(no subject)

[herr_bookman]

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.]

Comments

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"You would have to ask her." If you can find her. And identify her. She tsks at the blood, shaking her head. "You really mustn't do that."

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

Autor tongues the cut. "Not like I wanted to," he says, successfully chastised and smarting more from that than... Well, all right, the bruises hurt, too, and he's rather cold. Such is ice skating!

"So, I was right, then," he says, dabbing at his mouth with a handkerchief. "You do have magic. Or, rather, there's more evidence towards it, given that I can't imagine someone who may or may not be Baba Yaga hiring a non-magical being."

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

There's enough happiness here, tastes of sweet peaches and candied apples, that it's the work of a moment and half a thought to dip into the Gloom, to weave back together such a minor injury. She does it with a deft enough hand that while he might feel a moment of lingering deeper cold, there isn't a visible flicker in her movements.

"You may believe what you wish, I suppose, I have no governance over your thoughts." She snickers, offering a hand up again.

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

Autor brushes his newly-knitted lip with a gloved thumb, and barks out a stunned laugh. "No," he says, grinning as he happily clutches her offered hand, "but you wouldn't have directed them with your actions if you didn't want to."

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"You are terribly strange. I am merely attempting to teach you to skate, thankless task that it is." She points out drolly, hauling him back to his feet.

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

Autor snorts. "Is fixing my lip a part of that, Witch Woman?" he says, shuffling his feet. "Why'd you show me that I was right?"

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"Fixing what, exactly?" She blinks at him in incomprehension. "Your lip is fine."

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

Autor licks his lip, and holds up the bloodied handkerchief. "Eight seconds ago, it was not."

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

She continues blinking blankly, clearly confused and humoring him.

"Did you hit your head? And whyever are you carrying around that nasty thing?"

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

"If I were to fall again," he says softly, tucking the handkerchief away, "would you fix it?"

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"If you were to fall again, I may give up on you as a lost cause for any sort of skating prowess - I have warned you about your knees." She snorts, unimpressed with the threat.

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

Autor makes use of his perfectly healed lips to smile at her. "Hm! Right, right, keep them bent," he says, mimicking her glide across the ice.

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"They provide shock absorption." She demonstrates, bunny-hopping across the ice as if she wasn't trusting her balance to two thin metal blades. "And are much more forgiving of shifts in balance than your hips."

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

Autor purses his lips. "Which is good," he says, watching the ice and trying to bend his knees. "I'm pretty bad at handling shock."

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"Mmmhmm." She hums, clearly unconvinced on that score. "Now look up at where you're trying to go - looking down tilts your weight too far forward."

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

The kid glances up right to her face, but overcompensates. He windmills his arms and--"Ow!"--lands right on his butt. "I didn't know that skating was so goal-oriented," he groans, pushing up off the ice. "But at least I'm learning how to fall."

This time, he looks ahead.

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"It is an important skill. Some people never learn how to do it properly." She spins in lazy circles around him while he moves forward, always within arms reach if she needs to be.

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

The sound of her blades scraping across the ice feels ever so much like she's laughing at him, mocking him with her skill.

Intellectually, he knows that's not the case, but Autor still sets his jaw, leans forward, turns his feet, bends his knees--everything she taught him and then some.

He will skate today, and well.

... Right after falling again.

"Ow!" he says, and melts into a stunned laughter.

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

She snickers, shaking her head at him.

"Come on, I'll tow you, and give you a sense of proper speed." She offers, reaching a hand down again."

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

At first, he clutches her hands and leans forward, marking squiggly lines on the ice.

But soon enough, he's crouching, lending her his momentum as she whips them around a turn. The boy cackles as his scarf trails out behind them, fluttering in the wind.

"How fast can you go?" he asks, breathless.

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"Fast enough for you, novichok." Katya laughs in return, the blades of her skates digging into the ice as she angles for another turn.

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

"And significantly faster," he mutters, though it's in good cheer. He'll have to look that nickname up; it's probably something terrible.

When she turns, he banks hard with her, bending his knees and straightening his arms. He slingshots around the corner, laughing.

"Thank you," he says with a smile, "for this."

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"It is better, da?" Whether she means better than falling, better than letting him struggle on, or better than leaving him where he was, she fails to elaborate.

Re: Ice Rink!

[herr_bookman]

"Da," he says, like a true novichok. "It was all right before, but I'm happy to have some speed. Even if I had to take a favor from a witch woman."

Re: Ice Rink!

[katyafeline]

"Even if?" She asks archly, and glides more towards the outer edges, slowing them down just enough that when she twirls him into a snowbank, it's an easy enough landing.