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.
a_minute_younger: (neutral smile)

[personal profile] a_minute_younger 2014-10-04 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
It's a lie that Gary doesn't catch; he's too busy trying to keep his balance on the test dummy, which he does...remarkably well, actually. Aang is not the only person here with an innate gracefulness about him. The dummy finally stops wobbling enough for Gary to straighten, beaming in equal parts happiness for the company and triumph for conquering the prop.

"Gary. Nice to meet you!" The teen briefly gauges the distance between his current position and the next dummy, decides that it's probably close enough. He leans back and forth, steadily rocking the stand as he prepares to jump. "What's your name?" This is a completely normal conversation and there is nothing weird about it at all.
a_minute_younger: (Great!)

[personal profile] a_minute_younger 2014-10-07 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah! Just--" Gary takes the jump, leaping nimbly to the next dummy in the line. The previous clatters over and the current sways wildly, but Gary masterfully surfs atop its shoulders, keeping it under control. "--just got here a few days ago. Cool place! Did you know the amusement park floats? How'd they even do that?"
a_minute_younger: (neutral smile)

[personal profile] a_minute_younger 2014-10-11 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
It's only going to get worse from here. Unable to see Aang's change in expression from across the room, Gary barrels onward just as enthusiastically as before.

"Or they have a bunch of wizards hiding under the boardwalk." He grins and laughs at his own joke. Wizards! Who even heard of such a thing? "I feel like I'm living in one of those old sci-fi TV movies from the 80's. You know--where everyone has the hair?" Gary makes wide, exaggerated gestures around his head. "And the shoulder pads, too. I wonder if that's intentional?"
a_minute_younger: (idle thoughts)

[personal profile] a_minute_younger 2014-10-14 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Gary blinks in immediate surprise, but he recovers quickly enough. Is he...rural? Yes, that makes sense. Gary can accept most of this.

"How do you not know about the 80's?" he says, brow raised. "The 80's aren't metal."

A beat.

"...Okay, I guess that depends on who you talk to." Gary waves a dismissive hand. "Whatever--it's a time. Like, the 1980's. You've never heard of that before?"
a_minute_younger: (I like where this is going)

[personal profile] a_minute_younger 2014-10-18 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Aang seems to be getting comfortable, so Gary does as well. At this point he's cleared a few more testing dummies and is somewhat closer; he settles on top of the current stand, mirroring Aang's pose almost unconsciously.

"A different system, huh?" Gary never considered the idea that an isolated place would use a different calendar. But now that he has...huh. Maybe he can play with this idea a little bit. Gary's face splits into a wide, perfectly innocent smile. "The Music Video era. It was a great time."
a_minute_younger: (idle thoughts)

[personal profile] a_minute_younger 2014-10-21 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Why wouldn't we?" Gary is not only pulling Aang's leg, he is completely deadpan about it. "Well what kind of eras would you expect us to have?"