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[Open] No Air

[Open: November 7-10]

Today seems to start off as any normal day. Aang wakes up, talks up a number of friends and acolytes and does his morning meditation. He even makes a flawless run through the air gates, without having practiced any airbending yet for the day.

But then, he decides to glide over towards the caves where the sky bison stay. One second, he's standing atop a tree, with his trusty glider in hand; the next, he's sprawled down on the ground, clutching his ankle in pain.

The truth becomes apparent soon enough; somehow, he can't bend anymore. At all. It leaves an empty feeling inside of him, along with a number of worries and fears. What if it doesn't come back? What if he can't be the Avatar anymore... or even just an airbender?

Throughout the first day, he is confined to Air Temple Island, and he uses his staff as a walking stick to get around while his ankle is sprained. On the later days, he can also be found in Republic City. He takes a few trips into town on Appa just to check in on others and see if any other odd happenings have been going on.

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"I know! I... I don't know what happened." He does as asked, though and leans on Bumi while letting him check out the sprained ankle.

Bumi's trying to be ginger about it, but there's no real way to avoid hurting Aang as he feels the boy's ankle looking to diagnose the boy's injury.

"Well, it doesn't feel broken. We're going to keep your boot on to stabilize it until we can get you somewhere comfortable, okay?"

"Um... s- sure!" He nods quickly. "Whatever's best." He's still trying to think over how it could have happened.

"hey," he says quietly, trying to get Aang's attention. "It's going to be okay. You know that right? We're going to fix this?"

And he doesn't just mean the ankle situation. Something has rattled Aang, and Bumi isn't going to stop until it's good and rattled back.

"Y-yeah... Right." He says, as if trying to convince himself. Bumi is really reassuring, but something really does feel off. He raises one hand and thrusts it out, as if airbending. But without the air.

Bumi just watches this, and soon confusion shifts to a horrifying dawning realization...

"Aang...aang can you not airbend?"

"I... I don't know!" He then shakes his head, as if saying no to himself rather than Bumi. "No... that can't be possible. Just- just watch this!"

He quickly reaches into his shirt for something, holds it between his hands, and then he opens his hands to reveal... a few marbles spilling out of his hands and onto the ground.

Struck uncharacteristically dumb, Bumi can only watch in horror.

Aang frowns, staring down at the dropped marbles in shock. "No... Something's gotta..." He tries to go into an earthbending stance now, but nothing moves.

"...What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing." Bumi's answer is crisp, commanding, and almost immediate.
Possibly more so than it strictly needs to be at this moment, which is why he makes sure he's at eye level with Aang before he says something else.

"There is nothing wrong with you. Your bending is a different story, but you are not your bending, and there is nothing wrong with you."

His head tilts slightly, silently asking if Aang understands. If the boy is capable of seeing the distinction.

"With... with me." He stares at Bumi a moment as if collecting the thoughts and processing it. It's hard, considering that he's airbent for more or less as long as he can remember. But looking Bumi in the eyes helps him to see it in a way. "Thank you."

It's not an immediate solution to the problem, but it is comforted. So he quickly goes to hug Bumi. "S-so then... something's wrong with my bending."

He gives Aang an extra squeeze and then mumbles something about, "Returning the favor."

"Possibly? I'm hardly an expert on such things, but with all the Spirity Weirdness going around, anything's probable."

Bumi then leans back from the hug and looks at Aang again.

"Do airbenders have a Day of Black Sun?"

He's not sure what Bumi means, but he looks on with a puzzled look as Bumi asks that. He'd never considered the possibility, but it's proving very difficult to visualize at all.

"No, we shouldn't. What would it even be like? There's nothing to block out air..."

"I dunno, maybe today?" he says unhelpfully as he strokes at his beard.

"I- I don't know. But my other bending's not working, too, and the sun's still there. Maybe I'm... sick?" You can't just lose bending, can you? He rubs his tummy as if trying to divine an answer, but that cheeky little stomach feels healthier than ever!

Bumi's brow furrows further, and he lifts a hand and places it on Aang's forehead.

"You don't feel warm."

Soon he replaces that hand with his own cheek, a trick he learned from his mother.

"Maybe...maybe some onion and banana juice might help?"

It does feel oddly familiar in a way.

"Onion and banana juice... It might!" It did grow on him. "It'd be nice and... chakra-y!" Maybe this could have something to do with his chakras? That made him nervous however, he wasn't ready to open up that can of emotional spider-worms again.

No fever has been detected, and so Bumi leans back and smiles. Kind of hard not to smile, given how Aang-like Aang continues to be.

"Well then, it sounds to me like we've got a mission on our hands. Can I give you a hand back to the house?"

"I... I'd be okay with you taking that mission." He tries to make a jokingly serious nod. "It'd be a real Avatar-rank mission! If you're up to it..."

"An Avatar-rank mission, you say? How could I possibly refuse? It'd be madness to say no." He gets back to his feet and offers Aang an arm on which to lean.

The monk chuckles softly as he leans on the arm. "Thanks, Bumi. I knew I could count on you to be tough enough for this mission." It's a small comfort as he wonders what could have caused all of this.

"Well you had the benefit of coming to the right place. There is no person alive that knows more about non-bending injuries than I do. Trust me."

Aang keeps up his rise in cheer. "Really? How'd you find that out... Do you take care of hurt non-benders a lot?"

There's a camelephant in the room.

Yeah, about that camelephant...

Over the years Bumi's honed and perfected his ability to ignore them, but this particular one...well it starts tapdancing.

"Well...yes, eventually but..."

Bumi starts to think of the various sages and holymen/women that must have had to have this conversation with Aang when Bumi was a child. That there was just no Bending in the boy. None at all.

Recent events not included.

"Aang I'm...I'm not a Bender. Never was."

The idea hadn't hit him before. And he frowns for a moment as he considers it.

"Never?" he asks quietly. He was still new to a lot of this 'having kid' concept, but didn't kids usually have the same bending as their parents? It doesn't necessarily crush Aang, but it's taking a moment for him to process the fact of the matter. "I... I didn't know..."

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