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

[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?!

[alwayscomeback]

Because that's what they told us. I mean, you hear that when you arrive, too. Or at least, I did. From those dumb jingly adverts on the Marsiva.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda blinks at that, and a slight shade of pink colors her cheeks.]

I- I am surprised you remember that.

[It had been a long time since Wanda had arrived on the Marsiva, and, upon first waking up on that vessel, she was in a... not so good mood... Her anger may have been distracting her from noticing or at least better remembering certain details of that brief time spent on the Marsiva.]

It has been so long since I woke up there... I guess I just forgot that part.

[Not to mention the fact that... well, the Atroma had been playing with her memories recently, too. Basically, a lot of factors were there possibly running interference, but that didn't stop her from feeling a little embarrassed about missing such an important detail that had been handed to each of them upon their arrivals.]

The twelfth cycle... So eleven before us... but we do not know how large the previous cycles were...

[A thought then occurs to her.]

How do we know the number of cycles is not just another fabrication of theirs?

[alwayscomeback]

I remember a lot of details. It's a thing I do. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it.

[He obsesses over them. It's how he's been slowly building his battle plan against Atroma, piece by piece. ]

Honestly? No clue. It MIGHT be a big lie, or it might be that these guys who have been helping us are really from a previous cycle. Or they might be from Atroma themselves, messing with us. We have no real way of knowing for sure.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda remembers the infamous ships that came to their rescue during the raider ambush. She recalls there had been some chatter on the network at the time, some voices she had not recognized, but she had not paid them any attention at the time. Her priorities had been to protect her ship, her crew, and her friends.]

Even for them that seems a stretch...

[Wanda sighs, feeling frustrated and still sullen from the news of Korra's leaving.]

Still, I do not know what I trust anymore when it comes to any of this.

[alwayscomeback]

I wouldn't put anything past them after the calibrations, honestly. They're capable of just about anything. If they can pull us from our home worlds, the sky's the limit.

[The stars are the limit, even. Maybe even beyond that. ]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

So where does that leave all of us then? Are we to just mistrust anything and everything from here on out?

[alwayscomeback]

That'd be the smart thing to do, but these other guys...

I dunno. I'm gonna stay guarded when I interact with them, but we might not get another chance. It'd be stupid to just dismiss them completely.

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Sometimes their whole situation seemed so futile, and, again, the recent departure of her friend has caused Wanda to feel more somber, more deflated.]

I am getting so tired of all this... the glitches, the mind games, people coming and going at random...

[alwayscomeback]

Trust me, you're preaching to the choir. It's been too long and every time we seem to be getting somewhere, we end up going backwards. It's frustrating.