It's just Zuko. [ it's the first thing he says right off the bat. it's still a little awkward to be called fire lord rather than prince. even though ozai would tell him he needs to man up and accept the title, wear it with pride, and see to it those who don't recognise it are dealt with swiftly, zuko opts to follow his gut, as iroh would say in many confusing words, and try and not place himself above others. it's a title of respect, but zuko still hasn't done anything worthy to earn it. he says it warmly, ] Hi, Korra.
Uh. [ does he have any plans? not really. he has a little quest he must do in order to restore his honour, but he doubts that's really a concern of korra's, her wanting to know he's fucked up big time in his own court. ] I was going to go back to Caer Scima with Toph. [ he pauses for a moment, tone clearly uncertain, ] Isn't it against the rules I travel with you?
[ it feels... weird, just calling the fire lord "zuko," because when she was a young girl it was impressed upon her that even though she was the avatar and special, she still had to listen and help the leaders of the world. she had to respect fire lord zuko and everything he helped aang accomplish. since she was next in line, since she was so special, she had to take care and remember the title whenever zuko was around.
it's not difficult to wrap her head around the idea of meeting figures from the past, nor is it a hard concept to understand, people showing up from different time periods. and yet, it throws her, talking to the fire lord when he's no older than she remembered "prince" zuko was.
thankfully, he offers up a subject she can cling to with wide eyes and bright voice: ] Toph's welcome too! [ she knows how often people get separated from their groups here in the drabwurld, so she didn't want to make any assumptions about the state of zuko's traveling party. ] Even if it's against the rules — who cares? We're just going to explore the place and see what's interesting.
[ okay, that's a bald-faced lie if only because it's not her truth to tell. this is cassie's quest and while it is true that they might spend a lot of time just flying around looking at landmarks and towns, they're also searching for something very important. ]
[ who cares? aren't people meant to care? then again, he's the fire nation prince who befriended the avatar his father wished to kill, threw himself in front of a bolt of lightning to save katara, and even got himself locked up in boiling rock for sokka. azula calls them peasants, people who are beneath the likes of the fire nation royal family. but zuko's never quite seen it that way, not when he'd been hunting the avatar for his honour, not to kill him or strip him from the world, his intentions always good, if completely and utterly misguided by how he'd always failed, by his own subconscious trying to guide him down the right path or his own impulsive recklessness tripping him over. ozai may remind him he had been lucky to be born, but zuko thinks he was fortunate enough to be born backwards and inside out. he's all wrong for the fire nation; maybe that's why these kids from the future speak so highly of him. ]
[ drabwurld isn't home, though. he's still learning the rules — ones eerily familiar to the guidelines he had to abide by from ozai — and he's afraid of misstepping and getting toph hurt. he's fearful of seeing to it his new seelie allies end up at the brunt of the unseelie's anger. but what would he do if toph had been thrown into seelie? what would he do if aang, katara, and sokka happened to be here and thrown into seelie? what about mai? there's no doubt in his mind he would burn the rules to embers and see to it he stands by their sides within this war. he'd be on the first sky bison over to that court and stay there, even if it meant his own court damned him as a traitor (a title he's worn for a good few years) and he received no boons from there on in, it wouldn't matter to him as they're family. there's really no difference with bolin, korra, and mako, is there? he just doesn't know them yet. ]
[ katara knows them; that's good enough for him. ]
Where are we going? [ he hasn't accepted or declined her offer, or even asked toph yet — and the last time he had signed her up for a trip had almost ended with their shards removed from their chests — but he acts as though he has, anyway. she's from home; it's tempting to say no, but it's best he hears her out, even if he has his own little dirt road he must travel alongside this, if he even says yes. ]
[ people are supposed to care, yes — that's the whole point of this place, of the war. at the moment, however, korra's having none of it. all she wants to do is protect her friends, both from home and the ones she's made here. she wants to protect her home, and she refuses to let anyone monarch or otherwise force her hand into something she's not entirely prepared to do.]
