#they rebuild the earth kingdom together just the two of them bc they are that powerful

[xxxcertifiednerdxxx]

is there any fanart, fanfic, or other fanworks about Bumi and Toph hanging out? Bc two incredibly powerful earth bending chaos gremlins being even 30 feet close to each other is a recipe for disaster that we should be exploring

[paladinbaby]

library of lensa party thoughts about family and home and adventure bc they make me bonkers crazy

the hollow men, t s eliot / the view between villages, noah kahan / @pricklepicklepie / the hollow men, t s eliot / ocean vuong / last hope, paramore / i know the end, phoebe bridgers / why be happy when you can be normal, jeanette winterson / @revvetha / the orange, wendy cope

[Image Description: ten images of text.

1: In italics. “This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper”

2: “[Verse 1] / Air in my lungs / 'Til the road begins / As the last of the bugs / Leave their homes again / And I'm splitting the road down the middle / For a minute the world seemed so simple

[Verse 2] / Feel the rush of my blood / I'm seventeen again / I am not scared of death / I've got dreams again / It's just me and the curve of the valley / And there is meaning on Earth, I am happy”

3: “GOING INTO IT BECAUSE THERE IS NO CHOICE, I LOVE KNOWING IT WILL END BADLY FOR YOU BUT DOING IT ANYWAY BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. I LOVE TRYING TO AVOID IT BECAUSE IT IS SO FRIGHTENING AND WRONG BUT THE FORESEEN EVENTS INEVITABLY CATCH UP TO YOU. I LOVE THE FUTURE TELLING YOU “This is the way it is,” AND ASKING, “Does it have to be?” AND THE ANSWER IS, “i’m so, so sorry. Yes, it does.””

4: “IV / The eyes are not here/ There are no eyes here / In this valley of dying stars / In the hollow valley / This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places / We grope together / And avoid speech / Gathered on this beach of the tumid river”

5: A printed quote, underlined in red pen. “So hello, hi, the blood / inside my hands / is now inside / the world. Words, the prophets / tell us, destroy / nothing they can’t / rebuild.”

6: “It’s just a spark but it’s enough to keep me going / And when it’s dark out and no one’s around it keeps glowing / And the salt in my wounds isn’t burning anymore than it used to / It’s not that I don’t feel the pain it’s just I’m not afraid of hurting anymore”

7: “Either way, we're not alone / I'll find a new place to be from / A haunted house with a picket fence / To float around and ghost my friends / No, I'm not afraid to disappear / The billboard said, "The end is near" / I turned around, there was nothing there / Yeah, I guess the end is here”

8: A close up photo from a book in low light with the lower two lines underlined. “I was hurt. / It is never too late to learn to love. / But it is frightening.”

9:“Goodnight and great love to you. We see the same stars.”

10: “The rest of the day was quite easy. / I did all the jobs on my list / And enjoyed them and had some time over. / I love you. I’m glad I exist.” End ID.]

[uriel-is-best-girl]

Kingdom two crowns orv AU

Maybe spoilers??? Idk

Featuring yjh with a golden crown, black horse, black clothes and a white fur cape or coat bc f the color schemes I think that looks cool. And kdj wearing the opposite color scheme, with a white shirt and long black cloak with white fur around the edges that hangs down to cover his eyes.

!!!OPTIONAL INFODUMP ON HOW KINGDOM TWO CROWNS WORKS!!!!

Ok so first things first for anyone who doesnt know what kingdom two crowns is its a side scrolling videogame where you play as a monarch rebuilding your kingdom from scratch and every night these monsters called the greed cone out of portals to attack you, and they slowly get stronger. They take your money, and can turn your workers into homeless peasants by stealing their money. You 'die' if the greed steal your crown. You move through different islands by repairing your ship and each island will have stronger mounts or hermits which can help you (and these are unlocked with gems). Every island will have a final portal that defeating will stop the greed from returning on that island. You cant beat the first island without going to different islands first (as far as ik anyway).

!!!AU STARTING HERE!!

Yjh as the monarch rebuilding/building a kingdom ti fight against the greed. Kdj as one of the hermits/ the dude who will hold onto your gems for you. The vibes im feeling are yjh struggling in what feels like a hopeless battle, exploring ruins to find anything that could help his kingdom survive. Hes just repaired his boat to move on to another island in search of a stronger mount when kdj appears wearing a cloak and looking sketchy af. Yjh still has some gems on him and kdj, with his untrustworthy smile, offers to hold onto them for him. Yjh is suprised bc in all his regressions (yea, regression is happening :/) hes never seen kdj. Yjh doesnt trust kdj or believe him about holding onto his gems, but he wants to know why kdj has nvr appeared b4 so he asks kdj to join him. Kdj is like nah, and blah blah eventually yjh ends up giving kdj 1 gem to see what happens. He thinks worst case scenario hell just start over. Then next island yjh cant find kdj again for weeks and hes pissed. But then kdj appears again by that half rebuilt boat with that grin of his and with yjhs gem.

And kdj stays there, offer always open to hold onto the gems. Sometimes kdj will even offer yjh advice. Advice that turns out to be life-saving. Anyways so yjh gets attached to the mysterious man, and everytime he travels to a new island he is worried about kdj not reappearing. But he always does.

Hmm ok so why dont the greed chase kdj? Bc hes a wizard, magical boy, whatever, and can cast a spell that makes him hidden from the world, so he can watch as an observer. Before the regressions began, kdj lived in the woods with his mom. Non of the cannon trauma, kdj's dad was killed when he was young bc kdj's mom was a witch and modern laws and law enforcement werent there so he dead b4 kdj can rlly remmeber him. However we do have some trauma with how isolated kdj was and also his mom was shunned from the current kingdom (of which yjh was the prince) for being a witch and idk ppl also probably tried to kill them for that and all. So that means that the hidding magic is one of the first things kdj is taught. Bc he had to use it so often he can cast this spell w/out a book or other ritual aids, but all other spells he needs extra materials for andd his spellbook. So that means he totally gets yjh to essentially go on fetch quests for him with the reward of stuff like "strengthened city walls", or "a boutiful harvest".

Anyways, back to the backstory, when kdj becomes an adult, he goes off on his own, wandering through the woods and being a hermit, collecting books/exploring ruins and avoiding ppl bc he has trust issues ofc. Hmm, need an origin story for the greed, do they appear out of nowhere? Ummm, so one day the earth trumbles and the air crunches and outside of the kingdom black rocks fly together to form arcs, and with a firey woosh purple illusory flames appear inside the arcs, and out of these portals run these black and oily child sized figures which begin to wreak havoc and the apocalypse starts.

Yjh cannot even begin to save his kingdom this first time because its so sudden, hes caught up in the havoc of just trying to survive like everyone else. Then, just as hes about to pass out from blood loss or smthing, a cloaked figure appears before him and asks him "do you want to save your kingdom?" When yjh blearily answers yes, kdj smiles and says cryptically "many have failed, but perhaps, you will be different".

So then yjh blacks out and bc he was dying he forgets this. Kdj takes him away and heals him, then leaves him somewhere safe with only his crown and a horse to try and rebuild and survive. He fails, and when he dies he wakes up again with only his crown and a horse. He doesnt remmeber kdj.

Okay okay more backstory time, not only was kdjs mom a witch, but also their family are some of the only ones who had records of and knew about the coming apocalypse, some generations try and stop it, others mearly standby. So when it comes around again kdj decides he wants to try and help, that maybe this time will be different, and will end the apocalypse for good.

So yjh continues on, this mysterious yet helpful man coming and going, working to defeat a the portals on every island. Finally he makes it back to very first island, where it all began. This time when he goes to attack the last portal, kdj appears and tags along. Used to kdjs sporadic and confusing behavior, yjh thinks nothing of it.

But at the end of this final portal, on the very first island, is the king who was supposed to be dead. Yjh looks at the father he barely knows or recognizes with horror, and, the truth beggining to dawn on him, anger. The truth of the apocalypse was that it was always caused by a previous king who had defeated the previous apocalypse and, in the height of their kingdom and success, become corrupt with greed, until when they die their spirits cant accept it and they bring about the apocalypse once again. This is the secret that kdjs family knew, and he helped yjh not knowing him but hoping he would be different. And he was right, yjh would be different.

Anyways after that yjh forces kdj to come back with him, and having helped in the fight kdj is too exhausted to actually fight or run away like he ussually does and then they live happily ever after in their kingdom (yjh gives kdj a crown and makes him a ruler as well, claiming that kdj helped just as much but we all know the real reason he does that is bc he wants kdj to stay and also ppl will think theyre married which yjh does not mind).

I forgot to add but the reason kdj only appeared after a couple regressions is bc of that underlying fear from his youth about ppl hating him. And the only reason he appears at all is bc he wants to help and finally decides to risk trying it.

Once again im sorry to anyone reading this bc i am not editing...

[godofevrerything]

How Zutara Should’ve Happened (my take anyways, if Zuko still joined the Gaang in Season Three)

Alright, so I’m a Zutara shipper. Anyways, here’s my rant of the day.

So, if Zutara were to be cannon, let’s say that we wouldn’t change the cannon, other than that. Also full disclaimer, I don’t really like Kataang. It’s cute, and sweet, buuuut I think that they would be better off single or with other people. I personally ship Taang so much-

When I first watched it, I really wanted Katara to end up single. I thought that would be a fitting ending for her story. But hey, she didn’t, and that’s fine.

This is not an anti Kataang post, seriously. If you ship it, cool, I don’t, but everyone had different opinions. Just please don’t come to my inbox and yell at me.

Aight, under the cut bc it got long.

So, if we weren’t gonna change the cannon, Zuko still joins in season three and all. Katara and him would still have a rocky relationship at first, and for good reason, I mean wtf Zuko what happened at the CoTL?

Rant for another day

Anyways-

What I would think is that Katara couldn’t help but notice how Zuko is trying to gain their, and her trust. I mean, she’s pissed but still, she notices. It doesn’t make her forgive him or anything, and it shouldn’t, but she does see it.

Now, I’m thinking little moments. Like when he shoved her out of the way of the falling rocks? Yeah, she still snaps at him, but maybe after she’s a little less fiery. Just a bit.

And then after TSR, things start to change. Of course, we get the iconic hug, but!! I want another scene, when they’re coming back from the trip.

One thing that always bothers me when I read Zutara stuff is that writers rarely address Zukos betrayal in TCoTL. Like,,, maybe I haven’t read the right fanfics but c’mon guys.

I really think, no, I know that Katara and Zuko should address that. I really want a scene, when they’re coming back, while Katara is sorting out whether to forgive him or not, I want them to talk about it. And sorry if it’s OOC- But Like so:

Katara: Why did you do it?

Zuko: ...do what?

Katara: Why did you fight with Azula? I thought you changed, I thought you would’ve fought with us.

Zuko: I-

[ a moment of quiet]

Zuko: I thought about it, and I almost did-

Katara: [turns around to face him] Then why didn’t you? Why did you choose that?

Zuko: I wanted my honor. I wanted to go home, and I thought- I though that if I fought with her, I could get my honor back.

[Katara doesn’t answer.]

Zuko: But Im sorry. I am.

Katara, quietly: I thought you changed...

Zuko: I have, now, I mean.

Katara: Why was your honor so important to you anyways? And what do you mean by ‘wanted to go home’?

Zuko: I- I was banished. Until I found the Avatar, I couldn’t go back.

