At What Price Respect

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity in the forum? Not a strange sight. Verity without coffee? Rather less common. Verity slumping, exhausted, into a couch? Unusual. Verity covered in scrapes, bruises, and dust? Definitely strange.

"Help isn't if it's forced on someone. This is true. Someone not in possession of all of the facts cannot give fully informed consent. This is also true. But nobody can be forced to listen." Of course Verity has things on her mind. Who here doesn't? "How do you reconcile that? Is ignorance truly bliss? Or do you do what's needed to save someone despite their choices?"

((A note before you come to play with Verity: she's got a magic spell stuck in her that lets her always know when someone is lying to her. This includes sarcasm and knowing when someone believes something to be true when it isn't. This doesn't include lies of omission. She can also see through illusions. Please respect this; if your character is trying to lie to her, please make that known so she can react appropriately. [I completely understand this isn't going to be everyone's idea of fun.] Thanks.))

Comments

[manwithnoname]

He'd tell her she was doing just fine. Sometimes you just need someone to exist near you. He just gave her a look, like this had somehow become a debate about how he also kind of wanted to be looked at as a not-great person... and he sort of did. It was safe.

Anyway. Max shrugged, "so uhm." Here it comes, his excellence in conversation skills. Prepare yourself. "how's things," a wave, "this situation aside."

[brave_heart_verity]

Existing together would be nice. She'd love to have something like that again. Gods know Max isn't the storyteller Loki was, but he's not nearly so demanding either. The look doesn't affect her much. She's made up her mind about him and she's not easily convinced to think twice about her friends. Doom couldn't make her do it, Thor couldn't make her do it. Max isn't gonna make her do it.

She appreciates the effort. "Pretty good. I've found a safe place to live, and my roommate's being extremely kind to me. There are plenty of things here to distract me from thinking about things. And there's no rush to make decisions about anything beyond surviving, right now."

[manwithnoname]

No, Max was really not a storyteller. He's spent too much time thinking about what was next or how to get to next that he'd forgotten so much about the past. That wasn't his strength, but he was sure she had picked up on that already.

"Do you," he listened, and it was good to know she was in a good place more or less. "Is it hard, you uhm. You know, adjust." To nice things, or nicer things. Because he's found.. it's difficult for him. He's met Furiosa here, considered scavenging what he could and returning to their world.

Maybe come back every once in awhile, but he wasn't sure he could live here. It was too... good.

Once a soldier always a soldier?

[brave_heart_verity]

He has other strengths. She can appreciate a man who never lies to her and is honest about what he wants or needs. She can enjoy not having to second-guess his suggestions or his motives. She can like having a friend who doesn't mind sitting quietly.

"It is sometimes," she admits. "Things are different here and... I miss my home sometimes. I miss the familiarity of it, and the fact I could walk the streets in the safety of being anonymous. Nobody there was spying on me," hi Colonel Hughes, "and I had no particular responsibility to anyone alive except my mom. But I'm better off here, and I have to allow myself to accept that. It would be foolish to not take a good thing when it's offered, right?"

Right, Max?