/takes the huntress out back and buries it (jan mingle pt. II)

[scrubscrub]

Who: Anyone on the SS Huntress! Crew and visitors.
Broadcast: N/A
Action: SS Huntress
When: More of January! We got three new crew mates and it will be messy.

IT'S ANOTHER MINGLE FOR OUR EVER-EXPANDING SHIP.

Also, we need an update on how well Koala is doing at pinball.

God, help this ship.

Comments

[honorbends]

The only alternative is becoming my father.

[ he stares back, unflinching. ]

If I cross that line, I may as well just give the throne back.

[ ozai is much better at being a monster than he is. but zuko is much more stubborn than ozai. he won. ozai lost. zuko has no intention of returning back to how it was before. ]

[eyeforaneye]

You're right. [ Which is exactly why he's saying it. Whether it's just him projecting or not, he has some strange desire to ensure that that won't be Zuko's path, and reminding him of the stakes and seeing his reaction makes him feel more and more that it won't be. ]

Then you'd have accomplished nothing and your existence would've been nothing if not a detriment.

[honorbends]

I know I'm right; that's why I said it.

[ tartly.

zuko has a permanent reminder of how much of a psychopath his father is. he has absolutely no intention of becoming that person, or harming his (potential?) children the way that ozai ruined him. and azula. ]

[eyeforaneye]

We can't maintain a conversation if I don't offer my opinion on your words, unless you want me to ignore the topic and pick a new one.

If I derailed from something important to you so suddenly then you'd probably internalize it a little, find it offensive that I was dismissive after dragging you into an honest conversation, and then think about it later. I was sparing you that. [ Yeah. They're similar. ]

1/2

[honorbends]

[ well when you put it that way ]

[honorbends]

[ . . . sigh. ]

My father took the throne from his older brother, my uncle. He's responsible for the disappearance of my mother, and my sister is locked away because she's not safe left to her own devices. He tried to strip me from my birthright for speaking out of turn at a meeting, because I didn't want to send our soldiers to certain death as a diversion during a battle.

[ which is, clearly, what happened to his face. ]

I have no intention of becoming as much of a coward as someone who decides to challenge a thirteen year old to a fight to the death, because of injured pride and a need to prove himself. That isn't who I am, and that isn't the legacy I'm going to leave my family with. I'll abdicate the throne to someone else before I allow that to happen.

[eyeforaneye]

[ Speaking out against his father at that age? There's a courage that Sasuke had never had as a child, or at least that he'd never had the opportunity to show. Self-reflection has become such a huge part of his life and still he feels like he's unable to properly put the pieces of his past together to form all the 'what-ifs' that'd likely cause nothing but pain anyway. ]

... the struggle of that kind of upbringing makes a few common pitfalls more obvious to you. [ Sasuke's thought that for a while now, however, that the best kind of leader is one that's not only experienced the suffering of his people but that has also gained a full respect for avoiding the mistakes of his predecessors. ]

It's important to give those situations and circumstances that would've seemed better if they were changed their own sense of worth. It makes them easier to swallow.