[Katara turns, studying him, then turns back around]

Katara: ...You couldn’t go back, ever?

Zuko: No.

[She doesn’t speak after that, and neither does he.]

Okay, so maybe that was too OOC, but they did need to have a conversation something like that. A conversation where Zuko explained, at least a bit about why he fought with Azula.

And then, after that, the hug and forgiveness. But that was a turning point in their relationship, and I don’t like that so little fic writers address that.

And then!! I want little moments. Just small moments, maybe a bit more teasing, a bit more concern on Kataras part.

Also, let’s face it: Zuko would be simping. Katara wouldn’t be lovey dovey, no, she wouldn’t. Zuko would be the simp, Zuko would be the one stuttering slightly at teasing and stuff.

Just little moments, nothing big bc c’mon, they’re kids. They’re teenagers in the belp middle of a war.

Speaking of which! I really want one more scene between them. After Aangs noncon kiss in the Ember Island Players, I want there to be a scene where Zuko finds Katara and she vents to him.

Also I’ve been losing my damn mind trying to find a gif series for that bc someone on Tumblr made it and I can’t find it- fkdndd

Okay, but along with a huge chunk of the fandom, it really makes me mad that they didn’t show more of Kataras reaction, and that Aang didn’t apologize. Like wtf Aang.

I would’ve been fine with anyone coming to Katara, or telling Aang that was wrong but- Didn’t happen. They just glossed over that part smh.

But! Say Zuko were to come and talk with her about it. And then at the end, he might ask her why she was confused, Maybe something like this:

Zuko: If you don’t mind, why are you so confused?

Katara: I don’t know! But it’s in the middle of war. It isn’t over, and now isn’t the time for... for romance.

Zuko: But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy. I mean, look at Sokka.

Katara: I’m not Sokka.

[They both go quiet for a minute]

Katara: Sorry, Im just... It’s too much to deal with right now, and we have to focus on ending the war.

Zuko: No, I get that. It’s fine.

Katara: I’m just- I’m confused, and now isn’t the time and-

[She pauses, and the two look at each other for a moment. All is quiet.]

Zuko: I.. can go, if you want. If you need some space.

Katara: Yeah, that would probably help.

[Zuko walks away. As he does, Katara is staring at his back, a thoughtful expression on her face]

Yes, yes, I think that would make sense in the romance line. Mirroring when Zuko was staring at Kataras back.

Alright, so everything would be same, up to Katara healing Zuko after the Agni Kai. But there would be subtle differences. She takes his hand and holds it instead of putting her hand on his back. No big “I love you” or whatever. Just holds his hand, and maybe a line like “We- I could’ve lost you!” Maybe.

And then! One last thing, instead of that long Kataang kiss at the end, a scene between Katara and Zuko, talking about their futures.

I’m a really big fan of Water Tribe Ambassador Katara, and it shows.

Katara: So.. Fire Lord Zuko, huh? Finally regained your honor?

Zuko: [groans] Yes, now stop it.

Katara: [laughs] Nope, never gonna stop.

[Theres a minute of quiet]

Zuko: And what about you? Are you going back to the SWT?

Katara: I am. The Northern and Southern tribes... they need to connect again, not become one, but the connection was frayed with the war, and someone has to take a step to rebuild it.

Zuko: What about the Air Temples?

Katara: That’s up to Aang. I’ll help him of course, we all will, but he’s the last air bender. He’ll take care of them, like I’ll take care of the Water tribes.

Zuko: With Sokka too, I’m guessing.

Katara: I don’t know about that, actually. Sokka may want to travel a bit, scope out the world.

Zuko: And you don’t?

Katara: I do, and I will. Sokka and I, regardless of whatever travel, we’ll work together to take care of the tribes.

Zuko: [chuckles] And I’ll be here. I’m going to try to undo the damage the war did. Open up relations again in the Earth Kingdom, sort out the colonies.

Katara: Don’t overwork yourself.

Zuko: You shouldn’t either.

[She laughs, and stops in front of the pond, looking at the turtle ducks]

Katara: Zuko..

Zuko: What?

Katara: [turns to face him] We... went through a lot. And I have something that I need to tell you.

Zuko, sweating slightly: ..yes?

Katara: Relax, it’s nothing bad!

Katara: I..

[Katara takes his hand and smiles. Zukos eyes widen and he looks down at their hands]

Katara: Well?

[Zuko looks back up and smiles at her.]

Zuko: You’re going to visit sometime, right?

Katara: Course I will.

[He smiles again, and intertwines their fingers. It’s quiet once more, then off in the distance, Sokka yells something]

Katara: [laughs] Now c’mon, your Honor. Let’s go.

[She pulls Zuko down the path towards their friends, and all their laughter can be heard. The End comes up, and the credits roll]

So!!

No big ily confession, no long kiss. Why? Because they’re kids. They’re fourteen and sixteen, there shouldnt be an ily, there shouldn’t be an uncomfortably long kiss.

Later, of course. But now? Let’s them just hold hands and tease each other and relax a bit.

Anyways, that’s my Zutara rant of the day, thanks for listening.

[carbootsoul]

do you.. have any old man sokka hcs. particularly if they're zukka. because i can't stop thinking about grandpa sokka he lives in my head rent-free

oh my god i’m going to scream i had literally all of this written out and then accidentally typed ctrl+r and reloaded the page :sob: so when this takes me another like day and a half to post that’s why. anyway i love old people hcs bc like.. god i wish that were me. also this is a yue lives au bc i love her too much (and?? suki and sokka lives au i guess????)(also zuko isn’t fire lord.. they’re some kind of democracy) (also also by old man this is like.. 60s i think)

zuko and sokka are those old people who have like seven houses and travel between them with like... minimal notice to their friends, family, and half-dozen government leaders who they unofficially advise. whenever someone has something important to tell them they need to send a half-dozen hawks to every different house. izumi somehow always knows where her dads are

sokka keeps all the paintings he makes in a room in his house in the fire nation and he and katara went through it one day and started crying together about the evolution of his art- both about how his level of skill improved and about how the art showed the rebuilding of the world

sokka and suki and zuko and yue have a secret beach house in the earth kingdom and they all plan to live there together when suki and yue retire. in the meantime they all gather there for a few weekends every year and talk about how they should really all retire. and then they don’t.