unalaq may have trained her for selfish reasons but he also taught her a lot of good, and through the fires of her own civil war has korra learned to try and remain neutral until the last possible moment. when the war ramps up — if it ramps up — she'll do what she can for the seelie side and she knows she's a walking weapon, trained almost from birth to be the best in the world. if there's one thing she has faith in it's her own destructive power; she knows she can wreck the unseelie side without ever actually trying.
part of her wants to find out if she can bring zuko to her side, to the side where honor prevails and rules over the court, and even she knows she can't push that. it will take time. it will take patience. but if she can do anything to protect her friends both present and past, she'll do it.
besides, korra's always been one for breaking rules and there's a voice deep down inside that says if she wasn't part light spirit she would have ended up on the northern end of this whole war. ]
Just... around. [ she shrugs, and the shift of fabric is heard. ] I figure it would be a good idea to get a better handle on our terrain so we're not flying blindly into anything else we're assigned. There are other towns and people out there; I'd love to see what else this place has to offer.
[ it's not an untruth — it's just not the full truth. ]
[ just around is good enough for him. after his trip with raonil and the champions morla had accepted into her fold, he's begun to realise this world is very unlike the one from home. he'd spent three long years travelling it, covering every corner of it until he had become bored walking in circles. here, he knows nothing. he doesn't know where to find the best leafs for tea, he's without the knowledge of which direction will lead him to the ruins of the air kingdom, nor does he even know where the train is for him to take back into the earth kingdom. he doesn't even know what the seelie side looks like! anything he imagines seems to be contradicted with anything he happens to read before he scampers off to practice his bending techniques with toph or prank a few imps and fairies who linger around. he's the kind of guy who likes to know what the chessboard he's playing on looks like — to go from being able to plot paths on how to locate the avatar best to walking into trees here leaves him feeling as winded as being knocked back by a great big ball of water sent toward him from katara's hands. ]
[ but despite feeling a little unlike himself, it's something else entirely that leaves him with the desire to itch at his skin until he reveals the muscle beneath. it's fortunate this call is audio, as zuko's face falls at the acknowledgement of assignments. his will always be different — if morla is to ever trust him again — while korra's will always be the opposite to his. she may not care he's on the other side, but zuko does wonder why she's inviting him when he's the alleged enemy. isn't that giving him an advantage? the gaang had accepted him into their fold despite being the targets of many of his attacks, but he knows, even if they'll deny it now, they had expected him to play turncoat once again and reveal their secrets to the previous fire lord. doesn't korra fear the same? he'd lingered in the earth kingdom, wanting to switch sides when katara had almost healed his scar, but he'd been swayed beneath the strong hand of azula. ]
I didn't realise how big this world was until last month. I travelled only a quarter of the map, maybe even less than that. I've been as far as the Station. [ when he looks at his map, it isn't very far at all. he's the one the gaang had looked to when they'd lost aang; he's the tracker, yet he can't track anything in drabwurld. ] I didn't ... really see anyone else. [ aside from reynard, who doesn't particularly count as a person to zuko, if he looks at it in black and white. ] Is there anyone else? All I know is dwarves are somewhere nearby, and I'm not even sure if they're really shardholders.
[ he doesn't really want to say it. biting the hand that feeds so soon isn't what he wants to do, but has she thought this through? it doesn't surprise him word had gotten back to caer scima of him fleeing the moment things had turned sour with reynard, but he doesn't particularly want his presence to inflict the same ordeal to befall his newly found friends. ] Are you sure you want me to come?
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voice.
Uh. [ does he have any plans? not really. he has a little quest he must do in order to restore his honour, but he doubts that's really a concern of korra's, her wanting to know he's fucked up big time in his own court. ] I was going to go back to Caer Scima with Toph. [ he pauses for a moment, tone clearly uncertain, ] Isn't it against the rules I travel with you?
voice.
it's not difficult to wrap her head around the idea of meeting figures from the past, nor is it a hard concept to understand, people showing up from different time periods. and yet, it throws her, talking to the fire lord when he's no older than she remembered "prince" zuko was.
thankfully, he offers up a subject she can cling to with wide eyes and bright voice: ] Toph's welcome too! [ she knows how often people get separated from their groups here in the drabwurld, so she didn't want to make any assumptions about the state of zuko's traveling party. ] Even if it's against the rules — who cares? We're just going to explore the place and see what's interesting.
