Video

[alwayscomeback]

Who: Sokka and you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Blue Fish
When: Sunday 5th

[Sokka keeps tabs on his crew a lot, but there's a few scant people outside of the Blue Fish he absolutely tried to check up on as and when he can. After the...weird hyperactivity effects he'd experienced wore off, he made to check up on exactly one of those people. And his search came up empty.

So, he turns on the video, stepping out of one of the shuttles and heading through the hallways of the Blue Fish, heading to the bridge]

I'm not sure who she knew all that much, so I'm making this public in case anyone's missed it and gets worried about her.

[He flops down into his captain's chair with a heavy sigh. This sucks.]

Korra's gone. Home, hopefully. Which is probably a better thing for her. Important Avatar business and all that.

[And then there was one. Again.]

Comments

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda blinks at that, a little surprised by this revelation. She remembers Korra telling her a little bit about her "avatar" powers and responsibilities. The reincarnation part was new. The whole future and past dynamic, however, was something Wanda could certainly empathize with. It was the same for her and Peggy and Mr. Jarvis.]

I see.

Did she know who you were? When she first arrived, did she recognize you?

[alwayscomeback]

Yeaaaah. It's weird.

[He tries not to think about it too much. It gives him a headache. ]

Kind of? It was more a weird familiarity. The me she knows is obviously a lot older than me-right-now.

[Also SUPER DEAD, but Sokka doesn't know that. ]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Their situation sounded similar the one Steve and Bucky were in with Peggy and Mr. Jarvis. Wanda cannot imagine what that must feel like. Having to reconcile that much different, that much jump in time.]

I am sure she was glad she had you here.

She had mentioned how much she missed her friends from back home. Even if you're both from different points in time, the fact that she had someone from home to talk to... I'm sure that meant a lot to her.

[alwayscomeback]

I really hope so.

But yeah, I'm glad she's back with her friends, in her own time. It's where she belongs.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda seems to wince slightly at that. It wasn't that Sokka was wrong at all. Technically, they all belonged back home where they had each come from. But... it hurt to think that her friendship was Korra was somehow insignificant because of this fact. She knows that isn't what Sokka meant. It's just how she perceived his words upon hearing them. Thus, she's silent for a moment as she gathers her thoughts and tries to regain control of her emotions.]

Yes... Yes, you are right.

... I am sure she's happier back home where she belongs...

[There's another flash of pain across Wanda's eyes as she reiterates Sokka's words, but she otherwise keeps herself seemingly calm.]

[alwayscomeback]

[He catches that look and frowns. ]

Sorry uh- did I say something wrong? I'm really good at putting my foot in it sometimes.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda smiles back weakly and shakes her head.]

No.

I will just miss her is all.

[A heavy sigh from Wanda.]

It does not ever get easier, does it? Realizing your friends have left, and you are still here.

[alwayscomeback]

...Me too.

[He offers her a sad, small smile. ]

Afraid it doesn't. I've been here for two years now and it still sucks. My First Mate? He was in another world before this, he's been at this for like, nine years. I don't know how he does it.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Allen, right?

[It'd been a while since she'd last spoken to him, but she could still remember the other crew members of Dr. Crusher's ship.]

To put up with being held in a place like this for nine years now... how does he do it?

[alwayscomeback]

That's him!

I really don't know. The place before here was worse, it was some magical castle that ate people's emotions? It sounded awful.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Yeah, anything that fed upon ANY part of you sounded awful. Wanda's rather certain she's heard talk of this place before from some of the other veteran members of the Fleet. "Paradisa," she believes the place was called. She sighs, folding her arms across her chest.]

I have been told of a few other places like the Fleet that exist out there. Prisons that people are taken to from out of nowhere. All gathering individuals from different times and places. None of them have ever sounded all that pleasant.

[alwayscomeback]

[It sounds like the worst place ever, in Sokka's opinion. He was there, apparently, but he sure doesn't remember it, a fact he's eternally glad for. ]

They have a sliding scale of awful that's forever tipped into the 'terrible' position. Makes me glad I came right from home.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

Mmmm...

[In truth, Wanda felt the same. Her heart certainly goes out to the few members in the Fleet who were not so lucky, who have been away from their homes for so long -- being whisked from one form of extra-dimensional prison to another.]

