21st Transmission [Video/Written/Action] (Forward Dated to March 17)

[thefinaljedi]

[Well it's about that time of year, when the weather begins to shift and it's beginning to get to the point where cultivating and preparing to for planting season is becoming a necessity. And to get all this started, Luke needs your help. He opens up the journal and smiles at the camera.]

Good afternoon Luceti,

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Luke Skywalker. For the last couple of years I've been tending to some of the farmlands outside the village, trying to build up emergency stores as well as bringing a bit of self-sufficiency to the enclosure. And as some of you may know, within the last year both Nami and Applejack have both departed, leaving the orchards near the farmland untended. I've been tending to them as best I can, but the vast majority of the help I had with the work has also returned home.

In the interest of better utilizing the space I'd like to request the help of anyone willing to volunteer their time with a bit of manual labor. I'm afraid it's simply not going to be possible to manage it all by myself, and any help would be greatly appreciated. It's beginning to near the planting season, after all. I'm happy to offer whatever services I can provide in exchange.

[There's a pause, and he seems to look somewhere off camera.]

On a related note, if there's anyone who knows anything about building irrigation systems, I'd appreciate any advice.

Thank you for your time, and may the Force be with you all.

[Shutting off the feed, he sends out two private messages.]


Written, Filtered to Loki
Loki, I know this is much less interesting than musical theater and cookies, but I was hoping I could get your help with a bit of magical work on the farm.



Written, Filtered to Trafalgar Law
Law, I figure we should probably revisit some of those supply caches and check on them. Possibly restock and take care of a few other things down that vein.

Comments

[reviling]

[Levi lifts an eyebrow, but does as Luke suggests, taking a few steps back before he opens the door--

...to reveal what is easily the strangest creature he's ever seen. Surprise, for once, is easily seen on his face as he takes a few more steps back to avoid that too-large tongue.]

What exactly do you use this big-ass walking fuzzball for?

[thefinaljedi]

[Luke chuckles at the reaction, giving the elephant-like creature a pat before turning to Levi.]

Bantha are used throughout my home galaxy as pack animals and beasts of burden. He's good for moving heavy things, plowing, and fertilizer.

[reviling]

[all they have are cows, maybe oxen. Definitely nothing this big, so the size is the biggest thing for him to take in - which seems odd, given that he's accustomed to fighting titans as tall as fifteen meters. But titans aren't animals.]

He looks useful for that, at least.

[pause.]

Galaxy?

[thefinaljedi]

He's strong enough for it.

[Luke heads over to a barrel and pulls out a small root, offering it over to the creature, and it's only practice that keeps him from getting his hand covered in drool.]

Galaxy, yes. [He pauses, looking back.] Are you unfamiliar with the word?

[reviling]

[copious amounts of drool - definitely not his thing, but he's also routinely covered in evaporating blood back home. It's hard to say which he finds more distasteful.

Levi meets Luke's gaze evenly.]

No, it's not a word I've heard before.

[thefinaljedi]

Ah. [Luke shrugs. Easy enough to explain.]

A galaxy is a stellar body, an area of space that contains hundreds or thousands of star clusters. Each cluster may contain thousands of stars, each with their own planetary system. Essentially it's a group of stars so vast you can't even see the other side without a specialized tool.

[reviling]

[Easy to explain, less so to understand. Levi thinks about it for a few moments, trying to envision it. Thousands of stars in a cluster, thousands of star clusters. Stars, seen from the night sky, and if it was dark enough and far away from the brightness of a fire, on clear nights they seemed to make a milky streak across the blackness.

It's difficult to know if this gap in knowledge is because of what had been suppressed by the ruling class, or Levi's own limited education. Perhaps a combination of both. Regardless:]

Sounds fucking huge.

[thefinaljedi]

[Luke laughs cheerfully, beaming at Levy.]

It is at that. People travel it all the time in my reality, though. There are ways to cross the entire thing in no more than a week, if you know the right paths through Hyperspace.

[reviling]

[Levi just kind of blinks at him slowly. For someone who has a hard time envisioning just how vast the world could be outside the walls, traveling through space may as well be just some kind of fantastic story.]

Bet people get lost a lot.

[thefinaljedi]

It's been known to happen. But if you get too lost, it doesn't tend to go well.

[There's a reason planetary shields were invented: in case a ship's course was off it'd keep the planet intact.]

Hyperspace isn't something you go into without a good map.

[reviling]

Sounds like it.

[Levi has absolutely zero desire to experience this, he's realizing.]

What else is here?

[thefinaljedi]

[Luke turns and looks out at the fields.]

So far? Just this, and the orchards.

[reviling]

Livestock is more difficult to obtain, then.

What more did you want to do with it?

[thefinaljedi]

I'd like to enlarge the fields a bit more, maybe make it a regular thing that'll continue on even if I somehow get sent home. Some sort of emergency food supply is important, as is being as self-sufficient as we can be.

[reviling]

Agreed.

I don't have any farming experience, but I'm willing to learn what needs to be done and recruit people to help out.

[he's got a handful of cadets whose time he can command for an hour or two on a rotating basis, after all.]

[thefinaljedi]

Fair enough. I'll make sure you get the information.

[A pause, and he asks.]

Are you a soldier, Levi?

[reviling]

Thanks.

[Levi gives Luke a long look before finally nodding.]

Yes. [Even though he hadn't started out that way. But he's not going to dish out much more information without being asked.]

[thefinaljedi]

I thought so.

[He pauses, consideringly.]

May I ask what military? And your rank?

[reviling]

[Levi has to take a moment to think about the fact that he's now recognizable as someone who comes off as being in the military. It's ironic, given the course of his life.]

I'm a captain in what's called the Survey Corps. We scout the outer territory beyond the walls that confines what remains of humanity.

[thefinaljedi]

[Luke's eyes flicker with recognition, remembering the Locked Network post a few days before.]

I've heard the name from Kakashi. [He inclines his head.] I hope I'm not being to nosy, but, walls? Is your world recovering from a disaster?

[reviling]

We've been working with him on the alliance.

[his eyes flicker briefly. Disaster. If he laughed, he would have, just then.]

If you call the decimation of the human population by the supposedly inexplicable appearance of man-eating titans disaster, then yeah. You could say that.

[thefinaljedi]

[Well, Luke's heard of some strange things both back home, and here in Luceti. Devices that can blow up planets, twenty ton super-carnivores the size of a mountain, actual angels, and the 'goddamn Batman' (Jack Sparrow's least favorite person), but man eating titans is new.

His voice takes an apologetic, but neutral tone.]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[reviling]

Not half as sorry as the people they eat.

[He shakes his head.] It happened a hundred years ago. That's the world I was born into.

[thefinaljedi]

Are they still around?

[Did the walls help?]

[reviling]

Yeah, they are. They're very difficult to kill, and we don't know very much about them.

[Like how exactly they come into existence...why they exist at all.]