I have a message from another time...
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
and Magnetic Terrapin Studios
present
Undocumented Features Future Imperfect
THE LEGACY OF KORRA / THE ORDER OF THE ROSE
Suite for Avatar and Trinity (The Diqiu Suite)
Madrigal for a Nostalgic Afternoon ("Avatar Storytime")
Benjamin D. Hutchins
Philip Jeremy Moyer
(c) 2014 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
XINQISI, SANYUE 18, 291 ASC
(THURSDAY, MARCH 18, SY 2410)
AIR TEMPLE ISLAND, DIQIU
"All right!" Korra said as she pulled her armchair closer to the
futon, setting the open laptop on the sheets so that those assembled
could get a better view. "Gather 'round, kids, it's Avatar Storytime!"
Kaitlyn adjusted her chair as well, while Minami and Ryo got up
and moved to the edge of the futon so they could have a better view
without crowding those already on it.
"Hey, don't go yet," Korra said to the two airbending masters
as she brought up her photo application, and started scrolling through
the images. "Hmm, hmmm... -hah!-" She grinned and turned the laptop
so that the two taller men could see the screen clearly. "Brings back
memories, eh, Rohan?"
Utena leaned over to take a look at the picture in question.
It was faded and sepia-toned, depicting a tall, stern, bald airbending
master in his formal robes, standing next to a younger woman in Air
Acolyte robes with grey streaks in her hair, clearly his wife. In front
of them stood three children: the eldest two were girls, the youngest a
boy no older than six, his head shaved bald. The mother of the three
held a bundle in her arms, a tiny baby boy, capped with a short ruff of
dark hair.
"That is one happy-looking family," Meelo remarked
appreciatively.
"Hey, not bad," Utena remarked, and then looked up at Rohan.
"Why'd you get rid of the beard?"
Korra blinked. "... no no, that's -Master Tenzin-," she said,
pointing at the senatorial figure, then moving her fingertip to the baby
in the wife's arms. "-That's- Rohan. The one with the -hair-." Korra
smiled up at Rohan, who coughed and stroked his chin, trying and failing
to look unperturbed.
"Oh, wow," Kaitlyn observed. "This -is- a while back."
"Yeah, once digital media really started getting prevalent, I
raided all the attics and storage places I could to get all our old
photos scanned. I've got quite a few of them from back in the day..."
"Seems like a lot of work," said Garnet.
"Well, it's either that, or else I haul out about thirty-five
three-inch-thick photo albums just to show off some of my pictures. As
it is, most of them are stored in the preservation vaults at the Avatar
Museum. I've only kept the most recent albums here."
"And your diligence in preserving our history is most
appreciated, Korra," Rohan added, before directing a bow towards the
assemblage. "But for now, we should go inform Jinora of your plans for
tomorrow."
"Cool, thanks, Master Rohan," Utena replied. "We'll see you
in the morning?"
"Of course, Prince Tenjou," added Meelo. "Come along, Poki!
Let the poor tiger have some rest, eh?"
The ring-tailed lemur, which seemed to have decided to play with
Sergei's ears for a bit (with a much put-upon look from the neotiger),
chirrupped and returned to the aged master's shoulder. Then Meelo
and his younger brother exited the room.
Korra waved as the two airbenders left, then returned her focus
to her laptop. Shuffling through the pictures, she flipped through them
in rapid succession, until another photo caught her eye.
"Now this, -this- is an old one," she said with a smile. "This
has to be in the top ten or so oldest photos I -have-."
The picture in question was another black-and-white shot, nearly
square, and though its blacks had faded to brown with age, it was
surprisingly sharp for its evident vintage. It had apparently been
taken under very good light conditions. Neatly framed against a
backdrop of wind-sculpted snowdrifts, it contained two figures.
One was a teenage girl it took the onlookers a few moments to
recognize as Korra, aged about thirteen - smaller and skinnier than she
would grow to be just a few years later, more wiry than buff, but with
the same signature hairstyle and the same unmistakable grin. She was
sprawled on her back in the snow, arms outstretched, as if preparing to
make a snow angel. Most of her body was obscured by the second figure:
the great, hulking shape of an empty-saddled polar bear dog, lying full-
length on the ground with her back legs extended and her powerful
forelegs folded at her sides. Her massive block of a head rested on,
and indeed almost completely hid, Korra's torso, with her nose nearly
touching the girl's chin.
"Awww," said Corwin.
// XINQISAN, SHIERYUE 9, 166 ASC
(WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, SY 2285)
THE SOUTH POLE
Korra fastened the last of the straps, performed a careful
walkaround to double-check that everything was secure, and nodded with
satisfaction at her handiwork.
"Well, girl, what do you think?" she asked. "Shall we see if it
works?"
Naga eyed her dubiously before casting a wary glance back over
her shoulder at the strange contraption her young friend had just
affixed to her back. She gave herself a shake, causing said contraption
to rattle and jingle, then turned back to Korra, still looking very
unconvinced.
"Oh, come on, you big baby, it'll be fun," Korra said, reaching
up to pet the broad expanse of the polar bear dog's forehead. Naga
sighed, her ears drooping with resignation, but Korra just laughed, put
her foot into the near-side stirrup, and swung herself aboard. The
maneuver was a little clumsy - she'd practiced it a few times with the
saddle affixed to a railing, and the experience was not really the same
- but effective, and she figured she'd get the hang of it soon enough.
She reached down and rubbed Naga's withers with the palm of a
hand, then took up the reins and said, "All right, Naga. Let's go."
With a sound that might almost have been a grumble, Naga set off
out of the storage building where Korra had prepared her surprise.
Outside it was a glorious summer day, clear and bright with nary a cloud
in the sky, and Korra's spirits, already high with optimism about her
new experiment, lifted further once they were out in it.
They took it slowly at first, walking around the little
courtyard between the storage area and the living quarters, each of them
getting the feel of the new arrangement. Korra had ridden other animals
before, of course - you didn't grow up in the South Pole without
learning how to stay on an arctic camel at an early age - but Naga's
gait was completely different from theirs. At walking pace, her broad
back rose and fell a lot more than a camel's, and there was a curious
roll to her movement that took a bit of anticipating to ride smoothly.
After only a couple of laps of the courtyard, Korra knew her thighs were
going to be aching at the end of this test ride, the muscles there
having been worked in new and unfamiliar ways, but that was all right;
part of the learning process. It would be no worse than learning that
one earthbending stance had been, and she got through that all right.
After a few more minutes, Naga paused and looked back over her
shoulder as if to ask, Can we be done now? Korra grinned at the sight.
"Getting bored, girl?" she asked. "Well, this has gone pretty
well so far. I guess we can take it up a notch." With a wiggle of her
hips to make sure she was fully seated, she twitched the reins in her
hands lightly and made a clicking sound with her tongue.
