((Anyone feel free to join in as I wander the streets))

They never listened, ever. Despite how honest she could be, these people just never listened. Here they were, at the very symbol bending stratification-the statue of Fire Lord Zuko-and yet they just brushed these ideas aside as if they were lunatic or just fridge thinking. But they weren’t all they had to do was to look around, and just take note of the stratification and the glass ceiling above their heads. Looking around with her dark eyes, she saw not intrigued faces, but just people being corralled around like benders’ slaves.

“The stratification caused by the bending elite cannot last forever!” Shouted Bao Yu hoping beyond all hope that someone on their lunch break would pay attention and listen to the truth. “They keep us enslaved because of what we aren’t! They keep themselves together because of who they are! We outnumber them, we should be the ones who own most of the wealth, but instead they do!” Again, this same call to arms; this same moniker, and yet nobody cared. The faces said it all, and Bao Yu’s eyes knew why. The two ladies that strutted by were both firebenders, the man who just dropped his glasses he wasn’t a bender, but the man that paused and helped was most certainly an earthbender. That being said, looking around, the majority of people moved like nonbenders, and they were all still blissfully ignorant of the facts. This society, built for equality was in fact the most stratified and limited one around. Even Ba Sing Se could boast a more socially equal group than this, hell their past Earth King wasn’t even bender!

Oh well, with a sigh, Bao Yu turned to her fellow equalist; he was also passing out fliers, something she had given little effort into doing. Grimly, she looked down at the picture, and read the message. If only she could get people to actually listen. But they never did. That thought made her sneer. At least she wasn’t like the majority of the equalists she knew. In time, she’d be a chi blocker. Hell, she pretty much already was, she knew the points, she knew how to strike, and thanks to her upbringing she knew had the advantage against benders because she knew who was who, and thanks to both her equalist and her grandfather’s teachings she knew how to fight each one. Unfortunately, there was still the final test, an actual fight, and that was one thing that brought nerves to this sturdy young woman, but she knew; when time came she’d take down any bender that stood in her way. She wanted this, and she’d get it.

In the distance, the gong rang; and Bao Yu turned to her fellow equalist. That was it, their permit expired at that hour, and despite the free speech laws in Republic city that crank Bei Fong didn’t like her people preaching past their permitted hours. With a huff, she motioned goodbye to the Metalbender walking up, “Don’t worry, we’re done,” she added, ensuring that now no confusion would arise.

There was another training session tonight, and Bao Yu would be sure to make it. With that in mind, she began packing the papers back into the satchel she brought with herself. Thankfully, her partner was already going around the area picking up dropped fliers. It was always like this.

((OOC: Sure, I'll join in.))



"What a difference a day made," Tsubaki said to one of the many passers-by on the street. "Twenty-four little hours brought the sun and the flowers where there used to be rain," she said to an old woman with a bewildered expression.

She swung the case of her trumpet perhaps a bit too enthusiastically and nearly hit several people. Not that it mattered. No one was hurt and she was nearly through with her song.
"What a difference a day made and the difference is...Bao Yu!"

Tsubaki's bright yellow sun dress may have complimented her yellow eyes but made the two black leather weapon belts weighing her down with implements of death stand out in a way that caused the crowd to part. Cheerfully singing women with a veritable arsenal was not a usual sight in Repulic City.

The trumpet-carrying Equalist waved to the younger woman who looked like she needed her mood lightened.
"Tsubaki Ito. I see you in the chi blocking classes sometimes. I hit them all so I see everybody." She had managed to stretch out the word "everybody" into several more syllables than needed and changed the tone of her voice to indicate that while she didn't literally see everybody she interacted with many of her fellow Equalists.

"Why'd you let those cops chase you off? You could have given them a" She made a sound of impact as she mocked a punch to one of Bao Yu's pressure points. "And then a pow," she said as she feigned another blow. "And a wat-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!" she said with a flurry of fake but accurate blows to take out each of a person's limbs and knock the air out of them.

"Want to get lunch?" There was no gap in her mock chi-blocking and her invitation. It was a common tactic in battle to throw people off of their guard but for Tsubaki it was a lifestyle.

((I freaking love how enthusiastic Tsubaki is. Also, feel free to describe the store as you’d like on the inside. ))

That trumpet was certainly one she hadn’t heard before. After tying together the bundle on her satchel, Bao Yu swung it over her left shoulder turned around and almost on cue there was a fellow yellow eyed Equalist practically calling her over. She looked familiar, for some reason, it was probably those eyes, they were quite sharp. Still quite odd that this woman knew her name…Oh no, what if they met before and she just let that name slip by! Damn, that wasn’t good.

Hesitantly and with an awkward smile, Boa Yu marched over to her caller. Oh, so they hadn’t met before, that was definitely a relief. The last thing she needed was to embarrass a fellow sister.

Oh, that. Yeah. Well, it probably wasn’t a good idea to fight a metalbending cop without some sort of weapon. But that would have been a bit rude to say. Still, this Tsubaki was quite a character. It only took her a few motions and already Bao Yu was cracking a smile and giving a small chuckle.

“I suppose I could have. But I don’t think I’m at the level to be able to take down one of those guys.” She turned her attention to the crowd, and immediately noted another firebender, maybe that guy, he wasn’t wearing metal armor.

“Sure, I’d love to get something to eat. You know there’s another meeting later tonight. Oh, and I’d introduce myself too, but you seem to already know me,” She said with an embarrassing look. Oh the embarrassment. “Come on, there’s a nice little noodle place just down that road.”

With that Bao Yu motioned for the energetic Equalist to follow her. Down the road, and to the left is where Bao Yu led her fellow equalist, and upon reaching what was a simple, dinky looking place, she added, “It doesn’t look like much, but I love their noodles here, unless of course you’d like to try something else?”

When Bao Yu said that Mr. Udon's was small Tsubaki assumed that it would seat more than five people at once. There was one table so she assumed that much of their business was take-out. It seemed like an awesome place to get to know someone.

Aside from a menu adorning the wall behind the counter there was painting of a bowl containing flames and even included upon closer inspection tiny charred people trying to escape the inferno.
"That is wonderfully macabre. I want that. The Agni Kai challenge."
Food challenges were not only good way to advertise restaurants but Tsubaki found them a good bonding experience.

"What's a good ice-breaker...um, hey do you think Amon is good looking underneath that mask? I mean like drop-dead-ye-gods-he's-gorgeous good looking? Wouldn't that be neat? Like he wears the mask just to keep everyone from getting distracted. So good looking that during meetings the girls would scream 'Woooo, take off your shirt' and the guys would be all like..." she deepened her voice to the best of her ability "'Yeah, and take off your pants too.' That's what I figure...that or he's really ugly. How disappointing would it be if he looked like a normal guy?"

"Ah! Questions. When is your birthday? Have you been with The Equalists long? Do you have any hobbies? Follow Pro Bending? You don't have to answer all of them but I have to know something about everyone...except for Amon and The Lieutenant. Well, I know that Amon wears a mask and The Lieu is seeeeexy."
When she stretched out her one word description of the second-in-command into five syllables Tsubaki swayed side-to-side with every punctuation of sound.

Before Hao Yu could answer Tsubaki held up her hand when her massive bowl of what looked like noodled cooked in lava arrived. She was told she had only thirty minutes and it would most likely be the hottest thing she had ever eaten.
"Sorry. You talk. I'll eat."

((Sorry I had finals, I was planning on posting on Sunday, but life happened))



Wow, she got right down to it. Upon hearing that question, and the strange little scenario that developed from it, Bao Yu’s face could only be described as a half-smile and smirk mixed with a somewhat wide-eyed confused expression. Hell, they hadn’t even ordered yet and already Tsubaki got to it. Well that first part wasn’t quite true. Her fellow Equalist was quite vivacious and from what Bao Yu could tell he was already getting started on the Agni Kai. Before she answered, Bao Yu ordered, “Make that two Agni Kais good sir.

As she lowered her field of view back to Tsubaki, she opened her mouth as was about to begin speaking when the loud, energetic girl began again with a slurry of questions, and strange little scenarios that left Bao Yu dumbstruck. It was astounding how someone could talk fast, and yet still keep her sentences flowing in a strange rhythm that could only be described as deliberate. Then it came again, that strange multisyllabic word that didn’t require so many syllables. Wow, this girl was something else.

The whole scene would have just played out like that: one girl talking and the other one listening, had it not been for the Agni Kai being finished. The loud thumb it made on the table snapped Bao Yu back, and then it caused Tsubaki to pause and allow Bao Yu to respond. Finally, she was afraid her fellow Equalist would pass out from the lack of breath.

“Alright,” started Bao Yu, her black eyes glanced up at Mr. Udon, from the look of it, her order was almost ready. “I don’t know what Amon looks like under his mask. Honestly, I haven’t even seen him in person. The same goes for his lieutenant.”

She paused for a moment as her food was brought out and placed before her. Quickly, she split the bamboo chopsticks before her and began to eat, however, unlike Tsubaki she told the waiter that she would decline the challenge. This was definitely a spice meal. Quite the shame that it was named after a boorish display of bending prowess.

“My birthday is the fourteen day of the sixth month, and I guess I have been with the Equalist for quite a while. I joined when I was sixteen. Although my parents would rather I not devote myself to them, they want me to be a part of the system.”

Again, she slurped up some nice doodle, and then sipped in some of the spicy, red elixir they came in. Oh, how she loved spicy food. It was indeed the best in the world.

“Hobbies, I don’t really have much. Well, except for what the organization has. Speaking of which, there’s a training session that I have to go to this evening if you want to tag along. What else, probending…um it’s alright. I’m not much of a sports fan.”

“So what about you, can you take the Agni Kai challenge while answering the very same questions I just did?”

((Can't think of a title but this post is brought to you by the song "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down by Miles Davis))

Tsubaki kept her eyes locked on Bao Yu's as she ate and only broke eye contact to occasionally lift the giant bowl to her lips and drink in the burning broth created with the extract of peppers she assumed were from the furthest reaches of the spirit world.

Bao Yu answered the questions posed in a manner that didn't involve the uncomfortable looks or glances toward the exit most people did when she came on so strong.
So what about you, can you take the Agni Kai challenge while answering the very same questions I just did?”

The Equalist in the yellow sun dress placed her chopsticks to the side of her half-finished bowl and smiled. "Even my mouth isn't that big. If I seem a little manic today it's because I'm trying to cheer myself up. I had a bad morning and needed to forget my troubles. I failed an audition badly. Forgot to oil the keys of my trumpet so I sounded like a dying dragon moose."

She sighed and rolled her eyes upward as she tried to recall the very questions she just asked Bao Yu. "People don't often turn the tables on me. Let's see...birthdays were something we never celebrated at home...so I guess I wasn't born." She chuckled. "On the plus side I can eat cake and it doesn't have to be a special occasion."

"I have been an Equalist for two years. I don't have a sad story. My dad's even a bender. I guess you could say that I'm purely for the cause. No buried trauma or bitterness here. Um, none against benders anyway." She momentarily frowned but swiftly replaced it with her normal wide smile. "My hobby is obvious." She patted the case of her trumpet. "I'd like to put together a small jazz band of Equalists but so far no luck. Seems like the only people I haven't asked are Amon and the Lieutenant. I can see him playing the stand-up bass and Amon on drums. If I'm not training in martial arts or music I listen to my records. Sounds low-key but I never turn down an invitation anywhere and the others seem to like me so I get invited places."

Tsubaki slurped one last bundle of noodles and slid her bowl to the side. She had failed the Agni Kai challenge but victory was never the intention. "Pro bending...not really a fan but I've been invited to a few matches. I prefer the snacks and the being caught up in the joy of the crowd to the actual sport."

She wiped broth and a small piece of noodle off of her chin as she pondered what other questions she had subjected Bao Yu to. "I take Amon at his word about his face. I think he's been burned but for a guy with no face he seems...eerily calm."

