4 ☼ VIDEO / UNSEELIE

[atoned]

[ if you know zuko, his hair is always hanging in his eyes. pulling his bangs up, it's almost as if he's run a hair straightener through it to keep it raised above his head before it thinks to deflate and droop down over his scar. he's as exasperated as he feels, as defeated as he's always been; a little girl with short, dark hair and red feathers braided into it sits beside him in a red coat, threading together blades of grass. ]

[ with his knees pulled up to his chest, zuko holds his hands out, fingers curling into fists, as his voice is a little sharp and exasperated despite his attempts to calm down. his communicator happens to be leaning against a rock in the grass. he's thought this over pretty well. ]

Ugh! [ he almost smacks his forehead. almost. his knuckles turn white for a moment. ] How do you talk to animals? All they do is eat your food and grumble!

[ the little girl beside him laughs, a tinkling sort of sound, as she continues to thread her grass together. sokka leaving has left a rather big void in zuko's life. he's had to turn to his dragon to brainstorm things sokka would readily help him with — and druk sucks at brainstorming. (zuko thinks he's pretty selfish; he's run out of apples to feed him.) ]

Comments

[chaoticwhimsy]

Just talk to them. They'll figure out what you mean.

[Lumina treats animals like they're just people who don't talk back.]

[atoned]

[ zuko's been treating his dragon like he's a person who will talk back. maybe that's the problem — zuko's so used to people back talking him that he doesn't know what to do when one simply cocks his head and breathes smoke toward him. ]

How do you know? [ zuko throws his hands out, as if he's trying to weigh it within his palms. ] Sometimes people don't make sense when they talk to me! [ his uncle, for one, even though he suspects uncle doesn't make sense most of the time to people who aren't directly related to him. his voice becomes slightly stressed, cracking a little, ] What if he doesn't get what I'm saying?

[chaoticwhimsy]

Then try again until he does?

[This isn't that hard.]

Point too. Pointing helps.

[atoned]

[ zuko lets his arms hang over his knees. it's like his entire being deflates. he thinks he's done that. he's repeated things over and over — his voice going from soft to incredibly loud as he grows more exasperated by the second — and waved his hands around comically, but maybe he needs to point his fingers properly. he's seen some of the villagers teach their small dogs how to sit, telling them home is where they point their finger. maybe that's what he needs to try with druk. ]

Does pointing and repeating things help you?

[ jia doesn't lift her head from where she's threading long grass blades together when she suggests, ] Maybe you should speak like him. Meow, meow, meow.

[ he rolls his eyes and sighs, ] That's stupid.

[chaoticwhimsy]

Sometimes with the chocobos. Other times they just do whatever they want.

[Lumina mostly left the training to her stablehands. She just made sure the chocobos always listened to her once they learned something.]

...Meow?

[atoned]

[ that sounds like druk to him. zuko's about to open his mouth, but jia seems to burn so brightly the moment lumina says meow right back to her. ] Meow! [ without sparing a glance to zuko, she tosses her grass blades at him. ] What's a chocobo?

[ zuko wipes the grass from his face, a blade or two remains sitting on the top of his head. plainly: ] It's a creature that doesn't like annoying little girls. Isn't that right, Lumina?

[chaoticwhimsy]

[She giggles at that, covering her mouth with her hand, and then smirks at Zuko.]

I don't know, I mean, chocobos like me and I know what people say behind my back.

[She didn't mind. Being annoying was fun. And then to Jia.]

They're really big birds you can ride. Like horses but so much better.

[atoned]

You're not as annoying.

[ lumina's meant to be on his side. he's found that, like a lot of people, she's team jia instead of zuko. ]

And they don't like little girls.

[ jia pokes out her tongue at him. ]

They sound cool. Do they answer you when you talk to them?