The part that bothers me most... the memory loss of some who have gone home and come back anew. It- it's hard to have a familiar face look at you and treat you like a complete stranger. And there's also the implication that this loss of memory... it makes it impossible for anyone on the outside to do anything to help us, because they don't know and no one from here that leaves is able to tell them as they do not remember it happening.

[She sighs, shaking her head. She's just spilled a lot of pent up feelings she's had since she herself experienced something similar with her memory loss glitch a few months ago. She briefly worries that may have been a lot to dump on Sokka all of a sudden -- on someone she has known in the Fleet for some time but till now had not spoken with at great length.]

[alwayscomeback]

[Luckily, Sokka never really minds playing the Group Shrink. He's pretty good at the whole listening thing. ]

Yeah, I've seen a few people who came here from home, went back, then came back again without remembering being here at all. It's really worrying. Also-

...Ages ago, I talked to Diamond and Beau. The way they talked about where people went after they vanished from the Fleet- I'm not completely convinced they do go home.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[And now THAT gets Wanda's attention. Her eyes fly open and a look of worry immediately flashes over her expression.]

What do you mean? When did you talk to them? What did they say?!


[Wanda's intensity ratcheting up with each question.]

[alwayscomeback]

[Uh oh did he make her mad. It looks like she's mad. Sokka winces a little/ ]

The first anniversary. They put us all into the Marsiva, made us share dreams- memories. But they appeared on the TVs and talked back to us sometimes while we were there.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[She pauses for a moment. Her expression softening with the memory.]

Yes- yes, I remember being here for that. The rooms, the dreams. I remember those.

But the Atroma, they spoke with you at that time? And they said those who leave... they're not returning home?

[She manages to control herself better this time, but there's still an earnest seriousness that creeps into her tone when she repeats her two questions.]

[alwayscomeback]

Hmm they did. They didn't exactly say it that way. They said that they'd be 'safe'. I asked them to confirm they went home and they...didn't.

Could be they really do and they're just messing with us. or it could be they go somewhere else. With Atroma, you never know/

[notmutantbutmiracle]

["With Atroma, you never know." The truth of those words stokes the embers of a building anger inside Wanda.]

виродки...

[Wanda mutters the insult in her mother tongue. She shakes her head, trying her best to keep her expression and tone calm, but a certain edge to her voice and a vaguely red gleam creeping into her eyes belies what she's feeling.]

They expect us to take so much at their word. That they would dare even insinuate that our friends were not sent home -- that they are being kept "safe" somewhere else...

[Wanda clenches her teeth a moment. The anger threatening now to spill over.]

I want to make them pay. For everything they've done to us.

[alwayscomeback]

[He wouldn't even be able to identify the lnguage, but he can sure tell it's angry. And honestly, he can't blame her. They've brought far too many people he cares about, he loves here, only to pull them away again. ]

Trust me, I'm with you on that one. Every library we land near, I'm looking for answers. Trying to find anything we can use to bring them down. They can't keep using us as puppets forever.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[The determination and conviction in Sokka's words brings back the flicker of a smile to Wanda's lips. Something positive, even if just a faint sliver, to pull her out of her worsening mood.]

I do not understand how no matter where we go, no matter we meet, no one has ever heard of a "Drift Fleet." No one seems to know anything about us.

Even if we accept that there is no TV show, it still bothers me that nothing we've come across can give us any clue into what is happening here.

[alwayscomeback]

That's strange to me, too. I mean, you think someone would have noticed a lot of people being kidnapped. We're not even the first cycle. So how can people be so oblivious to any of this? Why don't they care when we tell them we're being held hostage?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Once again, Sokka's words catch her by surprise.]

"First cycle?" What do you mean we are not even the "first cycle?"

[alwayscomeback]

Like this is the twelfth cycle. So that means there have been eleven sets of people before us who have been through all of this, too.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Okay, now Wanda's been pretty much floored. Her mouth hangs open for a few seconds as she tries to process this revelation Sokka's shared with her.]

Twelve? We are number twelve?!

[She stammers for a moment, trying to get her thoughts in order and her questions prioritized.]

How- how do you know all this?!