impasse.

howdy !! i’m mitzi (they/she) and i’m v excited to be here with surin ^___^ haven’t been in rp for a hot minute and tumblr’s new look is v much throwing me off so sorry in advance for any mistakes :[ anw!! everything important can be found on her about page but i’ll include some more details and tidbits here too for funsies (+ convenience lol). if you’d like to plot, then pls hit the like button and i’ll drop by your dm’s !! 

long story short: noble researcher from ba sing se conducting not-so-legal-or-permitted research on dragons and how to weaponise them for the earth kingdom :grimace:

backstory wise, she’s the bastard child of a minor house in ba sing se that specialises in research and allegedly espionage (if i have the dates right maybe they have connections with the dai li?). her biological father is the head of the house and her biological mother is someone she’s met only once—resulting in the scar across her face.

when she was eleven, her biological mother tried to come back for her and things got out of hand resulting in a destroyed wing of the house, a missing person, and a kid with no recollection of what happened other than the literal mark it left on her.

nineteen years later and she’s more or less “over” what happened, considering 1) she doesn’t even know what happened cos everyone just said it was an accident 2) she’s a bit too busy trying to uncover state secrets to even be curious about her own background lol!

has an awkward and tense rl with her family, feels obligated to carry out everything as instructed seeing as it was her father who got her her job in the first place (plus success in this specific task means there’s less of a focus on marriage). her loyalty to the earth kingdom (+ attitude towards chaesan) is v much influenced by them.

been in the fire nation for around 3 months now under the guise of doing research on *waves hands around* something vaguely ecology-related idk 

but her actual expertise is in social and environmental history so she’s a bit like 🧍 w the current task (even more so seeing who the new crown prince is). it’s v intriguing nonetheless!

reports back to her father plus another senior researcher who haven’t proposed the findings (cos theyre still a wip lmao) to the royal family & co., so it’s pretty unlikely that other earth kingdom nobles are aware of this

doesn’t necessarily have the mannerisms of a typical noble considering she barely attended any events beyond the ones she had no choice but to + was taught to remain somewhat unnoticeable and inconspicuous for various reasons. being from a minor family makes that a lot easier too.

good with books and information, alright with most people, absolute flop at earthbending aside from tricks for convenience and some defence rip

+ gets shit done, calm & easygoing disposition, fantastic at compartmentalising, meticulous in even the most trivial things, willing to risk certain things if that means she can carry out her task as needed

- loyal to a fault, stubborn when she doesn’t have to be, a bit of a poor communicator, not as efficient as she could be, prone to falling for the finer things in life as a means of stress relief (it’s abt rituals y’know)

for SURIN, @holocened

even though haeui’s been back in the fire nation for almost half a year now, her trips to dragonstone have been far and few. not quite anyone’s fault, she’s simply been at the ryus residence after their particularly generous and immovable offer. she’s still got her freedom, though, it feels like a weight lifted off her shoulders to be back in her home, with an old friend she hadn’t expected to see.

“i haven’t had real seafood in ages,” she sighs happily to surin. the hole in the wall is a place known mostly to dragonstone natives, a stone’s throw away from the port with the freshest seafood to boast about. “but i haven’t seen you in longer,” haeui adds, tilting her head towards her friend. “bless the spirits for letting our paths cross!”

she glances at the accompanying guards over the top of her bowl, lowering her voice when she notices that they’re both busy with their own meals, only half of their attention on her. tai haeui isn’t a difficult person to track, after all; she only ventures out when called upon, or to the guild that houses her makeshift workshop. “i’m sorry about the extra entourage,” haeui murmurs, plucking tender fish from bone. leans across the table to place it on top of her friend’s bowl, and whispers over, “if you want to talk about something private… do you remember the time we lost my date at ba sing se?”

it never properly occurred to surin that there’d be a likelihood of seeing familiar faces during this trip. with the fire nation as big and sprawling as it is, in addition to her tendency to make acquaintances as opposed to friends, coming across haeui in the city instead of ba sing se is arguably the last thing she expected here. which is not to say it’s a bad thing—far from it actually, with the rumours surrounding haeui’s family.

bless the spirits indeed.

she offers haeui a proper smile, wider and far more sincere than the one she usually has on for courtesy sake, a short chuckle slipping past when haeui apologises out of her guards’ earshot. “don’t worry, i understand,” surin replies, picking up the fish meat and plopping it into her mouth. she can’t help the snort that escapes at her friend’s suggestion, reminded of memories of what felt like a wild goose chase along the winding alleys of her home city.

“i’m not sure if i have the finesse to execute that now,” she admits in a hushed tone, but glances at haeui when she continues, “though, i am interested in hearing about those... um... rumours.”

apparently, it isn’t hushed enough to go undetected by the guard sitting closest to them and surin relaxes her expression when he looks over, her grip around her chopsticks loosened as if she hadn’t just crossed a line with her little inquiry. “but first, you have to tell me about your travels since we last saw each other,” she says in a normal volume, a silent question in her gaze when she reaches across the table to pour some cold tea into haeui’s cup. 

he laughed, all neighborly—the sound of it meant to cut through the gloom of their shared memory. raon knew the machinations of destiny as well as anyone, but being locked up in a carriage to protect someone who had once been on the opposite end of his blade really drove home the lesson that destiny was a funny thing. “no,” he agreed wholly, almost an apology on his face, “i don’t imagine you would.”

