driftfleet | /takes the huntress out back and buries it (jan mingle pt. II)

[ so after being YELLED AT FOR A BLENDER HE DIDN'T BREAK zuko has elected to actually, you know, find the dumbass who has already decided to destroy a fucking blender which HE SOMEHOW GOT BLAMED FOR

god.

it only takes a few moments for zuko to poke around and figure out where sasuke is, and once he's directed to his room, he nudges it open a little slowly. (depending on the day, sasuke can be violent if disturbed. ]

You took apart the blender.

{ it's said flatly.

this is how he says hello.

ask him how he knows you piece of garbage. ]

[ What a great time to walk in, as someone is currently examining a small ceiling vent in the corner of his room... by having actually attached himself to the ceiling, crouched near it. He glances back over his shoulder when he hears that voice, however, straightening up before gracefully flipping to drop back down onto the floor. Sasuke dusts off his white shirt, still in the clothes he'd been wearing when he arrived since he'd had a chance to clean them. ]

So it's you who's come to see me now.

Don't tell me your duties are now extended to policing the use of other ships' kitchen appliances.

Edited (gj me) 2016-01-18 23:23 (UTC)

[ if it were literally anyone else in the entire world, he might think that were weird. instead, zuko just sighs as he waits for sasuke to stand on the ground like a normal human being, and he's about to launch into -- ]

I got stopped by three different people pissed about their blend --

[ -- wait. PAUSE. ]

-- what happened to your arm?

[ hOW DID HE NOT NOTICE THAT IN THEIR SIX HOUR SKYPE CALL ]

... [ Allow him to just hold up his one good hand to halt Zuko's train of thought before it goes any further. ]

Stay on topic. How do you know I was the one who dismantled the blender? There are many other suspects.

[ holyyy shit ]

Only the blades were missing and you're the only one stupid enough to find the nearest weapon instead of actually checking to see if you could get into the armory.

[ he says it with the long suffering tone of a man who nearly got beat with a ladle over a blender ]

Edited 2016-01-18 23:44 (UTC)

What happened to your arm.

[ your topic is stupid he's staying on his own topic ]

I do things my own way. [ yes ] ... and I've been into the armory as well. [ Sure, after the fact, but the point is that he had a literal storehouse of weaponry back in his world that he could summon kunai and shuriken from at any time and thus being here he feels naked without as much metal as he can acquire. ]

I lost it. What happened to your face?

[ that's sasuke for 'i didn't know there was an armory until i took apart the blender' and zuko is about to point that out when sasuke gives him a dose of his own medicine. and he looks startled, caught off guard -- mostly because no one here has actually... really brought it up.

which has been nice, really, though zuko hates the sort of 'not bringing it up' that involves pity or avoidance. ]

[ but turnabout is fair play, and zuko is now confronted with either lying or telling the truth. he normally ignores when people ask now, because it's none of their business. but -- ]

My father happened to my face.
.
[ shrewdly. and, because sasuke was a dick -- ]

When did you lose your arm?

[ That's honestly not an unfair answer as Sasuke can picture a few circumstances that might lead to such an event, though none of them accurate. ]

... the last time I needed to have an important conversation with someone and words weren't sufficient in getting our points across. [ That's one way of putting it. ] It doesn't change anything, however. I'm still just as fit to face you, if you're concerned that you'll have too little challenge.

I don't care about that, I was concerned that you were missing an arm.

[ tartly. though sasuke seems to be moving without issue, and it doesn't seem to be causing him a lot of pain. maybe it didn't happen so recently after all.

augh. ]

-- why were you poking around at the vent?

You're really inquisitive; have you been told that before?

I'm familiarizing myself with the space. This sort of vessel is nonexistent in my world and I want to study all aspects of it that I can, especially if it's where I'm expected to sleep. [ And to let his guard down. He'll need to install some traps, and knowing the force with which the vents pump air into the room will help him know if gas-based ones are a viable option. ]

... I lost my arm just before arriving here. It was decently healed in my world, then fully when I was put on the Marsiva.

Yes.

[ flatly, but he listens all the same. he can sympathize -- new rooms and new sleeping arrangements are always difficult for him, but he's gotten better. sometimes he has random bouts of insomnia, but the people on the blue fish are largely from his universe. they understand not to bother him when he needs to wander around or be left alone.

still, all of that seems comforting, though zuko is now eyeing the vent. ]

Thirteen.

[ with a slight gesture to his own face -- zuko is around seventeen now, though he has difficulty remembering. adstringendum messed up how old he actually is now. ]

You must still have phantom pains, then.

