More RP Stuff - hi, yes, I live? >>;

[some_scribbles]

❧Player Info
Name: Shira
LJ: some_scribbles
Age: Over 18

❧Character Info
Name: Katara
Canon: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Age: 14 in canon, 16 due to game development
Gender: Female
Appearance: Oh-la-la. (If her game history is accepted, there are a few significant changes detailed in the ‘previous game history:’ most noticeably are pierced ears and a small barcode tattoo on the back of her neck which would be hidden by her hair at most times.)
Canon Point: Just after the Southern Raiders if game history is approved (if not, I’ll just switch it up to Nightmares and Daydreams)

Canon History: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Katara
Previous Game History:
Katara has been in Luceti for nearly two years. During this time, she’s naturally gone through some significant changes, but I’ll try to stick to the main points. Please let me know if more detail is needed because I know this is… a lot >>;

Physically:
Two years of a steady diet involving a ton of non-meat products have helped up Katara’s height to a solid 5’5 (probably about an inch above canon regular). Due to Luceti’s power cap and the fact that her bending could be taken away at any moment, Katara started training with a bo from practically her forth month there. This has resulted in increased upper arm strength and calloused hands. In the past four months, Toph was returned from the Malnosso scientists with her bending taken away but with the uncanny ability to sense metal. Since the Gaang was drafted soon after that and Toph’s ability to see depended on how much metal a person was wearing, Katara went to one of her best friends in Luceti and asked for - and received - pierced ears. She now has two tiny silver birds in her ears, a gift and memento of this time. Other significant pieces that she always carries with her remain, of course, her mother’s necklace, but now also include a knife that Sokka made for her with the Water Tribe insignia on it and a glass armband which contains a small amount of water. She also received some Spirit Water as a “Christmas present” from the Malnosso last year and always makes sure to carry that inside her tunic, just in case.

…also notably, her balance has now adjusted to the small wings on the back that are the characteristics of the inhabitants of Luceti. Their removal upon entrance to “Ooo” will cause her some initial difficulty with her normal balance and poise. A further mark of her interrupted stay there would be the barcode tattoo on the back of her neck - this tattoo is implemented by the scientists controlling Luceti and not the planet itself, like the wings. If she had been returned home, it would have simply disappeared along with her two years of growth as she reappeared exactly when she was taken from; taken to a new place as she is, the Malnosso would not have removed it and so it remains unsightly evidence of her experiences.

Mentally:
In the traditional sense, the most significant factor in Katara’s mental progress has been that for the past year and a half or so she’s been going to an actual school. She’s had math and art and science and writing lessons, and is an eager participant in “world sharing” - their version of a history class.

In ways that relate to her personality… Katara has recently had a culmination of moral crises which has set her on the track to a more mature mindset. The first crisis was when a friend of hers offered to teach Azula how to cook and was firm in his resolve to do so even after Katara explained that Azula was her enemy. This very nearly ended their friendship, and it is only through the intervention of a mutual friend explaining Sanji’s strange chivalrous nature that Katara agreed to talk with him again and see if this was something which could be overcome. In the course of that conversation, Sanji revealed the fact that he had nearly starved to death as a child and the sacrifices someone had made so that he wouldn’t, and thus his resolve to make sure that anyone around him was fed, always. Katara could respect that, and their friendship was mended. The second significant crisis was when a friend of hers revealed that he was a king who had abandoned his country and countenanced the ‘throwing away’ of the son who now lived with and adored him. This destroyed their friendship, but the fact that the son had so obviously forgiven his father left Katara with a cognitive dissonance. The third significant crisis occurred when Katara was forced to confront the nature of the ninja village where her good friends Shikamaru and Chouji came from after she was told why exactly Itachi had slaughtered his clan. She already had some issues with the powers that the ninja of Konoha have - Shikamaru’s ability to take over someone else’s body, Ino’s ability to invade someone’s mind - but learning that the village actually ordered something like this to be done nearly destroyed her understanding of what needed to be done. Additionally learning that Shikamaru knew this and was keeping it from all of his friends… Katara’s conscience cried out that she shout out the truth and then cut off her friendship with Shikamaru and Chouji. But at the same time Katara considered them good people and among her best friends… she was even sort of ‘dating’ Chouji… and then when Chouji returned home the only one among the Naruto ninja who she felt she owed this truth to more than anything else was gone. So she agreed to keep Konoha’s secret for Shikamaru and they remain friends despite the actions of his village.

So Katara is slowly but surely learning to distinguish the color “gray.”

