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bastardlybonkers · 5 months

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i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

#dunmeshi #dungeon meshi #shuro dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #toshiro nakamoto #dont get me wrong i understand relating to a character and hating whoever wrongs them cause youre protective or you relate really hard #but i think toshiros been getting the short end of the stick for a long time now 😭#even his love for falin is misunderstood #he literally states all the reasons he likes her #and none of them are superficial #but hes so closed off and has such difficulty expressing himself that instead of asking her out or smth he just #proposed to her out of the blue 😭#leading a lot of ppl to just assume that he went 'white woman spotted' and proposed #do Not misunderstand me i am #a HUGE farcille stan #obviously #but i dont think toshiros feelings are surface level and i think theyre absolutely crucial to understanding him and his motivations #as a character in this story

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commehter · 3 months

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In Blue and White - Avatar the Last Airbender Fanfic

Rating: 16+ Genre: Coming of Age, Awkward Romcom(?) Pairings: (One-sided?) Zuko/Fem!Aang Characters: Zuko, Aang Summary: Aang is born female. It doesn't change all that much, until it does. What twelve-year-old girl wouldn't instantly develop a crush on the masked dual-sword-wielding bad boy that busted her out of Avatar jail?

Zuko's dignity suffers.

~.~.~.~.~

A story in which Aang accidentally humanizes herself to Zuko far earlier than her canon counterpart by the simple virtue of being a girl with an awkward crush. Well, Aang is the one with the crush. The awkward part is all Zuko.

~.~.~.~.~

Chapter 1: A Girl Named Aang, Part 1

Zuko awakes with a groan and refuses to open his eyes.

What happened?

It feels like his entire skull is threatening to split in two.

A gentle hand touches his cheek. "Are you awake?" asks a high, childish voice.

That definitely isn't Uncle or one of the crew.

Zuko's eyes fly open and he finds himself staring up at the Avatar.

What? The last thing he remembers is...

Zhao.

Pohuai.

Yuyan.

...It isn't night anymore, judging by the sunlight shining through the branches and leaves filling out his vision past the Avatar's head. They must be somewhere in the forest that surrounds the stronghold now.

How did they get out?

"Zuko?" the Avatar says with an upside-down frown.

Belatedly, Zuko realizes he's resting in the girl's lap. With his face completely revealed. He freezes.

When he doesn't say anything, the girl carries on chattering, "I don't really know if I'm doing this right. Most of the bruising cleared up but I think there might be a fracture beneath it." The hand cupping his cheek firms and water flows slowly across his forehead.

It tingles oddly but some of the pain ebbs away.

Zuko catches the wrist of the hand at his cheek and makes a blind fumble for the one above his head.

"Hey!" The Avatar manages to elude one out of two grabs, left hand held high and sheathed in a strange mitten of glowing water.

"Avatar," he rasps, "what are you doing?"

"Healing," she answers, "Or trying to. I haven't done this before, but I really think it's working!"

"No, what are you doing?" Zuko growls, "We're enemies."

"Oh." The girl deflates. She really shouldn't need a reminder. "Well... You saved me. It didn't seem fair to leave you behind. And then you weren't waking up and I got worried. There wasn't anyone else to ask for help, so I tried meditating to talk with the past Avatars.

"Kyoshi said -- something not very nice, but Yangchen gave me some memories that helped when I couldn't understand what she was trying to te--"

Zuko covers the Avatar's mouth with his free hand. She glares at him and retaliates by slapping her water-mitted-hand back on his forehead. Zuko flinches as spots bloom across his vision. They clear as the tingling feeling resumes and more of the lingering pain fades.

The Avatar is still glaring at him.

Good.

That's how an enemy should look.

Now if only she'd stop muddying the waters by trying to fix his head injury, maybe the world would stop spinning in ways he doesn't know how to compensate for. He can deal with a concussion. He doesn't have the first clue what to do with an enemy set on healing him.

"I wasn't saving you."

The Avatar rolls her gray eyes and fingers tap along his jaw.

Zuko scowls back at her. "I'm serious. I was capturing you for myself."

The girl shakes her head free of his hand. Zuko allows it. "I had figured that out," the Avatar snaps, "I'm not stupid. But you still helped me get away from Zhao, so helping you was fair."

It's irritating because, from a certain, stupid angle, the Avatar's words make sense.

Water drips and then streams past his temples, soaking into the orange skirts still pillowing his head. The girl's hand doesn't move. Either of them. When was the last time he let someone touch his face, never mind as long as the Avatar has been? Zuko drops his remaining hold on the girl. The Avatar fails to withdraw.

Zuko snarls. He pushes himself up and away from the Avatar to sit on the forest floor. He doesn't turn to look at her. She won't attack him now, not with how much work she must have put in to get him away from Zhao in one piece.

"Fine! I got you away from Zhao. You got me away from Zhao. All debts repaid. We're even. The next time I see you, I will capture you," he warns.

"Fine! Even!" The Avatar stomps around to put herself directly in front of him. "In that case, I have two messages for you before everything goes back to normal!

"First, Roku says 'hello.' Do you know why?"

"I -- What? No!" Zuko retorts, "Why would any of your past lives have anything to say to me? They all lived over a hundred years ago!"

