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Katara of the Southern Water Tribe (k_waterbender) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-11-01 19:06:00

Entry tags:

complete, day 21, katara, toph bei fong, zuko

Day Twenty-One
Who: Katara, Toph Bei Fong, and Zuko
When: Day 21 ; Late Morning
What: Confronting Zuko once again
Where: Building E first, then to the meadow
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete

Katara had been so upset and so bone weary the day before that she’d gone straight to her room to do some relaxing yoga positions before sleeping. She didn’t even eat dinner that night, and she definitely hadn’t gone to Toph with the information she learned about Zuko’s sudden loss of memory. She figured it could wait until she could better collect her thoughts.

She had dreamed about the confrontation between herself and Zuko over and over in a loop in her mind. Each time it was a little more distressed, a little more desperate, a little more insane. Sometimes his fire blast had singed her hair, and sometimes the candles exploded around her, burning her flesh. Other times she had to freeze him to the wall, and still others her voice would suddenly become high pitched and difficult to understand. Other times it all seemed to move in super slow motion, and she felt heavy like she was trying to walk through mud. The entire thing was so absurd that she could completely understand Zuko’s unwillingness to believe her, even if she knew she was right. He thought he was right, too, after all.

Katara didn’t awaken until mid-morning, and the waterbender was still upset about the entire ordeal when she regained consciousness. She went through some relaxing exercises, and they helped to calm her. By late morning, she knew Toph would be waking soon, so she bathed and dressed in her Water Tribe battle attire. She had taken to wearing this ever since the kidnappings occurred, and she wasn’t about to let her guard down, especially not now. She was also sure to strap two full water skins to her back as well before she left her room to cross the hall to Toph’s door. Her fists rapped upon the wood, and she waited for her earthbender friend to answer.

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fire_lord_zuko
2008-11-02 01:32 am UTC (link)

Like each night for the past few nights, Zuko didn't sleep well. His fight with Katara had left him feeling physically invigorated, but mentally exhausted, which made getting to sleep take a long time, and when he got there, it was fitful, and filled with odd dreams about the future that Katara had described to him, an alternate world where he had changed... where he'd redeemed himself, and chosen a path not of power, but of honor, honor that he made for himself. He'd followed his Uncle's path, and it'd lead to him being called a traitor, and helping the Avatar bring down his father, bring down the fire nation... and at the same time allowed him to assume the throne and become the Fire Lord himself.

But in his dream it was not so simple as Katara had described. He'd not assumed the throne because he wanted to, nor for any of the thousands of reasons that he would have back when he was still traveling the world, searching for the Avatar, trying to regain his honor. He'd been forced to, by his Uncle, who had refused to take the title himself, and had instead retired to a life of serving tea. With his sister mad with power and devoted to destroying everything she could, he was the only one who could take on the responsibility, the only one that the fire nation would follow into the era of peace that was to follow the Avatar besting Ozai. It was the honorable thing to do, and so at the time Zuko had not questioned it, not considered fully the implications of what it meant. He'd done what his Uncle said he should do... and now...

Now he was trapped in it.

It was by no means a bad life. He got all that he could want in terms of physical things, for even with donating to the relief efforts, the fire nation still had plenty of money that it had made from the war. He had all of the comforts he'd not had when he was on the road, traveling the Earth kingdom, or camping out on the run with the Avatar... so why did those memories seem to be so much more vivid to him than the ones he was experiencing now? It felt as if the life he had lead before was in color, and now all that there was for him was dull black and white, a monochrome life of endless boredom and meetings that seemed to drag on forever without getting much of anything done.

The generals had taken Ozai's departure the worst. While they were happy to have anyone but Azula on the throne, Zuko's plans for reconstruction did not involve war, and instead involved trust, something they had no experience with. He could also see in their weathered eyes that they thought he was being foolish by not taking advantage of the treaties by trying to get a better hold on Earth Kingdom territory. It was vast, and to claim a small 'Sphere of Influence' as they called it in the Earth Nation would give the Fire Nation a strategic advantage. Zuko was of the mindset that they did not need anything more than the 'colonies' that they had over there, and even those were kept with permission from the Earth Kingdom, and a dual agreement was set on governing them and splitting the taxes from them, something that he knew the generals frowned upon.

And though he never admitted it, when the Avatar came to visit him, he looked at Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka with envious eyes. They were free, all of them. Even the Avatar had no obligation to help the world in a particular fashion. He just chose to help rebuild, help do what was right for the world. He was as untamed as the wind he twisted, and if he wanted to go to the air temples or go penguin sledding he was free to take a break whenever he wanted. Zuko on the other hand had to make plans, leave people in charge, and deal with the constant complaining of his aids, the rumors that floated around about him being secretly ill and too afraid to tell the fire nation the truth of what was going on, or that he was secretly building up another army to turn on the Avatar, thusly completing the dream of his great grandfather Sozin.

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