Hanibalsharaa: Ace doesn't stay like this the whole story. He changes drastically later, and acts like himself. He was just only recently tortured, so he'd got that trauma element. Needs time to heal and this sets the story of how the other character's personalities are by their reactions to him.
Wishfull-star: (^人^)
"Go on," Marco encouraged. "She's right there." Ace wanted to say something to the water tribe princess. He'd seen her playing with the children and talking to her people. She was very pretty and kind looking, not just acting. When he thought the word princess, Ace was glad to think of Yue instead of Azula.
Ace shuffled over, and princess Yue looked up. Word of the newcomer had spread, since it was so abnormal, and most had at least seen him, got the feeling of how shy and awkward he was, not just scared. It wasn't easy to see him shake under thick fur clothing. She smiled at him, and said nothing, knowing he was going to say something, and was quiet.
"You're a good princess," Ace said, and then hurried away.
"Thank you, I appreciate it," Yue said, Ace nodding and hurrying away. Marco grinned, and saw Ace hiding around the corner. Ace looked shocked before he wore a tiny, tiny smile. He'd done it! He'd talked to a near stranger. Well, she didn't know him. But he had approached somebody first.
He'd been living in the water tribe for two weeks already. It was so nice here. Soothing and warm, despite the cold climate. His face was always pink at the nose and cheeks from the cold, but he didn't feel cold inside. "You did it, good job," Marco said, giving Ace a high five. Ace put his hand up and nodded.
Ace felt really positive the rest of the day. He wasn't good at showing happiness when he felt it, but he did feel it. He was happy, and glad to be far away from any source of the Fire Nation. "I'm going to go on a flight," Ace said. He hadn't gone flying yet. He'd stopped flying almost completely once he got to the north pole. He should go and take a break.
Since moving into the city, he'd not turned into a dragon. He wanted to be one or the other, human or dragon. It was uncomfortable to consider himself both. Marco nodded, and they walked to the edge of the city so Ace's transformation didn't get too much attention. Having people swarm him in awe over something that caused him two years of torture and imprisonment wouldn't do well. He would react badly.
Ace changed at the edge and flew off. Looking down, there was nothing but ice and a handful of animals. Seals and other meaty things that were nice meals. Only Ace had been having real food made by the water tribe, not just raw meat. So eating uncocked animals in dragon form was no longer favored.
The weather was constant most of the time. Always overcast, the sky a light gray or white. It wasn't always snowing, but much of the time, it snowed lightly. Ace closed his eyes, enjoying the cool air. This climate was much nicer to him than the Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom. Even though dragons were fire creatures.
He flew north further than he had explored before, able to find his way home easily by tracking his own scent back. When he started to hear other noises, and smelled plants, he flew faster, curious as to what was there smelling like plants where all there was was ice. He was cautious and stopped, landing when he found a forest nestled in what seemed like an ice crater.
The trees were dark green and dense. He wondered why there was a forest here, and why nobody got wood from it. It was a long way to drag wood, but there was plenty of it. And Ace wondered if there was plant food inside. He sat down at the edge and deliberated if he would go in. It was just a forest. But he didn't know what kind of animals were inside.
Well, he was in dragon form. He'd be fine... If he couldn't fit in that form, then he wouldn't go in. This time. He walked forward, eyes wide open to take note or anything that might be suspicious. It didn't have people, which he was the most afraid of. Not animals or drowning or natural disasters or heights, but people were what scared him the most. There were no one here but him.
He walked inside, and felt an odd warmth. Like he was in front of a bonfire. It was weird to have such warmth in the north pole. Much norther than the tribe, which was already pretty north. He turned back into human form, feeling relaxed. He calmly, tranqually walked in deeper. There were sounds around him of animals, but they all stayed far from him.
It was really pretty, and he didn't understand how flowers could bloom in a place like this, so huge and colorful. A tundra had few plants and the ones they did have were dry, not looking almost tropical like these ones. He headed to the sound of trickling water, which was weird since he saw no stream that left the forest and continued or flowed from the ice crater around the land.
