Deep Red (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
- Thread starter kosm
- Start date
Chapter 8: Never Sets (Part 5)
Here's the results of tonight's session. It's good to get to write something more than the boring infodumps I've been bogging myself down in lately lol, even if it's nothing wild yet. We're going on the hunt.
-----
After some time spent in discussion and deliberation, you persuade the others to adopt what you think should be an even-handed and effective plan for handling the discontent.
You'll balance both suggestions for distributing extra supplies to the population, giving both aid to the poor and additional bonuses for hard work. There's a limit to how many supplies Gaipan can requisition, so the aid given out won't be extravagant, but it should still help to smooth things over and incentivize good behavior. You won't implement martial law, but you do have troops available who you can station throughout the town to make your presence more visible. That should help provide a deterrent and possibly improve intelligence gathering. And, rather than cracking down harder, you'll also go out of your way to show some lenience - you'll reduce some punishments for minor offenders and release a few unimportant troublemakers. At this point, the usual punishments for sedition are causing dissent rather than stifling it, and adaptability will do more good than strictness. For the dissidents who do need to be punished, you'll arrange public trials to demonstrate that the process is fair and transparent, not biased against then natives.
The mayor will make a speech tomorrow to the effect of 'the Earth Kingdom's attempts to divide our town against itself will not bear fruit' and so on, and offer the new measures as an olive branch to help the community heal in these troubled times. You'd do it yourself, but you have to continue to keep your presence a secret. Keeping the rebels unaware of your presence gives you an advantage you don't want to waste.
Your lenience seems to surprise some of the others. You think you defend your position persuasively enough, but you can tell the Lieutenant Colonel and the Guard Captain still have heavy misgivings; they would have preferred martial law. The mayor and Hua seem persuaded that the plan may be best for long-term stability, though. And while Yin Tan speaks very little except to promise to carry out your instructions to the best of her ability, you think she's pleased by your even-handedness with the natives.
With that decided, the only remaining question is how to take the fight to Onyx.
You see two obvious options: set an ambush for Onyx at the prison, which you know he'll target sooner than later, or go on the offensive by using the rebel prisoner you have to provide Nyla with a scent trail to follow.
"The prison is well-staffed and fortified, Princess," Lieutenant Colonel Zhao informs you. He lays out a map of the camp for you and refers to it as he speaks. "The quarry has a light steel outer wall around the perimeter - not invincible, but enough that most earthbenders would have to approach it and undermine the foundations rather than battering it down from a distance. The forest has been cleared away in the immediate vicinity of the camp, and the watchtowers - here, here, and here - should provide ample warning if anyone tries to cross the clearing to attack."
"But you believe Onyx has a tunneler," you say.
He nods. "And that's the main problem. A skilled enough tunneler could move Onyx's forces under the camp without tipping off guards on the surface. The buildings' foundations were built to keep earthbenders from undermining them, so they can't turn the whole quarry into a sinkhole, but the threat is still considerable. I've reinforced the guard with infantry and a tank platoon, and ordered the prison to remain on high alert and double patrols until further notice. Tunnels or no, we won't make it easy for Onyx to take us by surprise."
You nod, looking over the map. Your experience with battle tactics is still entirely theoretical, but you suppose that Onyx might plan to attack the prison from within and use the prisoners to supplement his forces. None of the prisoners are earthbenders, but...
"Is it likely that Onyx would have the resources to arm the prisoners?" you ask.
"We doubt he could arm them well," Zhao says. "He's stolen weapons, but not enough for that many people. But this whole region is covered in forest. They'll at least have an abundance of wooden spears and bows."
Nothing especially deadly, but still something. And Onyx wouldn't have to win the battle, just escape with the prisoners into their tunnels and disappear. Assuming he has a tunneler at all, of course.
Well. When has expecting the worst ever let you down before?
"A firebender of your skill would be invaluable at the prison, Princess," Hua says. "Lightning would be an excellent way to dispose of Onyx and any earthbenders he has."
Yes. It would. That's another problem you'll have to deal with, isn't it?
"What other options would we have?" you ask. "June, could you track down the rebels' encampment using our prisoner?"
"If the prisoner had anything that belonged to his boss, Nyla could hunt the boss down by their scent," June answers. "Otherwise, he can still retrace the prisoner's steps. It'd lead to the rebels eventually, or at least to somewhere they used to be."
"So if they've moved camp, it would be a dead end?" Hua asks.
"Only if we can't find a new scent trail at the old camp," June says.
"And would Nyla be able to tell if she was leading us into an ambush?"
"He'd be able to tell when we were getting close to other humans."
"How large a force would you take with you if you went hunting with this shirshu, Princess?" Zhao asks. "We could send a tank platoon with you to reconnoiter in force, but if there's a risk of it just being a dead end..."
You don't have unlimited forces at your disposal in the region - wasting them on missions that don't work out would be a good way to leave new vulnerabilities for Onyx's rebels to exploit. How should you approach all this?
* * * * *
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
You make the call to go on the hunt with June. Waiting for Onyx to come to you only helps him turn things further in his favor. An envoy makes a quick, discreet trip to the prison to collect the captured rebel's effects for Nyla; you wait in the capitol building for him to return, spending every free moment practicing with your sword and daggers. You don't wait long. When the envoy returns, June sifts through the box of possessions he's delivered and pulls out a shirt for Nyla to sniff. The shirshu seems to get excited at the start of the hunt; June has to take him by the scruff of the neck to keep him from sprinting off.
"Hey-hey," she says sternly. "Backtrack." She whistles three times, quick and sharp. Nyla perks up at the sound, seeming to understand. "Backtrack."
She climbs onto the shirshu's back and nods to you. "He's gonna have to follow the trail through town first," she says. "Meet you outside."
"Meet you there."
You, Hua, and Mitsuko take your mongoose-lizards and meet her in the forest, and then you're off.
Nyla moves at a breakneck pace. The four of you quickly tear through the forest. When Nyla suddenly comes to a halt, sniffing the air nervously, your heart jumps into your throat.
"Does he smell rebels?" you ask, sword already drawn. June shakes her head.
"There's no one around," she says. "But our guy spent a lot of time here." You frown; there's nothing here that you can see, no sign of past habitation. "Maybe there used to be a camp..."
"In the trees," Mitsuko murmurs. "Look."
The trees? She points up. What...? You don't see...
Ah.
The trees around Gaipan are towering things - you've never seen any as tall in the homeland. Even the Royal Woods aren't nearly as tall. But you never really considered...
"Treehouses," June says, sounding almost impressed.
"A tree-village," Hua says. "How...?"
