notabluesbro | 13th Confession [Action/voice]

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13th Confession [Action/voice]

[Of course, Vash wasn't the only kid Legato ran into. The ass confused the hell out of him, but moreover, he wondered if he really was going to be 'trained' by someone. Trained to fight, right? And he said he'd be skillful, too... But right now? He called him useless. Incapable. Just some stray dog.

"If you think yourself capable, that is something you must prove."

Nicholas wanders into town and takes a seat at a bench, with journal in hand. Considers using it—even if it is confusing, and even if he's not the kind to spark up conversation. Instead he simmers a little, brow furrowed, reaching down and shaping snowballs before throwing them at the nearest building ~~totally sorry if he doesn't see you coming around the corner or something~~. For some reason, he feels like he's done this before. Something about the whiteness of all this is familiar, but... ah, well. He's too busy trying to decipher what that blue haired guy told him.

He was worth something. Wasn't he? Or was what every said true...]

[Voice]

How do y'prove you're worth something...?

[After that, he decides to go back into the forest and try to talk with that Eferin guy. Things weren't as bad as last time; he even got to actually speak to him, without any running or cursing. Even if it meant sucking up to the bastard, just a little. He's in the forest, sitting on the gnarled roots of a tree, lighting and putting out the end of a thin twig. It takes all of his concentration, but it's worth it. His pants leg has a hole burned into it, but whatever burn mark was under it has been wrapped up by a ripped shirt.]

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[She frowns a little.] Not a whole lot of girls can waterbend to fight where I'm from either. Most of them are trained just to heal. [Hint, hint.]

But I really needed to learn how to do both.

[IGNORING THAT HINT]

We don't got anything like that, where I'm from. Just guns.

I'd never heard of guns before I got here. They're pretty scary.

They can be, but... they can also be a good thing.

[He quietly puts a hand over a spot on his torn jacket, at his hip.]

Sometimes they can save your life. Or protect ya from getting hurt anymore...

I guess every weapon is dangerous when you know how to use it.

[Even if guns are a source of a particular scare to her, because they seem so easy to use and so incredibly deadly - not just harmful. Deadly.]

That's the whole point of learning how to use it, after all - and when to use it.

[It is pretty scary, though, isn't it? That something so small and easy to lose track of as a bullet that instantly take the life from something... Both Wolfwood and Nicholas know this well. Will always know it well.

He just nods, though; just agrees whole-heartedly.]

But I won't need a gun here, right?

[He's not sure if he's really asking or not. He'd like to just believe it.]

It's pretty safe here, and people take care of each other, so I don't need it anymore, right?

[Oh, kid - break her heart why don't you.

But you're too old for Katara to lie to you.]

I think it's always important to be able to protect yourself and the people that you care about. I don't know if a gun is the best way to do it here, but even though most of the people here are really nice and do take care of each other, there are a few people here who are just really bad.

But when you're with people that you can trust, that you know will watch out for you? That's the safest you can be, no matter where you are. And there are a lot of good people here.

...Huh...

...How do you know?

When to trust someone like that, I mean?

[Oh, you may just be asking the wrong person, Nick.]

I don't think there's any real way to know for sure, no formula or secret password. Sometimes you just have to risk it. Sometimes you just have to be strong enough to deal with it if you're wrong.

[There might be a particular emphasis on 'deal with it' that lends itself to more than just emotional recovery.]

And sometimes you just... know.

[A quick grin.] But if they don't want anything from you and they're willing to help you with something anyway? That's a pretty good bet.

[He glowers down. The Wrong person to ask, the wrong reply to give—or maybe Nicholas just automatically twists it into a wrong answer.]

That's not true. Even if they act like they don't want nothin' from you, sometimes they take everything anyway.

[He squeezes his arm, not looking up from the ground.]

I don't wanna risk anything. I already tried that once.

[Katara sighs a very little, and sobers.]

Then you let whoever hurt you win.

...

[Well, hopefully he won't remember when he gets back to normal.]

You want to hear a story?

[...]

Hear what kinda' story?

A true one.

... All right.

I wanna hear it.

[Oh gosh, where to start.]

Not a very long time ago, there was a world which was ripped apart by war. But there was a hero - a hero whose destiny was to stop the war and restore balance to the world. He and his friends were traveling all around the world, trying to make sure that he'd be able to learn all the skills he needed in order to stop the war.

But it wasn't so simple. There was a prince from the country who wanted to take over the world and he wanted to stop the hero. He chased them all over the world with soldiers, fighting them, burning the world behind them.

... Then what happened?

Oh - a lot of things. They had many adventures, but the prince was always, always right there... until one day, he wasn't. The heroes defeated him in a great battle, and his father was so furious with him that instead of supporting his son, he sent his daughter - a fierce warrior - and an army - to bring his son back home in chains.

Of course, the prince didn't just go. He ran instead. And now the princess chased the prince, and chased the hero and his friends... and one day, she caught them. She caught the prince and she caught one of the heroes friends and she threw them in a cave together - two deadly enemies. The hero's friend was defenseless, but the prince... the prince could call fire from the air. She couldn't fight him with weapons, so she lashed out with her words - and he could have killed her.

But he didn't.

[What, really? The villain didn't fight against the hero's friend? That's... different.]

Why didn't he?

He said it was because he'd been doing a lot of thinking. [This part still hurts.] He said - he said they had things in common. That he wasn't sure what he was doing was right anymore. That he wanted to choose his own destiny... that he had changed.

And she believed him.

[He studies her expression for a moment, before quietly responding:]

Was he tellin' the truth?

[And yes, this part still hurts too.]

He might have thought he was, but when it came down to it, before the hero and his friend could escape, he'd 'changed' again.

[That's definite still anger in the undertone there.]

He and his sister attacked them, with a group of elite fighters at their back. The hero was hurt - hurt badly enough that they thought he'd died. And so the prince was welcomed back to his country as a hero, and the real hero and his friends? They had to scrape something else together, on the run again, but they weren't about to give up. They had a plan to take down the whole kingdom, a massive invasion that could have saved the day.

[See now, this is why he has a hard time trusting people. Because of fuckheads like that prince guy.]

And? What happened then?

Well, the hero and his friends did what they could to prepare for the invasion. And the prince stayed at home - and enjoyed being a hero to his people. But he was afraid that the hero was still alive, because of something the girl had said to him when she trusted him. So he sent an assassin - a powerful assassin - out to kill them from the comfort of his place.

[And now we're getting into what she's heard from Sokka, Toph, and Zuko.]

And as the time for the invasion grew closer, the prince started feeling more and more uncomfortable. His father, who he thought would accept him back, had. But the prince felt that what he'd done wasn't right. And in the end, he realized that what his father was doing was wrong.

The princess had learned about the hero's invasion plans, and so the enemy was ready for them. The hero and his friends barely escaped with their lives - and on that same day, the prince left his father, his nation, and his family... and chose to follow the hero, and offer him his help.

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