Zan knew he'd had it easy, if only he knew what he was going to do now that he didn't...
In The Dragon's Nest [Avatar: The Last Airbender, SI]
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Prologue
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I am incapable of focusing on a single project more than a couple of weeks at a time it seems...
So... Welcome, I guess! To this semi-SI story set in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I hope it is an unorthodox enough idea to capture your interest, because I haven't seen enough people doing something like this and said why not try it? I hope you enjoy it and please do not hesitate to give me your criticism, I am always trying to improve my writing and every contribution helps a lot...
Zan knew he'd had it easy.
How could he not know? He had been reborn into this world, into the most advanced nation in the world years before they would be the somewhat-briefly-undisputed-but-not-really hegemon of the entire world. His parents were esteemed nobility, the kind that were slated to become the Lords of one of the fiefdoms their brave soldiers captured every day in their noble struggle to bring civilization into this world, that is, if they weren't stupid enough with their political maneuvering that they threw away that chance entirely, which wasn't likely considering how easy that was not to do.
He hadn't wanted for anything for the duration of his childhood, everything he could have ever asked for and more was provided to him, simply because he was the firstborn child set to inherit his family's titles and position. He had received the best education money could buy, from the best tutors his family could get their hands on from the moment he could walk and talk.
And on top of that had, He had received the rest of his education from the best Academies that the Nation had to offer, whose strict teachers were considered to be the wisest and most enlightened people in the world, working with zeal to raise the people who would be shaping the future of their Great Nation. He wasn't exaggerating when he said that either, the Academy had liked advertising that their some of their alumni had went down in history as the closest confidants of royalty.
On top of that, he had been smart enough to know just how to take advantage of all these opportunities that he had been presented with from the moment of his birth, making the most of them and coming out ahead as a widely known prodigy that was surely destined for great things. Those that told him about those words in tones commonly heard in a society that did not think much of intrigue surely didn't know just why that was the case, because hadn't he said it before? He had been reborn into this world.
Now, reincarnation was not something weird per se, because clearly it was a proven concept. Just look at the Avatar with his life cycle probably reaching the thousands, the biggest proof of reincarnation one could ever ask for. But no, what Zan meant when he'd said that he was 'reborn into this world' was that he was reborn into this world, and as you may have noticed from the aforementioned term 'Avatar' it was not exactly the place he'd been expecting to find himself in when he woke up as a baby, fully aware of the life he had been leading before it was cut short by reasons he preferred not to talk about.
The place he had expected to wake up in was not a world of Spirits with a capital 'S', it did not have an Avatar who was responsible for 'keeping the balance' or if one was to listen to some of his more zealous countryman 'being the monstrous enforcer of stagnation', it certainly wasn't a world where there were Four Nations that were each named after the four basic elements in alchemy, whose people could actually contro- sorry, bend those elements to their will.
Yes, we will be addressing that last point later.
The place he had expected to wake up in was not a world he knew to be fiction, a fictional cartoon that both his younger sister and his older brother had obsessed over long after it had ended yet he he hadn't bothered aside fro sitting down to watch a few episodes with them because he didn't have the benefit of hindsight, still hadn't when they had announced a sequel for it no matter how much his former brother and sister had bugged and begged him about so he wasn't left out like he usually was, because he still didn't have the benefit of hindsight and would his brain please stop reminding him of all the opportunities he'd missed with his family now was not the time.
Sometimes, he wondered if having all these memories of his previous life was either a blessing or a curse.
Oh certainly, the positives had massively outweighed the negatives; those memories had helped him breeze through his grueling education and that had helped him make a name for himself early on, it also helped that he was mentally old enough to have the social awareness one needed to have in such a cutthroat society from the beginning and had helped him brew plans to make the most of it.
What also helped that he was mentally old enough to know perfectly well that he was being fed propaganda twenty-four seven, the leaders of this nation were very well aware that the best way to indoctrinate your people to blindly serve your cause was to start when they were impressionable kids, and as much as he loved his Nation and understood their goals, he was also aware that they weren't exactly the good guys.
'And then the Fire Nation attacked' was a phrase he'd heard all too much, and guess where he was from?
And maybe he had taken to that indoctrination a little bit, because he'd still fallen in love with this place as soon as he had ventured outside his bias and had truly looked at it. Thanks to the beautiful sights he saw every time he gazed at the Caldera, the amazing sights he witnessed every time he walked its streets, the breathtaking countryside, the charming people ranging from his favorite tutor telling him how he would bring glory to their nation in between lessons that had left him fascinated, to the former soldier who regaled him with the stories of all the foreign and exotic sights she had witnessed on the frontier before it had all ended when an earthbender had crushed her hands until she could not bend with them anymore.
Thanks to the Sun that greeted him whenever he opened his windows. The Sun that brought with it Warmth and Strength unlike anything Zan had ever felt, comforting him as if everything was okay and nothing could hurt him in its presence. It was a naive feeling, and he would agree if anyone told him that such line of thinking was very unhealthy, but he supposed that was what Agni's gift did to those that received it.
He had been one of those lucky enough to be blessed with the ability to wield fire, and it wasn't hard to understand just why emotions ran so hot, why those born to the fire felt so superior when something like that was a part of you, when it defined your soul so thoroughly, when its very presence was your breath, your strength and your life and your pride and so much more that he couldn't even put them into words.
There had never been a time where he had felt more complete until Zan had realized his Inner Fire.
And maybe, the life he led now was definitely not a cartoon, the people he saw, met, talked, understood everyday, were not archetypes that could be explained away in merely a sentence by a crowd of people whose job was to make sure everything was black and white so the children could enjoy their shows and root for the obviously good guys against the evil bad guys who were only there to be beaten up.
Yes, the real world was more complicated than that, because he had seen that it was.
Anyway...
Zan knew he'd had it easy.
He had been born into one of the higher tiers of nobility, to a father that only cared that he was a good heir to his legacy and would advance their family's position while also bring glory to their nation and a mother who only cared what was on the bottom of her next bottle and certainly didn't look like she had chosen the life she had been given. Neither he or them were close, none of them particularly desired to bridge the gap between each other.
Zan had already had a mother and a father, he did not need another pair to take away from their memory, and it looked as if this arrangement suited every member of his dysfunctional family, that was a mockery to everything an actual family stood for, just fine.
Everyone still did their duties of course, his mother and father were the mirror image of a perfect married couple whenever they were in public and he was their loving, loyal and dutiful son. Mother was the perfect person the plan a gathering whenever she wasn't blackout drunk, Father took special pride in giving him firebending lessons even if they had tutors that could do that, and Zan did as he was asked like the perfect child he was.
He knew of course that it would not always be that easy, even if he had dreaded the implications that came with these thoughts. His father was clearly an ambitious person that wanted far more than what his current station was even if it was one of the highest in the Nation, and everything he required to make that ascent was slowly falling into his lap one by one.
The man known as Xiaowen only needed a push to see his star take off. He hadn't needed to look far to find just what he could use to give himself that push, because here was his son, who was very close to the age of majority, a prodigy in many aspects that he put his mind to and a proficient firebender who had thrived under his tutelage and only needed experience to bring out his true potential...
What more could he ask for?
Zan sometimes cursed himself for abusing the knowledge that came with his previous life to such an extent.
Because it was rapidly looking like it had been more trouble than it was worth, especially when his father had pulled him out of his previous school and had practically pushed him to enter the Royal Military Academy and watched as he had breezed through the competition in a surprisingly easy (and highly suspicious, but he wasn't going to say that out loud) manner. After just two years, he had received his commission as a Lieutenant in the Fire Nation Army.
He'd followed along of course, being careful to hide his increasing dread as the reality of his situation tried to catch up with him despite his fervent tries to ignore it, it wasn't like he could reject his father's 'proposal' anyway, not if he wanted to get himself and his mother killed in a ' tragic accident' while his father went about either adopting or making another son that would do as he said.
It wasn't until the last day prior to Zan being deployed that the newly-minted officer let himself breakdown in his room before picking up the pieces and boarded the boat to take up his position in the army.
Just before that, they had bid him farewell in the most awkward family dinner he'd ever been a part of, and that was a notable achievement since he had lived two lives. His father had done his best congratulate him as an emotionally exhausted Zan picked at his food like he was on Death Row and steadfastly ignored him, while his mother did his best to drown herself in every kind of alcohol his father had decided to bring out for this feast.
