tushanshu_logs | (no subject)

Characters: Wanijima Akito + OPEN
Date: February 14^th - 28^th
Location: primarily the Water District; anywhere there's ice enough to skate on
Situation: Skating!
Warnings/Rating: n/a

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Akito has long come to terms with the fact that he won't ever have someone special to spend Valentine's Day with him, and it really hadn't bothered him for years. He had friends he loved and could gift with giri-choco. He had friends who he could spend the day with; go shopping, buy snacks, play games at the arcade. Here though...

He can't say that he has nothing, because that isn't true.

He has a job that he enjoys - not his dream job, but enjoyable. A job that doesn't involve harming others and pays enough for him to live comfortably enough in addition to helping him foster new friendships. With every delivery Akito makes, he's carving out another small place for him atop the turtle. It's something he can be proud of himself for, and he knows Agito would be proud of him too. That doesn't lessen the homesickness any. If anything it actually makes it worse, because as he settles himself in the more he notices small differences that seem immeasurably huge to him. The scents, the sounds, the weather, the architecture, the language, the people, the animals, the food...

The one constant he finds joy in - something that transferred from one world to the next without consequence - is his love for skating. Fighting in the war had taken it's toll on him, as Akito is ever the pacifist and letting out his vicious side was... unpleasant, at best. He used his Air Trecks for harm despite promising himself he never would again. But circumstances change, and in the end he can find comfort in the fact that by harming the few he was helping the many.

However, now Akito can use his skills at skating to have fun and, donning a pair of figure skates he puts said skills to good use. It's easy enough to translate his A-T Tricks over into figure skating techniques that could put the best of Olympians to shame, such as upside-down bicycle spins and twirling backflips. It's also easy for him to mimic the simpler, more classic techniques like a triple-lutz or simple spins and finds himself sticking to those the most.

The only thing in Keeliai that could make him feel any more content in this moment would be music, but Akito supposes that only so much comfort and convenience can be allowed at once.

((ooc: basically Akito is pulling some standard figure skating tricks for fun, along with some crazy techniques that don't actually exist IRL because his canon is weird so upside-down bicycle spin tricks are actually a thing. :|

if your character wants to learn how to skate they're free to ask him! from the 14th - 18th or so he won't be inclined to give any lessons since he just wants to skate and skate until he can't even think anymore, but after that he'll have gotten the crazy out of his system enough to take on beginners! so if you want to you can just imply they asked earlier and tag in later on timeline-wise with a lesson starter, or tag in with them asking him.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, even Sokka can tell that something is amiss when someone's mood changes that radically that quickly. And he can tell more or less what is wrong... just not why it's wrong. "What did I say wrong? You and Katara were train—oooooooh."

Well that would explain why Katara was off training by herself these days and why she hadn't mentioned Akito at all. "You know, you should still go hang out with her anyway though. I imagine she could use some good friends still."

"I..." Akito frowns, looking to his feet and wrapping an arm around his torso; a subconscious gesture meant to comfort himself. "It's not fair to Katara... But it just... It still hurts a lot to be around water."

Sokka just gives him a rather discourteous look when he responds that way. Because he can sense that it's an attempt to push away what needs to be done. "What do you mean it's not fair to Katara? What's not fair to her is that you're avoiding her." He taps his foot slightly and just looks around the area. "And as far as water goes, maybe you should try the Fire sector to avoid it better..."

"That's why I said it wasn't fair to Katara," he says, more quietly. Akito already knows he's a bad friend, but he also feels like - now that he can't Bend anymore - that Katara won't even want to stay friends.

"I couldn't afford the fire sector, but I did move to the metal sector."

Sokka shoots Akito a slightly annoyed look for both comments. To be truthful, in this circumstance, he just doesn't understand what's even running through his mind.

In fairness, he was making a joke about the immediate moment rather than making a point about where he was living. "Well, yes," he says. "I'm just saying, you've surrounded yourself by a lot of water... right here."

"It's ice," Akito says rather quickly. Because, shh, Sokka you're ruining his psychological mind trickery. "If I look at ice and think 'ice', not 'water', it's okay. So I am taking advantage of that."

Really.

Really.

"They're the same thing!" Sokka says, almost screaming for just a moment. "It's just really really cold water! Just like the snow!"

Sigh. He'd have said something a little more unkind except he's trying to be nice to Akito. Friends of his friends and all. "Never mind, never mind. Just go have fun with Katara when she's icebending then." Since it's entirely different. Whatever. "But seriously, I'm worried about her, and it's not something even I know how to fix at the moment."

The raised voice causes Akito to flinch, and he pretends it's because he doesn't want the nearby kedan to be disturbed. "I know - it's a psychological trick that's been working for me! You don't have to yell!"

But he falls silent again at Sokka's comment about Katara. "Is she sick? What's wrong?"

Sokka yells all the time, especially when he gets frustrated. But there's no more of that. No, Katara is now in the fore, and Sokka just can't be too angry when he's worried about his sister.

He shakes his head to Akito's question, but there's still doubt written all over his face. "Not sick, no. But..." But what? "She's been quiet. Just been preoccupied with things. And I'll bet you know from experience that Katara... is not some wilted flower of a girl. She's... look, if I can't get her hotheaded enough to throw water in my face with stupid jokes, I can't help but be concerned."

Akito listens closely, and the more Sokka explains the more he's sure he has an idea of what's wrong with Katara. "...Is there anything that happened that would make her depressed?"

"Eeeehhhhhhhh," Sokka starts out, making a rather concerned expression that obviously means yes, even if he's not coming out and saying it. "Well... not really. I mean, well, that is to say, well..."

Sigh.

"She got in a huge fight with Wan and Zuko a while back, and she's just been on edge ever since. I don't bug her like I used to because... she's just not been herself ever since then."