video un: konpeito_oni with un: fireprince

[konpeito_aji]

Make sure you get my good side!

[Oda Nobunaga is being filmed by someone else, and as he quickly makes apparent: hunting in the forest.]

Okay! This is Oda Nobunaga, Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. [He'll get tired of that mouthful... eventually.] Hijikata-sama is busy doing super important police work so I got Zuko to provide backup so I can show you proper sumo techniques on a bear fir! Those are trees in the shape of bears. Don't worry, if I get eaten, and can't cut my way free, Zuko will set it on fire, and then we'll show you how to make sure it doesn't spread to the forest!

First you need to lure it! [He has a fish for the bait.] In my time, we would give offerings and sacrifices, but since I want to wrestle one, not appease it--

[He doesn't get to finish the sentence before he gets sideswiped by an irritated bear fir. It was not lured by the fish. It was flushed out by Nobunaga's oni, but who's counting?]

[Nobunaga crashes into a tree, gets the wind knocked out of him... but he's grinning ear to ear.]

[And tackles the bear, trying to wrestle, or ride it, or... who the fuck knows?]

[It's a bit insane. But eventually he winds up inside it and cuts himself free...]

[And looks sorely disappointed.]

Ah... that's it? I didn't get to show anything off... Okay! Let's do the fire anyway! Zuko set me on fire!

[This can only end well.]

[On cue, a small puff of flame appears from the cameraman's unseen hands. The flames are weak. After another, only slightly bigger puff, a grumble can be heard, before one more unsteady, unimpressive lick of flames appears from thin air, followed by a hoarse:]

What the fuck?!

[Muttered under the firebender's breath. Finally, fourth must be the charm... and a gust of fire shoots forth, striking Nobunaga straight-on. Thank goodness the daimyo has healing magic because, uh, Zuko is clearly not fully in control of this fire he's magicking up. And he's very embarrassed to be short on juice on a live public feed. This whole thing isn't going exactly to plan, is it?]

[The grown warlord then holds up a finger, as his cuirass (at least it's not his Japanese armor? Is that better or worse?) smolders and gets hotter!] This technique isn't taught in my time, but you should all know it!

Stop! Drop! And roll!

[And he demonstrates.]

[The bear fir in the meanwhile has recollected, REFORMED itself... and just decides an idiot on fire is not worth trying to eat again. Good thinking. Off it goes!]

[No idiots were maimed in the making of this video. Don't play with fire. Or bear trees.]

Comments

[konpeito_aji]

[THUMBS UP! GIANT GRIN!] As if mere flames could harm me, who bathes in them. [YEAH NO, He's mostly okay, because healing magic, but Gokudera or Mitsuhide is not going to easily convince him to do it AGAIN. Once is enough!]

Ah, Zippo! [Zuko's new nickname now!] This is the One-Eyed Dragon of the North.

Masamune, my more literally fiery companion is Zuko. [Something something, scars, prince, royalty, loyalty to fucked up lords.... THEY'LL FIGURE IT OUT.] He's a lot like Ieyasu, but with less verbal lashings.

video; un: fireprince

[rediscovering]

"Dragon of the North...?" My uncle is called the Dragon of the West.

[ He interest is piqued! Iroh may have both eyes, but Zuko's clearly got some trouble in that area, himself. ]

Did you kill a dragon?

[ what the fuck kind of question to start out with, though, uh ]

video - un: oneeyeddragon

[onecupdrunk]

I wish I had the chance to fight one! But no, I've only ever seen them in painted scrolls. I'm from the same place as Nobunaga.

[ He's grinning, but shakes his head as he seats himself more comfortably and gets a better handle on his laughter. ]

It's a title I earned when I had recently become the head of my clan. I drove invaders out of Oshu with our armies. By that point, I was already one-eyed.

[rediscovering]

You shouldn't want to fight a dragon. They should be revered.

[ And bought their own cups of tea at teashops, if Zuko's example spoiling his dragon familiar is anything to go by.

