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032 -- [Voice || Action]
[A ninja walks into the bar.
Okay, that's getting ahead of the story. Let's backtrack then. Not too far. Everything he's been through in the past two weeks doesn't need to be said. At least, this isn't the place for it. What's important to mention is that on March 27, Nara Shikamaru left Luceti, gone back to home and to war. He returned on the same day and got thrown into another, and coming back to day-to-day life in this village after has felt almost unreal.
It's been nearly two weeks, but it wasn't until today that any of it definitively sunk in. All of the deaths. Everything they've lost - that he's lost. That the fighting is over, even if the war isn't.
You wouldn't think moving on with your life would be the scariest thing about that.]
[Voice]
Yo. [The greeting comes after he's gotten a grip on himself, so lackadaisical you wouldn't know the difference.] Some of you might've noticed that old pizza place was being remodeled. It's taking longer than I thought, but I've been working on turning it into a convenience store since November. It can probably open soon.
I'm gonna stock it with the basics. Milk, bread... staples like that for when no one wants to walk all the way to the grocery. So what snacks and drinks do you guys want? I'm not going to the trouble of getting things it turns out no one likes. That way, they'll just sit on the shelf to collect grease and dust. That's gross.
[He waves lazily, like he gave up on the motion halfway through, and reaches over to switch the feed.] Lemme know.
[Filtered to Trafalgar Law || Unhackable]
Hey. Got what you asked of me too.
[/end Voice]
[Several hours later... A ninja walks into a bar, and for the first time orders not Mountain Dew, but Genshu sake. A whole bottle.
Convincing himself to drink is more difficult than ordering it, however. Shikamaru sits at the bar for a while, spending more time staring into his cup than lifting it to his mouth. It's not like he's in a rush. He made a point not to tell anyone what he was up to, just that he would be back late and would get dinner on his own. Eventually though, he does get to drinking. It's a lot easier once he's started, and he loosens up. He won't be at the bar long after that, called away on an errand which leads him down toward House 22.
(ooc: threads with Law and Masaomi will be canonically last for this part)
The next day... he has a hangover. And it sucks. 8|
But he has people to talk to. Sakura and Asuma are both on his list, if they're home. Ino is last, and not without Chouji to go with him. Anyone else in the building is welcome to run into him on this day too, of course.]
Okay, that's getting ahead of the story. Let's backtrack then. Not too far. Everything he's been through in the past two weeks doesn't need to be said. At least, this isn't the place for it. What's important to mention is that on March 27, Nara Shikamaru left Luceti, gone back to home and to war. He returned on the same day and got thrown into another, and coming back to day-to-day life in this village after has felt almost unreal.
It's been nearly two weeks, but it wasn't until today that any of it definitively sunk in. All of the deaths. Everything they've lost - that he's lost. That the fighting is over, even if the war isn't.
You wouldn't think moving on with your life would be the scariest thing about that.]
[Voice]
Yo. [The greeting comes after he's gotten a grip on himself, so lackadaisical you wouldn't know the difference.] Some of you might've noticed that old pizza place was being remodeled. It's taking longer than I thought, but I've been working on turning it into a convenience store since November. It can probably open soon.
I'm gonna stock it with the basics. Milk, bread... staples like that for when no one wants to walk all the way to the grocery. So what snacks and drinks do you guys want? I'm not going to the trouble of getting things it turns out no one likes. That way, they'll just sit on the shelf to collect grease and dust. That's gross.
[He waves lazily, like he gave up on the motion halfway through, and reaches over to switch the feed.] Lemme know.
[Filtered to Trafalgar Law || Unhackable]
Hey. Got what you asked of me too.
[/end Voice]
[Several hours later... A ninja walks into a bar, and for the first time orders not Mountain Dew, but Genshu sake. A whole bottle.
Convincing himself to drink is more difficult than ordering it, however. Shikamaru sits at the bar for a while, spending more time staring into his cup than lifting it to his mouth. It's not like he's in a rush. He made a point not to tell anyone what he was up to, just that he would be back late and would get dinner on his own. Eventually though, he does get to drinking. It's a lot easier once he's started, and he loosens up. He won't be at the bar long after that, called away on an errand which leads him down toward House 22.
