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 Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 1:32 pm
 Zuko sighed as Kallan told him she hadn't heard word yet. He supposed it would be coming any time now, or that it had already come and got lost in the paperwork. He blamed the sages for the paperwork. They wanted everything documented and he just wasn't used to this. He smiled slightly as Kallan chided his aides and shook his head, "No, whatever you can do to bring order to this chaos is much appreciated." He set down the papers he had been looking at and his head snapped to attention as in a blur of green, Toph had come through his door. He rolled his eyes slightly as she ruined his floor just to have a seat, but that was really the least of his worries. "I'm glad... I was worried about our soldiers. How have you been, Toph?" he asked her as he walked over to her. He was glad to see friends like her pop in at times like these. It was so crazy around here, it was nice to get word from the outside once in a while.
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 1:43 pm
 ╔══════════════╗"I've been fine. Had a few run ins with raiders but they weren't much of a problem." She said looking around the throne room. "I see you have settled into the Lordship huh?" She got up from her makeshift chair and walked over to the throne. "How is it running your own nation Fire Lord Zuko?" She said that last part with a hint of sarcasm in it.
In a way she missed Team Avatar. It was fun to poke fun at Zuko and Sokka and to annoy Katara. She smirked at the thought but turned back to the romm splayed in front of her. ╚══════════════╝
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 1:47 pm
Zuko smiled at Toph and replied, "Well it's been... busy I guess. Not much room to relax, stuck indoors most of the time... but since I run the place I guess I could take a break whenever I wanted. Of course, that would leave me to do more work later, so I'd just like to get it over and done with now."He watched her look around, though he knew she couldn't see like he did. She saw with her feet, and that brought back a little bit of a bad memory for the both of them where Toph had snuck up on him and he had burned her feet. He sighed, but knew there had been happier times than those with Aang and the rest of the gang. "How are things in the Earth Kingdom? Stabling out I'd hope..." he asked her, curious as to what was really happening out there in the other kingdoms.
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 2:04 pm
╔══════════════╗ "They are fine enough. The Earth Kingdom is too large to be cleansed of crime though. But Ba Sing Se has quieted down substansially." She said. "I should probably get back to work scouring the Earth Kingdom finding and eliminating the Raiders..." She said.
She walked towards the girl in the room and stopped for a second. She turned towards her. It didn't matter much. She was blind, but she could still figure out what the girl looked like.
"Well Zuko, I guess I should be off. See you around." she said.
She turned around towards the doors and walked towards them. Instead of just opening them, she bent and crushed them around her, making a perfect opening. She turned back to Zuko one last time and winked. She ran down the corridor and out the grand doors of the palace. She jumped into the ground and surfaced with two large mounds of Earth carrying her back towards the sea. ╚══════════════╝
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 2:23 pm
The young Firelord smiled at the mention of Ba Sing Se, and though back to his Uncle. He was running a tea shop there again and wrote his nephew often. He had a pretty good knowledge of Ba Sing Se, but it was still nice to hear that the city was recovering. "Good luck," he called after her, and grimaced at the sound of the doors being crushed just to make way for the earth bender. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as his two aides looked horrified at the damage. "Well... we needed more sunlight in here..." he replied, looking towards the hole where Toph had gone. Zuko looked back to Kallen and said, "I suppose we don't have to worry about Omashu any longer. One less thing on my mind, I thank her for that." He walked back to his desk, a fair ways from his throne and the fire in line with it. It always made him think of his father. Now he was a powerless man who wouldn't reveal anything to his 'disappointment' of a son. He wouldn't even tell Zuko where his mother was. But to know she was alive gave him hope.
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 2:34 pm
Kallan stood frozen in the wake of the Earthbender's destruction. Part of her was stunned at how little the young girl seemed to care about the destruction around her. Another part was already considering the steps she needed to take to get the floor leveled out and re-tiled, the door fixed, and how to get rid of that chair.
