trans_9 | [open] rebuilding what we can at the cost of what we can't do

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

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.

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"Still not aliens," said Atom, explaining patiently because clearly Sakura had never seen a sci-fi movie. "Aliens come from space. We're just traveling through it."

"Sounds like a pretty nice village. Or at least it has a nice name."

He's so very right about that. "Then an alien who's never left their planet isn't an alien, because they haven't learned to travel through space?"

Her thoughts briefly turned to Konoha, then turned away. She didn't like thinking about it. Not without private time to mourn? Yes, that was what she did, wasn't it. "It was beautiful. I guess most people say that about their homes, don't they? Or that there's something they miss, even if it was a living h... unpleasant place."

"Nope, they're still an alien."

Atom frowned a little. "Well, not everyone says their home is beautiful. Nice, maybe. Or cool. So you didn't like it there? How come?"

"Then aren't I still an alien? I'm not from Earth, or anything shaped like Earth."

By now she was more teasing than being serious. His question about liking her home caught her off guard.

"Oh, I did! I loved it there. There were problems, there's always problems, and it was being rebuilt most recently after... well, it was being rebuilt."

Too bad, Sakura! Atom was bored of talking about aliens.

"How come it had to be rebuilt? Was there an earthquake there? Or a war?" Both, honestly, seemed equally plausible to him. After all, you didn't call your home a living hell for nothing.

"War," she said after a moment, lips pressing into a thin line as she looked up and away. Alien architecture was a welcome distraction to remembering an act of war in a time before war had been called for.

If war could ever truly be called for.

"There was a place like that where I came from," Atom said. "It was a country called Persia. They started rebuilding after the war was over, but it'd take years before they could ever get back to where they were before." If, in fact, they could return to the conditions they'd experienced before the war. Much of Persia was still recovering economically... and of course, the mental effects of a conflict like that would take a long time to fade.

In any case, he was being a little disingenuous talking about it like it had happened in some other country, without affecting his own life -- because he'd been there, just as the conflict was ending, as part of the peacekeeping forces.

"Persia." She loved these names, saying them out loud. She couldn't manage Persia perfectly, and it showed even through the translation. Something with the r not sounding quite right. "War takes a toll. It's worse when there's not a lot of time between them, and the worst when you're living in a constant feudal state. Our whole world was like that not even ninety years ago."

Before the villages, when everyone suffered so much more for what the clans failed to provide. Too disjointed, all competing, and all grabbing for the most meager funds and promises of food and shelter just to survive. It wasn't a pleasant time in shinobi history, and Sakura was glad she hadn't been born during it.

One of many things she's glad about in retrospect. "On the bright side, countries rebuild. Towns come back. Trade re-establishes, and life goes on, one way or another."

"Yeah, they do rebuild, I guess. But that doesn't mean things go back to the way they used to be. Maybe they do on the surface, but the people who fought and the people who experienced the fighting never really forget about it. It becomes a part of them."

And for some, life didn't go on; they'd always be trapped in those moments of horror and pain and loss until that was all they could think about, all they could experience. Until the only choice they had left was to fight or flee.

Don't mind the look she's giving you now, Atom. "Speaking from experience?"

"Well, not exactly," said Atom. "But Professor Ochanomizu went to Persia right before the war broke out. He doesn't like talking about it much. But you can kind of tell, you know? Sometimes he gets this weird look in his eye..."

Sakura. Did you know the most advanced robots in the world can lie?

She had no reason to suspect they can't. Especially coming from a world where kids younger than Atom's outward age did insane things and found themselves fighting in wars.

"Yes," she said, voice soft. "I do know."

Subject change time. Subject change time! "What do you think of the sloth cows over in Hydroponics?"

Super smooth, Sakura.

Atom gave her a look that was probably pretty similar to the look she might have given someone back when she was twelve and someone tried to pull one over on her, but went along with it anyway.

"I don't know, they're kind of smelly. But they're pretty nice, I guess. I heard they pretty much take care of themselves now that their owner is missing."