(eventually yue finds some young community leader to be the new nwt chief and suki passes the torch of being the leader of the kyoshi warriors off and sokka and zuko just. stop taking earth king kuei’s calls and they do retire to that beach house and spend the rest of their lives lounging around)

@kyoshi-lesbians talked about gay slang in the atla universe and my favorite from that list was calling old gay couples penguin seals and old sokka would LOVE that slang

he first hears it at a white lotus meeting when iroh teases jeong jeong and piandao about how awful their tea is (are you saying that a pair of penguin seals in their fifties can’t make a decent pot of anise tea?) and sokka is like :0 i’m in love with that slang i know me and my husband are both only 27 but i will save this in my brain and once he turns 50 and decides he’s old enough he is THRILLED and never shuts up

the cool grand-uncle to the airbender kids. he always brings them treats from wherever he and zuko travel (they swoop into tenzin’s house and sokka has a box of candies and zuko has like, an investment into tenzin and pema’s retirement fund asjfksldj) so the kids love him. tenzin likes it.. less because the kids are a handful even when they haven’t had a bazillion caramels. he loves his uncles tho and they have good conversations about international relations

sokka’s leg injury starts to act up again when he gets older and so he starts using a cane. at a huge gaang family dinner he shows up with like. a stick he found in the woods. toph is like damn socks i could do better than that and i’m a blind 50 year old and zuko’s like hm well i could do even better than you and it becomes a whole thing with all of sokka’s family. (kya wins because she made hers out of a light enough material that sokka can bonk his sister over the head with it without hurting her)

he also does a lot of work with his sister and yue toward making the two tribes more accessible both to nonbenders and disabled people!! he and zuko also petition the fire nation and earth kingdom about similar initiatives but it’s a lot more slow-going because he’s not like, related to the leaders.

he’s the cool uncle but he is NOT the hip uncle. he could be the hip uncle but he only uses slang from like.. literally before he was born because like half his friends were old when he was young and he is no longer young. also he invented like half the technology currently in use but he still pretends not to understand how to use it just to drive izumi insane

zuko is perpetually graying (he somehow always has dark hair and gray temples) but sokka basically woke up one morning with completely white hair. he loves it bc it makes him look even more like a mad scientist

i hope these r kinda what u were looking for!! ajskldfsjd lok was so wrong and sokka deserved to be an old man

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Phoenix Prince /// Dragon Princess AU

Aka a healthy (ish) fire siblings au (thats still super angsty im so sorry) where Zuko and Azula love/take care of eachother and earn the love of their people

———————————

Ursa dies in child birth, though thankfully Azula survives. Zuko’s only three at the time but he’s devastated by the loss of his mother, and vows to protect his baby sister at all costs

He’s super super involved with Azula growing up, and does everything in his power to protect her from Ozai. Bc when she’s little Ozai’s very bitter bc she “killed” Ursa, plus he already hated zuko for being too weak, plus there’s no Ursa to challenge him. so he can basically do whatever tf he wants to them and be an abusive fucking dick

But then, Azula starts fire bending and is clearly a prodigy. Ozai suddenly takes an interest in her. She’s terrified of her dad so she does w/e tf he wants to keep him happy.

Except she refuses to hurt zuko. he’s her big brother and she loves him. She (secretly) stays really close with him, though is skilled enough at manipulation that Ozai thinks she’s basically cut herself off from zuko/hate him. Which zuko is fine with, he wants Azula to be safe from Ozai and if that means she needs to pretend to hate him when their dad is in the room? He doesn’t care, he knows his baby sister and knows she loves him

Anyway yeah Ozai starts to like her better and treats her.... “better”. (Note the quotations.) but she still feels guilty that Zuko’s getting the brunt of ozai’s wrath, so she does her best to keep Ozai’s attention on how good she is instead of how much of a failure zuko is.

Quick side note: if Azula seems ooc that’s on purpose. We know her toxcicity is a result of Ozai’s influence. But here he has way less control over her. Bc Ozai mainly controls her by using fear. And while she is afraid of him, she’s not nearly as afraid in this AU. a) bc Azula has her over protective big brother being over protective and b) Ursa’s dead so there’s no mother who is supposed to protect her failing to protect her and making Azula feel unsafe

So in this she’s much closer personality wise to like a “season 1 zuko” version of herself. She’s in general cool but tends to loose control of herself. Though she also has a lot more self confidence than zuko did, and maybe a bit too much pride. She’d never hit someone who was already down and cares for ppl, but pretends that she cares for no one

So yeah. The two are just kinda surviving living in the castle and love eacother a lot

Until they hear about the whole kill ur first born thing....... (which happens about 2 yrs after cannon bc Iroh came home when he heard his sister in law died and the whole siege of ba sing se was postponed)

Instead of like. Waiting for her brother to get murdered tiny 9 yr old Azula packs up their shit and gets ready to go on the run

Unfortunately she’s (almost) too late. While she’s getting ready to leave Zuko is trying to cover for her (Ozai would be murderus if he knew Azula was gonna betrey him by leaving) and somehow manages to insult Ozai while trying to protect Azula from being found out

Ozai gets big mad, and in a fit of rage tries to kill zuko by burning half his face off.