Naga's response to this was not to break into a trot, which had
been Korra's intention, but to stop altogether. Looking quizzical,
Korra tried it again, receiving no evident response. Naga didn't seem
to be paying any attention to her at all; the dog lowered her head and
shoulders, her front legs bent, giant forepaws flexing in the snow like
hands.
"Naga?" Korra wondered, leaning forward. "What's the matter? I
thought you wanted to go - "
With an explosive burst of energy that nearly left her rider
behind, Naga suddenly lunged forward, going from a standing start to a
run in a second and skipping over anything as weedy as a trot
altogether. Clods of snow flew in her wake as her great claws dug into
the ground for maximum purchase.
" - FASTEEEEER," Korra finished, seizing the saddle's pommel to
keep her seat. "Whoa! Naga, whoa! What's gotten into you?!"
At this rate they would reach the courtyard fence in seconds.
Korra shifted her weight, rebalancing herself, and took up the reins
again, thankful that she'd had the foresight to route them through loops
at the front of the saddle so they couldn't fall to the ground if she
let go of them.
They weren't much more than handholds themselves, truth to tell.
She hadn't wanted to put a bit or some other similar arrangement in
Naga's mouth, as one would with a camel; her teeth weren't suited for
that kind of thing, and besides, the principle had always struck Korra
as rather cruel. Instead, the reins were attached to part of the
rigging that encircled Naga's neck, so that pulling on them would exert
mild pressure there. They weren't meant to -control- the dog so much as
make suggestions - and it appeared that Naga wasn't really interested in
taking suggestions just at the moment.
What she -was- interested in, apparently, was jumping over the
fence and heading for the White Lotus compound's main gate. For all
that Korra had been thinking for -years- at this point about how great
it would be to stage an escape, she hadn't really been planning on it
-today-, and so it was with more than slight alarm that she realized
that was where Naga was heading. Not so much riding as hanging on at
this point, she was coming almost completely out of the saddle at the
peak of each stride and then jouncing uncomfortably back down again at
the bottom. In this condition, she couldn't really see the dumbfounded
White Lotus guards in their towers at either side of the gate, but she
knew they must be there.
"Sorry!" she shouted, doing her best to wave without letting go
of anything. "We're not going far! I hope!"
Shouts of consternation came from above, and then, to Korra's
distinct dismay, the gate started closing. At the rate Naga was going,
they wouldn't clear it in time, and plowing at speed into an iron-banded
wooden stockade gate was really not on Korra's to-do list today.
"Naga, stop!" she cried, tugging uselessly on the reins -
- and all at once a profound sense of peace settled over her as
she realized what they had to do. She stopped fighting, stopped
worrying, and just... let the moment happen. Settling into the rhythm
of the dog's strides, she leaned low over Naga's back, feeling the
muscles of the dog's massive shoulders bunch and release under her
hands, and smiled.
"OK, girl," she murmured. "You want to run? -Let's run!-"
With the abatement of all resistance from the wheelhouse, Naga
seemed to sink lower to the ground, her strides lengthening further, as
she put everything she had into a headlong charge for the gate.
"Come on, Naga," Korra exhorted her, all but flattening herself
against the dog's back. "-Come on,- girl! Let's see what you've got."
For just an instant, as they barrelled inexorably for the still-
closing gate, Korra feared that she'd left it too late and they'd be
caught in the closing doors. She'd almost made up her mind to do
something involving waterbending and the snow on the ground to try and
jam the hinges, though at this speed that had precious little chance of
working, before she saw that it wouldn't be necessary. Grinning
fiercely, she settled down again, her body moving in perfect time with
her mount's now, and they shot out into the open countryside beyond the
compound like a bolt from a crossbow.
"Yeah!" Korra cried, pumping a fist in triumph. "Woooooo!"
With the immediate goal achieved, Naga showed no sign of slowing
down, galloping at full pelt across the open snowfield in front of the
compound. At the back of her head, Korra wondered how far they were
going to go, but at this point she no longer really cared. She was too
caught up in the rush of sensations: the tremendous power of this
incredible animal, the wondrous cold sting of the slipstream on her
face, the utterly profound revelation that here, HERE was freedom of a
kind she'd never tasted before. Transported with joy, she raised both
fists above her head, sitting fully upright in the saddle, then opened
them to let her fingers catch the wind.
And Naga stopped.
"WHAAAAAAAA," Korra declared, somersaulting over the dog's head.
Her reflexes were so well-trained, and the untouched snow out here was
sufficiently soft, that she was in no danger of injury, but she was
momentarily stunned as she landed flat on her back in a drift,
disappearing in a cloud of powder. Barking happily, Naga ran past her,
then made a great paddling turn in the soft snow and raced back to stand
over her, wagging and panting, the picture of ursocanine delight.
Korra sat partway up, brushing snow out of her face, and tried
to give Naga a censorious look, but she was still flushed with
excitement from the ride and couldn't keep the grin off her face, which
rather ruined the attempt.
"You did that on purpose!" she accused the dog.
Naga barked again, as if to admit it, then batted at the snow
with one huge forepaw, sending a new wave of it cascading over Korra's
face.
"Ack! Phhht," Korra cried, spitting snow and waving blindly
with one hand while trying to cover her face with the other. Naga's
response to this was to repeat the gesture with the opposite paw,
dousing her from the other side. "Gah! Bad dog! SUCH a bad dog!"
Naga growled and struck a playful bow, hindquarters up and
wagging, shoulders hunched, head low. Sounding as though she were about
to savage and devour her human friend, she waved her great head from
side to side so as to slap Korra's face with her hanging ears.
"Augh! Murder!" laughed Korra, fending her ineffectually off.
"Somebody help, she's gone rogue! Oh, spirits, is this how it ends?
Polar bear dog and waterbender, enemies again - OOF!"
The last was occasioned as Naga, tiring of the game, took
another step forward and then basically collapsed, pinning Korra's legs
under her chest and resting her enormous head on the young Water
Tribeswoman's body. Only Korra's head, shoulders, and arms were still
visible; all the rest was covered by the vast bulk of her companion.
She reached up with one hand and made a half-hearted, completely
unsuccessful attempt to push the contented dog's head off her chest,
then let her arms flop helplessly out to the sides.
"Ugh, I am killed," Korra declared weakly.
From somewhere off to one side came a soft mechanical click, and
then a familiar voice declared with audible amusement, "I can see that."
Korra turned her head to see her mother a short distance away astride an
arctic camel, a small box camera in her hand.
"I guess I picked a good day to come and visit," said Senna,
taking another picture.
//
"Yeah," Korra agreed sentimentally. "That was a good day." She
gazed at the photo of herself and her first friend for a few moments
longer, then shook off the reverie and went back to flicking through the
thumbnails.
"Oh, hey, here's a good one," she said after a few moments,
pausing and enlarging her next choice so that everybody could see it.
