[ Action, Video ] .051

[markofthebrave]

[Toph's taken. Masaomi's gone. Shikamaru and Nami and Chopper are all still gone. Suddenly using the rest of her free time at the beach as Katara has been seems to have lost its appeal completely. She needs to be doing something. She's had this on her mind for a while, but... this just brings everything to a front.

She makes this post shortly before her regularly scheduled practice time - just about seven o'clock.]

Hey, everyone. My name is Katara. I'd like your attention for something serious for a minute. I've been here for about a year and a half now, and there are some things about Luceti that are really great which are easy to take for granted - like the grocery store. But a few weeks ago you all saw how easily things in Luceti can change. [And they did change, once. Last August. But she's not trying to scare people here.] And the drafts have changed as well, so that those who go out might have to either carry or catch their food supplies. So I thought I would offer to see if anyone was interested in lessons on how to live off the land.

I know plenty of people who could teach hunting, and back in my village at home I learned all about how to prepare game and use every part of the animal so that nothing was wasted. If anyone's interested I could teach that, along with different ways of cooking outside, and give some basic lessons what kind of plants are and aren't good to eat.

[She tries - and succeeds - in attaining a more cheerful tone now.] And I thought that maybe at the end of the month before school starts we could go on a camping trip with everyone who wanted to learn! This way we could all test out what we've learned and have some fun too. If you're interested in learning or teaching, or if you have any questions, just let me know.

[And Katara will keep her journal opened for the next two or three hours as she alternates between answering it and going through her bending forms. She'll remain mostly off-camera here, but since it's opened it won't be hard to see the outline of the barracks or occasional glimpse of a girl waterbending.]

Comments

[Voice]

[derek-bliss.livejournal.com]

...I know you and Sokka probably have this handled, but if you want help with teaching folks, I'm willing.

[Voice]

[markofthebrave]

[...she might not have actually told Sokka about this yet. Ah-heh >>

But, yes.]

That would be great, Derek. If we get a lot of people who are interested, it's probably better to break down the hunting classes into small groups anyway. We don't want to take too much from the forest just for lessons.

Re: [Voice]

[derek-bliss.livejournal.com]

I know a few no-kill methods, so we can do that to keep the waste down to non-existent.

And yeah; larger groups will likely chase off the prey too.

Just let me know when, all right?

[Private]

Been doing all right?

[voice]

[forestpride.livejournal.com]

Do not overhunt the game in this forest.

[Something else Katara said has her attention, though.]

Your brother thinks he can hunt. [It's said with an almost-smirk. Sokka can hunt. It's just that San's learned how to tease.]

[voice]

[markofthebrave]

[Seriously:] Don't worry, we won't.

[...not that she's sure they could, really, in the space of a couple of weeks. The forest still has more game than any she's really seen. But the point isn't to live off the land now, the point is to teach people how to do it later, so a few demonstrations wouldn't be enough.]

We'd probably start with small game, anyway. [Rabbits. Chipmonks. Squirrels. The basics of killing, preparing, and eating are all the same.] If we needed it, we'd only take one or two deer.

[...an almost smirk, huh? Katara almost laughs. But she does smile.] He's hunted for our tribe for a long time. [Grin] But nothing hunts like a wolf.

[She wonders if San would be up for giving tracking lessons...]

[voice]

[forestpride.livejournal.com]

No mother deer. [That means ones who are about to have or already have fawns. Although this isn't the season for them. Deer are special to her.]

You would do well to teach them that nothing hunts like a wolf.

[As for teaching something herself? She might agree. To a select few people at first. Her charge now is to teach them to live with the forest, after all.]

[chiisaichou.livejournal.com]

I know a lot about different kinds of herbs and plants that are useful in medicine, if that'll be of any help... And different plants that are edible and poisonous, I know those, too.

[markofthebrave]

That would be great, Miya. I only know the basics, so if people want to learn and you wouldn't mind, it would be a lot better coming from you.

[chiisaichou.livejournal.com]

I don't mind, but I can't do anything on Sundays, I'm sorry... I help with Sanji's cooking lessons on that day. Ah...and speaking of, I do know how to cook outside and I...I've seen how people in a village close to mine smoke meat and preserve foods for a long, long time.

[Action]

[burningdownfate.livejournal.com]

[He saw the barracks in the background and, instead of replying via the journal, Zuko makes his way there. He stands well out of her way, arms crossed.]

Survival training, huh?

[Action]

[markofthebrave]

[She glances over at him, still in the middle of a form.]

Yeah. The last draft they dropped everyone in the middle of a swamp and kept them there. We've got people here who've never even spent the night outside who had to go.

[It's amazing they didn't die.]

