markofthewise | Sokka the 77th

Entry tags:

[action],
[voice]

Sokka the 77th - [Action/Voice]

[On February Twenty-Fifth, Sokka turned nineteen. On the Twenty-Sixth, he left on a routine mission to work as a mechanic on one of the Malnosso's three space vessels high up in orbit. There was no battle, this time. Just good honest work, people to relate to, and a small bunk to call his own. Seven days, just like that.

On March Fourth, one of the mechanics triggered a malfunction on the hangar doors. The crew quickly fled, just as the power went down. They needed to close the hatch leading to the hallway. But without power, it could only be closed from one side. The one about to be opened up into space. The hero, the stupid hero, closed the door. In those brief moments, he thought that maybe if he reached a Tyr Fighter, he could climb in one of those. He ran. Hard.

He didn't make it.

Today, he fell into the sea, nearly drowning, and was saved by the Avatar. It distracted him from what happened, but now that she was off exploring town, he had the chance to go in his room, get dressed, and collect his weapons. It was a good thing he chose not to bring them. They'd be out floating in space right now, otherwise. One thing was strange, though. He wasn't upset. He wasn't distressed. He could only look back on it and regret that it even happened. That was a week's worth of points he wouldn't be getting. Damn Malnosso cheapskates.

After a bit of cleaning up, he went to go approach this new day. He'd be gone from Luceti for two weeks. People would probably miss him. But his first destination was the smithy.

The only problem was that once he got to the smithy, he found himself looking at the walls. They were barer than he left them. People had been picking up some of the weapons he'd made. Well, that wasn't going to do. He wasn't running a charity here.]

Hey Luceti. Looks like I got back in time for the new feathers to roll in. I'm Sokka. Hope you guys are settling in fine! I run the Slash 'n Crash, the local smithy and weapon shop. I make most of the weapons here. I do take commissions if people want stuff. But since there's no money, just talk to me and we can work out a trade. No point in breaking your back for nothing, right?

Anyway, did I miss anything important?

[For the rest of the day, Sokka can be found at the smithy. Later he does about an hour of catch up work at the library, before going home to dinner. Remarkably enough, he doesn't feel like drinking today.

Today is a good day.]

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[She should feel relief at those words. Happiness that the stupid experiment is done and over and that her friend is back to normal. That they could be friends again, maybe even finally go ice fishing if it gets to be colder out again.

Instead, she feels unexpectedly rejected. Maybe it's all those stupid emotions still welled up inside of her from last night, but his response hurts.

And she does the first thing that comes to mind: kick his shin from underneath the table and glower at him.]

Good. Cause it's the last thing on my mind, too.

Oww! [He glares at her. That was not cool at all. And surprisingly, he kicks her back.]

What was that for!?

[When she feels his foot connect with her own leg, her eyes widen in surprise. She yelps in response to the pain and gives him another dirty look.]

Because you could have said that more nicely.

[The last word is, probably unsurprisingly, punctuated with another kick.]

[He nearly kicks back, but he's smart enough to know where that's going to lead. He likes his shins too much for that.]

Well excuse me. I figured that's what you'd want to hear.

It was.

[Just... not entirely like that. She's stupid enough, vain enough to care a little about how others might perceive her. Even if she tells herself otherwise, tries to convince herself that it doesn't matter. That she is ugly and not all that pretty and that whatever Peeta saw in her was entirely a fluke.

She frowns, uncomfortable. Would a simple agreement have been too much to ask for?]

Good. [He shakes his head, annoyed. And his shin hurts now!]

But if it makes you feel any better? You'd be a good girlfriend to have. It's just you wouldn't want someone like me as your boyfriend.

[That's not entirely what she wants to hear either. And she rolls her eyes, though this time, the annoyance is much more self-directed. Because she can already feel her cheeks flush at the compliment.

Even if she doesn't wholly agree with his comment.]

You're wrong. [Said quietly as she tries her best not to blush further. Self-deprecation helps some in this matter] You'd make a much better boyfriend than I would a girlfriend. You don't want someone who picks potential boyfriends based on who'll extend their longevity the most.

Would you do that now?

[He's not going to try and agree or disagree with her on the point itself. Clearly she's beating herself up about past events. So maybe if he makes her feel a bit better about her choices, she'll be less inclined to kick him.]

[She shrugs a little, chewing a bit on her lower lip. In all honesty, she'd rather the straight forward question than attempts to convince her otherwise.

And he's been in her situation, hasn't he? Losing Suki, only to have her come back and then breaking up with her?]

Peeta's not here anymore. I... Isn't that exactly what I'm doing if I move on? Choosing to maybe learn to love someone else because I - I don't think I'm very good at this. At being alone.

