(no subject)

[markofthebrave]

Who: Korra, Asami, Jinora, Ikki, Aang, Roku, Sokka, Zuko, Toph, and Katara
What: There's a new Avatar in town!
When: July 9th
Where: House Avatar
Summary: Just your average worlds colliding.
Rating: G for "greet?"

So... meanwhile, back at the ranch, there were opportunities for those who have caught their journals to know who's coming, and those who have not caught their journals to be taken by surprise at the new Water Tribe member in the house.

Comments

[powdersup]

[She wonders why Katara asked that. she decides to dismiss that. Should she somehow chop something? What should she be chopping?]

He was [is? was, whatever] the councilman from the the Northern Water Tribe and the Chairman of the council. He's been a pretty ambitious politician, but he also took the conflict with the Equalists too far. [...] It didn't seem like it at first, he was just aggressive. He created a taskforce to hunt down Equalist strongholds, and Korra jointed it for a while. But... [...Nah let's skip where Korra's from] After Chief Bei Fong resigned [was tricked, more like] a man named Saikhan took over, and he was allies with Tarlokk. The two of the instituted a curfew for non-benders, and any non-benders who had ties to the Equalists were arrested too.

[She's going to... pause here]

[markofthebrave]

[A power grab? Or was it because he was scared?

...both?]

That's a terrible thing to do.

[Katara's already got a small stack of peppers going. But it's clear her focus isn't on it - or on the fact that Asami's not cutting. She's listening to the story.]

[powdersup]

Of course it was! [...Too strong] It was.

The worst I saw was in the Dragon Flats borough though. The power was out [possibly cut, probably cut] and the people in the district were protesting the curfew on top of it. Demanding their rights and to have the power restored. But... Saikhan's police treated it as an Equalist rally.

[...] Katara, they rounded up all of them with metalbending, they arrested all of them. We [Team Avatar] showed up just as they were doing that.

1/2

[markofthebrave]

[That is not what Aang would have hope for in his city.]

[markofthebrave]

And you stopped them, right?

[powdersup]

We couldn't. [...] I was violating curfew by being out, and Bolin and Mako resisted police action. All three of us were arrested to make sure Korra wasn't.

[markofthebrave]

Excuse me?

[Oh look, righteous indignation.

She turns to stare at Asami incredulously.]

[powdersup]

[...Being judged by Katara is alarming. She hangs her head somewhat, in spite of the other woman being shorter] Korra raised two stone slabs to attack them, but if she'd done that she'd've broken the law and been arrested too. So we [Mako] told her she had to back off and regroup with Tenzin.

[markofthebrave]

[Tenzin. Her son. Another city councilman. Of course, that makes sense.]

That sounds more like the Dai Li than any police force Toph would have trained! That's insane!

[Her indignation, you see, was not directed at you.]

What was the matter with them, arresting innocent people, following orders blindly - that's the kind of thing that lead to the war in the first place!

[She frowned. Going back to an ally was smart, but the whole thing was a travesty, as far as she was concerned.]

I certainly hope Tenzin [my son] got you out.

[powdersup]

[...Oh good, it's not her. She lowers her head. Spending a whole night in jail was. Not the worst thing in her life, but certainly not a highlight of it]

From what I hear, he tried. But he was refused at the police station and told to bring it to the Chairman of the Council - Tarrlok. So... he couldn't do it that same night and went home. [...] Korra didn't agree with waiting though. She confronted Tarrlok that night in his office, and after that- that's when he kidnapped her.

[...] Ling Bei Fong broke me and the others out the next morning to help her and Tenzin rescue Korra. [She doesn't make it clear how they were duped. It's not super relevant yet]

[markofthebrave]

[Well, good on Lin. And she'd have been disappointed in Tenzin - this son she supposedly has - if he hadn't been on his way to do the same thing.]

I see.

[powdersup]

In the end though- [And she smiles... somewhat strained, given her own personal memories from that night] Korra rescued herself, we just found her when she used all her energy doing that.

[markofthebrave]

[Katara nods, thoughtful, noticing the strain in Asami's smile but... again, leaving it alone, for now. Hopefully going in a different direction will be sufficient.]

