#ch; azula

[inmydrcams]

what do you mean the avatar live action didn't cast a blind actress for toph???? like wtf??? that's the bare minimum you could do here

[blluespirit]

there are so many amazing and powerful benders in atla but what i love about zuko is that whether or not he can use his bending in that moment has zero (0) bearing on how much he’s going to absolutely kick your ass. no bending? that’s fine - he’s got swords. no swords or bending? that’s fine - he’s literally just going to beat you up. if you’re REALLY unlucky then you get all three. as a treat.

[lucyskywalker]

The best thing I did on tumblr was stay away from ATLA fandom.

No one is going to make me hate Zuko

No one is going to make me hate Aaang

No is going to make me hate Katara, nor Toph, nor Soka, nor Uncle Iroh, nor Ty Lee, nor Suki.

They won't make me dislike any character, especially not over a ship.

[devilsmenu]

@wvsteria - Akihiro & Azula

“That’s nothing, I’ve had worse” Akihiro said once he noticed the other staring at the bruises and blood on his face. “You can stop staring now, it’s kind of annoying and you don’t really want to see me being annoyed”.

[akiizayoi4869]

Hey! Here are the remaining screenshots from The Tale of Azula, ch 4 to the last chapter, ch 6.

This novel is really making me wish that we had some Azula dedicated episodes.

[velvet-vox]

V and Doll; trauma, mental disorder, and low empathy.

(Warning: this post is slightly outdated and contains some incorrect medical terms that don't correspond to the modern classification of ASPD. You can still read it if you are curious, but don't take anything stated here as hard facts. They are not.)

Very recently on my notifications I received a reblog by @aroaceweirdos101 to a response I've made to a post talking about how Doll went through so much more pain than V, and it made me realise that the response in question was actually, like, really good.

I had genuinely forgotten and underestimated how good of an analysis of both V, Doll, mental health and societal stigma it really was.

Now, of course, I disagree with the sentiment that Doll suffered more than V and fully believe that out of the two V endured way more pain and trauma than Doll; yet, although the responses in the comments checked out with what I previously said, they felt... meaner?

Like, the answers went to the opposite extreme of the original comment and tried to downplay Doll's trauma in comparison to V's, almost implying that Doll was a b##ch (which she was) for snapping as hard as she did when V still managed to retain a sense of restraint; and I disagreed with that, so in response I wrote this:

*Look, I believe both Doll and V are interesting characters, and although I feel more sympathetic towards Doll, I definitely believe V went through so much more pain than Doll and had way more reasons to snap and be the way she is now, but I just really hate people who use that as an excuse to label Doll has the more evil of the two or "she was always just a psycho, she just needed an excuse to snap"; it's especially disheartening when people straight up interpret her as unreademable or pure evil, when V and N's body count is 10 times higher than Doll's.

Also, I'm sorry but I really can't stomach the possibility of Liam redeeming the genocidal war machine and not the broken orphan created by said psycho, it literally would be the fictional pinnacle of "since these are the protagonists, they can get away with as much as they want and are always in the right"; I'm fine with the way Doll died because it was done by Cyn and there wasn't any moral lesson to be gained from our protagonists about it, but if it was done by N, Uzi, or worst of all V again, it should have played out like "we have reasons to do the things we do, and you have yours, unfortunately we're on opposite sides and you are hurting us so we must kill you now".

The human (worker drone) mind is extremely fragile, and some people, due to a probably inherited and undiagnosed mental illness or a particular personality type, are more at risk of snapping then other people, yet instead of being understanding towards those who are born with more issues than others (especially women, look up Azula or Ashley Graves) we tend to isolate, demonize and then kill them because they were incapable of fitting into the larger societal standard of acceptable social behaviour, even when said society never did anything to help them meet its unreachable standards because it required too much work from society's side to give you the special attention you needed in order to make you work and fit in.

V was a quiet kid because she was shy, Doll was a quiet kid because she was introverted. Those are two very different types of people and one of them (Doll) was inherently more at risk of developing mental health issues than the other due to their personality type and how it's stigmatized.*

Here's also the original post made by an anonymous user on @md-confessions

Also, here's the link to another post still talking about V and Doll. I made two comments in response, but neither of them is particularly well thought out and since you can't correct them I left them as they were.

Now, back to the highlighted part:

I want to use this response as a springboard to talk about the main differences between Doll and V when it comes to their different handling of their decaying mental health and why it's unfair to say that one of them was worse than the other based on their actions and attitude towards the problem.

(Also, all of the Murder Drones characters are extremely complex, and the fact that the show doesn't have filler makes it harder to get a good grip on one's particular mindset, so if it seems like I'm talking more about Doll than I am about V, it is because V is the most complicated character in the cast and I'm not as confident to talk about her as I am with Doll; it took one entire year to finally understand Doll as well as I do now, so V is a touchy subject for me that's why I might not do her justice).

First of all, it has to be said: Doll is a sociopath, V isn't, despite appearing like one. And that's ok.

When I say that I feel more sympathy towards Doll than I do for V, this is what I mean: I don't sympathise with Doll heartlessness more than I do with V jackassery; rather I understand and relate with Doll's low empathy since I also have low empathy as well, and it is quite common for people like us to be misunderstood for uncaring individuals.

It's the same reason why I and many others tend to like villains and sympathise with them more than we do with the heroes (Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 is the perfect example for this); it's quite common for villains to be written as individuals with low empathy, as an highly empathetic individual tends to be harder for the audience to buy as an antagonist, since you need to justify why someone this caring is committing all this heinous and terrible stuff, but if that person is already unemphatetic by nature, than it's just a matter of establishing their goals and motivations. These people also tend to be ostracized by their environment and go through a gruesome and violent death because it's socially acceptable to let these despicable individuals find comeuppance through death since they lack the traits that make a person traditionally good.

So, when people use the "So what? She's got dead parents. Many others do, including Uzi, who's also infected with the Absolute Solver, yet they have not become cannibalistic serial killers obsessed with revenge" as a slight against Doll it's not entirely fair because from what we've gathered in the show the other worker drones don't suffer from sadistic impulses and sociopathy like Doll does, even if they (Rebecca) are pretty uncaring. (Side note, Uzi also suffers from sadism/sadistic impulses, but not from sociopathy, hence the main difference between the two).

V, on the other hand, despite what her introduction and psycho girl persona might trick you into believing, was never a sociopath nor did she struggle with low empathy, she was, instead, a pretty timid maid who suffered through unspeakable physical and psychological trauma that led her to adopt this fake identity to cope for the atrocities that she was now committing for the company (Absolute Solver) and the safety of N; V cared about N in a pretty normal person kind of way: she kept N at arms length and hid the truth from him so that he wouldn't get hurt, all while detaching herself from the actions she was now committing, not saying Doll wouldn't or didn't commit any of these actions, but V did them in a way that better aligns with someone who doesn't suffer from sociopathic disorder.

Speaking of N, since he has been mentioned, I'll say that while Uzi suffers from sadism but not low empathy (she has shown to be pretty empathetic many times), N doesn't suffer from sadism but from low empathy; as better explained by a section of this post made by @melissa-titanium :

N x Doll

Don't believe me? Then maybe you should rewatch the series again because N's unemphateticness is his own can of worms to delve into.

But back to Doll, it's time to dissolve (😏) one of the oldest misconceptions surrounding her character:

Doll reached out for help. A lot. She just didn't have any luck with it.

Call me crazy, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that the fandom wide spread belief that Doll rejected all the help that was handed to her to be a massive lie, and in fact, Doll actually tried to reach out way more than you thought, arguably, even more than Uzi:

The impact that Yeva's education has had on Doll's life can only be noticed in this way: Yeva extended her hand to Nori and she accepted it, thus, it is fair to assume that Yeva taught Doll to be pretty open to others and to give a hand to someone in need (the show was rewritten after the pilot, so ignore the incongruences with Doll's initial characterization), and in fact, after enduring the trauma of watching her parents die, she opened up to Lizzie for help and support, unfortunately, Lizzie wasn't exactly the right person to talk about these things (no offence to her, all of Uzi's classmates suck for one reason or another, including Uzi herself, I guess that's what happens when you are stuck inside a bunker your whole life), after all, Doll was still killing and cannibalising her classmates.

Then, before she went back to gain her revenge, she tried to get Uzi on her side, which wasn't an attempt to open up, but she was still willing to connect, even if for the wrong reasons. Finally, once she discovers that Uzi also has the Absolute Solver, she promises to help her out, and at this point, Doll wishes to talk it out with Uzi, but because she is surrounded by the Disassembly Drones (V), she can't.

