kim keita kei. 22 years old. suryan monster firebender.
just trying to make it out of this world alive -- but that isn't really possible, is it? so for now, just trying to survive one day at a time. "you never need to apologize for how you chose to survive."
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kei can think of nothing that would be worse than this. he’d rather be one of the poor cuspians dying at the hands of the soldiers than be who he is: one of the monsters that’s come out to kill these people for fun.
of course, he’s not taking part in the killing, only standing back and watching in horror as people are burned before his eyes, just as his mother was years ago. but he’s also not doing anything to stop it, and he thinks that that might just be worse.
finally, he can’t take it anymore, and he turns and runs from the group, ignoring his adopted father’s calls and shouts for him to come back. he runs until the group of soldiers is nothing more than a few specks in the distance, and the sounds of terrified screaming are quiet enough for him to tune out. he finally stops, panting heavily and leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees. he’s not planning to stay out here -- he’s sure his father will come after him as soon as the soldiers finish off that group of cuspians, and on top of that he knows that his chances of survival out here are slim to none.
maybe he’ll stay, though, just for that reason. he’s sure that dying out here, completely alone and forgotten, is already more than he deserves.
(but he’s too much of a coward, as usual, so he knows even as he thinks it that he’ll go back to surya with his father.)
as he’s straightening up and preparing to turn around and start walking back toward the group of soldiers, something smacks him across the back and sends him flying forward, until he faceplants in the dirt. he pushes himself up on his hands and knees before rolling over and looking up at his attacker.
it’s a girl, and from the way the wind is unnaturally blowing her hair and the dirt around her, he can tell that she’s an airbender. he supposes that it must have been a strong burst of air that knocked him down.
as he looks on her face, kei sees nothing but pure hatred in her eyes. she’s going to kill me, he thinks. because she thinks i’m one of them. she thinks i’m a monster.
i am a monster.
“get up!” the girl growls, her lip curling. “aren’t you going to fight me? i’m a cuspian, see?” she says, drawing water from a pouch on her hip and lashing it out at him in the form of a whip. kei flinches, but resists the instinctive urge to move away and only grunts as the whip hits his shoulder and knocks his arm out from under him, causing him to fall back until his head hits the ground once more.
“i don’t want to fight you,” he says, wincing through the stinging pain on his shoulder and his back. he opens his eyes, still lying on his back and not making any move to get up. “just kill me. i know i deserve it.”
the girl hesitates for a moment, and kei silently wishes she would just get on with it. he wants to die, because he certainly isn’t doing any good alive. he’s been trying for years to find something worth living for, to find something, anything, to help him want to stay alive, but he’s always failed. yet he’s too selfish to kill himself, which is why he thinks this situation is ideal. he’s not going to fight this girl, not even to save himself, because there’s no reason for him to fight for his own survival. so if she kills him now, it’ll be okay: he won’t have to live anymore, and she can feel like she’s gotten some small amount of revenge on the nation that sent her here and probably ruined her whole life.
however, kei can hear voices from behind her, and he knows she hears them too, for she looks over her shoulder, and when she turns back he recognizes the fear in her eyes. “please kill me,” kei says, just loud enough for her to hear. she blinks, and he sees when she recognizes the desperation and despair in his eyes. but the voices are getting louder, and kei grits his teeth. “no, run if you want,” he says, sitting up and blinking in surprise when she doesn’t even react. he expected her to tense, maybe to hit him again, when he showed any sign of wanting to fight back, but the only thing she does is lower her arms and meet his eyes.
“i’ll give you a little time, but you have to go now,” he says, and she glances over her shoulder once more. her next movements are so sudden and fast that kei can’t even register them, but the next thing he knows, there’s a dust cloud around them, and he starts coughing as he accidentally inhales too much.
while he’s still disoriented, he feels hands on his elbows, helping him stand up. then he freezes, completely shocked as a pair of arms wraps around him. “thank you,” the girl breathes in his ear. “for showing me you’re not all bad.”
then she’s gone, and as the dust gradually settles around him, kei blinks, his eyes watering from the coughing fit, the dust, and the sudden emotions the girl’s words have triggered.
his father and the rest of the group find him on his hands and knees, covered in dust and dirt, with tears creating trails in the grime on his cheeks. he doesn’t tell his father or anyone else what happened, doesn’t tell them anything about the cuspian girl.
he thinks as they travel back to surya that he may have found a reason to live.
her eyes were scanning some products with interest. her fingers lazily reach for the little gift wishing to see its design on her own hands and they close in a little fist when the seller’s voice sounds loud as thunder. the princess shakes in surprise and she raises her head to apologize, causing her hood to fall and reveal her face to the light. it takes her a few seconds to realize where she knows that man from. everything, from his eyes to his jaw and his hair - everything seemed somewhat familiar. but at the same time she found familiarity in his traits, she feels her heart racing and there’s something in her mind that screams of danger. she takes a step back instinctively and it’s only when he talks that everything comes from her.
