cyclicality | Welcome to Republic City!

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Welcome to Republic City!

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! ]

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"More?"

Wait, there's more? Seriously?

"Well, yeah. Didn't you know?" He holds up his fingers to tick them off. "Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Thunder, Ice, Light, and Dark." When he reaches the last, he looks pretty pleased with himself. See, Professor Sage? He can memorize things besides just his times tables and all the Dwarven Vows.

All in all, Opal's rather impressed by the list of elements. He has a right to look pleased with himself over his memorized list.

"And your friend can control most of those?"

"All of them but Dark," Lloyd confirms. "At least, last time I saw him. It's been a while, so who knows? Maybe he's figured Dark out, too."

While they've been talking, they've been drawing steadily closer to the bay. That's right, she said they were going to an island.

"How are we getting to the island we're going to? Is somebody waiting for you with a boat?"

"There's a ferry that tends to wait here when air acolytes are in the City itself actually. It should still be there or it should come back soon if it isn't."

That said, their trek to the dock finds the ferry waiting, drifting calmly on the water. Opal gives Lloyd a big smile.

"See, there it is. I think it might just be me and you this time though."

The closer they get to the ferry, the more Lloyd stares at it, admiring. It's not exactly large, but it looks really well built, even with the foreignness of some of its design. Some of the elements of that design might be good to remember, though, when it comes time to building his own boat. It's certainly sleek, with a prow that looks like it can cut right through the waves. It takes him a moment to tear his eyes away from it.

"If it's only waiting for air echolights..." He's not quite sure what an echolight is, but he's putting two and two together. "Does that mean you're an echolight? What do echolights do?"

Echolights. Opal takes a moment to try not to laugh at the pair board the ferry. Honestly she rather likes the new moniker, it sounds... cute? Is that the right word? It would probably be a little off to say as much so she just grins as she sits her own bags down once on the ferry.

"Acolytes are students basically. If you see someone dressed like me in town --" and here Opal gently at the orange cape over the yellow outfit "then they're probably one of the air acolytes. We're students studying airbending over on Air Temple Island."

Airbending. Air magic. So Opal must be a wizard! "I get it," Lloyd says, and he's pretty sure that he does. "So Air Temple Island is your school." It's a little odd to him that someone would study only one element, but hey, maybe it's a school for people who are just really bad at all the other subjects. Lloyd can empathize with that! If there was a school for just Arts and Crafts, I'd definitely go to that school!

Once they're safely on the ferry, Lloyd looks at her outfit with new interest. While not really colors he'd choose for himself, they're still bright and cheerful enough. The style's a little odd, but then, he's not really one to talk. After all, how many humans go around wearing dwarven-made clothes? Probably only him, which is really a shame, because Dirk's handmade clothes are the best, in his opinion. People just don't know what they're missing out on. As clothing goes, though, Opal's looks pretty good.

"Those look comfortable," he remarks. Honestly, too. Her clothes look loose enough to allow her plenty of freedom to move.

Well that was easy enough. He may be missing some on the finer points of bending but frankly so was Opal. So if he could comprehend the idea of a school for airbenders in terms of what he understood already, who was she to argue?

Once they're both on board, Opal takes a bit of a specific looking stance and begins gesturing gently. A soft gust of wind blows through in the next moment, catching the ferry's sail and setting them to moving. She smiles at his remark and replies, all the while still moving.

"They actually are. Though I do have to say your own are much more colorful. And intricate."

Don't you get tired snapping buttons at some point with that coat, Lloyd?

"You like them?" Lloyd asks, pleased at the perceived compliment. "My Dad made them for me. He's made all my clothes for as long as I can remember, and he even adds extra buttons when I ask." Too many buttons? No such thing!

Some of them aren't meant to be undone, though, so it's not like he has to open them all every time he wants to take his coat off.

The odd stance earns her a curious look, though Lloyd hasn't connected the sudden breeze to her moves. There's no visible sign of mana being used, so... "What are you doing?" he asks.

"Is your father a tailor then?" Oh well thank goodness, he'd be at it all day.

She smiles a bit at the question. "I'm bending. It's easier to move the ferry this way since I can airbend."

"Not really," Lloyd says. "I mean, I guess he could be if he wanted to, but he's actually a smith." He holds out his arm so Opal can get a good look at the buttons. "See? He made all these buttons himself! My swords, too, and a lot of other things. He's the best I know at what he does." Pride shines through in every one of those words.

