uccellodifuoco | 2nd Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action

[Fire Luceti! Fire!!!

The forest is burning with flames that reach higher than many of the residents will have ever seen. There's something off in that fire thought, to begin with no animals are trying to escape from it. Another strange thing is the lack of smoke or heat that should accompany such a big fire. Yet the fire is there, as real as everything else, just lacking the normal effects it should have.

For anyone curious enough to check on it they will find they they can walk through the fire without burning or feeling even an inch warmer then before. Unless they come with evil intentions, in which chances are they will at the very least be burned a bit, and the force of the fire will increase as they approach its center. People without evil intentions will be able to waltz through it as if nothing was there, finding animals and vegetation inside the fire totally unharmed, and in what would be the center of the fire, they'll find Ikki, sitting on a rock with his Pandora Box besides him.

Eyes closed as he sits calmly, anyone capable of feeling or being affected even a bit by his Cosmos will probably notice a poke upon approaching and a great concentration in the young man.]

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[Hey, for someone who's mother was burned alive, she's doing really well standing in fire - that is... nicely going down. OK. Good. She'll visibly relax, and take a seat.]

...well, we have spirits in my world. But we've learned to work with them and not - even when they do things that we don't approve of or understand, they usually have their reasons. It's just... a really good idea not to offend them.

That's one of the reasons why we have an Avatar - the Avatar is the bridge between our world and the spirit world. So when the spirits are angry, someone can talk to them and try to make them listen.

[And she laughs a little and shakes her head-] No, in my world... we know who's at fault when something bad happens. [The Fire Nation springs to mind.]

[All the fire is gone now and Ikki is also visibly more relaxed and willing to look at her. He sensed that she was really troubled about being surrounded by fire, even one that didn't harm her, but that's probably a natural reaction so he doesn't pay it too much attention.]

Your spirits sound a lot as what people in my world call Gods. In the ancient times there were also people who supposedly could contact with the superior beings and talk with them. Try to calm their anger or ask for advice, they were called Oracles.

And most of them were fake.

[He shrugs, no he's not accusing Katara's Avatar of being a fake. He's more inclined to believe it real than a fake, actually.]

Anyway, I still maintain that your people must have a strong will. Specially if you serve as any kind of representation.

[~~Katara having a strong will? Noooo, why would you say that, Ikki?~~ It would have never entered into Katara's mind that he might be making a comparison, saying Aang was also fake -- Aang's abilities are so imminently real to her - and besides, he said he was a Saint. Obviously he has some connection with the gods of his world. But she blushes, complimented at his words - and Katara doesn't really know how to deal with compliments.]

What makes you say that?

What you just did. The fire, it troubles you, more than I've seen it troubling many, specially here. Yet you entered it, walked through it and stood in it without panicking despite the fact that probably all the fibers in your being told you to do so or run away.

But you didn't, you stayed and were rational enough to talk calmly to me. If that's not an example of a strong will I don't know what will be.

[He's not one to make compliments and he's not making them now, he's just stating facts and an opinion. If she feels complimented it's not his problem.]

[Actually, this kind of assessment she can deal with. And while she's not sure how she gave away that she was more uncomfortable than anyone else... it's certainly true.]

Well, it didn't burn me. I've never seen fire that didn't burn before.

[Pause.] In my world, there are four nations. I'm from the Southern Watertribe. There's also the Earth Kingdom and there were the Air Nomads... and the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation has been at war with the rest of the world for a hundred years... [She glances away for a moment, hand coming up to her necklace, and speaks in a low tone of voice-] so maybe I've seen more than most just what kind of damage fire can do.

[He didn't ask for an explanation but he listens. He doesn't believe that "maybe" thought, he's sure of what he felt, he doesn't know if it's a trauma or whatever but he knows she has seen very bad things happen with fire. He won't dig about it thought, it's not his interest or his problem.]

My Cosmos manifests as flames because the Phoenix is by guardian constellation, I can't train without having them appearing. The Phoenix was a mythological bird that upon reaching its old age died in a sea of fire and from its ashes it came to live again restarting its cycle.

There's war in my world too, one between the Gods and in which humans are just pawns. I have control over one fire, but I've seen people use a fire far more harmful than mine and the damage it can do. Part of me is grateful to know that mine won't do those things to those who lack evil intent.

[A bird that dies in fire only to rise from the ashes... Ozai had called himself the Phoenix King, he had wanted to birth his new order in fire, burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground...]

It seems like there are a lot of people here who come from worlds that are at war. ...but to have a war fought between those who won't even fight themselves, who use other people to fight... that's horrible.

Athena does fight with us, she even takes a human body, making it possible for her enemies' soldiers to kill her, in order to accompany us. She is also willing to sacrifice herself and would gladly let herself be killed if she knew that with her death the war would stop and we would be saved.

I can't say the same of our enemies. They have taken a human body as well but instead of how Athena does, reincarnating in a human body and living as a human. They posses a human body, trapping the soul of the real owner inside that body and submitting it to their will, so even if we kill that body they will survive and only the host will have died.

[The anger is obvious in his words and a few flames appear around him for a second at the memory of Hades possessing his brother. And of his brother willing to be killed in hopes that that would stop Hades. It only last for a moment thought, after all it's in the past and they won.]

Fortunately, Athena's kindness and power have made it possible for us to win those wars without letting those hosts die.

I'm... glad to hear that. [Ikki might have noticed that when he began to speak of possession, Katara's hands clenched into fists. The subject deeply disturbs her on a very personal level.]

No one should be able to do something like that to someone else. It's horrible. And to use people like that, as pawns... Just when I think I've heard the worst about what can happen in other worlds...

[She glances up, gaze clear and intent.] I'm glad you found a way to win.

I'm glad too.

[Victory would have meant nothing to him if Shun had died after all, it already felt rather empty due Seiya's condition. Ikki doesn't wish to have Shun's soul in the afterlife too, with Esmeralda, both outside his reach for as long as the Phoenix doesn't abandon him.]

The wars have not ended thought. There are too many Gods and Goddesses that consider humans as something that has to be destroyed. It's natural that they will use them as pawns, it's not as if they really consider them anything higher than toys they created and can break when they get bored with them.

2nd Rise of the Phoenix ஜ Action

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