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

[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."

[roc_on]

"I find it pretty unlikely this is even something I can do, because I doubt anyone's wanted to selectively de-bend someone before," says Beila. "But the bloodbending, not the watering the neighbor's plants or the healing, is the thing that's really straining credulity here."

[fiery_delights]

"Okay," says Jun. "But it seems like selective de-bending wouldn't help anyway. You're the one who'd be lying to your dad if we went the one way, so, your call: do I run off with him and keep an eye on him in case of incidents, bloodbending and all, or kill him? Or do we think of another brilliant idea? The well of brilliant ideas may be running a little dry here."

[roc_on]

"Give me a minute."

Beila picks up her chordpress.

"Any last-minute data I should incorporate while I think?"

[fiery_delights]

"I will note that he seems extremely risk-averse, and while it's true that he could kill me in my sleep, trying would be very risky," says Jun. "And for what it's worth I do completely believe him about the turnaround. It fits."

[roc_on]

"Mmhm."

But that all boils down to more amateur psychological assessment by someone who's known this guy for less than a day.

So much amateur psychological assessment.

Jun's betting his life on it, Dao's survived this long -

- and they're volunteering, which none of the previous dead people may be assumed to have done, which future victims are not doing.

What does she want?

Sora, here, forfeited his stranger's place in line as far as her seeking his welfare is concerned. She doesn't actively wish him harm, but she doesn't wish to trade anybody else's well-being in for his even at very favorable exchange rates and uncertain price except where those others can volunteer. If she could be sure that he were safe, if she de-bent him and de-psychopathed him to boot all in one motion, then she'd be willing to pay for his freedom with collective nervousness about a serial killer yet uncaught, her volunteering firebending teacher, and her track record of honesty with her dad. She wants Dao not to look at her like she killed his pet, but she really needs to set that aside; it is swamped by other concerns.

What does she have?

Not that much certainty. Lots of amateur psychological assessment. It points all in one direction, from... two sources, one of whom is her boyfriend with questionable personal sympathies and one of whom is the guy's brother. Who are being awfully convinced by short-term signals like and timid body language and the ever-reliable "saying so".

She could de-bend him. He'd rather die, and that's his prerogative, and nobody will think twice about writing it off as self-defense.

She'd feel heroic about it forever if he went away and quietly healed people in a suburb on an island and never hurt anyone again.

And if he recidivized - if he went through Jun, after another twenty years of timid covert practice or whatever it took, and then he killed another half a dozen people or even just one - she'd feel like shit, and it would be wrong for anyone to trust her again whether or not they actually did through a carefully sown string of lies -

Is this all awfully self-centered? Yes it is, and why shouldn't it be, because on her own head be it either way.

How can she use what she has to get what she wants?

She can't.

How can she get close?

"If he'd rather die," she says softly, tucking her chordpress back into her bag, "that's his prerogative. I can't turn a bloodbending serial killer loose. Couldn't do it even if I weren't answerable to Chali about it."

[fiery_delights]

"Dao, are you going to make this difficult?"

[thinklikethis]

[in_silk]

Spider hugs Dao.

[roc_on]

Beila glances at Jun. "You don't have to, I made the call, I can own it."

[fiery_delights]

"No, I'll do it. I don't mind. Since we have the luxury, we should probably get our story straight beforehand; are we leaving out the fifteen minutes we spent debating whether to let him go when we tell your dad about this? And the part where Dao was here? I'm sure Dao has no desire to talk to law enforcement about any of this."