avatar_state | IC INBOX \ House Details (Deerington)

I'd appreciate it if you could.

...

Just to warn you I'm looking a little...weird. I'm having some problems but I'm trying to get control over it.

[He has no control over it at all.]

Varian, I guarantee you that I've seen worse.

I'll be there soon, text me the address.

I don't know. I'm looking pretty weird.

But thank you, it's in Cassandra, got a Lamp on the front lawn.

[He'll tack on an address though! ]

Trust me, I've seen weirder. I'll be right over.

I'm gonna hold you to that statement, Korra.

Thanks again. See you soon.

[Her movements are pretty quick. She at least knows where Varian is, and Naga is a great way to get there - she could use the lantern, but...well. Her level of trust for anything here that isn't a person she knows is at such a low level that she'd be apt to look both ways at a roundabout.]

[But she arrives quickly enough, dismounting and giving Naga a rub.]

Good girl.

[Varian steps outside as he hears Korra arrive. As promised, he definitely doesn't look great. His skin has been replaced with a strange rock all over, his hands clawed, his teeth sharp. He's teetering on the edge of... something.

Despite this, he raises a hand to greet her, offering a tired smile. ]

Uh...hey. Thanks for coming.

[She rears back a bit when she sees that, in surprise.]

Woah. That's...that's not water bending.

[Which is what she'd hoped it was.]

Ok, tell me everything...

[He winces a little, he knows he doesn't look...great and he doubts it's gonna get any easier watching people react to him. ]

It's not, this is...unrelated. It's corruption, I think.

[Which is a whole other mess. He starts inside, waving Korra to come inside.]

I um...something weird happened to Fern and it spooked me a whole lot. I kinda froze the bed? Like it just...shot out of my hand like a sheet of ice?

[Korra, who has been avoiding fighting and bloodshed, hasn't really encountered corruption much. She frowns.]

But it's...ice? I can...

[Help with that, if it's ice, but he's already moving and she's following. She's so behind the times, and it upsets her. She knows who Fern is - namely, someone she remembers not liking her much - but...]

Are they ok? Do they need healing?

Oh yeah, he's...fine. It was some weird... virus thing, I don't know. He's better now. Himself again.

[He wouldn't be surprised if Fern got under anyone's skin- he tends to be volatile at the best of times. Which is why the change had startled him enough he somehow got his ice powers out of his system. He sounds so goddamn exhausted- fraying at the edges. That was an entire mess and he doesn't even know where to start figuring out his feelings for that mess. So he's focusing on something he can work through- namely the whole ice thing. ]

A-anyway, yeah. Ice powers now.

[He leads her through the kitchen down into his basement lab- a pretty creepy place, but it's one of the few places in the house he's afforded any privacy. He's cleared one of his desks, hesitating for a moment.]

I'm uh...not good at controlling it at all yet, so sorry if I accidentally freeze you or...anything.

[She's pretty damn tough, he's sure she can handle it- but still. ]

[She's honestly not sure where to start with all this.]

Don't worry about it - if it's made out of water, I can bend it. And I mean all of it.

[Because she has ideas about that corruption, really. But it has to be up to him what she tries and how.]

[That does give him means to relax, a little. Korra is powerful, he knows that much- she's got this, even if he doesn't. ]

Okay. Uh... here we go, I guess.

[He puts his hand on the table and concentrates. He knows this power is slightly different to when he was accessing his fire powers. It's not white-hot anger here, it's something slower, creeping. He closes his eyes, lets out a sharp exhale, and a sheet of ice forms out from under his hand, quickly covering the table, icicles forming at the edges as if it had been in the tundra for weeks, not seconds.

He opens his eyes, frowning at it. ]

So yeah. That's... that's it.

[She leans in, watching it carefully, frowning.]

It's smooth, that's for sure. Like glass.

[She held her hand over it, sliding it gently across, liquidizing parts of it again, raising it up in a ball of liquid, which she peers at, closely.]

