thebastion | Day 236 [Open]

Entry tags:

Day 236 [Open]

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.

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Zuko mounts her ostrich horse swiftly, obviously comfortable with it, and urges it on out towards the Skyway.

"How do those work?" She's reluctant to ask him about another one of his technological mysteries because the explanations tend to be annoying, but if those scanners are going to be part of the search effort then it'll help to know.

"It's difficult to explain," Colin says, following behind Zuko. "It's mounted in my eye, and it detects specific presences in the world. For example, I can tell you exactly where a fire is anywhere within twenty miles. It can do it for any number of things. Biological signatures, certain chemicals, and heat."

As expected, she understood maybe half of that. She isn't sure how a person can see those sorts of things, especially not twenty miles away, but at least someone being able to 'see' differently from her is not a new concept.

"So you can 'see' body heat? ...well enough to distinguish people?" If he picks up on heat from animals, it might not be that helpful after all.

He won't even try to explain infravision to Zuko. That would probably make her mind implode on itself.

"Combined with the other sensors, I can tell the difference between people and animals, yes," he says. "If it's someone I'm familiar with, I can even pick them out of a crowd. ... I'm familiar with Rosethorn, so if she's with Toph and we come anywhere near them, I'll be able to find them."

She's a firebender. It might not be that far out.

"I thought you'd met Toph."

Always a possibility.

"I'd met her and spoken with her a couple of times, but not enough to be able to recognize her at a distance based on scans," he explains. "Think... trying to spot someone who you've only met once or twice in a crowd, at a distance. If you know what you're looking for, it's possible, but it's not easy."

He gently urges his ostrich horse forward, riding a little closer to her. "It's a matter of having a lot of information, and being able to filter the important stuff from the unimportant stuff," he says.

"I think I get it."

She's looking around now as they ride, although honestly Toph is more likely to notice them coming than Zuko is to spot her first. Assuming she's all right.

"We must all seem pretty stupid to you, not knowing these things."

"If I thought people were stupid for not knowing things, I'd have to consider myself stupid," Colin replies. "I come from a universe with different knowledge, different priorities. There's plenty of stuff you know that I don't. That everyone knows that I don't."

He smirks, a little wider than is perhaps necessary. "I'm a genius, and I know it," he says, not showing any trace of modesty. "But I wasn't raised to lord it over anyone, or think it makes me better than anyone. It just means I was educated differently, that's all."

Educated differently, huh? She can't argue with that. She stopped going to school when she was banished, and she learned later that most of that was Fire Nation propaganda anyway. She just wonders what she's supposed to know that Colin doesn't, besides the history of her own world.

"Well, I don't hear you ask many questions."

Combat, leadership, knowledge of bending... Colin can recite these the moment she asks, and that's just off the top of his head.

"I'm also incredibly arrogant, as you may have noticed," Colin tells her, giving a quiet chuckle. "I prefer to stay where my knowledge is useful. When I'm in the kitchen, I defer to Rin. When I need help with gardening, I ask Rosethorn. When I'm unsure of something, I ask Paar. Otherwise? You'll find me in my workshop, building and planning, and rarely asking questions unless it's necessary for a project."

Self-love and acknowledgement of her own talents would clearly not be on that list though.

"You really aren't a leader. And I don't mean that as an insult this time." Which... pretty much implies she's meant it that way before, but oh well. "I just... think it's important not to get stuck in what you already know, or what you think you know."

"Oh please," he replies, rolling his eyes. "The only thing I should be leading is an engineering department, with people who know my skills and who have studied my work. I don't have the qualifications to lead anything else. I'm the only person in the family that dad has said is NOT in the running to lead the empire when he steps down or passes. And that's for the best."

You're not telling him anything he doesn't know here, Zuko.

"Unfortunately, they way things are, we've got to rely on our strengths to get us through this," he tells her, shaking his head. "We haven't got the luxury to step out of our comfort zones for self-improvement. We've got enough of that just trying to survive. What I wouldn't give to be able to attend one of my department's continuing education seminars right now..."

He doesn't act like he knows that one a lot of the time.

"Your father is an emperor?"

Zuko shakes her head. "We might not have the time to focus on skills we can't use, but there's time to learn some things."

