Chapter 9: Catty Corners
Things were proceeding well, Azula had to think. She had not truly gotten closer to convincing Toph to free her, but she was definitely winning sympathy. The blind girl had gotten her the candle clock, even if it was in those… particular colors. Deliberately, she had no doubt. She was using it to time how long her conversations with Toph went. As week piled on week, they trended upward towards an hour. An hour each time, two visits a week. That was a serious investment of time. Azula was not the best at 'playing nice' but it seemed obvious to her that Toph was getting more invested than she had intended.
The problem was, Azula did not know how to use it. Toph rightfully saw power as the only way to have freedom. Zuko had talked to her about how power wasn't everything, about how a kind heart mattered more, but he was literally the Fire Lord. The Avatar hadn't… beaten Father and stolen away his Bending because they'd had a heart-to-heart, his kind heart… eugh.
No, he'd used his greater power to take something that--
The thought of losing her Bending actually made Azula start to see things again for a time, imagining Zuko coming and saying that once he freed her from bending, she wouldn't be a threat and he could let her go. She'd burned the walls, though she'd made sure not to hit any of the furniture.
The Avatar was all about naked power, used not for the goals of the Fire Nation and civilization, but to oppress it. That, or so the history books said, was what Roku did. He used crude displays of power to protect the backward customs of the Earth Kingdom. Not 'abuses' of power, because that implied the Avatar should be allowed to exist, holding the Fire Nation down. The Avatar could not 'abuse' its power, for the Avatar's power was not meant to exist.
Power was everything.
But Toph didn't want what power got her - except in the sense of freedom - she just wanted power. She'd Bend to Bend to Bend. It was oddly pure in a way, but even if she was willing in a moment of weakness to make an offer she'd of course have to go back on, she knew that being the vassal lord of the Earth Protectorate or anything like that wouldn't appeal to her. As a solution, it was already more power than the Fire Nation would ever want to give up, but she would presumably actively hate the idea of being made to do paperwork.
Though to be fair, Azula had hardly enjoyed paperwork either: she'd been perfect at it, as she was at everything, but sometimes this involved just burning the paperwork and interrogating the person who sent it to get the details.
So what could she actually offer that would make Toph want to sign up for taking over the world and ruling it?
Azula didn't actually know. If she tried to talk to Toph about fighting the Avatar or… that Waterbender, she'd no doubt say she could spar with them anytime she wanted. She hadn't expressed interest in teaching other people to Metalbend - and besides it was already going to be difficult enough to figure out how to control the world and defeat the Avatar without the Earthbenders getting some brand new techniques.
But at the same time… what she actually needed to think about now was what was in front of her. If she could escape, then she could figure out how to win other games at that point.
Which all led to a simple fact: she mostly just talked to Toph. Sometimes they argued, and, once in the three weeks after Toph had 'gifted' her with those dull books that nonetheless were better than the alternative, Toph had stormed out only once. And then she'd come back, the next time she was 'due' for a meeting.
She hadn't apologized, but then Azula wasn't sorry for what she said either. Neither of them really 'did' apologies.
The weeks ground on, and the conversations continued.
*
Another day, another nickname. This one was even more uninspired than usual. ("Hey, Hairpin.")
But the actual different thing was when, in the middle of a story, she heard a distressingly familiar clank and a sip. Also distressingly familiar.
"Did you bring tea?" Azula asked, horrified and furious and not at all sure why.
"I was thirsty," Toph said. "If you want some, I can get it sent in or whatever."
"Why would I ever want to drink any tea?" Azula asked, wrinkling her nose. She had made it one of those requirements to be among 'her set' that you were not going to talk about or drink tea in her presence. It was, she'd said, tainted by the Earth Kingdom. But even she was aware enough to know that only a brainless sycophant could think that, when the Fire Nation too had a long-standing tea tradition.
It didn't matter, because the Fire Nation had once had a long standing tradition of pathetic deference to the Avatar. The Fire Nation had a lot of worthless traditions, on top of the ones that made them the greatest of all Nations.
Tea was not one of the great traditions.
"Hate tea? Is everyone in your stupid family weird at tea?" Toph asked.
"What?" Azula asked, her voice absolutely flat.
"Well, Zuko likes tea now but always makes it more than it is, a good drink or whatever, and Iroh carries around a tea set to have tea and give advice to random strangers who knock him over," Toph said.
