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    1. Rokoran 6 yrs ago

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On the Road to the Prison


Colour: #ED1111





"Wait a moment." ... “You’re from Fire, you’re looking for the Avatar and you despise An as well?” ... “Would you believe me, if I told you I was after the exact same things? Cause, I am.” ... “Maybe we could help each other out. I like your reasoning after all, but surely An wouldn’t keep important prisoners and informants locked up in a rundown bender prison in the lower ring. They’d be kept where it’s easier to secure them in the inner ring. Away from potential riots or peasant revolts. I’m Huo by the way, uh, just Huo. Anyway, I’ve got a plan to sneak into the inner ring during the coronation ceremonies when most of his army will be distracted at the main gates with the crowds. Maybe you could come with me, I just need to find a…. Is that….?”

...

“Those two are air benders.” ... “Listen, can you hear that?” ... “They must be cut off from that way, but…. But we could clear a path here. There’s not so many guards. What do you say, um…?”


Zhen had to wince at the point about the Inner Ring. He wasn't anywhere near used to Ba Sing Se - more than one prison in the same city? Hadn't even crossed his mind.

On the other hand, apparently the spirits were with him. Because of course they were, now that he was searching for the Avatar. At least he had an ally, now.

Much to his surprise, he found his lips quirking up. How long had it been since he had enjoyed the company of anyone from Fire? Stone and ash, even the ship's crew, the trader's caravan, he'd only tolerated, and they were Earth! Ren had been a blessing, but other than him...

Well, best take the opportunity while it was there.

"Zhen. Yeah, if you're up for it - how good are you on the offence? I'm assuming you know Mountain? I'm better at Dr - Wave, so I should probably focus on defending, if you want to split it that way."

Almost unconsciously, his stance straightened; limbs loosened as he rolled his shoulders, lifting slightly onto the balls of his feet before dropping back down again, checking his readiness. Rooting was important, but Dragon Style emphasised the flow. Above all else, you had to be smooth.

Ironic, given he hadn't had an actual friend for... it must have been seven years now, and even then the fact he'd had to hide his firebending had made him more or less a drifter on the edge of the little cliques. A year or so ago, he'd have scowled at that, and two further before it would have pulled a snarl out of him, but a memory of the old lizard rose unbidden - a chiding nudge with one knuckle, claw curled carefully away, an amused huff of breath ruffling his hair.

You must learn to let go.

Smiling quietly, Zhen felt the fire begin to blaze within, heat coiling in his gut.

He'd never actually fought anyone with firebending, not properly. And despite the danger, despite the chaos of stumbling into things without more than the barest semblance of a plan... he found himself looking forward to it.



Fire burns now. Be in the moment, and let it carry you. - Zhen Long

On the Road to the Prison


Colour: #ED1111





“You’re helping break someone out! Who in their right mind would try a prison break in daylight, in the middle of Ba Sing Se? You’ve got nowhere to run, you’re surrounded by walls. You’ll be helping your friends escape only to surely get recaptured. And worst of all AN controls the city, and it’s not like he takes kindly to those of us from Fire.”

...

“Sorry,” she whispered, keeping her voice low as if to make up for the earlier proclamation. At least they were running along a seemingly deserted avenue. “I shouldn’t have said that, but I promise my lips are sealed. I'm no friend of An or the Earth Kingdom.”


Zhen blinked, eyebrows climbing. That... hadn't been a reaction he'd expected. "Not... necessarily. I had intended to get a read on the situation first, though you're right in that the risks of involving myself could very well outweigh the benefits. I'm not looking for anyone specifically, but..." Well, she was Fire. And from the look in her eyes at that last, he very much doubted she was a turncoat for An. Still, he thought, double-checking for guards with a careful side-to-side of his eyes, best keep his voice low. "An assassinated the last Avatar, but it's been twenty years; if he had the new one, he'd have made a big deal of it by now. He's a very... straightforward sort of man, from everything I've heard of him. But by the same token he's not just going to give up - so he has to be looking, still, and that means he needs information. Which means he needs people to get information from, and it's most likely that the ones he thinks are his best shot? Are being kept right where he can keep an eye on them."

He grimaced. Thin reasoning, faith over basic logic, had always irritated him. Ironic.

"It's a stretch at best, I'm aware, but it's not like I've got any other options. My best plan before the bell was to wander around and hope I came across a likely-looking rumour. And at the very least, if there is a decent shot at a successful escape, a flame burns brighter with more fuel; finding a group I can be assured oppose An as much as I do isn't something to scoff at, even by itself."

Shrugging, he slowed his pace slightly. There was a distinct clamour rising above the general (slightly panicked) city noise and the bell's strident resonance.

"I think this is it."

