tushanshu_logs | Catch-all for October

'No,' he says, 'I didn't.' It was the honourable thing to do.

He nods briefly, and returns to his drawing. She was aware of the situation, and that was that.

She was fairly positive if it was her having to post on the network back then, with the emotional state she was in, the video wouldn’t have been a nice one. That thought made shift, uncomfortably enough to make Naga turn her head to look.

"Thanks for getting Jack to pick me up." She wasn’t sure about why the Lantern chose to contact him to pick her up. Back then she was a good acquaintance of Jim’s, but they weren’t as close friends as they were now.

'No problem,' he says, a little bored, and having no idea what she intends with this line of conversation. He'd picked Jack because that was someone they had in common, he wouldn't have let just anyone come and pick her up.

He finishes his sketch and signs it, before holding it up beside his head, glad they can move on to something else. 'How does it look?'

It looks just like him, of course, except Kyle hasn't drawn himself smiling for a long time; the portrait looks quiet, and serious.

"You forgot to smile for the picture."

Totally being a brat and she it.

"Wait, is that how you think you smile?" She reached down and put her fingers at either end of Naga’s mouth and brought them up.

"More like this."

Kyle attempts a smile, but it looks crooked, he doesn't feel it. Instead, he pouts. 'Maybe some other time.'

Naga loudly licked her chops after Korra let go. "Sorry, I’m not that great at judging art. It’s never been a thing for me. I mean, bending’s easy. You just picture what you want and move from there to make it happen. But, the whole using one hand to draw or paint."

She shrugged unhelpfully.

"Never had time to learn it."

Kyle shrugs. 'Main difference: art's always better in your head than it is on paper. Something always gets lost in between, so nothing's perfect, or exactly the way you want it to be. You just keep going until you get something you're happy with, and people like seeing.'

He doesn't mention he's rarely happy with what comes out, on paper. His perfectionist tendencies already infuse his duties; it translates even to leisure.

"So, you’re done because you’re happy with it." Simple enough. "But you know what I mean, right? Like if you use your ring, then you can just picture it in your head and it just goes from there."

A beat.

"Doesn’t it?"

He wets his lips, purses them, and frowns deeply. 'Not... exactly happy.' He wasn't enthused about it, but if they stayed until he was, it'd take forever. Kyle took what he could get.

'Yeah, it's different with the ring.' He points, and a perfect ring-clone appears, identical save for the fact that it doesn't speak. 'See?'

While Korra did want to poke at just why he wasn't happy and pointing out that it looked better than anything she could have done, she decided not to pursue it.

Art was hard to gauge for her since there didn’t seem to be any level of mastery that she knew of.

Korra had seen the hard light constructs before, but this was the first time she’d seen it take the shape of a person. Curiously eyeing it, she asked "So, couldn’t you make things to draw it out for you? Like hands or something, so it’s just how you see it in your head?"

She poked the ring-clone.

"Or have this guy do it."

'That's cheating,' he says, instantly, instinctively. He hadn't used the ring while he was learning, and the thought of using it for art was abhorrent to him, because he felt it was a crutch.

She actually chuckled.

“How is it cheating if it’s still you doing it? You’re just getting what’s in your head onto paper, right?”

This was the exact same logic she used when it came to earthbending/ice sculpting.

'No,' he replies. 'It's fine when I'm cleaning something or whatever - at home I rarely have the time to do chores - but art's something I've been good at before the ring. And anyway, it's not wise to be dependent on power.'

“Doesn’t hurt to keep your skills sharp though.” she asked as she put her hands on Naga’s to lift herself into a sitting position. Korra decided that his outlook must be because he didn’t have that kind of power to begin with, unlike herself.

It was partially true. Before he'd ended up in Keeliai he wouldn't have had that much of a reason to snap back so quickly. Throughout his stay he'd tried not to rely on it too much.

'No,' he says, placated. 'It doesn't.' A shrug. 'It's not like I don't, so I'm fine.'

“You know, you don’t seem like a warrior at all.” She eyed the finished portrait and compared it to the suited Green Lantern that she recklessly attacked. Even though the face matched, it felt different.

“What made you put a lid on it?” Just about every southerner back home was a warrior and it was easy to tell just by looking at them. Either it was something bad or something embarrassing as far she could guess.

He feels like snapping back, Tactical advantage. Nobody thought he was any bit the soldier he was if they looked at his record rather than at him. In part, it was good they didn't take him seriously. They'd never see him coming. On the other hand, sometimes it meant he wasn't taken at his word when he was truly angry.