"That last one…" Azula began, trying to keep from tearing Toph apart. The problem was, she had a scheme and also didn't know if she could even successfully do it.
"It wasn't that long after I joined the Avatar. I got into a fight with Katara, and we were angry at each other because you kept on tracking us because of Appa shedding fur, and… all of that. I stormed off on my own."
If only she had stayed stormed off. By this point she was pretty sure the Avatar would have been doomed without Toph.
"So I eventually ran across him and knocked him down and he treated me to tea," Toph said, as if daring Azula to blow up at that.
"And what, he gave you a bunch of advice?" Azula asked, with a snort.
"Basically, yeah," Toph said. "He and Zuko had split up, arguing about something--"
Another moment of vulnerability she had not been able to exploit, apparently.
"I didn't even know who he was, and I didn't really care. We had tea and talked. Honestly, I don't think he knew anything about me either, but he said," and she actually tried to do the stupid voice, that high and mighty 'sage' thing Iroh said, "Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's delights."
Azula wanted to hurt someone. By this point the fire was in her hands and there was nobody for her to hit. "Of course he gave you advice. He's the world's Uncle," she sneered, because she could just imagine it. She hadn't wanted advice or help from a washed up failure like him, but then he'd only tried a few times before she'd managed to drive him away, and make sure she didn't get on the wrong side of Father.
Toph snorted, "You… you
really hate him." She was laughing.
"What, you're not going to defend him like you do Zuzu?"
"Honestly, he can fight his own battles or whatever. I like the guy, and I'm glad he and Zuko worked it out and all of that, but he's not here," Toph said, and those words felt as if they were more than they seemed. Azula didn't know how. "If he wants to defend himself to you, he can try. Or whatever messed up family stuff you have going between you."
"You talked to Iroh, surely you have a picture," Azula said. "No doubt a lying picture, but art so often lies."
"And I can't see, so if they painted me a picture I didn't notice," Toph said. "I know the basics, but honestly haven't heard anything about you and Iroh."
"Because there is
nothing to tell about," Azula said, gritting her teeth and trying to find a way to attack her back. But the problem was, if she told Toph that the Beifong family was a bunch of worthless morons, she'd agree. If she threatened to kill them, Toph wouldn't like it, sure. But she wouldn't be scared or angry, she'd just shoot back that Azula was the one in prison.
"We were, we are, nothing to each other. Well, I see him as a fat, stupid, sentimental fool and he knows me as a monster he hopes is vanquished… but that's nothing," Azula said. The truth was, she would have been willing to let him go on being a worthless old man if he hadn't betrayed the Fire Nation.
Let him drink his tea and tell his stupid jokes and ramble about music. Let Zuko be the official second heir, behind her, until… some sort of marriage and kids and all sorts of other things she didn't care to think about bumped him out of the spot. Let all of that happen, and she would have shrugged and cared about more important things like the triumph of the Fire Nation.
But that was the kind of dream only a stupid child would have thought worthwhile. She only had that dream for a year or two. The dream that she could just assume they would stay out of her way.
She glared at the door, but doused her flames, as she heard more clatter and sipping, Toph now clearly drinking so fast she could be slurping. Though she wasn't. "Yeah, I get what you mean. Wouldn't really know, of course. My Uncles mostly were just stupid jerks."
"You had more than one of them?" Azula asked with a sneer. "I assume they were all power-hungry?"
"Probably. I remember them talking with Father about this and that and how their kids would inherit when he died," Toph said, distractedly. "At tea ceremonies and stuff. I didn't like the ceremony, but eventually I started liking the tea." Her voice had gone slightly soft, the way she got when she was saying something that actually mattered to her. It wasn't often. It always made Azula want to attack the vulnerability. But even when she did, it often turned out that Toph had some joke or insult to lash right back. She was vulnerable in moments like that, but no doubt there was a Jing for what she'd done herself that one time, when fighting against everyone in that dead village.
It felt more real than that. But not that much more real. "Why?" Azula asked, her voice sharp. Tea was disgusting, and she knew it wasn't just her dislike of Iroh speaking.
"Oh, I don't know, the flavor?" Toph asked. "Duh."
