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Who: Uchiha Sasuke
Broadcast: Fleetwide!
Action: Marsiva
When: This very moment.

(broadcast)

[ Sure there are bound to be the occasional less-than-thrilling broadcasts but this one may be a new low, with the camera focused in on a nondescript blob that turns out -- with some acquired distance -- to be a knee. The feed shakes then and there's the loud metallic tap tap of the device being knocked against the framework of one of the generic cots aboard the Marsiva. Tap. Tap. Tap. The only other sound is that of the painfully bland music in the background, without a word being spoken.

At least this inept user finally turns the communicator around to inspect it at another angle, granting any viewer a flash of dark and impractically spiked hair before the camera then focuses on equally shadowed eyes and a severe expression.

No, he's not going to panic. He probably already did that internally before he even tried to figure out the communicator ~~less than successfully~~. Send aid. ]

(action)

[ Sasuke will be easy to encounter either sitting on that cot and fiddling with his communicator, exploring the bay thoroughly, or staring with incredible and difficult-to-read intensity out into the murky void of space. Godspeed. ]

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[ Honestly, 90% of the time new people posts like this are usually boring or someone else has already taken care of telling the person where they are.

This time .... is markedly different. She does almost scroll onwards to the next thing after hearing the tapping, but the flash of video makes her pause, and replay it. And then replay it again. ]

[ That's ... it has to be. Right? ]

[ She switches on the video in a hurry. ]

--Sasuke?!

[ Oh great a new feature that he has to figure out. Why is this message unlike the oth-- ]

[ Wait. ]

Ino? [ Well there's the sound of his voice but the camera is again pointed away from his face as he has it backwards. If you like knees this really is the place to be. ]

What the hell is going on? [ At least, she sounds like Ino and resembles her, but there are marked changes in her appearance. She looks... older. ]

[ ... She lets out a little relieved laugh. Holy shit. It's him, and he's pointing the camera the wrong way, which is too funny not to laugh at. ]

Yes, it's -- it's me. You've got the camera facing the wrong way.

[ She pauses for a moment to process this. She's clearly ... very shocked to see him. Which is fair, since it's been years since she's seen anyone from home. But she looks back to the camera with a smile after a moment. Where to begin? ]

It's ... it's a long story. We've been abducted, sort of. Haven't found a way out, yet.

[ It's more than anyone else has given him so far and he takes it in relative stride. This is hardly the biggest shock of his life... and after riding the bittersweet victory high ~~and defeat at the hands of Naruto~~ of ending the war he's not undeterred to hear that so far she hasn't earned her freedom. He's too confident that he'll manage a plan.

That tune will no doubt change. ]

If that's the case, then-- [ Oh, right, flipping the camera around to show that painfully impassive expression -- it's definitely him. ] It isn't illusory? Or a separate dimension... Your age doesn't coincide with mine.

[ It is definitely him, and her smile grows just a little wider when she sees him properly. ]

It's kind of like a separate dimension, yeah. And I've been away from home for ... a long time, now, but that's an even longer story.

[ She pauses, hesitating for a moment. ]

-- Look, I'll tell you everything I know about what we've figured out about this place so far, but I have to ask you something first. What was happening when you left? People can be brought here from different points in time, both future and past, and ...

[ She tucks a stray hair behind her ear, looking worried now. She needs to know how the war will turn out, but she's cautious not to say exactly what it is she's looking for, in case he hasn't experienced it yet. ]

... you seem -- okay? Is everything alright?

[ An understandable and reasonable inquiry from a girl -- woman, now -- that he's always had a history of writing off as being anything but. He can empathize with a desire to know what's taking place in their shared home-world because he's feeling it even now, and it's scarcely been a day. ]

My injuries have been better tended to here. [ Sakura's healing had been rushed and relied on depleting an already well-worn reserve of chakra, after all. ] And I woke up in this place after the conclusion of the war. [ And he's going to choose to not be so forthcoming with details about his clash with Naruto. ]

I remember you also being part of the allied shinobi force.

[ Whoa, whoa. Is he actually from the future, then ... ?

She's speechless and wide-eyed for a moment. ]

... It's over? And you're ...

[ No. There's no doubt in her mind that he's back on their side now that it's over, so she doesn't even bother to finish that half-question. More importantly: ]

Did everyone -- did I --

[ Did everyone make it? She's spent years now thinking about how she could possibly have made it out alive from the situation she'd been in last. It seemed unlikely that she could have survived, but he didn't seem shocked to see her the way someone might if someone had been killed ...

... Then again, it was Sasuke, he could have easily been hiding his surprise, and it's not like she was someone who was all that important to him in the way Sakura or Naruto might be, where he might not be able to keep those feelings hidden. ]

[ Momentary consideration is given to the notion that something like this may have the potential to alter the fabric of space and time in some irreparable manner. And yet he plans to answer anyway, because he's Uchiha Sasuke. The words "collateral damage" have never been much more than a collection of syllables to him unless they're in a sentence with the word "Uchiha". ]

Survive? [ A while ago he might've disregarded her inquiry completely but as it is she's his only tentative ally thus far. Icing her out would be counterproductive. ]

"Everyone" didn't. You did.