She turned to Zuko and said coolly, "I hope that next time your friend comes, she'll give us some warning so that we can welcome her properly." Kallan privately entertained the idea of tossing her into a prison and letting her sit there, but discarded it as useless. For one, she didn't have the authority to do that, and for another, the girl could obviously bend metal, as she'd demonstrated with the doors.
She took another look around, then made a few quick decisions. "My lord, a few things need to happen before I can get this mess sorted out." She began to tick things off on her fingers absently. "One, I'll need to be appointed your personal secretary or something like that so that I have the authority to act on your behalf. An Assistant Chief of Staff is fine, but only deals with palace matters."
"Two, you need a vacation. It'll give me a chance to give your aides a bit of training and get things organized." She smiled at him. "Besides, it'll do you some good. Working too hard is bad for your health, and we need you to stay well. The people need their Firelord." Kallan looked around, glaring at the aides who were gaping at her, no doubt wondering at her nerve of giving orders to the Firelord. At her look, they hurriedly returned to work, looking slightly guilty at being caught.
"There's more, but those are mostly for me to take care of." She already had a very long list of things to do and was itching to get to them as quickly as possible.
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Irako of the Desert Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 2:50 pm
Omashu was slowly recovering, criminals still ran rampant but they were slowly falling in numbers. Thanks to the Kyoshi warriors, since the war ended they needed another way to keep their abilities up and what better way then taking down the criminals and protecting the citizens. None was more active in the imprisoning then a short brown haired girl with a big smile. Today however was her day off, running messages and such for Bumi. The man who helped raise her. She was delivering the package that Bumi asked for.
The brown haired girl moved quickly through the town and slipped past every one and to the leader of the town. "Bumi, Bumi." She called as she walked though the castle hunting for the old man. "HEY OLD MAN." She called out as she approached the throne room. A rock came falling from the roof and she dove rolled out of the way. The crash was followed by a laugh "Jerk." Bumi came out "So?" He asked her. The girl handed over the pakage and Bumi ripped it open pulling out some more rock candy. "Again with the rock candy? Why the hell do you have me run secret missions to get you the candy." She said back with laugh.
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:40 am
Zuko smiled and replied, "Toph always makes her own entrance... but it is a bit surprising that she didn't stay a little bit longer. She usually gives me a harder time." As Kallen began to speak again, he listened, and knew it would be nice to take another little vacation to Ba Sing Se, but it would take days to get there, and days to get back. He couldn't be away for that long right now. He was just rescently coronated and his country needed stability. He couldn't be seen taking another vacation when his country needed him; at least not somewhere as far away as Ba Sing Se. "I will take any help you are willing to offer, but I need to remain here, or at least close to home for the time being," he replied, but smirked slightly at the nervous looking aides. They weren't used to anyone talking to previous Firelords like Kallen was talking to him now, but he liked other opinions and tried to be open minded. "I'll grant you the position of my second adviser to give you the authority you need, but any large decisions will be continued to be made by me," he continued; his Uncle being his first adviser. Zuko nodded slightly as he remembered another one of her comments. "The people need their Firelord, but they need him here right now," the young Firelord replied, "I have to show the people that I am different from the previous Firelords, and that I am willing to help this country rebuild after so much oppression. When it is stable, I will consider going on that vacation you mentioned."
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:05 pm
 Tally wandered through the streets. What was she going to do now? She hadn't found teacher and she just couldn't grasp some things about bending. She wanted the water to go straight but it always went backwards, even hitting herself in the face sometimes.
"Where am I?" She wondered out loud, dodging a food cart at the side of the road. Around her were giant walls and amazing scenery, nothing like the tress and swamps she was used to seeing at home. Here there were mountains and cliffs. The shear strangeness of it was what drew her.
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 6:26 pm
The appointment to second adviser stunned Kallan for a moment. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, so she stood there gaping like a fish before finally saying, "Th-This is quite an honor, my lord. I did not expect such an appointment. To be honest, I was thinking personal secretary would be fine, but to be an adviser to you..." She bowed suddenly, and said, "I will do my best to live up to this duty."
