[open] rebuilding what we can at the cost of what we can't do

[encourage]

Sakura look a left turn between two disparate pieces of architecture, eyes sliding over them both without truly appreciating what they saw. An inventory of places that were problematic for being hiding spots, possible ambush zones, tactical advantages in territory ran though her mind, along with figures and numbers for things she kept track of to make sure her thoughts weren't allowed much time to wander.

As it was, they were still getting away from her, heavy with emotions and logical conclusions that played off loyalty and desire to protect all at once. It left her looking pensive as she walked through the city, making her way toward the Great Wall of a country she would never see.

Comments

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

A tremendous thing in armor stands watch on the great wall, laying both gauntlet-clad hands on it as his gene-bred love of fortification comes to the fore. A true son of Dorn if there ever was one, Erhart revels in the existence of such a wall. It would not go amiss at Eternity Gate, or the Imperial Palace itself, in the Himalasyan highlands. He doesn't notice the young woman, not yet, lost in an almost-religious communion with the Wall itself.

[encourage]

Catching sight of the person she didn't recognize, she slowed. She stood a good thirty plus feet below him, more than able to continue on her way without interrupting his silence.

Opting for a midway point, Sakura lifts a hand in greeting. Her words follow after a few seconds of thought.

"Just to let you know ahead of time, I'll be working on the wall for a while. Down toward where it looks hit by a heavy falling object."

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

"And what will you be doing down there, Mamzel?"

He looks down at her, his helm's eye-slits whirring as they focus on the young lady.

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Atom was sitting on the edge of the Great Wall, looking down at the scenery below. He'd been here before, but wow, he'd never expected to see it on a spaceship. There were a lot of things that reminded him of home, though.

He practiced whistling while he was seated there. He was not very good at it.

[encourage]

Sakura looked up, trying to trace the sound she was hearing to its source. A young boy sitting on the wall, attempting to whistle, brought something like a smile to her face. She lifted a hand to wave, hesitating to shout and possibly startle him when he's sitting there on the wall.

Not that it mattered, she was more than fast enough to catch him before he'd hit ground, but avoiding unnecessary trauma seemed kinder in this place.

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Atom caught sight of her wave and waved back cheerfully. "Hey! Come on up! You can see all kinds of stuff from up here!"

That's... that's nice of you not to make him fall over, Sakura.

[hadabrother.livejournal.com]

Jake wasn't quite the flyer he'd been before the war, but his peregrine falcon morph still worked - why wouldn't it? - and he occasionally took flights over the city to try and clear his mind. He spotted Sakura and something clicked in his head. She looked a lot like Marco's description of his new girlfriend. Maybe he ought to say hi. He glided down and perched on a nearby lamppost.

< You're Sakura, right? Sorry for the interruption. >

[encourage]

Sakura sat back on her heels, running the back of one gloved hand over her forehead. She'd actually started making some progress, which left her in a much better mood than before.

She didn't recognize the voice speaking within her mind, if it did point toward a few given possibilities. Both especially because and especially not because of them asking after her.

Spotting the bird of prey after glancing around for things out of place, she nodded at it, trusting they'd be able to see. "No interruption," she said, briefly smiling. She didn't know if they heard her or not. She couldn't find it in herself to be bothered one way or the other.

Though she did lift her voice for carrying when she asked, "Is there something I can help you with?"

[hadabrother.livejournal.com]

< I just wanted to say 'hi'. > Jake replied. After a moment of silence, he shuffled along the lamp-post and then indulged the hawk-mind by preening under a wing. Yep.

< Oh, sorry. My name is Jake. I'm a friend of Marco's. >

[oh-itsasnake.livejournal.com]

"Oh, this is no good."

A smirking Orochimaru leaned casually against the base of the wall. Till that moment the shadows, and perhaps his own ninjutsu, had hidden him.

"Now you're going to think I've been following you or laying a trap for you."

[encourage]

Sakura froze, then told herself to stop it. It was a second's hesitation, more than obvious to Orochimaru, and more than apparent to Sakura herself.

"You wouldn't bother yourself over one such as I." She said it so factually, her voice level and calm.

She really wanted to turn and head the other way.

[oh-itsasnake.livejournal.com]

Undeniably true under most circumstances, but here on this ship he found himself mildly drawn to harass and annoy her. He was, at heart, a real dick.

"Of course," he agreed quite falsely. "There are so many other shinobi on this ship to entertain myself with, after all."

[darknight-ren.livejournal.com]

It felt like there had been a lot going on lately, enough that Ren was losing track of what was going on with some of his friends. So he was surprised to see that Sakura was walking toward the Great Wall, looking distracted.

"Sakura?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

[encourage]

Sakura jolted herself out of her own thoughts, smiling in reflex as she turned toward Ren's voice. "Ren!" Funny, how the level of respect she had for him didn't quite translate. "I'm fine! A bit distracted, but that's not new, is it?"

