tushanshu_logs | Event | Summer Jubilee

Entry tags:

Event | Summer Jubilee | June 22nd-28th

Characters: ALL! With special guest appearance by Asti
Date: June 22nd-28th, 2014
Location: Keeliai, all sectors
Situation: To celebrate the six month hatching days of the baby turtles that coincides with the arrival of summer, the kedan are throwing a city wide party! And Asti gifts everyone with a happy dream to make up for the badness plaguing Keeliai lately.
Warnings/Rating: TBA

While the kedan have a complicated and extensive system of writing, a good portion of their folklore is oral tradition and there's one prominent tale that's being told over and over this week. Small variances in the tale do occur from telling to telling but the core of the story goes like this:

Long ago before there were any people in the world, the First Family was made in the sky. Sun, the Mother and Moon, the Father were happy but desired children of their own. They watched all the creatures in the oceans, on the land and in the air and wished they could also have a family but they could not, for they didn't know how and so they were sad. They drifted apart, with Mother the Sun only coming out for part of the time and Father the Moon sometimes disappearing from the sky.

Not wanting to see them so saddened, the creatures in all the lands and seas and air gathered together and searched their respective domains for children to give into the sky. From the four corners of the world they came with four children: one for the Dawn, one for the Midday, one for the Dusk and one for the Night.

Mother the Sun and Father the Moon were overjoyed! They thanked the creatures of the world and promised they would never again abandon their places in the sky and became the First Family. And for a time, all was well.

But Dawn and Midday and Dusk and Night grew older and, as children are wont to do, started asking when they could leave their home in the sky to begin their own families. Their parents were afraid of feeling so alone again if that happened so each year they said, "next year, next year". Eventually the children grew tired of this answer and so, sneaking into the place of the Stars where everything that was known was kept and they cut the end off of Time.

The next time that their mother and father went to deny then, the children cried "You cannot say next year, for next year does not exist anymore!"

And the Sun and Moon were afraid that if the children went away, then Time would indeed run out and so they agreed that their children could have families of their own, if they stayed and became the Second Family. The children agreed and even today, it is said that they are still waiting for the end of Time to grow back so they can visit other places without everything ending.

OOC INFO & LINKS
Subheaders are for various parts of the event and the rest of the post (not in sub headers) is for general mingling and tagging! Questions relating to the event go HERE.

Adopt-A-Foreigner | The Ritual | Dream A Little Dream | Asti's Blessings | Barbecue | OOC Post

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's a strange and abrupt topic to be going into with a stranger, but perhaps that's what makes it easier, too. Leonardo cants his head in acknowledgement of the inquiry, considering it carefully. Every soldier in a war has their own battles, their own special enemies... but one's priorities are always the fights that decide who's coming home alive.

"Both," he says after a moment, straightening to meet Wan's gaze. "We each have our own battles - not only the one in front of us. It's knowing which one is the bigger threat that keeps you in the fight."

He ends with a somewhat questioning look towards Wan in return. It sounds like Leo isn't the only one battling his demons this very day.

Wan straightened with Leo, his shoulders squaring as he listened. The look the turtle gave him was clearing one of expectation. Was he hoping for agreement? Or to be told he was wrong?

Well, if it was the second, then Wan would oblige as he replied, "No. I don't think so. It's not knowing what the bigger threat is that keeps me going. It's never been the threat that's kept me moving forward. It's knowing what I could lose if I don't fight. Knowing what I've already lost, and knowing what the world stands to lose if I don't."

He sighed and slid his fingers into the water, managing somehow to not scare the fish off.

"Some threats are bigger than others and taking care of them is important... But if I focus just on those threats, I'll lose sight of what matters more. The people that will be hurt if I don't succeed. If I do that, then I'm just as likely to hurt those people as the enemy I face."

Leonardo closes his eyes as he listens. In a way, it sounds like Wan is agreeing with him - they fight because they have things, people, they have to protect. But whereas Leo will run to meet their enemies halfway across the battlefield, there's something about Wan's phrasing that makes Leo suspect that he fights not because it's in his blood, but because he must.

He's not about to go pushing just to sate his own curiosity over whether he's correct. But Leo knows a person weighed down by the burden of responsibility when he sees one.

"A world is a heavy weight to shoulder," he points out, his tone carefully neutral. Another part of Wan's phrasing - what the world stands to lose - makes him think that there's more going on here than a metaphorical discussion.

"It is," Wan murmured in agreement before smiling. It was a sad smile, one that didn't even try to hide the weight of his own guilt and worry. But it also wasn't forced. It was just as genuinely optimisitc as it was filled with those burdens. He fought because to do otherwise would be ignoring the consequences of his actions. It wouldn't be right or fair to Raava or the rest of the world.

