Mako (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arclightning) wrote2021-09-01 06:45 pm
arclightning) wrote2021-09-01 06:45 pmEntry tags:
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MAKO'S INBOX
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arclightning) wrote2021-09-01 06:45 pm
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[ Mako holds out a hand for the jar, looking skeptically at it for a moment before he glances up at Raleigh. ]
Did... you make it?
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Raleigh hands it over and nods with a hum.]
Mhm, Chuck did. He's been working on it for ages. It's pretty good if you think you can handle it~
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[ Mako's not exactly as competitive as he used to be, although there is still a flare of it in him at Raleigh's words (of course he can handle it! He can handle anything!) that he tamps down on. Not now. ]
You're still a baby firebender. Gotta be at least this tall— [ Yeah he's absolutely pressing fingers just above Raleigh's heigt ] —to drink and bend.
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Too late for that. Boop. [Raleigh quickly lifts up onto the balls of his feet and taps Mako's hand with the top of his head]
Haha, have a drink. I wanna show you what I've been learning, oh wise firelord, Mako.
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[ ...but he is opening up the jar, though, snorting at Raleigh's little boop and waving the same hand. ]
Get on with it. Show me what you got.
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[After he pours them both a shot. Fair warning Chuck's moonshine is extremely strong. If Mako doesn't have hair on his chest this will sure put it there.
He holds up his glass in a toast. But he's already been drinking so.. debatable on 'toast']
There's no one here who knows fire better'n you. So I think you're firelord now.
[Raleigh deepens his voice and holds his free hand over his cup where he flicks his pointer finger with his thumb and sends sparks jumping across his skin to ignite the alcohol before he drinks- speaking like he's quoting someone.]
I have spoken.
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He raises his own tiny glass, sets it aflame with a wave of two fingers, and tosses it back as well.
Which.
Holy shit.
Mako never liked alcohol much anyway—he hates being out of control, hates that fuzzy veil between himself and the rest of the world and the way it gets hard to make his limbs do as they're told—and this is fucking strong, enough to burn his throat and make him shudder as he tosses it back. ]
Fuck! Chuck made that?
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It's intense, right? This is the good stuff, the stuff before was basically gasoline.
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[ Mako isn't even trying to keep up his cool front here. That was awful, and he absolutely not taking a refill, no thank you. ]
That's all yours. Wu would hate this. You sure you want to show off with that stuff in you?
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[Raleigh smiles and sets down the bottle. Maybe it is a little strong.
They.. probably should not be drinking this shit.
Anyway-]
So. Fun smashing. C'mon.
[Out we go, back into the night, safe behind the wards Raleigh has wrangled and set up around his property line with a second, inner ring around the immediate.
There are a few chickens at the back door who fluffle out of the way and follow behind, hoping for snacks. They're out of luck but Raleigh throws his arm around Mako's shoulder.]
So tell me bud, what's new in Mako world? It's been a while.
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[ Mako, still uncomfortable with physical contact, fluffs up under the touch a bit like one of those chickens (so weird, just a ... bird, he's still not used to that more than a year later) and kind of glances sidelong at Raleigh. ]
Honestly? Pretty much just the Raccoon Room and the safehouses. It's been a lot of setup. Wu has... a vision. A really detailed vision.
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The air is different out here. It's fresher. More crisp. And while it doesn't have the walled protection of the city, Raleigh far prefers being able to see enemies approach than be surprised and trapped amongst buildings. All the recent problems with the zealots and body farm don't seem to extend as far out as Ache and Feed. The population isn't big enough to venture out, it would seem.
It is quiet, though, very quiet, but there are pros and cons to that, too.]
Sounds stressful but knowing what you're supposed to be doing is better than feeling lost. I don't know what to do with myself unless I've got a job.
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[ Mako snorts in quiet recognition, that feeling he gets every time he sees Raleigh: the particular ache of seeing yourself, reflected in another person in a way that can be terrifying. Mako doesn't like the soft parts of himself getting so easily exposed, but Raleigh does it on the regular. And still he's here, walking through frost-tipped grass beside him, scanning the grounds and watching his own breath mist ghostly in front of him. ]
Tell me about it. I still don't—what's your job out here? Make sure Chuck doesn't kill anyone with his alcohol?
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He chuckles and shrugs a little bit.]
Something like that. We've got the chickens and mushrooms to look after.. and I've been trying to teach myself to use these abilities to weld. I think my hunting days are behind me but I still want to contribute. I don't do charity and I won't be made useless again.
