genessia | viii ⚜ action + voice

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viii ⚜ action + voice

ＡＣＴＩＯＮ, ＯＰＥＮＴＯＡＮＹＯＮＥ

Zuko hadn't been to work in a while. He took a temporary leave of absence following Weiss's kidnapping and subsequent rescue, determined to keep a watchful eye on her in case Torchwick was foolish enough to go after her again. But time had passed and Torchwick had yet to make a move, and Weiss had recovered enough that he felt comfortable with backing off a little. (Besides, he was sure she knew that he had essentially spent the past month tailing her.) And while the dragon problem in Fayren wasn't as much of a dilemma as it had been, it was still something that required attention.

Which was why the Deputy Guardian could be found in various parts of Fayren throughout the day, from the streets of the city itself to the more mountainous and forested areas where the dragons tended to dwell. It was important to ensure that the native populations remained unharmed and those human-like dragons that had seen to capturing virgins were eradicated.

ＶＯＩＣＥ, ＬＯＣＫＥＤＴＯＫＡＴＡＲＡ

You said we were supposed to be friends now, that you forgave me for what I did in Ba Sing Se and, you know, everything else? If that's true, then I would like to ask you for a favor.

[ awkward... ]

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"So much royalty around here!" Demyx exclaimed without much tact. He paused for just a moment before taking his hand with his gloved one. "I'm Demyx. It's nice to meet you."

"...so you've met my sister, then?"

Zuko nodded in acknowledgement of the man's name, drawing his hand back after giving Demyx's a firm shake.

"No, I don't think so. She'd look kind of like you right? The princess I met has really long pretty hair. Rapunzel. She painted one of my walls for me, it's really awesome." Demyx smiled brightly at the memory because that had been pretty fun.

"I never met any royalty before but I know of seven princesses in my world. Sort of. Sometimes when the Superior talks I kinda tune him out you know?"

"Yeah, she would. Minus the, you know, scar?" Zuko pointed to that half of his face for a second. But the black hair, alabaster skin, and gold eyes and similar bone structures made it hard for the Fire Lord's children to deny they were related.

"I don't think I've met a Princess Rapunzel."

Zuko nodded, understanding. "I get that. I used to tune out a lot of the ministers when I was a kid. You want to run and play and they want you to listen to trade negotiations."

Demyx looked at it as if he hadn't really realized it was there. He had, but just hadn't given it much thought. "Looks like that hurt." He offered in the way of tactful commentary.

"You'll know if you do, her hair goes to the floor. It's really lovely. She let me play with it." Considering playing with his own was a ritual pastime, he'd enjoyed that.

"Seriously?!" He looked at him with a pleased expression. "Some people just go on and on and it's always about the same thing. It's not even new information. The time is at hand, Kingdom Hearts is almost finished, blah blah blah." He mimicked a little bit. "All I could think was how much I would rather play my sitar."

People usually avoided commenting on his scar at all costs, so having someone say something as simple as looks like that hurt was pretty refreshing. He didn't necessarily enjoy attention being drawn to his scar, but considering it took up a good portion of his face and it was going to be like that for the rest of his life, mentioning it wasn't going to hurt anything.

"Like hell," he admitted with a shrug that was perhaps a little too casual for someone who'd sustained that kind of injury.

Zuko made a face. "I think my girlfriend would protest me playing with another girl's hair, but that's, uh, nice? That you got to."

Awkward. But if the girl's hair was as long as Demyx said it was, maybe she wasn't as bothered by people messing with it as others might be.

"Kingdom Hearts? I thought you said your world was called The World That Never Was."

If it was too casually brushed off, Demyx had no idea. He tilted his head a little at the mention of a girlfriend. "Maybe? I don't really know much about having girlfriends or anything like that. It was nice, kind of relaxing. Like meditating, but with my hands having something to do."

It was a lot like how he played music sometimes with his mind wandering. He blinked in confusion at Zuko's reaction and replayed his conversation. That might have fallen under saying too much.

"My world is called The World That Never Was. Kingdom Hearts is like...the moon there. It exists in my world."

"You don't?" Well, Zuko couldn't really judge that. He was somewhat socially inept himself, and hadn't had a proper girlfriend until Weiss. Dating someone you were practically betrothed to since childhood wasn't really dating. "When you have a girlfriend, you're committed to them -- loyal to them. Getting that close to someone else is breaking that trust."

Zuko's mind used to wander while he was meditating, back when he was a kid and he was still getting the hang of it, but now he indulged in it to silence his mind more than anything else.

"So, Kingdom Hearts is a Moon Spirit?"

"I guess so, although I wasn't expecting to get that close to anyone in the first place. A girlfriend wouldn't be a thing I can do anyway." Demyx knew it involved feelings and love and other important things.

"I don't think it's really a spirit. It's just...what we call the moon. It's shaped like a heart. It's kind of an amazing sight. I could see it from my favourite room in the castle. What it actually is though, isn't really something I could say."

"I get that."