And now, for the most interesting discussion, there's this brief and frankly weird moment in episode 5 where Doll compliments Khan for raising Uzi, and while Khan laughs it off immediately, since he is a dumbass, this could have been a perfect opportunity for him to reach out to Doll and reason with her, since she's clearly putting aside whatever her objective actually is to talk to him, but he doesn't catch on, and this leads Doll to immediately closing herself off again and returning to the mission, and like, maybe we all kind of underestimated how much significance this moment carried, but consider this:

Doll, at this point in time, has been living out in the cold for what... a month? Six months? A YEAR? If we exclude J and Cyn from the equation, this is probably the only social interaction she ever had since The Promening, yet, because of Khan's lack of touch, she immediately reminds herself of the massive disconnection between her and the other workers (eh ehm sociopath) and thus storms off rapidly; this moment is actually quite painful when you look at it from this perspective, yet it's also, the only interpretation that makes sense? Otherwise how do you explain the existence of this moment when Murder Drones is a show infamous for his high plotting and lack of filler? They had to go out of their way to animate this, so why did they play it off in this way?

Tessa is a meanie

Penultimately, and again, I want to bring up a post by @capnsaltsquid since that's where I got the inspiration to write this paragraph off, Doll opened up to J and Tessa to get the answers she was seeking, yet not only Tessa shot her in the face for s###s and giggles, but then proceeded to fraternise with her parents murderers, and at this point, she closes herself off enough to realise that she might have to unintentionally kill Uzi and leave everyone in the dust if she wants to get anything at all.

But unfortunately, that is not the case, she dies of a lonely, meaningless, gruesome death, and at this point, she still tries and finally succeeds in reaching out to Uzi, and yet, like all of her previous tries, this is unsuccessful, as Uzi has other things in mind right now.

To wrap things up nicely, both V and Doll went through severe amounts of trauma and handled said trauma in a similar yet also different way, since they are different individuals who process emotions and love differently, thus the actions they took made sense for the person they were and should only be judged in the context of their writing and characterization.

Want more?

[princess-of-the-corner]

Tried to think of some Miraculous Gaang names! You may want to Google a few of these, fair warning.

Ladybug!Sokka - Captain Harmonia/Harlequin/Beetle

Black Cat!Katara - Painted Jaguar

Turtle!Aang - Lion Turtle, Tortiseshell

Snake!Suki - Pythonic, Tealtime, Naga, Aspen, Tock Viper, Medusa/Stheno/Euryale, Teal Gorgan

Tiger!Toph - The Blind Tiger

Dragon!Zuko - Seiryu 

Fox!Azula - Inari, Kistune, Silver Reynard, Kuma Lisa, Blue Ren (“the tale of Miss Ren”)

Pig!Jin - Babirusa

Bee!Ty Lee - Bumblebee (there is literally a “Dance of the Bumblebee” music score), Honeycomb

Mouse!Mai - Rat Queen (based on the “Rat King” from the Nutcracker Ballet. Kind of as a slide parallel to her canon thing, here, Mai’s parents signed her up for ballet, where she met Ty Lee and Azula.)

Ox!Haru - Oxenfree (all I got right now)

Horse!Teo - got nothing but “Pegasus” which is taken

Rabbit!Yué - Luna Lapine, Luna Angora, Satin Moon, Velvet Moon

Monkey!Kuzon - a bit more explanation here. Mostly, I was trying to fill out the miraculous roster, cause AtLa only has a few “main” characters, I was trying to find some named characters the Gaang is shown being friends with who are roughly their age. I didn’t list Jet or his friends, cause, honestly, what exactly would their story be?? How do they integrate? Like, I’m sure you could do something, I just couldn’t really think of anything at the time. But also, I realized all the friends of the Gaang belong to Katara, Sokka, or Suki, later Zuko - Aang and Toph don’t really have any that are unconnected from them. In Toph’s case, she was raised super sheltered, and never got a chance to meet anyone, while Aang HAD friends, but they’re all mostly dead, except Bumi, because of the 100 years in ice thing. And we already have Bumi here being an old man. The only other friend Aang really mentions is Kuzon, the Fire Nation kid who … I think there’s a short story about the pair of them fighting off poachers? Anyway, I was basically imagining Kuzon as “Le Chien Kim, but Animal Lover and Environmentalist Advocate”. He would have grown up next door to Aang and Gyatso, and that’s how the pair are friends. As for names … I want to say Tarzan or Mowgli, but I feel like, even in universe, those would get him visits from lawyers.

Now, briefly into ships - this is just me spitballing my random headcanons, PLEASE TO ALL READING THIS, WE ARE HAVING FUN, LET’S NOT BRING THE ATLA SHIPWARS HERE! THIS IS JUST ME SPITBALLING! THEY CAN ALL BE CHANGED!

so, Katara/Aang. Aang I see as non-binary - they don’t mind which pronouns you use, but mostly uses he/they when referring to himself. Katara believes she is straight, but is actually bi with a bigger attraction to males.

Sokka is poly-pansexual. His relationships start with Sokka/Yue, until Yué realizes she’s actually AroAce, and they break up. Then later Sokka/Suki, which morphs into Zuko/Sokka & Sokka/Suki, which changes to Zuko/Sokka/Suki. Suki’s bi, while Zuko is … Zuko (demi-pan, but never has the words for it till WAY later).

Toph is Aro, or at least grayromantic, as is Teo. Teo I also see as trans, but that might just be me.

Mai/Ty Lee eventually becomes Mai/Ty Lee/Azula. (Sexuality uncertain, but my cousin does call them the “Deadly Lesbians”.) There’s a brief Mai/Zuko, but only to get Mai’s parents to back off and leave her alone.

Haru is our only totally straight guy, congrats man, you are our cishet+!

Thoughts, Feelings, Opinions, New/Different Ideas?

(Also, side note. We still have Cabbage man, right?)

-

OH SO

Loving the names! I think I’m gonna make a masterpost of the names here once I finalize them.

Totally get the thing on Kuzon. Like yeah I’m trying to think of other characters to fill out the Hero team and other than Jet’s group there aren’t a lot. There’s a reason I dragged Jin into this(other than the fact that I love her)

And yeah I’ve been turning Jet and co over in my head trying to think of what they’d be and I can’t think of anything for them because there’s so many changes to the base setup.

AS FOR SHIPS

I have my ships I like and while I do take suggestions it’s my au and I get the nonsense!

Obvs the Aang/Katara stays.

I see the Zuko/Sokka/Suki and raise you adding Jin in there.

Swinging to Yue: I always have mixed feelings in some AUs because I love her and Sokka in Canon but most AUs they never really work out. And in this one idk why they wouldn’t exactly? Like nothing gets in the way. Maybe if I write Sokka starting the Suki relationship first and then while they’re poly they’re not at a ‘hey how do you think about another person?’ discussion stage when they meet Yue? And then by the time they are at that stage either they’ve moved on or Yue has her own partner?

That said. Yue/Azula. Any time I have the chance for them I take it. Like the equal opposite you see my vision.

I also have this weird soft spot for Toph/Ty Lee. Probably has something to do with that post of ‘Ty Lee teaches Toph to walk on her hands’ thing because as funny as that post is these two are menaces it’s great, the amount of trust involved in it!

Haru is def our token straight though.

My one original thought:

So like. The Gaang has a range of ages. And in atla that’s fine due to the circumstances. But here it’s kind of a question of ‘how do they all meet/become friends/etc if they never really meet’? so I’m gonna make shit up to squish them into the same grade in school. 

Aang and Toph skipped a grade. Homeschooling put them a bit ahead of their peers in public school so they just got placed ahead.

On the flipside, Zuko got held back a grade due to the whole ‘being kicked out and horrifically scarred’ thing. Like between the mental and physical care he’d need he missed a lot of class that year so just. Repeat the year.

[devilsmenu]

"Oh, no, I didn't meant to bother you, I was just seeing what you were doing" Sally said shaking her hands like saying the other could continue doing what she was doing.

Closed starter for sally ! @devilsmenu

" what is it that you want?" the firebender asked with cruel eyes, "-can't you see I'm busy i don't know how to make that any more obvious."

[shoutoutout]

Show You What All the Howling Is For - Ch. 10 (June/Azula)

Lightning cracks closer. Through the strobing light, Azula’s expression curdles into disgust at the sight of the bounty hunter.  Traitor, she mouths and the dagger slides deeper.

June and Azula take a trip, 12 years after the finale.

[inmydrcams]

I actually really enjoyed the atla live action??? like, I think the wigs are dreadful and some of the outfits are super clunky but the story REALLY works and the actors are doing amazing and it feels like they're actually doing something interesting with it hitting all the main beats of the cartoon but with more concise storytelling cause they have the privilege of knowing exactly where they're headed

[blluespirit]

Overall NATLA Thoughts

Okay, now that I've watched the series, I can give my thoughts.

Overall, I thought it was good!!! I had fun watching it! I'd rate it a solid 6.5/10. It's nowhere as good as the original, but it was definitely enjoyable and made some nice changes here and there that I liked. There were also some things I was also Not a fan of too.

I said in another post that it's best to treat this like an AU of the original. There will things that are great and things that are bad. That's the nature of adapting something.

Having said that, I need to get my initial thoughts off my chest... here we go.

Things I thought were good:

Sokka's characterisation - I really enjoyed him! I thought Ian did a good job! He played the funny moments well and retained the underlying seriousness/cautiousness. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed the changes a lot and think it was overall a solid performance.