(ooc: threads with Law and Masaomi will be canonically last for this part)
The next day... he has a hangover. And it sucks. 8|
But he has people to talk to. Sakura and Asuma are both on his list, if they're home. Ino is last, and not without Chouji to go with him. Anyone else in the building is welcome to run into him on this day too, of course.]
[Voice/Private]
(maybe that's what's wrong with it)
At what point do you find the line that divides a mature adult from a repressed one, to stubborn and bitter to change his ways? Men like that are the ones who damned the ninja world, eating it from the inside out. He feels chilled inside, thinking of it like that.]
It's not a scrape, Aang. [It comes out before he can fully think it through, because he has to say something to that.] You can't disinfect it or put a bandaid on it. It's not that type of wound.
[Voice/Private]
I know you can't heal a scar. [
Unless you got spirit water] That is, not completely. But showing it, telling that tale... It can start a gradual process. [He remembers that cave during the storm, pouring his heart out by an open fire, all the guilt he had about letting the world down because he selfishly wanted to be a kid.] That maybe... can heal bits of it. Some of the pain can go out there instead of staying in you.[Voice/Private]
Scars...? [He laughs quietly, a breath through the nose.]
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private]
I went home, Aang.
[Voice/Private]
Aang's first reaction is shock.]
What?! W-when?
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private]
But then again, the same happened to him some months ago. That's when things were changing for the better at home and he was able to make peace with Zuko.
He has a feeling Shikamaru's trip might not have been as fortuitous.]
I- I didn't even notice. That sounds like the worst time for it to happen. [Even if it was good things that happened back home, that would make it even more horrible to be pulled back to Luceti and dropped straight into a warzone.]
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private]
Either way it's a war.
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private] 1/3
That's bullshit. If you want peace, you have to have people there willing to fight the war and stop the war, no matter what it takes.
[He jabs a finger at the journal.] In two days and two nights, over half the army-- over fifty thousand people have died trying to do just that and save our world. That's including the Chief Strategist. My-
[Voice/Private]
[His voice cracks; cracks because this is the first time he's saying it out loud, but the words are out against his will to keep them quiet, and they're a vice around his neck.]
[Voice/Private]
That job falls to me now. I might be stuck here for another two years, but there is nowhere else I need to be but back out there. Got that?
[Voice/Private] 1/2
Shikamaru's dad.
He couldn't help but think of the war at home. Sure, he himself had the luxury of having already lived through its end and some times of peace, but Katara was still from the middle of it. And he know how much they'd worried about their father, who'd gone off to fight that war. Hearing this... Aang could at least appreciate Hakoda's survival even more.
But Aang's quiet for a moment, taking it all in, as if he were just slapped in the face. Breathing raspily.]
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private]
(he's never going to get that)
Waiting for Aang's reply, Shikamaru's teeth remain clenched, holding fast to that rage. It feels too slippery to hold with each second, and his head is in his hands before the wait is over, fingers digging hard again his hairline and he feels dizzy and angry and useless and sick.]
Is that supposed to change anything?! [Right, Shikamaru. Real mature. He bites the tip of his tongue until he can taste blood, one hand moving to press his fingers against the center of his forehead.] Nevermind. Forget it.
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private]
[Voice/Private] *SPENDS TOO LONG GETTING TO THIS*
He hadn't been taken into another world, but he struggled with having to sit still while war was going on out there. While people were dying.
He tries to grasp at words still, to go on.]
I don't want to insult you or your family. And what you all have fought for. I know there isn't an easy way through this, or even a permanent way. I just want to make sure you know. That while we're here, the only place that war is is within you. You can try to let some of that out, and keep it from tearing you apart. [He remembers Katara, on a quest of revenge, and ultimately choosing to just let it all out.] But... it's all your decision. And I won't bother you about this anymore.
[Voice/Private] IT'S ALL GOOD
He can do it, though. He's not a man yet, but he's going to be.]
No, Aang. [It comes out in a sigh, hissed through teeth and barely audible. His voice is dull again, but there is something about it that's genuine.] It's fine.