I've been chillin' out on a star with my 5 star view

[lucetimods]

Who: All draftees
What: The space battle commences
When: After 3PM on the 19th to the 23rd
Where: In Space! On the Moon!
Summary: The battle finally begins! First there's asteroids to take down, then we finally arrive!
Rating: SPACE

MORE SPACE

All the details you need are here, so read up on it. This didn't get mentioned before, but you can tag the cultists instead of killing them. Details on this are on a previous draft post. Using the scanners are optional!

There will be a thread for interacting with NPCs, but they may not all go up at once, so keep an eye out for them.

Note: A log for the events in the village will go up on the 21st, in time for the hurricane and droid incursion.

Comments

[markofthebrave]

"No, I can't imagine anyone would..."

She gave Buffy a concerned and assessing glance.

"Why don't you tell me where you're hurting the most, and I can concentrate there."

[herotypical]

"Uhm. My me. My me hurts most," she said -- quite unhelpfully. But after a moment: "He stuck me in this shoulder," she nodded her chin towards the right. "With his blood sword. Which was gross."

[markofthebrave]

Blood sword. Of course. If she had been there...

If she had been there...

A shadow entered her eyes and Katara fixed her gaze on Buffy's shoulder. "And it sounds ripe for an infection."

Not if she had anything to say about it. She moved her hand to Buffy's shoulder.

[herotypical]

Buffy pulled a face.

"Oh. Ew. I don't want a Cultist blood sword infection. That sounds way too gross. You don't think he has cold sores, do you?"

[markofthebrave]

Exhausted and stretched thin as she is, Katara doesn't bother holding in her laughter at that bit of irreverence.

"I really, really hope to never find out."

She closed her eyes to focus on the wound in Buffy's shoulder. "You don't have to worry. I won't let you get a Cultist blood sword infection."

Only the faintest inflection that word "let," but significant in the fact that it was there at all.

[herotypical]

Let? Green eyes slid back to the other woman.

"My hero."

[markofthebrave]

"Don't mention it."

She didn't feel like anyone's hero. She felt worn and thin, like a used dishrag.

But there was something cleansing about using her power to connect with someone's chi and encouraging life the way it should be. Infections couldn't stand before her bending. Not now.

[herotypical]

"Oh," her smile looked suspiciously like another grimace. "Too bad. I'm gonna mention it. I'm gonna mention it a lot."

A day might have passed but Buffy's system was still violently out of sorts. The General's invasion of her very veins was keeping a lot of her usual Slayer subroutines in check. Coupled with the drain from the dream shifter and things were...not dire, but approaching dire-ish.

[markofthebrave]

"If you've got energy enough to be mentioning it, you've got energy enough to eat horrible tasting good-for-you-gruel."

Katara had none. This was what is known as an 'empty threat.' But honestly, praise right now could break her. Between Aang and Temari and her own encounters, Katara just needed to be useful or this very thin veneer of calmness would shatter.

It was easy to see, however, that not all of the strain on Buffy had been caused externally. Her chi felt... stretched, somehow, sluggish. As though her body had been through a terrible trauma. Katara could ease the oreness easily, but first it was more important to determine the cause.

[herotypical]

"Th-then? I take it back. No gruel. Spare me, please."

Buffy breathed a little easier. The fire in her muscles cooled -- measure by measure.

[markofthebrave]

Katara worked quietly for a time before removing her hands. "There. That should help restore your natural healing, but I'll be back to check on you a little later. I want to see how your chi resets."

Because the pathways indicated 'stretched' in a way that was not cool to her.

[herotypical]

"...Like rebooting a computer, huh?"

[markofthebrave]

"I have no idea what that means."

[herotypical]

"It's a..." she wrinkled her nose because she couldn't wave a hand, "tech thing. When your computer doesn't work you can just turn it off and turn it back on again and wish really really hard that it fixes the problem."

[markofthebrave]

"Oh." A small smile. "Well, in this case, I can do a little more than wish hard. Your body wants to go back to normal, and I can help get it there faster. You're going to be just fine, Buffy."

[herotypical]

"What can I say? I'm hard to kill...as long as it's someone else doing the killing."

She rubbed at a scratch on her cheek that was already blessedly closed over. "How long've you been helping out in here?"

[markofthebrave]

...she was worn too thin to pursue that other avenue of conversation, so she was willing to go with this one, "On and off all day. I might go down to the moon for a final sweep with a team later."

[herotypical]

"A final sweep," she echoed -- the jealous ache was audible. Buffy wanted to be back out there.

"Careful. Their new Shifters. They're...bad news."

[markofthebrave]

"I heard about that," she frowned.

Aang killed me.

She paused and looked at Buffy, "Were you caught in one too?"

[herotypical]

"Yep. Pretty much right after the General...moved on. Double whammy."

[markofthebrave]

Frowning again, Katara streamed some water back into her hands. "Will you let me try something?"

[herotypical]

Wary: "That depends on the something, Katara."

[markofthebrave]

How to explain what she felt she knew instinctively? She searched for what could only be a strange combination of medical terminology and the healing that she was never fully trained in, but had felt her way through impossible things on more than one occasion.

"You said you were having bad dreams, right? I'm not sure that this will work, but it makes sense that what you experienced so close together would be as traumatic for the chi in your mind as it was for the rest of your muscles. Like - blunt force trauma to the mind and soul, but it's manifesting in your dreams, so there could be some physical connection. If I'm right and your chi is off its natural course in any way, I can work on soothing it enough for you to get some sleep."

Not... healing it. That would probably be too traumatic for her right now, it had been for Jet and Robin. Buffy didn't need to relive anything so close right now, and the mind and soul would have its own way of dealing with it. But soothing the chi for an uninterrupted sleep? That she could - maybe? probably. - do.

[herotypical]

And her soul, she realized, had already taken enough of a beating back home. At least Katara was being honest with her -- explaining to her just what the knot was at the heart of the problem, even if neither of them cared to acknowledge the cause.

"...Alright. I'm game. Soothe away."

If she looked at all nervous, it was only because this healing mojo was still rather new to her.

[markofthebrave]

Katara moved behind Buffy to take away that extra pillow now. She helped ease the other woman back down so that if - when - she fell asleep, it would be more comfortable.

"It's all right," she said, as she placed water coated hands on Buffy's temples. "I've got you."