markofthebrave | [Action, Voice] .006

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[Action, Voice] .006

[After a good cry, some good advice, and throwing down with the whole of Luceti against Aku the other day, Katara is feeling much more like herself. And she is on a mission. She can be found mid-afternoon heading towards whatever store in Luceti sells paint.

Fire Nation Red in her living room? Not anymore!]

Let's see... I guess I could go blue with green accents... or maybe something even more neutral? Maybe find a cream... No, no orange, it's too close to red...

[Katara has never had a chance to play with paints and colors before! She's a little lost with all the options. She just knows that she wants to make their shared space an open, welcoming one, one that represents all of them ~~and even the one that they're missing~~ and one which won't remind her of that stupid experiment's 'misplaced decimal.' But she has come far enough that she doesn't want it to just chase out Zuko either, although she is perfectly happy never seeing him again. Clearly, the girl is expecting too much out of paint. Someone help?]

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Parties aren't really my thing. [Unless Hugo drags him to them like that one time, sob.] I'm glad to hear everything went well, though.

Thanks. Toph and I worked really hard getting it together. [Toph. Sokka. Gah! Bad thought!]

...hey, Caesar? Are the experiments always like this? Getting inside you, I mean?

It seems like quite a few of them are, but I'm sure that's not always the case. For example, there was an experiment a while ago where many of the people in the village switched bodies with each other. Aside from being in a completely different person's body, it didn't have any impact on who we were as a person. Of course, experiments like that seem to be pretty uncommon.

Oh. [There's a pause while she chews this over and hates every single conclusion she gets from it.]

It's like they don't even care that we're people! It's just a matter of -- decimal points to them. I hate this!

[...sorry, this has struck a chord with her.]

If they cared too much, they wouldn't be able to do their job. Whatever that is. [...] But I don't disagree with you. It isn't fair.

[The really long pause here is Katara remembering that the Malnosso monitor the journals, that she probably really shouldn't spew things about them and talk about making plans to get away or get back where they can hear. It goes against the grain, but she is going to try to content herself with being very controlled -- at least while she can be.]

It's more than not fair, it's wrong. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Edited 2010-03-04 22:32 (UTC)

[Oh boy. Caesar understands her pain, but he's not very good at being comforting. He can't just say, "Everything's going to be alright." Not as a strategist, anyway. It's just not realistic.]

We should just be glad that the effects of what they do aren't permanent. Things don't always work that way—even back home, there are people who do terrible things to others without any regard to how they feel, and we can end up feeling the effects of those actions for years to come. This isn't the ideal situation, but it could be worse.

[That's all right. Katara doesn't go much for false comfort. This sort of perspective is the kind which helps.]

The emotions might have gone away, but that doesn't mean they haven't affected us. But you're right. It's not the same.

...I guess I'm still a little touchy about this.

[That's good. He's always worried he'll accidentally make these things worse. :|;]

It's all right. You haven't been here very long, so it's understandable. I think I would have been mad about those things, too, if I wasn't so mad about other things.

What things are you mad about?

I told you we were in the middle of a war before I showed up here, right? I was angry about a lot of things in relation to that. [Which is a really, really vague way of saying he hated his brother.] I'm not mad about that stuff anymore, though.

[Katara, not knowing anything about Caesar's relationship with his brother, will assume that he's angry for similar reasons that her war upsets her.] I know what that's like.

[A pause.] Did something happen that... helped? Or were you just able to let it go?

[He's not as obvious about it as he used to be, that's for sure.]

Both. Something happened that made me realize holding onto my anger was a really stupid idea. It took a long time for me to understand, but I'm glad I get it now.

[Since talking at these books is something that's still really weird to her, Katara's suddenly uncomfortably aware that this conversation is very public - and since she's started thinking about her mom, and what apparently happened when she found her mother's murderer, that makes her a little uncomfortable.]

I'd like to hear about that sometime. If you don't mind.

[Caesar doesn't take long to consider her request. Katara was a good person, and after their conversation last time, he wouldn't mind talking to her some more. Heck, maybe he'll even be a little more honest with her about what it was he was mad about in the first place.]

Sure. I don't see why not. I guess if you aren't too busy with this painting stuff, we could talk now.

Sure? Should I meet you somewhere? I'm just at the paint store now.

[And so for the sake of timeline sanity, we can say that this took place before she picked out her paint.]

Thanks, Caesar.

Don't mention it. I can meet you by the fountain, then. Is that okay?

Sure, if you don't mind the weather!

[And so, Katara will start out towards the fountain in the wonderfully new and restored square where every trace of the the battle she'd fought the day before had been completely erased. If she gets there before Caesar, he'll see her looking around at the various spots where the action took place - the restored ground, the new grocery store - with a considering expression on her face.]

[Caesar will certainly arrive there a short while after Katara does. (He'll never get a hang of this "being on time" thing, I swear.) When he sees her, he'll walk over and greet her.]

Yo. Haven't picked out your paints yet?

There are so many colors! You'd think eliminating four of them would make it easier, but it just leaves me with... ugly colors.

Heh. That's what happens when you have too many options, I guess. I'm not very good with this stuff myself, though.

I never had a chance to do it before. [She shrugs] I heard [Have a pained look that may or may not be solely related to the topic at hand] that they were planning on splitting the living room down the middle. Fire Nation Red on one side and Swampbender Green on the other. I'm sure I'll figure out something better than that.

[She's going to reach out one hand and poke at the grocery store, fully restored after being decimated the day before.] This place is so strange...

[He takes a look at the store and nods at her statement. He had only heard about what happened, but he knew exactly what it was that she found strange. Caesar remembered Albert telling him about "his" old room having caught fire and repairing itself shortly after. He also remembered Hugo's uncomfortable feelings toward the idea that dead people don't stay dead here. While these stories were relevant, he didn't feel like he really had to reinforce the point.]

It is, isn't it? Luceti is the land of impermanence.

The land of impermanence, huh? [Her brow furrows as she thinks that over and when she speaks it's mostly to herself.] Even with things like love and death which are supposed to be permanent...

[She shakes herself out of it and offers Caesar a smile.] I guess we can hope that our being here is impermanent too. And I'm glad the grocery store grew back. It makes cooking a lot easier if your food's waiting for you, and [her smile turns wicked] it serves Aku right. All that work and everything's back to normal in a day.

[Which is... really disturbing, when she thinks about it. But she's just going to shove that in the back of her mind.]

No kidding. [Not that he's very good at cooking anyway, but that's another story.] The fact that things always return to "normal" is usually pretty off-putting for guys like him. It's certainly an advantage to us, but I guess it still takes an experience like this for most of them to really feel that dissatisfaction.

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