Sokka Hakoda (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
om_ricochet) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
om_main2014-01-05 06:34 pm
om_ricochet) wrote in om_main2014-01-05 06:34 pm
Fraser and Sokka, then Toph, backdated to Jan 5
Fraser stops by to hand off some jerky and discovers Sokka celebrating his birthday, Sokka-style. Toph joins in the Arctic Meats Birthday Party soon after~
Meat!
It had totally killed him, but Sokka had waited until today—his sixteenth birthday!—to bust into the qiniktaq. Aaka had brought it down to Seattle and then packed it into dry ice for him, along with some more of the maktak, and, well, personally he was pretty proud it had made it this long.
He hauled out the hunk of dark seal meat dripping with oil—and smelling like an aquarium that hadn’t been cleaned in a few years, but hey, that was flavor, right there! He settled at the table with a knife and a hunk o meat, ready for his birthday dinner.
And totally not missing Katara at all. Obviously.
Fraser came into the kitchen with a rucksack over his shoulder. He'd gotten back that day and was still getting himself sorted out. There was a number of people he hoped to track down, and lucky for him one of them was in the kitchen. "Hello, Sokka!" he greeted. "I was hoping to find you."
“Hey, you’re back,” Sokka greeted lazily, sawing off a piece of seal meat. “Have a good trip to—where’d you go, again?”
"Northwest Territories," Fraser explained. "My grandparents have relocated, but they are staying in a very nice cabin nearer to the mountains." He noticed for the first time what Sokka was eating and grinned. "I brought something back for you, but maybe it'd be better saved for a later time." He pulled out the wrapped package of caribou jerky and set it down next to Sokka. "I had very good luck with caribou at the beginning of the trip. I mean, I wasn't hunting on my own for once, so that may have helped, but there is an abundance of jerky to dispense."
“Nice! Thanks for sharing, dude,” Sokka said with uncharacteristic brightness—meat just brought that out in him. He started peeling the package immediately.
“I’ve never actually been caribou hunting. Hare and stuff—but we mostly do seal. Have some qiniktaq.” He indicated the lump of fishy-smelling dark red meat on the plate before him. “Kinda sad I wasn’t there to get this one myself, but not like anyone goes to Barrow for Christmas on purpose, so we met up in Seattle and my Aaka brought me the goods.”
"Oh, that looks wonderful," Fraser said, eying the seal meat. "Thank you Sokka. I've never hunted seal before. I wasn't big enough when we were living within the communities that did. I'm more of a forest hunter." He pulled out the chair next to Sokka and sat down to join him.
“Yeah, I didn’t really grow up around forest—or spend much time hunting inland, though my dad has done a lot of it. Both sides of our family are good old-fashioned Taġiuġmiut.” People of the Sea--he didn’t know what it was called with the Inuit, maybe that was just an Inupiat thing, but it was definitely a thing. “You ever get to go whaling?”
As he spoke, Sokka got the package of jerky open and sawed off a piece of qiniktaq for each of them, then popped his into his mouth with his fingers. He guessed he could see why people in the Lower 48 thought it was weird—it was like red meat with the taste of seafood, and pretty strong—even stronger because of the oil. But hell, it was good.
"I never have. That seems a very different skill." Fraser smiled. "Tracking is much easier when water isn't involved." Especially, as he knew, if it was a waterfall. Fraser helped himself to the piece of qiniktaq, taking a long moment after he'd popped the first bite into his mouth. "Oh, that is heavenly."
Sokka grinned. Hell, even most white people in Barrow didn't like the stuff; Fraser had a real appreciation for the finer things. A little dubiously, Sokka admitted, "Well, they say the whale comes to the crew when it's ready.
"Someday we should do a hunt trade. You show me what's up in the forest, I'll show you what's up on the ice."
"I would be much obliged."
Sokka munched happily in silence for a moment, then busted out some caribou jerky and tore into that. Fraser was refreshing company—he didn’t talk about random magical crap all the time and he liked meat. A little goody-goody, maybe, but at least he wasn’t one of those weird white kids who was all oooh hunting is bad you’re hurting the whales!
So not how it worked. Silly white people.
