tushanshu | Text; Don't judge.

[There’s actually a fairly long pause after he knocks. After a few moments of silence, Korra’s voice can be heard from within, albeit muffled.]

Just a second!

[Then the door swings open to show Korra standing there with a cup filled with ice-slushed floating fruit and straw, the other (wrong) hand giving an incorrect salute.]

Captain on board. [She chuckles and sidesteps to let him in, offering the cup to him.]

That is what they say, right? [There wasn’t too much she knew about militaristic procedures. After all, General Iroh was the first person she ever met with that kind of background and the way they met didn’t allow for her to really ask him any questions.]

[Jim grins, salutes her back (properly, as much showing her the right technique as returning the gesture) and steps inside, taking that cup with a faintly raised eye. Where the hell did she get ice this time of year? He didn't think the freezers were cold enough to produce it.]

'On deck'. We say 'on deck'. Or 'on the bridge'. It kind of depends on where you are. So what is it they say about Avatars?

Wow, I was that off? [Korra took mental note of it, she had every intention of greeting him again like that when he least expected, which he probably got often so ‘never’ might apply. Teasing is one of the strongest Avatar traits.

She returned his look at the cup with sly smirk, but said nothing. If anything Korra was content to let him come to his conclusions later.]

Hmm, it usually goes along the lines “Hey Avatar Korra” or “It’s the Avatar, get her!”, take your pick. [The word Avatar in her little example is wrought with sarcasm. The latter she says with a ‘What can you do? shrug.]

No salute though. Unless you count fighting stances as one. Have a seat.

[Grabbing her own half-full cup from the desk as well as a clear bag filled with fish jerky, Korra looked to see where Jim would sit.]

[Well okay then. He kicked his boots off by the door and ambled inside, flinging himself down on her couch with the bravado of someone who may as well own the place.]

That a problem? People picking fights with you, I mean.

[He takes a drink of that -- whatever it is -- and raises both eyebrows appreciably. It's actually pretty good!]

Guess so. Seems to come with the territory of being the Avatar. I mean in only six months in Republic City I had revolutionsts threatening the city, trying to get a sneak attack on me, a power hungry councilman kidnap me, the leader of those revolutionists kidnap my friend, knock me out, have me hunted down, and even took my bending away.

[Her mouth turns to a line of a smile on only one side of her face.]

So yeah, just a bit of a problem.

[Grabbing a chair to a small dining table, Korra dragged it over to sit at the end of the coffee table in front the couch and not to far from Jim. She set down her cup on it and took out a strip of fish jerky, putting it between her teeth before tossing the bag to Jim.]

Gotta say, I really like "on bridge" a lot better.

Edited (Too many LIKES Korra, this isn't Facebook, omg.) 2013-07-13 23:12 (UTC)

['That's rough, buddy'.

No really, he has no idea what to say to that, so he just sort of grimaces, runs a hand over his face.]

Six months, huh? Do I even want to know what life's like normally?

[Not that he hasn't done a lot since he became captain, but... it's different for him, he's Starfleet. Even if she's the 'Avatar', Korra's still just a kid. What, seventeen, tops? And Jim likes her. That's important.

He shakes his head briefly, and brightens again at the further discussion of ship-wide terminology.]

Well, a bridge is a specific part of the ship. 'Deck' is more generic. The bridge is where the captain, pilot, first officer, navigator-- basically the entire command crew are during flight and combat.

Normally? [Asked with a wry grin.] Normally at the South Pole I'd be in the compound, training like I have been since I was four. [Korra took a bite from the jerky, salty with some pepper and a hint of lemon.] Really feels like a prison sometimes, but it's all to keep the Avatar safe. [The last four words are said with actual finger quotes and a roll of her eyes.]

And that's where the steering wheel and stuff is, right? I knew bridge sounded familiar, but really I just assumed that was the ramp they used to board people with. So if all the commanding people are there, where is everyone else?

Since you were four.

[That's echoed with a faint sense of incredulity because that sounds ridiculous and not even remotely awesome, what the hell!]

