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

[seismometrics]

Soul lanterns?

[Without even thinking about it, she adjusts her steps to avoid a kedan who's decided to cut it a little too close.]

Didn't have anything like that. No "soul" anything. Eshai would bring us here and we'd be in some kind of room on the floor or fished out of a pool, and we were just there. I think there was something about clone bodies at one point. I'm not sure.

[Her fingers go back to the gem again, sliding over it.]

What do you mean, "anchored?"

And where's yours?

[theideaguy]

[Wow. Things sure have changed since Toph was here and when he came.]

Okay, let me go back and start at the beginning. Not the beginning beginning, but at least earlier.

[Self-deprecating joke, haha.]

So... Aang or someone else probably has a better understanding of all this since it involves all this spirit and soul stuff. But when we first got here, we all got special lanterns called soul lanterns. Apparently they used to be in the Palace, but when I got here the Creep Lord had invaded the Palace, so they were all in our apartment rooms instead. And we couldn't move them elsewhere; they were stuck there.

And they're something like... what keeps us here? Otherwise if we didn't have it, we might just whisk off back to the world we came from. Or something. [Shrug.] But now that we have it, if you're separated from it for too long of a time, you... kinda... kick the bucket. And you just feel worse and worse as time goes on.

[Yes, it's kind of a wordy explanation, but... it's still important.]

Anyway, now instead of lanterns, we all have some piece of jewellery that keeps our soul. Or whatever it does.

Mine's here on this ring that I got when I finally woke up from the Dreaming.

[Sokka puts his hand in hers and wraps her fingers so that they can feel his ring.]

[seismometrics]

[The suddenness of his fingers in hers startles her. She's used to touching -- slugging a shoulder, joining in on a hug with the Gaang as a whole -- but not necessarily being touched, and it brings her steps to a jerked pause.]

[His fingers are warm, ridged with calluses, slightly rough . . . but also deft, the sinews firm and strong around bone and muscle. Metal and stone bands one finger, smooth and warmed by his skin. Her fingertips trace the curve of it without thought, taking in the pattern and design of the metal, her own fingers small and short and roughened with years of stone and dust.]

[She likes his hand in hers. Likes the weight and the warmth and reassuring grain of his skin. The smallest of flushes emerges -- quiet, unrestrained pleasure, the flutter of it flickering through her chest.]

[And then realizes exactly how she's responding and breaks the connection, dropping the hand from hers -- though the flush is slower to dissipate.]

Kind of stupid. And risky. For something that important.

[theideaguy]

[Sokka knows Toph is sensitive to the whole touch thing and that, without the sight, she needs to be able to get a sense for the intricacies of things via the other senses like touch. Though he's not exactly prepared for the reactions that result from it.

[Because first Toph's touch isn't simply one that's entirely businesslike, merely seeking to ascertain the shape of the ring and the soul gem. It's one that lingers. For someone who has expressed solidarity in the past by punching someone in the shoulder and group hugs, it's actually a surprise. Especially considering it's Toph. That wasn't exactly her modus operandi. Even if she had put it there, she was practically holding his hand for more than that brief moment.

[And second is that Sokka doesn't go away from it entirely unaffected. That sudden realisation that maybe... maybe she could possibly sort of maybe like him... he wasn't prepared for that. He doesn't even know if it's true; truth be told, he's actually kind of bad at that until it hits him straight in the face. But that someone else—well, other than Ty Lee—liked him? It's not entirely something easily dismissed. And it makes him miss Suki... and at the same just ache inside from not having someone there at his side.

[Beautiful confusion. Entirely surreal contradiction.

[Only Toph's words break Sokka out of that mental labyrinth.]

Hey, we're living in a city on the back of a giant turtle. I can't think of anything more stupid than that. Blame the Emperor for casting a spell that does stupid things?

[seismometrics]

Way ahead of you on that.

[Her fingertips are still tingling -- which is an embarrassing, way-too-girly feeling. She balls her fingers inward towards her palm, then flexes, trying to detach from the sensation she can't afford. Twisting her face away, the weight of her dark hair shifts across her face, making the heat in her cheeks all the less visible.]

So are we there yet, or not?

[theideaguy]

[If Toph hadn't broken contact with Sokka's hand, there would still be a very pronounced distraction that kept him from even realising she'd replied. But there was still the camelephant in the room that he just couldn't bring himself to talk about. He's brought up Suki every once in a while in casual conversation, but just thinking of her now made everything all the more awkward, and he didn't want to particularly reminisce in those feelings right now. Especially because doing so just was... awkward. So awkward.

