avalon inbox;

[rediscovering]

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username: fireprince 🔥 text • audio • video

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[uncle_iroh]

"Bigger would be of help," he said. "But how can a place be portable?" he asked. "Well, I suppose a tent could be, or a hut if the circumstances were correct." Yes, his sliding off topic was mildly deliberate. He's in a strange new place having to learn fast. He has to have some fun somewhere. Plus it'll be good practice for Zuko to hold his temper, and be good for the boy to feel like the smarter one in the room for a bit.

[rediscovering]

"Uncle! The device is the place, the Internet is not a tent — a-and a hut isn't portable, anyway! Focus!"

He's putting his nephew to a good test. Iroh's unseen pai sho-like conversational moves with Zuko are always on-point. He shakes his head, setting the tea leaves aside to steep.

"Just think of your pseudonym... I'll add everyone you should have into your contacts list while you do, okay?" He reaches for Iroh's phone, keeping his own still in his other hand.

[uncle_iroh]

"This is a place?" he asked, looking at the device. "What? For ant termites?"

He looked at Zuko. "In the Earth Kingdom, I have seen people use Earth Bending to move their huts to higher ground to avoid flooding, and back down again when the rainy season has passed." You were really going to tell him a hut wasn't portable? And yes, he is still amused.

[rediscovering]

That look. Do you see that look Zuko's throwing? Because he's throwing a look.

He just lets the silence speak for him for a moment, then looks back down to their phones, taking one in each hand to set about adding in his contacts. He adds in his own first, "fireprince;" then: katara, boomerang-guy, kyoshiwarrior (wonder who these might be); less obviously, tenjikubotan and smoking_bomb; and finishes, after a moment's hesitation, with another easy guess — fireprincess.

[uncle_iroh]

While Zuko waa doing that, Iroh got up to check on the tea. His nephew could become really focused at times. Many times. Most, even. And tea was delicate, the time it steeped was precise. So if Zuko forgot, he wanted to be ready to serve the tea so that it didn't over steep. He appreciated his nephew's efforts, but that was no excuse for wasting good tea.

He waited until Zuko seemed like he might be done before speaking, "You still have not answered my question, Zuko."

[rediscovering]

"Have you thought of a username yet?"

Touché. Not really. Zuko is not commenting on Iroh's Earth Kingdom factoid. Nor the comment about ant-termites. But he is secretly glad for Iroh to take charge of the tea because the risk of ruined tea was much, much slimmer that way. Better Zuko's focused than not.

[uncle_iroh]

"I still do not fully understand what we are doing," he pointed out. When it was clear Zuko was not going to take the tea duties back, he strained and served the tea for them both.

[rediscovering]

“Setting up your account so we can continue with the lesson. But you need a name first. Pretend as if— as if you wore a nametag like at work, but all the time online,” he explains, feeling satisfied with this analogy for once, and finds a proper seat once Iroh is done with the tea Zuko’d abandoned. He gets quite comfortable right away, phones still in both hands with his eyes glued to them as he finishes up typing in their compatriots’ names. He even crosses his legs and slouches down, making himself right at home as if he were lounging in the palace, or on their ship, or in their apartment, and not some random interdimensional inn room. It’s Iroh’s company that makes him feel at home, though, no matter where they are, relaxed in ways he is with no others. He peels his eyes away at last to reach for his tea, setting both phones on the cushion between them as he does so, and an idea comes to him mid-sip.

“So imagine wearing an invisible nametag whenever you talk to people on the device. Sometimes you can take it off so the person doesn’t know who they’re talking to, but you’re supposed to keep it on so people can reach you again later. But it shouldn’t be your real name because I don’t think that’s wise. For the same reasons you wouldn’t really wear a nametag everywhere.” Oh, god, the analogy is getting away from him already; it’d been a strong start, though. “What about— dragonofthewest? Or, um— westerndragon? Similar, but not obvious... I think only Hikaru knows you used to be called that, anyway. And Azula, obviously.”

He’s also not great at usernames. Sincerely, fireprince.

[uncle_iroh]

"If that is truly the case, prince Zuko, then wouldn't such a name become obvious as people know me?" he asked, sipping his tea. "Besides, if we are truly somewhere new and these are people who would come to know me in time..."

He sipped again, considering, as though he had not trailed off mid sentence.

As if this sentence connected to what he had been saying, he continued. "When we went to Ba Sing Se, we did not go as conquerors, nor did we win any part of a war we cared about winning any longer. Not the first time we were there." He stroked his beard. "We were given a chance to start over there, Zuko. To try to live different lives."

Another sip of his tea.

"There are parts of who I was during the war, when I fought under the banner of the fire nation that I was proud of, that I still am. But there were other parts, other moments, that I learned from but would rather not remind people of, or inform them of, should that be how we first meet. If I am to give an impression not of who I had been, but who I would like to become..."

He set down his tea and slid something out of the sleeve of his robe. He set it down and slid it to the center of the table. "Do you think anyone here knows how to play Pai Sho?" and he smiled, lifting his finger off of the white lotus tile that now sat in the middle of the table, between and apart from their cups.

