Inbox for Sn: Pai Sho - Avalon

[uncle_iroh]

(Please note that Iroh still does not quite understand his phone so... this will be.... interesting.)

"My nephew tells me that I should ask you to leave a message. He says he will show me where to find that message once I have one. So please, leave a message."

Comments

[uncle_iroh]

"We can go into the woods and see what plants we can find for making salves. And tea. But perhaps f there are any Water Benders here with healing magic, that would be swifter and would save him much pain. They might also have a safe way to remove it, as water can get into most things with relative ease."

He is aware you are changing the subject.

[rediscovering]

"I don't think it works like that. It's gotta be removed by this one particular person. It's... a long story... And emotional... So I don't think he wants Katara giving him a neck rub on the regular, Uncle." Zuko sighs. Katara'd already healed Gokudera once before when he shot himself in the foot with an arrow; he's not sure he can call on her to heal the kid daily with this dang collar he can't take off. "But— I have to say... I'm nervous to just go searching the woods for herbal remedies with you. I don't wanna make Gokudera a salve out of some alien maka'ole berry because you thought it looked like a bacui berry or something. He's having a hard enough time as it is without being poisoned by our good intentions."

[uncle_iroh]

"I have hardly ever poisoned anyone with the wrong herb," he grumbled. "But who would not want a healer to manage them regularly?" Some people make no sense.

[rediscovering]

"Yeah, just yourself," Zuko mutters under his breath, thinking back to how scared he was that day in the woods when Iroh decided to take a risk for the love of some delectable tea... He may have acted irritated — and he was! — but the truth was he was frightened, and will never forget that time. They were lucky to find that kind nurse and her mother when they did.

"I know Gokudera. He's very self-sufficient. I think if he had to get healed by someone regularly, especially for something small like that — he'd feel like a burden... He's always had to take care of himself, ever since he was a little kid. But— I don't want him to be in any extra pain until Yamamoto can take that collar off. At least if we can soothe the skin underneath the leather, where it's rubbing him raw... That's something."

Zuko obviously cares a lot about his friend, and it seems every time he comes up, he's dropping some new insight to the mafioso's character that makes their friendship make even more sense, foils to each other almost as much as they are kindred spirits.

[uncle_iroh]

"I was fine, Zuko. It all turned out fine, and we learned about a new plant. I'm sure we can find something for your friend." He might be scratching just a bit, thinking about it, though.

"And it does not have to be a burden. He can find something to do for the healer regularly, then it is a trade. There is no shame in people coming together to help each other out."

[rediscovering]

Zuko just shakes his head, swallowing a secret smirk when he notices that unconscious itching.

"Maybe... He'd more readily accept the ointment, I think. He's the type of person who'd feel guilty to ask servants for help even though it's their job, y'know what I mean?" he leans back in his seat as he speaks, getting comfortable. "Not that he's ever had servants, that I know of, I mean — well, except when he was little, maybe, I dunno. He told me his parents were rich. But he ran away from home when he was eight. He's been on his own since then. I don't think he's known much luxury or love in his life, Uncle. Now... I have a feeling he'd feel uncomfortable with something he'd have to rely on others for. He doesn't wanna impose on people, even his friends."

Ah, so the truth outs. This makes a lot more sense why Zuko and Gokudera are so close, and how the poor young man ended up on a pedestal in Zuko's life. Of course this is the kind of tortured, triumphant figure Zuko would find to admire. He doesn't feel hung up airing Gokudera's life story to Iroh, because Gokudera'd already shared so much of his life in the mafia with Iroh when they met... and it's Uncle. Who's he gonna tell? It's better that he have the background info privately, Zuko thinks. It's a better insight into Zuko's life in Iroh's absence, too, learning the kind of characters he'd been idolizing.

[uncle_iroh]

And a trade was not asking for help, but fine. He wouldn't argue. Not just now, anyway. "Then we will go find herbs, and if you are so concerned, we can test the before you give them to your friend, alright, Zuko?"

[rediscovering]

"Yes. Thank you, Uncle," Zuko said with a more even tone, glancing back to the man as his leg was finished up. He pulls it away as soon as he sees the chance to once it was bandaged.

"Okay, so... Since you won't bite me—" he turns to the dragon sitting on the armrest still, watching the world out the window, which turns to Zuko quizzically, like what. "...Tsungi horn practice?"

[uncle_iroh]

"Very well. Let us see how you are coming along with that." He set aside the first aid supplies and sat down to listen.

[rediscovering]

Zuko repositions himself, sitting further to the edge of the couch, spreading his legs to balance himself as he mounts the massive horn around his shoulder and wraps his lips around the mouthpiece. He pauses before he begins, glancing at Zunyan. It better not bite him, too. Without Zuko II here to influence it, Zunyan's pretty tame and predictable. But Zuko can't be blamed for being wary. He takes a deep breath, catching Iroh's gaze briefly before he closes his eyes, and begins to play. It's a song he knows Iroh knows how to play well himself, but indeed, sounds a little off — not bad, just off. He's warming up with something familiar.

