avalononline | text; un: fireprince

yeah it's best to keep your mind occupied..
thats why i liked my models when i first arrived in that other world, like i told you before
it was mindless and unimportant but challenging enough to keep my mind distracted from panicking all the time.
school will probably also help me in those regards now that im doing better here and have more energy than i had there..
have you found any new hobbies here?? what do you do with your time?

Agreed.

Have you done any more work on your models? You were planning to build a bridge on the front of the warship you showed me right?

Keeping up cover takes up a lot of time by requirements of the role. Otherwise mostly questing to bring in an income, and researching how magical ammunition functions in this world.

[Is there such a thing as a hobby that doesn't involve combat/weapons? She's never heard of those.]

yeah actually... my friend i wanted to ask to help me with it is in a rough spot lately himself. maybe now's a good time to ask him. might help distract him too.

you should find a private hobby that doesnt have to do with your cover
something to tie you to yourself
when i was undercover i still had my dao swords even though i couldn't train in firebending anymore
helped.

what have you learned about magical ammunition?

Sorry to hear he's having a bad time of things. Hopefully it will help. I'd like to see it when you're done if you don't mind.

Aren't ties to our old selves just a distraction from the operation? The less I can be 'me' then the easier it will be to stay in cover?

Animal magic doesn't work well for bullets. Blood magic more usable as a replacement for traditional ammunition, but I want to investigate whether it has greater functionality with more training.

if only just an excuse to get him to hang out, maybe
and yeah definitely!! :)

you aren't the operation
you need just one moment of being your own self sometimes
you'll go crazy if you drop the cover but you'll go crazy if you drop your true self too
thats why i said find a private hobby. something meditative. mindful.

you have animal and blood magics??
what can you tell me about blood magic?

Good idea
I'm looking forward to it :)

I'll think about it. Beyond weapons and warfare I'm not
Well I was always told that my only braincell was good for fighting so
I've been enjoying my research though.

Blood magic has its utility as long as it is not overused. So far I've only been able to infuse it into my weapon to refill the cartridge but I did see someone else use it to catch an out-of-reach object and stop it breaking.

What magic do you have? Have you found much combat use for it?

:)

ha. that's not a nice line but it's funny even if it's not true.
you seem smart to me. just diligent.
all kinds of things are good for fighting that aren't fighting
like painting and rock gardening and calligraphy and music
even dancing
a couple months ago i danced for the first time technically and it was a lot like firebending forms just without the firebending ha. people don't dance in the fire nation. it's considered inelegant and pointless.
but someone told me they meditate with music and dance and i understand that better now. uncle likes these things too and he's an extremely competent warrior. he taught me how to meditate and how to firebend. you need both.
if it's good for your mind then it's good for battle

thats incredible!!
did you have similar powers at home??

i have elemental magic
at home i could only use fire naturally but here i'm learning other elements too. back home only one person could do that. it's surreal. but definitely handy in combat.
i also have siphoning magic but i havent figured it out yet..... i could redirect lightning back home but someone told me this magic can break curses and im nervous to try honestly
i wanna learn about it more first

You really think I'm smart?

Oh, was that at the Masquerade? I've never been to anything like that, but I've done a bit of dancing before... so you never did dancing at home at all? It sounds like your Uncle's a good teacher.

I did try doing those sketches you mentioned last time but um

[She takes a photo of some pictures she's drawn of Camelot's streets, the training grounds and somewhere near the farmland- Mukuro is no artist and the sketches are very rough, but the outlines are there!

...Even if it does look like she ended up highlighting various areas in different colours to indicate places where she could find cover, vantage points for snipers, chokepoints- she'd altogether turned it from a scenic drawing into a tactical map.]

I'm guessing that wasn't what you meant.

And no, didn't have magic at home at all. I could push my body past normal limits but nothing like this.

That must be a lot to take in. Definitely worth studying them before using them in battle.

