Fire Nation Capital

[Saijin]

Located in the crater of a dormant volcano, the capital city is home to Fire Nation royalty, including the Fire Lord and his family. At its center, sits the Fire Lord's palace and surrounding it, are numerous homes and shops that cater to the Fire Nation elite. The harbor areas contain many factories.

[Zanisha]

The shifty eyed Raikou walked around the Fire Nation capital with her hands in her pockets. "Ugh, it hasn't been long enough between now and the last time I was here." the troubled firebender thought. The last time she was in the Fire Nation it had been a year or so ago and she as well as 5 others from the Earthen Syndicate had come in to search the land for a former member of the Rebellion whom had been captured. Thankfully, they had found him and had been able to return with no casualties despite one close call. "Hmph." the girl let out annoyed. "Luxa knows I hate coming here and she still picked me to be the one to go into this godd.amn place." The reason why Zana was even in the Nation at all was because she was on a mission to gather information on Azula's Fire Nation rebellion. And being co-captain, it was her job before any others. Not to mention she had lost the coin toss. "Knowing Luxa though, it was probably rigged, with heads on both sides so that she'd win." And of course, the firebender was probably right. After all, the emerald eyed captain hated going into the burning nation even more than she did.

As so, Zana walked on, keeping an eye out for anyone who looked... well she didn't exactly know what she was looking for. But, when the red-clad girl did see it, she'd know it.

[Aang]

Wei-Wu sat on top of a very shabby chair that perched on the very rim of a crater. He wasn’t looking for anyone in fact his bounty duties were far from being employed here. At that moment, Wei-Wu sat with a canvas ((I don’t know the proper name for the paper they painted on)) before him and in his right hand his brush was being carefully used on the canvas. He sat with the look of a man lost in his head; there were no worries to stain his content face as he continued to pain the image of the Capitol City. A job was a job, and this one paid thirty silver pieces.

From the city, he would look like an enigma worthy of investigation, after all why would someone be sitting in a very strange spot to paint the city? However, Wei-Wu didn’t bother to think about such things; to him he was here for that purpose alone. Anything else was just getting in the way of his artistry. With that, Wei-Wu continued his work, he dabbed bits of black here, lightly lined places there, and in a few hours he had finished his painting that had encompassed a couple weeks of his life, but still more time would be wasted as Wei-Wu needed to wait for his work to dry before he decided to pack it up, and be on his merry way.

“Oh look a visitor,” Wei-Wu said to himself quietly as he could have sworn that he heard a noise in the distance. It looked like he wouldn’t be alone for long.

[Zanisha]

Just as Zana was looking around, suddenly someone odd caught her eye. He was sitting atop a volcano looking over a picture he had just painted. "Interesting..." the rebel thought. "You don't see many painters around this area." Why, the co-captain wasn't sure, but she was dying to find out. And so, walking up the distance to the crater, Zana pushed her guard up. The firebender was always curious, no matter what it was about. Even if it didn't concern her, Zanisha had an compulsive need to know the answer to every question she had. The outlaw didn't like not knowing things in any way. This was partly what made her a natural leader. Always being the one with the information, she was the one who usually was making the plans. That was, until she teamed up with her good friend Luxa. The leader of the Earthen Syndicate didn't exactly have as good information gathering skills as the firebender. Honestly, she'd rather go off on some killing spree. But being the sadist she was, there was a couple ways she knew how to get information out of people. Unfortunantly, beating the s.hit out of someone in broad daylight wasn't very subtle. And so the job was left to Zana.

Now facing the bounty hunter, although that face was unknown to the currently wanted firebender, Zana spoke up. "What's an artist doing out here in such an odd spot?" In the back of her mind, the Raikou knew that she was not supposed to draw attention to herself. But now, the firebender was telling that part of her to shut up. Zana had a bad habit of not listening to her conscience. It always came back to haunt her.

[Aang]

Wei-Wu did not stir when he heard the now known to be girl speak. He didn’t move or anything, he just sat there with a calm expression as he overlooked the city. It was a marvelous city, and a very daring thing to do, after all only a very powerful firebender could have done this because it seemed like the city’s inhabitants were guaranteed safety.
But enough about the wondrous city, there was still a girl behind Wei-Wu, and he wasn’t a big fan of having his back face any unknown person. He pondered over how to answer before he answered. He needed to sound not too friendly, and not too interested.

