Sokka & Genis - early spring catch-all

[strokeofgenis]

Characters: Sokka or Genis... AND YOU!
Date: Late March, early April
Location: Turtle
Situation: Critical
Warnings/Rating: Much sarcasm. Such boomerang. Many foods. Wow.

[A. Genis Sage - Closed to Bakura - Dojo]

[Genis still had Bakura's note from the last kedan festival. In fact, he'd almost forgotten it after the festival as it had fallen out of his pocket at some point and hadn't quite found its way back to Genis' attention. But find it he eventually did, and that was reason enough to immediately dash off to the Wood Sector. He had a big brother mentor good friend to go see. After all, Bakura was going to be teaching him magic, and what better way than to go to someone who invited him?

[The address that Bakura had given him led him straight to a dojo, and so Genis, being the good kid, will actually knock on the front door of the building, waiting for someone to answer.]

Helloooooooo? Anybody home?

[B. Genis Sage - Open - Midnight Hotel or Keeliai]

[Genis had finally gotten a job. It had taken quite a while to finally get it, but he was finally on the up and up and not completely hating this world. (Because let's face it, Genis isn't going to completely turn a new leaf over for the kedan, even if things are getting better, when there are still kedan bullies on the street. Just a little too raw. And the fact that many kedan wouldn't even give him the chance didn't help either.) But Genis managed to prove himself pretty handily pretty quick. Of course, he's starting out low on the totem pole, nowhere near the most senior of the chefs, but he already has proven capable of being a being both the saucier and the poissonnier, so there's a good chance ordering something from the menu will come from Genis.

[Genis will be experimenting with foods in the kitchen in the Midnight Hotel as he's still getting accustomed to an entirely new range of spices that aren't from his world as well as a host of different meats and vegetables that resemble but aren't quite like the things from back home. So you might smell something tasty coming from the common kitchens... or you might actually be dining in the restaurant Genis is cooking for and want to give him thanks... or you might find him out at the marketplaces buying some fresh ingredients for a new master stroke of genius cooking.]

[C. Genis Sage - Open - Edge of Town]

[When Genis isn't being grumpy about the kedan or cooking, he will be off practising the magic. He hasn't actually gotten to use any magic in a small while, and so he doesn't want to get rusty. One might see him holding a wooden little figure in his hand which actually is a kendama, a Japanese ball-and-stick toy, as he casts his spells. He's not casting of the high-level ones (for the most part), and so as he concentrates, a small glow of light will appear beneath him, and the colours they emit depend upon whatever he's casting. As he's practising, someone watching him might hear some rather... disturbing lines coming from this 12 year old's mouth.]

Come get some! Air Blade!

I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash the fury of thunder. Indignation!

Engulf this pathetic soul! Ground dasher!

Drown! Aqua laser!

Pancake time! Stalagmite!

[Hopefully you're not anywhere in front of him as he's casting these or else you'll get caught up in... something: water, ice, wind, fire, thunder, or earth.]

[D. Sokka - Open - Keeliai or Stark Industries]

[Sokka's got a few things on his plate at the moment. Of course, he's helping out finish up the deconstruction of the Palace, and he'll be hanging around there with a clipboard, running in between teams of kedan and foreigners alike, and generally doing his part to plan out the last bits of the reconstruction effort. If he's not there for work, he'll be out helping on the railway lines. His work there is less middle management and more guard duty and occasional gopher. He'll be running supplies between teams as they're needed and making sure that shipments get through from place to place... and of course occasionally collecting the odd report. And then he's occasionally delivering those reports back to headquarters.

[You might just happen happen to catch him while he's on break though. Feel free to interrupt him or have him run into you (possibly literally).]

[E. Sokka - Open - Midnight Hotel or Keeliai]

[The puzzle is annoying the crap out of him. Two months in, and he still doesn't have any solid leads on what in the world they're even supposed to do. It's got to be simpler than he's making it, but at the same time, for the life of him he can't actually make heads or tails of it. He'll either be in the common room staring over his notes or out in Keeliai, perhaps following some random route through the city—especially the Central Sector, trying to track down anything that might resemble a landmark.]

So if the purple star is the Metal Sector, and that represents five... then what in the world am I supposed to do when I get there?

