Paper Cranes [open]

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

It was just for practice, and also something to distract himself and pass the time. It was almost meditative, after all.

Not that he was feeling as sad anymore. Life happened, there were hurts that were just part of it all. He was human so he could feel them and understand them, so he could know heartbreak just as well as love, calm just as well as anger, sadness just as well as happiness. He was human so he'd make choices he wasn't sure were right that he had to live with, so he could be hurt and wonder if it was right to feel that way.

Aang had come to accept that, so now he was just distracting himself. He'd managed to find paper--real paper--from Weapons and Possessions. It was rice paper, in a wide variety of colors, and he sitting against Appa in his Sensorium and folding it into a wide variety of animals.

Some were pretty good, depending on how long he'd actually bothered to practice doing that kind of animals. Others...well they were almost recognizably animals.

"What do you think, Appa? What does it look like to you?"

Appa grunted a long groaning sound, and Aang scratched his head.

"Actually, it's supposed to be a bison like you, not a boarcupine. But I guess it's a boarcupine now!"

He smiled and placed it down with the others and picked up his birds (most of them cranes) and started making them dance in the air over his head, which was the real point of all this. Airbending practice. Fine control was something he could always use work on and making the little paper birds fly overheard was fun.

Comments

[potentialmonkey.livejournal.com]

"Heya dude. What's up?" Ron said as he poked his head into the room as Rufus ran ahead. The tiny rodent stared up in awe at Appa.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"I'm making paper animals," Aang said cheerfully. "Making the birds fly is good airbending practice."

One of them fluttered in circles around Rufus's head.

[potentialmonkey.livejournal.com]

"Coo, coo..." Ron trailed off as he realized that the big hairy mountain was actually an animal.

"That is the biggest six-legged bison-thingy I've ever seen." The teenager considered that for a moment. "Actually, it's the only six-legged bison-thingy I've ever seen. He got a name?"

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"His name's Appa," Aang said cheerfully.

Aang didn't mention the fact that he was probably the only flying bison Ron would see for a number of reasons.

[livestoannoy]

"Dude, why the hell did you decide to summon up some big giant fluffy...whatever the hell that is," Marco said as he wondered into the sensoriums to find some bald guy with an arrow on his head already there. He eyed the flying paper birds suspiciously - were they part of the illusion too, or was the guy making that happen?

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"He's a flying bison," Aang said, patting Appa's side with the hand not making little movements that were causing planes to flutter in the air.

"And he's not one of the illusions--he's actually here. His name is Appa."

The bison looked squarely at Marco and let out an annoyed grunt at being called a "whatever the hell that is."

"Hey, Appa, be nice."

[livestoannoy]

"Flying bison?! ...Wait." Marco had heard the words 'flying bison' before. "Don't tell me you're from that world with the freaky animal combinations too?" Now Marco was eying Appa with full force. He didn't even want to know where that extra set of legs came from...

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Combinations with what?"

They were just animals.

[thewunderkind]

"Is this room take--" Maybe one day she's actually read the signs instead of barging in.

IYou'd think she had just stepped into a war zone, but no it was simply the cranes floating in the air. Immediately, she instinctively rolled to the ground and looked at the birds flying overhead.

"What in the world?!" She pointed at Appa. "What's that? Why is it so big?"

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"That's Appa! He's my bison."

Duh.

[thewunderkind]

"That's not a bison." Lash retaliated, used enough to the sensoriums to think this was perhaps just some sort of illusion. She brushed herself off and walked up to Appa close enough to feel his breath.

"Bison don't have that many feet, aren't that big, aren't that color and don't have arrows on their forehead."

Duh right back at you, Aang.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Yes they do. He does. See?" Aang gestured with a hand, as if Appa's mere presence proved that bison were that way.

Because it kinda did.

[theregularguy.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Aang! How's it going?" Sokka had barged in as usual, and been pleasantly surprised to see Aang and Appa. He meandered across the simulated fields to give Appa a little pat.

"Heya, Appa. I didn't forget you either."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Better!" Aang said chirpily. Then he relented, a little more honestly: "Kind of."