Speaking of, “You know, not a lot of white kids do that kind of stuff back home. I mean, not that we had all that many who actually stuck around—people don’t really move to Barrow on purpose, like, ever. How’d you end up living in the Canadian frozen wilds, anyhow?”
Fraser considered for a moment while he chewed and then after swallowing finally said, "My father was a Mountie. My first home was a cabin with my mother in the territories. When he was away working it was just the two of us, and the wild. After my mother passed I went to live with my grandparents. They have been traveling for a very long time, but mostly in the north now. It's home."
“Mountie, that’s cool,” Sokka said, all sincerity as he sawed off some more seal. “Actually doesn’t sound all that different from how I grew up. Same kinda thing—dad with a super important cop job, mom died kinda young, Gran Gran ended up raising us. Well, my little sister thinks she raised me, but that’s just crazy talk. I mean, little sister, amiright?”
"How old is she?" Fraser asked curiously.
“Fourteen,” Sokka said. A slight pause. Then a grin and, “I’m sixteen today.”
"Today is your birthday?" He sat up straighter at that. "Congratulations, Sokka! Is this how you're celebrating, or do you have more plans?"
"I'm a pretty simple guy, really." Sokka held up another bite of seal. "My plan was basically: meat. We kinda had a little celebration in Seattle before I left, so even if this is my real birthday, it feels like a second birthday. But still. Meat."
She would have been completely fine just going right on past the kitchen like she'd meant to, even if a familiar voice hadn't made her pause for a moment. But the topic of conversation, well. That called for an entrance.
"I could have sworn someone just said something about birthdays," Toph said loudly as she sauntered right on in. "But I know they wouldn't have let that pass without comment, right?"
"Good evening, Bei Fong nǚshì," Fraser greeted, the honorific way too formal, but he still didn't know Toph well enough to know better than to use it.
Sokka had been caught off guard by Toph--partly because he had a huge hunk of seal meat in his mouth when she'd said, Right?, so he couldn't answer. Which was kinda for the best when Toph was making that face.
But by the time Fraser finished talking, Sokka had swallowed, so he had to say something. "Uh, right, sure. It's my birthday?" Why that sounded uncertain, he couldn't have said. "Hi, Toph?" Okay, and that uncertainty was even weirder.
Whatever, Toph was kinda scary, okay. In a good way!
"Uh. Hi," Toph said cautiously, turning a slightly confused look on the new guy. That certainly wasn't something she expected to hear from...oh, anyone. "Just call me Toph, seriously."
That dealt with, she immediately shifted back in Sokka's direction. "Good. So what are we doing for it?" She paused for just a second. "Oh right. Happy birthday."
Fraser looked between them. "We appear to be celebrating by stuffing Sokka with meat. Do you like caribou jerky--Toph?"
"Meat!" Sokka said by way of agreement, brandishing more caribou jerky. "Come and get it."
"What is it?" Toph asked, even as she wandered over to help herself to a seat. It sounded weird, but she was reasonably sure Sokka wouldn't poison her.
"Dried caribou, hunted over vacation. Well seasoned, and still quite delicious," Fraser explained.
"He got to hunt, which is more than I did," Sokka said, slightly pouty of a sudden. Still, he leaned over the table a little to hold out some jerky for Toph. "Try it, then we'll move you up to the qiniqktaq. Fraser says it's heavenly."
"Wait, you actually hunted it yourself?" Toph paused for a moment and then frowned. "Sokka, if you're holding something out I can't see it, remember?"
"I did," Fraser confirmed. "Ah, perhaps there's a better way to offer Mi-- Toph her portion?"
"Oh right," Sokka agreed, making a face. He guessed she couldn't hear from the sound of his voice when he was holding out jerky like she could when he was sticking out his tongue. Made sense. In a Toph way. "Here." His elbow hit the table in front of her as he held it out, and he knew she'd feel that, and be able to guess where his hand--and the jerky--was. "Fresh-hunted, then totally seasoned and dried jerky."
She set her hands flat on the table long enough to be sure of exactly where his arm was before Toph just reached up to snatch the strip of meat out of his grip. Good thing the table was wood.
