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"You'd be surprised by my ability to think of something." She seems almost amused by that. But she's not opposed to an IOU of sorts for now.

Still, when Korra starts waterbending, there's nothing like surprise on Annabeth's face. She's seen it before and then some, so if anything, there's a hint of something wistful in her expression, alongside the familiarity. She scratches under Naga's chin before commenting.

"Well, that's a good word for it. Can you control all water, or just certain kinds?"

Edited 2014-04-18 08:34 (UTC)

Normally Korra's used to the surprise and incredulity that came after she showed someone her bending for the first time, but Annabeth's reaction actually surprised the Avatar instead.

"Yeah, any kind of water." As an example, she turned the water in the air into still ice. "You've seen something like waterbending before?" Her first immediate thought is Kaldur; he was the closest to being a bender that she had seen on the turtle.

Annabeth nods. "We never called it waterbending, but yeah. Percy, um, that's the aforementioned boyfriend - he can control water, too."

She'd ask if Korra were a demigod, but considering 'waterbending' as a phrase, it seems unlikely. Also she's a little busy trying to ignore that pit in her stomach over being reminded that Percy's no longer here. Not that reminders are uncommon at all, either, considering the state of her suite.

Mrs. O'Leary presses her head into Annabeth's back with a quiet whine though, after hearing Percy's name. She idly reaches over her shoulder to scratch at the dog's face. "Oceans are his specialty, hence my asking, but it's all water in his case, too."

That was a name Korra had only heard in passing, and she was sure that it was either Jack or Finnick that had mentioned it. But she noticed the whine from Mrs. O’Leary and looked at Annabeth uncertainly.

Korra knew a bad sign when she heard it.

She spun the ice with a twirl of her fingers, changing it back into water, and poured it back into the bottle. "I’ve never met him before." And she would have been happy to meet another elemental user, especially a water one. "Is there a lot of that kind of thing from your world? Bending’s pretty common back home."

She doesn't exactly respond to the 'never met him before' bit, because she doesn't want to talk about the fact that it's not really possible at the moment.

So Annabeth focuses on the latter part. "Not particularly? Percy's the only one with the water control like that - it depends on our parentage." She pauses, because that's just bound to bring more questions, so she preemptively continues. "We're, uh. Half-bloods. Demigods. I don't suppose you know the Greek gods, do you?"

Even after being so open about it for over a year now, it's still weird to just let it slide off her tongue to strangers. But she doesn't really care anymore either, especially now.

Being unique in terms of elemental control was something Korra was all too familiar with, and she didn’t even ask about the parentage. After all, that decided what element a bender would be born with.

Though Korra’s mouth did form a small oh, and she looked at Annabeth with raised eyebrows. "I don’t know anything about Greek Gods, but I have heard about Demigods." She folded her arms and lowered only one eyebrow. "Do you know Leo and Frank?"

Something relaxes a little in her face. Annabeth gives Korra half a smile and nods. "They're friends of mine. Do I need to apologize for Leo?"

Even if he's not around anymore either. Her smile wavers. "We're all demigods though, yeah. That saves me explanation time."

"I don't know if 'McDreamy' calling me 'Miss Hotstuff' is something to apologize for." Jokingly said, because she really did get a lot of laughs just from talking with Leo.

Korra gave a curious look at Annabeth. "I know Leo can make just about anything and can fireb- control fire, and Frank's an animal shapeshifter." That was as much as she knew about them, but "What about you?"

Annabeth rolls her eyes and lets out half a laugh. Part of her even misses it right now, even if Leo never dared talk at her that way. "Yeeeah, that's pretty standard."

She looks mildly surprised, though, at least about Leo - it didn't seem like talking about his fire powers was something he did all too often. That had to be a good reflection on Korra. "Me? No, I don't have any special powers like that." But she doesn't sound bothered by it. "My mom is the goddess of wisdom and warfare, that's where my strengths lie."

"Wisdom and Warfare? I didn't know they had gods for that kind of thing." From what Korra had made of it, they were something physical or elemental in nature. Nothing like concepts.

