[open!] Lest the only one betrayed / Will be standing center stage

[toten_sie]

Who: Randel (toten_sie) & you
What: getting settled into a new world proper, some time at work, etc.
When: Octoberish catch all
Where: Shades Darker, the clinic, around town, an opportune alley or two
Warning(s)/Notes: nothing specific, and if you want anything, feel free to ping yarnzipan @ plurk


Randel has spent his time since waking up doing his best to make his new life feel like his old.

He'd gone down to the clinic, as he'd been told he could, and he'd started volunteering there when he could. That felt like the best of Section III's relief work, simple and good and thankfully, there was always the kind of work that he could do and plenty of it, especially given the situation.

Unfortunately, while he liked everyone there and it paid for his food well enough, it wasn't enough for what he'd expect he'd need, especially if he was going to have a proper nest egg for when everyone else woke up. If it was just for his siblings who'd once lived in Distric Zero, he could have stuck to that. But, funnily enough, it was the thought of the lieutenant, the warrant officers, the rest of his Section that pushed him right into more familiar territory.

It's how he'd ended up going to Shades Darker and while there'd been a bit of a misconception at first about what he was going to do, it had turned out well enough: he would be a bouncer, which, given his size, hardly required much more than a particular cant to his head or a bit of looming. There'd been a couple of times where he'd had to actual take action, but mostly that involved lifting and or throwing and well, that wasn't anything he couldn't do. Otherwise, he does whatever the rest of the staff need from him, smiling and cheerful and happy, more comfortable than most would expect in such a place. After all, he'd grown up in a place like this. It felt more like home that way.

As for his home, he'd been assigned a place to stay, but he hardly used it. If there was an opportune alley or a spot under a bridge, in a tunnel... well, it was a likely as not that Randel would end up sleeping there for the night, making sure to keep his pack well-stocked with rations. He didn't need a home, after all, didn't need a house with or without strangers in it. He just needed someplace to sleep, and he was served just as well on the street as anywhere else. Better that the space be filled by people who really needed it, better people, people who deserved warmth and comfort.

Aside from that, in the few spare moments that he has, he spends it walking the streets, getting a feel for this new city, with all the strange new things and new people. The things that are the same make his heart hurt and the things that are different make it hurt for another reason, because he wants to tell the Lieutenant about it and he can't, not really.

He wonders at the lack of nightmares, but he won't question that gift horse. He knows he doesn't deserve it, but he tries to make it drive him to save more for the others instead of focusing on how he ought to be punished. Sometimes it helps.

He tries to keep his spirits up, even given everything that's happened of late, because when it comes right down to it, it's one of the familiar things: food shortages, rising tensions, violence and the sort of harm that civilians don't deserve even if they almost always got it. But his hand stays nearer his lantern some nights. Not for him, but because he's got work to do here for those who'd come later. He's past the time when he'd wanted to die. For now, there's work to do.

Comments

[toten_sie]

"Oh."

He'd already been rubbing at the back of his neck but he ducks a little then, feeling somewhat dull for not having picked that up. He really should be used to it by now, but maybe it's because he was used to Oreldo always having a smirk on when he said things like that.

"I'm Randel, by the way. Nice to meet you."

[maipokerface]

Pff. For a big guy, he's awfully sweet. Appearances are always deceiving though and in some way she finds herself thinking of Zuko's awkwardness. It's enough to make her smile a bit.

"Mai. Sorry I haven't introduced myself before now."

[toten_sie]

He offers a firm, friendly nod at her introduction before shaking his head just a little at the apology.

"We haven't really had a shift together. And I'm pretty new."

He glances around the room they're in for a moment before deciding on the tack he wants to take.

"Have you been here long?"

[maipokerface]

"Working here? Since Koralle first started hiring us newcomers. Altogether? Since the first wave started dropping into town here."

Mai's fairly bold in how she talks about her true origins, though she always seems to keep it nicely couched in terms that could be interpreted any number of ways.

[toten_sie]

"Do you like it?" and he doesn't specify what he means, leaving it open ended. The job or the new world; he's curious about what this place might feel like eventually, how she might have adjusted, but people don't always want to talk about that. Or about their job. Anything'll be useful, though.

[maipokerface]

Mai pauses at that. That is a loaded questions, at least when it comes to her. She had struggled those first few weeks with being the only one awake and the very real distaste she had for the idea of trying to find a new way for herself. Why should she be allowed to have a life if none of the others couldn't?

She looks off into the general lull of the room. Business is at a quite hum for the moment, the more raucous evening hours looming close.

"... I haven't hated it." And maybe that was what had disturbed her the most in the beginning. "It's strange and new maybe but besides recent events? It's calm. It's honestly pretty peaceful too, besides what you'd usually find in a town like this anyhow."

Pickpockets, petty thieves, that sort of thing. Mai didn't really have the fear of small criminals that most citizens might though. She makes an amused noise.

"Even working here has been... kind of fun, in a way."

[toten_sie]

"This place is really nice," and he really does have so little bad to say about it. It seems a lot better run than where he'd grown up and some of the locations his sisters worked at. "And everyone's very friendly."

Sometimes more friendly than he needed. Not being related to anyone here was a new experience.

"There's not a lot here that feels like home, but this does."

[maipokerface]

Her brows rise a little at that. "A brothel seems like home to you?"

... Maybe it was the architecture? Or the people.

[toten_sie]

He nods easily enough. After all, he's from District Zero. There's nothing uncommon about brothels and definitely nothing to be awkward about. It was just another place, and for the people who worked there, just another way of making a living. Honestly, his life might have been very different if he'd had the temperament for it; he didn't, much to his frustration. The only thing he was any good at-

Well, he was working on that.

"I grew up in a place just like this. My father was a doctor who took care of the girls and my mother was one of them. Though" he scratches his ear for a moment, smiling softly at the memory, "in a lot of ways, all of the girls were 'mom'."

He glances around for a moment before continuing.

"My sister worked at a brothel too, though not one as nice as this. When she wakes up, I'll have to see if I can get her work here. She'll like it."

[maipokerface]

... Oh. That wasn't really the reply she figured he would give. Coming to a brothel is one thing and then growing up there, with family and all that is... surprising. Even as she works at one herself now, she'd never thought too much on the lives of the other workers here. Her home life has never been perfect but it had obviously been a far cry from Randel's own.

Once the surprise dies off though, she doesn't look scandalized or shocked. Everyone had their circumstances after all and it'd be more than a little hypocritical to be shocked over someone's family working in a place like this when she worked in the place herself.

... Maybe it was nice though, having that many moms. Mai didn't hate her own mother, though she may dislike some of the ways she was raised. Instead Mai turns to the one topic that's been gnawing at her own mind a bit. "You seem pretty confident that she will."

[toten_sie]

"If I woke up, she has to. Her, and the others."

Because otherwise, there was no justice in the world.

All of them were wonderful, talented, good. Abel was so smart and Ursula had so much fire, Idaten was so kind, CJ so clever, the twins were so young, Akasia so resourceful, Snipes was so skilled... and that was just his family. He couldn't even list all the reasons for the Lieutenant and the others.

"Even if it takes a long time, I'll just make sure it's ready for them when they do."

[maipokerface]

He seems so confident in that. It somehow makes Mai feel more guilty for her own thoughts.

"That's... a good way to look at it."

She's being honest there. She wished she could have that same level of faith.