When she wasn't with Zuko, Mai needed to find something to do that wasn't throwing knives at the wall. Even that got boring after a while. You could only practice so much before your muscles decided you needed to do something else. So, she'd taken up simply wandering through the city. It was decent exercise and she was less likely to run into people who wanted to ask her stupid questions. Or any of the Avatar's group, for that matter. After Ozai, she'd been avoiding them. Not out of any hatred toward them, but simply because she would rather not have to explain herself if any of them wanted to know why.

So, the city had its appeal. Until she found her old family home, anyway. It was her family's manor from the Fire Nation capital, but here, it stood on a side street, in between a walled manor made of adobe, with curving, elegant archways and a squat, steely, sullen looking building that looked more like a bunker than anything else. It was also empty. She wandered the hallways and for the first time, she realized how omnipresent the servants actually had been. She had been so used to seeing them out of the corner of her eye or just passing by on some chore that they'd become part of the scenery. PArt of the house.

Without them, it was strangely empty and quiet.

The garden was there, of course. As immaculate and well-trimmed as the last time she remembered seeing it (who or what kept it from overgrowing and becoming a disaster area was a mystery). The furniture was there, too. A bit dusty, but otherwise in perfect condition. She slowly settled onto a couch on a balcony that overlooked the street. Back home, the Fire Nation Palace was just across the street - she could see it in her mind's eye - and it had been a point of pride for her family that they had a town-house that close to the Fire Lord. It showed royal favor, her mother had told her once. Which was why her father had become governor of New Ozai, of course.

She slumped back against the cushions, feeling oddly homesick for the first time in a long, long while.

"Figures. I can't escape my parents, even when they're in slimy pods..."

Welcome to the place that's the talk of the night life amongst all of Happy Happy Fun World! Where the party starts when the sun goes down! This is Indulgence Cove, the one stop to satisfy all your needs. To reach this location you must take a boat so you can reach the small island where it is located, but from as far as the mainland you can see the lights that shine through the night and the sounds of people having fun and partying.

Indulgence Cove has the biggest boardwalk shopping center in all of HHFW, what could be better than a full night of shopping in expensive stores that carry everything you'd ever need?! Pleasure Boardwalk has rows upon rows of stores and bigger establishments! From games, to the hottest fashion, music, toys, shoes, vintage, hundreds of souvenir shops, books, food markets with the best of the best ingredients money could buy, even raw materials! cloth, ores, parts, electronics, you name it! If it could be sold, or bought? It was here. Enter the Pleasure Boardwalk, and you might be leaving with no credits to your name!

Shopping not your thing? How about entertainment?! Nightlife Bay has THE hottest in shows, concerts, dance clubs, movie theaters, and more! Looking for something more racy? Go to the Red Light Central where the more raunchy and adventurous head into for a night they'll never forget and possibly won't speak about in public!

Want to simply kick it for the night and relax? Maybe want somewhere to stay or spend a special night with a loved one, or maybe one of the people you met during your vacation? Go to Sunrise Hill and stay in the many hotels that Indulgence Cove has to offer! They come in a wide variety of themes, from fun and energetic, to soothing and relaxing! The staff will make sure you leave your worry and your money behind!

All throughout Indulgence Cove you'll be seeing street performers, merchants, surprise shows, free gift booths, show girls, party boys, and much more! The night is forever young in the Cove, won't you come and let us make your dreams come true?


[[OOC: Feel free to add things if you'd like! Take note that the prices in the stores are higher than normal and everything in this place will try to squeeze every dime you own! But most importantly, have fun! Let loose! Get the things you need if you need someplace to restock in!]]

Hiccup was overjoyed by the presence of his special visitor and that was why he'd left her to go to his forge. Quickly gathering up all his plans and drawings, he made his way out.

He wanted to show her everything he'd thought of, every idea he had, wanted to share absolutely everything he could about himself in the day he had.

This was the first he'd get to know his mother, and the first she'd really get to know him, and he wasn't going to waste a minute of it.

