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lulubelle814 · 5 months

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Oh Christmas Tree

Submission for @sarahscribbles 12 days of Christmas!

Tom had just finished his guest role appearance in The Play What I Wrote. Your mum watched your two children so that you could attend and surprise your husband. You loved the play and could tell he had a lot of fun performing in it.

When the play was over, security let you backstage to his dressing room. You could hear his laughter from down the hall and his chats with his cast mates about how much he enjoyed getting to jump in for the night.

The cast had noticed during the rehearsals that he seemed to love the dressing gown from the play. As a thank you gift, they had wardrobe place it in a garment bag to give it to him. As a joke, they also gave him the Christmas tree costume he wore as they had extras. To ensure there was no confusion for him to return it, they attached a note to it saying that they wanted to make sure he had a decent Christmas tree for his home.

Tom was very pleasantly surprised when he saw you which only increased when he realized that meant you saw the play.

"You were brilliant!! You should really do more comedy!"

Tom agreed. "I'll have to talk to Luke and see if he can find any good comedy type scripts I can audition for. "

"Any director would be lucky to have you. " Not that you were biased or anything.

Tom smiled, placed his hands on your hips, and pulled you in close. "Love, I'm the lucky one. I am truly blessed to have not only you but also Ellie and Byron."

"Don't forget about Bobby." You smirked.

"Oh, he's a given. You all are, but I also want to shout out from the rooftops. " He pulled you in for a passionate, breathtaking kiss that only broke when the clapping and whistling from his cast mates got louder and louder."

"Oi! Get a room you two!" Someone shouted.

As much as you both wanted to, you had to run to pick up the kids while Tom signed autographs at the stage door.

By the time you both made it home, you had to muster up energy to finish up Ellie's costume for the 2nd grade Christmas play the following night. Byron was only in kindergarten, but his class had been invited to sing a Christmas carol at the beginning. You were grateful that he didn't need a costume.

Ellie started crying. You knew she was nervous. She was anxious about being up on stage in front of a lot of people, but you and Tom thought it would be good for her.

"Oh, Ellie. Are you still nervous about the play tomorrow?" You asked her.

She could only nod her head. Her tears started getting larger, coming faster. You put her costume down and hugged her tightly.

"You will do amazing. I've seen a couple of your rehearsals. You have your daddy's talent. In fact, if you decided one day to pursue acting, you could be better than him. "

She continued to cry. "I love daddy. Loki is my favorite. I'll never be as good as him. Everyone will make fun of me. I don't want to do it. Please don't make me do it mummy."

Tom started to hear Ellie's crying. He just finished putting Byron to bed and was on his way to the study to look at a couple of scripts. He poked his head in and moved slowly over to you and Ellie.

"Oh my dear sweet Eleanor. Mummy sent me some video of your rehearsals, and I agree! You are doing very, very well! In fact, I called your teacher to tell her just that and asked her to reserve seats for me, mum, grandmum, and granddad to make sure we have the best seats in the house."

This made Ellie smile because not only did he call her teacher to say how well she was doing (because she idolized him), but they would also be in the front row. So when she would get nervous, she knew she would be able to see them. That was her favorite part.

"Thank you daddy!" She hugged you and then Tom gave him an extra squeeze. He picked her up as he hugged her. He had missed being with you and the kids because of his work and cherished this time. Ellie was so tired after being upset that she fell asleep in Tom's arms as they hugged.

You and Tom both grinned.

"Great timing. I'm just about finished with this costume, finally. Do you want to go put her in bed?"

Tom nodded, the smile still plastered on his face, and headed to Ellie's room, placing her in her bed, and placing her favorite blanket over her.

He then went to his study to glance over his scripts but realized how tired he was as well. By the time he reached the bedroom, you had just tucked yourself into bed. Tom quickly got ready, slipped into bed, and pulled you in to snuggle. You both fell asleep in a matter of minutes.

When you woke up the next day, Tom was already up. The house was eerily quiet. You found a note on the counter from him.

'I've taken the children to the park to play. After an hour or so, we'll do a little shopping, then stop to pick up some sweets on the way home. We should be home no later than 1 pm.'

You looked at the clock. It was 10:30 am. No wonder you felt so well rested! It would be a couple hours before they would be back. So you decided to take a nice long hot bath using one of your favorite bath bombs. You also grabbed one of your favorite books, and a large glass of sparkling apple juice since it was early in the day, and you didn't like to drink much. You also brought in a box of chocolates Tom gave you the other day that you kept hidden from the kids in the back of your nightstand.

