#Not much smaller than the Air Nomads but still

[creampuffqueen]

Cover Story

Yangvik Week day 1 - fake dating

Summary: At a party in the Earth Kingdom, Yangchen and Kavik are on a mission. When things don't go to plan, they have to think quick to keep their cover.

Word count: 4248

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“Traveling alongside the Avatar - what an honor!” The older Earth Kingdom nobleman smiles over his glass of rice wine. Kavik forces a smile in return, swirling the liquid in his own glass to obscure just how little he’s drank. This must be the third time he’s heard the same sentence in the last fifteen minutes. 

“Certainly. I enjoy the work.” The rehearsed words fall easily off his tongue, their smooth and gilded façade right at home inside the splendor of the royal ballroom of Ba Sing Se. “I am grateful to be a trusted companion of Avatar Yangchen.”

He goes to take a tiny sip of his drink, hopeful to avoid as much small talk as possible, but finds the wine frozen solid in its glass. Speak of the darkness. 

A subtle motion with his hand is all it takes to unfreeze his drink, allowing him to actually take a sip - though with the delay he knows it now looks like he just drained the glass. Before the nobleman in front of him can comment, though, his eyes are drawn to something behind Kavik’s back. 

Avatar Yangchen steps into place beside Kavik with gentle, measured steps. In the disgusting display of wealth here in the palace, she’s a yellow-and-orange breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively. Kavik and the others had to dress up to attend this party. Yangchen, being an Air Nomad with no possessions to her name, did not.   

The nobleman bows deeply before her. “Avatar Yangchen, it is a great honor to see you here in the Earth Kingdom.”

Yangchen bows to him in turn; a smaller motion, but no less lacking in respect. “Please, Lord Bozhou, the pleasure is all mine. I do hope you don’t mind, but I must steal my companion away for a moment. We have something to discuss with Lady Gyeshe.”

Lord Bozhou (how Yangchen can remember all these names, Kavik will never know) nods quickly in response. “Of course, Avatar, please. I will miss his invigorating tales, but you must take care of business.”

“Thank you, Lord Bozhou,” Yangchen replies, hooking one of Kavik’s arms with her own. She pivots on her heel and drags him away. To the average onlooker, her pace looks easy and relaxed, but Kavik can sense the tension in her grip and in the way she steps. 

“He’s not going to miss me,” Kavik mutters quietly, trying to ease her with a bit of humor, “I was positively boring to talk to. And so was he, for that matter. Thanks for the save.”

“I didn’t come and get you just to get your sorry butt out of a conversation,” Yangchen whispers, in that eerie way of hers where her mouth hardly moves. “I just got the signal from Jujinta. We need to move quickly, but act as natural as possible.”

Kavik assumed about as much. If it were up to her, she’d revel in his small-talking misery all night. But they aren’t at the royal palace just to brush elbows with nobility. They have a job to take care of.

“You remember the plan?” Yangchen asks from the corner of her mouth as she smiles and nods at a group of Earth Sages they pass. 

Kavik dips his head in acknowledgement at the delegation from Omashu on the other side of the ballroom. “I do. I’ll wait for three and a half minutes exactly, counting from when the door closes.”

Yangchen doesn’t respond verbally, only squeezing his elbow where their arms are linked. The motion pulls them closer than before. Kavik tries not to notice. 

But as they stop to chat with Lady Gyeshe for a few moments, completing their cover story, he can’t help but notice that Yangchen still stays close, letting their shoulders brush together where they stand. 

She’s done nothing different to her appearance tonight. Her robes are the same as always. Her prayer beads lay in the same spot against her chest. Her hair is in its usual braid, swinging low across her back. And yet, Kavik can’t keep his eyes off her. In this room full of beautiful things, she’s still the most captivating.

“Don’t you agree, Kavik?”

Kavik barely manages to hold back a noise of confusion - something he’s had to train hard to achieve. With only a blink to refocus his thoughts, he manages to pull on his fake smile and nod. “Yes, of course I do.”

Yangchen pats his hand softly, one eyebrow raising a fraction of an inch. Nothing gets past her; she clearly knows he wasn’t listening in the slightest. Still, she plays it off with ease, excusing them once again from the conversation and leading Kavik towards the door of the ballroom, arms still linked. 

“Focus, please,” She admonishes as they exit, “We won’t get another chance as good as this one. If I don’t get Feishan some answers he’s going to get antsy, and we both know how that will end.”

“Sorry, I got distracted. It won’t happen again.”

“Distracted by what?” Yangchen asks lightly as they make their way down the grandiose hallway, “You were only looking at me.”

Heat rises in Kavik’s cheeks. He doesn’t answer. 

Thankfully, they arrive at their destination before Yangchen gets a mind to press for a response. The palace of Ba Sing Se is fancy enough that they have designated rooms just for freshening up; one for men and one for women. Nobles have been using the rooms all evening, keeping their looks fresh for a whole night of royal partying. Now it’s Yangchen’s turn.

“I’ll only be a moment,” Yangchen promises aloud, for the benefit of the guard outside the door and the noblewomen already leaving. 

“Please hurry,” Kavik urges in a similar tone, “I want to hear the end of Lord Bozhou’s story.”

Yangchen gives an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “I’ll be as quick as I can. It won’t kill you to stand outside for a minute or two.”

She steps away, and Kavik feels the absence of her at his side like a gaping hole. He’s so focused on her form retreating through the door that he nearly forgets to start counting, and he clenches his fist in frustration at himself. Keep your head on straight, you fool.

It isn’t difficult to feign boredom as he waits. Time passes so much slower when you’re counting each second. When he gets to three minutes he leans against the wall with a heavy sigh and begins to tap his foot. At three minutes and thirty seconds exactly, he pushes off the wall and heads back the way they came, ignoring the judgemental glare of the nearby guard. He can already imagine the gossip that will come from this. Some companion! Abandoning the Avatar at a royal function?!

Instead of heading back into the main ballroom, Kavik passes the grand doorway and keeps heading straight. He passes a few more rooms before he hangs a left, keeping his expression neutral, showing any onlookers only what he wants them to see: a man who knows where he’s going. A man who’s supposed to be there. Confidence is half the battle in infiltration. Act like you’re meant to be there and nobody will question you. 

The amount of royalty, nobility, and generally important people gathered in the ballroom means that the majority of King Feishan’s guards are close to that area. However, the young Earth King is a paranoid man, keeping guards posted all throughout the palace, just in case. But as Kavik makes his way to the target room, he doesn’t encounter a single one. Jujinta’s part has gone off without a hitch. 

Counting doors carefully to ensure he’s in the right place, Kavik at last stops walking, drawing his hand across the thick wooden door that should belong to the office of Minister Xahu.

That is, if he’s correct. He really hopes he’s correct. 

The door is locked, of course. Not an issue, though. A small pouch at his hip, carefully concealed beneath his clothes, contains enough water for him to freeze two long, thin spikes of ice to use as lockpicks. Kavik unlocks the door easily and slips inside the office, returning the water to its container and shutting the door behind him.

Barely a minute later, two small taps sound through the wooden panel, announcing Yangchen’s presence before she lets herself in. She conjures a flame to her open palm, illuminating the small office room around them, casting their shadows on the wall. 

She doesn’t bother with a greeting. “We need to hurry. Juji can only keep the guards distracted for so long without raising a proper alarm. I’ll take the walls in case the minister used earthbending to conceal anything. You take the desk and the bookshelves. Don’t move anything unless you’re sure you can put it back exactly the way it was.”

“I’m not an amateur,” Kavik reminds her, making his way to the desk. 

Yangchen uses her free hand to start tracing along the walls, feeling with her earthbending for any hidden pockets or seals. “I know that. I mean, this ought to feel natural to you at this point. We basically met in a scenario exactly like this one.”

She punctuates her last sentence by winking at him over her shoulder. Kavik refuses to react, even as he feels his cheeks begin to redden. His fumbling hands very nearly knock over a small carved badgermole statue. 

Kavik makes his way along the ornate desk, feeling with one palm for disguised seals or latches and using his other hand to tap a rhythmic pattern on the wood, listening carefully for any area that sounds hollow where it shouldn’t be. 

Nothing. Kavik grits his teeth, keeping his frustration in check. He moves on to search inside the many drawers, taking care not to disturb the contents. 

“Any luck?” Yangchen asks softly. She’s finished her check of the walls and is now inspecting the floor. The slide of her shoes across the polished stone floor makes a quiet rasping noise that prickles the hair on the back of his neck.

“Nothing yet. But these drawers are pretty full of papers. He might have tried to hide the records in plain sight.”

“Doubtful.” Yangchen peers over Kavik’s shoulder, glancing over the masses of files stuffed inside the drawer he has opened. This close, he can feel the ghost of her breath at the crook of his neck, feel the tiny puff of air she releases with every measured exhale. She keeps speaking, but Kavik finds it hard to focus on her words.

“Minister Xahu is the linchpin of this entire thing. He has spirits know how many people expecting their due, and he’s managed to keep it concealed from the Earth King for this long. Those records would have to be detailed, every copper piece accounted for. And he wouldn’t risk another minister or one of the aids accidentally stumbling upon them. They have to be hidden somewhere in this room.”

Somehow, Kavik manages to find his wits in order to give a proper answer. “You’re probably right. Let’s keep looking.” Yangchen pulls away from his shoulder and it takes everything in him not to utterly deflate in disappointment. 

With the desk proving a failure, Kavik heads to the bookshelves while Yangchen makes another pass around the walls. He lets himself fall into his usual rhythm, one developed years ago during his time as an errand runner in Bin-Er. Move quick. Keep your eyes open. Leave no trace.

Though, his jobs in Bin-Er rarely had such high stakes.

Almost six months ago, King Feishan had contacted Yangchen to report a discrepancy in the amount of gold he was receiving from the shang cities. He’d demanded the Avatar’s presence to prove his claims, so Yangchen and Kavik begrudgingly made the journey to Ba Sing Se. The first of many, as it turned out.

Feishan had the two of them count every last piece of gold he received in his latest payment and compare it to the reports they’d sent alongside it. A non-insignificant portion was missing. The king was furious. 

Now, they’ve nearly cracked the conspiracy. One of the king’s own economic ministers, a man named Xahu, has been allowing the shangs to siphon off city funds for themselves - and making his own pocket significantly heavier in the process. He demands a portion from each shang, as payment for keeping their theft off the records.

However, in order to keep track of exactly how much money is going where, Minister Xahu is certain to have his own set of highly detailed records. It isn’t easy to fool both the Earth King and the Avatar, and if the mission goes as planned, the minister will soon be seeing why.

Unfortunately, in order to justice to be enacted, the mission has to be a success - and the minister must be none the wiser that record of his activity has gone missing. At least, not until he’s put to trial.

Kavik is beginning to lose hope. Yangchen is on her third sweep of the office walls, and the flame in her palm is beginning to stutter. Not with exhaustion, but with frustration. Kavik himself has had even less success. Nothing in the desk, nothing in the bookshelf. The minister keeps his office sparsely decorated. They’re running out of things to search.

Yangchen flicks her wrist and the flame in her palm pulses bright, letting Kavik see the thin line of her lips, the deep furrow of her brow as she decides what they should do next. The glow from the fire makes her gray eyes look like molten pools of silver. For a moment, Kavik nearly forgets where he is.

“The plant. We haven’t searched the plant yet.” Yangchen brushes past him, making a beeline towards the towering fern in the corner by the door. Kavik spins on his heel and follows her, ready to assist in whatever way she needs.

With a swift motion, Yangchen grabs the packed soil in the ceramic pot and lifts, heaving the chunk of earth into the air. Instantly Kavik can see they’ve found their spot. A deep indentation is molded into the bottom of the dirt, roots growing around a distinctly block-shaped empty space. Kavik reaches into the pot and pulls out a dirt-covered wooden box.

Yangchen replaces the plant and the pair get to work, silently in sync. Kavik forms his ice-picks once more to unlock the box, and it opens easily under his practiced touch. The minister clearly thought he hid his secrets well enough that he only needed one lock.

The inside of the box is packed full with papers, an informant’s wildest dream. Kavik takes the top half and Yangchen the bottom, and together they sift through the papers at a breakneck pace, taking only the papers with the most damning evidence. Large sums, locations, actual names. Xahu has tried to play the game, but the older minister clearly knows very little about properly guarding secrets. Even the most amateur broker in Bin-Er knows not to use anything or anyone’s true name unless absolutely necessary. Kavik feels a bit like punching the wall. This is the man that robbed the Earth King right under their noses?

In only a few minutes, they’ve skimmed through the whole stack of records. Yangchen takes their evidence and tucks it into her robes, hiding the bulk of paper beneath the very forgiving outline of her Air Nomad clothing. Kavik puts the rest of the paper back into the box and relocks it. Yangchen lifts the plant again to let him replace the box into its hiding spot, cleans up the spilled dirt, and -

“We got it!”

Her arms are around his shoulders before he even realizes it, flinging herself at him with a wide grin, trusting he’ll catch her. Kavik’s hands land at her waist, holding her close for the brief moment of her hug. A triumphant smile of his own tugs at the corner of his mouth, the euphoric feeling of a job well done warming his chest. 

Still smiling, Yangchen reaches up a hand to tousle his hair fondly, making Kavik scrunch his nose in mock annoyance, even as his grin remains firmly affixed to his face. “Hey, it took me forever to get my hair to look this nice!”

Yangchen just ruffles his hair again, rolling her eyes. “I like it better this way.” 

Any retort Kavik had planned dies on his lips, his tongue suddenly refusing to make words as heat blooms in his cheeks. He watches, almost in slow motion, as Yangchen’s gaze veers away from his face. His ears - she must be looking at his ears, they’re probably bright red now and -

A palm slaps over his mouth. “Quiet! There’s someone outside.”

Kavik could kick himself. We just wasted so much time!

Yangchen steps out of his arms, nearly flattening herself against the door as she presses her ear to it. Kavik follows suit, straining to listen through the thick wood.

Sure enough, muffled voices can be heard, growing louder as the people advance down the hallway.

“Ready to get back to the party?” The first voice Kavik doesn’t recognize, but the accent is Upper Ring; the person must be nobility or close to it. Heavy footfalls nearly obscure the reply of the second person, but Kavik focuses with everything he has and manages to catch the second half of it.

“ - a moment, I need to check something in my office while we’re down here. Don’t wait, I won’t be long.”

Kavik’s stomach falls what feels like the height of the Northern Air Temple. The voice is unmistakable; he’s sat through enough miserable meetings with the man.

Minister Xahu is coming to check his office. The office where he and Yangchen currently are, stealing records that will get him sent to prison if discovered. 

Yangchen turns to face him with a blank stare. She doesn’t have a plan for this. They assumed the minister would stay in the ballroom all night. He’d have no reason to travel this far into the palace, not with all the food, drink, and dancing he could want in one place. 

Evidently, they were wrong. There’s no time to waste.

Kavik grabs the heavy chair from the minister’s desk and braces it beneath the door handle. That should buy them a bit of time as the minister struggles to push open the door. “Yangchen, is there any way you can earthbend us out of here?”

“Not without destroying the palace’s structural integrity,” She hisses in reply, beginning to pace. “And the walls aren’t thick enough for me to seal us inside, either.”

The office is sparse. There’s nowhere to hide. What excuse could they possibly give that would hold up their cover? Kavik’s mouth goes dry at the footsteps outside grow closer.

“Hang on, I’ve got an idea.” Yangchen grabs Kavik by both hands and drags him over to the desk. “You’re not going to like it. But trust me on this.”

“I think we’re a bit past caring about how I feel about a plan; tell me what it is.”

“You need to kiss me.”

“What?!”

Did he drink too much back in the ballroom? Did that plant have some kind of hallucinogen in its leaves? Did Yangchen actually just ask him to kiss her -

The door handle rattles, startling both of them. Yangchen’s head whips back and forth between him and the door. “Come on, it’s the only kind of cover that will make any sense!”

“But - I - what?”

The door handle rattles again. The chair budges a fraction of an inch. They’re running out of time. 

“Oh for spirits’ sake, I’ll do it then.”

Yangchen grabs both sides of his face and crashes their mouths together into the best kiss Kavik has ever had. 

Her lips are soft and warm and plush, pliable as they press into his, one hand coming up to tangle into his hair. Kavik stops breathing for half a second before instinct takes over and he’s kissing her back, imagining, if only for a moment, that any of this is real. Yangchen tugs at his hair and Kavik chokes on a gasp. She pulls him closer; his senses are overwhelmed by her. The scent of lemon on her hair, the heat of her body through her robes. He’s never been close to her like this before. He pushes her against the desk as the door finally swings open. 

“What is the meaning of this?!”

Kavik is loathe to pull away, but he does anyway, wondering what they must look like from the minister’s perspective. Blushing faces, wandering hands, messy hair - every bit the young, overeager couple caught in the act. 

“Oh! M-Minister Xahu!” Yangchen stumbles over her words, face flushed bright red. “What are you doing here?”

Kavik can tell the exact moment the minister realizes who he’s just stumbled upon. His green eyes nearly bulge out of his head and his eyebrows almost disappear into his hairline - impressive, considering how far its receded. 

“Avatar Yangchen! My… apologies for the interruption.” The man’s jaw twitches, clearly unsure of how to proceed. A typical couple would be reprimanded and punished for trespassing in such a high level area. But this isn’t a typical couple. This is the Avatar and her companion.

Finally, the minister seems to have decided to treat Yangchen as the Avatar. He bows deeply before them, the couple still tangled together on his desk, and does his best to sound polite when he next speaks. 

“Well, Avatar, this happens to be my office.”