[ okay, that's a bald-faced lie if only because it's not her truth to tell. this is cassie's quest and while it is true that they might spend a lot of time just flying around looking at landmarks and towns, they're also searching for something very important. ]
voice.
[ drabwurld isn't home, though. he's still learning the rules — ones eerily familiar to the guidelines he had to abide by from ozai — and he's afraid of misstepping and getting toph hurt. he's fearful of seeing to it his new seelie allies end up at the brunt of the unseelie's anger. but what would he do if toph had been thrown into seelie? what would he do if aang, katara, and sokka happened to be here and thrown into seelie? what about mai? there's no doubt in his mind he would burn the rules to embers and see to it he stands by their sides within this war. he'd be on the first sky bison over to that court and stay there, even if it meant his own court damned him as a traitor (a title he's worn for a good few years) and he received no boons from there on in, it wouldn't matter to him as they're family. there's really no difference with bolin, korra, and mako, is there? he just doesn't know them yet. ]
[ katara knows them; that's good enough for him. ]
Where are we going? [ he hasn't accepted or declined her offer, or even asked toph yet — and the last time he had signed her up for a trip had almost ended with their shards removed from their chests — but he acts as though he has, anyway. she's from home; it's tempting to say no, but it's best he hears her out, even if he has his own little dirt road he must travel alongside this, if he even says yes. ]
voice.
unalaq may have trained her for selfish reasons but he also taught her a lot of good, and through the fires of her own civil war has korra learned to try and remain neutral until the last possible moment. when the war ramps up — if it ramps up — she'll do what she can for the seelie side and she knows she's a walking weapon, trained almost from birth to be the best in the world. if there's one thing she has faith in it's her own destructive power; she knows she can wreck the unseelie side without ever actually trying.
part of her wants to find out if she can bring zuko to her side, to the side where honor prevails and rules over the court, and even she knows she can't push that. it will take time. it will take patience. but if she can do anything to protect her friends both present and past, she'll do it.
besides, korra's always been one for breaking rules and there's a voice deep down inside that says if she wasn't part light spirit she would have ended up on the northern end of this whole war. ]
Just... around. [ she shrugs, and the shift of fabric is heard. ] I figure it would be a good idea to get a better handle on our terrain so we're not flying blindly into anything else we're assigned. There are other towns and people out there; I'd love to see what else this place has to offer.
[ it's not an untruth — it's just not the full truth. ]
voice.
[ but despite feeling a little unlike himself, it's something else entirely that leaves him with the desire to itch at his skin until he reveals the muscle beneath. it's fortunate this call is audio, as zuko's face falls at the acknowledgement of assignments. his will always be different — if morla is to ever trust him again — while korra's will always be the opposite to his. she may not care he's on the other side, but zuko does wonder why she's inviting him when he's the alleged enemy. isn't that giving him an advantage? the gaang had accepted him into their fold despite being the targets of many of his attacks, but he knows, even if they'll deny it now, they had expected him to play turncoat once again and reveal their secrets to the previous fire lord. doesn't korra fear the same? he'd lingered in the earth kingdom, wanting to switch sides when katara had almost healed his scar, but he'd been swayed beneath the strong hand of azula. ]
I didn't realise how big this world was until last month. I travelled only a quarter of the map, maybe even less than that. I've been as far as the Station. [ when he looks at his map, it isn't very far at all. he's the one the gaang had looked to when they'd lost aang; he's the tracker, yet he can't track anything in drabwurld. ] I didn't ... really see anyone else. [ aside from reynard, who doesn't particularly count as a person to zuko, if he looks at it in black and white. ] Is there anyone else? All I know is dwarves are somewhere nearby, and I'm not even sure if they're really shardholders.
[ he doesn't really want to say it. biting the hand that feeds so soon isn't what he wants to do, but has she thought this through? it doesn't surprise him word had gotten back to caer scima of him fleeing the moment things had turned sour with reynard, but he doesn't particularly want his presence to inflict the same ordeal to befall his newly found friends. ] Are you sure you want me to come?