Pff.

She feeds Wishbone pieces of meat from her meal. Also eats meat herself. She's normally trying to be vegetarian these days but she's really hungry and probably this world doesn't have any factory farms full of screaming pigs anyway. She's not actually sure whether being the slayer gives her magic calories or not, but today, at least, she eats like it doesn't.

"So what exactly is this ship... doing. In general. Presumably you're not actually out here looking to arrest impossible people."

"...I'm looking for the Avatar. Do they know about the Avatar in California?"

"Nah. Well, probably not, California has a lot going on. I recall hearing something about someone who can bend all of the elements. Why're you looking for them?"

"...it's a long story."

He reflects on this statement for a moment.

"I was banished from the Fire Nation and I'm not allowed to come back until I find him. Or her, I guess. Because they're probably the only person who can stop us from conquering the world and nobody's seen them in a hundred years and we're pretty sure they're not dead so they have to be hiding somewhere and if I can find them and arrest them then—well, then there won't be anyone left to get in our way."

"Huh."

She eats a few more dumplings.

"Why're you conquering the world?"

He pauses.

"...I don't really know. I guess... why not conquer the world, if you can? Wouldn't it be... I don't know. I can't really imagine not wanting to."

She sighs.

"Lotta bad things happen, when people set out to conquer the world. Obviously you got your thousands or millions of deaths, and you got your extreme loss of wealth and property and production as a result of extremely protracted war damaging everything society's built up for itself, and if you manage to mostly succeed then actually governing it all is kind of a nightmare, given the distances involved. But I guess there technically exist worse reasons than 'it was there'."

"...Grandfather never seemed to worry about how to govern it all. Father doesn't either."

She shrugs. "Well, I'm not up on local geopolitics. Maybe they know something I don't. Governing a whole world sounds rough, though, especially if most of it hates you. Which, uh, not up on local geopolitics, but you don't seem super popular around these parts."

"Well, we are trying to conquer the world. It makes sense that the world isn't happy about that."

Another shrug. And more dumplings, they're really good.

"So I guess the part where you actually conquer the world must be going super well, huh? If the Avatar is the only thing that could plausibly stop you."

"Slower than Father likes, I think."

"How long have you been at war?"

"A century."

"Long time."

She's been trying to figure out whether she should be deducting as many points from the Fire Nation as she deducts from ancient Rome or as many points as she deducts from WWII Germany and Japan for the whole taking over the world thing. It occurs to her now that they might be England, and characterizing a centuries-long quest to conquer and colonize as much of the world as possible as a single war.

She has sort of mixed feelings about England. This is probably appropriate or something.

"What're you gonna do with the world when you win it?"

"Don't know. Rule it, I guess. But it won't be mine anyway. Father's going to leave everything to Azula. He likes her better."

"Lot of world for one person to run without any help. Probably. I haven't, like, personally visited it all."

"The Earth Kingdom has most of the people in the world and it's already got only one king. Not that I've ever met him. Maybe he doesn't really rule it."

"I dunno anything about the earth kingdom's government structure. Given size and apparent tech level I would expect it to be feudal or federalist, which is not really the same as being ruled by a single person, although I get that it might still feel like it is if you're thinking about, like, prestige or who random peasants identify as the person in charge, as opposed to the actual process of governing."

"...even the Fire Lord doesn't do everything himself. But—even if other people are mostly doing the work, if they have to listen to everything you say, you're still the one who's in charge."

"Depends on how much attention you're paying, I think. But yeah, sometimes."

"I used to think I'd grow up to be the Fire Lord and rule the world."

"Not anymore?"

"Not since Father exiled me."

Shrug. "Happens. And hey, lots of other things to be."