[ While everyone else seems to be finding Sasuke irritating, it's only been a few minutes talking to him and she's already felt a huge weight lift off of her shoulders. She takes a moment to look relieved, glancing off to the side to process this.

... She shoves it to the side after a moment, though -- she knows that many people died. The casualties were already sky high last she remembers, but ... ]

What about Sakura? --Naruto? And Shikamaru and Chouji?

[ Of course, everyone else is important too, but ... ]

[ The pause is longer this time; apparently he's still weighing up the value of his honesty... and for a number of reasons, now. ]

You, Shikamaru, and Chouji were placed under Obito's and Madara's illusion. You were kept safe in that way, along with nearly everyone else on the battlefield.

Sakura and Naruto continued in the fighting effort afterwards, but they were still both able to make it through as well.

[ ... ]

... Okay. Okay, good.

[ She doesn't really know how to feel about being stuck in an illusion like that, and it probably shows a little in the way she says "good", but they made it out alive, and that's what's truly important.

She takes a deep breath, and smiles again. It's a lot to process, but he's new and confused and it can wait. ]

Sorry, it's just that the last thing I remember is [ she hesitates ] saying goodbye to my dad, and I haven't seen anyone from home in years, so I had no idea what was going to happen ...

[ It can wait. ]

Anyways. So ... this place.

[ She exhales, blowing the air up at her bangs. ]

Basically, we've been put in charge of operating a group of ships that fly through space. The people who brought us here, who are in some mysterious unknown location, are apparently broadcasting everything we do and say to an audience. We get paid for being ... "entertaining".

[ He's never had cause to genuinely try to read her emotions since his memories of her involve them all plainly written on her face, but this is different. Maybe it's just the mention of her father that makes him attempt it, considering that of course to be a bond worthy of note. ]

"Entertaining"?

Hn. Of all the aspects that are intolerable, that one stands out.

Whether or not we actually have an audience is kind of up for debate, still. There's no proof we really do. But yeah, the more dramatic and crazy your life is, the more money they give you.

[ So you're probably going to be rich, is what she's saying. ]

The ships are on a controlled course to random planets and moons. Sometimes we can stop and get off and get supplies and stuff like that. In the meantime, everyone's given a job on the ship they're supposed to do to keep everything running.

[ She frowns a little. ]

If you feel at the base of your skull -- [ She tilts her head to the side, placing her hand where she's talking about ] -- they've put a kind of knowledge chip that connects to our brains and tells us how to do those jobs, and translates what everyone else is saying. Don't try to rip it out, we're still trying to figure out how to do that without giving the person it's attached to a horrible seizure.

[ His hand instinctively goes to the back of his neck to feel it out but his expression doesn't change, clearly unsurprised by this "discovery". ]

Aa, I noticed it as soon as I woke up. [ The first thing he'd done was a quick physical examination of himself to check for damages or injuries, not only overly aware of his own body but suffering from what for once might be an appropriate amount of paranoia.

Totally try to rip it out, got it. ]

How long have you been here?

[ She eyes him suspiciously, because she's pretty sure that he didn't heed the warning she just gave him, but ... whatever. It hasn't killed anyone, so if he wants to torture himself, he can go right ahead.

That question is a more complicated one, though, and she pulls at a strand of hair from her ponytail for a moment before answering. Then, she switches the feed to private, because this path of conversation is going to lead to some things that she's pretty sure neither of them want to be public knowledge. Especially when she starts getting into the versions of him that have passed through. ]

Technically, I've been away from home for over seven years. But this place in particular -- I've only been here for a little over a year.

Edited (what is html ) 2016-01-14 22:39 (UTC)

[ ... some of it is slowly falling together, puzzle pieces from other conversations helping to paint a broader picture. ]

That long... I suppose from the changes to your appearance it should've been clear. [ But the loss of that many years to an outside world is hard for him to swallow. Not for Ino, really, but imagining it happening to himself. ]

The white-haired one with the scar. He was with you during those times?

Allen? Yeah. He's been here just as long as I have.

And that's ... the other thing. You were there, too, a couple different times -- so some people will probably recognize you. But from what we've gathered, leaving means all your memories are wiped, so people don't remember ever being here once they're back where they came from. And it seems like all of the time here amounts to nothing at home -- it sounds like I didn't just randomly disappear in the middle of the war, anyways.

[ He takes a moment to absorb that information, initially resistant to it before his mind logics his way out. ]

Then to me it's nothing but a phantom with my face and history, just like you're separated from the you back in our world. [ If only inter-dimensional travel were a stronger skill of his... minus that deus ex machina thing with Deidara that we won't acknowledge. ]

How much do they know about me?

[ Hey, if that's what he wants to think, she's not going to stop him. ]

Hm ... Probably not much. Naruto's been around a few times, too, but I don't think he would have mentioned much beyond the basics. There might be others from different places who'd recognize you, but I don't think anyone from Paradisa would know a lot, other than the fact that you're from the same world as me.

[ She pauses, like she's weighing the pros and cons of continuing. She decides to be honest, though -- because in the end, it'll come out whether she wants it to or not, if Atroma has anything to say about it. ]

You told me the truth about your brother, though.

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