eighteen [action]

[imatreenow]

[Friday afternoon finds Mithos dragging a granite statue through the streets of Luceti. It will look familiar to those who can claim Aselia as their home world, carved adoringly in the likeness of a young man wielding dual swords. The figure is planted atop a base that bears a plaque engraved with the simple honor, "The Hero Lloyd Irving." All together, it stands at about three and a half feet, scaled down from the original model.

For Mithos, it's a bitter reminder of things that could never have been. Its sudden appearance in his house had been an elbow nudging him sharply in the ribs, an obnoxious stage whisper prompting, "Hey, remember that time all your hopes and dreams were crushed?"

Yes, yes he remembers.

Which is why he had to get rid of it. The first day, he dragged the statue behind the house, let it topple into the river, and watched the determined stony face sink below the surface. The next morning, it found its way back to his living room. Each day, he drags it farther away, and each morning it proudly comes back.

His route today takes him up from the south end of the village through the north end and into the woods. The farther away, the better.]

Comments

[savedtheworld]

[And Aang starts to get the impression that this killing isn't as clean-cut as Mithos suggested. There has to be more to it.]

Not a lot. [He was hesitant; he didn't want to put Raine on the spot like this, but he also knew that lying to Mithos could set him off.] Mostly that... you're not safe. And I want my friends and family to be safe. That's all. I don't want trouble.

action;

[gleamed]

[Her brow furrows. Was she missing something? Sure, maybe sometimes it was hard to understand people who were different from you, but that didn't mean they couldn't be your friends.]

Everyone here is different. I'm different from everyone I've met. But there's nothing wrong with that.

[imatreenow]

[Not safe. That means Aang will stay away. That’s good. That’s what he wants. But that doesn't mean Mithos will stop being wary of him.]

I didn't want trouble either. All I wanted was a world where my sister and I didn't have to be outcasts... Lloyd wouldn't allow it, though.

[He's twisting the truth, throwing words that will push Aang away, and then tossing in pleas for sympathy that he knows will go unanswered. Part of him knows he's twisting the truth. But he also knows that, at the root of it, that's all it had been about for him. A world for him and Martel...]

action;

[imatreenow]

[Her words wash over him, drawing up echoes from a time when he couldn’t stand on his own, and the vivid memory of a brightly quiet smile. Sayo has said something similar, that day when she reached out and he finally accepted her hand. He freezes for a moment, aching, but then the cool look returns. There's nothing wrong with that.]

That’s not what I’ve learned, and it's not what I've been taught time and time again. [But here...]

[imatreenow]

...You don’t have to. It doesn’t matter what you believe.

[Nothing matters. Everything is the matter, and nothing matters, because nothing can help him put it all back together. The pieces are small and fractured. Some are buried, and some are gone and will never be found again. Who would even care enough to sit with him and sift through the mess?]

[imatreenow]

[He will pretend he didn’t hear that sigh, focusing all of his energy into moving the immortalized Lloyd. After he’s managed to slide it across the icy ground a few inches, he’ll pause. With each passing minute, he wishes more and more that he could still rely on the powers of his Cruxis Crystal – he could have flown the damned thing to the edge of the barrier and be done with it by now.]

[imatreenow]

No, we’re not. [His words are frigid - steel icicles.] Sometimes I can’t even believe that I used to think you were the person I could rely on the most. [No, most of the time... The memories are like something out of someone else’s life, and he hates that the most.]

[action]

[imatreenow]

[What a labyrinth of a question. Someone he used to know, because he saw parts of himself – or the person he used to be - in Lloyd. Someone he used to know, because he met his death on Lloyd’s blade. His answer, though, is simple.] Obviously.

[savedtheworld]

[Raine had warned him to be careful of what he says. His eyes still widen briefly just at the idea. But he trusts Raine and Lloyd. He knows there has to be more to it than this. And Aang tries to pick his own words carefully, but some emotion winds up driving them anyway.]

I don't know about that. All I know is... no one has to be an outcast here. [Pause] Unless they wanna be.

[imatreenow]

I don't believe that.