Yangchen gives a surprised little gasp, covering her mouth with her hand. It’s one of the fakest sounds Kavik has ever heard her make. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t think - I mean, I didn’t realize this office would be needed this evening. You see, I just needed a bit of time away from the party and I asked Master Kavik to accompany me -”

“I understand perfectly,” Minister Xahu interrupts through gritted teeth. Kavik wonders just how much gossip is going to come from this. How long before news of this reaches the shang cities?

“Well, we should leave you in peace, Minister,” Yangchen says, pushing out of Kavik’s embrace and making a beeline for the door. She smooths her robes out as she walks, a flustered young woman trying to appear respectable - and not at all the spymaster checking to ensure the documents are still secured in her pocket. She gestures for Kavik to follow and he does as quickly as possible, eager to escape the fiery glare of the minister. 

Yangchen bows to him in the doorway, peering up at him with imploring eyes. “I trust this… misunderstanding will not be mentioned to others here at the palace?”

“Certainly, Avatar; you have my word.” Kavik bites his lip to hold back a scoff of disbelief.

“Well, in that case, we must be going. Have a wonderful evening!” Yangchen grabs Kavik’s elbow and leads him away, a strange repetition of the way they walked to the office the first time. 

It’s only after they turn the corner that both benders relax, Yangchen letting out an audible sigh of relief. “Good. He bought it.”

“Yeah. Quick thinking.”

She knocks their shoulders together, a small smile curling at the edges of her lips. “You did well, too. Good job making it look so real.”

Kavik can’t meet her eyes. His heart is still pounding too hard. “It was whatever. No problem.”

Yangchen pats at her outer robe again, making sure she still has the papers. “Now we can bring these to King Feishan, as well as the other shangs. We can finally put an end to this nonsense.” 

She keeps talking, but Kavik isn’t listening, not anymore. His focus is honed in on her lips, on the curve of her smile, on the flick of her tongue as she forms her words. He kissed that smile a few minutes ago. He kissed her because she asked him to, and he wants to etch the memory of it into his brain. 

He doesn’t know if he’ll get to kiss her again. Yangchen is clearly unaffected by it; just another matter of business for her. Kavik wonders if it’s stupid of him to hope she’ll ask him to kiss her again, even just for a cover story. 

“Hey, are you alright?”

Kavik jolts at the question. “Hm?”

“You’re not listening. There’s something on your mind. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he promises, willing himself to believe it. If he believes it, she won’t be able to tell that he’s lying. “I’m just still in shock we pulled that off, even with the hitch in the plan. Things rarely go that smoothly for us.”

Yangchen snorts in agreement, and Kavik’s heart flutters at the sound. “You can say that again. Come on, we’ve been away from the ballroom for a while. I’m sure we’ve been missed.”

They still walk with arms linked, even though the rules of propriety don’t require it at this point. It’s like neither can bear to let go. They step over the threshold of the ballroom as one, back into the gilded room of beautiful lies. Yangchen leans over to murmur something into his ear.

“You know,” She breathes from the edge of her mouth, a whisper of a whisper, “You’re not a bad kisser, Kavik.”

[biconickyoshi]

Okay y’all… I was very critical of eps 3 & 4 (especially 4) of NAtLA. Then all of a sudden eps 5 & 6 kinda slapped me in the face with how much better the show suddenly got.

Spoiler-free thoughts first:

Zuko, Iroh, and Aang have cemented themselves as the best parts about this adaptation - which is really funny considering I’m currently writing a longfic AU where Zuko and Iroh discover Aang in the iceberg right after Zuko is banished at age 13 and end up becoming the first members of the Gaang (albeit reluctantly at first lol). Episode 6: “Masks” (the Blue Spirit adaptation) was so good, I’d venture to say that it actually improved and fleshed out some things from the original series.

Episode 5: “Spirited Away”, while not as good as E6, was not as bad as I heard people say it was going to be. I think that the changes they did make didn’t bother me nearly as much as the changes they made in the last episode, and it was actually entertaining.

There were several scenes that made me cry in both of these episodes (moreso in episode 6, which I’ll get into further down in the spoiler section). These are the scenes that I feel like really tapped into the heart of the original show rather than feeling like a soulless remake.

Now for my in-depth thoughts (INCLUDES SPOILERS):

EP 5: “Spirited Away”

- Staring out, I was bummed because I had just rewatched the first two eps of the original animated series lol.

- It was an interesting choice to have all three members of the Gaang get stuck in the Spirit World, but I think it worked.

- Wan Shi Tong just showing up randomly was a bit unnecessary, but I suppose it will be kinda interesting to see him again in S2 since he’s already met the Gaang

- Hei Bai plays a much smaller role in these eps, but I strangely didn’t mind that either?

- Seeing Katara’s last memory with her mom was devastating, especially the fact that she had to witness her death and hide in the igloo with Kya’s charred body :(( she definitely has severe PTSD.

- Even Sokka’s memory made me tear up a bit

- Koh being the villain and a soul-eater or whatever was a bit of an odd choice, but I guess I can see why they did it. I do prefer him just being an asshole who steals ppl’s faces lol

- Appreciated the Fog of Lost Souls reference from the LoK lore

- Aang reuniting with Gyatso made me cry. I know some people didn’t like him being in the Spirit World, but I really liked it. Also, the fact that Gyatso was the first person to tell Aang that it wasn’t his fault the Air Nomads died, and that if he had been there he would have died too? THANK YOU! My poor boy has been berated enough for “abandoning” the world.

- We got some interesting lore about the afterlife for humans from Gyatso and Aang’s convo, which we’ve never gotten in AtLA media before. Idk if it’s just for Air Nomads, but Aang mentions that Gyatso stayed behind instead of “seeking enlightenment”. I know that the end goal in Buddhism is to reincarnate until you eventually achieve nirvana, so I wonder if that’s what they were alluding to (I’m not an expert on religions so pls correct me if I’m wrong)

- Oh yeah, I forgot June is here lmao. As a queer person I loved her (bc beautiful goth woman) but I didn’t like the weird choice to make her hit on Iroh - I guess to contrast the Iroh being creepy towards her thing in the OG series. I wish they would have just had them interact normally tbh, no weird “flirting”

EP 6: “Masks”

- Here we go y’all. The best episode in the show so far and probably the best the show is gonna get this season. I’m still pretty shocked at how good this one was.

- I think the decision to include flashbacks to Zuko’s Agni Kai was a good decision here. It felt like an appropriate episode for them and the flashbacks were very well done.

- In general, Dallas is doing a phenomenal job at portraying a Zuko who is angry and aggressive, yes, but also so very sweet and compassionate at his core. I love when little inklings of his true self shine through.

- Roku was… not what I expected. He was very much more of a lighthearted and jokey person… I didn’t hate it, it was just unexpected lol. I wonder if they did that to contrast him with Kyoshi. Which, speaking of, I’m glad Roku clarified that Aang doesn’t just need to be a merciless warrior (and that he didn’t berate Aang for “abandoning” the world like she did). But I still am annoyed about the mischaracterization of Kyoshi in general.

- RIP Shyu :/

- Thought it was kind of strange how June captures Aang at Roku’s temple lol. Like how did she get on and off the island??

- Zhao continues to feel like a completely different character to me lmao. I think this version is pretty funny, but it’s so weird to see Zhao being portrayed as so goofy and incompetent when he was such an intimidating force and the main villain of Book 1 in the OG series. Just a weird direction they went with his character.

- The Yuyan archers look cool as fuck. 10/10 no notes

- Still not sure how I feel about Azula already being this insecure and jealous of Zuko. I think it makes her feel a bit more realistically like a child, but the whole point of Azula’s character is that she is really good at maintaining this cool and calm persona on the surface, which she uses to scare and manipulate people. I can see her maybe getting to a point later on to where she hardens herself into that though. We’ll see.

- Baby Zuko asking Iroh how he looks and his little smile 😭😭😭😭 I had a physical “aww” reaction to that. THAT’S MY SON (me and Iroh shouting in unison)

- War Room scene was handled very well. No complaints. I like how Ozai tried to test Zuko with battle strategies.

- Blue Spirit break out scene was extremely close to the original, and it was really good. They adapted it almost shot for shot with all the important parts.

- Here’s probably my favorite part of the episode: Zuko and Aang’s talk inside the abandoned house after they escape from Pohuai!!!!!! Gahhhh I could gush about this scene all day. I love how they expanded it to be an actual friendly conversation between Aang and Zuko. Like we get to see Zuko’s true self coming through - the sweet, kind boy we know he is. Zuko and Aang just have such great chemistry as well, wayyy more than Aang has with either Sokka or Katara. Like I adored them bonding over painting and caligraphy!!! I think this is the best acting we’ve seen from Gordon so far, and Dallas did a phenomenal job switching back to that hurt, angry version of himself (of course a trauma response). And the fact that Aang said “sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you” when he blocked Zuko’s firebending attack??? My sweet boy 😭

- The final flashback to the Agni Kai was really well done too. I’d already heard Zuko fights back, which I wasn’t sure I’d like, but I actually didn’t mind it. I really liked that they showed Zuko’s hesitation whenever he did actually have an opening, and that was what angered Ozai the most - Zuko showing compassion, “weakness”. Daniel Dae Kim is of course doing a phenomenal job (no surprises there), and I really liked that Iroh actually attempted to stop Ozai at one point. It also looked like young Azula had tears in her eyes, which I again actually liked because it humanizes her.

- I loved that Aang was still there when Zuko woke up on the boat 😭 he wanted to make sure he was okay!! I full on started crying when we got the “do you think we could have been friends too?” lines from him. Again, Gordon killed it. I love how you can tell that Aang knows Zuko has been hurt and that’s why he acts the way he does. He doesn’t blame him for any of it. 10/10

- the last flashback to Zuko in his bed recovering from the burn… god the tears just kept flowing. I really liked the choice to have Ozai almost give Zuko a chance to like… idk understand why he did what he did, and how compassion is “weak”?? And then Zuko’s response to give people a chance 😭😭😭 as if I couldn’t love him any more!!! And then of course Ozai gets pissed. But seeing baby Zuko just cry in his bed UGH I’m dehydrated at this point

- Of course I can’t finish this review without mentioning the 41st division. What an incredible way to expand upon the source material by making them Zuko’s crew!!! It shows just how much Zuko truly cares about others and it moved me so much (once again to tears).

I don’t have high hopes for the last two episodes, but honestly, if this is what the live action can be, it gives me a bit of hope (at least for future seasons). I really think that Dallas, Gordon, Paul, and Daniel were the stars of this ep and are a big part of what made it so good.

[greatwyrmgold]

I've been thinking about Avatar: The Last Airbender recently. You know what's weird? The Four Nations. They're treated as a collective, a natural way to politically and culturally divide the world of Avatar, four units in balance. But they're not, really. They're too different.

Let's start with the Fire Nation, the closest to what you'd expect the nations to be. It's a nation-state in the most literal sense; a group of people who see themselves united by history, culture, and common descent, ruled over by a polity with a strong central government. (Relative to vassalage or something, not by modern standards.) It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect the Four Nations to be from their name, so the fact that it's the only one with Nation in its name is appropriate.

Then there's the Earth Kingdom. Unlike the Fire Nation, it's not really a unitary state. For the most part, the Earth King does not rule the Earth Kingdom like the Firelord rules the Fire Nation. It was overrun with bandits and warlords during the Kyoshi era, consolidated into warring states by the Roku era, and splintered into warring states again in Korra's era as soon as the queen was killed. The Earth Kingdom was kinda united during the Hundred-Year War, but with powerful lords acting independently of Ba Sing Se and occasionally calling themselves kings. It was united in Aang's adulthood, but that's an anomaly. Still, the Earth Kingdom isn't that different from what we'd expect from one of the Four Nations. It's a nation, just ruled by a polity too decentralized or fragmented to call a state.

We come to trouble with the Water Tribe...or, really, Water Tribes. There were times when the Northern and Southern Water Tribes were united under one chief, but it makes more sense to think of them are separate entities. The Northern Water Tribe has cities and armies and a hereditary chiefdom, with the chief's family basically being treated like royalty; the Southern Water Tribe doesn't seem to have any of those, being little more than a collection of villages with no apparent government.

Even if they were culturally identical, those distinct material conditions would make the two tribes' members very different. And they aren't culturally identical. And that's not getting into the Foggy Swamp Tribe. The Water Tribe isn't a nation. It's a collection of tribes nominally united by history and culture, but actually united by Waterbending.

And then there are the Air Nomads. It's hard to get a read on them; we don't see them in the actual show (damn you, Sozin), and the information we have on them doesn't map as cleanly to any real-world groups. They're nomads whose cultures are centered around fixed temples, with no territory and no apparent method of gathering food. They're a self-reproducing ethnic group whose men and woman are geographically separated. For that matter, they're a coherent culture, distinct from their neighbors, despite being geographically separated.

The Air Nomads are only vaguely sketched out, but they're even less like what you'd expect a "nation" to be. They didn't seem to have any central government (before they were reduced to the Avatar's family and his band of Air Acolytes), they don't have any territory to speak of, they barely have any culture beyond their spiritual beliefs. But they're still a Nation, equal to the other three.

The Four Nations have little in common. Only one and a half can be considered a unitary polity, like "nation" suggests. All except the Air Nomads and maybe Fire Nation show regional variation in culture; rural Earth Kingdom communities have more in common with the Water Tribes than Ba Sing Se, and the Northern Water Tribe arguably has more in common with the smaller, coastal Earth Kingdom states than it does with the other Water Tribes.

And there are plenty of polities, cultures, and ethnic groups that aren't considered one of the Four Nations. There are the daofei, the bandits and warlords I mentioned existing in Kyoshi's time. There are groups like the Shang of Yangchen's era or the Fifth Nation of Kyoshi's, who started as a mixture of different nations and coalesced into having a singular cultural identity (and a stronger governing institutions than most of the Four Nations). There are the sandbending Si Wong tribes, the Bhanti Island sages, and those bands from the Great Divide that nobody likes to acknowledge, but they do exist, unfortunately.

None of these groups, except arguably the United Republic of Nations, are treated as significant. They might be self-governing, with a distinct ethnic identity and spiritual beliefs and so on, and have a population that dwarfs the Air Nomads...but they're not one of the Four Nations, so they're not important. Most don't affect matters outside their immediate neighbors (generally just one of the Four Nations), almost none last more than a couple centuries (compared to the millennia that the Four Nations have been recognized as a thing), and just about all of them arguably fit into one of the Four Nations. The Bhanti sages are kinda independent but also kinda part of the Fire Nation, the various Earth Kingdom tribes are all earthbenders and are made to obey the stronger Earth Kings, even the Fire Nation colonies/Republic City aren't completely independent of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom.

The Doylist explanation is, of course, that the Four Nations are defined by their elements; one nation per element, one element per nation. But they're recognized as an institution in-universe—why else would the Northern Water Tribe assume leadership over the Southern when they were at the literal opposite end of the world? (They tried this before the spirit portal reopened, mind you.) And it's hard to imagine how that could be the case if it wasn't based purely on the elements in-universe, too.

The Avatar is clearly a central pillar of in-universe culture, particularly spiritual beliefs; that makes sense, since the Avatars have always been world-shaping figures, with supernatural powers beyond what anyone else is capable of. They rotate between four groups of people, each of which has a distinct powersets that each can only be inherited by members of that group.

The Water Tribe is seen as a unitary entity not because of any material reality, or even shared institutions, but because those are the people who can be Waterbenders. The Earth Kingdom constantly falls apart because of the difficulties in governing such a large area, and comes back together because Earthbenders exist. The Fire Nation is united by fire. The Air Nomads aren't put on the same level as the Fire Nation because their nation is politically significant, but because their existence is spiritually significant.

The other tribes, the daofei and the Shang, even the Fifth Nation? They might have territory and people, they might have distinct cultures, they might have political clout while they last. But they don't have their own element, and that makes them lesser. Fragile. As long as there are waterbenders, they will be one Tribe. As long as there are earthbenders, their ruler will be the Earth King. As long as there is a single airbender, the Air Nomads will be among the Four Nations.

[hello-nichya-here]

What's the problem with the idea that the Avatar is actually an outdated thing the world would eventually no longer need? I don't like it either, but I could never put it into words.

Simple: the Avatar exists for a reason. MANY reasons, actually, that we see all through the show.

A symbol of hope/figure of authority

While there had never been any wars in the world of Avatar to level that we see in the show until Sozin decided to be THE worst, we see that there absolutely have been smaller conflicts before, and that the Avatar has acted as a mediator so much that people were constantly just expecting Aang to fill that role - even he sees it as one of his duties, and is constantly afraid of failing people since they're often placing all of their hopes on him, not just for stuff like the war itself, but even for "smaller" things like Ba Sing Se, or helping refugees.

That makes sense since the Avatar is not only more powerful than any other human, but also a more "neutral" authority figure, since, while each Avatar belongs to one of the four nations, they are not said nation's rulers (usually) and also are...

A bridge between the four nations

The Avatar has to go to many places in the world to master all four elements, which usually takes years. Inevitably, that leads to them learning from other cultures which can help solve conflicts or even prevent them all together - for exemple, we see Aang absolutely loving the Fire Nation and it's culture, even though it's rulers have spent a whole century destroying the world AND were responsible for the genocide of his people.

In episodes like "The Swamp" and "The Guru" the show basically tells us that the separation between the nations is basically an illusion since, in the end, humanity is ONE group, even with all of the differences between everyone. The finale solidifies that, by having all nations celebrating Zuko's coronation and therefore the end of the war, symbolizing the union between all of them.

"But didn't Roku say the nations were supposed to remain separate?"

