markofthebrave | [Action, Voice, and Windblown Journals] .015

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[Action, Voice, and Windblown Journals] .015

[Voice]
Hey, Hugo - if you have a chance, I'd like to talk to you about something.

[And then she shuts the book and moves to her evening practice session behind her house. Today is not about how much water she can move, but it is about control. When the wind blows her journal opened, anyone watching can see thin streams of water moving quick enough to cut intertwining with her arms and legs as she works through a form. The pattern of when she splits a stream, and when she adds more water seems random... until you glance above her head. Any time her concentration is broken by a flash of an image, she adds another and another until all the thought bubble reflects are the forms

If you want to interrupt her, give her a minute - messing up and slicing herself with one of those water streams would be painful. While she normally hates to have her practicing interrupted, tonight it's not quite keeping her mind off of things.]

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I prefer the term voyager, but yes you can say that. It's a rather interesting life you could say.

It sounds like it. Have you seen many interesting things?

[Yup. She's still fascinated.]

Sometimes. I never had much chance to travel before coming here, due to circumstances beyond my control.

[]

A cruel fate, which I sympathized with.

That - that's horrible.

Nobody ever cries for the bird in its cage. It will almost never receive any sympathy or hope of being released. That is the situation that I have found myself and others stuck in many times. Luceti is no different from any of the other cages I have seen - so do not despair for me. I am no different from the other people in Luceti trapped in such a prison, such as yourself.

[As Bernkastel thought appears, another image (http://i27.tinypic.com/1z6qfee.jpg) of one of her enemies appears.]

[Really, Katara is so horrified at this that for a long moment, she has nothing to say. Her thought bubble is completely blank.]

...The person who did this to you... is here?

Oh no, don't misunderstand. She didn't do anything to me. I was trapped previously by another who isn't here. And I escaped.

But the witch who is here is powerful nonetheless and trapped a human within a different horrific cage. I was supporting that human as best as I could, so he could escape her death trap, before I was taken here. She's a very unpredictable person in a childish way.

I'm sorry. [There's a long pause.] I thought I'd seen the horrible things that people could do to each other, but I've never seen anything like that. I'm glad that you were there to support whoever she had trapped, and I hope that when we're free of this place, you'll be able to go back and help him get free as well.

I wouldn't mind trapping her in Luceti as a permanent residence, but until she leaves here that person is still trapped. Without an opponent their game is suspended. As of now he has no hope to escape.

Do you really think that we'll be free of Luceti anytime soon? I must say I'm rather doubtful of such optimism.

I don't know if it will be soon. But I do know that we'll get out of here. We have to. I have things that I need to do back home... things that other people remember me doing, that I haven't experienced yet. So we'll get out of here. We have to.

Interesting. From experience let me advise you that escaping a fragment designed to be a cage isn't a simple task. You have the will, but what type of plan do you have?

I know that it won't be simple. There are people here who are strong, and they've been here for nearly three years. We're helpless against the Malnosso when they take us, we can't stop them from experimenting on our body, our mind, or our hearts...

So right now, my plan is to survive. To live here and keep the people I love as safe as I can, and to wait. No one's perfect. Sooner or later, they'll make a mistake. Just because I can't charge the barrier and attack them now, demand to be sent home... doesn't mean I can't keep my eyes opened. We got here somehow, there has to be a way to return. So for however long I'm here, I'm just going to watch, and wait, and never give up - and try to keep everyone else from giving up too. We're all in this together. We all want to go home. Once we realize what their weakness is... I don't believe the Malnosso will be able to stop us.

[Bern doesn't answer for a while. And here she thought that the girl actually had some form of plan to work towards. But she quickly pushes away that thought to speak, so it won't appear in any thoughtbubble.]

You talk as though Luceti is just a giant piece of land in some part of the world far away from your home. Traveling through different fragments is a complicated power - even that witch which I spoke of, who has lived for over a thousand years and has the power to recreate something completely broken, cannot leave her own domain yet.

Why would the ones who imprisoned us and have control over this cage have any intent on ever releasing us? Even if you could find them and demand to bring you to your fragment there is nothing assuring you that they'll just let you leave because you asked. If there was a sort of contract then I could call them stubborn, but from what I've gathered we are simply prisoners.

Your plan sounds more of a person praying for the day that they will be set free from their cage. In other words, it's not much of a plan at all. If everyone in the universe waited for change, then of course change would never come. You have a better chance of rolling three dice at the same time and getting all sixes than you do waiting for a miracle. [And after that a lighthearted giggle comes] I should know that better than anyone else.

[Katara is more than a little stung at Bern's assessment, but after seeing a bit of her history she can't hold it against her.] ((And briefly, there's an image of Katara on a prison ship, standing on a table and speaking to a group of beaten down people - then her, and Sokka and Aang, and coal - and a quick image of firebenders being swept over the edge of the ship... and then there's an image of the barrier, the wings, - and a flash to what she'd seen recorded of Jacob's death.))

From what I've heard - the Malnosso don't even have the ability to control who comes here and who goes home. They know more about Shifting than we do, but even when they experiment with us they don't really know what they're doing.

It's true that I don't know what's going on here - I've never been any place like this before, never seen anything like this - and that's why my only plan is to wait and see what I can learn, work with whoever I can in order to get us all home.

And if you have any better ideas, I'd love to hear it.

Edited 2010-05-03 02:18 (UTC)

[Bern stares at the fleeting images, taking minor interest in them again.]

Oh? That's interesting - I was under the assumption they brought us to Luceti. But if they aren't then I wonder who might be.

Well I can admit freely that I don't have any better ideas at this time. I still need to learn more about the conditions of this fragment, besides the obvious things. But your conquest is nostalgic and the situation is rather disparaging. I won't mind assisting you if you can make things interesting in this world for me.

It's not something we're really supposed to talk about on the journals... but everyone who's been here a while seems to be pretty much sure that the Shifting was what brought the Malnosso here... and they are still trying to figure out a way to master it. If you think about it, it makes sense - that's why they experiment on us once a month. They use Shifting to try to get a better understanding of what it can do.

[Her mouth forms into a thin line.] I spoke with one of them once, after an experiment. He didn't sound like he knew what he was doing at all. ((And Catharine's voice will say: "Oh! I misplaced a decimal point. My apologies, my dear."))

[Katara hears that, doesn't like it, and shakes her head to address the other thing Bern said.] And I don't know if I can make things interesting for you - [she laughs a little] I don't even know what interests you.

But I do know [And she grows serious again] that we're all in this together. So if you can think of something that will get us home, I'll help you. And if I can think of something... I'll let you know.

Hmph. Beings without the capability of learning magic trying to attempt it? With science nonetheless. I wonder if I should laugh or cry for them. Traveling between fragments is a complex art and I doubt experimenting on the people that are brought here would be useful. You can't just transplant magic into a person.

Your unique talent with water is enough to be peek my curiosity, so perhaps one day it will bloom into something very entertaining. When it does happen I hope to be there to see it. []

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[Action, Voice, and Windblown Journals] .015

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