Day 246 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone
Open: Open!
When: Day 246
Where: Around the Bastion
What: Daily Zuko stuffs
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor

Zuko keeps herself pretty busy around the Bastion. She likes to get involved in whatever's going on--not because she's a social butterfly, as anyone who talks to her can figure out, but because she feels it's important. Even if there isn't anything special going on, she's unlikely ever to be found lazing around. Her typical mornings have developed a certain routine to them.

A) Pool
This is one of the closest things Zuko has to a hobby, and she still approaches it entirely too seriously. Well, aside from the fact that she has yet to obtain a swimsuit and is in fact swimming laps in pants and a halter top. She's not remarkably fast or doing any fancy strokes, but she can make quite a few laps before stopping to rest, unless someone wants to interrupt her.

B) Training Building
Somehow, Zuko seems to keep picking up students. At the moment, it's just Rin and Rob whom she trains with any regularity, and she makes herself available at the training building for part of the morning if they or anyone else is interest in practice.

Personally, she prefers to train out of doors, so until anyone shows up, she can be found outside the building running through firebending forms (sans any actual fire).

C) Lake
Around midday, Zuko picks up some food from the distillery and makes her way over to the lake. There, she sits down crosslegged to eat, tossing crumbs of her bread out to the turtle ducks. It's about as relaxed and leisurely as Zuko gets doing anything, and a good time to grab her before she sets some other task for herself.

Comments

[kuma_killer]

Takamura was still getting used to being stuck here on the Bastion though nothing helped like having a routine and his training regimen was just the sort of thing to help with the adjusting. His constant running had helped him to learn the layout of the Bastion as well as where different buildings were located.

It's while passing the training building that Takamura notices what looks either a young woman or young guy with long hair going through some sort of martial arts movement. Being the nosy inquisitive soul that he is, and it's not like the Coach is there to chastise him anyways, so Takamura makes his way towards the figure

[daughterofursa]

All right, so probably no one would describe Zuko as 'feminine,' but it's still been a while since she was mistaken for a boy.

She pauses in her routine as the stranger approaches, eyeing him curiously though she doesn't greet him. Maybe he just wants to use the training building, after all.

[kuma_killer]

"Hey! What were those movements you were doing a minute ago?"

Even after Zuko's stopped, Takamura still isn't quite sure of what he's looking at. The longer hair has him leaning more towards female but it's still not conclusive in his mind.

[daughterofursa]

"They're firebending forms." Voice: inconclusive. Could still be a boy with a higher-pitched voice.

"I take it you're a fighter?" He certainly looks like one from his build.

[kuma_killer]

"Heh, that's right. You've got a good eye. How do you bend fire?"

Zuko may notice that Takamura's eyes keep looking at various parts of her body. He's trying to find something, even if it's small, to verify her gender.

B - outside

[bedheadstyle]

[Starting any sort of physical training regiment for some one like Haruka might not have been the smartest thing he's ever done, but as he had discussed with Ipoo - just sitting around doing nothing sure as hell wasn't going to help his heart condition any.

Even so, its not exactly easy for him to do anything strenuous and even a slow-paced lap around the Bastion is enough to get him breathing hard and feeling like his legs are going to turn to Jello at any second.

That makes whatever Zuko is doing a welcome distraction and a reason for him to stop with his hands on his knees, watching her curiously. He's only talked to her once after all, and it was about Toph being gone...

All the more reason to not approach, though he's not exactly making it a secret that she's being watched, either.]

[daughterofursa]

[Maybe she should consider practicing her forms inside if she's going to keep attracting onlookers. Zuko runs through the rest of the set she's on before coming to a stop and looking over at Haruka. She recognizes him from before, even if she wasn't paying too much attention to who she talked to at the time.]

You need something?

[bedheadstyle]

[It's interesting to watch!]

Ah-- ... no, sorry! I was just taking a break.

[daughterofursa]

[It's a little weird having an audience.]

A break? From what? [It's not just.. jogging, right?]

[bedheadstyle]

[That's a risk you take in this place.]

Jogging... !

[Yup. He really is that out of breath, too.]

C

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

She'd spent her days outside of town, on the fringes of it. She watched the skyway in silent darkness and returned back to town in the heat of the day. It was hard getting used to being awake during the day at all, let alone all of it, and she's sleepy when she stumbles over Zuko.

She's eating the bread but feeding it to the creatures in the pond and she watches that movement for a few minutes, unsure if she's dreaming or not. No one wastes food on creatures at home except grubs. She pauses.

