ELEVEN: Memory

Avatar: the Last Airbender is over. There will be no book four. Some people think there will be an 'Air' season, but there will not be. Mike & Bryan answered the question in an interview at the San Diego Comic Con 2008….

This is continued at the bottom of the page.

The water was cool beneath Toph's bare feet as she gently kicked her feet in the water. Sitting next to Sokka as Aang and Katara worked on their Waterbending (technically they didn't need to, since both of them were master waterbenders… but they did it for old times' sake) and as the Fire Lord was doing some push ups, she felt pretty confident that she wasn't going to have to use her feet to tell if anyone was going to sneak up on them or not. Zuko was good at telling if someone was near. It was like he had a sixth sense – it was scary sometimes the way he would suddenly look upward and then say that someone was approaching. She wondered if that was how everyone normally felt when she announced that someone was coming.

"Hey, Toph?"

It was Sokka who had called her, though even if she hadn't been able to feel the resonating sound of his voice through her palms, she would have known it was him anyway. Nobody had a voice like Sokka. "Yeah?"

He was looking at some scroll, though what it was, exactly, didn't interest her in the slightest. Paper was paper was paper… was paper. It was all blank. It all meant nothing to her. "Mmm… what's your best memory?"

That surprised her. She stayed quiet for a moment, thinking and vaguely listening to the sound that his feet made as he splashed them in the water. "What?"

"What's your best memory?"

She grinned, deciding to answer it with a tease. "'Boo! No talking!'" she quoted, cupping her hands around her mouth in imitation of him.

"What?"

"… That's what you said," she muttered, her cheeks flushing as she realized he probably didn't remember that. "At Earth Rumble Six."

"I know. I meant, 'What? You remember that? That's your best memory?'" he clarified. She could hear the rustling of paper as he rolled up the scroll, tucking it into a bag.

She shrugged. "Of course I remember it."

"That was years ago, though."

"So?"

"Right…" he muttered, before shrugging. "That's your best memory?"

Toph decided it was best to be honest at this time. Besides, this wasn't dangerous territory. He had asked her plenty of dangerous questions before that had ended in her blushing or shooting a rock at him. 'Who was your first kiss?' and 'Who would you rather kiss – me or Aang? Me or Zuko? Zuko or Aang?' Thankfully this talk session seemed harmless. "One of them."

"Why? You didn't even know me, then," he pointed out.

"Still." Toph pressed her lips together after that, determined to let it fall into silence.

But Sokka wasn't going to let their conversation die away as easily as that. "Still what?"

"Huh?"

"You never finished your sentence. You said 'still' and then you just stopped. I'm waiting."

She shrugged. "That was all of it."

He sighed. "Alright. So if me yelling at you to not talk is your best memory, you must have had a sucky childhood and you must have not enjoyed traveling with us at all."

"Hey, hey, Snoozles. First of all, I never said it was my best memory. It's one of the best, okay? I have a lot of favorite memories."

He leaned back on the rock he was sitting on, tucking his palms behind his head. "Okay. So what are your other favorite memories?"

"Umm," she squinted as she 'looked' down at the water, searching her mind. She named them off quickly and without thinking. "Metalbending for the first time, my first day with the badgermoles, the meteor, Sozin's Comet, teaching Aang Earthbending, the girl's day out with Katara, talking with Iroh, that one laundry day when you – "

Suddenly, she stopped. Sokka looked over at her, grinning as he noticed her cheeks start to flush. "Laundry day? When I… what? What were you going to say?"

"Nothing." She said firmly, pressing her lips hard together as if she was afraid it would slip out. "Laundry day. Fun times all around."

"No, you said something about me. What were you going to say?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. Anyway, Snoozles, I think it's time that I should go head off and… walk… somewhere…" Toph said, stretching as she stood. She pulled her pant legs down from where she had rolled them up when she had stuck them into the water.

"No, you have to tell me what you were going to say." Sokka stood as she did, shouldering his bag.

She scowled, quickly heading off into the direction of the trees that grew thickly around their camp. "I wasn't going to say anything. Can't you just drop it, Ponytail?"

"No, I can't," he told her, weaving through the trees. He had an inkling of which laundry day she was talking about, but he was going to make her admit it. "Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me." He made his voice high pitched.

"No."

"Tell me." Sokka changed his voice so it sounded mystical.

"No."

It went on and on as they walked through the trees. Toph's voice became more annoyed every time he whined for her to tell him. "Tell me!" he bellowed, making a few birds scatter from their perch on a tree branch.

"Fine! That laundry day! That you had to walk around shirtless for half a day! When I got a sticker in my foot and you carried me back to camp even though I picked the sticker out!" she yelled at him, her face red in irritation and embarrassment.

He blinked. "But you were in pain."

"But you took care of me."

"But you didn't need me."

"But you did it anyway."

"But you yelled at me."

"But you just kept carrying me."

"But you said you hadn't even noticed that I didn't have a shirt on."

"But I did."

Now it was his turn to blush and look away from her. "Umm. Right. Well, I think I'm going to go and… um… poke some stuff with my sword…" He whistled innocently as he started to back away.

Only as he glanced back at her did he notice that her face was angled towards the ground, her fists clenched in anger… and disappointment. His heart lurched for reasons he did not quite understand.

"Toph?"

"I thought you were going to go poke stuff." she accused.

"I am. I just wanted to say… that's one of my favorite memories, too."

Continued from top.

For the interview (although it's rather noisy from all the fan action going on) search YouTube for "Avatar SDCC 2008 Q&A" and click and watch.

I also recommend watching the "Forbidden Love" joke short, it's awesome and I recognized a lot of the art off of DeviantArt.

Some of the subjects covered (this info from Avatar Spirit): Zuko finding Ursa was actually storyboarded for the finale by Avatar Director Joaquim Dos Santos, but was nixed by Mike DiMartino - not really sure why. Avatar will be airing in order on Nicktoons "soon" - no date was announced though. The lion turtle taught Aang how to spirit bend (Bryan called it "unbending", but still not clear exactly what to call it). Aang can spirit bend or take other people's bending away at will, it wasn't just a one time thing. A new Avatar MMORPG will be coming out soon, presumably like World of Warcraft or Everquest. This won't be the last Avatar panel at SDCC. Mike made it clear that at least the first live action movie is a very faithful retelling of Book One: Water.

I also thought it was hilarious because they said Jet was in hot guy heaven.

Holy crap that was long. But I just wanted to clue in you guys who don't regularly visit Avatar Spirit or DeviantArt. I was two days late in finding out this info, fail. :S

Also: Note that I said that Avatar: the Last Airbender was over... not the entire Avatar universe. I still have hope that there will be more Avatar-related shows/shorts/etc.