#like very physical. toph-like in his ability to sense the world through his feet (not to her extent bc he's got his vision but you get it) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

daisylovesatla · 3 years

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very rough draft of the start of a zutara fan fic

AU where Aang and Katara don't end up together cuz it doesn't make sense that it would be written that way but anyway, I wrote some pages about what would happen if Zuko's lightning bolt actually hurt him a lot more than it did...my ADHD brain can't remember where I saw that AU from but when I do I will tag u I promise...anyway it's Katara by herself at the palace healing Zuko and then the rest of the Gaang arrives from the Earth Kingdom, where Aang and Suki and Toph and Sokka were all fighting against the fire nation's ambush, cuz it would take more than like. a week probably to get to the same place as Zuko and Katara. Anyway I hope it makes sense I'm tentatively posting the first chapter in case everyone hates it but it's only 3,000 words I think.

(eta the ao3 link)

Book 4: Reconstruction...:)

Book 4: Reconstruction

I need some fresh air. She sighs to herself, rubbing her sore wrists and rising up from the cushion she was kneeling on. Keeping her eyes closed, afraid of the emotions that would flood through her if she snuck a glance at him while she wasn’t intensely focused on his injury, pouring all of her energy into that one spot, both emotional and physical.

It has been two weeks since the comet, and she has been doing all that she can to support him, to try to do something that could in some small way, return the favor for his sacrifice. As soon as her back is to Zuko’s bed, she opens her eyes, and is confronted suddenly with the bigness of this place. The tall, melodramatic metal doors that weigh way more than they need to, the beds with far away canopies rustling above them. Just the mattresses here are the size of her entire igloo back home, and even though it isn’t the first time she has been surrounded by superfluous opulence like this, something about this place feels particularly daunting.

She can sense his pulse, slow, but steady, consistent, as his blood flows through his veins and with it, water. Even when it isn’t a full moon, Katara is able to feel the water in everything, including the people she is surrounded by. She has yet to decide if it is an advantage, or only makes it harder to navigate through the world.

Her legs feel like lead, and she struggles to ignore the dryness of the room, the fires lit in their mantles 10 feet above them sucking all of the moisture out of this space, the lack of water, of that familiarity, making her feel like she is choking, as her breaths become more and more shallow and her heart continues to beat faster and faster, only worsening whenever the memories of that fateful, final Agni Kai come rushing back to her, making everything feel so much worse.

No, I can’t think about that right now. Katara closes her eyes again, and takes a deep breath, trying to replicate the breathing technique Aang taught her the first time he saw her meditating. In through my nose, out through my mouth, that’s what Aang taught me. She tries not to think much more about Aang than this. Too much has happened. Aang is expecting an answer, she is sure of it, an answer she can’t give him. Yet there is a hope swimming just below the surface in her, that this now or never attitude leading up to his battle with Ozai would no longer be there in him, that fire gone, the flames put out.

I have no answer right now, she decides, as she finally gets her legs to take the final steps towards the door. Yearning for a sense of coolness against her increasingly warm skin, she presses her hand against the door, and lets it ground her as she pushes it open, nearly jumping as it creaks and struggles to with each inch that she can shove it open. What is it with rich people and big doors? She chuckles to herself as she remembers storming Ba Sing Se, when things were so simple and yet not simple at all.

Running her fingers through her thick, curly hair trailing down her back, she sucks in all the air that she can in this hallway with much better circulation, finding it easier to keep her balance and move forward. The war may be over, but she is anticipating many battles are going to be fought in the coming weeks and months, battles over territory, freedom, the right to the throne. She has to heal Zuko so that he can advocate for himself, she determines, as she envisions Ozai’s loyal courtiers’ unfounded complaints with Zuko taking the role of the fire lord. She worries for him and she worries for herself. A water tribe peasant, Azula called her during the Agni Kai. Despite her strong demeanor, her ability to inspire other people to recognize their own worth, it is still difficult for Katara not to internalize this when she knows she is surrounded by enemies, no matter how much Iroh tries to reassure her and the rest of them that this is not the case. She has spent far too much time being attacked and assaulted by members of the Fire Nation to naively assume that with a change in power, a change in attitude amongst the people will quickly follow.

Many citizens are still loyal to Ozai. They still see her and Sokka and the rest of the Water Tribe as peasants, as savages with too much power. They are still afraid of waterbenders altogether, as gossip and rumors spread around the nation about Hama in the weeks following her imprisonment. She feels a pang of guilt for how it turned out with her. A Southern Waterbender, alive after all these years that she feared she was the last one, the only one, the one expected to carry on this legacy all by herself. Finally, somebody who understood her struggles, intrinsically, who had fought for so many years to be free, suddenly imprisoned again by people from the same nation that had stolen her away from her home, because she could not let go of her anger against them, like Jet.

She does not want to think about the revenge Hama tried to take on that people. How misdirected it was. How she never wants to be as full of rage and anger and resentment that she would start to do something as heinous.

It doesn’t change that that is how many people from the Fire Nation see her people. She can’t blame Hama for that, it would be wrong to expect any one person to be a representative for their tribe, their culture. “This is all so complicated,” Katara mutters under her breath, as she struggles to breathe, to let herself be free of these thoughts. Her anger, always there, ready to burst out from inside her in the form of an uncontrollable explosion.

