tushanshu_logs | (OPEN) we are going on a safarri

Entry tags:

(OPEN) we are going on a safarri—

Characters: Asami Sato & others!
Date: Throughout March
Location: Various locations
Situation: A couple of preset scenarios and threads, and anything else! Asami went on her first ~real adventure~ in February (the bottle), and the events that transpired have left her just a little shook up.
Warnings/Rating: N/A

A) TURTLE'S HEAD
[Asami had always wondered if the turtle's head would be a place to find answers, or to escape. At this moment, she would be lying to herself if she didn't acknowledge her visit as a form of escapism. Any reprieve from the recent, unexpected visit to the recesses of her memories was welcome.

She just hadn't expected the effect to go this far. Asami is friendly by far, but she can't remember the last time she was this carefree. She's inclined to strike conversation with anyone on their lonesome like her.]

B) DRIVE
[It turned out the turtle's head was only a temporary fix, and quite honestly she wasn't sure she wanted to revisit that area any time soon.

Really, how could she have turned her back on her trusty form of therapy?

Asami picked twilight, when the landscapes were clearing and she had room to put her pedal to the metal. It was the same spot she and Mako had used in the past for some test driving. The path was twisting, winding, but otherwise relatively clear. This time, she was using the space as a personal speeding ground. It wasn't as gratifying as a race, but it was the next best thing.]

C) MARKETPLACE
[Specifically, the Earth Sector. Because clothes and textiles. TREAT YO'SELF. And hit her up.]

D) OTHER
[!??]

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This was only her second stint at teaching another person how to drive, but Asami was already liking it. It was less stressful than maintaining an expensive inventory, and getting paid for this would have made the deal much sweeter. The thought hadn't crossed her mind in regards to Korra in particular; this was a favor for a friend.

Besides, she couldn't have thought that far ahead if she'd wanted to. Even in the clear, even if twisting go-to driving spot, Asami was paying close attention to the details.

She took a deep breath as she braced herself, buckling her seat belt.

"Alright, you got your seat belt on? Make sure you adjust your mirrors, too."

Driving, Korra's arch-nemesis.

Outside of Amon.

...and Unalaq.

So maybe it wasn't as bad as that, but Korra wasn't the best driver on their world and only really knew how to drive a boat. But wheels, gear shifts, and pedals- and things were a whole different creature.

"Yes!" Said right before she clicked her seat belt in place. She rolled her shoulders and adjusted her mirrors to see behind the satomobile before taking a deep breath.

She was excited, and anxious, but it she wasn't nearly as bad since she had Asami instructing her. To Korra, the CEO was the end-all/be-all of driving; so she was in safe hands.

"Turn the key-" which she did to start up the car. "and then what?"

"And then the hardest part." Asami smiled at her with well-natured empathy for what Korra was about to experience.

"Find your clutch and brake pedals, and push them in all the way. The clutch is going to be on the very left, brake's in the middle." Although she couldn't have seen Korra's feet if she'd wanted to, she still leaned in Korra's direction. "When you're ready to move, move the foot that's on the brake to the gas and push that pedal in while removing your left foot off the clutch, like this." She demonstrated the motion with her hands.

"It's tricky, but you have good coordination as it is."

Korra’s eyes moved from one pedal to the other and tapped each one with her boot at Asami’s instruction, trying to get the order right in her head. She turned and leaned in slightly to wards Asami, mimicking her hand motions with slight wiggling with her boots sub-consciously. If she could train her body to react instead of having to think about it, get the path down as muscle memory, then she just might pull it off.

"Thanks! But you do too, I’ve seen you fight. Okay, let me give it a shot." Her first attempt failed, loudly, and Korra bunched up her shoulders and bit her lower lip as the car jerked them around. "Wait, let me try again."

This time went much more smoothly and the wheels began to roll. "I did it!" Smiling she looked at Asami and not the street. "So what now?"

She was actually driving!

