"That's what I was up to. It may not bother her now and Azula has no interests, but in a stressed out situation,with an already hurt TyLee this fact or a phone call with bad timing could suddenly end up in big trouble." Yeah she also kind of realized that Azula had other things to worry about anyhow.
"I like what you're doing with P'Li here. Something like hard shell, soft core. You have given her a hidden depth in her character. Someone, who would kick your butt, when necessary, but only to drink a beer with you after that, when she had brought everything back in line. Really like her." Thank you. :) That's what I was going for with her. She was one of my favorite characters in Legend Of Korra. "You're only beloved at a place, where you're allowed to be weak without being judged or mocked for it." Exactly, you know that you can trust a person when you can fall apart in front of them and they won't treat you any different afterwards...well maybe they'll be a bit nicer for a little while lol. "Or none of them. Or both, depending on the long term results, beside reaching the first place in contest." :P The outcome of SAS is actually one of the first scenes I wrote for this fic, so you'll see the results in this chapter. "She had pushed herself beyond her limits too often. She hasn't taken care of herself and now she's got the bill for it." Not thinking in the wrong run is a reoccurring theme for her in this fic. "At least she's clever enough to handle these issues serious for now. She stopped singing, she made an appointment at a specialized doctor and she wasted no time." True, she wasn't one of those people who waited for it to get worse before seeking help. "And I hope she'll keep that in mind. A cyst on the vocal cords could end her career permanently. SAS is important, but it's a only one event in a probably long career and this career is still at a starting point. But Azula is a person, who would probably risk her health for success." Indeed, we'll have to see where it goes. ;) "A surgery is tricky, maybe not, when you don't need a perfect trained voice and range, but for a singer it's risky, because he or she might loose some parts of the former range." But yes, absolutely. One of my favorite singers fell victim to this. Yulia from t.A.T.u. She was supposed to sing on Eurovision but was having vocal trouble and then years later she found out that she had cancer. She beat it but ended up having a surgery that ruined her voice. I think that she recovered though. "And she has to learn proper techniques and routines to take care of her voice." Yes, very important stuff. The kind of stuff she should have been doing in the first place. "But it's Azula. She has high pride and she burns for proving Ozai wrong. And I don't know, if she's willing to take a step back and let Zuko and TyLee or Mai doing the singing for a while, in order to do SAS and to protect her own voice. Such a hard hit for her." Also true. So I guess we'll see if she learned her lesson or if pride will take over.
"WIM on the other side is back." Back and stronger than ever. :P "Baatar and Kuriva have talked about everything, what has happened between them. Finally!" They talked over things that needed to be discussed. It took a lot of pride swallowing, like you said, but it benefits her in the long run. Plus, now that Kuvira knows exactly how she had hurt him she can avoid doing it again. "It was a nice idea to let them have a dinner in a restaurant. The positive publicity is only a side effect and in Kuriva's case a little unwelcomed, but more important is the gesture in general." Yes, it got everyone's spirits up for SAS. But it was a little awkward for Kuvira who hadn't yet formally announced her pregnancy. Plus, like you said, she needed to get out of the loft and get some fresh air. "Both need each other, in business and more important in private!" They're meant to be a duo. "It was an adorable scene, how she had told him, that he's gonna become a father!" Thanks lol, I had a lot of fun with that scene. Some fluff for the soul. "And Kuriva has also changed. She's not hiding her baby bump anymore." Lol, yup, she figured that, it was already see due to their dinner night so she might as well just be open. "She seems to shine again, due to your writing." Baatar coming back certainly took a lot of stress and pressure off.
Azula thinks herself to be recklessly ambitious at best and something of a flat out fool at worst. She dresses herself in tribal wear. Around her neck and in her hair, she wears a splendid plume of bright red and yellow feathers with a dash of orange here and there. Equally adorned in feathers is a gold fringed bra with many beads and dangling gems. It is a risky apparel choice for a high scale event. But Fire Of Agni is high risk-everything about them. In way of a skirt she wears an authentic Sun Warrior piece-all four of them will wear such. They will all perform barefoot and with a simple golden band around their biceps.
