gemsofformenos: Viruses are bad for the economy and now Azula realize it. She tried her best though. But in the end toilet paper is where it's at. She's not much of a people person, though she really thinks that she is. So it doesn't go over well for her. And so she kinda takes that out on Jet and she doesn't know it but her life is a mess. "And Ozai is busy blaming others for the mess and wasting time to fight the infection." It is never Ozai's fault. Ozai will never take the blame. It is everyone but Ozai.
"I really love your humorious take on the actual situation. I also tend to use humor as a coping mechanism" Thanks lol. I try to make the most of situations because if I don't joke about it I'd probably just be really frustrated and unhappy. "This story is perfect for killing time and cheering up my mood. And this blind rush for toilet paper like it's made of gold." I'm really happy to hear that you find it uplifting and fun too!
"But jokes aside for a moment stay safe and take care of you and my best wishes for you, your firends and family and everyone else out here." You too, I hope that you and your family stay safe and healthy and that you'll be able to get back to your regular lives soon.
Azula pushes her stall down the vacant streets. She is the only one outside, she is the only one with the sense not to panic buy toilet paper. What she does not know is that the toilet paper has served its purpose. The streets are vacant because the void has taken its annual sacrifices and those who had not been possessed and driven to leaping into its swirling depths are not yet awake because it is 3:15 in the morning.
This is when Azula starts her day.
It is not when normal people start their day.
No less, Azula finds that she is more productive when she rises at 3:15. Her mother had once said that it is another sign that she is 'literally Satan but with a top knot and cute clothes.'
She finds herself what she believes is an optimal place to set up her stall. It is a shady spot nestled between a cafe and an inn with a lovely maple tree. She picks out a cabbage and smiles.
Today will be different, she will have her sales.
She spies her first customer and holds out a cabbage. "Has your toilet paper saved you?" She begins.
The man shakes his head.
"I didn't think so." She replies. "See, I tried to tell you, but you did not listen. Luckily for you, I am a generous person. I am still going to allow you to buy a medicinal cabbage."
The man seems to recoil but he reaches for his pocket. She thinks that he is going to draw out a few copper pieces. Instead he draws a single square of toilet paper and wipes his nose. "No thanks."
"Good morning." Azula greets a woman. She thinks that it is the soldier who had abolished her cabbage stand the morning before so abruptly drops her sales pitch. She is not usually one to run, but she is also not one to carelessly put herself into a losing situation. She hustles to pack away her stall. She thinks that she will have better success elsewhere anyhow.
"Halt!" The soldier shouts. "Merchant! Get back here!" The woman is waving something at her. She picks up her pace.
.oOo.
"Father, I have important news." Sie begins.
"Sie, I am trying to organize my rock garden, you know that I always organize my rock garden at exactly 5:30 in the morning." He picks up a plastic flamingo, this one is electric blue in color. He strokes it lovingly, the shade reminds him of something important to him. Something that he has lost long ago. Tenderly, he sits it by the rest of the blue flamingos. He moves onto the next one, a standard pink lawn flamingo. This one he puts at the center, for it is the flamingo of the day. This is how he organizes his rock garden.
There are no rocks in his rock garden.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
There is no God in the Fire Nation.
There are only flamingos in Ozai's rock garden.
There is only the false illusion of safety in Ba Sing Se.
There is only Iroh's unwavering wrath in the Fire Nation.
As Ozai picks up a flamboyant green flamingo with sunglasses, the Pterodactyl of the West screeches in his cell.
Sie does not get to inform his father of the news.
.oOo.
With her stall once again erect in a new, slightly less comfortable location, Azula decides that she is going to have to take a more direct approach. She looks at the charred body next to her and recalls that this is not normal for the Fire Nation.
She also notes that it is, in fact, bad for business to have a body laying around so she quickly pushes her cabbage stall over it.
That ought to fix it.
If you push it under the bed or shove it in to the closet then you cannot see it.
And if you cannot see it then the mess is gone.
No one can see the corpse.
So the corpse is not there.
It can fade from existence as though it had never been a part of it all. Such is the nature of things. Object permanence is meaningless. It is like time which is also meaningless. Time is not only meaningless, but also a social construct which is why Azula does not have a problem being awake at 3:15 in the morning, because it is actually 5:30 (which is still questionable early). But not for Azula, because Azula believes that it is 3:15 and therefor it is 3:15. Now if you were to ask Ozai, he would say that it is 5:30. And if you asked Zuko, he might say that it is 1:00 in the morning and ask you why you are waking him so early. If you asked Iroh what time it is, he would tell you that he is in a jail cell so time is twice as meaningless as it was before and so he does not know what time it is. So you are best not asking the time at all because, really, how are you to know who is correct? Just who has decided what time to go with anyways?
