.01 [ action | video ] have we lost our way back home

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Who: Katara and you!
Broadcast: Video, from the Marsiva
Action: Action on the Marsiva and then then post!Shuffle on the Vanquish
When: Friday, 3/23

[Katara wasn’t always a heavy sleeper, but she never did enjoy waking up. It was a slow process, even here, as if her subconscious had already registered the wrongness of where she was and was well on its way to the land of Denial.

Eventually, though - her eyes opened. And she stayed very, very still as fear replaced sleep in an adrenaline spike sharp enough to make her stomach heavy. Okay. Okay. She still had her bending, in fact, that was at full force for the first time since the last draft, she can feel water in a distant room. But these lights… those walls… that… well, actually, she kind of likes the music, but she can’t -- this is definitely not…

And then she feels it - or she doesn’t feel it - and she forgets her caution and bolts upright, straining her head to take a closer look at her back.]

[She doesn’t expect a response, but she does get up out of the bed and glance around. Her balance is off when she moves, so she takes careful, deliberate steps, as she takes stock of what she has and doesn’t have and exactly where everything is in the room and pauses as the fact that there is music seeps in. What... what is going on here?

But that’s nothing when she spots the viewing bay. She pauses, transfixed for a moment, and then walks very carefully over to the window. She places one hand against it and whispers:] ...there are stars.

[As she spends more time on the Marsiva, she’ll explore the food and take advantage of the exercise equipment, doing what she can to try to get her balance to where it should be without the added (useless; she tells herself she’s glad they’re gone) appendages.]

[ Video Broadcast while on the Marsiva ]
[Serious blue eyes peer out in stark contrast to dark skin as a girl of about eighteen addresses the fleet.]

Hello, my name is Katara. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe, but I've spent the past four years [Had it really been that long? Her expression flickers for a moment.] in a place called Luceti. I understand a... lot of basic information about this place from the augment, but I'm sure there's more to this place than just what is implanted in our heads by our captors.

[Frowning, angry at that, needing to take a visible breath before she can continue.] I'd appreciate any additional information you feel it's safe to give out over these things. And... [Her gaze drops for a moment before she regains her composure and looks back at the camera.] ...if anyone knows the name Luceti, or has heard of the Southern Water Tribe, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know about that too.

[She manages a brief smile.] Thank you so much.


[Action on the Vanquish]
[Katara had been working on her balance on a make-shift balance-beam in the gym section of the Marsiva when she was suddenly teleported -- fortunately close enough to grab a wall. She bats at the confetti with a frown with her other hand as she straightens -- so this is the ‘shuffle’, huh?

The happy little jingle just makes her frown deepen. Jerks, playing with people like this… She gives a deeply exasperated sigh.

Hopefully no one is there to catch frustrated!Katara as their first impression; she will try to make a better second one by exploring the ship, sticking close to the walls, and looking to see who her new shipmates are with a pleasant smile on her face in a few minutes. Feel free to catch her walking around with a smile in a moment or two, but right now, she is having a few mental words with the Atroma and they are Not Nice.]

Comments

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[The accent and the manner of speaking are definitely familiar, yes. So is the strange urge to confide that Katara can never fully place her finger on or explain.

Her brows furrow slightly.] I... don't think so. I did know a little girl named Katie in the place where I was before. She-- [Katara almost says: She could flick away burning, flying trees; restore a broken garden -- but Katie had always seemed so secretive about her magic, and Katara remembers... both times, when she'd come, there had been that burn around her wrist -- and her gaze flickers to Katie's wrist for an instant before coming back up to meet her eyes. She manages to redirect what she had been about to say successfully:] --could do amazing things with chalk.

[hollystrike]

[Katie's wrist is covered. It's a habit now as when a child to wear long sleeves, especially given her job and how many questions it would raise, and it reminds her of a time that was painful. She listens curiously, though, eyes lighting at the mention of chalk before she furrows her brows in puzzlement.]

I can see why you think we're similar. Unfortunately, the most amazing thing I can do with chalk is accidentally eat it and give my mother a heart attack.

[There is chalk in this room, though, worn down into tiny little nubs and kept in a saucer on a shelf.]

Perhaps you met one of many clones. I understand I have several.

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[...that sounds so like something Katie would say that Katara just stares in silence for a moment.]

...I'm not exactly sure what clones are.

[She could probably GUESS, but... that is not a word in her vocabulary.]

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Imagine if your reflection came to life and went off to have a life of its own.

[She hasn't changed much in ten years. Well... more mature perceptions, perhaps. Still playfully obtuse.]

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...that sounds terrifying.

[And also oddly like... how had she been here and not remembered? How had Sokka been here while he was in Luceti? She doesn't believe she's a reflection, but...]

[hollystrike]

Well, it depends on your point of view. I think your reflection might be only too happy to not be stuck in a mirror anymore.

How did you know this other Katie? [Because she's curious.]

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I knew her in the place where I was before this. [A brief smile, some mingled nostalgia and pain, and Katara hopes - as she always hopes when she thinks of Katie - that she got out of whatever trouble had her coming back burned to Luceti and lived a good and whole life.] We met when she first arrived.

[A gaze flickers down to Katie's wrist again and then back up, very quickly.] She was very brave.

[hollystrike]

[That's the second glance wristwards, and Katie's gaze turns from faintly confused to a kind of wary understanding. Not that Katara is sending off any warning bells; it's just... her wrist is a sensitive thing, really.

