Action - First Arena

[actually112]

Who: Aang and YOU
Broadcast: None
Action: Red Fish and Planet
When: Right as Aang arrives

Red Fish

[Well, this is definitely not the arena Aang just left. Did they keep him dead and bring him back for another arena?

He's not sure, but he's going to wait until he actually can ask someone he recognizes. In the meantime, this arena seems to have powers, so he's going to take advantage of it.

He grabs a bag--possibly stealing it from someone's room, though it doesn't occur to him that people are really living in individual, undefended rooms--and stuffs it full of any food he recognizes in the kitchen, then any medical supplies that he recognizes in the medical bay, which... is way more than he remembers being able to recognize before.

It takes him a bit before he feels the space behind his ear, discovering a brand new implant in his head.]

Oh come on!

[That's the third time they stuck something in his body without asking!]

Planetside

[Aang doesn't spend much time in the town. He loads up on food and proper desert clothing before heading out into the desert.

He wants to make his own shelter and not depend on what the Capitol has provided. Chances are, something terrible is going to happen to those houses. Once he feels comfortably far away from the town, he drops his bag on the ground and stretches his legs and arms, warming up.

Then he takes a deep breath, centering himself, and then starts blasting the ground with fire.

The sand begins to glow red. Aang manages the heat carefully, keeping it contained or shooting upwards, careful of hurting himself or any animals that may be lurking nearby. As the fire keeps burning, the sand starts melting, and Aang begins bending it with one hand, making it rise and twist into something resembling a cave.

And then he shuts off the fire, a glowing red rough glass shelter left behind. He wipes sweat from his brow and drops into the right posture to start bending the sand to mostly bury the glass, where it will be protected from the sun and camouflaged from other tributes.]

Comments

Red Fish

[searingedgelord]

[Velvet finds the newbie a little late, and raises an eyebrow at the bag he’s holding. Clearly she needs to keep more of an ear out for the welcoming fanfare.]

What are you doing?

[actually112]

[Aang doesn't recognize this tribute. He chooses not to be unfriendly with strangers, but friendly doesn't necessarily translate to incautious. He flashes her a bright smile, but he stays well out of arm's length, ready to bolt if she looks like she might attack.]

Gathering supplies. Are you looking for some yourself?

[searingedgelord]

[She just kind of eyes him. Her demeanor isn’t especially threatening, but there is a darkness to her the spiritually sensitive might pick up on. Though at the moment she kind of just looks like an exasperated mom or big sister.]

Kind of silly to gather supplies from your own ship, you know. Not to mention the rest of the crew needs them, too.

Planetside

[alwayscomeback]

[Everything about this place is just awful, and the more he's learned about it, the more Sokka just wants to LEAVE. Still, he'll always look for more clues, loathe to leave this place without knowing for sure every shred of information has been picked up.

The sand being bent is a big clue that something WEIRD is happening, when he gets closer, his eyes widen. When did he get here? He grins, moving into a run. He doesn't stop to think the shelter thing is weird, all he cares about is his friend is HERE. ]

Aang! Hey, Aang!

[actually112]

[Aang hears his name. He turns to see that a large unfamiliar man is running at him.

He still isn't taking his bending for granted, so that's not what he uses. Instead, he uses his environment. He's small and light, so the sand won't sink around his feet as much as it would a grown man's. That gives him an advantage with speed.

He can practically hear Bucky telling him to just bend the glass and attack with that, but instead, Aang rolls over the sand, using the side of his body to spread his weight and keep himself from sinking at all, and he rolls so that the red hot glass is between him and the man.]

Don't come any closer!

[He rolls to his feet in the perfect stance to start attacking if he has to, but he's really, really hoping he doesn't have to.]

[alwayscomeback]

[He's well used to Aang's battle stances, but he's never expected it to be turned on him. He skids to a stop, hurt crossing his features for a moment, wondering what the heck happened to make Aang see him as any kind of threat.

...And then it dawned on him. Oh. Right. That. He raises his hands, placating, non threatening. ]

Uh. Sorry. Aang, it's me, Sokka. I'm just older. Wacky mix of time back home and years being here.

Planetside

[starless_sky]

<sub>[A certain king is in the town and notices Aang leaving to the desert wastes. Noctis is in a great mood lately. His wife returned to the fleet. He's over the moon as it were but that boy... At first Noctis thought he was a member of whatever community inhabited this place but soon he thinks maybe not. He wonders if this kid is new. He... well he was watching Aang from the window of a house he's living in for the time being. But he saw Umbra and Pryna out on the street following the boy. Those little doofuses... he has to follow them now. Even when he calls them the dogs are happily trotting behind Aang.

