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

[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.

[geniustheveil]

Eh? Do you enjoy art?

My father is a painter, in a traditional Japanese style. I've seen a lot of his works and the exhibits they're part of.

[redjacketthief]

[Oh. She didn't know.

...He didn't feel like facing a lecture.]

I do--you can't have culture without the arts, and paintings are one of the more lasting forms. My family worked in museums and galleries, so loving them is almost an inherited trait.

Your father is a painter? It must have been something to see his works on display!

[geniustheveil]

I haven't been able to do so very often - he travels to paint, and it's rare for his work to be shown somewhere close enough to see it. [Especially now - or rather, 'now' back in her world, where she was living in America to study abroad.]

[redjacketthief]

That's a damn shame then. Do you at least get cool stories about the people he's met and the places that he's been to?

[geniustheveil]

No... just, a postcard sometimes. [And those are even rare.] I haven't seen him since I was young.

[redjacketthief]

That is too bad...

[Not that he was any closer with his blood relations.]

[geniustheveil]

It's alright. I'm used to it. And I'm an adult now myself.

[redjacketthief]

That doesn't change the fact that familial connections, or any deep connections, are important.

[He meant that wholeheartedly--he considered his partners to be as close as family.]

[geniustheveil]

Of course, I love him because he's my papa. But the one who was always with me was Mama instead.

[redjacketthief]

...who's a doctor, right? And part of why you became one?

[He remembered little details--like their first conversation all the way back in November.]

[geniustheveil]

That's right. She was always hoping for it, too. It was our dream together.

[redjacketthief]

It's nice to have things you can share like that.

[geniustheveil]

[It had been a lot of pressure, too. It's taken finally stepping out on her own, and finally sitting down to decide what she wanted for herself, for her to follow this path whole-heartedly. But she did, in the end, and so she nods.]

I'm glad everything turned out that way.