markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .024

[ 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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[So, yes, just walking along and minding her own pre-war business when - astonishing how these streets are not very full and busy. Katara does see the other girl staring at her. So she pauses and smiles at her.]

Hello?

[She seems to shake herself.]

Sorry, I thought I recognised you from the other day, but I couldn't recall your name.

[Oh, right. Dancing by the fountain had been completely obscured by the past few days, but she still blushes a little in remembrance before she shrugs it off.]

I don't think we were introduced. I'm Katara.

I didn't think so, either, but I was trying so hard to forget it happened that I wasn't sure if we had or not. [She smiles, though.] It's nice to actually meet you, Katara. I'm Hermione Granger.

Nice to meet you too. I think we've spoken a few times... [She laughs a little and shakes her head.] I'm usually better about introducing myself.

That's all right. So am I, but we were rather busy that day. It's nice to have a chance to meet people that's not something silly like an experiment.

Yeah. It's funny how we can be here for so long and still have people to meet.

It is, isn't it? The village always seems so small, until something like this happens. Then you realise just how many people really live here together.

Mmm. [Katara is not, perhaps, the best judge of the size of villages. For the past two years, the total number of villagers including herself and Sokka equaled about thirty.] Have you been here long?

[And Hermione's used to cities of thousands. This isn't crowded by any means, but she's used to people being way more spread out than this. What is this walking to get to places thing?]

It'll be a year in September. How about yourself?

I've been here since February. [She'd rather not think in terms of 'how long.' Luceti sucks.] It's been a long couple of months.

It feels that way sometimes. I guess I've gotten used to it in a way, though I'll never stop missing home. Having a routine here helps. That's why I do so much. You can't think too much if you're busy all the time. [Of course Hermione's version of "busy" requires a lot of thinking normally, so it's really all the same to her.]

[She nods.] It's unnatural to do nothing all day. I mean, we've got food and shelter provided for us and everything!

Edited 2010-07-25 19:16 (UTC)

And while that's very nice and useful, it does mean we have fewer things to occupy our time with if we're not careful. Of course, I have plenty to study and research here, so that's how I spend my time, but trying to convince some of my friends of that is like pulling a hippogriff through a pumpkin field.

[Which she has actually done!]

[She nods again.] That's what I was saying--

[Wait. Back up.] A hippogriff?

[Hold on, she's just going to pull her wand out of her pocket and draw a rough outline of one in midair.] It's a magical creature where I come from, half horse and half bird. They're rather stubborn sometimes.

[Hold up.

What?]

How did you do that???

[Oho, someone interested in magic. Excuse her, she hasn't been getting nearly enough boosts to her ego lately.]

It's a simple enough magic spell in my world. We can do this sort of thing with elements as well, if we'd like. [And she'll just turn to the side so she doesn't accidentally hit Katara, and draw the hippogriff in fiery lines this time.]

[She is, admittedly, less impressed with this. It's fire. She's not a fan.

But there's very little in Hermoine's manner which reminds her of firebenders. So aside from tensing and shifting into a slightly more 'ready' stance, Katara is just going to stare at that for a minute.]

[Her response to that is decidedly more studied and with a shade of caution.]

It must take a lot of control to hold it like that.

It can. Since it's a specific spell designed to draw in the air, it doesn't require as much concentration as other things like Levitation or Transfiguration.

[Don't think she didn't notice that. A quick wave of her wand later, the fire's gone. She might stick her foot in her mouth ~~since this canon has no brain-to-mouth filter~~ later on, but for now she'll let it slide.]

A spell? So that's - magic, then?

[It's sure different than Kefka's. And she didn't notice any other motion that would have made it like bending.]

Yes. This is who my magic works. Well, one of the ways. It's a very versatile discipline compared to the ways other magic works.

[Very different. And she's not a crazy psychopath like he is. She demonstrates something else, though, pointing her wand at a rock on the ground, swishing and flicking her wand in time to her incantation.]

Like this. Wingardium Leviosa! [See the rock. See the rock float in the air in front of them.]

[A moving rock is something Katara is a lot more comfortable with - so she just studies the movements and the rock for a moment, rapidly trying to match up what she's seeing with her experience.]

So - it's the words that you're saying and the way you're moving that stick? Can you do that with anything, or would you have to use different words to move something else besides a rock? [And something she wouldn't have thought of before she came to Luceti:] Is it something you have to be born with, or can anyone learn?

[Meet Katara - girl of a hundred questions.]

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[action] s-sorry!

[action] :o? Take your time! I'm a slow tagger normally |D;

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