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

[Today is Catch Up Day. There are more than a few people Katara hasn't heard from in a while, or that she meant to catch up with after first meeting them when they came, and so after morning chores she sits down to make a couple of voice posts. All messages are filtered between 70-80 percent, and the filters are mostly there as a courtesy to keep from trolling your journals.]

( Filtered Voice Messages: Longshot, Jet, San, Ginko )

[And some time after she's done with those, she begins making house calls. Sigmund, she has not yet satisfied herself about your ribs since you won't give her a straight answer... and she wants to hear if there's been any news about Katie, so that house will receive a knock on the door. Also, there have been a few 'normal people' she's met that she's concerned about, so she'll be making her way to Alexis' building, hoping to bump into her. She'll also be stopping by the Straw Hat house. She doesn't want to embarrass Nami or anything, but she does want to see with her own eyes that she's okay. If you think she should be checking on your character too, she probably is, or feel free to stop her as she goes along the road.

...although when she returns to her house much later, Katara realizes Something Important and makes a voice post.]

[Filtered AWAY from Ginko]
Does anyone know how to prepare a garden for the winter? There has to be something you can do to keep them so that they'll grow the next year, right?

[As if it wasn't bad enough that she'd been spending the day before doing one of her least favorite chores from back - dressing and tanning game - Luceti had decided to play a little trick on Katara and turn her wings blood red. And then the sun didn't rise - or when it did... solar eclipses weren't supposed to last this long. They'd planned their attack to be in a eight minute window! All throughout the day, Katara kept glancing up at the sun, waiting for the shadow to leave, but it never did.

And when the moon rose...

She was red as blood as well. It twisted something inside her to see the moon like this again - even if it wasn't truly her moon, Katara couldn't help but feel connected to it and - and everything was going so, so wrong now. She'd always known that this was bad, that this was really really bad, and that they were stuck in a place entirely out of their control, but there was nothing like the natural order of things breaking down in front of her to drive that point home.

She's scared. She's really scared, and she can't show it. But when she slips out that night, not going far from the house at all, for the her evening practice routine, she hesitates for a long moment. Routine. Routine is how they'll get through this. Focusing on the things that they can do in the face of what they can't.

...just like she can't quite bring herself to test and see if her bending is still there. The last time the moon went red like this...

So she delays the inevitable, because she knows she can't live with herself until she tries, and makes a voice entry.]

I spent most of yesterday dressing a deer - that's one good thing, anyway, we don't have to worry about running out of food with all the game in the forest and the river. At home, we learn how to use every part of an animal so that nothing goes to waste, in order to respect the life we took to sustain our own. It's messy and gross, and I haven't missed it at all, but if anyone wants to learn how, I'll be happy to teach you.

[A pause, and she glances up at the moon. She really doesn't want to face things just yet.]

...does anyone know any good stories? It seems like a good night for it.


[Feel free to wander by and remark on the waterbender who should be practicing, but isn't.]

[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.]

[Filtered Voice 90%]

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.]

[Filtered from Sokka 57%]

...would anyone who's been kidnapped by the Malnosso before agree to meet with me somewhere and talk about it? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.