bentflame | (no subject)

[What you can't tell is that Kuroro has spent the last fourty seconds just laughing.]
It's decided then.

You're exactly the type of person I like. If I had any openings for friends, I'd offer, but as it is, I'm just going to have to control myself.

I'm not interested in friendship anyway.

A lot of my friends said that at first too. Some of them still say it.

Then they're in denial. I'm not.

'I'm not in denial' is rarely a believable statement, for obvious reasons.

I haven't given you any reason not to believe me.

None that you're aware you've given me at least.

I know for a fact that I haven't given you anything substantial.

Perhaps I don't need anything substantial. Perhaps I'm the sort of person that only needs the tiniest thread to pull on.

To read too much into, you mean?

All it takes is one bent nail.

You haven't gotten one from me.

It's rather the point of that saying that you'd not be aware of it. But then, I'm don't know if you have the fable it's derived from in your world. I apologise.

Have you heard the story of 'The Kingdom Lost for the Want of a Nail?'

You're missing my point; I'm always aware of it. I don't let things slip by accident, and I don't make mistakes.

No.

And there's another nail.

I'll give you the short version. Due to a single bent nail in a horse shoe, a single warrior falls during a battle. Without that single warrior, the king he was meant to protect died. Without that king, the kingdom was conquered. Thus, the kingdom was lost for the want of a nail.

No.

That sort of thing would never happen in real life; at least not in the Fire Nation. A single soldier's failure could never be the downfall of the entire army.

What's a "horse shoe"?

Heh.

Strictly speaking, it could. If the soldier was in an important position. Some accounts are that the king himself falls due to the faulty nail. It's mostly a fable with a number of possible morals. The main ones are 'a single piece out of place can destroy the whole' or 'strong things are only as strong as their weakest point.'

A horse shoe is a metal cover for the hoof of a horse. A horse is a large quadruped, commonly used as a beast of burden. The shoes are nailed to their hooves, hence when a nail is bent it becomes loose and the shoe may fall off or twist into a position that will cause the horse to fall.

If we put someone in such an important position, we make sure they have plenty of back-up.

I see. It doesn't hurt the animal? I don't know much about hooved creatures.

Wise, but what it's not to be taken too literally. A similar fable involving clocks exists, but it's possible you don't have clocks in your world either.

As far as I'm aware, no. The nail is inserted into the keratin covering of the foot, not into actual flesh. Keratin is the same material which makes up finger nails and some animal horns and thus has no nerves.

Of course we do.

Ah, I see.

I see. Do they use mechanical springs and cogs? Otherwise the fable will still be meaningless.

I'm always happy to educate.

They do, actually.

The fable is a simple one. A man spends his entire life building a clock made from the finest, sturdiest materials. All the cogs are perfect and practically indestructible. But springs have to be flexible, meaning building them too sturdily would simply not work. Thus the springs could not handle the pressure of the invincible cogs and broke.
The most obvious moral is 'no matter how sturdy an object is, the weakest points can only take so much pressure' and 'denying flaws will only make things worse.'

Then it's a good thing that I don't deny flaws-- I eliminate them.

You do seem the type to attempt that. But that leads us to the third moral of the clock-'no matter how strong something is, it can never be completely indestructable.' Making yourself stronger endlessly will create new flaws as you grow. Although I'm far from saying one should simply accept their own flaws-people who believe that are just lazy.

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