markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .031

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[ Action, Voice ] .031

[If you are passing by the Southmost bridge at just the right time, you will find it hard not to notice the girl in an unusual dress and boots facedown on the ground. One shoulder is strangely disjointed, and there are bruises up and down her arms, particularly violent ones around her wrists. She looks like nothing more than a broken and discarded doll.

As the sun continues to set, the coolness in the ground will cause her to start to stir. When she sits up, she grimaces, moving as if there might be something wrong with her ribs. If you happen to be looking at her as she does, you'll notice the sickening blue and yellow bruise spread across her right collarbone, the lovely shiner on her eye.

The wonderful thing about Luceti? Sometimes there's a journal right where you need it. She barely has enough presence of mind to make sure the picture points away from her face, but her voice is very tired.]

Sokka, Aang - I'm back. [Sorry Suki, Zuko.] I'm okay.

[10 100 (thank you, Shikamaru) percent filter to Chopper, Raine]
Hey guys, if you're there - I could use a little help.

[She doesn't want her brother and Aang to see her like this.]

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I passed out last night. I'll probably be able to sleep again soon.

[Her voice gets a little... distant.] I was really tired.

[He bets. He's... kinda heard about some things over the journals. But technically he's not supposed to know that, is he?

So he'll stick to the obvious.] They put you through the ringer?

[She sighs a little, not really wanting to think about it, but...]

It could have been worse. [And several of the guards had made sure to describe just how it could have been worse and in more than sufficient detail. ...and even then, those memories that weren't hers of being a child held captive on a Fire Nation ship... this was bad, but not as bad as that.]

I don't think they're this rough with everyone. [In fact, she knows they're not.] Some of them just... took my visit to their other facility personally.

[Apparently it's embarrassing to have your ass handed to you by a fifteen year old girl. Who knew?]

...So they took it out on you. [There's steel in his voice. It's one thing to fight a woman; it's another entirely to hurt her.

Bastards.]

[He breathes out and changes his tone. There's a smirk there now.] Must've intimidated the hell out of them, huh?

[She responds in kind, though there is something leaden about her tone. These were far from her first battles. But they were the first ones she had to fight without her bending, without her friends, without any real hope of success. And it's awful hard to resist a punch in the face when you're strapped to a table.] Heh - something like that.

[It's interesting to note, given what he knows about other Luceti residents, that they would feel the need to be that agressive with her.

He lets that curiosity flow in the background, but he needed to talk with her for a reason.] Good for you then.

[He stretches his hands behind his neck and leans back.] Listen... at some point I need to talk to you about something. I won't bother you about it now if you need the rest [Which he's sure she does, but he's learned the hard way that you don't tell a girl what to do unless it's absolutely necessary.], but it needs to be discussed sooner rather than later.

Edited 2010-11-03 06:13 (UTC)

[She blinks. That... can't be good. She has no idea what it refers to, but...

...but it's probably why he's contacting her today. She likes Shikamaru, but she knows that they're not really friends yet. And this... could be about anything. So it was important, and probably bad, and for a flicker of a selfish moment, she wants to tell him that she's had enough bad news and could he please come back next month? But then the impulse passes.

One more thing. She can do this.]

Um - okay. I'm not really supposed to do very much today, but I don't think there would be anything wrong with a visitor. You know where my house is, right? It's the one by the barracks that has the big stone in front that looks like Sokka's face.

Well now I do. [If he hadn't already suspected.

But he was serious about letting her get her rest. He doesn't feel the need to burden people if they already have enough on their plate.] I'll keep it brief, promise. Just knock on the door?

[She nods.] That's fine. I'll move into the living room so I can hear.

[...at least whatever this is is enough of a distraction that at the moment her one thought isn't: Aang.] See you soon?

I'll be there.

[In less than an hour, no less. Srs business, yo. He knocks twice, then sticks his hands in his pockets.]

[Katara is on the couch, still in her ridiculous dress but swathed in a blanket. That might make the fact that her arm is in a sling slightly less obvious, and it has the additional benefit of hiding the monstrosity the Malnosso stuffed her into. The fountain Winry made for her is on the table, looking as though it belongs there. Even if she's not supposed to be bending, just feeling it there makes her feel better.

When she hears the knock she gets up to answer the door, sighing a little when she realizes she'll have to abandon the blanket if she wants to be able to open it. Ugh, humiliating. Oh well.] Coming!

