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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Thursday

It was his first day back to work in... well, in months, and Nathan had to remind himself when he set foot in the Wellspring today that his job was simply to keep an eye on the place, to make sure nothing got away from him while he wasn't looking.

It wasn't that the guns made him uneasy or anything. Not by a long shot, no. It was more that if he'd actually been expected to make sales here, he would have had to come in with a letter of resignation. He was very much an advocate for seeing weapons in the hands of responsible persons only, lately.

He was also going to see how much work he could get done today without actually getting out of the chair he was sitting in.

[Wellspring is open!]

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He's come to enjoy a good conversation, recently.

"I see you're joining us again."

Cable strode down the stairs, puppy-and-kid circus as per usual on his heels, and walked in through the doorway.

"My apologies for the missed..." A pause. "Shift?"

Nathan had no idea yet how long he'd really been gone.

"There was a mixup at Portalocity. Apparently they figured it would be a good idea to send myself and Tony back to 1876."

"It happens," Cable pointed out, with the easy acceptance of a man to whom, yes, it happened, and quite frequently at that. "How long was your stay?"

It was the pause that made him ask.

"From summer, through the winter, and on into spring," came the reply. "It was... Something of a learning experience, really."

An epic one. The sort that meant that he was going to remain sitting today, rather than jumping up to greet the dog and make 'aww, baby' eyes at Jan.

The dog was going to come to Algren, then, like the mountain would come to Mohammed.

Or something of the kind...

"It can be," Cable said, cryptically, and actually stopped by the desk. "Three months sandwiched into a week - I'd say that was impressive, but considering it's already time travel, it makes sense... if you're going to be logical about it." He lifted his head. "Something happened?"

Oh, Tether, making Algren lean over to pet you is mean. And something that's going to happen regardless, because, hi, dog.

"It would be a pretty long several months spent in Japan if nothing were to happen at all, wouldn't it?" He glanced up at Cable momentarily, and then offered a wry smile. "War."

Tether, as it was, gleefully leaned into the touch, confident that his quest had been succesful.

"Ah, war," Cable replied, wry in turn. "If it's only that..."

Algren was going to have to just get himself a dog of his own one of these days, though he didn't imagine that Cable minded him borrowing Tether for the odd few minutes on Thursdays for light wrestling and bellyrubs.

"Mmm. Not as though it was anything huge, really." Just, you know. War. Slaughter, more accurately. "I'm still not entirely certain who came out the victor."

"Hm," he said, considering the man. "1876... Japan... Korea?" A pause. "Or an internal conflict?"

Cable knew his wars.

"Internal," Algren clarified, nodding faintly. "Between the Emperor's military and the Samurai. It was... complicated."

That was one way of putting it, yes.

"Ah. Shiroyama." His mouth curled into a slight smile. "Can't say I've fallen into that one, myself... But I find that every war is both complicated in its set-up and simplistic in the way it's carried out. Mind sharing, Captain Algren?"

Algren made a soft noise, almost a laugh, though not even remotely one. It was too rueful for that.

"You appear to already know about the battle itself," he noted. "Gatling guns against swords. What is there that you'd like me to expand on?"

"A highly symbolic battle," Cable agreed, "But since I know how the war went, Captain Algren..." He tilted his head. "I'd like to know your experiences. Every war has its casualties, be it mind, body, or something else."

He tapped his fingers on the desk. "I once met a group of men who had been pulled from the heat of their own wars, struggling to return," he volunteered. "Every war, they told me, is different. Every war is the same."

"I've seen a few wars," Algren noted. "They're all entirely too much the same, for how different they are."

He paused, looking up toward the ceiling in thought, and then turned his attention back toward Cable.

"I started this one on the Emperor's side, training his men. It wasn't my place to fight, only to teach, but my regiment was pulled into battle entirely too soon. They weren't ready. I wasn't about to leave them on their own to be slaughtered."

"The follies of ambition."

Not that Cable knew anything about that.

"Unfortunately, they tend to leave the footsoldiers a little strapped for sanity." His mouth breached into another vague, thoughtful smile. "And did they get slaughtered?"

"Gruesomely," Algren agreed, exhaling and frowning and trying to push images of that fight out of his head. Zeb. "A few escaped. Most weren't so fortunate. Tony and I were taken captive."

"By the samurai."

Stockholm? It was likely.

Entirely likely!

Algren frowned and returned his attention to the dog. Why, hello, Tether. What a handsome dog you are. Yes, yes indeed.

"By the Samurai."

"As far as captors go..." Cable watched him, as Tether simply leaned and let his tongue fall to the side of his muzzle and enjoyed the attention. "You could have picked few more interesting."

"They were..." Captivating was possibly the wrong word in this particular situation. Algren gave his head a shake. "Fascinating, actually."

"One of the last bastions of the concept of the honourable warrior," he continued. "I take it your captivity wasn't without its stops to smell the flowers."

Stockholm, yes.

"I wasn't ill-treated, if that's what you mean," Algren noted, glancing up at him again.

Well, except for that whole being beaten with a wooden sword until he was laying in the mud and bleeding. That hadn't been particularly enjoyable. He didn't dwell too hard on that part.

"Pancakes," Jan interjected, finding something of interest for the first time in a long while.

"Later." Cable snagged her hand - the other one somewhat preoccupied with his coffee - and paced towards the window. Wouldn't be long until the Terrible Twos... "How did you find them?" he asked.

"They were..." Algren's gaze fell upon Jan, now. He smiled faintly. Wondered, idly, how Higen and Magojiro were faring, back in the mountains. And Taka.

"They weren't unpleasant," he settled on. "They favored tradition, and perfection in any form they could find it. They were disciplined."

"Sounds like a life a man could come to appreciate."

Jan reached over to yank on Cable's pants, muttering something about models.

"It became home."

That said it all, right there, didn't it? That he'd go back in a heartbeat, if not for the fact that he felt he still had so much to accomplish, here.

... Stockholm, yes.

Cable sipped his coffee. "And as always, in come the Gatling Guns. My sympathies, Captain Algren."

"They found their honorable deaths," Algren noted, giving Tether another pat on the head, and then sitting up again, albeit with slight difficulty. "And the Emperor changed his opinions on modernization. So it wasn't a complete loss."

Absolutely heartbreaking, but not for nothing.

"There are few ways to die that are worth it." He glanced over his shoulder. "To keep a kingdom from being corrupted is one of them. For however long it lasts."

He glanced down at Jan. "Coffee? I just got some new instant..."

For as much as Algren didn't like the sound of that 'however long it lasts,' he was going to clench his jaw, and nod. Yes. It had been as worth it as anything, and he'd been fully willing to die for the same.

He was going to have some reading to do, later, on Japanese history.

"Coffee would be appreciated, thank you. It's been entirely too long since I've had any."

Plenty of tea, mind.

"All right."

He lowered his own cup, then turned back away from the window, beginning his trek towards the stairs with Jan still babbling at his side. Sometimes it just sounded like random noises.

"For what it's worth, Captain," he said, as he passed by, "Any extra breath a good dream is allowed to take... is worth the blood shed for it."

Zen for the new millennium.

With permission from the owner, of course.

Make the heat stoooooop. I am a wimpy Canadian, dangit. I am melllllting, what a world!

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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center, Thursday

Talk to Algren

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Meditation Room

Shooting Range

OOC