⚡ 9th zap | action ⚡

[i_am_not_cute]

[Early in the morning, Pao-Lin returns from her mission, exhausted but itching to get back to normal (Luceti) life. Two weeks just for combat testing? What the hell was that about? She's a pretty fit girl, and there'd been two days of break in the middle of it all, but some of the things the Malnosso made her do strained even her. Which, she supposes, was the point of it all, but it still sucked. She's so very glad to be back in the village, with friends and good food and her own apartment, and when she gets back to said apartment she sits on her couch with some snacks and her journal to check what she missed. There's going to be a lot to go through, but after being up and about nearly nonstop the past two weeks, Pao-Lin doesn't mind sitting still for a while, so sit still she does, eagerly flipping through the pages.

The eagerness quickly fades when she comes across Ginia's journal post not two days before, declaring the departure of one Rupert Giles. The announcement unsettles Pao-Lin: Giles was one of the first people she'd met in Luceti, someone who seemed like he'd always been around and always would be. Although the two hadn't been that close, she'd liked him a lot and they'd experienced quite a few things together. To have him just suddenly be gone...

With unease burning in her throat, Pao-Lin continues perusing past entries. Seems like some sort of experiment happened while she was away...not that anyone seems to remember what happened then. (Perhaps for the better? She's certainly glad she missed out on things.) There's an announcement from the Malnosso about the missions, and --

Toph. Toph is gone, too.

Her heart thuds against her chest, tripping over the news. She has to take a moment to catch her breath so she can process things. How could this happen? Pao-Lin wonders. Weren't she and Toph supposed to become even better friends in Luceti in the future? They couldn't do that if she were gone! Were Toph's future memories really just fake ones created by the Malnosso, then? In other circumstances, Pao-Lin's innate optimism would take over and reassure her that maybe Toph, like Luca, would come back eventually. She'd have to, if they were going to be much closer later on. But Pao-Lin's tired from her mission, and barely recovered from learning about Giles' departure, so she's not bouncing back into shape as easily as she should.

The final blow comes when she finds Mia's voicepost about Amiti being sent home. After that, Pao-Lin doesn't even bother checking the rest of the entries.

Three friends, gone within two weeks. She didn't even get to say goodbye to any of them properly. And none of them had even known she was gone, either: by the time she'd actually found the mission summons in her journal, Pao-Lin had to report in. There was only enough time for a quick message to Luca letting him know that their drawing lessons were temporarily on hold, and then she had to get ready and head out, more concerned with what she'd have to do on this mission than about losing friends in the meantime. It's not like the girl has any shortage of them in Luceti, but they're still all dear to her, seeing how few she's had in her life prior to this.

Pao-Lin slowly closes her journal and sets it on a nearby coffee table, next to her forgotten snacks. She lies down on the couch, clutches a pillow to her chest, and silently cries a little.]

***

[Once she's pulled herself together sufficiently enough, Pao-Lin heads out into Luceti to go about her day. Despite having spent most of the past two weeks involved in strenuous physical activity, she'll still go through her kung fu forms by the river, though her movements won't be as spirited or as focused as they usually are. She'll take her main meals at Seventh Heaven, but she'll drop by the bakery for some pocket food before wandering aimlessly through the streets, not going anywhere in particular but not wanting to stay at home and brood, either. At night she can be found at Good Spirits, staring morosely at a melting milkshake. If approached at any point, she'll put on the brightest smile she can, but at this moment the brightness will be less like sunshine and more like a flickering lightbulb.]

Comments

I'll set up something eventually! Will link on Plurk when I do. :Db

[i_am_not_cute]

His name's Kurt! He's got teleportation and cloaking powers. You might've seen him around the village -- he's got blue fur, so he's hard to miss!

<333

[talontrot]

[... Blue fur. Huh. Sounds pretty cool.]

Is he like an alien or something? Or is he just blue?

[Because blue stuff isn't that weird to her in all honesty. After all, she's red.]

[i_am_not_cute]

[Pao-Lin shakes her head.]

I don't think so. I think he's just blue. He comes from a world like mine, where there are people born with weird powers or mutations, so that might just be part of it.

[talontrot]

Well, back in my world, there were green human-type guys, so I guess that's not so weird!

... They didn't have fur, though.

[Just hair, like every other human...]

[i_am_not_cute]

Yeah, I don't know if there are people with colored skin or fur in my world. Though there was this one NEXT who could make his skin as hard as diamonds... [She hadn't been around to actually see this, but she heard about it later from the other Heroes and caught a rerun of that particular HeroTV episode.]

[talontrot]

... Hard as diamonds? Now that sounds pretty weird... but cool! I bet you could hit really hard with that!

[Now we all know where Kazooie's priorities are.]

[i_am_not_cute]

Yeah, you probably could. [That would probably hurt like a mother. And a father, and an uncle twice-removed.] But Mr. Tiger and Mr. Barnaby both used their NEXT powers and broke through it with a combined attack. [How this worked, considering that their barrage of previous combined attacks had done absolutely nothing, I have no clue. GDIT T&B physics.]

[talontrot]

Sounds like when the Jinjos teamed up to break through Grunty's magic shield! And then the Jinjonator kicked her butt.

[Kazooie sounds very satisfied by this.]

[i_am_not_cute]

The Jinjonator? [sounds like the Terminator]

[talontrot]

He's this big Jinjo who's got, like, the power of all the Jinjos! [He's pretty impressive, admittedly.] Blue, with red gem eyes, pretty much. I think he's like the god of 'em or something. [Said so casually...]

Sure took a heck of a lot of Eggs to activate his dumb pedestal thing, though...

[i_am_not_cute]

That's pretty cool. Except for the, um...the last thing you mentioned. Why did he need Eggs to activate him, though?

[talontrot]

...

To be honest, I got no idea. [She shrugs.] A lot of stuff in my world works that way. Use Eggs on it enough, and it'll... do whatever!

[i_am_not_cute]

[She laughs a little.]

That must make things pretty simple.

[talontrot]

Yep! Sometimes, anyway. You still got the occasional really weird or tough puzzle, but most of the time it's easy enough to figure stuff out. [Kazooie grins easily at this.]