Welcome to Republic City!

[cyclicalitymods]

It was a bright and sunny normal day in Republic City. Children were playing, spirits were chirping about, and everything was going along like normal. Well at least that's what everyone seemed to think. That is until so many people seemed to be appearing out of nowhere. For some reason Republic City seemed to be more lively and the crowds bigger.

The spirits have grown restless as if something important was about to change, and to try to fix that change, the spirits with their big long tree like limbs dragged people into the world left and right. Even the vines covering Republic City seemed to help. Although the spirits had the best intentions in mind, some people were more affected by the grab than others. There's talk that people in this city don't even know what this place is. People who have never heard of the words "bender" or "non-bender."

Welcome to Republic City! And to those who already live here: Happy Saturday. Please make yourselves at home and don't mind a little spirit gunk. It's mostly harmless. Go enjoy yourself a classic mover. Maybe you're the athletic type. If that's the case, come watch a few Pro-bending matches or form your own team. Just watch out for any Satomobiles. They can be deadly no matter how pretty the driver is.

Please remember to enjoy your stay and don't cause too much trouble. The Republic City Police don't need more riffraff to take care of. And don't stray too far. To make the the peace is kept, there's a huge spirit barrier around the perimeter of the city. It seems pretty strong, but it won't be able to last forever. Still, it's worrying. Radio signals and telegraphs don't seem to be getting past it.

[ OOC: The game is officially open! From this point on, feel free to make any posts you want or tag into this. Please remember to tag your posts with Canon: Character. Finally, although the game has no real network, you're free to respond with prose or brackets, whatever you're comfortable with. With that said, have fun! ]

Comments

[braavado]

Part One: Library

[After hearing a few things around the city, Korra's feeling more confused than ever. Something just isn't adding up here, no matter how she thinks about this. The newspapers on the stands give her a date that's weeks ahead of what she remembers, and that means she's lost a lot of time somehow. She needs to know what's going on.

After liberating a few items from the police department's lost and found room--it's not stealing if she's going to return them! (eventually)--Korra makes her way through the city again. This time, she's headed for the library's (ugh) newspaper archives.

Anyone in the area will see a girl in a longish coat and hat sitting alone at a table that's covered with about a few weeks' worth of newspapers. The coat covers up the very recognizable Water Tribe outfit, but her face may still be familiar to anyone who looks over at her--especially when she stands up suddenly, face pale, her chair scraping noisily across the floor.]

Part Two: The Barrier

[This time, Korra's shed the coat and hat, waving off the reporters who try to talk to her. She can be found tracing the perimeters of the barrier, expression grim as she places a hand on the smooth surface.

A few spirits have drifted closer, seemingly curious about her activities, though they don't try to get too close. Korra looks over at them when following the darn barrier doesn't do a thing, dropping to the ground in a cross-legged position with a sigh.]

I guess you wouldn't know what this is, would you?

[She's...totally talking to the spirits, but anyone passing by her just now would probably think she's talking to them.]

library!

[paishodown]

[Asami spends a decent amount of time in the library, if only to find someplace other than her office to work. Her ear is drawn to the scrape of Korra's chair, and she can't help but double take at that pile of old papers. It's only a moment later that she recognizes-]

Korra?

[Asami's on her way over now, hair pinned back and in her business clothes and looking shocked and more than a little concerned.]

[braavado]

[Korra pulls the hat down further over her face, as if that might help. At least it doesn't look like anyone's close enough to hear.]

Not so loud!

[She hisses quietly at her friend. Clearing her throat pointedly, Korra pulls the chair beside hers out. Asami can join her if she wants to.]

[paishodown]

[Oh dear. What's going on now... Asami's eyes shift to be wary of their surroundings as she slips into a chair Korra's pulled out. Her voice is barely above a hiss.]

What's this about? I thought you were at the Southern Water Tribe...

[She seems to be sitting all right. Moving. Her demeanor is already obviously different from the state in which Asami last saw her.]

