#TOPH IS JUST TWO YEARS YOUNGER

[tellhulla]

The most frustrating part about Katara not fighting in LOK is that it could have been explained by 30 seconds of dialogue

Katara: I wish I could fight but my back just hasn't been the same since that epic fight when I was 54 so it's better if I stick to healing and help people that way

Literally any other character: oh yes, your famous epic fight against enemy number 38, the one where you almost died, everyone knows about that fight

Katara: anyway back to the plot

It was literally that simple

[harleyification]

To the people who came up with the AU of Korra being Sokka's granchild??

I love you. So fucking much. You're amazing and I hope that you're living your best lives.

[pshbites]

LOVE ON AiR: 16. YAP CENTRAL EP.136: did social media ruin relationships?

WARNiNGS » profanity, mentions of d wording, sexual jokes, crying, ynhoon teasing, yn never being safe

wc: 3.1k

episode desc - enjoy your stay today in yap central! as we’ve done the whole cycle, todays episode is a deeper one! we open up with a positive impact we’ve seen on each other. then we go right in with how our presence on social media has affected our relationships. following that up we keep the theme of the deeper episode and go over the influence social media has on us and how we view ourselves. we end the episode off by saying one thing we’ve noticed about one another as we’ve grown and how we think it affects the friendship. the episode ends off on a bittersweet note but we hope you enjoyed your stay today in yap central!

*the 6 of you are seated in your assigned seats. jungwon adjusts the soundboard and riki tests the mic out, then giving him a thumbs up. sunoo sets his mic up a little closer to pick up his audio and looks to the camera, setting his phone down*

sunoo: it’s been so long since we sat in here

giselle: i know like two weeks right?

yn: i think almost three *you say, adjusting your outfit as well as your seating position. riki scoots over so you have more room.*

jungwon: i mean it counts as like a summer break since we didn’t really take one.

kat: good point. you know guys do you guys remember those um fuck what were they called

riki: it would help if you gave a description

kat: shut up im thinking

*the rest of you stare at kat in silence until jungwon breaks the silence to laugh, the rest of you following suit*

jungwon: im sorry it’s just what could it be that has you thinking that long

giselle: she’s using everything in that little brain come on now!

*giselles comment makes the rest of you laugh even harder, kat laughing as well*

kat: i can’t even think of it nevermind

yn: it’s okay babe you’ll find it later.

riki: i have to say these costumes are amazing actually. might be my favorite theme

giselle: you know riki you’ve been hating a lot less recently.

jungwon: i was gonna say that too, he’s a bit nicer

riki: what can i say, finally holding my deal for the new year’s resolution

yn: watch now that we said this he’s gonna be doing some fucked up shit by the time the episode comes out

*a text box pops up on the screen saying “he in fact did do some fucked up shit during the editing process of the episode - jungwon” then disappears after a couple seconds.*

riki: you have no faith in me

yn: simply stating the facts

jungwon: you guys ready for me to sign in?

kat: go for it man *she nods at jungwon who smiles back. jungwon adjusts himself and looks to the camera*

jungwon: beep beep! you’ve arrived in yap central i am your host today, jungwon or aang. starting from my far left we have.

kat: toph

riki: zuko

yn: katara!

giselle: azula

sunoo: appa!! *he shows off his fuzzy appa bucket hat, earning a smile from all of you*

yn: sunoo i love you please don’t die

*sunoo looks at you in horror as the others burst out laughing*

jungwon: anyways.. *nervous laugh* the cycle is complete so today is a deep episode!

giselle: oh my god last time i literally bawled on my way home

kat: won you always pick the most brutal questions

sunoo: i cannot believe you asked us if the younger versions of ourselves would like the us now. like that is so ugh

riki: look at the way he’s smiling i think it’s something torturing again

*jungwon grins evilly at everyone making the rest of you groan in both discomfort and agony.*

jungwon: starting with my first question! what is a positive impact you have noticed on each of us. let’s start with sunoo. you guys don’t have to go one at a time just build it up.

sunoo: okay well.. lay it on me. *he looks to the rest of you, nervously, then shocked at who speaks up first*

riki: you laugh a lot more

*giselles eyes widened as riki spoke, the rest of you sharing the same reaction. everyone stayed quiet so riki could talk.*

riki: like when we were in highschool you always seemed to be bothered, or like you just never really were happy. and i think when we started doing this and you started tiktok you’ve been a lot happier

yn: i was honestly gonna say the same thing. you seem happier when we go out sunoo, like you want to be there.

sunoo: i feel a lot happier, honestly it sounds stupid but doing this with you guys does make me really happy.

kat: i agree. i mean i really wouldn’t trade it for anything.

giselle: awww look at us having our moment!

*both you and sunoo giggle at giselles comment, jungwon nodding to giselle, signaling she’s next*

kat: giselle, you don’t really care what people have to say about you anymore.

jungwon: ahhhh i was gonna say that

kat: like you seem so much more confident now than you did before.

giselle: when though? because i feel like i just started feeling like this overnight.

yn: if i were to pinpoint a time frame id say when you broke up with [BLEEP]

sunoo: no i COMPLETELY agree, like there’s a brightness to you now.

giselle: aw thank you guys *she pouted then smiled*

jungwon: guys please be nice to me.

riki: you’ve always been a natural born leader. i just think you’ve always been positive.

yn: i agree but there’s like a glow to him now

kat: oh my god are you pregnant?

*everyone looks at kat then bursts out laughing. some of you stop but jungwon and giselle can’t stop laughing.*

sunoo: oh my god it has something to do with who gave you that bracelet

jungwon: sunoo seriously *his cheeks turn pink, hand now covering the friendship bracelet*

giselle: oooo who made it for you?

jungwon: it was a mutual swap

yn: mutual swap.. or she gave you that wap?

*the others start laughing again, jungwon as well. riki daps you up*

riki: that was a bar

jungwon: i’m not admitting anything.. on camera.

everyone: OOOOOOOO

jungwon: next! go flame yn!!

yn: not fair, we weren’t even done with you

jungwon: don’t care, you’re not as closed off as you used to be

riki: oh my god yeah, when we were kids you were so shy

yn: really? i feel like im still in my little shell

kat: no i get what they mean. i mean even when i met you, you were really shy.

yn: thank you?

riki: i think jungwon means it in the way that you’re more open to meeting others now. like you enjoy being a people person

yn: ahhh, i see now. i guess the podcast really helped with that. like seeing people say how they enjoy my little bits and just things like that. it sounds conceited but it almost made me feel like people actually valued me? you know.

giselle: i get it, it doesn’t sound conceited babe

yn: okay i don’t like this much attention

giselle: this sounds weird to say but riki has gotten nicer atleast to us

kat: yeah i see

riki: die

sunoo: glad to know you haven’t changed..

jungwon: guess someone doesn’t wanna open up today

riki: oh would you look at that! it’s kats turn!!

yn: i think kats tells us a lot more now. like before you never really told us anything about yourself.

kat: i just have trust issues, it was nothing personal.

giselle: it’s true it took her so long to open up to me

riki: i honestly think the podcast brought out the best in us. surprisingly enough

jungwon: i see what you mean. maybe another way to put it is that we realized how much closer the camera brought us

giselle: or this friendship is just a ploy for jungwon to make more money off of us

*everyone laughs*

sunoo: we’re such coworkers

yn: heard it here first!! giselle hates her friends

giselle: can you stop with that *laughs*

yn: oh i’ll drag it through the mud

giselle: then i’ll drag yn[BLEEP] through the mud

*everyone laughs even harder now, you side eyeing giselle.*

sunoo: she kinda got you there

yn: let’s move on?

jungwon: speaking of relationships. *you glare jungwon down as he chuckles a little, looking at his phone once more.* how do you guys think social media affected your relationships and how do you think social media just influences how you view yourself. you can answer it in any order.

sunoo: i feel like having a presence on social media just makes having a relationship so much harder.

giselle: it kinda does, like people just expect for you to lay out your entire lives on social media.

jungwon: i think it depends on what kind of person you’re with, it’s almost like that person has to be up to your fans standards you know.

yn: i think there’s some people who can be normal about it but at the same time you have to be okay with everyone knowing everything about you.

kat: yeah but then it just shows that people online think that we don’t deserve privacy. it’s fucked up like they’re borderline stalking us you know?

*riki glanced at you as kat spoke, noticing how you stiffened at the word stalking*

riki: a lot of people aren’t okay online, it’s weird. like being so obsessed with someone to the point of finding out their personal information

giselle: if that ever happened to any of us i really don’t know what i would do.

jungwon: i think i honestly would try to sue you know. you have to be a certain level of fucked to do something like that.

yn: yeah, i agree it’s so weird.

kat: i kinda don’t wanna sound like a pick me

riki: just say it, you won’t sound like one.

kat: it’s so much harder being a girl with a social media presence.

sunoo: the fact that you had to hesitate to even say that says everything

jungwon: i really don’t get it either, like i’ve seen both women and men do the same things online and sometimes the guy is worse than the girl and yet it’s always the girl getting attacked and harassed.

giselle: i think it’s because people just view girls as easy targets almost. like a girl could do something completely normal and the internet would spin it to make her a villain

yn: it’s disgusting really, no one really ever really wants to side with a girl.

jungwon: do the comments still get you guys? i mean i know it was really bad in the beginning

kat: actually no i remember when it got bad. it got bad that episode where [BLEEP]

*jungwon and giselle glance at each other then start laughing*

giselle: remind me to edit that out.

yn: honestly no, the comments don’t bother as much anymore. after a while i realized that they’re just saying this because they have nothing else to talk about so i just stopped looking.

kat: i agree, it gets better when you just stop reading the comments all together.

riki: god please take periods away from women and give it all to me.

*you and kat give riki a look then burst out laughing, sunoo jungwon and giselle following that.*

sunoo: can’t stay serious for a second

riki: i would never joke about women in pain

*jungwon and kat keep laughing as riki goes on, unable to take him seriously*

yn: going back to the original question i just think it’s hard, like seeing people overstep a boundary or intrude on your life and just be okay with it

sunoo: and people just say oh well you asked for this um? no i didn’t actually i just wanted post skincare videos

*jungwon snorts, causing a chain reaction for everyone else to laugh*

kat: im glad we haven’t cried in this episode yet.

giselle: oh my god don’t jinx it he still has two more questions

jungwon: you might cry at this next one *kat sends a look to jungwon and he gives her an evil smile* my next question is what changes have we seen in one another as we’ve grown up together. it can be good or bad.

riki: jungwons lost it this is so similar to the first question

yn: i feel like he means overall

jungwon: thank you! atleast someon listens to me

yn: *you look around shocked and confused* oh my god.. did you guys hear that? was that a ghost?

*jungwon stares at you as everyone else laughs at your joke*

sunoo: so are we gonna go around in a circle?

jungwon: no how about.. the person sitting across from you. like riki sits across from giselle so they can say it about each other

kat: wait i wanna start

sunoo: this is too much pressure

kat: *she stares at sunoo and smiles warmly* sunoo i admire your love for us. like i don’t know you always support all of us no matter what and i feel like as we’ve grown closer you just have so much love to give

giselle: that’s so adorable

riki: sunoo i love your videos please don’t die

sunoo: STOP WITH THAT JOKE *he turns to look at kat* thank you kat i love you. i have to say sometimes i feel like you don’t tell us everything but it’s okay, just because we’re your friends doesn’t mean we have to know everything about you. i just want you to know that we’ll always listen no matter what.

*kat stares at sunoo as he smiles at her, then looks down when she feels tears welling up in her eyes. riki looks at giselle and jungwon panicked as they pass him the box of tissues.*

yn: aw babe *you frown looking at her as she lifts her head up to see tears streaming down her cheeks*

sunoo: wait i didn’t mean to make you cry

kat: it’s okay i jinxed myself

*everyone laughs slightly, still worried about her. sunoo moves his mic and gets up to hug kat. they stay like that for a few seconds until he lets go, patting her head. he says something but the mic can’t pick it up then walks back to his seat.*

kat: it’s not that i don’t want there was just a time where i felt like no one really care you know?

jungwon: you’re not obligated to tell us everything, but we care more than you think even if we have weird ways of showing it. *he glares at riki who only throws his hands up*

*the rest of you laugh at riki’s reaction and even kat lets out a chuckle after wiping her tears*

kat: to the viewers watching.. this never happened i am mysterious and batman doesn’t cry

giselle: nurse.. she’s out again

riki: okay giselle! lay it on me! *claps his hands together*

giselle: you use being mean as a cover up you actually care a lot about what people think but you use being rude or mean as a shield.

