It could be usable

[raavashing]

Characters: Wan & Zuko & possibly you!
Date: Jan 26th
Location: The Palace of Landed Sky
Situation: Exploring and scouting the palace for usability.
Warnings/Rating: None, it's mostly just exploring the now somewhat gutted palace

[After the races were over and Zuko had had a day to rest from the race and the feast that came right after, Wan insisted he come with him to the Palace of Landed Sky. They'd both been back in Keeliai for about a month and finding regular jobs to keep themselves fed and buy a few necessary possessions hadn't exactly been easy. They'd spent the time between the forum and the race working themselves to exhaustion just to earn the entrance fee for Zuko. They didn't exactly have a direction for what to do and it had gotten to the point that Wan was tired of feeling like he was 'drifting'. His life on the turtle didn't feel like it had purpose. So he decided to find one for himself.

Which was what led to exploring the palace. In the short term, it would give him a goal of making it livable if it wasn't bad off. Also, the garden would be a good place to meditate and grow a little food of their own until they could show they were trust-worthy enough to hire on a regular basis.]

Wow. The Kedan haven't been kind to this place, have they?

[Wan asked as he stared up at what was left of the outer walls and terraces. The fine marble that had once adorned it had been completely stripped away and didn't speak well of what might be left further in, past the most accessible part of the outer palace.]

Comments

[lordhotman]

I never saw much of this place.

[Zuko admitted this as he followed Wan through the run down and stripped building. It was a depressing sight. Certainly not so grandiose as it had once been. What he saw of it at least.]

I guess they had no more respect for their Emperors than they did us.

[Which was a bit strange. Then he never knew all that much about them either. The last one seemed a bit incompetent but didn't seem to be a tyrant. Nor the last one from what he heard of her.]

[stubbornlittleshit]

Arno didn't know the details of what had happened here, but then, you didn't really need to know THOSE to go poking about in ruins. Which was why he was glancing around the palace himself, looking for anything that could be pawned or of any actual value. Nothing had surfaced so far, but, hearing the voices of a few others, who seemed to know what they were doing had him tuning in a bit to his eagle vision to see if he might find them, and then made his way toward where it seemed that they were searching.

"I would say there goes the neighborhood, but I never actually saw it so." He shrugged a little at the two others. "I take it this isn't as ancient a ruin as it looks?"

[starbinder]

This place is a mess, Regulus commented as Lucina wandered the empty ruins of what she was certain had once been a beautiful place.

"This is all recent too," Lucina replied, running her fingers along the chisel scratches that marked one of the pillars. The place had been completely stripped of anything of value, leaving nothing but a sense of lost glory behind.

I'm going to scout, Regulus said, I'm tired of seeing through your dull senses.

Before Lucina could protest, the spectral lioness appeared before her and yawned, quite pleased with herself.

"What if someone sees you?" Lucina hissed.

Then at least they won't think you are crazy for talking to empty air. Regulus purred, stepping away. Lucina shook her head, trying not to smile, and followed the lioness through the ruins. They didn't often get to walk together and it was refreshing to actually see the spirit that she so often conversed with. Besides the Palace seemed deserted, so there was probably little danger of them being seen.

[theideaguy]

[It just so happens that, at some point rather recently, Sokka had had the idea to use the Palace of the Landed Sky as a future foreigner headquarters because, let's be honest, Sokka felt like they were already pushing the Anton's neutrality at the Midnight Hotel to the absolute limits. And so Sokka had been fully intending to get out this way at some point, but his job had gotten in the way in the short term, and he just never got out. So with the opportunity to check out the palace, he leapt at the opportunity...

[Only to find out that he would be slightly disappointed.]

Okay, this place is a practical dump.

Zuko

[oceanblue]

Sometimes Sokka had really good ideas, like gathering the foreigners and giving them a safe and judge free location to live. The palace seemed to be the perfect place, she had imagined. Sometimes sokka had good ideas, she thought.

Until she saw the palace.

With a sigh, she had followed him for a while as they had explored what was left, until they decided to split up and cover more ground. Admittedly relieved--yes, sokka, she knew the palace looked like a dump; she want blind-- she took her own path, losing herself deeper and deeper into the once royal quarters. When she stumbled upon the court, she paused, looking skyward at the canopy of what she assumed had once been a grand ceiling. Sunlight dotted her face as she closed her eyes. It was sad to see something so good wasted away to so little. Maybe with hope and a lot of hard work, it could be as beautiful as it once was.

Wan--after the fight// tiny tw for ice

[oceanblue]

Pathetic... that was how she felt. Drained and numb and weak, and it was her own fault.

Finally pushing herself up off of the broken ground of the palace, Katara had headed to the nearest pillar, leaning her back against it as she poured the water from one of her skins into her palms and washed the tears from her face. That hadn't gone well at all, and she was positive now that they didn't understand each other any more than they had before. She was also positive that whatever it was between them was now, and forever more, inarguably over.

And it made her mind reel.

A friendship severed, just like that. She had trusted him. She had loved him. He had been her partner in so many battles, one of the bests allies she could have found. They worked so well together...And now he was gone, because of her feelings and inability to control them. A friendship purified by flames of circumstance, by trial and error. It was gone.

It only took a moment to realize her eyes had filled once more, and she immediately attempted to quell them. What was wrong with her? She was stronger than this. She had grown up surrounded with war, and mastered her bending despite being teacher-less most of her life. She was best friends with the Avatar.

Though that realization itself gave her very little peace. In fact, in only confused her more, and made her heart ache even deeper. None of this was fair for any of them, and she didn't know what to do to fix it. She had really messed up...because of a boy.

...A boy that forgot her feelings for him as if they were nothing, the inconsolable voice in her head reminded her. Obviously they were nothing. Even after everything you've been through together...

But Aang...

Freezing the droplets remaining on her skin to bring her back to the present, she forced herself to stop. The sting helped, and she shook her head, melting them once more and healing the ice tiny burns with the very same water. This was foolish. She was acting like a child, though at sixteen...seventeen... the Voice could argue that she was little more than that, despite her experience in life.

No matter her age, she was miserable, but also understood that staying here wouldn't help anything. Sure of that much, she straightened off of the pillar, unsure of how much time had passed. Sokka would probably still be there, and would wonder. She needed to find him, tell him that she was leaving. If she found him too quickly, he would ask why her eyes were red... She'd tell him it was nothing, that things would be okay. He'd never believe her.

Despite knowing there'd be another confrontation, she needed to get out of this place. Smoothing her coat--the coat Korra had given her, the voice reminded her-- she headed toward the closest exit, opposite the one Zuko had disappeared through. Still shaken, she smoothed her hair, pulling it over one shoulder as she tried to find her way out, or at least close to an exit.