thehometree | Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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.

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He manages to hear her and smiles in agreement, but still wonders why the young woman doesn't seem as happy as him. Then he figures it out—she must be missing her friends too. It's no wonder, as he's been feeling the same melancholy ever since being spirited here all on his own. There's every chance he's wrong, of course, but he's going with it and offers a solution.

"Um, there's a big light in the middle of the room that's really warm too. When I stand here, I don't feel sad anymore. Do you want to go there?"

Is he concerned about her? Korra smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks," she says, touched that he's trying to look out for her. "I actually tried it earlier, when I first got here. We can go there, if you want to see it again."

Thinking he did the right thing here, Nai smiles brightly and stands a bit on his toes when he feels her hand.

"I want to." After making sure he has a firm grip on his gem so he won't drop it for the hundredth time, he looks toward the center of the room where he can make out the light pouring down onto the floor. Hopefully they can make their way through the giant crowd.

It will most likely seem rather sudden, but once they're on their way, he looks up at her for an introduction. "I'm Nai!"

As they try to get through the crowd, Korra tries to stay just ahead of him to clear the way and make the trek a little easier. There's a split-second of hesitation when he asks for her name, though.

"I'm...Korra," she replies, trying not to tense up. Though she considered giving a fake name, nothing comes to mind immediately, and hesitating for too long would draw suspicion on its own. She just hopes no one recognizes the name. Hastily, she adds, "It's nice to meet you, Nai."

She should be safe with Nai in any case, as he's just happy to be able to call her by name. He repeats it with a continued smile.

"If your friends are here, I can tell them where you are and then you won't be sad anymore." Let's not try to reason how or why Nai would even recognize an acquaintance of Korra's. He just wants to be helpful.

"Y-yeah, I guess that's one way to put it," Korra says, trying not to show how much she doesn't want that. While she appreciates the sentiment, Korra's more than a little relieved Nai doesn't know what her friends look like.

She leads them on, occasionally nudging people aside, until they finally reach the light stream. "It's beautiful." Even just standing in front of it, Korra can feel it warming her already.

Nai lifts his gaze to stare up at the patch of sky that's letting the light seep in. The first time he stood here invoked fond memories of his home, but that nostalgia quickly became homesickness. He still feels it now, but it's somewhat subdued when he's surrounded by so many people and standing under such a comforting light.

He looks to Korra afterward with curiosity in his eyes. "Are you still sad?"

Yes, she wants to reply. There are some days, more often than not, where the sadness seems to sink into every inch of her body, making her limbs feel even heavier than they already do. Despite the happier moments she manages to find here and there, that feeling always manages to find its way back, like she just can't shake it off.

But this isn't something she wants to share with Nai, to burden him with when they only just met. There's only one person Korra's ever opened up to about this, and she isn't here. Korra doesn't think any letters will reach her from this place anyway.

Korra sighs shakily. "Sometimes," she answers, keeping it simple but honest. She hesitates, then continues slowly, thinking she should elaborate a little. "It reminds me of something that I lost. I just end up missing it more after I touch the light. That's all."

Edited 2015-03-19 06:11 (UTC)

He doesn't take his eyes off her as she answers the question, still wide with wonder and concern. She appears calm and steady on the outside, but it conflicts with what Nai's feels, looking at her. It's a feeling he's used to, actually, with a certain someone back home. His reactions and behavior differ greatly to Korra's, but this sense he has is remarkably similar.

"Ah... Um..." He wonders how he can help her feel better. With his friend, a simple night's sleep would wash away the sadness Nai would see in him, but it's not quite time to go to bed here (a simple reasoning, as usual). Eventually he just reaches to hold the hem of her tunic, hoping that would help in some way.

There it is again. No matter if she tries to hide the sadness, he seems to continue worrying about her, though they've just met. Toph's last words to her echo in her mind.

Your problem is, you've been disconnected for too long.

Maybe the old earthbender's right. Six months on her own, and she's hardly allowed herself to talk to anyone the whole time. Maybe it's time for a change. If she's going to be stuck here with a bunch of strangers, would there be any better time than this?

She leans down and curls her arms around him in a loose embrace. "Thanks. I'm being a real downer, huh?"

Nai's real weakness is not quite knowing what to do with all these different emotions he sees in people. What can he do when someone is sad, or angry? All he wants is to return the kindness others have shown to him. His inability to speak his thoughts clearly and efficiently hinders that desire at times, like now, so Korra's gratitude and embrace are a bit surprising.

"Downer...?" He eventually puts his hands on her arms and tries to peek at her. "You're welcome, Korra." At least he knows his manners. He smiles a little before hugging her properly, hoping this makes her feel better.

"Yeah, a downer," she says. "Means I just keep thinking about all the bad things instead of the good."

Korra leans her head against his for a moment, letting herself just enjoy the simple comfort of the first hug she's had in months. Finally, she pulls away to smile at him, and she might feel just the slightest bit lighter to his senses.

"Want to go look at the rest of the tree?"

Oh, well that wasn't good at all. He squeezes Korra a little more in hopes of comforting her and wishes away all that made her a 'downer.' When she decides to pull back, he looks and stares at her with slightly widened eyes for a few moments before returning the smile. It certainly does feel better now, if only just a bit. It won't stop him from doing his best, but he won't broach the topic anymore.

"Yeah, I want to. It's so big! We can even play hide-and-seek here."

Korra laughs a little, straightening up fully.

"Yeah, I guess we can. It's too bad the weird mist is blocking us in, or we'd have even more places to hide."

"Mist?" He hasn't had a chance to venture too far from the tree to realize he can't, nor does he know what 'mist' even means, so he looks confused. "We can't go outside?"

"We can go outside," Korra says, waving at the entrance of the tree. "But there's this mist that's surrounding the whole area. We can't go really far."

She tilts her head at Nai now. "I guess you haven't tried going out yet. Want to see it?"

"Ooh..." His gaze follows Korra's gesture before focusing on her again. The invitation has him perking up and nodding a few times. "I want to! Do we have to use our wings? It's hard to fly, but I'll try hard, okay?"

Korra smiles at his enthusiasm. "The entrance is right here, so I think we'll be fine. No wings for now."

As exciting as it is to fly, it's a relief to keep her feet planted on the ground after running into people like Nai earlier. They haven't taken a few steps before Korra abruptly looks at him.

"We could...practice together. Flying, I mean," Korra says softly.

"Ah, okay." He'd still go for it, but walking is just as well with him. He won't trip or stumble from that. Well, hopefully. Now he looks up at Korra when she speaks again, wondering why they've stopped when they just started going.

"Really?" Considering that idea, he smiles brightly. "Yeah we could. Is that okay? I want to get better so I don't fall anymore. And I don't want Korra to fall and get hurt either."

Now she does ruffle his hair a little, smiling.

"Don't you worry about me. I'm a lot tougher than I look," Korra says. "We'll work together until we're a lot better."

Her smile takes on a wryness. "That way, I won't be knocking people over again like I did with you."

He ducks his chin a bit from the pressure and giggles at the tickling sensation before peering back up her. If Korra says she'll be fine, then she'll be fine. Nai has no reason to think otherwise.

"A whole lot better!" And now he remembers that little crash of theirs and gives his head a shake as if reliving the impact. "Yeah, that was a little scary, but me and Korra okay now."

"Yeah..." Though Korra's voice trails off, she feels a lot calmer around Nai now. And there's a fondness that works its way into her voice as she replies to him.

"We'll be just fine."

(ooc: this looks like a good place to end it!)

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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