Closed;

[alphatar]

Characters: Jack, Korra
Date: December 2nd
Location: Earth Sector
Situation: Ever play airball?
Warnings/Rating: N/A

Just as she’s over the pitch, the wings to the glider retract and Korra thrusts her palm downwards. Air pushes away any loose dirt and cushions her fall so she lands on her feet. Setting up the metal glider stick against the stone poles of the pitch, she brought her sling bag around and took out the hollow wooden ball.

Using her forearm, or rather the part of her sleeveless glove that covered her forearm, Korra rubs the polished wood. Custom make from the Wood Sector and it cost her a pretty juulan considering the type of wood they used. Strong enough to withstand being ricocheted off of stone.

Giving it a test, she tosses it upwards with a light boost from airbending and is satisfied with the result. Catching it in one hand, Korra smiles and remembers when she first arrived at Air Temple Island. Then she was only able to watch the kids play the game while she watched from the sidelines.

Her airbending block seems like a far off memory now…

Now that she’s here, Korra leans against the corner of the court and begins her wait. Thought it never occurs to her that she really didn’t even check to see if he’s been there the whole time.

Comments

WOW EPIC FAIL I FORGOT ABOUT THIS

[wintershepherd]

Jack hadn't actually arrived yet but he was only a few moments behind and while Korra was polishing the game ball he soared overhead and then touched down lightly, grinning at her. "Hey Korra," he said brightly, as effusive as he'd ever been well before their assorted complications.

"Great day, huh?"

No worries, I’m patient~

[alphatar]

Air was becoming more prevalent of an element for her lately, and seeing Jack use the winds really brought into focus just how few others could benefit from it in such a way.

Complications aside, she’s happy to see him. "Hey Jack. Perfect day for some airball." She spun the hollow ball on her finger while grinning. Some of the basketball prowess she picked up from Jim.

"Think the wind is up for it too?" To some it may sound like a condescending challenge, but it’s an actual question for him.

[wintershepherd]

Jack smiled obligingly, twirling his staff around. "How about it, Wind? Feel like a new game?" Then he nodded to Korra, "Show us how it's done?" with the plural meaning both him and the element. The air around the Avatar seemed to prickle just slightly.

[alphatar]

The sensation brought a slow, curious smile on her face. It's different from airbending, that she's sure of.

"You go it!" Getting to play sports from her world is incredibly rare, and provides a great distraction from everything else. Leaping into the air with the help of some bending, Korra gently lands on one of the poles of the court. They're spread out unevenly, differing anywhere from one to ten feet in height, but are all the exact same width.

"Just move the ball" She tosses the ball up and then sends it flying off. "and try to get it in your opponent's goal." It flies over the pitch, and into the circular opening of the square goal.

"Of course, it's not that easy when I'll be guarding it." A quick motion of her arms towards herself guides the ball back to her, the wind rustling her hair around. "So hitting off the poles to throw off your opponent is your best chance at scoring a point. You can move anywhere you like as long as it's on the court. Same with the ball. Usually it's played up to ten points for one-on-one, but with teams, it can go anywhere from twenty-five to fifty."

She tosses the ball over to Jack. "Any questions?"

[wintershepherd]

"I think I've got it," Jack answered, a few whirling snowflakes marking where he left the ground and likewise settled onto one of the poles on the court. His uncanny balance helped here, hopping lightly from one to the next. He swept his arm out and the wind read the motion, picking up the ball and flinging it at him to catch. He quickly realized that he'd need to set aside his staff to have both hands free and did so, leaning it off the court for safety.

"Let me have a practice go at it," he said, kicking off one of the poles for some height. But as the wind seized the ball to send it flying towards the goal, it seemed to forget one thing behind: the spirit himself, who abruptly found himself without a cushion of air and landed on his rump on the ground before cracking up.

"Whoops, that didn't work as planned..."

[alphatar]

Korra was following the ball, but didn’t even get to see if it went through the goal due to the sound of Jack falling. She tried her best not to laugh, but it came out as she skipped from pole to pole to see if he was all right.

Obviously he was.

"Maybe this isn’t going to work out as well as I thought it would." She offered her hand to help him up. Her laughing died down eventually.

[wintershepherd]

Jack was also laughing as he clasped Korra's arm and pulled himself to his feet. There was a surprising grip in that skinny frame, almost disproportionately so.

"No, hang on a sec," he said, turning to face the open air. "Hey Wind, can you find that baby zephyr again? See if it wants to play too."

The breeze whistled off and Jack explained for the Avatar's benefit, "There's a really young wind here, native to Tu Vishan I think. It's too small to carry a person but I'll bet it can play with the ball. If you don't consider that tag teaming, that is."

