Does this make my butt look big? [MINGLE POST]

[legionnpcs]

Who| EVERYONE who wants in
What| Costume mingle post! Characters can try on their costumes for the first time and react to them with each other.
Where| The Anthramite Clothers' Workshop
When| A few days after everyone gets to adjust
Warnings/Notes| None!

"This is going to be great!" Ferro enthused. He got so excited he clapped his hands together a little bit, which made a dull, metallic ringing sound.

There were quite a few dressing rooms in the large workshop where the Anthramite clothiers worked and Ferro was waiting in the large area outside them all, eagerly waiting to see how everyone reacted to their new costumes. The Anthramites had done most of the designs, with input from their respective Legionnaires, but they'd started to let him help sometimes after he'd shown them some samples of his sewing, so he'd gotten to suggest some alterations this time, too.

He sat on a stool and kicked his legs slightly, idly looking over at one of the many mirrors around the workshop, but then he quickly looked away.

It wasn't that he disliked his reflection the way he used to. Back then, whenever he did, all he could think about was the ugliness that his mask was covering, but he'd finally made peace with that. No, he hated looking in mirrors because in their shining surfaces he saw his body shining back and it just made him think about how he might be stuck as living metal forever, never able to turn human again. He might never be able to taste food or feel people's hugs or --

Ferro decided to stop thinking about it and instead looked at some of the sewing patterns the Anthramites left out. They'd left the room for now, mostly because some of them was getting cranky at them trying to re-measure their inseams fifty times, so now he was getting to poke around in their stuff in a way he usually didn't.

"You don't really feel like a superhero until you put your costume on for the first time." He paused. "Well, actually, that's not true, you don't really feel like a superhero until you put your costume on for the first time and save somebody, but the costume part makes it feel more like you're a superhero than just the saving someone, because if you save someone in normal clothes you're kind of just a hero, so you need the costume for the super part."

[ooc: If you guys would like to make some visuals, there are a few superhero generators you can check out. 1 (f only), 2 (m/f, somewhat complicated to use but the 2.5 version is simpler so you can also try that), 3 (m/f, somewhat limited), 4 (m/f, not in English but easy to figure out, good options), and 5 (m/f, limited options, but simple to use).]

Comments

[failbender]

Zuko narrowed his eyes.

"Do I look like someone that needs safety lectures?" Zuko was referring of course to the fact he was carrying around a sword (something that made it obvious he was used to fighting) and to his previous show of agility and skill on the network (which made it clear he was someone that could simply dodge most blows).

He wasn't considering the fact that he possibly looked like someone that should've long since received a lecture on the dangers of fire hazards.

[the_civilian]

Tadashi wasn't going to point out Zuko's scar. Zuko knew he'd taken some kind of flame projectile to the face at some point, their relationship wasn't such that Tadashi could point that out without being incredibly gauche.

"You're wearing a super hero uniform so...yeah, probably," he answered cheerfully. "You're certainly less likely to suffer head trauma than most people, but that doesn't mean it's impossible." He tapped his helmet. "I've got a lot of stuff I want to use up here, I'd like to protect it."

[failbender]

It was good that he didn't mention the scar because he might have lost his face from the acid Zuko possibly would've spewed on it.

"There are multiple points on the human body that you can hit to take someone down in a fight with just one hit," Zuko said, resisting the urge to demonstrate. Their relationship wasn't such that he could hit Tadashi in the solar plexus without being incredibly gauche.

"And I've been watching vid-links?" the last word tapered off into a question less because he was insecure about what he was saying and more because of Zuko's unfamiliarity with the word.

"We're going to be facing people with axes that cut through everything. Evasion makes more sense than trying to armor anything. Armor's just a way of clinging to a false sense of security in a universe with weapons that can could crack your skull open and kill you instantly."

When that guy with the fire ax came for them all, Zuko planned to not even worry about helmets and just duck.