Now here he was, on a hostile Earth Kingdom filled with people who wouldn't hesitate to turn the very ground he was stepping on against him, surrounded by people who (rightfully) believed that his rank was a fluke and he wasn't anything but the spoiled son of a noble who was only there to play soldier and steal their glory (this part was less righteous).
He hadn't fought in any battles yet, but he had a feeling that would be changing very soon, s seeing as the platoon he'd found himself commanding (they were not exactly thrilled, which was a feeling he could share) was attached to a particularly tank-heavy company, and those didn't have a tendency to stay in the back lines.
Oh, and let us not forget that the return of the Avatar was a topic that was pretty popular recently.
Zan knew he'd had it easy, if only he knew what he was going to do now that he didn't...
So... Welcome, I guess! To this semi-SI story set in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I hope it is an unorthodox enough idea to capture your interest, because I haven't seen enough people doing something like this and said why not try it? I hope you enjoy it and please do not hesitate to give me your criticism, I am always trying to improve my writing and every contribution helps a lot...
___________________
Zan knew he'd had it easy.
How could he not know? He had been reborn into this world, into the most advanced nation in the world years before they would be the somewhat-briefly-undisputed-but-not-really hegemon of the entire world. His parents were esteemed nobility, the kind that were slated to become the Lords of one of the fiefdoms their brave soldiers captured every day in their noble struggle to bring civilization into this world, that is, if they weren't stupid enough with their political maneuvering that they threw away that chance entirely, which wasn't likely considering how easy that was not to do.
He hadn't wanted for anything for the duration of his childhood, everything he could have ever asked for and more was provided to him, simply because he was the firstborn child set to inherit his family's titles and position. He had received the best education money could buy, from the best tutors his family could get their hands on from the moment he could walk and talk.
And on top of that had, He had received the rest of his education from the best Academies that the Nation had to offer, whose strict teachers were considered to be the wisest and most enlightened people in the world, working with zeal to raise the people who would be shaping the future of their Great Nation. He wasn't exaggerating when he said that either, the Academy had liked advertising that their some of their alumni had went down in history as the closest confidants of royalty.
On top of that, he had been smart enough to know just how to take advantage of all these opportunities that he had been presented with from the moment of his birth, making the most of them and coming out ahead as a widely known prodigy that was surely destined for great things. Those that told him about those words in tones commonly heard in a society that did not think much of intrigue surely didn't know just why that was the case, because hadn't he said it before? He had been reborn into this world.
Now, reincarnation was not something weird per se, because clearly it was a proven concept. Just look at the Avatar with his life cycle probably reaching the thousands, the biggest proof of reincarnation one could ever ask for. But no, what Zan meant when he'd said that he was 'reborn into this world' was that he was reborn into this world, and as you may have noticed from the aforementioned term 'Avatar' it was not exactly the place he'd been expecting to find himself in when he woke up as a baby, fully aware of the life he had been leading before it was cut short by reasons he preferred not to talk about.
The place he had expected to wake up in was not a world of Spirits with a capital 'S', it did not have an Avatar who was responsible for 'keeping the balance' or if one was to listen to some of his more zealous countryman 'being the monstrous enforcer of stagnation', it certainly wasn't a world where there were Four Nations that were each named after the four basic elements in alchemy, whose people could actually contro- sorry, bend those elements to their will.
Yes, we will be addressing that last point later.
The place he had expected to wake up in was not a world he knew to be fiction, a fictional cartoon that both his younger sister and his older brother had obsessed over long after it had ended yet he he hadn't bothered aside fro sitting down to watch a few episodes with them because he didn't have the benefit of hindsight, still hadn't when they had announced a sequel for it no matter how much his former brother and sister had bugged and begged him about so he wasn't left out like he usually was, because he still didn't have the benefit of hindsight and would his brain please stop reminding him of all the opportunities he'd missed with his family now was not the time.
Sometimes, he wondered if having all these memories of his previous life was either a blessing or a curse.
Oh certainly, the positives had massively outweighed the negatives; those memories had helped him breeze through his grueling education and that had helped him make a name for himself early on, it also helped that he was mentally old enough to have the social awareness one needed to have in such a cutthroat society from the beginning and had helped him brew plans to make the most of it.
What also helped that he was mentally old enough to know perfectly well that he was being fed propaganda twenty-four seven, the leaders of this nation were very well aware that the best way to indoctrinate your people to blindly serve your cause was to start when they were impressionable kids, and as much as he loved his Nation and understood their goals, he was also aware that they weren't exactly the good guys.
'And then the Fire Nation attacked' was a phrase he'd heard all too much, and guess where he was from?
And maybe he had taken to that indoctrination a little bit, because he'd still fallen in love with this place as soon as he had ventured outside his bias and had truly looked at it. Thanks to the beautiful sights he saw every time he gazed at the Caldera, the amazing sights he witnessed every time he walked its streets, the breathtaking countryside, the charming people ranging from his favorite tutor telling him how he would bring glory to their nation in between lessons that had left him fascinated, to the former soldier who regaled him with the stories of all the foreign and exotic sights she had witnessed on the frontier before it had all ended when an earthbender had crushed her hands until she could not bend with them anymore.
Thanks to the Sun that greeted him whenever he opened his windows. The Sun that brought with it Warmth and Strength unlike anything Zan had ever felt, comforting him as if everything was okay and nothing could hurt him in its presence. It was a naive feeling, and he would agree if anyone told him that such line of thinking was very unhealthy, but he supposed that was what Agni's gift did to those that received it.
He had been one of those lucky enough to be blessed with the ability to wield fire, and it wasn't hard to understand just why emotions ran so hot, why those born to the fire felt so superior when something like that was a part of you, when it defined your soul so thoroughly, when its very presence was your breath, your strength and your life and your pride and so much more that he couldn't even put them into words.
There had never been a time where he had felt more complete until Zan had realized his Inner Fire.
And maybe, the life he led now was definitely not a cartoon, the people he saw, met, talked, understood everyday, were not archetypes that could be explained away in merely a sentence by a crowd of people whose job was to make sure everything was black and white so the children could enjoy their shows and root for the obviously good guys against the evil bad guys who were only there to be beaten up.
Yes, the real world was more complicated than that, because he had seen that it was.
Anyway...
Zan knew he'd had it easy.
He had been born into one of the higher tiers of nobility, to a father that only cared that he was a good heir to his legacy and would advance their family's position while also bring glory to their nation and a mother who only cared what was on the bottom of her next bottle and certainly didn't look like she had chosen the life she had been given. Neither he or them were close, none of them particularly desired to bridge the gap between each other.
Zan had already had a mother and a father, he did not need another pair to take away from their memory, and it looked as if this arrangement suited every member of his dysfunctional family, that was a mockery to everything an actual family stood for, just fine.
Everyone still did their duties of course, his mother and father were the mirror image of a perfect married couple whenever they were in public and he was their loving, loyal and dutiful son. Mother was the perfect person the plan a gathering whenever she wasn't blackout drunk, Father took special pride in giving him firebending lessons even if they had tutors that could do that, and Zan did as he was asked like the perfect child he was.
He knew of course that it would not always be that easy, even if he had dreaded the implications that came with these thoughts. His father was clearly an ambitious person that wanted far more than what his current station was even if it was one of the highest in the Nation, and everything he required to make that ascent was slowly falling into his lap one by one.
The man known as Xiaowen only needed a push to see his star take off. He hadn't needed to look far to find just what he could use to give himself that push, because here was his son, who was very close to the age of majority, a prodigy in many aspects that he put his mind to and a proficient firebender who had thrived under his tutelage and only needed experience to bring out his true potential...
What more could he ask for?
Zan sometimes cursed himself for abusing the knowledge that came with his previous life to such an extent.
Because it was rapidly looking like it had been more trouble than it was worth, especially when his father had pulled him out of his previous school and had practically pushed him to enter the Royal Military Academy and watched as he had breezed through the competition in a surprisingly easy (and highly suspicious, but he wasn't going to say that out loud) manner. After just two years, he had received his commission as a Lieutenant in the Fire Nation Army.