*sunoo gasps, the rest of you stare in silence because giselle is 100% right*

riki: okay cut the cameras

jungwon: i mean she’s not wrong

riki: if you wanted me to cry it’s not gonna happen

giselle: i know

riki: i hate you guys

sunoo: yeah sure you do

riki: well, since you want a taste of your own medicine *riki clears his throat* you shouldn’t get into another relationship, atleast until you evaluate how you act during them.

giselle: excuse me?

jungwon: weird ass time to admit your feelings

riki: you’re a weirdo that’s not how i meant it

yn: well then how did you mean it

kat: i’m curious

riki: every time i've seen you get into a relationship you just stop acting like yourself. you’re less confident and it’s almost as if you change yourself to please the guy you’re with. I just don’t like seeing any of my friends like that.

*all of you stare in silence at giselle, the air feeling heavy as she pushes her mic away and mumbles something to jungwon then ups and leaves.*

yn: um. is she okay?

jungwon: she needs a second

riki: was it something i said?

jungwon: it’ll be okay, she just said she needs a second.

sunoo: she’ll be okay guys, let’s move on yeah?

yn: okay well.. jungwon i think you bottle a lot of things up, intentional or not.

jungwon: *he sighs, crossing his arms* it’s not intentional i just think you guys have too many worries on your own plates to worry about mine.

kat: even if we have a lot going on that’ll never stop us from wanting to know what’s going on won

jungwon: i know i guess it’s just hard? to admit i need help?

sunoo: there’s never anything wrong with that

jungwon: thanks guys

riki: yeah yeah

jungwon: okay yn, im glad you like yourself more

kat: um

riki: wow!

sunoo: that is certainly a statement

yn: excuse me??

jungwon: no i worded that terribly

*the 5 of you burst out laughing at jungwons poor word choice. within this time giselle walks back in, closing the door slightly. the mics can’t pick it up but riki mouths “im sorry” to her. causing her to shake her head and smile. “it’s good” she mouths back making him smile back.*

jungwon: what i mean to say is that you’re more confident now. not just about yourself but your videos too. i’m glad to see this change in you

yn: thank you won, it means a lot

jungwon: of course

giselle: well this was certainly an episode

yn: one of us always ends up crying

sunoo: that sadist probably likes it too

jungwon: woah? the term isn’t sadist

*the rest of you laugh*

sunoo: let’s have a group hug! everyone up on your feet

*sunoo stands up, kat and giselle following suit. you and jungwon stand up and riki groans, then reluctantly stands up. the 6 of you huddle around one another and go for a group hug. the mics can’t pick up your voices but the recording has slight shuffling and giggles from you 6. after a couple seconds you pull apart and sit back down in your respective seats.*

giselle: i love you guys

kat: me too

sunoo: me three

jungwon: me four

yn: me five

*everyone looks at riki who only rolls his eyes*

riki: me six..

jungwon: well guys hope you enjoyed your stay in yap central we hope you didn’t cry too much. i have been your host jungwon and please make sure to check out our links in this description and like, share, subscribe, and comment! till next time!!

previous masterlist next

AUTHORS NOTE » lol UMMMMMMM sorry guys i didnt realize how long it had been without an update WE ARE SO BACK THO

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[sapphic-agent]

So, a Kataang fan made a post about a week ago "asking" (rhetorically, of course) why it's a bad thing Katara acts like Aang's mom. And I just-

First of all, isn't that something that Kataang shippers have been trying to actively dispute for almost two decades at this point? That Katara doesn't treat Aang as a younger brother/son? There's literally an entire post about it from The Headband that's made its rounds on almost every single social media platform.

So which is it, besties? Does Katara act motherly towards Aang or not?

(The answer is yes of course, as The Runaway outright confirms it multiple times. The whole premise of that episode is that Katata acts as a mother to Toph, Sokka, and Aang)

Now, why is it a problem? The fact that I have to explain this is telling for how little a lot of Kataang shippers understand Katara.

Katara was parentified. She took care of Sokka (by his own admission) as well as her entire village after Hakoda left. Even before then really, as she says in the very first episode that she's been doing all the chores around the village since their mother died which was years before that. She was delivering literal babies while basically being a baby herself.

Traveling- and being- with Aang is supposed to represent her freedom and childhood, right? That's what the first episode shows us and what Kataang is built on. But if anything, it has the opposite effect.

Book 1 wasn't terrible. Katara was very free-spirited and joyful in addition to being caring and empathetic. Her and Aang could still goof off together, even if she was doing her best to support him emotionally. You could easily see that as her being a good friend.

But somewhere between Books 2 and 3, that changed. Katara went from being his supportive friend to being his emotional crutch. During The Desert, she bears the brunt of him lashing out (he does yell at Toph once, but he's the most volatile with Katara). He also gets frustrated with her during Sozin's Comet, even though Zuko and Sokka were the ones pushing him. It's always Katara who has to bring him back when he loses control of the Avatar State, risking her own safety.

(This isn't emotional, but it was Katara who healed Aang after Azula's attack. She was the one who stayed by his side, staying awake for hours to make sure he would be okay. I like to look at it as a physical representation of their relationship. Aang's wellbeing is always put on her shoulders. If she isn't there to lift him up, he'll fall. And if he falls, the world falls. No 14 year old should be responsible for that. But it's so easy for the show- and y'all- to shove it onto her because this part of her character is never addressed. It's just used as a testament to her caring nature)

Even without Katara's parentification, this causes a major imbalance in their relationship. It puts Katara in charge of managing Aang's pain and being emotionally unsupported in return. The Southern Raiders is proof that Katara can't depend on Aang emotionally the way he does her. She's been his shoulder to cry on through everything and the one time the tables turned, she couldn't even get that from him.

And the saddest thing about this? Katara says to him, "I knew you wouldn't understand." She never expected Aang to support her. She's become so accustomed to being there for others that she's never once expected anyone to do the same for her, least of all Aang.

(But Zuko does. He's the only one who recognized Katara's pain- admittedly, mostly because it was directed at him- and tried to help her. Without being prompted. I gotta give this one to the Zutara folks)

In what world is this dynamic healthy for a romantic relationship?

[sokkastyles]

Saw a post that said that it's "weird" to criticize the Kataang age gap because people who do focus on Aang being younger when they should be criticizing the older person.

Which...would be true if the relationship were written as Katara pursuing Aang in some predatory manner, but it's not. The problem with the age gap that most people have is that it's a male fantasy, not that Katara is being predatory towards a child. Katara is the one being objectified by the narrative, not Aang. Katara is the one whose age is emphasized to show how much Aang is attracted to her. In contrast, Aang's age is not used to make him appealing to Katara, but is presented as an obstacle to him winning her love.)

That's why it's not so much the actual ages (because Katara is no less a child at fourteen than Aang at twelve is) but the way these characters are presented that is the problem. Nobody worth listening to seriously thinks a two year age gap is predatory. Katara's age is arbitrary but the actual narrative reason she is written as older is so that the show can emphasize how much Aang wants her to be his girlfriend and how he just needs to grow up enough to get Katara's attention. This is also emphasized with how girls Aang's own age are often written as unattractive and childish (Toph, Meng, Aang's fangirls.)

None of this should be surprising, a LOT of media whose main audience is young boys is written this way, especially older media. It's not rocket science to figure out why women are uncomfortable with it and why they will defend the female character.

[evilcarmona]

Fem!Sokka AU

So, I thought a little about this AU.

(For starters, I don't speak english, so, well.. ehe)

To begin with, she is at least 19-20 years old. I would like to make her older, because I like to draw beautiful adult women, but then the plot will not work. The age of all older ATLA teenagers has been raised. The age of the younger ones does not change.

The story is the same. Initially, Sokka is a man. He probably remained the only boy in the tribe for longer. This may affect Katara, as he has been her parent figure for longer than in the canon. In general, I believe in Sokka's parental vibes.

He's also a little more mature. Responsible, strong. But still a sexist. Father said that he was the only warrior of the tribe. Then he left them and went away with other men for many years. It couldn't end well. On the other hand, living among women affects Sokka more than he thinks.

So, about after Kiyoshi Island, gaang stops at the shrine of a female warrior. This is not Kyoshi, because I don't want Aang to feel that he is indirectly to blame for the situation. In general, Sokka offends the spirit with some kind of sexist comment. The Spirit takes revenge and curses him. Sokka falls into a magic pond. Poof! He's a woman. Aang has talked to the spirit, and the spirit is ready to cast spells on the water in the pond again. But she won't do it for two years. Lol

So, Sokka can only put up with it. Saving the world is more important than a little curse. Somewhere in the background, Zuko is trying to figure out where gaang took this beautiful woman and where they put that beautiful man. Really, where did he go? (Uncle Iroh is very funny)

The fact is that during the journey, Sokka realizes that he actually feels good. He likes it. In addition, he likes to be beautiful and do hairstyles.

Besides, becoming a woman, he feels the injustice of the situation at the north Pole more acutely. Sokka understands that putting someone in a frame because of gender is unfair. He and Yue become friends. Sokka kicks Khann's ass. And he also kills Zhao before the disaster with the Moon happens. Yue deserves to live.

In the future, Sokka thinks a lot. He supports his sister and Toph more than anyone. In fact, he used to have his father's vibes. Now it's the mother's vibes. Vibes of the coolest mom in the world. She can cut off the offenders' heads with a halberd. Literally.

In fact, I have nothing to justify the halberd with. I love halberds as much as I love women in sexy dresses. A lady may have small hobbies)

Okay, maybe Sokka decided to explore more weapons. She loves her boomerang, but does not refuse to develop like a warrior. Halberd is clearly defeating bending, haha. Maybe Sokka will be given some cool nickname on the battlefield. The Moon Witch? Heh

(Somewhere far away, Hakoda and the South Pole fleet are wondering what kind of Moon Witch is this? They will be surprised)

Perhaps before they meet after Ba Sing Se, Hakoda meets someone who has met the gaang before. Someone: You have two wonderful daughters! Hakoda: What?

So Zuko comes to gaang and asks where the boy has gone. The explanation was awkward because Zuko barely had time to accept that he was bi. What does it mean that the two people who make his heart beat faster are one person?

I forgot to tell you! Just because Sokka was bewitched by a spirit doesn't mean that Sokka trusts Aunt Wu! It's a matter of pride, lol

So two years go by, and you know what? Sokka does not ask the spirit to lift the curse. He's fine as it is.

[imagines--galore]

||The Thread of Fate|| Part Thirty

Summary: Soulmate AU. They say the Thread of Fate connects you to your one true love. It may tangle. It may stretch. But it will never break. Wrapped around your little finger it tightens when it feels your soulmate is close and loosens when they are far. And becomes visible with the colors of your soulmate’s Nation when you finally fall in love with them.

Pairing: Zuko x OroraOC (ATLA)

Rating || Genres || Warnings: T+ Romance. Adventure.

Previous Chapters - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven, Part Twelve, Part Thirteen, Part Fourteen, Part Fifteen, Part Sixteen, Part Seventeen, Part Eighteen, Part Nineteen, Part Twenty, Part Twenty-One, Part Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine,

A/N: A filler chapter, but I guess we all deserve one after all the emotions and turmoil and heavy stuff. And the next couple of chapters are also gonna be filler so.....yup! Hope you enjoy!

Zuko stared in amazement.

"So, you're telling me that you made your sword from a rock that came from space." The surprise and awe was evident in his voice as he lifted Sokka's sword at eye-level and inspected the blade. Sokka, who was sitting beside the Prince gave a proud grin.

"Yup! Toph even made an arm-band out of the leftover piece." The girl in question pulled off the only piece of jewelry she would probably ever wear and held it up, only to change it shape as she bended it to show her control over the space rock. "That's pretty amazing." Zuko commented, to which Toph gave a small shrug of nonchalance, a slightly smug grin on her lips.

There was no denying the pride in her voice as she added. "That's nothing compared to my invented metalbending." How exactly a thirteen year old had been able to do that, was still a mystery to him, but Zuko wasn't about to question Toph's age. None of them were of age to become Masters and yet everyone fighting beside Aang seemed to be powerful in their own right.

Aang was a Master Airbender and Waterbender. Not to mention his Earthbending skills weren't as abysmal as she had thought, according to Toph, and he was shaping up to be a pretty good Firebender too.

Katara was a Master Waterbender, and she was accomplished when it came to Healing Abilities. Not to mention Toph had told him how she had made her own water while in jail.

Toph was a Master Earthbender, while also having created Metalbending and mastering that as well. Zuko suspected it was a good thing he never had to face off against her in a battle.