Up above you, near the canopy of the forest, you see them - walkways and platforms, sprawling out and connecting a dozen different trees. The branches beneath them camouflage them, shielding them with leaves from prying eyes below; if Mitsuko hadn't pointed it out, you doubt you ever would have seen it. But once you see the underside of one platform, you can follow it with your eyes, trace out the topography of what could easily be an entire village in the trees - a small one, certainly, but still...
Amazing.
Mitsuko brings her mount up alongside yours, and gives you a small, private smile. You allow yourself a little smile back.
Enemies or no, you can appreciate a clever invention when you see one.
"It must be abandoned if Nyla doesn't smell anyone," June says. "We should take a look around, see if they left anything Nyla could use."
"They may have left traps behind," Hua cautions.
"I'll go first," Mitsuko says, dismounting. "You can follow once I make sure it's clear."
You catch Mitsuko's eye and nod. Be careful. She nods back, and starts to climb. She ascends quickly at first, then pauses and points up.
"There's a rope hanging there," she calls. "Taut. Looks like some kind of trap."
You circle around the tree until you can get a better look. There's the rope, and - yes, there's the glint of something metal.
"I think it is a trap," you call to her. "I can't see how it's triggered. Mitsuko -"
"I'm being careful," she says.
You adjust your grip on your reins and nod.
Mitsuko keeps going, her movements slow and steady and graceful. It's a long climb. She points out another possible trap - one you can't even see from the forest floor - and another, but she makes it up to the platforms without setting anything off.
"Platforms feel a little unsteady," she calls down. "And I see a tripwire. This might be rigged to collapse."
A fall from that height would kill her.
"Do you see anything June can use?" Hua calls.
"Nothing yet," Mitsuko responds. "But there's a bunch of huts up here. Might be something inside them."
There'll probably be nothing but traps inside - they wouldn't have left anything, they weren't chased away in a hurry by your troops. This whole thing must have been set up to kill whoever finds it, they must have assumed the captive would give up the location under interrogation. Why else would they abandon a camp like this?
"Mitsuko, be careful," you call. You can barely see her through the leaves. "Avoid the platforms completely if you can. We just need something small. Bedding, clothes, even just a piece of a chair -"
"Got it," Mitsuko answers. "I'm being careful."
You can see her moving, navigating her way across the branches around the platforms. You should have brought rope. She could have secured herself with rope. Why didn't you anticipate this? Treehouse-building must have been mentioned in one of the books you've read as a cultural element of this region, you must have somehow missed it - how could you be so careless?
"I'm going in to one of the huts," Mitsuko calls down.
"It's probably trapped," you tell her.
"I know."
"Be careful."
You should have climbed up with her. You can't do anything from down here. If it collapses under her...
"Kid'll be fine," June says.
The silence feels thick enough to cut with a knife. You think you hear Mitsuko's voice after a few seconds, but it's too quiet to make out what she says.
"Mitsuko?" you shout.
A moment passes before she answers.
"I messed up," she shouts back.
Your breath hitches.
"There's this, thing," she shouts. "I think the hut's going to fall once I move -"
"Just get out!" you shout.
"There's a scrap of cloth on the floor!"
Is she insane?
"Mitsuko, don't you dare -"
There's a series of snaps so loud you can hear them from the ground, and then the biggest platform you can see starts falling.
"MITSUKO!"
The walkways attached to the platform fall with it - everything's getting pulled down, the whole village. It crashes and thunders and smashes through all the branches in its way, nothing but a growing wall of wood and leaves and debris you can't see Mitsuko -
Your mount starts moving before you even prompt it, trying to flee from the avalanche - and you pull it back, not even conscious of why, you just know that Mitsuko is going to fall here and you need to be here, you can do something, you can catch her, you can -
You barely manage to get out of the way before the hut crushes you. It practically explodes on impact, splinters of wood flying everywhere; you turn your face away to shield it as your mount frantically scrambles away. You don't manage to get out from under the walkway. Not completely. Your sword comes up before you even realize it's in your hand, slicing through the wooden planks coming down towards your head - you release a sputter of red flames with the swing, and the impact jars your arm painfully, but it's enough to save you. You look up again, searching, waiting, dreading -
Mitsuko has her sword buried in the trunk of a tree, holding her hanging in the air.
"Princess!" Hua shouts. "Are you hurt?"
She's fine.
"You guys okay down there?" Mitsuko shouts.
"You're alive?" June calls up to her.
"I'm good."
Your heart feels like it's pounding out of your chest. You think you might be sick.
Idiot. Idiot.
You're distantly aware Hua is looking at you. You have to keep your face blank. You don't trust your voice.
"I'll be down in a minute," Mitsuko says. She reaches out to a nearby branch, beginning to climb. "And I got the cloth."
Deep breaths. You blink slowly, deliberately. Face blank.
"Princess?" Mitsuko calls. "Are you okay? Is the princess okay?"
"I'm alright." Your voice is steady. "Please be more careful on the way down."
"I will."
You still feel sick, watching her climb slowly down. But looking away makes it worse. A part of you almost hates her for that.
Almost.
Idiot.
-----
After some time spent in discussion and deliberation, you persuade the others to adopt what you think should be an even-handed and effective plan for handling the discontent.
You'll balance both suggestions for distributing extra supplies to the population, giving both aid to the poor and additional bonuses for hard work. There's a limit to how many supplies Gaipan can requisition, so the aid given out won't be extravagant, but it should still help to smooth things over and incentivize good behavior. You won't implement martial law, but you do have troops available who you can station throughout the town to make your presence more visible. That should help provide a deterrent and possibly improve intelligence gathering. And, rather than cracking down harder, you'll also go out of your way to show some lenience - you'll reduce some punishments for minor offenders and release a few unimportant troublemakers. At this point, the usual punishments for sedition are causing dissent rather than stifling it, and adaptability will do more good than strictness. For the dissidents who do need to be punished, you'll arrange public trials to demonstrate that the process is fair and transparent, not biased against then natives.
The mayor will make a speech tomorrow to the effect of 'the Earth Kingdom's attempts to divide our town against itself will not bear fruit' and so on, and offer the new measures as an olive branch to help the community heal in these troubled times. You'd do it yourself, but you have to continue to keep your presence a secret. Keeping the rebels unaware of your presence gives you an advantage you don't want to waste.
Your lenience seems to surprise some of the others. You think you defend your position persuasively enough, but you can tell the Lieutenant Colonel and the Guard Captain still have heavy misgivings; they would have preferred martial law. The mayor and Hua seem persuaded that the plan may be best for long-term stability, though. And while Yin Tan speaks very little except to promise to carry out your instructions to the best of her ability, you think she's pleased by your even-handedness with the natives.
With that decided, the only remaining question is how to take the fight to Onyx.
You see two obvious options: set an ambush for Onyx at the prison, which you know he'll target sooner than later, or go on the offensive by using the rebel prisoner you have to provide Nyla with a scent trail to follow.
