Rough Month, New Business

[avatar_state]

Who: Korra and YOU
What: Her opening a new business, despite feeling lousy all month.
When: Late month
Where: Around and About



Getting Ready - Closed to Mako, any Team Avatar Interested

She's building a cart.

Well, in fairness, she already knew roughly the parts she needed for that - but this month? This month it's a challenge. Just hammering in a few nails and she feels like she has to sit down on a nearby crate.

She's got the basic box on the basic wheels - but after that it's harder. She has plans for this, after all - a travelling shop, pulled by Naga. If she can only get it done.

This is a lousy, lousy month, she decides - and not for the first time. This month has been nothing but exhaustion and pain. And, best of all! She can't even get comfort for it! Even when Asami isn't working, touch itself causes more discomfort. She's very much done with this month. She sags onto one of the cabinets she's installing inside the cart, along the sides, laying down the hammer and wiping at her brow.

She'll get this done, she's determined - but it sure isn't a fun time.

Korra's Kreations - Around and About - OPEN

The end result, though, is worth the time and effort. The final product looks like a small house on wheels - which in many ways it is. A peaked roof sits under light, red tiles. There's even a tiny, false chimney. At the back of the cart, a set of stairs folds down, to allow people to come upwards into the shop itself - both sides of the cart's interior filled with shelving and cabinets, displaying the many glass trinkets and treats Korra has been working on.

At the front, her seat is a swivel - she can turn around and be right at her counter, a small pair of window panes opening up to allow commerce.

The glassware inside, carefully packed and strapped into place, covers any number of things. Housewares, decorative items - there's even a small, round container with a number of delicate, multicoloured glass flutes in it. Plates, cups, mugs, small figurines - to some eyes it will be a wild collection. She has crafted what she knows, after all. Skybison and Platypus bears abound, along with so many other creatures.

In a little basket, carefully secured at the front of the cart, Korra's Omen, the turtle-duck named Toph, sleeps.

As for the cart's method of locomotion? Well. That's right down to Naga - the polar bear dog, ambling along at her own pace. The cart's weight is nothing much to a creature of Naga's strength. Not that Korra doesn't give her frequent breaks, and any number of treats.

But for the moment, the shop is open, come find some treasures!

Downtime - OPEN

Later on in the day, commerce done, she just rests against Naga, a blanket between them to reduce the pain of contact. It's one of the few ways she can feel even vaguely comfortable this month. Naga, for her part, dozes. Korra leans back against her, watching the moonlight.

Toph waddles about on her four webbed legs, nibbling here and there.

Comments

[avatar_state]

"She might be the most powerful earthbender in my world's entire history," she replied, "and definitely the most stubborn." But she nods.

Naga lifted her massive head, snuffing a bit. Then the tail gave a few thumps and she opened her mouth to receive the jerky - which might create a bit of a reaction, all things considered.

[unphase]

Tinya arches an eyebrow slightly. "Earthbender. I'm sorry, but I've never heard of that before. Is it a super-power or something like that?"

She did her best to stay calm. She knew Naga was not just Korra's beloved friend, she was also a fierce animal which could eat her up in a gulp or two. She'd finally been able to phase, but the physical cost was high and she wasn't willing to use it unless it was a drastic emergency. So, smile, stay sweet and pleasing and everything will be fine. "Go ahead. It's yours."

[avatar_state]

"It's normal where I'm from. I can do it. Well, I can bend all the elements, I'm the Avatar."

Naga, though, that was a lot easier - she nipped up the jerky happily, huge tail thumping. And then she went to lick Tinya, because suddenly she had a new friend.

[unphase]

"Bend...as in control? If so, that's really something amazing. Even back home, I've never heard of anyone who could do that."

Tinya squealed happily when Naga licked her, saying "Yes, I like you, too, you're beautiful!"

[avatar_state]

"That's one word for it," she said in return, with a nod. "Though it's really about moving energy from one place to another."

She just watched that, with a smile on her face.

[unphase]

Tinya looks impressed. "To be able to do what you do...I've never heard of anyone capable of doing all of it. I certainly can't, though I'm a coldblood."

She reaches out to gently pet Naga and coos softly to her, words about how beautiful she is, how sweet, how smart.

[avatar_state]

She'll find Naga soft and thick-furred at that, and more than happy to receive all the affection.

