shatterverse | (no subject)

They scrub her up, dress her all nice in dirty grey, tie her hands behind her back and lead her blind out of her cell with the black hood knotted closed at the front. She can't breathe in the smoky street air, can't hear over the press of boos and cheers and chatter that erupts on her ears.

This is it. She's going to die.

The hangman's hands are surprisingly gentle -- but then they have to be, don't they? The crowd needs to be told who's the hero and the villain of the scene -- it's just like a play, she realises, just the endlessly-retold fable of the Bad Little Thief who was Brought To Justice. She's blithely accepted it hundreds of times as part of the gleeful crowd.

This is it. This is it. She's going to die, and they're going to mince her body so she can't come back, and--

--there's a split second's nothing as the hangman pulls the trapdoor lever, clunk, and--

--SHE SCREAMS as the wood beneath her feet vanishes, crack, and--

--hits grass, crumples, struggles, falls, screams again, is she dead?, screams again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Looking down at his tattered robes the only thing that even looks remotely like a rope is the dirty sash tying his robe shut. "Sadly they didn't give me any." Not part of the standard prison unifrom, apparently.

"Who didn't?"

See how easy it is to distract Jona from the task at hand?

"The guards." At the prison. Iroh's voice is distracted as he continues to look around hoping that something will strike him as a brilliant solution to the current delimna.

Um.

"What guards?"

And poof, her voice is quick and wary. Jona sort of fails at hiding her emotions, really.

"The ones at the prison." Iroh blinks, realizing that this might actually be a worrying admission. So he smiles disarmingly and pats his paunch, "I am a notorious and dangerous criminal!" he exclaims as he strikes a comic pose.

"You were in prison." FOR SRS? "What for?"

With her inner monologue for this one skirting somewhere between 'the poor man, prisons are horrible' and 'if he says it was for stealing I am going to be seriously weirded out'.

"Oh, nothing significant," Iroh waves his hand vaguely.

"I was in prison," she blurts out.

As you do.

...bit of a conversation non-starter, really.

"I'm sorry," Iroh says with genuine sympathy. "It's not a very pleasant place to be."

You can say that again.

"Only picked a few pockets." Because she can totally justify herself to him, yes. (She consciously avoids mentioning the quite literal deadline that her prison sentence carried.)

Iroh eyes her again, considering. "Were you that thin when they took you in?" He sounds sort of offended by the idea that she might have resorted to crime to avoid starving.

Well, she doesn't exactly keep a chart of these things, but...

"I... think so? Maybe a little less?"

Why on earth should he be offended?

He just shakes his head. The world is often a terrible place, and it is made that way by people, who never seem to think of others.

"Ah, well, prison food isn't that good," he manages a smile. "So... any idea how to get me up there?"

"Yes!" she says quickly, glad of a change of subject.

...Hang on, that means she actually has to think of something. Hmm.

"You could... climb up its tail? It's sort of like a ramp, right?"

Iroh considers this, then walks around behind the Bison to consider some more. "I think you might be right. Assuming that the Bison does not object." He eyes the animal doubtfully.

"Hello, Bison?"

Yes, she's talking to the bison.

"DO... YOU... OBJECT?"

Muuuuurgh, yawns the bison. Translate that how you will.

Apparently Iroh takes that as assent because he begins carefully working his way up the tail. His interpretation can't be too far off since the Bison doesn't send him flying. When he finally reaches Jona, Iroh smiles. "That was a good plan."

Iroh gets a bow.

"Why, thank you!"

Now, how do you start this thing?

"You're the one who can speak to Flying Bison," Iroh grins at Jona, unsure of how to proceed himself.

"Um..."

Once again, Iroh makes an excellent point. But after assuring herself that there are no reins in evidence, Jona finds herself at a loss as to where to go from there.

"Bison? Hello? Lankllym a bison? Fly for us, would you?"

It doesn't seem to be working. Still, Iroh is not discouraged, "Keep trying, I think maybe it's starting to work."

"Hello, Bison? " That last part translates into something vaguely Welsh-sounding, incidentally. ""

By amazing coincidence, something in there sounded vaguely like yip yip.

Iroh would have clapped appreciatively, but he's busy holding onto the Bison so as not to plummet to his death. "Well done," he laughs.

This seems the wisest course of action. Jona has fistfuls of fuzz and she's not letting go.

"Thanks," she gasps, once she's done with the taking-off shriek.