atoned | ( eachdraidh inbox )

[ be nice, korra said. check in on lord zuko, korra said. dont be an asshole, korra said. smh.

this is out of the blue, but. ]

Korra said Katara said you know about dragons.

[ being nice ☐ checking in on lord zuko ☒ not being an assole ☐

... whatever, he'll take it. ]

[ he squints for the longest time, trying to put a voice to a name or even a face ... katara doesn't know that many people, does she? she's not really that popular — ]

[ oh, wait. she is. it's a future kid. ]

Uh, yeah ... [ uncle had claimed to slew the last surviving dragon. that's a well-known story, isn't it? but if it's coming from katara — not his katara, but another katara. their katara, who isn't really his katara. she's the one who knows about ran and shaw and him having danced with dragons, but she's still his katara in some way if she knows that. but ... ] I met two with the Sun —

[ wasn't he promised death? yes. yes, lots of really angry and hurtful death. zuko may break his honour without really breaking his honour but he has never gone back on his word. and he doubts he would, even if he were twenty or thirty or however old these guys know him to be. the sun warriors are a secret. there's a long, long — ] Er. [ — before he just slaps himself out of it. of course they know his family had started burning them into extinction. ] Nothing.

My great-grandfather was responsible for beginning the tradition of hunting them. [ and he doesn't sound as though he condones it at all. ]

[ spirits are you a terrible liar. if if for years, kids in republic have been hearing rumors that lord zuko has a dragon, this would have... well maybe not clinched it but. dude. you're a terrible liar. ]

... Good thing you're not Azuwhoever, then.

[ mako pauses, fiddles with a pen in his fingers offscreen, trying to decide how to continue and not really caring that he's probably being rude and caustic. apart from korra wanting him to check in, he wants to see if zuko's be a potential unseelie contact when it comes to someone who doesn't want to kill his dragon, and well. this about clinches it. ]

But you probably had access to stuff written about them, right? Being a prince.

[ this is why azula always lies. she could tell mako she's a four hundred foot tall, purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings, using video, and he'd believe her. if zuko did that, he'd just laugh. ]

[ it comes automatically and a little absently, ] Azulon. Sozin started the tradition. [ and he's pretty sure azulon would've continued it, teaching ozai to exterminate while iroh chose a different path altogether. but he doesn't want to give a history lesson on his great-grandfather or grandfather, not when he's too fearful he'll follow in their footsteps and be a cruel fire lord, even if the kids from the future contradict such a notion with their claims of peace being restored. ]

Yeah. I read something Sozin wrote. It included some things about Fang, Avatar Roku's dragon. [ among other things, but that's probably the most significant of tomes he could ever hope to get his hands on. who else can say they've read the testament of the man who had hunted a species into extinction? he thinks he can count the number on one hand. but that isn't what mako's asking. ] What did you want to know?

Whatever. [ thankfully, unlike toph, mako can definitely see that she's not, and he's the suspicious sort that wouldn't want to tangle with what she said when he can go and find cold hard facts. you can learn from him, zuko! ]

Anything useful. What they ate, how they fight, their weaknesses. If Roku's could do anything special because it was his animal guide. Stuff like that.

[ WOW so much for... subtlety. ]

They were ins — [ zuko stops. one: it'd be best if he actually wrote this down so he wouldn't leave anything out. two: this is all very specific. and while zuko may not be as sharp as azula to know when he's being played, or simply milked for information because he's such an upstanding guy, he can put two and two together in the nick of time sometimes. ]

[ there's a pause as zuko remembers a man on the locket informing him that, yes, he had lived under a rock since raonil and had unfortunately missed the opportunity to see a dragon before it had perished. it's the only hint of a dragon's presence he's had since he had arrived in drabwurld. does mako not know? ] ... Why do you want to know? The dragon at Redgate perished.

Most of the Shardbearers here, Seelie included, aren't too keen on the idea of them. You've basically said as much that you're not one of them.

