#(x.starter )

[ronanreeves]

Location: Lolita’s Status: Open

After about fifteen minutes spent scrubbing the same stubborn stain on the bar top, Ronan is forced to admit defeat. With a sigh, he tosses the damp rag he’d been using over his shoulder and surveys the club with a critical eye. Even for the late hour, Lolita’s bustling. A large group of patrons huddle in a corner booth, screeching with laughter - every few minutes, they send someone to the bar to order a new tray of shots and, without fail, at least a half of them hit the ground on the way back to the overcrowded booth. (More work for him, later. Yay.) At another table, a couple of wolves trade stories in hushed whispers, eyes never straying from each other’s faces. They’ve been nursing the same drinks for an hour and Ronan’s starting to get a little fed up. If they’re this busy and they still don’t hit their revenue goal, his boss is going to fucking flip. 

Ronan can’t help the way his eyes stray to the clock on the wall across the lounge. Just a couple more hours. He could do this. Serve a few drinks, clean a few spills and bam. Quitting time. (Of course, he’d have to come back tomorrow and do it all over again but, he’d rather not dwell on that.)

“One day at a time,” he murmurs to himself as he sets to work buffing fingerprints out of a pair of cocktail glasses.

@calamitousstarters​

[ofhonor]

                       nuiiruk

                  IT DIDN’T BURN ;   in fact, he felt FROZEN , if anything.  BEING BURNED,  he could handle --- but it seemed like every nerve in his body was being rewired. He had willingly FLUNG  himself in front of the blue lightning , and when his shoulder hit the ground, he felt like he may as well have flung in front of a TRAIN . He couldn’t control his body --- he had taken the hit for Katara, and now he was being forced to watch her fight HIS battle. He tried  to get up --- he never stopped trying.  It’s part of who he’s always been, someone who didn’t give up --- but he physically can’t get up. 

Katara was right --- it was a trick. 

                                          Azula DIDN’T JUST LIE ; she didn’t play fair. 

                                    It was a truth that could just get them KILLED  tonight....

&   he thought that’s how it would end --- being forced to watch Katara be fried while he laid on the floor. He watched the blue fire, he watched her fight , and dread  was filling the hollows of his bones. NO.  It can’t end this way.....

While gritting his teeth, finally feeling the BURN beneath his rib-cage, he heard the battle STOP --- he heard mad laughter cease --- he saw a silent body move towards him, and a foot he recognized as Katara’s.  Did she ----- did she actually win? 

[ofhonor]

    priceofwar

                 SUPPOSE THIS IS WHAT HE GETS  for going along with SOKKA’S PLAN.  By ‘Sokka’s plan’ , he meant no plan at all.  No BACK-UP , no what-ifs,  no PLAN B.   Here he thought this boy was the smartest  in the group for some reason --- the mechanics --- the brain  --- not the rear-end .  Now he’s....exactly what he’s been dreading.  A PRISONER OF THE FIRE NATION ; under his ex-girlfriend’s uncle. . . just waiting  to be transferred to his father for more punishment ; possibly death.  Unless they came up with an escape plan from the inescapable prison...and QUICK.  

Soon enough, he’s leaving his cell, too busy looking around the room for GUARDS,  he had forgotten  he was surrounded by PRISONERS.  ( Where is that scrawny . ..  ? )  just as he thinks he might have spotted Sokka in disguise, a boulder of a man shifts his weight and sends him off-balance into another body. 

       ❛ GAH !❜  

A hand goes for balance --- regrets it immediately.  Golden eyes widen and he jumps back in a stance, heart JUMPING at the sight of a familiar face.  He stares for a while, debates on making his way through the crowd and losing him --- but he remembers the name sooner than any rational thought.

       ❛       Jet.  ❜

The boy who once had a wheat-grass between his teeth, mischief in his eyes, and an ambitious plan --- a boy who found out his secret in Ba Sing Se --- a boy who was . . . arrested. 

Brought.....  H E R E ?          ❛ Oh, hello. Sorry.  ....I don’t need this right now...  ❜  

It’s a POOR MOVE,  but he begins to move away. He doesn’t need this distraction, he doesn’t need this distraction,  he doesn’t need this distraction.  It’s HIS FAULT he’s in here, but ....Jet also brought it on himself.  But it’s HIS FAULT , he needs to fix his mistakes , right? But he didn’t do anything wrong...  ---- he was just breathing,  honestly.  He didn’t even take up the opportunity to put on the mask again. Should he be guilty?  Why does he feel guilty?  HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING. 

                                    He needs to find Sokka....

[ofhonor]

                           airbcnding 

        ❛ I CAN’T  believe this is happening... that this happened. ❜

&   he once told the Avatar ---- it was complicated ; their situation. Now more than ever when he found himself sitting in the same cell with the same enemy ------------ c a p t u r e d.   Zuko was no longer just a FAILURE WITHOUT HONOR , he was a traitor to his people . All for what? For doing anything  to get his mission  completed -- to capture the Avatar first , hand him over first,  finally make his father proud.  He would be lucky if PRISON FOR LIFE  was his only punishment...and that alone was terrifying. It was also terrifying that he didn’t know how his uncle would react -- no doubt still sound asleep  on the ship. Every second, they were drifting further apart. He had disappointed his uncle, too. That only made the guilt worse, more heavier  than the metal bonds on his hands.

[ofhonor]

                         ofstilettos​

       ❛ GO AWAY, AZULA !❜

His voice doesn’t just RING --- it’s near to thunder than ever before. The lightning will hold, but his storm continues on. He’s shaking ; unbelievable pain all over the left side of his face --- like ants eating him alive. His knuckles are WHITE on his skin --- there are some still loyal servants trying and failing to help the BURN his father gave him.  To make it all worse,   Azula had come waltzing in, talking about what a show it was, how FURIOUS father was still, and left with ‘you know he’s going to banish you, right?’ (  Azula always lies, right? R I G H T ? Then how come it seemed...realistic? ) He hisses in, tears still threatening to break his eyes --- when he sees who is actually entering the room. The pain ceases probably for a whole second, then another -- more than he could ask for, and the name comes out broken and quiet.

       ❛ M a i . . .❜