Avatar: Scorching Earth // Not Accepting!

Zasi heard the growing sound of an incoming Komodo Rhino and was about to look behind her shoulder when she felt something solid ram into her. Landing roughly on the ground, she felt short of breath. Gasping for air she opened her eyes to see Kesuk attempting to swing at the passing enemy. Trying to catch her breath she felt the pressure of Kesuk's weight on her, bringing her into a flustered state of mind. There was a boy on her, and he wasn't moving. Grabbing his upper arms to get leverage, she tried to push herself out from under him. "Getoffgetoffgetoff. Get off." She struggled to no avail. An idea popped into her head and she knew she would feel bad for just a second. She gave a small apologetic smile and mumbled an apology. Putting her hands on his shoulder she pushed Kesuk with a small gust of wind. It moved him a couple feet, which was plenty enough to slide out from under him. She scrambled out from under him and gave a small chuckle. "My bad. Didn't expect you to go that far." She gave him a smile, slightly worried she had hurt him. She was right, she only felt slightly bad. It was actually pretty fun. But they had bigger issues right now. Scooping up her staff that had been knocked to the side, she stood up and brushed herself off. Walking over she stuck out a hand for Kesuk. "Thanks for saving me though. I owe you."

Kesuk was about to get up himself when Zasi grabbed his arms. And started chanting. "Getoffgetoffgetoff." What was her problem? Utterly confused, Kesuk didn't move for a moment. Then she smiled apologetically and mumbled a quiet, "Sorry." Kesuk's eyes widened slightly. What was she apologizing for? Was she going to- she tossed him off of her with a sudden gust of air and scrambled out from under him, leaving him to fall back to the ground. He twisted so he landed on his back instead of faceplanting. Kesuk narrowed his eyes up at the sky. Five seconds. She couldn't have waited five. Seconds. Well, it hadn't been enough to hurt, at least. "My bad," Zasi apologized as she grabbed her staff that she'd dropped earlier. She turned to him and held out her hand, thanking him for his help. Kesuk glanced down at her hand, then back up at Zasi, then took it and pulled himself up. "Keep hold of your staff next time," he told her. He shook his head to get dust out of his hair, then turned away to take stock of where the others were at the moment. They still had a rhino problem to deal with, and that fire rhino was charging through their little clearing, its rider shooting fire at anything that moved.

Lí Ren - Male - 19 - Earthbender

Tags: Everyone (but maybe Kohaku?)

Lí reached the firebender just as he finished clearing the dirt from his face. As Lí brought his knife up in front of him with both hands, the soldier raised his face and his brown eyes locked onto Lí's. Lí steeled himself, and saw shock dawn in the firebender's eyes as his blade plunged to the hilt into the soldier's chest. The soldier blinked once and then looked down at his chest. He lifted a hand up and placed it on top of Lí's, as if he was going to try and remove the knife, but there was no strength in his grip. He looked back up into the earthbender's eyes with an almost pleading look. But then, his gaze lost its focus, his jaw went slack, and he slumped to the ground, the knife still protruding ominously from his chest.
Lí stared down at the lifeless body. He entered a daze, oblivious to the action around him, as his mind tried to catch up with his actions. The soldier was a boy who couldn't be much older than anyone in Lí's group, yet his life was over; Lí had just snuffed it out and watched it fade. Lí had thought and dreamed of doing this numerous times since the Fire Nation had razed his village, but each time, it was a faceless Fire Nation, representing all the evil perpetrated by the military, that fell to Lí's blade. Never before this moment did he think about who was behind those masks, about their lives and their families.
But did that even matter? The Fire Nation had taken those that he loved, so didn't he have the right to return the favor?! But if so, he was no better than they were. Was he now just a murderer as well? Lí's head began to swirl as the fighting around him continued.

(this is not occurring in an instant. Lí is literally standing over the soldier amidst all this combat like he's in a trance, until someone comes along to remove him from said trance.)

All he could register was movement--swirling around him in confusing ebb and flow of action, making it hard to focus on any one thing. It felt like the moment he wrapped his head around one thing, everyone else moved on to another pressing matter and it was impossible to keep up. It just reminded him that he wasn't suited for this--he was suited for sticking to the shadows and pretending he didn't exist to get away on his own terms, not displaying bursts of heroism that he couldn't handle in the first place. He didn't regret sticking around, but it only took a cursory glance to tell him that he wasn't needed here and they'd be better off escaping without having to mind him as well.