When he found the source of the water sound, it was of a fountain, but not a decorative one, or a dam. It was just… water dripping over a rock formation. It wasn't frozen water at all. Nothing was frozen. He was confused, and did wonder why this place never once came up since Ace arrived to this frigid continent.
Walked towards the water, he saw some sort of creature in it, bathing. It looked at him and spoke. "Looks like we got a wanderer. You back now?" it said in an almost familiar voice. It had a lemurs face but was sitting like a human. Ace looked behind him and saw he wasn't in the forest anymore. He panicked and tried to go back. "You shouldn't panic. You'll find your way back."
"Where am I? Where is this?" Ace asked. "It… doesn't seem like the north pole anymore."
"I don't know how you got here from the north pole." It didn't answer Ace's question. "This is the spirit world. Mortals can't enter easily just by wandering around. And the portals have been closed since Wan made that decision long ago, in human years." He seemed knowing, amused almost.
Ace looked around, and saw just how pretty it was. So many vibrant colors and animals he hadn't seen before. "Am I hallucinating?" If he was, he'd never had such a nice hallucination. The creature called him a fool. So, it wasn't a hallucination? "Who's Wan?" he asked, unoffended. He didn't remember the last time he was actually insulted, but this didn't anger him.
"My old friend. To you, he'd be the first Avatar. But he's faded into lore. But he's the reason you shouldn't be here." Then a bunch of critters that looked like they were on fire swarmed him. He didn't like fire, and backed away. They jumped at his legs and climbed his body. He tried getting them off, but then they started to talk. Not biting or burning him, but they made him uncomfortable. Having no idea what they were.
"You came back, you came back!"
"...Huh? But I've never been here before!" Ace exclaimed in confusion. They were like fluffy flames. They didn't hurt and had no weight.
"Mother tried to get you back, but she failed!"
Ace was so confused and felt he was going crazy. The lemur spirit was watching silently before he made his opinion heard. "You're a human, but you're not." Ace said he could turn into a dragon, so he wasn't fully human. He knew that. He was promptly called a fool again. "You seem clueless, but you are in a human form. Such fools they are. Try and turn into that dragon form. Things may make more sense."
So, Ace followed the only directions he was given, and changed into his dragon form. He found he wasn't scaly or black, but looked like his body was covered in fire. A light fire, not a raging inferno. He started to really get concerned that he had been knocked out and was dying. Or maybe he was already dead, and this was the afterlife!
He turned back, and headed the way he came, but there was no exit to the tundra, but just more greenery that shouldn't be possible at the north pole. There was no way out. "How do I get back?!"
The lemur continued bathing and asked him if he wanted the truth. He said it in a teasing way, taunting Ace. "You aren't dreaming, you've crossed into the spirit world instantly, easily. Don't you want to know why?"
Ace faced him and asked if he knew. "Of course not! I'm just Aye-Aye, not some knowledgeable being. You'd be best to visit Wa-Shing-Ta's library. But that's too far from here to make on foot. You could always fly there." Ace had no idea the purpose of this thing. Was he trying to be helpful, or just annoying? And why was he looking so amused and knowing?
The fire puffs came back and were around his feet, chanting their happiness at seeing him again, and told him he shoulds go see "mother". Ace frowned, but had no way out, and waiting wasn't an option. He was reckless, though he took a moment to think, before he agreed to see mother. He didn't remember any mother in his life, that was before his two years.
He followed the puffs, seeing all manner of different creatures. Even though they were acting as if they'd met before, Ace was seeing all of this for the first time. They were on foot, not flying, even though Ace could. But they were suddenly in front of some sort of colorful dust, the ground near was pitch black. The dust swirled, as if in a breeze.
"You have come back." The voice came from the dust, even though there was nothing there. Then the little puffs jumped into the dust, and turned into little dots, pinpoints on the black ground. "Where have you been, sun?" The voice was echoey and had no visible source. It just echoed around a bit.
"You're my mom? How'd you end up here?"
"Better question is how you ended up there." Ace was silent, really not understanding anything. "Do you not remember yourself?"
"That I'm a dragon?"
