#this destiny

[kigozula]

As Long As We’re Together - Sokkla Saturdays 2024

Day 7: Part Two

FF.net & AO3

Sequel of my last week's entry. Part One.

Sokka insisted on eating some food. He took them to a restaurant. Despite herself, Azula accepted Sokka's treat. She was hungry. They sat outside and kept staring at each other questioningly after ordering their food.

"Well, are you going to explain what's going on?" Sokka finally asked.

"Are you going to explain what's going on with you?" Azula asked back.

"I asked first. Besides, why would the Fire Nation Princess cry alone on creepy streets in a completely different nation form Hers, wearing an apron?"

Azula actually smiled a little at that. He was right. Her situation was in fact weirder. Sokka couldn't help but smile back at her.

"I escaped. Zuko arranged a marriage for me behind my back." she told him blatantly.

"He what?! Is he out of his mind?" Sokka said leaning slightly over the table, clearly taken aback.

"Yeah, I thought so too." Azula said.

"How did you learn of this?"

"I heard Uncle Iroh telling him, it was about time Zuko finally told me that he planned to marry me off. Before he could do that I ran away. We have been on good terms with my brother since the war ended, but his bond with our uncle is worrisome in my eyes." Azula explained. She looked down sadly.

Sokka felt a surge of anger. Zuko had his flaws, but he has been motivated to be a good brother Azula. He asked Sokka for advice on that once. How did it come to that? It was clearly Iroh’s doing but Zuko still shouldn’t accept that. Azula was right, Iroh was too much influence on Zuko.

But saying this wouldn’t help the situation. Sokka needed to reassure her that he would stand by her side. Surely helping someone you know was natural. But he felt his protectiveness more than just that. He wouldn't allow Azula to feel alone. She didn't have an easy life either.

He slid his hand toward hers on the table and took her fingers gently in his palm. It was Azula's turn to be taken aback now.

"I will do anything in my power to help you and protect you Azula. I'm with you, as long as you allow me to. You can trust me."

His eyes were blazing with honesty.

Before she could say anything, the waiter brought their food, and the pleasant touch of their fingers ended.

"Your turn now." Azula said when they started eating.

"Why would a warrior like you, who is best friend with the Avatar walk on creepy streets with an apron on himself?" Her voice slightly teasing.

Sokka huffed.

"I lost a bet."

Azula broke into laughter. Sokka would have gotten mad if it hadn’t been the first time he saw her laugh. Her laughter made him blush instead of angry.

"How did that happen?" she asked forcing her laughter to stop.

"We made a bet with my sister. I might have gone a little overboard and told her she would never be able to beat me at a "boomerang race". She said if I lost, I'd work in this teashop for a week. "

Azula broke into a stronger laughter this time.

"I tripped and fell down Azula! Otherwise, there is no way she could have beaten me!" Sokka squeaked.

Still, she couldn't stop laughing. Sokka looked rather cute while he explained his story.

"Glad I could improve your mood princess."

"I'm sorry Sokka, I just can't..." she tried to say in between laughter.

Sokka joined her laughter soon enough.

They ate, laughed, and talked leisurely. It felt genuinely nice to be in each other's company.

Working in the teashop didn't feel horrible anymore. They joked around. From the outside it looked like they were glad to be in this situation. After their shift ended they would hang out in a restaurant and go for a walk.

Until their good mood shifted, when certain people entered the teashop right before it was closing time. It was the third day for Azula in Ba Sing Se.

Zuko arrived with Katara, Aang and Toph next to him. He left his soldiers outside the teashop.

Her brother looked worried, she had to give him that.

“Azula, what is that? I barely slept for days in worry something might have happened!” he said roughly.

Azula gave her brother a harsh glare, but before she could say anything Sokka gave her a short reassuring look and rushed toward Zuko. Anger pouring off him.

"Are you out of your mind? How can you do something like this to your sister Zuko?!" Sokka yelled.

"Calm down Sokka." Zuko replied furrowing his eyebrows.

"You can't force her to do anything you hear me?" Sokka told him.

Zuko found his explosion a little too much but responded anyway. He tried to at least. Because Katara burst into laughter.

All eyes turned to her.

