tushanshu_logs | Catch-all for October

Vanessa's stomach tightens for a moment. Why do people do evil things? It's something she has to ask herself all the time. "For power, I guess. Mally, he's going to promise the kedan - and probably us, eventually - things we want to hear. Things that we want. It's probably told them that it give them things they want, and that sounds pretty good."

She chews mechanically, but the food kind of tastes like ash. "People hurt other people for a lot of reasons."

The whole notion of using the kedan was horrible and Korra wondered what Malicant would have offered her. What she wanted most was to be the Avatar. Well no, that wasn’t quite right. To be the Avatar that the world wanted and needed, that was more accurate. But that was something no one could give her, just an accomplishment she needed to work on herself.

“What do you want most?” she asked curiously before taking another huge bite of a new rib, putting the bone of the last one aside.

Vanessa looked up in surprise at the question. It wasn't really the kind of thing she was prepared for. "What do I want most?" She had asked herself this before, hadn't she?

There was a lot that she wanted, some good, some bad. There was desire and chaos and the need to sow sorrow. There was acceptance and that small hope of normalcy when this was all over. There was love. There was understanding.

"I guess... What I want most is just to be exactly who I'm capable of being." She smiled softly, running her fingers through sweat damp hair. "I want to be me. I don't think Mally can give me that."

She pointed her rib bone at Vanessa with a grin. "You and I are in the same boat." That same bone is flagging down one of the busboys for some waters. Being a little uncouth wasn’t too out of the ordinary for Korra.

"That and the Brazen Turtle is safe, I mean look at all the people that enjoyed your performance. Not bad." Giving a compliment while her mouth is full of ribs, best anyone could get from the Avatar.

Vanessa couldn't help but laugh a bit. It was refreshing, honestly, to see this kind of behavior from someone, especially a girl. Catty was the same way pretty much all the time.

"Yeah, I just have the performing gene in my DNA, I guess." She snorted, though. "Singing has really helped me come a long way. Can you believe that I used to refuse to be up in front of people? It took me months to even ask my boyfriend if I could sing with his band."

"No, did you really?" That's not something she was expecting since Vanessa seemed pretty comfortable on stage giving a performance that would be unrivaled back on the Avatar’s home world.

But hooold it. "Boyfriend?" She could not stop herself from getting a curious smile on her face that a cat would be envious of.

A slow nod. "Yeah, I've never been comfortably getting up in front of people. I still get really nervous even now." Being neurotic wasn't all that fun, as it turned out.

She paused, trying to not wince. "Oh. Yeah. Michael. He's my boyfriend back home. I mean I'm dating Leo here now. It's just... It's complicated."

If there’s one thing Korra was looking out for, it’s direct or indirect advice on boyfriends and relationships in general. Even though that part of her life hasn’t been as explosive lately, it was still a bit of a mess.

Korra gave a look of complete sympathy and understanding. When Mako wasn’t here she was wrestling with the idea of asking Jack about a relationship, and that Vanessa wasn’t having the disastrous outcome she did was a good thing.

"Well, you never know when you might see him again. You wouldn’t want to be alone if we’re here for a long time." Words she told herself. "And besides, wh- wait. Leo?"

Her eyebrows rose in surprise because the first Leo that came to her mind was of the turtle variety and that- wow. That was a possibility that had never even crossed her mind before.

Korra, getting advice from Vanessa on relationships would probably be like getting advice from a junkie on how to quit drugs: useless.

She frowned, though. Catty had said the same thing basically, and she remembered the sleeping bags in Michael's van when she said she wanted to have sex. His willingness, his closeness with Corrine when she came back. He probably hadn't wanted to be alone either. "Maybe. But I know what happens in my future." Michael happens still.

Vanessa blushed. "Yeah? You know, Leo Valdez. One of the demigods? He's friends with Percy."

That was another person that had seen their future. Whenever the next audience was going to be, Korra's planning to go.

But for now, that actually caused Korra to almost choke on a bite of rib. Of all the Leos on the turtle...

"Yeah, he made my glider when I first got here. His pick up lines needed a little work, but he's a good kid." Almost three years older gave her rights to call him that, or Korra thought. Her smile was one of sly amusement now.

"How did you two meet?"

"I think his pick up lines are cute," Vanessa countered with a small smile. The guys she had been with before were smooth. Too smooth. She was a magnet for them, smoldering looks and sweet words on a golden tongue. Leo's cheesy lines and uncertainty was refreshing in a way that she never thought she'd like. "But yeah, he's a good kid."

She gave that look right back. She was almost three years older than Leo herself.

"His table hit on me in the middle of the sidewalk."

Cute Korra could agree with and did just that by nodding and shrugging her shoulders admittedly. But at the same time there was an immense dork factor she couldn’t ignore.

