markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .043

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[ Action, Voice ] .043

[All right, enough of this. It's Spring and she still loves Spring (only her third Spring ever!) and Katara has decided she is going to enjoy it. No school today, so in the late morning to mid afternoon, if you are by the paths along the river you will see one (1) Katara, with a basket and her knife, taking cuttings of wildflowers. She's careful not to take too much from any one tree or bush, and she's clearly enjoying herself.]

[General Voice]
I think my favorite part about Spring is the flowers. We just didn't have anything like this where I grew up. Although in the summers I'd go on a hunt for Mouse Ears. [She pauses, remembering the last time she'd done that...] Or at least I did when I was a kid. I even found one once!

But for all you people who grew up with flowers like this - what was it like, in your Springs? Did you have any fun flower traditions?

[And after the wildflowers have been turned into bouquets, it's time to go visiting! If she hasn't seen you or heard from you in a while, and she knows where you live, your house/apartment is Fair Game.

There are, however, a few people she needs to speak with about a few specific things, so it's time for some courtesy filters! These are not very strong and mostly to prevent your journals from spam]

[Filtered to Shikamaru]
Hey - you up for a spar later?

[Filtered to Nami]
...are those mikans still up for grabs?

[Filtered to Trafalgar Law]
...would you mind if I stopped by?

[Filtered to Zoro]
...hey. I haven't seen you, and I think we should talk.

[Hmm. That was everyone she needed to talk to, right? Hopefully that was it. If it wasn't, she hopes she'll bump into people during the day. Like Sokka - an idea has occurred to her which needs discussing.]

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[The flash bomb goes off, his shadow repelled far from hers.

And yet, she won't get very far - no more than a step or two before she'll be frozen in place even though from her line of sight, no shadow is connecting them. But he feels the tight tug of it all the same, and let's out a breath of air, pleased.]

Kage Mane no Jutsu... success.

Edited 2011-05-12 07:18 (UTC)

What -

[But she's well and truly caught, and her heart begins to pound a staccato of fear. And she wants to scream at him to 'Let go right now!' before the helplessness chokes her and the sense of remembered violation makes her sick--

And then she meets his gaze. "I decide when to use it, and I have absolute control over it when I do. You can't be scared of it without being scared of me.

Right.]

Edited 2011-05-12 07:51 (UTC)

[And then she closes her eyes, frowning in concentration. Two minutes, he said. She's going to use them.

She listens to the beating of her heart and concentrates hard enough that she can feel - or imagines she can feel - the blood in her body flowing out by its own rhythm, to its own pace.

Experimentally, Katara inhales and finds to further ease her fears that she can control her own breathing. Okay, good. Two more deep breaths... and then she tries turning her head.

Blocked.]

[Shikamaru watches with some interest. He hasn't forgotten their discussion after their last fight ended, and despite what she said then... well. Sometimes it's easier to say things than do them.

Something obviously still scares her about it. She knew what was coming when they agreed to the terms of this spar. Two minutes of immobilization - unless one of them surrenders. She wouldn't have thrown in that condition if she still wasn't uncomfortable with it.

So he was fully expecting for her to give up. She's surprised him though, and he watches her expressions carefully now.]

I can let you look, if you want.

[He doesn't need to feel that through his shadow - can't, because the hold is strong enough right now that it offers no resistance even if she was trying to make one - to guess that would be something she'd want to do.]

[She opens up her eyes and glares at him to show him her opinion of him 'letting' her do anything, thanks very much. She's not interested in sight-seeing, she's interested in figuring this out and trying to break his hold. He said a two minute limit unless someone could break out of it. That means that people had to be able to break it. But what could she do if she couldn't move?]

...sure.

[But she shuts her eyes again, because she wants to concentrate on the feeling of 'being moved' or of 'moving with his permission' to see if there's any sort of key to it. She hasn't given up yet.]

[He raises an eyebrow - because seriously, that's the opposite of looking, Katara - but pays it little mind. She's probably concentrating on breaking out of the hold, or something similar.

