#but like.. your dad is the reason you're able to even compete in this match dumbass!!

[greyeyedmonster-18]

Prompt: Harry being sick and feeling like a failure for having to miss out on things and not being able to help and Sirius helping him understand he’s worth taking care of himself

ask and you shall receive, kind-friend <3. thank you for the prompt.

(takes place in some post-POA raising harry, voldemort isn't...lurking universe, whatever, yall are just here for dad-content, make up your own reasons why this is feasible.)

--

Sirius had gotten to Hogwarts early that day, despite having been up late the night before, knowing he had a legal exam on Monday and knowing full-well he would be spending Saturday supporting Harry at a Quidditch game. He hadn't missed a single one since Harry's fourth year, since having gotten custody and wasn't going to start now just because Sirius now had more on his plate than he ever anticipated when his name was first cleared almost three years ago. Dressed in a Gryffindor sweater, hair tied up with a golden scarf, Sirius waited with Remus by the Quidditch Pitch player entrance to wish Harry luck before the game, Remus's hand lazily intertwined in his.

"Hello, Professor Lupin, great day for a match isn't it!" greeted a student cheerfully as they walked into the tents with a wave.

"Someones popular..." Sirius whispered.

"It's polite."

"I dunno, they didn't say 'hi' to me," Sirius shrugged with a grin, "How many Best Teacher mugs did you get during the holidays again?" Remus shook his head, kissing Sirius on the temple as means of answer. It hadn't taken Sirius long to put together how beloved Remus was at Hogwarts and how many students--whether they knew it or not-- had tiny crushes on their Defense professor. Who was kind and cared and was more competent than any of the others they had had before (not that the bar was particularly high, but Sirius knew Remus was far beyond competent). Sirius checked the watch on his wrist, "Where is Harry? The match starts soon, and I'm not going to give him a lecture on being a proper Team Captain, but this isn't very professional of him."

"Kids are late, it happens..." though Remus's eyebrows were knitted together with mild concern. Usually, Harry was one of the first into the tents.

"He was at breakfast, wasn't he?"

"I thought so, but I wasn't there long though and maybe just assumed he--"

"You made it," came Harry's voice, though it was quieter and much less enthusiastic than it usually was on game day. Almost hoarse, words scratching against his vocal cords. As Harry got closer to the tents, Sirius could make out the light sheen of sweat on his forehead and the circles under his eyes. Rumpled robes, shoulders hunched over as if his body had given up trying to keep them up straight.

"Yeah...I did," Sirius said slowly, continuing to examine his godson, "You okay, babe?"

"'M great, just a bit tired," Harry nodded, swallowing after he spoke, "I'm glad you could come, I know you're," Harry cleared his throat, "busy."

Sirius instinctively took one of his hands and pressed the back of it to Harry's forehead, though it was mostly for show. Sirius could already feel the heat radiating from his godson's body before making contact with skin. He took his other hand and put it on the side of Harry's neck, "Nevermind being busy," Sirius ducked his head down to catch Harry's eyes, "Are you feeling okay?"

One more time.

"M..okay, just tired and my back hurts a little, but I was at practice yesterday and probably just bent the wrong--"

"Harry James..."

"Okay, my throat kind of hurts, but it's not a big deal, I just need to drink more water--you're always telling me to do that--and I'll go straight to bed after the game, I promise," Harry said in a feeble attempt at a whine, seemingly not having enough energy to work up a proper protest but trying anyway.

Sirius dropped his hand and shook his head, "Love, you're sick. You're not playing. I can feel a fever on you without even running a spell, you--"

"No! I have to play, Sirius!"

"Not like this, I'm going to go talk to Madame Hooch, and you--"

"They're counting on me, please, just let me play, I'm going to let everyone down and we'll lose the match, and it'll be my fault," he pleased, grabbing a hold of Sirius's wrist before he could turn to leave to find Madame Hooch. "I've played sick before! And I played during a dementor attack and, and I could've played with a broken arm, just don't say anything, I'm fine, it's just a cold!"

Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, pushing aside all the malicious thoughts running through his mind he so desperately wanted to rush off and say to Dumbledore, and every other adult in Harry's life that had failed him. Promises to keep him safe made in vain, cast aside the second Harry had something he just needed to do. Sirius nodded, reaching up once more to cup the side of Harry's face tenderly.

"Please, I can do it. I...don't want anyone to be mad at me."

"I know," Sirius told him.

"It's just a cold," he responded weakly.

"It's just a cold."

Sirius felt the weight of Harry's cheek sink into his palm, breathing slowing down and eyelids drooping. For once, forgetting what it was like to have to be awake and alert and ready. At this moment, Harry wasn't Quidditch Captain. Wasn't The Boy Who Lived. Was barely a student as far as Sirius was concerned. He was just a sixteen-year-old boy, with a cold who desperately needed someone to tell him the world would not fall apart if he stayed in bed.

"I'll let Madame Hooch know," Remus mumbled softy.

--

Harry woke up several hours later in his bedroom at Grimmauld Place with only vague recollections of how he got there. The past 24hours since he had started feeling run-down and ill had been a blur, passing in a restless sleep and trying to choke down enough breakfast to make it through a Quidditch game. He didn't remember leaving the pitch or flooing to Number 12. Or being put into bed, or changing (did he change? was he changed) into sweats. But he did remember Sirius's hand on his face.

He remembered Sirius, who knew immediately when Harry had forced on a smile and spoken less than a complete sentence to him that something was wrong. It was still new, this having a Godfather thing. This clumsy accountability thing and the voice in the back of Harry's mind thing when he was staying up too late or not eating vegetables with his dinner or even that morning when he had to fight to swallow, that sounded a lot like Sirius.

I know it's exciting to be at school with your friends, but you need a good nights sleep, Harry.

Throw some carrots on there, would you? Your eyes need all the help they can get, or you'll need three pairs of lenses.

It's just a cold.

He moved under the mound of blankets, attempting to sit up.

"Easy, babe," Sirius said from beside him in bed, Harry putting together that the weight wasn't from the blankets at all. The warmth wasn't entirely from the soft knit of his sweatshirt and the nice sheets Sirius had put on his bed, but also from a body.

"What'sgoingon," Harry mumbled.

"We're at Number 12...you've been asleep for quite sometime," Sirius informed him slowly, and Harry felt his hand run through his hair. Until Sirius, Harry didn't know a simple gesture could be so comforting, convinced Sirius had magic in his finger tips that made everything okay. Like the muggle tale where the King turned everything into gold--Sirius could do the same but quiet fears and anxieties and turn them into faint whispers. Fade them into nothingness.

Harry shifted so he could look at Sirius a little better, noticing his Godfather had also changed out of his Quidditch Fan attire and into something resembling pajamas, "What time is it?"

"Half three. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Harry admitted, "...Better."

"I gave you some Pepper-up Potion, Pain Potion too, just in case," Sirius smiled softly. That Harry could see. Harry didn't know someone could smile with care until he had met Sirius. Until the first time, Sirius had shown him a bedroom that was entirely his and let him change the color of the duvet. "Still want to play a game of Quidditch?"

"Not a chance." The entire concept at this moment felt entirely stupid. Harry could barely walk this morning and had every intention of getting on a broom, but now it was the furthest thing he wanted. It was comfortable here. Safe.

"Your Dad was the same way. He broke his collarbone once and refused to go to the Hospital Wing... I forced him there too. Very experienced with getting Potter's to take care of themselves."

Harry shuffled down against the pillows, hesitating before leaning to rest his head on Sirius's arm.

"You...just sat here?"

"Where else would you have me be, my love?" Sirius pressed a kiss on top of Harry's head quickly.

"Dunno..."

Harry closed his eyes again and exhaled deeply, thoughts of his Dad and Sirius at Hogwarts. Thinking there was probably some point Sirius had told his Dad to stay in bed as well. Thinking that perhaps it was Potter genetics, that they needed a Sirius to take care of them. Nothing more, nothing less.

