strategicnaps | IC INBOX FOR CONSIGNMENT

[The lothlo are good climbers, but man, who doesn't want someone to rain food down from the sky for them? They snap everything up greedily, with the shille joining in a bit more shyly.]

...Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three...

[Hanbei steps a bit closer to the feeding frenzy, being careful not to step on anything living.]

Wow, I think there's even more than before! [Staring up the tree, he makes sure there's no Soldier's Wife strangling anything. Eating that would be...

The lothlo will know to avoid it. Maybe.]

How many more are up there? Maybe you can break a whole branch off.

Uhh-- [ Great, making him work. And the thing is, is that Red starts to examine for a branch that looks like it'll be the easiest to break while also not breaking his back in a fall.

So yeah, you enjoy your counting while Red climbs higher. Charizard watches his trainer with interest and a hungry belly, lightly swaying his tail until the lothlo start coming closer to even him as the surrounding space becomes lacking.

It takes a few minutes, a lot of groaning and struggling, but some of the large fruits get thrown down with next a whole branch following (and nearly a trainer with it, but we're not speaking about that heart attack). ]

Charizard, get one quick! [ It comes out breathy (arceus he nearly fell backwards) but he doesn't trust those little critters not to go darting for it. The lothlo once on his head now hangs on by his shoulders, until climbing back up his face at his expense. ] Oww ow ow--!

[ Dangit, whatever-- he's getting down now! There's a first thump of something falling on the way down, which thankfully isn't Red, but another lump of the gnelit fruits clumped together on the end of a branch that Red's holding out of the way of his guest. ] You've already got one, come on!

[ The other passenger picks off a leaf on his hat and pops it in its mouth, and Red appears certainly more tired than he did when waking up when he... stares at Hanbei's direction, but definitely does not approach him. ]

Where did you get all of those...?

[ Because he can't. ]

[If it's any comfort, Red, if you did fall, Hanbei would've tried to catch you. If he didn't succeed... well, he has an epi-pen. Even though he's been saving it for himself. Because he's a jackass.

Kinda.]

They might follow us back to camp if they like us too much. They'll probably all be eaten if they do follow us back, though. [Y...yeah.] Wasn't that fun?

[no nevermind he's 100% a jackass]

Does your Charizard eat other animals too? [Or is your fat orange dragon a vegetarian? Hanbei can't really vision that.]

Edited (tenses!!!) 2015-03-12 11:33 (UTC)

[ Jackasses for company, what a change.

He's making his way round to his Charizard, muttering to the lothlo on his shoulders if they want to get off (no, they don't) and then smiling into a tiny laugh at the sight of the brown insides of the gnelit fruit on the end of Charizard's snout.

That's wiped off his face by the subject of eating their company, and his lips are strained by the time for the question. ]

He doesn't go out and eat wild pokémon. I buy all his food myself with our winnings, just like I do for all my pokémon. [ The subject of eating pokémon is a delicate one ~~for any roleplayer.~~ ] There's no reason for any trainer to make their pokémon eat another pokémon when there's stores everywhere. It's wrong.

Anyway, fruit is fine. [ Red looks down to the bundle on him, taking a thumb up to the hard outer skin and scraping it along it. ] We'll need to get plenty so he doesn't go hungry.

[...VEGETARIAN POKÉMON, THEN. Maybe it's just a thing in their world. W/e, he won't question it as it is. ~~I understand.~~

Okay, no, one question:]

But what if you weren't good at winning? [The way he phrases it, though-- it's like you beat up people in a competition and just mug them of everything. (Which isn't too far off.)] There's enough fruits here to last anyone for a long time!

[Hanbei pulls out a bag from-- somewhere, some place, under his hat, who even knows-- and hands it to Red.] This should be big enough, right? Maybe it'll be too big if we wait for the leftovers, though.

Not everyone battles with their pokémon. If your pokémon are hungry and you can't feed them, there's plenty of people that will help.

[ He sounds very sure of that too. If not a stranger, then the pokémon centre would. No one with good intentions wants a pokémon to suffer.

The bag surprises him when it's handed to him (a bag... H-hanbei-senpai...), and he looks at it a while before looking at Hanbei. ]

N-no, this should be fine. Thanks. [ Actually, while we're having this moment- ] Oh, I keep meaning to ask you -- what's your name? We didn't introduce ourselves, did we? What should I call you?

