Second Petal | Video | UN: ClickClickBloom

[onekindsoul]

Hey there!

Ruby Rose here. If it's your first time seeing me around then it's nice to meet you and if it's not it's probably great to see you again!

So it turns out that this place is about as dangerous as the dream was. That kind of sucks, doesn't it? I mean- I'm used to all kinds of monsters in my original world but I totally get that it's not everyone's jam. which is kind of why I'm here today.

Back in the dream Mako and Wu had set up a safe house and supply cache system. I think it worked out really well and I've been speaking with Mako and we've agreed it might be a good idea to get that going again. I tried to convince him to get up on video with me but he got all grumbly and walked away. Introverts, am I right?

Ideally it would be super great to get one of these set up in each district but I figure that's going to take a lot of work. So I propose we set up the first one in either the Willful Machine or Cellar Door districts so it's in a central location and we can branch out from there.

Next we're going to need ways to defend and protect the area whether it's people actually actively hanging around, magical protection or whatever cool skills people might have. I'm open to any ideas here. Medical care and any sort of food or other supplies are also going to be necessary too.

Okay I think that's about everything-

[There's a buzz that comes from Ruby's Omni and she glances down at it.]

Oh-Oh! One second- It's Mako.

He's saying "We need to tie this into the network. Ask about extra lamp skeletons." Okay! First off! Rude. They're Cute Little Lamp Friends, don't call them skeletons.

But he's got a point! If anyone has any extra C.L.L.F's to lend that would be a huge help too. Being able to quickly access the locations would be a huge help.

Anyways that's all I can think of at the moment. If anyone has any questions or suggestions I'd be happy to answer them.

Since you're listening to this Mako, you can too!

[She points to her eyes, then back to the camera.]

Watching you.

[OOC: Ruby and Mako will be responding to this post. I've made a handy dandy page for the safe houses here. If you want you can post with how you're character is contributing there.]

Comments

private

[arclightning]

[ At least the impulse to look cool is one Mako left at 18. It was beaten out of him by Wu and then exploded him out of him even further during the war. Now he's just trying to stay alive and remember who he is.

Maybe that's part of it. Maybe Mako's sense of self is already a thing in flux, shifting the ground under his feet. The things he used to define himself by are changing, bit by bit. Ambiguity has been Mako's world for so long, cut through by a binary moral code (good for Bolin / bad for Bolin), but he hates it still. The process of becoming is a painful thing.

Still. Part of that process is honesty, and Mako owes Ange, who understands, that much. ]

It's just not who I am. Bolin is the nice one. Wu is the nice one. Nice isn't real. It's just another thing you do to make yourself less threatening to people who can mess with you. In the real world, nice doesn't cut it.

Don't know what it says about me if what I'm doing makes people think oh, he's nice. I thought I wanted that, but I didn't, really. I just wanted

[ What did he want?

Wu has asked him that, too, and Mako still doesn't know the answer. He pauses, sends what he has, and then continues: ]

If I said to you, wow, Ange, you're such a nice person. How would that make you feel?

private

[entreats]

[ It's obvious that this topic is complicated for Mako. There's the obvious giveaway of the way he suddenly stops typing like that in the middle of the sentence, but there's also the weird near-rambling, the overexplaining, the exact same thing Ange does whenever she tries to express a complicated emotion.

So Ange takes this as seriously as she can. He's opening up, and the last thing Ange wants is for Mako to feel like he can't do that to her, especially when she's presented herself so far as someone who can understand a lot. ]

Kind of weird. I'm not used to hearing it.

[ So there, she'll give him the honest answer, even if it doesn't exactly work in favour of her 'Mako is nice' argument. ]

But I imagine people might say it about you much easier than they might say it about me. You're a lot more openly kind. [ If he's refusing 'nice'... ] It feels like every since I've known about you, I've always seen you out there organizing stuff for people like this. You're always taking care of others.

private

[arclightning]

[ Mako isn't used to hearing it, either, lets out a small breath at the words. ]

That's all I know how to do.

For a long time, all I cared about was Bolin and me. He was all I had, and I had to keep him alive, so I did, but that was a selfish way to live. I didn't realize that before I met Korra. She pretty much showed me that if we're gonna make it when things are hard, we have to stick together and care about other people.

Things are always hard here, so. I'm trying to do that.

I just don't know if that makes me nice. It's not my first instinct. I'm not doing it for the reasons that Bolin or Wu would. I'm doing it because if you take care of people, they're more likely to do the same thing to you, and also because I've been hungry and I know how much it sucks.

You've helped me just as much. I'd call you a good person.

private

[entreats]

Is that also the only reason you're helping Ruby out?

Only because you believe that would make her do the same for you in return?

[ It's not said in a way that's protective of Ruby - though it usually would have been. No, this is instead more about the fact that Ange doesn't believe Mako would do it just for that reason. If so, she majorly misread him, she thinks.

