[ open ] .002 though I am empty, I still warn the sailors on their way

[watermarks]

Who: Katara
Broadcast: Written, Video
Action: Yes! Blue Fish and Planet
When: Message sent Monday, midmorning. Some backdated shuffle action.

[After giving it some thought, Katara decided to make an open network post. She wanted to write it out, but as part of her habit from living with Toph, she decided to both transcribe and say it aloud:]

I want to thank the person who put the memorial into place. If you get in touch with me, I can help you get the number to fill in.

I know that a lot of us have been pretty impacted by what we found here. I don’t know how long we’re usually on a planet, but I was thinking… it might be good to have some kind of remembering ceremony by the memorial? It feels important to find a way to show honor to the lives that were lost here. I don’t know what kind of funeral rites they would have preferred, and there’s no way to respectfully move them, so… maybe some fire and some music? Does anyone have any ideas?

I know that this might not be for them as much as it is for us, but… I think that’s important too.

(OOC: Please feel free to threadjack all up in this conversation; Katara would like to make this a community effort, because it feels like it’s something that’s needed to her.)



[The confetti is still as annoying as the last time it happened, but Katara is happy to be on her brother’s ship. She’ll want to wander around and meet everyone, though no doubt Sokka will soon join her to give her an Official Tour. (Did she really need to know every single detail about the ship and all its history? Probably not, but now she does, unless someone saves her.) She’ll spend some time in the kitchen and try to figure out what she needs to bring up from the planet, and then do the same thing in her new room.

Before she heads back down to the planet, she’s going to try to linger long enough to meet everyone.]


[Since the Blue Fish will likely be her permanent home as long as she’s on the fleet, that means that Katara will be doing what she can to take advantage of the free… everything. Her first stop is a hardware store where she picks up a wheelbarrow and several cans of water-based paint. The color - some shade of blue, though she wants something a little lighter too. She’ll be there pondering over choices for a bit.

She also has no qualms about stealing a good idea from the Vanquish when she sees it, and will pick up a chalkboard for the kitchen there as well. She spends a long time staring at a small electrically powered fountain for noise, trying to decide whether or not to get it. For now, she walks away.]

Hmm… maybe I should get different chair too?

[So feel free to find her, either at the hardware store or wheelbarrowing her way back to the shuttles! After dropping the paint off in the cargo hold, she’ll return once more to the planet for a bunch of canned fruits and vegetables and rice… and maybe go back for that fountain.]

Comments

[watermarks]

Well... I guess that makes my job easier.

[Or even more useless.

Except being a cook wasn't useless, she knew how important this sort of thing was, she just...

Bleck.]

[rebuildyourruins]

I don't see why we couldn't start doing it, though. Especially when we're between planets.

[When they're in a system, it's harder to corral people into one place. Thor himself is liable to go traipsing off for days at a time without coming back to the ship when there's a planet available.]

[watermarks]

If... you think that's something people would like to do? [She shrugs a little.] It was a rule, back in Luceti. Family dinners, and everyone would show up or let me know if they couldn't, and we'd all touch base then. I'd cook, they'd clean. But... that was with my friends from my world. I don't think I'd want to impose that on a bunch of people I've barely met.

[...Sokka being the exception to this in every way, yes.]

[rebuildyourruins]

Well, maybe not as a rule. As a suggestion it wouldn't hurt. I know a number of people on the Blue Fish are from the same world already.

[Dorian, Leilani, Riona and Alistair ... he knows at least some of them transferred here to make that happen. The same as Katara.]

[watermarks]

Really? What world is that?

[...it's Earth, isn't it. It's almost always Earth.]

[rebuildyourruins]

It's called Thedas. I think there are also some others around on the other ships, but I don't know them.

[Finally he remembers what he came into the kitchen to do, moving to turn the kettle on.]

[watermarks]

[Huh. Her eyebrows raise. Not Earth? Who knew!]

I haven't heard of that one. How many people on the ship are from there?

[rebuildyourruins]

Four of them, so half the crew. Then there's you and Sokka from your world, myself from Asgard, and I'm not certain where Paine is from.

[watermarks]

[ She nods. ]

So it's a pretty full ship. [ She wants to ask if there's something that she needs to be aware of, any ships culture things... who's the most annoying... stuff like that. But she'd also like to be able to make her own call on that, so... hmm. ] It's a good thing there's the Iskaulit around to go to in case we need room.

[rebuildyourruins]

It seems that way, yet there are rooms around to spare.

