Avatar: Between Two Doors
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Chapter 10: Reading Lists, Part 2
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Chapter 10: Reading Lists, Part 2
Toph considered actually getting books that Azula asked for. But she figured it'd be more funny to make it a surprise whenever she decided to get around to it. Because depending on the kinda book, there'd probably be a hassle to get it. Or she'd have to explain why she was getting it. With the adventure books, maybe that'd be fine. But, well, she wanted to find the right moment, and it wasn't as if she was getting bored talking to Azula. Not yet, at least. Azula wasn't always interesting, but she was interesting often enough that Toph usually found something to talk about.
So this continued, the weeks piling up like loose rubble at a quarry, and might have continued for a while. Toph was stubborn, and something in her was being stubborn about this too. She didn't bother to question it. Then something changed.
Well, it was honestly the same old, same old. Toph was talking along with a pouch around her shoulder, holding the books she had to turn in. She could have had a servant carry them, but that seemed boring. But this time, there were a few people crowding around Akorai Tsagaan in front of the main doors to the library. Everyone was angry, their hearts racing, their voices loud.
"A new dawn, a new tomorrow, and yet what is it built on. Burning books!" a man loudly shouted, shaking his fist in the direction of the Librarian. Akorai faced them, and she had to imagine he was trying to seem less afraid than he was.
His voice was remarkably level as he addressed them, "That is not the case at all, Lord Nakamura, please understand that this is not at all what is planned. Weeding is a normal part of a librarian collection--"
"What, are you a gardener?" a woman asked, clinging onto the arm of Lord Loser. "Our daughter loves the Ufuza books, and yet you're going to burn them all and arrest the author--"
"We are not going to-" Tsagaan began, frustration clear as he looked at them.
"Going to what? You're destroying Encyclopedias and history books and even tomes on natural philosophy and phrenological insights," a third man said, his voice high-pitched and stuffy, like he was getting over a head cold. "All of that knowledge, burned and destroyed by an administration too afraid of the truth to face it head on."
She had a feeling this ranting and chanting would keep on going, so she called out, "Hey, move outta my way."
Everyone turned to face her, some of them now more worried than they'd been before.
"It's that enforcer," a third man said, his voice soft and careful. The others seem old, or at least middle-aged--so, old--but he sounded like he wasn't much older than Zuko. "I… was just here because I don't want adventure novels to be banned."
"Why'd Zuko ban adventure novels or whatever?" Toph asked, confused. She was pretty sure he loved that kind of thing, adventures and quests and heroic stories. He'd seen the other end of it of course, and now he thought war sucked. He was right, even. Toph liked fights, but wars actually really sucked. Enough that the word 'sucked' started to seem like it wasn't negative enough.
"He didn't," the Librarian said, at the same time as the woman said, "Because he doesn't want anyone in the Fire Nation to think of having an adventure or holding their head up."
Toph snorted. "If you want to have an adventure, I could fight all of you at once." They all tensed at that, even Tsagaan, who no doubt thought he was included. Though honestly, where was her life-changing field trip, anyway? Everyone else had one… This was an old gripe, and she let it go.
"No, thank you," Tsagaan said. "Are you here to return books?"
"Yep," Toph said. "I'll pick up new ones later."
"Aren't you blind?" the Lesser Loser Lord demanded.
"Yes, and he's my seeing eye librarian," Toph declared, gesturing toward Tsagaan. "Also I have servants to read to me." Well, thus far Azula had refused to read more than a few passages, usually to mock her choices or make some sort of point. But it wasn't the same as actually just reading it. Though she hadn't exactly, apparently, given Azula anything good to read. "So, here's the books." She gestured to the book barrier she was wearing and took it off. "I got things to do, so just take the satchel."
She had a Fire Lord to bother.
Toph didn't bother knocking. Zuko did not even startle. His office was no doubt full of significance and importance, and he'd once mentioned art so there were some sorta pictures here. But she just focused on the Fire Lord, sitting on a mat. It was a low-slung desk, and people who wanted to talk to him knelt in front of the desk, so they stood on the same level. Apparently that was weird or different, and she kind of got it. (Toph knew all about etiquette, knew how to use chopsticks and what not to do and on and on and on. She'd been taught all that, and more, and perhaps it'd meant more than she thought. Probably not. But the uncertainty was annoying)
"Toph, this is unexpected," Zuko said, and he did sound surprised. Perhaps not as surprised as he should be. "What's going on?"
"Some idiots are apparently protesting outside the library. I happened to be in the area," Toph lied, "And apparently you're going to burn or weed books, whatever that is, and they object? So I figured, I'd bother you about it. After all, you're prolly going to have to deal with that."
"Do you know who they were?" Zuko asked.
"You think I paid attention to that? One of them had a head cold, and talked about natural philosophy--"
"Oh, Ito Watanabe," Zuko sighed. "I see. I've met him before."
"So what's this about weeding?" Toph asked, because she really didn't care about Watanabe or whatever.
"That's apparently what they call it when they take out books that are too old or out of date," Zuko said. "And none of the books are going to be burned. But some of them might be put somewhere out of the way. I'm trying to divide out the collection, because I had this idea… make a library that everyone can visit. But to do that, we need to figure out what we already have. And we need to clear out books that won't be useful, put them out of the way."
"Not useful how, exactly?" Toph asked. She wasn't that interested, but now she was kind of curious. To her, all books were equally useless.
"Oh, like the natural philosophy we're getting rid of is stuff about how Earthbenders are part-animal, or--"
"Don't have the same sense of taste as real people?" Toph asked, idly. Honestly, it'd be pretty cool to be part Badgermole.
"Yes, that too," Zuko said, sounding confused. "How did you know about that?"
"Zappy mentioned it," Toph said. She felt him tense and said, "Honestly even she thought it was kinda stupid."
Zuko seemed shocked that there were evil things that even Sparky thought were dumb. "Really? But, so we were going to remove those books and put them in a different section, and find the books we want to put into the new library for the public. Right now most libraries are under control of one clan or another, or military academies, or a few paid libraries here and there. But if we could have knowledge available to everyone…"
He kept on talking, and Toph didn't quite tune him out, but she let him ramble. It honestly did sound like a good idea. Not the library bit exactly, she'd never cared about books because she could hardly use them, but why should a bunch of nobles be able to hoard information? Imagine if she went around beating people up who tried to learn how to Metalbend because it was supposed to be a Beifong Family Secret or whatever?
(Honestly she could imagine her father wanting to do that.)
Not everyone was amazing enough to be able to learn it, but one day someone would on their own, and then another person, and then another person. If she started offering lessons, maybe that wouldn't happen. Maybe everyone wouldn't bother trying and instead just come to her to beg for scraps. But the thought of that turned her stomach. Teaching people? Great, even if she wasn't sure she was the sort to teach.
But where would people be if they had to rely on someone else for everything? It was fine to count on your friends for some things. And she didn't want to admit it but there were things she couldn't do for herself, though most of them she could do without. She couldn't make her own food or wash her clothes. But if she had to she could just get by with stuff from street vendors and use her bending to earn enough to just ditch her old clothes whenever they got smelly.
It wouldn't exactly be a smart use of money, but hey. Money was stupid. Finally, she interrupted, "What does the Adventures of Ufuza or whatever have to do with that, though?"
"What?" Zuko asked, sounding disturbed, his heartbeat picking up.
"One of the women was saying that her daughter loved those books and they were being taken out too?" Toph asked.
"Well, the book itself is not good, but it's just not going to be in the palace library anymore," Zuko said. "Because it's fiction and we're trying to make sure the palace library stays that way."
"Not good, how?"
"Well it's about this Fire Nation noble girl who goes to the colonies and solves mysteries and gets into adventures fighting…"
Toph had a guess. "Evil Earth Kingdom agents?"
"Yes, or Hidden Airbenders looking to continue the war, or Water Benders who drink the blood of their enemies or… all of that," Zuko said, sounding disgruntled. "But people do like the books, I'm sure they're hardly going to disappear. The authors are still around even, though who knows if they'll write any more."
She understood exactly why Azula would like them. It was honestly kind of embarrassing for Azula. Toph wanted to laugh at her. But she thought it'd be an even better thing to get the books even though they were being removed. "Hey, what do you say I look into this? Obviously I can't do any of the reading, but I can talk to all the idiots, see if I can catch them in any lies, that sort of thing."
Zuko tensed, and said, "Toph, I'm not sure if that's a good idea… though I do have an idea for how you might help out. But I need a little longer to figure it out before I tell you details. But, you want to go around talking to people and dealing with this?"
It was like he didn't trust her to solve problems peacefully through talking.
…he was right, of course.
But Toph could talk if she wanted to. She just didn't normally want to. "Sure, why not? Just give me a piece of paper with your name saying I can do whatever I want to solve this issue as long as I don't fight anyone. Or hurt them. Or whatever." She didn't want to promise that, but why not? She'd talk to them, but honestly they'd get over themselves and complain about something else soon.
People just did this sometimes, got all offended over nothing and yelled about it for a while and then picked something else to grumble about.
But if she had that piece of paper… why, who would know what she'd do.
"Fine," Zuko sighed. "I can do that. But if I hear anything about…"
"Yeah, yeah, if I fight you'll get all broody," Toph said.
Zuko sighed and said, "Okay, I'll trust you."
Well, what a way to make her feel bad. She'd have to actually try to do what she promised, wouldn't she?
Oh well, it'd be a way to pass the time.
Azula was just a little bit tired. She was not going to let her weakness show, but she'd been thinking about what Mai said for almost two weeks. It didn't matter, really. Mai didn't know what she was saying, and she was pretty sure that even if she was right, it wouldn't matter. Toph wasn't making the kinds of mistakes she had been sure would happen. She'd been sure when she began the second round of this little game that she'd be able to win it, but she wasn't so sure now. She knew she was getting somewhere, but even those moments of vulnerability didn't mean anything. Toph was perfectly capable of fighting through them to the other side, and they were just as likely lies as anything.
Toph was still as rough as ever, and if this was more amusing to Azula than if she'd been sanded down, that was just Azula's own preferences in… people she knew. Friends? Of course not. The thought of it was absurd. They were acquaintances who could, sometimes, get along long enough for the arguments to be a little less boring than the ones with Zuko.
For instance, there was the joke that Toph was running into the ground where week after week she gave Azula new books that were not the ones she wanted, always wrapped up as if they were a great gift. She thought she was funny and interesting. She was interesting in a funny, strange, childish kind of way. She was funny in the kind of way that Azula would want to laugh at, but which would at least respond back.
But all those ways she was interesting had nothing to do with her stupid little joke.
"Yo, Ufuza," Toph said as the room shuddered and the door groaned. It truly was an annoyance, the extent to which it was clearly in need of maintenance.
"I am not going to be opening your package," Azula said. "You have no ability to make me." She grinned, because she wanted an argument with Toph now. She wanted it to be bruising, she wanted them to get back to raising their voices and stabbing each other with insults and implications, because it was so much easier and less boring than anything that might be…
Real?
No, no need to think about it.
"You really wanna open them," Toph said, but she'd said that a week ago and it'd been because it was an old book about Charm Bracelets or something. She hadn't even bothered to read that, though she was a little bit curious, and might still read it if she got bored enough.
"No."
"C'mon, Sparky!" Toph whined, stomping her feet. Azula could tell because the whole area quaked for a moment. "I'm not getting any younger here."
"If you were any younger, you would be a baby," Azula sneered, but she began to open the package anyway.
And then paused, frozen.
It was… was it? She pulled out a slim red volume, the title on it declaring, 'The Adventures of Ikanu Ufuza, Volume 3: The Frog-Snake In The Well.' And beneath it was a book detailing the campaigns of General Hoto under the reign of Sozin, and specifically the ones during the second decade of the war, and then beneath it was another adventure story, this one a novel, from a quick flip-through.
"C'mon, react in a way more than just a racing heart, will ya?" Toph asked.
Azula had spent a full several minutes just looking them over. She took out the volume, and thought of what she remembered. It was about being stuck in a city, during a brief siege that a bunch of traitors and Earth Kingdom stooges had set up, and meanwhile there was a conspiracy in the city.
It was, apparently, inspired by an Earth Kingdom saying. Though if she remembered it, years since she'd read it, the story reversed it and revealed the lie and the truth at the heart of it… or something? She remembered the story fondly, and she almost wanted to begin right that moment.
She couldn't wait to get to the point where it was revealed that the Fire Nation noble was secretly of Earth-Kingdom ancestry and had therefore followed his heritage and betrayed the city by letting in the assassin team that had almost killed the Governor. It'd been a good mystery, and maybe she would--
Wait.
"I suppose… this is acceptable," Azula said, because she was not sure what to say against this pathetic gratitude about what was almost nothing. Especially because she realized what this meant. It hadn't meant she'd won yet, but it did mean that… that Toph was listening to her, in her fashion. It meant that she could ask for something, and eventually, Toph would bother to get it. It was… an odd feeling. But there was a difference between telling a story to entice Toph to go and beat up someone and this. Toph was willing to help her, or at least make her temporary stay in this seemingly inescapable prison (for her at least) just a little bit better.
And how was one supposed to feel about that? She thought she should resent how much she relied on an Earthbender, someone from a dirt-smudged culture, that treated women like nothing and used to do worse. Someone from a Kingdom she'd conquered with just a few people and a clever plan. Let alone a friend of the Avatar. One of Zuko's little friends. A child.
But…
She could not quite manage it.
Azula could see it. At that moment, Azula was sure that perhaps one day she would actually be able to convince Toph to let her go free. She'd always thought she was sure, but now she was… starting to realize that she could see the path in it.
If she was as lonely as… Azula wanted to scoff. She wanted to poke the wound, just to see what Toph would do. Because she was not sure she trusted it, this certainty. She was almost always right, but. Something about what little Mai had said left her out of sorts, reeling. But she wasn't sure what. She should poke at the wound, but it was easier, in a sense, to get someone else to poke at it and by doing that prove that it didn't really matter that much.
But right then? Looking down at those books? She couldn't deny that she'd missed them. She couldn't deny that it hurt that these little things could matter. Azula realized she'd spent too long without talking.
"So I kinda told everyone I was getting a servant to read these for me, and also a buncha other stupid half-truths," Toph admitted. "So, wanna read them to me?"
"I am not a servant," Azula said, appreciating a chance to instead focus on getting into an argument.
"Well, but I'm just a poor, helpless rich blind girl, surely an imprisoned ruffian such as yourself should, I do declare, be able to help me out by reading me a little bit of the adventures of Miss Ufuza," Toph said, in her most pathetic and formal voice yet.
Azula groaned, "No. I'm not doing it."
"Hah! I'll get you to read something to me one of these days," Toph said. "Like, for real. Even if it's nonsense about weirdo Firebender mystery girls or whatever it is."
