Burning Twice As Bright (ATLA Azula SI)

[Quest]

Hmm. While Fire probably can't heal injuries itself it can probably be used to cause healing. Fire symbolizes, amongst other things, life so it should be possible to significantly enhance the body's natural healing ability by stoking the fires of life within the victim.

Makes as much sense as water somehow been able to heal anyway...

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Quoting from the wiki: "Healing is a sub-skill of water-bending which involves healing wounds by redirecting energy paths, or chi, throughout the body, using water as a catalyst." It can be used to promote cell-growth and heath in general.

It also makes a lot of sense, given that the body is 70% water though I imagine other than the above there is also a direct manipulation of the body's water involved ala blood-bending. It has also been shown in story that healing does not work on someone who's chi has been blocked, somewhat invalidating the idea however.

IIRC there's a version of this in fire-bending where fire can be used to sense the qi flow and any spiritual damage, however it doesn't have any physical healing affect.

 

[Vorpal]

It seems that nobody has seen Azula before. Who says one can't make another first impression?

"My Lin. You will see what you can do about the burns and make sure she lives." The 'or else' is left silent.

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Scary, yet cute.

We nod to our First Private who is slumped at our feet.

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I realize correesponds to shangdengbing (private first class), but I initially read that as First Prime, heh.

"Remind me of Jeong Jeong…"

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"If a Fish lives her whole life in this river, does she know of the river's destiny? No!" — Jeong Jeong​

But Fishzilla has lived multiple lives and knows a possible future. What now, Jeong Jeong?

If only we can heal… but Fire is for burning. ... I do not think we can survive using a new technique in our state of emptiness.

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Not healing, but fun fact: if tuned right, non-equilibrium ("cold") plasma can be used as an effective disinfectant without burning tissue. There are actual devices that that sanitize hands by this method, etc. But yeah, this is certainly not a time for experimentation in any particular direction.

—
Nothing of importance to complain about...

Spoiler: jaffa, kree!

We nod and look over at the dumfounded sailors in their stupor.

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Dumbfounded, not dumfounded?

A few pirate survivors cling on to the edge perhaps, but it is hard to see in the darkness, and they will not want to catch the attention of my girls. So many more than drifting wood makes a sound in the darkness.

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I am a bit confused about what's going on here. The apparent subject is 'many [pirates]', so as a plural that should be 'make a sound', rather than 'makes', but in that case the context of them being undetectable and the comparison to drifting wood would make little sense. So I'm probably misunderstanding something.

Perhaps what's meant is something like

So many make no more sound than drifting wood in the darkness.​

or

So many more are as silent as drifting wood in the darkness.​

etc.

We will probably crumble into a heap if she is not here, ...
...
His smiles are charismatic, if I cannot see how yellow his teeth are.

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I'm not sure it's worth worrying much about it, but grammatically the subjunctive mood is used to indicate counterfactual circumstances, and because English is sometimes rather odd, a past inflection of verbs is used for counterfactuals of the present.

Some grammar-nazifying the above would give:

We will probably crumble into a heap, if she were not here, ...
...
His smiles would be charismatic, if I could not see how yellow his teeth were.​

Well, whichever.

 

[Drakearth]

I have a nickname for this azula.
Azula the Salamander.

The devourer of flames and cold as ice.

 

[Yelluhchicken]

Soooo we now have Princess FishZula of the Blue flame, also known as Salamander the Devourer of flames, The Star Bender, (possibly) Angi Incarnate.


Hnnn when she makes her mini sun does it affect any of the firebenders nearby?

 

[UberJJK]

Hnnn when she makes her mini sun does it affect any of the firebenders nearby?

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Are you suggesting. That Fishzula might have. Double Sun Power!?

 

[NeverDies]

If she can manage to bend fast enough, she could be the first flash-bang bender!

Prepare to be dazzled! And flambed!

 

[Bailey Matutine]

There are higher end firebending powers that deal with cycling energy repeatedly through your own core to improve overall health in a number of ways. I think the first time one of them shows up is at the end of book one, when Zuko uses it to keep warm. Anybody remember if he also applied this power to Aang? Because that would be a clear precedent of using fire to heal.

