mikangirl | [Voice/Action]

[What a cheerful week it's been. Almost like a vacation away from this place.

Or not.

Nami doesn't have the energy to complain when she finds she's been returned out at the orchard in the early hours of the morning. Not that much of a problem, bar the fact that it's freezing and she's dead tired. The cottage isn't heated, but there's still a bed in there, and she collapses across it for a few hours' sleep.

...and at some point, rolls herself up in the covers, because that's smart.

When she finally wakes up around 8am, her journal's sitting on the floor next to the bed, and she flicks it open with a finger, not bothering to work up a filter to the crew. Too much effort, and she's just not in the mood for things that require concentration today. Or in much of a good mood at all. Valentine's is... still a little too raw. Among other things.]

[Voice]

I'm back. [Not that anyone but the crew knew she was going somewhere. Details. She doesn't much care.] You guys weather the storm okay?

[Later she'll make her way home, and then inevitably make her way into town and collapse in Good Spirits for a while in the evening. She's catchable wherever, and probably not that hard to cheer up if you want a lighter conversation.]

((ooc: and I will be slow for a bit, so bear with me.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Depends on what you're leaving it for, right? I'd take winter over a few options, that's for sure.

Ah, yeah, that's true. Did you, um, get kidnapped recently? Is that why you've been gone?

Ah...no. Not this time. [She grins faintly and gives a mock salute.] I was off doing my civic duty as a citizen of Luceti.

[There's no sarcasm there at all. Really.]

[It takes a bit for the sarcasm to register with Pao-Lin, but she gets it eventually. She's learning.]

On a mission, then?

Yeah. Truthfully I'm just in it for the points. There's some nice things I can get if I save up.

[Pao-Lin nods.]

They do have some interesting-sounding things, don't they? Like the shift canceling bracelets and such.

Yep. They'll come in handy for things like Valentine's, that's for sure.

Ugh, yeah. I'd almost rather have the moonfall experiment again than something like that. [Priorities: Pao-Lin has them!]

So would I. [Nami thinks your priorities are totally valid. :|b]

You know, though...I think it's kind of weird that they're offering those to us. The Malnosso are the ones who run those experiments, right? To...to do research on how to get us all back home. So wouldn't they want as many people to experiment on as possible? [Then she remembers something Shikamaru mentioned to her a few months back, during the moonfall experiment.] Unless this is just their way of trying to make nice with us.

It could be that. They're offering a choice to opt out for people who work for them, which means they win either way-- they get our best efforts at manual labour and fodder for experiments, because there's a lot of people who wouldn't trust the missions or be willing to do take one.

[Then there's the fact that the Malnosso are kind of like a bureaucratic nightmare and each faction seems to want something different, but she won't bring that up on the journals.]

[Pao-Lin's silent as she considers Nami's words.]

I guess that makes sense. It'd just be nice if the Malnosso could be more open with us about their plans. Even if it turns out that what they're planning to do is terrible, it'd be better for us so we'd know what was coming. Maybe we might even be able to better help them.

Maybe.

...it might happen eventually, I guess. They probably have to decide they trust us, too.