#yes with the wind glider they probably feel the same way

[milkchocimono]

the traveler, who used to have wings before they came to teyvat, briefly able to experience the freedom of flight again in Wanderer’s arms :(

[anemo-writes]

hello travelers! again, thank you for putting up with my inactivity, it’s been hard to write lately haha. anyways, i thought this would be something fun to post and for everyone to enjoy, whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not :) (note: this will probably be more fanon than canon so please bear with me, i’ll make it as canon as it can be :’) i also kept this pretty short, so hopefully that’s okay too,, and sorry for this being late haha—i wrote this very late at night so don’t mind any typos you find please)

much love,

~ anemo-chan <3

(The Playable) Genshin Impact Characters on Valentine’s Day (Romantically)

super romantic; gifts you a bouquet of flowers and takes you out to eat at a fancy restaurant/cooks for you.

Diluc

He is nervous. He’s never paid close attention to the countless amount of people who have lined outside the tavern to ask him to be their Valentine, only to be rejected. There was absolutely no way that he would turn to Kaeya for advice, so unfortunately this was something he would have to figure out for himself. He figures that it wouldn’t hurt to go traditional, so that’s what he does; he buys a large bouquet of roses (which he had to get from Donna, seeing that at the hours that he ended work were very late and Flora’s shop was not open at the time—yeah, that was not fun) and presents himself outside your doorway, to which he invites you to join him for a late dinner—which he makes!

Lisa

She leaves a letter on top of your nightstand, paired along with a singular rose. The letter states for you to meet her outside of Good Hunter, where you find her sitting at a table with a candle dimly-lighting up the surroundings. She greets you with a warm smile, gesturing for you to sit down—the two of you enjoy a candle-lit dinner as well as bolognese she specially requested for Sara to make for the two of you to enjoy together why does this remind me so much of Lady and the Tramp,,

Tartaglia

Oh boy. It’s always a fun time spending a holiday with him, seeing that it could go two ways; one, he would be too busy to celebrate it with you on the day of, and he would take you out the day after, or two—have a store’s entire line of merchandise presented to you outside your doorstep, in which a very, very smiley Tartaglia hidden within the pile (after all, he was the best present!) After you’re done moving all of the gifts into your house (it took up the space of your entire living room), he tells you to cover your eyes and follow him. He takes you to one of the most well-known restaurants in Liyue (which currently doesn’t have a name because it is very late here!), and insists that you order whatever you want, and however much you want.

Zhongli

Over the years, he’s witnessed many, many couples celebrate this holiday and every year he’s wished to do the same. He finds the perfect opportunity to do so when Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and boy does he plan it out for the two of you. He’s even made sure to have his wallet on him at all times—it would be extremely rude for you to have to pay if he happened to forget his wallet. He makes sure to stop by to pick up a bouquet of flowers, as well as a bottle of perfume (not in a bad way, just to clarify) from Ying’er’s shop that he recalled you liked. He makes sure to pick you up early from your work place to make sure you made it to your appointment on time; after all, being late to an appointment was similar to breaking a contract, no?

surprises you with homemade sweets.

Fischl

Oh, she is so nervous—of course, she doesn’t show this. The entire week, she spent researching recipes to create a special batch of chocolate-dipped strawberries just for you—she even sent Oz to the nearby farms to “borrow” the freshest strawberries for the treat (the farmers were too scared to confront the talking bird who “borrowed” their strawberries, so luckily they got away with it). She dips them in a purple-colored chocolate (because what other color would she use, really?) and drizzles on a dark-chocolate syrup to top it off. She’s too shy to actually give it to you herself though, so she has Oz drop it off for her.

Ganyu

Even though she’s quite busy, she’s somehow found time to whip up a special batch of chocolate just for you! She shapes them into Glaze Lilies (which she found quite hard, which is why there are so few of them) and presents them to you in a neatly-sealed box. She’s quite modest when your eyes widen and tell her it’s the best chocolate you have ever eaten, claiming that she only followed a recipe, when she really made it from scratch.

Keqing

Like Ganyu, you have no idea how she finds time to create a perfect array of chocolates, which she made herself! However, with her tightly-packed schedule, she has to drop it off at your house in advance, to which you accept happily. She tried to decorate them with designs of cartoon-versions of your faces, but they’re a bit...messy. Nonetheless, they’re tasty, and to her relief, you enjoy them.

Mona

Somehow, she’s managed to scrape up enough mora to buy you a necklace; yes, a necklace, and a real one at that—none of that fake, costume jewelry stuff! She even added a pendant shaped like star, just so you could be reminded of her whenever you fiddled with it or even glanced at it. She’s quite flustered when she gives it to you, ignoring the way you ask how she managed to save this much mora to be able to buy something like this, changing the subject on how you should never-ever take it off (because it looks great on you.)

Noelle

One word: pancakes. (Have you seen the ones she makes for her special dishes? They’re frigging amazing) As a dutiful maid should, she wakes up especially early to prepare a homemade breakfast just for you, to which she serves to you just as your wake up in bed. The fluffy stack of pancakes are decorated with fruits cut up in heart-shapes, as well the words, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Y/N”, written neatly with chocolate syrup—it’s quite a sight to see, to be honest, and utterly delicious. Lucky you!

Xiangling

The day before, she tells you to meet her at the restaurant around noon. When you arrive, the restaurant is adorned with Valentine decorations, as well as a terrifying amount of food; she insists that she only made it for you, so you better eat up! Before she can show you the other dishes, the restaurant is suddenly filled with a strong, bitter smell—something burning. With a yelp, she runs into the kitchen, coming out a few minutes later with a tray of half-scorched cupcakes, their Gouba-shapes adorned with...a lot of burn marks. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, doesn’t it?

buys/makes a present for you.

Albedo

Without your knowledge, Albedo has been creating a collection of artworks throughout all the time you had spent together. The pieces include portraits of you, portraits of you and him (sucrose helped with this), as well as just random sketches of the little things that remind him of you, such as the bare, snowy-white terrain where the two of you first met, as well as its flora and fauna. If you request it, he’ll even make the painting come alive (literally), and the two of you run to Sucrose’s dwelling, who is very shocked to see the pair of you running from a Frosted Lawachurl when she peered out her window to see if she could pinpoint the sounds of distant screaming.

Amber

Is there anything better than a matching set of wind gliders? Not only that—they were homemade! She spent the last couple of weeks putting together a pair of gliders for the two of you, customizing them to your tastes (which she nailed!) She quite literally drags you to the nearest hill to test them out, and the two of you end up challenging each other on who can get back to the Knights of Farvonius Headquarters the fastest—spoiler alert: she did.

Barbara

Oh, she would make the cutest card for you—the envelope is decorated with cute stickers (some of them even had her face on it; there’s nothing like promoting merchandise, am i right? jkjks) She also pairs it off with a box of chocolates that she bought from Sara—however, what she didn’t know was that in the box was a special-edition spicy chocolate truffle. With your luck, that was the first one you chose—and boy, were you met a surprise (it was so bad that you were begging Barbara to use her Vision on you, which she refused of course). Fun times.

Chongyun

He’s real sweet. After his expeditions and commissions, he opens the freezer (yes he keeps them in there, don’t judge him) to an array of ice sculptures, shapes varying from flowers, hearts, and such—although it’s quite the simple gift, he’s put a lot of effort into them, even putting in the extra effort to cast a spell to make sure they would not melt; it’s all worth though, when he sees the absolutely giddy expression on your face, and the look of pure awe as you pick one up and study it closely, admiring all of the details and work that’s he put in.

Ningguang

She sends out informants to find out what you like, whether it be something that your gaze settled on for too long or something you’ve mentioned while talking to her—on the day of, you open your door to a mountain of gifts, with Ningguang herself peering out from behind it with a calm smile and a wave (which was the opposite of your reaction, because who has that much mora to purchase all of these gifts?!?)

Razor

He doesn’t have a clue on what the holiday until Lisa asks him if he’s planned something for the two of you during one of his lessons. When he shakes his head no, Lisa suggests that he make you something, to which he sets out on an adventure to do, looking for flowers and flower stems to weave into a pair of matching bracelets—they’re not the prettiest, but he is pretty proud of it; after all, it was his first time making something like that. He’s quite nervous to present it to you, afraid that you might not like it, but all feelings of worry melt away when you slide it on with a huge smile on your face, insisting that he wears his too.

Sucrose

At first, she considers gifting you a present that she created herself; of course, with her work being alchemy, she isn’t sure if that would be the safest option, despite being talented herself. And so, she resorts to buying a present for you—she is very picky with the present though, insisting that it should be perfect since she could not make one herself. She even consults Albedo when selecting some of the presents (he doesn’t help her unfortunately; he believes that she should figure it out herself haha). Like Razor, she’s quite nervous to give it to you, but lets out a huge sigh of relief as you thank her happily for the gift, wiping a bead of sweat from across her forehead (sucrose bby anything you give us would be perfect,,)

whisks you away somewhere sentimental, where the two of you can enjoy a special date.

Beidou

It’s ungodly early in the morning when Beidou presents herself in front of your doorstep, announcing that you’ll be joining her and the crew on a special ride. She tugs you along beside her until you reach the harbor, where you are met with the sight of her ship adorned with streamers and banners, varying between shades of pink and red. Onboard, there is a table filled with goodies the crew collected and made, and boy do they look delicious. The group sets out to sea, and you take your place next to the captain, who even lets you steer the boat (momentarily, at least.)

Bennett

He takes you to meet his dads; yes, yes—he knows that it’s not the most romantic thing to do on a day dedicated to lovers, but he figures it’s just as important. Besides, they’ve been asking about you for quite a while—they even set up a small party within the Adventurer’s Guild, with the help of Bennett, of course. You spend the day listening to their old adventuring stories, as well as bits from Bennett’s childhood (poor boy is flustered from all the information his dads are spilling, but he’s still happy either way; after all, he’s with the most important people to him.)

Kaeya

He quite literally kidnaps you; one second you’re walking in the streets of Mondstadt on your way to work when suddenly someone grabs you by the waist and pulls you into an alley way (that sounds so creepy but i swear he means it in a good way). He only chuckles and shields himself with his arms as you punch him lightly, retorting that he scared you. He doesn’t care that the two of you have an overwhelming amount of work to do—after all, Valentine’s Day only comes once a year, right? Surprisingly, he doesn’t take you the tavern, but instead...Dawn Winery! Diluc received quite the surprise when he is met with the two of you standing outside his gates, with Kaeya requesting a wine/grape juice taste-testing. Yeah...you guys didn’t get any of that, but you did manage to snag a couple of grapes on your way out! Good for you!

Venti

You wake up in your bed, opening your eyes to see a very-smiley Venti laying beside you, chin propped up against his hand as he watches you yawn sleepily as you force yourself out of bed. You’re then presented with a handpicked-bouquet of Ceceilias, the freshest of the bunch, if he may add. You barely have time to thank him before he hoists you up in his arms and out of your dwelling, gliding over the city of Mondstadt as he whisks you away to Starsnatch Cliff, where he’s prepared a special performance just for you (and no, you don’t need to pay.)

Xingqiu

While he’s not the most romantic, he does have a clue on what people look for on Valentine’s Day; after all, that’s what cheesy-romance novels were for, right? Unbeknownst to you, he takes you on a date very similar to the one the main characters in his favorite novels partook in—and you don’t find out until you catch him peeking into the pages while you weren’t (you were) looking. Again, it’s the thought that counts—

doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Jean

Sadly, she probably forgets about the holiday. She’s too busy holed-up in her office to notice the couples gathered up in the courtyard, sharing moments with their lover. It’s not until she walks out to take a breather that she notices the commotion—she immediately calls you over, apologizing frantically. Of course, to this you respond that’s it’s okay, but that you would much rather her take the rest of the day off to spend time together, to which she reluctantly agrees.