Yes. And he was wrong. And Aang, another Avatar, corrected his mistake because...

The Avatar Cycle allows the past Avatars to correct their own mistakes

Not a single human being is perfect, and that very much includes the Avatar. However, unlike ordinary people, the Avatar not only reincarnates, but can interact with it's past self and even allow it to "take over" for a moment.

Koh clearly feels animosity towards Aang because a previous Avatar tried to kill him, and even says to Aang that they will meet again - but considering how he also said "you've come to me with a new face" which in this case could also be seen as "in another life" - implying that maybe it won't even be Aang who will fight him.

Roku full on says that the war is his own mistake, and that sadly Aang has to be the one to fix it - but they're also the same person, or rather, the same spirit. A spirit that is always learning, always getting stronger, always becoming wiser - and is practically immortal. The Avatar spirit isn't "set in his ways", unable to change to better do it's job. It is constantly adapting to the world's needs.

Looking at it that way, the Avatar would naturally become better at it's own role in every incarnation, which would make him even more respected, more capable, and even more necessary, especially when we look at a situation like Kyoshi taking over Aang's body during a trial for a murder commited by her/them in a past life - but she doesn't do it to defend herself but as a way of correcting a mistake/deliberate historical lie.

This shows us that the Avatar Cycle not only allows the Avatar to correct it's own mistakes, but also as a way of acting as...

A permanent access to knowledge that has been lost

Aang is the last airbender, and that meant that he was the last hope of air-nomad culture eventually being rebuilt. However, even if the Avatar had been from one of the other nations, said Avatar would have still been able to talk to it's past lives - some of which were air-nomads, and others who had lived in a world where they were still around AND were their sifus.

We also see Aang interacting with Koh, with Avatar Roku's animal guide, and even with a lion turtle that existed before the Avatar cycle (and perhaps humanity as a whole) even existed. His mission also makes him go after Wan Shi Tong, as well as and the sun warriors and the last surviving dragons.

All of these give him crucial information. Information that, maybe, someday, a different Avatar will need. And even if the world is radically different by that point, with every record of everything that Aang knew being gone, that Avatar will still be able to turn to Aang himself for help. And if, once again, years down the line the situation repeats itself, a new Avatar will be able to just turn to either of them for advice too.

To me, this confirms that not only would the world NEVER reach a point in which the Avatar is no longer needed, but in fact it's importance will likely only grow as the years go by, because things tend to just naturally be lost to time, even if they are super important - and a way to reach that knowledge could literally save lives.

Well, all of that already shows just how freaking important the Avatar has always been and always will be, but this list would not be complete withot the fact that the Avatar is...

A bridge between worlds

There are A LOT of spiritual shenanigans in Avatar, plenty of which have humans in danger - often because someone fucked up, either by pissing off a spirit or by neglecting the spiritual side of the world.

For exemple, we have Hei-Bai kidnapping people because the Fire Nation burned down his forest, Zhao killing the moon and thus making the waterbenders powerless to protect the North Pole, the people of a Fire Nation fishing village not only being sick and poor because their river is poluted but also no longer being able to interact with the spirit of said river that was caring for them, the people of a Fire Nation fishing village not only being sick and poor because their river is poluted but also no longer being able to interact with the spirit of said river that was caring for them etc.

As the Avatar, Aang was able to either fix some of these situations by himself, or to greatly assist people until the problem was fixed. He managed to appease Hei-Bai so he would not only stop lashing out but also set free everyone he had kidnapped. He and the ocean spirit joined forces to make sure the Fire Nation wouldn't be able to take over the North Pole. He helped Katara impersonate the Painted Lady to make sure the fishing village would no longer be exploited/polluted and then helped clean the river which allowed the real Painted Lady to protect her people.

We can also not forget that while Koh was totally trying to steal his face, he also warned Aang about Zhao's plan to kill the ocean and the moon, and gave him a hint as to what form they had taken in the human world - can you imagine him helping out if anyone other than Aang had turned to him for help?

The Avatar isn't just more powerful than the average human due to his connection the spirit world - he has the respect of plenty of said spirits AND of humans, which we see Aang use to help people because the Avatar's duty is to the world - ONE world that is a combination of both - to keep peace and ballance.

Without the Avatar, spirits and humans would always be either at war or completely separate, which harms both sides. And this reminds me that...

BONUS RANT: Spirituality has always been and always will be a core part of the world of Avatar

That's right, people. You get to see me bitch about TWO tropes I hate.

One of the reasons I believe people misunderstand the role of spirituality itself (and it's "messiah" in the form of the Avatar) in the story, is that they look at it like it's just a religion most people of that world seem to share, and wrongfully assume that it could just stop being significant or even present at all in their world if every nation just collectively "stopped believing in it/taking it seriously."

That could not be further from what we see in the show. The spirits and their world, the Avatar, chakras, chi, bending, meditation - all of these things are not part of a religion, they're just a fact of life. In "The Swamp" we are full on told that EVERYTHING is connected. People, spirits, animals, nature itself. It's all one big thing that it's sort of broken down in smaller categories.

Spirituality in the world of Avatar can never be seen as the same as say, Christianity. Something people can convert to or leave, believe or not believe. Humans can literally travel to the spirit world, and many spirits chose to stay in the human world. There's no "not believing" in it, or "choosing not to engage with it."

The biggest proof of that is the Fire Nation itself. It has distanced itself from spirituality as much as any society in that world ever could. Yet they still have temples, the sages have many simmilarities to clergies, and even the princess is taught by two creepy twins that clearly have some weird spiritual shenanigans going on. Hell, Ozai, a prince, married the Avatar's grand-daughter. Her ancestor's reincarnation was literally being hunted down as public enemy number one, and she was still seen as worthy enough to marry a prince - one that became Fire Lord, and whose children had the Avatar's blood. And, of course, Sozin started the war by using the power of comet-enhanced BENDING. Again, that's the nation that distanced itself from spirituality the most.

This isn't a matter of Progress VS Tradition, Science VS Religion. Spirituality and science are one in the same in the world of Avatar.

"But the Fire Nation is the most technologically advanced and it distanced itself from religion the most!"

Yes, but all of it's cool war-ships, zepplins, and even the drill were using pretty simple stuff to work: burning coal, hot air, boiling water, etc. All of these already easy things were made A LOT easier by having firebenders around - and once again, bending IS part of the spiritual side of the world, showing that even the Fire Nation cannot distance itself from it completely, and in fact constantly needs it to achive it's goals. Hell, we even see them having to use the power of earthbenders to get the material they'd need to keep all of their new toys running, so even their claim that they are superior to the other nations feels hollow.

Spirituality is a feature of that world, not a bug. It is not an insignificant detail that can changed or deleted, and the story would be radically altered and make less sense without it. And the Avatar is very much included in that list of super important aspects of the narrative and themes.

It's almost like that's the name of the sow for a reason or something...

[andiwriteordie]

urgent question: would the byers have a flying bison or those type of animals are only found with the more elite air benders. if so, thoughts on will and jonathan one day finding a baby sky bison in the woods badly hurt that was maybe being illegally transported across different states to sell bc they are pricey in the black market, but this one was left behind bc it’s smaller and weaker than a normal baby sky bison and they deem him too weak to survive but will and jonathan finds him and care for him. or would it be a different animal? or no animals for the byers? also, side question: what the heck happened to the byers’ dog? *buzfeed unsolved music starts playing*

*record scratch* yep, that's me. i bet you're wondering how i got here (avoiding my wips in favor of thinking about atlagate) again. well. it's all nic's fault.

ok i love this question because i was definitely thinking about robin and the byers when it comes to bison and i was like uh... where the hell are they gonna put this thing? so i think that's why i gave robin a flying lemur instead LOL.

but i ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS IDEA YEAH THIS IS THE NEW CANON IN THE ATLA/ST WORLD. there aren't very many bison left in the world, like they do find a pack of wild bison in between atla and lok canon right? but i suppose if the air nation adapts and begins to leave behind some of those values and traditions—or alternatively, if we see a world that has adapted past the division of like "only waterbenders live together/only airbenders live together/etc" then i can easily see this tradition being something that becomes a relic of the past. (also the more i think about it, the more i think the world adapting to a place more like republic city that is less divided by element and more just a conglomerate makes most sense). so, if there are still more nomadic airbenders, or those who choose to hold onto the old values and traditions, then i think they'd be the ones to have flying bison!

jonathan and will finding a bison together. may i suggest that it happens when they're coming home from building castle byers after their dad leaves. like they're soaking wet and it's so dark outside and their hearts are heavy but also relieved and healing and suddenly look, on their way home they find this baby bison who is injured and needs their help. and honestly what's joyce gonna say? no? of course not.

and maybe their bison never learns to fly very high. its injuries never fully heal, so the bison can't get off the ground or stay in the air for too long. but god do jonathan and will still love their pet. the three of them are just inseparable, and joyce loves the bison too, and also el is going to love the bison so much, and hopper is going to be like ... ok.

will hits his mental block with his ptsd from what henry did to him, and he finds solace and comfort in his bison. because just like this sweet animal they rescued when he was little, he's broken too. maybe beyond repair. maybe he'll never fly well again either. maybe that airbender stole something from him that he'll never get back. and will is heartbroken by that, but also it's will. he tries to comfort himself by seeing the hopeful parts that, well... he still loves his bison, even though his bison can't really fly, right? so maybe not all hope is lost, even if he is hurting so badly right now.

(side note, robin meets the byers' bison - btw what do we name it i need to know - and is immediately like, "jonathan i am stealing your bison."

something something? el helps to heal the bison's old injuries? lucas helps? idk? something something something the imagery of robin and jonathan and will and el all going flying with this adorable flying bison)

did you ever seen my depressing headcanon about the byers' dog? because this is what's canon in my brain personally

[lovelyelbowleech]

HELLO hair anon here with a twofer ask!!! i came to talk about how much i love your newest chapter and saw you’re talking about languages in atla and got REALLY excited bc that’s a pet passion of mine!!! ajdjsjd so here we go with part one >:)

holy fuck ZUKO. ZUKO AHHHHHHH. i can’t even be mad at him for what he did because What The Fuck but also hhhhhhh. i don’t even have words. SUPER not feeling whatever the fuck wei is plotting. like supeerrrrrrrr not feeling it. i honestly don’t even know what to say bc i’m really anxious about what’s going to happen next LMAO. like it definitely wasn’t as bad as i was fearing when i read the chapter description but like holy shit. i am VERY anxiously awaiting the next chapter lol. but again thank you so much for this—i always love the way you write all the characters but i REALLY loved the way you wrote sokka this chapter. he needs way more (consensual) hugs than he’s getting. 😭 he needs to reunite with katara soon!! and so does zuko with iroh although haha Fuck that one has a lot of things that can go wrong with it!!! To Say The Least!!! anyways i’m rambling as always akdksk thank you so much for sharing this chapter with us; i always love your writing and am so super excited for the next one 💖💖💖

and hehe okay LANGUAGES. so i have a whole theory (not really but kind of lol) and language on atla and it comes from the following things We Know To Be True from the show(s), comics, and novels (thank you fc yee):

- they’re very clearly not speaking english. i specify english because it was the language both shows were written and originally recorded in. there’s lots of evidence to support this and i don’t need to go into all of them but as a few faves: the writing system, the ba sing se/na sing se joke, and momo’s name joke

- they all understand each other. this doesn’t mean they’re speaking the same language, necessarily, but everyone in the shows who have spoken have understood each other. importantly, this includes the part in legend of korra when wan meets the first air nomads and even though those cultures had (as far as we know) never had contact before then they still speak to each other and understand each other clearly.

- BUT there’s still linguistic change and variety!!! there’s an almost offhand comment in the first chapter of rise of kyoshi where jianzhu thinks about the fact that a remote province in the northern(?) earth kingdom had become so isolated in the wake of kuruk’s death that they had almost developed their own dialect. which is HUGE imo because i’m a nerd lol.

but ANYWAYS from these we can extrapolate that:

- it’s possible that each nation/region/however it would be divided speaks its own language. however there’s no evidence for this that i can think of for that. it’s not impossible though! more on that in a sec.

- it seems most likely they’re speaking a universal language of some sort, which is evidenced by the fact that there’s never any difficulty communicating between characters (even between characters from cultures who have never had contact before). however there’s still variation in this hypothetical universal language, which makes sense as it’s a living language. however the fact that over the x many thousands of years this language has been around it hasn’t evolved much (as far as we can tell) into different dialects is…. interesting, but it’s a fantasy show and therefore i’m willing to cut them some slack akdksk (also it’s canonically a smaller world than ours so it makes sense there would be at least a little bit less linguistic and geographic variety). the origins of such a universal language is also something that would be very fascinating to know because traditional modes of language formation would probably have not all been at play in order to develop one (1) universal language that managed to stay the same for untold millennia

- it’s Also possible they’re all speaking different languages but something (presumably a spirit or something along those lines lol) allows them to understand each other. which there’s not really any evidence supporting but there’s also no evidence against, so…?

given all this, my theory is this: some spirit keeps the people in the atlaverse able to communicate, whether it be via a (relatively) unchanging universal language or acting as a translator for every person in the world all the time lol. personally i think it could potentially be raava; my only evidence for this thought is the fact that she’s the spirit of balance (and i could see there being an argument made in-universe for all the nations being able to speak the same tongue being a very important form of keeping balance; hell there’s regularly arguments for that in our world, and semi-regular attempts to rectify it [sometimes via conlang lol]), and the throwaway line i mentioned where the avatar’s lack of an active presence in the world was causing that one province to almost develop their own dialect. however it could be anything or anyone! or i could be missing vital information! (Please other people let me know if i’m missing vital information lol.) or the creators could retcon something and prove all of this extrapolation on my end pointless! and if anyone has any other theories i’d love to hear them :)

anyways sorry for the essay in your inbox ���� i hope it isn’t too much and i’m sorry if it is!! i hope you’re having a good day and thank you once again :) 💖

Glad the chapter was not as horrifying as you anticipated (although of course there is another half to go!) And as my poor beta reader has been busy, the document was still there on the shared google-doc.. so it has now grown another POV and extra 3k... and possibly another, even more unpleasant interlude - so there is that to look forward to as well 😂)

I love all this! The idea of a spirit making people understand each other's language (like a spirity babel fish 😂) would make for a fascinating fic - it would be a really fun theory to explore. Either in discovering that was the case and they are all actually speaking different languages and dialects - or if it just suddenly stopped doing what it was doing and the impact that would have on pretty much everything! 

Long interesting theories in my inbox are never too much, they are a treat 😁

[tired-demonspawn]

netflix avatar episode 3!!!

my lil thoughts and feelings :)

So episode 3, at this point they're mashing like 5 episodes together, which to be fair, they are doing a pretty good job at, considering. but some of the details get lost dont they

the mail system doesnt get introduced properly, no bumi foreshadowing and now the gliding doesnt even make sense. in the show proper they could glide freely due to the strange air currents happening around the air temple... yknow... cuz it was an air temple. strange air is expected. but how can he still do that... in omashu...?

that said i really liked zuko and aangs fight, it had very good use of the environment and it got out of hand because zuko lost his temper, as is in character for book one(and well every other one too, but book one the most) zuko.

weirdly enough the episode mash, although missing a lot of detail went pretty well, the way they mash them together is pretty creative

"we dont have time for iroh to be relaxing in some springs so we will have his kidnapping be done in this way" and so on. its nice to see how creative they can get with it :)

i like that they introduce revolts inside the fire nation, makes the entire country be more simpathetic right away instead of waiting for book 3

azula and ozai are pretty neat, but i dont understand why are they introducing them this early. i'm a bit afraid they will make them an active threat in this season already.

also why are azula and zuko pitted against each other like this, i thought it was universal that zuko was very clearly NOT the favourite child.

while im speaking of ozai and azula, the throneroom scene made the air nomad genocide that much more pathetic. mans just scorched like 10 guys no problem with bigass flames, why did the COMET EMPOWERED mfs have they flames be smaller? you sure the comet doesnt take away their power???

im going to take this time to talk about zuko's scar and well... i think it should be bigger, or at least more hand shaped(though to be fair he couldve gotten it a different way than in the cartoon i guess ill just have to wait and see), i mean, animated zuko didnt have an eyebrow, almost didnt have an ear and this guy just sorta has a splash of red on him i suppose. sure its better than the m night one but still, could be better.

i know i compare it to the cartoon a lot but i have to say so far i really like it, the comparison is purely there because it makes it easier to write about. so far it stands very nicely as its own thing. like i can see someone watching it on its own without seeing the show first and liking it, there are no grievous immersion breaking character assassinations as far as i can see(aside from granny exposition) so i think its doing a pretty good job :)

oh and also: CABBAGE MAN WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! HES THERE!!!!!!!!! HE SAYS THE THING!!!!!!!! I CANT WAIT FOR SOME DUMBFUCK CRITIC THAT HAS NEVER SEEN THE CARTOON TO CALL IT A WEIRD OUT OF POCKET GAG THAT DOESNT GO ANYWHERE!!!!!!! I CANT FUCKING WAIT!!!!!! I LOVE HIM!!!!!! :DDDDD!!!!!! AND HIS CABBAGES!!!!!!!!

[scanandeggs]

From Sea Views to Strong Wi-Fi: Tips for a Successful Remote Work Experience in Ko Samui

The first and most important thing to arrange when working from a subtropical country is to build an efficient work environment. Since the weather is very unpredictable here, with super hot temperatures interrupted by shorter or longer monsoons, I strongly suggest renting a place where you can also work from the comfort of your home. Compared to smaller islands like Koh Phangan or Koh Tao, Koh Samui is much bigger, making it easier to find cheap and beautiful hotels even at the last minute. However, it's not easy to find affordable apartments or villas. Fortunately, we were able to book a 2-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room, and a shared pool a couple of days before. It cost 3100 THB/night, which is roughly $80-90, for two people. But if we plan in advance, we could probably arrange a sea-view villa with a private pool. Regardless, we have a comfortable place with high-speed internet, so it's time to be efficient.