[Maybe it's because he's a kid, but he sounds so sure--]

Is your world a nice place to sleep in, too?

[In another universe, Hanbei lives in a world just like Red. But he doesn't, and that's why he's here.

Destroying other worlds to make his own better.]

We didn't? [Hanbei seems genuinely surprised at that. (Didn't he do this to Akame, too? When was the last time he was so proud of his name?)] Oh, I'm Hanbei Takenaka! Nice to meet you.

[ Red tilts his head, amused at that question. ] I guess?

[ What an odd question. But hey, introductions. ] Nice to meet you, Hanbei. I'm Red.

[ He smiles some. The early morning has been nice and all s far with Hanbei, but there's still an endless wailing in the background that he can't exactly tune out. Dealing with Charizard gives him something else to focus on more. ] I was thinking about it last night. You said something about a glass too... and our contracts.

Oh, Red. Is that why you're wearing red?

[It's a joke, honestly...! (Inb4 he joins Red Team in the future. Red on Red Team, Green on Green Team!?) But he drops the smile for just a moment when he mentions their contracts, though he looks at the ground when that happens.]

Our Blackglass, yes. Did you want to ask anything? [...] The Instructors aren't too open with our contracts, and they're the biggest authority here. But I guess you could try, too.

[And don't ask him about it. Because he. Doesn't want to think about that. Even though he's thinking about it all the time.]

[ Huh- ] No?

[ And it even makes him pinch at his shirt for a moment. But, moving on. ]

To be honest, I wouldn't know what to ask... I've never seen a contract before. I don't know anything about them. [ He frowns, and then he's looking down himself, prompting a lothlo on him to touch his chin that makes him look to it, then to the other lothlo. ]

I just want to know... [ He trails, huffing with agitation- because he's sure the things he wants to know are the kind of questions that can't be given answers, and now they're all flooding back to him from where he left them in the night. ]

Why? Why do they want to destroy planets for? Can't they just leave them alone? And why would you bring people in like this to do it?

[ He shakes his head with his next words. ] It just doesn't make sense.

[Hanbei stares for a moment, before just shaking his head.

Even the lothlo seem to notice something's up, sparing a glance at them for a moment.]

I may be a genius, but I don't have the answers to those questions.

[A pause.]

The only thing we're very sure of is the consequences of what will happen if we don't follow the CDC.

[He should've done something, when he was in the same room as Optimus, he could've--]

I'm sorry.

[But nowhere else in the universe feels as hopeless as this place.]

[ He's getting upset again.

But he should be upset, he has a right to be upset -- just like those neraki had the right to live, just like the person in the basket had a right to live--

Red's fists ball up and he stares out to the distance away from everyone else, but he knows Charizard can easily see him, and the pokémon huffs his snout near to his trainer's face to let that be clear, too. He releases his fists and he holds a hand under Charizard's head, and the other wipes over his eyes. It takes another moment before he can speak. ]

You don't have to be sorry... you're in this too. [ Slow, carefully; his voice still wavers, but he should control it. He shouldn't lash out. ] We're all in this. And if we're not... they'll attack our homes. You told me that...

[ There's a tightening in the top of his throat, coming as it does with any shedding of tears but also with each thought Red fails to suppress. Was this really real? Was this planet going to be gone soon? How...

Were their lives really worth more than others? ]

[That's right. He's in this too.

They're all in this.

And everyone who tries to say everyone else back in his home is as important as the people here can shut it, because the natives here are already on the CDC's blacklist. They're already dead.

Or that's what logical thinking says, anyway.]

Ahh.

[I'm so tired.]

We've learnt a little more over time about the CDC. Not a lot, but it's something.

[This is where he'd say he wish he was born a cat, but the CDC even consigns cats here.]

Keep holding on. I'm sure we'll land on something one day.

[Even if it takes decades. He's already used to that, anyway.

A lothlo brushes against his leg.]

[ Why keep holding on when you can be the one to smash through the problem and battle it until it submits?

The idea of waiting was never one Red liked, and even now, older, he can't say he enjoyed it any more than he would have backed when he was up against Team Rocket. The pair of lothlo on his shoulders jump down to join their group of friends, the less than stellar mood they were sitting on not the most pleasant thing to stay perched on.

