#so sokka has an armband

[blu3berrydraws]

- I was trying to meditate.

- Well, I am trying to spend time with my fiancé

[erisenyo]

“Ever wonder if the world would be better off without you… ?” for zukka?

For this prompt game!

“Ever wonder if the world would be better off without you?”

Sokka freezes in the sitting room door, heart beating hard and alarm tightening his throat so fast that it takes him a moment to register Zuko’s pensive, almost abstract tone, the loose set of his shoulders, the easy-burning fire in the fireplace.

“It’s not something I dwell on,” he says after a long moment, forcing himself to finish stepping into the room, feigning casualness as he sets down the latest Republic City expansion plans and trying not to overreact but Agni's flapping tits what the fuck—

“Hm,” Zuko hums, like he isn’t making Sokka’s heart stop with terror, “I’ve been thinking about it.”

Sokka makes himself breathe, weighing the words against Zuko’s general calm and thoughtful expression as he gazes through the half-drawn curtain out the window. He’s too at ease to be truly upset, none of his usual tells in the tension of his shoulders or deliberate stillness of his hands, and there’s no pinched tightness to his brow like there is when it’s something with Izumi, which means… “What did you do?”

Zuko purses his lips. “Remember how I rescued that turtle duck?”

Sokka raises his eyebrow. “That whole family of turtle ducks?”

“And how I kept feeding that wild one?”

“I’m not sure I’d call one living in a fountain wild, but sure.”

“And how, generally speaking, not all our turtle duck hatchlings stay in the pond once they’re big enough to fly?”

“…General speaking,” Sokka repeats, feeling a flutter of premonition the same way he used to whenever Izumi and Bumi both turned wide-eyed innocent looks on him back when they were young.

“And that time I found those two injured snapping turtle swans and nursed them back to health?”

“…What did you do,” Sokka asks again, resigned, and Zuko just hums and pulls back the edge of the curtain a bit further for Sokka to come over and see…

“I’ve never seen so many turtle ducks in my life,” Sokka finally says.

“Yup.”

“They can’t all fit in the pond.” Not even if they had two ponds, Spirits…

“Nope.”

Sokka cuts Zuko a sideways look. “…Where are they staying?”

“Where have they been staying,” Zuko corrects, and Sokka takes a long moment to process the fact that this has been…going on for a bit, then, and that probably explains all the pastries disappearing from the breakfast table, like Zuko is some kid secreting away snacks and not the Fire Lord for going on forty years, Spirits. What an idiot. Sokka loves him so much.

“Where have they been staying?” he repeats, obedient.

“Azula’s room,” Zuko says serenely just as a high-pitched, startled shriek sounds out, along with a ruckus of quaking and honking and—

“ZUZU! I’m going to fucking kill y—ow, what the fu—”  

Sokka makes a thoughtful noise as Zuko lets the curtain drop back down. “So you asking about whether the world would be better without you," he finally says, resettling his armband, "Was more about your impending demise?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Zuko agrees.

Sokka hums. "It was nice knowing you."

"The best," Zuko nods. “Let’s hide,” he adds, grabbing onto Sokka’s wrist and already hauling him along behind him like they’re teenagers again, Sokka letting out a startled laugh to suddenly be finding himself in motion.

He glances back to the window and the growing cacophony outside, to the Republic City plans, to the stack of correspondence he really needs to get through and the pile of new airship designs he really wanted to work on. Then he turns back forward to catch the flashing edge of Zuko’s teasing, wicked smile and finds he can't do anything but grin helplessly back, find that he's perfectly happy like he always is to pretend to be young again, instead, and let Zuko drag him away again on another adventure.

[veryever]

welp, netflix avatar looks bad. Let me go over what I'm most disappointed in.

Zuko's Scar

M.Night's scar was too light but at least it hinted at scar contractures/texture. Zuko in the show very clearly has serious contractures going up into his hairline, over his ear.

They once again wussed out on shaving the actor's eyebrow. (unless I guess they're removing it post?) They once again wussed out on having him look too 'disfigured' when that is critical to his character.

This looks like a port wine birthmark. It's not Zuko's scar.

Sokka

This is just M.Night "Sokka" redux. Background controversy aside, this is bad casting.

They could have done way better with his choker. It looks to uniform/plain.