But you can't do anything with actual liquid water?

Is that a good thing? Being smooth?

[He watches her do her thing, eyebrows raised in wonder- he's watched Mako and Bolin bend now and it never stops being amazing to see. It never feels or looks like magic- it looks more natural to them. Like breathing. ]

I don't think so? I mean- I can try? What do I need to do?

Means something, I know that much.

[She thinks of how to explain it.] Water, ice - bending them, using them...they reflect the person doing it, their state of mind. Smooth is harder, sort of...there's a grace that calms with calm, with intelligence? It's hard to put in words.

No, no, it's ok - it just means we know it isn't bending, as people like me or Mako know it, at least.

[She looks over at him.]

So is...this...ice based, too?

Huh, I hade no idea - I'll...I'll take it. About time I had something marginally good with all these powers.

[Because oh boy is he having difficulties marrying himself with his powers, even months after getting here. At her question, he shakes his head.]

Nah this is...something else. It was just...coincidence that my ice powers showed up at the same time.

[She nods.]

Like, firebenders. Each one is different, and it has a lot to do with their personality and state of mind. But ice is subtle, too. People just look and are all 'oh, hey, it's just ice' but...it's not. The best waterbenders? Can make ice as clear as glass, or make walls so thick it can repel invasions.

So...you're gonna have to experiment with it. Outdoors, for preference. Keep a journal, maybe? Record your mood or thoughts and then the outcome.

I mean, your powers could just be completely different, but who knows!

Oh wow, that's...pretty impressive. So it can be used as a good defensive tool? Also...offensive, I guess. If you made it spikey?

[He's doing his best to get his head around all of this. It's a crazy new world. ]

That's...actually a really good idea! I can keep a log of everything, then I'll be able to determine what works best and how my powerset fits with...well, everything.

[Korra you gave him a science experiment to do, this will make his experience with his new powers so much better. ]

Oh, yeah, no problems there.

[She steps back, sliding into a stance, and with a raised arm the water jumps, forming into a sheet of ice in front of her. Then she steps into it, and it melts and then refreezes again, forming around her arm into a solid spike. Then, back again and it's a simple ball of water, held between her hands.]

There's even secret healing techniques to it, if you're Southern Water Tribe like me. Most don't know them. I was lucky, though. I learned my waterbending from the greatest waterbender in history.

But yeah, best way for you, I think. I'm more of a learn-by-doing sort, but - gotta recognize strengths, right?

[He steps back to watch her, expression rapt as he tries to take it all in, to understand how this all worked. It's pretty impressive to see what she can do- how she shapes the water like it's putty in her hands.]

Wow, really? How does that work? The healing, I mean- I guess water is a pretty big cornerstone of health so that probably helps...

[He nods in agreement.]

Oh definitely, I do way better if I can work everything out first. Scientific mind and...all that.

Honestly? Nobody exactly knows - but the thinking is that you can use it as a catalyst to redirect energy to where it needs to be, to accelerate healing.

A lot depends on the quality of the water, too - and it doesn't do much for internal injuries or illnesses.

Huh, I guess that makes some sort of sense. Your bending is a lot about moving energy, right? It tracks that you can shift it in other people to accelerate the healing process.

But that's really good all the same- probably something that comes in handy in your world- given how much unrest there is there.

[Don't you guys ever get chance to catch a breather? Wow. ]

[That's definitely the case - there's...there's a lot of it. She nodded, with a sigh.]

Yeah. At least the stakes here are less 'save the whole world,' but still.

I want to see about using it against corruption, but...that's not something you can try if you're not sure it won't...you know.

Backfire.

That's true. At least we know, largely, nothing here will really shape the world too much. Fewer concerns about hostile takeovers, too.

[He glances down at his rocky hands, nodding.]

Yeah, I um- it's definitely something you want to be sure at first. Don't want to make it worse.

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