Sokka was a good strategist and given that he had helped invent the War Balloon and other War Machines they'd used during the Invasion, Zuko had made the assumption that despite his rather clumsy nature, he was a formidable warrior.

Orora was a Master when it came to Healing Abilities, and, according to Aang, she was nearing the Master level as a Waterbender. She had really come a long way since he had met her.

And then there was him. A Master Firebender, with an expertise in sword-dueling from Piandao himself.

Guess it wasn't a surprise that he actually felt as if he were equal to all of them on every level. Something he had never felt before. With his peers or really anyone his own age, he had always been Advanced, so he hadn't been able to find a connection with them. With people older then him, other then his Uncle, they'd thought him to be too immature to give him the time of day. Plus most of them were just old gasbags who were more concerned about keeping their positions rather then let someone younger take their place.

For once, Zuko felt like he belonged with these people. Kids his own age.

And it felt nice.

Suddenly Toph sat up straight from where she had been sitting in a slouch and grinned. "Well look who's finally up!"

Though before the Earthbender had even begun to talk, Zuko knew who it was.

Since he had felt his string tug.

Sure enough, Orora was walking towards them, stretching her arms over her head as she did. "Morning." She managed to speak, despite the yawn that accompanied it. "You do realize that its nearly afternoon right?" Sokka asked the older girl who made her way towards the water pots they kept for washing up. "I mean I love to sleep in as much as the next guy, but this is a bit excessive for you isn't it?"

Glancing up from where she had been splashing some of the water on her face, Orora gave him a deadpanned look. "That's because no one else has a room mate who snores like a platypus bear." She shot back, glaring at Toph as she did. The younger girl grinned. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Orora simply rolled her eyes as she sat down between Sokka and Toph, which put Zuko sitting across from her, completing the little circle.

Glancing at the sky, the Waterbender sighed. "Guess I'll just have to wait till lunch to get something to eat." She muttered under her breath, reaching up to run a hand through her hair, which she had left unbound for the time being. Or rather because she'd left the strips she tied her hair with in the fountain room and hadn't been back to retrieve them.

She barely had any time to pout when a bowl of rice appeared in her line of vision. Orora blinked, staring at the hand holding it out for her.

"I saved some for you." Zuko stated, clearing his throat as he did. "Aang and Katara went off to practice Waterbending and Sokka and I were in charge of cleaning up so I figured I'd save the leftover for you." Why he felt the need to explain himself further was beyond him.

The gesture was enough for old memories to reawaken. All those times she had been the one to save food for him, and cover it so it would stay warm for him.

Reaching out, she took the bowl, cradling it between her palms as she looked up at him and gave a small smile. "Thanks." Sokka, who had pretended to go back to polishing his sword, glanced between the both of them out of the corner of his eyes. Meanwhile, Toph picked up on something that she had held back for so long, but wasn't about to because she knew it would cause chaos and embarrassment for both Orora and Zuko.

And she lived for it.

"Woah!" She exclaimed softly, grinning from ear to ear.

Zuko glanced at her, frowning slightly. "What?"

"Relax guys! It was just a bowl of rice, not a proposal. Your heartbeats are going crazy."

The result was instantaneous. Zuko went red in the face, his mouth opening and closing as if he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words for it. Sokka choked on his own laughter, fell backwards, regained his breath, before resuming laughing. Orora pursed her lips, her cheeks pink, as she glared at her friend.

"I can feel you glaring at me right now Ice Princess." Toph commented, not at all bothered by the heat she could feel behind the look Orora was giving her despite being unable to see. Smiling smugly, the blind girl raised her cup of water to her lips to take a drink.

Only to find it frozen solid.

"Hey!" She protested, glaring in Orora's direction who simply smirked before taking a bite of her rice. Having regained a little bit of his composure, Sokka managed to sit up straight once more, though he put his space sword back in it's sheath. "So............, did the two of you manage to talk things out?" He asked, glancing between the still red-faced and slightly annoying looking Fire Nation Prince and a Waterbender who was calmly eating her breakfast.

Obviously neither of them knew the two of them, along with Aang and Katara had been spying on them last night. Before the either of the concerned person could make a comment, Toph spoke up. "Course they did. Firebug's been chirpy all morning hasn't he? Must mean something good came out of yesterday."

All three of them paused.

"Firebug?" Zuko echoed, to which Toph nodded, looking way too proud of herself. "Don't worry. That won't be your only nickname. I also have Angry Guy and Prince Pouty." The last nickname had Orora clapping a hand over her mouth to muffle the snort of laughter that escaped her. Zuko threw an annoyed glare in her direction to which she shrugged. "Well not like you haven't been called that before."

Her words only prompted him to pout, which resulted in Orora and Sokka bursting out into loud laughter.

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When she had woken up earlier that morning, Orora had expected things to still be tense between her and Zuko. Not wanting to deal with what was to come, and simply bask in the knowledge that she and Zuko were, for once, in agreement when it came to what they were for one another, she'd closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.

The next time she woke, the girl had forced herself to get out of bed. And yes, when she had stepped out of her room she had been nervous, unable to determine how things would be between her and Zuko.

Would they still be at odds and be awkward around one another, or would things be just as they had been in Ba Sing Se?

She found herself praying to the Spirits it was the latter.

And Zuko's simple act of saving her some breakfast and giving it to her, was enough to shatter a few of the residual reservations she had about her decision, while also making her see that perhaps, sometimes, prayers were duly answered.

Once she'd finished her breakfast, she dragged Sokka off to retrieve whatever she had left in the fountain room yesterday.

In reality, she had needed some advice.

Just one last bit of doubt before she could truly move on.

Sokka, sensing her hesitation, saved her by being the first one to speak. "So, are things alright between you two now?" He asked, peering at her face to make sure he saw any emotion that passed over her features.

Though he shouldn't have worried about her hiding anything from him, because quite honestly, Orora was sick and tired of hiding her true feelings. She had been forced to do it her entire life, and the past few months, the two times she had tried to keep her emotions in, she had, for lack of a better word, exploded.

And she was done.

"We talked." She revealed. "And he was ready to leave if his being here was too much for me." As they stepped into the fountain room, she spied her bag and walked over to retrieve it. "Sokka?" She called, clutching the pieces of blue she used to tie her hair back. "When did you decided that it was time for you to move on and put aside your grief for Yue?"

Turning, the girl watched as his expression grew somber and he pursed his lips, thinking over his answer. "I didn't." He finally revealed. "When we ran into Suki outside of Ba Sing Se, there was a point where she revealed she was my soulmate, but I didn't."

He sighed. "I thought I would be dishonoring Yue's memory by getting together with Suki." Sokka paused, allowing his memory of the girl to wash over him, before he smiled softly, Suki's face coming to his mind. "But then I realized that its not what she would've wanted. She would've wanted me to be happy." His smile widened. "So I told Suki she was my soulmate too."

Having walked over to stand in front of him, Orora gripped the strap of her bag. "But, didn't you feel any guilt or anything when you finally let go of your feelings for Yue?" She asked, wanting nothing more then to understand what he had gone through to move forward and carry on with his life.

The Warrior nodded. "I did, but Yue's sacrifice also made me realize that life is too short, and we shouldn't let things out of our control stop us from living our lives."

She blinked, his words settling within her and resonating more then anything. Sokka's advice were the very basis of her reasoning to let go of all that had happened between her and Zuko and move forward. And it did surprise her that Sokka had chosen to do the same because, she didn't think it would be easy to let go of all those feelings.

As he watched her expression change from uncertainty to realization, Sokka smiled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Seems for once I said something that didn't result in an ice mask." He joked, to which Orora smiled at him. "Don't get too confident about that. We still have the rest of the day." At his expression, she laughed.

"Thanks Sokka." He grinned, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders as they began to walk back to where their friends were. "No problem. All I ask is that I don't have to walk in on you making goo-goo eyes at each other, or smooching. No smooching in front of me either, gives me the Ick."

He would've continued, if Orora hadn't allowed her wrist to snap and an ice mask to slap over his mouth, effectively shutting him up.

                                           ————————–

"Are you sure you should be doing this here?" Teo asked in a slightly nervous tone as he watched Toph crack her knuckles. The Earthbender scoffed. "Please this place has been standing a hundred years. A little bending match isn't gonna cause any harm."

Since Toph felt she hadn't appropriately kicked anyone's butt in the last few days she had offered a friendly bending match. And Sokka, being an ultimate Earth Rumble fan, his words, had volunteered Haru to face off against Toph.

And since the voices of reason, Katara and Aang, weren't around to stop them, and Orora had agreed because she had wanted a break from Toph's teasing, no one else had been opposed to the idea of a little entertainment.

Haru had quickly bended a large circular shape in the floor. The one to even step on the line would loose. It was a fairly large circle so enough for the two Earth benders to fight it out.

"And the person who uses any material from outside the circle looses." Orora called out from where she sat next to an excited Sokka. He looked almost as if he would vibrate out of his seat. She really didn't understand what was so exciting about two people fighting. Once both Earthbenders were within the ring, Sokka stood up.

"And begin!"

The best was two out of three.

As soon as Toph landed the first win, Sokka leapt to his feet, waving his arms in the air as he screamed and hollered. "Woohoo! Go Toph!" His sudden jump in the air included a knee in the face for Zuko who sat beside him, and a smack in the face to Orora as he waved his arms. She'd been sitting beside him, though on top of a rock giving her some elevation, and grumbled as she rubbed her aching nose.

"Calm down Sokka." She said, as Haru stepped into the ring once more. "Its just a bending battle."

The words seemed to act as a catalyst of some sort, since Sokka, The Duke and Teo, who were now just as immersed as Sokka was, turned to her with a look of utter aghast and shock. "Just a battle?!" Sokka shrieked as The Duke added. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of things." He stated his eyes never wavering from Toph's strong figure.

Alright so she couldn't fault The Duke for being fascinating. It did involve his soulmate after all. But Teo as well? He looked ready to jump out of his wheelchair as he waved his arms in the air.

As the second round of Earth Rumble began, Orora dropped her chin in the palm of her hand as she rested the elbow atop her thigh. "Its just two people throwing around rocks for the fun of it." Glancing at Zuko where he sat in front of her, she nudged him gently with her knee. "I don't see you going ga-ga like these three. Not to your liking then?" She asked, as Zuko glanced briefly at the three shouting spectators.

He shrugged. "I mean its interesting, but I kinda agree. Its just two people throwing rocks at one another." At that moment Haru delivered a particularly brutal attack that even Toph had a little difficulty in maneuvering. But she was able to at the last moment.

Though to save herself, she had to send a rather sizable boulder in the direction of the spectators.

"Look out!"

It was only their instincts that saved Orora, Sokka and Zuko from getting crushed.

The three of them jumped out of the way, leaving the boulder to smash into the place where, mere moments ago, they had been sitting. Orora, a little winded from throwing herself to the floor, raised her head to shout at Toph. "Watch where you aim those things!"

And by 'Watch' she of course meant watch with her feet.

Having landed on his feet instead of his face, Zuko stood, holding a hand out to help her up. Grumbling under her breath, Orora stood, brushing the dust from the front of her shirt as she did. "You okay?" He asked, the concern evident in his tone, even as she glared darkly at Toph. "I'm fine." She growled, blowing a strand of hair from her face.

Sokka wasn't even deterred, already on his feet and shouting at Toph to end the match amid Teo and The Duke's words of encouragement.

It would seem Toph had no desire to prolong the match any longer. A few minute later, Haru was over the line and on the ground. "Yeah! Go Blind Bandit!" At Zuko's look of confusion Orora quickly explained. "That was her name when she competed in actual Earth Rumbles."

"Anyone else up for a challenge." Toph called out, basking in the afterglow of her victories. She raised an arm, pointing to where Orora and Zuko were standing. "Since you both are the only other Benders around, I think it should be one of you."

Zuko shook his head. "Its not safe to use firebending in a tight space. I might accidentally burn someone." Orora looked at Zuko in surprise. "Wait....did you just...." She trailed off as Zuko turned his head to glance back at her.

Orora remembered a Zuko who would never have backed down from a challenge. Who would never have given up the chance to fight against someone.

A tender smile pulled at her lips as she reached up to playfully ruffle his hair. "You really have changed haven't you?" She laughed at his attempt to push her hand away, but he was smiling as well, because yes, he had changed. And he liked himself this way. Not because Orora liked him, but because for once he wasn't at war with himself about anything.

"Well since Firebug is out. Orora! Get your butt in here!" Toph called, sounding more then a little impatient. The Waterbender shook her head. "I'm not about to fight just for the sake of entertainment Toph." She said, to which Sokka made a strange sound of horror, as if he were unable to comprehend someone wouldn't want to fight for the fun of it.

