http://notanoptimist.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] notanoptimist.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] shatterverse2007-10-24 07:43 pm

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Sokka has gotten used to many things in his admittedly short life. He's gotten used to the fact that his sister can play with magic water, and also likely kill him with it should she so desire. He's gotten used to the fact that a bouncy twelve year old has more power than he can imagine and is meant to save the world he was born on. He's gotten used to the idea that nothing is as it seems and scrawny, nothing children should be looked at with as much suspicion as great hulking men with guns. Sokka has gotten used to the idea of space travel and grav thrusters and slipstream, he's gotten used to speaking the same language as everybody else but not being able to write the same one, he's gotten used to writing all of his work notes out in Chinese because pretty much everything in the last year was written in it and you couldn't depend on people to be around to take care of you. Sokka has gotten used to having a Firebender in his family, and a tiny young woman who is freakishly strong and twice as scary when she wants to be. He's gotten used to taking care of and absolutely adoring two tiny half-Fire Nation girls.

Who are, respectively, strapped to his chest and back by a cloth sling as he wanders down the Street of Eden toward his designated workshop-building, where most people assume he is hard at work trying to find a way out but he is, in actuality, carving loads of tiny toy animals for his nieces.

Sokka has also gotten used to the idea that while he isn't useless, there is a point where he has to recognize that he just doesn't know how to fix something, and needs to give it a rest for a while.

So with Hana and Loo babbling in his ears in their Baby Language, with an occasional Mama or Dada or Unca thrown in that he can actually understand, he walks on.



When the flash comes, Sokka ducks and curls his arms over the heads of the girls, because he's gotten used to sudden attacks. And when no explosion or other noise follows, he gets to his feet quickly, with a club in one hand and a boomerang in another, because Sokka's gotten used to being lulled into false security.

But when Sokka looks around and realizes he's left the Street of Eden and is in a place that isn't the Street, isn't Apocalyptica, isn't the Earth Kingdom, isn't anywhere in any of those places, he stares. Because despite doing it twice before, Sokka has not gotten used to this.

"No."

His reaction is, possibly, quite surprising.

"No! No, god damn it, no!" Glaring hatefully up at the sky, Sokka holds tight to the girls in the sling-- and then sits down abruptly, cross-legged, in the middle of a ruined road.

"I am going to sit here until you put us back! You can throw me to any world you want, but you can't make me get up!"

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It happened a bit like this: one second Jack's happily helping himself to the Captain's personal wine stock, the next he's in a strange road in who knows where.

And the nature of the truth changed on him, for the first time ever.

So instead of panicking, Jack draws his cutlass in one hand and a pistol in the other, and goes exploring.

"Ho!" he says, when he see the man and the babies. "Quite the incident, this."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack draws back, assesses the situation, and places both weapons back safely, smiling all the time.

"Care to tell a fellow what this place is?"

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack nods, and drops down instantly to sit cross-legged opposite Sokka. For a second, his eyes seem to glaze over as he turns his head to look around again, and he shakes his head.

"Chains and bondage," he mutters, making it sound like a curse. "I like this not at all."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack raises an eyebrow, and his smile flickers back. A second later, he's leaning forward and offering a hand to shake.

"Jack Hollins is me. Free man of the sea."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack barks out something that's not quite a laugh and touches a finger, should Uncle Sokka allow, to first Hana, then Loo's hands.

"Nieces explains why such lovely ladies are in the company of you."

Apparently there is no lower age limit to be the attention of Jack's charms.

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
It's OK. Jack knows it anyway.

"Ma and Pa are back whereever you consider home, if'n I guessing right?"

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack's smile is sad briefly, but brightens as he decides not to let on how much he understands.

"That I am. Been at sea nigh on ten years, man and boy. Feel into the free life early on and never once looked back."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's truth," Jack answers. "Stuck in one place, under the rule of whichever King happens to rule your patch."

He leans back, supporting himself with both hands as he stares at the sky.

"Why want that?"

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh they're able to try, if'n they want."

Jack looks back and pulls a face for Loo when she looks over.

"And they try all they're able, that's truth."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack throws up his hands in friendly supplication.

"Caught in the act, I am. You're clever, I can see."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack gives him a sideways smirk, as if about to let on his deepest secret, and looks around himself, his eyes glazing again.

Within a few moments, he's pointing.

"Not five minutes walk that way."

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"As I speak truth, it is," Jack says, and he scrambles onto his feet while Sokka's still standing.

"What say you, Loo? Hana? You want Unca to show you your first ocean?"

[identity profile] ineveryport.livejournal.com 2007-10-26 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Moderately more solemn, Jack faces Sokka, and offers a hand.

"This isn't new to you."

It's not a question.

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