With a startled look, he straightens up, looking at the air. "Wait, so that's you? I didn't even see you start to cast." No glow of mana, no chant, just wind. And not only that... "Wow, you're really good at this if you can keep it going this long!" He's used to seeing short, sharp blasts, quick spells that don't drain someone's mana.

Oooh, a smith. A smith who can sew too! She's really and truly impressed. Whatever a dwarf may or may not be, it sounds like they're very skilled regardless. "He's very talented then if he can do all of that."

She looks curious at his startled look though. "Does it not work like this where you're from?"

"Definitely!" Lloyd is always pleased to hear someone acknowledge his Dad's skill.

He shakes his head at her other question, though, but with a hint of hesitation. "No," he says. "At least, I don't think so." He sets his bag down, both to give his arms a rest and so he can rub the back of his neck. "I don't really know that much about magic. Or bending. Whatever you want to call it." Not really something he felt a need to pay attention to since he knew he couldn't use it himself. "But when Genis does it - he's my best friend - or someone else, I can usually see the mana around them while they concentrate."

"I see... that's definitely different from bending then. The way I understand it, bending does have energy behind it but it's not something that's visible. Beyond the bending itself, of course."

The little ferry is making it's way decently toward Air Temple Island. The speed isn't completely consistent as Opal isn't that fine of a bender just yet but it's not enough to make one seasick.

Still, a glance will show the island and it's buildings coming into closer view.

"Huh." Lloyd settles onto the back of his heels as he considers what Opal's revelation tells him. His eyes fix on the buildings coming closer, but he's only half-seeing them, his mind caught up in possibilities. "I guess there's more kinds of magic than I realized."

Which begs another question in itself. He turns, eyes lighting up with a thought. "So how does someone learn to 'bend' air? Can anyone do something like that?" Magic as he knows it can only be learned if someone has elven blood (or other extenuating circumstances, like Colette's angelic transformation). Could different magics be, well, different?

"It's not really something you learn to do. You're either born as a bender or you're not." She pauses there and has to add, "Or sometimes life changes things up."

She explains further, still guiding the boat along gently. "I was actually born without any bending ability. And then things began to change after the Avatar left spirit portals open. Some people who had no bending abilities before started showing airbending abilities - I was one of those."

Lloyd could have accepted the 'born with it or not' explanation as close enough to what he knew, but that part she tacks on catches him by surprise. "Really?" he echoes curiously. "People just started using magic- bending?" Gonna take him a while to get used to calling magic something else. "How does someone know if they're one of the ones who changed?"

Magic is something he thinks of as taking conscious thought. If someone never tries because they don't think they can, how would they know if they've got magic?

"Well... for me it took blow most of the papers off of my mother's desk when I was telling her about my problem. And before that I *might* have destroyed one of my brother's statues."

There's some sheepish embarrassment in her tone. "Sometimes bending can happen unconsciously, particularly if you're not trained in it."

For a moment, Lloyd can just picture Opal unleashing a wild Wind Blade on a desk of papers or a hapless statue, and he can't help but grin at the image. "Hey, if it makes you feel better, at least you did it with a cool technique." Even if it was by accident, and that still baffles him, because how can you do magic by accident? Messing up is one thing, but doesn't it take concentration?

Unless maybe she did concentrate without realizing it would do anything, like if she wished really hard that her mother's papers would just go away. Lloyd's definitely felt that way about homework sometimes.

But right, he's trying to reassure Opal right now. No getting sidetracked from his story. "One of my best friends keeps knocking these huge holes in walls just by tripping into them." Colette's his friend, one of the nicest people there is, but...

Well...

Colette is Colette. There's no other way to put it.

"... She must be pretty strong if she can put holes into walls by hitting them."

Maybe she's a dwarf. Are dwarves freakishly strong then?

That comment earns a weak laugh from Lloyd, more rueful than anything else. "Yeah, no kidding. She's even stronger than me."

It still wounds his manly pride just a little to admit that to someone else.

"It sure makes tracking her down easy, though!" he adds with a grin, pushing the embarrassment aside with a joke. "It's easy to tell if she's been through a town if you can find a hole in someone's wall shaped like her!"

Opal's responding laugh is weak and a little 'what?' in tone. "Do you really have to track her down that much?"

"Er... sort of?" His smile is still a little bit weak, though this time it's more at the reminder of how many close calls there have been. "I mean, the hole-in-the-wall thing only helped once, but I've had to look for her a few times. People used to try to capture her a lot."

The little ferry bumps up against the dock for Air Temple Island around the time Lloyd speaks of capturing. Opal's eyes widen in surprise.

"Why would they want to?"

Welcome to Republic City!

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