Day 277 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone
Open: Open!
When: Day 277
Where: Near the river
What: BABBY DRAGON
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor

It's been a few days since Zuko paid a visit to the Monument for some personal purchases. Most of those were swiftly hidden away inside her house, although the faint sounds of music the past few evenings might have given one of them away.

She's much less secretive about her final purchase. She's had to be, really, because it was in fact a gigantic egg, and she hasn't let that thing out of her sight for a moment. This doesn't mean that she's given up any of her usual activities, aside from Skyway trips, but even while she's training or at the pool it's always been sitting nearby wrapped in a blanket.

But today's the day. She's just finishing up her training routine on the Bastion side of the river when she hears something stirring inside. She immediately crouches down to watch with rapt attention as something slowly emerges: a baby red dragon, serpentine and nearly the length of her arm.

This is the moment where all her doubts come back to her because she has never so much as seen a baby dragon before much less taken care of one. What do.

((Feel free to run into her pre- or post-hatching, and anywhere in the general vicinity of the lake!))

Comments

[daughterofursa]

Zuko doesn't smile. She just looks confused, as does the baby dragon. Why did the pettings stop?

"What are you doing?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Taking a picture, so we can look back and remember how tiny she was when she was born." Oh wait, Zuko's from a lower-tech world isn't she? "It's... like having someone paint a portrait of you, only it only takes a few seconds."

[daughterofursa]

Which is exactly what Colin suggested. She doesn't look any more thrilled now about having a picture of herself.

"Well, why not just take one of her?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"You wouldn't be able to tell how big she was without something to compare her to."

[daughterofursa]

"It doesn't have to be my face."

It could be her arm or something.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I guess not, but it's more convenient if it's something you can't lose so you can compare her against the same thing as time goes by."

He's actually already taken a picture by mistake but there's no way for her to tell and he'd rather be giving her one where she's posing.

[daughterofursa]

"I don't plan on losing my arm any time soon."

Zuko gently moves baby dragon to her forearm and holds it out. "Just sit still for one second. He's going to take your portrait."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I'd hope not."

Well, this'll have to do. The whole process will be very anticlimactic for Zuko; Rob taps at the pad's screen a couple times to take a picture, change the zoom level, and then to take the picture again, no flash needed because it's still light out. He walks back over, tapping the pad a couple more times to make the image fill the screen.

"What do you think?"

He turns it around to show them. It's a photo of the baby dragon on Zuko's forearm, with nothing else of Zuko visible unlike the other two photos he has. He has a steady hand when taking pictures so it's straight and there's no blurring, but other than that it's basically the most average possible photograph that could be taken here.

[daughterofursa]

Anticlimactic? You forget that this is the first photograph Zuko has ever seen. He just captured an image with that thing in a matter of seconds that could take even a talented painter hours to reproduce.

"It's so lifelike," she remarks. "Look, that's you."

Baby dragon seems less impressed. She looks when Zuko points, but she's probably too young to be able to recognize herself.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"It's supposed to be as accurate as possible. Though now that I'm looking at it, this is even better than the pictures I'm used to back home."

A video would probably get a better reaction, but baby dragon isn't being active enough to make a good recording.

[daughterofursa]

Maybe once she learns to breathe fire. That will probably make for some fabulous home videos.

"It's the speed that's impressive. It felt like we had to sit all day for the court painter."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"'Court painter'? You... royalty?"

Presumably she would've said something by now if she expected him to treat her specially, so it's more out of curiosity than anything.

[daughterofursa]

"Oh. Well, yes. I was the crown princess."

She really can't expect special treatment from people who aren't her citizens, so she doesn't usually mention it.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Cue mental image of Zuko in a hennin, followed by images of her dressed as various Disney princesses. Rob makes an odd noise in the back of his throat midway between a cough and a hiccup.

"I wouldn't've guessed."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko raises her eyebrow at that reaction.

"...is something funny?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"No." Yes. "There just aren't many princesses around anymore in my world, so what most people imagine when they hear 'princess' is the kind in fairytales. You aren't anything like them, so I wouldn't ever have guessed you were a princess if you hadn't said anything."

[daughterofursa]

The stories Zuko knows about past princesses involve riding dragons into battle, so she really has no frame of reference for what he means.

"Are you saying you don't think I'd make a good leader?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"No? I don't know you well enough to tell. I'm just saying that you don't seem like the kind of princess who sits around in a pretty dress and waits for a man to come along and rescue her from the dragon that's holding her prisoner."

He leans in to scratch under the baby dragon's chin.

"Though if you manage to stay this cute when you're bigger you might be able to keep Zuko trapped by your need for pettings."

[daughterofursa]

"That's your idea of a princess?" Yeah, it's definitely no insult to be nothing like that.

"I can't imagine any woman just sitting around waiting to be rescued. Especially not if she has to get back to her people."

...she has no objection to the part about being trapped by her own dragon, though.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Pretty sure most of the fairytales were written by men. A lot of them end with a handsome prince or knight rescuing the princess and marrying her, so there's probably some wish fulfillment in there. They were also written at a time when women were considered lesser people to men; if the eldest princess had any younger brothers the oldest one would inherit the throne instead of her, and if there were no prices then the princess would need to marry and her husband would become the king. That changed over time and didn't always get followed, especially if the queen was strong enough and had enough support. For the monarchies surviving today in my world, as far as I know they're all strictly by birth order regardless of gender. England is the big one, and they have a queen right now. The next three will be kings though."

[daughterofursa]

"Well, that doesn't sound anything like the Fire Nation. My sister and I were brought up to be warriors and leaders of our people, and the throne was mine, married or not."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Sounds like your homeland's not stupid then. Better than some countries in my world, even."

[daughterofursa]

"I wouldn't go that far. We might not have had stupid ideas about gender, but we were responsible for a hundred year war. Among other things." She frowns and strokes the baby dragon under the head.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Your country isn't alone in that. I mean there was the one Hundred Years' War in my world, but there've been a ton of shorter ones that pretty much every country's been involved in at some point. The country I'm from hasn't started any wars at least, so far as I remember, but we've fought in a few of them."

[daughterofursa]

"It doesn't make it any better that other people have made the same mistake."