"The prison is well-staffed and fortified, Princess," Lieutenant Colonel Zhao informs you. He lays out a map of the camp for you and refers to it as he speaks. "The quarry has a light steel outer wall around the perimeter - not invincible, but enough that most earthbenders would have to approach it and undermine the foundations rather than battering it down from a distance. The forest has been cleared away in the immediate vicinity of the camp, and the watchtowers - here, here, and here - should provide ample warning if anyone tries to cross the clearing to attack."
"But you believe Onyx has a tunneler," you say.
He nods. "And that's the main problem. A skilled enough tunneler could move Onyx's forces under the camp without tipping off guards on the surface. The buildings' foundations were built to keep earthbenders from undermining them, so they can't turn the whole quarry into a sinkhole, but the threat is still considerable. I've reinforced the guard with infantry and a tank platoon, and ordered the prison to remain on high alert and double patrols until further notice. Tunnels or no, we won't make it easy for Onyx to take us by surprise."
You nod, looking over the map. Your experience with battle tactics is still entirely theoretical, but you suppose that Onyx might plan to attack the prison from within and use the prisoners to supplement his forces. None of the prisoners are earthbenders, but...
"Is it likely that Onyx would have the resources to arm the prisoners?" you ask.
"We doubt he could arm them well," Zhao says. "He's stolen weapons, but not enough for that many people. But this whole region is covered in forest. They'll at least have an abundance of wooden spears and bows."
Nothing especially deadly, but still something. And Onyx wouldn't have to win the battle, just escape with the prisoners into their tunnels and disappear. Assuming he has a tunneler at all, of course.
Well. When has expecting the worst ever let you down before?
"A firebender of your skill would be invaluable at the prison, Princess," Hua says. "Lightning would be an excellent way to dispose of Onyx and any earthbenders he has."
Yes. It would. That's another problem you'll have to deal with, isn't it?
"What other options would we have?" you ask. "June, could you track down the rebels' encampment using our prisoner?"
"If the prisoner had anything that belonged to his boss, Nyla could hunt the boss down by their scent," June answers. "Otherwise, he can still retrace the prisoner's steps. It'd lead to the rebels eventually, or at least to somewhere they used to be."
"So if they've moved camp, it would be a dead end?" Hua asks.
"Only if we can't find a new scent trail at the old camp," June says.
"And would Nyla be able to tell if she was leading us into an ambush?"
"He'd be able to tell when we were getting close to other humans."
"How large a force would you take with you if you went hunting with this shirshu, Princess?" Zhao asks. "We could send a tank platoon with you to reconnoiter in force, but if there's a risk of it just being a dead end..."
You don't have unlimited forces at your disposal in the region - wasting them on missions that don't work out would be a good way to leave new vulnerabilities for Onyx's rebels to exploit. How should you approach all this?
Stealthily reconnoiter the rebel's trail with June, Mitsuko, and Hua. (10)
+If we can't kill Onyx, go for the tunneler. (9)
+Destroy or sabotage any rebel supplies we find at their potential campsites. Starve them out. (6)
Lie in wait for Onyx at the prison. (0)
Reconnoiter the rebel's trail in force. (0)
+If we can't kill Onyx, go for the tunneler. (9)
+Destroy or sabotage any rebel supplies we find at their potential campsites. Starve them out. (6)
Lie in wait for Onyx at the prison. (0)
Reconnoiter the rebel's trail in force. (0)
* * * * *
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
You make the call to go on the hunt with June. Waiting for Onyx to come to you only helps him turn things further in his favor. An envoy makes a quick, discreet trip to the prison to collect the captured rebel's effects for Nyla; you wait in the capitol building for him to return, spending every free moment practicing with your sword and daggers. You don't wait long. When the envoy returns, June sifts through the box of possessions he's delivered and pulls out a shirt for Nyla to sniff. The shirshu seems to get excited at the start of the hunt; June has to take him by the scruff of the neck to keep him from sprinting off.
"Hey-hey," she says sternly. "Backtrack." She whistles three times, quick and sharp. Nyla perks up at the sound, seeming to understand. "Backtrack."
She climbs onto the shirshu's back and nods to you. "He's gonna have to follow the trail through town first," she says. "Meet you outside."
"Meet you there."
You, Hua, and Mitsuko take your mongoose-lizards and meet her in the forest, and then you're off.
Nyla moves at a breakneck pace. The four of you quickly tear through the forest. When Nyla suddenly comes to a halt, sniffing the air nervously, your heart jumps into your throat.
"Does he smell rebels?" you ask, sword already drawn. June shakes her head.
"There's no one around," she says. "But our guy spent a lot of time here." You frown; there's nothing here that you can see, no sign of past habitation. "Maybe there used to be a camp..."
"In the trees," Mitsuko murmurs. "Look."
The trees? She points up. What...? You don't see...
Ah.
The trees around Gaipan are towering things - you've never seen any as tall in the homeland. Even the Royal Woods aren't nearly as tall. But you never really considered...
"Treehouses," June says, sounding almost impressed.
"A tree-village," Hua says. "How...?"
Up above you, near the canopy of the forest, you see them - walkways and platforms, sprawling out and connecting a dozen different trees. The branches beneath them camouflage them, shielding them with leaves from prying eyes below; if Mitsuko hadn't pointed it out, you doubt you ever would have seen it. But once you see the underside of one platform, you can follow it with your eyes, trace out the topography of what could easily be an entire village in the trees - a small one, certainly, but still...
Amazing.
Mitsuko brings her mount up alongside yours, and gives you a small, private smile. You allow yourself a little smile back.
Enemies or no, you can appreciate a clever invention when you see one.
"It must be abandoned if Nyla doesn't smell anyone," June says. "We should take a look around, see if they left anything Nyla could use."
"They may have left traps behind," Hua cautions.
"I'll go first," Mitsuko says, dismounting. "You can follow once I make sure it's clear."
Allow Mitsuko to go first (13)
Go with her and watch her back (3)
Go with her and watch her back (3)
You catch Mitsuko's eye and nod. Be careful. She nods back, and starts to climb. She ascends quickly at first, then pauses and points up.
"There's a rope hanging there," she calls. "Taut. Looks like some kind of trap."
You circle around the tree until you can get a better look. There's the rope, and - yes, there's the glint of something metal.
"I think it is a trap," you call to her. "I can't see how it's triggered. Mitsuko -"
"I'm being careful," she says.
You adjust your grip on your reins and nod.
Mitsuko keeps going, her movements slow and steady and graceful. It's a long climb. She points out another possible trap - one you can't even see from the forest floor - and another, but she makes it up to the platforms without setting anything off.
"Platforms feel a little unsteady," she calls down. "And I see a tripwire. This might be rigged to collapse."
A fall from that height would kill her.
