flickerflash | [Accidental Video]

[Katie's been living in the woods for the last few weeks; it shows in the tangles of her dirty hair and the thinness of her face. Not that anyone can see those right now, because right now, Katie is slinking through the forest toward the northern edge of the village as a grubby kitten. She hasn't gone into the village since she found Helios for the second time. There doesn't seem much point, and it's easier, that way, to fight the nervosa without the creature unwittingly involving the more sensitive villagers into nightmares. Mostly, she can keep the upper hand.

Some nights are a little worse than others. She's let it go on too long.

Katie is so tired. And worried. And sick of being away from human contact, and wondering why she should bother trying to avoid them anyway.

And hungry.

She's trying to ignore that last part.

It's very easy to let herself into a house full of pirates, because she is a ninja. Eternally at war with you lot, she is. It's just a matter of scaling the side of house #6 and opening her own private door through the brick wall. It swings shut behind her, no harm done.

This was Brook's room. He's no longer here, of course, just like Sigmund and Edward and Svala, all gone. Katie is so, so tired of people leaving. Brook left twice. It's not very fair. She wonders what she would do if she saw him on the street again today. He rather deserves to be hurt just as much, she thinks. (But that's not fair either, and really the only reason she's snuck into his room like this is she misses him. Brook was her first friend here. He carried an orchestra with him wherever he walked. It was marvellous...)

Jack's still here.

Jack hasn't left. But if she stays in the attic, he'll get involved, and not in a good way. And Norrington-- well. If she stays, she'll kill him. Or he'll kill her. That's the way of such conflict. It feels like a betrayal, really. She's just not sure who's doing the betraying. (And then, of course, these are silly notions altogether, and some days she wonders what on earth she's thinking. Today is not one of those days.)

Katie-the-kitten winds her way around the legs of Brook's bed (is it still too short for him?) and through the adjoining door into the music room. All the instruments are still here. No skeleton, but you know. These were precious to him.

Maybe she should break them.

She changes, human hands reaching out for the guitar. She could smash it on the ground, lots of little pieces, spell out welcome home in chips of wood and warping strings. From there, she knows, she won't stop. Sanji would be so disappointed. But he wouldn't hurt her, would he? Because Sanji's--

Sanji feeds her fish all the time, and he knows her. And he didn't run away. He's still here.

It's not fair. She's not being fair.

Her hand hovers over the neck of the guitar, and then fingers close gently and she pulls the instrument into her lap instead as she sits down.

She knows how to play. She had a guitar at home. Still has, in the attic. It's a child's guitar, nothing like this one. This one's a little too big for her to handle properly. She plays, anyway. Bink's Sake, for Brook; he taught her to play it, but she's heard it since the very day she arrived in Luceti. Maybe when she's done, she can just pretend he congratulates her on a job well done.

She doesn't intend to be overheard. But her much-battered journal is at hand, and in taking the guitar she's let it fall to the floor. At least it won't pick up her image. Just the music.]

[Accidental Video]

[The journal switches on to show...nothing. Well. Some carpet and what might be a music stand by a window, and a whole pile of sheet music off to one side. Nobody is visible, but someone can be heard tuning a guitar. It hasn't been played in a while. Poor thing.

When the guitarist switches to playing, it's clumsily picked out by rusty fingers, but the music itself is probably highly recognisable by a handful of people. The piece gets more fluid the longer she plays, until a couple of minutes into the song, when her fretwork first slows, and then trails off completely.

When she starts again, it's this piece instead, played through to the end.]

...twice more. [The voice is young and distant and distinctly Irish, and she giggles.] D'you think he'd come?

[And she starts playing again. Faster.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He's not exactly sure what to make of this. But he figures it's probably some kid thing.]

Oh. I guess you could say that. I think I'm definitely more adjusted to life here. [And to the toll it's taken on his friends. But he doesn't really think he could be overall described as better than the carefree way he acted when he first arrived.]

{That's okay. As long as he buys it one way or the other, Katie's off the hook. She's seen him in Katara's echoes, and he wasn't exactly in the best of health.]

So what's airbending like? Do you need the arrows to do it, or are they just for directions?

[The first image that comes to mind would definitely be one that Aang would not want to be reminded of.]

Airbending's the most fun thing in the world! [And a small laugh.] We don't really need the arrows. We get them tattooed on us when we become airbending masters! It's a very important symbol for my culture.

Oh, okay. Perhaps it's like woad. It's the right colour and everything-- are you Scottish?

I've... never heard of a woad. No, I'm air nomad.

A woad is a long line made of tar that's designed to trap cars and stop them feeding on small children. [Totally straight face.] People paint them on their faces as a symbol of bravery and defiance.

That's different from my tattoos, but they do sound really nice. Anything that stops things from feeding on kids is okay in my book! We air nomads mostly like to represent freedom.

Are you? I mean, free-- are you free? Nobody to tell you what time to go to bed and to stop having imaginary friends?

Yeah. That's how life is for the air nomads. Monk Gyatso still taught me things and kept an eye on me, but I was mostly free to do whatever I want. I wouldn't say my friends were imaginary. I have Appa and I used to have the other air nomads. And now I have Katara and Sokka and everyone!

It sounds like fun to be an air nomad. Who's Appa?

It's the most fun thing to be in the world. And Appa's my sky bison. Every air nomad gets a sky bison to be their companion for life.

A sky bison? Does that mean he has wings or is he just blue?

It means he lives in the sky! He doesn't need wings to fly because he can use airbending to fly!

[jkadfasfa that is AWESOME]

Is he here, too?

He is! You can meet him sometime if you'd like.

Can I? I've always wanted to fly on a sky bison. Does he have arrows too?

[Aang laughs.] Always? You just found out about him now, silly! But of course you can. Me and him both like making new friends. And he does have a big ol' arrow, but it's natural and made of fur! We did our tattoos because of the sky bisons' arrows actually, since they taught my people to airbend!

Well, if I'd known he existed, I'd have always wanted to. [DETAILS.] They sound very clever.

If I didn't know he existed but then did, I think I'd feel the same way. And they are real clever, probably smarter than any of us know! Appa's good at finding his way around the world and coming to catch us when we're in trouble.

He sounds like he should be a superhero. Does he have a cape?

Maybe he should be a superhero, like Batman? He doesn't have one, no, just a saddle. He'd need a really big cape!

[Giggling.] Batman likes hiding in dark shadows too much. I'm not sure a giant bison could hide in a dark alleyway.

He could be like Superman, though. You could find some red blankets and stitch them together for a cape.

[He laughs.]

You're right. Appa hates tight spaces. But... Superman, huh? That doesn't sound familiar, but I'll gladly make him a cape!

Superman is really strong and can fly, and he rescues people from earthquakes and kittens from tree branches. [He was in Luceti once. Katie camped out in a tree as a "helpless" kitten for two days, waiting for him to turn up. Sob.]

That sounds really impressive. I'm glad he makes sure to rescue kittens too. It's good to take care of both big and little problems! But why is he called "super" instead of "bat"?

[Video]

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