revivalproject | 03 ≋ Magic water!

WHO: Katara and you!
WHERE: The beach, the square
WHAT: Catching fish with magic water, having a fish fry
WHEN: The day after the glownies (firefly-horses) create a path to the ocean.
WARNINGS: None I can think of!

--∿≈≋🌘≋≈∽--

Look, it's not like Katara hasn't enjoyed tending to the greenhouse. Being able to help provide for everyone has been extremely motivating and rewarding to boot, but at the end of the day she's a Water Tribe girl through and through. The minute a path appears that leads down to the ocean, she's there, swimming in the chilly water, bending the ocean around her to make ice and waves and streams.

The idea for a communal dinner comes to her when she catches a fish in a floating sphere of water. Back home, nobody in the Tribe ever ate alone, and the same was true of her friends when they traveled together. It would be good for morale, wouldn't it? A big, hearty meal that everyone can share together.

It only takes her a moment to make a big icy tub on the beach and fill it with ocean water. Soon, half a dozen colorful fish are swimming around in the shallow water, and Katara wades back out into the surf to catch another. Join her if you like!

--∿≈≋🌕≋≈∽--

It took a little bit of doing, but everything is ready. The fish are all cooking away on a griddle made from a piece of scrap metal set over stones and placed over an open fire. She's recruited a little help in gathering fruits and vegetables from the greenhouse, and those are either stewing together or have been converted into little dumplings which are frying right alongside the fish.

It took a little bit of innovation, but there should be enough for everyone to have a serving, and as much as she always complained about being the 'mother' of her little group of friends, there's something affirming about being able to that now for her new friends.

Whether it's leaves from the greenhouse or actual bowls, there's going to be some kind of arrangement so people aren’t just eating with their hands. It’s an effort, but one she’s happy to make.

--∿≈≋🌒≋≈∽--

Network Video:

[ Katara's happy face pops up on the screen. Like before, she's in front of the fountain. No art this time, though. ]

I've cooked dinner for everyone who wants to come and eat. There are vegetarian options, too. Come down to the square and eat with me. I caught twenty big fish so there's enough for everybody.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Steve lived through the Great Depression so he's used to strange cooking and making small things stretch. That said, even he has to look dubiously at his stew of alien vegetables and fish. It smells good enough, of course, but God. What he wouldn't do for some more spices. Maybe some pepper, at the very least.

But hey, at least they have salt now.

Steve sighs and pulls up a spoonful of the soup to his mouth for a taste. His face, frankly, says it all. ]

Hey, Katara! Got anything over there that might help this?

[ Katara levels Steve with a look that is almost chilling in its sweetness. ]

What do you mean help it, Steve?

[He completely missed the danger.]

You know. Make it like a real stew. Give it some flavor and...I don't know. Just make it better.

Edited 2019-11-18 16:29 (UTC)

Well gosh, Steve.[ Still sweet. Too sweet, actually. ] Maybe a peasant girl from the South Pole just doesn't know what real stew tastes like.

[ There it is, Steve. The danger. Whatever is left in the spoon he's holding freezes solid with an angry twist of Katara's fingers. ]

Do you think this is the meal I'd have made for everyone if I had the kind of ingredients I would normally use? We don't even have rice here! I'm sorry if what I made isn't up to your standards. Why don't you make it better if you think you can?

Shit.

"Katara! No, no! I'm sorry!"

Crap. He hadn't known she made it herself. Jesus, he was an asshole. Steve goes to take another taste of the soup but it's an ice cube now and. Yeah. Okay. He's in trouble.

"I was just... I grew up when we didn't have a lot of food so I know that things can't be amazing when you got nothing! I didn't mean... I didn't know that you had worked on it!

I'm so sorry. It's...it's really amazing considering what we have here! Really!"

"Who did you think made it?" she asks, still not appeased by his attempt at an apology. "You think I don't know what it feels like to go hungry? After the men all left to fight in the Hundred Year War, we had no hunters or fishermen left to bring food home to our village. We had to scrounge and ration just to survive. Do you know what it's like to eat nothing but dried seaweed and boiled yak bones for six months because it's too dangerous to leave the village when the sun won't rise? We would have done anything to have food like this!"

She's obviously worked up now, her shoulders hunched and her hands clenched at her side. After working on this all day--from catching the fish to harvesting the vegetables to preparing the dishes--she feels justified in her anger. Her friends would never have said anything like that to her, and certainly not to her face.

Well. Maybe Sokka would have, and she'd have given him an earful about it, too.

"You don't have to eat it if you don't like it, but don't tell me you think it isn't good and then lie because you think it'll make me feel better."

"Katara..."

Steve hangs his head, ashamed of the mistake he made. He should have known better than to start criticizing any food here when it was so scarce. Having a soup at all was a luxury so of course it didn't matter if it had any frills or not. He should have known better and instead he'd just hurt a friend. For a big super soldier, Steve seems to be trying his best to curl up.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't at all mean it to be a slight against you but it was and I am sorry. I never should have said what I did. It's the height of ingratitude and my ma taught me better than that."

He's hungry but there is plenty of protein gel on the ships and, frankly, he deserves a feast of that right now. Steve sinks his hands into his pockets and backs up a step.

"You spent a lot of time on this, here, and I'm not gonna stick around and take advantage of it, okay? I'm...just gonna go."

Watching Steve hunch in on himself like a scolded polar dog has Katara sighing deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. Is she still angry? Yes, obviously. His first attempt at an apology had fallen so flat it'd gone concave.

Still, she knows he's ultimately a good person, and she isn't going to banish him from her makeshift table for what is a minor infraction in the grand scheme of things.

"Spirits, Steve, just... stop. Enough apologizing. Just eat." With a gesture, the soup in his spoon unfreezes. "I don't know what it's like where you come from, but meal times are a serious matter in my tribe. There are animals that gave their lives so we can keep living. Even if the food isn't good, we owe it to them to honor their sacrifice. So... eat. Don't let the food go to waste."

Steve smiles and digs into the soup with unreserved enthusiasm. It's a little cold from being frozen but he isn't about to complain. Not after all that. He hums appreciatively around the tepid mouthful and then goes back into the warm bowl. Comparatively, it is amazing.

"This is very good," he says, finally. And he means it, really. It is a lot better than whatever they had been managing on before.

"My mom used to say that, too. Not letting food go to waste. If I ever pull a boner like I did today, just do what she did and hit me with the spoon. Honest. I deserve it."

03 ≋ Magic water!

The Square

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Bucky help him

He's beyond help now

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Boner is a forties term, I swear to God.