pendantry | Twelve

[Raven arrives to open Slash'n'Crash at the usual time. It only feels too early, she decides, after a night of briefly interrupted sleep and a morning of dragging her feet around the house. With Kyle's help, she goes through the motions of getting the place ready for the day; she doesn't have any big projects lined up, so unless there are a lot of customers today, she figures she'll just tinker around with things.

She's wiping off her counter when Kyle catches her sleeve with one set of claws, motioning toward the door. Nothing is there for a moment. Then, with increasingly loud cries, Soren lands in front of the open door. Raven is an expert in bird distress, and even if she wasn't, his appearance on her other doorstep like this means there's a problem. Soren has problems in a pretty narrow field.]

Stay here. [To Soren, motioning him toward the ground so he doesn't take off somewhere again, and:] Keep an eye on the place for me. [To Kyle and whatever other employee might show up in the morning on a Friday.

She doesn't think twice about changing form and taking off for house 56. It isn't too far away. Much like the bird that just surprised her, Raven lands and raps hard on Avatar House's front door.]

[When she opens the door, it's a teen monk who answers. One who looks very emotionally fragile at the moment, cheeks streaked by dried tears. His prayer beads, which have emblems representing three out of four elements, are slung over one arm; and in his other hand he is tightly gripping a letter.

He and Ikki had always risen bright and early for airbending practice. So this morning had started with panic and a sinking feeling in his heart when he found no sign of his granddaughter. He searched and searched, but he couldn't find any sign of her. Or any of her belongings that were specifically from home. Just her letters, her treasures from Luceti, and the prayer beads that she never took off. That was when he realized it; he didn't need to try a journal filter, he just knew. She was gone again, and he might never see her again. He knows all too well in her time, he's just a statue and a ghost in Korra's head. But then he gets himself to read her letter, through tears and a severe mix of emotions, and he comes to accept that it is so much more than he ever thought.

So there he stands, facing Raven, looking lost and brave at the same time.]

[Video]

[After talking with Raven, Aang uses her journal to make the announcement. And he looks into the video feed with a sad smile; Raven is visible behind him, not looking at the camera. Aang does his best to keep himself composed throughout the message, with occasional cracks in his voice and welling up in his eyes.]

Hi everyone. It's me, Aang. I'm sorry to come here with sad news... but it's not really sad at the same time. It's Ikki. She's gone back home. If you don't know who she was.... she was about this tall, almost 10 and she ran the art club, and she's an airbender and she had a bird Pokemon named Soren with her all the time. I also called her the Avatar princess. She left some items and treasures for people she knew, s-so I'll come around to hand those out later.

I'm sad for all the friends she made here and all the people whose hearts she won't be able to touch. But... I think I'm happy, too. She gets to be with her family again. She has a mom and dad back home, plus her grangran and aunt and uncle, and an older sister and two little brothers. One of them's a baby that was just born. That family... That's where she belongs. I think I'm lucky that I got to have two years to get to know someone like her. And with all that time, she's still been smiling. She never had to go the war or get hurt badly. So I'm grateful for that.

This place bends time a lot, a-and it makes lots of us know about out futures before we're ready to. A lot of the times, the future can be scary... o-or overwhelming. But it also has people like Ikki. So I know it will be worth it. [He stops for a moment, wiping at his eyes while finding the words to wrap this up with.] Let's all wish her a happy return.

[Raven motions for her journal back; anyone who's grown used to her more-expressive-lately self will see the stone mask back on, today.]

Aang's going to do the art club with me instead. We'll have a meeting...soon. [There is some audible commotion beyond the visible frame and she sighs.] Soren's staying with me.

[[ooc: If you get something from here, Aang will be stopping by at some point to drop it off! JOINT POST so- so Aang is more likely to reply with a lot of words but either or both will answer.]

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[Aang stands transfixed in the doorway, but he soon finds the will to utter names.]

Raven...?

What's wrong with Ikki?

[Raven is naturally blunt, but she didn't even say 'Hey' this time. Soren is upset and alone and nothing good will come of it.]

[So that's where Soren went. Aang had been worried over the bird's absence, but now it seems that he won't have to look for him. He only briefly glances towards Soren before trying to look Ikki in the eyes. He speaks with a shaky breath.]

She's gone. [It feels like he's admitting it to himself as much as to her.]

Gone to... to home.

[Soren who was not supposed to follow her but apparently he did. Raven can feel her insides start to fall apart and she tries desperately to keep them together. To keep herself from losing herself one more time. This can't happen again.]

That can't be true.

[His eyes are full of heart as he looks towards her. That's what he'd like to tell himself - it's not true. That she'd pop up the next time he opened cupboard, declaring that she finally found him, that they were playing hide-and-seek and he just forgot. He'd reward her for her victory with an extra sweet and-

He blinks it back and feels that cold feeling again. If someone as warm and vibrant as Ikki were still in this world, he knew he wouldn't feel this feeling. So he murmurs the only thing that makes sense to him at the moment.]

Just ask Soren. [He's sure the bird can communicate a 'yes' or 'no'. And he has to be the closest they have to an eyewitness.]

[She didn't want to believe Soren, wanted to interpret his panic as some trouble with Ikki, not her outright disappearance.

Raven fights long and hard with herself to not shoulder the blame for Ikki leaving.]

I don't want to.

[He speaks softly.]

That's okay. We don't have to ask him yet. [But he knows that doesn't change anything. And he's not sure where to go from here, but leaving her on the doorstep isn't the best idea.] How about... do you wanna come inside?

Is everybody in there?

[Raven dislikes crowds; she peeks around the doorframe like she expects a stampede.]

No. [He shakes his head.] Some of them are out and... some are still sleeping in.

[The living room is indeed empty, and Aang makes way for her to come in.]

[Raven does not come in very far. The last time she was really in this house...she talked to Sokka.]

I don't want her to be gone.

[Neither does Aang, of course.]

Trust me. I don't think anyone here wants her gone.

But... her mom and dad. They'd want her back.

[With no mom or dad of her own, Raven can't relate to the feeling of missing one's parents very well. She misses Gaius, but knows he doesn't know she is gone, and that he will be okay regardless.]

They don't know she was here. Everything waits.

But they would if they did know. [He says quietly. He steps a little further across the room, trying to invite Raven to follow her.] They're the parents and they know how to take care of her the best.

I love her. But if she kept living here... it could have hurt her. [In lots of ways. In some ways, it could have started.]

[Raven takes a couple more steps and then stops. Does she want to be here, with the feeling of absence already living well under the roof?]

I don't want her to get hurt.

None of us do. But... as long as this place has war and all of those shifts, there's danger. [And now he glances towards Raven, seeing if she'll linger longer.]

There was one time when they tried to put her on the draft, and - and we saved her. We got to stop the robots. But if there was a next time, maybe we wouldn't be lucky enough that time. Now... now we don't have to worry about there being a next time at all. [He's at least learned to worry like a parent.]

[No, Ikki should never go on a draft. For one startling, clear moment Raven imagines what would have happened to her in Zompania and she shudders, sitting down on the nearest piece of furniture before she realizes she did it.

Soren, who has made his merry way inside, squawks at the obvious display of distress and hops over, nudging into her shoulder with his face.]

[It's the couch, probably. He frowns. In a lot of ways, it feels like he's still getting to know Raven, so he's not sure of the best way to help her. He doesn't know if a hug would help, but Soren at least seems to be off to a good start.

He just steps close to her, going onward with a frown while trying to see if any kind of physical comfort could help.]

I- I probably should have thought of an example that was less bad. I'm sorry.

...Would you like some water, or tea?

Twelve

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