A Joke
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Avatar: Awakened Gamer
🕑 Added 2022-01-21 15:27:39 +0000 UTCChapter 104 - Calm Before The Storm
***
Sokka took a sip of the expensive orange juice or whatever it was, this world had some fruits that he wasn’t too sure about. Even most of the animals were crossbreeds between the animals in his first world, though there are some animals like cats and some others that he has found are still the same.
Lao Beifong… was strange. Sokka couldn’t try and scheme this, as Toph would be angry if he scammed her father or anything like it.
People thrive in the challenge, that's when you get to give it your all and show that you're worthy of what you have. Some people even went out there and sought to challenge themselves, Sokka wasn’t one of them, he didn’t want to live his life too on the edge. But he knew when to sharpen his knives.
But still, people made mistakes throughout their lives, it was an inevitable fact. No one was born with experience in life… Well, normally that is. Sokka was an exception to this. While his Gamer interface gave him an advantage in life, only by knowing how to use such power and be cautious could he truly get the full benefits. Having an intelligent mind was like a calculator, without someone knowing how to use it, then it's just a piece of junk.
Life experience was a good thing, one of the cheat tricks of life, it's sad that you have to sacrifice your youth to get it.
Sokka shook his head, dismissing such thoughts in his mind, and addressed Toph’s father. “Lord Beifong,” he contemplated what to say next in order not to offend the Beifong Family head. “Sometimes you just have to flex your power and be willing to go to their level. That way, if you're strong enough, most things fall into place easier. For example, with the Beifong Family name, isn’t it easier to make deals than some unknown merchant? Because the family name itself carries weight, that too can be considered a kind of power.”
He needed Toph, the greatest earthbender, with him. Bumi was another option, but he didn't trust the wise old man that much. Bumi knew what it was to make sacrifices, just like he sacrificed his monarchy for the greater good. Sokka didn't want to be another sacrifice in that cycle.
So what if the old man wanted Sokka to be someone who would be like a General? Leading Aang’s army and the resistance against the Fire Nation. That plan had died as soon as he had decided to put Azula on the throne. If it wasn’t beneficial to him, or lead to something beneficial at least, Sokka wasn’t going to do something he didn’t want to.
He loved Bumi as a character in the show, but in reality, he couldn’t afford to make mistakes.
“I know what you mean. But the Beifong Family has cultivated this power for many generations now. What about you? Do you have the required power to deal with this?” Inquired Lao Beifong, curiously. He didn’t believe in Sokka. Why would he? After all, the young man was just a stranger that spoke big. But at least he was entertaining to see, so Lao Beifong didn’t dismiss him yet.
Sokka smiled, drawing the water out of a glass and showing it to Lao, as the liquid slowly took shape into the form of three humans. A man, woman, and small child.
"Do you know why people turn to crime?" Sokka answered the question with a question of his own. "To people high up, crimes might seem like something criminals have in their blood. But those same criminals are also human, and have their own emotions."
Suddenly, Lao, as a fairly intelligent man, came to his conclusion too. "Nobody does crimes for fun."
Sokka nodded, smiling happily.
'Yeah, that isn't how the world works. As some people do it for fun, but I need to paint this semi-truthful story. The world is filled with crazy people, and sometimes some even put a certain glory to crime. For example, honorable duels ended up with someone dead, but since it had the word honor attached to it, that became something more than just murder.'
While Sokka's beliefs may differ from his words, when lies become sprinkled with a pinch of truth, they become indistinguishable from it.
"I am glad that you understand, sir," Sokka nodded as his gaze sharpened. "That's how I will solve the slum problem. I will take care of people in a way that no one needs to resort to crime."
'And I will kill anyone who differs from my… "suggestion". I was going to fix the problem and any uncontrollable people, the ones who did detestable cries, I won’t waste time on them and they will be killed behind the scenes.’
While Sokka's actions might seem charitable, he still held selfish prospects in his mind. Still, that didn't make a good deed bad. If a politician donated to a charity for public support, would that make his good actions bad, just because he had hidden agendas?
That was a thought for the philosophers, and Sokka didn't consider himself one. Though his mind did wander sometimes when he had leisure time.
"I will help you," Lao Beifong declared, and Sokka caught a whiff of the greed behind the man's gaze. But I didn't mind it that much.
As long as their goals were in parallel positions, without interfering with each other, then helping the other was beneficial for both. Why ruin a good thing?
