it's a harmony, a miracle, being able to breathe and live at all

[For the past almost two weeks, Katara has been struggling to regain her balance - even struggling to want to regain her balance. Aang's second return home hit her hard, on top of Zuko's mallynapping and Toph's return... Toph who doesn't remember. It's good to see her, but it's terrible as well. Now more of them are trapped in this horrible place. And she still hasn't been able get back to wearing her regular clothes because the 'phasing' keeps happening, as randomly and as annoyingly as ever.

It's been almost two weeks since she's returned and her shoulder hasn't been in any pain in days. The experience of having her bending completely taken away in the Malnosso facility was one that's almost beyond words, and now that she's back where she can feel even just half herself again, the desire, the need to bend has been growing under her skin like an itch.

She can't take it anymore. So Katara goes out just after dinner to one of her favorite practicing spots between her house and the barracks, and begins by doing very simple forms that don't require a lot of movement. She pauses when Momo finds her and sits down to take a break.

It's not long before she begins talking to the lemur about their adventures. It feels good - to talk to someone about home, to talk about all the things that happened, to remember who she really was, despite what this place wanted to make her. She doesn't notice when Momo knocks the journal opened when he moves to chase after what could be a fallen nut. He might not be the best listener ever.]

--Sokka sent Aang in to steal the book. Remember riding on top of Appa's back so Aang and I could shape the clouds? It was too bad that we had to go through all that just to get them to listen to us. So after we made the skull in the sky, we dragged out Aunt Wu to see it - the sign for volcanic doom. Then the villagers listened. All the earthbenders worked to dig trenches and everyone else grabbed shovels to help out as best as we could.

And then when volcano exploded, we got back as far as we could, but it flowed right through--

[There's some excited chatter by the book, and suddenly the picture is filled with this face. It flickers from voice to video and back again.]

Momo, what are you doing? Get away from that!

[The video shows Katara shooing Momo away from her journal and then automatically shutting it. She gets back to her practicing, but will open up the journal later and see that it accidentally recorded. Way to go, Momo.]

[After doing everything she could at home to deal with the fact that Zuko was gone, Katara headed out to the lake where she proceeded to bend and cry until she was exhausted. The storm feels good. She made her weary way back to the house with something of a headache, but she didn't think much of it. So what if the lights hurt her eyes? That was normal after so much crying and rage, right?

She fell into a deep, exhausted sleep as soon as she hit the bed. When morning light first entered her room, Katara shifted uneasily. Soon enough she opens her eyes to start the day - and screams. This was beyond a headache, it was like a screaming in her eye, a shooting pain, a burning.

Katara immediately slaps both hands over her eyes and sways back and forth a little to comfort and distract herself from the pain. After a moment of panicked breathing, her adrenaline kicks in and Katara shifts one hand to cover her eyes and fumbles for her journal with the other. Filtering is hopeless right now, even if it had occurred to her, although she'd much rather keep this private. Her voice is scared and filled with suppressed quivering.]

Ginko? I think something's wrong.

[And with that, she clings on to the journal and hopes that someone answers her soon. She can't see anything and it hurts.]


((OOC: This is forward dated to about 6.30am, Tuesday morning, for tagging convenience. Also, a warning: Housemates may commandeer her book.))

[Painstakingly filtered to the Straw Hats, Toph, Zuko, Sokka, Ginko, Allen Walker, Nash, Smithy Workers, and Caesar Silverberg, even though she's still a bit mad at him. 72 percent.]

If anyone knows how to make the filter higher, I'd really appreciate it.

Someone arrived from my world today who it would be a good idea to be cautious around. Her name is Azula, and she is a very powerful firebender who can also bend lighting. I don't know what she'll do without a Fire Nation here, but I can bet that it won't be anything good.

Don't trust her.

[And so after stalking Azula's entrance into Luceti and conversation with Roku, Katara decides that about now is a good time to interrupt them. So she will gingerly make her way over to where Roku is.]

Hey, Roku? Can I get your help with something?


ETA: And after about 2 minutes, that filter will have been bumped up to 100 via Ginko.

So, we can use these things to contact everyone? That's pretty neat if really really weird. I think I'll start of writing, though, because talking to a book still seems like something Dock would do.

That's got to be annoying, for so many people to look at something if you just want to talk to one or two people. The guide said something about being able to filter these things? But I don't really see how that could work...

Tormod, you can have your cape back whenever you want. Have you found a place to stay yet?

And hey, if there's a Hugo or a Derek out there, I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes.

[So not one to stay copped up in the house, Katara is going to pack up her journal and her waterskin and bundle up. They're in the middle of a cold snap, but now that she has shoes the freezing doesn't really bother her so much. She's going to head on over to the grocery store to get some soup ingredients and check out the other buildings. She's friendly! Feel free to say hello!]

ETA [Voice]
Hey Toph! I'm at the grocery store, do you want anything?