Post by kyuen on Jan 12, 2009 14:45:13 GMT -5
Life outside the city was different from life inside the city. He could remember days of trekking through forests and deserted towns looking for Fire Nation soldiers but here it seemed like there was no war. Of course some strings having been pulled got him onto the Terra team, but aside from running drills and patrolling the wall there was nothing for them to do. Sometimes he'd think to question his superiors about it but would wave him off dismissively and laugh at his memories of such things. Another soldier had been the one to pull him aside and tell him that it would be best for him to keep his mouth shut on such matters. After a few months it didn't matter anymore. The ones who were stubborn vanished and came back, nationalistic and hopelessly up beat, the others, who behaved on their own got bonuses. One of which was the reason he,his son and his aunt with her family would be moving to the middle ring from the lower ring.
Kyuen's aunt was ecstatic about the shift, she had been searching for a while for a nice neighborhood, Koji would be attending a better school, it seemed like a good thing but something about the city unsettled the man. He liked his little sea side village and missed it. There was no way he could raise Koji there, he had to work and the boy was still too young to be left on his own. It was tough to think about it. Proud as he was having to rely on someone was difficult, perhaps that was why the soldier was sitting in a bar in the lower ring starring into a cup of sake instead of spending all of his time off with his son bonding or the like. He shifted his weight on the bar stool with his left forearm propping himself up on the wooden surface of the counter, around him there were some men conversing, a couple of people at the tables smoking or some such thing. Some how he felt he fit in, a face in the sea of people with no name to them and no plans for their lives.
Musing to himself he thought wistfully of making a kite with Koji, they could fly it in one of the parks the middle ring had to offer, it was something he remembered from his childhood with his own father. Thoughts of Koji glowering at him paused those fanciful thoughts. He didn't know much about his son at all. Chewing on the inside of his lip he had to wonder if all the choices in his life had been the right ones, marrying a girl he barely knew, running back and forth between her and the war. Perhaps he should have waited. Everything seemed to have gone so quickly, years slipping from one to the other so seamlessly it might have just been the past twenty four hours and not the better part of a decade. Bringing the cup to his lips he swallowed a small amount of the rough liquid and cleared his throat.
A city full of half truths, a son who he couldn't manage to relate to, the military was much more cut and dry, he liked it better. At least then he knew that the men with the white masks were to be killed before they killed you, there was nothing else to it, walk away from the battle with more men standing than the other side and you won. Here the rules had changed and he still couldn't figure them out.
Kyuen's aunt was ecstatic about the shift, she had been searching for a while for a nice neighborhood, Koji would be attending a better school, it seemed like a good thing but something about the city unsettled the man. He liked his little sea side village and missed it. There was no way he could raise Koji there, he had to work and the boy was still too young to be left on his own. It was tough to think about it. Proud as he was having to rely on someone was difficult, perhaps that was why the soldier was sitting in a bar in the lower ring starring into a cup of sake instead of spending all of his time off with his son bonding or the like. He shifted his weight on the bar stool with his left forearm propping himself up on the wooden surface of the counter, around him there were some men conversing, a couple of people at the tables smoking or some such thing. Some how he felt he fit in, a face in the sea of people with no name to them and no plans for their lives.
Musing to himself he thought wistfully of making a kite with Koji, they could fly it in one of the parks the middle ring had to offer, it was something he remembered from his childhood with his own father. Thoughts of Koji glowering at him paused those fanciful thoughts. He didn't know much about his son at all. Chewing on the inside of his lip he had to wonder if all the choices in his life had been the right ones, marrying a girl he barely knew, running back and forth between her and the war. Perhaps he should have waited. Everything seemed to have gone so quickly, years slipping from one to the other so seamlessly it might have just been the past twenty four hours and not the better part of a decade. Bringing the cup to his lips he swallowed a small amount of the rough liquid and cleared his throat.
A city full of half truths, a son who he couldn't manage to relate to, the military was much more cut and dry, he liked it better. At least then he knew that the men with the white masks were to be killed before they killed you, there was nothing else to it, walk away from the battle with more men standing than the other side and you won. Here the rules had changed and he still couldn't figure them out.