tushanshu_logs

Current Location: Errywhere
Current Music: I Love It

Entry tags:

[Open]

Characters: Korra, Finnick, Po, Bean, Dinah, Tony Stark (616), Amon, Sabriel, Jim Kirk, Damian, Toph, Lin, Jack Frost, Raimei, Enjolras, Kyle Rayner, Bruce Banner, Asbel, Aisha, Katniss, Iskierka, Richard, and OPEN (That means YOU.)
Date: Various dates throughout July when not conflicting with Korra’s time during the clueventure.
Location: Korra’s suite, Various locations
Situation: Fish, Training, Flying, and whatever else happens!
Warnings/Rating: Physical violence, PTSD, NPC death, blood, FEELS, maybe even some swearing.

(If you want a thread starter, let me know. If you want to jump in and post your own, go ahead! Actionspam and prose welcome and interchangeable~)

(Seriously. Let me know if you want a thread starter.)

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[If Damian had been here for himself? She wouldn't have gotten away with much. But this was priority. His - his friend had been hurt, tortured, barely recovering. Doing something good. And she had practically attacked him and his. She had to learn that she had done something wrong. But, as it was for Kyle who was holding his ocean of anger in check, Damian was going to try the alternate way, too.]

So you know. What are you doing about it?

[The words were actually said coldly, firmly.]

[Then he tilted his chin up, meeting Korra's eyes. He hadn't batted an eyelash at the superhero question - he wasn't here to reveal identity. But. His voice is calm as he answers with something different... which probably comes off kind of strong, from an eleven-year-old.]

I was raised an assassin. Using lethal force comes practically naturally to me.

[Pause, and the next three words are said heavily, the freight of a willpower that might match Kyle's behind them.]

But I don't.

[Korra didn’t have an answer to that question. It wasn’t one she wanted to think about. Korra had control of her powers, that wasn’t an issue at all, but she knew everyone was seeing that way. Her temper, especially when it came to Amon, that was what lacked control. Without Tenzin, the other father figure in her life, as a calming guide, Korra wasn’t sure what to do.]

…

[When Damian mentioned assassin, Korra’s eyes flared open and she stared at him. That wasn’t anything she had been expecting. Maybe that he had some type of super strength, flight, water breathing, whatever, sure. But that- well that actually made sense when she thought about how distant and mature he had always seemed.

She knew Damian had already told her his mother wasn’t here, but Korra couldn’t help but see a connection and asked:]

Do you know a woman named Aisha?

[Damian watched her make a face at that question. His voice even firmer, he pointed out (since controlling one's temper is linked).]

It is important. Recklessness here will likely get you killed - which probably won't last - and, even more likely, drown you in guilt. This place lures you into mistakes and gray areas, Avatar. You need to know what you will do when you get there - before you get there.

Do you understand?

[Pause.]

And, yes, I know Aisha. She keeps her knives sharp.

Yeah, I do. [Korra snapped back, angry that not only everyone told her this back home, but now here on Tu Vishan too. Quickly her face melted into apologetic sadness and she just let her head slam onto her folded arms, her words muffled a little.] I’m sorry. I do, I really do. It’s just not that easy. All of my teachers, the best in the world, have been trying to train me this since I was four.

…I’m just a failure.

[Leaving the thought she had with Aisha behind, it didn’t seem important at the moment.]

Can I have some of that cocoa? [Her voice dejected, still muffled from her keeping her face in her arms.]

[... she regained a tiny bit of credit back for catching herself right there. It was - a beginning. After a small pause - and a wince - Damian asked, quietly.]

They have been trying to train you - but have you been trying to learn?

[He stayed quiet after that, then slowly pushed the cup back closer to Korra's arm, the bottom making a slow noise over the tabletop.]

[It didn't even occur to Damian that it would by now be cold and maybe a bit icky. He'd have drunk it, probably, anyway.]

[Lifting her arms and sitting up, Korra put her hands on the cold mug.]

My first teacher, my waterbending master, made me want to learn. She made it fun to, she showed me how water works and how it's affected by the emotions of the wielder. Sher almost killed someone when she was younger than me because of it. But after that, my other instructors just demanded me to control myself. It's not a switch, you know? If it was, I would have done it just to shut them up.

