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

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[ 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

[Walter is at the mouth of the river where it begins to open up into the lake, looking out over the water contemplatively. It's hard not to notice the canoe from the angle he's looking at the lake from, but it takes a moment for him to recognize Katara and raise a hand in silent greeting.]

[Katara is on her hands and knees planting the tree up the bank. When she sees Walter's wave, she straightens up to return it.]

Hello!

[He takes a moment to look at what Katara's doing, frowning a bit in confusion.]

A strange time to be planting plants, isn't it?

Yes. [But she doesn't stop what she's doing. If Walter notices, the ground by where she's planting the tree is fairly severely torn up, as if something large had been ripped out of it.]

But I might not be here in the Spring.

[It's hard not to notice how the ground has been disturbed; some of the remnants of roots may even be visible in the upturned soil. He makes a thoughtful sound at her explanation.]

I suppose it's better than waiting longer, with the early chill we've been experiencing.

I'm going to use Faren on it when I'm done planting, and I've got some mulch in the canoe. I'll come back and check on it again in a week or so.

[If anything, her planning surprises him a little more.]

A lot of work for a little tree all the way out here.

[She shrugs a little, before working to finish shoveling the dirt over plant now that she's done digging the hole.]

Not if I want to make sure it grows.

Hn. I guess so. [Well, it's not like she would be doing it for that long; Luceti's forest grew abnormally fast.] Was the original tree destroyed recently?

[He says "destroyed" because the lack of a tree trunk sure says something about what could have happened to it.]

That's right. [Not much use in hiding it, he's seen what she can do.] I was sparring out here recently.

Not with the tree, I take it. [He's done his own practice out in the forest and even punched a few trees during his last stay, but more recently it's just been fallen logs.]

[She actually laughs at that.]

No, not with the tree. But I ended up using the tree while I was sparring.

[At that explanation, he glances over at the river water and then back at the tree.] You uprooted the tree? For what?

[There's nothing accusatory in his tone; he really doesn't know what to expect, since he's skeptical he's seen the full range of Katara's powers.]

I didn't uproot the tree. I told you, I was sparring. [Maybe a slight demonstration is in order? She doesn't usually show this aspect of her skill off, mostly because it's so... harmful. And because she'd rather have the edge in a fight. But it's not too uncommon, and she doubts Walter is the chatty type... She moves a hand over a section of grass and pulls up all the water in a single blade. The blade instantly turns to dust, and Katara redirects the small amount of water into the ground over the tree.]

I thought it was only right to replace it.

[He frowns as he watches Katara move, a brow slowly rising as he notices water gathering above her hand. When he sees the grass crumble into itself, his eyes immediately go back to where she had started replanting.]

You pulled all of the water right out of it. [...It's definitely useful. And extremely dangerous, if it's something she was able to do this easily. There's a faint wariness as he continues.] I hope you at least won your spar, if you had to do something like that.

[Heh]

I did, actually.

[For the first time, against this particular opponent.]

But not with that move. [She starts padding the dirt over the top of the roots of the plant.] All the more reason to replace it.

[He doesn't quite understand the sentiment, but he does recognize it's some form of taking responsibility. He can appreciate something like that, at least.]

I'm sure it will be in good hands, then.

[He looks away to give Katara her time to focus on the plant, his gaze going across the lake again. ...He's been out here staring for too long. He should probably have left awhile ago.]

Thanks. [Pat, pat, pat. OK. Katara stands up to go retrieve the mulch from the canoe.]

What are you up to?

[He glances back over at the question and the sounds of Katara moving. It takes him a moment to answer; small talk still doesn't come easily to him.]

I was looking around. I used to spend a lot of time here.

[She blinks and looks up at him.]

You did? When?

[That's worth a deeper frown. Even with most of his memories having returned, the time displacement didn't help with figuring out a timeline of events.]

Two or three years ago. I don't quite recall.

[He lifts a hand, pointing out to the stone and clay lake house much further down on the lakeside.] I built that house over there.

Edited 2011-11-16 01:42 (UTC)

Oh, you were here before? [Wow, all that time ago...

She follows where he's pointing to the small house.]

That looks like a pretty solidly built house. It must have taken you a while.

[...and why aren't you living there now?

Curiosity will be restrained for about five seconds.]

At least a month. I recall having to bring the large stones from the mountainside. [It had been a very good project since he had been in need of something intensive to focus on.]

Luceti has changed. So I'm somewhat surprised the house is still here.

[She peers at it from where she is.] You had to cut the stones too, right?

[Earthbending would have made this so much simpler for him... it's admirable that he went and did this all by himself.]

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