Katara barely notices how far she has walked from Zuko’s room, until suddenly she hears a familiar voice call out to her. Startled, she looks up from the floor where she was mindlessly staring as she strolled and sees Sokka and Suki waving over to her from the other side of the hallway.

“Sokka! Suki!” She cries out, as she runs over to them, as fast as she can. “You’re here! You made it!” As she gets closer, she notices the crutch Sokka is leaning on, and her stomach feels like it is full of sand. “Are you okay? I can try my best to heal it, but I’m pretty worn out right now…” She glances at his bandages on his leg and starts to think up the best method for healing him after so much time has passed since his injury. “I’m sorry, I wish I had gotten to it sooner…” Katara begins, but she is interrupted by Sokka,

“Hey, it’s okay! For most of my life you haven’t been able to heal me when I get hurt, so it’s not like I’m not used to being in pain,” he teases, and then lets go of Suki who he was leaning on, as he goes to embrace Katara.

She can feel hot, somehow still dry, tears flow down her cheeks as she relaxes into this hug. While news had spread quickly from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation about Toph, Sokka, Suki, and Aang’s victory in Ba Sing Se, her stomach had been twisted with worry the entire time they had been apart. A lot of it could have been hearsay, and until she got to hug her friends and brother in person, she could not let go of her unease. Hell, the talk of Caldera City was Zuko’s honorable triumph, but nobody who knew the truth of the aftermath of this battle had let it slip to the public that Zuko was in critical condition right now. Only Iroh, Katara, and some of the servants who were helping take care of meals and other menial tasks knew. It would throw this world into even more chaos if every day citizens knew there was a chance that Zuko wouldn’t…no. I don’t want to think about that future. I simply can’t. The guilt overwhelms Katara, but she pushes these negative feelings away and struggles to focus on the present. Sokka’s voice brings her back to the present, as she can feel his quickening heartbeat against her chest, and his tears dripping onto her robe. “We were so worried about you and Zuko, Katara. I’m glad you’re okay.”

She stammers, as she realizes it’s time to break the news to a few more people, wishing Sokka hadn’t let go of her as quickly as he did. She desperately missed her brother, and they hadn’t ever been apart for this long before, in all their side journeys in the past year, and hunting trips prior to that.

“Yes, I’m ok,” she lets the words spill out of her before she has a chance to choke on them, “But, well. Zuko...Zuko got really hurt.” Immediately, she can see the blood drain from both of their faces, and she grabs their hands, trying to comfort them despite not having the ability to comfort herself. “I’m healing him, but it’s still going to take a while. We have to just wait for him to recover.” She smiles, weakly, and fears it looks more like a grimace. “I’m glad you guys are back, though. It’s just been me and Iroh watching over him since the fight.”

Suki squeezes her hand, and the sadness and sympathy mix together in the look she gives Katara. “I’m really glad you’re okay. We’re here for you guys,” her smile sweet and boring into the deepest parts of Katara as she finishes speaking. Katara is taken aback, as her skin crawls with the thought that Suki understands, already, what happened at that Agni Kai, even if she doesn’t know the full details.

Sokka furrows his brows, and she can feel his warmth and fear as he nods in agreement with Suki. “Toph and Aang are in the courtyard with the Turtleduck pond, can we go see him with them?”

Of course, a practical response from Sokka. She knows better though. He is close with Zuko in different ways than Katara, but this was crushing for him too. She tries her best to smile reassuringly, as she fights back tears that are full of frustration and fear and anger and a deep, hollow grief that she hasn’t felt since Aang was struck by Azula, what feels like years ago but was only 4 months ago. In these four months, so much has changed, including feeling ready to face Aang. That kiss, just up and leaving, wasn’t ok and Katara wasn’t going to accept any excuses about it, just apologies.

He left everyone to go off on their separate missions, never really knowing whether or not those separation missions would be worth the danger they were putting themselves in, and that blind faith she was able to put in him when they first met was starting to get really old.

“So?” Suki chimes, pulling Katara out of her own thoughts.

“Oh, sorry,” she blushes, “I spaced out for a second. Um…” she tries to come up with an excuse for her sudden zoning out. “I’m worried about leaving Zuko by himself for a long time, and it’s been about twenty minutes so, I better get back, but stop by with everyone, sure.”

Suki gives her a quick squeeze of the arm, as they both walk off a few minutes after listening to Katara’s directions. Her chest feels tight, and she turns in the opposite direction as them, going back to Zuko.

They still don’t know how he got hurt. She doesn’t want to tell them, after so many instances of Toph teasing her about Jet and Haru, and well, she doesn’t want to hear it. Especially when Toph can feel her heartbeat. That damn seismic sense, she chuckles to herself, trying to let herself joke around a little bit.

Suddenly she is back in front of the door. She tries to shake off her anxieties and pulls the door open, the cold handle no longer soothing her but sending chills down her spine. This time, she keeps her eyes open as she walks back in, and all of the feelings she had been able to push down while talking to Sokka and Suki started to bubble up to the surface again, her cheeks feeling hot and dry, too dry. She wished she could bend a cloud of mist around herself, but knew that all of her energy had to be devoted to healing Zuko.