"Do you see anything June can use?" Hua calls.
"Nothing yet," Mitsuko responds. "But there's a bunch of huts up here. Might be something inside them."
There'll probably be nothing but traps inside - they wouldn't have left anything, they weren't chased away in a hurry by your troops. This whole thing must have been set up to kill whoever finds it, they must have assumed the captive would give up the location under interrogation. Why else would they abandon a camp like this?
Tell Mitsuko to look as carefully as possible - even to avoid stepping on the platforms at all when she can. (11)
+Tell her to check the huts for any left over bedding material or any other structural elements that may have left a scent. Event something like a piece of a chair should leave enough of a scent for a Shirshu (8)
+ Panic internally (7)
Tell Mitsuko not to risk it - she should just climb back down. (4)
Climb up to help Mitsuko search. (2)
+Tell her to check the huts for any left over bedding material or any other structural elements that may have left a scent. Event something like a piece of a chair should leave enough of a scent for a Shirshu (8)
+ Panic internally (7)
Tell Mitsuko not to risk it - she should just climb back down. (4)
Climb up to help Mitsuko search. (2)
"Mitsuko, be careful," you call. You can barely see her through the leaves. "Avoid the platforms completely if you can. We just need something small. Bedding, clothes, even just a piece of a chair -"
"Got it," Mitsuko answers. "I'm being careful."
You can see her moving, navigating her way across the branches around the platforms. You should have brought rope. She could have secured herself with rope. Why didn't you anticipate this? Treehouse-building must have been mentioned in one of the books you've read as a cultural element of this region, you must have somehow missed it - how could you be so careless?
"I'm going in to one of the huts," Mitsuko calls down.
"It's probably trapped," you tell her.
"I know."
"Be careful."
You should have climbed up with her. You can't do anything from down here. If it collapses under her...
"Kid'll be fine," June says.
The silence feels thick enough to cut with a knife. You think you hear Mitsuko's voice after a few seconds, but it's too quiet to make out what she says.
"Mitsuko?" you shout.
A moment passes before she answers.
"I messed up," she shouts back.
Your breath hitches.
"There's this, thing," she shouts. "I think the hut's going to fall once I move -"
"Just get out!" you shout.
"There's a scrap of cloth on the floor!"
Is she insane?
"Mitsuko, don't you dare -"
There's a series of snaps so loud you can hear them from the ground, and then the biggest platform you can see starts falling.
"MITSUKO!"
The walkways attached to the platform fall with it - everything's getting pulled down, the whole village. It crashes and thunders and smashes through all the branches in its way, nothing but a growing wall of wood and leaves and debris you can't see Mitsuko -
Your mount starts moving before you even prompt it, trying to flee from the avalanche - and you pull it back, not even conscious of why, you just know that Mitsuko is going to fall here and you need to be here, you can do something, you can catch her, you can -
You barely manage to get out of the way before the hut crushes you. It practically explodes on impact, splinters of wood flying everywhere; you turn your face away to shield it as your mount frantically scrambles away. You don't manage to get out from under the walkway. Not completely. Your sword comes up before you even realize it's in your hand, slicing through the wooden planks coming down towards your head - you release a sputter of red flames with the swing, and the impact jars your arm painfully, but it's enough to save you. You look up again, searching, waiting, dreading -
Mitsuko has her sword buried in the trunk of a tree, holding her hanging in the air.
"Princess!" Hua shouts. "Are you hurt?"
She's fine.
"You guys okay down there?" Mitsuko shouts.
"You're alive?" June calls up to her.
"I'm good."
Your heart feels like it's pounding out of your chest. You think you might be sick.
Idiot. Idiot.
You're distantly aware Hua is looking at you. You have to keep your face blank. You don't trust your voice.
"I'll be down in a minute," Mitsuko says. She reaches out to a nearby branch, beginning to climb. "And I got the cloth."
Deep breaths. You blink slowly, deliberately. Face blank.
"Princess?" Mitsuko calls. "Are you okay? Is the princess okay?"
"I'm alright." Your voice is steady. "Please be more careful on the way down."
"I will."
You still feel sick, watching her climb slowly down. But looking away makes it worse. A part of you almost hates her for that.
Almost.
Idiot.
- Location
- Leeds
Wow that was risky. Kinda stupid since the cloth was going to end up on the ground anyway 
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I guess she was worried she wouldn't be able to find it again in the rubble.Wow that was risky. Kinda stupid since the cloth was going to end up on the ground anyway
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
I was kinda hoping the plan was to go undercover in the prison and get 'rescued'by Onyx, mostly because it's the dumbest, most dramatic plan I could think of :lol
- Location
- Leeds
How ever would we move all that wood from the rickety tree house.
If only we had some kind of large animal to use a beast of burden.
Oh, even worse, what if the princess got a splinter from the broken planks. Misuko must protect Akanes soft hands.
Kufufu
Adequate at best
- Location
- What's it to ya?
I personally didn't like it as It felt cheap to me.
- Location
- California
Well, It was voted to be Panic Internally, but not to be an external panic.
Tyran
Blatant Product Placement (pro bono)
Panic is not much of a choice. Only someone extremely cold-blooded and cold-hearted wouldn't panic in that situation.
Onmur
Archangel of Nutella.
Better plan: Catch Onyx and put him in prison. Then catch him when he tries to break out.
What do you mean 'catch Onyx' is not a valid first step? We're the bad guys in the show, it's a flawless plan. We only need to be ready to stop the Daring Escape.
Sorry the live session for this past week was delayed - I got sick. I'm gonna try and do this on Tuesday, and then probably again on Saturday lol. They might be shorter individual sessions, I'm not sure. I'm really sorry for the trouble, I've just been pretty sick the past few days.
Hope you get better. Your health takes priority over the story
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
That won't ping the alerts, I think.
Also, I don't think it counts as 'X'posting when the author does it.
In any case, here, have a complimentary chain post breaker.
Also, I don't think it counts as 'X'posting when the author does it.
In any case, here, have a complimentary chain post breaker.
Chapter 8: Never Sets (Part 6)
Here's the results of tonight's live and the aborted live session from earlier. Thanks for reading!
-----
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
"It was going to collapse either way, so I thought I should at least make sure I got the cloth we needed." That's her excuse. You can't even begin to put into words how completely foolish it was for her to put her life at even the slightest risk over something so small. After you finish checking her over for injuries (she's completely fine, thank the spirits), you resolve not to talk to her at all. To demonstrate your displeasure. When you turn away, though, she leans over and gently dabs at your cheek. A slight stinging there belatedly informs you that you must have gotten cut by the splinters flying everywhere. Your eyes meet.
Something loosens in your chest.
"We're fortunate that you're safe," you tell her. Politely.
"I'll be more cautious next time, Princess," she answers.
