#*unhappy noises*

[houseofemojis]

Guys, please don't copy or use our emojis as inspo without crediting. (Copying, with credit or not, we don't appreciate.) No naming, but genuinely just a warning/info heads up, it makes us extremely unhappy

:(

[honelle56]

:(

Whenever I get around to writing the TTPD fics just know half of them have to be like.. breakup/falling out fics

[chalkrub]

vega my best friend vega

[gloriousmonsters]

update from my mxtx renaissance is that I somehow never read the Shang Qinghua extra from SVSSS and i just finished it and

[muffinlance]

Would you be willing to do one where the g'aang meets zuko with his dragons and is like? Wtf? Because I would appreciate the image of aang seeing thw dragons and going, can I pet em, while sokka or katara is like, can I fight dragons? No, no I cannot, and the other is going, not evil fire lord, bet. Please?

(Continued from parts one, two, and three.)

“My older brother should have had the throne, of course,” said the man Aang had come to meet. “But he was still mourning for his son, when… Well, when I think of it now, it was the beginning. My father, poisoned in his bedchambers. My wife, missing in the night. It took me years to piece together what must have happened. It was unthinkable, for a child so young to…”

Aang swallowed thickly, his hands balls on his legs. “Zuko�� did all that?”

“When he was younger than you are now. There was always something wrong with that child,” former Fire Lord Ozai said, from between the ruin of his twisted lips in his scared face. Aang wasn’t sure how much farther the scaring extended, but… but he could see it creeping down under the man’s collar, emerging again on his hands. “I was not—I am not—a good man, Avatar Aang. I know that. I was like King Kuei, sheltered in my palace, unaware of the true extent of this war. A spare prince; I was never meant to rule. Neither was he. But obstacles were removed from his path, one by one, until I was the only one who stood in his way. I was not a good man, Avatar. But I would never try to kill my own father.”

“Thank you for speaking with me,” Aang said. “And… I accept your offer, Sifu Ozai.”

Sokka and Katara shifted behind him, uneasily. Long Feng gave no sign as to his opinion, beyond being the one to make this meeting with the Fire Nation’s rebel leader possible. But there were very few firebenders not under Fire Lord Zuko’s control. Aang had to learn from someone. And… at least Ozai understood, how dangerous fire could be.

* * *

Earth King Kuei had thrown out the treaty his advisors had spent so long negotiating, and slapped together his own private agreement with Fire Lord Zuko after only a few days; Ba Sing Se and the eastern part of the continent were left intact and under Kuei’s reign, while the western coast was handed off to the Fire Nation as tribute. 

The North Pole’s borders remained closed.

The South had been the first nation pressed into an end-of-war treaty, while the Fire Lord’s dragons watched on.

The Air Nomads… if there were any left, still hiding somewhere, they hadn’t come out for Aang.

* * *

Master Yagoda wasn’t a fighter, and claimed that one world journey was quite enough for her lifetime. She’d remained in the South Pole after Aang’s training there was complete, to help her new tribe.

Long Feng’s responsibilities as the Earth Kingdom’s own rebel leader made it inadvisable for him to place himself in enemy hands. The Fire Lord and King Kuei were close; if Long Feng were taken prisoner, he would be handed off to Ba Sing Se for a quick trial, and likely a quicker execution. 

Sifu Ozai’s injuries made it impossible for him to truly fight by Aang’s side, of course, even if he didn’t face an even swifter death than Long Feng should they be captured on Fire Nation soil.

But this was Aang’s job. He was the Avatar, so he had to do this. He had to give all the nations of the world a chance to grow, free from the Fire Lord’s enforced peace. 

“We’re not leaving you now,” Katara said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Her brother mirrored her, a moment later.

They’d started as his escorts, in this terrifying new world. He’d trained under the same master Katara had; learned everything there was to know about healing, from Master Yagoda, who’d used the false peace to travel south. Healing was… it was so much better, than the training Sifu Long Feng had put him through, the precise way earthbending could be used to contain or kill. Or Sifu Ozai’s lessons, hard learned, about just how much fire it took to truly stop a fellow bender. At least Ozai had been sympathetic to Aang’s concerns, to the culture only he seemed to remember. Ozai didn’t want his son dead, either. He still loved him, even after what he’d done. He just… wanted him stopped. 

