#Fabian learns he can bend when they find fig and was thought to be a non bender before that

[fantasykiri5]

Hey in the events of an Avatar AU, do you guys think Adaine would be a waterbender (ice, frost, blue theme) or a lightening speciality fire bender? (Witch bolt/lightning bolt reminiscent, only element to conjure bending material out of thin air which is like magic, fire could be blue)

[kristenbeeapples]

@apple-scrumper‘s tags on this post about Zuko and Azula having the same vibes as Adaine and Aelwyn got me thinking about an a:tla au for fantasy high, and it spiralled out of control into this super long post. Enjoy!!

Adaine’s family are Fire Nation and are Important Advisors to the Fire Lord Kalvaxus. Adaine and Aelwyn have that sibling rivalry going HARD – Aelwyn has already mastered lightning-bending and Will Not Shut Up About It. Really, Adaine, it’s not that difficult, I don’t understand why you can’t do it? (Adaine punches her)

Adaine is invited to sit in on a war meeting and has a panic attack when she realises the evil things they’re all up to, embarrassing her parents. They send her on what they think is a futile quest to find the Avatar to regain her Honour. She is accompanied by Arthur Aguefort, another advisor to the Fire Lord but one who is... a problem, to say the least. Two birds with one stone for the Fire Nation!

Kristen is from the Northern Water Tribe and is a pretty powerful waterbender, with a focus on healing. Her parents are super involved in this weird bloodbending cult but she’s pretty sure it’s normal, right??? 

She also has some kind of connection to the Spirit World, which makes her extremely vulnerable to the weird end of days sacrifice Daybreak is doing to try and reopen the spirit world.

Fig lives in the Earth Kingdom in a town that’s been conquered by the Fire Nation and joins some other rebels pretty much as soon as she can walk. She’s sure she’s going to be an earthbender like her mom and kick some serious Fire Nation butt, but then it turns out she can firebend? Gilear’s not her dad? Her mom slept with someone from the Fire Nation??? How could she???

(It’s only when they visit the Fire Nation several shenanigans later and meet Ayda that she’s like.............okay I get it now.)

The Thistlesprings are metalbenders, and live in the same town as the Faeths. They adopted Gorgug from a village that was destroyed in a fire nation attack and aren’t super sure where his parents were from. Gorgug can’t bend, but he’s happy to be just a Guy with an axe helping out Fig and the other rebels.

UNTIL one time in the heat of battle his axe is knocked away from him and there’s a Fire Nation soldier going for an injured Fig and he doesn’t think, just reacts on instinct and his axe flies through the air and knocks the guy tf out. So seems like he is a metalbender after all? Cool!

He’s not super great at it yet, so he sticks with his axe while he’s learning, and mostly uses it to enhance his attacks by bending the axe head to hit a target more accurately. 

Fabian is technically Water Tribe through his dad and Air Nomad through his mom but Bill and Hallerial have spent the past twenty years being a scourge of the seas to all the nations indiscriminately so they might have disowned him. He thinks he’s a non-bender like his dad and gets by with his sword and athletic ability. 

It’s not until later in their adventures, after his dad dies and he has a brutal encounter with some of his ex-crewmates, that he visits one of the Air Nomad temples (which aren’t as destroyed in this au I guess lol) where his grandfather is an airbending monk teacher (for teens, ofc). Telemine teaches him to dance and helps him figure out he can airbend like his mom! 

Like Gorgug, he mostly uses it to enhance his swordfighting ability rather than being a primary bender, but starts using his sheet to glide and do other airbending stuff while fighting!

Riz and Sklonda live in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se, and both of them are earthbenders. Sklonda works for the earthbender guards but on the side she’s trying to work out what’s going on with the Dai Li, which Pok was investigating before he died. (Riz thinks his dad was killed by the Fire Nation.) 

Riz begins investigating the same thing without his mom knowing when his best friend/babysitter Penny Luckstone goes missing, presumed captured by the Fire Nation. His bending is this very precise form where he uses little rocks to go at high speeds like bullets and just fucking obliterate people, since in the middle of a crowded city there aren’t a tonne of places to practise with big rocks. 