"Okay, yes, great, get it to second!" She hadn't expected Korra to get it only on her second try, so she didn't tell her about shifting gears. The engine rang loudly and the car jerked to a stop, but she wasn't mad.

In fact, she was pleasantly surprised. She grinned behind a hand and glanced at Korra reassuringly.

"Hey, not bad."

The 'not bad' approval, that was a lot better to get now that Korra knew what it meant. Encouraged, she tried to shift into second, but went to third instead.

"Wait, hang on." Now that it was in second, thank Raava the sitckshift has numbers on it. "Okay. Now the gas, right?"

She looked down moving her boots from side to side. Which one was that again...

"Wait, wait. Put it back into neutral."

She turned at her waist to face Korra. "Okay, when you start moving, you're always going to go into first gear, first. And it's just like the way you did it the second time: push the gas and release the clutch. But as you're picking up speed, the engine can really only take that for a couple of seconds, so you have to switch into second gear. When you switch gears, you push in the clutch, and then slowly release it while you step on the gas. It's the same thing as going into first, except you're moving."

She really needed to come up with a script for this, because she wasn't sure if that made sense to a novice driver. "Does... that make sense?"

Neutral. She knew that one and it was easy enough for her to shift back to what she identified with as the beginning. When Asami turned, Korra did too. Any pointers would be good, because she was so lost on what just happened.

"Kind of?" Some sense. For Korra, it would work better through trial and error wiht hands on than explanation. "Let me try it that way."

Pushing the gas and releasing the clutch, following those step was easy enough now that she did it once. "Like before it starts to shake, right?" Putting on the gas, she moved the shift from first gear and pushed the clutch to switch to second.

"You have to do that every time it gets faster?"

"That's right! See, you're catching on. And make sure you downshift when you're slowing down. You can keep track of when you need to change gears by watching the tachometer, so shift when the ticker's between two and three."

Asami carefully watched Korra's movements, pleasantly surprised by how well she was catching on.

"Okay, I got it!" Thankfully she looked back to the road and swerved them back over to the correct lane. "Now I just need to keep-" the car began to shake just as Korra looked at the tachometer and she shifted it into third gear.

"an eye on the, tack-meter." Or whatever it was called. Either way she was drifting a little too often. Enough to cause an accident if she kept looking between the pedals, stick shift, Asami, and the road.

Mistakes had to be made if Korra was going to learn, so Asami kept her mouth closed and let Korra figure out her way. It wasn't until the driver was getting a little too caught up in the different components of their ride when she piped up.

"Okay, you're doing great. Let's pull over and come to a stop. Since you're stopping completely, you can just put the car in neutral, step on the clutch and ease on your brake pedal."

"Just pick a spot, anywhere?" There was quite a few people on the sidewalk and Korra didn't really see that as a good spot. But she needed to go somewhere, so she just turned the steering wheel to get as close to, or on, the curb.

Then she put it in neutral.

Which meant the car was still rolling onto the pavement when put on the gas by accident and switched to stepped on the clutch instead and took her foot off the brake. A little too quickly.

After the jerking stopped and Korra rubbed where the seat belt dug into her shoulder a bit, she looked over at Asami. "Not too bad, right?"

Even she knew it wasn't the best first drive, but Korra usually picked things up better the second time around.

Asami held tightly onto the seat and the car door as the car ridged to its stop, and then she released a sigh of relief as soon as they were sound.

"The last part was a little rocky, but otherwise you did well. I can tell you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly with practice."

With the nagging feeling of lopsidedness, Asami glanced over her side of the car, then back at Korra.

"Alright, you're on the curb, so just ease off when you're pulling out. Look out for pedestrians... and try to stay calm."

Positive encouragement was something Korra got mostly from Katara when she was learning waterbending as a child, and that Asami added it to her instruction was a big boost in her confidence.

"Right, I can do that." Korra placed her hand behind Asami's seat and turned to look at the rear. Just as she begun to ease up, a car turned the corner sped right past them. A red one from what Korra made of it, but she managed to keep going despite the honking.

