二十九

[anatural]

[ action ]
[After dropping Korra off for her duties at the Welcome Center, Naga is padding her way through the City, heading back to the Beach House. Her jaw is hinged wide open as she pants to try and keep cool, and her hackles are raised.

Something is very wrong with this place. It's not just the climate, which is too hot for an arctic animal like herself. There is something unnatural going on with the environment and the polar bear dog does not like it. There's too little water. The plants are unhappy. The wild animals she snacks on are fewer in number.

Who, what, and wherefore aren't questions she's capable of asking. All she knows, as she stops by the Fountain to lap up some of the water, is that she Does Not Like This.]

[ooc: Care to run into a cranky dehydrated polar bear dog? You've got options!

option a: run into Naga anywhere in the City!
option b: run into Naga and Korra in the evening when Naga picks Korra up again]

Comments

b: evening

[candothat]

[Naga is really, really easy to spot. Chekov deviates from his normal path home ("normal" since Lucy left, that is) to say hello to the panting polar bear dog.

Oh, and Korra's there, too.]

Hello to both of you.

[anatural]

[Korra looks up from the bowl of water she's pouring for her friend.]

Hey Chekov! What brings you here?

[Naga wags her tail and licks Chekov's cheek in friendly greeting.]

[candothat]

I'm going home, but I'm in no hurry to get there.

[He pats Naga, foregoing any hugging. It's too hot for that.]

Naga doesn't like this heat?

[anatural]

She's a creature of snow and ice. Like me.

[Korra pats the polar bear dog's neck very briefly.]

I bet you don't like the heat much either.

[candothat]

Poor Naga--poor Korra and Pavel, as well. [He heaves a particularly dramatic sigh because it's hot and the drama is absolutely warranted.] No, I don't. This is the hottest place I have ever lived and, if I controlled the weather, I would make it snow.

[Now that he mentions it, Pavel has to wonder if he can make it snow and if either of the captains would view such a project as a waste of time.]

b; eveningggggggg, he bumps into Naga first outside of the WC?

[scalded]

[ It's Korra's pet ... animal thing. Her polar bear dog. The very same that had carted him off to her when he had first arrived. Zuko eyes the animal warily as he approaches the Welcome Center. He doesn't want her nabbing him again and taking him back to where they're all staying together, that's the last thing Zuko wants right now. He's in the middle of wandering around the City to see what's up, to see if anyone needs extra help along the way with the clean up. ]

\o/

[anatural]

[Naga stops trying to shove her snout through the Welcome Center window and turns to look at Zuko. Hello! She wags her tail in greeting moves forward to lick him.]

:3

[scalded]

[ He tries not to squirm much or grimace too visibly when she does lick him, her tongue catching the entire side of his face not the most pleasant of feelings.

Awkwardly Zuko pats her on the snout while at the same time trying to gently push her face back out of his bubble. ]

Hi back at you. You must be waiting for Korra if you're out here. Right?

[anatural]

[She nudges his shoulder and then backs off. She doesn't answer his question -- doesn't even understand it -- but the topic of discussion shows up soon enough.]

Hey Zuko! What are you doing out here?

[scalded]

I was checking the area. Uh. For trees.

[ Frowns to himself. ]

What about you?

b) Naga then Korra?~<3

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei has no unnatural animal senses like Naga. But even he can intuit that something is wrong. ]

[ There's a draught branching in arid cracks through the City. It's subtle, barely perceptible. But at its heels, a premonition skitters up his spine. He's taken to outfitting hygrometers near the City's lakes, to determine the rise or ebb of the water levels. He's started using less water to dilute coffees and steep teas at the cafe. Obeying the cold jangle of warning that's crawling through his nerves, he's also begun storing water barrels at his Underground safe-house, with the same sense of a rainbow coin tucked away in his wallet for emergencies. Just in case. ]

[ Returning from work, he stops at a sidewalk fruit-stand to buy a red half-moon of watermelon. Settles at a bench near the Welcome Center, and bites into it, the flavor exploding sweet and crunchy between his teeth. The evening rays are slanted and pink, but even at this hour, the air is muggy. The back and chest of 'Li's shirt are dark with sweat, the rustle of the tree-leaves overhead dappling shadows and sunlight across his face. ]

[ Still, he enjoys his snack, along with the scant relief offered by the shade. ]

[anatural]

[Naga pads her way towards the Welcome Center. The drink she'd taken in the Fountain helped, but she's still overly hot and thirsty. It has not put her in the best of moods.

