Words: 1095
(quote) "What is the function of a rubber duck?" - JK Rowling
(character) Asami
A/N: So my headcanon is more or less that the Avatar world's main language is roughly equivalent to our world's Mandarin, as their signs, books, posters, etc. all seem to be in traditional Chinese characters.
Asami opened her eyes, and instantly found herself getting annoyed.
"That's the last time I trust you with building anything," she grumbled, dusting herself off.
"What? I just added some… pizazz," Varrick said innocently, rubbing the back of his head in pain from where he landed.
"Sure, if you count screwing up the dampener and the entire regulator system pizzaz..."
"I'll have you know…"
Asami shushed him violently, regarding her surroundings in a mixture of fascination, shock, and pure, unadulterated horror.
At first glance, she had assumed they were still in Avatar Korra Park, where they had been showing off their newest invention to the public of Republic City. It had been, in all honesty, one of Asami's proudest moments; her unveiling, with her business partner Varrick, of a brand new electric generator that utilized some aspects of the spirit technology that Kuvira had used, but to better, more noble means.
She had put aside her reluctance to utilize Varrick's admitted genius, and she had thought they had been quite successful.
Then again, she had assumed that Varrick had actually tested the damned thing before turning it on, which, she supposed, was her own fault.
As she absorbed her surroundings again, pushing aside thoughts of annoyance or murder, a sinking feeling of dull horror settled in the pit of her stomach. A feeling that was only overshadowed by wholehearted fascination.
All around them, forming a square perimeter, were buildings that rivaled even the tallest of Republic City. She turned, and realized that the park she found herself in was many times bigger than Korra Park. A massive lake filled the middle of the park, and tall, perfectly-maintained trees were all around.
A whirring sound came from behind them, and a small, wiry Satomobile she had never seen whizzed towards them, carrying an overweight man and a thin, dark-skinned man both wearing a uniform of some kind.
She waved her hand, drawing their attention, and their car screeched to halt, and the fatter man, who resembled an everyday Republic City citizen, got out, rocking the small car violently, much to the chagrin of the thinner man.
"Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me where we are?"
He responded in a foreign language, one that she had never heard before. She repeated her question, and the man sighed, switching his dialect.
"Do you need help, ma'am? How did you get here?"
"Thank you- what kind of language were you speaking before? I haven't heard that one."
He looked at her quizzically.
"Well, I was speaking that very exotic and very foreign language known, as, well, English."
She had never heard of English, but the sardonic tone in the man's voice indicated that he thought her crazy. She sighed inwardly. Why was it she always met the crazy ones?
"Well, could you tell us where we are?"
"Uh… you're in Central Park, ma'am. You know, the one here… in New York City?"
She looked at him quizzically, realizing that Varrick was standing beside her, looking somewhat aghast.
"What on earth is this... New York City? Isn't this… Republic City? Isn't this Avatar Korra Park?"
His face was blanker than Bolin's after getting smacked in the face by a boulder.
"What, you mean like the blue people?"
His compatriot asked him something in an abrasive tone, and he shrugged, making the 'crazy' motion around his ear.
"Hey, we're not crazy! You are! Tell us where we are, and how 'bout you not make it weird this time?" Varrick snapped.
The man frowned.
"Look, if anyone is crazy here, it's you two in your… mobster clothes or whatever. Where did you come from, an elegant dinner party?"
Asami sighed in frustration.
"Look, can you just tell me how to get back to Sato Estates?" she asked, expecting the usual shocked reaction upon hearing her last name.
"I mean… I don't know about any Sato Estate, but you're welcome to look it up on my phone…"
He removed a small, silver slab, wiggling his finger on its surface. Varrick looked at Asami in abject confusion.
"So… since when do people scratch at cigar cases?"
Asami shrugged.
"I don't know, but something feels weird…"
He handed it to her, and she took it uncertainly, staring at the surface which, miraculously, was lit up and projecting images on it.
"What is this?" she asked, dully.
"Ha ha, very funny," he said, bored.
She stared at him, and he looked up from his engrossing task of flicking a piece of dirt off of his finger.
"You're not serious? You guys are jerking me around, right?"
He rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration, and his voice took on a coddling, condescending tone.
"This is a phone, ma'am. It's like a small computer… and guess what? It fits in your pocket. It can tell you what the weather will be for the next few months, what's going on in, like Russia, and anything you can possibly think of."
Asami paled. A thought had just occurred to her. It was so ludicrous, that she had ignored her initial thought upon opening her eyes, but it didn't seem so crazy to her now. She glanced at Varrick, who was staring at her with the expression of guilty dog who had ripped the carpet up.
He sighed, typing something in his miracle-box, and turned the screen towards her again, showing a grid with various pictures of a strange looking turtle-duck. It was bright yellow, with no shell, and it looked like a poorly constructed lump of clay more than anything else.
"See? I can look at-" he gasped, as if for dramatic effect, "rubber ducks. Any time I want!"
Varrick looked at the pictures curiously, his eyes flicking rapidly between the screen and the tired, annoyed man.
"Not a rubber turtle duck?"
"Why would it be a turtle duck? It's just a rubber duck."
"And what is the function of a rubber duck?"
A roaring noise suddenly came from behind them, and a massive metal craft swooped through the sky. It was large, blue, and it had massive, spinning death-blades roaring on top of it, which was somehow keeping it in the air.
"Damn tour flights…" The man cursed, grabbing the phone and sprinting back to the small Satomobile and roaring off, a small siren wailing atop the wiry roof.
The commotion receded, leaving Asami and Varrick in the dust, staring at each other in shock.
"Are we... in the future?" Varrick whispered.
Asami, despite her scientific mind disagreeing vehemently, was (for once) inclined to agree.