endgames | 028 -- [Voice || Action]

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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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That so?

Mm. There was a family meeting. Katara and grandpa talked about what they'd heard about Loki.

Aa. That guy.

[Quietly slipping a filter in here.]

[ Good thing, since Ikki definitely...still doesn't quite get how to filter, and even if she did it would be the easiest thing to break ever. So far she's only asked people to make them for her, and that only once. ]

Yeah. They revised our rules. That is - when Steve warned people about Loki, he...didn't say what he looked like, you know? And there's another Ikki here, so I didn't think - [ he was, you know, the same person. ]

There's another Loki too. [Who he just met today.] The older one... well I'm sure Katara and Aang already laid out the ground rules for you.

They want me to have one of them with me if I go to meet him. Ah, yeah - the younger version of him, I know about him now. I haven't met him, but the older Loki said he'd introduce me sometime?

He's nice enough.

What did they say you should do if you run into the older Loki when they're not around?

Ah, he knows about that rule, so I think he'd probably avoid meeting me alone.

[ If she did meet up with him, she'd just write one of her various guardians. Ikki's a generally well-behaved child, as long as you can deal with her energy. ]

It's only going to be for a while, I think - that is, Katara and grandpa talked, and said they would...trust my judgement. [ If she sounds a little awed and apprehensive, it might be because she is. She really, really doesn't want to let them down - which is why she's trying to be cautious, as much as Ikki...can be. ] Because I'd be of age for that back home, in the water tribes, and - probably 'cause I think they both worry about not being there.

[ Not now, because they always are. But she's pretty certain the reason they always impress on her that people leave and who she can trust outside of her family? Has to do with a fear of leaving her and not being here, which she doesn't really like thinking about. ]

Hm...

[If he doesn't answer right away, it's because he's impressed too. Katara and Aang aren't the sort to often make that distinction (or at least this is what he believes, given how long it took to earn Katara's trust after that. Aang is more set in his ways than her. So in part, he's very proud of them for that.

At the same time, he hopes they give it more than 'a while'. Adore Ikki though he may, and confident in her powers of perception, a seven-year-old still doesn't have the same type of experience as someone who's made their life on weaving deceptions.]

That's because we're careful with the things we love. I'm sure you've learned that lesson before, right?

[ "A while" is probably going to be "forever", really.

Careful with the things we love, huh? She's not certain what he means by learning that lesson. Is Shikamaru talking about how things can happen to people you care about, or places you hold dear? Or something else? ]

I've seen people I love get hurt, is that what you mean?

In part, maybe. It has a lot of meanings. We want to protect the people and things we care about. Sometimes that means being cautious even around them.

I don't talk about GranGran around Katara. You mean like that?

Yeah. Or the way you make sure a baby doesn't do something to hurt itself, because it doesn't know better.

What do you think about Loki?

I think he's weird. I don't know enough about him to say what he'd do here, but there's no doubt he did the things he did.

So whether you like him or not... Whether he's on his best behavior for a long time, caution is still important.

I'm....trying to be cautious? [ That's mostly why she brought it up with him, and why she'll try to get information out of Tony, and why she worries about this in her spare time.

Because she might be wrong about trusting him, and it would hurt more than just her. ]

I think I don't know for sure if he wouldn't hurt people for the sake of his "justice" or people he cared about. Even without all the cube stuff which I don't really get. [ She uses one of Smoker's terms without really thinking about it, because Ikki isn't sure how else to explain it. ] But I also don't think he would hurt the people he does like. He seems to talk to a lot of people and is friendly, but to me he only mentions a few names, and those are the people I think he's close to.

Are any of those from his world?

Nope. [ He's never mentioned Jane to her. ] Adele, Gregor, me, Elicia, Rapunzel. I think he also gets along with the younger Loki, though, and he's mentioned "Lady Saori", who I do not know.

[ ...Much like she does with everyone else, Ikki has actually amassed a lot of information on Loki, obviously. ]

[YUP. So he was expecting. He has a bit of a list now. ...Elicia huh.

Nice people, for the most part. Not overly dangerous, aside from maybe this Saori person, or the influences they hold.]

Ikki, do you know what the phrase 'look underneath the underneath' means?

[ Shikamaru did you just use her as a source. ]

I think at least part of why he reacted to being attacked so...much...was because Elicia was there. [ Not all of it, but some. She's not sure if that's a good or bad thing, though. ] Rapunzel met him the same way I did, and we did the scavenger hunt together. Gregor's rooming with him. Adele fixed him up after that thing happened, but he knew her before then.

[ She pauses, then shakes her head, before remembering they're on voice. ] I don't think I've ever heard it before.

[To be fair, HE BARELY HAS TO TRY. The thing she says about Elicia though. If anything, he has a worse opinion of Barton, despite having not met him.

He sticks to the topic he brought up.]

It means you have to look beneath the surface. And when you think you know everything about that person, you dig deeper.

[ SADLY TRUE. She's getting better about blabbing secrets - i.e. she wouldn't hand this list to, say, Tony - but she'd probably tell them to Shikamaru anyway. ]

Because there's always something left to know? [ That idea, at least, she understands. She's never content in knowing everything about anyone. That's half of why she asks so many questions. ]

That's right. Even friends can lie to you - not always maliciously, but it's something to watch out for. If you end up thinking Loki is a nice enough guy to hand with, that's fine, but always remember that.

[ It's a good warning, but she's distracted by a different thought. ]

Have you ever lied to me?

Not yet.

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