"Mom and Dad, their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. I took time off
from college to celebrate with them - I'd just started that year." She
chuckled fondly, her eyes misting up a little. "Spirits, if I didn't
have a normal childhood, I'd at least have a normal college experience."
"Such a thing exists? News to me," Kaitlyn quipped with a
wink.
Gathering around, the group could see what looked to be the
interior of some sort of longhouse, decorated with arctic items and the
emblems of the Water Tribe. Front and center was the couple in
question, both clad in polar finery that called to mind the dress Korra
had worn at Utena and Corwin's wedding. The woman bore a striking
resemblance to Korra, save for the laugh lines on her face and the fact
that her hair was pulled forward over her shoulders into two long tails,
kept in place by thin ties. She was dwarfed by the man standing next to
and a little behind her, her head barely reaching past his goateed chin.
His face was craggy (with a very square jaw), he was built like a
linebacker, and he had a hand on the woman's shoulder while she leaned
against him, both of them obviously in love with one another.
"Is it weird if I say your mom was a good-lookin' lady?" Ryo
wondered.
Korra snorted. "A little," she said. "But thank you, Ryo.
She'd be pleased you think so. Dad, not so much," she added wryly, "but
then he had his own fans, so it evens out."
Grinning, Kate put up a hand. "Yes please!"
"Somehow, I figured... but oh, here's a good one for the rest of
us - this was back in 177, 2296 for you galactic people. The recovery
coordination aid station in the courtyard of Gaoling's town hall, after
the earthquake."
With that, Korra brought up another picture. Utena was
immediately reminded of the outside of Tau City's Government House. It
had the same amount of discord and debris from a major disaster, but the
same degree of hope at rebuilding. Rescue workers could be seen in the
background, as well as a large, bulky machine that Utena realized was
a Mecha-builder; but the primary focus was on the two young men in the
foreground, who had gathered at a water station to refresh themselves.
They were both caught in the act of looking towards the camera,
disheveled yet proud, and smiling at the photographer as they realized
who was taking the picture.
They were different in build and height and state of dress, but
they had that intangible quality that marked them as brothers. The
shorter of the two was stocky, his hair and features more rounded than
the other's. The muscles of his brawny arms, chest, and abdomen were
easily revealed by the construction vest he wore with no shirt
underneath, and he radiated a solid bonhomie. Even filthy and sweat-
streaked, his eyes dark-rimmed with fatigue, he was grinning broadly and
giving a high sign with the hand not holding a paper cone of water.
The taller one was leaner in build and face - very fit, but more
like a runner than a boxer. He too was smudged from a day's hard work,
and wearing a soot-smeared outfit that Utena took a moment to realize
was an archaic Republic City Police uniform (modern versions of which
she'd seen earlier in the week). He was weary-looking and appeared more
reserved in general, yet his smile lit up his face, which looked as if
he didn't know exactly what to do with it when that occurred.
"My boys!" said Korra cheerily. "The fabulous bending brothers.
Bolin - " (she pointed) " - and Mako. To be Sergeant Mako very soon
after this picture was taken, if I recall correctly."
At the sight of him, Minami's eyes lit up, and she pointed out
the taller figure. "So that's the famous Mako, Korra? I -do- love a
man in uniform."
Korra chuckled. "You're not alone in that, Minami."
Garnet peered over Annabelle's head and said judiciously, "Hmm.
The one with the -eyebrows?- He's pretty, but the other fella looks
more dependable. Or at least sturdier."
"Well, of course," Korra pointed out. "Bolin's an earthbender.
Mako's the firebender in that team. He's the one who taught me how to
lightningbend, among other things."
"Eh," said Garnet, unpersuaded. "That's all very well, but I
can set stuff on fire -myself,- I don't need the -help- to be able to do
that," she said pragmatically. Then, with a wry little dragon grin, she
added, "I'd keep that one around to oil my scales, mind, but the short
one's clearly the more useful minion," and the room broke up in a laugh.
"Anyway, Asami's also there, in the Mecha-builder. In case
you were curious. Never let it be said that the CEO of Future
Industries was afraid to get her hands dirty," Korra smiled at Minami.
"A sentiment that's definitely shared by her heir," Ryo added
with a grin, avoiding a swat by his older sister.
Korra laughed, and flipped through more pictures, before
settling on another one. It was a wide-angle shot, so as to get a
frankly gigantic Avatar Yangchen statue in frame. Down below by the
statue's folded legs, they could see a row of figures, all of them
in meditative postures - Master Tenzin, Korra, recognizably younger
Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and a five-year-old-looking Rohan.
"The -second- time we took the Air Temples trip, when civil war
-wasn't- raging in the Water Tribes and the world wasn't about to end,"
Korra explained. "The first one was... rather rushed, as you might
imagine."
The Satos, Kaitlyn, and Corwin nodded sympathetically, while
Utena gave her husband a curious look. "(Later,)" he murmured, and she
nodded in response.
"Another during my later college days," Korra went on, flipping
to another photograph. "We'd pretty much gotten into a routine at that
time, but Asami needed to get away from the office for a few months,
and well..."
She enlarged the tinted picture, which showed a grinning Korra
in her signature clothes, wearing a blue bowl helmet and raised goggles,
shielding her eyes as she looked off towards an out-of-shot horizon in
the pink glow of a late summer afternoon. Behind her a little ways was
another woman, fair-skinned and gorgeous, with long dark hair that very
much resembled Minami's. Tall and slim, elegant even in rumpled cycling
leathers, she stood next to a sturdy-looking motor scooter, looking back
the other way with a curious expression. In the far distance behind
them was a tall rectangular tower, with the blocky solidity of the Earth
Kingdom about it.
"Spirits, that IS great-great-grandmom Asami!" Ryo breathed,
while Minami stared.
"That's her -scooter!-" Minami added.
"When was this?" Ryo asked.
"Summer vacation during college, couple years before I started
my master's. 179, I think? Yeah, that's about right," Korra said,
checking the timestamps on the photo. "Or 2298 for you guys. The kind
of world trip an Avatar's -supposed- to have, without any unfortunate
distractions. Making up for lost time."
"Was this the -entire- world?" Utena asked.
"Well, not the -world- world. Too much going on for me to get
it all done in one go. This one was most of a lap of the Earth Kingdom,
which was almost -like- travelling the whole world." Korra grinned.
"We managed to get the boys to tag along for legs of it, and Jinora, who
was hitting the 'nomad' phase of Air Nomad life at that time - I'm
pretty sure she took this photo - accompanied us on her way to the
Eastern Air Temple, but for the most part it was just the two of us
girls on the road." She let out a satisfied sigh. "Ahh, good times."
More pictures flicked by in succession, before settling on
one of Korra, in a rather silly-looking voluminous robe and a flat hat,
shaking the hand of an educated-looking man as he handed her a rolled-up
piece of parchment. Korra grinned with pride.