"It's a gift for a lot of us, but that doesn't make us better than anyone." She adds the last because it's important, even for the Avatar, to remember that.

"But I'm a bit...unique. I'm what's called the Avatar, back home. Long story short, the Avatar is reborn down the ages to protect the world from chaos and evil."

[unphase]

That's good, because she wants to give Naga all the affection, rubbing her cheek gently against her fur.

"No, it doesn't. Especially when we're here and so many people have such a wide variety of abilities. It's both incredible and humbling."

Tinya took all of that in with wide, astonished eyes. "So, like reincarnation? Though, that's got to be a lot of responsibility to carry. Responsibility...can feel good. Or it can be exhausting. Sometimes both."

[avatar_state]

She nodded.

"Ten thousands years of it, yeah. And it's both. It's always both."

[unphase]

Tinya's eyes widened. "Ten...thousand years? And Mother thinks our lineage is impressive. That's incredible! And I agree. About the both thing."

[avatar_state]

"I used to remember them all," she said, "have access to their memories."

"I lost that, in one of my battles to save the world. But their spirits are still out there, somewhere. Maybe one day I'll find a way to reconnect with them."

[unphase]

Tinya's eyes widened. "Sweet Mistress...ten thousand years of memories. That sounds both fascinating and...like it would be really hard to establish yourself as you." Which Tinya knows something about. She's sharing a body with her "sister," but Tinya only lets herself be herself.

"I hope so. To go from having so many memories to--to none of them. That's got to be painful."

[avatar_state]

"It might have been, but it required meditation to access them, and even then only sort of one at a time," she replied, waving that away.

"It's the wisdom lost that gets me," she replies. "So much of that, gone."

[unphase]

"It sounds like meditation could be really useful. I'll be honest, I was only good at the Bgztlian model--focusing on our foremothers. My grandmother, to be exact." But with her great and great-great grandmothers alive and well and her grandmother a disgrace, she knew to keep that quiet near home.

Tinya's expression softened. "It's got to be painful. To think of all of ten thousand years' worth of wisdom no longer there to consult."

[avatar_state]

"Well if it works, it works," she replied. "Certainly I would try using it as the basis of your control here."

But as for the rest...

"To be honest? It's the most recent one that's the most impactful to me. My predecessor's wife...she was my first teacher, you see."

[unphase]

"I do think that could work nicely. I don't feel like I've reached my full potential, if that makes sense. And I want to."

She's such a chronic overachiever, it's hard for her to loosen up, let go, and admit that she's having problems much of the time. But she tried to seem together and unruffled in front of her teammates.

"Oh, wow...yeah. That would make his memories and experiences even more important, given everything. But his are gone as well?"

[avatar_state]

"It's hard to reach that. In part because there's always more that can be learned."

But she sighed, nodding.

"All of them, aside from the ones I directly experienced in visions or meditation."

[unphase]

Tinya nodded. "And I should warn you, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Well, probably more than a bit of one," she said with a laugh.

But her expression sobers at the look on Korra's face.

"I'm so sorry. For memories and experiences of such meaning to be gone...it must be incredibly hard."

[avatar_state]

"It was, but I had some time to come to grips with it. And there's always hope, after all," she replies.

"As for the perfectionism," she says, shifting position with a wince and a grunt, "you'll learn one day that perfect is the enemy of the good. It took me forever to figure it out, but I learned in time. It makes us miss what's real and in front of us."

[unphase]

"Definitely. There's no way of telling what might happen to help, but surely something will."

And Tinya winced when she saw Korra wince. "Are you...okay? You seem like something hurts."

[avatar_state]

"Warmblood," she replieds, "everything gets to hurt this month."

[unphase]

Tinya's expression grew concerned. "Really? Do you want to sit down? Or for me to get a heating pad? Whatever might help."

[avatar_state]

She waved that away.

"No, I can take it. I've dealt with worse."

[unphase]

Tinya flushed pale blue.

"Sorry. I tend to be a worrier. Back home, I was part of an entire team of super-heroes and almost all of them would take their problems to me. So I kind of got used to the worry thing."

[avatar_state]

"It's alright - 'the worry thing' I understand completely. But in this place, there's often much you absolutely can't do," she finished, in reply.