robowest | [ DEPARTURE ]

DEPARTURE

It's time to go.

Most people are on the train by now. Settled into their cabins and among friends and loved ones. There are only three new arrivals left to board and once they do, Hal pulls a conductor's hat out from underneath the bar, tugs it on, and steps around it to the middle of the train. He opens his mouth to talk, voice filling the train.

"It's time to go. Stops happen once a day until everyone's departed and I already have your stopped listed. If you'd like to be prioritized, let me know, otherwise we'll go in order of death. Settle in and enjoy the ride. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask, folks."

This, of course, means that those who died earliest (Manfred, Higekiri) will depart first while those who died latest (Barnham, Damian, Percy) will depart last. There's a stop for everyone, though those who want to get off together are more than welcome to. Hal pulls a notepad and pen out of his pocket later and people will notice that he goes around the train confirming stops with everyone. Whatever feeling Hal may have had to a character back in town isn't noticeable here -- he is simply a robot assigned with a job.

After that, it's all a matter of settling in and enjoying the ride. If that's possible for you, at least.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh?

[Lust's own decision had been conditional, tied to her circumstances as this all draws to a close. But she remembers when she and Nisha had talked, remembered the details of the other woman's situation. It tugs at her. Gnaws at the corners of her mind.]

I hope...that it entails a return to something more than what you told me you'd be returning to.

[ Her eyebrows raise a little more at that. ]

I'm not going to quietly let myself expire, if that's what you're asking. I'm alive here, obviously the absolute bare minimum would be heading back alive.

That's more or less what I wanted to know, yes.

[Lust nods.]

I...do regret how things played out. I'm well aware you have blood on your hands, but who among us doesn't? But...I liked you. I do like you. And it means something to me that you have a life to return to. Not in any sort of...regret assuaging way, I don't believe there's any true way to make up for mistakes. But....

[She shrugs. She barely understands her own emotional state, god help her trying to articulate it to someone she isn't close with.]

I don't know. Something about all of this...I feel things now. Other people, their circumstances...they matter to me, for some reason.

So you're looking for good news to soothe your newfound sense of empathy? Hmph.

[ Nisha drinks more of her whiskey, considering. ]

I have more blood on my hands than you can probably imagine, you know. And I'm gonna kill a lot more people when I'm back on Pandora. Do their circumstances matter to you?

Not soothe...or maybe. I don't know. I only know that I would like you to have something worth having, for what you paid here.

[Lust shrugs again. There's just some sense of importance, she doesn't grasp it all entirely.]

[Then she snorts. It's over and done, it doesn't matter now who knows what.]

I was an assassin in my previous life. In a war torn place where my master decided vast numbers needed to die. I can imagine a great deal of blood. But no, I can't bring myself to care about strangers on some other world I've never know anything about.

[ Nisha snorts in return. ]

Well, that's fine then. Still have to say that none of this was much of an afterlife, but if I managed to earn my way back to life for real I suppose I can't complain too much no matter how frustrating or unpleasant it was.

It's more of an afterlife than I thought there'd be. My kind...we don't have anything beyond our physical existence. Normally.

[She chuckles softly and nods in agreement. It's a sentiment she's expressed herself.]

In my world, we believe all things function on a scale of balance, so to speak. Everything is a trade of some sort, an exchange. To gain anything worthwhile, something worthwhile must be given. That's how I look at this experience. It was the price we paid, our frustration, our discomfort, our deaths...they're what were given. I think I'd go through it again, if I had to, for what I'm gaining.

Not saying I wouldn't do it again myself, but that sounds like a terrible way to look at things to me.

[ She pours more whiskey into her glass. ]

Life's not about fair trades, as a rule. There's plenty of pain and suffering to be had without getting anything out of it. Plenty of prizes given to people who don't deserve them. If you've got a problem with that, you've got to lay down the law yourself. You can't just expect the universe to give you a payout for what you've gone through.

[ DEPARTURE ]

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