004 ◉ audio; dated to the 14th

[imaginate]

[ The audio clicks on and there's a long pause. When Kyle speaks, his tone is calm, perfectly controlled. It's his Business Voice, blank save for the barest hint of anger. ]

This is Kyle Rayner of the Green Lantern Corps. I apologise for the inconvenience, but our clinic at EA-3B is currently undergoing repairs and won't be able to take more patients at this time. We'll be temporarily operating a backup at WA-1A. [ He attaches a map, showing where it is. ]

Any and all hands with medical experience or healing abilities are always welcome.

[ Another long pause. ]

And if someone could come collect Avatar Korra, that would be appreciated.

[ There is a brief pause, as though he's debating what more to say, before the audio clicks off. ]

Comments

action;

[lineality]

[She pauses as he approaches, returning to a neutral stance before straightening and returning the nod.]

I am. My name's Lin. [A slight pause. Toph's request to keep her future from her is understandable but tricky when you've spent your entire life in her shadow.] Former chief of police in Republic City. Which should explain it all, really, if you've met Korra before.

[imaginate]

Pleased to meet you. Do you prefer rank or should we use first names?

[There's no need to shake hands, so he doesn't. They both have some measure of the other already.]

I've heard a little about your city, but pardon me, since I haven't seen it for myself I'll refrain from commenting.

[lineality]

Just Lin will suffice.

[Infinitely dry:] It's a work in progress. And it's clear our new Avatar still has a lot to learn about collateral damage.

[imaginate]

Call me Kyle, then.

[He surveys the damage.]

You don't say. I sincerely hope you aren't acquainted with any of her teachers, I need to have a word with them about her restraint.

[lineality]

[Eyeroll. IF ONLY YOU KNEW, KYLE]

Trust me. He's been trying ever since she arrived in Republic City.

[She settles back into the old, familiar stances, working as she talks.] The last Avatar traveled the world, learning his bending from masters scattered around the Four Nations. Korra spent most of her training cooped up in the Southern Water Tribe under the overprotective eye of the White Lotus.

She means well. [She can offer that, at least, after everything that's happened.] But the idea of accountability is...something she still has trouble understanding.

[imaginate]

[He watches, curious and utterly entranced. It's poetry when she's using it to help people, unlike the vicious, violent movements Korra had used on him]

So they didn't even let her live amongst the people she was supposed to be taking care of?

[Yes, his disgruntled tone shows exactly what he thinks of that idea.]

She's a kid. I'm not pressing charges. Ideally I'd like her to be the one to fix this [he gestures to the house], but my kind of diplomacy isn't something she took to that well. She's only too eager to paint me as the enemy. [A beat.] I don't have an issue with this [he doesn't honestly care what Korra thinks of him, she hit the wrong buttons when talking to him] unless it gets innocent people hurt.

[lineality]

Considering how many people were, at one point or another, actively trying to kill the last Avatar when he was a child, I can't really condemn their overcaution. But the world was at war then, and we weren't when Korra was discovered.

[A faintly incredulous snort.] You're more generous than I was. She almost took out an entire city block on her first day trying to arrest a few grunts from the local triad. I thought she'd matured since then, but--

[--but then they were actually at war, and collateral damage stopped being nearly as much of an issue. She glances at Kyle.]

So what happened here?

[imaginate]

I know fear when I see it. [Simple as that.] It's not an excuse and I do expect her to apologise, but [he just sighs again.]

What can you tell me about Amon? I don't exactly trust Tarrlok's word and Korra is... biased.

[He's not evading, it's a lead in to his topic. Somehow he gets the idea that she, of all the people he's talked to, will get it, without much of an explanation on what his true intentions are, but it can't hurt to have things out in the open. In the light, as it were.]

[lineality]

[She pauses for a moment, then shakes her head.] I don't think there's anyone in Republic City who isn't biased. Myself included.

What do you know about bending? [She's well aware she's meeting his question with one of her own, and she doesn't normally care about this sort of thing, but in a situation like this, where there's been enough damage done already, it's best to make sure no further misunderstandings occur.]

[imaginate]

[Lin, you just earned yourself a heck lot of respect. It shows, in Kyle's eyes, fleetingly, before his expression becomes pensive.]

I'm aware that it's an innate ability, and a very small percentage of the population has the capacity to do it. The Avatar is the only person who can bend all four elements. I'm also aware that despite the rigorous discipline of martial arts training, benders are still capable of terrorising those with no power. Such as bloodbending.

[Beat.]

Am I right so far?

[lineality]

[Well, no guesses about where he's been getting his information. Still, he's not incorrect, and Lin nods shortly.]

I won't deny the ability can be abused. There's enough triad activity in Republic City to attest to that, to say nothing of Tarrlok's little stint in power.

But bending is as much a spiritual connection to our surroundings as it is a physical ability. Developing one while neglecting the other leads to imbalance. Taking away someone's bending severs both. It's as much an immense mental blow as it is physical. A part of you is gone--cut out forever. It's something reserved for those who do abuse their power--war criminals. Bloodbenders.

