tushanshu_logs | 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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She blinked, but otherwise wasn't offended by his comment. She had, afterall, seemed to have had an entourage the entire time she had known Akito.

Though of course, part of that time she had been barely able to do anything at all without someone there.

Instead, she smiled bashfully and shrugged a little. "Maybe not if you're up for some company?"

Again, Akito doesn't answer right away - first he looks her over, checking to see if she's actually alright enough to be unaccompanied, as he wouldn't want either of them to get someone angry with them. Seeing that she does seem in good enough condition, Akito relaxes fractionally and nods.

"Company would be nice."

She resists a sigh of frustration as he looks her over, knowing full well that he's checking to make sure she's well enough. When he accepts her state and her offer, she joins him, looking to the water in his hands with a smile.

"What are you working on today?"

"Range with control," he answers, more quietly now that she's closer. The water left in his hands is twined absently between nimble fingers. "If you could help me figure out how to turn water to gas that would be good... I figured out ice and frost more easily during the heat wave." Learning under pressure has always been a skill of his. "I haven't had much use for the other forms yet."

Once the colder weather comes he's sure he'll need it. He's small enough to get chilled quickly in winter, and is aware enough of the weight he's lost to know it will be worse this time around, provided there's a proper winter season.

"Yeah? That's great. How is it feeling?" she asked, her smile much brighter than it had been recently. Waterbending she knew. She was confident in this.

His request drew a nod, and she pulled her own water from her waterskin and took up her place in front of him, pulling the liquid through the air with graceful ease. "I can help with that! It's...different, but not too different... It's a little tricky, because it's sort of harder to contain..." she sent the water higher into the sky, quickly creating a cloud above them, then drawing it back again. "You know how it feels to melt snow or the ice you make? Its sort of like that, but you pull with more pressure..." she explained, going through the motions slowly to show him. "And then push through it to make it expand." With a sweep, the water, again, turned to a mist.

Akito pulls a face, clearly expressing how that's going. "I get to a certain range and then it goes out of control, but I can get farther than I could a few weeks ago."

While he had expected help eventually, Akito hadn't been expecting her to teach him so quickly. He watches and listens closely, and it makes enough sense to him. Mimicking her motions precisely is easy enough - learning to mimic movement was something he was inherently good at - so he tries to do the same, though starts with a ball of ice. If it's like turning ice to water, but with more, it should be easier to just continue pushing after melting it.

Of course, that had just been his theory. And in theory it was good. In application... Maybe not so much. Because his ball of ice gets halfway to a ball of water before exploding in his face into a cloud of snow and rain.

"It's cold!"

"That's good!" she encourages, beaming. "It takes a lot of practice, but if you're seeing improvement, then you're definitely on the right track."

She watches his attempt, flinching as the ball of ice explodes and showers them in snow and icey water. With a soft laugh, she bends the water from both of them and offers it back to him in one fluid motion. "Why don't we start off with liquid and just to mist for now?" she suggests gently with a smile.

"Un, alright." Disappointed and frustrated by his lack of success, because his theory was sound. He takes the water and tries again, this time starting from liquid as suggested and doing marginally better. This time he gets more of a spray of mist than water when it poofs in front of him.

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

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!

"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 practice in the Water Sector when I can," he answers with a slight nod. "And I've used my blood in a fight before." Anything he knows has water content is fair game to try and Bend, in his opinion, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.

She nods back, blinking when he admits to using blood.

A wash of guilt throws itself over her, and she's suddenly even more interested in his learning techniques. "You've used blood?" she asks, somewhat alarmed. "That's..."

There's a clear guilt and fear in her eyes. She will NOT be training another bloodbender. It's bad enough that she's one herself.

"Un, yeah." If he seems at all confused by her reaction, that's because he is. "Blood is over 90% water. The body is made of over 80% water. If I don't have any water on me, I can use the blood that comes out of my injuries." Or blood that's on the ground, but he and Agito have never used someone else's blood against them back home - they've only ever used their own. And Akito doesn't plan to change that record here unless it's necessary.

"Well, yeah, but..." She breaks off, looking away from him. At least he's not technically bloodbending, if he's using his own blood.

It's still unsettling. She shakes her head to clear the thought.

"Well-- There's a stream not too far from here where I like to practice. That way we don't have to go too far from home. Do you want me to show you?"

October Catch-All

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gosh sorry for the short reply D:

nooo don't be sorry!!

Re: nooo don't be sorry!!

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OOOH DEAR, Akito

katara :|||

Re: katara :|||