trans_9 | [bendytimed before Visitation Plot] [what the hell, it's open]

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[bendytimed before Visitation Plot] [what the hell, it's open]

The Southern Air Temple was pretty beautiful, architecturally speaking. With twisting spires and trees threaded into the framework of the temple itself, it looked half as if it'd grown out of the ground or been carved into it rather than that it had been built there.

The best part about it, though, was the sense of peace the place had. It was very easily the kind of thing that could draw people in and help them find calm, even if they weren't the religious type.

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While Eva's very firmly committed to having chosen Catholicism over all those other forms of spirituality, that doesn't mean she doesn't find some peace in holy places of any creed. She even keeps from singing or talking to herself, so as not to disturb the peace.

She recognizes Aang from Marco's descriptions of him, and gives him a little wave. "I was a little disappointed you didn't bake a nail file into it."

Aang smiled from where he sat on the floor in the lotus position.

"I don't think you would've managed to file the bars fast enough to actually get out before your sentence was up. Did you like it though? There wasn't much left for ingredients so that was one of the last ones I'll be able to make for a while."

"Mind if I sit beside you? I have old person legs," she says, motioning to a spot next to him.

"That's alright, I lengthened the sentence considerably by counting every second. Time flies by when you're staring at the wall, I guess. Relatively, at least." She grins. It's a warm expression, genuine. The gift had been unexpected, but fell on the safe side of the line between charity and pity. "It couldn't have been better if I made it by my own hands. It was lovely. Thank you."

She bites her lip a bit hearing it was made of resources that limited. She knows real ingredients are scarce on Stacy, but she doesn't know what to make of a young man about her son's age going to that effort for a perfect stranger.

"I'm glad you liked it."

Aang looked genuinely pleased that his gift was well-received.

"And have a seat. I'm sorry I don't have a prayer mat for you. It looks like Stacy didn't bring any of the tapestries and linens, and anyway, they probably would've been old and have fallen apart. It looks like she took the temple from after it was abandoned."

She sits down on the ground, a little bit stiffly since she didn't get a chance to exercise much while in the brig. "Don't worry about the prayer mat. I've sat on more uncomfortable floors than this one, and I'm afraid I have no experience with meditation." Sitting still for too long, and by too long she means more than five seconds, makes her panicky.

"You saw this temple before, in its heyday?"

"My people were Nomads, but when we weren't traveling, we lived and trained in four temples scattered across the world," Aang explained. "I grew up here."

There was the slightest of shrugs, a gesture one had to be looking for that was almost shy, as if he was holding back from saying something.

"I like to come here sometimes to meditate, or sing and dance, or to train, just because it feels wrong that there aren't people here."

She nods, noting the shrug, not willing to press if there isn't need for it. He's been kind to her, and everyone should be allowed their secrets. That was one of the worst parts of infestation, not being able to keep them.

"'Trained'? Were you preparing for something?"

"My people were almost all Airbenders, able to control the air. There's an art to it, though--you have to be born with it to do it, but you have to be taught how."

He swirled his hands and a little ball of air sucked up the dust of the floor and swirled it around and around before he let it dissipate.

"That sounds very..." She frowns and holds her hands out in front of her, as if cupping the air. "Very tactile. Like being in touch with your body."

"It is. Airbending helps--helped--my people become more in touch with themselves and with the world itself. Mastering Airbending was seen as a way of coming one step closer to breaking free from attachment to the material world and finding spiritual enlightenment."

He explained, "Each of the peoples of my world had a form of Bending and their culture was based around their particular element. There was my people, the Air Nomads, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation. All the forms of Bending tend to work best if the Bender is spiritually in touch with both themselves and their element."

It was why he'd had such a mental block with Earthbending. He was used to flowing up and around problems instead of facing them head on.

Edited 2011-10-04 05:01 (UTC)

She nods, listening intently and flexing and relaxing her hands absent-mindedly. She curls a fist up under her chin and tracing the texture of the floor with her other hand, thinking of what it means to be spiritually in touch with one's self. It's something she can't imagine accomplishing.

"I don't imagine I'd be very good about it, even if I were born with that sort of ability." She shakes her head a bit. "You're from the same world as Kaya, then? Your world seems to produce some pretty kind people."

Although, of course, that doesn't speak to the entire culture. Just the few upstanding individuals she's met.

"Doesn't every world?" he asked. "Just like every world has cruel people. I wish I could say kindness was the rule, but our world wasn't any different from anywhere else. People were just...people."

Still, there was a touch of ruefulness in his expression as he realized he could only speak of the people of their world in the past tense.

"Most of the people from our world that are on the ship fought a war before we were brought here."

She nods. "I've just met quality ambassadors, then." Her eyes go steely, her face tense. "Our world, too. I haven't met someone yet who came from there that wasn't a part of it."

"You were involved in the same war as Marco?" Here he looked sad. Whole families being swept up into it was just a sad thing.

She nods. "Naturally. How much has he told you about his involvement? Or mine?"

"Well, first he lied and said he'd never fought a war at all," Aang pointed out. "But not a whole lot. And I don't expect you to tell me the things he didn't. I also don't know what you know, and I promised him I'd respect his privacy, so I'm not really able to say what I do know unless I know you...know the same things...I know."

He confused himself there.

"I also respect yours. If you don't want to talk about this at all, we can change the subject."

Eva chuckles a little and chews on her fingernail. "No, it's alright. I was a public figure back home, after the war. I'm very used to speaking about it, and with less pleasant people than yourself. You'd think no one ever taught the paparazzi to say please."

She shrugs. "I was a host. I'm not anymore. And it's really as simple as that."

"What's a paparazzi?"

Wasn't it a refreshing questions to hear?

A world where they don't exist existed, Eva. Or, well, it existed it. Past tense.

"They're a...do you have leeches on your world? Or mosquitos?"

"We have elbow leeches. And leech-a-pillars. And mousequitos. They're probably close enough, right?" Aang suggested, scratching his head.

"Mousequi..." Eva bursts out laughing and snorting. Once she composes herself, she continues. "Yes, probably close enough. Anyway, imagine those, except instead of blood they feed on your dignity. That's the paparazzi."

"How do you eat dignity?" Aang asked with a grin.

"With an astonishing lack of table manners," she says with an equally wide grin.

"So what do they actually do that's so leechy?" Aang aasked.

"Mostly they invade your privacy and dig up all your secrets. For obvious reasons that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Surely you had some equivalent on your world?"

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