[uncle_iroh]

Iroh smiled gently, settling in on the floor to sit and listen.

"Not bad," he said when the boy finished. "That was an interesting transition you added in the middle there."

[rediscovering]

"Interesting good or interesting bad?"

He looks worried as soon as he stops playing and hears Iroh's comment. It was off and he knows it, but like he said: he's not played in almost a year. Probably since the last time he played for Iroh on their ship, so long ago now, like another lifetime. He's flummoxed himself to be sitting here wanting to play tsungi horn, indeed feeling in an alternate reality... but very grounded in this sudden interest in it again, though. It's a way he can share his culture with people. No one abroad at home wants to learn about Fire Nation culture, after all; they hate them, there's no interest. And talking with Fire Nation locals, you just get a lot of nationalism... Sharing his culture with his friends from other worlds, the beautiful parts of Fire Nation culture that go unappreciated outside their small island nation, has been so reaffirming and inspiring for Zuko. Tsungi horn is just another great opportunity for that. One he knows he's good at — and wants to make sure he's still good at. He has a knack for little in life but tsungi horn, Iroh's always told him he's gifted at. Hot on all these ideas about music and dance and art from talking with Gokudera and Aurora, it's got Zuko on a healthy new kick here. He's gotta make sure he's representing when he plays for his friends! Always so serious...

[uncle_iroh]

He chuckled. "With music, that is always up to interpretation. I liked it, however. How did you feel when you made that choice, Zuko?"

[rediscovering]

“I don’t know, I noticed I messed up and forgot, so I just— improvised…”

He pauses, considering. How did he feel…?

“…A few weeks ago, Gokudera played piano for me in a bar,” he muses. “He played Four Seasons by ear, having just heard me sing the tune once for example, and then transitioned it into this beautiful song, it was so complex… I don’t know if he wrote it himself or not. Probably.”

He did not. It was Beethoven or Schubert or someone. But Zuko thinks so highly of Gokudera’s intellect, he just assumed it was his own. But indeed, it was Gokudera’s ability to improvise and work a new, very different tune in like he did, that stunned Zuko so. He’s such a structured person and tends to just follow music exactly rather than wing it like Gokudera had. It impressed him then, and again now, thinking on it with his own instrument in his hands.

“…I tried to play around the mistake I noticed, to disguise it.”

[uncle_iroh]

He nodded once. "That is a good lesson, both for music and for life. We all make mistakes, Zuko. But we can turn them into art if we do not let the mistake stop us."

[rediscovering]

Zuko can't help half a smirk. Of course he agreed with that sentiment; no one knew better than Iroh that Zuko does not let one mistake stop him. But the prince had never really applied the idea to music, having never placed much importance on it before adjusting his perspective recently... He just nods once in turn, knowing Iroh knows he understands. He raises the horn to his lips again, and begins to play another song, likely something probably learned from songbooks he studied for music practice back home before, but it's been so long since the times he used to practice regularly, and when his memory fails him, following the spirit of their conversation, he does put a little improvisational twist on it.

[uncle_iroh]

He nodded as he listened, giving it his attention. He did not recognize the tune, but that was alright. When his nephew was done he smiled. "Let us try something new, Zuko..." He stroked his beard, grinning. "Play, but do not play a song."

[rediscovering]

Zuko makes an odd, discerning face, confused and taken aback.

"Play— but do not play a song..." he parrots, tone thoughtful as if repeating the words will make them make more sense... It doesn't.

He pauses, frowning down at the horn resting on the side of his lap, as if it might hold the answers inside it. But it also doesn't. So after skipping a beat, he plays the tsungi equivalent of playing scales... That's not what Iroh meant, surely. It's not a song, though, to be fair. And he's played his scales on the tsungi horn so many times in his life it's basically rote memory by now. He looks back to Iroh expectantly without a word.

[uncle_iroh]

"While that is technically what I asked for, that is not what I meant. Simply begin playing, Zuko. No song, no scales, just play. Let the music choose the direction."

[rediscovering]

It takes Zuko a moment to contemplate, compose himself on many levels, before closing his eyes and setting the mouthpiece to his lips once more. He plays a tentative tune, but indeed lets the tsungi horn take the lead, trying to process his uncle's advice. It's (not uncharacteristically) a bit melancholy, but there's something bright about it, too. Perhaps just the spark of trying, in a way he'd never quite done when just copying songbooks on the ship... Something new; something simple, yes, but something different.

[uncle_iroh]

"Very good, Zuko! That is exactly it! Once you can master that, there will be little you cannot do, musically."

[rediscovering]

"I'm not trying to become some master musician, Uncle..." Zuko mumbles bashfully, the faintest hint of color crawling over his cheeks. "I just wanted to get one so I could show Aurora and Gokudera..." And that admission, too, keeps that hint of color on his cheeks.

[uncle_iroh]

"Uh huh," he said, smiling a bit. "And do you not want to show them the best that you can do, Zuko?"