markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .030

[Today is Catch Up Day. There are more than a few people Katara hasn't heard from in a while, or that she meant to catch up with after first meeting them when they came, and so after morning chores she sits down to make a couple of voice posts. All messages are filtered between 70-80 percent, and the filters are mostly there as a courtesy to keep from trolling your journals.]

[Filtered to Longshot... and not against Jet.]
Hey, how are you guys doing?

[Filtered to San]
Hey, San! I haven't seen you in a while so I thought I'd try the journals. How are you?

[Filtered to Ginko]
Hey... are you still ~~there~~ using this thing?

[And some time after she's done with those, she begins making house calls. Sigmund, she has not yet satisfied herself about your ribs since you won't give her a straight answer... and she wants to hear if there's been any news about Katie, so that house will receive a knock on the door. Also, there have been a few 'normal people' she's met that she's concerned about, so she'll be making her way to Alexis' building, hoping to bump into her. She'll also be stopping by the Straw Hat house. She doesn't want to embarrass Nami or anything, but she does want to see with her own eyes that she's okay. If you think she should be checking on your character too, she probably is, or feel free to stop her as she goes along the road.

...although when she returns to her house much later, Katara realizes Something Important and makes a voice post.]

[Filtered AWAY from Ginko]
Does anyone know how to prepare a garden for the winter? There has to be something you can do to keep them so that they'll grow the next year, right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ah-ha! Target: sited.]

Hey, Alexis! Need a hand?

[That's the cue for a small, startled jump. She turns to look and the offers Katara a smile.]

Hey yourself. [She glances in the bag.] Not unless you can remember whatever it is I forgot.

[Katara laughs.] Sorry, no. What were you shopping for?

Oh, just food. I'll figure it out sooner or later, I'm sure.

What brings you out here?

I was looking for you, actually! I wondered how you were holding up after the first experiment.

[The fact that someone was actually seeking her out has Alexis breaking into a Huge Smile.]

Luckily, I only ended up in some strange place once. [And her smile is dropping a bit.] Nearly ended up shot, but I made it home.

Shot! Oh no! What happened?

[Alexis winces a little. She didn't mean to cause a ruckus.]

I teleported right into a firing range someone set up. I was lucky he had quick reflexes.

[Blink, blink.] Was it Michael?

[She's.. not sure how she feels talking about him. She's kind of tried her best to avoid him this week.]

[This an echoing Blink Blink.]

You know him?

A little. He came this cycle, and I helped him paint his apartment. We've bumped into each other a few times.

I didn't realize he's as new as I am.

[Pause. Then a grin.]

So whaddya think of him?

What do I think of him? [She blinks again and blushes the slightest bit.] He.. seems nice?

Bit of a ladies' man, huh?

Is that what it is?

[She has so no experience with this, it's not even funny. Moreover, she's wondering why discussing him like this makes her feel a little... she can't even place it.]

[That right there, Katara? That's a teasing twinkle in Alexis' eye.]

So what's he said to you?

[...cornered. That's what she's feeling. Cornered. And uncomfortable. Was everything - not that it had been anything - but... Katara's heart sinks, just a little.]

What do you mean?

He told me I looked prettier when I was being sarcastic.

Oh. [That's... not so bad, actually. Although that's a part in her interaction with Michael that she didn't really understand, it's not something she finds herself minding as much as... whatever it was that made her feel sick.

It was still confusing, though.]

He told me I looked prettier when I blushed. I think. [And she might be grinning back, but there is a very faint - nearly undetectable blush that goes with that.]

You think?

Well, he didn't actually say it was me, specifically. [Thus revealing to herself and probably to Alexis that she has been giving this way too much subconscious thought. Of course it was her. Who else was there? And Katara knew she was pretty. Even if she wasn't as pretty as a lot of the girls here, the basic fact that she was pretty didn't change.

So she shrugs a little wryly, hoping to shift the subject.] But he's very nice. I know that he was glad he didn't hurt you during the experiment.

[Alexis shrugs. Oh, she knows this plight well, but she's not her father's daughter for nothing. Teasing? What teasing?] Well, were there other girls around?

[Small pause. A subject change, is it? All right then.] Yeah, he seemed pretty concerned.

Yeah, that would have been pretty bad.

[Eh-heh-heh-heh, everything is awkward now.]

I was able to stay a bit and watch him shoot. Guns are pretty powerful weapons. You can do so much damage from so far away...

Yeah. [Alexis' cheerful disposition turns a little more somber.]

My dad's a consult for a police force. I've heard about some of the damage they can do. [But she's also learned that if someone wants to do violence badly enough, they'll find a way, gun or no.]

So they're common weapons in your world? [...] Well, Michael was a soldier in his world, so he's had a lot of training in how to handle it well.

[...why is she still talking about him?]

Edited 2010-10-03 04:46 (UTC)