 

[Felius]

Hmm. While Fire probably can't heal injuries itself it can probably be used to cause healing. Fire symbolizes, amongst other things, life so it should be possible to significantly enhance the body's natural healing ability by stoking the fires of life within the victim.

Makes as much sense as water somehow been able to heal anyway...

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Fire is life, fire is cleansing, fire is energy, and some more spiel.

Thematically and practicallly speaking, I'd expect fire to be good at healing diseases, infections, spiritual/QI issues, and other "non-visible" healing so to speak. If going very conceptual, could work against scars too, by "cleansing" the scars out of the persons body I suppose.

Of course, trying healing first time ever on a person, specially while trying do develop healing from absolutely nothing. Which means she'll set fire to some turtleducks to create wounds to practice healing on. If only Ursa was around to see it...

 

[Bailey Matutine]

I'd also expect fire to be good at boosting natural healing rates and metabolisms. So shove a bunch of food down target's throat, stoke their engine, and watch them heal.

 

[UberJJK]

Fire is life, fire is cleansing, fire is energy, and some more spiel.

Thematically and practicallly speaking, I'd expect fire to be good at healing diseases, infections, spiritual/QI issues, and other "non-visible" healing so to speak.

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I wonder how it would react with age. I doubt it would actually de-age anyone but I can see fire healing rejuvenating the old temporarily.

 

[Xicree]

Mm, yeah, I've seen a lot of SI where someone gets reborn or whatever into a younger or different body, and they never account for so many things, like no longer having the hormone concoction known as an adult mind, or simply having a different body with different chemical makeup, and so on. I don't want to be preachy and do a thing like one of those SI where people have the SI in a different gender body and just act like a tumblr's perception of what a transgendered person might be like (the reason I even mention this is because the last SI I read is basically this, and it forced me to put it down after three chapters of preachy narrative that didn't actually take into account for the new body's influence on the SI in these terms). What I mean is I want my SI to not be like 'What-if-the-me-at-this-laptop-were-a-character', but actually trying to transport my SI into the character.

A lot of this means the SI might be an unreliable narrator at times, because she is only telling you what she feels and what she believes is happening, not what is actually happening. To summarize things, a large part of why things are happening like this is because she no longer has the same hormones messing with her mind (for example her lack of any sort of true physical attraction to anyone thus far), so she feels less anyway. But well, there's a lot going on and @DarkLight140 got a bit of that.

I was always one for a tidbit of fringe horror, wasn't I?

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And this is why I like MidnightFishie's SI's. They bumble, are clueless, brilliant, and foolish like a person put into the place they are at would be.

I mean its not to say they don't achieve brilliant things, but what makes your SI stuff really stand out from the crowd is how you go out of your way to show how they are affected by the situations as much as how they affect the situation... and aren't at all afraid for them to beautifully and gloriously FAIL even in their successes.

 

[Tachikoma's Aunt]

And finding yourself stuck in someone else's head is one thing, but finding that not only are you half of someone else now, but you no longer think like you expect yourself to think and you didn't even notice would be far more horrifying, at least to me.

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In our experience, not really. We've always had very little of the memory loss normally associated with DID, so after a new personality state presents itself, it and all others currently active always wind up becoming more similar to each other over time. At this point, we arguably do not have a host (read: original) personality--only a gestalt created by the host absorbing characteristics of other personalities, all but one of which do not seem to exist anymore.

And at no point have any of us felt horrified by this, because we all knew that we were just pieces of a single person. If SI!Fishy has internalized the statement "I am you" emotionally (which it seems like she has), then why would she angst about becoming more like herself?

 

[Chirishman]

If SI!Fishy has internalized the statement "I am you" emotionally (which it seems like she has), then why would she angst about becoming more like herself?

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Not necessarily because of the Becoming itself per se, but perhaps because SI!Fishy remembers that humans are supposed to believe that human life has intrinsic value and that believing otherwise is a Bad Thing.

 

[Tachikoma's Aunt]

Not necessarily because of the Becoming itself per se, but perhaps because SI!Fishy remembers that humans are supposed to believe that human life has intrinsic value and that believing otherwise is a Bad Thing.

