waterbenders can / if they will apply themselves / learn the healing arts

[roc_on]

Beila studies waterbending, and when she has the basics (waves, ice, the water whip, other relatively simple forms) she's permitted to specialize in healing.

Later on she'll be able to volunteer at a hospital and get her practice in that way, but to start, her teacher advocates practicing on oneself - just a few times, to get a feel for what one's healing bending is doing on both ends at the same time. This dojo produces more and better healers than most, so Beila's inclined to agree with the practice. It's only a few minor injuries, the teacher will be right there to patch her up if Beila doesn't manage the trick by the end of the lesson, and - it's not like she minds, in the right mindset.

Beila gets this faster relative to other students than she did the ordinary waterbending forms. The teacher says she has a natural aptitude. Over the course of her three-hour lesson she heals several burns (these are the easiest injuries to handle with waterbending) and then moves on to slicing her palm shallowly and then pressing healing water into the cut.

It's almost meditative, almost hypnotic. The teacher is satisfied she doesn't need immediate oversight and has gone to see to another student; Beila loses track of time. She's sitting in the dojo courtyard with her bowls of water (one bloody, one clear) and slicing her hand open again at the time her boyfriend is supposed to pick her up.

Comments

[roc_on]

Beila giggles and squeezes his hand.

[thinklikethis]

He smiles tentatively.

[roc_on]

"Well," says Beila. "This wasn't really how I expected this conversation to turn out, but it's better than 'okay, I can't deal with that, we should break up', right?"

[thinklikethis]

"It is way better than that!" says Dao. "Way, way better."

[roc_on]

She kisses him.

[thinklikethis]

He kisses back.

[roc_on]

Oh good, it would be so awkward otherwise.

[thinklikethis]

Well it is maybe a tiny bit awkward.

But kisses!

[roc_on]

Kisses! Yes. It is not yet the time for any significant amount of convenience. Beila wouldn't exactly mind if he pulled her hair or something but he's never been the type to make guesses and that's fine too.

[thinklikethis]

Definitely not a guesser.

Kisses, though. Those he can do.

[roc_on]

"So -" says Beila, after a suitable number of kisses have been exchanged. "When you said you were spooked did that mean something other than spooked?"

[thinklikethis]

"...yep," he admits.

[roc_on]

Beila giggles.

And then: "After that did you just want to see what getting healed felt like, or...?"

[thinklikethis]

"Moooostly," he says, ducking his head a little.

[roc_on]

"Mooooostly," she echoes softly, and she kisses his forehead. "And the rest?"

[thinklikethis]

"Um. The rest. Yeah. There was some... rest."

[roc_on]

"Don't wanna talk about it?" she asks, puzzled.

[thinklikethis]

"I'm just not as good at catching snakenewts as you are," he snorts.

[roc_on]

"I had to practice," she says gently.

[thinklikethis]

"Well - I still don't really know what the rest is, I just know it's there."

[roc_on]

"Yeah, when I first got the idea there was something to find when I was thirteen I had to spend a lot of time sitting with my screen staring at the ceiling making guesses and seeing if they sounded good or not-good and in what ways," Beila says, "it's not like the snakenewts all line up and I just have to put them in a basket."

[thinklikethis]

"...Like what kind of guesses?"

[roc_on]

"How much do you wanna know?"

[thinklikethis]

"...I think I want to know lots!" says Dao.

[roc_on]

"Okay. Unsupported by experiment, I think cuts and burns and hair-pulling are good, strangulation and having my movement restricted and actual hitting are bad. For instance."