In The Asylum
Prompt: #13 In The Asylum eilonnwy
Title: In the Asylum
Author: moonyazu9
Rating: T
Pairing(s): vaguely implied Tyzula
Warnings: Azula, violence, mentions of sedation
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, not even one iota of it.
*****
She was the princess of the Fire Nation. Now she is the princess of the asylum.
She is always attended to carefully, much more so than the other patients. She is given her own cell, with a real bed and a view of Lake Laogai, far away from the others. She gets a bath every day, and the best food the staff can offer.
The other patients wouldn’t understand her if she was among them. She’s a princess, still, and they are just common riff-raff to her. But they know she is here, they’ve known since she first arrived. They don’t know why, they just know she’s here.
On her good days, she’s quiet, sedate, ladylike, not at all like the demonic being that first came here. Sometimes she even smiles, but most of the time she just stays in her cell, staring out the window at the lake or through her cell bars at anyone who comes through her end of the building. She doesn’t say much, but she remembers to thank her attendants half of the time. She’s even better when she’s allowed outside for the day, during which she sits by the turtle-duck pond and throws bread at the little birds. Sometimes she hits them with the bread, sometimes she misses.
She gets tea sent to her every week from her uncle, the proprietor of The Jasmine Dragon in the city. The first time she was told where it came from, she threw a fit and nearly destroyed her room with the streams of fire coming from her hands and mouth. Since then, the staff has learned not to mention her uncle around the princess. Nevertheless, someone always brings her a pot of tea every evening, which has been carefully brewed per her uncle’s instructions. Although he was the first to suggest that she be committed to the asylum, her uncle does know how she likes her tea and taught the staff to make it just right for her. No matter how insane she is, she is still family to him and he doesn’t want any of his family to forget about the power tea can have over people. The staff recognizes this and, having noticed the improvements in the princess’s condition after drinking the tea, incorporated its use into the treatments of many of the other patients.
Her bad days are frightening. She talks a lot more to her attendants and there’s a twitching smirk plastered onto her face that sometimes shifts to either a maniacal face-splitting grin or a grimace coupled with big gloppy tears and large blasts of fire and lightning from her hands and her mouth. Her fingers are always twitching with raw untainted energy. She paces around her cell, sometimes chuckling under her breath. It’s on these days when the staff has to bring her extra strong tea, give her extra-long baths with lots of calming herbs in the water and address her as “Your Highness” or face her wrath.
Sometimes, she won’t take her tea. On these days, she claims she doesn’t need it. Contrary to her statements, she has loud screaming nightmares when she doesn’t have her evening tea and has been known to wake up in the middle of the night with flames in her palms and her fingers half-set to create lightning. During these nightmares, she often calls out for her family, most of all her mother. When she wakes in the middle of the night, as she always does on these nights, a staff member gives her an extra-strong dose of tea laced with sleeping drugs so she’ll forget about the nightmares.
The princess can be beautiful, it’s true. She has that divine beauty that comes from being royalty. Like a diamond, she is lovely, but sharp and cold at the same time. At any rate, she loves to have her hair done up in its topknot, which is considered her reward for good behavior.
A few of the male guards made the mistake of hitting on her a few weeks into her confinement. She pretended to be sweet, but then she got angry when one of them tried to touch her in a lewd manner. As a result, he lost the use of his genitals and his cohorts were banned from working in her end of the building ever again. The princess spent three days under heavy sedation for her “ill behavior” and lost her outdoor privileges for the week following.
The only person who visits her that can make her somewhat happy is her acrobat friend, the one who likes to wear pink and is now a Kyoshi Warrior. This girl is also the only visitor allowed inside the princess’s cell. The royal practically begs for her friend’s entrance and bounces like a happy poodle-monkey when she gets her way. The acrobat girl is always really nice to her. She hugs the princess, plays games with her, gives her massages, braids her hair, and even makes her tea so the attendants don’t have to. When she leaves, the princess cries and some of her bending starts to act up again, but the acrobat girl always promises to come back soon which soothes the princess to docility.
On the other hand, she hates it when the new Fire Lord and Lady come to visit. She throws fits when he comes even close to her cell, and it’s even worse when the Fire Lady comes to visit, since she used to be friends with the princess before she allied herself with the Fire Lord. Her bending acts up the most when they’re here, and she usually tries to kill him every time he visits. The closest she’s gotten to that was singing his entire robes, which earned her a week in heavy sedation and a month without outdoor privileges.
Most days, the ones that aren’t particularly good or bad overall, she seems like she’s waiting for something. Her constant glances out the window make it look like she’s expecting someone to come flying through it, but it’s unclear if she’s waiting for her savior or her murderer. Maybe she’s hoping the Avatar will come and take away her bending so she can be just like her father, whom she’s wanted to be like for as long as she can remember. Maybe she’s waiting for the Blue Spirit to come and chop off her head. Maybe she’s just waiting for the day when she can be free and escape this place.
