Bantha Gettin' Down on the Farm....

[thefinaljedi]

Who: Luke Skywalker, Giovanni, Applejack, House 44 & 46, and anyone else who is interested in Luke's farm project.
What: Lets play Harvest Moon: Luceti Edition
When: August 21st
Where: Farmland outside the village
Summary: Luke Skywalker has decided that the farmland should be put to use. Rather than let the land go fallow, and despite the lateness in the season, he's asked people for help putting together a small farm project. The aim is to plant a lot of crops so the soil doesn't go wild from disuse.
Rating: BP for Bantha Poodoo.


Anyone who's interested in this, feel free to just jump in. Luke's been asking around, and doing quite a bit of work to get things set up. Barrels of water, some seeds, gathering tools. If you want to help out, please go for it. Just...don't kill the Bantha, ok?

Comments

after luke's thread

[redjacketthief]

[Lupin had been distracted--and busy--on multiple different levels since they broke ground that morning. Between keeping tabs on the seeds, where the volunteers were at, and balancing his own health issues with the conditions in the fields, he had not been paying as much attention to peripheral details as he would have liked. Playing Activity Coordinator wasn't hard, but it wasn't second nature either. It required him to focus and be organized, neither of which were traits that he naturally exhibited.

He was taking a quick breather by his new friend, the Bantha-chan, when he noticed someone that he didn't expect.]

Ami-chan?

got it! <3

[geniustheveil]

[It takes a concerted effort to bring herself down to the ground, to make things look at least a little more normal.]

Lupin-san! [Torn between embarrassment - this is a weird way to be seen, after all - and pleasure at seeing a friendly face, Ami manages a slightly stiff smile.] You were helping with the farming?

[redjacketthief]

I, um...

[He awkwardly glanced down at his arm, effectively immobilized per his brawl with Apep and Law's order. It embarrassed him just as Ami was embarrassed, but he covered it with a smile.] I'm helping keep everything running, if that's what you mean.

[geniustheveil]

[Her eyes follow his; and Ami glances away. She changes the subject, only slightly.]

I'm sure he appreciates it. I'm sure everyone does. This farm will help us to be more self-sufficient.

[redjacketthief]

[He appreciated that. Trust and openness were to be won, not freely given. He liked Ami, but there were a great many people that he liked but didn't want to confide in. While she had his respect and knew of his problems, she hadn't quite won that game yet.]

It will, which will help us in the long run. We can be less dependent on the whims of the Malnosso...and it will give us a project that's rewarding on multiple levels.

When did you get back in?

[geniustheveil]

Just now. I was told I was gone about three weeks; almost a month. It seems hard to believe. [Time had blurred together - there hadn't been much to measure it by.]

[redjacketthief]

Yeah, you were gone for a while... [He sighed.] You'll want to talk to Luke, if you haven't yet. He was a wreck after you vanished.

[geniustheveil]

He was? [There's a mixture of concern- and a very secret relief, to hear and know that her absence mattered to him, that he cared and worried for her.]

I didn't mean to worry him - or anyone.

[redjacketthief]

It was the Malnosso--not your fault. [And he was getting annoyed with being their plaything.]

...he voluntarily went on missions for the better part of two weeks, if you were curious. A few frustrating things happened. We're just dealing with the clean-up now.

[geniustheveil]

I see. He must have wanted to get away from the village for awhile. [Luke has about as much love for the Malnosso as she does, after all - which is to say, absolutely none. He'd have been doing those missions for his own reasons, just as she had.]

I talked with him for awhile, so I heard a little of what happened. [Anakin gone. That must have hit hard.]

[redjacketthief]

You're really good at understatement, you know that?

[It was a pathetic excuse of a joke, but he was tired. Everything had caught up to him, and it was taking a while to rebuild everything he had.]

A lot of things happened, in truth. Much of it is still a sore topic for those involved, at least a few of them.

Like I said. It's just clean-up now.

[geniustheveil]

[It may be a joke, but it's also true.] Sometimes, maybe I do.

However, you're right. I wasn't able to be here to help everyone; but I can support them now. I can be here for them now.

[redjacketthief]

...

You and Luke. You both really need to learn to worry about yourselves sometimes.

[There was an overlay of jest, but it was his uncertainty speaking. Even after all o this, even after he hit his wall, he was still having trouble accepting aid from people.]

[geniustheveil]

Of course I want things to go well for me. But I also think of my friends. That's all. [It's an overly simple way of putting it, but over the years, she finally learned to rely on those people close to her.]

[redjacketthief]

Friends, huh?

[He understood the concept, but was not near as cavalier with those he included among the people closest to him. There was a word that he had heard used in Japan sometimes-- nakama. For him, there was a distinct separation between friends and 'nakama'.

Liking someone did not mean trusting them.]

[geniustheveil]

Friends.

[It's not a word she uses lightly, either. It's a word earned by the people who fought at her side, who were there for her, who forgave her when she was so very wrong - and even when she hurt them so deeply. It's a word earned by the ones who showed her how to be better than she was.]

When I finally found some, I didn't want to lose sight of that. I still don't.

[redjacketthief]

...It's kind of the same for me.

[But, with the nature of his job, accepting any friends were hard. Most of his partners and associates were earned through trials of smoke and bullets, but most of them had returned home. It left him in a completely unfamiliar situation in Luceti, one where he needed his support from somebody. Anybody.

He still wasn't wholly certain about who to ask.]

[geniustheveil]

It's harder here.

[Not meeting people; that was actually easier. But everyone leaves. Even Usagi just recently left. And the people here still aren't the ones who knew her inside and out.]

But I want to appreciate the times we have.

[redjacketthief]

It's good that we do take the time to appreciate them; the nature of this place makes any connection that much more precious.

[It was a lesson that he was starting to learn.]

[geniustheveil]

Do you believe that? [The tone makes it a question; neither surprise nor sarcasm. It's just..]

Even if we forget what happens?

[redjacketthief]

Ami-chan.

[He leveled his gaze at her, his tone suddenly sober.]

I've dealt with situations like this back home, where the risk of losing a lifetime of memories is very real. Even if the person in question forgets an important event, in context?

...She's just gone back to living her real life. She would remember if she could, but she has no time. But, even if the memory isn't accessible to the mind, it's still there in the heart.

To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart from Casablanca: "We'll always have Luceti."

[geniustheveil]

[Then why didn't it save her? If she could have remembered Luceti, even in some tiny way, when she went back...

But those are useless - and old - regrets by now.]

I don't know if I can believe that. But I'd like to think it could be true.

[redjacketthief]

You don't have to.

[A lopsided shrug. He's had far to many unusual experiences to not consider these things in his off hours, between beers and airheaded sorority girls.]

You asked for my point of view, and there it is. Life in my line of work is anything but stable, so those of us who choose this path have to be flexible in their mindset. Nothing is precious. Everything is precious.

It's confusing, but it works.

[geniustheveil]

No- I think I understand. It's all precious to us, so it's important. But because it can disappear, we can't grasp on to it. [A Buddhist outlook, in its way.]

[redjacketthief]

That's it entirely.

[She got it. That was less explaining on his part.]

...It's also why I don't keep a collection--it's too easily compromised, and there are some things in this world that are more precious than paintings or artifacts.