Zuko's characterisation - Like Sokka, I do think I was most satisfied with their performances. A lot of Zuko's moments from the cartoon are sometimes... well, cartoonish and definitely wouldn't translate to live action, but I think Dallas did a nice job at balancing Zuko's desperate anger and that occasional sassiness well.

Zuko and Iroh moments were great. Had me on the floor crying. As it should have.

The bending looks a trillion times better than the movie - I understand it would not have been easy for the actors but, overall, I was very happy about it.

The scenery was stunning. It just looked so beautiful. I loved it so much.

Absolutely ADORE that they made Zuko a good calligrapher and artist. I read a fic about a million years ago where Zuko is a fantastic calligrapher and I thought it was perfect and made so much sense, and now I can say it's canon. This is perfect for me.

S U K I

The Freedom Fighters were ✨ perfect

They were so real for making Oma and Shu lesbians

Koh, Wan Shi Tong and Hei Bai looked fantastic, but I have more to say about all of them below, unfortunately.

I actually like the change they made that Katara is Aang's sole waterbending teacher.

Aang is not perfect, and needed more goofy scenes HOWEVER, I did like how they've had Aang's guilt more prominent in the story. The original didn't do a very good job with that, imo.

Zuko entering is breaking and entering era by breaking into an impenetrable Earth Kingdom prison is just perfect.

In Masks, I like how Aang and Zuko got a longer conversation - that was pretty cute.

I liked how they changed Yue a bit and got her out of the arranged marriage... how Yue saw Sokka in the Spirit World before meeting him in the real world.

Things I didn't like:

Far too much info-dumping/exposition. So much spelling things out. It was not as egregious as the movie, and I get there's a lot of information that needs to be conveyed well and quickly... but sometimes it really took me out of the show.

Why are Mai and Ty Lee here.... I was hoping the live action would give them a bit more depth (and they might as it goes forward!), but why put them in season 1 at all if they're just going to stand around???

Some odd changes - putting this as one point, but there are some bizarre changes that didn't make sense to me, as they did not benefit the story or deepen the characters. I have two main examples: a) making it so Aang didn't run away from home, and b) making it so Zuko actually fights Ozai in the Agni Kai.

Characterisation of Katara was Not Great. I don't think I got many hints of the reckless, compassionate, badass Katara until the end when she fights Pakku and rallies all the women together to fight (which happens off-screen). She was sweet and kind, but she just lacked the fire that OG Katara has.

Azula's characterisation - Azula is desperate to impress Ozai and so her character is just…. brewing with anger, frustration, desperation. I was SO excited to see the Azula we are introduced too… perpetually and irritatingly calm, calculating and ruthless. She's perfect, she's terrifying! She's literally the character of all time. But this Azula had more Zuko vibes? I don't think there's anything wrong with giving Azula more concrete motivation by wanting to impress Ozai and establishing that Ozai is abusive to both his kids, but I do think trying to do that right off the bat is a mistake.

WHY is Wan Shi Tong here. I love Wan Shi Tong, but like I said: Why Is He Here? Why could we not have his iconic, ominous as fuck introduction from The Library, and instead he's introduced in a random season 1 episode giving Aang Information(tm) about the Spirit World.

When Aang gave Koh the statue, and then he just takes it and immediately lets all the villages go, and neither of them even say anything, I actually laughed out loud. Like, I am so sorry, but what in the jesus fuck was that.

Speaking of Koh - I think Koh is better the less we know about him. Roku saying ~all Koh wants is a family like the rest of us~ just pissed me off?? I like my Koh the Face Stealer Terrifying and Unknowable, thank you.

NOTHING EVER REALLY HAPPENS WITH HEI BAI!!?? where's my precious spirit bear?? Like Aang never really does anything with him and the replacement Koh story is boring and it sucks.

Bumi.... sorry I just didn't vibe with him at all.

Things I can't decide on:

Fancy spirit knife to kill the moon spirit annoyed me a bit, but I guess they wanted to Kuruk something to work with and a little bit more interaction with Aang which I get but idk. I really flip/flop on this one.

I've been very on the fence about having Azula (and Ozai) being in the show in season 1 in general. I'm not sure if it benefited either of their characters.

Azula & Ozai's dynamic - Okay, so, I think they're trying to give Azula more depth, right? They're trying to establish what it was like for Azula to live with Ozai and that she's also (like Zuko) trying to desperately prove herself to him, but Ozai using Zuko's... achievements to do that just felt so weird. I get he's doing it to manipulate her, but that just felt so wrong when in canon it's very obvious that Ozai just didn't give a single fuck about Zuko. Ozai pits Azula against Zuko by saying he's a failure, he's a bad bender etc. Azula is born lucky, Zuko is lucky to be born - like, Ozai says that to Zuko's face. I don't know if I am communicating this point very well, but it just didn't seem right to me??

Zuko vs Zhao in the Siege of the North... I genuinely do not know how to feel about it! I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. I don't know how to feel about Zhao telling Zuko that his mission is a sham and that Azula is the prized one... It feels like it's saying the quiet part out loud? In the OG we all know that Ozai sending Zuko on that mission was an excuse to get rid of him, but we can work that out, no one actually says it. And then Iroh just fucking killing him/mortally wounding him instead of the Iconic scene where Zuko reaches out to save him despite everything Zhao has done to him, but Zhao's own pride gets in the way from letting him accept help from Zuko.

Zuko’s crew being the 41st is not necessarily a bad thing at all!!! But I do just want to say that in the original, the attack goes ahead, and presumably, those soldiers die. It’s horrible. Zuko’s sacrifice is in vain, and it was always going to be in vain because the Fire Nation as it stands would not allow Zuko's compassion to win. Ozai would not allow it. While not necessarily a bad choice (all the soldiers bowing to Zuko on the boat was so sweet I loved it!) but I think it does take away some of the horror of Zuko’s story (same as it does with making Zuko fight back in my opinion) because the whole point is that Zuko did the right thing - and he was punished for it, and those soldiers died anyway.

anyway...

Okay!! got that off my chest. I know I just had a big whine here, but I still had a lot of fun watching this show. I think some of the backlash is a bit over the top and unwarranted. It was never going to stand up to the original - and that's okay.

Enjoy it for what it is!

[reyxa]

can't we just get oolong? ch. 4

AO3

title: can’t we just get oolong? author: Reyxa rating: T summary: au where zuko and iroh settle in ba sing se post-banishment. when a pretty water bender start frequenting the jasmine dragon, zuko’s world turns upside down.

Chapter 4: Ginseng

“Zuko!”

“Wh–” he jolts awake, smacking his head on the doorframe of the teashop’s backroom as he whips around. “What, Uncle?”

“You’re falling asleep standing!” Iroh presses a large cup into Zuko’s hand, a wide grin etched into his face. “Stayed up quite late, did you?”

Zuko rubs the smarting pain out of the side of his head, chugging down the drink in his head. The sleep weighing heavy on his shoulders lifts a bit as he drinks. He’s had his fair share of sleepless nights, but none so tumultuous. His brain is foggy with thoughts of Azula’s oppressive presence in the city, and the way Katara’s fingers had brushed against his wrist as she undid the knot of her necklace.

Grinning, Iroh slides the cup out of Zuko’s hand and places it on the table. He places a large hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “You are lucky, waterbending inspires inner harmony. You could learn much from her, Prince Zuko. I hope she bends you into shape!”

Iroh laughs just as loudly as Zuko groans. “I’m never gonna see her again anyway, leave it alone!”

His uncle continues laughing. “Go take some rest, Prince Zuko. Can’t have you drooling into the tea, can we?”

~

Katara awakens to pain shooting up her spine, rattling her teeth.

“Wake up, lazy bones!” Toph’s grating voice, accompanied by the reverberations of her earthbending cleave into Katara’s consciousness. “It’s past noon!”

“Ow!” Katara yelps, rubbing her lower back as she clambers up from the hardwood floors of their apartment. “Toph!”

“Oh good, you’re up! You’ve got plans tonight,” Sokka passes her a piece of parchment. She squints at it, an extremely detailed drawing of some kind of bear-creature swims into view. “A party!”

Katara rubs her eyes and blinks again at the parchment. ’Please join us this evening in celebrating the Earth King’s bear, Bosco.’ “Bear?”

“Are you feeling okay, Katara? You slept in more than usual.” Aang frowns at her while he feeds Momo.

Last night floods back into her memories. She still isn’t sure how smart it was to reveal their whole journey here to someone from the Fire Nation. The banished prince, no less. But she remembers his breath brushing gently against the nape of her neck, the shy tone of his voice as he had invited her back.

“Katara?” Aang pokes her. “Maybe you should rest tonight. You seem out of it.”

She laughs nervously. “I’m fine! Just… adjusting to Ba Sing Se life, that’s all! So, the Earth King will be at this party, huh?”

“You and Toph will go in as noblewomen and get the Earth King’s attention! Me and Aang will sneak in and Aang will dazzle him with his Avatar-ness and we’ll be on our way out of this city.” Sokka snatches the invitation from her. “Then it’s bye bye Fire Lord!”

