markofthewise | Sokka the 79th

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Sokka the 79th - [Action]

Over two months ago, Sokka died. His penalty was something incredibly intangible. It took from him his empathy, his ability to love, and so many other things. He didn't have a way of describing it, but he was empty. In truth, he wasn't sure he felt anything. There was nothing that truly touched him on the inside.

More than a week ago, Sokka left for a mission. A week and a half with the Depot where they instituted the kind of justice he could appreciate. He certainly felt no remorse when he shot a man for stealing water. When bandits attacked the depot, they rounded up most of them and then strung them up for their trouble. It was a simple morality and for a short while, things actually made sense. Not like the gray morality in Luceti, where people were stupid enough to think that sparing the lives of murderers and thieves meant anything.

And then he got his reward. Cashing in the bulk of mission points he'd accumulated for over a year, he was given what he really coveted the most. Power. And now he had it. As he walked into Luceti, he imagined that he could feel the difference. It was not quite so dramatic as what he had been given by the Rogue Malnosso, but he was content with the knowledge that he'd be keeping what he'd earned. There'd be no scientists taking it away from him this time.

It's mid-day when Sokka returns to town and he's still wearing the cowboy hat he took to the Depot with him. Maybe it doesn't exactly mesh with the Water Tribe clothes he's accustomed to, but he likes it. The hat makes him feel gritty and intimidating. He'll eventually get tired of hat hair, though. Just not today.

So today for his time spent back in Luceti, he heads home to greet whoever might be there. He checks in Foo Foo, the saber toothed moose lion he received from Christmas. It's getting quite big now, having reached the size of medium-sized dog. The tips of his antlers are even starting to become a bit more visible. Although the animal does seem quieter around Sokka, its at least obedient and follows him as he goes about Luceti. For today that includes the Smithy until evening, the Library for an hour, back at House 56 for dinner, and then out in the forest to try and teach Foo Foo to hunt.

The next morning, he makes sure that Okita Souji will meet him for their training session. Sokka is looking forward to seeing the results.

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He gave a shrug. "When it comes to home, there's the Mechanist and Teo and well, me, when it comes to actually knowing a thing about technology. Until you showed up anyway. Usually that kind of stuff flies over everyone else's heads."

Not Sokka, though. The moment electricity showed up in Luceti, he was doing everything in his power to understand it.

"Someone is named 'the Mechanist?'" Because that sounded like an unlucky name, really. But she shrugged. "I know my way around an engine, though. Couldn't grow up with my father and not pick a lot of it up just by accident."

She looked around again, "but this a lot...less advanced than I'm used to. Or more, for some of it..." She frowned. "Can it be both?"

"Well, I don't think Mechanist was his name. I kind of uh, never asked him what it was. Sometimes nicknames just stick, right? Like Combustion Man. But this place is sort of an odd mix of advanced and not-so-advanced. I mean, have you seen the Battle Dome yet?"

There were few people he'd met that failed to be surprised by that, certainly.

"I suppose," she had never really had much room for nicknames, more like terms of endearment or real names.

"Yes, actually. I...it was pretty amazing, honestly, but I'm not really sure I understand it." A beat. "At all."

"I don't really think I get it completely yet. But I've made some pretty cool stuff in there before." At the very least he liked to think he was a wiz at running the thing.

"We don't have anything even similar back in Republic City, and it's the most advanced place in the world!" It was strange to go from what she felt was the pinnacle of modern civilization, and suddenly discover how backwards it could be.

"I'm going to learn how to use it, though. Someone said I could make a race track."

He'd actually done that with her before. Made a race track just like the one back home. But he knew from experience that the more you mentioned doing stuff with someone before, the more intensely uncomfortable things became. As a general rule, it was always best not to mention this stuff.

Unless it involved being engaged with someone, but that was a bit unique as forgotten activities go.

"Oh, right, you like racing. I've had a chance to get pretty decent at driving myself. A few months ago, I drove a Studebaker and managed to miss most of the people on the street."

"Really?" Well that caught her attention, even if she didn't know what a Studebaker was. "I haven't seen any cars here. I was beginning to think there weren't any."

Which would be a tragedy and a travesty.

"Well, there aren't. I mean, there was, kind of. They weren't real. Or the people I ran over, just to be clear." A beat. "Experiments are weird."

"...Experiments?" This was the first she was hearing about those. "How can they not be real?"

"You know how stuff appears in the Dome? Well, imagine that happening in the entire town. And bam, that's an entire experiment."

"...Does that happen often?"

"That specifically? No. Weird things happen a lot, but they're not consistent. If they were consistent, it wouldn't be really weird anymore."

"But...strange things are going to happen." She said quietly. "And I guess we can't really do anything about it."

"We can complain about it. Me, personally? I've gotten really good at complaining about it."

Asami laughed softly at that. "Well who am I to argue with that?"

"You can't." He paused and followed it with a grin. "But you can complain."

Asami just smiled and shrugged. "I'm not really much for complaining, even if I can't fix it."

"Fair enough." He let the matter drop because there was something more interesting he had in mind. "Say, do you still have that glove? The electric one?"

"Hmm? Yeah," she tugged the glove off her belt and held it up. "I found it in the weapons shop here after someone told me I should check. ...Why?"

He grinned. Bingo. This may have been the break he was looking for. "Follow me, I've got something to show you."

Not waiting for her to answer, he headed to a corner of the workshop where he had his own personal work desk. It was lined with tools and several rolled up canvases for blueprints and design ideas. He had to dig around for awhile, but he soon came up with a few pages of drawing and schematics, followed by some mechanical bits that resembled pieces that might go to her glove. He unfolded the pages for display so she could see the various sketches of the very same glove. Sokka may have been rubbish at his artistic endeavors, but when he wanted to try to make something as the basis for a design, a ruler and compass could go a long way towards making things look pretty good.

All in all, it was an impressive attempt at reproducing her glove. But it was far from finished.

"We were working on this before. But you went home before we got to finish."

She followed after him, unable to resist her curiosity, and made a faint noise of surprise when she saw the desk covered with bits and pieces of what were obviously her glove. And sketches of her glove. Huh.

"You were trying to build them?" She looked at her own glove for a moment, considering the mechanics. "We were trying to build them?" That would never stop being strange.

"What can I say? I wanted one too."

Though now he was a little more ambitious then before. After meeting Artemis and seeing her arsenal of weapons, he was more keen in trying to reproduce that electrical shock in his boomerangs. Though the glove wouldn't be bad either.

She wasn't quite certain what she thought of this. On the one hand, the weapons were just weapons, they weren't good or evil, she proved that by using hers. But equalist technology was still tainted, in a sense, by what it was really used for.

"Did it work?" She finally asked, leaning forward to examine one of his sketches, tracing her finger over the electronic lines carefully. Hmm.

"No, not really. I never figured out a way to make a battery that could store the same kind of energy that the glove does. At least not at the same size. I have to hand it to your dad, he knew what he was doing."

That in itself was the entire hiccup, of course. Making the glove and the delivery system was easy. Storing the power was difficult.

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