trans_9 | Basics

There was a time to get sick. There was a time to bemoan the things that seemed like empty spots in her head. and there was time to sleep and dream of times that were better (or have nightmares of worse times too). But when these times passed, and eventually that was the case, there was nothing left to do but go back to what you were best at, and refine it to make it your own. Going to the podpop had been a start, and Katara capitalized on it the next day. A visit to the Sensorium and the scenery changed: she was at the desert lands they'd been left to brave after the library sunk and Appa had been captured. There was no gang here though, just miles and miles of sand and heat bearing down on her. To Toph and Aang, she was sure these circumstances were unpleasant, but to her and Sokka specifically, it had been alien and frustrating (it had helped Sokka that he was strung out on Cactus juice and she was fixated on keeping the group together at the time). She had also made sure there would be no water nearby, and so her pouch was also gone.

The morning was spent in quiet meditation on the sands. Her mind was full of questions and brimming with thoughts, but she momentarily displaced them from her mind. She was uncomfortable, sweaty and hot, but stayed in deep meditation, moving from time to time so she wouldn't cramp up. Once she'd seen the sun position itself to indicate noontime, Katara rose, and her attire was that of her firebending disguise: she would need it.

The exercising in the Weirding way, however, required targets, so the desert was now strewn with several dummies. Here Katara incorporated her Bene Gesserit martial art with that of the training she'd practiced in Will's gym: she catapulted herself upward, struck with deadly precision and then rolled into a new defensive stance, ready for the next attack. It had been awhile since Katara incorporated her waterbending flexibility with the Weirding way, and truthfully it was seldom Katara practiced the art, fully aware (thanks to deadly robots) how damaging it could be. She bent her legs a bit and brought her arms up again, using her force against the dummy and knocking it backward with what looked like minimal effort. She knew it would be awhile before she was an expert in the Weirding Way, but that was more than reason to practice, with all they had encountered.

When she had worked up a definite sweat, she went back to the flexibility part: she flipped, jumped, turned several times in the air and, on her back, curled her legs upward and leapt back to position. She was stinky and definitely perspiring, but that was easily taken care of if she decided to turn the Sensorium into a spa, not that she was in a big hurry to do so.

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"I'm fine." A conical straw hat appears on her head, and Mulan tilts it back to peer at Katara with a small smile. It is GOOD to have a friend, no matter how many other things might not be so great. "I'm glad you're feeling better. I'm sorry I didn't know, or I would have come to keep you company."

Katara forced herself not to laugh at the hat. It is very funny, but she is actually really happy to see Mulan so she doesn't want to offend. It was fine to meet a lot of new people, but it was something else to see someone familiar.

"Oh, its all right," Katara said. "I didn't really want a lot of people seeing me like that. It's not often that I'm that vulnerable, I guess. To be honest, I hardly knew why I'd gotten like that except I'd forgotten something. I felt like I was just filled with a sadness only my body could remember. It still sounds strange to describe."

"It . . . doesn't sound strange at all, actually." Mulan frowns, still bothered. "I felt like that . . . I would say a week ago. I don't know why." She eyes Katara, looking worried. "Maybe it's something common on this ship?"

"If it is, I don't like it," Katara said, looking worried. "And it bothers me that this isn't the first time either. The weird thing is how I felt a little after the Nightmare King was beaten. I felt like I forgot about someone, and then I felt physically sick, like I had to recuperate from something. It was really unsettling."

She shook her head, "So...how is your meditating going Mulan?"

"I practice every day. Thank you for teaching me." Judging by her smile, it's going well. "I'm sorry you were sick - I didn't know." And she looks concerned, now. And bothered. "I must have been distracted by Haku. And by not being able to help."

Yeah, she's definitely bothered by that.

"It's important to do that everyday, trust me," Katara said. "More and more, there are things on the ship that happen that are pretty troubling. I'm over that sickness now-for me, there are things that happen constantly that have to be overcome, and people I know I've forgotten thanks to the ship. But i also know that even if they were here, they wouldn't be wanting me to give up either. So I won't, no matter what."

Katara was startled by Mulan's next sentence. "Wait, Haku? What do you know about him? He's a team member of mine!"

"He's my friend," says Mulan, looking sad. "I was there when he was possessed."

She pauses, recalling some of the posts on the communication devices. "You were speaking to Rhiow about helping him, right?"

"What happened to him?' Katara asked, looking concerned. "I've been really worried that he was in pain and I couldn't do anything to help him. I want to know what he was going through."

She nodded. "Yes. He's a river god, so I made him a river with Stacy's permission. I wanted to make a place for him to recover for all of the things he went through."

Mulan shrugs, looking a little sad.

"You're doing more for him than I can. I couldn't even do anything from the beginning, and I was there. I'm not even entirely sure what happened. One minute he was struggling with some black sludge, and the next he was . . . struggling with us."

Her shoulders hang.

"Thank you for helping him. Have you ever done anything like this before?"

"Don't feel bad," Katara said. "I felt as powerless as you did. I don't have superpowers like a lot of the people on the ship, or have magic. What I have is the strength of my waterbending and martial arts, and maybe my power of speeches? That's about it."

She smiled. "The digging, not so much. But getting the water going and the river? I'm a waterbender: its in my blood. It is a gift from my people, and I'm happy to have it."

"You're lucky." She says it without envy, but with admiration. "If I'm going to be useful to this crew, I'm going to have to find some other way to make myself an asset to this army." She frowns. "I want to learn more modern ways of warfare, but I haven't found a teacher yet."

Katara shook her head. "It isn't luck. It takes a lot of hard work and diligence to get god at anything. The only thing I was lucky about was having the people in my village that helped raised me, make me the person I am today."

Katara listened intently. "Well, I know there's going to be some warrior training led by Kang and Ronan. That, and well, we're always looking for people to join the Outsiders. I'm sure we could set up some training for you, and I'd love to help!"

Basics

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sooo late omg i suck.

Its okay! Just hoped you didn't forget! Can we assume the meditation sessiona lready happened?

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