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Tweak says, "Well hit sir! Very well hit!"

Katara of the Southern Water Tribe (k_waterbender) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-08-23 23:24:00

Entry tags:

complete, day 12, katara, sub-zero

Day Twelve
Who: Katara and Sub-Zero
What: Working with Water
When: Day 12 ; Sunset
Where: The Beach
Rating: PG
Status: Complete

Katara was tired.

That was an understatement. Katara was wiped out. Who would have thought that training with four other women could be so intense? Then again, these women weren’t just any women; they were warriors and an earthbender and a vampire slayer. All were highly trained, physically fit, battle hardened women.

The waterbender couldn’t deny that it had been a great time, though. Doing something productive always made her feel better, useful, worthwhile. Weapons training wasn’t an exception. She was doing something to keep her physical fit, and that kept her mind at ease because her body was healthy. The healthier Katara was the better able she would be to help others. That was a good goal to have as far as she was concerned for herself.

Right now it was time for food, though. That would keep her healthy. Dinner sounded delightful, and Katara’s stomach was rumbling softly from hunger pangs. She sat in the restaurant while the golems brought her the food she requested. A noodle sort of meal she’d eaten in the Earth Kingdom capitol of Ba Sing Se when she visited. It was delicious. Instead of tea, she drank orange juice, though. She loved tea, but if she drank it too often she knew she would get sick of it, and that would be a shame. Besides, juice was healthy.

After eating an enjoyable meal, she decided it was time to relax and go for a swim. Technically, she hadn’t gone swimming once since she arrived here, even in the lake, and now that it was an ocean, the salty waters were calling to her. The hurricane had probably delayed this overdue trip even longer, though.

Without further adieu, Katara left the main building headed straight for the sandy beach and the vast ocean. The sun had begun to set, but the air was still warm. The moons had yet to rise. Just before she actually reached the edge of the sand of the beach, she removed her shoes and her pants. The dress part of her traditional Water Tribe attire remained on her person as she walked through the sun warmed sand. It felt fantastic on her aching feet. Halfway between the beginning of the sand and the edge of the water, she paused to fold up her pants and remove her dress-like top.

Beneath her outer clothing, she wore a top that wrapped around her chest and over her shoulders like a tank top, but it didn’t cover her belly. The same type of fabric wrapped around her hips and upper thighs, looking like a mini skirt over skin tight shorts. In her world, this was the traditional underwear of the water tribes for women and men alike ((though they only had the lower half)). Katara wasn’t modest about clothing. She could be nude in front of other women without a problem, as she could be in her underwear in front of anyone without a problem. Not only was this her underwear, but it also served as her swim suit. It was wrapped well enough that it didn’t reveal any unmentionables when wet.

Katara waded into the water, loving the sensation of water lapping at her legs. The water was warmest near the surface, but the deeper she moved, the colder it became. This didn’t bother her at all. Even though she hadn’t been in the South or North Poles in probably half a year- if not more- she was still content with the cold. In fact, she missed that ice and snow covered landscape.

With a sigh, the waterbender flopped onto her back, sinking slowly beneath the ocean waves. The water was so relaxing, drifting in currents over her naturally tanned and sun darkened flesh. A movement of her arms forced her to break the surface so she could suck salty air into her lungs. A thought occurred to her, and she thought she might try it.

Closing her eyes, Katara sank beneath the surface once more, but this time she had purpose. Anyone nearby would see a faint blue glow beneath the waves that grew bright as it expanded. The glow began at her feet, traveling slowly up, over her legs. It helped when the waterbender moved her hands up with it, guiding the light as she healed her aches. Soon the lower half of her body was enveloped in an aura of soft blue light. As the healing process finished in one spot it would disappear, even as the glow traveled over her form, moving at a swifter pace up her torso to her shoulders and upper arms, disappearing all the way up to her waist. The glow stopped at her upper neck, disappearing from her until only her throat was illuminated. Finally, it too disappeared, and the Water Tribe femme was left feeling almost as refreshed as when she’d awakened that morning.

Kicking up from the sand at the bottom, Katara broke the surface, taking a deep breath into her lungs. That had been harder than she’d thought, no matter how easy it may have appeared to an outsider. It had taken a lot of focus and energy- energy that was partially derived from the remaining oxygen in her lungs she needed to stay beneath the surface of the water as long as she had. Having an ocean of water around her had helped so much. She’d hardly had to move except to focus her energy on where to heal with her hands. Now that she knew it was possible to accomplish on herself, she wondered how well she could do this for another person. If they were to lay in a pool of water, could she heal them more effectively than when she only had one small source of water only large enough to fit around her hand?

She shrugged, not knowing when, or if, she would ever get the chance to try it. The waves glittered orange in the light of the setting sun, appearing oh so enticing to the waterbender’s silver optics- also burning orange-ish red in the fading light. With a simple, yet elegant movement, she fashioned a surf-board-like block of ice that floated easily on the warmer waves. She would have to keep bending it to keep it frozen, no doubt.

