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 laughed nervously. "Oh, I wish! This is mostly been unexpected! I mean, I know that I learned things from the Boiling Isles, and then from Miss Hardbroom and some basic potions and all, but this new stuff is very different."

Luz's eyes widened. "I'm not sure, but I'm learning! I'll try to look it up and gave you information. Maybe we can even find out about our new magic together! That way you could be as great with your new powers that you are with your Avatar abilities!"

She knew better than to call it magic by now.

[avatar_state]

She smiled.

"Doesn't mean you aren't - just means you don't know how powerful you are, yet. You should have seen me when I learned to toss a gust of fire around at six," she replied.

She frowned at the latter, rubbing the back of her neck.

"I'm not sure there is anything new. I mean, nothing has happened, anyways. People are saying I'm Warmblood? And a few have looked down their noses while saying it, which I haven't much cared for."

[imaglyphwitch]

"You learned to toss fire at AGE-np, wait, let me relax. Obviously I can't be as gifted as you were and that's OK. I'm going to learn to do this at my own pace. We all need to, after all."

Curse Korra and how amazing and cool she was. Luz had almost forgotten.

"Really? I haven't researched Warm Bloods, but you know, you're already pretty powerful as the Avatar. Maybe you didn't get new blood powers because then you would have just totally p'wned everyone."

[avatar_state]

"Hey, slow down there - I was six. Ask me how precise I was at it," she replied, gently tapping Luz's shoulder with a fist. "You gotta stop writing yourself down, Sprout."

And truth was, she didn't want all the powers she knew herself to have - the Waste Korra had taught her that, or reminded her, that she could bloodbend - and the more she thought about how important blood was to this place, the more terrifying that ability became.

"I hope not," she managed, a tiny bit distantly.

[imaglyphwitch]

"Right, but you could still DO it, which is still amazing! I'm not downing myself! I'm no Avatar, and I'm fine with that! That's your deal! me, I'm going to be a witch, no matter what!"

Well. That caught her off guard.

"You hope not? Why?"

[avatar_state]

"Still," she replied, "you're capable, and passionate, with a good heart. Those are the the ingredients of what an Avatar is. Of what any hero is supposed to be made of."

As for the latter, she waved it away.

"It's nothing, just thinking."

[imaglyphwitch]

"Aw, thanks!" Luz couldn't help but blush. "It means a lot to hear you say that, especially when I feel like I could be much better than I am."

She made a face.

"Are you sure? I feel like there's a more complete answer here>

[avatar_state]

"I think everyone feels like that, sometimes," she replied, "at least the good people."

But she nodded, again.

"There might be, but it's not important today."

And the fewer people know, the better, she thinks. Best kept secret, and forgotten about - as much as she can forget about it, anyway.

[imaglyphwitch]

"I definitely feel it. I'm still working on being someone dependable though. It helps to hear that though!"

Luz did have the tendency to short change her own good deeds because they just seemed like something a person ought to do.

"Ok, if you insist! Hey, you do know where I live now, right? I mean, you probably can use that lantern guy and everything."

[avatar_state]

"Probably," she agreed, "though I don't really know how all that works yet. Frankly, the less I think about - or see - that..."

[imaglyphwitch]

"Oh, not me! I want to know how all of it works! Besides, I can always help you with anything you don't know! That way I can say I was actually helpful to the Avatar!"

Luz will always think you are the coolest Korra. Just deal with it.

[avatar_state]

"You say that like you didn't save my butt by flying me out of danger that one time," she replied, with a half-smile.

And she's trying, but being people's hero at a distance was so much easier than someone thinking you're the coolest up close.

[imaglyphwitch]

"Huh? Oh, I mean, that's just me helping a friend out, that's not heroic! You've helped me out mentally and emotionally!"

See how Luz's logic became flawed when she factored in herself? This was kind of a problem with her.

"I guess I'm just used to reading about cool people. Meeting them in person is so totally different!"

[avatar_state]

She did, and she frowned at that.

"You are one of those people, Luz."

[imaglyphwitch]

"What? Me? I'm just a kid who knows a little magic!"

Luz, will you think about that? How many kids do you know that know a little magic at all?

[avatar_state]

"And I started out as a kid who knew a little bit of bending. You ought to think about that a little more, huh?"

She said it gently, with a hand placed on Luz's shoulder.

"Everything starts from a small seed, after all."

[imaglyphwitch]

"See, you STARTED with bending. I started with letting snakes loose in the school and being called a being of chaos. Very different ways to our destiny!"

Luz would always think of Korra as a prodigy, and honestly? That was ok! Luz knew people by now people were very different, and she wouldn't be where she was if she had just had magic to start.

"You can say that again. My first magic started with my light spell, and now I can cast with a staff! You honestly never know how things are going to go sometimes!"

[avatar_state]

She looked thoughtful at that, tilting her head and leaning a bit.

"Yeah, destiny is a strange, strange thing. But where the road starts isn't the key part." She paused, giving Luz a smile.

"Just...remember that I believe in you, ok? I think you're pretty darn heroic. And I look forward to seeing what you manage next!"

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz nodded, reminding herself that even though Korra was not that much older than her, she still had a lifetime of wisdom imparted to her from years and years ago.

"That's true! Heck, mine didn't even really start until the moment I accidentally left my world!"

Not that everything before was worthless, it just tended to make her think she was not as important and was more of a nuisance than anything.

And Luz couldn't help flush at the praise, because feeling that useful was more helpful than she could have thought.

"That means a LOT coming from you Korra. Thanks for believing in me."

[avatar_state]

She put an arm around Luz's shoulder, giving her a squeezing hug.

"Always will. You earned it long ago."

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz lowered her head and muttered some garbled words but looked pleased.

"Hey, have you seen The Doctor around? I only saw him once, and I want to make sure he's ok."

[avatar_state]

She sighed at that, shaking her head.

"No. I haven't. And that worries me a little bit. I think...I think something prevented him from coming. That something didn't want him, and his specific knowledge, here."

She frowned a bit.

"I mean, if you want a captive population, you make sure only the prisoners you think will stay put make it, right?"

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz looked a little pained here. Of all the things she was sure about, the Doctor coming back had just made sense to her. That the person who had saved her and Margot wouldn't be here made her pretty sad.

"Would he have though? He was always traveling, that guy. I guess if you really think about it, once having the chance he'd be off on the next adventure, right?"

She didn't blame him. It hurt, sure, but she at least knew the Doctor would land on his feet and be amazing for someone else somewhere. That was how he was.

[avatar_state]

She looked thoughtful for a moment at that. The silence drew on for a while, perhaps half a minute, before she spoke in response.

"No, he'd have come. He and I...we were alike in a lot of ways. He'd never be able to rest, knowing people he cared about were potentially suffering, and he'd done nothing. Only thing that would stop him trying to crack back in would be if they - the Pthumerians - took his memories of us all."

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz listened quietly, and looked a little sad now.

"So you think that happened? Oh. Then I guess that means he's fall in the same category as Margot, where they forget everything about us."

The girl had to turn away for this. She hadn't expected it to hit that hard, but of course it would: The Doctor had been there for her when she had hit a pretty hard bottom. She would always appreciate what he'd done for her in those last months in Deerington. When she hadn't seen him, she figured he'd just be busy doing his own thing.

It hadn't occurred to him that it might be her last time seeing him.

"It gets really hard to put the past behind you when it leaves all these holes in you."