[ action / voice ] backdated to Tuesday because I was too tired to post it then

[blessingone]

[ So, Fenimore had spent the last event as bittyblessing. That had been fine at the time, but, now that the event was over, it had its own issues.

One of them was clothes. Another was pretty much everything else she owned.

Some of her belongings had stayed in the house -- Stella had rescued and retained some outfits, for example -- but, as they lay unclaimed during the event, many eventually disappeared (Shuri and the trash can are particularly suspect in this matter). She had made a brief effort to find particularly important effects, like the locket Shirley had given her -- that disappearance had sent her into a panic until she found it again. But, for the most part, she was too busy sulking to go out into the general social sphere.

Until, well, she woke up one morning to realize that she was down to one clean outfit. One...embarrassing outfit from when she had spent an experiment trying to be a magical girl. (Top and right, respectively, but with added stockings and arm warmers. After all, it was winter at that time.)

Unable to avoid the chore any longer, she can be found in or on her way to either the clothing or item shops, attempting to pretend that there's nothing wrong with this outfit.


She can also be found partway there under a tree, in the same outfit, seemingly attempting to reason with a strange bird sitting on a high branch. It seems that, sometime between her kidnapping and her return after the event, the peepit chick she got for Christmas escaped and has been living the wild life. ] Look, I said I was sorry. Now would you -- ?

[ The bird squawks and turns its back on her. Fenimore huffs as though she suspects the bird to be intelligent enough to understand an apology and reject it, opening her journal, transmitting a request as Voice. ]

Does anyone here speak bird? [Her intended request was for someone who was good at catching birds, but, annoyed, it came out as a more sarcastic one.]

Comments

[blessingone]

You're not really sounding that into it. [But she lets her arms drop from being crossed so that they rest by her sides.] So Suki is some kind of fighting teacher?

[Outside of her "children," since that did happen for Fenimore.]

[markofthewise]

Leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, yeah. She's responsible for keeping them all trained. Me? My students back home consisted of umm... toddlers and five year olds. There weren't any other boys near enough to my age to really train. [So yeah, definitely an exercise in futility, when Sokka's own training had been a bit spotty.]

[blessingone]

[She nods slightly at the first part, accepting the new bit of information -- she had heard about the Kyoshi Warriors and had even gathered that Suki was their leader, but the training part was new. The second part is more unexpected since, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going to assume he hasn't told her about the village men leaving.]

Was your village really that small? [Fenimore's was pretty tiny, but a rather loose definition of "near her age" surrounding a few years had at least more than just her.]

[markofthewise]

Well... yeah. After my dad left with all the men to go to war, there was only about a dozen of us left, including me and my sister. It used to be bigger before the war. At least, that's what my Gran used to say.

[Had the war gone on for another generation, that village probably wouldn't have existed anymore.]

[blessingone]

[Oh. And that "before the war" thing sounds like it was a really long time ago according to Suki. There's an awkward hesitation.]

...That would limit it. [But she's not sure what else to say, so she'll leave it to him whether to continue on that topic or change to something else.]

[markofthewise]

It's better now, though. My dad and all the other warriors have returned, and me and Katara did... plus there were waterbenders from the Northern Tribe who came to help us rebuild.

[So the future is kind of optimistic.]

1/2

[blessingone]

[She takes a moment to consider how to approach this. He had just done a whole lot of sympathizing with her...maybe she should take that kind of approach with him?]

[blessingone]

[...Nah, probably not.] I guess that's what happens when you save the world, huh, hero-boy? It all turns out okay.

[markofthewise]

Well, that's the plan.

[The war still happened and the damage is still done. But at least things can get better, even if it may be a long road ahead.]

[blessingone]

[Based on the expression, she's guessing she should take this a little more seriously. Um. Whoops.]

...You'll be fine. You're resourceful. But it can't have been easy growing up like that.

[markofthewise]

Maybe not, but it wasn't that bad. I mean, it was all I knew, right? I'd been to the other villages around the South Pole, but they weren't much better off than we were.

[Except for the tragedies, he doesn't regret having a difficult childhood. Sure, maybe he hated all the work then, but it made him who he was now, right? So, it couldn't all be bad.]

[blessingone]

Does that really make it better?

[She could understand what he meant to some extent -- that's a little like how she felt growing up in her own village -- but it didn't stop her from feeling bitter over it sometimes.] Well, maybe I shouldn't discourage you from looking at it in a better light.

[markofthewise]

[Sokka is too proud of his heritage to ever be bitter over things like that.]

Well, the important thing is, I didn't have to find a girlfriend back home. Believe me, the availability? Not so good. [There was Katara and umm... a few little girls above seven years younger than him.]

[blessingone]

Sokka! [The tone was intended to be reproachful, but it's unexpected enough that it startles a laugh out of her.]

...Well, I'm sure your current girlfriend prefers that state of affairs. [No need for a long and varied history of women! (What makes this statement weird is that, at the time it is being made, Fenimore doesn't know that the proper term is fiancée and Yue has yet to arrive. Backtagging sure is confusing!)]

[markofthewise]

Hey, hey. I'm sure she had a guy or two before me. [He would prefer she DIDN'T, but there's no way a girl that smooth could be inexperienced, right? Besides... it's only fair. Sokka had a few crushes before Suki. And not just Yue, either.]

[blessingone]

Maybe she did. But I think she'd still prefer you limit the number of girls before her if you're not going to have the courtesy to at least pick up a little finesse from it.

[She gets through that as lighthearted teasing, but it does strike her that she ended up as one of those hypothetical girls. Or technically in-between? And she had even critiqued his finesse at the time as a tsunning method. Um. That's a little awkward.]

[markofthewise]

Well it's not like I plan to go bragging about it to her or anything.

[She practically had to drag out him bringing up the Toph thing.] Besides, it could be seen as a good thing! It means that even though I've had other girls I liked, she's the only one I wanted to marry.

[blessingone]

[When he mentions marriage, she brings both hands together and attempts to use them to hide the smile that she can't enitrely suppress. She doesn't press him on the point -- since she hasn't heard about his engagement at this point, she thinks that it's just something he's been considering and slipped out accidentally -- but, even after the initial moment passes and she slips her arms behind her back, she can't hide that she's pretty pleased by this.]

I'd hope that even you wouldn't be candid enough to brag about that! [She shakes her head.] I guess it depends on who you ask, whether it's a good thing or not.

[markofthewise]

[... he notices that. Umm, eheh, she doesn't know about the engagement, does she? He decides to not say anything about it for right now. Even if she would probably be excited to hear about it.]

I'm guessing you would say no, huh?

[blessingone]

Well.... [Hmm. For the most part, she would, but:] It depends on the person, really. Some can carry off the experienced manner -- and people who aren't who need all the help a former partner could give.

[markofthewise]

Right... so which of those two am I?

[blessingone]

You aren't even an option! [/TSUN. Except she does have a leftover opinion from the experiment, when she had been really happy he chose her over Suki and had...appreciated his experience in a certain matter.] ...But if you were, you might be able to make a case for the benefit of a previous girlfriend or two.

[markofthewise]

I'm not sure if I should take that as a good thing or not. [... let's go with good-ish.]

[blessingone]

It's neither. Not really. [Well, it's definitely closer to good.] It just means that you have a different kind of appeal, that's all.

[markofthewise]

Right. [Welp. Time to turn this around.]

So what about you? Any boyfriends from back home? [Just... leaving out the love experiments. Those don't count.]