Day 236 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone
Open: Open!
When: Day 236
Where: All over the Bastion
What: Toph is gone. =(
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor

The first day, she wasn't worried. The second, she tried not to be. But now it's the third day that she hasn't seen the only other person from her world that she knows is still alive. Not one to sit idle, Zuko spends most of the morning searching the Bastion for any sign of her friend, asking whoever she runs into:

"Have you seen Toph?"

By afternoon she decides to move her search beyond the Bastion. She shoulders her swords and leads one of the ostrich horses out to the bridge to the Skyway, but there she stops. She's lectured more than one person on the dangers of going out alone. As much as she wants to get moving, it won't help Toph if she just gets herself into trouble, and it would be hypocritical of her not to wait for someone to join her.

Comments

[daughterofursa]

Zuko's jaw tightens at the mention of Night. This isn't going to be like that. Toph might enjoy a fight, but she's not stupid. She knows when to run.

"I get what you're saying," she says stiffly.

[freedom_engineer]

So did Night, and that's what bothers Colin most.

"I'm going to start putting together a list of things we need for emergency kits, in the event that we ever need to evacuate again," Colin says, changing the subject since he's no happier to discuss that than she is. "Everyone needs to have a simple backpack by their door that they can grab in the event that they need to run. No fuss, no panicked gathering of supplies, just everything in one neat package. What do you think?"

[daughterofursa]

Zuko nods, preferring the new topic as well. "An evacuation plan. That's a good idea. We were lucky before that things went as smoothly as they did."

[freedom_engineer]

"I'll confess that I don't know the first thing about terrestrial evacuations," Colin says. "Even my research on it is a little light. Spacers don't typically think of what to do when planet-side... But I can put together survival kits pretty well. That should let someone better trained in this sort of thing put together a plan, knowing we've got supplies for it."

[daughterofursa]

"Spacers...?" Is he talking about evacuating... from space? Like in that movie?

"I've never evacuated anyone, but I'm sure we can come up with something. Places to meet, who's going to be responsible for the kids or any injured, and the animals..." An evacuation plan which does not include the turtle ducks is an incomplete plan.

[freedom_engineer]

"Ah, right. 'Spacer' is slang for a person that lives on a ship or a space station, rather than on a planet," Colin explains. "I've spent roughly three quarters of my life among the stars, rather than on the ground."

He grins and leans forward on his ostrich horse slightly. "There's a lot of animals to take care of, but we've got talented people," Colin says. "Between N, Hilda, and Zulf, we probably have enough people who can wrangle the animals appropriately. So long as they know that they're supposed to. We should probably see about socializing some of them more, though. Animals aren't likely to obey people that that they don't know, even if those people have their best interests at heart."

[daughterofursa]

"You actually live up there? I thought it was just for travel." Zuko can't understand the appeal. Isn't it just a lot of, well, space?

She shakes her head and pats her ostrich horse on the neck. "People seem interested enough in the animals we have. I don't think getting them better acquainted will be a problem."

[freedom_engineer]

"Lots of people live up in space," Colin says, smiling fondly at the thought. "And lots of people live on planets. Just different upbringings, different circumstances."

He pauses and he shakes his head then. "The people being interested in animals is easy," Colin says gently. He's trying not to sound contrary, but he knows he's likely not going to pull that off. "The animals being interested in the people is not. Many animals have an instinctual distrust towards people, unless they've been domesticated. These ostrich horses, for example? They're docile, used to people. Not all animals are so easily pacified. The dragons that Crona brought in, for example, are still wild, still skittish around people."

[daughterofursa]

"Sounds strange." Zuko might not be an earthbender but she still prefers having, well, ground. And water. The Skyway is weird enough.

"I guess I haven't dealt with many wild animals, but in my experience it's the person who has to adjust to the animal, not the other way around. You figure out how to deal with them, and they'll start to trust you. ... Anyway, screwing up with dragons that small seems a lot less... risky."

[freedom_engineer]

"Difficult to understand, certainly," Colin says. "Like people who live on the coast looking at people who live in the desert. Two completely different ways of life."

He smirks at Zuko's statement, and he shakes his head. "You'd think so, but never underestimate any animals, no matter their size," he tells her, gesturing over towards her. "Or have you forgotten how panicked and bitey the turtle ducks were when you gathered them up? And those animals know you, like you, recognize you as a source of food."

He hadn't witnessed it personally, but word travels quick in a small community.

"I'm not saying it's hopeless, but there's a vast gulf between being friendly if there's food to be had, and trusting a person enough to let themselves be handled when their first instinct is to run," he says quietly. "Wild animals don't live very long if they don't suspect everything around them is going to try to kill and eat them."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko pouts a little. How does he know how bitey they were?

"The turtle ducks bite, but they can't burn me to cinders in an instant. The dragons I know are bigger than Paarthurnax, and they're firebenders.

"I think we'll manage."