inbox_a bastard son and a rebel

[in_theworks]

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missives | encounters

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[in_theworks]

But do you have, like, cool bad luck powers?

[sorry, Aang. he's a little hung up on this. on the plus side, though, he seems almost excited? cool bad luck powers would be pretty awesome! and probably useful for getting them where they're going, somehow!]

[airbender]

No, I'm the Avatar! [That doesn't... mean anything to anyone here. Hang on while Aang's brain catches up with his mouth.] I can bend all the elements. And talk to spirits, and stuff! Good things, not bad things. [Though he has felt pretty unlucky since arriving, which is ridiculous given how much money has been thrown at him ever since. But still!]

[in_theworks]

Bad luck isn't necessarily --

[bad. he realizes belatedly how stupid that sounds, though, so. yeah, excuse him while he takes a minute, for his brain to catch up with his mouth]

Anyway, uh.

Okay, so.

Bad guys. [a beat] I'm pretty sure there are more bad guys than two guys can take -- not unless everyone gets really cool about a lot of stuff really quickly. [not unless someone can get him some sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter real quick, so he can make gunpowder to make explosives. he couldn't resist quoting John Mulaney to make that point, though]

[airbender]

Well, I only really know Zuko. [Zuko is the opposite of "cool" but that's not the point here!! Since the reference flies right over Aang's bald head.] He'll come! [Obviously, that's a given. Even before they were friends, Aang got Zuko to follow him literally to the ends of the Earth.

But otherwise, Aang can count on one hand the number of people he's struck up conversations with since the merchants who saved him stopped talking to him and started skirting away to avoid his approach.] And Slick, maybe? [Two firebenders walking through a canal feels like a bad idea, but it's all he's got.] Do you know anyone else that could come?

[in_theworks]

Wait, you know the fire wizard guy and the language guy? Holy shit, that's like half my friends group.

[he knows some other people that he might trust enough to ask along, too, but. small world, man]

[airbender]

[Oh, Zuko has made friends!!! Aang is very excited to hear that.]

Zuko and I are from the same, um, planet. [He's just going with The Language Guy's terminology, because describing being from the Fire Nation and an Air Temple as the same place would feel very weird to Aang. He hasn't quite been here long enough yet.] Maybe that's enough? We'd have to be sneaky, I guess. [Bending does not tend to be very sneaky, so that's concerning.] Have you done anything like this before?

[in_theworks]

[they drank, they fought, they made their ancestors proud~! or, you know, they held a tower against a bunch of monsters so the city didn't get overrun. same difference]

Oh, cool. I'm super alone here.

[a beat]

But uh, kind of? I'm usually more the Distract the Guards While Other People Sneak in the Back guy. [he can do sneaky, but he's also built his whole persona around being loud, crass and flashy, so he usually gets pigeonholed into being the distraction] I'm also usually armed, though.

[kinda hard to be distracting, when there's nothing to explode]

[airbender]

Oh. [AWKWARD.] Well, maybe someone you know will come! [Chin up, etc etc.]

A distraction might be dangerous, but it could help. I'll ask Zuko what he thinks, he's really good at getting in and out of places he's not supposed to be. [Trust Aang on this one, he's had to deal with it a lot.] It wouldn't be good to get the supplies back to healers if we also have to bring them a bunch of injured people in the process. [Yeah, he'd try to get the bandits healed too, because he has no sense.]

[in_theworks]

Eh, maybe.

[he wishes Marcus or Josh would. he also wouldn't wish this place on either of them, however, for all that Josh probably wouldn't cope well, what with his Asperger's, and for all that Marcus is a black guy and this place is like weird, high fantasy Venice and white bread central. he's not sure how a POC would do, in that case. he's not aware, yet, that Aang is a POC]

[anyway]

But yeah, that'd kinda suck. [a beat] You wanna, like, get everyone together in person and see what we can put together? [that might be easier than this not-phone call business] Maybe go look at the bad guy camp or whatever? [maybe something will stick out to them, some advantage, if they go do a little recon]

[airbender]

Yeah, I can do a flyover with— [Aang stops for a moment to think about how much weight he can carry on his glider. He misses Appa so much right now...] Probably one more person. Otherwise I'm not sure how close we could get. [But as much as he thinks the magic talking devices are really cool, yeah talking in person would be better.] Are you busy right now?

[in_theworks]

A flyover would be great!

[he misses having access to drones, too]

I can be there in, like, ten minutes.

[regardless of whether or not he's invited on said flyover]