65th: The Swapping of Sokka Thunderaxe

[markofthewise]

[And now Sokka was a girl. Worse than that, he was Haruhi Suzumiya. After an enlightening conversation with that Malnosso girl, he and the real Haruhi had come to the unhappy conclusion it was better not to tell anyone what happened. Which Sokka hated the idea of, but the potential consequences of not doing it could be worse. Besides, if Haruhi could figure out how to fix all of this, he'd be back in his own body by tomorrow! Or a few days, anyway.

This, unfortunately, means having to live like Haruhi. And dress like her too. Girly top, a dress, and that stupid ribbon in his hair. As much as he wanted to just tie it all behind his head in a ponytail, she wouldn't let him do that. Can't blow their cover, after all. And then he has to follow Haruhi's schedule for things.

He leaves the house undetected that morning, eating breakfast on the go. This leaves him to try and do things that Haruhi would do. Which he is not at all thrilled about. Since he doesn't want to run into people, he ends up hitting the library to read about things that would help him be Haruhi. Like things about Japan. He'd never cared about Japan, but it seemed like he ought to know things on it by now.

After lunch (which he spends tucked away privately in the back of one of the restaurants), he swallows his anxiety and goes to visit Winry. But then he decides to look in on Shiki first at All Passions, like instructed. After that he'll warily enter the smithy, feeling oddly out of place there, to visit Winry. When these 'appointments' are finished, he'll arrive at the Brigade building. Early. Twiddling his thumbs until people arrive. Fortunately he wrote down a cheat sheet for who everyone actually is.

After the meeting (which is probably short), he'll be left with nothing to do for a few hours. That's when he opts to just hit the barracks and try to train. He'll be incredibly frustrated at the fact he seems to have lost his skill at just about everything. While he's not horrible, he's nowhere near his "A Game".

In the evening he faces the second worst part of the day - cooking. Being only skilled at cooking meat, he'll try his darndest to make a decent meal. It will be edible Shiki and Beat, don't worry. It will just be incredibly bland and very heavy on the meat. Sort of a boring exercise in chewing, really. Given that Katara has drilled family dinners into him, he'll be at the table expecting a group dinner.

Later in the evening he'll spend some time on the roof, grumbling about his fate, and working secretly on carving a piece of wood into a new boomerang. Day one was a nightmare. He doesn't think he's going to last another one.]

((OOC: Okay! So lots of teal deer up there. Hit him up at any time during the day. You can forward date stuff to later in the week if you want. His routine will be more or less the same the rest of the week. Replies will come from wisebent!

MORE IMPORTANTLY this is a body swap plot! It involves some of Haruhi's reality bending powers, so it's not an experiment/Mallynapping thing. As explained here, this means that Sokka and Haruhi's friends shouldn't notice things being that odd. If they do, it's something they'd quickly dismiss. I hope you guys will play along!))

Comments

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Feng Shui? Feng Shui. That sounded vaguely familiar. Didn't Joo Dee mention something like that in Ba Sing Se?]

Well, I'm not in a super rush. [He has Shiki scheduled for thirty minutes on his official 'random Haruhi activities' schedule.] I thought I might drop in on Winry. And then there's the meeting later. [Now the question is, does Haruhi bother helping Shiki with this kind of stuff? Or does she just leave her high and dry?]

[so_shik]

[She seems pretty pleased by that answer. Typical Haruhi. She knew better than to keep her from Winry for long, and she'd usually have her to herself anyway in the evenings at the house after the meeting. You know, dinner and all. She could at least run the plans by her.]

Great! So see, I drew up some plans last night. [And she's pulling a folded piece of paper from that hipbag of hers, unfolding it and handing it over. It looks like she got a hold of a book and she's drawn this. There is also a list of things and instructions, such as adding an aquarium, placing mirrors in front of the dressing room door and entry door, moving her til/desk to a diagonal from the front door, building/adding new shelves to declutter, moving furniture in from the walls, etc.] I think this is going to really help the energy...or something. I'm not entirely sure how it all works, but I need change in here anyway. It's getting way too blah. We can at least get started moving the till over.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[When Sokka sees the plans for moving, he ends up smirking because, yeah, this is going to be easy. He's got all those muscles he's been working on and moving stuff around is going to be so easy.]

Oh, I think I can handle moving this stuff around. [Okay then! So. Where's the till? He's confident he can do this on his own.]

