endgames | 033 -- [Action]

[In anticipation of a witch hunt, Shikamaru left the village a solid week or more ago for a spot he could wait things out and do as he liked. After John's report to the village, he trained with Twila's powers some and checked out the barrier. He never forgot that looming detail - that a deadline was approaching - but it wasn't the loudest though to linger in his mind.

"I've let your new attitude and wings slide, because we're friends. But it's starting to make you do things you wouldn't normally in a bad way. You should get it together."

It's troublesome but not untrue, which means that comes before anything else. Control is the name of the game here. Twila catered to his apathy, and while there's something nice about not feeling sad or anxious anymore, until they split ways he's going to be the one calling the shots. And after that week... he is for the most part, and ready to take care of things.]

[Since it's hard telling over the journals how much things settled in the village, so on June 9th he makes his way back on his very best behavior. Best. Maybe. PROVOKE HIM AND FIND OUT. He's still possessed by the start of the day, but in general, Shikamaru can be found attempting to mind himself while doing any of the following:

1. Observing people from high up places and making weirdly realistic shadow puppets to pass the time
2. Exploring the new parts of the tunnels
3. Searching out anyone he might have been an ass to, because he should make up for that 8|

One way or another he's back to normal by the end of the day, so people might find him in CH1 too after the fact.]

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[That's because there's something that keeps them from doing that. He remembers hearing about it, though he never learned much.]

What made you decide one was a boy or a girl anyways?

You know, I'm not sure I could tell you. Some of them chose for themselves after a while, I should think.

Aa. I guess that would be reasonable enough.

[Man they've walked quite a ways now. They're probably out of the plaza.]

[Probably. The conversation is interesting enough to keep her from noticing.]

Sorry, I've led us a little far from the point, haven't I?

It's fine. I'm being aimless.

[He stops though. Maybe he should look for more people and apologize.]

You're still...possessed, aren't you?

[Another flap of the wings, large and dark. He hasn't been hiding them ever since the last time they spoke.]

So is it entirely Shikamaru that I've been talking to?

It's one hundred percent me.

Then why is sh- Twila still...there?

[He puts his hands in his pockets. It's hard to sum this up in words.]

It's not satisfied... yet.

With you? It wants something more from you?

[Shikamaru shakes his head.]

It wants safety, and to not be left alone. It's not convinced it has that yet.

So it chooses you to stay with? [Does it know him? Shikamaru ends up in a lot of danger. His own brand of troublesome.] I don't know how it is for you, but Sona did not really...speak to me. I just had thoughts. Is Twila telling you how to accomplish safety and companionship?

[W O W his track record for getting out of danger is great, okay. That thing with Hidan was his idea.]

No, it's the same way. Feelings.

So even if you can do the things it wants, you don't really know what they are.

I figure it out.

[He's intuitive like that. You spend a lot of time learning to pay attention to cues when you're a ninja.]

Whether I do it or not is another story.

It sounds like you might not...want to?

[Depends on what it is. He doesn't want to die either.]

I don't like it when it makes me do things I wouldn't. [So now he doesn't do them. That's what he was working on all week.]

[She wonders whether there is still a battle to be fought in there somewhere.]

Then you are stronger than many of the rest of us, for resisting.

I'm not noble. You shouldn't make it sound like I am. [With a sigh, he brings up a hand to rub at his temple.] If it weren't for something Masaomi said, I wouldn't even be trying.

[Wouldn't have realized it, probably.]

[Mia has lost the power to make the nearby air chill with a half-thought, so the only change is a subtle one, in her voice.]

What did he say?

[Vaguely, he recalls one other time where Mia talked to him like that. Twila's kept just enough influence that that doesn't bother him as much as it should.]

It's as much what he said as it is that I proved him right a moment later. He said it was starting to make me do things I wouldn't, in a bad way.

[Was Shikamaru also trying to garner ladies' affection?]

I take it you don't intend to tell me what you did. [And that's fine. Pressing him for information that doesn't matter would only get in his way.] Did Masaomi survive it?

I haven't talked to him since. I haven't been here since the last time you and I met.

[So almost two weeks. And no, he doesn't intend to share. Not because it was so horrible, but because he doesn't want to repeat what he said.

They were just words, but they were words meant to hurt and he thinks that they did.]

[action]

frost_jewel - 2013-07-29 04:43 (UTC) - Expand

endgames - 2013-07-31 02:50 (UTC) - Expand