We could have had it all (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) rolling in the deep

Aang's Tattoos

The one thing that was almost universally agreeed upon was, the M.Night movie did a great job adapting the air nomad tattoos from cartoon representation to realistic representation. It's been embraced by the fandom ever since.

Maybe they were afraid of being called copycats ??? but they could have done the same here. A solid block tattoo is just going to be very difficult to make look "good" IRL. It makes it look like cosplay.

Katara

Katara looks fine. But this isn't giving Inuit at all. How hard is it to just put her and Sokka is custom parka?? The little armbands above the elbow are a thing on some parka, so I guess they were sorta channeling one.

I spy sleeves so this is her outter wear presumably, which means no fluffy fur parka like from the show.

Overall it looks like they're falling into the pitfalls of trying to make it "look" like the cartoon, but also ducking actually channeling the cartoon with accurate casting and committing to the more unpretty parts of it.

[flapdoodledanie]

Betrothal armbands changes things. 

If you’d like to know why Zuko has a necklace instead of an armband and why it has multiple stones I’ll explain under the cut! 

Click the pic for better quality and to see the stone carvings better! 

First off, love the idea of betrothal armbands so much. If you haven’t read The Dawn of Yangchen yet I highly recommend it! The reason I gave Zuko a necklace instead of an armband is twofold. First of all Sokka would have grown up with the idea/image in his mind that he was going to be giving someone a betrothal necklace one day so I think that would just be his preference. Also, the only time we ever see Zuko wearing armbands in the show is when he participates in an Agni Kai. We all know those aren’t exactly his most fond memories. So, necklace for Zuko. 

The reason his necklace has multiple stones (taken pretty much directly from the book but come on it was way too adorable) is pretty simple. We all know Sokka is pretty shit at carving. God I love him for it. So I think it would have taken him a few tries to get it right. Zuko also loves him for it and wanted to wear all of them with pride. Zuko on the other hand we know is canonically a gifted tsungi horn player and I just have this idea in my head that even if he wasn’t a very outwardly creative person that he would still be very good at artistic things. So, Zuko got his stone right on the first try. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk and seeing just how much time I spend thinking about this stuff. 

[gouachemole]

so…chapter 18 huh read @oldpotatoe​‘s fic feels like we only go backwards to know pain [ID: two black and white digital paintings of scenes from the fanfiction ‘feels like we only go backwards.’ The top image is of Miura and Sokka over a light gray background. Miura is wearing her Kyoshi Warrior uniform, and Sokka is wearing his sleeveless tunic with armbands and a belt. Sokka looks concerned as Miura tells him “I can’t let you hurt him more than you already have.” The bottom image shows Zuko cradling an unconscious Sokka. Both are soaking wet, Zuko wearing a long-sleeved tunic and Sokka wrapped in Zuko’s cloak. Zuko has his head tipped back, crying, mouth open in anguish. Above them reads the text “Frankly, I don’t think he can take much more of it.” End ID.]

[gemgirl28]

Maybe you’ve had this ask before, but oh whale.

Headcanons on zutara proposal?

Hello Joy! I have not talked about zutara proposals before but I would LOVE to!! 💜 I have so many thoughts about this I wrote a proposal prequel fic for my bb piece!

- Zuko absolutely does not make a necklace for Katara. He knows its a NWT tradition and also wouldn't dare replacing Kya's.

- The ONLY exception to the above is if Katara tells him beforehand that she plans on passing the necklace on to her daughter, but that's not very likely since it's never a guarantee that they will have girls.

- I am VERY into the idea of them proposing to each other.

- So Zuko plans an elaborate, romantic, over the top proposal.

- Katara's is a bit simpler, a little more impromptu, but still very sweet.

- I don't have like, one and only way they would propose to each other but this idea just came to me so it's the one I'm going to share.

- So the gaang is on Ember Island for a reunion and one night Zuko tells Katara he's going to cook dinner one night and to enjoy the day with Suki and Toph at the Ember Island Spa.

- When the girls get back Suki's like "Oh you know it might be fun to dress up a little for dinner, nothing special just the cute new dresses we got yesterday."

- Katara is a tad suspicious because Toph lets them dress her up but shrugs it off.