“I am merely doing a job that was given to me.” Responded Wei-Wu in monotone, he didn’t much care for this girl. She was just wasting his time, and he had wasted enough in this city. “If you do not mind, I too would like to know your business. You don’t sound too old, and yet to come to me without fear, are you not aware that these are dangerous times we live in?” What a dreary thing to say, every period in time was a dangerous one. He continued to stare out into the city, this was by far the strangest painting he had been asked to make. He was told to make no alterations of any kind to it. It was just that paint the Capitol city, no artistic endeavor were to befall the painting, just paint as is, and that itself bugged Wei-Wu for he had enjoyed adding things to his paintings. He loved his style, and to him his style was the best, he shouldn’t sully himself with this garbage. He was an artist after all, a misunderstood being.

[Zanisha]

“I am merely doing a job that was given to me.”

Zana's eyebrows furrowed in interest. "If he's not an artist than what else does he do?" The man's tone was flat, no interest, no friendliness. But then again, Zana's voice only carried curiosity, no friendliness there either. In fact there was a slight edgy tone now present.

“If you do not mind, I too would like to know your business. You don’t sound too old, and yet to come to me without fear, are you not aware that these are dangerous times we live in?”

"I'm old enough." the firebender replied to the man. "I'm 21 dammit. Legal to do whatever the hell I want. Not that being legal or not has ever mattered..." And it was true, ever since she had been free of the fire Nation, Zanisha had lived by no one's rules but her own. She made her own allegiances and gave into no one. That freedom had been part of what being alone meant. It was something she loved and took great pride in. Never again would the female succumb to being some one's prisoner. Then, she added. "And times have always been dangerous." The hard edge more potent now. "Just because the war has ended doesn't mean that there's no fighting going on. Rebellions are everywhere. Don't you know anything about that?" By the part when the man had mentioned her fear of him, Zana was confused. She was confident in herself when she spoke. Her stance was solid and defiant. Did she honestly look like someone who didn't know how to protect themselves. "Hmph." she thought to herself. "Either this man had no clue on judging people or he's really stupid in general." Zana was a good fighter, if she had to take the person standing before her, so be it. The co-captain saw the armour, and the co-captain saw the weapons. "Armour is merely for someone who can't protect themselves." she thought smugly. The firebender had a strong distaste towards those who weared armour. To her, it was a sign of weakness.

"Why do you ask about me fearing you?" the rebel asked him interested. "Do I look like a person who lives in fear of others? I don't not fear you in a sense that I trust you, or am friendly in any way. It's more in a sense that I'm confident enough in myself to not fear other people." Then pausing for effect, she pushed her fire colored side bangs away from her face so that her deep brown eyes were fully visible for the first time since she started talking to the man. Her tone now slightly dangerous she asked, "Is there a reason for me to fear you?"

[Aang]

Wei-Wu could have responded after this Zanisha’s first rhetoric, but he chose not to because she sounded like Umi, and Umi always had more to say. But there was a key difference, Umi was snobbish and rarely got angry, this girl seemed to be a little hotheaded. Then again, most firebenders were, it was like that was there sole energy in bending. They treated their emotions like fuel and rather than control them as Wei-Wu has learned they increased their fuel to increase their power. But this came at a cost because Wei-Wu knew that many firebenders often failed to firebend in many situations because of their emotional outburst, in those situations their lack of control caused a lack of chi control and lead to their downfall, but enough about that know the girl had finished.

Wei-Wu still had his back to her, and was refusing to fidget. This may have been just verbal; the situation was still two dominating figures.

“”Twenty-one, my my I have greatly mistaken your age, you sound very young. I now it sounds like a burden now, but when age begins to ravage you you will love the fact that you sound younger than you are.” Wei-Wu was trying his best to as polite as he could be, in reality he just wanted to turn around and throw a projectile into her neck, and he was having the hardest time hiding it. “It may be true that we are in times of peace, but that is merely the façade that the leaders of our world are shoving down our throats. I have visited a village which harbors an old fortune teller, and she warned me that in the coming of peace that I shouldn’t be fooled by this world because if I fell into a false sense of security I would die. From this you must gather why I am still talking to you. And I am not asking that you fear me, I am asking that you be more cautious in the future.”

