Summer, ASC 171
Tarrlok is just glad when their journey takes them further into land, away from the sea. They cross marshes and paddy fields until the ground hardens beneath the sun, and the surrounding vegetation becomes sharp and ungenerous, as if it's driven to survive out of spite.
Whenever they stop to get their bearings, Korra hops down off the polar bear dog, takes a waterskin from one of the panniers, and hurls the water skin at Tarrlok's head. She never just passes the water skin to him. She always throws it, sometimes without even looking in his direction. Then she consults the wealth of maps that she's brought along, never bothering to ask for his advice, and Tarrlok pretends that he isn't impressed by her ability to use a compass.
At night, she makes a habit of pointing out constellations and telling him their names. In return, he names the political leaders of the areas they pass through, and he tells her about their personalities and their interests and their connections and their families, though he's never sure whether she's actually listening.
"People must be worried about you right now, what with you running off on your own," Tarrlok says one early evening, while Naga slowly lollops across grassland. "Don't you feel bad about that?"
Korra doesn't turn to look at him as she speaks. "They should trust me to take care of myself."
Tarrlok looks out across the plains. They look like something out of a painting, albeit a painting created by someone with only a basic grasp of watercolors, so the bottom half of the picture is grey-green while the top half is the color of a bruise, and there's not a lot of detail in between.
"Is that what you're going to tell your friends and family when you see them again? If they get upset, you'll accuse them of having insufficient faith in you?" Tarrlok asks.
Korra's posture stiffens, and she says, "You're doing that thing where you're trying to make me look like I'm some kind of..." She searches for the right word. "...Asshole. You're trying to make me look like I'm an asshole. Again."
"Well, running off is an asshole thing to do, Korra," says Tarrlok. She should stop swearing. It bothers him.
"I told you, I left them a letter," Korra grumbles.
"And what did it say, exactly? 'Dear so-and-so, I've gone to hunt down a man who's might've spent most of his life planning to kill me, but don't worry, I'll be travelling in the company of a bloodbending lunatic, so I'm sure that absolutely nothing will go wrong. See you in a few months.'"
"You're not a bloodbender anymore," Korra points out. "You're just a regular lunatic."
"And yet I'm still the only person on this polar bear dog who has any common sense."
"You're not gonna be on this polar bear dog for much longer if you keep trying to pick fights with me, bub."
"What, you'd make me walk to Shunjing from here? Very well. That suits me. We're in the middle of nowhere right now. Perhaps if I'm lucky, I'll be eaten by wolves."
"No wolf in the world would be that hungry."
"Korra, by this point, I might just roll myself in myself in char siu seasoning and set myself on fire."
"You'd still taste like burned beard dirt."
"You have no respect for your elders."
"You don't act like my elder."
"Well, even if I did, I doubt you'd listen to me. If you're willing to disobey the orders of a Grand Lotus, then what hope do I have?"
Korra doesn't reply.
"By the way, isn't Katara like a grandmother to you?" Tarrlok adds.
Korra remains silent for a few seconds, then says, "Nice try, but I'm still going to find Amon."
"I'm sure Katara won't be angry. Just very disappointed."
"You get some weird kick out of trying to piss me off, right?" Korra mutters.
"If you don't enjoy my company, then you shouldn't have kidnapped me."
"I-" Korra begins, then pauses.
"Ha ha," says Tarrlok, "You underestimated how awful I am, didn't you?"
"No, you're just awful in a different way to what I expected," Korra snaps.
"And what were you expecting?"
"Someone smarter."
Tarrlok sits back a little in the saddle, leaning away from her.
Then he considers a few things, and says, "Actually, I used to think I'd be smarter, as well."
Korra lets out a loud sigh, and spends a few seconds in contemplative silence before telling him, "You can be kind of a putz sometimes."
"Only sometimes?"
"Yeah. You're not a total jerk. Just kind of a putz."
Tarrlok wonders if that argument would stand up in court. Well this man tried to kidnap the Avatar and he violently assaulted a group of people, but he's also a complete boob, so he can't be that bad, right? He almost laughs. Perhaps he should outright tell the Avatar, 'You know when I had your friends arrested? That was a deliberate act of spite on my part. I did that because I knew it would scare you. That's what evil is: knowing that something is wrong, and doing it anyway because it's convenient.'
"So you're saying I'm not malicious, I'm just stupid?" Tarrlok asks.
"Kinda."
Tarrlok nods slowly. "...I think I'd feel better if you said I was malicious."
"No you wouldn't," Korra says, with no small amount of menace.
"Though really," Tarrlok continues, "it's not like being malicious and being a putz are mutually exclusive. You could argue that being a putz is a prerequisite for malice."
"You're saying only stupid people do bad things?" replies Korra.
"Something like that. Maybe 'stupid' is the wrong word, but malicious behavior reflects a... A failure, somewhere. Either a failure of self-control, or a failure of imagination."
