April 2023

@katara-week day 7: free space

for @katara-week day 5: bending master

Kataang or anything else you would like 😌

Title: Blood Moon

Written for day 2 (grief/last waterbender) for @katara-week 2023. Sorry for the slightly late entry!

TW for hints at comfort women. There is also some blood in this, and of course, a lot of mentioned war crimes.

Word count: 4,100

GIF by royalbengalbitch

Rating: T

Summary: Yon Rha turns himself in to be tried at Hira'a, and Chief Hakoda, Sokka, and Katara are asked to represent the Southern Water Tribe. Katara once again struggles to face her mother's killer.

“You’re a weapon, and weapons don’t weep.”

Katara stared at the reflection of herself across from her shining plane. She felt her tears streaking down her cheeks. Her other self’s eyes glowed crimson, red, and angry like a fire threatening to encroach on a sleeping village. The sentence that had tumbled from her doppelganger’s mouth was biting.

“Why are you crying like this?” the other Katara spat. “It’s pathetic. You know what you have to do.” She grinned and reached for her throat. “Kill him.”

Fingers choked her, cutting off her air. She heaved but did not resist. Walls of flame rose around the pair of them and engulfed Katara in searing heat until she was sure that the flesh would flake off her bones.

“NO!”

She jolted awake. Her eyes snapped open, and the back of her head banged up against the wooden post of her single bed. She glanced around, rubbing at the crick in her neck when she noticed that she still held a piece of parchment in her lap. She brought it up to her face, squinting her bleary eyes at the written characters, and gasped at the memory from last night. Her whole body burned with shaking realization.

She was not sure who had shouted.

Katara’s arms fell, the missive in her hands crumpling in her grip. The dark ink on the white paper glared up at her, harsh and accusing.

Yon Rha turned himself in.

Bending/Culture

I started this sketch back for kuspuk week, the design here was inspired by kuspuk worn in dance and singing performances, the stance from tai chi. I'm quite patrial to the idea that southern waterbending was partly traditional dance in nature.

Snow Demon

Rating: T (cw: minor character death, implied suicide)

Story summary: When the Fire Nation asks Katara to accept Hama back to the Southern Water Tribe, Katara must face the woman who betrayed her—and whose fate is intertwined with her own.

Chapter 4 written for @katara-week Day 5: Spirits/Culture

✨Final chapter✨

Read on AO3 or Fanfiction.net

————–

Chapter 4: Departure

By the fourth day of the voyage, Hama’s ulcers had healed enough that she could finally walk on her own. Her legs, however, were still unsteady. Eager to exercise her new independence, Hama lurched forward—only to stumble over her own feet.

Katara reached out and caught her, a heap of bone and skin and hair. Hard fingernails dug into Katara’s shoulders as Hama righted herself. Then Hama pushed away from Katara as if to say, I don’t need your help.

Perhaps Hama had pushed Katara away because she didn’t want Katara to pity her. Or perhaps she had sensed the way that Katara held her—with rigid arms that only wrapped around her because the other option was to let her fall.

Now, they each stood facing each other—the last waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe.

Continue reading on AO3 or Fanfiction.net

I like to think that Katara and Yue were each other's first female friend.

Snow Demon

Rating: T (cw: minor character death, implied suicide)

Story summary: When the Fire Nation asks Katara to accept Hama back to the Southern Water Tribe, Katara must face the woman who betrayed her—and whose fate is intertwined with her own.

Chapter 3 written for @katara-week Day 4: Bending Master

Read on AO3 or Fanfiction.net

————–

Chapter 3: Dilemma

Katara carefully made her way down the hallway of the Fire Nation cruiser. Her hand glided along the metal wall, keeping balance against the roll of the ocean waves. She would never get used to the dark steel that wrapped around her like a tomb, or the way that noises clanged through the body of the ship. But her unease came from more than her surroundings.

Every Fire Nation steamship was the same—steeped in the aroma of machine oil. Acrid and bitter, the smell coated her lungs just as it had one year ago, when she healed Aang through hopeless days and endless nights and yet he still would not wake up.

Travel from the Fire Nation to the Southern Water Tribe would be faster if they flew on Appa. But that would mean sharing the saddle with Hama. Katara would rather endure a longer journey on a Fire Nation ship if that meant she didn’t have to spend much time in Hama’s company.

Continue reading on AO3 or Fanfiction.net

(ID: a digital drawing of Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender. She is wearing her season one parka, and is sitting with a peach tree branch in her left hand and a single peach in her right hand. Momo is sitting next to her, reaching for a peach on the branch, and Katara is smiling down at him. End ID.)

@katara-week

Stirred by the repetitive, involuntary motions of her body, Katara peeled her eyes open. There beholds the dead of night. Fewer white lights twinkled freely with Yue in the centre, still watching over the stars, watching over the sea, and watching over her. Her arms and legs spread, bilaterally extended to each quadrant on the ice sheet she rested on. Body exposed, bare and vulnerable as the eternal moon goddess remained for all with the naked eye.

“You’re too far.” Katara declared.

She pulls the water to her, pushing off from the island, the vortex devouring her. She erupts and flies, reaching out to the moon as she plunges into the ocean below. It was there she watched the goddess disappear into the sky.

(ID: a digital drawing of Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender. She is facing to the side, her eyes closed, and her hair is in its season one style. Behind her are six other figures, previous waterbenders, who are slightly faded. End ID.)

@katara-week – Day 2: Last Waterbender