Soooo if someone you'd never met before told you'd they'd seen a bunch of animals you'd never heard of before, would you believe those animals are real or would you call them a liar?
[he's trying to make a point with XXX_trueblue_XXX or whatever that guy's name is]
Long have men told tales of beasts which seem too fearsome and fantastic to truly be so. I've not seen the Sphynx, said to possess the haunches of a lion, the broad wings of an eagle, and the beguiling visage of a woman, nor have I beheld three-headed Cerberus, the hound kept by Hades who rules over the kingdom of the dead, yet I have no doubts that indeed they roam the earth. To condemn for a liar the bard who sings of such tales would make me seem a fool.
[Translation: I've got you, fam.]
Edited (changes literally one word ARE YOU HAPPY NOW VAL) 2016-11-02 02:32 (UTC)
[it takes him a good two minutes to parse through this reply, partially because this dude talks like no one he's ever heard of before, and also because aang has the attention span of a dead goldfish.
but since achilles is clearly on his side, aang sees no reason to hide the true intent of this most stupid of questions.]
Well, I was talking to this one guy about the elephant koi and the platypusbears back in my world but he kept telling me they weren't real and that I'd made them up just because he'd never seen them before.
It seems to me a curious matter to lie about indeed.
[Achilles pauses just a moment, knowing not what more the boy might wish to hear. He seems quite young still, not yet on the cusp of manhood, and in him - just as in any boy of a certain age - he sees faintly the echo of his own son. His dear Neoptolemus had been much younger when he left steep Scyros behind in the widening wake of his beaked ship, yet now he must be a few years older than this boy.]
Such beasts I have not heard of - what form do they take?
You mean the elephant koi? They're these huuuuuuge fish that live next to Kiyoshi island - bigger than Appa, or at least bigger than Appa back when he was Appa-sized - and they're red and gold and have these long whiskers that make it really easy to grab on and ride them.
[he punctuates his words with gestures, arms reaching out in wide arcs to encapsulate their tremendous size and fingers clenching into fists to mimic grabbing onto their whiskers like a set of reins.]
[His is a culture in which children are taught reverence for their elders, which is to be shown through quiet solemnity, ever waiting to first be spoken to ere they may speak. Thus this boy's wild enthusiasm and spirited gestures seem to him a strange manner by which to address him, for it is behavior better suited for conversations shared between boys - yet for all this he minds little.]
Never have I seen so great a fish from my beaked ship in all my days upon the wine-dark sea. And how brave you must be to have tamed so fearsome a beast! What is an Appa? Be this another manner of beast that roams your dear native land?
Appa's my best friend! He's a flying sky bison I've known ever since I was a little kid. Sky bison are the original airbenders, and every airbender gets their own sky bison to be their friend for life.
[it's real cute, or probably would be if achilles understood half the words spouted out.]
[Has he any notion of what a bison might be? Not particularly, and so what forms in his thoughts is the image of a giant bird whose wide wings might blot out the sun. Moreover, he must ask after a more pertinent matter.]
What mean you, an airbender? Is this what your people call themselves?
Sorry.....I'm Aang. I'm an airbender from the Souther Air Temple. An airbender is anyone that can bend air. [his gaze shifts, slides away from achilles to a spot on the floor.] There aren't a lot of airbenders left though.....just me.
Well met, young Aang. It is Achilles, son of Peleus, whom you now address.
You came to me with but a simple question, yet I find myself asking you countless more, for your words are curious to me indeed. I must know - how can one bend that which cannot be seen with one's eyes nor grasped in one's hands?
Very well - so sate my curiosity then! At present I am in my quarters at the inn, but I can soon be outside. That seems to me a suitable place to meet.
[He had been bent over the cramped table, cutting apart the roots and stems and sundry components of local flora he had gathered, that he might discover how best to apply these to medicinal purposes, but he supposes that with time so abundant it does no harm to take a break.]
]And he holds true to his word, bounding away from his campsite and towards the main street in town, his journey sped up by liberal use of the very skill he's about to show off.
He arrives at the inn after Achilles does in a small cloud of air and kicked up dust, whereupon he beams upwards and gives a small wave.]
[He possesses the sort of presence that commands attention, and thus he draws eyes to himself as easily as gravity draws the moon into its orbit around the earth. The boy should have little trouble finding him amid the middling crowd that peoples the main thoroughfare. His wave is returned with a nod of acknowledgement, and Achilles speaks these words in greeting.]
Indeed I am - then you must be young Aang.
[Such a curious looking boy, with his hair shorn more closely than a sheep's wool in the spring, and his pate painted.]
