[homophonic] catchall for jonas

[dendroculi]

JONAS

code

Comments

[dendroculi]

Yes, it is.

[she sighs. it most certainly is.]

[westedge]

[ mm. it's...a hard call no matter what. ]

Is Kaveh trying to find people for you guys to group up with, too? Or just you?

[dendroculi]

He's looking as well.

[or he should be, anyway!! nahida hopes he will look for teammates that he thinks he can get along with himself, but unfortunately she has this terrible feeling like he might make his choices based on who he thinks would be a good teammate for her.




so her criteria for teams is "would be a good teammate for kaveh". i hate them.]

[westedge]

[ why are they both like this, actually. ]

Alex is looking for us, too. We've come to a lot of the same conclusions but it's still hard to say yes to anything when it's so early.

[dendroculi]

Yes. Since this is a decision that can't be changed once we make it, it's important to consider all of our possibilities carefully.

What are you and Alex looking for as far as teammates go?

[westedge]

Alex has a tendency to like everybody and think the best of everybody. She thinks everyone we've met so far has been interesting and wants the best outcome.

[ which isn't bad. it's very alex, but jonas has been trying to be logical and reasonable even if it makes him out to be kind of a pragmatic asshole. ]

At minimum it has to be someone we can both work with. We were thinking of maybe someone close to our age, but it's not like a requirement or anything. Someone smart who can look at the tasks and the game and help us come up with plans to earn points. Somebody motivated to play that won't be a, uh, liability, I guess?

[ ... ]

I only care about having someone who isn't going to mess around and will play along to get us out. You'd think that'd be everybody here, but I'm not so sure.

[dendroculi]

[nahida thinks about it and nods, because that tracks with what she's seen of alex so far.]

I would have expected everyone here to be willing to do something to find a way out, but...

[...]

Some people didn't seem too motivated to take action on their own... that surprised me.

[westedge]

You would think. [ it's muttered, because he would love if people would cooperate but he's not confident everyone will. ]

Surprised me a little, too. You'd think being dead would be a pretty good motivator but I guess its not enough for some people. Which is kind of annoying since at least three people are going to have to inevitably rely on them.

[dendroculi]

Perhaps anyone who doesn't wish to do something about it should form a team with each other, though that would be a problem if there were more or less than four of them... or some increment of four.

[she frowns.]

[westedge]

I'm not sure how you'd find all those people either. You can't really put up a poll and say "hey if you don't care about living, join a team with these people" without it looking pretty bad.

[dendroculi]

Yes... on the one hand, it would be respecting their wishes to a degree, but on the other... it would be giving up on them.

[westedge]

[ ...interesting way of putting it. ]

You don't believe in the latter then?

[dendroculi]

...there was a time when I gave up on myself, once.

[...]

But... there were people who didn't give up on me. And because of them, I'm still here, and I'm grateful for it every day. So... I don't want to give up on other people.

[westedge]

[ oh. hm. this is a little sad and personal, and he can sort of understand where she's coming from. ]

...it's an admirable sort of thing. Not everybody would take an approach like that. [ it's questionable if jonas himself would at all times. ] But how do you not give up on someone who wants to be given up on?

[dendroculi]

I don't know. I think you just have to take it one step at a time.

And... if it gets to a point where you have to respect their wishes, then... [she looks down, her brows furrowing a little.] ...when you get to that point... you'll know. But until then, just continue to be there for that person. Sometimes when someone says "I've given up," what they really mean is "I need help."

[westedge]

[ he goes extremely quiet for probably longer than he should. he doesn't say anything, and he's kind of staring at her cake instead of her before there's a low sigh after. ]

That makes sense. It's figuring out the balance between helping them and hurting them by trying to help, even if they don't know which it is themselves.

[dendroculi]

Yes. It's one of those things that there isn't any instruction someone can give that will work for every situation.

[...]

I'm sorry. Talking that way was a bit much, wasn't it?

[westedge]

[ he starts a little, jolting out of whatever thoughts he has and shaking his head. ]

No, it's fine. What you're saying makes plenty of sense and is probably something we should keep in mind for some people here.

[dendroculi]

It's just a shame... usually, people would have more time to figure these things out, but with a deadline to form a team...

[her brow furrows.]

Rushing it may not help much.

[westedge]

I think the rush is tripping people up more than it's helping them. A lot of people are pointing out how hard it is to get to know someone in such a short amount of time.

[dendroculi]

[she nods]

It's an important decision to make, too, since our lives will be linked to our teammates'...

[westedge]

I still don't really get how that works either. How you can link a person to another person.

[dendroculi]

[(thinks about her elemental skill and laughs)]

That isn't so difficult, but it's usually temporary, not permanent.

[westedge]

[ ...........staring. ]

Why do you sound so sure of that...?

[dendroculi]

Umm... I was able to do something similar back in Sumeru.

It's not quite linking one life to another, but it did form connections between people.