Internet

Although our work often requires super high-speed internet, most of the time, our pre-paid local sim card is enough for everything. The network coverage in Koh Samui is excellent. Apart from the jungle and the highest hills, you can access the internet from anywhere. You can choose from hundreds of quiet places with beautiful panoramic views to work from. We found that working from such a place is perfect for enhancing creativity and brainstorming new ideas, but it's not efficient for getting work done. For that, you need a place with absolutely no disruptions.

Co-working

We wanted to find a co-working space so we could move out, change environments, and enhance our creativity. Since it's a paradise for digital nomads, that shouldn't be a problem. Or so we thought. Although there are many co-working spaces here, most of them are open-air, which is not something we even want to try with this climate. We found a couple of places in Chaweng, which is the more crowded area of the island, and only one place in Lamai Beach, where we are staying. Unfortunately, the one here is closed for the week, so we couldn't try it out. Another option is to find a chill coffee place with a strong internet connection. That's the plan for today, and I'll let you know how it goes!

Costs

In the post-pandemic world, Koh Samui, and Thailand overall, are no exception. For a country that relies on tourism, COVID-19 was a real disaster. We can still see many places closed, with no sign that they will reopen anytime soon. Similarly to other places around the world, post-pandemic inflation has hit the country hard. Popular tourist places have higher inflation, and we even heard locals mention Samui inflation as a real thing. However, it's still a very affordable place to work from. Food and drinks are super cheap, and a daily budget of $15-20 is more than enough for a meal and a couple of cold local Singha beers after dinner. Co-working spaces are a bit pricier, and you need the same budget for just a daily ticket.

Summary

Overall, everything is in place to bring out the best in ourselves here. We have cheap and healthy food, a beautiful and inspiring environment, and a comfortable 6-hour time difference from home to ensure none of our clients can disrupt us while focusing on our plans.

[artist-l-e]

Drew an original character: Seth Skellet. A battle mage that summons flesh, fat, organs and other body parts that grant him magical buffs and effects that can be combine-able into even more effective tools to fight, traverse the lands, etc.

His complete summoning list includes:

Flesh: Grants a boost to his strength and is his main offensive tool, as it is easiest to summon, regenerate, etc.

Fat: Also easy to summon, serves as a damage sponge.

Blood: Not really useful in most situations, but Seth likes to use this for intimidation purposes, be it to avoid a fight, get information out of someone, etc.

Heart: Slow acting health regenerator. Can be sped up with the lungs, but can be dangerous in combination with the appendix.

Lungs: On their own, they can push opponents away and bridge gaps with a strong gust of breath. But if combined with the stomach can create fire breath, poison gas with the appendix or be an air filter when combined with the liver.

Stomach: The heater of the organ summons. Besides what has already been mentioned, combining it with the appendix can create acid, while combining it with the kidneys can create steam or boiling water.

Liver: The filter of the summons and counter balance to the appendix. Otherwise, not much to say on this one.

Appendix: Responsible for poison based attacks, but also the most high risk organ to summon and use. Having it be injured if not completely busted can risk serious poison damage to the user, if not an instant kill.

Kidneys: These come in a double pack and are water based. Can have a small chance of shooting small rocks too and combined with the lungs can create ice.

Guts: These have absorption based abilities. Combine them with the stomach and you suck out the heat in a room. Combine them with the appendix and liver and you suck out toxic gas out of a room. You get the gist.

Brain: Hardest of the summons to use. Seth would mainly use it to push opponents away telekinetically or pull nearby objects closer, as for using smaller aspects like hormone summons like adrenaline to keep himself going for a little longer than he otherwise could.

Still sorting a few things out about him, but a few things for certain are:

-He's homeless and nomadic, wandering around and never really being tied to one place for too long.

-He's rather insecure, but refuses to be inactive. He may not always be sure that what he does is the best or necessarily right thing to do, but he still wants to do something instead of doing nothing for things that appear questionable to him.

-Despite his insecure nature, he tends to not show it too much and might even force a bit of an ego. Generally not the type to let people too close and refuses to elaborate on his past.

-Can be a bit dramatic and irrational when he gets emotional. Otherwise, a decently smart and careful lad.

-He'd be a jack of all trades, master of none, as for a glass canon, due to him being fairly underweight due to malnutrition.

-He also can't properly swim due to the fact he's rather underweight.

-He loves anything and everything that isn't meat food wise. Not because he's vegan or anything, but with his living status and abilities, meat is the one thing he eats the most and thus is always happy for when he gets non-meaty foods to enjoy.

-Probably aromantic and asexual.

And that's about all I got so far. Hope you enjoyed the read.

[phantoms-lair]

Ok, but Zuko's crew figuring it out after just a week or so and having had enough time to propperly convince him before finding Aang (because he might have seen reason but he's still stubborn and what else are they gonna do? Open a tea shop?) Zuko: *didn't think he'd get this far* 'THIS IS SO AWKWARD; WHAT DO I DO?!?!' Lt. Jee, who knows kids need other kids their age around them, seeing the Gaang: 'They're friend shaped!'

“Here we are, the Southern Air Temple.” “It looks amazing Aang,” Katara couldn’t help but be breathless at the sight. Even so she couldn’t help the feeling of trepidation. Aang was from a time of peace long past. No matter how much they told him otherwise, he wouldn’t truly understand what the Fire Nation was capable of till he saw t with his own eyes. And this was the place she feared it would happen.

Aang led them up a long and winding path, chattering excitedly about everything he knew about the place. “And that’s the field where we played Air Ball, and that’s where the air bison slept and-” he broke off, sadness filling his voice. “This place used to be so different. It was full of monks and life. Now there’s nothing here. I can’t believe how much things have changed.” “Maybe not.” Sokka was looking around with sharp eyes. “If this place was really abandoned, there should be all sorts of weeds and overgrowth.  But everything’s neatly kept. Someone’s been here, and a lot more recently than a hundred years ago,”

His voice was filled with dark suspicion, but it went right over Aang’s head. The last airbender perked up. “You’re right! Come on let’s find them!”  “Aang wait!” But it was too late. Aang had taken off on his air scooter, following the path as quickly as he could. He came to an abrupt stop, air dissipating, and stared at the two figures wearing blotchy grey clothes standing in front of him. One of them, a woman, dropped the bundle of sticks and weeds she was holding. The other, a man with sideburns whispered “An airbender...” under his breath. “Get Iroh, he’s meditating in the Avatar Chamber.” He then bowed deeply as the woman ran off. “Honored Monk, would you and your companions please join us for some tea. I know our leader would be honored to speak with you.”

Aang nodded, but he seemed a lot more subdued than before. They were led into a large room. Sokka kept one hand on his boomerang, just waiting to see if trouble would start. On the way they saw several more grey-clothed people staring at them in wonder.

“Iroh should be here shortly.” the man explained. “My name is Jee.” “Iroh’s the one in charge?” Katara asked. “Everyone but he himself would tell you so.” Jee had a half smile. “Iroh sees our little group as a collection of equals, but in times of crisis or question, we tend to turn to him or Zuko.”

“Who’s-” But before Sokka could finish asking who Zuko was (and for that matter who this group was) he was interrupted by heavy footsteps running towards the door and throwing it open. “Jee is it true?” An elderly man was panting, clearly not used to running like he was. “An airbender has returned?”

Jee nodded. “This good Monk and his friends just arrived at the temple.”

“Spirits be praised.” The mans face twisted as tears began to flow from his eyes. “That the balance might not be destroyed, it’s more than I dared hope.” Then he seemed to catch himself and dried his eyes. “Where are my manners. My name is Iroh, let me make you some tea.” “Thank you. I’m Aang, these are my friends Katara and Sokka.” Aang introduced. “But may I ask, please, how did people from the Fire Nation get here. I thought this temple could only be reached by flying bison.” “Fire Nation!” Sokka rose from his seat, grabbing his boomerang. Likewise Katara reached for the water Iroh was pouring into the teapot.

“Peace.” Iroh sad calmly. “No one here wishes any of you harm.”  “How can you say that?” Katara spat. “You’re Fire Nation!”

Iroh looked directly to Aang. “Will you hear our story, honored Monk?”

“I will.” Aang turned to his friends. “We can’t attack before we’ve heard them out.”

“Watch me.” But despite his words, Sokka made no move to attack.

Iroh poured more water in the kettle, to replace what Katara had taken. “I am curious myself, how you identified us so quickly.”

“You’re wearing ash-dyed clothes.” Aang explained. “That’s what Fire Nation people wear in mourning.”

“A custom no longer practiced, sadly. We have taken it for our own as we mourn the loss of so much in the world, and seek to save as much as we can. If we can call ourselves anything, we are Restorationists.” Iroh handed each of them and Jee a cup, before pouring one for himself.

“Our story began three years ago, in the Fire Lord’s war council. My nephew, Zuko, was about your age and had talked his way inside to observe and learn. Like all children of the Fire Nation he’d been raised to believe the Nation was perfect and the war just. And it was in this meeting those beliefs were destroyed.”

“A General suggested a plan that would end in the sacrifice of the youngest Fire Nation recruits in a gambit that would gain very little, for you see the Firelord cares as little for his own people as those of other nations. The War Room was usually divided into two factions. Those like the General who reveled in slaughter, and those like myself who knew there was nothing we could say to stop it. Except that day there was another.” “Zuko spoke out, loudly and passionately, about how wrong the plan was. He was told he’d have to fight an honor duel for his disrespect. Zuko was pleased to fight someone as dishonorable as the General. Only on the day of the duel, his opponent wasn’t the general, but his own father.”

Sokka drew in a hissing breath. “The Firelord made him fight his own father?”

Iroh took a long sip of tea. “He forced Zuko, yes. But it was not involuntary on both sides. My brother longed to be rid of his kind-hearted son, and saw the duel as an opportunity. But my nephew thwarted him.” Iroh smiled to himself. “He surrendered, refusing to harm his own father. As a result my brother couldn’t land a killing blow without being disgraced himself. Instead he scarred Zuko and had him banished in disgrace for his ‘cowardice’.” 

For the first time they heard anger in Iroh’s voice. “No child should have to learn so young that their Nation is disgraceful, that their family has no honor. It was a terrible lesson, and yet one he did learn. The Firelord gave him an impossible task in order to rescind his banishment, but it’s one Zuko has no interest in pursuing. Instead he set out to learn how much more of what he knew was a lie. I’m sure you know what he found.” 

“Zuko wanted to make a pilgrimage to the places most harmed by the Fire Nation, starting with the Air Temples, the Western Air Temple in particular. We told him only an Air Bender could reach it. We underestimated him. Within a day he had managed to get inside. What he reported back to us was...it was nothing less than a tragedy. The corpses of Fire nation Soldiers and Air Nomads alike were strewn over the temple, which, as you can imagine, had fallen into serious disrepair.”

“Over the next few weeks, we had removed the bodies of the soldiers and gave them tradition field rites as per the Fire Nation. But we agreed we did not want to disrespect the Air Nomads further by denying them the proper rites. We searched the temple in hopes of finding the instructions, which we did.” “Please Iroh,” Aang looked like he was a moment away from sobbing. “Can you tell me...I just want to be sure.” Iroh nodded. “We burned them on an outdoor pyre, eight people in attendance at the cardinal directions. Four people facing the pyre, praying for the spirit of the fallen monk, four facing away, praying to the spirits to guide them. When the fire burned out, we spread the ashes to the four winds.”

Aang let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” His voice shook and Katara pulled him into a hug. Iroh nodded. “But the search for the proper rites drove home to my nephew how much had been lost. We spent much of the first year at the temple, finding what we could on Air Nomad Culture, as well as undoing what damage had been done. We were few to start with, barely thirty people. But as we traveled, more came to us. Most were former soldiers of the Fire Nation who could not stomach what they were asked to do. Some were Earth Kingdom scholars, seeking to uncover what had been lost to the war. We have restored all but the Norther Air Temple, as well as several places in the Earth Kingdom.”

“What about the South Pole.” Sokka crossed his arms. “You said you were going to places the Fire Nation hit hardest.” “The South Pole is still occupied, and I doubt the current residents would appreciate us showing up. We have found some various parchment scrolls, which we have copied into our caches, but not much.”

“Hold up, what caches?” Katara demanded.

“We didn’t want to make it easy for The Firelord’s servants to destroy the histories of the fallen peoples again. All the information we’ve found has been copied and placed in caches. We have one places in each of the locations we’ve restored, as well as several other hidden places throughout the Earth Kingdom. The memories of these people will not be forgotten again.”

“You’re more than welcome to look through the cache here for any knowledge lost to you tribe.” Jee said kindly. “And we would greatly appreciate anything Monk Aang could add. We’ve done our best, but that’s not the same as someone who’s lived in the culture.”

Iroh bowed his head. “For that matter, we recognize that this place and the other Air Temples belong to your people. If your people do not want us in their ancestral home, we will of course leave.”

Aang felt a lump in his throat as he realized that Iroh, and probably the rest of the Restorationists, had made a mistake. They thought he was one of a group of Air Nomads who had escaped. Not that he was the last. And...and if they had been to all the temples, except maybe the Northern One, he very well could be.

“Would you mind if I took a look at the cache.” To be honest he was less interested in it’s contents and more...he just needed some time to sort all this out.

Iroh nodded his head. “Of course. The cache for the Southern Air Temple is in the Atrium of the Southern Wind. I trust you know where that is?”

Aang nodded and rose. “Thank you for the tea.”” He gave a small bow an left, Katara by he side. Sokka hung back a bit and heard a snatch of conversation as he shut the door.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Jee asked.

Sokka froze, listening carefully.

“It depends on what you think I’m thinking.” Iroh said amicably.

“I’m thinking your bastard of a brother never let Zuko interact with other children and he never had the chance to once he took the responsibility to undue sins from before he was born. You’re hoping the Monk and his companions will be friends to him.”

“You know me too well.”

Sokka slid away, not sure if he was disappointed or relieved.

“What are you thinking Aang?” Katara asked as Sokka caught up. “Should we make a break for it.”

“No, if they wanted to hurt us, they would have tried already.” Aang said heavily. He sighed. “I really am the last, aren’t I?”

Katara gripped his hand and Sokka slung an arm around his shoulder. “You’re not alone thought. You know that right?” Katara asked him.

He gave her a sad smile. “Thanks guys.”

The Atrium of the Southern Wind was a tall chamber that was open beneath the ceiling so the wind rushed through. Though open to the air, it let little light in, so when the opened the door the chamber was flooded with light.

There was a single person inside, shielding his eyes as the new light greatly outshone the small candle he had been using. “I told you, Miki. I’ll take a break as soon as I finish transcribing this. Codebreaking is easier than reading Monk Chaiyun’s handwriting.” He was significantly younger than the other Restorationists they had seen. He also seemed to be wearing a strange white fur hat.

Katara and Sokka instinctively stood in front of Aang, who chuckled. “It really was bad.”

The Restorationist’s head shot up, causing his hat to fall off with a startled squeak. “You’re not-How did you get up here?” Then he shook his head. “That’s egotistical, we got up after all, sorry.” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Katara and Sokka felt their stomachs twist. Iroh had said his nephew had been scarred, and they though they had understood what that meant. They had seeen plenty of scars on the men of the village, life at the mercy of the ocean wasn’t kind. Almost all members of the tribe has some scars, from light gashes on fingertips struck with fish hooks, to the broad slash across Chinuk’s chest from when he’s been hit with shrapnel from Fire nation cannons on their last raid.

Nothing they imagined prepared them for the burn covering most of the left side of Zuko’s face. It was like someone with a flaming hand grabbed it and held on. Knowing it was his own father who’d done this, who wanted to do this, sickened them.

Aang’s attention, though, was on his ‘hat’. “Is that a lemur?” he asked, delight entering his voice for the first time.

Zuko smiled. “Yeah. I gave him some food and he’s stuck with me ever since. Do you want to give him some food?”

“Do I? Aang excitedly asked.

Zuko reached into a satchel and pulled out some berries and handed them to Aang. Aang offered them to the lemur who sniffed, then grabbed one, scootign away to eat it.

“I don’t suppose you have some meat in there?” Sokka stared at the satchel longingly. 

“No, but I feel you though. We don’t bring meat to the Temples since the Air Nomads were vegetarians and we don’t want to disrespect them. But I miss it too. I do have some Rabbiyak cheese though.” He reached into the bag and handed a soft yellow wedge to Sokka.

“Good enough!” Sokka grabbed it and shoved it in his mouth, practically melting in joy. 

Katara laughed, both at her brother and her friend, who now had the lemur climbing over him. “You made a new friend, Aang?” Zuko perked up “Aang? You were named after Avatar Aang?”

“Avatar Aang?” Katara asked, thanking the Spirits that the Lemur was on Aang’s face, so Zuko didn’t see his reaction. 

“The last Avatar we have any information on,” Zuko explained. “He grew up in this very Temple. The last piece of information we have on him was that he was going to the Eastern Air Temple. We don’t know if he made it or not though.”

He didn’t. But neither of the siblings wanted to tell anyone from the Fire Nation that, not matter how much goodwill that cheese had bought from Sokka.

Sokka swallowed the last of the cheese. “Iroh said the cache in here might have some lost knowledge from our Tribe?”

