A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn
Pa treon.com/HolyJoker
(20+ chapters in advance)
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Chapter 75: He likes pets?
***
Even after having indirectly killed ten people. Sokka acted causal, and just trained, with that he was able to increase his strength by 2.
He did mostly strength training by wrestling with some domesticated polar bear dogs? Most of the animals in this world were very weird.
He didn’t say anything or act unusually. For some time, and a couple of days passed. Which made everyone understand what had happened to the men who went on the secret mission.
**
Sokka was doing push-ups, training his strength. Katara came to him and she had a worried look on her face. “Are you doing okay?”
He stopped at her question and stood up, even through all of that rigorous exercise, he was barely sweating. Not because he wasn’t tired, but [Gamer’s Body] helped him a lot to keep his body at its peak, and ready to fight.
Game Characters rarely sweat or get tired, even when they do, the fundamental logical human body rules that apply to them. Sokka had done quite a lot of research, every day he tried to learn a new thing about the Gamer Interface. Having a special ability and not knowing everything about it was a danger in and of itself.
“C’mon now, sister,” he smiled brightly, and put his arm around her shoulders, causing Kiwi, the little fox to pop its head from under Katara’s clothes. Sokka smiled at the little fox and petted her slightly. “There is my cute little guy.”
“It’s a girl. I already told you that,” Katara reminded him. “Also what are you doing with her?”
“Hm?”
“I thought you didn’t like Kiwi,” she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Sokka being nice to someone with a genuine demeanor, made Katara be on guard. She was waiting for the inevitable punchline, which would reveal his sinister plans.
‘Okay, maybe I am being a little critical of him. But unless it is sarcastically, my brother will never be nice to someone. The way he is acting right now is even more suspicious than usual.’
Her mind worked faster than it had ever before, as she tried to look at an angle and what was he aiming at here.
Sokka on the other hand was reminded of a dog he had back home, he liked pets quite a lot, opposite of what his usual demeanor showed. “I like Kiwi, plus she has grown a little and looks kinda like a dog.”
“Dog?” She was confused. Not understanding what kind of animal was called that.
“Think of it like a polar bear dog, but smaller and much, much cuter,” Sokka explained it in a way she could understand. Most of this world’s animals were some kind of hybrid and some that weren’t. “I like dogs.”
“I don’t think you have ever seen a real dog in your life.”
“And you haven’t seen a mountain of gold, but that doesn't mean you wouldn’t like having it,” he debuted her while thinking that he should get a pet after this war is over. Maybe a cat? He had seen a couple of normal cats in the Earth Kingdom. “Anyway, the Southern Water Tribe will be quite nice when we go back. I have this amazing plan.”
Katara stared at him, trying to figure out what her brother was thinking, or why he was telling her this. But once again, she was unable to see any logical way about what he was up to. “Do you want to see some new waterbending moves that I learned from Pakku?”
“Oh wow, that sounds amazing, can’t wait for that," he declared sarcastically. Though Sokka didn’t have anything better to do right now and was waiting for a certain someone to come and find him.
Though Katara heard the sarcasm, she smiled smugly and started showing off her waterbending moves, and her brother looked on with a contemplative look.
***
-Katara POV-
Damn it! He wasn’t getting annoyed at all. Finally, after learning to keep calm after his provocative words that usually annoyed me to no end, I thought I could get the upper hand and annoy him back. But Sokka always seems unfazed by the things around him.
“Katara, have you ever wondered what you will do after the war is over? Or even in the future,” he suddenly inquired, catching me off guard.
The future? I never really thought of it, we weren’t sure of even beating the Fire Nation, or how to stop them. Much less about things after the war. The far future? I don’t know if we will have any future if the Fire Nation wins. Especially since the Avatar’s companions are bound to be eternal enemies of the Fire Nation.
“Never really thought about it. There are enough things we have on our plate right now. My dream for the longest time has been to find a waterbending teacher and I was finally able to get that.”
