amateur photographer seeks unwitting subjects for technology study, apply within [open]

[haruno]

Ca-chick! Sure, maybe cameras weren't meant to make that noise. The ones she was used to had been more of a puff of air, a soft click, and then a bright flash of light when the bulb went off. This still had the flash, if it didn't always go, and some option that recorded video. Armed with a new toy she could actually sort-of almost work, Sakura

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[nobel_berserker]

Allenby was about to jump up onto Nobel Gundam's open cockpit hatch when she saw the flash and heard the exclamation. She was paused in mid-crouch, looking around quickly, oh! It was that gal, what was the name...

"Sakura! Hey, long time no see," she said with a grin, straightening up and walking over. "Ooh, you got a camera? Awesome! Where'd you find it?"

[haruno]

"Got it back on XaXing, actually!" She smiled, waving with one hand. "You look better than the last time I saw you, if things were a bit crazy back then." Sakura had kept a general eye on the hangar when she'd come with MedBay staff in response to the pilots coming in after the last Ohm battle. "How's your -- ah -- Gundam, right?"

[nobel_berserker]

Allenby grinned at the mention of XaXing. She'd gotten a lot of pretty cool stuff there too, from mechanical and electronic parts she could use in projects to just... general knicknacks that looked interesting. But she looked a little puzzled as Sakura went on.

"My Gundam--? Oh, yeah... I think I remember seein' you back in the Hangar," Allenby said, catching on. The pink hair was pretty eye-catching. "She's fine. I got her foot back on no problem, so she'll be ready to go whenever we gotta fight next."

[haruno]

"I'm glad to hear the reattachment wasn't difficult." If it did make her think back to when they'd first met, which was really the only time they'd spent conversing. "How about you? How're you feeling after all of," she motioned to the general area with her hand, "That?"

[nobel_berserker]

Allenby frowned and looked over at Nobel Gundam. The answer to Sakura's question was pretty bad, really, but she didn't think she wanted to share that.

On the other hand, she couldn't think of any other answer. So.

"...I don't wanna do it again. I hate usin' my Gundam to kill people, even if they were trying to destroy that planet."

[haruno]

Sakura looked up at the Gundam. It reminded her of the first time she'd done so, months back, with how Setsuna talked about the Gundams. When she looks back to Allenby, it's with a different continuation of the same question. "And if you weren't in your Gundam?"

She asked quietly, non-judgmental. War was hell. Was it killing at all that sat badly for Allenby, or specifically using her machine in a way she found at odds with what she believed. Sakura remembered the comm post from Allenby asking about Gundam use in other worlds (or universes).

[nobel_berserker]

"...I don't wanna kill anyone at all," Allenby said. But somehow, doing so with Nobel Gundam's hands made it feel extra wrong. They'd been invented as a substitute for wars, a way for humanity to struggle and fight without involving all the bloodshed there had been before. And it had worked, whatever anyone else thought about it. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.

[haruno]

"I know very few people who honestly want to kill anyone." She left the end of that statement unspoken; anyone they didn't have to. There were differences between practicality, idealism, and reality. It was impractical to kill everyone and everything listed as enemy or a danger. Idealistic to think you'd never have to kill. Reality dictated you would, or someone would have to for you.

She was a living testimony to all three, if she wouldn't have chosen to reflect on her life in that way. "The ones I do aren't worth talking about." She smiled after that, small and brief. "What do you think you'll do?" You don't have to fight. At least not like this, and definitely not as the ones who have no choice but to kill.

What will you choose

[nobel_berserker]

Allenby nodded. She believed that humans would always fight--it was just something part of their nature. Even with her deliberate inattention during academic lessons, she remembered that every period of history had at least one war going on somewhere. But it didn't have to be so bad. People just had to realize they could fight and dispute without causing bloodshed. Hell, seeing how people fought and what they fought for was a great way of coming to understand them.

So she knew that she needed to have some answer to Sakura's question. Had she made a big mistake in joining Starfighter Command? As much as she detested killing, Allenby wasn't willing to see any other worlds destroyed by the Ohm. They hadn't done the wrong thing at NiSaris.

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna fix it so I can fight them without destroying them. I'm in Engineerin'. I can figure out a way to do that."

[haruno]

Sakura continued to watch Allenby, waiting for the answer she felt was coming. She was rewarded by something she felt befit any of the people from back home, around their age. Particularly Naruto. I'm gonna fix it so I can fight them without destroying them. I'm in Engineerin'. I can figure out a way to do that.

She nodded, a firm acknowledgment of what Allenby said. "I believe you will," she said. "When you put your mind to it, you'll find your way." A nindo, if that wasn't the proper word. A way of life, and a way of fighting. "I look forward to seeing the results."