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

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

[A visit, huh? Well if it's after lunch Winry will be just setting up to start working on the leg Ed busted up. She's almost finished repairing the damages, but there's still some work and polishing that needs to be done. Feel free to find her at her bench, or call out to her from the main area of the smithy.]

[so_shik]

[Well. Whenever that moment is, rest assure that Shiki's at the shop. She's been throwing herself into her work a lot more due to recent events. It's a lot easier to be working than spend time alone in her room, after all.

She barely looks up when she hears someone enter, glancing out of the corner of her eye.]

Hey. [Haruhi...it was interesting that the girl had been around both times Neku had disappeared. Maybe that's what made her so comfortable about actually opening up to her about it.] I see you're making your rounds early.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Sokka stands in the doorway for awhile, just staring at Winry. All he can think in his head is that Winry might just walk over and kiss him or something horrible like that. It's so much easier to deal with Winry when he's his normal self. He'd spent months infatuated with her and now he was way over her, but she was in love with, well, the person this body belonged to. This was going to be so, so wrong.

But. He will just suck it up and dive in.]

... hey, Winry. Busy?

1/2

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[He's about to smile at Shiki, the way he normally does, but when she mentions things being early, Sokka immediately panics. SHE FIGURED IT OUT AND SHE'S ON TO HIM.]

E-early!? It's not that, early, I mean--

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[CHILL OUT SOKKA. He catches himself from being a fool and relaxes. She was just commenting.]

I, you know, thought I'd... check in. See if you had anything new. The usual kinds of things I do when I'm here.

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

Haruhi!

Oh, not so much no. Just a clean up job.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[Nervous smile pretending not to be a nervous smile.]

That's me! Haruhi... [Okay that's just dumb. He already was horrible with Shiki.] But if you're busy, I can just come back later. You know, that's important automail stuff.

[so_shik]

[It's only then that she actually takes a look at the clock on the wall.] ...oh wow...I didn't realize I've been here this long already. I take that back, sorry. [She'll wave off her own comment, shaking her head and setting aside a box of ribbons. Though "the usual kinds of things I do when I'm here", huh? Well if she's that willing...]

In that case, how much time do you have? I'm trying out a little feng shui and I want to move some of these tables around. [Never mind that the art of feng shui is Chinese. When Shiki gets an idea, it's hard to change her mind.] I'm thinking about doing it at the house, too.

[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?]

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

No, it's all right! You know I can't say no to seeing you.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[You could try. At least for today.]

Well... of course not. I mean, look at me? Who could resist spending time with me? [That seems like the kind of self absorbed thing Haruhi would say.]

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

[She laughs.] Oh, no one. Not with your sparkling personality.

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

Well... you know me. [Gosh, he doesn't know how to respond beyond that. He knows he isn't being remotely convincing as Haruhi. It's kind of weird that nobody has really caught on.]

So should I just wait for you, then?

[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.

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

No, I could take time off now. Did you want to do something? I've already had lunch.

[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.]

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

[What... sort of things do they even do...?]

You know what? Your choice today. Anything you want! [Smooth.]

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

Well I can't be gone all day, and you need to be around for your Brigade meeting right? When is that again?

[wisebent.livejournal.com]

In one hour and fifteen minutes. [... oops. He's supposed to be spontaneous.]

... or something like that. I could be wrong.

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

Then we have some time! Want to get ice cream before the weather becomes too cold for it again?

[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]

[Lucky break! He likes ice cream! And it's completely innocent and not romantic at all.]

That sounds like a perfect idea. Let's do it.

[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.]

[crytearsofjoy.livejournal.com]

[Winry stands, dusts off her coveralls a bit, and then heads over towards Haruhi so they can walk out.]

So, how's your day so far?

[action]

[onlyonepath.livejournal.com]

Hey!

[Sokka, a guy in a hat (IT SHOWED UP!) is jogging toward you, sometime in the middle of the day, in the plaza.]

Hey, you're Winry's girlfriend, right?