trans_9 | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Of all the inane and stupid items to come across in her wanderings...

It stood about chest high on her with little grips on either side and buttons at it's base with familiar faces on it. Tentatively she pushed one of the buttons and sure enough a little doll popped out with her face.

It was far more beautiful a face then she remembered, but then again the game had been designed by people who were loyal to the Fire Nation. And there was no greater hero to the Fire Nation then their princess...except of course the Fire Lord.

Another button press brought her a doll of her brother and she placed them in the pegs on top of the small tower. Their feet clicked into place perfectly. It was like not a day had passed.

With a sullen and half hearted smile she tapped the button once, twice, three times watching the little doll punch her brother in the face. It was oddly soothing.

But how to get it back to the air temple from the city?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She chuckled again and shook her head. "People like sunsets. Nobody likes the Princess anymore." She joked dryly.

"Well, turning it around, who does the Princess like?" he said, curiously examining the game-box as he asked.

She had to really think. Was there anyone?

"Everyone I liked has been re-podded, that leaves me with you." And he wasn't even very high on the list. But he wasn't a bother. He didn't annoy her. It was better then others.

"I'm so touched," he said, still amused. He looked up at her with a smile. "You don't have much experience reading people, do you?"

She gave him a very dirty look and he would know right away he'd said the wrong thing.

"I'm not at my best these days." her words were dripping with venom.

No, no, he'd known exactly what he was saying when he said it, and exactly how well it would go over. "I'm not accusing you," he said, mild but not quite apologetic. "It's the nature of being powerful, strong, titled, beautiful. People want to serve you and please you, not to challenge you or push you to understand them. It'd be dumb to blame you for all that."

It didn't do much to sooth her. "There was a time when I could read people like open books. Enemies entire plans were opened up to me within minutes. But these days...I can't even begin to read myself." She grumbled glaring at him.

"Want some help?"

He phrased the question casually, making no big deal out of it whatsoever. Even though he thought she NEEDED the help, he expected it to turn it down out of hand because it was, well, help, and she didn't seem particularly fond of accepting that.

"No." She answered automatically and gripped the machine tightly before calming herself with several deep slow breathes speaking through clenched teeth. "But...I need help."

"Well. I can't argue with THAT distinction," he said. And the fact that she could make it was, to his mind, reassuring. Maybe he could allow for a little optimism. "Are you willing to trust me, that far?"

"No." She answered again just as sharply and it was true. She absolutely wasn't willing to trust anyone. But she also knew it wouldn't help her to keep going as she had been. "But I can...trust you that is." After all hadn't he kept popping up? Appearing in her wanderings to check on her, offer advice. Whoever he was he had been nothing but helpful.

And so long as she interpreted that helpful as the legitimate helpful it was, and not as having any ulterior motive, he was happy. Morgan had expected her to take this as some elaborate revenge plot for abandoning him in Hydroponics when he was injured.

"Well, it'd be best to go someplace where you can relax best." Normally he'd suggest the river, but... somehow he thought water wasn't her style.

"I've yet to find such a place." The closest she had come was the air temple, but even in the most peaceful, quiet and closed off of rooms she had felt the sense that she was being watched. That the world was just waiting for her to drop her guard.

"One place is the same as the other to me. Hell, we could do it here if you wanted. I'll leave it up to you, I'm not picky," he said, shrugging.

"Very well." This street wasn't ideal, but she wasn't about to leave her machine behind. She caught herself doing a paranoid scan of the surroundings before she forced herself to look back to him.

"Well. Sit down with me, then." Without regard for the environment, he dropped down to the ground, folding his legs casually.

Azula lowered herself more deliberately into a matching position, watching him with a hawklike gaze the entire time.

Morgan shut his eyes, though it didn't diminish his awareness of their surroundings.

"Just let yourself feel." He offered her a hand. "You'll be able to tell my feelings from yours."

She was hesitant to offer such an intimate form of contact. But she had committed to this so she took his hand. Her own hand was surprisingly warm, not unusual for a stressed out firebender.

Well. Let's just say the intimacy wasn't about to decrease.

He opened up slowly. The process wasn't one of pushing through her mental walls, or projecting, so much as slowly removing the barriers that distinguished their minds as separate. So, slowly, Morgan's feelings grew in her perception.

Worry, for one. He worried that this might be a bad step; after all, the way she acted, she truly did seem unaware of the reality of others, the idea that every person contained a mind, a heart, a soul, a world as large as her own. Concern, for another, because he did genuinely want to ease her pain and help her put herself back together. He cared. Good luck denying that from now on.

Deeper, less relevant to the current situation, came genuine good humor, as much as anyone could find in this situation they were all in. Beneath that, fear, and beneath that, deep abiding pain. No thoughts to go with any of these emotions, just the feelings themselves. Empathy, in a pure and direct form.

Her eyes widened the more she became aware of. It was like how she had been before the break, extremely perceptive. Except instead of figuring out these emotions on logic they were just coming to her.

She found herself resenting how invested he was purely out of a defiant nature, but could she really be suspicious of him feeling these things? Could he manipulate these feelings that she was now able to perceive? The very nature of this experience was questionable to her paranoia.

And yet she couldn't deny how real it felt.

"You're skeptical," he said, quietly. "I can feel it. What of?"

"Anyone foolish enough to reveal their feelings." She mumbled trying to focus as if that would help her confirm the honesty of the situation. "Anyone foolish enough to want to help me." She added.

"I am who I am," he said quietly. "I have nothing to fear from letting you see what I feel, because I don't fear what I feel in the slightest.

"I used to," he added. "I spent many years and a lot of pain learning to be a better person, to understand what I felt. I did a lot of stupid things out of stupid emotions. Maybe that isn't entirely past me now, but... I've learned a lot.

"And why is helping you foolish?"

"Because I am dangerous and unstable." She muttered as she felt a fresh wave of self loathing. "There was a time when I was in perfect control of my emotions. Now I can barely hold on." She bit her lip not having confessed that to anyone before for fear of being locked away again.