Barrier

[streetferret]

Some kind of spiritual force field. We're still trying to see where it's coming from and if we can take it down. At least, that's what they told me when I showed up at the precinct.

[Standing behind her is Mako, arms behind his back, and he looks down from the the barrier to her.]

You okay? [He's more than a bit concerned considering what happened just before finding himself back in Republic City.]

[braavado]

Mako. [Korra scrambles to her feet, looking relieved to see him. She's already seen Bolin and Asami, and Mako's the last of her friends to be found.]

I'm fine. [For now. She has no idea what's supposed to happen when she's stuck in the past, while her future self is... in such bad condition.] What about you?

[She hesitates before asking: ] How much do you remember?

[streetferret]

[Any semblance of being a police officer and focused on the state of the city dies away at the question.

It's the one he's been wanting to ask others, but refrained because he's had to take on so much work. Looking confused when others were looking to him for answers isn't good for police business.

Mako furrows his brow.]

Zaheer captured you. Bolin, Asami, me and the airbenders were going to get you back. Kai knew where you were, he tipped us off.

[He inclines his head, not taking his eyes off hers.]

...why? What do you remember?

Barrier - Mula Only

[raavashing]

[The response from one of the 'spirits' was a soft mrrrow, a sniff, and then a headbutt at Korra's shoulder. The catdeer that was currently begging her attention had big green eyes and felt oddly at peace in the presence of this strange human.

She was also without any obvious signs of having belonged to a particular human. She was without the usual travel bags Wan kept on her because they weren't exactly traveling at the moment and to keep them on her would have been cruel.

How had Mula found Korra? Well, sometimes the nose just knows the scent of peace and light.]

somewhere in the city, naga feels a disturbance in the force

[braavado]

Hey there.

[Korra's already scratching under Mula's chin before she realizes this spirit (spirit, right?) looks familiar to her somehow.]

That's it! You're a catdeer.

[The only one of those she's seen was from her memories of Wan, making her wonder where this one came from. Maybe this one had come through the portals with the spirits?]

Naga knows when she has competition for the Avatar's attention

[raavashing]

[Definitely not a spirit, but also definitely a catdeer. It also looked really similar to Wan's catdeer, marking wise. Maybe they all looked like that though.

Regardless, Korra clearly knew how to give proper scritchings and Mula was stretching and craning her neck to give the best angle. Oh that felt nice.

So nice she just had to thank Korra by purring loudly.]

Library!

[lavamylife]

[Bolin's not at the library all that often. However, the city definitely has been getting stranger and stranger over the past few days, and so the library certainly was a good way for him to read the headlines from the local newspapers... without actually having to pay for the newspapers. It's great so long as you didn't mind the news being a day old, but unless the Spirit Barrier and the Spirit Wilds had stopped bringing new people here since yesterday, well, one-day old news was fine.

[Bolin happens to be sitting one table over from Korra. He actually hasn't noticed her at all yet, but once the chair scrapes loudly across the floor, Bolin looks up from his newspaper with some bit of annoyance.]

Shhhh! You have to be quiet at the library or the librarians will yell at you, [he says in a helpful whisper. It almost sounds like he's gotten in trouble in the past this way.]

[braavado]

[Korra just stares at him for a second. Bolin's definitely not someone she would have expected to see in the library at all (pot, meet kettle), and definitely not just one table away. Had she really been so absorbed in her search for information that she didn't notice her friend sitting there?]

Bolin? What are you doing here?

[lavamylife]

[He hadn't expected the person he shushed to have known his name. That was actually a surprise. He looks a little closer and then realizes exactly who it is.]

Korra? [He retains a whisper, though certainly it's an audible one. He stands up, leaving his table, and then sits down next to her.] I wouldn't have expected to find you here either! I, er, I'm here because I haven't gotten a new radio for the new apartment yet... and Air Temple Island is now full of airbenders, so I can't just listen to Tenzin's...

[Hey wait a minute.]

So what are you dressed all funny for?

Barrier

[truestheart]

[Henry is just close enough to Korra when she asks that question. There doesn't seem to be anyone else around, so, he kind of just assumes she was asking him.

