[ here's the dream team, harrow and zuko.... they've stepped through one of the doors, and predictably, there's no exit! just... a greyscale world. the clock has stopped. they seem to be stranded here. ]
What is this place? It looks... dead.
[ he has no weapons with him, but he's got his hands at his side tensely, in case anything attacks. ]
[harrow hardly gets far on monday. she can stay in her room, but eventually even she will find the need to come out to eat. she goes to the restaurant and has breakfast and coffee brought to her. but before she can return to her room, she runs into zuko.
[God and the Emperor are the same person sorry if that was unclear I copy pasted from the books without doing a whole lot of rewriting.]
...Well, no, of course not. [she chews her lip, though, obviously a bit troubled and defensive about this question, because yes, he absolutely is just looking the other way the whole time.] He simply can't control the Saint of Duty, necessarily.
[ he doesn't know her well enough to argue, but he's been in the situation of blaming himself for being treated like garbage and lashing out, and. ]
... Are you sure? You don't seem that frail to me. And I don't believe you can do anything to deserve having to go without sleep for days because some ... saint, or whatever is trying to murder you.
I've.... kind of been in... a situation like that, so....
My family's pretty messed up. I'm pretty sure a memory showing that is going to pop out of stardust or whatever, soon, so....
[ he's right but i'm waiting for the right dramatique timing ]
... All my dad cares about is power. My little sister's the same. We were basically.... pitted against each other ever since we both learned firebending. [ a beat. ] It's... like your thing with bones, but fire. [ thanks zuko ]
My sister's a born prodigy, and a lot like him. I could never measure up, and..... well, I spent years chasing after my father's love. [ he points at his scar. ] He's the one who did this, when I was a kid. [ he's 16 ] He also banished me for talking out of turn. For three years, I was obsessed with pleasing him, thinking it was my honor that I wanted. I was angry, and I lashed out at everyone, including the one person who did love me. But the real person I was angry at was myself. Deep down, I felt like it was my fault, for not being good enough, strong enough. That if only I could prove I was the son he wanted to be, he'd finally accept me.
But that wasn't the reality. The reality was that he's just a cruel and horrible person, that he never cared in the first place, and I didn't deserve to be treated that way.
[oh. she listens, sympathetic, her face complicated but a bit softer than it usually was.]
I'm sorry. [she means it genuinely.] I never had a sibling, but I think... [she swallows slightly.] I understand a little what you mean. [she chews on her lip.]
My parents were awful people, too, really. I was a prodigy, the daughter they had always wanted, so they treated me well. They were abhorrent to Gideon. She was an orphan, but the only other child in the House my age growing up. She always thought it had to do with her, but she was just a persistent reminder of their own regrets and shortcomings, and they took it out on her brutally. And I became a monster just as they were, treating her and everyone else cruelly and as though they were beneath me, knowing all along how conditional my parents' affection for me was; that I would have had no use to them if I was not the perfect heir.
[so the truth is harrow is azula coded as much as she is mei coded.]
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week 0; saturday 0
What do you imagine is meant to go here?
no subject
Maybe rewards once we start doing stupid tasks.
[ zuko is also checking things out..... not that he's meant to see. ]
Or real clothes.
no subject
no subject
[ he finds everything objectionable!!! ] At least you can move your legs.
no subject
[lifting up the hem of her dress just enough to show the heeled shoes she's wearing.]
I beg to differ.
no subject
[ ok she got him there....... he stares at the shoes, trying to figure out how anyone is supposed to walk in those ]
Those.... look painful. Sorry.
no subject
[picking up a set of boots that have annoying monograms on them.]
no subject
[ makes a face at the monograms. if only he could burn them off. ]
Maybe next week there'll be costumes.
week 0; sunday
Come sit.
no subject
Hello.
[ zuko here.... ]
no subject
[wow she just wants to talk. but yeah, she is mean.]
