September & October Catch-All

[spiritwalks]

Who: Vyng spiritwalks and YOU
What: Catch-All for September + October. See comments for prompts!
When: Various
Where: Various

Note: Style veers wildly between prose and brackets. Just choose whatever style feels good when responding, and I'll match it ♥

Content Warnings: Listed in subject lines when applicable

Comments

[arclightning]

They had fatality rates?

[ Vyng why.

Mako's what-the-fuck expression certainly hasn't gone away even as he shifts just to sit cross-legged there on the sand. ]

From the food? How hard were people flinging this stuff? What a way to go.

[spiritwalks]

Nah, food just knocked people off their game and damaged their ships. Crashing into the shitty flash-frozen waves is what usually killed people.

[He casually holds out a waterskin for Mako before adding:]

And if it was mating season, you had stampedes of pissed and horny ice rhinos to worry about too.

[arclightning]

...Vyng.

No offense?

But your world is... weirder than mine, sometimes.

[ After a moment, Mako accepts it, hefting the thing in his hand for a second. ]

D'you miss it?

[spiritwalks]

[Vyng plops onto the sand, and he tucks his lanky limbs beneath himself.]

Me? Miss it?

[To be honest, he'd been too busy grieving Billie to consider whether he missed the world itself. Vyng's first instinct is to downplay the question, to bluff by claiming he's moved on and has zero interest in looking back. But his words would likely ring hollow. None of those things are true.

After a moment, he carefully admits:]

I miss certain things about it, I guess. But not everything.

[He can't walk through the Spirit World like he used to. He'll never lay eyes on Cerulean Depths Seen From Great Heights, nor the family he was deprived from knowing for much of his life. Resonances from relationships he painstakingly cultivated still remain, of course, allowing him to move through Trench in much the same way as before. At the same time, he will never be able to replicate those exact connections here. He will never get a chance to repair that ones that were lost or damaged.

As his mind briefly wanders down that morose path, Vyng's gaze toward the ocean horizon becomes unfocused. Thankfully, he catches himself before he goes too far. Rolling his shoulders to snap himself out of it, he turns to look at Mako.]

What about you?

[arclightning]

[ What was that?

Mako wonders, but he doesn't ask: it looked a little bit like Korra meditating, with that hazy distance in Vyng's face like he was somewhere else. It's only fair. Mako asked about his home, sent his thoughts along that path in the first place.

He shifts a little too, trying to get comfortable on the sand. It isn't the sand, though. It's discomfort in his own skin, too-cold, strange. He hasn't felt right since waking up here.

And he can be honest with Vyng. There's a raw edge to his voice. ]

Yeah. I do.

It's—

[ He huffs and turns to look at the same horizon, squinting at the shapes of high, distant birds. ]

I get pretty sick of people telling me how weird our animals are, you know?

[spiritwalks]

What, koalaotters and turtleducks? Weird? Pfft, they're the weird ones. That's normal shit where I'm from.

[Cabbage skunks. Polar bees. Hybrid animals emerge from the Spirit World all the time. Vyng didn't miss a beat during their earlier exercise, because each creature was well within the bounds of his own imagination.]

I can see why it makes you tired, though. It's like..."Yeah? And? Thanks, asshole, you're the fifth person who's said that".

[arclightning]

Yeah! That's—

Yeah.

[ Not the coolest finish, but then Mako hadn't meant to burst out in strong agreement like that, and now his nose and his cheeks are flushed pale blue. ]

It just, I don't know. Don't need to be reminded that I'm never gonna see home again and that literally nothing I think is normal is actually normal to anyone but... you, I guess. It's a stupid thing to get annoyed by. I know that.

[spiritwalks]

To be fair, a weirdo like me going "yeah, that's normal" can't be much of a consolation prize.

[There's a hint of laughter in Vyng's voice, mainly directed at himself. And okay, maybe he's a little bit amused by how strongly Mako agreed with him. But that's because he's been there too, in a variety of ways.

Vyng shifts in the sand, so he's more clearly facing Mako.]

What makes you think it's a stupid thing to get annoyed by?

hello, a missed notif!!! sry about that!!

[arclightning]

[ Vyng and his insightful questions. Mako shifts a little, curling his fingers into cool sand just to feel it before letting the grains drop bit by bit into a small pile. ]

I should be used to it by now. I've been... not at home, for food, for more than a year now.

It does help, though. You. Your world. People talk so much about earth. There are so many people from it. They have all these... references and phrases and idioms. Curses. Stuff like that.

[spiritwalks]

Okay, but for real, though. Who is Jesus? And why is he fucking Christ?

[Please tell Vyng he's not the only one wondering this, Mako.]

[arclightning]

[ Oh Vyng you're speaking his language, Mako sits up straight all at once, his eyes wide. ] I have no idea! I hear that one all the time!

[spiritwalks]

Same here! What is up with that?

[This Jesus-fucking thing is going to bother him for the rest of his afternoon. Unless...]

You think Shiro would know?

[arclightning]

[ ...

There is a long pause in which Mako contemplates this. Shiro does know a lot of things. And he's been here, or in the dream, for a while, which means it's likely he's encountered a lot of different worlds.

But... ]

He's from space.

[spiritwalks]

Space Jesus. Maybe there's somebody like that where he's from. We don't know.

[arclightning]

[ Mako squints at him.

He really

He wants Vyng to be wrong but on the other hand, he really doesn't know that Shiro doesn't... have someone like that. ]

I... guess we could ask him.

[spiritwalks]

Hey, it can't hurt.

[It absolutely could hurt Shiro's brain, but what Vyng doesn't know can't possibly hurt him until later.]

Do you wanna do it? Or should I?

[arclightning]

You do it—I mean, he's probably too busy to answer, and it doesn't really matter.

[ Buuut Mako is just scooting a little closer on the sand so he can hear Shiro's answer. Thank you, Vyng, now he really wants to know. ]

[spiritwalks]

Alright, pal. Leave it to me.

[He fishes for his Omni and shoots off a video message:]

Hey, buddy! You got a second? Mako and I have a question for you.

[shiro2hero]

[It won't take him more than a few moments to respond. But it's in voice, rather than video.]

Hey, Vyng, Mako. What's up guys?

[The sound of the waves in the background. His shift with the Wakers.]

[spiritwalks]

Jesus fucking Christ. That's what.



[What is context.....]

[shiro2hero]

What.

[arclightning]

[ Mako chimes in quietly and seriously over Vyng's shoulder: ]

Do you not have that in space?

[spiritwalks]

[Helpfully:]

Jesus fucking Space-Christ.

[shiro2hero]

N... No. No, we have... the curse...

You do know that's what it is. Right? It's a swear.

[spiritwalks]

Uh, yeah. We Cheese-is-fucking-Christ know that.

But who the hell are they?