[ we coud jsut... show him rizhao but he's not too crazy right now knowing how zuko can't apparently keep his mouth shut... ]

It's imperative that I learn as much about them as I can.

[ oh my god mako just make him swear on his honor he won't tell. ]

[ everyone's got their own things to do in this place, ways to keep busy, quests the queen(s) have sent them on. sometimes, the distraction is something as simple as helping friends find their way around the map, introducing them to new technology or even celebrating the chance to know them. korra knows she should have checked in with zuko sooner — all the distractions in the world can't dismiss this thought from her mind. since she's the avatar and it's her job to keep balance in her world, she's taking that to mean she should keep an eye on all the benders (and non-benders that she knows) brought here.

mako checked in a few days ago. now it's korra's turn. ]

Uhhh, heeeey, Fire Lord! [ um ] Zuko. It's Korra. [ uhhHHHHh ] I wanted to check in, see how you were, maybe um... ask if you were up to anything soon? Some friends and I are going traveling, and I wanted to know if you'd like to join us.

[ despite what he's about to say, zuko's getting the sneaky suspicion the dragon of redgate hadn't been the only dragon in drabwurld. maybe his locket friend had just wanted to mention the one that had met an unfortunate and cruel fate. but considering how he hasn't heard a word about them, creatures that he thinks are majestic in their own right and deserve to be spoken of in high praise, especially the masters, even though he has been sworn to secrecy, he doubts they exist in a world that's unfortunate to be without them. ]

Why? [ even though it's not evident in his tone or perhaps even in his own words, he's happy to do it. writing down what he knows beats poking around at the boxes with letters on a rectangle, or even trying to watch the square with images. apparently it's an offense to burn them when he becomes super frustrated at the manner they squeak at him. ] There are no other dragons here. Unless this is for ... uh ... the Republic City? [ did he remember that right? ]

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?

... You'll have to swear to secrecy, on your honor.

[ if you knew him better zuko, you'd know this was mako's "i'm going to write you a citation for snoring too loud and being a noise disturbance, bolin" police officer tone of voice. it sounds like serious, but... at the same time, you can tell he's being a little sarcastic on the edges. ]

[ aaaand it just so happens that korra hears the conversation at that exact moment.

and she knows mako's sarcastic tone.

and she doesn't appreciate it.

don't worry girlfriend she's got ur back, she's just gonna go ahead and knock some sense into mako. literally. by rapping her knuckles on the back of his head. ]

[ there's a short sharp ow from mako and an alarmed trill as the locket is fumbled, and the video clicks on. ]

Spirits —

[ mako is looking over his shoulder and massaging the back of his head irritably, with korra standing there glaring at hi like a prison warden to make sure he's done being salty and rude. on mako's shoulder, worriedly rubbing her nose into his hair, is a small jade serpentine creature with a golden mane trilling slightly in alarm.

das right, zuzu, that's a dragon. ]

[ honour doesn't necessarily have the same punch here, not when he's without it. his unseelie honour is in jeopardy, that much he knows. but where the sarcastic tone is a little lost on him, as he doesn't know mako from ursa, the knuckles rapping sharply on the back of mako's head tunes him in that he shouldn't really swear to anything on his honour in this moment. ]

[ even though he's prepared to, mouth open to do so, but it shuts just as promptly as the locket seems to switch from audio to a nice visual. ]

[ he's quiet for a long moment, as though his locket has switched off when he had merely pressed his fingers against the charred surface. but he needs a moment to take in what he sees, for he's only been able to touch a dragon twice in his life — one in reality and another in a dream. but his voice sounds a little far away, definitely filled with disbelief, ] ... You have a dragon. [ even though he's seen two large ones, ran and shaw, it still winds him to see what many within the world will never be privy to. the dragon on his shoulder is smaller than the masters, neither blue nor red nor menacing upon approach, but it's still a dragon. ]

[ mako's specific requests make a little more sense now. ]

[ zuko doesn't shift to video, only because his locket would malfunction if he did. ]

[ 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. ]

Edited 2014-09-29 02:25 (UTC)

[ 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?