Wei-Wu paused as a bird flew over the city. “Why is your kind so prone to emotional outburst? You ill never be a great person if you let your emotions control you like that.”

[Zanisha]

((warning: averly long post ahead ;D I got a lil carried away lol))

”Twenty-one, my my I have greatly mistaken your age, you sound very young. I now it sounds like a burden now, but when age begins to ravage you you will love the fact that you sound younger than you are.”

At this, Zana scrunched her nose in annoyance. Deep brown eyes glaring for the moment at the back of the man she thought, "Ugh. Please. I am so sick of being thought of as a child. You'd think now that I've reached the adult age that that would have changed, apparently not." The rebel was holding herself back, reeling in her natural temper. "There's something off about this guy."she mentally took notice of the fact. "There's too much of an edge in his voice. Clearly either he is an unfriendly man in general. Or, he is very irritated with me." A smile threatened to play on her face at the last though. The burnett hoped it was the second choice. Only a moment passed before the man continued.

“It may be true that we are in times of peace, but that is merely the façade that the leaders of our world are shoving down our throats. I have visited a village which harbors an old fortune teller, and she warned me that in the coming of peace that I shouldn’t be fooled by this world because if I fell into a false sense of security I would die. From this you must gather why I am still talking to you. And I am not asking that you fear me, I am asking that you be more cautious in the future.”

This time, Zana let out an annoyed sigh, clearly the man was not hearing her. "Look dude," she began. "I know that. And much too well. Did you not hear what I said about the rebellions? I know there is danger, and especially so here with this new Fire Lord. From what I hear, not everyone is so pleased with him. Being here do you not see that at all?"

“Why is your kind so prone to emotional outburst? You ill never be a great person if you let your emotions control you like that.”

The firebender's teeth gritted in anger, she was lucky the man couldn't see the burning hate in her eyes. "And who the hell is my kind supposed to be!?" she called out within herself. But, despite how much she wanted to say this aloud, Zana thankfully had better control than that. And so, quickly swallowing her anger, releasing the tension in her jaw, and calming her eyes. Once again in a relaxed state, the previous unrevealing tone in her voice, the co-captain replied, "Trust me you havn't seen any emotional outbursts. So, I have a question for you..." Pausing a moment, Zana hesitated about her next move. After all it was bold, but she was ready in case she was attacked. Suddenly, she moved in front of him at a walking pace. Now in front of him, he firebender's deep brown eyes connected with the man's own matching orbs for the first time. "Do you always talk to people with your back turned to their face?" When she said this, her tone was calm and interrogative, yet not harshly so, just as it had been when she first began talking to the artist.

But right after the words left her mouth, Zana had wished she hadn't moved in front of him. "Shit!" the curse flew through her mind. Mentally, she was having a small heart attack. Fortunately, she was able to keep a strait face, eyes still calm. A shadow of shock passing through them for one one-hundredth of a second. "I know him." And in one sense, the firebender was true. In the rebellion, they kept a wall filled with pictures of all the bounty hunters that the rebellion had ever heard of, or unfortunantly, ran into. "This guy's on the wall. Dammit what the hell was his name again? Oh fuck it. Dear god I hope he doesn't recognize me. Maybe it's been a while since the wanted posters have been up." There used to be wanted posters of her and Luxa at the end of every street in the Fire Nation. They were wanted alive by the Fire Lord. However, the firebender co-captain was much better at concealing herself than the earthbending leader, and her good friend. So, maybe she was safe. "Well I can't just leave now.the outlaw's thoughts continued. "Who knows who this guy has worked with? Maybe he does know something about Azula and her rebellion after all."

[Aang]

((Crappy post alert))


She didn’t wait, she didn’t hesitate, and she failed to show him any respect. The more Wei-Wu thought about it, the more this girl intrigued him, he tried his best to seem foreboding, while being compliant, and even at that this girl was still trying to sound tough. Perhaps she was, but then again people often said that the tough only act tough because they doubt themselves internally.

When she barged in front of him, she seemed to have fear in her eyes. It was almost like she had seen him before, and after a profanity left her lips, Wei-Wu could have sworn that he had seen her before.

“Well, I hope that now you won’t get too overemotional about me hiding my face,” retorted Wei-Wu as tried to think about why this girl was a little frightened of him.

