#'so who's kyoshi's PR manager? are they in the book?' no I'm the PR manager

[swiftsaltsweet]

Kyoshi's PR Manager-Prologue

Characters: Rangi and Kyoshi (Possibly characters from Reckoning of Roku)

Pairing: Rangshi

Summary:   Summary: During the later years of Kyoshi’s life, the world is imploding with new catastrophes. Kyoshi and Rangi have to figure out what might be the root shared cause. Will they be able to fix it, or will it be too late for Kyoshi and her legacy?

Prologue is spoiler free (will update summary later), but spoilers for Reckoning of Roku most likely later in the story. Obvie spoilers for Rise/Shadow of Kyoshi

(As cracky as the title is, this is NOT a comedy or crack fic, it’s a fix-it fic where I try to reconcile what happened in Roku’s canon TT0TT).

Other Sites: AO3 

A/N: NO spoilers for the novel this chapter.

Gd man, I was taking a break this week cause I was recovering from my sickness and then I see those LEAKS about Kyoshi from the Roku novel? Nah. Nope. Uh uh. Not on my watch. Kyoshi? Rangi? Get behind me I’ll protect you. I’ll sacrifice both my lungs and sleep for you two. 

Just the prologue for now, I still need to see the specifics of the novel when it comes out. But I have a decent idea where I wanna take this based on what I know.

________________________

Kyoshi ran her thumb down the length of the rough parchment as she read through it again for the hundredth time. The contents weren’t good. In fact, none of the correspondences she’d been getting for the last handful of years have been good. It was just disaster after disaster.

Kyoshi put the paper down on her desk, and leaned back into her chair, letting her full weight as well as the weight of the world be held up by some simple wooden pieces. She closed her eyes. Things had been going more or less smoothly for roughly two hundred years. So what changed? 

She let out a deep sigh. She could feel the sound of it reverberate around the study. Filling up all the empty space. 

“More bad news?” a charred voice whispered nearby. It was like music to Kyoshi’s ears.

Kyoshi opened her eyes to see her wife, Rangi, walking quietly into the study, tea in hand. Her features were laced with worry as she quickened her pace to be by Kyoshi’s side. Kyoshi wanted to smile in reassurance, but couldn’t find the strength.

“It’s like someone’s approached our little orderly web of strings and started yanking on it,” she paused, and then corrected herself. “Or more like, someone is taking a machete to it.” She folded her hands onto the desk and leaned her forehead against them. “It’s falling apart. Everything is going wrong. It’s starting to become impossible to put back together.”

Put back together. Her secret mantra. One that tied back to how she, her wife, and her teacher maintained their immortality. Catalog everything. Every weight, every breath, every scar. She would do it for her body. She would do it for the nations. She would do it for the world. 

Put the pieces back. Make it orderly. Everything will be fine.

But it wasn’t. Someone or something was making disruptions. It was becoming too much to catalog. And not just the physical world, but also the Spirit World too.

Seeds of chaos were being sown everywhere, and Kyoshi was only one person. She couldn’t be everywhere. The bison was only so fast. She had so few she could trust.

Rangi grabbed the letters off of Kyoshi’s desk and started putting them into separate piles. “We’ll figure it out. First, we need to triage. Which of these is more dire, who can we send in our stead-” she kept listing off what they needed to do. It filled Kyoshi’s chest with warmth. No matter how many years, decades, centuries passed, Rangi stayed consistent. Ever unyielding. Even more so than Kyoshi herself. 

She would’ve made a fantastic earthbender. She has the mentality for it. Kyoshi laughed in her head. 

“You’re right,” Kyoshi let herself smile just a tiny bit. “One step at a time.”

“All the time in the world,” Rangi smiled back, letting herself be happy that Kyoshi’s spirits were up off the ground. Even if it was only by an inch.

Kyoshi shook her head. “Maybe for us, but not for others.” 

She leaned down and started looking at the piles. Crop desolations, raids from outlaws, angry spirits threatening a village, assassinations were happening left and right.

Kyoshi picked up the letter about assassinations and showed it to Rangi with one hand, and grabbed a map with the other.

