#maybe the narrator is

[swiftsaltsweet]

Kyoshi's PR Manager-Prologue

Characters: Rangi and Kyoshi (Possibly characters from Reckoning of Roku)

Pairing: Rangshi

Summary:   Summary: During the later years of Kyoshi’s life, the world is imploding with new catastrophes. Kyoshi and Rangi have to figure out what might be the root shared cause. Will they be able to fix it, or will it be too late for Kyoshi and her legacy?

Prologue is spoiler free (will update summary later), but spoilers for Reckoning of Roku most likely later in the story. Obvie spoilers for Rise/Shadow of Kyoshi

(As cracky as the title is, this is NOT a comedy or crack fic, it’s a fix-it fic where I try to reconcile what happened in Roku’s canon TT0TT).

Other Sites: AO3 

A/N: NO spoilers for the novel this chapter.

Gd man, I was taking a break this week cause I was recovering from my sickness and then I see those LEAKS about Kyoshi from the Roku novel? Nah. Nope. Uh uh. Not on my watch. Kyoshi? Rangi? Get behind me I’ll protect you. I’ll sacrifice both my lungs and sleep for you two. 

Just the prologue for now, I still need to see the specifics of the novel when it comes out. But I have a decent idea where I wanna take this based on what I know.

________________________

Kyoshi ran her thumb down the length of the rough parchment as she read through it again for the hundredth time. The contents weren’t good. In fact, none of the correspondences she’d been getting for the last handful of years have been good. It was just disaster after disaster.

Kyoshi put the paper down on her desk, and leaned back into her chair, letting her full weight as well as the weight of the world be held up by some simple wooden pieces. She closed her eyes. Things had been going more or less smoothly for roughly two hundred years. So what changed? 

She let out a deep sigh. She could feel the sound of it reverberate around the study. Filling up all the empty space. 

“More bad news?” a charred voice whispered nearby. It was like music to Kyoshi’s ears.

Kyoshi opened her eyes to see her wife, Rangi, walking quietly into the study, tea in hand. Her features were laced with worry as she quickened her pace to be by Kyoshi’s side. Kyoshi wanted to smile in reassurance, but couldn’t find the strength.

“It’s like someone’s approached our little orderly web of strings and started yanking on it,” she paused, and then corrected herself. “Or more like, someone is taking a machete to it.” She folded her hands onto the desk and leaned her forehead against them. “It’s falling apart. Everything is going wrong. It’s starting to become impossible to put back together.”

Put back together. Her secret mantra. One that tied back to how she, her wife, and her teacher maintained their immortality. Catalog everything. Every weight, every breath, every scar. She would do it for her body. She would do it for the nations. She would do it for the world. 

Put the pieces back. Make it orderly. Everything will be fine.

But it wasn’t. Someone or something was making disruptions. It was becoming too much to catalog. And not just the physical world, but also the Spirit World too.

Seeds of chaos were being sown everywhere, and Kyoshi was only one person. She couldn’t be everywhere. The bison was only so fast. She had so few she could trust.

Rangi grabbed the letters off of Kyoshi’s desk and started putting them into separate piles. “We’ll figure it out. First, we need to triage. Which of these is more dire, who can we send in our stead-” she kept listing off what they needed to do. It filled Kyoshi’s chest with warmth. No matter how many years, decades, centuries passed, Rangi stayed consistent. Ever unyielding. Even more so than Kyoshi herself. 

She would’ve made a fantastic earthbender. She has the mentality for it. Kyoshi laughed in her head. 

“You’re right,” Kyoshi let herself smile just a tiny bit. “One step at a time.”

“All the time in the world,” Rangi smiled back, letting herself be happy that Kyoshi’s spirits were up off the ground. Even if it was only by an inch.

Kyoshi shook her head. “Maybe for us, but not for others.” 

She leaned down and started looking at the piles. Crop desolations, raids from outlaws, angry spirits threatening a village, assassinations were happening left and right.

