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

HONOOORRR also, dual-route post! Route [A] for Zuko, [B] for everyone else

[darkshooter]

* * *
[A]
* * *

[Someone's found themselves some nice treeshade to sleep under. The wind plays at the leaves, creating a peaceful rustling and a play of sunlight and shadows over Ikuri's face, seemingly in a state of genuine rest. Indeed, Zuko wasn't the only one who'd found that such a hard thing to come by in recent days... this may even be the first time Ikuri's actually, honestly slept.]

[The stray dragon kits one can find in the Bastion don't seem to be bothered by her. Sometimes one or several will even curl up to join her in sleep, though they never stay there.]

[Sure you wanna bother her, Zuko?]


* * *
[B]
* * *



[Ikuri's worse off during the waking hours. She still hasn't quite shaken off the pain and fog from several days prior, and so she's been trying her best to simply avoid thinking about it. Mostly she's done this by finding some of the more peaceful or thought-inspiring sections of the Bastion to visit and linger around, though it may be noted that she may be avoiding the rest of the population somewhat. By contrast, the areas she's most drawn to seem to be the bodies of water in the Bastion, such as the main river. The peaceful sound of the water flow and the sun's play upon the surface seems to be the most soothing for her right now.]

[She seems to want her own company, but you are of course welcome to disturb that.]

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko stops short at finding the girl asleep like that.

Not because waking Ikuri would especially bother her, but because one of the stray dragons is curled up there with her and Zuko doesn't like disturbing adorable sleeping dragons. She just stands there for a while with her arms folded in annoyance as though she can glare Ikuri awake without disturbing the dragon.

Eventually she gives up on that and takes a seat nearby. She'll give this half an hour before she wakes Ikuri (and the dragon) anyway.]

trolololol

[darkshooter]

[Time passes. Lots of it.]

[We're near that half-hour mark now. Will you do it?]

[daughterofursa]

[Tiny dragon, why can't you just wake up peacefully on your own and wander off and not be involved in this?

Zuko sighs. But yes, she's going to do it. She raises her voice.]

Wake up.

[darkshooter]

[nope. not so much as a stir.
not from the larger body, at least.]

[tiny dragon may be more susceptible, but as with a pup, you might want to be a little louder and clearer about wanting its particular attention. you may even have to disturb it more directly, depending on how deeply it's sleeping.]

[daughterofursa]

[But she doesn't want to wake tiny dragon.

Zuko reaches over and gives Ikuri's shoulder a shake.]

I said wake up.

[darkshooter]

[Tiny dragon perks up immediately and is now looking at you.]

[Ikuri just barely stirs, the movement oddly stiff.]

[daughterofursa]

[You'd think for as reckless a warrior as she is, she'd be a lighter sleeper.

Zuko will be momentarily distracted by the dragon though.]

Hey there. Sorry to wake you.

[darkshooter]

[Perhaps in more normal circumstances...]

[Tiny dragon just jiiis. It's in that way that a dog sometimes does. It's like, "Hey there. You weren't there before. Why did you do that?"]

[It's rather stark still otherwise.]

[daughterofursa]

You know, you could probably find a better spot for a nap.

[Zuko may be better at carrying on one-sided conversations with tiny dragons than she is at talking to most people.]

[darkshooter]

[... ...]

[tiny dragon just lays its head back down, now turned elsewhere; it's no longer curled up quite so comfortably as it was moments ago. It takes a deepish breath, then lets it out at all at once. When a pup does this you could almost call irritation, except it doesn't seem quite intent enough for that and it's too cute otherwise.]

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko recognizes that and she lets out a little sigh of her own before reaching over to shake Ikuri again, harder this time.]

[darkshooter]

[This time, tiny dragon doesn't really seem to notice. It's already been woken after all.]

[A faint sound of protest escapes Ikuri's lips, and she curls up just lightly tighter. And then there's something like a whine... but in neither case is tiny dragon ruffled.]

[Unfortunately, the girl's also not awake.]

[daughterofursa]

How can you be such a heavy sleeper?

[Zuko restrains herself from flicking the girl in the nose; that's something you do to younger siblings.

Instead she'll kick at her feet.]

Wake up.

[/2] (ignore this: old tag and grammar durr that bugged me)

[darkshooter]

[tiny dragon bolts up hey what are you doing]


[Ikuri shivers, lets out a sound that might've been a whimper if her throat hadn't crushed half of it.]

[a gasp of air--]

not the best icon, but no others fit

[darkshooter]

[now she's awake, at least in the sense of no longer being fully asleep.]

[You might recognize at this interval she's only semi-conscious: her eyes stare almost blankly ahead and her breaths come in shallow. Could be a good idea to wait a second.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin's been keeping himself more than busy these last few days. Security devices need constructing, networking, and proper redundancies in case of sabotage. He's been in no rush to go see Zuko, but he's been monitoring her position in the Bastion this whole time. Just in case.]

[When she comes looking for him, he's where he can almost always be found, in his workshop. The normally pristine workspace is a mess right now, with boxes of parts scattered everywhere. (The mun is reminded he needs to go to the shard page for that, whoops.) When she reaches the door of his workshop, he looks up.]

Stop.

[He stands and looks at her.]

We're not doing this here. Outside the Bastion. No defense field.

[He smiles at her, not at all a friendly gesture.]

You're going to want to hit me, and I see no reason to deny you the pleasure.

[daughterofursa]

[Well, Ikuri is clearly waking up, Zuko sees no reason to continue kicking her or anything like that. She'll wait until she seems more alert, and in the meantime she gives the dragon an apologetic grimace and mouths "sorry" to it.]

[darkshooter]

[Tiny dragon just stares now, this is the second time you've disturbed it. Why are you doing?]

[Meanwhile...]





[Someone else isn't feeling great over here, either.]

[daughterofursa]

You mean I'm going to hit you.

[Considering she's wanted to for about as long as she's known him, and now he's saying he's going to let her?

She turns to head for the Skyway bridge. He issued the challenge, he can choose the place. Anyway she doesn't want the Bastion's magic calming her down either.]

[daughterofursa]

[Just find a new spot and go back to sleep, tiny dragon. Please.]

Are you finally awake now?

[freedom_engineer]

You're going to hit me.

[He walks behind her, stripping off his gloves, his shirt, and his goggles in short order and leaving them by the door.]

Whether you're going to hurt me is another matter entirely.

[He reaches the skyway bridge and he nods to her.]

But more importantly... you're going to listen.

[darkshooter]

[This is my spot. It's my spot. Why are you bothering my spot?]




[Her expression is basically question mark. Visible clues point to yes for the answer to your question, but she's not fully comprehending this situation either.]

[...it might also be a similar sentiment to the dragon, except more hurt and less offended, if you can believe it.]

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko glances away. Look, she feels bad enough already about waking the dragon.]

I tried waiting.

[It didn't work.]

[darkshooter]

...Was sleeping.


[you now have two unhappy puppies at once, congrats Zuko.]