Better nate than lever

[12goingon113]

Characters: Aang and...you?
Date: *cough*January*cough*
Location: Outskirts of the Metal Sector
Situation: Aang has just arrived, his memory is a bit fuzzy.
Warnings/Rating: None yet, but we'll keep you posted


"Tell me, then. What are the terms of your agreement?" he asked the other Avatar seated across the table from him. Not just any other Avatar, but Yang Chen the Air Nomad that had preceded him in the cycle.

"First," she started to respond, but was cut short when the earth beneath them moved. No, that wasn't right. It didn't move, it jolted. And not like any earthquake that Aang had ever felt before. Something was wrong. Very very wrong, and he didn't need Yang Chen's expression to tell him so.

There was a loud crack and then....everything around Aang went white.
Something had pulled him from the Spirit World and thrown him back into his body...hard.

His eyes hurt as he opened them, the light of day blinding his vision until he adjusted. The ground...wait, why was there light of day at all? He was in a restaurant with the Air Acolytes. Why ground? Where were the floorboards?

Aang's mind reeled. None of this was right. His first attempt at sitting up resulted in a wave of nausea that kept him down for another ten count. Steeling his resolve, as well as his stomach, he finally managed to sit, and then eventually stand.

The world around him was not the one he started from. This wasn't the town or the refinery.
Maybe this was a glimpse of the future?

"Yang Chen?" he called to no one in particular...

Comments

[12goingon113]

"You mean the things you said didn't happen?"

Here he gives her a playful smirk.s

[unetrustworthy]

"...you could've been remembering a dream."

She tried not to smirk back. That would only encourage him, and this was serious.

[12goingon113]

"But I thought this was the dreaming? Can you dream inside a dream?"

It's too late, he's seen her fight the smile.
There's no NOT encouraging him now.

[unetrustworthy]

Speaking of dreaming...

(Rude.)

"No, this is Keelai. The realm of Dreaming is...somewhere else."

[12goingon113]

He will not be so easily deterred, but...okay admittedly he can be pretty easily distracted for a short time.

"Keelai," he repeats, and as he does so a thread of memory loosens.

"On the back of turtle!"

[unetrustworthy]

Her brows rose in pleasant surprise.

"You do remember." Or was starting to. That...was fast. Maybe all he'd needed was a few minutes to job his own memory.

[12goingon113]

"A little...I think. It's all really confusing, like...there are two conversations in my head going on at the same time."

[unetrustworthy]

"People are talking in your head?"

Always one to go for the most literal response first. Given that she knew telepathy was a thing that existed in Keelai.

"Who is it? Do you recognize the voice?"

[12goingon113]

He blinks at her, head tilting to one side.

"They aren't actual voice, just conflicting memories."

[unetrustworthy]

...it was difficult to tell in this place, okay?

But once he confirmed that he hadn't meant things literally, Midii leaned back and took a moment to think. Conflicting memories. Those of an existence in his home world, never having visited in Keelai...versus those of his time in Keelai, taken away from his home world.

"I...still don't understand how that can happen. How we can all be in two places at once."

Clones or replacements, she could understand. Even time standing still, because there was no paradox there. But simultaneously existence? Even Schrödinger would have had a hard time buying it at face value.

[12goingon113]

"Astral projection?" he offers a touch unhelpfully.
Because...that's a thing he can sort of do.

[unetrustworthy]

"What's that?"

Astral made her think of Asti. The times when he had projected himself into the minds and dreams of others. Was it similar?

[12goingon113]

"It's...separating your spirit from your body and walking around. I'm not that great at it, and can only really do it in the Avatar State," he says while sheepishly ducking his head and scratching at the back of his neck.

[unetrustworthy]

That sounded similar enough to her.

"Do you think that's what happened, then? It would explain the...um...parallel thoughts in your head."

[12goingon113]

"I don't know, maybe? I'm kind of learning as I go."

[unetrustworthy]

It was a theory, which was more than they had when this conversation started.

"...I wish Riva was still here." Her eyes lowered. A topic that was still very raw, but relevant. "With Asti gone, she and the other turtles were the only ones I'd have known could help you. If it's really what I think you're talking about."