Also, really, Zuko? Where do you get off correcting and scolding this warlord right off the bat? ]

[onecupdrunk]

Yeah, but don't you want to just to see what it'd be like? They'd be extremely powerful, and it'd be the fight of a lifetime.

[ Yeah Zuko Masamune might not be entirely sane. But, he'll add this concession since it was a problem with Rose too and it's not fun if people are going to take him too seriously. ]

I'd probably only do it if the dragon was causing trouble and putting people in danger, if it makes you feel better. There's nothing worth it in fighting something that isn't fighting with conviction.

[rediscovering]

Dragons were hunted to extinction in my world as status symbols.

[ He says this so flatly, so seriously, hoping it elicits guilt... It probably won't. ]

[onecupdrunk]

So I guess you wouldn't be wondering about that.

[ A sigh. Damn, this kid's a downer, but maybe a little more reassurance would help. ]

I won't go out of my way to hunt them, hurt them, or anything like that. I promise.

[ Time for a change of topic, at least enough of one that it won't rile Zuko up without reason. ]

But that's the second place I've heard of that dragons are real in. Were there people who could command dragons in your world as well?

[rediscovering]

[ Zuko is such a downer. His new friendship with Nobunaga is not because they're cut from the same cloth. They talk about philosophy and war... ...and do this, apparently. ]

"Command?" Like an animal companion? Or like— magical can-talk-to-dragons powers?

[onecupdrunk]

From what Rose has said, it's a little of both. She made it sound like she had some control over the dragon she was with, but she also respected its power. You should meet her sometime -- she's an interesting woman.

But I'm guessing it's not the same for you, or if it was it's in a long distant past when dragons weren't extinct.

[ He doesn't seem to be joking around anymore -- If nothing else, he can take a topic like this a little more seriously as he can tell it bears some weight for Zuko. ]

[rediscovering]

The dragons in my world have only been gone for a few decades... It's not been long at all. My uncle was the last person to be given the title of "Dragon."

[ Like, every topic bears weight to Zuko. He's not fun. Extremely earnest. But he can talk about dragons all day long. So his interest is captured. ]

I'd like to meet this Rose person, though, if she knows about bonding with dragons. My uncle, my sister and I all have dragons as our familiars here.

[onecupdrunk]

[ Give him a minute to do some investigating, he's grinning when he comes back to this. ]

Looks like she came to you on this post here. May want to emphasize that this was all Nobunaga's idea.

[ A chuckle. ]

Yeah, I just earned the title because I was a strong leader in an important battle. Killing an animal minding its own business to earn a title like that is pretty cruel, whether it's divine or not, but I guess the rules are different depending on who you ask.

[ He pauses for a moment. ]

Though, some rules are just made to be broken, and that stuff about the title of "dragon" in your world seems like one of those.

[rediscovering]

Oh, no... It was all his idea!

[ He grumbles, scowling in the other man's direction. ]

It was a cruel tradition. My Uncle ended it. ...He lied, and protected the last dragons. They live in secret, deep in hiding. I, uh— I met them. By accident. It was incredible.

[konpeito_aji]

Oi. Just because you want Rose to like you more.

Did I forget to tell you about Kitsuno?

[onecupdrunk]

Which is it, Zippo or Zuko?

[ Still grinning, he really hasn't laughed that hard in a while. ]

Ieyasu would give you the verbal lashing of a lifetime if he saw what you just pulled. It might even make him forget some of the stuff I do for a while.

[konpeito_aji]

[........]

[Shit. Yeah.]

[He was busy thinking how Hideyoshi would somehow TELEPORT AND DIVEBOMB DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HIM...]

[He didn't even think about how pissed Ieyasu would be.]

[Nobunaga isn't scared... but he DOES pale considerably, and look a BIT haunted.]

Let's just keep this between ourselves then.

His proper name is Zuko, his other name is Zippo. It's a type of mechanical lighter.

[rediscovering]

It's Zuko...

