markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .025

[Today - hadn't been so bad. Twenty of them, maybe? It sure seemed like there were a lot less out here than they'd been led to expect, and that was only a good thing because she was tired. The weight of doing this every day was getting to her. Blood had dried in clumps in her hair, and she'd been too tired to bend it out. Now as she stood in the shower, the water collecting at her feet was pink.

It isn't supposed to be pink.

Her stomach heaves and Katara shuts her eyes and stands under the water until even the Malnosso's hotel runs out of hot water, and long after it turns cold.

The thought of going to sleep leaves her restless, and after staring at herself in the mirror too long, she goes to knock on some doors. She doesn't plan on staying long, but just - seeing - that Toph and Sokka are still all right will do her good. She hesitates, and then heads towards Caesar's door as well. When she returns, she's still awake, and so instead of a quick line that she won't respond to anyway, she makes a voice post tonight.]

Hey everyone! How are things going there?

[Hesitation.]
Nami, is... the house still standing?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pretty scary way.

[ She could glare the Third Party into surrender. ]

[A quick grin.] As long as it works, right? I can't imagine it's easy with you guys...

[ Automatically adjusting that statement to exclude himself. ]

Well, everyone can be pretty stubborn when they want to.

Yeah, I guess that's true. Everyone's like that.

So are you doing okay?

[ He hates it here. He hates not having a choice and pointless fighting is just ridiculous and being separated from nakama after everything that happened is cruel and this isn't like home where he's not sure if something he did led to a person's death or not.

But he's not that surprised by that kind of thing here anymore, either.

And saying all of that would make it much harder to ignore when everything's back to normal- not to mention it just wouldn't be manly- so Usopp will handle this the way he handles most other things and smile through it. ]

Of course; I'm always doing okay, so there's nothing to worry about.

...

What about you? [ Since you, as far as he's concerned, are allowed not to be okay if you aren't. ]

[Always doing okay, huh? Her mouth twists a little wryly at that, but for some reason the emotional honesty she's been stifling in her other conversations rises to the surface now. Maybe it's to show him that he doesn't have to be okay. Or maybe it's to distract him. Or maybe she's just tired, and there's something about Usopp which invites her to confide.]

I hate it here. I hate that we don't have any choice but to kill them, and I hate that every time we go out on the battlefield we can feel how much they want to kill us. I've fought before, and I've killed before, but it's never been every day like this - I know that they want to kill us too, that we're killing them because they want to kill us, but it still feels...

[So wrong.]

But you don't have to worry about me - I'll be fine. It's just... bitter work.

[ Sometimes just being okay is the easiest thing. ]

Yeah. [ It even sounds hollow to him. He'll briefly put a hand on her shoulder to make up for it. ] It'll be good to get out of here, though.

Yeah, it will. [A short pause.] I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Usopp.

Yeah.

Make sure to get some sleep, okay? [ Not that he'd ever mother anyone. ]

[Nooo, of course not. She wouldn't either.]

You too.

[And she smiles a little and heads back to her room.]

[ Action, Voice ] .025

[ action ]

[ action ]

[ action ]

[ action ]

[ action ] 1/2

[ action ]

[ action ] 1/2

[ action ]

[ action ]

[ action ]

[ action ]

[ action ]