"Dirty leaf water is your kind of thing? Just because you're an Earthbender…"
"Oh, you probably didn't know. I have dirt on my feet all the time, and am fine with a healthy coating of earth. I'm
exactly that kinda earthbender," Toph shot back. "But come on, I could get you some tea, and you could put fire flakes in it and keep on being a jerk about it." But she seemed eager, and she knew what that was like, when you just wanted to have a fight. Azula had an idea of how to further her scheme while giving her what she wanted.
Another story. This one, she'd almost forgotten.
"I've done that before," Azula said.
"Be a jerk? Yeah, I noticed," Toph shot back.
"No, it was a year and a half before Zuko got himself exiled. Uncle asked Zuko to go to tea with him, and Zuko didn't want to but eventually agreed." She remembered it, the anger and frustration, the seething resentment. Obviously she hadn't wanted to be invited anyway and would have refused and made sure to be extra mean. But it still annoyed her. "So I snuck into his place and put fire flakes in all the teas he'd set out to show Zuko."
Toph laughed at that, and it was the kind of laugh that was filled with a familiar sort of glee. Ty Lee's laughs were mirthful, joyous at the existence of the world in some way that Azula was not quite able to comprehend but understood was foolish.
Toph's laugh was a little bit like hers. It was about the world being absurd and stupid and worth laughing at. It was about being the last to laugh, and therefore laughing hardest, even when the worthless losers--like, say, firebenders three years older than her who'd just lost a four on one contest to her--were trying to keep from crying.
"Zuko came back after complaining that Iroh had told him he was trying out spicy teas now," Azula said, and she laughed herself.
"Huh. Y'know, I bet he knew. Iroh, that is," Toph said, still chuckling. "If he was a big ol' General back then, who else would dare to prank him and Zuko?"
"So, what, you think it's more likely he knew and was just playing along, as opposed to being a senile old man?" Azula asked, sharply.
"Kinda, yeah," Toph said, and she could all but imagine the shrug. "He disagrees with you about the Fire Nation or whatever." She just waved off the huge differences between them. "But he clearly kinda taught his nephew a bunch. He knows what he's doing."
And… this was true. He'd even broken out of his prison without Firebending, which she realized had to have impressed Toph, considering how she felt about power and freedom. It was, if nothing else, a sign that he was not senile. He may have been a doddering old fool, but he was dangerous and he'd known what he was doing.
Which would then raise the question of why not reveal it was her to Zuko? It would have been a very effective way to try to cement loyalty or at least stoke the rivalry that would let Zuko perhaps try to be competent enough to win Father's grudging acceptance of him as future Fire Lord. Perhaps he had been hoping she'd notice, in order to win her favor? Or… no, that didn't make sense.
Uncle didn't reach out to her, not really. Not more than he was required to.
Sometimes even less than that.
"I suppose," Azula said, letting her voice grow as casual as she could. "That it is true that he's always courted controversy. Even among… tea lovers." She couldn't help the sneer of it, but she could have forgotten this little detail. "Even before… Azulon died, there were controversies because he apparently favored Earth Kingdom teas. Some…' intellectual' had this book out about how the people of the Earth Kingdom had… defective tongues, or something like that, inherently less able to taste good food."
She believed that the Fire Nation was the most civilized country in the world. How could she not, when the competition was a bunch of tribes and a barbaric, barely organized Kingdom that treated women like chattel? But the thing about having inferior taste buds honestly just sounded
silly. It was
childish. At the time she'd just not cared. It was about food, and Azula mostly just ate because she was required to.
"That's so stupid," Toph said. "Course, I'm prolly the wrong example. I've eaten bugs before."
She blinked. "You what?"
"Well, sometimes when I was learning from the badgermoles, I'd get hungry or skip lunch because food's nice and all, I like it a lot, but it's also not
bending, you know? But I'd get hungry and try some of the bugs. They were gross." But she sounded gleeful, and Azula's disgust was no doubt exactly what she was looking for.
"But you ate them anyways?" Azula asked.
"Yep. I was hungry and I didn't want to go back," Toph said. But she sounded odd. She should be angry, but instead she sounded uncertain. "Though the meals weren't bad, except for everything about them besides the food. And tea."
"Right, the tea," Azula groused.
"Sure you don't wanna try it? Complain about it, even. It'd be a new thing to complain about."
She considered it for a moment longer than she should, "Of course not, why would I ever drink tea? It's almost as bad as the book you just got me."
