tushanshu_logs | Ghost? Ghost!

Entry tags:

† korra,
† mako

Ghost? Ghost!

Who: Mako (

alphatar)
When: 27 October
Where: During the All Hallowed event
What: Going ghost-like?! And memory loss shenanigans!
Warnings: N/A for now!

The history lesson was interesting, to see how different the Kedan were from the foreigners. He wasn't sure how hard it was to get everything together for them to have an exhibit like this, but he appreciated the effort anyway. It made for interesting topics of conversation. And he couldn't believe some of the food that used to be a staple in the city (raw fish smothered in some syrup that ended up having the rank smell of sweet yet distinctly rotten fish?), as well as some of the events.

Besides that, it was nice to go with Korra, even if he couldn't get some of the food out of his head. It was really hard not to comment on it. Really, really hard. So, maybe it was better that they were moving into holidays throughout the ages by then. He glanced at Korra to get an idea of what she thought...

And then decided that he wanted to hold her hand.

"What do you think so far?"

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That one dish sounded iffy to be sure, but Korra was still curious enough and kind of/sort of wanted to give it a shot. That was all gone once they got into the holidays, which of course weren't anything like what they had back home.

Wondering just what so important about whatever kedanese holiday happened in June got pushed out of Korra's mind when she felt Mako's hand touching hers. A soft smile came across her face as she interlaced her fingers with his and she looked up at him.

"Well, I don't think anyone can jump on my case about sea prunes anymore." She leaned her shoulder onto his upper arm. "Why, are you not having a good time?"

"I think they've got you beat, that's for sure," Mako admitted. "I don't know how anyone could have eaten half that stuff..."

He squeezed her hand in response. Not having a good time? It was okay, and it was interesting. But he was taking more enjoyment from her company. "It's not bad. Kind of strange to see all this history and have zero connection to it." He was referring to how they'd just landed suddenly into this entire world that none of them knew existed up til that point.

"Glad they put this together for us."

"Yeah, nice of that old couple to set it up. Guess they just wanted to share all this...stuff." she gave a light chuckle and squeezed his hand back before they continued along the various days that celebrated whatever their history was. Korra wasn't able to pay enough attention due to boredom. Mako was right, it wasn't their world and they had nothing to really identify with.

"We haven't gotten to the old games they used to play." And for some reason, she was sure that it was going to be all that fun. Old fashioned games rarely were; except for Earth Rumble.

"But yeah, glad they did it for us."

Half the time, he wasn't sure why they did something, or if that tradition was even still alive (sprinkling pepper over your pillow to ward off bad omens? That just seemed uncomfortable to him). He hadn't spent much time watching the Kedan or anything like that. "The games might be interesting, who knows."

The next holiday definitely couldn't exist... Who chose a day to go around naked? Seriously?

No, that was actually kind of distractingly baffling.

Sleeping in pepper just sounded awful, Korra would have settled for the omens. "Yeah, they might be. But I'm not going to hold my br-"

That portrait along with the explanation of whatever kind of forgotten (it had to be...) holiday of being nude cut her off mid-sentence and she was unexpectedly reminded of the wrestling she had done back at Sinbrilee.

"breath."

"... So, uh..." He shook his head and looked away from that particular exhibit, pulling her along with him. There was no reason to stay there just staring. He'd rather see the games himself than that.

"What types of games do you think they're gonna have?"

The first thing he saw were some children's toys. Most of those were things he'd seen kids play with when they were young, and it was one of the rare times when he saw something that reminded him of home in Keeliai's history.

She was all too happy to be moving along to the next section. Aside from the children’s toys, most of the games were duller than a game of ostrich-horse claws.

“Boring ones from the looks of it.” Of course, the kedanese description didn’t help any since she couldn’t read their native language. After some brief inspection and growing boredom, Korra didn’t have to tug Mako along through the rest of the exhibits. It was really just an excuse for them to actually be a couple for a day.

Once they were outside, she tugged on his hand so they were facing each other. “Thanks for coming with me, I think I would have collapsed from boredom.” To Korra, their history was a lot like their poetry books: boring as hell.

She smiled, closing her eyes, and rose up to give him a kiss- but she ended up passing right through him.