"And they said it couldn't be done," she remarked. "First
Avatar with a modern-day advanced degree."
She flipped to another picture and laughed. In it, herself,
Mako, Bolin, and Asami could be seen in the middle of what had to be the
Avatar's graduation party (Ikki and Meelo, now both young adults, could
be seen in the background chatting up other people). The expressions on
the four could only be summed up as ranging from amusement to
puzzlement, as an older man, with truly impressive sideburns and a
serious mien, appeared to be lecturing Korra.
"I'll never forget Professor Protester showing up at my
graduation party. He looked me in the eye and said, 'Let's get
something straight, Avatar. I don't like you. You're a pampered,
privileged elitist who exists to perpetuate an antiquated and oppressive
world-system. But you're not ashamed of it and you work hard. I
respect you for that.' I've never been more lovingly insulted. Still
makes me feel warm inside."
She switched to the next image in the stack, laughed, and then
said, "Here's another one for Mom's fans."
Utena was vaguely surprised to recognize this photo's setting as
the front straight at Future Industries Raceway Park; the grandstand had
obviously been rebuilt or replaced since it was taken, but it was in the
same place, and the striped curbs were the same. In the foreground,
slightly motion-blurred, the photographer had caught an old-fashioned
racing Satomobile, like the ones Utena had seen on her own visit to the
track, just in the moment it flashed past the infield camera. Two
jacketed, helmeted, goggled figures hunched in the tandem seats, the one
at the wheel grinning fiercely, the one in back with gleeful fist
upraised.
The figure in back was unmistakably Asami Sato, looking very
much like her descendant Minami did in racing trim. For a second, Utena
assumed the one in front was Korra, until she realized that she couldn't
be, because Korra was -in the grandstand,- her hands cupped around her
mouth as an improvised megaphone, cheering. Beside her towered her
father, slightly out of place in formal dress. In contrast to his
daughter's broad, delighted grin, his expression was harder to place, a
curious and amusing combination of pleasure, pride, enthusiasm, and
dismay.
"I would just like to note for the record that the first time
Asami took -me- out in a Satomobile, -she- drove," said Korra dryly as
it dawned on her audience who the woman in the front seat must be.
"My reverence for your sainted mother increases apace," said Ryo
with a grave seated bow.
Korra chuckled. "She was pretty great," she agreed. "This was
that same weekend, when they were in town for my graduation." With a
sentimental smile, she added, "Dad grumbled about it for the rest of his
life. 'That woman's gone and turned my Senna into an -adventurer-. One
of those in this family was enough.'" At Anthy's slightly arched
eyebrow, Korra grinned and said, "That was just Chief Tonraq playing to
the stereotypes. He loved it. Some women in their forties get
depressed; Mom... " She clicked to another picture. "Mom did stuff
like this."
In this case, "stuff like this" involved standing in front of a
large twin-engined seaplane at a dock in what looked like the harbor of
a major city, dressed in classically styled aviator gear and beaming.
Next to her stood a tall, ornately dressed man who appeared to be trying
to hide a look of dread, and a serious-looking, bespectacled middle-aged
woman who was almost swamped by the enormous military-style parka she
wore. The side of the seaplane's fuselage was marked with large,
festive-looking symbols, but few of those present could read them.
"Departure time for Friendship Flight, the first non-stop flight
from pole to pole," said Korra. "For the fifteenth anniversary of the
end of the Civil War, Mom flew Dad's new ambassador to the North non-
stop up to Sanirajak, partly as a gesture of reconciliation and partly
just to prove it could be done." She pointed to the tall man. "That's
Ambassador Piuuvik, looking like he's trying not to run away. Wasn't a
big fan of flying, poor man. And Zhu Li, of course, her company built
the plane."
"There was a civil war between the Water Tribes?" Utena
wondered.
"Yeah," said Korra. "Long time ago. It was basically the
second thing I ever had to deal with as Avatar. I know, right?" she
said with a laugh to Utena's surprised look. "Most people get easy jobs
their first year or so at work. Me? I got a fascist conspiracy-slash-
terrorist uprising in Republic City, then a civil war in the South Pole,
oh, and when you're done with that there's this ongoing attempt to
destroy the world we'd like you to see if you can do something about,
after which it would be really excellent if you could take a look at the
worldwide spirit crisis. Don't forget to get your parking validated!"
"Eh, the deep end's the best place to start anyway," said Utena
mock-casually, winking at Anthy, who giggled.
Korra chuckled. "Most of the time I'd agree with you," she
said. "At the time, though, I think I'd have preferred a slightly
shallower learning curve. On the other hand," she went on with another
sentimental smile as she selected the next image, "having an uphill
climb like that does make moments like this one even sweeter."
The next picture was slightly faded, but still quite striking,
seeing as it was a full color photograph: Korra, Mako, Bolin, and
Asami, seated on a picnic blanket on a grassy rise, with the large
shape of a polar bear dog serving as their backrest. Apparently taken
in the spring, the photo showed a ready camaraderie evident among the
four, as they pointed down towards the water, where a much smaller white
shape was seen splashing, trying to catch some fleeing turtleducks.
"Is that the island in the park?" Kaitlyn asked, indicating the
stone lantern in the right of the photo.
"Good eye! Yep, it is. One of Atii's first trips out! That's
her, terrorizing the turtleducks." Korra smiled fondly at the scene.
"Couldn't wait to get off the island and into the field. That's why she
was called Atii. It means... well, you can translate it a lot of
different ways, but basically it means 'come on,' 'hurry up,' 'let's
go'... that kind of thing."
"Huh - I just noticed, this isn't tinted like the one of you and
Asami in the Earth Kingdom, it's an actual color photo," said Utena.
"Yeah, personal color photography lagged behind commercial
color printing for a while. Only the big mover studios and corporations
could afford developing and distributing color prints. But once they
got the processing time and costs down, then all the papers and
magazines were doing it." Korra shuffled through several more photos,
before stopping at what looked to be a full-page picture from a
sports magazine. "Case in point, this picture here..."
This one was also in broad daylight, centered on a grinning
Asami and Korra, clad in matching Future Industries racing leathers,
surrounded by a crowd of cheering people. Sprays of foam filled the
image as Korra hoisted some sort of wine bottle aloft to splash it
over a grinning Asami's head.
"By popular demand, Asami and me on the podium after winning the
first Future City Historic Grand Prix," Korra commented dryly.
"Seriously, the fanzines were reading WAY too much into it. I've seen
worse at Minami and Ryo's races, for that matter."
Minami and Ryo raised matching eyebrows at Korra.
"Still, I mean, see what you're doing with the -foam- there?"
Corwin pointed out.
Kate looked and smiled. "Nope, can't imagine why anyone would
read into -that.-"
"Not in any way," Utena agreed.
