Usually, when I go in the CES, if I run into any animals, they're pretty different from the ones we have back home. It's really unusual to see just a bear, and not like... a platypus bear or an armadillo bear. Or a gopher bear.

... Not that there are usually bears in there, anyway.

I guess it's just something our world has, and most others don't. I still wouldn't mind seeing some turtle ducks in there, sometimes. [tl;dr: someone is kind of homesick, and also Not Talking about that dream he got a look at about his aunt and cousin.

And almost as an afterthought, because hnnnn sibling feels are complicated when you've tried to kill each other more than once:] Has anyone seen Azula around?

[Private to Buffy, as a quasi afterthought]

How are Azula's powers restricted?

[Private to Iroh and Sokka]

Azula's here.

For anyone my sister offended, or annoyed or whatever-

I'm sorry.

[And that's all he has to say on the matter. Yay Azula. :V]

[The feed clicks on to reveal what - to some - might be a familiar face, because Azula was on the Barge about a year ago, but for most is an unfamiliar teenage girl, looking incredibly smug and self satisfied while broadcasting from Zuko's journal.]

Well, I'll be honest, I never would have expected Zuzu to take up being a prison warden after everything was said and done. I would have thought he would have been so excited to finally be allowed to come home, he'd never leave the capital again. [Her smirk gets a little more pronounced before she makes a bit of a face.]

Although why he's living in this hovel instead of his room at the palace is anyone's guess. [Oh Zuzu, you loser. For the curious, Zuko's room on the Barge is the apartment he and Iroh had in Ba Sing Se before Azula showed up and ruined everything. And speaking of which...]

Uncle, I know you're here. I hope you realize being here changes nothing. You're still a prisoner back home, no matter what you've come here to atone for.

[ooc: Replies will be coming from alwayslies. Azula is from after the season two finale where she thinks she's killed Aang, but gives Zuko the credit so they can both go home as heroes and he can take all the blame if Aang shows up alive later.]

[Zuko hates this flood. He switches on the feed to say something about how stupid everyone's being, or maybe just complaining about the general giggly atmosphere going on here, or maybe something else, but ends up cutting himself off quickly, finally just going for:]

... This is ridiculous.

[Private to Iroh]

Can I ask your advice on something?

[Spam for the Library]

Zuko has been hanging out here more or less all day yesterday, and the better part of today, trying to go about looking totally normal and casual, but since this is Zuko and emotional states other than rage, frustration, sarcasm and however you would quantify being kind of a strict teacher are difficult for him on good days, sometimes, and today is not a good day.

And yesterday wasn't either, because he just realized that Chromie is basically the greatest person ever, and he's never necessarily been fantastic at expressing how much he cares about other people unless his back is really up against the wall - being gruff and showing people you care is easier than telling them, alright? - but it's been especially bad ever since that turbulence two nights ago. Now he's even more flustered and derpy than usual, and while he's currently trying to make it look like he's looking for something to read, he's actually maybe peeking around the shelves to try to see where the librarian is.

Anyone who sneaks up on him will probably send him five or so feet in the air and get yelled at. After he's dropped books all over the place.

[ooc: Affected, crushing on Chromie! Backdated spam to yesterday is also welcome if that floats your boat.]

[The feed clicks on to show a teenager with floppy black/brown hair and a nasty looking burn scar on and around his left eye, dressed in red and gold old fashioned-y looking clothes. This may be a familiar face to a few of you still on board because yep, he was here a few months ago and doesn't realize that anything's different.

Or maybe more accurately, he hasn't realized he's been gone for weeks, and he looks kind of ticked off.]

Does anyone know why my room is on a different floor? If this is some kind of flood, it's the stupidest one I've ever been here for, especially after that ridiculous "let's kick the dining hall into open space" thing last week. Is anything else going on? Has anyone seen-

[Wait. Something is definitely not right.

The feed cuts off for a few minutes while he checks the network and tries to put together what's going on here. There are a bunch of unfamiliar faces around here now. A lot of unfamiliar faces. And it definitely wasn't winter last time he checked. And-

Yeah wow what is going on here.

And the feed clicks on again, and the annoyance has taken a turn for the 'kind of freaked out'.]

... How long was I gone for?

For anyone else planning on starting fires to make a point, don't do anything in an enclosed space and contact someone if you don't know what you're doing. There are people on board, myself included, who can regulate and contain a fire without it getting out of control, and I'd rather someone ask me for help with it than finding out a hallway is on fire and someone's dead.

I'm not complaining about why you're doing it or what it means, but fire is dangerous. It can get out of control quickly, and I'm pretty sure suffocating or burning to death isn't part of what you're trying to prove.

[And now feel free to go back to your regularly scheduled holy shit, the Barge is haunted, Zuko just wanted to put this out there before anyone accidentally suffocates themselves.]

[At first, this post wasn't supposed to be on purpose, which is evident in that for a while, all your getting is the inside of Zuko's pocket as he's heading up the stairs to the deck. Unfortunately, the Barge apparently has other plans, and in another freak why is this happening moment, a huge, powerful stream of water is suddenly spilling down from the ceiling, which is sending him tumbling down the stairs in a decidedly undignified manner. There might have been a confused yell, and the communicator is falling out of his pocket and dunking under water for several seconds, floating away.

The communicator shoots down a level or two and floats there for a while. You can still hear the water, and probably Zuko coughing a couple feet away before he eventually wanders over, looking a lot like a pissed off wet cat. He scowls at the communicator when he sees it's recording and picks it up before addressing anyone who might be watching it.]

For anyone who cares, the stairwell's turned into a waterfall. [He turns the communicator to get a view of what exactly's going on, and indeed, a waterfall has popped out of no where. It's a little less powerful now, but there's a couple inches of water on the floor and it's still steadily pouring down from the ceiling. There are some mossy rocks sticking out of the walls now, too.]

