arclightning | deer country inbox

Mako, I need your help.

Or rather, Ruby needs your help. Please tell me she's asked you for help already.

Is this about the fact that she suddenly has ice and fire shooting out of her at random moments?

Yes.

Absolutely.

I would just like at least five minutes where I don't have to worry about my girlfriend spotaneously combusting.

[ She's so tired, Mako. ]

It's happening that often? That's

Guess I shouldn't be surprised. This is Ruby. She's one of the most chaotic people I know.

It's not hurting her, is it?

Not as far as I can see. She just keeps talking and moving like usually when it happens, though often with some freaking out - which is more due to the surprise, I imagine.

[ And Ange likes to think she knows Ruby enough to be able to tell when the other is hiding pain from her - though thankfully Ruby usually wears her feelings right on her sleeve. ]

So it's mostly property damage I'm worried about. Or her accidentally setting other people on fire who can't deal with it the way she can.

Noted. I'm on it. Sounds like the first thing she and a couple other people need to learn is control so Ruby doesn't actually burn your house down.

It's not just her. A couple other people have this power now and about 3/4 of them also aren't great at controlling it. This could turn into a real problem.

You ever taught someone how to use magic?

[ Great.

That's exactly what they needed in this new place, isn't it. A huge part of the population being able to burn and freeze things, but in a way that's totally outside of their control. It's a small miracle the entire town hasn't burned down yet, Ange thinks.. ]

No.

I mean, I'm still struggling with fully learning it myself, so I never really have been in the position to teach anyone else.

[ A town full of half-trained magic users is bad enough, and Sleepers, in Mako's experience, are a... chaotic bunch even without a bunch of new powers.

Wow, he really is going to have to do something about this. ]

Yeah, I kind of get what you mean. It's not like I've had any real firebending training outside pro-bending, but I'm gonna have to teach people at least to put them out again or we're not going to have a city left to live in.

I think you have one leg ahead of me here. At least you understand the whole.. fire thing.

[ Look.

It's not the most elegant wording, but Mako understands, right? ]

I'd try to help out, but my own magic has nothing at all to do with fire, so I'd probably just make things worse. I don't even know anything I could tell Ruby to get it under control, other than to tell her to calm down..

.. but it's Ruby.

[ Can Ruby even calm down. Is she physically or mentally capable of doing so. ]

[ He's picking up on what Ange is putting down. ]

Pretty well. No, you're right. I have to do something. Still. I think there has to be some kind of magical overlap in the way people's powers work. Maybe you shouldn't help with Ruby

[ For reasons Ange clearly understands even better than him ]

But if there's anything you think might be able to transfer over, I want to hear it.

[ This is as close to a cry for help as Mako's going to get. ]

For me it's

[ The sentence stops there, because Ange has to think before she continues. It's hard. She hasn't talked much with other people about the way her magic works, ever, so it's pretty hard to suddenly put it into words now. ]

There's a lot of visualisation involved. I have to imagine things before I can make them happen. [ Even if what happens usually isn't fire shooting everywhere, so she isn't sure how helpful that is. ] But with my magic it's usually harder to make something happen than to make something stop happening, so it is the entirely opposite problem of what some people seem to have here right now.

It's like there is just some lack of control for them.

Yeah, and honestly, that's what's tripping me up. Normal firebenders usually have trouble with the same thing. Making fire is one of the harder things to pick up, especially in amounts big and sustainable enough to do damage. That doesn't seem to be a problem here.

But the visualization thing might actually help. With those weapons you used back in Deerington. Did you have to think through the shape and how many and all of that? How much detail does it require?

It's a little different with those.. Or rather, those are connected more with feeling, since.. no, that's a long story.

[ And also very irrelevant to what Mako is trying to find out for his lessons! So she starts again. ]

It's easier to explain with my butterflies. I really need to think of butterflies specifically, otherwise they're just going to form as shapeless blobs of light. I try to keep the shape in my head while forming them. Maybe not exactly down to the pattern on the wings, but at least the general shape.

So it's like getting the idea of a butterfly in your head and then making the magic take that shape?

[ KIND OF?? He really needs to ask more people about this, clearly, because it's so different than the way his own bending works. ]

Is it something you could always do?

[ WELCOME TO THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF MAGIC, MAKO. ]

No. I didn't start learning magic until I was already in my teens. And even then the stuff I could do back home was super limited. Magic is.. let's say a little complicated where I come from. [ That sure is the understatement of the year. Even Ange herself doesn't fully grap is, and it's her world. ]

It's only since I ended up here that I feel like I can use my magic more properly. I wonder if that has something to do with the same thing that's making Ruby spontaneously start fires.

[ He is increasingly glad that his bending is nothing like this. Mako probably wouldn't be nearly as good at it if it was all in his head. ]

Could be related to your blood. So far, Bolin is the only person I know whose blood hasn't changed at all. Wu's even looked normal until we tested a few things.

Can anyone learn magic? Is there some special thing you have to have?

[ Her blood, huh? Ange remembers at least one person who had the same blood as her - maybe she should ask him if it's got something to do with that.

For now she focuses on Mako's question though. ]

It's the latter. It's not just something anyone could do. Or I guess one could try learning it, but if you don't have some sort of natural talent, you'll never get very far with it at all. It's just something you either need to have, or you need to be given someone else's magic. That's what happened in my case, I got my magic passed down.