"She looks like she's enjoying it, though," Anthy pointed out.
"It's a deliberately misleading frame choice!" Korra protested.
"I'm just raising the bottle up so that I can pour it over her head.
They picked this one on -purpose.-"
Kate nodded. "Mm-hmm." Then, sitting back, she mused aloud,
"Memo to self: Get Juri into a winner's circle as soon as possible."
"MOVING on," said Korra briskly. Without further discussion,
she cycled through more photos, before stopping at another photograph
of the two. This one was more friendly and casual, with Korra leaning
jauntily on Asami's arm, grinning at the camera, while the taller woman,
dressed in sturdy caving clothes with elbow pads, knee pads, and
goggles, had an expression more bemused than amused. But that was
nothing compared to what was behind them - a rippling, shining disk-
shaped distortion, floating freely above a rough rocky floor in the
middle of a torchlit stone cavern.
"Wait... what -is- that?" Utena asked. "It looks kind of like
an IPO stargate, but there's no ring around it."
Korra nodded. "Close, but not quite. That's the Veil Nexus
underneath Crescent Island! It'd been buried for centuries, before the
Fire Sages found it. -I- found out about it when Asami and I were
scouting out where URSA was going to put its main launch facilities."
Utena considered this for several moments. "Why didn't they
tell you before?"
"Honestly? Mostly because they didn't want to trouble me with
it, given everything else on my plate at the time. Zipang was
something known among various shamans across Diqiu, but they'd never
really made real progress with it. If anything, Master Tenzin was more
upset about them witholding information from me than I was!"
"Well, you -had- mellowed out a lot by then," Corwin pointed
out. "Relatively speaking, of course."
// XINQISI, SIYUE 8, 196 ASC
(THURSDAY, APRIL 8, SY 2315)
CRESCENT ISLAND
"... cannot BELIEVE you would withhold information of such
importance from the Avatar," Master Tenzin declared, his stentorian
voice echoing in the cavernous space.
"Once we determined that it was not a Spirit Portal, the elders
of our order concluded that it was not a phenomenon with which she
should be concerned," the lead Fire Sage insisted.
Tenzin waved his arms in frustration. "That is for HER to
decide! Not you!"
Some distance away from the argument, Korra glanced at Asami;
both women grinned wryly, remembering a time when Tenzin's attitude
toward the Avatar deciding about things was rather different. Then,
with a mutual shrug, they turned to examining the Veil Nexus, leaving
the Grandmaster of the Air Nomads to his argument. Tenzin was often
happiest when he could have a good argument with somebody, anyway.
Sometimes Korra obliged him just to brighten his day; this time, Master
Fire Sage Zanei was doing a fine job by himself.
For upward of twenty minutes, Tenzin and Zanei argued every-
more-vociferously about the role of the Avatar in the investigation of
strange spatial phenomena. This led straight into an even louder
argument between Tenzin and all -five- present Fire Sages about whether
she should be participating, and lending her imprimatur, to a scheme as
hare-brained and potentially blasphemous as Ambassador Zuko's mad idea
of a rocket mission to Yue. While the Learned Masters were busy with
that, Korra and Asami walked around the shimmering portal several times,
considering it from all angles.
Then, unnoticed by all the red-faced, gesticulating masters,
Korra turned to Asami with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.
"Shall we, Professor Sato?" she asked, offering her hand.
Asami smiled slyly, lowered her goggles over her eyes, and took
it, replying conspiratorially, "Through the looking-glass, Avatar
Korra."
Not until Tenzin, making some point or another about the
Avatar's belief in the NON-blasphemous nature of the Phoenix Flight,
turned to solicit her confirmation of the fact, did any of the masters
think to look and see whether the woman they were all arguing about was
paying any attention. When they did, they discovered to their dismay
that not only wasn't she listening, she wasn't even -there.-
"... Korra?" said Tenzin, skidding to a mental and verbal halt.
"Korra! Where are you? KORRA!"
The Fire Sages looked at each other, then at the airbender, and
then all started talking at once. This quickly escalated into a
shouting match between the Fire Sages themselves, all vying to be the
one to say they tried to warn Tenzin, until the sudden reappearance of
the Avatar shocked them all into silence again.
Well, -part- of the Avatar, anyway. Korra's head and shoulders
emerged from the shimmering surface of the Veil Nexus, as though she
were leaning out of a window, while the rest of her remained within.
"Hey, you guys, come check this out!" she said cheerfully.
"It's really neat in here."
Tenzin's face, flushed from his argument with the Sages, went
bone-white. He stared at her in disbelief for a moment, then burst out
in evident concern and panic, "KORRA! What are you DOING?!"
Giving him a puzzled look, as if to ask what kind of question
THAT was, Korra stepped fully out of the Nexus, then back in, then out
again, then in, and leaned back through as she'd done at the beginning.
Next to her, Asami's head appeared as well, a curious what's-the-holdup-
here look on her face.
"Bridging the worlds," Korra told Tenzin matter-of-factly. "You
coming or what?"
"I - you - " Tenzin sputtered, attempting to appeal to Korra's
intermittent sense of caution. "Please, Korra, we need to STUDY this
phenomenon MUCH more thoroughly before we can attempt - "
Korra rolled her eyes. "Pigchickeeeeen," she said with a
challenging grin. "Bawk bawk squeeeal." Then, turning to her fellow
explorer, she said, "C'mon, Asami, I thought I smelled something cooking
over there," and the two women disappeared into the other world again,
leaving Tenzin and the Fire Sages to stand looking at each other in
utter bemusement.
//
"Ha haa, serves them right," Utena chortled. "That was a total
dick move, especially given what the White Lotus did to you."
Korra chuckled. "Ironically, the White Lotus had -nothing- to
do with this one. And for what it's worth, at least I was able to
listen to their explanations as to -why- they hadn't told me, and I
agreed that they had a point. The world at large really wasn't ready to
learn about Zipang yet. People would have to be brought into it
slowly."
"Besides, Diqiu was in the run-up for their first moon shot!
One Weltanschauung-altering event at a time!" Corwin added.
Korra grinned, and then hrmed thoughtfully, looking at Minami
and Ryo. "You've gone quiet all of a sudden," she said. "Something on
your mind?"
The Satos glanced questioningly at each other; then Minami said,
in a voice that was unusually subdued for her, "Just thinking about
Great-Great-Grandma Asami. All the things she saw and did, all the
-lives- she touched. I wish I could've known her."
"So do I," Ryo agreed. "I've heard so many stories about her,
seen so many pictures, that sometimes I almost feel like I -do- know
her."
Nodding agreement, Minami hesitated for a moment, then said,
"OK, this is going to sound crazy, but sometimes when I'm working late,
making a technical drawing or prototyping something, and I come up with
a -really- good idea... " She paused, looking around at the quietly
attentive faces, and with a slight blush went on, "... it's like she's
there with me. Giving me that smile from the cover of Innovation
Magazine. Maybe a high five."