“Oh he did?” Zuko looked surprised. “You’re from the Southern Water tribe? I mean, you’d have to be, we don’t have anything from the Northern.” He opened a stone chest next to him. It looked normal from the outside, but opening revealed a strange shape to the interior, as if there were teeth withing the lid. Zuko pulled out multiple scrolls, which he handed to the siblings.

Sokka opened one and was surprised to find a message within stating that this scroll was a reproduction, and described what the original scroll had looked like, from the type of parchment and ink used, to the carvings on the handles. The scroll itself contained information on building a rigging system for a ship.

“Are there Fire Nation Scrolls in here?” Aang asked, the lemur curled up on his head as it had been on Zuko’s.

“Yep.” Zuko scowled, which looked even worse with his scar. “Seems each Firelord does their best to wipe out a culture. Sozin launched the strike on the Air Nomads. Azulon pretty much destroyed all Fire Nation culture that couldn’t be used to prop up the war. So like, the Fire Festival is still on, because ‘Rah Rah Fire Good’, but the Festival of Rebirth, which centered around sowing the fields with ashes to benefit crops was struck from records and history books because it was ‘too Earth Nation’. A vast majority of our culture just...gone.” There was no hiding the bitterness is Zuko’s voice. “And despite the Earth Kingdoms being the single greatest force of Resistance, Ozai’s been obsessed with the Water Tribes, so I guess that will leave Azula with Earth.”

“If they don’t get stopped.” Sokka pointed out.

“I hope so.” Zuko sighed. “If the rest of the world would band together, they could have been stopped a hundred years ago, but too many keep saying ‘not my problem’ till Ozai’s armies are at their doorstep. Everyone keeps saying stuff like ‘If only the Avatar would return, but he’s just one man? Or woman. Like, sure he can bend all the elements, but you just need four people for that. Maybe try to work on stuff yourself rather than rely on one person???” 

“You don’t think the Avatar can save the world?” Sokka asked, eyebrow raised. Sure he like how easily Zuko admitted to the Fire Nation needing to be stopped, but still...

Zuko shrugged. “It’s less I don’t think he can and more...I guess I don’t feel he should have to, I mean, the Fire Nation is about the size and a half of Ba Sing Se. It wouldn’t have stood a chance if all the Earth Kingdoms gave a United front against it in the beginning, much less both Water Tribes assisting.  But only a few Kingdoms and the Southern Tribe did more than protect their own borders. It just doesn’t seem fair to put it all on one person.”

Thank you Aang thought. He wasn’t ready to admit who he was to the Restorationists. In fact, he would have been happy if no one had known. But Zuko saying it didn’t all have to be on his shoulders...no one but Gyatsu had told him that.

“This would mean so much to the Tribe.” Katara said softly, looking at a scroll describing building elaborate structures from ice.

“Would if be better to get the original or copies?” Zuko asked.

Katara gave him a look that was just shy of a glare. “What do you think?” “Depends on how quickly you need the information. We always put originals in the closest cache to where we find them. Like this Waterbending scroll-” Zuko opened one. “-we recovered from pirates in the Earth Kingdom. You can tell from this marking that the original is in our cache in the Fuxai ruins.” He pointed to a small green emblem at the top of the note explaining it was a reproduction. “That’s quite a distance from here. So if the goal is to get the information to your tribe as quickly as possible, it would be easier for me to get a few hands and copy all we have. We’d probably be finished by this evening, which means you could leave to return with it as soon as tomorrow morning. However if it’s important is the cultural history, it makes more sense to get the originals, even though traveling to all the caches would be months worth of work.”

“Oh,” That was...well thought out. It occurred to Katara this may not have been the first time the true owners  of what the Restorationists recovered had come claiming what was theirs.

“Do you think you could do both?” Sokka asked seriously. “Make the copies now and, since we’re going on a journey with Aang, we can swap out the new copies for originals if we pass by.”

“Certainly.” Zuko smiled. “And it gives me a convenient excuse to take a break form trying to decipher Monk Chaiyun’s script for a little while.”

“One question though. If you thought you could be done by tonight and it was important, why would we wait till tomorrow to leave?” Aang wondered.

“And the others say I’m reckless.” Zuko rolled his eyes. “You guys just scaled the mountain. You know how dangerous it is to navigate in broad daylight. In the dark? Even I’d call it a death trap.”

“Actually we don’t. We flew in on my flying bison.” Aang explained.

Zuko froze, then looked at Aang as though he was seeing him for the first time. “A...a real...you really are a...” His mouth opened and closed several times. “Can I see it?” he finally said, then buried his face in his hands as thought that wasn’t at all what he’d wanted to say out loud.

“Sure!” Aang rose to his feet, wind swirling around him. Zuko gaped openly, but followed the monk outside to where they’d entered the temple from.

Zuko hadn’t been the only one interested in Appa. A large group of Restorationists were staring, albeit from a good distance away.

“This is Appa. He’s been my best friend since we were little.” Aang introduced.

Zuko stared in wide eyed wonder. “Can I touch him?”

“Sure, Appa’s friendly. Aren’t you?’ Aang asked, as if expecting the bison to answer.

Zuko tentatively reached out  and touched Appa. He stroked it for a few minutes before impulsively hugging Appa, burying himself in the white fur.

“He’s so fluffy,” Zuko proclaimed in a muffled voice.

Katara laughed and even Sokka smiled. “Still not sure on the rest of them, but this Fire Nation guy’s alright.”

Katara smiled back at him, and at Aang, who was eagerly showing Zuko the best way to pet Appa. Yeah. This one was okay.

[ichayalovesyou]

THE BIG VULCAN BIOLOGY POST (aka Vulcan is a Hell Planet)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a biologist, astrophysicist, neurologist, animal psychologist or literally anything that would qualify me to talk about this with 100% confidence. This is the result of dozens of headcanons and obsessive deep dive research. I don’t want this post to be three miles long, so after I address the planetary stuff I will oblige y’all with a Read More.

Adsfasdkfjhaslkdfh I’ve been working on this post for almost a month SO HERE WE GO!

First of all, Vulcan (aka T’Khasi) is a HELL PLANET, which is part of the reason they’re so badass, I say this for the following reasons:

No moon(s) (natural satellites)

Sodium (Salt) is so rare on the planet that Vulcan’s oceans are freshwater

It’s a “Super-Earth” (as in big chonkin’ planet of similar composition to earth in the “goldilocks region”)

Let’s do this.

“Vulcan has no moon Ms. Uhura.”

-Spock, The Man Trap

Tons of things change about our planet if there was no moon:

Much darker nights (no moonlight)

Much lower sea levels since there is no gravity from the moon to pull it upward.

Lower and weaker tides because the water is pulled by the sun instead of the moon, and it depends on how large the Vulcan solar system’s sun is for how big the waves are.

Stronger winds from faster planet rotation.

Depending on whether the axis of the planet would straighten or tilt further without the moon’s pull, combined with the faster rotation would lead to more severe seasons (strong tilt) or no seasons at all (no tilt)

The first factor may lead to Vulcan eyes being very catlike even if they aren’t nocturnal (I think they’re crepesucular but we’ll get into that later). Which given the likely nature of their blood and their herbivorous eating habits they probably aren’t. The sky would still be so dark that our human eyes couldn’t even see our hands in front of us, being blind when the sun goes down could be a death sentence. Alternatively, if they didn’t develop strong night vision that may be one of the reasons why they have such strong senses of hearing.

The stronger winds, faster rotation, and stronger (or nonexistent) seasons come from the lack of resistance and friction that stronger tides and the moon’s pull create on our planet. I suspect that Vulcan is larger, or at least denser than Earth, but I’ve been informed that according to the TMP novelization that it does rotate faster. I also think that Vulcan’s tilt is on the more extreme end to get the hostile extremes like storms and heat that we see on Vulcan.

If you look at this image of Vulcan, water covers way less of the planet’s surface than Earth. I don’t think this is necessarily because Vulcan has less water, but that it isn’t spread as far because of the lack of moon, and the fact that the oceans are freshwater, I’ll get into that shortly.

“My ancestors spawned from a different ocean than yours.”

-Spock, The Man Trap

In the Star Trek: The Original Series (third) pilot The Man Trap, there is a creature that kills its victims by draining their bodies completely of salt. Spock encounters the creature but does not die, implying his (and Vulcans overall) body contains little to no salt. His justification is that his species did not evolve from a salinized ocean.

What does it mean to have oceans with no salt?

This has to mean that sodium is a very rare mineral on Vulcan, as the reason our oceans are so salinized is due to erosion of minerals by rainfall, carried from river to ocean. Salt in the ocean is also generated by submarine volcanic activity, which means either that the volcanoes on Vulcan (which we definitely know exist) somehow don’t produce salt, or the vast majority of the submarine volcanoes have been inactive for millions if not billions of years. The active volcanoes on Vulcan must be very far inland and/or Vulcan has almost no rivers, which given how hot the planet is, wouldn’t actually be too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Which means every single lifeform on T’Khasi, including Vulcans, evolved biosystems that exist without (or with very little) salt content. Any salt that exists would likely be deep beneath the planet’s surface, and within volcanoes.

No saltwater has a ton of consequences:

Plants (like underwater algae) are rarer and may not photosynthesize the same way Earth plants do, meaning less oxygen and more carbon dioxide, which means more greenhouse effect, which means higher temperatures.

The lack of salt would also mean less diverse plant life (at least as humans know it) and given the lack of visible rivers and vast swaths of desert on Vulcan, we can safely say vegetation must be hardier and infrequent.

Lower sea levels as the oceans would have lower density due to lack of salt.

Little to no water convection, which salt is crucial for on Earth. Which means warm ocean water doesn’t move to cold regions and vice versa. Creating extremes, the equator being obscenely hot, and polar waters freezing at the poles more extensively.

Lack of convection means more frequent and stronger storms like hurricanes.

If you thought the lack of a moon made Vulcan inhospitable, compound it with the low sodium factor and you’ve got a planet of even more severe extremes than before. The heat, and the decrease of plant diversity definitely explain why the vast majority of Vulcan is rocky desert, even being near the water poses more extreme dangers than it would on earth due to the increased frequency of hurricanes.

“Mr. Spock is much stronger than an ordinary human being.”

-Kirk, This Side of Paradise

I am almost 100% sure that Vulcan is either bigger or denser than Earth. Which would explain why Vulcans are so much stronger than Humans and other species that exist on similar gravity worlds.

Effects of a high-gravity planet or “Super-Earth” include:

Everything is shorter or has very strong foundations, plants, animals, structures, and people.

More “Armageddon” class asteroids would hit the planet (like the one that killed the dinosaurs and created the Gulf of Mexico)

Larger liquid mantle under the planet’s surface, higher pressure under the surface as well.

Weaker magnetic field due to lack of convection in the planet’s core (not to be confused with the mantle interacting with the planet’s crust). Which means a weaker atmosphere, lower magnetism in surface metals, and increased vulnerability to solar flares.

More volcanically and seismically active due the the increase in the mantle’s size and generated heat, more earthquakes, and more volcanic eruptions.

Would have to have a smaller sun but be closer in orbit to it than earth.

Extremely deep oceans, potentially with water under so much pressure at the bottom that it becomes solid like ice. Luckily Vulcan is not an ocean world, because the pressure would block the planet’s core from interacting with the atmosphere, which would prevent life as we know it from happening.

There is plenty of evidence for this on so many levels. We never see any plant life similar to trees on Vulcan. Nor animals significantly larger than Vulcans, the ones that are bigger are much more muscular. Vulcan’s sky is more red than blue because of the lack of oxygen molecules for the light from the sun to filter as blue. I actually headcanon that Spock is unusually tall for a Vulcan because of his human heritage (Leonard Nimoy was around 6ft tall) , and may have had heart and muscle problems in his teens and early adulthood while on Vulcan.

Perhaps Vulcans are the result of many more extinction level events than we are, contributing to their hardiness. Perhaps they are, evolutionarily, not too much older than we are, and had more incentive to develop extraterrestrial technology than we have, so that they could repel Armageddon Class meteors and defend their planet against Solar Flares? Space travel being born out of self-preservation rather than curiosity. Which would absolutely account for their attitudes in the beginning of Star Trek: Enterprise.

It could be that Vulcans still maintain a semi-nomadic lifestyle even today because their planet is so incredibly volatile. Unsentimental and utilitarian in anything less than the most sacred of architecture long before they adopted the teachings of Surak. Their own survival more valuable than any structure that would inevitably be damaged or destroyed by their planet’s harsh environment.

In summary, Vulcan is a Nightmare Planet because:

So, so many much natural disasters, like, so many, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, twisters, just, so many more than Earth.

Water is relegated to specific locations in the world rather than spread across it due to lack of flow and lower sea levels.

Extreme temperature changes, intense heat, intense cold, hard to breathe, stronger gravity.

Due to the planet’s hostility, there is a smaller diversity of life than we have here on earth, which means fewer and hardier food sources that, like Vulcans, are very difficult to kill.

So… How do they handle it? What features have they developed to adapt and thrive in such an inhospitable place?

First thing is first, lets talk about

BLOOD

“My hemoglobin is based on copper, not iron.”

-Spock, Obsession

Funny thing is Spock, it’s not hemoglobin at all! It’s hemocyanin! In fact, there are earth animals that have it, among them Horseshoe Crabs, crustaceans, mollusks and spiders!

Hemocyanin is blue when it hasn’t been exposed to oxygen, and blue-green when it has, according to some sources on Vulcans their blood is orangey red when unexposed to air and that’s why they have pink lips and so on, but we can brush that off as chemical variation within their hemocyanin. Better yet, maybe it’s trendy for Vulcans to wear pink lipstick nowadays, ‘cause Surak knows how horny Humans and Vulcans are for each other XD! Anyway!

Hemocyanin does quite a few things that our blood can’t, it’s uniquely built for high pressure, low oxygen environments, as well as endure temperature extremes like cold (not unlike nights on their planet). Not only that, but it coagulates and clots WAY faster than our blood. Which means wounds seal themselves off from harmful bacteria and stop bleeding much faster than hemoglobin. Pair that with the Vulcan ability to enter a healing torpor, no wonder Spock keeps surviving environments and wounds that would definitely have killed a human.

Now, the animals I listed don’t have veins, which for us carry oxygen around via hemoglobin, so it’s possible that the same difference that causes Vulcan blood to be a coppery orange-red beneath the skin, is the same reason they have veins. Allowing them to look more like us and lack the exoskeletons and deep ocean delving that their earth blood cousins have.

“The ship’s temperature is increasingly uncomfortable for me. I’ve adjusted the environment in my quarters to 125 degrees.”

-(Elderly) Spock, The Deadly Years

Oh goodie, the Vulcan blood temperature discourse has arrived, the age old question, are Vulcans warm-blooded or cold-blooded? The answer to this question is

YES

I am firmly in the small (but hopefully growing) camp Vulcans Are Heterothermic. Among the earth animals we know to be heterothermic are bumblebees, several species of bats, the opah fish, and the arctic ground squirrel. Of all these animals, despite the opposite temperature intensity of Vulcan’s environment, I’m basing how Vulcans function on the last one, the arctic squirrel.

Which means they can deliberately control their body temperature in accordance to the needs of their survival. I imagine, just as arctic ground squirrels can drop their body below zero as needed (entering what is called a “daily torpor”) Vulcans can do the same. In turn, they could possibly skyrocket their bodies to temperatures that would be a lethal fever for humans. Which makes both McCoy’s “nonexistent Vulcan metabolism” comments in various episodes, as well as describing his blood as “ice water” make sense. As well as Spock being able to handle the heightened body temperature caused by Henoch in “Return to Tomorrow”. It also explains why Spock was in far better shape than Bones in the freezing temperatures of the planet from “All Our Yesterdays”.

However, like arctic squirrel newborns, they start out as ectothermic (cold-blooded) which lends itself to the Vulcan infants needing even more skin to skin to survive than humans theory by @acesexualspock. Being born cold blooded would prevent them from immediately dying the second they were exposed to the dangerous extremes of Vulcan’s heat. I also think they slowly lose the ability to control their metabolic rate as they grow older, slowing down dramatically as they age, which is why Spock gets increasingly colder as he ages rapidly in “The Deadly Years”.

“The brightness of the Vulcan sun has caused the development of an inner eyelid.”

-Spock, Operation: Annihilate

I wanna thank @tribbleland for inspiring this part in particular.

I want to offer a special congratulations to furries people who let their love for anthro-cats bleed into their love for Vulcans, turns out Vulcans are very catlike! Like our feline Terran friends, Vulcans have what is called a Nicitating Membrane. It’s functions that would serve Vulcans well in their desert home include spreading moisture across the eye, protect the eye from small water and small debris (like sand for example), as well as protecting the eye from ultraviolet radiation, which is more or less what Spock said in that episode. Other animals that have Nicitating Membranes aside from felines is actually the majority of the animal kingdom, and primates (like us) are the exception and not the rule. I also subscribe to the idea that Vulcans have other desert dweller features like thick hair and eyelashes, sealable nostrils, big feet, a crepuscular sleep cycle (avoiding extreme midnight and midday temperatures), and a tough as nails digestive system!

As an added bonus fact since this section is pretty short: It makes purrfect sense for Vulcans to purr! In cats purring is an emotional regulator when they are angry or scared (Vulcans are ALL about regulating their emotions) as well as purring when they are happy. It is also a mechanism for healing themselves, their kittens, and their owners, the frequency at which cats purr (25-140 Hz) cover the same frequencies that are therapeutic for bone growth and fracture healing, pain relief, swelling reduction, wound healing, muscle growth and repair, tendon repair, and mobility of joints. I’m over here getting emotional about the mental image of like, Spock or Tuvok or smth sitting next to a wounded crewmember and just like, purring with a completely straight face and that is soft and just a little funny and I am emotionally compromised.

