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audio | un: katara

[Okay, so it's clear what happened after talking with Aang and Zuko about this first...]

For those of you who knew my brother, Sokka, he's not here anymore. I'm sorry if you had any unfinished business with him or if you were waiting him for anything. And thank you for everything, that you talked and did with him during his time here.

But before anyone worries too much, Sokka's fine back home. He'll have some fun times waiting for him and he'll be happy to see everyone there again.

[Especially his girlfriend, but she'll leave that out -- besides, she's definitely included in everyone too. Assuming he's there and not in some other world, that randomly pulls people in just like this one. Anyway...!]

Also while I'm here... If you get any frostbites or other problems from snow, my name's Katara and I have Healing magic here but I'm also a Healer back home. So I can see what I can do about those, or flu or anything, that needs that kind of healing. Me and Sokka grew up in the middle of eternal winter, so aside from his recent snow post, I have lots of experience with snow and ice too.

[Not to mention she's obviously also mastered waterbending and she'll gladly talk about that anytime, but she's leaving that out for now.]

But hey, I'm sure Sokka wouldn't want anyone to be moping around or being sad about him vanishing from Avalon, so -- who wants to go penguin sledding?? Or whatever else there's to do with all that snow! Or if you're stuck somewhere or need any kind of other help with it, let me know and I'll see what I can do!

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I'm sorry to hear about your loss, Katara. You'll be reunited again eventually, so I'm sure he wants you to live your best life here even if he's gone.

[But talking about distractions....]

What's penguin sledding?

Thank you, Mamoru. Yeah, I'll see him again as soon as I return from here or if he'll come back here someday.

[Is this gonna be another episode of how they're all going miss Sokka's humour and trying to be funny without him around...??]

Oh! It's -- We grew up in the South Pole and we didn't always have sleds there, or at least not enough sleds for everyone. Instead we had plenty of playful otter penguins. So one day someone got the idea, that we could play with the penguins by sledding down all the snow and ice on them and the penguins seemed to love it too. So that's how children and penguins play with each other often where I'm from!

[Replacing Sokka's humor... That's rough, buddy.]

Oh. Are there, er, otter penguins here? Do they look more like penguins or otters?

... sorry if you hear these questions a lot.

[It's so rough, please no more attempts of that....]

It's fine! I really should have explained it up there with a video or at least tell what it is even without a video. My familiar's an otter penguin!

[aaaaaaaand here's a video of her familiar waving to the camera in the middle of all the snow.]

[Oh. That sure is... an otter and a penguin.]

Definitely reminds me of a penguin more... but I can also clearly see the otter parts. Reminds me of my own familiar who is half a rabbit and half a wood grouse...

[She's never heard of that mix even back home or here in Avalon even if some animals here remind her of how her home world combines animals...]

Yeah, our home world is full of animals, who are a combo of two and something as simple as just 'bear' or something is really not so common there. We have fauna with names like turtle ducks, otter penguins, tiger seals, badgermoles, koalaotters, platypus bear, saber-tooth moose lion and so on, though we have bears, dogs, and others like that too.

But I've never heard of that combo! Can I see your familiar?

Hi there. I’m sorry to hear this. I was among the people who was in last contact with Sokka before he vanished and we were pretty close for months, we even helped some people to escape the Headless Horseman a month prior.

My name is Harry Potter and I wouldn’t mind trying out penguin sledding, though I never experienced it in my world before. So, what is penguin sledding about?

Oh, hello, so you're the Harry, that he mentioned more than once. Nice to meet you and thank you.

I'm not even sure if it's a thing anywhere else than back in our home world. And I could explain it, but maybe it's better if you see my familiar and Sokka at it yourself --

[INCLUDING a short, silent video clip of Sokka screaming as he sleds down on the back of an otter penguin on snow and ice surfaces around this world last winter. Because guess who finally realized, that she has lots of videos and pictures of their time here saved somewhere. Sorry but not sorry, Sokka!!]

It is nice to meet you too, Katara. Oh, you got something to show me what the sport is like. I would love to see it.

(And yes, he gets to see the video in question of the otter penguin and Sokka in action and he has got to admit, it does like a lot of fun, even for someone who has never done penguin sledding before.)

Wow, it looks like Sokka is having fun sledding down with the penguin in that video clip.

Sometimes those explanations work better than words. But we're from the South Pole of our world, lots of ice and snow there for playing with otter penguins by penguin sledding on their backs.

[Oh yeah, Sokka's having "fun" on that coolest rollercoaster ride ever. Spoilers; he'll try it rarely and then he remembers why he doesn't go penguin sledding more often.]

... Hah, he's opinion on it is actually entirely different than mine, I guess. Most people, including me, think it's fun and relaxing and the penguins love playing like that too.

Oh, so even the penguins love sledding on the snow and ice. That is nice to hear, I would like to give it a try someday real soon.

It might be just as fun as riding on a broomstick in the air.

I'm pretty sure they love it even more without human company, they're wild penguins living in the same areas as us but they spend a lot of time with us too... You could give it a try with my familiar anytime!

[Aaaand if all this talk about penguins isn't enough to get her distracted and excited, that thing he says about brooms in the air lights up her face even more.]

You can do that?!

