uncooperative -- open

[Saya Zhang]

blame it on the girls who know what to do blame it on the boys who keep hitting on you blame it on your mother for the things she said blame it on your dad but you know he's dead

Practice makes perfect.

That's the key to Saya's personal training. Of course, throughout her work, she doesn't acknowledge the fact that practicing what she knows over and over again will only perfect what she already knows, not expand her skill in the craft. Instead, she continues her drills from her place crouching at the edge of the pond running through Republic City's park. She takes care to practice somewhere where she can't be seen. Saya's not really concerned about her own safety -- lately all that the annoying anti-bending folk have done is ridicule her for her talent -- but she doesn't want to have to deal with that when she's trying to focus. The overgrown trees around her provide enough cover from the rest of the visitors for her to feel relaxed enough to work the water before her to her will.

It always takes a while before she can even get the water to really cooperate. The movement of her hands above the water is far from fluid and for a while, serves to do nothing more than rustle up the water and cause some small ringlets form the disturbance. "Come on," She grumbles. Yet another reason she makes sure to keep herself hidden. She's sixteen years old and still bends like a ten year old. Everyone else she's seen her age are pros. It's embarrassing. And she's far too proud to put herself into any situation that displays her inadequacy. 

The small ringlets turn into ripples as the water starts to bubble where she focuses and a little more coercion and then --"Yes!" A glob of water rises out, no larger than perhaps a watermelon, and far from spherical as water spills out and wavers around the edges, but at least she's got it.

Saya stands slowly, bringing the water up with her, her hands in constant motion to try to keep it formed. She takes a breath, confident at her current success, and gets right into the drill. A wave of her arms  and the sphere moves to the right, still dripping but mostly fluid. a small smile plays at the corners of her lips as she makes a controlled spin on one heel, bringing her water with her until she's once more facing the creek.

"That's it... now let's try something more complicated," She says. She brings the water beside her, then lashes one arm out. Her intention was to sent the sphere shooting back into the water like a bullet. The result was far from that. It travels only a few inches before falling apart like a popped water balloon, hitting the ground and splashing onto her shoes and the lower half of her pants. 

"Oh, come on!" She shouts in frustration. She kicks the wet spot where the water hit flinging up mud and as she does, the water in front of her reacts with a thin burst shooting up in the direction of her kick. It's an insignificant amount, but it still did what she wanted the original sphere to do. She stares at it for a moment, curious, and tries kicking once more. This time, her conscious effort to move the water does nothing but a small ripple. She glares at it's surface frustrated. "Why can't you do that when I want you to?" She asks it furiously. 

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NOTES: Pretty much open to anyone who wants to jump in! Come interrupt her failure of a training session!

LAIKA OF GANGNAM STYLE!

[Que Piaodang]

As far as food went, the park wasn't an easy option. With police officers on a routine patrol around the city and the bans on fishing in the small bodies of water and the outlets to Yue Bay, catching a fish was hard whether she used bending or not. Some even tried to chase her out a few times for loitering and (not even) disrupting the peace, once they realized she wasn't some cute lost little girl they could return to her family as a duty to their city.

Que wasn't very fond of those officers.

Luckily, she'd wandered into the park not long before one who didn't recognize her left, giving her the perfect opportunity to at least try to catch something. She was hungry again – by her standards, not those who ate everyday – and the usual places she'd swiped from were barely busy at the moment, which made any attempted liberation of goods far too easy to spot and, by extension, any attempted getaway after a failure too prone to failure. Especially since her last few yuans had foolishly gone to a hot meal she'd ended up splitting with a few stray cats last night.

Of course, if she wanted a better chance at free food she could wait, yes, but with the perfect timing as she passed over the small bridge to the park on her roundabout to kill time, well. It was just too good a chance to pass up.

Besides, even if there were other people around, people like her tended to fade into the background – a walking blind spot, she called it, and increasingly frequent the higher social class someone was. She could be annoyed, and still was from time to time, but invisibility was never a gift to be wasted, and if she could utilize it now, well, all the better.

Approaching the waterside, Que's ears pricked at the shouts of a very frustrated girl, who a glance told the urchin was a waterbender. She looked about Que's own age (or how old Que ought to look, anyway) was fully absorbed in the water and her practicing between the trees around the pond, but that wasn't the most attractive part of the girl. Hell, the most attractive part of the girl wasn't even the girl herself.

It was the bag hanging from a low branch a few yards behind her, just begging Que to come and raid its contents before the owner knew what happened.

Taking a few breaths, Que weighed her options, redirecting her gaze to scan the area. It was relatively empty in this section of the park, possibly by the girl's design, possibly by the time of day and other peoples' corresponding schedules. Whichever it was, there weren't many people nearby to spot the quick tuck-and-rummage of a hand in a bag if Que decided to do so, and experience told Que that the percentage of the few who might see actually doing something about it was extraordinarily low, exactly how she liked it. And with the girl busy...

Well, there was really nothing stopping her.

Without taking another moment to consider, Que casually turned and wandered away from the pond, as if she no longer held interest, and instead meandered around the small clove of trees to where the other waterbender's bag hung. Keeping herself aligned with the trees so that she could bolt if need be, Que kept her peripheral vision on the other girl. Her own little lookout technique, in case the girl could feel direct eyes on her.

Leaning against the tree as if resting, a small hand slipped into the bag's flap, quietly rummaging around the contents, groping for the familiar feel of rounded metal, stringed beads and stones, or even the softer texture of cloth-wrapped food.

Trying her best to be quick, Que ignored her heart's rapid beating, feeling as if time was ticking incredibly slowly; usually, this kind of thing was done with a pat, a swipe, a quick dip, in-and-out in the midst of a crowd. She hadn't done a quiet, close-quarter in a while and felt out of practice.

But with any luck, the frustrated waterbender wouldn't know; and if she did by chance turn around, wouldn't see Que yank her hand out of the bag like she normally did at any sign of movement or suspicion.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE