ten_fwd | [open] For science! ... or something like that.

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minoru

[open] For science! ... or something like that.

Between daily workouts in the holodeck, sparring sessions with Kaylin and teaching chakra classes, Minoru finally resumed his studies on everything snakelike. A handful of very patient ensigns helped him set up his own workstation in one of the astrobiology labs, taught him how to use the instruments and the computer, etc. His 'science' is crude at best, so a lab partner (especially someone who might actually know what they're doing) is always welcome!

[option A - cataloging]

Focusing a particular amount of chakra, pricking his finger and tracing a thin line of blood over the tribal tattoo on his wrist is all that Minoru has to do to summon a snake. He's going through his summons, one at a time, milking them, letting the computer analyze them and their venom. For him, it was a new way of thinking about things, but for the computer, it was one easy match after another. Until he'd summoned something the computer couldn't identify.

The snake is small and white, its scales giving off an almost crystalline appearance. He knows this snake well, remembers its fiery bite fondly and the Sage Mode transformation it produced. But no one here has ever made a record of it before.

Are you the curious sort? What could be learned from this?

[option B - new species]

For all the snakes he'd come in contact with, there were many entries listed for species he'd never worked with. Draxxan cloud vipers, arboreal needle snakes, fire snakes... the list went on and on! When you walk in, Minoru has a living specimen of some kind on the table - a dangerous one at that - and he's handling it without any kind of protection.

Do you dare approach? And if it bites, what will you do?

[Option C - crazy chemistry]

Minoru is used to testing things on himself, on mixing substance A with substance B and observing things with the naked eye. But now, the computer can break venom down to its component parts. It could even simulate what would happen if he mixed and combined those.

He wants to know if he can create a venom that heals tissue rather than destroys it, whether he can breed snakes that produce it, and whether he can use the same serum on himself to boost the healing abilities he can channel through his Sage Mode.

Can you help Minoru answer these questions? Are you there to celebrate a lucky breakthrough? Or are you simply a witness to something going horribly wrong?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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She gave him a look, as though he were particularly slow in an obvious and irritating way. When she spoke it was as one might speak to an idiot who has the potential to be dangerous, but not the capacity to realize the speaker sees him tht way, "Healer is a female caste."

He blinked a little. "The Great Snake Lord Elders never defined anything as a male or female role. I followed my dreams and they just supported me."

It was the truth. Perhaps, in a time where there were more of them, rules and roles might have been more defined. But the few Snake Sages Minoru had met were men (he didn't assume all of them were; he'd only had the chance to meet a few.) and they did a lot of medical ninjutsu before and after they trained with the snakes. Minoru's art of healing was solely from the snakes.

"In my world, I don't think there's anything men and women can't both do."

Both of them were giving him mildly horrified looks at the moment. The thought chilled Ailyshia to the core. Dorethea's attempt to break down the Caste system, to rule as a Priestess rekindled the embers of war from when Hekatabah had tried to do the same, fifty thousand years ago. The realms were still reeling from the loss of life, and trying to rebuild. Kaleer didn't take as much damage as H*** and Tereille, but whole districts were gutted as the taint was removed, especially Litter Terrelle and Glacia.

"Caste decides much," she finally said, firmly, "and the caste you are born into is linked to your gender. Males might learn some healing Craft, but they can not be Healers. I know some basic healing Craft, but I am not a Healer. Could never be."

Minoru did not advocate that his way was any more right than her's. Both of them were brought up in their own worlds, with its own rules. Each was valid, at least from Minoru's point of view.

"I was born into a ninja clan within a ninja village, so I trained at the Academy in the art of ninjutsu."

Their caste system, he explained, was one based on rank, not gender. And rank was determined by how well an individual uses their unique talents to perform within their four-man cell. If one excelled at weapons, that became their focus. If one excelled at medical ninjutsu, that was where they earned their rank. He did admit, a bit sheepishly, that he stepped outside of that system with his Sage training.

"It does decide a lot." He agreed. "I may be accepted in my birth village as a citizen - meaning I didn't get marked for assassination when I left - but I technically don't hold any rank. I can't accept missions or earn money. Kind of the price to pay for the path I chose."

He accepted it, embraced it. He even smiled.

