[action/video]

[horseish]

[The video opens near the town square. Every surface is dusted with a thin layer of early December snow. Most people are trudging around it, hoods down against the cold.

Until one small figure scrambles into shot, collecting handfuls of snow in small, bare hands. A child of maybe seven or eight, dressed in knickerbockers and a knitted sweater, anachronistic against the stark modern backdrop of the fountain, is working hard to create one snowball from the meager snowfall. The child obviously isn't dressed for the cold and shivers now and again, but doesn't seem to mind. The snow is obviously much more exciting and worth working through the cold for. Someone comes to closer and they speak for a while, out of range of the device's speaker, but the child makes a mad dash when the woman tries to hold out a hand to hold.

Which results in the discovery of the device.

A small freckled face comes in very close to the lens, inspecting it with calm and careful interest.]

Does everyone speak to these things in this place? I don't know why they would do that I don't think they talk back. See, my name is Bobby Lassiter and I think my magic brought me here. But I wish I hadn't left Rosie behind. Now I'm going to look silly because I just talked to a box.

[The child makes a high pitched noise, almost a scream and almost a whiny before cantering around in a circle and flopping onto a snowbank.]

See? Now I look crazy AND silly and I will get sent to the loony bin and no one will ever see me again.

[The video feed ends with a fit of giggles.]

Comments

[horseish]

I don't have any money for coats.

[bookbending]

You don't have to pay for them.

[horseish]

...are they from the poor box? My father didn't want us taking clothes from there.

[bookbending]

They're in a box, but I don't think that's what it's called.

[horseish]

[Her hands are getting kind of red and tingly. Strange.]

Can you show me where it is?

[bookbending]

Of course! Follow me.

[And off she heads for the Welcome Center.]

[horseish]

[She dusts off her hands and scrambles to her feet to follow her.]

Don't you have parents here?

[bookbending]

[She frowns.]

Well... no. Mom and Dad are still at home.

[horseish]

Did you get lost?

[bookbending]

Not... exactly. The City's strange.

[Jinora holds the door of the Welcome Center open for her new friend.]

[horseish]

[Bobby hadn't really been paying too much attention to how strange the buildings look here, but now that shes faced the prospect of actually having to walk into one she finds herself shrinking back.]

I don't want to go inside.

[bookbending]

[Jinora would have had issues with the buildings too if it hadn't been so cold when she arrived. Still, she doesn't really understand.]

Okay...? Do you want me to get a coat for you?

[horseish]

Yes please. I can wait here.

[bookbending]

Don't move!

[The ten year-old dashes into the Welcome Center and emerges shortly after with a red coat. It might be a bit worn, but it's still sufficiently coat-like to do the job and looks like it should fit well enough.]

Is this okay?

[horseish]

It's very nice. I've never owned a coat like this before.

[bookbending]

[Jinora picks at her own sleeves after surrendering the red coat.]

Me neither, but clothes are weird here.

[horseish]

Did you want to make a snow fort?

[bookbending]

I can't right now. I should be training.

[Without her father here, Jinora's in charge of her training schedule and has the power to rearrange it. Like her father, she's not a fan of rearranging and likes it when routines stay routine.]

[horseish]

[She gets that feel. 'Practice doesn't make perfect, practice make permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect'. All day long.

She starts a snowball.]

What are you training for?

[bookbending]

I'm training to be an airbending master like my dad.

[She demonstrates by assuming a fighting stance and focusing on a snowbank. With a single fluid slicing motion, she sends the entirety of the top half of the bank flying in an impressive curtain of snow.]

Like that.

[horseish]

[She stares for a moment. WOW.]

You have magic!

[bookbending]

It's not magic, not at home. My dad and brother and sister can all do it, too, and so could my grandpa.

[horseish]

I do magic with my father, but nothing like that.

[bookbending]

Real magic? I've never seen that--

[She was going to put her new friend's name there, but she realizes that she doesn't know it. With a bow:]

I'm Jinora. I forgot to say so before.

[horseish]

Bobby Lassiter.

[She bows too since that's apparently what they're doing.]