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"Interesting," says Beila. "You realize in my case there's some risk I will be remembering things - I have to learn most stuff from scratch, but there is a very real sense in which I've learned to toss lightning a few dozen times before, and I've made leaps that surprised past teachers a couple times. I'm not sure you can count on that setup to render me able to do it only when I have all the preliminaries - I don't plan to be irresponsible, but there's not as much built-in constraint on the order in which I learn things as there is with plain firebenders."

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He shrugs.

"And if you remember how to toss lightning before I'm ready to teach it to you, then it's up to you whether or not to try it early. But my advice is don't."
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"I just mean that I can't be like, 'Oh, I could do it now, therefore I must know what I'm doing with it', I'll have to actually talk it over with you first."

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"Yes," he says dryly. "That would be the plan. I don't want to teach you lightning until I'm sure you understand the element well enough to come up with it by yourself and I'm sure your control is good enough to handle it well from the start. That applies regardless of whether or not you come up with the technique independently while we're working on the foundations."

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"Okay, then we're on the same page there."

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"Good!"

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Beila throws another punch, watching for the discreet twist of energy down her arm.

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Jun nods approvingly.

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Eventually, Jun has to prepare for his show, and Beila goes home to change into a non-scorched shirt, then calls Dao to ask if he has any opinions on clothes at all because she needs to get some snugger-fitting ones for firebending.

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"...I am probably not the person to ask," he says. "But I could try! I guess! Why don't you ask Jun? He makes all his own costumes, did you know that?"

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"I didn't know that. Anyway, I want to have at least one suitable outfit when I go in tomorrow, and he ended the lesson because he had to get ready for his show. I don't necessarily need help, just, my opinions on clothes are pretty negligible, so if you had any I could just use yours. I can also just use a shopkeeper's."

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"Probably more convenient to use the shopkeeper's," says Dao. "Unless you want your firebending practice clothes to be stuff I think you look hot in. Which, I don't know, maybe you do."

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"It wouldn't hurt. It's not like the new clothes will be inappropriate for applications that aren't firebending, so I'll probably wind up wearing them a lot once I have them."

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"Then I will totally go clothes shopping with you," he says magnanimously.

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"Awesome. I can come pick you up, we can grab dinner, we can look for something suitably practical, maybe I can wear colors other than red and yellow and orange for a while."

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"Sounds like a plan!"

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Off Beila goes. She's at his apartment a few minutes later.

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He greets her with a hug and a kiss.

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That is the correct way for him to greet her!

Dinner is tasty yet nondescript, and then there is a mall with clothes shops in it.
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Clothes shops! They sell clothes. Of this he is aware.

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Beila enlists a salesperson, who steers her to a section, and she picks out some okay things and tries them on for Dao's inspection.

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Dao has opinions! He shares these opinions with her.

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She narrows down the selection based on fit and Dao's opinion, and walks out of the store with two new outfits in a bag. "Maybe I'll even get recognized less for a while," she says optimistically. "I don't mind it all the time, but just going about my business it can get weird."

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"Yeah, maybe," says Dao. He squeezes her hand.

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Squeeze! "So apparently the fact that I'm sort of perpetually airbending interacts kinda badly with fire in a way it didn't with water or earth."

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