Eternal Entertainment

Day 1, 95 AG

Marcus, or well 'Lee' now. He remembered another thing from the show, that was now his life, while he floundered in the snow. Having to twist and make little eldritch snow angels in order to reach the buckles on the ankle weights. He remembered or more like realized that Marcus wasn't going to fly in this world. Lee on the other hand? "There's a million Lees." All while Puff sat on their shared gear and had one of 3 things. A little kitty heart attack, The worlds largest hairball, or the abomination of unnatural laughter coming from a creature not designed to do so. Most likely the latter on account of it increasing as he contorted himself.

Once he had shimmed his way out of them. He scooped up a ball of loose snow and beaned his kitten friend off the equipment. "Take that, ya little shit." Hiss "Oh, you're getting dry kibble tonight, the driest I can find. I hope there's some old pet food in somebodies room dry." He continued to listen to his partner's complaints as he rearranged and repacked his gear. Damn making multiple trips, It's one or none. Backpack? Full. Tarp? Wrapped around a bunch of shit, and secured by a rope to his waist. His magic inventory, full of bulky but light items until he hit capacity, went over it, cause momma ain't raise no bitch. Then he walked, and walked, and met a curve, dragged his stuff around the curve, cussed just quiet enough to not start an avalanche. Then went back to walking. 

He reached the gates well into the night, exhausted and more than a little pissed. "Still climbed a mountain any fuckin' way..." Puff on the other hand, hardly had to lift a paw, enjoying the free ride on the tarp bundle. With just a bit more exertion Lee hauled himself into the nearest room. Once he was freed of his self made burden, he examined himself. He wasn't wearing anything excessively thick, he should have been a new statue on the road to the temple by now... if it weren't for the coiling heat flowing through his body. Some level of cold resistance? Whatever, he's not gonna look this gift ostrich-horse in the mouth. "...Ostrich-horse? Is that a thing? Shit for later."

He barely scanned the room, on account of the dark. He found a corner and pulled a broom from the depths of his hoodie. Thank you hammer space. He cleaned the corner, took out a Japanese style Futon, a sleeping bag, then a spare thick blanket. Cold resistant, isn't cold proof. He felt the chill and certainly wasn't gonna sleep in it. He went to the cat food, got a portion out for Puff and conked out the moment he got cozy.

Days 2-25

Most mornings, people would love having their cat or dog friend wake them up. But when said cat friend is doing so to show that he slept in the same room as a corpse? Less so. So he began his priority task in coming to the southern air temple, gathering and honoring the dead there. It was a much bigger task than he thought it would be. he assumed maybe 20 or 30... Not over 100 bodies. Charred remains that left marks on the floors and walls of many rooms. The bodies of adults? Expected, the Children? Collected in corners... Like they were hiding, or more likely cowering in fear.

It made him sick, sorry, and most of all... Furious. It fueled his first bit of honest to goodness fire bending. A short and hot huff of fire from his mouth as he looked at the helmets of fire bender soldiers. Exploring the temple he found a crematorium of all things. So much for sky burials, or maybe they burnt the bones once they were clean? Whatever. He took the skeletons of monks to the room and used what wood they had left to burn as many as he could and fueled it further with his own bending once that ran out. Days of collecting and burning. Then pouring the ash in urns. Ripping strips of cloth from each body. He had a rough idea of what he wanted to do.

Then he found Gyatso. "...At least... You went out like a fucking bad ass." Spying the bodies of fire nation soldiers. "...Fuck it." He came closer and knelt in front of the body of the monk. "Uh, I was never the spiritual type... Sir? And I'll be honest, I have no clue if you can even hear me or if I'm just hawkin' niceties to the air. But... I know tragedy, and this is maybe the most tragic scene I've personally seen. It's almost a hundred years late, but I hope I'm doing right by your people. I think I've picked a nice spot, I'll make a memorial there at some point... I don't know who did your garden work but if you can, tell them that even now it's gorgeous. I plan on scattering the ashes there as well, let the wind take it where it may. You probably already know this, But Aang is alive... ish. I'm probably gonna tease him by calling him an Aangsicle... sorry, off topic. But when he comes here... I hope to ease the blow. I can't stop him mourning, stuff like this shatters the soul... Look uh, just don't haunt my ass. I hope you all can finally rest in peace."