Redirecting lightning??

i mean i dont know i barely know you but you don't seem stupid thats for sure

actually no..... i didnt dance at the masquerade at all funnily enough
it was in the meditation tents for that synchronizing magic thing, if you did that
some girl i met told me that's how she meditates so i tried it and understand it better now.. people don't dance in the fire nation. it's considered a waste of time, inelegant, does nothing to honor the fire lord.. but this girl explained that it can even be like a silent language.. it's not a waste of time at all, it seems to me now

and uncle is a fantastic teacher. he's strict. but patient.
i doubt any teachers i'll have at the school here will be nearly as good a teacher as uncle
none of my tutors as a child were as good. except my swordsmanship master piandao. turns out he and uncle are secretly friends, though..... ha.

those drawings are good!!! thats exactly what i meant wow you even labeled focal points good thinking
hopefully you'll never need to fight in the city but if you do now youre prepared
it's about capturing as much detail in your mind as you possibly can in an instance and memorizing the area around you to use it to your advantage
bet my master would be impressed :)

as for redirecting lightning......
it's very difficult and dangerous. firebenders who can bend lightning are incredibly powerful, lightning is just concentrated fire and one must be at some inner balance to be able to conjure, it's hard to describe...... i can't bend lightning. but i know people who can. so uncle taught me how to redirect it to prepare to fight them. as long as it doesn't pass through my heart and i let it through my gut, i can use the flow of my own chi to redirect it and shoot it elsewhere, if not back at the firebender who shot it at me
ive only done it once though.......

[ He almost would have done it a second time right before he was spirited away, but he doesn't know about that yet. ]

thanks :)

Oh I think I saw people practicing that. Didn't really want to get involved in case I had to reveal too much intel.

[It also looked dodgy as all hell, but she wasn't going to put it like that.]

I've never thought of dancing like that. A social activity or an art but not anything like that. Then again one of my old classmates was a martial artist, and some of what she practiced looked like dancing- for someone with as muscular a build as hers she could be really graceful.

Do you think you'll do more dancing or meditation now that you've tried it? And both of them sound good teachers.

Ah- thank you!! I thought they came out a bit messy but I couldn't help myself when I started spotting the vantage points as I was going-

That sounds really dangerous, so you actually take the lightning into yourself to fire it back??

that was probably wise then
i definitely "revealed too much intel"......
but i dont think i regret it. i met a guy i have an important secret in common with. it was nice being frank about it for once and being understood.
i didn't really succeed at any of the exercises but it was still a pretty good day all in all. i spent that whole day in the tents meditating.....

[ That is until he and Hikaru accidentally burned theirs down practicing their fire magic by dancing. Whoops... They just fled the scene in a panic. He's still not fessing up. Zuko has already made many bad decisions in Avalon that could have him arrested. Arson is probably one of them. ]

yes dancing reminded me of certain bending forms, types of martial arts where im from.. there's a commonality for sure.
the girl i met spoke about how it is a secret, silent language, pure emotion turned into motion, how a dance can even be mournful, how a touch of a hand or a certain glance can mean something words can't say..
when i told her that people in the fire nation do not dance, that it's considered inelegant and as an art it brings no glory to the fire lord so there is no patriotic merit to it.... she said that a nation leader might have much to worry about a silent intimate language like dancing. that was strangely chilling.

i do a lot of meditation already
i have for years
it is crucial. if you don't meditate, you should start.
but more dancing..... maybe. that girl told me she'd show me what a mournful dance looks like sometime.

drawing it commits it to memory more, even if it's a quick sketch
master piandao only allowed me a brief glance at a beautiful landscape before directing me to turn around and paint it blindly from memory
that comes in useful in battle

and yes. redirecting lightning is dangerous.
it must follow the flow of your own chi... imagine it like a wave in a river
this is a waterbending technique applied to firebending. waterbenders use their opponents' force against them, their defense is their offense
when the lightning strikes, one must direct it with one's arm outstretched, let it flow down the arm, into the stomach, up again, and out the other arm
the stomach is the center of the body, the center of the self
it's sometimes called "the sea of chi...."
it's critical that the lightning must turn around in the stomach and pass through there
if it passes through the heart, it could kill you
but like i said... ive only done it once.

Feeling like someone understands you is nice. That's why I was so happy that you just got it when I made my first post...no one else really seemed to understand the position I'm in.
I'm glad you were able to talk to someone honestly like that.

I wish she were her or some of my other classmates were here. I miss them.

There's definitely something chilling about that. A way for dissenters to secretly communicate with each other and have no one else know- a code or something like it. We had signals and such on the battlefield but there must be a lot more you can do with a dance.

Meditation...I'll give it a try. Any advice? I've done breathing exercises but that's all.

