AtLA: And History Forgot About Us
Title: And History Forgot About Us
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 651
Rating: G
Characters: Sokka, Toph
Summary: History may have forgotten about them, but they're okay with it.
Disclaimer: It's still not mine. Really.
Author's Note: Written for the avatar_contest prompt "History." I think this was supposed to be angsty, but Sokka and Toph protested my making them angst anymore, so.... Yay for humor.
Twenty years ago, the Avatar defeated the Fire Lord and the tale had since become a thing of legend, told and retold so many times that very few people could say what had honestly happened on that fateful day (save the ones who were there, but most of them had fallen out of public eye and no one bothered to ask them for the truth). It was more urban myth and fairy tale than actual history these days due to all the fabrication, but the effect it had on the world, nevertheless, remained the same. It was a tale of hope, courage, and good, through unspeakable odds, triumphing over evil.
It was also the perfect fodder for school plays where interpretation generally fell as far from actual fact as possible, and the kid playing Aang was nothing more than some snot-nosed brat with an arrow pasted on his head, threatening to beat all the other kids in the play up with his staff and wailing backstage about how the play could have been so much better if the Avatar had gotten to fight a dragon.
"This one’s definitely better than last year," a woman in the back of the audience of the latest "Avatar" play noted as she munched fire flakes (she’d developed a taste for them back during the war and it didn’t seem as much of an act of treason to enjoy them now that it was over). "Making it a musical was a nice touch."
The man beside her stroked his beard. "You know, I still don’t know whether or not to be offended that we’re never featured in these plays. You’d think someone would’ve remembered that we were there."
The woman shrugged. "I don’t want to see some brat pretending to be me. It’s bad enough watching these kids pretend to be Aang. He’s nothing like what all these stories make him out to be."
A man in front of the pair turned around and glowered and made a "shh" noise. The woman stomped one foot indignantly and the earth shifted underneath his seat, causing him to topple out of it. She grinned triumphantly and then went back to watching (well, listening, rather, since she couldn’t really see what was happening).
"Yeah, they’d probably turn you into a damsel," the bearded man mused. "You’d be played by this shrill, whiny little girl." He put on a perfect imitation of a girly voice, "Oh Sokka, save me from the Big Bad Fire Lord!"
Two more people in front of them protested their constant chatter and the woman responded in kind a few more well-placed Earthbending moves that silenced them, before turning her bending on the man at her side. "Yeah, well what about you?" She growled. "You’d probably be reduced to Aang’s dumb sidekick. You’d be like Momo or something."
"You know, they never forget Momo and Appa in this stories," the man pointed out, after righting his chair again, gesturing to the stage where a little girl dressed in what was supposed to be a lemur costume was dancing around with several kids draped in what looked like a bedsheet painted with all the markings of a flying bison.
The woman gave him a look. "If you’re gesturing when you know I can’t see what you’re pointing at, I’m dumping this bag of fire flakes on your head."
He immediately stopped gesturing and went back to stroking his beard. "So it doesn’t bother you that we had a hand in defeating the Fire Lord and then history basically forgot we existed?"
"Nope. I know perfectly well what we did and our deeds are far too fantastic to be watered down for children’s entertainment and bedtime stories." She paused. "We’re so awesome that history had to forget about us, because history can not handle that level of awesome."
"You know, Toph.... That’s a really good point."
"Of course, it is." She paused again. "Sokka?"
"Yes?"
"Are you stroking your beard again?"
"....No?"
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Author: kawaiispinel
Feedback: ...Is loverly.
Word Count: 651
Rating: G
Characters: Sokka, Toph
Summary: History may have forgotten about them, but they're okay with it.
Disclaimer: It's still not mine. Really.
Author's Note: Written for the avatar_contest prompt "History." I think this was supposed to be angsty, but Sokka and Toph protested my making them angst anymore, so.... Yay for humor.
Twenty years ago, the Avatar defeated the Fire Lord and the tale had since become a thing of legend, told and retold so many times that very few people could say what had honestly happened on that fateful day (save the ones who were there, but most of them had fallen out of public eye and no one bothered to ask them for the truth). It was more urban myth and fairy tale than actual history these days due to all the fabrication, but the effect it had on the world, nevertheless, remained the same. It was a tale of hope, courage, and good, through unspeakable odds, triumphing over evil.
It was also the perfect fodder for school plays where interpretation generally fell as far from actual fact as possible, and the kid playing Aang was nothing more than some snot-nosed brat with an arrow pasted on his head, threatening to beat all the other kids in the play up with his staff and wailing backstage about how the play could have been so much better if the Avatar had gotten to fight a dragon.
"This one’s definitely better than last year," a woman in the back of the audience of the latest "Avatar" play noted as she munched fire flakes (she’d developed a taste for them back during the war and it didn’t seem as much of an act of treason to enjoy them now that it was over). "Making it a musical was a nice touch."
The man beside her stroked his beard. "You know, I still don’t know whether or not to be offended that we’re never featured in these plays. You’d think someone would’ve remembered that we were there."
The woman shrugged. "I don’t want to see some brat pretending to be me. It’s bad enough watching these kids pretend to be Aang. He’s nothing like what all these stories make him out to be."
A man in front of the pair turned around and glowered and made a "shh" noise. The woman stomped one foot indignantly and the earth shifted underneath his seat, causing him to topple out of it. She grinned triumphantly and then went back to watching (well, listening, rather, since she couldn’t really see what was happening).
"Yeah, they’d probably turn you into a damsel," the bearded man mused. "You’d be played by this shrill, whiny little girl." He put on a perfect imitation of a girly voice, "Oh Sokka, save me from the Big Bad Fire Lord!"
Two more people in front of them protested their constant chatter and the woman responded in kind a few more well-placed Earthbending moves that silenced them, before turning her bending on the man at her side. "Yeah, well what about you?" She growled. "You’d probably be reduced to Aang’s dumb sidekick. You’d be like Momo or something."
"You know, they never forget Momo and Appa in this stories," the man pointed out, after righting his chair again, gesturing to the stage where a little girl dressed in what was supposed to be a lemur costume was dancing around with several kids draped in what looked like a bedsheet painted with all the markings of a flying bison.
The woman gave him a look. "If you’re gesturing when you know I can’t see what you’re pointing at, I’m dumping this bag of fire flakes on your head."
He immediately stopped gesturing and went back to stroking his beard. "So it doesn’t bother you that we had a hand in defeating the Fire Lord and then history basically forgot we existed?"
"Nope. I know perfectly well what we did and our deeds are far too fantastic to be watered down for children’s entertainment and bedtime stories." She paused. "We’re so awesome that history had to forget about us, because history can not handle that level of awesome."
"You know, Toph.... That’s a really good point."
"Of course, it is." She paused again. "Sokka?"
"Yes?"
"Are you stroking your beard again?"
"....No?"