leceti third person co-sample thread.

[ladyofwolves]

WHO: Ikki & Lin Bei Fong (Legend of Korra): Lucy as Ikki, Megan as Lin.
WHAT: Third person sample thread for ~luceti.
WORDCOUNT: 4,455 total: 2,420 Ikki/Lucy + 2,132 Lin/Megan.

For all that she was in a strange place in even stranger circumstances - wings? had she downed a magical potion and forgotten about it? - Ikki was more or less her usual chipper self. And why shouldn’t she be? The world was safe again. She’d nearly lost her bending, she’d nearly lost the sky, but it was hers still, Korra had saved them, and then Korra had saved Republic City. It was all okay again. Everything was all right, just like Ikki’s father had said it would be. Just like he’d promised. Ikki was a little concerned at the fact her family was clearly not around, but not too concerned. It hadn’t really registered that they might not be in this strange place, because why wouldn’t they be? Ikki was just waiting for her father’s scolding voice, or her mother’s exasperated one, or maybe Jinora, swooping out of the sky to take her back to wherever everyone else was. There didn’t seem to be any danger at the moment, so Ikki wasn’t worrying about it - as far as she knew, the world was safe. And this had to be her world, didn’t it? Granted, none of those serious thoughts (where was this place? where was her family? where were her clothes?) were really running through her head right then. No, Ikki was just happy because there was a fountain, she was hot, and no one was there to scold her about splashing and making a bunch of noise. Having abandoned the new-fangled book thing completely (Jinora would have scolded about the treatment the poor journal had received, probably), Ikki was now in the fountain, laughing. A twist of her feet and she was above the water, cross-legged on an air scooter. This only served to make even bigger splashes, unintentionally drenching anyone who happened to be standing nearby. Ikki, of course, didn’t even notice. ➳ Lin was the very opposite of chipper. She felt like she'd been electrocuted and then had her bending ripped away while the rain had poured down over her-- oh wait, that was exactly what had just happened. She had no idea where she was or what was going on-- two things that were absolutely infuriating-- and no clue how she'd gotten into this situation. The last thing she remembered was Amon's hand on her head and the sensation of-- she couldn't describe it, the thought just make her stomach roll. And then she was somewhere that was certainly not Air Temple Island or even Republic City, nor any other place Lin had ever seen. And she had on a sundress. And had wings (what). She'd fallen unconscious and woke up in a madland. She ruled out a delusion, admittedly with some lack of sureness. It was entirely possible that the loss of her bending had caused a loss of sanity, but she liked to think that she was mentally stronger than that, able to bend or no. Plus, a delusion of Lin's would never be anything like this. It didn't make much sense for Amon, either, which ruled it out as his doing. He left his victims behind, vanishing into the shadows, like the monster (the cowardly monster, Lin thought) he was. He didn't give them wings and dress them in sundresses (because that was just outright crazy). Mentally listing what needed to be done (1. find out where she was; 2. find out how she had gotten her; 3. find a way out and home; 4. punch Amon in his stupid masked face, lack of bending be damned) Lin had stood and walked away from where she'd awoken, surveying her surroundings with narrowed eyes as she did. She held her journal in one hand, annoyed that it's first page hadn't been "THIS IS WHAT IS GOING ON AND HOW TO GET HOME", not that she had expected as much. It was while walking and surveying that she had heard a familiar laugh. It was only this afternoon that she had stayed on Air Temple Island to look after Tenzin's family, though it felt like it was years ago after everything that had happened. Seeing Tenzin's second eldest child splashing water all over people from inside a fountain, Lin's first instinct was to thrust out her arm and use her metal cables to grab the seven-year-old and pull her over to her. She felt quite foolish after that, since a) she didn't have her cables on her and b) she couldn't bend. With a deep breath, Lin walked toward the fountain, grabbing the girl by the scruff of her shirt and hauling her from the water. "What are you doing?" It came out harsher than she meant, but Lin was tired and sore and on edge. ➳ So much for that ‘no one around to scold her’ thing. Ikki was used to defying gravity. It came with being an airbender. Usually she did so on her own terms, though, instead of dangling in the grip of the once-chief of Republic City’s police force. Ikki might have put up a fight - squirming, whirlwinds, screaming and all - if she hadn’t recognized the voice immediately, and sure