Gods and Magnolias
-:- earth rumble v -:-
Her new uniform, so unlike the silky robes and slippers she wears at home, feels golden against her skin. The material is loose and rugged, perfect for Earthbending. Cuffs adorn her ankles and wrists, steady weights to keep her balanced. A headband with fuzzy puffs that she can only assume are stylish keep her cumbersome locks out of the way. The buttons and buckles take some work—she'd rather go naked than ask for help getting dressed—but once everything is fastened and in place, she feels powerful. Fearless. Dominant. She feels like the Blind Bandit—she becomes the Blind Bandit.
The Blind Bandit.
The name is Xin Fu's creation, and the costume is his seamstress's, but it is she who breathes life into them. It is she who with barely a flick of her wrist pulverizes opponent after opponent, topples grown men like toys, whose unashamed and biting wit flings their big talk back into their dopey faces, she whom the crowd idolizes.
She knows that they see her and expect an easy fight. Surely, the opponent reasons, I am stronger than this little girl, faster, smarter. I've been Earthbending longer than she's been alive! Where those fools have failed I will conquer. But she sneaks up on them, like a thief shrouded in darkness. She robs them of their ego, of their dignity, of their fortitude—and their prize money.
And not a single one can understand. Of all the hundreds of adrenaline-drunk and swirling minds in the arena, only hers can grasp the truth, the secret to her ascendancy—she may be blind, but she sees everything.
By the end of the tournament her competition, the careening audience, and any remnants of the Bei Fong family's biddable, imaginary daughter have been swallowed by the contagious coercion of the Blind Bandit.