[Action] .009

[markofthebrave]

[Due to Sokka's unexpected bout of sheer win, Katara has been given the gift of free time and she plans on making the most of it... after she was shooed back to bed due to threats from Sokka that made no sense at all.

First, she wants to check in on Sanji at the Strawhat's House. Then she wants to stop by the school and see if she can register to go once things are back to 'normal.' And... she has an idea that is going to lead her to the weapons shop. Finally, she'll go grocery shopping because they're running low on easy-to-cook things. Maybe she'll even get a chance to stand by the bridge and practice with real waterbending! ...although saving her strength to keep healing Zuko is probably a better idea. She'll probably just stare at the water wistfully and talk to Sona.

If you're around any of these places today, feel free to say 'Hey!' or give her hand, since she's not exactly sure how to do what she wants to do at the smithy or the school.]

Comments

[markofthebrave]

Wow - that's very different. But... it's got some similarities too. Your mom is the chief, huh? That's pretty cool. [She takes a moment to imagine Sokka's reaction to that.. and then shakes her head.]

Fishing was about the only thing I was allowed to do when it came to hunting. There were a bunch of ways we would fish, from string fishing to spear - and of course there were the whale hunts. One of those could feed the village for a few weeks, and all the supplies we'd get from it...

[flamesofkaraya.livejournal.com]

She is. You'd probably like her if you meet her. [At least, he feels she would.]

Whale hunts?

[markofthebrave]

[Katara nods] When the winter ice breaks up, the men get together and go on a hunt. They can be gone for weeks... [not that this has happened for a while... two years, in fact.] And the whales are butchered on the shore - everyone helps carting the blubber and skin to be used for supplies while the meat is taken to underground storage.

...[She trails off, vaguely aware that this isn't the kind of conversation that makes people comfortable. Then she shrugs.] It's a big event - men get to prove themselves on it, and supply the whole village with a lot of what it needs for the upcoming year. We can be working off of what we harvest from the whales to make supplies for months, and there's a special ceremony both before and after thanking the Ocean Spirit for its bounty.

[flamesofkaraya.livejournal.com]

[Good thing he's not easily disgusted by that, though he does look at her curiously.] Is a whale a big fish then? And what's blubber?

[markofthebrave]

Heh. Yeah. It's a really big fish - big enough that we can use the teeth for swords and the bone for tent supports.

And blubber is the whale fat - we use it for all kinds of things, from candles to cooking.

[flamesofkaraya.livejournal.com]

That sounds really big! It's not anywhere as big as a ship, is it? [Because how else would it have teeth like that?]

That's helpful. It sounds like it'll be hard to bring it down though.

[markofthebrave]

It is. That's why it would take a whole hunting party - and why you go just when the ice starts to break. It helps to trap them.

[flamesofkaraya.livejournal.com]

That's pretty interesting. I don't think we've ever had to hunt anything that big, though even as kids, we already follow the older hunters around to watch how they do it.