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storypaint) wrote2014-10-26 07:45 pm
storypaint) wrote2014-10-26 07:45 pm
Entry tags:
[Legend of Korra] nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself (Korra gen)
Title: nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself
Fandom: Legend of Korra
Length: 826 words
Prompt: fic_promptly: Legend of Korra, Korra, sometimes she wonders what advice she could possibly give the next Avatar
Pairing: Korra gen
Other: Set directly post S3; written before the start of S4.
Excerpt: Korra has a lot of time now for thinking, since her body isn't listening to her. Her thoughts fill up her skull until she can almost feel actual pressure in her temples. The headaches are nearly blinding and she has them all the time. It's a side-effect of the poison, Katara tells her, but she is a little more thorough the next time she checks on Korra.
Korra has a lot of time now for thinking, since her body isn't listening to her. Her thoughts fill up her skull until she can almost feel actual pressure in her temples. The headaches are nearly blinding and she has them all the time. It's a side-effect of the poison, Katara tells her, but she is a little more thorough the next time she checks on Korra.
Korra thought she felt constricted in Republic City but it is worse here in the Southern Water Tribe where there are no roads and the only smooth surfaces are too dangerous for the wheelchair. She forces her body to be stronger during therapy, but it's still going slow. She spends a lot of time in bed with her frustrated thoughts, trying not to feel sorry for herself. It's not good for her chi to do that, Katara said the very first day she'd arrived, as if she'd been reading Korra's mind.
Since her mind just goes round in circles Korra has been thinking a lot about the past. Aang spent a lot of time here, she knows, and she can't decide if that is wonderful or terrifying. He spent a hundred years frozen in an iceberg, after all, an abandonment of duties that haunted him, from what Korra knows, for the rest of his life. She doesn't want to leave her calling, strains to get better. Tenzin sends her letters full of cheer about the good that he and the other airbenders are doing, and she's sure he doesn't realize that this makes it worse. Maybe the world really doesn't need its Avatar anymore.
She doesn't know what advice she could have for a successor. She only spoke to Aang a few times but he was always so helpful. He unlocked her powers from beyond the grave. He would have taken to healing like a turtleduck to water, she's sure. She knows that by the time he was her age, he'd saved the world. What has she done? Nearly ruined it, according to some people. No matter what Republic City's mayor said, she is sure he's glad to have her gone. Everything she tries seems to backfire horribly. The only thing she is good at is surviving, and she has a lot of help with that.
She tries to imagine what it will be like when her connection to her other selves is restored, if it ever can be. (Perhaps she is the last Avatar. Perhaps she doesn't have to worry about that question anymore.) How can she explain herself to Aang and Roku and Kyoshi and all the rest? She dreams uneasy dreams.
Katara seems to sense her unhappiness. She's not good at getting around either; without Kya the two of them would be in trouble. When Korra spends time in the common areas, Katara often joins her with her sewing and a warm blanket across her knees. She tells Korra stories about Aang that she probably hasn't told in years to anyone. She makes him into a real person for Korra, a boy she can laugh at and a man with his own worries and ideas. She tells Korra one night that he always worried what he could tell his successor. Korra sits up straight in her chair.
"What do you mean?" she asks. Katara's eyes are on her sewing.
"Well, he had lost all the airbenders, his own people, and nearly broke the Avatar Cycle," she says. "It's a lot of pressure on anyone, I'd say. He'd stay awake all night sometimes fretting over something that he had no control over. He said he was meditating if someone asked, but I knew the truth."
"But he was so good at it!" Korra bursts out, squeezing the furs in her hands. "He did a lot better job than I did."
Katara is quiet for a moment, rethreading a needle. "You still have a long story ahead of you, Korra," she says finally. "Don't forget that. Part of wisdom is making the mistake you advise your child, your successor, against. He didn't always listen to the other Avatars' advice, either. All you can do is try."
This morning Korra walks all the way to the privy and back by herself. The effort leaves her exhausted, but it is an improvement. Tomorrow she will walk another step further. She goes to bed and stares up at the dark ceiling. She thinks Katara might be right.
I helped bring back the airbenders, she thinks. At least there's that. I helped bring down the Red Lotus, she thinks. At least there's that. And I am still young.
It eases her heart enough to sleep -- she has time before she has to give advice to an Avatar earthbender who might be as scared as she is now. Maybe by then she'll know the right thing to say.
