fandomhigh | Mercing 101: Make it as a Mercenary and Still Stay in One Piece, Wed 7/9, Period 4

Sitting at the desk in the front of the room, Murdock shook his head at his class. "Wow. And here I was hopin' the size of the roster list was just a typo." He shrugged, "Oh well. This means we can get more up close and personal."

He shifted away from the teacher's desk and commandeered a smaller one next to his students. "Better," he grinned. "So two of you already know me, but I'll say it again for the benefit of...our other students." The apparent robot was a throwing him a bit. "H.M. Murdock. Just call me Murdock. Or Captain, if you prefer. Just don't call me Duncan."

"Anywaaaay, since our class is so small, I figure we can keep things on a less formal level. Incidentally, it just happens to work out that there's four of us," he grinned slyly. "And I happen to be very familiar with working as part of four-man team. Or...," he glanced at his students, "a two gal, one guy and a robot team. Hm." This was going to be interesting.

"But first I wanna know why you signed up for this. What to do you aim to get out of this class and all kinda that stuff. So I got a couple of questions for ya..."

(Minor class stuff here. Today's class is all discussion and is contained in the OCD. up!~~wait for it plz~~.)

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"Everyone at home keeps telling me I can't function in society," Anemone complained, wrinkling up her nose in distaste. "Last year was my first year of school ever, so I'm kinda lacking in job skills. Or social skills in general. I have to do something after I graduate, or I'll go nuts. I'm not exactly the 'stay in and let my boyfriend provide' type."

"They're wary about letting me go back to the military, which I get, I do, but I can't be a civilian. I'd be bored."

"Just because some of us don't mind committing property damage for a living doesn't make it wrong."

Murdock considered her answer for a while. "I'm going to take that from the bottom up. Sometimes things get messed up, sure. When you got bullets flyin' everywhere, chances are stuff's gonna end up with holes. Preferably the stuff owned by the bad guys, but sometimes, the other dudes' as well." He shrugged, "You can't always pick your battlefields. But do you help fix the stuff you broke?"

"Personally, the bad guys are probably headed for jail, so it seems silly to worry about their stuff. But if you accidentally shot your client's car full of holes," he made a slight tsk, "probably a good idea to fix that. Especially if you wanna get paid."

He looked at Anemone carefully. "Why are they wary about letting you back in? If you don't mind me askin'?" He was fully aware it was personal sort of question. "It's hard to be a civilian after so many years of bein' a soldier," he mused. "You get so used to it, it's hard to be anything else. That's possibly why so many mercs are ex-soldiers. All they know how to do is fight, but they can't stay in the force for whatever reason, so they find an alternative."

"And that," he leaned toward her a bit, "also makes a great many mercs anti-social. They don't know anything but soldierin', how to take orders, how to fight. They get so ingrained to bein' a soldier that it's impossible for them to not be one. And often, soldiers don't mix well with polite society. As long as you do your job, protect and fight for them, they're happy. Otherwise," he gave a curt shrug, "they don't wanna know ya. It's rough."

"The previous government is, um," scum, morons, manipulative bastards, unavailable... "Unpopular and rather dead." See! She could use tact!

"Since Commander Dewey, who oversaw my unit's creation, took power in a coup and lied to the public..." Anemone shrugged. "I was his princess. So putting me anywhere near a weapon makes the civies twitchy. The people who matter know it wasn't my fault, but try telling that to some paper-pusher who votes."

Hm. Boy did that sound vaguely familiar. "I...don't really know what to tell ya on that," he replied, shaking his head.

"I'll give you a bit of a story," he rested his elbows on the desktop, twining his fingers together. "There's these guys. They did something kinda wrong because they were under orders to do so. Also, they'd been told that by doing this thing, they'd save a lot of people and help bring about the end of a nasty little war."

Staring at his hands still, he shook his head. "It didn't quite work out that way. The war ended eventually, but they still had this deed stuck on their records. And the orders were unfortunately lost, givin' 'em no way to prove their words. They were arrested, convicted and thrown into prison. But they got back out."

So now..." he leaned back in the chair suddenly, crossing his arms over his chest, "they live on the run from their own government, part of the same folks who'd ordered them to commit that crime all those years ago. And for the most part, all the public sees is three wanted, convicted fugitives." He finally looked over at her. "I still ain't found a way to change that. If I knew how, believe me I would."

Mercing 101: Make it as a Mercenary and Still Stay in One Piece, Wed 7/9, Period 4

Re: Question 1: Why are you here?

Re: Question 1: Why are you here?

Re: Question 1: Why are you here?

Re: Question 1: Why are you here?