"It is not nonsense," Azula said. Yes, it was perhaps a… little bit of a childish book, but she had not been told off for it, not ever.
"Oh, then what's it about?"
"You're just trying to get a summary to pretend that counts," Azula stated petulantly.
"Yep," Toph agreed. And then just waited her out.
VM AN: Really enjoying exploring their relationship, and also exploring, like… some of what it means for Zuko to reform the Fire Nation? What does that look like?
TL AN: There's some Spanish Empire mixed in here, and a few other things. You have to think of what a country would actually be like if it does 1 3/4ths genocides in the past and ends the series trying to go for a third… and presumably if they got to that point they'd also be wiping out the Waterbenders. Ozai was going for the world's stupidest global genocide, and he didn't come from nowhere.
Toph considered actually getting books that Azula asked for. But she figured it'd be more funny to make it a surprise whenever she decided to get around to it. Because depending on the kinda book, there'd probably be a hassle to get it. Or she'd have to explain why she was getting it. With the adventure books, maybe that'd be fine. But, well, she wanted to find the right moment, and it wasn't as if she was getting bored talking to Azula. Not yet, at least. Azula wasn't always interesting, but she was interesting often enough that Toph usually found something to talk about.
So this continued, the weeks piling up like loose rubble at a quarry, and might have continued for a while. Toph was stubborn, and something in her was being stubborn about this too. She didn't bother to question it. Then something changed.
Well, it was honestly the same old, same old. Toph was talking along with a pouch around her shoulder, holding the books she had to turn in. She could have had a servant carry them, but that seemed boring. But this time, there were a few people crowding around Akorai Tsagaan in front of the main doors to the library. Everyone was angry, their hearts racing, their voices loud.
"A new dawn, a new tomorrow, and yet what is it built on. Burning books!" a man loudly shouted, shaking his fist in the direction of the Librarian. Akorai faced them, and she had to imagine he was trying to seem less afraid than he was.
His voice was remarkably level as he addressed them, "That is not the case at all, Lord Nakamura, please understand that this is not at all what is planned. Weeding is a normal part of a librarian collection--"
"What, are you a gardener?" a woman asked, clinging onto the arm of Lord Loser. "Our daughter loves the Ufuza books, and yet you're going to burn them all and arrest the author--"
"We are not going to-" Tsagaan began, frustration clear as he looked at them.
"Going to what? You're destroying Encyclopedias and history books and even tomes on natural philosophy and phrenological insights," a third man said, his voice high-pitched and stuffy, like he was getting over a head cold. "All of that knowledge, burned and destroyed by an administration too afraid of the truth to face it head on."
She had a feeling this ranting and chanting would keep on going, so she called out, "Hey, move outta my way."
Everyone turned to face her, some of them now more worried than they'd been before.
"It's that enforcer," a third man said, his voice soft and careful. The others seem old, or at least middle-aged--so, old--but he sounded like he wasn't much older than Zuko. "I… was just here because I don't want adventure novels to be banned."
"Why'd Zuko ban adventure novels or whatever?" Toph asked, confused. She was pretty sure he loved that kind of thing, adventures and quests and heroic stories. He'd seen the other end of it of course, and now he thought war sucked. He was right, even. Toph liked fights, but wars actually really sucked. Enough that the word 'sucked' started to seem like it wasn't negative enough.
"He didn't," the Librarian said, at the same time as the woman said, "Because he doesn't want anyone in the Fire Nation to think of having an adventure or holding their head up."
Toph snorted. "If you want to have an adventure, I could fight all of you at once." They all tensed at that, even Tsagaan, who no doubt thought he was included. Though honestly, where was her life-changing field trip, anyway? Everyone else had one… This was an old gripe, and she let it go.
"No, thank you," Tsagaan said. "Are you here to return books?"
"Yep," Toph said. "I'll pick up new ones later."
"Aren't you blind?" the Lesser Loser Lord demanded.
"Yes, and he's my seeing eye librarian," Toph declared, gesturing toward Tsagaan. "Also I have servants to read to me." Well, thus far Azula had refused to read more than a few passages, usually to mock her choices or make some sort of point. But it wasn't the same as actually just reading it. Though she hadn't exactly, apparently, given Azula anything good to read. "So, here's the books." She gestured to the book barrier she was wearing and took it off. "I got things to do, so just take the satchel."
She had a Fire Lord to bother.
Toph didn't bother knocking. Zuko did not even startle. His office was no doubt full of significance and importance, and he'd once mentioned art so there were some sorta pictures here. But she just focused on the Fire Lord, sitting on a mat. It was a low-slung desk, and people who wanted to talk to him knelt in front of the desk, so they stood on the same level. Apparently that was weird or different, and she kind of got it. (Toph knew all about etiquette, knew how to use chopsticks and what not to do and on and on and on. She'd been taught all that, and more, and perhaps it'd meant more than she thought. Probably not. But the uncertainty was annoying)
"Toph, this is unexpected," Zuko said, and he did sound surprised. Perhaps not as surprised as he should be. "What's going on?"
"Some idiots are apparently protesting outside the library. I happened to be in the area," Toph lied, "And apparently you're going to burn or weed books, whatever that is, and they object? So I figured, I'd bother you about it. After all, you're prolly going to have to deal with that."
"Do you know who they were?" Zuko asked.
"You think I paid attention to that? One of them had a head cold, and talked about natural philosophy--"
"Oh, Ito Watanabe," Zuko sighed. "I see. I've met him before."
"So what's this about weeding?" Toph asked, because she really didn't care about Watanabe or whatever.
"That's apparently what they call it when they take out books that are too old or out of date," Zuko said. "And none of the books are going to be burned. But some of them might be put somewhere out of the way. I'm trying to divide out the collection, because I had this idea… make a library that everyone can visit. But to do that, we need to figure out what we already have. And we need to clear out books that won't be useful, put them out of the way."
"Not useful how, exactly?" Toph asked. She wasn't that interested, but now she was kind of curious. To her, all books were equally useless.
"Oh, like the natural philosophy we're getting rid of is stuff about how Earthbenders are part-animal, or--"
"Don't have the same sense of taste as real people?" Toph asked, idly. Honestly, it'd be pretty cool to be part Badgermole.
"Yes, that too," Zuko said, sounding confused. "How did you know about that?"
"Zappy mentioned it," Toph said. She felt him tense and said, "Honestly even she thought it was kinda stupid."
Zuko seemed shocked that there were evil things that even Sparky thought were dumb. "Really? But, so we were going to remove those books and put them in a different section, and find the books we want to put into the new library for the public. Right now most libraries are under control of one clan or another, or military academies, or a few paid libraries here and there. But if we could have knowledge available to everyone…"
He kept on talking, and Toph didn't quite tune him out, but she let him ramble. It honestly did sound like a good idea. Not the library bit exactly, she'd never cared about books because she could hardly use them, but why should a bunch of nobles be able to hoard information? Imagine if she went around beating people up who tried to learn how to Metalbend because it was supposed to be a Beifong Family Secret or whatever?
(Honestly she could imagine her father wanting to do that.)
Not everyone was amazing enough to be able to learn it, but one day someone would on their own, and then another person, and then another person. If she started offering lessons, maybe that wouldn't happen. Maybe everyone wouldn't bother trying and instead just come to her to beg for scraps. But the thought of that turned her stomach. Teaching people? Great, even if she wasn't sure she was the sort to teach.
But where would people be if they had to rely on someone else for everything? It was fine to count on your friends for some things. And she didn't want to admit it but there were things she couldn't do for herself, though most of them she could do without. She couldn't make her own food or wash her clothes. But if she had to she could just get by with stuff from street vendors and use her bending to earn enough to just ditch her old clothes whenever they got smelly.
It wouldn't exactly be a smart use of money, but hey. Money was stupid. Finally, she interrupted, "What does the Adventures of Ufuza or whatever have to do with that, though?"
"What?" Zuko asked, sounding disturbed, his heartbeat picking up.
"One of the women was saying that her daughter loved those books and they were being taken out too?" Toph asked.
"Well, the book itself is not good, but it's just not going to be in the palace library anymore," Zuko said. "Because it's fiction and we're trying to make sure the palace library stays that way."
"Not good, how?"
"Well it's about this Fire Nation noble girl who goes to the colonies and solves mysteries and gets into adventures fighting…"
Toph had a guess. "Evil Earth Kingdom agents?"
"Yes, or Hidden Airbenders looking to continue the war, or Water Benders who drink the blood of their enemies or… all of that," Zuko said, sounding disgruntled. "But people do like the books, I'm sure they're hardly going to disappear. The authors are still around even, though who knows if they'll write any more."
She understood exactly why Azula would like them. It was honestly kind of embarrassing for Azula. Toph wanted to laugh at her. But she thought it'd be an even better thing to get the books even though they were being removed. "Hey, what do you say I look into this? Obviously I can't do any of the reading, but I can talk to all the idiots, see if I can catch them in any lies, that sort of thing."
Zuko tensed, and said, "Toph, I'm not sure if that's a good idea… though I do have an idea for how you might help out. But I need a little longer to figure it out before I tell you details. But, you want to go around talking to people and dealing with this?"
It was like he didn't trust her to solve problems peacefully through talking.
…he was right, of course.
But Toph could talk if she wanted to. She just didn't normally want to. "Sure, why not? Just give me a piece of paper with your name saying I can do whatever I want to solve this issue as long as I don't fight anyone. Or hurt them. Or whatever." She didn't want to promise that, but why not? She'd talk to them, but honestly they'd get over themselves and complain about something else soon.
People just did this sometimes, got all offended over nothing and yelled about it for a while and then picked something else to grumble about.
But if she had that piece of paper… why, who would know what she'd do.
"Fine," Zuko sighed. "I can do that. But if I hear anything about…"
"Yeah, yeah, if I fight you'll get all broody," Toph said.
Zuko sighed and said, "Okay, I'll trust you."
Well, what a way to make her feel bad. She'd have to actually try to do what she promised, wouldn't she?
Oh well, it'd be a way to pass the time.
Azula was just a little bit tired. She was not going to let her weakness show, but she'd been thinking about what Mai said for almost two weeks. It didn't matter, really. Mai didn't know what she was saying, and she was pretty sure that even if she was right, it wouldn't matter. Toph wasn't making the kinds of mistakes she had been sure would happen. She'd been sure when she began the second round of this little game that she'd be able to win it, but she wasn't so sure now. She knew she was getting somewhere, but even those moments of vulnerability didn't mean anything. Toph was perfectly capable of fighting through them to the other side, and they were just as likely lies as anything.
Toph was still as rough as ever, and if this was more amusing to Azula than if she'd been sanded down, that was just Azula's own preferences in… people she knew. Friends? Of course not. The thought of it was absurd. They were acquaintances who could, sometimes, get along long enough for the arguments to be a little less boring than the ones with Zuko.
For instance, there was the joke that Toph was running into the ground where week after week she gave Azula new books that were not the ones she wanted, always wrapped up as if they were a great gift. She thought she was funny and interesting. She was interesting in a funny, strange, childish kind of way. She was funny in the kind of way that Azula would want to laugh at, but which would at least respond back.
But all those ways she was interesting had nothing to do with her stupid little joke.
"Yo, Ufuza," Toph said as the room shuddered and the door groaned. It truly was an annoyance, the extent to which it was clearly in need of maintenance.
"I am not going to be opening your package," Azula said. "You have no ability to make me." She grinned, because she wanted an argument with Toph now. She wanted it to be bruising, she wanted them to get back to raising their voices and stabbing each other with insults and implications, because it was so much easier and less boring than anything that might be…
Real?
No, no need to think about it.
"You really wanna open them," Toph said, but she'd said that a week ago and it'd been because it was an old book about Charm Bracelets or something. She hadn't even bothered to read that, though she was a little bit curious, and might still read it if she got bored enough.
"No."
"C'mon, Sparky!" Toph whined, stomping her feet. Azula could tell because the whole area quaked for a moment. "I'm not getting any younger here."
"If you were any younger, you would be a baby," Azula sneered, but she began to open the package anyway.
And then paused, frozen.
It was… was it? She pulled out a slim red volume, the title on it declaring, 'The Adventures of Ikanu Ufuza, Volume 3: The Frog-Snake In The Well.' And beneath it was a book detailing the campaigns of General Hoto under the reign of Sozin, and specifically the ones during the second decade of the war, and then beneath it was another adventure story, this one a novel, from a quick flip-through.
"C'mon, react in a way more than just a racing heart, will ya?" Toph asked.
Azula had spent a full several minutes just looking them over. She took out the volume, and thought of what she remembered. It was about being stuck in a city, during a brief siege that a bunch of traitors and Earth Kingdom stooges had set up, and meanwhile there was a conspiracy in the city.
It was, apparently, inspired by an Earth Kingdom saying. Though if she remembered it, years since she'd read it, the story reversed it and revealed the lie and the truth at the heart of it… or something? She remembered the story fondly, and she almost wanted to begin right that moment.
She couldn't wait to get to the point where it was revealed that the Fire Nation noble was secretly of Earth-Kingdom ancestry and had therefore followed his heritage and betrayed the city by letting in the assassin team that had almost killed the Governor. It'd been a good mystery, and maybe she would--
Wait.
"I suppose… this is acceptable," Azula said, because she was not sure what to say against this pathetic gratitude about what was almost nothing. Especially because she realized what this meant. It hadn't meant she'd won yet, but it did mean that… that Toph was listening to her, in her fashion. It meant that she could ask for something, and eventually, Toph would bother to get it. It was… an odd feeling. But there was a difference between telling a story to entice Toph to go and beat up someone and this. Toph was willing to help her, or at least make her temporary stay in this seemingly inescapable prison (for her at least) just a little bit better.
And how was one supposed to feel about that? She thought she should resent how much she relied on an Earthbender, someone from a dirt-smudged culture, that treated women like nothing and used to do worse. Someone from a Kingdom she'd conquered with just a few people and a clever plan. Let alone a friend of the Avatar. One of Zuko's little friends. A child.
But…
She could not quite manage it.
Azula could see it. At that moment, Azula was sure that perhaps one day she would actually be able to convince Toph to let her go free. She'd always thought she was sure, but now she was… starting to realize that she could see the path in it.
If she was as lonely as… Azula wanted to scoff. She wanted to poke the wound, just to see what Toph would do. Because she was not sure she trusted it, this certainty. She was almost always right, but. Something about what little Mai had said left her out of sorts, reeling. But she wasn't sure what. She should poke at the wound, but it was easier, in a sense, to get someone else to poke at it and by doing that prove that it didn't really matter that much.
But right then? Looking down at those books? She couldn't deny that she'd missed them. She couldn't deny that it hurt that these little things could matter. Azula realized she'd spent too long without talking.