he recognized the stiffness of her smile easily enough, and understood it even better. though he felt little remorse for what he’d done, or for the fact that he remembered her face but never bothered to learn her name, he felt a responsibility to ease her mind now. “the capital is the capital,” he said, glancing outside for a moment. they were making good time, he gathered. the capital was almost completely out of sight now, and a thick forest had swallowed their party. towering trees all around them obstructed the sun, casting shadows where light once danced. “but i haven’t seen my home in years. i was told you stayed with us for a while before the festivities. were the accommodations to your liking? i’m sure you and our youngest had no shortage of things to talk about,” he continued, paying no mind to how it might have been out of turn, that he should use information he knew about her only because he’d once pointed a blade at her to steal it. he remembered taking, from her carriage, scrolls and books he never bothered to look at; the memory of it duller than the shine of the gold coins he’d received as payment.

it’s a bit like a cosmic joke, and surin has half the mind to consider that it may be some sort of payback for her current transgressions against the nation that has housed her for the past three months. but that’s something to think about for another day, when she preferably isn’t in the company of someone who very well might have the slightest inkling about her true intentions, with a scroll of ciphered text looted among the others he robbed her of however long ago.

a loss that was far from detrimental to the kachaprai house, considering their extensive archive of backups, but certainly a loss of face on her end.

she nods to his question, gaze briefly following his as the interior of their carriage grows dimmer the deeper they enter the forest. “it’s a lovely estate, with even better company. it’s awfully reassuring to witness a younger researcher thrive in the same field,” surin says, smile growing despite the unsettling feeling in her stomach. whether that was due to the motions of the carriage or the way he dropped that line as if he had looked through those stolen scrolls, she didn’t know, which is not to say she doesn’t want to. 

“how did you—”

           ( !! )  𝖈𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖗   /   @holocened​

the noble procession was in place. three carriages, ten horsed soldiers and twenty on foot to escort house yeon back home. usually, he might have dressed in thin linens and traveled on horseback himself. raon rather enjoyed the sights, liked to trace the jagged edges of far away mountains and follow winding rivers with his eyes. carriages’ windows were so small; whether he was sitting on the inside trying to look out or coming from the outside trying to break in, he could hardly ever see anything through them. 

but on the morning of their leave, he brandished silks befit a noble. his pale yellow overcoat flowed down his shoulders like liquid sun, a plain cream tunic underneath. he was lightly armored with thick leather vambraces on either arms and thicker leather greaves over his pants and boots. his infamous sword, oathbreaker, hung at his side in a leather scabbard. he approached the carriage his mother had pointed him to, where she’d told him their guest from the earth kingdom would be waiting; a guest to be left under his protection for the entire way. sure enough, a lady in fine threads seemed to be waiting inside. raon didn’t see her face until he took his seat in the carriage opposite her, a servant shutting the door behind him. he opened his mouth to say the usual pleasantries, but paused abruptly.

“my lady,” he greeted, “how fortunate that i should have a chance to meet you under more pleasant circumstances,” raon brushed past the past. “i’m lord raesung, heir to house yeon,” he bowed his head, “but please, call me raon. as long as i live and breathe, no harm shall befall you, i swear it,” he promised—perhaps too late. as a nailed coffin in procession might, just then the carriage began to move.

frankly, surin thinks that this is all a bit much. 

it had been in her best interests to accept lady yeon’s offer to house her once again, with the current state of affairs in the capital as tense and frail as they are. however, having to share a carriage with the heir of the house whom she’s never even met before, with the addition of more soldiers than those under her father’s hire back home—well, it’s more than a bit much, really.

left to her own devices for at least ten minutes, she straightens her back when footsteps begin to approach the carriage, schooling her expression into a cordial one without much difficulty. as it turns out, maintaining it ends up being the problem, with her smile faltering the moment the door opens and reveals the heir of house yeon.

the carriage begins to move not long after he takes his seat opposite her, robbing her of any chance of escape, so surin returns his greeting with a slow nod and a smile that very well might just be a grimace. “i’m sure you will, my lord,” she replies, with the title sounding just a tad bit forced. “though i would hardly call an assassination pleasant.”

it’s a slip of the tongue, and she averts her eyes only for her stare to land on the awfully familiar sword by his side. the sight of it and the memory it reminds her of has her lifting her gaze to the window by her right, watching as they pass the first checkpoint with ease.

it had been a moment of weakness, really, when she agreed to this. not that she had much of a choice, but perhaps there could’ve been more of a negotiation than an outright surrender. either way, dwelling on her past, no matter how recent, is far from what surin is interested in. so she takes the shoddy deal in stride, walks to their designated meeting place with an air of nonchalance, and schools her expression when she finds suhui waiting there, shrouded by the shadows.

looks like she’s the late one for once.

“here,” surin says, offering the pouch of gold and silver to suhui in the same manner she’d done the previous six times—a clipped tone remedied by a gentle smile. “as agreed on.”

she finds herself rooted to the ground, idly waiting for something or nothing. after all, suhui has given her good reason to. then, that nagging voice in her head quickly reminds her of the handmaiden’s position and her proximity to aeon, goads her until the words are right on the tip of her tongue. surin bites down on them before they make it out, smile turning sheepish in turn. 

“actually, would you be amenable to changing the terms of our arrangement?” she asks, grabbing onto the hem of suhui’s sleeve should she choose to walk away.

three months is far from long. she’s dealt with longer before and she’ll gladly deal with it again if that means securing a chance to properly see a dragon without the rumoured death sentence.