markofthebrave | [ Action, Accidental Video, Voice ] .054

[Today, after the typical Saturday late morning house-cleaning and laundry doing, Katara heads into town. She's got grocery shopping to do, true, but she has another more specific destination in mind: The Flower Shop. You guys carry seeds for trees, right?

Thus armed, she will head back home, ~~steal~~ borrow one of Sokka's canoes, and head up to the nearest lake. Once there, she intends to use Faren to plant and strengthen the tree seeds in order to replace the tree she dessicated in her last spar with Shikamaru. She may even give into the urge to jump into the lake and go for a swim.]

[Accidental video:]

[In fact, regardless of whether or not there's company there for her to plant the tree or go swimming, the urge to just jump into the lake is one she is going to give into. The fact that it is an urge, though, prompts her to be less than careful as she strips off her waterskin, belt, and pouch which holds her journal, causing it to jostle opened as it lands on the ground. Fortunately, the fates are kinder to her than they could have been and the video function is not pointing directly at her. Just enough, though, to see her back as she shimmies out of her overtunic before Katara steps out of the camera completely. There will shortly be the sound of a loud SPLASH. And then the video just records the sky and perhaps a loud "EEP." That water is cold. This will probably be a very short swim.

Later, at home and over a cup of tea, she sets up a voice message.]

[Private: to Robin]

Hey, the experiment's over. When do you want to come over for dinner?

[If you hoped she would forget, masked man, your hopes were in vain!

As always, feel free to bump at her in town, on her way out of it, or even at home or the lake!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You already have a place in mind for it, then? [Ah, here they are. She nods toward the rows of saplings. Not that many, and eventually they'd all need to be planted at some point.]

On the south side of the lake, yes. [And Katara begins inspecting the saplings, poking at them in order to see which one has the best chance of surviving.]

All right. [She doesn't voice that she thinks its a shame it has to be so near to the lake, but it might be a thought to keep in the back of her mind anyway. Instead, she helps Katara look for a good one, trying to gauge the health of the trees with the earth magic.] Lets see... we should try to find a particularly hardy one.

[If she'd asked, Katara would have told her the truth: she needs to replace a tree. So instead she just nods and continues on her search for a moment before-]

What do you think of this one?

[A nice oak!]

Hm? [She turns her attention toward the one that Katara points out. It'll take her a moment or so to check it over properly.] Ah, it's an oak sapling. It does seem like a good choice, though, from what I can tell.

[A smile!] Great! Thanks, Raine. I wouldn't have thought of getting a sapling, it'll stand a much better chance like this.

It's no trouble at all. [She tilts her head a little, with a soft smile.] Although I admit that I do find myself curious.

[She looks up at Raine.] About what?

It's not often that people come in to take the saplings.

Oh. [blink. And then she smiles.]

I have to replace a tree.

Ah, I see now. We do tend to lose a lot, so it is important to replace them when we can. That is rather thoughtful of you.

Well, when we were in the Earth Kingdom, we saw a lot of damage done by the Fire Nation... it's important to take responsibility for what it is that you do.

Not everyone takes that extra step to do so...

Not everyone's had their brother kidnapped by an angry forest spirit.

... Also a fair point. [A wry smile.] You truly do take lessons to heart.

I don't think this is that hard a lesson to learn. It's pretty important.

Indeed. But not everyone is quite like you, or others who would stay true to responsibilities.

[She shrugs, a little uncomfortable with this complimentary assessment.]

That might be true. But I can only be me, and do the best I can, and hope that others will change when they see how important it is. That's part of what traveling with the Avatar was all about.

[The statement hits a little close to home for Raine, remembering her own journeys and realizations.]

... Indeed. You can't expect others to change their ways if you don't put the effort in to change yourself. Little by little, things can change.

At least... that's the hope in the world. Any world, for that matter.

["Any world" piques Katara's interest.]

Was it like that back in your world too?

... yes.

It took me a long time to learn to even believe that the hope was a possibility. So all I can do is hold on to that, for now.

[Even if she hasn't quite dared herself to take that step completely here, in a place where it shouldn't really matter at all...]

[Softly, her hand going up to her necklace.] I can understand that. Sometimes it's very easy to lose hope. But without it...

[without it...]

It always helps when there's a reason. Finding the Avatar? That was the best reason of all, back home.

It sounds like you were very lucky.

I guess you could say that. I didn't really think about it at the time.

Hindsight is always clearer.

[action]

markofthebrave - 2011-11-27 17:40 (UTC) - Expand

wise_maiden - 2011-11-28 00:29 (UTC) - Expand

markofthebrave - 2011-12-02 01:19 (UTC) - Expand

[ Action, Accidental Video, Voice ] .054

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