The thing still felt weird, but with a slight shrug, Toph popped it into her mouth. And gnawed on it for a moment or two before letting out a slightly thoughtful, "huh," nevermind that her mouth was still full.
Fraser echoed Toph's "huh", but it was more to do with the weird way she sort of... saw... the gesture. This might actually be his mutation flaring up, which he rarely could differentiate, but there was something odd about the way she reacted to sound. He did at least know better than to pry with questions. He was learning some things. "I hope you like it," he said instead.
"Of course she does. What's not to like? It's gamey--it tastes like the forest. And spices. But mostly forest." Sokka clapped Toph on the shoulder once before going to saw off some of the fishy red seal meat for all three of them. "Welcome to the wonderful world of arctic meats, Toph."
"Okay," she said slowly, and more than a little skeptically. But it wasn't bad, really, so she continued chewing curiously. "How do you know what a forest tastes like?"
"By taking taking a deep breath in midst of one," Fraser responded simply.
"Exactly!" Sokka said, giving Fraser a clap on the shoulder. "It tastes like it smells. Like the ocean!" He held up a piece of seal and waved it a little.
"I think you both are wrong in the head," Toph said with a loud snort. "The stuff's okay, though."
"I'm glad it meets your approval," Fraser said happily. He smiled at Sokka, agreeing with his exuberance.
"Qiniktaq?" Sokka offered up a piece of seal, shooting Fraser a grin. Time to up the ante! Or... something. Whatever that cliche was.
"...I don't know what that is."
"It's seal meat," Fraser explained.
"Stored in seal-oil," Sokka elaborated, holding out a nice, long cut of fishy-red meat. "Deeeeelicious."
Toph considered that for a moment or so, before just holding her hand out for it. What was the worst that could happen? And if they were playing a trick on her, she'd just punch them both.
"It's certainly a delicacy," Fraser commented. At least the smell would give an idea of what sort of taste was in store.
"It is the magical taste of my childhood," Sokka said, snatching up another piece and popping it into his mouth even as he dropped the first into Toph's outstretched hand.
Right into her mouth it went, and while Toph made a slight face at the taste of it, it wasn't as bad as she'd been expecting. "Your childhood is strange," she informed Sokka after a moment or two.
"Likely," Fraser said.
"Very." Sokka grinned.
Meat!
It had totally killed him, but Sokka had waited until today—his sixteenth birthday!—to bust into the qiniktaq. Aaka had brought it down to Seattle and then packed it into dry ice for him, along with some more of the maktak, and, well, personally he was pretty proud it had made it this long.
He hauled out the hunk of dark seal meat dripping with oil—and smelling like an aquarium that hadn’t been cleaned in a few years, but hey, that was flavor, right there! He settled at the table with a knife and a hunk o meat, ready for his birthday dinner.
And totally not missing Katara at all. Obviously.
Fraser came into the kitchen with a rucksack over his shoulder. He'd gotten back that day and was still getting himself sorted out. There was a number of people he hoped to track down, and lucky for him one of them was in the kitchen. "Hello, Sokka!" he greeted. "I was hoping to find you."
“Hey, you’re back,” Sokka greeted lazily, sawing off a piece of seal meat. “Have a good trip to—where’d you go, again?”
"Northwest Territories," Fraser explained. "My grandparents have relocated, but they are staying in a very nice cabin nearer to the mountains." He noticed for the first time what Sokka was eating and grinned. "I brought something back for you, but maybe it'd be better saved for a later time." He pulled out the wrapped package of caribou jerky and set it down next to Sokka. "I had very good luck with caribou at the beginning of the trip. I mean, I wasn't hunting on my own for once, so that may have helped, but there is an abundance of jerky to dispense."
“Nice! Thanks for sharing, dude,” Sokka said with uncharacteristic brightness—meat just brought that out in him. He started peeling the package immediately.
“I’ve never actually been caribou hunting. Hare and stuff—but we mostly do seal. Have some qiniktaq.” He indicated the lump of fishy-smelling dark red meat on the plate before him. “Kinda sad I wasn’t there to get this one myself, but not like anyone goes to Barrow for Christmas on purpose, so we met up in Seattle and my Aaka brought me the goods.”