“And are it’s natives predatory?” “Not generally, but there have been exceptions.”

-Spock to Trelaine, The Squire of Gothos

Surprise! This isn’t just going to be about Vulcan dietary needs, it’s gonna be about animal behaviors and self-domestication as well! I was trying to think of herbivores that are capable of eating meat, and then this idea hit me like a bomb going of in my head-

Vulcans are like Hippos!

I don’t mean I think they used to be hippo-like (visually anyway) somewhere along the evolutionary line. I mean that they were probably big, extremely aggressive, pack roaming herbivores that are able to eat carrion when food is scarce. Have you ever seen a video of a group of Hippos smashing an alligator to smithereens? They kill more humans than any solitary predator on the African continent! What about a murder of crows killing a cat that injured one of them, or a group of bison saving a calf from a lion?! Herbivores can be insanely aggressive while still being social, plant-eating animals.

With that in mind, let’s talk about self-domestication! This is something that we humans (and to an extent, cats too) did way back in our biology according to some studies, we bred out aggression and bred in cooperativeness and curiosity. Cats, while partially domesticated by us, started looking for mates that were more sociable so that their offspring could exist closer to humans (and their food) as well as to tolerate other cats. While I do think Vulcans self-domesticated to a degree, I do not think they were able to do so nearly to the same extent as humans or our deliberately domesticated companions. Vulcan is a harsh, violent, and unforgiving planet, even more so than Earth, if Vulcans were naturally as friendly and curious as we Humans are now, they would not have survived as a species.

I believe this is why their emotions are so primal and strong, and things like Pon Farr and their unusually high wariness of the new and unexpected still exist so strongly. How do they live together in such high numbers and develop a functional society? They developed other means of coping as a work-around the impracticality of decreasing aggression!

“Call it a deep understanding of the way things happen to Vulcans.”

-Spock, The Immunity Syndrome

So, how do you have a species as aggressive, unforgiving, and frighteningly strong as Vulcans keep from completely destroying itself (aside from Surak’s teachings)? You take the empathy that humans already have, turn it up to 11, and tack on every evolutionary possibility to increase it. We already know how the Earth comparisons for Vulcan empathy: the extreme vitality of touch for the survival and emotional stability, cats purring to heal each other and themselves (and regulate emotions), nonverbal communication, the ancestral instincts of an infant animal being able to walk days after its born. What if we had all of these traits in remarkable spades, Vulcans certainly seem to! (Be prepared, the science starts getting a little squidgy because there are no real world comparisons and neurology research is very jargon heavy)

Electricity is a fundamental part of the biology of nearly all living things, it allows synapses to fire, regulates our internal organs, and gives us our senses of touch and movement. Skin to skin is so incredibly vital to the survival of infants, and the emotional stability for adults, that needing any more touch could be impractical and counterintuitive. So what if we got more from less? What if our sense of touch, and the acuteness of being able to read the emotions of others from body language and touch manifested as a form of what looks like from an outsider’s perspective, telepathy!

Now what if the radius of the sensation of touch could be extended much farther, say being able to sense someone to the same intensity I described in the last paragraph, like, through a wall or from across a room? What if you could connect to other lifeforms with the same ability like a chain circuit that could connect a whole species together in one giant circuitboard? I just described what Vulcans call the kwar’ma’khon, the telepathic energy that connects all Vulcans to each other!

Imagine having this same intense telepathic connection to someone for an extended period of time, like a t’hy’la or Bond Mate. What if you had a relatively easy to master non-lethal attack against other members of your species, that comes to you easily due to your intrinsic understanding of nerves and touch, like the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. In turn, what if, through the intensity of this connection you could transfer everything you knew and saw and felt to another person in the event of your death. That way, if you survived the harshness of your world without dying violently or unexpectedly, you could deliberately pass on that knowledge and those instincts to your next of kin, like the Katra. (thanks @distractedducky @spacedancer1701 & @find-me-in-outer-space)

Now, that’s A LOT of empathy on top of A LOT of aggression, if you don’t have a work around for any of these, as a species you’d be rendered a complete emotional wreck pretty much 24/7 (or whatever the time cycles for Vulcan are). Which is where @ineffablebuddies theory that Vulcans can control, or at least mitigate their incredibly strong emotional reactions the same way they control their nervous system and metabolic rate. Which is how they are able to be touch telepathic, able to enter a torpor at will, and be heterothermic in the first place. The only reason Vulcans come off as unemotional to us is because we simply do not see and feel the way that they can. Unlike us, because of their ability to control their own internal chemistry, if they follow Surak’s teachings and/or Syrranite ideology, they can take that emotional regulation to the extreme.

(BIG EXHALE) Congratulations on getting through this insanely long post! I hope you enjoyed it, if you want sources on any of my non-tumblr post research just let me know in the notes. LLAP! 💚🖖🏻💚

[thenomadclan]

The Nomad Clan Short Stories:

Lesson Learned

((Hello everyone! This is my first story on Tumblr, though I’ve made a lot more on Amino. I wanted to bring my characters here but kinda reworking them, so I wanna share my character you know as NOMAD with you all. A short story of the kind of warrior this Yautja is and what his bloodline hides from his adoptive family… hope you enjoy!))

When Nomad was but an unblooded, he didn’t know his place and always wanted to push himself further than he thought he could. He already surpassed all that came with Survival, Technical, and even Weapons Training. However due to him being not as big as his adoptive family nor as strong looking, he felt he had everything to prove as to be not the runt of the litter. So one day when no one was around, he entered the Sparing Room which, in reality, was an ultra realistic hologram room. There he used his advanced technical skills to break down firewalls and open up many files of “Sparring Partners”.

One file he found was known as “The Nomad File''. It was odd finding his name so he was interested and clicked on it, instead of finding himself he found 7 Yautja Figures. One named Odinson, another Ra, another Chaka….but the last 4 he found left him confused. The one known as Scrapper was smaller than him but was labeled as an ultra threat, another was the leader of the said group known as Drago. Even the state the hologram gave off scared Nomad but he continued, he came across one known as Crimson and looking at his file…he…almost looked like him, weirded out he went on till he found the name Bruiser.

Bruiser, he’s heard that name before when his Mother was in another room not looking. It gave her great sorrow…could this name be linked to her sadness? Nomad instantly clicked on him, feeling a sense of protecting his mother but also if he took on the biggest boy in years, surely it would grant him ultimate respect. So he waited for the hologram to piece itself together, unaware the setting was set to “lethal” as a way for some hunters to actually feel the training and grow from it, being usually a 2 man job. When the Hologram was put together, it left Nomad shocked as he was breaking his neck looking up at the extremely large Yautja…there was no way he was all natural! The yautja known as Bruiser towered over Nomad and when the hologram's eyes turned ready, it was go time.

Nomad took a cocky fighting stance, more so expecting a small zap or physical damage equal to a slap. However, Nomad was met with a punch with the equivalent of that similar to Black Momba and her training dummies, sending him flying across the room and crashing against the wall. Nomad was gasping for air, but when he looked up he saw Bruiser already in front of him even though he was practically thrown a good yard or more. The hologram slowly picked him up by his dreadlocks and had Bruiser look Nomad in the eyes, till Nomad used his new found air in his lungs to elbow Bruiser's throat. The hologram reacted to how anyone would have, release Nomad from his steel grip.

With Nomad Free he called upon his hammer he didn’t think he needed till now as he charged upon the Hologram, hitting the figure from the sides. Chopping down the tree of a warrior till Bruiser's hands stopped the attacks, slowly beginning to bend the metal and putting fear into Nomad’s eyes for the first time. With a force that could be matched with the Hunter God, Bruiser grabbed Nomad by the throat and slammed him on the floor. Nomad was almost knocked out from the quickness, his body was thrown and bounced off the floor. He was still conscious to even see Bruiser’s Hologram give a wicked smile. There Bruiser grabbed Nomads ankle to which his ribs and spines were fractured from being slammed on every inch of the floor. Nomad was dazed as his vision began to go blurry while listening to his heart monitor from the training room, slowly his eyes closed with everything going black.

Nomad only awoke when he heard a much more louder and ear piercing lungs of a heart Monitor, when he fully awakened, he realized he was in a medbay with a Shaman nearby. Nomad winced as heard the whooshing of the doors open, seeing a large black mass belonging to his mother. He was ready for any punishment as he tensed up, but was met with a gentle hug and the cries of pure happiness.

Black Momba: What were you thinking Little Red?!

Nomad: I….I don’t know….I’m sorry though….I wasn’t ready after all….

Black Momba: In time you will be….but please learn from this.

Black Momba said as she pet her son’s head, so afraid to let go. The medbay doors swooshed open to find Python standing there, Nomad was afraid to meet the Clan Leader's gaze so he looked down. He didn’t seem to care about Nomad at the moment as he called upon Black Momba. She was determined to stay with Nomad till Python showed physical forms of anger that got Black Momba’s attention. Black Momba would leave Nomad in the care of the Shaman, as the two walked, they soon found themselves in Python’s quarters with the Engineer of the Hologram Room Nomad was in.

Black Momba: What’s going on here?

Python: This has to do with Nomad…what happened and the destruction in that room…no normal Yautja should have survived the attack of Bruiser as much as I’ll admit.

Black Momba: *visibly felt uncomfortable* It was a simulation, so it wasn’t the real thing. Anyways, what of it?

Python waved the Engineer to show the only camera recording the fight, at first it was showing the beginning battle of Nomads survival. Then it showed where Nomad claimed to have “Black Out” and they could hear him growl, his eyes turning white as he sent the Bruiser Hologram flying. What they saw was Nomad crawling on all fours and acting feral like, then having 3 Smart Disks flying around him. From there Nomad charged Bruiser roaring and began to cut Bruiser down with the mind controlled smart disks while punching and biting the hologram, the hologram put up a great fight but at the end the hologram was no more. There Nomad had so much adrenaline in his body and with no way to filter it he eventually passed out.

Python: Did you see what I saw….

Black Momba: I….I’m not….sure…

Python: You can act anyway you want with the boy, but you know exactly what I saw…that was a Feral form or Berserker Rage! Do you even know how disgraceful that is? Practically no honor!

Black Momba: Okay? This was his first fight or flight response, you can’t blame him for trying to survive!

Python: That may be true, but can you explain this *places a picture of Nomad’s X-ray on a holopad*.

Black Momba: Wait this can’t be right, his bones look like they’ve been healed…

Python: I’m suddenly not the dumbest one in this room, tell me my daughter…what Clan had these parallels…what Clan is so disgraceful with no honor bound tactics and such abomination of tech, the one known as “THE SACRIFICE” no less, would use this?!

Black Momba:….The Nomad Clan…..

To Be Continued

@bunnyraptor69 @black-suns-rim @abdxctedd @daswhox

[jello-in-my-bello]

It’s time that we had a real conversation about Aang...

For the main character of a television series, Aang somehow almost always finds himself under-rated and dismissed in fans’ posts. You see all these posts and, when they do reference him, it’s usually accompanied by the phrases “immature” and “12-year-old boy.” I mean honestly, in some ATLA fans posts, it seems as if Aang’s name is almost synonymous with the word immaturity--and it’s been that way for years. I’ve always wondered why people discredited him. Was it because they saw his age and immediately ruled him out? Is it an excuse for Katara and Aang to have never happened? Was calling him the most immature character a way to bring up their favorite characters? Or did they simply get conditioned to think Aang was immature because everyone just... said he was? Well, I think Aang’s the most mature character (from start to finish) on the show, and Imma tell you why. 

I think that Book 1 Aang is the Aang that everyone has stuck in their head. We get introduced to Aang in a strange way: he’s a boy frozen in an iceberg, and the first thing he asks is to go penguin sledding. Then he boldly explores a fire navy ship after being told it might not be a great idea. This kid’s kinda stupid, we think. Why does he care about penguin sledding? Why does he explore something he is told not to? Then he stops at Kyoshi Island to ride the Unagi, then he stops at Omashu to ride the delivery service, and then he lets the gang stop at other locations—having mini adventures—without worrying about learning waterbending on any sort of timeline. Why does he choose to explore all these different places at first rather than master the four elements? Doesn’t he even care about being the Avatar? Ah... that’s right. He’s only 12. 

Except surmising his entire maturity (or lack thereof) to the fact that he stops for these adventures means that you are ignoring one glaring detail of the show: Airbender and nomad culture. Aang asking Katara to go penguin sledding instead of what year it was and taking his friends to all those random stops in B1 so that he can explore can not be chalked up to immaturity. Because then you are ignoring an entire culture. We don’t get to see a lot of airbenders, and I think that plays into the problem, but from what we do know, we learn that a critical part of their culture is that they travel. A lot. And experience different cultures. A lot. Think about all the different places he’s referenced going to 100 years ago in the series. Then think about all the friends he’s talked about having in these obscure places—and it always sounded like he visited them more than once. Traveling, experiencing different cities, and meeting new people was a part of him and a part of his culture. He wasn’t being a 12-year-old when he stopped to ride the Unagi or the delivery shoots in Omashu, he was being an air nomad

On a similar note, one of Aang’s most notable traits is saying, “Hey, check this out,” excitedly while doing some air bending trick that seems juvenile--like spinning marbles around or doing an air scooter.  People look at him doing this and his previously mentioned traits and go, “Oh, what a kid.” But here’s the thing: we can’t roll our eyes at his persistent need to show people marbles floating in the air or his air scooter. In the episode “Southern Air Temple,” we see Monk Gyatso—an extremely old, wise air bender—throwing cakes on other monks’ heads, and then we’re told throughout the series that Airbenders were known for their playful nature. Airbenders didn’t use their bending the same way other benders do. For example, Waterbenders might show off their skills by creating a giant wave and being like, “Look how cool!” (See: Katara, like every time she learns a new move.) We know Airbenders have some pretty powerful moves--we’ve seen the tornado Aang created, the air body imprint of Aang that slammed Zuko back--but they don’t show off those moves because they’re so combative and not so fun. They show off the good-natured side of air bending (ex: Gyasto’s staff surfing when he was a child).  So those marble/air scooter tricks can’t be watered down to 12-year-old immaturity. Because he’s not being a kid when he does those things, he’s being an Airbender. People also tend to look over the fact that he is a survivor of a genocide. You need to keep in mind that he is a living relic and the only example left of what his race was. So even later in the series when he continues to show people those tricks, he’s showing them not just for fun, but to keep his culture alive. And what do you think he’s going to show them: a tornado with random objects flying around in it or two marbles flying in his hands? Which is a better representation of Airbender culture?

Also, do not forget that Aang earned his arrows. Airbenders are not just regular benders; they are known for being especially enlightened. You don’t just need to be a master at airbending to get your arrows—you also need to be a master at their culture. Aang was an enlightened boi. Look at all the speeches that he gave as the series continued. He didn’t just magically become wise in the course of a few months because he had to fight the Firelord, he just tapped into what was always there and never showed. The maturity was always there, and the receipts are in the arrows. 

So, I’ve gone over why he’s not as immature as everyone thinks, but why do I think he’s the most mature on the show? It’s because his emotional maturity is freaking through the roof. He’s part of a genocide, his culture is mocked, the few things—his clothing and glider—that he had left from his home were completely destroyed, and he had to do something that severely went against what he believes in. And he almost never loses his shit. In fact, we only ever see him get actually upset (we’re not counting the Avatar state cause that’s a whole different thing) 3 times in the series: when he was telling Katara about how the monks wanted to take him away from Gyatso, the episode when Appa was stolen, and when he was explaining that no one understands the position he is in (in terms of killing Ozai). Think about how much we saw everyone else freak out over the course of the show? About even smaller things.

Katara and Zuko are generally accepted as the two most mature characters of the series. But why? Zuko is continuously snapping at everyone, and, yes, he matured. But he is not completely there yet. He still somewhat believes in revenge (See: Southern Raiders), and it’s only at the last episode of the series that he understands violence is not the answer. And Katara? She acts very mature towards everyone else, but when it comes to her own emotions? She’s a whole basket full of mess. (See: Southern Raiders, again. Or anytime she uses anger as her way to show she’s “passionate.”) A good way to showcase the difference between Aang and these two is realizing that all of them lost a parent from the war and analyzing at how they handled it. (For Zuko let’s focus on the idea that he never really had a father) Katara lost her mother, Zuko his father, and Aang his father, Gyatso. Throughout the series, losing their parent was a huge topic point for both Katara and Zuko so much so that it was as if they thought no one else had ever suffered. (Katara, we see you telling Sokka that he didn’t love your mom the same). Aang, however, acknowledges his pain, tells stories of Gyatso and uses him as an example of what he wants to live up to— eventually coming full circle at the end wearing Gyatso’s beads and an identical outfit. I can’t imagine a more mature way to handle what happened than that.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, maturity isn’t based on how you have fun, it’s based on how you react to hard situations. And nobody, nobody reacted better in those situations than Aang. So if you watched Avatar and thought it was a story about a young boy maturing, then you misjudged. It wasn’t a story about an immature boy growing up. It was a story of an Airbender becoming an avatar. 

[krastbannert]

Azulaang for the ship meme

General:

Rate the Ship -   Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! (it's not my favorite ship, but I do like it very much and ever since you dragged me into it, I've had a hard time pairing these two with anyone else) | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs

How long will they last? - Azula says threatens to "fry his ass like a chicken" roughly every five minutes, but the reality is different. At the beginning it was "Azula's stuck with Aang", but it's become "stuck with each other forever".

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - It...took them a while. A long while. There was the whole "shot in the back with lightning" thing. Then a breakdown. Followed by a years-long recovery and redemption process. They had a long winding road, but Aang believed in her the entire time, and somewhere along the line, enemies became friends and, eventually, lovers.