"Are you fattening them to eat them?" She looks baffled as to how this all works.

I was so confused

[daughterofursa]

"What?" Zuko glances up at the unfamiliar voice and winds up staring for a beat longer than she intended. This is the first time they've had a... whatever this person is in the Bastion, she's pretty sure.

"O-of course not. They're not for eating."

and then it lost it so I had to rewrite

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

She's a little used to the stares. It doesn't occur to her to stare back, scars are common enough as a troll. A mark of strength perhaps. She looks back at the weird sort of quackbeasts.

"Why are you feeding them then?"

/pats

[daughterofursa]

"Well- because I like them." She's honestly not sure how else to answer that question. She's never thought about it.

"You don't feed birds where you come from?" Maybe they don't have birds where she comes from.

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

"Well I don't have a bird lusus..." She raised an eyebrow, "Isn't it a waste of food? I've never had so much to spare that I just fed it to random animals...And well, most would attack you before they took food."

C

[coffeewithmysugar]

Normally she'd be out of the Bastion at this point in the day, but even Edea needs a break from battling monsters. She has her hair pulled up in a ponytail for a change and hasn't bothered with any of her armor. She still has her sword at her side, though.

Edea approaches enough that she and Zuko can converse, but hopefully with enough distance that she doesn't scare away the turtle ducks. "They're kind of cute."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko has yet to decide if this day is a break from monsters for her or not. There's still the entire afternoon to go out on the Skyway.

She glances back at Edea. She normally avoids calling things cute herself (without sarcasm at least), but Edea's the one who said it, and it's true, after all. "Yeah," she agrees. "You want to feed them? They only bite when they're upset."

[coffeewithmysugar]

Well no worries, she can call things cute enough for the both of them. And she doesn't have to tell anyone that Zuko agreed with her.

"Sure," she says with a nod. Edea closes the distance between them and seats herself next to the other. Zuko's going to have to share that bread though because she's got no food on her. "I'm just glad I didn't frighten them."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko thanks you for keeping her secrets.

As Edea sits down, Zuko tears off a piece of her bread and hands it over. "They're used to people. And they're getting used to other things, too." They do live right by Dragonfield after all. "As long as you don't startle them, they do all right."

[coffeewithmysugar]

"Are they from your world?" she asks, accepting the offered bread with a grin. She's not really trying to make assumptions but Zuko does seem pretty familiar with them. At any rate, she doesn't intent on startling them so hopefully they'll stay on good terms. Especially now that she's crumbling off a couple of pieces and tossing them out on the water.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob's been coming by every morning for the past two weeks. Without being able to bury himself in games, books, or the internet he has a lot of time to fill with more productive things - his mornings with Zuko and his afternoons doing work. It could almost be said that the change is good for him, pushing him to accomplish more than he had been... except for the whole bit about his world being destroyed, a little detail that will have unpleasant consequences when it's proven to him that it's true.

In any case, it's been long enough that Zuko will probably have noticed all the previously-discussed details about him, as well as how quickly he burns through his endurance once he does anything much more intensive than forms. Also, he starts sweating at the slightest exertion. But he's begun to make some slight improvements and understand where he's making mistakes, even if he hasn't been able to fix his muscle memory yet.]

Break.

[Rob gasps the word softly and sheathes his sword. He sets down his shield and heads for the water on the bench. At least this break he's remembering to stay hydrated.]

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko nods, only showing a fraction of the exertion as Rob, and slides her sword into its sheath with its mate. She might be more comfortable with her dual sword technique, but after a session or two with him, she quickly switched modes to give him a closer example to follow.

That's not to say he's a bad student, but it's clear he doesn't have a natural talent for this and his instincts are fighting him. Honestly it's been a little frustrating for her, but she remembers all the years she struggled with firebending and she tries not to let it show. Forget the 'vast ocean of chi,' what her uncle should have bragged about was his immense patience.]

That was better this time, but you're still closing your eyes.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob pauses in his guzzling down water.]

Sorry.

[He sounds part embarrassed and part worried that he's adding to her frustration with his failure.]

I'm still trying not to, it's just... reflex, I guess.

[daughterofursa]

I know. It's something you need to train yourself out of.

A master swordsman might be able to fight blind, but it's because he's completely focused on anything his senses are telling him. Flinching just shuts all that out.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

While that'd be interesting to watch if it's actually possible, it's not something I'm looking to try myself anytime soon.

How do you override reflexes though? I mean, without focusing all your attention on them to the point where you can't do anything else at the same time?