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CW: Language. A little worse than usual.

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"One... two... three!"

Toph exhaled and released her grip around her opponent's sweaty shoulder. She'd like to say that she was confident of her victory, but honestly, her skills had grown rusty and she wasn't so sure.

It turns out she had nothing to worry about. Cultivating a personal brand was a complicated industry that seemed to involve doing a whole lot and not much at the same time. Apparently she could afford the time to resurrect her not-quite-retired wrestling persona every now and then.

Besides, Toph actually liked wrestling. It's not that she didn't like her social media career. She did, most of the time. But fame for its own sake was confusing. Half of the time, Toph couldn't tell when she was on the job. She spent most of her daylight hours doing the kinds of things she would normally do: working out, eating, lounging on picturesque private islands, shopping... and it was her job to share it with everyone? The result was a perpetual Monday-morning kind of feeling that chased her everyday of the week. Are you allowed to take a vacation when you're never working? Or maybe you're always working, but your vacation would just be more of the same? Toph didn't know. But anyway, that's why she liked wrestling. Wrestling definitely wasn't a vacation, but it wasn't quite work either. It was an outlet. A release. Wrestling made sense.

On the way to the locker room, she passed the Terrene Tigress, her opponent from earlier. Toph never found out her real name. She liked that about her league; they respected each other's privacy. They all probably knew Toph's real name, in fact, if they didn't, it meant Toph's personal brand was failing, but they all politely pretended not to. Toph was grateful.

"Hey Bandit, good match," she called, pulling a fleece jacket over her leotard.

They were all sensibly dressed, as today's had been only a practice match. During the real matches their outfits catered a bit more to the male gaze. Some of the women complained, but Toph never minded much. It wasn't only because she couldn't actually see the outfits. Toph's upbringing led her to approach her entire life like a performance, and as such, she was constantly catering to someone. Know your audience, and elicit what you want from them. In this case her audience happened to be an eclectic mix of female sports enthusiasts and horny men. So what? Just another audience. If they paid good money to watch women in tight clothes hurl rocks at each other (and they did), Toph could hardly complain.

Early on, Toph had tried to keep her wrestling persona a secret. She was Toph Freaking Beifong after all, daughter of Lao and Poppy Beifong, Earth Kingdom royalty, albeit by some distant offshoot lineage. There was no room for rock slices and cunt punches in her high society lifestyle.

But her dirty little secret was a PR disaster waiting to happen and she knew it. It would be worse, she figured, for the public to find out through anyone other than her. So she decided to get a step ahead of the paparazzi. After practice one day, she made an appearance at a Trader Jiao's on fifteenth street. Inevitably the press found her, like bumble flies to honey.

"Ms. Beifong, why are you wearing that leotard?" A voice called out, nearly drowned by its competitors and the torrent of camera flashes.

"Oh, this?" Toph snapped her shoulder strap and struck a pose. "I'm in a women's earth-wrestling league."

And that was that. Let her parents go as ballistic as they liked.

She was still something of an amateur back then. It had been prudent to come clean when she did, as the league took off after that. Granted, only in certain demographics, but Earth Rumble VI developed a devoted cult following. Someone was bound to recognize her. She preferred to command her own public image, rather than allow it to command her.

Publically, her parents chose to remain suspiciously silent on the matter. Privately, as Toph predicted, they were irate.

"Earth-wrestling?" Her mother had snapped when they summoned her to the family estate. "Really Toph? You'll do anything to punish us, won't you?"

"I'm not punishing anyone!" Toph retorted, "I happen to enjoy it!"

"Oh, you enjoy rolling around in the dirt with those sorts of women, do you?" Her father chimed in.

"'Those sorts of women?' You mean athletes?"

"Toph, sweetie, respectable as those women may or may not be, ("May! They're perfectly respectable!" Toph interjected.) they don't have a public image to consider. The people have an idea of who you are, an idea of who we are as a family, and it's all of our duties to maintain that," her mother explained.

"You mean like when you maintained to the public that I'm weak and fragile because I'm blind? Like that?"

"Toph—"

"I've already shattered one public image of myself. I can do it again."

She was right, of course. Toph was the first to admit that her career path zigzagged and looped around, but if there was a single consistency to be found in it, it was defying expectations.

"I don't understand how a blind person could ever manage a social media presence," Toph's prospective sponsors had told her, in the beginning. She supposed highlighting her disability was their way of letting her down easy. They had no idea what they were talking about. All she needed was VoiceOver software and a series of personal assistants. I mean come on. Even seeing-people didn't manage their own social media, at least not the ones with any influence.

Nowadays the joke was on them. She had a plethora of sponsors. Granted, it helped to come from a filthy rich family to begin with, not only to cover the costs of things like personal assistants and photo shoots, but also because it created a sense of intrigue. The Beifongs (as well as the more prominent branches of the royal family) had a tendency to lead very secluded, private lives. They made appearances when it suited them, but every glimpse the public received was calculated, lest her parents be seen as anything other than dignified and cultured. Toph gave the people what they wanted: a good look into the charmed life of a royal. At least, that's how she started, back when she revealed to the world that her blindness wasn't a weakness. When the novelty of a blind-but-fully-capable celebrity wore off, she reinvented herself as a wrestler. That hadn't entirely worn off yet, at least not for its devoted fanbase, but still. Toph needed to be contemplating who Toph 3.0 was going to be. So far, the answer seemed to be herself, just behind a camera. Evidently, her fans connected with that. They found her to be delightfully irreverent and unapologetically real. Whatever that meant.

