avalaughs | TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 5

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TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 5

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A ⦿ Soaking in Your Arrival

KERPLUNK, SPLASH!

Regardless of what you were in the middle of, you and your familiar have been magically pulled into the world of Avalon just above the Bay's slightly chilled waters. After a brief plunge into the Bay, the rush of water filling your ears and soaking up into every creak and crevice of your body, you may need to cough to clear your airways when you rise above the surface. It's still chilly, but not enough that you can't manage on your own. The Lady of the Lake is swimming around under the water, but seems to be focusing on coordinating a band of chia manatees to help rescue any wayward new arrivals. Chia manatees are a special Avalonian manatee that is green in color and has what appears to be a patches of grass or other short plantlife growing on its back. While some are fully green, others sport small flower blossoms that haven't yet grown in or various types of mushrooms.

If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at the Rent-a-Ride. Those with animal magic may get their info from the manatees, though may notice that they're really overly friendly and have zero concept of personal boundaries. Everyone may notice they have no concept of personal space, as they will happily run right into someone's belly for a snoot squishing. The shores themselves are littered with new arrivals complaining their way up a staircase carved into the walls of the White Cliffs. There is no railing, so be careful, but if you do fall, be prepared for a mysterious sand hand to reach out of the side of the cliffs to catch you. The hand will pat you atop the head twice before retreating back into the wall. This is the Cliff Beast; despite the name, he is quite friendly.

*Reminder: Your character's familiar may or may not be with your character in their initial plunge. If the familiar isn't partial to water, it may meet your character on the beach or sit atop their head while they swim. Or if they are, they might splash about and swim alongside your character. Familiars have different personalities and body specs and we leave those up to the players.

B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot

Once everyone is wrangled up to the top of the White Cliffs, the handsome owner of the Rent-a-Ride, Archimedes, will distribute smart phones and a pair of earbuds and tell them to "Check the Shit Box." The "Shit Box" refers to wardrobe more formally known as the Wardrobe of Finding, a hammerspace-like wardrobe that opens to each person's items and pets when the person touches the handle. It was recently enchanted by Merlin to prevent people from having to fish their waterlogged possessions and pets out of the water with them. From there, Archimedes directs everyone to settle in groups into modernized carriages pulled by horses and gives them a basic explanation of why and how they've been brought to Avalon: The rest of the universe is frozen in time and your character has been brought here by a familiar that was able to bond with them. They'll have to learn magic to help save their own world from destruction, but first they've got to get them to Camelot. It is here that you have the first opportunity to decide who they will be in their new home. You'll have about an hour to wander around here, meet and greet, and pet the horses before it's time to go.

These carriages use fae technology that combats weight, so your character will be able to get in regardless of whether they're light as a feather or weigh two tons. The carts have air conditioning when it's hot, heating when it's cold, and a mystical shield to protect from bugs. There is also a mini-bar that pops out of the console with nip bottles. Characters can use their smartphones to connect to Camelot's internet service,

avalononline (AOL), to chat with other characters, watch dumb videos, learn about the world, contact Camelot Support (they'll answer any questions they can for you, from how to use a smart phone to where to find quests and resources to learn more about your magic). Be careful if you decide to use your phones while in the caravan-- if you don't use those earbuds and start forcing everyone to listen to your nonsense, Archimedes may make you walk.

C ⦿ The Red Spring

The journey from the White Cliffs to the City of Camelot is a long one, and the first evening you arrive you'll end up spending at the Red Spring, a booming resort town. Because of the volume of new arrivals and vacationers, inn rooms are assigned two-to-a-room. The rooms have two twin beds, a bathroom, a mini-fridge and microwave, and a TV equipped with a couple of entertaining video games and a few free movies.

If you don't want to relax in the room, try taking a dip in the spring for another chance to meet your fellow travelers. The waters have restorative properties that help horses and travelers recover quickly when drunk. It is known to relieve stress, improve energy levels, and mildly accelerate healing. It may be a little chilly when you get out though, so make sure you don't slip rushing back indoors when you get out!

The springs are also home to a large training grounds just outside town limits, where there are teachers who will teach basic magic safety and help you discover what kind of magic you have together with other new arrivals. Try target practice, obstacle courses, meditation circles, and other ways to try to figure out just what you can do... if you didn't already have an accidental discovery on the ride there.