- But when they go to eat instead of heading to the dining room Suki and Toph blindfold her and drag her to the beach where Zuko, Aang, and Sokka have set up a candle-lit sunset dinner for two.

- They cooked all of Katara's favorite foods from around the world.

- And after dinner Zuko pulls out a box with a custom FL crown in it along with... whatever the SWT actually uses for proposals? Beads? Bracelets? *shrugs*

-He has this whole speech he memorized and practiced a million times but Katara lets him get through "You're the most amazing woman I know" before she kisses him and says yes.

-They both cry happy tears.

- Sokka later points out that *technically* Zuko didn't ask so Katara bends a wave on him.

- The next morning Katara wakes up with Zuko and they go for a walk on the beach. Zuko is suspicious because Katara never wakes up early on vacation but he's happy to spend time with his fiancé so he rolls with it.

- On the beach Katara presents Zuko with a letter telling him how much she loves him and how much she wants to spend the rest of her life with him and how proud she is of the man he has become.

- They are both crying when Katara pulls out a box with... a ring? Armbands? Whatever the FN uses to propose.

- They come back and tell everyone "We just got engaged!!" and the gaang is like "...........we know. We helped" and so they explain that no Katara proposed so they got engaged again.

- Sokka says something about how they are so dramatic to need two proposals, which earns him another wave bent over him.

[fixationsbigandsmall]

Another kissing Zukka.

I used a new grass technique and I like it so much.

[ID: a digital painting of Sokka and Zuko, sitting in the grass cross-legged kissing. Sokka is wearing a blue sleeveless shirt and darker puffy pants, some piercings and bi armband. Zuko is wearing his clothes from when he joined the gaang, he has long hair half-up half-down. Both have their nails painted. There is a blue sky behind them. End Id]

[jinnora]

500 follower celebration icons: sokka in imbalance requested by @celestialceci​

please like or rb if using! // want one?

[image IDs: nine square icons of sokka from imbalance.  all feature him in his typical water tribe clothing, his necklace, and in his armbands, and all have a blue ombre background. 

top row leftmost icon ID: screencap of sokka taken from just above the elbows up.  he looks over his left shoulder, resulting in that side of his body and face to be twisted closest to the viewer.  he smiles with raised eyebrows.  his boomerang is slung across his back.

top row center icon ID: screencap of sokka taken from the chest up.  his attention is towards the left side of the icon, but the front of his body is still fully visible to the viewer.  his right arm is bent behind him as he rubs his neck.  he frowns slightly with narrowed brows.  his boomerang case strap is visible across his shoulder.

top row rightmost icon ID: screencap of sokka running towards the top right corner of the icon.  his arms are bent, with his right in front of him and his left swinging behind him.  he is stepping forwards with his right foot.  his boomerang is slung across his back.

middle row leftmost icon ID: screencap of sokka taken from just about hip height up.  his body is angled towards the right of the icon, arms folded over his chest.  he has a calm expression on his face. 

middle row center icon ID: screencap of sokka facing towards the viewer, with his boomerang lifted, ready to strike.  his body is slightly angled so that his left arm is closer to the viewer than his right.  his left arm is bent at the elbow, fingers directed forwards, while his right arm is held behind him, getting ready to swing with his boomerang.  his boomerang case is slung across his back. 

middle row rightmost icon ID: screencap of sokka from about the collarbones up, shifted so that his body isn’t centered, but is coming out of the left side of the icon.  his head is tilted towards the right of the icon, left hand on his chin, and eyebrows narrowed, as if deep in thought. his boomerang case strap is slung across his torso.

bottom row leftmost icon ID: screencap of sokka that is as tall as the icon is, taken from just below his necklace to just below the top of his wolf tail.  his head is tilted to the right side of the icon, his eyebrows raised, and mouth is shifted to the right.

bottom row center icon ID: screencap of sokka that is relatively zoomed out, taken from around his knees up to the top of aang’s airglider, which sokka is holding for him with his left hand.  his right hand is on his hips as he looks to the right side, body slightly twisted in that direction.   his boomerang case strap is slung across his torso.

bottom row rightmost icon ID: screencap of sokka facing to the back, taken from the top of his armbands up.  his boomerang case is slung across his back.]

