Third Floor Common Room - Thursday Evening

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

Lucas had a giant bowl of popcorn and was sitting in front of the TV. There was a documentary on, but the remote control was out of reach, so if anyone grabbed it they could probably flick over to something else.

Comments

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"I'm Katara," she replied. She noticed the clutching and worried. "I'm not interrupting you, am I? Just wanted to find some hot chocolate."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"No, not at all," he said hurriedly. "I think there might be hot chocolate under there." Lucas looked at the popcorn bowl, then back at Katara, and then offered it. "Popcorn?"

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head at the popcorn a bit curiously. "Is it good? I don't think I've had it before."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

Someone who had never had popcorn? That amazed him. "Well, yeah. It's popcorn. Everyone likes popcorn." He took a piece and put it in his mouth and chewed. "It's salty."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara laughed and found a bag of Valentine's candy that somehow had gotten left in the CR. "Okay then, I'll take your word for it," she said, taking a few pieces and finding a seat on the couch.

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"You can turn it over to something else if you want." He gestured at the TV. "It was just on."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara had a wild vision of accidentally getting the channel stuck on...pirates like Sam had that one time. She picked up the remote tentatively and poked at it to see if she could make it work.

There was flickering. And the volume changed a few times. And then, "ooh! Penguins!"

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"You like penguins?"

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara nodded. "They're funny looking things, aren't they? Flocks and flocks used to live by my home. We used to try to feed them."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

The family resemblance and the mention of penguins clicked. "Hey, are you Sokka's sister?"

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"Yes..." she said slowly and a bit worriedly. "What did he do?"

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"Does he usually do something to give you that worried look?"

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes," Katara said with a giggle at herself. "He sometimes has the type of brilliant plan that ends in despair or a very unhappy cabbage seller."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"As far as I know, he hasn't done anything, cabbage-related or otherwise. We have a class together. He said he lived at the south pole, and that's the only place I know that has penguins, so I put two and two together."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara grinned at him. "Oh, good. I'd hate to think there was a cabbage related disaster on the island and I was only now hearing of it."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

Lucas grinned back. "I don't think it's possible to do anything around here without someone hearing about it and spreading the word. So I have to ask - did you guys really live at the south pole?"

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"Okay, that's true enough," Katara agreed. She nodded. "We're part of the Southern Water Tribe. We lived there until about a year ago."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"I couldn't imagine living somewhere so cold permanently. The strain with finding resources must be hard. I bet you didn't really get many fruits or vegetables in your diet."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"You get used to it," Katara said. "Or rather, we always were. But you're right about that. Before the war, they say it was better because we could trade with the other nations."

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, war has a habit of cutting off the good stuff because of the big egos of a few people in charge. Sometimes they mean well, sometimes they don't. I picked up on that where I used to live."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"Where did you live?" Katara asked curiously and not wanting to comment on egos or people in charge.

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"On a submarine called the SeaQuest. A ship that travels underwater," he clarified, going off Sokka's lack of knowledge about magnets.

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara looked at him with big eyes and an absolutely fascinated expression. "You lived under the water?"

[imissmydolphin.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well, not actually in the water most of the time, but the ship was in the water. Although the ship was designed so there were pools and tubes for a dolphin to get around the ship. I'd usually swim in those. But I bet it'd be hard to swim regularly where you lived."

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"No, there was really more ice skating than swimming most of the time," Katara replied, grinning. "But there were a few hot springs we could travel too. There was a dolphin in the ship? Did it mind?"