Meet-n-Greet

[cityship]

After being released from stasis, having the slime removed from their bodies and clothed in the creepy, pulsing leaf-suit that everyone wore, and being taken to the Weapons & Possessions lockers to collect their belongings, the new arrivals would find themselves standing in the Observation Deck. Round windows lined the fleshy walls, revealing the

Comments

[isee_snorkacks]

Luna nods, watching Katara's expressions flit across her face. She catches some hint of personal pain at her comment about losing people, and Luna's eyes shine oddly. She can sympathize with the waterbender on that point. "Losing people is painful," she says without much of a prompt, going almost entirely off-topic. This is a skill she has, though, going off-topic, and she feels a need to share with Katara, even if it is only a whim. "I lost my mother when I was nine. One of her spells went wrong. It was awful." She pauses, blinks. "Strangeness is relative, anyway. I think it's strange, but I'm not from your world where it's probably very ordinary

[isee_snorkacks]

"I suppose it's all relative. I think your names are strange, you think my names are strange. Though some of the names in my world are fairly peculiar... Nymphadora. Bellatrix. I've always liked the name Bellatrix." No reference to the fact that Bellatrix puts the 'fun' back in 'fundamentalist psycho', nor the way she murdered Harry's godfather. Luna values the brighter things in life, like interesting names and Dirigible Plums. Speaking of Dirigible Plums... "It's too bad there weren't any in my locker... that would have been wonderful." Grumbling stomach aside... "I'm sure firebending is just as interesting as waterbending. Does it look any different? Yours was like a dance, though I suppose all the other forms could be quite fluid, too

[kaya_waterwave]

Katara nodded. "Those are pretty out there names, but you're right. Bellatrix is a pretty interesting name too, although it makes me think of a poisonous plant for some reason." It really did sound like one for some reason

[isee_snorkacks]

"Yes, well, the woman herself is a bit of a poisonous plant, so it's to be expected," she says simply, not sounding fazed by the insult she gave. After all, Bellatrix well deserved it, and though Luna was fairly incapable of holding a grudge or being angry at anyone, the fact remained that the insane Death Eater had made one of her best friends badger his house ghost about the Afterlife, which wasn't anything Luna would ever expect him to go into. It made her a bit worried, actually, that powerful urge to see his deceased relatives again, because there was a certain Stone out there that would help if he ever found it, and the thought of Harry meddling with things like the Stone of Resurrection gave her chills

[kaya_waterwave]

"Oh, I see," Katara said. "I knew a girl like that too, but her name is Azula. She's got to be the most vicious, sadistic person I know, five times more than Zuko was when he was bad. I was lucky to defeat her that day when the comet came. I think woman can sometimes be more vicious than men when they're that evil."

Katara listened about the fake professor and was once again mystified. She was really going to have to sit down with Luna and get a detailed explanation of all the things she'd seen and all the people she met. That included the Dirigible Plums.

Katara sighed. "I know you didn't mean anything. It's just a very sore subject for me still. There were plenty of times where we were almost killed, and one time Aang nearly was when he and I were fighting. I've never been able to forgive myself for not stopping it. But yeah, some people just mean to hurt others, and if I had to make a choice, I'd do it all over again to save the ones I care about."

[isee_snorkacks]

"I agree. Women can be very, very mean." Like the ones who laughed at her earrings, told her hair looked like a cobweb, told her she should date Neville Longbottom so that both of them could get off the market and go away forever. And then there were all of the Bellatrix Lestranges and Azulas in the world, which were ten times as bad, but also ten times less common

[kaya_waterwave]

"Yeah, I know," Katara said. "I have a friend named Toph who's short and blind, even though she's an airbender and can 'see' better than most people. One time I took her to a spa and we were made up and everything...and then these girls passed by and made fun of her pretty badly. I'm glad we made them get wet and fall in the river, but it still hurt Toph."

Katara gave her back a smile. "I thought that too. It seemed silly that we would be brought here and they would leave Aang. The Avatar is far too much of an asset if someone were fighting a war." She hated talking about Aang like he was just some toy to be used, but she figured she had to get into the mind of someone trying to start a war.

Katara smiled. "I'm glad I met you Luna. We're a lot more alike that I thought. Different too, but similar."

That really didn't make sense. Darn.