Redirection is important in the face of brute force. The idea of it working with magic like that- with lightning- that's such a surreal thought. Definitely sounds a risky move.

ah... yeah.
i guess it's hard to understand sacrificing your sense of self or your true identity if you've never had to do that before. people think it's harder than it is. not that it's not hard, i mean.....
but yes. i get it.

yeah dancing could totally be turned into a secret code, good thinking, and because it's considered a form of entertainment, people could be saying something in plain view and no one would know
that's brilliant strategizing

[ Oh my god you two stop, just be normal a little bit, dancing is fun... ]

i like progressive muscle relaxation
it's a quick way to center oneself
and probably an easy way for beginners to get used to clearing their minds
from head to toe, you clench each muscle group for a few seconds, then release, all the way down your body..... its nice. try that.

technically im supposed to be able to do that with all magic now, here
i gained siphoning magic...
but i don't know what the hell im doing
i think i can learn in the school though

Our duties come ahead of our actual selves. That's all it is. People don't seem to understand the cost of just dropping that.
But then again I guess I focus so much on my role its easy to forget where that stops and 'me' starts.

It's less efficient than hand signals in actual combat but for espionage maybe.
Um. Thank you. I do my best :)

[Ahh he was complimenting her strategising...! And wasn't calling her a disappointing battle junkie...! She couldn't help a bright smile lighting up her face.

Nope. 'Being normal' wouldn't be a thing for a while.]

Progressive muscle relaxation huh...yeah, I'll give that a try. Thank you. You're really good at this stuff.
Relaxing is something I've never been that good at if I'm not putting up an act.

Siphoning magic does seem like it would be difficult to use. It's dependant on what your opponent is using against you as well.

Edited 2021-07-07 12:54 (UTC)

for me when i was under cover it was because i was a fugitive living in enemy territory..
so less dedication and more desperation.
our other option was living in the woods off the land.. so we hid in plain view in the biggest city in the earth kingdom, ba sing se, under false names and identities. we posed as refugees, ironically..
once someone i met there caught onto us but he looked crazy when he tried to attack us at our workplace and the authorities hauled him away..

[ And then he got brainwashed and Zuko later found out he died. Zuko can’t help but wonder if his discovery of their true nationality was the first domino that fell that led to that boy’s death. It’s a bitter thought. ]

it wasnt that hard not being myself though
so long as no one found out we were fire nation.. it was actually a more peaceful life than the one i led before and after..
it was nice.

im not good at relaxing either
that’s why im so practiced at meditating ha ha
dont expect to empty your mind
that’s not the aim.
don’t think about not thinking
imagine your thoughts like autumn leaves fallen on a stream and let them pass and then float away..

[ He’s very much his uncle’s nephew in this moment… ]

as for siphoning magic
i feel like to master it i’ll have to study all the other types of magic i don’t have in order to understand how to redirect them safely, right
i dont know a lot about it.
and im supposed to be able to break curses
but if i do it wrong i’ll end up cursing myself
so……… probably not best to try and be self-taught at this. i need a master. hopefully one of the teachers at the school.

I see that explains it. Hiding in plain sight after an infiltration is a wise choice when you don't have an advantage in numbers, or when you're still scoping out the enemy forces. I'm glad you were able to adjust quickly.

For me...I guess you could call it an infiltration as well. I was instructed to impersonate my mission commander and infiltrate a group without their knowledge, so she could carry on her work behind the scenes and we could keep operations running smoothly. She's very different to me and it's challenging to get it right. But I think I've succeeded so far.

None of them know the real 'me' even existed after all.

Edited 2021-07-10 11:59 (UTC)

[There was a long pause then, as she stared at what she'd just written. It stung more than she thought it would to admit it but...none of them, not even Makoto, ever knew who 'Mukuro Ikusaba' was. They'd only known her as 'Junko Enoshima'.

She scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, before continuing. She didn't want to ignore the rest of his message, after all.]

sorry
so it's not about emptying your mind it's about visualising the thoughts??

Okay. I'll try. I'm guessing I need to practice it before it starts to make sense.

I will look into whether anyone I know uses Siphon magic and send them your way but if not the school seems a reasonable option

let me be clear: it wasnt an infiltration, and we werent scoping out enemy forces.. nor were we acting as part of the fire nation army.
we were just living.
we were wanted criminals back home. for treason..
we had no other options.. but to live peacefully elsewhere.
it was an empty time but not an unpleasant one.

your experience, however, sounds a lot more charged. i didnt have to act as anyone in particular. just a nobody of my own creation.
delivering a performance as someone well-known like a commander is a whole different game. takes a lot of composure and expertise and really convincing acting skills. i dont know your commander but..bravo.

