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]

"I mean you're acting like the only reason I'm trying to convince you to stop kidnapping people and making statues out of their bones is because I don't want to be art materials, and it's not. I'm - you're not the only artist in the room," he says, and somewhere in the middle of that last phrase his voice turns soft and tentative.

[in_silk]

"...Go on," says the bloodbender. As far as it's possible to tell from tone of voice alone, he seems to have caught on that Dao isn't talking about woodcarving.

[thinklikethis]

He tries to think, tries to form thoughts into words, terrified of being killed, terrified of talking about this to someone who so manifestly does not have his best interests at heart, and at the same time feeling deeply sympathetic toward the bone-stealing bloodbender serial killer.

As the silence stretches, he gives up on trying to make it nice and settles for making it real.

"When we were sitting in the park and I felt weird about you being there, I kept thinking about stabbing you," he says. "I wasn't going to - I'm not - I've never actually done anything like that. But I think about it. A lot. I think... it's something I could do. I could be the kind of person who does that, if - I don't know what if, I've been going nuts for years trying to figure that out, because I don't wanna cross that line but it's kind of hard to avoid it if I don't even know where it is. So. Don't say 'art'. Why are you doing this?"

[in_silk]

There is a long silence.

[thinklikethis]

Dao gets increasingly nervous as it goes on, but he waits it out. Not like there's much else he can do.

[in_silk]

Eventually, very softly: "I killed my father."

[thinklikethis]

...He can't think of a response to that.

[in_silk]

There is another, shorter silence, and then the not-quite-perfectly-concealed sound of quick steps leaving the room.

[thinklikethis]

Oh good. Just what Dao needed. A chance to sit all by himself in front of the horrible beautiful bone spider and think about all the hundreds of ways he could've handled that better.

Fuck.

[in_silk]

He is left alone all evening and all night and into the following morning.

[thinklikethis]

The chair isn't actually all that uncomfortable, but being tied to it helps nothing. He doesn't get much sleep.

Even once he can turn his head, there isn't hardly anything to look at in the gloomy basement except for the bone spider and some bloodstains on the bare concrete floor. At least he's pretty sure they're bloodstains. He tries not to think about it too much, because his reaction is half terror and half - inappropriate.

But he doesn't really have anything better to think about.

There's the fact that it is - or was, before he totally lost track of time - the last day of school for the week and nobody's going to miss him for two days, that's a great thought. Or how about the fact that he might've just blown his chance at talking the kidnapper down by being an awkward dumbass, he could think about that. And if those aren't enough, he could think about how upset Beila is going to be when somebody at school finally reports him missing and she realizes that he's probably had his bones stolen, but it's too late to do anything about it! By the time he's been trying to drag his mind off of that one for a while, freaking out about his inappropriate reaction to bloodstains is starting to look preferable.

[in_silk]

And then he suddenly cannot move.

"You're not very much like the other ones," says the bloodbender. "I'm not at all sure what to do with you." But he doesn't seem inclined to take suggestions, because he still isn't letting Dao talk. "I really can't let you go, you know. I have no way to trust you. Anything you say could just be a lie to secure your escape."

[thinklikethis]

And now he can talk. "Sure, fine, I can't prove anything, but come on, if I was lying wouldn't I come up with nicer lies? 'Hey so I thought about stabbing you', not exactly the kind of thing people say when they're trying to win somebody over!"

[in_silk]

"Maybe you're not a very good liar."

[thinklikethis]

"Okay," he says. "Okay." He wishes he didn't have to do this while hungry and tired and uncomfortable and slightly in need of a bathroom, but he's just going to have to deal. "How about I just talk for a while, and then you tell me if you still think I'm lying."

[in_silk]

"I'm listening."

[thinklikethis]

Dao takes a deep breath. He's going to screw this up, he is so absolutely going to screw this up... fuck it, it's not like he has a better idea.

"I've been doing that, the thinking about stabbing people thing, for like as long as I can remember, and it's - I can't remember ever not hating myself over it. And I think. I've been thinking, lately, that maybe I don't have to? That maybe I can just - think the way I think, and not go around stabbing people, and that could be okay? And it's the most terrifying thing in the fucking world. The idea that I could be okay. That I could be allowed. Like I've been sitting here staring at your bone spider all night and the thought of being okay with myself still scares me more."

He discovers that he has begun to cry. He keeps talking anyway.

"It's, I don't - I have a really nice girlfriend and she's super smart and she likes me a ton, and, and she knows some stuff, about how I am, and she kind of seems to think I'm just, that there isn't anything wrong with me and there never was, and sometimes I feel stupid for not just getting over it already, but I don't think, I don't think you can really get it unless you've been there, I," he loses control of his voice for a moment and trails off into sobs.

[in_silk]

A hand comes down lightly on his shoulder.

[thinklikethis]

He shivers hard, completely unable to decide whether he's comforted or terrified.

A few seconds later, he pulls himself together enough to keep going, quietly. "And. And. Look. I just think. I just think, I don't know, m-maybe you don't care at all and I'm screwed no matter what I do, but if that's true, if you're okay with yourself, then I wanna know how you did it. And if you're not, then," he sniffles, "then I wanna try to help."

[in_silk]

The hand stays where it is for a moment, then withdraws.

A long moment of quiet, in which Dao's occasional sniffles are the only audible sound.

Then a voice. A very quiet voice.

"I don't think you're lying," he murmurs. "But I'm not sure you can help me."

[thinklikethis]

"Is the art project helping you?" he asks, hoarse-voiced and more aggressive than he meant to be.

[in_silk]

"...it was supposed to," the bloodbender says quietly.

[thinklikethis]

He tries to make his voice softer, more gentle. "But it's not. Is it."

[in_silk]

Silence.

[thinklikethis]

"Then, I mean - I don't," sniffle, "I don't want to be that guy with the stupid obvious question, but why are you still doing it?"