trans_9 | In my element [Open]

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In my element [Open]

After all, here was where water was plentiful, and she had lots of space to move. The past few days had been amazing of course: she got to know several different people and experience certain parts of their world. If anybody stepped in here though, they would know the part of Katara's world she stopped being a child. Her inquisitiveness was a way she coped with a truth she knew, and was sure some of the other "kids" shared: certain experiences were adult, and they called for adult action.

She had her hair free, and was breathing a little to ready herself. She'd already flexed and stretched enough: she planned to get a workout. She entered the nearest Sensorium and closed her eyes.

"The Earth General who went too far," Katara said, and the world materialized: there were the Earth Nation banners towering, and there were members of the Dai Li, coming at her full force. This was of course not accurate: there WERE no members of the Dai Li when they approached earth general Fong that attacked Aang in order to force him into the Avatar state. Still, Katara wanted them a part of this program anyway: it would be harder to get to that Earth general.

First they erected the rock pillars, like the day they'd uncovered Lake Laogai. That was fine: Katara knew what move would come after. There were fifteen strong: seven at the back and eight at her front. They hovered on the rock, waiting a moment, and then the ones at her back slid down quickly, the rock hands coming for her, the ones in front following suit.

She froze the hands first, then crouched down and arose with water tentacles. Katara hadn't gotten her octopus water attack down just yet then (that would happen when she fought Azula) but she did now, and the several tentacles went toward those at her back, knocking three down. Katara jumped up from that formation and rode a wave from the lake nearby, going to meet with the front attack of the Dai Li. She met them with a tidal wave and froze them all for several seconds before thawing, and the men, in a state of shock, fell uneasily to the floor, cold and beaten. Katara turned to the four remaining Dai Li and took them out with a far reaching water whip. Once they'd fallen, she turned her head toward General Fong and rose with a wave again. He looked shocked for a moment, then came at her with a rock pillar aiming toward her head.

"HA!" Katara grunted and split the rock easily in two: she'd learned a thing or two from Toph, a true Earthbending master. She flung her whip to the ground beneath the kings feet and froze, making him slip and ruining his stance. Katara was there in an instant, outstretched hand to his neck, her face grim with determination.

"You lose," the girl said, and froze the bottom part of his body. He growled and tried to free himself, but could not, of course. This was how Katara would have like their terms to end. In reality, General Fong had caught her by surprise and used her to push Aang into the Avatar state against his wishes.

If there was one thing Katara hated, it was being a victim. If there were another thing...it was being used to hurt Aang.

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Roxie looks over... ewww. But then again, she's never been a seafood person.

She grabs a chicken drumstick from a bucket and chews on it, practically slurping the meat off. Must get some protein, after all.

She's looking rather better by now. She's still got a trace of a black eye, but most of her face is back to normal...

Katara saw the look of disgust on Roxie's face and giggled. It was just like those looks Aang tried to hide from her. At the thought of him though, Katara grabbed a piece of chicken herself and ate, hardly caring what it tasted like. If there was a person she didn't want appearing in these Sensoriums right now...

Although now and then, Roxie could get a glimpse of a certain bald headed monk with a tranquil look on his face, and adoring eyes at the watertribe girl eating furiously, trying to avoid that thought.

"It's good," Katara said, whether she meant it or not.

Roxie takes another few bites and—stops.

She sucks in a deep breath. She's managed to eat enough for two or three—full-sized—people in the short time she's been working on it so far. "I think that's it for me right now," she says, leaning against the table.

Katara nodded. "I figured," she said, and recreated two beddings for the two of them. Katara figured it might be good for Roxie to have a rest: she'd had a lot happen in just a short amount of time. Of course, if Katara thought about it, the same could have been said for her. She'd never seen an upfront mauling, or a car, or a car running people over OR pizza. At the same time, she also had to keep her thoughts in check: she'd remembered Xander's little problem in the Sensoriums a day ago. "You might want a nap."

Katara turned and quietly closed her eyes, legs crossed. It looked as if she might need to do her meditation sessions more than she thought.

"That... sounds like a good idea, thinking about it." She glances up, at nothing in particular. "Is it safe to sleep in here, though? If it's thought-controlled..." She seems more worried about Katara than herself.

"It'll be fine," Katara said. "I have control over what I think. It can just be difficult sometimes, when I think of certain people back home." She wouldn't think of anything too dark or violent anyway, especially not now. She'd just be meditating. Katara was lucky enough that after all the things that happened to her, her mind didn't often go to dark places.

"I'll keep an eye out for you."

Roxie sluggishly lays down on one of the bedrolls, arms folded back under her head.

She's deeply asleep in moments.

Katara sighed, settling down in a bedroll near the girl. No, she wouldn't nap, but she had plenty of time to sit and meditate on all she'd seen. What was more, she realized there might have to be a better run simulation for her if she were going to get any stronger.

That might include recreating that...metal carriage thing from Roxie's mind.

Next to the bedroll Roxie's settled onto, something... strange is happening. Little sparks of light incorporate themselves, and patches of darkness flow from the ground like ink, all starting to assemble themselves into a substanceless mass. Roxie herself remains asleep, but the circlet still on her brow shines softly with the light of the moon--even though there's no moon in the blank sky to be the cause of it.

