Never getting his honor restored

[honorthenreason]

Don't act like putting me anywhere is getting me out of that prison of a city. You wouldn't be doing me any favors; I'd just end up in a different city that's trying to squeeze the last drop of happiness out of me.

It doesn't matter where you put me, anyway—I won't be able to go home either way.

Comments

[tinfoil_angel]

You have to take joy in the simple things and no matter how much you may think you don't need it, rely on your friends.

[honorthenreason]

I don't exactly have anyone I could call a friend.

And how is it you older people are always able to find "joy" in simple things? It doesn't work that way for people my age. My brain isn't wired to think "Hey, I should enjoy this cup of tea because I might not wake up tomorrow!"

[tinfoil_angel]

I'm not that old. I'm in my twenties.

And by simple things I mean a hobby. I like gardening, some of my friends prefer building machines.

Also, you're saying you don't have a friend but what about that girl talking to you?

[honorthenreason]

[ To him, that's olllld. Though he -is- a little younger than he thought. ]

I'm not someone who does well with hobbies. At least, I've never found anything that seems... fun.

[ That girl? That girl doesn't even know his real name. Everything she knows about him is a lie. He can't have a friendship based on lies. ]

She's not my friend. And she's not my girlfriend either. She's just a regular customer at the tea shop I work at.

[tinfoil_angel]

Then you need to look around a little, you have to like something.

[Granted some of his friends had...interesting hobbies.]

She might not know that your name is Zuko and that your father is the fire lord but do you hide your personality from her? Everything else is superfluous in most cases.

[Really can't keep secrets from a mind-reader Zuko, and he isn't going to tip-toe around the issue.]

[honorthenreason]

How did you—how did you find out?! Who told you?!

[ He doesn't even stop to think that maybe he shouldn't say anything at all. Not that it would have helped. That was too accurate of a guess to be random. ]

[tinfoil_angel]

Your mind is, that is to say I can read you like an open book. Consider it mind-bending if you must.

[honorthenreason]

Great. I guess I should start getting used to the idea of an actual prison cell instead of a city that mimics one.

[ He doesn't buy it as actual mind reading. More like Azula's level of people person-ing. And it's not like he's -that- hard to read, anyway. He just doesn't know actual mind readers exist. ]

If you know who my father is, then I'm sure you'd be happy to collect the reward he has on my head.

[tinfoil_angel]

No. Your father is a tyrant, the sort of man that tried to have me killed or captured.

[He decided to explain.]

You see Zuko, My friends and I are similar to the Avatar in some ways except no one knew what we were. When we started to display abilities beyond normal humans they tried to take us, use us as weapons. When we fled they tried to hunt us down.

[honorthenreason]

[...]

If you and your friends have powers like the Avatar, why didn't you just defend yourselves?

[tinfoil_angel]

We were about your age, scared and confused. Also we didn't know the extent of our potential then.

When we finally decided to try to scare them away from us the ramifications were not what we were expecting.

[honorthenreason]

...And what were the ramifications?

[ This conversation seems unfair to Zuko. He has to ask questions; the other man doesn't. ]

[tinfoil_angel]

The world, or at least my country, fell into an apocalyptic situation.

[honorthenreason]

Was it worth it? Did you and your friends get freedom?

[tinfoil_angel]

In our own way we became free but it was not worth it, no.

Imagine a group of earth benders simultaneously punching a hole into the ground, just to scare another nation's army. That's what we did but it ended up causing mass chaos and flooding.

[honorthenreason]

Mass chaos can be quelled and floods can be dealt with. You got your freedom. That's more than a lot of people ever acquire.

[tinfoil_angel]

Families died, groups of thug looted and killed. The entire government, as evil as it was to us, fell. I just don't think my own life was worth the lives that were lost.

The only comfort I have with that is we helped where we could and when we left the people of our nation were able to get the help they needed.

[honorthenreason]

Aren't the people who died the same ones who tried to use you? Most people wouldn't care if that was the case.

[tinfoil_angel]

No, that was the military. So sure some of them died and I really don't feel sorry for them. Their plans were to treat us like lab rats.

However not every man, woman and child is responsible for their government or their military.

[honorthenreason]

Just because they weren't in the military doesn't mean they didn't support their goal.