Katara slid onto the floating block of ice onto her belly. It was cold, but she enjoyed the sensation. Soon enough she was paddling with her arms toward larger waves until she could get herself standing quickly. This was always a fun way for her to waterbend when she visited the Fire Nation- especially Ember Island. As she stood, she bent the water around her feet to secure them so they wouldn’t slip on the ice. The water behind her suddenly moved with a few motions of her arms she’d learned from the Foggy Swamp Tribe so she was propelled forward toward her goal of larger waves.

Learning how to surf hadn’t exactly been easy, but, once she got it, she couldn’t lose the skill. It wasn’t one she ever wanted to lose, either. It was incredibly fun, riding the waves. Of course, she did have a habit of making the waves roll however she thought would be more fun. That didn’t apply to when she and her friends would occasionally have contests with riding the waves, though, because that would be cheating. Katara wasn’t a liar after all.

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sub_zero
2008-08-25 07:56 am UTC (link)

Sub-Zero had spent the day exploring the resort now that the storm had finally ended. He had spent most of his time during the storm going through the inside of the resort and was eager for a chance to get a good look at what the outside was like. After rising earlier and having a very light breakfast, the warrior had made his way to the forest and spent a good chunk of the day there before heading back to the resort in the late afternoon. There he went to the restaurant and had a dinner of Kuyteav before returning to his room to change out of his sweaty clothes.

Donning black linen slacks and simple cotton t-shirt, Sub-Zero decided to forgo shoes as he made his way down to beach. Examining the place where he originally arrived might provide some insight into his arrival here the warrior decided but being near the water was a pleasant experience regardless. It would also be a good time for some practice, he thought. While Sub-Zero had kept up with his physical training in the gym and his room, he had neglected his ability to manipulate ice for the past few days and now was not the time to become slack with his training.

He pulled his hair back away from his face, securing it with a leather strap as he walked toward the beach. Brown eyes swept over the sandy landscape when Sub-Zero spotted a blue glow coming from the water. Odd, Sub-Zero mused but the strange sight didn’t slow his pace. If anything it made him more curious as Sub-Zero approached the water carefully. A form broke the surface in the distance, what appeared to be a woman but that wasn’t the strangest thing. What really surprised Sub-Zero was when she suddenly started surfing. Where did she get that board? It looked like a hard, white material…Ice?

Sub-Zero had tried something similar himself in the past, using ice to cross water but since he couldn’t control water like Katara, Sub-Zero could not propel the ice. Instead he had used the ice as stepping stones to cross the distance. As the warrior wanted to get a better look at the woman, he decided to use the technique again to move further out onto the water. He took a deep breath and concentrated for a moment while he focused his energy then Sub-Zero performed a quick movement, extending his arms and exerting cold from his body to freeze a strip of the water, creating a long path out into the ocean that wasn’t too far from Katara. Sub-Zero then took a running jump and slid on his feet down the ice bridge, stopping just at the end.

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k_waterbender
2008-08-26 01:33 am UTC (link)

Katara always felt a sense of freedom in the ocean- or near any large mass of water in which she could submerge herself. The wind blew through her hair as she glided effortlessly over the waves, propelling herself forward with a style similar to that of the Foggy Swamp Tribe waterbenders when they propelled their canoes through the swamp waters. They had, after all, branched off from in the Southern Water Tribe.

She could have been a water spirit, gliding over the ocean waves, manipulating them while she did so. Anyone who saw her would know immediately she was in her element, completely confident and comfortable and skillful.

Katara didn’t actually notice the man at first, so absorbed in riding the sun-dyed waves was she. However, she knew immediately when he began to freeze a portion of the water into a strip heading right for her. Not knowing this wasn’t an attack, her eyes went wide, and she immediately propelled herself around, reading herself for a battle while simultaneously keeping herself in constant motion.

He was a waterbender as far as she could tell, but his technique didn’t hold any of the fluid motions of waterbending. It was stiff, more even than the Foggy Swamp benders. As he drew closer, the setting sun illuminating his face, a rather shallow thought brought her irritation to the surface. Why do I always end up having to fight the attractive ones? It was a true thought, though. Even before she’d had to battle Vincent- who turned out to be incredibly appealing when he obtained a human form- there had been those in her own world. Zuko was attractive, after all, but she could never see herself with him. Jet had been incredibly good looking, but he had turned out to be nuts, and she’d had to incapacitate him. She was just lucky Haru had been all right, and completely sane. No reason to battle him. In fact, she’d helped him.