Thankfully no pedestrians were too eager to get in her way. Not after the way she mounted the curb.

When they were free from the sidewalk, the car shaking gently as the wheel lowered onto the pavement, Korra looked over at Asami and at the half-assed parking job she had done.

"Want me to try again?" That may have been asking for trouble, but Korra probably would understand Asami not wanting the Avatar wrecking the one satmobile in the entire world of Konryu.

Asami thought about it a beat too long for her own liking. The best way to get over a mistake was to get back on the road and try it again.

But, yes, the prospect of destroying the one satomobile in her current life was a little terrifying.

She answered very clearly to make up for the pause, in case it caused Korra any doubt. "Yes. If you want, you can squeeze out and look for a space that isn't so tight. Just take your time and don't let other drivers psyche you out."

That did make up for the pause, Korra wasn't sure if Asami heard her at first, but she nodded at her advice and put her hand behind the seat to look behind her. Anything Asami said about driving was basically gospel, espeically after Korra had seen her pull off some crazy stunts.

"You got it!" Starting the car isn't nearly the process it was before, the jerking of the car was minimal and she managed to pull out without bumping into anything, or anyone.

That shouldn't feel like an accomplishment, but it did to Korra going by the smile on her face. Constantly looking between pedals, stick shift, tachometer, and the road; Korra actually managed to stay on the road.

Looking for a parking spot wasn't as easy as she thought it'd be. That was one more thing to look out for. Good thing she knew the Metal Sector inside out.

"What do you think of that one?" She pointed to an open spot in front of some small businesses.

Asami eased into this trip, murmuring reminders now and then while Korra drove. When they happened upon a parking space, Asami only looked at her and shrugged a shoulder.

"Think you can do it?"

That was basically a yes.

"I think I got it in me, yeah." A smirk dug its way into her cheek when she looked at Asami and she began to pull into the parking spot. Slowly this time, and with only one jerk of the car before coming to a stop.

"It's mostly in the lines, so that counts, right?" Because she was already chalking it up as a win.

Asami quickly conceded, "Good enough for me! Great job today, Korra."

She finally was able to relax, actually relax in the passenger seat, and she began to unbuckle. "Feel like you can do it on your own?" she asked... sort of facetiously. She doesn't feel quite ready to hand her a license card quite yet, if it were up to her.

"Nope." Even Korra couldn’t say she should be driving on her own just yet, and she said it with a smile. "I’m pretty sure the satomobile’s only intact because you’re here." It wasn’t until saying the name just then that Korra realized how perfect the name was since it was Asami’s now. It stood out against the other cars and a top of the line model since Tarrlok spared no expense to pressure Korra in joining his task force.

After she unbuckled and jumped out of the car, Korra tossed the keys to Asami. "Your ride on the way back." She grinned and went to meet her on the sidewalk. "So did you get into Stark Industries?" Korra was leading up to another question, but she wanted to check to see if her friend already had employment first.

Asami caught the keys in a hand while opening the door on her way out. She stopped when she met Korra on the sidewalk, and paused to shift her weight on a foot, hand on her hip.

"Oh, I got in." Her smile had a satisfied edge to it, as if she'd had some sort of strategy!! But really it was just a matter of... showing up and mentioning Future Industries in passing.

But Asami was the last person on any kind of earth to complain about job security.

"Turns out Stark Industries was a perfect fit. Tony's a pretty great guy! I guess I owe one to the welcoming committee, don't I?" She winked at Korra as she resumed her pacing around to the other side of the car.

Korra gave a proud smile at the wink and scratched the back of her head. "Just thought you’d be able to use the technology stuff he’s got going. After you get paid you can take me out for a bite and we can call it even."

When Korra got to the passenger’s side, she paused at opening the door. She felt the need to say something, but she wasn’t sure just what and quickly waved it off, getting into the seat.

"Can I see the first thing you make there?" It’s Stark Industries. Korra just assumed that building things is what goes on there for someone with mechanical knowledge.

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(OPEN) we are going on a safarri—

for korra—

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