His familiar heartbeat suddenly found itself back on her radar, and she tried to hold back her tears and desire to just collapse and give up. But it was her duty to heal him. Her duty to heal him, the Fire Lord, just like it was hers to heal the Avatar. There was no way that any Northern healer would be willing to come down to heal the Fire Lord, nor would they be able to get there in time. So even if there were people more skilled, more capable, she knew that in order to maintain balance, it was her job to keep his heart beating.

#atla zuko #prince zuko #firelord zuko #zuko and katara deserved better #avatar the last airbender #team avatar #the gaang #zutara #anti kataang #toph beifong #toph #sokka #aang #avatar fanfiction #fanfic #ao3fic #book 4: reconstruction

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veryberrybrenda · 4 years

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Unit Bravo as Team Avatar

Going off of this post bout which bender each person is

Nate/Nat=Katara

It's pretty obvious that Nate is a parental figure like Katara. They're both caring and sweet, but they're also the same in the way they'll do anything to protect their friends. There's a sweet and innocent exterior, but beneath it is a fierce warrior. Water is a good defensive, but can turn offensive real quick. Nate perfers a defensive approach, but we know that he's not afriad to use offense if necessary.

Felix/Farah=Aang

Felix can never stay still for more than a few minutes. Air is constantly moving like him. They both are quick on their feet and the most agile on the team. Aang and Felix are very trusting and wear their heart on their sleeves. They also are very empathic in that they can pick up on other people's emotions, like Felix being the only one who picked up on Adam's feelings in the LT route when not even Nate could and he's Adam's best friend. They care deeply about the ppl around them and have a strong sense of family, but they also share the pain of running away. Aang ran away from his home while Felix had to leave his mom behind in the Echo World. The way they deal with pain is similar because they both see the bright side of things and smile through the pain. Not to mention they're both well known jokers always looking for new ways to cause mischief.

Mason/Morgan=Toph

Although Mason fits the description of a fire bender better, his personality screams Toph. Mason is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to combat. He prefers to take his enemies head on like Earth benders do. Both Toph and Mason are standoffish, grumpy, and prefer alone time. They both have abnormally powerful abilities and tend to face a battle on the offensive. To add to that, they both make snarky comments.

Adam/Ava =Zuko

Not the young Zuko, more of the mature season 4 Zuko where he isn't angry all the time. Zuko is a very dynamic and goes thru many changes including learning to lower his walls down, which is exactly what Adam is doing when romancing the Detective. Zuko is the oldest one on Team Avatar and acts sorta like a dad to the gang. Adam is also the oldest member and Felix called Adam "Dad" once. Both of them are very mature and more serious than the others. They both have a defining drive to them. Honor with Zuko and duty for Adam. In addition, they both struggle immensely with inner conflict and are tense all the time. Zuko is a very versatile in combat since he also knows how to use swords and not just relying solely on his firebending. In physical (no bending) combat, he's the best one on the team. Adam's speciality is combat and both him and Zuko are precise in their strikes.

#the wayhaven chronicles #avatar #team avatar #twc #twc spoilers #twc book 2 #unit bravo

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rays-animorphs · 2 years

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Book 10 Part 5 (final)

na na na na na na na na na na Bat Marco!

<Next I want to try jumping out of a plane. Without a parachute.> Didn’t Marco already fall from a spaceship two miles in the air, in 7.5? Or was that someone else?

Well, the bat morph can’t possibly be worse than the termites.

“If you forgot about the leathery wings, it was just another basic mammal.” Sky puppy.

OK, but sound is physical, so if the wires would get set off by even the lightest of touches, isn’t there potentially some risk they would get set off by sound too?

I’m figuring Toph’s earth-bending “sight” (Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender) is very much like echolocation.

Echolocation is the coolest freaking sense I am so happy that they’re doing bats.

<Thanks, Darth.> Wow, Cassie can get snarky with Marco too.

I’m also very much getting Parker (Leverage) vibes from this scene. Parker would be so happy. Being able to dodge through wires far closer than what she can avoid in human form.

Plus she’d have to try a peregrine falcon morph.

(Edit: seriously though, Parker + Animorphs would be really fun. Possible Parker as a teenager, although goodness knows there's a lot of humor in adult-Parker just...rolling with treating a bunch of 13 year olds as being on her level. I mean, we know Parker loves jumping off buildings more than anything else. And we also know from the cheerleader episode that Parker has no sense of what's a normal, acceptable level of risk for teenagers to be taking... I don't think we'd even need the rest of the Leverage crew, just Parker. Turning into spiders and falcons and bats that can fly through tightly-packed wires.)

Why are all of them going through the wires? Surely one would be enough.

They can’t pick up the frikking crystal.

…bats can’t grab things with their feet? Don’t they hang upside down?

OK, but they don’t even consider just getting out alive again without the crystal and trying again the next day with a new plan or whatever? I realize there’s a time constraint. But “not dying” should be at least a consideration.

…eh, I guess an elephant might have trouble fitting through spaces. I’m still kinda sad we don’t see the elephant regularly any more though.

