Jessica was about to answer Marie back, after listening to the initial rant, but the follow up rant after the Dealer handed her a coin kinda... Threw a wrench into that whole train of thought. "I've got no objections... Though do you want a smoke after that rant? I imagine it was roughly satisfying enough for one." Jessica says in an attempt to tease, and probably misses the mark, before she nods towards the Dealer. "And that's fine, I'll play a round or three, or however many it takes to acquire one of those coins." Jessica states plainly with her eyes glancing over toward Marie occasionally as the Taylor lookalike seemingly fumed about the spot they found themselves in.
Marie's laugh is, once again, strained at the edges, though there's a kernel of good humor it's built around. "As much as it is somewhat of a lesbian stereotype if you look in the right places, and I do have the suit for it, I don't smoke. Ruins the lungs, you know? But...thanks. As much as it was not exactly well-aimed, I needed the reminder that not everything was meant to be taken seriously."
"Also, if you want to head off, don't let me hold you up, Marie?" She could understand some distress, she could understand getting a little upset, but this just seemed like a little bit much. Chalk it up to magical shenanigans and call it done, because nothing about where they are realistically makes sense. Getting too worked up over the whole situation probably wasn't going to do her or anyone else really any good, but that might just be how she viewed life flavoring her thoughts. Everyone reacted differently to things and this just must have been something that Marie felt really strongly about.
"...Eh, I'll probably hang around at least until we've
both got the thing, unless you
want me to leave. Which, frankly, after all that I could understand." ...It's pretty obvious that Marie also has the
friendgroup of a Taylor Hebert expy, which is to say, none to speak of, from the poorly-hidden tension in that last sentence. "...but honestly, even if I did leave, I don't think I could go home if I wanted to, and the
problem I'm having is that that would have been fine, if only she'd just fucking
asked first! But no, I just fucking
woke up here, and that's...It's a sort of casual disrespect of personal autonomy that has me concerned about the underlying
motivations, and so there's this little voice in the back of my head screaming that I am a plaything of uncaring gods. It's probably
right, on some level. Honestly, I would have preferred the," Marie pauses to put on an
atrocious 'Uncle Sam' parody accent, "'I Need You! To Fight A War In Heaven!' shanghai to this...this...
whatever this is! I don't know the rules of the game I'm playing, and being on possibly
existentially shaky and uncertain ground...If I were the sort of person who
did drink, I
would be right now, but I
hate the idea of losing control of myself and that's
totally failing to disprove my Taylor Hebert expy status, isn't it."
She proceeds to visibly catch herself, and take a deep breath. "...so, yeah,
stressed the fuck out is a pretty good description of my emotional state right now. My apologies for dumping it on you and your, uh...chill? I don't know how you've managed to
handle this so well. And...mm. To get back to your original...question? I don't think I feel like leaving anyone with whom I can feel the slightest amount of camaraderie, because it's absolutely that thin on the ground. The only way to get through whatever this is is going to be working together, if I had to guess. That, or it's a deathmatch, I can't
really rule that out except that it feels vaguely out of character for what little I know."