[She's quiet for a moment. Distant. Gathering her thoughts.] You need to know the gravity of that act before I explain about Amon.

[imaginate]

It's a final solution, comparable to or worse than death.

[He nods, in understanding. It's also a nonverbal request for her to continue.]

[lineality]

[She pauses a moment longer to clear away the remnants of a wall before she speaks again. It's a tricky subject: the worst of the anger is gone in the face of her removed bending, and its subsequent return, but she chooses her words carefully nonetheless. It's a feeling that's hard to forget.]

One of the bloodbenders who had his bending removed was a crime boss by the name of Yakone. Even with his bending gone, he taught his sons, Amon and Tarrlok, everything he knew.

I don't have all the details. Like it or not, you'd have to talk to Korra or Tarrlok to get them. But by the time Amon arrived in Republic City, he'd managed to perfect the art of removing someone's bending via bloodbending. He hid his status as a bender and gathered a following, claiming that bending was the source of all evil and that he'd been given his abilities by the spirits to nullify it once and for all.

He started with triad leaders and a few small-time bullies himself. Gathered popular support. Then he destroyed the pro-bending arena and went for the city's leaders--to say nothing of the Avatar herself.

[imaginate]

[That pause tells him so much more about bloodbending than her words ever will. Kyle knows the feeling of your own body being turned against you and it's not something he would wish upon his worst enemies. Not being able to move, or speak... it had been his worst nightmare. One of them, anyway.]

Tarrlok's been.. informative about this but it's not wise to trust anything a politician says.
[Or does, for that matter.]

[A beat.]

Popular support doesn't come from nowhere. People must have been hurting, and angry, and they get behind somebody who can give them blood. I'm not excusing anything that happened, I'm saying there was a point to it and [he waves to the now-being-fixed-house] it can't be drawn in such black and white terms.

[lineality]

[A short, humorless laugh. Politicians, amirite.]

Tarrlok exacerbated the situation, if anything. He instated a curfew on non-benders, cut electricity in non-bender districts, and made association with Equalists punishable by law. Suddenly people who were perfectly fine with benders before were a lot less friendly, and I can't blame them for throwing their lot in with someone who appeared to care about them.

[She shakes her head.] You're right. It's complicated. I'd resigned by that point. Amon had captured my best officers and Tarrlok had the rest in his pocket. I wasn't going to sit still when being outside the so-called law at that point was the best place to be.

[imaginate]

[Don't even start him on politicians.]

No doubt some plan to make himself look like the City's saviour in time of need. [HUFF PUFF he hates those kinds of people.] I'm sorry about your men [from anyone else, this might sound like pity, but from Kyle, it's compassion, and recognition. He's lost people too.]

This is why the Corps answers to no government, but directly to the people we serve.

[lineality]

[She nods, if a little stiffly.] He was a bloodbender, too--just more willing to play by the rules until he was confronted.

It sounds like it'd be a better system, as long as it doesn't turn into a personal army in the wrong hands.

[imaginate]

I've been warned.

[And he takes it very seriously.]

There's always that risk, honestly.

[And a shrug.]

Of all people, you'd probably actually be able to guess the real reason Amon is permitted to remain on my premises.

[lineality]

[She frowns a little thoughtfully. So far Kyle has seemed like an exceptionally reasonable person, and she can appreciate that.]

I'm going to hope, for everyone's sake, that it's some variation on "keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

[imaginate]

[A nod, and he relaxes completely, not knowing he was even tense around her.]

The alternative is him being underground, which is a lot more dangerous. He's also not stupid enough to attack my patients, knowing how that will make him look.

[lineality]

[A faint huff.] He's concerned about his reputation, I'll give you that. At least someone's keeping an eye on him.

In the meantime, I'll have a word with Korra. She--

[She pauses, shakes her head.] You're right, I guess. It isn't as black and white an issue as most of us make it out to be. But Amon went after her teacher, his children--and then he took her bending. [Another pause, this one a little longer than the last.] It's a feeling you don't forget.

[imaginate]

She's scared.

[Sympathy. And then he frowns.]

I understand. But it's not an excuse for losing one's cool.

[He gestures to the building.]

[lineality]

Of course it doesn't. Especially when innocent people could've been hurt.

[One last slow, powerful movement, and the worst of the rubble is clear.] Hopefully she'll be convinced of that. And hopefully she can work on the spiritual aspect of her training, even if her teacher isn't here.

[imaginate]

Hopefully.

[And he sounds like he means it.]

Thank you for your help. [A pause, and he smiles.] Your forms are very beautiful to look at. I've never seen anything like it.

[lineality]

Flattery will get you nowhere. [But her bending's her biggest point of pride, and she half-smiles in return.]

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. [A pause, then she amends:] Or Korra, for that matter. Much as you might not want it, it'd be good for her.