The Isle of Avalon is abuzz with excitement for the upcoming Spring Equinox (though some of the more posh citizens will insist it's the Vernal Equinox, tut tut). Unlike the very specific rituals of the Winter Solstice that require much preparation, the Spring is welcomed throughout the month through a variety of small rituals to help the world along as it renews itself, growing new plants and allowing nature to make new life.

A ⦿ The Lesser Banishing of Frost Fairies

perform a ritual called the Lesser Banishing of Frost Fairies

create bait

adorable little moon rabbit kits

find a stranger to perform the ritual

challenge you and your summoning partner to a duel

B ⦿ The Language of Flowers

flowers are the treasures that they want to hoard

baby dragons need to be brought back to their mother's cave in the Ash Mountains

Use the language of flowers to communicate with the dragons and try to get them to follow you by wearing a flower crown that matches one you offer to the dragon

fighting alongside the baby dragons to fight off the Land of Rot creatures

C ⦿ Spiritual Cleansing

The frost is gone, the flowers are free, and rabbits are running around town like they own the place. All of the physical and symbolic spring equinox preparations are made, now it's time to look within. As the season of renewal and rebirth, a huge part of that is personal reflection and growth. As such, outdoor meditation and yoga flash parties are all the rage right now. Get caught it one and you and anyone around you will be stuck in a barrier until you complete at least 5 yoga poses and hold them for 30 seconds each. Some of them are a little challenging.. thankfully, no one is going to stop you from getting help holding them from someone else who's stuck with you.

A plague of smoothie hockers has also cropped up around town, which means portable carts offering different magical smoothies is going around selling their fruity and flowery spring flavors for a refreshing boost of your spirit. No, really boost it. The magical effects are in small text underneath the flavors, so they may be easy to miss.

Hibiscus-Berry: Vanity Spirit (person may become temporarily obsessed with appearance, finding cute clothes, getting their hair and nails done, needing to be their ideal of attractive)
Strawberry-Rose: Romantic Spirit (flirtiness, desire to be romantic with someone)
Jasmine-Peach: Friendship Spirit (go out of your way to make new friends, make grand friendship gestures to people you've already befriended or have known for five minutes and want to befriend)
Lavender-Mulberry: Distrusting Spirit (paranoid, may start fights because they think someone is out to get them)
Butterfly Pea-Lemon Tea: Meditative Spirit (fall asleep easily, peaceful/relaxed about alarming things, sudden penchant for Big Thoughts about the universe)
Dandelion-Apple-Banana: Surivival Spirit (sudden desire to do everything yourself, whether that's hunting/gathering food, getting really into DIY projects like making your own soap or building your own chicken hutch because you're going to get your own eggs, or really wanting to live outside for a while)

The effects only last for an hour or two, so it's unlikely any real damage can be done (hopefully) but it'll certainly give you a new outlook on life!

Spring is in the air, the Equinox is coming, and prep is underway. But all work and no play can get a little boring, right? Avalonians have come together and set up a few activities for Adventurers. While all of these activities can be completed and enjoyed without using magic, participants will be encouraged do to so, don’t worry if it goes a little haywire. There are magical force fields around the play zones to contain any mishaps.

A ⦿ Keep it Rollin' Rollin'

The first area set up for fun and games is a barrel rolling contest. Participants are split into pairs to compete against each other to see who can roll their partner inside the barrel down the hill and across the finish line the fastest. Springtime is when geysers start bursting around the bottom of the hill though, so you'll have to watch out for those and any boulders to make sure your barrel doesn't burst before you reach the bottom!

To make things a little more interesting, the planners had a bit of mischief with the barrels... As barrels reach a quarter of a way down the hill, the outside will burst into flames. Surprise! While they are enchanted so that the flames aren't actually hot, participants are not aware of this. Sorry, the guys running this game aren’t that big on explaining; after all, it’s just rolling a fire barrel down the hill; what’s so complicated? Fire makes it look like it's going faster and is way more exciting to watch!

B ⦿ Hop Skip and a Jump

Everyone loves hopscotch, right? Well, whether you do or don’t, that next zone is all about the hop, the skip, and the jump. Two hopscotch boards about the size of a basketball court each are laid out side by side for participants. The object again, to see who can complete the task that fastest. If you reach a spot with a magic symbol, you have to cast a spell at your opponent or you can't proceed. This is combat hopscotch!

