masters of the earth / listening and waiting for / the exact moment

[roc_on]

Beila will need to practice more to be truly a master of waterbending, but she knows the technique, now, and the rest is application she can practice on her own time. The nuns find her an earthbending teacher.

She goes to Dao's house after her first earthbending lesson. "Shifu Riko is a strange person," she remarks.

Comments

[roc_on]

"Nope," laughs Beila. "I asked Shifu Riko what in all the spirits' names I was meant to be hearing, and she realized she wasn't dealing with someone who'd known herself an earthbender all her life, and actually explained quite lucidly in plain language that since earth isn't transparent like air or water I need to be paying attention with bending senses, to have a handle on all of it at once when I'm trying to move a chunk bigger than a grain of sand. And she got me some sand so I could use waterbending forms with it as a transition and then I was able to pick up some rocks. She doesn't like sand herself but she knows how to work it."

[thinklikethis]

"Okay, that's much better," says Dao. "Like, reasonable. Reasonable is what that is."

[roc_on]

"Yep. She maintains that hauling boulders was good for my character but apparently I won't have to do it again."

[thinklikethis]

Dao giggles. "Oh good."

[roc_on]

"I can live with a little philosophical disagreement, yeah."

[thinklikethis]

He laughs and hugs her.

[roc_on]

Hugs!

[thinklikethis]

Hugs and kisses. Of a congratulatory nature.

[roc_on]

Yay!

There's also now a little bottle of sand on Beila's belt next to the little bottle of water. It might attract notice if he's going to be in her personal space.

[thinklikethis]

"I thought you said you didn't take any hostages," he says playfully, tapping the bottle.

[roc_on]

"Fff. This isn't the earth's children. It is the earth's dandruff."

[thinklikethis]

Dao cracks up.

[roc_on]

"I can work with sand almost like water," she adds. "Except it's about five times harder. I'm not sure if that's because it's unfamiliar or if it's just naturally more difficult to bend sand."

[thinklikethis]

"I guess you'll find out, if it gets easier later," he says.

[roc_on]

"Yeah. And of course I can't heal with sand. I guess I could exfoliate somebody."

[thinklikethis]

He giggles.

[roc_on]

"Actually I could probably really inconvenience someone with excessive exfoliation if I were ever in a situation where I needed to do combat sandbending, although I doubt it's ever going to be my first choice."

[thinklikethis]

"...Wow, there's a mental image," laughs Dao.

[roc_on]

Beila snorts. "In a good way or a bad way?"

[thinklikethis]

"Kiiiind of a good way."

[roc_on]

[thinklikethis]

Dao blushes.

[roc_on]

That requires kisses.

[thinklikethis]

Awesome!