200 word drabble: Useful

[attackfish]

Written for avatar_500 prompt #42, Music.

Summary: Azula is good at everything important.

Useful

Azula threw down the biwa in disgust.  It clattered against the floor of the music room and jolted Zuko out of his own playing.  The strings popped and burst free from their tethers as Azula shot to her feet, pelted the pick across the room.  It stuck in the wall and vibrated like a knife blade.  Zuko stared at it until it stopped moving.

"Please, Princess Azula," the music master smiled, tight lipped, voice too calm.  "Come sit down."

"No!"  She spun around in the doorway, the tendons in her arms popping like she as going to pull the walls down.  "I don't have to!  It's not going to make me a better firebender, or help me conquer the Earth Kingdom, or rule the Fire Nation, or... anything!"

The pounding of her feet grew quieter and quieter, and Zuko just eyed the music master and waited to be noticed again.

Azula didn't give up.  She never gave up.  And she was always good at everything.  All the sour notes- She just didn't care.

"Prince Zuko."

Zuko picked up his tsungi horn, then put it down.

Of course it was useless.  He was good at it.

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

It becomes a self-reenforcing cycle. If Zuko is good at it, it must not be worthwhile, and so he can never build better self-esteem. Poor baby.

Oh, most likely. I'm a flute player, which my doctor says is probably what saved my life during one of my worst asthma attacks.

[jade-mushroom.livejournal.com]

that sneaking after the sea turtles thing? I don't think Azula could have done that [or if she did, it wouldnt be because she could hold her breath for that long... she'd probably blast her way through, or make her own air pockets.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Or disguise herself.

[jade-mushroom.livejournal.com]

true that one... until she found out that NWT women weren't warriors and are supposed to be demure healers. Wonder if she'd cross dress then....?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Or just set everybody on fire right there. I tried to write a Fire-Nation-royals-as-Northern-Water-Tribe-royals, and couldn't figure out what to do with her.

[jade-mushroom.livejournal.com]

She'd be pissed off and vicious she wouldn't get to learn bending. But I could see her discovering bloodbending, or perhaps the darker part of healing.

For example, many medicines are poisons in low concentrations. I can see her deliberately upping the dosage by a drop or so, just to see what the death threshold would be. Or maybe deliberately only half healing a bone, leaving weaknesses to allow it to break at the most inopportune moment...

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Or she could just do what brilliant, capable, (nasty) women have done for thousands of years when kept from the reigns of power, become even more frighteningly manipulative. Or both... It wasn't so much that I couldn't figure out what she would do, it was just there was no way could see it going well for our heroes if they hadn't seen her in action like they did in canon. Rooting out her type of evil is not their strong suit.

[luunyscarlet.livejournal.com]

I now can see NWT!Azula playing Long Feng to Zuko's Kuei. Though I doubt Zuko will be as naive as Kuei ;).

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

She would lead him around by the nose, an the worst thing (from Zuko's point of view) would be that he knew exactly what she was doing.