Fire didn’t kill easily. But it could definitely stop someone. And then Aang could heal him, and just… keep him in jail. The Fire Lord had a little sister, kept hostage all these years, who Ozai thought might still be convinced to join them. She could be the new Fire Lord, with Ozai as her regent. And then the Earth King’s main ally would be gone, and Long Feng could go back to reclaim his home for the people, instead of the nobility who’d grown rich on war without ever stepping foot outside of their walled inner city. 

And. And Aang could travel, and relearn this world, and practice his healing more. That was what the world really needed: healing. 

But it was like Yagoda had taught him. Sometimes a break had to be reset, before it could really heal.

* * *

It was… really easy, getting into the Fire Nation palace. They rolled Appa in soot, and came in the night. Landed on a roof. Entered through an upper window on an inner courtyard, where guards wouldn’t think to stand watch. The Fire Nation had uncontested aerial supremacy, after all.

They knew where the Fire Lord’s rooms were; they were Ozai’s old ones. They were also very empty. Which they’d been warned about, because apparently the Fire Lord did his best evil planning at night when his advisors couldn’t reign him in. 

There was the flicker of candlelight under the sliding doors to his office. And… no guards. Which led to a round of is-this-the-right-place looks shared between them, but. This was where the map Ozai had given them said to go. So they had another round of looks, with resolute nods this time, and then Katara was sliding open the door as he and Sokka ran in and…

…And a very tired looking servant was standing in front of a desk, shuffling papers around like there was something he’d missed in them. His long hair was partially tied up in a frazzled bun, but mostly down his back. He blinked at them through a pair of glasses that were almost an exact match for the ones in fashion at King Kuei’s court, like he’d gotten them from the same artisan. And also there were some ink stains on his face, like maybe he’d fallen asleep on some still-drying documents. So… maybe a scribe? 

“Where’s the Fire Lord?” Sokka demanded, club raised.

“...I can see the family resemblance,” said the servant, who had turned fully to face them, and oh. He… had the Fire Lord’s scar. And there was the Fire Lord’s crown, being used as a paperweight at the edge of the desk. 

“Does Chief Hakoda know his children are here to assassinate his ally���” Fire Lord Zuko said.

“ ‘Ally’ is a little strong,” interrupted Sokka.

“—Or do the Water Tribes have their own ‘rebel leader’ now?”

“ ‘Assassinate’ is a little strong, too,” Aang said softly, shuffling his feet, his hands tight around his staff.

The Fire Lord stared at him a moment. “...Ah. So my father would prefer that you maim me, and drop me in a dark cell for the rest of my life?” 

“Umm.”

Zuko stared, and stared, and then pushed up his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. “Listen. Can we just… reschedule this?” 

“Reschedule,” Katara repeated. “This.”

“You haven’t attacked me yet, so this isn’t technically a diplomatic incident. It’s just… a scheduling conflict?”

Sokka snorted, and then looked vaguely angry at himself. Katara elbowed him. Aang kept gripping his glider, but maybe a little less tightly.

“We got news of an earthquake on Shojima not even two candlemarks ago,” the Fire Lord said, sliding his glasses back down. “Which means the tsunami is on its way to the main coast by now, if it hasn’t hit already, and I need to get these out if the relief supplies are going to be on their way by morning. So we can either have a really fast assassination attempt and then I have to add ‘explain to the world why the Fire Lord killed the Avatar and a nation’s heirs’ to my schedule sometime this week. Or we can talk first, but I don’t have time for that, so can we reschedule this to…”

And the very evil Fire Lord turned away from them to begin shuffling through his papers.

“First,” Sokka said, pointing a finger at the teenager, “Aang would be more than a quick fight, rude. Second: I’m still working on the second, but seriously, rude. And third, what do you mean you’d put our fiery-death-explanations into your schedule sometime this week?”

The Fire Lord didn’t seem to be listening. But he’d apparently found his appointment book, so that was good? Except for all the flipping.

“I can do… lunch tomorrow? If you’re okay with actually eating while we talk. I’m not allowed to skip meals, or Captain Izumi cancels my appointments ‘for national security’.”

Sokka slowly lowered down his pointing finger. 

“Talking would be good,” Aang said. “I like talking.”

And then they got to meet Captain Izumi, which was a lot scarier than meeting the Fire Lord.

