Alycia snorts. “Actually, that sounds a lot like the place I was staying in. Except it was hard to distinguish the veg from the protein.” She feels a tiny tingle of exultation. She’s out.
[…]
Alycia bites back the snarky comment that comes to mind – Yes, but do be a dear and find a way that doesn’t leave my shirt damp with synthetic tears – I don’t have that many of them. She’s not entirely sure why she doesn’t say it – for that matter, why she’s gone through all of this – except –
She takes an emotional step back. Ah. Team allegiances. Esprit de corps. Unit cohesion. My mind has decided that the Menagerie is not just a duty, but part of my tribe, and I theirs, with Summer here standing as representative. “My brother to my left, my sister to my right. / Together we stand. Together we fight.” That sort of … sentimentality.
She’s seen this before in some of the quasi-military units her father created, observed it on missions she was sent on. Not often – too many of Father’s soldiers were mere thugs, sociopaths, or pure mercs, and they rarely had a chance to build allegiance to one another. Father was interested only in their loyalty to him, not to the effectiveness of the team.
Yes, that must be it. It’s certainly a more comfortable interpretation than the thought that she might be friends with someone. Friends go away. Are sent away. Are killed. Betray. Only those truly fighting for the cause, for the mission, side by side, can perhaps be trusted, or at least relied upon. More so certainly than a friend. Especially a friend who’s –
She’s a person_. That’s the only consideration here._
“So,” she says, “when’s the rent due?”
[That probably wraps that up for the moment, unless there’s something you want to get to, Bill. Alycia’s got a ton of stuff that she’s likely to chat about with Summer, now that the sluice gates are open, but the two of them can probably use a breather right this moment.]
[I’m generally reluctant to generate game mechanics within these cutscenes, if only because it irrationally makes me feel like that guy at college that would run characters through his own dungeons over the summer to level them up and collect swag from the treasure charts. 
Alycia was definitely going for a Comfort & Support there, though we seem to have resolved narratively it as a moderate success without a die roll, and I’m okay with that.]
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6721396
That said, if you decide to roll a C&S, I’ll take the results, but if you’re fine with how things stand, that’s okay too, Summer will find other ways to burn those conditions off.