He'd followed along of course, being careful to hide his increasing dread as the reality of his situation tried to catch up with him despite his fervent tries to ignore it, it wasn't like he could reject his father's 'proposal' anyway, not if he wanted to get himself and his mother killed in a ' tragic accident' while his father went about either adopting or making another son that would do as he said.
It wasn't until the last day prior to Zan being deployed that the newly-minted officer let himself breakdown in his room before picking up the pieces and boarded the boat to take up his position in the army.
Just before that, they had bid him farewell in the most awkward family dinner he'd ever been a part of, and that was a notable achievement since he had lived two lives. His father had done his best congratulate him as an emotionally exhausted Zan picked at his food like he was on Death Row and steadfastly ignored him, while his mother did his best to drown herself in every kind of alcohol his father had decided to bring out for this feast.
Now here he was, on a hostile Earth Kingdom filled with people who wouldn't hesitate to turn the very ground he was stepping on against him, surrounded by people who (rightfully) believed that his rank was a fluke and he wasn't anything but the spoiled son of a noble who was only there to play soldier and steal their glory (this part was less righteous).
He hadn't fought in any battles yet, but he had a feeling that would be changing very soon, s seeing as the platoon he'd found himself commanding (they were not exactly thrilled, which was a feeling he could share) was attached to a particularly tank-heavy company, and those didn't have a tendency to stay in the back lines.
Oh, and let us not forget that the return of the Avatar was a topic that was pretty popular recently.
Zan knew he'd had it easy, if only he knew what he was going to do now that he didn't...
Last edited:
XkaliburRage
Perpetual Procrastinator
Always fun to see more Avatar stuff.
- Location
- USA
Off to an interesting start!
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
Rule over earthbenders?
- Location
- [REDACTED]- United States of America
Your profile is limited in those who can see it. if you want to make it easier for other people to find your (other) work then consider dropping links in your signature. As it is you can still find it by the using the search functions and sorting by poster but ease of access is always good.
Also I'm liking where this is going. Avatar stuff is always welcome.
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This show will never get enough love.
Thank you!
Most of my stuff is on SB and AH, I sadly don't have enough time to carry all of it to this forum but you can find it there if you so desire. Thank you for reading!
Chapter 1: Bianjiang
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Breathe in, breathe out.
Zan shot a look at the bright lantern that flared up and down with his breathing as he carefully set aside the parchment he was writing so the ink could dry, before he drew another one from the giant pile that weighed down his desk, he quickly unfurled the scroll and read through its contents as he massaged his aching wrist before picking up his quill and getting back to work with a sigh.
He steadfastly ignored the dimming lantern.
Breathe in, breathe out.
It had been only a week since Zan had settled into his position in the army, and the only enemy he'd seen was the mountains of paperwork he had to deal with.
Something he would have been grateful about under normal circumstances, considering that he was behind the relatively safe walls of the Bianjiang Stronghold and had yet to be thrust into a life or death struggle with people hellbent on killing him and those under him and was kept busy enough with paperwork that he did not have to endure too much poorly-hidden glares and passive-aggressive posturing from his own subordinates whenever he was near them.
Breathe in, breathe out.
He squinted as the light dimmed again, sighing in relief when he spotted no mistakes on the parchment.
But being grateful for it was something he just couldn't bring himself to do, because the paperwork that had been foisted upon him by both his immediate superior and his fellow Lieutenants had made sure he had very little else to do besides whittle away at the endless stacks of papers that plagued his desk in a cramped office so thoughtfully provided to him by the Commander of the base so he might perform his current duties in an efficient manner before their marching orders came through.
Well... Zan had made sure no one questioned his work ethic when it came to paperwork, but he was pretty sure he himself was going to have to find someone else to push all this work to because he was falling behind on his own training and that would be akin to suicide among these parts, not to mention that he still needed to establish a proper rapport with his men that didn't just consist of avoiding them, that would actually get him killed out there.
Breathe in, breathe out.
He wouldn't deny that that this wasn't important work, the opposite in fact. The 49th Company, like every army in this world and beyond, needed food to keep its soldiers fed, needed weapons and armor to keep them armed and protected, endless fuel for its tanks and parts to keep them functioning, medicine to keep the soldiers from dying, a steady stream of reinforcement to replace the ones that did and a secure supply train with proper infrastructure to make sure they actually received all of them.
These simple rules did not change, in fact; they were made even more important because of the realities of this world.
He... just believed it should be someone else that handled all the necessary arrangements that would start that process, and also for that person to quickly take it off of his hands before he went stir crazy.
Because he was not made to burn in tranquility, to kindle silently within this wretched idleness he so despised, that stifled his flame with repetitiveness and monotony until his mind would go numb and all that would be left of his thoughts were nothing more than a reel of hopeless memories he could not change no matter what he did when that flame was meant to soar toward the heavens with power and passion and life and-
The flaring of the lantern brought Zan back to the present, and he quickly regulated his breathing and let go of the little fire before his frantic breathing could cause an accident and make him lose hours of work.
That... That thought had gotten away from him there, into very unpleasant places he'd rather not revisit, ever.
He wasn't as over this as he had previously thought, though that was not surprising given that he was just one week removed from a severe emotional breakdown and the conditions in which he conducted his current work was bringing up some bad memories he hadn't really dealt with before having been packed off into the army, which was probably really stupid in hindsight because in what world would it be a good idea to offload emotional baggage when he was actually in the field?
Mind you, there was also a valuable lesson there about him not practicing his breathing in such a dangerous place, especially with such unbalanced thoughts running through his head. He would keep that in mind, and carefully tucked away the rest of that outburst in a cabinet to be dealt with (you guessed it) later.
Nothing had actually caught on fire thankfully, seeing as he didn't want to be the reason why they didn't receive a vital shipment of coal, which could become severely catastrophic, seeing as they always seemed to be in such short supply with the tanks burning through metric tons of them just to keep moving.
It did actually help the ink on that parchment dry faster though, which was a pretty big plus in Zan's book. He quickly rolled that up and put it on top of the other pile of actually finished reports that would need to be hauled over to the supply officer, noticing with at least some elation that the pile actually looked close to overtaking the ones that weren't finished yet. He leaned back with a sigh of relief and examined the fruits of his labor for but a second before abruptly rising to his feet and leaving his damnable office after squeezing through the narrow gap between the table and the wall.
He was very glad to see that there was a pair of very unfortunate soldiers just passing through, who were quickly saddled with the transporting of the finished paperwork, their objections quickly brushed aside once he was certain they were just aimlessly wandering around the stronghold. Once that was done, he went off to find the most sympathetic face he'd met on this Agni forsaken place, prepared to bargain with all the experience that sixteen years as the son of a noble brought along with enough desperation to make a man who had just found an oasis after days of thirst feel inferior in the face of his...
He was angry.
Shivering with burning anger that was entirely unrelated to the ice that he had just about managed to break himself free from. It was a familiar anger, yet one made all to new and all to raw by the realities he now found himself faced with.
The failure stung, the treachery stung, the hypocrisy stung, the rejection stung; like vultures they pecked at the scars that still hurt and that would continue to hurt until the end, tearing those old wounds open with salt tipped beaks just to add to the unending misery that had been his life for the last eight years. Eight years with nothing to show for now that the triumph that would lead up to it was stolen from him, because of the Avatar...
He was supposed to be on their side!
His hands found his face as he let out a scream of frustration, a guttural sound of pure despair that had been another product of the murder those thieving rotten bastards that had taken everything from him, that he couldn't even raise a hand against because the Avatar had decided they just got to live after everything they had done to him, to them! Those hands were now furiously rubbing at his eyes to rid them of things that were not there, because he was not crying!
Not when there was so much to be done.
The clarity that came over him was sudden, so sudden that his despair turned into joy, his growling turned to laughter and his shivers transformed from those of anger to that of anticipation as ideas upon ideas on just how to turn these fortunes flooded his mind...
They thought it was over?
Oh no... No, no, no.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
Not while he still drew breath, not while the enemy was still out there and the last true obstacles in the way of his path to justice had just left after lecturing him. (lecturing him! on mercy for those that had never shown him any to begin with!) What happened was merely a setback, and it could even be said that it made things easier for a better plan to be formulated out of the ashes of the old one...