"So, that is the form you took?"
"Just, explain, please. I don't know what anyone is talking about, or what this place is or- or anything," Ace insisted. He was getting frustrated with only getting more questions than answers.
"You have been immensely hurt in life, haven't you? What has become of you?" Ace bristled, and admitted he was tortured and caged for awhile. The dust cloud started swirling faster. It seemed angry, and spun rapidly. "Who did such a thing to one of my many children?" the voice asked in cold fury. Ace had siblings? Did they live in this place? How was he born from a cloud of dust?
Ace said, "It was the Fire Lord and the princess Azula."
"Why did you not rob them of their flame?" Ace gave a pleading look, insisting he wanted a long, in depth explanation because he had no idea what anybody was talking about. "You are a spirit." Ace kept his mouth clamped shut so he could hear an explanation, even if it already sounded ridiculous. "The sun spirit. Though, you have mortalized your form. Such a thing only confines what cannot be contained."
But Ace had been literally contained for awhile. But he was the sun spirit? He couldn't even bend, and didn't firebending come from the sun? Like waterbending came from the moon. But the dust continued to speak, which Ace appreciated. He would not interrupt.
She continued and said, "It seems you were lost for a time, and have forgotten about what you are. The sun spirit. Your mind must have been weak. Attachment has afflicted you, and kept you contained." Ace said he was only 17. "You are four billion years old, sun. Only 17 years have you been in this form. Those that have harmed you should not be forgiven. But you cannot kill them. You should not even be in the human realm. That is not where you belong. You are not meant to become Tui and La."
"Am I really not human? I have lived a human life." He was baffled inside, and was proud and genuinely surprised of his composure after learning some bombshell information, if it were true.
"You are only human in your attachments. Something has kept you in that form for many years." Ace couldn't remember any attachments that would make him want to stay. He'd had a friend that abandoned him, and was alone and forgotten for two years. He'd had zero attachment in that time. Zero. "You had attachment to fear and pain, to longing of freedom. Not all attachments are positive, sun."
"But… I wanted to die. I never thought I'd be free. I wanted to die." The dust was silent. Did it not have a response? "Well… what do I do now? I think I found someplace I'm happy. I'd like to stay with my friends there."
"After the fact that humans have put you through such pain? You wish to return to a realm of pain?" Ace shuffled. He was afraid of humans. But he found humans he didn't think were bad. He made friends. "Do you wish to be unaware again?" Ace shook his head. Even though it would confuse him, he didn't want to forget. He did ask if he had the dragon body because of being a spirit. "That is correct.
"At some point, you became in a mortal body. Something or somebody came to return you to the spirit realm, but they failed." Ace touched the bite mark that he knew was from a dragon. Well, he thought. "And so you have been lost for too long."
Ace frowned and he asked if he could go back, now that he was happy. "That is up to you. Staying near this place, the place you entered through, has done you well." Ace furrowed his brows. "You are in better shape because of it." Ace asked how it could tell, but its answer was vague. "Can you tell?"
"I made two friends. I feel happier now. It's still hard to get over the trauma and fear, though."
"The sun should block out such things. Darkness can never erase the sun." She sounded snappy and angry. Ace felt reprimanded and embarrassed. He should have been stronger, then. He could have done more to protect himself. He was weak. "And uncertainty should not dampen your brilliance. You have been human too long, sun."
Ace said he wanted to stay with his friends. He didn't know anything or anybody here, and he was only just becoming happy. "If it were not for these very new 'friends', what would your choice be? Return here?"
"I would get away from everyone. I'm scared of humans. But… they can't all be bad. As long as I hide myself-"
"The sun's light should not be hidden!"
"Well, it is," Ace said defiantly. "I'm not the sun, okay?! I may have been some time before, but as I am right now, I am not. If I ever will again, then it will be from my friends to help me heal. Even here, I'm full of fear and shame and uncertainty!" he exclaimed. The voice was quiet.
The mother said she had created the sun, but he was now something else. "You decide what you wish. I do not know how the sun is still shining in the human world with you blotted out. If you are determined to stay in that human world, then you acknowledge that you are responsible for those who harmed you and others."
