deercountry | it's the solstice

Who: Mako, Wu, & close CR
What: They might be in a different world, but the solstice is the solstice, and that means it's time to feed everyone you care about, if you're Mako
When: Night of December 21st
Where: Mako and Wu's loft above the Raccoon Room

Content warnings: Sadness from potential memory-share stuff, homesickness, mentions of Mako and Bo's dead parents

© TESSISAMESS

If you have close CR with Mako or Wu, in the days leading up to the Winter Solstice—December 21st—you may have gotten a small text invite in your inbox. A few simple lines inviting you to the Raccoon Room on the night of the 21st for dinner "because it's the solstice." Normally the Raccoon Room is closed early in the week, but on the 21st they've opened it up.

They're actually having people over in the loft above the Raccoon Room, and their living space is decked out in lanterns and candles to keep out the long darkness. Snow falls quietly outside, but in here it's warm and it smells like ginger and pepper. Wu's put on a few scratchy records in the background. Here and there, Winter Mournings are hung, not quite out of reach. It's very easy to accidentally or purposefully touch one.

If anyone comes in early enough, Mako is still at the counter with his sleeves rolled up, rolling dumplings, covered in rice flour. Maybe help him cook? He's looking better than he was early in the month: his skin is the correct pallor without that odd gray cast, and there's no smoke rolling off his body, so that... has to be good!

For the later arrivals, Mako's made dinner, which means hot tangyuan in gingery broth, an entire bowl of mushroom noodles for sharing, and a simmering pot of broth for people to cook things in, as well as a lot of a tangy sauce that Mako gets kind of cagey about when people try. Sit down, enjoy some hot pot! It's a time to be together, after all.

[ ooc: tag around, top-level, have a good time! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Mako tugs the bowl closer, already flicking on the flame with a wave of fingers. Thank goodness for gas stoves without working pilot lights. Who needs them when you're a firebender? He'd had to replace the lunar-powered one this place came with. Too slow to cook, not enough fire. ]

So—if we could find a way to get into space, we could visit. Or... your people could come and find us. Hook us up to the Railway? Does that happen?

[it gets a small, noncommittal sound out of Manabu, who is quick to jump on hope...but being fast doesn't always make one steady where they land. he can't make promises on behalf of other people, now can he? even if he desperately wants to.

and besides: those visitors from another universe? they came in hostility, trying to stop the railway from interconnecting. wouldn't that make the heads of the whole enterprise less keen on expanding that far?

he really doesn't want to think that way.]

There's...there has to be a chance, at least. Somehow. [his gaze moves toward the nearest window.] I just don't know how to realize it.

...but you want it.

[ Mako has to confirm as he reaches for his stack of cornstarched dumpling wrappers to start filling them properly. He isn't sure with Manabu sometimes what he actually wants to happen, whether he actually lets himself want things or just does things because he think it's supposed to. It's not like Mako has any easier of a time figuring out what he wants and actually going for it. ]

[smaller:] Of course I do... [he swallows to get his voice back to level, clearing it again as he looks back to the work Mako's spread of dumplings in process.

his own hands, for lack of something to do, curl their fingers on the edges of the table.]

I mean, it'd just...be good to give everyone a chance, you know? Chance to get away from here...maybe even find their own homes. Or...better ones. That's what the railway is all about. It's why protecting it is so important... [and it's why so many people he cares about died in service to it.]

That's what those doors were supposed to do. Back in the dream. Didn't work, but... this place feels a lot more permanent. Maybe it'd actually happen here.

[ Manabu's practically radiating tension without something in his hands, or maybe Mako's just projecting that because he'd be in the same boat. He's a live wire without a project, especially right now with all the ends of him exposed and frayed.

Wordlessly, he presses a dumpling wrapper onto the counter in front of Manabu. ]

You know how to wrap one of these things?

Uh-- [he blinks, his eye darting over to the wrapper.] Oh. Yeah, sure.

[he reaches over for the filling before hesitating.] Is...there a specific fold? For this occasion? Or is it whatever...

[ Mako barely even hesitates. ]

Yup. And if you mess it up and it falls apart, it's bad luck for the rest of the new year.

...

[Manabu fixes Mako with a look, just to see if he's mugging or about to break the façade; only then will he respond.

...because look. sometimes sarcasm is hard. especially when Mako doesn't have Blatant Sarcasm inflections! so he may actually be legit?]

[ Mako tries so hard to keep the facade up. He tries so hard, but Manabu looks so unimpressed and he just spouted such bullpigshit that after a few seconds of stony silence he breaks, snickering quietly as he folds up a dumpling. ]

I used to tell Bolin that, at least, to keep him from trying to help. Just fold it however you're used to.

[yeah. yeah he thought so. jerk. that punk big brother energy...Manabu's familiar with it, okay?

he hmphs lightly, setting to work.

eventually, kind of muttered:] ...Mom usually mixes up the folds. Said because it's like...gathering all the different family members to the table.

[ Mako glances up at him at that, through the easy peace of folding dumplings together. It's nice to have another pair of hands, nice to stand side-by-side with Manabu when neither of them are tied up or almost dying or working through something awful. There's just dough and filling and the quiet scratchy music Wu has playing on the record player, the scent of ginger in the air and the glow of lanterns. ]

That's... kind of nice. My dad was always way more into the ritual stuff like this. Mom liked it for the food, dad liked it for the tradition. I think. It's been a while. D'you miss her?

Of course...!

[a small declaration in a small voice, but it's no less earnest. any louder and his voice would've cracked! he clears his throat.]

Of course I do. Even though I know I'm stuck here...I don't know if she knows that.

[and she's all alone on Tabito, just as she feared when sending her last living son off. all the men in her life left on those trains, and the only one who ever came back was Manabu.

not anymore.]

That's why...if there's any way to reach out there. Send a signal... Just to let her know it's okay... [he pinches the ends of the wrapper, setting the dumpling aside with the other finished ones.]

We all deserve that chance. The people...wondering where we are...they deserve it, too.

[ The earnest answer is kind of comforting, in a way. It's nice to think about Manabu belonging to something, to someone, about people belonging to him. Mako imagines Manabu himself, softer and older, wonders if he looks like his mom. ]

They do. We do. I... still think we should talk to Asami, see what she can build. There are floating statues here and people from other universes, there has to be a way to talk to each other. Right?

You keep mentioning that name now and then, but-- [he frowns.] Who is that? I mean, I'm kind of assuming it's someone you knew before all this, since...that just...seems to track, but I don't really know?

[and perhaps it's a little frustrating to even ask, knowing it'll just be oh you know, more people from my home world. there's a whole ton!

that's...not how Mako acts, but look. when one is bracing for negativity, the framing device comes packed full of it already.]

[ Manabu is absolutely not wrong about that, and Mako finds himself laughing almost sheepishly as he pleats a dumpling with efficient fingers. ]

She's... my ex-girlfriend from home, yeah. One of them. The other one is, uh, also here. Korra. Best inventor in our world. Her dad invented Satomobiles, and everything she's made is ten times better than his stuff.

[blink.

with all the bluntness of a natural-born little brother:] Is everyone you've dated or kissed here right now, or...?

[ STRAIGHT FOR THE GUT. Mako winces like he's been punched. ]

....yeah. Actually. Yes. All three of them.

[he breathes out of one of those long, slow notes of barely-veiled judgment as he grabs another wrapper. someone cleverer than him would have something sassy to add to that like i guess if anyone wants to stick around they just have to date you huh but come on. Manabu's not like that, even with all the exposure to Diluc lately.

no: Mako gets that sound. just that! that's all he has. perish.]

it's the solstice

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