[muffled spooky scary skeletons playing in the distance]

[geonomy]

Who: You! Me! Everybody!
Broadcast: idk but we've sure got a pretty broad cast of folks eh, eh
Action: HECK YEAH PLANET MINGLE
When: 10/7 until plot update or recaptcha

It's a deep, deep forest filled to the brim with fungi, mysterious life forms, and pitch black darkness. Explore if you dare and discover all these things and more! Just don't get lost...

Comments

[alwayscomeback]

[Sokka would feel for him, really. No matter how wars end up, someone ends up suffering for it- usually the people who were suffering the most during the war in the first place. A part of him dreads going home, to see what the war has done to it. To see what's left to rebuild. He's heard nothing good about it.

Korra seems fine, but what happens between the end of the war and her time? Who knows.]

I'm sorry. That's got to suck.

[wolfehawke]

It is what it is, really. I would like to know, but...

[He lets out a heavy breath.]

I'm also sort of dreading it too.

[Because when has anything ever actually gone right?]

[alwayscomeback]

I hear you there. I mean, what if something horrible is just there waiting for you? And no matter what you do, you can't change it. Even if you found out about it here beforehand, it's still just gonna...happen.

Like the worst surprise ever.

[wolfehawke]

I... yeah.

[He swallows what he's going to say and just agrees instead. How can he explain that he doesn't want to go back, especially with all the fighting he had a hand in starting. It's the same as a child running from cleaning up his toys or punching another kid on the street. Someday, he knows he's going to have to face all that.

Someday he's going to have to pay for that, and watch Anders pay for it too, no matter how hard he fights for the contrary.]

[alwayscomeback]

[Going back is never a question for Sokka. It's where he belongs, where he's needed. He does understand it's not an option for everyone though, he's worked that into his Great Escape Plan.]

But hey? Maybe you might be able to go to a different world, instead. That's what I'm hoping to achieve for some of my crewmates. Get them somewhere safe.

[Where they'll be 100% less dead or in danger. ]

[wolfehawke]

[He smiles a little at that. It's a rueful thing, but appreciative even as its dismissive.]

It's a nice thought, but I have things left undone in Thedas that are my responsibility. It's not that I want to go back - it's not really that I don't either, I'm just...

[Wolfe trails off, not certain how to even express what he's feeling. He breathes in deeply through his nose and lets the breath out slowly through slightly pursed lips, trying to calm his mind enough to center it, but an answer isn't forthcoming even with that.]

I'm tired. I want to settle down, have a family, not have to fall all over myself to right every wrong on the Maker's green earth, but some of those wrongs are my fault, and I have an obligation.

[He's very still as he explains, different from his usual jovial demeanor. There's a stalwart undercurrent to his demeanor when he talks like this, not heroic but certainly solid and all parts mature. Such a contrast to the man who will shamelessly roll around in the mud with his dog at a moment's notice.]

I owe it to my world to do what I can.

[alwayscomeback]

[And, perhaps surprisingly, Sokka understands. His plan was always to get himself back home, he needed to be there. But at the same time, he'd kind of wanted his happy ending. He'd done the fighting, it was time to just- well, not be a kid again, that chance was stripped from him the day his mother was murdered- but to have some kind of life. One not revolving around war. ]

I get it. There's stuff that's happened that you got to fix. The world's not right yet and you need to get it as close to it as you can before you can stop.

[IF he could stop. Sokka was starting to wonder if that was on any of their cards. ]

[wolfehawke]

[It is surprising, and certainly not a level of understanding that Wolfe had expected from Sokka.]

Yes, that's it exactly. Only there's never a 'close'. There's always something.

[alwayscomeback]

[Sokka's full of surprises. ]

Yeah. You think that you finally get time to catch your breath, and then it's like "surprise, you have to deal with this thing now." And I mean, I wouldn't turn my back, none of us would.

It'd just be nice to stop, even for a tiny little while.

[wolfehawke]

I don't know if just a short while would work. If I stopped even for that long, I'm afraid I couldn't continue after that.

[He almost had. It eats at him still, knowing he could have died in the Fade. Should have, by all rights. It would have been over. But then there's so much left undone. Corypheus, the mage rebellion, Weisshaupt's message. So many things left to do but still with the nagging overarching wonder of it it will even matter. Does anything they do actually matter?

He shakes his head, trying to rid it of the Nightmare's thunderous voice.]

[alwayscomeback]

[Sokka's wondered that, too. He and Katara are headed back to the South Pole. Maybe once he's there, he'd just...stop too. Just stay at home, try and forge any kind of life he could there.

But he doubts it would ever be that easy. ]

Lucky me, I have someone who'll always drag mee off on adventures if I wanna go or not. A few someones, actually.

[wolfehawke]

Funny, I have a lot of people always telling me I need to calm down or not do the thing. In fact, one of my best friends kept my location from someone wanting me to lead a massive organization just to keep me out of it.

[Which... really wasn't exactly the reason Varric kept him secret from Cassandra, but sometimes Wolfe has to wonder.]

I just can't keep my nose out of anything. I feel like if I can help, then I have a responsibility to, even if I don't actually want to.

[alwayscomeback]

Really? That's pretty awesome of your friend. I mean...assuming they wanted you for bad things.

[Most massive organisations in Sokka's experience weren't exactly great things. ]

That sounds exactly like Aang. And by extension, all of us, because we get dragged along for the ride. Sure, we could always say no, but we never actually do.

[wolfehawke]

Sort of? I mean, he probably assumed they did, but I think they just wanted my help. Eventually he did call for me. I would have gone sooner of my own volition, probably, if I hadn't had someone to protect.

[Wolfe rubs the back of his neck, looking up at the canopy. It's a weird thought, thinking what he'd have done without Anders. He doesn't really like to imagine his life without, honestly. No real reason to start now.]

Aang has that overdeveloped sense of responsibility too, then?

[alwayscomeback]

[That gets a soft laugh out of Sokka. Yep. He knows THAT song and dance. ]

He really has. I mean, yeah, as Avatar, what he has to do is a pretty big deal. But sometimes, it'd be nice to see him kick back. I don't think I've seen him do it for a while.

Buuuut then again, neither have any of us, so I'm not really in a position to judge him.

[wolfehawke]

Well you do know that as friends, it's your job to make sure he takes time off now and again. Set up a regular card night or something. Varric always made sure we did. Isabela too, though I think she really just wanted to win all of our money.

Or our clothes.

[A beat.]

Either way, it certainly helped to take the edge off of all that responsibility.