trustfell | I dreamed of a world so far from here that's not on the map

To my Fellows,

What is "good" and what is "evil" is something that can be debated for longer than most of you will ever live, as is the nature of men. These debates are without meaning in my eyes. Despite that man's belief, men are not born to be good or evil, and what flaws they have in personality or character are things that can be overcome through their choices. Both for better and, as we've seen, for worse.

Life is not without suffering, but I should hope that every one of you is loved by someone. Loves someone. Many of you probably know that some of those loved ones are entering into an experience similar to our own. The terror of that is an undeniable sword which hangs above our heads.

Do not isolate yourselves, and hold onto what belief will best inspire you. And if you wish to join us for another one of these gatherings, meet us in the dining hall at 8PM.

Sincerely yours,
Elda Marker

PS: Those who can taste will once more provide food.

[ Well that sure is a lot of words which is being put under your doors, put on the fridge, and generally distributed around. It... uh, sure is a letter? It's in the same impossibly perfect cursive as last week, and is written with an almost angry bravado. Because even if she was vindicated at the end there, she was vindicated by a (by his own admission) evil priest. So. That feels bad.

Anyway, with some effort, the dining hall (which now has a lot of candles at Cabanela's little shrine, even with adding the two more here) is filled with food: Susan's got the booze as usual but also a big pot of mac and cheese. Adelina's done her noble best with some finger sandwiches. Yuri's brought some sweets that Estelle might've made. As for Elda, well, she still basically can't cook, so what she provides instead is:

A few board games including a Settlers of Catan, Sorry, and Candyland knock off. I guess we're playing games. Or at least she's suggesting it, who knew? ]

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[ Alex sits near him, and after a moment. ] That's him? ...I didn't get a good look back there.

Yes, that's him. I wasn't too sure at first, but... given the context, he couldn't be anybody else.

...What's his name? It...couldn't have always been Amon, right? Who was he?

Oh, his real name is Noatak. Amon is a name someone could theoretically have, but it's not really Water Tribe.

I have no idea what he's been up to for the past few decades since he ran away, anyway, but he was a great older brother to start out with. He always believed in fairness, so he practically always tried to stand up for me when Yakone was being overly harsh with me, and since Yakone liked him better to begin with he'd usually try to persuade our parents that I'd help out with domestic chores with our mother and he'd do the outdoors things with our father.

...of course, everything changed once bloodbending entered the picture. I always found it odd that he took to it as well as he did. Maybe he found the power somewhat intoxicating? I don't really know. But it definitely changed him a lot, between what our training involved and the fact that all of Yakone's hopes and dreams rested on him, since he was a prodigy and I was... not incompetent, but below our father's expectations and not terribly enthused about it anyway. He ended up... cold and distant over the years.

Noatak... [ She's committing it to memory. ]

How many years were you two training for? He... God, having your dad push him... That would mess anyone up in a normal situation. I know Michael never liked...having everyone expecting all these great things of him, but...throw in the...bloodbending... I can't even imagine.

Well, we were training with regular waterbending before we got on to the bloodbending, but... the bloodbending was just four years. "Just." It felt like forever, but...

[sigh.]

I wonder if that's why he went on the whole anti-bending crusade, honestly. He remembered it better than I do, but I think things were fine at home before we started waterbending.

It'd make sense, to me. If he hated it that much, after you guys were...forced to use it on each other... It just sounds awful. What's... What did it feel like?

...Have you ever had a really bad leg cramp? It's like that, but all over your body, along with the sensation of someone who's not you moving your limbs around.

[ Alex shivers. ]

It sounds...awful. How could someone make kids learn that?

Honestly, I have no idea what was wrong with my father whatsoever. I tried to look into things just to see if there was some sort of explanation for everything, but all I found were breadcrumbs like some torture shack in the middle of nowhere. Maybe a few victim accounts. Those kinds of things.

Fuck him. [ Just, you know. To reiterate her feelings on that-- ] ...It's not fair that he screwed you two up so much that things are like this. He should be the one taking responsibility- ah...

[ Stupid Jericho words, guess she's thinking about them. ]

You...know what I mean.

...

Well, I mean, he died a broken shell of a man after Noatak disappeared and ruined his hopes of revenge. There's that, at least.

...Small silver linings, I guess.

...

He got what he wanted, anyway. Even if he didn't live to see it.

[ She bites back a curse. ]

If I could give him a piece of my mind...

...I don't think that would end well.

I dreamed of a world so far from here that's not on the map

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