[ Action, Some Journal ] BACKDATED to the 11th .059

[markofthebrave]

[On April 9th, Katara had been told that she was an "error," and doomed to die by a boy with the face of the man she loved. As you can imagine, the rest of the day was not spent cheerfully; rather after wandering about for some time, Katara returned home to make dinner and then quietly excused herself to write some letters, and then bend into the early morning hours.

On April 10th, the sun rose on a Katara who was entirely herself, and the sudden onslaught of memories drove her to her knees. In the early hours of the morning, she wept beside the river, feeling inside out and torn apart and lost... eventually she returned to her room in order to sleep the sleep of the deeply exhausted.

She did not wake until April 11th. This was another slow day, where she read the letters her other self had written and decided not to give them out, ended up seeking some unlikely advice, and generally stuck to her schedule, feeling... strange.

But today? Today she woke up feeling a little more like herself. It was a Thursday, which meant meeting Nami for bo practice after school (which she... finally got back to attending, sorry Professor) and then made dinner. She may glance through the journal a bit more than normal; she may even contemplate attempting to contact someone, and... eventually, she does make two locked posts:]

[Written | Private to Robin]
Hey. I know you'll probably say you're fine, but I just wanted to ask how you were doing.

[Voice | Private to Wolfwood]
Do you have a minute?

[Later that evening, she'll be practicing by the river, under the light of a waning moon.]

Comments

[markofthebrave]

Katara followed and claimed the chair opposite. Now would be a good time to try to redirect the conversation, but really, she's a bit too fuzzed for that.

[herotypical]

"So," she paddled her way through the awkward. "Those earrings. Where'd you get them?"

[markofthebrave]

She touched one of the earrings in question. "Nami gave them to me when she pierced my ears. Toph had been..."

She hated how it was possible to be so casual about these atrocities.

"One time when she was mallynapped, she was returned without her bending, but with the ability to 'see' metal. We had to head out on a draft after that. I needed to make sure she could 'see' me."

[herotypical]

"...Practical," she remarked. "Remarkably practical for something so pretty. Two somethings so pretty."

[markofthebrave]

"I like them," her hand returns to her lap. "I probably never would have gotten my ears pierced if it hadn't been for Toph."

She shrugged. "It's not really a thing back home."

But it had been a precious thing to share with Nami.

[herotypical]

She touched her own piercings. Three in one ear, two in the other. "Is there a reason why it's not a thing?"

[markofthebrave]

Katara shrugged. "Well, in the South Pole, having bits of metal stuck in your skin would get really... cold. I saw a few people in the Earth Kingdom with earrings, but... they were pirates."

1/2

[herotypical]

Pirates.

[herotypical]

"...Of course they were."

[markofthebrave]

And Katara shrugged again. Sorry, Buffy. It's just how it was.

[herotypical]

You know, I fear this is gonna be one of those never gonna live it down things.

[markofthebrave]

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, you were probably a better pirate than they were."

whoops then i unprosed too.

[herotypical]

Hah.

"I'll try and pretend that's a compliment."

oh no, the lack of quotation marks! >>

[markofthebrave]

"It'd think it's usually preferable to rob instead of be robbed, right?"

[herotypical]

"Maybe," she sat back. "Probably. But it's all a little ridiculous when I've spent the last two years trying to gently nudge Jack away from the robbing business. And then I go and stomp all over his manly marauding points. 'Cause, let's face it, I was a way more kick-ass pirate than he was."

1/2

[markofthebrave]

"Oh well. Yeah. That could be a little awkward."

[markofthebrave]

Katara smirked a little, "But if it makes you feel any better about upstaging him, there was no way she was getting these earrings unless I gave them to her. It really was a gift."

[herotypical]

"Shut up. I could've totally taken them."

Eh. Maybe. Possibly. It wouldn't have been pretty, in the end. So Buffy's was happy to tease for now.

[markofthebrave]

"Maybe you could have." Although really... on a bridge and on edge as she was, Katara doubted it. "But I don't think she could have. She didn't seem to remember my bending."

Or else, Katara thinks, she would have used it in her sales pitch.

[herotypical]

"She was a little selective in a lot of things..."

Buffy's grateful for Katara's pronoun usage. "Like her morals. Her fashion-sense. Her boundaries."

[markofthebrave]

Katara does love the distinctive pronoun. "Not a fan, huh?"

[herotypical]

"I like my boundaries. They're...cozy."

[markofthebrave]

This was going to get into one of those couple things that she really didn't need to know if she asked about it, wasn't it. Oh well.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

An open door was different than a direct inquiry.

[herotypical]

Actually, things were going to get a little more...esoteric. The couple things were even more deeply buried than this.

"I guess -- uhm, I guess it doesn't matter that she didn't really really hurt anyone. What matters is that she wanted to. I wanted to. In ways I've never...the violence has always been a part of the job, before. Not a way of life. Or I've tried to make it that way..."

[markofthebrave]

"You mean... the difference was between fighting against the bad guys and just fighting to get what you want was blurred - when you were her. And now you feel responsible for it."

And dirty too, probably.