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]

"A prodigy?" Zuko gave her an incredulous look. "I'm not a prodigy at anything. That's my sister."

[twinked_witch]

"And yet, at your age, you're very skilled with fire-based arts. Where I'm from, that's pretty damned exceptional," Megaera observed.

"Your tone, though... You've issues with your sister?"

[daughterofursa]

"Where I'm from, it's not." Or was it? Most of the benders she knew to compare herself to were considered incredibly talented. Of course they were better than her, but she knew she was at least better than average.

"That's putting it lightly. She tried to kill me."

[twinked_witch]

"... This sounds like a long story."

Megaera shifted her weight a bit, pulling her cloak out from under herself and quickly tossing it around her arms. Out from a pocket came a small flask - steaming out of the lid as she opens it.

"But I want to hear it. Particularly if it'll help you figure things out."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko wasn't sure that what she wanted to figure out had much to do with Azula, but by that token, talking about her sister was actually the easier thing to do right now.

"...I don't know that it's really her fault. We had a horrible father. But he banished me, so I got away from him. She didn't."

[twinked_witch]

"I see. What led your father to the choice to banish you, if I might ask?"

Megaera could immediately catch that Zuko's father was some sort of authority, from the word choice of 'banished'. Beyond that, she didn't yet know, of course.

For now, if she could keep Zuko thinking, perhaps she'd help the young woman find her answer...

[daughterofursa]

"I spoke out of turn," she said with no small amount of bitterness. "I was a failure to him from the moment I was born. He was probably looking for any excuse."

[twinked_witch]

"That sort, then," Megaera observed. "Is it safe to assume she knew the same arts as you, then?"

[daughterofursa]

"Azula? I did say she was a prodigy. She was everyone's favorite."

[twinked_witch]

... Zuko did.

"You did." Megaera sighed, then continued, "Letting you compare yourself to her, though... Not a good way to do things. Especially since it sounds like, to say the least, you're more balanced than she is."

[daughterofursa]

"I know," Zuko said quietly. After their last battle, it had become painfully obvious. "I had her put in a mental ward. Some sister I am."

[twinked_witch]

"Somehow, I'm willing to make the guess that it was the best choice you could have made. It sounds like your father, honestly, was a bit of a piece of work..."

Megaera was doing what she could to keep her face calm here. "The question is, are you trying to convince yourself you did the right thing, or do you know it was?"

[daughterofursa]

"I know she needed to be stopped. But I don't know if shutting her away was the 'best choice.' Was that really going to help her?"

[twinked_witch]

"... Your mind and your heart disagree, in other words. You know you needed to stop her, but regret shutting her away to do so. Like you did the right thing using the wrong method, perhaps? Such a conflict is not a wound easily treated..."

[daughterofursa]

Her heart? Well..

"It seems pretty stupid to care about someone who hates you, doesn't it? But I see how other people are with their siblings..." Maybe she's just envious, and wants something she could never have with Azula.

[twinked_witch]

"Other people have other circumstances, including a father who wasn't actively guiding them towards insanity," Megaera countered. "Their experiences aren't yours - never will be, either. You can take advice from them, but no one's the same, and every path's a little different from every other, when you get right down to it."

[daughterofursa]

"I guess I just wish our path had been different." Zuko frowned. "If she showed up here, I'd have to fight her again. Part of me... hopes that won't ever happen."

Part of her hoped that Azula was dead. She couldn't quite say it out loud. That had to make her a bad person, didn't it? As many times as they'd fought before, she'd only ever thought about defeating Azula. Wanting her dead was so much worse than that. It wasn't the sort of thing she should think about if she had really made any progress as a person.

[twinked_witch]

"What is in the past is in the past, ultimately. It is important that you learn from it, but vital that you don't let it consume your future."

Megaera's view on this was, of course, skewed. "There's one other thing, I suspect. If she were to show up here, you'd have people willing to help you face her down. That matters, right?"

[daughterofursa]

Learn from it, but don't let it consume you. That was a balance that Zuko hadn't found yet.

"I know I would. It might be safer if they didn't help." Her hand unconsciously went to touch her abdomen, and the hidden scar she got from that fight.

[twinked_witch]

"Hrm... Let me show you an example of what I mean. Do you have energy left for your fire manipulation techniques?"

Megaera was actually out of her main spells... But for this little demonstration, she could go without.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko frowned in confusion. "Yes, but what does that have to do with it?"

[twinked_witch]

Megaera chuckled, raising her hands, blue tendrils of energy forming around them as she began a precise series of motions. "Protection From Energy, Fire."

She did actually know that spell, but as the energy faded, she hadn't actually cast it.

"Try it on me. Not your fullest force, but enough that it'd definitely hurt normally."

[daughterofursa]

"What? I- I'm not going to bend at you." At least not in a way that it could actually hurt her.

[twinked_witch]

"I'd like to see how you fight firsthand. And the spell I just cast, combined with a bit of good old-fashioned toughness, will be enough to keep me safe. Assuming you don't go to extremes of force way past what's the level in my world, which I don't think to be too likely."

[daughterofursa]

"I don't need to attack you to show you how I fight. And it's not Azula's fire I'm worried about, it's her lightning. Can your spell protect against that, too?"