"Hey Sokka, can you give us some tea." she said.

"Oh, nice apron Sokka." Aang began laughing too.

"I am sure Azula's apron looks much better." Toph teased now. She knew the Princess was working here too.

Sokka just growled.

Zuko's eyes landed on his sister.

"Azula, I was never going to force you to anything. You are my sister, and I really wish you trust me." Zuko actually looked sad.

"I heard Iroh talking to you about how you should tell me that you plan a marriage for me." Azula said.

"Did you hear the rest of it?" Zuko asked. He looked at Sokka and then at Azula again. An interesting situation was happening.

"I told uncle that I never planned such a thing. Then he asked me if he could make you a suggestion. But before that I wanted to talk to you of course."

"Isn't this just perfect?" Toph said smirking.

"What?" Azula and Sokka asked in unison.

Katara started laughing again.

"What's so funny now huh?" Sokka asked annoyed.

"The person Uncle Iroh suggested you marry Azula..." Zuko started.

He paused, closing his eyes. Maybe this whole thing was a sign.

"Uncle believes you guys would match very good together." Zuko said.

Time seemed to stand still. Azula looked at her brother, then at Sokka who looked just as stunned as her. Katara and Toph smirked and Aang winked at her, looking happy.

"My brother and you." Katara interrupted.

Azula and Sokka were standing side by side, but their heads turned to the side so they could see each other's eyes.

"Well, I spied on you guys and sensed your feelings for one another flourishing." Toph whispered to herself. For she could feel how happy they were in each other's company.

[taxus-fraud]

Hey guys, my opponent just fused their entire side of the board into a gestalt entity, which is currently dissecting and calcifying my pieces such that they fit into its twisted vision of an eternal, perfect state of the universe. What's the best counter in this situation?

[destiny-islanders]

gawrsh

[inkskinned]

you said you were stuck in a time loop, which was fine. i feel like late-stage capitalism has us all in a time loop, ammiright? you came barging in at 5:33. in the morning. i hadn't even processed the idea of coffee.

but you had this look of utter panic in your eyes. terror like the ocean. you grabbed my cheeks. im in a time loop.

i don't know why in movies the first reaction is to deny it. when someone is panicking like that, it's not appropriate to ask them to calm down. it didn't matter if i believed it, what mattered was that you believed it so much that it was consuming you.

so here we are. i pour you some of the dark roast. "you look like utter and entire hell," i say.

you push your fingers into your eyes. "you always say that."

i try to think of something funny to say that i wouldn't have said on previous time loops, but jokes don't land without the proper timing (lol). "remind me to think -"

"-yeah, of a joke that only works in the future. and before you say anything, i know you're pissed i just stole your punchline." you bolt the coffee, which is wild. it's very hot. you don't seem to notice.

i blow on mine to cool it down. i both am very pissed at you and also i can't see you in this amount of panic without wanting to help. but i'm also not really sure what we are, not since i saw you kiss her like that, no offense. it just was like, kind of rude when you knew i liked you.

and besides. i'm just like, barely a person. i write omegaverse fanfiction. i love the concept of a time loop, but what the fuck am i gonna do? send an alpha in there? i open my mouth.

you point at me. "you're about to ask why me. and then say some disparaging shit about yourself. i'm just a nerd who plays dnd or something. that self-own is slightly different each time." you sigh. "i know you think you can't really help me. i don't know who can help me. i only came to you because you fucking believe me." you check your watch, sigh, and throw your head back. you cover your eyes with one hand. "i've come here on 26 separate revolutions," you say. "you have believed me every time. and yeah, i have no idea how you fit into this but i just -" you sigh again. "i just like fucking talking to someone about it."

"do you need more cof-" i start, but you're already holding the empty cup out. i frown at it. "you're not getting any more until you promise not to bolt this one like an animal."

you laugh a little and sit up, pushing your hair out of your face. "okay, that's new dialogue. but to be fair to you, i'm not usually this rude. i'm still pretty new at all of this." you check your watch again. another sigh. i guess you're cruising for a personal best in the Sigh Olympics.

i almost tell you im not an NPC but i've played enough video games to know i'm very much an NPC. i pour you another cup. "so what happens in the loop?"