“you… you are the princess!” he says and she wishes to ask him to keep this quiet but soon, there are more people around her and the way the seller puts his hand around her fragile arm is everything but gentle. ahreum recognizes him as the man who stole her purse during the festival of the leo and she sees in his eyes the desire of gold. but even when she offers everything she has, his grip doesn’t loosen up. and the princess begs to be let go, but her pleas find deaf ears and her breath is shaken and her heart beats so loud she fears the man can hear it. so with a gust of air, she confuses the man and the viewers for time enough for her to run. and so she does, trusting in the vessels to let her make it to safety.
kei doesn’t particularly enjoy the marketplace, but it’s also not something he actively tries to avoid. he just doesn’t see the appeal of lingering for long under the hot sun, or in shoving through crowds of people just to get to the stall he needs. he doesn’t hate it so much that he constantly tries to avoid it, though, and he knows that especially while he’s traveling it’s just somewhere he has to go to make sure he stays stocked up on food and other necessities. and since the market isn’t too crowded today, he figures that now is as good a time as ever to go shopping for a while.
(besides, when it’s not so crowded, he finds that he likes to linger a little, look at the stands. he doesn’t usually buy anything, but the trinkets are all nice to look at when he’s not being shoved every which way by a big crowd.)
he’s at a fruit stand examining the selection of papayas when he hears the exclamation from behind him and to his right. you are the princess! kei looks around, curious and wondering what one of duur’s princesses could be doing out here. he narrows his eyes as he sees what’s going on, though, and he can see the familiar look of greed in the merchant’s eyes as he grips the girl’s wrist.
kei begins to step forward, but before he can get anywhere, the merchant is blown back into the wall behind him and forced to let go of the girl’s wrist. she runs toward kei, and he notices that it doesn’t take the merchant long to recover, so soon enough he’s moving around his stall and chasing after her.
kei’s body moves before he really has time to think about what he’s doing. he steps out in front of the princess, holding her by her shoulders and stopping her from running anymore. then, since he knows she might get scared and attack him too, he leans down and mutters in her ear, just loud enough for her to understand. “i’m trying to help, i promise. just follow my lead.”
by the time the merchant and the couple of other men who joined him reach them, kei is straightening up, one hand resting protectively on the princess’s shoulder as he raises an eyebrow at the men in front of him. “are these men bothering you, your highness? i was sent from the palace to be your bodyguard -- you know your parents don’t want you running around outside on your own.” he meets the eyes of each of the men in turn, and he senses that just that isn’t enough to scare them off completely.
“i could take care of them for you if you’d like, princess,” he adds, removing his hand from the girl’s shoulder so that he can take off one of his leather gloves and conjure a small flame in his hand. he can see the effect immediately -- all three of the men back down, scowling. even they know better than to challenge someone who can control fire, the element of destruction.
(silently, he hopes that the princess doesn’t ask him to ‘take care’ of them, because he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else on purpose -- not even these horrible men.)
kei stares at his adopted father, blinking slowly. he hasn’t lived with his adopted family in several years now, and while they still spend holidays and certain festivities together, neither side ever wants to associate any further than that. this invitation (though it sounds more like a demand than an invitation) is completely unexpected and uncharacteristic of the man.
“a trip to where?” kei asks cautiously, crossing his arms over his chest.
“the badlands.”
kei’s eyes widen, and he immediately takes a step backward, his mouth already opening to argue, to ask why. however, before he can get any words out, his father rolls his eyes and raises his hands in a universal ‘calm down’ gesture. “no, no, don’t worry, not like that. we won’t stay for long, and we’ll have plenty of food and water. we’ll be traveling with the suryan army. they’re going out to control the population out there, and i want you to come watch. it’s high time you learned your place in the world, keita.”
if he thought this would reassure his adopted son, he was wrong. kei’s expression hasn’t changed, and he vaguely thinks that he’d rather live in the badlands himself than have to watch the army control the population. that might be a less crude way of putting it, but he knows what this is: soldiers are going out to have some fun, kill some cuspians who are already on the brink of death anyway. the thought makes kei feel sick to his stomach.