‘We’ll be on our way out’. She musters a cheerful smile. It’s better to put distance between herself and Zuko as soon as possible, she tells herself. Can’t have another Jet situation, she’s learned her lesson this time.

read on ao3

[erisenyo]

Hey there, can I ask how you come up with your OC names?

Anon I am THRILLED you asked because I am about to dump so much in-my-head-only worldbuilding on you, so much more than you probably needed or wanted lol.

As always this is not short, and forgive in advance the butchery I’m about to do of like, all of phonetics and linguistics.

OKAY so generally speaking, when it comes to names I have a set of foundational building blocks/general guidelines for the various countries and I work from there. These are based on phonetic characteristics of the canon names we see, and then from there I'd start layering in additional fun along groupings I've noticed around gender or class or family lines or whatever if I want to take the worldbuilding that deep.

So for example, with the Water Tribes…

We have Sokka, Katara, Hakoda, Bato, Kya all from the South, so I pick out...

Hard K or T sounds being quite common

Primarily A and O as vowels

Vowels being between consonants (ie, being single vowels)

Names being 2-3 syllables

In the North, we see Yue, Hahn, Agna Qel’a, Arnook, Kanna, Pakku...

Some similarities with the Ks and hard Qs

Now we see some softer ‘gn’ and ‘hn’ and L sounds, and the addition of P (which makes Bato’s “B” and Sokka’s “S” stand out)

Some ‘oo’ instead of ‘o’ vowels (so double vowels)

Hahn and Yue with no hard consonant sound at all (and both upper class!)

So that gives us some basic starting blocks to start building up names that sound like they fit within the Water Tribe culture in terms of sounds, as well as some potential regional and class differences to start working with! (Maybe Q sounds are only in the North, and upper-class people have soft consonant names, for example.)

Similarly in the Fire Nation…

The royal family is Zuko, Azula, Ozai, Azulon, Sozin, Iroh, Lu Ten, so...

A lot of Z and K sounds

(Male) names that end in N

A lot of two-syllable names (with the emphasis on the first syllable)

A lot of riffs on each other (Sozin and Ozai, Azulon and Azula, Azulon and Zuko)

Iroh and Lu Ten stand out as having fairly distinct names comparatively, with the “oh” ending and the softer "Ir" and "Lu" starts

Chan, Zhao, and Ruon-Jian are the other upper-class guys we see, which gives us...

short syllables again

N endings (for men) agai

The ‘two word’ name again (so Lu Ten's name naming structure is used elsewhere)

The introduction of “Ch” and “J” and “R” and double-vowel sounds (ao, uo, ia)

We also see Roku and Kuzon...

So very similar names to our royal bunch with those Ks and Zs and oku/uko and uzon/ulon sounds

Also older names from 100+ years ago, and commoner names

Mai, Ursa, Ty Lee as our upper-class ladies gives us...

short syllables again

‘two word’ names again

M sounds!

Mai and Ursa both don't have a hard consonant stop

Some phonetic/vibey similarity with “Mai” and “Ty”

And adding in Chit Sang (another commoner!) (presumably!)...

Another two-word name

Introduces the ‘ng’ ending

Leverages a lot of the consonant sounds we already saw

Uses an “it” usage of the "I" vowel (vs Iroh’s I)

So pulling it all together, in addition to those foundational consonant and vowel sounds, we also see that the royal family has a distinct naming convention that may be rooted in archaic naming styles.

And we can start to build out some ideas around gendered naming, family/honorific naming, and some potential class/pre-unification culture differences, as well as some space to speculate about why Iroh and Lu Ten’s names are so different from the rest of the royal family, too (as well as the ammunition to suggest that Zhao comes from a family of suck-ups lol)

Moving onto the Earth Kingdom (where I truly went wild)…

We start off with Toph, Haru, Long Feng, Kuei, Jet, Bumi, Poppy, Lao, and there's a lot of varability here!

Generally, the names are one or two syllables and start with a consonant

We see more double-vowel pairs (uei, ao), perhaps in the upper class but just as many single vowels

Consonants are hard or soft, and don't seem to group like the Water Tribe or FN royals did around particular sounds

Names end in vowels or hard sounds or softer 'ph' and 'ng'

Those guardrails are fairly wide and broad for feeling out distinct-sounding names, but it makes sense given how huge the Earth Kingdom is and its history of war, displacement, movement, etc.

So for a fic like That Love You've Been Looking For which was super EK-centric and focused on worldbuilding, I ended up breaking it down into broad regions and leaning into place names as well to help articular some basic rules:

In the southwest (Gaoling, Toph, Lao, Poppy), I decided that there’d be a mix of single and two-word names, and that the ‘ph’ ending would be used by women and the ‘ng’ ending for men

On the western coast (Haru, Omashu, Bumi), I went with primarily two-syllable names that follow a ONE-two pattern (PA-lo, BU-mi, CHE-lu, HA-ru) and went with mostly softer consonants

In the north (Ba Sing Se, Si Wong Desert, Long Feng), I went with short multi-word names where each part would be a single syllable

And in the center I was kind of pulling it together from what was left, but I went with names that end with an ‘an’ or ‘in’ sound and echoed some of the place names I was using

So we have some building blocks for the various regions, this time that we can use to indicate where someone’s family could be from and to give each region a more specific feel.

For Kyoshi...

I generally lift the Earth Kingdom rules, but view it as more of a trade-center and melting pot (Suki could fit in WT or FN rules), so it's deliberately a lot looser and with more variation.

And everywhere has a Lee/Li, so none of these rules are hard and fast, and I imagine too that there’s a ton of cultural mixing and fads and trends and whatnot in naming across various regions.

A quick note from a process standpoint--

This approach is very much not trying to find names within various existing real-world cultures. If I'm writing ATLA canon-world, I tend to stick to the idea of leveraging real-world contexts as a base rather than a strict guide. Something I wanted to flag, as there are other ways to go about OC naming that lean much more heavily into researching the naming conventions of various cultures throughout history, thinking about translation and name meaning, etc.

And also, if I need a lot of names, I'll often use the Fantasy Name Generator and look for names that either fit or that I can tweak into the above 'rules.' (Otherwise I accidentally start giving people ship names lol, RIP to Mailee, Maizula, and Yutara, you lived on under new personas)

I also don't always dig as deeply into the way names can signify class or status or whatnot, either. It can be very fun, but sometimes you just need a one-off name so your POV character looks like they actually interact with the people they nominally see every day haha

Editing 10/24 to add - this is representative of my prior approach, going forward I have shifted to leveraging real names as much as possible and building headcanons around, for example, different real-world inspired cultural influences within the nations

[firenaition]

sad girl: ch. 10 is HERE!

featuring needy aang, cockblocker zuko, and a whole lotta dark azula action

[saiilorstars]

ch.18: Goodbye Rubeus

Story Masterlist

Fandom: Sailor Moon (Crystal)

Rewrite of season 2, AU-ish in that there’s new OCs and the fusion of plots from the manga, crystal and the og series

Pairings: Eventual OFC x OMC, Usagi x Mamoru

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​​​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​​​​​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​​​​​​​​ @foxesandmagic @kmc1989 @caplanbuckybarnes

Also on  on Fanfic ○ Ao3 ○ Wattpad

Asteria and Emica stood in the middle of their school's courtyard gazing up at the sky. Something about it was giving a rather hazy impression, like something was drawing closer...

"Do you feel it in the air?" Asteria quietly asked Emica.

"That odd feeling of...a presence?"

"Mhm," Asteria nodded, then glanced at her comrade. Both of them wore the same look of certainty.

"Sailor Circe is finally going to reawaken," they said in unison and with a touch of excitement. Sailor Circe was their scour leader; she always knew how to solve everything. With her finally awake and leading their group, they would find their princess for sure.

"And how would Sailor Circe greet us when she sees we have failed to work together like we are meant to?" Meroko's question made both girls turn to see the brunette standing behind them.

"She will see who's fault it is," Emica narrowed her eyes on Meroko but the latter returned the gesture.

"Yeah, and I'm looking right at her."

Anger flashed across Emica's face. "Do not forget your place, Hemera."

"Please," Asteria broke between them, actually pleading for a full stop. "If the Princess were here, she would be very disappointed in our behavior."

"That's just it, we don't know where she is," Emica snapped. "It's why I've subjected myself to such a ludicrous school system just to see if Reign is one of these teenagers. Perhaps we would have found her by now if someone" — she paused to glare at Meroko again — "wasn't more preoccupied fighting with the Silver Millenniums."

"I'll have you know that we've already taken down one Shadow from Senka's form," Meroko watched with satisfaction as both Emica and Asteria were left shocked. "Sailor Moon and one of the Black Moon Clan did it. I also discovered that Azula was not Reign. See, I'm being productive."

"When did this happen?" Asteria asked curiously.

"Two days ago. And now we're moving onto finding a different way to take down the next shadow in Senka." Meroko sighed, her entire demeanor changing. She didn't want to fight her comrades, much less her own sister. She would much rather they all work together. "We've already healed the Spectre Sisters from the Black Moon Clan and now we're definitely expecting retaliation from their commander, Rubeus. We're going to need all the help we can get." Emica looked away defiantly. "I wish to change our dynamic. I don't want us to deem ranks more important than our friendship. Emica, change is not bad. The circumstances that led us here were not good but we can still change its outcome. Please, think about that."

