01 ≋ a frozen ocean joins our hearts ≋

[waterwhip]

Who: Katara and you!
What: Exploring the area and not getting into trouble at all ever.
When: Within the first couple of days of arrival.
Where: The fountain and the greenhouse.
Warnings: None! Maybe later.

--∿≈≋🌘≋≈∽--

It isn't lost on Katara that the assembled band of 'heroes' brought from every corner are fortunate to have an abundant supply of fresh water. She is fortunate, more than most--some people drink what they need to survive without thinking much about it, but for a daughter of the Water Tribe, and a waterbender to boot, water is essential to Katara. It has informed every aspect of her life.

She bends in the square when she has time and it's not too crowded. Pakku would never let her hear the end of it if she let her skills get rusty, and frankly, she's worked too hard just to be allowed to learn to let it go to waste.

The water she's gathered up now will go to the greenhouse later, but there's nothing saying she can't play with it a little first. It coils through the air, forming loops and spirals. Refracted light dances on the ground and the walls of the buildings around her. Another movement catches her eye, and she turns, first with a guarded look and then a smile.

"Oh, hey! I didn't see you there."

--∿≈≋🌕≋≈∽--

Since discovering that her skills as a waterbender are invaluable in streamlining the process of cultivating food, Katara has made daily visits to the greenhouse to water and weed the plants. There are a few she's become particularly fond of--one is a little maroon and pink fruit she's dubbed the 'glueberry' for how sticky the juice becomes if it gets mashed; it's sweet and tart, and she knows they're packed with nutrients.

Her favorite is a much larger fruit that she discovered after a few days of tending the greenhouse. The husk of the fruit requires a bit of effort to crack, but the inside is filled with fleshy seed pods that taste like something between the mangoes that grow on Ember Island and the moon peaches Momo loves so much. The seeds are a glossy, almost iridescent black; Katara has begun to save them to replant, and to make beads for jewelry.

She wasn't expecting company today, but she doesn't seem disappointed for it. "Here, help me break this open?" she asks, the football-sized fruit in her extended hand. "You really have to try this. It's so good!"

--∿≈≋🌒≋≈∽--

Wildcard!

Comments

[waterwhip]

Katara doesn't necessarily think of herself as a very strong person; her mother was strong. Her father is strong. She only does the best she can, facing each new situation as it arises. She's always had her friends behind her before, though, and being alone makes her feel small and vulnerable. At least she's met a few new friendly faces, but they haven't been through the fire with her like the gang has. Hopefully they won't have to.

"I don't know if I'd call myself philosophical," she says. "I just want what's best for my friends. I'm here now, so I'll do what I have to, but there's so much work to be done back home." Assuming they all survived Sozin's Comet. Katara grits her teeth, but centers herself with a quick inhalation through the nose and a slow exhale.

"Natasha," Katara repeats, a little wistfully. "That sounds like it could be a Water Tribe name. What's it like where you're from?"

[outstandingbalance]

"Cold," Natasha answers the question, her brows rising wryly. Asking where she's from is a big question, and most of it probably isn't actually relevant to Katara's question. But she softens, pivoting somewhat. "It's a nickname. Where I'm from, a lot of people don't use their real name unless they're being formal. Natalia becomes Natasha; Yekaterina, Katya; Ivan, Vanya; Maria, Masha..."

She shakes her head. It's not really that interesting, but it's something to say, and it does change the shape of each of the names into something a little different in the mouth. Something a little friendlier. A little less imposing.

"And trick or no, I've never seen anyone do something like that back home."

Not that she goes back often.

[waterwhip]

"It's cold where I'm from, too--at least, my part of the world is, but I grew up at the South Pole. I've never had a nickname, though... unless you count 'Sugar Queen' or 'Sweetness' or 'Miss Fussy Britches,' I guess." Toph did have a way with nicknames.

Natasha's list of nicknames in her language is fascinating to Katara, who quietly repeats the name 'Katya' when it's mentioned. It's close enough to 'Kya' to nudge that dull, familiar pain awake for a moment, and when Katara instinctively reaches up to touch her mother's pendant, she only finds the soft skin of her throat. She'd realized her necklace was gone shortly after her arrival, but each reminder makes her grow tense, if just for a moment.

"I'm the last waterbender in my tribe," she says, her eyes finding a spot on the ground and fixing there. "The Fire Nation tried to wipe us out, but they missed me." There's a distinctly bitter note in her voice there, indicating a much longer story. Even having finally faced her mother's killer, Katara can't help the lingering resentment she feels. Natasha didn't ask about any of that, though, and Katara doesn't want to put her grief or anger on anyone else. She presses on.

"I only learned to master my abilities in the last year. They've been pretty useful here, so far. I was just about to water some of the plants in the greenhouse."

[outstandingbalance]

The way Katara's expression drops and she reaches for her throat is telling. Exactly what it says, Natasha can't say, but the broad strokes. There's something missing. The question is what, and why Katara reached for it then.

Natasha saves her curiosity for later. There are other questions first.

"You know, most of that is lost on me," she says. She doesn't know what the Fire Nation is, and her full knowledge of Waterbenders can be contained in the short conversation they've had so far. But there's a lot there to wonder about, isn't there. "But it sounds like a long story—a lot happened before you got here, huh?"

[waterwhip]

Katara licks her lips, shifting on the balls of her feet. How to explain the war to someone from another world? It isn't even like in Ba Sing Se, where people were aware but in denial of the battles raging all around them. Might as well start at the beginning, then. She hops up onto the lip of the well, taking a seat and inviting Natasha to do the same as she shifts into storytelling mode.