Having a girlfriend of his own choosing would've been difficult back home, whether it be because he was of royal blood (which made romance a game of politics rather than feelings) or the war that had been going on around him. He tried to date Mai for real and that hadn't exactly gone over well when the two of them were standing on opposite sides of the fence and he'd been forced to leave her in the end. Sorting out his feelings for a girl while he was trying to figure out where he stood and whether staying was worth it or not would've only made a messy situation even messier.

"Like a heart?" Zuko tried to picture a heart-shaped moon, but his imagination failed to produce anything. "Weird... But I guess I can't really talk, since the moon in my world is a spirit."

At least it didn't blow up all the time like the moon in Weiss's world did.

"Well you're a prince, that kind of thing is probably not easy, although in all the fairy tales there's always a princess eventually!" He smiled cheerfully. "That's the way it is for princes."

He contemplated that. "I guess if anyone would be the moon's 'spirit', it would be Saix. That's his power, whatever that means. I don't want to know, he's crazy!" Mostly he was dangerous and Demyx would never want to fight him.

"But Kingdom Hearts itself is...not really the moon, it just looks that way and shines the only light over The World That Never Was."

Zuko snorted. Demyx didn't know the half of it.

"Unless you count my younger sister, there are no other princesses. And my life isn't exactly worth of any sort of tales, fairy or otherwise." Whatever 'fairy' was supposed to be. "The Princess of the Northern Water Tribe became the Moon Spirit, the Air Nomads are gone, and I don't think the Earth King had any heirs yet."

Their moon was starting to sound more like some sort of optical illusion more than anything else.

Edited 2015-03-11 00:52 (UTC)

"Uh, that's not gonna work then, I'm pretty sure it'd be gross to marry your sister. I'm sure she's nice and all but, ew." Demyx offered, pulling a face. "But the princesses don't all start that way, sometimes they're common people who happen to marry the prince."

An optical illusion would be better than the truth, a lot less incriminating sounding.

Zuko visibly flinched. That-- No. He refused to go there. The royal family stopped marrying within it hundreds of years ago. It used to be thought of a way to keep the bloodline pure, but those antiquated beliefs and practices were antiquated for a reason.

"I was betrothed to a governor's daughter. A girl of noble blood. Not-- Uhg. Did you really have to go there?" He made another noise of disgust.

Edited 2015-03-11 04:10 (UTC)

He laughed a little bit at the reaction. "Sorry, it kinda just popped into my head you know?" Demyx did not have much of a filter or much consideration for the feelings of others. He didn't need to.

"I'm just saying in the story usually the princess finds the prince, even if she's poor or enslaved or...whatever! And then they live happily ever after. No fairy tales in your world?"

Filters are something you're going to have to learn, Demyx.

"We have them, but reality's far from what stories would have you believe."

His expression shuttered a little. "Yeah, nothing's ever as good as it seems huh?"

Demyx seemed to be thinking about something. "It's funny, the things I remember, like fairy tales. Not like I've read one since I was this big."

He held his hand around his abdomen. "I must've always been a dreamer." That felt right so he decided it was true.

Heh. You're preaching to the choir, Demyx. The life of a Fire Nation royal was far from what the world expected it to be. Living in the lap of luxury was not worth being raised by a cruel and twisted hand.

"I used to be," Zuko admitted. "But I got a couple doses of reality that made me stop living in fantasy what-if worlds."

"The what-if worlds are a lot better than what's going on around me. It's easier to think about than my situation. Reality kinda sucks sometimes." Demyx sighed a little.

"All I want is to relax and play my sitar all day."

"It's not for me," he said. "I might rule a country one day."

Big emphasis on might. Even if Aang's arrival has prompted Zuko to change his mind about being so certain of his impending death, he wasn't quite certain he'd ever wind up on the throne. And, more importantly, he didn't want to. He supposed he would, if it came down to it and there weren't any other options, but in his mind, his uncle was the rightful heir to the throne. Not him. Who better to be Fire Lord in the wake of Ozai's madness than Iroh?

"I don't have that luxury."

He grinned. "Probably not if you want to be in charge. I don't want anything like that. I'd rather hide away somewhere, like say, here and play my music. I don't want to be in charge but I don't really wanna follow orders either you know? Just...be somewhere else for awhile. After that? I don't know."

"Being her must be like being on vacation, then," Zuko said.

"It's a great vacation! My boss is always on my ass about something and all I ever do is work. I have been on a streak of failed missions too, so the likelihood I'm gonna be in trouble is pretty high. Perfect time for vacation."

Zuko didn't say anything, but the thin line his lips pressed into might as well have indicated that he was in some sort of trouble back home. If questioned, he'd cite the war and the strain it was putting on his nation, not the reality of his situation where he was a traitor to the crown who'd turned his back on the Fire Nation to join the Avatar's opposing forces. He didn't need that getting back to Azula.

"Things do get back here, so don't completely let your guard down."

Surprisingly as blunt as Demyx could be, he didn't pick up on that. Facial cues weren't his strong point. He arched an eyebrow.

"Bad, huh?" His tone was all too innocent. He looked at his sitar, it was the only thing he had on him after all. There wasn't a chance he would let his guard down but he wanted to seem harmless.

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