Ty Lee will block your chi for real (ty_lee) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-06-25 18:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, jubilation lee (jubilee), ty lee |
Hey, what's that?
Who: Jubilee, Ty Lee
What: A talk on the airplane, nerves!
When: This weekend sometime.
Where: In Flight
Ratings/Warnings: PG, this log is pretty mild.
Status: Complete!
Jubilee was staring out the window as the plane took off. If she squinted hard enough, she could still see Kitty, Mai and Zuko. Somehow. They'd dropped the two of them off, but Azula hadn't come. She wondered what was up with that. She hazarded a look at her friend.
Azula hadn't gone, because there would have been emotional compromising. Instead, she'd tucked a note into Ty Lee's event planner.
Ty Lee,
Do this for yourself. Not me, not your parents, and you will succeed. As long as you do your best, you will win. I expect nothing less from you, than to completely and utterly crush your foes.
I will join you in a few weeks, but until then, do try to schedule me in for some webcam chats? I just can't stop wanting you
Azula
Azula's absence weighed on Ty Lee. She hadn't said a thing about it, content at the airport that Mai, Zuko, and Kitty had all seen them off. But now that they were in the air and settled in on the long flight, she found herself brooding while looking through her manual.
She came across the letter as she flipped a page, and pulled it out with a mixed expression on her face. Encouraging words, from Azula? And what was that bit being crossed out? And why was encouragement coming in the form of 'crush your enemies', and... Azula had hand-written her a letter. By hand.
It was more personal that way. And a way to privately show encouragement. Azula, of course, wouldn't be revealing she was a sponser until she absolutely had to. There would be too many questions she wasn't ready to answer.
Jubilee elbowed Ty Lee, "Hey, what's that?" And she was't playing bejeweled? THIS WAS SERIOUS!
She didn't want to spoil herself on Bejeweled too early, they had a long flight ahead! But she wouldn't have pulled her phone out just yet, anyway. She glanced over at Jubile and held up the letter, "Azula wrote me a note. I'm supposed to ... do this for myself, but I still have to make her proud and crush my enemies, so..."
Her voice sounded distant, and a little sad.
"Well that's not contradictory in the slightest," Jubilee replied, snatching the letter and reading it.
"I think she's trying to be encouraging. I mean it's good advice, do it for you not anyone else but..crush your enemies? Your girlfriend is weird. Wait, she scratched something out." Jubilee held it up to the window to try to see if she could make out what the letters were.
"She's not my girlfriend," Ty Lee mumbled. She was still trying to keep up appearances. Azula told her that she was allowed to share yet, so for her part, she was trying to be good. It hurt to have to say it, though, and she was tired of feeling hurt.
She closed her eyes and leaned into her chair, "She did, I couldn't make it out. And I don't know, she's gotten scarier lately. Crush your enemies sounds like something she might say, but still. I don't want to crush them, I just want to place and have fun."
And for her parents to see her and finally remember that she existed.
Azula hadn't told her that she was allowd to share yet^
"That's bullshit and you know it. You're girlfriends, she should treat you like one." And maybe that's what Azula meant. Crush them and place. Or something. She wasn't the one that was supposed to defend Azula, after all, that was Ty Lee's job!
Jubilee turned the letter around, thoughtfully, "Hey, flip your book around." She reached over to help, "Hah! See, you can see indents, she wrote on top of this. We can see what she scratched out!"
"I'm not supposed to tell, it's this ... huge secret that she made me swear to, and now I'm breaking it by telling you."
She sounded relieved though, and she glanced at Jubilee as the girl helped her flip her manual around. She squinted down at it, not really sure she was seeing what Jubilee was seeing, "How can you do that?"
"You can't break an open secret if I already know, chica." Jubilee sounded helpful! "Do what? Look, she didn't have time to like...get another piece of paper and start over. Don't you watch tv? They're always finding writing indents in stuff! And the book is kinda soft so I figured 'what if she wrote on it' and like..tada!"
She leaned against Ty Lee, "It's not an I love you, but you're getting there. Dude, Azula pulled a 'I can't quit you'" Jubilee tilted her head back and laughed loudly.
"I watch TV, just not... spy shows, I guess." Spies were the only thing that Ty Lee could think of when it came to tricks like picking up writing indents on other pieces of paper. That was really pretty awesome!
"Jubes, you're a genius! I need to start watching the shows that you're watching."
"And cop dramas!" Jubilee traced the letters with a Ty Lee's finger, "She wants you. That's kind of...well I was gonna say creepy, but it's actually kinda hot."
Azula hadn't been physically hurting Ty Lee. Emotionally was another matter, but Jubilee was trying to behave when it came to the bitch.
"She's got a very ravenous appetite," Ty Lee grinned, and blushed a bit. She couldn't believe she was saying this, but it'd already come out of her mouth, so there was no going back now, "She's been colder lately. But we still end up in the same bed sometimes. It's going to be wierd sleeping without her."
