Chojin Patriarch
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Ah, the joy of a young child. Late nights and early mornings taking care of inconveniently timed needs. Since babies don't work to anyone's schedule but their own. Still, Tenzin and Pema are experienced parents. I'm sure this is nothing new for them.170 After Genocide, Late winter, a little later that morning
Breakfast with the air bender family is… Almost unbearably nostalgic. Tenzin's wife -an Air Acolyte named Pema- is doing circuits of the room with their youngest son, a boy named Rohan. And from the state of the table I'm guessing that Tenzin has tried to take up some of her usual duties in the kitchen, and done so not incompetently but certainly inexpertly.
Which, for fussy kids, could well have been enough to make them not want to eat...A distant memory from before I got my ring: my own father doing the same. I don't remember where Mum was at the time… Visiting friends? Ill? Was that back when my sister was born? I honestly don't remember, and there aren't many memories I can say that about anymore. He cut carrots into cross sections rather than strips.
Heh. Tenzin is evidently not the most 'housey' of husbands.Anyway, there are a two large flat balep loaves, one at either end of the table with no cutlery for cutting them. There's a pot of porridge in the middle of the table on a thick mat to protect the table from the heat, but the mismatched pile of bowls piled up next to it-.
Honestly, I half expected Meelo or Jinora to start placing bowls for everyone using their airbending.Tenzin's older son -a boy named Meelo- waves his hand and makes a gust of air throw a bowl off the top of the pile and land in front of him. He grins, then leans forward and peers around thoughtfully at everyone else's place setting. Jinora, Tenzin's eldest child, spots what he's doing and then looks expectantly at her father. Unfortunately, Tenzin hasn't spotted what just happened. In fact, he looks quite out of sorts. I do hope that he didn't spend all last night trying to copy my 'air bending'.
The guest being the one to begin serving everyone? What a blunder of hospitality. I assume that sort of thing isn't done in the sort of pseudo-eastern households of the 'Avatar' universe, certainly.I pull a ladle out of my robe and then stand, leaning over the short legged oriental style lable. "Porridge, anyone?"
Tenzin snaps back to the present, spots Meelo and sends him back to his seat with an interrogative glare as I begin dishing out the porridge in a bending-free manner. Korra is sort of twitching as she tries to work out how I did that 'bending', her eyes pointedly avoiding looking at anyone. Mako and Bolin give her the occasional worried look, but appear to have decided to let her work through it.
I bet she's noticed something odd about him."Master Renkun?"
Ikki, Tenzin's younger daughter, tugs lightly on my sleeve as I wave the last bowl at her father in the hopes of drawing his attention back to the present. He looks at it blankly for a moment, then nods in thanks before taking it from me. I smile at Ikki as I retake my seat next to her.
Well, now. I'm guessing she's seeing something that even the more spiritually-attuned Jinora can't.
Oh-ho. This is a surprise. You'd think he'd have better control of his auras than that."My tailor ran out of other colours. I'm just glad he had some grey left, otherwise people would mistake me for an air bender even more than they do anyway."
She frowns childishly. "No, not your clothes. Can't you see it?"
Which isn't necessarily a good thing, but might persuade more aggressive spirits to steer clear.I'm wearing my rings of course, otherwise this conversation would be mutually intelligible. But my environmental shield is set to 'absolute minimum', and shouldn't be visible.
"Well, my patron spirit is normally orange, and after I introduced her to Korra last night she might be paying my surroundings a little more attention."
You'd better. Having a kaiju-sized giant glowing orange snake pop out of the Airbender's island might raise concerns amongst the people of Republic City.Tenzin looks up from his porridge. "You introduced Korra to a spirit?"
"The Ophidian and I have been together a long time. She can use my spirit as a point of contact with the material world. Korra just had to touch my chakra network to commune with her." I wave my right hand. "Rest assured, if I was going to bring a spirit like the Ophidian here in the material sense I would have ask your permission first."
If she's going to be dealing with spirits, then she needs to know how to meet and greet them...
Ah, the dad energy is strong in him, even distracted as he is."By 'touching your chakra network' I assume that you are refering to energy bending." I nod. "Is that the only way to see the.. 'Ophidian'?" He frowns mildly, and then with only a brief glance reaches out with his right hand to redirect Meelo's spoon-hand to his mouth before he can attempt to convey his porridge there by flicking it in from arm's length.
You'd think Tenzin would have remembered that, given his troubles training her. Assuming that 'Her' in there refers to Korra..."Technically, no, but the ways of thinking that she reponds to are fairly antithetical to those associated with air bending. You would-." I frown. "I was going to say, 'you would have to choose one or the other', but I suppose that Avatars manage it-" Korra comes out of it a little, looks at me to see if I was talking to her, then realises that breakfast is in front of her. "-every time. Or you could learn energy bending."
