[Fic]: Easy Insults
Title: Easy Insults
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters: Sokka, Katara, Xiao (Zhao)
Summary: Sokka attempts to anger Commander Xiao while Aang visits Avatar Roku. It doesn't work as planned.
Notes: Written for the atlaland Rule 63/Genderswap challenge. Did not place.
Sokka had thought things couldn't get much worse. Sure, Aang had made it into the sanctuary, but he and Katara were still chained up outside. Escape was going to be tricky.
At least Zuko's attention was focused on Shyu, not them. Sokka wriggled in his bindings, trying to work free.
The sound of applause drew everyone's attention to the end of the hallway, where an armoured woman approachd, flanked by six firebenders. "What a moving and heartfelt performance," she drawled. "I'm sure the Firelord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him."
"Who's that?" Katara whispered.
"Commander Xiao," said the head Sage, bowing.
"If I had to guess?" Sokka whispered back. "Commander Xiao."
Katara made a disgusted noise, but Sokka started thinking. If he could get the Fire woman angry enough... "Commander, huh?" he said loudly. "Wow. Fire Nation must really be getting desparate."
"What are you doing?" his sister hissed, but Sokka ignored her. "Did you sleep with an Admiral to get that rank?"
One of the firebenders started forward, but Xiao raised an arm to bar his path. She approached them herself and studied Sokka for a minute, then shook her head.
To Katara she said, "Your brother is sadly lacking in imagination."
"Huh?" the startled girl replied, and Xiao smiled like she was sharing a secret.
"Does he suggest you're on your courses when you get angry?" she asked.
"Uh... sometimes?" Katara said.
Sokka sputtered. What the hell was she telling an enemy commander that for!?
Xiao chuckled. "I suspected as much. It's the easiest possible insult for a man to give a woman -- to suggest righteous anger is caused by the monthly bleeding. To suggest power rightly earned is the result of sleeping with a man with more." The look she gave Sokka then was dismissive. "It's what I've come to expect from men of the Water Tribe."
"Hey!" protested Sokka, but the woman ignored him.
"They're not all like that," Katara said quietly.
"Indeed not," Xiao agreed, patting the girl on the head. "But the vast majority of your northern brethran are." She smiled again. "You've got a certain... spark. Don't let them snuff that out."
Abruptly she turned and approached Zuko, and her entire demeanour changed from threateningly friendly to amusingly condescending.
"What," Sokka said.
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Characters: Sokka, Katara, Xiao (Zhao)
Summary: Sokka attempts to anger Commander Xiao while Aang visits Avatar Roku. It doesn't work as planned.
Notes: Written for the atlaland Rule 63/Genderswap challenge. Did not place.
Sokka had thought things couldn't get much worse. Sure, Aang had made it into the sanctuary, but he and Katara were still chained up outside. Escape was going to be tricky.
At least Zuko's attention was focused on Shyu, not them. Sokka wriggled in his bindings, trying to work free.
The sound of applause drew everyone's attention to the end of the hallway, where an armoured woman approachd, flanked by six firebenders. "What a moving and heartfelt performance," she drawled. "I'm sure the Firelord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him."
"Who's that?" Katara whispered.
"Commander Xiao," said the head Sage, bowing.
"If I had to guess?" Sokka whispered back. "Commander Xiao."
Katara made a disgusted noise, but Sokka started thinking. If he could get the Fire woman angry enough... "Commander, huh?" he said loudly. "Wow. Fire Nation must really be getting desparate."
"What are you doing?" his sister hissed, but Sokka ignored her. "Did you sleep with an Admiral to get that rank?"
One of the firebenders started forward, but Xiao raised an arm to bar his path. She approached them herself and studied Sokka for a minute, then shook her head.
To Katara she said, "Your brother is sadly lacking in imagination."
"Huh?" the startled girl replied, and Xiao smiled like she was sharing a secret.
"Does he suggest you're on your courses when you get angry?" she asked.
"Uh... sometimes?" Katara said.
Sokka sputtered. What the hell was she telling an enemy commander that for!?
Xiao chuckled. "I suspected as much. It's the easiest possible insult for a man to give a woman -- to suggest righteous anger is caused by the monthly bleeding. To suggest power rightly earned is the result of sleeping with a man with more." The look she gave Sokka then was dismissive. "It's what I've come to expect from men of the Water Tribe."
"Hey!" protested Sokka, but the woman ignored him.
"They're not all like that," Katara said quietly.
"Indeed not," Xiao agreed, patting the girl on the head. "But the vast majority of your northern brethran are." She smiled again. "You've got a certain... spark. Don't let them snuff that out."
Abruptly she turned and approached Zuko, and her entire demeanour changed from threateningly friendly to amusingly condescending.
"What," Sokka said.