Sokka the 74th - [Action/Voice]

[markofthewise]

[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.]

Comments

[herotypical]

"Books, I guess. But -- in school? We read his short stories."

Buffy had liked them. They weren't...simple, really. But they were uncomplicated. His sentences weren't nests of clauses and punctuation. They were refreshingly skeletal. She liked them the way she liked short poems.

The Slayer poured herself a bellini to match. "Apparently he once took a bet that he could write a whole story in just six words."

[markofthewise]

He looked mildly skeptical as he listened to her over the edge of the glass. When he set it back down, he asked the inevitable question of: "Well, how did it go?"

[herotypical]

"For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."

...Stories so rarely had happy endings. Buffy lamented this fact nigh daily.

[markofthewise]

Sokka, unfortunately, missed the point entirely. "That sounds more like an ad than a story."

[herotypical]

"...The ad is the story. When you start thinking about why the ad was placed or why the shoes've never been used or why..."

She shrugged.

[markofthewise]

It clicked in his head. And then there was another click. "That's kind of cheating. You're making the person come up with a story in their head. Of course, most people will be think the baby died before it could wear the shoes. But that's not actually in the six words, is it? I mean, maybe their friend had a baby, so they bought some shoes. But someone else did the same thing. So they just have these shoes they don't need and are selling them. That isn't a story. That's just things happening."

[herotypical]

"...Welcome to lit studies one-oh-one. Every story is just things happening, Sokka. Its up to us to figure out why those things are even worth paying attention to.

Of course, that's an extreme example. I kinda prefer it with poetry. Novels? Too long."

[markofthewise]

"It's only a story if someone cares. Things happening is just every day stuff. There's not an audience for what I had for breakfast this morning."

[herotypical]

"Oh yeah? What'd you have for breakfast this morning?"

[markofthewise]

"I can't remember. It didn't matter to me." He saw what she was trying to do.

[herotypical]

She took a sip off the top of her own drink.

"Me? I had leftover curry. We'd run out of my flavour-of-the-month cereal."

And there was definitely a story behind that fact.

[markofthewise]

Sokka made a point of yawning. "Huh. Oh, did you say something?"

[herotypical]

"...Stop it! My breakfast food has mysteriously gone all depleted-ville and you're supposed to show at least a little bit of interest! I mean, the story even has a villain.

Well. Okay. An anti-hero."

[markofthewise]

"It's a crisis averted by a walk to the grocery store. It's not like you can't afford to get more."

[herotypical]

"...But then I'd have to change out of my pajamas."

[markofthewise]

"So your story is a tragic comedy, then. The terrible story of the procrastinating Slayer."

[herotypical]

"...And her new live-in vampire."

[markofthewise]

"You have one of those now?" It was news to him. "Angel? Spike? Or someone new?"

[herotypical]

"Spike. Newly arrived. I just--

Oh my God. I just had a moment where I imagined Angel moving in and suddenly I feel a lot less unlucky."

Angel would've been ten thousand times worse than Spike. Sokka bringing the other vampire up offered her all kinds of perspective.

[markofthewise]

A blink. "Um. Well, you're welcome. I guess?"

[herotypical]

She upgraded from sipping to as good as chugging the rest of her drink.

"Did your camp see any new arrivals this cycle?"

Last cycle had seen such a boom in folks from Sokka's Land of Weird Animals.

[markofthewise]

"Ikki's back. Jinora's gone. And one of Korra's friends showed up, but I haven't seen him yet."

He disguised any remorse he felt about any of that with a sip from his glass. In any case, it was no one that he knew from home.

[herotypical]

"...Ikki's back?"

And Jinora's gone. Hmm. "How's little sis handling it?"

[markofthewise]

"Day by day, I guess. A lot happened while I was gone."

He felt a little guilty for leaving her alone so long now. That earned a long drink from his glass.

[herotypical]

"Did it? We haven't talked since -- well, I guess it's been a while. I've been so self-absorbed and wrapped up in all this ridiculousness that I've...

She's okay, right?"

Because Buffy's shine for the girl had only grown with time.