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

"That would be a really important job without firebending," Korra says. "In the water tribe we just all pitch in if a fire gets out of control."

OR they get Korra to do it all.

"I'm the Avatar, but I'm in training, so mostly what I do is work on mastering all the elements."

"Yeah, it is, in a world without magic or superpowers, but somebody's gotta do it," he agrees with a tic of his head.

"Wait, so-- you're the Avatar? The Avatar? The guy I met told me a little bit about the history of your world and people. You're like-- famous! Right?"

"Yeah."

Smug, but also a little taken back at the recognition. Korra had gotten used to this place as somewhere that takes her as she is, and recognizes her awesome without all the expectations.

"Pretty famous. I'm supposed to keep balance in the world, so it's kind of a big deal."

Mm, there's that smugness again, and he breathes a chuckle after taking a drag off his cigarette.

"Well, yeah, but I mean, it is the whole world an' all. Snowmen and skating rinks and lighting cigarettes are great on the weekends, but I would think keeping balance in the world is a full-time job. You ready for that?"

"Not quite," she says, allowing room for a little humbleness in her admission. "I mean, I gotta learn air first. But I'll get there, you'll see."

"Oh, I don't doubt it," he says with a half-nod. "I mean, I don't know you well yet, but if you think you got what it takes, then you better believe it all the way. You can't be half-assed about this sorta thing, know what I mean?"

The thing about self-assured teenagers is that they inevitably remind him of himself when he was that age. But another thing about self-assured young people, and basically any youth Tommy comes across whether they're cocky teenagers or fresh-faced rookies out of the academy, is that they need a dose of reality -- not necessarily to take 'em down a peg, but to make them really think about what's down the road.

"Is bending air harder to do than the others?"

"Oh, I know what you mean," Korra says. Because she has absolutely no intention of doing anything half-assed. She's just not a half-assed kind of girl.

She bends a handful of snow back into her hands, tossing it up and down as she thinks.

"Yeah. Well, it is for me, anyway. I guess it's harder to bend the element most opposite to your personality."

Tommy frowns a little with a tilt of his head.

"Opposite to your personality? How do the elements have anything to do with your personality?"

Korra stares at him in real confusion for a second before she tries to explain.

"You know," she says. "Like earthbenders are stubborn, firebenders are angry, waterbenders are adaptable, that kind of thing. Air is supposed to be the element of frredom, but I don't see how that makes it so hard for me."

"Oh. Is that the case? Interesting. Looks like I'd be fire if I could do that sorta stuff, and not just 'cause of my job, heh. Anyways, if you're part of the water tribe and waterbending is your main thing, that means you'd be pretty adaptable to bending the other elements, which is already kinda obvious with the fire and the earth, so-- maybe all you gotta do is sorta adapt to airbending. And in a way, adaptability is a kind of freedom, if you squint at it."

Tommy Logic.

She folds her arm and gives him an unimpressed look.

"Thanks for the advice?"

"You're welcome!" he chirps blithely.

Adults are always going to want to impart wisdom onto young people, but he really has no idea what he's talking about, does he? No, didn't think so.

"In any case, good luck with your training. I still kinda think that air should be easy for you, dunno why. You seem like a free enough spirit to me."

"Yeah well, it's not," she says, sounding a little sulky despite her best efforts.

"I don't know either. I like freedom."

Clenching his cigarette between his teeth, he bends down and picks up a handful of snow, idly packing it into a ball.

"Freedom's awesome, yeah. But d'you see my point with the whole adaptable-freedom thing? Maybe you just haven't learned enough to earn that freedom yet. 'Cause being truly adaptable means that you know the rules, but you've also got the experience and the instincts to tell you that you don't always hafta follow those rules. To me, that's freedom, 'specially when it comes to doing your job."

Korra frowns. Not really at him. But in trying to make sense of his words.

"...I guess?"