trans_9 | Morning Meditation

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Morning Meditation

The next morning, Katara woke up with a slight headache. It could have been worse, she knew it, but she knew what would help: a morning bath. She got up slowly, petting a sleeping Zhin before walking over toward the baths, a towel in hand. She made a bee line toward the co-ed baths, taking a quick dive deep in the water, and cleaning thoroughly. It was early enough that she thought she wouldn't bother anyone, and after a wash she went straight to the hot springs, towel wrapped around her chest and down to her knees.

She settled down, breathing deeply, closing her eyes a moment. After everything, it was good to just sit, relax, take everything in. There was still so much uncertainty, and there was definitely some pain, but she needed to stay focused, needed to be what was needed, especially now. How was Billy doing, was Matt recovering from his foray with darkness? There was still so much going on, and she needed to keep focused on training and the next step with the Outsiders.

She sat quietly, breathing in, breathing out. She couldn't be overwhelmed or things would be worse. There were reasons, after all, she still kept her head high: there was still so many things to do.

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"We're demons," Zetta said, as if this explained everything. "Brimstone and mineral smells are pretty common in the Netherworld. Y'know, lakes of fire? Lavafalls? That sort of thing. Hey, lava's a liquid, do you count it as fire, earth, or water under your bending thing?"

She shook her head. "Ok, you can say that I'm largely new to the demon world except what you've shown me. Besides, who else do you know that would want to have a bath with rotten egg smells anyway?"

She thought a minute. "I would think fire usually, but I've never tried to bend it before. You might want to ask A...ang."

She did look a little pained. "He is the Avatar."

"When did this become about other people?" the demon asked, confused. "Anyway, do I need to yell at you till you feel better again? I've been on a roll with that lately, so now's the time to get while the getting is good."

She sighed. "Aang's had time learning from several different bending masters, he'd probably know the answer to that question. He's here now."

There was a bit unsaid there, but she made a face. "I really cant see how yelling at me is going to help. Why were you yelling at people in the first place?"

"...that's how I always cheer people up," Zetta said, entirely self-oblivious as always. "It's helped before! I don't see why it wouldn't now!"

She shook her head. "Well, some people don't really respond to be yelling! People are all different, you know!

Really, where did the Overlord come from with some of these ideas?

"How was your vacation? Who did you marry?"

"That all depends on what you yell," Zetta countered. "Especially when they're stupid and know better!"

Well, she didn't seem too bad off. That either meant she was okay... or hiding it. Zetta decided to watch carefully.

"Tenaya. I never knew marrying the hottest robot chick in the cosmos could be so damn depressing."

She sighed. "Then who have you been yelling at that should know better? One of your disciples."

Oh, she was hiding it, all right.

She looked surprised. "Whats depressing about that?"

"Made me wish I wasn't a damn book, for one," he said. Did you really want details, Katara? "Not that I probably would've gotten anything done if I hadn't been anyway."

She shook her head. "I think at this point, I'd be pretty stupid if I didn't guess what that meant. So that was the most depressing thing for you?"

"Well, it sucked, yeah. And the whole thing seemed too damn easy." Zetta shot a glare in the direction of... nothing, really. "Seems to me like we're being set up for some disaster."

She shook her head. "Then you're lucky. The last time we had one of these vacations, the Ohm struck and started killing off the civilians. At least you got to get married and be on a new planet, right?"

"The new planet thing isn't much for me, Katara," Zetta said with a grin. "I've been on more Netherworlds than you can imagine in the course of my life. That wasn't a bad place, I guess. But married and not even getting some action out of it? That's damn undemonic of me."

She giggled. "Good grief, Overlord Zetta. I don't know why I didn't expect that to come from your mouth. Did you at least find that things that you were sent on the mission for?"

"Yeah. No one has tried to barter it to the Ohm for a false promise of peace. YET." Really, why else had he and Tenaya hooked up but to prevent that sort of crap? "So it's technically a success. It was too easy though."

Katara reeled at the thought. "Ok, that is a horrible thought. I hope the people on Council have been thinking about things like this. It's sort of why I'm glad people like Kang and Rhiow are there, alongside people like Matt and Dhianalia."

She looked a little bothered. "That easy? No fights or anything? That's a relief."

"Damn straight it's terrible. And yet considering the peace-with-the-Ohm crowd got elected, it's probably something most of the idiots on this ship would support. 'Give 'em the map for peace!' they'll yell."

He looked around cautiously, then sighed. "At least a couple people still have some brains left. Yeah, it was easy. TOO easy. My instinct is telling me we've got trouble coming."

She laughed. "I think I know who you're talking about, actually. I'm proud of her, but even I was a little iffy about her stance with the Ohm. But I can see that some people would want her to be there, because they need the council to represent as many people on the ship as they can."

She nodded. "I'm surprised we didn't get more than that little attack on the people who hadn't entered the city. No one really got hurt, but tempers flared and people started arguing again. Really, its hard to believe we still argue about dumb things with each other."

"Hmph. This is why the 'peace and love' people won over me," Zetta grumbled. "Everyone wants someone to force the other people on the ship to be nice to them, instead of growing a pair and doing what needs to be done anyway. Well, I'll be the one laughing from my fortress when they're all running around with various body parts on fire, screaming, 'Why? Why didn't we listen to the smart, handsome, sexy, badass freaking Overlord?'!"

After a moment, he said, "Uh, what attack, anyway?"

"Oh, I don't know about that," katara said. "If anything, I'd say the people you're talking about are the rare ones. I mean, if youi asked the captain what he thought about people being nice to him over what he has to do as a job, he'd give you a pretty precise answer. Besides, look around you: even those that could be hurt, we'll be there doing our part to get them taken care of. It would really be nice if people could do their part willingly, but in the thick of a fight, who said what isn't going to matter."

At least, not to her.

"One that happened outside of the city. Some spirit started simulating attacks, one of the werewolves started to attack on principal, then Danny Phatom argued with a bear and stuff. It was a whole annoying thing, and luckily only one person was really injured, and I patched her up. But think of how much more we could do if we didn't just sit around arguing!"

"We could get a hell of a lot done," Zetta agreed. "That was my whole damn POINT when I was telling everyone to vote for me. Working together isn't an end, it's a means to an end!"

She sighed. "There's a lot of us, Overlord Zetta, and some people don't trust a demon, for some reason or another. I'd have tried for council, but I think we can do better just trying to provide what we can. If we can just manage to start arguing with each other, think of what we can accomplish!"

"Under ordinary circumstances, trusting a demon would be idiotic. Same as relying on humans or -- or ANYone would be, for a demon! Especially for me! I mean, I know there's no one as amazing as me and never will be, but maybe they could all learn from the example of the badass freaking Overlord and play nice!"

Trusting humans. What a hell of a mess he'd gotten into. Sure, some of them maybe COULD be trusted... maybe even counted on... but that was a coincidence!

"Not everyone is like that," Katara said, "and that's partly the problem. We're all from so many places and used to being petty about these really small insignificant thing, we forget the big picture. The Ohm threat is real, and we have to find a way to stop them. I heard enough about what happened from others: I don't intend on giving another crew to Stacy. We have to stop them here."

She sighed. "So everything turned out ok?"

"I guess it did. The orb thing's in the sensorium now with what's his face peeling through it, and no guards or anything. So really we're just counting down till some disaster happens.

"I freaking hate being a book," Zetta grumbled.

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