markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .024

[Tomorrow. Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today, she has plans.]

Hey, Winry - do you still want to go get pizza today? I can make it for lunch, but... I can't hang out the whole day.

[She will also be making a point to visit her friends today, specifically the Straw Hat House. She wants to check in on Sanji, now that she knows what's happened to him, say goodbye to Nami... and she has a feeling Ginko will be there as well. If not, she'll try to contact him over the journal.

She also needs to stop in the item's shop. Being given a gift from the water of the river of light... Katara wants to find something similar to the container she used for the spirit oasis water so that if they get out there and she needs it, she'll have it.

The chances are good that she is also going to make a token effort to track down Buffy. She's heard enough about the last fight that she knows what happened there, and she wants to ask a few questions before heading out there - and she wants to hear about how this same mysterious Third Party General had died. It was the mystery that was bothering her - not knowing what they were really going up against or why they were really doing this. If she could talk to someone who'd fought them before, then maybe, maybe... the feeling of being used wouldn't be as strong and she'd be able to focus on what was really important.

She thinks about going over Caesar's house as well, but decides that a journal message will be good enough. He's probably busy preparing - or sleeping. And she had a feeling he wouldn't be able to do as much of that as he'd like, once they got out there.]

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Hey, Caesar. Ready for this?

[After her various conversations, she goes back home to make dinner and she, Sokka, and Toph have a surprisingly normal meal before slipping out a little earlier than normal for her accustomed practice time. She's not sure why they're going out to fight or why the 'why' bothers her so much - and she's a little scared, strung tense with nervous energy. The forms are soothing and precise and tonight there is just that extra edge, just that smallest bit of ruthless passion that gives away just how strongly the drums of her fathers beat within her - this is about war. And war is something Katara knows very well.

But when the sun starts to set she takes a break and takes a seat, watching it go down not thinking about very much at all. It's beautiful.]

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[Just knowing that Zoro will give it a shot lightens Chopper's spirit a little. He trots after the swordsman quickly, taking up his previous place by Sanji's bedside once they make it inside.]

[And then he stays silent. If there's anything he can do, he'll do it, but for now he just waits.]

[Katara follows along, watching Zoro carefully. She doesn't know what he can do, but doesn't have any problems letting him do it. She trusts him not to do anything to hurt Sanji, so she'll ask him once he's done.]

[Just by stepping into the room he can tell something's off. He'd thought that the normal thrum of the cook's chi had been muted because of the thing controlling him, not to mention at the end he'd been taken within an inch of his life. But it's still like—Sanji isn't really present in the room. Zoro frowns and moves to the foot of the bed, giving the comatose cook a mild stink-eye.]

[mutter] Lazing around huh, ero-eyebrow. We'll see about that.

[Then he crosses his arms and closes his eyes, stilling inside, passing far beyond the point where he can just get a vague sense of people, feeling their presence in the dark and the distance—he sinks so deep that all he can feel are the heartbeats in the room, trembling on his awareness like the faint ripples of wind on a pond. He stills but doesn't reach, instead anchors himself so heavily that slowly, slowly, he can feel the deeper rhythms, the beat and colors of all the life around him, revolving. Further out, wider—but ahh, too far, focus. This one, right here. With the pattern weirdly—smeared, and strained—echoing out and out—

Ba-dum.

B-ba-dum.

B-b-ba-da-dum.]

[...sheeeeeeeeeee's not exactly sure what standing with his eyes closed in the middle of the room is going to do. But she doesn't move. She doesn't make a sound.]

[Seeing Zoro go stone-silent like that is a bit unnerving, and Chopper must keep himself from calling out or doing anything at all that might interrupt the swordsman's focus. But he's all too aware of the heaviness settled in the atmosphere.]

[His hooves clutch even more tightly around the blankets, gaze switching between Zoro and Sanji. What's happening?]

[He jerks out of it abruptly in the next moment, grimacing and scrubbing at his mouth with a knuckle as if wanting to erase a bad taste.]

—Fuck. He's all—spread out everywhere—his self jerked away from his body or something. [Staring hard up and down said body.] That needs to be put back together.

Jerked out? [She moves forward, bending water out of her waterskin and letting it coat her hands. This time she lays them directly on his chest. She closes her eyes and feels the same shadowy repetitions of chi as before, but this time... she sees that it's spread throughout the whole of is body.]

This... feels almost like...

[He's watching what Katara is doing closely. Unlike when she was healing Nami, he's now feeling faint echoes of the chi movements that fuel her waterbending—probably because his whole being was finely tuned to sensing it moments ago.]

Like what?

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