"But it's my responsibility. And it's not a burden I have to carry alone. I hope yours isn't one you have to shoulder yourself."

He gives a quiet huff of laughter, gaze moving down to watch the human's fingers trail through the water. "Not for my lack of trying, believe me."

But it's fond, and that smudges out some of the worry in the lines etched out around his eyes. He's glad to hear Wan is wise enough not to try and shoulder his responsibilities all alone, because it's a dark path to travel down, and it's one Leo often still finds himself gravitating towards. He's just lucky enough to have brothers to stubbornly pull him out of it.

Leonardo glances up at Wan again, this time with a light of solidarity in the somber nod he gives him. "Whoever it is you're fighting for... I can see they're in good hands."

Wan met his eyes but looked away, falling back into that melancholy he'd been fighting all day. Even Raava hadn't been able to pull him out of it entirely with her reassurances. He was the one that had set everything in motion to begin with. It was hard to think of his hands as being good ones. Ones that were getting there? Sure. But without Vaatu sealed away and with Raava bonded to him, tied to his life, it was just difficult to accept.

Even with the proof that things would work out standing in front of him in the form of his reincarnation ten thousand years in the future.

"You sound like Korra," he said softly. "She's someone that knows my future and knows that I succeed. But it hasn't happened for me yet. Actually, I was pulled away to come here in the middle of the most important battle of my own lifetime. I know things turn out fine. She is proof of that, but... I don't know what's wrong with me. It should be enough to make me stop feeling like this, but it's just... not."

All he'd been doing all day was looking for things to distract him so he didn't have to examine it further.

Edited 2014-07-03 04:10 (UTC)

Hm. Being likened to Korra is certainly one of the more flattering comparisons he's heard. The corners of his mouth twitch briefly upward, but then he lets the set of his shoulders fall a little as he continues listening to Wan speak.

"Knowing the future doesn't make the present any less real," he offers gently, though there's an edge of firmness to it. Getting wrapped up in the past is never wise... but focusing too much on the future can be just as bad.

Wan moved his fingers slowly in the water, still somehow not disturbing the fish that swam past before he very carefully said, "Could you tell me about Korra. What is she like? Who she is to you? As both a person and a friend? And do you know Aang?"

"I've never heard of someone named Aang. But Korra..." he trails off, his mouth thinning. Wan seems all right, and the question is innocent enough. "... she's helped my family through some tough spots. She's brave, dependable... loyal. We couldn't ask for a better friend."

He goes quiet after that, inclining his head cautiously. He's not sure why Wan want to know about someone he only met yesterday, but that's as much as he's willing to give.

Wan didn't notice the caution. He was still paying attention to the fish, who were now being unconsciously directed by the subtle change in the water current to circle his fingers. Just two of them. The others milled about outside the small ring their idle swimming made.

"She sounds great," he replied with a soft smile. The kind of person Wan would like to be.

The kind of person you are, Raava spoke up inside his mind.

"I'm not sure I really meet that part about being a good friend," he answered his own inner voice, thinking of Jaya. Thinking of how they still had to beat Vaatu. It didn't even occur to him that it might sound like he was talking to Leo.

Leo's noticed the fish once or twice now - strange, how they don't swim away. Maybe Wan has a way with animals. Or... maybe it's a Waterbending thing.

It doesn't matter. He goes quiet at Wan's admission, wondering what an appropriate response would be. He can't exactly make judgments on a man's quality of friendship after just meeting him, but so far, Wan seems like the kind of guy anyone would be lucky to have at their side.

In the end, he decides that it really isn't his call. So instead he provides silence, watching the human's fingers card through the water.

Wan fell into silence easily, his focus falling to the deaths he'd been unable to prevent. The spinning of his fingers stilled as he sighed heavily. The current dying with it. And the fish returned to their normal movements, though one did brush across his fingertips a couple times as if it were trying to comfort him.

He pulled his hand out and looked up at Leo, cringing a little, "Sorry. Got caught in my thoughts there for a moment. Thank you for telling me about Korra. She knows so much about me, but I only just met her and it's good to know that she's well thought of. Makes me feel a little better...

"I know you said you weren't a spirit, but you remind me a lot of the spirits I used to live with. They were pretty good listeners. Well, not Aye-Aye, but he was mostly an exception."

Huh. Maybe this guy has more connections to Korra than he'd thought. He might have to ask her about this later.