Uh-- [STILL KIND OF DISTRACTED BY THAT 'FOUR' THING.] Yeah, something like that. We don't actually have... steering wheels or anything, it's all pneumatic -- [flounder] -- no steering wheels. But otherwise yeah. Everybody else is all over the rest of the ship, down in Engineering - that's where the warp core is - or in the med bay. There's a million functions a ship needs to run smoothly, we've got a crew of over a thousand people.

Yup. [Korra happily took a bigger bite. The strips weren't that large, but plentiful. She caught the unease in Jim's voice.]

So you have phones or radios set up to call parts of the ship and stuff?

[Korra's assuming radios because having an phone operator on a ship just sounded too ridiculous.]

Benders usually discover their first element when they're about twelve or thirteen, past Avatars included. Since the last one, Aang, was hunted down by the Fire Nation's army, the White Lotus tried to find the next Avatar as soon as possible.

[Korra pauses before taking a sip from her straw. The floating fruit she had been sipping from over the past hour melted. Nimbly, she twirled her index finger over the opening and the contents swirled, turning from liquid to ice. Then she happily drinks.]

Lucky for them I was an early bloomer I guess. [A pause.] Er, the White Lotus is a group also dedicated to keeping order.

[She takes the last bite of her jerky and is about to reach for the bag she tossed to Jim before she pauses.]

You can have one you know, you're the taste tester. Not me.

[Technology exposition is so hard. Where's Chekov, he could explain all this!!]

It's way more advanced than phones or radios, but-- same basic principle, yeah. We've got communications officers that specialize in hailing other ships or planets, too. The scale is hard to imagine if you aren't used to space travel.

[It's like saying 'picture the size of Sirius as comparative to Sol' and expecting someone to know what you're talking about without giving them the tools to understand the comparison. Jim shakes his head and falls silent, then, as she talks about her world, and then - lightbulb! jerky, right - he takes a piece out of the bag and then tosses it back with it between his teeth.]

And then they just kept you locked up? That's kind of...

[HE MAKES A FACE and gestures vainly with one hand. How to edit language around a teenaged girl??]

Not cool. And this is pretty good.

[A wave of the jerky.]

So advanced better-than-radios. Like the consoles, only smaller? [That was far as she going to understand without seeing it for herself.]

Well technically, no. I wasn’t locked up. I mean I could go out and ride my polar bear dog, take some little trips around the South Pole and see my parents. Sometimes it just felt like a prison. Usually when people got angry at me. [She shrugs. It was her life, so she wasn’t about to complain about it anymore than a normal teenage girl would complain about not being able to leave the house any time she wanted.] But yeah, it made a lot more sense once I got to Republic City. First day I got arrested, and then trouble just kind of found me.

[After talking to Stocking, Jim’s swearing would seem courteous.]

Excellent! I’ll bring the idea to my boss and see if he can market them.

Closer, yeah.

[Awh, she's cute and catches on pretty fast. Jim gives her a fond smile-- but there's only one thing he gets out of the next bit.]

Polar-bear dog? I thought you were from [Jim there are much more polite ways to say 'technologically underdeveloped planet' than the ones you're thinking of.] -- a place that didn't have the technology to do gene splicing?

What do jeans have to do with polar bear dogs?

[She was seriously suspecting Jim was actually drunk and just barely managed to pass himself off as sober most of the time.]

Don’t let it melt on you. [Korra waved her hand so his fruit slush was cold again, causing the outside of the cup to develop a thin layer of frost.]

Although it was kind of funny to picture. I mean, it’s cute when a fire ferret is wearing clothes, so why not something like a hippo cow.

[She’s not talking nonsense, honest.]

Genes. With a G. Genetics.

[Jim is always slightly intoxicated, lbr. WELL EXCEPT FOR RIGHT NOW because alcohol rationing. Gosh.

He does hold the glass out and away from him when she re-colds it, though, and he's sort of staring at it. That. He knows the two things aren't the same, but that reminds him of Gary Mitchell, and that whole... debacle. He coughed, and carefully re-examined he cup.]

Elemental bending, huh?