She wasn't entirely honest, but she didn't want people worrying over her. It did no one any good to impose like that, to become that sort of burden. She'd done it to those who deserved better too often back home.

She needed to work on her game face. "Spending too much time with GLaDOS does nothing for my manners, I'm afraid."

[knightsurvive.livejournal.com]

"That's pretty much all of us," Ren admitted. "Always something going on." He wasn't going to call her out on anything, not when he had his own issues he was steadfastly not talking about with people.

Giving her a wry smile, he said, "I only bother with manners when they're needed." Which...really wasn't far from the truth. He'd just gotten nicer over time, not politer.

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

Marco was flying over the city in osprey morph when he spotted Sakura as she got up onto the Great Wall. Normally he'd have just glided up and started teasing her about how she'd destroyed it in the first place, but after the last time they'd met, he wasn't exactly in that good of a mood to see her.

<You know, thank you so much for blowing me off the other day,> he said with biting sarcasm. <I especially loved your bullshit excuse. And the fact that it was incredibly obvious was a nice touch.>

[encourage]

Sakura set down the stone she'd just lifted, dust blowing out in a poof of air. There were streaks of dirt on her face, dust in her hair, and the distinct sheen of sweat beading around her hairline and the collar of her shirt.

Her mood, slightly elevated with a repetitive, completable task, soured. Not expressly due to Marco -- more due to his lack of tact that made Naruto even seem sensitive at times.

He really was angry, wasn't he? She couldn't blame him. Wouldn't blame him.

But damn that idiot to some of the more creative hells if he wouldn't demorph and talk like an adult.

Seating herself on the stone she'd just set down, Sakura folded her ankles behind each other and waited.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"You saw the Great Wall and you didn't even get a stupid t-shirt," Howard says as he pops up on top of the wall, from out of sight. "Hey, Chakra Spice. Long time no see. If I didn't know better I'd say you were so humiliated by me beating you at Simon Says that you're scheduling shifts opposite mine."

[encourage]

"The loss was too great for my soul to handle," she said, a little off center. "GLaDOS kept coming close to letting me out, but then she'd mention Simon, and we had to start the whole cycle over again."

She managed about half a smile, waving. "How've you been?"

[indeliblepast]

Today's city wanderings had turned into sight-seeing for Sumeragi. She'd never seen the Great Wall in person, just photographs - but even then, it was instantly recognizable to her. So she was staring up with no small degree of awe.

This was not quite enough distraction to not notice other people coming up as well - she spotted a pink-haired girl who she didn't think she knew, and gave her a friendly smile.

[encourage]

Sakura nodded her head toward the unfamiliar woman, her own polite smile settling in place. "You recognize what this is?" she asked, politely. "It's not from my own world, but it's pretty impressive, no matter where it's from."

[curiousredsoul]

As it often was when Celena took a break from her work she had taken the chance to stretch her wings and fly about the city. Her current path was one that she traveled on occasion, tracing a weaving path across the city, one that took her directly over the Great Wall of China.

It was on her pass between the tall alien buildings that surrounded and obscured the Great wall from view that she spotted the other making their way toward it on the ground, curious she traced a course out and around one of the large buildings to slow her flight and come to a landing atop the great wall, not far from where the one approaching it would arrive. The dragon in question would look quite familiar to the one approaching, if with slightly different markings adorning her form.

[encourage]

Sakura looked up, squinting against the artificial light. Moving shadows were not terribly common outside in the city, pending they weren't cast by the particular set of false clouds or shifting position of the false sun over the course of the faster than slower days.

She didn't see anything at first, wouldn't see anything until another fifteen yards had been crossed and a bit of red and much more of black drew her eye. Out of place, but not terribly so -- and so familiar.

She wondered if it was Marco for a moment, shaking the feeling off when there was no voice invading her mind and sounding self righteous or sarcastic or hurt. Or -- something. She didn't know.

Still, she made herself smile and wave to the far off (in a way) form, before continuing on to her destination.

[battorch]

The city, certainly, was something rather tough to patrol, as a whole. Based on sheer size alone-- it was a lot of ground to cover. But still, Tim had to do it, wouldn't allow anything else whether it were his job or not, and so he was there. And, to be honest, he actually kind of liked the city.

He was alert and a taking to himself as he moved through, up and out of sight for the most part, but he inevitably saw Sakura near the Great Wall, a place which he enjoyed using for its vantage point, if nothing else.

"Sakura," he greeted, with a polite nod. He hadn't spoken to her in some time, but he still felt grateful for her help in the incident from a few months previous.

[encourage]

She smiled, nodding to Robin. "Hey," she said. "How much of the City do you end up covering?"

Different people did so, to different degrees. Watching the Animorphs was kind of interesting. Tracking any pattern from Security had its own merits. Then there were the individuals, some with patterns, others without.

Didn't hurt that movement in the city was largely crewmember in origin.