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

[four_quarts]

[And he can turn his response into something helpful yet terribly snarky.]

Oh really? And here I thought your lack of skill was due to a lack of practice. If you truly lack ability, then speaking of your troubles to someone would serve you far better.

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko shoots him a glare for that.]

Who, like you? Forget it.

[four_quarts]

Perish the thought. This is our first conversation, and you have no reason to trust me.

[daughterofursa]

[After all her "let's be friends!" first conversations, Zuko is actually surprised by him being sensible about this and it shows.]

...exactly.

[four_quarts]

[The surprise is understandable considering how many of those sorts of people seem to have gathered here. He smiles.]

Forgive the unsolicited advice earlier. I was once a teacher, and it seems old habits die hard. I am Ghaleon.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko.

...it's fine, I guess. If it were someone flailing around with a sword, I know I'd interrupt.

[four_quarts]

[He cringes slightly at the thought.]

Yes, far better to damage their pride than risk an injury in that case.

[daughterofursa]

Yeah.

Why did you stop teaching?

[four_quarts]

Teaching becomes rather difficult when one is dead, although events leading up to that point rather damaged my reputation as well.

[Massive. Understatement.]

[daughterofursa]

[Ummm.]

You're not dead.

[four_quarts]

At the moment, no. I am undead.

[Really, you'd think she'd never heard of necromancy.]

[daughterofursa]

Undead?

[Is this one of those things that doesn't translate well?

Yeah guess what she hasn't heard of.]

1/?

[four_quarts]

[Wait, she doesn't know-]

[four_quarts]

[Oh. Oh dear.]

3/3

[four_quarts]

[Well, since there's not really a delicate way to put this...]

...Simply put, my corpse was repaired and reanimated.

[daughterofursa]

...

You're not talking about... like when someone drowns and gets resuscitated. Are you?

[She might be leaning away because this is starting to really weird her out.]

[four_quarts]

I wish that were the case.

[Not too keen on being a walking affront to the natural order of things, but a mage has gotta deal with the hand they're dealt.]

[daughterofursa]

[She's not going to ask how long he actually was dead because she'd prefer to assume it still wasn't very long.]

Who- brought you back?

[Or more precisely, what? A human having that kind of ability is crazy.]

[four_quarts]

[...Yeah, about both of those...]

A being called Zophar, also known as the God of Destruction.

[By the tone of his voice and the face he's making, it's pretty obvious that Ghaleon's general sentiment is "Fuck that guy with a pikestaff."]

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko's first thought is actually why would there be a god of destruction? It sounds awfully negative and unbalanced.

But on the other hand, that means he was essentially brought back by crazy spirit magic. She can handle that.]

...I see.

I probably don't want to know why, do I?

[four_quarts]

[The easiest explanation would be that it's to balance out the goddess that created everything, but it's really more complicated than Ghaleon can explain since even he doesn't know entirely what the deal is.]

Let's just say that he would have been terribly annoyed that someone else destroyed the world and then some before he did, and leave the rest to your imagination.

[daughterofursa]

As long as you don't follow that philosophy.

[He sure doesn't seem to.]

[four_quarts]

Contrary to what the old tales say, I have never been prone to unnecessary destruction.

[Accidental destruction or precision strikes of a somewhat Machiavellian nature at times, sure, but nothing along the lines of destruction for destruction's sake.]

[daughterofursa]

What's 'necessary' destruction?

[Sorry, but when your father thought it was necessary to burn another country to the ground, it's an important question.]

[four_quarts]

That answer depends entirely upon one's point of view, doesn't it? A different answer for a different moment in time. A different sacrifice to preserve a different thing held dear.

[He turns to look out over the lake, taking a moment to contemplate the movement of the water.]

...A life in exchange for the world's future would have been a small price to pay.