slowly takes it up to about twelve or fifteen feet in order to clear the majority of the people and stalls. And he enjoys showing off. ]

Fran was [was] a woman of few words who could strike a man dead at three hundred feet with a bow or a fire bolt, had excellent command of most battle and subterfuge magicks, and was a good deal wiser than almost any living creature I'd ever encountered. Excellent taste in tea, too.

[ He hopes that the past tense is inappropriate because she somehow survived the explosion too. But it's been over a month and she hasn't awakened here; what are the chances she survived somewhere else?

They aren't nothing, and foolish as it is, he clings to that. ]

[mylawn]

Isn't that how it always goes?

[He's more than used to that kind of thing by now--something he doesn't like is happening, but he adapts anyway. 76 has no doubts that he'll be able to roll with the punches here, but being caught in between the survivors of the Adamant and an alien species who have otherwise shown no interest in the humans on their planet until now. There's bound to be complicated feelings on both sides.

That said, he's no stranger to having to make contingency plans. Comes with the territory when most days, you're just focused on your own survival.]

We could always strike out on our own.

[unfastens]

I understand your feelings, but having destructive pests in and around the base is a serious concern when we don't have many resources to begin with.

and then i dropped it immediately

[unfastens]

[ he'd harp on her not eating if not for her second comment. That's a much more compelling reason than "it looked gross." He frowns, but it's most certainly not at her generosity. ]

Time will tell if it was purposeful or just ignorance. But... in my experience, people who are that devout can barely see past their own beliefs.

[ in other words, he's leaning towards the latter. It's not that they were excluding the refugees - it's that they didn't even think about them. Of course, that, in itself, is a sin, and if their position here was any better, he wouldn't overlook it so quickly. Unfortunately, they're lost, starving, and confused, and he knows better than to let idealism cloud his judgement. He'll have to deal with it. (Of course, that's easy for him to say when he's on the side that's getting the food.)

Speaking of food, Trish's altruism is a pleasant -- not surprise, exactly, but more of an affirmation of her character. She really is a good kid. ]

Make sure you feed yourself, too.

[unfastens]

[ he nods. Illumi is right! And Bruno is also a weirdo, so he's not too fazed by the extreme measures now that he understands the reasoning. Honestly, he's wondering now if he should have tried harder to conduct some espionage, himself. It's too late now, though. He's not the type to have regrets. ]

You're the only one I noticed... Or, rather, the only one I didn't recognize.

[ which made him stick out in a place this self-contained. ]

I'm guessing the thessyx didn't treat you any differently from the others.

[ Illumi seems like the perceptive type. So either they saw through his disguise and didn't care, or they didn't see through it at all. ]

[neversmall]

[ To be someone's friend is a progression, this is something Nina has learned. You can say that you're friends when all you do is wear the same kefta color and sit at the table, and though you share no secrets you still find harbor with the likeness there against the blast of distrust and envy of the rest of the Grisha. Heartrenders are, after all, the general's favorite soldiers.

You can say that you're friends when you stand shoulder to shoulder against an incoming foray of bullets, raise your hands together and inflict death over and over again.

And you can say that you're friends when someone has you by the shoulders and is not quite yelling, not quite not yelling at you to stop, to come back, to be better than this... and you do.

So Nina won't say that this testing proves that she and Alina were not the friends she thought, she won't allow the rejection and fear she's experienced to have a louder voice than what she can see with her own eyes -- Alina is afraid. She's asking these questions because she's looking for something, and whether or not she found it in Nina's honesty is beside the point, because whatever it is was not enough to quiet her fear. And Nina is a monster and a weapon and fear isn't something she can ignore, not after this, not when she's seen it in Alina too many times. ]

Is that [ there is not enough emphasis to warrant italics on the word 'that', but the emphasis is nonetheless present ] what you're afraid of?

[ And she waits, she makes the question like an open door. ]

[dissemblance]

Do you think we'd survive?

（ it's a collective we. she could. steve, buck, sam, they are all more than capable of doing it. she can think of a few others — her companion included — who might fare well enough beyond the semi-protective shell of the basecamp. but what would they gain from doing it?

not everything has to be about survival. sometimes, living is a little more than that. ）

Plus, I don't know about you — but I don't think I could abandon these people.