Meat n' Greet

[cityship]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Comments

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

"..." Katara listened carefully. In all of their time together, none of them had turned on each other and tried to kill one of their group - Zuko not withstanding, all things considered. "Azula. I do not look forward to seeing her."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"She's kind of, uh--"

Boy.

"What's a really nice way of saying someone's as nutty as a whole sack full of leechi nuts? Because she's definitely as bad as she was when--you know. Back home."

As when Zuko had her committed.

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

"Kaya explained as much to me," Katara replied. "She seems like a nice girl, Kaya. Very friendly." Though there had been something about Kaya that Katara hadn't been able to put her finger on... It was as though Kaya had wanted to tell Katara something, maybe? Katara wasn't sure. It was possible that she herself felt that way because she was still disoriented from having podpopped. "So, be wary of Azula, as always."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah. I should probably tell you about the Kaya thing."

Hoooow did he explain this?

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

Katara pulled away from Aang's shoulder and looked up at him. Her brow furrowed and she tilted her head. One hair-loopy fell over her face, while the other swung merrily at the side of her face. "I have a feeling that this has to do with the confusion that Mai had alluded to."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Oh how he'd missed those loopies. The real ones, mind you--Katara's specific real actual hair-loopies.

He flicked his fingers at the one of them.

"Stacy tricked us. She can mess with people's memories and she made us think Kaya was you. She made Kaya think she was you. She's actually one of your students, someone that we would've met in our future, and--and--Stacy tricked us into thinking she was you and we don't know why."

Although he suspected it had something to do with it helping him keep from going crazy in face of all the Nightmare King stuff. He'd needed Katara, and a Katara there was, maybe because the real one couldn't be found...

"Then we found out the truth."

And he'd gone without her all over again.

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

"..." Katara was silent for many moments after Aang's explanation. She looked down into her lap and studied her hands. Those were the hands she always remembered having, the hands with which she remembered making snowballs to throw at Sokka, hands with which she'd played with her grandmother's hair, hands with which she had first learned how to bend water. Those memories were real. She knew that. She didn't doubt that for a second. But she wondered, for a long moment, how Kaya would have felt, believing herself to be one person...and then finding out she was someone else. "That must have been horrible for her. For all of you."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Understatement of the century.

"I kissed her."

Of course he'd confess it.

"I thought she was you. I thought--"

It still bothered him.

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

Under any other circumstances, it was possible that Katara would have reacted much in the way that a jealous girlfriend would have. But circumstances here were different - in fact, everything was different here. Katara offered Aang a warm smile and cupped his cheek with her hand. She kissed his other cheek gently. "Don't let that bother you. You meant well, and it isn't as though either of you were aware of the truth. And even if you were...I wasn't here. I can't fault you for that, Aang. I won't."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

There were very nearly tears again. Almost.

"She left me for another boyfriend. I think...it makes sense now because she was her own person and she cared for someone else, but at the time I thought it was you."

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

Katara frowned at that. That was one thing that Katara felt she would never do. Her heart went out to him and she pulled him in, hugging him as tightly as she could possibly manage. He had been through a lot since they'd seen each other back at home, Katara knew. She didn't have all the details, but she could tell, and not just because of the physical scars that he had. "I'm not going anywhere but by your side," Katara assured him. "I promise."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Annnd I'm crying again, yep. Sorry for all the crying."

And then he started up, again, thought it was silent this time.

"It'll stop eventually. I'm just kind of working through a lot of 'I missed you' stuff."

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

She couldn't help it. She didn't like to see him cry. And Katara had always been a little on the sensitive side, too, but this was different.

She started tearing up, and instead of wiping away her tears, she used her natural abilities to bend away Aang's.

And then the absurdity of the situation - of where they were and where the fates had found it fit to bring the two of them, and their friends, struck her - and she giggled. "Who would have thought this is where we ended up after we beat the Fire Nation?"

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"Tearbending on a giant ship made of meat?" Aang sniffed, still crying, but just as amused. "I definitely wouldn't have guessed that one, nope."

He tried to control his breathing to get the crying to stop.

"Especially not the giant ship made of meat part."

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

"You'd think we'd be used to it, having had Appa as our main source of transportation, but this is so very different from that." Obviously. This ship seemed to be a world unto itself. Appa had been a friend, and a warm, cuddly pillow-type. She found that she missed him. And Momo. "But I can adapt. I've always been good at adapting. And with you and the others here...we can do this."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Aang just smiled at her.

"Did I mention I missed you? I mentioned that, right?"

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

"Yes, but I don't mind hearing it over and over again," Katara grinned.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

"You're taking all this so well."

A pause.

"But I guess I'm not surprised."

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

"Wait for the shock to subside, and for everything to sink in," Katara said lightly. "I may have a tiny breakdown then."

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Aang nodded. "Yep. That's usually when the crying happens."

Aang settled in against her again, seeming like he was almost starving for her attention and affection. He'd always been a touch clingy, but this was an unusual extreme.

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

Katara wrapped her arms around Aang, and held him close. She'd noticed the fact that he was clingier than usual, and combined with the scarring and the fact that Aang was the only one who was older than the others from home, she knew that something was up, she just didn't know what. She looked up and pressed another kiss to his cheek, just a smidge away from his lips. She wanted to comfort him, and that meant not pressing the issue of things he didn't want to speak of, and not trying to get overly romantic with him. She didn't think it would be all that appropriate, and she wanted to, well, respect him.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

To heck with that. There wasn't that awkwardness about things because he wasn't 12 anymore and still going "Hormones, wat is?"

Well, there was still some awkwardness and still some "Hormones, wat is?" because now he had them and boy the feelings that accompanied them were confusing for a boy that'd been raised to let go of all earthly desires, but still, earthly desires were totally where it was at. As Avatar, he could fully indulge in them and figure them out. It was part of living.

Which was why he kissed her right then, and not on the cheek, either.

And while it wasn't exactly lascivious, it also wasn't exactly chaste, and neither were the hands that slipped around her waist rather firmly.

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

Ooooh boy. That...that had not been expected, at all.

Not that Katara was complaining about it, mind. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Katara found herself melting into the kiss, quite more willingly than she might have expected she would, given the circumstances. The kiss was quite unlike any of the previous ones that they had shared. It was more...more.

Her arms tightened around the back of Aang's neck as she pulled him in for a deeper kiss.

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he could get used to this. Definitely, definitely get used to this.

When he finally broke away, he was breathing a little harder.

"That's...different," he commented breathlessly with a brief raise of his eyebrows.

[wet-and-riled.livejournal.com]

Katara blinked. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and took in a few deep breaths. "Yes. Yes it is. But it was nice different. You know, like the first time...umm." She blinked. "There isn't a fitting analogy for this."