But Toph, not wanting to stop just yet grinned. "I'll make you a bet. You fight against me, and if you win I don't tease you and Zuko for three days."

Zuko blinked, frowning as he glanced at Orora who looked as if she were actually considering the deal. Which she wouldn't take, he figured, she would rather-

"Deal!"

He stared at her, a little surprised. And he wasn't the only one. Though judging by the smile that pulled at her lips, she had something up her sleeve.

"But if I win, you will do what I've been asking you since we came to the Temple." Zuko smiled, shaking his head. He should've known his Soulmate would have an ulterior motive.

Toph scowled at Orora, and for a moment the Waterbender thought she wouldn't accept the deal. But then the blind girl nodded.

Orora smirked.

                                           ————————–

While Sokka and Haru quickly moved the two pots of water on either side of the circle so that Orora could draw from them anytime during the battle, the Waterbender quickly readied herself.

Which included quickly picking up sections of her hair from either side of her temples and pulling out the hair comb Zuko had returned to her. A little too busy gathering any spare piece of hair behind her head so it wouldn't get in her face, she missed the way Zuko's expression softened at the sight of the comb as it nestled in her dark brown hair once more.

Exactly where it belonged.

A stray piece of hair did land just above her right eye, but she wasn't bothered by it. The rest of her hair she allowed to hang free, thick dark brown locks settling in unruly waves just behind her shoulders. From her bag she pulled out her gloves, pulling them on as she stepped into the circle. If she was going to use all of her body to dodge Toph's attacks, she had no desire to cut her skin and get hurt necessarily.

For a moment everything and everyone stood still, watching with bated breath.

Toph made the first move, creating a row of sharp rocks protruding from the floor and towards Orora.

Inhaling deeply, Orora dropped into a stance, her arms creating twin elegant circles, pulling the water from both the pots and allowing it to create a whirlpool around her, elevating her into the air.

"Showing your hand early in the battle. A little over-confident there Ice Princess?" Toph called as soon as she sensed what had happened. Orora grinned. "Just want to end this quickly so I can get what I want." She called back.

Throwing her arm out, the girl shot a tendril of water towards the blind girl. Sensing the attack as it flew through the air, Toph quickly brought up a shield of earth. The water dissipated, dropping to the ground where the earth sucked it in.

Knowing she would tire herself out if she continued the whirlpool, Orora quickly dropped the intensity. And not a minute later several sharp rock projectiles flew through the air, right where her head had been a moment ago. Getting into her battle mindset was easy as she created a short yet wide circular pillar of ice and stood atop it.

The leftover water from the whirlpool was sent in a small yet strong tidal wave towards her opponent. Who avoided it by creating a ball of earth around her. "You're holding back Princess." Toph called once she had dropped her earth shield. "That's because I don't want any stray attack to hurt anyone else." Orora called back, gesturing to their spectators who had only escaped Toph's previous attack of sharp earth projectile because Haru had been there to deflect it.

Toph waved her hand. "They can take care of themselves." So saying, she attacked Orora head-on with a large boulder aimed straight towards her. Without even flinching the girl shot a bubble of water towards it, big enough to encompass and freeze it in midair. Throwing her leg out, Orora pushed a disc of pure thin ice to fly through the air, slicing the boulder in half before it had even dropped to the floor. But the disc didn't stop there. It flew through the air, landing just beside Toph who barely flinched.

Instead she created several steps, one higher then the next, as she climbed up in the air. Orora knew the next attack would be from the air, and the instant she skated away from her perch, Toph's earth clad figure came crashing down, sending her trunk of ice showering in each and every direction.

Orora pivoted on her feet, her arms thrown out as she caught each and every last fragment of the ice and instead directed it towards Toph. Though it did little damage as Toph simply created a pyramid of earth around her to defend herself from being pierced. One face of the pyramid flew through the air, sliding across the earthy terrain and would've nearly slammed into Orora if she hadn't somersaulted out of the way. She'd barely landed on her feet when her arms were coated with water. Hardly standing up from the crouch she had landed in, the Waterbender threw her arms out to try and catch Toph by the arms.

Of course that plan worked out as well as could be expected given that Toph felt the water coming halfway and counteracted it by kicking her foot out and sending Orora to the ground where the earth lurched under her feet. Getting the wind knocked out of her wasn't exactly a new thing, but then the idea that formed in her head next was certainly she'd never thought of before.

"Alright Toph." She grumbled, barely standing up from where she lay. "You wanna be like that then." Her hand shot out, sending a wave of water towards the Earthbender.

Freezing her feet in place.

"What the?!! Orora!" Toph called, not having expected her friend to play dirty like that. Rising to her feet, Orora grinned. "What're you gonna do now that you can't see?" She goaded, her blue eyes landed on the half broken boulder that was still laying there, each half covered in ice.

"Lets see you dodge this!" So saying she sent both boulders flying, the ice allowing her to control them both. What she hadn't calculated was the fact that Toph could sense the earthen halves of the rocks and while one was knocked out of the way with a swipe of her arm, landing harmlessly on the ground, the other wasn't as lucky.

The force behind Toph's bending was enough to send the ice covered boulder flying through the air, and landing with a resounding crash..............right where the rooms they had all been sleeping in were located.

Every eye turned towards the location in horror, minus Toph.

The boulder had taken out two pillars as it went, before crashing through, first Katara's room, going through Sokka and Aang's room, before landing halfway between Toph and Orora's and Teo and The Duke's.

"Katara is gonna kill us."

                                           ————————–

Suffice to say, it wasn't a pleasant conversation explaining to Aang and Katara what had happened. Toph and Haru had tried to clean things up a bit, but obviously they couldn't recreate the architecture the way it had been before.

With the rooms destroyed, and the remaining one's on the verge of collapse, it was decided that all of them would sleep in the courtyard outside instead.

Which meant cleaning up the debris from their impromptu battles, against each other as well as Combustion Man.

"Why did I agree to this?" Orora grumbled as she allowed a small stream of water to sweep away most of the dust and grime that had accumulated on the floor over the years. Toph, Haru and Aang were busy clearing away the bigger rocks and boulders. Katara was supervising Sokka, The Duke and Teo as the moved everything from the rooms to the courtyard. Zuko was stuck with preparing the everything for their lunch, which Orora would be cooking later. Of course this meant cutting a lot of vegetables.

A task he still hated.

Glancing up from where he had chopped the last of the carrots, Zuko shrugged. "You tell me. Normally you don't get goaded into taking bets." Orora huffed, as she sent another small wave of water to collect the dirt. "Yeah well this was one chance I could get Toph to do something shes been putting off for days. She may be a sneak, but she will always honor her bets." Washing away the last of the dirt, she smirked. "Kind of reminds me of you."

He rolled his eyes at her, trying not to show just how happy he was that she spoke to him so.........normally.

"You've gotten really good." He complimented. "And you managed to bend with your feet too, so I guess you figured that out." Trying hard not to sound too proud, Orora grinned. "It took me awhile to perfect, but I finally got the hang of it." She said, making a small circle on the floor with the tip of her shoe. The both of them watch as a small stream of water snaked across the floor and in a circle of ice, following the movement of her foot.

Though she wasn't able to keep her balance on one foot for long. She tilted to the side with a gasp, and would've fallen if Zuko hadn't reached out to grasp her arm and caught her. "Though maybe you should take some balancing lessons from Aang." The Prince suggested with a teasing glint in his warm golden eyes. Orora playfully smacked his chest.

He didn't let go of her arm, while her hand didn't lift from his chest where she had hit him moments ago. Everything around her seemed to fade away as she met his gaze, unburdened. Then again, the moment wasn't so dissimilar from what Zuko was feeling at the moment. Though while Orora felt a rush of contentment in the comfort of the moment, Zuko felt relief.

Relief that now when she looked at him, it wasn't with rage, sadness and uncertainty. But with silent surety.

"Thank you." He said, his fingers gently gripping her forearm. The girl frowned lightly. "What for?" She asked, her head tilting to the side.

He smiled.

"For giving me another chance." He revealed, his hand sliding down to where her hand was, only to link their fingers together.

The fingers that had the string tied to it.

The string that glowed with the respective colors of the other's Nation since last night.

Seeing the blush rise to her cheeks never ceased to make him smile, and that moment was no exception.

Was it strange that only yesterday it hadn't seemed like there was any hope for them, and yet now, standing there, looking at her, Zuko couldn't help but thank every Spirit, known and unknown, that he had his Soulmate back.

They still had a long way to go, still had to work out on some things.

But being civil to one another and actually speaking, being friends again, was one step closer to what they both wanted in the end.

"Why is the floor not clean yet?!"

The sudden exclamation broke the moment, and caused Orora to let out a gasp of surprise. She pivoted on her feet, smacking Zuko in the face as her hair flew behind her as she turned to smile sheepishly at a glowering Katara.

"Sorry. Sorry. I'm on it!"

                                           ————————–

"So who exactly won?"

Sokka asked once Katara had stopped chewing them all out and had assigned chores to everyone. Which included Orora and Toph making lunch. They'd only just sat down to eat, with Katara glaring at her brother over her bowl of food. Everyone glanced at the two girls who sat next to one another. Orora glanced at Toph who just shrugged. "We'll just call it even." She stated. "For now."

"But what about the bet?" Haru asked, leaning forward, eager to know the results. Aang, who had been more then a little miffed about being unable to watch the matches, intervened. "Well since no one won, I guess it means you'll both have to uphold your end of the bargain."

Orora grinned, while Toph let out a sigh. Turning her sightless gaze towards the older girl, Toph nearly shuddered at the way Orora's heart was beating with excitement.

"There's no getting out of it, is there?"

"Nope."

"Oh boy."

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[mmmkaybye]

Why Zutara Shippers are Wrong (JK, You can ship who you want lol)

(Although, I don't care if you do actually ship Zutara, that's your prerogative, I'm just waiting for better arguments for the relationship and for people to stop negatively viewing Kataang)

First of all, I'm premising this with the fact that I don't think that ATLA should have ended with Katara and Aang kissing. I think it would have been fine to just end with a slightly more intimate-than-friends hug/cuddle. I would have personally preferred that two children who survived being literal child soldiers get the chance to be kids before they delve into a more mature relationship with one another, but they didn't exactly have adults of the modern culture there to guide them a different way, now did they?

BUT! I am a firm believer that Zuko and Katara would never have worked out romantically and that Katara and Aang's relationship 1. makes more sense and 2. is actually healthier in the scope of trauma and trauma responses.

First of all, I don't understand how the creators of ATLA managed to craft literally the MOST traumatic childhood backstory ever with incredible detail and nuance and everyone just fricking glosses over it like WTF??? Not to mention, the creators did an amazing job diversifying trauma responses to similar trauma experiences.

Let's discuss Katara's childhood trauma, which was not healed magically after a little side quest with Zuko. Katara carries immense survivor's guilt over her mother's murder. Katara understands very well how and why her mother was brutally murdered in their family home. She has been deeply aware of this since the day of her mother's murder - and she fully blames herself. Katara understands that a fire nation soldier killed her mother, but he killed her because of Katara - she said so herself. Then, Katara, who was the last person to interact with her mother, discovers her mother's body, and it is insinuated that Katara might have even witnessed her mother's brutal execution-style murder. This forever alters Katara down to her core personality traits. Katara is 'bossy' because of her trauma. I work with kids from pre-k through graduating american high school. It's pretty normal for girls to do what I call 'mothering' to their peers and to kids younger than them. It often is described as being 'bossy' and some girls are in fact bossy, but for the most part, they are roleplaying a caretaker mentality as they are most familiar with. In Katara's deep guilt of being the reason her mother was murdered, her trauma response was burden herself with the role of mother. This is further antagonized when her father leaves with the rest of the adult men to fight against the Fire Nation. He might've well as died too due to lack of communication for many years. Sokka does not allow Katara to mother him for very long, so she doesn't get to have a chance to work through her personal trauma response to her grief because she has no one to safely and consistently direct these mothering tendencies towards. The other children in the village are not orphans, their mothers are most likely very alive and very involved with them, so they would be temporary fillers at best. Sokka has stepped into the role of village man and definitely would reject Katara's mothering, which often led to tension between the siblings. Toph had the very reaction to Katara's mothering tendencies as I expect a young Sokka had to them. He lost his mother, too, he didn't want a replacement, nor did he want to lose his sister to the role of mother.