"You don't start any wars or anything, do you?" Asked because, Korra may or may not be starting a war when she gets home. If she gets home.

"There's a god for just about everything. At least in the Greco-Roman pantheon. My mom's also the goddess of handicrafts." Weaving. A skill she didn't know she had for most her life.

Her expression turns a little amused. "I personally haven't. But I could if I wanted to." There's nothing that suggests she's falsely boasting either. Apparently her siblings in the past had orchestrated demigod civil wars, at the minimum. "Children of Athena are master battle strategists. I've definitely fought in wars before though."

Edited 2014-04-22 07:27 (UTC)

"Wisdom, Warfare, and Handicrafts. ...huh." That was a combination Korra wasn't expecting given what she knew of Leo and Frank, and she could only guess Percy had lineage from a god of water. But Korra didn't ask, not on that. Boyfriends weren't the best subject for her either.

"That makes two of us." Her grin was there for only a moment. "Well, I fought in one war. But the master strategist thing; that's going to come in handy here." If it hasn't already, Korra had no idea what Annabeth had done before she met her. "Got a place to practice some of that combat stuff?"

"Among other things. But those are the big ones." Athena's got a lot to lord over, compared to some.

She shoots Korra a somewhat sympathetic look over 'that makes two of us.' "It's definitely come in handy here, yeah." And she thinks about that first trip to the Death plane, how much of it was pushed by her. "Hopefully it'll keep up that trend and get me home sooner rather than later. As for combat, I can train just about anywhere, but there are a few places I prefer. What about you? Does your waterbending need practice?"

She feels a little rambly, but in a way, she doesn't mind - it's nice to just get away from familiar people and feelings at the moment.

Among other things. Wow, and Korra thought she was a kind of jack of all trades. Combat got an interested look out of her and she slightly leaned forward to listen better.

"Yeah, bending's just like fighting. Keeping your skills sharp is important, so I practice all my bending styles everyday at the dojo in Wood. Or at home, depending on what I want to focus on." Bending talk, Korra never got tired of it and she didn't want to barrage Annabeth with it. Not after just showing her what it was, so she gave a half shrug with one shoulder.

It's anything but barraging. It piques Annabeth's interest, which means Korra's probably about to suffer at least some variation of the Annabeth Chase question game. Especially that one bit. "Wait, all bending? You can do more than one?"

Given fire and water are already choices, she's kind of assuming other elementals, but the bigger question here is the 'more than one' implication. She's never really heard of a demigod being able to do that.

"Oh yeah. I'm the only one who can bend all four elements." But she was going to save that explanation after ~~showing off~~ displaying her abilities. Smirking, Korra stepped back until she was a fair distance away since she didn't know if Mrs. O'Leary would be upset by the sudden bending.

She probably should have asked Annabeth if she wanted to see them or if it would be safe, but Korra already had it in her mind to do so.

Lunging her foot forward, Korra lowered her hands only to lift them and a chunk of the pavement went up along with them. "Earth." A quick downward turn of her hands put the chunk back in place and a sweep of her foot over it cemented most of the cracks shut.

Hands still down, Korra generated to flames in both her palms and stretched her arms outward, spinning to make a fiery swirl in the air; a kick accompanying it to make it's own blazing trail. Once two full turns were done, Korra released both balls of flame from her hands into the sky and let the arc of fire fade away when both her feet were on the ground again. "Fire."

Her baggy pants began to flutter and her animal skin began to flap irregularly as loose dirt at her feet began to swirl. Then she began to lift into the air and an air spout that connected to the ground became visible around her waist. She moved forward along with it and slowly descended through it, reach ring of air dissipating as she passed until she was on the ground. Finally her hair stopped batting around and Korra placed her fist into her palm giving a light bow.

"Air." Placing a hand on her hip, Korra gestured to the the pack on Naga's saddle where she had put the water bottle back. "And you already saw water." Humility is something she was still learning, but right now Korra had no inclination towards it.

Even though she watches the demonstration curiously, none of it's all that strange a sight to Annabeth. Not even the flying - she'd seen Jason fly before, though the spout part was new.

