actually112: (Being the Avatar is heavy stuff)
Aang ([personal profile] actually112) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2014-10-03 12:00 am

I have regained my breath

Who| Aang and YOU
What| He's fresh out of the arena and he's a little ball of sad.
Where| Training Center; Roof, D4 suite, and everywhere else
When| Late 11th week of the mall arena.
Warnings/Notes| Sadness, references to child death, references to fictional genocide

D4 Suite

Aang woke up being able to hear again. There was no hole in his chest, and he could breathe.

He felt dead inside.

Dying was horrible. He could feel it--his soul, the Avatar spirit battering his chest, trying to escape, but trapped. He could feel himself dying in a way he wasn't meant to, without moving on to someone else. Would the Avatar cycle have been over had they let him stay dead, or would the Avatar spirit escape again once his body rotted and split open to allow it out?

Maybe it had moved on after the darkness overtook him. Maybe, for the briefest moment, he had been a waterbender baby. And then maybe he had died in his new mother's arms.

He staggers into the common area, blankly looking around, not looking all there. His legs feel wrong. His arms feel wrong. His lungs and ears feel wrong. Everything is wrong.

The Roof

It didn't take him long to realize that the autumnal equinox had come and gone. He was 113. It had been 101 years since the Air Nomads were wiped from the earth. Here, in this place of color and strange machines, after watching people die and suffer, without even the wind to whistle in his ears and guide him, he has never felt so alone.

He goes up. He finds stairs, and he goes up until he can't go up anymore. To the roof. The wind blows around him, but it doesn't speak to him like it should. He sits on the ground, overlooking all the towering buildings, buildings full of people who had laughed as they observed his suffering.

He sits down, hugs his knees, and lets tears flow silently down his face. Nothing. His struggles had been for nothing.

Aang takes a deep breath as the wind blows away his tears, and begins to sing. Those who observed him humming on Zuko's chest as he died would recognize the melody, but none of the lyrics are translated like everything else is. That is because there aren't lyrics--he lets out noises from deep in his chest, from high in his throat, making sounds that humans can't make without practice. He's imitating the wind, with its wails and puffs and whistles and moans. The lyrics are nonsense, and yet they mean everything to Aang.

It's the wind. It's all he has left of his people now.

Everywhere

After his grieving, it hits him that he's alive. And so will everyone else be.

His face is a little blotchy, but to hell with that. He's exploring, getting lost, getting found again, wandering into random districts and finding the common area and climbing onto dummies in the training area.

He is looking for friends, old and new and potential.

He doesn't have the Air Nomads, but he has them.
tookthewheel: (Bucky wears warpaint)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-03 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Second?" he queried quietly, continuing to watch Aang with mild concern at whether this sort of reaction could be considered normal after going through such an experience. "Hm. It's not a good habit."

He may not understand a lot of what Aang is talking about but he can agree on that.

Bucky nods firmly. "We are reset after death to the same physical condition we were in on first arrival." which means aside from a little minor weight loss he's completely physically fit. "You are no longer injured, correct?" he says as an example.
tookthewheel: (Ain't nothing but a tool)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-04 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Azula. He takes that name, memorises it, files it away in his mind in case it ever becomes relevant. "I will remember." The important aspect to remember is she is responsible for harming Aang at some point in his past, which means if Bucky should across her in a combat scenario she will be a target.

"I don't know." he answers truthfully. "We come back exactly as we were when first brought here. My hair was cut before the arena, now it is long again."

As much proof as was needed that it wasn't just them fixing up their corpses and shocking them back into life but an actual reset. Not to mention some people's corpses were surely damaged beyond possible repair, like anyone who had fallen into the gears on the escalators. It's a puzzle, one Bucky can't begin to figure out, it wasn't part of his skillset.
tookthewheel: TWS (To question)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-04 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
If she was dangerous age lost its relevance. If she attacked or meant to kill one of the people he -- he considered his, in some way, Bucky would kill her with no remorse. It rocks him a little, this conviction made by his own choice and not another's order. The point is, he knows well that children can be dangerous, they can be killers, spies and assassins all the more dangerous because they are children. The reluctance to harm minors most adults feel is a weapon in itself.

