markofthebrave | [ Action, Written, Video ] .057

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[ Action, Written, Video ] .057

[Sneeze and you break it filter to CR at around 4 am this morning.]

I'm back. I'm fine. I hope everyone's okay. Good night.

[So then Katara wakes up much, much later and will be just puttering around the house for a while for those who are inclined to catch her in serious conversation. She sends notes to Trafalgar and to Gelda to let them know that although she's back she feels like she needs to take a few days off... she's still very tired, and as of yet not feeling like being around people.

All that changes, however, on Wednesday. She needs to get out of the house, she needs to do something life-affirming and fun... and isn't it fortunate that she's been working on building several ~~insane~~ ~~monstrous~~ intense snow tracks for people to go sledding on? She decides to go check on them and to bring her journal with them.

Finding that their structural integrity hasn't been too damaged without constant maintenance and that the cold weather still holds... she decides that today is the day to show them off.]

Hey, everyone - I've been working on something the past few weeks and if you like sledding then... [She trails off and flips the journal over so that the journal feed will reveal three sledding tracks. She's made good use of all the snow in the past month or so, the clearing is very nearly bare of it - instead, there is the very large one, made completely of tunnels and requiring snow-cut stairs to ascend and once dared will necessitate a few on-the-walls themselves turns, there is the slightly less large one that seems to be composed mostly of sheer drops, and there is the normal-sized one that is essentially one long spiral down to ground level.] then grab your sleds. Don't worry, I've had a few people test them and they've held up just fine! It's south of the barracks, by the river.

[OOC: If anyone wants to come sledding, please do! Threadjacks of all sorts are welcome!

Also, if I could get those who attend the school, work in the clinics, or attend combat medicine lessons to give this a quick glance and offer input, that would be awesome! \o/!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Of course there is. It's just complicated.]

...Uchiha Sasuke also defected there.

[...oh.]

Itachi's brother.

[The one he'd left alive. He'd... defected.]

[A nod.]

He was like as I said - lured by the promise of power. Orochimaru just wanted him as a vessel - he surely knew that, but didn't care.

He had to have left him too, once he got what wanted. [Because he's Akatsuki now, isn't he? And Orochimaru reportedly was set against that faction.] I don't think he ever associated himself like the others seemed to. He's too aligned with his own pursuits.

[...yeah, she can tell that you're a big fan of this guy.]

I remember that he was here before - Sasuke. He helped out in that fight with Trafalgar.

Mm. He's here again. I haven't ran into him yet.

[Still looking out the window here.]

[...putting some pieces together.]

Someone else for me to avoid, huh?

[He finally looks back to her here, expression too blank to be grim, but not enough of anything else to be anything but serious.]

Please.

...how bad is it?

...there are worse people out there. [He can admit that.] But he's not much better.

After he left Orochimaru, he put a team together and tracked down and killed his brother. He was then offered his brother's place in the terrorist group Akatskui, which he took. It took that much for him to be officially declared a missing-nin. Had it been anyone else, he would have been in the bingo book before that.

[And she remembers in that conversation, where she was trying to decide what to do about Itachi, how he'd told her that the Hokage had spared someone who deserved it. Because of two people. And that was why what happened with Itachi wouldn't happen again.]

What made him so different?

I think the elders had something to do with it in the beginning. The Uchiha were a noble clan, with a powerful bloodline limit... [He's told her about the Sharingan before.] As the sole survival, it would be valuable if Sasuke ever returned.

But as more time passed, I suspect his teammates feelings played the larger role. They wouldn't give up on him.

[Even given everything that's happened and their promise to stop him, he still wonders if they really have yet.]

[And then Katara makes some Reasonable Conclusions, based mostly on tones of voice and her familiarity with him.]

His teammates are friends of yours.

Mm. [He doesn't usually pass on other people's business unless it's necessary, but it's not like it's a secret either.] We all attended the Academy together. I think you met Naruto once.

Not... really. I mean, he stayed here when you guys were all kids, but I don't really know him.

[That's said almost absently, as she continues to turn things over in her mind.]

[That was the only time he could think of anyways.] Right.

[The silence that follows isn't empty or reflective. There are more questions to come, he knows, so he pauses, not wanting to get ahead of her.]

[But she just shakes her head.]

One of these days, Azula or Zhao or someone will show up again - or maybe even Long Feng, and I'll end up having to warn all our friends again about them. And you'll want the whole story and I'll have to disappoint you - they're just bad guys. Nothing dramatic about it.

...heh. [That would be an easier way to look at it. His voice becomes a little lighter.] Nothing's ever that simple.

Sometimes it is. [No, really. Sometimes it really is. People can have their reasons and their legitimate concerns... but when they're as wrong as can be, even understanding that they've been brainwashed and are plain just... hateful people... doesn't change the fact that they need to go down.]

But not in your world, apparently.

[Go on, she's listening.]

[...no, actually, he wants to clarify this. He shakes his head.]

In every world. [And then he snickers once, as if struck by something amusing.]

[She's not sure what she's laughing at, but she knows well enough what happens if she allows him to have the upper hand in - anything, really.]

Then in every world, there are cases where it's simple.

[His posture is loose, and he sags back into his chair some.]

Sure. You can say "that guy's good" [he makes small gestures here, tilting his head left then right towards people who don't exist] or "that guy's not", and you'd probably be right.

[And he frowns, expression less reflective of how he holds himself.]

But when you're passing down judgement... [When you're god and executioner...] You must always judge them by their actions. Why people do the things they do is rarely so black and white.

[She frowns a little.] I didn't say that it was, Shikamaru. I was simplifying some cases in my world as a joke - if you twist my arm, there are parts of Azula that I can understand... I can even understand some of Long Feng's actions. But when people brainwash others into servitude and perpetuate a lie, or hate the rest of the world and want to see it subjugated or burned, or so believe in their own superiority that they think they have the right to remove an entire people group - [she almost tears up, thinking of Yue, but doesn't though her eyes shimmer suspiciously for a moment] or a vital aspect of the world, then I think the response is pretty clear cut. Their actions are exactly what I'm talking about.

I just meant it wasn't dramatic because we don't have any personal attachment to them - they're not from 'our village.' The only one out of that trio who has anything like all these warnings you're telling me about is Azula - and even Zuko will admit that she has to go down.

[He nods.] Sorry. I didn't mean to complicate things, or make it sound like I was questioning your perception of it all... [Because it came across like that, he knows. He put her on the defensive, and made her bring up things that he could tell made her uncomfortable, even if she kept a straight face through it. Troublesome.]

I know it was a joke. That's why I couldn't let it go. I appreciate what you were trying to do, so thank you. [Normally he'd take such an out.] But I can't allow myself to think in such a way.

[He's making a note of these names she's mentioning though, even if some he's heard before.

Azula. Zhao. Long Feng. Someday he'll ask her more about them.]

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