[F. Sokka - Closed to Milyn - Milyn's Apothecary]

[It's amazing how just a few seeds can germinate into a full-fledged idea. And it's amazing how far those apple seeds can fall from the tree. An idle conversation with Gene and Tony a while back mixed with conversations from Enjolras and Akito formed a plan. It was time to break out of his small circle of friends and start finding out more about these strange kedan that they lived amongst. And to do that, he needed to go see Milyn.

[He had heard her name cropping up more and more over the past few weeks, though the reasons were still unbeknownst to Sokka. Still, she seemed to be the one kedan that was more on their side than anyone else, and Sokka knew she knew the kedan leaders perhaps more than any of them, so it made sense to go and find out more of what he was dealing with before going directly to them. Besides, he didn't even know what he was going to talk to them about. He barely even knew Milyn, but at least he had an idea of who she was and where to start from. And so, in true fashion, Sokka is planning on just improvising as he gets there. All of his plans never seemed to work out as written anyway, right?

[He approaches the apothecary and heads on in, looking for the Cherrywood Healer.]

Hello?

[G. Sokka - Closed to Toph - Keeliai]

[Sokka is actually kind of out of practice when it comes to swinging Space Sword around.  Truth be told, there hasn't been much need for all that much fighting around the Shell in the past months, and that had made him just a little bit restless.  He definitely wanted to get out and get swinging and make sure he was keeping his sword skills up to snuff.  The one problem is that he didn't have a training partner.  Granted, not that he needed a training partner per se, but it was more enjoyable if there was someone else there doing kata with him, even if it was a completely different kata than him.

[Which is why he had fetched Toph.  First, she would be eager as anything else to go with him to go punch some rocks around... and perhaps even punch some rocks towards Sokka, though Sokka would ask them to not be massive boulders, please thank you very much.  Second, well, he enjoyed Toph's company, and now that she was here, he was going to take advantage of it.

[And also, it gave him a good excuse for him to figure out what exactly Toph knows of this place.  She'd been here before apparently, but not... recently by the sound of it.]

Okay, so... tell me what you know of the Creep Lord, [he says whilst they're walking to their training house.]

[H. Sokka - Closed to Gene - Midnight Hotel]

[And if he didn't have enough appointments already on his docket, he's certainly come up with one more.  After all, if Sokka was remembering rightly, it was Gene that had actually gone to Zanru and Yunxu and Heojin to find out about their opinions as to the demolition of the Palace of the Landed Sky, and that would prove interesting.  Sokka still didn't exactly have a solid direction as to where to proceed with his long-term plans of being involved with the three gangs, but he knows for certain that figuring out these three reclusive characters was going to be a good first step.  It's at least better than showing up completely unprepared, not knowing what in the world he was going to go talk to them about.

[And besides, he really ought to get to know Gene better anyway.  Oddly enough, at their last encounter, he seemed less surprised by Sokka's world than Tony.  In fact, he seemed less surprised than Sokka was to about half of those events!

[So Sokka heads upstairs to pay Gene a visit.  He doesn't exactly know when he's going to be there as he doesn't have a solid timetable for him yet, but he'll periodically go knocking on Gene's door or look for him in the common room to have that nice little chat.]

[Z. ??? - Choose Your Own Adventure]

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Comments

B

[confirmationbias]

When Sonja entered the hotel and saw someone new cooking, she was struck by a little bit of curiosity and the urge to speak to this newcomer, followed by an intense pang of anxiety that obviously meeting a new person would go horribly wrong, as all of her interactions inevitably led, followed by a calm reminder that she needed to meet new people for multiple reasons, and that nothing can happen - positive or negative - if she refuses to meet anyone new at all.

She approaches Genis gingerly. She notices right away that he has very spikey, white hair, which would probably be enough to judge, but then there was also the similarity of wardrobe... she wondered if this new one would be as stiff as that Raine woman, and had a resurgence of anxiety and an urge to rethink her approach, but she pushed through it.

"H-hi, that smells pretty good. I'm not used to seeing anyone besides Anton cooking in here."

[strokeofgenis]

Well for better or worse Genis hadn't heard anything about Sonja whatsoever, so there's nothing colouring his viewpoints of the military lady. For all he knew, she was something that could have fit into his world except for perhaps the fact that she wouldn't have dressed in the styles he was accustomed to. But that's neither here nor there.

Genis is making a paella... or at least a massively scaled down version of it, and his primary goal was to figure out the spices and the specific fish and sea creatures that would go well with it. After all, it's not like someone could just find purple satay here in this world, and Genis didn't even know what components went into purple satay. The smell that was coming from the pot was certainly pleasing, though Genis certainly wasn't celebrating a victory just yet.