While the unimportance of time as it pertains to a person was being discussed, several customers have came and went. Each of them hilariously rejecting the socially inept cabbage merchant's offers.
Azula grows increasingly frustrated. "You are going to buy a cabbage." She informs the first person she sees. "It is not debatable. You are going to…" the man walks away from her as though she is nothing and no one at all.
She is left to ball her fist and wave it at him in a silent display of frustration.
Jet's words echo in her mind. And maybe he is right, maybe her business will crumble...
It could be that the height of her luck had been on the wall all of those days ago. Azula wanders back to her stall, picks out her favorite cabbage of the day, and hugs it to her chest.
She isn't feeling so well.
It is not the illness that plagues the Fire Nation streets.
Nor is it the virus that is currently making a mess of a different dimension entirely.
It isn't the black plague either.
It could be seasonal allergies-yes, she thinks that it is seasonal allergies. But it is also something else. Something…
Emotional.
She is feeling sad. The merchant isn't sure that she has ever felt sad before. Has she ever felt anything save for pride and determination, and more recently, angry and frustration?
Azula pulls her keens up to her chest and hugs the cabbage closer. A single tear escapes and slips down her cheek. The wind stirs up her hair and rustles the leaves of her cabbages. She can practically hear them whispering, "it's going to be okay, Azula."
She is skeptical. But there might be hope yet.
She takes a deep breath, she has never done this before.
Never.
She puts a, 'out for lunch, back in 15' sign on her cabbage stall and heads for the Fire Nation prison.
.oOo.
"Father, I still have news." Sie tries again. This time Mai and TyLee are standing behind him because they need some screen time. But they aren't going to do anything particularly important.
"Not now." Ozai says. "I have important things to do." Such important business consists of inspecting his toothbrush, bristle by bristle. This is something he routinely does after he organizes his rock garden.
"But father, this is important." Sie speaks. He can wait, for Ozai is on the last three bristles. But upon that task's completion he sits upon his throne and seems to stare directly into the flames around it. Sie knows not to interrupt Ozai when he is peering into the flames, seeking out divine wisdom.
Mostly the fire simply crackles and shrieks incoherently like a thousand voices from the ninth ring of hell as fires tend to do. But occasionally the fire will crackle and tell Ozai that his beard is pretty. This makes Ozai blush but in a very manly way.
Mai, growing impatient ages up a year.
And then one more after that.
Sokka remains the same age though. As do June, Toph, Aang, Katara, Zhao, Haru, Azula, Jet, Ozai, Zuko, and Lo. But Li. Li is not exactly 83 while her sister is only 82. Teo, in his wheelchair also ages a year. And Earth Kingdom Azula is suddenly 8 years old again and her adoptive mother weeps in despair.
We cannot be sure of TyLee's age. Even TyLee doesn't know TyLee's age.
"Father?" Sie coughs.
The man only narrows his eyes and concentrates harder on the fire as a good Fire Lord does. Sie shakes his head sadly. Things have been weird between he and his father these days. Ever since he got home. He thinks that his father resents him for some reason but that does not make sense for he has been the perfect daughter. "Father the Earth Kingdom is planning an invasion."
"Hmmm…" Ozai says taking a sip of his coffee. "Nope."
"Wh-what do you mean, nope?"
Ozai turns away from the fire but only for a moment. "Nope, there will be no invasion."
"But there is going to be an eclipse."
Ozai shakes his head.
"Yes." Sie inists. "The Earth King…"
Ozai plugs his ears and says, "la la la la, I can't hear you."
"Father…"
"There won't be an invasion because I forbid it."
"Father," TyLee starts.
"He's my father, not yours."
"Ooohhh, I thought that his name was father."
Sie shakes his head.
"Sie's father, TyLee begins again, "we were told that…"
The Fire Lord raises a silencing hand. "If you speak without permission even once more, I will teach you the same lesson that I taught my son."
Sie shudders violently, not a day goes by where Zuko doesn't talk about the horrors of calculus derivatives and trigonometry. His face still bears the scar given to him with The Math itself punished him for his wrong answer. Not that Ozai hadn't summoned The Math in the first place.
"Please no." TyLee squeaks.
"But father, we should be making preparations…"
"Preparations for what?"
"The invasion."
"What invasion!" Ozai roars, and with his rage the fire flares. "There is no invasion. I already said 'la la la'."
Sie, fearing punishment and The Math, backs down. He clenches his teeth and hopes that he is wrong about the eclipse. "Come on, TyLee. Mai." He beckons for them to follow. Boredom satisfied, Mai ages down a year again.
The others do not.
"Ozai!" Greets a chipper and cheerful high-pitched voice. "Did you trim your beard!? It looks hella fine!"
Ozai smiles.
It is the only time that is black and vile soul sees even a faint pin-prick of light and goodness.