Her hair is tied up in a high ponytail, fashioned into a golden cuff. In her bangs are a few wooden beads. Under her eyes are three horizontal finger trails of golden face paint.
Zuko stands at the opposite end of the room, entirely topless, exposing his new chest piercings. Azula had questioned that decisions but ultimately it is up to him what he has pierced. He too has weaved some feathers into his hair. Alongside the vertical face paint over his unscarred eye is a similar trail down his chest.
Trying to use her voice as little as possible, Azula motions TyLee over. The girl skips over. She has gone overboard on the feathers. Azula pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. "You're going to have to pluck some of those feathers." She instructs in a whisper. She helps TyLee pick a few feathers from her braid and her outfit. She replaces them with a wood-bead necklace.
"Can you give me a hand?" Mai asks from across the room. She instructs Zuko where to weave the shells into her hair, muttering something about how she'll have the stylists fix it later. She waves off Zuko's reluctance with a flick of a wrist decorated with a bamboo and palm leaf bracelet. She fingers the shark tooth necklace Zuko gifted to her.
After fussing a tad more with TyLee's outfit, Azula turns her attention back to her own appearance. Her stylist finally emerges with overly large gold-plate earrings. With careful hands they fix them into her ears and begin brushing her hair. She watches the other members of their makeup artist team get to work on the other three. She instructs the man doing her hair to give it some waves.
"Oh you look so, so cute, Azula!"
She is going for fierce, perhaps even a little feral. But she doesn't protest, she has to save her voice for more pressing things. Instead she nods in way of a thank you.
"You all look so cute!" TyLee claps her hands together. She fishes around in her personal bag and snaps a few photos. Azula frowns, she wasn't picture read. TyLee throws her arms around her and snuggles her.
"Careful with my make up." Azula says softly. "We don't have time to do it all over again."
"Oh sorry." TyLee loosens her hold.
As soon as she runs up to Mai, Zuko approaches her. "Are you sure you want to do this? You can just play your guitar and TyLee can fill in for you."
Azula shakes her head. "I need to do this Zuko."
She sees him bite the inside of his lip. She is worrying him.
"I'll be fine." Azula insists as as one of the makeup artists adds a few final touches. "I promise."
Their crew packs up their tools and Azula motions for her bandmates to stand before her.
When all is said and done, Azula is satisfied. She has worked hard to design their costumes and they have come together just as perfectly as she had planned. Perhaps, better, with their hair and makeup in order.
Her content smile fades.
She can't help but feel as though they've gotten all dressed up for nothing.
.oOo.
Kuvira stands in her dressing room, her stylist just having finished fashioning her hair into a elegant and braided low side bun. It had been tricky to find the perfect outfit so last minute, having something custom made had been out of the question. So instead she wears something she found a second-hand store of all places. Deep forest green in color and with a high, black collar. She had handed it over to the band designer and let the woman and her team make tweaks and adjustments. To make it into something more unique. The woman hasn't failed her. Her stitchwork is impressive with lovely embroidered patterns. She has taken it upon herself to adorn the hem and sleeves with black gems and sequins. All in all it is a rather ritzy gown.
Baatar chooses to wear the dress suit and top hat from the music video. Their designer pins a few broaches to the left chest area; their logo, a guitar, a saxaphone, and a music note among other small symbols.
She slips into the dress and asks Baatar to help her with the zipper. To her relief it goes up without a hitch. She smooths the fabric down and drapes her arms over Baatar's shoulders. He kisses her on the cheek, sending her teardrop earrings swaying. "You're going to do wonderful tonight."
Kuvira rubs his shoulders. "As long as you're here I will."
The man flushes and rubs the back of his head. She intends to draw the small moment out. But P'Li barges in. "Have you seen my monocle anywhere?"
"Have you tried your own dressing room?" Kuvira quirks a brow.