[ GOOD DAY, SENPAI-STARSHINE..... this message is probably kind of an accident. Mostly in that Bolin was gunning to make a whole network post about it but somehow failed. But that's fine!!! Whatever!!! It's the spirit of the sharing that really counts, and he's really hyped to be sharing this boon with any and all takers. This is like the nicest thing that's happened in forever. (He'll still be embarrassed. What can you do, though. That's life.)

First and foremost, it bears an attached image of....... an image. Like what a super-rad picture hell yeah picturing it all up. Possibly not as high-quality as a face-to-face showing would be, but that's the drawback of locket stuff anyway. ]

So handsome family or handsome family, am I right?

[ zuko's really confused about this entire message. it's clear to him he hadn't been the intended recipient; he can't recognise anyone in this photograph, nor can he really recognise the voice without the face, as the expressions bolin dons are ones to remember. ]

[ but he takes a few moments, anyway. whoever sent him this message clearly is very proud of this photograph. the family is handsome, even if he can't quite name the people in it. and it reminds him of the photographs he had burned on embers island. he shouldn't have done it; those were memories he'll never be able to relive, but he could always remember them fondly. it would be nice to gather everyone around the fire and tell them stories about ozai being a father, before he had turned into the fatherlord, and becoming lost in what he remembered of his mother, or even the moments where he and azula had gotten along like a house on fire. he had robbed himself of that. ]

... Who is this? [ if he knew bolin a little better, he'd recognise him from those thick eyebrows. ]

[ oh, right. he's sort of robbing him of his happy moment. while he's still uncertain as to who this is, those thick eyebrows having not clued him in, his tone does sound a little warmer, if quieter. ]

They do make a handsome family.

Thank you. I thought so, too.

It's Bolin, by the way. And yyy-- oh. [ You are not coming in from the network. Hm. Not as planned. Also you're lORD ZUKO.....no...... ]

Uhhhhhm.

[ ... well at least he agreed. That's awesome! ]

Man, wow, sorry about that! Kind of a misfire. Not that you aren't supposed to see it or anything, but I was aiming it more for... everyone. All the lockets. Big ol' whole world perimeter. 'cause I mean, personal messages to everyone is a lot of work. But- no, yeah, this is fine! Bolin, like I said. Guy from home you haven't technically met. [ Smooth, nailing it. ]

[ zuko remains unperturbed, but he is a little grateful someone else gets trolled by their locket. it's not just him! but that's not the point to this call, so zuko keeps that little thought to himself for now. ]

[ it's evident in his tone he's smiling, ] Hi Bolin. [ zuko sounds happy to hear from him. he's a little strange, if a little too energetic for someone as mellow as zuko. he's always happy, something zuko isn't, and he seems pretty optimistic, too. he's certain if bolin could be a bender of anything, it'd be a sunbender. he seems pretty keen on putting the sun in its place. but he likes him all the same. bolin kind of reminds him of sokka, sans the meat and eating obsession. ]

Is that a photo of your family? [ it's kind of easy to surmise, what with bolin calling them handsome and him wanting to share it with everyone. but it's a tiny bit of manipulation to hear bolin go on about them again with his bright, happy tone. at least someone can speak of their family with words as warm as the sun. ]

... hi. [ Zuko has noticed him...! And he heard a definite go-ahead to continue wording. Pabu as his witness, and Pabu will testify in a court of law. ]

Yeah, that's us! Mom, dad, Mako and me. Or us like. Twelve years ago? [ Something like that. He can't say he's got a strong memory of the day itself. Childhood memories tend to split off into general Before and After categories, and there's a lot more crowding in After than he has in Before. ] I mean, Mako and I have definitely put on a little height since then! Even if our hair is almost eerily similar.

( eachdraidh inbox )

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9/25; audio; zuko you sappy old man