On the Road to the Prison


Colour: #ED1111





A commotion drew Huo attention at that moment, accompanied the sound of a nearby bell. A small detachment of city watchmen and An’s soldiers sprinted past, a half dozen or so of them, seemingly in a rush to get wherever they needed to be. The one in the front held a lit lantern, and the firelight shone bright on Huo’s face as they ran by. “Get to your home girl, there’s about to be trouble.” The growled order had a note of seriousness to it, and Huo didn’t doubt for a second that there would be trouble afoot, soon enough.

“I’ll get right on that sir.” She muttered, shielding her eyes from the glare. The force moved away, clearly not intent on enforcing a curfew, merely suggesting it. At least, that’s how Huo saw it. The night was still young, and despite her worn feet Huo felt an irresistible curiosity to know what this ‘trouble’ might be. She was about to take off after the soldiers when a lone figure jogged past, seemingly matching her intentions to follow them. He was a young man, well built with a complexion that was hard to make out in the twilight, but Huo could’ve sworn he hailed originally from the Fire Islands, the same as her. Trotting to keep pace she reached up and tapped this stranger on the shoulder, who’s name, unbeknownst to her, was Zhen. “Hey there tall guy. You don’t happen to know what’s going down do you? One of ‘em said there was going to be trouble, and he looked serious about it too. Like pentapox epidemic serious.” Huo tilted her head, angling her ears to get a better read on the mysterious bell’s reverberations. “They’re headed straight for that chime too. Reckon it’s an alarm of some kind?”


Briefly, Zhen sent a mental thanks to Ren for his help learning to dull his instinctive reaction to whirl on anyone getting close to him in his blindspot, especially if they touched him. Starting a fight with someone in the middle of the city while the guards were on high alert would have been... not the best idea. Especially not a girl a head shorter than him and about as much less broad, given the Earth Kingdom's views on women. Even if he was pretty sure she was Fire.

Slowing a little to let her keep pace, tossing the apple core into a bin as they passed, he considered.

"Most likely. I don't know Earth protocol, but - no smoke, and no sound of battle, so it isn't a fire or a large-scale attack, but it's something big or they wouldn't have rung a city-wide bell at all." Even on this deserted street, they were passing banners and wall scrolls declaiming the glorious coronation... "Especially since it's An's big day; they wouldn't want to damage their reputation if they could avoid it, which means they really do need all hands tending the flame. That leaves us... probably a prison break. Benders, not just genpop."

He side-eyed her for a moment, watching to see if she'd react to the Fire Nation colloquialism he'd slipped in, or the military terminology. Being out here alone was a fairly significant indicator - Earth Kingdom and women, again - but it was better to confirm his suspicions before actually taking the risk of revealing himself.

At the Gates of Ba Sing Se


Colour: #ED1111





If he knew where Zhen had gone - immediately after disembarking, no less - Ren would have had him doing dropstance and surgehops for a month. He'd probably have admitted it was a reasonable idea afterwards, mind, but the grumpy old lizard had a thing about his 'reckless streak'.

Still, capital of the Earth Kingdom and centre of An's power or not, Ba Sing Se was probably the best place to gather rumours that might hint at the Avatar's location or status. It had taken a couple of weeks to get there, most of which he'd spent pulling his weight as a grunt labourer - first to pay his passage on the ship, then in order to travel with a merchant caravan going his way - and suppressing the urge to bend, except in the smallest of ways.

That, obviously, couldn't continue; at the same time, however, he had no desire to be outed to An's forces as a firebender. He didn't know exactly what would happen then, but the rumours suggested nothing good.

Hence why he was standing on the road just outside the Impenetrable City, staring up at the massive gates in consideration. Once he went in, he probably wouldn't get a chance to seriously start firebending until he left again, and given how huge Ba Sing Se was... it could take him weeks to find a lead.

On the other hand, what other options did he have? Wander around aimlessly and hope for the best? Visit all the remote mountaintops and valleys one by one and hope the Avatar didn't move to one he'd already searched?

Sighing, he got into line.

No, he wasn't armed. No, he hadn't committed any crimes by the laws of the Earth Kingdom. No, he didn't have any enemies likely to come looking for him. Yes, he'd stay out of trouble. Yes, he'd report any suspicious activity (hint hint especially Water Tribers hint hint.)

That guard wasn't anywhere near as subtle as he thought he was. Judging from the look his partner was shooting him, she'd be giving him an earful once they were off duty. Still, division in the ranks was no concern of his. At least it indicated there wasn't quite enough fuel for the fire; he'd have a much more difficult time staying hidden if An's thugs were tending the flame too closely, to say nothing of how much less willing people would be to talk.

