[A/N] This is one of two comparison fics between Toph and Azula. This one compares their fatherhood, or, pretty much, their identities.
The other, entitled through the looking glass, is also up, so check it out :)
Oh, and this is really metaphorical, so if you don't really get it, just enjoy the pretty language XD
i love being an earthbender and i'm really, really good at it.
~toph beifong
trust is for fools. fear is the only reliable way.
~fire princess azula
,~'~,
set fire to the earth
,-o-,
Take a handful of that beautiful coal dust, darling, and squash it beneath your fingertips. Shape the loose fragments to your liking, rearrange them to become what you want. It's only fair, that because someone else shaped you, you should shape someone else.
Right?
It's not easy to be a warrior of stone and avoid crumbling to dust in a heartbeat. Because heartbeats can do that, you know; turn people to dust. And that is what you're made from, isn't it? You were shaped from the ashes of your forefathers, risen from the earth to make a pawn more powerful than any other, a soldier of silk and ribbons.
A pawn, sweetie, that's all you are.
,~'~,
and come out victorious
,-o-,
Take that first step and be bloody, be bold, be resolute. Laugh to scorn that power of man that holds you to what you are. Rise above the shackles that cut so deeply into your wrists, you will never survive to see the light of day. Tunnel beneath it, forgoing your fear of the dark to breathe, breathe, just one more time.
Flying only means you have farther to fall.
When lying on the ground, the only place you can go is up.
Or is it? You tell me, angel, but don't forget to tend to that broken wing of yours.
,~'~,
i challenge you
,-o-,
Building a wall will do nothing to stall the crazed soldiers banging on your door. One day, they will crash through your great expectations, tearing them to the ground in a sweep of vermillion flames.
One million shames will batter that wall to a million pieces.
My dear, the only way to break through a barrage of crazed soldiers is to crash through them yourself, facing them head on and throwing caution to the wind. You must be strong, unshakeable, the type of warrior that you have always wanted to be.
The type of warrior he has always wanted you to be.
But, once you have enraged the storm with wartime whispers and tales of vengeance, you must calm it. Tame it. Because he has never seen you as anything more than a crystalline doll, fragile to the touch and utterly unbreakable.
And a powerful storm in such a frame will do you no good indeed.
(you will escape, but you will not be whole)
,~'~,
{but leave no scorch marks}
,-o-,