Azula runs in at the sound of her brother’s screams, at the exact same time two gaurd rush into the royal chambers. The guards are frozen in shock, but Azula is pissed

Azula attacks her dad. At first she has the upper hand/element of surprise but... she’s 9.

she starts loosing. Her forearm gets really badly burned in a suspiciously hand-shaped pattern.

During the fight Zuko’s struggling to lift himself from the ground and help. He manages to save Azula from a killing blow by throwing some fire at Ozai, but collapses immediately after. Azula barely has a second to breathe before Ozai starts attacking again.

For a moment it legitimately looks like Ozai is going to murder his two young children in cold blood

Until one of the guards snaps.

She uses the whole fucked up situation to knock Ozai out, though she doesn’t kill him. The other gaurd is just standing there, and she has no clue who he’s gonna help so she just knocks him out

Then the gaurd grabs zuko and Azula, and fucking BOOKS IT from the castle. She does a blue spirit type thing to escape (threatening to kill either Azula or zuko) and eventually gets them somewhere safe where she can get their wounds treated

The next day the fire lord puts out this whole sob story about how an assassin pretended to be a gaurd, killed his father, then kiddnapped his children. And how he’s sending out a whole manhunt for his lost children yada yada yada

The other gaurd that was there mysteriously disappears a few days later, but not before he can spread some “rumors” about the prince and princess’s disappearance. Ozai ascends to the throne and publicly offers an enormous reward for the return of his children,,,,,, while secretly sending assassins after them. (Like.... Azula attacked him and he already tried to kill zuko he don’t give a fuck)

Iroh is obviously devestated when he finds out. and while he thinks the whole thing is a bit suspicious he starts on a journey desperately looking for his lost niece and nephew

While all this BS is happening this poor gaurd suddenly has 2 damaged af kids to take care of and a bunch of assassins to run from

So once zuko and Azula are healed enough to travel and they know zuko won’t die, they go on the run. They can’t stay in one place bc of all the assassins after them and end up going all over the world

They don’t spend a lot of time in the fire nation (for obvious reasons) but they do spend bits and pieces there. Connecting with their people, meeting freinds of the gaurd who saved them that can help (like Lt Jee who ran Zuko’s ship in cannon) and spreading the truth of what happened.

Stories about the damaged prince and princess who were so hurt by their father begin to spread. But even more stories about how the prince and princess care for their people spread ten times faster. Stories they take time to rebuild small fire nation villages damaged by floods, or how corrupt military commanders suspicious disappear after they come to town start to spread.

Ppl start calling them the dragon princess and pheonix prince. Because the princess protects her people like a dragon protects it’s hoard, by killing everyone who dares to endanger it. And the prince has risin from the ashes (you can see the burn clear as day on his face), to heal the land and his people

(Though really..... the prince and princess are both dragons and pheonixes. Because even if she seems invincible and more ruthless than her brother, the princess has been hurt deeply. Though her wound is more easily covered. And she aches for the pain of her nation, the nation she feels she wasn’t strong enough to protect. She just hides her emotions better than her brother....)

(As for the prince, yes he shows more kindness than his sister seems too. But he is just as ruthless as her if someone threatens their hoard. He’s just a bit calmer.... less trigger happy than his twin. It was his idea to take out the corrupt commandor stealing a small town’s livelihoods, after all)

They call the gaurd who saved them “the Kitsune”. They say she is a flame wielding spirit, sent by Agni himself to protect the true leaders of the fire nation

Iroh overhears bits and pieces about them. He starts to get an idea of what’s happening, but for the most part he really struggles to track them. Ppl can recognize him, and they won’t sell out their prince and princess to someone who might take them away

So yeah. The three of them are on the run together for a long time. They can never spend long in one place (assassins never stop coming after them) and dart all over the earth kingdom and fire nation, seeing first hand the effects of the war. And gaining a positive reputation both for caring about their people in a way no one since before Sozin has, as well as shaming dishonorable fire nation soldiers who mistreat those in the earth kingdom

(They almost never hurt foot soldiers who are just following orders, but any one (especially upper command) who take clear pleasure in other’s suffering are often challenged to Agni kai’s in exchange for said soldiers leaving.

Though usually just being publicly knocked on their asses by a couple of scarred kids who turn out to literally be the lost prince and princess holy shit, is enough to put them in their place)

So yeah. They travel together earning a good reputation from as soon as they’re healed until zuko and azula are 14 and 11 respectively

At that point they get separated from the gaurd.... (she doesn’t die, either captured or separated for some other reason)

So now.... all they have is eachother

The two spend the next two years on their own. They still try to do the same types of stuff they did before but now they’re in a lot more danger w/o an adult to help them. They’re basically just.... 2 increasingly ferel children struggling to survive. They live mostly off of like foraged stuff and whatever money they can make/steal from rich assholes

They continue to dodge Iroh as well bc they have no clue if he’s gonna return them to their father or kill them or w/e. Which is wayyyy harder than it would seem, the only reason he hasn’t caught them yet is that they have an alliance with June the bounty hunter who keeps sending Iroh on wild goose chases bc she has a soft spot for the weird ferel kids. (And a huge crush on the gaurd who was basically their mom/older sister for a while. But we don’t need to talk about that)

so zuko and Azula are just these absolutely feral kids being hunted by 12 dozen bounty hunters from their father, plus the “dragon princess and pheonix prince” have officially been declared “traitors to the nation that are impersonating the late children of Firelord Ozai” so there’s a good amount of the actual military after them, and they’re trying to keep away from their uncle and all his fucking white lotus freinds

They’re a little bit stressed ok??? And like super protective of eachother by this point

And then who joins the fucking search??? The goddam avatar

Bc he heard these stories about these good firebenders who protect everyone no matter what side of the war they’re on. And ofc Aang wants one or both of them to teach him

So Aang like the lovable idiot he is, is just trying so hard to adopt these crazy feral firebenders.