"So I kinda told everyone I was getting a servant to read these for me, and also a buncha other stupid half-truths," Toph admitted. "So, wanna read them to me?"
"I am not a servant," Azula said, appreciating a chance to instead focus on getting into an argument.
"Well, but I'm just a poor, helpless rich blind girl, surely an imprisoned ruffian such as yourself should, I do declare, be able to help me out by reading me a little bit of the adventures of Miss Ufuza," Toph said, in her most pathetic and formal voice yet.
Azula groaned, "No. I'm not doing it."
"Hah! I'll get you to read something to me one of these days," Toph said. "Like, for real. Even if it's nonsense about weirdo Firebender mystery girls or whatever it is."
"It is not nonsense," Azula said. Yes, it was perhaps a… little bit of a childish book, but she had not been told off for it, not ever.
"Oh, then what's it about?"
"You're just trying to get a summary to pretend that counts," Azula stated petulantly.
"Yep," Toph agreed. And then just waited her out.
VM AN: Really enjoying exploring their relationship, and also exploring, like… some of what it means for Zuko to reform the Fire Nation? What does that look like?
TL AN: There's some Spanish Empire mixed in here, and a few other things. You have to think of what a country would actually be like if it does 1 3/4ths genocides in the past and ends the series trying to go for a third… and presumably if they got to that point they'd also be wiping out the Waterbenders. Ozai was going for the world's stupidest global genocide, and he didn't come from nowhere.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
there the Azula influence
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The pretty racist adventure books are cute! Kinda like the really problematic early tintins but a bit worse, I guess? That kinda childrens book ouvre?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'd say yes, but I'd tell you that all of us have made an enemy for life. Because if it's a children's book than the fact that Azula likes it makes her a child. Therefore it isn't and she isn't.
- Location
- 47° 09′ S, 126° 43′ O
yep,wich is weird because with how cringe reading those as an adult was i'm a litle curious what kind of horrific it would be to read something even worse
- Pronouns
- They/Them
In this case the question is really fundamentally... the Palace Library is meant to essentially be an Academic Library.
So the question is whether Phrenology and Race Science are academic disciplines to be taken seriously. I know that a modern academic library would not have either subject as a major segment of their contents, whereas these things WERE the 'latest' in 'science' all of a year and a half ago. But they need to go because they spread misinformation. That's his perspective on it, and I don't think it's entirely out of keeping with the Librarian's creed?
The fiction on the other hand is just, "Academic libraries don't have fiction."
E: Though obviously the perspectives differ, I'm not trying to state some objective This Is What Librarians Should Think About The Topic or whatever.
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- Location
- United Kingdom
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To be fair - they aren't being destroyed, just put in a new collection.
I've not really thought a lot about it, but I'd imagine if someone wanted to write a book on like... the race science used as justification for Fire Nation Imperialism, they could presumably do so?
And like, Zuko's in the trenches fighting 100+ years of Fire Nation racial supremacist rhetoric. He is probably going to end up tossing some babies out with all that bathwater.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh, I misinterpreted this as saying that the palace library holds only fiction. Must've tuned out the previous bits just like Toph.
- Location
- Te Ika-a-Māui
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, dunno about wherever you went to university, but the library at the one I attended absolutely included fiction.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Azula reading extremely racist YA nationalist propaganda adventure novels is peak tbh
Chapter 11: The Intersection of Fate
- Location
- United Kingdom
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chapter 11: The Intersection of Fate
Zuko wanted something. It was basically the only explanation for all of this. She could hardly see the surroundings, but it was in one of the rooms she liked, the one made with good stone that had a low table so she could crouch down and eat. And there were all her favorites there, hearty, common Earth Kingdom dishes that would stick with her.
(Except the truth was, she liked it a lot, but her real favorite dishes were things she'd never admit to, because they were fancy-smancy nonsense and she was just fine liking the rougher versions of things. The same things, but with three or four less frills. She'd said she liked the peasant versions of these things best, and wouldn't have wanted to admit otherwise. She was Toph, and she'd eaten bugs and liked it, and so of course she didn't have the tastes of someone who had grown up almost exclusively on high society food (and bugs.))
Zuko gave Toph what she said she wanted. Brown rice, porridges, fried meats in generous servings of sauce, a thousand little anti-delicacies that no doubt had his chefs screaming at not being able to use the finest ingredients, not being able to do all the fancy nonsense that Toph mostly doesn't care about. She liked how the fancy nonsense tasted, sure, but what did it matter? Food was for shoveling in your mouth and then getting on with it anyway. Unlike tea, admittedly.
She could hardly admit to any of that, and she liked the food well enough. She just didn't like it as much as Zuko probably thought. There was the thing to focus on. He was softening her up with all of this because he had something he wanted. She sipped the tea, and waited. He was sitting on a mat across from her, and he hadn't talked yet, just ate slowly and distractedly.
"Toph, do you know what's going on in the Fire Nation Colonies?" Zuko asked.
Oh, it was one of those questions. "Not enough for whatever you're gonna ask me to do." Was this it, time for that Life Changing Field Trip? Nah, with her luck he was going to give some sort of speech or… something? But maybe he'd want to go deal with it himself, or go on a state visit or whatever and he'd want her around to tell her when people were lying to him (always.)
"There has been chaos and violence, you know that, it's been long enough. But the Rough Rhinos, and dozens of other groups of ex-Fire Nation soldiers have been plaguing the area, as have would-be Earth Kingdom Warlords: generals and resistance fighters who want to take a piece of the Colonies."
"And I suppose the muckity-mucks in charge don't want to give up their power to a bunch of dirteaters, let alone a bunch of enemy generals?" Toph asked.
She felt Zuko flinch. But there had been weirder, and for that matter crueler, things in those stupid books Azula sometimes asked for, she was sure. It was all so much nonsense, really. The Fire Nation had apparently spent a century teaching its people to be stupid losers. It was a miracle that Zuko was a good person and Azula not entirely boring and stupid.
"...basically, yes, but where did you hear all of this? It's not…"
"Nice? No, it isn't," Toph said, yawning. "But yeah, so is that it?"
"Yes. And… we have to figure out what we're going to do. It's land we stole from the Earth Kingdom, and yet the Generals are as likely to become Warlords as bring peace and prosperity to the region. But the Governors in charge, they're… deluded at best, and monsters at worst. And there's people with mixed heritage, and even Earthbenders who are skeptical of the Earth Kingdom, though I'm pretty sure they don't want to be ruled over by a bunch of Firebenders." He was rambling, now, and she let him talk. "It's a complicated situation, and I don't know what we're going to do. But it's getting worse and worse and if we don't step in… so I want to send you."
"To what? Beat everyone up and tell them they have to talk it out?" Toph asked, sure it couldn't be that simple.
"If that's what it takes. I want you to keep the peace, and war… is definitely a disturbance of the peace. Do whatever you can to maintain order, and you'll have my backing. Within reason, obviously. But if you want to beat up a bunch of deserters, if you want to knock Earth Kingdom General heads together, whatever you need to do… because the alternative is worse."
Really?
"What? You want me to be a Grand Shire Reeve?" Toph asked, incredulously. "Of all the colonies?"
"Shire Reeve?"
"Person appointed by the village to basically get everyone together to chase after a murderer or a thief or so on," Toph explained, with a roll of her eyes. "I've been taught so many useless things, you know."
"Bigger than that."
"A Chief Shire Reeve?" Toph asked. "What, you want me to train people in Metalbending, and then create some sort of peacekeeping force to deal with threats internal and external and yada yada, blah blah blah, army of buttkickers for peace?"
But as she said it, she felt his willingness to go along with it. And didn't it seem like a good idea? Because right now towns had guards, and Ba Sing Se had had the Dai Li, but that wasn't quite the same, not something that would work as a force there to take the fight to warlords and bandits - and for that matter whatever the gangs were doing? The kind of thing where she could be having a fun fight every single week, and feel like she was helping things. And she'd be able to teach people to metalbend if they wanted to and make sure she knew where they were learning it.
It'd be a way to control it, she realized. Who would try to learn Metalbending on their own if she was offering to teach other people? Some people would, just because they could, but most people would just go to learn from her if she offered.
She could picture it now. She could even go after some of the bad guys with her old friends, try to drag Katara off on an adventure or see if Sokka or Suki were finally willing to actually…
It was a good picture. She'd be an authority figure, in charge of the lives of, how many people? And, and.
She'd get to make something new, something that kicked butt. Something that she could say was all her own, her invention the same way she'd created Metalbending and dozens of different new Earthbending moves. She had no idea what to call it, because being "Chief Shire Reeve" didn't exactly roll off the tongue.
But she could imagine it. The adventures, the fun, the power and control over others. She'd be enforcing the laws, and she'd be enforcing whatever order Zuko wanted enforced. But he'd listen to her if she had advice about how to do all of this, and she'd be able to get out of the palace.
"Where am I doing this from? The Colonies, right? If I do it," Toph said, not sure why she wasn't jumping up and down in enthusiasm. She… just wasn't sure.
Was this what she wanted? She didn't know why it wouldn't be. It'd be a chance to really stretch her muscles. But somehow she felt just a little bit sick, and she knew it wasn't the food. It didn't sit that heavily on her, and she didn't dislike it that much.
"If you do? Take all the time you need to think about it," Zuko said, sounding apologetic. "I didn't mean to spring it on you, or demand you answer it right now. But I thought that it could be something, because Mai says you're bored."
"Duh," Toph said.
"That's… about what she said," Zuko said.
"There's a reason she's cool," Toph said, absently. She didn't know what to think of Mai, but she did think she'd get along with her if they actually spent more time together.
"And… there's something else."
"What?" Toph asked, tensing because Zuko himself had tensed as well. It was really easy to read people like that, and if she cared about it she could probably tell more than just whether someone was lying.
"We've received a letter from your father to… myself. I have it here, if you want me to read it to you, but he's requesting that I return his daughter. He… wants to talk."
"Does he want to talk, or does he want to listen?" Toph asked, trying to hide the moment of sickening uncertainty.
"I'm… not sure. But I'm willing to send over some guards, if you wanted to meet with him but you didn't trust him not to do anything like with those mercenaries," Zuko said. He'd heard the story indirectly, but he probably didn't know all the details.
"What does he say, exactly?"
"He asks for the return of his only Heir, Toph Beifong, for a meeting at the town of Gaoling, and states that he shall be ready for the receipt of any messages or information."
His only heir.
It wasn't anything she wanted, but she was apparently the heir to the Beifong fortune, despite having been sure that actually it was, she wasn't sure, some cousin.
Which meant he had been trying to prepare her. In a way. It didn't… Azula was right, she knew. It didn't actually make anything any better at all. It wasn't what she wanted, and she didn't care that at least he'd expected something from her even if it had nothing to do with Bending.
But the more she was sure it didn't matter, the more she thought about it, because it was weird.
"Oh," Toph said, and she knew her voice sounded faint. She was usually right there, in the moment, no matter what the moment it was. But now she felt as if she was floating above herself. "I'll need to think."
"You don't have to agree to either, you can agree to one and not the other, or propose your own version of things," Zuko said, distressed. "I just… thought it'd help you, and help the world. But, please, enjoy."
She ate the food that followed while thinking the whole time, stuck in Neutral Jing and eating food that she could not even taste. She just ate, and then drank, and then considered what she wanted and why she felt just a little bit like she was a pebble in an avalanche. It didn't make sense.
She wanted to talk to Azula, but she knew what Azula would say. Ambition, power, control? Domination of others? Azula would eagerly say yes, wouldn't she? Or… would she try to convince Toph to say no because she had some oh-so-clever plan to try to keep Toph here so she could continue trying and failing to manipulate her? Azula would have an angle, and Toph truly didn't have the energy to try to work out what it would be.
Toph wasn't going to talk to Azula. There was no point. She could just go about her day and know that whatever Azula would say, it wouldn't matter.
"Yo, Sparky," Toph called out as the room shuddered and one of the steel doors groaned. She sounded… off. Azula was very good at finding those little signs in anyone she had experience with, and in this she had months of time talking to Toph by now. It was in small bursts at first, but by now she talked with her several hours a week.
So she knew something was up. "What is it? Lose to Zuko again?"
"I'm over that," Toph said. "I got distracted."
Last week Zuko had finally broken her streak, or so Toph informed her, by managing to surprise her in a way that would have forced her to use something she'd decided not to use to win. She'd almost used it, or so Azula guessed. Just like Azula, she understood that winning was almost everything. You could learn things from losing, but a good Bender learned even more from winning.
She was sure, though, that Toph would win next time. It was humiliating for her, but Azula knew that even she occasionally lost a spar with a good enough opponent. Once a year, perhaps. Sometimes less often.
Though it had also been quite some time since… since. But she'd been weak then, and she was stronger and more ready now, even if she was out of practice in some ways.
But she stared at the door and imagined Toph on the other side of it. "Sure you did," Azula said. "But what are you distracted about now? You came to talk to me about something." Was this her chance? Perhaps this was the moment she could get Toph on her side, or seem like she was on Toph's side. But she wasn't sure what this was. She couldn't begin to hope it was a fight with Zuko. That would be too perfect, if she was at the point where she'd go straight from a fight with Zuzu to ask for Azula's advice.
"You can tell me anything," Azula lied. "I'd never use it against you."
Toph laughed at that, a familiar sort of laugh. "Of course you would! But here I am! It's lame, isn't it, but I figured you'd be easy to talk to."
"Me, easy to talk to?"
"Because you'd make it a fight, and then I'd win," Toph boasted.
Azula felt the moment, felt the power of it. It was like the feeling of the sun, the knowledge of where the sun was, the knowledge of how the world waxed and waned. She understood this: Toph was talking to her because she might be mean. Toph was talking to her because whatever it was, she wasn't sure. Whatever was troubling her was something where she did not trust kindness and sweetness. She did not trust people being nice at her, perhaps?
It was like Toph. It was like Azula. "Well then, fight away, Toph."
"Well, Zappy, you know how the Fire Nation colonies are in chaos? I'm sure you've heard some of that stuff," Toph said.
She'd guessed a little, but it'd been guesses rather than knowledge.
"I assumed as much." She said, "But I'm hardly kept in the loop by Zuzu or my guards."
"No?" Toph asked. "Well you know how it is, buncha Firebenders wanting to keep power, Earthbenders going every which way, Generals threatening things, deserters causing chaos or working for 'em, yada, yada, yada, boring politics."
It was the most thorough explanation of political circumstances in the Fire Nation colonies that she'd had in this last year. It wasn't much, but Zuko didn't want to give her anything at all. If she was being entirely fair she could even say that not all of it was probably from Zuko's incompetence. It was not as if the Colonies hadn't always been a headache. "Zuzu's messing up?"