How was their first kiss? - Sokka dared Azula to kiss Aang, and, well, Azula is physically incapable of backing down from a challenge. She meant for it to be sort of a small and quick thing and the next thing she knew, Sokka was yelling about oogies, Katara was fake-gagging, and Zuko spit out his drink.

Wedding:

Who proposed? -

Who is the best man/men? - Sokka and Zuko, Aang's best friends, of course.

Who is the bride’s maid(s)? - There's no one Azula would rather have than Mai and Ty Lee.

Who did the most planning? - Azula.

Who stressed the most? - Even a redeemed (this word doesn't feel right but I can't think of anything else) Azula is a perfectionist. She's not quite as bad as she used to be, but she still stresses; she wants everything to be right.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 (Azula doesn't consider herself "married" at the big official ceremony; she infinitely prefers the much smaller, more heartfelt one held later that's just friends and family) | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Well, Ozai is probably obvious. Depending on your perspective, Azula may or may not have invited Ursa (I lean towards them having a good relationship, so I think she would have invited her mom).

Sex:

Who is on top? - Bold of you to assume Azula wouldn't love being the one on top.

Who is the one to instigate things? - About 60/40 Aang.

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head (look, Air Nomads were freaks in the sheets, we all know it, and Azula, like I said earlier, is physically incapable of backing down from a challenge, and she likes Aang's challenges)

How long do they normally last? - Well, considering Aang is often busy being, you know, the Avatar (I usually think of Azula staying more-or-less out of politics in her later life, mainly doing art and teaching others firebending, so she sets her own schedule), when they are together, they take their damn sweet time. This results in a lot of, uh, all-nighters. As it were.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Aang, being his selfless-self, prefers making Azula fall apart in all her favorite ways to his own pleasure.

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it. (It's either the former or the latter and there's no in between)

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 (You'll never get Azula to admit it that her favorite thing in the world is snuggling.) | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - Honestly, I've always been unsure of whether or not I think Azula would want to have kids. If they did have any of their own, I'd say 1, maybe 2.

How many children will they adopt? - I do get the feeling Azula would like to take in kids who were in her or her brother's situation (golden children, scapegoats, especially kids whose mother)

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Considering Aang is often away doing Avatar things, it's probably Azula, but she makes him handle every diaper change while he's home.

Who is the stricter parent? - Probably Azula, but she's not cruel about it. Just stern. (She agonizes over how strict she is constantly, and Aang has to reassure that yes, she is, in fact, a good mom.)

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Weirdly, it's Aang. He likes doing the stunts, yeah, but he knows how to do the stunts safely, and he knows there's a line where enough is enough.

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - Azula's up, so she does it.

Who is the more loved parent? - When they're younger, probably Aang since he's much more fun, but as the kids grow older, they start to love their mother more and more.

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - Azula, and she brings the heavy weapons every. Single. Time. She's gonna fight for her kids tooth and nail.

Who cried the most at graduation? - At graduation? Aang. But after graduation, back at home? Oh, Azula is crying silent tears of pride.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - Aang and Azula just take turns. With genes from the two of them, their children end up in trouble constantly.

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - Probably Aang. He knows how to cook at least some dishes, whereas Azula doesn't quite get it at first. She learns quickly, but cooking isn't always her favorite thing to do.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Azula prefers spicy food (she can't quite handle the normal Fire Nation level of spice, but the "low spice" version of FN food is still "extra spicy" for the rest of the world), and she's allergic to shellfish (one of my headcanons), so she's a bit picky.

Who does the grocery shopping? - Usually they go together.

How often do they bake desserts? - Azula has a not-so-secret mochi addiction, and Aang loves fruit pies, so it's pretty often.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - Well, Aang is vegetarian. Azula doesn't normally care, she just wants to make sure she has protein. (And even though she's allergic, she will annihilate stir-fried razor clams once a year).

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Azula is, surprisingly, rather thoughtful, and though she cooks rarely, she's very good when she puts her mind to it.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Probably Aang; he might love cooking, but he also likes going out and "finding adventure", as he calls it.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidentally while cooking? - Azula is a much better firebender, and Aang is infinitely more excitable, so probably Aang.

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Probably Azula. She's still a bit of a perfectionist. Aang tidies up, too, but it's more like a "if he sees it" situation; Azula does the deep clean.

Who is really against chores? - Neither, really.

Who cleans up after the pets? - As far as Azula's concerned, they're Aang's pets, so he gets to clean up after them. (Except her fox, Satomi. Azula pampers her.)

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - I get the feeling that would be Aang.

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Probably Azula, since she's much less inclined to have guests than Aang is.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Aang.

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Azula likes them as sort of a comfy way to get some time to herself. (Also she likes to sing in the shower.)

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - They like walking them together, most of the time.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - Aang's big on decorating, and takes every opportunity he can. Azula takes a while to warm up to it, and she's never quite as excited about as he is, but eventually it grows on her. She puts up something small and meaningful for every holiday.

What are their goals for the relationship? - For Aang, he'd like a big family, full of love and happiness and all the goodness he remembers from his childhood. Azula just wants a little bit of peace, and a family that's better than what hers became. It's a low bar, but it's what she wants.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - 100% Aang. Absolutely.

Who plays the most pranks? - Everyone blames Aang for pranks but I think it's funnier if Azula does it. She's a mastermind of subterfuge and intrigue. The moment Aang finds out it's been her he feels utterly betrayed. And then he declares war.

[holly-fixation]

Damaged Doll

Summary: Angeal and Zack discover a man in all black trapped under boulders in the mountains near Icicle Village. They notice things are extremely wrong about this man, but one thing demands their attention: mako blue eyes with slit pupils. Sephiroth will want to see this.

Based on this prompt by @im-totally-not-an-alien

Please Enjoy!

Icicle Village was always a target for monsters when summer came. Not the birds singing and flowers blooming kind of summer. The pole was showered in the constant light of the sun, forcing the already coaxed awake monsters of the white landscape restless with insatiable frustration from unsatisfied sleep. Though the larger creatures claimed the few large caves and the smallest hid throughout the honeycombs of smaller crevices in the mountains, the rest prowled constantly, their tempers cut short and their eyes bleeding red. No nomad or adventurer was safe, but the village defenses were enough to protect the citizens as they had for many, many years. So they were surprised when Shinra’s SOLDIER program offered aid. The War in Wutai was coming to a close, but SOLDIERs still needed training, afterall. So they sent their First in training with dark haired his mentor to deal with the issue.

The Second Class was too hyper for battle, itching for every fight possible, much to his mentor’s dismay. He charged into every enemy without plan, action, or any perspective on the consequences. Luckily, and simultaneously unluckily, the boy gleaned through these mid-sized monsters with only growing scratches, rather than the broken bones his mentor would use as a teachable moment. However, his body was slowing from the numerous shallow wounds. Not enough to stop him, but enough to be noticeable in his walk. 

The sun was low, red in the sky as what should have been the moments before dawn shone above them. Another hour and the sun would rise to orange, then back to the bright yellow of noon at barely 6AM. It was probably 4AM right now, and the dimmer light calmed much of the monsters in the area. The shimmering mountain cliffs and ice formations were stunning to behold. For now there was a moment of peace, so the mentor took it as a moment to heal his overzealous apprentice. 

“Zack,” Angeal called to him as they walked, though he was only a few yards ahead in the red snowscape. When his apprentice turned around, he held out his hand, and a green glow emitted from it before speeding into the boy. “Here.”

Zack looked at his body in slight bewilderment before he watched his scratches close before his eyes. He grinned and nodded at his mentor. “Thanks, Angeal!”

“Hm.” He mirrored the nodd in response before asking, “Did you forget to grab healing materia before we left?”

He scratched the back of his head and glanced away. “Nah, I just didn’t bring any,” He brushed off as he continued their march through the mountain. “I did stock up on potions though.”

“Zack.”

Oh no, not that tone. It took everything he had not to groan at the coming lecture.

“You can’t keep ignoring the necessity of healing materia.”

“But if I brought healing materia I’d sacrifice another elemental weakness to take advantage of, like you made me do with the barrier materia,” The black haired boy countered like a child, all but huffing with a pout.

“You never know what’s going to jump out at you. Especially in situations like this.” Angeal gestured to the cliffside littered with caves. “Any number of monsters can pop out of these and ambush us. An extra cure can be the difference between life and death, under intense circumstances,” He explained, but saw no reaction from his apprentice, who only slightly slowed their march through the snow as he searched in any direction besides himself. “Zack, are you listening to me-”

He ran ahead, his steps pounding through the white powder as Angeal stared in bewilderment, one arm in the air in a questioning motion. Then he sighed and dropped his hand, shaking his head. 

“Just like a puppy…” He muttered in slight frustration as he followed at a slower pace to scan for movement above his apprentice. 

The boy’s path was a straight line through unstable formations, but they both pressed forward. Zack sprinted over snow drifts and nearly started an avalanche from his incredible lack of stealth. But they quickly arrived at a cave of boulders near the bottom of the mountain, not a single monster track nearby. The entire entrance arched around the boulders, with cracks between each one, too small for a person to fit through. Yet when Zack reached the entrance, he grabbed the first rock larger than him and threw it yards away, then repeated the process for the next one. 

“Zack what are you-”

“Listen,” Zack commanded in a tone he never used with Angeal. Strict. Serious. Desperate. He finally locked eyes with his mentor and stopped all his movement. 

The only sound was the soft whistle of the wind through the peaks, but then he heard it, only thanks to his enhanced hearing from the mako. There was no mistaking it, though it was barely a wheeze, a whisper, a raspy voice on the wind, gliding softly within the boulders. 

“help…”

Zack saw the shock and confusion hit Angeal’s face the same way it hit him a few moments ago and instantly returned to his task. 

“Oh, shit!” Angeal threw himself from above the entrance and dug through the boulders rapidly. Who the hell is out here this time of year?! How did someone get caught in this? Snow from an avalanche was an understandable predicament. But how did this many boulders end up in one place?

Both of their questions only rose when the boulders were just as densely packed inside the cave, the rocks sharper as they broke further within. The structures formed clear shapes, sharp, rectangular growths from all walls in all directions. That was it. This person was attacked by something with earth materia, with the inner magics perfectly shaped and the boulders by the entrance worn down by the elements. But how long has this person been here? Each new discovery led to a new question rearing its ugly tilted head. How far were they from the entrance? Was this a tomb? No, it was too bare for that. They needed to focus on clearing the way, but something sounded strange. The voice, its direction…Not in front of them, but meters, meters, below. 

“What the hell…?” Zack mumbled to himself. It was back to spheres, the rocks. Whoever was under there was absolutely running out of time. The two SOLDIERs both shook off their shock and looked at each other. “Can we use any magic to clear it?”

“Not without risking an avalanche.”  Angeal stated. “Keep digging, and stay focused.” Though the order was given to his apprentice, his apprentice had every right to return it to him. They steeled their focus and tore through the final barrier. Zack launched the boulders to Angeal, and angeal knocked them out of the cave. They were running out of room, and the mound of rocks outside was only growing in size.

First they revealed a hand, and the person gasped weakly. Their pained pleas stopped until the SOLDIERs removed the weights. 

It was a man, covered in dirt, in all black clothing. Long zippered jacket, heavy boots, thick gloves. Sections of cloth were torn and degrading from obvious struggle. He was coughing, shaking, either from the damage already done to him or the relief of the lowered load to breathe easy again. His hair was blonde, spikey, like the leaves of a palm tree. But his eyes.

His slit pupil. Mako blue eyes. Sephiroth will need to see this if they can get this man back to HeadQuarters. 

Then the man sighed in relief as a raspy whisper, his foggy gaze straight ahead. “thank you…”

“Can you move?” Angeal questioned first, reaching out a hand to help the man up, a faint green glow emanating from it. Zack copied his mentor’s movements for the other hand.

But he shook his head so faintly it was barely visible, his odd gaze unmoving as it stared at the cleared ceiling. However, he moved his arm like molasses, deliberately, mechanically, to meet Angeal’s hand. It did the same for Zack’s, and the two carefully, slowly began lifting him up, first arching him to sit but then-

“Ah- ah-!” He yelped, the loudest sound they heard him make, when he tried to use his legs, and now he met their eyes, his desperate expression burning onto them both. 

“Come on, we got you,” Zack coaxed softly, mostly for himself, as both he and his mentor ducked under the man’s arms and held him up by both of their shoulders. He groaned from the movement, but he suddenly stopped. They both looked to see why. 

His head was down, his body limp and unmoving, his eyes closed. He passed out. After what they found him in, they couldn’t blame him, and they silently pulled him out of the cave. 

Angeal used his free hand to grab his phone out of his pocket and brought it to his ear. “This is Angeal. We need a copter near Icicle village. I’m sending coordinates now. We found someone. They need medical attention ASAP.”

“Why don’t you use a cure?” Zack questioned softly, with only the slightest hint of mockery from the earlier lecture.

Angeal gave a glare before finishing the conversation on his phone, “Understood. We’ll meet you in the plains.” He turned off his phone before answering his apprentice. “I did.”

They only now realized the cave was sloped down. This was intentional. This odd man’s suffering was planned.

* * * 

The rapid chopping of the helicopter blades deafening all other noise inside the craft, save for the headsets they all wore, on the flight back to Midgar. They kept communication to a minimum for that reason. Now that the SOLDIERs finally got this man out of the cold, they searched for wounds. Though the tears in his clothes showed no injuries, there was no possibility the boulders left him unscathed. 

The man was fixed in his seat along the wall, the seat belts and safety straps crossing over his body in multiple X formations. His head rolled and leaned with every tilt of the craft. Sadly, they lacked any item to support his neck on this journey, unless one of them held his head up the entire trip. But right now, he needed to be checked so they could dress any wounds possible. 

They started with his jacket, peeling the zipper down the long length of the coat. A coat nearly as long as Sephiroth’s, Zack couldn’t help but silently make the comparison. Opening it revealed a black V-neck shirt of thin fabric, perfectly formed around the torso, despite the small tears. Still no visible wounds. Zack carefully lifted the man’s shirt as high as he could, and with the faintest glide of his hand, he felt the ribs below the skin, broken, some even shattered like dining plates. 

“We should lay him down,” Zack yelled to Angeal over the roaring motor. 

Angeal nodded, unclipping the many, many straps that held him in place. There were few options for laying someone down, and Zack and Angeal silently accepted they would be standing or sitting on the floor for the rest of the trip. 

Zack removed the man’s gloves so he could get the jacket off while Angeal removed his boots. All of his clothes were perfectly fitted, barely any extra cloth for the simplest tasks like rolling up a sleeve. Luckily, his pants were a slight exception, and Angeal pushed the fabric up to his knee before hissing.

The leg wasn’t just broken. It was cracked, like ceramic, like a doll, across the man’s skin. How is that possible?

“Everything good?” Zack asked. 

Angeal shook his head before rolling the pant leg back down. “His leg will need extra attention when we get there.”

He nodded before returning to his search, but there was nothing. The rest of him was fine, the rest of him felt natural. There were too many questions. Far too many questions. How could the only things wrong with him be his ribs and his inhuman leg? How could anyone survive such a fate?

The only chance their questions could be answered, was in Midgar. 

But Midgar came with its own set of problems after arrival. The first task medical conducted was changing the man into a hospital gown, removing all of his dirt filled black clothing and immediately sending them away once completed. Then medical staff treated the man’s ribs, wrapping his chest in a thin but flexible cast to retain his breathing. He nearly awoke during the procedure, but staff immediately put him under anesthesia to keep him controlled and asleep. Then they placed ice packs above and around his wounds. However, one injury baffled every doctor in Midgar. They sent him to R&D for treatment of his cracked leg. And of course, the only lab equipped to handle such unknown issues, as it had with hundreds of monsters and experiments, was Doctor Hojo’s. His team, considering the brittle failure of the limb, reluctantly decided that a cast of super glue and acrylic epoxy may solidify the wound and prevent crack growth, but healing it wasn’t an option. 

Zack, because he found this John Doe, stayed with him through all procedures possible, and even managed to annoy Hojo into letting him and his mentor into the lab. Zack was sitting next to the operation bed, his eyes attentive but tired as they continuously scanned the strange man’s body. Angeal was standing in the corner of the room, and clicked off his phone as he finished his conversation. 

“He’s on his way. He’ll be here in five minutes,” the larger man relayed to his apprentice. 

“Hopefully this guy’s awake by then,” Zack mumbled softly. “The anesthesia should wear off any minute now.”

Angeal turned his gaze to the many beeping and churning machines the man was hooked up to. “Any identification updates?”

Zack shook his head. “No ID, no phone, and no one in Icicle Village has called to claim him.” He huffed in defeat. “At this point, Hojo’s itching to take DNA samples.”

“With that cracked leg, I can almost forgive him.” The mentor nodded in understanding before noticing the man’s fingers begin to twitch. “It doesn’t seem like it’s coming to that though.”

They watched him silently for a few more minutes, his hands closing and opening, his toes flexing and releasing, the wincing on his face when he tried to move his right foot. Slowly, he opened his eyes, a disoriented blur remaining through the half open lids. He groaned softly as he tried to adjust his body. 

Zack immediately stood next to the man and hushed him softly, “Hey, hey, it’s okay…”

Then realization came to his eyes and he stiffened in panic, scanning the bright white room with his slit pupils, now completely aware of everything around him, trying to fight the effects of the chemicals that had just kept him asleep. He stared in alarm at the young black haired boy, his pupils expanding and contracting in struggling focus. 

