Kela Dasman and Agua Mar: Waterbenders. Saze: Intermediate blue firebender.
Day 32: The North Pole Days
The apartment, Morning.

Bitter taste of what had to be something Kela ate yesterday was present in his mouth. But he could not figure out what it was. He woke up in his bed and his eyes were slightly tired. The sun was just beginning to rise, with a crisp glow through the window, adding heat to his face. He rubbed his eyes softly once again as he woke up and shook his head rapidly. 'Waking up today is a killer...' he thought. He sat up more straightly in his bed and stared at the wall in front of him. The wall was very blank and had a simple artistic painting of a glacier in front of a sunset, which made the picture look orange. It was framed in a crystal and wood woven border that added mysticism to it as well. Kela wished for a second that he could be on that glacier. His mind went blank for a few minutes as well. After phasing out, he decided his time in bed was over.

He stood up and stretched his arms, while yawning. He walked over to the bathroom and washed his face and his teeth. His eyes were hardly open, so he used the sensation of brushing teeth and washing his face to a pleasurable degree. He gargled the water into the sink and poured himself a glass of water to drink. With his water and clean face, he walked into the entry room and stood in front of the window. He squinted out the panoramic window to the North Pole, which was turning from orange to yellow. Then he fell asleep standing up. Realizing what he was doing, he placed the cup of water on the windowsill so that he wouldn't drop it.

Then he realized that Mar was gone. He didn't see her as he walked back and forth through the rooms. He checked Saze's room and noticed that he was gone as well. 'Where is everybody?' He thought. He walked back into his room and put on his clothes. Afterwards, he walked to the Pai Sho table and cleared off all the pieces and put them into their holding box. He then walked over to the corner where the food was and grabbed some bread in his left hand. But with his right, he kept searching for more food. But he had forgotten that when it came to food for them, it was basically black and white. He groggily closed his eyes and sighed, then yawned, grabbing his stomach with his right hand and placing the food on the table. He turned the chair facing the fireplace around to face the table. He slouched comfortable in the chair and closed his eyes for a moment, as if he was not ready to wake up. But then he forced himself to place the food in his mouth the moment he remembered to eat.

After he finished what was supposed to be breakfast, he walked downstairs to the lobby of the apartments, where he saw Mar at a separate counter at the receptionist's desk. It seemed that the counter was recently installed that morning. On the counter was a sheet with names and times, as well as amounts of money next to them. There was a line in front of the desk of about two or three people. He looked at the countertop lazily and closed his eyes for another second. But after he opened them, he saw the triangular sign on the desk that said, "Receptionist for Heating." His eyes became wide opened with surprise. As he rubbed his eyes, his expression became calmer. 'Clearly, this has been what Saze and Mar have been up to.' He thought.

Kela waited in the line for heating until it was his turn. He crossed his arms and leaned against the real receptionists desk, which was tall enough for leaning and gave Mar a sarcastic look.
"Mar, you have gone too far." He said. Mar looked up with a scared look and said, "I can explain."
Kela sighed and wiped his mouth of crumbs from the bread he ate earlier. "You ate the rest of the fish jerky, didn't you?" Mar shyed away from this comment and said, "No, actually, I didn't quite have an appetite this morning, Saze ate it." She smiled. But then she turned around in the chair she was sitting in and stood up. She began walking toward the pipes room. She turned while walking and said, "I'll be right back, I have to Saze something." She entered the room and Kela could hear her say, "Ok Saze, we need heat on rooms 111 in five minutes, 221 in 10, and 56 in 15." But afterwards, he heard an echo from Saze saying in response, "Couldn't you give me rooms that are closer together so I don't have to run up and down these stairs?" Mar was slowly backing out the exit and said, "Well, that's pretty much everyone for this morning, just come back up to the apartment when you are done." Mar closed the door and Kela heard it close once Saze replied, "Okay..."

Mar returned to the desk she was working at and put all the papers in a single drawer underneath the desk. Then she took the sign on the desk and turned it around so that it said "Out of Business."
Kela raised his eyebrow at the reverse side of the sign and said, "Running on empty already?" Mar smirked and said, while she walked around the desk to stand by Kela, "No, we put "Out of Business" to keep people away, but we understand that this tactic will still have others who see us work here ask, "will you ever do it again?" and then are at liberty to say, "maybe".
Kela scratched his head, "I don't get it." He said. The receptionist at the counter walked in through the door, carrying a large stack of papers. He said as she walked in, "Here are the newspapers. We get them now, since the people who make them are trying to start a business by selling the first newspapers here in the North Pole." She put the papers down on the raised part of the counter next to the stairway. "I'll just put them here so that people will grab them on their way up." She said to herself. Then she sat down at her usual spot and began writing names on the sheet she always worked on.

Kela grabbed one of the newspapers and started to read it. "So they make the news in bulk now?" He asked. The receptionist replied, "Yes, one of my colleagues started his idea earlier than mine." She said. She sighed and moved papers underneath one another. She stopped what she was doing and looked directly at them. "He wanted to make it so that more news could be brought to the people of the North Pole in larger quantities. It's mostly about our region, not much about other stuff going on in other nations. " She took a pencil out and began sharpening it with a small knife. "He has the money to hire people with traveling skills to go to other nations and come back with the news." She said. "He pays for information, and appreciates contributions to the business. He is the editor, and inventor of the North Pole's printing press." She continued, "His name is Norman Shawl."
Kela opened the newspaper and started skimming the paper from afar. The paper was called Polar Presses and had an artistic drawing of a penguin and a polar bear reading a newspaper together. Kela shuddered "Where is the news about other nations?" he asked. He wasn't particularly interested in North Pole news. "The receptionist answered, "It is in the back, they only have enough news for one page." Kela rolled up the paper and put it in his pocket. "I will read it later. Thank you."
The receptionist smiled, "Don't thank me...thank Norman!"

Mar exited the building with Kela. "Where are you going?" she asked. Kela took a breath of fresh air and stretched his arms in the air. "I wanted to take a walk around and buy some food, and I think I'll meet this Norman guy." He said. They started walking to the back of the apartment building to the docks. He began unfastening the boat when Mar said, "What about Saze?" She said. Kela stopped unfastening the boat, "Oh yeah..." They ran back to the lobby and waited for Saze. Mar and Kela sat in some chairs and Kela put his head back and faced the ceiling. "We really have to start planning ahead." He said. Mar laughed. "You don't even know where Norman is, do you Kela?" she asked.
Kela closed his eyes and rested. He replied, "I'm am from a place where there is really no place to go. I don't really know where anything is specifically." He opened his eyes again and said, "But that's really what I want to know. I want to know where these places are and what they are about. That is why I left." They were quiet for a short while, and Mar said, "It wasn't because of the penguins, huh?" Kela laughed and said, "No duh." Then Kela thought for a moment. "It wouldn't hurt to get a map." He stood up and approached the receptionist. "Do you have a map?" He asked. The receptionist pulled out a map of the North Pole in detail and circled a place on the map. She drew a line to another place and drew and "X". She said, "The circle is the apartment and the X is Norman's workshop." She said. Kela took the map and said, "Thank you, may I have two please?"

A short while later, Saze came out from the pipes room and said, "Whew, I'm finally done." He sat down in the chair Kela was sitting in. Mar got up and said to Saze, "Are you ready?" Saze looked back at Mar with a confused look. "Ready for what?" Kela started walking out the door already and said without turning around. "We were going to visit a few places and pick up some food," He stood in the doorway and turned around. "Are you coming?"