"Not really. Sometimes things just suck. If he'd gone around trying to start a war with them, it'd lead to chaos, and so he did what he could, I think? But he's decided he's had enough of letting things work out. Or that's what he said."
Oh. She knew. "And so, he asked you to do something about it? What?"
"So, he laid out this spread of food, and then let me eat and then told me," Toph said. "The tea was good."
"Oh, what was the food?" Azula asked, aware she was sneering, standing up and getting closer. "Fire Flakes in porridge?"
"It was all the things I told him I liked," Toph said carelessly, and she could imagine the bored expression.
"All the things you told him you liked?" Azula asked, and she felt oddly sick but also as if she was about to catch Toph at the knees and burn her out. "And what about the things you actually liked?"
"I liked them," Toph said defensively. "It doesn't matter, but I liked them."
"Were they your favorites or… oh? I know you well enough to guess, you know - I bet you said you like brown rice and cheap dumplings, and thick, hearty stews? Good peasant fare for the crust of the earth," Azula said. It felt like that moment with Long Feng, it felt like she was seeing something. And then she knew it. "But that's not what you grew up eating, is it? No, Toph Beifong grew up on fine dining… and bugs." And she'd tolerated both of those, and yet she knew the truth was that one could not spend one's entire life eating the food of nobles and not have preferences.
Preferences that didn't fit the kind of rough and crude person she wanted to be, someone strong and free and actively rejecting the noble accent and everything about the power, privilege, and cage that this represented to her.
It was honestly far more fascinating than the resentment and power-mongering that had driven the Dai Li from top to bottom. They had too much respect for position and authority. And she began to guess why Toph was here. She pressed her hand against the cold steel, and for a moment she wanted to be closer--not even just to escape, but to see her reactions and try to read her even better so that her words would hit even more correctly.
"Do you wanna know what the idea is or not?" Toph asked.
"I can guess," Azula said, considering it. "He sends you there to deal with the problem yourself? Probably with all the power he can give you, because it's only naked force that those backward Colonials understand? Beat the Generals, beat the deserters, beat anyone who questions what you do, and run around knocking heads together? He couldn't do it himself because Zuzu is incompetent and stupid, but you are very competent and you don't respect them." Oh, that was it, wasn't it? "He wants someone who doesn't care. And if you do something he cannot be seen approving of, but thinks is fine, he can just wring his hands? Is that about it?"
Toph was silent for a moment, and Azula understood that she'd grasped the core of it, the heart of what the idea was even about. Toph would come into this messy situation, and she'd at once be restrained because she was a single person, a single child even… but she'd also be anything but, because she was a master Earthbender and knew the Avatar and all of his little friends. And no one could object, not openly - the colonies couldn't be angry that the Fire Lord had sent someone to restore order, not if they were the ones screaming for him to do it, and the Earth Kingdom could hardly complain about being whipped into shape by a better Earthbender.
"Oh, so that's why?" Toph muttered to herself. "Yeah, basically."
Azula grinned in triumph. "But now you have doubts. You barely want to acknowledge your nobility except as a joke, and here you are in a position of…"
"Chief Shire Reeve?" Toph guessed. What. "Chief Shireeve? Chief Shireef? I dunno, I'd work on the title, I think I'm onto something with the name, Platypus-Bear."
"It is truly impressive, how you cling to a time I successfully lied to you," Azula said, though it and Ashy were probably the nicknames that annoyed her the most. "I don't understand it."
She did understand it. She was lying right then. She understood it in the same way that she understood an obsession with anyone she'd lost to before. She didn't lose often, and so those few times she did… the mere thought of that Waterbender left her furious and cold.
"But yes, so something like that. And… he's gotten a letter from my Father."
"Oh?" It was best not to comment, because a part of her was trying to figure out how she could angle this… the problem was that she wasn't sure what she wanted. Did she want to keep Toph here, to further manipulate, or hope that perhaps some time abroad would teach her about an understanding of what power was?
The latter seemed wrong for some reason, but it was as good a piece of logic as any, since right now it didn't seem as if Toph would have anything she wanted enough to free Azula. Azula had no idea what that even would be, if it wasn't the power that her excellent bending meant she deserved.
"He requests his heir back," Toph said, snorting. "His only heir."
It was something, of course. If Toph cared, it could have been proof that she was at least valued for something. But not her bending. Even just the ability to sense when most people were lying was enough to open fascinating possibilities for Toph as a ruler and mechant. Of course, everyone lied, but knowing when they did or not…
But instead he hadn't even thought about it, she was sure of that. "Oh, a trap, then?"
"Zuko promised to send troops with me if I wanted them, if I did want to talk to him," Toph said. "And… that one isn't connected to the other. I can take the job and not visit my Father. Or visit my Father without taking the job."
"Ah, but as long as you're in the area…?" Azula asked, considering it.
"He was just telling me everything."
"Perhaps," Azula said. There was an angle to all of this, but she'd have to be careful and a part of her wondered what she should aim towards. "Yet, it feels connected, doesn't it?" By now she was almost pressed against the door, staring at it, as if she could create a form of firebending in which her eyes shot fire.
(In truth, that sounded rather tempting right about now.)
"Connected?"
"You're afraid, afraid of being a noble, of being an heiress. Perhaps of the temporal power. You don't value it, but even worse than that… you're afraid of it, aren't you?" Azula asked, sure of that. "You think that seizing the power would change you, would bind you. I asked what you were before and you said free." It was in some ways a very childish answer. Yes, she wasn't behind locked doors, but Toph was stuck and she had to wonder whether Toph could do everything she wanted to do when she wanted so little.
If you had no ambition at all, made yourself small, the world did not accept that and leave you alone, certainly not from a bender of Toph's caliber.
"Nah, I'm not," Toph protested, weakly.
"You see nobility as a trap, and so you see this as just a way toward it. An official title, an official role, and you come to me because… what? Do you want reassurances? No, I don't think so."
"You think you know everything," Toph complained. "Since now you can't see me, I'm rolling my eyes."
"If I were in that position, I'd accept. All that power. Even controlled by Zuzu, it'd be a perfect place to build up my power, build up my influence, and reconquer the Fire Nation. But you don't care about that."
"It's wrong," Toph said, and she sounded like a beggar tripping over a pile of gold coins, pained but also fortunate. She realized something.
"What's wrong? Me ruling? Oh, I'm sure you agree."
"Nobles don't know anything, they're usually a bunch of morons. I'm a better bender than anyone, but why should I try to be in charge of anything? Zuko gets stupid headaches and groans about everything he has to do. And apparently Ozai basically did nothing because he was too busy playing soldiers and doing bending training which… well, I can't exactly blame the guy, can I? Even if all that training hardly amounted to much for the guy, imagine how much worse he'd have done without it…"
Azula flinched, but she didn't let up. "And your point?"
"And what even are there? The Earth Kingdom generals, half of them gave up after Omashu fell, and half of the rest after Ba Sing Se fell. We lost several times and then kept on coming back until we won, but they all just ran off until it turned out they were winning despite themselves! Why should they be in charge of anything just because they have a lifetime of experience in losing the war against you guys?" By now, Toph seemed like if she were the sort she'd be pacing. There was an edge in her voice, a frustration and anger that she'd felt almost from the start. Azula had almost nurtured it, once she realized that was the part of Toph that most played these games.
She sometimes saw it less, now that they were not arguing all the time, just a lot of the time. But she had felt its edge sharpen against the whetstone, and now it seemed to be cutting.
"And the Governors and all of that, what did they do but beat up people who couldn't fight back? And the people there, some of them wanna go back into the Earth Kingdom and sure, fine, but what kinda loser would want to be ruled by the Earth King. Weird bear aside, I don't get that? Course, I don't exactly want to be ruled by anyone."
"Not ruled by anyone?" Azula asked, because that was a childish thing to imagine.
"Not ruled by anyone, not ruling anyone… dunno if I can manage it, but I don't… it doesn't end well, does it? When there's one person and they get to stand up and declare that they're the Melon Lord--"
"The what?" Azula asked, because Toph sometimes referenced the most inane nonsense she'd ever heard as if it was commonly known.
"The Melon Lord. This practice thing we did to test how good Aang was, right before Zuko told us all about the whole Sozin's Comet plan."
Azula understood that defending the plan was a mistake, but a part of her wanted to, wanted to explain the reasoning. Yet, it had failed so thoroughly and so totally, with essentially nothing to show for it. Nothing to prove that it had almost worked and just barely failed.
"We all thought we could, y'know, just train past the Comet and attack the Fire Lord in a few months," Toph said. "Instead he went and wound up somewhere we could just go and fight him."
"I would go, if I were you, with your goals," Azula said, and she was shocked to realize she was telling the truth, leaning against the door. "You can always figure out how not to enforce laws if you want that. Just make it so that nobody can do anything, and tell them to do whatever they want. You need to seize power if you want to push your inane idea of nobody being in charge."
"Wouldn't that just be me being in charge? Plus…"
"Plus, you don't want to do it even if you didn't believe any of this," Azula said. "I think you should, even if you hate it, because I think you'll see that you're more than you thought you were. Its power that shows who you are, that lets you become whoever you'll be next, whether it's this or something else." She felt oddly like she was getting sick, and considering the terrible food she was served, she could be. Zuko probably wasn't deliberately trying to kill her, but she'd taken to using Toph's Fire Flakes for everything because nothing had a taste at all. "All this moping around about your inner self, about looking into your mind, I'd just act. Look outward into the world instead of getting caught in all of this." She realized that it would be best for Toph to go on to whatever stupid destiny this was, to be the rough-fisted enforcer of Zuko's will in the colonies, and figure out there what she knew of power and authority and whatever else was troubling her so much that she went running to Azula.
It was ridiculous! Of all the many areas where she was perfect, Mai was right that providing a shoulder to sob upon was the least of her skills.
"Everyone talks about getting right inside, but… what's the point if you're not figuring out how all the world works? How you can dominate it, how you can control it and find your place or your freedom or whatever nonsense you saps care about," Azula said, and she didn't know what she was saying anymore. She'd be fine. It would be a little less interesting once Toph was gone, but she'd done without a competent verbal sparring partner for months and months before Toph came along.
It would be fine.
"Sparky," Toph said, and Azula realized… Toph was listening to her. Actually listening to her in the sense that she'd gotten beneath the armor. There was a vulnerability to that voice that she wanted to preserve, to lock away to mock her about it in a moment where the thought of doing so didn't make her feel vaguely ill. The voice was plaintive, weak in a way she'd never been even when Azula had felt as if she was getting somewhere at the start. "Thanks."
"For what?" Azula asked, fingers drumming against the steel door.
Toph didn't answer the question, just saying, "And what about my Dad, what's your advice there?"
"You don't want to talk to him, you don't have to, he has no power, he's not even a good bender… just keep on ignoring him," Azula said, and the moment felt like it was passing as she rolled her own eyes. "I'm pretty sure you decided that yourself."
"Sorta, yeah. I was curious what you'd advise," Toph said, and her voice still sounded weird. She stamped her foot. "What about Chief Sheriff? It's like Shireef, but a little bit catchier."
"Sheriff?"
"For the job, if I take it or whatever," Toph said, distractedly, any vulnerability bleeding away beneath blase unconcern.
"You can't just turn… Shire Reeve, whatever that is, into Sheriff. It's not even a proper shortening!" Azula protested, all of her own strange feelings almost forgotten. Almost forgotten.
"Watch me," Toph said. Oh, so she'd decided she was going to take the job. It was surprising of her to see sense.
They spent the next half-hour bickering, and it almost felt like normal. She might miss this, abstractly. Toph was entertaining enough, but still. She would be just fine while Toph was away.
Toph had a lot to think about, but she'd come to a decision. Once again she threw open the doors to Zuko's office and strode in.
Honestly, it was kind of hilarious. Azula had given her honest advice while feeling as if she didn't like giving it. As if she'd miss Toph or something? It was definitely something to make fun of her for, because it was very embarrassing for Azula to be such a sap. Or, Azula would see it that way and Toph would have fun poking at that.
"Hey Zuko, I thought about your offer," she said.
"Oh?"
"Nah," Toph said. "I'm thirteen. Maybe ask me again after my birthday." She wanted to spend a little more time bothering Azula, but also… Azula had a point. If she was going to do something like this, she should care about politics and she really, really didn't. Debates about which noble got to be in charge or who got to stomp all over the peasants or whatever seemed boring, if not just wrong. If she did it when she didn't have some kind of drive, what would she even do? She'd probably make things worse, and Toph Beifong wasn't going to be bad at anything she did if it actually mattered. And… it sort of did.
It did matter, even though she thought it was nonsense she didn't want to get involved in.
If she left to do it badly, she'd be annoyed the whole time and not doing a good job. Best just to wait… a little longer.
"Okay, of course. And your father?"
"No answer. Listen, Zuko, I promise I'm not going to be hanging around here forever," Toph said.
"It's fine if you…"
No, it wasn't. Not really. But she had time. "If you need any help with some immediate crisis or something, I can help, but right now I'm not ready to be a Sheriff."
"A what?"
"Shire Reeve. Sheriff," Toph said, gesturing vaguely.
She felt him sitting up, "Wouldn't that be a Shireef? Doesn't Sheriff make no sense, as a way of shortening it?"
Which was… exactly Azula's objection.
Toph couldn't help it.
She started laughing, a little bit desperate, a little bit heedless.
A little bit sure she'd made the right choice.
veteranMortal: A lot of just Azula and Toph talking this time. It's always nice to just let them kinda spark off each other. Also crucial in that this is, like… officially the point of divergence from "canon".
The Laurent: It's not as catchy a title as Crossroads of Destiny, but…
Zuko wanted something. It was basically the only explanation for all of this. She could hardly see the surroundings, but it was in one of the rooms she liked, the one made with good stone that had a low table so she could crouch down and eat. And there were all her favorites there, hearty, common Earth Kingdom dishes that would stick with her.
(Except the truth was, she liked it a lot, but her real favorite dishes were things she'd never admit to, because they were fancy-smancy nonsense and she was just fine liking the rougher versions of things. The same things, but with three or four less frills. She'd said she liked the peasant versions of these things best, and wouldn't have wanted to admit otherwise. She was Toph, and she'd eaten bugs and liked it, and so of course she didn't have the tastes of someone who had grown up almost exclusively on high society food (and bugs.))
Zuko gave Toph what she said she wanted. Brown rice, porridges, fried meats in generous servings of sauce, a thousand little anti-delicacies that no doubt had his chefs screaming at not being able to use the finest ingredients, not being able to do all the fancy nonsense that Toph mostly doesn't care about. She liked how the fancy nonsense tasted, sure, but what did it matter? Food was for shoveling in your mouth and then getting on with it anyway. Unlike tea, admittedly.