(re: Ax fighting as himself because of his tail) These kids live in a world with guns. I mean, I’m not saying I’d rather read a story about gun battles. But you’d think “steal some Dracon beams” or “steal regular guns” would be somewhere on these kids’ list of possibilities. And yet the premise of the book is that being able to turn into a grizzly bear is more useful, in a fight, than actual weapons.

Of course, the ability to heal from any injury that doesn’t immediately kill you is a huge plus.

They still need to learn what Hork-Bajir smell like. This is getting ridiculous.

Speaking of guns.

“She got a grip on herself while the guy who had spoken out decided he was not interested in explaining anything to Visser Three.”

Visser Three: why does no one ever tell me anything, it is a mystery. Maybe it is because I’m surrounded by incompetents. Yeah, that’s probably it.

(A lot of stories have this trope, but Animorphs really hammers it into the ground. I think it works, thematically. Evil Containing The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction or something. Yo he visto al águila herida/Volar al azul sereno/Y morir en su guarida/La víbora del veneno. (English: something like "I have seen the wounded eagle flying in the calm blue sky, and the viper die in its den from its own venom.))

They’re not worried about the crystal getting destroyed by being dropped or whatever? OK.

Yeah, two dozen Hork-Bajir does sound like quite a lot, especially if they’re supposed to be some of the best.

(Marco getting eviscerated) yikes.

I just want to reiterate that Marco is not even remotely a coward.

I don’t have enough suspension of disbelief to accept the idea that an android designed for peaceful purposes is somehow coincidentally capable of taking out most of a couple dozen Hork-Bajir plus some number of humans in ten seconds flat, just as long as his programming allows him to commit murder. I don’t.

 Reattached…yikes, wow, ok then.

So… I guess the morph healing doesn’t work on your original form then? You go back to whatever state your body was previously in?

“How do you… how do you live with the memory?” I mean, kitchen sink sci fi, but also horror.

… OK, so, that was a heavy ending. Uh. Yeah. Going to take some time to process. Wow.

Yeah, it was Marco that fell from the spaceship two miles above ground with Ax.

#animorphs read-through #animorphs book 10 #animorphs the android

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 6 years

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I’ll Meet You At The Bottom (Part 23)

*Stands in parking lot and waits for ass kicking*

Azula refused to acknowledge the kiss, every time he’d ask about it she would switch the subject—usually to some complaint of a headache. And mercifully the gang chose not to bring it up again. But Sokka thought about it. He thought about it a lot during the passing days. And he didn’t know how to feel about it. She was a little awkward…a lot awkward actually. He imagined that a kiss initiated by Ruby Tears couldn’t be anything but weird. He somehow got the sense that she would be an awkward kisser even with a sharp mind. Regardless it was somewhat pleasant, for as little experience as the princess had with romance she was surprisingly good…and shockingly gentle. He told himself that he wouldn’t want it to happen again, after all she was just a—well he didn’t know what she was yet. But ‘romantic partner’ didn’t seem like an appropriate title.

The rest of the month passed before the cactus juice had left the princess completely. She filled the hole it left with Ruby Tears and Sokka was helpless to keep her from doing so. With the cactus juice out of the way, she had made a habit of taking at least a pinch of Dragon’s Breath every day. She was only making it harder on herself when the day came to start cleaning herself of it. But any vocalization of such was met with a vicious glare.

While she suffered out loud, he suffered in silence. He was horrified to admit that he debated asking Azula if he could try the Ruby Tears just once. He didn’t want to put himself down that path though, so he would ignore his troubles to the best of his ability. He didn’t speak to anyone else of it either. With Zuko finally putting in some effort into helping Azula, he didn’t want to take the focus from her. It didn’t help that he didn’t quite know what had him in distress this time.

So the wall and his knuckles took most of the abuse.

.oOo.

Comparatively speaking, the month had been kind to Azula. It would seem that she was no longer completely unpleasant to be around, she was more or less a minor annoyance. Their tolerance of her, their willingness to converse with her took the sharpest stings away. It gave her something to take her mind off of the physical.

Toph seemed to be the fondest of her. The firebender assumed that it was because she provided the earthbender with many night’s worth of comedy. She wasn’t particularly thrilled that Sokka was brining her out when she was over-the-roof high and even less so that he wasn’t trying to keep her in check. But whether she liked it or not, she craved the company and attention almost as much as the tears themselves.

Whether she liked it or not, she decided that Sokka’s ridiculous friends were pretty alright. She hadn’t mean for it but with new people to speak with, for those few remaining weeks of the month she talked to Sokka less.

More than anyone else, she talked to Zuko. It sent a jab in her chest to see him tense up when she approached. The month was drawing to a close and he still did it. They all—save for Sokka—usually did to varying degrees. They still didn’t trust her anymore than she trusted them. She didn’t quite understand their fear as they all had the upper hand this time around; in numbers and energy to fight, but more so in that they had leverage. Anyone of them could leak her secret and ruin her completely, sending another tingle of annoyance at Sokka for letting it out in the first place.

It never seemed to help her hold her tongue though.