Hua and June are watching. You nod and pull away.
The cloth Mitsuko recovered was small; just a spare scrap that must have been left behind by whoever was in charge of mending the rebels' clothes. But it's enough for Nyla. He and June lead you deeper into the forest for hours.
"I recommend we stop for the night soon," Hua finally says. "The sun is setting."
If you had been walking, you might have stopped short. You don't let it show on your face. But she's right. The shadows are lengthening. The sun is setting.
You didn't feel it.
"I agree," you answer out loud. Now isn't the time to get distracted, you're already well aware your firebending is out of balance. "It won't be safe navigating in the dark. June, can Nyla tell how much farther we have to go before we reach the rebels?"
The bounty hunter leans over to pet her shirshu. "We're close. Relatively. If we stop now, we'll probably reach them early tomorrow morning."
Hm. That does imply you could reach them tonight, if you pressed on. But navigating the forest in the dark, when they've probably laid out all sorts of traps...
You decide to make camp for the night. You pick a decent, sheltered location and break out the bedrolls. June and Mitsuko rig up a few simple traps around your campsite. June says that if you're lucky, they'll catch any rebels that try to sneak up on you in the night, and if you're really lucky, they'll catch nothing but some fresh breakfast for tomorrow. Mitsuko takes first watch.
You can't sleep. You make an attempt, but you can't. The ground under your bedroll is incredibly uncomfortable and you constantly feel as though insects are crawling on you. You catch a few of the miserable things parading across the top of your bedroll and incinerate them - you can manage at least that much - but it only makes you more hyperconscious, more paranoid about every little itch and scratch. Even on your way to Gaipan, you never slept under conditions this rough. This is a first for you. You suppose you'll get used to it eventually.
Just not tonight.
Since you're not sleeping, you resolve to at least spend your time meditating. It's a productive way to rest. And you suppose you have relevant things to reflect on.
Mitsuko could have died today. And you would have been helpless to stop it. If you had your firebending, maybe you could have done something, but who knows? The point is that she could have died, and if you could have stopped it at all you certainly couldn't have done it as you are now. If she had died today, you would have been helpless. Mitsuko could have died.
Is that the kind of fear you're supposed to just accept?
It makes a certain sense, you guess. If you find yourself in a helpless situation, why bother doing anything but accepting it? What else can you do?
That feels like such a worthless line of thinking. If Mitsuko was going to die, would she want you to just accept it and do nothing? How are you supposed to get your firebending back if you don't have any fire in you? This makes no sense.
You incinerate another bug crawling on your bedroll.
'Acceptance' of fear worked for the Avatars, somehow. You know that much. But does that make it right? Father's philosophy works for him - does that make him right about everything? Should you just listen to Father's philosophy because he's apparently able to use it to fuel his firebending? Maybe the only reason you're even entertaining this Avatar philosophy is because you lack the confidence to forge ahead independently and find your own truth. Or maybe you only think you're studying the Avatar's philosophy out of lack of confidence because what you actually lack is the confidence to set aside your preconceptions and find wisdom in ideas that are alien to you.
But you feel like you're debating the merits of a philosophy you don't even fully understand. Your education has always framed 'acceptance' as being equivalent to defeatism, but it must be more complicated than that. There has to be some nuance to what these people believed. They had hundreds of years to reflect on it in much more depth than this, if it could be debunked and dismissed that easily wouldn't they have discarded it themselves?
And now you're debating the merits of debating the merits of a philosophy you don't understand. You're just spiraling out farther and farther away from the actual issue.
What does it mean to 'accept' your fears?
Assume that the concept has some merit to it that you're currently unaware of. The concept must not be self-explanatory. Your lack of understanding is likely due to a lack of sufficient grounding in the context the idea is meant to be situated in. So use context clues. The chakras are a sequence; what does the sequence tell you about the individual parts? After the earth chakra comes the water chakra - it's not the same order as the Avatar cycle, you have no idea if there's some significance to that. The water chakra deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt; if you can only begin to unlock the water chakra after unlocking the earth chakra, then it stands to reason that the method for unlocking the earth chakra exists in part to prepare you for unlocking the water chakra immediately after. So the earth chakra requires you to accept fear for the sake of unlocking survival, as preparation to forgive guilt for the sake of pleasure. But what does pleasure mean? Sensual pleasure? The Air Nation was considered degenerate. But the chakra immediately after water deals with willpower, so in that context you can assume that 'pleasure' is something that enables willpower - it must mean pleasure in an atypical sense of the word, a sort of 'pleasure' that centers more than it distracts. Self-affirming pleasure, or joy, you suppose.
How does this relate back to fear, again? Damn it. You reach over to your pack and pull out your notebook, brush, and ink; you need to write this down or you'll just keep going in circles and forget half of the details by morning. You use your free hand to provide a candlelight as you start jotting notes down.
Survival -> Pleasure (Self-affirmation? Joy?) -> Willpower
Acceptance of fear -> Forgiveness of guilt -> Release of shame
You feel like you were getting somewhere and then you lost it. Damn it. What were you...? Accept fear so that you can survive and have joy and from joy develop will...? Framed in that context, is the chakra sequence telling you to just push aside fear and focus on the positive around you? It feels a little too simple. If you go farther along the sequence... well, from what you remember, it isn't especially helpful. After the fire chakra it becomes more spiritual and ephemeral - the next chakras govern love, truth, 'insight', and the cosmos. Although, the final chakra is supposed to involve letting go of earthly attachment for the sake of cosmic enlightenment... is that a parallel to the first chakra involving letting go of fear for the sake of fundamental survival? They're the first and last, so a certain symmetry would make sense...
Now you can't tell if you're actually being insightful, or if you're just self-indulgently distracting yourself with mind games that mean nothing.
But you're supposed to accept fear for the sake of survival - for the sake of more than survival. Both for survival alone and for more than just survival at once. The chakra is simultaneously a discrete entity and a component in a greater whole - similar to how the Air Nation might have viewed the individual person's relationship with the universe, if you remember that Pai Sho book correctly. Ah, that's good, that might be something useful. There's a parallel between the way these individual components of life fit together and the way individual lives fit into the universe. That seems significant.
This is actually probably completely useless and you haven't figured out a single thing about fear yet.
Spirits.
There has to be some overarching idea here, some concept that will make it all just click into place once you figure it out. A key to decode the Air Nation's spirituality. Or maybe you just want there to be one.
You are not becoming enlightened fast enough.
The night passes frustratingly slowly.
* * * * *
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
You're tired when the sun begins to rise, but you can function. You managed to get a few hours of sleep, you think. You're on the move before the forest wakes, and the sun is still rising when Nyla comes to a halt.
"He smells people nearby," June says quietly.