[ He doesn't understand what she's apologizing for, but certainly feels she has no reason to. She's just talking. And for someone who's still posing as someone else... talking as herself is invaluable, he sees more and more. He's glad to be able to be a penpal to her — whoever she is. In fact, if she's even a "she" at all, he truly has no idea. But something in him fancies that she's a woman for some reason, if only just his own errant imagination... ]

as for meditation
it's not even just about visualizing thoughts
if that helps you, great
but it's about not focusing
which is difficult for disciplined people like us.
you know what it's like in those moments just before sleep where your mind goes wherever it wants?? like that. but wakeful.
somehow a frame of mind that lets you stare at a wall without seeing, or watch the flame of a candle dance as if it's the only thing in the world.... a focus so intense it creates a lack of focus.
does that make any sense???
try it in the mornings when you wake up and in the nighttimes before you go to bed and see if that works out for you
it's helped me for many years..

and thank you. for looking into the siphoning magic for me.
much appreciated.

[ He's more touched than he even sounds, truth be told. ]

Oh. Yeah that is a little different. It sounds like you were able to get by, though. Despite having to hide.

Thank you
I try my best and I know I disappoint her a lot but I want to do this right.

[At the very least that admission meant she was impersonating a woman, which might lend evidence to his theory.]

Actually yes. I understand.
When I fight and the battle gets intense enough, it's like that. I stop thinking and my body starts to move more efficiently. Faster. I can react to what's happening without having to consciously think. I can't really explain it well but it. It feels like that. A bit. Maybe?

[Her 'Battle Trance'...it didn't feel as affective in Avalon as it did back home, but it had been an important ability to hone on the battleground.]

Um. I'll give it a try.

...Thank you too. For helping me out. And listening.

yeah we got by
we worked in a little teashop at first
then my uncle's expertise was recognized by some high-standing officials who visited, and they offered to fund him opening his own business
so after that we moved to the upper ring and had a nicer apartment i guess..
he ran a successful teashop called the jasmine dragon
and i worked alongside him in the shops as a busboy and sometimes a waiter.. i wasnt great at being a waiter.... i preferred to clean..
but that was my whole life for many months.
no one knew who we really were
we were just normal people
i went by lee and he went by mushi....
and that was it.

living here.. it's been like that again. except i'm myself.
like i told you, there's one important thing i'm hiding from most people, but some people know. and that helps.
but even for the people who don't.... maybe especially with those people, because they don't know this thing about me..
i can just be myself. just a normal person.
not lee. not anyone in particular. no one important. just me. whoever that is.
so it's similar to my time ba sing se.. but better. more honest.

if you have someone you trust to be yourself around, i think that's important. if i didn't have uncle by my side who knew the truth, whom i could talk to plainly, i don't think i would've "got by" undercover in the earth kingdom.
i tried to be on my own once, still as a fugitive, still posing as a refugee, before we moved to the city. we had been beggars living in the forest. i couldn't stand it. so i left uncle. i thought there was nothing more i could learn from him, that it was time for me to set out on my own.... but in reality i was just wandering the countryside alone on an ostrich-horse with no food or money. it was hard. i thought being alone would be better for me, for my sense of self, for my strength. it wasn't.
you can't carry your own identity alone. you need people who know you around to be able to know yourself.
im sure youre doing your mission well, but.. that's my advice you didn't ask for. ha.

a couple truthkeepers and daily meditation.

It sounds like you two made a name for yourselves under your fake identities. Impressive.

'Whoever that is'. That's hard to figure out. But I'm glad you're finding it here and now. I wonder if I'm losing sight of whoever 'I' am and whether that's a bad thing.]

[She...kinda wanted to ask what on earth an ostrich-horse was, but now wasn't really the time for that.]

You were able to reconsile with your uncle in the end?

I have allies who know. There's one place in Avalon where I can be mostly myself. I might practice there.

I appreciate the advice...I don't know how much I can offer that's useful to you though.

text; un: fireprince

they're so cute grisujkn my heart

They are they're precious

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject