Airi was pulled from a daze. "Welcome to The Jittery Jackalope. What can I get you?" someone asked her. Her yellow eyes scanned him curiously, sure she knew him from somewhere but couldn't place a name to his face. Ugh. Names were always the hardest.

She blinked a few times, lost in a sea of confusion. Was that another one of her memory lapses? Over the past year or so, her hold on her memory was getting better but it wasn't perfect, not yet at least. It was a problem that had stuck with her since her pre-teens and had made a mess of a lot of things. Some people regarded her as mentally challenged, others simply found it tedious to be around a person who constantly forgot names or instructions. Friends had been hard to make and even harder to keep but just as her memory improved a little, she also gained a few good friends.

The firebender's mouth hung slightly open for a few seconds before she managed to pull on a few memories. She couldn't remember what she was doing or why she was here - not yet, at the least - but she finally realized why he looked so familiar. The faces she had seen that day in the police station. That horrible day wasn't something she could forget, no matter how hard she tried, but that didn't mean names and faces stuck together any more easily.

"I-I know you," she said though it sounded more like a question. Lost in her own curiosities, she had completely ignored his initial question. "The police station!" Her voice was excited but not loud or happy. "Um... what was the date? Oh, that doesn't matter. That day," she messily said, "with the... uh... the Equalists... You know, those people? They did, um, well, you see-" She shook her head; like that would help her sort her thoughts.

"I was there too. Did Korra give you your bending back, too?" Airi leaned forward, her eyes bright with something she couldn't name. It wasn't joy - there had been nothing joyful about that event. It wasn't excitement. A sense of place, perhaps? While her bending was gone, she had felt miserable and like no one else could understand how she felt and now here was someone who just might be able to understand what she had went through. "O-Oh, excuse me. I'm Airi." She held out her hand, an awkward smile on tugging at her lips.

"Oh, okay" she said. Airi stood awkwardly, not sure what to do with herself as she waited for Hangetsu. She rocked back and forth on her feet a bit, then found herself trying to pick out memories but they kept slipping from her grasp everytime she got close to remembering something. She even tried to think back to the last thing she remembered but that was fuzzy, too. With no luck in that department, her mind returned to the task at hand, finding Hangetsu moving to a table and she followed.

Cupping her hands around the chipped cup - ohhh, it was nice an warm; she liked that - she listened to the man. "Um... sort of?" she said with a questioned look. "I don't... uh, talk to a lot of people. O-Or rather they don't - or wouldn't; who knows? - talk to me. Well, both, sort of," she babbled. "I mean, what happened then was scary. It was frightening and humiliating. It's not something you just get over. I still have troubles sleeping in my own room - that's where they grabbed me. I am glad to have my bending back. It's one of the only things I'm good at, aside from making bread but baking skills really don't help me much in a fight. I felt like I was missing a part of myself when it was gone, but you're right, that doesn't changed what happened," she said, her tone growing more and more solemn with each word she voiced.

The woman bit her lip. It was nice to talk about this but it didn't make it any less easier to do. A lump formed in her throat and she wondered if she was going to cry. "Coffee?" she echoed, glancing down at the beverage for the first time. The flower shape on the top was pretty and she almost didn't want to disturb it. Quickly, she took a sip of it and her face contorted to a face of confliction. "I've never had it before. It's nice enough." Maybe if she had it a few more times, she'd get used to the taste. What was that called? A... an aqquired taste?

"Um..." she began, wanting to say his name to get his attention but having forgotten it already. "If you don't want to, you don't have to answer, but how did they get you? Like I said, they got me out of my bed... They blocked my chi before I even woke up. I really don't remember much after that - I think I fell asleep or something." Only part of the truth. She had figured she had passed out at some point but she didn't like going around and telling others that she just forgot things a lot, not unless they were her friends first. "I remember being cold a lot since I was still in my night clothes." Airi pursed her lips together, finding herself pouring out words strung together into disorganized sentances, and her fingers tapping at the cup.

Airi blinked. Knocked? She couldn't imagine that at all. All she could imagine were masked monsters. She saw them as evil, possibly unable of civilized behavior with their glowing eyes behind green glass. What she thought of them wasn't true, she knew that, but that didn't mean her perception of them would ever differ. They'd still be the monsters that stole her from her home, defenseless, in bed. She knew that nonbenders had it a bit rough and maybe they could've done so much more had they not gone a violent route but that mattered little now.

Once more, all she found herself was blinking in confusion. "That's not funny at all," she firmly said, confusion spreading across her face. Then it hit her. "Oh - uh - sorry, never mind. I get it now. What you meant, not that it's funny," she bumbled, lifting her cup up to her mouth again to take a long drink. It still didn't taste too great but it distracted her. This experience was getting more and more uncomfortable, even for her.

She met his eyes and felt a chill pass through her. They seemed... well, she could tell he was distraught by the whole ordeal already but the pain reflected in his eyes was almost scarily eerie. When she got her bending back, it was like getting a part of her identity back and a bit of security and it was so great though that didn't fix everything. It looked like he lost everything without being able to get anything back once it was all over. Well, almost over.

"I'm a baker. I also used to be a substitute for a probending team and played once - I even lost, though people said I put up a good fight - but I guess it was enough to get their attention and being an easier target... I used to want to take over the bakery when my parents retired. Now, I'm not so sure. Everything seems so different." She waited a moment, trying to collect her thoughts and found herself laughing a bit to herself. "I kind of wanted to travel the world a bit. Learn things, see people, do something, you know?" What a joke, she told herself. With her memory problem, she wouldn't be able to make it at all.

Airi listened to Hangetsu's story, though, at some point, her mind got caught on the fact his grandpa left him in the park to build character. She had gotten lost plenty of times due to her memory problems, but she always found her way home sooner or later. When that started to happen, her parents had been so worried the first few times but it eventually became normal that she wouldn't be home the time she said she might. But, thankfully, she didn't forget she was in a conversation and continued to listen. Her head started to bob up and down in understanding at the last part about having friends along the way. That made sense. So what if she had a memory problem? If she found the right people, she could do it, right?

Upon the comparison of the city and a chair, her lips pursed together as she tried to figure out what she would describe a chair as. A spot to eat or drink, a spot to enjoy company or a spot to rest. How would her parents describe a chair? Or her brother? Then, how would they describe the city? How could she describe the city? A year ago, she might've called it a place where people get together, live a life, etc. Now it seemed like something much darker.

Quickly, she shook her head, a faint smile on her lips. "No, it makes sense. It just got me thinking about... things," she mused aloud. "I've never thought of those things that way," Airi told him, hoping it sounded like a compliment. "Then again, I don't really sit down and just... think." She enjoyed doing things, moving around, making something happen. Thinking about things in detail or wondering about the world didn't appeal to her as much as experiencing the world did.

"Hangetsu," the firebender began, "You said you used to be a cop. After... what happened, even if you didn't want to keep being a cop, why work at a place like this?"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I thought..." she trailed off. Anything else she might've added could just make things worse so she stayed her tongue and continued to listen. "I see," she said, wondering why a business would let anyone make their own food. She could only just imagine people going to the Hitomi Bread and Goods to just borrow their oven or workspace.

"That makes sense," she mused aloud when he mentioned having to speak to a counselor. You wouldn't want an on-duty cop emotionally comprimised. Airi knew she wouldn't feel too safe knowing that the people who protected her city were a little distrubed but then she tried to wonder if she was a cop. Would she be able to make a comeback? All she did was help her family in their little business and probended on the side. She didn't know if she'd be ablet to stand being back in the ring after knowing her bending couldn't protect her. She still trusted her bending... oh, it was too complicated to think about.

"I think you should try it," she told him, leaning a bit forward and a look of detirmination on her face. "I mean, I know everything was scary and scarring and, uh, you know, but you said you kind of wanted to be a dective, right? Well... if you were working a case and got discouraged, what would you do? Would you quit, knowing it would be safer? Or would you push through knowing that your work has meaning even if it might be harder?" She paused, realizing the words that had poured from her mouth. The woman leaned back into her chair and held a look of worry on her face. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't've said that."

Wanting to change the conversation quickly, she replied, "Baby penguins all the way. I've always wanted to see them but I've never actually wanted to go to anywhere cold, you know?"

Airi smiled. Even though being a probender wasn't something she was so proud of anymore - seeing as that was what most likely got the attention on her from the Equalists - it was a welcome change and a topic she knew well. "Raven-Eagles," she told the man, her lips between a smile and a grimmace. "I was supposed to only be an alternative just in case they needed one but they ended up needing me that night. Their captain, Anya, got stage fright or something like that," she mused, trying to look back on that night. No one really could tell for sure what caused the firebender to freeze up so it was just open to speculation.

"It was only one match but I guess that's enough to call me a probender," she sighed with a shrug, lifting the cup to her lips one last time to finish off the drink, with half a hope it would magically taste amazing. No such lucky. It still tasted kind of bitter. "We ended up loosing that match, but it was a really close call in the last round. We could've - if luck had been on our side - knocked out their team. But we didn't so since they had won both earlier rounds, they won." Airi found herself smiling at the end of her story and began to wonder why for a brief moment. "Still, it was fun and exciting. I've never been able to just go all out like that before. It was incredible."

"So your girlfriend is a fan?" she asked, hoping to switch the conversation to his side since it felt like she was doing most of the talking. While she didn't mind talking, she wanted to hear what he had to say, too.