[And she opens it, smiling a little. She looks distinctly uncomfortable in that dress, and more than a little wan. It would be easy to chalk that up to her return from the Malnosso, but the distress she can't hide in the corners of her eyes looks fresh.] Hey, Shikamaru. Come on in.

Hey. [He raises an eyebrow at the outfit as he steps in. It's so vastly different from what he's usually seen her wear- ah. Looks like she didn't escape the costumes after all.

She's obviously uncomfortable with it, so he doesn't make a remark on it. He does take a small box out from under his arm though, shaking it once so she can hear the food slide in it.] Onigiri. Chouji made extra, so he sent some along.

Onigiri? [...she hasn't heard of that. Oh wait!] That's the rice things Itachi was talking about, right? Thanks!

[She doesn't reach out to take the box, seeing as how she only has one hand - and it could stop being substantial at any moment. In fact, she steps back and shuts the door behind quickly before something else happens.]

How is Chouji? I wanted to ask before, but... [And that's a 'how are you,' too. She starts to move back towards the couch so that they can sit and she can cover herself in a blanket again.]

[He nods when she gets it, pleased she remembered.] We're all right. Getting back into the swing of things like anyone else. Chouji's... well, he's Chouji. [A grin.] He goes with the flow.

[Shikamaru sets the box on the table. He even opens it a little so she won't have to fiddle around with one hand to do it later.]

Yeah, this place... can really mess with you. I'm glad that you both are adapting to it. The best thing you can do is hold on to who you are and go with the flow.

[She stares down at the box and frowns a little, subconsciously.]

What about Itachi? Was he still a kid when all this happened, or...

[Being a ninja, they're very good at that.]

That's actually what I needed to talk to you about. [Shikamaru takes a seat on the floor - he knew she'd bring him up for him.] Itachi's an adult again; it happened a little over a week ago. [And he didn't handle the experiment well, but that's not the point he needs her to focus on here. If she's asking though, she probably hasn't seen the message Itachi had written to her in the journals. He's glad he got to her before then.] He might try to contact you.

[This is A Bad Thing, and he hopes she's caught onto that.]

[Katara gives him a bit of an odd look when he decides to sit on the floor instead of on one of the sofas, but the look changes to one of concerned listening when Shikamaru starts to talk.

She does, in fact, pick up that this is A Bad Thing... but she is not sure as to why.]

Okay...?

[It was convenient. He likes convenient.]

You need to be careful, if he does. Uchiha Itachi is a very dangerous criminal in my world - one of the worst, even. I don't know how Luceti effects his interests, but he's not a man to be taken lightly.

[Her instinctive reaction is shock, and it's nearly followed by outright denial.] What? But-

[-he was so nice! And you treated him just like--]

Edited 2010-11-05 01:20 (UTC)

[...but some part of her remembers Roku, and by implication: Sozin.]

...what did he do?

[Most of this is public information if you're from his world, so he decides to be honest.]

He's a traitor. And a murderer. He killed all but one of his entire clan off in a single night before abandoning our village. [He substitutes 'massacred' with killed. Honest he will be, gritty he will not. The crime was bad enough as it is.]

[There are no icons appropriate enough to express the depths of horror and revulsion Katara feels at hearing this. Such a crime strikes at the heart of everything she holds dear - you would have to be mad, you would have to be Azula to do something like this. You would have to be worse.] That's horrible! Why would he do something like that? How could he?

[Katara had been around evil before. She knew the feel of it. Itachi... he'd just been a too-serious kid! Had she been so wrong again?]

[That's something Shikamaru's been wondering himself ever since seeing Itachi as a child. 'He lost faith in his clan. Wanted power; was insane' would be the answers he's grown up with. That he went rogue is the official reasoning recorded on his page in the Bingo Book.

It's surprisingly vague. But these are thoughts for another day.]

I don't know. But the fact is he did, and he's done more since then. [And it's best not to get into that mess.] I think he's smart enough not to pull anything here. On top of that, he'd have no reason to. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. If you can't avoid him, at least don't seek him out.

[As overwhelmed as she is with horror at hearing a story like this...

...it's so terrible that she has a hard time accepting it on face value. As far as she knows, Shikamaru doesn't have any reason to lie to her, but...]

If he - did this, if you knew he was like this - why didn't you say something sooner? There's even a list of people to be careful of, even if they haven't done anything here...

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