"That's kinda what I was getting at when I said you were a putz. It was pretty dumb of you to pick a fight with me. If you'd lost, I would've kicked your ass, and if you'd won, then-" Korra thinks about it. "Well, technically, you did win, and here we are."
Tarrlok winces, as Korra can't see him do it.
"Tenzin told me once that every bad deed contains the seed of its own unmaking," Korra says.
"That's nice," says Tarrlok.
"Hey, you know what you said about, like... Malice being a failure of imagination or whatever?" says Korra, as if she's been struck by an idea. "You should talk to Tenzin about that stuff sometime."
"I'd rather throw myself off a cliff," Tarrlok mutters.
Tarrlok doesn't realize how close they are to their destination until a few days later, when they climb a hill and notice the bleached white buildings huddled together at the bottom of the valley. The setting sun bathes the town in an orange glow.
Korra consults her map, then takes some binoculars from the pannier and takes a good look around. When she seems satisfied with her surroundings, she nods to herself, and flops against Naga. "Yeah, I think we're at the right place. That town down there looks like Shunjing," she says. "We made it. Go us."
Tarrlok isn't sure whether she's talking to him or to the polar bear dog, but he asks, "What now?"
Korra takes great care in rolling the map back up. "I figure I'll go into town in disguise so I can get a lead on Noatak and Katara both. You can stay here with Naga."
Tarrlok looks at Naga.
Naga looks back at Tarrlok as if to say 'you're no prize pig either'.
"Is... That your plan?" Tarrlok asks Korra. "You're going to go to Shunjing and just... nosey around?"
"Yeah."
"Is there any more to this plan?"
Korra now glances up. "What, you want me to tell you exactly what I intend to do, and then you can say how dumb I am and that it's not going to work?"
Yes. "I just..." says Tarrlok, "I'm skeptical of any plan that can be described in one sentence."
"You have a better idea?"
"You could take me back to the White Lotus, like a law-abiding citizen."
"Tarrlok, I need to find Amon."
"Yes. But. You can't just walk into some town. People will recognize you. And if Katara's in Shunjing, then the place will probably be crawling with White Lotus spies."
"Uh, that's why I said I'd go in disguise?"
Avatar Korra, girl of a thousand faces. "And you think that'll work?" Tarrlok asks.
Korra stares at him like he's an opponent in a pro-bending ring. "I'll make a fake beard out of Naga's fur. No one will ever know."
Tarrlok stares back.
"I'm kidding," Korra says, before he can speak again. "Anyway, it can wait until tomorrow. I want a rest."
"I'm saying nothing," says Tarrlok, then manages to go a whole three seconds before adding, "I hope your idea of a disguise doesn't just involve wearing a large hat."
Korra marches off to some spindly trees at the bottom of the hill. "No. I'm going to wear a large hat AND a scarf."
"I can't even tell when you're joking anymore," Tarrlok laments, following after her.
They set up camp in the cluster of trees. Tarrlok briefly entertains the idea of sneaking off and trying to find Katara while Korra is asleep, but decides against it on the basis that it could potentially make things worse.
Korra watches as Tarrlok straightens out his bedroll, and then she announces, "You're not stupid."
"Excuse me?" says Tarrlok.
"I'm just saying, you're not stupid."
Tarrlok has absolutely no idea what's prompted this. He almost replies with something like, 'that's very charitable of you to say so', but instead says, "Uh. Thank you?"
Then Korra goes and ruins things by peering at him like he's a really sad zoo exhibit, yet again.
"If you're hoping that I'll say, 'well Korra, you're not stupid, either'," then you're sadly waiting in vain," Tarrlok says.
Korra rolls her eyes at him, turns away, and sits down on the ground.
Tarrlok flicks a spider off his bedroll before settling down for the night.
He listens to the creak of dry branches moving in the wind as he falls asleep.
Tarrlok's eyes open. The tangle of branches above him look like capillaries. His skin crawls. He has no idea what time it is, but there's barely enough light to see by, and the full moon is veiled by clouds (and it's so strange, that he has to look at the moon to know what phase it's in).
He sits up. Korra is already on her feet, hunched by Naga, who isn't growling, not just yet. They both stare into the darkness beyond the trees.
Tarrlok should just be angry about being woken up.
"Korra, wha-" he begins, and a shadow drops behind Korra's back.
Humans don't move that quickly.
There's a thud and a blur of movement, and Korra is shoved forwards, gasping as her breath is knocked out of her. She topples forwards and hits the ground face-first.
Tarrlok stumbles to his feet, too slow, always too slow. Naga snarls and twists to snap at the shadow, but it darts away from her jaws and leaps up into the nearest tree, invisible within the branches, and Tarrlok just runs to Korra and crouches by her side.
Korra's eyes are closed. He can't tell if she's breathing. Through the fog of panic, two distinct thoughts cross his mind:
'Oh shit, please be alright, I can't afford to lose you as well.'
and
'You know, it'd be very easy for someone to frame me for the murder of the Avatar right now.'
Somewhere to his left, Naga yelps.
