Sokka sets down his brush and leans back, finally finished with this batch of paperwork. 'Man, who knew how tedious it would be to found a city?'
As he takes a moment to just sit and enjoy having nothing to do, he looks over at his sister, who is still working on codifying the laws as they apply to water-benders. Getting up, he wanders over to her to read over her shoulder.
'Huh, she's making it illegal to blood-bend.' "Hey, Katara? I've always meant to ask: why do you hate blood-bending so much?"
Katara give him that look that she's mastered by now, the one that say's 'you are an idiot.' "Because it is evil, Sokka. It strips a person of their free will."
"I mean, sure. But realistically, it's just limiting their mobility over their own body. You could accomplish the same thing by tying them up. It seems like something that could be useful in a police force." As he argues, Sokka takes care to make it clear to Katara that he is not trying to start a fight; 'she makes so many of her decisions based on how she feels, rather than what makes sense.'
"We aren't going to have blood-benders in the police force. If people are allowed to practice blood-bending, we would never be able to know whether a crime committed was actually done because that person was being controlled."
"Katara, I've seen blood-bending; they are all jerky and fighting it every step of the way. That isn't subtle. Also, it seems like it could have medical applications as well; blood is a strong symbol of health and life, after all." That put a thoughtful look on Katara's face.
"That is... surprisingly accurate. I may allow a trusted healer or two to experiment with blood-bending for healing. But it would need to be highly regulated."
Sokka knows that is as far as he can push Katara on this issue, for now. Honestly, he never understood why she got so bent out of shape with the old woman who originally taught her blood-bending. He had thought the old woman had shown remarkable restraint with her application of the art.
After all, it would have to be much easier to bend the blood if you took it out of the body first.