"Korra?"

His hand was suddenly holding nothing, and he looked with alarm around him. Where the hell had she just suddenly vanished to? "Korra?" He asked again, though it was obvious to him that he was suddenly very much alone in the middle of Keeliai.

Being the avatar didn't just make you vanish into thin air, did it?

Once she got her footing back, she tried to get a hold of his hand, but her kept passing through his.

“Mako?!” She answered back, fear in her voice. After a few more attempts at trying to touch him or call out his name, Korra did her best to not let feeling of panic overwhelm her. Which was hard since it was being backed by sadness, a sense of loss at not being able to be with him in any shape or form.

“Mako…” She tried one last time to touch his arm.

He didn't feel it, wasn't even aware of how she passed through him or how hard she was trying to touch him. But he was starting to get worried, because this was weird. There was no discernible reason that Korra should have vanished, and the look was starting to show on his face.

But he didn't even know where to start looking. Where could he go?

He picks a direction and just starts going that way, at worse he could find a console and leave a message for her. At best, there was just some sort of huge misunderstanding. But that didn't even make sense? A huge misunderstanding of what?

"Korra?" he calls out again, slowing down near one of the fountains. He turns to look around one more time, and all the relief when he's pretty sure he sees her flicker into his vision.

"There you are!"

Unsure of what was going on and what to do about, Korra stayed next to Mako. Occasionally, she tired to touch his hand or arm and each failure just deepened the frown that was digging into her face. “I’m right here.” She said quietly, her voice wavered, threatening to choke on itself. When they got to the fountain, Korra was about to sit down on the edge of it when her eyes popped wide open.

. . .

Suddenly alert and frightened at the fact that she was here, wherever here was, and whoever the other people around here were. Her eyes moved quickly around to find something, anything familiar.

The sudden exclamation from the young man made immediately adopt a defensive stance, one hand placed openly before her and the other centered directly in front of her. She couldn’t even explain why she did it, it just came naturally. Muscle memory.

“Who are you?” she asked tersely. Her immediate feeling at his words was that of being hunted. Brow staunchly bearing down and lips firmly set in a line, she stayed poised, waiting for an answer.

That was strange, but Mako wasn't one to just ignore that his girlfriend was already crouched and defensive against him. He would be stupid to pretend everything was okay, even if his relief was genuine. It was already starting to give way to something negative, and a fresh new worry filled his mind.

Who are you?

"It's me, Mako. Your boyfriend," he replied calmly, not betraying the feelings underneath just yet. There were too many possibilities. His approach slowed, more cautious, just in case something strange happened.

Or worse, she tried to bend him back to kingdom come.

His expression was decidedly surprised, with just a tint of worry. Which said a lot for him.

As he got closer, her rear foot slid back as she kept the distance between them. Her hands closed into fists, fair warning that if he got to close she was prepared to strike.

"I don't know anybody by that name." she said sternly. When she tried to place his name, she came up with nothing. In fact, when she tried to think of anyone's name or face her mind continued drawing blanks.

"Where am I?" Even though she's on the defensive, Mako answered on of her questions. He might answer another.

He stopped once her hands moved into a fist, as much as he didn't want to, but she was being plenty clear enough. So, he put his hands up part way, universal signal for he didn't want to hurt anyone. But her answer was already a wound in and of itself. How could she just forget him like that...?

Something new was happening, and he didn't like it at all. He shifted his weight for a moment, honestly not quite sure how to proceed after that first answer, even if the second question was as easy as the first.

"Korra... You're in Keeliai." A beat. "I'm not going to do anything."

Satisfied with the show of hands, she hesitated for a moment where her eyes flicked to his feet, and felt it was a safe enough distance to lower her guard. If he did try to do anything, then she would at least have time to react.

"Korra..." she repeated to both him and herself, her tone unsure. "Keeliai?" she could only give a puzzled look at that. All of this was strange and the worst part was that she couldn't even remember five minutes ago, let alone anything further back than that.

A quick exhale and he lowered his hands. But that gave him a clue that there was something even more wrong than he originally thought, because of how confused she sounded... at both her name and the name of the city.

"So... what's the last thing you remember?"

