endgames | 031 -- [Action

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031 -- [Action | Voice]

[Today is an understated awesome day, ladies and gentleman. To everyone? Okay, maybe not. But Shikamaru sure is pleased as punch. After a month's stay in the Battle Dome clinic recoveries from the injuries he got in his fight with Hidan, Shikamaru's finally cleared to check out today.

Before he gets the all-clear, he can be found in - brace yourselves - one of the Dome's simulation rooms. He's actually been using them for the past week for his physical therapy. If he's going to be doing a lot of walking, might as well change up the scenery.

Namely, he's replicated parts of the Nara Clan's forest. At its opening, the sky is more open, but the further in you go the thicker the trees grow together. Wandering will reveal easter eggs - old statues, broken and ruined, or a path of moss-covered stone lanterns. Maybe a young deer if you're lucky.

Other parts of the forest seem to be swallowed by shadow completely, offering nothing but pitch black that no amount of light will ease and the sense you're being watched if you step into them.

He'll try and clear up some stuff with Law before he goes, but after that he hits the journal.]

[Voice]

For those of you who saw that Vaskoth place... I figure it's been long enough. Name something you liked about it, if you can recall.

[Filtered to Molly (NPC) || 100% Unhackable]

You must be made of sterner stuff than I.

[/end voice]

[Feels like forever since he's been back in the swing of things. Shikamaru can be found at CH1 of course, in or around his apartment. Throughout the days following, he'll also be at the place formerly known as Azzip's, getting back to turning it into a convenience store.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

…I really don’t see why that’s the case, actually.

No? You don't think we should learn from our experiences, even if they were bad ones?

[His tone isn't patronizing, he'd just rather people reach the conclusion he's made by thinking about it for themselves too.]

I didn't say that.

[Pepper's been forced to learn several hard lessons from her experiences there, which is part of the problem.]

But that's also not what it looks like you're asking people to do.

Please tell me, then, what it looks like. If it's contrary to my intentions, I'll correct it.

To think of something good about that place. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily--but I doubt anyone has many pleasant memories of it.

No duh. But I'm not asking anyone to think of something good, just something they liked. I hated it too, but the more I make myself think past the draft, the more I remember. Some of the guys there were assholes, but they were tight-knit, and for an enclosure they accomplished a lot.

I feel if we had seen Vaskoth at any other time instead of the horrible situation we were thrown into, we'd have had this conversation earlier.

[No duh. Pepper needs a moment then, and not just to put up a filter on the conversation. Tony or Steve could see this, or someone else, and they didn't need the reminder.]

I guess I'm having a hard time thinking past what it felt like wanting to eat people.

[But there's a point to this, or so Pepper hopes. Shikamaru certainly makes it seem that way, and she does try to focus on what they had seen before the infection hit.]

Okay, yes. They were supportive of each other, and they did have a lot. [Things that Pepper's certainly never seen in Luceti, and she again hesitates as she considers it.] It was more like a city back home, right down to the cars and the tall buildings.

["I guess I'm having a hard time thinking past what it felt like wanting to eat people."

He decides to let that pass without comment. If he hadn't known before that she'd been among the infected, he'd have suspected it early into this conversation. He's not sure why she wants to bring it up, but he'd much rather not remind anyone of that stuff more than he has to.

Keep it directed to the positive.]

I'm hearing a lot of that. Things those from worlds like yours are accustomed to.

[She doesn't want to, but it's still a sensitive issue. More so than maybe even Pepper herself has realized, until this conversation. And in a way, the infection itself isn't the worst of what happened there.

But one of them isn't letting their emotions get the better of them, at least. Shikamaru wisely doesn't comment, giving Pepper a little bit more time to get her reaction into check.]

Yes. It was more advanced there. Tony found a set of armor that was a little like his from home. I've never seen anything close to it here in Luceti.

Edited 2013-01-13 23:19 (UTC)

...ha. I thought he'd made that.

[Shortly distracted, whoops.]

But yeah. Their armory was impressive even by my standards.

His armor from home he did. What he had in Vaskoth was a poor replacement at best.

[Iron Man being the property of Stark Industries means Pepper is quick to defend the brand. Also? Not attaching Tony's name to an inferior product.]

Their hospital too. I think it might have been considered state of the art, back home.

I've wondered if that was something they made for themselves or were supplied. They must have had some impressive labs too.

I couldn’t really say on those.

[Only on what she saw for herself. Still, the rest of it is an interesting thought.]

If they started off like we did? I’d guess that it was ultimately provided, although the villagers may have as a group earned it from the Malnosso. [Maybe in pieces, like others were doing for Tony and Jane’s project, or as a whole.] That would take some pretty considerable effort, though, given how the Malnosso limit our access to technology.

[He nods, agreeing with those assessments.]

To keep the Malnosso from meddling too much with their affairs, they'd have had to have earned their favor also. Both would take considerable amount of time, but they've been around long enough for it.

So the question is how recent were those developments for them, instead.

That I don't know. But maybe we could ask the Malnosso? Since we don't know when or if we'll see anyone from Vaskoth again.

[Or if they'd be willing to answer questions asked by people from Luceti.]

Are you thinking about what it would take to get some of those developments here?

[He's already planning on talking to Molly, but that's best left unsaid given the Malnosso can see this.]

Mm. I hadn't considered the same ones, until this, but I would like to.

If you weren't thinking about those facilities, then what did you have in mind?

The MSF base. Or rather, the draft immunity earned for the enclosure by the soldiers therein.

[Now that’s news to Pepper, but definitely something she’s interested in.]

I didn’t hear about that. You mean the entire enclosure was exempt from being drafted?

Correct. All but the soldiers.

But you called it an MSF base; were they people from the enclosure who volunteered to fight in the war, instead of just being drafted?

Correct again.

[Pepper lets out a slow breath as she tries to weigh those two ideas in her mind. Preventing civilians from being drafted, or children, would definitely be enough to get people to volunteer. Tony would probably be in line too, if that were the case. But how much more would the regular soldiers have to face than the draftees?]

Are you planning on bringing this up to the village at large?

Eventually, yeah.

[The idea is to inform first. There's a lot of things the village seems unaware of, this being a good example.]

There's a lot to consider before going into something like that. It needs to be handled the right way.

You mean so people don’t reject the idea outright. [Because Pepper could see that happening pretty easily, given how most people in Luceti feel about the Malnosso.]

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