This week it was a book about natural philosophy. In this case it meant a lot of dry, boring words about how the beaver-bear built its dams in order to hibernate.
Azula had only a minute to explain how the book had spent such a ludicrously long time dwelling on how beaver-bear's dams were built to insulate their nests with the dammed water for their hibernation before Toph shuffled in her seat, then started laughing quietly. "What is it?" Azula asked, sharply, and she felt the shift, could feel herself almost getting out of control in frustration as she growled.
"I'm gonna have to go, Princess," Toph said, still laughing.
"Go, why?"
"You see, I drank several cups of tea, and now I have to use the potty," Toph said, snorting.
"Really?!" Azula said, recoiling. Ugh.
"C'mon, Zula, it's funny."
"If you're a child," Azula shot back.
"C'mon, I'll be back in a day or two or whatever," Toph said. "Prolly not with tea, though."
"Good." Azula had to admit it, she would be bored without Toph to bicker with. But she would manage, and no doubt she could take the extra time from the short visit to get in a bit more bending practice.
Really, though. The tea?
Another day, and this time one of the old greetings ("Yo, Zappy.")
Azula was quite able to tell when Toph was trying to direct the conversation, because she was not particularly good at it. She just charged ahead and tried to talk about something similar to what she wanted to talk about, and then seemed to just hope that somehow they stumbled across the real topic. She'd only done it once before that point, because usually she just addressed things head on.
Azula had all but said last time that Toph was dancing around the issue like a coward, and Toph had shut down and spat out nonsense. It hadn't made Azula want to hold back at all. This, too, made her want to shatter Toph's earth armor, to tear her out and scar and scratch at her until she was bleeding like everyone else. Azula knew that Toph would hit back. Toph took these things head on, and then lashed back.
So, this time she decided to humor Toph and let her ask about stupid childhood rituals and things that other kids did.
"The dumbest of all of them," Azula concluded after several minutes of noting down every single absurd children's game that she'd known better than to show any interest in, "was the paper crane thing."
"What paper crane thing?" Toph asked.
"Stupid, foolish, giggling girls were supposed to write the name of the boy they had a crush on on a piece of paper, make a crane for it, and either put it in a brazier or ritually light it on fire," Azula said, grimacing. "So that it'd come true. It was pathetic. I stole a bunch of the cranes once and burned all of them in front of some of those idiots." Mai had actually found it funny - this was before she had the stupid crush on Zuko, of course. But Mai had never done anything as silly as the burning love cranes. Azula certainly had never had any interest in nonsense like that.
"Yeah, that's silly," Toph said. "Why would burning it even do anything?" She snorted. "At least a charm bracelet or whatever was something you kept."
"A what bracelet?" Azula asked.
"If you had a friend, or just someone you knew, honestly, you'd make a bracelet of gems and glass beads and sometimes polished stones and so on. It'd have, like, colors on it and patterns of paint and also things carved into some of them. It was supposed to be personal, or something. My cousins all made them for each other, while I listened to them talk in front of me like I was deaf as well as blind." Toph snorted. "Some of them were lying when asked what that bead or that bead meant, just making stuff up because they didn't want to admit they found it pretty or just chose things at random." Toph snorted again, and took a moment to continue, "But it was all meant to be some bonding thing where everything had some deeper meaning."
"Ah, those. I'd say it's all made up, but that's the point," Azula said. It was an effective sort of thing, to have the inside and the out, to have groups that were in on the secret and out of it. She'd experienced it from the other side, and taking over the Dai Li had allowed her to use this feeling. It was amazing, just how many of them wanted simply to be on the 'right' side of the cage, to be the ones who knew the secrets rather than the ones wondering what the secrets were. Those who knew, who understood how to play the game, and those who didn't and were therefore worthless freaks.
It was quite simple, truly. She sat up a little more and waited.
"I've been thinking about my parents," Toph finally said. "My Dad, especially."
"What about them?" Azula asked.
"I was actually thinking, and my Father had a bunch of tutors try to teach me a bunch of nonsense, and I don't remember him ever actually stating I wasn't the heir or whatever. I don't want to be the heir, but is that what he wanted?" Toph asked.
"Why does it matter?" Azula asked, fingers tapping against her leg as she considered it. She stopped fidgeting after just a moment, trying to understand what Toph's point was.