Those villagers were awfully exposed now, weren't they? It would be a shame if something were to happen to those traitors and the murderous dogs that were with them, before they reached safety...
Zan found his target exactly where he wanted him to be.
In a relatively isolated part of the stronghold with no one around to disrupt his plans, with his back turned to him so that he would be blind to his approach until it was too late for him to escape his clutches. He double checked his preparations and made sure that there was nothing he was missing before finally nodding in satisfaction and moving in to enact his masterstroke.
He executed it perfectly.
A tap on the shoulder prevented the tired soldier from dozing off, while an extended bowl of refreshing broth was swiftly taken off of his hands as soon as it was offered and devoured with so much gusto that Zan was afraid that the poor man was going to choke on it. Thankfully, such a thing did not come to pass and the soldiers quickly finished off his impromptu meal and turned towards savior with words of his immense gratitude.
That idea died in the cradle when the man came face to face with the unrepentant grin on Zan's face.
I've never seen someone's face sour that fast.
This is going to be fun.
"Zan..." His fellow junior officer grumbled as he motioned a hand toward the seat across from him, which Zan gracefully took after chuckling at the man's upcoming misfortune.
"Kai," He returned, though his voice just couldn't carry the same level of curtness in it that his comrade boasted, for obvious reasons. "How goes your watch?"
Oh now that's a dirty look. "Miserable as always, not that your presence is of any help."
"Now, now..." He chided, "Is that any way to speak to a man that has gone through all the trouble of making sure you are taken care of?" He tutted and shook his head. "It's not my fault that the Captain decided to stick you here to teach you a lesson." He still didn't know what that was about, but anything that got a man two straight weeks of sentry duty must have been a pretty big fuck-up.
"What do you want, Zan?"
Straight to the point, eh? No sense beating around the bush then.
"Saw your name under a mission for Gaipan, I want it to be mine." The absence of marching orders did not mean they were permitted to sit in Bianjiang and twiddle their thumbs until they arrived, which meant that it wasn't strange for the soldiers of their company to go on patrols every once in awhile. Not that he and his platoon had participated in any mind you, which was something he was planning on changing.
He expected more of a challenge from the man, thus it was somewhat of a surprise to see his shoulders sag and mutter a despondent, "What do I get out of it?"
Must be more tired than I thought...
Damn, what exactly did he do?
"You get the paperwork," He raised a hand to stop the torrent of objecting expletives before continuing, "You get the paperwork that I have been working on for a week now, and I talk to the Captain about how that's more than enough punishment for you." The bulk of the backlog of papers left by his lazy fellows and superior had been handled anyway, it wasn't like he was shortchanging the man. "And I get to finally go out and do something for once."
He could see that Kai was putting serious thought into it, "You sure you can take it?" He said finally, rubbing his tired eyes with a sigh, "Not to offend, but you aren't exactly... experienced."
"None taken, since I do need the experience." Zan shrugged, "What better way to get it than out in the field, before we are committed to an offensive."
"And your men?"
"The same tactic, get myself out there now and assuage any concerns about my leadership."
Come on... Accept already!
"What about the mission itself?"
"Investigate the flooding and help escort the displaced civilians into their new homes." That was one mission that wouldn't jostle his moral compass around too much, seeing as someone had actively tried to drown a village full of people (including children) by blowing up the dam that was in the area. "I'm not concerned about any rats scurrying about in the shadows."
"You should be, the local resistance has been a nuisance."
"Against Village Garrisons maybe, certainly not against a Tank Platoon." It was just a matter of not getting himself ambushed, the area around Gaipan was a particularly dense forest that had aided the local insurgents for a long time, but he had some ideas on just how to use that to his advantage if those same insurgents were stupid enough to attack them.
Kai looked at him for a moment before finally shaking his head an grumbling "Fine, you can have it."
"Thank you." He said, relishing his triumph with a grin.
"Yeah yeah... Just don't forget to find me before I wake up so we can arrange it with the Captain."
If there is anything you've seen in this chapter that you feel doesn't make sense, please don't refrain from informing me. I'm trying to modify what I know about conducting actual warfare into a mold that would fit Avatar and would accept any criticism in my attempts at doing so. Thank you for reading.
Zan shot a look at the bright lantern that flared up and down with his breathing as he carefully set aside the parchment he was writing so the ink could dry, before he drew another one from the giant pile that weighed down his desk, he quickly unfurled the scroll and read through its contents as he massaged his aching wrist before picking up his quill and getting back to work with a sigh.
He steadfastly ignored the dimming lantern.
Breathe in, breathe out.
It had been only a week since Zan had settled into his position in the army, and the only enemy he'd seen was the mountains of paperwork he had to deal with.
Something he would have been grateful about under normal circumstances, considering that he was behind the relatively safe walls of the Bianjiang Stronghold and had yet to be thrust into a life or death struggle with people hellbent on killing him and those under him and was kept busy enough with paperwork that he did not have to endure too much poorly-hidden glares and passive-aggressive posturing from his own subordinates whenever he was near them.
Breathe in, breathe out.
He squinted as the light dimmed again, sighing in relief when he spotted no mistakes on the parchment.
But being grateful for it was something he just couldn't bring himself to do, because the paperwork that had been foisted upon him by both his immediate superior and his fellow Lieutenants had made sure he had very little else to do besides whittle away at the endless stacks of papers that plagued his desk in a cramped office so thoughtfully provided to him by the Commander of the base so he might perform his current duties in an efficient manner before their marching orders came through.
Well... Zan had made sure no one questioned his work ethic when it came to paperwork, but he was pretty sure he himself was going to have to find someone else to push all this work to because he was falling behind on his own training and that would be akin to suicide among these parts, not to mention that he still needed to establish a proper rapport with his men that didn't just consist of avoiding them, that would actually get him killed out there.
Breathe in, breathe out.
He wouldn't deny that that this wasn't important work, the opposite in fact. The 49th Company, like every army in this world and beyond, needed food to keep its soldiers fed, needed weapons and armor to keep them armed and protected, endless fuel for its tanks and parts to keep them functioning, medicine to keep the soldiers from dying, a steady stream of reinforcement to replace the ones that did and a secure supply train with proper infrastructure to make sure they actually received all of them.
These simple rules did not change, in fact; they were made even more important because of the realities of this world.
He... just believed it should be someone else that handled all the necessary arrangements that would start that process, and also for that person to quickly take it off of his hands before he went stir crazy.
Because he was not made to burn in tranquility, to kindle silently within this wretched idleness he so despised, that stifled his flame with repetitiveness and monotony until his mind would go numb and all that would be left of his thoughts were nothing more than a reel of hopeless memories he could not change no matter what he did when that flame was meant to soar toward the heavens with power and passion and life and-
The flaring of the lantern brought Zan back to the present, and he quickly regulated his breathing and let go of the little fire before his frantic breathing could cause an accident and make him lose hours of work.
That... That thought had gotten away from him there, into very unpleasant places he'd rather not revisit, ever.
He wasn't as over this as he had previously thought, though that was not surprising given that he was just one week removed from a severe emotional breakdown and the conditions in which he conducted his current work was bringing up some bad memories he hadn't really dealt with before having been packed off into the army, which was probably really stupid in hindsight because in what world would it be a good idea to offload emotional baggage when he was actually in the field?
Mind you, there was also a valuable lesson there about him not practicing his breathing in such a dangerous place, especially with such unbalanced thoughts running through his head. He would keep that in mind, and carefully tucked away the rest of that outburst in a cabinet to be dealt with (you guessed it) later.
Nothing had actually caught on fire thankfully, seeing as he didn't want to be the reason why they didn't receive a vital shipment of coal, which could become severely catastrophic, seeing as they always seemed to be in such short supply with the tanks burning through metric tons of them just to keep moving.
It did actually help the ink on that parchment dry faster though, which was a pretty big plus in Zan's book. He quickly rolled that up and put it on top of the other pile of actually finished reports that would need to be hauled over to the supply officer, noticing with at least some elation that the pile actually looked close to overtaking the ones that weren't finished yet. He leaned back with a sigh of relief and examined the fruits of his labor for but a second before abruptly rising to his feet and leaving his damnable office after squeezing through the narrow gap between the table and the wall.
