uncle_iroh | Inbox for Sn: Pai Sho

He shakes his head.

"Here I was thinking I'd only have to catch up to a different world once. If we count literally and metaphorically...well, it's three times now."

"That is the thing about worlds. And about travel. We are always seeing a new and different world. Even if it seems as though we have never left the one to which we are born. Time, nature, other people, spirits. Everything acts to constantly make the world new and different." He sipped his tea.

"In that, this place is much like all Zuko and I have seen since leaving the Fire Nation. It is much like Ba Sing Se. It is much like leaving your home must have been for you."

He's quiet for the better part of a minute, just thinking on those words. He hadn't thought about it that way, really.

"You're right, of course. And, at least this time didn't involve getting frozen."

"There is more than one way to be frozen," he said, seriously as he sipped his tea before taking the pot to refill both their cups.

He smiled a bit, nodding.

"Also true," he responded, thinking about the board and far more besides. "I keep changing with the times, and just hoping that some part of me stays recognizable. Seems to be working so far."

"That is one of the cores of bending after all. When we bend an element it both changes and yet stays the same. You can use bending to pull a breeze from a hurricane, it is yet the same wind. When you pull water from the ocean then return it, it fits right back into the water that birthed it. Take fire from a torch and it burns the same in your hand. You can make a orb of earth, it remains stone. We all change, we all can change. And yet who we are is always the same. The important parts of us remain, always."

"That much I knew...but harder to apply it to self instead of elements," he replied, with a nod.

He tilted his head.

"So Zuko has always been Zuko, then? Serious, well-meaning?"

"Many things that are worthwhile are difficult," he agreed kindly.

"And yes. Zuko may have lost sight many times over what he should be doing, what the best course of action is, but he always meant things for the best in his own way."

He leaned back and stroked his beard.

"Since the war began, in the Fire Nation, children have been raised and taught to believe that the war is a good thing. That the Fire Nation isn't trying to conquer the world to rule or ruin it, but to unify and improve it. That the other nations had less technology and less civilization than we did. That one war now would stop all future wars because if we shared a culture, we would all understand each other better and have no further need to fight."

He sipped his tea.

"Those of us being groomed to rule weren't taught the truth behind it. We were indoctrinated even more, perhaps. I came to my realization of the truth late in life. Too late," he said softly. Too late indeed to save his son. He sighed softly. "I saw too late the cost of the war, saw the cultures that we weren't absorbing but destroying, the lives we were ending."

He took another sip of tea.

"For Zuko, honor was always a pinnacle of good. to be a good person, you had to have honor. And on the surface, that is not a bad way to see things. But when the wrong people are held up as paragons of virtue, the definition of honor, and our understanding of it, can be muddled."

He leaned back. "We were each raised to believe that our fathers were good men, doing their best for the people not just of the Fire Nation but of all nations. That they were men of honor, doing the difficult thing for the sake of everyone. It is hard, then, to understand a moment when those same men act utterly without honor. Because then you have to either believe that they never had honor, or that your own understanding of honor is flawed. My brother acted without honor many times in Zuko's life." the words were said a bit grimly, but without clear anger or judgment. They were fact. His emotions would not help, here. "That left Zuko constantly trying to figure out what honor actually was. That is why he believed that honor was a thing someone could bestow upon you, or withhold from you, rather than something intrinsic to who you are and laced into your actions and inactions."

"He believed the war was just and that his father had honor, and only took honorable actions. Therefore anyone who opposed the war had to be wither wrong or evil. It took you and your friends to show him the truth."

He leaned forward again to refill his tea cup. "I must admit, while I am glad it happened, I do feel a little like I have failed, that for all the time I was with him, I was not able to convince him or guide him nearly so well as you were. Either way, Zuko learned far sooner than I did. And he was always fully himself, even as he seemed to the world to change drastically. A well meaning, serious person for whom honor was important. Someone always trying to do what is right. And of course, someone who is stubborn." Very very stubborn.

The silence from all of that, things he'd never known, draws out. It isn't the Fire Nation he'd known, not the one that lived in his memories, lived in Roku's memories. It was astonishing how quickly, how thoroughly it had become something else - its teeth lengthened, its sinews bound by false ideas for the pride of a few - then let loose at the jugular of an entire world.

He sighed.

"I hope the Fire Nation can...well, not go back. It can never go back. Nothing can. Time does not allow us such a luxury. But under him - with your guidance...it will become something wiser than it was."

He smiled.

"It was always brash, always eager. Hopefully those come back again. The Fire Nation built, more than anyone else. Saw problems and thought of solutions. You need some stubborn for that."

"I am not maligning stubborn as a whole. Some of the best people are stubborn. But like with many aspects of personality, it needs to be wed to kindness, fairness, and love."

He lifted his tea cup as if in salute.

"This is why more people should drink more tea. It is impossible to have tea and not have love, after all."

He nods in agreement.

"Especially your tea. Gosh, it's some of the best I've had."

He beamed a bright happy smile. "That is because it is made with love," he said, proud.

Aang, in turn, laughed a little bit.

"I've had tea where people say that before. This is still better. Did it come with you, or...?"

"I had some tea when I arrived, though most of that is gone now. But there are teas here that are fascinating as well."

"Isn't it wonderful," he said, with a sigh, "just how many worlds tea arrives in? A beautiful near-constant to the universe. I think only emotions like love, or creativity feature more, really."

"I would not be surprised to find that tea is good in any world where love exists."

A nod, and a smile.

"Perfectly put."

"Thank you." He glanced at the board. "Much like my Pai Sho tiles."

He's not kidding about that, either. It's an elegantly constructed trap - but he sees a way or two forward. Namely, falling back on tactics even older than he is, that Iroh maybe - maybe - doesn't know.

"An interesting move, I wonder as to its purpose," he said, moving with confidence. Did he actually know what Aang had planned, or was he bluffing? Hard to tell.

In another life, Aang reflects, Iroh could have been the greatest gambler of his age.

"If it has one at all," he replies, placidly, replying in kind. Either way, it won't be long now.

He was still young, compared to current company, he could still do it!

"That is a very good point," he said, sipping his tea. "Sometimes when there is no point intended, one finds you anyway." He made his move, leaving the other to be distracted by the puzzle in his words.

Ah, so it was that kind of game. He couldn't help but grin a little bit.

Confidently, saying nothing, he sprung his trap - suppressing the idea that Iroh had seen right through it.

He could have avoided the trap, possibly. Probably. But by stepping into it knowingly, he was set up for a trap of his own. It was not a single battle that mattered, but the whole of the game. He stepped into the trap with a knowing smile. "Very nice move," he said seeming perhaps a little too calm, a little too amused.

Drat.

He was hoping for at least a small look of surprise but...ah well. He could see the counter now, too late - and it was just as old. Iroh's knowledge was, unsurprisingly, vast on the subject of pai sho.

He nodded, moving in turn, committed to play out the game despite the outcome being known.

"And to you," he replied.

Inbox for Sn: Pai Sho - Avalon

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