[ She pauses for a second, but then writes: ]

Is it different for you?

[ Passed down. That... actually sounds pretty familiar, although if anyone asked Mako how bending was actually inherited he wouldn't be able to tell them much. He's realizing how little he knows. ]

Not exactly. Actually, seems pretty similar. People don't usually just get powers out of nowhere: you're born with it or you're not, and then how good you are depends on a lot of things. Your parents, mostly.

The only time people have ever gone from being nonbenders to being able to bend was after the world almost ended. This big spiritual explosion happened and suddenly a bunch of people could airbend. It was a lot like coming here, actually. Korra knows a lot more than me. She's the spirit-y one. I'm just a firebender.

I think I get why Tenzin was so stressed about all the new airbenders now.

How did you get it passed down? Does someone give it to you? Did you know it was happening?

[ Are you glad you befriended a nosy detective, Ange? ]

It sounds like things got pretty wild in your world. [ Just saying there, Mako. Just saying. Things were wild for Ange back home too, but never on a world-ending level!

Though she doesn't seem to mind the detective side of him rearing its head at all though, considering she's still just patiently answering his questions. It really helps that she trusts Mako, and she knows he would never ask a dumb question. Which, in turn, renders her much more likely to pay actual attention to his questions. ]

It sounds like powers are a lot more genetic in your world though than in mine. The passing down thing is a more direct action in my world. Neither of my parents knew how to use magic. [ As far.. as she knows.. Her mom did seem pretty cozy with a demon, after all, so who knows!! ] My aunt was the one with the magic. When she was on her deathbed, she told me that she was transfering her magic to me, that's when I got it. So I knew it was happening, yes.

You have no idea.

[ The exhaustion in those four words... Mako is so tired of the world nearly ending. It has happened so often. ]

How old were you? And, if she was on her deathbed at the time, who taught you?

[ And were you close, he doesn't ask, because Mako knows he doesn't like his own sore spots poked at. He knows Ange has those same spots, that they have more in common than they should. ]

It's interesting. How different it is. I mean, it's not great. I know Ruby's powers work nothing like mine, so it's possible that nothing I say will stick and she'll keep almost setting you on fire. Maybe I can teach her meditate or something.

[ Meditate, huh. Ange tries to imagine Ruby learning that, but it's.. hard.. ]

Maybe you can try and get her to compare those fire powers to the powers she's used to back home. I think they call their powers.. Auras and Semblances. [ She thinks. Magic in Ruby's world sounds so weird, but she's been trying to keep up. ] Maybe she'll be able to control it better once she can think of it in terms of something she can comprehend?

.. sorry. I know I'm putting a lot on you here. You're just one of the few people I trust with this.

[ Which are high accolades, coming from Ange.

But she doesn't forget that he's also asked her some questions, and it wouldn't feel right to just ignore that, so a moment later she adds: ] I was 18 when I got my powers. It happened just a little while before I ended up in Deerington, so I had to learn most of it by myself.

Though I also was taught a little by my dead cousin's spirit, though I'm well aware how ridiculous that sounds.

Edited 2021-09-30 18:17 (UTC)

Good idea. And it's fine, don't apologize. I should probably offer it to the city, actually, if this is really as widespread as it seems to be. It's either that or let the city burn down, right?

[ He feels that trust like the warm glow of coals. It's so... it's nice to be trusted, especially by someone as self-contained as Ange seems to be. He'll just have to make sure he lives up to that trust, and doesn't break it.

Which is a little... well. Mako's failed at that in the past. ]

I'm self-taught, too, and Korra learned from a dead war-hero in the spirit world, so it doesn't sound as weird as you think. Honestly? Kind of wish I had a dead person to teach me some firebending tricks.

Don't type that so loudly. Before you know it, you'll have some sort of weird zombie approaching you.

[ This may not be Deerington, but you never know. You never know. Somewhere between the out of control powers and the crabs that apparently attacked people here upon arrival, Ange is so not putting those sorts of shenanigans beyond this place. ]

But.. anyway, I just wanted to say.. [ Can you tell she's waffling because she's awkward.

Because that's exactly what's happening. ]

I owe you one for this. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you at any point.

[ Mako can definitely tell she's waffling because saying things like that is hard and awkward, and for him, at least, offering yourself up for some future unclaimed favor is—

It's hard. It's a gesture of trust, and it's kind of touching, and Mako isn't about to play selfless and brush it off. He knows what he'd want someone to respond with, and he appreciates it. ]

Not a problem. I'll keep it in mind. You're a useful person to have around.

[ It sounds maybe a little callous, Mako reflects moments after he sends it, and frowns. ]

Which is a good thing.

For the record.

[ This truly is the smoothest text Mako has sent in his entire life, isn't it.

And while Ange gets the intent behind it, even before he writes that it's a good thing - because it's exactly the kind of 'smooth text' Ange herself would send - the instinctive reply can't be anything but: ]

That's something someone might say about a spatula.

[ You know.

Being useful to have around. ]

But I'll take the compliment.

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arclightning - 2021-10-08 01:07 (UTC) - Expand

i think that's a wrap!

entreats - 2021-10-08 21:31 (UTC) - Expand

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i think that's a wrap!