Tarrlok scoops Korra up. She's much heavier than he remembers, and he doesn't know if he can run all the way to Shunjing while carrying her, and it'd be too easy to get lost. He crouches, cradling her, and checks her boots to see if she has a knife, but of course she hasn't, she'd have no need for one, and ha, it's still a bit of a novel concept, to think that some people actually need to carry weapons, and really, what exactly is Tarrlok meant to do in this situation? Hit his attacker with a rock? He can't even see any good rocks nearby-
And then the shadow is right in front of him, its head tilted curiously. The shadow is small. Childlike.
Out the corner of his eye, Tarrlok can see Naga lying on the ground.
Tarrlok hunches over Korra, for all the good that'll do, and braces himself. He's not going to win this fight. All he can do is try to learn as much about his attacker as possible, and hope that he'll survive long enough for this information to be useful.
The shadow suddenly lunges, and Tarrlok's right hand moves by itself as if trying to draw a shield with water that isn't there.
The shadow flicks Tarrlok hard on the ear.
"OW," he says, more out of surprise than anything else.
By the time he's got his wits together, the shadow has already stepped back out of his reach.
"You're definitely not going to bloodbend me, are you?" it asks, and Tarrlok struggles to comprehend its voice.
He's not quite sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't this.
"N-no," he answers.
"Oh phew, good, I'm told it really hurts," the shadow says, then pulls a black scarf away from its face. In the gloom, Tarrlok can make out a pair of beady little eyes that put him in mind of some woodland creature.
The shadow is actually a little old lady in a black suit.
The shadow turns away, and yells into the darkness, "Hey Katara! He says he's not going to bloodbend me! Isn't that nice?"
Tarrlok briefly considers grabbing the Avatar again and trying to run, though perhaps it'd be wiser to climb a tree, or play dead. He tries, he really tries, to come up with a credible explanation for why he left the White Lotus compound, and he can't think of anything better than, 'the Avatar hit me and she's stronger than I am'.
Korra groans quietly.
A second shadow emerges from between the trees and approaches until its silhouette resolves into the shape of another old lady: one with a cane and a curved spine. Katara pauses for a moment, and uses a cigarette lighter to ignite the lantern that she's carrying, which just allows Tarrlok to see how angry she looks.
"Good evening, Tarrlok," Katara says, inching closer with terrible inevitability. "Put the Avatar down, please."
Tarrlok breathes in through his teeth, gently lowers Korra to the ground, and takes a large step away from her.
Katara holds the lantern up and regards him through narrowed eyes. "You have two seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't hit you in the leg with my stick."
"Well, I-... To be quite honest, I'd just like to apologize for the fact that-... Ow." The cane cracks against his shin.
Katara looks at him like he's lower than dirt (which shouldn't bother him, given that he used to be a politician), then stares down at Korra, who lets out another groan and slowly sits upright.
Korra lifts her right arm and tries to touch her face, but her hand hangs slack as if something is wrong with her wrist.
Katara's... friend, personal assassin, fellow evil grandma, whatever she is... crouches next to Korra and tuts in sympathy. "It's okay if you feel like you've got noodle arms, honey. It wears off."
Korra immediately looks around for her polar bear dog, then asks, panicked, "What's wrong with Naga?"
"Naga's fine," Katara says. "Worry about your own problems. You've insulted me. You've disobeyed my orders. You've betrayed my trust, and you've underestimated my intelligence."
Korra blinks, then seems to realize what's happening. She looks a little like how Tarrlok feels. Her mouth hangs open for a moment, and then she manages to say, "Oh... I, uh. I'm. Sorry."
"Do you have any idea how much danger you've put yourself in?" Katara says, quietly. "Do you know how easy it was for me to track you? Or how easy it was for a seasoned chi blocker to spring an ambush? I thought you'd been raised better than this."
Korra gets that expression on her face - Tarrlok is quite familiar with it by now - like she's fighting back the urge to argue.
Tarrlok silently prays he'll keep her mouth shut.
Katara then jabs her cane at him. "And you. If I thought you were competent, I'd blame all of this on you. Korra's a teenager, but what's your excuse?"
"Uh, actually, I made him come with me," Korra mutters. She stands up, wobbles a bit, then steadies herself.
Katara's voice remains quiet, but now there's a note of exasperation to it. "Stop defending him."
"Don't yell at him because you're mad at me!" Korra says, just a little too loudly for someone who's addressing a Grand Lotus.
Katara eyes her. "Excuse me?"
"Everything was my idea because this whole mess is my responsibility and I thought that taking responsibility was meant to be a good thing, and you can't put me on the sidelines just because I lost one fight and now you don't think I'm capable of dealing with Amon. If you don't think I'm capable of dealing with him, then you're meant to teach me to deal with him! And you can't say, like, 'oh, Korra's a teenager' like that makes me some kind of idiot, because that's not fair. I'm not stupid. I just lost my bending once. I got it back. You said I betrayed your trust, but you don't trust ME," Korra says, then has to take a very deep breath.