Asteria watched her sister leave and felt guilty. They never argued about anything. "Maybe she's right—"

"Oh don't," Emica shot her down with a wave of a hand. "Your sister's head has been brainwashed by those Silver Millenniums. She forgets who she is and where her place is."

Asteria glared. "She's not just some rank! She's one of us! Don't forget why Queen Nyx decided to put her in charge of protecting the barrier." With that, Asteria huffed and walked away. She was growing rather tired of Emica's stubborn ways.

~0~

Chibiusa found it difficult to stay so...calm...when she was just itching to get what she needed in order to go home. She discovered where Usagi kept her Legendary Silver Crystal after so long and now it was just at Chibiusa's fingertips...so close...

But she just needed to wait.

Admittedly she was never good at patience, but she needed to force herself to remember this was all for her family.

She poked her head into Usagi's bedroom and looked around to see if Luna was anywhere near. Usagi was taking a bath and Chibiusa doubted she would be out anytime soon. Quietly, she tiptoed into the room and scanned the area until she spotted the familiar brooch sitting on the bed stand.

"I'm just going to borrow it," she said, though the last time she said that it didn't go so well. "It's going to be different," she mumbled and picked up the brooch. Her Mommy would return it to this point in time after Crystal Tokyo was saved, Chibiusa was sure.

She then bolted out of the room, and out of the house.

~0~

Azula was tired of hearing the same scoldings over and over, but because she loved her friends so much she let them continue until they had nothing left to say about her secret plan with Meroko.

"You could have been killed!"

"It was truly irresponsible!"

"I was scared half to death!"

Azula shared the same bored glance with Meroko. The redhead ran a hand through her long hair and gestured with a hand to her friends if they were finished.

"You're not even sorry," Minako shook her head, completely disapproving of the secret plan.

"Of course not," Azula almost laughed. "At least now Senka will leave me the hell alone. You guys were just too soft to let me go through with it."

"It's one of the reasons why Emica and Asteria have doubts about working with you," Meroko added and immediately received hard glares.

"We're just not on the same page as you and we told you guys..." Makoto said sternly.

"But here's the thing," Azula raised a finger to remind them that this had been her decision and no one else's, "I made the call — my plan — and Meroko was nice enough to help me. You guys want to be mad at someone, be mad at me."

"We don't want to be mad at anyone," Ami sent the two girls soft smiles. She understood Azula's intentions and although she didn't like it, at least Azula was safe. "We just don't want you to try that again."

"I won't," Azula easily promised.

"Okay and since we're moving on, I wanted to tell you guys that I'm pretty sure Sailor Circe is waking up." Meroko hoped this piece of news would get them back on track to what really mattered. She herself was getting over the fact they had to start all over again with the Reign search.

"Really? How can you tell?" Minako asked.

"It's the odd sense in the air," Rei was the one to answer the question, bewildering the rest. Meroko nodded and gestured at Rei with gratitude. "I don't know how but...I think I can sense her. She's like...an ominous feeling, like..."

"Sailor Circe possesses different powers from a typical Sailor Scout. Magic runs through her veins and with it she has different senses that we," Meroko pointed between her and the Scouts, "wouldn't have."

"We're dealing with a witch then...nice," Azula shook her head at the computers.

"She's not a witch," Meroko rolled her eyes. "She's...mystical. But the important thing is the last of the Shadow Scouts is waking up and Circe is the most powerful out of all of us. She'll be able to put some order in our team..." she sighed, "She was always a good leader."

"Well then I guess we better start getting more sedatives," Minako figured they would need a large quantity just like last time considering each Shadow Scout tended to wake up like in a psychotic episode.

Meroko deadpanned the blonde girl for a long moment. "I'll have you know that I don't think Sailor Circe will awaken the same way that the others did."

"Why do you say that?" Ami inquired.

"Because Sailor Circe is protected by the same magic that I believe put Asteria and Emica into their deep sleep."

"I still say we should be prepared," Rei shrugged. You can never be too careful."

"Hm, that's funny," Azula's voice drew them to the girl at the computers.

"I doubt it will be." Meroko was the first to go up to her. "Is it Circe?"

"Um...no, I don't think so..." Azula zoomed in on the park's public cameras and located the source of a blinding light. "Whatever that is, it's releasing a ton of energy."

"The Black Moon Clan," Makoto assumed but still Azula shook her head.

"It doesn't look like the type of power they've been using on us."

"Whatever it is, we should check it out," Minako told them and took out her transformation stick.

"I'll call Usagi," Azula said and so they each split to do their tasks.

~0~

Chibiusa had never cried harder. She was sure she was saying the right words, holding her time key the right way...but she just couldn't get home. Did that mean there was no home to get to anymore? Had the Black Moon Clan destroyed everything? The idea made her cry even harder.

"Well, Rabbit, it seems you have saved me the trouble of searching for you," Rubeus appeared in midair, startling Chibiusa into silence. "Give me the Crystal!"

Chibiusa held the Silver Crystal close to her and shook her head. "It's not for you!"

Rubeus laughed. "But I think it is!" He thrust his hand and released the familiar dark power of the Malefic Crystal.

Chibiusa squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the energy to hit her...but it never did.

"How dare you try and hurt an innocent child!?" Sailor Asteria stood in front of Chibiusa. The ghosts of silver stars were spread around them like a barrier.

Rubeus came face to face with the unknown Sailor Scout. "You have no business here."

"That's rich coming from a time traveler," Sailor Asteria shook her head. "You've met my sister, Sailor Hemera, now meet me — Sailor Asteria, guardian of Night and Stars, and I will make you regret ever stepping foot into this era!"

"Sailor...Asteria..." There was no sign that Chibiusa didn't recognize the girl. It'd been the same as when she met the other Sailor Scouts.

"Run to safety, okay?" Sailor Asteria swiped an arm to the left and removed the two silver stars barricading behind Chibiusa. The pink-haired girl hesitated for a second but ultimately followed the order.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up," Rubeus surprised Sailor Asteria with. He too didn't seem to be in the dark about her. "What is it? The Shadow Scouts?"

"Hm, so there's a future where we also kick your ass? Doesn't sound like a bad future to me," Sailor Asteria smirked, even more so when Rubeus struck a growl.

He started firing repeatedly, possibly with one second gap between shots. Asteria jumped out of the way but was having a hard time keeping up. One of the energy blasts finally hit her and knocked her across the park. Her back hit one of the bench's metal legs.

"Your elder self would be so disappointed," Rubeus moved towards her in the air. "Then again, she doesn't have much to argue with. Last I heard she was fast asleep, poor little thing."

Sailor Asteria wasn't interested in hearing about her future, but the words did make her halt for a second. Asleep? She wouldn't just be 'asleep' and leave Reign defenceless. It had to be because of the Black Moon Clan.

"I guess if I destroy you right now, it's one less Sailor Scout to worry about in the future!" Rubeus raised his hands to shoot again, but a shrieking sonic cry blew him away like a ragdoll.

"I don't know who you think you are but I'll tell you who I am," Sailor Siren's voice rang clear in the sky. "The Sailor Scout of music and hypnosis - I am Sailor Siren!"

"Siren!" Sailor Asteria got up using the bench as support.

"You shouldn't have left like that!" Sailor Siren shot her comrade a sharp look.

One moment they were discussing possible strategies to find Reign and the next, Asteria blindly ran towards the golden light. Still, Sailor Siren wouldn't leave her alone. It was just them after all.

"Feel the rhythm of my lovely cry!" Sailor Siren sucked in a breath and used her deadly sonic cry on Rubeus.

The man grabbed his head and tried to cover away all the noise but it just wasn't possible. So he took another alternative. Snapping his fingers, his ship appeared over them, cutting short Sailor Siren's cry as a beam raced down on her.

"Siren!" Sailor Asteria got up and made a move towards her when the same beam caught her.

Rubeus laughed and slowly got back on his feet. With another snap of his fingers the two Scouts were pulled into the ship.

"No! No! No! NO!" Sailor Hemera came screaming into the park with the other Sailor Scouts except for Sailor Moon.

"Let them go, Rubeus!" Sailor Mars commanded.

"I've got a better idea," Rubeus rose into the air, feigning a thinking face. "How's about I take these two Shadow Scouts, not kill them, and wait until you exchange the rabbit and the Silver Crystal for them?" he loved seeing the terribly shocked Scouts. It meant he had the upper hand. Finally. "You've got three hours. Be sure to pass the message to Sailor Moon, won't you?"

And he disappeared.

~0~

"What were you doing with my brooch!?" Usagi snatched her brooch from Chibiusa's hands, ignoring the flinch the child gave.

She was furious. Not only had Chibiusa stolen from her but she'd also invoked a possible death massacre beginning with Sailor Asteria and Sailor Siren.

"Usagi..." It was Azula who managed to pull the blonde girl back. "Chill." The calm advisory only seemed to irritate Usagi more. "She's just a kid in the end. She doesn't know any better."

