markofthewise | Sokka the 77th

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, but anything important worth bartering for is free. Like clothes and food.

Hey, there's other stuff to be traded. It's not like people can't make stuff too.

And what about the people who can't? Are the just out of luck?

[Winry frowns, wondering what has suddenly caused Sokka to want to "charge" for his work. Maybe he's feeling under appreciated? Maybe she shouldn't be so upset. It's not like weapons are a necessity.]

Then nothing. People aren't just entitled to free labor.

[Then I'm not obligated to help you- No, Winry. He's your friend. No matter how frustrated you are right now. And you need help.]

Fine, all right, but Sokka I have a favor to ask.

Yeah? What is it?

[It's only fair, really, since he just asked something of her.]

Ed's been acting weird lately, and I think something is wrong with him.

Yeah? Acting weird how? Maybe all this waiting around is just getting under his skin. It's easy to get stir crazy around here.

Weird like he seems like he doesn't stop eating, it's like he cares less about everything, and he's... He's just not him. And when we-

[She clams up a bit here. Winry folds her arms around herself, and looks off to the side.] He's just different, okay? He's not Ed. And I'm not sure if this has to with his kidnapping, yet...

[She wondered if he was kind of odd then, but that was so long ago.]

[Kidnapping... that's right. Ed had been a little odd when he came back. Of course there'd be an effect associated with it. But being hungry? Kind of a jerk? That didn't sound like anything serious.

All the same...]

Right... so, what do you want me to do? I mean, I can try and talk some sense into him if you're worried about him becoming a big, fat jerk.

No, I think it might be worse than that. I think he might be... possessed? But the only way to find out is if we throw him in those tunnels.

Possessed? [He blinks in surprise. A personality shift was one thing, but possession...?] Are you sure?

Well one night while we- Never mind what we were doing, but just as we were going to start he begins to shake. He gets all sweaty, his knuckles got all white, and he looks like he was struggling against something. He told me he had a headache, but I think... he was speaking to himself before I tried talking to him. Isn't that weird to you? And-

And before that he was smooth! Ed isn't suave, or hand-kissy, or- Sokka, he was being romantic and it wasn't Ed. It didn't feel right.

[Okay, he gets the picture. He now knows more about their romantic life than he cared to know.

All the same, there's this nagging feeling that he doesn't really care about all this. Well, except for one thing. Ed hasn't been teaching him alchemy because of his weird memory thing he claimed to have.]

No, that doesn't sound like Ed. But... do you think he'll follow you into the tunnels? I mean, we don't generally have much reason to go down there.

[She was so incredibly gracious in being super vague, jeez.]

I'm sure there's some way we can get him down there. Isn't there a way to the beach? Maybe I can convince him to take a trip with me.

[Frowning.] Did he get possessed by stupid? Not even regular Ed would be convinced to take a two day trip through the tunnels.

Well excuse you, I'm just coming up with ideas! He said he can't remember everything, and if he asks about the teleporter I could say it broke while he was gone!

[So still with the memories, then. Well, that confirms that.]

Well, there's that section down in the tunnels, right? With the writing on the wall? Just tell him that I found some kind of alchemy circle down there or something.

Do you think that will work? Do we know if he even knows what the tunnels do? Ugh this is so complicated!

We could always just jump him and tie him up. At least in the tunnels he won't have alchemy. If you disable his automail, he'll be harmless. Then we just gotta figure out what's wrong with him.

I could unscrew some parts so if he struggles they'll be useless, I guess.

[That really unsettles her. She'd hate to give Ed a bad tune up on purpose, but is this really Ed?]

Edited 2013-03-20 03:29 (UTC)

It's for his own good. He'll thank us for it later.

[Maybe that was an even better plan. Sabotage a tuneup first, then take him to the tunnels. Hm.]

You know... the tunnels entrance is in the plaza, right? I could just bring him for a pretend grocery trip.

And then... I just jump him? Simple, but elegant.

[She sighs as she considers it, but-]

I could distract him with a kiss?

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