Sokka nodded and he laid down on the cold icy ground, though he was wearing a jacket, it was bound to be cold. But he didn’t seem bothered by it at all. “You should think about it more. You have one life, so don’t waste it and let others control your life. Even those who love you can unconsciously waste your time, so be careful. They will love you, but they won’t care about your time.”
He had something in his mind that was bothering him, but I knew that he wouldn't tell me. Sokka seems to be keeping some secrets as of late, and wasn’t ashamed to show it to me that he was hiding something. Still, I was a little nervous about how this war would end up, because while the people seem to address Sokka as a Hero for saving them, war was dangerous, not something you could play at.
Even though I had started seeing the crack in the system, the Northern Water Tribe had no chance of winning this war. Unless Aang entered the Avatar state or something like that, but even then it would be dangerous.
I somewhat know how strong Aang was in his Avatar State, but have never seen him battle against an army that would throw flaming boulders at him. That would be impossible, even for the Avatar.
***
In his first life, Sokka had been quite perceptive, a skill that he had developed during the failure that was his acting career. That failure was something that he was glad had happened, sometimes failing was a good thing too. Since then he had been able to read the general mood of someone.
In this world, his perception had gotten better, having to sharpen such insight even more. Because here, he had to deal with malicious people daily. While in his last world, the most he had to deal with was a coworker trying to one-up him, or a manager stealing his efforts and presenting them as if they were the manager's ideas. The world was cruel on both sides, but one side stood more prominent, lawless.
While Gamer Interface didn't help anyone with something like not being naive, it rewarded behavior that wasn't stupid. Sokka liked to consider himself who at least wasn't stupid.
"Anyway, think about your future a little more," Sokka advised her, before getting up and walking away, having caught sight of the location of the person he was waiting for. "Sometimes, even contemplating it can save you from tragedies. Don't let your future become something others decide for you."
Katara gazed at his back as he walked off, and asked him. "What about you? Have you ever thought about your future?"
"Of course," he nodded, a small smirk making its way into his face. Katara could tell that he was smirking even though she couldn't see his face. "I have everything planned… even my death," he muttered the last part quietly, but she still heard him. "Sometimes, things might not go to plan, but you just need to adjust and adapt to situations."
"Make sure you plan everything carefully then," Katara pouted, acting annoyed at his words. Though she listened to them very closely. "If you fall down, I will be there for you too."
"Eww, that's cringe," Sokka turned around and looked at her as if he had swallowed a lemon, he seemed to have been hurt inside due to her words. "I got second-hand embarrassment just listening to them."
"I learned to speak this way from you! Bastard!" She chased him off, Katara was annoyed, this time for real.
But Sokka was fast and it seemed like he had multiple legs, like a squid as he ran off. In the end, she was left breathing heavily, with her brother nowhere in sight.
**
Sokka stood atop one of the roofs after losing Katara, and he looked down at the person he had been waiting for. It was Arnook, the Chieftain, he stood tall and tried to look respectable. But Sokka could see through him like an x-ray.
He noticed that Arnook had lost some weight, appetite changes maybe? Since he seemed thin, energetic, and judging by his half-closed eyes and yawn, it seemed like he had slept less too. Or maybe he hadn't slept at all.
Appetite and weight changes.
Changes in sleep habits.
Less optimistic than others.
Loss of concentration.
Disinterested in his hobbies.
Those were the signs that someone was depressed. Sokka couldn't prove the last point, he was still quite confident in his assessment as Arnook fit most of the descriptions.
Sokka knew just how vulnerable one could be in this position. Normal people could be depressed, but a leader never must, or else he will be taken advantage of. Right now, Sokka wasn't feeling too kind as the more dangerous the situation became, the more ruthless he would become.
Now wasn't the time to be nice.
So with that in mind, he jumped down and approached the chieftain, with nefarious thoughts in his mind.
***********
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