War Paint
"Papa, can I put paint on my face too?" Sokka's six year old son, Jian, asked one day.
It wasn't just any day. It was a special day in the Southern Water Tribe, one on which the men demonstrated their strength and power, their skills and their prowess.
"Sure you can," Sokka replied. "I remember the first time I put war paint on."
"Were you like me?" Jian wondered.
"I was probably about your age. Back then the war paint was a little more serious."
""Cause there was a war, right Papa?"
"Right, now let's do your face. Come sit on my lap."
The little auburn haired boy with huge pale blue eyes crawled up onto his father's lap, so that they were almost face to face. They sat in the comfortable ice house, one of the many that now made up the Southern Water Tribe's settlement, which Katara had built for Sokka and Suki eight years earlier. It had four rooms, a kitchen/dining room, a living room and two bedrooms. Sokka and Suki shared one while Jian shared the other with his two year old sister, Xiao-xing.
Sokka dipped his right index finger into the black paint and made dramatic sweeps under and over the little boy's eyes. Grey was next; forehead, cheeks and nose were finished.
"It feels funny," Jian complained.
"We're almost finished," Sokka explained. "I need to put white paint around your eyebrows and your chin and this part of your cheeks."
He coloured the boys face in while humming an old Water Tribe song about going into battle.
"Now for a bit more black," the warrior stated.
Two slashes of the dark paint on the boys chin completed the effect.
"Can I see, can I see?" Jian asked excitedly.
"Hop off and have a look. The mirror's right behind you."
"Wow," the little boy shouted and began whooping around Sokka's bedroom.
"If you wake your sister, Mommy will be really ticked," Sokka reminded the boy.
"Oh, yeah," he whispered and crawled back onto his father's lap.
"Me a man too now, Papa? Can I do the stuff today?"
"Sorry, little buddy. It takes more than paint to make a man."
Jian's lower lip protruded and he crossed his arms in a startling imitation of an angered Suki.
"Not fair," he pouted and began to wail.
Xiao-xing twisted in her bed and then awoke, piercing the air with her own sharp cries.
Sokka placed Jian gently down and went to his daughter.
"It's okay, sweetheart. Your big brother's not too happy about something, that's all."
"Papa," she said and buried her face in Sokka's chest.
The Water Tribe Warrior, now liaison between the Water Tribes and the Fire Nation, stroked his daughter's hair and hummed until she fell back to sleep.
"Sorry," Jian said quietly when Sokka turned to look at him.
"Being a man means taking care of your family, being a good father and husband. And being a man means knowing when to say that you're sorry. So, guess what, Jian?"
"What Papa?"
"You'll make a fine man one day. I know it."
Little Jian beamed.
After a night of festivities and perhaps a bit too much liquor, Sokka tiptoed into the kids' room and checked on the boy. His face was scrubbed clean and his chubby cheeks were pink. But Sokka made out little bits of grey paint in Jian's hair. He bent down to kiss the boy's forehead.
"Goodnight, little man," he whispered.
Performance
Ty Lee had been a performer her entire life. From the time she was very small, she performed feats of danger and skill in her own desperate attempt to gain the attention and approval of her overworked and overwrought parents. She was one of seven daughters, the final hope for a son. Another brown haired, grey-eyed girl was not what her parents wanted and they expressed their disappointment with veiled remarks and subtle acts of cruelty.
For all her viciousness, and no matter how uncomfortable Ty Lee often felt around Princess Azula, at least the amber eyed firebending prodigy noticed her. In fact, she personally selected Ty Lee along with another girl, Mai, to be her 'friends'. It was an odd choice of words. Young Ty Lee had dreamed of closeness with someone that didn't involve competition, a closeness that was warm and loving rather than disapproving. There was no warmth or love from Azula, but occasionally there was approval and Ty Lee lapped it up like a starving animal.
Acrobatics always came easily to her. She excelled at it. Her body was like a springy, stretchy, bendable instrument that did what she commanded it to do. Cart wheels and flips were her joys as an eight year old. By the time she was ten or eleven she could do triple flips in the air before landing elegantly on both feet. She could do just about anything that required a flexible body.
Once she learned the complex and very delicate art of chi blocking, which, combined with her acrobatics, made her a formidable weapon, Azula's approval of her increased. Ty Lee felt good about that. But the princess' innate nastiness and desire to dominate and control tainted the girl's good feelings.
Ty Lee had a naturally bubbly personality and a natural desire to please, but Azula wanted too much. She wanted to use her 'friend' as a weapon. Though brought up in the same power mad culture, Ty Lee didn't crave violence or feel the need to beat down anyone. She just wanted to be happy. Was that really too much to ask?
Apparently it was; Ty Lee wasn't happy, not at home and not at the palace. She made plans to run away and daringly snuck aboard an Earth Kingdom bound ship. There she found a traveling circus, Fire Nation owned and managed, which moved between Fire Nation colony cities. It was perfect, or so she thought.
The other performers liked her well enough and she was paid to do what she loved. Every night when she worked the high wire, her balance unfailing, Ty Lee's body thrummed with excitement and the pulsing energy of the crowd infused her with even more. It was pure exhilaration.
The more performances she did and the more the other members of the circus saw of her skills, the more they resented her. Ty Lee, the circus' newest member, was billed as the star after just a few weeks. Her pride was tainted with guilt. Perhaps her top status wasn't fair to the other performers. Perhaps she should purposely make a few mistakes; the manager would be angry but everyone else would have a chance to take over her spot.
"No," Ty Lee said to herself a few days later as she sat at the vanity inside her pink tent and removed her gaudy makeup. "I won't. I won't pretend to be less than I am. I don't care if they hate me."
She gave herself a brilliant smile and proceeded with her post show rituals.
Months later, almost a year actually, Azula showed up. Ty Lee was happy to see the princess. She was a friend of sorts and the acrobat did care. But as was always the case with Azula, she had an ulterior motive. She wanted to create an elite team, Ty Lee, Mai and herself, all for the cause of hunting down the Avatar along with Zuko and Iroh. There was no choice involved. Azula didn't allow choices. You did what she wanted and smiled while doing it.
So she left one act for another. Ty Lee put on a brave face. It was good to see Mai again and there was a thrill to the chase, though she wasn't quite sure of all the reasons behind it. That desire to please surfaced again; the acrobat worked hard for the princess. When the Avatar was 'killed' and Zuko came back to the Fire Nation with them, Ty Lee thought that maybe everything would settle down. And it did for awhile.
Then Zuko left to join the Avatar, leaving a heartbroken Mai behind. Somehow, Ty Lee knew that soon Mai would have to make a choice. She did it at the Boiling Rock, defying Azula and saving her love. Ty Lee admired Mai's actions and had no intention of letting Azula strike her friend down. As she looked down at Azula's shocked and angry face, she wasn't afraid.
And when she became a member of the Kyoshi Warriors, she proudly put on their makeup and their uniform. They didn't expect her to perform tricks or be something she couldn't be. They simply wanted her to be. Ty Lee was alright with that.