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*Snerk* That sentiment never fails to crack me up. That's bullshit. The human brain is wired to place value on human lives that it perceives as part of it's tribe. Historically speaking, the idea that all humans are part of the same tribe and that people should therefore value the lives of everyone is a very recent one.

Although granted, if SI!Fishy subscribed to that philosophy the current situation would be fairly angst inducing. Also one of the few remaining sources of conflict between her and Azula.

That being said, even before she was subsumed by Azula, Fishy was deliberately trying to raise someone she knew to be a sociopath to be more effective at world domination. It's debatable whether or not she was ever ethically sound by modern standards to begin with.

 

[Chirishman]

*Snerk* That sentiment never fails to crack me up. That's bullshit. The human brain is wired to place value on human lives that it perceives as part of it's tribe. Historically speaking, the idea that all humans are part of the same tribe and that people should therefore value the lives of everyone is a very recent one.

Although granted, if SI!Fishy subscribed to that philosophy the current situation would be fairly angst inducing. Also one of the few remaining sources of conflict between her and Azula.

That being said, even before she was subsumed by Azula, Fishy was deliberately trying to raise someone she knew to be a sociopath to be more effective at world domination. It's debatable whether or not she was ever ethically sound by modern standards to begin with.

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Yes what I said was simplified, humans do find it easier to devalue the lives of those that they consider outside of their tribe, however that is not why Azula doesn't value the lives of those around her. She explicitly does not value the lives of her own brother and uncle. Her empathy/value life module is broken.

That does not mean that she cannot operate successfully in society, sociopaths often do simply because emulating normal human behavior is a better survival strategy. The danger is in situations exactly like Azula's where the person has power over others and little to no accountability.

 

[Tachikoma's Aunt]

Yes what I said was simplified, humans do find it easier to devalue the lives of those that they consider outside of their tribe, however that is not why Azula doesn't value the lives of those around her. She explicitly does not value the lives of her own brother and uncle. Her empathy/value life module is broken.

That does not mean that she cannot operate successfully in society, sociopaths often do simply because emulating normal human behavior is a better survival strategy. The danger is in situations exactly like Azula's where the person has power over others and little to no accountability.

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Um. . . yeah? That was kind of our point: human nature isn't as moral as most people like to believe, Azula is a sociopath, and the SI's behavior implies that she was a sociopath who just happened to learn to better emulate "normal" people because she grew up accountable to others prior to being shoved into a little girl's cranium.

 

[Xicree]

Um. . . yeah? That was kind of our point: human nature isn't as moral as most people like to believe, Azula is a sociopath, and the SI's behavior implies that she was a sociopath who just happened to learn to better emulate "normal" people because she grew up accountable to others prior to being shoved into a little girl's cranium.

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No the SI's behaviour implies someone who was NOT a sociopath before being shoved into the skull of someone who was. Her intellect knows what it means to have empathy and actively notices when it should but ISN'T having the correct reactions.


AND she's been living in this skull for 10+ years.

 

[Tachikoma's Aunt]

No the SI's behaviour implies someone who was NOT a sociopath before being shoved into the skull of someone who was. Her intellect knows what it means to have empathy and actively notices when it should but ISN'T having the correct reactions.


AND she's been living in this skull for 10+ years.

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Being a sociopath =/= not knowing what empathy is, it just means being unable to actually feel it. Once again, she's been trying to raise a sociopath to be more effective at world domination.

And I think we're having some miscommunication here--the "little girl's cranium" was a reference to Azula, not Fishy.

That being said, one of the nice things about fiction is that you get to interpret it however the hell you feel like. I mean, look at what happened with Farenheit 451. I have my opinion, you have yours. We've both stated them fairly clearly, and neither of us seems likely to change our minds. So let's just kick back, and anticipate the glorious interrogation scene that is sure to be included in the next update.

 

[iamnuff]

Being a sociopath =/= not knowing what empathy is, it just means being unable to actually feel it. Once again, she's been trying to raise a sociopath to be more effective at world domination.

And I think we're having some miscommunication here--the "little girl's cranium" was a reference to Azula, not Fishy.