“pack your things. we’ll come by to pick you up at dawn. and if you try to run away or refuse to come, i’ll burn this place to the ground,” his father says, conjuring some small flames in his hand to make his point extra clear. kei’s jaw tightens, and for a second he considers fighting, but the thought is quickly dismissed, and he only looks at the floor and nods.
as his father leaves, kei mentally curses himself for being such a coward.
“what are you doing here?” she says, and her voice comes out sharper than she intends it to be, filled with more taut than she had initially thought it would ever hold if they had ever encountered each other. “kei,” she begins and her words begin to falter, “what are you doing in duur.” in front of me?
the longer kei looks at the girl, the more familiar she seems, and he just can’t seem to place where he knows her from. he’s definitely never been to this place before -- it seems like a day care, or maybe an orphanage, if the number of children playing in the yard is any indication. he notices a sign above the door, just over the familiar girl’s shoulder, and that tells him that he is right about it being an orphanage. he’s never had any reason to come to an orphanage in duur, so why does he know this girl?
her voice cuts sharply through his thoughts, and he actually jumps a little in surprise as his focus snaps back to her, his eyes widening slightly. he opens his mouth in shock, though he’s not sure what to say. did he wrong her somehow in the past? but if he did, why would he have forgotten about it? he didn’t think it was possible to forget about the pain and guilt of hurting another -- if it was, he would have tried a long time ago.
the sound of his name on her lips causes a sharp intake of breath, before it’s released in a surprised sigh. his name spoken in that voice brings back so many memories that it’s literally staggering, and he actually sways a little before using one hand to brace himself on a fence post next to them.
“nahyun?” he breathes, his voice cracking a little on the last syllable. he’s been trying for so long not to think about her, not to let himself consider all the possibilities of what could have happened. he never found out for sure whether or not his father and sister got away safely, or if they were captured and killed like his mother or if they were thrown into the badlands and left to die or if they somehow managed to escape and find a new life. kei always hoped for the last one, but with no way to find out if it was true or not, he quickly gave up hope, assuming that a positive outcome was just too good to be true. so he’s spent the last eight years telling himself that his family is dead, that he has no one left.
but here she is, standing right in front of him. she’s no longer the child kei stopped from running out to meet the soldiers, the little girl who knew nothing of the world and all its violence. she’s grown into a young woman, though kei can tell just by looking around that she hasn’t really changed in some ways. she still loves to play, obviously, and she still surrounds herself with flowers, as she always has.
kei realizes that he’s been blinking at her for several seconds too long, though he finds that he can’t bring himself to look away. “uh, i...” he tries, but he can’t get thoughts to form properly through the shock of realizing his sister is alive. “i....come here with my work,” he finally says, licking his lips rather nervously as he shifts from foot to foot. his emotions are showing plain as day on his face, and he rapidly removes his hand from the fence post when he realizes that they’re showing in the rest of him as well. he crosses his arms, hiding his hands under the leather of his tunic sleeves and trying to rebuild the cool, calm, unfeeling exterior that just a few words from nahyun managed to knock down.
Jettatura: If they could place a magical curse on their worst enemy, what would they want the curse to do?
well first i’ve gotta figure out who his worst enemy even is. i wanna say hyunjin, but then again he doesn’t really hate hyunjin for anything except the war, and even then it’s less a hatred for the emperor and more a hatred for his element as a whole, and the nature of its people, if that makes sense? like, he hates the fact that the fire nation is waging war and trying to conquer the world for no real reason except for power.
but if he did have a single person as his “worst enemy,” he would probably want a curse that would slowly drag them into despair. he’d want them to repeatedly cling onto tiny shreds of hope and then have them tugged away, until they had absolutely nothing left.
Scripturient: Are they a good writer? What do they usually write, if anything?
kei has been writing almost every day for the last twelve years. he’s probably a great writer at this point, but i don’t think he’s ever let anyone ever read his journal. he doesn’t write for others; he writes for himself. and he probably writes about anything and everything, to be honest. it’s always been pretty much his only outlet, since he doesn’t let himself get close enough to anyone else to feel like he can talk about anything of importance. he writes his observations about other people, just little things he notices, like how a family’s dynamic seems to work or what other people’s thoughts on the war are, and how they differ from his own. he often writes about his own thoughts, just to get them out of his head. he usually puts them in some kind of poem, or sometimes, when his thoughts are so loud that all he wants to do is put some words down on the paper, he’ll just rant, scrawling whatever words come to mind and not caring if they’re even legible. the point of those rants are just to get the thoughts out of his head so he can clear his mind as much as possible, because he can only control his bending when his emotions are under control, too.
