let's backdate this to Monday, whoops. Precisely 72 hours after her last post, in fact.

[payback]

[people who care]

[Dictated levelly.]

Um. I'm back, you know, in the sense that I remember anything again. I'm... sorry if there was any confusion caused. I was under a loss, I hadn't gone home.

[Yamada]

[Ah yeah, she remembers her conversation with you, and... well, even if it was just one of those things people say just to say! She'll check in anyway.]

Hey?

[Abel]

[No hesitation here, but quietly - restrainedly - hopeful.] You're back?

[Duty done by the journal... Rin is not much of one for brooding on the roof. But somehow she felt like going up top on the castle and spending some time looking quietly out into the distance. She's just sitting right in a wall-nitch, with her feet dangling over the side, hundreds of feet above the grounds and one wrong move from falling off.

Is she worried? No. She has the Justice League ring Brainy gave her, of course, and though the air is chilly she alternates between looking quietly off into the distance and looking at her hands, turning the ring around on her fingers, which are reddening in the cold.

Open post eh.]

Comments

[payback]

I feel like sometimes, I kind of pile things on to avoid thinking too much between being busy...

[gunslinger]

It's not like I don't do the exact same thing. My nightmares aren't so bad when I stay busy. [ Not exactly something he shares with just anyone, but eh. ]

But you don't want to stress yourself out trying to avoid problems, either. You'll just create more.

[payback]

Mm...

... I guess, maybe, I do have some ideas. I just... kinda resent that I'm always one of the people doing it, though. That there aren't a lot of us.

[gunslinger]

I know. And I could be doing more. I just get so sick of bureaucracy, and it's the worst here when nobody even has similar roots to pull off of. It was easier to manage this shit back home, and I'm talking worse BS than what's been offered here.

I'm used to having things get done that I need to. But I don't have the same resources, the reputation, or the power here. So I just end up sounding like a trigger-happy, angry midget at the meetings.

[ Yeah man he is totally playing on himself. What what. ]

[payback]

It's not like most people even seem to really care what might be out there anyway, is it? It's like we've lost the people who used to be able to help us innovate with problems here anyhow... I wish Tony was still here, and Raine - it's like both of them left shoes too big to fill. In different ways I guess, but you know what I mean?

[gunslinger]

[ Jr. isn't sure as much, but mostly because he's not really used to looking to others to pave the way anymore. He still understands the sentiment, especially since he misses both Raine and Tony to a certain extent, and they got things done. ]

That's why we have to keep on going, no matter how frustrating or redundant it may seem at times, like we're going backward. The people we miss would be pretty pissed at us if we dropped the ball for long.

[payback]

Do you think we've ever actually managed to change things here?

[gunslinger]

It's too hard to speak for everyone. As for systems... We never even had a real one in place, so it's no wonder we have so much trouble improving upon that.

...Basically, I don't know.

[payback]

Me neither.

I guess there are worse things than not managing to change anything, but still... it's discouraging sometimes.

[gunslinger]

Which is why it's so important to have friends there to keep your spirits up.

And at least new people coming in sometimes means new ideas. It just sucks when the old lessons get forgotten.

[payback]

Lois is a good record-keeper... but now we've seen we can't even rely on the journals. I thought that much was for sure at least... frustrating!