"The firebenders?" He wondered how she was suddenly versed in the human world. "How do you know?"
"I am the all-knowing. I've created it all." She said she was the original mother, the birth of all worlds and beings. So, she was some sort of divine creature? "But yes, the firebenders." Ace said he would just get rid of their bending until they could cooperate. "That is foolish and unbalanced," he was reprimanded. He flushed in embarrassment.
He asked what he should do, then. He could always give the bending back once the war was over. "There's only one who can bring peace, and that is the Avatar." Ace said the Avatar was gone. "He lives on." Well, that was great news. He was alive and could fix things, then.
"So I can just let him fix everything? I don't have to do anything as a sun spirit?" Ace asked. There was immature hope in his voice. He just wanted to live in peace. He didn't want responsibilities at all. He just wanted to be happy and feel good.
"How have you become so foolish?"
"I'm going to leave if everyone keeps calling me a fool," Ace said firmly. "The world has not ended no matter how I've been treated. I don't know what you expect me to do about he firebenders when it's not me who should fix the world, but the Avatar. I don't know what role you want me to play or how to play whatever it is. I could have been some huge ball of flame, but I'm just me, now," Ace sighed. "I know I'm a disappointment, I get it."
"How hurt you've been… So fragile, like a small bird. Would you wish to become like Tui and La? The moon and ocean spirits that reside in the mortal world?" Ace asked if he could be normal there. "You will be how you always have been, in your eyes, at least. But you will not die." Ace didn't want to die, so that was good news.
He asked if he could just be a human. Just himself, no dragon, no nothing. He just wished to be normal. "You are the sun spirit. But I can help you not realize that part of you. Humans, by nature, perish quickly. You will continue to burn until the Time sees your death to be fit. You will outlive those you care for. Is that what you want?"
"I want to be human, even if that means I can't die and will watch everyone around me do so," Ace said firmly. "But… can I ask if you can make me a waterbender?"
"You are the sun. It is impossible." Ace sighed, but had a feeling that was the answer. Maybe it was a really stupid quesiton. "If you wish to return to the spirit world where you belong, come back to the forest, and you will live on." Ace nodded, and asked if he could forget about all of this, until he was in a situation that it mattered? "And what would that situation entitle?"
"My death." The dust promised that he would not learn until he died. And he would forget all about this until that time. "I want to be human until I die. I wanna grow old, too, please."
"Unlike the spirits of the moon and sea, you are bound to nobody but me. You cannot be destroyed from an outside force, liked the fragile ocean and moon. So, you will give up your immortality until your death. When that comes, you will come back once again and continued to burn." Ace asked if the sun could die if he died. "I have just told you that answer, sun. You cannot be destroyed by anyone but Time and myself."
Ace flushed, but nodded. "I'm sorry. To disappoint you," he said sadly.
"Oh, sun, it hurts to see you so. I wish the best for you, and hope that this is the right thing to do for you to heal. Are you sure you wish to be just a human? No way to protect yourself? What of those who harmed you before?" she asked, as an afterthought. Ace clutched his soft jacket, but didn't know.
If he was normal, then that would have never happened. And since he would be normal now, it wouldn't happen again. Ace asked if he could be able to flee to the spirit world if something like that happened. "But you will have forgotten of this until your moment of death." Ace was stupid, but at least it seemed the dust was being more understanding and patient with him. "Why not only flee to the spirit world when the only other preferred option is death?"
Ace smiled, and said he liked that idea. "Do not give in to the pain in your soul, burn through it like the sun you are." Ace promised to try. "Then, to you, you are human. You no longer have anything abnormal or special about yourself in your human form. Once that human form perishes, in one way or another, you will appear back here. You wish to not remember this time, or your time before the torture? This is what you want?"
"Yes, please," Ace said with a deep bow. The dust told him not to bow to his mother. She worked hard to create such a magnificent being. Ace flushed and nodded. Then everything went black, and he remembered nothing of what happened until he somehow made it back to the water tribe.
-x-
"Ace?" Marco asked, seeing him come back confused. "You just left."
