#Shoutout to people wisely pointing out she would mostly share hometown wisdom with future avatars

[theriu]

Ya’ll are keeping Stinky Jess constantly in my periphery and I am delighted, so until I get some Actual Art drawn, here are some random Stinky Jess facts under the cut (largely made up on the spot):

Pets: Two catgators named Betty-Lou and Hoffstetter. Rides them like waterskis.

Actually started doing earthbending soon after she learned waterbending but no one realized it for years because it’s just muddy water, right? That’s definitely still waterbending, right? Sure, it’s a little THICKER than other muddy waterbending sometimes, but—

Enjoyed making her own firebending will-o-the-wisps to lead trespassers away from the villages and also to mess with friends. Took umbrage with any actual spirit will-o-the-wisps who tried to and lead people to their doom, though. (Ironically, swamp tribespeople came to trust will-o-the-wisps more because hers were harmless and the spirit ones stay on their best behavior now.)

Every few years or decade, got in a fresh argument with one of the past avatars via Avatar State Convo about how she’s supposed to go out into the world and manage things among the nations. She staunchly maintained that the swamp tribes are ALSO important and have their OWN human and spirit issues, and “it don’t sound like none o’ ya’ll other avatars have paid us no mind,” and they had to admit that nothing terribly unbalancing was happening in the other nations right now, “so probly ain’t nothin’ terrible gonna happen if’n I keep bein’ avatar for these here folks.” Nothing bad ever came of this so she maintains to this day that she was right.

She then badgered whoever-it-was into telling some juicy story from their life and teaching her a fun new bending trick.

First inventor of that cool “swamp monster” vinebending trick Huu does in A:TLA. Naturally, she used it mostly to freak out friends and neighbors.

Disappeared into the depths of the banyan-grove tree one time for like a month, during which some unsettling swamp tremors happen. Came back with a new campfire story about how she punched some huge grumpy spirit in the face. She in fact restored balance by defeating a growing evil that would have poisoned all the world’s water from the depths of the swamp, but she’s oddly vague on those details. Modern-day researchers would have to talk to some actual spirits who were there to get the full scope of the averted calamity.

Used airbending and waterbending to make air bubbles for swamp-diving. Had an impressive collection of ancient relics and lost junk and an unsettling large catgator skull.

Despite being an unrepentant prankster, Stinky Jess was very fair-minded on points of actual justice and grew up to be a pretty good mediator of feuds. Her methods were, of course, sometimes unorthodox; she once stopped an inter-tribal feud by swamp-stinking everyone involved out of their villages and not letting them back in until they sat down and talked things out like adults. This is celebrated as a yearly holiday up to the present day (celebrating involves camping in canoes and kids throwing stinky mudballs at each other).

May or may not have snuck out of the swamp a few times in her life to track down other low-key offshoot tribes. Always came back with some outlandish story like how she fought a giant sand monster or rode a dragon. [Scribe’s Note: Reminds me of something from Si Wong merchant accounts, check records when home again.]

Future avatars who happen to contact Ol’ Stinky Jess usually enjoy chats on such mundane but important topics as how to resolve feuds between neighbors with strangely similar pie recipes.

I like to think that at least once, the Avatar cycle seemed to skip the Water Tribe—like people knew it was the water tribe’s turn, everyone was looking for them, the tests are done on all the kids, but like 60-80 years go by and no avatar until some Earth Kingdom kid shows up. People wonder if the cycle skipped a generation or what, but nothing serious was going on at that time so they shrug and move on.

It’s only many many years later that someone is researching Swampbender oral history and someone tells the story of “Ol Stinky Jess, she was a funny one, could light the swamp on fire an’ all sorts o’ shenanigans! Best catfishgator catcher in the tribe, she was” and thats literally it, she just lived a totally chill life in the swamp and nobody knew what an avatar was at the time so they just rolled with that funny gal’s odd bending ways.