003✖; (audio @hot.damn)

[circumitus]

Important question: How do you tell if someone's your friend?

Is it something that people just... know or do they have a conversation about it?

[How does friendship work and more importantly, can you eat it?]

The whole concept of friendship always seemed strange, honestly. People just decide "Hey, this person isn't a complete piece of shit"? Weird. [Well, now she might just be projecting onto herself.

[So, wait. Does this mean that she has friends? Does anyone have friends? How annoying.]

Comments

[circumitus]

[SURE IS. She can hear him speaking the same language she is but she very much recognizes that voice.]

Seems to be the general consensus around here.

Been here long enough, you'd think this shit would be obvious, but no.

[doggish]

It can be difficult, if you are not used to it.

[Which isn't a callout so much as acknowledgement.]

Are you? Unused to it.

[circumitus]

Let's say... can't think of many people who've ever done favors without expecting anything in return.

[That isn't to say that it's never happened, but to say that she's unused to it would be a gross understatement for sure.]

[doggish]

Ah. That's a yes, then.

[He knows the feeling. Honestly, sometimes he prefers that; it's easier to think of friendship as a series of transactions than just a . . . thing that exists, nebulous and uncertain.]

Is there a certain person you're thinking of, or is this simply musing on the concept of friendship?

[He can be nosy sometimes!]

[circumitus]

Bit of both. Been thinking, it's just weird to be seen differently from how you're used to. So many people were not as... kind before, as they are here. Didn't have many opportunities to garner close connections.

[Mainly because she was never allowed to, and her history of leaving literal holes of destruction where she went never did her any favors.]

Guess getting used to this new "normal" has taken longer than expected.

[doggish]

One benefit to this place, I suppose: none of us carry the burdens of before.

Elves are not looked upon with kindness in my world. [It's not a solicitation for pity, but rather just a fact.] If they are not very good at defending themselves, they can expect to be looked down upon at best and mistreated at worst. And yet here, my ears are the least interesting thing about me.

[circumitus]

...Guess that's true.

[She doesn't see it as an invitation for pity, either. It's turned out that Rey's Brísingamen is hardly noteworthy around here when pyrotechnics is a feature for other Sanguis. Plus people just accept magic and other weird shit being the norm. She's still grappling with those things.]

Can imagine how some consider going to someplace new, where no one knows the shit you've done and what you are, as a perfect opportunity to start over. [Rey's still struggling with whether or not she deserves that opportunity.] It's taking a while to... process.