1st Element ☲ Video

[actually112]

[It's helpful that so many people have been fiddling around with their lockets, and that Aang's given himself some time to try figuring the thing out. There are only three false starts before he manages to properly turn it to video.

A twelve-year-old bald boy with arrows tattooed on his head, arms, and legs sits in a lotus position. To those who would recognize it, his clothes seem similar to those of Tibetan monks.]

Is this thing on...?

[The locket's also upside-down as he works on it, his tongue sticking out with concentration, before he blinks.]

Oh! Hi!

[He puts the locket down upright and tries to look like he knows what he's doing, but the image is kind of ruined by his somewhat sheepish smile and the way he waves.]

I'm Aang! [He puts his hands in his lap, gray eyes bright and curious.] I don't really know many of you, but I'd like to! I kind of what to say something to everyone on both sides of this.

[The smile begins to fade.] In my world, there's been a war going on for a hundred years. I still don't know why it began. From what I hear, one nation attacked the others, and the others are now just trying to protect themselves. I've always wondered why that first nation attacked. [The smile's completely gone now. The eyes have lost some of their brightness.] But now... we have these lockets. So we can talk to each other, and we can find out why we're being told to fight each other.

So I came on here to ask... [He puts his palms together and closes his eyes. Just a twelve-year-old boy, trying to fulfill his duty to achieve peace and harmony.] that before we start fighting, that we talk first, and we compare what our separate sides have told us. That we try to learn about each other. I'll start.

[The boy unfolds his legs and picks up a wooden staff from the ground, using it to get to his feet and leaning on it while he speaks.] Like I said, I'm Aang. I'm an Air Nomad. That means I'm a monk, and I was taught to respect all life. [Perhaps conspicuously to those who know him, he doesn't mention his status as the Avatar. That seems like heavy stuff to tell people who don't even know what that is.] When I came here, I was told that I had to kill people who were chosen by the Unseelie to steal their Shards, and if we didn't do that, then everything I ever loved would be destroyed. They said that this is a kingdom that represents light in the world--things like honor, courage, love, justice... that kind of thing. And that the Unseelie are going to destroy all of it.

So... what about everyone else? Seelie and Unseelie? Who are you? Where are you from? Why did they tell to fight?

Comments

[actually112]

[Well, objection to fighting itself is pushing it. But unnecessary violence? Hell to the yeah, he's got objections.]

Well... [Aang starts to gesture with his arms, as he often does when talking about his (nearly extinct) people.] We're all airbenders, and we live on temples on mountains. Or, well, a lot of us live on mountains--a lot of nomads like to travel around on their flying bisons and don't try to earn their arrows. There's the Northern and Southern Air Temples for the monks, and the Eastern and Western Air Temples for the nuns. I'm from the Southern Air Temple, one of the most beautiful places in the world!

[Instinctively, he talks about the airbenders as if they're all around. He's just never gotten used to speaking about them in the past tense.]

What's US?

[oursavinggrace]

Uh, the United States. I guess the place your from is really different, huh?

[certainly sounds like it. but at least he's rolling with this kind of revelation better than he was at the feast.]

You have bison that can fly? And what's an airbender?

[actually112]

Yep! I realized that most people don't know what an Air Nomad is, so I guess my world is pretty different from everyone else's!

[He leans against his staff.] Yeah, my bison is Appa, and he can fly. And an airbender... [It doesn't entirely surprise him that there's a place out there that doesn't have bending, but it seems as strange to him as a world without walking.] Um, an airbender is someone who can manipulate air. Like this! [And he holds out his hand, a tiny ball of churning wind suddenly materializing above his palm and making whizzing noises as it feeds into itself and whirrs faster and faster.]

[oursavinggrace]

[his eyebrows raise and he leans in closer to the locket, interest piqued. but then a grin splits his face, his voice lowering almost conspiratorially.

there doesn't seem to be any distinct need for secrecy here, despite his natural cautiousness and inclination towards it. if nico can chat up that elf guy about shadow travel, then he can talk about his own stuff with the friendly monk kid.]

Me too.

[actually112]

[The boy's eyes get wide. The smile disappears. His body gets rigid and his voice gets quiet.]

...You're an airbender?

[Not one of his, he tells himself. Not one as he understands it. An Air Nomad, even years and years ago before they were called Nomads, would immediately know the arrows.]

[oursavinggrace]

Not exactly, but close enough. Those kind of abilities...I mean, I've never done anything that delicate, but the bigger stuff, flying and storms and all that...

[his own grin faded with aang's, whatever excitement he might feel (and it was certainly there, no one but his sister had powers like theirs back home) toned down somewhat by the other boy's severity. he hopes he hasn't said the wrong thing -- he didn't mean to get the kid's hopes up about anything, but it certainly sounded similar enough to him...]

We call it something else where I'm from, though. I'm a son of Jupiter.

[actually112]

[Aang cocks his head. He knew it wouldn't be the same, so he tries to be excited about what he does have--someone else who knows what it's like to control the currents.]

Is that a title, or is someone named Jupiter your father?

[He's genuinely curious how this works now.]

[oursavinggrace]

Both, kinda? Jupiter is my father, but he doesn't really function as a parent...

[it's complicated, and by his frown it's pretty evident that he's not sure how to explain it.]

Demigods are the kids you get when a god takes a special liking to a mortal. The godly parent determines what kind of powers a person might have, so we tend to think of who the parents are in the same way we think of titles and ranks.

[it's not a perfect system, not when it means people are often judged by who their parents are before anything they've done themselves, but it's just the way things generally go.]

My father was Jupiter, god of the sky.

[actually112]

Wait, so you're like half-spirit?

[Yeeeeaaaah, they don't really have 'gods' where Aang comes from, so that's the closest approximation he can make.]

How do spirits have kids? I didn't know that was really... Or, well, at least not with mortals. [Frown. Scratching his head now.] Come to think of it, is your dad the spirit of the whole sky, or just... part of it? Is he in charge of the moon and the sun and the stars too? What about the wind and weather? That seems like a lot for just one spirit.

[oursavinggrace]

Sorta?

[that sounds less big-headed than "part god", at least.]

But yeah, some things are out of his power, and some things he kind of shares with others. Jupiter is King of the Gods, Lord of the Sky, with dominion over everything in it. He's the god of storms and lightning and justice and honor, but he doesn't have any power over the sun and moon -- that's Apollo and Diana, or Apollo and Artemis depending on which group you're with. Same thing, more or less, they just sometimes have different names with slight differences. And Jupiter has power over winds, but there's also a god the winds under him, Aeolus, and four others under him as gods of the north, south, east and west winds specifically.

[and there's your daily lesson on the excessively complicated pantheon of greco-roman gods. and he'll just sorta skip over the "how do gods have kid" question for now, because he really doesn't wanna explain the birds and the bees to a kid, or get into the weirder parts like the children of athena.]