Zuko, in the same fashion as Sokka, had a mother who he loved, and lost, and was not looking to replace. Zuko's mother was also a topic that is deeply rooted in a lot of Zuko's personal trauma as well. Zuko did not get to spend much time with Katara for her mothering tendencies to be extended over him, but he definitely would have aggressively rejected them as Katara's trauma response would have negatively triggered his own. Their trauma would have deeply and negatively impacted any romantic relationship they could have developed because of how they would react to each other. Their relationship would have crashed and burned very quickly.

On top of that. Katara would have never left the South Pole indefinitely - that is her home, and she consistently returned to it throughout her life. That is an effect of her cultural upbringing. Zuko couldn't leave the Fire Nation, and as we saw in the graphic novels that followed, Zuko's personal welfare suffered greatly because his whole world was upended and now he was responsible for the one nation that didn't get peace at the end of the war. It's incredibly naive and slightly delusional for people to desperately push romantic wishes upon a sixteen-year-old boy who was burdened with the responsibility of healing an entire nation, one that fought him every step of the way in many aspects. He did not have the emotional energy to expend upon a frivolous relationship. That's why Mai and he broke up, not because they didn't love each other, but because Zuko simply could not have personal relationships until his reign and nation had stabilized - that alone would take upwards of 10 years. Plus, Zuko may have helped others work through parts of their trauma, but he had to address his trauma too, which we saw the beginnings of during the graphic novels. Simply put, by the end of ATLA and all of the graphic novels, Zuko was in no place emotionally, mentally, and even physically and politically to seek out a relationship that was meaningful and healthy. And I know that Zuko would have changed the tradition of political marriage, at the very least he deserves to have married for love at the end of everything he suffered through. Zuko is a great opportunity to normalize waiting until you're in your mid-twenties -thirties before seeking out romantic relationships. Logistically speaking, I don't think there would have been much opportunity for romantic feelings to develop between the two of them. I especially don't think Katara would have easily been able to live in the Fire Nation because the Fire Nation was directly responsible for her trauma, and that is also why I don't think she would have every pursued a relationship with a Fire Nation man, Zuko or not.

Now onto Aang. Everyone always jumps onto this idea that Katara and Aang had a very mother-son relationship - which is wrong. Aang comes from a culture that literally does not have mother and fatherhood. There are NO mothers and fathers in the Air Nomad Nation. Sure, kids had birth parents, but parenthood was not part of their culture, nor did Aang ever seek out that kind of relationship. Aang may have been kid-like, but he was the most adultified kid in the group. He was incredibly independent and confident in his ability to travel internationally by himself at 12. Katara had never thought to leave the South Pole to seek out a waterbending master in the North Pole because she didn't have that confidence or training. The Air Nomads thrived on a mentorship-based village raising of children. So, Aang never thought of Katara as his mother. He literally couldn't, because he had no scope of reference for such a relationship, same with fatherhood. He never had a parental relationship with Monk Gyasto. It was more like a fun uncle mentorship. I think that's why everyone thinks Aang was a bad father, but he was an outlier in the Air Nomad nation because there was no Air Nomad nation when he had children. The village that raised the children in his culture was gone. He was actually a fairly decent father and the two older children probably felt bitter because Tenzin was the only other air bender in existence so it obviously Aang is going to spend a lot of one on one time with Tenzin in the scope of mentoring Tenzin in the way of Air Nomad culture. Aang was not an absentee father like how many people assumed from the very one-sided and brief explanation given by the two older, jaded siblings. Was he perfect? No, he literally had no clue how to be a father. Did he and Tenzin leave to get milk and never come back? Also no. That being said, Aang was the only individual who was comfortable with Katara mothering him, he never felt threatened or overburdened by her trauma response, which allowed for Katara to genuinely work through her grief and mature out of the extreme bossy mothering we first saw in book one. If you pay attention, yes Katara does retain that 'bossy' kind of personality, but that was permanent fixture due to her childhood trauma and a little bit of cultural influence as well. I think, if Katara had never been traumatized, she would have always leaned towards a very soothing and nuturing type of personality, which we began to see in the middle of book three. Her bossiness/mothering trauma response gradually lessened the longer she 'mothered' Aang. Once again, neither of the two saw each other as Mother-son. They were simple too close in age and Aang also had the added sense of duty-boundness due to being the Avatar. Katara was always going to be a caretaker archetype personality, trauma or no, and that simply wasn't the type of person that Zuko would lean towards for a romantic relationship due to his own personal upbringing and culture. Aang is a much more gentle and playfully empathetic personality that works with Katara's firm care and sassy disposition.

In the graphic novels, I personally saw a great deal of healing and maturation in Katara in relation to her trauma. She was less mothering towards Aang, too, and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Aang matured a lot as well and the change in their once platonic relationship to a more romantic-leaning one. Was their relationship perfect? No, they are kids who survived a horrific war and many many trauma-inducing situations. However, once Katara fully leaned away from the mothering habit, we get to see that Aang allows Katara to relax and be more playful. She genuinely was just happy with Aang. He pushed her to be a little more child-like and to have child-like fun even as they grew up into adulthood. Katara helped Aang mature and face a lot of adult burdens that were placed child.

In the end, Katara and Aang always brought out the best in each other. Katara and Zuko didn't have enough time together in ATLA to develop an individual relationship outside of the group. There simply isn't enough time outside of their little side-quest in which Katara and Zuko interact solo- which was definitely NOT Katara's best, and in fact was Katara lashing out aggressively towards people who loved and cared for her and she them. Zuko was also not his 'best' in that time either as he was also being triggered emotionally. In fact, during ATLA, there's way too much negative tension between the two of them that leads to really intense disagreements and emotional outbursts more often than not until Katara begrudgingly accepts Zuko into the group, they don't even positively interact until Ember Island which is what, two weeks? She's not exactly nice when she pretty much demands him to help her hunt down the man that murdered her mother. Zuko is all gung-ho about vengeance too. Of course, they both have a lesson learning moment, but that episode cemented in my brain that Aang is the better partner for Katara than Zuko. Aang, once again the most mature in the Gaang, fight me on this, has a deep, empathetic understanding of the world, he doesn't do a great job trying to explain to Katara, but I think that's because no one in the Gaang understands how Appa is not just an air bison, and Aang never views Appa as an air bison like how everyone else in ATLA do. To everyone else, Appa's an animal, but to Aang and Aang's culture that is deeply offensive, Appa is an individual with emotions and value outside of what he can offer the group in terms of transportation and that's never really explicitly clarified to the audience either (because despite being a kid's cartoon, the creators knew their audience well and did not treat the audience like we are stupid and can in fact infer and read between the lines). If Katara had killed that pathetic worm of a man, it would have absolutely destroyed her as a person. She would not have been able to heal from her trauma and would probably suffer even more trauma and guilt. This side-quest was a plot point to lead up to the big debate of killing Ozai, and not many, in fact I don't know if anyone has talked about that fact. I have no doubt that Zuko has probably killed people, at the very least, he's deeply desensitized to people dying as I think he probably at some point did experience or witness some form of warfare battle before he began chasing Aang down.

Once again, I don't really care if you do ship Katara and Zuko. In fact, I think that's a-okay. But, with the Netflix live action adaptation's take on the Secret Tunnel scene, I've seen a lot of people speculating and even hoping for it to become canon and there have even been some opinions of Kataang that have resurfaced that really rub me the wrong way because it feels like many individuals are just looking at the surface level of ATLA. There's so much nuance to each individual character in terms of culture, societal norms, age and gender, and most importantly, trauma and trauma responses. The creators did an amazing job world building and story telling that a lot of what I put up in my opinion in preference for Kataang over Zutara is information that I inferred from the show and graphic novels due to my personal experience and education in familial relationships and childhood trauma. My thoughts are not the end all be all to this debate, nor do I think they should be, I've seen some really solid opinions in favor of Zutara that I can understand and somewhat agree with. I think a lot of those details and moments that people look to as indicators of romance between Katara and Zuko were remnants of the creators' previous intention, but I think that the change to Aang and Katara as end game was logistically and realistically more accurate. I never thought that Katara and Zuko were meant to be, and I always struggled to put to words as to why until I had pursued my psych studies in college that focused on child development, childhood trauma, and marriage and family counselling. I think that the creators instinctually were seeing the red flags that would have occurred naturally within Zutara and changed course accordingly. There were just a lot of details and nuances that I noticed personally that I wished more people would discuss.

Anyways, thank you for coming to my TedTalk, I'd love to hear some of your opinions about this.

[discordiansamba]

atla platonic soulmate concept where there's no marks at all involved, but when the Gaang gathers together for the first time, they start to get strange visitors each night- versions of themselves, from a pivotal moments during their childhood.

it starts when suki joins them at the western air temple. there's another aang- only this one doesn't know any of them, and wonders why the air temple is so empty save for everyone else. they find out he's from a time in which he's just learned that he's the avatar, and has had his world turned upside-down. the gaang quietly sidesteps the topic of the war, but introduces themselves as his friends. when he fades away, he's smiling.

the next is katara, when they make camp for the night after fleeing from azula. she's much younger than aang was- and her mother is freshly dead. she glares a hole in the back of zuko's head, and the fire prince makes himself scarce. the rest tell young katara that the war will end soon- that nobody else will have to lose their mom the way she did.

there's a break in the visits until katara and zuko returns, but once they do, there's a younger version of sokka at the ember island villa. his father has just left for war. zuko disappears almost as soon as he shows up, quietly reading the writing on the wall. older sokka assures his younger self that he'll have a chance to do something great. that his dad will see him as a warrior.

no one visits the next night.

the night after that, there's two sukis. this one has just left kyoshi island for the first time. she doesn't need much in the way of guidance, so the two sukis just take this opportunity to spar with each other. it's frankly kind of incredible.

the last visit is from toph. she's around six years old- the time she would have first met the badgermoles. she breaks out into a familiar wide grin when older toph tells her she's going to go on to become the greatest earthbender in the world- and invent metalbending. on top of that, she's going to have more friends than she knows what do with. friends who will see her as herself.

(sokka will make a crack once it's all over about zuko being the odd one out in the group, but he just shrugs. he's not too bothered. he'd rather not be their soulmate, all things considered.

they don't know that an angry, freshly banished prince zuko turned up the night before suki's double did. they won't know that zuko was the only one to meet him. that his younger self demanded to be let past. he knows the avatar is in there. he can capture him and bring him home to his father.

his older self tells him it won't get him anything he wants. to give up. his younger self will glare at him and call him a traitor. that's fine, older zuko will say, better a traitor than the prince his father wanted him to be. his younger self will spit fire and lash out- but he will fade when morning comes.

zuko never tells anyone.)

[jamelslivres]

Hama

Let's start with the canon(ish) timeline:

Assuming that the young woman with the hair loopies is Katara's grandmother Kana and she's around the same age as Hama, I'm going to say that both are in their early-twenties. This is because Kana needed time to emigrate from the Northern Water Tribe. Yue got engaged at 16, and the healer Yagoda thought Katara was old enough to be engaged at 14. Judging by these engagement customs, Kana was probably engaged and then left around 16/17. To give her enough time to cross the world and settle in, I'd say that she and Hama must be around their early 20s.

During "The Puppetmaster", Hama says "the raids started over sixty years ago". Based on this, Hama is in her 80s during the events of this episode.

As she is describing her escape, Hama says she "walked free for the first time in decades". This could mean anything, but given that she hasn't started graying yet, I'm going to say two decades. Making her in her 40s when she first escaped.

Now, when did Hama get to the village we see in "The Puppetmaster"?

I've collected the relevant pieces from the show and discussed them. I truly can't make up my mind on this point, so I'd love to hear what others think. Let me know if I missed anything or if you guys have different interpretations of the evidence.

Here is what is said in the episode:

A merchant explains to a customer that he won't have any ash bananas until next week. The customer then says 'oh right, the full moon'. The merchant then says that he can't lose another two delivery boys to the full moon.

This interaction, to me, can be used to justify that Hama either has or hasn't been kidnapping people in this specific village for a long time:

Kidnapping in the short time interpretation: The merchant looks to be around sixty or slightly older, so he'd have been around when Hama came to the village (if she arrived immediately after escaping in her 40s). Let's assume he's been running this business for that long. If Hama started kidnapping people near immediately, I'd assume the lost delivery boys incidents happened near the beginning of that time. In this case, up to four decades ago. The merchant might not bring up those incidents to a customer who is (two?) decades younger than him and might not remember that incident. Since telling the customer is kinda bad marketing and makes the merchant look irresponsible or reckless. This could imply that these incidents are more recent.

Kidnapping in the long time interpretation: The customer doesn't need to be reminded that the full moon is that night. He knows it instinctively and doesn't need the merchant to connect the dots between the two day journey and the full moon disappearances. This awareness of the moon phases could imply that this has been happening for long enough that people have been habitually paying attention to the moon for a long time.