[ zuko may have all of his limbs, but he's a child of war. people lose limbs. it happens. ]

[ Sasuke already tends to sleep for short amounts of time out of paranoid habit and being here won't help that become easier to stop. Still... hearing Zuko return a slightly more detailed answer, even if it's only one word, relaxes him slightly. Sure, his own honesty had partly been meant to coax out Zuko's in return but not receiving it would've been uncomfortable. ]

It's not important to me. [ The assumption that Sasuke's feeling pain bothers him the most, on the other hand, making him feel somehow pitied in a way he doesn't want to draw attention to. ]

As long as its absence doesn't become a hindrance, I don't care about the loss. I knew the possible consequences when I initiated the fight.

[ zuko stares at him for a long moment before sighing, and he glances around before electing to just take a seat on the floor against the wall, tucking his legs underneath him neatly. ]

I didn't handle losing half of my face nearly as well.

[ look it's his attempt at

a weak joke. a really, really weak joke. ]

I'm sure someone on the fleet can build you a new one.

I doubt the same can be said about someone building you a new face. [ The worst part is that his sense of humor is not that different from Zuko's, so a bad joke is much more effective against him. ]

I wouldn't have taken the loss of my arm well before, but... for me, this isn't a bad symbol. It's a reminder of something more. [ Sasuke leans against the opposite wall, still standing as he again looks Zuko over. He doesn't want to go down this road so soon again, eyeing this other teenager like he's a Venus flytrap for angst, ready to get him when he's unsuspecting. Fuck. ]

I want to see your firebending again.

[ zuko is about to tell him well actually, there is a way to fix what happened to him, but he wouldn't want to do it now even if he could. much like sasuke feels about his arm. but then sasuke changes the subject after frowning at him a lot, and zuko doesn't press.

instead, he arches his eyebrows. ]

I can just tell you how it works.

[ but zuko draws in a quiet breath, exhaling -- and as he does so, a small burst of flame appears in his palm, and he allows the fire to run along his fingers. not being burned, but reacting to his breathing, to his chi, to the energy around him. ]

[ Sasuke holds back a no doubt smartass response to instead focus on what he's seeing, eyes bleeding to that discomfiting red in order to trace the tendrils of fire that he can now observe more starkly. His aura stands out, fueled not by actual physical chakra pathways like his own but the movements of energy follow similar patterns even so.

Interesting. ]

You were born with this ability?

All firebenders are. Some have it come more easily to them than others.

[ except the avatar, though in theory, the avatar is born with the ability but has to unlock it through training and skill.

he keeps the fire maintained fairly easily, allowing sasuke to do whatever he's doing. he's never completely understood sasuke's eyes, though he's heard the explanation before, and has been bothered into demonstrating his ability before, so zuko has long since gotten into the practice of waiting until his eyes go back to normal. ]

The gift runs through my family.

[ powerful firebenders, in the royal family. his uncle, his father, his sister. his grandfather. and the first avatar, so long ago, was a firebender.

while zuko generally ignores his family's existence, he takes great pride in that. ]

[ Likewise he shares a similarly conflicted pride for nearly the same reasons, a strong vein of fire connecting his family members though not so strongly as those eyes do. Somehow he'd almost rather they were known for the former sometimes. ]

So that's your memento. From what you've said it seems you'll use that gift to greater positive effect than those that came directly before you. [ Finally the sharingan fades again, eyes back to ink. ]

Your chakra has a good color.

[ here's hoping. it's a near constant source of anxiety, how he's going to do when he returns home. how the fire nation will survive. but he has aang to help him, and iroh. katara, sokka, toph. suki. all of them throwing in their weight to make their new world work. there's not much to be done now except try.

-- but that last part is a bit weird. ]

What color is it?

[ wtf does that even mean sasuke you weirdo ]

[ Get on my weirdness level, Zuko, god. ]

What, you don't have any guesses of your own? [ Ah, something that other version of himself hadn't told him, one of the first he's discovered. It almost makes him want to hold that information back a little longer. ]

Katon techniques have two levels of difficulty. The first is the one that's apparent, being able to produce strong fire with destructive results. The second is more subtle, actually being able to give that fire direction. It's easily one of the hardest to mold...

But it comes to you that easily.

I don't know, orange?

{ zuko knows how his energy feels and how his chi interacts with the environment. what fuels him, how fire feels, and tastes, and how he breathes. but color of his chakra? he never bothered to ask sasuke because he had no idea it was a color.

weirdo. ]

[ but wait, was that a lowkey compliment. ]

It's unpredictable, but it's a part of me.

[ it is, and it's not. firebending is the sole element where the user can create the element, an expulsion of energy from your body out into the open. doing that causes you to wield great power, but it's also extraordinary dangerous. and it's very easy to allow that power to control you, instead of the other way around. ]

It's a firebender's responsibility to learn control first, before anything else.

[ which is what iroh has been telling him since he was literally 4 ]

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