Kyoshi picked up the letter about assassinations and showed it to Rangi with one hand, and grabbed a map with the other.

Rangi frowned at it. “Well this would explain where those rumors started…..”

“Which ones?” Kyoshi snorted. She had so many. Most were completely fabricated about her. Others were completely misinformed. Maybe one percent held the truth, but no one was interested in the story behind the truth. She didn’t care and it didn’t matter. Her job was to fix things, not worry about her public image. 

Kyoshi started poking the map with different colored pins. She went into her desk and started grabbing for colored string. Once secured, she began looping it around the pins that matched the same color.

“What are you looking at?” Rangi asked, trying to read Kyoshi’s intent through her actions. “Common theme? Looking for connections?”

“Yes, something like that.” Once she finished the last loop she started pointing to the various colors. “That represents all the spiritual events that are going down. That is for the assassinations. And those are raids and other criminal activities.” She took a letter opener off the desk, and slammed it down into one part of the map, piercing it and the table it layed on. “That’s where Grandfather is.” She gave Rangi a pointed look.

Here’s Lao Ge. 

Rangi stiffened at her look, then she frowned at the placement. “Good news, he’s on the other side of the map.” She pointed at where the assassinations were congregated. “‘Out of danger.’” 

I don’t think it’s physically possible he committed the murders. Not with that distance. Her eyes told Kyoshi.

Their eyes tore away from each other and flitted them across the room. 

They wondered if they were being spied on. Yangchen had advised her on how people used to get creative in their spy activities back in her day, and Kyoshi couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing was happening to her.

Paranoia was an illness, it twisted the mind. Questioned her reasoning. Nothing could cure it. Her only options were to continue worrying, or have her worst fear realized and have her paranoia be proven right.

Everyday she hoped the latter would never happen. Of all the things she’d want proven right, this was not one of them. 

“I’m afraid for his health,” pulling Rangi’s attention back to her. “He’s not as spry as he used to be. Perhaps we should pay him a visit?” 

We need to check up on him. Verify and corroborate he’s not the one behind this.

“I agree, he’s getting up in age. I’m sure he’s lonely, he doesn’t get many visitors. I’m sure he’d be excited to see us.”

Sounds good to me. We have a lot to catch up on, perhaps he has a lead?

“Then we should get packing and head out as soon as possible.”

“What about all the other problems?” Rangi asked. 

Kyoshi pointed to where the criminal activity was on the map. “We can hit these up on the way to see Grandfather. I’ll need to look at the letters again, and see if the ones pertaining to spirits can also be addressed on the way to see him as well.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “We’ll save addressing the assassinations in person for later. I’ll send word out to see if anyone has replacements in mind and for me to look over their qualifications while we’re in the air. I want to make sure the person is vetted thoroughly before we put them into a position of power.” 

Rangi looked at the map on the desk. “I’ll run to the library and grab some farming material based on the regions the crop desolations are in. If anything, I can at least rule out if spirits are involved with them or not.” 

“Sounds good.”

“Kyoshi, is there anyone else we’re going to take with us?” Rangi looked at her hard, but Kyoshi knew Rangi wasn’t asking because she didn’t know the answer. If anyone was listening, it was for their ears to know Kyoshi’s intent. Perhaps Rangi wanted to archive which people who did or didn’t still ask Kyoshi if she needed someone to join her? 

Of course, they could try to cover their tracks by asking, even if they knew the answer was ‘No.’ Ah, how Kyoshi hated these mind games and schemes. So much like pai sho, and she hated pai sho. 

“No, this is an emergency. Plus, you know Grandfather is wary of new people. It’s best if we go alone.” Just you, me, and the bison. 

Rangi nodded, “Then I’ll go get Byakko ready and packed to go.” She turned and headed out the door.

Kyoshi rushed back to her desk and furiously began writing the letters she needed to send out. 

