cyclicality | [001] Monthly Catch All

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[001] Monthly Catch All

If you could go back in time forty-five some odd years ago, and ask a teenage Bumi what the worst possible outcome of his life could be, he'd tell you:

Trapped at an Air Temple, pretending to be an airbender.

Bumi thinks a lot about this now, as he holds down Air Temple Island as if it were a fort.
With Tenzin and Pema no where to be found, and Jinora and Korra off to a Spirit Portal, Bumi is the highest ranking officer on deck, as horrifying for all involved as that is.

The spirits, it seems, are not without a sense of humor.

1) The Radio Room
With the Barrier down communications that were once off-line are now once again operational, and Bumi spends a few hours here several times a day. Information pours in from the Air Temples and he's been trying to reach the Water Tribes in an effort to find his brother and sister.

Looking to find family, or possibly a crash course in Morse Code? Then this is a good place for you.

2) The kitchen
People need to eat, and Bumi is more than skilled at making the most of limited provisions.
The menu is Hot and A Lot. The ingredients are both vegetarian and...less so.
(Don't worry, he's using separate cooking implements for the meat goods.

3) The meditation pavilion
He's never really been all that fantastic at meditation, or at least the kind of it that involves sitting still and keeping his mind clear, but at this point even Bumi is willing to try just about anything.

4) About town
Times are getting tougher, but there's still a lot to trade and be traded for, and so Bumi finds himself on various logistical missions getting for the Island things that it cannot produce for itself.

5) Other
Create your own, for hours of fun!

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Hot and A Lot sounds like great food. Even better is that it's not all traditional airbender grub. Granted, he may not be actually living here on Air Temple Island ever since it's been properly commandeered by the new Air Nation, but at the same time, he has been helping out by moving all of those heavy earthen rocks and buildings back into shape, so of course he'll stop by for a free lunch. Saves him a few yuans in the time being.

And so he just happens to be in line waiting to get whatever it is airbenders probably shouldn't get, and he's in for a good surprise.

Bumi backs his way from the kitchen into the dining area, arms laden with a heavy tray of samosas.

"Hot tray! Hot tray! Lookout! Hot tray!" he announces to the room at large as he heads for the main table which he's set up as buffet style.

"Hey!" he says, noticing Bolin for the first time. "Look what the pygmy puma dragged in!"

The moment Bumi suggests that a pygmy puma might have dragged him in here is the moment when Bolin almost looks over shoulder to make sure there actually wasn't one right behind him. He doesn't quite get to searching around for one, but there is a brief moment where Bolin tenses up all the same.

"Hey, that's not all that funny. I was dragged through the streets by a tigerdillo a few days ago," says Bolin somewhat unabashedly. "But man, I'm starving. What's on the menu for today? Something tasty, I hope?"

Bumi stops short of what he was doing. Tigerdillo?

"Were you really?" Because if anyone has the right to question someone's outlandish story, it's Bumi.

Right?

At any rate the mention of the tigerdillo only slows Bumi down a second, after that initial pause he's back to moving the large tray of food to the warming station.

"In the far bin we have sweet and sour artic-hen, crispy deep-fried wontons, and this here is bean curd, Fire Nation style."

Bumi then leans a bit in to stage whisper for Bolin's benefit.

"Can't stand the stuff personally, so I have to make it taste like anything else.]"

Bumi: The quasi-airbender who hates bean curd.

Bolin is not deterred, at least, initially. "Hey, I'll take anything so long as it's free. Man, I mean, it's probably not Pema's cooking, but it certainly smells better than..." He pauses in order to takes a whiff of it. However, this only results in him wrinkling his nose a bit. "Okay, well that stuff is probably not going to be my favourite. I'll take a double dose of the Arctic hen and the wontons then."

There: the important issue is now out of the way. Now onto the defence of his story.

"And really I was!" he continues, his voice rather impassioned. "You would have had to been there to see it. He... or maybe it's a she, I really don't remember, wouldn't get out of my way trying to get here to Air Temple Island. So he... or she, led me to this collapsed building where I saved Lord Zuko from a collapsed building. Except it was really young Lord Zuko, as if he were my age. I mean, I wasn't even expecting that! I was kind of shocked and starstruck all at the same time!"

[It's the earthquake that wakes Toph; makes her snap upright in the nest she's taken up in the lower bowels of the Air Temple. The shaking goes on and on, and she can't feel it, can't see the world splinter into a thousand fractals of vibration and echo, can't delve into the heart of the quake and determine its source. The earth rolls beneath her again and again, roaring in her ears. She roars with it -- screams -- because she can't feel it, can't see it, something which ought to be as natural as breathing, and it's nihility, as though someone has ripped off an arm or leg, stabbed some part of her into silence, and that silence is worse than anything else.]