Rangi frowned at it. “Well this would explain where those rumors started…..”

“Which ones?” Kyoshi snorted. She had so many. Most were completely fabricated about her. Others were completely misinformed. Maybe one percent held the truth, but no one was interested in the story behind the truth. She didn’t care and it didn’t matter. Her job was to fix things, not worry about her public image. 

Kyoshi started poking the map with different colored pins. She went into her desk and started grabbing for colored string. Once secured, she began looping it around the pins that matched the same color.

“What are you looking at?” Rangi asked, trying to read Kyoshi’s intent through her actions. “Common theme? Looking for connections?”

“Yes, something like that.” Once she finished the last loop she started pointing to the various colors. “That represents all the spiritual events that are going down. That is for the assassinations. And those are raids and other criminal activities.” She took a letter opener off the desk, and slammed it down into one part of the map, piercing it and the table it layed on. “That’s where Grandfather is.” She gave Rangi a pointed look.

Here’s Lao Ge. 

Rangi stiffened at her look, then she frowned at the placement. “Good news, he’s on the other side of the map.” She pointed at where the assassinations were congregated. “‘Out of danger.’” 

I don’t think it’s physically possible he committed the murders. Not with that distance. Her eyes told Kyoshi.

Their eyes tore away from each other and flitted them across the room. 

They wondered if they were being spied on. Yangchen had advised her on how people used to get creative in their spy activities back in her day, and Kyoshi couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing was happening to her.

Paranoia was an illness, it twisted the mind. Questioned her reasoning. Nothing could cure it. Her only options were to continue worrying, or have her worst fear realized and have her paranoia be proven right.

Everyday she hoped the latter would never happen. Of all the things she’d want proven right, this was not one of them. 

“I’m afraid for his health,” pulling Rangi’s attention back to her. “He’s not as spry as he used to be. Perhaps we should pay him a visit?” 

We need to check up on him. Verify and corroborate he’s not the one behind this.

“I agree, he’s getting up in age. I’m sure he’s lonely, he doesn’t get many visitors. I’m sure he’d be excited to see us.”

Sounds good to me. We have a lot to catch up on, perhaps he has a lead?

“Then we should get packing and head out as soon as possible.”

“What about all the other problems?” Rangi asked. 

Kyoshi pointed to where the criminal activity was on the map. “We can hit these up on the way to see Grandfather. I’ll need to look at the letters again, and see if the ones pertaining to spirits can also be addressed on the way to see him as well.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “We’ll save addressing the assassinations in person for later. I’ll send word out to see if anyone has replacements in mind and for me to look over their qualifications while we’re in the air. I want to make sure the person is vetted thoroughly before we put them into a position of power.” 

Rangi looked at the map on the desk. “I’ll run to the library and grab some farming material based on the regions the crop desolations are in. If anything, I can at least rule out if spirits are involved with them or not.” 

“Sounds good.”

“Kyoshi, is there anyone else we’re going to take with us?” Rangi looked at her hard, but Kyoshi knew Rangi wasn’t asking because she didn’t know the answer. If anyone was listening, it was for their ears to know Kyoshi’s intent. Perhaps Rangi wanted to archive which people who did or didn’t still ask Kyoshi if she needed someone to join her? 

Of course, they could try to cover their tracks by asking, even if they knew the answer was ‘No.’ Ah, how Kyoshi hated these mind games and schemes. So much like pai sho, and she hated pai sho. 

“No, this is an emergency. Plus, you know Grandfather is wary of new people. It’s best if we go alone.” Just you, me, and the bison. 

Rangi nodded, “Then I’ll go get Byakko ready and packed to go.” She turned and headed out the door.

Kyoshi rushed back to her desk and furiously began writing the letters she needed to send out. 

___

A/N: Lord freaking knows I’m going to have to make some changes to this when I get my hands on the book (and see a line that contradicts). But I have contingency plans and the power of lies on my side! (as well as slight vagueness in wording so I can give myself the appropriate amount of “years” to work with later).  I’ll make a note in the author notes with a date indicating if I had to overhaul/update some writing.