endgames | 028 -- [Voice || Action]

Entry tags:

028 -- [Voice || Action]

Hi. [The journal feed starts unceremoniously.] Noticed the village is getting back into the swing of things. Either that or those who are sulking are doing so more quietly. Good luck with that, whichever.

But hey. I'm looking for a lighter that I misplaced. Anyone comes across it, lemme know. Thanks.

[/end voice]

[Through the afternoon and evening, Shikamaru can be found in various places around the village: digging through things in shops, searching through grass and shrubs and so on. He hasn't been around the village much in the last two days, busy elsewhere with his deer.

Now it almost seems like he's making up for it. One minute you might walk past him digging through the trash behind a building, only to go in to find he's inside already (probably asking if the place has a lost and found). Someone's busy.]

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You are? [He says, looking away from a snowglobe.] What is it?

My lighter.

[He swings a keychain around one fingertip, before spinning it off into a box. There. Everything back in place.]

Oh. It didn't arrive yet? It felt like forever before my bison whistle showed up here.

No. I, aa... Well I had it, and now I don't.

So it got lost. It's gotta be important. And you think it's here?

No. [He stretches, and sorts through another box of pocket items.] But I'd kick myself for not looking.

[He gives a friendly smile.]

Let me help. [He grabs another box and tries to sort through it.] A lighter's one of those clicky things that makes fire, right?

Right-o.

Okay. I'm gonna look as hard as I can, Shikamaru!

[He lifts up a rubber duck from a box and squints, examining it curiously.]

[Man, that means a lot to hi--

...the lighter's not going to fall out of its butt Aang.]

[He still takes a good look at the rubber butt anyway before setting it to the side and sighing. But he perks up when something comes to him.]

Hey... fires are dangerous. So wouldn't any lighters be put somewhere that kids can't reach?

Maybe. It's also likely to be in a box or a bin. Things are organized here by like items.

[He is learning much about the ways of item organization.]

Alright! So looking for like items would be helpful.

[This box seems overly squeaky... after a quick scan to make sure, he puts it back to check out the next one.]

Good call.

[Shikamaru found a box of tobacco paraphernalia meanwhile. Seems like a safe bet?]

[Could be legit. Aang instead grabs a box of shiny-looking objects and starts to sift through them. He already knows what a lighter looks like from seeing Sokka's probably at some point.]

Is there anything special about the way it looks?

[Shikamaru could recognize it on sight. Every scratch, and dent. To someone like Aang? He assumes not so much.]

I maintain it well, so it's polished. But it's seen many battles. [Hm... no dice in this so far, but he does find a pipe.] There's some scratches along one side, the the hinge is worn.

[The pipe looks like it was designed for bubbles, not tobacco. Shikamaru sticks it in his mouth and keeps rooting around.

He's reminded of the Third Hokage this way. Feeling classy as hell.]

[He listens intently to Shikamaru's description and nods.] Kay, I'll remember that.

[And some seconds later, he does manage to ferret a lighter out of the shiny box, but it's one that looks entirely too new. He holds it up towards Shikamaru anyway.] This one looks too new to be it, right?

[But as he looks, he catches sight of the pipe, and try as he might to suppress it, this sight makes some giggles escape from Aang's lips.]

[Probably doesn't help that Shikamaru's using his teeth to make the thing bob up and down just so. But he takes it out to talk.]

Yeah. That's not so much polished as it is unused.

[He nods. It helps him to hold back laughter when Shikamaru removes it from his mouth.]

Alright, I think that's it for this box, then. [And he tries to gaze into Shikamaru's box from where he is to try and spot a similar pipe.] I hope I can help, like that time I got Katara's necklace back for her.

She lost it?

[And there MIGHT be. They might also be ones for actual tobacco.]

[As he talks, he gets caught up the story, but he also peers closer to get a better look at what might be the end of another pipe sticking out from a box.]

Yeah, a long time ago. It wasn't that long after the three of us started traveling together. She pretended to be an Earthbender to get captured by the Fire Nation so we could find out whether they were being taken and freed them. We were able to save her and the other Earthbenders, but we didn't realize she had left her necklace behind until it was too late.

[He tries to picture katara acting like Toph-- actually why didn't they just use Toph? Huh. Must've not been around then.

Rolling his eyes, he flips the other pipe out of the box into Aang's hand before going back to searching through it. So what after that?]

[He gleefully sticks it in his mouth, and with an appreciative smile he continues.]

I tried making her a new one with Sokka's fishing line, but she only wore it a little. But we found out that the Fire Nation had gotten it and first they tried to use it to make her help us [Zuko must have been really silly for thinking that would work.], but then they tried to use it to track us. That was... well it was Zuko who had it, that's when he was on the other side. [He feels Shikamaru's trusted enough that he probably knows about Zuko's allegiance shift already, so no need to be discreet about it.] They tracked us to a town, and we were able to escape them, but before we got away I was able to snatch the necklace back from Zuko without anyone even noticing.

[He'd be right about that guess. Shikamaru's thoughts also mirror Aang's in the telling of this story - betray the world's best chance for peace for a necklace?

...it strikes him for the first time that they really were kids for that. Katara has matured in the time he's known her - when they first met, she reminded him of a civilian so many times. But this is probably the first instance he's realized that there would've been a point in their journey where she was even more naive than that.

It's kind of a trippy thought.

But this is a small thing in the end, he can note. Not even a major battle. The way Aang tells of getting the necklace back makes him smile too. It reminds him of how he liked to solve his problems back in the day.]

Clever.

[It did seem so much simpler than. Most of the problems back then seemed so relatively solveable. But it probably helps that Zuko wasn't much older than them and always had good in him.]

Thanks. She was real happy when she got it back and I got a kiss on the cheek. [A moment to laugh.] But if I find your thing, I think I'll just go with one of those handshake things.

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