The hot spice still burned prompting Tsubaki to ask for cold milk and that she'd pay extra if they added chocolate.
There were a few minutes of silence which made Tsubaki feel like a bad host. When the old man placed her shaved chocolate swimming in light brown milk Tsubaki deftly placed her index finger inside of his collar to pull him down and kissed him on the cheek.
She stifled a laugh when she heard one of the cooks tease the old man.

"I haven't asked the most important question yet. Do you play an instrument? Tell me you play an instrument or sing? There is an appalling lack of Equalist jazz bands and this will not stand," she said with an overly dramatic index finger raised to the sky.

((Lol. And FYI, TARP is taking place just after the first two episodes of Korra.))



Boa Yu almost chocked at the wonderfully, odd description Tsubaki used to describe her failed trumpet playing. Thankfully, she knew well enough that laughing at her newly acquired acquaintance was probably not the best thing to do. As such, that a small embarrassing smile was soon pressed on her face.

Still, Tsubaki continued on replying, and Boa Yu was intent on listening. It was a strange little play, the young Galgori would slurp up her spicy mix of udon, while her fellow Equalist recounted her tales. Quite the interesting life, for someone so perky. Then again, just about everyone in the world had those little anecdotes that made their lives more interesting and eventful than what they actually were.

There was that slight pause, as Tsubaki ordered some milk and Bao Yu finished up her Agni Kai. With a slight glance, Bao Yu then asked the question that had been in her mind.

“So, you say that you’ve been with the Equalist for two years, correct.” Her first line was more of a statement than a question. “What was it that made you join? I mean, your father is a bender. What made you realize that us nonbenders are stuck as second class citizens? And a follow up to that,” began Bao Yu as she widened her eyes exposing those dark brown gems of hers, “Are you a chi blocker? No offence, but I’ve been training for three years and they still haven’t let me advance. Although, that might have to do with age, but I don’t quite think that they have a limit installed.”

With that, she united her bamboo chopsticks and placed them right next to her bowl. She was stuffed and would definitely not require any more food. Hopefully, it would go down before her training session began, because it was never fun to jump around on a full stomach.

Tsubaki groaned a litte when she asked for a container to carry her leftover ramen. She stood and rifled through the two crossed belts she wore for a small pouch, the only one of which didn't contain some sort of weapon and pulled out a roll of yuans. Enough was placed on the table to pay for both Agni Kai a few extra yuans for the milk and service. She clucked her tongue when she saw she was down to her last twenty.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Agni Kai Challenge. Come on, we'll talk Equalist stuff while we walk...slowly." She picked up the case containing her trumpet and noodles in a small, cheaply bended, disposable clay bowl.

"If I take any blows to the stomach some bender is going to be very very sorry."
Once outside Tsubaki adopted a harsh tone and narrowed her eyes. "If I didn't know better I'd think you were calling one of your seniors inadequate." She only got part way through her sentence before cracking a smile and stifling a laugh. Dry humor was not Tsubaki Ito's style.

"Chi blocker. Yep. I advanced through my torrid love affair with the Lieutenant...in my mind." This time she kept a straight face. "Kidding. To be honest my chi blocking has maybe a seventy percent success rate and I'm still not as nimble and agile as the best of us yet they send me on missions and sometimes let me lead a team. I'd like to think it's because of my sunny attitude but it may be-" She turned to her side to avoid fellow pedestrians and weaved through the crowd while keeping her bowl of ramen safe. "The fact that I'm willing to kill. It's a more specialized skill than you think. My blocking is good, but not great, I clink and clank when I run so I'm not that stealthy but any bender that messes with my friends usually doesn't get to brag about it later. I'm not going to lie, Bao...I probably don't deserve my status but I don't question my superiors. If they think I'm worth keeping around then I have to live up to that."

