markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .037

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[ Action, Voice ] .037

['sup, Luceti. Hope you're not the curious type of person, because if you are the filter on this is so thin you could sneeze and break it. Someone is singing, this early afternoon, singing a lullaby softly and into their journal. The feed will cut off before the crying starts.]

Little child, be not afraid...

[Later in the afternoon, there is an unfamiliar woman with a familiar set of blue-toned wings and waterskin at the south-most bridge. There's only so much hiding in one's room that can be done when the memories are thick and the silence is very, very loud.]

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[So later, then, much later would be after the bridge and forcing herself through dinner - and heck, probably after practice too. So she'll be more inside her skin by the time she actually takes a look at the journal and finds...

...well, crap.]

Sorry for bothering you - I thought I'd filtered that.

[...and yes, the catchphrase is familiar but she's not about to make any assumptions today.]

You did, it's just paper-thin.

[...well, that's not embarrassing at all.]

Thanks for letting me know.

[...whoever you are.]

No problem.

[And you're a smart girl; you can figure it out. Shikamaru won't offer any more clues, but he leaves the line open anyways, going about the rest of his journal business in the background.

She sounds better than she did when she made the entry, at least.]

[Hmm, well, she'll be around for a few more minutes as she works on her journal's filter. As this goes on, her curiosity has her poking at the question of who exactly this could be -

1) Not a New Feather (not unless they were an absolute genius beyond geniuses)
2) Cared enough to let her know she was broadcasting this
3) ...wearing the same headband as Chouji's dad.
4) ...come to think of it, she thinks she's tried to rip something similar off of Shikamaru's arm.

Hmm.]

So... who is it?

[Not because she doesn't have a guess. But because some instinct warns her that asking for someone's identity and then providing them with the one that you think they are kind of defeats the purpose.]

[Especially since if he were not himself, he could simply agree to any of her suspicions. He grins.]

You asking to confirm or deny your guess, or do you just really not know?

I've got a guess. [She smiles a little in response to his grin.] But it's rude to assume things.

[Sure, that's her excuse.]

Aa. Well, if we're being polite. [He pops his neck and turns the page fully back to where he left off on their conversation in the journal.] It's Shikamaru.

[Well gosh, Shikamaru, she didn't mean to inconvenience you too much. But she smiles a little more.]

I thought so! And it's Katara... but I'm guessing you knew that.

[So troublesome. But the fact she correctly guessed his identity before she had to ask makes up for it, he supposes.]

Heh. The family resemblance was hard to miss. [Among other things, but that one sounded best.]

Yeah? Chouji thought so too.

[And that still makes her happy.]

Although I wouldn't be able to say the same thing about you.

Probably because this isn't anyone I'm related to. Trust me - if it were my old man? It'd be more obvious.

[Really? That's weird.]

Do you know who it is?

Yeah. [To his credit, he barely hesitates. He doesn't mind talking about Asuma; it's just that this situation makes it so weird to.] It's my sensei.

Oh. [Blink - thinking about that and what Sokka said had said earlier... would Shikamaru have turned into his sensei for the same reason she could have turned into Pakku?]

Well, it could be weirder. I could be in my master's body too.

I'm guessing your teacher was a guy too? [It's his only guess for why it would make the situation stranger.]

[She nods.]

I heard he married my Gran-Gran.

[So not just a guy but an OLD guy.]

[That one he has to laugh at - a first, since he's been walking around like this. Asuma had a booming laugh, which sounds exactly like he remembers it. It makes him grin.]

Okay, so that would be awkward.

[And sometimes, Katara smiles and says the first thing that comes into her head.]

He has a nice laugh - your sensei. I don't think I ever heard Master Pakku laugh.

[He's careful with his phrasing. This isn't a good day to have to explain that the skin he's wearing belongs to a dead man.]

One of those guys with a stick up their ass, huh? There were a few of those back home too. My team was lucky to get someone more easy-going like Asuma-sensei.

['Stick up their ass?' Katara would never use that language. In fact, I'm not sure she even knows what that means, and her eyes widen a little bit as she sorts that out.]

I can't imagine you learning too much with someone who wasn't laid back. I was just happy to find someone to teach me. [There's a certain weight in her voice and her hands still - her mother's hands - the one who died so she could live and learn to bend and.... she exhales quietly.]

And Master Pakku was very good.

From what I've seen from you, I'd think he'd have to be.

[There's a story behind that, he can tell, but he'll save his questions for another time. No more toeing into the past than necessary today.]

[...yes, well. After all that... She'd better be.

She needs to look up from her mother's hands.

She needs to look up from her mother's hands now.]

Is it weird suddenly being so tall?

[He knows a subject change when he sees one. He'll indulge - for now.]

Not as much as you'd think. [He's henged into taller forms before, after all. Shikamaru goes to scratch at his chin, then frowns.] The beard though... that's kinda weird.

[He doesn't think he'll ever have so much facial hair, even if he lives to be as old as Asuma was.]

Sokka likes them. [She shrugs.] I don't get it.

[We can totally talk about nothing forever, right?]

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