[Action, Chickening Out Written, and Voice] .015

[markofthebrave]

[What with Zuko's unexpected and somewhat... well, dubious bout of hopefully-it-will-be-win and please don't burn their house again, Katara has an unexpected bout of free time. This is both a good thing, and a bad thing, since with the craziness of her first few months dying down, Katara has started to feel homesickness pressing down on her. Couple that with Sokka's keeping secrets, his friendship with Ty Lee, and learning chi blocking, the extra time to think is not... exactly... happy.

So here she is, at the bridge by her house, standing at the arch and staring out over the water.]


[Filtered to Ginko 70 percent]

Ginko, have you ever-

Is there a time where

I need

[No. It wasn't fair to bring anyone into this. She'd figure it out the same way she always did.]

[Voice: Filtered away from Zuko, 70%]

So... has anyone else noticed anything strange going on tonight? There isn't a new experiment going on, is there?

[And pretty much immediately after this comment Katara is going to find a way to erase this voice post if it kills her. She didn't mean to upset anyone! It was just - so weird.]


[...And sometime after dinner, she'll be returning to her practicing routine outside of the house, in case she's due for a talking to you know who you are.]

Comments

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Zuko will walk past Katara towards the other side of the clearing.]

Looks like a good place.

[markofthebrave]

[She nods and gets into her stance.] All right. Ready when you are.

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Zuko will turn around when Katara speaks and settle into a stance of his own. He'll wait for a few moments before sending off a lazy test fire punch towards Katara.]

1/2

[markofthebrave]

[Well, that didn't even require bending to dodge. Katara just quickly steps out of the way and gives him this look.]

[markofthebrave]

[And then she sends a stream of water at his leg - if it reaches, it will coil around it and let her pull him off balance. It's more direct than she'd usually make the move, but-]

Are you out here to spar or not?

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Dodging that water stream and sending several better aimed fire punches towards Katara.]

Of course I'm here to spar.

[markofthebrave]

[And so she blocks those punches with a watershield. But you'd better look out, Zuko, because as soon as the danger is passed, she's shooting a stream of water at you where you can see...

...and from the stream behind you where you can't. It's headed towards your arm. There's a reason why she's been practicing with multiple streams of water, after all.]

Well, good.

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Zuko dodges that stream coming towards him, sending more fire towards Katara. He wasn't however expecting stream behind him. By the time he realises what Katara did, it's to late to dodge it fully, and while it will mostly end up missing his arm he will get caught by part of it.]

[markofthebrave]

[Aww, crap - that could have gone better. She holds on to that one part of the stream that made contact, and attempts to wrap it around his arm anyway, even if it's far too thin to completely immobilize it.]

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Zuko is going to struggle and use his fire to try and prevent Katara from succeeding in wrapping his arm in the water and to break her concentration.]

[markofthebrave]

[The only way he'll succeed in keeping that water from wrapping around his arm if he heats his hand up and turns it into steam - there's not enough water to keep it from evaporating. That being the case, she's just going to raise the water from the stream to the side and send it towards him in a large wave.]

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Okay what the hell Katara. You don't normally try things this big this early on. Well if that's the way it's going to be then.

Zuko is going to brace himself and as the wave starts to get close let out a long hot burst, blasting the part of the wave in front of him so it becomes steam. He'll manage to keep himself and the ground close to him from getting hit by that wave.]

[markofthebrave]

[Well, fine. If you're going to be like that, she'll leave off trying to knock you flat immediately and raise a round bit of ice from the stream and start sending flat circles of ice at Zuko.]

1/2

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Zuko is going to try and dodge those ice circles, or at least melt them before the hit him. This is really not right for Katara though. It feels more like he is fighting her from when when they first met then having a match with a friend.]

2/2

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Suddenly Zuko is going to jump up into the air. He needs to get Katara attention out of where ever it is, before she injures or kills him. He'll be sending a thick, heavy, hot fire burst at her from above in the sky, hopefully knocking her to the ground. He'll land closer to her then he normally gets when they are bending.]

Katara!

[markofthebrave]

[Zuko's right - her brain is in another place, lost in the movements, in the release that fighting brings. And as such, that fire from above necessitates another watershield - and she's able to stand her ground. But before she has a chance to respond with an attack, he calls her name.]

What?

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Okay, she stopped... or at least didn't attack back. Zuko is not going to follow through with the rest of his move, but there will still be fire around his hands.]

Stop trying to kill me.

[markofthebrave]

[Blink! She drops her hands.] I'm not trying to kill you!

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

Really? You sure about that? [Because that felt to him like you were trying to kill jerk Zuko, not sparring with friend Zuko.]

[markofthebrave]

Yes! [She blinks and glances around the field. It was a bit strong, maybe, but-] If I was trying to kill you, I would have used ice spikes, or gone for your legs a minute ago...

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

You mean flat circles of ice with sharp edges thrown at me wouldn't kill me?

[markofthebrave]

Like that fire wouldn't have killed me? I knew where they were going! I thought we'd come out here to spar, not dance around.

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

That was to get your attention. It seemed to be somewhere else. I'm sorry for being concerned with our SAFETY.

[Zuko will start walking back towards the rather wet other side of the clearing.]

[markofthebrave]

[Blink - well that was - that was just ridiculous. Of course she was thinking about their safety. And since when did he get off saying things like that?

She doesn't attack him as he walks away, she just... gets in her stance. Being angry at someone - something she could actually fight felt too good to let go, and her eyes narrow as she waits for him to be ready.]

[restoremyhonour.livejournal.com]

[Well he hopes that works. Zuko doesn't mind getting hurt in a fight, just as long as the other side is aware of what they are doing. He'll go back to his dry patch of ground, and send out some fire the heat the moisture out of the surrounding ground before settling back into a stance facing Katara.]