Briefly offering thanks to Agni (and, after a moment's thought, Guanyin) for how simple it had been to get through, he settled into the well-worn groove of 'patrol walk', a steady gait that could carry him through hours of walking. Best to get the lay of the land first.



About ninety minutes later, munching absently on an apple, Zhen found himself walking down a much emptier street than most he'd passed through, and bristling with far more soldiers too.

Distantly, a bell was ringing, loud and strident.

The soldiers started running.

... Well, something was happening.

Finishing his apple, carefully restraining his gait to a sort of loping jog - not an attention-grabbing run, but not attention-grabbingly unworried either - and plastering a concerned expression on his face, he headed in the same direction as An's goons, keeping a careful distance behind them.

Just in case.
Alright, here we go.

@Bluetommy

So, @Bluetommy, how much longer have I got to get a submission in? I'm mostly done, but there's some more fine-tuning I'd like to do if I've got the time, though I can also just bang out the rest of the text tonight if I need to.
@Rokoran so where does plant- or bloodbending fall?


Waterbending. It's all internal water, after all. I haven't got this all perfectly fleshed out or anything - I'm still faffing about with the firebending stuff - but I'd probably go with it being similar to Lightning; you can get basic internal water manipulation at Expert, but then to do mass or complex stuff, you'd need the Master-level version of the technique.
In terms of lavabending being equally possible in both the firebending and earthbending disciplines, there is precedent from the show, two of the known lavabenders are Kiyoshi, an earthbender, and Roku, a firebender. It makes complete sense to me that these disciplines are connected in such a manner.

LoK actually jossed that, IIRC - by canon lavabending is a specialised Earth technique. Which is stupid.

In terms of cross-bending abilities, study of the other bending arts has been shown to lead to greater abilities in the show, Iroh creating lightning redirection through studying waterbenders being the most obvious of these. In terms of the examples you gave, I don't think it makes sense for airbenders to be able to stormbend simply by watching waterbenders, unless the storm already exists it makes little sense to me for Airbenders to suddenly gain the ability to create storms, mud has been bent by both water and earthbenders without any interaction between the two, and heat manipulation is an intermediate level firebending technique, Iroh uses it to heat tea, Zuko uses it to melt ice, Sozin uses it to attempt to halt a volcanic eruption. None of these people outside Iroh had had the chance to study airbenders prior to use.'
Bluetommy

So, in order - airbenders certainly couldn't stormbend just by watching waterbenders; I see Stormbending as a Master-Level technique (which means Inner Gale and one Airbending Style at Mastery) also requiring Mastery in Study of Water and Study of Fire. That's like, endgame stuff. And doing anything big with it would probably completely wipe you out even then, plus falling into Dangerous Forbidden Move classification, because if you let a storm get out of your control and it grows? Hurricanes are Avatar territory.

You are more or less correct about mud, I threw that in mostly offhand; that would probably be Novice level in Study of Water/Earth for earth/waterbenders, respectively, since mud is stiffer than water but more fluid than earth. You could get that just by carefully watching the appropriate type of bender do their thing for a while, but if you want to start getting deeper into Study of [Element] you need to actually learn the forms and what they do, and then start experimenting with how you incorporate some of those things into your own style. Master-level Study of Water means mastering Master-level waterbending forms and then picking out the bits that are applicable to your own element.

Heatbending, as I visualise it, is not quite the same thing as heat manipulation - heating tea and melting ice, the way I've been thinking of them, fall under the 'can radiate warmth' part of Inner Flame, the most basic Universal-level firebender skill; what Sozin does with the volcano is Novice or maybe Apprentice level heatbending, just moving it from one place to another. Combat heatbending, though, I see as stuff like throwing around blasts of superheated air, more or less instantly dropping the space around someone to minus fifty and then dumping that all onto the guy standing next to him: just as dangerous as most sorts of firebending, and a whole lot less visible.

If you look at the Avatar wiki, there's a line about heat manipulation, referring specifically to Sozin's heat redirection: It appears to operate on a similar principle to Iroh's redirection of lightning technique. Hence, if Study of Water leads to lightning manipulation, Study of Air leads to heat manipulation - and if lightning redirection graduates into proper, controlled lightningbending, logically speaking, heat redirection should graduate into heatbending.

Hmm, this is all quite interesting, I see no reason to say no. In terms of defensive firebending, be sure to recall that for a long time those arts were forgotten, and even if my setting is earlier in the timeline, the warlike state of the Fire Islands and aggressive focus of the most powerful warlord may lead to it being far rarer than the aggressive form.

If this structure will help you, I won't stop you, though this is a casual RP and I won't expect the same from everyone else.