Xiao

“I do not have time to celebrate silly human traditions like that.” He would say as you bound up to him, exclaiming that it’s Valentine’s Day, the day where you can give sweets to your loved ones, and asking if he had someone special in mind to spend it with. He’s irked when your gaze falters and the grip on the object you’re hiding behind your back tightens—he only grows more irked as you mutter to yourself how you’ll give the chocolates you made to someone else. He scoffs loudly, avoiding your gaze as he lays out his hand in front of you to accept the chocolates (just because he doesn’t celebrate the holiday doesn���t mean he can’t get jealous!)

[cyberv0rtex]

Really thinking heavily about a Nausicaa / HLVRAI AU. Slightly differing from the original movie, definitely. I'd like to think that Gordon would take the place of Nausicaa. Prince of the valley of the wind, with a strange connection to nature. A strange connection to the wild, creatures, bugs, fascinated with them. He respects them, he respects the Earth. Benrey would be some sort of humanoid bug creature festering within the Toxic Jungle, who Gordon would meet at some point to truly challenge him. Challenging Gordon on whether or not he is going to be the link that connects humans and mother nature once again. I'd like to think Bubby would take the role of Lord Yupa, and Coomer possibly being the role of Gordon's father. I'm not sure who Tommy would be, but if anything he'd be a fitting Asbel.

I'm rewatching the movie because I can't sleep. thinking of some of these scenes as Gordon. Gordon guiding Bubby and taming the giant ohmu, encouraging it to go back to the jungle. back home. Bubby startling when he realizes it's Gordon, shouting,

"You tamed it with nothing but a damn flash grenade and insect charm? Where the hell did you learn that!",

As the Tulmekian air ship glides over the valley, searching for a place to land, I can really. really imagine gordon on that glider. Gliding by, realizing in horror that the ship is covered in bugs and they can't see. they don't know where to land. Frantically shouting, "Turn the ship! you're going to crash! turn the ship!" Only for his efforts to fail, and the side of the cliffs engulfed in flames. That moment of horror when gordon sees the princess through the window before it all explodes. Letting the princess have a brief moment of peace before her passing, promising her that the cargo is burning. "Yes Estel, I understand. Everything is burning, don't you worry." Gordon's head filling with dread as she mutters out a final, "thank god." before passout. Breaking her hand cuffs, because he refuses to let her die a prisoner.

The giant insect creeping out of the fire, everyone freaking out. Gordon uses the insect charm to bait the insect away, hopping on his glider and guiding it back to the jungle. It's not the insect's home, and he wants to bring it home and away from their valley. And as he spends all night flying the insect home, he's met with another ohmu.

Instead of just the ohmu waiting, there's an insect boy standing on top of it. Benrey. Benrey is guarding his jungle, he wants his insect family to return home safely. And as soon as he sees that gordon has brought the insect home safely, he just stares. before turning around and going home himself.

Gordon feels content. And heads home himself, despite tired. exhausted from being out all night, probably flying for a good hour or two to guide this bug back home. His job isn't done yet, though. He needs to go home and assess the damages the crash caused. That is his job, as prince with his father, the king, bed ridden.

Bubby discovering the heart. the beating red heart of the giant warrior, terror knowing its in their valley. From the 7 days of fire, 1,000 years ago.

Gordon recognizing the same sick sound of airships approaching from outside the valley. And then they invade.

They invade his home, his valley, that he's trying to protect and they crash and soldiers March out. People are screaming, Gordon trying to coral everyone. Shouting, "Get out of the way!" before another heavy layer of dread sets in.

they're going to the castle. they're after his father. they're going to kill him.

and then they do, and he feels this SICKLY rage and violence overcome him, and he starts attacking the soldiers. Before bubby steps in and gets in the way of his sword, and gets stabbed in the hand by Gordon. and it sinks in that, despite the fact they're invading his kingdom, his home, killing civilians,

his anger caused him to kill.

and it hits as bubby says, calmly, affirming what's happened, "Gordon. Be calm." Gman would make a good representation of the queen kushana. and forzen could do good as her "weasel" of a commander.

they all want to burn the jungle, but gordon knows there's more to the jungle. Gordon has seen it, Gordon practically runs around in the jungle every other day. there's no particular reason to fear them, the insects, as long as you respect the land. if you try to burn it, it will burn you.

Maybe I will post later sorry for rambling besties

[my-socialdiary]

Deep Water

Word Count: 2113

Here we go! Childe x Lumine fanfiction! This is my first time writing a story using english XD pardon my bad BAD grammar because english is not my first language. i tried to fix that :(

***

They’re different, inside and outside.

They have different purposes when approaching each other.

But strangely enough, they feel comfortable. They feel like they can rely on each other.

There is Lumine, and Childe.

There is a butterfly and its destroyer.

It is dark, still, yet beautiful at the same time. The full moon that reflected on the darkened blue sea in Yaoguang Shoal. The sound of waves is so calming and somehow has the ability to heal every ache, mentally. Lumine sits on one of the rocks, dipping her feet in the salt water, enjoying the coldness that it gives. She loves being near water even though she’s an anemo user.

Water; the stillness is giving it a mysterious sense. You will never know what’s deep inside the water if you don’t purposely dive into it. It may contain something dangerous, or it may contain something valuable, like that luxurious chest she finds at Dunyu Ruins after delivering some annoying seelies. For her, water by some means is magical and inexplicable.

Water is exactly just like Childe.

Mysterious.

Menacing.

Some people said that he’s ruthless. Merciless murderer, because of his affiliation with the Fatui, and also because he’s the Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers. The youngest one but one of the most dangerous amongst their number.

But…

He’s the most bold, enchanting, and clever man she ever met in her life. Not to mention he also has the sweetest smile…

… and lots of Mora.

She smiled when remembering that moment when Childe approached her and Zhongli when they were about to buy some kites for The Rite of Parting from Granny Shan’s shop. Zhongli is… thinking about him makes her sigh. That man is surely a special case.

“… Lumine?” A small, sleepy voice brings her back in reality. “Paimon thinks that now we should camp somewhere else. It’s so cold in here and Paimon can catch a cold anytime!” Her emergency f—travelling companion now is awake and leans her body to Lumine’s head. “C’mon, Lumine! We can camp at Mingyun Village or get a room at Wangshu Inn, but not here, in the open field, near the water!”

Lumine chuckles. “Alright, alright,” she stands and reaches up her shoes. “Let’s go.”

Before they leave, Lumine glances over the sea once again and smiles.

***

He knows himself more than anyone in Liyue—or even in Teyvat. Or even his sister, Tonia. All the blessing and curse he has related to water. All those scars that he tried to bury, deep down in his mind. All those achievements mean nothing more than a boastful show off. He knows himself. Truly, inside and outside.

But, meeting her makes him doubt his knowledge about himself.  

Their first meeting is quite unique. That time, when there’s announcement about Rex Lapis’ death at The Rite of Descension, he was just arrived at Liyue to do some works delegated by Fatui to the Northland Bank when he heard a bunch of Millelith shouting to each other, ordering their comrades to arrest someone.

“You have nowhere to run!”

That commotion is enough to get his interest. He looked up and saw the back of a blonde-haired girl that just drew her sword out to fight those trained Millelith. Before he could think twice, the water shifted from his hand, forming a water blade each in his hands and leap over, “Hey girlie, hold still!” The sound of water coming through his ears while his hands are now focusing to fight those Millelith. His position as one of the Harbingers was not given to him without reasons. Easily enough, he defeated all of the Millelith guard—he didn’t kill them, but enough to make them unconscious—then turn back to that girl just to see her golden-yellow eyes now staring at him.

He knew her. Friend of the Knights of Favonius.

“Come with me.” That time, he knew he shouldn’t do that. But he did it anyway. And from then until now, they’ve been together, side by side to fight monsters and sometimes treasure hoarders. It’s funny to realize that because he’s more like an independent fighter rather than a group fighter. But with Lumine, everything that he knows about himself seems to become different. Firstly, He already promises himself that he won’t do anything using his feelings anymore. And secondly, He promises himself that he won’t do anything stupid by helping other people because that’s not what Fatui do.

But yet, he failed.

Lumine is like a breath of fresh air for his breathless life. With Lumine, he feels like he can relax a little bit, smile a little bit, and importantly, see the beauty of life a little bit. A little bit is more than enough for life like his. But that little bit is not good for their relationship. Tsaritsa will find out about Lumine sooner or later. And that’s not good. That means Lumine will always be in danger near him. Thinking about that makes him shiver. I can’t let anything bad happen to her. Not until she reunites with her twin brother. Not until I can be assured that she’s safe. This time, he tries to keep his promise. He could no longer indulge himself in all this beauty which he didn’t deserve from the first time he knew her. 

Because of that, now he found himself waiting at Liyue Harbor because he made a promise to Lumine that they would watch the sunrise before he went back to Snezhnaya. Lumine doesn’t know yet about his plan to go back to his hometown. She only knew that today they would be enjoying sunrise on the boat he rented from Linling. He tries so hard to distance himself from that bright-cheerful-and-lighthearted girl but he fails dozens of times. This is the only way he can do that. Even though it means that he probably will see that girl crying in front of him. 

“Childe!” The euphonic voice that has become his favorite—since when? He doesn’t know—takes him back to the scenery of Liyue Harbor. “been waiting long?” Lumine asks while stabilizing her blue glider and then fixing her flower hair clip. Childe looked away to distract himself and pretend to be looking the other way.

“Not really,” he smiles. “You ready?”

“I was born ready,” she smiled back. The smile that has always been his favorite. 

“Let’s go, then.” Childe walked first, followed by Lumine behind him. She can’t help but smile like an idiot while looking at Childe’s broad shoulder. She knows that she likes him more than friends, but how about him? He never made a real move towards her. Childe has been doing sweet things to her, but how can she be sure that it because he likes her in that way? Should she ask him first?

“Ouch!” Her thoughts make her unaware that Childe is now stopped walking and tries to untie the rope that ties the boat. “Oh my Archons, that hurts!” She cringed and rubbed her aching forehead. Childe turns back and chuckles. She’s so cute. He thinks. And the next second he tries to ignore that thought. 

“What were you doing?” 

Both of Lumine’s cheeks become warm. I was thinking about you! “N-no. Nothing. Nothing at all, s-seriously!”

“Whoa, okay-okay,” Childe lets out a small laugh. “Let’s go.” He reaches Lumine’s arms and helps her get on the boat. After everything has set, Childe rowed the boat, heading to the best place to see the sunrise in Liyue Harbor according to his experience. It was 4 in the morning when they set out their boat. Here in Liyue, the sun rises a little late. 

“I always love midnight and dawn,” she looked at Childe while keeping her hair from covering her face. “It’s nice and calm.”

“Thought you were the rousing-type of girl,” 

“Yeah, I’ll admit that, but sometimes,” she turns her head over the sea horizon. “Once in a lifetime, you need to escape from those ruckus and enjoy the beauty of stillness.”

“The beauty of stillness, huh?” he raised his eyebrow. “Never heard of that.”

Lumine smiles. 

