nobetawedielike: (Default)
beta d̶e̶s̶p̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶z̶e̶n̶i̶t̶h̶s ([personal profile] nobetawedielike) wrote2022-11-12 01:43 am
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-13 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)


Traumatized?

[Dirty pool, Airi!]
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-13 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)


Unless absolutely necessary, then.

I'm sorry.
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-14 02:24 am (UTC)(link)


The funny thing is, normally I wouldn't suggest anything like this. I would outright refuse to sacrifice us for another team. Especially with Aloy and Claudine in the mix.

I don't mind sacrificing myself for Robin's Egg. But Cricket is no one to us. Granted, we had no reason to give them our worst card, save simple politics, but...
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-14 03:12 am (UTC)(link)


...I felt it was unfair that they were likely to get the worst results from every team. But that alone wouldn't have been enough to choose to risk sacrificing everyone.

[It was about the cultist. And Airi's made her opinion on that clear.

Tryse's leg, thankfully, won't require correction. Just a good splinting. Same for her arms.
]
Edited 2023-07-14 03:12 (UTC)
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-14 11:26 am (UTC)(link)


[She listens, silently. The only thing she does do is move one of her bandaged hands to rest on Airi's shoulder.]

Feels like more, sometimes.

I'm not going to play like this again. This was the first, and only time. Unless he can sit there and tell us that he saw something, doing so would be pure foolishness. Too many people threw too much away.

Besides. Robin's Egg doesn't need a reputation for self-sacrifice. We don't need to be the one people go "It's okay, they'll bus themselves, so we can do it for them" about.
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-15 05:25 am (UTC)(link)


No.

[She's firm, but not aggressively so.]

...Not after a single game, anyway.

If we got a reputation for it, though... You know how some people vote Mouse, Finch, and Salamander down sometimes because that figure those three are popular enough to take a hit?

Imagine an unpopular team that has the appearance of being willing to take a hit.

Right now, we've sacrificed victory for Mouse in the hostage scenario. And while other members of the team haven't said anything, I still remember having to ask for Crow and Randy to be healed first. And that the only people to check on us afterwards were Hunter and Eddie, the other members didn't even bother to ask how we were.

And now this. But this one will be noticed by more people. They'll ask themselves why. It's here where we've got to make it clear that it isn't going to be a pattern.
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-15 01:41 pm (UTC)(link)


I'm not exactly in a condition to kick you out. Feel free.
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-15 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)


...In part.

Robin's Egg is often overlooked. Aloy feels this way, too. What we do for other people, like the greenhouse, often goes unnoticed or uncommented upon. Some of our offers are ignored simply because they're not instant, convenient fixes. We're not Mouse, with their vast powers and healers. We're not Finch, with their charisma. We don't scare people into not targeting us.

We put in work. But, like when we voted on the top ten teams, we were strictly middling. When it came time to vote for things like best, nicest, cutest, whatever teams, we didn't win a single category. It wasn't even close. Even a brand new team got a win. When our members are hurt, unless a family member steps in, we have to beg for help.

We're so close to being seen as the acceptable target. If we lost Donatello and Raphael, three teams would have no reason not to target us anymore. We can't make alliances with other teams, even with bonds of family and romance. No one will have us.

It's just... It feels like we're on the knife's edge. We don't win games. We don't win hearts. I don't want us to become expendable, and it feels like we're so close already. It would be different if other teams came to us afterwards, to check on us, alleviate the suffering we endure for their sake.

But individuals care. Teams don't.
tryse: (Default)

Re: slams back in here

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-15 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)


There are members of Mouse who don't understand what an advantage they have. If they lost Paracelsus von Hohenheim, they'd probably plummet in the community's standings. And, I must admit, there's a small part of me who wants them to understand how sheltered they've been by Paracelsus and Catherine Foundling's presences.

You can try. And I know you're pushing for us to be hit less hard, and that's appreciated. But, as Jamil said, even the fact that he has, or had, two lovers on Robin's Egg and Aloy was a presence, you simply have too many teams to avoid targeting and he feels that we're acceptable.

Nevermind how many teams Robin's Egg has to play it soft around because our team has loved ones present on them. Mouse, Snail, Salamander, Chipmunk, Sparrow...

[She sighs, trying as best she can to lean against Airi. Her movement, though, is limited. That spidershell holding her captive.]