"Oh, that's rich! You weren't that calm when Reyna was here!" Usagi exclaimed.

Azula shrugged. "Yeah, alright..."

Usagi whirled around to face Chibiusa again, the quiet girl shrunk in her chair after so much yelling. "Which is yet another thing we don't know because you won't say! What happened to Reyna!? Are you sisters!?"

"Shouting isn't going to make her talk," Mamoru stopped her again. "We've seen that, remember?"

"It's not fair," Usagi crossed her arms and glared at the girl. "You come in, hypnotize my whole family, drive me nuts all day, keep secrets from us, steal my brooch and at the end of the day I'm the bad guy for snapping!?" she shook her head and stormed out of the base.

"She...needs to cool down before any plan can be made," Makoto sighed.

"I'll go talk to her," Mamoru gave Azula a nod to Chibiusa. She was in charge of the girl.

Azula moved over to the computers and started hacking into the street cameras. "Okay, well, we know where the spaceship is. That's an easy one."

Because Rubeus wasn't even attempting to hide himself. He parked his great big UFO ship directly above the district.

Ami joined Azula at the computers. She zoomed in on the ship and discovered readings of a protective barrier around the ship. "First thing's first, we'll need to break through the barrier."

"And how do we do that?" Minako got to thinking for a second.

"May I suggest combining your powers together and pushing through?" Azula raised a finger.

Rei chuckled and slowly pushed Azula's finger down. "You can...but it's easier to say that when you're not the one who's going to have to do it."

Azula cheekily smiled. "Yes, my bad. But it's still all we've got."

"It's not all," Chibiusa's voice was a frail whisper, but still the other girls knew she meant Rubeus' ultimatum.

Azula turned her chair around to the others girls. "I think...you should tell Usagi about the idea. I'll stay here..." her eyes drifted to Chibiusa who found the ground so interesting. "Good luck."

When they were gone, Azula cleared her throat and got up from her chair. She walked around to face Chibiusa's chair and sat on the ground, cross legged. With a straight face, she began to speak. "I discovered Sailor Moon's and the other scouts' identities after blackmailing Mamoru into arranging a meeting with them. I don't actually know what I'm doing half the time around here; I wish I had powers like my friends; I think Usagi's cooking is, for the most part, inedible but I don't say anything to spare her feelings. What else, what else?" she tapped her chin in genuine thought. "Oh! I actually had a crush on Mamoru in the beginning of the school year but once you see him try to play basketball, the magic just kinda goes away."

Chibiusa blinked several times with no idea what Azula had just done. Azula, on the other hand, merely smiled at the girl. "Why did you...why did you tell me all that?" Chibiusa asked.

"Those are things you don't know about me. But now you do. And...if it's possible, I'd like to know you too."

Chibiusa held her Luna P ball closely to her chest. "I can't...I don't... I'm sorry. I didn't mean for Rubeus to take Sailor Asteria and Sailor Siren. I just wanted to get home."

"With Usagi's Silver Crystal?"

"I was just borrowing it!" Chibiusa exclaimed. "I knew that once my Mommy woke up she would return the Silver Crystal to Usagi."

"So you wanted to use the Silver Crystal to help your mother. See, if you would have said something like that in the beginning, I know Usagi would have helped you."

Chibiusa hid behind her Luna P ball. "She's always shouting at me. She wouldn't have understood."

"But you need her to help. You came looking for Sailor Moon the same way Reyna came looking for Sailor Reign,"

Azula noticed something flash across Chibiusa's. She then quickly ducked her head. Azula waited for the girl to say something, or even to look at her again, but Chibiusa never did.

"That look...if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were guilty...but not for stealing the Silver Crystal tonight," Azula remarked cautiously, "Chibiusa, I keep asking you this and I sincerely hope that this time you answer me. Did something happen to Reyna?"

"I didn't mean to! I didn't mean for any of this to happen!" Chibiusa broke down in tears. "The Black Moon Clan came and destroyed the city before Queen Reign put up the barrier! Everyone in the city is asleep, or...or dead, I don't know! I don't know what happened to Reyna, I swear!" She jumped off her chair and threw her arms around Azula.

Azula wasn't sure how to respond to all that, but for the time being she supposed a hug would help Chibiusa calm down. It was clear that the little girl was in the middle of trouble way beyond her wits and years...and unfortunately the adults around her hadn't been able to beat the Black Moon Clan. She wondered who was left actually breathing in that city.

~0~

Even though it was a trap, the Sailor Scouts took Rubeus head on. It was the only plan they had and they didn't exactly have the time to think about anything else.

Luna and Artemis had taken control of the computers with Azula assisting in what she could. The girls were trying to break into the ship's barrier.

"Maybe we can use the Malefic Crystal against the barrier," Azula pulled out the pair of dark Crystal earrings Berthier had once worn. "You know, use it against itself?"

"But that would require us to calculate its energy levels and things have to be exact before we try anything," Artemis shook his head. "We don't have time for that."

Azula regretfully agreed and put away the earrings. Chibiusa came up behind the three and sighed. "It's my fault," she kept insisting. "I made a mistake and now two friends are hurt."

"Okay kid," Azula glanced over her shoulder, "the thing about mistakes is that it doesn't matter what we did, it's how we own up to them and fix them. You've already done your part so let us try to fix things." She gave an encouraging smile and returned to work.

Chibiusa was determined to fix things herself. If Azula was right, then she not only had to admit her mistake but she had to at least try and help. That's what her family did. Help people. It's what she would do now.

She silently tiptoed out of the base with her Luna P ball in hand until she disappeared.

~0~

"Nothing works!" Sailor Jupiter cried in exasperation after watching how Sailor Mars' fire didn't even scratch the protective barrier around the spaceship.

"Something has to work!" Sailor Hemera was the most frantic about their continuous failure.

"Maybe the combined powers idea isn't as far out as we thought" Sailor Venus remarked and turned to Sailor Moon to see what she said.

"Let's do it," Sailor Moon nodded. It was their best shot at getting into the barrier.

"But will it work including me?" Sailor Hemera wondered.

"The more power the better," Sailor Moon encouraged her to join them. At the end of the day, all Sailor Scouts were connected in some way, or at least that's the stuff that Luna and Artemis always rambled on about.

"And me!" Chibiusa's voice made all the girls freeze in their spots.

Even from the base, Azula, Luna and Artemis gawked at the sight of the little girl very present on the street.

"CHIBIUSA!" Azula shouted much like Usagi would in similar situations. When the hell had Chibusa left the base!?

"What is it?" Mamoru had come to join them in the base, totally in the dark about everything.

Azula pinched the bridge of her nose to keep all her snaps at bay. She pointed a manicured finger at the screen showing Chibiusa with the Sailor Scouts. In less than a second, Mamoru was out of the base again and running to retrieve the girl.

"Now I get Usagi's frustration," Azula rubbed her face then helplessly stared at the screens along with Luna and Artemis.

There was nothing anyone could do at this point.

~0~

"What are you doing here!?" Sailor Moon did not fail to make a scene out of the child's abrupt presence.

Chibiusa stood with her head held up high as she faced all the mortified Scouts. "I made a mistake and I have to own up to it and try to fix it."

"Oh, she listens to me now," the Scouts heard Azula bitterly say from the comms.

"Chibiusa, it's too dangerous for you to be here," Sailor Venus tried a much softer attempt than the previous time. It might be what they needed to push Chibiusa out of the place.

"I know Sailor Asteria and Sailor Siren in the future. They're assigned to protect Reyna but I know they love me too," Chibiusa ignored the shocked faces of the girls, knowing she was essentially telling them of the future. "They always let me help and they play games with me and Reyna. Right now, they're asleep in my city, because of the Black Moon Clan, but I can help them from here. I'm going to."

Her determination sparked awe from the Scouts. She seemed like a little scout herself. There was no backing down even when she was at a clear disadvantage.

"Well, well, well," Rubeus appeared in the air, protected by his barrier, "You've brought me Sailor Moon and the rabbit. Well done."

Sailor Moon immediately placed herself in front of Chibiusa. "You are not going to get away with this! Give us Sailor Asteria and Sailor Siren!"

"You know, I keep having better ideas than you girls," Rubeus snapped his fingers. Different purple beams shot down and started capturing some of the girls.

"No!" Sailor Moon cried out when Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus got caught in the web of beams.

"Ah, who am I to break up the Sailor Scouts?" Rubeus began to laugh again as this time an entire beam scooped up the rest of the Scouts...and Chibiusa. "You're all invited to the party!"

The last beam attempted to catch Sailor Hemera but the girl put up a fight with a strange golden light. It was a light unlike the other Scouts, a familiar light that planet Earth had...

"Is she...?" Azula had to cover her eyes even from the computer screen.

"Channeling her power from the sun? Yes, she is," Luna quickly mapped out the energy levels Sailor Hemera was giving. It seemed to push back the Malefic energy but there was no assurance of how long Hemera would last.

"And look what's happening in the sky..." Artemis was gazing at another source of energy, a different one from Hemera's.

It was a dark pink beam seemingly exploding into the sky, causing a ripple effect.

