watermarks | Awful AU

In this AU, when Kya instructed the young Katara to run, she instead attempted to strike out at the man who was threatening her mother with her amateur and extremely ineffective waterbending. This provided Yon Rha with the answer her sought: The Southern Watertribe’s Last Waterbender, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to burn her to a crisp. Instead, he followed the tradition to bring her back to the Fire Nation to be imprisoned for the rest of her life.

Of course, her mother and father wouldn't let her go without a fight. Katara's not sure what happened to them, and the rest of their village, but there was a lot of fire, and her mom hit her head... it looked like the last thing she saw was her mom getting up and reaching for her... but there was smoke, and she isn't sure.

Being an insecure and pathetic man, while keeping her captive on his ship, Yon Rha was affected by the grumbling of his men and set out trying to prove that the young girl was a waterbender. This was accomplished, or an attempted to be accomplished, by ‘practicing’ and ‘playing’ with her – activities which resulted in Katara being burned in various degrees of severity from her hair to her toes, in patches as she tried to get out of the way of the fire he would send in her direction.

She didn’t bend at him, though. Not once. Because she’d figured out by this point that if she wasn’t a bender, maybe she’d get to go home. So she endured the flames, and the mocking which often reduced her to tears about the inferiority of her bending and her general worthlessness.

Maybe she would have pulled it off, and not been imprisoned, or killed, or… something, but then she was taken in front of Fire Lord Ozai. And the things he said there, the things she heard – suddenly everything crystallized in her mind that it was this man’s fault. Beaten and half-starved, she attempted to attack him. It was pathetic, and laughable, and intrigued the Fire Lord.

He thought perhaps by breaking her, he would have a useful tool, and sent her to be imprisoned in the traditional manner of waterbenders. This is where Katara stayed, in a cage, in a huge room, all alone, suspended and bound when fed water…

…until the second night of the full moon.

Timeline/Appearance:
Katara is taken when still on the ship, just before landing in the Fire Nation. Her physical appearance is considerably thinner than in her icons, because the captain is a bastard and didn’t feed her well. Her hair is also singed off in a streak at her left side, and that ear is burnt as well. Other burns are on places not readily apparent – arms, chest, hips, legs, back. Her back, actually, is the worst of it. They are not necessarily scarring burns, if treated properly, but some of them are blistering, and some of those blisters have started to fester, since she wasn’t given anything to keep them clean. Around her wrists the skin is all rubbed raw from being harshly tied together.

Her healing will be ineffectual, since it only activated once she’d actually started some training.