"Korra." Katara makes the name sound like a warning.
"Don't 'Korra' me like I'm six years old! Amon was my problem from the start, and now you want to take things out my hands because you suddenly think you're the only one who's qualified to deal with this stuff. And yeah, it might've been risky for me to run off and try to find Amon by myself, but if you'd just let me go with you in the first place then WE WOULDN'T BE HAVING THIS ARGUMENT."
The temperature drops sharply.
Katara says nothing.
Korra purses her lips together, and glances away. Her gaze settles on Tarrlok for a second, just long enough for her to give him a look that he interprets as, 'Please be kind towards my next incarnation.'
Katara still says nothing. Tarrlok avoids looking directly at her.
Then little lady in the black suit claps her hands together, and says, "You know what we need?! Dim sum and tea!"
"Ty Lee," Katara says, very slowly. "It's around midnight. You can't-"
"Dim sum and tea," the old lady repeats in a cheerful hiss, teeth gritted together.
Katara's demeanour changes slightly. One might say that she thaws a little. "Fine," she intones, "We'll discuss this matter back at the house."
The old lady - Ty Lee, apparently - offers an vapid smile, and wanders over to where Naga lies. She runs her hands over the scruff of the creature's neck, pauses, then jabs an index finger into its fur. Naga's back legs kick, and then the creature raises its head and sneezes.
"I've restarted your doggy," Ty Lee tells Korra, dusting off her hands.
Korra nods absently, and pats Naga on the neck.
Ty Lee's house in Shunjing is a sprawling building set just a short distance from the town. There's a lone guard outside the main gate, leaning against the wall. Ty Lee wakes the guard by flicking her ear.
The place is quiet. Ty Lee leads the three of them past manicured lawns, into a reception area past a deceptively sensible-looking front door.
And even at night with only a few lanterns burning, it's clear that interior of the house is alarmingly pink. Tiny ceramic statues of children and animals dominate every surface. There are far too many tapestries, too many wall scrolls, too many pictures of pastel-colored bunnies, fenghuangs, and demure ladies in billowy dresses. Tarrlok isn't surprised to find that the entire place smells like old lady perfume. If it didn't smell like old lady perfume, something would be amiss.
Ty Lee leads them to a room that contains a table and entirely too many silk cushions, then potters around, making tea. She hums a song from a sentimental opera to herself (Tarrlok pretends he doesn't recognize the tune). Korra and Katara kneel at the table and avoid looking at each other, while Tarrlok examines the split ends in his hair.
Korra's polar bear dog squeezes itself into a corner and radiates haughty indignation.
Tarrlok racks his brain, trying to figure out if he should know, or care, who Ty Lee is. Is she a member of the White Lotus? Or does Katara just have ties to a secret cabal of shadowy grandmothers? Tarrlok might be intrigued by this if he wasn't so tired, but under the current circumstances, he's more interested in the prospect of a warm drink and a night's sleep under a proper roof.
They sit in silence for a while, and then Korra props both her elbows on the table so she can rest her chin on her hands, and takes a deep breath. "Sorry," she tells Katara. "I shouldn't have gone off on my own after you told me to go back to the city. That was... uh. That was rude."
Katara sniffs. "Well, maybe I shouldn't expect the Avatar to obey orders. It's important that you use your own discretion. I just wish you'd been more prudent and that you'd... communicated a little more instead of suddenly disappearing."
"Sorry," Korra repeats.
"You're forgiven," Katara says. "I could stay angry at you, but it wouldn't solve much."
"I'm really, really sorry," Korra mutters.
"Yet you'd do exactly the same thing all over again, if you thought it was the right course of action," Katara says. "Don't fret over it. We just need to work on your situational awareness so it won't be so easy for people to ambush you in future."
"So what now?" Korra asks, giving Tarrlok a shifty glance.
Katara drums her fingers against the tabletop. "Well, I could send you back to the United Republic. However, I'm not sure what you'd actually learn if I did that. And, since you're here, it might be more productive if you were taught some proper chi blocking."
Korra sits upright. (And Tarrlok doesn't know if he feels relieved for her, or incredulous. Surely they're not going to let her off the hook that easily. They can't just let her do whatever she wants because she's the Avatar, right? No wonder she's such a brat.)
"Does that mean she'll be staying here for a while?" Ty Lee pipes up from an adjacent room.
"What?" Katara yells back.
"I said, does that mean she'll be staying here for a while?!"
"Come in here when you speak to me so I can see your face!" Katara shouts.
Ty Lee comes back into the room with a tray of cakes and tea cups, which she sets down on the table. "I. Said. Does. That. Mean. She'll. Be. Staying. Here. For. A. While?"
Katara bristles. "Yes. If. You. Don't. Mind. Having. Her." Then she clears her throat and softens her tone. "Would that be alright?"
"Of course! I'd love to train the Avatar!" Ty Lee clasps her hands together under her chin. "There's a spare bed in the dormitory and I'm sure my students will be so excited to meet her! I'll tell everyone at breakfast tomorrow!"
