[ Action, Voice ] .058

[markofthebrave]

[Somewhere in all the excitement of the past month, it... sort of didn't occur to her that she's now been in Luceti for two years. That's had some time to sink in now, along with the new announcement and - home. Actually getting to go home. Even if it's just for a day...

...but then it means that the Malnosso were lying to them, doesn't it. They do have the power to send them home. And all this time, they'd said it was random...]

[Filter to those who had been here when she arrived: Two years back or more.]

Hey. I think that I just... wanted to apologize. I know that when I got here two years ago, I wasn't very respectful about all the things everyone had tried to do in order to get out of here. It must have been so hard to hear that then, and to keep hearing it from every New Feather that we get when we know that we've tried everything we could.

But we have to keep trying. What they're doing, no matter what they say, no matter what they promise us, is wrong. We can't give up hope that we'll find a way out - we have to keep looking. There's a difference between waiting and giving up, and I know it's hard, but so many of you are still doing that, still trying to find a way out while making things as comfortable as you can for all the new people who are stuck here as we are, and I admire that so much.

So, thank you.

[/filter]

[And then, taking a deep breath, she'll continue:]

And hey, if anyone was using the sled tracks I made, I haven't had a chance to check on them since the ice storm. I'll probably be decommissioning them tomorrow and just turning it all into a giant snow hill, so if you go out there, please be careful, all right?

[Thursday is one of the days Katara goes to spar with Nami, so after making this announcement after school, she and Nami will meet up by the river to do battle with their staffs. Feel free to stop by and watch these two sexy ladies practicing, if you like.

If not, after dinner, Katara heads off someplace she very rarely is. The remembrance garden. This place has always made her uncomfortable... she's not sure it's right, but it's... something. Better than those things that reminded her of gravestones. And the perfect place to pour over her journal, flipping back until she finds an entry of Aang. It's been so long since she's seen him... she's all but forgotten what he sounds like. She feels almost bad about it, but... she misses him so much and yet... it's easier not to miss him.

And eventually, when her time in the remembrance garden is done, Katara will return to her house for an hour or two of bending practice in the back yard.]

Comments

[markofthebrave]

She smiled at Buffy over her shoulder. "You can think about it and let me know. It's probably better to wait for the spring anyway."

Opening up doors and windows to get rid of the paint smell in the winter would not be something Katara wanted to do.

[herotypical]

"Right." She leaned against the counter -- loosening her jacket's buttons. "Not far off, now. I'm looking forward to everything thawing. I think that, uhm, fun-in-the-sun day really juiced up my appetite for warmer weather."

[markofthebrave]

Have you ever seen Katara go pale before, Buffy? You will now, if you're watching her profile.

"...yeah, it was nice to be on the ocean again."

Katara slowly poured the milk into the pan on the oven before flicking on the switch. Time to find the chocolate and sugar.

[herotypical]

She noticed and she wasn't surprised. Valentine's is a no-good time of year. No matter how long you've been here.

"Hurrah for silver linings...right?" Buffy kept green eyes fixed on the woman.

[markofthebrave]

"Yeah." The fact that she has to turn away from Buffy in order to retrieve the chocolate is completely incidental.

[herotypical]

"...It was a rough one for you."

It wasn't a question; it was a statement. It was an educated observation. Buffy didn't want to sound as though she was curious and she certainly didn't want to press for details. But she could at least say one thing: "For what it's worth, the whole nature of this place means you're not...you're not alone. It's like a purpose-built support group for Shift-related unhappiness."

[markofthebrave]

"Oh, I know," her movements are slow, deliberate. "It's a rough experiment for everyone. There's no easy way to fall in and out of love."

Chocolate in hand, Katara returned to the milk, breaking off a healthy section to put into the pan. "But as for the experiment itself, I've had worse. Luffy and I are all cleared up."

[herotypical]

Luffy. She didn't know him well but she knew of him. Buffy gave a soft hum. "Y-yeah. Me and Liz--Elizabeth Swann haven't really managed to do any of the clearing up, yet. I think we're both just a little too spun. Still.

I've been trying to give her space."

[markofthebrave]

Ah. The girls-loving-girls thing was still just as slightly weird to her as the boys-loving-boys thing.

"Well, when you're... involved with someone else, I think these things get a little more complicated."