And ik I keep saying feral but like. I need to emphasize this bc these two spent 2 years on the run + 2 more years on the run while basically living in fucking forests cus they’re out of money, connections, and the gaurd was the only one out of the three of them with social skills. They’re a little stressed okay???

And idk I just love the idea of Aang trying to befriend these crazy feral firebenders acting like they’re just like. Wild animals or smthn. Like cornering them in a clearing and trying to offer them jerky as if they were wolves and the two giving him the blankest fucking expression

Anyway this post is about 200x longer than I meant it to be and I am so so sorry. (Especially since I can’t put in a read more on mobile)

Anyway bc it’s so long i’m just gonna do the last bit in bullet form and try to finish as quickly as humanly possible

- obvi they join the avatar and stuff

- the gaurd (who ima call kit/kitsune cus I don’t have a name for her) eventually meets/joins with Iroh. June later joins them as well as they try to find the idiot fire children

- Sokka has a big gay crush on the feral firebening guy

- Katara has a very tiny crush she refuses to admit too on Azula

- there’s also a lot of drama between her and Azula at first bc Azula is brash and Katara kinda gets annoyed at a mix of that/the lingering bias she has against fire nation ppl but they get past it

- also Azula has ~issues~ where she blames herself for their mom’s death/ is sure their mom hates them but asp their mom comes to her in spirit form and says she loves her (no fucking clue when that would happen but I love that idea)

- instead of having zuko/Azula chasing them they have a really fun variety of different random bounty hunters. Obvi including sparky sparky boom man

- the siege of the north.... happens. Though Zhao doesn’t kill the moon spirit so yue lives, and Azula and zuko manage to make a huge speech and get many of the soldiers to defect to their side instead so it ends with minimal bloodshed

- when Toph joins the group she and Azula are chaos incarnate

-mai and ty lee hear rumors and stuff and join team avatar eventually

- when they find out about the day of black sun they just. Skip trying to talk to the earth king. Cus they can just stage a cou lol they have the people on their side?? Forces from both water tribes, random earth kingdom ppl they’ve managed to befriend,,,,

- though they have to find uncle first bc he could challenge zuko for the throne. Obvi they think they’ll need to get rid of him bc they don’t really know him and think he wants to hurt them but all of a sudden??? 

- so they kinda have a few side quests as they’re preparing and gathering everyone but then it’s the day of black sun!!! And it works and shit and I actually have some other ideas too but FUCK this is SO LONG i am so sorry and will shut up now

[appassaddle]

Hi! So I just read Child of the Heartless Wind and was blown away (pun not intended but accepted) I am curious about Suki's place in your version of the universe? Did she and Sokka drift apart? Has she passed away at this point? I love her character but have never quite gotten my headcanon straight as to her fate. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

Hello! Thank you so much for reading. :)

Suki didn’t get a chapter mainly because I have several different headcanons for her, but they conflict with each other and I couldn’t decide which one to go with!

One is that Suki has Kyoshi’s blessing and lives for as long as she wants to because reasons (see: it’s what she deserves!!).

More “realistically”:

She retires after serving out her time as leader of the Kyoshi Warriors to stay on as the Fire Lord’s personal bodyguard until Zuko abdicates the throne to Izumi, when she then goes back home to train the up and coming Kyoshi Warriors. She is also often contacted for advice on worldly political happenings since the island (and her by extension) are regarded as mostly neutral territory, which makes it a great meeting place to sort out disputes between nations/states/cities/towns.

(Suki takes great pleasure in threatening to feed petty Earth Kingdom rulers to the unagi when they’re taking to long with negotiations etc.)

I like the fanon theory that Kyoshi Warriors don’t do any kind of traditional marriage. This is mostly to further snub the traditions of the mainland and also a reflection of Kyoshi’s daofei oaths.

Suki and Sokka have a lifebonding ceremony of some sort, skirting her oaths by having a Water Tribe ceremony and getting Aang to preside/sanctify it in some way since technically he is Kyoshi and the warrior vows are against Earth Kingdom traditions.

Unfortunately, they are mainly long-distance due to their respective duties; Sokka as SWT Ambassador and training with/leading the Order of the White Lotus, Suki with duties in both the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom.

Suki is a brilliant tactician and warrior, but she has no patience for politics. Every time things get sticky with the whole Republic City stitch, she tells Aang that he should just pull a Kyoshi and bend the whole state into an independent island.

There are days where he is Very Tempted, but knows that’s... not the right choice.

(imo the whole Republic City/United Nations thing is ://// in canon but... y’know.)

Or to be shorter winded about it, The GAang gets roped into international politics in rebuilding the world, but Suki and Toph basically get to meddle when they please bc they have all the clout of being war heroes without serious ties to international leaders (Except for the ones that are their friends) so they have a lot more freedom with what to do with their lives basically.

Here’s where it splits for me.

Option 1:

Suki dies young.

She saves Zuko from an assassination attempt during the rebuilding of the Fire Nation, becoming a hero once again, there’s lots of angst especially on behalf of Zuko and Sokka etc.

or

Between retiring as Leader of the KW and moving back to Kyoshi Island, she and Sokka settle in a young Republic City for a few years so he can help rep the SWT and she teaches chi blocking etc at Toph’s metalbending school. (What’s a cop idk her). Unfortunately, just when it looks like the city is getting it’s feet under it, there’s a bad weather/crop year and between that and the exploding population of the city, illness breaks out. And sickness is not something that can be fought with fans or blades.

(I have a Katara and Sokka centric fic that combines and expounds on these two ideas, but who knows if/when it will ever be finished+published, bc it puts... a lot of hurt on my poor boy.)

Option 2:

Suki lives a normal life.