A few moments later, Childe stopped rowing. He is now looking at Lumine who is currently closing her eyes, enjoying the cool air. She won’t be bothered by the wind. She’s an anemo user, after all. Wind is her friend. Just like water is his friend. And enemy, at the same time. 

He then looked down to his reflection on the water. That smile of his and all of the funny jokes he made so that people will like him is a lie. It was a deceitful move. But when he’s with Lumine, it all feels real. Or… maybe it’s just his delusion. Like the electro vision he has, given by Tsaritsa. He doesn’t know anymore what’s real in his life. 

“Childe, look!” Lumine is now covering her mouth, feeling in awe because the sun starts to go up to its place in Liyue. “It’s so beautiful.”

Instead of looking at the sunrise, he looked at Lumine—never can get enough of her—and said, “it is.” 

“Thank you for bringing me here, Childe.” She gives him a dazzling smile. “I really, really love it.”

“Well, now you know this place. You can come here every time you want to enjoy that ‘beauty of stillness’.” He quoted Lumine’s words and gave a playful smile. 

“With you?”

“You can go here alone. That’s the point, right?” 

“I mean, we can go here together again, right? I can teach you about the beauty of stillness that I mentioned earlier,” She said. 

“No…” He looked down. Now is the time for you to tell her, Childe. “I-I will no longer come to Liyue.” 

“W-what do you mean you will no longer come to Liyue? Are you leaving?”

He nodded. “I’m going back to Snezhnaya,” he didn’t dare to look at her. “My hometown.”

“...when?”

“Today.”

She swallowed her tears, “so this is why you suggest that we should go watch the sunrise,” her voice is now trembling. “You wanted to say goodbye?”

“Yes. Besides, there's nothing else I can do here anyway,” please don’t cry. Please don’t cry. Please. “And the Fatui is asking me to go back.” liar. 

What about me? A tear tickled her cheek, and she started chewing on her lower lip while her eyes welled up with tears. “I—” she mumbled something through her mouth and choked on her sobs. “S-sorry. I didn’t know what happened to me.” She let out fake chuckles and looked away. 

Meanwhile, Childe, his vision was blurry; it was difficult for him to see clearly, but he knew that it was a hurtful moment for them. He hears Lumine sniffing and sobbing even though she is trying to hold it. For some moment, both of them drown into their own thoughts and feelings. 

“Will I be able to see you again, sometime in the future?” Lumine asks. She didn’t turn her head to see Childe. “Is there a possibility that we can sit in this boat, enjoying the sunrise together again? Is there any?” 

Childe opens his mouth to say something, but closes it again. No. we can’t meet. You can’t meet me. It’s dangerous. 

“No?” Lumine urged him. 

“If…” Childe dared himself to stare at that girl. “If you want to be around to see it again with me, best you stay alive until we next meet… okay?” And again, he breaks his own promise to not see Lumine ever again. 

They smiled at each other. 

***

That blonde-haired girl is now sitting at one of the Mingyun Village’s rooftop. She looked at a blue shell with a somewhat star-shaped in the center. A starconch. She misses him already but she knows that sometime in the future, they will meet again. Because he needs to take back this precious starconch from her.

***

“Here, keep this,” Childe takes her right hand and places something in her palm. 

“A starconch?”

He nodded. “Yes. It’s not just any starconch you can find, it is my precious starconch because it has memories in it.”

“What memories?” She asked him with a curious look. 

“I’ll save that story for later, when we meet again,” he said, which made her frown. “Until then, you need to keep this. Because I’ll come and take this back.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, good.”

***

“I guess I just need to wait a little longer, don’t I?” Lumine glanced at her little fairy friend, stood then jumped off the roof. “In the meantime, let’s blow away some hilichurls, shall we?” 

“Lumine, wait, Paimon thinks we should eat first!” Paimon tries to keep her distance near Lumine. But she keeps running with a big grin in her face. “Lumineeeeee!” 

[madsthewordclown]

Fire Lily | Pt. 11

warnings: slight angst I guess?

a/n: this chapter is a bit shorter than the last two I believe. It’s mainly just Y/N having some bonding moments with the Gaang. I honestly feel like she’d vibe with all of them in different ways? Anyway, I’m excited. This is set during The Awakening.

Fire Lily Masterlist

Y/N almost wanting to cry with relief as she took off the Fire Nation armor. The ship had stopped in the port of a village and Toph and Sokka had invited her to come along to find dinner. Hakoda had said that the armor wouldn’t be necessary for the trip, so Y/N would get to put it away for the night.

Maybe she’d be able to find a shirt while they were in town. She had a small amount of money of her own—she had offered it to be used for the crew, but for whatever reason, Hakoda had declined. Y/N had a hard time figuring out Hakoda. If their roles were switched, she probably wouldn’t have trusted him. But he was treating her no differently than the others.

“Ready to go?” Katara asked, peeking her head in the doorway of the room they shared.

“Yeah.” Y/N eyed the hook swords that laid next to her cot. She made the difficult decision not to bring them. They were far enough into Fire Nation territory that her bending probably wouldn’t be questioned. Plus, they had Toph.

Y/N met Katara, Sokka, and Toph in the hallway outside of their shared room.

“Let’s see if Aang wants to go with us,” Katara suggested, her expression pained. Even though Aang was awake, Katara will still obviously worried about his condition. The kid seemed to have a tendency to overexert himself.

Y/N and the others followed Katara to one of the upper levels of the ship. Toph handed her a brown cloak on the way. “Better safe than sorry,” she explained.

Y/N tugged the cloak over her shoulders and secured the clasp. They finally came to a stop in front of a metal door similar to their own. Katara knocked softly before entering. Y/N and the others followed.

“Hey, Aang! We’re going into town to find some dinner if you want to come!” Toph smiled at Aang, who was leaning back on his own cot.

“I am pretty hungry.” Aang sat up, a hand on his stomach. He was obviously still a bit weak, and it made Y/N’s hands feel jittery.

Sokka stepped forward, holding out a piece of cloth to Aang.

“Here, put this on. It’ll cover your arrow.” The arrow was already mostly covered by Aang’s hair. Y/N didn’t think it looked right on him, although she had only seen him twice before the battle with Azula.

Aang looked affronted, flopping back down onto his mattress. “I’m not going out if I can’t wear my arrow proudly.” It made Y/N’s heart twinge. She couldn’t begin to understand what Aang was facing. It was enough to fight a war without having to let go of your own culture’s traditions.

“Aang, come on,” Sokka pushed. “Be practical.”

“Go ahead without us,” Katara said softly, putting a hand on Sokka’s shoulder before turning to Aang. “We’ll catch up.”

Y/N averted her eyes, feeling like an intrusion. Sokka nodded. Y/N was startled to feel Toph grab onto her hand to pull her from the room, the door shutting softly behind them.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Sokka announced. Y/N hummed in agreement. They hadn’t been able to stop yesterday, so they were living on leftovers. Plus, they weren’t able to eat regular meals. As it turned out, the Fire Nation didn’t respect their schedule.

The three made their way up to the deck of the ship, the port they’d landed in visible. There weren’t many people out and about, from what Y/N could tell.

“Is this a true Fire Nation island? Or a colony?” Y/N asked aloud.

“I think it’s a colony.” Sokka threw the hood of his own cloak up over his head. “We’re too close to Earth Kingdom mainland. The important thing is there are no soldiers.”

“Well, we’re here,” Toph pointed out. “All of the villagers must think we’re soldiers.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right.” Sokka led the way down the gangplank and onto the wooden dock. “C’mon, let’s find the market.”

They continued to walk into the streets of the village. While there weren’t many people around, Y/N noticed a few faces peeking from windows. They looked to be Earth Kingdom citizens. Y/N noticed a woman and child in the Fire Nation’s signature red walking down the street calmly.

“Have you ever been to the colonies before?” While Y/N hadn’t technically lived in the colonies, she had lived right on the outskirts. Her father’s estate was still Earth Kingdom territory, although they were still subject to the occasional visits from Fire Nation soldiers. But the village they went to for food, and where Bihun went to school, was Fire Nation territory.

“No. They seem like a bit of a drag,” Toph admitted, kicking a stray pebble in front of her.

“This one must be pretty new,” Y/N mumbled, looking around at the darkened houses.

“What makes you say that?” Sokka questioned.

“When I was little, the village near my house was a lot like this. Earth Kingdom citizens were afraid to leave their homes. The Fire Nation people, not just the soldiers, constantly belittled us. There was a Fire Nation boy that picked on me at the market once when I was little.

“But it’s not like that anymore. It took a while, but it became a lot more like everyone was coexisting. My older brother went to school with Fire Nation kids. Most kids stuck to their cliques, and it wasn’t always peaceful, but… it was getting better. Or at least, it was before I left. This is more like an occupation.”

“Huh. That’s… interesting,” Sokka hummed.

“The soldiers definitely caused more trouble than anything. But people are just people. Eventually, they’ll figure out how to coexist as long as someone isn’t pitting them against each other.”

“That’s an interesting perspective,” Toph observed.

“I hope I can go back once the war is over.” It was the first time Y/N really had an idea for what came after. “I want to find my brother and see my family again.” The dream Y/N had the night before came back to her. Boiling rock. She could tell that Sokka wanted to ask what she meant about her brother and was grateful when he kept it to himself.

“Look!” Toph pointed suddenly. In front of them, a man was rolling a cart full of bags of rice across the road.

“Yes!” Sokka punched the air in victory. “Food!”

“Finally.” Y/N smiled, feeling her heart flutter as she set off running alongside Sokka and Toph to catch up to the man.

---

The Avatar was gone. It was probably the worst-case scenario. They had pulled out of port and were on their way when Katara went to bring Aang a tray of food. The wind had picked up, and the weather seemed to be going bad. The added wind going west was helping the ship move along at a very quick pace. Sokka said that they’d probably officially be in the Fire Nation within hours.

Y/N watched the stormy skies with a furrowed brow. Aang had taken his glider. The added factor of the turbulent weather made it that much worse. It was already dark from the setting sun, covered by the dark clouds. Y/N remembered how weak he still appeared and shuddered. He hadn’t eaten anything before he left, either.

Y/N pulled her cloak tighter around her body to shield herself from the wind. The ship lurched in the water, and suddenly Y/N regretted eating so much rice. She could tell that Toph felt the same as the girl held her stomach.

“He can’t have gone far,” Y/N reasoned, approaching Katara, who was obviously beside herself. “I’m sure he must have found land not too far from here.”

“We have to find him,” Katara stated simply, her eyes severe. Y/N put a hand on the other girl’s shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.

“And we will. We just have to wait for the storm to die down. I’m sure your dad and Sokka have a pretty good idea of where we are.”

Katara’s face darkened more at the mention of her father. Y/N sighed.

“I don’t mean to intrude, but… why are you mad at him?”

“It’s just…” Katara bit her lip, glancing towards the floor. “After our mom died, Sokka and I were so lost. And then Dad had to leave, and I understand why, I really do, but… we needed him.”

“I think it’s okay to be a bit mad.” Y/N looked out at the dark water. “It isn’t really his fault, I guess. He had to leave. But you’re allowed to feel that way.”

“But I shouldn’t be mad at him,” Katara argued. “I know he had to leave.”

“That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt.” Y/N thought of her own father. He would have left, too, if he were asked to fight. “But he did leave for you. He probably hoped that you wouldn’t have to fight. My father never wanted my brother and I to have to fight.

“He tried to keep us away from it all for so long. I didn’t even go to school because he was worried about my bending being discovered. And he was doing what was best for us, and I see that now. But I never had friends, and despite everything he tried to help me, I’m still scared of what I am. And that hurts. But I still love him, and I forgive him for all of it, because now I understand that he just wanted my brother and I to be okay.”

