the avatar state / implies emotional pain / or perfect control

[roc_on]

Jun did a show last night, so maybe he's holding it together well enough to do a lesson today. It'd sure help take Beila's mind off things; maybe it'd do the same for him. She can always fly away again if he's not feeling it.

Knock knock?

Comments

[in_silk]

He flinches away from her.

[fiery_delights]

"Debending him takes away the one positive coping mechanism he's found so far," Jun reminds her. "And he seems to find the prospect even more terrifying than the rest of this conversation."

[in_silk]

Nod nod.

[roc_on]

"Jun, you have to sleep. And it's one thing to tell Chali that, oh, the serial killer grabbed his brother and ran off, good luck, and it's quite another to let him go on thinking this leaves him looking for a couple firebenders when one of them is an apocalyptically skilled bloodbender."

[in_silk]

Shiver.

[fiery_delights]

Jun looks at Sora with a kind of immediate concern he has not displayed so far in this conversation.

"Something to say over there?"

[roc_on]

Beila does not glow, startle, or fuck with the air. Such discipline.

[in_silk]

"I would rather die."

[fiery_delights]

"'We found the serial killer and I had to take him out' can also be arranged. Without you needing to attack anybody for it."

[in_silk]

"Okay."

[fiery_delights]

Jun is no longer concerned.

[thinklikethis]

Dao is kind of concerned. He hugs Spider some more.

[roc_on]

"I'm going to check my messages," says Beila, "and see if there's more information on how much time we have to come up with really clever solutions."

Check. Check.

"Nothing from Chali. He may not have read it yet."

[thinklikethis]

"Can we think of a really clever solution where, like. No one dies," says Dao. "That would be super nice."

[in_silk]

Spider hugs Dao.

"You still helped," he murmurs. "Even if. You still helped."

[roc_on]

"Well, I thought we were going in to address a firebender, so I didn't ask the past lives contingent about partial debending, but I can check, since I did master the Avatar State fifteen minutes ago."

[in_silk]

Cringe.

[fiery_delights]

"...Still no?"

[in_silk]

"I - I don't - I can't - I don't want to, I, don't want, to use it, but, I can't, it's, it's all I have," he says. "For - if - when there's people around, I—I always know, if they tried to hurt me, I could stop them."

[fiery_delights]

"But you're not sure you could go up against the Avatar," guesses Jun, "which is why you are falling apart so thoroughly in this conversation, and why you were so reluctant to admit you're a bloodbender?"

[in_silk]

Nod nod.

[fiery_delights]

"If this is what you'd be like around people constantly without the bloodbending option, I can see why you might prefer death," says Jun.

[in_silk]

Nod nod.

[fiery_delights]

"Could you handle having me around all the time, if we went that route?"

[in_silk]

"I think. I think you'll. If."

He takes a breath and tries again.

"I don't think you'd hurt me as long as I wasn't trying to hurt anyone else. So all I have to do is not do that. So it's okay."