[sourjen]

A:tLA Costume Recap S03E17: The Ember Island Players

THE BEST EPISODE

Zuko and Aang are training, wearing just their breeches.The gaang are back in their Fire Nation clothes.

Suki has a Fire Nation outfit too! It’s a halterneck crop top with a chunky collar, armbands and vanbraces, and a skirt.

Aang has a new hat to hide his arrow. It’s a lovely hat. 

Zuko wears a cloak over his good guy outfit to hide his face.

SO! The costumes of the play. 

Play!Katara is wearing a sexed-up version of Katara’s old hero outfit. It has the same slits up the sides, but she’s not wearing trousers underneath, and it’s cut a lot lower to show her cleavage.

Play!Sokka’s costume isn’t too far off, actually- the necklace is almost right, and the hair is a lot bigger than Sokka’s.

Play!Aang’s costume is dead on, which makes sense- people would know how the Air Nomad novices used to dress.

Play!Zuko costume is also not too far off- again, the hair is a lot bigger, and obviously he’s got a fake scar eyepatch, but the costume is remarkably like Zuko’s season one armour.

Play!Iroh’s not quite right,though- this guy has a loosely-tied robe, but it’s not the right colour, and there’s no armour on top. Again, his hair is a lot bigger than real!Iroh’s.

Play!Suki’s outfit is right in the colour scheme, but again, made more exaggerated for the stage- she’s got a narrow waist and… boob armour? Her skirts are a lot bigger, too, which is saying something.

I LOVE the muscle suit for Play!Bumi with its fake armpit hair.

I also love the water-fish spirit costume that Play!Aang wears. It’s really cute and I want one.

Play! Toph’s costume is almost exact, actually- just shorter sleeves.

Play!Iroh calls out Play!Zuko on his hair, which is totally legit. I’m right behind ya, play!Iroh.

I also love how the play!Firelord’s face is painted to give him exaggerated features, like actors really do sometimes. And his crown is EVEN BIGGER than the real thing!

[erisenyo]

I posted 9,962 times in 2022

That's 8,564 more posts than 2021!

116 posts created (1%)

9,846 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@honeyedsunlight

@chitsangenthusiast

@lizardlicks

@marriedzukka

@unpretty

I tagged 6,597 of my posts in 2022

Only 34% of my posts had no tags

#gorgeous - 91 posts

#amazing - 82 posts

#fic writing - 73 posts

#adorable - 71 posts

#asks and answers - 68 posts

#boost! - 64 posts

#lol - 62 posts

#this is amazing - 57 posts

#atla - 48 posts

#so cute - 48 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#how long before the fire lord suddenly decides he needs a weapons master again and humbly but firmly requests piandao temporarily relocate?

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

For @zukkaweek Day 3: Spooning/Bedsharing (and maybe some domesticity too) - some friends to lovers, realization of feelings all the way to establish relationship tooth-rotting fluff, inspired by the wonderful @lizardlicks

[There are rules for sleeping with Zuko.

Sokka realizes that fact before he even starts doing it, back in those late days of the war when Zuko catches sight of the fresh bruise blooming over Sokka’s cheek one morning and teases him about getting distracted sparring with Suki, and Sokka doesn’t know how to say that actually, Zuko fell asleep by the fire last night and the reason Zuko woke up there too is because when Sokka tried to shift him to his bedroll, Zuko kicked him in the face in his sleep.] Or, From avoiding bodily injury to getting him to fall asleep in an actual bed, there are rules for sleeping with Zuko. Sokka might just find his way to learning them all.

197 notes - Posted May 24, 2022

#4

Zuko, trying to confess his feelings during a maybe-date: It's not just about the physical stuff. I want, like, all that gooey stuff, too.

Sokka: ...?

Zuko: You know. That big word that's so hard to say.

Sokka: Oh. Worcestershire Sauce

(Was reading "Chaliced Flowers" by @zukka96 and got hit by this piece of comedy)

199 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

#3

Do share your very strong feelings about Ozai eroding the traditional divisions between adult and child.

@eshusplayground ask and ye shall receive in spades haha, I've been thinking about this a lot recently as I think through what adulthood vs childhood in general means across the nations.

TLDR - Zuko and Azula are treated as adults by Ozai and everyone around them, which strips them of the traditional protections of childhood. It's a transgressive act that entrenches Ozai's perceived absolute authority and establishes his ability to essentially punish now for what someone *might* do later.

