VIDEO; 2. o10 ☇ when you don't know your friends and you don't know your enemies where do you stand?
[the Guide flickers on to Renji. contrary to usual, he's dressed in his uniform, expression set in a humourless concentrated frown]
Abarai here.
[even his speech is different - more clipped, precise. the same unpolished drawl but a little neater, a little flatter. this isn't the Renji who drops his Guide into unflushed toilet water, nor the Renji who spends hours at a time sitting in front of the TV screen doing his best to beat his roommate's latest high score on M*rio K*rt. this is a whole different ball game. this is the lieutenant he's never had to be while aboard the Thor. he wastes no time getting to his point]
Back home, we're fightin' a war. Been thinkin' about that, an' I realised a couple things. First, we probably weren't th'only ones. Second: If the enemy turned up right now, m'honestly not sure we could beat 'em. Couple of 'em, sure. Maybe take out a chunk o'the problem. But if the big cheese turned up, right outta the blue, I couldn't give ya any promises, much as I'd wanna say it'd be easy, that we're strong enough and got enough numbers to win.
Doesn't work like that.
This ship picks us up from all over the place. Pretty sure it doesn't differentiate too much between the good guys an' the assholes tryin' to blow 'em apart. We've been lucky enough up 'til now, an' that's fine, but ya can't count on luck. One o' these days, luck ain't gonna fall on our side.
Way I see it, we've got a lot goin' for us. There are a lot of us here who'd know what t'do if we had to fight. A lot of others who'd want to help, even if they didn't know. Only problem we really have is each other. Communication. Barrin' people who came here from the same place, I bet ya y'couldn't tell me what it's like to fight alongside most o'the people aboard, to help 'em out of a real tight spot. We don't know how to work together so we ain't got the capacity t'trust each other - not with everythin', I'm not sayin' we all gotta be friends. Jus' need to be able to put our lives in other people's hands when it counts.
[a pause here as he tries to organise his thoughts, keep everything concise as he can (he'd mucked around with the idea of writing this down a couple times and sending it as a text file but it came out just as messy, so he'd figured he might as well say it aloud)]
Need ta know who can heal what best, who works out a good strategy, who ya fight well alongside under pressure. Whose techniques match yers well. Who can fill up yer stomach when yer tired and needin' a little extra somethin' at the end of a shitty day. Need to know who we can count on t'try their hardest to get better an' who already knows their stuff. If anythin' went wrong in a big way right now, chances are we'd be a mess. Ain't sayin' it hasn't worked before or that we're incapable o' co-operatin', but I can tell ya that if anyone turned up from my world an' found us how we are right now? We'd be screwed. Gotta retaliate as a force - can't leave any holes, 'cause you can sure as hell bet they'll find 'em an' push on through no matter what you do.
I want t'get us together. Nothin' too official, nothin' too taxin'. There's dangerous stuff goin' on around already, I get that, don't wanna take any focus away from dealin' with it. I jus' want us to get to a place where, if the worst came t'the worst, we could deal. We could work together an' get somethin' sorted, make sure everyone was safe. An in-house defense we know we can trust 'cause we'd be the ones who built it.
[a... cough. he's reached the end of his train of thought, and suddenly finds himself unsure as to what to follow it up with. for the first time, his expression fades into something a little more familiar, sheepish... and then hardens again, that professional mask]
Let me know what ya think. Pretty sure I can't be th'only one thinkin' about this. If enough people speak up wantin' somethin' done, I'll do m'best to work with ya an' get things started.
[with a few seconds silence, the image cuts off. the feed stays open; ready and willing to listen]
Abarai here.
[even his speech is different - more clipped, precise. the same unpolished drawl but a little neater, a little flatter. this isn't the Renji who drops his Guide into unflushed toilet water, nor the Renji who spends hours at a time sitting in front of the TV screen doing his best to beat his roommate's latest high score on M*rio K*rt. this is a whole different ball game. this is the lieutenant he's never had to be while aboard the Thor. he wastes no time getting to his point]
Back home, we're fightin' a war. Been thinkin' about that, an' I realised a couple things. First, we probably weren't th'only ones. Second: If the enemy turned up right now, m'honestly not sure we could beat 'em. Couple of 'em, sure. Maybe take out a chunk o'the problem. But if the big cheese turned up, right outta the blue, I couldn't give ya any promises, much as I'd wanna say it'd be easy, that we're strong enough and got enough numbers to win.
Doesn't work like that.
This ship picks us up from all over the place. Pretty sure it doesn't differentiate too much between the good guys an' the assholes tryin' to blow 'em apart. We've been lucky enough up 'til now, an' that's fine, but ya can't count on luck. One o' these days, luck ain't gonna fall on our side.
Way I see it, we've got a lot goin' for us. There are a lot of us here who'd know what t'do if we had to fight. A lot of others who'd want to help, even if they didn't know. Only problem we really have is each other. Communication. Barrin' people who came here from the same place, I bet ya y'couldn't tell me what it's like to fight alongside most o'the people aboard, to help 'em out of a real tight spot. We don't know how to work together so we ain't got the capacity t'trust each other - not with everythin', I'm not sayin' we all gotta be friends. Jus' need to be able to put our lives in other people's hands when it counts.
[a pause here as he tries to organise his thoughts, keep everything concise as he can (he'd mucked around with the idea of writing this down a couple times and sending it as a text file but it came out just as messy, so he'd figured he might as well say it aloud)]
Need ta know who can heal what best, who works out a good strategy, who ya fight well alongside under pressure. Whose techniques match yers well. Who can fill up yer stomach when yer tired and needin' a little extra somethin' at the end of a shitty day. Need to know who we can count on t'try their hardest to get better an' who already knows their stuff. If anythin' went wrong in a big way right now, chances are we'd be a mess. Ain't sayin' it hasn't worked before or that we're incapable o' co-operatin', but I can tell ya that if anyone turned up from my world an' found us how we are right now? We'd be screwed. Gotta retaliate as a force - can't leave any holes, 'cause you can sure as hell bet they'll find 'em an' push on through no matter what you do.
I want t'get us together. Nothin' too official, nothin' too taxin'. There's dangerous stuff goin' on around already, I get that, don't wanna take any focus away from dealin' with it. I jus' want us to get to a place where, if the worst came t'the worst, we could deal. We could work together an' get somethin' sorted, make sure everyone was safe. An in-house defense we know we can trust 'cause we'd be the ones who built it.
[a... cough. he's reached the end of his train of thought, and suddenly finds himself unsure as to what to follow it up with. for the first time, his expression fades into something a little more familiar, sheepish... and then hardens again, that professional mask]
Let me know what ya think. Pretty sure I can't be th'only one thinkin' about this. If enough people speak up wantin' somethin' done, I'll do m'best to work with ya an' get things started.
[with a few seconds silence, the image cuts off. the feed stays open; ready and willing to listen]