As the Melting Clock causes Zuko to de-age, he loses more than just years. Growing younger has given him a certain . . . symmetrical quality that wasn't there before. Now what could be missing?

He stalks the halls, less angrier and restless than in his last state of aging. He seems more pensive than frustrated, but something may STILL have pissed him off.

Despite Superman's suddenly odd penchant for sporting mullets, it was time to have a heart-to-heart chat... between the Council and the rest of the crew. If there was some sort of bond between them and the crew that needed to be made, it needed to be done without hiding behind Omnicomms and other decisions.

Thus, the Council was gathered within La Prefecture and everyone was welcome to come in and make their concerns, questions, complaints and what have you known. Care to join us?

(OoC: This is open to everybody and everyone! Also, don't wait for the Council to address you guys! If your characters have concerns, start up a subthread and we'll gladly tag it!)

Zuko's mind was in a whirl. He had wasted, and would unfortunately continue to waste, so much time. The Avatar was free on the ship, and although Zuko could easily find him at a moment's notice, he had no way to restrain the airbender - and even if he could, no way to deliver his prize to his father.

How had he been able to do other things? Meditate? Explore the ship? Train the peasants in arts of war that their backwards breeding would never allow them to fully comprehend? It was all of it a waste of time, made tolerable only because these small actions might help him restore his nation - and with it, his chance to get his honor back.

He needed a plan, and he didn't have one. It was driving the prince of the Fire Nation crazy.

He stalked the halls, an unfamiliar person with a familiar scar, gleaming vivid and new, his armor too heavy to be practical in the ship's warmth. The scar was much more visible now that most of Zuko's head was shaved, the remaining portion of his hair pulled back into a dramatic ponytail.

His stalking brought him to a podroom in the Media Library, where he sat down, heaving a frustrated sigh. He was without a plan, without honor, and his feet hurt. The whole situation was intolerable. As if in response to his mood, music began to issue forth, the angry words and harsh chords combining into a cacophonous noise. It was bitter with rage and disappointment. It spoke to his troubled soul.

In the back of her cell Azula slumped against the wall. Between the pale exhausted look on her face and the empty eyes gazing at the transparent wall of her cell she looked dead to the world.

She knew something was wrong with her. That much was painfully clear no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise. But she wasn't crazy! No. Never. Not the Princess of the Fire Nation, not the rightful heir to the throne.

She was just...sick. Yes. She had caught something. Like when a fever got too strong or when one drank too much wine.

No, she had been infected! That had to be it. That's when things began to go downhill. Mai must have had some kind of poison on her knives, or maybe the servants back at the palace...

The palace was gone. That's what everyone kept telling her. The fire nation, the world was gone.

Her father was gone...

She hadn't seen her father since he left to complete his destiny and take over the world. Only through what Zuko and the Doctors had told her did she know his fate. A war criminal.

His powers stripped...just a man now.

She still could create fire for now. But what if the Avatar tried to take it from her like he had her father?

What else could they take?

Images flashing through her mind. Medications, procedures. Those unsettling tentacles that belonged to the voice in her head, the world around her. "Stacy" How dare she speak in such a kind an loving voice? Azula knew better. Azula knew what sort of damage love could bring.

What was the voice plotting to do to her while it spoke so sweetly? Her mind? Not if she had any say! And why shouldn't she!? She is Princess Azula! From Birth her destiny was perfection and greatness. The heavens above had sent to the planet the perfect girl, born to the man destined to rule the world.

...or so they'd thought.

But he was gone, they were gone the world was gone! Azula too...must be gone.

Yes, that made more sense didn't it? Azula had died...no was killed. MURDERED! Murdered by those so called "Doctors" that had promised they wouldn't hurt her. That they only wanted to help her! Zuko probably gave them the order! Kill her so he wouldn't have to worry anymore about the only loyal family their Father had left.

Father...

These thoughts and more swirled about in her fractured mind but her body never moved, barely blinked. You couldn't even really tell she was breathing.

This was all that was left, of the Proud Princess Azula.

