endgames | 031 -- [Action

Entry tags:

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

It was. [And his voice is hard there. No disagreement.] In fact, it's largely due to how bad it was that I became aware of certain things. One in particular was that everyone but their soldiers had draft immunity.

[Which no, not one's spoken about on this post but him.]

Wait, wait. Wait. Wait. You're telling me that the civilians weren't capable of being drafted? Where'd you learn that? I talked to that Davis guy for a bit, but it was more about...personal things.

[Like her death.]

I didn't learn it from him, but from a civilian I helped out. You saw the MSF base they had there, right?

Yeah, yeah. I was there for a while. What about it?

There's those of Vaskoth who work as MSF. [Many being unsaid, as the base speaks for itself.] In exchange for their cooperation, the rest of the village is pardoned from being drafted, when the fight isn't brought to them.

So that's how it works...no way... [The concept is immediately interesting to Precis on a number of levels, and her mind is working quickly.] That's amazing. I can't believe they have a system like that. So the civilians don't have to fight most of the time. Man, I didn't even notice that at all.

[He finds you can often tell who's never seen combat from the expressions on their faces.]

It's honestly a pretty good system. There's those who'd protest about working for the Malnosso, but you see people volunteering to take the place of a kid every draft. I can bet they had similar origins.

[As a normal girl who's fought in an army and had her home planet completely destroyed, Precis still smiles a lot. She'd never try to guess on whether or not someone's been in a fight before.]

Yeah...buuuuut even if it's all voluntary, it has to be really voluntary, you know? Are you sure this concept wasn't pressured in or anything? I'm not saying that people wouldn't love the idea, but...who came up with the idea in the first place? Because if the Malnosso came up with it first, wouldn't some people feel forced into volunteering just because the idea is right out there in public? Or did they come up with the idea and present it to the Malnosso? Because that has really different connotations, and it'd be evidence of even greater bartering.

I could ask them, should I get the chance again.

[He's often met people from different enclosures on missions, so there's a chance. Or he could ask around, as he plans to with Molly.]

I am interested in how it came about for them, both as an example and a cautionary tale. [He thinks about the message in the tunnels too, and how Davis was from Luceti.] All the same, it doesn't necessarily denote what we do.

Of course it doesn't, but it's kinda interesting. If it was their idea first, then who knows what other things can be proposed and passed if we really work hard on the ideas?

Yeah. That's the kind of thing I wanna work towards.

You've got my support, if there's anything I can do.

That's worth more than you think.

[Should they ever get the chance, no one's getting draft immunity if there aren't enough people to take their place.]

["More than you think"? This is Precis. She thinks she's a walking powerhouse.]

Is there anything else about this place, or is that all you wanted to say?

Nah. There were quite a few things. I was enamored with their military base - though I doubt others feel similarly - as well as their farmlands and the aforementioned harbor. The power plant and city council were also noteworthy... but all that's getting too ahead of ourselves.

[Self-sufficiency is good, but he doesn't want this place to feel too comfortable.]

They had farmlands? Man, I completely missed that.

They were huge, but far out. That's where we had to go to get most of the rations.

Oh, you didn't have to go that far. A lot of the homes were totally abandoned, so I was grabbing sealed food from pantries pretty much the entire time.

[Man, he ran into more people who refused to leave on his end.]

It was for more than myself.

[With that many people, things were getting scarce.]

Oh...when you put it that way, it makes me feel kinda like I did a bad job. After Rin left, I was pretty much on my own the entire time except for the rescuing. And the hiding.

[He shakes his head.] Most of the people who were drawn there weren't fit for that kind of environment. It wasn't like any draft previous; all it was was a mission for survival.

No one could expect more of anyone there than that. If you were helping anyone, you already went one step beyond.

You're telling me. None of my machines worked, so I was basically making bombs out of whatever I could get my hands on by the end. [She was making bombs before she was killed by one.]

I didn't really talk to anyone after that. I'm, um, guessing you came out okay, too.

Ha. Yeah, I came back in one piece.

[Dislocated his shoulder on purpose to get out of a trap - and boy does that feel so far away now - but back alive.

At the time, he was so fed up with things he'd have rather stayed. He's glad now, to have thought past that.]

Oh, goodie. I won't have to worry about you. Well, this has been some pretty good information for me, thanks.

[The journal window catches a two-finger wave, acknowledging that.

This has been a good reminder of why Luceti needs that intelligence agency to distribute information.]

031 -- [Action | Voice]

voice;

Re: voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

Re: voice;

voice;

Re: voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;