[so_shik]

Why do you think I'm asking? I mean I'd ask Beat, but he'd probably be better at staying outside and...you know...Neku. [She shakes her head and puts the paper down elsewhere. The till's directly across from the front door, right in the center of the shop. She wants to move it to the back left corner to be diagonal from both doors in the building.]

We'll move it together. I tried by myself but the thing won't budge.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Yeah... Neku. He feels bad for a second, but then gets right to business. Rather than waiting for her, Sokka goes right up to the till, confident in his own strength, and starts to try to move it. He tries lifting up, nothing. He pushes, it doesn't move and inch. He has a horrifying moment as he backs up and realizes...

He's not as strong as he used to be. It should have been obvious, but now it was there, staring him in the face.]

[so_shik]

[...she's...actually not surprised that Haruhi tries to move it herself and disregard what Shiki says. But that doesn't stop her from snorting and joining her, getting on the other side of that till.] Yeah, that part where I said we'd do it together? Wasn't kidding.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[... yeah, he's just feeling kind of lousy right now, okay.] It's heavier than it looks. [But at least they're able to move it together, even if it's a lot of work.]

[so_shik]

[Well that's what happens when you switch bodies with a girl, Sokka. But since Shiki doesn't know anything she can't exactly make him feel better. She's actually just assuming Haruhi's pouting because Shiki proved her wrong.] Yeah, tell me about it. [But then there's PUSHING. And loud scraping noises as the till is pushed across the floor. But then..there is success.] Awesome. I've been trying to do this all morning.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Well he didn't want to! Jeez. At least they managed to get it on their own. He would've resented having to call in for help from someone else. Especially another guy.]

Well, obviously you just needed the Suzumiya touch. [When in doubt, be arrogant!]

[so_shik]

The Suzumiya touch, huh. [She just rolls her eyes.] Okay, just make sure the Suzumiya touch stays away from the walls in the upstairs bedroom at the house. We're not painting over it.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

I'll try, but I make no promises. [Aaand she is failing at being Haruhi. More action, less talk.] Now what?

[so_shik]

Nuh-uh. I don't care if it's your house, we're not painting over those walls. [She's very firm about this. Neku's mural man.]

Um...I don't think I can talk you into helping me nail new shelves into the walls before you go see Winry, can I?

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[He has no idea what the deal with those walls is, but whatever, he has no interest in painting.]

Of course, leave it to me. Where are they?

[so_shik]

On the right side of the storage room. We've got to nail them to the wall, but not too high because I still need to reach stuff.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[He just gives her a look. Seriously, he's like... 5'2 now. There's no way he'll be nailing anything out of her reach.]

I think we can handle that. [Well he's been in here enough to know where the storage is, so he starts that direction.]

[so_shik]

You're the best. [She's got a ladder in that storage room. She'll just be getting ready and moving all of the furniture and small tables away from the wall she wants the shelves on. Haruhi's being really helpful...and she's been really nice during this whole thing. She'd have to figure out a thank you later. For now though she's just going to clear out stuff.]

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Wuh oh! Someone calling Haruhi the best? Maybe he's... overdoing it. Hmm. Maybe he should draw the line after this. He eventually comes back with the shelving, somewhat awkwardly, because it ended up being heavier than he expected. He ends up dropping it to the ground in a pile.]

... oops.

[so_shik]

[Just. This face.]

Please tell me you didn't end up breaking anything.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[... well this should make up for being so helpful.]

I'm pretty sure it's okay. I mean... it's pretty solid.

[so_shik]

Yeah but you can't just drop it. [But she's busy checking on the damage.] I guess it's okay though. At least it's out here.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

Hey, this stuff is heavy. I'll go get the ladder now.

[His male pride is taking a serious beating here. At least he can't screw up installing the shelves.]

[so_shik]

Yeah sure. I'll start...something. [She just waves a hand, turning around to grab some tools.]

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Yeah, he's totally got the ladder thing down. Bringing that out and setting it up is a peace of cake. Now, he knows how to do this kind of thing, so he holds out a waiting hand.]

Pen and hammer, Shiki. We need to find the studs first.

[so_shik]

Pen and hammer! [She's handing up the pen first.] ...why the studs?

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Takes the pen, still waiting for the hammer.]

If we want the shelves to stay up, we need to make sure we hit wood. Otherwise they'll just fall once you put something heavy on them.

[Sokka is a little caught up in proving to himself that he can still be useful to think about whether or not Haruhi would know anything about construction.]