markofthebrave | [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))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes... it was house number 56, on the south side of the village. Would you like me to take you there?

If you're not too busy, I wouldn't mind the company. [Complete with wry smile.] Or the directions.

It'll be fine -- I could use the walk, anyway.

Then I'd appreciate it. [And she waits for Raine to lead the way.]

[A smile, and lead the way she does -- by walking with her, of course, and waiting to see if Katara has any other questions.]

[For a little while, Katara is content to walk in silence. But it's not long before the silence starts to press on her awareness of just who should be filling it up.]

It's strange, isn't it? A few hours ago, we'd just set up camp outside of Omashu. We were going to head into the city the next day, but we wanted one quiet night without politics first. I'd just sung Tenzin to sleep...

It's not strange for me to hear... well, it is in a sense that the last time we talked to one another, you were fifteen. But the feeling of being in a unfamiliar world, yet one that feels very familiar... it can be dizzying, until you get used to it, get your thoughts gathered. And even then, they don't make for easy gathering.

Did you have experience of going between worlds in your home, or are you just speaking about Luceti?

[She's a little surprised at how quickly she had picked up on that... but then again, there were others who had likely experienced it in some form.] ... Yes, I was talking about home. It's one now, though it hasn't been very long. For four thousand years, there were two worlds that had been entwined with one another, and yet so many were unaware of it.

[An adult perspective and seeing Luceti with completely fresh eyes can help with asking questions.]

Two worlds entwined with one? [That... sounds familiar.] Did they interact much?

They affected one another in cycles. When one world declined... the other flourished, until the flows of mana could be redirected, reversing the system. ... But no. They didn't interact directly. We only learned of the situation because of the journey we were on, which resulted in us ending those cycles.

[She sighs softly.]

If you ended the cycles... does that mean that you were able to bring the two worlds into balance?

[Or did one of them end up destroyed?]

They merged together... the way they once were, before they had been split into two in the first place.

[She turns this over in her mind for a moment.] That sounds like a great victory - like much was restored though it had been lost. I hope that's the way it worked out.

Yes... it was a victory. The resolution was better for the world itself... but it's still a growing process for the people in it.

[A knowing, slightly pained smile.] It takes a lot longer to build something up then it does to tear it down. Especially if you're working with materials that have been broken. Dealing with that sounds a lot like what we're trying to do now.

I don't doubt it'll be a long road, but hopefully it will be on the right track. I didn't get to see very much of it myself just yet, since I was pulled here from not long after they were united.

[Katara gives Raine a measuring glance.] I'm sure that it will. What were the two worlds, if you don't mind my asking?

... They were called Sylvarant and Tethe'alla.

Those are pretty names as well. [Noncommittal comment as in, please, continue, I'm interested, but I'm not pushing.]

The people of Sylvarant believed that Tethe'alla was the name of the moon, and Tethe'allans knew of a gate that led to Sylvarant, though were led to believe it was a hellish land, and thus avoided it.

Oh, so both worlds were inhabited with people? That sounds like it would be even more complicated.

Yes. They were once united, but power struggles over the mana supply led to a long and complicated war. The conflict was ended by a group of 'heroes' who split the worlds into two. Each world would have a cycle of regeneration and destruction. When one was revived, the other would fall.

That sounds like a very difficult compromise.

They didn't have a choice in the matter. The inhabitants of those worlds were later led to believe that the system was connected to a religion. [She sighs.] But that in itself is a complicated story.

[Action, Accidental to Purposeful Voice] .033

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