The Avatar leans close, examining his face with narrowed eyes. Finally, the girl sighs and relents. "I don't know, but Kyoshi and Roku aren't subtle and you're what they argue over most. Not that either will explain why." She looks away and tucks a too-short lock of hair behind her ear only for it to slip forward again.

He doesn't know what to do with the information that two dead Avatars are wasting their afterlives arguing about him. "What's the second Avatar message?" he asks.

"Oh, well, it's just from me, but I guess that counts as an 'Avatar message'?"

"Avatar," Zuko growls in warning as his patience frays, "what is the message?"

"Sorry," the girl says with a little self-conscious shrug, "I know I talk a lot." It's the only warning she gives him before foreign lips brush his own. She withdraws before he can process what's happening, cheeks flushed. "Thanks for saving me, Zuko."

And then the Avatar flees, jumping through the forest canopy like she was made to live amongst the treetops. Zuko stares after her dumbly until she disappears from sight.

A twelve-year-old just kissed him.

It was barely a kiss.

The Avatar just kissed him.

What is he supposed to do with that?

...

That doesn't count as his first kiss, does it?

No. Innocent, childish infatuation can't count. He refuses to think it ever could.

The Avatar is a foolish little girl that saves her enemies.

It definitely doesn't count.

For either of them.

He doesn't notice the Air Nomad bracelet she'd slipped on his wrist at some point until he tries to change back into his uniform.

~.~.~.~.~

The bracelet is a loop of beads made out of various seeds and nuts along with two small tassels, one orange and the other yellow. He's noticed it wrapped several times around the Avatar's skinny wrist before, but on Zuko it is only long enough to complete four circuits before it becomes too tight to slip over his hand for a fifth.

It's called a lineage tie, typically given to monks by nuns during the spring dances of the Air Nomads' yearly fertility festivals, but sometimes exchanged among Air Nomads too young to participate as a pact for the future. If the Air Nomads had practiced lifelong monogamy like all the other nations, it would be the equivalent of initiating negotiations for a marriage proposal.

Practically speaking, it's an honest to spirits proposition.

From a twelve-year-old.

Zuko restrains himself from setting the scroll in his hands on fire.

So much for innocent.

At least the Water Tribe betrothal necklace locked away in the same drawer hadn't been given to him with equal intention. If anything, he's not convinced the waterbender knows that she wears an engagement gift. That, or she's just decided that its value as an heirloom is more important than any of the traditions tied to it. Either way, picking up lost jewelry on a prison barge has been proven preferable to unwittingly accepting gifts from the Avatar.

~.~.~.~.~

The bounty hunter has a beast that can literally sniff out the Avatar.

Zuko has the airbender's bracelet in hand and is almost back out the door of his quarters when a terrible, horrifying thought occurs to him. What if Uncle asks how he got possession of the Avatar's bracelet? Worse, what if Uncle somehow recognizes the lineage tie for what it is? It would be just his luck if Uncle Iroh knew what the collection of strung seeds and nuts represents, and Zuko doesn't trust his lying skills to be sufficient in shutting down the nosy old man's curiosity.

Worst of all, he can't be sure how Uncle would react to the situation. The only thing more awful than Uncle Iroh's disapproval would be his active and far too enthusiastic approval. Uncle's marriage had been fully negotiated and arranged by the time he was eight years old. Father had only been six, though that initial engagement was broken before the wedding could take place for reasons Zuko has never learned, and Father had instead wed Mother a year later. Zuko's own match had been arranged by Mother when he was all of nine years. ...Mai's parents probably dissolved the arrangement after he got himself banished.

...

He hasn't thought about Mai in years. He wonders if he should feel bad about that.

All he can picture at the thought of his once-intended is the sullen eleven-year-old girl he'd last seen before his banishment. He doesn't have the first clue how she might have grown and changed over the intervening three years. Is she still being dragged around by his psychotic little sister and bored with life in general?

...He'd never actually asked her opinion on their engagement. Had she been as apathetic about him and their future marriage as she was about everything else?

Not that he would expect her to still want the match, even if she had before his banishment, but...

The idea of being someone's undesired intended is somehow even less appealing than the Avatar's inappropriate proposition.

At least with the Avatar, he can be sure the girl involved favors the match.

He can't imagine why, but he knows that she does.

Zuko scowls and pushes the unwanted thoughts away. He's wasting time!

Without any winding the lineage tie is just long enough that he can pull it over his head and wear it as a long necklace. Zuko tucks the string beneath his armor and allows it to slide out of view as he doubles back for the waterbender's betrothal necklace. If the shirshu picks up on both scents, so much the better, but one piece of jewelry is clearly safer for open display than the other.

Uncle's meddling as a match-maker is the last thing he needs during his hunt for the Avatar.

~.~.~.~.~

It's just as well the Avatar stole back her friend's necklace. It hadn't worked as a bribe and the shirshu debacle isn't one he's looking to repeat. Ever. Zuko has had enough of the beasts to last a lifetime.

Any frustration he feels is only because the Avatar has eluded capture. Again.

...

Girls make no sense no matter what nation they hail from.

~.~.~.~.~

You can read the rest of the story on AO3.

3 Chapters (WIP)

5K Words (and counting)

Posted 06/08/2024

Happy reading!

#commehterfic #fanfiction #fanfic #in blue and white #avatar the last airbender #atla #zuko #the blue spirit #aang #female aang #awkard #coming of age #slice of life #romcom #air nomads #worldbuilding

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