"My gratitude is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you were also the one doing the smearing."

Which has her in a really foul mood. Fouler than it was to start with. Why was that so... unpleasant?

As if that wasn't bad enough, the talk of Zhao's fleet- Well, she'd heard very little about that, not least because there were so few survivors. Which was, itself, alarming. She's never actually seen the Avatar State in action- aside from the one time that she quickly interrupted it. Quickly, because she didn't want to fight it.

"My only idea would require him to be distracted, and I suspect you'd disapprove anyway. Peaceful solutions are your arena."