300 word drabble: Voice

[attackfish]

Written for avatar_500 prompt #61, Speech.

Summary: The Dai Li ruled with silence. Shangyin has a voice.


Voice

Shangyin struggled uselessly against the Dai Li hustling her down the tunnel. "If you just tell me what we did wrong, I promise, we'll never do it again!" she gasped, panic seeping into her body like water through the cracks in the tunnel ceiling. "I swear, we didn't know..."

Tears ran down her face as they strapped her into the chair and set the lanterns spinning. She screamed to block out the agents' voices.

The gag came down over her mouth to choke away the sound. "Your name is Joo Dee, and you are honored to serve our wonderful city."

~*~

It was so strange tha they all were named Joo Dee just like she was. She didn't remember having ever met another one before coming to work here. Of course, Joo Dee's memories from before were a little hazy. Everything paled in comparison to the honor of serving their wonderful city.

Joo Dee lay down on her mattress in the dormitory and watched the other Joo Dees flit by, wishing she had something to call them each, but it didn't matter. It didn't seem like there was much to distinguish them.

Still, it would have been nice to make friends.

~*~

Eight years later, Shangyin walked the tunnels under Lake Laogai and opened the door to the Joo Dee dormitory, forgotten and ignored in the end of the war. The women who blinked back at her, empty eyed and smiling, saw her stolen Dai Li uniform and her stolen Dai Li posture. "Lian," she read from her list, her long, long, list of women for her to return their names and their voices to, one by one.

One woman's head shook at the name, and Shangyin pointed at her. "Joo Dee, come with me."

The woman, unfed, unwashed, and dehydrated, followed.



Author's Note: The story of how Shangyin reclaims her own name and memories can be found in a longfic titled Xenolith, which will be posted after I have finished it.

Comments

[luunyscarlet.livejournal.com]

Mindbending is very, very, very creepy. Good for Shangyin that she managed to reclaim her own name and memories. And now she's trying to help all the other Joo Dees to do the same. (Seriously, they were all LEFT there to die of dehydration?)
I'm now very curious about Xenolith.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

After Iroh reconquered Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth Kingdom, the Dai Li had to flee. Hopefully someone remembered them in canon...

[floranna.livejournal.com]

I have missed her. *wink wink, nudge nudge* ^_~

I really like this, how you show so much (well, to a one that has been reading Xenolith, in any rate...) and still so little, and I really felt her terror in the first piece and the slight off-ness in the second, and the fact that she wanted to make friends...

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I need to get back to writing Xenolith don't I?

You might have noticed, I really like playing with the Dai Li...

[honestly-sangi.livejournal.com]

I've never even thought of all the poor Joo Dees before! Poor women.

This was very interesting. I really liked this line: "Everything paled in comparison to the honor of serving their wonderful city." It's very true, and not just for the Joo Dees. It's almost a line about the show in general and the people who dedicate themselves mindlessly to a cause.

Very nice. I'll definitely keep an eye out for Xenolith. I knew what the word meant, but when I looked it up and it said that it was basically when a rock become enveloped in another rock, I realized it was really a great title for such a story.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling just a little bit embarrased now, because I realize I accedentally led everybody to believe that Xenolith is about Shangyin. It's actually about Zuko, and Shangyin is an important side character. Floranna is probably laughing at me right now. She's one of my betas and has listened to me going, "You're sure there isn't too much Shangyin?" You're sure?

[honestly-sangi.livejournal.com]

Haha, please don't feel embarrassed! The idea behind the story interests me, so I'm sure Xenolith would be just as interesting with the focus on Zuko! In fact, I love Zuko, so it makes it more interesting. ;)

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

I am intrigued and gleeful. Clearly, must read Xenolith! There's so much interesting stuff to play with in the title alone...

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Be warned, Shangyin isn't the star, Zuko is, but it has mpreg, so I think you'll like it.

[grandiose666.livejournal.com]

whoa. creepy dai li are creepy.
Xenolith sounds like a must-read for me too!

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I hope you like it when it comes. Shangyin isn't the star, Zuko is, but she has a big part to play.

[meganinhiding.livejournal.com]

I kind of wish that Bryke had let us know what had happened to the Joo Dees; I kind of wish that Katara had been able to rescue one and hear her story. There's a lot of potential there and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Shangyin and see how Zuko deals with her.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Me too, but I have a feeling actually focusing on a Joo Dee and finding out what goes on with them would be too much for theiir Y-7 rating.

I hope you like it when it comes out. It's kind of a monster.

[lalunatique.livejournal.com]

Yay longfic from you plus an interesting OC! Is the name Shangyin from Chinese for voice, shengyin? I'm very interested in Xenolith but am unsure about the mpreg part (unless you were joking about that), since it's hard to imagine it can work in a serious story without destroying suspense of disbelief. Then again you're one of the few people I trust to pull off that kind of thing, so I'm willing to give it the college try. :)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

it's supposed to be, but my knowledge of Chinese comes from Google Translate (why couldn't I have picked a fandom with Arabic instead?)

I'm not joking about the mpreg. In the alternate universe that this fic is set in, Zuko is transexual, and biologically female. So I guess it's not male pregnancy, it's biologically female man is pregnant. It's in large part a gift for one of my two best high school friends, who is a trans man and was in the process of transitioning when I started writing. I joke with my betas that it was made AU by all those lovely shirtless scenes Zuko gives us.

[lalunatique.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's correct. "Shengyin" is ambiguous for English-speakers to pronounce since the 'e' reads more like 'uh,' so I think it's a good call to modify it to "Shangyin."

I knew if anyone could make mpreg work it would be you! With an actual biological explanation and no specter of babies pushed out through the rectum, I'm game.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice. I was getting worried I would have to go back through and edit every time her name appears.

I have a drabble somewhere on here in which Hermione talks Ron into letting her put their child and her uterus into him for a week while she goes out of town for a conference, but HP fandom is like that.