As she saw last year with Sokka, Suki, and Fenimore. Although what Katara really wants to ask is if the whole 'being with a girl' thing played a part of it, because she thinks that would freak her out almost as bad as when Sokka had hypothesized that it could have happened to the two of them. But somehow that seems... rude.

[herotypical]

"Add in an extra layer of complication when you realize she's from his..uhm, sorry. Jack's world." And then, gentler: "Jack Sparrow."

It was no secret. They were very public about their relationship. But it occurred to her that Katara might need some of the liner notes for this situation. "They know each other pretty well. I guess. And she lives at Seven and...yet it still wasn't as bad as my first Valentine's. So it has that going for it."

[markofthebrave]

"Oh." She glanced over at Buffy again, giving a sympathetic wince. "Ouch."

...because then it's not just the question of Buffy and whoever this other woman is. It's also the added complication of Buffy and Jack, and how all those pieces fit together.

[herotypical]

"I think we're okay. We...

Luceti Valley was worse."

[markofthebrave]

...that experiment again.

"...Luceti Valley was bad for a lot of people."

She looked down, pouring in some sugar and vanilla to the hot chocolate mix.

"...it's terrible, isn't it, that you can compare things like this by saying 'It's not so bad' to what is worse, when it's horrible each and every time."

[herotypical]

"I mean -- me? Married?"

The jade ring on her right hand felt extra heavy, just then. "I don't know. Love spells, Katara. I've been hit by them before. Back home. But they never lasted so long as these and somehow...it's the waiting that makes it worse. In Sunnydale, we always managed to reverse it. Here we just gotta hope a week doesn't bring down too much ruin on our heads."

[markofthebrave]

"...I know. Waiting is always the worst part."

Her unoccupied hand formed a fist at her side. "But they still lose, Buffy. They lose. They can experiment on us and and change us, but it never lasts. Even Luceti Valley was supposed to go on for months, and it was only for a few weeks. In the end, it ends, and we're back to ourselves. And we pick ourselves up, and we deal with it. We're stronger than they are."

[herotypical]

"I...I agree. Even this time -- I think I fought my way out of the experiment, Katara. With Jack's help. Their magic or their technology. Their Shifts.

They're shaky at best. Unstable. I think they know that."

[markofthebrave]

"You did?" She turned to face Buffy with wide eyes. "But Buffy, that's wonderful. I know that must have been hard at the time but - actually shaking one of these Shifts? That's amazing!"

[herotypical]

Buffy shrugged out of her jacket and pulled the collar of her shirt away from her skin -- baring ink on her shoulder. "I left myself a trail of breadcrumbs. Signs and trinkets and true things. Eventually, Shifted-me had to question them. Had to confront them."

But Buffy had always been a willful, powerfully minded individual. Even still, it had been a struggle.

[markofthebrave]

"...but you still had to choose to believe them. And once you did, did the way that you felt change?"

[herotypical]

"Not immediately. There was an hour or two there where...where I knew things were wrong even while they felt right. Some fruit got involved. It wasn't exactly the tidiest solution but -- he didn't give up on me. Which, by this point? Is kinda impressive."

[markofthebrave]

Katara tensed at the mention of the fruit, not so much out of wariness, but as someone who has received an unexpected blow. Her shoulders slumped a little as she spoke.

"...well, I'm glad the fruit was useful for something."

[herotypical]

"I'm not sure if useful is the right word but it..." She had been so certain of not loving Jack Sparrow when they shared that sour food. Only to be awash in love afterwards. And with...other routines disrupted. Ah. It was a web of discomfort.

She tapped the tattoo again. "But actually? It was the Luceti Valley Shift that gave me the idea. I woke up that week with this only drawn on my skin." She skirted past this very quickly, driving to the point of the matter. "It troubled me during that one, too. Kinda made a good case for making it permanent. Just in case."

Not to mention the whole try to remember back home part.

[markofthebrave]

"It's good that you have someone you can feel so strongly about that you can have that reminder."

Which was a... precarious place to be in in Luceti, to be sure. She thinks of Chouji and then reaches out a hand to bend the milk in the pot, stirring with the chocolate so it won't burn.

[herotypical]

She watched the process -- finally shifting her sights off of Katara.

"It has its pros and it has its cons."

[markofthebrave]

"Loving someone is always a risk. It just... seems like more of a risk here."

She reached up a hand to touch her mother's necklace.

"I think it's worth it, though, if you can find it."