I'm not planning to bite you. I would know your thoughts.
no subject
It's not like I wanted to show up shirtless. [ i, sipp, just thought it would be fun to humiliate him again. ]
On that excuse for an execution? Or the fact that apparently our hostages will be safe if we start killing? Or everything else?
no subject
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I don't know if I can trust the hostages will be safe if we kill. But.... there's probably people desperate enough to go through with it.
week 1, wednesday
What is this place? It looks... dead.
[ he has no weapons with him, but he's got his hands at his side tensely, in case anything attacks. ]
Re: week 1, wednesday
...I'm not sure, but let's be very careful.
no subject
... Stay close.
[ but there's a beat, because he has to ask. ]
Uh. Did you lose a bet?
week 3; monday
and a memory will play.]
no subject
[ well, not the murder attempts. not the clear favoritism. that part is familiar. he'd certainly gone days without sleeping as well. ]
[ but god, saints, taking out a piece of your own bone for a murder attempt? that part he cannot grasp. ]
Uh....
[ well, maybe it isn't so strange. she does do.... bone.. magic..... bone bending? ]
Why was that guy constantly trying to kill you?
[ are they siblings? ]
no subject
Who knows. I suppose he decided I was, in some way, a threat to the Emperor. Why he thinks so, I have no notion whatsoever.
no subject
I don't know who this emperor is, but.... I figure, if you were going to hurt someone, you wouldn't beat around the bush.
...
So that other guy, the god.... he's just looking the other way the whole time this is happening?
no subject
...Well, no, of course not. [she chews her lip, though, obviously a bit troubled and defensive about this question, because yes, he absolutely is just looking the other way the whole time.] He simply can't control the Saint of Duty, necessarily.
no subject
[ it's okay, zuko gets it. it took him a long time to accept his dad was shitty. maybe it's like this. ]
... You still shouldn't be treated that way.
[ he wants to make sure she knows that. ]
no subject
It's complicated. I wish he would intervene, but it is ultimately my own frailties that caused this situation.
no subject
... Are you sure? You don't seem that frail to me. And I don't believe you can do anything to deserve having to go without sleep for days because some ... saint, or whatever is trying to murder you.
I've.... kind of been in... a situation like that, so....
no subject
You have, have you? [in a way they all have, but she suspects that isn't what he means.] Tell me.
no subject
[ he's right but i'm waiting for the right dramatique timing ]
... All my dad cares about is power. My little sister's the same. We were basically.... pitted against each other ever since we both learned firebending. [ a beat. ] It's... like your thing with bones, but fire. [ thanks zuko ]
My sister's a born prodigy, and a lot like him. I could never measure up, and..... well, I spent years chasing after my father's love. [ he points at his scar. ] He's the one who did this, when I was a kid. [ he's 16 ] He also banished me for talking out of turn. For three years, I was obsessed with pleasing him, thinking it was my honor that I wanted. I was angry, and I lashed out at everyone, including the one person who did love me. But the real person I was angry at was myself. Deep down, I felt like it was my fault, for not being good enough, strong enough. That if only I could prove I was the son he wanted to be, he'd finally accept me.
But that wasn't the reality. The reality was that he's just a cruel and horrible person, that he never cared in the first place, and I didn't deserve to be treated that way.
no subject
I'm sorry. [she means it genuinely.] I never had a sibling, but I think... [she swallows slightly.] I understand a little what you mean. [she chews on her lip.]
My parents were awful people, too, really. I was a prodigy, the daughter they had always wanted, so they treated me well. They were abhorrent to Gideon. She was an orphan, but the only other child in the House my age growing up. She always thought it had to do with her, but she was just a persistent reminder of their own regrets and shortcomings, and they took it out on her brutally. And I became a monster just as they were, treating her and everyone else cruelly and as though they were beneath me, knowing all along how conditional my parents' affection for me was; that I would have had no use to them if I was not the perfect heir.
[so the truth is harrow is azula coded as much as she is mei coded.]