poly_chromatic | ♦♦ 21st Contract

Entry tags:

darker than black - hei

♦♦ 21st Contract

[ Just the most withering stare. ]

This isn't funny.

And I don't like cookies that much.

.................Do I?

(♥ Tabloid Trash Article: The Rise & Fall Of a Star ♥)

[ OOC: The link takes you to another journal, as the article is long and full of crack. Lots of crack. None of the fodder is meant to be taken seriously. But if any aspects are offensive, PM me and I'll add a warning or something :| ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nevermind. [ At least there are no native French speakers around to witness this bit of butchery. ]

[ He doesn't frown, but he does rub his temples distractedly. Concern is hardly new to him. But he's no good at expressing it. Cold and wary at every point, determined to survive and unable to trust himself or anyone else, he can only watch over people like a sentry perched on a great height. ]

So how are you? [ Paragraphs of subtext. ]

[Terrible.]

Fine.

[It's the one lie she's almost good at. (Not good enough to fool adults or experts like Hei, but enough to fool people her age. People like Chekov.) She's been plagued with constant nightmares, and she always feels hungry but never wants to actually eat. She's been spending a lot of time, alone, trying to put all the different pieces together, unable to make any of them fit.]

Better than you, it looks like. I haven't seen anything about me on the network.

[ A quirk of the eyebrow is his only reaction. What she tells him is a lie, but it's not his job to call her out on it. It's just the patented Korra method of dealing by not dealing. Typical 18 year old nonsense. ]

[ (Except you do it too.) ]

If there was, the shirtless picture alone would get you more attention.

[ Yes. Snark. Let's start there. ]

[She rolls her eyes.] You're disgusting.

[She doesn't want to think about the kind of attention a shirtless picture of her would get. That awful drawing was bad enough.]

[ The very soul of innocence. ]

Think of the high turnover at the bar.

[ y e p. He is needling you, Korra. ]

[TWITCH. TWITCH.]

Go eat some cookies.

[She slams the device shut...but opens it again after the connection's cut. If he comments, she'll respond.]

[ A beat because, yeah, he is in the kitchen. Eating cookies. Don't judge. ]

[ After a moment of crunching, ]

Someone needs to teach you to talk trash a little. [ Because Go eat some cookies isn't a comeback. It's a pleasant suggestion. ]

[It takes Korra awhile to respond. She almost doesn't.]

Jerk.

[ Oh come on Korra. You can do better than that. ]

[ Crunch. Crunch. ]

Are you just going to keep staring creepily?

It's not against the law.

[ Mmmm. Delicious cookies and not-quite-sexual tension. Or is it? Who knows. It's complicated. Crunch. ]

It's weird.

[ The pouts and petulance are amusing. In a way he appreciates them, because unlike a professional, playacting at sweetness, she's being herself. Sometimes she looks almost old, but he can still see that little girl peering out of her eyes. ]

Consider it a moment of mono no aware. [ Except he doubts she'd understand his wry use of the Japanese phrase, much less grasp the concept. ]

A moment of what?

[If he keeps this up, she's just going to bury her head in her pillow and scream. IT'S TOO EARLY IN THE MORNING FOR THIS.]

[ Sorry, Korra. Headaches don't need zipcodes and timings to manifest. ]

Mono no aware. [ The pronunciation is precise and neutral; no hint of accent. ] It's a reminder that all things are transient. And special because of that transience. [ Youth and innocence, especially. ] Which means you should appreciate them before they're gone.

It's not something you really grasp at eighteen.

[ Certainly, he hadn't. He'd been convinced he'd be able to protect Pai, stay by her side, for as long as he willed it. ]

[She makes a face at the "eighteen" remark. Geezer. But she rests her chin on her arms and frowns thoughtfully. That sounds like something Tenzin would say.

Her elbow hits "post" without her realizing or saying anything.]

[ He fixes the device with a quiet half-smile. It's almost like explaining something to Pai. Korra is much brasher, but she sparks that peculiar mix of emotions in him. An affinity based on such a tenuous sense of self, a literal struggle to find yourself amid conflict and volatility. A paternalistic urge to protect her from mistakes she might make. A sad longing that was like an elegy for his sister. ]

[ But beyond that, Hei's accepted it's mostly his personal interest. ]

Am I getting the silent treatment now?

[Huh? Oh.]

No, sorry. I was just thinking.

[ That much is obvious, with her body language skewed and a buzz of something in the line of her shoulders. It's not often he sees her sitting still. ]

About what?

[ It's like a moth settled on a window. Give it a tap; see where it flies. ]

About what you said.

[It's tickling something at the edge of her consciousness, almost as though it's familiar, but she can't quite grasp it.

Her parents...Tenzin and Pema... their relationships were beautiful because they last. If they were transient, it would just be...sad.]

Is that what you think?

[ The faint smile fades. His gaze goes dark and flat, like a television uplugged. But it's not to wall her off. It's to keep something in himself locked in. ]

It's a fact. Nothing lasts for long. [ His focus goes to his own hands. The way they clench and unclench, clean compared to the days where there's sauce or flour between the webs of his fingers. ] Even the person you think you are -- the concept evolves as you grow older. Your feelings for places or people change with it. Sometimes they stay. Often they fade completely. It's a process that doesn't stop until you're dead.

[Some things do last, though. The Avatar spirit. The world. Nature.

She can't deny how feelings change. Hers for him have certainly changed rapidly enough.

The easy days with Chekov...they didn't last long either.]

I guess.

[She shifts slightly, almost hugging her pillow. Talking to him like this is weird. There's a disconnect with this device she doesn't like.]

[ That's where the subtleties of mono no aware lie. The direct translation is the 'pathos of things,' but that makes it seem one-dimensional, almost clinical. Hei prefers to interpret it as The sadness of being human. And isn't it odd, to be reminded that monsters too, are capable of human things? ]

[ He's learning, in a way not too different from hers, the ranges and capacities of it within himself. ]

[ She says I guess, and a part of him flares to life, catalogues her tone and the ways actions speak louder than words, a cognizant machine that processes details, until Korra's thoughts are practically mapped out and established. He blinks and schools his expression into something neutral. ]

Don't look too deeply into it. The whole point of mono no aware is that things are unique because they can't last. So it's better to appreciate them while they're around.

[ You never know when something can go worse. Or worser. He doesn't say that. ]

What you're calling "appreciation," I call creepy staring.

[She slips into snark because it's easy, and because she doesn't like the way she can read her thoughts on his face. She hates being such an open book.]

[ It's not her fault she's an open book. But Hei's been trained to skim through people like the pages of one, to file away details in varying degrees of usefulness. What's rare is when he goes beyond that, or when he lets people see that he's doing. (Korra may think he puts up walls, and he does. But he also opens doors, over and over, letting her step in.) ]

[ Dryly, ]

You'll learn there's a fine line between them. [ This conversation is a particular unexpected bewilderment, but he likes the nothingness of it. He's never quite talked to anyone with so little at stake. ]

[ Which means it's time to cut the chat short. ]

I should go. I have seaweed stew to make.

♦♦ 21st Contract

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