[Open: Yangchen Festival]

[savedtheworld]

[Today's the day of the Yangchen Festival! It's an airbender ceremony held on Air Temple Island, but the people of Republic City are likely to know of it and are welcome to join in as well. Aang is eager to invite any of his friends he's seen around as well- it's a ceremony he's missed dearly, even if he doesn't know the full story behind it. At the same time, Aang is trying to keep his true identity on the down-low.

The ceremony itself can be described on these pages. Essentially it involves everyone getting together as one group, bowing together to a large statue and then taking a walk while playing a number of musical instruments used by the air nomads. (There may or may not be a matching statue on Air Temple Island how about playing that part vague)

Finally, there's the more festival-y part. They settle in an open area of Air Temple Island. There, everyone gets to eat traditional air nomad meals (read: vegetarian food), and there's kites to fly! There's stringless kites for the airbenders, but the air acolytes have ensured that there's enough stringed kites for everyone. They'll be celebrating there all through the afternoon. So come on over and enjoy!]

Comments

[streetferret]

[Mako closes his lips to let an exhale out his nose. If anyone can get him to do something he thinks is stupid, it's Korra.]

Yeah, okay. Just one run, or whatever it's called.

[There better be one in red.]

[braavado]

[Yes, success! They stop right in front of the table, where a few other kids are also picking kites to fly.

She looks at Mako expectantly, and tries to tell him with a straight face (and failing):]

Choose wisely.

[They're all the same, just different colors of course, but she can't resist any opportunity to tease him.]

[streetferret]

Uh-huh, wisely.

[He knows he's going to regret this. Still, he inspects the kites as if their a suspect line up. Kite picking is serious business to Mr. Serious Business. He really does want to make the best choice.

Finally he reaches over and holds up a green and yellow one, looking it over.]

Don't tell me, I throw it into the air and hope it doesn't crash. Right?

[He ravels and unravels string from the spool, carefully trying to not make a knot.]

[braavado]

[She watches him seriously consider his options, not even bothering to suppress the grin now. Mako please.]

There’s more to it than that. At least, that’s what the kids tell me. I haven’t even done this before today.

[Korra reaches out to inspect the kite.] If you throw it up, I can catch it with my air bending? Between the two of us, we can get it to fly.

[streetferret]

[A brief image of him running and hold a string flashes and he feels childish. And he's about to tell Korra this is a mistake, but she takes the kite from him.

It's her first time flying a kite too.]

...Yeah. I'm sure we can make it work. [He starts heading towards a clear patch of land.]

[braavado]

[Korra follows after him, directing a small smile at his back, even if he can't see it. Looks like someone still needs to be convinced to have fun.]

I know we can make it work.

[streetferret]

[A kid runs past him and a tff of a laugh escapes the space between his teeth.

He feels ridiculous, but he's not going to take something away from Korra. Not when he knows she wants him to share the moment with her.]

Don't let me fall. [The air's against them, so all it takes is a small bit for the kite to get a little lift. The rest is up to Korra and he keeps the spool loose to give her all the string she needs before he gets into motion.]

[braavado]

[There's a moment where she has to pause and glance at him uncertainly. But then she snaps out of her thoughts.]

I won't.

[There's not much else she can say in response, and when the kite lifts into the air, she sneakily gives it a boost to keep it afloat, sharing a smile with Mako while she watches the kite climb even higher.]

[streetferret]

[Once he's sure it's got some lift from how taut the string is, Mako turns around to look at the kite up in the air. But he keeps looking at Korra.]

We got it! [Halfway through he tries to make it more like he's going for volume to hide the genuine excitement of it. But his smile's mirroring hers as he holds onto the spool to keep it from getting too far up.

Something worked, and for now he's going to imagine that's it's just the kite that did.]