Keep Reading

247 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

#2

Having Zukka betrothal armband thoughts. The idea that they can hold more than one stone. The record of attempts to get it perfect, from halting chips and rough designs to increasing confidence and the idea that this progression of skill also follows a progression of love and deepening of their bond, and that it is proudly displayed and cherished. The idea that it doesn't have to stop just with a proposal. That stones could be exchanged around major life moments, and also just around major emotional moments--when you are feeling overwhelmed by love for your partner, for the shape the relationship has taken as your lives change. Armbands as a record not just of commitment but of changing and evolving love, of two hearts saying over and over they want to walk together.

517 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Having thoughts about how Toph found people at the Earth Rumble who treated her as an equal and respected her for her skill and listened to her. How she became the Blind Bandit there and the first people to ever take her seriously were The Gecko and Fire Nation Man and the others.

And then she joins the Gaang, people who also treat her as an equal and respect her skill and listen to her, and she starts calling them Twinkle Toes and Snoozles and Sugar Queen and Captain Boomerang.

She's giving them stage names. Because gaining her stage name was the most empowering thing that happened to her up to that point. Because stage names are earned. Because the people who were kindest to her in her life (by treating her how she wanted to be treated) were people who went by things like The Boulder.

15,237 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[words4bloghere]

Warlord

The sound of boots on ice sounded like ethereal thunder. People were rushing toward her and further into the palace. The previous king had thought himself impervious once the ice shelf had frozen over, effectively blocking any invading ships. It’s how he had not anticipated an invasion via sled and polar bear hounds.

From the moment of her coup till know, Katara had only a month to ready for this moment. She knew it was coming, had practically seen the smoke from the iron ships when she was herself racing toward the North Pole city.

But this was the moment she had trained for.

After her mother’s death and her father gone to fight, she and her brother had taken up arms. With only two years of constant drilling, and after sending out envoys to gather the castoffs left behind from the men who left before, Katara had built her own army. She, still considered a child by their laws, became a warlord and demanded complete fealty from all of the surrounding tribes, finally creating a cohesive South Pole.

She had also called for more boats to be built and there had been excursions to the old Airbender lands. A shipbuilding site had been built on the closest islands and when Katara finally called for the invasion to begin, they had a small fleet outfitted. Knowing that her people would be vulnerable in the snow with all of the hale fighters gone, she evacuated as many villages as possible to take over the abandoned Air Temples.

From there, she took her fleet and sailed north.

They took the direct route, which had them skirting deathly close to scout ships, blockades, and the curving tail of the Fire Nation itself.

Every sea battle saw them with an advantage, even with their warlord being the only Waterbender.

They made it, after weeks of hard sailing and fighting. They had gone unchecked as they passed into initial North Pole territory, as they were marked as kin.

After that, it only took sacking one village and they were able to switch their navy into infantry.

Four years of training, months of actual combat, and it led to this moment.

The Fire Nation invasion of the North Pole on the Night of the Blood Moon.

“Warlord.” One of her generals trotted up to her and she barely slowed in her pace. “The ships have hit the ice and they are deploying their sleds.” Katara tugged up her heavy fur cloak and scowled.

“How soon is the eclipse?” She asked.

“An hour or so.” He replied.

“And how long are the elders estimating it will last?”

“They say between an hour and a half to two hours.” Katara clicked her tongue in annoyance. They were approaching the courtyard.

“Has anyone found the Avatar?” She questioned.

“Warlord?” The general seemed confused. Katara stopped abruptly and whirled on him.

“The Airbenders were wiped out. Next in the cycle is Water. If the Avatar is alive, they may be an older Waterbender and they would have to be here.” She muttered under her breath and then started to walk off again, the general scrambling to follow. “That was the first order I gave after the reinforcements were done.”

“I apologize warlord. I have heard nothing about the Avatar being in the North Pole.” He answered. Katara swore, repeatedly.

“Then our last hope is that he lives in the Earth Kingdom, if he didn’t die with the Airbenders.” She muttered. There was a sudden crash the group paused.

“Find out what just happened!” She barked at the general. The man gave a hasty salute and ran off. Her personal guard subtly pulled closer to her. “Someone bring me my brother!” A pair of guards peeled off and went in search of Sokka.

