savedtheworld | Book 11: Memories Down the Stream [Voice/Action]

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Book 11: Memories Down the Stream [Voice/Action]

[By now, it almost seems like a way of Luceti - that whenever good news happens, it will be followed by bad before long. Just yesterday, Katara had come back to the house. As herself. But today? The house woke up to a different empty room. Toph's.

It seemed like so soon since she had given him his last metalebending lesson. He still had so much to learn. And he still remembered so clearly when she showed up, tunneling from the earth like the little badger mole she was. Her original presence in Luceti may have precluded his, but when she came back, she was from the same time as him. He know that aside from missing one of his best friends, he'd miss being able to relate to one of the few people from that time.

But in a way, Aang knew this could be for the best. He remembered how she had worried about her life, with everything the future had shown to them. The short time that her daughter was around. How Toph feared the possibility of having to live her life in Luceti without ever returning home, that she might not become the person she thought she was supposed to be. But now she didn't have to worry about that anymore. She could live that life for herself. And hopefully, she'd find peace and happiness in that life. They could all still be friends there, too, in that lifetime.

Aang spends a little time wallowing in his grief, first. After all, he misses her already. Then he remembers one of the first things she told him when arriving. "Missed me? After only a month? Come on, don't get sappy!" With a faint smile, he nodded before he rose to do what he had to do. Toph had put her hopes in him.

And he soon addressed the journals.]

Hi everyone. This is Aang. You should know that Toph Beifong is... She's gone back home. I guess our world can only go so long without its greatest Earthbender around. She left some letters to hand out, but everyone who knew her should know... She cared about you a lot more than she says. Even her punches had friendship in them.

[He grabbed the letters that she had left behind, knowing all too well what they all said. After all, he was the one who had to transcribe them for her.

And so, Aang starts to play the distribution game. He first gives out letters to those around the house. If there were any who did not find about Toph's absence at the same time as him, then he would give them the letter and the news prior to the journal announcement. Then, he seeks out Suki, Ion, Fenimore, Shikamaru, Masaomi and Saori to deliver their letters. If there's any he can't find, he'll leave the letter at the door of their house. Or in their mailbox. Do we have mailboxes?

He tries to go about his normal daily activities afterwards, showing few signs of anything wrong. Places to frequent include the Welcome Center, library, tea shop and item shop. And in the evening, after dinner, he takes some of the remaining metal sheets lying around the house out to the forest to do some metalbending practice on his own. Still, every time he messed up, he could almost feel the punches.]

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[She shakes her head.]

We were brought up to believe that was the case, because we didn't understand the true nature of the world. On the surface, it was meant to be a spiritual and religious journey... and I'm certain even after the worlds were reunited, we won't be able to tell the truth of it all to the people, just because of what they believed in for all this time.

Oh. [It sounded like his own journey in some ways, but it was a lie? It couldn't be a coincidence that she used the same amount of time that Mithos has been alive.] Then... What's the truth? Does it have to do with Mithos? [He looks towards her with worried eyes, trying to brace himself for the truth.]

Before all of this... the world relied on a single source of mana, the giant tree. In the great war, it withered and died due to the wasteful activities of the countries involved.

Mithos and his companions had acquired a great amount of power. The power to change the world. They split the countries that had been at war with one another into two worlds, which went on to exist unaware of one another for thousands of years, exchanging their flow of mana in cycles of regeneration and destruction, while a Chosen One had a role to either continue the line of the Mana Lineage, or to go on the journey of regeneration and ... sacrifice themselves for the sake of the world.

Though in reality ... it was a sacrifice intended to revive his sister all along. And so the cycle continued, with none having the ability to question it.

[He quietly takes that in, noting how the system seemed unbalanced. And then he looked down quietly at the final revelation.]

That's... that's horrible. Y-you mean that happened... to that many people? But... that horrible thing should've only happened once, then.

[Something must have went wrong.]

It continued on, because during that time, the mana signature was not matched. Mithos was very persistent in not allowing his dream to die with his sister.

You mean... [He looks up, slightly startled.] The signatures didn't match, b-but the sacrifices... still happened?

It was the ritual of the Chosen. Of course that still happened. And it's only the tip of the iceberg where that's concerned.

[And he lowers his head as it all sinks in. All the poor people who died unnecessarily while they thought they were saving the world. On journeys like that of the Avatar.]

That's... horrible. But... There's more?