[ Heard very sharp and clear in the background of Nobunaga's recording. Joking with Gokudera is one thing. Introducing him as Zippo to a fellow warlord is another. ]

[onecupdrunk]

[ Sorry Zuko, the Zippo nickname might pop up if he decides he likes you. ]

If you insist, my lord.

[ He'll hold a single finger over his own mouth and give a conspiratorial smirk. Nobunaga should know that of all people Masamune isn't going to be a tattletale (at least, not if it doesn't involve glorifying them like with Mai). ]

I'll just make sure he has plenty to chew me out over by the time he gets here. You've already set a pretty high bar.

[konpeito_aji]

[Laughs. HE MISSED YOU MAN! How has it only been a month?! It feels like ages!]

You really think you can keep up?

[onecupdrunk]

[ He'd say he missed Nobunaga too, but honestly Masamune hasn't had enough time to miss anyone. Not yet anyway. ]

You'd have to hold me back from trying. I'll have to find something a bit tougher than bear fir from the looks of it, though.

[konpeito_aji]

But no dragons.

Zuko's is really tiny. Rose would love him. [He saw you up there mentioning her. If it was her. This is his prodding to see if it rings a bell.]

I fought Kimon a couple times. I'd almost let you try, but it wouldn't be fair to one of you, and I'm not sure which.

Well, I'm sure something will come up!

[onecupdrunk]

[ Never be said that he didn't find his lord impressive. All he mentioned was that he'd met someone who can command dragons, and Nobunaga already knows exactly who he's talking about! ]

How tiny is really tiny? And she's already given me warning against trying to fight a dragon as well.

[ Which, fine, he'll listen to, but only because he does hold a degree of respect for them as divine creatures as well. ]

I'll have to find something to test my magic on, once I've learned more. Apparently I can use something called Kinetic Magic.

[konpeito_aji]

[LAUGHS and waves his hand.] She did the same to me.

But that was before I heard about the baby dragons here. They live in the mountains, and got brought back when they were lost. They don't bother anyone, just a normal part of this world's ecosystem.

Did you show Rose Shougetsu? Oh! Maybe you should Zuko too. I don't think they have them on his world.

[Holds his hands up to approximate Zuko's babby dragon which is much smaller than a normal cat, maybe only about a spindly-legged snake. If you're good, he might let you see it!]

Yeah? Kinetic... [He knows a little about kinetic energy, enough to know what it is. But not in the contexts of magic.] What can do you with it so far? Move things, but I mean, how far, how fast, what size?

[onecupdrunk]

Rose met him when we were in the hot spring. [ Yeah he's just going to mention that super casually like there's nothing even remotely wrong with that. ] She seemed to like him a lot, so I'll probably take him to see her again sometime soon.

[ That's totally not just an excuse to see the hot dragoon lady again so soon, nope. ]

And I've learned how to make myself go faster, if that's what you mean. It seems like it could be a fun type of magic to use on myself in particular, especially if I learn how to levitate.

[konpeito_aji]

[He ships it, though he doesn't have any comments to make yet!]

[alsdkjaslkdjalskdjaslkdj]

[ALL MAGIC IS COOLER THAN HEALING!!!!!]

[Not that he's jealous.]

[No, wait, yes, he's TOTALLY JEALOUS.]

[Faster, levitating, shooting fire grrrrrrrr.] Ah, is that so?

[PRETENDING LIKE HE DOESN'T CARE!!!]

[....] Magic is for nerds.

[Whatever that insult means. No one will tell him.]

You probably already know but Rose was an elite knight in her world, so you could do a board quest perhaps to get your feet wet or show off.

[onecupdrunk]

[ A part of him catches onto that. Not that Nobunaga is unimpressed, it's more like...

Ah.

Grin. ]

I don't have to be the only target for kinetic magic. I can use it on others.

[ Want to go flying, Nobunaga?

He's going to take the suggestion about approaching the quest board with Rose as well but that's not the important topic right now ]