Azula tossed her bag of Ruby Tears from one hand to the next. With the exception of Zuko, everyone was less uneasy when she was on them. It made her less out of place around them, she could say that for certain. She was under the impression that they only liked her when she was high.

Just another reason she couldn’t bring herself to let go of them.

So when Katara told her that she was at least three days out of cactus juice detox, she pretended not to believe it.

She was laying down another trail of Ruby Tears to sniff up—a larger douse, she was going to go out in one last spectacular display—when Sokka kicked the door in. The man had been in a cranky state lately and was almost making her look cheerful. His sour mood might have aided in making her seem more sociable to the group. She ought to thank him. “My door has never hurt you.” She commented.

“And your vase never hurt you.” He grumbled.

“Actually, it was saying some pretty awful things.” She declared.

“You said you would stop.” He shouted, storming over to the powder on her dresser. For a moment she thought he would brush it away—he hadn’t grown that brave yet.

“I’m going to.” She replied, “eventually.”

“No. You said that you would start detoxing on the tears after you finished with the cactus juice.”

“I never specified how long after.” She countered. Even in saying so she felt trashy and weak-willed. The intensity of Sokka’s glower amplified the feeling tenfold. She wrapped her arms around herself and sat upon the bed. Usually he at least tried to hide his disgust, this time he wore it so plainly.

For a blissful few weeks she had allowed herself to forget the dangers. But, just like that everything that rattled her nerves came slamming back. Minho died with bloodshot eyes and yellowing blotchy skin. A quick glance at her arms revealed that she was much closer to that hue than she had been a month ago. She swallowed, she hadn’t gotten that much worse had she? Just as daunting as that was the notion of another withdrawal seizure. She wondered if she could die while detoxing, such hadn’t occurred to her before. But at this rate, with breaths growing hard to catch, a body growing sparser and fragile still, and energy becoming scarcer than ever she was heading there anyhow.

“Oh relax,” she played it off with a nervous laugh and a contradictory languid flick of her bangs. She missed having the length to twirl them around her pointer. “It just so happens, that this is going to be the last time.”

“It better be.” Sokka muttered.

“Or what?” She rolled her eyes. “What’s your problem.”

“I don’t have a problem.” He replied much to quickly and at a pitch that indicated exactly the opposite. “You have a problem.”

Wiping some of the powder from her nose, she responded, “clearly.” Returning the pouch to its spot in the dresser she added, “but that doesn’t mean you can’t have one too.”

“I’m fine.”

Azula shrugged, “if you say so.” She didn’t believe him in the slightest. Better than anyone perhaps, she knew that ‘I’m fine’ indicated a world of unresolved issues. But in minutes her mind would be too dim to offer him anymore than nonsense. Even if it weren’t so, she couldn’t imagine herself being helpful anyhow. “Well you have an air monk to talk to if you decide that you aren’t.”

“And what will you be doing?” He asked, “every single time I leave you alone you almost get yourself killed.” He huffed.

Azula frowned. “So dramatic. I’ve been managing just fine without you lately.”

“Great, glad to know I’m useless to you.”

.oOo.

Now that she was getting back on her feet, Sokka found himself wishing that he could knock her down again. It wasn’t that he wanted to hurt her. He just wanted to feel important. He wanted her to cave in and take the tears more just so he could have someone to depend on him again.

She was making it plenty obvious that once the tears were out of his life, so would he. And he didn’t want to lose her.

“Well now that you’re all packed up, have fun with your trip.” Sokka snarled. He was teetering so close to the edge. “If you need anything you can talk to the air monk.” She snarled at the way he threw her words back at her.

Even so, she replied, “I didn’t say that I didn’t want you here.”

Through the angry thoughts whirring in his head, he didn’t hear her. He stormed away, knowing very well that he was being irrational and inconsistent. He didn’t know how he’d react if she followed him, but she didn’t give him the chance to find out.

The part of him that wasn’t seeing red was screaming for him to go back. To make sure she rode this trip out safely. Deep down he knew that the odds were high that he had just set her up for a bad one. The darker side of him said that, that was good maybe she’d decided to quit once and for all. The darkest side of him hoped that it wouldn’t be enough.

He could still go back.

He should.

Instead he stomped down the hall, dwelling on how little he meant to the princess after all. He had been a means to an end and now that she had other people, she didn’t need him. Even when he didn’t lose people, he lost them. He paused to swiftly kick the wall, jumping up and clutching is toe with a howl of pain. Awful idea, that was.

“You okay?” Zuko asked.

Sokka rubbed the back of his head and forced a smile. “Yeah, just stubbed my toe.”

“You seem…off, Sokka.” He noted.

“Really, I’m okay. I’m just a bit stressed.”

“Azula?”

“Yeah.” He lied. He would let everyone think that she was most of the problem. It was easier. It was believable.

“She’s a handful, trust me, I know.” Zuko laughed. “You can always send her by one of us if she starts to bother you too much.”

Sokka cringed. The last thing he wanted to do was hand off his only means of feeling reliable. “She sees you guys plenty.”

Zuko nodded. “Yeah, thanks to you. You got her to let down a few walls.” He smiled. “I think you’re very good for her. She needs influence like yours, ya know?”