Of course, once more, the folks running the show forgot to mention one tiny thing, a quarter of the way into the board, random spots will drop away as you go, leaving holes in the ground! Yikes, better take that leap! Don’t worry, if you miss, the bottom of the hole is filled with marshmallow fluff in bright pink, yellow, and pastel purple. (Kind of reminds you of something, huh...?) Down in the hole are rungs and footholds to get yourself back out, but boy, will that put you behind the other guy if they didn’t fall. Well, guess victory will have to be a little sweeter than you planned!

C ⦿ Gettin' Brewy With It

Now, this activity probably seems a little safer. Welcome to the “Brew” tent. Participants will be given ingredients, space, and set up in pairs to brew up a tasty drink! A variety of ingredients are available and with it, participants will be taught the Recipe: Brewery. This spell can be used to accelerate brewing and distilling processes for alcoholic drinks. Of course, if someone who is too young to drink according to their world's rules, any alcohol in the drink will evaporate, so it's really only a spell that's useful for adults... but everyone can participate in making drinks.

You can pick any ingredients you want, but all participants are instructed that a sprinkle of that magic at just the right time will make it perfect. When asked what the right time is, all they will be told is they’ll know when. Some may get it right, depending on instinct. Others might sprinkle too much and cause the drink to burst all over them and their partner, and their workstation or have some other silly side effect, like make them hiccup uncontrollably or catch a case of the giggles. Or maybe they cast for too long or too short a time and the drink turns sour, turns to ash, grows wings on the cup, and flies away. Brewery magic can be fickle, so there's lots that can go wrong.. but get it right, and you can have one heck of a drink to enjoy!

MOD NOTES:
• All test drive prompts are open to anyone in the game at any time to create your own logs with, but this post should have top-levels by potential new characters only. Current characters may reply to any threads, but should not top-level comment on this post.
• If your application is accepted, you may accept TDM threads as game canon as long as both players consent. Characters may begin threading as soon as their journal is accepted to the communities.
• If nothing here tickles your fancy, try one of this month's Quests for your TDM prompt.
• The first "Arrival" prompts are present on every TDM, but contain seasonal tweaks for flavor. All other prompts will change monthly.
• Questions about this TDM's content? Comment here! If you have a question about the game at-large, please head over to the FAQ.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Mmmmm..." he said. He wondered just how true that was. He didn't think Zuko was lying to him, mind. But Azula stringing Zuko along with lies and false praise to manipulate him and Zuko falling for it? Iroh could not put the possibility aside even if he had to act like he was n front of her. But much could be learned from history, even recent history. He loves Zuko. Which is why Zuko's word will not be enough to get Iroh to trust his niece. There is a huge rift between how he wishes his family was, and how they actually are. But Zuko rarely saw the rift, he was constantly mistaking clouds for bridges.

Huh, that was a good analogy. He would have to use it somewhere.

Indeed a good analogy. Much had changed in their time away, but Zuko is ever naïve and trusting, despite his best interest at times. His uncle's ruminative hum does nothing to inspire confidence and Zuko can tell exactly what it means. They've had this conversation plenty of times before. Zuko is easily influenced and manipulated, most particularly by Azula, who knows naturally how to play him like a fiddle. But drawing that line in the sand felt less necessary without a war on their hands — without parents looming over them — without anything but shared trauma and isolation suddenly. They could help each other for the first time in so long, or at least wanted to for the first time maybe ever. Not that that makes Zuko's sense of judgment any less clouded; if anything, it makes it all the less easy to measure this future/present Azula against the Azula he'd not gotten the chance to battle as fate intended. What happened between then and now, back home? The mystery gnaws at him daily, but he trusts in it anyway.

"I know what you must be thinking, Uncle — we can't trust her. But... it's been over half a year, and she hasn't attacked me even once. We even live together here. She lived with my best friend and his boyfr— roommate... back in that other world. Azula even dated his roommate for a while. It's been peaceful, more or less. There's no reason to fight here. But something must happen for the better in the future, I think. I just— don't know why she won't tell me anything..."

