lucetilogs | Sleepless in Luceti

Sleepless in Luceti

Who: Aang, Sokka, Wan, Zuko
What: Teenagers staying up all night.
When: June 6th at an ungodly hour.
Where: House 56
Summary: Wan and Zuko can't sleep because of the shifts giving them nightmares. Aang and Sokka are also awake as a result. Thus some conversation ensues.
Rating: I for Insomnia

At a very early hour of the morning, House Avatar is likely to notice that there's activity already going on. This time at least there isn't another draft, but two of its occupants are sitting at the Pai Sho table. Wan and Zuko to be exact, both being unable to sleep do to certain... nightmares relating to their experiences in the draft. There is tea, a game to pass the time, and dark circles under the eyes.

Zuko is also a victim of the recent time related shifts. His... hair having grown several inches during the hours of the night to the point that it resembles this guy . There is just no winning. And he's not winning Pai Sho either.

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[The weird thing about all this is that it's Zuko and Wan that were staying awake all this time, but it's Aang that ultimately rouses Sokka from slumber. Perhaps it was all the nervous jitters of being thrown into a new world and, just days later, being forced to be responsible for Aang's future granddaughter. That high-alert mode doesn't wear off too quickly.

It's only now that he can hear the familiar light tapping of pai sho tiles upon the table. People were playing pai sho at this ungodly hour? When there was so much wonderful sleep to partake in? People really need to get their priorities straight.

Sokka pulls the cover off the bed and wraps himself up in it as he walks to the door, not really wanting to lose that wonderful snuggled-up feeling as he goes to tell the players to go to sleep.

He opens the door and with a great yawn and closed eyes:]

Iroh, [yaaaaaaaaaawn] you know you could always go to sleep and pick up playing tomorr--

[Oh, it's not Iroh.]

[And when Aang and Sokka emerge, they will see a pathetic sight. There's Zuko with Wan, looking positively miserable. The now long haired fire lord looking over at them like some sleep deprived zombie... which is pretty much what he is.

Though the slap of a pai sho tile quickly brings his attention back to the board. And with another slap, Zuko puts down his tile.]

[Well. This is already numbering amongst the oddest sights Aang's ever seen in Luceti.

He hesitantly steps closely, looking as baffled as possible.]

Zuko? Wan? Do you guys... know what time it is? And... what did you do to your hair?

It's time for me to win

[He's grins stupidly at his own non-joke because everything is hilarious after not sleeping for several hours. Including slapping pai sho tiles on the board. Which he does, again. But this time it's intentional because it's funny.]

[Sokka frowns at this. Sokka frowns a lot at this. He needs sleep, or else Sokka will be a miserable grump the next morning. He steps closer a little bit, looking at the two of them closely. They looked absolutely terrible.]

Yup, I know just how to solve this problem.

[Sokka yawns as he sleepily wanders back to his room for just a moment, walking a little unevenly due to his sleepiness. He comes back just a few moments later with a book tucked under one arm and the other hand covering a deep yawn. He comes back to the table, looking between Wan, Zuko, and the pai sho table before ceremoniously holding the book up and simply dropping it onto the pai sho table, causing some of the tiles to go flying either off the table or to elsewhere on the board.]

Actually, I think it's time to play pai no instead. Go to sleep. You'll thank me later.

[He starts to walk back to his room, trusting for the moment that they'll do as Sokka says.]

[While everything might be funny to Wan, Zuko is just irritable. He turns his head sharply, his lovely locks flowing with the movement, to glower at Aang.]

I didn't do anything to my hair! I went to bed and woke up like this!

[He looks back to the Pai Sho table about to make his move when Sokka rudely drops the book on the table and scatters the tiles. He abruptly stands up and now glares at Sokka.]

HEY! What's your problem?!

If you went to bed, how come you're awake! That's no bed, that's a pai sho table!

[And then he just... watches as Sokka drops his book on the table. He has a feeling this won't end well.]

[Wan stood up and gave Sokka the death glare too. When he turns to walk back into his room Wan will grab the back of his shirt. There's no way he was going to just let him get away with ruining their game and walking away.]

[Sokka stops when he's grabbed, not bothering to fight it. Even though Sokka doesn't have much to complain about, relatively speaking, Sokka is tired, and so his voice is a little exasperated.]

You woke me up, Zuko. Come on, it's got to be something like... three o'candle. In the morning. I don't think I even knew that there was a three o'candle in the morning before now.

It's not time to wake up for hours still, and you look as tired as I am. So can we please go back to bed?

[Yes... Thank you Avatar Obvious. Zuko looks between Aang and Sokka still scowling]

I would if I could! Every time I try to sleep I have these nightmares. Like that thing is watching me!