He was very glad to see that there was a pair of very unfortunate soldiers just passing through, who were quickly saddled with the transporting of the finished paperwork, their objections quickly brushed aside once he was certain they were just aimlessly wandering around the stronghold. Once that was done, he went off to find the most sympathetic face he'd met on this Agni forsaken place, prepared to bargain with all the experience that sixteen years as the son of a noble brought along with enough desperation to make a man who had just found an oasis after days of thirst feel inferior in the face of his...
__________
He was angry.
Shivering with burning anger that was entirely unrelated to the ice that he had just about managed to break himself free from. It was a familiar anger, yet one made all to new and all to raw by the realities he now found himself faced with.
The failure stung, the treachery stung, the hypocrisy stung, the rejection stung; like vultures they pecked at the scars that still hurt and that would continue to hurt until the end, tearing those old wounds open with salt tipped beaks just to add to the unending misery that had been his life for the last eight years. Eight years with nothing to show for now that the triumph that would lead up to it was stolen from him, because of the Avatar...
He was supposed to be on their side!
His hands found his face as he let out a scream of frustration, a guttural sound of pure despair that had been another product of the murder those thieving rotten bastards that had taken everything from him, that he couldn't even raise a hand against because the Avatar had decided they just got to live after everything they had done to him, to them! Those hands were now furiously rubbing at his eyes to rid them of things that were not there, because he was not crying!
Not when there was so much to be done.
The clarity that came over him was sudden, so sudden that his despair turned into joy, his growling turned to laughter and his shivers transformed from those of anger to that of anticipation as ideas upon ideas on just how to turn these fortunes flooded his mind...
They thought it was over?
Oh no... No, no, no.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
Not while he still drew breath, not while the enemy was still out there and the last true obstacles in the way of his path to justice had just left after lecturing him. (lecturing him! on mercy for those that had never shown him any to begin with!) What happened was merely a setback, and it could even be said that it made things easier for a better plan to be formulated out of the ashes of the old one...
Those villagers were awfully exposed now, weren't they? It would be a shame if something were to happen to those traitors and the murderous dogs that were with them, before they reached safety...
__________
Zan found his target exactly where he wanted him to be.
In a relatively isolated part of the stronghold with no one around to disrupt his plans, with his back turned to him so that he would be blind to his approach until it was too late for him to escape his clutches. He double checked his preparations and made sure that there was nothing he was missing before finally nodding in satisfaction and moving in to enact his masterstroke.
He executed it perfectly.
A tap on the shoulder prevented the tired soldier from dozing off, while an extended bowl of refreshing broth was swiftly taken off of his hands as soon as it was offered and devoured with so much gusto that Zan was afraid that the poor man was going to choke on it. Thankfully, such a thing did not come to pass and the soldiers quickly finished off his impromptu meal and turned towards savior with words of his immense gratitude.
That idea died in the cradle when the man came face to face with the unrepentant grin on Zan's face.
I've never seen someone's face sour that fast.
This is going to be fun.
"Zan..." His fellow junior officer grumbled as he motioned a hand toward the seat across from him, which Zan gracefully took after chuckling at the man's upcoming misfortune.
"Kai," He returned, though his voice just couldn't carry the same level of curtness in it that his comrade boasted, for obvious reasons. "How goes your watch?"
Oh now that's a dirty look. "Miserable as always, not that your presence is of any help."
"Now, now..." He chided, "Is that any way to speak to a man that has gone through all the trouble of making sure you are taken care of?" He tutted and shook his head. "It's not my fault that the Captain decided to stick you here to teach you a lesson." He still didn't know what that was about, but anything that got a man two straight weeks of sentry duty must have been a pretty big fuck-up.
"What do you want, Zan?"
Straight to the point, eh? No sense beating around the bush then.
"Saw your name under a mission for Gaipan, I want it to be mine." The absence of marching orders did not mean they were permitted to sit in Bianjiang and twiddle their thumbs until they arrived, which meant that it wasn't strange for the soldiers of their company to go on patrols every once in awhile. Not that he and his platoon had participated in any mind you, which was something he was planning on changing.
He expected more of a challenge from the man, thus it was somewhat of a surprise to see his shoulders sag and mutter a despondent, "What do I get out of it?"
Must be more tired than I thought...
Damn, what exactly did he do?
"You get the paperwork," He raised a hand to stop the torrent of objecting expletives before continuing, "You get the paperwork that I have been working on for a week now, and I talk to the Captain about how that's more than enough punishment for you." The bulk of the backlog of papers left by his lazy fellows and superior had been handled anyway, it wasn't like he was shortchanging the man. "And I get to finally go out and do something for once."
He could see that Kai was putting serious thought into it, "You sure you can take it?" He said finally, rubbing his tired eyes with a sigh, "Not to offend, but you aren't exactly... experienced."
"None taken, since I do need the experience." Zan shrugged, "What better way to get it than out in the field, before we are committed to an offensive."
"And your men?"
"The same tactic, get myself out there now and assuage any concerns about my leadership."
Come on... Accept already!
"What about the mission itself?"
"Investigate the flooding and help escort the displaced civilians into their new homes." That was one mission that wouldn't jostle his moral compass around too much, seeing as someone had actively tried to drown a village full of people (including children) by blowing up the dam that was in the area. "I'm not concerned about any rats scurrying about in the shadows."
"You should be, the local resistance has been a nuisance."
"Against Village Garrisons maybe, certainly not against a Tank Platoon." It was just a matter of not getting himself ambushed, the area around Gaipan was a particularly dense forest that had aided the local insurgents for a long time, but he had some ideas on just how to use that to his advantage if those same insurgents were stupid enough to attack them.
Kai looked at him for a moment before finally shaking his head an grumbling "Fine, you can have it."
"Thank you." He said, relishing his triumph with a grin.
"Yeah yeah... Just don't forget to find me before I wake up so we can arrange it with the Captain."
__________
If there is anything you've seen in this chapter that you feel doesn't make sense, please don't refrain from informing me. I'm trying to modify what I know about conducting actual warfare into a mold that would fit Avatar and would accept any criticism in my attempts at doing so. Thank you for reading.
- Location
- Elsewhere
"So here's how you handle emotional stress. You imagine a fire."
"Okay, and then?"
"Then imagine all of the things that are distressing you, and throw them into the fire. Watch them burn. Feel the fire getting hotter and hotter."
"Then what?"
"Then compact that fire down into a tiny jar and don't think about it. Any time you have more stress, just ignite it and shove it in the jar."
"...that doesn't really seem like dealing with the problem, just putting it off."
"Exactly! That's why it works so well."
"Won't that just make more problems later?"
"Sure. At some future date, at the worst possible moment, it will all explode out and you'll go crazy."
"Uh huh, and then what?"
"Then, if you die, they write plays about your dramatic heroism. If you survive, then they declare you Fire Lord."
"...I'm starting to see where the Fire Nation's problems come from."
Zan (Courtesy of the Crusader Kings 2)
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So... I was wondering just how I was going to make an image of our dear protagonist when I had practically no talent in drawing. Luckily, I did not have to do so for very long, because I remembered I had access to a certain DLC in a certain game that would allow me to do what I wanted.
It's obviously not perfect, seeing as the mod doesn't exactly have a lot of avenues for customization for its custom portraits, (ignore the green eyes for instance, the Fire Nation ethnicity kept bugging out and making the character bald so I had to improvise) but it was the best I could manage with what I had and I am somewhat satisfied with the results of it.
You need only pay attention to the appearance, nothing else matters in that screenshot.
(btw The CK2 Mod is called Avatar - Four Nations)
It's obviously not perfect, seeing as the mod doesn't exactly have a lot of avenues for customization for its custom portraits, (ignore the green eyes for instance, the Fire Nation ethnicity kept bugging out and making the character bald so I had to improvise) but it was the best I could manage with what I had and I am somewhat satisfied with the results of it.
You need only pay attention to the appearance, nothing else matters in that screenshot.
(btw The CK2 Mod is called Avatar - Four Nations)
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Chapter 2: The Gaipan Investigation, Part 1
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
One would think that having a gigantic continent full of people who could shape the very earth itself would lend itself to building some better roads...