"really bad explosion." you mutter into the mug. you put your elbows on the table (rude) and bury your face in your arms like an angsty teenager. one hand floats up while you talk, because evidently you literally can't talk without your hands. "i have to save the day and there's this bomb and i have no bomb training and it keeps moving, you know."

"do i die?"

you peek up from your arms. "yeah. bigtime. you keep trying to run or stay or do anything and you always super die."

"oh."

"to be fair, like, everyone dies in it though.... so you're in good company."

i hate that you make me laugh. i hate that being around you always feels tingly and strange, this electric tension between us. something that is evidently (given how you stuck your tongue down a stranger's throat literally 3 days ago) (well. 3 for me) super one-sided. i take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes.

i die today, i guess. a little spark of panic starts at the top of my hands and starts whipping up my wrists.

"shit," you say. you look at your watch and jump to your feet. "i have to go. if i can come back, i will. i am still trying to figure out when is best to do everything, you know? the order of stuff. maybe morning isn't good for us."

i look up at you and think about how you keep kissing me in the back of my car and in alleyways and in the dark. and i can never fucking get a read on you. and i also think about how incredibly panicked you look. how broken. how long have you been doing this? "i don't want to die," i say.

you glance downwards. "well, you're not really dead, you'll come back in the loop."

"but i will have died." my hands are shaking. i am trying really hard to stay calm.

you push your hands through your hair again. "i really have to go. i will have this discussion with the next version of you, though. it is like, something i am thinking about."

"but i don't get a next version," i say. i don't really have the language for this, because i haven't had 26 tries with you. i only have my memories: you, a week ago. drunk and telling me you loved me in my ear. you, kissing her anyway. you, months ago, throwing up on my birthday, whispering to me i ruin everything i touch, always, over and over. please don't ask. i can't ever fucking have that be you.

i run my finger along the rim of the mug. "i don't want to die in this one."

you seem baffled by this. "i get that but - time will reset, you'll be fine, you won't even remember we talked about this."

"but i know now." i stand up too. "i have to live the rest of this day knowing i could die. knowing i probably am going to."

"you could always die, to be fair."

i feel my hands get out of control. "earlier, you said i always say a different insult about myself. what if you're just going through different parallel universes and those are all just different - but real - versions of myself? what if you're not in a time loop, you're in a fucking universe loop?"

"if it helps, i've wondered this too. also, you're hot in all of them. if that helps."

i point at you. "no flirting. i'm trying to figure out if i die today."

"who's flirting?" you catch my wild hands and give me that long, perfect smile. like we're in this together. "i won't let ya die." you check your watch and sigh again. "well. maybe not this time."

i grit my teeth. you are so not making quips at me while i try to explain the existential dread i'm having. "does the time loop reset if i fucking kill you?"

"honestly i don't know how long it continues after i die, because i just wake up. it could be that the loop goes until the explosion for everyone, and we're all in the loop, or it could be that when i die, the loop restarts. when i die i wake up, is all."

i pull away from you and stalk into the kitchen and start doing all 3 of my dishes. "okay, first, you know i was joking. and secondly, this is exactly my point. you don't know if this is just a parallel universe. maybe in the ones where you died, the explosion happened and nobody reset and it's just you travelling." i have to stop and push the heel of my palm into my eyeball. "... how often have you died?"

i look at you. you look at me. you give me this very sad, halfway smile and a little what can ya do shrug. something in that action seems so old and weary that i want to burst into tears.

"i have to go," you say. "really. for real. there's this family of five i save from getting into a car crash. and i know it's like oh but we're all gonna die in the explosion anyway, what's the point. and..." you shrug again. "it matters to me, is all. at least i saved them for now. at least i saved anything."

you pad over to me and wrap me in a tight hug. you always seem so tall against me. i feel your cheek rest against the top of my head for a moment. for a second, it's just us, and the space is warm, and my heart is a little broken hare.

you leave me there, and i stand in my stupid badly lit kitchen with my stupid mugs. i think about you. i start texting my mom that she needs to get out of the city, but it feels pointless.

i don't know what to do. tomorrow is the same day for you. but i have to prepare to die in my today.

