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

"I don't know the reason, but twice, when I was to all intents and purposes dead -- and I'm talking gross trauma here -- healing magic was able to restore me to life. Once I'd been basically cut in half, the other time I was impaled on a sword." Well, she'd asked...

"And do you ever regret your return?" It was something she'd been doing entirely too much thinking about lately.

He shook his head. "My time will come when it comes. If I'm alive now, it's because I should be."

It was an optimistic way to look at things, but Azula couldn't bring herself to believe that just yet. After all there were so many people on the ship who just didn't seem to have a purpose or reason to exist.

"If you say so."

It had its downsides, really.

"I did try to kill myself once," he said, looking off into the distance. "I was a wreck, back then. Not with any good cause, mind."

Well now, that was an interesting concept.

"How?" She asked simply allowing him to expand on himself. At least while he was telling her his story he wasn't pressuring her about her own.

"How did I try, or how was I a wreck?"

Ha! She may think she's diverted him, but in reality he's continuing to give her nonconfrontational human contact!

"Both." She abandoned her game tower for a moment to move over to his car and lean non it. Her slender young form was an attractive compliment to the clearly beloved vehicle.

Well, claiming the car didn't have the purpose of making girls take notice would be a lie. He rolled lightly onto the small of his back, then kipped up.

"I'm an orphan. I was raised in a temple from as long as I can remember, getting both an intellectual and physical education. So for my formative years, I wasn't in a family, just really a boarding school. There's a difference in relationships there. Then my soul got stuck in a sword, which really marked about when things started going downhill."

He tilted his head to the car. "Ride?"

"Only if we can take the game." She pointed back to the solid and weighty tower she had left a few feet away. It would be her first time riding in a vehicle like this.

"Sure, we'll put it in the backseat." He dropped to a crouch just long enough to heft the thing into his arms. Standing with it was no real effort; that physique he had wasn't just for show.

"Anyway," he said around it as he walked to the car, "even with my soul stuck in a sword, that wasn't really terrible. I mean it sucked, but I was getting by. I graduated from school, went back looking for my family's legacy, and discovered I was the heir to a meaninglessly large amount of money."

Azula listened, not bothering to ask questions. Nothing made sense anymore so why did he need to explain how he was put into a sword.

She slid into the passenger seat luxuriating in a vehical that felt as though it was worthy of someone with royal status. It was a rare moment of decadence compared to the rest of her life these days.

"Seat belt," he said, putting his on. "Not that I'm knocking my driving skills, but you never know what'll pop out unexpectedly on this ship, and I take no chances."

He started the car, which roared to life like a proud beast before subsiding to a low, smooth rumble.

"Thing is, I never really learned to deal with people who weren't fellow martial artists I'd grown up with. I put on a good front, but I was a mess. I spoiled friendships, said and did stupid things... made a total mess out of everything. The worse it got for me, the worse I behaved, and the worse I behaved, the worse it got. Vicious cycle."

She put the belt on allowing herself the time to imagine the horrible results of not having one while he spoke.

"It's hard to imagine you ruining things." She observed.

The compliment was so unexpected it left him grinning. "Thanks."

His hand dropped to the gearshift. He revved the engine twice, then popped it into gear as the Infinity pushed forward with silky-smooth acceleration.

"I think it was after my girlfriend -- my first girlfriend ever, mind -- dumped me for another guy that I really slipped over the edge, but I honestly don't remember. You know how it is when everything has just slipped so far out of control that it all seems a bit hazy... well, that's how my memories are. I honestly don't remember the details. All I know is what they told me afterwards. It's... when a Mage like me slips too far, it gets called a Quiet, when reality... you just can't recognize reality any more. And I couldn't. I honestly thought I was dead for a while."

Oh how she knew those feelings. All too well. It was almost eerie to hear someone else talking about them though.

At least the vehicle had a smooth ride that didn't aggravate her further. "And then what happened?"

"Well, remember, you asked, because this isn't supposed to be preachy," he said, grinning to her. With the top down and the speed ever-increasing, the wind pulled their hair back into two long black streams behind them. "But once the worst of the Quiet ended, well, I made some serious changes. Up till then I'd been drifting without a purpose, so, I got myself one -- going back to school, if you were wondering. I don't know about your world, but on Earth, continuing education is considered valuable and prestigious."

"Education is important. In our nation it is compulsory as opposed to other nations where only those with the means can attend." One of the many things she was proud about. "I myself graduated with honors from The Royal Fire Academy for girls." I know that the name doesn't mean much anymore but I assure you it was very prestigious."

He nodded to that, believing her assertion. Why doubt it? "The real problem, I guess, is that I didn't know who I was. I'd been raised to be a martial artist, but then on top of that, I became a Mage, a billionaire, a stranger because I'd left the one place I was familiar with... I just didn't have any grounding. Any center. A lot of what I did was just finding that. Setting goals and plans for myself, instead of ones that were pushed on me or I thought I had to achieve because of something."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were making this up." She muttered watching the road with sharp eyes. "It's painfully close to my own situation, as you well know."

"My mom was a death mage and my dad was a werewolf," he promptly said. That ought to quell any notions of similarly, as well as sounding too crazy to be made up. "Also my twin sister is a werewolf too, though we were separated. I pretty much screwed up our reunion, which really contributed to my state at the time."

Azula spared a look of ab solute disbelief and shook her head. "And after all of that your world gets destroyed and your stuck on a psychic ship made of meat. There has to be some kind of higher power that hates you."

"And here I didn't even tell you about the bad things that happened." Morgan grinned, amused that Azula had offered what was, for her, sympathy. "No. Life has its ups and downs, its good times and its bad. Even the really bad."

The car turned smoothly around a corner onto the long straightaway Morgan had been aiming for. With nothing but debris-free road ahead of them, he shifted gears, pressed the gas pedal down, and watched the speedometer climb.

Azula's eyes closed and her lips curled into a smile as she savored then flipping of her belly. "So go on then, I wouldn't want to miss the really bad things. No doubt it will put my own small trifling troubles into perspective so I no longer hate the world."

He shook his head, still smiling, though the smile is bittersweet. "Nothing so dramatic. Two people I loved died."