HANSA

[chanteuser]

Comments

[chanteuser]

Maybe don't consider a career in anthology publishing, Hansa.

[ this conversation is dumb and so are they. ]

[robopriest]

Aw. Are you nipping my publishing career that quickly in the bud...

[idiot to idiot conversation]

[chanteuser]

[ yeah ]

You can go and live out all your publishing dreams, but you have to deal with the angry emails about all your anthology mysteries having no conclusion on your own.

[robopriest]

Angry emails? You say that like I wouldn't welcome it. It would be entertaining getting them even more mad.

[HANSA: PROFESSIONAL TROLL]

[chanteuser]

[









sigh. she just takes the bottle off him. hers now. ]

Congratulations on your new job, then?

[robopriest]

Watch out, publishing world. Here I come. I'll take you by storm.

[Just. Deadpan.]

[chanteuser]

I hear really bad romance novels sell well. There's a starting point.

[ hit that demographic running. ]

[robopriest]

What's that genre even like? People getting into fights over things they misheard and then they make out passionately against a backdrop of a sunset or something?

[chanteuser]

I think there’s a lot of swooning involved? [ she takes another sip of the wine. ]

Or some kind of weird power fantasy where one of them’s super rich so you get to write about fancy penthouses and helicopters.

[robopriest]

What's so special about that? Then again, there are those novels where its like, "check out this bad boy cowboy and how he charms the socks off the local lady in town" or something. Guess you don't always need riches.

[Reaching for the wine. Give it to him, please.]

[chanteuser]

[ which is driving him to drink more? the concept of mills and boon or everything about the weekend?

still, she hands the bottle over. ]

If I knew maybe I’d have started a lucrative career writing these things.

[robopriest]

[He saw a saint get stabbed by a kid they sent to his death. Things are a Lot Right Now.]

[He takes a quick swig.]

It doesn't seem that hard. They all seem based on templates, anyways. Like fill in the blank. Real romance must be far more messier.

[chanteuser]

That’s part of the whole fantasy selling point, isn’t it? All the problems are contrived and there’s no real hurdle in the way.

When is real life ever that simple?

[robopriest]

It never is.

[He's handing back the bottle.]

But that's what's special about life too, huh? It might be complicated, but...it just makes you appreciate it all the more.

[chanteuser]

The parts that are terrible are just really terrible to make the other parts seem better?

[ she doesn’t drink from the bottle, she just turns it around and around in her hands, almost idly ]

That sort of makes sense.

[robopriest]

No, that's not it.

[He shakes his head.]

Life is filled with good and bad things. Bad things aren't there to prop up the good things. Sometimes, things are just bad. But life, overall, is good, I think.

[chanteuser]

[ ... she closes her eyes for a moment, like she's thinking that over.



there are a lot of things she remembers fondly, but there are a lot of things that she... doesn't. she's not sure she wants to collect all of them and weigh the balance of good and bad, especially when she's working from incomplete and fractured memories anyway. ]

Maybe.

There's normally something good to find somewhere though, but you do have to go out of your way to really look sometimes.

[robopriest]

In some cases, that's right. Sometimes, you have to keep running at the mirages in the hopes that one will really be an oasis. But...I think that's worth it. Hope keeps one going, even in the worst times.

[He leans a little more onto the railing, propping his chin up with a hand.]

Its such a powerful, powerful thing.

[chanteuser]

It's still a limited thing, for some people.

[ she's... well, she's seen people go so deep into despair they can't come back. but she's only ever seen it from outside, looking in. ]

We're all different though. I guess that applies to the levels of how much disappointment or sadness someone to take as well.

[robopriest]

Sometimes a little is all you need. But...you have a point. We're all built differently. I'm literally built differently. Some of us can take it better than others.

Its just up to those kinds of people to help those who can't deal with things as terrible as that.

[chanteuser]

[ ... ]

As long as no one expects me to literally punch terrible things with the same kind of power you can, I'll probably manage.

[ she already has dealt with... well. enough. she can keep it up, if she has to. ]

[robopriest]

[A light chuckle.]

Haha. Well, I'll teach you how to punch hard. Promise. That way, you encounter a problem trying to drag you down, you just bop it right in the snout. Just like that. Otherwise...you're a strong lady, Alex. I believe in you.

[chanteuser]

Mm. I already know a lot of people who are stronger than I could ever be. [ but she does her best. ]

...

But I don't think they'd expect me to punch them, so maybe the element of surprise will carry me through.

[robopriest]

That's the best thing to have! Make the element of surprise your friend, and you can never go wrong.

[And a long pause. They've been talking for a while, and now with the silence, he just reminds him...all of that execution stuff happened. It seems like ages ago.]

...I feel like I've aged years, these past two weeks.

[chanteuser]

[ ... she just closes her eyes at that. two weeks. that's no time at all, but it feels like it's been longer. ]

I'd thought things were bad back home but... [ this is something else. she lifts her hand and tucks his hair behind his ear, knuckles brushing against his temple. ] It's not going to stop now, is it? I'd hoped it would be a one off, but... [ once a stone's rolling down a hill, it just gains momentum. it doesn't stop. ]