Commish: Zuko & Toph (scenic) by Anndr
Anndr opened up commissions at the end of last month and couldn't resist the opportunity of getting a landscape piece focussing on Zuko and Toph.
The concept was a rural, almost abstract landscape at dawn, with rice paddies et all. Zuko and Toph (in their twenties) would be on a crumbly old wall overlooking it and framed by bonsai or cherry blossom branches (with the pink adding contrast to the scene).
Zuko's relating a humorous anecdote, gesturing with a hand and Toph finds it all pretty funny. Ultimately its a quiet moment in the early morning with just the two of them.
View: Bigger, almost wallpaper size
Close up detail
The concept was a rural, almost abstract landscape at dawn, with rice paddies et all. Zuko and Toph (in their twenties) would be on a crumbly old wall overlooking it and framed by bonsai or cherry blossom branches (with the pink adding contrast to the scene).
Zuko's relating a humorous anecdote, gesturing with a hand and Toph finds it all pretty funny. Ultimately its a quiet moment in the early morning with just the two of them.
View: Bigger, almost wallpaper size
Close up detail
***
The Fire Nation was volcanic, everyone knew that, but they didn't know how overextended they'd been for years. Their industries had been sustained largely by the military, with its punishing taxes and imports from the Earth Kingdom colonies; even so, food was spread thin, and thinner still after the reparations had been made for the Hundred Years' War. Techniques for farming the volcanic islands had been lost, and industrial runoff had poisoned much of the water supply. In the wake of the War, it took all four elements to repair the damage done.
Dusting ashy soil from her hands, Toph Bei Fong straightened up, hitching a hip upon the low stone wall, turning her face into the wind. It carried the tang of sea-salt and the bitterness of ash, muted by the richness of growth -- she could feel the of the rice paddies as blank spots in her senses, the stone-lined irrigation troughs standing out more clearly in the sea of rich muck and vegetation -- in the morning's breeze.
Footsteps landed upon the stone wall, dropping out of nowhere (though she felt a few cherry petals landing upon her hair and face), and Toph snickered. "Keeping up the sneakiness, /Princess/?"
Zuko snorted. "If you had to deal with some of the nobles, you'd do the same thing."
"Nah. These days, I'd just boot 'em out of the throne room until they stopped lying through their teeth. Did the running away thing already." She drew herself up atop the wall, bare feet resting upon the capstone.
"You sure you don't want to come back to court, help me weed out the liars?" Zuko was getting better at hiding his emotions, but Toph could still hear the hope behind the words.
"Twinkletoes's no help?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Too much like his element, for all that he's the Avatar. 'If I just come at it from a different /angle/...'" His hand rose, as did his voice, in an imitation of Aang at his most Airbender. Toph felt some of his tension ease as she laughed at the likeness. "He'll never change."
***
Their easy cameraderie had sprung up as they'd grown up (or, as Toph admitted in her innermost thoughts, as /she'd/ grown up) mostly due to their shared practicality. She'd come back to the Fire Nation in the wake of her semi-disastrous reunion with her parents. She'd stayed there ever since, helping to rebuild with the Earth King's blessing to keep people from declaring her a traitor.
Her effect upon the Fire Nation nobility was a little less positive than her effect on helping assess the land.
***