poly_chromatic

Entry tags:

legend of korra: korra

十四

[action]
[It's an undisputed fact of the City that not every curse is a tragedy. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they're just irritating. Sometimes they can even be fun. It's all a matter of perspective, really.

If you happen to be strolling through the park this afternoon, you'll find a group of citizens gathered around an old school boombox and a badass set of speakers. They've decided being annoyed by spontaneous dancing is too much effort, so instead, they're using it as an excuse to skip out on work and share the music they love with their fellow citizens.

Hey, man, any excuse to have fun! You're all invited! Bring your records, your cds, your mp3 players, your guitars, your voices. If you have music to share, there's a group of people here ready to dance. And if you're just in the mood to dance yourself, well, you're in good company.]

[video / action ]
[Korra had gone to the park to train, but the sounds of music drew her to the crowd. Before she knew it, she was dancing along with the crowd.]

[Cursed? Not cursed? Who cares? The music may be weird and she may not really know how to dance, but that's not stopping her from having a good time.]

[OOC: MINGLE POST! Feel free to link to put your own songs in the comments. Dance, sing, mingle, threadjack, have a ball! Just note in the subject whether you're closing the thread to a specific character or if you're open to anything.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Only want sympathy in the form of-- His mind squashes out the rest. Fuck the song, the City, and everything it stands for. They're whirling across the cobbled walkway a crazy spin-gig. It's like a continuation of their fights, moving in, the daring twirls, and then a kick, a leap, one, two, three. But it also works exactly as it does in a fight (or a fuck?) -- the tension and static between them, of deception and dislike, melting into pure movement and sensation. ]

[ Like her, he's always found his consolations, his distractions, in touch. ]

[ While she breaks the gap in a twirl, he focuses on her snapping blue eyes -- her one beauty when the rest of her is bristling 17 year old impatience. (One beauty? So uncharitable, tsk, tsk). His gaze slips other places. Hips, breasts, mouth, swaying hair. ]

[ The song's ending -- that hot shower at home -- can't happen fast enough. ]

[She sees where his eyes are going -- she can practically feel them on her. She may be innocent, but she's not blind and she's not dense. He likes her, in his own strange, twisted way. She knows this in her gut, the same way she'd known Mako liked her. She feels it in the way he looks at her, the way he holds back in their fights. Her mind points out she'd been wrong about Mako... or right, but he'd chosen Asami anyway.

Of course, how Li feels about her is much less confusing than what she feels about him. He's violent. He's cruel. He's a liar. She can't trust him. But a part of her just...wants.

She focuses on the rhythm of the music and the burn in her muscles. Pulls out some of her firebending forms, using the tight spins to gather up her muddle chi and hard kicks to send it out. Clearing her mind bit by bit.]

[ He's not sure like is a suitable word. It's training and socialization. Being cruel to people is okay, whether you're human or Contractor, so you learn be fine with it. Lenience with people isn't okay unless you Like Them -- whatever the fuck that means -- so you learn to do it. Hei understands hypocrisy. He knows most people can't admit that they're just looking to fool around, forget, to connect for a space of a moment, so they have to dress it up with sentiment. He's never been that far gone to ignore his realistic priorities. Security and survival and an exit route. Being all soupy is anomalous to his nature. ]

[ You can explain away anything, can't you? ]

[ He shrugs it off. When he and Korra nearly reach a wall, he whirls them back the other way. She keeps up, matching him, which is pleasing (It's not the first time she's done that). Dancing, like music, isn't something Contractors are supposed to care for. Which is odd. What is music if not structured and logical mathematics? What is dance if not a practice of muscle and coordination? He's learnt it as part of his training, years ago, as a means to control his body, to feel at ease with it. ]

[ But he realizes he’s forgotten the simple fun of it, motion that isn't part of battle or katas. A smile flits across his lips, faint and unselfconscious. ]

[Korra never learned to dance herself -- her own fault, really. Her teachers gave her plenty of chances, but all she ever wanted to do was practice her bending. Besides, the dances they knew all required partners, and there had never been anyone in the South Pole who could keep up with her. She's learned how to work in a team, how to adjust her actions to work in harmony with others, but when she was younger, she refused to slow down for anyone.