Title: In the Asylum
Author: moonyazu9
Rating: T
Pairing(s): vaguely implied Tyzula
Warnings: Azula, violence, mentions of sedation
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, not even one iota of it.
*****
She was the princess of the Fire Nation. Now she is the princess of the asylum.
She is always attended to carefully, much more so than the other patients. She is given her own cell, with a real bed and a view of Lake Laogai, far away from the others. She gets a bath every day, and the best food the staff can offer.
The other patients wouldn’t understand her if she was among them. She’s a princess, still, and they are just common riff-raff to her. But they know she is here, they’ve known since she first arrived. They don’t know why, they just know she’s here.
On her good days, she’s quiet, sedate, ladylike, not at all like the demonic being that first came here. Sometimes she even smiles, but most of the time she just stays in her cell, staring out the window at the lake or through her cell bars at anyone who comes through her end of the building. She doesn’t say much, but she remembers to thank her attendants half of the time. She’s even better when she’s allowed outside for the day, during which she sits by the turtle-duck pond and throws bread at the little birds. Sometimes she hits them with the bread, sometimes she misses.
She gets tea sent to her every week from her uncle, the proprietor of The Jasmine Dragon in the city. The first time she was told where it came from, she threw a fit and nearly destroyed her room with the streams of fire coming from her hands and mouth. Since then, the staff has learned not to mention her uncle around the princess. Nevertheless, someone always brings her a pot of tea every evening, which has been carefully brewed per her uncle’s instructions. Although he was the first to suggest that she be committed to the asylum, her uncle does know how she likes her tea and taught the staff to make it just right for her. No matter how insane she is, she is still family to him and he doesn’t want any of his family to forget about the power tea can have over people. The staff recognizes this and, having noticed the improvements in the princess’s condition after drinking the tea, incorporated its use into the treatments of many of the other patients.
Her bad days are frightening. She talks a lot more to her attendants and there’s a twitching smirk plastered onto her face that sometimes shifts to either a maniacal face-splitting grin or a grimace coupled with big gloppy tears and large blasts of fire and lightning from her hands and her mouth. Her fingers are always twitching with raw untainted energy. She paces around her cell, sometimes chuckling under her breath. It’s on these days when the staff has to bring her extra strong tea, give her extra-long baths with lots of calming herbs in the water and address her as “Your Highness” or face her wrath.
Sometimes, she won’t take her tea. On these days, she claims she doesn’t need it. Contrary to her statements, she has loud screaming nightmares when she doesn’t have her evening tea and has been known to wake up in the middle of the night with flames in her palms and her fingers half-set to create lightning. During these nightmares, she often calls out for her family, most of all her mother. When she wakes in the middle of the night, as she always does on these nights, a staff member gives her an extra-strong dose of tea laced with sleeping drugs so she’ll forget about the nightmares.
The princess can be beautiful, it’s true. She has that divine beauty that comes from being royalty. Like a diamond, she is lovely, but sharp and cold at the same time. At any rate, she loves to have her hair done up in its topknot, which is considered her reward for good behavior.
A few of the male guards made the mistake of hitting on her a few weeks into her confinement. She pretended to be sweet, but then she got angry when one of them tried to touch her in a lewd manner. As a result, he lost the use of his genitals and his cohorts were banned from working in her end of the building ever again. The princess spent three days under heavy sedation for her “ill behavior” and lost her outdoor privileges for the week following.
The only person who visits her that can make her somewhat happy is her acrobat friend, the one who likes to wear pink and is now a Kyoshi Warrior. This girl is also the only visitor allowed inside the princess’s cell. The royal practically begs for her friend’s entrance and bounces like a happy poodle-monkey when she gets her way. The acrobat girl is always really nice to her. She hugs the princess, plays games with her, gives her massages, braids her hair, and even makes her tea so the attendants don’t have to. When she leaves, the princess cries and some of her bending starts to act up again, but the acrobat girl always promises to come back soon which soothes the princess to docility.
On the other hand, she hates it when the new Fire Lord and Lady come to visit. She throws fits when he comes even close to her cell, and it’s even worse when the Fire Lady comes to visit, since she used to be friends with the princess before she allied herself with the Fire Lord. Her bending acts up the most when they’re here, and she usually tries to kill him every time he visits. The closest she’s gotten to that was singing his entire robes, which earned her a week in heavy sedation and a month without outdoor privileges.
Most days, the ones that aren’t particularly good or bad overall, she seems like she’s waiting for something. Her constant glances out the window make it look like she’s expecting someone to come flying through it, but it’s unclear if she’s waiting for her savior or her murderer. Maybe she’s hoping the Avatar will come and take away her bending so she can be just like her father, whom she’s wanted to be like for as long as she can remember. Maybe she’s waiting for the Blue Spirit to come and chop off her head. Maybe she’s just waiting for the day when she can be free and escape this place.