wipesfaith | 02 [action/voice]

[For all his trouble, Jean got a horse. Which is great, because he's curious to explore what lies far beyond the village and he ain't walking all that way. (What can he say? Some losers from back home have gotten into him a little bit.) First, though, he needs to find a saddle and bridle - apparently, he should have made out with a few more people if he wanted riding gear too. But his pride is worth more to him than that anyway, so he doesn't mind searching through the Item Shop for what he needs.

By the afternoon, he can be found at the stables on the east side of the village. He has spent the past few days visiting Benoit, letting the horse grow accustomed to him as he cares for him. Now that he has something more sophisticated than a rope lead, he's willing to take the horse out farther than the immediate vicinity of the stables. It was already obvious to him that Benoit lacked training. Before he can think about riding him anywhere, he'll have to muster up some serious patience and start from scratch. After fitting him with the sadle and bridle, so he can start getting used to the way it feels, Jean will lead him out to a decent-sized clearing in the forest to get down to business.

Toward the evening, after returning Benoit to the stables, he makes his way back to Flame Building. Residents may have noticed a recent addition outside the building, in the form of a small pen that now houses a little lamb. He'll stop by to check on it for Marco - make sure it's not dead, not that he'd be terribly broken up if it were, because he's never indulged in lambchops before - before finally heading in.

Later, he'll flip open his journal to voice a message.]

[Voice]

Hey. I guess I'm still pretty new here, so I'm just wondering...what's worth seeing beyond this village? I've seen a map, but a map can only tell you so much. There's an...ocean out there, right? [He gets the feeling that some might find his next question a little stupid, and he swears he's sane; he just comes from an insane world.] Is there seriously salt in it?

It's weird... This whole place could probably fit inside Wall Rose - that's what's left of human territory back home - but it still seems like so much...more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Good choice, Aang, for everyone involved. The enthusiasm levels are kinda blowing him over, though. Airbending pun unintended.]

Well, I was planning on going out there already.

You are, huh? Would you rather have your first time there be by yourself? There is a teleporter that can take you over to the beach. It's real nifty! But if you ever wanna ride there on Appa, I'll be glad to help.

I was gonna go with a friend - he's never seen the ocean either. I have my own horse, too. [Because what else could Appa be? Although, if there's a teleporter, that might be easier... But he's a little leery of it.] Thanks, though.

You're welcome! I can just go with you a different time, then. Just make sure you do all the fun things you can at the beach!

What's there to do at the beach anyway? [He figured he's just...look around. Explore. That sort of thing.]

Lots of things! Especially with all that sand. You can make sand castles, dig big holes, lay in the sand, bury each other in the sand, collect sea shells, play in the waves, play games on the sand... It's even better when it's warm out!

I wasn't going to go in this weather, you know... Does everyone really think I want to go freeze my ass off?

...Sand is kinda like dirt, right?

I wasn't thinking that! I thought instead that maybe you had magic that makes cold hot, or maybe you'd be okay just seeing the ocean in cold weather! [Of course, Aang's also from a canon where he had no problems chilling in just his monk robes with an exposed bald head at the South Pole.]

And sand's a lot prettier than dirt. It's very smooth and goes through your hands. Trust me, it's very fun to play in.

...I'll take your word for it. [He doesn't sound super convinced, though.]

Nope, no magic here. And if I had it, I'd hope it wouldn't be something as lame as that.

I think that'd be neat magic! And you shouldn't just take my word for it, you gotta find out for yourself sometime.

It sounds pretty childish to me. [He means the part about playing games. Because, you know, Jean here is the pinnacle of maturity.... But games haven't configured into his life back home in years.]

You say that like it's a bad thing! If you can have fun doing something, it shouldn't matter how old it looks.

I wouldn't know what to play anyway. [Play at being a soldier? Cops and robbers? Hilarious. He can hardly remember how that's supposed to go.]

You have people like me who can teach you! There's plenty of ball games you can play, and games you can play in the water. And I bet if you asked around, you'd see lots of people have fun games from their own worlds you can enjoy!

[...He's not gonna go around asking random people what games to play. That's lame as hell.]

Yeah, sure.

...Wouldn't hurt to brush up on swimming, I guess. [What little he knows, anyway.]

It wouldn't! Swimming's lots of fun, especially when the weather's warmer!

[Well it's not gonna be any fun when it's this cold out...]

It's been a while. Since training. [And then, it was only briefly covered in survival training, all of which he thought was a waste of effort at the time.]

Was that a long time ago? If you did a lot of training, then you definitely deserve a break!

[It feels like a long time ago sometimes, but--] Not too long ago.

But being here is kinda like having a break anyway.

It is, isn't it? A lot of the time. But people still do lots of training here, too. [He knows he still does lots of bending practice. But he still makes plenty of time for hiinks.]

I'm trying to stay sharp.

Still, it feels like I'm just waiting around for something to happen. [As opposed to back home, where shit would probably already be happening. Haha...ha.]

Most likely... Things will happen eventually. It's been a while since we heard about the war, or any big missions. Most likely we will, sometime, but... we shouldn't let the anxiousness of that get to us.

You'd think that they'd want to keep us in the loop, so we could be prepared as much as possible. Doesn't make sense to me.

A lot of what they do doesn't make sense to us. Maybe if they contact again, you can try to ask them. But I have a feeling whatever their reasons are won't make sense.