milliways_bar | (no subject)

The sun silently beats down on the grounds, waves of heat radiating off of everything. But then, a soft rumble begins. It grows louder and louder, starting in the mountains and crashing down down down until a great roaring avalanche of snow arrives...

The calm returns but the blistering heat is gone. "How's that, Autor?" Mia asks.

The boy smiles shyly at her, his warm, knitted scarf demonstrating a clear gradient of skill from raw novice to advanced beginner. "It's lovely," he says, squeezing her fingers in his gloved ones. "Thank you, Mia." Releasing them, he turns and places a hand on his hip to watch the next step.

At the mouth of the inlet a narrow cliff juts out into the water, covered by a thin layer of soil to which a mat of short grass is clinging, littered with demon bunny droppings. On this ledge, Korra stands, her feet planted firmly against the ground. Starting with that wide stance, Korra moves a foot and then pushes her arms in front and up, causing the lake bed to shift, and the waters to part as a narrow ledge of earth divides a smaller pond away from the larger lake.

Turning into the inlet, she leaps onto the surface and slides out into the center on a shelf of ice that stretches out in larger and larger crystals as it thickens beneath her. In the center of what will be the ice rink, Korra stops, and takes one calm, centering breath.

And then with her eyes closed she moves again, this time much more fluid in her motions, turning a slow circle on the ice with her arms in front of her, swaying as her weight shifts from foot to foot. A bubble of water rises in front of her, and as she pushes out, the bubble expands, passing through Korra so she's standing in the center of an ever expanding air filled bubble of water, stretching further and further out so by the time it hits the shore any onlookers will feel the cool sensation of water vapor from a fountain. She shifts her movement again, and the snowflake patterns of ice crystals appear at the top and the spread around the bubble, crystallizing and solidifying in a lattice of clear ice.

Then Korra opens her eyes, and finishes the rink as she slides back to the shore. There, a further turn and a sweeping gesture towards one side shatters a large hole in the side, perfect for a double door.

"Neat trick, Avatar," Autor says, accompanied by a saucy grin and an informal salute. With a few simple words, Mia sets a flurry fluttering down in the dome.

Once the rink is complete, the boy heads off to help an industrious ten-year-old set up the food and drinks table. There are some things too heavy for Rae to lift.

[Credit to the respective muns for their pups' part in the EP! Standard party post rules apply, all tags welcome.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Blimp? Ah, that might be the sort of airship I've been in before. Is it rather round, sort of like a balloon but much bigger and more oblong?"

"Yes. But they tend to be fairly slow, and unwieldly." And occasional explosive. "How did you come to be in one?"

"It was one of the many modes of transportation my friends and I found in the war ten years ago."

"What war? Om your world?" All that magic, and they would use blimps?

Mia nods.

"Yes, the War of the Magic Emperor. There are texts here on the subject."

She might be blushing just a bit.

"But there were blimps. And not, say, magic carpets or the like?"

"Do you remember how I said magic is tied to the Goddess Althena? Part of the war took place in the Frontier, the part of Lunar that looks the way the Moon does to you and the only place nearly devoid of Althena's blessing. Because of that, magic methods of transportation couldn't take us there."

"That's interesting. Your god is not all powerful. More like one of the classic gods of myth." And she apparently lives on the far side of the moon.

"It's more than that: she is now mortal."

"How could that happen?" It sounds like a story, somehow, and not a faith.

Mia scratches at her head.

"Goodness, you're getting a lot out of me," she says. "Are you sure you want to know? I feel like I'm talking your ear off."

She smiles sheepishly at that.

"Mia, I rarely meet a fact that I am not better off not knowing. It's how we learn things, how we get new ideas." Even if theology is not what he considers essential.

"Very well.

"Twenty-five years ago, Althena was reincarnated into the body of a girl named Luna who would grow up on far away Caldor Isle. When she was fifteen, she came to the mainland for the first time with her childhood sweetheart Alex. They visited, among other places, Vane and the Magic Guild. The Premier at the time, Ghaleon, had been seeking Althena because he wanted to take her latent divinity for himself. And he did; he kidnapped Luna and found a way to awaken her power under his control. His mad quest for godhood nearly destroyed Lunar. "

She steeples her fingers in front of her face.

"That is from what I know personally, witnessed when I joined Alex's quest to stop Ghaleon and save everything we know. This next part is based on what Luna and Alex told me, as they were the only ones present at the time. Once Ghaleon was dead, his power over Luna dissipated and she found herself at the mercy of her own divinity. With Alex's aid, she was able to relinquish it and breathe life into the dying Lunar once more. Though Luna still has some vestiges of her power as Althena, manifest in her healing song and occasional ability to prophecy, she is mortal now."

Howard tries to absorb this. And finds it strangely familiar in a way. The power that the Red Skull tapped into was about as mysterious. The battles between Captain America and the Skull sounded nearly as epic. And of course hero and villain both die in the end.

But for the most part, it's beyond him. More a fairy tale than anything else. Only Mia was part of it.

"And now the power is more or less gone forever."

"No, not gone exactly. Her power is still in the world. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to use magic."

"And how do you tap into it?" He's beginning to think about the cube. How it worked. And how it didn't.

"It's a sort of energy in me, like an aura."

"And it's not something just anyone with the right knowledge can do?" He's not surprised. But also a bit disappointed.

"It's something that can be gained but it takes time and great effort. Alex wasn't able to use magic when I first met him but was able to gain power greater than I'll ever know."

Hm. He can't be sure this is at all useful. But that cube he found isn't doing anything, so it's worth the thought.

"I think I see."

She smiles a bit.

"A lot of the time, magic comes naturally. If there's something you do extraordinarily well, that might be where it is."

"I doubt my skills as a pilot or an inventor are magic. But I never rule out anything." Usually.

"I wouldn't rule it out. There are....quieter types of magic, I guess I'd put it? Take my husband, for example. He makes potions, perhaps one of the most accessible types of magic ever."

"Potions...like what?" In for a penny, in for a pound.

"Oh, lots of things. Healing potions, luck potions, shrinking solutions, strength solutions, grooming potions, poison antidotes, the list goes on. He runs a shop called Dragonlight and I don't mind taking orders if I mention something you like, though results aren't guaranteed outside of the bar. But he is from Earth, so his potions should work there."

Re: Snow!

thefirststark - 2013-07-19 20:43 (UTC) - Expand

gorgonfondness - 2013-07-19 20:44 (UTC) - Expand

thefirststark - 2013-07-19 20:45 (UTC) - Expand