[Action]

[burningdownfate.livejournal.com]

[Zuko nods, feeling just a little out of the loop. He's read up on things and asked questions when he didn't get the answers he was looking for, but a part of him feels like he should have been here for past events.]

Good idea, then. I can help.

[voice]

[justicereigns]

Good thinking.

[Not that she doesn't know that, but he kind of vaguely wants to encourage it. In his own way, as best he can.]

[voice]

[markofthebrave]

[Huh. She vaguely recognizes that voice, but can't quite put a name to it.]

Thanks. Hopefully it'll help some people.

[Maybe it comes from being a Known Pirate Associate or the like >>]

[voice]

[justicereigns]

[Pretty much. Most of Luceti is all "yay pirates are awesome." And Smoker is like "All pirates should be in prison." They get along as well as you might expect.]

I hope so. Especially seeing as the Malnosso are indiscriminate about who they draft.

voice

[piggybabe.livejournal.com]

[Oh, look at you and your water jutsu, gurl. She'll be watching from her journal for a moment before deciding to speak up.]

Good idea, Katara. I'll be interested in teaching.

voice

[markofthebrave]

[With the journal pointing up and towards the barracks, the most of her practice that can be seen is an occasional gust of concentrated water or the rare moment when she steps into the camera's view to complete a move. She has no problem practicing in public, but has no intention of broadcasting the basic tenets of her fighting style over an opened and permanently recorded network.

When she hears the voice through the video feed, however, she'll finish up a move and come over.]

What is it that you'd like to teach?

voice

[piggybabe.livejournal.com]

First aid, most probably. [She can't exactly teach hunting and anything else.] Since I've been trained as a medic nin back in my world. [Not as extensive as Sakura's, maybe, but hey Forehead isn't here anyway.]

[markofthewise]

[Yo, thanks for telling him about this, sis. Of course he'll volunteer to help. Until, well, he notices that's all she's got. Volunteered help.]

So... it looks like you've got a lot of teachers so far.

[markofthebrave]

Yeah. I guess everyone's pretty confident in their ability to handle themselves.

[And that's a good thing, right? Except she's seen for herself that isn't always the case...

Oh well, it's not like her big speeches haven't fallen flat before. She had to try.]

[markofthewise]

Or they don't want to admit they need help.

[Sokka sure knows that two years ago he'd been the one scoffing at the idea of needing any additional help. He had to have his own failings pounded into him to make him realize he needed other people.]

[sapphire-sniper.livejournal.com]

I'd be glad to give you a hand with teaching people too, if you need the help. Survival in alien environments is a major part of military training on colony fleets, given that adapting to new worlds with unknown ecosystems is priority one for colonies once they've found a suitable planet.

[markofthebrave]

Thanks, Michael. I'll let you know if we need any extra help.

[Or... any help at all.]

[blessingone]

[Fenimore's response is late. Not, like, this late, but like a few hours after she's seen it. She knows she probably should learn, when it's put like that. She's not exactly a stranger to a number of the plants in her world -- her village didn't have enough food from fishing, hunting, and what little farming they managed to not take advantage of gathering what grew naturally -- and she has a baseline of knowledge when it comes to fishing, but, in general, it was too dangerous to leave her village for long, so she's not really experienced in surviving out in the wild. She probably wouldn't last very long. And the thought of dying is a lot scarier now that she knows what's waiting back in her world.

On the other hand...it's a lot of work to learn something she could get someone else to do. At least, that's the excuse she told herself as she inwardly debated against asking to sign up. A bigger reason, though, is that she's realizing that a situation that would require these skills would be one that she would need to defend herself, even if it was against nature rather than a specific opponent. She feels very inadequate for the task. She may be willing to do her fair share of work, if needed, but she's never really needed to do any of the defending herself -- except for one time she has heard lies in her future, which kind of...didn't go so well.

Ignoring the problem would be so much easier. She had done so for over a year when it came to self-defence, even if that was something she was much more insecure about than this.

tl;dr aside, a few hours after Katara makes the announcement, Fenimore opens her journal again and, after staring at it for a moment, speaks.]

...Are you sure that Lady Moro will allow something like that? [The giant wolf galf kind of made a big impression on Fenimore, so she's both a bit concerned about this "going out in the woods" thing and very much inclined to speak of her as respectfully as she knows how. She doesn't know San, though, and thus doesn't realize that her conversation earlier probably counts as tentative permission.]

[markofthebrave]

[And so, sometime later indeed, Katara gets back to her journals.]

San said that it would be all right. And people already hunt there. As long as you're respectful of the forest, [and no one's started and fires recently, and you don't smell like gunsmoke] it's fine.