Quietly, she cursed at herself for being such a bumbling idiot. Zuko had caught her by surprise and she'd made herself look a fool. Kallan straightened and smiled, then made shooing motions with her hands.
"Lord Zuko, please, at least take the rest of the day off. I can handle everything here, really. Why don't you visit the gardens?" She clasped her hands and added, "If you won't take a proper vacation, at least take a break every once in a while." Kallan eyed him mischievously. "Or you'll end up fat, like your uncle."
Her humor was a little flat, but she'd never been able to make people laugh. They thought she was too serious, so if she made jokes, it always took them a minute to realize what was going on. It was for this reason, that she didn't make jokes very often.
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Irako of the Desert Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:37 am
 ╔══════════════╗Toph scowled. She had ran into a few raiders on the way back to Omashu. There were way too many raiders around the Earth Kingdom for them to just be a rag tag team. There was definitely an organization to them that unsettled Toph for a moment, only for her to snap back to reality when she came back to the construction site of the bridge. This was really sad. A whole team for something one or two benders could do easily. Toph merely walked through the masses as people told her she was unauthorized to be at Omashu at this time. She merely smiled and with a few movements, a long plank of Earth jutted out of the cliff and over to the other side, to Omashu. She walked over the bridge and as the teams and workers were cheering, she collapsed the bridge and smiled.
She reached the palace in good time considering that she was coming all the way back from the Fire Nation Islands.
She entered the throne room, with some obstruction by the guards, and called out, "Crazy Old Bat, I delivered the message to Zuko. Is that all my business here?" She shouted eventhough the King was across the room. She made it her business to irritate the guards and attendants as they were disrupted by the yelling. It amused her. ╚══════════════╝
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:54 pm
Zuko smiled slightly at Kallan's reaction to the position, but knew he needed an advisor close to home as well as in the Earth Kingdom. He was fairly certain he could trust Kallan with this postition. She had proved herself in many ways and had already gotten it into her head that she should be organizing and cleaning this place up. He liked that she was so open to his new ways for their country and he also liked her understanding nature. The postition he was in was a difficult one at the moment, and he knew that she'd help him through it. "I know you will," he replied to her oath to live up to her newly assigned post. He smiled once again as she tried to shoo him away from this place. He listened as she spoke and was about to protest once more until she made the comment about his uncle. He laughed shortly before he replied, "Sitting around ebing on vacation is more likely to make me fat, is it not?"Even though he said this, he knew that a little break wouldn't hurt, and it would also take the edge off his headache. "I guess I could go train for a while to take my mind off of things," he replied after a pause and seemed a bit more relaxed, even by that small decision. He turned to leave and paused before he looked back at Kallan. "Thank you, Kallan," he said with a small smile, "And good luck." Then he left to get dressed for a bit of training with his double blades.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:01 pm
"Toph I was wondering when you'd get back." Bumi said in his normally odd voice as he crunched on a sugar rock. "Your done. Now talk about the raiders." Bumi said as the brown haired girl sat down and listened. She had been trying to get an earth bender to track the riders but no one would listen to the little orphan girl.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 9:12 am
Kallan nodded, pleased at the concession. "Yes, go on, scoot. I'll handle things here." She waited until he left, then planted her fists on her hips and glared at the aides, who had all stopped working.
"You heard him. I'm in charge of you slackers now, and we're going to straighten up this mess." She snapped her fingers and pointed at one of them, making him jump and straighten.
"Y-yes ma'am?" His voice quivered with uncertainty. He probably thought she'd turn out to be some sort of Dragon Lady.
"You, tell me your name and what you were working on."
"Uh..." He glanced around, hoping for some support from his fellow aides, then sighed when none was forthcoming. "I'm Ray, and I'd been assigned to gather up all the Earth Kingdom reports."
"Ok, carry on with that. Organize them according to their dates, then region. When you're done with them, put them in a folder." She walked over to Zuko's desk and looked at it. It was nothing like her own, with wooden trays for papers and baskets for scrolls. Papers were piled everywhere, punctuated with scrolls that were half open. Some were slowly sliding down in a perpetual avalanche. She sighed and shook her head at this.