[secretlyatargaryen]

I really am surprised that when I went into ATLA I knew absolutely nothing about Zuko as a character other than that everyone on tumblr kept saying he had the greatest redemption arc ever. I didn’t even know if it was like, a villain to hero redemption arc or a jerk to less of a jerk redemption arc or a redemption equals death arc or whatever (and I’m not going to get into how one of the problems with how tumblr discusses redemption arc Requirements is that there is never an acknowledgement that there are so MANY different ways to write a redemption arc), but I did know that there was a redemption arc, so I did pick up on a lot of the early groundwork that the show lays to make Zuko sympathetic even as a villain, but even so there were some things that I didn’t expect that ATLA does in interesting ways, and one of them is the reveal of how Zuko got his scar.

The scar is brought into the narrative early on, first by virtue of the fact that it’s hard to not notice, although it’s kinda easy to dismiss at first as just something that makes him look scary and like a villain, but by the third episode we’re given some context for what the scar means to Zuko through his confrontation with Zhao.

Zhao: You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of war ships under my command and you? You're just a banished prince. No home, no allies. Your own father doesn't even want you.

Zuko: You're wrong! Once I deliver the Avatar to my father, he will welcome me home with honor, and restore my rightful place on the throne!

Zhao: If your father really wanted you home, he would have let you return by now, Avatar or no Avatar. But in his eyes you are a failure and a disgrace to the Fire Nation.

Zuko: That's not true.

Zhao: You have the scar to prove it.

Zuko: Maybe you'd like one to match!

Zhao: Is that a challenge?

Zuko: An Agni Kai. At sunset.

Zhao: Very well. It's a shame your father won't be here to watch me humiliate you. I guess your uncle will do.

Zhao walks away. Front view of Zuko, with Iroh in the background.

Iroh: Prince Zuko, have you forgotten what happened last time you dueled a master?

Zuko: I will never forget.

At this point, I don’t know what an agni kai is but it sounds like some macho BS, and given how much of Zuko’s interaction with Zhao is a dick-swinging contest, it’s easy to assume that this is more of Zuko just being an Angry Villain. There are some interesting things that are revealed in this conversation, though.

Zhao is competing with Zuko for Angriest Villain, which is usually a good set up for Villain Redemption. So far, so good.

Zuko’s a prince but he’s been banished. His father doesn’t want him. Zuko disagrees. Loudly and Angrily. Zuko is most definitely wrong. We get a feel for why Zuko is doing what he’s doing.

Wow Zhao way to rub salt into the wound. The show has already told us that Zuko is a teenager, but this is another scene that emphasizes just how young Zuko actually is. We see Zuko disrespect Zhao in typical spoiled royal teenager fashion but then we get this adult being unnecessarily cruel to a kid, including expressing joy at the idea of humiliating him in front of his parent/parental figure. This also emphasizes how little respect Zuko gets within even his own nation as royalty.

Zuko’s whole persona of “I’m the prince and also a scary villain and I definitely do not need to calm down, uncle!” is not really working out too well for him.

We learn the scar is somehow connected to his status as disgraced royalty.

Okay, so an agni kai is a duel, and that’s definitely how he got the scar.

The story behind the scar is vaguely alluded to here. What I assumed going into this based on this conversation was something like, Zuko challenged a master to a duel and lost (gaining the injury which resulted in the scar) and was thus disgraced and banished.

What’s kind of interesting about this is that upon my watch I assumed that this was something Zuko had done wrong. Since so much of Zuko’s early personality is I Am Ready To Fight, it’s easy to assume from this conversation that what happened was that Zuko challenged the wrong person to prove he was big and bad, faced someone who was more big and bad, and lost. Macho BS. I also assumed it had something to do with succession because Zuko really cares about "his throne" and was politically disgraced as a result of what happened, so I imagined that Zuko tried to go for a petty power grab or something. Probably the kind of thing that happens all the time in Evil Fire Land.

