the mighty spirits / tolerate no impudence / and show no mercy

[roc_on]

Beila has been volunteering at the hospital for a week now. About four percent of the population can waterbend, and all benders have to be trained some just to control their powers instead of being plagued by constant accident, but most don't acquire significant skill, and most don't specialize in healing. There is always more demand for waterbenders than there are waterbenders to be had, so Beila's working alongside nonbending and other-element doctors and nurses and techs. They start her in the burn ward, because burns are easiest and Avatar or no she's a novice, and she washes away hurts and refuses to sign autographs and takes her legally required twenty-minute breaks at regular intervals and then heals more.

The school term ends. Beila withdraws from classes. She writes an open letter about that, thanking the teachers and so on for their time and attention, explaining her decision, and she puts it up on the public-facing official Avatar screenserver that the nuns set up for her. She divides her time between classes with Shifu Hayaka, volunteer work at the hospital, intensive meditation, reading, and Dao.

She's with Dao when the earthquake hits, sitting on her roof while he does homework and she reads.

The ground shakes like gelatin, and Beila's been airbending to keep from falling over too long to react with anything other than an instinctive shove of air; but the air is sluggish, reluctant, something is wrong.

The roof has a view of the sea, and the sea is bubbling - no steam, it's not boiling, it's just angry -

And the air is too warm.

Something has the elements spectacularly agitated.

And Beila doesn't know what.

Comments

[roc_on]

"I didn't know bringing you into the spirit world with me was even possible," Beila muses, counting steps, pausing to account for an office building in the way, counting more steps.

[thinklikethis]

"Me neither," he says wryly.

[roc_on]

"I guess I'll ask the nuns about it. You're okay, right? You feel normal?"

[thinklikethis]

"Yep! As far as I can tell, anyway."

[roc_on]

"Okay, well, tell me if that proves to be - temporary or anything. I would be upset but not surprised if I'd managed to accidentally kill you, doing that, I would've taken precautions falling-over or no falling-over if I'd known it was a remote possibility."

[thinklikethis]

"I'm so reassured," Dao mutters.

[roc_on]

"I'm sorry!" exclaims Beila. "To the very best of my knowledge it's never happened before!"

[thinklikethis]

He smiles and shakes his head. "Okay."

[roc_on]

Eventually she's coming up on the right number of steps, and she slows down. "Tell me if you see a sinkhole, anyone looking shifty, or - anything weird," she says.

[thinklikethis]

"Will do!"

[roc_on]

Beila switches to something of a grid search pattern here. There's a fair amount of earthquake damage, and she has to waft them over some rubble, but it's not unnavigable.

There's not exactly a sinkhole over there, but there are some long boards latticed over an area in an empty lot.

[thinklikethis]

"...That looks like a thing," says Dao.

[roc_on]

"Yes," says Beila. "Yes it does."

She heads for the thing.

She peers at the lattice of wood, then nudges aside one board with her foot. It moves readily. Under it is a deep, dark pit.

"Okay," she says, "my guess is whoever owns this lot met the spirit's manifestation and agreed to cover it up but didn't do it well enough and people are dumping things in here and the spirit of the underground river slash cave slash magma pocket is pissed off."

[thinklikethis]

"So... solutions?" says Dao. "Cover it up better? Put up a sign? 'Do Not Dump Here, May Cause Earthquakes'?"

[roc_on]

"Sign draws attention to it. I think it just needs to be thoroughly covered up. And also I explicitly agreed to pass on the spirit's message so I need to find who owns this lot. I'll call Shifu Hayaka, failing that the nuns, I'm sure one of them knows an earthbender who can handle it. I don't know how to handle it myself yet. Here, you borrow my screen, look up the address in the recordhall files." She hands over her screen and chordpress and pulls out her phone.

[thinklikethis]

Dao looks up the address.

[roc_on]

It belongs to some dude! His home address is on file. It's about a twenty minute walk from here.

"Hi, Shifu Hayaka. Yeah, it was, I figured it out. I need an earthbender - no, I don't have to do earthbending myself, just a specific job that needs doing. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes once whoever it is gets here. No, my father mostly works with metal, I need structural integrity. Do you know someone who - Shifu Hayaka, I've told you that it really bothers me to be interrupted. It's fine. Okay. We're at -" Beila rattles off the address. "We can wait."

[thinklikethis]

He gives her the address.

[roc_on]

"That's where the owner lives? Okay, he gets a visit after this place is shored up, then." Beila sits at the edge of the sinkhole to stand guard and wait. "Well, this has been an unreasonably exciting day."

[thinklikethis]

"Yep," says Dao.

[roc_on]

"I'm going to call the nuns."

She calls the nuns.

"Hello, Master Dechen! Yes, I heard. Yes, I'm solving the problem. Yes, I'll tell you all about it, but first, I have a question. I went into the spirit world, and I had my boyfriend nearby, to watch my body. I accidentally pulled him in after me. No, Master Dechen, I didn't know that was possible, that's why I'm asking you. He got back in just fine, yeah. He seems all right. Yeah. No, just like normal, like me. Okay. You're sure? Okay."

Beila hangs up. "Master Dechen doesn't have a clue what happened either, sees no reason to expect you to suddenly keel over, and will look up some references to double-check."

[thinklikethis]

Dao snorts.

[roc_on]

"Please don't suddenly keel over, I'd be sad."

[thinklikethis]

"I would be sad too," says Dao. "Well, no, I'd be dead. But I'd be sad about being dead, if that was an option."

[roc_on]

"Just don't be too sad about being dead or you'll be a mischievous kinda ghost. Shoot for a gentle melancholy."