Sokka gave the most ingenuine laugh he’d ever heard. “Yeah.” At the same time as Zuko helped him feel reassured, he highlighted the more alarming of his thoughts. The selfishness of wanting regretting that he’d helped her build a bigger support system. She was right, he did have a problem. He just didn’t know what it was.

.oOo.

Azula had one more rational though before succumbing. One that she knew she would both regret terribly and thank herself for at the same time.

She took the pouch back out of her dresser. Biting her cheek with force enough to coax and explosion of copper in her mouth, she set the tears aflame. She shook as she watched blue consume it until it was nothing more than a heap of ash in her palm.

She had successfully took the option of failure from herself.

In the same way that it made her feel bold and assured…worthwhile, it made her want to weep and sapped the courage right out of her.

Things weren’t so bad at first. For some time she sat on the balcony and watched constellations glitter over an afternoon sky that shifted in flashes of tie-dye multi-color. She swayed from side to side because the motion soothed her in some way or another. It also helped her marvel at the ever-shifting skies from multiple perspectives. She decided to look down to where the palace gardens. Each blade of grass was a new fragment in a kaleidoscope of that changed with each gust of wind. She followed the patters to a pond made of pure crystal.

She would go to it. She wanted to see if the goldfish were actually gold.

As quietly as she could, she crept out of her room. With any luck, none of the palace staff would try to talk to her. She wasn’t too worried, they hadn’t tried in the last few weeks, always waiting for her to address them first.

She was stopped only once by a servant who had been working for her for ages—the name was lost in a tangle of sensory bombardments. The woman stated that she liked her haircut. Azula was pleased with the compliment but didn’t trust herself enough to speak, so she nodded and moved on, pleasantly surprised with her ability to use at least a hint of logic.

Azula flopped down on her stomach and dipped her fingers in the water. She let them dangle, dipping them further in when she found a goldfish. If she could only touch it, then she’d know if it was really gold.

Her serenity and curiosity came to a rude end as an entirely different sensation erupted over her hand. She had let it linger in the water for too long, her hand was beginning to crystalize. With a soft yelp, that went unnoticed, she yanked it out of the water. But the blight still spread, trailing down her arm. A bead of nervous sweat trickled down her forehead, she had to stop it, she couldn’t let it fan out any further. She wandered away from the palace. She had been there a thousand times and yet she didn’t know where she was anymore. Shakily and aimlessly she shuffled down the capital street. By now the crystal was at her elbow, it was spreading too fast. She passed by many people who looked completely unconcerned about her condition.

Many of the people she rushed passed she had never encountered in her life. But Agni, they seemed so inexplicably familiar. The woman with the freckles and the mole on the corner of her mouth, Azula felt like she knew her but at the same time registered that she couldn’t possibly.

By the time she reached coronation temple she felt completely helpless, with the ruby now at her shoulder. She sought out the nearest pillar, leaned against it, and slid to the floor with her head in her hands. She could feel the roughness of the ruby against her ear.

“Princess?”

She didn’t recognize him. She thought that she should have, but she didn’t.

“Help me?” It was somewhere between a command and a question making her sound as confused as she was. She held out her ailed hand. The man must have thought she wanted help up, for he took her wrist and pulled until she was on her feet. “No, no, that’s no what I meant. It’s spreading.”

The man sighed. “You wandered pretty far from the palace, haven’t you?” She couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or alarmed. He reminded her faintly of Ozai so she walked silently and wearily behind him. What if he was Ozai? But then, she’d have recognized him.

He was true to his word, and she was back in the palace. There she could spy some faces she did know. She hustled past Sokka, he was mad at her, he wouldn’t help. But Zuko was there. Zuko was there and looked at her with such relief.

With the wide eyes of a child she tugged at Zuko’s sleeve. “Zu-Zu? Zu-Zu, you have to make it stop. I can’t get it to stop.” Pulling him closer and shaking him once or twice she shoved her arm in his face. “Make it stop.”

For a moment he still didn’t pay her any attention. “Thanks for finding her, Xanu.”

“That girl causes me a lot of trouble. More trouble than she’s worth.” Still she couldn’t figure out how he felt about her. “She’s going to hurt someone. If not, herself. You really should consider putting her back in the…you know.”

Taking her into his arms, Zuko replied. “We can take care of her just fine.”

“We have different definitions of fine, Fire Lord.” Xanu noted.

“I’ll keep a better eye on her.” Zuko promised. “I thought that Sokka was.”

“You better. I might not happen upon her next time.”

The princess continued to eye Zuko with a sense of antsy urgency. Once again she practically rammed her arm into his face, “make it stop.” She didn’t know how he couldn’t see it—the rubies had taken over parts of her neck and chest.

“It’s going to kill me, I’m going to die.” She whispered to herself.

“Here, let me see it.” Katara offered.

She extended her arm for the waterbender who pretended to inspect it. With more care than perhaps, Azula deserved, Katara muttered, “ah yes, I think I see the problem.” Azula nodded, happy to know that someone else could spy the conundrum.

“It’s nothing that a little waterbending can’t fix.” She gave a soft smile.