enough, craning her head backwards to get a look at her captor, there was Lin Bei Fong. Since Lin had been with her family before Ikki had arrived at this place, she wasn’t too surprised - maybe everyone had decided to go on a trip while she’d slept, and Lin was the one sent to check on her. Or something. She did the only thing that made sense, given all that. Ikki squealed, loudly, and twisted around in Lin’s grip to give the (once) metalbender a giant hug. “Aunt Lin!” Lin had been upgraded in Ikki’s mind from ‘dad’s ex-girlfriend’ or ‘chief of police’ in that single moment when she had leapt off of Oogi to save the last airbenders - even if the worst had occurred after Lin’s sacrifice. Ikki’s shirt was twisted up in the action, but she didn’t seem to mind. Then she took a breath, which would have been enough warning for her parents or siblings. “You’re here! Why are you here? Where’s here? Is this Republic City? Did I fall off Oogi? Hey, did you see my wings?” And then, half crawling further up into Lin’s grip, Ikki checked Lin’s back and confirmed that yes, yes Lin did have wings, too. “Oooh, pretty! Yours look all metal-coloured. Where’d you get those? Did you always have wings? Can you fly like an airbender now? Mine don’t seem to do much but I thought maybe they were BABY wings on account of I’m not a grown-up, but yours look small, too!” “Have you seen my mommy and daddy? Or Jinora or Meelo or Rohan? Or Oogi? Oh, or Korra? No? What about Bolin and Mako and Asami? Or Uncle Bumi? I can’t find anyone, it’s so weird.” A short, short pause for breath, and Ikki finally got around to answering Lin’s original question. “I’m just playing! I can’t get all that high without a glider, so I was going to go climb trees later, wanna go? Hey, this isn’t a dream, is it? ‘Cause normally my dreams are a lot more whoosh-y.” ‘Woosh-y’ came with vague, circular hand motions, and it was hard to tell what Ikki might actually be referring to. Airbending? Colours? Rainbow sparkle castles with moondrop spoons? ➳ Just as everything else in the past day (no, several days-- the past couple of weeks, really) had surprised her, so did the sudden hug from the little airbender. Loosening her grip on the girl's shirt, Lin didn't have much of a chance to get over her surprise ("Aunt Lin"? well that was new) before Ikki had launched into the flurry of words. Staring down at the girl with a raised eyebrow, Lin waited for the girl to stop or at least stop for a breath so she could catch up, but every time Ikki did stop for a second Lin still had no time to process the endless rampage of questions or attempt to answer them. How could one little girl talk so much? Lin finally caught a moment to say, "Slow down!" and decipher the ramble. "I don't know where we are, or how we got here. Where were you, before you were here?" She frowned, glancing at the girl's back, spotting the very light yellow wings. "I don't know how we got wings." No, of course I didn't have wings before, but she left that out. She doubted she could fly like an airbender with such tiny wings-- she couldn't even see or feel like an earthbender, now, she was just... not anything, she supposed-- but she hadn't tried, since that seemed like a waste of time. "I don't know if anyone else is here." She didn't know a lot of things, which was becoming more frustrating as time went on. "I haven't seen anyone else familiar-- I suppose you haven't either?" Well, that was awkward. Lin dearly, dearly hoped that Tenzin or Pema or anyone really would pop out now, if just so she wouldn't have to be responsible for Tenzin's daughter while they were trapped in some unknown place. ➳ ‘Slow down’ wasn’t at all a new order for Ikki; her mother asked her to do so sometimes, her father had begged her to do so sometimes, and Jinora had a look for it (sometimes the look came accompanied with Jinora plugging her ears while Ikki squealed). Ikki didn’t take it badly, just shutting her mouth and listening with apparent patience - well, okay, she looked like she was going to bounce off at any second, but at least she had stopped talking. Ikki shook her head, shrugging at the same time. “No-o-o-o,” She drew out the word like the answer might change, but none of her family dropped out of the sky, so finally Ikki had to end it. “I haven’t seen anyone. Well! No, I’ve seen people, but no one I knew, so I didn’t talk to them..” That showed an almost unheard of cautiousness from Ikki, who was more prone to leaping before looking (and who never looked even after she leaped). But then, being captured by a masked man and almost losing your bending would do that to you, even if you were a bundle of energy. “I haven’t seen anyone bending, even. I mean, that’s weird, right? Normally you at least see some but I guess if this isn’t Republic City that could be why.” She screwed up her face in thought, but couldn’t really come up with a better explanation. “Except even in the