___

A/N: Lord freaking knows I’m going to have to make some changes to this when I get my hands on the book (and see a line that contradicts). But I have contingency plans and the power of lies on my side! (as well as slight vagueness in wording so I can give myself the appropriate amount of “years” to work with later).  I’ll make a note in the author notes with a date indicating if I had to overhaul/update some writing. 

[metanarrates]

less than two weeks after a law passed that bans transgender people in utah from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, an elected official is already inciting death threats against a child:

the girl in question (who is cisgender) is under police protection currently after a member of the STATE EDUCATION BOARD posted her photos on facebook and implied that the girl was trans. she took the photos down after learning that the girl was cis, but the damage had already been done. the student in question had already recieved a barrage of death threats.

the board member, natalie cline, has faced backlash and state legislature has already started discussion on how to impeach state board officials, but I find it important to reiterate that the girl she accused of being trans was in fact cisgender. I doubt the backlash would be quite so widespread if this wasn't a false accusation. this behavior is being normalized and encouraged by our bigoted state legislation.

we're going to see more of this kind of thing in the future, most likely. please keep your eyes on utah

[uncanny-tranny]

Honestly, there is a certain type of fetishizing of violence that occurs when you are the victim of abuse - wherein people talk directly to you about how much they fantasize about your abuser/s dying and being killed - "all abusers must be killed!" they say.

As a victim of prolonged abuse, I never felt cared for when people indulged that information to me. It often feels like my abuse is being exploited for others to enact their own violent fantasies and secret desires - my abuse means nothing to them in the same way that I didn't matter to my abusers. It's not support - it's just another cycle of violence.

I'm begging people to care more about victims and survivors than they do about retribution of abusers. Nowhere along the way should your focus on the abuser outweigh the people affected by their abuse. If you truly want to support abuse victims and survivors, start with us

[knockknockitsnickels]

"Sacrifice the Yourself" (title pending), the hip new slay the princess swap AU, in which you and the girlies must decide if you're gonna let a giant bird stab you (and maybe.... find love?!)

[teh-inggris]

pvp civ nation...... this aint much but pls take my contribution for this series bc im going insane i love hate this man so much get him out of my head

[dootznbootz]

Penelope is also Athena's pet/blorbo/special little mortal/etc. and if you think otherwise you're straight up wrong.

You're also wrong if you think Athena only likes Penelope because of Odysseus and/or Telemachus. As if Athena didn't see a young Penelope pull some shit and immediately think "Oh! Another mind to mold! C'mere you! Let's do some riddles and weaving!". Athena was happy that two of her favorite pets have met and fell in love!

[newttxt]

another comic for “utilities included” skfkskdjsjs

this time for chapter two 😅

masterpost

[pumpkster]

[marionette-j2x]

The Stanley Parable: New Script AU

"Something had shifted in the system. Something had changed. The Narrator's struggling to maintain normalcy in his perfectly crafted story as wayward codes, random protocols, glitches and unknown entities started appearing in the parable. Now with his protagonist, Stanley and their newly acquired friends acquaintances, they try their best to comprehend the danger now the parable poses and figure out who the mastermind behind all of it."

^This is actually just a short summary of this AU. I just can't seem to verbalize everything about this since I cannot English enough the things that's brewing on my mind. I had this AU simmering in my mind since last December after discovering this game, (Yes, I know I'm a few years too late for this fandom-).

I might draw more stuff in this AU soon. Maybe a comic sometimes idk but I do have some ideas. (I still have to finish my other comics for the different fandoms I'm in tho.)

(You can comment on the post below if you wanted to ask details about this AU. Please be kind tho especially to each other!)

(also forgive me for misspelling the Curator's name ahahdgdhhd I was not aware. I was really tired skskskks-)

[rmbunnie]

It's most likely just Starlin trying to get to Jason dying faster because he did not like Robin, but the whole "Jason's spiraling because of his grief for his parents" thing they were trying to spin was honestly really weird, not supported by the rest of the run INCLUDING the parts Starlin wrote, and kinda reads like an unreliable narrator situation because all of the information supporting it is given through Bruce's narration, him speculating on Jason's thoughts and actions.