This is standard character building, especially for a sympathetic villain, or an antihero, or just a jaded character. Sometimes this literary device is referred to as “the wound,” or the thing in a character’s backstory that drives their psychology and inner conflict. It’s usually done in either one of two ways.

Character was a Terrible Person and made a Terrible Mistake and is Paying for It

Character was once a Bright and Sunny Innocent Child but then Everything Turned to Shit

What’s interesting about how ATLA reveals this with Zuko is that they do a kind of bait and switch, where it appears to be the first one but is actually revealed to be the second one. For other examples of this trope in the show, Iroh is pretty clearly the first one, and Aang is pretty clearly the second one.

Remember how I thought that Zuko had challenged the wrong person and lost because he’s a macho idiot teenager?

Gather ‘round and I shall tell you the tale of how Macho Idiot Teenager was once an Adorable Ponytail Unicorn

Here it comes, the Macho BS. You are a Baby step down.

“You know I don’t really think that we should be using new recruits as human meat shields. That’s kinda evil.”

Well, that's reasonable, actually. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, though!

In Evil Fire Land we solve all of our conflicts with a Duel to the Death, of course! Fight a military general? Yeah, I got this! Ohmygod, calm down, Prince Fight Everyone

What’s happening now, Oh my lord

You know, I don’t really think -

Sir, this is a child.

That’s...really intense.

So yeah. I thought Zuko got banished for fighting but he actually got banished because he didn’t fight. I thought he got into a fight because he was being an idiot but he actually was being a Good Person. Obviously I didn’t think the Fire Lord was going to be a nice person but you gotta be a huge dick to burn the face of a crying, surrendering thirteen year old just for having morals. Also it’s your son and heir and you do it in front of a huge crowd. This is before we find out about all the Bad Shit going on in the First Fire Nation Family which Kinda Explains It.

This is one of, if not the most intensely disturbing scene in the show and it manages to be that in a show that’s entirely bloodless (take note, Game of Thrones) and doesn’t even show you the actual scarring scene. It helps make Zuko sympathetic but not just in a This Character Has Suffered way or a This Character Was Once a Nice Person way (because the indications that Zuko has more to him than just macho badness are peppered throughout the first season), it also helps explain Zuko’s personality and motivations and you can actually see that the thirteen year old boy and the bald ponytail jerk are the same character, whereas lesser characterization would increase the contrast between the two characters for dramatic effect. The effect here is actually more dramatic. One of the things that makes Zuko redeemable is that we aren't just privy to how he became the way he is, we get to see that he is actually still the same character in a lot of ways as the child who spoke up in defense of his nation's soldiers, and that his bad actions are motivated not just by that deep emotional wound but by extreme psychological conditioning. I've talked a lot about Zuko and cognitive dissonance because it's strongly tied to what makes him a believable and interesting character.

Also Zuko didn’t just not fight because it wouldn’t be honorable to fight dear old dad, his father actually manufactures the whole situation so that there was really no way Zuko was going to be able to fight back. I’ve written about how Ozai is manipulative before because I don’t see a lot of discussion of that and the show gets it across in some subtle ways, and this action by Ozai is as manipulative as it is brutally violent. That’s something that hits you as you learn more about the dynamics in Zuko’s family. Zuko isn’t just sympathetic because he is a Sad Woobie who Once was Innocent and Good, his family really did a number on him, oh my god.

[vocalxtributes]

Famille imparfaite

23 years ago, a healthy baby boy was born. He was named Lee Seokmin but usually went by Dk or Dokyeom. Seokmin was the son of two Oracles. His father was a winner of the 76th décès match, he had the ability to foresee one's actions, and his mother had the ability to foresee the future. His parents were both well known in their region, they both worked for the Malachite government and they certainly were the best in their field.

Seokmin showed signs of being an Oracle from a very young age which pleased his parents. They knew, and everybody else knew that he would be far more skilled from his parents's combined abilities. When he was in his late teens, His father would sometimes take time off his job just to train Seokmin with his abilities; it was a dream of his father for his son to also compete in the décès match and he made it very clear.

