The Earth Empire (Avatar Roleplay)

Yue smiled wider and Toph resisted a sigh. Why was she associating herself with Water Tribe slaves?

"Sokka? I've always dislikes Water Tribe names," Toph stated. "I have always renamed my servants better ones like Idiot or Fool or Waste of space."

Yue looked at Toph in alarm for a second, then relaxed. She wasn't going to let her words get to her.

"That seems mean."

"Yes, yes it does. But then no one is ever really nice to me."

Yue wasn't sure what Toph meant by that. She looked like she was an Earth Kingdom Noble. Who wouldn't treat her nicely beside the royalty and Yue doubted Toph spent time with them.

(Toph is quite a charmer, ain't she?)

"Why don't I call you Rocky? That seems to fit your personality," Sokka retorted, glaring at the blind girl though he knew that she couldn't see him do so.

"Um, not sure if I'm interrupting anything," said Katara as she came upon what appeared to be a fight in the making, "but how about we all just calm down?" As she assessed the surroundings she noticed shattered ice all over the floor, trailing from a half-intact iceberg.

As a large furry white creature slowly arose from the remnants of the ice berg, Katara began melting the ice around her in case she needed to go on the defensive, "So, how about we just start with our names? I'll go first; Hi my name is Katara." she said, trying to unwind this potential dangerous situation.

Admittedly, the Fire Nation Princess was by far the most dangerous one here as far as Katara could tell...this was going to be tricky. Not mention the other guy looked like he had survived numerous close encounters himself, possibly making him just as dangerous. Surely the spirits must be angry at her.

Toph shrugged off Sokka's comments. She didn't care one way or another what a Water Tribe slave thought.

"If I let you call me Rocky, can I call you Loser?"

"Lin!" Yue covered her mouth and looked at the ground. She had just yelled at Toph. She shouldn't have done that. She could get in trouble. But Toph didn't let it bother her.

"I'm joking. I would never let anyone call me Rocky Yue. Calm down girl."

?

".....Aang." the young man stated after a moment, though he did not drop out of his combat stance. The animal beside him continued to growl and had its head lowered, ready to ram either one of the girls at his master's command. Aang put a calming hand on his friend's side, but otherwise did not change his stance. Since they hadn't attacked him yet, he would not either...

Never trust anybody....in this world, nobody but Gyatso was trustworthy. And he's...

"No one said you should speak, peasant," Azula told Katara harshly before directing her gaze over at Aang, "Now answer my question. Who are you? And do you serve the Earth Emperor or not?"

"Wow," thought Katara as she grimaced, "She sure has a bite to match her beauty. Not much of a people person." Holding her hands up in peace, she looked at Aang, "Okay, I'm not sure what's going on, but I can tell you, I'm not here to hurt you....I'm not sure about the Fire Nation Princess...."

She turned to look at Azula, "Look I'm not sure antagonizing him is a good idea, so please, pretty please, calm down?"

"It depends. If he is a new weapon for the Earth Emperor, then he will die. And so will you if you say anything," Azula told the Water peasant with a frown, "There is nothing I won't do for my country, is that clear?"

Katara motioned that she meant no harm, "I understand that you love your nation, I do. And I also understand how you feel about the Earth Empire, trust me, I hate it too, but being an Ambassador for the Fire Nation, and inciting violence against what may be an Earth Empire citizen within the Palace, may only spark a war between the two."

Katara was borderline desperate now, pleading to the Fire Nation Princess, "Please, don't be hasty about this. If he is hostile, it's you and me against him, and that's if he's hostile. There really is no need to make this worse."

Turning back to the heavily scarred man before her, not sure where this was going to end up...but having a rather bad feeling none the less; her day so far wasn't the best, and the only way to go from here...seemed to be pointing down.

Aang

Aang spit onto the floor and gave a growl at Katara's insinuation. "To hell with the Earth Emperor, and the vile empire that he rules! I want to see all of it go down in flames for what he did to me!"