[rediscovering]

Zuko listens with a curious expression, not following until the big reveal, and though it takes him a second, a wry smile creeps over his face as he peeks over at the tile on the table.

"'WhiteLotus?' Is that what you want your username to be, Uncle?"

Zuko catches his eye, and his smile stays in place.

"I like that for you. That's a good username."

Better than fireprince...

[uncle_iroh]

"I presume once the name is chosen, we cannot switch between it and another?"

[rediscovering]

“I’ve never heard of someone changing their username, no. I think it’s permanent.”

[uncle_iroh]

"Hmmm, the White Lotus is more subtle than I would be if I used that, I suspect. Perhaps simply... Pai Sho. It sounds enough like a name to those who do not know, and for those who do know of the White Lotus, it shall get them to pay attention."

He sipped his tea. "Subtlety, prince Zuko, can be as effective as any attack, when used correctly."

[rediscovering]

"So... You want your username to be simply 'paisho,' then?"

Zuko tries not to make a face. He may have grown enough to appreciate tea on his own, but he's still no pai sho fan. But he gets it. He does. Maybe someday he'll come around...

[uncle_iroh]

"When you rush it together like that it seems so much less than it actually is. Is there no way to make a reader take their time over the words, to savor them properly?"

[rediscovering]

“Sometimes people put a line, like Gokudera’s username is ‘smoking,’ little line, ‘bomb’ — like this,” he draws an invisible underscore in the air with his fingertip then illustrates on Iroh’s phone, picking it up again to type ‘pai_sho’ in the username edit field. “Is that okay?”

[uncle_iroh]

"That is at least better than running it all together. What s wrong with this place if people cannot write properly?"

lol zuzu's such a jerk i'm sorry

[rediscovering]

"Uncle, I don't know, it's another culture!" Zuko sighs, pulling a face, side-eyeing his uncle. He's a good-intentioned, but impatient boy. "Let's see if it'll accept it without the line... I know Taichi has some crazy little face in his username, I don't know how it works."

Taichi's username is 7😆H!TA1 and it baffles Zuko; even if he understood the Japanese language pun (Nanao Taichi, his full name), he'd still be baffled. This is not the best example. The blind leading the blind here.

He gives 'pai sho' a try, and a checkmark appears beside it, indicating it's a valid username. He feels a wave of relief somehow.

"Okay, 'pai sho' seems fine. Properly."

Re: lol zuzu's such a jerk i'm sorNo worries. You are playing him wonderfully, and I thank you.

[uncle_iroh]

"Crazy little... face...?"

Are you just trying to confuse the man more?

"There, very good. Was that so hard?" Yes, he is being a bit of a brat as he sips his tea.

you are playing iroh wonderfully tooooooooo~

[rediscovering]

See this grimace? Iroh earned this face from Zuko.

"Okay, Uncle pai sho, moving on."

He can dish it back now, Uncle — sort of! He's gotten better about giving jabs with all his funny friends; yet somehow still not as much about taking them...

He holds Iroh's phone out in between them so the other can see what app icon he presses to open the messaging feature, and types in 'Z' without needing more, as it immediately brings up his name, printed beside 'fireprince', already saved in Iroh's half a dozen contacts now. He hands the phone to Iroh.

"Write something to me."

Thank you!

[uncle_iroh]

He frowned at the screen as the translation magic tried to make a syllabary look like symbols and vice versa.

He sat the phone on the table so he could use both fingers as he used the tried and true hunt and peck method of new typists everywhere.

He even figured out how to hit send. The message?

"Something to me."

[rediscovering]

Zuko's amused watching Iroh peck at the keyboard, but doesn't comment or show it. That is, until the text goes through, and Zuko reads it on his own phone. It draws a wide grin on his face, and he leans in to show his uncle.

"See, look — I got it. You can do that anywhere in the city and I'll get it."

He pauses, points to the microphone button, and records himself in response to Iroh, sending the audio message for him to replay on his phone.

"You can talk like this, too."

He sounds a little stilted for it, still not quite natural-feeling with technology and all himself, but nevertheless, a good example. Incoming audio message from un: fireprince...

Look who got their paid back!

[uncle_iroh]

"This seems a little excessive for a bulletin board."

lol mazel!!!

[rediscovering]

"Forget the bulletin board analogy, Uncle, that's just the Network! The phone is more than that!"

Zuko wracks his brain, and comes up with an even worse analogy.

"Think of this like... Like the world's smallest, smartest, fastest messenger hawk! A hawk so stealthy you can't even see it! Combined with... um... an iguana parrot that can mimic your voice perfectly, and, uh— ...that can paint magic moving portraits..."

Okay, the analogy got away from him. But he reaches his phone out and takes a short video of himself pulling an uncomfortable face at the camera, and sends it to Iroh to play back on his phone.

Re: lol mazel!!!

[uncle_iroh]

"Zuko," he said in his best I-love-you-but-and-please-take-this-with-love "the more you speak, the less sense you are making."