westwhere | (no subject)

WHO: Aang, Wrench, Zuko & Slick
WHEN: 11/20
WHERE: An old, abandoned port-like construction at the intersection of several canals!
WHAT: Retrieving healer's supplies from a bandit camp. Plot roll!
WARNINGS: N/A (Will add if they appear in thread!)

Aang feels very sneaky and cool when they all meet late at night by one of the canals running past the raider's camp, dressed in dark colors rather than his usual eye-searingly bright oranges and yellows, his glider staff strapped across his back. He was originally tempted to go for a spooky mask to complete his Blue Spirit cosplay, but he figures if they end up in a confrontation he might actually be able to use his Very! Mistaken!! identity as the Ahn-Salack to get their supplies back with minimal harm done to either side.

Either way, he's excited to start to redeem himself from all his failures to actually help anybody out upon first arriving in Taravast. "Okay, everybody ready?" he asks cheerfully, and then doesn't even wait long enough to hear their answers before turning to the canal, sweeping both arms up and then to either side. The waters in the canal rise and split with that movement, forming a path for the intrepid little group to jump down to the dried ground at the bottom of the waterway. When Aang exhales and brings both hands back to his sides, the walls of water freeze into place. "Last one in's a turleduck!"

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He had his armor. And the sword from Lilly, two knives from El, a garotte he'd made, and more wire that could be cut if they needed bindings in a pinch. The fire starter too, though he was going to try to not ignite anybody intentionally this time. Bandages in case they were needed. A small flask of strong alcohol for disinfecting wounds--or more fire. Or both.

"All set to make friends with the locals."

And then Aang did... whatever the hell he did there. "You make that look easy." Was he jealous of the kid? Yeah. Impressed too, though.

But by this point, he wasn't surprised. He vaulted down, getting a better lock at the ice. "Fire's enough of a pain right now, I'm not even close to figuring out water's deal."

With the techniques he was learning, fire was relatively simple. All you had to do was get all the materials in the right place--that meant oxygen. Separate it out of the air and concentrate it. Just move a few grams of gas around, give it a spark, and you had yourself a fireball. Making water stand at attention like this was a whole different story.

...It was really weird that this was normal to him now. Right? This shouldn't be normal.

Wrench is substantially less prepared, though not for lack of trying. It's just that, short of joining the looting and stealing some equipment, all he has to his name, so far, is the dagger Diego gave him and his mask, and neither are really going to help much. On the plus side, though, if they manage to stick to the plan and get in and out without being seen, it really won't be a problem.

One of these days, he really needs to find a blacksmith or something, and see about having weapons made. One of these days, he needs to track down some supplies of his own and introduce Taravast to explosives. One of these days, he needs to have someone teach him magic, because while, like Slick, it's becoming commonplace to see, he can't say he's not jealous. He'd love to be a human flamethrower, like Zuko. He'd love to apparently be fucking Moses, like Aang. At least the whole thing with the Towers let him contribute enough so he doesn't feel completely useless; maybe he'll find something to climb, to play lookout or something, once they're inside.

Either way, he moves to follow, the LEDs on his mask dimmer than they would be otherwise -- he turned them down so they wouldn't be as noticable in the dark. (?_?) "I don't know what that is~!"

He can hazard a guess what a 'turtleduck' is, but -- well, at least he's not one, right?

The Avatar's enthusiasm comes as absolutely no surprise to Zuko, who is as quietly exasperated by it now as he was the first time he encountered it. He understood the importance of hope, but he was never going to jump into a mission with all the excitement of someone off to a birthday party. Zuko would never say it, but part of him really appreciated that Aang gets this giddy about sneaking into a den of thieves.

After huffing out a brief sigh he watches the other two as they follow after Aang, before he (assuming duty the role of the turtleduck) brings up the rear, sparing a glance towards the walls of ice flanking them on either side as he runs silently after the other three.

