markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .030

Entry tags:

*alexis,
*derek,
*longshot,
*mercury,
*nami,
*raine,
*san,
*shirayuki,
*sigmund,
*usopp,
at the strawhat house,
girl's day out,
message in a bottle,
out and about,
please don't die plants ;;,
she comes from a small community ok,
the roots aren't only metaphors,
what's a winter girl know about gardenin

[ 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?

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[...He has like three shirts. And he doesn't really want to take off any of them. Augh. But it is for a healer, so he starts with unbuttoning the first overtunic.]

It would be inconsiderate to make this more difficult. [And then yanking the second one over his head. And yes, there is a third shirt under there! But it is made of plain white linen and the neckline has a slit down to the middle of his chest, through which the top part of his lunaglyph is clearly exposed. Which is exactly how he his feeling.

This is enough, right? Please say yes.]

Edited 2010-10-02 03:53 (UTC)

[...man, is she glad she asked. Even if this is Suddenly Awkward. She's never had to do this for a guy who wasn't bleeding to death or who she didn't know really well. And they were just.. sitting there.

...but how many shirts did he have on? She gives him a searching look when he stops and then... decides not to push it. She can see some skin showing through the slit down the middle of his chest. That's just where she'll put her hands.]

That's fine. [No, really, you can totally stop right there. She unclasps her waterskin and streams some water out.] This might be a little cool.

[And she goes to lay her hands on the exposed area of his chest.]

[That... might be a bad spot. And not just because it makes him twitch away from her like he's been shocked. What she might be noticing, if she had enough time to, is that she has found the center of his whacked out chi; like the pathways have tied themselves in knots under that symbol.]

...You should let me pull my shirt up.

[She blinks at him in surprise when she jerks away, but removes her hands immediately. She had noticed a large concentration of messed up chi, but it didn't register what or why or even that it was any different from the rest of his strange, strange system.]

Um. No, that's OK. I can probably go right through that shirt. It's thin enough.

[Well if this wasn't awkward before, it certainly is now. It takes him a bit before he settles back into the couch cushions again, expression guarded.]

I don't like being touched there.

[Tact? What is that?] Why not? Does it hurt?

[No, Katara, not more than anything else does at the moment.] That is my lunaglyph. It's [complicated?] a personal matter.

Oh. [/brb, abruptly peering at the design she scarcely paid any attention to before due to fluster factors and long familiarity with weird tattoos. She has to actually physically shake herself in order to draw her attention to why she came, and there are a thousand questions clamouring in her head to be voiced, but... she bites her lip.]

Okay. [And she shifts forward to place her hands on his covered ribs. It'll be harder, but... she can do it.]

[The staring just makes him feel even more exposed and embarrassed, which he deals with by... staring resolutely at his knees. He waits for a little while before speaking up.]

Have they healed?

[Has she ever mentioned to you that your chi system feels like a Sabertooth Moose Lion used it as a chew toy? And then stampeded it for good measure? No? Because she'd really to. It takes all that time just to get used to what's normal in his body again.]

It feels like you're all back to normal. [She smiles at him, removes her hands and streams the water back into the waterskin.] I'm glad - I was worried you'd do more damage to yourself. But it looks like you're being careful.

[Not to that degree, no. But he wouldn't be surprised.]

Can I wear my armor again?

[She nods.] That should be fine. From what I can tell you're completely back to normal.

[There will now be an awkward pause as one of the thousands of questions Katara has attempts to fight its way out of her mouth.]

[He can practically hear all those questions rattling around in her head, and it leaves him conflicted. Some of it, he doesn't want to talk about; but some of it, maybe it would be better to just get it over with. If only he was entirely sure which was which.

Instead of saying anything, he just looks her in the eyes, calmly. If she wants to question him, she'll have to find the courage to do it herself. He isn't going to prompt her.]

['Why are you so weird?' doesn't seem to be an appropriate question, and she forces that one back. ...but she can't hold them all.]

You are all right, right?

[Because that's really the most important part. If his chi is going to like, turn inward and start eating him or something, she'd like a chance to stop it.]

[That actually baffles him, and it shows.]

You just said that I was.

But I mean... [She sighs.] Is there something going on inside you that your body is fighting? Why is your chi system like this?

[Wow. An entirely truthful answer to that would be... wow. Possibly it is time for evasive maneuvers.]

I am simply a warrior. The people that could best answer that question aren't here.

Edited 2010-10-03 03:30 (UTC)

Are you telling me that because you don't want to tell me anything, or because you don't know? If there's something going on with you that I can help with, even knowing a little bit would be better than nothing.

[Tact, what is that.]

[If she wants blunt, he can do blunt. He has a tact deficit that she couldn't even dream of.]

My health is poor. There is nothing you can do for it.

[She bristles at that, but only mildly.] Maybe nothing could be done to help you in your world, but you don't know what kind of other abilities that you can find here. If you don't want to talk about it, if you're happy with the way things are, then that's fine - you're obviously a warrior who can still fight, so whatever is going on isn't putting you in any danger that I can see. But if you ever do want to see if there's anything I can do to help... just let me know.

[He seems to be getting more and more serious, the more she talks about it.]

I am not saying this to be stubborn. There is nothing to be done. Check for yourself if you wish. I am not lying.

[Really, this isn't ideal for him. Letting her check anything is letter her poke around his lunaglyph; but explaining the truth when he doesn't have to isn't really ideal either. He'll just have to see what she says.]

Edited 2010-10-03 22:35 (UTC)

I'm not accusing you of lying. [And she sighs a little.] And I'm not going to go poke around in your chi system with it being... the way it is... without a good reason. If I knew more, maybe I'd try, but...

[Herd. Of. Sabertooth Moose Lion.]

Then do not concern yourself. It's under control.

[Oh, that is the exact wrong thing to say. The dismissive, patronizing tone of that first sentence is bad enough and then 'It's under control?' Oh really. Just who's controlling it, huh?]

You just said that you don't know what's wrong with you. How do you know it's under control? Don't tell me not to be concerned about you!

I never said that I didn't know.

[He takes a breath and tries to gather his thoughts.] It is not treatable, but it will not kill me. There is no use in worrying. That is what I meant.

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markofthebrave - 2010-10-06 01:49 (UTC) - Expand

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markofthebrave - 2010-10-06 01:52 (UTC) - Expand

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