Adorkable?

"His what?" Maybe she drank her ice water too fast, but Korra could have sworn she just heard Vanessa say table.

Adorkable fit Leo to a T.

"Table. He has two of them, and they're like dogs. Dogs with wooden legs and no faces but the personalities are there," Vanessa explained with a grin. Her boyfriend was totally weird.

All Korra could think of was the way Naga would completely flip out at seeing that.

There’s no point in asking if Vanessa’s just messing with her, that grin Vanessa had came from something other than simple teasing. Korra would know, she had a patented smile when teasing and it looked nothing like it. "How did your boyfriend even get those? What do they eat?"

Beat.

"Please don’t say table scraps."

Vanessa laughed, shaking her head. "He made them. Leo's good with his hands, you know? So he made moving tables, it's actually really cool. He even designed the ship the other demigods are using back home." Yeah, she was bragging, but she didn't care. "And I think they eat oil."

Boyfriends are great bragging material, if they're good boyfriends anyway. ~~Yes, Korra will brag about Mako any time he comes up.~~

Tables eating oil just gets a quick blink and a shake of the head. Those are enough details for one Avatar.

"Has he made anything for you?" Honest question.

The question made Vanessa pause, but then she shook her head. "Nope, I've never really asked him to, and Leo's kind of slow on the uptake when it comes to girls, if you know what I mean."

In a few ways, to be honest. But she was nothing if not incredibly patient. "Maybe for Christmas, or whatever they do around here." She looked Korra over. "We're talking about me a lot. What about you, huh?"

Now the she knows what Christmas is, thanks to Jack, Korra bunches her lips thinking about what she should get Mako.

And it feels as if her thoughts are on display when Vanessa brings the conversation around to her.

"What, you mean me and Mako?" Not that Vanessa could have meant much else, but Korra's inclined to ask the rhetorical question none the less. "Well, we had an official date. Before we arrived, there really wasn’t time for one." That and they had only been together for a short time back home, but now they have the time.

She rested her chin on her knuckles, leaning in a bit. "Is that his name? Then yes, definitely you two." Her eyebrows rose up a bit. "How long have you been together?"

It was strange how different people had different experiences. Her first date with Michael had been before they officially started dating. That had been a train wreck of a date, though.

Little known fact is that Korra did like to talk relationships, but usually not her own. She actually had to look up, as if that would help prod her brain for specifics.

"Before we got here, officially maybe half a month. But we’ve been together since he got here, so three months now." Having said that, Korra was kind of amazed since it felt like it had been so much longer.

"Our first date was in the Metal Sector. I expected something to happen, a car exploding, the building catching on fire, or maybe even some kind of prison breakout; but everything turned out good." There was some playfulness in the truth.

Vanessa smiled softly. It was nice to hear that other people were happy, if she could put it so simply. That even in this place, there was such a thing as obtaining a normal life. Or as normal as any of them could get.

"That's really cute," she sighed happily. "See, I've never had those kind of problems on a date before. I have absolutely no idea what I'd do if something exploded on me."

Probably erupt into a million molecules.

"Disasters I can handle." She left off the unsaid part of relationships with an equally silent smirk. "But that’s simple. Just explode back." Solid advice, or so she thought, and Korra took a drink from her glass of water.

"Or, you know, work some of that magic." As well as they got along, Korra knew so little about what Vanessa was actually capable of and she leaned in purposely when she suggested it.

Vanessa made a face. She had only really exploded once. Okay, well twice, after Percy dropped the clone facility bomb, but other than that, it had been the one power she kept locked up tight. Probably not the smartest of ideas.

"It's not really magic. Okay, it... Sort of is? I don't know." Her life was really hard to explain. "It's a gift." Lifting her hand up, she expanded the molecules easily enough, skin going more and more see-through until her hand disappeared completely. "No spells or divine powers. Just me."

The denial of it being called magic, or anything like it, made Korra's eyebrows raise in interest. The Avatar had always been adamant that bending was not magic, so she was more than ready to show that respect to Vanessa.

As he hand fades until it is gone, Korra can't pull her eyes away from it and the the wrist that seemed to have nothing there. It could have been an old amputation to any who would see it like that for the first time.

"That's- incredible. Are you the only person that can do it?"

The problem was that Vanessa didn't really know what made her different. Sure, it was a gift from Selene, but did that make it magic or biological? Followers had their powers gifted, but Catty had inherited a few of hers.

She chewed on her lip a bit before laughing at Korra's expression. Her body hummed gently, wanting to pull apart completely. She ignored it, though, and pulled her hand back together again.

"No," she said softly. "There was someone else who had something similar, but he's dead now."

Catch-all for October

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