Quickly changing the subject, he went back to concentrating on flying his little birds around.

"I've been making animals. We used to do it as a form of meditation when we were little. Making the birds fly around is really good for practicing fine control."

Yes, let's stick to the nice subjects that are not the subjects that make him sad. (Subjects that would make him even sadder if he realized Katara was repodded and he missed it because he was avoiding her).

[theregularguy.livejournal.com]

"That's really neat. I've never seen you do anything that delicate before." He leaned against Appa, watching as Aang played with the cranes.

"Then again, it's kind of been a while since I saw you. Kind of. This whole time thing."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"It's confusing. When I went to sleep--that feels like a week ago, but it's been longer, hasn't it."

He added, "I feel better, though. Than I did. More like myself again. I was feeling better then, but I didn't realize how tired I'd gotten. It was a kind of tiredness that went a little deeper than the physical, I think."

Sokka probably understood more than anyone the lingering effects the Nightmare King had on people.

[knifeurrib.livejournal.com]

"Avatar Aang," Mai clasped her hands together and bowed. Maybe those etiquette lessons hadn't been entirely lost on her after all. She'd poked inside, just for lack of anything better to do, and discovered the Avatar. And his bison. She still remembered spending days chasing the silly thing down. It'd been a distraction, at least. It still felt a bit strange to consider the Avatar and his allies "friends" and she usually kept herself at a distance.

It just felt odd. Not that she'd ever been a very social person to begin with.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Just Aang is okay, Mai."

Aang quirked a little half-smile at her, even as he hovered the birds around.

"Zuko's my friend. Maybe we're not friends now, but we could be. Eventually."

He wanted to be her friend.

[knifeurrib.livejournal.com]

"OK. Aang."

She wasn't going to get caught up on titles. Wasn't like she cared all that much either. Mai watched him swirl the paper cranes around - she didn't really understand the point of it, but hey, he was the Avatar. Who knew why he did half the things he did? Or cared, in her case.

"Maybe," she allowed, "Although I don't think I'll ever be as obsessed with you as Zuko."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard's looking for an empty Sensorium so he can practice his devious plot to psychologically torture his business partner. He's not exactly looking to run into a kid using what looks like telekinesis on origami animals. Or a giant six-legged shaggy dog buffalo thing.

"What - what is that?" Is it dangerous? The last person he saw who could make things float was deadly to the core, and the last mutant animals he'd seen had all tried to kill him or Orc, so he's wary from the outset.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"He's my bison! Appa!" Aang said, patting Appa's side gently with his free hand.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard has never seen a bison. In fact, before this he never left his hometown. However, "I'm pretty sure bison usually don't have six legs."

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

Cargn smirked slightly at the sight of Aang hard at work on paper animals, and the gargantuan bison he was leaning against.

He was currently taking a break from his work studying the Map, which had absorbed most of his time lately. It had gotten so bad that his familiar had to remind him to eat from time to time.

But even a superhuman Astartes Adept like Cargn knew that rest was necessary from time to time, so he had decided to spend some time in the Sensoriums, only to find his young friend already there.

He quietly approached, reaching down to pick up one of the unused sheets of paper. With a deftness surprising given his rather large and bulky fingers, he folded the paper in short, quick movements.

In about a minute, he finished his work, holding up what appeared to be a crude, two headed eagle (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101213212616/assassinscreed/images/7/77/Imperial_aquila.jpg").

"They often had us do this as a meditative aid when we were neophytes," he said with a soft chuckle.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"That's how I learned it, too! Then, after you make them, the birds are good for practicing Airbending," Aang said, raising his eyebrows as if to say, "See?" as some of the cranes swooped and dove down.

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

"Impressive," Cargn said, laughing slightly at the display.

He willed a chair into existence across from Aang and took a seat. Sometimes, the Sensoriums were quite convenient.

"How have you been?" he asked. "I admit I haven't had much time to catch up with you since you've gotten back."

His work on the Map hadn't helped his socialization time, either.