[ It takes Mako a MINUTE to pick up. Like a long time, because the Fluid's vibrating is sort of piercing and he has to fumble with the little swipe function, but eventually there is a lot of rustling and then some breath, a little too heavy, before Mako says: ] —llo? This, it's Mako. You okay?
[Raleigh doesn't really stop to consider they've only spoken like. Once maybe twice. Is it weird to call a stranger? Are they strangers? Who fucking knows anymore.]
Hey, Mako. It's Raleigh.. Seemed like typing was difficult, are you hurt?
[ Is anyone a stranger in Deerington? Mako has made more friends more quickly in the last three months than he probably has in his. Entire life.
It's a lot.
He sucks in a small breath that sounds very raspy and not... particularly okay. This is actually the first he's spoken to anyone but Bolin since he got back. ] Hi. Hey. Something like that. Sick. Uh.
[ The memory is somehow both very hazy and very clear. Mako should probably tell him. ] I. Died. I think.
[A beat. He's processing that. Mako sounds like shit and no wonder. Raleigh hasn't been here long enough to know anyone who's died (or maybe he's just lucky). He knows it's A Thing here that you can come back but. Huh.]
[ The more he says it out loud, the more real it sounds. Seems. There was a deer, and there was grass, and there was pain. Mako winces to himself, and there's more rustling as he shifts over onto his side. Everything is too cold and too hot at once. ] And now I'm sick. Which is. Great.
Do you. Know what day it is? I missed it. Your party.
Shit... Hey, that's okay. It's uuh [thinking-] the 7th.
[Answer Mako first, then process, Rals. He's saying he died. What the fuck. Raleigh sure knows the feeling, though. Not here... but from before. Sort of. Second hand.]
Do you have, uh, anyone looking out for you? Do you need anything? I've got errands so it's no big deal.
My brother's here but he can't cook to save his life. [ Mako's laughter kind of sounds strained, like it hurts, but at least it's.. there?
He doesn't know what to do with all this concern. He didn't expect it, doesn't ever anticipate that people will want to help but here Raleigh is, offering without hesitation. ] If Hart Mart has any prepared meals, I got my first paycheck last week, I can pay you back.
I'd heard. That you could die here, and come back, but. I don't know if I believed it.
Okay. And yeah... I've heard that too. I guess it's kind of comforting in a way. Not that it's a safety net from the sound of it but... it's something.
[A beat. He makes a note to himself about the meals but doesn't feel the need to discuss it. Food is free, right? And if the fancy pre made stuff isn't then they can figure it out. H doesn't really care about the money but he understands. Raleigh himself would refuse anything in the form of charity simply on the principle of the act. Stubborn pride born of living through some very rough times. Anyway, enough thinking about that sob story.]
I'm sorry about your friend. You said you were down in the trench?
It's not as final as it would be anywhere else. If there has to be something, it's that. You get another chance.
A lot of them, actually.
[ Mako doesn't like the charity, really—although he's learned to take what he can get, not think too hard about where it's coming from. Now he's self-sufficient enough that charity can sting at his pride, and in a weird way he relishes that. He's no longer desperate enough not to care.
Although he is very hungry. Bolin really doesn't know what he's doing in the kitchen. That's probably Mako's fault: he should have tried harder to teach him to do more than just stuff dumplings. ]
...yeah. I was. Right after she, uh. Disappeared. I need to find out if the guy who killed me is still down there.
[There's a bit to unpack there but the last part really gets his attention. In the background there's some general noise of the city. He's out in the world now he's got a mission. Did he actually have errands to run? No. But It's easier to accept the offer of help when someone is already out doing stuff. That's how he'd see it, anyway. Maybe he's projecting.]
Did you see who did it? What they looked like? My partner's in F.E.A.R. we can put out an APB on the son of a bitch.
[ It worked on Mako, anyway: there's no way he'd have even slightly accepted it, otherwise. He still doesn't understand the sheer number of people going out of their way to help. ]
I did, but it doesn't make any sense. I've talked to him before, and I didn't get... I don't know why he would do that. Eddie.
He's a kid.
[ Not just a kid, but a kid all the same. Mako knows all too well the viciousness of children, that children aren't tiny blameless creatures who can do no wrong.