"He is," Colin says. "I can tell you more about him, if you're actually interested. I really look up to him."

He smirks then, and he shakes his head. "Some people have time. I have breaks to rest my brain. I haven't stopped working since I've arrived here several months ago. The Bastion needs a lot of work to keep everyone comfortable, to keep everything running. Nathan hardly sleeps, for much the same reason."

"I don't know if we look up to the same kinds of people..." Although, Colin does respect Paarthurnax, so maybe they do. Who knows. "I just wouldn't have pegged you for royalty."

She glances over at him, considering for a moment if she's going to regret asking. "What are you working on all the time?" She assumes that lately it's been that information machine they asked him to make, but who knows what he's been doing before that?

"Oh, dad's nothing like me at all," he says, laughing in amusement. "He's a real people person, knows what to say all the time, knows how to lead people. Brave, strong, able to stand up to anyone and anything. A lot of things I wish I could be."

He shakes his head then, still smirking fondly at thoughts of his father. "Let's see. The farm, the skiff, the observatory, Rin's kitchen, gathering supplies and making repairs, getting the training yard's exercise range set up, working on a solution to the power source, working on getting us some better transportation options, getting Yukio set up to be our new doctor, helping set up things for the events that we have every so often..."

He pauses, thinking as he rides.

"Sounds like my uncle." And she wouldn't say she's much like him either, unfortunately.

"...do you have anyone who can help you with that? Like an assistant or an apprentice." She may not especially like Colin, but she can acknowledge that most of what he tries to do has its uses. And he seems to be the only person who knows how to do it.

"If your uncle's anything like my dad, he's gotta be one heck of a guy," Colin says, smiling over at Zuko.

"As for assistants... not really. Nathan's the only one here who can keep up with me right now, and we've..." Colin trails off, thinking.

"We've come to a disagreement and are giving each other space," he says finally. "Otherwise, Paarthurnax tries to bring me things he finds out in the wilds that look useful. Nobody else really comes by unless they need something. There's lots of work that needs to be done that isn't technical, after all."

Predictably, Zuko doesn't return the smile. Yes, her uncle is incredible, but unlike Toph, she has more reason to think he's dead than just missing.

"There has to be someone who'd put up with you enough to learn what you do." Zuko knows it isn't her, but other people have more patience.

"As the saying goes, we go to war with the armies we've got," Colin says, shaking his head. "It takes years to train a good engineer, and most people here can't stand me anyway. If I need help, I can swallow my pride and grab Nathan. Until then, I'm not going to force someone to learn a difficult trade when most of them can't be bothered to learn basic first aid or wilderness survival."

He seems to realize what he's saying, the tone he's taking, and he sighs. "Sorry about the bitterness," he says with a tired tone to his voice. "It bothers me that there's so many people here who are one accident away from losing everything, and they don't seem to care to learn the skills that can keep them alive."

"That's one thing we can agree on." She's not exactly bitter about it, but it does worry her knowing there are so many of them untrained and not even seeking to change it.

"You make it sound willful, though, and in most cases, I don't think it is. If you've grown up being safe, then that's probably how you keep seeing the world until something bad enough happens to change it."

"Not willful," Colin says, shaking his head. "Scared, more likely. People don't want to leave their comfort zones. I think. After losing so much, having to rely on someone to teach them how to survive on their own is probably terrifying. Having to think about surviving on their own PERIOD is probably the last thing people want on their minds."

He looks down at the back of the ostrich horse's neck. "Which is totally understandable, but that doesn't mean it's going to get better just because they run and hide," he says.

"They aren't on their own. Not exactly."

She felt like it at first. She still feels like it now, to a degree. Some of her reasons for wanting to find Toph are selfish, because she doesn't want to go back to being the only one from her world in the Bastion. But she's coming to realize she has quite a few friends there, too.

"They're not on their own now," Colin says, trying to keep his tone gentle. "But we're proving right now why this knowledge is important. If something happens to someone and they're separated from the group... Or if there's another incident that puts the Bastion in danger..."

He trails off and shakes his head.

"Toph can handle herself."

Which is why she's clearly not worried in the slightest. Yeah, Zuko can't think too hard on how Colin might finish those sentences right now.

Day 236 [Open]

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