poly_chromatic

Entry tags:

legend of korra: korra

七

[action]

[After a week gone, Korra finally has her head screwed on straight -- sort of. She still doesn't feel ready to face her friends, their worries and their questions, but she knows she can't put it off any more.

She sneaks into the apartment, hoping that nobody's there.]

[voice]
H-hey Chekov. Sorry I've missed our sessions. Can we meet up later this afternoon?

[Korra tries to turn off the device, but accidentally flicks the video on. For a few seconds you can see her -- her eyes are dark and sunken, and there's a gray cast to her skin, a subtle loss of color that anyone who's known the City dead would recognize.

She quickly closes the device.]

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[ Hei reads people the way cops read crime scenes; evidence and aftereffects. He recognizes Korra's symptoms. City Dead, huh? It confirms his theory that it killing her last weekend would've been useless. He could have erased her memory. But he had a... what he could only describe to himself as a lapse of judgment. And now he has an Avatar aware of his identity. Perfect. ]

[ He doesn't like being exposed. So he's angling for a more face-to-face approach. ]

Korra.

[Gone is all trace of the man he pretends to be -- sweet-faced and dopey. His pokerface is absolute, not a twitch. ]

[Korra feels a spike of terror when she sees Hei's face -- or knows that she should. Her heart can't race anymore. There's no twinge in her chest. Everything's wrong.

She has all the appearance of calm when she responds.]

What do you want?

[ He's trained to see past appearances. She's so young. Has too much surface. But she gets credit for trying. ]

To talk. [ Cliched, but effective. ] Not on the device. In person. [ His years of professional training object. We do not talk. We eliminate. But that isn't an option in the City. Better to arrange a meeting, in a neutral zone, than risk spilled details on the Network. He knows how easy these devices are to hack. ]

Edited 2012-10-22 05:06 (UTC)

About what?

[What does she have to be scared of? She's already dead. She can't exactly get more dead, can she? But she's wary anyway. She's already lost so much.]

I don't have to spell it out.

[ She's seen enough. She has to be dealt with -- via threats or negotiation -- before she tells anyone else. True, she can't get any more dead. But he knows ways -- so many ways -- to keep someone alive. Suffering, starving, swimming on the edge of consciousness, until they capitulate to his demands. ]

[ He'd rather not resort to that. ]

[No, you don't.]

Look, I don't want anything to do with you. Just stay away from me and my friends, all right?

That depends.

[ On how good you are at keeping secrets. Pick up the subtext, Korra. ]

[She's getting better at it. Or, well, she's gotten paranoid, which sometimes leads to better subtext observation.]

You think I'm going to tell people who you really are.

[ Announcing it right up front? On a potentially risky line? Save me from amateurs. ]

You don't know who I really am. [ A reminder and a warning. ] Keep it that way.

I know you're not who you pretend to be.

[ And planets continue to be round. ]

That isn't up for discussion.

[ He wants that meeting. In person. This is what's known as a RYBAT. A matter of extreme sensitivity in his profession. He can't leave a wild variable like her floating in the wind, just waiting to come back and bite him in the ass. ]

You're right. It's not.

[And she cuts the connection. She doesn't want anything to do with you, Hei. Not if she has a choice in the matter.]

[ The feeling is mutual. But he will be watching her -- and her friends -- until a cleaner solution presents itself. ]

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