[open] sketching from a view

[itsfondue]

Characters: Steve Rogers and OPEN

Location: Near the top of Shibusen's stairs, so like this.

Rating: PG

Time: May 15th, morning

Description: With the riots dying down, Steve wants a little time to draw.


With the people being rescued and the citizens slowly calming down, Steve has started to relax a bit. He'll probably never fully relax, especially in a time of war, but he knows that when there's some available downtime, it's good to take it. Rest up and refocus so that he'll be ready for the next mission or crisis that occurs. Back in WWII, it was a blessing to get a full nights sleep. Although the citizen unrest is not really similar to fighting HYDRA, it was still rather chaotic.

Since morning training is still canceled, Steve has brought his sketchpad with him to an area that's near the top of Shibusen's long stairway. He hasn't really gotten much of a chance to draw Death City from this view, mostly because of other priorities that needed to be taken care of. However, drawing is still one of his favorite hobbies and luckily for him, it's something that he can do in any world well one would hope at least. With a pencil in hand, he flips to a blank page and begins to outline the city below him. It's not a city he is completely familiar with, but it's still something he wants to remember.

Although, his sketchbook is already somewhat filled with pictures of people and places he doesn't want to forget.

Comments

[itsfondue]

"It is worth it." Well, that and doing anything of importance in Shibusen itself.

Oh, so he's part of the military too. And it seems that he's part of Giroro's unit. He remembers the Corporal saying that he's part of Keroro's platoon, so it's highly likely that he's the leader. Either way, it's always nice to meet another soldier, so Steve salutes him back. "Is Corporal Giroro your subordinate? We have spoken a couple of times before."

[starfruitfrog]

Keroro shifts his hold on the bag before smiling, "Yes it is, de arimasu."

Keroro isn't that surprised to hear that this guy knows Giroro though. That guy is surprisingly popular. (He did win second in the character popularity rankings over the actual main character. Damn him.)

"Ah. Yes. He is, de arimasu. You guys are friends, de arimasu?"

[itsfondue]

"Glad that you have a brother-in-arm in this war. Someone you know that will watch your back." Steve technically does have Tony and Bruce with him and they definitely help, but he's not exactly too close with them (although he does trust them) at this point. It's not at the stage with the Howling Commandos at least.

"I think so, he's pleasant to talk with." He would like to be friends at least. "Oh, I'm a soldier too, captain from the United States army."

[starfruitfrog]

"That makes you a higher rank than me then, de arimasu."

He doesn't look too bothered about it, but then again he doesn't find Steve as intimidating as his superiors. Likely because he didn't have to hand any paperwork in to him.

"Giroro and I don't usually end up in the same place that often though, de arimasu. Our specialties are kind of different, after all."

Keroro being the tactician while Giroro actually did things. It had been like that even when they were children: Keroro coming up with a scheme, and Giroro (against his better judgement most of the time) going with it because he had faith in Keroro. It hadn't changed much even now, just that Keroro had added cross-dressing Giroro into his arsenal of 'Great Ideas'.

"Giroro's a good guy though, de arimasu. He doesn't say much most of the time, and he's awkward around girls and when you praise him he gets embarrassed. He's even afraid of ghosts and sea cucumbers, and writes really weird poetry, de arimasu. But despite that, there isn't anyone else I'd rather have on my team, de arimasu."

[itsfondue]

"Maybe so, but we're all just soldiers in the end." Steve doesn't like pulling rank on people really. Unless push comes to shove and he really needs to.

"He told me about his specialty in firearms." Which is common for most soldiers. Of course, he used to have a shield that might as well be a bulls-eye. "If you don't mind me asking, what do you work with?" It might be good to know in the future as well. After all, it's important to know people's skill sets.

As Steve listens to Keroro talk about his fellow soldier, he can't help but smile. "I'm sure he feels the same way. A leader that's worth following."

[starfruitfrog]

Keroro looks pleased when he hears that, "True, de arimasu."

Especially when it was someone of a higher rank than him treating him as an equal.

"I'm the one who comes up with ideas and gives orders, de arimasu. Since I'm the one in the platoon with the most authority, de arimasu."

Ignoring Kururu who was technically Sergeant-major but was so strange that no one really wanted him in charge.

[itsfondue]

"You're the tactician then?" More of a statement than an actual question, since Steve understands where he's coming from. "I held a similar position in my group back in the war, also held the highest rank among them. But usually I was with them on raids, wanted to be on the front lines."

[starfruitfrog]

"For the most part, yes, de arimasu. We once took turns coming up with plans, but that ended up backfiring, so it's mostly up to me, de arimasu."

Keroro doesn't even want to remember all the sweets he had to eat when Tamama came up with the great plan to create a machine that made everything non-living on Earth into candy. His stomach still hurts when he thinks about it.

"In our case, there wasn't such a thing as not being on the front lines, de arimasu. Since we were the preliminary squad and we couldn't count on back up, we needed everyone there, de arimasu."

[itsfondue]

He nods at that. "Big responsibility, isn't it? Directing everyone and making a strategy that hopefully pulls through." Losing someone due to your own plan is always hard.

