markofthewise | Sokka the 74th

[THE FIRST DAY.]

[Two weeks. It's a long time to be on a mission, but Sokka has no regrets. The mess with Kin'cora had gotten to him and he found a kind of relief in working with other people from other enclosures. There was a lot of talk among him and the others. He spread the word. Maybe it wouldn't do Luceti much good, given he learned very little, but the more the others knew, the better. But boy was he glad to be back in Luceti. When he emerges from the tunnels at around 6PM, he's tired out from a hard day of work, but it's a good kind of tired. He makes going home his first priority. He'll miss dinner, inevitably, but with any luck there's leftovers. Catching up with the others takes a few hours before he ever breaks away to wander the village.

What's on the agenda? Hitting up the smithy to see where things are at. He never got to find out how much was lost after the Kin'corans left, so it's time to see if one of his ~~minions~~ smithy buddies took an inventory. And you know, he wants to check in on them too. That's cool. Also, he heads to Good Spirits because he was informed very sternly by one of his buddies on the mission that the only proper way to end a hard day's work is a good stiff drink. Sokka, the adult that he is, was inclined to agree. THAT IS HIS ENTIRE DAY.

But there is another.]

[DAWN OF THE NEXT DAY]

[Sokka wakes up and does his usual morning routine and goes to NOT the smithy, but the BATTLE DOME. That's right. Record scratch. After talking to the main console for awhile, he heads into one of the rooms and in something that takes some finagling at first, he starts... building a sub. A holographic sub. One that is small enough to fit into his hand, but can expand if he gives the command, so he can work on specific details. It's like working on a blueprint, but in 3D. His nights on his mission had been spent trying to recreate the submarine made by the Mechanist. He's been steadily improving on the design, specifically built to be powered by waterbending, but done in a way to streamline the process and make it faster. And sturdier. He's not sure it will be easy to build with Luceti's technology, but...

Well, Haruhi got him excited. And he spends the better half of the day on this. Because of the Dome time limit, he's constantly seen going in and out to restart the program or grab a snack. For those hoping to fight, this is probably annoying, since there's only six chambers that tend to get used a lot. At one point during the day, he loses the dome to some short and grumpy guy, so Sokka turns to the journal.]

Has anyone really tried the stuff in these vending machines before? I mean, I usually just get a soda or something, but this stuff is amazing. Like... look at these. [He lifts up an oreo to the camera.] It's two cookies, but with some kind of paste between them. But the paste tastes like sugar! And then there's these! [Sokka lifts up an red lump of candy.] Apple gels. They're great, although I don't think they taste like real apples. There's something unusually refreshing about them. I had about ten just now and it made my fingers all tingly. Actually, I'm kind of feeling tingly all over and-- [Sokka looks away and spots something else] Oh! And check this out! [He pulls out a WORM. A multicolored worm.] It's a CANDY worm. I was thinking I could use it for fishing, but it's actually kind of tasty. Oh, and then there's these fished shape crackers...

[He'll go on like this for awhile. People can listen or ignore him, but he'll be casually highlighting the awesome contents of the Battle Dome vending machines.

He'll be coming home later with the stomach ache from hell.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A one day binge, Aang. It's not a pattern until it happens more than twice.

I wonder how quickly it'll become a pattern then.

It won't. Unlike some people, I happen to have self control!

I sure hope so. Otherwise, you'll be a bad role model for the girls.

I happen to be a great role model. And great with kids. I used to be an inspiration to all the kids back home.

[His smile shifts from a teasing one to a fonder one.]

I remember them. They were all real fun kids! And y'know, you've been real nice so far for the girls. But I think we both let Ikki get away with having more sweets than she should last time, so we should at least get better about that this time.

That's ridiculous. I only let her have one or two sweets a day!

[And so does Aang and Toph and Roku and Katara and Zuko...

It adds up.]

Really? I've tried not to let her have more than that, too.

Exactly. So where's the problem?

She still gets real hyper sometimes. [Aang doesn't mind it, and he can match the energy - but he knows that it can wrack Katara's nerves.] But I don't see how it can get that bad if we each give her just that much a da- [Blink.] wait...

Yeah? [Not putting it together just yet.]

Sokka... the sweets you give her each day aren't the sweets I give her each day... Right?

No, why would I-- ohhh. [A pause.] We're idiots.

We really are.

Maybe we should leave Katara in charge of snack distribution.

That'd be pretty smart. [Except it would sacrifice that feeling that comes from being the "cool" older figure to bestow a gift upon the tiny creature! Aang pauses.] Unless we can set up something to keep track of what we each give her?