You and Mitsuko draw your swords and look up, scanning the trees from top to bottom. They'll have look-outs above and traps on the ground.
"How close is 'nearby'?" you ask June.
"Close enough that a good sentry could spot us," June says. "Come on."
She urges Nyla over to her right, sheltering in the shadow of a tree. You, Mitsuko, and Hua follow her, taking cover behind trees of your own.
"Whoever it is, we need to spot them before they spot us," June continues. "Mitsuko, do you see anything?"
Mitsuko scans the trees again, then narrows her eyes and points up at something in the upper branches of a particularly large tree. You follow her gaze and see nothing - no, there, there's slight movement in the leaves. You can't make out anything else from this angle.
"One sentry there," Mitsuko says quietly. She keeps looking, leaning around her cover. "Another there. Can't see any others from here."
"We must be approaching their camp," Hua whispers. She looks to you. "Should we report back or continue?"
If you could eliminate the sentries stealthily and close in... but there's always a risk you'd be spotted by another sentry in the process of dealing with these two. If the sentries raise an alarm, you'll almost certainly be outnumbered - you don't know what kind of camp you're approaching, but it'll have more than four people in it. Maybe even the earthbender. And you have no fire; a fight would be risky, even setting aside the fact that Hua will eventually notice how weak your bending is. But if you leave and try to come back in force, there's a considerable risk of warning reaching the rebels before you can deal with them.
What should you do?
"Locating their camp is enough for now," you decide quietly. "We'll leave and come back with reinforcements."
You make a quiet retreat, methodically cataloging everything noteworthy about the area as you go.
* * * * *
You report the location of the rebel camp to Lieutenant Colonel Zhao and lay your plans for the assault. You have enough troops in the region that you should be able to encircle the camp and cut off all escape - assuming that the tunneler, if there is one, can't evacuate the rebels himself. Unfortunately, there's no way to know for certain whether the tunneler will be there, or how advanced his skills are. So much rides on that single earthbender's capabilities; it's maddening, having such an important variable that you can't predict. But you can probably assume that the tunneler isn't rendered impotent by the forest terrain; if he couldn't work around roots, Onyx probably wouldn't have made his camp in the middle of the trees. So however unpredictable this earthbender's skillset may be, you need to make plans to deal with it.
Lieutenant Colonel Zhao has one idea on how you can counter their defensive advantage, though.
"They're in the middle of a forest," he says. "We can burn them out. Light a ring of fire around their position and let it launch the assault for us. They'll be driven from their entrenched position, and our soldiers can maintain a perimeter to catch them as they flee rather than needing to charge into the depths of the forest themselves. The only downside is the waste of good lumber."
Not just lumber - those trees that must be centuries old. Practically historical monuments in and of themselves, and biological marvels besides. But there's no sense being sentimental about that. You suppose there is a risk that a forest fire may be more indiscriminate in its lethality than your soldiers, though. You didn't see the camp for yourself, but Hua did say that Onyx was recruiting children.
Fire doesn't take prisoners.
You suppose there's also the option to commit the tank platoon currently stationed at the prison to the attack; it could help with running down anyone who escapes the camp. But that would be a gamble to say the least; you don't know whether Onyx, the tunneler, or even the bulk of their forces are in this camp. If this is the rebel's central camp with all of their key personnel, you could certainly benefit from committing everything to make sure no one escapes. But you have no way of knowing whether that's the case.
* * * * *
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
You waste no time. The troops are on the move before the end of the day. Zhao leads from the front. He isn't thrilled that you denied his idea to use a forest fire against the rebels, and seems a little eager to take out his frustrations on the enemy.
You're going into battle without your firebending. You need to balance appearances with practicality. Where should you position yourself?
You inform Zhao that you and your retinue will remain with the rear guard. It'll limit the danger you're in, so your lack of firebending will hopefully neither be revealed nor cause your untimely death. The excuse you give Zhao is that you and your tracker will need to stay disengaged from combat and ready to hunt down Onyx once he inevitably tries to escape with his tunneler. Zhao seems to accept it; he tells you to stay alert and trust your instincts, because he's sure the tunneler will make a break for it as soon as he can.
"I expect hazard pay for this," June mutters. Again. "I'm not a soldier."
"As I said before, you'll receive the proper bonus," you tell her. "But we need you on hand to hunt anyone who tries to flee."
"Nyla doesn't work like that," she warns. "He still needs a scent sample to really track someone."
"We'll improvise," you say. "But we all need to contribute here. We have a chance to end this rebellion quickly. We need to capitalize on it."
"It would be an extraordinary accomplishment to put a stop to the rebellion so quickly," Hua says. "We could save a number of lives."
"We could," you agree. "As long as Onyx and the tunneler are neutralized here."
Mitsuko just nods, her hand tight on her sword. She's been tense all day; the looming battle is getting to her. June is clearly nervous too. Even Hua seems a little on-edge, though she hides it well.
You feel nothing. You suppose the battle doesn't seem real to you yet. You're aware there will be death on both sides, some of it possibly inflicted by you personally. But it's an entirely theoretical prospect.
Your troops take up their positions. Your forces keep their movements loose and ambiguous until the last moment, then quickly maneuver to form a perimeter around the approximate location of the rebel camp. You and Zhao give the commanders approval to begin closing in. Zhao gives a speech. It's mediocre.
Like the tightening of a noose, your perimeter begins its abrupt, violent contraction.
-----
Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know what you think.
-----
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
"It was going to collapse either way, so I thought I should at least make sure I got the cloth we needed." That's her excuse. You can't even begin to put into words how completely foolish it was for her to put her life at even the slightest risk over something so small. After you finish checking her over for injuries (she's completely fine, thank the spirits), you resolve not to talk to her at all. To demonstrate your displeasure. When you turn away, though, she leans over and gently dabs at your cheek. A slight stinging there belatedly informs you that you must have gotten cut by the splinters flying everywhere. Your eyes meet.
Something loosens in your chest.
"We're fortunate that you're safe," you tell her. Politely.
"I'll be more cautious next time, Princess," she answers.
Hua and June are watching. You nod and pull away.
The cloth Mitsuko recovered was small; just a spare scrap that must have been left behind by whoever was in charge of mending the rebels' clothes. But it's enough for Nyla. He and June lead you deeper into the forest for hours.
"I recommend we stop for the night soon," Hua finally says. "The sun is setting."
If you had been walking, you might have stopped short. You don't let it show on your face. But she's right. The shadows are lengthening. The sun is setting.
You didn't feel it.
"I agree," you answer out loud. Now isn't the time to get distracted, you're already well aware your firebending is out of balance. "It won't be safe navigating in the dark. June, can Nyla tell how much farther we have to go before we reach the rebels?"
The bounty hunter leans over to pet her shirshu. "We're close. Relatively. If we stop now, we'll probably reach them early tomorrow morning."