The plot thread of Jason's grief for his family affecting his behavior shows up like TWO issues after Jason first becomes Robin back when Collins was writing, and gets sorted out after one conversation where Jason gets to confront Bruce about hiding his father's death from him for 6 months. After that Jason is behaving normally until they encounter three predators in a row, and each time Bruce insists that they can't do anything because of The Rules and assorted red tape/diplomatic immunity plotlines. (The sister of a woman who got dismembered actually tricked the violent-misogynist killer who dismembered her sister (and then got his serial killings dismissed through a technicality) into attacking her, and ends up killing him in self-defense, and then Jason's like "seems fair" and Bruce is like "no. it's NOT. we need to follow laws and not take justice into our own hands. which like wtf Bruce! you are a vigilante who just used a custom tank to fight an evil televangelist! who then got ripped to shreds by his followers while you watched!)

Bruce kinda just decides with Alfred that it must be grief upsetting him and not the dozens of brutally killed women and their predatory killers who the law inexplicably protected, (all written by Starlin, so retconning it for DitF like five issues later would be an odd move) but the only text claiming that's why Jason was upset is from Bruce's POV and through Alfred's dialogue. Jason himself doesn't display any signs of grief in the story itself, or even act or speak in a way that alludes to Catherine and Willis beyond looking at a picture of them and smiling fondly while he sorts through their possessions. He kinda just happens upon the box with his mother's info by chance, and is like ok i guess we're doing mom searches now. He was only going for a walk through his old neighborhood, not actively searching out info on his family. When Jason is deciding whether or not to run off without telling Bruce, he considers telling him and then goes "no, all he cares about is being Batman, he wouldn't even understand why I want to see my mom." Which, I mean, "Bruce wouldn't get it" is a REALLY odd angle if the sole motivator for spiraling, then getting benched* and running away to search out his bio-mom, was because he was mourning his dead parents, a thing he notably has in common with Bruce. That statement only really makes sense if he's thinking about a different thing that was greatly upsetting to him that Bruce brushed past, like maybe a combo of hiding the murder of his dad for half a year and allowing several cases involving sexual violence to freely develop body counts in the name of the law.

Lots of people have written about how Jason's stay in the manor might have seemed dependent on being Robin with how he was kinda just scooped up, but (if we're including Detective Comics in our characterization,) Bruce had offered to let him resign from Robin and just live with him (a little late, but still. It's worth noting Batman proper shows Jason afraid and uncomfortable at the thought of Dick taking Robin back, which lends more merit to the housing-dependent-on-Robin-misunderstanding interpretation, but canon is pick and choose anyways.) The lack of trust involved in his choice to search out his mom kinda reads like it was bred by more than that alone, and Bruce's prioritization of the law over the protection of the people it ignores is notably upsetting to him in the prior issues. tbh I really do believe the outcomes of those cases could have informed Jason's stance that Bruce's method of justice is ineffective right alongside his own murder and his experiences in Lost Days.

It would make sense for Bruce to not consider his own actions while he's thinking through things that would upset Jason, because from his point of view the things there that were bothering Jason were the criminals alone, not the way that the methods with which they were approaching their crimes continually led to the perpetrators evading actual justice. During the point in DitF where he's thinking through motivations for Jason's running away because something isn't adding up for HIM, the idea doesn't so much as cross his mind. It would also add another layer to Jason's sulkiness upon Bruce's arrival if he held the belief that Bruce is ignoring the consequences his brand of justice has on victims (and the way it's affecting him to helplessly watch it play out), starts to hope that Bruce actually can understand his thought processes/relate to him when he shows up, only to be told to his face that Bruce is prioritizing his style of justice over Jason again. With the way everything that led Jason to his bio-mom was comically circumstantial and the context of the previous issues, it's kind of the ONLY way Death in the Family makes sense to me. Tldr: I feel like the grief claimed as reasoning for Jason's actions leading up to his death is mainly speculation from Bruce and Alfred and the more textually-supported reason for his erratic behavior and lack of trust in Bruce is the lack of intervention in several sensitive cases that led them to worsen unobstructed and eventually permitted them to escalate into casualties in 2 out of 3 cases.