Y/N had surprised herself with how much talking she had done. “I’m sorry,” Y/N backtracked. “That probably wasn’t super helpful.”

“No.” Katara smiled. “Thank you, for talking to me.”

Y/N looked up as the rain finally began to fall, pelting the hull of the ship as the vessel swayed on the sea.

“Come on,” Katara offered, lifting her hands and waterbending the droplets away from them. “Let’s go inside. We’ll find Aang as soon as it stops.”

---

“This is the only area he could have landed.” Sokka pointed at the spot on the map. Y/N lit another lantern as she, Katara, Toph, and Sokka sat in the captain’s room with Hakoda and Bato. “Any other spot is too far away.”

“That’s too big of an area,” Katara protested, the worry still evident on her face. Toph yawned. They had all been awoken as soon as the rain had stopped, which turned out to be right before the crack of dawn.

“The wind was blowing to the northwest,” Y/N piped up, eying the map as she lit another lantern. “And with his condition he probably couldn’t be far from the coastline. He probably landed somewhere in the center of that region, because we were about—” Y/N pointed to a spot on the map— “here when the storm started, and he would’ve had to slow down when the rain started. And with the possibility of lightning, he’d have to have been flying pretty low.”

The others stared at Y/N for a moment in shock. Y/N shrugged. “I spent a lot of time in the library.” Her mother had spent countless hours tutoring her, since she couldn’t go to school. Bihun was convinced Y/N learned more at home than he did at school.

“I’ve also done a lot of traveling recently,” Y/N added, feeling her cheeks warm slightly.

“Alright,” Hakoda coughed. “We’ll head in and drop you kids off there. You can find Aang and then lay low, and we’ll meet you again later for the invasion.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Sokka stood, pulling Hakoda and Katara into a hug. Y/N’s heart ached, suddenly feeling the strong absence of her own family. It had been so long since they’d all been under the same roof.

“Let’s go,” Katara said determinedly as Sokka and Hakoda let go.

Katara gave the ship fog cover just in case as they creeped closer to land. Y/N was in awe of the land in front of them. It was rocky, with jagged hills. Y/N thought she could see the orange glow of lava in the distance. They were definitely in the Fire Nation.

The ship moved as close to the land as possible, letting the gangplank fall down into the shallow water. Katara did the rest, parting a dry path across the sand.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Y/N checked with Hakoda one more time. She knew it was valuable having a firebender on the ship.

“Go,” Hakoda insisted. “We can handle it. And we don’t want people to come around asking too many questions about Captain Yai.” Hakoda smiled. “Besides, my kids seem to like you.”

“Thank you,” Y/N said gratefully, reaching to shake Hakoda’s hand. Before she could react, Hakoda was pulling her into a brief hug.

“Take care of them, and we’ll see you in a few weeks,” he said.

“I will,” Y/N promised. She would do her best. She’d already failed once before at taking care of her friends, and she wasn’t eager to fail again.

“Coming, Captain?” Toph called from down in the sand where she was waiting with Sokka and Katara.

“Yeah,” Y/N shouted back, walking down the gangplank. When she hit the sand, she turned to and waved goodbye to the others on the ship. “Let’s find Aang.”

Fire Lily Masterlist

taglist: @kaylove12, @akariblue, @wolfiemichele, @aquatickanye, @sunflowerr-mami, @nadiblue

[faangirl101]

Burning Heart:  Pt 1

Burning heart masterlist

Pairing: Zuko x reader, Zuko x y/n

Tags: Enemies to lovers, slow burn

Summary: Raised mostly by yourself, you made a living for your youth years as a maid in one of the richest families in Ba sing se, Beifongs. There Toph, a blind young rich girl, taught you earth bending and also became your new family. Not that you would admit that to her. Together you escape Ba sing se on the back of a flying bison with the Avatar, in a mission to take back the world from the fire nation. But on the journey you didn't plan to team up with the Fire prince himself, and you definitely did not plan to get butterflies around him. But you couldn't possibly catch feelings for a fire bender right? They ruined your life and took everything of value from you. But you couldn't lie to your burning heart. 

Warnings: swearing

The Western Air temple

The sun's streaks felt like fire licking our exposed arms. The heat evaporating  from the cracked surface under our feet  was almost as hot as the burning shame in returning empty handed on foot from the eclipse battle. “This is humiliating”, Katara mumbled with her head low. Her voice sparked a familiar annoyance within but I kept my mouth shut. Sokka looked up at her from under the wolf helmet “You mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?”. Katara looked him up and down before shame forced her head down again “Both”.  Aang let his hand slide through Appas fur, as if to reassure him that it was not his fault. His forever love for Appa didn't fail to turn my frown. Aang mirrored my weak smile “Sorry guys, but appa gets tired carrying all these people”. “Or maybe it's just Toph who’s heavy”, Not even one of my snarky playful remarks seemed to get the group in a good mood. But I did get a half smirk for Toph that was good enough. “I wonder how the rest of the troops are”, Teo pushed his wheelchair with sweaty hands as he looked up to Haru. I had never met Teo before the battle, but Aang had mentioned him before. He was hella smart and outshined an entire army. But it was clearly not enough to beat the fire nation. I let my eyes wander to Haru instead. I remember the stories of him and his father in prison. A deep weighting feeling decided to settle in my stomach. My father would have never risked everything for me like Haru did for his dad. I guess I was never a family person. I pushed the hurtful thoughts away the best I could by focusing on Haru. “They’re probably on their way to a prison. Seems like my dad just got out and now he’s going back in”. The group fell quiet, and I wanted to feel empathy for Haru. I wanted to understand how much it would hurt to lose a parent after just getting one. I wanted to hug him. Instead i just put a supportive hand on his back “He got out once, we will figure it out”. I didn't know if my words made a difference but I dropped my hand anyways. “I miss Pipsqueak”, The duke, a small boy muttered. Sokka ignored his tiny friend's words “I miss not having blisters on my feet”. I leaned down to Toph's level “Question, when you get blisters, does it feel like if i got something in my eye?”. Toph grunted in response which I decided to take as a yes. Suddenly Toph made a halt stop which almost made the rest of the group fall over. She stamped down, similar to a rabbit, before her face cracked up in a smile. “Hey, We’re here! I can feel it!”, she raised both her hands forward showing us….. nothing. Ahead of us was the same ground  that we had walked on for hours on end. The only difference was a precipies splitting the ground open like a wound. “uhhhh….I think your feet need their eyes checked”, Katara stopped beside Toph with a wrinkled nose. “No! She’s right. We are here!”, Aang’s voice didn't sound in defeat as before. Sokka took one look behind his shoulder as if he missed the “giant temple” Aang had described before shrugging his shoulders. “Wooow”, Toph placed her hands next to her feet, truly taking in her surroundings “It's fantastic!”.

 The western Air temple was breathtaking. How we got down was a mystery, but well down. I had no words. It was everything Aang had described. Stone walls reached over our heads,  clinging for its life on the cliffs surrounding us. Ivy painted the entire place green. With tired feet and a heavy head I slumped down on the bench around the fountain. The comforting noise of water pooling swallowed my pouding head in ease. “It's so different from the Northern Air Temple. I wonder if there are any secret rooms”, Teos eyes were glistening like a childs. Haru had clearly stopped worrying about his dad as he took a leap forward with a smile “Let’s go check it out!”. Teo and The Duke are quick on his feet as they sprint off to explore. Aang is about to catch up with them, excitement clear in his flaring arms, before he’s cut off my Kataras grip. “You guys go. I think we need to talk about some things”, she urges the boys to continue their exploring without Aang and they don't need much convincing. “I'll race you, Duke”, Teo is already taking off. The Duke whines as the kid he is “i told you, It's The Duke!”. The three disappear behind the temple but their voice echoes for another couple of seconds. Aang's looks after the boys with desperation in his grey eyes “Why can’t I go?”. I get up on shaky legs and make my way over to them. “We need to decide what we’re gonna do now, and since you’re the Avatar, maybe you should be a part of this”, Katara sits down on a fallen stone block. “Fair enough. So, what’s the new plan?”Anyone could easily detect the evidence of annoyance in Aang's voice as he slumps down on another stone block. But Katara was right, no matter how much I hated to admit it. Sokka placed a hand under his chin, mimicking an old philosopher  “Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan! You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes.” They way Sokka phrased it was as if it was not that hard. As if it was just a cup of tea, which clearly struck a nerve with Aang.“Oh , yeah. That’s great. No problem. I'll just do that”, Aang threw his words in irony. He started playing with a rock beside him with furrowed eyebrows. He had never looked more like a child. “Aang, no one said it’s going to be easy”, Katara’s voice clinged in empathy. It irritates me how she always complains about being the mom of the group as if she didn't take on that role by herself. But I know a mother's empathy is exactly what Aang needed right now. I easily earth bended a rock under me to lift me up on the high cliff Toph was sitting. The familiar vibrations of earth moving under me filled me with calm. I threw my legs over the edge and slumped down next to Toph's much smaller frame. “Well I am hot but I can't fire bend. Where are we supposed to get a firebending teacher?”, Sokka couldn't help but smile at his own joke. I let out my low hanging bun, ignoring how my baby hairs are slicked down my face by sweat. “You hot? You're hot when Bisons can fly”, I shot him a flirty smile which resulted in Sokka snorting playfully. Katara ignored our remarks “We could look for Jeong Jeong!”. Aang didn't hesitate to shoot her idea down “Yeah...right”. He slumps down his body over the rock without care “like we’ll ever run into Jeong Jeong again”. Me and Toph look curiously at each other “Who’s… oh”. Toph, annoyed by how the group didn't tell us anything crossed her arms “never mind. If it's important I’ll find out”.

