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31_days2008-08-01 07:51 am
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-08-01 07:51 am
[Aug. 1, 2008][Avatar] The Last Traces
Title: The Last Traces
Day/Theme: August 1, 2008 "Trace"
Series: Avatar
Character/Pairing: Hau, An Ling (OCs in Ba Sing Se)
Rating: PG
I'll be a bit paranoid and say *very slight* spoiler warning for the finale.
It had taken some time, but the streets of Ba Sing Se had tidied up quite nicely. The rubble of broken and battered buildings had been swept away and the rails were running on schedule once more. An Ling was actually a little proud. Some minor official had spotted him painting decorative flowers around the window frames of the poetry house and asked him to come work on a new mural to decorate one of the railway stops.
Another artist had completed the overall design, a heroically posed, larger-than-life representation of the Avatar defending Ba Sing Se, and An Ling had merely been selected to assist in painting it along with the master artist's students, but it was still a fabulous honor. He had never mixed his powdered colors with such care before. He wanted to make something that would've made his parents proud, something that would brighten the faces of the townsfolk passing by, and add to the overall quality of life in the revived capital.
It seemed to the head artist running the project that this meticulous youth was always smiling. It warmed the older man's heart. Ba Sing Se had seen far too much pain in the past few years. It was time for the seeds of new life and vitality to burst forth from the earth. It was good to be able to speak freely. Freedoms had been constricted tighter and tighter as the war neared the capital, but even in the master's childhood there had not been full disclosure.
"The Dai Li took my wife away," he declared one day while working on the Avatar's eyes, a particularly important part of the mural.
His helpers looked at each other uncomfortably, unsure of how to react to this sudden statement. An Ling put down his brush, "How terrible!" he sympathized with the master. "How long ago? And you've never seen her since?"
"Never!" Master Hau sighed, and though his shoulders slumped visibly, the creases in his brow appeared to lighten in response to the burden just removed from his shoulders.
Impetuously, An Ling threw off his paint-spattered apron and hugged the master artist. A few of the other assistants- those who studied under Hau- gasped in shock. Who was this uninhibitied refugee to just go hugging Master Hau? ...But to the further and even greater surprise, Master Hau hugged the young man back.
The floodgate of hidden secrets was opened. "My father didn't really die in an accident- he was killed by the Fire Nation!"
"My sister went to work at the palace and when I saw her again, she didn't know who I was and called herself Joo Dee!"
"I saw suspicious activity a few days before the walls came down, but I was too afraid of the Dai Li to report it!"
"I think I like the new Ba Sing Se we are building," Master Hau half-smiled.
"So do I," An Ling replied.
*****
After I wrote this, it occurred to me that it might have worked better for "Stop whispering; start shouting," on the 17th, but I decided to keep it where I had meant it to go.
Day/Theme: August 1, 2008 "Trace"
Series: Avatar
Character/Pairing: Hau, An Ling (OCs in Ba Sing Se)
Rating: PG
I'll be a bit paranoid and say *very slight* spoiler warning for the finale.
It had taken some time, but the streets of Ba Sing Se had tidied up quite nicely. The rubble of broken and battered buildings had been swept away and the rails were running on schedule once more. An Ling was actually a little proud. Some minor official had spotted him painting decorative flowers around the window frames of the poetry house and asked him to come work on a new mural to decorate one of the railway stops.
Another artist had completed the overall design, a heroically posed, larger-than-life representation of the Avatar defending Ba Sing Se, and An Ling had merely been selected to assist in painting it along with the master artist's students, but it was still a fabulous honor. He had never mixed his powdered colors with such care before. He wanted to make something that would've made his parents proud, something that would brighten the faces of the townsfolk passing by, and add to the overall quality of life in the revived capital.
It seemed to the head artist running the project that this meticulous youth was always smiling. It warmed the older man's heart. Ba Sing Se had seen far too much pain in the past few years. It was time for the seeds of new life and vitality to burst forth from the earth. It was good to be able to speak freely. Freedoms had been constricted tighter and tighter as the war neared the capital, but even in the master's childhood there had not been full disclosure.
"The Dai Li took my wife away," he declared one day while working on the Avatar's eyes, a particularly important part of the mural.
His helpers looked at each other uncomfortably, unsure of how to react to this sudden statement. An Ling put down his brush, "How terrible!" he sympathized with the master. "How long ago? And you've never seen her since?"
"Never!" Master Hau sighed, and though his shoulders slumped visibly, the creases in his brow appeared to lighten in response to the burden just removed from his shoulders.
Impetuously, An Ling threw off his paint-spattered apron and hugged the master artist. A few of the other assistants- those who studied under Hau- gasped in shock. Who was this uninhibitied refugee to just go hugging Master Hau? ...But to the further and even greater surprise, Master Hau hugged the young man back.
The floodgate of hidden secrets was opened. "My father didn't really die in an accident- he was killed by the Fire Nation!"
"My sister went to work at the palace and when I saw her again, she didn't know who I was and called herself Joo Dee!"
"I saw suspicious activity a few days before the walls came down, but I was too afraid of the Dai Li to report it!"
"I think I like the new Ba Sing Se we are building," Master Hau half-smiled.
"So do I," An Ling replied.
*****
After I wrote this, it occurred to me that it might have worked better for "Stop whispering; start shouting," on the 17th, but I decided to keep it where I had meant it to go.