You learn to live with it. [Two weeks ago, he'd sound miserable. Probably not even admit it. But he sounds honestly convinced of this now. At peace with it.] Being alone isn't that bad. I know you miss Peeta, but it doesn't have to be all bad. You can still more forward.

[She'd spent four months being alone. Four months of waking up screaming with no one but Buttercup to offer comfort in the form of steely glowing eyes. Which really wasn't much comfort at all.

Alone is what she deserves. But she's not so certain that it's what she wants anymore.]

Have you? [She glances up at him, eyebrows raised.] Have you moved on from Suki?

[he should have hesitated. It would be better if he hesitated. But he didn't.]

I have. What we had is the past. I can't live there forever.

[She blinks in surprise at just how easy those words seem to flow from him. And then she swears quietly under her breath. Just a mild oath, one obvious of time spent around Sharpe. It's not fair that he can just shut it off that easily.]

How'd you do that so quickly?

[Deep down, he knows he should be okay. He wasn't 'yesterday'. His own feelings of having no self worth made him do something big.

But he was fine. He was honestly fine.]

I guess I just had an epiphany. Life goes on.

[Life does go on. It's something Peeta had stressed to her again and again and again whenever it got to be too much for her. But she's never really been good at finding that optimism. Noticing the daffodil in the burgeoning spring.

She's gone through so much. Seen so much. Why can't she have an epiphany like that? What did Sokka do different? Did--]

Did you meet someone else?

No, not really. I mean, I could, I guess. But it's just me. By myself.

[Which isn't so bad. Though he does think it would be nice to have the perks of a relationship again.]

[She shakes her head. It's not making all that much sense to her. Some big epiphany. Something to get over the way he felt about his ex-girlfriend. An ex-girlfriend that she knew he loves, maybe loves as much as she loves Peeta.

Richard had said the best ways were to keep busy and to move on. To find new loves. To drown yourself in your work. There had been nothing about random epiphanies.

It's confusing. He's confusing. Are all boys this confusing? She sighs in frustration, hands falling hard on the table.]

Then what is it?

I don't know. It's just... I'm happy now. Like everything's going to be fine.

[Sure, there's still experiments and drafts. Fighting and struggle. But he can live with all that. One step at a time. It's like a new lease on life and he likes it.]

[That. That's exactly what she wants. The happiness. The idea that life is going to be okay. What she had felt when Peeta was here. It hadn't been easy, but somehow, Peeta always succeeded.

She frowns and slumps into her seat. When her foot hits his shin this time, it really is an accidental act of violence.]

That's what I want. I want to be happy, too.

[He cringes. It wasn't hard, but it was still sore. But he doesn't hit back. Frankly, he doesn't know what to do with her. She's a mess and he has no practical ideas for how to fix her. But it's not like he can just shoo her away.]

I don't know how to just turn that on. It might just take time.

[Time. So so sick of it taking time. Especially when this sudden change in demeanor seemed to have come so quickly for Sokka. Is it really supposed to work like that? Getting over a girl - or a boy - you love in a matter of weeks? With new epiphanies and none of that hard work Richard had mentioned.

Richard.]

Richard said Peeta would want me to be happy. He said that after G- after he lost someone he had cared about, he had thrown himself into his work and then met someone else. And another girl after that. He said he loved them all differently but that even when things ended badly, he was happy to have had them.

It almost sounds... nice. [It also sounds impossible. But it is, at the very least, easier to think in the daytime. When the nightmares have truly faded until the next eve.] But I wouldn't know where to start. I don't really know how any of this is supposed to work.

Well, he is kind of old. He's had a long time. I know I can look back at Yue and even though I lost her, I don't regret knowing her. [I don't feel anything about her...]

That took a long time, too. It was Suki who helped me get to the point where I could even look at the Moon without feeling guilty.

[Her nose wrinkles a little and she tries to bite back a laugh at that kind of a description of Richard. In reality, he's probably not much older than Haymitch. Than her mother.

...okay. She smiles just a little. He is old, isn't he?

But the moment of amusement comes and goes rather quickly. It's replaced not so much by the sorrow from before but a different kind of emotion. Jealousy also does not sit well with her. And she makes a face at that.]

I don't know any boys here.

You know me. That wasn't so hard, was it?

[He's not exactly putting himself out there. But at the same time, he's not not putting himself out there, either.]

[She did know Sokka. And it had been relatively easy to get to know him, too. That common bond of hunting had made it easy. A lot like getting to know Gale had been.

But Sokka's different than Gale. In some ways, he's a lot easier to be around. He makes her grin and smile through humor that isn't so much at the expense at others or the government around them. He doesn't have quite the same fire.

So she shrugs, looking a little flustered at the thought.]

No. No, it wasn't. I like spending time with you.

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