☀ 02, log

[flammatory]

Who: Zuko and whoever wants in! OPEN.
When: Sometime this week, whenever.
Where: Around the island.
Format: Action tags, please?
Warnings: None! Not even swearing for this guy, at least.

on the beach.
[It's early morning at the beach, and the sun is glinting across the waves, a darker blue-green contrast to the pale white-blue of the sky. The air feels light and crisp, salty, this early in spring; but regardless of how cold it is, it's still the best time to firebend in the morning.

Which is what Zuko's doing. He has a very practiced, sharply punctuated style of martial arts, because it is literally a form of kung fu. He sweeps across the sand, plumes and waves of fire preceding him. He's frowning with concentration, but focused as he is, he's aware enough to notice someone approaching. He knows the beach is more or less public, and doesn't want to catch anyone with fire accidentally.]

in the village.
[Later on in the day in early afternoon, the clouds are starting to roll through and cast gray over the island. Zuko's taking the chance to dig through the rubble in the abandoned village, and anyone walking by might hear him grumbling from within a half-collapsed building.]

Ow! Stupid beam... [Yeah, he just hit his head on a structural beam. His life is hard.]

at the harbor.
[Once evening comes, though, Zuko is back to his preferred default activity: brooding. He's standing near the edge of the pier, staring out into the ocean with a pensive expression. He's trying to be blank and neutral, but it's undeniably not working; there is a darker, preoccupied cast to him.

It matches the fact that by now the cloud cover has become more of a carpet across the sky, and the fading light is weak and dreary over the roiling water.]

Comments

Village!

[messianic]

[He hasn't been up here in awhile, but he would like to see the sun a bit--

the irony being, of course, that it's cloudy.

Huh.

Well he's not one to waste a day, so he's strolling, though he pulls off his headphones when he sees someone hit his head--

welp.]

Are you alright?

[flammatory]

I'm fine! [he snaps back instantly, purely by reflex. Zuko emerges from the doorway a moment later, rubbing his head and extremely disgruntled.]

I don't know why I bother trying.

[What is being polite, he's too busy complaining.]

[messianic]

[He doesn't seem particularly bothered by the rudeness, at least. He just tilts his head.]

Trying what?

[flammatory]

[This is a good thing, because Zuko's rudeness doesn't really go away except for brief spurts of awkward...]

Looking around. If I'm going to be living up here I wanted to know what the surrounding area was like. But all there is is rubble and bad weather and trees! [He folds his arms and slumps, sulking.]

Beach

[serpentslain]

[Shura's sprawled on the sand, using her exorcist coat as a beach towel as she gets a nice head start on her summertime tan. Eyes half-lidded, she lets out a relaxed sigh as she soaks up some greatly missed sunlight...

...when she hears the breathy whirl of a plume of fire over her head.]

The hell?

[She jerks upright, scanning the shore until she catches sight of Zuko several yards down from her. She rests her head on her bent knees and watches him practice with an interested smirk.]

[flammatory]

[He finishes the set apparently without noticing her, though none of the fire comes that close to her again. Several minutes later, it's over with, and he's dropping out of stance.

Zuko glances over.] If you're going to watch, that's not a good place to do it.

[serpentslain]

I wasn't gonna watch till ya almost set my head on fire.

[She smirks at her own exaggeration as she springs up to her feet, stretching her arms over her head with a sigh.]

That some kind of martial arts yer practicing?

in the village

[watcheshisrear]

How's it going in there?

[ Her tone is decidedly good-natured. She sets down the planks she'd been carrying. Fixing up the run down village was something of a pretty serious project to start, and it kept her busy. A few moments later, and he's got the redhead peeking inside the half-collapsed building. ]

Not as great as you'd like, I take it.

[flammatory]

This is pointless! [Zuko straightens up from where he'd been crouched, extremely grumpy and covered in dust.]

I thought I'd look around, but there's nothing in here! It's a waste of time. [Sullenly kicking a bit of rubble, which snaps away and hits the wall. He huffs.]

[watcheshisrear]

Yeah, you think so? So what are you looking for, anyway?

[ Hands on her hips, she makes a show of leaning down to look around, as if that might give her a clue. ]

Harbor!

[rainbowarch]

[To Cielo, the island is a wonderful place to visit regardless of time of day or weather. His usual destination is, of course, the beach, but this evening, he feels like exploring other areas of the island. Once the elevator doors open, he transforms and takes flight, deciding that he wants to look at the harbor.

It makes him think of the cruise ship, even though there is no cruise ship there.

As he goes down for a landing, he's surprised to smell a person there, and he lands at the beginning of the pier and reverts back to human form. Sure enough, there is someone standing there. Might as well say hi. He walks along the pier, making sure his footsteps are loud enough for the other person to hear.]

Hello.

