lucetilogs | variety is the spice of life

variety is the spice of life

Who: Everyone who wants to be here!
What: Total Recall 2014
When: The first week of the event, roughly April 9th-16th, give or take a few days depending on your character's timeline.
Where: All over Luceti, presumably
Summary: Chaos! Madness! Unreasonable happenings! You know the drill. Alternatively: characters wake up and sigh because god, not this again.
Rating: Varied. Anything frisky goes to appointments as per usual, chums.

Due to the size and variation of this event, it's probably best to have several logs for it to avoid one getting overcrowded and broken. Feel free to have your characters post their own entries, of course, if you'd prefer- you're more than welcome! This is for people who like to consolidate. Another log ought to be posted around the 16th for round 2.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There are a lot of foreign people around here. [And to think, he wouldn't have believed it possible to be even further removed from his home than the Fire Nation. Though at least conditions here are far more pleasant. But more than ever he longs for the ice fields in the south, even though he hasn't seen them in years.]

There is that, at least. Though not so many who know how to play pai sho. Mostly just Iroh and Ikki.

There's me, too. And there's nothing wrong with teaching. Sharing pieces of our worlds can be fun.

[Shikamaru learned Pai Sho too, but Aang's not sure if he should mention it; the ninja might not be agreeable with this former baddie. And Aang quietly makes his first move.]

Yes, there is you. I'd ask if you had anything more important to do, but no, you wouldn't, not here. [None of them have anything important to do here. Not that he has anything important to do back in their world, now that his vengeance has been put on hold.]

[Loki snorts.] I'd have thought you had quite enough of me teaching. [Considering the whole blood bending thing...]

[The reference to blood bending instantly makes Aang frown, and he follows up in a weak voice.]

That's... that's different.

Something like this should be... nice to teach. And there's always things that can be done around here, to help people, or prepare for emergencies. But... There's plenty of time to relax and have fun, too.

Is it? [He'd been trying to help Katara prepare for the coming storm, so to speak. Though he knew no one else seemed to share that view.]

I suppose, if someone wanted to learn. I've really just been keeping to myself. [Most of the people here are so alien to everything he knows. He's fatigued by it, sometimes, when once he might have relished the chance to learn so many new things. But it was difficult to try to build anything when he had no foundation at all.]

What sort of emergencies would one need to prepare for, here?

I think this is what passes for fun for me, these days.

It is. This is just harmless fun. [And bloodbending is dangerous.] Don't you want to get to know new people?

And... there's all sorts of emergencies. Sometimes people cause trouble in the village, or the Malnosso do dangerous shifts, or the Cultists find ways to attack us. So - so we gotta be ready for bad things.

[He probably shouldn't needle Aang. But he can't quite help it.] Time is better spent preparing, then, rather than on harmless fun, yes?

[Of course it's dangerous. Weapons always are. He shrugs.] People seem to come and go, here. [And he's already lost anyone he's ever cared about. What's the point in doing it again? He's never really even gotten to mourn his family. Or maybe he'll say something more like the truth. Isn't it strange, to be speaking truth again? To be able to do so without fear of what will happen? He's enjoying it.] Or perhaps I've lost the knack.

Perhaps it would be better, then, for me to continue to practice. And I might always teach others to fight and survive. [He's proven he's good at that now. Just too little too late, perhaps.]

There - there can be time for both. And... just because people come and go, doesn't mean you can't make great friends here. [He frowns at the pai sho board.]

What kind of practice... do you mean? [He's not sure if he gets a good feeling about this.]

[Flatly:] I learned to not become attached to others whilst I was imprisoned by the Fire Nation.

[Get attached to people, and it hurts far more when they die, after all. After a while, it's better to just focus on surviving, and eventual escape.]

I practice my water bending every day. [He raises an eyebrow as if to ask "and what of it?"] You practice each day as well, do you not?

I... I see. But... Maybe things would be better if you could learn to connect with people again.

I do! [He says a little nervously.] Normal waterbending, right. I practice it a lot!

What would that accomplish?

[He can look at the optimism he sees in Aang and Katara and appreciate it. He can even miss that, because he knew he was like that once. But he's been broken one too many times to want to be so native again.]

Is there abnormal water bending? [Really Aang, ask it if you're so suspicious. As far as Loki is concerned, all techniques are valid. He's a pragmatist at heart. He couldn't have survived otherwise.]

There you have it, then. One must practice.

It can help you to be happy, to... to find strength and trust in others.

[And he frets. It's difficult to skirt around the bloodbending issue.]

There's - there's... you know.

[He sighs.] It isn't really a matter of trust.

[He knows most people are trustworthy. Just not really anyone from the Fire Nation.

And ooh boy, he can smell your discomfort there, Aang, and he can't help but poke at it.]

I don't think I do know what you mean.

Then what's it a matter of?

[He frowns. He was able to find things to fill the hole in his heart, even if the pain of loss will always be there to some extent.

And he looks on at Loki uncertainly at his poking.]

I... Are you sure you don't know what I mean? [This kind of sounds like one of his tricks.]

[Loki falls silent for a few moves, then sighs, looking almost annoyed.] I have had my fill of losing people. I'm much more at peace when I'm alone.

[And as for the other question...] Water bending is water bending, Aang. [It is all a tool, a skill, a way.]

[He tries to remain calm as he manages some more moves.]

If you really can feel peace from that... that's okay. But I that... true peace comes from the bonds you make with others.

[And he frowns as he considers what Loki said.]

But... but... Blood's not water...

And true pain as well. [Loki sighs.] This is a temporary prison, though, isn't it? Far more temporary than the others I've been in. [The corner of his mouth pulls.] I just had much more in those other places to keep myself occupied.

[Like... you know. Plotting revenge. And inventing blood bending. And not getting killed by guards.]

Water is the very essence of blood. It is the ocean that lives within each of us. [He pauses a moment, but why not? The secret is out, and he refuses to feel ashamed of it. So he tilts his left hand so Aang can see the palm and up into his sleeve. His skin is criss-crossed with thin scars in various stages of healing.] And what I do with my own ocean is not your concern, I think.

Edited 2014-04-30 01:25 (UTC)

But the only way to fight that pain... is with other people. Even with this place being temporary... that just makes bonds with others more important.

[He gives a quiet gasp as he looks into the scars on his hands - he's seen a lot of scars over time, including his own, but that doesn't make them less jarring to behold.]

N-no. I guess it isn't. Only when it's with... with other people's oceans.

[Quietly:] But I haven't had other people for over a decade.

[And that's the problem. He no longer knows how to deal with this, and has reacted by refusing to deal with it. He went from being surrounded by his tribe, from being in a place where his family was his life to being utterly alone and having nothing but vengeance. It wasn't an easy transition to make, and now he has no idea how to go back. He doesn't even know if he wants to go back, because won't it all just be taken away again?]

And that shall not happen so long as no one tries to hurt me. [He shrugs.] I don't have anything else I'd defend here, really. Well, other than you or Katara or Ikki.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

variety is the spice of life

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