Will you show me how it is that your people bend the very air itself? Such a feat I've not heard of, but here in this company I have seen so many awesome crafts that the Danaans possess not.
[A quick affirmation, because it never hurts to be absolutely sure. Brief psuedo-introductions done, he hops back three steps, leaving enough space between himself and Achilles that the older man won't be caught in any stray breeze.]
And of course! Just watch.
[More specifically, watch his hands, both immediately encircling each other and spinning around to form a ball of whirling air that grows larger and larger with each passing moment until its half the size of his body. At that point, Aang leaps into the air to land on the still-spinning ball of air, balancing carefully on both feet.]
[He has borne witness before to astonishing feats wrought by those whom this crew comprises, yet awe fills his features all the same, just as he would be struck with awe still to witness the gods at work although they have granted him their divine aid before.]
By the gods upon high Olympus! How easily you bend the winds to your will! Why, if I knew no better I might think you the child of swift Aeolus, he who rules as king over the Four Winds.
[Translation: woah, that was super cool???]
How else might you tame the wind as man only tames animals? Will you show me, young Aang?
[Who's Aeol—you know what, never mind, it probably doesn't matter. (But along those same lines—what's an "Olympus"? All very important questions, best saved for later.) Instead, Aang merely shakes his head, an almost bashful expression crossing his face.]
I don't remember my parents. They gave me to the temple when I was a baby. But if I had to pick, I guess Monk Gyatso was kind of like my dad.
[Certainly an important figure in his life, and even now the name fills him both with a wave of happiness coupled with deep sadness. Maybe if he hadn't run away, Monk Gyatso would still be alive. Maybe....
But the world isn't built on maybes, so he shakes himself out of that.]
He's the one who taught me most of my airbending. I can show you more if you want, but I don't think I can teach you any of it.
Unfortunate is the boy who knows not his father, but glad it is indeed that still there was this priest to take you into his care and raise you to worship the gods. Well do I know that one need not share the selfsame blood to revere another as his father, for I regard noble Chiron in this manner too for all he has taught me.
[Although Achilles of course still had his father's house to which to return all the while he lived under the centaur's care. Nevertheless, he wishes to reassure the boy.]
Yet you misunderstand, for I do not suppose that I can wield such a strange craft as this, although my mother's divine blood flows through me. Men of my race learn not these gifts such that the gods might bestow upon one so blessed. The closest to godcraft we may come are the seers whose eyes have been touched by Phoebus Apollo.
I wish only to delight in the display of your skill, young Aang, beloved of Aeolus.
my eyes glazed over trying to read this tag on 4.5 hours of sleep
[Once again, Achilles spouts a whole lotta words Aang doesn't fully understand - selfsame, Chiron, Fee-buss Apolo?? - but he's captivated by Achilles' gravity all the same, buffeted by words that he can only assume are praises of some form or another. If Achilles wants to see more airbending, then surely he's gotta be doing something right.]
Sure! I can show you stuff whenever you want. There's a lotta stuff you can do with airbending - flip a cake onto someone's head, play airball, make a huge tornado. But if you wanna see real airbending, you should come for a ride on Appa! The sky bison are the first airbenders - no one can bend like they can.
By the gods! Never had I dreamed it possible to fly through the air as does the eagle or falcon, but this would be much to my liking indeed.
[Despite having spent the better part of a year trekking all over the far-flung corners of the universe, there is much yet for an Ancient Greek hero to experience for the first time.
Then the strangely matched pair likely find Appa and embark on an air bison excursion - and all the while Achilles spins classical mythological references that fly straight over Aang's shorn head.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
there are too many cute girls in this inbox; video, un. flameo hotman!
Can I ask you a question?
still too much cute
I suppose that I mind not answering. What do you wish to ask, boy?
no subject
[he's trying to make a point with XXX_trueblue_XXX or whatever that guy's name is]
no subject
[Translation: I've got you, fam.]
thanks kath 8D
hmmmm hmmmmmm HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
finally, cautiously:]
Soooooo.....you'd believe them, right?
[is he even close????]
huffs
[Did he not already say just that?]
But for what do you ask this question of a stranger?
no subject
but since achilles is clearly on his side, aang sees no reason to hide the true intent of this most stupid of questions.]
Well, I was talking to this one guy about the elephant koi and the platypusbears back in my world but he kept telling me they weren't real and that I'd made them up just because he'd never seen them before.
Why would I lie about stuff like that?
no subject
[Achilles pauses just a moment, knowing not what more the boy might wish to hear. He seems quite young still, not yet on the cusp of manhood, and in him - just as in any boy of a certain age - he sees faintly the echo of his own son. His dear Neoptolemus had been much younger when he left steep Scyros behind in the widening wake of his beaked ship, yet now he must be a few years older than this boy.]