"All this time, I thought he didn't expect anything from me, but if he was actually having me be taught to run things, to analyze reports, read out loud or know the Eighty-Five Jing, on top of all the regular etiquette and all of that… then did he?"
Oh.
Azula knew what she was getting at, now. But did it actually matter? "Why do you even care?"
"What if I was wrong the whole time," Toph said. "And he just hadn't told me how… how."
Azula laughed, "You're really asking me for advice? What next, will you make me a charm bracelet? Offer to braid my hair? Burn a paper crane for me? What does it matter if he had plans, because he didn't tell you them!. He just went along with whatever he wanted and you had to run to catch up… and he didn't even offer you power."
Father had… Father had sometimes made mistakes, none greater than when he did not allow Azula to join him. She could have found a way to trick the Avatar, somehow. She could have…
But he'd wanted her to be strong. He'd acknowledged her strength when it became obvious it existed. He encouraged it. And what, Toph was feeling guilty because her own father might have had some vague good feelings? She was sure Uncle would have been vaguely satisfied if she somehow spontaneously became a pathetic sap, but that didn't mean he actually cared.
"He didn't offer you anything!" Azula said, an edge creeping into her voice. "Sure, he taught you things. I'm sure that most people don't know what the Jing are. But so? Why do you care? Are you really this pathetic?" She couldn't help but laugh, and she knew it was just a little bit loose, a little bit as if she was going to start laughing and be unable to stop. "Greatest Earthbender in the world?"
Toph said, "I am!"
"Sure, sure, and you're afraid--"
Cold, golden eyes, staring down at her. He left, and she had not seen him since. He was alive, but he didn't have his Bending, so he might as well…
Her Father's Bending was his greatest pride. He had lived to improve it. Now it was gone.
Azula had to think it'd be kinder to kill him. But even this much thinking of…
It wasn't something to worry about. But she had gotten up and was now face to face with that stupid steel door.
"I am not! I'm not afraid of anything," Toph said.
"Then show it!" Azula insisted. "So what if he was preparing you for something you didn't want and didn't involve being strong or a bender or who you really wanted to be. Is it that big of a surprise?"
"I… guess not," Toph said, and she could almost feel the shrug. "But, it's weird, isn't it? Me? In charge of a stupid trading Empire?"
"It'd be a waste," Azula agreed, and decided to press. "You could do a lot more than something like that, being a merchant." Money was necessary, of course, but it always got in the way of the Fire Nation's glorious victories. It was for someone else to work with, though of course she still had extensive training in these things as with everything. But there were areas of study she enjoyed, and areas she didn't: the secret was that she had to be perfect at
all of them.
"Oh, like what? Running things? Honestly that stuff's stupid," Toph said.
"Stupid?" Azula asked, outraged.
"Yeah. If I wanted I could just storm out of here and leave the Fire Nation and go around kicking anyone's butt I wanted," Toph said. "Couldn't do that if I had to rule something, could I?"
Azula blinked, and for the first time in a while was reminded of the fact that Toph was two years younger than her. "So, you shouldn't just make up with your parents unless you're actually running towards something, but do you even know what you want? I do. Oh, I do. One day I'm going to get out of here, and then we'll see if you can bonebend."
Toph snorted. "I can't even practice with it, because what if I
can."
Azula could picture someone's bones tearing themselves away from the flesh. It was a gruesome image, but oddly fascinating. It was, however, something she'd only know about if a series of events happened that would mean she'd first won and then was about to lose. She liked her bones where they were. "I'll be Fire Lord, and the Fire Nation will cease its humiliating surrender. You don't have to have a plan, if you're just a child."
"I saved the world," Toph protested.
"But what do you want?" Azula asked. "What do you need?" I could get it for you, she wanted to say. If you sided with me, we could take on the world. If you were on my side, even the Avatar might tremble. And why not? Why not recruit Toph, if she could find a way to? She had to imagine it, had to imagine that these conversations were going somewhere, that they were
useful. "Who are you?" she asked, because that answer was the same, truly. She was Azula, daughter of Ozai, rightful Fire Lord, a prodigy without peer in the art and struggle of Firebending. She was going to escape some day. She could
not doubt it.
"Free," Toph said. "I'm free."
Azula did not snort, because it was true, or close enough. Perhaps Toph was trapped, but she at least seemed to be making the choice to be stuck here. So bored she was talking to her mortal enemy. "Well, then there you go. You're free. And you're still here talking to me."