I've never felt like I belong in this village. [He had belonged in Sayo's apartment, and he had belonged wherever he could be with Kaori, and in his house with his sister. But all of those spaces are empty now. Gutted. Even if he's never felt the hostility he still expects from the humans here, the imagined scorn that leaves him wary of everyone he sees, he knows a wall separates him from the rest of them.]

I don't expect you to understand. Why would you? You live in that house full of your companions. You admire people like Lloyd. You have your naive ideals because you don't know what the word reality means.

[action]

[idealism]

[He looks up at the statue. He can't help but wonder.]

Is he family? Old lover?

[savedtheworld]

[He knows next to nothing about Mithos's past in his village, aside from Raine's mentionings of past conflicts. But he knows with how friendly everyone is, it can't be hard to coexist peacefully.]

Don't you say that. I know what reality is. Reality's why I ran away and came back to find out a hundred years had past and I lost my entire people to the Fire Nation. And I almost gave up those ideals to save the world. I had to consider taking a life to end the war. But I didn't, and I still stopped it. You know why? I learned that ideals and reality can go along sometimes. Not all the times, but sometimes. Reality means that I have companions who are all broken in their own ways, who've all had reasons they could have used to leave me, but our ideals mean we stay together and get through these problems.

action;

[gleamed]

Then...I'm sorry. [And she really was - she was clearly dealing with something here that went beyond herself, and beyond what he was willing to tell her. Whatever he'd been through that had taught him that...she was sorry that it happened.]

Will you at least give me the chance to be your friend? Please. One chance. That's all.

[imatreenow]

[His glare has sharpened, and his voice is broken glass - dangerous, ready to draw blood, ready to be ground to dust.] My companions turned their backs on me the first chance they got. That is reality. I dreamed of a world where my sister and I could be accepted and everyone could live in peace, long before Lloyd came along. It was for the sake of that dream that I fought to find an end to the war.

I found a way. I had the power to split the world in two, so it could be preserved on the limited mana supply until the Great Seed had a chance to grow. I could do all of these things, and I thought my dream would soon be reality...

I could do all of these things, but I couldn't do anything to change people's hearts. We were betrayed. My sister was killed. A world free from discrimination...a world where I could live freely with my sister, where we didn't have to live in constant fear because of what we are - that world didn't exist. There was no place for my foolish ideals, just as the was no place for me. That is what reality means.

action;

[imatreenow]

I don't need any friends. [He's lying. He's lying and he knows it. The truth is that he doesn't need to get his hopes up - and let his guard down. He doesn't need another knife in the back.]

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[gleamed]

[Hm...maybe she should sing a song about it.

Oooor maybe that would scare him off. She keeps the idea in check.]

But everyone needs friends.

[action]

[imatreenow]

[He returns Tsuzuki's guesses with a cold look, cutting in before he can add anything else.] He's the reason I have no world to return to.

action;

[imatreenow]

[I can't be alone again don't leave me alone I can't do this. Memories like water through cracks in a stone. Dissolving. Breaking down. Whittling away. Relentlessly. I'll always listen I think we need each other for that no matter what happens you know I'll listen. His voice rises, and his words are more forceful.]

I don't need anyone here. [Everyone he needs is far away, somewhere he cannot touch.]

[action]

[idealism]

[Oh damn! He gasps, covering his mouth. That's certainly not something to joke about. Tsuzuki glances at the statue again, trying to add the face to his memory.]

I'm so sorry.

[action]

[imatreenow]

That means less than nothing to me.

action;

[gleamed]

[If she were more brazen, she might point out that the way he was acting indicated the exact opposite. But she didn't want to fight with him - just get through to him, if it was at all possible.

Carefully:] I think you do. Even if you don't want to need them.

[action]

[idealism]

Let me make it up to you. I can help you get rid of it.

[action]

[imatreenow]

Make it up to me by leaving me alone. [His mind is on the knife hiding in his coat, and his fingers twitch.]

action;

[imatreenow]

Are you stupid? How can I make it any clearer that I hate you? I hate everyone in this village! What good are any of you to me?

action;

[gleamed]

[She winces at his words - particularly at the word 'hate'. It was such a strong word, but more than anything, it made her sad to hear him say it. Because to hate...something very terrible must have happened to him indeed.

She raises her voice.] If you're not even willing to try, then you'll never know!