"Um, thanks," Korra says, with a tentative smile.
"I sure you'll be a really good chi blocker!" Ty Lee serves the tea, then plops down on a cushion at the table and grins. Most of her front teeth are missing.
Korra glances over to Katara, then Tarrlok. "What about him?"
Katara and Ty Lee both try to speak at the same time.
"He's going-"
"He can stay-"
They pause and look at each other.
"I'll think on it," Katara says.
Tarrlok eyes Korra, who takes a deep breath as if she has something to say.
Katara cuts her off. "For the time being, he'll be sleeping in the same room as me," she says.
Ty Lee gives Katara a peculiar glance and raises her eyebrows, but Katara just glares back, which leaves Ty Lee looking disappointed.
Tarrlok refrains from putting his head in his hands, and drinks his tea.
After the tea has been cleared away and Korra has eaten most of the cakes, Ty Lee leads them to the guest quarters. Katara has already been given a large room on the north side of the house.
Katara's room is also very pink. Tarrlok experiences a powerful urge to redecorate it.
It looks like Katara has been staying in the room for the past few days, as it already contains a few Katara-like things, such a waterskin, a sewing bag, a few map cases, and a luggage case on little wheels, all neatly arranged. Katara sits down on the floor under a lantern, takes some sort of sewing project out of the bag, and busies herself with needlework.
There are two beds, so Tarrlok takes the one that's furthest away from Katara. He rolls over so he has his back to her, and then he stares at the wall and tries to avoid dwelling on the many ways in which everything is terrible. He wills himself not to snore. Or fart. Or make any sort of noise that you wouldn't wish to make in the presence of a Grand Lotus, really.
Fortunately, he only has to feign sleep for a few minutes.
When Tarrlok wakes, there's sunlight streaming through the windows, and Katara is absent. He ventures out of the bedroom and lumbers around until he finds the outhouse.
Once that's been dealt with, he decides to go back indoors and return to the guest bedroom so no one can accuse him of sneaking around. However, en route, he hears voices coming from the courtyard, and he stops to listen.
One of the voices belongs to Korra, though he can't tell what she's saying.
Tarrlok looks down at himself. He's still wearing the clothes that he slept in, and it's been so long since he last washed that he no longer feels uncomfortable, just resigned to his own filth. He makes a token effort to pull the creases out of his shirt. Not that it's actually his shirt. The shirt is probably Tenzin's (whose clothes, it turns out, are a little on the large side). Tarrlok wouldn't wear a shirt like this unless his life had gone horribly wrong somewhere.
He soon gives up on trying to look presentable, and heads towards the courtyard.
Katara is sitting on a bench by the south wall. A short distance away, Korra and Ty Lee seem to be conducting some sort of sparring exercise, although it looks like a very slow, drawn-out slapfight where they bump their forearms together. Ty Lee seems quite different now that she's not dressed like an assassin: she's wearing a carnation-colored suit that was probably designed for someone forty years younger, and her braided hair is dyed a shade of reddish-purple that doesn't exist in nature. Tarrlok would say that she looks like an ageing flower spirit, but that would almost sound flattering.
Tarrlok discreetly takes a seat next to Katara.
Katara doesn't look at him, but immediately starts to speak: "You know, when Korra was small, she found a cheap little doll in one of the dormitories, and she insisted that it was hers. Then one day she threw the doll at some sled dogs, and one of the dogs managed to eat its head. She threw such a tantrum that Acolyte Priya had to rush in to rescue both the doll and the dogs. So then Korra had this headless doll that smelled of dog breath, and nothing we said could make her let go of the wretched thing. She said she felt sorry for it. All we could do was ban her from bringing it to the dinner table."
Good morning to you too, Tarrlok thinks, then mulls over what she's just said.
"You're going to say I remind you of the doll, I take it?" he asks.
Katara now turns to look face him, and just raises her eyebrows.
Tarrlok twiddles his thumbs. "You don't like me very much, do you?"
"I almost liked you, right until you escaped from White Lotus custody."
Tarrlok wants to point at Korra and say 'it was her idea', but instead replies, "Ye-es, I'll admit that I don't really have an excuse for that."
Katara resumes watching Korra.
"Well, for what it's worth, you can always just stick a few more years on my sentence," Tarrlok mutters.
"You sound a little too blase about your future, Tarrlok."
"I could keep apologizing, but I've always believed that the value of an apology is inversely proportional to the number of times you have to repeat it," Tarrlok says. "I, ah... Still don't know what you want from me. Sorry."
Katara purses her lips into a wrinkly little line.
Tarrlok looks down at his hands, and picks at the calluses on his left palm.
There's the tap-tap-tap of Katara drumming her fingernails against the handle of her cane.
Eventually, she says, "Do you want to know what I told Korra about you?"
"I don't know," Tarrlok replies. "How bad was it?"