Now that would be a fun thing. Tenzin discovering that others could learn Energy-bending. Though just the idea that she can grant bending might blow his mind as it is."I'm not sure that someone who isn't the Avatar-" At the opposite end of the table, Bolin breathes in sharply while Mako winces. "-can learn to-" He glances their way but can't work out why they're responding like that. "-do that."
"You never know until you try. Isn't that right,- "
There's the crazy face again. Bugged-out eyes, gaping mouth... She gets a lot of funny faces, doesn't she?"HE CAN BEND ALL FOUR ELEMENTS!"
She's pointing at me, eyes slightly… Ah, crazed.
Gee, you think, OL?I might have had a larger effect on her than I aimed for.
"-Avatar Korra?"
Dangit, I can just see Meelo doing that. He's a bit of a climber.Tenzin shakes his head with a frown. "Korra, that's impossible. And a little rude. Please don't point and shout-" Meelo worms his way onto his father's lap and nods imperiously as Tenzin speaks. "-at our guests."
"Ah, Master Tenzin?" Mako realises that he'll have to take the lead. "Master Renkun… Did bend the four elements. He did a demonstration outside."
Which is why it's totally doing her head in as to how you did it.Tenzin frowns in confusion, then looks at me.
"Oh, come now. Avatar Korra, you energy bent me. You know that I'm not a bender."
And turning it into a teaching moment. Truly, OL has mastered the Way of the Old Master."THEN HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"
I smile politely, taking a spoonful of porridge. "How do you think I did it?"
Subspace, of course. Not that they'd know what that is. Just another 'thing the crazy shaman claims he can do'."Okay!" She gets up and starts pacing. "Either-. Either you are a bender, and you can hide it.. somehow-."
"Not-" I shake my head. "-on touch, though I can hide things at a distance."
I mean, if Meelo had heard about this, you know he'd have been all over that prank."Or you.. got a bender to do it for you while you did the gestures." She stops to stare at me. "Was that it?"
"Where would I find an air bender to help me?"
See! Even they suspect him of it, despite it not happening.For a moment her face falls, then she looks suspiciously at Meelo. He straightens up for a moment, then glares at her.
"I don't know what you think I did but whatever it was I wish I did it!"
Plus, one obvious absence she hasn't accounted for in the 'benders did it for him' theory: Where's the waterbender?Korra looks away, huffing.
"Come now, Avatar Korra. I already told you everything that you need to in order to work it out. I hope you were paying attention."
Not specifically, no. But he can fake it good enough to fool an Avatar.Bolin winces harder.
"You..?" Tenzin's face has fallen a little, but his face naturally lends itself to that expression. "Aren't an air bender?"
Now, now, Tenzin, no need to swear. ...Oh, wait, that wasn't him, was it?"Sorry, I just threw some pigment dust out so that it looks like I was bending something. As far as I know, that gesture-."
"SPIRITS!"
Technically correct. But not quite there yet.I return my attention to Korra. "In the sense of-?"
She looks triumphant, grinning broadly. "You got a spirit to do it!"
I think you may as well end her confusion, OL."A spirit, for all four elements?"
"Four spirits. You made a deal with four spirits, and they did the bending. Was that it?"
I mean, that's fair, it's not like has a directory of Spirit names."Close enough. Well done. Which spirits?"
"I… Dunno." Her shouldesr slump.
A close approximation of what happened, I suspect. Certainly, I doubt he wants to reveal his more dangerous abilities."Korra, I told you their names. It's what I was doing before I got here."
"Wait, you mean-? The Dread Wind of Mount Greyspire, the Reef The Hunts-" I nod. "-and-. You beat up a bunch of spirits, and now they work for you?"
Probably a good idea to keep the mind-altering Power Rings out of the hands of impressionable young members of an endangered ethnicity.I smile at her. "You got there eventually. Well done." I reach into my pocket, pull out the four rings they're bound as and drop them onto the table. "Once grevious threats, now useful-" Ikki reaches out to pick on up. I interpose my right hand and pull them away from her with a small shake my my head. "-tools. And if you ever want a four elements on four elements sparring match, I'll be happy to oblige you."
Well, then. Looks like the 'assimilated spirits' guess was right? Or did he crib some notes from the Planeteers' Rings when he encountered then, perchance? After all, their rings would be tailor-made to absorb and channel mystical elemental energies. Regardless, just the idea of binding spirits that way might get some interesting reactions.
Mr Zoat, some corrections:
...short legged oriental style table.
...I assume that you are referring to energy bending."
...but the ways of thinking that she responds to...
"I… Dunno." Her shoulders slump.
"Once grievous threats, now useful-"