Noct tries to catch up to them but by the time he does there is sand blasting everywhere. Is it a tornado!? Is the kid in there!? He rushes over but... by the time he can get to Aang it's over]</sub>

Hey. Kid. Are you alright? Are you hurt?

[actually112]

[Aang notices the dogs and stays peripherally aware of them while he works. He likes animals and he'd love to pet and cuddle them, but he's learned well that one can't trust animals off the bat in arenas. Hopefully, these dogs aren't hunting him, just curious.

A man emerges from the sand blast, and that is more immediately alarming. Aang backs up to make sure there's still plenty of space between him and the man. If he tries grabbing, Aang has enough room to run away.]

I'm fine. [Aang flashes the man a not completely insincere smile as he pats down his arms and legs for emphasis.] See? Fine. I had everything under control.

[starless_sky]

<sub>[They are not like arena dogs at all. They are friendly and very open to petting and cuddles! If Aang offers them food and a belly rub they'll be his best friends.

Noctis is much the same, minus, the food and belly rubs. He's just nice. He looks this kid over. He doesn't seem like he has enough gear for surviving out in the wastes. He wonders why he passed up so many perfectly decent dwellings to get here. Out in the wastes? With those weird... deer things? He can't really call them deer. They're mutant monsters and the stuff of nightmares.]</sub>

Good to know. Do you have enough to make it out here? Are you new to the fleet?

I'm Noctis. I just came to check on you. Well, my dogs followed you. This is Umbra... and the white one here is Pryna. _{[Boy and girl respectively]</sub? They followed you so I followed them but I worry about a kid alone out here. There are monsters out here. It's dangerous.}

Red Fish

[postocular]

[ Wanting to be stocked up isn't an unfamiliar feeling. Carl was the same when he and Maggie first arrived, keeping everything close and ready to go in case something happened. The survival instinct still sits in the back of his mind, but since Alexandria back home and having been in the Fleet for almost two years, it's become less of a knee-jerk reaction. Old habits can still be heard to break, though.

Especially with the planet below them being ripe for the picking. Still, he almost bumps into Aang on his way into the medical bay. It's not someone he's seen before, but he did hear the fanfare earlier, so.. ]

Just get here?

[actually112]

[Oh, look, it's someone close to his age!

Aang keeps out of arm's length, just in case, but it doesn't look like anyone he's met before.]

Yeah, but I was here for a while before. When did you get here?

[postocular]

[ Carl squints at him, trying to recall if he's ever heard of someone who looks like Aang. ]

Must have been a while ago. I got here almost two years ago.

Red Fish!

[poisontippedcure]

[Rose is observant enough to tell when somebody has been in her room. She also keeps track of her belongings enough to know when something goes missing, even if it's just a bag.]

[Admittedly, she doesn't care much about the bag. She does, however, care for her personal space, and doesn't like people invading it. Thankfully, the Red Fish is small, and it doesn't take her long to find the culprit.]

Has anybody ever told you how rude it is to take something without asking? Or were you raised without manners?

[actually112]

[Another unfamiliar face, and this one seems upset. Aang stays out of arm's reach of her, making sure that he always has a clear path to an exit even as he raises a hand in a pacifying gesture. His entire body tenses, ready for her to attack him.]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. What'd I take? [He's been snatching up a lot of things. If anyone claimed them as their own, they probably should have set up traps to protect their things, but Aang isn't going to point that out and potentially get her angrier.]

[poisontippedcure]

[Rose might be rough around the edges, but she wouldn't attack a child. Especially when she can see how on-edge Aang is; she had a privileged upbringing, but even she can tell when somebody is hoarding food for survival.]

[She makes a point to not get near her weapon when she points to the bag. It's not hard to tell what's hers.]

That bag. It's remarkably similar to one that I had in my room. It's certainly a coincidence, don't you think?

Planetside

[passingthrough]

[Kitty was out in the dessert, taking a walk in the desert to clear her mind. It doesn't exactly work as the thoughts continue to gather, but she at least she's alone for her brooding this time. Or...

Or there's a spiral of fire and sand ahead. So, that's something. And like any reasonable person she moves toward it to investigate. Naturally. Getting closer doesn't help her recognize the person at the center of it all though. But he also doesn't look like any of the aliens they tend to run across, not to mention they haven't seen anyone else here—anyone else alive anyway, so probably one of theirs. She calls out once she gets closer.]

