10th: The Advances of Haruhi Suzumiya

[godbent]

[Voice // Filtered to the SOS-Brigade // 85% Unhackable]

[This morning finds Haruhi sitting on her porch (of House 10) holding a set of dice in her hand before school. She found them last night, and it helped spawn an idea in her head. She's rolling the dice idly on the ground, so anyone is of course free to run into her before then, but-]

Alright Brigade, listen up! In my infinite wisdom I've devised our next scheme. Some people might have been saying "SOS-Brigade, what do they do?" for a while now, and we've been losing a few members here and there besides, but no more! In fact, this new one's going to hit everyone clear out of the park and top everything we've ever done before!

You notice how everyone has been going "oh it's so boring" or "what do you do for fun" and stuff like that? Well, we're going to show them what we do for fun: the SOS-Brigade is going to construct a games house, a gambling den, a casino! Pachinko, slots, poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, showgirls, minibars, we're going to set all of that up and have it operational before the summer begins!

Any objections can be submitted to me once opening night for our new casino happens. In the meantime, we'll be hammering out the details at today's meeting. It's about time we made our name immortal!

[The meeting is assumed, but any insights you think your character might point out/that you want to point out you can show us all here, please]

[Voice // Action]

Hey Luceti! This is your special chance to do a favor for the one and only SOS-Brigade. We're in need of all of the following, so any takers should step forth now! We require: A skilled martial artist, a mathematician, a mechanic who doesn't already work at the smithy, some big meat head - preferably six or more feet tall, a representative from the bar, someone who can fly, someone skilled at hair-care, a skilled massager, a geneticist, anyone who can walk on water and... a hacker, preferably a space-age one.

[Also if you want to find for for action, this evening sees Haruhi going out to outside of House 10 where she's set up some dummies and practicing her martial arts on them. She's good, but she feels sorely out of practice - her muscles aren't keeping up with her brain, and the results are frustrating]

Comments

[godbent]

-Do you even count for one?

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

Considering I've fought tons of demons armed with swords, guns, bows, axes, spears, and magic with my bare hands and survived?

Yeah. I would say I count.

[godbent]

That just means that you're strong, not that you're a martial artist.

[This whole time she just imagines him... barfighting his way through life, basically]

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

...I beat up a bunch of martial artists too. The Overlord liked having a few of them around as bodyguards. ...Ninja too, actually.

But if that doesn't count. What would you define as a martial artist, then?

[godbent]

Someone who relies more on skill than just punching things and can put out some good moves depending on the situation.

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

You do know that the vast majority of martial artists rely on the most basic of punches, kicks, blocks, and dodges to be effective, right? You can have all the fancy moves in the world, but most of the time they're just not that effective in real fights.

Besides. Do you really think I started out as strong as I am? I had to work for it.

1/2

[godbent]

But you're still a super-powered guy or something! That's not helpful to me at all, after all I-!

[godbent]

-Whatever! That's irrelevant anyway!

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

[Hm.]

...I wasn't super-powered when I started out. I wasn't much stronger than a normal person, if you can believe it.

[And this of course, being Adell... he's obviously telling the truth.]

[godbent]

...What?! How does that even make sense?!

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

Well, I worked hard. Fought hard. I swore I would break the curse over my home, and I had to keep focused on doing that.

I fought demons. Monsters. Whatever got in my way. I shed a lot of sweat and blood. And every battle I fought I learned something, and I got tougher. Mistakes, victories... everything taught me something. Through determination and persistence I got enough experience and power just to keep getting stronger.

[Of course, part of that is the function of the world he's from. Mana power tends to grow as one fights.]

1/3

[godbent]

[...Processing]

2/2 I lied

[godbent]

[...Okay, so that means his world runs on bullshit logic. She sighs and shakes her head. Might as well test the theory]

And let me guess, every time the villain beat you down you came back stronger after a minimal period of training?

1/2

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

I only fought the Overlord once.

...But no. I didn't get powerful by getting my ass kicked. When I lost fights, I lost fights. Didn't happen often, but I had to rest and recover, then find another way to get stronger.

2/2

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

...The scars on my face aren't for show, after all.

[godbent]

I didn't mean you got stronger form losing the fight, I meant the circumstances allowed you to find some special way to get more powerful, duh.

[...But the scars make her wince a little]

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

Nope. Losing didn't really give me the key to winning. It taught me things not to do, but I still had to go back to doing things the old fashioned way.

Get more experienced. Learn how enemies fight, and figure out how to counter it and beat them the next time. ...Took me a couple of years to beat one of the people who I lost to.

1/2

[godbent]

Years?

[But that's like an eternity in shounen time]

2/2

[godbent]

...Well, good for you then.

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

[There's a light smile at that.]

...But anyway. What'd you need a martial artist for?

[godbent]

-Not reason! I'm just curious, that's all! Or well- no, it's just logistics, logistics!

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

...Logistics for what? I mean, that's a pretty strange list of people you're looking for.

[godbent]

That's a secret!

[vulcanblazer.livejournal.com]

...You're serious, aren't you.

How many people are really gonna agree to help if they don't have any idea what you need them for?

[He actually sounds genuinely confused on this, and he's not making any effort to hide that. Because this is puzzling, though it shouldn't surprise him. It's Haruhi.]

[godbent]

Obviously, I'll explain the details of the situation once I know that they're up to the task. That's why I went with some broad options rather than getting into exactly what talents within that larger group they'd need.