Mai was still angry. Still feeling resentful, even a day or two later. It was simmering underneath the surface, just underneath the calm, bored facade. Someone who knew her well might see the tenseness in her shoulders, the way she moved just a bit too quickly for her normal, sedate pace.

She still couldn't believe they'd agreed to let her live. That Zuko had been injured because of it. And that nothing was going to happen. They were just going to "try" and make sure Azula stayed locked up. They thought something like that would actually work. As far as Mai was concerned, Azula was a threat until she was dead. It was Azula, after all. Even if she was crazy.

There was also the matter of having her memories modified. The girl, Kaya - who everyone had thought was Katara. The ship had made them think it was Katara. And the ship claimed it was a mistake, that it had been an acident and it wouldn't happen again. Yeah, right.

How did she know she was really Mai? Or if Zuko was really Zuko? What if all of her memories of Zuko were of someone else?

So her anger had become something unfocused, just a seething little pot of resentment that threatened to boil over. So she'd gone to take out her anger the only way she knew how. By throwing knives. She'd started with wooden targets and worked up to simulations. At this point, she was pegging guards in nondescript clothing to walls. And perhaps she was nicking a bit more skin than she really should, but she was angry.

The medical care available on Stacy is far beyond anything that the Four Nations had, better even than the powers of skilled waterbenders to heal. Which is why Zuko is lying in discomfort now, not raging agony, as the burn on his back heals.

Because of the location of the injury, he's lying on his stomach on a specialized cot, with his arms supported by low rests below his body. The open welts on his back are not entirely healed, and have been left exposed to the open air to allow the heat to keep fading. Occasionally Zuko breathes out as he uses his own firebending to try to expel some of the burn's excess heat.

He could ask to be put to sleep while the healing process continues, but he hasn't. He has too much to think about.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

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.

Mai, as always, was short of something interesting to do. The Sensoriums just made her miss her own home more than she thought she ought to and as much as she loved Zuko, spending all of her time around him was a bit much. Even for her. She needed space occasionally. Not that she would've minded his company right now. She'd been wandering around the city for a few hours, even dropped by to say hi to Sokka. So many buildings, all dead and empty. It was depressing. Well, it would have been depressing if she cared all that much. Instead, she'd regarded them as curiosities - empty artifacts without meaning or emotional investment. Like objects in a museum.

Her bored wandering had taken her back down to the river after as the hours passed, the sky overhead turned to night and back to day. That was weird. So she settled on the bank, idly skipping stones across the surface. Almost as good as knife-throwing and it gave her a bit of entertainment. Ah, life on Stacy. So full of intrigue.

It was, all things considered, a pretty good day. Sokka had decided to take the day off and spend the day doing something he loved: fishing. He wasn't sure if there were actually any fish in the river that ran through the city now, but that wasn't really the point. The point was that he had a body of water and a stick with a piece of line that was baited with a worm. He was happy to sit beneath the artificial sun, hat pulled over his eyes and stick held easily in his hands as he idled the day away. True, he could have done this in the Sensoriums but that wouldn't be the same. Real water was just more satisfying. And maybe he'd go for a swim later.

All in all it was shaping up to be a pretty good day.

Not everybody wanted to go to the consummation huts straight off the bat. Which meant if they wanted to get cleaned up, they needed another spot to do so in.

Luckily, the city had just such a place: the great public baths. They were rather immense. And open, since the Moai didn't have much in the way of nudity taboos. There were private stalls around the edges, though, for those who weren't quite so open. Or just wanted to do a little 'private' bathing (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more). It's traditional for the baths to take a while. After all, pretty much everybody here has just gotten married! Enjoy!

(Oh. And your clothes are going to disappear. Nothing personal, the Rapa Nui just want to make sure you have something clean and dry to change into when you've bathed. Isn't that nice?)

((Yep, there are public baths in the city. Have fun with it! And Jono's still outside the city. I just want to be able to get notifs after I ask for no notifications on the main post.))

After the crew finished up with the Rituals of Judgement and Joining, they were permitted to enter the city proper.