The further the sun moved down the horisont, the more Aang started to avoid talking about a plan. He flung forward Appa on his staff, gliding smoothly over the winds. Both me and Toph clung onto the Appa, not liking being this far above the ground. Sokka was always the comic relief but even him had taken on a mom role “Aang, i think we should be making some plans about our future!”. Aang bluntly ignored his words as he landed next to the fountain, the glider still in his hand. Aang watched us land Appa next to him “Okay, we can do that while i show you the giant Pai Sho table! Oh you’re gonna love the all-day echo chamber!”. He was about to sprint away from us again, away from his responsibilities when Toph trot after words. Her demeanor turned serious, which it rarely does “i think that’ll have to wait”.  Toph shrugs as she points behind herself. Everybody quizzically tries to see what she’s talking about as Appa’s huge frame moves to the side revealing a shadow. As the late day light falls upon him there is multiply gasps within the group. In front of us is a teenager, probably around my age, a head taller or so. What captures me first is his face. His scar to be exact. A scar the size of a palm extends from  his ear and over his eye. It leaves a nasty patch of skin the color of a bonfire. It looks as if he has tried to hide the scar with strands of hair but the hair has a life of its own. It's long, uncombed and falls down his face only to reveal a couple of intense eyes. The color was the same as pooling honey dripping down a warm cup of tea. He was insanely attractive, making my heart skip a beat or two. But he was also screaming to be remembered in the back of my mind. His identity on the tip of my tongue. His honey eyes turn to me for a second but that's enough to spark a part of my memory. Brown eyes mean fire nation. Which makes my eyes quickly take in the obvious fire nation clothing hanging over his long slender body. The previous shock within the group quickly turns into anger. The boy hesitantly raises his hand and gives us a wave, which would be adorable from anybody except a fire bender “Hello”. He tries on a careful weak smile “Zuko here”. That's all it takes for me to take on a fighting position. My hand raised above my waist, fingers vibrating ready to bend the earth to swallow him up. Zuko, The fire prince himself. The gang had told me and Toph stories of his repeated attempts to kill them. His awful actions and how he took katara's necklace. Well, maybe the necklace part doesn't make me that angry. Toph copied my defense, but her motions seemed hesitant.  Zuko opens his mouth to reveal a smoother voice then i expected “Hey, i heard you guys flying around down there. So, i just thought i’d wait for you here”. Appa growled and whatever i thought the bison was going to do, it was definitely not that. He reached out his dark tongue just to lick the boy. The boy let out a eak as he protected his face from the saliva. I didn't exactly recall the first time I met Appa that clearly, but I'm pretty sure he never did that. In the corner of my eye I see Aang's conflicted eyes as he lowers his staff slightly. He trusted Appa with his life, so I understood his internalized battle. But I was unaffected, hand raised protectly. Appa’s tongue slicked up the prince's face again, Messing up his hair even further. Zuko didn't protest this time, he just wiped off the excess mucus. With one last wipe he looked up at us again “I know you must be surprised to see me here”. Sokka looked at him in rage with furrowed eyebrows “Not really, since you’ve followed us all over the world”. Zuko seemed embarrassed as he looked down his feet “Right. Well,uh….anyway…. What i wanted to tell you about is that i’ve changed, and i, uhhh, i’m good now, and well i think i should join your group, oh, and i can teach firebending to you”. I didn't know what to say. The shock seemed to resemble the rest of the group. Zuko seemed to catch on as he opened his mouth again “see i, uhhhh”.Toph didn't give him a second to explain himself further “you what now?”. I had never seen katara as angry as now “You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?!”. Sokka continued her rant “Yeah, all you’ve ever done is hunt us down and try to capture Aang!”. All they were saying was true, but there was a sudden doubt consuming me. It rang warning bells in the back of my head for sure, but there was something I couldn't put my finger on. This couldn't possibly be the evil boy they had described? They told me he had an almost shaved head, just a ponytail. That he hated Aang with no shame. That he would do anything to destroy the gang. The boy in front of me was nothing like that. He was shy, hesitant. Ashamed. He was ashamed over everything he had done. But he couldn't just turn good like that, that's not how it works. This must be another fire nation trick, or so I had  to convince myself. Zuko seemed hurt, in desperate need to defend himself. “I've done some good things! I mean, I could have stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free. That’s something!”. His words seemed true since appa licked him again (much to his surprise). I remembered how hurt Aang was when he lost Appa, is it really possible that zuko saved him? No it couldn't be, he was from the fire nation. Toph had already dropped her defense “Appa seems to like him”. The water tribe siblings turned to her in anger. “I can understand why you  wouldn’t trust me, and i know i've made some mistakes in the past”. The rest of the sparr is a blur to me. I could see lips moving but I couldn't hear a thing. My eyes were stuck on Zuko as I blocked the rest of the world out. I tried to find any mistakes in his clearly made up character but he was spot free. either he was an amazing actor, or everything he said was true. Aang did need a firebender, but the thought of a member of the fire nation, the royal one at that, made my blood boil. What broke my focus was Zuko falling down on his knees. He made himself vulnerable, head bent downwards and hands raised in surrender. “If you won’t accept me as a friend, then maybe you’ll take me as a prisoner”. The words shocked me to the core. If he was really out to kill us he would never have let down his guard like that. Katara seemed to see right through his game “No, we won’t!”. Her little flask dangling by her leg burst open as she water bended a flood against him. It wasn't hard enough to make him go flying off the cliff but it was hard enough to break his position. He fell over, protecting his face. “Get out of here, and don’t come back! And if we ever see you again, well, we’d better not see you again”. Defeated, wet from tip to toe, he moved away from us. As my friends around me started to yell to each other, about how much Zuko was lying. How they would never accept him into the gang. I followed his figure with my eyes. The slumped forward body, the dragging of the feet. I wonder which powerful fire nation person he was going to tell he failed his mission to get into our gang. Because of course it had to be a mission. He could never change… Right?

The next morning seemed slow. My head was pounding from a sleep fof worrying. It didn't help that Toph had disappeared. I knew that Toph could defend herself better than anybody, but I also knew she wouldn't go anywhere without telling me. Katara handed a bowl of breakfast to The duke “Has anyone seen Toph?”. I was surprised that she had even noticed Toph was gone. They weren't exactly close. Sokka yawned and cracked his back from the morning sleep “I haven't seen her since she stormed off yesterday”. Against my will I started to worry. Since yesterday? Had she been out the entire night? I had been grumbling so much over Zuko I hadn't even noticed. I swallowed down the lump of guilt together with a spoon of rice. Katara actually seemed worried for real “I think we should go look for her”, Sokka slumped down next to his sister “Let her have her fun with rocks, i'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again”. I ignored the anger busting up with another spoon of rice. The silence was quickly replaced by the occurrence of a large rumble. Toph comes flying down onto the ground by a pile of rocks that she created from a wall. I rushed over to her, my breakfast thrown in pieces on the ground. “Toph, what the fuck happened?”. Toph slingered across the ground “My feet got burned!”. Katara rushed forward to inspect them “Oh no, how?”. Toph annoyance from Katara's question quickly turned into shame “Well, I kind of went to see zuko last night”. It looked like Aang had been kicked in the gut “You what?”. Without another thought my legs carried me away from the scene. Their voices became a questionable noise as I took off. I only had one thing playing in my mind: Find Zuko and kill him.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Ten Sides (Part 7)

She still feels hazy and out of sorts even hours into their trek. She hasn’t spoken a word but Aang keeps the conversation going. He is so adamant about how pleased he is to see her walking on her own. He tries to rouse her with a jest about how she is heavy and hard to carry. She doesn’t take the bait.

“Want to stop for a break?” He offers. 

Azula considers. Her feet are rather sore and she is growing somewhat hungry but she still wants to put space between herself and that loathsome facility and those hateful people and the uninvited memories that come with them. They have long since made it past the point of being easily found, even still it doesn’t feel like there is enough distance. She isn’t sure that she will ever get far enough for the paranoia to leave her mind. 

“I think that we should take a break.” He says. 

“Are you asking me if I want one or are you telling me that you want one?”

“Both.”

“I can’t imagine that you won’t make the decision for me.”

He winces, “it’s your choice.”

“I’d like to keep going.” 

“Are you sure. It might be good to get something to snack on and rest up…”

Azula tenses. “I’m sure!” She snaps. “Don’t tell me what I want.”

Aang lifts his hands. “I wasn’t. I just thought that you might be tired because you’ve been through a lot and I don’t want you to over…”

“I don’t need your suggestions. I know what I want. I know what’s best for me.” Maybe if she insists as much hard enough she’ll grow confident in it. 

“Are you absolutely sure?”

She swallows, “I…” But maybe he is right, maybe she should slow herself down. It has been ages since she has done this much walking. Ages since she has done anything but lay around, take orders, and permit them to ravage her mind. Suffering had become her only form of activity.  For it, she does feel slightly winded and there is a gentle but persistent stitch in her side. “Maybe we should stop.” 

And Aang does, he stops and goes tense all over. “Actually, we can keep going. You’ve been keeping up well enough.”  He resumes his walk and she follows in suit. Follows silently. But now she can’t get it out of her mind that she might have made the wrong call. That she might be pushing her body too hard, too soon. 

“Let me know when you want to stop.” Aang says. 

For a long time she says nothing at all. Nothing until the sun begins to sink.They have been traveling all day and for it her legs and sides ache. And her feet are absolutely killing her. Potent reminders that she is out of both shape and practice. She supposes that she should be happy that she can still manage such a long journey at all. “We should stop here.”

Aang laughs, “I was hoping you’d say that. I’m exhausted.” 

“You are?”

“Aren’t you?” He asks. “We’ve been walking for miles.”

“Yes, where are we going anyways?” Azula sidesteps the question.

Aang rubs the back of his head. “To be honest, I was just trying to make sure that we weren’t being followed.” 

She guesses that, that is fair enough but really it does them no good to be lost in a jungle with no supplies at all. She also gathers that it is partially on her for lapsing into a state of catatonia. “Do you know where we are?”

Aang shakes is head. “But I can find out. I managed to grab this before finding you.” He opens his glider. 

“Don’t let them see you.” 

“I won’t.” 

.oOo.

When he comes back down from the treetops, he sees her flicking a little flame back and forth. And then she makes several of them, one for each of her fingers. He doesn’t think that she has noticed his descent. He observes her as she watches the flames dance. They glow on her nails as they would on candlewicks. A soft and warm orange. He feels a sudden pang for her. He isn’t sure if she is bothered by their new, more ordinary hue, or if she is just relieved to have fire on her fingers at all. 

“Maybe tomorrow we can make some time for you to do some real firebending?”

She is quiet for a very long time. “Perhaps.”

“I thought that you’d be thrilled for a chance to use your fire again.”

She shrugs and he isn’t sure how to take it. One by one she lets the flames on her fingers flicker into smoke. He watches her lay back, eyes fixed on the stars. He wonders what is running through her head now that it is free of him. Free of his influence.

He thinks that it is a nice night out and that the stars above are probably a sublime and soothing sight for her after so many months of staring at an overwhelmingly white ceiling. He lets his spirit energy shift ever so slightly and he can see her aura outlining the whole of her body. It is still muted and still grey but those greys are being overpowered by the slowly encroaching browns of insecurity and confusion. Just before he draws back he catches the faintest glimpse of something new; a few specks of purple. Ambitious and royal purple. 

He dares a soft smile. The purple is there, it is something to work with. Maybe, given time, he can drive the greys and browns away for blues and oranges and a healthy splash of red. And this time he will do it the right way. 

“Azula?” He begins. He stops himself short hearing a sleepy murmur. She never struck him as a sleep talker. He might have tucked her in if he’d had any blankets. Instead he props himself up against a tree and keeps watch until he can keep his eyes open no more.

.oOo.

She doesn’t feel quite so sore when she wakes. In fact, she feels almost reinvigorated. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, inhaling the jungle air. It is so fresh and clean. She very much welcomes it after such a long time of breathing in the same stale air. 

She is hesitant to say that she feels good, but she doesn’t feel quite so awful today. She refuses to let herself get attached to the relief, she knows that it will be short lived as soon as she tries bending and finds that she can’t do as much as she had before, or at the very least won’t have the stamina for it. She looks herself over and knows that all that she has worked for has gone to waste. Her arms lack the definition she had prided herself on and her legs aren’t so toned. She has grown lanky and weak. Already she has soiled her decent mood, though it couldn’t have been all that decent if it were so easy to squander. 

She stands up, stretches, and sighs. She is going to have to get the first time over with eventually. She supposes that she’d rather work through her despair and frustration while the Avatar is slumbering. 

She finds herself glad that she had. 

She closes her eyes and breathes deeply in several times. It is familiar and comforting. She steps forward and stoops down, holding her arm slightly behind her. As she rises she throws her arm up in an elegant arc of flame. Her stomach drops and dread forms a bubble in her throat.  What she created wasn’t an arc. It could hardly be called firebending at all. It could be called embarrassing. Useless. Pathetic.  

A small burst that dissipated into nothing almost as soon as it had come forward. 

