driftfleet | ᴏᴏ1 : ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ

Who: Zuko!
Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: S.S. Golden.
When: Post-Shuffle!

[Zuko has done a pretty fabulous job of not flipping out, to be honest. He's interacted with some people aboard the Marsiva and has narrowed down the possibilities to two. 1) The Animus have launched an event that's completely eradicated the old universe and dropped them into a spaceship reality show (which, honestly, is a possibility) or 2) Zuko has been pulled from Adstringendum and is now in a new splintered universe.

After working that out, Zuko is now on a different ship, and while the teenager on camera looks fairly calm and collected, those who know Zuko know he's about two seconds from turning the desk he's sitting on into a pile of charcoal and using it as anger management therapy.

Someone didn't appreciate being doused in confetti and having a celebratory chocolate thrust upon him.

Give him a moment or two before he heaves a massive sigh.]

Two things.

[Zuko totally did not rehearse what he was going to say before he elected to talk to the entire fleet.]

One -- I guess I'm stuck here until I figure out...how to get back to wherever I came from. This is all probably going away in a week anyway... So -- has anyone figured out how to get off the ships?Are we trapped on whatever...these things are until whoever is running the show decides to send us home?

And two, is the Avatar here?

[Sorry, other members of Team Avatar, you guys are apparently on the third item that Zuko didn't find important to add. He's pretty sure the rest of his friends will find him, but this is Super

Important

okay.

Also he's not introducing himself, sorry. He forgot.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I can't blame you if you're not. Most of us don't want to be here either.

[Is he one of those "goth" kids Shawn had heard of? They're all about the doom and the gloom and the not-so-nice thoughts, or something. Shawn doesn't hang with them much because they kinda give him the creeps. Still, a crew member is a crew member, no matter how much they don't like life!]

I'm Shawn, by the way. I'm one of the engineers. [Do goth kids believe in handshakes?? More pressingly, does Shawn want to maybe endanger his hand by initating contact? Eh. It's space. He holds out his hand anyways, though it's shakier than usual.]

[Zuko actually likes his life a lot more now than he has in... well, ever, but he's having a hard time being cheerful at the sudden up-ending of his entire universe. Fuck this, fuck the Animus, fuck the -- ]

-- Zuko.

[It's said after a moment, deciding to at least cooperate a little bit -- and Zuko even shakes Shawn's hand, though he eyes it for a moment or two. Like it's going to bite him.]

My -- [it almost sounds awkward saying it, because Zuko? being in charge? owning anything? please] -- kingdom has air ships, but they're nothing like these. They're run with fire and air, not... whatever is going on here. So -- good luck with that.

[Honestly, it was a combo of the attitude, the scar, and the hair. Shawn's not digging too deep for his first impression and-- and goth boy has a kingdom.

Cue the eyebrow raise as he lets go of Zuko's hand, because wow, he's never met royalty before. Hopefully he wasn't being too flippant.]

Umm, thanks. The augment helps a lot with knowing what cables go where and what systems checks we should be running, because I sure wouldn't know otherwise.

Your world wasn't much for technology, I take it?

No -- not like this.

[The Fire Nation is definitely technologically advanced in comparison to the other nations, but that's mostly because fire is destructive and they had to get creative with how to use it. The Northern and Southern Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdoms, they could build their homes utilize their elements. The Fire Nation didn't have such an option and had to craft everything themselves. Which is cool, but also provided for a misuse of said talents, and... well, here we are.]

We rely on the four elements, for the most part, not... electricity -- not to power things like this, anyway.

Oh. That's cool.

[He can grasp the general gist - if they used elements, then Zuko's world had magic, and thus Zuko's world didn't need technology like Philadelphia did. Some days, Shawn wonders if he's ever going to get used to the fact that people come from different planets, because today isn't that day.]

I'm still kinda getting used to the stuff that goes on in different worlds, so by the four elements, do you mean water and wind and fire and... air? That kind of thing?

Air, water, earth, fire.

[Zuko is quiet for a moment before rolling his wrist, a ball of fire appearing neatly in his palm.]

There are four nations, and each has people called benders who can manipulate each element. There are people who can't bend, too, but everyone relies on the elements to maintain balance in our world.

[Zuko lets the fire roll around his fingers before dissipating into a puff of smoke.]

I'm a firebender, of the Fire Nation. We probably use the most of what you'd call "technology" out of the kingdoms, but each nation has their own way of doing things.

[Topanga's parents would have been all over this. Shawn steps back at the display of fire, biting back the urge to swear because holy crap. That shouldn't be possible.

But then again, being in outer space shouldn't be possible either.] Yeah, that's... a lot different from what I'm used to. We've got over a hundred and fifty countries, but I've only lived in one my whole life. Being able to do your fire-bending thing... that... That's new for me. [Headtilt.] Guess my world's got nothing but "non-benders."

You've explained this before to people, haven't you?

[... eh.]

Once or twice.

[Or twenty times.]

A lot of people don't have things like this in their world, so. Easier to just show it rather than explain it.

Huh. I would've guessed the opposite, actually.

The more I talk to people around here, the more my world seems weirder because there's no magic or bending or talking animals or whatever other stuff exists.

[Well, there is magic and a talking cat, kind of. Shawn's not very aware of the craziness that exists in his universe.]

We don't have talking animals.

[ pause ]

Usually. So -- that 's it. Just bending.

Good, good, so the animals thing isn't common.

[He mulls over it for a few seconds, before smiling a little.] Hey, in return - my world had TV. A lot of it, actually, and I used to help film stuff, so if you've got questions about our alien producer overlords, I can try and answer the technical stuff.

ᴏᴏ1 : ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ

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