need the sun to break

[resistivity]

Who: mako, ota otherwise! please bring me your babies c:
Where: various places
When: throughout the sickness event, the last prompt can cover any time period in it as mako won't progress past the first stage.
Rating pg for now! will update if it changes. some mention of a lightning-based injury tho!
What: settling in and maybe trying to mother-hen other sick people who need it. please toss me a pm or hmu on discord (violynnist#8733!) if you would like something custom for you, or to try another situation/scenario also! This was my intro post on the CR meme as well if that's easier to poke at c:

𝐏𝐑𝐄-𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒;

𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚;

( he's no stranger to the fey and fantastic. being friends with the avatar has meant years of encountering things that might have otherwise been beyond belief. he has a healthy threshold of tolerance for the scope and scale of strange than most people would probably expect of a no-nonsense cop.

his first thought is spirit wilds. even astoria herself sort of seems like one, though she looks human (he's heard stories of koh) and the misty phantasms that roam the temple grounds certainly don't disabuse that notion. mako is. quiet. taking it all in, listening, learning. he jots down notes, which is difficult to do when one arm is an out-of-commission ruin, strapped into a sling that pinions it to his body. he sort of rests the notepad in the hollow of his wrist, over the fabric of the sling and scribbles everything in police short-hand.

thrown into a new situation? doesn't know anyone or anything beyond astoria's welcoming spiel? time to wander the grounds of the temple. when he runs into other people, he'll approach them politely and introduce himself, )

I know it probably doesn't matter here, but I'm a Detective with the Republic City Police back home. My name's Mako. I'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's all right?

( he gestures with his notepad, obviously intending on writing things down. feel free to talk with him, refuse a statement, agree but only off the record, etc. he's a mostly-amicable (if. sometimes humorless) guy! )

𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛;

( he can't feel the sun. it's there, visible, a low-hanging presence on the cusp of dawn. it's a slightly different color than the one he's used to, and he can feel its rays on his skin, but there's. nothing. no energy, no... deep, abiding warmth that sinks down into the bones and drags the life and breath of fire to life through the conduit of his physical body.

it lends further credence to the thought he must be in the spirit world, or something very like it. he finds his way to the fighting ring and, still with his left arm in its sling, he tries a few right-handed jabs at one of the training dummies. nothing. nothing. he's stayed calm through everything else, being recruited — kidnapped, essentially — to someone else's fight, the whole thing. but this? it reminds him too much of amon.

out of frustration, he kicks at the air, the sort of slicing motion that would have swept fire away from him in an arc. and.

to his complete and utter surprise, a column of rock juts up out of the earth and launches the dummy several yards away. mako, instinctively, turns to look for bolin or korra or even beifong, the earthbenders whose company he spends the most time in, but. he's alone.

except, perhaps, for your character. mako looks a little sheepish at having been caught unawares — he's usually a little harder to sneak up on, so he's rubbing the back of his neck as he asks, )

Did you do that?

𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐗𝐓𝐀'𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒;

( he hates getting sick. firebenders are pretty hardy, all things considered. they tend to run hot. mako isn't used to feeling ill, it's only happened a couple times in memory, and. his default state is ignore all physical discomfort. he doesn't seem to be badly off, either, given what everyone else is going through.

so. a case of the sniffles. he sucks it up. pitches in around the kitchens, makes himself available to anyone who seems to be suffering. he even tries to go out into the forest of the fey to see if there is anything out there, some plant or herb that can be used as a remedy.

if your character needs some looking after during the event, mako's your guy. he will dutifully help total strangers, tuck people in, carry them off to a bed and help them through the loss of their senses should it come to that! let him big-brother you. it's the squishiest you'll ever see him. )

Comments

[resistivity]

( there's a lot to unpack there. mako taps his pen down against his notebook, which is awkward enough given how the notebook is propped up in the sling for his left arm. he writes jinba down in the book in his police shorthand, because honestly given the naming conventions of the avatar world he probably would have just called him a personhorse and had done with it. having the real name is a good thing.

the way mikuni explains things makes his earlier actions fall into context a little. humans, then, are a ruling and possibly oppressive force where he comes from. mako's not about to take it personally — more than any bender he's ever met, the universal human experience is to exploit or be exploited by those around you. he saw too much of the world too young to really believe in the goodness of humanity as a whole. there are good people, sure, but. the rest? not so much. he sort of scratches at his cheek with the capped end of the pen as he thinks, then takes another few notes. idly, while he's looking down at his paper, )

Are you the only Jinba here?

( only after he says it does he realize that could be taken the wrong way, a human asking after the number of an oppressed minority. his expression twists into a grimace. )

Wait, no, you don't have to answer that. I'm just curious about demographics. What about the humans from your world?

[digestive]

[Mikuni takes the initial question exactly as poorly as Mako fears. As soon as the words are out, there's a sea change in his demeanor as he draws himself up to his full height, shoulders squared, muscles shifting as he readies himself to fight or flee. It isn't, in this case, for himself, but for Konoha, and because of this man in front of him who represents every human who's ever hurt one of his people.]

[Until, all of a sudden, Mako doesn't represent that at all anymore. Instead, the question is retracted and rephrased. Mikuni tips his head to one side, eyes wide and curious. You don't have to answer that . . . He really did figure out his error immediately, didn't he.]

Thank you.

[He speaks quietly, shoulders slumping in open relief. The quick smile he flashes Mako's way is complicated--a little embarrassed, but mostly grateful.]

You see much more than you say, don't you. Although I suppose--I'm usually more diplomatic than this. I apologize. It isn't you.

[It's . . . a lot of other things, but it certainly isn't Mako, who's been nothing but kind so far. More than anything, it reminds Mikuni of the human who nursed him back to health so long ago: a quiet, subtle echo of that man, but Mako's understanding in the face of fear is just the same.]

There's only one other person from my world here. You'll like her when you meet her, I think. She's very kind. [Maybe a little too kind for a world as harsh as theirs. He's protective for a reason.]

[resistivity]

( mako's stared down plenty of terrifying things in his life. when he was young it was just... other benders, usually but not always more skilled than he was. and then it was. amon, and the equalist coalition. and then it was vaatu and unalaq, even though that fight was korra's more than it was his he still would have readily died for the world. he was always pragmatic enough to know when to back away from conflict, but when he couldn't... well. he never let fear stop him.

perhaps as a direct result, there isn't much that can scare him. but. seeing a powerfully built jinba square up for a fight does goad that primal part of his animal hindbrain into thinking he really should probably get out of there, adrenaline thrums along all the faultlines of his body and the earthsong beneath his feet is perilously loud, waiting to come to his defense. fire is always a call to arms, but earth is all that and a shield as well. it's a curious sensation, not one he's familiar with.

and then just like a gathering storm that's spun itself out, it's over. the clouds clear, the dust settles, and the calm comes and settles over them both. mikuni thanks him for... having the barest amount of common human decency (which maybe isn't so common where he's from, he supposes) and it actually makes him feel kind of spectacularly awful about the whole thing.

you see much more than you say. he's oddly touched. he's quick to shake his head, a gentle rebuff of that apology. )

No, it's all right. You don't owe me an apology or an explanation.

( there's an awful history there. maybe it's a matter of like recognizing like. mako watched his parents burn to death when he could do barely more than conjure fire to lick his palms, and he hated firebending for long years afterwards. it feels. a little like that, if he had to take a guess, but he has no way of knowing for sure. his expression does soften, though, as mikuni goes on to mention the other person from his world. human or jinba, then, he doesn't specify, but mako knows better now than to ask for clarification. )

I'm sure I would. I'll keep an eye out for her, thank you.