eachdraidh | video, open to both courts (action if you are at the barrel)

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video, open to both courts (action if you are at the barrel)

[ Alice has been at the Barrel for a few weeks now. No one's asked her to cook and clean, but it's been a bit of an engraved habit brought over from her time in London. It's only through getting children's clothing and interacting with the nearby town that it's been plaguing the back of her mind. Unlike the last time she's popped on the lockets back in December, Alice looks healthier, but she is still pretty thin.

As usual. And as usual, her white rabbit is sitting there beside her, munching away at a bowl of food. She's not good at public speaking. ]

Hello.

These may be strange times to open a dialogue about this subject while both of our courts prepare for another skirmish. There are plenty of natives here of various ages who have been hit the most by war, especially children. I used to be the maidservant of an orphanage back in Whitechapel London.

[ Her face only flashes with a hint of pain when she mentions it. ]

Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth—if you heard of it. And the children there came from similar backgrounds, that they were all traumatized and lost family either by sickness, death, or murder. These children are often overlooked, sometimes they are swept up by those with ill intentions and treated even worse. But they are still children and they still have pieces of their innocence left.

I may not have the resources nor the... capacity right now to replicate that orphanage, but I still want to help the youngest natives here have the smallest comforts like food or clothing. I've only had a handful of opportunities in Redgate and the Station to make good on my word and clearly I need the additional hands.

In addition to natives being sent away from the path of war, I hope that there can be a way to provide resources for them or find them the appropriate care somewhere down the line. I know that it is silly to think of such a thing when all the adults in this world are preparing for battle, but they are so young and they deserve so much more while they are being guided to safety.

But if I were to oversee these things, I reserve the right to be very picky. The children I cared for weren't even spared from the cruelty of adults, even the proprietor of that orphanage.

Surely my friends will be thrilled if I focused my attention on children rather than them. I know they must tire of my nagging.

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I've never been there. [ obviously; anyone could tell zuko doesn't know what london is or what an ox ford is. if it isn't named after one of the four elements, zuko doesn't know. ]

[ but it doesn't mean he doesn't want to. ]

What was it like?

It isn't big as London, it's quieter. And in the spring, it's greener.

[ That is what she remembers the most when she thinks of Oxford. She remembers it being green, whereas London was brown and dirty. ]

Old, too. The buildings are old, but they're beautiful. We used to go to the creek not that far from my home and read.

[ the first thing he thinks of is the earth kingdom. green and old, but beautiful all the same. ]

The Fire Nation's like the summer. [ hot and dry, but still beautiful all the same. ] You'd probably like the Earth Kingdom. There's a lot of creeks and frogs — [ but he doesn't think it truly inspires reading, or even the calm he thinks she'd get from sitting by her creek. ] Even the old air temples of the airbenders. They're in ruins, but ... if you like old buildings, you might like it there. You'd like the Southern or Eastern Air Temples, if you like the colour green.

[ She takes in a breath. Hold up, there's only one problem- ]

Fire Nation?

It's where I'm from. [ and the fire lord was a piece of work, but she hasn't really inquired about him, so zuko holds off on his personal rant. ] There's four nations — the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Water Tribe. Some people can bend the element of the nation they were born in, like I can.

And does it live up to its name?

[ Because really, if there was ever a terrifying place to be, it certainly had to be this. ]

It isn't made of fire. It's made up of active volcanic islands, but it isn't like ... living on a volcano. [ except his great-grandfather had died when a volcano had erupted, the lava incapable of being stopped by him or his other great-grandfather. but zuko doesn't think to say. the lava hasn't flowed to encase his home. ] It's as warm as fire. And we wear red. But it isn't like the throne room.

It's ... nice. Sort of like when you're facing Mount Verla, you can see it in the far distance, but it's nice and humid where you are. [ before you approach and it burns you, causing even a boy used to the heat to sweat. ] That volcano is really hot.

[ She looks uncomfortable when he's just speaking so freely about it. A volcano means a lot of fire, doesn't it? That is what happened to places like Pompeii in the history books. A place filled with fire-

He didn't know, it's not his fault. The whole thing makes her nervous just talking about it. ]

Perhaps for you it sounds nice. To me, out sounds very frightening. I don't care for fire.

[ if it weren't for ran and shaw, he'd still perceive it like that. frightening. but fire isn't — the dragons had never wanted it to be frightening in the first place. ]

[ his voice is quiet, his expression softening in understanding. ] I know. [ the fire nation had wanted to be frightening. the fire nation had always wanted to be superior. it was a home that he had ultimately rejected, before ran and shaw — and his friends — had shown him to look at it differently. ] The people of my nation never used fire nicely.