[flammatory]

[Zuko glances back when he hears the footsteps, and turns to face him fully.]

Did you see that thing that was flying around out there? [he asks immediately, never one to contain himself when he has something to say. He gestures toward the area of the sky that he'd seen him in.] I couldn't figure out what it was from the shape.

[rainbowarch]

[Thing? What thing? Cielo didn't notice anything when he was flying. The island had wild birds, sure, but nothing that would catch any attention. Aside from himself the sky was-

Oh.]

If you mean just now, then I know what it was, ja.

harbor c:

[tsundyne]

[The island is always a good place to get some fresh air, and Yukari actually likes it a lot. It helps her clear her mind, especially in the evenings and at night, when you can see the moon. After all she's gone through with its phases, you wouldn't think she'd want to--but having a reminder of home isn't always such a bad thing.

Sometimes she'll drag Minato with her, too, but most of the times she's by herself, like tonight.

And then she sees someone standing at the end of the pier as she walks by. She has to get a bit closer to recognize who it is.]

Zuko?

[flammatory]

[He starts just a little, and looks back.] ... Yukari. What are you doing up here?

[It's somewhat rude, but Zuko is entirely too distracted by his own thoughts to be anything less. He's been here for several days now, and has settled in somewhat and gotten used to it, but the things he'd left behind are still on his mind.]

[tsundyne]

[Oh, hey, it is him after all.]

...What, am I not allowed?

[Her tone is a teasing one as she joins him; and in fact, she'll sit down, too, her legs dangling off the pier. The view is nice, with the moon rising up over the water, and she seems to be content to stay for a while. Maybe she'd even intended on it to begin with--

But either way, she looks back up at him.

Nope, that's not a rhetorical question.

...Or maybe it is. It's always hard to tell with her, but either way, she's expecting something.]

harbor

[donotcomprehend]

[After being shown the beach by Serph and Cielo, Gale has taken what time he can to come up to the island and see more of it. This time, his only intent had been to see more of the beach and the surrounding area.

He'd noticed Zuko on the pier before he even started to walk down it, but he hadn't seen it as any reason to stop his exploration. He doesn't mean to stay long, but it's not a good idea to completely invade someone'sbrooding space without warning, so when he gets close, Gale nods.]

Hello.

[flammatory]

--Uh, hey. [Zuko's jerked out of his thoughts, but honestly it's a welcome distraction. It's not that he really wants to be brooding, it's that he doesn't have anything else to do right now, and he can't help falling back on it.

So he calls on his exceedingly rarely used store of polite conversation.] Looking around? [That counts, right? Better than coming out and asking this guy what exactly he's wearing. Who wears gray in the first place, yeesh.]

[donotcomprehend]

[Hey, everyone in his world wears grey. Politeness isn't high on Gale's list of important things, though, so if Zuko's awkward about this, he won't notice at all.]

Yes. I am acquainting myself with the island. My comrades only showed me a short area of the beach.

Beach!

[sonlight]

[A curious pup approaches!

...And continues approaching. At the pace he's going, he'll be "too close for comfort" pretty soon. But then again, he's also not making any effort to hide himself of approach from behind! Feel free to scold him or shoo him off, but he's pretty intent on getting a front row seat for this. He finds Zuko's fancy footwork to be quite impressive, after all!]

[flammatory]

[It doesn't take long for Zuko to notice him, and he stops abruptly, not wanting to hurt him accidentally. Especially because just based on how he looks at first glance, Zuko has a sneaking suspicion he might be something like a spirit guide.

No wolf-whatever that he's ever seen is stark white and has red markings. And admittedly, the red makes him a little curious. But first things first.]

You can't hang around so close when I'm firebending, [he scolds him, because spirit guide or not Zuko's never been shy about talking to animals.] You'll get hurt! Are you listening to me?

[sonlight]

[Hmm... He really wants to get the best view, though...

Well, in the spirit of being polite to strangers, he takes just one step back. Is this far enough?]

[ex_fintastic398]

[ Feferi is smart enough to stand back when she sees fire, stopping in her early morning trek across the beach. She's been collecting shells, evidenced by the satchel at her side. (She could just captchalogue them, but they don't make satisfying clinking noises in her sylladex.) She stops to observe, not wanting to interrupt, and also to not get caught on fire, something that isn't very high on her list of things to do. ]

[flammatory]

[He finishes his set, winding down to a still position standing on the sand, and slowly lets his breathing return to normal. There's one, final bow, apparently to the air as there's nothing in front of him.

Then his stance loosens into something more natural, and he glances up, looking directly at her.] Thank you for not interrupting, [he says, somewhat formally. He's caught up in the almost meditative quality of his practice, and it makes him calmer than normal.]

[ex_fintastic398]

Don't mention it! It was really nice to watch. You're really good at... [ What's the word again? She doesn't remember. ] At that!