When he hears the voice coming from behind him, he turns around and smiles. He's still a little wary, but it's obviously not a kedan, so that's at least a plus in his book.

"Thanks! I'm still not quite happy with it yet though. It doesn't taste exactly like it does back home," he says with a little bit of a frown on his face. "The spices here are so very different, and I just haven't found the right flavour combination yet."

[confirmationbias]

"Have you asked Anton about it? He seems to have a pretty good handle on it, and he's generally pretty agreeable about teaching people things."

She didn't know where he found the time, honestly.

"Are you a chef back in your world?"

It didn't seem like the clothing of a chef, and the wild hair was a bit unsanitary.

[needmetoo]

Xion had indeed smelled something good, though it took her a bit of time to make her way into the kitchen. And when she was finally able to, it'd be easy enough to see why - she was laden down with cleaning supplies, doing a round of chores around the Midnight Hotel.

Still, she was surprised - though not entirely displeased - to see a familiar there as she set a bucket and mop down.

"Hi Genis. I didn't know you could cook," she said, taking a few steps closer and peering at his current culinary creation in the making curiously. It certainly looked a lot better than her "attempt" at cooking...

[strokeofgenis]

Hearing that voice almost makes him toss his spatula in the air. He knows that voice well, and suddenly he's almost a bit frazzled, though he's trying so hard to seem cool, calm, and collected. Maybe he'll even be successful at it.

"Xi-xi-xion, hi!" he says, clearly startled. "I didn't know you were staying here! I guess I am too... for a little while." He smiles overwidely. He's really happy to see her, all things considered. It's only then that he even attempts to process what it was she said, and that reminds him that... yes, he is trying to cook something. And so his attention darts back and forth between Xion and the pot he's got boiling.

"I'm actually really good at... cooking," he says as he glances quickly back to Xion. "I'm trying to remake a recipe of mine here... since they don't have... one of the things I'm used to using."

Should Xion look into the pot, Genis is working on what appears and smells to be a curry.

B

[valevectorian]

[Anton's recent acquisition of an endlessly refilling jar of coffee beans has brought Accelerator down to the kitchen of the Midnight Hotel on a regular basis. He was more than willing to test out its refilling mechanics as per Anton's request, and really, he was just super glad to finally have real coffee made from real coffee beans. This is yet another day where he drops by the kitchen for no other reason than to satisfy his coffee craving while also getting a meal. (Clearly the coffee is the more important part here.)

As he approaches the entrance into the kitchen, he takes note of the scents and sounds coming from it. Someone is in there cooking. Whatever they're cooking, it doesn't smell half bad. He pauses just outside the doorway long enough to take a long whiff.

Welp. Now to find out who it is. The last thing he needs is a kitchen mate who wants the whole kitchen to themselves. It doesn't matter how unlikely that possibility is; the thought still makes him prickly as he slowly forces himself to step on in—

Ah. It's that shrimpy kid he talked to on the network the other month.]

The brat is a master cook, I see.

[That ought to get the kid's attention.]

[strokeofgenis]

[For Genis' part, he's working on a beef stew, or at least what would most likely be a Japanese-fusion variant of a beef stew. After all, most beef stews don't exactly have kelp in them, but the flavours complement really well at the core. Genis is actually pretty proud on this one; he's figured out black satay pretty quickly, and so this is another completely converted recipe that he could whip up on short notice without having to improvise. Which he totally can do, but it's good to have some perfect recipes available for use.

[But when Accelerator comes in and immediately starts off being a brat himself, Genis is going to start off trying to take the "higher" ground, even if that higher ground is only an inch higher.]

You got it, though you're probably just jealous because you can't make something that smells this good.

C

[jinzhong]

The light and sound is what catches Jackie's attention. He's been working in the fields outside the city like Wan had asked him to do, and when he's coming back towards Keeliai one day he comes across a shout of...wait, what's an aqua laser?

And he gets his answer, because he sees a surge of water. Thankfully, he's not in front of it. Then he gets a look at the caster. Ah yeah, that's Raine's baby bro!

He waves, approaching cautiously, not wanting to get in the way. He'd seen Raine practice before, but never her brother.

[strokeofgenis]

The aqua laser is hardly a technical term for what precisely Genis is casting, but in some ways the description certainly is appropriate enough to describe it. The surge of water spills out in a straight line from him, heading out into the green hills outside the city before dissipating and splashing against the ground.