2. The guy who tells Aang, Sokka, and Toph about Old Man Ding says he's the "only one person who ever saw it and lived".

The word "ever" here implies that this might have been going on for a long time. However, local legends are quickly made and inflated, so the timing might just naturally be exaggerated.

3. Old Man Ding interaction, in which he says, "I'm not ready to get snapped up by any moon monster".

Honestly, I don't know what to make of this. To me, this reads like a semi-recent event, but I don't have anything to really back this up. Apart from maybe Ding saying he's not ready to get snapped up by a moon monster in response to a conversation about his age, which could imply that he was already old when this event happened.

Fun fact: the credits say "old man dig" even though the subtitles and voices clearly say "old man ding" (: 

Now for some speculation:

If Hama escaped in her 40s, the earliest she could have gotten to the village was forty years ago. In my opinion, that is a LONG time to be kidnapping people and not get caught. However, she does only have the opportunity to kidnap people once a month, but still that seems like a really long time. This brings me to the part of this that is just me asking questions (so again, please let me know what you think!)

When did Hama start kidnapping people?

Did she go to other villages before she came to the one we see in this episode? If so, did she kidnap anyone in those previous villages (I'd guess yes)? If she was in other villages, was there a point before she started kidnapping people, or did she start immediately (I think it could be interesting if she struggled with it for a bit, then gave into the urge. Or even if the urge didn't appear immediately)?

Did she ever try to go home? If so, did she find that she wasn't able to let go of the need for revenge, and leave again?

[dukeofdelirium]

I will never believe Zu/tara shippers when they say they hate Kata/aang because it's "heteronormative" since one of the main complaints Kata/aang gets from them is that "no 14 year old girl would wanna date a bald boy who's younger and shorter then her" or how Aang gets called a bald lesbian as an insult. Idk man I think Katara ending up with the bad boy with anger issues who is most stereotypically masculine of all the Gaang boys and who she spends most of the story hating for hurting her and her friends (who also personally betrayed her trust when she tried to help him). Idk man I think if these two got together that'd be a lot more heteronormative, especially since they only became friends an ep before the finale started. I think Katara and Aang's relationship has writing issues too (I have a lot of gripes I'm not coming at this as a shipper) but it takes a particular kind of ship brainrot to argue Zuta/ra end game would have made more sense or been a better end game with the canon we are given. And arguing it's somehow less heteronormative to make Zuko get together with Katara. I can't with this fandom.

if either of these two ships fit the definition of heteronormativity, it’s zvtara, not kataang. Aang does not fit the western male character type. He is short, shaves his head, is pacifistic, and quite feminine compared to the other male characters. He gets insulted for doing things that characters deem as “feminine”, like weaving jewelry for one.

the show doesn’t actually support this idea that femininity is bad, but characters like Sokka who have narrow viewpoints early in the story try to ridicule him. toph also makes jabs at Aang’s femininity.

Zvtara shippers argument has never been about heteronormativity. It’s always been “misogyny”. The only reason they’re adopting heteronormativity in their list of vocab words they still don’t know the definitions of is bc most of us kataang shippers on here (tumblr) are gay, bisexual, etc. And because we, as majority lgbt ppl have stated that their ship is heteronormative, they just want to flip that to use against us even when it doesn’t apply.

Kataang simply doesn’t follow a typical m/f ship in terms of writing, characters or how they interact with one another. Which is by and large why it has been so hated by these idiots. They wanna say “muhhh heteronormativity” but in the same breath ridicule Aang’s femininity, say he isn’t masculine enough for her, call him a lesbian etc to undermine the ship. Just as they say “muhhh male gaze” when most kataang shippers are actually women, because most ppl involved in shipping communities and fandoms in general are women.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I only know of a couple of male kataang shippers on here, myself being one of them. Ships and fandoms are very much and have always been a female dominated community. That’s for any fandom or any ship I’ve seen.

Their arguments are ridiculous and make no sense. It’s just like when some zvtara idiot was in my inbox harassing me for being a man and was saying that I’m an incel and that I hate women and want to rape women….. when I’m fucking GAY! Nothing they say makes sense or is canonical, so I’ve long since stopped taking anything they say seriously. It’s just free entertainment at this point.

Full offense but I don’t need a bunch of straight girls to tell me what heteronormativity means 😂

[the-air-nomad]

Burning Destiny (part.2)

part 1 : https://www.tumblr.com/the-air-nomad/719741684747059200/burning-destiny?source=share

part 3: https://www.tumblr.com/the-air-nomad/721589459145080832/burning-destiny-part-3?source=share

  How many years had passed? 3 or 4? You didn't even know anymore. The town where you hid was suspended in time, it seemed as if the 100-year war had not existed. This state was due to the lack of resources that made it unimportant both for the Fire Nation and for the Earth Kingdom. People were peaceful and welcoming to the rare visitors who ventured into their corner of the world.Although you appreciated the kindness of the townspeople, you always complained to Agni about the endless monotony. Every day you went to the market, then to the school where you worked as a teacher, then home.

            It was a new day and you had just gotten out of bed. Confused, you looked out the window and noticed that the Sun was not yet in the sky. You were sure you heard a child crying. You slowly left the house and looked at the street. Not far from your house, a small child is staring in amazement at a boy no older than 12 years old. You thought it was just Li and his younger brother Taro and that the two of them were sneaking into your house to play a prank on you. Remembering that the last time they did this you lost an eyebrow you headed towards them wanting to scare them.You threw yourself at the older boy managing to immobilize him and pull his hat off his head to pull his ears. Both you and the boys screamed. The two were scared of you and you were scared of the blue arrow that adorned the head of the young man in your arms. The Avatar! You knew Agni hates you! If he is here, it means that the Fire Nation is not far away! You quickly send the smaller boy to his house and push the avatar towards your house.

 Y/N: what are you doing here?! You're crazy?! The Fire Nation will destroy the whole city to find you!

 Aang: Um, me and my friends stopped by to get some supplies ma'am..

 Y/N: my name is Y/N, I'm one of the teachers in this town. I will help you stock up, but as soon as you do, you and your friends will leave. We have a deal?

       The boy approves energetically and then bows respectfully. Y/N helps him cover his arrow and then they leave together for the market. There they meet two panicked teenagers dressed in Watertribe clothes. Y/N sighs, no wonder the Fire Nation always finds these kids. They don't even bother to change their clothes to blend in better with the crowd. The teenagers run towards the avatar looking suspiciously at the y/h/c woman. Y/N quickly explained the plan to them. She quickly buys them a good amount of food and other goods that could be useful to them on their journey. Then the woman offers them a bag with a reasonable amount of silver coins. The children hug her gratefully but she tells them that she is just trying to do her part in winning the war and advises them to run away quickly. You agreed to help them carry the supplies to their bison to make sure they would actually leave. There you met a small girl dressed in the clothes of the Earth Kingdom who seemed on the edge between panic and anger. The girl comes towards you and taps her foot accusingly. 

Toph: what took you so long?! we have to leave quickly! The crazy princess and her even crazier friends are close. i feel the komodo rhinos approaching.

 Y/N: Azula?! Run away from here immediately! 

        In a few minutes, the bison rises to the sky, and the noise of an angry Komodo rhino pierces the silence of the forest. The y/h/c woman tried to run away but it was too late as a circle of blue fire surrounded her. 

Azula: what else do we have here? who are you peasant?

 Y/N giggled bitterly. She takes a deep breath in her chest and turns to the princess. 

Y/N: let's just say I'm not exactly a peasant my dear

 The princess's face falls to the ground. All of a sudden, more expressions appear on her face than she has in years: insecurity, amazement, sadness, anger, happiness. The older woman looks at her with a broken smile and opens her arms in anticipation. The young woman throws herself into her arms and gives her a tight hug. Y/N sighs and returns the hug.Ty Lee and Mai also arrive and look at the scene in front of them confused. Then they analyze you and finally recognize you. Ty Lee quickly runs towards you and tries to join the hug but Azula angrily pushes her away then hugs you again. Y/N gives the girls an apologetic look and orders them to set up camp. After a few minutes, Azula moves away from you and begins to interrogate you. You sigh, feeling like you're talking to the old Ozai, this girl doesn't know how much she really resembles her father. But you hope that she will not go down the same path of destruction that her father decided to go down. You stop her talking with a wave of your hand. She blushes slightly and then regains the dangerous calm that is so characteristic of Fire Nation nobles. 

Y/N: let's just say I needed a break from all the stress of the Palace. I have no excuse for my actions, and my only regret is that I felt like I left you alone. I know Zuko had Iroh, and your father deserved to spend some time and rethink his actions. But, I'm afraid that Ozai applied the tactic of blaming any other people besides himself.

 Azula: You're saying my father was the reason you left? But why? He did nothing wrong!

 Y/N: let's say that the two of us had some adult arguments. You are too young to understand, believe me.

 Azula: I'm sure you'll sort everything out when we get to the palace. 

Y/N: that's all I could wish for.

            The journey to the palace was fast and tiring. Azula was getting more and more impatient with each passing day. If at first Y/N thought about a possible escape, an idea she gave up because she didn't want to hurt the three girls, then she reconciled with the idea that she would at least have a chance to roast Ozai a little for the Agni Kai with Zuko. Someone has to take the place of Ozai's heart until she returns from vacation, that is if she didn't die with Lu Ten. Y/N was starting to think that the second option was the most plausible of the two.

          Arriving at the palace, Ty Lee and Mai went to their rooms and Azula hid Y/N in her rooms. Y/N tried to rest but that was almost impossible with all of Azula's talk. Y/N had already noticed from the trip that no one had paid attention to Azula, only to the wonder princess. The good part was that now Y/N knew everything that had happened in her absence. The bad part was that the only way Azula knew how to show her affection was to report all the useful information and do anything else despicable to get recognition. Okay, maybe there was another bad part. Azula had become worryingly paranoid, Y/N had noticed how Azula tentatively smelled and tasted her food before letting her eat, how she eyed the guards suspiciously, how she seemed to check on her every few minutes to make sure she hadn't disappeared.

          After a few days in which Y/N ​​tried with all her might to make Azula a little more relaxed, the day of truth arrived. Now she was outside the Fire Lord's chambers waiting for Azula to leave so she could enter. Azula had insisted on breaking the news to Ozai but Y/N didn't want to risk that psychopath venting his anger on Azula because of her actions. Azula left the room and told Y/N she could come in. Y/N stopped thinking and entered. Ozai was sitting at his desk reading a scroll. He didn't even bother to look up and said boredly: 

Ozai: I hope you have a very good reason to bother me, Minister of Agriculture 

Y/N: I look like an old man struggling to walk without a cane, Ozai?

           Ozai gets up from the desk and for a few moments looks at the woman as if he saw Agni before him. The woman rolls her eyes but bites a sharp remark from her tongue. There are more important things than her pride at stake. She knows Ozai and knows that he is not extremely difficult to handle if you know what strings to pull. Ozai approaches her like a predator who doesn't want to lose his prey. She looks at him the way the old dragon tamers looked at a wild dragon. Yes, if she has to die, she will die fighting because she is a firebending master and is no longer afraid of burning herself.If the price to protect Azula and the rest of the world from this monster is her life, then she will pay it with a smile.

Although I do not own the characters from avatar the last airbender, this work belongs to me! I sincerely hope you liked it. please rate it and leave a comment! follow me to see my next posts! Don’t forget that the request are open💖💖💨

You can buy me a coffe if you want:  buymeacoffee.com/TheAirNomad

Tell me if you want part 3!

[hummingintheback]

Another Fic Idea that I will never write

I saw this fan art of Lin in Pinterest and it sparked yet another stupid fic idea. I have read this LB fanfic on FF.net that basically has a plot of Lin rumored to being dead or dissappeared since discovering a shocking subending of the Earth Element (so she is the not the chief of police and basically dissappeared around 2 and a half decades. So this lin is a little bit younger than canon lin). And here's where the story comes in, what if after avatar korra arrives at RC is also the time the rumors about Lin Beifong ressurfaced, it would start as hushed whispers on the alleyways until media would be involved. The blue spirit would make itself known, hiding from the shadows and all that stuff. Instead of two swords, this version of blue spirit would use Sai as its weapon of choice.

It would help people during the equalization of Amon but of course other people would misinterpret the idea, assuming the blue spirit is helping Amon. After Amon's death, the blue spirit made itself known again, causing fear to RC's citizen.

Zuko would definitely hear about this. He would send fire nation agents to investigate this "person" behind the mask. And Izumi? What if Izumi knows who could be the person behind that mask but unsure if its really her👀.

