fervidity | voice + action || backdated to father's day

[At first, not much registers on the journal other than a long bout of nothing but the clatter of someone working on something, It's only after it stops does Kushina’s voice finally pipe up.]

--Here, what about this?

[She sounds a bit nervous and when nothing is said for too long (it’s really like ten seconds) she prompts with an impatient;]

Well? How is it?

Hmmm.... [Naruto’s voice can now be heard, humming to himself as he contemplates something.]

Yup! It’s good!

... Really?

Yeah, of course it is! There’s no way he’s not gonna like it, and even if he doesn’t for whatever reason it’d be his loss, ‘cause we’d get to keep it for ourselves y’know?

[Kushina’s laugh is softer than usual, warmer. There’s a ruffle as she pats down blond hair teasingly.]

Well then, I”ll make extra.

Yosh! [There’s a soft thump and suddenly his voice sounds louder- because now he’s leaning over the journal.] So what d’ya want me to do now?

Do you think you can preoccupy your dad and make sure he doesn’t come in here?

[There’s challenge and humor and something ELSE in her voice as she asks this, it’s always there when she’s talking to or about Naruto, in any case.]

Unless you want to stay and keep helping me... [The sentence trails off and it's obvious she's distracted with something now.]

It’ll spoil the surprise if he comes in now right? Maybe I can get him to go train with me or something.

[There’s a shuffling sound as Naruto chuckles to himself, shortly followed by the opening of a door as he calls back..]

See you later, Mom!

Wh- Hey! Just don’t forget about tonight, ya know?!

[It’s completely silent now with only one person in the house; no laughter or excited chattering over what they were doing to do today or predicting how surprised Minato was going to be later. So she turns to the journal to maybe find someone to talk to and notices it’s recording.

There’s more silence, awkward, until finally a she blurts in a fluster.]

Ah, er! Whatever you heard... you didn’t hear it, okay?

[OFF IT GOES.]

--

[1. Earlier, Kushina is seen rushing around a store, having too much in her arms and dropping a whole lot of it sometimes in her haste. She grumbles to herself and tries picking it back up, but ends up spilling more and making a whole lot of noise. This happens quite a few times throughout the store and as she's shopping--

Until she decides to use her new blue apron as a basket because who uses shopping carts?

2. Even earlier than that, she's a flash of bright red hair running through Luceti at top speed. And since she's had plenty of practice, the wings give her a higher velocity as they beat against her back.]

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They're really taking these experiments too far.

And yet they sometimes decide to make them pleasant, for an unknown reason. We once had a corn maze for a few days.

[While draftees were getting infected by a zombie plague.]

They shouldn't be experimenting at all. We're not... things they can just test things on. We're all people, we should have a choice.

We should. But why would they care about that, when they have every advantage possible against us?

They can't be that strong. Maybe we can talk to them or something.

[And bash their faces a little.]

They contact us through the journals, every so often. And we've met a few in person. But they usually are well protected.

There's always a weakness somewhere, that's what someone taught me.

The problem is finding it. That part is turning out to be trickier than I thought.

If we don't find it, they're going to keep pulling the same crap over and over.

We'll find it.

Good luck with that. Many people have tried, but perhaps one of us will manage to do more than try.

Did they give up?

Some did. Others are merely trying to think up new possibilities. More were returned home before they could achieve results.

... I wonder if they were sent home because they figured it out.

Some of them, perhaps. But too many people who would have shared their progress with their friends have disappeared, leaving those friends behind.

But people can come back. There's no sense of permanency here. It's like living day by day and just enjoying what you can in the world. Life is too short to mourn forever.

[Far too close to ninja lifestyle.]

I guess I was here before and came back, but I don't remember. It's probably those memory modifications you were talking about. I probably won't figure out how to stop them but I'm frightened for the people that might and they'll disappear too.

I know we don't belong here and eventually we go back to where we came from, but I think some people like it here more.

[It was better than being dead.]

...I cannot remember either, even though this is supposed to be my fourth time here. But even if that might happen again, I'd like to find out how to stop this. I can think of a thousand reasons why people would prefer to stay here, but I have twice as many to go home.

[If she wasn't dead, she's sure hers would be the same.

It was home. For now, Luceti is if only because she has those precious to her here with her.]

Your fourth?

[Can't the this world just DECIDE if they want someone to be here or not and stupid futzing around.]

Or so my friends and family claim. I have no reason to disbelieve their words, and they have no reason to lie to me. Yet I remember nothing of it, while my wife remembered her previous stay the last time she was here.

[They keep coming and going, with or without memories, and sometimes Cecil just wants to know why.]

It just seems random. They said I had been here before too and I don't remember anything.

They're just testing us, I think. Whoever it is. Just a bunch of stupid experiments to mess with our heads and see how we deal with it.

Only a messed up and creepy person could keep doing something like that. Especially to people with families and friends and a wife.

Or to children. Some are not even hold enough to receive their first practice sword, much less see drafts and their neighbors dying.

[Her jaw tightens. Yes, the children too she's seen around here.

Ikki. Naruto's friends, they're still just kids.]

It's horrible. It's awful.

[Some of the experiments seen happy and simple, but they're still testing something. And that's why they need to find a way.]

And that's not even mentioning the children that are born here, and not necessarily from parents that come from the same world either.

[She hadn't even thought of that. It's enough that children of their own worlds were stuck here like this but how can parents think they can bring someone into this world without there being risks.

Kushina isn't sure she can do it again.]

When the parents go home, do the children go with them?

[She thinks she already knows the answer.]

...Sophie is still here, and very loved.

[And surrounded by her parents' friends, which helps.]

But there was a boy, a few months ago. The Malnosso took him.

No. No more.

I'll tear down that barrier with my bare hands if I have to.

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