[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?
[Raleigh shrugs and smiles takes a moment to get a good look at Mako. They haven't met face to face or even over video chat as far as he remembers (though his brain is a block of swiss cheese on a good day so who knows, not him).
It's only because Mako is recovering from, well, death that Raleigh doesn't immediately comment on the guys impressive eyebrows. Because that's rude or something, even if he thinks they're badass.
He thinks his Mako would think so, too.
From what he's seen so far both Makos have a lot in common. Would it be weird to say that? Maybe. Is he projecting a little on this poor guy because he misses his friend so damn much? Possibly. At least in the beginning.
But here stands Raleigh, 6'1 and european. Blond haired and blue eyed. Built like a soldier with a weary but honest face and (momentarily) gentle energy. He's been compared to a golden retriever several..several....several times. It is not incorrect.]
Mako.
[Yep. Raleigh.
Man it's weird to say Mako out loud to someone. Mako, Mako, Mako with a long a. Raleigh's accent isn't easy to place but they're from vastly different worlds so it's unlikely he'd get pinged for sounding like a trans Atlantic abomination.]
I wasn't sure what you liked. And I figured it was for your brother too. I could never eat anything without my siblings stealing half of it.
Lemme bring'em in?
[Not to like. Invite himself into your house but he's inviting himself into your house. You look like you feel, buddy]
He's met a couple of them now, and it's always strange because as far as he remembers there's nobody like that at home, and Republic City has people from all over the place. Maybe more than anywhere else in the world, and still there is nobody who looks like Raleigh.
Somehow, though, his face matches the image Mako had in his mind. He offers Raleigh a tiny little smile and steps back out of the doorway, waving a hand. He isn't living with Kristoff yet, but it's a near thing. Soon. ]
You thought right. Bolin eats at least two-thirds of everything we make. Maybe more. And Naga always gets a little. She's, uh, in the kitchen, don't worry about her, she's big but she's nice.
[He smiles and picks the bag back up, kicking the snow off his boots before coming in and making a random guess as to where the kitchen might be.]
Cool brows bro, [He he passes. More like a by the way nothing line. He tried to resist. He really did. Over his shoulder the invisible shade of the ghost of his brother agrees. They are very cool. They make Mako look like some kind of feudal samurai.]
Naga is a dog, right? I think Chuck's mentioned her--oh- shit!.
[He's found the kitchen. And Naga. Who is bigger than a god damn moose and short of a kaiju that's the biggest animal Raleigh has ever experienced.
[ Mako has been made fun of for his eyebrows before, follows after Raleigh with a semi-confused frown after kicking the front door shut to keep out the cold.
He snorts as soon as Raleigh encounters Naga, though, who lifts an ear and then her massive head and gives him a baleful sort of look. ] A polarbear dog, actually. I did the same thing when I met her. She's friendly.
Uh, you can put everything on the table— [ Which Naga is currently blocking, oops. Mako steps a little closer and holds out a hand for some of it. ] —and then I'll hide some of it from Bo, or it'll be gone before I can even look at it. You have a brother, too?
Uh- yeah, I used to [As he carefully moves around Naga, keeping an eye on her the whole time as he speaks and navigates the space between enormous animal and the kitchen table. He isn't scared of dogs, he practically has one, but Max is like 80lbs and Naga looks about three and a half tons.
She is cute, though. He'll set down the bag and chance his hand towards her nose to see if she'll let him pet her.]
[ Naga gives him a big, long sniff, and then immediately shoves her massive head into Raleigh's hand. Naga lives for pets, even when very sad.
Mako, meanwhile, is looking sort of stricken at his words, both because he kind of put his foot in his mouth, as far as he's concerned, and because he... can't imagine. If Bolin were gone.
He swallows, glancing down at everything on the table instead of looking at Raleigh. ] I'm sorry. Did he. Uh. Is he gone?
[Raleigh can't help but smile at Naga, moving in a little to pet her properly.
Somehow talking about Yancy doesn't hurt quite so acutely when confronted with a polarbear dog.
He looks up, smile turning to something bittersweet. There's a hole in his soul shaped like his brother and it will always be there. He feels it every moment of every day and that grief and loss has made him closed and cold and mean. It is only very, very recently that Raleigh has been able to let people back in. Back home he had no choice.
Similarly here he can't survive on his own but discovering that he doesn't really want to is new and and scary but exciting. Making connections, maybe a friend or two. Finding safety and warmth in that. Allowing himself that.. it's.. it's good.]
He passed away. In the war.
[Raleigh also sees the look on Mako's face and carries on, hands busy in Naga's thick, warm fur.]
I brought it up, you didn't know. It was a while ago now.
[And yet the wound is still so raw and ugly. But that isn't Mako's fault and Raleigh did invite the conversation in this direction. God he'd give anything to see Yancy again. The ghost standing further back behind Mako hardly counts.]
[ Mako's face doesn't get any lighter. He almost lost Bolin a couple times, and those times killed him inside a little bit. ] I... can't imagine. What that's like. What I'd do if Bo were, uh.
