Words: 939
Prompts:
Blanket - Easy
Acceptance - Medium
Family genre - Hard
The death of the mechanic was not a surprise.
He was withering and wrinkled, chesty coughs filling the air wherever he walked - when he was still walking, that is. Slowly, the once-healthy man deteriorated into a bedridden time bomb that had very little time left. Now, his passing was what had brought them all here today, to stare with teary eyes at the coffin, letting heartfelt speeches pass through their ears as they soaked in their grief.
Soon, the time came for the will to be read out. The friends and family of the mechanic received a variety of inovative creations, but Sokka's was definitely the most ordinary: a box.
Okay, so compared to other boxes that Sokka had seen, this box was actually quite unordinary. It was flat and rectangular, and made of some kind of metal that Toph could probably shape into something much more interesting if she didn't need to rush straight to her metalbending academy after this. But Sokka's eyes were clouded in grief and his mind was fuzzy in disbelief. Hence, the box was tossed onto his bed as soon as he got home, despite the fact that, in his will, the mechanic wrote I think this will interest you, as it interested me when I found it.
Perhaps the act of throwing the box onto the blue-tinted blanket that draped over his bed was an act of denial, an attempt to forget about the mechanic's death by forgetting about the gift. However, hours later, Sokka couldn't help but pick up the strange box, discovering that it fit quite nicely into his hand.
The first thing he noticed was the symbol at the bottom: the symbol of the Earth Kingdom! Sure, the square didn't quite reach the edges of the circle, but it was close enough. There also seemed to be tiny protruding circle on the side of the box, which did nothing when he pushed them. However, when he pressed the larger oval on the top of the box, the front of it suddenly lit up.
Surprised, Sokka dropped the box onto his bed, where it landed softly onto his pillow. Hesitant but curious, he picked it up again, finally realising what it was: a light! However, as soon as the realisation came to him, the light went off and the box turned black again.
What a rubbish light! Sokka thought. Despite his disappointment, he decided to press the button again, which resulted in more light. However, this time, he saw that the light was actually a picture of a forest which, at the bottom, said slide to unlock. Wondering how he could possibly unlock something by sliding (the locks he knew were only unlocked by keys or, in one case, airbending), he pressed his finger onto the light and slowly slid it to the right, the forest picture gradually getting blurrier until a set of number appeared. Confused, Sokka tapped some numbers in, only to be met with a buzzing sound and a vibration from the box.
"Agh!" He exclaimed. "What in there? A wasp-spider?"
Nervous, he put in some more numbers, which were again met by a buzz and a vibration. Frightened, Sokka gave up on numbers, instead trying to see of the earth kingdom symbol was a button. Surprisingly enough, it was, but it made the box buzz and vibrate yet again, blurring out the picture and replacing it with the question: "what can I help you with?"
Hesitant, Sokka parted his lips, "I'm very confused."
To his utter shock, the box replied, "I don't know what that means. If you like, I can search the web for "I'm very confused.""
Search the web... So it was a wasp spider!
"You're a wasp-spider!" He exclaimed at the box.
"If your insist." The box, who seemed to be female, responded.
"Well, I know you are. What else would you be buzzing and talking about webs?
"Who, me?"
"Yes, you! Although, come to think of it, wasp-spiders don't actually talk..."
"I'm not quite sure I understand."
Sokka sighed; it sure was hard to carry on a conversation with this thing.
"Well, if you're not a wasp spider, what are you?"
"I'm Siri... Here to help."
Siri... Could that be a name for a wasp-spider?
"Are you a human?"
"in the cloud, no one questions your existential status."
"What are you even talking about? And you're in a box, not a cloud!"
"Who, me?"
"Yes, you! I-" Sokka took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Why are you in a box?
"is that what you think?"
"Well, yes." Sokka admitted. "...where are you?"
"Right here."
"Yeah, and that's it a box!"
"That's what I reckoned."
Sokka sighed deeply. "Why do you keep saying things that don't make sense?"
"I don't know what that means. If you like, I can search the web for "why do you keep saying things that don't make sense?""
"Argh!"
Just then, Katara walked in, an eyebrow raised. "What are you so angry about?"
Sokka pouted and shoved the box towards his sister.
"What's that?" She asked, examining it as she took it in her hand.
"I don't know."
It turned out that Katara was much better at talking to Siri than Sokka was. The pair discovered that Siri actually quite nice to talk to, and probably not a wasp-spider.
Soon, Siri had become their friend, and after that, was accepted into the family, much to Gran-Gran's skepticism.