"He'll need an office that isn't the throne room. I'll have to go over palace floor plans to see what we can do, but this will never work." Kallan pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes shut in concentration. When she opened them, she began quizzing the rest of the aides, finding out what tasks they'd been given and what their names were. Soon, they were busy at work again, collecting papers and sorting them. Some of them had begun to use the floor, spreading papers out so they could go through them faster. It wasn't very dignified, but Kallan didn't care. As long as the job got done, she didn't care how they did it.
Satisfied that things were under control, she left the throne room, leaving instructions for the guards to keep everyone out except for her and Firelord Zuko. As she headed back to her office, she began going through her mental checklist, prioritizing tasks to do. First on the list was figure out where to put Zuko's office, followed by commissioning repairs to the throne room. By the time she reached her office, she already knew who she would hire for throne room repairs and had five possibilities for offices.
After a few hours, she'd cleared away most of her previous work. The cook at Omashu had indeed sent a report, and said that all was well except for the raider attacks. He mentioned that the troops were suspicious, feeling that these raids were too organized to be spontaneous. A few quick notes of it were in her notebook, along with scores of other from other reports. Messenger hawks had been sent out, along with runners to the city with orders for different merchants.
Feeling satisfied, she pulled out schematics of the palace grounds and checked her five possibilities. Two were ruled out immediately, not being secure enough for her tastes. Another was discarded as being too inconvenient for messengers to get to. The last two were a toss-up. One was located at the top of one of the palace's spires. It was easily defensible, and would be good for messenger hawks. The other was located at ground level, with several secret entrances that would be good for spies, and had a water fountain just outside to mask conversations. It was also unused at the moment.
She finally decided that Zuko should pick. He would feel more comfortable in the office if he'd had a say in where it was. Kallan picked up her schematics and left her office, looking for a servant. One appeared as if sensing her need and was able to tell her which training area Zuko was in. She declined the servant's offer to guide her, and began to walk briskly. A quick check in the throne room reassured her that the aides had everything under control.
Kallan soon arrived at the training area and stopped, mesmerized. Zuko was going through some exercises at the other end of the field with his double swords. He moved sinuously, completely focused on what he was doing. Not once did he misstep or fumble. He looked graceful, almost as if he was dancing a very deadly dance. The twin swords flashed and gleamed hypnotically in the leftover sunbeams as the sun sank lazily behind the horizon. Muscles rippled underneath his training gear, hinting at tremendous strength. Kallan saw him as every inch the warrior he was at that moment and felt a shiver of fear mixed with pride.
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Irako of the Desert Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 12:16 pm
 Zuko found it was hard to find anyone to spar with since he was now firelord and most feared him more than respected him. He noticed that right away, but did manage to find a younger guard to spar with for an hour before he went through fire bending drills on his own and finally got to his swords. All in all he was pushing himself towards exhaustion by the end of his training, but he liked the feeling. His endorphins were flaring and even though his body was just now getting sore from all this activity, he knew every little bit of pain was worth it. He would come out of this more practiced and if he kept this up, more skilled in the ways of fighting and bending. He tuned the world out when he was with his swords, and though he never seemed to falter to prying eyes, he mentally corrected his movements if they were even slightly off. The young firelord finished with a more fast paced blade and bending technique where multiple jumps and strikes were combined with fire kicks and flames seeming to come from his sword. He finished as he let a wave of fire swirl off his heel as he turned and twirled both swords in his hands before putting them both perfectly into the same sheath. He took a breath and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from his brow before he actually saw Kallan had been watching. He ran the towel over his face and through his now quite wet hair -- that he had let down for training purposes -- before he started to walk over to her. He put the towel around his neck and stood straight as he smiled. "How is everything going? Still busy I'm guessing?" he asked and moved just slightly on his feet to get his body to cool down after the workout it had gone through.
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