Also another piece of setting information that I may have forgotten to mention, as this RP is far earlier in the timeline, the spirit world will be more closely linked with the physical.
Bluetommy

Well, it's not purely defensive, it's just more focused on control and the flow of fire rather than aggression and power; that results in better deflection. It doesn't, in and of itself, give you anything special, or at least not until you hit Mastery and unlock Cloak of Flame, the defensive counterpart to Mountain's Endless Onslaught. Rather, if Mountain Style is a straight line, Dragon Style is an arc or a circle; you can stab things better with a line, but moving in an arc is better for deflection. Both Mountain and Dragon defend by knocking things away or just incinerating them with fire; Dragon is simply better at it than Mountain, as Mountain is better on the offence than Dragon.

And the reason my firebender knows Dragon style, and is in fact better at it than Mountain, is that he learned from a dragon (this being centuries before Sozin wiped them out, they're probably a lot more common.) He's peasant-born, so his parents couldn't teach him, and none of his family are very fond of any of the warlords - that's part of why he's searching for the Avatar, in fact, because he's hoping the Avatar will lay down the law on them.

WOAH DUDE!
This is a little complication, but like really cool.
I might be like... Behind on info, but is that stuff all legit canon names for things or did you make some of it up? I kind wanted a fire bender, but now idk if I could compete lol Still really cool though

Oh, I know it's complicated. I just enjoy that sort of thing.

Most of those names aren't canon; Lavabending and Lightningbending are, and we know that Iroh studied waterbending to come up with his lightning redirection technique, as well as the fact that he could breathe fire without external motions. So Study of Water/Earth/Air is a formalised name for doing that sort of thing that I came up with, and Inner Flame and Surging Breath describes the firebender ability to manipulate both flame and chi by breathing, but most of the other stuff isn't canon.

Cross-element bending abilities I drew primarily from Embers, in which - among other things - Zuko invents hot water bending in order to disguise himself on the run, then later, working with Toph, molten glass bending (which they can both do) while she also learns to bend ashes in the air above an open flame. So I took that and went along the logical progression.

Chi use by warriors is also, I think, from Embers (Sokka learns it) - we get hints of that being the case in canon, both because Piandao is simply too awesome not to be doing something wacky and because chi-blocking causes paralysis rather than just stopping bending. That is, if no chi means you can't move, more chi should mean you can move more or more powerfully. I say I think because I don't know if it ever actually became an acknowledged thing in canon or just fell under 'this is a fantasy world, there are people who can take on a hundred men using only a sword and come out without a scratch.'
@Bluetommy

Okay, so here's a question - how far into fanon are we allowed to go? Because there's some canon stuff that... really doesn't make sense, and some fanfiction stuff (principally Embers-derived, I will admit) that really does.

Principally, I'm thinking:
  • Lavabending should be equally possible with fire or earth, and should require the user to study the bending forms of the element they don't have, and possibly water as well (earth that's hot like fire and flows (somewhat) like (really thick, sometimes, depending on type) water.)
  • Similarly, there should be other cross-element specialisations; a firebender might learn to bend heat by studying airbending, hot water (more specifically the 'fire' in hot water, but effectively) by studying waterbending, or steam by studying both, just as a waterbender might learn mudbending from studying earth or an airbender stormbending (as in genuine rain-thunder-and-lightning storms, not just huge winds) from water and fire.
  • Active chi use should be for more than just bending and mystical extrasensory perception; high-level warriors like Piandao, for example, defeating a hundred men or fighting blindfolded, should be active chi users. Likewise, strong benders should be capable of enhancing their physical power with chi, or even creating a surge in the power of their bending, at the cost of stamina.


Which ties into my (firebender) character sheet thusly:
Skill classification (as in difficulty/advanced-ness) goes universal/novice/apprentice/journeyman/expert/master
Skill level (as in how good you are) goes untrained/novice/apprentice/journeyman/expert/master

There are seven Universal skills: Inner Fire (how powerful your flame is, and some incidental bonuses like not freezing), Surging Breath (firebender chi use), Mountain Style (firebending technique one, aggressive), Dragon Style (firebending technique two, defensive), and then Study of Earth, Study of Water, and Study of Air; so, for example, if my firebender progressed to Expert Inner Fire, Expert Study of Water and Expert Mountain Style (or Master Dragon Style), he could learn Lightningbending and Lightning Redirection, or Controlled Lightningbending at Mastery.

A Waterbender, alternatively, might have Inner Flow, Surging Tide, Ocean Style and Moon Style, and then Study of Earth, Fire and Air.

Obviously this is fairly complicated, but I like to have a bit of a structure to work with. Is this all okay, or do I need to adhere to canon rules?

EDIT: Also, this would, double obviously, be a lot of work, it's not the sort of thing anyone can just breeze through. I'm thinking long-term here, mostly.
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