markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .058

[ Action, Voice ] .058

[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.]

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"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!"

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.

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

"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."

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."

"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.

"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.

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

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

"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."

Her laughter is wry at best.

"Loving someone here is a little bit like walking a tightrope over a vat of acid after downing three shots of the world's worst vodka. But..." But being with Jack still felt a shade or two safer than anything she'd had before now. Weird. "But that's love. You have to wonder if it's worth it if it doesn't give you that slightly freaked-out and panicky feeling right the pit of your heart."

She laughs at that, actually. "So love equals panic? I can't say I've thought of it that way before."

"If you're not having at least one serious case of the wiggins? It's not love. That's what my admittedly very...unconventional experience has taught me."

"...a serious case of that what?"

"Wiggins. That very visceral feeling of oh jeez let me off this ride."

"...I'm pretty sure you can get those, and it doesn't have anything to do with love."

"Hmm? O-oh. Sure. It could be because there's a vampire around the next corner. Or because you accidentally ate one of those licorice jelly beans. I just meant that love is...scary. Doesn't mean it can't be amazing at the same time. That's what sets it apart from vampires and licorice."

"...oh, I see what you're saying."

Heh. Okay, the hot chocolate is done. Moving the pot off the stove, Katara switched off the flame and then bent the hot cocoa into two mugs. It is so much better that way.

"Do you want whipped cream or mini marshmallows?" And don't think of this as a diversion, Buffy, because that is exactly what it is.

"Can I have both?"

It smelled delightful. Chocolate was such a fantastic opener of hearts; better than any truth serum. "Anyway, I think that helped too. With Elizabeth it was too much sweet and not enough spark. In the end, I couldn't believe in it."

"Sure." The whipped cream was in the fridge, and the mini marshmallows were in the pantry... Katara placed them both on the counter so that Buffy could help herself.

...and curses, she'd thought they'd gotten off of the love topic. "You couldn't believe it because it didn't 'wig' you out enough?'

Oh. Katara might eventually regret letting Buffy have control of her own marshmallow and cream application. Soon, a monster capped her mug.

"You know how some things are just too good to be true? It was kinda like that."

"That's... not really something I've had to worry about."

Although, on second thought, Katara made a face. "Except the first time. That one was all kinds of wrong."

After Buffy finished with the whipped cream, Katara moved to secure her own portion. That done, she began to walk around the counter to claim a seat at the table.

A noise of agreement; Buffy's first Valentine's had ended in bruised ribs and house arrest. She'll gladly take awkward housemate chemistry after that.

She followed. "Not that I'm...not, y'know. Happy. With what I do have. I'm just not too happy. I'm not, say, blinded by my happiness."

And in response to that, Katara laughs. "You don't have to explain that to me. If you weren't happy with him, why would you stay with him?"

Especially in a place like this.

"Why would you fight your way back to be with him? No..." and then her smile turned wistful. "...at least you know what's real while you have it."

Buffy could answer that question for another man. Sometimes, it had very little to do with happiness. But hadn't she put that behind her? Years and years and years. Maybe her taste was finally improving.

Others in the village, she knew, would disagree.

"The things you were saying earlier, Katara. About not giving up. About still trying..."

Because trying and loving are so connected in her mind.

Katara tilted her head and looked at Buffy curiously. Was this the reason the other girl had wanted to come speak with her?

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