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.]

[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?

[On her way back from slipping a fresh Thank You note underneath Allen Walker's door, Katara sees a shiny blue disk.

Ooooooo. Shiny.

She reaches out to touch it - and is whisked up and away! Her journal tumbles opened as she fights to control it, and she's soon laughing with pure joy. This is so fast! It's awesome!]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! [More laughter. Okay, phasing through things is kind of weird, so she's going to try to steer this manic thing out of the village and - oh no. Rock. ROCK! Why isn't it phasing!!

She tumbles out of the thing, head over heels into the river and starts laughing helplessly. She tries to get back to her feet and falls back in. The journal's landed open safely on the bank, and is recording her attempts to stand up straight.]

Oh man. [Splash.] Wow.

[Later, she throws up a small filter to Riku]

Hey - you doing OK?

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.]

[So there were tears, and there was rage, and now there is a very shaky determination, because the only way Katara knows out of pain is through it. She painstakingly crafts a filter. She doesn't trust her voice, so she writes:]

[Filtered to Sanji, 80 percent.]

Sanji, we need to talk.

[She doesn't understand why Sokka likes hacking filters so much. Her attempts so far have been met with nothing good. After looking at Ty Lee and Sokka's conversation yesterday... Katara has come to some conclusions. But that's far from the only thing that needs to be dealt with today, and so she takes out her journal to make some posts.]

I hope everyone is okay after yesterday. The houses should be back in order, but... if anyone needs any help moving things around or getting new furniture, there should be a bunch of us who'll be around to help. Just let me know and I'll try to get something organized, okay? We're all in this together, after all.

[Filtered to the Straw Hat Crew, 50 percent]
I guess the party is off today? I'm really sorry about that - maybe she'll calm down in a little while? I hope so...

[Filtered to Ty Lee, 70 percent]

I think we need to talk. Where would you like to meet?

( Private to Self, 70 percent )

[And after this post, Katara can be found slicing the five trees around her house into manageable sized bits of lumber, responding to journal entries, and eventually wandering around to where ever Ty Lee says that she'd like to meet.]

[Voice]
Hey, Hugo - if you have a chance, I'd like to talk to you about something.

[And then she shuts the book and moves to her evening practice session behind her house. Today is not about how much water she can move, but it is about control. When the wind blows her journal opened, anyone watching can see thin streams of water moving quick enough to cut intertwining with her arms and legs as she works through a form. The pattern of when she splits a stream, and when she adds more water seems random... until you glance above her head. Any time her concentration is broken by a flash of an image, she adds another and another until all the thought bubble reflects are the forms

If you want to interrupt her, give her a minute - messing up and slicing herself with one of those water streams would be painful. While she normally hates to have her practicing interrupted, tonight it's not quite keeping her mind off of things.]