Hm. That does imply you could reach them tonight, if you pressed on. But navigating the forest in the dark, when they've probably laid out all sorts of traps...
Make camp for tonight and continue the hunt in the morning. (14)
+Prepare traps of your own around your camp. (7)
+Maybe we learned a lesson on helplessness. Mitsuko could have died and not even our full firebending could have saved her. Meditate and dwell on this. (7)
Press on through the dark. (0)
+Prepare traps of your own around your camp. (7)
+Maybe we learned a lesson on helplessness. Mitsuko could have died and not even our full firebending could have saved her. Meditate and dwell on this. (7)
Press on through the dark. (0)
You decide to make camp for the night. You pick a decent, sheltered location and break out the bedrolls. June and Mitsuko rig up a few simple traps around your campsite. June says that if you're lucky, they'll catch any rebels that try to sneak up on you in the night, and if you're really lucky, they'll catch nothing but some fresh breakfast for tomorrow. Mitsuko takes first watch.
You can't sleep. You make an attempt, but you can't. The ground under your bedroll is incredibly uncomfortable and you constantly feel as though insects are crawling on you. You catch a few of the miserable things parading across the top of your bedroll and incinerate them - you can manage at least that much - but it only makes you more hyperconscious, more paranoid about every little itch and scratch. Even on your way to Gaipan, you never slept under conditions this rough. This is a first for you. You suppose you'll get used to it eventually.
Just not tonight.
Since you're not sleeping, you resolve to at least spend your time meditating. It's a productive way to rest. And you suppose you have relevant things to reflect on.
Mitsuko could have died today. And you would have been helpless to stop it. If you had your firebending, maybe you could have done something, but who knows? The point is that she could have died, and if you could have stopped it at all you certainly couldn't have done it as you are now. If she had died today, you would have been helpless. Mitsuko could have died.
Is that the kind of fear you're supposed to just accept?
It makes a certain sense, you guess. If you find yourself in a helpless situation, why bother doing anything but accepting it? What else can you do?
That feels like such a worthless line of thinking. If Mitsuko was going to die, would she want you to just accept it and do nothing? How are you supposed to get your firebending back if you don't have any fire in you? This makes no sense.
You incinerate another bug crawling on your bedroll.
'Acceptance' of fear worked for the Avatars, somehow. You know that much. But does that make it right? Father's philosophy works for him - does that make him right about everything? Should you just listen to Father's philosophy because he's apparently able to use it to fuel his firebending? Maybe the only reason you're even entertaining this Avatar philosophy is because you lack the confidence to forge ahead independently and find your own truth. Or maybe you only think you're studying the Avatar's philosophy out of lack of confidence because what you actually lack is the confidence to set aside your preconceptions and find wisdom in ideas that are alien to you.
But you feel like you're debating the merits of a philosophy you don't even fully understand. Your education has always framed 'acceptance' as being equivalent to defeatism, but it must be more complicated than that. There has to be some nuance to what these people believed. They had hundreds of years to reflect on it in much more depth than this, if it could be debunked and dismissed that easily wouldn't they have discarded it themselves?
And now you're debating the merits of debating the merits of a philosophy you don't understand. You're just spiraling out farther and farther away from the actual issue.
What does it mean to 'accept' your fears?
Assume that the concept has some merit to it that you're currently unaware of. The concept must not be self-explanatory. Your lack of understanding is likely due to a lack of sufficient grounding in the context the idea is meant to be situated in. So use context clues. The chakras are a sequence; what does the sequence tell you about the individual parts? After the earth chakra comes the water chakra - it's not the same order as the Avatar cycle, you have no idea if there's some significance to that. The water chakra deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt; if you can only begin to unlock the water chakra after unlocking the earth chakra, then it stands to reason that the method for unlocking the earth chakra exists in part to prepare you for unlocking the water chakra immediately after. So the earth chakra requires you to accept fear for the sake of unlocking survival, as preparation to forgive guilt for the sake of pleasure. But what does pleasure mean? Sensual pleasure? The Air Nation was considered degenerate. But the chakra immediately after water deals with willpower, so in that context you can assume that 'pleasure' is something that enables willpower - it must mean pleasure in an atypical sense of the word, a sort of 'pleasure' that centers more than it distracts. Self-affirming pleasure, or joy, you suppose.
How does this relate back to fear, again? Damn it. You reach over to your pack and pull out your notebook, brush, and ink; you need to write this down or you'll just keep going in circles and forget half of the details by morning. You use your free hand to provide a candlelight as you start jotting notes down.
Survival -> Pleasure (Self-affirmation? Joy?) -> Willpower
Acceptance of fear -> Forgiveness of guilt -> Release of shame
You feel like you were getting somewhere and then you lost it. Damn it. What were you...? Accept fear so that you can survive and have joy and from joy develop will...? Framed in that context, is the chakra sequence telling you to just push aside fear and focus on the positive around you? It feels a little too simple. If you go farther along the sequence... well, from what you remember, it isn't especially helpful. After the fire chakra it becomes more spiritual and ephemeral - the next chakras govern love, truth, 'insight', and the cosmos. Although, the final chakra is supposed to involve letting go of earthly attachment for the sake of cosmic enlightenment... is that a parallel to the first chakra involving letting go of fear for the sake of fundamental survival? They're the first and last, so a certain symmetry would make sense...
Now you can't tell if you're actually being insightful, or if you're just self-indulgently distracting yourself with mind games that mean nothing.
But you're supposed to accept fear for the sake of survival - for the sake of more than survival. Both for survival alone and for more than just survival at once. The chakra is simultaneously a discrete entity and a component in a greater whole - similar to how the Air Nation might have viewed the individual person's relationship with the universe, if you remember that Pai Sho book correctly. Ah, that's good, that might be something useful. There's a parallel between the way these individual components of life fit together and the way individual lives fit into the universe. That seems significant.
This is actually probably completely useless and you haven't figured out a single thing about fear yet.
Spirits.
There has to be some overarching idea here, some concept that will make it all just click into place once you figure it out. A key to decode the Air Nation's spirituality. Or maybe you just want there to be one.
You are not becoming enlightened fast enough.
The night passes frustratingly slowly.
* * * * *
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
You're tired when the sun begins to rise, but you can function. You managed to get a few hours of sleep, you think. You're on the move before the forest wakes, and the sun is still rising when Nyla comes to a halt.
"He smells people nearby," June says quietly.
You and Mitsuko draw your swords and look up, scanning the trees from top to bottom. They'll have look-outs above and traps on the ground.
"How close is 'nearby'?" you ask June.
"Close enough that a good sentry could spot us," June says. "Come on."
She urges Nyla over to her right, sheltering in the shadow of a tree. You, Mitsuko, and Hua follow her, taking cover behind trees of your own.
