Sokka the 77th - [Action/Voice]

[markofthewise]

[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.]

Comments

[markofthebrave]

Oh, Luceti. You and those crazy plot twists.

She rushed over to hug him, "Welcome back! You were gone for such a long time."

[markofthewise]

He quickly maneuvered the sword the side as she embraced him. Whoop!

"I know! I know! I'm sorry!" He gave her an awkward half hug with the one hand that wasn't carrying a weapon.

[markofthebrave]

"I was getting worried about you," she said as she pulled back. "Are you all right? What happened?"

[markofthewise]

"I got bored." If she paid enough attention, she'd notice he had a different bead on his braid. He also didn't have his usual necklace on. "Seriously, space seems exciting. But when space is just a thing out your window? It gets old. Fast."

[markofthebrave]

"I remember," she said, shuddering. She didn't notice the bead in his hair yet, but what she did notice the lack of his necklace. He was never without it. Her brows immediately came together in concern, "What happened to your necklace?"

[markofthewise]

"Oh." He rubbed at his neck. He should have counted on her noticing that, really. "It came loose when in one of the maintenance shafts. I wasn't able to find it." He realized he should be upset about that. He liked it, but he didn't feel really any kind of sentimental attachment. "But I had a friend who was on the ship for another week, so he's gonna give it to the Malnosso if he finds it."

[markofthebrave]

Katara had no reason to suspect that he would lie to her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hope you get it back."

[markofthewise]

"It's okay. I mean, I lost Boomerang and my space sword. I got those back." And if he didn't, well, he'd have to find a new neck accessory.

[markofthebrave]

"Well, that's true..." but she wasn't used to Sokka being the optimistic one. "It seems like you're handling it well."

...too well. He'd complained about Boomerang for hours. But Katara wasn't going to push on this - if he was okay, she was glad of it. It was just... strange.

And you couldn't really afford to ignore strange for too long in Luceti.

[markofthewise]

"Well I'm not happy about it. But. I can't do much about it here."

[markofthebrave]

"That's true..." she trailed off and glanced around. Weapons were missing from the walls and that was also strange. "What are you doing?"

[markofthewise]

"Oh, just rearranging some things. That's all. The place needs a few changes."

[markofthebrave]

"It does?" She leaned back and looked between him and the wall. "What kind of changes?"

[markofthewise]

"You remember how the Kin'corans took everything? Well, I figured it's time to stop just putting this stuff out where people can just snatch it up easily."

[markofthebrave]

"I remember," she said. He'd almost died in the struggle for the smithy. "So what are you going to do? Build a safe or something?

[markofthewise]

"Better. I'm going to build a gate. Lots of gates! For every wall and shelf!"

[markofthebrave]

"...you're going to build a gate. For the walls."

[markofthewise]

"It sounds dumb when you say it like that."

[markofthebrave]

"You mean when I say it exactly how you say it? Maybe you'd ought to think about that."

[markofthewise]

"It's not the kind of gates you're thinking of!"

[markofthebrave]

"All right, Sokka. What kind of gates are you thinking of?"

[markofthewise]

"Just bars, along the walls. With a lock, so I can open them up or close them. That way when people want a weapon, they have to barter first."

[markofthebrave]

"Barter what?"

[markofthewise]

"Whatever they have worth trading."

[markofthebrave]

Katara didn't really like the sound of this, mostly because, "That's why you decided to come here first instead of letting us know you were back? So you could set up bars so that people would have to trade you for stuff?"