Or well, as normal as it gets.

She and the Kyoshi Warriors serve as traveling peacekeepers/defenders when they aren’t on rotation in the Fire Nation.

Since they’re an internationally known neutral party, it makes everyone more comfortable to have them in the palace. For those who support Zuko as protection against assassins, the Earth Kingdom for having some kind of permanent presence, and the Water Tribes for having allies.

She and Sokka love each other a lot, but don’t really have the time and space to be more serious about each other in the immediate aftermath of the war. They break up amicably after a few years and find their way back together after a couple decades when they’ve both found a little more stability in their lives. It isn’t until Sokka is elected as chief that they can truly make it work out, since Kyoshi Island is only a (relatively) short trip to the South Pole. They have two kids, one non-bender and one waterbender (Katara is delighted to train her niece.). Sokka and Suki are both high-ranking members of the White Lotus, until he falls defending Korra from the Red Lotus. Suki and Zuko coordinate to organize it from there, until she dies of old age, but basically the rest of canon as established in LoK remains unaffected.

So basically yes, many thoughts, but no real solidity to them yet!

[mc-dude]

zelda game idea i had on train yesterday

ok, so

it takes place a sequel to botw. zelda chose never to rebuild the kingdom and the world evolved back into a more wild, untamed state (this is obviously inspired by interim can u tell). magic is flourishing, there are many small, self-governed towns. i dont have many overarching plot details yet (the big bad will be Calamity, separate from ganondorf), but

you got the main three. ganondorf, zelda, link. you can play as all three. each have their own skill trees and hidden abilities/gear to discover.

link

grew up deep in the forest with forest spirits. kind of a wild dude, doesn’t understand a lot of “people” customs. frequently befriends animals. gets offended when zelda and ganon try to hunt deer for dinner (he’s a vegetarian). very quiet, mostly communicates through sign. likes to cook.

link specializes in earth, wind, and time magic (think a 3 pronged skill tree).

earth (or life) magic can create vines to make pathways, or entangle enemies, or do minor healing by summoning forest spirits.

wind magic can create bursts of updrafts that you can drift upwards on with your leaf, blow back enemies, play diff songs on his wooden flute to gain minor buffs and effects.

time magic lets you slow down time briefly or freeze enemies in time (like botw effects). time magic requires a lot of energy and is usually used as a sort of “ultimate”

his main weapons are sword and shield, and you can put more points into defense or offense depending on your playstyle.

zelda

grew up with the shiekah and doesn’t know she has the blood of hylia. she’s very no nonsense, very serious (but will crack a bit if she’s with people she’s comfortable with). she takes the mission given to her by the shiekah very seriously and will stop at nothing to protect the world.

she specializes in shadow (stealth), water, and light magic.

shadow magic effects the efficacy of her stealth mechanics, letting her fully meld into the shadows and giving her bonus damage/crit at night. she has the ability to disappear into the shadows and teleport short distances.

water magic can create shields, ice projectiles and ice bridges. she can use water magic to freeze enemies, or use natural water environments to her advantage with ice walls for defense.

light magic is something inherent to zelda and she doesn’t know where it comes from or how to control it properly. she can create arrows and blind enemies. her light magic requires a lot of energy and is usually used as a sort of “ultimate”

her main weapon is a bow and arrow, but also has a small harp she can play different songs on to give her small bonuses to certain attributes (shadow damage, light damage, water damage, move speed, etc). you can collect more songs for her throughout the game.

ganondorf

grew up in the desert, shunned by his people for being a male (this is interim influence talking). he rejects the gods and has a personal mission to prove to the world that he’s not an inherently bad person for how he was born. very quick to anger, but fiercely protective of those he cares about. a mother hen.

ganon specializes in fire, force, and shapeshifting magic.

fire magic is.. just that. can create walls of fire, call down a meteor from the sky for aoe damage, and throw lightning projectiles.

force magic lets him manipulate gravity, throwing enemies in the air, crushing them in a force grip, or using it to reposition himself in a fight. can also use it to levitate objects or himself/others.

shapeshifting allows him to turn into various animals as a sort of “ultimate” ability. he learns new forms as the game progresses.

his main weapon is a massive double-sided polearm that he wields expertly. in addition to this, he also has various masks he can wear (and collect as the game progresses) to give him bonuses to certain attributes.

they all meet up in the beginning through a twist of fate; link is sent by the deku tree to investigate stirrings felt in the spirit world, zelda is sent by the shiekah to investigate stirrings felt by the elders in the shadow world, and ganon stumbles across some seriously fucked up magic shit in the desert that he tracks down the origin of to a central location (bc he’s a very powerful spellcaster). they’re all there to stop the big bad and have to work together to escape, where they become unlikely allies who all agree they have to do something to stop this Dude (its actually calamity).

you don’t know much about each character when the game starts and you slowly uncover more of their backstories and personalities as you progress through missions (it’s an open world, but you have “main” storylines in each region to uncover some clues/upgrades in the ancient temples of each region).

regarding quests- some require certain characters (stealth quests for zelda, shapeshifting quests for ganon, flying or spirit related quests for link), some require two characters, and the temples require all three characters. on duo and trio quests you have to switch between each character to solve puzzles.

when you’re on a duo or trio quest you can perform group combos activated by a combo meter or the other character using a certain ability. like, a time/force combo with link & ganon where link will freeze one, ganon will build up kinetic energy in the enemy, and they get launched to the fucking sun; or zelda and link play a duet together to summon some shit or gain MEGA buffs for a short time. there are many options for combos depending on what you choose to specialize in in each character’s talent trees.

as you traverse the open world (on horseback) you unlock dialogue between the three characters a la dragon age. zelda and ganon dislike each other on site because zelda is religious and ganon is not. they argue frequently but come to respect each other. link just wants everyone to get along and eat some mushrooms. :(

there are two major plot points that build slowly; one is that each of the three carries part of the triforce, and the other is that calamity is trying to possess ganon by fucking with his mind (again this is just interim plot lol i love that fucking fic). his friends keep him grounded.

anyways..... that’s all i got for world building but i wanna play this game so bad. fuck

[quranreadalong]

SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: MOSES’ EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, PART 2

Now back to the exile. Jerusalem is literally a pile of rubble and thousands of Jews have been taken miserably into Babylon. The issue with any sort of religion with a patron god is that the god’s power relies on his cult center. Without Jerusalem and its temple, the Jewish religion was lost. The Jews of the ruling class, now exiled, were forced to confront an enormous shift in their worldview and the very structure of their religion. At least it produced some bangin’ Biblical angsty poetry.