“Warlord! They have put catapults on sleds!” A woman in armor yelled as she came around the corner of the hall.

“That’s to be expected.” Katara said and eyed the woman. She wore the blue armband that marked her as a Waterbender and it bore both a red and black X, meaning she had been trained as a healer and a fighter.

“I need more people on the royal family and the spirit oasis.” Katara ordered. “They are to hold the oasis till death so find good fighters.” The woman saluted crisply and ran back the way she came.

Another crash, a little louder this time, and Katara grinned.

“Here we go.”

The initial wave of invaders were met with Waterbenders at the high walls. Fire may have been extremely effective against water, but it was cold, and some of the Firebenders were having trouble bringing enough force.

Ultimately, with the catapults and the fire, the Fire Nation army breached the walls. It was at about that moment that the lunar eclipse reached totality. For the next two hours, Katara planned on having the regular infantry meet the Firebenders, which would be dangerous.

There had been such good literature at the Southern Air Temple, so Katara at least knew to expect when their Bending would vanish and when to expect it back. But she still had to focus on minimizing the deaths among the regular troops.

The infantry was to meet the invaders within the city that skirted the palace. The walkways were narrow and there were plenty of bridges over canals to place archers. As the lines of Firebenders marched along the roads, she had order blitz attacks and for the troops to fall back.

The hope being, of course, that when the invaders reached the palace walls, the eclipse would be ending and the Waterbenders would be redeployed.

For now, she was being ushered back into the palace for safety.

As she entered the throne room, she only had four of her guards with her. Two outside of the doors, and two within.

In the dimly lit room, Katara could feel the moment the moon was eclipsed. It was like her soul left her and she felt empty and hollowed out.

Of course, that was when she heard a scuffle outside of the throne room.

When the doors burst open, a thin masked figure darted in and engaged the two guards with dual swords. Katara watched impassively as they fell.

The blue spirit mask grinned menacingly at her, but the man did not immediately advance. Katara calmly unlaced her cloak and let it fall to the floor. As the unsheathed her sword, the blade loosed with a clear ring.

“I hope you will not find me an easy target assassin.” Katara said and took her stance, holding the sword out in front of her. She and the assassin stared at each other for a few breaths, before he spun his swords together and resheathed them with a click. Confused, Katara still held her stance.

The assassin walked up to her, stopping a safe distance away. Lifting up the mask, Katara took in a breath.

The left side of his face was horribly burned. He was also much younger than she had expected, as he seemed to be near Sokka’s age.

“Where’s the Avatar?” He asked gruffly.

“Have you check all the Air Temples?” Katara answered mockingly. The young man scowled.

“You are nothing but a child.” He muttered.

“You’re barely out of childhood yourself.” She retorted.

“I am the prince of the Fire Nation.” He stated. Katara returned to her stance, turning her face slightly away and smiling wryly at him.

“And I am the Warlord of both Poles.” She said.

Booms thundered close, too close, and Katara knew the Fire Nation was closing in.

“Look, I don’t have time for this. I need to find the Avatar.”

“Why would I tell you?”

“You are going to die!”

“The Water Tribe will not fall to you!” Katara roared. The assassin, the young man, the Fire Nation prince snarled.

“I don’t want it to!” Katara’s stance wavered in surprise.

“What?” She asked.

“The Airbenders were wiped out, so the next Avatar would be a Waterbender. There’s been no talk about them, so they are most likely poorly trained and old. But I can’t have the Avatar die yet because the Earth Kingdom is being chipped away by my sister’s forces.” The prince explained. “I will not have her or my father turn this world to cinder.”

“You are here to, protect the Avatar?” Katara asked slowly.

“Yes!” The prince said, throwing up his arms. Katara eyed him. He was earnest, but that did not mean he was honest. Still, he had come alone and had not attacked her.

“The Avatar is not here, or else my people have yet to find him.” She said. Now he watched her, looking for any sign of guile.

The booming was much louder and the sound of yelling could be heard not so distantly. The prince’s jaw clenched and his lips moved as he muttered silently to himself.

“Fine.” He spat out and pulled down his mask. “Then I’ll settle for protecting you.”