Red digs the top of his shoe into the ground, but it doesn't quell his feelings much. Give it time. He takes a deep breath in and lets it back out. ]

What do we know about them? [ And after he asks the question, he quietly holds out another fruit for Charizard to take, then leads him down - with himself - to sit onto the ground. Which turns out to be damp, but - whatever, Red will swap over how he sits, scooting over the berries in one of his leg pockets so as not to squish them. ]

[He'll tell Red what he knows, at least. He picks up one of the lothlo and places it on his lap.]

Well, this might be easy to guess, but the CDC is pretty well-known across the galaxy. Except for the planets that might be destroyed by them, of course. [Ha... ha. And even then, Selena VII kind of didn't like it when the Neheda docked in.

Everyone knows what the CDC means, after all.] Next, the CDC can bring the dead back to life. [--Ah.] Or maybe it's to do with time-travel. They can travel from planet to planet and even time itself without breaking a sweat. Or at least, without showing that it's taxing. Some people from the same worlds come from different times, and the CDC can bring people back to life as a reward for your work.

['Your work'. You know.]

[ Known across the galaxy - sure, easy enough to accept with everything else he's had to hear as being real. It's what Hanbei continues into that catches more of Red's attention. Things that shouldn't be possible, but are. Even bringing people back to life...?

And there's something in particular that gets his interesting, but first- ]

How big is the CDC? Are we it? [ These people here on this planet. For a group with these powers to them -- surely not, right? ]

[Hanbei already feels lonely too easily-- when you think about how big everything is, and how far away you are from home--]

It's very, very big. At least, it looks that big. [You know! That big!] And a lot of people from our crew gets 'transferred' to other ones now and then. Which means, they disappear into thin air, and the instructors tell us what happened to them after a few days of silence.

[It's funny. So funny. Haha.]

[ It sounds like a riot. But it's a very big operation... Red tries to imagine a size, but the biggest he's ever seen are the tall buildings in the cities. It has to be even bigger than that, for sure. ]

Why do you think they leave it so long? [ And he's already attempting to think the answer for that. ] They're not the ones who do it?

[Shrug. That's literally all he can do. Shrug.]

Who knows? That's another thing you can try asking them, I guess. [Hanbei doesn't have good experience talking to authority whom he doesn't like, so.]

If they're not open to talking to people about these things normally, I don't think they'll change their minds because a kid asked them.

[ Sometimes being a kid works, but with people like this? Red twists his wrist, examining the guff with the green colouring to it. ] Have you talked to any of them?

[Hey, you never know. Shit's weird.]

When I need to.

[So basically, the answer is no. He doesn't.]

I think Ghost is a nice person! And people like Warriorhead and Mothership. Gliese is really scary, but just don't give her reason to be, and she should be fine.

[No opinion on Armada and Hornet. And he doesn't like Dagger, so.]

[ So a Ghost, Warriorhead and... Mothership? (And people think he has a weird name)

Red thinks about that, looking out at the lothlo and then to his cargo pants, grabbing out of a pocket one of the smaller berries - and then a couple more when heads perk up. He chucks them out to be caught and fought over, but keeps one himself to take a small bite out of, chewing at it slowly.

But before he takes another bite... ]

...Have you ever fought before?

[It's an easier question to answer.]

Mhm, I have. But I don't like doing it. I'm a strategist, after all, not a warrior.

[But even back home, he refuses to stay back behind the front lines when everyone else is fighting. Which gets him into trouble a lot, but w/e.] How about you? And Charizard?

[...The Neraki massacre doesn't count as a fight. That was... something else.]

Edited (WHERE DID HALF OF MY REPLY GO) 2015-03-14 10:56 (UTC)

[ A strategist? It's an odd thing to call oneself, and it has Red curious. But first: ]

I'm a trainer; Charizard is my pokémon. [ He looks to the pokémon as he says that, then back to Hanbei. ] We battle, but not like they want us to. We have matches with other trainers and defend ourselves against wild pokémon.

[ But safely. Safely. ]

But, what do you mean you're a strategist? What do you...um, make strategies for?

Edited (i see i'm also bad at words) 2015-03-14 11:36 (UTC)

[So basically, they spar and they fight in self-defense, but never to destroy. Recruits here tend to be terrible fits for this organization. Maybe their crew is the dump.]

Here, I help to form plans to make sure we can get out of trouble alive. [Or at least, with as little people dead as possible.] But back home, I was a war strategist.

[Does he know what war is--?]

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i see we both have peculiar tagging times

i live in asia, every time is peculiar tagging time