That being said, one of the nice things about fiction is that you get to interpret it however the hell you feel like. I mean, look at what happened with Farenheit 451. I have my opinion, you have yours. We've both stated them fairly clearly, and neither of us seems likely to change our minds. So let's just kick back, and anticipate the glorious interrogation scene that is sure to be included in the next update.

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You realize that the SI is currently doing her thinking from inside Azula's brainmeats, right?

Even if she wasn't a sociopath before, she is now. Because she's a part of azula, who is a sociopath.

 

[Felius]

You realize that the SI is currently doing her thinking from inside Azula's brainmeats, right?

Even if she wasn't a sociopath before, she is now. Because she's a part of azula, who is a sociopath.

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Maybe. But that depends if Azula is genetically one, if Azula's personality and mores "infect" the SI, etc.

 

[Tachikoma's Aunt]

You realize that the SI is currently doing her thinking from inside Azula's brainmeats, right?

Even if she wasn't a sociopath before, she is now. Because she's a part of azula, who is a sociopath.

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I know. But if she was originally not a sociopath it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for her to freak out when she realized that she didn't have empathy any more. The human brain's capacity for self knowledge is limited and people can fuck themselves up pretty badly by lying to themselves. Just because you are suddenly sociopathic doesn't erase a lifetime of believing that it's virtuous to value others, or remove the desire to be the "good guy."

I just personally kind of suspect that Fishy is a sociopath IRL. Not that there's anything wrong with that--I'd estimate that at least a third of this forum's membership is either sociopathic or psychotic, or at least borderline.

 

[FurikoMaru]

I just personally kind of suspect that Fishy is a sociopath IRL. Not that there's anything wrong with that--I'd estimate that at least a third of this forum's membership is either sociopathic or psychotic, or at least borderline.

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I'd estimate that three thirds of this forum's membership are plain damn weird, and the weirdest ones come off as sociopathic. Beyond that I wouldn't hazard a guess. I mean, I'm not a doctor, and I've never actually met any of you.

 

[Aethelflaed]

I know. But if she was originally not a sociopath it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for her to freak out when she realized that she didn't have empathy any more. The human brain's capacity for self knowledge is limited and people can fuck themselves up pretty badly by lying to themselves. Just because you are suddenly sociopathic doesn't erase a lifetime of believing that it's virtuous to value others, or remove the desire to be the "good guy."

I just personally kind of suspect that Fishy is a sociopath IRL. Not that there's anything wrong with that--I'd estimate that at least a third of this forum's membership is either sociopathic or psychotic, or at least borderline.

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What do you mean by sociopath? Because if it's the clinical definition, then that's an exceptionally unpleasant thing to say about someone you've never met. Is there any chance you were just being hyperbolic?

 

[Tachikoma's Aunt]

What do you mean by sociopath? Because if it's the clinical definition, then that's an exceptionally unpleasant thing to say about someone you've never met. Is there any chance you were just being hyperbolic?

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People who are neurologically incapable of recognizing the emotional states of others except as intellectual abstractions but don't feel anymore inclined towards violence than neurotypical individuals. May or may not espouse a code of conduct, but generally has little to no capacity for guilt. Frequently prone to hyperbole and lying.

And what's unpleasant about that? It's simply a non-standard cognative model. It's not like I'm calling Fishy a murderer or something.

In any case, I'm not actually saying Fishy is a sociopath. As you said, I haven't met her--I have insufficient data to arrive at a conclusion. I just said I have my suspicions.

 

[Aethelflaed]

People who are neurologically incapable of recognizing the emotional states of others except as intellectual abstractions but don't feel anymore inclined towards violence than neurotypical individuals. May or may not espouse a code of conduct, but generally has little to no capacity for guilt. Frequently prone to hyperbole and lying.

And what's unpleasant about that? It's simply a non-standard cognative model. It's not like I'm calling Fishy a murderer or something.

In any case, I'm not actually saying Fishy is a sociopath. As you said, I haven't met her--I have insufficient data to arrive at a conclusion. I just said I have my suspicions.

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Then you don't think that expressing suspicions that someone could have strong sociopathic tendencies might have some rather sharply negative implications?