She could hardly admit to any of that, and she liked the food well enough. She just didn't like it as much as Zuko probably thought. There was the thing to focus on. He was softening her up with all of this because he had something he wanted. She sipped the tea, and waited. He was sitting on a mat across from her, and he hadn't talked yet, just ate slowly and distractedly.
"Toph, do you know what's going on in the Fire Nation Colonies?" Zuko asked.
Oh, it was one of those questions. "Not enough for whatever you're gonna ask me to do." Was this it, time for that Life Changing Field Trip? Nah, with her luck he was going to give some sort of speech or… something? But maybe he'd want to go deal with it himself, or go on a state visit or whatever and he'd want her around to tell her when people were lying to him (always.)
"There has been chaos and violence, you know that, it's been long enough. But the Rough Rhinos, and dozens of other groups of ex-Fire Nation soldiers have been plaguing the area, as have would-be Earth Kingdom Warlords: generals and resistance fighters who want to take a piece of the Colonies."
"And I suppose the muckity-mucks in charge don't want to give up their power to a bunch of dirteaters, let alone a bunch of enemy generals?" Toph asked.
She felt Zuko flinch. But there had been weirder, and for that matter crueler, things in those stupid books Azula sometimes asked for, she was sure. It was all so much nonsense, really. The Fire Nation had apparently spent a century teaching its people to be stupid losers. It was a miracle that Zuko was a good person and Azula not entirely boring and stupid.
"...basically, yes, but where did you hear all of this? It's not…"
"Nice? No, it isn't," Toph said, yawning. "But yeah, so is that it?"
"Yes. And… we have to figure out what we're going to do. It's land we stole from the Earth Kingdom, and yet the Generals are as likely to become Warlords as bring peace and prosperity to the region. But the Governors in charge, they're… deluded at best, and monsters at worst. And there's people with mixed heritage, and even Earthbenders who are skeptical of the Earth Kingdom, though I'm pretty sure they don't want to be ruled over by a bunch of Firebenders." He was rambling, now, and she let him talk. "It's a complicated situation, and I don't know what we're going to do. But it's getting worse and worse and if we don't step in… so I want to send you."
"To what? Beat everyone up and tell them they have to talk it out?" Toph asked, sure it couldn't be that simple.
"If that's what it takes. I want you to keep the peace, and war… is definitely a disturbance of the peace. Do whatever you can to maintain order, and you'll have my backing. Within reason, obviously. But if you want to beat up a bunch of deserters, if you want to knock Earth Kingdom General heads together, whatever you need to do… because the alternative is worse."
Really?
"What? You want me to be a Grand Shire Reeve?" Toph asked, incredulously. "Of all the colonies?"
"Shire Reeve?"
"Person appointed by the village to basically get everyone together to chase after a murderer or a thief or so on," Toph explained, with a roll of her eyes. "I've been taught so many useless things, you know."
"Bigger than that."
"A Chief Shire Reeve?" Toph asked. "What, you want me to train people in Metalbending, and then create some sort of peacekeeping force to deal with threats internal and external and yada yada, blah blah blah, army of buttkickers for peace?"
But as she said it, she felt his willingness to go along with it. And didn't it seem like a good idea? Because right now towns had guards, and Ba Sing Se had had the Dai Li, but that wasn't quite the same, not something that would work as a force there to take the fight to warlords and bandits - and for that matter whatever the gangs were doing? The kind of thing where she could be having a fun fight every single week, and feel like she was helping things. And she'd be able to teach people to metalbend if they wanted to and make sure she knew where they were learning it.
It'd be a way to control it, she realized. Who would try to learn Metalbending on their own if she was offering to teach other people? Some people would, just because they could, but most people would just go to learn from her if she offered.
She could picture it now. She could even go after some of the bad guys with her old friends, try to drag Katara off on an adventure or see if Sokka or Suki were finally willing to actually…
It was a good picture. She'd be an authority figure, in charge of the lives of, how many people? And, and.
She'd get to make something new, something that kicked butt. Something that she could say was all her own, her invention the same way she'd created Metalbending and dozens of different new Earthbending moves. She had no idea what to call it, because being "Chief Shire Reeve" didn't exactly roll off the tongue.
But she could imagine it. The adventures, the fun, the power and control over others. She'd be enforcing the laws, and she'd be enforcing whatever order Zuko wanted enforced. But he'd listen to her if she had advice about how to do all of this, and she'd be able to get out of the palace.
"Where am I doing this from? The Colonies, right? If I do it," Toph said, not sure why she wasn't jumping up and down in enthusiasm. She… just wasn't sure.
Was this what she wanted? She didn't know why it wouldn't be. It'd be a chance to really stretch her muscles. But somehow she felt just a little bit sick, and she knew it wasn't the food. It didn't sit that heavily on her, and she didn't dislike it that much.
"If you do? Take all the time you need to think about it," Zuko said, sounding apologetic. "I didn't mean to spring it on you, or demand you answer it right now. But I thought that it could be something, because Mai says you're bored."
"Duh," Toph said.
"That's… about what she said," Zuko said.
"There's a reason she's cool," Toph said, absently. She didn't know what to think of Mai, but she did think she'd get along with her if they actually spent more time together.
"And… there's something else."
"What?" Toph asked, tensing because Zuko himself had tensed as well. It was really easy to read people like that, and if she cared about it she could probably tell more than just whether someone was lying.
"We've received a letter from your father to… myself. I have it here, if you want me to read it to you, but he's requesting that I return his daughter. He… wants to talk."
"Does he want to talk, or does he want to listen?" Toph asked, trying to hide the moment of sickening uncertainty.
"I'm… not sure. But I'm willing to send over some guards, if you wanted to meet with him but you didn't trust him not to do anything like with those mercenaries," Zuko said. He'd heard the story indirectly, but he probably didn't know all the details.
"What does he say, exactly?"
"He asks for the return of his only Heir, Toph Beifong, for a meeting at the town of Gaoling, and states that he shall be ready for the receipt of any messages or information."
His only heir.
It wasn't anything she wanted, but she was apparently the heir to the Beifong fortune, despite having been sure that actually it was, she wasn't sure, some cousin.
Which meant he had been trying to prepare her. In a way. It didn't… Azula was right, she knew. It didn't actually make anything any better at all. It wasn't what she wanted, and she didn't care that at least he'd expected something from her even if it had nothing to do with Bending.
But the more she was sure it didn't matter, the more she thought about it, because it was weird.
"Oh," Toph said, and she knew her voice sounded faint. She was usually right there, in the moment, no matter what the moment it was. But now she felt as if she was floating above herself. "I'll need to think."
"You don't have to agree to either, you can agree to one and not the other, or propose your own version of things," Zuko said, distressed. "I just… thought it'd help you, and help the world. But, please, enjoy."
She ate the food that followed while thinking the whole time, stuck in Neutral Jing and eating food that she could not even taste. She just ate, and then drank, and then considered what she wanted and why she felt just a little bit like she was a pebble in an avalanche. It didn't make sense.
She wanted to talk to Azula, but she knew what Azula would say. Ambition, power, control? Domination of others? Azula would eagerly say yes, wouldn't she? Or… would she try to convince Toph to say no because she had some oh-so-clever plan to try to keep Toph here so she could continue trying and failing to manipulate her? Azula would have an angle, and Toph truly didn't have the energy to try to work out what it would be.
Toph wasn't going to talk to Azula. There was no point. She could just go about her day and know that whatever Azula would say, it wouldn't matter.
"Yo, Sparky," Toph called out as the room shuddered and one of the steel doors groaned. She sounded… off. Azula was very good at finding those little signs in anyone she had experience with, and in this she had months of time talking to Toph by now. It was in small bursts at first, but by now she talked with her several hours a week.
So she knew something was up. "What is it? Lose to Zuko again?"
"I'm over that," Toph said. "I got distracted."
Last week Zuko had finally broken her streak, or so Toph informed her, by managing to surprise her in a way that would have forced her to use something she'd decided not to use to win. She'd almost used it, or so Azula guessed. Just like Azula, she understood that winning was almost everything. You could learn things from losing, but a good Bender learned even more from winning.
She was sure, though, that Toph would win next time. It was humiliating for her, but Azula knew that even she occasionally lost a spar with a good enough opponent. Once a year, perhaps. Sometimes less often.
Though it had also been quite some time since… since. But she'd been weak then, and she was stronger and more ready now, even if she was out of practice in some ways.
But she stared at the door and imagined Toph on the other side of it. "Sure you did," Azula said. "But what are you distracted about now? You came to talk to me about something." Was this her chance? Perhaps this was the moment she could get Toph on her side, or seem like she was on Toph's side. But she wasn't sure what this was. She couldn't begin to hope it was a fight with Zuko. That would be too perfect, if she was at the point where she'd go straight from a fight with Zuzu to ask for Azula's advice.
"You can tell me anything," Azula lied. "I'd never use it against you."
Toph laughed at that, a familiar sort of laugh. "Of course you would! But here I am! It's lame, isn't it, but I figured you'd be easy to talk to."
"Me, easy to talk to?"
"Because you'd make it a fight, and then I'd win," Toph boasted.
Azula felt the moment, felt the power of it. It was like the feeling of the sun, the knowledge of where the sun was, the knowledge of how the world waxed and waned. She understood this: Toph was talking to her because she might be mean. Toph was talking to her because whatever it was, she wasn't sure. Whatever was troubling her was something where she did not trust kindness and sweetness. She did not trust people being nice at her, perhaps?
It was like Toph. It was like Azula. "Well then, fight away, Toph."
"Well, Zappy, you know how the Fire Nation colonies are in chaos? I'm sure you've heard some of that stuff," Toph said.
She'd guessed a little, but it'd been guesses rather than knowledge.
"I assumed as much." She said, "But I'm hardly kept in the loop by Zuzu or my guards."
"No?" Toph asked. "Well you know how it is, buncha Firebenders wanting to keep power, Earthbenders going every which way, Generals threatening things, deserters causing chaos or working for 'em, yada, yada, yada, boring politics."
It was the most thorough explanation of political circumstances in the Fire Nation colonies that she'd had in this last year. It wasn't much, but Zuko didn't want to give her anything at all. If she was being entirely fair she could even say that not all of it was probably from Zuko's incompetence. It was not as if the Colonies hadn't always been a headache. "Zuzu's messing up?"
"Not really. Sometimes things just suck. If he'd gone around trying to start a war with them, it'd lead to chaos, and so he did what he could, I think? But he's decided he's had enough of letting things work out. Or that's what he said."
Oh. She knew. "And so, he asked you to do something about it? What?"
"So, he laid out this spread of food, and then let me eat and then told me," Toph said. "The tea was good."
"Oh, what was the food?" Azula asked, aware she was sneering, standing up and getting closer. "Fire Flakes in porridge?"
"It was all the things I told him I liked," Toph said carelessly, and she could imagine the bored expression.
"All the things you told him you liked?" Azula asked, and she felt oddly sick but also as if she was about to catch Toph at the knees and burn her out. "And what about the things you actually liked?"
"I liked them," Toph said defensively. "It doesn't matter, but I liked them."
"Were they your favorites or… oh? I know you well enough to guess, you know - I bet you said you like brown rice and cheap dumplings, and thick, hearty stews? Good peasant fare for the crust of the earth," Azula said. It felt like that moment with Long Feng, it felt like she was seeing something. And then she knew it. "But that's not what you grew up eating, is it? No, Toph Beifong grew up on fine dining… and bugs." And she'd tolerated both of those, and yet she knew the truth was that one could not spend one's entire life eating the food of nobles and not have preferences.
Preferences that didn't fit the kind of rough and crude person she wanted to be, someone strong and free and actively rejecting the noble accent and everything about the power, privilege, and cage that this represented to her.
It was honestly far more fascinating than the resentment and power-mongering that had driven the Dai Li from top to bottom. They had too much respect for position and authority. And she began to guess why Toph was here. She pressed her hand against the cold steel, and for a moment she wanted to be closer--not even just to escape, but to see her reactions and try to read her even better so that her words would hit even more correctly.
"Do you wanna know what the idea is or not?" Toph asked.
"I can guess," Azula said, considering it. "He sends you there to deal with the problem yourself? Probably with all the power he can give you, because it's only naked force that those backward Colonials understand? Beat the Generals, beat the deserters, beat anyone who questions what you do, and run around knocking heads together? He couldn't do it himself because Zuzu is incompetent and stupid, but you are very competent and you don't respect them." Oh, that was it, wasn't it? "He wants someone who doesn't care. And if you do something he cannot be seen approving of, but thinks is fine, he can just wring his hands? Is that about it?"
Toph was silent for a moment, and Azula understood that she'd grasped the core of it, the heart of what the idea was even about. Toph would come into this messy situation, and she'd at once be restrained because she was a single person, a single child even… but she'd also be anything but, because she was a master Earthbender and knew the Avatar and all of his little friends. And no one could object, not openly - the colonies couldn't be angry that the Fire Lord had sent someone to restore order, not if they were the ones screaming for him to do it, and the Earth Kingdom could hardly complain about being whipped into shape by a better Earthbender.
"Oh, so that's why?" Toph muttered to herself. "Yeah, basically."
Azula grinned in triumph. "But now you have doubts. You barely want to acknowledge your nobility except as a joke, and here you are in a position of…"
"Chief Shire Reeve?" Toph guessed. What. "Chief Shireeve? Chief Shireef? I dunno, I'd work on the title, I think I'm onto something with the name, Platypus-Bear."
"It is truly impressive, how you cling to a time I successfully lied to you," Azula said, though it and Ashy were probably the nicknames that annoyed her the most. "I don't understand it."
She did understand it. She was lying right then. She understood it in the same way that she understood an obsession with anyone she'd lost to before. She didn't lose often, and so those few times she did… the mere thought of that Waterbender left her furious and cold.
"But yes, so something like that. And… he's gotten a letter from my Father."
"Oh?" It was best not to comment, because a part of her was trying to figure out how she could angle this… the problem was that she wasn't sure what she wanted. Did she want to keep Toph here, to further manipulate, or hope that perhaps some time abroad would teach her about an understanding of what power was?
The latter seemed wrong for some reason, but it was as good a piece of logic as any, since right now it didn't seem as if Toph would have anything she wanted enough to free Azula. Azula had no idea what that even would be, if it wasn't the power that her excellent bending meant she deserved.
"He requests his heir back," Toph said, snorting. "His only heir."
It was something, of course. If Toph cared, it could have been proof that she was at least valued for something. But not her bending. Even just the ability to sense when most people were lying was enough to open fascinating possibilities for Toph as a ruler and mechant. Of course, everyone lied, but knowing when they did or not…
But instead he hadn't even thought about it, she was sure of that. "Oh, a trap, then?"