This was going to be an amazing bath, and it was.

An hour had passed before you realized the water was cold, and the chocolates were gone. You barely read your book, instead listening to a relaxing playlist on your phone.

When you realized how long had passed, you got out of the tub but took your dear, sweet time getting ready. You had your favorite lotion that you were finally able to take the proper time to apply to your arms and legs.

When getting dressed, you opted for comfy leggings and one of Tom's shirts. You then went downstairs and curled into the couch having decided to watch War Horse.

Next thing you knew, you heard Tom asking if you were alright. Then he looked at the tv, noticing what you were watching. He and the kids had returned moments after Captain Nichols died in the cavalry charge.

Tom looked over to the kids. "Ellie, could you take Byron upstairs for his nap for me?"

Ellie was happy to help mummy and daddy. She loved being a big sister to Byron and took him upstairs.

Tom lifted you up and held you close to him. "Love, your alone time was supposed to be relaxing, not sad. "

You nestled your head into the crook of his neck. " I've had such a relaxing morning. I slept in, took a nice, long bath. Then I was able to take time and use that nice lotion you bought me for our anniversary. Then I thought I'd curl up and watch a movie. I realized I still hadn't watched War Horse. So I figured I'd see at least part of it before you got back. I'm not sure I want to finish it now, or at least not without you. "

You both chuckled a bit. Tom placed a finger under your chin and lifted your face so you could only look directly into his eyes. "I loved filming that movie, but it can be emotional to watch. I know I cried when watching it at the premiere. I don't know anyone who didn't. " This made you smile. You leaned in and kissed him lightly. You both wanted more as you could tell he was restraining himself, but the kids were upstairs. Ellie was definitely awake, and there were last minute things to double check as your daughter's play was in a mere 5 hours.

You both stole a few more minutes alone just to hold each other on the couch before returning back to parental life.

Tom went to start the laundry. You went to see if Byron was truly asleep then had Ellie try on her costume one more time for any last adjustments and ensure nothing was missing on it.

You were so glad you did this. Although the sizing was about right, a few stitches had come loose. It also turned out a couple of the accessories hadn't been sewn on correctly. You breathed a sigh of relief as these were easy things and had more than enough time to fix them before you had to be at the school at 5 as the play started at 6.

Tom found there wasn't a lot of laundry to do but decided to wash, dry, and put away whatever there was so that there would be less to deal with later.

While working on his laundry, he remembered the garment bag from his play the night before. It was as good a time to properly put it away as any.

He retrieved the bag from the back of his office door and took it to his bedroom. He really did love that dressing gown. He was just going to take it out and put it on the hook in the ensuite bathroom. As soon as he took it out, he saw the Christmas tree costume with the note and laughed. He decided to keep it in the bag and would tell you about it after Ellie's play as you were busy getting last minute things ready.

About 4 pm, you got a call from Ellie's teacher asking if you might be able to come sooner. Thanks to your early preparations, all you had to do was load up Ellie and Byron along with Ellie's costume as Tom was going to meet you there. He wanted to go with you, but he had a video meeting at 4:30. It wouldn't last long, maybe 10 minutes at most, but it wasn't something he could miss.

Tom helped you load up the kids and promised to meet you at the school the moment his meeting was over. You departed, and Tom went back inside to get ready for his daughter's play while waiting for the meeting to start.

He was relieved that the meeting started on time, but he was not happy that it was going longer than the promised 10 minutes. 15 minutes into his meeting, he received a text from his wife asking him to call her as soon as he was out of his meeting.

When he saw the message, he brought the entire meeting to a halt. "I'm so sorry, gentleman. Unfortunately, I just received an urgent message for a family matter. If there are further details, would we be able to discuss them via email or set up another meeting for another day?"

They were very understanding and apologized for the meeting running long.

Tom called you once he ended the zoom call and could see you were frantic.

"Darling? What's wrong? Are you ok? Are Ellie and Byron on?"

You were frustrated and slightly upset. This was one of those beyond rare times where you were about to ask him a favor simply because Tom had connections. He never minded when you asked because he knew it had nothing to do with why you fell in love with him, but you still felt awful in those rare times when you asked.

"We're all OK. I promise. It turned out the reason they asked me to come early is that they couldn't find the Christmas tree for Ellie's play anywhere. They always store it in the same place for this reason and think that someone broke in and stole it last night or early this morning because it was there yesterday. I saw it when I came for her rehearsal. "

He could hear how upset you were but could also hear the sadness from the children and their teacher. Although the tree was not center stage, it did act as a focal point at times.