[ There's a reason she doesn't ask about that scar -- she knows what it is. In truth, it's painful to look at him, sometimes. Yet out of the kindness of her heart, she overlooks it. ]

I lost my family in a fire and nearly my life. I was fortunate, most of the burns healed.

[ And thus her dislike of fire. ]

I'm sorry.

[ and he is; fire was never meant to be destructive, but he's seen it wipe out the airbenders. he'd gone to all four temples, observing the ruins, not feeling a lick of pride despite acting as though he had done it himself. being thirteen and too young to understand that the honour he sought was found within himself had lead him into dangerous waters instead of bubbling flames. but he'd seen what his father had done to the earth kingdom. the phoenix king, despite his title, would never rise again — and he was thankful for that. ]

I'm glad you're alright, at least. [ but now he understands the aversion to fire. he'd thought she simply didn't like how hot it was, like most people. zuko disliked it for how his father had tried to teach him a lesson, but instead of being afraid of what was inside of him, he had wanted to harness it. it was the fire of everyone else he was most afraid of. ] I've never really liked fire that much, either.

I must admit, it is a curious power.

[ She won't ask, it's not her place to ask. She doesn't want to know, sad to say, if he doesn't like fire. It means he has conquered that fear, if he is able to manipulate fire. There is no disdain in her voice as she speaks. ]

But I understand your sentiments.

[ all he wants to do is make her feel better — and maybe not speak of fire, as he doesn't doubt it makes it any easy on her when it had taken so much from her in the first place. ]

You'd probably like Toph. She can bend — manipulate the earth and metal. [ and that's far from fire, he thinks. maybe she'd find herself more comfortable there in the earth kingdom, far from the volcanoes and the flames from the throne room. but he becomes animated, a little more lively, than sad. ] She can even sense things before they approach. But she'd throw rocks at you. She threw a boulder at me once.

[ that probably isn't alice's style, so: ] But you'd probably like Katara, too. You wouldn't be sitting at your creek for long if she was there. She would probably bend the water and make a big wave to wet you with.

[ There is one thing she is wondering when she hears this. Just how anyone can do that in the first place, wouldn't it better left, as is? It's a small, childish thought and she is sure that Korra had mentioned a similar ability. By now, it's a vague memory since she's been here that long.]

But why manipulate those elements in the first place? What is the purpose of it?

[ zuko opens his mouth — ]

[ and he closes it. he doesn't really know the answer to that one. he hadn't learned that while in school — not the true answer, anyway. ]

I think Aang said something about a turtle lion. [ lion turtle. ] They were the first benders. They protected mankind — which is sort of what a bender is meant to do. But there's so many of us, I ... [ they lost themselves to their art, turning it against those who couldn't bend. at least, that's what the fire nation did. ] Our world is made up of those four elements. It's how we keep the balance.

It's how Toph sees. She's blind, but she can see with her bending. And Katara can heal with her waterbending. Aang stopped my father with his bending. [ why does he firebend? he was told to. but he does so to keep the world afloat. the fire nation may be poisonous, but fire is power and life, just like the sun warriors had said it was. the earth was a home; the air was what they breathed; and water could heal all wounds. it made sense to him, but he could never quite put it into words. ] There's always a purpose, we just have to find it.

[ Balance is unfathomable to someone like her, who has seen many things in such a short amount of time. Not everyone has the best intentions; those who seem that way sometimes are the most monstrous of all. ]

And what if someone possesses that ability and does not have the best intentions or if their desires are distorted?

[ She's just a little cuirious. ]

If they're a firebender, you take them to the Boiling Rock. They have freezers — you can't bend fire if you're almost ice yourself. And it's in a volcano — no one's broken out of the prison until Sokka and I did.

[ that's for prisoners, for people who can be arrested. his father? his father was someone who overrode the warden. he was untouchable, and he knew it. ]

[ it's clear zuko's discomforted by such a question. ]

[ his voice is softer, ] Or you take their bending away.

[ Alice, ever perceptive, sees it. She won't make a comment on it or asks about it further. The power to manipulate elements strikes her as very powerful, even if it sounds so commonplace where he is from. ]

That is rather unfortunate. [ It's her attempt to be compassionate. ] And even more unfortunate that those people exist. Then again, such is life.

Yeah ... [ it's awkward, not wishing to admit anything further. often, he finds himself easily cursing ozai as the worst father of the year, but sometimes he falls victim to remembering him as a man who very rarely showed a softer side toward him. mostly, though, it'd been to azula. ]

[ zuko finds it very unfortunate. if he could go back in time and change something about his life, he'd swap his father for his mother. due to ozai's hands, he's lost too much — but he has gained more than he can ever hope to possibly clutch to his chest on his own. ] But they can be stopped, which is better than nothing. Life doesn't have to be set in stone. You can easily smash it — like a hammer with a rock. [ or an earthbender. ] You just have to be strong enough to do so.

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