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

Indifferent?

"Apparently," Teresa says. "I have never encountered anyone from Earth who has heard of it."

"Well, it's always nice to meet people from new places." Even strange people. (Especially strange people?)

"I'm Cyborg."

She turns her head a little more towards him then, offering a small smile.

"I'm Teresa.

"What kind of thing are you, Cyborg?"

"Part man, part robot. That's what the word cyborg means. Cybernetic organism." Which is not something everyone knows. He gets asked about his name a lot.

"Oh, you are half human."

Like her! It makes her smile to find that common ground, and she flicks her eyes at him to look more carefully.

"How did you become that?"

"There was an accident. Lost most of my body, but my father is a scientist and he built me the new parts." It's a lot easier to talk about now than it was all those years ago, but it still isn't natural.

Then they aren't the same after all. That's okay, Teresa didn't want to feel any kinship towards him anyway. She's her own person.

"He saved your life then. That was lucky."

"I guess. Might be the only really good thing he ever did for me." The bitterness creeps in. And creeps out.

"If you are alive, you are lucky."

Blink.

"Ummm, you aren't?" That would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

Mildly: "No."

"Er. Um.

"Dead like in the Milliways came-here-after-death sense?" Which is only mildly creepy.

"Yes," she says. "What other senses are there?"

"Being a zombie. Or something that's been brought back wrong."

She was like this when she was alive? That's also creepy.

"I don't know what that means," Teresa says. "Brought back wrong?"

"Sometimes things can die and then undie and be possessed by demons or something.

"At least in the movies. Which I bet you never heard of." He's getting more and more sure that she has no idea at all what he is talking about.

She has!

"I saw a movie here, once," Teresa says. "It had people who loved each other."

Well, that eliminates half the movies he sees.

"Nah, what I saw was a different kind film. Called horror."

A pause.

"Either horror means something else on our respective worlds, or humans are choosing to see something that scares them."

Why would they do that?

"Humans like being scared sometimes. By things that aren't real and can't harm us." Also, it's educational, in case you ever do meet a zombie.

"Why?"

An honest question.

"Is there not enough in the real world to scare them?"

"Because pretend scary kind of makes real scary seem less bad, I guess.

"Assuming that zombies aren't really real." But he's not happy with this answer.

"I don't understand," she says, and shrugs. Maybe she'll never understand humans.

"Pretend things that can kill you shouldn't make real things that can kill you less scary.

"And isn't it dangerous to think real things aren't scary?"

Cy is quiet for a moment.

"I really don't quite know why it works this way. I just know I like horror films. And that they don't stop me from taking my job trying to stop the real scary people any less seriously.

"Sorry if I can't explain it."

She shrugs again.

"There are many things I probably won't ever understand."

Re: Not in the bubble!

says_the_booyah - 2013-07-23 00:45 (UTC) - Expand

cantdiequiteyet - 2013-07-23 13:21 (UTC) - Expand

says_the_booyah - 2013-07-23 22:25 (UTC) - Expand

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says_the_booyah - 2013-07-24 22:24 (UTC) - Expand

cantdiequiteyet - 2013-07-25 04:10 (UTC) - Expand