tushanshu_logs | October Catch-All

Entry tags:

October Catch-All

Characters: Katara, Open
Date: October
Location: Wood Sector mostly
Situation: Katara's Balancing Act
Warnings/Rating:Lots and lots of hurt feels

Katara, as of late, is stuck in a very tentative balance between her own healing and doing her best to be the strength of those around her. She's starting to wear thin and is far too close to breaking, but she's determined not to let it interfere with her aiding the others.

Stresses/Situations include:

-Physically, Katara has yet to heal completely from Zuko's fire.
-The entire poisoned Zuko situation. Her efforts to heal him have been completely ineffective, for which she feels personally guilty. She's having to watch him fall apart and can do nothing to stop him. There's no way to help him carry his burden except to let him hurt her, which, unfortunately for her friends and brother, she's willing to do. She is also battling romantic feelings toward him as well: this level of dedication to someone's wellbeing definitely has an effect on the heart, and she is no exception. The fact that they arrived together out of a particularly desperate moment back home also doesn't help. (Or does it)
-Though her own turtle was spared, Katara is devastated over the murder of the babies, particularly Korra's.
-She's well aware that her bloodbending capability is emotionally scarring, and now she's having to watch over a hurt and very hesitant avatar. She's healing him in silence (after the Kedan's fail assassination attempt) when he allows her near enough, but the tension is wearing her down to the point of actual frustration, both toward him and herself.

She will, however, attempt to hide as many of these as she can from everyone including Aang, her brother, and Akito, lest she be even more of a burden on an already dark situation.

(( Threads are open to any situation you like :) ))

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Wan's eyes drifted back to her as she spoke. She and Zuko had shared so much more than he and Zuko had. They'd gone through a lot together. And Katara's trust was hard won for Zuko. But it was complete trust. He could see that, both in how Zuko had spoken and in how Katara talked of him now.

He shut his eyes again and gave a soft sigh before speaking in a weary tone, "I never knew my parents."

It was an easier topic to talk about. And if he was going to force himself to offer his trust to her, he needed it to be easier. Starting there seemed appropriate, considering she was speaking of her mother. Dead or not.

She took a deep breath, then looked down at her knees. "So what should I do? I know I'll have to bend again... Zuko still needs healing..."

That, she was sure, would be even harder to overcome. Working with someone's body was difficult enough as it was, but after what she had done... after controlling him...

"Well, Guru Patik had me clear my fire chakra. He had me meditate on forgiving myself and letting go of my shame. We could start there, if you wanted."

Misty eyes lifted at Wan's admittance. She hadn't expected him to tell her anything about himself, and the surprise made her heart skip a beat. It almost seemed like a step toward getting to know each other.

"I'm sorry... Who took care of you as you grew up?" she asked, never forceful, but encouraging that step. "With mom gone, and my dad helping fight in the war, my GranGran took care of me and Sokka."

After a moment longer of just sitting in silence, she nodded. "Okay... we can start there."

Leave it to her only monk friend to suggest meditation.

...At least it wasn't a bad suggestion.

"Okay! Let me just go and make you some onion banana juice."

He's kidding, right?
Right?!

She blinks.

"Wait...what?" She asks in a flat tone, one brow raising.

"I did," he said, voice still soft, tired. So tired. "I took care of myself until I was seven or so. Then Yao, a hunter, took me in and took care of me. A couple years after that, he took in Jaya. And a year after that, I had to start taking care of both of them. We moved out of the city, off the streets and into a shack in the trees we built ourselves with scrap wood. I spent every day trying to get my hands on just a few scraps of food for all three of us. Until I finally got so fed up with having no power... that I took it."

Wan opened his eyes and looked at Katara, "Do you remember the story I told the children in the hospital the day you arrived? About the boy who stole fire?"

Edited 2014-10-20 22:52 (UTC)

Katara let Naga go, watching with mild interest as the animal went to check out her brother before turning to give Korra a shrug over her brother's behavior and failed attempt at lying. "So calm."

At Korra's question, she let out a long sigh along with a small but genuine smile as she turned to look at the older girl properly. "Better, I think. I can move around now on my own, anyway." For a minute she searched Korra's face, then tipped her head in her own concern, reaching up to take hold of the avatar's arm in a returned gesture of comfort. "How have you been?" She had heard, of course, through Marcelon that Korra's turtle had been one of the few.

She could see how tired he was, but while she was torn between leaving him to rest and staying to talk, she opted the latter, too hopeful to give up on what could be an incredibly rare chance to gain his trust and offer more of her own. She listened attentively, truthfully intrigued by his story. It... really sounded very odd, coming from the first ever Avatar, but fitting, given what she had seen of Wan. Her heart when out to him, though it was all in his past, and when he admitted to taking power, her eyes widened a little.

He'd find her still wide eyed when he turned to look at her, but she quickly dropped her gaze for a moment, then looked up with a slightly apologetic expression. "Sort of? I, uh... was kind of distracted..." She had, afterall, just been reuinited with her friends, one who, in her world, had just left to fight his final battle with the firelord and the other who had just been lying in the dirt with lightning coursing through his body at full force.

"But I remember you telling the children that that's the story you were going to tell. Was it about you?"

She watched, beaming when it worked. "There you go!"

He nodded and shifted his eyes to Mula, still idly petting her while she purred heavily into his chest.

"Yes. I wasn't born with the power to use the elements," he said in a neutral tone, knowing how that would sound to her. "No human was. I don't know when they will be, between my era and yours. But they weren't."

"There were no benders? How did you steal the power?"

The idea was positively baffling.

Akito shoots her an incredulous look. She can't be serious, can she? "But it was no good."