Kohaku turned away from the group, ready to flee and stay hidden until the ransacking of the island was over, when a frozen figure caught his eye. It was the Earthbender, standing over a slumped body, a point of tense stillness in the fighting around him. Kohaku hesitated, glancing towards the trees, most of which were now either burning or at least smoking, then back at the earthbender. It was dangerous to freeze in the middle of a fight like that. He doubted that the earthbender would be able to react in time to a soldier or projectile hurtling towards him before it was too late. Kohaku glanced around at the others, but they were preoccupied with their own fights. He bit his lip, unease churning in his stomach. What would he even be able to do? It wasn't as if he could provide cover for the earthbender while he dealt with whatever he was going through, and he doubted he was important enough to get him to snap out of it. But he also couldn't just leave the earthbender standing there, shell-shocked as fights raged around him.

I hope I don't get in the way, he fretted. Kohaku drew up the courage he could and picked his way over to the earthbender, reaching out to rest a hand on his shoulder gently before he thought of what he would say.

"H-hey," he managed out, mouth impossibly dry. Kohaku tried to force out more words, perhaps comfort, but nothing left his mouth. What else could he say?

As Kyori's -- friends? -- came to her rescue and took down the firebender that was approaching her menacingly, the firebender holding her hostage from behind began to panic. He must have seen that the situation was slowly slipping out of their favor. As soon as Kyori saw the flaming arrow hurtling towards them from the corner of her eye, the firebender's hands on her wrists erupted into flames, searing her skin. She let out a scream that blended with the firebender's yell as Seijin's arrow pierced into his arm. The soldier's grip on her vanished, and Kyori half fell, half rolled away from him, practically eating dirt and choking on thick smoke. Pulling herself up to her hands and knees, she looked a the burns on her wrists for only a second before pulling herself to her feet. As soon as her eyes scanned the clearing, there was the fire rhino. There was no hope anymore. "Guys, run!"

Seijin gasped as the Firebender lit his fists aglow and burned Kyori's hands right before her arrow pierced his arm. What a low life! How could a person from her own nation would go as low and cowardly as that burn. There was no reason for it! Though she barely knew her new earthbender aquaintence, she felt bad for Kyori. But her thoughts stopped abruptly as she began to cough. The smoke was getting thicker now as a bunch of fire flew high above her head. Seijin had experience with smoke before, but none this thic(cc)k. She heard stomps and could see Kesuk and Zasi out of the corner of her eye trying to stand clear of a beast. A fire rhino. She heard Kyori yell to run and Seijin could not protest this time. If there was one fire rhino, there was bound to be others on the way and there was no point in sticking around to find out. Seijin couldn't help Zasi and Kesuk, they were kind of on their own, Li seemed frozen and Kohaku was near him, and she could not tell where Yotem was. Kyori was standing despite the burns on her wrists, but the firebender that held her was still nearby. Ungracefully, Seijin slid over the dirt mound she hid behind and made a wobbly dart to Ky. She kicked the firebender in the head, though not as hard as she'd have liked to, in an attempt to prevent him from letting them get away even though he was already doubled over in pain from the arrow. Seijin coughed hard into her arm and glanced up to nod at Kyori. It was time to go.

Zasi looked at everyone in the clearing, noticing that through all the chaos Lí was just standing there, with Kohaku gently touching his shoulder for comfort. She glanced down at the slumped body, and quickly looked away. She wasn't sure if she could look. Zasi could see why Lí was frozen. She couldn't imagine what he was feeling. Hearing Ky's call to run, she silently agreed with her. She couldn't leave Lí and Kohaku while the earthbender was in shock. Running towards them, she wanted to try and comfort Lí, but there wasn't time. Avoiding the body on the ground, she enveloped Lí in a hug before quickly pulling away. "Lí, we have to get going. If we stay here we will die." She looked around the clearing and saw Seijin and Kyori pairing up, obviously itching to get out of the situation. She glanced at Kohaku, and gave a small nod and mouthed 'thank you.' It was really brave of the firebender to stop whatever he was doing and stand beside Lí. Sure, none of them knew each other, but they were a team now. They had to stick together. The panic that was clouding her brain was less obvious and she was able to focus. Even though the fear never left, she had other things to worry about. She gave a glance over her shoulder to keep a watch on the rhino. "Let's get out of here."