Orongo was even more impressive than it appeared from outside the wall. Despite the primitive seeming architecture, the city was alive with lights and sounds and colors. The numerous stone buildings were covered in bright paints in beautiful swirling designs, each one a unique piece of art. People milled about the city in droves, many of them various examples of random alien species, though there were quite a few Moai and knee-high Rapa Nui moving about.

The priests that directed them into the city indicated to them to the Consummation Huts, where they would be spending the night, regardless of whether they chose to use them to their...eh hem...full potential, or not.

As they entered the city, each of them got the same message from Stacy.

||You will be spending the night in the city as per the Moai's instructions. Arrangements have been made to meet with the Moai Elders in the morning. For now, you are given leave to explore the city as you wish. I have transferred each of you an allowance of credits to purchase supplies or entertainment tonight.||

||Do try to have fun.||

[ooc: And they're off! Feel free to have them explore. You can also start doing open posts on-planet now, if you want. Have fun!]

Mai hadn't been able to keep track fo time, running those stupid mazes. It might have been minutes, for all she knew. It could've been hours or days. Really, it'd been months - she just hadn't realized it yet. She'd been spat out in a corridor somewhere and after brushing some stray muck off of her, she'd gone off to see the ship - a stop at the observation deck, a bit to eat (the food was boring, but at least it was food), and finally down to the city to see if she could find anyone.

Not that she really cared, but it was still nice to know what was going on or where she might be able to find her boyfriend.

_{[[OOC: Feel free to run into her at any of those places or anywhere in between!]]}

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a green-skinned alien and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Zuko's in a hurry on his way to the forge. The sooner he has real swords, the sooner he can get back to training.

(He could always use pretend ones in the Sensorium, but that feels like cheating.)

On the way, he's thinking of what, exactly, he's going to pay Dustin with. They danced around the subject of reimbursement, but Zuko knows, nothing's ever free.

While her room, the W.I.T.C.H. bus and the Sensoriums were all places that Katara tried out for her new puppy, Zhin still felt more at home in the Hydroponics bay. The flora had agreed with her, and the alien dog missed all of the friends she'd made. Some were still here but most were gone, either a pet of the crew or simply brought to a safer place. Zhin understood this, but likened the start of her new life with her owner as starting the moment she'd been brought to this place. Zhin was wise for one that had lived such a short life so far, but she also made Katara understand that she would not talk about the things she'd been through all at once. Katara respected this, and in turn Zhin accompanied Katara on the tasks she went through without complaint. One of those was meeting the guys right now: Sokka, Zuko, Toph and Mai. She'd asked to meet them in the Hydroponic bay, but if anyone else came, they'd have a sight.

She'd chosen particularly brighter spot in the bay, where the flora seemed to give off a bio luminescence all its own. Katara, for the occasion, was dressed in the glowing club clothing she'd bought on their offshore leave: a little expensive and certainly bright, but enough so that she could be seen, and the plantsuit was still underneath anyway. She had prepared several different foods for the guys too: some meat and fish for Sokka, fairly spicy food for Zuko and Mai, and a dish of vegetables and poultry for Toph. She laid all of this out on a tablecloth on the ground which Zhin helped her set up.

Now she would wait, and play host.

There'd been so much to worry about, to run from, to fight against lately.

Toph wasn't one to poke her nose in and around politics, or complicated, grown-up social drama, or whatever it was that seemed to have plagued so many of her friends the past little while. The Nightmare King had been vanquished, they'd found and rescued Aang and beat the snot out of the guy who shot him, and as far as Toph was concerned, all was well.

Or about as well as it could be, considering she was on a ship, and nowhere near her home. There was plenty to think about, but she didn't know how. Katara and Sokka and even Aang now - all of them were infinitely older than she, with their own problems. They wouldn't want to confide in her. She was too young, too carefree, too ...whatever.

But she still had something: the ship had Earth; or Stacy could make something that felt like it, and so she was in one of the Sensoriums, which, this time, had been made to look like a miniature Great Divide, except without the bug creatures.

Plenty to play with.

She assumed her stance and started slow, levitating boulders, then roundhouse kicking them into the distance.

Destroying fake Earth? Great stress relief.