[Without Katara, Korra is sure she would have been a walking time bomb like Raphael was. When Korra's finished with her spiel, she raises the now hot mug to drink deeply from, the whipped cream getting all over her upper lip.]

It just feels like no one takes me seriously when I tell them that I am trying.

Edited 2013-07-16 22:32 (UTC)

I was never allowed to make do with 'trying,' [Damian shrugged.] There had to be results. Always results, to demonstrate what I had learned.

['Results' could be 'ah, you survived the night. Now tune your violin.']

It is not a switch. It is a constant effort, applied to everything that you do, every hour of the day or night. If you do not want to exert your will that way, you fail.

Which is why wanting to learn it matters more than it being... fun.

[The last word was said coldly. He still didn't understand it, and was way past tired with most people that obsessed with it that they brought it up for the oddest reasons. Like learning control? Was there even anything in common at all?]

Your motivation can originate with somebody else, but if you do not find some of your own, trying is all you will have. No results.

Sounds like whoever taught you just wanted results, not to watch you learn and grow. [Korra wipes the whipped cream off her lip with her finer and puts it in her mouth. That emphasis he put on fun grabbed Korra's attention. She was quite sure Damian never had any fun in his entire little life.]

Do you know Jack Frost by any chance?

[She knew Jack had always mentioned of his being around kids and using his wintry powers to induce some good play time.]

Yes, but you are changing the subject.

I am saying that I understand. And you have no right to give up merely because it is not easy.

[Beat.]

Only because it should not be done. That can be the only reason.

And controlling yourself is not that way.

Me, give up. On being the Avatar? [Control of both powers and one's self is synonymous with being the Avatar.] No can do. I'm stuck learning it. I just need the right teacher. Usually the Avatar has sought out their teachers, finding them when the time is right. Up till now, they've pretty much been lined up to instruct me. [She shrugs her shoulders towards her chin, 'What can you do?']

Well, my subject's better. [A sip from the hot cocoa.] So you didn't say no.

No. The teacher matters, but the student must prepare to learn.

[The boy pointed at Korra across the table, his hand reaching, very fast, until it is a bare couple of centimeters from the middle of her chest (he was even faster, but he did not care to show that right now).]

The onus is on you. Then you will not depend on the shortages of this or that teacher. People are not as you expect them to be, and if you are looking for somebody who is exactly right to what you want, you may wind up burning the whole city and everyone in it.

Is that what you are trying to do?

[He simply ignored the 'better' subject. It was of less consequence, so the comment did not merit his acknowledgment.]

[The sudden motion did cause Korra sit back until she was sitting completely straight.]

I've been here for two months, if I just randomly firebended every time I got angry then trust me, I would have been in jail on day one. Things work differently on my world than it does on yours. Waiting for the right teacher is what thousands of Avatars have done in the past, I just kind of got ripped away from mine when I showed up here. It's not my fault he didn't come here with me.

And yeah, of course I want to learn. It's all I've wanted since I was able to bend. In fact it's all I've been doing.

[Korra leaned forward, disregarding his finger sticking into her chest.]

So who put you up to this? I know you don't talk to me this much and don't like to tell me anything too important, at least not before.

Do you want to learn to be powerful, or do you want to learn control?

[There was plenty derision in that question. The implication that she was power-hungry, rather than looking for actual progress. And, no, Damian wasn't seeing enough to discount that possibility.]

You are no longer in your world, Avatar. The right teacher may not exist here. What would that mean, that you stop learning, because it cannot be done as thousands have done it before you? The only reason you are not in prison - or worse - for what you did is that Rayner is good enough at containment without harming that you failed to hurt anyone.

The only reason.

[He paused, blue eyes (darker than hers) boring into hers.]

I saw what you did to that hospital. I do not need anyone to put me up to it.

[The question was a firm reminder that she had never actually seen Damian in person until just now, so of course he had no idea what kind of person she was aside from some seventeen year old girl on the network. Not one to be intimidated, Korra met his stare with her own vivid sky blue eyes, and after a long pause she just quietly says.]

Asami would have trusted me.

[Practically turning the mug upside down, Korra finishes off the last bit of the hot cocoa.]

[Eyeroll.]

I am not Asami. The number of people I trust is generally lower than what you can count on the fingers of one hand.

What have you down to deserve a place in such a number?

