trans_9 | Marriage Planet

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Marriage Planet

Stacy's voice came over the comm, blaring across the entire ship.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

The mouth in the main sculpture on Obs Deck opened, revealing a screen with the image of a mottled blue and purple planet, rotating slowly.

Planet Designation: Gondepetil
Status: Terrestrial, H-class. Mass slightly larger than most Earths.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Yes.
Water: 88% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Similar to Earth's Mediterranean climate. Warm but hospitable. [Click here for cultural equivalents for non-Earth cultures.]
Landscape: Short trees and scrubs. Most mountains are plateaus, terrain is hilly and rocky on 65% of the land surface.
Air: Normoxic concentration: 25% oxygen, 65% nitrogen, 5% xenon, 5% trace gases, such as hydrogen, neon, krypton, and argon.

Air Pressure: 17.02 pounds per square inch. Heavier than ship's air pressure, but breathable.
Sky: Blue/purple with silver clouds.
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star. The planet is unusually close to its sun, but its ozone layer is fully capable of filtering out harmful radiation.

Mission: Spiritual elders of the local inhabitants are in possession of an artifact of great importance to the war against the Ohm. The crew will participate in the inhabitants' rituals of judgment and joining to enter the region known as the Sacred Mount, where the artifact is being stored. The crew is to negotiate with the spiritual elders to acquire this artifact. The crew is expected to comply with any of their demands in order to successfully complete negotiations.

Time for another mission, then.

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Sokka reaches over and punches Zuko right in the shoulder. Damn it, Zuko. Why are you such an inept failure at human interaction.

"Were you not listening, Fire Jerk?" Ugh. Now he's going to have to explain and he doesn't even get it himself. He rubs his face and glances at Aang with a grimace.

"I dunno. I'm sorry."

"Katara has a new boyfriend?" came a childish but tough voice.

"Is it Haru?"

Oh, hi Toph, you paragon of tact, you.

Great timing, as usual, Toph.

This whole time Aang had pretty much looked like a balloon that'd had a tiny hole poked in it and was slowly deflating, his arms slowly dropping from where they'd been in the air to do the dragon dance. The look of shock and devastation on his face was heart-breaking.

For a moment, he had the desperate hope that Zuko had suddenly learned how to do a practical joke, but Sokka's confirmation (and, y'know, the fact that it was Zuko) made him realize it was the truth.

For a moment, he just stood there, looking at the floor, eyes wide, his breathing a little more hitched, his expression bewildered.

"How long--how long was I gone? I thought it was just--"

There were lots of new faces, lots of new people to meet, and faces that were gone now, their owners repodded like he'd been, but everyone else hadn't really looked that much older. It looked like the same general crew at the same age. Not even months had to have passed, right?

But if Katara had moved on, there must have been more time than he thought.

"I thought I hadn't been asleep for very long."

He thought things were mostly the same.

"... Wait."

Toph stood, flat-footed, upon sensing Aang's reaction, listening to his breathing and feeling the confusion that radiated off of the guy.

She turned toward Sokka and Zuko. "You guys weren't -- she really --"

Apropos of nothing she hocked a loogie into the far corner, and stepped forward to put a hand on Aang's shoulder.

"That sucks, Twinkle Toes."

"...I've been told a few months, if that. I don't know. I was out too."

Mai shrugs. She knows how much it sucks to get dumped and how much it sucks to find out through an intermediary. And really, Aang is a friend via Zuko, so that makes him... somewhat worthy of being cared about.

"Could be worse. Could've been years."

Yes, that makes it better. Somehow. Toph gets a little nod - wait, she can't see. Oh, well.

Zuko takes his punch. He pretty much knows he deserves it.

"Hey, he was gonna find out eventually." He looks aside at Mai, wondering how long she'll be mad at him for this. And how long it will take before Aang feels like dragon-dancing again.

Belatedly - "Hey, Toph."

Sokka slings an arm around Aang in a comforting, brotherly fashion. It's weird having Aang be this tall still, but it does make this a little easier.

"Yeah. I dunno. I just found out about it a few days ago, because I've been gone too. It's. . .weird. I dunno." He avoids the obvious 'pfft, women' comment because he's pretty sure Toph and Mai will both beat him up if he does.

"We were all gone, right? Back in the pods? But we were all there in the castle, fighting the Nightmare King."

Zuko and Sokka had gotten hurt themselves. Zuko had saved his life and Sokka had saved his sanity. Mai was there as all those strange energies crackled around them, as the Nightmare King's influence flowed through that place out into the rest of the ship.

"I think it might have made us sick."

Supposedly that was why they were Gladosed, tested, repodded. People's spirits got sick and then they had to rest again.

Aang slumped down away from Sokka and Toph to sit on one of the meat-couches, reaching out and snagging his staff, fiddling with it, trying to take comfort from the feel of it against his fingers. It wasn't the same as his old staff, though, made of those light metals and not that familiar wood carved from the scraggly trees that grew on the side of the mountains.

"She had to have figured out that might be why. I didn't choose to be gone. She knew I was here, that I might be let out again, she had to have known I didn't want to go back..."

Only a few months? That was all? That was all? Aang looked up at his friends, his voice hitched and miserable, his expression horribly sad.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Maybe she just wasn't all that into you."

Hit him, Mai. For the love of all things, hit him now.

Mai doesn't hit him. What she does do is grab him by his good ear and twist.