Month 2

Lee took his time adjusting to 'Monk' life, wardrobe included. Hakama pants, Slip on/ Tai-chi? shoes, black t-shirt, Purple hoodie. More for Puff's sake than his own, lazy kitten that she currently is, Loves to ride around in the hood. While he did all the work of sweeping out dust from homes and scrubbing marks off walls. Thankfully he had a large stock of ready to eat food... AKA Junk food and vitamins. Locally sourced goods on the other hand? Most, if not all the gardens were overgrown. Many machete chops later and they were brought to a more manageable state, including what he assumed were fruit trees. 

He spotted the occasional family of flying lemur. Unsure if any of them were Momo, or even if the future avatar companion was born yet. So a daily routine set in. Breakfast, clean the temple, manage the gardens, lunch, workout/train, continue or start a project to make life better while he stayed, dinner, work on the pieces to the memorial, Watch or listen to things on the MMP.

Month 6 (Late Spring, Early Summer.)

"Ahhhh, yeah... Best project, ever." Purrrr "Glad you agree Puff, glad you agree." Lee and Puff sat in their own tubs of hot water. The portable shower did it's job, don't get him wrong. But after finding a couple massive metal tubs, buffing the rust off with some improvised sand cloth. It's just a matter of finding a decent spot and now they have the best outdoor hot tub hard work could make. Once they were done, they can flip them over and the used water would drain into the garden. "Ya know... If I get some more decent sized bamboo, I could probably finagle a way to not have to fill these with buckets." Prrmow "Eh, I mean I can pump out enough flames to not have to use logs... And I'm sure if people start living here again they can figure out how to heat it themselves."

Mow.

"Dunno, could be... soup pots? dye tubs? There's a bunch of old air bender stuff too. But fixing them will take more work than I can afford for the moment. More focused on the mill. I want bread... and cheese... God, I miss cheese." grrm. "Yes, AND fish... Since when were you so spoiled anyway? I never gave you fish." Purr. "Of course, Dee. No wonder you got so over weight." Hiss "I'm messing with ya... We're gonna have to leave here at some point, just to get supplies and information if nothing else and to get that we'll need money... so we need to offer a service." Mrr? "Soft and fluffy though you may be, I doubt people would pay to pet you... Main problem is getting up and down. I'll be fucked before I climb up and down for a bag of jerky... Those gliders could make the down trip easy." ... "Yeah, doubt I could make a propeller engine... No, I could. But the second Fire nation sees that shit, I'm gonna get put on some most wanted list. Let alone jet engines... Fuck I'm dumb." He has fire bending, he is the jet engine.

Month 7

Learning any element bending form? Probably very difficult. They are based in Martial arts and an in-depth understanding of the mechanics of bending an element in the first place. Making up your own form? While not impossible, is equally difficult. Lee had no formal martial arts training, beyond boxing and a few tricks he learned over the years from friends. So he made it up as he went, which fueled his pyrokinesis, which altered his fire bending... Which led to some interesting results. Result's he could only theorize about in the short run. Like whether or not his emotional state altered the color of flames. Short term? Probably. When he was frustrated they were closer to red. Happy at successfully making up some bullshit that shouldn't work but did? Light orange-yellow. Makes sense, of the little he remembered. Zuko had a whole performance issue because he lost his rage or reason or whatever.

Movements only did so much. He had to get used to moving the warmth through himself. Ki, Pyrokinesis, Chakra (Spicy or not) whatever it's called. He could focus it to points in and around his body. That led to fire bending, it NEEDED active movement in order to manifest. He could hold the warmth to his finger tips and start a fire by holding it to a wood log, sure. But unless he was shadow boxing, and that one time he stretched after a good nap, No balls or jets of fire. It's hard for him to tell where the bending and Pyrokinesis began or ended. But that helped in a weird way.

During one of these training sessions, he activated Flamey Ink for the first time. He had focused on chaining as many fire expelling attacks as possible from all his limbs. Punches, kicks, hell he took some inspiration from Shinra and peppered in some break dancing/ 'Capoeira'. (Or the poor facsimile of the untrained.) After enough of the flames encircled him, they suddenly rebounded toward him, burning through his t-shirt as artful lines of light grew on his skin. "Oh shit." His movements stopped as the warmth he usually felt radiating from his core was now being fed from the air around him. He gave a quick scan of the body art. Heavily tribal in nature, except instead of bold black lines and patterns, they glowed in a warm light. "...Can't do this in public... too much like the avatar state." He tried throwing a fire ball like he would through fire bending. Only to be met with nothing but an absurdly faster and stronger punch. Followed by his tattoo puttering out like a candle in the wind, then by an immediate sensation of fatigue.

"...Shiiiiiiieeeet."

Lee promptly let himself fall face first onto the dirt.

(Read the author note. Please.)