And then they realized that what they’d thought was vaguely tacky dragon-print paneling along two walls was actual dragon skin and this wasn’t an office it was an open-air veranda and—

“Quick fight” might have been an accurate prediction, yes. 

More accurate than Sifu Ozai’s map.

(Read more prompts || Longer ATLA fics || Original works)

[rubberduckyrye]

When will people stop. Saying Gonta is gullible and that Kokichi is to blame for Gonta’s actions. When will the ableism cease.

[eemoo1o-animoo]

DAMNIT, SEBASTIAN! He eats Unhappy Meals now! 😭😭

[talentforlying]

john and his niece going for a walk, arm-in-arm, so gemma can confide in him about her ghost problem without worrying her mum......i'm severely unwell about them.

[strangeauthor]

theyre shooting fireworks now

[existencebringsonlypain]

every once and a while I'll be like "but I'm not ACTUALLY super sensitive to sound, right, I can go for three or four class periods before realizing I'm not wearing warbuds, I'm probably just exaggerating it in my head" and then I remember that time I started crying because I was in a loud environment, with earbuds at max noise canceling, and someone clapped nearby. yea no I'm not faking it

[chainsawmanfan]

i got noise cancelling headphones you fags

[immoralfag]

gonna be 23 in two weekish and i just feel like I've done nothing with my life

[monster-noises]

I have the Damnably hardest time telling if my art's ever improved it's Comical. Like there's an early enough point that I can look at and go: "oh yeah I've definitely gotten better Since Then" and when I re-do the same image exactly I can Kinda see it but like.. I saw an artist I love on twitter do an "my art at 14 vs. my art now" (which is just around when that time cut off for Clearly being able to see improvement is) and I was like Oh! I have a Character that would make this Real easy! And pulled this up:

and like objectively I KNooooooow the one on the Right is Better, like I know this I can see it with my eyeballs, but also like

is it?

is it reeeeeally?

cause in my head it doesn't Feel like it looks better/any different, like I don't look at that and go "dang! I've come a long way! look at that!" I just go like "hm.. well... I mean yeah I... mmmm I guess I've.. gotten... beeeetter.. you can Kinda see where this is more solid and... oo... (etc etc)" and this isn't me fishing for compliments, it's just... such a weird phenomenon??? that I don't think I've seen anyone else deal with??? like what the fuck is this? is it some weird severe form of imposter syndrome? is it the fear my art Hasn't improved manifest in some strange sideways thought processes??? Was I Cursed as a Child to never be Satisfied by anything I Do???? it perplexes!

[moroser]

i’ve had a mentally and emotionally draining week and my health is so shitty. i think i have long covid but i don’t have recollection of having covid officially. but i’m pretty sure i had it at the tail end of 2019 before the pandemic really took off. 

i used to clean a place where a lot of international and college guests used to stay and i could have totally got it there as it was like starting and spreading. was practically unconscious for two weeks cause i was so sick lol. so who knows. can’t recall being this sick prior to that though. can barely walk the street. 

[sisterdragonwithfeathers]

Horrible-feeling but ultimately not permanently damaging mistake made regarding misunderstanding of overlapping work and vacation schedules, hundreds dead thousands injured

[clowny-rolls]

i hate oversupporters i'm not being transphobic or homophobic, but i think it's wrong to rub your labels in other people's faces, or bragging that you support the LGBT+ community it makes people uncomfortable i know a few people with gender dysphoria, and yes, they are trans some of them have said that they feel uncomfortable when people make a big deal about them being trans, and that they start treating them like they're above eneryone else, and they REALLY don't like that and i also have a friend who's gay that doesn't like it when people over-support him. he says it's dumb that people would do that, and he doesn't like it at all, and he especially doesn't like watching his straight friends being treated like garbage because they aren't gay people take it as far as to assume people are trans, and "support" them, and then treat them like garbage when they find out that they're cis i know from experience that it sucks my voice sometimes drops, and i'm ridiculously tall, so people go "oh yeah, she's trans" and start treating me like a goddess or something, and rubbing the fact they "support a trans" in other people's faces and when they found out i was cis, but just tall, and have a deep voice from doing the sans voice so often when i was 13 to 15 years old, they treated me like garbage yeah, i really don't like those people. repost if you agree.