*Also, side note, but the idea that Jason got benched for the Filipe situation, while perfectly reasonable, is not quite spot on. The Filipe situation escalated into the fight in the junkyard where his dad is crushed by a car and Bruce is all "everything you do has consequences" which is kinda big words for a guy whose lack of action indirectly lead to a girls death earlier in the storyline, but true. Jason actally gets benched because he jumps directly into gunfire while fighting the third set of predators and Bruce starts to worry he's getting a little suicidal with it. He baits a guy into shooting at him on purpose again trying to protect mom prospect number 1 later on in DitF, so Bruce might have had a point with that one.

[pineconnie]

“the jump for the beef is so easy how could you fail this!!” have you perchance heard of worldbuilding or fictional stories

[bloominglegumes]

rough sketch of an epic spectacular scene from this fic so i can get the rrfksdjfh out of my system ;o;

the story is so fascinating and the attention to detail is great, the worldbuilding and characterization had me so invested,, them smooching in the hall is a delightful highlight moment but trust me there are so many more delightful moments so go read it

[blackkatdraws2]

There are more things in the Parable than Stanley knows about. [Blank Scripts AU]

[olegianote]

I love your stp narrator! And I'm 100% sure you already know this, but secretary birds are also called killer queen! So does this mean the narrator gets called the killer king/queen sometimes by the other voices to annoy the narrator? :]

OH THAT WOULD BE SOOO FUN! I like when Narrator gets annoyed! Which is why this ask inspired me to do this little comic:

[knockknockitsnickels]

I think this is one of my favorite lines from the Wraith route because of (imo) how much the meaning changes depending on if you got there via Spectre or Nightmare. For Spectre, it honestly strikes me as a genuine question. Why are you doing this to her? If you're on the Spectre route, you presumably already know the Narrator can't really be trusted, since you had to reject his reward to get here. What are you hoping to gain from continuing to hurt her? For Nightmare, it honestly just makes me sad. As the Shifting Mound describes her, "She desires only companionship, but the only thing she knows is how to hurt." This line feels like a plea from someone who genuinely doesn't understand why you keep rejecting her. She wants to be with you, but she just can't understand how to do that in a way which doesn't hurt you.

[lazy-b1rdy]

a helpful hand

first comic i actually meant as a comic? no wayy :0

close up of the lil doodle at the end

GHAHAHAHAHAHSGJHKHDgdsdFQ

(srry for any misspellings)

This is how Stan met the Narrator physically for the first time >:3

dialogue bc i don't think my hand writing is understandable

Narrator: "Finally had enough of that broom closet? Good. Now just fix up your tie and then we can continue the story"

Stanley: [Nope]

Narrator: "Stanley."

"Stanleyy."

"Just fix the damn tie" >:(

Stanley: [Why do you care so much?]

Narrator: "It looks tacky and unprofessional" ]:(

[Ouch! Too bad that i don't care.] >:P

Narrator: "Fine! But i won't let you walk around like that."

Stanley: [Well good luck with that because i'm not doing it myse-]

Narrator: *His hand appears*

*Stanley gets pulled by the tie by the Narrator's detached hand*

Stanley: [Wha-]

last panel is of the Narrator fixing Stanley's tie while the other watches the hands sweating a bit

Narrator: *fixing the tie*

Stanley: *using all his willpower not to touch the him*

Narrator: "See? You look so much better with it neatly made!"

The arow pointing at the hands: 'clueless'