i'm faithless now

[specifiercity]

Who: Arthur (specifiercity) & Asami Sato (futureinventor)
What: Event & General prompts for November!
When: Throughout November
Where: All over! I'll update here for the open prompts!

Content Warnings: event warnings generally apply, a little bit of Arthur's PTSD getting triggered (within the event)

[if you wanna plot with me hit me up at dreamalittlebigger!]

Comments

[futureinventor]

I think so.

[She looks around at everything she's managed to drag into the space. It's been a lot of work but her ideas are starting to come together.]

I'll have to rearrange some things, but I am getting better at using my weird blood powers for that.

[Is that a smirk? It's a bit of a smirk.]

[arclightning]

[ It's definitely a bit of a smirk, and Mako gives it the glare it deserves, which is definitely cool and not at all kind of pouty. ]

Yeah, yeah, you got the cool floating powers and I freeze everything I touch. I get it. Figure out how to put stuff back down where you actually want it yet?

[futureinventor]

[She shrugs a shoulder, deciding to be unflappable.]

I'm getting there.

[And then a beat.]

You're not still freezing everything are you?

[arclightning]

No.

[ another beat, during which Mako steps slightly away from Asami's machine, just... just in case. ]

Just tea. Sometimes.

I'm getting the hang of it. It's unnatural. At least your powers kind of make sense.

[futureinventor]

[She frowns curiously at him.]

It's unnatural? You just added ice to the powers you already had.

[arclightning]

What about that isn't unnatural? I'm a firebender, not the Avatar—I shouldn't be able to do anything with ice.

[ It's not something Mako lets himself voice very often, but he's still uncomfortable about it. Beyond just hating that he has a new ability he's not great at controlling—a nightmare for such a controlled person—it also feels wrong in the way that a lot of this place does. It's another reminder that they are not home, and Mako's been struggling with that a lot more than he'll ever tell anyone. ]

It's weird.

[futureinventor]

And I shouldn't be able to stop time — I'm pretty sure even the Avatar could never do that. But I can, even if it's just a little bit.

[She sighs.]

A lot of things are different.

[arclightning]

...yeah.

[ That one word, dropped onto the workshop floor between them, contains multitudes: resignation, loneliness, the startling depth with which Mako misses home, which—

He looks up at Asami, rounding the machine properly to inspect the shelves she's put up. ]

Do you miss it? Things... making sense? Normal animals?

[futureinventor]

[She's quiet for a moment, giving that question the time it deserves. When she speaks it's a little melancholy, but not outright sad.]

I do... But it's not like things weren't messy back home too. At least here, Korra doesn't have to worry about being the Avatar, and Wu doesn't have to worry about being King.

[She looks down at where her hands are resting on the machinery.]

It's almost like we just get to be who we are. Even if the trade off is... all of this.

[arclightning]

...no, you're right.

[ She's always right, and Mako should know that by now. It's the same thing he keeps reminding himself—that they're free of the pressures of those things, that Wu and Korra are both so much happier here, but... ]

But that's not. You know.

You. What about you?

[futureinventor]

[Asami's omen is laying in the corner under the front window, and for the first time she moves, raising her head to look up at Asami. She still doesn't have a name, but she also doesn't talk a lot. She's measured in her actions the same way Asami is.]

I don't know. I still think about all the plans and dreams I had for Republic City, and the life I thought I'd have there...

[She looks up at Mako.]

But everyone I love is here.

[arclightning]

[ Sometimes Mako is reminded of why he and Asami connected in the first place.

She's gorgeous, sure. She was possibly the most attractive person to ever pay attention to him for a while there, probably still is, and she's rich and smart and kind, but more than that—

They're on the same wavelength, at a deep level. There's static, of course. Fuzzy moments and radio-shrieks, spikes of anger and misunderstanding, but at the core of him Mako knows that Asami shoulders too much responsibility and has enough compassion to fill Yue Bay, thinks about others long before she thinks about herself. She gets it, and she does the same thing that Wu does: takes Mako's complicated looping thoughts, the kind that wind themselves around him, out of his head and puts them into a few simple words.

Zuko, curled around his neck, lets out a small trill and shoves herself off, gliding through the air until she can land on Asami's shoulders. She shoves her little nose into Asami's hair, rumbling gently with affection. Mako swallows. ]

I... know exactly what you mean.