( he knows dick's evading him. now that mako knows he's an airbender, it all makes sense — that's practically their modus operandi. it's one of the reasons korra was so bad about it at first. korra, who meets every challenge head on and entirely willing to use that point of contact to batter it down. mako isn't your average firebender. he isn't all about power and will, he had to learn the ways to make fire flexible. something to warm, something to hurt, a tool, a refuge. he's killed with it, and he hates that he has, but. when he's going for the kill shot, he always uses lightning rather than fire.
it's quicker that way.
now that he knows where that evasiveness comes from, he at least knows how to counter it. and it's by being nothing more than himself. )
Airbender or no, I wouldn't have risked my life like that. I'm a cop. If I die, I leave a part of the city undefended, and it'll be months before another officer can be put in my place without leaving gaps in other areas. A lot more people can suffer in that time than the cost of one life.
( it isn't ego, he doesn't think he's worth another life, but he knows the contributions he can make towards the betterment of society versus a criminal especially are not comparable. he's a cog in a machine. he would have died a thousand times over at korra's side. against amon, against unalak, or kuvira or zaheer. but that's with the fate of the world on the line, or at the very least the fate of people he loves so much that his life is irrelevant next to that devotion. but to save someone who's made their choice to put evil out into the world? no. mako doesn't have much sympathy for the sort who let themselves become subsumed by criminality. he escaped it. if other people have less will than that, then... well. if they hurt others, they get what they deserve.
he knows it's cold. he knows it's a hard way of thinking, and if bolin were here he'd already be arguing about it. but that part of him, the one that's calculating and practical... that's the side that kept bo alive all these years, and he's not going to apologize for having it. )
no subject
( he knows dick's evading him. now that mako knows he's an airbender, it all makes sense — that's practically their modus operandi. it's one of the reasons korra was so bad about it at first. korra, who meets every challenge head on and entirely willing to use that point of contact to batter it down. mako isn't your average firebender. he isn't all about power and will, he had to learn the ways to make fire flexible. something to warm, something to hurt, a tool, a refuge. he's killed with it, and he hates that he has, but. when he's going for the kill shot, he always uses lightning rather than fire.
it's quicker that way.
now that he knows where that evasiveness comes from, he at least knows how to counter it. and it's by being nothing more than himself. )
Airbender or no, I wouldn't have risked my life like that. I'm a cop. If I die, I leave a part of the city undefended, and it'll be months before another officer can be put in my place without leaving gaps in other areas. A lot more people can suffer in that time than the cost of one life.
( it isn't ego, he doesn't think he's worth another life, but he knows the contributions he can make towards the betterment of society versus a criminal especially are not comparable. he's a cog in a machine. he would have died a thousand times over at korra's side. against amon, against unalak, or kuvira or zaheer. but that's with the fate of the world on the line, or at the very least the fate of people he loves so much that his life is irrelevant next to that devotion. but to save someone who's made their choice to put evil out into the world? no. mako doesn't have much sympathy for the sort who let themselves become subsumed by criminality. he escaped it. if other people have less will than that, then... well. if they hurt others, they get what they deserve.
he knows it's cold. he knows it's a hard way of thinking, and if bolin were here he'd already be arguing about it. but that part of him, the one that's calculating and practical... that's the side that kept bo alive all these years, and he's not going to apologize for having it. )