Boy had she missed out.

The longer the song goes, the less she thinks. The world narrows down to their movements, the push and pull, the twist and turn. Nothing else matters.

She catches his smile, faint as it is, and instinctively answers it with one of her own.]

[ The bouncing, brash beat approaches the finish. Hei moves them easily around the floor, hugged up perhaps a little closer, their feet no longer bumping. He is smiling at her now, absorbed in the beat to the (seeming) exclusion of all else. Little by little, the cold annoyance lifts. Right now this isn't Korra. This is just a girl he's being agreeable with. Having fun right now isn't going to effect the outcome of anything in particular. ]

[ Except he'd thought that before, hadn't he? ]

[ He spins her, quick, up close and then away. Her hair is tousled and everytime she comes back against him he can smell it. All ...Korra-ish. Her face is filled with a giddy-serene joy that bounces off the groove and comes smashing together again. She's not a fairytale centerfold, like Amber; all mermaid-hair and secrets. But she has an immense charm. Not that he'll ever say it. ]

Right. Just glide with it.

[ It's stilted, but it's a sideways compliment. ]

Edited 2012-12-08 01:29 (UTC)

[Her heart had been keeping perfect time with the music, but his smile adds a weird little syncopation to the tune. With every spin, she goes out a little farther, and comes back in a little closer, like waves crashing on the shore. While he thinks and rationalizes and compares, Korra simply feels. Any thoughts or fears are carried away by the tide.

The song ends, leaving her feeling both empty and full -- a living, breathing koan. Her limbs tremble slightly, and it's hard to tell whether it's from exhaustion or they're itching to dance again. Her breathing's heavy and her hair's half fallen out of its ponytail. She lets go of him (again with that sensation of empty fullness) and pulls her ponytail out so she can redo it.]

Wow. You're really good.

[ Hei knows it's easier to just Be than to pick every last thought apart. If circumstances were different...well, they aren't. He puts them through one final turn, his shoes narrowly avoiding hers, fingers lacing. It occurs to him that this is better than modern dancing without touch. Isn't that odd? As the years pass, lyrics get sexier. But the actual contact of dance fades. ]

[ When the song stops, he's a little sweaty, feeling light and buzzed. It doesn't last long (when does it ever?) His face closes up like a box snapping shut. There's such a disconnect between him and Korra. There's always been one, on so many levels, although this feels subtler than most. ]

[ Trick of pheromones. ]

Practice.

[ The way he says it sucks all meaning from the word. Practice in combat? Practice is killing? It can be anything. His life is a schematic designed to desensitize him against moments like these, to evade remarks like these. That it's not working is a black fly in his chardonnay. Not ironic. Just annoying. ]

[This is familiar too, and not in what could be considered a good way under any circumstances. At least now she's neither naked nor dead, but it's still a bucket of ice water, a shock to her system. She doesn't understand how one moment he can be a confusing, maddening human being, and the next he can be a lifeless mask. Like an engine that's been turned off.

This time she knows it's not her fault, that she didn't flip the switch. But honestly, it scares her. Not of him, but for him. People aren't machines; you shouldn't be able to turn them on and off at will.

Her hair still down, sticking to the skin of her face and neck, she reaches out to take his hand.]

Are you okay?

[ Are you okay? There's a strange urge to laugh. He's as okay as anyone in his place would be -- given that large parts of him are off floating on icy straits. But he's never worn his experiences as a badge or bruise. They're just there. It's cute how she's concerned. (By cute, I mean sickening). What? Does she want a real answer? He remembers that idiotic line from 'Crime Of Passion' -- You try so hard to make them want you, but it's not even you they want. Idiots. That's the whole point. If his marks ever saw the real him, not the clumsy caricature he plays for their benefit, they'd run for the hills. ]

[ It's why he distances himself, because of the filth that surrounds him, that oozes every time he speaks, moves, thinks, dreams. Korra's so young. She's had her share of bumps and bruises, but nothing scarring has happened to her yet. She's different from him because she doesn't even know that she doesn't know. Just a girl. Clueless, lucky girl. ]

I'm fine. [ He draws his hand away. Lightly -- not a dismissal. They're in public, after all. ] Have fun dancing. [ He turns to go. Hopefully she'll find a nice teenage boy here to play with. One who'll give her what she needs. ]

No you're not.

