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A minor celebrity has just arrived in Republic City.
He styles himself Delightful Jun, and if he has a last name, no one's ever managed to find it. Reports of his age vary, but you'll usually find it quoted between thirty-five and forty in recent years. His press interviews are rare, unscripted, occasionally contradictory, and inevitably surprising.
As for what he's famous for: he is a firebender, the producer and performer of a multimedia stage show that defies description. Delightful Jun's Palace of Fiery Delights combines music, lights, dancing, sleight of hand, a certain amount of acrobatics, flamboyant costumes, and of course, creatively applied and exquisitely controlled firebending. The show is never the same twice. Audience members are permitted and even encouraged to bring recording devices, but cautioned that if they do, they might be so busy getting it all on tape that they miss half the fun.
He has been known to remove all his clothes onstage; he has been known to take audience volunteers for various occasionally hazardous tricks; unsubstantiated rumours claim that he might have combined those two things, but no one's ever coughed up a video, so the rumours are generally discredited. He has been known to set off small explosives. He has been known to breathe rolling tongues of flame over the heads of the audience. When he booked an outdoor venue for six weeks in Chin Village, he concluded his final show by setting off a row of fireworks that wrote 'Delightful Jun' in the sky stroke by stroke. The headlines the next morning read, 'Delightful Jun Autographs Sky', and he cheerfully stole the turn of phrase for use in his own posters and advertisements.
One of his best-known signature moves is an elaborate, graceful bow ending in a sweep of his arms that gives him momentary wings of fire. It appears in countless photos, and it's how he ends his show every night for his first week in Republic City.
fiery-delights
fiery-delights
His practice room in the basement is very spacious, with concrete walls and a high, sloped ceiling. There are scorch marks here and there on the walls, but the ceiling seems to have escaped such treatment. In one corner, close by the door, there's a short counter with a sink at one end and a couple of stools at the other. The stools, and the exercise mats covering the concrete floor, are the only flammable items in the room.
"It's not the comfiest," he says, "but it does the job. Have a seat."
"It's not the comfiest," he says, "but it does the job. Have a seat."
fiery-delights
With a shrug, Jun takes the other one.
"Something tells me," he says, "that you're the type who'd rather know the point of something before you do it. Am I right?"
"Something tells me," he says, "that you're the type who'd rather know the point of something before you do it. Am I right?"
roc_on
"Yes. Not that I was, say, annoyed with Shifu Riko for taking me to your show as a 'celebration' without explaining the ulterior motive, but if it's going to be something I spend lots of effort on, absolutely."
fiery-delights
"I figured," he says. "So I'll explain. Have you ever thought about why the four kinds of bending developed the way they did? Why there are such specific styles of movement associated with the original combat disciplines, and why they all stayed more or less constant for thousands of years?"
roc_on
"I think it must have something to do with how the elements themselves move. If I want to bend sand, I can use a lot of loosely adapted waterbending forms -" She uncaps her sand bottle, pulls out half the sand and conducts it in a loop around herself and back into the bottle. "Even though that's earthbending, and a waterbender besides me couldn't do it. And metalbending's different still, although it's not so much like anything else I'm familiar with."
fiery-delights
He nods.
"As far as I can tell, and obviously I can't speak directly for the other elements, that's just it. The classical forms are the easiest, most efficient, most effective interface to their elements, because they each use the kind of movement that their associated element understands the best. I didn't know that about sandbending, actually, but it fits my theory pretty well. Which brings me to why you're going to learn classical combat firebending. What I want to teach you with it is the kind of deep understanding of the element that lets me play pretty tricks with it all night long. But you're not going to get that any other way than with practice, and the best way to practice firebending is with the classical style, because it's the most direct contact with the element you're going to get short of setting yourself on fire." He flashes a smile. "Which I don't recommend."
