Glimmer, glitter, shine...

[thecanopycrew]

| characters | Everyone!

| date/time | March 15, all day

| location | First Floor

| rating | Currently G

| summary | A flash of light, and a new adventure.


LIGHT

Warmth, love and kindness.
The Life Stream glimmers and glitters with joy, swirls of shimmering dust dancing around the ray of life.
It was time for new ones to test their wings.


One by one, new adventurers now arrive in the Tree. As one gain wings and rises to the second floor, another light brings in the next person. Soon, a steady stream of people from all kinds of worlds, times and realities come to join the others. Whether confused, angry, excited or scared, your arrival is welcomed with nothing but joy as the fireflies and glow worms descend to greet their new friends.

The Tree offers no explanation and no reason, but the truth is undeniable.

As you will soon realize, it isn't easy to be tiny.

Comments

[superduperscholar]

Gohan's first thought at her explanation was how much of a misnomer the term 'energybending' was. Energy wasn't an element, so he wasn't quite sure why the term 'bending' was being associated with it. Of course, he wasn't going to say that out loud, given that was just some phonetic nitpicking on his part. However, her explanation had brought a couple of questions to mind...

"... Is that common in your world?" Gohan couldn't help but ask, a part of him curious about the idea of a world where uncommon abilities might've been more widely accepted. "Bending, I mean."

[braavado]

"Yeah, a lot of people have it," Korra said, looking oddly cheered as she began to explain. "There's four basic elements--water, earth, fire, air, and some of them have have other special types of bending. Oh, but there's a lot of non-benders, too."

With that introduction to bending out of the way, Korra latched onto something she'd noticed earlier. "So...I'm guessing the energy thing you did just now isn't really common in yours." It was just a hunch, formed from the way he'd asked about bending.

[superduperscholar]

Well, she wasn't necessarily wrong.

"It's... kind of confusing to explain, really," Gohan started, finally deciding to give his wings a break as he landed on the ground next to her. "Everyone has the capacity to do what I do, no matter who they are... it's just not common knowledge, and the people who have seen it just think it's a trick."

Of course, there were extenuating circumstances when it came to him. Not only had he been training to use ki from an incredibly young age, but he also sort of had a genetic advantage on that front. If people weren't ready for the concept of ki, they definitely weren't ready for the concept of aliens living among them. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but wonder what it would've been like if there were enough ki users in the world for the concept to be seen as normal.

"So yeah..." Gohan held his palm out toward the mist, firing another ki blast at it. "It's not really common."

[braavado]

It made sense, in a way. If things were different in her world, Korra guessed people would think bending were some kind of trick, too. As it was, she knew it was considered something sacred and rare 10,000 years ago, when the lionturtles were the ones who bestowed the power of the elements to humans.

Korra turned her head, eyes following the progress of his ki blast through the air. "What were you trying to do earlier? You kept sending the energy blasts off into the mists," she said curiously. "I don't think it's going to budge, if that's what you were thinking."

[superduperscholar]

"I know," Gohan sighed, letting his hand drop as he frowned slightly. "It's difficult to describe, but... something about my energy just feels... wrong right now."

He was trying his best to try and pin down what this oddity was, hence why he was jumping through so many self-induced hoops. But even after all of that, nothing was functionally wrong, so he wasn't sure just what this feeling was. "I'm trying to use my energy in different ways to see if I can figure out what's wrong. But so far... nothing. I mean, it doesn't feel as hot, but that's probably just the weather..."

... Wait a second.

[braavado]

Having your energy feel off was a feeling that Korra knew all too well, though she didn't think Gohan's situation was like hers. She glanced at him, eyebrows raised.

"You mean your energy's supposed to feel hot?"

While she wasn't able to help him figure out what the problem was, she could keep asking questions.

[superduperscholar]

Gohan couldn't help but blink at her reaction. He wasn't sure why that was such a strange concept, given all the other things they'd discussed. "Well... sort of. When I was teaching Videl how to fly, she mentioned that it felt warm whenever she focused on bringing out her energy." Gohan turned to glance at the tree then, the wheels starting to turn in his head. "I thought it made sense, since a lot of the things I could do with ki involved combustion in some way. Heck, I've started campfires by..."

Shooting logs.

And suddenly, everything clicked. What if the tree had recognized a threat, and took action to prevent it from being a threat? Whatever had brought them here was clearly some kind of magic, and the gems that granted them wings certainly proved that this tree had access to magic. So what if that magic had also made... other changes?

Without saying a word, Gohan narrowed his eyes at the tree. One arm coming up to take aim, as an energy blast began to form in his hand. It wasn't large, definitely not large enough to cause permanent damage. And just like that, Gohan fired on the tree, a careful eye trained on the energy blast...

... before it bounced off the tree, and disappeared off into the mist.

"... That's... not supposed to happen..."

[braavado]

Heat. That had been Gohan's main concern just now. With a sinking feeling in her gut, Korra hopped onto her feet and tried to call a flame to her hand. Nothing.

"My bending's not working," she said numbly, at first. Then, her expression grew a little more panicked. "It's not working."

She'd already lost her Avatar State. Would she lose her bending as well? With a frustrated growl, Korra punched at the air. There was stark relief on her face when the movement resulted in a blast of air. Still shaken, Korra looked down at her hands.

"So it's just heat. Or fire." Korra finally turned back to Gohan, determined not to lose her cool in front of him again. "They must have done something as soon as we got here."