camena | homophonic: jonas

[ how did alex not know any of this and this was like the first thing he learned about libby what the fuck. ]

She was pretty upfront about it when I was asking. Doubt she wouldn't tell you if you really wanted to know.

I'm going to let it come up naturally.

But I do want to know about the whole "influencing the flow of time" thing.

[ the slowest blink. ]

The what now?

It's on her profile.

...oh. Yeah. That. [ ... ] Well there's your opener. Since it's right there in the public and everything.

Not like she had any say in that. But—yeah. I'll try asking about it next time.

[ nodding along. ]

...still not sure who was in charge of the profiles. What do you think of yours anyway?

No idea...

[ thinking about this for a moment... ] Eh, it's got radio jokes, so that's fair enough. And I am really good at scavenger hunts and giving advice. So I'd say I like it.

What about yours?

[ this surprises him none. but he has to pull his phone out to look at his own profile again to decide. ]

Can't say there aren't some things I'd prefer not to have here, but sure. Guess it's truthful enough. Nobody else has said anything weird about it yet.

Probably because everyone else feels the same way. So they don't want to draw attention to their own by talking about yours.

I'll take what I can get. If we all just pretend we aren't looking, maybe they aren't really there at all.

Iiiiii don't think it works that way.

You could at least let me pretend a little. For my sake.

What, and let you get too optimistic?

[ a stilted grin. ]

Alex, could you ever really picture me as an optimistic person?

Yep!

[ just yep! ]

[ a startled blink because he both did and did not expect that. so he sort of stares at her before he looks away. ]

Sometimes I forget you're stubborn.

You have your moments.

[ he might not be an optimist most of the time, but sometimes he says something vaguely positive to cheer her up! it counts. ]

Well, there could stand to be more of them, but—the seed is planted or whatever.

[ ...hm. maybe. ]

And maybe that's why "team morale" has a question mark next to it. [ funny. ] Who knows. Maybe someday there'll be more reasons for more of them.

[ even that's kind of dry like "we are dead so i doubt it" but hey. vaguely positive attempt anyway. ]

There will be.

I know things—like, suck right now, obviously. But when we get home, things are gonna be good.

[ alex has been saying when and jonas always thinks if, and that kind of says everything he needs to know about how optimism works for the two of them. but he had been thinking before, during that first night in camena, that it was going to be a place he would like. it would be a good place to start building life again.

so...it's a nice thought, sometimes, even if it might be someone else's dream every now and again. ]

Yeah. No, I know. It's...nice to have something to look forward to again.

[ which is kind of said more for her than him, but there's still a truth to it. ]

[ and here alex had been maybe kind of trying to run away from camena.

but since winding up here, she thinks more and more that she might like to stay. so—it's too bad that she won't get to. or maybe if you really stretch the definition of "stay," she will?

well. anyway. ]

Mmhmm. Then we'll switch places, and I'll complain about how optimistic you are.

No you wouldn't. [ he says, unaware of what she's actually thinking about. ] You'd be too happy about it.

You mean "won't." Get your tenses right. This is happening.

And we're back to where we started. [ he means "normal" and alex being the optimist instead. it's a role he's comfortable with, at least. ]

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camena - 2023-06-21 09:42 (UTC) - Expand

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westedge - 2023-06-21 09:47 (UTC) - Expand