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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[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)

Oi. Knock it off.

[There's nothing sharp about his tone, but he doesn't hand out compliments so much as he states fact. No, he doesn't know what's going through her head right now, but her thoughts are obviously going in the wrong direction if she thinks she didn't stand a chance.

She nearly blinded him. If this hadn't been a spar, and if he hadn't been a ninja, that could've cost him his life back home. She got within his defenses and back out before he could catch her shadow. She came prepared to stop him from using his shadow.

And she did it all after only two previous spars.]

[Katara, with her hands still stretched well beyond her toes, drops her head down onto her legs.

Why do you even bother? - she has too much pride in her skills to say that, too much justifiable knowledge of her skill as a warrior to say that. She should be a good opponent for him. But she's not. It might be time to admit to herself that she is simply fighting out of her league.

Everything's all wrong here. In her world, she's stood toe-to-toe with some of the most dangerous people in it and gotten out alive - even out and out won some fights. In Luceti, she can't even win, let alone get out. It's humbling and humiliating and she doesn't know what to do.

Sokka won't take her idea to even look to see if there's anything they can do to help them seriously. He's too busy with various projects and helping people and being happy about what he's building with Suki to even want to. Nami was hurt - so badly - in a place Katara can't even hope to touch. People keep coming and going and getting torn apart despite everything she tries.

What's she worth here? What can she do?

She's sick and tired of being useless and it's starting to erode at her foundations. This place is beating her back to the helpless little girl who watched her father sail away, who couldn't even bend, who was relegated to camp chores while her brother took on the role of guarding the the village and training the rest of the boys. Everything she's done, all that she's learned - and it's still not good enough.

And for this moment, all Katara can see is everything that she can't do. All that she has done is dismissed as unimportant, things that anyone could do. The spar is just like everything else.

She'd really rather be quiet until he goes away and she has a chance to come to terms with all these feelings on her own. But it's not in her nature to stay silent after a reproof like that, because her pride also denies him the right to tell her to do anything.]

What?

[Her tone is fairly innocuous in the way 'knock what off' should be, but it does have a slightly throatier sound to it as if there are more emotions stirring not far beneath the surface.]

Whatever it is that you're doing.

[The delay and the thickness of her voice stops him from adding on to that: "Stop sounding like you're feeling sorry for yourself."

There's too much context missing for that - maybe she's being a sore loser for once... maybe it's just his shadow again. Could be a lot of things, really. So he leaves it at that.

Something's off though. He's watching the sky, but he can tall from the brownish blob at the corner of his eye that she hadn't even turned to face him when she spoke. Hiding, practically.]

It's not like you.

[How would you know? You don't know the first thing about me! But she doesn't have enough self-pity to say that either.

A different person would sit up, smile at him, tell him he's right and change the conversation, then politely break off later so she could have some much needed alone time. But if there is one thing Katara is when it comes to her emotions, her beliefs, and her friends it's completely genuine. She can say 'everything will be all right' and mean it in the direst circumstances because she believes it, and if she doesn't believe it wholeheartedly she believes that they at least have the power to make it so.

And right now the only thing she is genuinely is miserable and full of sour self-recrimination. She can feel the hot tears in the corner of her eyes and she really doesn't want to cry in front of him, doesn't want to talk about it, doesn't want to do anything, really.]

Congratulations on your win. [I hope it didn't bore you too much. I'm sure you'll laugh about it later.] Now go away, Shikamaru.

[...she is crying right now, isn't she. Crap.]

[...crap indeed. He squirms a little where he's lying on the ground; frowns. Girls, he thinks, should not be allowed to cry. It's unfair, is what it is, and there's an uncomfortable, fleeting feeling of 'crap what do I do here'. Part of him is perfectly willing to take her up on that.

But he's not that much of an ass. And even if he were-] That's not really an option right now.

[...'Not really an option?'

She huffs out a breath, makes sure her voice is steady - even if it comes out somewhat irritated-]

Why not?

In my professional opinion, I'm thinking it might have something to do with all the spots in my vision.

[And a slight stab of guilt - she hadn't even thought about that. Katara turns her head to glance over at him.]

That's still bothering you? How bad is it?

[Bad enough so that he doesn't feel comfortable leaving. She frowns at sits up, discretely bending the water on her face onto the ground before she does so. She doesn't want to talk about it.]

[He snorts.] It was kinda bright. [You must not have noticed with your eyes closed. 8|

Eh, but he doesn't actually mind. It was a good move on her part, and his fault that he didn't react fast enough. He flops a hand out, then settles it back on his chest.]

But it's fine. Kinda blurry, but it doesn't even hurt anymore, so I just need some time for my eyes to adjust.

We said anything goes. [She'd been very careful to bring that up this time. But she still feels bad.] You should have stopped it if you were hurt.

[Not that it mattered, since you still managed to evade everything I threw at you. And she ducks her head sharply at the thought before planting her hands behind her and levering herself up.]

Let me see how bad it is.

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