South Pole you see lots of waterbenders, and this isn’t the South Pole.” Which it should have been, last Ikki checked. “Maybe we drank a love potion of rainbows and sunsets, and now we’re in a magical castle in the sky?” This explanation was offered up in all apparent seriousness, and Ikki looked around, then frowned. “But I don’t see any princes, so I guess not.” Which was sad, because Ikki would totally be on board with a magical castle in the sky. Maybe if they weren’t going to go back to Air Temple Island any time soon they could go find one. That could be a cool new place to live! Air Temple Island still brought a pang of loss that Ikki was entirely unfamiliar with. It also brought back the memories of that day, even though they’d won. Ikki still remembered having to leave her childhood home to flee. She still remembered Lin looking at them, and then jumping away, to save them. She still remembered being captured, remember the stage, remembered her father’s fear, her own fear. She remembered the good things, too, though, and assured herself that she would see Air Temple Island again soon. That reminded Ikki of something she hadn’t done yet, though. Ikki hugged Lin again, her small arms going around Lin’s neck. “Thank you, and I’m really happy you’re here. I mean, I dunno where here is, but it can’t be that bad if we get super pretty wings, right?” ➳ Lin's frown deepened. "Well, I'm sure they're around here somewhere," she tried to sound reassuring-- but mostly just sounded annoyed. And was at least half lying, as she wasn't very sure at all. But it stood to reason that if Lin could happen across Ikki then they could very well come across other familiar people. As for the unfamiliar people that were around, Lin had not spoken with them either, automatically suspicious of anyone and everyone around her. Well, except for Tenzin's little daughter, but it was hard to be suspicious of a talkative small child. She raised an eyebrow at the idea of 'love potion of rainbow and sunsets', but even as she was about to say how absolutely insane that sounded, she paused. They had wings and were in a fairly nice place and 'magical castle in the sky' seemed as likely as anything. "I don't recall drinking a love potion, but I fear that that theory is-- isn't exactly the most unlikely," she admitted, awkwardly. The second hug surprised her as much as the first had, but Lin awkwardly gave the girl a hug back with one arm. Before reaching up and detaching the girl and attempting to place her back on the ground. "Yes, well, someone needs to watch out for you, I suppose, if your parents aren't here." Lin glanced around again, and again there was no sign of anyone she knew. Her babysitting skills weren't exactly the best-- she'd babysat once in her entire life, and that'd been that afternoon. And had gone from babysitting to defending against Equalist attack in a split second. "There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous in the immediate area, but we should still be very careful," she cautioned. ➳ Ikki was certain her family was around the strange new place, too, if only because the alternative was impossible for her seven-year-old self. She shrugged a little, even as Lin frowned harder, since the frown wasn’t exactly directed at Ikki herself so much as the circumstances. Surely it wouldn’t take that long to find the others, right? And even if it took a few hours, Lin had babysat for the airbending children before, and Ikki was secure in the knowledge that Lin was an approved adult to hang around with. Besides, Lin Bei Fong had taken down airships to defend them. She was a metalbender first class, the greatest earthbender Ikki had ever known, and Ikki felt completely safe in Lin’s company. Why wouldn’t she? Anyone who tried to attack them would find two benders, one a master and one an accomplished apprentice, so surely they could hold their own. Especially with Korra’s success against Amon. “‘Kay,” Ikki agreed, cheerfully enough, letting Lin set her down and then taking her right hand, clasping it in her own as she glanced around, too. “But it’s all earth, here. So you have lots of stuff to bend, and I’ve always got stuff to bend, so we should be okay. I mean, no one has attacked me, anyway, so we should be fine anyway, but if people did attack us we should be okay.” This was said with all the cheerful authority of a seven-year-old girl, and Ikki grinned up at her temporary caretaker. “We should make a pro-bending team! Airbenders should be allowed to play too, and you can be my earthbender.” Ikki looked around again. “I mean, if there’s an arena nearby. There should be, though, right? It’s super popular!” ➳ 'So you have lots of stuff to bend.' Lin froze at that, glancing back down at the girl. "I'm afraid I wouldn't be much use on a pro-bending team," she said matter-of-factly, skirting around outright admitting that she couldn't bend for the moment. She had enough