I think the conflict would evolve around the Beifongs of course and the Gaang's. I feel like Toph would be the main reason of this two decade dissappearance of her daughter. It would be a similar scenario of Suyin scarring Lin, where Su was sent to Goaling. But instead Lin just decided to vanish from the surface or that's what they think👀

In this story Lin would still have her scars (thanks to su) and it would happen way back than the canon time. This is where the story of how Lin discovered the new subbending and also a forbidden type of bending before the 100 year war.

Might include Yun as the founder of this bending and Kyoshi was the one who had to forbid this type of bending before it goes out of her hand as the avatar and also to stop Yun

Mstery, Angst, Drama, Violence name it this fic will have it all🙃.

Anyway, I feel like just like Zuko's arc this Lin would definitely start as a bad guy after what happened to her face, having blamed by her bending that she cannot control, why not add the break-up of Linzin for more drama and of course the constant deterioration of her self confidence when it comes to being a great earthbender and an heiress.

But one thing is for sure, the blue spirit is there to seek justice and also like grew to help the avatar along the way.

Why justice? That is unsure but I have this idea that after Lin was cast away, after she went through a lot of stuff (i know white lotus would try to imprison her just like what they did to the red lotus), someone would definitely help her. Probably taught her how to control this forbidden bending and that someone was killed by either Yakone, Red Lotus member or the white lotus themself. But what if it was the Gaang?(the mysterious sifu of lin, contributed to the death of Avatar Aang😉)

Credits to the artist of the art: @aleesatana

Thank you for this wonderful fan art🫶 and thank you to @dont-blame-it-on-the-kids for finding the artist❣️.

[linnorabeifong]

Just Thinking

With everything Lin’s been through I’m surprised she never had an Azula-esque mental breakdown.

This woman had an absent father, a neglectful mother, basically had to raise her sister because Toph wouldn’t then got her face sliced open by said sister. Her sister leaves after that and then her mom leaves about (guessing here) a year or so afterwords and just hangs out in a swamp. She joins the police to impress her mother and goes on to become the chief and her mom still doesn’t care.

Her job is immensely stressful, her friends are across the world ( Izumi is in the fire nation, Kya is traveling, Bumi is in the UF) and she gets left by Tenzin (who she’s probably known and been friends with since infancy) for a younger woman.

Presumably there would also be the pressure of the Beifong name and title and the maintenance of the estate after her grandparents die because I don’t see Toph handling that. Additionally all of her mentors either die or move away from the city (Aang dies, Sokka dies, Zuko is in the fire nation, Katara moves to the south) . Obviously we know from the show she handles her emotions poorly and bottles them up. We also know that she’s kind of socially-awkward at times like Azula.

Then we get into the issues of each season. RC already has organized crime that she has to fight to take down then the avatar lands on her door step and destroys public property and agitates the equalist situation. Then Lin looses her job which she has dedicated her entire life to. Outside of her job she doesn’t have a lot going for her. Then she sacrifices herself to save the family of the guy that cheated on her and looses her bending in the process. That must be soul crushing and no one shows up to save her or support her in her time of need.

Season two she has to deal with the attacks in RC and deal with her detective being falsely accused and then with the spirit vines overtaking her city.

Season Three she has to protect the avatar from a terrorist group and is forced to see her sister after thirty years. This experience is obviously super overwhelming for her and then she’s pressured into meeting all these new people (our girl is an introvert). Additionally the stress of her job is physically taking a toll on her as seen throughout the episode. She goes to get acupuncture which resurfaces all of her old painful memories and then when she has an outburst ( understandable she’s going through a lot) everyone is mad at her. ( I have so much more to say about this but I don’t want this post to be a novel) . The battle with the Red Lotus: she was nearly killed and she watched P’Li die. that had to be gory. Even if Lin has seen a lot of death that’s a VERY gruesome way to go.

Season four is obviously stressful for her but there’s particular instances that stick out here: Toph hiding who her dad was just to go and tell Bolin ( this must’ve been so immensely hurtful for Lin: think about it she didn’t even know her dad was from the fire nation until her mom casually told Bolin, that means Lin went fifty four years not even knowing her ethnicity ) . But also the way that after everything Toph’s done she’s just expected to forgive her ? And Lin is so incredibly self-sacrificing that she just swallows her own feelings and does.

Here are the things that really irk me the most

Circling back to season three: “Bitter loner who only cares about herself. No wonder Tenzin ended things with you years ago”

Wow, just wow this is so genuinely awful. But also untrue. Lin has made so many sacrifices, she’s put her life on the line multiple times for Korra and had her bending ripped away from her while protecting Korra.

Bringing up Tenzin was a low blow and so immature of Su.

Lin is so forgiving and no one appreciates her or acknowledges the tremendous amount of pain they put her in.

Also Lin has massive scars on her face. She has to see those every day. That has to take a toll on her self esteem. Not only that they look painful and deep. For all we know she could have sensitivity or be completely numb in that area.

This pisses me off the most: Toph could feel everything through the vines apparently so that means she knew when Lin lost her bending but she didn’t show up for her. Realizing this broke my heart for Lin.

In conclusion Lin has been through a lot. She is traumatized. Yeah she’s grumpy and she has outbursts and she cries in the Zafou episodes but none of this feels like a proportional response to everything she’s been through . I don’t think she as a character can heal until she really processes things and lets it all out but all we see is her continuing to work and heap more pressure on herself. That isn’t sustainable and eventually will create consequences much worse than what we’ve already seen.

I see parallels between her and Azula ( I won’t get into it) and with the strained relationship Lin has with Toph I could see her having an Azula-moment.

Thanks for listening to my disorganized thoughts .

[daylilys137]

Ok... So I have never written fanfic before, but I got this idea during Zutara month. Being a teacher, I thought it might be fun to put one of my favorite ships into a teaching situation. Maybe this is silly, but I would love some feedback just to see what I should change? Or is it worth pursuing? I'm not sure. Also, what do I call it?

Zuko was excited to be back. He might not be a student anymore, but the White Lotus School had been his home for many years, and it held many fond memories. Ursa had enrolled Zuko a year or so after their father had been arrested, with the help of their beloved Uncle. Azula was enrolled a year later. 

His Uncle Iroh had stepped up and helped both him and his sister after his abusive father was taken. His father had incited a riot and was trying to start a revolution to undo integration. The old ways had died nearly a century ago, but his father, grandfather, and great grandfather felt that firebenders and fireblooded families should not be integrated with what they considered “riffraff”. But after he had burned Zuko's face because he had made a new friend that Ozai deemed an “enemy” Ursa had left quickly, and Iroh had taken them in. A few weeks later, Ozai was in jail for inciting violence elsewhere. 

Zuko had been nervous about joining the most prodigious integrated bending school in the country. He was worried he would get judged for his scar and that others would find out about his father and assume terrible things about him. Only 12 years old and completely alone out on the coast of the old Earth Kingdom, he was thrilled when he made a friend with a young water nation boy. Sokka had been a breath of fresh air helping him feel at ease, making him laugh, eating practically nonstop, and even though he wasn't a bender, he desired to be a fierce warrior. 

This was one of the main reasons he was so excited to come back to teach. This school had really blazed the trail on integration. Not only was every student taught about the culture of their ancestors, but about each other's culture, which helped open more doors to friendship. Even non-benders could come and study many different things. Sokka and Zuko had quickly signed up for sword classes with Master Piandao, though they ended up leaning towards different styles eventually, and of course Sokka had practically fallen all over himself to join the multicultural cooking classes all 6 years at school. He had pressured Zuko into joining him the first few years at least. 

As Dean Bumi showed Zuko around to all the different classrooms in the school (though he didn't really need the tour), so many good memories were going through his head. As they passed the culinary room, he remembered all the times he snuck fire flakes or spices into Sokka's food and laughed at his watery eyed reactions. As they passed the training rooms, he remembered many a sparring session with Sokka, then later sparring with other benders of all kinds. The two that came to mind first were Toph, who, during her 3rd year, Zuko's 6th, had absolutely handed him his ass. The other was Katara, whom he had sparred with several times despite her being two years younger. They had been pretty evenly matched. The final tally when he had graduated was Katara 5- Zuko 4.  Toph became a good friend pretty quick, always greeting him with a punch to the shoulder. Katara was a friend from the moment she arrived at school, since she was Sokka's sister, though she tended to hang out with Yue most of the time. 

He hadn't seen Toph or Katara or any of their friend group since him and Sokka had graduated from military boot camp, about 6 months after graduating from White Lotus. It may have been 5 years ago, but he could still remember almost everything about that day. He and Sokka hadn't seen anybody else for three months during that time, and it had been nice to see them all there. Azula had been so proud of him and gave him a rare hug. Despite his father always pitting them against each other as kids, and even Zhao (his awful firebending teacher for his first two years and Azula's 1st) doing the same, they had a good relationship. They had probably been lucky that Dean Bumi had walked in unannounced to a class and heard Zhao's abusive language during Zuko's 2nd year. With short notice, Uncle Iroh was asked and graciously accepted the job. Iroh had only planned on teaching that year, but enjoyed it so much that he decided to stay until Azula graduated. Zuko’s bending grew quickly under his uncle's tutelage, and soon, his sister and him were also fairly evenly matched. 

Toph got to him and Sokka first and punched them both in the shoulder and commented on their military uniforms. Katara had looked so beautiful in her blue dress and boots, but he had quickly quashed that thought. She was his best friend's sister and was dating an earth bender named Haru at the time. Plus Aang, who was Toph’s best friend in her class,  was waiting anxiously for Katara and Haru to break up, much like it had been with Jet. He wasn't sure if it would go Aang's way, but he had come to really like the kid, and besides, who could completely deny the avatar. There was only one every generation, and Aang was funny, capable, talented, and often thoughtful, though immature. 

After the graduation, Aang had insisted that they go have some fun before him and Sokka would be shipped off to their first military posts. They had all met at the beach an hour later to celebrate. Aang and Toph had somehow snuck some old Fire Nation wine to the beach, which Katara and Yue greatly disapproved of, but still enjoyed. Katara and Yue had fun soaking unsuspecting beach bums with their bending, while Toph and Aang had quite the sand bending competition, trying to outdo each other's newest sand sculpture. Sokka and Zuko had both been irritated with Katara's and Yue's water antics, though Zuko had been a bit pleased with how Katara's eyes had scanned his soaked body. Later on in the evenin, Zuko and Azula lit up a massive bonfire and they all sat around and drank from the bottles of wine. When Haru arrived late, Zuko had shoved down the tiny bit of jealousy that reared its head as he watched his arm snake around Katara's waist. He glanced over at Aang and was relieved that he was better than Aang at covering his emotions. Beside, he was an adult now and Katar was still in school, who knew when he would see her again. When his cousin,  Lu Ten, arrived late, he broke up the party and made sure all these silly drunk children got home safely. As he had been driving, Yue had loudly whispered to Katara that his cousin was cute and Katara had agreed. He tried to remember to keep his jealousy in, but 10 seconds later Zuko's heart flipped when Katara agreed with Toph that Zuko and Lu Ten kinda looked alike. He argued with himself that she was just drunk and probably didn't really think that. When they dropped off Sokka and Katara at hom, she gave him a hearty, giggly hug and made him promise to watch out for Sokka while they were out saving the world. He had blushed greatly and stammered out the promise. He and Sokka left the next day. They had gotten lucky enough to stay in the same company for 8 months before Sokka was moved to a different group where he could focus more on his engineering ingenuity. 

Zuko was immediately brought out of his reverie as Dean Bumi walked him into the health office. The health clerk was Yue! She looked up to greet the new hire and did a double take, looking up from the paperwork she had been dutifully filling out. 

“Zuko!?” she said, beaming up at him. 

“Hi Yue! I didn't know you were working here now?” Zuko said, stunned. 

“I didn't know you had been discharged! But I guess it has been a bit over 4 years, huh? I thought if Sokka decided to stay in, you might as well.” 

“We haven't been together in the military for a bit now. He's been stationed in the Caldera, working in a company of engineers for the last several years. We've seen each other off and on, but it's been a little different with me outranking him after our first year or so. We still text every so often. He seems pretty happy.” 

“Well good, it's good to see you, and I'm glad to hear you are still friends,” Yue said with a wistful look in her eye. 

“What about Katara, are you still friends too? What's she up to nowadays?” Zuko tried to sound as conversational and casual as possible. Sokka hadn't kept Zuko up to date on his sister really, only mentioning her occasionally. 

“Of course we're still friends. You haven't seen her yet?” Yue asked with a small blush. 

Bumi interrupted before Zuko had a chance to reply, “No, we haven't yet visited Master Katara's classroom. We will after we visit the earth bending class.” 

