markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .021

Hey, Caesar! Do you mind if I stop by this afternoon? [Because mind or not, she is coming. But before she gets there, if you asked after her while she had eye-mushi and she hasn't spoken to you yet, she's looking for you. She will be all about town, since she doesn't know where some of you live. She also plans on checking in with Sokka and the rest of the Gaang at some point today.]

[And later in the evening, after dinner and far past when she is usually fast asleep, you can find Katara practicing not far from her house. Since Ginko died she's been robbed of her rest - combine that with the draft list being posted and she's decided to cope the only way she knows how - by using the time to find some peace. For that purpose, she is doing a special form. She runs through the first without doing any bending at all. When she repeats it, she bends thin tendrils of water up and around and over, following the movements of her hands - and when one catches her eye she freezes it in place, creating a small practice area of frozen arches and swirls.

They won't last long, especially not in the heat of a summer night. That's not the point. That's not the point at all.]

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I was considering whether I might learn from it. [There are probably several people here too proud to think they can learn much from a teenage girl. Sigmund is not one of them.]

[Katara doesn't find this out of place - after all, since she's arrived at Luceti, she's been intent on adapting her skills to everything of worth that she's found. But she is obscurely pleased - both at the request and at the way he phrased it. He's not interested in learning bending, and she's somewhat convinced that it can't be taught to people out of her world anyway, but in learning from it. That's an amount of respect that, dealing with Sokka day in and day out, she can appreciate.]

Hmm. What did you have in mind?

[His expression shifts from thoughtful and wise to something almost childishly earnest. It's subtle, as all of his expressions are, but definitely there.] You needn't do anything. My swordmaster just let me watch.

Edited 2010-07-08 22:35 (UTC)

[Ah. Well. There are two problems with this, and they flicker across her face in a moment of uncertainty. The first problem is that what she had been doing was private and special, a working out of loss and grief, an act of restoring her own inner balance. The second problem is that she doesn't know Sigmund - and is fully aware of just how much someone can learn by watching.

But then the moment passes, and she smiles at him.] Sure, if you like. But what I was doing before wasn't really for combat. So I'll do some more basic forms instead.

Edited 2010-07-09 00:09 (UTC)

[The one benefit of rarely conversing is that Sigmund watches people. A lot. And while he's never really cared enough to understand the fine details, he'd like to think he knows enough to see when someone isn't comfortable in his presence. That's the most common emotion around him anyway.] Another time.

[This - this startles her. But she's not willing to encourage him to stay. Not with her heart this heavy, and her peace as fragile as the twirling bits of frozen water. Her smile takes on a shade of gratitude.]

All right. I practice every night after dinner, so you can feel free to come by whenever you like.

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