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 pats his hand.

[thinklikethis]

He smiles a tiny little smile.

[roc_on]

"Do you want to talk about it or d'you want me to go away for a while and let you get some processing done?"

[thinklikethis]

"Um... is there a third option?"

[roc_on]

"I could... sit here and read stuff on my screen while you think?"

[thinklikethis]

"I mean an option where I am hanging out with you and not thinking about... conveniences," he says.

[roc_on]

"Oh." Pause. "Yeah, sure, if that's what you want to do, we can talk about - I dunno, that book we started in Literature, it looks terrible, I don't think a single thing anyone wrote during the Hundred Years' War was not terribly depressing."

[thinklikethis]

He laughs. "I'm sure there's some book somewhere from around then that's not, but you're right, it's a theme for sure."

[roc_on]

"I wonder what the Literature class book selection process is like. Like, are the teachers all sitting in a room at some point between terms going, 'Okay, let's flip a yuan, and if it lands elements we'll use this story about an earthbender coming of age under Fire Nation rule, and if it lands statue we'll use that one about the same exact thing."

[thinklikethis]

Dao cracks up.

[roc_on]

"I mean, I'm sure there are six interesting ways to handle that premise. But there aren't forty, and there aren't forty plus a hundred-odd sequels, and it's not a particularly landmark feature of literature, it's just something that got a lot of attention for a century. But because it got so much attention we have to read one. Could be worse, we could be reading terrible thinly veiled political rants about bender/nonbender conflict early in Korra's time."

[thinklikethis]

He giggles.

"Terrible thinly veiled political rants are nobody's friend!"

[roc_on]

"That entire segment of history actually really bothers me. I think it deserved, like, a better class of villain, if that makes sense. The nonbenders had legitimate grievances but they had to wait thirty years to make any progress on them because of Amon and the fallout from the mess he made of things."

[thinklikethis]

"...yeah, I see what you mean."

[roc_on]

"Korra didn't handle it that well, either. She had every opportunity to play that whole situation but she got pushed around by politics and scare tactics. I mean, I'd be terrified if someone were threatening to de-bend me, but the solution to that situation is not to throw in with the ass who's curfewing random nonbenders. I disavow identity with her," Beila adds, nodding to herself.

[thinklikethis]

"Can you even do that? I mean, she was the Avatar, you're the Avatar, you're not the same person but you're... kind of the same person."

[roc_on]

"I dunno. I inherited her powers, but, I'm really not seeing any personal similarity. Between me and her, or her and Aang, or any of the three of us and Meixing or Tendo or Roku or Kyoshi, or - we're different people. We're all lined up neatly and we have this particular relationship to each other, but the parts of people that make them people aren't the same between us. I mean, there are animals that bend, having the same bending powers does not make me Korra any more than it makes me a skybisondragonbadgermolemoonspirit."

[thinklikethis]

"...I'm just gonna take a moment to appreciate that mental image," giggles Dao.

[roc_on]

[thinklikethis]

"I don't really know what a moon spirit looks like, so I'm just imagining something... long and undulatey with big whiskers and a lot of limbs. And very fluffy. But with a scaly underbelly. I might have to carve this," he snorts.

[roc_on]

"That," says Beila, "would be hilarious, and you should totally do it."

[thinklikethis]

He giggles some more.

[roc_on]

"I've never seen a badgermole. I've seen sky bison, and once I saw a dragon, but never a badgermole. Should probably arrange to do that sometime when I get to earthbending."

[thinklikethis]

"I've seen, like, pictures of all those things!"

[roc_on]

"Have you not even seen a sky bison? People fly them to and from the city sometimes. The folks who came to tell me I was the Avatar showed up on one."