"How the hell are you keeping this from Mai?" Jubilee tilted her head as she pulled her hand away. A bracelet was clamped tightly around that wrist - she wasn't taking any chances when in public. So far the worst side effect was that it made her hungry.
Or maybe that was the nerves.
"Oh I don't think we are. She sent me a text message one night, asking me to calm down and stop making so much noise so..."
Ty Lee ducked her head, "Azula tried to tell her we were watching ... pornographic movies, or hentai or something, but Mai knew. I think maybe she always suspected me at least. She probably knew before the rest of us."
The bracelet at least looked nice, and Ty Lee was glad that everything seemed to be under control. If only for Jubilee's sake.
"I like Mai. She's got guts an' sass." Jubilee nodded her head, letting the subject drop so Ty Lee doesn't get dizzy from all the blood rushing to her face.
"What should we do first when we land?"
"She really helped out at the store. I didn't even think what you were doing was so wrong, just sort of shocking. But then if those dreams are true, I come from a place where people make fire out of nothing, so maybe I just figured it was natural."
As to the next question, she consulted her manual, "We need to go through with our passports, and get our gear. There's a train that takes us to the central station there, from the airport. A coordinator will help us get to our hotels and checked in, with the rest of the gymnastics team. Then I think we have the day to ourselves."
Jubilee grinned, "It's natural there too, but less natural here, yanno? I almost got arrested over it once!" And pissed her pants a little, but that's neither here nor there.
"Okay. So we'll get something to eat, take in a couple of sights, and try to make one of those buckingham guards or whatever react to us. Deal?"
"I at least want to get to know what this country is like. We'll need to exchange our money and stuff, too. I think they might send us to jail if we mess with the palace guards too much, though, won't they?"
And they'd definitely be starving, so looking for food was a good idea, too. She flipped through the schedule a bit more, thoughtfully, "We have a meeting with the press, and then someone is going to take us to our new facility so we can all practice together. That's the day after. I wonder what kind of questions they'll ask."
"I'll just flash one," Jubilee replied, wagging her hand at Ty Lee.
"Wait..the press? Will we have time to shower and change? We're gonna stink to high heaven. Or is the press before practice?"
"The press meeting is before practice, see?" Ty Lee pointed at that part in her schedule, helpfully, while holding up closer for Jubilee to get an eye on, "It's for all the gymnasts, so there probably won't be TOO much time for either of us to somehow screw it up."
She'd talked to the press before and wasn't scared of the limelight. It was the questions. There were going to be questions she didn't know how to answer.
"As long as I don't shoot fireworks out of my ass I don't see how I could possibly mess this up." Jubilee was wringing her hands. She'd never talked to the press and didn't know what she'd say or do. She knew she'd need to dampen her enthusiasm or she'd embarrass not just the gymnastic's team, but probably the entire US team.
She might be the official Hotness, but she has some tact.
"You'll be fine," Ty Lee grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Jubilee seemed a lot more nervous about the whole thing than she was letting on. She did that thing where she acted cool as a cucumber and like everything was just fine, but Ty Lee knew better. They both played that game.
They might have grown up different, but the game could be learned almost anywhere. Jubilee glanced at her friend and gave her a tight smile, then took her hand, "Yeah. I will. I'm just..really kind of nervous. This is it. This is real. If I don't do it this year.."
"... Maybe we should stop thinking about that. It's my last year, too. But when I think about that, I feel like..." Ty Lee frowned, trying to put words to it, then tilted her head and continued, "I feel like after the Olympics is over, no matter what happens, but especially if I don't place? Like I'm supposed to stop. Like this is it. This is the last time I'm ever going to tumble or twirl around the bars. I love it too much to stop, but that's how I feel."
"That's bull! There are still tournaments and..doing it for fun! I just...I'm worried about my body, yannow? I'm pushing it so hard just to get back up to...where I was at before I was hurt."
She hugged her arms, "You could still do another Olympics. It's not unheard of. You're bendy enough. You'd only be like..what, twenty-three?"
"Twenty-four. Too old to really be competitive on a lot of the exercises. I'd probably be alright with beam and floor, but it depends on if I get any taller, too. I probably won't be competitive, not with all these other great gymnasts coming up. You know how it gets," She shook her head.
"I'll keep doing it, of course. I'm just worried. I'm worried about what happens to me. I'll probably lose my sponsorship if I fail."
"You probably won't get taller," Jubilee promised. She chewed on her lip and took Ty Lee's hand, "It'll be fine. We'll make it fine. We'll kick butt and take names and show the brits why we threw all their tea away!"
"I've always wondered if Uncle Iroh cried when he learned about that in school. So much wasted tea!" Ty Lee's comment was so random that it made even herself laugh about it.
She squeezed Jubilee's hand, "We'll kick their butts. Everything will be totally fine."
Jubilee? Gave Ty Lee a fist bump, and that was that.