Edited 2021-04-02 05:18 (UTC)

"Perhaps you are right, prince Zuko." And perhaps he was wrong. Their family had a history of biding their time. "If you are, that is all the more reason to let her feel she has a clean slate. See if she brings up the past to apologizes, how she acts when she thinks I do knot know what she has done to you." Let Zuko think this is JUST about giving Azula a chance to prove she has changed. While Iroh takes it as the chance to see if she hasn't.

He sipped his tea.

The way Iroh phrases it instills doubt as much as Zuko wants to will hopefulness in his sister's favor... but the two men both know Azula is not one to apologize, if that's what Iroh is imagining. Not outright in plain words, anyway. But even for someone who expresses herself better through actions, she also has pretty unwavering confidence in all of her actions in general, or at least makes it seem so. So an apology sounds farfetched to Zuko still. He throws his gaze aside dubiously, a light scowl tugging at his lips, brows furrowed so slightly. Even if his words don't match his face, Zuko's always been a transparent person, for how much he tries to cloud.

"I tell you she's changed, Uncle..." His tone is cold, but then singed with a sudden heat as another thought chases Azula's defense.

"Besides— you don't know what she has done to me — neither do I! Azula's from years in the future, only she knows what happens between us then. What if things got better? If I forgave her in the future, doesn't that mean I should again now? She knows part of our destiny I don't, but our destinies are obviously linked — shouldn't I trust that?"

Edited 2021-04-03 02:08 (UTC)

"Be open to it certainly, nephew. But trust? Trust must be earned and maintained. As much as we might wish it otherwise, we cannot simply hand over trust like passing a serving dish. I am willing the be open to all possibilities, and blind myself to none."

After all, they seem to have only Azula's word that she is from some far flung future ahead of the rest of them. And trusting Azula's words has always been like building a house in a swamp, it might stand for a time, but it rarely endures.

Like so much of Iroh's wisdoms, Zuko knows he's right — and is put out about it. After a long, lingering stare, words failing him, he casts his eyes down to the table in troubled thought. Instead of a real response, he merely reaches out and loads another bit of food onto his dragon's plate, who eats it up hurriedly, Zuko's hand idly stroking its back between its wings as it does. He's fed the dragon more than he's fed himself so far. Probably speaks to something relevant here, symbolically... Compassion can in some ways be a double-edged sword.

He reached out again and took Zuko's hand. "What ever the answer turns out to be, Zuko, I am here with you," he said, softly. "Especially," he said in a more light hearted way, "if you keep treating for tea."

He can't help but suppress a breath of a chuckle, smile crawling unwillingly over his lips. He takes his uncle's hand in turn, though he still doesn't meet his eye, merely keeping his downcast gaze and soft smile pointed at the little dragon.

"Of course. ...I'm glad you're here, Uncle."

And he was. He's had a much better go of it this second time being spirited away than his first, and it seems to be growing even more promising — even more so now that Iroh is here. What's more than that, they're together again without having to run for their lives, without any Avatar to distract Zuko's focus solely, without any need to hide, without any of the near-constant stress they endured together for so long at home — and without any reason to put their relationship at risk, either. Peaceful times, more or less. Lots of free time for tea and treats. And maybe not lots of extra money, but Zuko's frugal and not very materialistic, nor can he cook so his money isn't siphoned into groceries, either... It just sits. He's relieved to be in a position for once where he can help his uncle instead. He doesn't realize how he helps the older man in much less tangible ways already, but the opportunity to treat him without stealing anything, to guide him through some of this experience — a life experience Zuko has that Iroh lacks, for once — the opportunity to guide him at all... it's strangely exciting how the tables have flipped. He's done so much to hurt his uncle, and his uncle has done so much to help him, and while buying tea and snacks isn't going to make those scales balance, it's a start.

"I am glad the food and tea are here," he said with a grin, taking his hand back to pile more on his own plate. And on Zuko's. "I am fairly certain some of this food is for you, prince Zuko, and not just for me and your adopted son."

