happy birthday

[rangerbecket]

WHO: Raleigh Becket
WHERE: The Inn
WHEN: 11 December
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: none
STATUS: yes

---

It had taken Raleigh most of the day to realize that it was his birthday but, in his defense, the place doesn't really have clocks or calendars. Since arriving, he's been keeping track of the days as best he can and the best he can figure, it's December 11th. That's his birthday and the weather certainly fits with it so he guesses, for all intents and purposes, he's twenty eight now.

He never expected to make it to twenty eight. Jaeger pilots don't exactly have long life expectancy and the way the world had been going before he came here, Raleigh didn't think he'd be living very long. He'd been working top of the wall for top rations and there still wasn't ever enough food; coming here meant good food even if he'd had to work just as hard for it. Twenty eight is a luxury. He wishes he could have a cake or something but he doesn't think he's had a birthday cake since he was a teenager, or something, and he's about ninety percent sure there's not any flour or sugar for such a thing. Still, he's hopeful, so he's stuck his head in the kitchen a couple times in hopes of spotting Kate to ask her. He can make it himself, he knows how to cook, and he's perfectly willing to share it.

He just wants something to mark the day, if he can, so around dinner time he finally gets in the kitchen with his catch for the day and starts working on cooking it. It's a little more than he usually ever cooks for himself but he wants to eat with other people today, share a meal and some conversation, and he's got a smile and a kind word for anyone who happens upon him. He hopes he's not in Kate's way, either, because he knows the kitchen is her domain (and she's good at it). He just wants something special for his birthday.

"Think you could help me lay out the plates?" he asks, not sure who's ducked their head in.

Comments

[rangerbecket]

"No idea. It wasn't something I thought about," Raleigh says. Now that she's mentioned it, though, it's something to mull over. If they are held in suspension, not aging, what purpose would that have? Would it make them soldiers in a fight that they weren't prepared to have?

"I did notice we all seem to be young. Nobody over the age of about forty and no children. Isn't that weird?"

[womanofvalue]

"In a way, it's rather lucky," Peggy says, because if there were people of infirmity or youth about, they wouldn't be able to do much in the way of protecting themselves and managing in the harsher months. She bites back her joke about there being two senior citizens here, because Raleigh likely wouldn't understand without a rather long history, but it privately amuses Peggy to think of Barnes and Steve in that manner.

"Maybe it's all just a test we have to pass and if we're lucky, survival is passing," she says with a shrug, idly picking away at her plate.

[rangerbecket]

"If survival is passing, I'm pretty glad to earn the pass," Raleigh says. He hadn't worried about sheer survival until Karen's body had shown up at the harvest feast. Now he wonders if something like that could happen again.

"I'm just going to keep fishing, keep bringing my catch up to the inn to share with everyone. That's the best I can do to help."

[womanofvalue]

"Maybe I'll come with you, someday. Hook's taught me how to debone and gut the fish, but I'm still a little lacking as far as actual skill in catching them goes," Peggy admits, though it's something she's trying to learn how to do. "I'd offer something in turn, but most of my skills are likely ones that you already know how to do." Seeing as code-breaking, Russian, and fighting are things he might already know, she doubts learning how to do nails perfectly or victory rolls will be something he actively wants.

[rangerbecket]

"Oh, you don't know. I'm sure there's something you can teach me. I don't mind teaching you how to fish, though. There's not as many fishermen as there are hunters," Raleigh points out.

"And if someone disappears, it's a good thing to have."

[womanofvalue]

"I'd appreciate that," she says with a nod of her head. She knows that given a sharp object, she can hunt perfectly fine, but fishing seems to have a bit more finesse, but also the potential for more efficient food, in that you can fish in the same place and come out with many meals as opposed to a hunt and track.

"When you think of something I might be able to teach you, you let me know," she insists, determined to ensure they end up even in the exchange.

[rangerbecket]

"Sure there's something. What I need to teach you, and teach Sansa too, is how to make lures. My fingers are too large and too blunt to really fasten the feathers on them tightly," Raleigh explains. He looks to Peggy's slender, small fingers.

"Yours, though, would be perfect for that. That would really help me out."

[womanofvalue]

"I'm better with knots than lures right now, but as soon as I find something that might be used, I'll teach Sansa while I'm offering her the other lessons I've offered," she says, smiling serenely. "I'm going to teach her how to fight," she says. "I'm sure we'll have to rope you into it, at some point. Every learning woman needs a man to take down."

[rangerbecket]

"Willing victim," Raleigh says, grinning at her. "I'm glad you're teaching her how to fight. She ought to know how. And if you need a punching bag, I'm available."

He thinks he might regret this later but for now, it seems like a good idea.