"How big was your squad?" The Howling Commandos was a little like that, since they were always out there. "My group was seven men, all of us was there in each battle. We worked alone at times, attacking the enemy's bases throughout Europe, but we did have backup on some missions."

[starfruitfrog]

"It's one of the biggest responsibilities, that's for sure, de arimasu. We only had each other, after all."

And Keroro had made up enough lies to ensure that their higher-ups thought the squad was actually making progress. Although you'd think after so many years they'd start to get wise to that.

"Our squad was five people, including me and Corporal Giroro. Giroro and Tamama are in every battle as our combat specialists. Sergeant major Kururu didn't really actively participate, but he supported us with weapons, cyber attacks and inventions whenever necessary."

[itsfondue]

"Almost like a small family. Watching and taking care of each other."

It's not like Steve really has any family besides his comrades, so it really rings true to him. But he's really thankful and proud to have worked along side them. Maybe he might feel that way with the Avengers someday, but who knows.

"What war were you fellas fighting in?" He hasn't really heard of cyber attacks too much, but warfare does change, especially in terms of technology.

[starfruitfrog]

"Well, it started off that way. But somehow our family got bigger before we even noticed it growing, de arimasu."

And before they noticed, their new Pekoponian friends had become important. Important enough, that the Keroro Platoon would be willing to risk everything to stay and keep the planet safe. Even if they were supposed to be invading it.

"Oh, an old war, de arimasu. Thousands of years old, de arimasu. Maybe even billions of years old."

He's never really sure if all Pekoponians are okay with him invading their home planet, or if they're all ambivalent about it like Saya. So he's going to be as vague about it as possible.

[itsfondue]

"That so? Seems like good things happen that we don't really notice until later."

Wow, a war lasting that long? That's a little terrifying, honestly. Even this war in Death City hasn't been that long. "What group are you fighting against?"

Steve probably wouldn't be too happy to hear them invading Earth.

[starfruitfrog]

Earth happens to be very resilient.

"Well...dinosaurs were involved at some point, de arimasu."

Which was true. And Keronians may or may not have had something to do with them going extinct. Not that they did the whole extinction of an entire race thing anymore. That was frowned upon by modern planet invaders.

[itsfondue]

Steve blinks, the dinosaurs were all extinct... well, Keroro said that they've been fighting for a very long time.

"Were you fighting on Earth? Or are there... space dinosaurs?" He means dinosaurs from other planets. If there are alien frogs, there can be alien dinosaurs. This is Steve's logic anyway.

[starfruitfrog]

"Ah, well, I'm sure there are space dinosaurs somewhere...The universe is a big place, after all, de arimasu."

Keroro is silent for a moment after that, before he laughs, awkward.

"We kind of were fighting on Earth, de arimasu."

[itsfondue]

"For what reason?" They're either very secretive or it's another parallel Earth, because Steve sure hasn't heard of alien frogs until now. It's only been recently that he encountered any kind of alien really.

[starfruitfrog]

"Well. Protecting it, de arimasu?"

Also technically true. Protecting it from other invaders, that is. It was kind of complicated.

[itsfondue]

Oh, well that's noble of Keroro and his group.

"So, you come to Earth just to protect it? That's really noble of you fellas." Steve just trusts what he says, perhaps he should question these things more.

[starfruitfrog]

The fact that Steve believed him so easily will probably come back to haunt Keroro on a later day. But for now, he's just glad that Steve trusted him and that he doesn't need to make up some elaborate lie.

"We can't just let it get invaded, de arimasu! Some of those guys are really ruthless, de arimasu!"

[itsfondue]

"Do any of the humans know that you're defending them? Thought alien invasions would be really noticeable."

"Also guessin' you guys leave human wars to themselves as well." Well, Steve's not entirely sure. He's trying to figure all of this out still. He's leaning towards a parallel Earth though.

[starfruitfrog]

"It's mostly supposed to be a secret, de arimasu. And most people are really good at ignoring things that are happening around them, de arimasu."

Except when someone (Keroro) messed up a reconnaissance mission really badly and got captured by humans.

"We leave human wars alone because our technology would give us an unfair advantage if we got ourselves involved, de arimasu."

[itsfondue]

"That so? Thought the media would cover large events, especially things that involve aliens." The New York invasion was covered a lot and he only watched a couple of channels. Then there's all those people that started to make Avengers merchandise... Steve is kinda used to that though.

"Guess if you guys have the technology to reach Earth, you would have advanced weaponry too." He smiles a little. "But humans are a determined bunch at least, won't give up even with a large disadvantage."

[starfruitfrog]

"Not if they don't know that it's aliens, de arimasu. We don't want to cause worldwide panic or anything, de arimasu. Besides, you guys are kind of ignorant in the ways of alien invaders, de arimasu."

The people he lived with before didn't even know that toothaches were caused by microscopic invaders.

"That's their weapon though, de arimasu. Not giving up, that is. I've always thought that was the reason why they've still been undefeated till now, de arimasu."

[itsfondue]

Steve guesses that it's possible, it's not like they have a huge amount of knowledge about aliens yet. Secrets are kept from the public all the time as well.

"If you wanna call it a weapon, but I think it's more than just that. It's also something that anyone can have, not just humans."