"Well, alright then. I think we've pretty much worked out that we don't like the Earth Empire, so can we stop trying to kill each other, please?" She looked over to the Fire Nation Princess, "My Lady?" she said, giving Azula a respectful bow.

Azula allowed herself a small, triumphant smirk. This man was powerful and if what she suspected was true.... Then the Fire Nation would destroy the Earth Empire.

"Then, perhaps you'd like to come with me? I'm the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. If you need an army to destroy the Earth Emperor... Then you should come to the Fire Nation and talk to my father," she told him.

Well, alrighty then. Katara hated the Earth Empire, on a level, she even feared it; but if the Fire Nation had a person even close to Azula running it...it was not a good alternative. "Right, so now that we're all, well, relatively, getting along, how about we discuss this stuff over some tea...away from here?"

Hopefully, if either of them went along with it, which was doubtful, they might at least run into Iroh (hopefully), or Long Feng (not so hopeful). Worst case scenario, Azula goes psycho and Katara has to put her on ice for a bit.

Any way she looked at it...she wished she was at home.

((Hm. Quite honestly I'm not sure what to do with Aang at the moment. I know he'd probably decline Azula's offer at first, distrusting any sort of authority. Though I'm not sure what to have him do after that. Any thoughts?))

(Have him recklessly try to kill Long Feng now? Sounds like he would, given his new vengeful personality.)

Toph slowly walked away from Sokka and Yue. They probably didn't want her around. Besides Toph was pretty sure her absent was being noticed by now. Still it didn't mean she had to rush back to the Palace. Maybe she could even get away with staying out over night, not that Toph was sure about that. The only way that could happen was if she ran away to the South Pole, maybe.

So Toph headed back to where she left Jin, wondering if the Earth Kingdom girl was still around there.

(I agree, he probably would attempt to kill Long Feng.)

Aang

"No can do, Princess. I have...trust issues with authority." Aang replied. After a moment he smiled. "Hm. I'm in the Earth Emperor's palace, you say? I have no bloody idea how I got here in the first place, but that hardly matters. I think it's time I paid a visit to the old bastard."

Katara was shocked to say the least, "Um, if you don't mind my saying...I don't think that's such a good idea. I mean, you really should have a healer look at you before you do anything...well, suicidal."

What to do, what to do. Life in the Earth Empire was...well, it was hell, and she hated the Earth Empire to be sure...but would killing Long Feng be the best solution? What if it made things worse?

"Sure, you can kill him. Trust me, I won't shed a tear over him," Azula told Aang nonchalantly, "But what are you going to do afterwards? Another Earth Emperor will take his place and you will probably be killed. You need an occupation force."

"Or," Said Katara gently, trying not to get Azula riled up, "You can not kill the Emperor, for the moment like the Fire Nation Princess, and just hide out, learn about what's going on in the Earth Empire and maybe even the other nations...maybe even help out us Water Tribe folk?"

Aang

"And why would I want to do that?" Aang asked Katara, scowling at her a little. "The Earth Empire slaughtered my people. I should only return the favor."

"Fool. If you do not understand your enemy, you are doomed to be killed or enslaved. Your people couldn't understand why anyone would attack them and that's why they were unprepared," Azula told Aang, biting her lip impatiently.

"Look, I won't claim to know what happened to you, but my people were enslaved by the Earth Empire for just what the Fire Nation Princess has said...we didn't know what we were fighting and we were greatly unprepared. And besides that...what if you kill Long Feng, then what happens to those of us of the Water tribes?

"A good number of the Dai-Li, along with most of the Earth Empire citizens, have already made it known how much they dislike the Water tribesmen, and if the Emperor is the only thing keeping them from slaughtering my people...do you really want to do to us, what's been done to you?" asked Katara, near desperate to try and make Aang understand that there are consequences to his actions.

((Think the Dai Li could just crash the party at this point? Aang's likely to see something very stupid soon that'll only result in his death. He won't listen to anyone, right now.))