Just as Korra settled into Republic City and got to know Councilman Tarrlok, he just wrote a book about his success.
An autobiography on how he got to be the youngest Council member on the United Republic Council. She smirked to herself. Knowing him, it was probably a book to brag about all the things he had done in his life. He was just as boastful and conceited in person, he didn't need a book to tell people that. It was probably ghostwritten, like all his speeches were. Tenzin told her that he would do just about anything, even cross the line to gain power, and she believed him.
He did after all push her to get into the Task Force.
Despite his vanity, he did seem selfless now and then. How he made appearances to charities, and how interactive he was with the community. Korra told herself he must be doing all that for show. Underneath all the charm, he probably didn't actually care about it at all.
At times she could be wrong. When someone on the Task Force was injured, he tended to his needs until a healer came. When she had to make a speech as the Avatar when the Equalist attacks got radical, he encouraged her before she had to speak on the stage.
"You can do this," his hand on her shoulder. "I know you can."
Life of the Avatar was hard, for all the other incarnations before her, so relating to others wasn't easy. Not even Mako, Bolin, and Asami knew what it was like to be in the magnifying glass of people watching over you all the time. Tarrlok knew, though. Their titles and roles in life had more in common than she realized.
As she walked around Republic City with Asami one day, they passed by a bookstore. Tarrlok's book was on the bestseller's table, so it was hard not to miss. She left the store with the book, and began to read it that night.
"Striving to get to the top is not easy, but with hard work and discipline, you can achieve anything in this life…"
Tarrlok wrote about his childhood. How he felt different from everyone around him growing up. Korra grew up with no friends on the compound, though she did hear stories about bullies. Kids can be cruel, they say. He wrote about his brother, Noatak and that he passed away in a hunting accident. It drove his family apart, and his father soon passed away from the grief. His mother was never the same. He wrote about her fondly. There wasn't much information about his father, but the way that he wrote about his brother's passing made her eyes water.
He moved to Republic City when he was seventeen, the same age she was. He worked odd jobs to support himself as well as pay for university tuition. He graduated with a degree in political sciences. After working as an intern on the Council and working his way up to be a candidate in the election that happened last year, he was finally the Northern Water Tribe representative on the United Republic Council.
Once she finished the book, she realized that she had misjudged him too quickly. Despite his self-centered ways, he really did have the best interest of the people at heart.
It would be imprudent to try and talk to him about Noatak. Hopefully, it wasn't too much to ask him to sign her copy of the book.