She sinks to the ground, draws her knees up, and hugs them to herself. She is so cold with unease and dissatisfaction that she can’t even hope to give it a second try. What have they done to her? What has she allowed them to do to her? She rubs her hands over her face as it truly settles in; even escaping Sangyul’s grasp won’t be enough to get rid of the imprints he left on her mind. Even fleeting that facility won’t bring Azula back. She is certain that she no longer knows who Azula is.

[zydrateacademy]

Review - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I never cared much for Zelda. My gaming life began with the likes of Unreal and Quake, later exploring the more intriguing worlds of Morrowind and Final Fantasy X. I was late to the nostalgic craze of Mario, Metroid, Pokemon and the likes of Zelda itself, though my brother would always gush about them as the years went on, while I delved into the Elder Scrolls and Assassin’s Creed franchises as my typical “favorite games” listing. Yet on a fateful evening outing with the family, I found myself with a brief demo of Breath of the Wild. Having a controller in my hand for the first time in probably a decade, I fell in love with the brief ten minutes I had with Link and his new world. It became an immediate Christmas wish, which was immediately fulfilled by my family within weeks of this request. My family was very excited that I wanted to try a Zelda game at all. So let’s get to it.

Link immediately awakes as much of a blank slate as I am, with nothing but amnesia and a female voice (quickly revealed to be Zelda herself) to guide him. We’re given something called a Sheikah Slate which looks like the lore’s own version of a Switch or iPad, and it basically serves as the game’s major MacGuffin that powers most of your abilities, map systems, and everything else. Apparently it’s an important device, as every major character and city leader immediately recognize it. From what I can understand in context, the device was in the possession of a team of champions that apparently died a hundred years prior. They fought against “Calamity Ganon”, the game’s major antagonist. You’re shown the castle off in the distance, but in the beginning Link is stuck on a massive plateau, and you need a wind glider to make it off alive. The old man helping you trades one after you learn the game’s four basic abilities, and the whole plateau serves as the tutorial. We get a stasis ability (for locking objects in a time field, of which you can manipulate its momentum), two different bomb types (one that rolls and a square for better control depending on terrain), a cryogenic that allows you to create ice blocks over water (which I often use to cross rivers) and a magnet (which does exactly what you’d expect it to). Other than the open world Dark Souls-esque combat, they serve as the game’s primary mechanics and they’ll each be used to solve every puzzle and find every chest throughout the game.  Sadly the game neglects to teach you how to cook, and I had to resort to google for that. Seems like it’s an oversight, but it’s one of the more fun mechanics, throwing a bunch of your gatherings in a pot to eventually see what might happen. It encourages experimentation which I enjoy, but if all else fails, throwing five durians or bananas in a pot will go a long way in of itself. The world opens up very quickly, as is usually advertised and mentioned in reviews. You can, in theory, immediately haul towards Calamity Ganon itself if you’re sneaky enough. I’m sure some YouTubers have already cleared it (quick research tells me it can be done in around 40-50 minutes), but more casual players would likely be crushed instantly. Instead you’re given several tasks, such as taming four Divine Beasts, massive mechanical creatures that roam Hyrule. They’re currently controlled by Ganon but you can retake them and they’ll all help during the final fight.

Beyond that, the world is ours. I admit I was feeling a bit dry of this genre after having around a thousand hours on Skyrim and a few hundred on the various Fallout’s, it’s a literal breath of fresh air as I found myself with a very simple goal: nab all the towers. In typical fashion more expected from the likes of Ubisoft, there are several towers to climb that unlock the maps of entire regions. I don’t mind this so much as it helps me get the lay of the land as well as a clear goal on the outset. I’d be very lost without them.

I have never been used to Zelda’s style of gaming but I have taken full advantage of the tools the game has given me. Chief of which being the open world itself. A vast majority of my gameplay has mostly been collecting different armor sets so that I can better face a variety of situations and weather conditions, and there’s a ton of gameplay to be had with that goal alone. In the first town that you are directed towards, there was a fairly expensive (for a starting player) stealth suit. I farmed some enemies which helped a lot in learning how to use a controller again, and the stealth bonus helped me nab some DLC armor which I used for a majority of the early to mid game, dozens of hours due to their helpful bonuses. While looking to afford that initial outfit, I ended up running into a shrine or two, and found a little tree pixie (called Koroks), which help to expand my inventory. The simple goal turned into its own micro-adventure and that’s something I very much appreciate about this game, though that does have a problem attached to it, which I’ll mention later. If my readers know me, then you know I’m a stealth player. Hilariously there is a stealth mechanic on this game with a little noise meter next to the minimap but the game wasn’t really built for it. You can sneak in enemy camps while they sleep and steal their weapons but it’s not always an ideal tactic. There’s no clear indication of detection ranges so if you alert an enemy, all you’ll see is a question mark on their head and you have very little to do with that information. A bush does not conceal me, for example, for the simple fact that it’s not considered a ‘solid object’ by the game’s standards.

That does lead to another problem. The stealth mechanic is part of the alleged “play your way” that doesn’t always work. In terms of exploration, it might. There’s a lot you can do, like plugging balloons on bombs to make them float around, or throw metal weapons at enemies during a lightning storm. There’s so much to do with the world itself, but I found very little purpose in doing any of that except for water cooler conversations of “stuff I managed to do”. You CAN use a leaf weapon to blow the enemy off the cliff, but why bother if you can two-shot them or even use one of your infinite bombs to accomplish the same goal? So why would you want to waste to much time and potential health and food items finagling with the controls which you could just press Y a couple times and make the problem go away? Not that I mind the combat over much. It has the usual fare of dodge, parry, block, flurry and a variety of charge attacks that can be kind of fun to use. I like how enemies often have their own large variety of weapons and that will change how they fight. A lizard with a bow will very often try to keep at a range from me, doing a backflip which causes me to sprint to close the gap, only for them to do it again when I try to take a swing. The same enemy type with a spear however, can be quite aggressive poking me at a range, but staying at just the right distance to piss me off. It’s a lot of fun, though. I was rather afraid of puzzles upon my initial interest of this game, and has been a large part in keeping me away from the franchise. They tend to make me feel stupid if I take too long to solve them, but there is an extra level of “hurrah!” when I manage to figure out exactly what I need to do. There is another complaint attached to this however. As I completed a few dozen shrines (there’s something to the effect of 120 total) I noticed the rest usually require some gimmick to find or unlock. There’s one I’ve yet to discover because I need to be on a platform during a blood moon, the game’s respawn mechanic. The problem is, you can’t force those and they show up roughly every three hours of game time. So I imagine one of my last shrines will be me standing on that damn platform while I watch Youtube or play something else.

There’s also a few puzzles that demand use of the motion controls, which can be incredibly fickle and frustrating. Some are better than others but I found it to be more annoying than anything and I hope they minimize that mechanic in the future. I’ve still had to resort to video guides. The Divine Beasts act as the game’s “major” dungeons preceding a boss fight, and to get to the boss, their entire body acts as a mobile puzzle. One of them has three cylinders in its midsection that can turn four times and there was far too much going on for my brain to handle. I managed to do the flying beast and water elephant on my own (with some pointers from my brother but not to a full on guide’s extent) but some of their innards are just a bit too complex to me. The other complaint that I alluded to earlier, is world density. Yes, there’s a lot of nooks and crannies that will often hide a shrine, treasure, and a variety of weapons and upgrades. It can be profitable at times to simply pick a direction and start running, but this only works to a point. Between my position and my current goal (a tower, an armor piece, a town) there might be a single shrine, maybe two, on my way to find. There was however, a lot of pointless running. I heard a Let’s Player mention that they suspected the world was built first and was just filled it in with things later. Frankly, it shows. Yes it’s cute to find a stump or pile of leaves just slightly out of place, hiding a Korok creature but once you get back to running there’s a lot of open plains, fields, and vertical mountains to climb with very little to do in between and nothing to show for it except a padded hour count.  There was some controversy over the durability of weapons. I barely had much of a problem with it. Jim Sterling infamously bashed it which earned a fair amount of ire (which is not foreign to him) and even tried to negate the common compliment of “It forces you to adjust your strategy!” Still, I’m inclined to agree with that defense. Relying on a single type of weapon could make the combat stale pretty quickly, but there’s still some high level weapons I wish stuck around for longer. I did manage to acquire the Master Sword which is a permanent weapon that can run out of ‘energy’ and gives itself a ten minute cooldown but that’s very much a late-game item to acquire. Before that you’re basically stuck with a horde of guardian axes and knight’s claymores. I have run into the odd situation of having two or three weapons left but I discovered that shrines respawn during blood moons, so I simply found myself in those “Major Test of Strength” shrines which give you a single enemy with predictable attack pattern, serving as a miniature boss fight to help you get used to the combat mechanics. They drop two or three fairly decent weapons and a lot can be done with them. It’s just another thing to do in a fairly enjoyable game.

I also wanted to compliment the game’s way of leveling itself up. It’s essentially tied to story progress and Divine Beast slaying. Each mob has a few different variations, color coded for your convenience. Usually starting brown and going up to blue, then black and others. Each harder than the last, usually just wielding more powerful weapons and having a fair amount of hitpoints. Since a lot of my gameplay was exploring, getting towers and collecting armor, the game never advanced too quickly for me. I’d have a few scattered harrowing fights but the game did a good job of making sure I could take my time with it. The early game throws a few blue Moblins at you which are fully capable of one-shotting your measly four hearts, but I feel that was a sort of observation test for a player to absorb. It forces you to think about what your facing, change weapons and strategy. In practice, it just made me terrified of the color blue for a while. The game only starts throwing the tougher enemies at you once you defeat the bosses accompanying the four Divine Beasts. As the game’s major dungeons, completing them is often a test of everything you’ve learned and is as good a marker as any for “this player is ready for tougher enemies”. I am very pleased with this kind of development, as my first ten hours was spent killing jello blobs and bats for their parts so I could sell them and afford more arrows. The game never really went “Okay, time for the tough stuff” when I’m still using a wooden goblin spear. I don’t expect I would get much out of the game’s Master Mode, serving as a sort of New Game Plus except without anything you’ve earned, and is basically just a Hard Mode. The DLC has plenty more to offer which I will explore eventually but it sounds difficult, and I’ve never been any kind of Hard Mode player. Still, I was afraid of this game and I’ve been doing just fine in it so the DLC may not be as intimidating as I think. In conclusion, I’m having a lot of fun in it. It may not have lasting replayability (though I can think of a few ‘corrections’ to my early game to help things along) and after so long, I find there’s very little to actually find as I climb snowy mountains and angrily wait for a thunderstorm to pass. I’m far from done with it though, not while I still have goals in mind. I do have my sights on beating this one, and for a newer-aged millennial gamer, finding a Zelda game that I actually enjoy is an accomplishment on their part. I understand BOTW is a major genre shift for the franchise, and I hope they continue the trend if they want me as a returning customer. Until then, this game is very, very good.

[clapcreative]

Enhance Your Website Engagement with These Effective Color Palette Tips

Visualization plays a vital role in engaging customers or enhancing viewership. And, what adds to the potential of this visualization technique? There could be so many aspects to add in this list but colors are the one that remains on the top. Colors are not just limited to an artistic zone but should be an important business decision as well. Yes, you read that right! Your business website represents you and your offerings online. So, it must have the parts that affect everything from customers’ perceptions about a brand to what they think of your products when they scroll through your website. Thus, it is highly important to use the right color schemes and palettes to achieve your goals and be perceived by your target the way you want.

How do colors possess superpowers?

A study suggests that people make a subconscious judgment about the product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and 90% assessment is based on color alone.

