Avatar Arrival

[avatar_state]

Character Name: Korra log - OPEN

Who: Korra et al
What: What the characters are doing.
When: When the characters are interacting.
Where: Where the characters are interacting.

Content Warnings: None, will add if needed.



Washing Ashore - Closed to Team Avatar

She remembered floating in the water. Having been...herself, then something else, then herself again. But it all floated in front of her mind like leaves on the stream, there one moment and gone the next. Nothing she could focus on. She had, after a time, watched ashore. She had felt the water of a tide washing over her form, chill and...familiar. It felt like home, like the Pole; the cold water she had swam in when she was a child. It was not the sort of cold that bothered her, but it was strange. Where was the sun?

There had been greeters - or had supposed to be there - but their process was...interrupted. Because alongside Korra, the vast bulk of Naga had washed up. And while the mighty legs of the polar bear dog were still unsteady, her jaws were still powerful - and she drew herself with great effort over Korra, rearing back up as best she could, snarling at anybody who tried to approach. All the greeting committee were able to do was throw a cloak over her - and for a whole day, Naga kept up her watch.

And it was her face that Korra saw first as she smiled up into the strange sky. "Hey, girl," she said, reaching up to pet her face. "Thanks for taking care of me." She knew, instinctively, what had happened.

It took her some time to stand. More to get dressed. She looked through the pack, examined each object with a sigh. She'd been home. She'd been happy - she rolled the engagement rings she'd had made in her fingers, the key consideration of that - but something, and she had a sneaking idea what, had drawn her back in.

Finally, using a piece of driftwood until her legs were steady enough, she began to walk, her free hand holding onto Naga.

"Let's go find our family," she said.

Exploring - OPEN

In time, she rode Naga again. Once there had been food for both of them. She couldn't quite get her mind around this place - it was like Deerington but not...but she felt the same sense of the place. Like there was constantly something wrong. Something foreboding...

In the back of her mind, she felt it. The sense that she should...give up, accept the place. Face the future, turn from the past. It might even have worked, but she was still the Avatar - and the Avatar, even shorn from the direct memories of her predecessors, was a product of the past. To give it up would mean to...shed herself, in many ways.

And either out of stubbornness or will, Korra couldn't do that. Couldn't be that. She would not let this place lull her - she would find out what it was, what it was doing. If it was as malevolent as she had believed Deerington itself to be.

And thus, she explored. In the rest times, she worked on the driftwood she had found, out of some half-forgotten instinct. She could almost feel Aang smiling on her. She used fire, and water, and air to shape it, smooth it, add a shine. It was something to do while she thought, at first. But then it became something to finish.

She could be found many places, either on foot or riding astride Naga - the newly-made staff in her hand. She looked better than she had in Deerington - rested, fit, healed. In a word, ready.

Comments

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz was outside of her home for once, with her wolf Tempest, just starting to get a feel for the city Cassandra. There was a lot to see, and she was anxious to see what she could. It was night, and though she had every reason to want to rest, she wasn't quite tired and wanted something to do.

When she spied Naga, however, she knew exactly what she'd be doing: greeting a good friend.

"Korra! KORRA! Hey! It's Luz! Wait for me!"

Luz hurried over to see her friend with Tempest in stride.

[avatar_state]

Seeing Luz is one of the few times she has actually smiled since arriving here, banishing for the moments all the thoughts she's dwelling on. She's off Naga in an instant, arms open to offer a hug.

"Hey Luz!"

She'll comment on the wolf momentarily.

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz wasn't going to waste a moment and jumped into her friends' arms laughing.

"Ha ha, you're still so awesomely buff! I'm so glad to see you again Korra!! When'd you get here?!"

Her wolf let out a loud bark, and Luz turned to her.

"Sorry! Naga, Tempest. Tempest, Naga!"

[avatar_state]

They are, by then, already busy making friends. Naga thumps her huge tail a few times.