Emotionally:
Luceti is not so much a horror game is it is filled with relationship oriented drama and Katara has been through the wringer. The appearance and disappearance of two Aangs, two Tophs, and then two Zukos along with losing - and never seeing again, or at least with their memories - people who she had come to truly love has left her knowing her share of grief. Luceti has made her fall in love with enemies and near-strangers, exposed her to drafts where she has had to kill, kidnapped her and experimented on her,

Katara has also been surrounded by shounen heroes and heroines… and they have all still been unable to get out of the enforced enclosure which is Luceti. Being around all these incredibly superpowered and incredibly beautiful people - some of the boys look more girly than she does - has had a detrimental effect to her self-esteem. She’s struggled for some time now to find out what her worth is if she can’t make a difference by the standard of things that matter in her world - Luceti even has foods that you can instantly make! All new clothes for you to walk in and just pick up! -- or the standard of other people’s worlds: she isn’t incredibly beautiful, she can’t just wave her hands and make a forcefield, she’s had to work hard for all of her skill and there are still people in Luceti who can make her power seem paltry. She doesn’t talk about this, but the various love experiments and the fact that anyone who has seemed interested in her has ‘gone home’ or only been the result of Malnosso meddling has been a hit.

Skills:
With all of your basic needs provided for you and a collection of eccentric and skilled individuals, Luceti is a great place for those who care to learn about things to learn about things. And Katara has!

- She’s had more than ample opportunity to practice her own unique brand of healing, unfortunately, and has gotten quite good at using it along with Nala, Luceti’s healing spirit. (Her skills with Nala will obviously not translate anywhere else)
- She’s learned how to play a musical instrument! The koto to be precise.
- She’s become a skilled combatant with the bo.
- She's learned basic botany (what is good and what it is good for and what is not good) from Ginko.
- And she’s had about eight months of training in medicine from One Piece doctors Chopper and Trafalgar Law, respectively. She’s about at the place where she knows how to make basic medicines, is familiar with a bunch of maladies, and is starting pre-surgical training. She has yet to actually ever operate on anybody and doesn’t really like to talk about it. The fact that she couldn’t stop someone from getting hurt and instead has to concentrate on patching them up afterwards is a constant grain in her soul.

Personality:

As so often happens, the two most formative events of Katara’s life were completely beyond her control: She was born a waterbender, the last of her tribe, and her mother was murdered by the Fire Nation. This had the effect of making her both independent and vulnerable, her identity is intimately joined with her skills as a waterbender and the responsibility and love she feels towards her family - and the sadness she feels about her mother’s death. This sense of responsibility is something that affects everything about her.

Katara doesn’t always like being the responsible, mature one. She wants to be thought of as fun, she wants to be able to kick back and be irresponsible… but someone needs to mend those socks. And if it’s a choice between being thought of as fun or making sure that the ones she cares about are happy and safe and doing what’s right - well, then she’d rather be the one that everyone comes to instead.

There are some ways in which she is very grown up - she’s cared for her brother (a full time job, let me tell you), traveled the world, fought against soldiers and princes… and there are some ways that she is still very much a young girl. She’ll go penguin sledding, she’ll blush when a cute guy gets too close… and most importantly, she’ll dream, and she’ll hope.

It’s her capacity for hope that is one of her most defining characteristics. It is her hope in the Avatar that prompts her and Sokka to go with Aang on his journey, even though for all intents and purposes, Aang looked just like a 12 year old boy. And it’s that same ability to hope that makes her want to consistently reach out and encourage everyone around her towards doing what she thinks is the right thing.

In most cases, Katara is polite to strangers, almost to a fault. She’s very concerned with the proper rules for behavior and wants to do the right thing. She can be naïve when it comes to trusting people that she has just met. On the other hand, she also has a temper, has inherited the family trait for sarcasm - at least to family - and has tendency to believe that her way is the right way.

Once she gets going, Katara has no off switch. When she has decided on a cause, absolutely nothing will hold her back from pursuing it, even if it’s dangerous or impossible or risks something else she finds important. This is demonstrated time and time again, but a particularly stunning example is when she risks the Avatar’s training because she will not apologize to the waterbending master who refuses to teach her merely because she is a girl. Instead, she challenges him to a duel, fighting for her right to be treated equally, even at the risk of her ultimate goal.

Powers:
Katara is a waterbender with the ability to manipulate water, changing it to ice or fog and back to water again, as well as use her water to influence a person’s chi and speed up healing. On full moons, Katara’s waterbending is strong enough to bend the water in a person’s body and manipulate them like a puppet. This is called “bloodbending.”

Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths
Katara has the physical strength of any young girl who lives an adventurous lifestyle and regularly trains her body. While her main strength is in her waterbending, and she could be considered one of the strongest waterbenders in the world, even without her bending to protect her the training of the movements themselves will provide her with some protection.

Mental:
Fiercely determined, bright, and innovative, Katara is very practical - she’ll be the one shooting down Sokka’s more ridiculous ideas… or trying to implement them practically, to suit an immediate need. She is not normally the one that her group looks to for battle plans and strategy is not her strong suit, but when it comes down to survival, the way that she took charge in the dessert - attempting to comfort and encourage Aang, keeping Sokka from drinking more cactus juice, trying to help them find ways to survive - shows that if there is any way to get through a difficult situation, she is going to find it.