So he tightens the bind enough that she'll mimic his actions. She won't be able to see it if he just moves her head, so he shifts his right foot about an inch as he turns his body, than his head to look behind him. Katara's body will do the same, and the motions will be fluid. Though if she's strongly resisting, her limbs will feel a little more rigid.

When he's done, she'll be the facing away from him, in the opposite direction. If she opens her eyes, she'll see his shadow there - stretch long across the ground and seemingly attached to nothing.]

[It's a very strange feeling, and one that almost causes a moment of panic -- she thinks she's going to be sick, can't believe she let herself agree to this. And suddenly there's a very good reason for her to keep her eyes closed and it has nothing to do with concentration and everything to do with keeping in hot tears.

All right. Focus. You can do this.

It's smoother than bloodbending. Definitely external. Caused by his shadow.

So if there's an external force pushing down on you, what can you do except resist it. And Katara begins to pour all of her will and all of her strength into simply moving the fingers of her left hand.]

Edited 2011-05-13 05:22 (UTC)

[Ah, he feels that. Active resistance is a sharper tug at his concentration than just trying to move, even if it's not with her whole body.

He already put a lot of chakra into his earlier attacks, so his hold isn't as strong as it would be fresh off the bat. Even so, he can hold it easily for now. It'll take just over a minute before she'll be able to budge.]

[She has no idea if this is working or not, but it's tiring just to try so she's choosing to believe that it's doing something.

If she can just move her hand the few inches to the supply of flashbombs along her belt, all she'd need to do is flip one on and let it drop to break this.

Come on... come on]

[Definitely not getting that far, even when she does move. Since she hasn't said anything, Shikamaru loosens the bind just enough so that he can move freely again without moving her around, then turns himself back so that he can see her again. It's less draining this way.

Tch. She's not even looking. Or if she did before, she had nothing to say. But all right then. Less talking makes it easier for him right now, anyways. He can keep his focus on the jutsu.

The minute mark rolls by. While she's still trying to move, at this point she might feel the faintest of twitches in her fingers, though the joints will remain fixed.]

Edited 2011-05-13 05:56 (UTC)

[Constant strain isn't getting her anywhere but exhausted and with at least the slight encouragement of movement-]

Are you doing that?

[A wild untamable hope flares up in her, shoving back the creeping feeling of a fear that freezes. If it's not him, it can be beaten back.

...and there's something freeing about talking, too. This is a spar, one she knew she had precious little chance of winning and that tastes sour, but Shikamaru's her friend, she has nothing to prove here, and she can talk to him.]

Edited 2011-05-13 06:22 (UTC)

I'm not doing anything.

[He doesn't mind admitting a weakness of the Kage Mane to her - she's also his friend, and there's the possibility he'll need to work with her again someday, like on the draft. There's no reason to hide it.

He puts his hands behind his head and tries to relax some, taking the time to try and tell what he can and can't pick out in his sight right now. Things are slowly starting to become clearer, but there's still a lot of blurs and spots in his vision.]

Huh.

[And she begins to work in an irregular strain of bursts, instead of a constant flow of effort, to see if that makes a difference.]

This is the weirdest fight ever.

[Her physical strength, such as it is, against his hold. When she doesn't think too much about it, it's just weird. And not scary at all. And she wonders if she could keep up this level of concentration if she opened up her eyes to see what he'd wanted to show her - or why else would he offer to turn her around?]

[It does, minutely. Like trying to move a door that's jammed - the more energy you release in one go, the better the result. She still won't be able to move move, but the twitches will turn into tremors, a more visible strain on the bind. If she had her eyes open, she'd even notice that his shadow constricts some before expanding again, but she's not so ha. 8|]

Heh. For you, maybe.

[She opens her eyes when he speaks and stares down at her hand to watch it twitch.

Come on...

And she speaks because - it feels good to reaffirm that connection in the face of how utterly helpless she is.]

I feel like I'm trying to move a rock. A really, really big rock. With my pinky.