Her response to his look is a little shrug, as if to admit she knows, really, she does, but it's better doing this than anything else.

Don't ask a ninja to be incredibly sensitive to dealing with the emotions of people they don't even know. Mostly it backfires. Spectacularly.

"Animals are pretty good at adaptation. Most of the species in Hydroponics still aren't sure what to make of them, let alone the glowing part. Then again, I'm not sure if I know what to make of the glowing part."

If honestly, other animals present had their own bioluminescence, so it wasn't exactly new.

"Well, some of them are. I guess those cows are still wild enough that they can get along without help... but if no one looks after them, they might start to forget what people are like." Which would make getting milk or cooperation or anything else from them that much harder. Maybe they'd even attack someone eventually, if they felt threatened.

"They sure don't look like any cows I've ever seen, though."

"Were they wild? I thought they were domesticated," she said, faintly puzzled. "Then again I didn't hear the merchants back on XaXing, and it's not the only herd of imported cattle-types we have on ship. There's at least three or four by now."

She smiled, amused. "There's a cat or dog I've seen around, but that's got to be the most normal anything I've seen."

"Well... I don't know about those guys, but some animals are more used to being around people, because they've been kept for longer. Or they have calmer personalities or something. Like I think those pigs are kinda wild anyway."

"There were some horses on Geartopia," Atom said thoughtfully, "But yeah, aside from pets, I guess there's not a lot of Earth animals around here."

"Definitely not enough of anything to be some kind of rescue ark, zoo like I've read about, or a source of food, either. Or maybe there is, in the parts of the ship we haven't accessed yet. The Daligig might know."

She frowned, certain there wouldn't be much time for asking them about such things before they left, when they finally did leave.

Atom shook his head. "I don't think so, either. Besides, even if it was, Hydroponics is only big enough for maybe rescuing one planet. Definitely not a bunch of them."

He looked a little sober at the mention of the Daligig, clearly unsure what to say about them. Finally: "What do you think the Daligig are really after?"

Sakura was quiet, thinking on what she both wanted to say, and what she actually believed. Her final answer was fairly honest. "I'm not sure. Something that benefits them, gives them answers to questions we don't know to ask yet."

She looked to Atom. "What do you think?"

He crossed his arms in thought. "They're definitely hiding something. I think if want to know what that is, we have to find out ourselves. Because they're not going to tell us."

Just because the Daligig claimed they were in the war for a specific reason didn't mean it was true. In fact, it was much more likely that the information they had given the crew was either false or only half-true. War was a game of outward appearance masking true intent; he doubted it was true benevolence that motivated the Daligig's involvement in the Ohm conflict.

Still watching him, she smiles. It's a small one, more thoughtful than anything else. "You're right." She felt it in her heart of hearts, or her shinobi heart, who really knew. "How do you suggest we go about doing that?"

It wasn't rhetorical, this question. She meant it, wanted to hear what he had to say. Listening, regardless of one's age (or apparent age) was its own important skill.

Atom frowned at her. "We have to investigate on our own. And we have to talk to each other while we're doing it. I mean, I've been here for a little while and all we're doing is waiting for the ship to take us from place to place and tell us what to do. We have all these people who can do all these different kinds of things, so why aren't we using them? Or if we are using them, I'm not hearing anything about it. That isn't going to get us the truth. They're not gonna tell us what's going on, especially not if we're always doing whatever they want."

"No, they won't. If we don't work together," she said, and she meant it in the broad sense, more than Atom and herself, "What we learn will be on their terms, or chance accidents. This crew could use a few teambuilding exercises to get on track."

Light as the statement might come off, she meant it seriously. Teambuilding rather than team-falling-further-and-further-apart.

"Teambuilding?" Atom wrinkled his nose. "I don't know if falling exercises are really going to help. I think everyone could stand to talk to each other more, though. Seems like everyone is kind of always off doing their own thing."

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