"Zuko promised to send troops with me if I wanted them, if I did want to talk to him," Toph said. "And… that one isn't connected to the other. I can take the job and not visit my Father. Or visit my Father without taking the job."
"Ah, but as long as you're in the area…?" Azula asked, considering it.
"He was just telling me everything."
"Perhaps," Azula said. There was an angle to all of this, but she'd have to be careful and a part of her wondered what she should aim towards. "Yet, it feels connected, doesn't it?" By now she was almost pressed against the door, staring at it, as if she could create a form of firebending in which her eyes shot fire.
(In truth, that sounded rather tempting right about now.)
"Connected?"
"You're afraid, afraid of being a noble, of being an heiress. Perhaps of the temporal power. You don't value it, but even worse than that… you're afraid of it, aren't you?" Azula asked, sure of that. "You think that seizing the power would change you, would bind you. I asked what you were before and you said free." It was in some ways a very childish answer. Yes, she wasn't behind locked doors, but Toph was stuck and she had to wonder whether Toph could do everything she wanted to do when she wanted so little.
If you had no ambition at all, made yourself small, the world did not accept that and leave you alone, certainly not from a bender of Toph's caliber.
"Nah, I'm not," Toph protested, weakly.
"You see nobility as a trap, and so you see this as just a way toward it. An official title, an official role, and you come to me because… what? Do you want reassurances? No, I don't think so."
"You think you know everything," Toph complained. "Since now you can't see me, I'm rolling my eyes."
"If I were in that position, I'd accept. All that power. Even controlled by Zuzu, it'd be a perfect place to build up my power, build up my influence, and reconquer the Fire Nation. But you don't care about that."
"It's wrong," Toph said, and she sounded like a beggar tripping over a pile of gold coins, pained but also fortunate. She realized something.
"What's wrong? Me ruling? Oh, I'm sure you agree."
"Nobles don't know anything, they're usually a bunch of morons. I'm a better bender than anyone, but why should I try to be in charge of anything? Zuko gets stupid headaches and groans about everything he has to do. And apparently Ozai basically did nothing because he was too busy playing soldiers and doing bending training which… well, I can't exactly blame the guy, can I? Even if all that training hardly amounted to much for the guy, imagine how much worse he'd have done without it…"
Azula flinched, but she didn't let up. "And your point?"
"And what even are there? The Earth Kingdom generals, half of them gave up after Omashu fell, and half of the rest after Ba Sing Se fell. We lost several times and then kept on coming back until we won, but they all just ran off until it turned out they were winning despite themselves! Why should they be in charge of anything just because they have a lifetime of experience in losing the war against you guys?" By now, Toph seemed like if she were the sort she'd be pacing. There was an edge in her voice, a frustration and anger that she'd felt almost from the start. Azula had almost nurtured it, once she realized that was the part of Toph that most played these games.
She sometimes saw it less, now that they were not arguing all the time, just a lot of the time. But she had felt its edge sharpen against the whetstone, and now it seemed to be cutting.
"And the Governors and all of that, what did they do but beat up people who couldn't fight back? And the people there, some of them wanna go back into the Earth Kingdom and sure, fine, but what kinda loser would want to be ruled by the Earth King. Weird bear aside, I don't get that? Course, I don't exactly want to be ruled by anyone."
"Not ruled by anyone?" Azula asked, because that was a childish thing to imagine.
"Not ruled by anyone, not ruling anyone… dunno if I can manage it, but I don't… it doesn't end well, does it? When there's one person and they get to stand up and declare that they're the Melon Lord--"
"The what?" Azula asked, because Toph sometimes referenced the most inane nonsense she'd ever heard as if it was commonly known.
"The Melon Lord. This practice thing we did to test how good Aang was, right before Zuko told us all about the whole Sozin's Comet plan."
Azula understood that defending the plan was a mistake, but a part of her wanted to, wanted to explain the reasoning. Yet, it had failed so thoroughly and so totally, with essentially nothing to show for it. Nothing to prove that it had almost worked and just barely failed.
"We all thought we could, y'know, just train past the Comet and attack the Fire Lord in a few months," Toph said. "Instead he went and wound up somewhere we could just go and fight him."
"I would go, if I were you, with your goals," Azula said, and she was shocked to realize she was telling the truth, leaning against the door. "You can always figure out how not to enforce laws if you want that. Just make it so that nobody can do anything, and tell them to do whatever they want. You need to seize power if you want to push your inane idea of nobody being in charge."
"Wouldn't that just be me being in charge? Plus…"
"Plus, you don't want to do it even if you didn't believe any of this," Azula said. "I think you should, even if you hate it, because I think you'll see that you're more than you thought you were. Its power that shows who you are, that lets you become whoever you'll be next, whether it's this or something else." She felt oddly like she was getting sick, and considering the terrible food she was served, she could be. Zuko probably wasn't deliberately trying to kill her, but she'd taken to using Toph's Fire Flakes for everything because nothing had a taste at all. "All this moping around about your inner self, about looking into your mind, I'd just act. Look outward into the world instead of getting caught in all of this." She realized that it would be best for Toph to go on to whatever stupid destiny this was, to be the rough-fisted enforcer of Zuko's will in the colonies, and figure out there what she knew of power and authority and whatever else was troubling her so much that she went running to Azula.
It was ridiculous! Of all the many areas where she was perfect, Mai was right that providing a shoulder to sob upon was the least of her skills.
"Everyone talks about getting right inside, but… what's the point if you're not figuring out how all the world works? How you can dominate it, how you can control it and find your place or your freedom or whatever nonsense you saps care about," Azula said, and she didn't know what she was saying anymore. She'd be fine. It would be a little less interesting once Toph was gone, but she'd done without a competent verbal sparring partner for months and months before Toph came along.
It would be fine.
"Sparky," Toph said, and Azula realized… Toph was listening to her. Actually listening to her in the sense that she'd gotten beneath the armor. There was a vulnerability to that voice that she wanted to preserve, to lock away to mock her about it in a moment where the thought of doing so didn't make her feel vaguely ill. The voice was plaintive, weak in a way she'd never been even when Azula had felt as if she was getting somewhere at the start. "Thanks."
"For what?" Azula asked, fingers drumming against the steel door.
Toph didn't answer the question, just saying, "And what about my Dad, what's your advice there?"
"You don't want to talk to him, you don't have to, he has no power, he's not even a good bender… just keep on ignoring him," Azula said, and the moment felt like it was passing as she rolled her own eyes. "I'm pretty sure you decided that yourself."
"Sorta, yeah. I was curious what you'd advise," Toph said, and her voice still sounded weird. She stamped her foot. "What about Chief Sheriff? It's like Shireef, but a little bit catchier."
"Sheriff?"
"For the job, if I take it or whatever," Toph said, distractedly, any vulnerability bleeding away beneath blase unconcern.
"You can't just turn… Shire Reeve, whatever that is, into Sheriff. It's not even a proper shortening!" Azula protested, all of her own strange feelings almost forgotten. Almost forgotten.
"Watch me," Toph said. Oh, so she'd decided she was going to take the job. It was surprising of her to see sense.
They spent the next half-hour bickering, and it almost felt like normal. She might miss this, abstractly. Toph was entertaining enough, but still. She would be just fine while Toph was away.
Toph had a lot to think about, but she'd come to a decision. Once again she threw open the doors to Zuko's office and strode in.
Honestly, it was kind of hilarious. Azula had given her honest advice while feeling as if she didn't like giving it. As if she'd miss Toph or something? It was definitely something to make fun of her for, because it was very embarrassing for Azula to be such a sap. Or, Azula would see it that way and Toph would have fun poking at that.
"Hey Zuko, I thought about your offer," she said.
"Oh?"
"Nah," Toph said. "I'm thirteen. Maybe ask me again after my birthday." She wanted to spend a little more time bothering Azula, but also… Azula had a point. If she was going to do something like this, she should care about politics and she really, really didn't. Debates about which noble got to be in charge or who got to stomp all over the peasants or whatever seemed boring, if not just wrong. If she did it when she didn't have some kind of drive, what would she even do? She'd probably make things worse, and Toph Beifong wasn't going to be bad at anything she did if it actually mattered. And… it sort of did.
It did matter, even though she thought it was nonsense she didn't want to get involved in.
If she left to do it badly, she'd be annoyed the whole time and not doing a good job. Best just to wait… a little longer.
"Okay, of course. And your father?"
"No answer. Listen, Zuko, I promise I'm not going to be hanging around here forever," Toph said.
"It's fine if you…"
No, it wasn't. Not really. But she had time. "If you need any help with some immediate crisis or something, I can help, but right now I'm not ready to be a Sheriff."
"A what?"
"Shire Reeve. Sheriff," Toph said, gesturing vaguely.
She felt him sitting up, "Wouldn't that be a Shireef? Doesn't Sheriff make no sense, as a way of shortening it?"
Which was… exactly Azula's objection.
Toph couldn't help it.
She started laughing, a little bit desperate, a little bit heedless.
A little bit sure she'd made the right choice.
veteranMortal: A lot of just Azula and Toph talking this time. It's always nice to just let them kinda spark off each other. Also crucial in that this is, like… officially the point of divergence from "canon".
The Laurent: It's not as catchy a title as Crossroads of Destiny, but…
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
And thus, the worst part of Korra does not come to pass.
AzureShogun
Tanks are better than Mechs
- Location
- United Kingdom
I'm always up for an Atla fic, and this one is really good so far. Liking the characters. Eager to see how the plot eventually develops if it reaches the point of Chief Sheriff Toph and Deputy Azula being unleashed unto the world.
Lenimentus
Ignorant but learning.
This is my favorite chapter so far.
I'm reasonably certain you meant indifferently. I do not think diffidently fits here.
Anarchist Toph? I'm on board.
I realize it's mostly the fact she's advising her to leave but Azula feeling ill over giving honest advice to a friend without running an angle is a funny idea.
What part was this? I only ever saw the first season.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Toph invents cops
Lenimentus
Ignorant but learning.
That seems like I very strange thing for Toph, of all people, to do.
But thanks for explaining!
DracoDracul
Transbian Communist
- Location
- Austin
- Pronouns
- She/They
How does this stop season 2?
This chapter foreshadows the nicklodeon big wigs having all their fingers broken so they can't fuck around while the show is in development and allows Bryke to plan out an overarching arc for the series like they did with tla
- Pronouns
- He/Him
oh my God is Azula?. Azula is going all iroh on her hahahahah oh this is so perfect
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think it makes some sense in canon? She has a pretty simplistic idea of right and wrong, along with the avatar she's used to backing the settling of disputes and the keeping of the peace with violence. She's strict and doesn't really have any sympathy for other peoples' fuckups for all her issues with authority. Also she would've kinda fallen into the position with the whole Gaang living in Republic City?
None of this means that it cant be different ofc.
- Location
- Illinois
Yeah, I've only been able to reason Toph becoming a cop if she bumbled into it, hated it, and then woke up one day and said, "Wait I hate what I've been doing" and abruptly left to live out in the swamp. Which, I guess happens in canon? idk I might be giving it too much credit.
Chapter 12: Reading Lists, Part 3
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Chapter 12: Reading Lists, Part 3
Somehow, Toph had not left yet. She didn't even talk about it, though she did talk more now. She ranted about this and that bit of nonsense, and even told stories about the Avatar, and that Water Peasant named Sokka, and Suki, whose role she had stolen as part of her plot. She didn't talk as much about Katara, not until Azula had snapped at her and started an argument. She would not allow herself to be coddled or pitied, so fine, very well: tell your inane stories about Zuko and the Waterbender!
Toph didn't seem to be trying to hide anything, and sometimes amidst the silly stories of friendship and arguments over food, there were important facts. For instance, the water peasant Sokka was apparently behind the destruction of the entire fleet by taking control of one of them and running it into all of the others and then escaping the ships before it all crashed. He was, further, behind the plans at the Day of the Black Sun. These plans were flawed, but they were at least better planned than many of the escapades of this band of strange losers. She also learned that Sokka had had both a boomerang and 'Space Sword'. Whatever that was.
Also, she had learned that Toph had a very obvious, childish crush on him, and just as obviously only halfway realized it despite how obvious it was.
It was mildly more tolerable than Ty Lee thinking he was cute because she seemed to react to crushes by making fun of them and telling stories of the times they did stupid things or got tricked by her. Sokka apparently had fallen for several of Toph's blind jokes, and seemed to have been her joy to torment and tease him. She filed it away in case she could use it against either of them, but it was truly dull, all this nonsense about relationships. Of course, he was dating Suki, and Toph seemed quite impressed with her, too.
It was all very, very odd.
In exchange, Azula did occasionally deign to tell stories of her triumphs in the years after Zuko was exiled, and even carefully curated versions of her hunt for the Avatar. She did not linger on the team she'd gathered, except to mention it offhand. It truly did not matter, she had been the one in charge, and thus everything could be described without letting emotions touch it.
Toph's stories, meanwhile, had all sorts of emotions. She was driven by them, but they weren't only sappy ones. Indeed, she got angry at Azula twice in the month that followed that strange conversation that had, somehow, not ended in her departure. But she stayed and fought it out, unlike anyone she'd known well before: Zuko whined, Mai gave her the silent treatment, and Ty Lee always pretended it hadn't happened.
Toph fought back, and seemed to enjoy it, almost. And she kept on demanding that Azula read the books that she brought to her. She was bringing books Azula liked, and all sorts of little things that she gave no value. It was clear that she had grown up in a degree of luxury, and now that she was a valued guest she could get anything she wanted, whenever she wanted it. But she also didn't want much. Azula would have encouraged her to eat whatever nonsensical foods she actually enjoyed, but she was pretty sure Toph would have refused out of simple stubbornness.
Azula had identified the problem. She did not have a solution. In fact, she felt further from finding out how she was going to manipulate Toph to her side than before, now that she understood the full scope of what kept Toph from seizing power and authority and… all that she quite possibly deserved for being such an Earthbender.
She was pretty sure the stories were only lightly exaggerated, and there was something to be said for listening to the stories of someone who told them very differently than she'd expected. There was a lot more talking and descriptions of the nature of the stones, and no visuals at all except for a guess at the dumb looks on people's faces when they lost to her.
Toph also continued to demand that Azula read to her, and Azula resisted even despite the fact that Toph was her supplier of books. It was a vulnerability that meant that it would be foolish to bend any more. She kept this up, until one day she found the exact right book. It was a somewhat dull story in some ways, but it had interesting battle scenes that were almost something realistic. The author, she was guessing, had been a soldier for a time.
There was a battle in which the protagonist fought an army of Earthbenders in a major engagement, and while it was perhaps a little… vainglorious, it did seem to be almost like something that could happen! It would be good to hear what Toph thought about the war, because she seemed so dismissive of it, and yet she'd joined the Avatar. She hadn't done that because she cared about the war, but that didn't mean she didn't clearly operate under the delusion that the better side won.