Toph, Azula realized, was lonely. It was the only thing that made sense.
"Huh, I am," Toph said. "Ah well. But yeah, I'm… I'll have to think about all of that. Eventually."
"You don't need to do it now… as long as you're doing something. Are you improving your bending?" Azula asked. If she wasn't improving her bending during all of this, then Azula might as well not bother talking to her again.
"A little. Got a few ideas thinking about how I'd kick your butt, Sparky."
"As if you could," Azula said, and knew that despite the fact that the best secret was one kept, Toph would probably even talk about what she was training.
All the better to understand her capabilities and know when and how to push.
Azula grimaced at the annoying grinding of the door opening, listening to it and waiting for whatever "Yo" she was in for today. When nobody spoke for a moment, she knew it wasn't Toph. And Ty Lee or Zuko wouldn't be able to help but say something. "Ah, is that Mai I hear? After she said she wouldn't be visiting again. Problems with your little… fling with Zuko? I'm not one for girl talk, but I'm sure I can give you advice."
"I do not need your advice," Mai said, in that same old cold tone of voice. Why, if she wasn't aware that Mai was a worthless traitor who'd chosen Zuko over her, she might even be hurt by it.
"If you are here to gloat, then I'll have you know that the quota has been filled," Azula said, aware that she was being nasty and knowing that Mai would either return fire in her quiet way or leave. "Toph gloats enough for ten girls."
"I am not here to gloat, Azula," Mai said, and there was that tone of hers. Azula had not missed it. Of course she hadn't.
"Are you sure?" Azula asked. "After all, I might give you some small measure of forgiveness for your crimes if you truly need it." If Zuko was out of the way. She was being generous, but she knew that she might have to be with at least a few people… even as plenty of others would be granted no such mercy when she ruled again.
"I did not
betray you, Azula," Mai said flatly.
"Yes, you did, you--"
"Did you want to kill Zuko?" Mai asked, skeptically.
"It… was my intent in the moment," Azula admitted, gritting her teeth. "Though it may have become undesirable at a later date."
She could imagine Mai's blank-faced skepticism. "I saved Zuko, and so you tried to kill me."
Mai was always so blunt, but Azula did not have an answer to it. Yes, she had tried to kill Mai. She had done it before and she… she. She took a deep breath and said, "And?" She tried to put everything she had into the word.
But Mai just scoffed. "You're talking to Toph."
"What about it? Don't tell me you're worried about her," Azula asked. The silence told her that was it, and she had to laugh. In fact, she laughed hard enough that for a moment she felt that strange mania falling over her, just a bit of fear that she wouldn't be able to stop any more than she'd been able to control herself in those terrible moments in which the Fire Nation lost.
"Yes," Mai said.
"Worried, why?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Mai asked, and there was not frustration audible in her voice, but Azula knew it was there. "She's following up on your petty grudges."
"They deserved it," Azula scoffed. "Don't be so tediously similar to Zuzu, it doesn't suit you."
"They did," Mai agreed easily.
"Then why… why even come here, why even be worried? Your boytoy was already here and left, and surely he said enough."
"Toph does not," Mai said.
"Does not what? Deserve it? Deserve to have some fools to punish and fight for fun?" Azula asked.
"Get swept up in your games," Mai said. "I'm leaving. But you're going to hurt her. And yourself. Delude her into thinking anything you say is real."
Azula could imagine her turning and couldn't stop herself, "Wait."
She hadn't meant to say it, but now that she'd said it she realized she didn't want Mai to leave. It hurt. It did hurt, and she pushed out her flames, and let them uselessly, pointlessly burning against a door she couldn't get past.
"This was a mistake," Mai said, and then she heard the door closing, the frustrating groan, the end of that hope and maybe all of the hopes she'd… no.
She reined in her fire, and took a deep breath, in and out, and then settled down onto her bed.
It didn't matter.
Nothing had really changed. Nothing was different.
It did not matter.
But she certainly wasn't going to talk to Toph about this.
veteranMortal: Things were always going to boil over at some point. Azula hasn't really, like, processed a lot, since, uh, ever? Azula hasn't really processed anything. Especially since Boiling Rock, but she didn't really grapple with things before that, either.
The Laurent: Can bonebending be a thing? Who knows! What Toph really needs to focus on is who she is and what she wants.