The declining world is not only faced with a decline in mana. There is also a group known as the Desians that mainly exist to cause disturbances and unrest to the declining world... as well as capture members of the population and take them to Human Ranches for experiments and torture.

[And he takes a moment to swallow that one as well.]

No... Why would they do such a thing?

One reason was to create exspheres - powerful crystals which when equipped, allow the body to achieve feats far beyond ordinary limits, whether it enhances basic reflexes, allows for more movement, or surviving long falls, or even enhancing the artes that one may possess.

Another simply allowed a release of frustration. The Desians were told that it was their right to mistreat humans due to the prejudice they faced at the hands of them, and they took this persecution to high levels. The flourishing world, on the other hand, was free of the Desian organization, and ordinary half-elves were at the bottom of the caste system. In other words, it's just another cycle of destruction.

So it's for more powers. That's... that's unbelievable.

Another cycle of destruction... [He repeats weakly as he takes all the information in.] I'm sorry, Raine. It sounds like your world has a lot of problems. [Part of him wishes he could swoop in and try to fix it himself - but another part of him is afraid to try should he ever find the possibility. After all, it has to be at least as daunting as the task of saving his own world was.]

Well... the cycles have been put to an end, since Lloyd was able to reunite the worlds. Problems will come from that as well, but... conflicts are always to be expected.

So Lloyd did stop that all? [He says slowly, but with a light smile.] I'm glad for that. You're right, conflicts can still come from great change. There was almost conflict again after we ended the war back in my world. But it's still good, for the most part, when worlds can be changed for the better like that.

Yes, it is. I once thought it was impossible, myself. Still, as we learned more about the situation, the more we were able to see that we could do something about it. It was a lot of luck, though; we were in the right place at the right time, and Lloyd relied mostly on his strength and instincts. It could easily have gone very wrong for all of us.

[It doesn't sound too far off from the way he dealt with Ozai. All he had going into the battle was the idea of energy-bending, and for the most part he was relying on his bending ability and instincts just to stay alive long enough to find an opportunity to use it. If it weren't for the Avatar State re-activating, Aang doubted he would have made it.]

I see. And things can go wrong even when you do have a plan that sounds good. [Don't ask him about the Day of Black Sun.] But I'm glad it worked out for you and your world. [But his smile fades slightly, as he recalls some of Mithos's particularly harmful words.] There's just... still another problem that bothers me.

A... problem? [She tilts her head.] What is it?

Well... [He looks down towards the ground uncertainly, frosty air breathing out as he speaks.]

It was something Mithos told me, when he got angry after I found a statue of Lloyd. He told me... he told me that Lloyd ended him. I want to know... [And he gazes back towards her.] if that's true.

It's true. [But of course Mithos would frame it like that, with no explanation.]

Mithos would have it no other way. He refused to live in a world without his sister, and he would rather have destroyed us along with it. He even asked Lloyd to destroy his cruxis crystal so that he would avoid being absorbed into it completely.

[He listens attentively and takes a moment to think over her words. That's definitely a lot more than what Mithos told him, and it fit the rest of her story. It was sad to think of Mithos becoming so wretched, of having to be killed in such a way, especially now that he had gotten to know his younger and more idealistic self.]

I see. So... so it was the only way. I can understand that. [He'd try to find another way. Some way to save Mithos, the world and his friends. But he knows he can't just Lloyd for the choices he had to make, especially under circumstances he was only hearing of second hand. After all, he'd already had to face the killings that Katara and Sokka have had to perform to survive the drafts of Luceti, and he had to confront back home that his past lives such as Kyoshi were willing to kill to achieve justice. He certainly couldn't condemn others for crimes his own past lives were guilty of.]

Thank you, Raine, for telling me all this.

... You're welcome.

[It wasn't easy to tell, and she's still skirting some of the bits that might have made the telling easier on herself.

But it wasn't the time for it. Maybe there never would be a good time.] I know it's not the easiest story to follow.

It hasn't. [He admitted quietly.] And it can't have been easy to tell, either.

But... I think this is stuff I have to know. Not just for dealing with Mithos, but because as long as I'm here in this world, I think it's important to be able to understand all the other worlds the best I can. Cuz that's the best way to find out how to help, right?

I'm not sure about helping, but it is important that we try to understand one another. There's a lot that can be learned from studying other cultures.

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Book 11: Memories Down the Stream [Voice/Action]

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