"Oh, that looks wonderful," Fraser said, eying the seal meat. "Thank you Sokka. I've never hunted seal before. I wasn't big enough when we were living within the communities that did. I'm more of a forest hunter." He pulled out the chair next to Sokka and sat down to join him.
“Yeah, I didn’t really grow up around forest—or spend much time hunting inland, though my dad has done a lot of it. Both sides of our family are good old-fashioned Taġiuġmiut.” People of the Sea--he didn’t know what it was called with the Inuit, maybe that was just an Inupiat thing, but it was definitely a thing. “You ever get to go whaling?”
As he spoke, Sokka got the package of jerky open and sawed off a piece of qiniktaq for each of them, then popped his into his mouth with his fingers. He guessed he could see why people in the Lower 48 thought it was weird—it was like red meat with the taste of seafood, and pretty strong—even stronger because of the oil. But hell, it was good.
"I never have. That seems a very different skill." Fraser smiled. "Tracking is much easier when water isn't involved." Especially, as he knew, if it was a waterfall. Fraser helped himself to the piece of qiniktaq, taking a long moment after he'd popped the first bite into his mouth. "Oh, that is heavenly."
Sokka grinned. Hell, even most white people in Barrow didn't like the stuff; Fraser had a real appreciation for the finer things. A little dubiously, Sokka admitted, "Well, they say the whale comes to the crew when it's ready.
"Someday we should do a hunt trade. You show me what's up in the forest, I'll show you what's up on the ice."
"I would be much obliged."
Sokka munched happily in silence for a moment, then busted out some caribou jerky and tore into that. Fraser was refreshing company—he didn’t talk about random magical crap all the time and he liked meat. A little goody-goody, maybe, but at least he wasn’t one of those weird white kids who was all oooh hunting is bad you’re hurting the whales!
So not how it worked. Silly white people.
Speaking of, “You know, not a lot of white kids do that kind of stuff back home. I mean, not that we had all that many who actually stuck around—people don’t really move to Barrow on purpose, like, ever. How’d you end up living in the Canadian frozen wilds, anyhow?”
Fraser considered for a moment while he chewed and then after swallowing finally said, "My father was a Mountie. My first home was a cabin with my mother in the territories. When he was away working it was just the two of us, and the wild. After my mother passed I went to live with my grandparents. They have been traveling for a very long time, but mostly in the north now. It's home."
“Mountie, that’s cool,” Sokka said, all sincerity as he sawed off some more seal. “Actually doesn’t sound all that different from how I grew up. Same kinda thing—dad with a super important cop job, mom died kinda young, Gran Gran ended up raising us. Well, my little sister thinks she raised me, but that’s just crazy talk. I mean, little sister, amiright?”
"How old is she?" Fraser asked curiously.
“Fourteen,” Sokka said. A slight pause. Then a grin and, “I’m sixteen today.”
"Today is your birthday?" He sat up straighter at that. "Congratulations, Sokka! Is this how you're celebrating, or do you have more plans?"
"I'm a pretty simple guy, really." Sokka held up another bite of seal. "My plan was basically: meat. We kinda had a little celebration in Seattle before I left, so even if this is my real birthday, it feels like a second birthday. But still. Meat."
She would have been completely fine just going right on past the kitchen like she'd meant to, even if a familiar voice hadn't made her pause for a moment. But the topic of conversation, well. That called for an entrance.
"I could have sworn someone just said something about birthdays," Toph said loudly as she sauntered right on in. "But I know they wouldn't have let that pass without comment, right?"
"Good evening, Bei Fong nǚshì," Fraser greeted, the honorific way too formal, but he still didn't know Toph well enough to know better than to use it.
Sokka had been caught off guard by Toph--partly because he had a huge hunk of seal meat in his mouth when she'd said, Right?, so he couldn't answer. Which was kinda for the best when Toph was making that face.
But by the time Fraser finished talking, Sokka had swallowed, so he had to say something. "Uh, right, sure. It's my birthday?" Why that sounded uncertain, he couldn't have said. "Hi, Toph?" Okay, and that uncertainty was even weirder.
