school: crow

[shaft]

tbc

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[chevaliered]

Caleb sticks his hands in bread to keep them warm.

[ lil' splish. less a splash. ]

[shaft]

...

[ He just starts laughing. Because.

This place is so ridiculous and everyone is insane, and he doesn't know what else to do. ]

[chevaliered]

Careful you don't get a stitch, I'd have to dive in and rescue you.

[ honestly though? valid. he kinda chuckles when he thinks about it too. ]

[shaft]

Hmm.

[ He grins at Crow, moving so that he's no longer floating but instead upright in the water. ]

You're encouraging me to sink.

[chevaliered]

[ spoon that fucking icon ]

Do you think I'd end up stuck in one of those crap expulsions for sitting at the edge of the pool while you drowned from laughing at bread hands?

It sounds so wild and weird that it seems fake.

[shaft]

[ it's just an icon ]

It does seem incomprehensible, but here we are. [ He swims over to the edge, folding his arms there so he can pillow his chin atop them. ] I wouldn't try and aim for that end.

[chevaliered]

[ terrible ]

I don't want to end up like that, but if they count it as a kill then--

[ siiiigh. ] A tragedy.

And yup. Here we are. Folding paper planes and tending to bees and acting like that's totally normal.

[shaft]

It's good to be adaptable. [ sleepy ] Though I wonder how long this charade will last.

[chevaliered]

[ don't fall asleep in the pool you useless anti-monsterfucker. ]

Two weeks so far. If it's how we're getting vouchers? Until the end.

[shaft]

Is getting vouchers the be all end all of this place?

[chevaliered]

If you get enough you might be able to ask for a ticket home.

[ smile ]

[shaft]

Isn't that just the reward for graduating?

[chevaliered]

Ahead of dragging around asses around here until a year is up or all of us get killed off somehow, if what happened last week turns into a pattern.

[shaft]

[ ... ]

Did you hear that from someone?

[chevaliered]

No, I'm just cynical. You know like when you see something start tumbling down the hill and you hope it'll stop, but know it could just keep going?

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

[shaft]

[ ... ]

That's remarkably cynical. You're not one to hope?

[chevaliered]

Everyone hopes! But y’know… sometimes you don’t expect good things to pan out.

Why, you gonna tell me you’re a paragon of hope and good faith?

[shaft]

My answer to last week's question was "hope", but no. I wouldn't say I'm particularly inclined toward good faith.

Is it pathetic to hope that one day you won't be disappointed by everything around you?

[chevaliered]

... I dunno. Do you think if you start thinking you might not be it'll just hit harder when you are?

[shaft]

Perhaps. Unless, even when you are, you think next time will be better. On and on.

[chevaliered]

Like a never-ending ring of optimism? Damn. Imagine pulling that off.

[shaft]

I think some people need that kind of thing to keep going.

[chevaliered]

I'm not sure how much it really helps. Maybe not... in terms of how much it helps them, but at the cost of what, exactly?

[shaft]

You think optimism has a cost?

[ He doesn't sound like he disagrees. ]

[chevaliered]

Not necessarily to the individual, but the people around them. Optimism's the kind of thing that has you seeing the good in people who'd harm you, and people who care about you have to sit back and watch it happen.