Zuko was trying to process that she was a teacher now. That she was here! That he was going to see her shortly! The last time he had seen her and Yue, they had still both been kids, and now they were both here, all grown up and teaching/healing the next generation. He wondered how Sokka had never mentioned this or how he had never seen it on Katara's social media? But then again, Katara would post on social media rarely, and it was usually more about the progress that still needed to be made into the integration of all women, regardless of their ancestry. It had been a fight she had been making since coming to the school. 

Master Pakku was still somewhat set in the old ways and often pushed the female waterbending students more towards the healing arts than anything else. She had been surprisingly determined to change things for a little 12 year old girl. She worked hard enough to be one of the very rare female students Master Pakku allowed into his higher bending classes. Once she was in Katara immediately created a club where she taught every other female waterbender who had been pushed elsewhere all the skills she learned in his class. When Master Pakku had tried to get her in trouble for creating an unsanctioned club she had asked for a sparring match between all Master Pakku’s top male benders and her little club of girls. The girls did their best and took out a few of their male contenders, but it was ultimately Katara who took on the last 5. She took them all out with a fancy move she claimed she had learned from watching Zuko firebend. After that Bumi fully sanctioned her club and Master Pakku started integrating at least a few more girls into his upper bending classes. The misogyny of the whole situation was something he had heard many a rant about during their school lunch hour and he had always been relieved it hadn't been something Azula had to deal with. 

After Zuko and Bumi had left Yue's office all Zuko could think about was seeing Katara. Suddenly, instead of living in his memories as he walked through the nostalgic halls of their old school, he was wondering to himself what she looked like now. Was she still dating Haru or had Aang finally gotten a chance? Would he have a chance? Should he even think about taking a chance? She was still his best friend's sister and now his coworker, maybe there are too many lines to cross anyway. 

Zuko was so in his own head, barely listening to Bumi's tour comments, that he was surprised when his arm was punched. 

“Earth to Zuko!” Toph mocked him. “Are you there, Zuko?” 

Zuko just gawked at Toph and then slowly smiled and sarcastically asked, "Do you greet your students this way too?” 

“Of course not, Sparky! That greeting is only ever for my favorite people. You, Twinkletoes….” Toph looked off thoughtfully, “and Snoozles whenever I might see him next?” She looked at Zuko questioningly. 

“I'm not sure when Sokka will have his next leave.” Zuko said knowingly. Perhaps Sokka had been too focused on his crush on Yue during his last 2 school years to notice that Toph had a massive crush on him. Zuko had sometimes wondered if that was the only reason Toph had insisted on being his friend. 

“Well next time you talk to him, tell him his sister and his best friend deserve a visit.” Toph said.

As he and Bumi walked out, he smiled wondering if he, as Sokka's best friend, was who she was really concerned about. He was positive that Toph would still be flirty with Sokka if he ever came back for a visit. 

Being a firebender, Zuko hadn't really been in the earth, air, or water areas of the school a whole lot during his school days. However, as he walked into one of the waterbending classrooms he suddenly understood why the school had been built on the coast instead of in the neighboring city of Ba Sing Se. He had always appreciated being on the coast when his friends would drag him down to different parts of the beach during the weekends, but he had never realized just how close some of the school buildings were to the water. As they walked into the room he could see the French doors at the back of the class were propped fully open to a gorgeous view of the ocean. He couldn't quite see the beach below the small cliffs, but he could see the staircase that would lead students down to the water. Bumi led him out the doors and 30 yards down the stone path to the staircase. As he looked down to the beach, he could see her, working on her waterbending forms. The students who would arrive next week were surely lucky to be learning from such a capable teacher… a beautiful teacher. He swallowed hard as she turned around and caught sight of him and Bumi. Her face broke out into a smile and her blue eyes made all thoughts of what he might say disappear. 

“Hey Zuko! What are you doing back here?” Katara said as she walked towards him barefoot. 

“He's going to be teaching our next generation of sword masters and helping the firebending teacher on occasion,” Dean Bumi answered for him when he couldn't seem to form any words despite him opening his mouth. 

Finally, he stammered out, “Katara, it's good to see you again.” 

[soulc-hilde]

The New Gen

pairing: Korra x OFC

synopsis: As Korra breaks from the overbearing walls of the White Lotus, she begins to explore what being the Avatar really entails. Unintentionally thrusting herself in the city's rising turmoil, she tries to balance her job and being a teenager. Thankfully, she has friends to keep her head straight.

divider by @graphicstorage

As the Gaang grew older, they established careers and families. Of course, they believed that their children would also be friends – more like a dream in Katara’s case – but they weren’t quite prepared for the length to which the children were willing to go. While Zuko’s daughter, Izumi, liked her infamous friends, she preferred to stay within the castle by her parents’ side. For Toph, Katara, Sokka, Ikkara, and Aang, well, they would’ve begged for their children to be the same.

Toph’s eldest, Lin, had been dating Katara and Aang’s youngest, Tenzin, for two years. In the beginning, it was puppy love. Tenzin chased after her and she’d pretend that the young Airbender had no effect on her. It was adorable, while it lasted. Things changed, for the worse. They were becoming older, discovering themselves and how they saw their future, and a tension began to rise between them.

Working under her mother, Lin soared through the ranks, burying herself in her work while Tenzin was beginning to set himself out as a political figure. With prominent careers, the topic of marriage and children arises. Despite Lin’s caring and protective nature, her family-based trauma tended to hold her back. She was scared, to say the least. If she was to marry Tenzin, only Spirits knew how bad everything would be.

What ifs ran through her mind, day in and day out. What if Aang and Katara no longer approve of me after we’re engaged? What if I can’t give him children? Much less, Airbenders? Him and Aang would be so disappointed, I don’t want to get their hopes up. What if I’m not the perfect wife? The perfect mother?

It was just a sea of unanswered questions and unfortunately, Tenzin was an airbender – not a mind reader. He didn’t understand Lin’s way of thinking, he couldn’t predict that her upbringing would scare her away from building her own family. He couldn’t even answer all her questions. So, in turn, he began to create distance. Much like his estranged girlfriend, he too began to search for content within his work.

As they continued to avoid the weight on their relationship, Tenzin’s attention was caught by an acolyte of the temple. Continuously working around one another, taking daily walks around the island as they fed the Lemurs, the two became attached. Wherever he went, she was there by his side and if he was to leave for the city, she’d stay on his mind.

Enraptured with the woman, he never noticed how hard things were to become. Pema had taken the initiative and confessed her feelings and without a thought, Tenzin had openly reciprocated the confession. Rushed to end the relationship with Lin, no matter how many times he said that he did… there was no real way to ease the hurt that struck the Beifong’s heart.

Spirits, the look on her face when he told her. She hoped that they could fix things, especially now that Suyin was sent away by their mother, she no longer had to work overtime to make sure the younger woman stayed out of trouble. But no. Just like her mother, her father, and her sister, Tenzin left her. He found someone else, someone better. Someone new. Tenzin left her!

In a blind rage, she tore through Air Temple Island with a strength not even her mother was aware of. She stomped and punched, splitting the island into two. From both sides of the island, Tenzin’s parents along with Sokka, Ikkara, and his cousin Ezra watched as their home became victim of the Beifong wrath. Nearly collapsing from a heart attack, she trudged back to the city without a word.

Promising herself to never step foot in that island’s direction ever again, life seemed to have different plans for her. As Tenzin and Pema were engaged, Ezra picked up the pieces from his best friend’s heart. As he sowed her tarnished heart back together, they conquered Republic City. After Toph stepped down, Lin was inaugurated as Chief of Police and Ezra was voted in as Head Councilman and Commander of the Republic City Task Force.

Their faces painted the front pages of the newsletters, busting one crime mob to the next. Eventually, their bond became stronger. It just hit them. Ezra returned home one day and frowned with distaste at the reality he lived in, constantly coming home alone. He no longer liked the silence that surrounded him, outside of his loudmouth father, of course. And Lin felt her gut churning with discomfort as she once again stayed late in the office.

Unlike her officers, she didn’t have a homecooked meal waiting for her or just overall a family waiting the wrap their arms around her, cheering that she returned home to them. Her eyes watered, a sense of finality coming over her as she analyzed the life she lived. Such a lonely life. Until one day, she no longer felt empty. The tall, muscular tribal man marched into her office and with a swift grip, he raised her to his eye level and indulged her with a kiss of passion.

Poor woman could barely step foot in the office that following week. As the two married, Lin discovered her pregnancy amid a crime bust, chasing down the Agni Kai Triad. Her heart nearly stopped as that dark creature returned with its endless pit of ‘what ifs’. Although, this go around was short lived for her husband was a man who understood her from the inside out and from her head to her toes.

And the family was rather excited for them. All except for Tenzin, of course. He couldn’t but to feel that the man he felt was the big brother he should’ve had betrayed him. In his eyes, Lin was a fixture of his past and deserved to stay there. Ezra could’ve fallen for anyone else, married anyone else. He just couldn't find the logic behind it. This elicited a loop of petty arguments and glares from the younger man.

Nothing too catastrophic until Tenzin took Ezra’s admiration for Lin and their relationship as boast to wave in his little cousin’s face. A fight developed, water against air until Aang put his foot and ordered peace. You know, the everyday job of the Avatar.

“I don’t know what has gotten into you two, but the tension in this house is ridiculous,” the aged Avatar grits. Ezra scoffs, “if anything is ridiculous, it’s Tenzin and his attitude toward Lin and I.” He turns his glare at the younger man, “we’ve done nothing to you!”

Tenzin’s eyes widen, wild and untamed, “nothing to me?! You married my ex-girlfriend and she’s now carrying your child. You betrayed me.”

“You want to talk about betrayal?” Ezra’s teeth grind, “then let’s get into how you cheated on Lin and didn’t decide to break things until after you and Pema started dating. Don’t act shocked that fate has decided to give her a second chance at love while you got stuck with a servant for a fiancé.”

Aang sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, “okay, that’s enough. Both of you!”

Since then, the boys who once considered each other brothers turned into strangers. Ezra became a father to a beautiful little girl who they named Takari as he continued to lead Republic City with Lin while Tenzin and Pema had yet to reach past the engagement stage.

As Aang and Ikkara’s health began to decline, their last moments were spent surrounded by their friends and family. Aang’s dreams of rebuilding the Air Nation started with Tenzin and ended with his two-year-old grandniece, unsure of what his son and Pema were destined for. After his passing, Raava found her way in a waterbender while Takari began to practice her airbending.

Lin found it amusing that her only child was an airbender. As she told Ezra, it was as if the spirits gifted her baby a loophole just to show the woman that she was never the problem. If things were different, if Tenzin was different, she could’ve given him airbending children. But he wasn’t hers to hold and she wasn’t his to love.  

Until a strange incident had occured...

The young girl was playing outside with a couple of classmates when a street rat, Fez, intruded on the fun. 

The orphan was known to run small errands and even do the dirty work for the triads in exchange for money. When he wasn't occupied with that, he'd find enjoyment in torturing the infamous Beifong child and her friends.

Once again, he was hustling the group for the small amounts of money they had. A girl, Lianna, didn't have any to share so instead he ordered for her late grandmother's betrothal necklace. 

She refused, again and again, causing the young firebender to kick an arc of flames her way. Desperately, she dived into the middle of the street, watching as cars weaved around and honked at her. Fez continued chasing her in the road, unbothered, throwing non-stop punches fueled with flames.

Every once in a while, Lianna would block the balls of fire with small whips of water until he trips her feet with a rope of fire, he watches in amusement as she falls in front of an oncoming car. Enraged, Takari ran forward, hands reaching out for the girl, expecting air to leave from her palms.

Instead, the bit of earth Lianna was stuck to turned into a pillar, launching the young girl in the air. Watching her screaming form soar across the intersection, Takari created a vortex of air to catch her body and slow down her fall. 

Confused and horrified, Fez watched the girl bend two elements to her will before running down the nearest alleyway. Quickly, she gallops in his direction, feet planting firm to the ground as her clenched fists hover just above the road. Feeling the pull of the earth underneath her, she pulls chunks of it over the orphan's feet.

As her arms continue to raise, the wall of rock rises with her motions, surrounding the boy's body. He jostles himself around, fighting for his body to find release to no avail. Her friends cheer happily as the police arrive, Lin steps from the vehicle with worry at the thought of her daughter in danger until her eyes fall upon the young boy.

"And what happened here?" She asks the children. Fez quickly answers, "that... that freak doesn't know what element she wants to bend. First, she's bending the road and the next she's airbending. Get me away from her!" 

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