Maybe it's since they're so similar that she can't help but think it's just a coverup. Because it's the exact thing Ange would say in order to not be seen as kind. ]

[arclightning]

[ Alright, she absolutely has him there. Mako stares at the words, feeling oddly like he's walked into a trap, his mouth twisting in something like amusement and something else like defeat. ]

I mean, it's good for her to learn how to lead something like this. She's talked about wanting to become a better leader, and with her helping, I don't have to be the face of this thing.

I know it should be a good thing to be nice. It is a good thing. It's just.

Guess I've changed. A lot, actually.

If being nice turns into a liability and gets people hurt, that'll be on me.

[ Clumsy words for a feeling Mako still can't express: that if Bolin is allowed to be nice, Mako has to be mean, because someone has to make the hard choices. Someone has to take the brunt of life's attacks, and that someone can't be nice about it. They have to be ruthless, and strong, and willing to strike first.

At least, Mako did.

Maybe he doesn't anymore.

Maybe he just doesn't believe that yet. ]

[entreats]

[ She was right, Ange realises as she reads those words.

Sure, the nuance is different, because before Deerington Ange never had anyone to look out for other than herself. But the same lesson had been completely ingrained in her. Being nice gets people killed - or, in her case, gets herself killed. It felt like a luxury. Showing people you're nice is like asking for trouble. ]

I get it.

[ It's why she sends that first, not wanting him to feel like he isn't being heard here. ]

But in that sense we're lucky here. Sure, I'm not going to claim that this place is entirely full of good people, as we've.. been able to witness on here lately. [ LIVE TORTURING PEOPLE FOR CONFESSIONS, FUN STUFF.. ] But I'd say the ratio of good people to bad people is incredibly better in this place than it was where I come from, and maybe the same counts when you compare it to the place you come from.

The threats we have to worry about here often aren't more or less of a risk, just because we're nice. It's not like an aggressive monster is going to care about that. [ Not compared to people, who are so much more likely to take advantage of that. ]

At least.. that's what I'm telling myself. So I can find myself able to be a little more openly nice, if not just to the people I care about.

.. Or so I can be kind enough to help out someone who seems to be struggling with problems that are similar to mine. [ Hint, hint. ]

[arclightning]

That is a pretty kind thing to do.

[ Once, it would have been terrifying to have someone look so clearly into the inner workings of himself. There are bits of Mako that are soft and unformed, squishy and vulnerable and wrong, and he hides those bits as best he can.

But Ange is... Ange is trying, just as much as he's trying. Ange has had to learn the same lessons—came from, as far as Mako can tell, just as cruel a world, had to fight for just as much and trust almost no one. From what she'd told him that first time, it sounds like Ange didn't have anyone but herself to trust for a long time.

And here she is, saying all these things anyway.

Mako knows how hard it is. It's tough to pull those things from his own head and commit them to text and let someone else read them: he feels an odd burst of nerves every time he sends a sentence, wondering if it'll be taken the way he intended. ]

The ratio here is definitely better than it was. At home I could count on my hand the number of people who'd be willing to put everything on the line for the sake of other people without expecting some kind of reward.

Didn't know what to make of it, at first. Figured I just wasn't as good at reading what people wanted, but you're right. They're just nicer.

How is it for you, telling yourself that? Being nice and talking to me about this for no reason?

[entreats]

It's weird.

[ She won't deny that. It has been weird, it is weird right now, it will be weird in the future. Ange has been living the way she used to for so long that she's not too sure if she will ever be able to get used to any of it. Saying nice things to people, hearing nice things from them in return - there might forever be a tainted weird edge to it. ]

But it's also infinitely rewarding. I was always so hopelessly alone back in my world. I hated it. I couldn't live that way anymore. But I've never felt that lonely again for a moment ever since I started opening up to the [ knuckleheads ] people I now know here.

It's a lot scarier in some ways, but I'm also so much happier than I've ever been.

[arclightning]

[ "Hopelessly alone" is such an evocative phrase. Even Mako was never really alone. He had Bolin, even if Bolin was relying on him, and then he had Korra and Asami and Wu.

And then everyone here, all these aggressively kind people who just keep trying no matter what. Sometimes Mako wants to shake them and ask them what they want. But he's better than that, and so is Ange. ]

Good. You deserve that. I really don't know many people who'd.

I don't know. You keep reaching out. And I know it's kind and kind things don't expect a reward, so you're probably just doing this because you're a good person, but.

Thank you. Really. It's nice that you get it.

[entreats]

[ 'Because you're a good person', huh.

Phew. Ange needs to sit there and process that one for a moment, but then exhales and writes back: ]

If you need some reason to be able to deal with me treating you kindly, just see it as repayment for you helping out Ruby. She means the world to me. [ Stuff she can only say so casually to Mako because she knows literally anyone else would tease her to no end over it.. ]

Or, you know, otherwise you might have to slowly come to terms with the terrifying fact that you and I both just somehow happen to be good people after all.

[arclightning]

Hm.

I think I'm gonna opt for the first one.

Even after fighting a nightmare version of myself and running through a sewer full of bodies that idea that we're good people is still terrifying.

[ Maybe it's a joke. Maybe it's the truth disguised as a joke. Who knows! ]