trouble just thinking it, it was like a sickening pit in her stomach. She didn't want to admit it. Earthbending had been apart of her, for her entire life. Amon may as well taken away her sight (she would have prefered that, actually) or her legs, was what it felt like. "But if we're attacked I believe we can still manage." If all Lin was good at was bending, then she might as well been good at nothing. It wasn't as if Lin had trained to fight without her bending, but she'd be damned if she let that stop her. ➳ Ikki’s perpetual smile dropped into an immediate frown as she looked up at Lin. “Is this ‘cause I’m not a master airbender yet, Aunt Lin?” After all, she didn’t see how Lin Bei Fong wouldn’t be of use on a pro-bending team. Maybe Korra had already scouted her for a brand new team, or something? Her five-second dream of being a probender was already in danger. “Because I took out lots of equalists back then, you saw that, and even if we got caught I’m not useless! Really, truly, honestly!” They’d been caught. All of them. Tenzin, her father, master airbender, perpetual family hero. Jinora, Meelo, Ikki. Pema, Rohan. Oogi. And Ikki had sort of given up, on the stand, although she didn’t like to think of that. Lin probably wouldn’t have given up. Tenzin hadn’t given up. If anyone ever caught her like that again, Ikki wasn’t going to stop fighting. Never, ever again. ➳ "What?" Lin's eyebrows shot up. "No, no, that's not what I meant." Spirits, what if she made her cry? Lin wasn't sure what she'd do if she made the seven-year-old cry, she had enough trouble dealing with children who weren't crying. Lin knelt, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders, hurriedly trying to reassure her, "You're a great-- a magnificent airbender." "It's just that--" Lin began, but stopped, a knot in her throat. "What I meant was that I'm the weak link of the two of us," she said finally, pursing her lips. And it was true. Benders were stronger than non-benders, that was just a fact. There were exceptions to that rule, people who had trained in things such as swordfighting who could fight against even powerful benders, but Lin was not one of those people. She'd grown up with a skill and an ability and had built her life around that, and now it was gone. ➳ Lin received a stare. A long, long stare. Ikki honestly didn’t know what to say, for once in her life. It was a moment for the history books - Ikki, speechless. Then she broke the moment into tiny little pieces by taking a single breath. “What?” Ikki tried to think of more questions, normally an easy enough task, but she honestly couldn’t come up with anything more coherent than wait what what. “What do you mean you’re the weak link, Aunt Lin? You’re like - “ Ikki waved her hands around, mimicking earthbending. “Fwoom! Smash! Crush!” Some more hand waving. “I mean, how’re you a weak link?” ➳ "That's exactly it-- I'm not like fwoom, smash, crush." While Ikki's imitation was earthbending wasn't the best way to describe it, Lin wasn't sure how else to do so. Finally, she admitted, trying to sound as calm as she could despite the fact that she wanted to beat her head against the ground just a bit, "My bending was taken away. I can't earthbend anymore." Or ever again. She couldn't see with her feet like her mother had taught her, couldn't lift rocks up and throw them, couldn't rip apart anymore airships, couldn't do anything. She'd never felt more useless than she did now, not even when her officers had been captured and hauled away. ➳ “Riiiiiiiiiiight,” Ikki said, very slowly. She was beginning to wonder if Lin had hurt her head or something, but even leaning closer, with Lin kneeling down at her height, Ikki couldn’t see any obvious head injury. Then again, she wasn’t a healer, and paid only so much attention to the anatomy and health scrolls Jinora had read, once upon a time. “It was.” That much, at least, was a fact. “But then you got it back.” Ikki sounded completely confused, and it came out as more of a question than she had intended. What, exactly, was going on? "Korra gave it back. Remember?" ➳ Now Lin felt confused (well, more confused). She raised an eyebrow, staring at Ikki. She had expected at least some sort of surprise, since the girl seemed to think Lin could still bend, but there wasn't even that reaction, leaving Lin completely confused at the turn of their conversation. "Then I-- what?" Was all Lin could come up with. If Korra knew how to restore bending, Lin sure as hell hadn't heard about-- and was pretty sure she would have, at some point, given how huge that sort of news would have been. It would have completely changed everything-- Amon's greatest power was taking away others' powers, but if Korra could just give that power back... Well, either way, Lin knew she couldn't bend. She was barefoot, on solid ground, and felt nothing (she also may have tried lifting boulders when she'd woken up to no effect). "Ikki, what