Video; UN: Korra

[avatar_state]

[The face that appears on video is not at all her usual self. If anything, she seems shell-shocked. In truth, an entire piece of her has been unceremoniously ripped out of herself, and frankly she's moving through the day, just carrying out necessary motions.]

[Like a ghost haunting her own life.]

...Asami's gone.

[There is a long silence after that. She wants to say things about her, say what she meant to Korra, say all the things she never said in this stupid, stupid hell she loathed with all her heart that trapped them all - but what would be the point? Those who knew Asami already knew, and those who didn't wouldn't care.]

If you had any projects with her, I'll keep her shop open long enough for you to collect them.

...That's all.

[And not once, in those words, did her eyes so much as move towards the camera, staring off into the far distance instead. Right now, she's holding herself together by a thread.]

Comments

[spiritwalks]

[He's not sure this place operates on any real reward system...which, for some Sleepers, might be an even tougher pill to swallow. But Vyng is always open to new ideas, so...]

Make us hurt people? What do you mean?

[avatar_state]

[It all depends on who you think was accruing the rewards, really.]

Think about it...what was the old place like? Constantly trying to get us to make the wrong choices, to harm when we could rise above. That's all the Pthumerians ever do - give people weapons and hope they hurt people with them.

Half this place is organized around killing things that were probably once human.

[She clenches her fists.]

I've got to find a way to put a stop to it.

[In her grief, in her anger, this is still classic Korra. A problem is presented. One that personally involves her. It must be solved.]

[spiritwalks]

[Deerington was a frightened child's dream. It operated under its own rules and weird logic, where Mother Superior seemingly held a disproportionate amount of power. Vyng generally avoids comparing the two places, but on the whole...Trench seems to be nestled in some corner of a broken world that's managed to find its own equilibrium through the ages. He can't bring himself to blame Deer Country, much less hate it.

Just like any other broken thing or place he stumbles across.

In that same vein, he can't exactly condemn Korra's anger, either. He sympathizes with her sharp reaction to what, in her eyes, amounts to injustice. Plus...she's grieving. It's natural to be angry.

Still. Calmly, he asks:]

Do you think all Pthumerians are like that? What do you mean by 'weapons'?

[avatar_state]

[She nods.]

Either they are maintaining the system or doing nothing to change it. I don't see anything beyond surface differences, do you?

And the powers that turn up - whatever we arrive with, they hand us more things without any training to be irresponsible with.

It's a design. All of it. All the way down.

[spiritwalks]

The system?

[It's an honest question — if anything, Vyng feels like Trench's "systems" are ambiguous and ill-defined (much to the chagrin of anyone looking for a clear authority figure or police force). Currency is meaningless and "safety in numbers" is the survival strategy that Trenchies have, for the most part, embraced. Social anarchy, more or less.]

Isn't Mariana the one responsible for bringing us here as squids? And for the blood powers too?

[avatar_state]

[It's easier for her - she who has walked in the Spirit World and torn down one evil god. It's all play-acting to her, a pretense at difference - where none really exists. Just powerful beings, taking sustenance or power from the people here. A world of suffering.]

Whichever of them takes credit, none upsets the structure, do they? Suffering happens, corruption happens - and the pthumerians endure. And undoubtedly draw something from it, as they play at being gods.

[spiritwalks]

[The Spirit World of Vyng's old home contained neither good nor evil. He still feels that way, even after months of brutal captivity under the spirit of Wasp. Because it was simply Wasp's nature to be aggressive and territorial...just as a hurricane or a grassfire's nature is to be destructive.

Yet they all have their place in the world.

From what Vyng can tell, Mariana doesn't act maliciously anymore than the ice that cleaves off a mountain and smashes a village. She simply does what she's always done — exist, as a portal for beings to cross through. Neither cruel nor kind, but a force of nature similar to the ocean she embodies. She's likely the reason Pthumerians arrived here at all.]

When you say "upset the structure" do you mean, like...removing blood pollution?

[avatar_state]

I don't know what I mean. Not yet.

[Which is true. It will take her some time to figure out just what she means.]

[spiritwalks]

That's fair.

Nobody expects you to have it all figured out. It's a process.