" I really truly hate to ask this but"

Tom interrupted you. "My darling, don't worry about it. I'll see what I can sort out. I'll even call Luke and see if he has any tricks up his sleeves. "

You breathed a huge sigh of relief. Your faith in Tom was enormous. If he said he would take care of it, he would. As rare as it was for you to ask him for help using his connections, it was even more rare for him to let you and the kids down when he said he was going to do something.

"I love you so much Tom. You have no idea how much this means to everyone, especially Ellie. I think she's the most upset. "

Ellie had heard her daddy say he would take care of it, and he heard her cheer the loudest out of everyone saying "I told you Loki is a hero! My daddy is the bestest!"

This made Tom smile. "Love, I'm going to let you go and make some calls. I'll call or text you with updates. Ok?"

You smiled, told him you loved him, and then you both hung up.

Tom called Luke immediately. "Luke, I need your help. It's an emergency for Ellie's play. Someone stole their Christmas tree. They need one for their play, and it starts at 6 pm."

Luke looked at his watch. "I'm assuming decorated as well. In 1 hour? The week before Christmas? You are not messing around. That is beyond crazy, but give me 10 minutes. I can at least make some calls and see if I can call in any favors."

"Thank you so much Luke. I really appreciate you even trying. I know it's absurd, but I can't not try. "

Luke agreed and started making calls.

Tom started to think of possible backup plans. Plastic wrap their own tree and haul it to the school? No, it was too large and awkward and would not only require at least 3 people, but he'd also need a larger vehicle, an absurd amount of plastic wrap, and there were both antique and family heirloom ornaments on the tree that were irreplaceable.

Did the tree HAVE to be decorated? Probably not, but then that wouldn't really be a Christmas tree.

By this time, he had been pacing throughout his house. It had been a very long 10 minutes. He let you know that both he and Luke were working on it.

Ben was out of town. Could he "borrow" his tree? Probably not. It was probably about the same as yours and Tom's.

Once the long 10 minutes passed, Luke called. "I'm so sorry Tom. Everyone I reached out to either didn't have anything or wouldn't be able to get it to you until late tonight. I wish there was something more I could do. "

Tom couldn't remember the last time he felt so defeated. He couldn't go back to you with bad news. He couldn't tell Ellie he had failed her. He walked into his room and fell face first on the bed, needing a minute or two to collect himself before calling you. When he sat up, something in the closet caught his eye.

"HOLY SHIT!" Tom jumped up and ran to your shared closet , reaching for the garment bag. "I know this isn't what they had in mind, but I think it just might do. "

He double checked everything was in there, or on his shoes, grabbed his coat, then texted you that he had it sorted on his way out the door.

A few minutes later, he arrived at the school and went backstage to find Ellie's teacher. He talked to her and explained everything. Her teacher laughed and said it would not only work, it would fit in with the play perfectly. She knew that he knew what to do.

He found you with a confused look on your face. "Where's the tree? I thought you said you found one? "

He chuckled to himself. "I did. I just spoke with her teacher. It's an interesting tree that needs some help, and I offered to take care of it. I hope that's ok? "

You smiled, kissed him, and gave him a big hug. "That's more than ok! You saved the play! I can even begin to thank you. "

"You might want to hold that thought until you actually see the tree. "

"Honestly, I don't care. You pulled off the impossible. Even the fact that you tried is amazing. "

You kissed him again, and then he went backstage to get ready. You were very interested to see this tree he was able to procure last minute.

You sat in the front row with the kids' grandparents. The younger class sang their Christmas carol. Byron then came and sat with you.

You were on the edge of your seat, waiting to see this mysterious Christmas tree.

Finally, the curtains opened a few moments later.

Center stage was a weird tree that looked oddly familiar. Then you saw the face of the person in the Christmas tree, and it dawned on you. It was Tom in his Christmas tree costume from his guest appearance in last night's play. You wanted to laugh so hard. It was hard to hold back until everyone else noticed what you did and started laughing. You then stopped holding back your laughter.

Not only had he found the perfect Christmas tree, but you realized it also fit in very well with Ellie's play. Not only had he found the perfect Christmas tree, but you realized it also fit in very well with Ellie's play. Ellie was so excited her daddy was on stage with her, but Tom made sure the kids received the attention. Anything he did was to support them, bring the attention back to them, or quietly comfort the children who were nervous on stage, telling them how great they were doing.