"

"Your caste disallows you to earn money?" she asked, startled, and horrified. "How do you survive?" She might not be an aristo like the High Lord, but she understood the need for money, and appreciated the comforts of a warm home.

Theiron watching, smiled. In her shock she had forgotten to hate Minoru on principal. This was going well.

Technically, Minoru saw himself as outside the caste system, but that could be considered a caste, he supposed. He essentially had the same rights as a civilian. Or, at best, an Academy student.

"Just on missions, which is pretty much what my birth village's entire economy is based on. But I can do odd jobs like some of the other civilians." And if he was there for any length of time, he wound up doing that regardless. People were appreciative of his help, and he never asked for money. "Usually, I just do what I do whenever I travel through different worlds. I trade work for food!"

His 'home' was not his birth village, though, but rather Ryuuchi Cave, where he trained with the Great Snake Lord Elders. There, he had a small plot of land he had farmed and foraged over the years, which took care of his most basic need. Shelter was either a cave or a hammock, depending on the rainy season. Warmth was a given, since giant snakes don't take well to cold temperatures. That, oddly enough, was the comforts of home.

She gave him such a bewildered look that it was almost comical. "There is more to life, more needs than simply food," she said, startled. At least in a place like this, there was plenty, and little was asked of them, but what of where he wound up after. The Territory Queen should have been looking after her people.

Minoru laughed. "Of course there is!"

Food just happened to be the most tradable, and one of the needs that was difficult to come by when he hopped from world to world, dimension to dimension, on a very regular basis. He also happened to have quite an appetite, so it easily topped the list.

"There's hope! There's health, peace, security, companionship, resourcefulness..." The list of the intangible needs could go on and on, and these, to Minoru, were crucial. "That's what I'm really trading when I'm out there. That's what being a Snake Sage means to me."

Whether it's a hard day's work helping a village repair houses after a storm, protecting a traveler from bandits, performing a show in a traveling circus, healing the sick or standing vigil over the dying, Minoru did whatever he was asked to do as he traveled and studied the ways of the Great Snake Lord Elders. His concept of needs, wants and what brings fulfillment to his life were a bit different from most people's.

"As a Black Widow Queen, what do you use your powers for?"

That sounded quite nieve and childish for her, but she did not say as much.

"As a Queen, my powers are used to help the Land and the people in the Territory of the Queens I serve. If I were a ruling Queen, my word would be law within my own borders, and I would be answerable to the Queens above me, my people, and my court. I am not generally a ruling Queen and seek no control over the lives of the people, and no desire to form a court."

That.... was not entirely true. There was an instinctive pull, but it was like the pull someone might feel if they became a vegetarian for moral reasons, but still liked the taste of meat. She told herself she craved it not, and worked hard to that end. That a Court required a first circle of males, and she hated males, this was perhaps easier for her than it might be for others.

"I serve Queens who rule in their courts, and aid with seeing to the land and whatever tasks I am assigned."

Perhaps there's wisdom in naivety, in the same way that encouraging one person to encourage one more person to change the world for the better can start a chain reaction of epic proportions. But that was a topic for another day as well.

"So you're like an advisor... Or in my birth village, you would be." He pondered aloud. "My brother served a couple terms serving like that, and eventually became Hokage, the village leader."

One could argue Isamu had been born into his destiny, given that their father was also the village leader. But he rose through the ranks just as any shinobi in their world. He was a very skilled jonin, and was well-respected by everyone, including Minoru.

"The snakes have more of a hierarchy like you do. Maybe if there were more Snake Sages, we would have moved to that kind of structure..." He added thoughtfully. "I'm the only person living and training in Ryuuchi Cave for any length of time."

"Queens who rule ARE leaders," she clarified, a bit snippily. "My service is more often as Black Widow, than as Queen," she said, "though as all Queens do, I help with the gardens."

She tried to distance herself from her Queen instincts as much as she could, to protect herself. And honestly, she did love serving Lady Sylvia. That had been some of the best years of her life, and she missed it. She felt safe there. No one would mess with Lady Sylvia's court, not on the doorstep of the Hall, not with all the Dark Power there waiting to come down on anyone who messed with Dhelman. She had spent time with Lady Tersa, taking shifts to watch over the broken older woman, and she worked the gardens, she listened when Sylvia needed someone to bounce ideas off of, and she spun tangled webs. There was little cause for poison, in Halaway; but the High Lord saw she was trained in it anyway.

