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

[ACTION]

[breezing]

[ It gets better, Sokka. ]

Loooooooots of things, but I'm going to tell you about the time he beat the evil shadow-stealing monster from the Earth Kingdom swamps!

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Oh? Why was he stealing shadows?

[... and why was he in the swamp? Sokka reluctantly imagines himself dressed up Foggy Swamp style.]

[ACTION]

[breezing]

Because if people don't have their shadows, they'll lose all their strength and sloooooowly they'll lose their memories and everything they are! [ TRIUMPHANTLY. She just added that part. ...Well, she just added EVERY part. So.

Because swamp monsters are scarier than normal monsters Sokka. ]

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Really. This was a fact about shadows I was previously unaware of. [THAT ISN'T SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND, IKKI.] ... continue.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

Really!!! [ WOW SOKKA DID YOU EXPECT IT TO BE SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND SHE'S SEVEN. ] It's a secret 'cause most people can't take away shadows so no one knew until someone did!

Something I mean!!! Anyway, the brave cool strong amazing warrior heard about the shadowmonster while he was on his journies!! See, he traveled allllll over the world helping people in need and learning things and stuff and when he was passing by a town near the swamps he met a girl!

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

A swampbender girl?

[Well... okay, the girls there weren't that bad looking. But they smelled awful. Like everything there. Even during the battle of Black Sun they smelled like swamp.]

[ACTION]

[breezing]

A mysterious girl who no one had met there before!! She was very, very beautiful, but she wore a dark cloak 'cause she was mysterious so he could only see her mouth an' stuff.

[ MYSTERIOUS, Sokka. ] And she told the brave hero about how the shadowmonster had been stealing shadows...from most of the people in the swamp, and now many out of it!

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Sounds serious. But why was she in a cloak? That seems suspicious to me.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

'Cause she's so pretty people'd stop knowing how to talk if they saw her!

[ that's totally a thing okay ]

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Wow. That sounds like it must be very annoying for her.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

Yep! He'll help her out with that another time. ANYWAY [ gosh Uncle Sokka you derailing derailer ] so she tells him all about this and the hero thinks well he can't let that sort of thing go on! And also maybe they're just making things up or the swamp gas is doing swamp gas things.

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

It's true. Swamp gas can be very misleading.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

[ Okay he wasn't complaining that time, she's clearly getting better at this. ]

So he takes his sword and his boomerang [ not that she's talking about anyone they know you know ] and he goes down into the swamp to see what might be there. And the people he sees on the way are all slooooooooooow and sad and don't speak at all!

[ she's attempting to sound spooky. ...How well that works is debatable. ]

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Wow, they sound pretty lazy.

[Yeah. It didn't work.]

[ACTION]

[breezing]

[ She's not a naturally scary person, so this is hard. Does making claw-hands and faces help? ]

No no no no!!! It's because their shadows were stolen and they were under the spell!!!!

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

[Wow. Sokka sits up a bit, surprised to see Ikki so... involved. Okay.]

Uh. Sure. Stolen shadows. Right. Continue.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

[ When she offered to tell him a story she went all in. ]

So he went deeper and deeper and deeper into the forest, looking for the shadowmonster! [ which may or may not be modeled in Ikki's mind after the terrifying rancor beasts Uncle Luke once drew for her. ] But the further he got into the swamp, the less people he met! And also the more vines and branches and roots got in his way, reaching up to grab at him.

But the brave hero wasn't afraid! He has a special magical sword and cut away alllllll the grasping vines and when he did there was a loud ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Oh great, the swamp is mad at me-- him for cutting stuff up. [Again!!!]

[ACTION]

[breezing]

[ Sokka what was that slip you're totally not in this story. The warrior with a sword and boomerang is of no relation to anyone in their world, living or dead. ]

Because it's an EVIL SWAMP!!!!!! [ SHOUTED for drama. ]

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Which begs the question of why they'd all move into an evil swamp.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

Well, it wasn't ALWAYS evil OBVIOUSLY.

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Well, obviously. I'm sure it was a happy swamp that everyone loved when it was still a baby pond.

[ACTION]

[breezing]

Swamps start as ponds? [ distracted by this information, yep. ]

[ACTION]

[markofthewise]

Uh. Maybe. [He has no idea.] Anyway. The hero is in the evil swamp? Everyone's slow and lazy?

[ACTION]

[breezing]

Right!!! So the swamp just ROAAAAAAAAARED and then out of the swamp water came the shadowmonster!!!!!!! It was huuuuuuuuuge and had claws for hands and was made up of all the shadows it had eaten!