"Heh, thanks...I guess the time away was good for me." She pauses. "If it really was."

But she also points, in the vague direction of the beach.

"Yesterday. It was...strange."

[imaglyphwitch]

Tempest circled around Naga and was already hurrying to catch up with the polar bear dog. Despite how Tempest tried to steer Luz more toward her true feelings, Luz was not transparent about how she felt about Korra.

"Was it really? What did you do?! Give me all the details!"

Luz wrinkled her nose. "Oh yeah, there was a boatload of trouble there."

exploring

[droptheious]

Varian had similar concern to Korra. He was naturally distrustful of the unknown, even more so when those unknown things pimped themselves as something safe. He did feel safe, and a new life is something he wanted- but he's still on his guard. It's only a matter of time before the other shoe drops, he reckons.

Still, they're here now, and despite the weird anxiety that's been pressing on him since he got here, Varian is trying to settle in as much as he can- or at least get a feel for the place before the inevitable disaster hits. Naga is a pretty obvious sight in the city, and he smiles, heading over towards the polar bear dog, raising a hand in greeting to Korra.

"Hey, you made it."

[avatar_state]

She smiled when she saw him, bringing Naga to a halt.

"Hey," she replied, pleasantly, "seems so. Wherever it actually is. Deerington, round two, I suppose."

[droptheious]

"Trench, apparently," he moves over, reaching out to pat Naga with a soft good girl. "Or that's what the natives seem to be calling this place, anyway. It's definitely got a different feel to it than Deerington did."

[avatar_state]

She looked up at the sky, nodding in agreement.

"That much seems obvious. But...I don't know. Something is..."

She shakes her head.

"It rattles my instincts something awful."

[droptheious]

Realisation dawns on him pretty quickly- oh, of course.

"You're more connected to like...spirits and suchlike than the rest of us, right?" great way of putting it Varian, so eloquent. "I never even considered it before- but it makes sense it would play havoc with your Avatar abilities. What does it feel like?"

Exploring

[onerthes]

During her explorations, the region of 'Gaze' probably came up. Vira-Lorr was walking along, on her way towards the school of Mummer, when she saw the familiar form of Naga. Perking up, she made her way over and waved.

"Korra? Is that you?" Hopefully she remembered. Vira-Lorr sincerely hoped that she remembered. Enough that she would take the risk.

[avatar_state]

She turned her head when she heard Vira-Lorr's voice, a smile coming to her face.

"I think so," she replied, with a bit of her usual humour - clearly she was better now than when she had left, mentally at least. "I'm glad to see you."

[onerthes]

"Hah, very funny you. I'm pretty sure I'm Vira-Lorr too. Last I checked," she said, winking at her and offering Naga a chance to sniff her hand before reaching to go for an ear scratch.

"It's good to see you too. Several of your friends are here, I believe. Mako's doing his fire suppression announcements even as we speak." She snickered. "He'd make a good babysitter, you know."

[avatar_state]

For Naga's part, it was easy enough to smell it was Vira-Lorr, nuzzling her massive head against Vira-Lorr's hand.

"I know," she replied, looking relieved at that. But...well, of course he was. "He would. Probably."

She paused. "I'd pay good money to see him spend a day with a baby, though."

[onerthes]

She ran her hand up along the great creature's snout and gave them an affectionate scratch while she chatted, laughing openly. "Once he was done freaking out and squawking, I think he'd do just fine, but that first hour would be hilarious." Oh she could definitely see it. He could be so easily frazzled.

"But that's Mako, and you're you. How are you?"

Washing Ashore

[futureinventor]

Most afternoons since she's been here, Asami ends up down at the boardwalk. It's been the kind of week that feels like a month and flies by all at the same time — it's a new and exciting experience, but her heart's not fully in it. So she ends up here, telling herself she's just trying to get some fresh air, gazing in the direction of the Farther Shores and just waiting.