"I told her, 'You know what, since you were able to break him out of the compound and drag him all the way over here... I think I'll keep him in my custody. At least that way, I'll know where he is at all times.'"
Tarrlok looks over at her.
"I will be having words with a few people about White Lotus security measures," Katara grumbles.
"So, does that mean I-" Tarrlok begins.
"You'll be following me around for the foreseeable future," Katara says, with grim resignation. "I don't trust you enough to leave you on your own. And, who knows, I might need someone to open jars and get things off high shelves."
Tarrlok almost asks, 'is this going to be better or worse than prison?' but keeps his mouth shut.
Katara narrows her eyes at him. "By the way, if I have to keep looking at you, then you need to do something about your hair. You remind me of Chong the Nomad."
"Who?"
"Before your time. Just do something about your hair."
Tarrlok squints right back at her. "Such as?"
"Just tie it back and put some oil on it or... actually brush it at the very least, just so I don't feel like I'm talking to a very depressed qalupalik," Katara says.
"It's good to see that you've found someone new to order around," says a loud voice to Katara's right.
Tarrlok looks up. There's another old woman - not Ty Lee - sitting on the bench next to the Grand Lotus. The newcomer is spindly and bespectacled, with a grey scarf over her hair. There's nothing too noteworthy about her - she just looks like she's the sort of old bag who'd own far too many owl cats, because owl cats might be the only creatures who hate the world almost as much as she does.
Tarrlok didn't see her sit down.
Tarrlok is developing a particular distrust of little old ladies.
Katara just glances over at the other woman and lifts her nose in the air.
The newcomer points in Korra's direction. "That's the Avatar? Really? Goodness me."
"She'll be staying here for a while," Katara says, primly.
"What an honor," the old woman mutters, then leans forwards so she can study Tarrlok. She has bright yellow eyes. She reminds him of a reptile. (You could probably make several pairs of shoes out of her; she looks leathery enough.)
"This one isn't one of yours, is it?" the old woman asks. "How many children did you have, again? Ten? Didn't you try to single-handedly repopulate the entire Southern Water Tribe?"
Katara opens her mouth as if she's about to say something unpleasant.
The old woman cuts her off, "No, I think I know who he is. I do read your city's newspapers out of morbid curiosity." Then she addresses Tarrlok: "So you were the head of the council? That explains quite a lot."
"You can ignore her," Katara says. "Eventually she'll get bored and go away."
"I am a guest in this household," the old woman says, squaring her shoulders. "And I'm genuinely surprised to find you here. I thought you were meant to be back at the South Pole, doing White Lotus things like preserving harmony between the four nations and maintaining peace and whatnot. Since you're doing such a good job with that."
Katara sniffs. "Well, while I usually have my hands full with my important duties, my many talented students, and my wonderful family... I've decided that I could use a vacation."
The old woman shakes her head. "Trying to catch some minor charlatan, I gather. What's the point? Give it two years, and everyone will have forgot he existed."
"Perhaps. He could probably get away with changing his name, keeping a low profile, and living the rest of his life in obscurity." Katara stares at the other woman. "...However, I don't like leaving loose ends. And I have a very long memory."
"I could probably track down your filthy Water Tribe bandit in two weeks," the old lady says, blandly.
"Do you really want to turn this into a competition?" Katara asks.
The old lady blinks. "Wait, you don't want me to catch him? But wouldn't that benefit the greater good? Surely you're not just pursuing this man purely for the sake of your own ego, perhaps as a desperate attempt to prove that you're still relevant?"
Katara stares at her for a moment, then laughs. "Shush, Cahaya. I have a right to find him. He attacked people I love."
The old lady - Cahaya - makes a face as if she's sucking a lemon. "Suit yourself." She then leans back and points a tapered fingernail in Korra's direction. "On a different note, if I attempt to speak with the Avatar, will you embarrass yourself by making a fuss about it?"
"Why do you want to talk to her?"
"Because I can. Also she's much more attractive than the last one," Cahaya says, then mutters something that sounds like, 'bearded baby on stilts'.
"If you want to make a fool of yourself, then don't let me stop you," Katara mutters.
Cahaya hops up from the bench and paces over to where Korra and Ty Lee are training. She moves at an uncanny speed. Watching her move across the lawn is a bit like watching a harmless log reveal itself to be a crocodile.
Korra and Ty Lee stop what they're doing., and Korra and Cahaya speak with each other, and then Cahaya says something that makes Korra laugh and take a small step back.
"You know, it took her at least thirty years to figure out how jokes work," Katara mutters to Tarrlok.
"You've known her a long time?" Tarrlok asks.
"Unfortunately."
"Who is she?"
"A minor annoyance."
Tarrlok smiles thinly. "Could she find Noatak in two weeks?"
Now Katara looks like she's just sucked a lemon. "I'm sure she'd like you to think so."
Tarrlok watches as the old woman stalks off back towards the house, leaving Korra and Ty Lee to their weird arm-bumping exercise.