I think we should play harder. But there are members of our team who don't want to. They're afraid of what it would do to themselves to stop holding their worst impulses back during games. They want to be heroes. Or, like Claudine, the idea of being cruel to someone actively repulses them.

And me... I want to be someone that Claudine can feel good about loving. We can go hard without being cruel, but so many games demand cruelty to advance...
tryse: (Default)

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-16 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)


This is going to sound ungrateful and cruel of me, but Salamander's reputation for cruelty isn't entirely undeserved.

[She holds up a hand.]

Let me explain.

I've been here for sixteen games now, starting with the King game and ending with this fuck, marry, kill, consume nonsense. On my second game I watched a Salamander spend ten solid minutes, non-stop, breaking every bone in a Finch's body, and then crush her skull. The game didn't demand it. All he had to do was press a button. He did it because he wanted to. In the scavenger hunt, Salamander collected so many extra body parts that they earned a bonus prize for it. They didn't need to. They just did, just as their members needlessly tortured people who couldn't fight back during that game. In the angel dating game, they chose to send an extra harsh scenario towards Chipmunk, who was torn apart as a result. They didn't have to, there was no benefit to it. In the hostage scenario, Salamander kept going even after their hostages had their eyes gouged out, they were disemboweled, one lost a leg, and the other had been killed at least once. In the story game, Salamander won because one of their team violated someone's privacy that much.

Salamander's house is the only one with a moat, ominous black spikes, and it's elevated to put it above other houses. They're the only house that demands other teams pay tribute to enter it. When given the option for a boon, they chose an infinite supply of weaponry.

It sets a tone, Airi. I've been here for only a little over a month now, and all of that has happened within that month. And those are just the things I'm aware of.

In my time here, I've never heard of Salamander doing anything for the community. No greenhouse. No parties. No surprise gifts, as ridiculous as the underwear and the love letter deliveries were. No setting up a clinic or giving first aid lessons. I've never seen them help other teams after a bad game unless it's specific people tied to that specific Salamander by friendship or romance.

If your team made a concerted effort to behave as you do, helping others, reaching out, then perhaps their reputation wouldn't be as strong as it is. As it stands, though, it's a marvel you all don't have targets on your backs. People still consider you to be one of the most popular teams. You won the top ten most popular teams vote, though that was before the scavenger hunt.

There's protecting yourselves first, and no one can blame you for that. But then there's going overboard. And Salamander, from what I've seen, has a consistent record of going overboard.

I don't say this to hurt you. I'm just saying, from the outside looking in, that's what Salamander puts forth.
tryse: (Default)

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-16 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)


You're right. Aloy won most brutal by convincing someone to let her cut his ear off and activating a trauma she didn't realize he had.

[Not actually the case, but Tryse doesn't know about her encounter with Eddie.]

The house may be for safety, though considering no one can enter houses without your permission I'm a little curious as to how it helps, but it does lend an ominous feel to it.

The thing is, many of the reasons for those aren't known by the wider community. So, with repeated actions like that, without knowing that you've been responding to previous offenses or that members were acting as a rogues without approval, you can see why they'd start veering towards a negative opinion. Especially when they don't get a chance to know your team.

You might be able to turn it around, though. Reach out to the community more. Share resources. Offer healing. Throw a party. Offer classes. Do something to show off Salamander's good points. We all know that Jamil Viper's probably the best cook left in Temple Horizon, after all. If Kaz Brekker can sing and Leona can do dance...

[Okay, that last bit is just an effort to get a smile out of Airi.]

If you keep worrying about becoming so popular that you're going to end up getting targeted because they think you can take a hit that you end up making yourself unpopular enough to be targeted, though...
tryse: (Default)

[personal profile] tryse 2023-07-16 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)


[...Ah. She hadn't known. Too late to pull that back now.]

They've made their amends. From what I understand, Aloy had nearly her full list. She just needed a few things. She found someone, talked him into giving his ear up since going for more would have left him defenseless, and took it when he agreed. She didn't realize then that he had trauma related to it, or she probably wouldn't have gone for that.

But that's how Robin's Egg won the hunt. Without her efforts, Claudine would have had no cure, since she was too traumatized to continue after her encounter with Power and Shirou and Randy didn't seem to be doing much to help. And the rest of us... weren't there.

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