"That's the first place I checked." She grumbles, pushing at her conductors hat. The V shaped tail of her suit flap about as she picks her way through the room. Her dress shoes click loudly on the ground.
"I found it!" Ghazan calls. He gives P'Li a second to look over before tossing the eyepiece to her. The man standing in the doorway looks more suave than he has in a long while in his long tailcoat with his beard and long sweep of hair combed and styled nicely for a change. He has a few copper pieces threaded into his hair and beard, she could imagine that Ming fancied it.
The woman appears next to him clad in a pair of over-large goggles and a pair of loose fitting overalls. In the pocket are a faux wrench and a faux hammer, they will serve as her drumsticks tonight.
Fashion-wise they are at their best, they will match well with the mechanic, orchestral atmosphere they are trying to create while Kuvira does her best to represent the jazz side of the band.
With luck, they will bring their crowd into a new world, at least for the twenty or so minutes it takes them to play their introduction and sing their three songs.
Kuvira checks her makeup a final time and asks her stylist to highlight her beauty mark a little more as another works to curl a few more strands of loose hair. She inspects the other three and asks if they have any final requests.
"Make my face look more dusty." Ming instructs. A good idea if she is going to be playing a mechanic.
The stylists take a step back and Kuvira takes it with them. She observes the band as a whole, finding herself satisfied. She goes to join them and motions for their photographer to do his thing. The camera flashes.
Kuvira picks up her decorative cane and leads them to the designated seating area.
.oOo.
They watched an hour's worth of bands some of them more pleasing than others. Though she absolutely hated some of them, stylistically-Kyoshi's Power Fist to name one-but regardless they were all undoubtedly talented. Kyoshi's Power Fist, if nothing else had been unique with their corpse paint and guttural vocals. They were among the new debuts. It is the very same category Fire Of Agni are about to perform under.
Azula is dissatisfied to know that, that meant she will be among the first few bands to perform. But they are the last of the newer bands. With luck the crowd has been warmed up enough.
Standing behind the curtain she is horrifically nervous, maybe even downright terrified. But they need this. They need this more than anything or they will have nothing. Nothing but a smug Ozai taunting them. She is a mess up away from having to resort to begging the man to take her back.
"You're gonna do great." TyLee gives her a quick kiss. On a normal day it would have washed the nerves away.
"I hope so."
She hears the announcement and they are on stage. It puts a dismal pang in her heart to leave the introduction fully to Zuko. "It took a lot to get here." He announces. "When we started out we could barely scrape together a simple music mover. We were just a small candle."
The crowd cheers.
"Now we're here." He pauses. "And our Fire Of Agni can't be extinguished."
The knot returns to her belly; perhaps water and bad press can't put them out. But a small cyst can smother them completely.
"Get ready Southern Air Sounds, because we…"
"Are the flame!" The crowd chants over him.
Without missing a beat, Azula tears into the first song that they have written. Normally she would save that one for last, but Agni forbid she can't make it through the whole show. She wants to start strong.
The guitar wails in her hands, in tune with Mai's bass. TyLee is surrounded by a collection of drums both standard and tribal. If all went according to plan, her drum display will be surrounded by a ring of dancing flame.
So far things are going well, she is forcing out her screams, powerful as ever while Zuko provides backing vocals and a steady flow of fire. Halfway through she sends a thin trail of flames in the direction of TyLee. The wall dances around their drummer as she wails on the cymbals. With each hit, Azula and Zuko flare the flames higher until the song fades out.
The crowd is frantic with cheers. So much so that Zuko almost can't announce their second song. One of their newer ones. Azula passes her guitar to him so that she can move through a Sun Warrior traditional belly dance. It is something of a cop out, but she likes to think it a clever one. Fire Of Agni has never performed an instrumental version of any of their songs. Not until now. But it leaves a critical window of rest for Azula's tortured vocal cords.