Easily proven false of course, as the simple view presented to him from his perch at the top of his Tank could attest. The ill-maintained dirt road his platoon was currently traversing looked just one step away from being reclaimed by mother nature. Vegetation was growing wherever it could, aided by the trees that surrounded them; disuse due to the war taking its toll, working hand in hand with weather and dotting bumps along every nook and cranny of the road.
That this road hadn't just become another part of the forest yet was only due to the efforts the local garrisons that had a vested interested in keeping it operational, using it to patrol the forests and keep their supply lines safe, though even that was becoming increasingly sporadic as the front moved eastwards and the locals got used to the presence of the Fire Nation.
The final death knell of the current iteration of this road seemed to come with the construction of the Bianjiang Stronghold, located on the southern bank of the Guipi River that flowed into Full Moon Bay to provide both a foothold on the other side that would take the pressure off of their colonies to its west and serve as a resupplying base for both the Army and the Navy.
It had done so marvelously, as soon as it had been completed, it had been practically invaluable as a supply depot, omitting the need to use the scattered and ill-maintained dirt roads that connected the northwestern subcontinent to the rest of the Earth Kingdom and making it so that they didn't need to waste resources to capture the Serpent's Pass just so they could ferry the supplies instead of just bringing them in with ships.
And seeing as no sane civilian was going to put their lives in danger by heading in the direction of the war, and the number of people that chose to seek refuge in the Fire Nation Colonies were small enough to be irrelevant already, the road was quickly being freed to languish about in its current state of disrepair as it pleased, while the ones that led to the active front lines flourished with the attention that was heaped upon them.
Okay... Maybe the blame did not entirely lay on the Earth Kingdom for not building a better road system for themselves when they were the sole owner of the continent for centuries upon centuries, and had a very easy way of making and maintaining one, but one could not expect the Fire Nation to invest in irrelevant infrastructure when those resources could be used on furthering the war effort, the Colonies would get their dues once the war ended, he was sure of it.
Whenever that is.
Still, for all the unpleasant suffering that was heaped upon him by the bumps and scrapes that dotted the road like an infestation, he was still enjoying every second he spent not being stuck inside that cramped office all day, letting the refreshing wind soothe his nerves and finally letting his hair down for a little bit when seeing the peaceful woodland that had long since been removed from the horrors of the greater war by the always moving front-lines.
The small fact that he was leading a Tank Platoon into that peaceful woodland did not escape him of course, but that did not bother him as much as it should, seeing as they were going there to deal with a bunch of radicals that thought flooding a whole town, filled with innocent men, women and children entirely unrelated to the war effort, a good way to have their vengeance, while also securing those that had been displaced by their actions.
Of course, the fact that he was riding on top of a freaking Tank was more than enough for him to put that train of thought on the back burner, because even the very urgent matter of his rapidly approaching moral dilemma about 'killing monsters' and 'sacrificing for the greater good' had to stand back at the sheer awesomeness he was currently experiencing, posthumously fulfilling an old childhood fantasy of his.
Thunk.
He winced with pain as the Tank easily cleared a particularly nasty bump, uncaring for the comfort of the passenger on its back as he suffered a particularly hard landing after being subjected to the cruel whims of gravity, his special moment quickly lost.
...Still worth it.
Though he might just want to bite the bullet and take the return trip inside the Tank. Even if Zan didn't particularly want to subject himself to an idle trip inside a supremely cramped space filled with people who didn't exactly enjoy his presence as their commanding officer, (though he was hoping this trip would result in at least some sort of amnesty between him and his soldiers) he also valued not having to deal with any unneeded bruising.
Now... It looked as though they were about to enter a particularly dense part of the forest, where even the sun would have trouble reaching them judging by how numerous and close together the trees were. The decrepit road seems to have reached a new low in its unfortunate state as the natures hold on it started to get more and more complete until it was indistinguishable from the forest cover as they moved forward.
This meant they were getting close to their destination.
Which meant it was showtime...
Zan took a deep breath and tried to calm the sudden swell of dread that overcame him, before forcing those feelings down and centering himself with some difficulty. Once that was done, he knocked on the metal roof of the Tank, giving the signal that brought the Tank he was riding on, thus the entire convoy to a gradual stop right at the edge of the denser forest they needed to head into.
He quickly jumped off of the Tank and paced to rid himself of the soreness and cramps of a long journey as his men started filing out of the Tanks. He gave them the customary moment to adjust like he just had before steeling himself and calling over the Tank Officers for what would be the first moment he relayed orders in an actually serious environment.
Thankfully, each of the respective Tank Commanders filed before him in a relatively timely manner, only some of them looking visibly chagrined at the relayed order, something which he was less thankful for. Not that he preferred the possibility of insubordination from them mind you, it was because Zan was intimately aware of the source of their grievances, that being... well, him.
Zan knew would feel the same way if he was put in their shoes, who wouldn't? Being forced to obey the orders of a person whom you had almost two or more full decades of experience over, handing the lives of you and your men to a child who was only there because of nepotism and no particular genius of his own, it would be enough to make any lesser army mutiny at the very idea.
Not them though, or else he wouldn't even be here.
He had mixed feelings about that, though exasperation usually smothered it down rather well.
And yes, he was aware that at sixteen, he was considered an adult by Fire Nation standards, though he very much doubted the men in front of him cared about that little tidbit.
Anyway, their grievances would be the easiest to soothe once he proved himself as a capable officer. He had already gotten a solid grasp on the basics during his rushed training in the Academy, and the only thing he'd brought with him to the army was a luggage filled with every Modern Military Treatise he could get his hands on, along with some Firebending scrolls his father wouldn't notice missing until it was too late.
Yes... He (admittedly, with a rather high amount of optimism) believed it would be enough to bring himself up to normal standards and even surpass it with time. Time which he would be using small missions like this to add practical experience on top of his ever-expanding theoretical one. Time was all he needed, which considering the nature of his current occupation? He very well might not have...
But yeah, his source of worry was not some of his subordinates being chagrined with his presence, it was those who looked perfectly okay with their current situation.
Because their grievances were likely not born out of self-preservation, they were born out of self-interest.
Some of them had probably bought into the rumor that he was only doing this because he was a 'spoiled noble' who would 'tuck tail and run' at the first taste of danger or be assigned to a desk job until he ultimately got bored and left, though not before complaining every day that he didn't have the luxurious life he had back at Home and being utterly convinced he could win the war single-handedly if he was a General.
Both regrettably wrong, seeing as he was perfectly fine with picking up pursuing his dreams right where he had left off. But the choice of opting out of his father's plan had not been afforded to him, neither was just letting himself be assigned to a desk job... His father had enough influence to get him a rank on the front line with just two years in the Military Academy, he probably had enough influence to keep him there.
Though not even he had enough influence to save him should he prove... Inadequate.
Nepotism was a rather strange concept for the Fire Nation army, he'd learned. The tale of the Ambitious Soldier sidelining his snobby blue-blooded superior to nothing more than a disgraced clerk by outsmarting him and taking his place with an Agni Kai was still popular for a reason. Meritocracy was still the rule of the land, and would probably continue do be so until the war was over, and he was vulnerable to being usurped by those below him.
Should that happen? He might as well consider himself a dead man, twice over.
So he would have to be on his guard against the snakes who would follow his every order until the opportunity presented itself to strike and cast him aside as soon as he made a mistake.
And here he was, choosing this mission to boldly say that he was here to stay, whether they liked it or not...
Right... Focus.
He took his eye off of his subordinates and turned to look at his forces. It was the traditional platoon composition that consisted of Ten Tanks, each crewed with five soldiers that had at least two Firebenders each. Up to two soldiers were able to seamlessly detach from each crew and serve as infantry seeing as only a bare minimum of three were required to make sure the Tank ran as efficiently as possible, with a single person to Firebend and two to drive the Tank itself while the infantry warded off any threats that might get two close for comfort by taking advantage off the Tanks weaknesses.
Speaking of which... Gave him an idea.
He quickly turned to the man that was effectively his second-in-command, "Platoon Sergeant Qiang, report."
"Sir." The burly man saluted promptly, which did nothing to comfort his burgeoning paranoia. He quickly broke off with a small gesture from him, stroking his prodigious mustache as he took out a map from the crevices of his armor and swiftly unfurled it, "We are close to the location described to us on the Garrison Commander's missive, a well-mapped area for some time now... Though our usual routes seem to have fallen into a state of disrepair."