“Okay.” Azula agreed, suddenly water was her favorite thing. Her own next plan was to burn the rubies off. To the utter amazement of everyone else, she snuggled up against Katara.

.oOo.

Again Sokka found himself at odds with himself. Only a week or two ago he had longed for Azula to show them her soft side and now that she was he felt nothing but envy. And he had now one but himself to blame. He pushed her away…again, and she found someone else to rely on.

“That’s kind of adorable.” Aang snickered as Toph whispered, “sweet, sweet blackmail.”

Sokka peered at his sister and the firebender in her arms, “I can help too?”

Azula eyed him with what could only be suspicion.

“Please let me help.” He requested.

“Do you want to take her to her room and make sure she stays there?” Zuko asked.

Sokka nodded very quickly.

“Sokka’s going to take you back to your room.” Katara walked Azula over to him.

“No, Sokka doesn’t like me.” She insisted.

“That’s not true!” He shouted, causing her to flinch back.

“Not so loud.” Zuko hissed.

“Sorry.” Sokka muttered. He was so frustrated, he just wanted to help like before. He tried to take her hand but she snatched it away.

“Maybe you should leave it to Katara and Zuko this time.” Aang suggested.

“Yeah, you pissed her off or something.” Toph added. “You’re really good at bothering people.” Realizing that she actually struck a nerve she muttered an apology and a, “you’re pretty okay most of the time.”

“I just want to help.” He sighed.

“You already have, you’ve helped her a lot.” Aang pointed out. “You were the first person to help her. She’s just having a bad reaction, talk to her when she’s…herself again.”

Sokka ran a hand through his hair, this time she was right there and he still couldn’t comfort her or do anything but watch her fall. “Fine, I’ll be in my room.”

That night he finished the painting.

.oOo.

Azula lie on her bed, mostly running her hand over her arm savoring the feeling of soft but dry flesh. For all of the flaws her skin acquired she was happy to have it instead of the rubies. She may have let herself grow too relaxed for she could feel herself ebbing away from her body. Zuko rubbed vertically over her back but the sensation was growing faint as her body grew more foreign. She could see things from a birdseye view; Katara next to her possibly talking to her, but equally as likely talking to Zuko. She could see herself, but her mind didn’t know quite what to picture so she just saw a woman familiar yet strange. A famished, sickly looking thing that resembled her but only just so.

Her cheeks feeling wetter.

A hand came to dry them.

When she slammed back into her body, she crashed hard.

Not at first, but something like an hour later. The first thing she found when in her physical form was the distinct feeling of an extra arm protruding from the one that was formerly gemstone. She had no control over this arm and it poked and nudged her incessantly.

Zuko noted her discomfort first. “Are you in pain?”

She shook her head and rolled onto her side, crushed under her bodyweight, the extra arm dissipated. Azula sat up again, she was restless, she needed to move. Katara tried to hold her down. She had a feeling she wouldn’t make it through the door this time so she took to pacing. Pacing and pacing and pacing and then pacing some more until her attention found something else.

As it usually did, the mirror provided her with a view she was ill-acquainted with. This time she could barely say that the woman she saw was Azula. This woman had a slight, otherworldly shimmer to her skin. And her hair. Her hair was the color of wheat; she’d never seen hair that color before. She combed her fingers through it, sometimes it looked golder other times it was a sandier shade. Her eyes were different too, darker, sometimes flashing blue. Who was she?

She was Azula.

But she was someone entirely different?

Azula didn’t quiet make it to the bed, before slumping over with the distinct feeling that one of her hands was slightly smaller than it should be. It looked right but felt weirdly disproportionate. Her head lolled. Zuko lifted her into her bed, something she attributed to being able to hover.

Too much.

She had taken too much.

But of what?

#Sokkla #Azula #Sokka #Zuko #Katara #Aang #Toph #Avatar #Fanfiction

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dalekofchaos · 4 years

Text

Aang should have been able to have an offensive specialized form of Airbending, to go along with Zuko’s Lighting Bending, Katara’s Bloodbending and Toph’s Metalbending. Aang should have had an episode to establish that he developed the ability to Soundbend. What it could’ve been is this. Use it to increase or soften noises, creating sonic blasts or stealth movements. A snap could cause a sonic boom and so on. Or hell let’s go by the fanon Soundbending article.

Soundbending is a special subset of techniques within Airbending that allows an Airbender to sonokinetically generate sound waves and manipulate already existing ones as they travel through the air.

The key to Soundbending is a combination of flexibility and endurance, finding and following the path of resistance as well as enduring enemies' attacks until the right opportunity to counterattack reveals itself, then striking with unyielding force. Soundbending's strength is its offensive capabilities which, rather than supporting a separate set of defensive methods, are transformed into defenses and opposition - offense into defense. Soundbenders can overwhelm many opponents at once with large and powerful attacks that could prove fatal; however due to the pacifist nature of the Air Nomads such attacks are rarely used. Just like Waterbending and Earthbending, Soundbending has a distinct use of offense and defense. Instead of sacrificing defense for more powerful offensive tactics or allowing defense to become offense, Soundbending transforms offense into defense, utilizing positive and negative jing.