I should hope not, she’s much prettier. [Said completely unapologetically and with a grin. That hint of sarcasm bled into her answer:]

I don’t know, I didn’t storm off when I got angry earlier? [A very typical thing she did that most of her instructors found frustrating.]

Have you ever tried making friends instead of just waiting for people to come to you? You have to be willing to reach out and not just expect someone else to do so.

[Korra took a drink from the glass of water, washing down the cocoa’s residue.]

[Another eyeroll.]

Who said I wanted friends?

We were talking about people I trust. Burning down a hospital does not get you there.

I never said wanted.

[But she implied it.]

Sure it does. You need to trust the people who you let guide and teach you, right?

[She shrugs.]

I trusted my first master and we were friends.

Considering the number of my teachers who have at one point or another attempted--

[and sometimes gotten very close to succeeding]

-- to kill me, no, I would not say so.

[As soon as Damian finishes that statement, Korra’s eyes widen and she just stares at him.]

I’m sorry, I didn’t know.

[It was now obvious to her that his training as an assassin was radically different from her sheltered training life back at the compound in the South Pole.]

…Does your dad or brother know about this? [Korra had never mention meeting Dick via text, but that was a question she felt needed to be asked. From what she had heard of Bruce and his help with not only foreigners, but his charities set up for the kedan, Korra was quite sure he was far too busy for something like this to have come up.]

[Damian shrugged, and almost glared. He hadn't brought that up as calling sympathy, but to make a point.]

Neither - none of them have asked for specifics.

[Though the chances of Father, Grayson-at-home, Todd, or Drake not knowing were pretty slim. He didn't say that part.]

And it was not their doing. They were unaware of my existence at the time. You could try to exercise control by not blurting details about me to people.

But the point I was trying to show is that you can learn from anyone, if you decide they have knowledge you need. Knowledge and skill are not tainted by the person imparting them, not if you pay attention and separate personal opinion from the actual facts and abilities.

Edited 2013-07-17 14:47 (UTC)

Wow, poor Bruce. [That’s said with sincerity. Korra imagined what it would be like if she hadn’t told her father, Tonraq, about what happened to her in Republic City. About how she had been the target of Amon’s revolution and possibly even executed just as a display to inspire fear into other benders.] I won’t tell anyone. But you should trust your dad, I think he’d want to hear it from you. I know mine would have if it was me.

[Chewing over that statement in her mind, Korra finally nodded.] I think I’m getting it. As long as they’re willing to teach that anyway, I’m not sure I could just force someone to teach me if they didn’t want to.

[... and again, Damian rolled his eyes, though it was less demonstrative, this time. A lot less demonstrative.]

Father is usually among the handful of people I do trust. If he is interested in what has happened, he will let me know.

[That was sufficiently neutral to preserve Bruce's public persona, wasn't it? Without making him sound like somebody he truly isn't?]

[The next part made Damian actually lean slightly back, in half-surprise. Then he considered options.]

There may be various people who can teach you control, as well as choosing when to employ force and how to withhold it... but it is possible that I can think of somebody who could make it less... temper-flaring to learn, than others.

I believe Dinah Lance may be reopening the dojo that one of the first foreigners here had set up almost a year ago. She will likely understand the problem well enough.

[That doesn’t go unnoticed as Korra listens with her tilted. It’s not often she sees anything outside of Damian’s controlled aloofness and tone. However, the corners of her mouth do lift upwards slightly at his mention of trusting Bruce.]

Dinah? [Korra’s eyebrows shoot up and she pauses to let all of what he had just said about her to sink in.] Like blonde hair Dinah? [It was difficult to see Dinah aside from being the kind person Korra had perceived her as.]

Yeah, I know her. We’ve been training together at my suite, she knows all the bending forms.

[Damian made a note of that - it would help him somewhat should Toph wish to continue blind practice - but otherwise nodded, calmly.]

Which means that you would merely be expanding on an already existing relationship.

I shall talk with her.

[Open]

Uhoh. DANGER!

OMG DAMIAN IS A LOVE CHILD ACCORDING TO KORRA

PFFFFFT HIS PARENTS WERE MARRIED... according to his mother... (he was also grown in a tube.)

WELL KNOW HE'S AISHA'S SPAWN.

Naaaah. They're sort of twins with a couple of decades of age difference.

Now that makes perfect sense.

Yes good.

AND NOW SHE WANTS TO "FIX" DAMIAN.

She can take a number.

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