Day 325 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko, Colin, Ikuri, and anyone else!
Open: Open!
When: Day 325
Where: Around the Bastion, Dragonfield
What: Time for some Talks
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor. Also fury, and not much patience.

It's been a few days since the disaster of Crona's death. Zuko would like to think that that's given her time and distance to process it, but most of her feelings haven't changed much since their return. If anything, she's just forced herself to focus on other things, and avoid dealing with her grief, and her guilt. Not that she's realized it.

It probably doesn't help that she hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep since. But she's used to that, and if she's going to lose sleep, she can at least do it standing guard instead of tossing and turning. She's been taking regular shifts guarding the prisoners, and she's taken to carrying her swords with her within the Bastion, as a precaution not only against escape attempts, but any threat of outside attack as well.


And the swords are also for Colin. Once she's finished a guard shift, she'll be looking for him to take him up on his challenge, and also for Ikuri, for the talk she thinks she's clear-headed enough now to give.


[Later...]
Besides all that, she is still a dragon mom, and that's probably the only thing that's gotten her to settle down at all. Later in the day, she can be found near dragonfield attempting to teach Kizuna how to breathe fire. In addition to a short demonstration, this seems to involve lying down on the ground with the little dragon on her chest so she can feel Zuko's breathing.

So far it doesn't seem to be working, but neither of them appear discouraged. For Kizuna's part, it may be because she doesn't know she's supposed to be breathing fire.

Comments

[scary_music]

[Ibuki's passing by and...]

[... well, okay, apparently the musician is just gonna flop onto the ground next to Zuko]

[daughterofursa]

[...quietly?

Zuko glances over at her and Kizuna gives a little chirp of greeting.]

...hey.

[scary_music]

[She can be quiet when she wants to be!]

Hey, Zuko-chan!

[... and then she proceeds to do a pretty good imitation of Kizuna's chirp back at the dragon]

[daughterofursa]

[She seems cheerful enough.]

How are you doing?

[scary_music]

Ibuki's doing pretty okay!

[... but the memories she regained are still kind of wearing down on her a bit-]

... the mood's kinda down in general around here lately, though.

[daughterofursa]

Yeah. It has.

Sorry.

[Because Zuko's usually a beam of sunshine.]

[scary_music]

Why's Zuko-chan apologizing?

It's not like you went and did a thing? Or did you? Did Zuko-chan secretly do a negative mood bomb on the Bastion?

[daughterofursa]

It's my fault what happened.

[scary_music]

Ibuki wouldn't know anything about that but...

... you thought it was just a talking thing you were going to, right? I mean, did we have any clue about -

... okay I guess there's the thing about somebody doing something weird around the bastion and stuff, and...

... well, Ibuki doesn't blame you, anyway.

[... course, it's easy to say so when she'd never even spoken to Crona or Ragnarok before...]

[daughterofursa]

Crona still died on my watch. I shouldn't have let that happen.

[scary_music]

[Ibuki slowly sat up, drawing her knees to her chest as she stared off into the distance]

... most people... when they leave the Bastion, they know it's dangerous, right? ... but I guess, I don't... really understand what it's like to be a leader. Ibuki just kinda follows along when it's nothing to do with music.

[She rested her chin on her knees, trying to ignore the memories that seeped up in response to the mention of death. Talking to Zuko about that wouldn't help anything]

... ... I wish so many people weren't gone, though.

[that wasn't really directed at Zuko. Not accusatory, not blaming her for anything... just thinking out loud]

[daughterofursa]

Being a leader... means you're responsible for everyone with you. You're supposed to watch out for them. You don't lead them into things they're not prepared for.

I guess I'm not really qualified.

[scary_music]

But if you're not qualified, then who is?

[daughterofursa]

[...Zuko hadn't thought of that. Who would make a good leader? Paarthurnax? He's definitely wiser and more level-headed than she is, and if he'd been there, maybe things would have turned out differently.

But he doesn't seem to have the passion for it that she thinks is important to the job. He's content to keep to himself, a lot of the time.]

...

I don't know. Maybe that's our problem.

[scary_music]

W-whoa...

... that's really bad, isn't it?? What will we do if nobody steps up? Not to mention like... how long has it been since Bastion's gotten a new person?? We'd have to be really lucky for a leader to just show up??

... now that Ibuki thinks about it, have you ever had teamwork training stuff? Like, in a band, unity and stuff is totally important... that's the same for going out with people for these missions right??

[daughterofursa]

No one really seems to think we need one...

Teamwork training? You mean battle drills?

[Memories of fighting the "melon lord" come to mind.]

[scary_music]

But leaders are important in just about anything, right? Even in music somebody's gotta lead, or else you don't have a very good beat going.

And yeah, battle drills! Drill the importance of leadership during battles into their heads!

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko raises her eyebrow at "drill the importance of leadership into their heads."]

It's not about that.

Well, some people could learn to listen to direction... [IKURI.] But the important thing is to understand the people you're fighting alongside. You need to know when you can trust your back to them, and when they'll need to depend on you.

[scary_music]

[nodnod]

Hmm... it sounds like you already know what you need to do, Zuko-chan.

[daughterofursa]

Assuming anyone will join me.

[She pets Kizuna, looking like she's resigned to her dragon daughter being the only one on her side.]

[scary_music]

Have you asked anybody??? You know what they say about assumptions... or maybe that saying doesn't exist where you come from?

But y'know, neverminding sayings, you won't know until you try, right?

[daughterofursa]

I know. I know that.

I am trying.

Just, what if it's not good enough? What if I keep trying and failing and it's never good enough?

[scary_music]

... Well...

[she hesitated not sure what to say as she looked over at Zuko]

... Zuko-chan, it ... it has to be good enough.

[For a few seconds, actual fear (or, more specifically, despair) can be seen in Ibuki's eyes... there's so few of them left at the Bastion, and they have at least one traitor in their midst. Nobody else was stepping up to the plate to lead, and if Zuko gave up now... what would happen to them if they just gave up on going after cores altogether? Or worse yet, if one of their expedition parties was just wiped out completely? They've already lost so many people...]

[daughterofursa]

[Unfortunately Zuko wasn't looking at Ibuki just then, or she might have interpreted that statement differently.]

What does that mean?

[Is Ibuki saying she has to be perfect, too?]

[scary_music]

I...

... I'm just...

[there's a short pause, and she couldn't help but start to tear up]

I'm... scared, y'know... if you give up, then... what would happen next? There's always something that can go wrong... I...

... I wish nobody had to go out on the skyway at all but... the Bastion needs shards and the cores, right...?

[her arms still wrapped around her legs, she buries her face against her knees; but her voice is still plenty audible for Zuko to hear what else she has to say]

You've done a whole lot more for this place than Ibuki ever could... you're important...

I'm ... I'm just saying you can't give up... please...