"I don't know." he says again, frowning. "These games are... more than games." Bucky steps back, further into D9's common room. It's as much an invitation as Aang will get from him to come in. "They are important to the function of Panem society."
tookthewheel: (Ain't nothing but a tool)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-06 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"This building is in the Capitol, it is a city. Panem is the country it is located in." Bucky clarifies, returning to the small kitchen area.

He doesn't think about what he's doing, it's like his body suddenly starts to act on its own, like muscle-memory taking over. Two glasses are taken out of the cupboard, two plates as well.

When he takes a loaf of bread to start making sandwiches he feels the spectre of a small hand holding onto the back of his shirt and tries to ignore it. There had been a photo in his biography, a smiling gap-toothed boy and three younger dark haired girls, he'd taken it out, kept it in his pocket. It was gone now.

"I am unsure. It does not make sense to me. Someone else may be able to explain it."
tookthewheel: (Baby blues)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-08 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes." he answers, taking a knife and a jar of peanut butter, giving each sandwich a generous spread. "Not where you're from?"

He puts the top slice on each and pauses, "I... some people dislike the crusts, do you?"
tookthewheel: (But I know him)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-10 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Me too." he says after a moment, the harsh line of his mouth softening just a little at Aang's proclamation. He puts the sandwiches on plates and gets a bottle of soda out of the fridge, filling the glasses.

Back in his day he thinks it tasted different, but the stuff the Capitol produces isn't bad, a definite step up from water and protein shakes which was all he ever had to drink under HYDRA. He likes the sweetness of it.

"It's peanut butter." Bucky informs Aang as he hands him the plate and glass. Everyone liked peanut butter. "They're common here and where I come from."
tookthewheel: (But I know him)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-13 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"I do not know how it is made." Bucky follows him over to the seating area, setting himself on one of the single chairs. He looks down to his own sandwich, lifting it in his right hand (he's learned to try and avoid getting substances into the joints of the left) and taking a bite, chewing as he watches Aang try his.

"No." he agrees to the declaration that it is not butter, it's interesting to watch the expression on Aang's face change as he tastes the sandwich, from puzzlement to enjoyment. "We ate it a lot back home." he says, taking another mouthful, trying to remind himself that he doesn't have to bolt his food down because no one is going to take it away from him here.
tookthewheel: (Wasn't prepared for this)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-17 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah." Bucky eats more of his. Thinking next time to make it with jelly as well, he's pleased that Aang is enjoying the sandwich.

Of course, it didn't cross his mind that if Aang came from a world without peanut butter it might also be a world without soda, nor he reaction the kid might have to it. As soon as the coughing starts he drops his sandwich and sits up, leaning forward with a hand hovering near Aang's back until he ascertains that he is not in fact choking.

"It's soda." he answers, thinking he's done something wrong. "You don't like it?"
tookthewheel: (Baby blues)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-20 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
That's good because if Aang started choking Bucky might not so subtly freak out about it. There's something about someone with Aang's build not being able to breathe properly that kickstarts an intense and active fear in him, as well as a readiness to leap into action. Luckily this time that isn't necessary, it's just surprise not choking, or asthma.

"Oh..." he looks at the glass, "I didn't know." If they didn't have peanut butter perhaps it should have made sense they would have no carbonated drinks either. "I can get water."

He's starting to move already.
tookthewheel: (Long way down)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-22 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Bucky nods and gets up, leaving the glass of soda and getting a clean one out of the cupboard to run water into which he brings back and sets before Aang gently before resuming his seat.

"I don't know." another thing to add onto the pile of things that he doesn't know. A pile which in all honesty is starting to feel like a mountain. "We had this when I was a kid." which was quite a long time ago.
tookthewheel: (Sure Steve)

[personal profile] tookthewheel 2014-10-25 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"No." he thinks for a moment, "It's probably done with machines." So much is done with machines.

"Why do you think that?" Bucky asks, picking up the sandwich and biting into once more, two bites and one half is gone before he takes a swig of soda to chase it down with.