Zuko smiles somehow wryly but warmly, his uncle so familiar and endearing — a welcome comfort. Even in times where Zuko was so much more easily annoyed, much more judgmental of Iroh's gusto for life's simple pleasures, it's always secretly endearing. After so long apart, he finds himself too lucky to be irritated, no urge to roll his eyes, just the ghost of a younger Zuko inwardly yielding to a newer Zuko with a softer touch. He's lucky to be smirking at his plate being filled up right now. He nods his head a single short, sharp nod, and takes to eating a bit as told. He's always been the peckish type, mind often too far elsewhere to really sit and chow down. But at least in this moment his mind is pretty centric in the here and now, happy to be beside his uncle again at long last. All the trips to the shores to search for him seemed to pay off now.

After a couple bites, a thought comes to Zuko, important enough to pause his next bite, which rests between his chopsticks in mid-air as he speaks.

"Uncle— have you found your familiar yet?"

His lips twitched slightly and the question and he slurped the noodles he had been in the middle of taking from how bowl. He finished chewing and swallowing before he answered. "I think perhaps the correct answer is that I was found, rather than being the one to do the finding."

“Is yours a dragon, too? Like ours? Azula has a dragon, as well — but blue. Zunyan likes him... I don’t,” he says with a disdainful hesitation. Azula’s dragon is an ass to everyone but Zuko’s dragon — by no surprise. Zuko’s face twists into a grimace as he pauses, weighing whether or not to reveal this joke he finds far less amusing than Azula does...

“She named her dragon Zuko...”

He’s hoping deeply Zun can befriend Iroh’s familiar, whatever it is, cuz right now having only Zuko Jr. as a friend is not ideal. The prince refuses to call the dragon by its name — by his name. ‘Azula’s Dragon’ works just fine for him, even if it gains him no favor or affection with the thing.

"She named her dragon after her brother?" he asked slowly, as if he needed to absorb that. "The brother who is currently here with her?" The words what, does she hate her familiar, or something?, were thought. But not said. He isn't intentionally putting off answering this time. He just... he needs a minute to try and figure out what Azula gained by such a display. If Zuko was ready to accept that she had changed, one of them needed to remain aware and cynical. And he was fine with inwardly taking that role and watching Zuko's back.

But he couldn't for the life of him figure out what possible plan could involve...

Oh. Huh. If all it was was plausible deniability if she was caught spreading falsehoods about Zuko... that was possible, he supposed. But hardly seemed grand enough for Azula. Still, it was something to watch for. And more importantly... to listen for.

“Yeah. It’s a joke. To bother me. She thinks it’s funny... I don’t,” he replies just as slowly, eyes narrowing. Very much like many of Azula’s jokes. Since they were small children, Azula’s always found so much amusement at Zuko’s expense. If their wars against each other have seemingly shed away, drawing back on the last time their relationship was generally truly peaceful, it’s not so unnatural that there’d be something somewhat childish in the dynamic of their newborn niceties. But even as children, their games together were not often nice — and Azula’s sense of humor has always been richer than her brother’s, which speaks to how unfunny the both of them are. But she’s trying to joke? He figures that shows she’s changed, right? Zuko’s guard has indeed been worn down cuz he’s honestly not once suspected it might be named Zuko for any other reason but to annoy him for fun. Which at the very least, she has succeeded at.

"I see." Azula's idea of fun and funny as children... The adults around the had certainly noticed. And if this was her idea of being friendly...

Iroh was already finding his intention to give her a chance a strain and they had yet to interact.

"I do not find it funny either," he told his nephew dryly. Then he took a bite of his food, to keep him from saying more and possibly alienating the boy once more.

Zuko reads that reaction clearly, and a pout is drawn on his face as he casts his eyes aside. He's digging a hole here, isn't he? It's unnerving evidence that Zuko might be blind to things he's convinced himself he's considered carefully. Without his uncle there to guide him, he'd rationalized how he's fallen back under his sister's influence; he's justified how he's redesigned — redefined — trust between them. It's always a trust he doesn't fully trust; he always has a nagging voice in the back of his head, a suspicion that itches sometimes if he lets his mind wander too long. But of what, he doesn't know; just a vague paranoia his sister's drilled into his mind since they were young children, with her innocent teasing back then, too.