But it does mean there's an awfully easy way to confirm this. After a moment of measuring silence, she lifts her arm and tugs her sleeve down to show the burn, deep and stretched and scarring, that circles her wrist.]

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[Katara's eyes widen, and her mouth drops open a little.]

Oh no, that's-- [Definitely not a burn she had treated. She hadn't been able to make it all better, the way she could with most burns, but it had been better, and surely not so wide--

She takes a half step towards Katie before she can really help it. You can't heal a scar, not really, at least not without some very special water and even then, she'd never had a chance to try, but--

It's really a result of that compulsion to confide that Katara doesn't quite manage to keep back what she knows, seeing the scar, hadn't happened.] --I thought I'd healed it better than that. [She turns her distressed gaze to Katie - a woman, now, but she knew (she knew, remembering fire on 'her' own back, on her hands) that the wounds left on children left their own scars on adults.] ...but I guess not for you, huh? I'm sorry.

[hollystrike]

[It's only stretched out with age, which diffuses the depth of it some. Katara's outright dismay is a wistful sort of thing for Katie. Automatically, she likes Katara, and now she knows why there's the traces of oath magic present. Because she can imagine what her younger, smaller self did when someone took that pain away.]

Does it help if I tell you that's the last time anyone burned me? And that the person who did suffered for it?

[It's not proudly said. Not that Katie regrets her actions in the slightest, but sounding vicious is not a good first (second?) impression.]

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A little, yeah. [There's a hard light in Katara's eyes that says she finds that perfectly justified and might have even wanted to get in on it - bad enough to burn an adult, but a child, Katie had been a child--

And now she was an adult.

Katara shakes her head a little, takes a breath, and then meets Katie's (Katie's??? What??????) gaze again.] I'm glad it was the last time someone burned you. And I'm glad that the person who did it didn't get away with it.

[hollystrike]

I rather doubt he burned anyone ever again. [With Katara's reaction, she permits herself a flash of teeth. She introduced him to a wall with the help of a filing cabinet, Katara. At high speed.]

Well, then. It's nice to see you again! I'm sure I'll remember the first meeting if you give me enough time. Is there anything I can answer for you?

[She wonders if Katara knew her well enough to know her style of speaking, otherwise this could get interesting.]

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[Katara was familiar with Katie's pattern of speech (Katie!), though she'd never completely gotten the hang of it, and what was just 'little girl' and what was... more than that.

...it seemed, listening to the adult Katie (this was going to take a while to get used to), that it was more than that.]

It's nice to see you again too. You were about... nine or ten the last time I saw you. [So... no hug, but... hmm, this was weird. Heh. Kind of cool, though. A grin tugs at the edges of Katara's mouth.] It's kind of cool, though. I'm really glad you got out of whatever you went back to, I was worried about that.

[hollystrike]

Was I already burned? [She muses, thinking back. If that were the case, then Katie was already out of danger when she arrived. Probably. Unless she was still in the playground.

...not a question she's going to be able to answer, anyway. Instead, she grins impishly.]

I am pretty cool, aren't I? You know when I first came here, I was still a little girl? I grew up here.

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[Katara nods in response to that question, but she doesn't really want to answer it because she's too busy trying to figure out what Katie means.

...she couldn't have grown up here, but did she first arrive here as a little girl? She's not sure, /sob. Her brows furrow a little.] ...you must have been here a long time, then.

[hollystrike]

At least ten years. [Agreeably.] It wasn't so bad. Time flew by so fast that it didn't seem that long at all.

1/2

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2/2

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[...well, maybe she could try with adult!Katie what she never could try with the child!Katie because Katara just wasn't sure how much was... Katie and how much was child.

She gives a wry smile and shrugs a little.]

I'm out of practice with this. What I think you're telling me is that you came here as a child, and then one of those 'falling asleep' going home updates happened and when you woke up, it was like ten years had passed. Can you tell me something really outrageous like - the sky is orange - or something if I'm right?

[Instant doubt sets in after she says that -- because maybe she just said something horribly insulting and she'd been wrong the whole time, but... well, it was worth the shot. Katara's a lot more fond of honest communication than she is of stumbling around in the dark.]

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[That's the other piece of confirmation she needed. Out of practice. So Katara knows her tendency to lie, which makes her flash a wide grin before she contrives to look overly puzzled.]

But the sky is orange. Haven't you ever seen a sunset?

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[Heh. ...so it was a Katie thing, not a child thing. That was a relief.] Not for a few nights now. I could have forgotten. [Grin. Except. Not at all.

Okay, so.] If you've been here all this time, maybe you know my brother, Sokka?

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[That's such a wonderful answer that for a moment the question doesn't sink in, she's too busy being delighted. And then this face.]

You're related to Sokka?

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[Katara blinks. That was not a response she expected. At all. What...?]

Yes... why do you say it like that?

[She can't imagine that Sokka and Katie, well... that anything bad would have happened, anyway?]

[hollystrike]

Say it like what? I didn't say it like anything. I certainly didn't say it as if Sokka was annoying and disbelieving and disrespectful and other dis words.

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Oh. [...well.

...well.] ...yeah, he can be like that sometimes.

[She's got his back, but you know, she also KNOWS him. So after giving a shrug, Katara gives Katie a quick grin as if to say: It's not personal, he's just that way.] You should have heard him when I was trying to learn waterbending.

[hollystrike]

He's very skeptical, isn't he? [She picks up the little tangle of wool she was working on, tugging at individual pieces.] What's water bending?