And also, more on lostness, yes please (I have a real thing for meditations on city/mental topographies of any kind), but, wow, this is fantastic - I love the way they bleed in and out of each other, the way Toph takes control of the text when she feels the trembling that Azula allows herself to believe she has concealed; the way Toph, who knows so much about staying on the ground, being a rock and not a lotus, nevertheless teaches Azula to ground her power but to turn it back upwards, as well.
Because Azula recognises power, even when it's upside down.
she would only be the rock that she trained the Avatar to be and not a supported lotus
Yeah, can you tell what my favourite line is? (though, man, so much good stuff). I think also because it reads, a little bit, like not just a rejection of her parents' cosseting but also of the old-man politicking of the Order of the White Lotus - and perhaps even of Aang, a tiny bit, given the significance of the lotus in Buddhist iconography (not, obviously, that Aang is anything other than a fantasy!Buddhist): Toph is just the very very opposite of detached.
And you have Azula laugh! I love the way you have the sections in parentheses start off as acknowledgements of loss, of lack and confinement, move through this tentative realisation of what kind of bottom-top power it is that Toph is wielding, and end with uneasy equilibrium - (they have this knowledge of each other, after all).
Just fantastic, and now I really see why you thought they'd work so very well together. So, yeah, let me know if I can do anything to help this happen! I mean, other than flailing happily. Because this, this is the good stuff.
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Soooo ... I think you should write this?
And also, more on lostness, yes please (I have a real thing for meditations on city/mental topographies of any kind), but, wow, this is fantastic - I love the way they bleed in and out of each other, the way Toph takes control of the text when she feels the trembling that Azula allows herself to believe she has concealed; the way Toph, who knows so much about staying on the ground, being a rock and not a lotus, nevertheless teaches Azula to ground her power but to turn it back upwards, as well.
Because Azula recognises power, even when it's upside down.
she would only be the rock that she trained the Avatar to be and not a supported lotus
Yeah, can you tell what my favourite line is? (though, man, so much good stuff). I think also because it reads, a little bit, like not just a rejection of her parents' cosseting but also of the old-man politicking of the Order of the White Lotus - and perhaps even of Aang, a tiny bit, given the significance of the lotus in Buddhist iconography (not, obviously, that Aang is anything other than a fantasy!Buddhist): Toph is just the very very opposite of detached.
And you have Azula laugh! I love the way you have the sections in parentheses start off as acknowledgements of loss, of lack and confinement, move through this tentative realisation of what kind of bottom-top power it is that Toph is wielding, and end with uneasy equilibrium - (they have this knowledge of each other, after all).
Just fantastic, and now I really see why you thought they'd work so very well together. So, yeah, let me know if I can do anything to help this happen! I mean, other than flailing happily. Because this, this is the good stuff.