"One more time son." His father said, stepping forward to throw a punch to a random part of Seokmin's body. "Guess where I'm gonna hit you next." Seokmin used his abilities as much as he could to try and foresee where his father was gonna hit him but to no avail. Seokmin ended up with multiple cuts and bruises all over his body and face. "Son you're not trying hard enough. You're almost of age for the décès match yet you can use your abilities at will? What's wrong with you?" Seokmin just hung his head low, not being to answer his father because he himself had no idea what was wrong with him. "Just get out of my sight. Now." His father said through gritted teeth, Seokmin followed; as there was not much else he could do.

Later that night, Seokmin was passing by the hallway when he heard two people arguing, assuming that it was his parents, his curiosity got the better of him and he walked towards the room they were in to listen to them. As he got closer, he could feel regret. He had a strong feeling that he might regret listening in, and he also felt regret from one of his parents.

"What did you just say?!? Something's wrong with our son?! How can you say that about our own son?!" His mother exclaims, feeling extremely upset from her husband's statement. "It's the truth! He's almost at the décès match age group yet his abilities aren't developed yet!" He yells, trying to prove his point. "He might just be a late bloomer! He just needs time!" She says, reasoning out to her husband. "Late bloomer?!? He's shown signs of his abilities since he was a child! He's not a late bloomer! He's just abnormal!" Seokmin's mother lets out a gasp. "That's not true! Nothing's wrong with him! I'm sure of it!"

"Yeah. Nothing's wrong with your son? You think I don't know what's wrong with him?! Unlucky you, I know exactly what's fucking wrong with him!"

Seokmin's eyes widened upon hearing the next sentence that escaped his father's lips, and with that he left. He didn't need to know more.

Il a cassé

Train here. Train there. They were training everywhere. The training seemed to be going on and on without actually stopping. The exhaustion and frustration was getting too much and it was starting to take a toll on Seokmin. And the fact that his leader Jeonghan; kept criticizing how he improved so little, certainly didn't help at all.

Seokmin was deep in thought about how he couldn't improve. He was doing his best to use his abilities exactly like how his parents taught him. Yet it didn't work. He's never improved apart from the random moments he foresees. He was starting to hate himself and get even more frustrated from all of it. He kept thinking to himself what could be wrong with his abilities. But then it hit him- What if he was the wrong one about his abilities? Seokmin stood up, planning to act upon his new theory.

Until he was harshly snapped at by his leader.

"Yah Seokmin! Are you sure you're doing stuff to improve your abilities?! The match is in three months! Yet here you are zoning out instead of training when you are well aware that you have a skill set of a fucking elementary student. All of us have been working hard! Everyone is improving except you! Why don't you actually try for once! Aren't you the son of the best oracles in the region? Why don't you fucking act like it instead of being a disgrace to your fucking family!"

His leader's harsh words made something snap in him. And he answered back. Something that he never thought he'd do.

"I'm not!"

Jeonghan's brows furrowed. "Did you just answer back? And what the hell do you mean?!"

Seokmin grit his teeth and answered once more, voice raised even more. "I'm not the son of the best oracles in the region! Maybe one of them but not both! My father isn't my real father!! My mom had a fucking affair and got pregnant with me!! And the reason I couldn't improve was because I kept manifesting the wrong fucking ability! I can't foresee someone's actions! I got my mom's half of being able to foresee the future and the other half from my real dad which is being able to foresee one's status at a particular moment! Now do you fucking understand?! I just realized this now so don't throw more shit at me for not being able to figure it out sooner! Now will you leave me alone and let me figure things out?!?"

Jeonghan was caught off guard from Seokmin's outburst, not being able to say anything. Just leaving the room and giving him time to be alone.

As soon as his leader left the room, he dropped down onto his knees; sobbing.

"Why did I fucking say that? I've just exposed myself as an illegitimate child."

This bot is based on a story that admin wrote. Everything is completely fictional.

Og's: @yanlee

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