[And curiosity won't allow her to keep her eyes fixed on her hand for long. In a few seconds her gaze will flick along their shadow to see how he managed to trap her. It seems like it's coming... up through the ground? How had he managed that?]

Tch. I don't know if that's a compliment or not, if that's all you need to take it on.

[Since he's concentrating on the jutsu, he doesn't notice her looking at first. He'll catch on if she says something.]

But it's like a pressure, isn't it? Like a glove.

[Which is - okay, scary enough. But it's not inside. She can focus on that difference - and she rams all of her will and strength forward one more time, while in the back of her mind she continues to puzzle at The Mystery of the Disappearing Shadow.]

Maah... stronger than that, I think, but close enough.

[No dice. Even in Luceti it would take about three minutes to actually break the jutsu, and that's only if they above average strength and stamina, like that of a jinchuuriki, or-

Or Hidan.

Luckily for him though, Shikamaru is very good at concentrating. She'll find she can very nearly wiggle her fingers, but not enough to do anything with them. Not that it matters much now.]

Ten more seconds. [He looks back over at her as he says this - ah, she opened her eyes finally? Cool. It's easier to explain if she's already seen it.]

[Katara, in a stunning display of maturity and appreciation of the seriousness of her situation and her deep trust in Shikamaru's time-keeping skills... sticks out her tongue at him.

And she pushes with everything she has.]

[Pfft. He rolls his eyes.]

Har har. Okay, time's up. [And his shadow pulls away from hers, snapping back not close to her feet, but quite a ways away from it actually, so her own shadow will draw back to herself now too.

His slides along the ground until it reaches the place it supposedly appears out of nowhere, disappearing altogether. It's another few seconds, however, before it pools back at his feet.]

[Her shoulders immediately slump in - disappointment? relief? exhaustion? But she turns to the side to watch his shadow disappear, brow furrowing in curiosity as it delays before forming at his feet. She feels like the answer is at the tip of her brain but - what's the point of trying to figure this out now? She'd lost. Again. And had been held in that thing--

--but she didn't call out and ask him to stop. And that's a different kind of victory. Take that, Hama.

So she just looks at him questioningly as the shadow reappears at his feet.]

Edited 2011-05-13 07:51 (UTC)

[Something about his posture just loosens when it's finally back - best part about using it, he thinks. When he's done.

It takes him a second to actually make out that expression, but understanding quickly crosses over him.]

Gopher holes. I looped my shadow through the ones underground.

When did you-- [And she remembers seeing him stumble. The pieces click into place.]

Argh, I knew it was too simple!

[And then Katara... flops onto the ground. What, she's tired, and her wings are protected, and quite frankly she doesn't want to look at him as the knowledge of her defeat sinks in. Again.]

Yeah? That's good. [Useful as it is, it's annoying when people underestimate him.] Means you'll do better next time.

[He too flops back - if they're not going anywhere soon, might as well - and watches the sky.] You nearly beat me this round.

[This one, where his advantage was double that of the last two times, and where hers was half that. No snow, no lake, just her canteens and anything else she had up her sleeves. The mist... water in the air.

He had the advantage and he nearly lost in the first two minutes. Something commendable for her, and he's impressed. Also something for him to work on.]

[She scoffs.] Yeah, right.

[And she sits up and stretches, touching her toes. It's good to be able to move her own body. And she focuses on that instead of the list running in the back of her mind - so much faster, better range, shadows are intangible, can make clones and switch his body with things - she bends her head between her arms to further the stretch and keep him from studying her face.

I'm a master waterbender and decent with a bo, and I can't even--

He'd warned her about the gopher holes - probably planned it the whole time, or hoped for it from the beginning.
If he hadn't blunted those Shadow Needles, she'd be dead. (Watch my jumps)
She'd been fooled by a clone - again. She'd fallen right into his trap.
She'd accidentally blinded him and she still couldn't score a hit. (Excellent memory)
He'd managed to make her weapon work for him - and that was a sour feeling. (Drop them straight down or straight up. Make sure the flash is controlled.)

And he still moved too. darn. fast.]

Edited 2011-05-13 08:40 (UTC)

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