"That doesn't sound crazy at all," said Korra with a fond smile.
She flipped through a few more pictures, then smiled a little wider as
she found the one she wanted: the magazine cover Minami had mentioned,
on which Asami, sharply dressed as ever and about the same age that her
descendant was now, stood with a triumphant smile in front of a sleek
and powerful-looking Satomobile over a bold Tongyu caption.
"What does it say?" Anthy wondered.
"'Future Industries: Still Alive'," Korra translated, regarding
the image with a sentimental expression. In a quieter voice, almost to
herself, she added, "Yeah... Asami was one of a kind." Then, looking up
from the photo, she grinned at Minami and added, "Honestly, I think she
was the nicest person I've ever known."
"I'd say she was a hard act to follow, but I think you've got me
beaten in -that- race," said Minami wryly.
Korra laughed. "Oh, believe me, I know she was. But y'know,
you two do all right," she said with a wink for Ryo. "I don't think
she'd have any complaints."
So saying, the Avatar flipped over to another photograph.
"Speaking of complaints, here's somebody who swore she'd never stop
complaining until she retired," she stated fondly. "So, you can imagine
how grumpy she got when she finally had to hang up her wire harness."
She grinned as she zoomed the image, which was that of a traditional
Earth Kingdom tea room, its hallway and courtyard doors open so as to
let in the light and air. The decorations of the room itself were
sparse, with only a few items along the periphery, the most notable a
bronze roundel holding the image of a winged boar. The view from above
the courtyard roofs revealed distant metal towers that put those from
New Avalon in mind of their home city.
In the center of the room sat two people on opposite sides of a
low table, a tea service between them. To the camera's right was Korra,
clad in her customary outfit, while to the left sat a much older woman,
dressed in muted greens and greys. Her posture and bearing were stern,
the effect enhanced by the pale iron grey of her wavy hair pulled back,
and the two thin scars running in parallel between her visible cheek
and jaw.
The only thing that kept the woman from being grim (and carrying
over into the photo itself) were the slight smiles shared between her
and Korra, and the slight twinkle in the older woman's green eyes. An
image of practiced, careful emotional armor, only now allowed to show
a little more vulnerability after a long, long time.
"Whoa, hey, who is this?" Utena asked. Before Korra could
answer, Corwin grinned and interjected:
"Oh hey, it's Beifong the Younger. As an elder! Or as we know
her in Valhalla, Beifong the Kind."
"That's one of those -ironic- nicknames, isn't it," Korra
deadpanned. "Like calling the big guy 'Tiny'."
Corwin nodded. "Yes, yes it is."
"That doesn't answer my question, you guys," Utena commented,
glancing between the two of them.
"Heh, sorry, Utena," Korra replied. "This is Lin Beifong. She
was the police chief of Republic City when I first arrived here. Her
mom, Toph Beifong, was the one who founded the city's metalbending
police force."
"Hang on, Toph Beifong as in Eye of Destiny Toph Beifong?" Utena
asked. "'It is very dark here' Toph Beifong? -That- Toph Beifong?"
"(very dark here?)" Korra mumbled quizzically, looking at
Corwin.
"(never mind,)" Corwin replied, looking slightly put-upon, then
said to Utena, "Yes. That Toph Beifong."
"Huh. Hard to picture her as anybody's mother," Utena conceded,
then added with a grin, "Particularly Shanghai Lily's."
"Heh, Bo was always trying to get her into the mover business,
but she wasn't having it," said Korra. "'Ah, who are you kidding, boy?'
she'd say. 'I've got a perfect face for radio.'"
"Harsh," said Ryo.
"Sometimes she even claimed she had a face only a mother could
love. Keep in mind that we all knew her mother was blind."
"I stand corrected," Ryo agreed. "-That's- harsh."
Korra nodded, regarding the picture with an expression somewhere
between sentimental and glum. "She was even harder on herself than she
was on everyone else. Sometimes that was the only thing that made her
bearable. But... " She paused, thinking, then used a phrase she'd
heard Corwin's father use many a time. "She was a person who knew what
she was doing."
Corwin chuckled, nodding, but said nothing. Korra gave him a
curious look, realized she wasn't going to get any more out of him right
now, and moved on:
"Oh, hey, Utena, you may recognize this one from Asami's book."
"This one" showed Asami and Mako, standing at the upper level of
a large room full of banked electronic consoles and giant video screens.
Both were older than they'd been in their last appearances, but they
wore middle age gracefully. To Utena, Asami appeared to be about the
same age as she had been in that giant crew photo in the Phoenix House
lobby, and dressed similarly too, in extremely smart business attire
that was mostly a very dark red.
For his part, Mako looked basically the same as he had in
earlier photos, apart from his hair starting to go silver at the
temples. He was dressed in simpler business clothes - a white dress
shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark slacks - and wore slim steel-
rimmed spectacles that made him look like a graphic designer. Both of
them had on communications headsets of an archaic design. She held a
clipboard; he was pointing to something on it with a pencil and holding
a coffee mug marked with the United Republic Space Agency logo in his
other hand.
"We were about halfway to Yue at that point," Korra explained.
"The figures they're looking at are for our midrange course correction
burn."
"See? It's like I was saying earlier!" Garnet said. "You take
the -rugged- one with you on the dangerous mission, and you leave the
-pretty- one back home to make the coffee for when you get back. It's
basic resource management! Your nice-looking friend clearly understood
this."
Korra laughed. "Mako stayed behind because he wanted to,
Garnet. He figured Asami would need his help if... well... if the rest
of us didn't make it back. But we did! So it wasn't a problem. Moving
on! Lessee... bunch more Phoenix Flight photos, you'll find better ones
in the book... I have to see if Meelo's old Moverdisc of the documentary
still works or if I've got to track it down on VDC. I haven't watched
that in ages, we should have a showing some night soon. Aha, here we
go. What do you do for an encore when you've been to the moon? Well,
if you're me, someone gives you your old professional sports team as a
50th birthday present and you decide to play again."
And indeed, there she was, standing with two other people in
Fire Ferrets uniforms that were less archaic than the ones on the
dummies at the Pro Bending Hall of Fame, but still markedly old-timey
compared to the one Corwin had worn for his own one-game stint with the
modern incarnation of the team. He noticed with interest that she was
wearing the red belt and helmet, not blue, this time. Her teammates
were both women, evidently in their late twenties or early thirties.
The one on her right, in blue, was plainly of Water Tribe stock herself,
while the one on the left was petite-but-sturdy and pale, reminding
Utena a bit of the aforementioned Toph Beifong. With them was Bolin,
going grey and sporting a stylish moustache that made him look boyishly
mature, and still evidently in good shape.