(uuuugggghhh that was not my best work, but I felt the need to post.)

Kesuk looked back from watching the rhino stampede to see that Zasi had disappeared. Why was he not surprised? A quick glance around the clearing placed her near Lí, who was...not moving. He appeared to be staring at dead body while Zasi and the little firebender boy were trying to get him to run because rhino. Kesuk couldn't exactly sympathize with Lí, since he himself had never really felt the guilt the earthbender appeared to be going through, but he did know one thing: they had to move. The rhino and its rider had turned back around to make another pass of their little clearing. Seijin and Kyori had joined together and ready to run.

Kesuk quickly strode over to where Zasi was talking to Lí and solved the problem pretty much the only way he knew how. That is to say, physically. He prodded Lí in the side with his staff in the hopes that it would get him move. "Hey, sarcasm bro, we need to go," Kesuk said evenly, his voice betraying none of the stress he was feeling at the moment. Normally this was not something he would say (not even on pain of death; the adrenaline rush must be messing him up a little), but he recalled how Zasi had said that both he and Lí were both sarcastic. Kesuk was hoping the joke...or whatever it was..would shake Lí out of his trance. Despite how annoying the earthbender was at times, he was also...decent to be around. Besides, dying by giant fire rhino while just standing there doing nothing was a bit...pathetic. Kesuk was sure that, sometime in the future, Lí would thank him for not letting that happen.

((Yes, Kesuk is absolutely starting the "sarcasm bro" thing. I would have had him say "super sarcasm bro," but...well, Super Smash Bros doesn't exist in Avatarland and so that would make absolutely no sense and why would Kesuk say it lol. Also, if he seems a little not-Kesuky,yeah, I'm claiming that that's because he's high on adrenaline from fighting and, you know, rhino. Oh, and also I'm writing this at 2:00 AM after a long week of nothing but homework and I haven't had to CHARACTERIZE in, like, ages. So yeah, there's that.))

You damn well know who Lí is

As Lí waged an ethical war with his conscience internally, the fighting still going on around him barely registered in his mind. He continued staring blankly at the body of the Fire Nation soldier, not fully aware of the hand being placed on his shoulder, and the small body wrapping around him in a hug. The voices of Kohaku and Zasi just blended into the din of the fight around him. Then all of a sudden, Lí felt a sharp jab in his side, and was immediately pulled out of his reverie. He looked around him to see the firebender, airbender, and waterbender standing around him, looking at him with concern. Well, except for Kesuk; he was as stony-faced as ever when he said, "Hey, sarcasm bro, we need to go." Huh, well that was an interesting development, Lí thought to himself.
Shaking his head clear, Lí took in the scene around him. The most notable figure was that of a large firing rhino at the edge of the clearing, but getting ready to charge in, very likely, the direction of the small group. "Me? Sarcastic? Never! And I could tooootally take that rhino, but if you insist, I suppose we can leave!" Seeing Seijin and Kyori already making their way out of clearing, Lí made to follow them.

Kohaku flinched back as if he was burned as more people began to approach the Earthbender, including the constantly kind Airbender--Zasi, if he remembered correctly. She embraced him and Kohaku lowered his hand, glancing around to see if anyone else had noticed him approaching the Earthbender. The last thing he wanted was to be confronted for approaching Lí (at least that was what Zasi had called the Earthbender--knowing the kind of person she seemed to be, Lí could have easily been a nickname--but it was easier than constantly calling him "the Earthbender" to himself) without seemingly having any reason to. It was never good to act without some kind of motive--it only lead to others distrusting his intentions and he'd be lying if he said that it had only brought him trouble a few times.

He finally stepped back a few feet when the waterbender strode over, jabbing Lí with his staff and telling him that they had to move. Kohaku glanced over at the fire rhino and paled, shuddering slightly. It was a massive beast and being trampled by it would surely mean the end of his spine. He didn't want to join the rest fleeing from the rhino--he knew he'd only bring them trouble later, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice. It was either flee with them, run in another direction and face the soldiers spread through the island, or head for the trees, which would mean he'd have to run straight towards the fire rhino. He didn't have that much of a death wish.

With a frustrated whine in the back of his throat, Kohaku ran after the refugees, every step he took ringing stop, stop, stop. He swore to himself that he'd go his own way once they were in safety. This unfortunately did not make him feel any better.