Katara was astounded by what she was saying. She really had to ask herself what Roxie was, although she was sure that she wasn't going to get the answer to that question for a long time. All the bits of Roxie were so mind boggling: a sort of apostle appointed by a god, a fighter that was prepared to kill to save others.

What else was there to her? What other secrets did Roxie hide?

As Katara watches, the bits of darkness and light flow together, starting to form a shape. One remarkably like Roxie herself, actually, a statue carved out of a star-studded night sky, sitting on the edge of the girl's bedroll without as much as actually pressing down on it. The figure is gently feminine but mostly gender-neutral, without the interrupting lines of clothes or other ornaments.

And then two moon-mirror disks slide open like thick coke-bottle-round glasses catching the light, and the head tilts to look over at Katara.

It was all she could do to just keep the gaze. A lesser person would have run screaming, or would have been bothered, but Katara had seen much in her lifetime. She'd seen Aang come down in a spiritual fury, seen him in the Avatar state, and seen him borrow the powers of an earthy born god. She looked at the image, and was strangely quiet.

There's a lot I have to understand about this ship, she thought to herself, staring at the figure of night sky.

The figure holds up a hand in little wave gesture, leaning back a little. There's no material to it, if Katara watches: the darkness sinks a little into the bedroll without actually disturbing it, lik a shadow clinging to a wall. 'I can keep an eye out for myself, too,' she(?) clearly mouths, teeth bright with cold stars momentarily shining.

"Yeah," Katara said softly, and turned, looking out into the distance. She wasn't scared, not really. She was just processing all of this as she went, and was glad to know that Roxie had her own protection. It wouldn't change that she'd want to help anyway, but that extended to any friend Katara made.

She just hoped she'd be able to get stronger too.

The Roxie-simulacrum walks in a slow circle of Katara--but it's more like a clever imitation of walking, since the feet don't really touch the floor as much as just coincide with it. Her passage is as silent as a shadow sliding across stone.

She sits--on a chair that doesn't exist--and the shining 'eyes' look over at Katara. 'Creeping you out?' she mouths, leaning forward to try and make sure the other girl can see.

Katara stared back at the Roxie=simulacrum. "A little, but I'll get over it," she answers back. "There's a lot about people and things that I don't know about. Like, how you exist, and how you are like you are. But it doesn't look like anyone knows when we'll get out of here, so we may see each other more."

Not that she knew for sure, of course. But Katara expected that this might be the kind of thing a Starfleet person might deal with too, unexplainable situations, things her brain couldn't believe she was seeing.

She sat back now, her arms cradling the back of her head. "What are you?"

To answer that question, the figure gestures back at the sleeping Roxie, then mimes leaning her head against a pillow. 'A dream,' she mouths for emphasis.

She holds her hands together, and a little diorama in light and darkness flares up. A luminescent image of the sleeping Roxie, and from her head trailing a wispy dream-bubble with a star-speckled figure and a little glowing imitation of Katara.

She gestures at her brow, and a shining crown of reasonably close style to the one the sleeping Roxie is wearing softly ignites. 'Light and dark,' she mouths.

If that was an answer, Katara definitely didn't understand it. The concepts if light and dark to her was usually equated to good and evil, and as far as she knew, she couldn't say Roxie was either. She did get that somehow she was in a dream though, and that it must have happened when Roxie went to sleep. Unlike Aang, she was not entirely used to things like this happening.

"What about light and dark?"

The figure puts a hand to her forehead, against the crown, and pinches, drawing away. Threads of light and darkness follow the fingers, twisting around them.

'Illusion,' she mouths.

"Illusion," Katara repeated. It was something she'd been told before when she met the Swamp Benders. Many things in the world: light, dark, even separation of the Nations, were all man made illusions. She could see when it came to Roxie those concepts were very much up in the air.

She wondered how Roxie would react if she told her about this. Would she already know? Would she understand what it all meant? Katara had an idea, but there was a lot she wanted to see with Roxie before she came up with an opinion. Roxie was a very hard individual to read, and there was a lot in her world that she didn't understand. The necessary violence though: that she understood all too well.

The figure reaches towards Katara, offering a hand.

If Katara moves to take it, though, she'll find her own hand passes right through it without any resistance at all.

And Katara willingly took the hand, and it did pass through her. It reminded her that this was a dream, though she wondered exactly how much of it was actually caused by the Sensorium.

The figure seems to have expected this to happen, and nods. The shining 'eyes' dim slightly, and her legs cross in her faux-sitting position, watching out into the undefined reaches of the Sensorium.

In her sleep, Roxie mumbles slightly.

Katara stared at the figure. Is this how Roxie woke up? She wasn't sure. She did know one thing though: she would soon ask Roxie what powers she actually possessed. It was pretty evident now she wouldn't need Katara's protection, but she also wanted to make sure not too many people knew what she could do on the ship. She was getting the feeling some were a little less tolerant than others.

The false-Roxie looks over at Katara again, a hand going up to adjust the 'glasses'... the imitation lenses move to match the motion, even though they're not actually attached to a frame.

Compared to the rest of it, it's such a mundane thing it's almost funny.

In my element [Open]

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