#kalyaan & kavik

[doodlerose]

[i--am--val]

37/?

And he was so proud of each one of them xDD

[creampuffqueen]

because i love over analyzing the stuff that doesn’t actually matter that much in the big picture, i’ve been trying to figure out the timeline of when kalyaan disappeared so i have more things to angst over

this is proving a bit difficult because somehow, within FIVE YEARS, kalyaan:

moved to bin-er with his family and joined an accounting firm

quit the accounting firm to be an errand runner

bought his family a massive, expensive house

poached the clients from his former accounting firm and disappeared

helped henshe become zongdu of bin-er

went to jonduri as a plant

rose up in the ranks until he became chaisee’s right hand man

AND developed a genuine relationship with chaisee to the point that she is seven months pregnant during tdoy

more below the cut as i attempt to figure this out

okay, first things first: the five years hard deadline is indeed canon. kavik was 12 when the family moved to bin-er, and 17 during tdoy, both ages confirmed in the book

kalyaan’s age is never specified anywhere, it’s assumed he’s in his (very) early twenties. his actual age isn’t important to this specific part of the timeline but because i’m doing this for more Kavik Angsting, it’s important to me. after some speculating (hi kat 🤭) i think the best guess is that kalyaan is around 5/6 years older than kavik

anyway!

so we’ve got five years to work with to get all this done. somehow. my goal with this is to keep it at least somewhat plausible regarding how much time events would take, but also create maximum drama, angst, and general toxic sibling dynamics

here’s how i think this all may have possibly played out:

- the family moved to bin-er when kavik was 12 and kalyaan was around 17/18 (kalyaan’s age during this is again based on my headcanon, so feel free to ignore that bit if you feel differently)

- the entire family began work at their local accounting firm

- kalyaan walked out after “less than six months”. for a bit of ease, i’m going to round this to a full six months

- he joined the errand runners, where he met henshe

- on henshe: he’s a bit older than kalyaan, being in his mid-twenties. i imagine he’d been doing the errand runner thing for a bit longer and showed kalyaan the ropes, the two of them becoming friends. kalyaan’s skill with gathering information was likely the thing henshe was missing to really shoot him up in the world and start getting his name out there

- at some point, kalyaan bought his family a bigger, expensive home. it was “soon after” that the private customer list from the accounting firm was poached, with kalyaan obviously being the culprit as he disappeared immediately after

- at first i was thinking it would have taken him a while to get money for a house, even with a lucrative errand-runner job, but…

- that’s not how things work in bin-er. everything is purchased on promise, and you work off the debt after. i think kalyaan poached the customer list in order to pay off his debt for his family’s new house. which would mean this happened fairly soon after he became a runner

- therefore, i’m saying that kalyaan disappeared after only about a year in bin-er

- meaning kavik would have been 13 the last time he saw his brother…

- now, kalyaan didn’t leave bin-er after this. he stayed and continued working with henshe to get him up to the rank of zongdu

- imagine the angst potential of him living in the city still but unable to contact his family… delicious, i say

- and since henshe bribed his way to the zongdu position, it might not have actually taken him that long to achieve it. let’s say about a year of work

- soon after becoming zongdu, henshe sent kalyaan to jonduri to be a deep plant in chaisee’s organization

- so i’m giving kalyaan a full three years in jonduri before tdoy. i think, considering his skills and personality, that’s more enough to work his way to the top and develop a genuine relationship with chaisee

- because their relationship really has to be strong and genuine. it was never super clear to me when exactly kalyaan came clean about his double-agent stuff, but after doing some referencing it seems that it happened AFTER unanimity was sent to bin-er. and their relationship was strong enough that chaisee forgave him

to finish it up: kalyaan spent 2 years in bin-er, 1 living with his family and 1 fully working for henshe. after henshe became zongdu he was sent to jonduri where he spent the next 3 years, eventually developing a relationship with chaisee. (i’d also fully accept a 2 & 1/2, 2 &1/2 split, but it’s easier to use full years than halves lol)

anyway. yeah 👍

[survivalove]

I just love the sibling parallels in Dawn and Legacy of Yangchen.

Yangchen and Kavik’s relationships with their older siblings and how it connects them is such a genius and satisfying writing trope that I’ll probably never get over.

[skywitchmaja]

[nickyacex]

Some wips on yangvik atla au im working on! Might wirte a ff when im more indept with the story heres everyones roles so far!!