[Sometime between when the earth stops quaking and Bumi is sure the red angry ball that appeared in the courtyard is stabilized, Bumi finally allows BumJu to lead him into the catacombs beneath Air Temple Island.

The trilling of the bunny-fly spirit announces their presence a few moments before the bellowing of the Commander does.]

BumJu? Where'd you go? BuuuumJuuuuuuu! We shouldn't be down here, it's not safe. Where are you, you little...

[In the distance, there's a smack, like flesh hitting stone. A blow, then another.]

[And then the earth roars again, drowning out everything, showering down dirt and dust and plaster. There's another scream that twines with it, screams at it for all it's worth, raging, fighting, demanding.]

[Until it breaks. cracks. falls away.]

[The next aftershock that hits finds Bumi taking shelter under the support archway of the tunnel. The ground finally stills, but the roar remains. Though...it's not quite the roar of the earth it...it's something else. Someone else.

There's someone down here.]

great rutting badgermoles!

[He can just make out the blue of glow of BumJu in the distance, but the bunny-fly is on the move...and quickly.

So quickly that he easily makes it to Toph before Bumi. BumJu trills quietly before fluttering close to the girl. Close enough to put his nose in her ear.]

[Her ears ring. Her palm slaps again against the stone -- punctuation rather than a sentence, one last note of rage against a heedless ear -- and her shoulders slump, weighted, sloping towards the earth. Faintly she's aware of a slow trickle of wetness across her knuckles -- but only faintly. Her mind rings with echoes, one piled on top of another, piercing into the silence of her brain, and for a few moments, she only breathes, eyes closed, inhale and exhale.]

[In her silence she gathers strength for another attack.]

[And then a spirit sticks her nose into her ear.]

[The effect is electric, both literally and figuratively; the cool, unexpected dampness bears a sudden static charge, flicking against her inner ear like a sudden finger stuffed into the canal. She yelps, yanking back, her shoulder slamming into the wall behind her.]

[With less light to follow, Bumi fumbles in the darkness of the passageway until he realizes he has a spare book of matches in his pocket. Lighting one he uses the small flame to guide him towards the blue light, which glows brighter with each step he takes.]

BumJu?

[His voice is far less bombastic than usual, mostly because he has no idea what he's walking towards, other than somewhere he's needed to be.]

[The quiet even goes so far as to extend to the profanity that follows when the match burns to his finger. It's then, in the dying fire light and the cool glow of BumJu that Bumi sees the small shape against the far wall.]

Hello, are you okay?

[And of course she knows that voice -- that guy she tried to scam and then won the money from anyway, the old military geezer who seemed about as likely to command anything as Momo. She's so far away right now from where she was that day; she doesn't want him.]

[But there isn't exactly a way out, either, and pain abruptly floods through her senses, surging as her brain diverts from its former single-minded task. She hisses softly, suddenly all too aware of the screaming protest of her hands as they remind her of the relentless abuse they've taken in the last several minutes. She gasps faintly, chokes the sound off as best she can.]

Go away. [The words are gasped out, but they're a feeble last attempt at sparing her dignity. She already knows this meeting is inevitable. It seems to be her luck.]

Edited 2014-11-26 00:42 (UTC)

[BumJu offers Toph a small headbutt before settling down on the ground by Toph's knees.]

Afraid that's not likely to happen. Maybe after we're above ground.

[BumJu trills something quiet and calming towards Toph, before trilling orders in Bumi's direction.]

[The bunny spirit would have been far easier to contend with; after Momo and Appa, Toph has learned she rather likes creatures. They settle down and keep you company even when the world has torn itself to bits. If not for her hands, she might have even reached out for it, drawing comfort from the smaller body.]

[As it is, her jaw sets.] Yeah, no, thanks.

[Personally, she's not concerned about her current placement. Then again, she's never had to be.]

[BumJu continued trilling and Toph's stubbornness make Bumi sigh.]

I wasn't asking.

[To the best of his ability Bumi crouches down and takes a spot on the floor next to Toph and BumJu.]

Are you hurt?

[In the dark he's as blind as she is. He can't see the trails tears have made through the dirt on her face. Can't see her hands, dark bruises already forming, blood drying on her knuckles. In the dark she's safe; he can't have her secrets, and she doesn't have to give them.]

[The earth builds a rumble around them again, and her hands tighten so hard, the bones ache.]

Go away. [It's all she's got, and she's clinging to it.]

[When the ground moves, so too does Bumi, shifting to shield her from what ever may fall her way. It's not something he thinks about, it's just something he does. One might think that at some point in his life he's been responsible for the health and well-being of others.

BumJu seems unphased by the aftershocks, it's almost as if he knows exactly what's going on and what not to be worried about. So rather than move to protect Toph, he opts climb onto her lap and lick at her hands]

Not going to happen.

BumJu, get down.