“Really,” Zack tried to explain, consoling this odd man like he would a child, “It’s okay. We got you help. We’re in a hospital in Midgar.”

The worry vanished from his eyes as he analyzed both soldiers. Then a clear memory passed through the man’s mind and he tried to speak, his raspy voice still only a whisper. “You saved me…”

“Of course we did,” Zack explained with the slightest cocky hint to his tone before returning to calm and caution. “We’re not just gonna leave you there.”

“Thank you…” His voice was innocent, tired. It seemed like he wanted to say more, but he silenced, continuing to scan the room.

“Can you move your arms?”

He nodded slowly, lifting them level with his shoulders before dropping them back down with much more speed than they expected. 

Angeal gave a small grunt in approval. “Good. Can you sit up?”

He placed his hands behind him and pushed his upper body from the bed with the same speed, and winced slightly. 

Zack gave an apologetic look. “That’s gotta be the ribs.”

“You won’t be able to walk yet. Just relax,” Angeal explained when the man tried to shift his legs off of the bed, who then stopped at the instruction. “Can you talk? What’s your name?”

“It’s Cloud…” He wheezed before a beep made him turn to the machines at his side, then he glanced between the wires attached to the metal to the wires attached to himself.

“What’s your full name?”

“Just…Cloud…” His eyes squinted in confusion and he tilted his head. “What are those…?”

They followed his sight. 

“That’s just a heart rate monitor, man,” Zack explained with the slightest confusion, but he watched the realization hit Cloud as he came to one himself. “You’re probably still in shock after what happened. We can’t blame you.”

He only gripped his light blue hospital gown with crossed brows. A pause waved through the room as the man tried to regulate his breathing. After a moment, he asked, “Where are my clothes…?”

“They were sent for cleaning. They’ll probably be back within an hour or two.”

He glared down at his replacement in disgust before twisting his expression to acceptance. Then he glanced at the mirror, another pause before a strained response. “Who’s watching us…?”

Both soldiers glanced at each other before one tried to answer. 

“It could be anyone,” Zack explained. “Probably just a lab tech. They won’t bother you.” 

He nodded softly. 

“Can you answer some of our questions, Cloud?”

He gave a confused shift of his shoulders. “I can try… Everything’s blurry… and my throat...” He trailed off as he brought a hand to the front of his neck and rubbed the muscles there tenderly. Despite all the questions he was asking, each word struggled through his body. 

Zack and Angeal nodded to each other before the mentor responded. “Just rest for now. No need to push yourself.”

But just as he finished, and the slightest relief seeped into Cloud’s expression, the sliding door opened with a beep, and the silver general stood in its wake, his silver hair and striking black uniform as perfect as always. All three of them turned to face him, Angeal about to greet his old friend when the patient suddenly launched out of the bed and kneeled before the silver First Class, ignoring the pain from his shattered leg and willing his shaking to halt. He faced the floor, not daring to look into the other’s slit eyes. The taller man took a small step back in bewilderment.

“My prince,” Cloud addressed in the most powerful, assertive voice they heard him muster since the cave, as if truly before a court of the olden days. “It’s good to see you are well.”

Was all of this some kind of elaborate ploy by some overly obsessed fanboy? Sephiroth only raised a brow at the absurd action before giving a dirty look to the two soldiers. Angeal and Zack were too busy sharing frustrated ‘I don’t know’ shrugs to stop the situation or address the general. 

“You may not know,” The blonde continued, “But your mother would be proud to see what you’ve become.”

Sephiroth sighed before returning to the stern demeanor he was known for. “I don’t know what you’ve read, but nothing in those ‘fan updates’ are true. Now please get back on the bed.”

He followed the order immediately, and only showed a reaction to his pain when he held a hand to his ribs and gripped tightly at his right leg. “I speak the truth, My prince. Your mother would give anything to see you now.”

What is with the obsession with his mother? Crossing his arms at the man, he was now convinced found the most realistic pair of contacts just to annoy him. The silver general swallowed a groan before challenging, “If you claim to know my mother, what was her name?”

The blonde stared at him, his eyes reflecting Sephiroth’s like a perfect mirror, as his pupils expanded and contracted quickly. “I believe here, she was called… J-e-n-o-v-a…” He spoke the name slowly, as if reading it for the first time. “Yes, Jenova.”

Now the silver general tensed. His eyes widened, his heart pounding in his ears from the sound of the name. “Yes…” was all he mumbled, shock claiming his throat. 

He nodded, “How are you feeling?”

The new bizarre question had him shake his head. “What?”

“Are you satisfied here?”

Okay, this was not going as expected. “No,” he tried to shift the topic back as he started to approach the odd man, “What do you know about my mother?”

He paused and seemed to be lost in thought before he responded. “She was a queen, of more than you know.”

“Well well…” A new voice cut off the silver general before he could respond as the door opened once again, a black haired scientist with black glasses entered the room without even glancing in the general’s direction. “Glad to see you’re awake and well,” he purred in his slimy voice. 

The look of otherworldly hatred on Sephiroth’s face did not go unnoticed by the patient. “Hojo,” he seethed, “I was in the middle of questioning him.” 

“Don’t you have a meeting soon?”

“Stop checking my schedule. You shouldn’t have access-”

The scientist simply waved the general off as if speaking to a low level recruit. 

“I will not answer your questions before my prince’s,” The patient stated coldly. 

Hojo gave the blonde an intrigued look, the gears in his mind and the knowledge unknown to the soldiers stirring within. Usually this tossing aside would annoy him, but he found himself hiding a grin. This was more than a fanboy, from the eyes alone. “That’s fine,” He answered, genuinely surprising the soldiers around him, “I’ll return later, then.” The scientist swiftly left the chamber, but both the patient and the general felt the eyes of the demon dripping on them. 

Sephiroth looked to the patient, and saw the same thoughts running in his head. “Nevermind. I’ll ask later.”

“Do you hate him?” Cloud questioned simply. 

Sephiroth only nodded, absolute disgust and malice in his gaze at the one way glass, but he had no idea what that nod would bring. 

This man was different. This ‘Cloud’, as he was named by his queen, would kill to protect her wish without hesitation. Her son’s happiness was her greatest wish, and what was the life of anyone that caused such blatant hatred? One greasy doctor? One rich commander in chief? A witch in red? A bull in green? A crimson competition? Nothing. They were all nothing, not even opponents as the Cetra were. He was her weapon, and he would lead his prince to her as well as carry away the burdens of his prince through the gates of Hell himself. He had to play along for now, adapt to this evolved world, before taking action for the sake of his prince. For Sephiroth.

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Thanks for reading!

Author’s note: I wrote this while sick, during finals week. I sneezed between every sentence but god I was happy to do something besides study. Hope you enjoyed it! (check tags for more notes)

[sigery]

Fic ideas

Will I ever get around to writing anything? Maybe? Will I finish it? Less likely.

Mer AUs

You are working at an aquarium or lab or something with mer Sun and Moon. Life isn’t bad for them but you know they would be happier in the ocean again. There isn’t much you can do other than make sure they continue to be well taken care of. Then you get a new intern, Eli Clips and the boys take to him rather quickly, particularly Moon who hates most humans. You suspect your intern isn’t who he says but he might be key in releasing the boys back to freedom.

Kids Aren’t Snacks- Moon disposed of the bodies and The White Rabbit’s crew stayed out of his territory. A snack for him and safety for Sun. This worked fine till they threw a kid who had seen too much overboard.

Pissed off a coworker who feeds you to the "man eating" mers... but one, Moon only ate someone's limb and that was after they kept invading his space. two, they threw you in Sun's tank (which is connected to Moon's tank, but finders keepers or something). May include Sun thinking it's a test because he might get to be in a petting zoo event (and teeth gummies so no one gets nibbled by sharkish teeth)

Show Mer boys get Y/N as a (snack) treat, they keep them as a bud instead because Y/N is too cute for actual eating. Only nice noms

Nomad!Glitch and Lunar- Lunar was an orphaned scavenger; Glitch took reluctant pity on them (he grew up an orphan till his late teens), leaving them leftovers, letting them sleep near him (cuddle the shivering bae), etc. Eventually Glitch lashed out (doesn't feel he's safe/reliable), nearly injuring Lunar who fled. Glitch regretted it immediately but didn’t follow... till a few hours later when he heard Lunar crying for help. Glitch tore the attacker's arm off and nommed Lunar. Ends up 'adopting' him because Lunar won't stay with Eclipse so he is mostly nomadic like Glitch {} Glitch killed a frenzied shark mer that tried to eat Lunar... found teeny baby Blood Moon in their pouch after they died. Lunar is officially a preteen, Mostly self-sufficient (fast and sneaky scavenger) except for when he can't outrun a bigger predator. Up in the air if Glitch adopts BM or give them to Eclipse because he can't raise a baby normally, let alone as a nomad

Research/zoo/whatever. Reader is put with Eclipse since he is the calmest and most level headed of the mers, plus he doesn't have a tankmate. Sun and Moon are tankmates, Glitch and Lunar are tankmates (Lunar is still relatively new and an anxious baby)

Animatronic(?) AUs

Abandoned pizza plex, they think we are a child that needs protecting

Apocalypse; boys protect you from harsh elements and possible creatures

Zombie Apocalypse (1); You are abandoned by someone important to you, "Survival of the fittest" or something. Glitch finds you, thinks you are a cute morsel, noms you, ends up finding the person that abandoned you and breaks their leg... survival of the fittest, but they aren't too fit now. (The others probably have a camp of people they are taking care of where Glitch presumably take you to)

Powerful (Mafia maybe) boys save you from abusive s/o

Brother Location daycare; Picture this; mega pizza plex burns down, Sun is mostly okay so they send him (& you, his handler) to another location. Moon seems virus free, but he is still under review. So Sun is partnered up with the location's current naptime attendant, Lunar (soft pastel smaller Moon basically). You are curious about what happened to the previous daycare attendant before Sun, there is no recorded info on him and no one will tell you anything. Eventually you end up in the basement and find who you were looking for… Management couldn’t decommission him, so they locked him down in the basement. He is infected with a dangerous virus and has ‘upgraded’ himself with extra limbs and quite a bit of height. The question remains whether he sees you as friend, foe, or food? {} Now including Glitch's kid; Blood Moon (BM or Scarlet) because he was lonely

Other 'Fantasy' AUs

Dragon!Sun was supposed to kidnap a royal… we aren’t a royal but he took us anyway

Dragon!Sun kills a group of knights, adopts squire!reader because we are 'innocent'. We are a treasure now.

Reader’s village is in danger, so they sacrifice Reader to their main god Eclipse in hopes they will be saved. Reader arrives at the temple/shrine/whatever to learn Eclipse is already doing that and the sacrifice wasn’t really necessary… regardless of who is there, Reader will end up adopted and/or Nom’d… how the initial meeting goes does depend on who was there. (Sun wants to keep them till Eclipse comes back at least so they don’t get in trouble with the village, Moon basically says “no take backs”, and Glitch is ecstatic at tiny and tasty friend)

Writing the apology chapter to Glitch in the Mythical Creature Research and Retreat storyline

Literally anything for the Nesting Doll SCP, but particularly interactions with Mango's Colossal SCP boys

“I can’t let you buy that creature if you won’t hire Y/N, not in good conscience. It’s far too wild for a random keeper.” your boss told them. (Whatever this is supposed to be)

'Magical Familiar' AU featuring Reader!Rat, Dog!Sun, Cat!Moon, Owl!Eclipse, Raccoon!Glitch. We were a domestic rat that was abandoned. Moon saves us from eating rat poisoned food.

Yeti!Sun saves you from freezing to death (avalanche? lost hiker? etc?)

Pirate!Glitch and fairy!Reader

Reader is a prey animal (Rabbit? Mouse? Small bird?). They are bought and then set loose along with some other prey to be hunted down by the owner’s actual pets; a range of predators. They struggle to avoid predators, using their smaller size to their advantage. Eventually though they are cornered by Glitch. He eats them and they cry and squirm, terrified of a slow death by digestion. A while later, Glitch throws them up in his ‘room’. There they meet Sun, a similar species to Glitch. Unlike Glitch, Sun’s tail is almost fully missing. Sun can walk, but without his tail, he can’t run or jump very well. Glitch won't abandon Sun, so he is kind of stuck there (possibly implied Glitch/Sun, but it's a cover up to keep Sun safe since Glitch is aggressive enough to claim full 'ownership' to Sun)

"I have an obsession with harpies I think" AUS

Pouch Passenger: Naga!Moon gets kidnapped to reptile research facility with Harpy!Sun in his "naptime belly". After malpractice and a lot of human death; we, an avian specialist get hired. Sun takes a liking to us. Eclipse, the boys' older brother is eventually shows up at another research facility and there will be (hopefully) wholesome stuff there with a bit of angst

Baby-Harpy!Glitch (possible same verse as Pouch Passenger): I decided reader couldn't be taking care of Glitch and have their job with Sun at the same time. So now reader's coworker (reader 2) will have Glitch instead. Glitch is artificially created by their previous job, possibly because harpies are endangered. None had survived till Glitch, however he was still messed up. The company still tried to work with him (shock collar? general abuse?), but ultimately decided it was impossible so they were going to terminate him. Reader 2 thought it was unethical so they fought the company for ‘ownership’ of him. Reader 1 helped them, which is how they ended up jobless. So reader 2 will get custody of Glitch (who will grow up an entitled ass because reader 2 babied him due to traumatizing beginning) and there is still the possibly that little Glitch will get to visit Sun and Moon (he will get one of those child leash backpacks when he wants to walk… though he prefers to be held by reader 2)… well this is what I’m planning but who knows if I will get to it

Baby-Naga!Glitch (possible same verse as Pouch Passenger) As much as I like my baby-harpy!Glitch, the idea of baby-naga!Glitch is creeping up on me. Like the lab that took Eclipse happens to find an egg and the baby has 4 arms like Eclipse so obviously it would be his. Other than the additional arms, Glitch looks nothing like Eclipse, but the arms! Eclipse is confused like I don’t have a kid? The last mate I thought about tried to eat Sun and that wasn’t happening. Seriously, couldn’t be my kid. Then he proceeds to watch Glitch accidentally tangle himself up in his own tail and is like “On second thought, I want him. Give me the baby, hopefully he is less of a little shit than Moon” (oh how wrong Eclipse is).

Harpy Family- Adult!Eclipse, Teenage!Glitch, Baby!Sun & Moon: Eclipse leaving teenage Glitch to watch baby Sun and Moon at home to do something important. Glitch is upset because he can't leave them alone, predators or something. So Glitch put them in his pouch and leaves anyway. Eclipse comes back and panics because everyone is missing. When he gets back Glitch of course argues there wasn't a rule against leaving and he did take care of the boys. Eclipse is not amused. {} Teenage-Harpy!Glitch: so when do they start eating solid food? / Eclipse: They already do, why do you ask- turns around Why is there a human here? / Glitch: I'm being a good brother and feeding them / Eclipse: The food needs to be smaller than them to start! / Us: trapped between the sleeping boys who are barely smaller than us I'm all for cuddling, but I would prefer not to be eaten actually

"Might as well make a section for Nagas" AUs

We own Naga!Eclipse, Naga!Moon, and Naga!Sun already. We adopt Naga!Glitch who was about to get euthanized because he is uncooperative and dangerous. Glitch lost an arm (down to 3) and an eye (down to 1) from his previous 'family' which is why he is so untrusting.

Me giving Glitch a super dark and angsty backstory, then a codependent people pleaser Lunar that almost starves himself to death when he got separated from Glitch for his 'safety'. Hopefully will end up with us. Eclipse probably was in a 'dog fighting' ring before he was adopted by us. This might be combined with the above in some manner. Glitch and Lunar are huge angst messes... I can possibly get them a more comfortable setting, but they won't ever be okay okay.

Something about lab or zoo setting, Moon is constantly muzzled for bad behavior... something something plot

Similar to Pouch Passenger but Sun is a naga too

Lunar based AUs

Glitch got kidnapped by a research facility when he was young. He eventually meets Lunar and ends up escaping with the young hybrid to take home to his brothers. They are a rabbit that Lunar decided was for cuddling not eating... might include Moon and Glitch fighting since Moon joined the 'clan' later so he doesn't know Glitch. Probably vague physical rehab because Lunar has a broken leg (from his abusive mother), which was the push that Glitch needed to actually leave. {} Creature!Glitch: *coughs up bunny!reader* Food / Creature!Lunar: Fluffy! *cuddling reader* / Glitch: no no no, that’s for eating / Lunar: *burying his face in reader’s fur, muffled* so soft / Glitch: *pulls reader away from Lunar* Do you need me to kill it for you? / Lunar: *horrified, starts to cry* no, no, no! / Glitch: *panicking now* wait, no. don’t- *shoves reader back into Lunar’s arms* Lunar: *takes reader back and snuggles them closer, turning over to face away from Glitch* / Reader: *shocked to still be alive* / {Later once things calm down} / Glitch: So what do you need them for? / Lunar: To cuddle / Glitch: *pouts* I cuddle with you / Lunar: Not enough! / Glitch: I can’t hunt and cuddle you / Lunar: Yes *pats reader’s head* cuddle friend / Reader: *content to snuggle because Lunar is also soft, knowing Glitch is an apex predator so we are safe from being consumed*

Reader is sacrificed to God!Eclipse. He doesn't really have a use for them. Lunar asks to have them. Eclipse is wary at first because humans are small and fragile and would need extensive time and effort to take care of. Lunar can be forgetful and easily distracted so having a living creature that depends on him is a very iffy situation. Lunar is insistent that he will take good care of reader and will love them lots

Foster Parent!Reader & Child!Lunar with his guardian angel demon, Glitch.