"One hundred years ago, the four nations of the world--the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation--were at peace. They coexisted in harmony, until the Fire Nation attacked. Fire Lord Sozin--the ruler of the Fire Nation--had waited and planned carefully. He knew that there would be a comet that would appear in the sky, granting unimaginable power to his armies of firebenders.

"In our world, there is an ancient spirit that reincarnates in an unending cycle through the four nations, and that person is called the Avatar, the master of every element. The Avatar would have had the power to stop the Fire Lord's plans, but he died before the war began, and his reincarnation disappeared without a trace."

With large gestures and a dramatic intonation, Katara tells the story of the horrors of a century-long war and all its casualties as only someone from a culture moored by a strong oral tradition can. She tells of the genocide of the Air Nomads; of the ceaseless, dogged raids on the Water Tribes; of a mother surrendering her life to protect the her child, her voice choking slightly on the words.

Then she tells of an iceberg, and the boy frozen inside. She tells of their adventures and trials, largely summarizing events because it's too much for one sitting. She speaks of Aang, the playful kid whose slender shoulders bore the responsibility of restoring peace to the world; of Sokka, her idiot genius of a brother; of Toph, the blind prodigy; of Zuko, the fire-breathing prince, once enemy and now friend. She tells about the siege of the North, and Princess Yue's sacrifice. She tells of the walls of Ba Sing Se. She tells of the Day of Black Sun.

Eventually, she tells of the comet, and the Agni Kai that ended with Zuko diving in front of a lightning bolt meant for her. It's obvious she's struggling to contain her emotions by the end. She'd abandoned her formal style around the time she conveyed the story of allowing herself to be arrested so she could help liberate a group of imprisoned earthbenders.

Now she sits with her fists clenched, white-knuckled on her knees.

"I don't know what I'll do if... if something's happened to them. I can't lose anyone else to this war."

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha lets her tell the story without interruption. In part, she remains quiet, attentive because of curiosity, but also because as she watches Katara's and sees the emotion in her retelling—first of her history and then of her own experience—it seems like she could use the space to talk about it. She's been through a lot. Katara's not the only one, but that doesn't make the weight of it any less, and it doesn't make her any less young.

"That's a rough place to leave off," Natasha says. It's not perfect. She's not sure there's actually a right thing to say to something like that. There's not a way to contain the full scope of a respectful reaction in a few words. It is a start, though, something she can say while she formulates a more complete response.

"I don't know if it's any comfort, or if you've heard this before, but from what I've seen before when we're taken from home like this, we don't actually miss anything. It's... it's strange. But it can be good to know. No one is going to end up hurt"

[waterwhip]

There is actually something powerfully cathartic about retelling the story from the beginning. She's been in constant motion since the day she met Aang, and now that she's here, her days have been filled with the task of surviving on this strange world. Sharing her story with someone else feels like giving away a piece of her burden of worry.

Katara's feet swing gently, and she smiles sadly at Natasha, but her eyes go wide at that next statement.

"Wait... so, you mean that I could go home and not have missed anything?" Fresh tears spring to her eyes, but her expression is a hopeful one this time. "That's the best news I've heard since I got here!"

Somewhat impulsively, she throws her arms around Natasha in her happiness and relief, though she quickly pulls back sheepishly when she realizes that not everyone would likely appreciate the hug.

[outstandingbalance]

It wasn't expected, but Natasha will allow it. It's nice to be the bearer of good news for once. She doesn't exactly return the hug, but she does pat Katara's back as she slips away.

"That is what I mean. Gets a little more complicated than that, even, but the gist of it is that when they take us, they put us back when and where they found us." At least sometimes. Sometimes they wake up with new memories. Sometimes there might be two versions of them. But it's easier not to unpack all of that just now.

"I take it that was new information."

[waterwhip]

"It was. It's... I just want to make sure they're okay." Katara wipes her eyes with the fabric binding around her wrists, sniffing once but still smiling. "We've been through so much together, and now, the war could be over."

Rubbing the back of her neck, Katara draws a knee up to her chest and lets her other heel tap against the well. "Thank you for telling me... and thank you for listening, too."

[outstandingbalance]

"You're welcome. On both counts," Natasha says, her chin dipping in a slight nod. "As it turns out, I'm a fairly good listener."

A person could learn all sorts of things with a habit like that. It's one that's served Natasha well over the years, first as a spy then gleaning information as a prisoner.

"I'm just sorry I can't tell you that you're friends are okay."

[waterwhip]

Katara shakes her head, giving Natasha a slightly lopsided grin. "I worry a lot about them, but the truth is, they're all incredible. They're smart and tough. Until I see them again, I'll just have to believe that they're going to be okay."

Hard to say how much of that positivity is genuine and how much is affected for the sake of keeping the mood from getting too somber again. She seems sincere, but it's possible to hope for the best while still dreading the worst.

"What about you?" Katara asks, shifting the focus away from herself. "Do you have friends here?"

[outstandingbalance]

"I do. A lot of them." An almost surprising number, really, and some of them she had no right to expect to see again. She inclines her head. "I ended up lucky that way. I even ran into my best friend."

Her best friend, her boyfriend, and more than a few teammates.

"As comforting as it is, it's also a little suspicious. It can't be a coincidence that there are so many people here I know."