"Gee, Zuko. Maybe you weren't that into me when you left me that letter."

Aang stared at Zuko for a moment with his jaw agape and his eyes watering, thinking about the prospect of that being true. The thought that she just never had really cared about him the same way was, well, even worse than the other alternatives.

Burying his face in his hand, he started to cry. Quietly, without sobbing or anything, nothing theatrical, but he was sad and he was hurt, and he wasn't really the type to hold it in.

Good job, Zuko.

OhGodohGod he can't twist out of that hold.

"I didn't go and hook up with some other girl as soon as I finished writing it!"

The Fire Lord twists at a nigh-impossible angle, trying not to hurt anymore. Ow ow ow. And now Aang's crying. Zuko's ear hurts, and he feels like more of a jerk. Good thing he's used to it.

"It was Hiccup's idea," he protests. "I thought it made sense."

Seeing that Mai has Zuko well in hand, Sokka is sitting next to Aang. He wraps an arm around the Avatar's shoulder and gives him a squeeze. He wouldn't do this for many other guys, but hey. It's Aang.

"No, Aang. It's nothing you did. I'm sure. I mean, you're great. It's not your fault the ship was messing with you. I just. . ." he sighs, "She's been acting weird since we got here. I dunno, Aang. I don't really get it either."

He half-smiles.

"We're all here for you, though. Even if some of us don't know when to shut their pie-holes." He shoots a meaningful look at Zuko for that one.

"This place has just changed her, that's all. I don't know what else to say." He wraps his other arm around Aang in a tight hug.

"And Hiccup doesn't know about Aang and Katara and how they were, okay, Zuko? He's been through a lot, okay?" He's snapping a bit because he knew this would happen and now his adoptive little bro is sobbing his eyes out over his sister.

Mai gives Zuko's ear one more painful twist and then steps away from him, opening up a tiny little gulf. Might as well be the Great Rift, though, considering the cold glare she's giving Zuko. "Or maybe she's not thinking straight, like a certain Fire Lord I could name wasn't."

That said, she glances at Aang. She's been there, so she can empathize with him a bit. "...it'll get better."

After all the crying and the soul-searching and the self-blame. She's not sure if Aang will actually go through the "anger" stage.

Toph watches the exchange, then plops down on the other side of Aang. She socks him in the shoulder. Hard.

Consider it her version of a snuggly hug.

"Yeah. Sokka's right. She's been weird, but I figured it was just because we were here." She stomps her crystal-slippers on the ground to emphasize her point. "I don't think it has anything to do with you, Aang, and the rest of us aren't going anywhere."

It helped. It helped to have his friends here. The bro-hugging helped. Toph's punch helped. Mai's words especially helped. Even Zuko's complete social fail helped, because Aang knew him well enough by now to know he meant well. He was just...being Zuko.

It took a little bit to calm his breathing down, even if his eyes were still teary.

"Is there any point at all during all this where's it not going to be like, 'Hey, Aang, everything going to stop making sense the moment things start making sense!'" he asked, sniffling, leaning his staff upright against his leg to throw his hands in the air. "'You're the Avatar, Aang, you have to leave home, oh no, a storm! You're frozen! It's a hundred years later, and you have to restore balance to the world. Oh no, there's a comet! Someone's an enemy and chasing you, now they're a friend! There's no way you can win this--you've won! You and your friends have restored balance to the world, now everything can be at peace. Oh no, a skyship! Your world's gone, you might be able to get it back, part of your memory's been erased, there's a horrible nightmare spirit you have to stay trapped to fight, you're free, you're in mazes chasing cake, you're free again, you're asleep, you're awake,' and now, now it's 'your girlfriend left for someone else after just a few months!'"

They are only seeing this because they're his friends, and because yes, even he of the infinite patience occasionally needs to flip a table now and again, even if he did it in the mildest way possible.

"Is it too much to ask for things to stop being all crazy and changing for just a day? One day! Just one!"

It wasn't just the hurt feelings. It was that nothing ever seemed to settle. Even a nomad needed a place to rest his hat now and again, and sometimes liked to see the world go still and stay the same one day to the next.

. . . well don't look at Zuko to say something comforting. He feels appropriately bad now, and has gotten the idea that this might be the right time to keep his mouth shut.

Except to say - "Sorry."

Mai doesn't really have anything she can say to that tirade. So she simply stands her ground and waits. She'll say something when she needs to.

Sokka just hangs on tighter.

"I know. I know how you feel," okay he doesn't, "but we've just gotta keep going. We're here, and we're not gonna change. I promise. We're here to back you up and everything. We're your friends."

Aang wiped at his face with his robes.

"I know, Sokka. I know you're here for me. And I appreciate it, but I think I need some time alone. To meditate."

And probably cry some more.

Gratitude was in his gaze, though, as he looked at them all, and yes, it was there even when he looked at Zuko.

"I just need to go be with Appa for a bit."

Carefully shrugging off Sokka's hug in a way that made it clear he wasn't rejecting the hug outright, and climbing to his feet, he picked up his staff. He understood they were here, and he was grateful, but sometimes he really did need some alone time with his bison and his own thoughts, and this was one of them.

"If Katara comes looking for me...tell her I don't feel like talking right now, and that I won't for a little while."

He didn't want to be angry, he didn't want to be upset or say anything he regretted, that might hurt her feelings, even if he was hurt. He wanted to be calm.

And when he was able to find that calm again, then they needed to talk.

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Marriage Planet

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