He tested the waters by approaching again, still slow, still making no moves to seem dangerous.

She instinctively leaned away slightly, but didn't step back. He wasn't in her personal space and didn't seem to be out to get her. Though why it sounded like he was chasing her down was still confusing.

Which was the only answer she had to his question.

"You saying 'There you are' a few moments ago." her answer was apologetic and confused. None of this was familiar and she really needed something that she recognized.

"And nothing before that?" He could take it slower, let her set her own bubble.

He'd realize, soon enough, that he was as visible to others as she'd been to him just a few moments ago, but his focus wasn't on his surroundings. It was on her, and how frightened she looked.

He could already guess what the answer to his question was, just based off that look itself.

This was a horrible way to end a date.

She shook her head slowly, an unsure look on her face. “So, I’m Korra and you’re Mako?” For some reason, she needed reassurance of their names. It would be the first memory she would have.

Then a kedan passed right through her to sit on the fountain. Korra didn’t even see them until the seemingly emerged out of her since they approached from behind. After taking a deep breath and looking at them, she asked “Has it always been like this?”

"Yes... and no," he said to both questions, in order. "Yeah, our names are exactly what I told you-- but no, we're not normally... phased out like this." Another step, hopefully she'd let him be near her without getting worried.

"I'm not... really sure what caused this. At all."

He could ignore the kedan passing through and around them-- for now. First order of business was getting Korra as up to speed as possible. The second would be trying to find someone who could see them, and the sooner the better.

Even though he said it was her name, it felt awkward when she repeated it in her head. When he got close enough within arm’s reach, she fidgeted slightly. All she wanted was to remember something, anything.

Nothing felt right, especially the fact that were somehow invisible and intangible to everyone and everything. She looked around and tried to imagine this had been her home, but none of it seemed even remotely familiar.

“I don’t know what to do.”

If he knew all the questions she had, he'd have been able to answer some, but not all, of them. This was a fantastic situation that he just had no clue what to do about.

"I don't either, but we've got to try something."

His first thought: find someone who could see them. His second thought was to try and find either the emperor or, well, the turtle himself. Had something like this ever happened before.

He took her hand, not thinking much about it. "Let's see if we can find someone else."

As soon as he grabbed her hand, Korra slipped out of his grip and took a step back.

"Look. Thanks for trying to help me, but I don’t really know you." Mako was a complete stranger to her and that kind of familiarity made her feel uncomfortable. Not knowing what they’ve been through, or even if they’ve been through anything. She had nothing to go off of aside from his stating their supposed relationship.

Whatever feelings he may have had for her, or she may have had for him, however long ago that was, were out of her emotional grasp right now.

"Where do I live? Do I have any friends or family?"

He forgot for a moment, and realized he should probably slow down. He didn't know if there was a time limit or something for this, and he didn't know where to start. But there was a part of him that didn't want to have to go through all of their history.

"Sorry..." he exhaled. "Your family isn't here. Neither of us are from here-- I'm from Republic City, and you're from the Southern Water Tribe. Back home, you're the Avatar."

He faced her. "I don't know what's going on, but it's probably best for us if we stick together."

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly. The locations he gave her weren’t ringing any bells at all and she just closed her eyes, shaking her head at the Avatar part.

Whatever that was.

"Being solid again, let’s focus on that." Not that he wasn’t being helpful in the memory department, but it just was making her more confused. "You know this place."

I don’t.

"Where would be the best place to go to find someone who can see us?"

Where did he even begin? They had to go back somewhere. His immediate thought was to go find Asti, but it was Korra who had the connection to him. Not Mako. Next, maybe to one of the consoles, or the Emperor. Maybe one of those would work, but he wasn't sure which.

Well, before trying to get the attention of the kedan, maybe it'd be better to try with the other foreigners. "Knowing this place doesn't answer the second question," he admits. "But, let's backtrack. We might be able to find something where you first vanished."

Anything was worth a shot, and to her they were all shots in the dark. "All right, but I don't think we can touch it if we do find something."

She said it as she idly tried to bat popcorn out of the air from the kedan who was tossing them into the air and catching with his mouth.

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Ghost? Ghost!

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