The story begins properly when the rebels get word that very important people from the Fire Nation are visiting a nearby town. Fig and Gorgug lie in wait to ambush them and capture them for leverage.

Before they can attack, however, a pirate ship swings into the harbour, led by Bill and Fabian Seacaster, and opens fire. They don’t care about politics, they just want that fancy Fire Nation shit.

The rebels (read: Fig) decide, fuck it, we’ll attack with the pirates, and then the Fire Nation crew waiting on the shore go to fight them and it’s all extremely chaotic. 

Adaine is having a Very Bad Time.  She hasn’t found the Avatar, she’s no better at firebending, Arthur Aguefort is So Much All The Time, and now she’s being attacked by pirates??? Her life sucks. 

Fig, Gorgug and Fabian all end up in a standoff against her in the lower decks of the ship. Because it’s Adaine, she’s not going down without a fight, and she goes to blast the pirate-y looking dude with fire.

Except it’s not fire that comes rushing out. It’s air. 

Oh shit.

She’s the Avatar. 

Whilst she’s panicking about that, the rebel crew and Fabian agree that they need to get her away from the Fire Nation, and take her to Gorgug’s parent’s boat. Arthur Aguefort blows up the Fire Nation ship to let them get away and everyone thinks he died (spoiler: he didn’t)

Cue a series of insane shenanigans as Fig and Gorgug decide to adopt Adaine and take her around the world to learn other types of bending so she can restore balance to the world and kill her piece-of-shit abusive father (the Fire Lord, too, but the Abernants Are A Priority once Adaine warms up enough to them to talk about her parents). 

Fabian helps them escape but doesn’t join them straight away. They keep running into each other in weird places until eventually they’re like do you... just want to come with us?? Fabian: No. (Yes.) 

They save Kristen from this weird sacrifice thing whilst visiting the Northern Water Tribe, and she agrees to teach Adaine waterbending. She also helps her out with the spiritual side of being the Avatar.

Riz becomes Adaine’s earthbending teacher when they meet him in Ba Sing Se and help him figure out what the fuck is up the Dai Li. 

Once the Abernants and the Fire Lord hear what happened, they send Aelwyn after Adaine and the gang to finish what her sister started, not realising she’s the avatar. An epic sister/sister rivalry and eventually redemption on the levels of Azula and Zuko begins.

Stray thoughts

The entire point of this long-ass post was for me to say that Jawbone is Uncle Iroh in this au. He Just Is.

Tracker is a Kyoshi warrior. Kristen still has some weird internalised sexism going on from being raised in this cult and is like, women shouldn't fight!! They’re too soft and pretty!! Tracker helps her learn to let go of that, and then also kisses her and sends her into a gay panic.

Kalina is a bloodbender working with the Dai Li and is DEFINITELY involved in Pok’s death.

The Hangman as a Sky Bison! Boggy as Momo! (Adaine picks him up in the Swamp) 

This au is inherently funny to me bc Aang is a pacificist and struggles so much with whether or not to kill the Fire Lord, but if Adaine was the Avatar she would have absolutely no such qualms. Murder? Sign me up! 

The idea of Adaine, the avatar, with command over all four elements, bridge to the spirit world, still just decking someone when she gets mad is also really fucking funny.

So she learns waterbending from Kristen, earthbending from Riz, airbending from Telemine, and firebending from Ayda. I think she learns firebending properly last - it turns out the reason she struggled with it so much is because her parents taught her it comes from anger and hatred, and she needed to find and learn love before she could use it properly. 

Fabian gets the Zuko eye scar from being attacked by a firebender (Dayne) instead of it getting cut out. 

Gorthalax is a Fire Nation commander who rebelled and fled to the Earth Kingdom where he met Sandralynn. He got recaptured which is why he wasn’t around in Fig’s life, but they eventually find him in prison and set him free.

Gilear is the ‘my cabbages!’ guy, but he sells yoghurt.