He suddenly feels... stupid. He'd felt sure he'd made progress in himself, in his worldview, had used his hard-earned wisdom well to greater goods, to be able to forgive Azula for so much for so long, but Iroh's reaction in this moment makes him doubt all of that. Has he just been manipulated again, more thoroughly than ever? It can't be that cut and dry, though. It never is. What's far more difficult imagining is that Zuko's right, that their progress is real in its own special way, but that Iroh is still right regardless — right about assumptions Zuko's not even heard him say aloud, but can imagine quite well on his own, providing an easy projector for his own secret distrust in his sister. Progress is neutral, complex, and happens whether it's wholly healthy or not, like the ever-relevant swirls of yin and yang; which means both men could be right about this complicated development. And this seems far more likely the case... which leaves no comfortable answer or solution to a problem Zuko's been trying his best to believe he doesn't have. All seems par for the course, though...

He takes a bite of his own food, looking away in deep, dark thought, concentration furrowing his brow.

"...Well, our dragons are friends, anyway," he says with a sharp glance up to his uncle that quickly shoots back down to focus on the dragon in his lap. Zun just looks up at him like 'what,' blank golden stare, before trying to squirm to get more food from the plate, which Zuko readily gives him, feeding himself another bite too just to avoid saying more. He's dug his hole deep enough for now.

"It is good to have friends," he said after a moment. "And it is good to want forgiveness, both from yourself and towards yourself, Zuko. It is far harder to forgive than it is to hate. Just make sure that you are being cautious. Forgiving and forgetting are not the same, after all." He reached out to touch his nephew's face, gently. "You have a good heart, and you want even what you keep telling yourself you shouldn't have. This is your greatest weakness, but it is also your greatest strength."

The words combined with the gentle touch of his uncle's hand against his cheek are enough to make him well with feeling. He'd been touch-starved for so long on that touch-centric other planet, so alone even with his social life taking precedence over any other arena, and any touch he's felt since his last poignant moment with Iroh at the White Lotus camp had not been so purely loving and ginger. No hesitation or reservations, just affection he could trust and rely on, a touch that touched deeper than the surface. His face is awash with emotion, knitted brow quivering slightly as the old man's words hit their mark and set in, both comfortably and uncomfortably somehow. He needed these words. He needed this moment. He needed his uncle. All more than he'd let himself believe he did for survival's sake, it felt.

He lifts a gentle hand of his own to the back of Iroh's hand against his cheek, then clasps that warm palm with his other, softly guiding the general's hand back down away from him with his hand held between both of Zuko's. Every touch solidified that, yes, this was happening, and he was really here, and it was too intense to feel it. A happiness that almost hurt.

"Thank you, Uncle..." he murmurs, eyes downcast, almost closed, willing tears away before they can even well up. "I don't want to disappoint you. I'm trying to be wise on my own, I am. I don't want to be alone anymore — I don't want her to be alone. She's family. And I—... I'm so confused. I just want to be kinder, Uncle..."

A moment of such transparency could be afforded to no one else but Iroh. It's clear just in his face and tone, let alone the words themselves, just how much Zuko's pent up these conflicted philosophical feelings for so long on his own. He needs guidance as much as he ever has. But because he's been piloting his own ship away from home for so many months now, it feels even harder to accept that gracefully, feels like some moral failure on his own part that he feels so stirred and in such need of help suddenly, rather than a natural, normal need for support. He feels in this moment exactly how easy it's been to keep so much locked up tight inside, and feels, too, how easy it is now for the dam to overflow.

He got up without breaking contact, though it took some bending of the non-Elemental sort. He came around, and then he did withdraw his hand, to pull Zuko into a tight hug.

"Ah, Zuko. You are not alone. Not anymore. But more, nephew.... You are never alone." He withdrew one arm to touch Zuko's chest, just over his heart. "It is not just electricity that passes through the heart, and not all that passes through leaves."

Zuko doesn't let go of his hand as he steadies himself to come round, and accepts the hug in earnest. The words strike a far deeper chord than Iroh knows, on so many levels. Zuko just shakes his head, face flowing open with feeling, brow knotted so tight it hurt. He's at a loss for words, letting his uncle's words sink in, mind swirling as he leans in once more for another hug, looser than the first, more uncertain, yet more needing; his chin rests on Iroh's shoulder lightly as his eyes search the sidemost floor in deep, deliberative thought he can't express aloud.