She tries not to dwell on the injury as TyLee begins. Instead she sets the scene, trying her best to imitate what her music mover had in terms of the haunting blue lighting. TyLee is doing a stunning job of creating a foreboding sound. It is a low and rhythmic pounding of a large fox-deer hide drum. TyLee beats upon it slow and steady with a single drumstick nearly as large as the drum itself. Next to her stands a newly hired woman. She is draped in a feathered cloak with a shekere. Every few beats, the woman gives it a shake. For herself, Azula occasionally gives her rainstick a shift. With each beat a new cloaked figure emerges. One stands with a kora gitar another stands with a small balafon. TyLee has worked tirelessly to teach others to play djembe drums and bongos among other things. TyLee ends the ominous intro with a hit on a gong. A moment of pause and Zuko and Mai begin with their guitar and bass respectively.
Azula has worked just as tirelessly as TyLee to learn this traditional dance inside and out. The beads in her hair smack against her neck and back as she goes through the twirling parts of the dance. The gems stones glimmer across her middle as she shifts and rolls her waistline. The crowd is wholly quiet, they listen more closely than they have in a long while. Towards the end of the song, the guitar and bass fall silent. The song tapers off into a rhythmic beating of the drums. And Zuko comes to dance with her. A highly intimate dance. Close with his body pressed against hers and his hands trailing over her torso.
That is when she spies Ozai in the crowd. The man crosses his arms, his face the picture of disgust.
Azula ignores the man, her performance is better than it ever has been and she isn't going to sabotage it just to make the man uncomfortable.
By the end of their dance the room falls into complete silence again. They leave no room for cheers and get right into their final song. The song Azula has been dreading. The one with the shrillest shriek midway through.
Her voice seems to have already reached its limit by the end of the first chorus. Her mind screams at her to cut the show short. But ambition takes over. She moves into the tricky climax of the song. She lets out a scream but it isn't the one she had in mind. Her voice cracks and pain sears through her throat.
It is instinct to try to cry out in pain.
She fights back tears.
And she makes a mistake.
She looks into the crowd.
The smirk on Ozai's face is wickedly smug.
Azula's stomach lurches. He has come to watch her fall and he is getting the show he paid for. Her voices has failed her.
She has failed her band.
Failed herself.
.oOo.
Kuvira cringes at the sound that tears from her rival's throat. Reflexively, she grips Baatar's hand. It isn't normal. It is pained and horrible. And she feels some sort of secondhand agony.
There is something overwhelmingly unsettling about watching the poor girl get escorted by a team of paramedics from the stage. It is a wonder the girl is keeping herself together. Deep down, Kuvira knows that the girl will break behind the curtains.
She looks to Baatar who wears a sympathetic grimace.
But the fire isn't extinguished. The band pushes on with the girl's brother taking her parts and the drummer taking his. Kuvira is impressed with their quick thinking. Though it leaves her with a sneaking suspicion that they were well aware that the girl was having vocal trouble.
Kuvira is left with way too much time to dwell on it. She finds it hard to pay attention to any of the following bands. She can't focus on Tears Of Yue, the new band she had been looking forward to. She hopes that she will calm by the time Wan Shi Tong's Waltz, the very band that inspired her to start her own, took to the stage. They are on after her band, she is thankful for that. With luck she will be able to watch them and enjoy them in full without having to worry about her nerves.
For the time though, they are frayed and frenzied. She simply can't get the sound of the Fire Of Agni girl's faltering scream out of her mind. Out of her ears.
She forces it to the back of her mind as she is beckoned backstage.
Wrought Iron Machine is one of the last bands to perform. It is both intimidating and thrilling. She knows how these shows work, they start with lesser known bands to warm up the crowd and move into the esteemed and renowned ones. She is starstricken to be among them. Only Tui & La, Chong And The Nomads, and Wan Shi Tong's Waltz perform after them.