There's a lot of interesting information in that last bit of confession - really, learning that someone used to live with spirits isn't as surprising as it could be these days - but what he mostly takes away from that causes him to raise an eye ridge.

"You knew a spirit named Aye-Aye?"

"Well, it wasn't so much his name as what kind of spirit he was," Wan replied with a shrug. "He's an Aye-Aye spirit. Just like Radish is a Radish Spirit. And Carrot a Carrot Spirit. Most animal, plant, and creature spirits don't have names the way other people, like humans, do. Spirits that are more the spirit of a, well, force or concept or have very specific tasks... They have more unique names."

After a beat, he added, "But yeah. I know a spirit called Aye-Aye."

"I see," he says, a slow appreciation growing in his expression. He'd always known that people in Korra's world were well-attuned to their spirits, but this is the first he's heard of just how deep their spiritual culture goes. It sounds far more robust than what you'd typically see in Leo's world. "Do they often talk to humans?"

Wan's expression fell again, his smile becoming sad before he shook his head, "No. Spirits and humans live apart from each other. Spirits crossed over from the Spirit World so long ago that humans can no longer remember a time when they did not have to live in the Lion Turtle City to be safe from the spirits in the Spirit Wilds. Humans have lived so long in the cities, that most settlements believe they're the only human city in existence and the whole of the rest of the world is covered by the Spirit Wilds."

Wan circled his hand over the river, this time purposefully drawing up two balls of water. Each one held one of the two fish he'd been absently playing with before. His wrists twisted and the two fish-bowls began to orbit each other.

"When time began, there were two worlds that mirrored each other, the Spirit World, where all spirits come from, and the Material Plane, where humans and animals come from. Long ago, the All-Powerful Spirit of Darkness and Chaos, Vaatu, tore open the veil between the worlds."

The two fish-bowls orbited closer until they semi-merged, becoming a double-sphere joined by a small margin right at the middle. Just large enough for one of the fish to swim in and join the other.

"Where the two worlds met, the Spirit Portals formed, allowing spirits and humans to cross-over between them. Spirit crossed over first in small numbers, and then more and more, until the humans, who were too frightened and selfish to learn from them, retreated to the backs of the Lion Turtles. The Great Old Ones were kind enough to shelter the humans, allowing them to build cities on their backs and, in time, granting the humans the power of the elements to protect themselves when they eventually ventured back into the world to hunt for food."

Wan separated the spheres again, letting the one with the two fish drop gently back into the river. The water he kept, he carefully 'bent' until it was shaped like the Lion Turtle he was most familiar with, complete with city on it's back and the forest that surrounded the city. Then he froze it and set the newly-made ice sculpture on the sidewalk. And then he made it walk toward Leo so the mutant turtle could see the little sort-of-human shaped person that stood on the Lion Turtle's head.

Wan was kind of getting into his story telling now, leaning forward and moving his hands much like a puppeteer would, "Ten thousand years or more, humans lived on the Lion Turtles, forgetting others existed. On one particular Lion Turtle, lived a young man. Me."

The little sort-of-human shaped person waved an arm at Leo.

Wan tore his eyes from his ice-toys and looked up at his audience with a big grin, "How I lived there and how I left it isn't important. What's important is that one day, I left the city and I asked the Lion Turtle to grant me the Power of Fire."

Wan's little self jumped fearlessly off the Lion Turtle's head to the ground below, then turned to face the giant and bow politely to it. When the ice man straightened, he shot his hand into the air. Wan, himself, took the thumb and forefinger of his left hand and 'flicked' the air with them at the same time. This caused a small flame to rise from his ice-self's hand.

"He did so and off into the wilds I went," Wan's right hand drew up and pointed down, like a bird's beak. With the movement, the Lion Turtle turned to liquid again, dropping down into the river. The tiny ice-Wan, on the other hand, continued to frolic across the stone between the two men, occasionally tossing tiny fireballs at nothing. "I spent two years in the wilds, learning the ways of the spirits before I met-"

Wan stopped, clearly unsure if he should say anything about that to Leo. Or at all, really. After a moment, he sent his ice-self into the river with a little 'plop', then settled his hands into his lap, "I spent nearly three years in the the wilds, learning the ways of the spirits and to control the power of the elements that the Lion Turtles I met granted to me. Then I came here."

Leonardo sits and listens to the entire story with rapt attention. At first it seems to be a lesson in mythology similar to many stories Leo's heard in his own world. His eyes follow Wan's hands as they fluidly bend the water and fish, tracking their movements; his attention finally shifts to the fish when it swims to the adjoined sphere and eases back into the water.