Aang=Yangchen

Katara=Kavik

Sokka=Kalyaan

Appa=Nujian

[atla-suki]

thinking about noatak and tarrlok / kalyaan and kavik parallels oh god…

[atla-yun]

thinking about the impacts of jetsun's death on yangchen's ability to deal with grief (and lack thereof) and how lingering trauma from past lives' experiences paired with the negative connotation of spirits in yangchen's own life cause her to feel so alone while she's surrounded by others nobody touch me-

thinking about the way yangchen and kavik are character foils and their situations parallel each other: i.e. kavik feeling trapped at home in bin-er vs yangchen having too much freedom to move around and never feeling grounded. also the implications of jetsun and kalyaan as parallel role models for yangchen and kavik respectively omg omg holy shit-

thinking about how we spent the WHOLE BOOK watching yangchen and kavik get closer and finally consider each other companions JUST FOR KAVIK to betray her for his brother, and thinking about the idea that yangchen would understand his position as she would also do anything for her sibling if she could but she can't because she seems free but she isn't and he feels trapped but he's got the world in the palm of his hand DONT HMU OMG-

[doodlerose]

Kavik and Kalyaan character designs

[i--am--val]

19/? When they reached her room on the third floor, she’d had enough. She stepped through her door, laid her staff in the corner, and faced Kavik. “Look,” she snapped. “We’re not children. Stop sulking, come inside, and we’ll talk about this.” “Yes, please,” said a voice from deeper in the room. “Let’s.” Yangchen turned slowly. The collision of her heart into the walls of her chest had left as quickly as it arrived. Whoever it was that snuck into her room, they’d missed their moment to attack. A raise of her fingers lit the lamps on the tables. The intruder, a Water Tribe man, sat in the chair Kavik had slept in, resting the side of his head on his fist. -The Legacy of Yangchen-

[creampuffqueen]

yknow correct me if i'm wrong but i don't think the actual age difference between kavik and kalyaan is ever mentioned in the books. obviously kalyaan is in his early twenties while kavik is seventeen but it's never mentioned exactly how far apart they are. interesting

[junipernight]

Yangvik Week Day 1: Injured

@yangvikweek2024

Yangchen enveloped Kavik’s hands in water and took them in her own.

“Explain to me again where the mission went wrong?”

“It didn’t go wrong,” Kavik protested. “We got the information, and no one got caught!”

Yangchen pursed her lips. Kavik was pretty sure she’d be glaring at him if her eyes weren’t already fixed on the delicate work of healing burns. He sat very still, knee to knee with the Avatar, and let her work. 

For a moment, all was quiet, except for the muted sounds of customers drinking tea and chatting on the other side of the wall. It was crowded in the backroom of the little teahouse that Akuudan and Tayagum had opened in Ba Sing Se, especially with all seven members of the team in it (nine if you counted Pik and Pak, who were perched on Boma’s shoulders.) It would almost be cozy, having the whole team back together, if his hands didn’t feel like literal fire.

Akuudan clapped one enormous hand on Kavik’s shoulder. “We made it into the records office without any problems. But then Feishan’s guards came making the rounds, and our lookout here saw they were opening doors as they passed, which we hadn’t expected them to do. So Kavik stuck his hands into a nearby torch, and then made up a story about a rogue firebender who’d attacked him.”

The guards hadn’t even questioned the unfamiliar servant boy’s presence; he’d been dressed in the right uniform, and there was a high turnover rate in Feishan’s palace. The horrific burns had also been very convincing.

Yangchen sighed. “Was that really necessary?” 

“It was. You know what the consequences would have been if we were caught.”

“I meant, what happened to using the signal?”

Tayagum answered for him. “Our backup exit was blocked by a gaggle of court ladies shortly after we broke in. And anyway, we hadn’t had enough time yet to locate the correct documents. The whole mission would have been compromised if not for Kavik’s quick thinking.”

“I sent them on a wild pinegoose chase,” Kavik said. “I told them I was attacked by a fire bender who was 5 feet tall and one-eyed and had a shaved head. And then I said he ran towards the throne room and they booked it.”

“Do you ever come up with plans that don’t result in you injuring yourself on purpose?” Jujinta asked snidely. 

Even though Kavik and Jujinta were on much better terms these days, his old Association partner couldn’t resist getting in a jab whenever the opportunity presented itself. At least these days his weapon of choice was sarcasm instead of blades. Mostly.

“Why?” Yingsu asked. “What has he done before this?”

“When we needed to extract information about Unanimity out of his lousy brother, I stabbed Kavik, and we pretended to torture him until we got Kalyaan to talk.”