I'm not sure I understand something. You said that Korra and someone else discovered that Amon was closing off bending with bloodbending. But how did that happen?

[If Tarrlok was the only other bloodbender and Amon had taken his bending away...]

Did that have something to do with Tarrlok as well?

[powdersup]

[..Oh, right, Katara wouldn't know that. Asami ended up assuming.] Tarrlok told them - Amon had him locked up and they found him. So Tarrlok told them about his childhood with his father and... his brother. [A beat] Amon's his brother.

1/2

[markofthebrave]

[markofthebrave]

[Her voice is low only due to the most strenuous application of self-control:]

A whole family of bloodbenders?

[What did they do, make it illegal as an advertisement or something? As far as she knew, Hama was the one who had invented the technique. How could anyone have learned of it otherwise?]

[powdersup]

Their father was a man named Yakone. Forty years ago, he was Republic City's most notorious criminal until Avatar Aang and Chief Bei Fong brought him to trial. [She's... saying this all in a distant tone, apart from the younger versions of them she's met here] There were dozens of witnesses who saw him bloodbending in broad daylight, and often on many people at once - naturally, to most people it was unbelievable, but the then Chairman of the council, Sokka, convinced the rest of them that things thought impossible with bending have been proved wrong all the time. [...And then he escaped and then Aang tracked him down and took his bending. But. Let's just get this out of the way first]

[markofthebrave]

[...Sokka was the chairman of the council.

That should make him happy.

Bloodbending in broad daylight. There were few things more terrifying than that.

She finds her focus.]

Go on.

[powdersup]

When he was convicted, he resisted. He overpowered the whole courtroom and almost escaped the city before Avatar Aang caught up with him. Aang took his bending away. [Which... probably is a bigger state secret for the most part. But after the story Korra had and then the one she learned later from Korra about his origins, there's that] He was taken to prison after that, but a few years later his gang helped him break out. [...]

Just so you know, everything I'm telling you after the trial I know secondhand. But apparently he disguised himself and started a new life up at the North Pole under a different identity. He found a wife, had children - two sons. And he secretly trained them both to be bloodbenders. One of them was Tarrlok and one of them grew up to become Amon.

[markofthebrave]

[Really, every time Asami mentions bloodbending, it's a strike against Katara's heart. She'd never experienced Aang taking someone's bending away, but knowing that it was Aang doesn't even make her blink when that part of the story comes around. He'd only do it as a last resort.

But... in doing it... he'd still failed to keep Republic City safe from the influence of that man, that Yakone. Of course, if he'd stayed in prison, that would be one thing...

But Katara knew better than most people that you didn't have to have bending to be dangerous.]

Tarrlok told them all this?

[powdersup]

That's right. [...Which she interprets as being as suspect source. A pause] But... most of it isn't a lie, at least. Amon really was a waterbender and a bloodbender.

[markofthebrave]

I see.

[Pain and extreme loss can change a person. And if the Tarrlok here was without his bending, as she'd heard...]

I'm going to want to talk to him.

[That's said absently, almost to herself.]

[powdersup]

...Is there anything else you want to know?

[About Amon? The Equalists? Korra? ...Her?]

[markofthebrave]

I want to know a lot of things.

[She smiles a little wryly.]

But I'm not sure how much more I can take today. Why don't you just tell me if there's anything else you think is important to know that could be a threat - we'll focus on that for now.

[powdersup]

[She bites her lip. Her father... her father would definitely constitute a threat if he were to show up here, probaby a far greater one than Tarrlok and possibly on par with Amon. But that's dependent entirely on him getting his technology working and by himself . . . She really, truly, does not want to tell people about her father. It's selfish of her and possibly endangering, but that's still too raw. There's a very distinct pause here before she admits something between silence and the truth-]

A lot of the power the Equalists had in Republic City was from their technology. Specialized motorcycles, armored vans, gloves like the one I had on earlier, combat suits with specialized helmets, mecha-tanks which can't be metalbent, and recently a new type of single-manned airship called an airplane. [...] But I don't think most of those are things you could find here anyway.