After over half a year spirited away, most of that being exhausted at all times in a place that made him feel isolated without isolation, it's done a number on Zuko's openness and willingness for physical affection. Not to mention, of course, just sheerly missing Iroh himself. When it comes down to it, Zuko's still a sixteen-year-old boy who grew up daily cuddling his beloved mother and has felt a gnawing void missing for the past five years without that loving touch, a vital need missing in a child who's seen way too much of life ever since; but when it really comes down to it, age and trauma and cosmic displacement and everything else aside, everyone needs to be hugged when they're troubled sometimes. That's just a human reaction. That can't be willed away, no matter who it is trying.

He held his nephew and let Zuko feel what he needed to feel and waited for the young man to speak or pull away. Iroh was here to give Zuko whatever he needed, whatever he thought he needed. He couldn't hold his son any longer, couldn't help him any longer. But he could help his nephew. And he fully intended to.

Zuko holds close a moment longer, closing his eyes with a deep breath. As he does, as if on cue to break the tension, tiny talons can be felt sinking into both men's laps, as Zunyan decides he wants in on this, standing with its front legs on Iroh's and his back legs on Zuko's, wings fluttering slightly as it peers up at them each with a sparkle in its golden eyes. It crawls fully onto Iroh's lap, standing up to sniff at Zuko's hands around his shoulders. The ticklish feel of its whiskers flicking against his skin brings Zuko back down to earth some, coaxing a surprised, endeared twitch of a smile out of him as he opens his eyes onto the little creature. At the sight of that smile, then, as if its mission accomplished, Zun zips up onto Iroh's back, scurrying across his shoulders now like Zuko'd let him do on his own before. No boundaries anymore, apparently, Uncle. The affectionate invasion of personal space earns a puff of a laugh out of the prince as he draws away, leaving the dragon, however. Even if it can't talk, Zunyan makes itself heard quite clearly with its input to this conversation: it's been helping Zuko with a lot more than his magic so far, and fully intends to continue to help him even more.

"As I said," he added, amused, "you are never alone, prince Zuko." He chuckled.

He considered adding one bit more - that once you are a parent your children never leave you - but that lesson could wait. Zuko would learn that on his own in time and this was not the moment for such a thought to be voiced. If Zun truly was like a child to Zuko, the young man would learn and mature rapidly.

Zuko is learning and maturing rapidly, but for once, being around a bunch of more or less normal — even immature — kids his own age, he's been allowed to be young. He's not even in the frame of mindset to see Zun as a childlike figure; he doesn't even like regarding the creature as a pet, serving it with far more reverence than that (which it heartily enjoys). But he's rather smitten with being bonded with a dragon to any degree, even if it's something more like friendship than parenthood. Zuko doesn't fully understand Zunyan's silent intelligence, the way the dragon looks out for Zuko and guides him in unseen ways that on the surface level seem klutzy happenstance at best, annoying headaches at worst. Even finding Iroh and stealing his food to gain Zuko's attention quickly was not just the little beast acting out. Yes, it was also hungry, but it had deeper intentions! It was a calculated little lookout itself; perhaps not so much unlike the Dragon of the West it's perched on presently.

"I know I'm not alone, Uncle," Zuko retorts, smiling bashfully at the funny dragon flicking its long whiskers in the air as it stares him on right back. "I've even made new friends, too... From other worlds. I mentioned Gokudera— and my friend Hikaru!" The top two, really. But while the mention of Gokudera draws a soft tug on his face a bit, complicated as he'd promised it was, the mention of Hikaru visibly lights his face back up, clearly more straightforward a friendship just by the simple smile on his face. "I met him the very first day I was in that other world. We were roommates there. And he still remembers everything now that we're here, too. We're really close. He's funny."

Funny! Zuko has a best friend whose first attribute that comes to mind is funny — the implication there being that this Hikaru is someone who can make Zuko laugh...?! That itself sounds like a twist of fate. Indeed, the boy's been growing up in these alien worlds.

Edited 2021-04-19 05:21 (UTC)

"I would very much like to meet them, sometime, Zuko," he said, offering his nephew a warm smile.

There was much to think about here, and he did want to meet them. And to gauge for himself what sort of people these were. "Tell me about others who are here?" he asked kindly, wanting to get more of a sense of what he should be expecting from the people who were now a part of Zuko's life. He was glad for Zuko's sake, that it was no longer just him in the boy's life as a constant. But also concerned about the shape that life is now taking.

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awww that icon

Had a feeling I'd need it...

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