[Thankfully, Toph excels at cutting through awkward like a knife and redirecting things.]

Eh? Oh... oh yeah, just over here. [There's a dojo that he's heard about where the two of them can train.] It'll feel good to once again start swinging a sword around.

[seismometrics]

[It's a talent. Or at least a very effective coping mechanism. Toph keeps nudging the conversation back to safer, familiar ground.]

You're going to have to define "over here."

[Still blind. Not going to let him forget this.]

[theideaguy]

[Once again, facepalm.]

He physically puts his hands on her shoulders and turns her to face the right direction. Sixty paces thataway.

[Ahem.]

Nice and inside. You won't have to have your shoes on so your feet won't freeze. You'll probably have to bring your own earth though...

[seismometrics]

[Yep, definitely back to familiar ground. Give and take, bantering back and forth like a tennis ball. She lets him turn her, obediently heading forward . . . but there's that grin again -- an echo of the one she gave when he suggested this whole thing.]

Not freezing is good.

And don't worry about the earth. It's all covered.

[In retrospect, he's probably going to make some kind of bad joke out of that, and she gave him the ammunition.]

[theideaguy]

[Oh he is. Even if he hadn't been given the idea for it either.]

That's why I mentioned it. Because the earth is covered by wooden boards.

[Yeah, he's so clever. Look at that smug smile. Look at it, Toph. With your blind eyes.]

[seismometrics]

[She knew it was coming, and it still earns him a shove sideways. Which she won't miss because of her blind eyes.]

[Casually. So casually:]

So I'll take you on.

[theideaguy]

[Yeah, he knew it was coming. It's half of why he did it. He couldn't help it! But still... it was go time nonetheless.]

Oh you are so getting taken on.

[And so when they finally reach the dojo, Sokka open the door for her and allow her through first.

[Inside is a particularly open space. The dojo used to be Korra's own space, but since had changed ownership to Bakura after Malicant's defeat. Not that Sokka really had interacted with Bakura much (ever), but he'd known Korra, and presumably it was still a good space to train.

[The room is fairly large, and perhaps thankfully empty. No kedan are around right this moment, which is perhaps thankful for the two of them since their practice sparring might be slightly more disruptive to any kedan that might be attempting to practice katas in the meantime. Otherwise, the style of the room is fairly simple; the floor is wooden beams, and only minimal decoration is on the walls.]

[seismometrics]

[Toph steps into the space, up and onto the wooden floor, her step nearly soundless. She kicks off her shoes nearly immediately, leaving them at the corner, head tilting to try to catch the sound of anyone else in the room. Satisfied that they're the only two, she pads forward, strangely assured in the space -- considering the fact that the wooden floor would have cut off her seismic sense the moment her weight met the floorboards.]

[No clinging to anyone's arm today . . . just that strange self-assurance, and that small smirk that says that she's pleased with herself.]

[theideaguy]

[Sokka doesn't speak, but instead he lets Toph explore the space first. After all, he can visualise the whole thing immediately, and she's not going to have that advantage. And it's not straight-up earth either, which is going to dilute some of her sense of space, or at least that's what Sokka thinks is the case; he's never quite sure exactly how sensitive her seismic sense is overall being neither an earthbender or a bender at all.

But as Sokka comes in and watches Toph get a feel for the space, he can't help but notice the smirk on her face. He knows that smirk well, that realisation that there's something that she knows that he doesn't... or at least that sense of having an ace up her sleeve. It's a pretty common sight, really, but Sokka knows it well.

[Sokka keeps Boomerang on his back but takes out Space Sword and starts doing some moves with it on his own. Because clearly she's going to be earthbending at him, and that's going to be his defence, right?]

Just let me know when you're ready.

[seismometrics]

[That grin expands a bit. She stands at the center of the floor -- small and pale and completely vulnerable, for anyone who didn't know better. Nothing changes -- except one foot slides slightly to one side, bracing.]

Ready.

[theideaguy]

[Wait, what?

[Sokka just looks at Toph with surprise. There's no earth anywhere. Or at least any earth that he can see. Is this a trap? Does she secretly have it tucked away in her pocketses? Is it going to come up from underneath the floorboards? Can she even do that fast enough? What is going on?]

Uh... okay?

[Yeah, Sokka's confused. But what adds to the confusion is that he feels a little unfair going up against her with a sword like this. If he was chucking earth rocks away, well then yeah, he'd be on the defensive most of the time. But this? No, not to Toph.

[He makes the mistake perhaps of setting the sword back in its sheath.]

Ready.

[And so then he's going to come straight at Toph, mano a mano, fisticuffs against fisticuffs... maybe.]

[seismometrics]

[Well. She's kind of disappointed that he didn't go for the sword, but this is okay. She'll deal with it.]

[There isn't time to protest, anyway, as he comes running at her. His feet on the floorboards are pretty much as plain as day; he's never been good with that.]

[It's a perfect fingerprint, though, to aim a solid (and amazingly accurate) kick towards his stomach.]

1/2

[theideaguy]

[Well, Sokka's never taken on Toph quite like this before. In the past, it's always been rocks to the face, rocks to the stomach, rocks to the legs, and then... in a shocking uncharacteristic twist, face to the rocks. And occasionally it had been a good sword hit to help block one rock before another one hit him. Without any obvious indication that rocks were indeed even coming, well... he was going to get close to Toph, and that sword was sharp on both sides. Dangerous. Even though he could swing with the flat of the blade, he didn't want to live that dangerously. Not with anyone he cared about.

[What he doesn't expect, as he runs at Toph, is that no earth continues to come. In fact, it almost makes him cocky. And then...]

2/2

[theideaguy]

[BOOT TO THE HEAD STOMACH.

[And Sokka is going to suddenly find himself bouncing off of Toph and rolling oddly away from what was a direct hit. From her foot.

[He just looks up, stunned.]

[seismometrics]

[The bad part about being blind is that you don't get to see anyone's facial reactions . . . and if they don't say anything, you just don't know. But she knows Sokka, and she can imagine . . .]

[And it's delicious. She's grinning anew, easing up out of her stance.]

Go again?

[theideaguy]

[Yeah, Sokka can see the delicious smugness radiating from Toph. If only he were a smugnessbender and could bend that onto his face.]

Where in the world did you learn to do that?

[As if the question wasn't obvious.]

Or rather, whom in the world did you learn to do that from?

[seismometrics]

[The smugness is going to be there for a while. Might as well get used to it.]

Kind of a long story, but pretty much Mr. Flipper here decided to get sick one day and knocked out everyone's powers. Including my bending.

I wasn't just going to let that happen again, so I met a few people -- Mike's brother, Leonardo. And his other brother, Leo. And a way too serious kid named Damian. Decided I'd learn to fight when I didn't have bending around -- or when I'm on wood, like this, and they taught me.

[There's one other name there that she didn't mention: Lin. But while it's not a story she means to withhold from him, it's not one she can readily give. Lin is still an ache -- and not one she's ready to tear open.]

[theideaguy]

[Sokka just listens to the spiel, but the first thing that Sokka mentions won't be something to help goad on Toph's ego.]

Wait. Mikey has two brothers named Leonardo? [Or at least he's assuming that 'Leo' is short for Leonardo.] Seems a funny name to have as your favourite? Wouldn't it just make calling out to your kids tough when you needed the right one?

[Never mind that they're turtles, not kids. Not important right now.]

But still, how am I not surprised that you still wanted to be able to kick some butt even without your bending?

[Wow, that almost might be a hint of pride in Toph. It's really admirable.]

[seismometrics]

[No, it's a worthwhile question. And he still gets the ego stroking in later, so.]

[Toph's arms slide into a thoughtful cross.]

. . . Well, kind of? It's a little different than that. You know how people can come from different times here? Sometimes they also come from different versions of the world. So both of them were Leonardo and they were both brothers to Mike, but that was because they were also the same person.

. . . Kind of, I mean. They were the same person from two different worlds, so they were really similar, but different people, too.

Look, this place is weird, okay? Don't ask it to make sense.

[And a full-fledged grin at the compliment. She does pick up on the pride, and it pleases her -- not to mention that she's already quite pleased with herself.]

Because world's greatest earthbender, right here. Kicking butt no matter if I've got earth to work with or not.

[theideaguy]

[Sokka's face is going to flatline at that explanation. Because the original thing about different time periods was already kind of dumb (even if he did like getting to meet Korra), and that was...]

Well that's kind of weird. [And silly.] So there's probably another version of Mikey out there. And... oh man, what if there are different versions of us out there! Do you think we'll know each other in all those other possible universes?

[There goes Sokka's imagination. And it only breaks when Toph's ego kicks in again. Yeah, the whole "world's greatest earthbender" shtick again. Well, two can play at that game. he's going to get his kicks in too. So he's just going to tiptoe riiiiiight over there, so he's not where Toph had unceremoniously dropped him, and then he's going to go for a (not-so-)sneak attack.]