On this day, she sees Naga first. She gasps at the sight of the polar bear dog and stands up a little taller to see if she can see the Avatar through the crowd.

"Korra?" she calls as she darts closer. Beware, she's coming in almost full speed for a hug.

[avatar_state]

She's still a bit wobbly on her feet, hanging onto Naga with one hand, using a piece of driftwood on the other side. Unlike the last time Asami would have seen her unsteady, this time promises the temporary - and her reaction to Asami's presence is very, very different.

Namely, she is happily bowled over, wrapping her arms around Asami and burying her face against her shoulder, relief flooding through her and tension she didn't even know she was carrying yet draining from her.

"Hey," she says, quietly, squeezing.

[futureinventor]

"Hey," she replies warmly, cheek pressed to Korra's hair. She indulges in that squeeze for a second longer before she pulls away, resting her hands on Korra's shoulders.

"I'm so glad you're here."

[avatar_state]

She smiled back gently, lifting one of her own hands to caress Asami's cheek. This was the second time. The second time they'd found each other across time and space. And it's enough of a pattern to convince her of what she says.

"I'll always find you," she said, "so of course I'm here."

[futureinventor]

She laughs, a little bashful as her cheeks flush slightly.

"The boys — they're all here too. It seems like everyone's settling in okay."

mid-September

[arclightning]

It's been a strange, strange period of adjustment.

Mako feels almost too lucky: everyone made it here. The whole team and Wu all washed up safely, and have scattered across the city like old times. Mako has his hands full teaching all the new firebenders how not to burn the city down, and he's kept awake at night with racing heart and thoughts, trying to imagine everything that this world might throw at them and how to counter it, but at least they're all here.

That's something. The only thing keeping Mako from spiralling into baseless anxiety, really, with a source he can't pinpoint. It shifts every day: there might not be enough food, there are monsters, there is that terrible river, we don't know what's coming for us, Wu still can't defend himself— the list goes on, and Mako needs grounding in this new place.

The end of Deerington was a uniquely strange and terrible thing, and it's with that in mind that Mako leaves their little loft one day while Wu's cleaning up backstage and trying to brainstorm with Ryan about exactly how much of a backstage area they'll even need.

He texts Korra to tell her he's coming, just in case she doesn't want to see him (Mako is bad, so bad, with not knowing where he stands: he thinks about his desk back in Republic City and Korra's sad eyes, and winces as he walks, drizzle falling dully on his head and plastering his hair to his face).

By the time he actually gets to her, he's drenched, and some of the rain has turned to ice on his hair. The air isn't terribly cold, but Mako certainly is.

[avatar_state]

She meets him at the door, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. It's strange - she thrives in the cold but feels it here a bit more than usual. Or maybe it's just having Asami near in the evenings that has changed things. She hopes it's the latter, and not the former; the latter is a blessing - the latter...a warning.

She shakes her head at him, letting out a brief gust of flame from a hand to at least get the worst of that ice away.

"Well, at least we know I'll be getting you an umbrella for your birthday," she begins.

[arclightning]

Mako offers her a small, thankful smile, glad for the heat. He's been ridiculously cold since getting here, and it's not his favorite. Firebenders are supposed to run hot. He's been that way all his life, and now this.

"That... would actually be nice," he says, and shakes off the rest of the cold. "I don't know where to buy basic stuff here. You know money is just rocks? That you can... find?"

[avatar_state]

"Well, Bolin and I would have the easiest time ever getting rich," she replied, stepping out of the way.

"Get in here before you freeze," she adds.

[arclightning]

"Already frozen," Mako mutters, shaking his head like a wet poodlemonkey as he crosses the threshold. Maybe things have been weird with Korra, but at least he feels comfortable here. Carefully, he shuts the door behind himself, keeping out the cold, and looks down at Korra as he toes off his wet shoes. "In a weird way, I'm... pretty glad it's a city. Deerington was kind of stifling before it fell apart. Guess you never really got to see it when it wasn't a mess."