When the anonymous male stopped at the end of his ice lane, Katara realized the look on his face wasn’t quite one of a person who was prepared for battle, but one of curiosity. Maybe he hadn’t known any other waterbenders were here, either! His clothing looked like something from another time and world. It was similar to the styles of dress she’d seen people she’d met who came from Earth wear. Trusting that he wasn’t looking for a fight, she drew nearer- though her muscles remained tense and her mind alert.

Her arms swung up above her, fingers splayed and palms down, before gracefully dropping down with a powerful swooping motion. The water a little bit in front of the end of the other’s strip quickly crystallized and hardened into a thick, flat form of ice. She leapt from her make-shift ice board onto the newly formed platform. The board melted away into the sea.

“You’re a waterbender!” Katara exclaimed once she’d landed on the ice that bobbed gently as waves rolled beneath it.

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sub_zero
2008-08-26 10:49 am UTC (link)

Sub-Zero watched the woman carefully as she drew closer, his eyes following the movement of her body. It was clear she was using her gestures to manipulate the water around her and create ice so he took note of what she did. When she landed on a platform of ice, Sub-Zero’s expression was impressed but that quickly turned to confusion when she called him a ‘water-bender’. “I’ve been called a number of things but that’s the first time I’ve heard that phrase”, he admitted. The warrior looked down at the ice platform and noted that it was thick and well-formed. The girl obviously had some skill when it came to manipulating ice. “Water-bending, that’s what you were doing with the waves., is it? Amazing but I haven’t got that talent. I can create and control ice but I have no power over water itself”.

While Sub-Zero was saying this, he realized he had forgotten his manners. One of the drawbacks of growing isolated in a clan of ninja’s perhaps. They were more concerned with teaching children how to fight and use weapons rather than how interact with others. At first anyway, eventually the clan leaders got around to instructing their pupils on how to blend in with regular people.

Not that Sub-Zero tried too hard to do that.

“I’m sorry, I forget myself. I am Sub-Zero and I hope I didn’t startle you Ms…” Sub-Zero said politely, trailing off when he realized he didn’t know her name. “What is your name and can I ask where you learned to water-bend? Outside my family, you’re the only other person I’ve met who could create ice”.

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k_waterbender
2008-08-26 08:47 pm UTC (link)

A flash of disappointment crossed over Katara’s face when he said he’d never heard the term ‘waterbender’ before. He obviously wasn’t from her world, then. It wasn’t really as if he looked like he could have been with the way he dressed, but she couldn’t help but hope. He could have been from the Earth Kingdom by his colouring. Though, at first, she’d thought of the Water Tribes because she could have sworn his eyes were blue, but she it was probably just the intense lighting.

It struck her as strange that someone could only manipulate ice, but not the water itself. It didn’t make sense to the young woman at all actually. Before she’d ever learned how to create ice, she’d taught herself how to move the water itself. “Yes. I was waterbending the waves just for the fun of it.” A soft chuckle left her lips. Bending wasn’t just a way to fight, it could be used for conventional- and unconventional- purposes. Whole games had been created on the idea of bending the elements. “Wait… Did you say you can create ice? Do you mean without a water source, or do you need a source of water to do it?” Her brows creased together lightly.

Her curious expression turned to one of warm welcoming, smile and all. “My name is Katara. It’s nice to meet you, Sub-Zero.” What an incredibly strange name, even stranger than the names she’d heard throughout this place like Giselle or Tyler or Xena. “In my world, waterbending isn’t uncommon. There are benders in all three Water Tribes now that the Southern Water Tribe had been built back up. Not everyone can waterbend, but there are a good deal of benders.

“I started learning waterbending on my own. I was the only waterbender left in the entire South Pole where the Southern Water Tribe is located. I learned some simple moves like pushing and pulling the water like a small wave, and streaming the water.” She demonstrated the latter by pulling a thin stream of water from the ocean before allowing it to go back from whence it came. “I could crack ice, but not on purpose. It was harder to do when I wasn’t doing it on accident when I was upset. However, I learned in time how to do the Ice Creeper move. It wasn’t as hard once I could do it the first few times. That’s when water freezes from a point maybe where I’d be standing to the point where whoever or whatever I wanted frozen became frozen. Sort of like how you made this strip of ice.

“I found a master to teach me in the Northern Water Tribe in the North Pole. Master Pakku taught me more about waterbending than I’d ever known. A few months after that I found another waterbending master named Hamma, and she taught me how to find sources of water in the unlikeliest of places, like plants and the air.” Katara demonstrated this with a swiping movement of her hand through the air. Being on the ocean made it so the water she produced was far more than it would have been somewhere like the desert. She allowed this, too, to fall into the ocean. “Some other moves I’ve learned were just things a friend and I figured out with while trying to come up with things to entertain ourselves with. If there’s water anywhere, I can bend it however I want. I can even create steam.” Wow. She’d said a lot more than originally intended, but he had asked where she’d learned how to waterbend.

“Did your family teach you how to bend ice then?” Katara asked at last.

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