are you talking about?" ➳ “What are you talking about?” Ikki countered, sounding a little agitated. She didn’t know anything about head injuries! Where ws Jinora when you needed her? What if Lin died or something?? “In the South Pole, after Korra went off and talked to Grandpa Aang - I guess, anyway - she came back and could bend again, and she touched you on the forehead and went glow-y, and then you could bend again.” “We went there to see GranGran,” the younger bender clarified, correctly guessing that Lin had no idea what she was talking about. “After Amon took Korra’s bending. GranGran said she couldn’t do anything, and Korra ran off, but then she came back, and...fwoosh?” There wasn’t really a sound effect for the Avatar State. ➳ Lin just stared, open-mouthed. Because what? Korra and her friends had rode off on the polar bear dog while Tenzin's family and Lin had flew on Oogi, then Lin had been captured. She was completely lost. Had the small airbender girl created some sort of... happy ending after the trauma of the day's events? Like Ikki, Lin wasn't a healer and had no clue. "You went to the South Pole because Korra's bending was taken away and then she talked to Aang and... fwoosh." She repeated, trying to make sense of that sentence. "Ikki," she tried to sound gentle, "None of that happened," as far as she was aware, anyway. Who knew how long she'd been unconscious. "Last I remember, you and your family were flying away on the bison," she added, as if that would clear everything up. ➳ Ikki stared back, just as shellshocked. “Um,” she hesitated, for once in her life, not exactly certain what was going on. “That’s not right, though.” Ikki began to gain speed as she spoke, the strange, slow, careful way of talking giving way to her natural motormouth state of being. “I mean, that happened, but that was, like, a while ago. We flew off, then we got caught, then we were going to get our airbending taken away at the Arena, and then we got saved, and then Amon fell into the harbor and got away - oh but before that he took Korra’s bending but then she airbended finally - and then we found you and Uncle Bumi came, and then we went to see GranGran.” “You were there,” Ikki stressed that part, her face scrunched up in confusion. “You were there at the dock and then you went with us to see GranGran. Did you hit your head, Aunt Lin?” ➳ Well, it was quite the tale, Lin could give Ikki that. Unimaginable to her, but quite creative nonetheless. "I... see." Lin didn't see, at all. "I don't recall hitting my head, no." She frowned. She doubted she could forget all of that, including a head injury, so easily. It'd be hard to forget a trip to the South Pole. "Amon took my bending. I passed out, then I woke up in this... place. That's... it. That and then I found you." There were several possibilities. 1) Ikki was delusional, having convinced herself that everything was all great when everything was falling apart, 2) Lin really did have a head injury, she could admit it was possible if unlikely, 3) she was still unconscious and dreaming that one of Tenzin's children was telling her about how everything had worked out fine in the end. The third was seeming more and more likely by the minute, even if Lin still doubted she was imaginative (and fluffy) enough to invent a world such as the one she was in. ➳ Well, that was weird. Ikki stared at Lin for a few more seconds before shrugging, apparently deciding not to worry too much about the matter any longer. “Well, we have wings, so I guess having different memories is less strange than that.” It was almost philosophical, really. “Maybe we can go and ask someone about it. I dunno that we’ll figure it out, ‘cause I don’t know anything about how I got wings or changed clothes or where we are or why we are or anything.” Ikki tugged on Lin’s hand. “Well, I’ll protect you if you can’t bend, so you don’t have to worry, Aunt Lin. Okay? It’s my turn this time! You’re family, so don’t worry.” ➳ Lin was still concerned about the matter, but decided that there wasn't exactly much they could do about it at the moment. And Ikki had a point-- suddenly having wings were the peak of strangeness, in Lin's book (right above waking up in unknown places in clothes that weren't hers). She stood, dusting off her dress a bit (Lin did not wear dresses often-- or at all, ever, actually). "We'll figure it out, if we need to." Or someone would explain. There was always some kind of explanation or answer, Lin figured, and if they were here much longer she was sure those answers would come about somehow or another. For what felt like the first time in an eternity, Lin smiled-- a small smile, more of a half-quirk up of her lips, but a small nevertheless. The airbending kids had already saved her once, and she could only hope that such a situation would just not arise again. "Thank you, Ikki," she said. "Now, let's see if we can find at least some answers."