Emotional:
Katara is deeply connected to her friends and family - and in some ways to everyone she meets. While on their trip through the earth nation, she met a young man named Haru who she talked into risking his safety by revealing that he was an earthbender to save an old man. When Haru was later arrested by Fire Nation soldiers, Katara devised a plan to get herself arrested for the same crime in order to free him.
She hates and fears the Fire Nation, although her time with Aang and traveling through that country is teaching her to see them as people, not monsters. She feels responsible for just about everything that happens around her. She feels everything very deeply - everything matters to her in the way that it matters to a young girl. It is safe to say that Katara is very emotional, but she draws strength from it and uses her emotions to fuel her drive to achieve her goals.

Weaknesses:
Physical:
The strength of Katara’s waterbending rises and falls with the full moon. Take her away from any source of water, and she will start to feel weak and disoriented. In the third season she mentions to Hama the debilitating effect that being in the desert had on her. Despite the physical conditioning her waterbending provides, she’s still only a fourteen year old girl, there’s no super strength or stamina here for her to rely on when it comes down to a physical
confrontation.

Mental:
Katara is more than willing to believe in mysteries and superstitions - much to the exasperation of her far more skeptical brother. When the gang came upon a village which had a fortune teller, she became addicted to asking Aunt Wu questions, even to the point of asking what she should have for breakfast tomorrow.

Emotional:
That same sense of responsibility that leads Katara to want to take care of everyone and fix every injustice she sees makes her easy to manipulate if you know the right buttons to push - as Jet amply proved the first time they met. She has a quick, violent temper that often leads to blow ups with her brother or Toph - even Aang when her mood is foul. Once her trust is broken, Katara has an extremely hard time forgiving and the anger and resentment she feels tends to cloud her judgment in regards to that person until she has been proven, often repeatedly, wrong.

First Person Sample:
[Day four of the blizzard, and Katara was going more than a little stir crazy. She hadn’t practiced, really practiced in days. She slips on her parka and calls out to Sokka and Suki, who are happily snuggling in front of the fire.]

I’ll just go outside for a little bit - just over to the garden.

[Sokka protests.]

Look, it’s stopped snowing and I won’t go far! I just want to stretch my legs a little. I’ll come back in as soon as it starts to snow.

[Katara doesn’t wait for permission. She just bends the snow she can feel outside of the door back and walks out. Everything is covered in snow, feet and feet of it and it feels so much like home that she aches. Taking a deep breath of the bitingly cold air, Katara starts clearing a path towards her garden. There is a bright flash and when she opens her eyes… everything is wrong. Katara glances around, the air suddenly much too warm for her parka, and wishes she was carrying her waterskin. All of the colors are so bright!]

Hello? Is anyone there? [She inhales and instead of the bite of winter it’s… sweet? She calls out louder.] Hello!? Sokka? Suki? Zuko? Can anyone hear me?

[Glancing around at the unfamiliar trees with their pink leaves, Katara extends her senses and… well, she can feel the water in the air like she’s at full power again, but the water in those trees… that’s not normal. None of this is normal. It doesn’t look like home, and it doesn’t look like Luceti.]

The Malnosso must be playing games again. [She speaks to reassure herself with the sound of her own voice, though her heart is beating loudly in her ears.] I’ll just head back towards the house. The can’t have moved it too far…

[As she takes another step she notices that the familiar brush of her parka against her wings is… gone. In fact, the parka is fitting better than it has been in a long time. She pauses, glances around to make sure that she’s alone, and then quickly strips from her parka, making sure to hang onto it in case it disappears if she drops it and reaches behind her to feel for her wings with her free hand. The wings… are gone. Katara’s eyes go wide.]

Oh, this is not good.

Third Person Sample:
Katara is slowly beginning to accept the fact that she is not at home, she is not in Luceti and that everything here is made out of candy. This would be more of a plus if Katara actually liked sweet things, but after the first few tries of things being almost painfully sweet, she’s not sure if she wants to risk finding something tangy or spicy. Besides, she’s reminded too much of Sokka every time she “experiments.”

She was worried, and there was no hiding it. Time stopped at home when you were taken to Luceti, she knew that. But she didn’t know if time in Luceti stopped when you were taken from there somewhere else. That meant that Sokka and Suki likely thought she had disappeared in the blizzard or… or maybe all her stuff had disappeared. And they thought she went home. But she wasn’t home, and she wasn’t sure where she wanted to get back to more right now but she knew that this place wasn’t it. She had responsibilities in Luceti, and more dire ones at home and there wasn’t room for any detours.

If only there was some soda, then she might be tempted to stay for a minute or maybe two. But if there was soda in this strange place, she hadn’t been able to find it.

Yet. She hadn’t been able to find it yet, just like she hadn’t been able to find a way home yet, just like they hadn’t found a way out of the barrier yet and the war with the Fire Nation hadn’t been won yet. But it would be, she knew that from Sokka. So all of the other things were only a matter of time too. She wouldn’t lose hope. She’d keep on looking. And if she had to go on these ‘adventures’ she’d do them, she’d do whatever it takes to get back to where she needs to be, to set things right again.