But something still doesn't add up, and he's too tired to piece together what that is. ]
[ Mako's heard that this place can make you do things you wouldn't, but as far as he can tell there was no reason for it. He hasn't seen Eddie's post about it yet, hasn't yet heard the reason.
His words, when they come, are halting, carefully picked from the swirling morass in his own head as he pieces it all together for probably the first time. He hasn't told Bolin yet, not in full. Not when it would just hurt him to hear about it. ]
It's. Clearer than I want it to be. I went down there after Korra disappeared. Figured if I was in the water I wouldn't burn anything down that I didn't mean to.
Eddie was down there too. Didn't recognize him at first, I'd only talked to him over this thing. He seemed normal over the Fluid, but in the trench he was fixated on the fact that I was alone. I should've noticed something was off.
[And while Raleigh doesn't know about fire bending (but would think it's the coolest damn thing ever!) he appreciates that sentiment. He's been there, buddy.]
Don't blame yourself. You're a victim in this.
So.. okay you went down there and this guy what, he ambushed and attacked you?
[ Just the word makes Mako scowl. ] I should've—I'm smarter than that. I should be.
[ But he was lost in feeling, and he gets... stupid. When that happens. He's working on that, or he really should. Once he would've just tried not to get close enough to anyone that they made him feel that way, but now he's trying to work on his end of it. ]
That's the weird part. He was being nice. Probably a little too nice. Nice, and then—like he snapped.
[mm, yeah it's an ugly word but. Also you were murdered in cold blood so.]
Hm.
[Lulled him into feeling safe and struck. What a fucking scumbag strategy. Effective but scumbag. There's a rant on the tip of Raleigh's tongue but his last shred of self preservation is keeping it back. For now. Or something. It's very unlike him but not unlike his!mako with whom he's shared a mind. Elements of her often make themselves present. She also has a hell of a revenge streak.]
So what do you wanna do? He could be out there hurting other people right now.
[Because Raleigh thinks Mako should press charges.. or.. whatever is the closest equivalent here. But he wasn't the one who was brutally murdered in cold blood. So it's Mako's decision whether he lets a murderer get away with it or not.]
[ No, that's—fair! Definitely fair. Even if Mako hates it.
He has to think about it, as best he can. Mako isn't revenge-minded, exactly, unless someone has hurt someone he cares about. In this case, though: it was him. It was his own recklessness, as far as he's concerned, that got him murdered.
And Deerington, he knows, can make you do things you would never do. Must, or Mako would never have turned into a monster. That, at least, is what he tells himself. What he has to tell himself. Maybe it's not that it makes you do things you don't want to do, more that it plays up impulses. Firebenders are dangerous. Some people think firebenders are monsters. Mako isn't convinced that's not true.
He huffs, his breath staticking over the Fluid. ]
If you're willing, take someone with you and check the Trench. The first thing we need to do is make sure he's not still down there.
I'm going to figure out why he did it. Something isn't adding up.
[He had a lot to think about and Mako sounds like shit so flipping out all over him isn't gonna get him anywhere. It's amazing he's displaying this restraint okay. An influence of his Mako. You can thank her for that.]
Okay, I'm just getting to the grocery. Text me your address and I'll drop it by.
[It makes him smile. Chuck spends all day on patrol with F.E.A.R. running around helping people. Hunting monsters. Saving lives. Raleigh can't quite face the idea of enlisting but doing something like this is good. It makes him feel useful. Gets him out of the house.
He may have told Mako a little white lie about being in town already and having errands, but he thinks it's worth it.
Raleigh spends a while picking out what he thinks will be acceptable, comfort foods he likes when he's sick. Things you don't actually have to cook, you can just stick in the microwave or oven. And it's Deerington so given the era all the TV dinners are nostalgic looking in their foil packaging but he thinks it's the easiest way to go. He grabs a big stack and checks out, throwing in a box of Christmas blend cinnamon tea and a bag of hard candies. Always makes him feel better.
Some time later he knocks and sets the brown paper bag down, making sure to kick as much snow off the front step at he can so nothing gets soaked. He isn't expecting to visit, but he'll stay until someone answers to make sure they get it.]
