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

[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.

[notachickenhawk]

<True. But the past is the past. You can't do anything about it now.>

[daughterofursa]

I'm not in the past. I'm still just as capable of making mistakes.

[notachickenhawk]

<... Sorry. I'm not very good at this.>

[freedom_engineer]

[Looks like Colin's come out to the lake for some reason... he spies Zuko, and more importantly, he spies her body language. He's worked with enough Mrrshan to know what that means. So he's just going to hang back and do whatever it is he's doing.]

[Except... it seems a turtle duck has noticed him, and starts quacking at him.]

[daughterofursa]

Obviously neither am I.

There has to be some balance...

[daughterofursa]

[Yeah, Zuko hears that, and opens her eyes.]

...are you bothering them?

[Do not mess with her turtle ducks she will cut you.]

[freedom_engineer]

Actually, I came out here to take some scans.

Aaaand they seem to remember that I carry food on me and can't resist hungry animals. Especially around supper time.

[Colin smirks slightly and reaches into one of his pockets, pulling out a piece of pressed bread. Yep, there come the turtle ducks...]

Sorry to disturb you. You looked busy.

[notachickenhawk]

<Yeah. ... Even if I'm not that helpful, I'm still here if you ever do need to just... talk. I can just listen, if you want.>

[daughterofursa]

Not really.

[She's not going to admit she was failing at what she was doing, but... yeah.]

What 'scans'?

[daughterofursa]

...

You must've made some mistakes. Not like me, but... Is it in the past to you? Do you just trust yourself that you know better now?

[freedom_engineer]

Measurements, with technology that does half of the work for me.

[He starts gently pulling off pieces of the bread and tossing them into the water.]

Things I need to know in order to build without disturbing things. Like the turtle ducks, for example.

[daughterofursa]

You're going to build something on the lake?

[freedom_engineer]

Connecting to the lake, yes.

[He nods off into the distance, towards the waterfall.]

Tirtouga and some of the other younger animals shouldn't be swimming in the lake. They haven't got the strength to get away from the waterfall if they get too close to it.

I'm going to be introducing a grotto at the Daycare... but I want to make sure the water circulates properly to keep everything moving in a natural way. So nobody gets disturbed.

[daughterofursa]

Sounds like it'll be good for them.

[freedom_engineer]

Useful, at least. Good to keep them in high spirits and safe.

[Colin nods to her now.]

Trying to meditate?

[daughterofursa]

Trying.

[Until she was rudely interrupted-- yeah, no, this one isn't actually Colin's fault.]

[notachickenhawk]

[Tobias goes still, and closes his eyes.]

<I was captured. Tortured. It was part of a plan, because we wanted to make our enemies think their weapon didn't work, but... it was horrible. The person who tortured me... I found out a lot about her. I felt bad for her host, even though she was... insane. And when the others finally got me out of there, I thought she might have died in the mess. I hoped she did, even though we try not to hurt the host bodies of humans especially. But she didn't.>

[He opens his eyes and looks back at Zuko.]

<Months later she showed up again. I thought she'd changed - that she was with a group that didn't want the invasion, didn't want war, and wanted peace instead. The others asked me if I really thought she'd changed, and I said that... yeah. Maybe. It was a chance we couldn't not take. But she hadn't changed at all. She tried to bury us, to blow us up, to get us infested or killed or... worse. I'm... pretty sure she died in the explosion, but she... she could have survived. Maybe she's out there after the Calamity hit, just... wandering.>

[Her Yeerk would probably be dead but... it was a possibility, especially now that he knows that Erek survived it.]

<I'd like to think I know better now. Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm just fooling myself. But I don't think I'll... ever trust someone like that ever again. It was... stupid. It could have killed all of us. And I can still turn into her if I want, though I don't know... why I would.>

[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]

...

But that was her. You took a chance on someone, and... she failed you. That's on her.

[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.

[notachickenhawk]

<I almost got everyone killed. Not just my friends, but we were the only ones standing between the Yeerks and effectively total domination of the planet. A lot of people would have died resisting them.>

[daughterofursa]

Isn't she the one who tried to kill you all?

[notachickenhawk]

<Yeah. But my mistake to trust her would have led to that.>

[daughterofursa]

I don't think it was much of a mistake.