Tourist October Mingle

[candothat]

Who: Tourists and anyone who can think of a reason to be there
Broadcast: Possibly? Eventually?
Action: On the S.S. Tourist
When: October! All of it!

[How's it going now that we're getting over the disasters and dying? Y'good?]

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

Want some too? I could make enough for both of us.

[Only polite given the circumstances. It is their coffee.]

[candothat]

Yes please. Do you like sugar in yours? I think that we have some.

[The Tourist is just full of luxuries. Why doesn't everyone want to live here?]

[outstandingbalance]

I usually take mine black. Thank you, though.

[She smiles, grateful.]

Too much time in America, maybe.

[candothat]

Ah, you like it bitter. Respectable.

May I ask how long you have spent in America? [Probably not, but he's trying it anyway.] Your accent when you speak English is perfect.

[outstandingbalance]

A long time. [Which is about as specific as she's going to get about that.] But I'd lost my accent before that. My English teachers were strict.

[Understatement, but true. And with good reason. A spy like her wouldn't have gotten far with her childhood accent.]

But you're right. I do like things bitter. You?

[candothat]

[Honestly, anything more specific than that would have come as a surprise.] I almost envy that. My English teacher was mostly me and I was much too lenient.

Sometimes I like bitter irony and bitter people, but I prefer my coffee sweet.

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha chuckles at that. Maybe she'll take it as a compliment? She doesn't mind being the bitter one.]

I like your accent. Let's people know where you're from.

[candothat]

[Sorry Natasha, but you're definitely not the most bitter person he has ever considered his friend. Maybe, like... seventh. Fifth on a bad day.

Natasha saying that she likes his accent leaves him the slightest bit flustered since being flustered is his instinctive response to beautiful women handing him compliments.]

This is why I'm only almost envious. I want everyone to know where I'm from, of course.

[outstandingbalance]

Here and I figured you for the kind of person who didn't envy much.

[Said in a gently teasing tone.]

[candothat]

Mm, people who are as close to perfect as I am have little reason to be envious of others.

[Nothing gentle about that teasing.]

[outstandingbalance]

Oh, is that how it works. Well. I don't have any proof you're wrong.

[candothat]

You have proof enough that I'm not close to perfect.

[outstandingbalance]

Just the opposite. Evidence points to you being close to perfect.

If you ignore a fist fight. And dancing?

[candothat]

[His touches his jaw where the bruise has nearly faded to nothing a bit sheepishly. Not his finest moment, that. Getting punched by people you're trying to help save seems like a special kind of failure.]

Yes, if you ignore my many flaws--an inability to fight or dance the most forgivable among them--then I'm very close to perfect. I will grant you that.

[outstandingbalance]

That's how it usually works, isn't it? As long as people are willing to overlook your flaws.

[candothat]

The trick is in finding those people, and then keeping them once they are found.

[outstandingbalance]

That is some very good advice. Easier said than done, though.

[candothat]

Especially when we live such transient lives. What is the longest that anyone stays in these universes? Three years?

[outstandingbalance]

Something like that. I guess I've been lucky so far—I've lost a few people, but not that many.

[candothat]

I hope that you continue to be lucky. [He hasn't been. He goes through friends and Kirks and girlfriends like you wouldn't believe.] How long have you been here, Natasha?

[outstandingbalance]

About sixteen months, I guess. [And that bothers her, some. It would bother her more if she let herself think about it too much.] A lot of my friends have been here longer.

Don't get me wrong, I've lost some friends. Just... still have a lot.

[candothat]

That is still a long time no matter how many friends have stayed. You will go home eventually, though--maybe not soon, but eventually.

[outstandingbalance]

I know I will. [And she should. She wants to. ...But she doesn't want to think about what that will mean losing.] Guess we'll all cross that bridge when we come to it.

[candothat]

It will be a difficult bridge to cross. Leaving the people here will be a little like leaving behind a different kind of home. [He frowns at his apparent determination to be depressing.] That isn't worth thinking about now, probably. Imagining future losses makes it harder to have anything in the present.

[outstandingbalance]

As I hear it, there's a pretty good chance we won't remember any of it when we get home.