Later on, when Katara has gone away to do something that's presumably important and therefore none of Tarrlok's business (she tells him to stay within Ty Lee's household, nothing else), Tarrlok is able to catch Korra alone again.
He furtively asks Korra to find him a pair of clippers and a mirror. She gives him an odd look, but doesn't comment, and soon returns with the requested items. Tarrlok then returns to the privacy of the guest room, sits down, grits his teeth, and tries to cut his hair short again.
The end result still looks awful, but it looks awful in a completely different way to how it was before, so that's progress. By Earth Kingdom standards (for what those are worth), his appearance might even be considered acceptable.
"I've fucked up my hair and I have ruined my life," he says to himself, out loud, then spends a good ten minutes just staring at a wall because he's not sure if he wants to start smashing things, or worse, cry. (It figures, doesn't it, that after everything that's happened, the thing that finally breaks him is a bad haircut.) Why the hell did Noatak let him cut his hair short in the first place? This is all his fault.
He reminds himself that he's an adult, and wanders back outside.
Tarrlok returns to the courtyard.
Korra is easy to locate: she's sitting on the grass with a girl in a pink uniform, presumably one of Ty Lee's students. The two of them are conversing over a huge plate of pastel-colored pastries, so Tarrlok stays out of sight and waits a while, pretending to mind his own business. He's quite aware that this probably looks tremendously creepy on his part, but there isn't much else for him to do.
He leans against a wall, and notes his sense of dread at the prospect of boredom.
When he was staying at the temple, he'd always found a way to pass the time. The place contained a surprising number of books (consequently, Tarrlok now knows far too much about goat sheep farming, acupuncture, medicinal herbs, and minor agricultural spirits), and when his health had improved and he'd been willing to move around and hold actual conversations, he'd ran errands and helped with basic chores. It had almost been pleasant. (Though there was one episode where he'd thrown a mop a good ten feet in anger after realizing that cleaning was much harder when you couldn't waterbend, and the temple's head healer had just given him this look and said, "Sweetie, is there anything you want to talk about?") He'd been able to keep himself from feeling entirely useless.
Here, though...
He's relieved when the girl in the pink uniform finally leaves, and Korra is alone again, still eating the pastries. Tarrlok walks towards her.
Korra waves him over, then peers up at him when he's a few paces away. Right. She's noticed the hair.
"You kind of look like a normal person," she says.
Tarrlok stares down at her and asks, "Why are you so awful?"
Korra pauses for a very long time, then says, "Look, just... Sit down with me and have a tart, alright?"
"A what?"
"A tart."
"What flavor are they?"
"I don't know. Purple?"
"Purple is not a flavor."
Korra shrugs at him. "I think they're made from taro, maybe."
Tarrlok regards the tarts suspiciously, but still sits next to her.
Korra dusts some pastry crumbs off her hands. "Hey. I was gonna say to you: you should do some chi blocking training with me. I don't think Ty Lee would teach you, given that you're a guy and she doesn't usually teach guys - though Ty Lee wants a word with you, by the way, she told me to tell you that - but I could show you how to do some stuff."
Tarrlok wants to recoil from the word 'should'. "Why?" he replies.
"It'd be fun?"
"I'd embarrass myself, and I've embarrassed myself enough for one lifetime already, thank you."
"I bet you'd be good at it."
"What, embarrassing myself?"
"Uh, no. I mean you'd be good at chi blocking.
"Do you think I'd be good at chi blocking because my brother is good at chi blocking?"
"Yeah," Korra replies, then draws a sharp breath. "Wait, I mean, no. But you were good at fighting before."
"Why are you encouraging a known criminal to learn how to fight?" Tarrlok asks, and half expects her to answer with 'so you have a sporting chance if I try to set you on fire again'.
"It's exercise."
"If I wanted exercise, I'd go running," Tarrlok says. Running is also another thing that Noatak is good at, incidentally. Actually, maybe he shouldn't have said that.
Korra fixes him with a stare. "Tarrlok, if you don't learn some chi blocking with me, then I'm just going to think you're a wuss."
Tarrlok has an odd flashback to when he was much younger, and an earthbender had called him a pansy, and Tarrlok had knocked out two of the guy's front teeth. In retrospect, the earthbender had probably been lucky to walk away with both of his kneecaps intact. "Maybe there are worse things to be than a wuss."
Korra looks at him as if that definitely wasn't the reply she was expecting. "Okay, fine, don't learn chi blocking with me."
"I won't."
"Suit yourself, bub."
"I will."
"Good."
Korra crams a pastry in her mouth, and says, "If someone attacks you, I'm not going to save you."
Tarrlok could take the bait and insist that he wouldn't need saving, but that might be a little too sad and delusional, even for him. So he says, "Fine. Maybe I'll die, and then you'll have that on your conscience forever. Then as you lie in bed at night, haunted by your darkest insecurities, you'll think, 'oh no, I should've saved Tarrlok. Poor helpless, self-destructive, tragically doomed Tarrlok, who was completely defenseless and miserable after losing his bending.'"