Her personal brand wasn't all she was planning at the moment. She had a side project: her annual sabotage of her parents' stupid holiday party. The Beifong Spring Equinox party had a history longer than the entirety of Toph's existence. She recalled making forced appearances as a little girl. Her parents dressed her in itchy, voluminous, child-sized gowns and paraded her about, persuading her to make pleasantries with the adult guests, who, supposedly, thought she was "just the cutest little thing!" As an adult, she spent several years avoiding the party like the pentapox plague just to make a statement. Now, she had moved onto a more subtle and sophisticated mode of undermining her uptight parents and their ridiculous party.

She'd go. She'd even wear a nice dress. (It didn't hurt that designer brands literally paid her to go places in their merchandise). But she'd spend the entire night poaching her parents' stuffy guests for her very own viper-batshit crazy afterparty. Who knew, maybe she could convince the new fire lord to come. If she accomplished that, her father might actually have an aneurysm. It would be glorious.

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There was a soft click. Then the red light came on, blinking steadily, heralding the beginning of their interview, like it always did.

"Well, Fire Lord Zuko, let's jump right in. How are you feeling about your alliance with the Southern Water Tribe?" Katara began, newscaster-like.

Zuko replied amiably, "I am feeling optimistic. There are political factions, in and outside of the Fire Nation, who disapprove of my decision, but I feel confident that I have made the correct choice."

"There are rumors that your decision was heavily influenced by the possible independence movement brewing in the Southern Water Tribe. How do you respond to those rumors?"

Zuko smiled, just a little. Podcast listeners would have no idea, of course, so Katara knew the smile was only for her. "Well, it is my understanding that the independence movement itself is something of a rumor, yes? Chief Hakoda has yet to make any public statements about his attitude towards it."

Privately, they both knew better of Hakoda's opinions. But this was for the public, and they were something of co-conspirators now. It made Zuko feel pleasantly jittery.

"That's true," Katara good-naturedly conceded. "Tell me about how you're dealing with the backlash against your newly formed alliance. One of your ministers stepped down because of it, is that correct?"

"Certainly. Yes, Minister Hansuke gave me his resignation not too long ago. He provided me with no time to prepare his replacement, but I do not yet consider it a pressing concern. He did not have the position for very long anyway. He was appointed when the Earth Kin—ah, after my coronation."

Zuko still made occasional blunders like that, allusions to the raid on the palace, tinged with his lingering resentment. That was okay. Katara could edit around that.

"Your more pressing concerns being your alliance with the Southern Water Tribe?"

Katara did not ask him about Iroh, or Azula, or the whirlwind that was the last couple of weeks.

"Yes, among other things."

Zuko did not mention that among those other things were Iroh, Azula, and the whirlwind that was the last couple of weeks.

"So, Zuko, many of our Earth Kingdom listeners are probably unfamiliar with the structure of the Fire Nation's government. Does Minister Hansuke's resignation put a significant strain on the other ministers? Can you give me an overview of how your council is organized?"

Zuko lightly chewed his bottom lip, as he sometimes did when pondering a question. Katara did not think about Suki's teasing remarks.

"Sure. The fire lord's council is collectively the second link in the chain of command. Their individual power is all equal to that of one another. There is a minister of war, a minister of finance, a minister of domestic affairs, and a minister of international relations. They all answer directly to me. There are other, minor ministers beneath them, as well as other courtiers who all play their respective roles, but the structure becomes very convoluted beyond my immediate royal council."

"Okay, thanks for that. Now let's shift our conversation to your upcoming plans. You've been invited to return to the Earth Kingdom. Can you tell me about that?"

"Right, yes! This time the invitation is not under the pretense of politics, but instead it is for a party. Lao and Poppy Beifong have invited me to attend their annual Spring Equinox party. I have been led to believe that this is a noteworthy event in the Earth Kingdom, yes?"

It was. The Beifong Spring Equinox party boasted wealthy and highly influential attendees from around the world, both from the political sphere and otherwise, though Zuko would be the first attendee from the Fire Nation. It was a chance to be seen in statement-making outfits and to network with the Earth Kingdom's upper crust. Katara's listeners would have already known that. You'd have to have lived under a rock, or well, lived a sheltered life of disgrace in a totalitarian dictatorship like Zuko had, to not know that.

"And you've accepted their invitation?"

"Yes I have. I very much enjoyed the city of Ba Sing Se during my last visit. I am excited to return."

"This seems like a good stopping place," Katara announced, dropping her professional manner. She turned off the recorder. "Next episode we can talk about your experience at the party. Actually, I wanted to ask you about that…"

"Alright?" Zuko prompted, alert and attentive.

"The Beifong party has always had a strict no-press policy, and as you know, invitations are hard to come by… but I read your invitation, and I guess you're allowed to bring a plus-one?"

"That's true," Zuko answered. He knew perfectly well where Katara was going with this, but he didn't need her to know that. He did not think about Jian and Renshu's teasing remarks.

"Right… well, I don't want to overstep any boundaries, but I was thinking you could take me as your plus-one? Not as a date, obviously! As friends. And to sidestep the no-press policy. It could be fun, like breaking the rules without actually breaking them. I'd be like an undercover journalist."

To Katara's immense relief, Zuko's face broke into a grin.

"I would very much like that."

"Great!"

"Great."