There is a lot to take into consideration while designing a website like a layout, the planning, graphics or picking a suitable domain name, setting up the back-end, picking a theme, perfecting the content for your value proposition, and so on. And in all this, colors play an inevitable role. Color is an efficient way to grab the attention of your prospects and consumers while communicating them on an emotional or a subconscious level. There are particular colors that match your brand identity better whereas some are preferable for the background.

Primary colors for your website

These colors are the ones that you can use to highlight the important information on your website. The primary colors will help you to call your viewers’ attention so you can guide them across your website. Use the primary color when you don’t your user to miss important things like:

Brand Logo

Title and headlines

Call to action

Header

Icons

Graphs

Secondary colors for your website

Secondary or accent colors are more often used because you can employ them to highlight secondary information or to support content like a testimonial or more CTAs and other things like

Subtitles and subheadings

Highlight secondary information box

Footer and icons

Colors have a way to start building your brand in the mind of the consumer before using a single word or sentence. No color tells the same story to the customers so the most popular brand colors depend from industry to industry such as:

Blue:

It conveys trustworthiness and dependability. The industries where consumer trust is vital and professionalism and reliability are key selling points, blue is often used as a primary branding color. It is not based on spontaneity or emotion but initiates a calm and logical decision-making process for industries like Banking, Airlines, Communications, Consumer finance, Hotels, Pharmaceuticals and so on.

Red:

This color conveys attention, hunger and passion. Industries that rely on emotions and impulsive decisions often use red as a primary color that is thought to stimulate hunger and is most common in the industries like Restaurants, Beverages, Food retail, Real-estate, Apparel.

Whatever the colors you will choose for your brand’s logo would always indicate a symbol of your brand’s identity. It is like people would identify your site’s colors with your identity and it’s something you should devote some time to. To reach an absolute decision, you need to consider several aspects, do some color research and check how colors influence how others feel.

How do colors alter your website conversions?

The truth about colors is that they have a lot to do in purchasing decisions and influence ours wants to buy things. Some colors have the ability to make us feel calm and safe while others provoke excitement and give us a sense of urgency. And that is how you can take complete advantage of colors in web designing. For instance, if you visit a website that employs colors you don’t like and colors that are not appealing, you won’t visit the site again. On the contrary, if you visit a web page or a landing page of a brand that makes you feel active, excited, you will probably end up buying a product from there.

After considering the above aspects, here are some of the best website color palettes of 2020 for you to get an idea of which color scheme or contrast you can go with:

Wind Glider

Pink Autumn

Trusted source

Swanky

Rustic Riverbed

Neopolitan Bliss

Thunder Storm

Neon Sunset

Lavendar Blush and so on.

Have a look at these color generator tools mentioned below to create your color palette theme from scratch:

Coolors.co

It comes up with decent color schemes. Moreover, it is a web and mobile-based app that helps you generate palettes from scratch. It has shade alternatives for each color option and other advanced tools that help you make efficient decisions about your color schemes.

Paletton

You can add and drag around the selector on the color graph to find colors easily. Choose the type of palette you want whether adjacent colors, a triadic color scheme or others.

Colorspace

It generates color palettes based on a primary color that you put there and offers a wide variety of style options that give you more flexibility.

Summing up

There are always so many aspects when deciding on color themes on a website because your brand should not lag behind in today’s competitive era. So, it is crucial to think and act as per your brand requirement. You can always reach out to web designing services to get assistance in creating your website seamlessly and as per your requirements.

https://www.clapcreative.com/enhance-your-website-engagement-with-these-effective-color-palette-tips/

[thegeminisage]

today’s zeldablogging, big big huge very much spoilers everywhere:

WHERE DO I EVEN GO FIRST there is. so Much

out towards the ocean, i suppose...i see a shrine, and something else glowing that could be a settlement or lava or even a great fairy, and there are those islands to think about

GOD IT'S A COMBAT SHRINE a minor test of strenth okay okay i can do this

oh pffft that was easy

and i got...a giant ancient core, which sounds nice but probably won't let me upgrade my rune

how come the bokoblins can use bomb arrows in the rain and i can't?!

OH MY GOD....

first skeleton bokoblins, then skeleton lizalfos, and now skeleton moblins?!?!

wish i had marked that other glowing thing with a pin...i can't find it now lol

and i am at the islands!! man these bridges sure are tiny and high up

all this climbing i want to do and its about to rain :/

oh good. more flying guardians :|im trapped on top of this island in the middle of a lightning storm in the night besieged by moblin skeletons and keese swarms and my only non-metallic weapon is a korok leaf smh

mkay i am All Done with the islands im gonna warp back to the tower and mark the glowy thing this time

oh they just look like mushrooms?? well i'll go pick them i guess

OH OMG IT'S A FAIRY FOUNTAIN SKDFGH YES!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

only 500...but i know it gets worse :| im saving up

oh this one is blue!! how pretty

haha i still think they look more like mermaids...can't see their legs and they pop up outta water :3

OMG I SEE THE FIRE DRAGON

THE DIN ONE

IN THE DISTANCE AAAAH!!!!

so far away ;u;

i can't even take a good picture!!!!

oh no

oh NO

skeleton moblins...and now a skeleton hinox ;___;

...skeletons only take two hits. im gonna go fight it

omg the hinox fight music plays nooooo rip m having eventide flashbacks

oh my god! wow! okay! this one takes more than two hits!!

it's lightning too i can't even use my bomb arrows what did i get myself into........

OMFG HE IS TEARING OFF HIS OWN RIBS TO THROW AT ME LSKDJFHG

oh the lightning is a hinox thing. Great i only have metal weapons rn

aaaand he ran away with the dawn. ok

oh dude this shrine is cool you have to like play putt putt golf hahaha

OMG IM GOING TO CRY

i found another memory and it's of zelda saying she's prayed all her life like her father wanted and she still can't make the gods hear her......im so sad for her

there's nothing wrong with you my sweet daughter!!!!

this is cool tho the talk of her father and mother and grandmother and link's father

they have families and lives, it's so neat, i wish i knew more about them

tho ofc almost everyone who knew and loved link is long dead now......

ah. i paraglided her, but

to get out i have to bypass all these flying guardians. Great

NO SKDFGJH ONE SAW ME

so its laser grazed me and only took one heart and i was like thats it?! i'll fight you!!

then i got hit directly and it nearly killed me so now im running

NOOOO THERE'S A LYNEL HERE JESUS GOD

I JUST WANTED TO GET TO THE SHRINE AND I RAN RIGHT INTO HIM SDLFGJH

god and a blue hinox in the way too Why

omg i unlocked a monster shop lskjghf now i will see him in villages at night!!!

ah the shrine is on top of this huge rock pillar, how do i...?

maybe i can glide from a nearby cliff!!

okay...okay...it's not sheer rock, there must be resting places, if i glide form here maybe i can do it

i can't glide from where i'd like bc of the hinox (:

I MADE IT

they better not make me solve a fucking puzzle too

ah good they didn;t

FLAMEBLADE thats so badass

oh god another blue lynel

maybe it's even the same one

my dude i just wanna travel....i promise, i promise

FINALLY the akkala research lab!!!

dude better have some sick duds or something for me i swear to god

the music in here is lit i love it

uh

there's a...blue glowing statue

looks like something out of the tower of the gods awww

haha it's damaged! poor thing

this old man like "show me the wounds on your body you suffered" bro are you asking me to strip

oh my gOD his electric guitar pose thing

jesus chrkjrgh

EVERYONE IN THIS GAME IS A GIANT HAM

im doing a quest where you have to carry fire

AND IT STARTS RAINING

this game has made me LOATHE rain! i thought that was impossible and yet!!!!!

im running out of map stamps :/ why would you give me a world this big and limit me to only 100...?

aaaand it's raining

and my ONLY TORCH BROKE god i keep accidentally using it to hit things!!!

FINALLY i did it!!!!! god that was so tedious

oh my god this guy could make me such amazing gear, but i don't have the materials </3

now to check out this maze building it looks super weird and i can see a shrine in it......

how the fuck are you even supposed to get there i hope my glider can take me

lovely. the wind's blowing against me and i see flying guardians from here

noooo they're EVERYWHERE and i have to do a MAZE oh my god

i can solve it on my map and mark the dead end routes, fortunately

i still kind of want to explore those routes lol

oh they're so bare......maybe not

if i miss something like a korok seed or whatever a guide will direct me back here later

or...maybe not

i mean im next to the shrine but it's surrouned on all sides by wall?

bet it's too tall to climb even with potions and my gear

ooh or if it isn't those lfying guardians will fuck me up in a snap

YES i got lucky and found my way in from the top

or no i found...a sword, great, how do i get into the SHRINE

YES here it is

dude i got an ATK+ helmet!! i got GEAR!!!! YES

AAAAH I GOT ATTACKED AS SOON AS I GOT OUT

nope fuck this im fast traveling. goodbye forever, maze island

geez i guess that must be nearly it for this province then i got one shrine left i think and then i could........go to death mountain?

tbh kinda tempted to go back down to lake hylia but i'll pass for now, i want more Plot

i suppose i didn't do akkala beach but it's small and remote so i'm ok with that for now - i can clean up the endgame stuff later when better guides are out

there's a stable next to this shrine!! yay!!!!!!

omg there's a goron here!!!!! hi!!!!!!!!!!!!

finally hit 10k rupees

ooh this guy is talking about a legendary sword...GIMME MY MASTER SWORD

tbh i'll be disappointed if there's no special quest to get it tho like you just...find it? kinda weak

AAAH I CAN CHANGE MANES HERE........jemma has a floral mane now ;w;

too bad i didn't find this before, i can't ride her up death mountain, unfortunately - it's so much faster to fast travel, and she might get hurt, and i'll have to get on and off of her so much... ):

oh wait, i haven't explored the lake yet! i forgot! i can take her there <3

all the guardians here scared the shit out of me but they arent functional, thank god

NO FUCK THERE ABSOLUTELY IS A LIVE GUARDIAN HERE.....fuck fuck i can't KILL them

omg no i see TWO of them

if it was just one i might try my luck, but...no way

i'm sure in the future i'll be able to get more guardian arrows but right now i have, like, 4? so i can't waste them

and when i have the guardian armor that'll help too but. not Now

aaah i found somsone whose ancestors died at that tower...apparently the last stand was made there at what used to be the fortress after the castle fell ;_; and he wanted to pray there but it's too dangerous and i am AD oh my god

i can see the death mountain tower and a shrine from the akkala tower, but i can only reach the shrine by gliding. the tower is surrounded by (UGH) snow

lol the shrine is by a stable too

AAAH kass is here!!!!!!