Soundbending Abilities

Sound Manipulation: By using circular movements, Soundbenders build up massive inertia; this buildup of energy is released as a massive, overwhelming power. It also allows for counterattacks that blast opponents away, mimicking the explosive power of sound waves. Attacks vary from simple noises to shock-waves. Even a simple movement can create an noise, and Soundbenders increase the power of their moves by using the momentum of their movement to simulate louder and more powerful sounds. This is also demonstrated with their use of staffs or fans to increase or create precision within the sound waves. Since sound can affect almost all physical objects, it can also be used to enforce the momentum of thrown objects or manipulate other objects (though requiring a higher degree of precision).

Sound Walls: A Soundbender can create a wall of sound that is thrust at an enemy. This is used to push attacks aside and more often is converted into a defense, allowing them to turn the movement into an defensive ploy at the same moment.

Sound Barrier: This is a more powerful offensive technique where an entire area around a Soundbender is surrounded by a dome of sound. It is used for offense, a large-scale hemispherical sound wall, and it can be used for defense.

Sound Blast: A offensive move involving a direct pulse or jet of noise from the hands or feet. The force of the attack is generated more from the bender's own power rather than assisted by momentum. This direct blast can reach further with greater accuracy and is used to inflict greater damage.

Sound Punch/Kick: Another offensive move, Sound punches or Sound kicks are small, compressed formations of Sound that can be fired off the fists or feet of a Soundbender. This is similar to the Sound blast yet in the sense that it involves the firing of compressed sound at an enemy in a non-continuous fashion i.e. the bender does not create a single great stream of sound.

Sound Swipe: The Sound Swipe is a dual defensive and offensive technique in which an Soundbender conjures a crescent-moon shaped construct of sound capable of deflecting colossal projectiles; (such as the catapulted flaming rocks often used by the Fire Navy ships) and sending them off-course. In some instances these projectiles can be redirected back at the attacker.

Sonic Scream: Very similar to a standard Sound blast but created from the mouth and lungs. It requires extremely good breath control to employ effectively. Size and focus is more easily controlled, including narrow jets that can strike targets as small as insects, to large shock-waves capable of shattering objects as hard as metal.

Multiple Target Attacks: A Soundbender can send large, wide-spanning waves of sound towards multiple enemies with one long, sweeping motion from an Airbending staff or from the bender's limbs.

Sound Scooter: The Sound Scooter, a form of ground transportation, is a spherical "ball" of sound that can be ridden balancing on it like a top. The Sound Scooter is also shown to be capable of levitating in the air for short periods.

Soundbending Master Level

Sound Vortex: A spinning funnel of sound of various sizes. This can be used to trap and disorient opponents or as a potent defense since it will deflect and repel any objects and can even throw them back at an opponent.

Sound Wake: By running in a circle and instantly building huge momentum, a master Soundbender can shoot a blast of compressed sound shaped like the user's body at a target. This move has great concussive force.

Sound Blades: An offensive move; this involves a focus slicing sound wave that can cut through stone or timber with relative ease. This is frequently conjured with a staff rather than the body, using the narrow profile of the object to create a more focused and precise sound vibrations. This move could prove fatal if used on an individual.

Sound Spout: Similar to the Water Spout, master Soundbenders are able to rotate and control the direction of the Sound Spout enough to levitate them off the ground and remain in the Sound for as long as they wish to or can maintain it.

Sound Concussor: The Sound concussor is a highly destructive move (atypical for Air Nomad principle) in which an Soundbender creates (with use of a staff) a thin wave of Sound that travels quickly along the ground, releasing a near-explosive power when coming into contact with anything in its path. The Sound concussor is even able to run along water before destroying its target.

Mini-shock-waves: This is a smaller scaled version of the Sound vortex which Soundbending masters can use as a means of both combat and transport. By encircling themselves in a spiraling shock-wave, masters can travel at high speeds and even ascend near vertical drops.

Special Techniques

Sonar Sense: Skilled Soundbenders are able to sense vibrations through the air, "seeing" by sensing their surroundings and making a mental image of it. It allows for 360 degree "vision", outside of normal line-of-sight. During his training, Aang also developed this ability; he is the only known human to use this technique. Aang used this during a four-way training section with Toph, Katara, and Zuko. Sonar sense can be made so acute that it is capable of sensing even the sounds of ants moving about can identify people by the way they talk. When used in conjecture with Toph's Seismic Sense, the user can effectively see the world around perfectly.

Sound Dampening: Adept Soundbenders can mask any sounds they make which allow them to sneak up on opponents, or make private conversations in a consolidated area. Also they can dampen the sounds of others so an enemy is unable to alert others of the soundbender's presence.

Avatar Level Soundbending

Augmented Soundbending Moves: While in the Avatar State, all of the previously discussed Soundbending moves are generally augmented making them far more powerful in an Avatar than even a bending master.

Shock-waves: In addition to very large and powerful noises, an Avatar level bender can create massive shock-waves at will.

Sound Sphere: Similar to the Air Sphere, this powerful defense surrounds the bender in a sphere of spinning sound that deflects anything coming in at them, levitate across varied distances and can even disintegrate the ground beneath them.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Aang #Airbending #Soundbending #Air Bending #Sound Bending #Avatar Aang

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