Did the sand do something to you?

[actually112]

[As soon as Aang hears the voice, he abruptly stops bending the sand, and the cloud that's grown around him falls to the ground like grainy rain. He turns to face the newcomer, making sure that there's a comfortable distance between them before he flashes her a smile.]

Nope, just working. [He raises his feet to shake the sand off his legs.]

[watermarks]

[A little after meeting in the supermarket, Katara did load up with some more food, but she was primarily concerned with water. She followed Aang into the desert, and now was giving him enough space to sandbend a shelter. She didn't want them to go too far away from the ships, or the town, but they were well out of sight by the time Aang stopped.

She watches him begin to melt the sand and turn it into glass with something a little like awe - she'd never heard of anything like this, though it made sense. Mostly, though, she was still...

What had happened to him?]

That's pretty amazing, Aang. I've never seen anyone turn sand into glass like that before. Is it sturdy?

[actually112]

I've never done it before, but I learned about how they made glass and thought I'd try. [Aang flashes her a sheepish smile, but he chooses not to elaborate on how he learned these things. He's noticed how she's worrying, and he doesn't want to bring up the Capitol more than he has to.

But he has to give it credit for one thing: it has taught him to be more creative with his resources, and right now, his bending is a resource.]

Try to kick it. See if I made it thick enough. [The school had taught him that obsidian is a kind of glass, and while obsidian can be chipped and brittle, it's sturdy when it's thick and can be used to make tools. Hopefully, the same holds true for glass made of sand, especially when protected by a thick layer of sand grains.]

Planetside

[skaterbrain]

[It's just not as much fun running around a planet without his skateboard. He can see so many railings that needed grinding, curbs that could be jumped, no adults to call the cops. It was like a paradise of cool stuff that he couldn't take advantage of because coming into space (which was also cool) took away his main mode of transport. It was totally unfair!

But this? He saw the glow in the distance and thought maybe someone was in trouble. The last thing he expected was to come upon a kid barely his age moving sand like magic. Beat is standing off to the side, staring, a bottle of water forgotten in his hands, as he watches the stranger work.]

...Whoa.

[actually112]

[Aang can't sense things so well when the ground is sand and the air is full of particles he's bending. The sound of someone's voice catches him off guard, and he immediately stops bending, the swirling tendrils of sand in the air dropping with a loud skittering sound back on the ground.

He turns to face the newcomer, making sure there's enough distance between them before waving with a smile on his face.] Hi there.

Planetside

[crow_dad]

[He's been wandering about to get to know the planet better when he sees the young man perform something quite amazing. When he feels it is safe to approach, he steps closer, not seeming to mind the hot sands under his bare feet.]

That was an impressive show. Is this a shelter?

[Delicately, he leans forward to look closer at the structure that has been built, long nails lightly touching his painted lips.]

[actually112]

[Aang makes sure there is a little over arm's distance between him and the stranger.]

Thanks. Yeah, I didn't see any caves around, so I thought I'd make one. [Aang looks up at the glass structure critically before nodding his head.] I haven't tried making glass before, but I think it turned out okay.

Planetside

[warpandweft]

[The empty city is unnerving, and Alucard is still not entirely used to spending his time in the ships, hanging up in the sky.

The combination of these two things leaves the desert. Not for a long-term stay, but for outings. Besides, Alucard is curious. There must be something happening here.

And as it turns out, there is something, during one of his expeditions. Not what he expected, but definitely SOMETHING. He sees fire and sand and the melding of the two. Glass, fire-hot. As Aang begins to bend the structure into place, Alucard gets closer. Watching.

He stops a reasonable distance away, and doesn't interrupt while the glass cave is being shaped. That would be rude. But when Aang drops down, begins to move the sand, he clears his throat.]

Impressive control.

[He thinks he could certainly do that, if only he had fire rather than water or air as one of his elements.

...The fascinating thing is that Aang's aura isn't quite what he'd expect. Power, yes. But not the same as his own, or like any magician from his own world.]

[actually112]

[Aang is aware of a stranger's presence, but the stranger keeps his distance, so Aang focuses on his work while remaining aware of the stranger. He can run if the stranger attacks.

But he doesn't. He draws attention to himself once Aang is burying his shelter.

Aang spares the man a glance over his shoulder, flashing a smile.]

Thanks. I've never tried working with glass before, but I think it's going well.

[If nothing else, the arenas have taught him to be creative.]