When she smells Hei, she stops. Her hackles rise and she bares her teeth. Korra may have made her peace with him -- or something like it, judging by how often she's come home covered in his scent -- but Naga still doesn't trust him.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ If Hei spots Naga in the distance, he doesn't let on. ]

[ Instead, he takes another bite of watermelon, chewing with a determined indifference. But that sentinel part of his mind is scoping the area out, on watch for Korra. If he could, he'd rather avoid her. He's in no mood for company or anything else tonight. Not Korra's fault -- just an offshoot of the Visitor Weekend. He's made an effort, over time, to view her as separate from his memories of Pai. But Pai's unexpected visit has left him at once lonely and disordered. A hundred memories of Heaven's War are gathered all around him now, in the slats of pink and orange light. They settle in dark corners like vultures waiting for carrion. ]

[ It's Pai's unwitting doing. ]

[ Somehow she'd brought all those figments with her, renewed and solidified in every dimension. Just the sight of her had evoked a sickle-sharp mindset Hei had stuffed behind a safety-valve all these years, gathering dust from disuse. Although she's gone, the after-traces linger, like a retinal burn-in from a shockwave of light. He's reluctant to see Korra while he's still trying to blink those blind spots away. Worse, he doesn't want to learn he's suffered a relapse. To discover that, even now, he can't wrench Korra free from the sticky morass of Pai-ness. ]

[ Scat. He doesn't look at Naga. But maybe the Polar-Whatsis will get the message. By the osmosis of mutual irritation. Or something. ]

[anatural]

[Naga remains for a little bit, watchful and wary. But when Hei doesn't move, she decides that (for the moment) he's not a threat. She growls a warning low in her throat for good measure and continues to the Welcome Center.

Hei is eventually forgotten as Naga and Korra run into friends outside the Welcome Center, and some time passes before they return in his direction.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ If Hei were a rottweiler, he'd growl back. Instead he continues munching his snack. There's a cool gust of relief when the animal pads away. While Naga's appearance isn't forgotten -- like everything else, it's jotted down meticulously in Hei's mental logbook -- it isn't dwelt upon either. Five minutes later, Hei is plunking the watermelon rind, gnawed down until it's all green and shiny, into a trashcan. Wiping his palms on his jeans, he sets off at a steady clip down the street. A visit to the Underground seems attractive tonight. He needs something to hack to pieces. ]

[ But only halfway down the street, he spots Korra and Naga again. ]

[ Oh, great. ]

b; evening. Naga now, Korra later

[ruthless_hunter]

[Lockdown's doing his usual drive around in car mode when he spots an animal that he swears is familiar. He hits the brakes when it comes to him. The animal that tried to eat him the last time he was a kiwi. Lockdown slowly drives up to the animal, rolls down his window, and looks at it with his holographic human avatar, eyes narrowed and face hard.]

So, we meet again.

mwahaha

[anatural]

[Naga tilts her head as the vehicle pulls up to her and slows down. She doesn't recognize him, but she does recognize anger.

She bares her teeth, a warning from one predator to another. Don't mess with me.]

[ruthless_hunter]

[The avatar vanishes and Lockdown transforms into robot mode, kneeling down to growl back.]

[anatural]

[WHAT THE -- Naga instinctively lashes out with her right paw, claws angled to gouge his face.]

[ruthless_hunter]

[Lockdown quickly stands to his full height - about as tall as a street lamp - away from the creature's claws.]

Now who's on top'a the food chain?

a:run into Naga!

[skintoskin]

[Neil is walking, because he has little choice with no other transportation, and if he stays in his apartment too long, he'll go crazy with the ticking from that stupid clock. As he approaches the area where the Fountain is located, he slows. There's a large animal drinking there. A dog? No, too big. Um... He pauses, uncertain if he should approach or go around - or if he's hallucinating.]

Wow...

[anatural]

Hryun? [Naga stops lapping and looks up at Neil. She sniffs the air, assessing whether he's a threat or not.]

[skintoskin]

['Hryun'? Neil doesn't know if that's a good sign or not, and, of course, this being the City, who knows if this... being would understand him, either. He wouldn't hurt Naga, he just isn't sure that Naga won't hurt him. Is it a wild animal? Domesticated? A citizen in its own world?]

Hi. Hot, huh?

[anatural]

[Naga isn't a domesticated animal -- but she's not wholly wild either. Wild and friendly is perhaps the best way to describe her.

Having decided that he's not threatening, Naga huffs and resumes drinking from the Fountain. The tilt of her ears indicates that she's still listening.]

[skintoskin]

[Well, it lookd=s like he isn't going to be attacked. It's hto and he could use some water, too, only not to drink. Just to splash on himself a little bit. Neil moves closer to the fountain, intrigued by the animal.]

Hot, isn't it? Hey, can you understand me?

[Anything is possible in the City, right?]