By the time the play was over, the children received 2 standing ovations. Tom even spent some time with them afterwards backstage telling one personally what they did well and how proud he was of them. He also took pictures with the kids who asked.

Many of the parents took pictures and videos of Tom dressed as a Christmas tree on stage, helping with the play and supporting the kids. It went viral!

Luke waited until the next morning and called Tom about visiting a couple of children's hospitals in the tree costume but maybe adding the Loki wig and horns. Tom loved it.

It was such a hit with the kids at the hospital. He even did a bit for a charity show raising funds for unicef.

You were so proud of your husband. He was so good at taking a stressful situation and creating calm and humor. You felt so incredibly lucky to call him yours.

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xan-from-space · 2 months

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Damn, the Ember Island Players were actually kind of radical, weren't they? The more I think about it, the more it feels like the only way it makes sense in-universe is if being Fire Nation propaganda wasn't the point of their play at all. Aside from a barely tacked on ending where Ozai kills Aang, the play is remarkably sympathetic to the Avatar and a bunch of enemies of the Fire Nation, even framing them as being heroes. Even at points in the story where theyre literally killing Fire Nation soldiers, the narrative still seems to be on their side; they're the underdogs, the relatable ones. Its true that the Fire Nation values strength, but still, you'd expect that in a propaganda play they would be portrayed as at least a little bit more sympathetic... And sure, to some extent the gaang's characters could be seen as defamatory caricutures (the slander on Iroh specifically was probably intentional), but that also might be due to the Players getting a lot of their information from the cabbage man, someone who actively hates the gaang and only ever really sees the worst of them. (And notably, that also means that the Players had worked with an Earth Kingdom merchant to produce the play.)

Mocking the gaang is also just clearly not the point of the play or what people are there for. Sokka's actor says that he's constantly being approached by fans; people genuinely love these characters. The gaang have built entire dedicated fanbases in the Fire Nation because of this play. Honestly, the fact that they're on a remote island is probably the only reason they're able to perform the play the way it is. I imagine it would get shut down pretty quickly on the mainland. Considering all the propaganda in the Fire Nation that we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the ending was only written that way because it's illegal to write a story where the Fire Lord doesnt win. The play reads less like propaganda and more like 'we're doing the bare minimum to get this story past the censors.'

I'm really curious about what it's like behind the scenes for the Ember Island Players. Are their shows just simple, shlocky entertainment, or could they also be deliberate political commentary? With no recording technology, a play is easier to slip under the radar than something like a book: it's impermanent, stays in one theatre, and performances can be easily tweaked if, say, Fire Nation royalty happens to come by. It's interesting to me that Ursa seemed to like them, while young Zuko had a disdain for them, saying they 'butchered' the story of Love Amongst the Dragons; in all likelihood the version of the story Zuko grew up with in the palace was heavily propaganda-filtered itself. Although, to be fair, they're arguably just not very good playwrights. When it comes to the characterization, I do think some of it only seems bad because we know what the actual characters are like, but a lot of it is just bad writing clearly meant for cheap entertainment. For example, they sexualize Katara quite a bit (and there's other, better analysis out there I've seen that examines how they fetishize her as a Water Tribe girl). And, of course, all of the characters are reduced to shallow and stereotypical comedy.

Still, I think they're worth commending for doing their research and telling a story about enemies of the state that's both sympathetic and surprisingly accurate to actual events, if not the characters' personalities, amidst the Fire Nation's rampant propaganda and misinformation. From the little amount of information about them we can extract from the show, they seem like honestly very interesting people. They're walking this tightrope line between being very close to the heart of the Fire Nation but also separate from it; between being cheap, inconsequential entertainment and being a source of actual news for Ember Island citizens; between telling the underdog story about a ragtag group of children and still trying to make it look like Fire Nation propaganda. I'm not trying to make any big argument on whether they were 'actually good people' or whatever, I just want to know more about them. I kind of wish we could see their production of Love Amongst the Dragons now...maybe I'll write something about them someday

#I wrote this in a haze after randomly catching the episode while my sister was watching it #I'm so fascinated by the inner lives of these people. What does it look like to write and produce these plays?#What does their day-to-day look like? How do the actors feel about their characters?#Actually if anyone has any fanfic recommendations in this vein please tell me #atla #avatar the last airbender #ember island players #the ember island players #atla analysis #zuko #uncle iroh #katara #ursa atla #cabbage man #cabbage merchant #fire nation

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