Scurrying up the other side of the canal and ducking into shadow he hunkered down next to the Avatar, pausing briefly to survey his clothing. "Nice outfit." Zuko wasn't sure if Aang had intentionally dressed like him, but at least he had forgone the typically bright colors he usually wore.

"So, what's the plan?" He asked in a whisper, looking between the three of them.

At Slick's comment about the Waterbending looking easy, Aang beams. "Thanks, I had a great teacher!" He's never not going to compliment Katara, even if she isn't around to hear it. And, he'll have to figure out what the rest of it means later, because as soon as everyone's in the canal Aang makes a few more of the sweeping motions of Waterbending, collapsing the ice walls but keeping a wide circle of air in-tact around the crouching group as the water goes rushing over them. "Now, we walk right to the camp!"

Luckily only the dimmed light of Wrench's question mark eyes lights up their little bubble beneath all the water, or it'd be obvious that Aang looks pretty darn proud of himself for this one. (Even though it's a plan that's barely altered from Sokka's original idea to bend an air bubble around Appa's head while they were invading the Fire Nation capital.) Although... "I didn't realize it would be this dark." Last time they did this, it was daylight out. Being the middle of the night will help with the sneaking for sure, but make the walking more difficult. "Wrench and I flew over it to see what's there: they've got people watching the bridge in but they're not going to expect anyone coming from the canals themselves!" He looks to Zuko for approval of his Very Good Sneaking Plan, because he's always fishing for compliments at least a little bit. "And once we get on land I should be able to sense where the people who are awake are." Thank the Spirits for having Toph as an Earthbending teacher. "Then we just have to find the healer's supplies and we can leave the way we came!"

It's a very optimistic plan! Now they just have to see how long it takes before the first mishap makes it go belly up, as
battle plans always do.

"Woah, woah--" He braced against the water rushing in--

...Which didn't hit.

The Force was so damn weird.

"Well, nobody's going to expect a magical scuba ambush. Or at least I wouldn't." He glanced up--not that it mattered much. The water had gotten stirred up, it was dark as hell no matter where you looked. "If we stay close enough to touch one of the walls, we'll still be able to navigate, right?"

Although this was going to be a pain. There was all sorts of stuff that'd gotten dropped into the canals over the years, and even with armored boots it was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Hey Wrench, could we get a little more light until we're closer?"

Whether or not Wrench is expecting the water to come rushing in, he still flinches, curling in on himself reflexively, for all the good it will do him. Thankfully, no one's drowning today, and once his brain catches up with that truth, he straightens, the laugh that follows a little nervous. "Super glad I don't need to add a verse about drowning to that Dumb Ways to Die song."

A pause follows, then at Slick's question and a little louder, he answers, "Oh, yeah. Sure, dude. I was trying to, like, not stick out like a sore thumb, but ... "

But he can see the tactical advantages to turning the mask back up, at least for the time being, and so he pulls up one corner of it just enough to slip his other hand under it. There are many things he can do with the mask, without touching it, but apparently fine tuning the intensity isn't one of those things. Thankfully, it's a simple thing regardless, and after a second or two, he lets the mask slide back into place.

It seems to blink as he does, the (X_X) displayed on it bright enough to give them some light, and then it switches to a pleased (^_^). "How's that?"

Though he flinched slightly when Aang let go of his hold on the water and switched instead to bending the air around them to keep their group safe, Zuko was paying attention to the plan while his friend laid it out, giving the Avatar a swift nod when he finished.

"Sounds pretty good. We don't expect this to end in a fight?" He was comfortable sneaking around, and he was comfortable pulling his swords on people if he had to. Creeping in and out sounded like the path of least resistance, which, after the constant fight of the last few weeks - worked just fine with Zuko.

He looked between the three of them, absently pulling his sleeves down, concealing a light blue ribbon wrapped around one of his wrists before he adjusted his swords on his back.

"Let's move out." Zuko gave Aang a nod, ready to follow behind him