Day 256 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone
Open: Open!
When: Day 256, evening
Where: By the lake
What: A failure to meditate
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor

Zuko knows she's always been hard on herself, but she's never really considered it to be too hard. But some of the things people have been saying about her... Well, people in the Bastion have always expressed a more positive view of her than she thinks she deserves, and she always figured it was because they don't know what she's come from, but she's finally starting to wonder. Maybe the flawed perspective is her own.

Which is why she is attempting something else which, like positive thinking, she is not very good at: meditating. Whoever really wants to can find her by the lake, sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed and... definitely scowling more than she ought to be.

Comments

[twinked_witch]

Megaera had simply been taking a walk around the Bastion - fighting her way through the Skyway had taken its share of time and energy out of her, to say the least, so a little bit of recovery was good.

And then, she'd came across a seated Zuko. Eyes closed. To Megaera, what Zuko was doing was immediately obvious - though she had to admit, she'd never seen humans try Elven meditative trancing. Presumably, it had a different origin on Zuko's world, but the basics were familiar enough.

She didn't say anything yet, but did stand nearby, looking towards the lake herself.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko didn't notice Megaera's approach. Unaware she might be observed, she let out a frustrated breath and resettled herself as though she were trying to get comfortable. She was having a hard time focusing her thoughts, and her body was tense from her frustration.

Whatever 'Elven meditative trancing' was, she'd probably fail at that, too.

[twinked_witch]

"You seem tense. Like you can't quite get focused like you wish to focus on."

Megaera announced her presence, moving forward and taking a seat next to Zuko. With the cut in her dress, most of her leg was visible to the black-haired bender.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko gave a start and looked over at her. Not noticing all that leg just yet.

"Maybe I picked a bad spot," she muttered, though it was absolutely not the lake's fault and she knew it.

[twinked_witch]

"It isn't always just the location, I've heard. Journeyed with an elf for a while, and she needed a good tent to meditate well. Otherwise too much light shines through the eyes, and you're part-seeing everything around you. Kinda ruins the effect. She kept a tent so she could get enough meditation in to handle things."

Megaera looked out. "But even then... It's not the light or dark, nor the location, sometimes. It's a matter of turmoil, too..."

[daughterofursa]

"I don't think the light is the problem."

Because the problem was absolutely turmoil.

[twinked_witch]

Megaera kept an easy smile as she looked towards Zuko. "... Perhaps you should speak your worries to someone? To explain something is often to put it in perspective, even for one who seeks only to listen."

Right now, that... Really was Megaera's thought. She could tell from her very first encounter with Zuko that the girl had a lot of things she kept pent up, and Megaera wanted to challenge that on some level. So she was.

[daughterofursa]

"I'm not sure you'd understand it. We're not much alike."

Not that Zuko was the greatest judge of that, but Megaera seemed too... self-assured, to understand what she was going through.

[twinked_witch]

"Perhaps, when I was your age, we were more alike than you think," Megaera observed. "Certainly, we've one clear point in common - you're a prodigy in your field, aren't you?", she observed.

[daughterofursa]

"A prodigy?" Zuko gave her an incredulous look. "I'm not a prodigy at anything. That's my sister."

[twinked_witch]

"And yet, at your age, you're very skilled with fire-based arts. Where I'm from, that's pretty damned exceptional," Megaera observed.

"Your tone, though... You've issues with your sister?"

[daughterofursa]

"Where I'm from, it's not." Or was it? Most of the benders she knew to compare herself to were considered incredibly talented. Of course they were better than her, but she knew she was at least better than average.

"That's putting it lightly. She tried to kill me."

[twinked_witch]

"... This sounds like a long story."

Megaera shifted her weight a bit, pulling her cloak out from under herself and quickly tossing it around her arms. Out from a pocket came a small flask - steaming out of the lid as she opens it.

"But I want to hear it. Particularly if it'll help you figure things out."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko wasn't sure that what she wanted to figure out had much to do with Azula, but by that token, talking about her sister was actually the easier thing to do right now.

"...I don't know that it's really her fault. We had a horrible father. But he banished me, so I got away from him. She didn't."

[twinked_witch]

"I see. What led your father to the choice to banish you, if I might ask?"

Megaera could immediately catch that Zuko's father was some sort of authority, from the word choice of 'banished'. Beyond that, she didn't yet know, of course.

For now, if she could keep Zuko thinking, perhaps she'd help the young woman find her answer...

[daughterofursa]

"I spoke out of turn," she said with no small amount of bitterness. "I was a failure to him from the moment I was born. He was probably looking for any excuse."

[twinked_witch]

"That sort, then," Megaera observed. "Is it safe to assume she knew the same arts as you, then?"

[daughterofursa]

"Azula? I did say she was a prodigy. She was everyone's favorite."

[twinked_witch]

... Zuko did.

"You did." Megaera sighed, then continued, "Letting you compare yourself to her, though... Not a good way to do things. Especially since it sounds like, to say the least, you're more balanced than she is."

[daughterofursa]

"I know," Zuko said quietly. After their last battle, it had become painfully obvious. "I had her put in a mental ward. Some sister I am."

[twinked_witch]

"Somehow, I'm willing to make the guess that it was the best choice you could have made. It sounds like your father, honestly, was a bit of a piece of work..."

Megaera was doing what she could to keep her face calm here. "The question is, are you trying to convince yourself you did the right thing, or do you know it was?"

[daughterofursa]

"I know she needed to be stopped. But I don't know if shutting her away was the 'best choice.' Was that really going to help her?"

[twinked_witch]

"... Your mind and your heart disagree, in other words. You know you needed to stop her, but regret shutting her away to do so. Like you did the right thing using the wrong method, perhaps? Such a conflict is not a wound easily treated..."

[daughterofursa]

Her heart? Well..

"It seems pretty stupid to care about someone who hates you, doesn't it? But I see how other people are with their siblings..." Maybe she's just envious, and wants something she could never have with Azula.

[twinked_witch]

"Other people have other circumstances, including a father who wasn't actively guiding them towards insanity," Megaera countered. "Their experiences aren't yours - never will be, either. You can take advice from them, but no one's the same, and every path's a little different from every other, when you get right down to it."