markofthebrave | [Action, Accidental to Purposeful Voice] .033

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[Action, Accidental to Purposeful Voice] .033

[Well, Sokka was his Avatar alternate again. That alone is enough to call for some alone time, but with the news he brought... she definitely needed some time to clear her head. Fortunately, there is a public service she can easily perform. If your house is still snowed in? There is a waterbender digging you out. For about half the day, she is her normal self.

...sometime around two, though, she starts feeling lightheaded. Realizing she'd unintentionally skipped lunch, she heads back towards the center of town. As she walks, she starts feeling heavier and heavier. Something's wrong. Katara reaches for her journal to call for help, but it's too little, too late. She falls face first into a snowbank, the journal falling opened beside her.

When she opens her eyes, her hair is blocking her vision. Longer and unbound... her clothes feel almost painfully tight across the chest and she gasps a little.]

What? Where am I? [A deep breath, and slightly louder, as if she's expecting a response:] Aang?

[Sitting up, she shakes her head, one hand going to her waterskin... and that's when she notices the wings. Her eyes go wide.]

Is this... I had dreams like this...

[Standing up, the picture shows her body at an angle. She's certainly grown. After glancing around a bit, she reaches down to pick up the journal.] I remember... this... feels too strange not to be real...

Hello? I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but... I'm Katara. I think I remember this place... and a girl with reddish hair and... what were they called? Not oranges... something else. And there was someone - a man - with white hair and he went "Oooh?" a lot... and I remember... cigarettes and cooking and... [So many, many more. Fragments of a dream - a man who stretched his face, a skeleton playing music, a reindeer that danced... an ice dragon... green hair and white hair in front of a classroom and... shadows, dreams, fragments of things... flying people and conversations over tea and a wolfgirl and so, so much that only made sense in dreams...] And -- I don't know. Does this make any sense?

[But even as she's talking she's starting to walk. These clothes are too small - it looks like she's on a path. Let's see where it takes her.]

((OOC: Katara is now in her early twenties and from a happy canon projection. Tags post-transformation from

notatearbender. If you want to grab her before then, just indicate it in the tagline! XD))

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Ginko...

[The sound of that name. The sound of it...

...suddenly, she wants very much to see him. And she doesn't know why.] Are you in the village?

[Somehow, this is a very important question.]

I am. I stick close by, when it's snowing like this.

[he doesn't want to be the first to prompt, but he'd like to see her very much]

I'd like to see you.

[It's stated very simply - although there is nothing simple about her desire to do so. She feels almost - pulled forward to it. And there's something about her voice that indicates... she's made up her mind that this should happen, and she's used to accomplishing what she makes up her mind to do, although her tone is nothing but pleasant and hopefully expectant.]

I'd like to see you too. [a slight smile] Are you at home?

[Home?] No I'm--

[Here, of course I'm not-- but then there's a sudden flash of a house - a house - with running water inside. And a room painted blue, and red, and laughter...]

--wandering around town, actually.

Hmm. How about the library?

I think I can find that. [The tone's warm and so is the smile, though it carries a certain distraction that keeps it from being truly personal.]

See you soon.

[...that, on the other hand, carries just enough edge of raw emotional urgency to be completely so.]

[Ginko makes his way towards it, at an even pace-- reminding himself to look for a girl of this new and surprising age, rather than the face he's used to meeting.]

[Katara pops into pretty much every storefront on her way to the library - if even ever so briefly. She's fortifying herself with familiar memories, trying to chip away at the ice block that holds them back, as much as she's looking for their meeting place.

It's a lot easier for her to recognize him than vice-versa - she doesn't know that many people with white hair and a green, green eye.

...but when she does see him, she just stops short. There's a ringing, a pressure in her ears, as if something is about to break loose.

Something...]

Hey, Katara. [He wonders, for a moment, if that's recognition-- voice quite and smiling as always.]

...Ginko!

[And she doesn't remember specifics - maybe not at all. But those feelings don't lie. She knows who he is.

And she runs over to him stopping just short of embracing him to smile at him brilliantly before throwing her arms around him.]

Really? It's really you? I know you!

Katara-- [it's half a chuckle, half muffled by being suddenly hugged. But he hugs right back, before stepping back to grin] You're taller.

You're not. You're - [she takes a step away, very obviously looking him up and down, eyes wide and glowing before she shrugs and laughs a little, shaking her head in wonder.] - real.

Yes. [he smiles, wondering privately how much is real, of all this] It must be pretty strange for you-- being here.

Yes, but... [She pauses, sobering a bit.] I don't think it's for long. Derek told me about the experiments.

Ahh. [he nods] Yeah, it's been quite the few days. [stifling the onslaught of questions he has, he nods at the library door] And all in winter, too.

I don't think I mind it. [She catches on to his hint and heads towards the library. Even though she still isn't overly fond of them.] I'll be back soon enough, and it's so good to have one more chance to see everybody.

[-- once they've hit the warm air of the indoors] So, what are you going back to?

[She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she answers:] Home.

[It's a simple word, but it has worlds of emotion attached to it.] It's good, Ginko. It's really good.

[Even if she's probably just as much of a wanderer as he is now.]

[he hums, with a smile. And doesn't speak until they've taken a seat somewhere, keeping his thoughts to himself. When he does, it's a simple-] Tell me.

It's hard to know where to start... we did win the war, just like Sokka said it happened. But that didn't mean the job was done. The whole Fire Nation economy was built on war... and the Earth Kingdom and the Watertribes wanted reparations for war crimes... there were more assassination attempts in the first six months that I could count. Sokka ended up making jokes about it. But in the end, we ironed out the details of the peace. Then all we had to do was enforce it. Sokka went back home, to the South Pole, and I did as well for a time... but soon it was time for Aang and me to start traveling again, making sure that Earth Kingdom was treating the Fire Nation colonies right... and other things. Part of the reparations was the spread of Fire Nation technology, and overseeing that became part of the job - we managed to get Sokka to come and help out with that. It's changing the world... I just hope it's for the better.

Hnn. [Not hard to believe, if the whole world had been at war for that long. He listens, nodding.

Then he grins.]

You and Aang, huh?

[She just smiles contentedly. She's a mother now, and has been a wife for several years - and her feelings while far from tepid are not exactly cause for any sort of embarrassment.]

Shortly after he turned sixteen.

[it's a reasonable age to him, the only real question being-] I suppose as the Avatar he'd have a vocation for life... [musing, quietly. And all variables of time and manipulation aside, he can't help smiling at this woman you seem to become. It feels natural, ironically enough.] Congratulations.

Thank you. [That's said naturally enough, with supreme contentment. But now - now is when Katara seems to light up from the inside with that joy that you may have not even noticed she was missing until it evidences itself with a simple, wholly satisfied light-filled smile.]

We have a son. His name is Tenzin. He's fourteen months old.

[Action, Accidental to Purposeful Voice] .033

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