"Oh. I don't know. I can't remember where I went or what I did," Ace said honestly. "Sorry to bother you." Marco smiled at him simply and said he was just glad he was safe and didn't get confused and lost. Ace nodded. "Want to go hunting? For fish this time? There's pools under some of the ice. Fish jellies."
"Sure," Ace said. Both of them went to the place some people already were at, but Ace was drawn aside nicely by the chief. He was worried he'd done something wrong already. He fidgeted, and Marco put his arm around his shoulders and told him he hadn't done anything wrong.
"That's right. I just have some questions about your outing today. Where did you go?" Ace frowned, and explained that he couldn't actually remember. He flew off, but then he remembered coming aware when he had arrived back at the city limits. He apologized for not knowing. "You don't remember anything? That's strange."
Ace apologized again. "No need to apologize. I have another question, though. Do you know of any threat from the Fire Nation?" Marco started to tell Arnook to not talk about it - at least request it - before Ace answered that he remembered nothing.
"All due respect, I... really don't want to remember my time there, so I don't actively think about it. But what I do remember is only a handful of names, and nothing else," Ace said shyly. He managed not to apologize at the end, though! The chief nodded in understanding. He was too nice. He let Ace and Marco go on their way.
Ace was able to get one while Marco got seven. They sat on the dock made of ice and cut off the ends of the fish jellies, the tentacles hanging off the belly of the fish, since they were bad for you to eat. Then they put them in a bucket and brought them back to their home. Ace's home. It was cozy and comfortable now that he was used to it.
Still, he worried he'd get kicked out. He couldn't help it. They cooked the fish jellies with Thatch, Ace being actively involved by adding the dry ingredients. When they were done, they tasted great. Ace had adjusted the heat himself. "You cook before?" Thatch wondered after Ace changed the temperature to be just right.
"What?"
"You knew how hot to make it, and it was perfect!" Thatch said. Ace didn't know. Maybe he cooked in his old life. "Maybe you were a chef or something." Ace shrugged, not wanting to talk about that. But there hadn't really been anything that showed him having some knowledge of a sort that he didn't remember developing.
They ate the fish jellies with sea weed biscuits. Those were hard to eat at first, but they grew on Ace and he enjoyed them now. Ace had a pillow he sat on the floor, not to make himself look small, but he felt better there.
After dinner and cleaning the dishes, Ace went in the bathroom to change into his pajama outfit, which was thick and comfortable like all the clothes, and took off his shirt only to freeze. He looked at the mirror with wide eyes, and saw that the bite scars were gone completely. He promptly freaked out, and Marco knocked on the door frantically, worried.
"Ace? What's wrong?" Ace put his shirt down and opened the door. But the worry and freaked out look was all over his face. So, he said his scars were gone. "Seriously?" Ace nodded, and lifted the shirt to show his completely smooth and unblemished skin but for some freckles that were all over his body. Marco was stunned, and touched the spot where the thick, raised scars had been only a few hours ago.
They were all confused. "Maybe its part of whatever you don't remember!" Thatch exclaimed. "When you went off on your flight today you don't remember any of it. Maybe something happened." Ace changed into his sleep clothes, and went to his little sleeping bag and mat. He laid down and looked up. "Ace?"
"It would be nice if I wasn't a dragon anymore," he said. Marco wondered why. "Then I'd be normal and nobody would want me to for anything. I'd be useless to have," he explained. Thatch said being a dragon would be awesome if there were no negative consequences. Ace nodded, and said he'd not used it enough to miss it.
Marco sat on the floor next to him, saying that Ace didn't ever need to be a dragon if he didn't want to. The youngest nodded. Once the sun went down, they went to bed, Ace feeling relived he didn't have those marks anymore. He hoped whatever happened out there was helpful and not worse.
I made up a shit ton of spirit world lore and original spirit characters, though they aren't big. And some of the spirits are canon from Legend of Korra from Wan's flashback. Don't worry if you haven't seen Korra, Wan was the first Avatar and was friends with the spirits before they were sent to the spirit world. See you next week!