When the remaining orb of water takes a physical form, turns into ice, and then walks towards him, he understands that he's talking to a bender of considerable skill - yet he can't help but grin softly at the display. He imagines someone with this level of control could wreak incredible destruction, but instead here he is, watching a small play take place with sculptures and little ice-people that wave at him as though alive.

Then Wan mentions himself, and the smile fades. This isn't a mythology lesson; it's a history lesson.

His focus hardens after that.

The little ice-person shoots a flame into the air, lighting the ice around it in flickering orange, and another realization grips him. Wan waterbends and firebends. And Leonardo has spent just enough time around people from his world to know what that means.

But he listens patiently to the rest of the story, taking it all in and carefully filing it away. A rift between the mortal and physical realms, societies isolated on the backs of giant creatures... this is the first he's heard of any of it. And while he'd never asked Korra or Toph much about the structure of their world, one would think it might come up once or twice.

Even with his limited knowledge, he can hazard a guess as to why it hasn't.

"You're an Avatar," he surmises quietly, watching the ripples left by the ice-man plunging into the river.

"Korra's told you about that, huh? I shouldn't be surprised," Wan still wasn't used to that title, but he nodded after a moment, "And yeah, I am."

Another moment passed before he added in a much softer voice, "I'm the first."

The first Avatar.

That explains a lot.

Leo only has passing knowledge about the entire 'Avatar Cycle', but he's gathered that it's been going on for a long, long time. If Wan is the very first, the root from which all Avatars grow, he must be a living historical legend. For Korra and the rest of her world... seeing him now would be like Sun Tzu or Marie Antoinette walking around New York City.

He suddenly understands the weight clinging to Wan's shoulders on a whole new level.

It then occurs to Leo that he's sitting in the presence of someone who probably deserves the reverence of a deity, but his mind is still stuck in little ice-men who wave and shoot tiny flames from their hands. The contrast tears his eyes away from the river to study Wan again. He just looks like... a man. A young man. A young human who likes putting on puppet shows and playing with fish in the river.

Leonardo glances back towards the fountain basin, where the kedan continue soaking their items in water. "So then, your ritual offering...?"

He thinks it makes a bit more sense, but all the dots don't feel quite connected yet.

Wan shrugged, then gestured at his clothes, his answer very simple, "I just got here yesterday. I don't have anything to give but myself. I took my sandals off because I thought it would be rude to put dirty shoes in their fountain."

Leo chuckles a bit. Yeah, tracking mud into a ceremonial fountain does seem a little impolite.

But somehow it reaffirms the feeling that he's sitting next to a guy more than a god; a seemingly pretty okay one at that.

"Fair enough."

Edited 2014-07-08 03:03 (UTC)

"You put your swords in," he prompted. Since they were on the subject of the offerings.

Leo blinks. Then his shoulders relax into an easy line. "I did."

He tugs his strap over his head, lifting the swords off of his shell and resting them parallel on his lap. The braids wrapped across their tsuka are still dark with moisture, but for the most part, they've dried out from their brief rest in the water.

Leo's palm smooths over the saya of the blue-braided katana first. These are personal stories, but after all Wan's shared with him, he sees little harm in touching on them. "I forged this katana with my brother years ago, after I lost my previous swords in battle."

His hand then trails to the brown-braided katana, and his expression grows a little sadder, for all the fondness there is. "This one belonged to a little ninja I met in this world. My cousin."

His younger alternate-universe self, to be more specific, but he's always felt more like another part of the family.

"They're very well made," he said, not really familiar enough with weapons in general to say more. But that wasn't the point was it? It was the meaning behind them. A blade made with a brother and another that belonged to a distant family member he'd never met before coming to the back of the Great Turtle. A similar story to Wan's own, if he counted himself the weapons forged together with Raava, and Korra the distant family. A stretch, to be sure. But similar enough that Wan felt he could empathize.

He reached forward, noticing the water, ready to draw it out. He stopped short, realizing that maybe Leo would prefer the water dry naturally. Biting his lower lip, he glanced up and asked, "May I?"

Though he didn't realize it, it probably looked more like he was asking to touch them.

Leo's hands reflexively tighten over the saya, having the same thought - he likes Wan well enough, but he's never entirely comfortable with even his own brothers handling his blades.

A breath later he understands what Wan actually intends to do; in no small part due to being used to a waterbender's habits. And even then, he has to consider it. Although it might seem like a small gesture to most - a favor, even - it's a decision of trust for Leonardo. But trusting the preincarnation of Korra is not as difficult a decision as trusting a normal stranger.

Finally he raises his chin a little, giving a small, permissive nod.

Event | Summer Jubilee | June 22nd-28th

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