[ He can't even make himself say the words, biting down hard on the rest of them. Mako, by contrast, is still closed. Still trying his hardest to survive without the help of anybody else, pretty sure that if he lets himself rely on people he will be disappointed, because he's used to being disappointed. He knows how to handle that. He doesn't know how to handle getting his hopes up. Not anymore. ]
I joke about Bolin getting himself killed but if he ever actually does I'll probably go the spirit world and drag him right back.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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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.]
no subject
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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It's only because Mako is recovering from, well, death that Raleigh doesn't immediately comment on the guys impressive eyebrows. Because that's rude or something, even if he thinks they're badass.
He thinks his Mako would think so, too.
From what he's seen so far both Makos have a lot in common. Would it be weird to say that? Maybe. Is he projecting a little on this poor guy because he misses his friend so damn much? Possibly. At least in the beginning.
But here stands Raleigh, 6'1 and european. Blond haired and blue eyed. Built like a soldier with a weary but honest face and (momentarily) gentle energy. He's been compared to a golden retriever several..several....several times. It is not incorrect.]
Mako.
[Yep. Raleigh.
Man it's weird to say Mako out loud to someone. Mako, Mako, Mako with a long a. Raleigh's accent isn't easy to place but they're from vastly different worlds so it's unlikely he'd get pinged for sounding like a trans Atlantic abomination.]
I wasn't sure what you liked. And I figured it was for your brother too. I could never eat anything without my siblings stealing half of it.
Lemme bring'em in?
[Not to like. Invite himself into your house but he's inviting himself into your house. You look like you feel, buddy]
no subject
He's met a couple of them now, and it's always strange because as far as he remembers there's nobody like that at home, and Republic City has people from all over the place. Maybe more than anywhere else in the world, and still there is nobody who looks like Raleigh.
Somehow, though, his face matches the image Mako had in his mind. He offers Raleigh a tiny little smile and steps back out of the doorway, waving a hand. He isn't living with Kristoff yet, but it's a near thing. Soon. ]
You thought right. Bolin eats at least two-thirds of everything we make. Maybe more. And Naga always gets a little. She's, uh, in the kitchen, don't worry about her, she's big but she's nice.
[ And, at the moment, quite sad. ]
no subject
Cool brows bro, [He he passes. More like a by the way nothing line. He tried to resist. He really did. Over his shoulder the invisible shade of the ghost of his brother agrees. They are very cool. They make Mako look like some kind of feudal samurai.]
Naga is a dog, right? I think Chuck's mentioned her--oh- shit!.
[He's found the kitchen. And Naga. Who is bigger than a god damn moose and short of a kaiju that's the biggest animal Raleigh has ever experienced.
no subject
[ Mako has been made fun of for his eyebrows before, follows after Raleigh with a semi-confused frown after kicking the front door shut to keep out the cold.
He snorts as soon as Raleigh encounters Naga, though, who lifts an ear and then her massive head and gives him a baleful sort of look. ] A polarbear dog, actually. I did the same thing when I met her. She's friendly.
Uh, you can put everything on the table— [ Which Naga is currently blocking, oops. Mako steps a little closer and holds out a hand for some of it. ] —and then I'll hide some of it from Bo, or it'll be gone before I can even look at it. You have a brother, too?
no subject
She is cute, though. He'll set down the bag and chance his hand towards her nose to see if she'll let him pet her.]
His name was Yancy.
`
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Mako, meanwhile, is looking sort of stricken at his words, both because he kind of put his foot in his mouth, as far as he's concerned, and because he... can't imagine. If Bolin were gone.
He swallows, glancing down at everything on the table instead of looking at Raleigh. ] I'm sorry. Did he. Uh. Is he gone?
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Somehow talking about Yancy doesn't hurt quite so acutely when confronted with a polarbear dog.
He looks up, smile turning to something bittersweet. There's a hole in his soul shaped like his brother and it will always be there. He feels it every moment of every day and that grief and loss has made him closed and cold and mean. It is only very, very recently that Raleigh has been able to let people back in. Back home he had no choice.
Similarly here he can't survive on his own but discovering that he doesn't really want to is new and and scary but exciting. Making connections, maybe a friend or two. Finding safety and warmth in that. Allowing himself that.. it's.. it's good.]
He passed away. In the war.
[Raleigh also sees the look on Mako's face and carries on, hands busy in Naga's thick, warm fur.]
I brought it up, you didn't know. It was a while ago now.
[And yet the wound is still so raw and ugly. But that isn't Mako's fault and Raleigh did invite the conversation in this direction. God he'd give anything to see Yancy again. The ghost standing further back behind Mako hardly counts.]
no subject
[ He can't even make himself say the words, biting down hard on the rest of them. Mako, by contrast, is still closed. Still trying his hardest to survive without the help of anybody else, pretty sure that if he lets himself rely on people he will be disappointed, because he's used to being disappointed. He knows how to handle that. He doesn't know how to handle getting his hopes up. Not anymore. ]
I joke about Bolin getting himself killed but if he ever actually does I'll probably go the spirit world and drag him right back.
[ Says the man who just died. ]
Was he older than you? Yancy?