Okay, so maybe he is a bit hypercritical of himself. But not being critical of oneself will never lead to improvement!

"I convinced a group of hunters to let me leave the city with them. When hunters went out, they asked the Lion Turtle for the Power of Fire to use as protection against the spirits in the Spirit Wilds," he began. Telling this story was fairly easy. He'd told less detailed versions to the children at the hospital and to Leonardo.

"Once we were outside the city and in the forest, I pretended to be too scared to keep going and they sent me back to the city. Told me to give the fire back to the Lion Turtle, but didn't follow me to see if I did. I went back and I took the Power of Fire into the city. I broke the Lion Turtle's rules and stole Fire. I used that power to lead a raid on the food stores of the Chou Family. Their family had been chosen by the Lion Turtle further back than anyone could remember to rule over the city. They hoarded food even when so many within the walls went hungry. They cared about their power, not their citizens.

"I was caught, but I was the only one. They took me before the Lion Turtle and banished me. But I convinced the Lion Turtle to let me keep the Power of Fire so I could protect myself in the Spirit Wilds. No one expected me to last the night. Not even me."

A firm tongue across half of his face was Sokka's reward for his bravery and Naga wagged her tail happily, able to smell the strange familiar scent of Katara on him. One she had been used to from staying with Korra and her waterbending master at the compound.

"I've been," Korra looked over at the polar bear dog trying to playful with Sokka, reminded that her animal guide was the only creature she was looking after now. She sub-consciously squeezed Katara's as she turned back to her. "better." But she got a smile on her face anyway and grabbed both bags.

"You guys might be able to use this." Korra motioned Katara inside as she bumped Naga with her hip. "Knock it off, girl." Freeing Sokka from possibly being tackled, Korra tossed him the sack of winter clothes. "This is stuff that's been lying around for a while, so it might need to be cleaned. This" She tapped the other bag with her fingers. "is going to be some good grub."

"Oh it's great," he lies.
Like a rug he lies.

"Nothing helps you clear out your chakras better."

His smile is just a bit too overenthusiastic to be taken for sincere.

"That sounds..."

Her face says it all as she draws back and looks at him as though he's gone mad.

"Is that an...air bender thing?"

She's confused, but can't help a small smile at his clear attempt at a joke.

At least...she hopes its a joke.

"Wait, you got the Power from a lion turtle?" At this point, she was completely intrigued and admittedly confused. She listens as he continues, more and more curious as he goes. So he used it to help the people...

That... sounded familiar. She smiles weakly as it resonates with her own memories of doing something similar for the people of Jang Hui. Maybe she and Wan weren't so different.

Hearing that he had been captured, she found, was more surprising than she imagined it should have been. He was the avatar. To think of him younger and without all the power didn't sound like the avatar she had very much imagined when Aang had explained who Wan was. Simple beginnings, though, sometimes held more value than would seem.

"But you did," she says, not caring how obvious the fact is now. "How? What happened next?"

She's almost as eager as a child, and clearly just as curious. The way her blue eyes watch him says it all.

"That was your first time," she smiles, balancing her water in the air once more. "It was plenty good. Now you've just got to learn to control it through practice."

She pauses and looks around them before settling her gaze on Akito again. "Have you ever tried practicing where there's more water? And not just what's in your...thing?" she asks, nodding toward his canteen. Suddenly, for just a few seconds, she appears a little more thoughtful as she looks at it, before looking to him for his answer.

"I managed to scrape myself out of a few terrifying encounters with the creatures of the Spirit Wilds," he answered as his eyes drifted to Mula and he finally smiled. "I met Mula the next morning. She was caught in a hunter's net. The same hunters I had tricked into letting me come with them. I climbed the tree she was hanging from and was going to get her down. The hunters came back before I could. But I got their attention and led them away from her."

He leaned his head forward to nuzzle Mula's cheek and she turned to nuzzle him back, happy for the attention.

"The hunters caught up with me and were probably going to kill me. But the Aye-Aye Spirit, a Spirit who guarded an oasis I had come across, stopped the hunters and saved me. He brought me back to the oasis and put me in the water. I was healed nearly instantly. I lived with those Spirits for a year. A Spirit Dragon taught me to control the power of fire and I helped protect the oasis from the humans of the the Lion Turtle I was born in. And Mula has been with me since."

Her eyes lifted to the cat deer as he told of their introduction, watching the two interact. She was a beautiful creature, and a part of her longed to reach out and pet her herself.

But she didn't, not wanting to upset either of them as Wan continued his story.

She shook her head slowly in disbelief as she took it all in. Spirit dragons and Lion turtles and Aye Aye Spirits? "That's...really incredible, Wan... The time I come from is nothing like all of that."

Her brow furrowed and she looked down at her hands. "Did the spirits teach you how to make the spirit water, too?"

Wan leaned his head to the side so he could see Katara and give her the most incredulous look, "Make spirit water? I can't make spirit water. That's not how it works."

She returned his look with one of her own, completely baffled. "But you just did."

She paused, then, remembering the last she had heard him talk about the water. There's some somewhere on the turtle.

"...wait, you didn't know?!"

"I haven't-" he started, and stopped as she asked about him not knowing. His confusion was great enough that for the moment it overpowered and drowned out the other feelings he had. Most obviously his fear and discomfort with her presence, "What are you talking about?"

Mula lifted her head off Wan's chest to look at Katara with her deep green eyes, also curious as to what was going on. Wan was getting a lot more animated.

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Page 5 of 8

October Catch-All

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gosh sorry for the short reply D:

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nooo don't be sorry!!

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Re: nooo don't be sorry!!

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