“Wow,” Yingsu said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s dark. And here I thought you were the good guys.”

Kavik and Yangchen kept their faces carefully still. Neither said anything, each still feeling guilty about the ploy for different reasons, even if it had been necessary. 

“It was his own idea,” Tayagum said, shrugging. “When we first met, I was smuggling him into Jonduri under an old crewmate's identity, but there was a last-minute change in the dock guard. We would’ve gotten caught, if this guy hadn’t purposefully ‘slipped’ and bashed his own nose in.”

“Is that why your face used to look like that?” Jujinta asked. 

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t know about that one,” Yangchen said. She stopped what she was doing so she could look Kavik in the eye. 

“The night we first met…” she began.

Kavik rolled his eyes. “I genuinely had frostbite that night, and I most definitely wasn’t aiming to get beat up by your guards. I’m not a one trick platy-pony, you guys. I don’t hurt myself everytime I run an errand. Believe it or not, I usually make a clean exit.”

“Hmmm.” Yangchen made a troubled hum in the back of her throat, and went back to healing him.

“… What kind of waterbender gets frostbite?” asked Jujinta.

Kavik’s hands were occupied, but his mouth wasn’t, and he was so incredibly tempted to spit icicles at Juji. See how he liked being subjected to surprise daggers for once.

Luckily, Akkudan spoke first. “Leave him alone, Jujinta. Frostbite is no joke. Even a firebender can get burned, even an earthbender can be crushed, and even a waterbender can succumb to the cold.” Not for the first time, Kavik wondered if there was a story behind Akuudan’s missing arm, or if he had simply been born without it. Kavik had never asked, in case it was a sore subject.

While they had been talking, the swelling in Kavik’s hands had gone down significantly, though his skin still bubbled and blistered in ways he did not like to look at. Yangchen gently set one of his hands down in her lap, so she could focus on one hand at a time for this next, more intense stage of the healing process.

“It’s always your hands,” she muttered in absent-minded annoyance. “You have such nice hands, why are you always damaging them?”

Tayagum made a strangled noise. “Nice hands?”

The question was addressed to Yangchen, but Tayagum’s expression made it clear that it was a threat towards Kavik. Any warmth the older water tribe man had cultivated for Kavik seemed to have been immediately replaced with suspicion.

The Avatar looked up in confusion. Kavik saw the moment she realized the possible implications of what she’d just said.

Boma smiled good-humoredly, “Anything we should know about?”

“I’d actually rather not hear about this, thanks,” said Yingsu.

Kavik’s face burned. Everyone noticed him turn beet red, and he noticed everyone noticing.

Yangchen spluttered. “I meant that his hands are very skillful!" Nope, that wasn’t any better. “—at sleight of hand! And- cheating at sparrow bones, and climbing, and things like that!”

Getting beat up, and cheating at tile games. Truly, Kavik had great skills that made him worthy of serving the Avatar.

Boma and Akuudan were laughing at them.

“Can we just focus on the info we stole?” Kavik snapped.

Still chortling to himself, Boma took the papers out of their folder and spread them out on the table.

The rest of the team began to read. Yangchen switched hands.

***

“Ohhh,” Jujinta said suddenly, much later. “You were implying they had sex.”

The burst of laughter and teasing and general noise that followed this statement was enough to send Pik and Pak flying.

Yangchen supposed that hiding her face in Kavik’s tunic would not help her beat the allegations.

[kyoshist]

Can you remind me who it was that Kavik shot the icicles from his mouth at? I forgot that scene

It was Tael. The guy who worked for Kalyaan, and always called him "Boss-Boss."

Tael had Kavik pinned against a wall where Kavik cleverly waterbent the moisture in his mouth and spit tiny needles into Tael's eyes.

(He totally deserved it. That guy sucked.)

[bluestonewings]

To all five Kavik fans out there: what’s the deal w Kalyaan, his brother? Do you think he’s actually just a slimy POS, did he get really bad after he moved out, does he actually care, ? ?? He’s a fun character to mess w I think

[cosmicphoen1x]

⚠️!Spoilers!⚠️

No cuz I was seriously going to cry when Yangchen's team were bleeding kavik to death jst to get a confession out of kalyaan😭 Like how cruel were they? But until the next Page where they revealed kavik was actually unharmed and it was all just a plan. I SIGHED😭😭

[atla-suki]

based off a total of 0 information / visual evidence, i reckon kalyaan is like. really hot.