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

If you say so. [The voice of someone going 'I don't think so, but'm not arguing'.]

[You can be as skeptical as you like, little boy. It smells delicious though. And she bites into it with evident satisfaction as she moves to stir the hot chocolate... by holding her hand over the pot and letting it slowly swirl around in a whirlpool.]

[So do flowers. You don't see him eating daisies though, do you? 8|

He'll just focus on other things then, and he turns his gaze to the pot.] You're better at that, at least.

[Don't worry, young one. She's not going to offer you any. She's just going to enjoy hers. Mmmm, deliciousness.]

Better at what? Bending? Or making hot chocolate?

[Ignoring.] Bending. [Since he hasn't tried the hot chocolate yet.]

A couple days ago, you were making soup. You did that bending thing then too, but you moved your hands more to stir the water.

Well, I am older now. [And she streams the hot chocolate out into the two cups - but not in a regular way, oh no. These are little miny twisters, resulting in perfectly frothed hot chocolate. Because waterbending is awesome.

Time to load in the marshmallows.] There was an earthbender who was over one hundred years old - and he was able to bend just using his head. I'd like to be that good someday.

That'd be pretty cool. [There's some faint amusement as he watches that - but that's just it. He's mostly just watching this, soaking it in like a sponge.]

Do they have ninja in your world?

No, but they do have pirates. [She smiles at some private little joke she only half-remembers.

The adult!Katara recognizes that this would be an excellent time to pump Shikamaru for information on his world. Yet oddly enough, she feels no pressure to do so. Instead, she brings the hot chocolate over to the table.]

Let me know if it's too hot.

Will do. [Shikamaru scoots the cup closer to him, but doesn't drink from it yet. Unlike most children, he has some form of patience.]

So if you didn't learn how to do that to be a ninja, why did you learn it?

[Katara, on the other hand, lifts her cup immediately, cradling it in her hands and savoring the warmth. At his question she smiles quickly, deeply amused, and then to cover she blows on her hot chocolate.

...this is no ordinary 'blow to cool it off.' She cheats, and he'll be able to see the breath leave her mouth as the water in the air between her and the cup grows colder until, suddenly, the hot chocolate is the perfect temperature for drinking.] I had a lot of reasons. Are you sure you want to hear them all?

[Girls. He's reminded of Ino and some of her friends - always showing off.]

Just the best one.

[She takes a sip of hot chocolate.] Hmm... that's a hard question. Maybe I'd better tell you the whole story. Otherwise 'the best one' will sound like two different reasons.

'Kay. [He nods, then moves to take a sip of his cocoa, testing out the heat. When it passes, he takes a drink, waiting for her to begin.]

Long ago, there were four nations - the mighty Earth Kingdom, the powerful Fire Nation, the brave Watertribes, and the peaceful Air Nomads, one country for each element. The Avatar was the only one who could master all four elements, and it was the Avatar's job to keep balance between the nations, and between our world and the spirit world. This went on for thousands and thousands of years, and every time the Avatar died, he or she would be incarnated into the next nation. Until one day, just when the world needed him most... the Avatar vanished.

[Dramatic pause is go.]

[He sees your Dramatic Pause and will raise you one (1) quiet slurping.

You're not going to actually make him ask where the guy went, are you?]

[Sorry, kiddo. That's not the way this story goes.] That was when the Fire Nation attacked. It was war on an unprecdented scale - first they went for the Air Nomads, because that was where the next Avatar was supposed to be born. [They killed them all.] Then, they came to my home. They killed or captured all of the waterbenders, they destroyed our cities... and then they moved on to attack the Earth Kingdom.

When I grew up? I was the only waterbender in the whole South Pole. I didn't have anyone to teach me.

[He sets his mug down, growing notably more serious as she explains the things that happened to her people. He's not young enough to be shocked by that, but he isn't quite old enough to not be moved either.

Shikamaru fidgets in his seat before focusing on the tail end of that speech, as it more closely pertains to his question.] But you wanted to learn anyways.

Of course I did. It was an important part of our culture that I wanted to see restored. And it was... who I was, too. But also... I wanted to learn how to fight. I wanted to be able to defend my people and help end the war. So you see, there were two best reasons - but they're really the same thing.

[If he thinks about it hard enough, he supposes he can see that. His dad's shown him the scrolls with the secrets for Kage Mane no Jutsu - troublesome as it is, that's a part of his family's culture, and he'd want to learn it as much as he would want to protect it.]

I think I get it.

[Katara only nods and sips her hot chocolate.]

[Action, Accidental to Purposeful Voice] .033

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