Tarrlok almost expects Korra to tell him to grow up, but she remains quiet. She stops chewing the pastry for a few seconds, then swallows hard.
"Wait," says Tarrlok, "When I went missing with Noatak, did you actually think I was dead?"
Korra gives him a wretched sort of sideways look. "Kind of?" She pauses. "Are you sure you don't want your bending back?"
"I'm not sure about anything. Although bending did make my life difficult in some respects, so perhaps I shouldn't miss it."
Korra gives him a very long look as she reaches for another pastry.
"What?" Tarrlok says.
"What?" Korra echoes.
"You keep peering at me like I'm some sort of, I don't know, some sort of scientific curiosity."
"I'm not-" Korra begins, then winces at herself. "Okay. I'll be honest. You might get really mad and freak out on me and maybe start screaming when I tell you this, but... I keep wondering if Noatak is anything like you."
Tarrlok takes a moment to decide if this statement offends him.
"...Why would I start screaming at you about that?" Tarrlok asks.
Korra leans back from him very slightly. "Uh, do you not remember what happened when I last said you were just like Amon?"
"Oh," says Tarrlok, very slowly, "Did I scream at you then?"
"I can't remember, I think I was more focused on, uh, not getting stabbed in the head by an ice knife."
Tarrlok's heart sinks. "I'm really, really sorry about that, and I-"
"You've apologized already. I shouldn't have mentioned it, please just forget I said anything, I'm making this worse." Korra screws her eyes shut. "I mean I wonder if Noatak is anything like you in good ways, like... I don't know, but I don't think I want to kill him, because I'm so glad I didn't kill you."
Tarrlok doesn't know how to respond to that, so what comes out of his mouth is: "Well, in all fairness, if you'd killed me, you probably would've been arrested, whereas if you kill Noatak, no one's going to-"
"That's not what I mean."
"Look," says Tarrlok, "Don't over-think Noatak too much. Just do what's required in order to stop him from posing a threat."
"Okay," Korra says, lamely. She looks down. "But, I mean, I might be able to kill him pretty easily. I'm still angry at him. I, uh, kind of hate him. But..."
"What?"
"I've spent so much time thinking about all the ways I could fight him," Korra says. "And I'm BORED with thinking about that stuff now! I just want to deal with him and get it over with!" She sits back, propping herself up with her arms. "I hate how much I hate the guy. I don't want him in my head anymore."
"Have you told Katara about any of this?"
"Come to think of it, uh... No."
"Mention it to her. She might feel the same way you do."
"Yeah, I guess." Korra plucks a blade of grass and rolls it between her fingers. "Anyway, I'm just saying that I kind of want to hate Noatak a little less because I don't enjoy hating people, you know?"
Tarrlok isn't sure if her attitude is admirable or dangerous, or if she's just able to afford being benevolent because she's so confident in her own strength. But he still catches himself saying, "You're a good person, Korra."
Korra eyes him, as if she's waiting for him to say, 'but...', and when it becomes clear that he has nothing else to add, she gives him a smile. (A proper smile, not a smirk.) "Thanks."
She's very pretty.
Not that he hasn't noticed this before.
And Tarrlok should be glad that she seems genuinely flattered - he should be glad in a healthy, uncomplicated way - but instead, he wants to walk away and find a nice wall that he can bash his head against. The girl is twenty years younger than him, and while she may look like an adult at a superficial glance, she's still alarmingly immature. Furthermore, she sees him as a charity case, and besides, if he got too attached to her, he'd probably turn jealous and unpleasant, and he's pathetic enough already.
"So, how long will you be learning chi blocking for?" he asks. The question comes out sounding a little terse.
"A week, maybe, while Katara sorts some stuff out," Korra says. "I'll only get to go over the basics. I'm meant to go to South pretty soon for the Glacier Spirits Festival, but I guess we'll see."
Tarrlok doesn't want to think a week ahead. (And shit, the previous Glacier Spirits Festival feels like it was only yesterday. He's not quite sure where the past few months have gone.)
"Guess I won't have time to learn how to give people noodle arms," Korra grumbles.
"Noodle arms?" Tarrlok repeats, then figures out what she means. "Is that the technical term for the technique, Korra?"
"It's what Sifu Ty Lee calls it," Korra says, then purses her lips for a moment. "Hey, I think she's gone back to that room where we had tea when we first got here. You should go talk to her."
"Perhaps I will, later on."
Korra points at him. "You should really, really go talk to Ty Lee."
"Why?"
"Did you ever hear of chi blocking all that much until the Equalists started using it?" Korra says, pointedly.
Oh. "Very well," Tarrlok says, and stands up, looking back towards the house.
Korra picks up the plate of leftover pastries, and holds it up. "Take these with you and eat some."
"I'm not particularly-" Tarrlok begins.
Korra stares at him like she's going to punch him in the throat if he doesn't accept the food.
Tarrlok takes the taro tarts and trudges towards Ty Lee.