(no subject)

[mix_it_up]

When Asami enters the bar – for the first time since she was able to leave after being Bound for months – she immediately checks that the door behind her opens again.

It's not a guarantee, but it still feels reassuring.

After that, she walks straight through the room, and heads upstairs.

It's a few hours later when she's sitting at a table by the door, with a cup of tea and a copy of the United Daily News spread out in front of her. Someone would have to know the language of her world read the headline ('Revelation': Equalist Leader Claims Power to Remove Bending), but there's a photo beneath the large print of a man in a mask, standing below a spotlight.

Her eyes are on the story below the photo, her mouth just barely curled into a frown. Without looking up, Asami reaches for her tea, lifting the cup and pressing it to her lips.

Comments

[says_the_booyah]

Cy, passing by, notices the girl. And then the photo. "Wow. That guys looks mean." Clearly a supervillain.

[mix_it_up]

Asami lowers her tea and looks up. Her gaze lingers for a moment, but otherwise there's no particular reaction, despite that she's never seen anyone who looks like Cy before.

Glancing back down at her paper, she agrees. "He's... definitely concerning."

But she raises her eyes again, and gives him a small smile.

"It's news from my world. I'm not sure if you can read it?"

[says_the_booyah]

"Afraid note. I don't even recognize the language. So you're not from Earth. Who is he?" Cy can never just ignore the bad guys. Even when they aren't his bad guys.

[mix_it_up]

"It's a little hard to explain, if you're not from my world."

She folds over the paper. "Have you ever met anyone here who mentioned bending?"

[says_the_booyah]

"Can't say I have." Except maybe for that robot on the cartoon that kept coming and going on cable TV.

[mix_it_up]

"Okay, you probably haven't met anyone from my world."

It's better to check before she gets into the explanation, in any case.

"Where I come from, some people have an ability to - control and move one of the four elements. We call it bending."

With a sort of half-smile, "I'm not a bender, so I can't really show you what it looks like."

[says_the_booyah]

"So a common superpower of sorts. I've met people who can do things like that." Terra, that poor tortured soul, comes to mind first.

[mix_it_up]

"We don't really call it that, but -"

She shrugs. 'Superpower' is a phrase she hears more often in here, and it's probably close enough for this.

"But right now some people, especially in the city I'm from, don't like bending, and - now I guess they've started attacking benders."

Asami gestures to the paper. "They call themselves the Equalists, and that's their leader."

[says_the_booyah]

"That sucks. And you can tell this guy is up to no good. So why do people listen to him?" Yeah, he knows he's judging a book by its mask. But that usually works.

[mix_it_up]

Asami bites her lip. The truth is this would be hard to discuss even with another person from her world, let alone someone from a place completely different.

"He's -"

She's never seen him in person, so she doesn't really know if he's as charismatic as the reports tend to say. A few times, especially in Republic City Park, she's seen the flyers the Equalists put up, with his image more prominent than anything else.

Asami opens the paper again, looking back to the article. "The people he attacked last night - they worked for one of the triads, the Triple Threats. There are a lot of bending triads like them."

Her mouth twists, and she admits, "I don't think people will feel that bad for Lightning Bolt Zolt."

[says_the_booyah]

"Triads...in my hometown, when you say 'triad,' you mean a street gang of certain kind. So this bad guy is trying to be a good guy by attacking other bad guys.

"Yeah, I see how that could confuse things." He knows there are people who think of certain heroes as just vigilantes, so the reverse could happen easily.

[mix_it_up]

"Yeah, that's what they are - street gangs."

It didn't occur to her to clarify the word, but she's become used to it by now.

"They cause a lot of the crime in my city, but this group - I don't think they're talking about just the bending triads."

She sighs, but then glances up again. "Sorry, my name's Asami, by the way."

[says_the_booyah]

"Cyborg. Pleased to meetcha." He would offer a hand, but he doesn't know what her culture considered proper as a greeting.

"So it's bad news all around. Are there any heroes trying to deal with both the bad guys and the bad guys?"

[abitofawildman]

"hrumph. So he thinks he's the Avatar now, huh? Can't say I didn't see that coming," Bumi drawls from just over Asami's shoulder.

[mix_it_up]

Asami looks up to him, then back down to the newspaper.

"A 'savior,'" she reads out, her voice flat.

"But - they're saying he really did it."

[abitofawildman]

Bumi couldn't possibly roll his eyes any further. Not without some sort of nerve damage anyway.

"Who's they?" He leans over slightly to catch the name of the rag she's reading. United Daily News. Crap. That's a rather reputable rag...

"I'll believe it when I see it."
But the bluster is just that: Bluster. A small seed of fear gets planted.

[mix_it_up]

"The Equalists apparently had some big rally last night." She reads it out of the article. "They brought out some people they said were with the Triple Threats and -"

Asami bites her lip. "Maybe he found some kind of chi-blocking that takes longer to wear off..."

But that thought somehow rings false to her.

[abitofawildman]

He snorts his derision even as he's pulling out a chair and cautiously lowering himself into it, as opposed to just flopping into it as per usual.

"Doubtful. Only one person in history has ever actually removed a person's bending, and that isn't him." Bumi jabs a finger towards the picture of Amon. "More likely he's got someone on the inside of the paper."

[mix_it_up]

"That person might have been there," Asami answers.

She presses her finger to a paragraph further down, which details witnesses who claimed to see a polar bear dog fleeing the rally.

[abitofawildman]

He looks down, reads the characters she's pointing to, and for the briefest of moments allows himself to smirk.

'Course you were there, Dad.

"Oh I bet Tenzin loved that."

[mix_it_up]

"It sounds like she would've been pretty unwelcome."

Asami glances back down at the article. "He called bending the 'cause of every war in every era.'" This time, she nearly rolls her eyes.

[abitofawildman]

"Wow. Now I am impressed. Not only can this man actually remove people's bending, but he can travel through time as well."

[mix_it_up]

Asami nods, but then looks down at the paper, frowning again.

"If the Avatar was there, she'll probably have to confirm whether it's true pretty soon."

[abitofawildman]

Bumi leans back in his chair and strokes at his beard as he thinks.

"People are going to start to panic either way."

[mix_it_up]

"Do you think that's what he wants?" she asks, looking over to him.