That the world wouldn't have been better with the Fire Nation on top of it. Azula had to believe that. Toph honestly didn't even really dispute it. She just did the verbal equivalent of an eyeroll and let her talk and then either changed the subject or didn't as she willed. It was all its own puzzle.
But this day ("Yo, Princess!" and it did seem as if the nicknames said something about Toph's mood to the point where she had begun tracking them) she had reached the point, once the shaking that always came along with the door opening finished.
Toph asked if she would pretty please read some, and she said, "Very well," and sneered because she knew just what passage she'd read.
"Oh, great!" Toph said, voice filled with childish enthusiasm.
She flipped through slowly, carefully, just to make Toph annoyed and impatient. She could wait a thousand years, Azula was sure, and also no more than five minutes. "Here we go."
"He saw the Earth Kingdom hordes, their forces arranged into strong squads of Earthbenders defending the front line, as their cavalry attempted to flank around the pass, the dust rising like so many promises of death to come--death and victory, and the flames that consume the dead, that make hallowed the every sacrifice of brave Fire Nation soldiers, that make it an offering to the sun itself, and the ashes which can be made into fertilizer. Jiro thought of the destroyed village: men, women and children killed by vicious, animalistic Earthbender partisans, and about all that he'd done so far, and his fire grew hot with fury and with the strength of righteous vengeance!"
She read with gusto, for the book wasn't badly written, or at least it was the kind of thing she liked to read. He led the attack, and his men did well but he did better, slaying three Earthbenders all on his own, as the enemy continued to give way. All that stood in his way were a few elite Earthbenders who were coming from the reserves to rally, but she had read it before. He defeated them in just a few pages of frantic fighting.
It was just as she got to the description of one of the elite Earthbenders that Toph shouted out. "He was really tall and big, his stance a Third Resting Lotus, and his muscles like stone itself. He ducked down and set out a furious cloud of dust, choking the very flames themselves."
"What?" Azula asked, pulled out of the book.
"I was readin' what happened next," Toph said.
"That isn't what…" Azula began.
"Read from there! So the super cool Third Resting Lotus guy with the huge muscles just disrupted that lame Fire Nation dude's entire formation," Toph said.
Azula almost kept on reading from where she was. Instead she scanned the lines, and thought about what's his name and what he'd do to respond to that. "Jiro knew that the Earthbender had lungs just as anyone else, and so he couldn't be breathing easily either, and so he began to whip fire around, pulled from his core, to heat up the area nearest to the Earthbender, so that even if blocked he would triumph, his eyes flashing, his fire so hot that it was beyond the ken of other, lesser benders."
"The big guy roared, 'I am stronger than you' and began to dig downward, a series of gestures that dug up even more space as he shoved a huge boulder right in Jiro's direction, moving so fast it was a blur!"
"Jiro dodged, with grace and skill, rolling back and laughing in triumph at this fight he knew he would win for the glory and honor of the Fire Nation, and to save all the innocents that would die if this fiend triumphed," Azula shot back, deciding to try to annoy Toph into giving up and letting her actually read it to her. "He enjoyed this. A true challenge: as long as he won and his men survived too." She guessed. She didn't care about that that much, they just had to get out of the way and watch her win the entire battle on her own.
"But the Earthbender's booming laughing and quick movements grew only quicker, as he dug into the earth, felt it around him, his feet picking up Jiro's every move. 'Haha, you shall lose today, Fire Nation scum!' he declared, flexing his impressive muscles as he did."
Why did she care so much about him being big and strong? She didn't want to linger too much, because she felt a sort of pulse of the back and forth. It was like a battle, but with made up words, and if she hesitated too long she had no idea what annoying thing Toph would do next! She had gotten up, and she knew that before too long she'd be pacing like a tiger-jackal trapped in a too-small cage.
"But muscles mean so very little in true combat, Jiro knew, and he grinned and lashed out, faster and faster whirling flames that shifted the air itself, pushing away all the dust, pushing away everything, defining the world and defining that in all its beautiful splendor it would not include the muck and dust of the battle. And then he stood there, wreathed in flames, an ocean of blue all around her, its azure beauty as radiant as a second sun in the sky…"
"And yet the Earthbender stood untouched, feeling her every move through his feet," Toph shot back, not even pretending to actually be trying to paint any sort of image with her words, of course, blind as she was. Unlike Azula's efforts to craft a truly useful image. "And he began shifting the earth, left and then right, separating the enemy from each other and from his men, so that it would be just him and the azure-flamed - is that the stupid color you used? - firewielder."
"It is not stupid. Just because you've never seen colors," Azula began.
"I have, actually. Probably?" Toph said, and Azula stopped. What.
Toph had said it quietly, and just as quickly moved on, "And he bellowed out a challenge, confident that he would be the victor. His fists slamming the earth to send waves and to listen to the echo, to the silence and the feeling of his enemy."
Azula wanted to ask, but there was no room to ask, not if she didn't want to lose this book reading by letting Toph's obvious stand-in win!
"But Jiro," an actual character unlike Toph's character, who did not have a name because he was Toph except male, "Realized at once what must be done. Echolocation? Something of that nature, seeing through the earth itself. A clever trick, but nothing more than that. He grit his teeth and remembered his hours and hours of practice, and with a smile of triumph he took to the air, flames shooting out like a great beast, like a dragon itself, like…"
"Like someone who could use a smashing, as the Earthbender warrior shot rocks and more rocks at him, just to force him to dodge out of the way, just to mess with him: in a fight that is what it is. It's about keeping them off balance. If you're in charge, if it's some silly little dance and you're the leading partner, then the other guy's gonna eat rocks," Toph said, and Azula paused before she said more because that was at least a little interesting. She'd felt the same thing, of course: it was how she knew she could win against the Avatar even without her bending, on the Day of Black Sun. The whole time, she'd controlled the fight, and even when she 'lost' she controlled the fight.
(And then, when she fought against Zuko, she did not control the fight. She did not even control herself. She had been out of control and falling to pieces, when that hd been the thing that sh'ed been most proud of... Zuko had not won; Azula had defeated herself. Azula has to believe that if they fought again, on any better day for her or any worse day for him, with or without the Comet, she would win. All of that power, and she was too distracted, too weak, to use it the way she should have been able to. It made her look back and wonder how the Firebenders of old had done it, how they had defeated the vast Airbender armies with power they barely had any training in. But there was never truly a chance to ask the Avatar for a firsthand account, and besides from what she could tell he fled ahead of the war.)
"But control of a fight isn't something you hold, but something you seize, and Jiro was not going to give it up. Blue fire ate into the very earth itself, so hot that the world itself seemed to melt into nothing as he continued to fire, hitting harder and harder, surrounding the Earthbender in fire and tearing through his unit: if he could do that, then he would win whether or not he beat the Earthbender in a direct challenge. The Earthbender may have stamina, but he was not going to let a few boulders get in his way."
"Fifth rising smash," Toph said, as if that was an answer. "Into a earth spike, covering the fires to choke them out--"
"He dodged left--"
"Fifth rising smash attacks that direction, and so he's hit," Toph declared smugly, and Azula narrowed her eyes, not totally convinced Toph was telling the truth. But how would she know?
"But he was strong and pushed fire into the ground, rising unsteadily for a moment out of the way and then falling, pushing down with fire to soften the impact, knowing that he was now facing a foe whose defeat might save the entire battle. A foe who had not defeated him despite all the luck in the world, and yet who seemed to resist all his best efforts. Who seemed to…" Azula had an idea and she hated it. She hated that she had an idea of how this should go, and she hated that the idea she had was not actually a glorious one-sided victory, the way it was supposed to be. It was hard-fought, sure, but Jiro just outright won without even a single caveat. Well, there was this boring scene about the sheer destruction, however necessary, that war implies. But she'd always skimmed over that when she was younger.
Like, duh, war destroyed things. It was war! Fire burned you, water got you all wet, and Zuko failed. Facts of the world.
"I think I have an idea of what happens next," Azula said.
"I'd hope so, considering we're both readin' from the book," Toph said, not even pretending to take it seriously.
"If you'd follow my drift…" Azula said, and she hated this. This was the worst. But she had an idea and now she couldn't get out of my head.
"Maybe the book will, maybe it won't…" Toph said, an annoying laugh in her voice.
"Who seemed to only get stronger as if he was stretching his muscles. Jiro could not win without a longer fight than the army could survive. He would need to make this the final minute or two of the fight, and save his troops for a future fight. But he'd try one last thing. He surged forward and shot out a targeted blast, uncaring of what would come. And the blast hit the enemy's face, full on, the fire washing across it--"
"Yet," Toph began.
"Yet," Azula continued, "In leaving himself open, he was going to take a hard hit as well, a trade as if the heavens themselves were shining down on this brutal fight, this nightmare of triumph and blood and the glory of the Fire Nation, to mark two fated opponents, the clouds themselves clearing to let the sun view this battle, and so the two foes traded blows, neither fatal, both marking each other as rivals, as enemies!" She was pacing by now, but she was also gesturing because this was going to be the exciting part.
"The Earthbender's face burned, eyes closing with the heat, never to reopen again," Azula said in a low voice. "Blinded, and yet somehow strengthened."
"Oh," Toph breathed, and for a moment Azula struggled with a desire to ruin it, to destroy it, to shatter the moment into a thousand tiny little shards. But she didn't want to, not really. It was that feeling she'd had when she read a story, that desire to see a worse ending, and she pushed it down for the moment, unable to help grinning.
"And the Fire Nation warrior took a slash across his neck from a stalagmite, and across his chest, a blow, a wound that would… ache whenever the Earthbender was near," Toph said, clearly at least a little bit entranced by the idea. There wasn't quite a laugh in her voice now.
"He winced, but Jiro was stronger than this. Silver eyes like clouded moonlight stared out, as he gathered his forces, hearing the call for a retreat. The battle had been a wash, a bloody stalemate: better for the Fire Nation than the exhausted Earth Kingdom, but not the glorious victory he had dreamed of. Not yet, and so the people of this province were not yet safe. But the call to retreat sounded loud and blaring, and so he drew his forces back in a fighting retreat, his wound aching, aching, aching…" Azula whispered, and she was leaning forward now, as if she was going to pounce. "End chapter."
Toph seemed for a moment stunned before she burst out laughing, but a different sort of laugh, "That was fun!" Toph shouted, stomping her feet so hard that the whole prison seemed to shake and rock.
"It was mildly amusing," Azula admitted, reluctantly. "What was that about seeing and not remembering?" She was going to be trying to think it through like it was a silly children's riddle for a while.
"Oh, I'll tell you that some other time," Toph said, and she could imagine the waved-off gesture.
"And the big guy?"
"Oh, did you ever see the Ember Island Players?" Toph asked. "Well, I didn't see them, but they had some Fire Nation propaganda stuff. Everyone else hated their portrayals, but I got a big muscle-y guy who liked to smash things. So, I liked it? So why not."
"You're admitting he is basically you?" Azula asked.
"Yeah, yeah. It's not as if anyone else has blue fire, Sparks," Toph said. "I know that "Azure"'s just blue for fancy people, whatever blue's like."
"It is not," Azula protested, and then they were off arguing about something she was aware was nonsense. But perhaps she would read to Toph again, sometime. Actually read to her. Or something. It had not ended quite as humiliatingly as she feared, and it might be a useful avenue to further her schemes…
Perhaps. It was something to consider.
Toph was humming a little to herself as she walked back, her mood brighter and more buoyant than it'd been in a while. Even beating Zuko didn't have quite the same thrill as this. She walked along, feeling a whole world under her feet, and yet not the one she'd imagined in her head. It was weird, because she'd always been a little bored by stories, ever since she started really Earthbending. But it was fun.
She…
The thought hit Toph all at once, and without even thinking about it she turned and punched her fist through the wall as her good mood was dissolved in tides of incredulity and worry. Oh no.
Drat! she thought, I'm friends with Azula.
She understood, with a sinking feeling, that if it ended well for her it'd be the first person who'd ever thought Azula was her friend who had ended well. She was also pretty aware that Azula was probably just manipulating her, and certainly didn't think of her as a friend. She couldn't say it was a disaster, but it was not a very warm and fuzzy feeling. She was Toph, she wasn't afraid of anything. But she was… maybe just a little nervous.
Somehow, Toph had not left yet. She didn't even talk about it, though she did talk more now. She ranted about this and that bit of nonsense, and even told stories about the Avatar, and that Water Peasant named Sokka, and Suki, whose role she had stolen as part of her plot. She didn't talk as much about Katara, not until Azula had snapped at her and started an argument. She would not allow herself to be coddled or pitied, so fine, very well: tell your inane stories about Zuko and the Waterbender!
Toph didn't seem to be trying to hide anything, and sometimes amidst the silly stories of friendship and arguments over food, there were important facts. For instance, the water peasant Sokka was apparently behind the destruction of the entire fleet by taking control of one of them and running it into all of the others and then escaping the ships before it all crashed. He was, further, behind the plans at the Day of the Black Sun. These plans were flawed, but they were at least better planned than many of the escapades of this band of strange losers. She also learned that Sokka had had both a boomerang and 'Space Sword'. Whatever that was.
Also, she had learned that Toph had a very obvious, childish crush on him, and just as obviously only halfway realized it despite how obvious it was.
It was mildly more tolerable than Ty Lee thinking he was cute because she seemed to react to crushes by making fun of them and telling stories of the times they did stupid things or got tricked by her. Sokka apparently had fallen for several of Toph's blind jokes, and seemed to have been her joy to torment and tease him. She filed it away in case she could use it against either of them, but it was truly dull, all this nonsense about relationships. Of course, he was dating Suki, and Toph seemed quite impressed with her, too.
It was all very, very odd.
In exchange, Azula did occasionally deign to tell stories of her triumphs in the years after Zuko was exiled, and even carefully curated versions of her hunt for the Avatar. She did not linger on the team she'd gathered, except to mention it offhand. It truly did not matter, she had been the one in charge, and thus everything could be described without letting emotions touch it.
Toph's stories, meanwhile, had all sorts of emotions. She was driven by them, but they weren't only sappy ones. Indeed, she got angry at Azula twice in the month that followed that strange conversation that had, somehow, not ended in her departure. But she stayed and fought it out, unlike anyone she'd known well before: Zuko whined, Mai gave her the silent treatment, and Ty Lee always pretended it hadn't happened.
Toph fought back, and seemed to enjoy it, almost. And she kept on demanding that Azula read the books that she brought to her. She was bringing books Azula liked, and all sorts of little things that she gave no value. It was clear that she had grown up in a degree of luxury, and now that she was a valued guest she could get anything she wanted, whenever she wanted it. But she also didn't want much. Azula would have encouraged her to eat whatever nonsensical foods she actually enjoyed, but she was pretty sure Toph would have refused out of simple stubbornness.
