[ 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

/does that prose thing

[herotypical]

A low whistle. A careful call: "Anybody home...?"

Buffy tracked the perimeter of the house. She'd had her own concentration broken on many an occasion and the interruption was often jarring. She wanted to give the other woman a fair shot at not being taken unawares.

And so -- soon after her voice -- a well-wrapped Slayer materialized out of the blue-dark. Her red-bladed scythe weapon resting on her shoulder.

surprose!

[markofthebrave]

The warning is greatly appreciated. She'd lost count of how many times she'd gotten startled and had to pull back at the last minute when someone interrupted her practice. So as it is, it's a Katara with her water well away that turned to greet Buffy, the habit of returning water she's not using to her waterskin far too ingrained to break, despite the abundance of snow along the ground.

"Hey, Buffy! Over here."

There are Chinese Lanterns hanging from the back of the house in order to better illuminate Katara's practice ground, which is otherwise just a simple patch of ground no too far away from the treeline.

the best surprise.

[herotypical]

"Pretty little set up you have out here. Do you cater?"

A dry half-smile. The Slayer drove her weapon into the earth -- stake-side down. She made breaking the chilled ground seem effortless.

"Also? Wow -- dedication. Coming out here and practicing in the cold. But I guess cold's kinda your thing."

Said the woman who patrols regardless of its efficaciousness.

always \o/

[markofthebrave]

Wow, compliments are always awkward.

"It's not that cold," she said with a shrug. "You're out here too."

So, yes, passionately dedicated. "Although we could go inside if you like. I make a mean hot cocoa."

Re: always \o/

[herotypical]

"I feel like a popsicle," she quipped. "And I miss Californian winters. So I think I'll take you up on that offer."

[markofthebrave]

"All right," and Katara turned to head towards the house. "I'm not sure where everyone else is, but we can probably claim the kitchen."

Sokka is likely in his Batcave, after all.

[herotypical]

Buffy reclaimed her scythe -- still holding it jauntily. Like it was barely a weapon at all. And then she followed at a close pace.

"They say that home is where the silverware drawer is. The kitchen'll do just dandy."

[markofthebrave]

Leading the way to the front door, Katara opened it, bent the leftover snow off her shoes, and stepped inside. The front area of the house is painted a nation 'neutral' pale yellow, and everything is bright and clean and mostly neat. "Come on in"

[herotypical]

She understood the layout. House Seven was similarly shaped -- but it was still mighty strange to step into another house that looked like it could be some differently dressed twin of your own. Buffy kicked her boots free on the outer side of the door and stepped inside.

"Cozy. Lively. I like. I haven't had the heart to change anything back at our place since...well -- I don't know what Bones would've wanted different, anyway. Doctor McCoy."

[markofthebrave]

"Thanks. I painted it shortly after I came..." Katara gazed around critically as she stepped towards the kitchen. "It could probably use another coat, but I'll wait until the Spring." If I'm still here then, she mentally tagged on to the sentence.

Then she glanced over at Buffy curiously, "So the house that you're staying in now belonged to someone else?"

[herotypical]

"I moved in to a full house. A whole bunch of people from the same somewhere -- but then they all...well, you know how it goes. And suddenly I'm left holding the position of household matriarch."

And she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

[markofthebrave]

Katara slanted Buffy a sidelong glance. "You know what I think would be a nice color for an open room like this? A light mint green. We could never have a green sitting room, but if you want to give it a shot we could experiment with it one afternoon."

She ducked down to retrieve a pan from one of the lower cupboards. "It doesn't take me long to paint a room."

[herotypical]

"Huh? Oh...you can also--" Buffy waggled her fingers and flitted her palms through the air in a poor approximation of waterbending "--with paint?"

Maybe she'd picked up a few mannerisms from one Jack Sparrow. Or maybe this was just a sign of how the Slayer and the Pirate spoke the same unique language.

1/2

[markofthebrave]

"Uh..." That's mostly just in response to the finger waggling. Really? Master Pakku would kill her if her bending looked like that.

[markofthebrave]

But then she shook her head. Focus, Katara.

"As long as it's water-based," she moved to set the pan on top of the oven, and then go retrieve the milk. "That's how I did all this."

She frowns. "Shikamaru got me with lead paint pellets once, though." Which was totally unfair, but what you get for fighting a ninja. "He's just lucky I managed to get the paint out."

Dude would've died.

[herotypical]

A slow nod. How did Buffy feel about that? She wasn't...sure. She'd spent so long preserving McCoy's memory of House Seven. Just in case he came back. But maybe it was time to move on.

"Mint green, you said? It'd match the throw pillows."

[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.