[See he's not even going to comment on 'hippo cow' because it's his turn to think that Korra's been hitting the cactus juice. Sweet, sweet miscommunication.]

Ge-netics?

[A new word, which is why she pauses trying to say it correctly.]

Yeah, all four elements. Remember? [That word was said with a sly smirk. She was teasing him and liking it very much. The adults she knew who held some type of rank have been pretty not-fun, but Jim was proving otherwise. And Korra was enjoying it very much.]

So how much would it cost for me to get one of those fleet shirts?

'The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics'. Hair colour, eye colour, that sort of thing. Even your bending is inherited and falls under the whole genetics umbrella.

[Well, maybe not hers specifically, but generally? If it was specific enough that there were four separate areas that produced four different kinds of bending, it was definitely tied to genetics.]

Okay, so correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there more than just 'four' elements? Metal and Wood, right? In Eastern Earth mythologies.

[... and then he just leans back against the couch, drapes one arm over it.]

Four years at Starfleet Academy, to start. But I guess, if you want a knock-off, we could try and get somebody to tailor one. So long as you never told my first officer. Ever.

[Korra did actually catch more than half that! Just not much more.]

So you think we did something like to polar bear dogs, somehow? [Yep, she’s teasing.]

Metal falls under Earth. In fact, Toph invented metalbending and that’s not even the reason she’s the greatest earthbender on our world. [Sip of floating fruit slush.] And she’s thirteen.

[First officer sounded like a stick in the mud just like Jim said.]

Okay I won’t tell him. Spock, right? You said colors mean different stations. What does blue mean?

Blue represents our sciences. Spock's a science officer, but it covers our medical staff as well.

[He's not even touching that thirteen year old prodigy thing with a thirty-nine and a half foot poll. What sort of world do you even come from, girl.]

Cool. I'll take a blue one then! I can heal people after all, and blue's kind of my color. [She bobs her head as a nod.] Water Tribe.

[Then she can't help but look at him with a mischievous squint.] So are you buying this shirt for me, or do I have to poodle-pony up some juulan?

[Just her eyes lower to the metal symbol on his shirt, her expression unchanging.] Is that a part of the shirt too?

Hey, why don't we go fifty-fifty? That seems fair.

[A grin! And then, he reaches up unselfconsciously to drag the pads of his fingers across the badge.]

They show specializations within the field. Here.

[He unpins it, and holds it out. It looks like this]

Sure! I’ve got my money saved up for one of those little music thingies they sell here in Metal, but I think I’d rather spend it on this.

[Korra leans forward, her eyes big so as not to miss any detail of the badge.] I thought you said you guys didn’t have any medals.

[Waiting for just half a second, Korra reached out to touch it to see if it was actually metal or some kind of synthetic. When she felt the smooth carving, her lips pursed and her eyes widened.]

Okay, yeah. I need one.

Edited 2013-07-17 17:15 (UTC)

This is more of an insignia.

[He pins it back to his shirt with a rueful shake of his head.]

I can't give you one of these, sorry. They need to be earned.

[Korra does her best not to give a little groan of longing when it's withdrawn from her fingertip. The only type of symbol she had was the one on her jacket, but this could be on anything.]

Well it's a pretty cool insignia. I can see how it ties in to the whole "STARship" thing.

[IS THAT A CHALLENGE?]

Sure, give me time. I can earn it. [An incredibly confident smirk is on her face, only the edge of her lips latching onto the straw manage to break it a little.]

Korra.

[And Jim's suddenly serious, and he sets his own drink aside. There's no anger in his tone, but there is patience. Jim's a teacher, too.]

A lot of my people have lived and died wearing this, for what it stands for to us. It's important. It's a lifelong philosophy every bit as much as it's a piece of a uniform.

[Hearing her name spoken like that drains the smile from her lips and she places her cup onto the table. It’s the one Tenzin used when she didn’t fully understand something. When the seriousness of what he meant by earning is explained to her, Korra bites her lower lip and furrows her brow.]

I’m sorry, I just thought… [She felt she had overstepped her bounds and shoved disrespect where her playfulness should have been.]

I won’t ask for one again.

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;