02 ≋ Network Vlog 01

[waterwhip]

[ When the feed starts, there's obviously some fiddling going on--mostly it's just different shades of blue on the screen. The person handling the tablet doesn't seem to really know how to make heads or tails of it. A soft 'snowballs' is uttered, as if it were a curse.

Katara's face eventually enters the frame--upside down, until she realizes her mistake and flips it so she's correctly centered and displayed. The fountain is behind her, and the running water burbles gently in the background. ]

Hello! I'm Katara. I've met a lot of new people since I came here, but I know there are others that I haven't met yet, and the Vision explained that I could talk to people with this piece of glass, so I thought I'd do that and introduce myself.

[ She glances away for a second, considering what to say. ]

I'm from the Southern Water Tribe, which is at the South Pole. I left home about a year ago, and have been traveling the world since then with my brother and our friends. This is us together. [Here she holds up a crayon drawing of herself and her friends on a six-legged creature. She's obviously very proud. ]



That's Aang and my brother Sokka, then me and Toph and Suki and Zuko. Appa is the sky bison, and the flying lemur is Momo.

I'm a master waterbender, which means I can use my chi to control water. Like this! [ With a quick set of hand gestures, Katara pulls a little jet of water from the fountain and streams it around for a bit before putting it back. ] I can also use my bending to heal injuries! So if you get hurt, let me help you.

That's all I can think of for now. Bye!

[ It's another few moments of fumbling, but Katara finally manages to turn the feed off. ]

Comments

[doubled_speed]

Nah, see, with flying there's a super bad issue. You can fall. I'll pass. That's not worth it.

[waterwhip]

Oh, believe me, I know. Flying was our main method of traveling since we met Aang. Thankfully we've never fallen very far. We fell into the ocean once when it was storming, and that was pretty scary, but we've always managed to make it out okay.

[doubled_speed]

You fell into the ocean and came out of it okay? That's fucking dangerous. Coulda broken a lot of shit.

[waterwhip]

It's okay, Tommy, everyone was fine. We weren't very high above the water when it happened.

[ She considers pointing out that she's done way more dangerous things than that on purpose plenty of times, but reconsiders. No need to worry her friend excessively. ]

Sokka, my brother, had sailed out with a fisherman to try and earn some money, but then a storm came in from nowhere, and we had to go rescue him and the fisherman.

[doubled_speed]

[Dude, he's done more dangerous things by living. But he thanks the lack of worry.]

Oh man, sounds fun. I hate being near seas during storms. Like, SERIOUSLY. Even I have trouble running on it then.

[waterwhip]

Oh, it was more fun than a barrel full of hogmonkeys, for sure. I do like the ocean, though. I actually met the spirit of the ocean, once.

[doubled_speed]

The ocean has a spirit and you met it?

[waterwhip]

Yes! I've met a bunch of different spirits. The spirits of the Ocean and Moon live at the North Pole in a sacred oasis. They're koi fish.

[ She gets a pensive look as she thinks back to that time. ]

We traveled to the North Pole so Aang and I could find a waterbending master to teach us, but the Fire Nation attacked while we were there. One of their leaders, Admiral Zhao, infiltrated the city and came to kill the Moon spirit. I lost my bending for a little while there, because the moon is the original source of waterbending, but then... well... Princess Yue gave her life and became the new Moon spirit.

[doubled_speed]

That's... a lot to process. Like, spirits aren't really as much a thing in our world? Maybe? Can you, like, TALK to spirits?

[waterwhip]

Aang can, but he's also the Avatar, so it's kind of part of his job. But I spoke to one briefly. She was a river spirit called the Painted Lady. I... kind of impersonated her.

[doubled_speed]

Why would you impersonate a spirit?

[waterwhip]

Well, we came to this town in the middle of a river, and everyone was sick and hungry because the Fire Nation had a metal factory there that was polluting the water. So... I pretended to be the Painted Lady to deliver food and heal the people.

Then I kind of... blew up the factory.

[doubled_speed]

You blew up the factory?

[A pause and there is definite pride in his voice]

Damn good choice!

[waterwhip]

[ Katara beams at him. ]

And then we spent some time with the villagers helping clean up the river. The Painted Lady appeared to me and thanked me for helping. So... that was how I met a spirit. But there are many more spirits than that, and some are kind of scary.

[doubled_speed]

Well then, you were good people to do it.