[alphatar]

A barefaced impressed look came on Korra's face. She knew Jack was strong magically (spiritually to her), so that was a pleasant surprise.

"For all I know I’m using a few winds when I’m airbending, so I wouldn’t worry about it."

Beat.

"Wait, is the Wind a spirit too?" Never had the notion even crossed her mind until now, despite the fact that Jack had been riding on the Winds all this time.

[wintershepherd]

Jack laughed a little when she said not to worry about it, but shook his head at her question. "It's not a spirit, not in the same way that others are," he replied. "There's lots of kinds of winds, they all have their own personality."

Feel free to handwave the game if you want~

[alphatar]

After seeing herself physically in the Spirit World, Korra's not surprised at all by them having personalities. When the Winds come back, they pass over Korra and bat her hair tails around on their way to Jack.

Korra brushed her hair out of her face and gave a smile that bunched up her cheeks. "All right, this time let's keep the fouls to the minimum." Said to the Winds even though she couldn't tell exactly where they were.

kk!

[wintershepherd]

The game was quite, ahem, spirited and though Jack lost by a small margin, he thought he'd done very well for his first time playing. It was an interesting challenge to coordinate the two different winds and he thought he might try training with them again later, and definitely for a rematch.

"So who did you usually play this with, at home?"

[alphatar]

Whirling the airball around from hand to hand, airbending making so the ball didn’t even touch here, Korra was beaming. Getting to play sports games was a rare thing, and that close match had her adrenaline going thanks to how fast-paced airball can get. Her fun-fix had definitely been fulfilled.

"At home I’ve only played it once. It was with my master Tenzin’s kids in a game of two-on-two. Then I played Aang here, and now you." Korra sat down on one of the poles and stretched out so her feet were on another on not too far away.

"I didn’t learn airbending until a couple of weeks before I arrived here, so for the longest time I had to sit on the sidelines and watch the children play it." A quick work of her hands brought up her sling bag from the side of the court. She fished out a water bottle and instantly started chugging it down.

[wintershepherd]

"You've only known how to do that for a few weeks?" Jack repeated, shocked. "You'd never know! Wish my learning curve had been that steep!"

[alphatar]

She couldn’t help but chuckle at Jack’s face in that moment. "What can I say, I’m a fast learner." Except when she isn’t. "I had to unlock my airbending actually. For most of my life it was the only element that I just couldn’t use, blocked off. So I’m pretty happy to use it whenever I get the chance. Make up for lost time, you know?"

She gave her wrist a flick and tossed the ball over to Jack.

[wintershepherd]

"How was it blocked off?" Jack asked, sounding very interested. He spread his hands to catch the ball and then laughed when it stopped, the north wind taking it first.

[alphatar]

The how of it was still a little embarrassing to Korra, so she tried to play it off as being nothing too important.

"It’s the element most opposite of my personality." She shrugged her shoulders and lifted her arms with her fingers casually unfurled. "The Avatar before me was opposite of Earth, so that was the hardest element for him to wrap his head around. Happens to all the Avatars. But hey, we get it eventually."

[wintershepherd]

"The opposite of your personality?" Jack echoed thoughtfully. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

Though it may have been a surprise for her to hear him agreeing with that. He'd often wondered how the other Seasonals were chosen, if that had anything to do with it.

[alphatar]

"It does?" Her eyebrows shot up as her head swung back; he could have thrown the ball at her face and get the same reaction.

"I really didn't understand it for a long time."

[wintershepherd]

"Maybe because it seemed to simple," Jack suggested. "I have the same problem with fern frost. If I think too much about it, it never looks right."

[alphatar]

That sounds a lot like what Tenzin had told her.

"You just have to let it flow...right?"

[wintershepherd]

"Kind of. For me, it helps to remember that... things like frost, snow... they're going to happen anyway. I mean, if something happened to me it's not like there just wouldn't be winter somewhere. Just like if you stopped bending one element, it doesn't decrease somehow."

[alphatar]

"I've never thought of it like that." Taking the wind as an example, Korra could see what he meant.

"Speaking of winter, is the shop going to be open on Christmas Day?" it wasn't an official holiday in Keeliai since only some of the foreigners celebrated it and the kedan just seemed interested at best.

[wintershepherd]

"I'm all about metaphors," Jack laughed lightly.

He considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Probably. It's not something the kedan are going to celebrate so they'd probably be confused if it was closed. I don't mind watching the shop that day though, so everyone else can have it off."

[alphatar]

"All right. I’ll be there to help out. I think we’ve got enough fish on ice to last throughout the year. I don’t have anything planned for the day itself, I’m just having fun in getting to it."

[wintershepherd]

"Are you sure?" Jack asked, a muted surprise in his tone. "You have--" your boyfriend "-- people here who'd probably appreciate your time more."