Genis is holding his kendama up in the air as he watches it fly, but more importantly assessing how good it was. It wouldn't entirely go forever, but the length it did go and how strong the wash of water was still was a symbol of how strong his magic could be.

Only as it dissipates does his attention drift to see a certain onlooker. It takes a moment before he catches onto who it is. Jackie! He gives a wave before not walking but jogging over to where he is, toy kendama still clasped tightly in his hand.

A.

[denyamenti]

[ After a moment, the door opens to reveal a very confused looking kedan, looking down at Genis with puzzlement, and said "It's an open business, you don't have to knock." before wandering his way back to where he had been practicing. Sheesh, what was it with these strange Foreigners? A few other small groups of kedan who were on the main floor looked up at Genis' entrance and call, before shrugging and going back to their workouts.

It doesn't take but a moment longer before Bakura emerges from the back section of the dojo, in an area that's marked for staff. He gives the practicing patrons a brief sweeping gaze before greeting Genis. ]

Good morning, idgmey.

[strokeofgenis]

[Well, excuse you, Mr. Annoying Kedan, person. You don't have to be so rude about it. "I didn't exactly know it was a business," is Genis' reply, a soft-spoken yet still sarcastic reply. At least the others are content to leave him alone. That's the next best option... you know, right behind trying to be actually helpful.

[Still, there's a bit of awkwardness as attention shifts towards and then away from him. He's not exactly sure what's going on here, but once Bakura comes out, at least some of that anxiety will go away.]

You know, sometimes I can't help but think I'm going to need a nickname for you as well...

[He shrugs and just looks up at Bakura.]

Well, at least I didn't have too much trouble finding the place. Though I did think that the directions would have led me to your house.

F.

[cherrywood]

[ Milyn's shop had been cleaned up by this point, and although her one arm is still in a sling, the bruises and scrapes have faded. She looks up as the bell above the door jingles and, when she sees who it is, she gives Sokka a wide smile. ]

Hello! Do come in.

[theideaguy]

[To say that Sokka hadn't seen Milyn since when he'd awakened on the Shell would be a lie; he's seen her around. He's taken notice that she's been there. But he really hasn't spoken to her much since then. Hence, there's naturally going to be... a slight bit of awkwardness, all things considered... despite knowing that Milyn has been ever on their side on the turtle.

[Though the wide smile she gives him does settle him down.

[But to see her arm in a sling is... well... surprising.]

You know, if it weren't for the fact that you're already in an apothecary, I'd say that you should see a doctor. What happened to you?

[He frowns at that as he shifts his weight a bit.]

Sorry for not really saying hi more often. Herbs and medicines aren't exactly my strong suit.

Though I think you might be able to give me some good advice on something else...

C

[gathersnomoss]

Zel is sharp enough to notice the shouting and stay clear of any obviously glowy effects. His world's magic system relies on incantations and the spoken word -- it takes practice to hold the words in one's head, rather than speak them -- so shouting and flashing is a good marker of a mage.

So he's going to wait until Genis pauses to continue.

[strokeofgenis]

Whether or not spells in Genis' world could even be done wordlessly or not was something Genis had never tried. And really, no one could do it as far as he knew. At least for the final incantation, that was. If Genis ever gets to his list of more powerful spells, there'll be a significant wait time before Genis says anything. The circle of light surrounding him would still be the same.

But he finishes his set of lesser spells before wiping off his brow for a moment, and sits down, placing the kendama to his side. It's only then that Genis realises he's been watched for at least some of that time. Eyes dart forward to Zelgadis.

D

[irishthor]

[Shay is wandering around, trying to get a scope of the land, and, also, on how the construction work is going and just the general state of how things are going.

It's when he's out by the railway that he gets charged into from the side by someone. He staggers off a bit, cursing himself for not being more aware of his surroundings.

To whoever charged him, it'll feel like they ran into a solid, metal wall. A 5'6"-ish wall.]

H-Hey! Watch where ya bloody well goin'!

[It's not so much an angry tone, more a surprised one.]

Yet another literal run into scenario. I love you.

[theideaguy]

[Sokka, for his part, is a little preoccupied. He's actually walking backwards, still talking—more like shouting at this point—to someone off in the distance as he goes from one cluster of kedan to the other. He's making sure he's got the last bit of the report written down before heading off.]

Two more days? And another six stacks of rails? Can do! I've only got one more deliv—ooof!—

[And that's when he runs into Shay accidentally. Shame it was him that was talking or else he'd have been able to be told of the imminent collision.

[Sokka is not the 5'6"-ish wall. He's slightly taller, admittedly, about 5'7", though Sokka is one of the furthest things away from a wall as you can get. And Sokka practically jumps at the tone because he's expecting a much more angry tone, even if it doesn't come.]

Er... sorry? My fault for not looking where I was going.

G is for Greatness!

[seismometrics]

[Toph was pretty much always willing to go punch some rocks around. With her arrival back onto the Turtle, she'd continued her own training as fiercely as she always had -- time for earthbending and her developing metalbending, as well as making sure Aang wouldn't lose his edge by lazing around. (The war might be over in Aang's time, but the last thing anyone needed was a sloppy Avatar, as far as she was concerned.)

[Company was always welcome -- and while she remained a little skeptical that Sokka and Mr. Space Sword could keep up with her, she accepted with a grin and another idea in the back of her mind.]

[She kept an even pace next to him, well enough aware of the small cues that told her he was planning to make a change in course, navigating between the kedan.]

Creep Lord? [Oh, right.] That guy.

[He was kind of a moot point right now, though, wasn't he?]

What for?

[It certainly didn't bother her to give the information, just -- a little strange he would ask so directly at random.]

[theideaguy]

[Toph was always asking why, wasn't she? It was never just simple to drag information out of her. Then again, it's not like Sokka was entirely annoyed by it either.]

Well, I mean, you were fighting against him... it, weren't you? Aren't you the least bit curious how that all ended up?

[In other words, Sokka isn't caring so much about what Toph knows as much as helping fill her in on what happened in her absence, and the best way to do that is not to tell her what she already knows.]

H for HAPPY FUN TIME

[wrathfulkhan]

[Gene's surprised to hear the knock on his door. Normally people don't seek him out. Maybe it's for Tony?

He goes, and opens, and is surprised.] Oh. Hey, Sokka. Tony's in the lab.

Medieval Land Fun-Time World!

[theideaguy]

[Sokka is less surprised to see Gene than Gene is to see Sokka. But even so, that's partially a good thing, since it's Gene seeking Sokka out.]

Lab? What lab? Did Tony find a new lab?

[Because seriously...]

Not that it matters. You're the one I'm looking for.

E - Midnight hotel; because I haven't done a damn thing about this puzzle thing yet.

[12goingon113]

Secret Dance Party

[Aang offers this helpfully. Or at least he thinks he's offering it helpfully. The fact that secret dance party seems to be his go-to suggestion is probably not all that helpful.

Neither is the fact that he's offering his standby while upside down on the nearest chair.]

[theideaguy]

[Sokka looks up to Aang, who had up until thus been relatively quiet, listening to Sokka go on. And for a moment, there's almost a look of annoyance... before eventually a soft smile creeps onto his face.]

If only it were something that... er, simple.

I dunno, Aang. I'm beginning to think I'm not smart enough to figure this one out.

D, Stark Industries?

[windbreak]

[It's not that Yosuke was blocking the doorway. He's lanky, maybe a little more so than he was on arrival, so he rarely takes up much space without trying to. He's even managed to run errands here and there until he could scrape together some less conspicuous clothes, as questionable as he finds them (the errands and the kedan-made shirt). But his knack for stepping into the wrong place at exactly the wrong time isn't as easily disguised - and look, here's a tan-looking dude with a hefty-looking box in tow, right on schedule.]

Wargh!

[He scrambles back, fervently hoping that nothing is about to fall on his foot.]

Whoa, sorry 'bout that! Gotta look where I'm going... [Then he hesitates, unsure whether he actually needed to shield his face.] Uh, do you need a hand there?

I love how you took this literally.

[theideaguy]

[Who are you calling tan-looking?! Shayamalan insists he's white-looking!

[Definitely bad timing indeed. The doorway had been clear one moment, and the next moment... bam! There's this lanky guy who tried to fit through the same narrow space as him. And now he's practically juggling the box trying to keep it from falling over. Thankfully, he'll be able to not drop it... or spill any of the contents on the ground, though it's certainly not without an overly elaborate dance that he inadvertently makes.]

Whoops, heh heh...

[Yeah that's not awkward.]

Sorry, I didn't see you there. Actually, that would be nice. This thing is... kinda heavy, really.

... Also hi! Sokka.