001

[treasureling]

Who: Malak
Broadcast: Fleetwide video
Action: On the Marsiva
When: 1/29

I - this is - [ Very clean. Very strange. Very frightening. But that he knows how to use this contraption must mean he is meant to be here.

He stops in front of the large windows. ]

Is this the realm of the Gods?

Where are my daughters?

Comments

Video

[treasureling]

You don't sound angry.

[alwayscomeback]

I'm not happy about it, but there's nothing we can do to fix it, yet. I'm working on a way outta here. Until then, you just need to keep a low profile with it all.

[treasureling]

You're just a boy.

[alwayscomeback]

I'm sixteen!!!! In my tribe, I'm a man. Heck, I've led a war effort.

[treasureling]

Weren't there any warriors?

[alwayscomeback]

I'm a warrior! All the other men of my tribe were doing their part. Someone had to lead it.

[treasureling]

All the men? As well as the women?

[alwayscomeback]

We didn't have any warrior women left. But my team had Katara, Toph and Suki.

[treasureling]

All of your women were dead?

[alwayscomeback]

What? NO! But the Benders are. The ones left behind are elderly, or mothers.

[treasureling]

You mean the fathers fought and the mothers didn't?

[alwayscomeback]

...Uh yeah? The mothers were busy raising the kids?

[treasureling]

Why weren't the fathers with the children?

[alwayscomeback]

...Because they were fighting the war?

[treasureling]

Why were they fighting the war instead?

[alwayscomeback]

Like I said, there weren't any fighters left in our women.

[There's a pause.]

Look, that's just the way our Tribe works. But the war has women fighting in it. Our Tribe is tiny, it's barely there. But other places? They got them. And they're fighting.

[treasureling]

Where I come from, men take care of the children.

[alwayscomeback]

[...]

Don't men not have a really important thing that babies kind of need? You know, that only women can give?

[treasureling]

Nursing doesn't last a baby's whole life.

[alwayscomeback]

Well, no. But the women still do the raising. It's just how it is.

[treasureling]

It doesn't seem fair. Women already carry the child for nine months and then nurse her.

[alwayscomeback]

I never said it was fair, it's just how it is. You don't have to tell me how capable women are. Most of the women closest to me are fighters.

[Though, he knows, a year ago he would have been different. He's grown, since then, seen the world, changed. He's a better person than the short-sighted little boy who grew up away from everything.]

[treasureling]

Then why is it how it is? None of you make any sense.

[alwayscomeback]

I don't know, it just is. Tradition, y'know?

[treasureling]

[ He takes a breath. Because he does know, and he's getting angry not because he doesn't understand but because it's all so unfamiliar and it makes him panicky. He would rather just be at the forge. He would rather be the calm and quiet one. ]

I'm sorry.