Make A Man Out Of You

Part 2

Make a Man Out of You

Chapter 6: Colors

Your feet carried you, after a few wrong turns around the palace halls, to the room where you had met Valrick during the goggles incident. You still didn't understand the full functionality of the device, but decided not to question it too much. It only seemed to be good for giving headaches and messed up vision.

You were standing in front of the door, procrastinating knocking when you heard someone approaching from the opposite side of the hall and caught a glimpse of Eska. She didn't seem to have any makeup on and was walking in her somewhat tomboyish stride. You dutifully knocked, you didn't want her to see you slacking off.

Valrick opened the door after a clatter of noises and pulled you into the room, flooding the sound waves with special effect ideas, fire based special effects of course. Making a dragon out of flames could be done, but only by someone of exceptional skill.

In a final attempt to escape your fate, you made an innocent suggestion, which Valrick reacted to as if it was a terrible crime. "A fire bender, playing the part of a fire bender is unacceptable!" The writer, director and producer snapped, as if to make sure you wouldn't dare to suggest it again.

In a calmer tone, Valrick went on about how the hero's eyes wouldn't stand out if they were the classic fire bender gold and that blue would be a better contrast to flames. Besides, having a star with bronze skin would help him sell the tanning beds he invented. They weren't selling very well in the poles, mostly because people were already tan, but they would be a big hit at the Earth Kingdom, never mind that using the actual sun was a lot cheaper.

Zhu Li handed you a cup of tea and showed you to a chair, an indication that she knew her husband's rant would go on for a while. You sat there, sipping tea who Valrick spoke of the tanning beds. Ginger, the heroine from Nuktuk was returning to the movers, sporting an artificial tan and platinum blond hair. Blond hair was extremely rare, but not for long if Valrick could help it, he was going to launch a line of hair dyes in every color the eye could see, according to him at least.

"From the perspective of a fangirl willing to spend her life savings on merchandise, you like that, right?" Valrick asked. "I wonder if we should bleach Desna's hair too, after he lives up to his potential that is."

You weren't quite ready to get a word in when you were finally asked to. Then you thought of Kalok, him being the last tan man you saw, and imagined him as a blond. Before you could pass judgement on the image, you thought of how he acted. You were distracted by your suddenly malfunctioning bending, which you still couldn't explain, but you knew he was flirting, probably only because you were the supposed fire diplomat and he had the impression that you were more important than what you considered yourself to be.

You remembered your platonic crush on prince Iroh and how you would go on and on about his golden eyes. One of the guards from the fire palace asked you out some time ago, he had amazing golden eyes and was very handsome. But you were just getting into Nuktuk and, assuming he was actually of water tribe ethnicity, you got over golden eyes and liked tans and blue eyes instead, so you politely turned down your potential date.

You recalled a conversation you had with a friend who was a maid at the fire palace. You couldn't recall her exact words, but she said something that rubbed you the wrong way and made you adamantly clarify, "I'm not racist," let alone against your own race.

"Of course not," your friend had retorted. "Racism implies discrimination and you're afraid of all men equally. That's why you change what you like so often."

She was wrong, there was nothing wrong with being a little picky. Everyone had physical traits that they preferred, it was simple, no need to over think it. It was also natural that those preferences would change over time. You told yourself that over and over until you believed it.