No one has any idea why this is happening? Still?

I'm going to get dried off. [And the feed cuts.]

[Private to Jon, a while later]

Would you be interested in sparring later?

[Private to Vanessa]

I'm heading up to the CES to practice my Firebending. Do you want to come?

Has anyone actually seen who's in their room? [Pause. Trying to wrestle it open. Failure.] Or been able to unlock the doors?

[Someone is locked out of his room and he is not happy.]

And what happened to the deck?

[Private to Vanessa]

If this is some prank you're pulling on the rest of the Barge, it needs to stop.

[Private to Iroh]

I'm assuming this isn't what you were talking about in your last post, Uncle.

[Private to Kay]

I found Narvin. You should probably come get him.

[Zuko is still himself, and has wandered over into the market place, which is bustling with activity. He switches on the video, and you get some images of colorful food stalls and stands selling something closer to actual meals. There are a lot of people out and about, and some of them are giving him some funny looks, although whether that's because his outfit and general physical appearance sort of screams person visiting from far away or because of the scar is up in the air.]

This isn't all that different from some of the markets back home. But the palace is pretty different. [The camera angle shifts slightly as he turns to look back at it, although he's blocking any view you'd be getting of it.]

Has anyone seen Vanessa? Or, uh, my uncle?

[ooc: Open for spam in the marketplace! Zuko will eventually be heading into the castle pretending to be a foreign prince to go rescue Vanessa/get here away from Jafar Narvin, but otherwise has a free schedule for port. :D]

Capa's last post made me wonder, what exactly is... religion like where you're from? It sounds like people have pretty different ideas about it, and it's just where I'm from, we've got spirits and beings that kind of make it impossible not to believe that there's something out there.

[Private to Vanessa]

I saw you talking to Rassilon.

I won't bother trying to brush all that off. Had things been different? I guess that person... during the flood, I mean. I could have been him.

My family doesn't exactly have the cleanest record when it comes to knowing how to run a country without just exterminating anything that got in our way. Or without using fear and torture to get people to listen to us.

But I know that. And I know that it's not the best way to run a country. Or that it's even acceptable. What we did was wrong, and cruel, and it had to be stopped. I saw that, and I fought for it to become a reality. A world where peace and kindness could help repair the damage and

I'm still fighting for it. We won the war, but that doesn't mean everything's magically been fixed. It'll take work, and it's not going to be easy, but that's what we have to do. And I'll keep fighting for that - a world where people aren't ruled by fear or prejudice or violence - until the day I die.

[Private to Vanessa]

I'm sorry.

[Zuko sits imperiously at a desk in his chambers, which are far more ornate and expensive looking than his usual room. It's his suite in the Royal Palace, and basically everything shades of red and gold. His hair is longer and tied up in the traditional Fire Nation topknot, and is wearing full on Fire Lord raiments. The most glaring difference though? His face is unscarred.]

My people favor ambition. Drive. Something so many people here are lacking. Very few know what has to be done, and even then, some lack the will to do it.

You have to know what you want and take it. It's that simple.

Unrelatedly, I've come to miss having servants wait on me hand and foot. Does anyone have an inmate who wouldn't mind - [Read: who wants to be an ass to their inmate and make them work for me?] - doing a few chores?

I'm not sure what's worse. Being a kid or being a ferret.

Or an old person.

... I'm not affected. How often do floods affect our ages, anyway?

[Private to Vanessa and Narvin, separately. Narvin's comes much later.]

I have your knives.

[Private to the Admiral]

I need copies of Vanessa's usual daggers, but blunted. Preferably something that can't be sharpened easily, if at all. I want her to have some kind of protection when she's attacked, but not something she can use to murder anyone.

Also, please return her stealth abilities, with the condition that I can see her when she's using them.

[Private to Kay]

I spoke with Narvin. He told me what he did.

[Private to Iroh]

...Are you busy?

[Zuko still looks pretty annoyed, but probably a little less so now that he's got thumbs again. Also, for anyone who hasn't seen yet, his room is the apartment he and Iroh stayed in in Ba Sing Se, and you all get a nice look at Scarface here, sitting at his table after going over his new inmate's file.]

Are floods usually that pointless?

[Warden Filter]

Vanessa VanCleef and Hope are the same person. It's confirmed in her file. Hope was an identity she created to lure people into a false sense of security, and she's been using it to get more information about the Barge.

Who's talked to either of them since she got here?

[Private to Iroh]

Do you remember Jet? [This is largely rhetorical.]

[Private to Wanda]

Thanks. For your help, I mean.

[The feed clicks on to reveal a very annoyed looking Red Panda-like creature. Animal experts will realize he isn't actually a Red Panda, but a Fire Ferret, a creature native to Zuko's home world. It's taken a bit of figuring out, but he can work the communicator after having knocked it onto the floor of his room, and he can talk to anyone. Wanda's also come by to open his door, so feel free to encounter this angry but adorable critter in the hallways or around the Barge.]

How long is this going to last? I don't think I can handle being without thumbs for a week. At least I guess I know what Fire Ferrets eat.

Uncle, are you affected?

[Filtered from Sveta & Howie]

Before I came here, the Avatar - my friend - was faced with the problem of wanting a nonviolent solution to a violent conflict. He was raised to believe that all life was sacred, and wanted to find another way to stop it, even though ending the threat permanently would restore peace and end a war that had.

I thought he was being naive. That violence was the only way to stop what was happening. But he found a solution that didn't end in murder while still eliminating the threat.

Obviously I don't know Howie or Sveta as well as I know my friend. But maybe that can work here, too.

... Does anyone need any assistance with what's going on?

[Private to Iroh]

Are you alright?