035 -- [action | voice]

[endgames]

[It's an antsy day, in an antsy week. Every time he gets back from a mission, lately, it feels like that. He's had a project in the mountains the last several days, and with the news from CJ last night, Shikamaru can think of a lot of other things he'd rather be doing. But with Korra on a mission, he'd feel bad for ducking out of work. At least he wasn't here for the experiment, or worse: his birthday.

So he can be found at the convenience store until late afternoon, messing around with a digital camera. He got it last December as a Christmas present from Precis, but he actually hasn't practiced with it any until now. Sorry if you are SUDDENLY BLINDED by the flash feature he didn't know was there, he didn't mean it.

Unless you're Naruto or Masaomi. If you're Naruto or Masaomi, he's doing it on purpose because he's an ass and this is what true friendship is built on.

Later in the day, before work gets out, he'll crack open his journal to make a post. He's been thinking about this for the last week, reading up and practicing how to make asphalt. It's not as difficult as he would've though, and he thinks he has it down now.]

[Voice]

Hey, Luceti. It's kind of late in the year for it, but the weather's been dry enough... So let's pave the roads. Anyone up for it?

[This might be ill-timed what with recent news, but hey. It doesn't hurt to gauge interest. There are a lot of other things he needs to take care of today, however, so he starts setting up some filters too.]

[Filtered to Cilan | Private]

Yo, Cilan. I got a job proposition for you.

[Filtered to Makie | Private]

...where the hell do you even live. I was gonna go visit you, but I forgot how much walking that takes when you don't know where you're going.

[Filtered to Gai Tsutsugami | Private]

[Flat, but not caustic.] It been enough time for you?

[Filtered to Haruno Sakura | Private]

[A string of scattered dots shows up in the filter before any words do, tappings of a pen. The message itself, when it shows up is anonymous. The handwriting is disguised and the picture in the journal window covered up to hide the identity of the writer. Inserted are a series of numbers: coordinates Sakura could figure out in her sleep.]

Come to the following coordinates at 1900 hours. Uzumaki Naruto is going to test the barrier, and he may need medical assistance afterwards.


(ooc: if enough people are interested in the road project, I'll make an ooc post organizing things for it after the House of M plot is done. right now this is testing the waters. 8|a)

Comments

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Pave the roads? What do you want to do that for? [ Gosh, dude, got a problem with the ground or what. ]

voice;

[endgames]

A lot of people come from worlds where that's common. I'm not one of them, but I've been to places like that now... I can see where it'd be useful. Wheeling things around would go a lot easier.

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Ah, you might be right about that. Actually, it's pretty weird nobody did that already. As long as some of us have been here. [ Hm indeed. He thinks things over for a few seconds. ]

Right! You can count on Captain Usopp's expertise! [ You can count on Captain Usopp to pick up on it quickly and probably to accidentally leave half his face imprinted somewhere because something or someone was thrown at him. ]

voice;

[endgames]

[That is a thing that should be a thing.]

Yeah? I didn't know you had any skill with this. [That sounds useful!]

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Of course, of course. I'm a jack of all trades, you know! I once paved an entire city overnight when I was only nine! [ I'm sorry man I know how believable that is but he's lying. ]

voice;

[endgames]

[Talk about soul-crushing. D:

ALSO THIS IS SILENCE AND AN UNSURE FACE. USOPP, CAN YOU REALLY HELP WITH THIS STUFF...]

voice;

[nosenobounds]

[ He must obviously be in awe. Of course. AKA, man, Shikamaru has the most non-reactive reactions to lying he's ever seen. And he is possibly losing his chances to contribute to a big project that could save everybody in the town trouble down the line by embellishing... but he wants to be useful. Ugh, dilemmas.

This place can be a lot like home that way sometimes. ]

Ah, don't worry about it. I really am sure I'll be able to help! A hundred percent sure! [ Okay like thirty percent sure, but those are good odds for him. ]

voice;

[endgames]

[....WELL OKAY THEN.]

Aa... All right. It's not like it takes a rocket scientist, anyways. I'll put you to work.

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Talking like it's so much trouble! [ GOSH. If he actually sounded offended and not really happy to be included, he would probably pull that off better. ] You'll need all the help you can get anyway, right? This is a big village!

voice;

[endgames]

Yeah, you ain't kidding. At least the roads are limited to town.

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Exactly- so be more grateful! [ And then without actually even waiting for a follow-through because he knows his life: ] It would be nice to have roads going to more places, though. If you have to go out of your usual way or meet up away from town, something to follow might be a big help.

voice;

[endgames]

That'd take a lot more work though. You'd have to clear grass and other obstructions before you could even dig a path.

[It's still not a bad idea...]

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Paving's probably gonna be a lot of work, too. There are always people walking around here so it'll be even harder for it to dry without getting messed up. We might as well think about other stuff while we're at it. [ Practicality at its finest. ]

voice;

[endgames]

I know a guy who dresses in bright orange. I plan on using him as a road cone to warn people off while it's drawing.

voice;

[nosenobounds]

[ What's a road cone... these are truly the mysteries of life. ]

You really think you'll only need one guy? Is he that good at chasing people off? [ Then again. He's been hanging around Luffy and Zoro for long enough to know that that kind of person can exist in the world. ]

voice;

[endgames]

Heh. I wasn't being serious, but if it comes to that, yeah. Naruto can handle them.

Re: voice;

[nosenobounds]

[ Tutting. ]

You should try laughing more when you're not serious! You probably need to practice that sometime.

voice;

[endgames]

No way, man. People who practice their laughs always come out having odd-sounding ones.

voice;

[nosenobounds]

Are you sure they weren't doing it wrong? [ 90% teasing, 10% "man you poor uneducated sap, man." ]

voice;

[endgames]

I looked through old stuff on the journals once. There used to be this guy who would go yo-ho-ho-ho all the time when he laughed.

voice;

[nosenobounds]

[ SPORFLE. Yo-ho-ho, for real? Maybe he should think about digging around past entries sometime. ]

I don't know, I think that sounds pretty great.

voice;

[endgames]

If you think that's great, I'm surprised you don't have your own weird sounding laugh.

voice; 1/2

[nosenobounds]

You've got a point there. [ He's taking it as a challenge now. Time to come up with a really weird, funny laugh to whip out as necessary. A challenge that he might promote fully to "make that Shikamaru guy laugh" down the line. It's good to set realistic goals, though. ] Let's see... ah!

[ BIG DRAMATIC THROAT-CLEARING. ]

voice; i had a great time youtube searching tbh

[nosenobounds]

[ YOU BROUGHT THIS NEXT FIFTEEN SECONDS OR SO ON YOURSELF, SIR. ]

voice; 1/2

[endgames]

[At first there's nothing but awed silence because Shikamaru's heard of aliens since coming to Luceti and he's pretty sure that this must be an alien]