[the_civilian]

"I've read a lot about the ways the human body can be damaged," Tadashi said dryly, shaking his head. "I'm not armoring myself against the weapons we're going to be facing; I'd have gone for full body-armor if I were trying to do that. I'm protecting my head against the inevitable point where I get slammed into a wall at high speed, or I hit the dirt harder than I planned, or any number of things that could happen."

He smirked. "My helmet isn't going to slow me down any more than running in battle stark naked would speed me up."

[failbender]

"If you don't already know how, you should still learn the right way to fall," Zuko said, no longer arguing against the helmet itself. "That'll do more to protect your head than anything you can put on it."

When it was ingrained as instinct to turn being thrown or knocked over into a roll, that helped your head from ever hitting the ground in the first place.

"But you'll be practicing that in our lessons."

Because there is going to be a lot of throwing you around, Tadashi.

A lot.

[the_civilian]

Victory!

"I already know how to fall," Tadashi assured him. "I've been studying karate for awhile now, and knowing how to dive for cover is a really useful skill in the lab. And, occasionally, at home."

At least his life had prepared him for that much of being a super hero.

[failbender]

"Never heard of it."

But he supposed that was natural if people were from entirely different worlds. At least that meant he wouldn't be starting from scratch with Tadashi.

"Is it a hard form or soft form?"

That was a good place to start to get an idea of what he was familiar with. They had to have at least some similar concepts and modes of thought around martial arts even if they had different ones.

[the_civilian]

"If you have the same style in your world, it might be called something else," Tadashi said, cocking his head to the side. "It's a hard style, predominantly a striking art; focusing on punches, kicks, and knee-, elbow- and open-hand strikes."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I haven't had to use it in a sustained fight, or in a fight where I was the primary target. Usually the fights I waded into were already in progress and the attackers were generally about my size. As soon as someone who wasn't a foot shorter and half their weight started hitting back, the attackers usually ran off."

Bullies were cowards like that.

[failbender]

"That's useless," Zuko agreed. "Fighting cowards teaches nothing."

The actual style sounded like it was possibly worthwhile, though. Firebending was definitely a hard style, especially compared to Waterbending and Airbending. At least that meant Tadashi would be used to a more aggressive style of fighting.

"Don't expect me to hold back." He'd only do it enough that Tadashi wouldn't be seriously injured -- but only barely. "You'll be better off for it in the long run. Just like the last person I trained."

Aang's firebending still needed work but he'd made a lot of progress in very little time, mostly because Zuko was so hard on him.

[the_civilian]

"It helped reinforce a few things about proper striking form, and how an actual fight is different from practice, but no, it's not really useful when it comes to actual combat," Tadashi agreed. Still, Zuko's reaction to his description of karate seemed positive, so he had some hope that he might have something useful under his belt already.

"I definitely wouldn't expect that," he said with a smile. "The people I'm going to be fighting won't be either, after all."

[failbender]

"The people we'll be fighting will be trying to kill us," Zuko said bluntly. "Turning practiced skills into survival is going to be one of the hardest things you do."

A pause.

"Because you seem soft. I come from a very different world. My world's been at war for a hundred years and most people are expected to have to fight in their lifetimes."

In his case, the expectation was to conquer.

[the_civilian]

"Yeah, it's not like that where I'm from," Tadashi agreed. "Not in my part of the world, at any rate. But you don't have to keep warning me, Prince Zuko. I'm aware you're about to spend a lot of time making me completely miserable. I understand and accept that it's going to suck, but that it's also going to be for my own good,"

[failbender]

Zuko relaxed slightly and seemed content at hearing that, as if he'd been mentally fussing over making sure his prospective new student was committed to learning so, you know, he didn't die. It was good that he was.

He suspected it'd probably be even easier to keep him focused than Aang, given his age and maturity.

"What's it...what's it like?" he asked slowly, his curiosity overwhelming his formerly gruff demeanor. "Your world. My friend Aang talks sometimes about how it used to be in our world. He was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years, in the Avatar State."

It didn't even occur to him that Tadashi would lack any and all context to figure out what the "Avatar state" was because surely other worlds had Avatars.

"But it's hard to wrap my head around. The war's gone on so long most people don't even remember the way it was before it happened."