He frowned at that apparent tardiness, though... "The insurrection was reported to be a rather recent affair..."
Qiang nodded, "Yes, this area has been under our control for several years, and the locals of the village have extensively cooperated with the Colonial Authorities, but there are always sporadic occasions where dissenters appear and disappear just as fast."
And none of them had even come close to making such damage.
Until...
-..whole village evacuated just in time due to prior warning from a potential spy-.
-...The boy dressed like Water tribe, looked the part for all I know, suspect Waterbender involvement. North Pole joined the war?-
-...-relocating to a safe location at some fifty miles north of the valley, setting up camp where the Apple Road ends, caution advised...
There was a collective nod at that, no one seemed to be questioning anything, yet.
Just as he was thinking that, someone did indeed pipe up, "There is... The Avatar."
There was a collective pause at that, with everyone slowly turning to stare at the wizened man who had said it. Zan's brain was going a mile a second with going through the report in his head again and again, before finally sighing in relief.
"The missive does not mention a Flying Bison," He said, making his voice as deadpan as he could manage despite the recent case of heart-leaping-to-throat. "I believe that would warrant at least mention..." He inwardly grinned at his quick diffusing of the situation as everyone followed him in expressing their relief, no one was exactly eager to come face the World Spirit in battle.
Right then... "We'll be making sure to cover our bases, I want the tanks running on bare minimum crews." He said, nodding in satisfaction as several nods accompanied his order, "Make sure everyone is covering each other, I don't want to lose anyone for being too complacent when the enemy is reported to excel in guerrilla warfare." He racked his head for anything he might be forgetting, "Be very cautious of any traps laid for us, doubly so for the Tanks and be especially cautious near the water. I know anyone can wear blue clothes, but there is no harm in being cautious, especially when a flood is concerned..."
"No such things as coincidences..." Someone mumbled, though he couldn't make up who, he nodded all the same.
"Exactly!" He ignored the squeak the followed, "Our first order of business is to secure the villagers, let's get to it!"
Sufficed to say, he froze when faced with ten perfect salutes in affirmative, shortly followed by everyone in front of him spinning on the balls of their feet and the air ringing with the voices of shouted orders from each respective Tank Commander as controlled chaos took a hold of his platoon.
He took a moment to get over his surprise, before relaxing with a minuscule huff of laughter and wiping the sweat off his brow.
Why did I get so sweat-?
"You're on the right track."
WAH!
He jumped as the presence he had completely forgotten about after he'd gotten so into relaying his commands reintroduced itself, Platoon Sergeant Qiang regarding him with an amused expression as he had to get over his shock for a second time in a single minute.
"What?" He bit out, frustration coloring his voice.
"With them, I mean..." The man said slowly as he indicated over the the shouting sergeants, "A good first impression like this will go a long way to quell any dissatisfaction with your leadership, if you continue the trend that is..."
Right... His second-in-command was one of the cryptic ones.
Joy.
"Get to work Qiang,"
"Sir." It didn't even take him a second to perform a salute that looked more sassy than it had any right to before leaving him alone.
At least he finally got out of that damned office...
Easily proven false of course, as the simple view presented to him from his perch at the top of his Tank could attest. The ill-maintained dirt road his platoon was currently traversing looked just one step away from being reclaimed by mother nature. Vegetation was growing wherever it could, aided by the trees that surrounded them; disuse due to the war taking its toll, working hand in hand with weather and dotting bumps along every nook and cranny of the road.
That this road hadn't just become another part of the forest yet was only due to the efforts the local garrisons that had a vested interested in keeping it operational, using it to patrol the forests and keep their supply lines safe, though even that was becoming increasingly sporadic as the front moved eastwards and the locals got used to the presence of the Fire Nation.
The final death knell of the current iteration of this road seemed to come with the construction of the Bianjiang Stronghold, located on the southern bank of the Guipi River that flowed into Full Moon Bay to provide both a foothold on the other side that would take the pressure off of their colonies to its west and serve as a resupplying base for both the Army and the Navy.
It had done so marvelously, as soon as it had been completed, it had been practically invaluable as a supply depot, omitting the need to use the scattered and ill-maintained dirt roads that connected the northwestern subcontinent to the rest of the Earth Kingdom and making it so that they didn't need to waste resources to capture the Serpent's Pass just so they could ferry the supplies instead of just bringing them in with ships.
And seeing as no sane civilian was going to put their lives in danger by heading in the direction of the war, and the number of people that chose to seek refuge in the Fire Nation Colonies were small enough to be irrelevant already, the road was quickly being freed to languish about in its current state of disrepair as it pleased, while the ones that led to the active front lines flourished with the attention that was heaped upon them.
Okay... Maybe the blame did not entirely lay on the Earth Kingdom for not building a better road system for themselves when they were the sole owner of the continent for centuries upon centuries, and had a very easy way of making and maintaining one, but one could not expect the Fire Nation to invest in irrelevant infrastructure when those resources could be used on furthering the war effort, the Colonies would get their dues once the war ended, he was sure of it.
Whenever that is.
Still, for all the unpleasant suffering that was heaped upon him by the bumps and scrapes that dotted the road like an infestation, he was still enjoying every second he spent not being stuck inside that cramped office all day, letting the refreshing wind soothe his nerves and finally letting his hair down for a little bit when seeing the peaceful woodland that had long since been removed from the horrors of the greater war by the always moving front-lines.
The small fact that he was leading a Tank Platoon into that peaceful woodland did not escape him of course, but that did not bother him as much as it should, seeing as they were going there to deal with a bunch of radicals that thought flooding a whole town, filled with innocent men, women and children entirely unrelated to the war effort, a good way to have their vengeance, while also securing those that had been displaced by their actions.
Of course, the fact that he was riding on top of a freaking Tank was more than enough for him to put that train of thought on the back burner, because even the very urgent matter of his rapidly approaching moral dilemma about 'killing monsters' and 'sacrificing for the greater good' had to stand back at the sheer awesomeness he was currently experiencing, posthumously fulfilling an old childhood fantasy of his.
Thunk.
He winced with pain as the Tank easily cleared a particularly nasty bump, uncaring for the comfort of the passenger on its back as he suffered a particularly hard landing after being subjected to the cruel whims of gravity, his special moment quickly lost.
...Still worth it.
Though he might just want to bite the bullet and take the return trip inside the Tank. Even if Zan didn't particularly want to subject himself to an idle trip inside a supremely cramped space filled with people who didn't exactly enjoy his presence as their commanding officer, (though he was hoping this trip would result in at least some sort of amnesty between him and his soldiers) he also valued not having to deal with any unneeded bruising.
Now... It looked as though they were about to enter a particularly dense part of the forest, where even the sun would have trouble reaching them judging by how numerous and close together the trees were. The decrepit road seems to have reached a new low in its unfortunate state as the natures hold on it started to get more and more complete until it was indistinguishable from the forest cover as they moved forward.
This meant they were getting close to their destination.
Which meant it was showtime...
Zan took a deep breath and tried to calm the sudden swell of dread that overcame him, before forcing those feelings down and centering himself with some difficulty. Once that was done, he knocked on the metal roof of the Tank, giving the signal that brought the Tank he was riding on, thus the entire convoy to a gradual stop right at the edge of the denser forest they needed to head into.
He quickly jumped off of the Tank and paced to rid himself of the soreness and cramps of a long journey as his men started filing out of the Tanks. He gave them the customary moment to adjust like he just had before steeling himself and calling over the Tank Officers for what would be the first moment he relayed orders in an actually serious environment.
Thankfully, each of the respective Tank Commanders filed before him in a relatively timely manner, only some of them looking visibly chagrined at the relayed order, something which he was less thankful for. Not that he preferred the possibility of insubordination from them mind you, it was because Zan was intimately aware of the source of their grievances, that being... well, him.
Zan knew would feel the same way if he was put in their shoes, who wouldn't? Being forced to obey the orders of a person whom you had almost two or more full decades of experience over, handing the lives of you and your men to a child who was only there because of nepotism and no particular genius of his own, it would be enough to make any lesser army mutiny at the very idea.
Not them though, or else he wouldn't even be here.
He had mixed feelings about that, though exasperation usually smothered it down rather well.
