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

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, good choice. [ She gives him him a quick smile. ] Very good choice. Are you going to pick out some paint?

Thank you, I think it was the best choice I could possibly make.

Hmm, I think I'll go for blue. Might was well keep with the theme.

[ Probably it was, yes. ]

Okay, good.

[ And Katara pauses and for what is probably the 8th time, eyes up a small, assemble-it-yourself mostly plastic fountain. She makes no move to pick it up, but she does look visibly torn. ]

[He leans in, smirk crossing his face. ]

You know you waaaaaaaaaaaant iiiit~

[ A little startled: ] What? No, I don't.

Yes you doooo~

[He picks it up, raising it so it obscures his face, then, in a ridiculously high voice: ]

You know you want to take me home Katara. I'm so pretty. You should just buy me

[ Frowning, pushing it down. ]

First of all, I can't buy anything, it's all free. Secondly, I don't want it. It just - reminds me of something, that's all.

[That makes Sokka's expression soften, as he lowers the fountain, voice going a little more gentle. ]

...A bad something? I have a feeling it's a bad something.

No... [ Hesitating for a moment. ] My first birthday that I had in Luceti, you threw me a surprise party. Your friend Winry made me a metal fountain. It was beautiful. I kept it in my room -- until I wound up here.

[ So... a plastic fountain is not really a good substitute. And it's not the sort of thing she'd just... indulge in herself. It served no practical purpose. She didn't need this. Even if she thought that she missed the sound of running water, maybe, and that was why she had trouble sleeping. ]

Oh.

[The name means nothing to him, but it's a nice story all the same. ]

That's cool. Now I'm gonna have to find a way to up this. Make a better present than other me.

[Because Sokka will absolutely be in competition with himself.]

Who's Winry?

[ What? No. Sokka! Don't do that. ]

Maybe just figure out when it is? You told me in Luceti that the way things worked out it was on July 5th. [ There had been pie charts and mathematical equations and she completely zoned out. ] Because of... time things. Like... when I had been taken from at home and how long I'd been in Luceti, so you moved it from January 1st to the 5th. So I don't know if I should move it again or keep it like that or just go back to normal because it's too complicated.

[ She's almost inclined to keep it on July 5th, because it had been so close to Nami's, and just keep everything separate. After reaching her majority, the numbers didn't really matter so much anyway. ]

Winry was... a girl from another world. Her country was called Amestris? She was an automail mechanic. You two worked in the smithy together for as long as I can remember. She was very nice.

[ And it was the first time Katara had been given so many presents in her life, and some from people she barely knew - like Winry, who was more Sokka's friend than hers. She'd been completely overwhelmed and all that she'd been given was precious to her, and this is why it's dumb to have nice things, because your house burns down or you get swept up into another world and you lose everything. Better to only have a few things and keep them on you at all times, if you can help it. ]

That...sounds complicated. Honestly, I've just been going from the point I arrived here and calling it even. Plus when you're in space the whole days thing gets a little complicated and it's super easy to miss one if you're nowhere near a sun. But hey, what works with you works with me.

[That country sounds familiar, as does automail, he squints. ]

...Did she know a guy called Alphonse?

[That would be so sweet, and something Sokka could very much get behind. Ultimately, he would do anything for his sister's happiness. Anything.]

[ She doesn't really care very much about her birthday in these places anyway. In fact, she makes a point of not really counting the days so as to not drive herself crazy. So she's willing to let it drop and she nods. ]

Yeah, that's Ed's brother, right? They were all really close friends. I'm guessing he was here?

That's right! He was uh...all metal when he first came here. You know, soul trapped in armour, yadda yadda. But then he went home for a little while and came back flesh and blood. Nice guy.