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[ Mako knows the sentiment like he knows the scars on his hand, but he glances curiously at Raleigh anyway, sensing a story. ]
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My brother and I were warriors. You remember, I've told you. But when he died it.. destroyed me. I don't think I told you, him dying.. it was my fault. I made a bad call and he paid for it. A mistake, yeah, but it is what it is. I killed him.
After that, I was- dead, I think. Alive but dead. I wanted to be dead. My body was in pieces, my brain- [a low whistle.]
I remember being so angry they'd saved my life. Because what kind of life was I supposed to have? What was there to live for? I was useless.
[Raleigh shrugs a little bit, slowly, like he's in pain. And he is. Even now it is so painful to think about. Even all these years later, even with Yancy standing right beside Mako, who Raleigh knows isn't really there, arms crossed as he listens. Six years and some change and that wound is still rotting.
He takes a breath and lets it out, controlled under iron grasp.]
I don't ever want to feel like that again. So if it means I'm farming mushrooms... then I'm farming mushrooms.
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They're heavy words, dropped low into the night and then pushed past, but Mako keeps them close for a second, turning them over in his head.
His fault.
If Bolin dying was his fault—some call he made, some suggestion he gave—Mako wouldn't be much better. He couldn't. He has carved the arc of his life around the shape of Bolin, scraped and scrabbled to give him a future, hope, a safe home. He's fucked up, for sure. Mako's old enough now to know that much: he wasn't meant to be a brother and a parent all at once, he's probably fucked Bolin up as much as he messed himself up but losing him like that for good, while connected like Raleigh said they were—
Mako had pulled away from touch earlier, but as Raleigh talks about being useless and sucks in that steadying breath, he leans in again, drops an arm around Raleigh's shoulders.
For a long time, it's just that: touch, and the quiet night, and then Mako manages to gather his thoughts into something coherent. ]
Being useless is the worst.
[ Preach. He snorts a second later. ]
I mean, feeling useless is the worst. It's—I don't know. I hate it, too. Wu keeps saying you don't have to have a use, but.
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But there is a part of Raleigh that wouldn't let go even if he had the option (can't, won't) because no one else in Trench knew Yancy. And when Raleigh lets go, his brother will be gone forever.
The voice in the back of his mind murmurs that there is a thread of Yancy left in him, in his head, that didn't leave when the drift was severed. That he might be the vessel containing the last piece of his brother.
In his quietest, darkest moments, that thought was the only thing keeping Raleigh alive.
He feels Yancy particularly intensely tonight. It could be the drink. It could be the presence of Mako who raised his own little brother much in the way Yancy raised him. Who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and tries so damn hard to do the right thing. Who grew up too fast, too young, and would do it all again in a heartbeat if he had to. Funny, good looking, dependable. Yancy would have loved him.]
Well..
[Rolling the thought around in his head, instinctively leaning into the touch as though it offers a relief he can't articulate.]
Why don't you do something you never had the chance to do back home? Something for yourself. You're smart, driven.. Have you considered going to school?
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Mako's fingers tighten, almost reflexively—he's here, and Raleigh is here, and sometimes they need that reminder—and he looks out at the wards with a small frown, wondering. ]
I don't even know what the school here does. Isn't it all weird blood stuff?
[ Which isn't a no, because of course, he has thought about it. He thinks about it every day, in a way, all the knowledge he'd missed, everything he didn't get a chance to learn. How much he'd loved school before everything exploded, how he looked forward to going until going wasn't an option anymore and he'd had to admit to himself that Bolin was more important. It was a dream given up on, rather than deferred, and Mako hasn't let himself pick it back up again long enough to know he wants it. ]
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Some of it, probably. But it can't all be blood. I know Arthur is there studying all the time. He just brought me some books on metallurgy.
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[ Not a word Mako has ever heard before, a direct result of all the school he didn't attend. Yay!
Maybe burning something right now is a good idea. ]
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He decides to make a risky comparison.]
Mmm... metalbending?
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You trying to learn how to metalbend? That's an earthbender thing. Firebenders can't—
Well. Guess firebenders can't do ice, either, and we can do that. Maybe you can. Can you?
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He squints a little, but it's mostly at his own failure to speak fuckin words that make sense.]
No. It's kind of the.. non bending way of doing that stuff. Say you want to stick two pieces of steel together, right? There are a couple ways of doing it but I like arc welding which uses electricity to superheat the things you're bonding. I thought maybe I could apply the same idea to these coldblood abilities and it turns out...yeah. It works.
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You figured that out? It works? Can you—
[ Show me, he doesn't still know how to say. It's hard to ask for help, even from Raleigh. ]
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