[When the kettle whistles Thor turns around and switches it off. He promptly fills up his cup with instant coffee mix and water.]

Stupidly cramped to live on though. I don't spend as much time here when we're on a planet.

[He has little problem with complaining about the Fleet ships. If he were back in his own universe on the Statesman, he wouldn't say anything of the sort. Annoying as the Fleet is, it's not in those kinds of dire straits.]

[watermarks]

Yeah... [ Honestly, eyeing him up in a measuring sort of way. ] ...honestly, I'm surprised you fit. Do you have to worry about banging your head a lot?

[ Tall Thor is tall. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

Oh, I got used to ducking.

[A shrug of one shoulder.]

The Quinjet was a lot smaller than this, anyway, so it's not so bad.

[watermarks]

[ >...'Quinjet'?

Eh, probably a smaller space ship than this that he had to use at some point. She'll let it go with a little half shrug: ]

The most flying I did before this was on Appa, and we didn't have to worry about roofs. [ Just... rain. And Fire Nation soldiers. She turns to start rummaging through cabinets again. ] Well, that and there was the one time we were drafted to fight on the moon in Luceti.

[rebuildyourruins]

'Appa'? Is that an open air vessel?

[At least in Thor, Katara's found a person who won't even bat an eyelid at the idea of fighting on the moon.]

Was there some kind of battle taking place there to require your service?

[watermarks]

Appa? [A quick grin at that description, popping her head out of the cabinet to share it with Thor.] You could say that. He's Aang's sky bison. [...right, that requires explanation.] A giant, fluffy, six-legged animal who can fly. He's very sweet.

[All of this makes sense, hush. Her expression sobers at his next question and she kicks herself for saying anything, especially about that draft.] Um... the place where I was before is a long story, but yes. There was a war there, and the people who kept us behind enclosures would often draft anyone they could to go and fight it, whether they had combat experience or not.

[She's still angry about that. She'll probably never not be angry about that.] Their base on the moon was under heavy attack, and so we were forced to go there to help their forces.

[This is definitely not a pre-coffee conversation, and although she doesn't drink it herself she knows Thor Did Not Ask for this. So. A valiant attempt is made:] It was about a year ago. I spent way more time on Appa then I did on those spaceships.

[rebuildyourruins]

Oh, a flying beast! I understand.

[Thankfully, it makes sense to Thor too. It brings the mounts of the Valkyrie to mind.]

So you were forced into combat. [He scowls a little at the idea. He's no stranger to warfare, having taken part in hundreds of battles across the years. That was nearly always a choice, though, or done to prevent further strife from occurring. Other than his imprisonment on Sakaar, it had always been part of his duty as prince of Asgard.] I am sorry to hear that. You should not have to take up arms against your will.

[He does drink some of his coffee then, noting that Katara is trying to turn the conversation away from the battles.]

In Asgard we had airships, and the Valkyrie used to ride winged horses.

[watermarks]

Thank you. [ She smiles at him. She... probably wouldn't be smiling if she realized she'd just implied that she didn't have combat experience, but considering that's so far away from the way she perceives herself, it doesn't even occur to her. ] If you want, I'll tell you about it sometime.

[ It was only fair, after all. But for now, she'd like to try to keep the conversation lighter, since she'd hated seeing the way Ben's face changed once she'd told him a little bit about Luceti... and, well, Thor was dealing with enough. Plus, it really was too much before coffee. ]

What kind of airships did you have? Our world had them too. They were powered by hot air.

[rebuildyourruins]

They had their own power cells. The ships were open, meant for carrying soldiers to the battlefield. They did have their own artillery as well.

[watermarks]

[She nods.] So they were similar, except if the power cells where you're from are anything like the power I've seen here, they were probably a lot faster.

[Though she'd thought the airships were pretty fast when she'd first seen them, she knew that speed was nothing compared to what she'd seen here and in Luceti.]

I don't really like being closed in on these ships like this. I'm used to ocean vessels or - even Appa didn't have any walls. This is going to take some getting used to.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor hums his agreement, tilting his coffee cup back and forth.]

Neither do I. It's why I spend more time on the planets when we visit them. Taking a room at an inn is worth the cost if it means not being on the ship every night.

[Which isn't to say he doesn't come back at all when they're planetside. He does. There's zero love lost for the functional space of the Blue Fish though.]

[watermarks]

[She nods.] I don't much like deserts or the place where we stayed last, or else I probably would have done the same.

[It's nice to think that they're not trapped on the ship entirely.]