[flowersforthehoes]

[turnaboutstar]

THE TRIPS TO EUROPE TO SEE EDGEWORTH ARE ACTUALLY CANON????? I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST A RANDOM THING PEOPLE HEADCANONED

[bloodraven55]

Updating my list of the fruitiest Ace Attorney lines in light of Dual Destinies 🫡

[demaparbat-hp]

Damage.

Quote by @desertbcrnnobody

[dabiwantsfood]

Athena and her scary dog privilege

[meticulousmaker]

another random thing that stands out to me rewatching Steven Universe as an adult:

throughout the show there's this clear Vibe that Steven has inherited some big magical destiny, right? and it makes sense narratively: he's the son of Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion, now being raised by her friends who were the last remaining survivors of an interstellar war. he's like a human child in most ways, except he has magical powers that start to become more obvious as he's getting older. no one like him has ever existed before. it's a big deal. raising him and figuring out how he's going to grow is its own unique challenge, because nobody knows what to expect. so of course there's this magical destiny vibe, given all that.

What's interesting to me, though, is that this magical destiny is in no way literally, physically present in the story, it's just something everyone kinda feels. Like, there's not some ancient prophecy about a half-gem, half-human savior. He's not the Chosen One in any literal sense, he just happens to give off Chosen One vibes. And I say that's interesting because it means that the fact he was kinda raised with this Chosen One vibe is completely a decision everyone around him made, for better or for worse. And the show is aware of this, because the weight of Rose's legacy and everyone's expectations of him is a constant theme, and as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all grow and develop, they also realize the downsides of them putting those expectations on a child. Like, Steven spends his whole childhood being told about how great Rose was, and how because he's inherited her gem he will probably inherit her powers - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Imagine how awful things could have been if Steven had no exposure to the Gems and no knowledge of what they were or how they worked, and then his powers started coming in? It was hard enough even when he was surrounded by the most qualified Gem Experts on Earth. But being primed for all of this "you're going to have your mother's magical powers" stuff put a heavy weight on his shoulders, and then the fact that nobody else quite knew how his abilities worked meant he was constantly faced with the adults in his life looking to him with concern because they didn't know what was happening with him. That's gotta leave an impression on a kid - and, well, throughout the show and especially in SU Future we definitely see that it does.

I like the way the show handles the pressure that's put on him, and the fact that everyone is just... trying their best in a completely unprecedented situation. Nobody knows what to do or how to raise this kid, and that inevitably causes problems but everyone is trying. And Steven can feel that everyone is trying without knowing what to do and he just wants to help and not be a burden and none of his caretakers have said that he's a burden but he can feel everyone's confusion and concern and the expectations he's not living up to and he cares so much, about everyone, about everything. He's in an extremely unique position that grants him opportunities to help that nobody else has, and he feels like he's failing everyone if he can't fulfill that, and in the end it never should have been his job to fix things but somebody had to try. Somebody had to try, and he was one of the only people with the ability to stop the Diamonds, stop the war, stop the lies, stop his world and everyone on it from being destroyed... and he was just a kid.

[danidoesathing]

J.K. Simmons playing J. Jonah Jameson in every timeline has to be one of the funniest running gags ive seen in a movie. anyone can be Spiderman but there can only be one J. Jonah Jameson

[bagel-bird-ainsor]

My take on a redesign for Athena! I like her canon design just fine but I made a few tweaks to cater it more to character design aspects I like to draw. Plus I’ve just got a personal preference against wearing tights (I hate the texture) so I gave her pants.

And tbh if I could hear so well that I could hear people’s emotions I’d be wearing noise-cancelling headphones all the time. Sure, it’s a useful ability in court, but not when you’re trying to go to bed or just…get groceries or something.

But anyway I love Athena and I want to draw her more, so I did this as a way to figure out how I wanted to draw her

[starchaser45]

Regular writers: The two main characters can't be both idiots one of them has to be smart

Merlin:

[dilfachu-wright]

Athena and Taka's formal introduction

[sissyloren]

Is just so enjoyable! Kinda lyk sucking COCK

@queendestiny6912

@xxsissycaitlynxx @friendz0ned-b3ta-cuck