1 [voice]

[foundafamily]

Hey, listen up. I’ve got an idea.

[Evidently a very important one, judging by how soberly he’s speaking.]

Obviously we need things to do in between gettin’ set on fire and havin’ our heads messed with. So I was gonna set up a card table in the bar—could be poker, faro, anything if we can get enough players for it. If people like it, we could make it a regular thing.

If you don’t know how to play, I’ll teach you. And if anybody knows any other games, I’d like to see ‘em.

Comments

[foundafamily]

[Firo makes only the barest effort to hold back a laugh.]

So you think you'll never get in a fight just because it's not your job?

[Conversely, Firo doesn't even attempt to think that maybe, just maybe, avoiding fights is actually possible for some people. Especially when they don't go around deliberately twisting lions' tails.]

[tongueamok]

I didn't say I'd never get into a fight. I'm saying I wouldn't win.

[One day, Carlisle might learn that a defeatist attitude probably isn't the way to deal with conflict aimed at him.]

[foundafamily]

[Now his mouth just drops open.]

You're givin' up before you even try? Are you kiddin' me?

[tongueamok]

I see no reason in wasting both my time and the time of whomever is looking to pummel me into the ground. Some will walk away when they find there's no satisfaction in the fight they so desire.

[foundafamily]

[Try as he might, Firo can't find the logic in that. He stares, stares some more, and then finally just shakes his head.]

That's pathetic. You know some people like beatin' up on the defenseless, right? What're you gonna do then, huh?

[tongueamok]

I suppose that's when I run.

[Or control them, his guilty conscience says from the back of his mind. It'd be easy enough, wouldn't it? Make one of them fight the others, then leave in the ensuing chaos—

Carlisle shifts uncomfortably in his seat, disturbed any part of him still considers that an option, especially when someone he once compelled to protect him is sitting not five feet from him. It's not wonder his condition makes others see him as a monster.]

I'm not sure why you're so insistent on this. I know I am a coward.

[foundafamily]

You're not even gonna try to change it?

[He's not even contemptuous so much as incredulous.]

People like that never last long where I'm from.

[Maybe he means it as an explanation for why he keeps hammering the point. Maybe it's more insult. Even Firo's not really sure.]

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle takes it as a little bit of both.]

I'm not likely to last long anyway, if it matters so much to you.

[foundafamily]

And you don’t think that’s more reason to try your hardest?

[It’s a very alien way of thinking to him. Even when he knew he was probably done for, he’d always fought for just a little bit more.]

[tongueamok]

Lad, I'm— [He cuts himself off, frustrated.] Firo, right. I don't think it matters whether or not I try to win any fight I'm in. I might as well not set myself up for the disappointment of failure. I've had enough of that already.

[foundafamily]

[No matter how much he gapes at Carlisle like a breathless fish, Firo can't figure out that reasoning. And he's not so sure he even wants to.

So he goes for the ad hominem argument.]

You're ridiculous.