She had loved her life. And then Lady Rhea had gone and let someone try and twist the Sadist up in some sort of game. No one knew much of the details, but given the fear she felt in the court when Jaenelle asked her to fill in for a time, she could imagine. And when she had tried to look for herself, all she saw was a blood soaked shirt surrounded by more Dark power than she could comfortably abide. So she had stopped looking.

Minoru nodded, understanding how his role as a Snake Sage often trumped that of a shinobi caste (or lack thereof), to use her terminology. Though he got the sense that she wasn't as satisfied with the hierarchy as she initially tried to make him believe.

"Through your chakra? Or... do you call it magic? Is that how you work with plants and the land?" He was curious how her power worked and what it did,

In the history of his birth village, there was only one person ever born with a 'wood style' affinity, who could use chakra to manipulate plants. It was an incredible skill, and he was considered the strongest shinobi to have ever lived.

Edited 2016-02-05 03:17 (UTC)

"Magic, and some of what I do with plants is with my Magic, yes. Both as a Queen and as a Black Widow, plants are important to me. A Queen naturally can enrich the Land, has a stronger connection to it. Black Widows need plants to formulate our poisons."

Minoru always had to remind himself that jutsu and magic were often the same thing. Both were outward manifestations of the body's energy. They just called it by different names.

"That's how a Snake Sage is with snakes." The affinity, the trust, was there, with almost any serpent. They would do his bidding if necessary, and their venom was essential for his own poison training.

"Can you show me how you enrich the land?"

"I can show you, as in demonstrate, but I cannot teach you. It is called the Queen's gift, because it is inherent to being a Queen. No male could do it, and no female of any other caste."

And she knew Theiorn was going to get snarly at her for doing it again so soon, which made her more willing. Ticking him off was always a bonus given how often she was *****ed at him and unable to do anything about it because he invoked protocol.

"That's okay. I don't think I could teach someone how to breathe fire if they didn't have a fire affinity." he shrugged with a smile.

But he was curious if he could learn something similar. Maybe he could take the concept behind her technique and try to apply it within his own studies. His seal absorbed natural energy from the world around him. Perhaps there were other ways, aside from Sage Mode, of giving it back, so to speak.

"Then we would have to go to the arboretum, so that I can demonstrate. There are multiple methods."

Theiorn snarled softly, eyeing them.

Minoru simply nodded, and hopped up and over the back of the chair. "Let's go!"

He didn't notice Theorn's reaction. If he did, he would probably have just asked him if he wanted to join them.

She took a last sip then vanished the glasses to wash later. She stood and considered a moment then shook her head. "Remain here, I do not want to have to wash mud from this outfit."

She headed to the closed off bed area that was just hers. She closed the door, locked it, put a shield over it just in case and got changed quickly. She came back out in loose pants and a patched sweater. She was pulling her hair up as she came put, fastening it in place with magic.

"Ready."

If all those extra security measures were for Minoru, Aiylisha needn't have worried. He was still waiting patiently by the table, rocking back and forth on his heels. He had no interest at all in sneaking a peak or willfully invading her privacy.

"Always ready." He nodded, letting her take the lead.

It was what she always did around males. When it was safe to do so.

She headed out, walking to wards the Arboretum. Theiorn, unhappy, brought up the rear.

Minoru followed in the middle, a little confused at Theiorn's frustrated expression. This was going to be an incredibly exciting demonstration!

"There was only one shinobi ever in the history of my birth village who could use their chakra to affect plants." he added. Despite tremendous amounts of study on the subject, there still wasn't a way to duplicate the technique naturally. That research did, however, provide some of the basis for the seal on Minoru's chest. "Isamu said that wood style was associated with a Sage Mode unlike anything seen from the Toads, the Snakes or the other sacred animals we know of."

"It is a natural gift of all Queens. It is something we are trained to do from a young age." She couldn't hide the haughty smugness. Nor did she try overly hard to do so.

"It was natural for him too." Minoru scratched his head. For him, Sage Mode wasn't natural. Not really. He couldn't accumulate it without that seal.

Which is why he found this so fascinating.

"I have never in the history of the Blood heard of a male with this gift, though there are males attuned to the land who care for it, and have a feel for it," she said firmly.

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Again, SORRY

It happens. :)

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