𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦

Eyeshadow Goals

"I got that elderberry whatever stuff you asked for." I open the door to find Iroh... and Zuko having tea time. A sudden crash jolts the ship and all of Zuko's spills all over his face, to inflate his already bulging balloon of 24/7 anger. So much for a glimpse of peace.

He marches up deck with me scampering behind, to find a woman on a shirshu. Basically a giant, long legged naked-mole rat. The shirshu I mean. "Get off my ship!" he yells.

"We're looking for a stowaway," she says, her shirshu sniffing the deck plates. A pretty bad ass look to her, tattoos, dark red leather and straps, and dark lipstick and eyeshadow to match. Nothing I'm interested in, but cool all the same.

"There are no stowaways on my ship," Zuko says.

She ignores him, and her Shirshu rips up a metal plate, and suddenly a man comes crawling out, beginning to run. He is struck down by a whip of the shirshu's tongue, seemingly paralyzed.

"Paralyzed?" Yeah, no Duh Prince Obvious.

"Only temporarily." The woman lifts the man easily. "Toxins will wear off in about an hour. By then, he'll be in jail and I'll have my money."

"But how did you find him on my ship?"

She pats her shirshu. "My shirshu can smell a rat a continent away." She leaps on, whipping her beast and is off.

~

"Out of my way, filth!" Zuko pushes through a sea of people, all gathered around a table where one woman with dark eyeshadow and lipstick sat, arm wrestling a man the size of a bear.

"He doesn't mean that. I'm sure you bathe regularly," Iroh covers.

I shake my head, following Zuko. "Oh he means it. You can try punching him but you're unlikely to win," I say to no one in particularly, gaining unfavorable stares after me and maybe liking ones from unlikable people staring at me. I give them dirty looks and raised brows back.

Zuko walks up to the woman. "I need to talk to you," he says in a more than demanding tone.

"Well, if it isn't my new friends, angry boy and uncle lazy," the woman remarks.

"Emo boy," I correct.

"Oh, and wit-woman is here too." The woman slams down the mans arm, and the people break into cheer.

I fold my arms with a smile. "I take that as a compliment."

"You trashed my ship. You have to pay me back!" Zuko says.

As the woman is actively collecting money, she smiles at him. "I'd be glad to help you out, but I'm a little short on money," she says, and turns to the crowd. "Drinks on me!"

She's about to drink, but he grabs her wrist. "Money isn't what I had in mind." And he pulls her outside.

"I need you to find someone." Zuko holds up a necklace I recognize as Katara's.

"What? Your girlfriend run off on you?" the woman asks.

I snicker, "Who would date him in the first place?"

Zuko growls. "It's not the girl I'm after. It's the bald monk she's travelling with."

"Whatever you say," the woman sighs.

"If you find them, I'll consider the damage to my ship paid for," Zuko says.

The woman scoffs, "Forget it."

"Plus we'll pay your weight in gold," Iroh adds.

I thought she was supposed to be paying us back? Bad bargaining. Not my money. They're so bad at this. Besides... not that I want to drop it on them, but I'm better at tracking the avatar. It's like I have an itch for him-- a avatar spidey-sense. But that wouldn't give me the time to make my mind up, and I don't really necessarily know if I want to see the avatar captured before I have my answers.