hahn-dredregretsâ:
Hahn thought she didnât particularly seem convinced, but maybe she was just hard to read. Either way, he felt that maybe he shouldnât have wasted his breath, or maybe he shouldnât have even approached her at all. After all, she was still young, from the looks of itâ was it silly to have blind faith in a child? But then again, werenât they all children, to some degree? The Fire Lord that sat on the throne now, the Avatar⌠and even him. What could their little experience afford them? How could they possibly know how to deal with the unprecedented fallout of a millennium-long war?
He weighed her words as he pieced together his own. He knew it would be difficult to strike a balance between being the savior for the aristocrats and a champion for the working class, not especially if they were fundamentally so at odds, but maybe there was a way to somehow unite them all. If he was being honest, that was probably the part that was the haziest of all in his plans: it had been an unexpected curveball to learn that the commoners hadnât been a fan of Ozai (why hadnât they revolted earlier?), and Hahn had been spending the past days figuring out how to piece things together. But he was working on it.
âI donât need them to love me, just respect me enough,â he said. All he had now was plans to attempt to charm the two groups with words, a display of the different facets of his life history that would connect the best to each group, but it didnât escape him that the battle for that would be hard-fought. Perhaps for the commoners, his tale of building himself up from nothing would prove inspiring, humbling even, when compared to Zuko, but the aristocrats? They might appreciate him as a scholarly man with knowledge on power, leadership and economics, but his lack of legitimacy, coming from the Water Tribe, was a hurdle he had to figure out. He needed something better, and it seemed like Smellerbee might have just that. âBut what do you suggest?â
âif they want to say it was fear that kept them doing whatever ozai said, then i say we may as well use a proven method.â she crossed her arms tight over her chest and dug her fingers into her arms. her heartbeat picked up and she hoped it didnât show on her face that she was making a decision now. she hoped he sensed confidence from her and not the nerves because she knew just because sheâd been thinking over some more drastic measures didnât mean sheâd committed them to anyone yet, not really. it was the call jet would make. it was fuzzy whether or not that made it a bad call automatically. she had to stop comparing herself to him. she wasnât him. it just felt like he would know better than her.
âkeep notes on which council members and rich types treat you badly. it wonât take long for them to learn that if they treat you like anything less than authority, they end up missing a few rooms in their house. they treat you well, nothing happens, and they donât need to be scared. hahn from the water tribe means safety. it means protection. zuko the fire lord means things happen that they wouldnât like to happen.â smellerbee didnât know if he would like that. if hahn would be opposed to violence and explosions and putting people in danger for the sake of a good goal. she wouldnât promise no one would get hurt.
there used to be traveling shows, with little carts, marionettes and figures and cloth puppets that danced around and made fools of the fire nation and made earth kingdom soldiers to be heroes and the kings of the earth kingdom were godlike and wise and the fire lord was a puffy fool. âitâs like a puppet show around here. if they need a pretend enemy to rally behind, behind you, iâve got a lot of practice making fire nation lives miserable.â