[She's never been good at mincing her words; most of the time it doesn't even occur to her to try. She sees a problem and she charges headfirst at it.

She remembers that "I'm fine." She's used it before, when she refused to admit how much Amon terrified her, and it just made things worse. It made her join Tarrlok's task force, even though she didn't want to and didn't think it was a good idea. It made her go to face Amon alone. He could have taken her bending that night -- he could have killed her that night. It was the first time in her life that she had ever felt completely and utterly powerless.]

Tenzin once told me that it's important to talk about our problems. If we don't, they can throw us out of balance.

[Her words are halting and awkward. She feels stupid, just parroting Tenzin's words, and out of her depth, trying to face a problem she doesn't understand and she can't punch her way out of. But the Avatar's job is maintaining balance, and Li? Is seriously out of whack.]

I'll listen. If you wanna talk about it.

[You'll never be clean of the filth if you hold it inside.]

[ The expression on Hei's face -- or the complete lack of one, is chilling. For a second, there seems to be no one there. Mind unmoored, body vacant. Then something rolls back in, the blankness coalescing into venom and ice. Give me a fucking break. He really should've let himself go. She wouldn't look twice at him if he were flabby and thirty. Just what the hell is wrong with her? Does she think if she gives him The Look, says platitudinous 12-step bullshit, it'll help him? Maybe she thinks she's doing him a favor, thinking he'll find it therapeutic. ]

[ Or maybe she thinks she can soothe him with her little-girl-goodness, pure as sunshine. Scare the bogeyman right out of him. Except he'll ruin her first with the moral detritus that spills out his pores. Even Hei's aura is filthy. ]

There's nothing to say. [ The words are barbed with contempt. ] Except you shouldn't ask questions you won't like the answers to. And you shouldn't interfere with things that have nothing to do with you. [ He wants to remind her. You make me remember people and things I couldn't keep. But don't think that what you say or do matters to me. Hei's life is steeped in lies and paranoia. It's impossible for him to open up to someone. To even want to. ]

[The contempt in his knifes her in the gut. She'd known it was coming -- he had telegraphed it like someone who's never thrown a punch before -- but unlike a fist, she doesn't know how to protect herself from it. She'd gone out on a limb with no defenses, and this is her reward.]

Nothing to do with me? This has everything to do with me! [Anger wraps around her like a bandage on a wound.]

Something keeps happening between us. And one moment you're a human being, and then something happens and you're nothing. You're gone. The lights are on but nobody's freaking home.

I don't care whether or not I'll like your stupid answers. That's not okay!

action;

mortemscintilla - 2012-12-08 22:31 (UTC) - Expand

action;

anatural - 2012-12-08 23:39 (UTC) - Expand

action;

mortemscintilla - 2012-12-09 00:05 (UTC) - Expand

action;

anatural - 2012-12-09 00:27 (UTC) - Expand

action;

mortemscintilla - 2012-12-09 00:35 (UTC) - Expand

[Mao sees what you're doing there, Hei.

Unfortunately, he's also cursed, so he can't spy for long before he starts dancing.]

[Jinora's watching, too. She's not impressed with Li and Korra is being embarrassing, but they're dancing together! And it's not the same kind of dancing that's been going on all day. It looks like there's something between them.

The girl isn't sure that she approves of this.

But wait. Is that a dancing cat?]

Edited 2012-12-08 03:28 (UTC)

[Yes. Yes, small child, it is indeed a dancing cat, and he is dancing your way as the next song starts playing.]

[What is this music? Why is a cat dancing?

She doesn't get this place at all. Her expression might convey as much.]

[The cat dances because the cat is cursed. Cursed to dance with you, in fact. He's winding his way around you, bobbing and weaving to the beat of the music.]