un: oland | text | war relief

[toten_sie]

War is complicated. It's hard to decide what to do, where to point your gun, if you should.

But war relief is not complicated. And even now, we should think about what will come after, what will happen to people this fight are going to hurt.

I'm not very smart. And I don't know much. But there seems to be a lot of smart people here who were saved by the Natha just like me. I don't know how many of them know what it's like to be in a war, or know what happens after a war, but that part is almost worse. So I'd like to ask if we can start planning for that. I'll help, as much as I can.

Comments

cw for mentions of immolation

[toten_sie]

I know.

[ 'The only place they feel alive' rings inside of him a little painfully, thoughts of Hans, of that blank glass helmet and rumpled suit, the almost innocent way he spoke, the desperation, as he burned people alive to feel some warmth in his unnaturally numbed and decaying body. ]

Whether things will change, whether there'll be another battle is too big for me. I'm just a soldier.

But the suffering don't have a side. Or they shouldn't. If people here don't want to choose a side or pick up a weapon, they can pick up a blanket or start setting up a soup tent. That's what my message was about.

[ukase]

You have to want something more than the next battle. Even a soldier can want that.

You are quite the optimist in your own way. Let me know how that works out for you and your pledge for humanitarian assistance.

[toten_sie]

It's hard to see something outside the next battle sometimes.

And I will.

[ A pause, then- ]

My name's Randel. I'm in Olympia.

Good luck.

[ukase]

Then you need to work on that. Be more than a soldier sometimes.

I go by Frag. I don't need luck; I've got skill.

[That's just his codename for the network. He knows better than to give out his real name.]

[toten_sie]

I'm working on that.

And sometimes it's nice to have something you don't necessarily need.

[ukase]

Everyone needs life goals.

[toten_sie]

I have a few of them.

Do you have any?

[ukase]

I did when I was on my home world. Still working on it here.

[toten_sie]

That sounds like something to work on then.