no seriously / original bones don't steal / or commit arson

[roc_on]

The news gets worse.

The police nailed down a pattern - the guy found with the missing bones was one thing, but there were other missing persons, alternating genders, late teens to early twenties, all taken from the same part of town. Cops, including cops of the relevant age range, stalk the area, and one of them gives chase to a man who proves to be a firebender. He burns out most of a liquor store, proving it, and the cop loses him trying to meet him on the other side and goes back to help evacuate the units above the store.

There's security footage of the fire and some of the chase, rescued from the liquor store, and the media gets ahold of it.

Chali says this still isn't an Avatar matter. Beila, who has no detective skills anyway, defers to his expertise, meditates, reads her book - turns up to her firebending lesson.

Comments

[thinklikethis]

"Not as dangerous as most people think," Dao feels compelled to point out. "They have a bad reputation but even the scary ones are mostly pretty harmless."

[in_silk]

"That's... true," the bloodbender admits. "Public perception matters too, though."

[thinklikethis]

"I'll bet it matters a lot to the spiders who keep getting squashed because somebody was scared of them who shouldn't have been," says Dao.

[in_silk]

The bloodbender looks at him strangely.

[thinklikethis]

He sits there feeling awkward for a few more seconds and then says, "Could you, like, not kidnap me?"

[in_silk]

"Oh, of course, I never thought of that, I'll let you go right away," the bloodbender says dryly.

[thinklikethis]

Dao rolls his eyes.

[in_silk]

"To answer your question more seriously: you've seen my face, talked to me. I don't think letting you go at this point would be conducive to my continued freedom."

[thinklikethis]

"I dunno," says Dao. "You let me go, I don't tell anybody about you, seems like a fair deal to me."

[in_silk]

"And you suggest I trust you because...?"

[thinklikethis]

"Well, between the two of us, I'm not the one who just kidnapped somebody."

[in_silk]

"Proves nothing."

[thinklikethis]

"So why are you even letting me talk at all? Do you just really like random animal facts?"

[in_silk]

"Good question," says the bloodbender.

[thinklikethis]

And Dao finds that all of a sudden he can't move his mouth anymore. Fuck.

[in_silk]

The bloodbender smiles another one of those deeply chilling smiles.

They arrive at a house. Dao is not given a chance to see the address. The bloodbender makes him get out of the car and walk inside with his eyes closed.

[thinklikethis]

With his eyes closed. Lightly closed, even, it doesn't hurt or anything. Dao doesn't know all that much about bending, but he has the impression that the kind of control it would take to make somebody close their eyes by moving their blood around and not hurt them even a little bit is... really something.

He feels himself walking around inside a quiet house, going down some stairs, walking around some more, and then sitting in a chair. Somebody ties him to the chair. Then nothing else happens for a bit.

It takes him several minutes of extended internal debate before he finally opens his eyes, fear of not knowing what's going on having won out over fear of what he might see.

His first impression is of lots of bones, and then the bones resolve into a huge figure of a spider, half-finished, menacing and somehow ethereally beautiful at the same time. He stifles a shriek.

[in_silk]

"Art," says the bloodbender, from somewhere behind him.

[thinklikethis]

He shudders. "You're the - but - weren't you a firebender? Are there two of you?"

[in_silk]

"I think I'll let that stay a mystery for now," he says.

[thinklikethis]

Dao takes several deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

"Okay," he says. "Your giant horrible spider made of dead people is really pretty. Good job. Couldn't you have made it out of, like, anything else?"

[in_silk]

"I hardly think you're in the best position to make unbiased recommendations."

[thinklikethis]

He considers this assertion, and then starts giggling hysterically.

[in_silk]

[thinklikethis]

Once he starts it's hard to stop. He's terrified and uncomfortable on so many levels but there is something deeply, darkly hilarious about the entire situation.

By the time he winds down, he's not even sure the bloodbender is still in the room. His face is wet with hysterical-laughter tears, but his hands are tied down. He tries to turn his head and wipe his face on his shoulder, but can't. Okay, bloodbender probably still around, then.

"Look," he says. "Can you just - can you give me some credit here?"