“What is your name prince?” Katara asked. The young man freed his swords and turned his back to her, facing the open doors to the throne room.

“Zuko.” He paused and glanced quickly over his shoulder. “Yours?”

“Katara.” The silence was awkward but Katara focused on her breathing, on the absent feeling she was waiting to have filled.

“You’re not the Avatar are you?” Zuko suddenly asked. Katara laughed, genuine and clear.

“I wouldn’t tell you if I was.” She replied.

“Fair enough.” Silence again. Zuko seemed to fidget as he bounced slightly from foot to foot. He glanced back at her again.

“Want to go out there?” He asked, cocking his head toward the door.

“You are not what I would have expected of the Fire Nation prince.” She said in reply and lowered her sword as she walked up to him. Zuko idly twirled his swords and nodded curtly.

“You are not at all what I would’ve imagined a Water Tribe Warlord to look like.” He said.

“Oh?”

“I thought you’d be prettier.” Katara scoffed and Zuko bobbed his head to the side as he moved forward.

“Well, with a face like yours, how could I hope to compare?” She remarked.

“Are you flirting with the enemy Warlord?” Zuko asked in mock chastisement. Katara laughed again, feeling her face warm.

“Water Tribals don’t flirt.”

“Then how do I impress you?” As they walked past the guards, Katara found that their backs slowly rose and fell.

“You didn’t kill them?” She asked in surprise.

“Show of good faith.”

“Well then, it would seem you’re already on your way.”

[erisenyo]

6, 12, and 16 for the ask game!!

6. Favorite title you used

I really like Oh, The Way Your Makeup Stains My Pillowcase. I feel like it fits the fic really well, both as a title and that bit of the song itself, and it was very much a case of the story idea emerging alongside the title which is usually not the case for me.

(As anyone who has been the recipient of my panicked about-to-post-what-do-I-call-it DMs would know lol)

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

This is a gooood question. How do we define a WIP haha? Currently, I have...

A gift for @demondarakna planned that I need to draft out

An outline for a fic that @ash-and-starlight inspired me to write about Zuko visiting the Southern Water Tribe for the first time as Sokka's boyfriend that I'm really excited for

A post-canon masquerade AU that's in the ideas stage that is a gift for @callmesinpai for being very good a guessing

The outline of a betrothal armbands fic I'd love to flesh out

A pure fluff smut modern AU roommates idea that is mostly outlined

A proposal fic set in my Burning Bright verse that I've got the bones of

A fun smutty Fandom Trumps Hate fill involving the secret horniness of bureaucratic administration when the right person is running all the meetings

My 'the man who loves the moon' idea for Sokka and Yue that I'd love to find the time to finally write

And one persistent idea that's slowly getting fleshed out, a modern AU enemies-to-lovers story where Zuko and Sokka fall in love in one night in a Waffle House lol

Which is...quite a bit now that I look at it...

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

I get pretty free form on these pretty fast, but post common is "Post Canon" (7 fics this year) and "Canon Compliant" (usually with a references to the comics not existing to me, 6 fics).

But those are more boring, so after that its "Established Relationship" (6 fics, I do like to write the boys in love and still flirting with each other) and some reference to Sokka's job (Detective Sokka, Kyoshi Sokka, Sokka trying to figure the job thing out, 4 fics)

For this AO3 Wrapped ask game!

[erisenyo]

The idea of Zuko asking Hakoda about the tradition of engagement bracelets makes me so soft because he not only wants to show Sokka that he respects and takes his traditions very seriously but also to show Sokka's family and their people (the southern water tribe) that he is worthy of Sokka <3 God I'm so emotional for these two 😩

Anon you are in my HEAD! Yes! This! I've been thinking all day of Zuko learning to carve, to work with leather, asking Toph about different kinds of stones and Katara about bone and ivory, picking Sokka's brain about art, staring at Hakoda's own armbands every chance he gets.

The idea of Zuko throwing himself at this with all the determination he brought to hunting the Avatar, wanting to create a symbol of love and respect and devotion and two people and two cultures coming together. Of learning from his friends, of learning from Hakoda. Of Hakoda knowing before Zuko ever outright says what he's trying to make, because he recognizes the signs and has been quietly helping Zuko however he can because he can see how happy Zuko makes his son.