"Could that be...Sailor Circe?" Azula quickly moved her chair closer to Artemis.

"Sailor Hemera's energy must be acting like a beacon for Sailor Circe!"

"She did say Sailor Circe might not awaken the same way that Asteria and Emica did," Azula remembered Meroko's words. She gazed back at the other screen showing them Hemera's ongoing battle with Rubeus' trapping beam. "We're mapping out her power levels right? Down to the bone?"

"You bet," Luna nodded, still doing that as she spoke. "Research of the Shadow race is of top priority."

"Good, because I don't think Hemera is going to last very long..." Azula sadly watched as the Malefic beam pulled out a second round of power that easily engulfed Hemera's body.

Sailor Hemera was the last Scout to be captured. Rubeus took home a mighty quantity of Sailor Scouts featuring a little girl of tremendous power.

~ 0 ~

Hours later...

"And you're sure this is the place?" Mamoru didn't attempt to hide his lack of patience and frustration from Azula nor the cats behind them.

He was gazing at some creepy, dirty alleyway where apparently Sailor Circe's power had been tracked to just before the girls were taken. To him, it looked like any ordinary alleyway. Putrid smell and nothing useful.

"We tracked the origin point of the energy Circe dispelled earlier," Azula explained, holding out a handheld device currently beeping the closer they got to the right spot. "This is where it led to."

"Azula, it's an alleyway." Mamoru was unusually harsh with his tone but Azula paid no attention to it.

"Well obviously I can see that," she remarked casually, totally unphased by his demeanor. He, in turn, was unphased by her sardonic tone. "But this is where the signal is leading us to, so deal with it. Finding Sailor Circe is the only card we have to get the others back unless you can somehow beam us up into that spaceship?"

Mamoru rolled his eyes at her. "Fine, but what do we do then? Follow that thing until it leads us to a literal wall?"

Azula came to a sudden stop and he bumped into her back. Again, she wasn't phased. "No, the first part of the plan was getting to the source of her powers. Now we're onto phase 2."

"Phase two?" repeated Mamoru, unimpressed.

Azula looked down at Luna and Artemis. They'd come up with a plan alright.

"We think you could find Sailor Circe's location through your abilities," Luna spoke up. She headed up to a spot on the ground where there was an oddly formed crack. "We believe this is where the energy Sailor Circe dispersed came from."

"Underground?" Mamoru gazed at the ground with some horror.

"It's reasonable to think that these girls were covered up as the centuries went on," Artemis joined Luna over the crack. "Eons ago, this place could have been the Shadow Kingdom's garden or palace or something along those lines."

"Yeah, things get buried," Azula shrugged. "History 101."

"Alright, fine," Mamoru walked up to the two cats and bent down. At this point he would try anything if it meant bringing Usagi and the others back. He placed a hand on the ground and focused on finding the missing Scout.

He saw a few visions in which a black haired girl was aimlessly walking the streets. Her eyes seemed permanently wide as she took in everything she passed by, including the people.

Above her, the scenery panned to a large building with a blinking sign advertising free gym membership for a month.

Mamoru raised his hand off the ground and straightened up, turning to meet Azula's anxious self. "She's walking by the Kalo Gym."

"But that's like...two blocks away from here," Azula threw a thumb over her shoulder, soon realizing just how close they were to their solution. With one look at each other, she and Mamoru bolted from the alleyway, leaving Luna and Artemis to dash after them.

~0~

When Sailor Moon awoke, she found herself in a room seemingly made out to be from dark glass. Strangely enough, the glass held no reflections.

"Sailor Moon!" Chibiusa crawled over to her. Her Luna P ball bounced behind her. "Everyone's gone!"

"What?" Sailor Moon shook her grogginess and examined the room they were in. It was true. They were the only ones there. "Where is everyone?" She got up on her feet and turned around twice to catch sight of anyone else.

"Hidden amongst my glass labyrinth, of course," Rubeus appeared in the air again. The malicious look on his face gave Sailor Moon shivers. "They can be returned if you give up the rabbit and your Silver Crystal the easy way."

Sailor Moon didn't believe him one bit. "You're not going to get anything."

Rubeus raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to wager then? One final game?" Sailor Moon's eyebrows knitted together in suspicion. Rubeus lowered himself to the floor and snapped his fingers to reveal the Sailor Scouts hung up on glass crosses.

"No!" Sailor Moon tried running to them but Rubeus snapped his fingers again and made the girls disappear. "Where are they? Tell me now!"

"They're on the ship, obviously. My wager is simple, really. An old-fashioned one-on-one fight between you and me."

Sailor Moon hesitated to believe it would be that simple. "Why?"

"Why?" Rubeus laughed shortly before glaring at her. "Because you turned my loyal followers into weakling humans. You've foiled all my plans and now I'm on the verge of death. If I bring your corpse and the rabbit I'm sure to be forgiven."

"You don't have to do this—"

"Spare me the lecture. I'm not the Spectre sisters. So, what do you say? One last fight?"

Sailor Moon bit her lip nervously. She glanced back at Chibiusa who was fearfully staring at Rubeus. There weren't many options...

Rubeus snapped his fingers and each of the unconscious Sailor Scouts re-appeared behind him, bound to the glass crosses.

~0~

"How are we ever going to find her around here?" Azula helplessly stared at the dozens of people walking down the streets. Luna and Artemis popped their heads from her bag to see what they were dealing with.

Mamoru was just a little up ahead, very focused on their search. His eyes bounced from one black-haired woman to the next. Azula nearly crashed into two people trying to catch up with him, and she was sure the cats were being jostled in her bag too.

"What does she look like at least?" Azula asked more questions that went unanswered. She sighed and broke into a sprint when Mamoru took a sudden turn down the block.

Suddenly, he broke into a full on run.

"WAIT!" Azula cried and tried her best to run after him despite getting scolded by people she was crashing into.

Mamoru had spotted a tall, black-haired girl who seemed to be watching every single thing around her with her head whipping in all the directions. It had to be Sailor Circe in a civilian form. All of a sudden she'd started to run and so Mamoru needed to follow her in order to get her.

He finally cornered her into an alleyway...or so he thought.

"You're following me," her raspy voice stated once the two were still. She turned around then, revealing some pale skin but shining black eyes. There was something twitchy about her, her fingers kept fiddling with each other. "Why?"

"I-I need your help, we need your help," Mamoru motioned he was coming in peace, raising his hands in the air. She tilted her head but even that was in pauses. Her eyes were blinking unusually fast too. "Are you alright?"

"How do you know about me?" she asked without any subtlety about her true form. It was as if...

"You know that I know about you?"

"You wouldn't follow a random person just because. You know me, you want something. I can feel it."

"Okay, fine," Mamoru thought this might be a little easier then if they could skip the whole introductions about secret identities. "I'm Endymion reincarnated—" her eyes stopped blinking for only a second in response, "—and your comrades and my friends need your help."

"Sailor Hemera," she blurted like it'd been a secret she'd been holding for ages. She flexed her hands repeatedly with no known desired action. "I felt her rage. I felt her power. It's what drove me to awaken."

"She's been taken by a powerful dark person and if you don't help them, they're going to get killed."

"There you are!" Azula came running in and stopped just beside Mamoru. Hands on her knees, she tried to catch her breath. Luna and Artemis jumped out of her bag, one over the other.

"Silver Milleniums," Circe gazed at the cats with wonder. "You've been reincarnated like Queen Nyx said you would be."

"It's her, then?" Azula pointed at the girl and took in a deep breath to finally get herself back in order.

"We need your help," Mamoru repeated to Circe. "We need to get on a spaceship that's protected by a barrier and God knows what else."

"I can't!" Circe exclaimed and bit her nails. "I-I have this power and I...it wants to explode! I can't..."

"Um, just to clarify," Azula raised a finger in the air, "you're holding the same excess powers that the previous Shadow Scouts have had?"

"Of course I would have. It was I who cast the sleeping spell."

Both Mamoru and Azula blinked at the revelation.

"You put Asteria and Siren to sleep?" asked Azula after a moment of silence.

"Queen Nyx ordered me to," Circe swallowed and balled her fists. "The energy inside me is bubbling...it needs to be released..."

"Release it then," Mamoru said, eyes raising to the sky. "But let's do it in a special spot..."

Circe followed his gaze to the sky and swallowed hard.

~ 0 ~

Sailor Moon cried out in pain when another of Rubeus' dark attacks blasted her against a wall. She summoned up her Moon Rod, even though her body ached terribly. "Moon...Princess...Halation!"

The golden wasps of energy were deflected with a swing of Rubeus' arm. He snapped his fingers and shut down the gravity in the room. Sailor Moon was pushed hard against the ground like something was weighing over her.

Chibiusa had plastered herself against a different wall. Her eyes fearfully flickered from Sailor Moon to Rubeus. The odds were not getting better. Rubeus shifted the gravity again so that Sailor Moon flew up to the ceiling. The blonde struggled to get her landing and glared at the laughing Rubeus. It was then that Chibiusa noticed the glowing Malefic Crystal at the other end of the room.

I wonder...She thought about an idea, a crazy idea...

