milliways_bar | (no subject)

A cheerful Japanese medical student pauses as she passes by, adjusting her armful of books to allow her a better look at the tower.

The ice may or may not be noticed.

"My," she says with a smile, "you're doing very well."

"Huh-- oh." Katara grins, looking a little sheepish and folding her arms on the tabletop as if, perhaps, she's trying to hide said ice. "Thanks. It's kind of small, but I'm new at it."

Ami doesn't giggle. Card houses are clearly srs bsns.

"I've never attempted it myself," she says, peering at the card rows a little more closely, "but I've always been impressed by the geometry involved." She smiles at Katara. "Have you been working off a pattern, or are you making it up as you go?"

"Just... kind of playing with it," Katara answers sweetly. If she leans a little further over the table and puts her arms a little closer to the card house, it's surely an accident.

"Are there patterns? I thought everybody just made them up."

"Everyone might start off that way," Ami allows, sweatdropping just slightly at the sneaky ice-hiding. (It's more a state of mind than anything else.) "But I always assumed that there were general patterns or guidelines-- particularly since the more complicated a card house becomes, the more difficult it becomes to replicate."

Ami approves of repeatable data.

"Oh, I have no idea," Katara says quickly, grinning-- but the sweatdrop throws her off a little bit. Is the girl-- leaking?

Leaning back, Katara looks at Ami worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"Hm?"

Being an anime character, Ami is incapable of recognizing the particular conceits of her medium as unusual in any way.

She might, however, look a little anxious. She manipulates the elements like I do ...

"No, I'm fine-- why do you ask?"

"... no reason." Katara pauses and grins a little, deciding to be friendly as she gestures to one of the free chairs. "Um, do you want to try and play with me?"

Ami blinks, though smiles are nice and merit smiling back!

"Help you build your card house, you mean?"

Katara beams back because returned smiles are also nice! "Sure, if you want to."

Makita notices the ice as she walks by on her way to the bar and frowns, "What happened to your table?"

Blinking up at the new voice, Katara smiles sheepishly, glancing back down at the card house. "Uhm... I kind of... um..."

Iced the cards to the table since doing it the regular way was frustrating.

"...hi, I'm Katara," she says instead, offering a very nice, hopefully distracting smile.

"Makita," the other girl replies with a distracted nod. She reaches out to touch the table experimentally, "Did you know your table is frozen?"

Makita.

Makita.

Katara blinks, eyes a little wider for a moment before she looks down at her table - abashed. "Uhm... yeah, I did that. I'm... new at the card thing."

There's an odd frown on Makita's face. "How?" She looks around as if trying to find what Katara used to freeze the water.

"Just me," Katara replies, starting to really smile again. The chance to brag changes her mood quite easily, really. "I'm a Waterbender."

There is a widening of Makita's eyes, "You... a what? Is that like a sorceress?" Though Makita's never heard of a protokol designed to freeze water.

"Oh, no, it's not magic," Katara says quickly, waving her hand a little, her own eyes a bit wide. "It's just-- me. Here, see," a few gestures and the ice holding the base of the card house melts and lifts up into an orb between her hands. It's all very impressive.

Until her card house falls down.

"Oh, darn it!"

Makita doesn't giggle. It's not really the sort of thing someone like her does. That sound she makes? While it may be giggle-like, it's certainly not an actual giggle.

Of course not. And with as much pride as Katara has, what she is doing now is certainly not smiling sheepishly back.

It's just not done when you're Master Waterbender Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.

Or whatever.

"That's neat," Makita says, grinning. "Can you teach other people to do it?"

Blinking, Katara sweeps the water back into the water skin at her shoulder and looks down at her failed cards. "...I guess you mean Waterbending - at least, I hope you do! And no, I can't, you're just kind of-- born with it. It happens kind of randomly depending on what nation you're born in." She gives Makita a helpless shrug, used to this question in Milliways, and smiles apologetically. "I'm from the Southern Water Tribe and I can do it, but my brother is Water, too, and he can't."

"Oh," Makita mostly manages to hide her disappointment. "Well, that's okay. Not your fault."

"A lot of people here ask me that," Katara continues anyway, still guilty for Makita's disappointment. "The kata that I use to make it happen is like a martial art some people here know called Tai Chi, if that helps."

Idle brown fingers are being used to push the cards around, now that they're all flat on the table. Part of her wants to talk to this girl that Jet used to tease her about for being jealous, and the other part-- isn't really sure if she's allowed to anymore.

"I don't really know anything about that." Makita's training is a lot less formal. She's also a bit oblivious to subtext.