Marathon

by: Junsui Chikyuu

April 7, 2006

... Prompts are evil... I did these as my allergies were tearing apart my mind... so please. Just destroy me quickly. Lol.

:Watches happily as the KataraZuko community eats her brain...:

Proud to present: Inspiration's Idea of a Sick Joke, Part I. Happy reading!

3. "The world is full of people running." –Elizabeth Swados

The world is full of people running. Running here, running there. Running to work and running off to bed where their dreams run away with them.

Ichiban:

A prince should never have to run anywhere. A servant should do any running necessary. But if necessary, a prince should walk with a purposeful stride. And if he ran, it would be into battle, defending his nation against the onslaught of the barbarian. A prince should never be found running away from his own sister. A prince should never need to flee the scene of a fight. He should never have to feel fire burn his legs and chest but know it's necessary and feel fear and have to think keep going keep going don't let them catch you. Prince Zuko firmly believed that a prince found running was no prince at all. And it made the stitch in his side all the more painful.

Niban:

Her entire life was running. She fled her family, she fled oppression, she fled death... now, she fled him, but what he stood for right now, she could not know. When he cornered her, her mind retreated and her body mechanized the dance before every last drop faded away. And when he caught her, she escaped into his heat and his kisses. She stole away with her dreams and escaped until she felt nothing because if she felt anything she might break.

When she found them again, she ran away into the arms of another and eluded the truth that would shatter her mind with another man's kisses and cool warmth. She diverted the question because the question hounded her, nipped her ankles, made her go faster push harder, damnit!. Because facing the answer would mean stopping. And some fish die if they stop, y'know...

Sanban:

Prince Zuko was not a brave person. He was naive and idealistic and he knew what was 'right' from what was 'wrong'. But he never would have spoken up if he'd known the consequences. He would have convinced himself that because his father approved, it must be good, and amended his beliefs to accommodate this intrusion. Prince Zuko knew this. And like a man possessed he chased the Avatar, chased hope; he chased an illusion. Because really he knew he wasn't running after anything. He ran from the pain, the hurt, the shame. But mostly he ran from the guilt - of knowing he would have changed that moment in a heartbeat and not have cared as he lost himself along the way.

Yonban:

Katara was idealistic. One might have called her brave. Mostly, Katara was always a bit of a rebel. Her grandmother never knew where she got it from. She often said, "What are these words I hear? They come from no granddaughter of mine." When she tried to help with chores and only managed with minimal grace and efficiency, she'd hear the villagers 'tsk' and say, "Such a shame." and "Her mother was such a beauty, I wonder what might have happened..." When she tried to waterbend and was told, "It's just not lady-like, stop it right now. Your mother would have been so disappointed..." she made herself believe it wasn't true and that her mother would have loved the snow castle she'd built using her "magic". When they whispered about her temper, their words burned her ears but froze her blood. There are other ways to scar and other pains to run from. But Katara pretended that their words hadn't hurt. They didn't matter. She hid behind a distance of self-righteous anger and disbelief. And when the chance came to escape she used that anger to fuel her. She needed to run need to get away from this place from these people from these words, lies all lies. She would not be held down. She could not stay in one place. She needed to run, she needed to save; she needed to pretend that nothing else mattered. She refused to feel the hurt and fear. One might have called her brave...

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- Bravery may involve (for my purposes) one of two things, according to the dictionary: 1. to be showy or make a big display; 2. to possess courage. Courage, by definition, is a state of mind that allows one to face danger and fear. I was trying to get across that she was doing #1, but not #2. Just to clarify the double entendre. -