Whatever, Toph was kinda scary, okay. In a good way!
"Uh. Hi," Toph said cautiously, turning a slightly confused look on the new guy. That certainly wasn't something she expected to hear from...oh, anyone. "Just call me Toph, seriously."
That dealt with, she immediately shifted back in Sokka's direction. "Good. So what are we doing for it?" She paused for just a second. "Oh right. Happy birthday."
Fraser looked between them. "We appear to be celebrating by stuffing Sokka with meat. Do you like caribou jerky--Toph?"
"Meat!" Sokka said by way of agreement, brandishing more caribou jerky. "Come and get it."
"What is it?" Toph asked, even as she wandered over to help herself to a seat. It sounded weird, but she was reasonably sure Sokka wouldn't poison her.
"Dried caribou, hunted over vacation. Well seasoned, and still quite delicious," Fraser explained.
"He got to hunt, which is more than I did," Sokka said, slightly pouty of a sudden. Still, he leaned over the table a little to hold out some jerky for Toph. "Try it, then we'll move you up to the qiniqktaq. Fraser says it's heavenly."
"Wait, you actually hunted it yourself?" Toph paused for a moment and then frowned. "Sokka, if you're holding something out I can't see it, remember?"
"I did," Fraser confirmed. "Ah, perhaps there's a better way to offer Mi-- Toph her portion?"
"Oh right," Sokka agreed, making a face. He guessed she couldn't hear from the sound of his voice when he was holding out jerky like she could when he was sticking out his tongue. Made sense. In a Toph way. "Here." His elbow hit the table in front of her as he held it out, and he knew she'd feel that, and be able to guess where his hand--and the jerky--was. "Fresh-hunted, then totally seasoned and dried jerky."
She set her hands flat on the table long enough to be sure of exactly where his arm was before Toph just reached up to snatch the strip of meat out of his grip. Good thing the table was wood.
The thing still felt weird, but with a slight shrug, Toph popped it into her mouth. And gnawed on it for a moment or two before letting out a slightly thoughtful, "huh," nevermind that her mouth was still full.
Fraser echoed Toph's "huh", but it was more to do with the weird way she sort of... saw... the gesture. This might actually be his mutation flaring up, which he rarely could differentiate, but there was something odd about the way she reacted to sound. He did at least know better than to pry with questions. He was learning some things. "I hope you like it," he said instead.
"Of course she does. What's not to like? It's gamey--it tastes like the forest. And spices. But mostly forest." Sokka clapped Toph on the shoulder once before going to saw off some of the fishy red seal meat for all three of them. "Welcome to the wonderful world of arctic meats, Toph."
"Okay," she said slowly, and more than a little skeptically. But it wasn't bad, really, so she continued chewing curiously. "How do you know what a forest tastes like?"
"By taking taking a deep breath in midst of one," Fraser responded simply.
"Exactly!" Sokka said, giving Fraser a clap on the shoulder. "It tastes like it smells. Like the ocean!" He held up a piece of seal and waved it a little.
"I think you both are wrong in the head," Toph said with a loud snort. "The stuff's okay, though."
"I'm glad it meets your approval," Fraser said happily. He smiled at Sokka, agreeing with his exuberance.
"Qiniktaq?" Sokka offered up a piece of seal, shooting Fraser a grin. Time to up the ante! Or... something. Whatever that cliche was.
"...I don't know what that is."
"It's seal meat," Fraser explained.
"Stored in seal-oil," Sokka elaborated, holding out a nice, long cut of fishy-red meat. "Deeeeelicious."
Toph considered that for a moment or so, before just holding her hand out for it. What was the worst that could happen? And if they were playing a trick on her, she'd just punch them both.
"It's certainly a delicacy," Fraser commented. At least the smell would give an idea of what sort of taste was in store.
"It is the magical taste of my childhood," Sokka said, snatching up another piece and popping it into his mouth even as he dropped the first into Toph's outstretched hand.
Right into her mouth it went, and while Toph made a slight face at the taste of it, it wasn't as bad as she'd been expecting. "Your childhood is strange," she informed Sokka after a moment or two.
"Likely," Fraser said.
"Very." Sokka grinned.