[ Mako makes himself get up and answer the door. Bolin is out somewhere, and Korra is gone, so it's just the two of them and Naga, now.
Naga still hasn't moved much. Mako will have to figure out what to do about her, take some people up on the offers of walks, maybe, but privately he gets how she feels: he wants to wait in Korra's room, too, see if maybe she wakes up one day like she should.
It's a stupid, childish hope, and Mako only lets himself entertain it when it's just him and Naga.
Kind of nice, then to have something to get up for, even if Mako looks like complete shit when he does yank the door open. Hair a mess, eyes hazy, cheeks flushed with fever. It takes him a second to register Raleigh, and then the gifts, which he blinks at, shoving the hand not currently braced on the doorframe into his hair. ] Raleigh?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
text; un:mako 2 / 2, december 7th
Mako does not show up to Thanksgiving, and he doesn't bring either Bolin or Korra. There's nothing from him for days, in fact, until this: ]
I'm sorry. That I couldn't make it.
A lot of
I hope it was good
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Hey, don't worry about it.
What happened are you okay?
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Korra is gone. I don't know if you talked to her. I need to tell everyne
evydn
EVE RYONE
[ Someone is sick and dizzy and having a very hard time typing, sitting alone in the dark in his bed. But he's trying. He has to tell people. ]
You shouldnt go in the trench
-> call
voice!
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Hey, Mako. It's Raleigh.. Seemed like typing was difficult, are you hurt?
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It's a lot.
He sucks in a small breath that sounds very raspy and not... particularly okay. This is actually the first he's spoken to anyone but Bolin since he got back. ] Hi. Hey. Something like that. Sick. Uh.
[ The memory is somehow both very hazy and very clear. Mako should probably tell him. ] I. Died. I think.
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... You what?
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[ The more he says it out loud, the more real it sounds. Seems. There was a deer, and there was grass, and there was pain. Mako winces to himself, and there's more rustling as he shifts over onto his side. Everything is too cold and too hot at once. ] And now I'm sick. Which is. Great.
Do you. Know what day it is? I missed it. Your party.
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[Answer Mako first, then process, Rals. He's saying he died. What the fuck. Raleigh sure knows the feeling, though. Not here... but from before. Sort of. Second hand.]
Do you have, uh, anyone looking out for you? Do you need anything? I've got errands so it's no big deal.
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He doesn't know what to do with all this concern. He didn't expect it, doesn't ever anticipate that people will want to help but here Raleigh is, offering without hesitation. ] If Hart Mart has any prepared meals, I got my first paycheck last week, I can pay you back.
I'd heard. That you could die here, and come back, but. I don't know if I believed it.
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[A beat. He makes a note to himself about the meals but doesn't feel the need to discuss it. Food is free, right? And if the fancy pre made stuff isn't then they can figure it out. H doesn't really care about the money but he understands. Raleigh himself would refuse anything in the form of charity simply on the principle of the act. Stubborn pride born of living through some very rough times. Anyway, enough thinking about that sob story.]
I'm sorry about your friend. You said you were down in the trench?
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A lot of them, actually.
[ Mako doesn't like the charity, really—although he's learned to take what he can get, not think too hard about where it's coming from. Now he's self-sufficient enough that charity can sting at his pride, and in a weird way he relishes that. He's no longer desperate enough not to care.
Although he is very hungry. Bolin really doesn't know what he's doing in the kitchen. That's probably Mako's fault: he should have tried harder to teach him to do more than just stuff dumplings. ]
...yeah. I was. Right after she, uh. Disappeared. I need to find out if the guy who killed me is still down there.
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Did you see who did it? What they looked like? My partner's in F.E.A.R. we can put out an APB on the son of a bitch.
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I did, but it doesn't make any sense. I've talked to him before, and I didn't get... I don't know why he would do that. Eddie.
He's a kid.
[ Not just a kid, but a kid all the same. Mako knows all too well the viciousness of children, that children aren't tiny blameless creatures who can do no wrong.
But something still doesn't add up, and he's too tired to piece together what that is. ]
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Mako, I need you to tell me everything you remember about what happened. Take your time, but tell me.