"There you have us, the 202 SCM Fire Ferrets," said Korra.
"That's Kina," she added, pointing to the waterbender, "and Xian
Beifong. She's from the branch of the family that stayed in Gaoling,"
she explained. "She was part of the launch vehicle crew on the Phoenix
Flight. And Kina was a Senna girl - she was Karana's great-great-
grandmother, I think. Might be off a great." She grinned. "And Coach
Bolin, of course. Ah, the four of us had some good times that year,
once we got used to that newfangled MLB style. Made it all the way to
the semifinals! Not bad for two rookies and a retread, as Shiro's color
commentator once called us. Hey, and speaking of whom..."
She switched to another photo, this one depicting herself in her
formal tunic-and-opera-gloves ensemble, presenting a plaque to a white-
haired but very spry-looking old man, who was beaming from ear to ear.
"Here's me at the 202 Broadcasting Arts Awards," she said. "I
had the great privilege of presenting that year's Broadcast Journalism
Lifetime Achievement Award to none other than the great Shiro Shinobi
himself. The Voice of Professional Bending, the face of RTV's coverage
of the Phoenix Flight, a man so dedicated to his profession that he kept
reporting the Equalist attack on the Arena in 170 even after the lousy
creeps all but -shocked- him to death... Shiro was one of the all-time
greats. Even today, most of the people who cover MLB for radio are just
trying to be him."
"And failing," Ryo put in, drawing sage nods from his sister and
Korra.
"Yup," Korra agreed. "Shiro was an original." She lingered for
a moment longer on the picture, then flipped onward through the list.
"Hmm, getting on toward dinnertime, better think about wrapping this up
soon. OK, let's skip ahead a little. Here's some of the stuff you
missed in the past five years, Corwin. Lessee, c'mon, c'mon... aha!
Yes. For instance, I believe you know this lady."
It took Corwin a few seconds to process the next image and see
that she was correct. For a second, he almost said, "Well, yeah, uh,
that's -you,- even wearing a dress I can tell that," but the person
Korra was talking about was -not- Korra herself, nor Minami, both of
whom were present. They were both standing, Korra in a discreetly
glamorous number Corwin had never seen before (but which bore the subtly
unmistakable hallmarks of Ming & Daughters, Clothiers), Minami looking
movie-star sensational in slinky-but-classy black silk, on what appeared
to be the red carpet at a film premiere. Behind them stood a long black
Future Industries limousine, surrounded by a crowd of press
photographers, over several of whose heads Niri was looking with
interest.
Standing -between- Korra and Minami was a third woman, and it
was she whom Corwin took a few seconds to recognize, because her
presence there was at once perfectly in and entirely out of context.
The red carpet was Sumire Kanzaki's natural habitat, but Diqiu most
certainly was not.
"... When was Sumire here?" Corwin asked.
"Couple years ago," Korra replied, pleased at having been able
to surprise him so completely. "She and a film unit spent a couple
months in town shooting a picture - 'The Crimson Lizard and the Case of
the Criminal Councilman' - and then she came back a while later for the
premiere."
"What, she never told you? For shame," Kate added.
"I'm always the last to know," Corwin grumbled.
"It's so true," said Anthy with a hint of wistfulness, causing
Corwin to sigh in a put-upon fashion, Utena to roll her eyes good-
naturedly, and Korra to snicker.
"It was a whirlwind shoot," Korra went on. "I mean, I thought
OUR film industry worked at a fast pace, but I've never seen anybody cut
a mover like Sumire before. I'm amazed they got it out the door that
fast, and that it was such a success."
"It was the foreign director that drew all the interest, you
know," Minami pointed out.
"Awww, is somebody -jealous-?" Korra replied with a sidelong
grin.
"Maybe a little," Minami admitted.
"Anyway, I -know- Meelo's disc of that one works, we just
watched it again a couple months ago. Another thing to put on the list
for mover night. Hmm... what else've we got? Boring Avatar
business... "
So saying, she clicked to a picture of the solemn-faced, grey-
clad figure of Inspector Imanishi, standing behind a microphone-studded
podium in front of Police Headquarters. The inspector seemed to be
speaking, with Korra (in what appeared to be modified police armor,
differently colored than the stock gear and lacking the insignia) and a
number of cheerful-looking young officers standing in a group off to one
side. Behind them, Niri could once again be seen, looking out over
Korra's head (she appeared to have slightly startled the cop to the
Avatar's right).
"Hey, nice," said Utena. "I'm digging the supercop look."
"Remember what Minami said earlier about men in uniform?" Corwin
mused. "Works for women too. I'm just sayin'."
"It's so true," Anthy repeated with exactly the same wistful
sigh, making Utena giggle.
"Oh, here's a good one, this was the airkids' demonstration for
Avatar Day last year," said Korra.
"Hey, Nyima still had hair," said Utena.
"So she did," Corwin agreed, nodding. Nyima and her sister were
both in the picture, as were Tenzin, Gyatso, and a couple of other young
airbenders the visitors hadn't seen around. They were playing a game of
three-a-side airball on a court that seemed to have been set up in
Railway Square, the sisters and Tenzin against Gyatso and the two
unknown older teens. Despite being younger and smaller, Nyima and
Lhakpa's team was winning, according to the scoreboard visible in the
background. Among the crowd at the base of the Fire Lord Zuko statue,
the viewers could see Korra, clearly engaged in some (purely non-
partisan, of course) cheering. Behind her, Niri's head and shoulders
towered over her and the other spectators around her.
"Oh hey," Korra said, putting up a picture of a small group of
formally robed teenagers grinning and brandishing rolled-up parchments.
"Karana and Azana's graduation from Piandao Academy. You missed that
too, or you'd have known Azana already," said Korra, nudging Corwin with
an elbow.
"They've known each other that long!" Anthy said, sounding
slightly surprised.
"Yeah, they were roommates all seven years at Piandao, starting
when they were eleven," Korra told her. She flipped to a second photo,
just showing the two of them in their graduation robes (and Niri) - two
young women on one of the best days of their lives so far, plainly in
love with life and ready to go out and grab it. Their enthusiasm was so
infectious that everyone looking at the photo found him- or herself
smiling.
Korra virtually thumbed through a few more pictures that were
pleasant, but of no particular significance - a postcard panorama of
Republic City's Harmony Tower; a shot of herself and Niri in front of
her house in Senna with the caption "Greetings from the South Pole",
made as a humorous seasonal greeting card a couple of years before - and
seemed to be thinking about ending the show when Utena realized
something and laughed.
"Ha, I just noticed that Niri is in -all these photos,-" she
remarked.