The sudden societal collapse naturally caused the exiled Jews to seek some meaning in the brutality they had experienced for no real reason. As they were people living in ancient times, the obvious explanation was that their god had abandoned them because they’d upset him (by worshiping other gods). This is why you have verses in the Bible making sense of the catastrophe like this:

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein, Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.

And so the narrative had a clear moral message for its endpoint: Jerusalem had been destroyed because its people had forsaken Yahweh. The exile was a punishment. Rather than stew in misery, the Jews then set about creating a history leading up to this point, describing the rise and fall of themselves as a people, starting at the beginning of humanity itself. This work would replace the temple as the central part of the Jewish faith--something that the Jews could cling to no matter where they were. The first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, arranged if not written in this period, are meant to be a history. One that would form the cornerstone of a Jewish Religion 2.0, a better, more monotheistic, more unified belief system.

One thing to keep in mind is that this flurry of activity to shape Judaism into a cohesive, codified, monotheistic religion occurred both during the exile and after it. So the actual endpoint of the story, completed after the exiles returned to Jerusalem, was returning to Yahweh’s favor. (In fact many scholars believe that the final version of the current Torah wasn’t completed until the first century BC, though the vast majority of it was kept the same). But they still had to link the whole narrative together into a cohesive whole. I’ll talk more about that process tomorrow in a terribly dry post but for now we’re gonna talk about the situation of the Jews themselves!

The exile lasted quite a long time, but it wasn’t an eternity. Two or three generations of Jews had been born in exile, but there were still exilic Jews around who had been born in Jerusalem. And they weren’t all kept as slaves or anything; many of them lived quite normal lives... just in an unhappy exile. So there was time to do things like, uhh write lots of religious stories and make a monotheistic religion I guess, they didn’t have the internet then so they couldn’t just develop crippling depression and do nothing all day, you see. They wrote a lot of stuff, but they didn’t finish all their work during the exile. Because the exile ended.

See, the Neo-Babylonians peaked early. The empire was running into religious problems by the 550s BC, with the people of Babylon feeling as though their ruler was neglecting their patron god Marduk. Making matters worse, the king at the time was Nabonidus, who may have had an Assyrian background oddly enough (basically nothing is known of how he came to overthrow his predecessor, a Babylonian prince by blood, or even who he was; his mother is named but not his father). Weirdly little is known about the guy but the surviving records say that his own people greatly disliked him and thought he was a shitty king because he was too busy being an archaeologist to rule (really). He was so unpopular that the people of Babylon were beginning to warm to Nabonidus’ arch rival, Cyrus of Persia, helped along by a very strong Persian propaganda campaign. It seems as though when Cyrus inevitably moved to conquer the city of Babylon, there was little resistance. Babylon then became a part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, as did its former territories, including Judah. And here is where our friends’ fortunes changed.

Cyrus, you see, believed himself to be Great, and has gone down in history as such (largely thanks to the Jews we’ve been talking about). An avid follower of Zoroastrianism, he believed that it was his destiny to conquer as much of the world as possible in order to defend it from the forces of evil in some world-ending event. To accomplish this as efficiently as possible, he combined outright conquest with a policy of making friends and winning hearts and minds, as seen in Babylon. He observed the fact that the former ruling class of Judah was just sort of sitting there in Babylon waiting for someone to send them home, and thought hey, if I send these people back and rebuild their temple they’ll really like me! And so he allowed the exilic Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple there in 539 BC, which immortalized him in the Bible. Of all the foreign empires mentioned by the Torah, the Persians are presented in by far the most positive light, never declared evil and rarely even criticized. This is probably due to some combination of genuine gratitude... and also the fact that Judah was now a client state of the Achaemenids, and sought to maintain favor with them. The Book of Ezra states:

Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD, the God of heaven, given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

And so many of the Jews who had been taken into exile, along with their children and grandchildren, returned to rebuild Jerusalem. As the former upper-class, they were given favored status by the Persians and again treated as the rulers of the Jews. Upon returning home, the exilic Jews began refashioning Jewish society to fit the mold they had created in Babylon, and over time Judaism would come to resemble the religion we know, an exclusively monotheistic religion with a sacred text (which was still being compiled at the time) and clear mythological eras, beginning with the well-known story of Adam. The lower-class people who had never left Judah in the first place would be told to just get used to it; as the centuries went by, those few who resisted would essentially be reduced to nothing or else cast out of the religion.

The work on the Torah continued apace, but for our purposes, the story is really about Moses and where he came from in all this mess. The questions that no one can really answer but are worth looking at anyway: where does the story of Moses fit into all this? Or rather, more accurately, what was the origin of the stories that became Exodus, which were glued together into one linear narrative? Who was Moses to the Jews before the exile, and how did his story change afterwards? Given the lack of actual written records, can we even guess as to what the predecessor texts of the first five books of the Bible looked like? If not, can we at least identify later additions to them?

All this and more deeply confusing Biblical textual history--tomorrow!!

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