And yes, he was aware that at sixteen, he was considered an adult by Fire Nation standards, though he very much doubted the men in front of him cared about that little tidbit.
Anyway, their grievances would be the easiest to soothe once he proved himself as a capable officer. He had already gotten a solid grasp on the basics during his rushed training in the Academy, and the only thing he'd brought with him to the army was a luggage filled with every Modern Military Treatise he could get his hands on, along with some Firebending scrolls his father wouldn't notice missing until it was too late.
Yes... He (admittedly, with a rather high amount of optimism) believed it would be enough to bring himself up to normal standards and even surpass it with time. Time which he would be using small missions like this to add practical experience on top of his ever-expanding theoretical one. Time was all he needed, which considering the nature of his current occupation? He very well might not have...
But yeah, his source of worry was not some of his subordinates being chagrined with his presence, it was those who looked perfectly okay with their current situation.
Because their grievances were likely not born out of self-preservation, they were born out of self-interest.
Some of them had probably bought into the rumor that he was only doing this because he was a 'spoiled noble' who would 'tuck tail and run' at the first taste of danger or be assigned to a desk job until he ultimately got bored and left, though not before complaining every day that he didn't have the luxurious life he had back at Home and being utterly convinced he could win the war single-handedly if he was a General.
Both regrettably wrong, seeing as he was perfectly fine with picking up pursuing his dreams right where he had left off. But the choice of opting out of his father's plan had not been afforded to him, neither was just letting himself be assigned to a desk job... His father had enough influence to get him a rank on the front line with just two years in the Military Academy, he probably had enough influence to keep him there.
Though not even he had enough influence to save him should he prove... Inadequate.
Nepotism was a rather strange concept for the Fire Nation army, he'd learned. The tale of the Ambitious Soldier sidelining his snobby blue-blooded superior to nothing more than a disgraced clerk by outsmarting him and taking his place with an Agni Kai was still popular for a reason. Meritocracy was still the rule of the land, and would probably continue do be so until the war was over, and he was vulnerable to being usurped by those below him.
Should that happen? He might as well consider himself a dead man, twice over.
So he would have to be on his guard against the snakes who would follow his every order until the opportunity presented itself to strike and cast him aside as soon as he made a mistake.
And here he was, choosing this mission to boldly say that he was here to stay, whether they liked it or not...
Right... Focus.
He took his eye off of his subordinates and turned to look at his forces. It was the traditional platoon composition that consisted of Ten Tanks, each crewed with five soldiers that had at least two Firebenders each. Up to two soldiers were able to seamlessly detach from each crew and serve as infantry seeing as only a bare minimum of three were required to make sure the Tank ran as efficiently as possible, with a single person to Firebend and two to drive the Tank itself while the infantry warded off any threats that might get two close for comfort by taking advantage off the Tanks weaknesses.
Speaking of which... Gave him an idea.
He quickly turned to the man that was effectively his second-in-command, "Platoon Sergeant Qiang, report."
"Sir." The burly man saluted promptly, which did nothing to comfort his burgeoning paranoia. He quickly broke off with a small gesture from him, stroking his prodigious mustache as he took out a map from the crevices of his armor and swiftly unfurled it, "We are close to the location described to us on the Garrison Commander's missive, a well-mapped area for some time now... Though our usual routes seem to have fallen into a state of disrepair."
He frowned at that apparent tardiness, though... "The insurrection was reported to be a rather recent affair..."
Qiang nodded, "Yes, this area has been under our control for several years, and the locals of the village have extensively cooperated with the Colonial Authorities, but there are always sporadic occasions where dissenters appear and disappear just as fast."
And none of them had even come close to making such damage.
Until...
__________
Village of Gaipan, located in Zhuru Valley, Guipi Forest... destroyed in a flood after the local dam was sabotaged..--..whole village evacuated just in time due to prior warning from a potential spy-.
-...The boy dressed like Water tribe, looked the part for all I know, suspect Waterbender involvement. North Pole joined the war?-
-...-relocating to a safe location at some fifty miles north of the valley, setting up camp where the Apple Road ends, caution advised...
__________
"The report mentioned Water Tribe... Though I very much doubt Chief Hakoda's fleet would dare strike so deep into Fire Nation territory and the Northern Water Tribe is as isolationist as it has ever been."There was a collective nod at that, no one seemed to be questioning anything, yet.
Just as he was thinking that, someone did indeed pipe up, "There is... The Avatar."
There was a collective pause at that, with everyone slowly turning to stare at the wizened man who had said it. Zan's brain was going a mile a second with going through the report in his head again and again, before finally sighing in relief.
"The missive does not mention a Flying Bison," He said, making his voice as deadpan as he could manage despite the recent case of heart-leaping-to-throat. "I believe that would warrant at least mention..." He inwardly grinned at his quick diffusing of the situation as everyone followed him in expressing their relief, no one was exactly eager to come face the World Spirit in battle.
Right then... "We'll be making sure to cover our bases, I want the tanks running on bare minimum crews." He said, nodding in satisfaction as several nods accompanied his order, "Make sure everyone is covering each other, I don't want to lose anyone for being too complacent when the enemy is reported to excel in guerrilla warfare." He racked his head for anything he might be forgetting, "Be very cautious of any traps laid for us, doubly so for the Tanks and be especially cautious near the water. I know anyone can wear blue clothes, but there is no harm in being cautious, especially when a flood is concerned..."
"No such things as coincidences..." Someone mumbled, though he couldn't make up who, he nodded all the same.
"Exactly!" He ignored the squeak the followed, "Our first order of business is to secure the villagers, let's get to it!"
Sufficed to say, he froze when faced with ten perfect salutes in affirmative, shortly followed by everyone in front of him spinning on the balls of their feet and the air ringing with the voices of shouted orders from each respective Tank Commander as controlled chaos took a hold of his platoon.
He took a moment to get over his surprise, before relaxing with a minuscule huff of laughter and wiping the sweat off his brow.
Why did I get so sweat-?
"You're on the right track."
WAH!
He jumped as the presence he had completely forgotten about after he'd gotten so into relaying his commands reintroduced itself, Platoon Sergeant Qiang regarding him with an amused expression as he had to get over his shock for a second time in a single minute.
"What?" He bit out, frustration coloring his voice.
"With them, I mean..." The man said slowly as he indicated over the the shouting sergeants, "A good first impression like this will go a long way to quell any dissatisfaction with your leadership, if you continue the trend that is..."
Right... His second-in-command was one of the cryptic ones.
Joy.
"Get to work Qiang,"
"Sir." It didn't even take him a second to perform a salute that looked more sassy than it had any right to before leaving him alone.
At least he finally got out of that damned office...
- Location
- Elsewhere
Remember, if you never communicate clearly, then you can never be proven wrong!
It's a powerful tool in the bureaucrat's arsenal.
How old the SI is currently ?
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh, he is old as Zuko (or at least some months older).
So, his style is basically close of the way than the fire bending is use by Iroh (calm but powerful) but not really because he didn't learn by the dragons, right ?
Did he try to learn to use the lightning ?
So, his style is basically close of the way than the fire bending is use by Iroh (calm but powerful) but not really because he didn't learn by the dragons, right ?
Did he try to learn to use the lightning ?
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Since the 'Dragon Technique' is hidden behind a knowledge gap he isn't aware of, he sadly has no way of knowing the existence of such a style, so he will be continuing the use of the 'Sozin Approved' Style of Firebending. Same with lightning, that seems to me like a secret the Royal Family would jealously hoard.
Though secrets have a way of getting out, especially if you flaunt it so much like Azula and Ozai do.
- Location
- Canada
It would be nice to know what show based knowledge he actually has at some point. He has at least a bit since he said that he watched some episodes, though admittedly they could be useless shit like the great divide.
Technically, because he see the show, he know the idea behind the lightning art.
But because that was his siblings who really watch this a lot , it's possible than he didn't remember of that part.
But because that was his siblings who really watch this a lot , it's possible than he didn't remember of that part.
Guardonion
Easily Distracted
- Location
- Türkiye
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There are places where his meta knowledge has become so mixed with his knowledge of the show that he can't tell them apart, one must also consider the decay his memory of those episodes (some of which he did not watch fully, some of them he didn't have any context for) suffered after 16 years of it.