It settles her anxiousness some to know that, even if they don't win, they are famous enough to perform nearly last. They are on in ten minutes. That leaves her with ten minutes to sooth her baby. She is under the impression that her own anxiousness has reached the child-to-be. She rubs circles on her belly in an attempt to get the baby to stop squirming so much. It takes Baatar kissing her belly and murmuring something soft and cooing to sooth the babe. Baatar rests his hands on her waist and presses his forehead to hers until they are called onto the stage.
They have a few extra minutes as their full orchestra plays through an extended version of what will be their newest album.
"Let's kick some fuckin' ass everyone!" P'Li shouts, as Ghazan pops a bottle. He fills all of their glasses until he comes to Kuvira, "sorry, none for you." With a boyish grin he skips over her glass and fills Baatar's.
"Fuck you too, Ghazan." Kuvira jests.
"Here." Ming holds out one of her watery arms. "Drink."
"Gee, thanks, Ming."
Baatar chuckles.
They set their glasses to the side. P'Li and Ghazan make their way on stage first. Ming waits for the claps to die down before following them. And then She and Baatar wait for round two to die off. She lets the venue go completely quiet before they walk, hand in hand, onto the stage. Her cane thumps on the floor and echos.
She skips the greetings and goes right into her operatic introduction. After another moment of quiet Baatar and P'Li start in with their lead and rhythm guitar and Ghazan follows with his bass and Ming with her drums. The orchestra doesn't begin until the chorus.
The set itself is a chaotic flurry of moving cogs, wheels, and spokes. A fully functioning and whirring machine that spits smoke and sparks at designated intervals. It doesn't take on a particular shape, it is more or less a collection of clanging parts that look aesthetically pleasing.
The crowd is hyper with an energetic buzz that they had lacked since Baatar's near departure. Kuvira grins at the crowd. Their first song comes to a close and her nervousness give way to exilheration. "It's wonderful to be here again." Kuvira leaves a pause for applause. "How long has it been, Baatar?"
"Ten years." He replies.
"Ten years." Kuvira repeats. "Ten years since we first came here. We were just a rookie group." She runs her fingers through her hair. "Raava, I didn't expect us to get this far." The smile doesn't leave her face. Because she has made it, they have made it. She wishes that her childhood self-even her teenage self-could see her. "For a second I thought that…"
Baatar rubs her back. "But we have. And of course we have the lot of you to thank for giving us enough attention to land a spot here."
"And for supporting us despite our…" she considers her words. "Our mishap."
The crowd gives another uniformed cheer.
"You guys kick ass!" P'Li announces.
Ghazan pulls out another bottle. "If you got a drink, you better drink with us. Most of us anyways, Kuvira still isn't invited."
This time the crowd gives a few light-hearted boo's.
"Pregnant." Ming points out.
Another round of cheering. "Congratulations!" She can't place where in the crowd the booming voice has come from. Kuvira gives a soft laugh, looking down to cover a light blush, and wipes some locks out of her face. "Thank you."
Ghazan finishes his toast and they enter their second song. She scans the crowd for the frontman of Wan Shi Tong's Waltz. It sends a pleasant trill up and down her spine to see the man nodding his approval at their new take on jazz. It is surreal to have her idol staring up at her with approval.
She unravels her braid and tosses her head back for the final note.
She doesn't think too much of it, moving into their final song just feels so natural. She may not be able to dance with her baby bump in the way, but she can still give the crowd a show. She puts extra care into her vocals; working with flawlessly through more difficult vibratos.
She adds a flare of metalbending from shifting platforms up and down for she and her bandmates to stand upon to crafting herself a case of stairs to lean on when the baby started acting up.
Normally with a crowd so energetic and lively she would enter it. But her management and doctors had advised against so she leaves that to Ghazan and P'Li, settling for simply brushing fingers with front row attendees.
Ghazan and P'Li finish out the song from within the crowd. The last note echos about the venue only to be swallowed up by cheering and hollering. Kuvira is grinning rather uncontrollably. Perhaps even laughing. One hand falls to her baby bump and the other holds her microphone to her lips. She manages a few thank you's before they are motioned off of the stage.
They have made it.
Victory or none, they have left an impression.