AVATAR: 2049

Introduction

A long time ago the nations lived together in harmony. They told themselves the story of benders, people who could control the very elements with their bodies. For millennia these stories animated people all over the world. The young and old would throw extravagant festivals for these fables. A few centuries past and these stories began to not add up. War and genocide broke up the nations. Plagues ravaged the landscapes and people became scared, sick and imprisoned. They realized that no amount of metaphorical bending was going to save them from the horror of reality. In the midst of this chaos a ministry was formed. It gave us a choice, we could continue to live in the world of chaos, death and sickness or we could instead embrace new stories, the story of measuring reality, repeating it, and predicting it and achieve true harmony. We knew which side we would be on, but not all agreed. A seven years war was fought against the ministry, from those trying to continue the chaos that we all wanted to escape. By the end only the ministry and those who followed were left, so we rebuilt, rewrote and re-imagined the world. We achieved peace at last, a strong sustaina-

Two vertical green bars show up in the top right corner of the display accompanied haze of film grain and some flickering. "Moshu." A teacher quietly, but sternly says from across a classroom. Towards the back of the room, a child, no older than twelve, frantically puts a paper under his desk. "You're dismissed, please go down to the front office." "YES!" Moshu leaps out of his seat laughing and cheering. His teacher looks back at him and he quickly settles down. "Sorry miss." He bows. She smiles. "It's okay, hurry on your way now. Your parents are waiting." She unpauses the video and sits back down at her desk. Moshu walks towards the door and pushes it open, he begins to step out and stops himself. "Miss Suza?" "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. " Is heard from the other students. Miss Suza walks over to him in the hallway leaving one foot in the door. "Yes?" She replies. "Do you really think there were never any benders? I mean I used to think those stories were so cool and Avatar Aang-" Miss Suza looks around in the hallway. The walls are covered in posters. One that was slightly aggressive saying. "If they can do it. You can do it!" and "Shoot for the stars, if you miss than you'll hit the moon." Everything is lit by a fluorescent lights, standard for schools like this. There's a superintendent talking to an assistant at the end of the hall. She kneels down at eye level with Moshu and speaks to him in a hushed voice. "Moshu, never let go of those stories. Never let anyone tell you that you can't believe in them. Do those stories give you hope?" He nods his head. "Then don't worry about it. Okay?" He smiles and hugs her. "Bye Miss Suza!" Moshu runs down the hall. She waves, then looks back down the hall and sees the superintendent glance back at her, she waves subtly and walks back into her classroom.