[isee_snorkacks]

"I know how that feels," she says, her tone bordering on... snarky? exasperated? Something like that. "That sounds like it would have been fun, though, feminine cruelty aside. I wish I had been there, if only to see a little part of your world. It sounds so beautiful." War or no, that's exactly what Luna feels it must be like to an outsider like her; a world that's so based on the elements, the things that make up the entire world, someplace so focused on the essentials is a concept that she revels in, cherishes, longs to see. Waterbending, firebending, earthbending... airbending... It's so much more magical than magic. At the thought, she smiles, watching the somewhat calmer canaries as a few settle in Katara's hair, the other two hopping around on the floor between them. Yes, it's a lot more magical, she thinks, holding her hand out for one of them to hop onto

[kaya_waterwave]

"I don't think anyone should be excluded from those kind of experiences," Katara said after thinking a moment. "But the truth is, the moments aren't that because they're in my world, they happen because they're meaningful. I'm very blown away by your ability in magic, Luna, and I think its really an interesting thing to learn. I don't see why everyone wouldn't want to try and become a witch. I mean, if they're anything like you,, they'll appreciate what they know, and how their abilities are linked to their state of being

[isee_snorkacks]

One of the canaries cheeps, and Luna doesn't reply for a long time. "Meaningful," she finally murmurs. "That's a very good word." "And anyway, everyone simply can't try to become a witch. If you aren't born with magic, then you aren't born with it. It's very sad, all of the Muggles in the world not appreciating the beauty of it, persecuting the few of us they find, struggling along on their own without anything to aid them besides their own two hands and wits. There are people, too, born to perfectly capable wizarding parents who don't have even the slightest flicker of magic about them. We call them Squibs, and I think it would be very sad to be one. To grow up in the wizarding world and not be able to do even the simplest summoning spell. It's a bit of a shame that so many of my classmates don't appreciate what they have in their hands. It's a whole world of anything

[kaya_waterwave]

Katara nodded. "Its like that in my world too: you have to be born with the abilities, or you just don't have them. You can be helpful in other ways too though. My brother has no bending abilities like me, and he usually just looked at it as freaky magic at first. For him, being the boy in the family while dad was gone meant he had to take care of me to the best of his ability, and he did. Eventually, he found someone to teach him how to fight better with a sword, and he was very good at figuring things out and being the level head in the group. In a way, him not having bending ability made him think more with his head, and that has helped us a lot in the long run."

Katara smiled sheepishly. "Not strange, different. But I think its something to be proud of. And I agree with you: people who are themselves are the strongest people I know."

Katara paused. "What is Polyjuice potion?"

[isee_snorkacks]

"Did Stacy pick him up, too? Oh... you probably don't know yet... Though I did meet someone who was wearing clothes similar to yours earlier. He had a very pretty boomerang. I've never seen a boomerang in real life, and this one was such a nice shade of blue..." She pauses. "What's your brother's name?" Though it's none of her business, she does rather want to know; their names are all so interesting. That, and she may well have met him earlier, if Sir Boomerang's clothes and hair color are any indication.

"It is something to be proud of, isn't it? Individual thought processes and all."

"Polyjuice potion... It... Well, it allows you to turn into another person for a short period of time. From what I hear, it's quite uncomfortable, and you only get an hour out of a single dose. Supposedly tastes horrid, too."

[kaya_waterwave]

"Actually, Stacy did," Katara replied, and then listened to the rest of what Luna was saying. "Oh, that's him all right. His name is Sokka. If you called his boomerang pretty, I'm guessing that either confused or bothered him. Sokka has this weird obsession with being a 'man's man' and sometimes it makes him forget that I can waterbend him to oblivion if he thinks I can't do something because I'm a girl

[isee_snorkacks]

"Oh, well, that's good." She smiles detachedly. "Yes, he was rather confused by my observation. I had to explain myself, which I suppose was rather strange."

Katara's huffy moment has a giggle coming from Luna. "Siblings are designed to be annoying, you know. I do wish I had one. And anyway, he was rather nice."

"Oh, it isn't pleasant at all. People normally use it for forms of espionage, anyway. My Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher last year turned out to be using it for the entire year. He was actually an escaped convict from Azkaban out to turn Harry over to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was quite a shock." Though, really, she doesn't sound shocked at all. It seems that it takes a bit more than the memory of the story of Barty Crouch Jr. to upset her cool.

[kaya_waterwave]

"Well, he just sees himself in a certain way. That changed a lot from how he used to be. It was his girlfriend that helped with that. Her name is Suki, and she's a Kyoshi warrior." She could get into who they are and what they do, but that was a long story, and would just go on too long