029 -- [Action || Video]

[endgames]

[The afternoon finds Shikamaru bundled up against the cold and out and about in parts of the village he won't normally be in. Wandering, it might look like; he drifts in and out of high-traffic areas like the bar and the item shop to places less visited. The coffee shop he'll be at for sure, and his final stop will be the building that was once Azzip's Pizza.

This will do.]

[Video]

[Later in the afternoon, with dark still far off, the journal feed will click on to see Shikamaru surrounded by various colorful boxes among other things. He folds his hands over a table.]

It's come to my attention over the last few months that some of you have never heard of boardgames, or have otherwise never played. As a reasonable guy, I can let a lot of things go, but that... just seems sad.

[He shakes his head here. With woe, even. And then he gestures to the board games from various worlds strewn in the background. Close inspection will find a shogi set, a chess board, Go, Pai Sho, Plateau, Candy Land, Mouse Trap, Jumanji and so on. You can pretty much make up any family-friendly board game you want here and he will have it somehow. Go for it, actually. He hasn't played all of them.]

I'm here to tell you why they're awesome. [...] And possibly to petition for a partner. It's troublesome, but you'd be surprised how hard that is to accomplish here...

Katara. [Hint, hint.] Kotomi-chan. [Who he can't tease as well, so he'd best clarify:] If you're still up for that.

[He shakes himself with a grin, saluting at the journal with his left hand. He picks up the nearest game.] Anyways, let's get started. It goes like this...

[And from here he'll be giving the abridged rules of the games he knows to start. Feel free to interrupt him, or call him out on any games he skips.]

[/end Voice]

[Action || Locked to Konan]

[Much later in the night, after he's seen to everything he needs to, Shikamaru takes a box out of a drawer and goes outside. From it, he withdraws an origami hummingbird, and contemplates it slowly for a few quiet minutes.

When he's done, he holds it up at eye level and speaks seriously.]

It's about time we spoke again. Don't you think?

Comments

[greenjacketed]

Ah. If only gettin' and keepin' a promotion were actually as easy as that, lad.

[endgames]

You don't need to tell me.

[greenjacketed]

Worked for it, have you?

[endgames]

Only way to know.

[greenjacketed]

Then -- for your sake -- I hope you've climbed well.

[endgames]

Mm. [He doesn't have the grace to look uncomfortable, though he leaves out the details of how long he's been active duty.] Would be working on another rung if not for this place.

How 'bout you?

[greenjacketed]

There's always higher up to go, lad. Though -- there are things back home which must be done, first.

[endgames]

You going to war?

[greenjacketed]

Been at war, in point of fact. One war or another. This place or that. For twenty years, now.

[ and yet advancement still came slowly. ]

[endgames]

Aa... [He can sympathize with that, not out of experience - his generation was born on the tail end of a war and avoided several close calls until the Fourth Great War was announced - but stories he's heard. He knows from his father's scars that they're long and brutal.]

For what it's worth, you don't sound that old.

[greenjacketed]

[ he laughs. ]

Perhaps that's because I took the king's shilling when I were only...bloody hell. I don't know how young I was, I'm afraid. But young enough.

[ sharpe never knew his own birth-year. as it is, he doesn't know how old he is. he guesses somewhere around the 40 mark, but he's wrong. he is, in reality, a few years younger. ]

[endgames]

[Old by his world's standards, but Shikamaru's current guess is much younger.

Doesn't everyone start out that young?]

Why'd you take it?

[greenjacketed]

Why? [ hah. ] Guarenteed meals. A bit of pay, in spite of the stoppages. Rum rations.

[ he'd joined because he awas hungry and on the run from the constables. ] Once you pull on the King's coat, lad, you can reckon yourself relatively safe from the law. They prefer a man who enlists to one who goes to jail.

[endgames]

A-aa? [He balances his chin in one hand.] I've heard of places that do things like that.

[A pause, and then he adds thoughtfully:] It must be a very large army.

[greenjacketed]

And yet never large enough. Not when it counts.

[endgames]

A large army lacking cohesion is as good as a small, put-together army. Good with the bad.

[greenjacketed]

[ a low laugh. ]

It depends on your war, lad. We're trying to hold one country and march into another. Cohesion means little if you don't have enough bodies for all those border garrisons.

[endgames]

People who look at strength in numbers are the same ones who throw their pawns away. You need so many pieces, it's true. But better to look at their individual strengths.

If you lost half your pieces and still had to continue... I bet someone would come up with an idea to make it work.

[People can be clever like that.]

[greenjacketed]

...It's a pretty thought, lad. And it's true -- some pieces are prized for something other than their ability to fire three rounds a minute and stand. But you're daft or naive to think continental war is to be lost or won on the merits of a single soldier. Batallions are pawns. Companies are pawns. Men have become the bits of wood and laquer what make those pawns up.

[ did he agree? no. but it was his reality. ]

[endgames]

[As of now? It's his world's reality too.]

Never one. [His life and fighting style has been built up on teamwork, so that'd be hard believing.] But teams are no more static than individuals are. Platoons are shaped by soldiers, companies by platoons, armies by companies.

If you haven't seen it, you just haven't yet. The combined worth of your pawns is more than any other piece on the board.

[greenjacketed]

And yet, there are officers. And we kill the bastards first and teach our men to do so, too.

[ if anything, he's mildly amused by the argument that's being touted. engaging it because he hasn't spoken shop in so so long. ]

[endgames]

Military strategy is a history of fatal flaws like that.

[greenjacketed]

Have you been part of a large outfit, lad?

[ acidly. ]

[endgames]

Have you been on a draft?

[Sarcasm returned, lightly.]

[greenjacketed]

Hah. Not what I'd call an outfit of any sort. More chaos, from what I saw.