Luckily he has an idea.]

It's probably some kind of curse meant to keep people from leaving.

[The why was the only part he hadn't figured out yet.]

[braavado]

A curse? [Korra hadn't really been expecting an answer, especially from someone just passing by like Henry is, but she doesn't want to discount any possibilities either.]

Why do you think it's a curse?

[truestheart]

Yeah, a curse. [It sounds relatively simple to him. At least someone sounds like they aren't trying to discredit hi this time.]

Because something similar like this happened to my town. People couldn't leave or bad things would happen.

Library

[prettyinhandcuffs]

[Call it paranoid, but people going all white and jumping to their feet rarely meant good things, and Duo nearly dropped the book he'd been poking at (the local variant of an atlas, always good to know the area around you), hand twitching towards the gun he carried. Letting out a breath, glanced around, trying to spot what might have started the girl.]

You alright there?

[braavado]

Uh--yeah. I'm fine. [Korra's definitely jittery as she glances around, hoping no one else is looking at her too closely. The newspaper in her hand crinkles as her grip tightens.

She forces herself to relax and sit back down.]

Sorry if I startled you.

[prettyinhandcuffs]

[Ah ha. Duo nodded to the paper, not really trying to read it.]

Bad news, I take it?

Barrier

[lufthansa]

[Great, he'd taken a wrong turn trying to find a street he could actually navigate and now he's all the way out on the edge of the city! Today has been the single most frustrating day and as Albert sits there in his idling truck he contemplates either banging his head against the horn a few times or the merits of becoming a cabbage vendor. Either one would be an improvement about now.

He doesn't smack his head on the wheel, but he does rest his forehead against it, sighing heavily and just letting the truck idle there in the street. That is, of course, until he hears a vaguely accusing voice asking if he knows what the barrier is.

Irritation coming to a head, Albert snaps back even before looking up.]

Why would I have any blasted idea what-

[Head raised and looking out the window, Albert's vitriol dies on his tongue as he sees just who he's talking to. Oohh spirits...]

Avatar Korra, I'm sorry, I was just. Uh.

[He stares like a deer dog in the headlights. Take pity on him?]

[braavado]

[Her mouth quirks. He's actually apologizing?]

It's okay. I think we're all getting pretty frustrated here.

[She tilts her head, looking at him.]

Rough day?

[lufthansa]

[She's certainly low key. Not what he'd thought at all, given the mess in the Council building and the rumors he's heard flying around about how she's a rogue with little care for public welfare. He didn't believe most of it - she'd put down Amon, after all, and it looked like she was trying her best with the spirit vines even if she'd given up. A lot of people still complain about that, but as far as Albert's concerned it's made the spirit wilds the only truly quiet place in Republic City. Still, it's hard not to listen to rumors of her personality when that and the radio is all you've got.

He slouches back in the driver's seat, looking passively at the barrier.]

Yeah. All these new people are playing merry havoc with the roads and making it impossible to do deliveries. Even when it's stuff for them! I have Future Industries aid supplies in the back that were supposed to get to Phoenix Rise over an hour ago.

[Which is all the way uptown. He'd really mucked it up. Albert presses his temples, trying to will his stress headache away.]

Sorry, I'm sure you've got bigger things to think about, being the Avatar and all.

For Aang

[braavado]

(ooc: continued from here)

[This time it looks like Aang's got the shape right, and the shackles on her wrists pop open when he turns the makeshift key. Toph would be proud.

Korra, however, still has her attention on Aang, and barely notices when she's freed.]

Know me? Uh--you really want to?

[savedtheworld]

[He gives a quiet cheer as the shackles pop open, and then he helps with removing them.]

Of course! Why wouldn't I? You're... you're me!

[braavado]

[She drops the shackles onto the ground and retrieves the key so she can work at the ones around her ankles.]

Yeah...I guess I am. [Korra gives him a smile that's just a bit strained.] I don't know if you're going to like everything you hear, though.