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.]

[anatural]

Snooooooooooow. [Korra carefully eases herself onto a bench and sighs.] Snow would be amazing.

[candothat]

It could snow, the same way that it did last summer.

Do you like to swim?

[anatural]

These days, Naga and I practically live in the water. [Why you asking, Chekov? You wanna join?]

[candothat]

[Maaaybe.]

I have delusions of learning how to swim. [He hopes she doesn't remember his floundering attempts at doggy-paddling last December when the swan boats happened.] It's hot enough that being in the water seems to be the only way to survive.

[anatural]

[Well she hadn't, but now she remembers. And she might be laughing at you, just a little.]

Come over sometime and we can teach you.

[candothat]

[Rude.]

You will not let me drown? More of my crew is in the City now; they would be upset if I drowned.

[anatural]

Of course I wouldn't let you drown! What kind of person do you think I am?

[candothat]

One who would laugh before saving me from my inability to swim.

I don't blame you. I would laugh at me, too.

[anatural]

Well YEAH. I mean, you sail in space. How do you not know how to swim?

[candothat]

Korra, sailing in space doesn't involve water. There is no water.

[anatural]

I KNOW THAT. But getting to space is harder than getting to the ocean. How can you get to space and not get to an ocean?

[candothat]

By going from Petersburg to Moscow to space. There is no ocean between those. [He's messing with her. It's true, but that's not the point.] At home, no one swims unless they want to. We can travel across water without touching it for as long as we like--our entire lives, if we want.

[anatural]

And what if one of your ships breaks? [Nobody in the South Pole swims for fun -- too damn cold. But you have to know how to swim if your boat capsizes.]

[candothat]

If a ship breaks in space, then we all hope that it can be fixed before life support shuts down. At home... [He shrugs.] I have never heard of anyone needing to swim. The one time I swam was when my cousins dared me to go into the Sea of Azov.

[anatural]

Your world is really weird, you know that?

[candothat]

I won't deny this. In your world, I'm sure that everyone swims like fish.

[anatural]

Not like fish, but it's a basic survival skill.

[candothat]

Then you will try to teach me this basic survival skill without laughing too much?

[anatural]

I make no promises.