Still, the fact that Korra can do all four is impressive, and Annabeth is hardly the person to criticize someone over humility. Her own lack of it will quite likely literally get her killed one day.

"No one back home's controlled more than one of those. Though Percy might be able to cause earthquakes, considering one of Poseidon's titles is The Earthshaker on top of being god of the sea." She gives Korra a nod, and Mrs. O'Leary barks her own approval. But there's something almost relaxed in Annabeth's face. It's an easy conversation to have right now, and she's glad for it. "Do you have a favorite?"

Having seen dozens of demonstrations, Naga’s sitting and simply enjoying the company in only the way big dogs can.

"I’ve never really thought of singling one out for a favorite. Fire, I guess?" She shrugged. "It comes pretty easy to me."

Korra went back over, ignoring the kedan that stopped to watch the display, and scratched Mrs. O'Leary’s jowls before putting her hands on her hips in thought.

"But being the Avatar, I can’t really play favorites. My job’s to keep balance in the world, so that probably goes the same for bending. Is that what gods do in your world?" Gods are an entirely foreign concept to her.

Well, that answered her next question, as to why only Korra could do all four. There's probably a lot more detail she could ask about, but Annabeth holds back on prying.

She snorts though, maybe because she's still feeling kind of cynical towards the gods. "No, that's more like our job, as demigods." She blows out a puff of air. It's not the entire picture, so she adds: "The gods are important to keep in the world, don't get me wrong - without them, civilization would collapse. But it's their children who are usually left to clean up the messes. We're the ones who fight the monsters."

Literally, and kind of metaphorically lately too.

"That sounds, kind of sloppy." And the instant she realized what she said, Korra put her hands up and smiled the biggest nervous smile she had ever given. "No offense to your parents or anything! I’m just used to having to clean up my own messes, even biggest ones. Though I do get help from my friends."

She waves her hand, signifying it's not offensive at all. "It is sloppy. That's part of the problem. Not to say demigods don't make their own messes either, and we definitely have the capacity for our own choices." Annabeth sighs and gets headbutted by Mrs. O'Leary again. "It can be messy all around. But I think I can say at this point I definitely prefer having my friends as backup, too."

And there's something a little heavier in her tone, though she means it wholeheartedly. No more solo suicide quests, please.

Friends. They’re the one reason Korra’s been able to do half of the things she’s done. She gave a rare, endearing smile at that. Nothing was more obvious to Korra than understanding where Annabeth was coming from. She knew no one on the turtle when she first arrived aside from her arch-nemesis that terrorized her life and his brother that kidnapped her.

"And they help clean up those messes too, even if it’s just you who made it." It’s nothing more than a saying, but Korra felt it strongly and she held out her hand; her smile growing into a healthy beam.

"Think you have room to have one more?"

Her face breaks into a small smile over that. Because her friends do help her - gone are the days she went about things alone all the time by choice. She doesn't have to do things by herself (excepting That One Quest, but she's not going to keep thinking about that).

And when Korra offers her hand, Annabeth finds herself taking it. She thinks she might have even if she hadn't been feeling overwhelmingly lonely lately. "No harm in trying."

She's not trying to be dismissive; that's just typical Annabeth speak. "Besides, I don't think Naga and Mrs. O'Leary would be too happy if we were enemies."

Edited 2014-05-04 06:22 (UTC)

Korra chuckled as she gave a firm shake.

"No, and it’s not good for anyone when they’re not happy." Giant dog tantrums. Korra tell you a thing about them. Well, Annabeth probably knew about those.

"I’ve got to finish Naga’s run to the park, but my suites at ME-2A if you want to come over or need something. Never hurts to have company." She scrunched up Naga’s face. "For both of us I mean."

"Think of what their combined tantrums could accomplish," she says, but she shakes Korra's hand just as firmly.

Mrs. O'Leary scoots over to Naga to say her own farewells, whining a little. "I'm in Metal, too. 1A. But I can't imagine it'd be all that hard for these guys to find each other. Maybe we could race them sometime."

She's pretty sure not only would Mrs. O'Leary enjoy it, but it's just the sort of potentially reckless challenge Annabeth herself is up for lately.

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