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His words, when they come, are halting, carefully picked from the swirling morass in his own head as he pieces it all together for probably the first time. He hasn't told Bolin yet, not in full. Not when it would just hurt him to hear about it. ]
It's. Clearer than I want it to be. I went down there after Korra disappeared. Figured if I was in the water I wouldn't burn anything down that I didn't mean to.
Eddie was down there too. Didn't recognize him at first, I'd only talked to him over this thing. He seemed normal over the Fluid, but in the trench he was fixated on the fact that I was alone. I should've noticed something was off.
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Don't blame yourself. You're a victim in this.
So.. okay you went down there and this guy what, he ambushed and attacked you?
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[ But he was lost in feeling, and he gets... stupid. When that happens. He's working on that, or he really should. Once he would've just tried not to get close enough to anyone that they made him feel that way, but now he's trying to work on his end of it. ]
That's the weird part. He was being nice. Probably a little too nice. Nice, and then—like he snapped.
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Hm.
[Lulled him into feeling safe and struck. What a fucking scumbag strategy. Effective but scumbag. There's a rant on the tip of Raleigh's tongue but his last shred of self preservation is keeping it back. For now. Or something. It's very unlike him but not unlike his!mako with whom he's shared a mind. Elements of her often make themselves present. She also has a hell of a revenge streak.]
So what do you wanna do? He could be out there hurting other people right now.
[Because Raleigh thinks Mako should press charges.. or.. whatever is the closest equivalent here. But he wasn't the one who was brutally murdered in cold blood. So it's Mako's decision whether he lets a murderer get away with it or not.]
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He has to think about it, as best he can. Mako isn't revenge-minded, exactly, unless someone has hurt someone he cares about. In this case, though: it was him. It was his own recklessness, as far as he's concerned, that got him murdered.
And Deerington, he knows, can make you do things you would never do. Must, or Mako would never have turned into a monster. That, at least, is what he tells himself. What he has to tell himself. Maybe it's not that it makes you do things you don't want to do, more that it plays up impulses. Firebenders are dangerous. Some people think firebenders are monsters. Mako isn't convinced that's not true.
He huffs, his breath staticking over the Fluid. ]
If you're willing, take someone with you and check the Trench. The first thing we need to do is make sure he's not still down there.
I'm going to figure out why he did it. Something isn't adding up.
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[He had a lot to think about and Mako sounds like shit so flipping out all over him isn't gonna get him anywhere. It's amazing he's displaying this restraint okay. An influence of his Mako. You can thank her for that.]
Okay, I'm just getting to the grocery. Text me your address and I'll drop it by.
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His breath forms static over the Fluid for a moment before he says: ] I'll message it to you right now.
Thank you. For. Following up.
[ And then, because Mako is sick and tired and out of social graces, he hangs up.
Raleigh does get a text a few minutes later with the address to 2010 Howard Hill, followed by another: thank you, Raleigh. ]
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He may have told Mako a little white lie about being in town already and having errands, but he thinks it's worth it.
Raleigh spends a while picking out what he thinks will be acceptable, comfort foods he likes when he's sick. Things you don't actually have to cook, you can just stick in the microwave or oven. And it's Deerington so given the era all the TV dinners are nostalgic looking in their foil packaging but he thinks it's the easiest way to go. He grabs a big stack and checks out, throwing in a box of Christmas blend cinnamon tea and a bag of hard candies. Always makes him feel better.
Some time later he knocks and sets the brown paper bag down, making sure to kick as much snow off the front step at he can so nothing gets soaked. He isn't expecting to visit, but he'll stay until someone answers to make sure they get it.]
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Naga still hasn't moved much. Mako will have to figure out what to do about her, take some people up on the offers of walks, maybe, but privately he gets how she feels: he wants to wait in Korra's room, too, see if maybe she wakes up one day like she should.
It's a stupid, childish hope, and Mako only lets himself entertain it when it's just him and Naga.
Kind of nice, then to have something to get up for, even if Mako looks like complete shit when he does yank the door open. Hair a mess, eyes hazy, cheeks flushed with fever. It takes him a second to register Raleigh, and then the gifts, which he blinks at, shoving the hand not currently braced on the doorframe into his hair. ] Raleigh?
This. Uh. This is a lot.
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