hot_water | For Jemma

Entry tags:

jemma,
oom

For Jemma

[OOC: From here.]

Tahno's door leads back to his apartment, which is as large and lushly decorated as his rooms in the bar. He has a thing for plants, apparently, as there's a touch of greenery in each room, as well as sources of water. Miniature fountains burble in the common rooms and at the end of the hall.

"Well, here we are," Tahno drawls, gesturing around the rooms. "But we should really head to Narook's Noodlery. That's where the party starts."

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"Earth and Air are opposites, not Water," Tahno drawls, lazily bending his whiskey out of his glass. "And it wouldn't produce worse results, necessarily, but it might produce nothin'."

Ming and Shaozu nod emphatically. "Earth stances don't really work with waterbending," Shaozu says. "You may end up producing more ice than you need."

"So a Waterbender using Earth techniques will end up with more solid water?" Jemma's intrigued - it might be a false start, but that's an interesting detail. "If you use Fire techniques, is the water hot?"

"Nah," Tahno drawls, and Ming shakes his head.

"Waterbenders who use firebending techniques will end up with nothing, just like waterbenders using air," Ming says, shaking his head. "There are some moves that overlap, but in general different stances don't produce much."

"How very peculiar." It doesn't make a lot of sense to Jemma, but she knows she's working under the combined handicap of not being from this world, and having long-standing training to not think in terms of elements. Or, at least, these elements.

Won't catch a periodic table around here, no.

"How do you know you're a bender? Does everyone in your families learn the techniques and you wait to see who manages to make things move?"

Ming glances to Tahno, who answers for him. "Bending starts at birth; pretty soon ya get to be crawling around and ya move yer hands in the right way and yer creatin' fire or flinging earth across the room. It's stressful for non-benders to have bendin' kids, as I'm sure ya can imagine, but that don't happen that often."

"I'd imagine it'd be a bit terrifying." She wants to ask if there's a random factor to it - a waterbender showing up in a traditionally earthbending family, for instance, but she feels that's probably something she ought to know if she lived here.

She'll ask Tahno later.

"You know, I've never heard - how did all of you get into pro-bending?"

"Our parents, basically," Tahno drawls, and the other two boys nod. "We basically all met up while going to the best gym money could buy, and learned probendin' techniques from the best. No rags to riches stories for us."

As a gal who went from boarding school to college to the halls of SHIELD, she can't exactly complain about that.

"That would explain your success - there's nothing like learning from masters."

"Yeah, no kiddin'," Tahno drawls, flashing a grin.

Ming tilts his head to regard Jemma. "So what do you do?"

"Oh, I'm..." She has absolutely no idea if this is a thing on this world, but... well. It is now. "I'm a scientist. I try to figure out how the world works, through experimentation. Of course, some things I have to take an indirect approach about... like bending."

"Oh, okay," Ming says, at the same time as Shaozu says, "That makes sense."

"Explains all the questions, huh, guys?" Tahno drawls, chuckling, as the two Wolfbats nod into their noodles.

"I'm sorry we can't give you a better run down on how bending works," Ming says after finishing a bite of seaweed noodles. "It's more instinct than anything else."

"That's what I keep running up against." Jemma agrees, ruefully. "You must understand, to someone who cannot bend it's almost like magic... and I don't believe in magic. That's just something that hasn't been explained yet. It's positively infuriating."

"It ain't magic, that's fer sure," Tahno drawls automatically, cupping his chin in his hand. "Did ya wanna run some tests or somethin'?"

The other boys give him momentary looks of alarm.

CHRISTMAS!

Except, no, She sighs longingly.

"I don't have any of my gear. Though that would be lovely, if I had the chance, some time. I promise it's not horribly invasive, really, I'm not a ghoul."

Ming and Shaozu try not to look too relieved as Tahno calmly sips his whiskey out of the air. "What sorts of tests would ya run if ya had yer gear?" Tahno says, poking the lid of Pandora's box.

Tahno.

Tahno, that's not nice to your teammates.

Jemma takes the bait, hook line and sinker.

"Well, I'm still trying to understand the very basics, really - this chi energy should be a measurable force, since energy is neither created nor destroyed, so there's some transfer of energy from the stance and movement to the environment." She explains cheerfully. "I have voltmeter with net rigged for the attempt to measure this energy flow, but... so far I haven't been getting great results."

Tahno doesn't seem to mind, though his Wolfbat companions give him odd looks.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out someday," Tahno drawls, resting his chin on the back of his hand. "Some people are more powerful than others, which I'm sure has somethin' to do with how much chi they can handle. And then there's the Uh-vatar, which can handle all four elements and the Uh-vatar state."

".... You don't suppose they'd submit to a study." Honestly, it'd be the best thing ever, dear lord think of the data.

Tahno's smirk turns slightly vicious. "I don't think she'd be that interested, no," he drawls, while Ming struggles to contain his laughter. Shaozu looks interested in his noodles.

"Well that's just tragic. She'd practically be her own control group." Jemma huffs, perpetually frustrated that people aren't as interested in sorting out the world as she is.

Tahno flicks his fingers out and freezes his whiskey into a cane to suck on. "Yeah, it's a cryin' shame," he drawls, shaking his head. "You'll just have to settle for me."

"No one 'settles' for you, Tahno," Shaozu says, and then looks back to his noodles.

Tahno claps him on the shoulder. "Damn right, and don't let me forget it."

"Oh, I wouldn't call it settling." She is proud that her blush isn't actually bright enough to compete with the candles.

Tahno gives her a measured look and a friendly smirk. He reaches out and taps her nose. "Good," he purrs, and Ming and Shaozu and their fangirls might as well not be in the room, the way his focus narrows to include her, and just her.

The moment breaks, and he stands up from the table. "Ya ready to blow this joint?" he asks Jemma, and then winks at the other members of the Wolfbats. "Hold down the fort for me, mmkay?"

So, yeah. She was proud of controlling her blush. That pretty much got obliterated when he focused like that.

Whew.

"What? Um." She shakes her head to clear the cobwebs. "Yes, that does sound... yes. It really was lovely to meet you all."

"It was nice meeting you, too," Ming says, and Shaozu nods.

"See ya, guys," Tahno drawls, offering his arm to Jemma.

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protect_and_survey - 2016-01-25 08:10 (UTC) - Expand

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