arclightning | deer country inbox

[ He should be smug.

Mako can feel that build of electric charge, the way it conducts, the way Raleigh thinks about it and moves with it—he holds his excitement, because Raleigh is concentrating and he doesn't want his friend exploding into bits because Mako got excited but when the join claps and flashes, Mako yells aloud with something like triumph. When the light fades, he's grinning wide at Raleigh. ]

You're a lightningbender.

[Yer a wizard ‘arry-

No, Raleigh dumb. Bad. Don’t.

He thinks it, though, grinning ear to ear in return. And while he isn’t sure he’s a lighteningbender the way Mako thinks.. maybe he could be? He’s developed the skill to do this one specific task and nothing else but that doesn’t meant he couldn’t..right?

Raleigh inspects the weld and decides that it’s good. Ugly but strong and would be easy to grind down later for a pretty seam.]

That does have a nice ring to it. You should take some pieces home with you to try.

[Because he knows Mako and this is a weird skill application and the likelihood that he might not get it right away is there, however small. Forcing him to try right now might just embarrass him.

A beat. He looks curious and now is his chance.]

.. what’s it mean to be a lighteningbender? How do you connect to that? Like the current in the air? Can you summon actual lightening strikes?

Kind of.

[ Mako pockets the little piece of metal and wiggles his hand. He doesn't have the kind of deep understanding that somebody like Iroh or Zuko might: Zolt wasn't the most spiritual of lightningbenders. Mako tries not to think about the lack of it, most days. ]

It's... some people can only redirect it. That's easier to learn how to do. The hardest thing is what you just did, actually generating it. You're pulling the yin energy inside you away from the yang, letting it recombine.

Actually—c'mon. I can show you.

[ Mako's never been the best teacher with words, and Raleigh probably knows that by now. ]

Safer outside.

[Raleigh agrees and nods, following Mako back out into the yard a safe distance from their flammable structures while he processes the concept of yin and yang inside him. How do you isolate that? He wasn't working from that perspective at all but now that Mako has said it he sees the logic.

Raleigh isn't a logic person.

He's a fly by the seat of his pants and hope it works out person.]

If lightening in yin then what's the yang? Or is it the snap of both that makes it happen?

It's both.

[ Mako heads out into the clearest space he can find, away from chickens and vegetables and fence. The stars glimmer coldly overhead, unobscured by clouds. Slowly, he shifts his feet apart, wide and grounded. ]

We all have both inside us. It's how you can bend in the first place: you're just channeling energy. I mean, I am. I don't know how blood stuff makes it work—

[ He's beginning to move his arms in wide, slow circles, looping them around and around to build up energy with both index and middle fingers pointed straight outward. The air is charged. ]

—but that's how it works for me. You have to make yourself completely calm.

[ And sure enough, his voice is flat, devoid of feeling. It's like a meditation in movement. ]

No feeling. Anything in there, the energy will get caught, and it might explode on you. So you pull apart that energy with your body as a pathway, and—

[ Electricity, purple-bright and crackling, sparks at Mako's fingertips and then spreads, trailing behind his fingers as he moves them, like a current building and looping on itself. He goes silent, watching it. The air smells like ice and ozone, particles splitting and recombining. Mako's face is still as stone, and he moves and moves and doesn't think about a giant mecha. The arcs get bigger and faster, and the lightning gets brighter until finally Mako slams his left arm straight into the air and his right arm down at the ground and lets all the charge zip through his body like he's a conductor. True lightning slams into the sky, discharging through Mako like a lightning rod. Thunder follows a second behind, clapping through the air around them.

Mako grins. ]

That's the traditional way.

[That's the traditional way. With a grin. GOD Mako you are SO COOL.

Raleigh stands there in absolute awe as it all happens. Like his thing is cool but it is nothing in comparison to man who has been honing these gifts his entire life. Seeing it up close and personal- feeling it up close and personal- is an honor.

He's always been incredibly impressed by Mako, for many reasons but his grasp on the elements is amazing. Raleigh has nothing like this in his world and it's a damn shame. He thinks, perhaps, if his people had personal connections to the interdependent web of life then they wouldn't have been so hasty to destroy it with greed. Maybe, if they'd had an Avatar.. if spirits and harmony were a real, tangible things instead of a hopeful concept governed by advertising and consumerism, life would be better. And maybe, when the Kaiju did come, they could have reacted differently. Imagine a world where the Avatar and a team of deep sea water and earthbenders could have sealed the rift.

Raleigh's ears are ringing from the thunder clap. When he blinks, he sees an outline in white and green and black around everything from the light.

Mako working like that, showing his process and summoning this incredible force of nature.. he is so powerful.]

Wow..

[Finally. A little breathless. Raleigh wets his lips. It's not his place but he is so proud of his friend. And proud to be his friend.]

Mako you are.. really something.

deer country inbox

MAKO'S INBOX

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject