(and the words will hold you in their loquacious keeping stone to stone the answer told you is that stone is there to show you how the world did its weeping)
He's standing in a space. Not space but a space, some indiscernable piece of something that he can stand on. And, amazingly, the landscape changes in front of him into water, to land, and to actual space - stars and everything.
There's a spaceship in that one.
And a car down the road. Some sort of small jet a little further from that. And a large wooden boat with blue sails that dwarfs the rest - but is also the furthest away.
He looks over at her, brows drawn, still worried-- but there's an edge of fear there, too.
When his gaze meets hers, his eyes aren't blue. Some indescribable color. After a moment, his skin is the same. His arm wraps are gone, and the mukluks on his feet. Just the jeans and t-shirt he usually wears, stolen from some house on the way to Gotham.
"I don't know." Sokka's voice is small. "I don't... I don't really know anything."
She steps forward and hugs him, and there's echoes in it of the same hug she gave Steph.
"I'm sorry."
That she can't fix his problems for him, can't balance the moment until the answer falls into her lap. Hell, she's not even sure she knows the question.
"But I'm not anymore, not really." His voice is soft, again like a child. It's a tone Sokka would never use consciously, not wanting to seem weak, not wanting to depend too heavily on others. "I-- I failed, I couldn't keep my promise to my dad and I let my sister just-- I don't even know, that thing took my necklace and I keep getting thrown places, I couldn't even go back if I had the chance, I... I can't go back and tell them I failed."
In the background, a younger Sokka stands - not this one, but the one with the sword, grinning brightly in his red silks, the bone necklace around his throat.
"They don't even need me.
"And I want... I want to be fifteen in the Earth Kingdom."
His face falls - there are two blonde girls out there that would prefer that.
...three, if you count his counterpart's girlfriend.
"I couldn't save her," Sokka repeats quietly and his gaze drops, the Sokka in the background fading away. "I can't-- I lose women, they just go away and I don't ever get them back, what if she's like Katara or Yue or Paige or my mom? What if I make her go away?"
He's standing in a space. Not space but a space, some indiscernable piece of something that he can stand on. And, amazingly, the landscape changes in front of him into water, to land, and to actual space - stars and everything.
There's a spaceship in that one.
And a car down the road. Some sort of small jet a little further from that. And a large wooden boat with blue sails that dwarfs the rest - but is also the furthest away.
Like some sort of multidimensional bus stop.
Sokka looks at it all with a frown.
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"Steph says hi."
Small smile.
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It's a dream, so he gets some height on it - ten feet or so.
Which makes landing kind of amusing.
"...okay," he says quietly from his nice position on the floor. "Uhm... hi to Steph, too."
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She offers him a hand up.
"How have you been?"
For once, a serious question-- her nature is quiet about these things lately.
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"I don't know.
And, for once, a serious answer. His whole family would be stunned - Steph, too.
"I'm..." Straightening, Sokka looks over at the ships, the cars, frowning and worried. "I'm confused. A lot."
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"Can I help?"
Sometimes Inty's good for confusion. Other times, she really, really isn't.
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When his gaze meets hers, his eyes aren't blue. Some indescribable color. After a moment, his skin is the same. His arm wraps are gone, and the mukluks on his feet. Just the jeans and t-shirt he usually wears, stolen from some house on the way to Gotham.
"I don't know." Sokka's voice is small. "I don't... I don't really know anything."
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She steps forward and hugs him, and there's echoes in it of the same hug she gave Steph.
"I'm sorry."
That she can't fix his problems for him, can't balance the moment until the answer falls into her lap. Hell, she's not even sure she knows the question.
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"I don't know where I'm supposed to be anymore, or doing, or-- I don't know who I am."
The ships and cars are disappearing, one by one, though the large boat with the blue sails, the circular emblem, is the last to go.
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It's what's important.
"Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."
A name, a place, and--
"You should be where you want to be."
That's clear enough, to her at least.
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In the background, a younger Sokka stands - not this one, but the one with the sword, grinning brightly in his red silks, the bone necklace around his throat.
"They don't even need me.
"And I want... I want to be fifteen in the Earth Kingdom."
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And if he has to think in order to discover by whom-- well.
"And wanted, here."
What were the words again? Ah, yes-- "You don't know how special you are."
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"But... I'm not... I'm not, I... I can't keep anyone safe, my sister..."
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It might almost carry a hint of rainbows.
"You can't blame yourself for things you didn't cause."
Or at least there's a very worried blonde girl somewhere who'd prefer that he didn't.
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...three, if you count his counterpart's girlfriend.
"I couldn't save her," Sokka repeats quietly and his gaze drops, the Sokka in the background fading away. "I can't-- I lose women, they just go away and I don't ever get them back, what if she's like Katara or Yue or Paige or my mom? What if I make her go away?"
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Yue wasn't his fault, at least, nor his mother; Inty can only extrapolate about the rest.
"Don't you think she should hear this?"
Gosh, relationships that don't involve telepathic connections are so difficult.
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