Azula had identified the problem. She did not have a solution. In fact, she felt further from finding out how she was going to manipulate Toph to her side than before, now that she understood the full scope of what kept Toph from seizing power and authority and… all that she quite possibly deserved for being such an Earthbender.
She was pretty sure the stories were only lightly exaggerated, and there was something to be said for listening to the stories of someone who told them very differently than she'd expected. There was a lot more talking and descriptions of the nature of the stones, and no visuals at all except for a guess at the dumb looks on people's faces when they lost to her.
Toph also continued to demand that Azula read to her, and Azula resisted even despite the fact that Toph was her supplier of books. It was a vulnerability that meant that it would be foolish to bend any more. She kept this up, until one day she found the exact right book. It was a somewhat dull story in some ways, but it had interesting battle scenes that were almost something realistic. The author, she was guessing, had been a soldier for a time.
There was a battle in which the protagonist fought an army of Earthbenders in a major engagement, and while it was perhaps a little… vainglorious, it did seem to be almost like something that could happen! It would be good to hear what Toph thought about the war, because she seemed so dismissive of it, and yet she'd joined the Avatar. She hadn't done that because she cared about the war, but that didn't mean she didn't clearly operate under the delusion that the better side won.
That the world wouldn't have been better with the Fire Nation on top of it. Azula had to believe that. Toph honestly didn't even really dispute it. She just did the verbal equivalent of an eyeroll and let her talk and then either changed the subject or didn't as she willed. It was all its own puzzle.
But this day ("Yo, Princess!" and it did seem as if the nicknames said something about Toph's mood to the point where she had begun tracking them) she had reached the point, once the shaking that always came along with the door opening finished.
Toph asked if she would pretty please read some, and she said, "Very well," and sneered because she knew just what passage she'd read.
"Oh, great!" Toph said, voice filled with childish enthusiasm.
She flipped through slowly, carefully, just to make Toph annoyed and impatient. She could wait a thousand years, Azula was sure, and also no more than five minutes. "Here we go."
"He saw the Earth Kingdom hordes, their forces arranged into strong squads of Earthbenders defending the front line, as their cavalry attempted to flank around the pass, the dust rising like so many promises of death to come--death and victory, and the flames that consume the dead, that make hallowed the every sacrifice of brave Fire Nation soldiers, that make it an offering to the sun itself, and the ashes which can be made into fertilizer. Jiro thought of the destroyed village: men, women and children killed by vicious, animalistic Earthbender partisans, and about all that he'd done so far, and his fire grew hot with fury and with the strength of righteous vengeance!"
She read with gusto, for the book wasn't badly written, or at least it was the kind of thing she liked to read. He led the attack, and his men did well but he did better, slaying three Earthbenders all on his own, as the enemy continued to give way. All that stood in his way were a few elite Earthbenders who were coming from the reserves to rally, but she had read it before. He defeated them in just a few pages of frantic fighting.
It was just as she got to the description of one of the elite Earthbenders that Toph shouted out. "He was really tall and big, his stance a Third Resting Lotus, and his muscles like stone itself. He ducked down and set out a furious cloud of dust, choking the very flames themselves."
"What?" Azula asked, pulled out of the book.
"I was readin' what happened next," Toph said.
"That isn't what…" Azula began.
"Read from there! So the super cool Third Resting Lotus guy with the huge muscles just disrupted that lame Fire Nation dude's entire formation," Toph said.
Azula almost kept on reading from where she was. Instead she scanned the lines, and thought about what's his name and what he'd do to respond to that. "Jiro knew that the Earthbender had lungs just as anyone else, and so he couldn't be breathing easily either, and so he began to whip fire around, pulled from his core, to heat up the area nearest to the Earthbender, so that even if blocked he would triumph, his eyes flashing, his fire so hot that it was beyond the ken of other, lesser benders."
"The big guy roared, 'I am stronger than you' and began to dig downward, a series of gestures that dug up even more space as he shoved a huge boulder right in Jiro's direction, moving so fast it was a blur!"
"Jiro dodged, with grace and skill, rolling back and laughing in triumph at this fight he knew he would win for the glory and honor of the Fire Nation, and to save all the innocents that would die if this fiend triumphed," Azula shot back, deciding to try to annoy Toph into giving up and letting her actually read it to her. "He enjoyed this. A true challenge: as long as he won and his men survived too." She guessed. She didn't care about that that much, they just had to get out of the way and watch her win the entire battle on her own.
"But the Earthbender's booming laughing and quick movements grew only quicker, as he dug into the earth, felt it around him, his feet picking up Jiro's every move. 'Haha, you shall lose today, Fire Nation scum!' he declared, flexing his impressive muscles as he did."
Why did she care so much about him being big and strong? She didn't want to linger too much, because she felt a sort of pulse of the back and forth. It was like a battle, but with made up words, and if she hesitated too long she had no idea what annoying thing Toph would do next! She had gotten up, and she knew that before too long she'd be pacing like a tiger-jackal trapped in a too-small cage.
"But muscles mean so very little in true combat, Jiro knew, and he grinned and lashed out, faster and faster whirling flames that shifted the air itself, pushing away all the dust, pushing away everything, defining the world and defining that in all its beautiful splendor it would not include the muck and dust of the battle. And then he stood there, wreathed in flames, an ocean of blue all around her, its azure beauty as radiant as a second sun in the sky…"
"And yet the Earthbender stood untouched, feeling her every move through his feet," Toph shot back, not even pretending to actually be trying to paint any sort of image with her words, of course, blind as she was. Unlike Azula's efforts to craft a truly useful image. "And he began shifting the earth, left and then right, separating the enemy from each other and from his men, so that it would be just him and the azure-flamed - is that the stupid color you used? - firewielder."
"It is not stupid. Just because you've never seen colors," Azula began.
"I have, actually. Probably?" Toph said, and Azula stopped. What.
Toph had said it quietly, and just as quickly moved on, "And he bellowed out a challenge, confident that he would be the victor. His fists slamming the earth to send waves and to listen to the echo, to the silence and the feeling of his enemy."
Azula wanted to ask, but there was no room to ask, not if she didn't want to lose this book reading by letting Toph's obvious stand-in win!
"But Jiro," an actual character unlike Toph's character, who did not have a name because he was Toph except male, "Realized at once what must be done. Echolocation? Something of that nature, seeing through the earth itself. A clever trick, but nothing more than that. He grit his teeth and remembered his hours and hours of practice, and with a smile of triumph he took to the air, flames shooting out like a great beast, like a dragon itself, like…"
"Like someone who could use a smashing, as the Earthbender warrior shot rocks and more rocks at him, just to force him to dodge out of the way, just to mess with him: in a fight that is what it is. It's about keeping them off balance. If you're in charge, if it's some silly little dance and you're the leading partner, then the other guy's gonna eat rocks," Toph said, and Azula paused before she said more because that was at least a little interesting. She'd felt the same thing, of course: it was how she knew she could win against the Avatar even without her bending, on the Day of Black Sun. The whole time, she'd controlled the fight, and even when she 'lost' she controlled the fight.
(And then, when she fought against Zuko, she did not control the fight. She did not even control herself. She had been out of control and falling to pieces, when that hd been the thing that sh'ed been most proud of... Zuko had not won; Azula had defeated herself. Azula has to believe that if they fought again, on any better day for her or any worse day for him, with or without the Comet, she would win. All of that power, and she was too distracted, too weak, to use it the way she should have been able to. It made her look back and wonder how the Firebenders of old had done it, how they had defeated the vast Airbender armies with power they barely had any training in. But there was never truly a chance to ask the Avatar for a firsthand account, and besides from what she could tell he fled ahead of the war.)
"But control of a fight isn't something you hold, but something you seize, and Jiro was not going to give it up. Blue fire ate into the very earth itself, so hot that the world itself seemed to melt into nothing as he continued to fire, hitting harder and harder, surrounding the Earthbender in fire and tearing through his unit: if he could do that, then he would win whether or not he beat the Earthbender in a direct challenge. The Earthbender may have stamina, but he was not going to let a few boulders get in his way."
"Fifth rising smash," Toph said, as if that was an answer. "Into a earth spike, covering the fires to choke them out--"
"He dodged left--"
"Fifth rising smash attacks that direction, and so he's hit," Toph declared smugly, and Azula narrowed her eyes, not totally convinced Toph was telling the truth. But how would she know?
"But he was strong and pushed fire into the ground, rising unsteadily for a moment out of the way and then falling, pushing down with fire to soften the impact, knowing that he was now facing a foe whose defeat might save the entire battle. A foe who had not defeated him despite all the luck in the world, and yet who seemed to resist all his best efforts. Who seemed to…" Azula had an idea and she hated it. She hated that she had an idea of how this should go, and she hated that the idea she had was not actually a glorious one-sided victory, the way it was supposed to be. It was hard-fought, sure, but Jiro just outright won without even a single caveat. Well, there was this boring scene about the sheer destruction, however necessary, that war implies. But she'd always skimmed over that when she was younger.
Like, duh, war destroyed things. It was war! Fire burned you, water got you all wet, and Zuko failed. Facts of the world.
"I think I have an idea of what happens next," Azula said.
"I'd hope so, considering we're both readin' from the book," Toph said, not even pretending to take it seriously.
"If you'd follow my drift…" Azula said, and she hated this. This was the worst. But she had an idea and now she couldn't get out of my head.
"Maybe the book will, maybe it won't…" Toph said, an annoying laugh in her voice.
"Who seemed to only get stronger as if he was stretching his muscles. Jiro could not win without a longer fight than the army could survive. He would need to make this the final minute or two of the fight, and save his troops for a future fight. But he'd try one last thing. He surged forward and shot out a targeted blast, uncaring of what would come. And the blast hit the enemy's face, full on, the fire washing across it--"
"Yet," Toph began.
"Yet," Azula continued, "In leaving himself open, he was going to take a hard hit as well, a trade as if the heavens themselves were shining down on this brutal fight, this nightmare of triumph and blood and the glory of the Fire Nation, to mark two fated opponents, the clouds themselves clearing to let the sun view this battle, and so the two foes traded blows, neither fatal, both marking each other as rivals, as enemies!" She was pacing by now, but she was also gesturing because this was going to be the exciting part.
"The Earthbender's face burned, eyes closing with the heat, never to reopen again," Azula said in a low voice. "Blinded, and yet somehow strengthened."
"Oh," Toph breathed, and for a moment Azula struggled with a desire to ruin it, to destroy it, to shatter the moment into a thousand tiny little shards. But she didn't want to, not really. It was that feeling she'd had when she read a story, that desire to see a worse ending, and she pushed it down for the moment, unable to help grinning.
"And the Fire Nation warrior took a slash across his neck from a stalagmite, and across his chest, a blow, a wound that would… ache whenever the Earthbender was near," Toph said, clearly at least a little bit entranced by the idea. There wasn't quite a laugh in her voice now.
"He winced, but Jiro was stronger than this. Silver eyes like clouded moonlight stared out, as he gathered his forces, hearing the call for a retreat. The battle had been a wash, a bloody stalemate: better for the Fire Nation than the exhausted Earth Kingdom, but not the glorious victory he had dreamed of. Not yet, and so the people of this province were not yet safe. But the call to retreat sounded loud and blaring, and so he drew his forces back in a fighting retreat, his wound aching, aching, aching…" Azula whispered, and she was leaning forward now, as if she was going to pounce. "End chapter."
Toph seemed for a moment stunned before she burst out laughing, but a different sort of laugh, "That was fun!" Toph shouted, stomping her feet so hard that the whole prison seemed to shake and rock.
"It was mildly amusing," Azula admitted, reluctantly. "What was that about seeing and not remembering?" She was going to be trying to think it through like it was a silly children's riddle for a while.
"Oh, I'll tell you that some other time," Toph said, and she could imagine the waved-off gesture.
"And the big guy?"
"Oh, did you ever see the Ember Island Players?" Toph asked. "Well, I didn't see them, but they had some Fire Nation propaganda stuff. Everyone else hated their portrayals, but I got a big muscle-y guy who liked to smash things. So, I liked it? So why not."
"You're admitting he is basically you?" Azula asked.
"Yeah, yeah. It's not as if anyone else has blue fire, Sparks," Toph said. "I know that "Azure"'s just blue for fancy people, whatever blue's like."
"It is not," Azula protested, and then they were off arguing about something she was aware was nonsense. But perhaps she would read to Toph again, sometime. Actually read to her. Or something. It had not ended quite as humiliatingly as she feared, and it might be a useful avenue to further her schemes…
Perhaps. It was something to consider.
Toph was humming a little to herself as she walked back, her mood brighter and more buoyant than it'd been in a while. Even beating Zuko didn't have quite the same thrill as this. She walked along, feeling a whole world under her feet, and yet not the one she'd imagined in her head. It was weird, because she'd always been a little bored by stories, ever since she started really Earthbending. But it was fun.
She…
The thought hit Toph all at once, and without even thinking about it she turned and punched her fist through the wall as her good mood was dissolved in tides of incredulity and worry. Oh no.
Drat! she thought, I'm friends with Azula.
She understood, with a sinking feeling, that if it ended well for her it'd be the first person who'd ever thought Azula was her friend who had ended well. She was also pretty aware that Azula was probably just manipulating her, and certainly didn't think of her as a friend. She couldn't say it was a disaster, but it was not a very warm and fuzzy feeling. She was Toph, she wasn't afraid of anything. But she was… maybe just a little nervous.
VM AN: Azula and Toph's exciting fanfiction storytime! I think Azula does some pretty interesting stuff in this one - making Toph's "definitely not Toph" OC get blinded "winning" so he could be more like Toph was honestly very sweet of her? And Toph now has to reckon with being "friends" with Azula. That's never ended super good for anyone, so far. Maybe she'll be the exception!
TL AN: There's an internet cliche, "[Gender Pronoun] should be at the club" for when a character is going through shit at an age where presumably they'd be doing something else. Azula is fourteen during the bulk of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which ran in our universe from 2005 to 2008. Azula shouldn't have been at the club. She should have been on Livejournal, writing and posting legitimately terrible cringeworthy Mary Sue fanfic of her favorite problematic, objectively terrible shows. This is my stance and I'll stand by it. Instead, she's in prison.
TL AN: There's an internet cliche, "[Gender Pronoun] should be at the club" for when a character is going through shit at an age where presumably they'd be doing something else. Azula is fourteen during the bulk of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which ran in our universe from 2005 to 2008. Azula shouldn't have been at the club. She should have been on Livejournal, writing and posting legitimately terrible cringeworthy Mary Sue fanfic of her favorite problematic, objectively terrible shows. This is my stance and I'll stand by it. Instead, she's in prison.