text; transport service announcement

[encourage]

Happy New Year, according to the calendar in use in Exsilium. May the next year bring glad tidings.

To anyone interested in learning basic self defense, I've spoken with Police Commissioner Sorenstam and will be starting classes through the station for any willing to attend. It's open to everyone, which means rubbing elbows with the exiles who live here, and provided cost free.

Classes will be running Mondays and Wednesdays at 0800, 1000, and 1600, starting the 21st.

- Haruno S.

Comments

[encourage]

It's something I can do, but I personally specialize in hand-to-hand combat. If people express enough interest in wanting to know to handle themselves with a weapon defensively, I'm happy to instruct as I can, but I'd be more likely to search out experts in respective fields if people prove to be earnest learners.

( She pauses, her tone shifting to something lighter and lightly amused. )

That's moving toward a different sort of defense.

[futurarex]

[he snorts again.]

Different, but no less necessary. Maybe even more important, especially if we're expected to fight.

[encourage]

We are, lord. I'm not offering classes solely to the Transports.

( The exiles are not in the same boat; they are not forced to fight, nor are they expected to fight in order to live in this land of criminal degenerates and refugees, in the eyes of the United Earth. The Transports are the renewable resource, people brought to this time in such a way as to be created much as she was on a space station universes away.

There's no guarantee the way the Initiative works doesn't create duplicates rather than pull originals from universes. Without sustained contact, there's no way to know.

But she puts those thoughts to quiet rest, focusing instead on what this was about: not the fighting forces, not particularly. )

If your primary focus is training Transports to fight, you may wish to speak with the group calling itself the Defense Group.

[futurarex]

[Not interested, he might answer, I don't want to train anyone, though that's not strictly true. not getting involved seems a better option that occupying himself with training a force of people he has no stake with--but if they are meant to fight together, then these people are to fight for Camelot, too. it would be better if they knew something of war.

only her first remark gives him pause.]

And who exactly are included in that 'we'?

[encourage]

Transports brought to this world and the members of the Initiative itself.

( For reasons of fighting, she thought that was self-evident. )

[futurarex]

They don't even train their own people?

[encourage]

What's one of our primary functions in being brought here? From what they tell us when we show up on those transport pads in the Hold.

[futurarex]

[To fight their war for them. Everyone's war, if they are to be believed, but Arthur is not yet fully convinced of that. It's so obvious he doesn't say it, but nods, somewhat impatiently.]

The more I hear about the Initiative, the more disorganized and stupid they seem. Who fights like this? Who drafts soldiers without training their own?

[encourage]

( Good enough that he lets the obvious stand without commenting. Sakura feels his own questions are rhetorical, instead watching her tablet.

Who does this? The arrogant. Scientists. Extremists.

Who drafts soldiers without training their own? The answer was the same as before, but not only did that not need to be said in a place like this, it was something she wondered how blind the Initiative had made itself in order to do what they did. )

They wanted something that wouldn't change with the seasons. Instead they got us. It's a poor plan, but desperate people have had worse ones. The United Earth is intelligent and stupid enough to let the Initiative continue to exist, so what does that tell you as a whole about this world?

[futurarex]

[this is not the time to find amusement--this is a serious topic, a serious lack of responsibility on the part of the Imitative that's only just now making itself completely clear--but even so, Arthur finds that he is amused. he even snorts, quietly.]

What I get from it is that this place is completely run by idiots. Is that seriously the conclusion you're leading me to?

[encourage]

( She's amused in a darker way; time travel technology like what the Initiative does is responsible to an extent for her own existence. She wonders if they'll ever turn it to the ends used by Station Alpha-Omega. )

It wouldn't be terribly different from most outside opinions on our own homes, I suspect, but yes.

[futurarex]

Careful. My father certainly doesn't run Camelot in such a stupid way, and I don't intend to, either, when I take the throne.

[but the smile he gives her is still sort of amused, which is better than most people get when they disdain authority!!]

But at least we know for certain what sort of minds we're dealing with. Have you had many volunteers for your lessons?

[encourage]

( She smiles in return. It's the outside perspective. Different cultures have different expectations.

No reason to irritate him by pointing out intentions and reality don't always coincide. )

A handful among the Transports. The people who live here, the honest exiles, seem more interested. It's something new to them.

[futurarex]

[a short nod, then. good. any response is better than none.]

I have a few other obligations, but I still find myself bored. Should you have need of my help, I would offer it gladly.

[encourage]

Thank you. The offer is greatly appreciated. May I have a proper name to go along with it?

( She's -- aware, and knows also what the tagline reads. It's still meant more to her in the long run to ask. )

[futurarex]

Prince Arthur Pendragon of Camelot.

[he says it somewhat more formally than he's been conversing otherwise.]

And you are called... Har-uno? [he hesitates a bit on that one. it's not a Camelot-ian name, okay.]

[encourage]

Ha-ru-no. Haruno is my family name. Sa-ku-ra Ha-ru-no.

( She takes care pronouncing the emphasis, though his "r" is different by merit of their assorted accents. )

It's good to meet you, Prince Arthur Pendragon of Camelot.

( Forgive the slight mispronunciation of that title in whole -- she's better with English names, but the particulars still slip by when it comes to clear differences in r's and l's. )

[futurarex]

[it's clearly an accent and not a mockery--and anyway his own pronunciation of her name is slightly thick and lacking--and anyway he finds that he doesn't mind the clumsiness at all, really. probably because this is one of the better conversations he's head, which disposes him more kindly toward Sakura Haruno, lady of the backwards name.]

Prince Arthur will suffice. [a beat, and he adds:] If I may ask--why do you say your surname first?

[encourage]

( She doesn't remember if anyone's ever asked her that question before. She's not sure she even knows. It's just how it's always been! )

I don't actually know. It's always been that way where I'm from, so to me, I don't understand why your family name comes second. Do you know the reasoning?

[futurarex]

Something to do with when a child's first name is actually given, I think, but I couldn't say for certain.

Anyway. It hardly matters, it was only a point of curiosity. What is your country called?

[encourage]

Ah, it's called the Land of Fire.

( She's concentrating on having this be a translated statement. Kohonagakure was more correct, but it was lost in a jumble of unrecognizable sounds to most. )

Most of the countries where I'm from have similar names after elements of nature.

[futurarex]

Hopefully not named for elements that are common in each countries.

[encourage]

We do have fairly impressive cooking fires...

( Though she smiles. )

The Land of Rain is known for rain. The Land of Earth is on as much earth as the other lands. There's not always a correlation, but it's not beyond reason to assume there is. In this case, the idea of fire is more a lifestyle and belief than a literal reality.

[futurarex]

[he actually smiles slightly at that cooking fires joke (if you can call it a joke, but it mostly is).]

And how is fire a lifestyle if it's only used to cook with?

[encourage]

We're chefs by profession.

( In her mind, she's clearly not serious, bowing her head at the end and laughing, soft and breathy. )

The idea of being both a force of destruction and rebirth is fairly common across cultures. If you did want to discuss what the will of fire means to me, I'd be glad to, sometime away from this.

( She taps on the screen. )

It's a bit more personal than this allows it to be.