But those happened all the time. Sometimes, they were crazy enough to work.

She started tiptoeing towards the Malefic Crystal...

"We're leaving Earth's orbit," Rubeus informed Sailor Moon in passing.

Sailor Moon reached out to the ceiling and used it to crawl like a spider would towards the nearest window. She gasped when she saw the deep darkness of space surrounding them. "Oh no..."

"Looks like you won't be escaping at all," Rubeus smirked. "I don't know how...but we will stop you!" Sailor Moon aimed her moon rod at him again, ready to try the attack with all its force.

Rubeus wouldn't take the chance. He killed the gravity and watched her crash face first onto the ground.

She was sure she'd just broken her nose right there. "Ow..." she gingerly touched her nose.

Chibiusa reached the glowing Malefic Crystal and took in a deep breath before wrapping her arms around it. The moment she came in contact with it, she felt the incredible pain shoot through. Her scream caused a momentary energy to flash on her forehead, but it only made Rubeus laugh.

"Well, at least now I'm certain you're the Rabbit." He thrust a hand forwards and slammed Sailor Moon into the wall again. "But let me just take care of this one first."

Sailor Moon readied herself to intake the attack but it would be damned if she would make it easy. Her Moon Rod met his dark energy and the two streams battled for dominance.

Chibiusa continued her own battle against the Malefic Crystal. The thing was just too heavy for her. And it hurt a lot. Her fingers were getting too numb from the pain. Were they beginning to slip? Oh no...she had to hold on...just a bit longer...

"Together now, Chibiusa!"

"Mamoru?" Chibiusa blinked at Tuxedo Mask beside her. He wrapped his arms around the crystal, along with hers, and started pulling the Crystal out.

Sailor Circe made her own presence known with an attack. "Magic sparkle venom!"

Rubeus didn't account for an attack from the side. His body rolled to a stop on the ground. "Who was that!?"

"A transcendental Guardian, I am the Guardian of Magic and Illusions - Sailor Circe!" The dark-haired girl had commanded authority despite her current frail-looking condition. Both Rubeus and Sailor Moon stared at her in awe. Sailor Circe twirled her staff and aimed its threatening sharp point at Rubeus. "You will pay for imprisoning my comrades and these Silver Milleniums! Feel the wrath of a Shadow Scout!" She let the bubbling energy inside her finally reach its climax and burst out of her like a crashing wave.

Rubeus was prepared to protect himself with his powers, but at that moment Chibiusa and Tuxedo Mask had successfully pulled out the Malefic Crystal and cut his source of power. "NOOOO!" he screamed at them but was soon engulfed in Sailor Circe's power.

Sailor Moon crawled towards her friends and ignored her injuries as best as she could. She didn't understand how Sailor Circe was found so quickly, nor how she and Tuxedo Mask had gotten on board but she was thankful they had.

Sailor Circe's power slowly died down, but the chaos it ensued afterwards was drastic. The ship rocked dangerously and sparks exploded from every corner. The responsible Scout fell to the floor, barely conscious.

"Circe!" Sailor Hemera cried first when she came to. She wobbled on her feet but she made it to her comrade.

"What's happening!?" Chibiusa fell into Tuxedo Mask's arms from the rockus of the ship. They pulled the Malefic Crystal out of its place, shouldn't that mean good things should be happening?

"You fools!" Rubeus laid crumpled on the floor, one hand over his abdomen. "The Malefic Crystal you pulled out controlled the ship! Thanks to your little witch friend over there, it went into overdrive. The ship's about to explode! And you're all going to die with me!"

"Can't Sailor Circe just teleport again?" Sailor Hemera shook her friend in question a bit.

Sailor Siren and Sailor Asteria rushed over to check on the eldest scout.

"She's too weak," Sailor Siren shook her head. "She used up all her excess energy anyways."

"Okay, but we can still do the Sailor Teleport," Sailor Venus pushed herself up on her feet.

"But Sailor Moon is still weak too," Sailor Mars reminded.

Sailor Moon shook her head. "I can do it," she assured. She stood tall and proud. "Let's hurry!"

The Sailor Scouts gathered in a circle with Chibiusa and Tuxedo Mask (holding Sailor Circe's unconscious form) in the middle.

Just minutes before the ship exploded with Rubeus, they teleported out.

~ 0 ~

It was dawn when the group re-appeared in the familiar streets of the Juuban district. Azula had waited for hours with Luna and Artemis, despite it being cold and dark out. None of them could bear to leave not knowing what became of their friends. She knew her sister would be furious for never coming home but when Azula saw her friends returning...it was well worth it.

"You're back!" she exclaimed and dashed forwards to give everyone hugs. She only stopped when she reached Sailor Siren and instead gave a little smile.

"And you're all okay!" Luna went scampering behind to see the group.

Artemis went directly into Venus' arms. "We were really worried!"

"What happened?" Azula stepped back to see what news she would get.

Chibiusa was the first to answer as she came practically bouncing to Azula. "I owned up to my mistake and I tried to fix it!"

Azula's smile was wide and fake. "And next time don't go putting yourself in danger just to prove my point!" Chibiusa still laughed. "Come here!" Azula pulled her into another hug. "I'm so glad you're all okay."

"Not all of us," Sailor Siren bitterly gazed upon her unconscious Leader. "She expelled too much energy..."

"She just needs to rest," Sailor Mercury reassured her. "We've seen it happen to you and Sailor Asteria."

"She took down Rubeus all on her own," Chibiusa told Azula in a rapid explanation. "She's just as powerful as she was in my home."

"We should get her to rest," Sailor Hemera said. "We'll take her back to our place where we can look after her."

Sailor Asteria cleared her throat suddenly and nervously looked at Sailor Moon. "Thank you...for coming to help us."

Sailor Moon was surprised by the sentiment but nonetheless smiled. "You're welcome."

Sailor Asteria then sent Sailor Siren a sharp glance, nodding to her to do the same. Sailor Siren rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Yeah, thanks," she took Sailor Circe from Tuxedo Mask and started on the way home.

"Really," Sailor Asteria smiled at the group, for the first time genuine, "thank you. We didn't deserve it and yet you still came. Maybe...my sister has better judgement than I have had."

Sailor Hemera smiled at her sister. "We'll see you guys later," she told the group and rushed off with Sailor Asteria.

"So...what exactly happened on that ship?" Azula asked the remainder after the girls were gone.

"Let's just say, Rubeus won't be coming back," Sailor Jupiter made a cutting motion across her neck.

Azula's eyes widened for a second before the shock wore off and was replaced with concern. "That leaves the question, doesn't it?" her friends hadn't understood what she meant right away and she really hated to be the one to take their momentary win away. "If Rubeus is gone, then...who's coming for us next?"

[concernedbrownbread]

Several weeks after Father became Firelord, Uncle Iroh deigned to show up at the Caldera. His usually jovial attitude had become subdued and the air of grief hanging over him redirected the flow of the Palace around him. 

It didn’t deter Azula.

Father had taken to making Zuko sit in on meetings and stay at his side, leaving Azula to be bored out of her mind. It was inevitable she found herself barreling into her uncle’s room.

“Be nice,” Zuko had said, “He’s probably still sad ‘cause Lu Ten’s dead.”

“But he abandoned his campaign! Everyone says he’s a coward,” Azula had complained, “If I were him I’d crush Ba Sing Se!”

Zuko had nibbled on his lower lip, “Well … everyone is different when they’re sad.”

Dum-dum hadn’t even sounded too sure himself, but with Mother gone Azula supposed someone had to be the touchy-feely one. Between fits of blankness of course. But he’d asked, so Azula would try to be nice. Making Zuko upset was always annoying.

(If he could get angry at all anymore, Azula mused distantly, because at seven she hadn’t known how quickly his brother was slipping.)

Uncle was drinking tea when she arrived, writing something down. A reply to someone, Azula noted, before Iroh sweeped it into his desk.

“Young niece!” he exclaimed happily, dark bags under his eyes and his age for once showing, “How nice of you to visit an old man.”

Azula harrumphed. “Where have you been?” she demanded to know.

“Ah,” his eyes softened, something almost content coming across his features, “I have been on a spiritual journey. Which reminds me, my dear, I have bought you a gift!”

“It better not be a doll,” Azula grumbled, “I don’t like dolls.”

Uncle paused from where he was, pulling something out of his drawer, “I thought all little girls liked dolls.”

“I’m not just any little girl!”

Uncle laughed, a warm, rolling sound that made Azula feel something fuzzy in her chest. The somber shadow around him seemed to clear for a moment, and she saw a glimpse of her old Uncle. 

See, she thought triumphantly, I’m being nice!

“That you are not,” Uncle admitted, “Have you ever played pai sho?”

Azula immediately perked up, “I used to, with Mom, ‘cause Zuko is terrible at everything. But I always lose.”

“All things are difficult before they are easy,” Uncle said sagely, “How about some tea while I set up your board?”

They spend that afternoon, and many afternoons after that, playing pai sho.

They never talked about Lu Ten.

-Work in Progress for Lily White, Poppy Red (Ch 17). Please stand by.

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