Such beasts I have not heard of - what form do they take?
no subject
[he punctuates his words with gestures, arms reaching out in wide arcs to encapsulate their tremendous size and fingers clenching into fists to mimic grabbing onto their whiskers like a set of reins.]
no subject
Never have I seen so great a fish from my beaked ship in all my days upon the wine-dark sea. And how brave you must be to have tamed so fearsome a beast! What is an Appa? Be this another manner of beast that roams your dear native land?
no subject
Appa's my best friend! He's a flying sky bison I've known ever since I was a little kid. Sky bison are the original airbenders, and every airbender gets their own sky bison to be their friend for life.
[it's real cute, or probably would be if achilles understood half the words spouted out.]
no subject
What mean you, an airbender? Is this what your people call themselves?
no subject
Sorry.....I'm Aang. I'm an airbender from the Souther Air Temple. An airbender is anyone that can bend air. [his gaze shifts, slides away from achilles to a spot on the floor.] There aren't a lot of airbenders left though.....just me.
no subject
You came to me with but a simple question, yet I find myself asking you countless more, for your words are curious to me indeed. I must know - how can one bend that which cannot be seen with one's eyes nor grasped in one's hands?
no subject
[he's never been particularly good with words anyway]
Where are you? I'll come find you.
no subject
[He had been bent over the cramped table, cutting apart the roots and stems and sundry components of local flora he had gathered, that he might discover how best to apply these to medicinal purposes, but he supposes that with time so abundant it does no harm to take a break.]
no subject
]And he holds true to his word, bounding away from his campsite and towards the main street in town, his journey sped up by liberal use of the very skill he's about to show off.
He arrives at the inn after Achilles does in a small cloud of air and kicked up dust, whereupon he beams upwards and gives a small wave.]
Are you Achilles?
no subject
Indeed I am - then you must be young Aang.
[Such a curious looking boy, with his hair shorn more closely than a sheep's wool in the spring, and his pate painted.]
Will you show me how it is that your people bend the very air itself? Such a feat I've not heard of, but here in this company I have seen so many awesome crafts that the Danaans possess not.
no subject
[A quick affirmation, because it never hurts to be absolutely sure. Brief psuedo-introductions done, he hops back three steps, leaving enough space between himself and Achilles that the older man won't be caught in any stray breeze.]
And of course! Just watch.
[More specifically, watch his hands, both immediately encircling each other and spinning around to form a ball of whirling air that grows larger and larger with each passing moment until its half the size of his body. At that point, Aang leaps into the air to land on the still-spinning ball of air, balancing carefully on both feet.]
See? That's airbending.
no subject
By the gods upon high Olympus! How easily you bend the winds to your will! Why, if I knew no better I might think you the child of swift Aeolus, he who rules as king over the Four Winds.
[Translation: woah, that was super cool???]
How else might you tame the wind as man only tames animals? Will you show me, young Aang?
no subject
I don't remember my parents. They gave me to the temple when I was a baby. But if I had to pick, I guess Monk Gyatso was kind of like my dad.
[Certainly an important figure in his life, and even now the name fills him both with a wave of happiness coupled with deep sadness. Maybe if he hadn't run away, Monk Gyatso would still be alive. Maybe....
But the world isn't built on maybes, so he shakes himself out of that.]
He's the one who taught me most of my airbending. I can show you more if you want, but I don't think I can teach you any of it.
no subject
[Although Achilles of course still had his father's house to which to return all the while he lived under the centaur's care. Nevertheless, he wishes to reassure the boy.]
Yet you misunderstand, for I do not suppose that I can wield such a strange craft as this, although my mother's divine blood flows through me. Men of my race learn not these gifts such that the gods might bestow upon one so blessed. The closest to godcraft we may come are the seers whose eyes have been touched by Phoebus Apollo.
I wish only to delight in the display of your skill, young Aang, beloved of Aeolus.
my eyes glazed over trying to read this tag on 4.5 hours of sleep
Sure! I can show you stuff whenever you want. There's a lotta stuff you can do with airbending - flip a cake onto someone's head, play airball, make a huge tornado. But if you wanna see real airbending, you should come for a ride on Appa! The sky bison are the first airbenders - no one can bend like they can.
u tried so hard, i'm proud of u
[Despite having spent the better part of a year trekking all over the far-flung corners of the universe, there is much yet for an Ancient Greek hero to experience for the first time.
Then the strangely matched pair likely find Appa and embark on an air bison excursion - and all the while Achilles spins classical mythological references that fly straight over Aang's shorn head.
The end.]