[ sam watches cloud for a moment, as if he can somehow pull more out of him from the look alone. he can see the tell-tale signs of what he assumes is ptsd, or something akin to it. something traumatizing that keeps him distant, short, uncertain. he can also see a kind of motivation there too that sam recognizes more because he's seen it in himself. knows what it feels like.

he says right and sam feels like he can already see it play out - goro, saying something to spur on more of the locals. the locals, reacting in kind. cloud, trying to step in, to do his job.

sam frowns, waits for cloud's eyes to come back to him, and lifts his brows. not quite pleadingly, but it's also not an order, either. ]

If I asked you to try and stay out of it, would you? [ he sighs, and before cloud can interject, or even answer, he's talking again. ] Goro is trying to start a war. That's his whole thing. Right now, the easiest path is to get the factions that have already hated each other back into the throws of it. There's already bad blood, so it'd be easier for him to start there, But he's not going to stop - and if he's igniting hatred of magic, they're going to come for us next.

[ now sam waits for cloud to say something, giving him a chance to argue or begrudgingly accept. either way, sam will shrug. ]

Or come to me - a lot of these people do know me. I might be able to help there too. Would you do that?