Thing? What thing? [He rubs at his eyes groggily, wondering what Zuko could be referring to. And he sees a certain lemur near the slide, snatching some insects out of the air to consume.]

Momo's not a thing! Maybe he's just trying to watch over you while you sleep. He's a good guardian lemur!

[Wan's grip on Sokka's shirt relaxes as his anger quickly deflates.]

It's not like that...

[he would know, given that they were having the same nightmares.]

[Sokka is just as confused as Aang is... perhaps more so. But taking the only idea that he can latch onto, Sokka goes over to Momo and wags a finger at him.]

Momo, are you haunting Zuko's dreams again? Bad Momo. He's on our side now.

[Momo chitters in shame at the scolding.]

[... With an exasperated tired sigh Zuko puts a hand on his face.]

I'm not talking about Momo.

[Guys come on this is serious.]

During the draft we saw a lot of terrible things.

...What?

[Now Aang's face is seriousing, because Zuko said the d-word.

Aang had been meaning to talk to them about the draft, but he thought that they should have had some time to themselves first to unwind from what they'd been through. He hadn't even considered this weirdness to be connected to the draft, but now he feels bad about it.

So he quietly sits himself cross-legged on the floor.]

I'm sorry, Zuko. Is... is it anything you can talk about?

[And now Wan was going to let go of Sokka completely in favor of turning his attention to Aang.]

It's just a few bad dreams

[No big deal everyone stop talking now.]

[At least they weren't dreams that were telling Sokka that he needed practice climbing cliffs. But that said, Sokka's face becomes serious as well. So far not many people had been talking about the draft in any specific terms, and for better or worse, Sokka did want to know what they were up and against if only to better understand this strange world he'd been drawn into.

Sokka's joking nature fades away for a moment, and he turns to face Wan.]

A few bad dreams would be one thing. This sounds like something else entirely.

[I mean, come on, Zuko playing pai sho at 3am? Sokka takes a step away from Wan and turns to face Zuko before sitting down.]

What happened out there, Zuko?

Edited 2014-06-07 19:20 (UTC)

[Well now that he had their attention, Zuko sat back down again, taking a few moments to gather his thoughts before speaking.]

It was bad from the start but then they dropped that bomb and then... we were gone. All of us. We died and I don't know how to describe it but I saw something. We all did.

[Aang just gasps at that, his eyes widening in concern.]

What? How could... No! [They... died?!]

[Well, it looks like there is no getting out of this. Wan sat back down with a defeated sigh.]

We didn't stay dead for that long

[Well, they stayed dead long enough. But Wan will do some truth bending if it means he doesn't have to go into detail about what the death was actually like.]

[Sokka blinks a bit when Zuko explains what happened. Bombs he understood well enough, but he couldn't conceive of anything on that large of a scale.]

All of you? Everyone died? With one bomb? How is that even possible?

[He looks at Wan briefly, particularly eying his statement with a bit of incredulousness.]

How would you know how long you were dead?

[Sorry Wan, but he trusts these guys and Zuko is going to tell them.]

Because when we died there was something there. It was as if it was looking right through me and it felt like it cut my heart.

[Zuko's hand grips at his chest as he says this.]

Then as it felt like I was falling apart... We were alive again. But a few days in the past.

[Aang looks between Zuko and Wan in frightened concern. His heart sinks at the mention of a bomb, remembering the shift bomb that he had learned about last year. Could this have been the kind of escalation he had feared?

He reaches to try a place a supportive hand on Zuko's shoulder.]

I- I- That sounds horrible. But, how could all of that have happened? [They went back in time? That's something not even Aang has managed to due in his tenure of Avatar weirdness.]

[Wan's expression darkens as he listens to Zuko's description. Reliving his death once tonight was more than enough for him.

Everything about the situation was exasperating, but Aang's question pushes him to speak again:]

Crazy things happen in Luceti all the time, look at Zuko's hair!

[He's tired and frustrated. Really, nothing about luceti doesn't sound crazy to him.]

[If Sokka hadn't already encountered so many oddities in this world already, he'd have suggested that Zuko had been drinking the cactus juice. (Oh wait, he already had when he met him. WELP.) But Sokka only nods as Zuko is explaining, pondering over what he said.

Of course, Wan just sets up Sokka for a good one, so Wan will get a little relief.]

Yeah, you might say that this world has given us quite the hairy situation! Ha!

[As Sokka's luck would have it, fate decided at that point to grow Sokka's own hair about a foot longer than it was.]

Okay, I guess I deserved that. So you traveled into the past, big deal? You were sleeping just fine a couple days ago. The day you got back, you were out like a rock. What happened?

Would this have to do something with all the weird time weirdness going on?

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