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[screw_fate]

[If you happen to go out to the edge of the forest in a certain direction, you'll find Neji there. Frustrated with Luceti and what it means to be trapped here, he's taking it out in time-honored Team Gai fashion - by beating the shit out of whatever inanimate object no one appears to be using. In this case, it's a tree, which is definitely looking the worse for the series of blows he's directing against it. Nothing fancy for now, no Gentle Fist, no jutsu. Just good old-fashioned beating until he's exercised out some of his overflowing frustration. And he's talking while he hits -- just letting it all out here, so he can be calm and collected later, each emphasized word coming with a blow to the splintering tree.]

This... this damned hellhole, why did they have to decide it was a lark to grab everyone now of all times? I need to be home, I need to be fighting where it's going to do some damned good...

[Of course, he thinks no one can see him. Going to correct him on it?]




Player Name: Del
Are you new?: Y
Character Name: Hyuuga Neji
Character Fandom: Naruto

Comments

[screw_fate]

[If there's one thing Neji knows, it's never to dismiss anyone with a weapon. No matter how innocent they look -- well, she doesn't exactly look harmless.]

War.

[The single word carries rich overtones; Neji is essentially a soldier, but the powers that have massed on either side of this battle are more than he ever expected to see in his lifetime.]

[shenevermisses]

Over what?

[Wars have a cause and sides.

Always.]

[screw_fate]

Over him wanting us dead. There's really nothing more to it.

[shenevermisses]

What did you do? Or what were you planning to do?

[screw_fate]

[Now that's getting a raised eyebrow from him. He understands that many conflicts are complicated things, but she's being awfully challenging for a stranger.]

Declined his invitation to become his subjugated minions, I believe. Such a thing does seem to upset those with megalomaniacal tendencies.

[shenevermisses]

[Then give her better answers.

...Or she could just be bored and a little lonely. She's used to a "pack." Or at least a companion. Adjusting to life alone? She's trying.]

Dissenters have to be silenced, especially if you want to get or maintain power. It doesn't make sense to just leave them be.

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[screw_fate]

[At least the conversation is something to think about other than tree-punching.]

Well, yes, if one plans an invasion by force there will naturally be a certain degree of... dissent.

[shenevermisses]

And the superior force will win.

[It's not concerned. It's repeated. A lesson drilled into the mind.]

[screw_fate]

Indeed. Although superiority can be difficult to gauge. [As he has discovered in the past.]

[shenevermisses]

Strength, intelligence, factors of climate, familiarity with terrain.

It's not always obvious. The superior force.

[She's learned that lesson well.]

[screw_fate]

Morale. Motivation. And sometimes... a certain element of simple fate.

[He actually favors her with a slight smile.] Indeed.

[shenevermisses]

We have a saying where I'm from.

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

[The smile almost confuses her. It's friendly... but it could be an act. She's too used to those. But she doesn't respond with hostility.]

It's luck, sometimes. Those odds. How they fall.

[screw_fate]

An interesting saying. And... it is. Or rather, the smallest things can make or break a mission, or a fight. All of it together becomes an invisible hand of fortune.

[shenevermisses]

Someone forgets about one element, it gets them killed. Someone underestimates an opponent, it gets them killed. Fortifications are assumed to be sound, and surveillance gets lax. Then everything's gone.

[Simple understanding.]

[screw_fate]

Overconfidence is perhaps one of the greatest deciding factors in battle. Even a weak fighter can manipulate his foe's sense of superiority and thus gain advantage.

[shenevermisses]

[She looks over. A critique on her? No. He doesn't know about that. But she nods.]

It's a game.

[screw_fate]

It is my life.

[There's a hint of rebuke in his words; her statement seemed to trivialize it.]

[shenevermisses]

[A pause.]

Was mine.

[screw_fate]

[And now she's piqued his curiosity.]

Was?

[shenevermisses]

I lost the Game. [And because of course it matters:] Finished fifth. Or sixth. Depending on how you look at it.

[But not everyone knows how the Games work, she supposes. She's learned that, here. So she simplifies. It's a fact, not something she's connecting to emotionally. ...As far as she'll let anyone know.]

I died.

[screw_fate]

[Well, that's not a revelation you hear every day. And considering what he's been facing back home... well.]

And now you're here. After dying?

[shenevermisses]

Apparently.

[It doesn't make sense to her, but nothing else does either. She doesn't believe in an Afterlife, so this has to be real.]

[screw_fate]

[And he's facing down an army that's halfway made up of the raised dead. Makes this an awkward topic, doesn't it?.]

Brought by those who've trapped us here?

[shenevermisses]

Guess so. I don't know how else I could be here.

Unless this is what happens after you die anyway.

[She shakes her head, dismissing the thought.]

Never cared much about the theories about "after."

[screw_fate]

I should hope it isn't. [Because there are a lot of people he'd rather not run into. And a couple he would desperately hope to, and that is almost worse, in its own way.]

I'll admit to having wondered, but short of going through it, I don't know there's a way to ever get an answer.