Tha sin mar bhàs.

[hollystrike]

Who: Katie and you!
Broadcast: Yes!
Action: Planetside
When: Now-ish

[Amusement Park]

[So this is where she goes when she wants time to think, apparently.  The bunker is a place she won't enter; between the heavy aftermath of a mass death and the understandably stricken reactions of its visitors, the atmosphere is far too toxic.  But it doesn't mean she isn't grieving.  The deaths could not be helped and are god knows how far in the past, but the fact that these people have been forgotten - not acknowledged even by this automated town, let alone the rest of space - is something that sits very poorly.  She can't even change anything about the town to reflect its population's final days.

She's walking the rollercoaster tracks, very high up, thinking over the issue.  Don't ask how she got up that high.  And don't worry if you should be using the rollercoaster at the time; she can avoid you.  Might give you a bit of a scare, though, sorry.

Eventually, she puts a call through to Sam.]

[Outside of town]

[As far as she can go before she suspects (or hopes) she's outside the range of the city's replication science so her work isn't scrubbed.  She's not too far from the bunker; it would be pointless if she were too far away from it. 

She finds a rock face smooth enough, and between a thick blade and Kirito's lightsaber she carves a memorial.  Maybe nobody will ever see it, but if any other visitors come to this place, they should know what happened.  It's worth the extra headache.]

[And Broadcast]

I've decided to quit making dreamcatchers and move on to voodoo dolls instead.  It's more fun.  So if you'd like to take one before I end up throwing them all out, feel free.

[Just so you know.  Totally honest, as usual.  Less cheerful than normal.

If anyone wants her she'll be curled up in her office with Licorice on her lap.  She's so tired of these planets.]

Comments

[alwayscomeback]

Yeah, and things are...complicated back home. Our tribe has only known war for so long, no one alive knows what it was like before the war. So there's a lot of...displacement between the Tribes.

But things are getting better. Slowly.

[hollystrike]

Oh. That's a shame. I was hoping you'd have no hope of improvement.

[But she smiles, a little gently. Because well. Sokka might actually take her seriously without it.]

[alwayscomeback]

[He would have so taken her seriously without the smile. Instead, he sees it and lets out a soft scoff. ]

Sorry to disappoint you. The Water Tribes are plucky like that. Adaptable.

[hollystrike]

Earth, Water, and Fire. I can't help but notice you seem to have an elemental motif. If Water was Wind, you'd be famous.

[alwayscomeback]

We do, there's also the Air Nomads, but they...uh yeah they're gone. Aang is the last one.

[And that reference just sailed over his head. ]

Why would I be famous?

[hollystrike]

[Man, she was all set up to make jokes about Earth Wind and Fire and the whole Air Nomad thing just stops her right there.]

All of them?

[alwayscomeback]

[He nods, his expression turning more sombre. ]

The Fire Nation knew the next Avatar was going to be an Air Nomad- they get born in a cycle, you see. They also knew the Avatar would be able to stop the rise to power- for the Fire Lord of the time ordered them to be exterminated. All of them. To try and prevent another Avatar from being reincarnated.

Aang got away from it because of...well, it's complicated, but he managed to freeze himself, and didn't resurface until me and Katara found him a hundred years later.

[hollystrike]

[So the war was unchecked and unstopped for a century.

Well, your world sounds charming.]

That's a lot of pressure on one man's shoulders.

[alwayscomeback]

[It was the BEST TIME. ]

Hmmm, which is why he ran away in the first place. He struggled with it a lot, even with us at his back, because ultimately, stopping the Fire Lord was still on him, and him alone. I wouldn't want to be in his position, having the whole world looking to you for answers.

[hollystrike]

I don't know. It might be fun to convince an entire world that a solution can be found in the power of dance.

[alwayscomeback]

I'm pretty sure if he could have gotten away with that he would have.

...But he dances weird.

[hollystrike]

That's even better. I shall have to meet him one day, clearly. I'm a collector of weird dances.

[alwayscomeback]

There's no way he wouldn't be thrilled to show you it. A lot. You'd bring it on yourself. There'd be no saving you.

[hollystrike]

I'm unsavable to begin with. [Grin.] Besides, it seems to me world savers could do with a timeout to do kooky dances, don't you think?

[alwayscomeback]

Says you.

And yeah, especially when they're technically only 12 years old. He deserves to be a kid.

[Sokka says that as if HIS childhood wasn't ripped from him too, but he's made his peace with it. All grown up now anyway. ]

[hollystrike]

[/record scratch. There went all her good humour.]

He's twelve?

[alwayscomeback]

Twelve. I mean, technically a hundred and twelve, but it doesn't count because of all the- uh being frozen thing. He was fifteen when I last saw him- but absolutely twelve during the war- with all the weight of the world on his shoulders.

[Sometimes, it was easy to forget how YOUNG Aang was- how young they all were, but Aang especially. Having to deal with these life and death scenarios. It was a lot. ]

[hollystrike]

How did he cope?

[Because wow, um. As a kid she'd totally buy into the HECK YEAH, CHILD SAVES WORLD thing. But as an adult, she's just pissed.]

[alwayscomeback]

He had us to support him. There were times where he broke down and couldn't cope. But Avatars- they can go into this trance and speak to their previous incarnations. He...did that quite a bit. They advised him as best they could.

[hollystrike]

[Oh. That. Is a concept she's more than familiar with. Huh.]

You shouldn't tell me these sorts of things. How am I meant to keep thinking of you as annoying?

[alwayscomeback]

[He flashes her a wry smile.]

You're right, that's really inconsiderate of me. Would it help if I listed some of the crappy things I've done to balance it out?

[hollystrike]

Absolutely. Let's hear them all so I can blackmail you later.

[alwayscomeback]

[He puts a hand to his chest in faux drama.]

You wound me, Katie. Actually wound me.

[hollystrike]

Not yet, I haven't.

[Innocently.]

Oh. Did I mention I met your sister?

[alwayscomeback]

Yet.

No, but she mentioned she'd met you.