[Zanisha]

((who cares. you posted yay! now i get to reply. U owe me a good one now tho lol))\

“Well, I hope that now you won’t get too overemotional about me hiding my face,”

The Syndicate co-captain internally let out a sigh of relief. Keeping her ravaging emotions to seriously kill the man where he was from reaching her currently calm and curious eyes, she replied. "Now why would I do that? Your clearly just some misguided non-bender and apparently part-time artist." The word non-bender had slipped in response to the self control it was taking her to stay calm. Of course, she immediately caught herself, annoyance rising within her with herself. "Stupid." the word flew through her mind and she internally rolled her eyes. "He had given you no reason to call him a non-bender. Oh well if he says something, just make something up."With that, Zana turned her attention back to the man, putting the matter aside for now.

"Well." she said to start off a conversation. "To tell you the truth, I haven't been to the Fire Nation in a while. Have you stuck around long enough to see how that new fire lord was doing? Zuko, that is. Clearly everyone can't be happy about the change. Especially not his sister.You know, I never did hear what happened to her..." Zana left her last thought trailing, allowing the man to finish it. In her speach, she had slipped in a little truth, allowing her honestly and innocence to shine her conceiving eyes. The part about her not being in the Fire Nation was true. But, not the part about her ignorance to how the Nation's new leader was doing. Now she was trying to see Wei-Wu knew about the Fire Nation's Rebellion. The firbender was hoping that she had been lucky enough to run into the bounty hunter who had worked for Azula at some time after the war "ended". If not, well she could still make her time with the man well spent. Well, for her at least.

Looking up at the sky, Zana saw the sun slightly past it's highest point and noticed that it was around 1:00. "Eh," she thought, not worried by it. "Not too bad. I've got till around 6 to get my ass outta here. Don't want to be aorund here at night. That would be a little too risky. Especially alone, even for me. But still, I should probably give this another hour or so and move on. But I dunno. It all depends on how interesting this guy proves to be."

[Aang]

((Here is how I plan the fight. I find out who you are. As you leave I throw a projectile, and it lands before you signaling a fight.))

Once again, this girl went on a parade of words, and sentences all of which lacked any fundamental meaning to Wei-Wu. Those words that the girl uttered were as meaningless as her life. Except one part, she was able to accurately note that he wasn’t a bender. But how? He hadn’t sad anything near approaching that subject. He had only criticized youth, and just groups of people in general, but he had never made the distinction between a bender and a non bender. So how did she know?

Wei-Wu then thought about her other mindless brambles. From what she said, Wei-Wu was able to gather that she hadn’t been in the Fire Nation for long, in addition he had seen her look up to the sky just another indication of her lack of time in the Fire Nation. From what he could gather, this girl was not from this area, but why would she be here if she weren’t from this area, and who was she.

The more he thought about this the more he was intrigued by the girl’s need to remain nameless. But no, he had to keep his guise of naïveté up, “Well, no one is ever loved by all. Everyone is always destined to be loved by some, hated by others, and fine by the rest. This boy is merely trying his best to keep the peace in an era that doesn’t demand it.” Wei-Wu paused before he continued, he looked at his picture it was dry, and he could prepare it for travel.

“I don’t know anything about what befell the former princess of this land. My guess would be that she is somewhere within the Nation, obviously.”

[Zanisha]

“Well, no one is ever loved by all. Everyone is always destined to be loved by some, hated by others, and fine by the rest. This boy is merely trying his best to keep the peace in an era that doesn’t demand it.” Wei-Wu paused before he continued, he looked at his picture it was dry, and he could prepare it for travel.

“I don’t know anything about what befell the former princess of this land. My guess would be that she is somewhere within the Nation, obviously.”

The man said nothing helpful to her. "Damn." she thought irritated. "Guess I'm not getting lucky today. This is the 4th clueless guy I've run into. Ugh, you'd think in THE FIRE NATION you'd find something out at some point. Guess that damn lightning user is keeping herself hidden even better than Luxa and I." After internally letting out a sigh once again, the firebender's thoughts continued. "Oh well, I guess I was wrong about him. So, hmm, if I can keep myself hidden long enough I can get another handful of people before my time is up. Yeah, that should be right. Ok, time to wrap this up."

"Yeah, you have a point. People will have their own opinions, and some more than others. But I guess you'd think that his sister would've at least done somthing by now. Oh well, maybe it's a good thing she had kept herself on the down low." Now the firebender was flat out lying. But, no trace of her dishonesty showed on her. Neither in her deep calm brown eyes, or her perfect innocent mask. After lying all her life, the firebender had simply gotten used to it.