Tsubaki stopped at the corner of the street and pondered for a moment on where to head. She turned right toward the park.
"My 'why' is really not that dramatic. I just looked around. Benders populate our council, run our gangs and get handed specialized jobs. My dad's a welder. Hard, hard work. He comes home every day hunched over and hurting and he can make flames at will. He got his job during a strike by non-benders. Every day he'd come home and complain but he'd always end it with a lecture about how tough it would be if he couldn't bend. That was my first taste of the divide between us and the benders. When the non-benders came back dad's stories got worse. Shoddy equipement was used to save money so there were lots of accidents for people who had to use torches and operate machinery."

The sound of traffic from the station quieted a little as she walked down the street where the park resided but it was still noisy and hectic. Tsubaki hoped the park would be different.
"My dad the fire bender encouraged me to be an Equalist. Funny, huh? My parents and Yudai taught me to appreciate life when it wasn't horrible and to, if possible, make it better. Dad taught me fairness and mom taught me weapons...this seemed to suit me better than politics."

The lush greenery of the park made Tsubaki smile and while she longed to run around she still had a stomach full of ramen. Instead she found the nearest bench and sat down and leaned back to moan one more time and look up at the sky.

((To be continued in the park.))

Ghost! GHOST!

Yeah, maybe if she was pale white and see-through. The woman's breath came in shallow gasps as she ran, brown hair flying having lost its chopsticks long ago, dark green skirt trailing her like an etheral aura. Rather than opt for the heeled boots she usually wore, her woven sandals were the shoes slapping the pavement and propelling her onward to the Station.

"I swear to Aang, Heito, if you're not there..." Her words had a low grumble to them, and she smiled when she saw the Central City Station at the end of the street. From the color in her cheeks, one might think she was running to meet a lover.

Yeah, right.

She chuckled at the thought and slowed her pace when she reached the sidewalk in front of the Station. She could hear and feel the vibrations of a train pulling in, and she thanked the spirits that she was an Earthbender. She might not have been a master, but feeling vibrations in the ground was a part of Earthbending; her father had taught her that much. She smiled again as she thought of vibrations going through metal; you didn't need to be an Earthbender to feel those.

She stopped when she walked into the square in front of the Station, and she looked around.

"Heito..." She had the tone of a mother looking for her child upon finding a drawing on the wall. Had he stood her up again? This was the third time she'd come here trying to get info on a Probending gig, but NOTHING. She used a foot to stomp the floor, balling her hands into fists.

"OOH! You're gonna get it!" She looked around and saw something by the Fire Lord's statue that caught her eye: a girl sitting there, writing or drawing or something. She pursed her lips as she made her way over to the statue, stopping when she'd circled around her back to see what she was working on.

She raised her eyebrows; the girl was working on a drawing, and a damn good one at that. Mei cleared her throat.

"Hey, you look like you've been drawing for a while. Have you seen guy, black hair, bowler hat, about yay high?" She held her hand up to level with her eyebrows and the other arm wrapped itself around her midriff.

Golden eyes scanned the drawing that the girl showed her; her brows raised as they piqued her interest. There was certainly a man in a bowler hat, but she smiled.

"You know, those are really good, but that's not the man I'm looking for. He wouldn't have a suit on. I don't think Heito has that much class." The agent/promoter was notorious in the Probending circle, and despite all of that, Mei was trusting him to get her a gig. With a sponsor. The Probending season was fast approaching, and if she couldn't get on a team, she'd have to wait until next season to play again.

"Do you sell your drawings? I think you could stand to make a lot of money with those. They're really good." Her eyes darted between the plaza in front of the statue and the artwork; the likeness was striking. She hadn't been blessed with any sort of art skills, unless you considered bending an art form. A lot of people did, but now that the non-benders were getting riled up, she didn't know so much any more.

She had to stop when the girl asked if she could draw the Earthbender. Really? Was she really someone who just asked questions like that? Raising an eyebrow, she crossed her arms.

"Well, I'm not really mad, but you can draw me if you want. I don't have anything to do since he probably won't be here. I swear, if I had a yuan for every time he didn't show, I'd be rich, that's for sure." She snorted, chuckling. She really would be a millionaire, and he could have been rotting in the Republic City Jail for all she cared. He'd only ever gotten her two bouts, not even official.

"So are you just sitting here and drawing everything? I don't think I could sit there for that long."