'While I wasn't after Beifong's sponsorship, I wouldn't refute having it either. This should somewhat help me later on, with logistics and paying the fighters.'
Sokka knew that fighting in a war wasn't just having a strong warrior go in and do their thing. If that warrior wasn't fed, paid, and had his family's security ensured, then why would he fight for you. Some people didn't know better so they would fight anyways, but that wasn't the case most of the time.
Every person in an army had a mind of their own and something they wanted out of this war. While Sokka had used that fact to his advantage against the Fire Nation before. He knew that the same problem would sprout in his army too. That was why he needed to be careful, or have someone be solely concentrated on that.
Azula is someone who seems like a good choice. But she is more of a leader too. Iroh wouldn't join him, due to Zuko. Many of the people in this world who were good at this, and appeared in the original show were unlikely to join Sokka.
Well, for now, it isn't a problem as Sokka can do the managing himself. Since he didn't necessarily need sleep. But still, he didn't want to work so hard. Sokka found it more efficient to use the time he would have spent managing menial tasks elsewhere.
"I am thankful for your help, Lord Beifong. But what would your help entail exactly? Just so I can be more prepared for it."
"Trust me," the rich man smiled. "Endorsements from the Beifong Family are quite satisfying."
Sokka didn’t doubt that, knowing that the family had a reputation to keep.
***
Toph on the other hand just observed the situation from the sidelines. She didn’t interfere between the business talk of her father and Sokka. But she knew one thing, and that was that Sokka wasn’t as naive as her father seemed to think he is and that made her cautious.
Still, even if she wanted to warn her father, it would be almost useless since he would just dismiss her. What did a blind know about people? She had been sheltered most of her life and was just a child in her father’s eyes.
***
After the time spent at the Flying Pig Restaurant, Sokka was quite satisfied with how things ended up. While Lao Beifong had just given his word, for now, Sokka knew that the promise was worth his weight in gold.
But as he walked back home after escorting all of the children home nothing happened to them. His danger sense skill warned him of something and his body knew what to do before his mind even caught up.
Fwish!
A stone flew right past his head, looking at it, he noticed that it had a pointy end. Looking back at the attacker, stood Toph. She was still wearing the dress that she wore for dinner, but unlike before, her expression now didn’t suit her.
Sokka smiled at her. “Were you just testing me if I had some kind of sensory ability like you? Because that means that you’re trying to see how I would fight if it came down to it. Then after attacking me, you would try and play it off as a joke? Of course, this is just an assumption.”
“Oh wow, look at the innocent guy acting all smart,” Toph snorted sarcastically. “I don’t know who you are, but if you try anything with my family… I will hunt you down.”
“What~” Sokka acted mock surprised, and knew Toph could tell as her frown deepened. “But I taught you metal bending. I thought that would make our relationship at least stable.”
“...” Toph didn’t express anything outwardly that she didn’t want him to know. But Sokka knew her better than she knew herself. “Who are you?”
Sokka shrugged. “Who am I? Well, who is everyone? We discover what we are while living. I can’t change what I am to other people. Also, have you ever thought about being the Avatar’s teacher?”
Toph only frowned, and didn’t answer. Sokka could guess why her reaction was like this. After all, she was used to sensing when people are lying and can tell when someone is being truthful. But he was different, with her sensing being useless, she can’t see his face to tell what he was thinking either. Sokka knew that and that was why he was so willing to meet her and talk so much. If he didn’t have Gamer’s Body, or she was able to read him, he would have shut up and just gone with the origins development in the story or something similar if he could.
‘She probably wants to know why I am doing this.’ Sokka analyzed, his mind working fast to come up with a solution. “Come to the outskirts of the town entrance if you want to learn more.”
After saying that, Sokka walked away and didn’t say anything anymore as Toph was just left there, standing in the dark, with the moon shining on her white dress.
***
On the outskirts of Gaoling, a large town surrounded by mountains, Sokka stood atop one of the trees. He kept throwing it up and counting in his head until it landed, this was something he had been doing a lot to see how the law of physics worked in this world.
He sighed and got up. By now a couple of hours had passed since he had last talked with Toph, and while he was confident that she would come, he also knew that nothing in life was certain. So he was about to go to the hotel room he had rented.
‘It seems like I need a new plan to have her approach me. Tch, this is harder than I thought it would initially be.’
But as he opened the [Map] to check where she was, to his surprise he found her underground, and this came as a nice surprise to him. And with that, he laid back down ‘waiting’ for her. This was going to be a long night.