In a way it was kind of sad. The firebender's life had been so difficult, so challenged, that along the way she had lost part of who she was. The care-free, happy, ignorant little girl who she once had been had changed into a rebellious, stressed, and dangerous adult. The world truly had been a cruel place to her. All she could hope was that not many others were like her. Unfortunantly, part of her knew that too many were.

[Aang]

Wei-Wu listened to the girl’s speech and was a little astonished at how she easily accepted his answer. He was astonished at how she changed from the mental image that he himself had designed for her. She was a wild girl, who most likely caused trouble in other place of the world. Based on her lack of knowledge of this land, she was most likely from the Earth Kingdom, but why she was here still remained a mystery for Wei-Wu. There was no reason for a girl like her to be in this place, almost no reason at all. So why was she here? The more Wei-Wu thought about it the more she seemed to be purposely hiding herself from him. She stopped being wild after she saw my face, Wei-Wu thought as he placed a silk over the front of his painting, and slowly began to roll it up. As he did so, he continued to think about this nameless girl, and of her need to hide herself only after she saw his face.

Though she never gave me her name before she saw my face, she seems more reserved now, and in a strange way a little like she’s hiding from me in plain sight. Wei-Wu continued with his thoughts as he finished rolling his paper, and then proceeded to place it in a cylindrical wooden container. In stood in his hands as he was reminded a very familiar wanted poster he had seen a few weeks before. Well, my lucky day thought Wei-Wu as he began to disassemble his painting stand.

[Zanisha]

"Why are you ignoring me?" The irritation began to leak through the firebender's mask of calmness. It shone in her eyed and caused her eyebrows to furrow together. "Is it something I said. Like, dude, usually people are more open to conversation." Pausing a moment, the girl let her words sink in as Wei-Wu packed up his painting. Zana then made an expression as if something just clicked to her, like a sudden thought had occurred. Laughing a little she said, slightly more friendly, "Is it because I hadn't told you my name so you don't want to talk? Well, I guess it was a little rude." She was faking entirely, but this was a practiced routine, so it was flawless. "It's Zarin by the way."

Sh paused a minute, hoping that the bounty hunter would accept the alias. Deciding to keep her charade up, Zana asked a question that she already knew the answer to, "But you know," she began, the same innocence in her voice, "you never told me your name either. So I guess we're both guilty here." Flashing a quick smile, she asked. "Well, tell me, what is it?" The man's head was still turned as he packed his things, so she couldn't look into his eyes. Instead, the focused on his side.

"Your pushing it." Her quite irritating conscience told her. "I'm fine." the firebender reassured herself. "He hasn't put it together by now and I've been talking to him long enough that if he knew my face he would've recognized it by now." Or at least that was what she hoped. However, part of her knew it probably wasn't true. After all, Zana was lying about who she was. She was simply playing games with the man. Why wouldn't he be doing the same?

[Aang]

“My name is of no concern,” began Wei-Wu as he neatly tied all his art supplies together in a little bundle. It was a surprise that everything he used was so neatly tied up, and in a ready to carry state. “But, if you must know. My name is Wei-Wu,” Wei-Wu didn’t lie, if the girl had any hunch that he knew her, being honest and seeming to still be unaware of who she was, was the best thing to do in this situation. If he played this game properly he could come out on top with a nice sum of money. Wei-Wu the sat back down on his chair as he looked out to the capitol city of the Fire Nation.

“I wasn’t ignoring you, if you believed that. It’s just that you seem to enjoy your own voice and it’s best not get between what someone and what they want.” Wei-Wu added with a slight attitude. He wasn’t growing tired of this; the more he understood this girl’s character and her flaws the easier it would be to take her down in the end. It was a simple plan that relied on the opposing party’s willingness to follow like dragonfly.

Wei-Wu then thought deeply about the current situation. The girl must know who he is, but he still had the element of surprise on his hands, and not the typical element, but the element that she didn’t know that he knew who she was. All he had to do was secure a stranglehold on her, but how. He didn’t have an estimate as to her strength, and he would need to find a way to figure it out.

“Zarin is a pretty name by the way. So why are you here?” Wei-Wu asked.