"Just take another step," she says to herself, and drifts off to sleep.
Fandom: Legend of Korra
Length: 826 words
Prompt: fic_promptly: Legend of Korra, Korra, sometimes she wonders what advice she could possibly give the next Avatar
Pairing: Korra gen
Other: Set directly post S3; written before the start of S4.
Excerpt: Korra has a lot of time now for thinking, since her body isn't listening to her. Her thoughts fill up her skull until she can almost feel actual pressure in her temples. The headaches are nearly blinding and she has them all the time. It's a side-effect of the poison, Katara tells her, but she is a little more thorough the next time she checks on Korra.
Korra has a lot of time now for thinking, since her body isn't listening to her. Her thoughts fill up her skull until she can almost feel actual pressure in her temples. The headaches are nearly blinding and she has them all the time. It's a side-effect of the poison, Katara tells her, but she is a little more thorough the next time she checks on Korra.
Korra thought she felt constricted in Republic City but it is worse here in the Southern Water Tribe where there are no roads and the only smooth surfaces are too dangerous for the wheelchair. She forces her body to be stronger during therapy, but it's still going slow. She spends a lot of time in bed with her frustrated thoughts, trying not to feel sorry for herself. It's not good for her chi to do that, Katara said the very first day she'd arrived, as if she'd been reading Korra's mind.
Since her mind just goes round in circles Korra has been thinking a lot about the past. Aang spent a lot of time here, she knows, and she can't decide if that is wonderful or terrifying. He spent a hundred years frozen in an iceberg, after all, an abandonment of duties that haunted him, from what Korra knows, for the rest of his life. She doesn't want to leave her calling, strains to get better. Tenzin sends her letters full of cheer about the good that he and the other airbenders are doing, and she's sure he doesn't realize that this makes it worse. Maybe the world really doesn't need its Avatar anymore.
She doesn't know what advice she could have for a successor. She only spoke to Aang a few times but he was always so helpful. He unlocked her powers from beyond the grave. He would have taken to healing like a turtleduck to water, she's sure. She knows that by the time he was her age, he'd saved the world. What has she done? Nearly ruined it, according to some people. No matter what Republic City's mayor said, she is sure he's glad to have her gone. Everything she tries seems to backfire horribly. The only thing she is good at is surviving, and she has a lot of help with that.
She tries to imagine what it will be like when her connection to her other selves is restored, if it ever can be. (Perhaps she is the last Avatar. Perhaps she doesn't have to worry about that question anymore.) How can she explain herself to Aang and Roku and Kyoshi and all the rest? She dreams uneasy dreams.
Katara seems to sense her unhappiness. She's not good at getting around either; without Kya the two of them would be in trouble. When Korra spends time in the common areas, Katara often joins her with her sewing and a warm blanket across her knees. She tells Korra stories about Aang that she probably hasn't told in years to anyone. She makes him into a real person for Korra, a boy she can laugh at and a man with his own worries and ideas. She tells Korra one night that he always worried what he could tell his successor. Korra sits up straight in her chair.
"What do you mean?" she asks. Katara's eyes are on her sewing.
"Well, he had lost all the airbenders, his own people, and nearly broke the Avatar Cycle," she says. "It's a lot of pressure on anyone, I'd say. He'd stay awake all night sometimes fretting over something that he had no control over. He said he was meditating if someone asked, but I knew the truth."
"But he was so good at it!" Korra bursts out, squeezing the furs in her hands. "He did a lot better job than I did."
Katara is quiet for a moment, rethreading a needle. "You still have a long story ahead of you, Korra," she says finally. "Don't forget that. Part of wisdom is making the mistake you advise your child, your successor, against. He didn't always listen to the other Avatars' advice, either. All you can do is try."
This morning Korra walks all the way to the privy and back by herself. The effort leaves her exhausted, but it is an improvement. Tomorrow she will walk another step further. She goes to bed and stares up at the dark ceiling. She thinks Katara might be right.
I helped bring back the airbenders, she thinks. At least there's that. I helped bring down the Red Lotus, she thinks. At least there's that. And I am still young.
It eases her heart enough to sleep -- she has time before she has to give advice to an Avatar earthbender who might be as scared as she is now. Maybe by then she'll know the right thing to say.
"Just take another step," she says to herself, and drifts off to sleep.