Why yes, I can absolutely fly a broomstick back in my world: it is a common skill that many wizards and witches would learn in there and I had gotten the talent from my dad. We use broomsticks for a sport where we chase after metallic balls while flying on our brooms.

But I don’t have my broomstick with me when I arrived here, which is sad since I would have love to demonstrate how to fly on one someday.

That sounds amazing and fun, I'd love to try it or even just see that demonstration!

So, you can't just fly on any broomstick here, it has to be your own from your home world?

I haven’t see a lot of people riding on broomsticks in here, even in Camelot, so it might be something that is exclusive to my world.

Or maybe other worlds might have people flying on brooms too, but I haven’t met anyone else who has ridden on broomsticks in their worlds so far.

I've never heard it being a sport like that, so that might be just in your world. But yeah, I haven't really seen many people riding on them here either - or maybe I just haven't been paying attention. But at least there are many stories about flying on them, though not sure how many other worlds have stories of witches and others flying on brooms but---

Come to think of it, maybe it'd be possible with kinetic or elemental magic or combo of them? [Because that includes moving items, flying, air from elemental magic...] I've seen our airbender flying with a glider in my home world, so if it's possible with bending, I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible with magic too.

I actually learn that it is possible to use kinetic magic to fly when I was learning about kinetic magic, so it is possible to do it. It just so happens that I haven’t reached the level to be able to fly without the aid of brooms or getting too dizzy often or draining my energy just yet.

But I’m still hoping to do that someday.

It's hard when people go home... or wherever they go after here. I'm sorry. [Someone was clearly speaking from experience here.]

I'm Keith. Can I ask how "penguin sledding" is different than regular sledding?

Yeah, it sure never even gets any easier. We arrived at the same time, so it will take some time getting used to it too... Thank you. [... It also sounds like experience talking there but she doesn't want to push it too much. It's not as bad as some of her experiences back home anyway, she'll see him there again.]

Hello, Keith! It's different because there's no sled -- at least, not any usual kind of sled. Sokka and I grew up in our home world's version of the South Pole, we have animals called otter penguins there and they're really, really playful. They let us ride on their backs around all the ice and snow, it's like fun play time for them and people too. My familiar here is an otter penguin too.

[He nodded at her thanks...

...and 'otter penguin' sounded like it was small? Like, otters and penguins were small creatures for him back home, and, last he checked, not exactly biologically compatible, so that was a new one, but he couldn't imagine one being big enough to be used as a sled.]

An otter penguin? How big is it? We just... ride on it?

I am so sorry, even knowing they will be safe and happy, it is still the loss of family. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.

That said, I have never heard of this activity before, what is penguin sledding?

[What a cute network username!]

Thank you. Yeah, I'm pretty used to him being around... Everywhere. [Back home and here] since we arrived here at the same time too. I-- Thank you? I can't think of anything right now but if anything comes to mind later, I'll let you know.

[She's been through worse. Back home at least. But then she gives a little laugh. Great job, Katara, not mentioning waterbending because that would get a lot of questions but forgetting that penguin sledding does just the same too!! Not that she minds explaining it anytime!]

I think no one here has heard about it unless they somehow heard of it from me or Sokka or anyone else from our world. It's play time with otter penguins from our world's version of the South Pole, where our tribe, the Southern Water Tribe, lives. Looks like this...

[She includes a short video clip of herself and her otter penguin familiar penguin sledding all around snow and ice in Avalon.]

Please do, my name is Aurora, please don't hesitate to call on me.

I have heard of your home and its endless winter from Zuko.

[She watches the video with interest, smiling.] What a splendid activity! It looks wonderful! I've never tried such a thing myself!

Hi, Katara. My name is Fenton, and I spoke with your brother a few times. He was a really bright kid, and he'll definitely be missed. How are you holding up?

...And what's...penguin sledding?

Oh hello, I heard about you from him a lot! Thank you, that's all very true. I'm-- Still getting used to it and not yet used to him not walking into the kitchen five minutes before food's ready.

[She's teasing, it's like a friendly punch to him to talk stuff like that about him here now. Or whenever, she'd say similar stuff even if Sokka would be here but it'd be in a different context or something.]

Back home, where our Southern Water Tribe lives in our world's version of the South Pole, we play with otter penguins by riding all around the snow and ice on their back. And my familiar here happens to be an otter penguin, who's pretty playful too.

[ He smiles a bit. ] Well, it's nice to finally meet you, Katara. I'm sorry it's not under better circumstances, though. And it's understandable that it could take time to get used to someone no longer being around, so if there's anything I can do to help out, just let me know.

I've never heard of an otter penguin before! Is that normal in your world, where animals are hybrids of two creatures?

[Not that he really cares about who is gone or not but--]

Penguin sliding?

[Curiosity gets the best of him.]

[ She might have passed it up. There's not much she can do for comforting a stranger, but listening to it — one of the first people she spoke to on this thing was a young man talking about growing up in the snow. It's probably reasonable to make the connection, but even so: ]

Hopefully, the two of you will be reunited again soon.

[A beat.]

Penguin sledding, though... Do the penguins like that? I didn't think there were any around here.

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audio | un: katara

voice; un: gentlerose

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audio; un: hpotter

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un: keith | video

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Video; UN: Roseofdawn

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Audio | un: scientistatwork

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text: un: hawkeye