[ Action, Written, Video ] .057

[markofthebrave]

[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/!]

Comments

[markofthewise]

[He gives her a strange look.]

... so that's what this is about? You want me to become friends with him?

[markofthebrave]

[Painfully aware of how awkwardly uncharacteristic this is, Katara shrugs and spreads her hands a little.]

I just want you to get to know him before you write him off.

[markofthewise]

[Jeez, okay, maybe he was a little mean to Masaomi, but come on...]

Did Suki put you up to this? I was just giving him a hard time, that's all!

[markofthebrave]

[Had Suki? What hard time?]

No, nothing like that.

[Does she just come out with it? Or is it better leaving it like this?]

[markofthewise]

[He frowns. If it's not that and previous reasons, then...]

So if it's not all that, then I'm pretty sure this isn't about me finding out that Kida can be funny. So what's this really about?

[markofthebrave]

It's not enough that I want my brother not to think that my good friends are idiots?

[It's a poor stalling tactic, but... it's also true.]

[markofthewise]

Not for a 'shut the doors and serious talk' setting, no.

[markofthebrave]

[She frowns a little and then nods.] No, there was another reason. And I'm not telling you because I want you to do anything about it, I'm just telling you because I want you to know. [That's not even entirely true. She amends it.] Because I think it's fair for you to know.

[And because... she feels a little out of her depth. And by "a little" she means she's entirely unsure of what it is that she's doing.]

That 'secret crush' he's going on about it - that's me. [It is entirely strange to be admitting this and it feels - it feels almost like making it painfully, unavoidably real. But that had happened already, hadn't it. He'd shown her that on the couch that night. This wasn't just going to go away.] Masaomi likes me.

[markofthewise]

[... Katara. She's the crush. It all starts to click. Masaomi had decided to fixate all his attention on Katara. And had the nerve to make a big joke of it right in Sokka's face - what an asshole.

But there was more. There had to be more. If she was telling him this, there had to be something to it. He manages to bite back his instant objection, because Katara already assured him that she had no interest in him. So this was all coming from Masaomi.]

... I think he more than likes you. If you're telling me like this.

[markofthebrave]

What do you mean?

[She'd anticipated an explosion of some sort. The fact that he went into calculation... she's not sure what that means.]

[markofthewise]

Well come on! If it was just that, you could have pulled me aside and said, "Oh hey you know Masaomi? I think he has a crush on me. Go easy on him." But there's something going on, isn't there? Is he pressuring you into something?

[The calculations were only leading into more justified suspicions and anger.]

[markofthebrave]

Pressuring me? [Me? Like you really think she'll give into pressure so easily?] No!

[markofthewise]

Well fine, then what is it? [Because he knows there's way more to it than some schoolyard crush.]

[markofthebrave]

Nothing! I just wanted you to know! [Sheesh, see if she ever tells you anything again.

She's not sure she can - that it would be right to - bring up the fact that he wants to change her mind. Or that she's decided not to try and make him stop trying. Because... that just isn't fair, is it?]

[markofthewise]

Fine! Now I know! [He crosses his arms, unhappy because he knows there's more. He wouldn't be in her room if she didn't think this was important.] So that's it? Nothing else?

1/2

[markofthebrave]

Isn't that enough?

[Is she evading? Not that she's thinking of... whatever happens between her and Masaomi is their business, just hers and his, and she'd be quick to tell Sokka that. Why then, is she thinking about telling him Masaomi really... wants to change her mind.]

[markofthebrave]

...why, what are you thinking?

[markofthewise]

I don't know, what am I supposed to think? First you want me to get to know him, then you say he has a crush on you, but that it's no big deal?

[It's all so vague. How long has this been going on? What is she not telling him? He knows they have separate lives and don't tell each other everything, so why this if it's not a big deal?]

[markofthebrave]

I'm just trying to include you in what's going on, that's all.

[markofthewise]

[Right. Included....]

So how long has he had this crush?

[markofthebrave]

[She slumps a little.]

I don't know.

[And she looks down.] He said it had been a while. But I honestly don't know when it started.

[markofthewise]

How long have you known? [It's not like crushes happen overnight. He doubted that Toph woke up one day and decided Sokka was more than a spastic non-bender.]

[markofthebrave]

...I guess since around Christmas.

[markofthewise]

[That's kind of a while back, Katara...!]

And you heard about him coming back from a mission and proclaiming about his secret crush to everyone? He told me he couldn't tell because his crush- you didn't want people to know.

[markofthebrave]

He said that? I never asked him to say that!

[Although... it's not like she'd have wanted everyone to know he liked her and had to turn him down. It's... embarrassing and private. At least he'd understood that, in his own strange way.]

But it's not like I wanted him to shout it from the fountain either. That's all him - both those ideas were all him. We never talked about what he could say or couldn't say.