[But BumJu doesn't. If anything BumJu gets closer to Toph, forgoing her hands to sniff at her pockets

[If it were just the bunny spirit, it'd be grabbed up and held for all it was worth. Toph's fingers contact the cool, misty creature in her lap in response to its administrations -- a quick, light touch like a reflex, surprised by the affection and the sudden weight of its body yielded to her.]

[But between it and Bumi, it's too much. She's supposed to be alone; this is supposed to be private, and the old man is staying, not going away. He's in her space; he's refusing to leave . . . it rubs a wound already raw; it breaks it open. The rumble around them grows, demanding and insistent, and her hands come up to his chest, shove him for all she's worth, likely spilling the spirit from her lap. Her mind explodes miniature fireworks of pain; she shoves it into her rage.]

You think you can just come in here -- that you're so well-meaning? You can save everyone; you can help everyone because you know better? What gives you that right? Because you're an adult, and I'm some helpless little kid that shouldn't know right from left?

I carry my own weight. I still will, even if my bending's gone, and I can't see and this stupid earthquake is so loud and I can't even feel it--

I'm not weak. I'm not helpless. I'm not.

[To the untrained eye this seems to happen all at once. The aftershock. The outburst. The physical assault. But for Bumi, who's seen this sort of thing before...many times, it is what it is.

The stress reaction of a scared soldier.

So he doesn't fight back, and instead rolls where he's pushed...and stays there.
Search and Rescue was one of Bumi's specialties when he was active duty, and to date he hasn't come back empty handed yet.

And he's not about to start now.
His voice is soft, but firm. There's a hardness that underlies his words.]

Of course you're not. Without bending you made it here, right under my nose, and I make it a point to know everything that goes on under my command. And that's what this island is right now: Under my command. I'm sorry about your bending, there....there seems to be a lot of that going around right now.

But I'll tell you what I've told every enlisted man and woman under my command: You Are Not Your Bending. I can barely see down here, and I wouldn't have even known you were down here at all if it hadn't been for BumJu...

[It's then that BumJu, having rolled onto the floor, flings something onto Bumi's lap. It's weight is familiar, more so when Bumi takes it in his hand. He doesn't need light to know exactly what it is: his money clip.

The same money clip he gave to Yin that day in the Eelhound as a way to always find him if he needed her. Bumi looks up, eyes wide, and in the low light provided by the spirit sees in the shadow the familiar shape of the girl from the bar.]

Yin?

[She's mostly to her feet now, her feet braced. He doesn't get it, doesn't understand; her bending is her life, has always been, has kept her afloat when she should have drowned. He can't just dismiss it like it doesn't matter.]

What?

[She'd assumed he already knew her name -- recognized her just as she's already recognized him. The word in response to the name is a demand; she's prepared to fight.]

[She's not afraid.]

Edited 2014-11-26 20:14 (UTC)

[There's a ping as Bumi flips the bill clip on his thumb that ends when he catches it in his palm.]

Nothing! Nothing. I just didn't recognize you until right this second. BumJu...well, it would seem BumJu's as good at the What's In Your Pocket game as you are.

[The aftershock rolls through, the earth trembling once again to a slow rest. Her feet are still braced.]

I'm not cashing it in.

Are you still going to stand there and pretend like you know something about how I feel, or are you going to leave?

[Her tone says it had better be the latter.]

[He rolls the clip over his knuckles with practiced ease.]

You're right, I don't know anything about what you're feeling right now.

[Bumi rolls up to his feet, old-man-grunting as he does so.]

But I do know that if we don't both get out of here soon the chances of both of us not feeling anything ever again is higher than I'd like. Come with me now, you get this back.

[He taps at the clip.]

You're welcome to stay, but you don't have to. Just come with me now. Please.

[She's poised, still ready to fight. Still ready to take him out however she can manage, because there's catharsis in it -- relief in taking something else apart, even if it takes her with it. She's so angry, she can't stand it; she'd like to wrench the whole world apart if it would only bring relief.]

[But that word. Please.]

[It's not a command. Not something she can rail against. It's a vulnerability left exposed. It's a plea.]

[She feels herself bend. Tries to dig into her rage, hold on.]

It's just earth.

[But there's just a hint of hesitation in it. Just a whiff.]

[Maybe she's also afraid to stay alone.]

[Bumi is not a small man, and he knows it. He moves a bit closer to her before crouching so he's speaking to her on her level.]

And the ocean is just water, and a tornado just air, but that doesn't make them any less forces to be reckoned with. Come with me. If for no other reason than to make sure me and BumJu get out of here with the same number of pieces as we had when we came in. I'm way too pretty to die today.

Edited 2014-12-02 16:58 (UTC)

This post looks lonely. #2

Awww YAY!

sorry for the delay!

No no, I'M sorry for the delay.

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