Kyle glances at the portrait briefly. He keeps his other side away, hidden. Connor would say it was unhealthy, and that there were better ways of keeping a leash on that temper of his. (That was Connor. He wasn't here anymore.)

At her question however, he frowns, wondering why he has a strong urge to ask her to leave. There's so much he'd do for Jim, and yet--

'I haven't,' he says. 'I still draw. A friend of mine recently helped me get my own exhibit.'

All that she knew of Kyle was based solely on what she had seen, and of course own opinion was biased aside from Jim; and the day that Aang arrived. The frown made her tilt her head, but then a sharp grin crossed her face.

"So, you do know Damian." When she had spoken to Damian after the clinic's destruction, the boy had mentioned both Kyle and Natu. But he did so formally, so Korra wasn't sure if he'd heard of the Lanterns or knew them personally.

"I didn't know that was your art exhibit. Why didn't you say anything yourself?"

Idiot, he thinks, furiously. Very few people even knew they spent time together, let alone how much. Damian's upbringing had made certain that the association with somebody knowing about something you liked meant it would be taken from you. Kyle couldn't fault him for that.

'No, I meant. Back home, before I got here.' A pause. 'But yes, I do know him. The one he set up was also of my work.' (Mostly his, but he'd lie to protect Damian in a heartbeat. He doubted Bruce knew about the notebooks, but wasn't about to bring it up, either.)

'As for why I didn't say anything - I didn't see the point. Art speaks for itself. People's enjoyment isn't affected if they know who made it.'

"I'd put my name on it if it was me." she added non-nonchalantly. "If someone's affected, then that's their tough luck." Of course, she never really had anything even remotely like an art exhibit of her own so she's not talking from experience.

"But it's good he helped you out. When we talked after- that happened, I was pretty sure Damian needed some more friends." But he had known Jack, and that was a great start as far as she was concerned.

'I wouldn't,' he says, simply. 'I've no use for that kind of recognition.' He worked for hire, and he signed the ones he felt personally proud of, or the ones he was getting paid for. It'd be nice to be recognised, but he sought that in his duty, not his art, which was something he did for a hobby now.

It also speaks of a different association with the word special. Kyle's point of reference is Jim, who's spent much of his life distinguishing himself, but for Kyle it always meant someone was going to hunt him down and hurt him.

'Damian's needs are his own concern, not yours,' he warns. 'Don't tell him what to do or what to want.'

A shrug. Art wasn’t in her realm of expertise and understanding the motivation behind an artist’s works was even more foreign, so she let it drop at that. Recognition was something she wanted and got easily thanks to her Avatar title and status.

“Have you met the kid?” she asked rhetorically as she got down from Naga’s back and stretched her arms upwards. “Way too serious for his age.” She promised the boy that she wouldn’t tell anyone about his dangerous upbringing as an assassin and she wasn’t going to break it any time soon.

“Same thing with another friend of mine. That’s what they need, friends. Plain and simple.” She fetched another snack bag from the fridge and tossed it at Kyle. Now that his art was done, Korra was going to make him hold up to his promise of eating.

Have you? he wonders, as he watches Korra move around. He doesn't analyse the movement as he's sure Damian would: Kyle watches to learn proportions and motion, to put it down in a sketch, Damian would watch for signs of injury, and weakness, to exploit it. A little bit of that has rubbed off - there's an odd sharpness to Kyle's expression as Korra sits - it fades. He never was that good a chess player.

'My world isn't kind to children,' he replies, slowly. Damian hadn't mentioned what his teachers had made him do if he ever got close to anything, but from Cassandra's attitude (when she'd been here, Kyle felt himself missing her terribly, sometimes), they weren't trained to see friends as a good thing. Far from it. Someone becoming close was dangerous to the main point of being an assassin: people were targets. Things.

He catches the snack, and, true to his word, opens it, says grace quickly, and eats.

Satisfied that he was eating, she laid onto the couch now that she had it to herself.

"I think Zatanna turned out just fine." She said as a rebuttal. To her, every world should be kinder to children. They were supposed to have fun and just be themselves, all the things she didn’t get to do. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed spending time with Tenzin’s three kids.

Were you even listening? But Kyle knew he'd been vague on purpose, it just meant Korra wasn't terribly perceptive. He saw Jim's flaws but none of Jim's redeeming qualities.

'Zatanna's from a slightly different one,' he offers, chewing slowly.

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