The girl seemed to take everything personally, and Mei couldn't help but chuckle.

"It's okay. I just figured if anyone would know, it'd be you. Police aren't much help around here." She ran her fingers through her hair to try and tame the style the wind had given it.

Her jaw figuratively hit the ground when the artiste reacted to her question of the sale of her paintings. Damn, she was protective! Out of context, someone else might think that Mei'd asked her to kill her younger sibling.

"Whoa, whoa, I'm sorry. I can imagine that there are some people out there who do art for the sake of art." A smile lit her face; this girl tickled her funnybone. It was like everything in life, every emotion, was magnified and reflected even more intensely, just like...

...just like in her drawings.

"Hey, I've gotta give you props. You love what you do, and you're willing to do whatever it takes to do it. Kinda like me." It seemed like so few people in the world had the passion for greatness, but what most people didn't take into consideration was that greatness came in all shapes and sizes, from being a member of a championship-winning Probending team to artists.

Then, the girl reminded her of why she was there in the first place.

"You want fury? You asked the right question. I'm here to meet a...man...that was supposed to get me into a Probending team. This isn't the first time, but he must have better things to do with his time, I guess." She briefly clenched her hands into fists and exhaled sharply through her nose. "He's flighty, he's gotten into a lot of trouble with the law, and now he's jerking me around. I can't even believe the nerve of some people." If the girl had been an Earthbender, she probably could have felt the vibrations coming off of Mei.

Heito...

"He's one of those people that you just wanna punch in the face." Mei shrugged.

As soon as Mei mentioned Probending, the artist said things that...didn't sit well. Yes, some people thought Probending was barbaric, a mockery of the sacred art that is bending, just like this girl.

In her mind, she was ten feet tall, looming over the girl.

PROBENDING IS NOT A MOCKERY. THERE IS ART IN BATTLE, SO DON'T BADMOUTH THE SPORT THAT IS MY LIFE JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE IT, OKAY?!

She shook her head rapidly to clear it of those thoughts.

"Well, I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion." She was lying through her teeth. Literally. Plain? PLAIN?! How in the world did Probending make bending look plain? Some of the things she'd seen in her few bouts had definitely not been plain. She'd seen a man frozen in a blast of water. She'd seen a fire whip. She'd seen a rock...

"Well, I love the fact that it's three people bending three different elements working together toward a common goal. Winning that bending match. Showing that you can use your bending more creatively than the people you're up against." She should have figured that there'd be some people who didn't get Probending, but it took a different kind of person to "get it" in the first place. Yeah, it was a bunch of benders fighting each other, but it was so much more than that, especially since there were people around who wanted to rid the world of benders. The art was in danger of dying out, and it needed to be preserved in all of its forms.

The monument to Fire Lord Zuko crawled past the surrounding buildings and entered Karouda's field of vision, and as usual, he paused to take it in. The city around him seemed to focus on this point, every visible form drawing sustenance from the giant shining figure at its heart, the aggressive sunset lending additional power to the metallic likeness. No accident, he inferred. The area certainly didn't lack for signs of life. After all this time, he still had yet to get used to the urban buzz. The Southern settlement was as calm a place to grow up as one could reasonably expect, and had made him perhaps overly sensitive to a busier environment. The atmosphere generally teetered between invigorating and overwhelming, but he was able to focus here like nowhere else, counter to any reasoning he could devise.

Karouda found a less travelled area of the station stairs and sat bluntly and suddenly, as though staking a claim on the step. His pad and brush pen were produced readily from his satchel as if taken by instinct, and were set to work. A brush was not a particularly accurate tool, but accuracy alone was not the goal here. This was invention, not duplication. Although learning accuracy with a brush would serve as effective training, the trick was to find some new sequence of thought in the process, some unforseen configuration of motion; something that would allow him to carve a soul into the blank rock. He made every effort to maintain a scientific mind; he was designing industrial parts, after all, but this frantic swimming in the ether was the heart of it for him. The mathematics were only a means to an end. True breakthroughs come from creative and adroit minds, and this was where his inspiration lay.