"As far as I can tell, and obviously I can't speak directly for the other elements, that's just it. The classical forms are the easiest, most efficient, most effective interface to their elements, because they each use the kind of movement that their associated element understands the best. I didn't know that about sandbending, actually, but it fits my theory pretty well. Which brings me to why you're going to learn classical combat firebending. What I want to teach you with it is the kind of deep understanding of the element that lets me play pretty tricks with it all night long. But you're not going to get that any other way than with practice, and the best way to practice firebending is with the classical style, because it's the most direct contact with the element you're going to get short of setting yourself on fire." He flashes a smile. "Which I don't recommend."
fiery-delights
He laughs.
"Well, if you want to set yourself on fire, I'm not stopping you. I just don't think it'll help."
"Well, if you want to set yourself on fire, I'm not stopping you. I just don't think it'll help."
fiery-delights
"Depends what you mean by 'set yourself on fire'," he says. "A blister or two is pretty much unavoidable, and I've seen some accidents with loose clothing, but I don't remember seeing anyone's actual body parts going up in actual flames. At least not that they did to themselves. Sparring accidents are another matter."
roc_on
Beila peers down at her bog-standard airbending outfit.
"So... I should get some other clothes?"
"So... I should get some other clothes?"
fiery-delights
"It'd be a good idea," he agrees. "Something that flaps around less. At least you don't have long flappy sleeves, though, those are the worst. Long flappy pants are almost as bad, but they're not as common."
fiery-delights
"But you can probably survive one lesson without lighting up your shirt," he says. "Might want to ditch the cape just to be safe."
fiery-delights
"Much better," he says, and gets up and heads for the middle of the room, beckoning her along. "C'mere and let's get started on the basics."
The basics, it turns out, don't involve anyone producing any fire. First, he teaches her the movements themselves, at half speed so there is no danger of accidental flames. When he's satisfied that she has those down, he steps back and shows her the simple punch they have been working on at full speed, sending a narrow bolt of flame all the way across the room to just barely touch the opposite wall.
"Your turn," he says. "Don't expect that kind of distance on your first try, but try for it anyway."
The basics, it turns out, don't involve anyone producing any fire. First, he teaches her the movements themselves, at half speed so there is no danger of accidental flames. When he's satisfied that she has those down, he steps back and shows her the simple punch they have been working on at full speed, sending a narrow bolt of flame all the way across the room to just barely touch the opposite wall.
"Your turn," he says. "Don't expect that kind of distance on your first try, but try for it anyway."
roc_on
Beila uncaps her water bottle and sets it aside, so she can get at its contents if she needs them, and she focuses, and she throws the punch.
She gets fire, all right, and it starts out just like he showed her - and then it arcs backward, flickering, and touches her sleeve, and she's glad she had that water ready because she needs to pull it out and douse the flame with hasty motions. "Eep!"
She gets fire, all right, and it starts out just like he showed her - and then it arcs backward, flickering, and touches her sleeve, and she's glad she had that water ready because she needs to pull it out and douse the flame with hasty motions. "Eep!"
roc_on
"I'm - always airbending," says Beila. "I can barely walk without airbending. As in I go two steps and then I fall over."
fiery-delights
Jun takes a deep breath, holds it for a second, and lets it out.
"Okay," he says. "Clearly, I'm gonna have to change my curriculum. Fire and air interact, as I'm sure you just noticed. Which means that if you need to airbend in order to move, you'll have to make them work together."
"Okay," he says. "Clearly, I'm gonna have to change my curriculum. Fire and air interact, as I'm sure you just noticed. Which means that if you need to airbend in order to move, you'll have to make them work together."
roc_on
"Yeah, guess so. It never came up with water or earth - they're heavier, I guess, not so easily perturbed by a little wind to stabilize me."
fiery-delights
"Yeah. But fire, well - fire moves. So," he says, "try that again - you can step back a little closer to the sink first if you want, I won't laugh - and this time, pay attention to both elements, and try not to let them conspire against your shirt. It's a perfectly nice shirt and doesn't deserve to catch fire."