Enantiodromia: What’s the most extreme personality shift they’ve gone through in their life?
i think it was probably after he hurt nahyun with his firebending. they were just kids (he was only 10 and hadn’t been training for long) but he realized then that his family actually did fear him, even if they tried sometimes to pretend that they didn’t. he changed then from a social, playful young boy with plenty of friends, into a recluse, someone who didn’t seek out the company of others -- in fact, he started rejecting it completely, out of fear that the mistakes of the past would be repeated.
bonus: this isn’t mentioned in his bio because i only just realized it, but his father probably spurred this transformation on. his reaction to nahyun getting hurt (even though she was actually fine thanks to a healer) was much worse to the rest of the family’s, and he encouraged kei to separate himself. he’s the one who drilled the idea into kei’s head that he’s dangerous to others, and that he shouldn’t get too close to others until he’s able to control his powers.
kei is used to traveling in duur. he comes often enough that he knows where all the best places to stay are, though he makes sure not to frequent the same inns too often -- he doesn’t want to make it too easy for people to follow him. however, it’s still not necessarily a bad thing to keep up good relationships with innkeepers and other locals: not only will they usually be willing to give him a drink or two on the house, but he can at least trust them not to sell him out if he ever does find himself in trouble with his home nation, which, in his line of work, is highly possible.
he’s on his way to one of his favorite inns now. the woman who runs it has been his friend for a while, and kei truly does enjoy staying there when he can. as he walks down the familiar street, he zones out a bit, thinking about the rendezvous that’ll happen later with someone from the coalition. he’s never met this particular messenger, so he’s a bit worried about it -- newbies are always cautious around him, and he doesn’t blame them. he’s a fire bender, a suryan noble who should have no reason to want to support the coalition.
he pulls himself out of his thoughts when he looks around and realizes that the inn is not where it should be. he’s confused for a second, before he realizes that nothing looks like it should, and on closer inspection, he realizes that he’s on the completely wrong street. he must have taken a wrong turn at some point while he was zoned out.
he mutters a curse under his breath, then turns around and starts staring around, wondering how to get to the inn, though it’s hard to figure that out when he isn’t even sure where he is. sighing, kei starts walking, figuring that even if he can’t find the inn on his own, he might run into someone who can help him. not for the first time, he’s thankful that he had the sense to change out of his suryan clothes when he arrived in town, because while duur is technically a neutral country, after what surya pulled at the festival of the leo kei isn’t surprised that people here view the fire nation with quite a bit more animosity than before.
after about ten minutes of wandering up and down unfamiliar streets -- he must have gotten even more lost than he thought -- he finally happens upon a young woman playing with some kids in front of one of the many buildings that line this street -- in kei’s eyes, the people are the only thing that makes this street look any different from all the others. he approaches them slowly, then stands at the edge of the yard and waits patiently for the woman to notice his presence. when she does, he bows politely, not giving himself a chance to take in her features before he faces the ground. “hello, miss. sorry to bother you, but i’m a traveler and i seem to be lost. i was wondering if you could give me directions.” when he straightens up, he notices that the woman does look familiar, and he silently tries to remember where he might have seen her before as he waits for her response.
RETROGADE’s second meme is here! Below the cut you will find terms with an assigned headcanon to each, which you may (and shall!) send each other. With that said, please do not reblog the prompt time post anymore. (Of course you are allowed to continue answering unaswered prompts.) The headcanons may be written in any way you want – whether it’s a description, your character talking / thinking about it, para or script, anything is fine; let your imagination run wild! Try to answer headcanons you receive twice or multiple times if you can–get to the depth of your muse!
You may reblog this post up to two times until the 6th September, 2015. Do not forget to send those who reblogged it a word or two, too, instead of only expecting to receive. Send and receive is the golden rule. Have fun!
hello friends!!! some of you already know this, but this is my second character here! my first is little baby joy ; u; kei is in a much different situation than joy, though, so hopefully with him i’ll be able to get some plots going with everyone who joy just doesn’t really work with, and vice versa! my aim is vul.pix if anyone who doesn’t have it wants to go ahead and add me, so just feel free to message me there anytime! i’m always up for plotting for either of my characters, or i’ll also just talk and chill if you want uwu
but yes thank you guys for all the welcomes and love and hopefully i can get some threads started on kei soon!
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