"Yep," Korra confirmed, nodding. "That's her thing. That and
eating. She's the South Pole's greatest photobomber." With a wry
shrug, she went on, "Don't look at me, I only raised her." She checked
a couple more folders, then gave a nostalgic sigh and said, "Well, I
guess that ought to do it for now. I really have to sort these better -
I know there's a bunch more in here that you guys would be interested
in. -You- two, in particular," she added with a wink for Utena and
Anthy, "will want to see all my pics of Li'l Corwin."
"Oh, you've got -that- right," said Utena, grinning.
"I... tell you what, hang on a second, I'm pretty sure I know
where I can find -one- of those to hold you for now." Bending to her
search with renewed energy, she muttered, "Come on, where are you, I put
you someplace where I wouldn't - aHA!"
And with a final flourish, she put up the last of the day's
trips into memory. It depicted a room that Utena, after a moment's
consideration, recognized as the living room of Corwin's father's house
in New Avalon. Korra sat beaming in the middle of the brown leather
sofa with the unmistakable form of Nall draped on one shoulder and a
shyly smiling little girl in her lap. On her left was a cheerfully
smirking Kei Morgan, holding a swaddled bundle topped with a shock of
red hair; on her right, a somewhat more serenely smiling Skuld
Ravenhair, cradling a very similar item whose hair was black.
"OH my - is that -you,- Kate?" Utena asked, delight in her
voice, as she leaned forward to take a closer look.
Kaitlyn nodded. "Sure is."
"Awww, you were adorable!" said Ryo. Then, looking thoughtful,
he added, "I mean you still are, but... differently."
Minami snorted. "And people ask me how it is that you're still
single," she observed dryly, but Kate only giggled.
"Thank you, Ryo," she said.
"And baby Len and Corwin!" Utena added, pointing. "Wow, look
how little they are."
"Well, they ought to be, they're two days old," said Korra with
a grin.
"Look, Annabelle," Anthy said. "It's your father and your Uncle
Leonard, when they weren't much older than you are."
"And there's Nall getting his mack on, two days out of the
shell," Corwin remarked, pointing. "So you see where Garnet gets her
fast moves from."
"I don't know -what- you're talking about," said Garnet piously.
"Two days old, really?" Utena mused. "Wow, Kei looks great."
Korra laughed. "I actually asked her if she was a goddess too,
like Skuld. And she laughed and said, 'Nah, I just cheat like a mofo.'"
"Ha!" said Kate. "Yeah, that sounds like Mom."
At the mention of Kei, the moment trembled briefly on the verge
of sinking from nostalgia to mourning, but Kate, knowing that her mother
would never have approved of that, pushed it aside and said, "So you had
known Dad for - "
Korra nodded. "Two days! We met the day Corwin was born," she
added, reaching over to muss the young god's hair. "... Man, that's
just addictive," she mused after a moment, then did it again.
"I know!" Utena said. "It's my favorite thing about him."
Corwin arched an eyebrow at her. "I dispute that assertion."
"Ha!" said Minami.
"ANYway," said Korra, "it's true, I met Gryph in New Avalon that
day - wanted to talk to him about the really loud noise we'd heard in
the Spirit World nine months before."
"Wonder what -that- could have been," said Minami mischievously.
Corwin coughed.
"An hour or so later we were on Tomodachi and, uh, Stuff Was
Happening," Korra went on. "Two days later, with Kei and Len home from
the hospital, and Skuld back on her feet and ready to travel, he invited
me over to the house to hang out, and, well, rest is history." She sat
back and grinned. "And that's as good a note as any to end Storytime on
for today, I think."
"No wonder you guys are buddies for life," Utena remarked, and
Korra wasn't sure whether she meant herself and Corwin, herself and
Gryphon, or both. Then the Rose Prince added, "How long after that was
it before Skuld put a Lens on you? Naughty of you, by the way, busting
that out on me without warning when I already had all I could do not to
witter at Anthy."
Korra chuckled. "Sorry. Slipped my mind, believe it or not.
It doesn't work across the Veil, and there are only a handful of other
Lensmen in Diqiu, most of whom I can get in touch with by conventional
means anytime I like, so sometimes I forget about it when I'm not
Outside."
"What's yours look like?" Utena inquired, pushing back her
sleeve to reveal the lambent rose-pink glow of her own.
"Ooooh," said Minami, leaning forward with widened eyes.
"Now see what you've done, you little showoff," Corwin mock-
groused.
"Sorry," said Utena, who wasn't sorry.
Korra chuckled again. "If you're good and eat your vegetables,
Minami, I'll put in a word for you next time Skuld's in town. Which
shouldn't be that long from now, actually. When are they getting out
here to see their grandchild?" she asked Corwin.
"Not sure," Corwin replied. "They probably need a few days to
stop freaking out about it," he added wryly.
"Ha, probably," Korra agreed, and then said to Utena, "Here,
have a look." So saying, she rolled back the bracer on her right
forearm to uncover her wrist.
This revealed a circular gem set into a blued silver band,
similar in setting to Utena's, with curved ribbed elastic metal links.
What was different about the gem was its color: Korra's was not one
color but three, arranged in a distinctive pattern. Against a backdrop
of pure, shining white glowed a curving geometric pattern of a cleanly
lustrous blue, similar to the blue Utena had noticed commonly appearing
in Korra's clothes, arranged around a narrow, curved-sided diamond of a
darker blue.
"Wow," said Utena. "That's beautiful. I've never seen one with
a pattern on it before."
Korra regarded her Lens with a fond smile. "That's Raava," she
said. "The Avatar Spirit. The other half of my soul, you might say.
When she had a separate existence as a spirit of light, that's what she
looked like."
"Amazing," Utena said, then quipped, "That must've taken some
custom fitting."
"Now that's kind of a long story, believe it or not," Korra
replied, then added with a wink, "Maybe I'll tell you about it some
time." Then, with a last fond look at the photo of herself and what was
at the time most of Gryphon's family, she rolled her bracer back down
over her Lens and started shutting down her laptop. "Right now, I'd say
it's about time for us to think about heading over for dinner."
"Now there's a cue if I ever heard one," said Maki's voice from
the doorway.
/* The Smithereens
"Yesterday Girl"
_11_ (1989) */
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
and Magnetic Terrapin Studios
presented
Undocumented Features Future Imperfect
THE LEGACY OF KORRA / THE ORDER OF THE ROSE
Suite for Avatar and Trinity (The Diqiu Suite)
Madrigal for a Nostalgic Afternoon (Avatar Storytime)
The Cast
(in order of appearance)
Korra
Kaitlyn Hutchins
Minami Sato
Ryo Sato
Utena Tenjou
Meelo
Garnet
Rohan
Sergei
Corwin Ravenhair
Naga
Senna
Anthy Tenjou
Tenzin (the Elder)
Zanei
Asami Sato
Maki
written by
Benjamin D. Hutchins
Philip Jeremy Moyer
The Diqiu Suite will continue
(technically, it already did)
E P U (colour) 2014