Another bet fic
I owed two people short stories on subjects of their choice after they won the betting pool. Maggie wanted a story about Suki. Bluirinka wanted Iroh being badass.
Title: Game Theory
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G
Characters: Iroh
Spoilers: The Day of Black Sun: The Eclipse
Length: 532 words
For prison food, lunch wasn’t that bad at all, and the extra helping of rice would give him the energy he’d need for today. The improved quality of the food was another of the little kindnesses Ming had shown him, and Iroh felt sorry for the other prisoners who didn’t have a Ming looking out for them.
He was glad she’d taken his advice and gone home. Things were going to get ugly today, and he was tired of seeing kindhearted people get hurt trying to fulfill their duty to someone who didn’t deserve their loyalty.
A pity it would have been impossible to smuggle in a Pai Sho board. He missed playing his favorite game. But he was playing another game now. It was a game far more unpredictable with much higher stakes, and he’d always found it a bit distasteful, but he’d mastered it just as much as he had Pai Sho. The board was arranged as he’d planned it, the pieces moved into position. He’d shown the other players what he wanted them to see and they had reacted as he had predicted, moving into the positions he wanted them in. Now he just had to wait for the moment to make his move.
In the distance rumbled the familiar sounds of battle. The moment would be soon.
Grasping the bars of his cell, he took a deep breath and felt it become chi in his body, then move down his arms to become heat in his hands. He focused it as narrowly as he could, heating the metal until it glowed and grew soft. He did that to bar after bar, and when he’d done that to enough of them he pushed, muscles straining, until the compromised metal bent and snapped and tore free.
Warden Poon rushed in through the door. “What was that noise, you filthy old…” he started to say before Iroh grabbed him around the throat.
“You’re a very rude man,” Iroh said evenly, lifting Poon off the ground with one hand. “One must give respect if one expects to receive it.” He dumped the bullying warden unceremoniously on the floor.
Poon coughed and gasped for air. “E-E-E-Escape!” he finally managed to scream.
As the footfalls of running guards grew closer, Iroh saw shadow crawl across the light coming in through the window as the moon moved to block the sun. The last piece of his gambit had moved into its place on the board.
The expressions on the guards’ faces when their attempts to firebend at him didn’t produce any flame was much like the expression on his opponent’s face when he played the last Pai Sho tile of a game, revealing that what had seemed like certain victory had in fact been a trap. Not just defeat, but the understanding that he’d planned it all out ahead of time and they’d done exactly as he wanted.
Too bad the eclipse wasn’t longer. Eight minutes to defeat the entire prison complex was, Iroh decided, entirely too rushed. It wouldn’t leave enough time as he was leaving to stop by the kitchens and get another cup of that delightful white jade tea Ming had brought.
Title: Game Theory
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G
Characters: Iroh
Spoilers: The Day of Black Sun: The Eclipse
Length: 532 words
For prison food, lunch wasn’t that bad at all, and the extra helping of rice would give him the energy he’d need for today. The improved quality of the food was another of the little kindnesses Ming had shown him, and Iroh felt sorry for the other prisoners who didn’t have a Ming looking out for them.
He was glad she’d taken his advice and gone home. Things were going to get ugly today, and he was tired of seeing kindhearted people get hurt trying to fulfill their duty to someone who didn’t deserve their loyalty.
A pity it would have been impossible to smuggle in a Pai Sho board. He missed playing his favorite game. But he was playing another game now. It was a game far more unpredictable with much higher stakes, and he’d always found it a bit distasteful, but he’d mastered it just as much as he had Pai Sho. The board was arranged as he’d planned it, the pieces moved into position. He’d shown the other players what he wanted them to see and they had reacted as he had predicted, moving into the positions he wanted them in. Now he just had to wait for the moment to make his move.
In the distance rumbled the familiar sounds of battle. The moment would be soon.
Grasping the bars of his cell, he took a deep breath and felt it become chi in his body, then move down his arms to become heat in his hands. He focused it as narrowly as he could, heating the metal until it glowed and grew soft. He did that to bar after bar, and when he’d done that to enough of them he pushed, muscles straining, until the compromised metal bent and snapped and tore free.
Warden Poon rushed in through the door. “What was that noise, you filthy old…” he started to say before Iroh grabbed him around the throat.
“You’re a very rude man,” Iroh said evenly, lifting Poon off the ground with one hand. “One must give respect if one expects to receive it.” He dumped the bullying warden unceremoniously on the floor.
Poon coughed and gasped for air. “E-E-E-Escape!” he finally managed to scream.
As the footfalls of running guards grew closer, Iroh saw shadow crawl across the light coming in through the window as the moon moved to block the sun. The last piece of his gambit had moved into its place on the board.
The expressions on the guards’ faces when their attempts to firebend at him didn’t produce any flame was much like the expression on his opponent’s face when he played the last Pai Sho tile of a game, revealing that what had seemed like certain victory had in fact been a trap. Not just defeat, but the understanding that he’d planned it all out ahead of time and they’d done exactly as he wanted.
Too bad the eclipse wasn’t longer. Eight minutes to defeat the entire prison complex was, Iroh decided, entirely too rushed. It wouldn’t leave enough time as he was leaving to stop by the kitchens and get another cup of that delightful white jade tea Ming had brought.