"Whoever it is, we need to spot them before they spot us," June continues. "Mitsuko, do you see anything?"
Mitsuko scans the trees again, then narrows her eyes and points up at something in the upper branches of a particularly large tree. You follow her gaze and see nothing - no, there, there's slight movement in the leaves. You can't make out anything else from this angle.
"One sentry there," Mitsuko says quietly. She keeps looking, leaning around her cover. "Another there. Can't see any others from here."
"We must be approaching their camp," Hua whispers. She looks to you. "Should we report back or continue?"
If you could eliminate the sentries stealthily and close in... but there's always a risk you'd be spotted by another sentry in the process of dealing with these two. If the sentries raise an alarm, you'll almost certainly be outnumbered - you don't know what kind of camp you're approaching, but it'll have more than four people in it. Maybe even the earthbender. And you have no fire; a fight would be risky, even setting aside the fact that Hua will eventually notice how weak your bending is. But if you leave and try to come back in force, there's a considerable risk of warning reaching the rebels before you can deal with them.
What should you do?
Leave and come back in force. (14)
Try to stealthily eliminate the sentries and get closer. (8)
Try to get closer and scout out the rebel camp without engaging the sentries. (3)
Try to stealthily eliminate the sentries and get closer. (8)
Try to get closer and scout out the rebel camp without engaging the sentries. (3)
"Locating their camp is enough for now," you decide quietly. "We'll leave and come back with reinforcements."
You make a quiet retreat, methodically cataloging everything noteworthy about the area as you go.
* * * * *
You report the location of the rebel camp to Lieutenant Colonel Zhao and lay your plans for the assault. You have enough troops in the region that you should be able to encircle the camp and cut off all escape - assuming that the tunneler, if there is one, can't evacuate the rebels himself. Unfortunately, there's no way to know for certain whether the tunneler will be there, or how advanced his skills are. So much rides on that single earthbender's capabilities; it's maddening, having such an important variable that you can't predict. But you can probably assume that the tunneler isn't rendered impotent by the forest terrain; if he couldn't work around roots, Onyx probably wouldn't have made his camp in the middle of the trees. So however unpredictable this earthbender's skillset may be, you need to make plans to deal with it.
Lieutenant Colonel Zhao has one idea on how you can counter their defensive advantage, though.
"They're in the middle of a forest," he says. "We can burn them out. Light a ring of fire around their position and let it launch the assault for us. They'll be driven from their entrenched position, and our soldiers can maintain a perimeter to catch them as they flee rather than needing to charge into the depths of the forest themselves. The only downside is the waste of good lumber."
Not just lumber - those trees that must be centuries old. Practically historical monuments in and of themselves, and biological marvels besides. But there's no sense being sentimental about that. You suppose there is a risk that a forest fire may be more indiscriminate in its lethality than your soldiers, though. You didn't see the camp for yourself, but Hua did say that Onyx was recruiting children.
Fire doesn't take prisoners.
You suppose there's also the option to commit the tank platoon currently stationed at the prison to the attack; it could help with running down anyone who escapes the camp. But that would be a gamble to say the least; you don't know whether Onyx, the tunneler, or even the bulk of their forces are in this camp. If this is the rebel's central camp with all of their key personnel, you could certainly benefit from committing everything to make sure no one escapes. But you have no way of knowing whether that's the case.
Don't use a forest fire, and don't take the tank platoon. (13)
Use a forest fire to burn out the rebels, but don't take the tank platoon from the prison. (6)
Don't use a forest fire, but take the tank platoon from the prison. (2)
Use a forest fire to burn out the rebels, and take the tank platoon from the prison. (0)
Use a forest fire to burn out the rebels, but don't take the tank platoon from the prison. (6)
Don't use a forest fire, but take the tank platoon from the prison. (2)
Use a forest fire to burn out the rebels, and take the tank platoon from the prison. (0)
* * * * *
97 AC (15 years old)
Forest of Gaipan
You waste no time. The troops are on the move before the end of the day. Zhao leads from the front. He isn't thrilled that you denied his idea to use a forest fire against the rebels, and seems a little eager to take out his frustrations on the enemy.
You're going into battle without your firebending. You need to balance appearances with practicality. Where should you position yourself?
The rear. You can offer strategic input and keep yourself out of situations that would require firebending. (12)
+Get June and her Shirshu in the area of operations to keep anyone from fleeing and getting important VIPs (16)
With June and her Shirshu. You can be useful with coordinating the chase and protecting one of your most valuable assets. (10)
The front - make yourself useful, and see if you can capture any children who might be there alive. (3)
+Get June and her Shirshu in the area of operations to keep anyone from fleeing and getting important VIPs (16)
With June and her Shirshu. You can be useful with coordinating the chase and protecting one of your most valuable assets. (10)
The front - make yourself useful, and see if you can capture any children who might be there alive. (3)
"I expect hazard pay for this," June mutters. Again. "I'm not a soldier."
"As I said before, you'll receive the proper bonus," you tell her. "But we need you on hand to hunt anyone who tries to flee."
"Nyla doesn't work like that," she warns. "He still needs a scent sample to really track someone."
"We'll improvise," you say. "But we all need to contribute here. We have a chance to end this rebellion quickly. We need to capitalize on it."
"It would be an extraordinary accomplishment to put a stop to the rebellion so quickly," Hua says. "We could save a number of lives."
"We could," you agree. "As long as Onyx and the tunneler are neutralized here."
Mitsuko just nods, her hand tight on her sword. She's been tense all day; the looming battle is getting to her. June is clearly nervous too. Even Hua seems a little on-edge, though she hides it well.
You feel nothing. You suppose the battle doesn't seem real to you yet. You're aware there will be death on both sides, some of it possibly inflicted by you personally. But it's an entirely theoretical prospect.
Your troops take up their positions. Your forces keep their movements loose and ambiguous until the last moment, then quickly maneuver to form a perimeter around the approximate location of the rebel camp. You and Zhao give the commanders approval to begin closing in. Zhao gives a speech. It's mediocre.
Like the tightening of a noose, your perimeter begins its abrupt, violent contraction.
-----
Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know what you think.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I honestly can't tell if this is paranioa, or if she really does need to hide any signs of affection this hard.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Probably the latter until her Father
- Location
- Oblivion
Huh, I wonder if he's Zhao's older brother.
He's a relative, I haven't really even decided what relation lol. The Zhao family as a whole is a pretty prestigious military family that's in Ozai's good books here. I'm making that a detail in the setting because it helps me rationalize why Zhao the Invincible got boosted up to Admiral so fast.
- Location
- Leeds
If you can't tell its probably not paranoia.
- Location
- Oblivion
I always kind of figured he found a lot of genology based blackmail material in the Library and used that to move himself up the ranks.