AWWW he said the song he's playing was used by the ancient hero to call his horse!! gonna cry omg

bro lmao there's an ostrich running around here what kinda shenanigans

oh my god this dried lava under the tower is SO COOL it's so BIG and i feel so SMALL

ah, eldin tower - so this is the eldin province

wow the first stops are quite a ways up on this one! lucky i have so much stamina

ooooh my gosh the eldin map is HUGE and FULL OF LAVA im not sure im Prepared for this!!!

lol in a fun twist the temperature gets HOTTER as i gain altitude. ohhh man

i guess...i wanna do plot. i'll try to make it to goron city, and come back and explore later

when i have more fireproof elixirs lol rn my inventory is packed so i could only buy 3

oh my god i can't use wooden weapons, my arrows turn into fire arrows as soon as i get them out, even the loot will catch fire if you leave it too long, this is Intense

OH MY GOD A STONE TALUS BUT IT'S LIKE, MAGMA-Y

okay this is cool i wish i hadn't waited so long

lmao i accidentally drank a defense elixir and erased my fireproofness early OOPS

omg you can't use bomb arrows either dkgjhdfg the heat makes them explode instantly

unfortunately the only thing that makes a dent is ice arrows and i just don't have enough rn....BUT I WILL RETURN god that is so cool okay anyway

all right......i really like this region. normally i'm a water person, ESPECIALLY in zelda games, but rain and lightning have been nothing but a pain in my ass since i started playing. maybe i was ready for some #Heat

HA there's the fucking blood moon good thing i DIDN'T kill him it would have been erased right after

the blood moon looks kinda cool when the air is already like this tbh but i still hate it

like on a gameplay/story integration level it's a cool way to explain monsters coming back

but also im angry on behalf of hylians and everyone else like

no matter how hard they fight every month it comes back, it's all in vain

the music here is super cool, also

omg i found a little camp of gorons!!

ooh, a hylian...and he'll give me fireproof armor for lizards OOOO:

hahahaha...they can't dig up ore because of a lizard monster

my heart twisted, fondly

geez i wish i had time to catch some lizards...........

i caught a few but not 10, and i only have one elixir left, since i used one early. i guess if it comes to it i could try to make another but

YES okay i did it!! good

and armor i now have!!

altho i hope i don't run out of armor inventory space that would SUCK what with all the work that goes into collecting and upgrading it tbh

LOL i hit an emu or ostrich or whatever it is and the meat it dropped immediately became roasted oh my god

HOLY FUCK THE MOUNTAIN IS ERUPTING

NOW THIS SHIT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OH MY GOD

running for cover!!!! almost dying!!!!!!!!! good times im so happy

it's like getting to do it the very first time all over again

oh my god i just got a divine beast cutscene as i got to goron city i am quaking in my boots it is SO BIG

and now i'm out almost 3k rupees but i have full fireproof armor!

oh my god you can get a goron massage at the inn

"it doesn't hurt a bit" yeah i bet

[cue lots of screaming]

omg theres a gerudo lady sleeping here!! are you not on fire?!?!

SO IS PAINTER DUDE...?

omg they must have elixirs ldfjkgh

"abandoned mine - do not stray from path! both literally and figuratively" slkdfjgh what does that MEAN...

aw, they sleep on beds of hoat coals

man this shrine im doing is so complex!! like many multiple rooms, it's neat

i got like 9 orbs now i need to find somehwere to trade them in

omg so im lookin for the goron who went to get the stuff out of the vault and HE'S TALKING IT'S SO WEIRD it still always shocks me

how do i..? my bombs don;t work, so

OH OMG I CAN USE THE CANONS i thought maybe you had to wait for permission lol

poor goron he's scared and trembling...haha just like the ones in the fire temple. bye

HE TALKED IN HIS OPENING CUTSCENE...IM SO GLAD

yunobo! aww he's precious i love him

i suspect this is the area where i'll have to get inside the divine beast tbh bc of all the cannons

lol almost yped it with one n. shh

the embers here are so pretty...next time i paint hotland i'll remember them

i wanna paint THIS, tbh

like, anything. from this game. god Damn

ooooh a daruk statue

omg IM GETTING A MEMORY YES!!!!!!

I LOVE HIM

I LOVE DARUK

WHO PATS BACKS TOO HARD AND PUNCHES OUT ROCKS

oh my god he had the same kind of barrier that yunobo put up around himself are they related!!!! im gonna cry i love them so much

yep hahahaha the next words out of boss's mouth!

oooh he has the blessing, that's what the barrier is

yunobo's at eldin bridge...? that's MILES away

OH!!! omg my brother reminded me there are two in tp hahahaha so i guess i got them mixed up

so where is eldin's bridge actually......

too bad i cant swim up lavafalls lol

i found a minecart and put it on the track but bombs dont make it go and i can't magnesis it when its under my feet??

AHA, STASIS

okay that was super fun but i hate beating up my weapons like that

there's a shrine here but the glowing orange blends right in with this lava, i nearly missed it

AWWW yunobo's gonna be the canonball! bless him

omg is he gonna follow me!!!! I HAVE A FRIEND

IM GONNA CRY FINALLY IM NOT ALONE <3333

oh god okay here we go i guess??? im so scared

like. its so big.i cant impress upon anyone who hasnt played it. how big it is. and the mountain is so much bigger and i am so small. i keep saying that but i'm like. DWARFED by this thing, it's truly incredible

ohhhhh an escort mission.......and stealth, which im Bad at. man, the elephant was a lot cooler so far

AWW omg we snuck past the first one and he went "hee hee!" and it was so cute i love him so much

he stands at attention so quick when i do the stop whistle please please i love him

also i feel like i recognize SO many voices in this...i gotta imdb it later

the voice acting isn't even anything extraordinary, it's like, not awful but nothing jaw dropping

but the fact that they speak blows my mind every time

i used to fantasize about that in a "fff yeah right the day after never" kinda way and here we are.....

omg i got stuck and talked to him and it's like. what he said was completely useless but it's like having a companion!!! oh god i've been so lonely

oh god i looked up too far and saw the beast and it is. so big. i know i keep saying this but it is gargantuan. it's HUGE. i can't believe how big it is

lol i couldnt figure out why the trail ended and spent half an hour wondering what i was supposed to do

turns out i should have been firing at the divine beast this entire time so i gotta go back and start over and walk up the trail again LMAO

at least you only have to clear the sentries once

ah FINALLY im inside!

DARUK IS TALKING TO ME ;_;

HE ALWAYS KNEW LINK WOULD BE BACK im so sad. i feel human emotion

oooh it's all dark in here

and blue flame!!

ohhhhh man i love these 3D maps

OH MY GOD YOU CAN TURN IT

it's so big. oh my god

wait it isn't hot in here! i can use any item i want!

god i forgot how the music becomes creepier the closer you get

i can't believe this...turning the whole dungeon...some stone tower temple shit

ooh okay still hot OUTSIDE of the divine beast...too bad

noooo i found the cockpit pod thingy...like are their skeletons just decaying in there or

ooh boy oooookay last one here we GOOOO...

"PAIN IN THE CRAG" LOL NINTENDO PLS

omg daruk cheering me on as i fight ;______;

awww that wasnt too bad ive fought WAY worse enemies just roaming around on the map

oh ew GROSS

DARUK ;_;

me after daruk sent link away: aaaww i love him but that wasn't as gut-wrenching as mipha's

me after daruk saw yunobo from a distance and they waved at each other: literally actually crying, there are tears really on my face

WHY COULDN'T MIPHA SEE HER FAMILY FROM A DISTANCE, HUH

if it doesn't happen i swear to god i will draw it if i have to

oooh boss is talkin about the master sword

it's in a forest - that's gotta be the lost woods or i'll eat my pointy green hat

but i mean. if you just find it. there's gotta be some kinda quest or build up

wow, i'm finally at the tippy-top opf death mountain...i feel like i could go anywhere from here

omg i flew to a shrine and i have to complete a training thing to get in??? oh my god

oh no. i have to climb the thing. #why

aww that wasn't too bad. did it on the first try

i found the end of the map on "land" ... it's a deep gorge and you die if you go too far down, probably even if you're on foot

but there's land beyond that, even on the map, so it doesn't feel as freaky as just MEGA WIND on the ocean

why is there a hinox EVERYWHERE i try to go. why.

dude theres a giant skeleton of some sort on my map...omg

probs a hinox there too tbh

...wait a second.

i'm at a HOT SPRING

i recover hearts by swimming, so maybe i could fight this hinox...

AND i have daruk's protection, three whole charges, two fairies, my hearty radish food, and mipha's grace.........i can do it!!

wow okay and i just used up the grace and one fairy on this bokoblin camp so nevermind

tbh i don't even like fighting them...i suck at combat and the rewards are almost never worth the fight

okay but i literally could get anywhere from death mountain i think and i do mean LITERALLY that isn't hyperbole, assuming i had infinite stamina. damn. thats a Big Mountain

gonna go investigate the skeleton

there's monsters under it! i am standing above them on the ribcage and cheesing it with bombs

also it says eldin great skeleton was this a dragon.........

was this in the trailers or was it somewhere else?

standing inside the skull of this thing 

i realize just how BIG the dragons are

like. damn

everything in this game makes me feel like an ant

lol this is the First Ever shrine i'll have to come back to not bc i can't figure it out but bc i ran out of fucking arrows. incredible

the problem is i can't really explore here bc my fire armor hasnt been improved at all, my defense SUCKS

i just died bc i found a talus lol and it two-shotted me and like. i have a pretty good amt of hearts, here

also next time im exploring first i feel like i'll never know if ive seen everything or not bc i'm all lost and don't know what i looked at and what i didn't :/

i hate to like, leave it and say i'll come back to it bc i know i probably won't, but games are supposed to be fun! and attempting to explore this area with all my armor at 3 defense is like. not fun. dying over and over: Not Fun

i feel like seeing or doing something new!!

what i need is my own copy of the map on the computer so i can just mark off the areas i wanna explore later

oooh i found an interactive map!! which i can't. screencap and annotate for myself, but

oh well, it's too much trouble to find one, and ps would be really slow rn anyway since i havent used it in awhile

however this map DOES have memory locations, so i'm gonna grab a few of those

okay NOW i found a shrine idk how to do. tbh i can't be fucked rn, i wanna go get memories

holy fuck the first memory i unlocked had like a PILE of dead monsters link just fucked up, including a silver maned lynel, which my ass has NOT killed yet, holy shit

ONWARD

HOLY SHIT the one i just got was in the trailers!! zelda crying on link ;_;

i'm glad tbh bc i was lowkey like...well i know you get her out of the castle bc she cries on you later

but no!!!!

also he strains of zelda's lullaby, them being covered in mud, and link's master sword! MAN

i can't get to anymore atm so i guess i decide where i go next...

tbh i wanna do gerudo next like my brother which means going thru lake hylia!! so it will be a long time before more plot, i guess

ah! the blood moon! gonna warp to the stable and watch it with that guy

lol he's all beautiful moon tonight, eh, finally the blood moon

UM HE'S FREAKING ME OUT HE JUST STARTED RUNNING AROUND AND SAID HIS BLOOD WAS BOILING???

"IT'S SO GLORIOUSLY RED, ARISE MONSTERS" WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

and he acted totally normal after!

"oh you were researching the blood moon too?" WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU FREAK

yep goodbye im leaving

upgraded my armor as much as i could with the fairy, STILL can't afford anti-guardian tech, am actively dying without it, will attempt gerudo and/or lake hylia tomorrow

[rollinbrigittenv8]

Incredible Rio de Janeiro Hang Gliding Experience

I never thought I’d go hang gliding. Then one day while in Rio de Janeiro my girlfriend said, ‘A friend of mine told me that we should go hang gliding.’

That was all it took.

We did 15 minutes of research, made a reservation and two days later we were in an Uber on our way to Sao Conrado Beach. It really was time for some Rio de Janeiro hang gliding.

The whole experience happened quickly.

We met Paulo, the owner of Just Fly Rio and our main instructor, on the beautiful beach. We signed some paperwork at the office of the local Rio de Janeiro hang gliding association. And then, after one last weather check, we hopped into Paulo’s jeep and began the journey to the top of the nearby Pedra Bonita mountain.

We were fitted with gear, given a safety lesson and provided with a few minutes of instruction while an assistant assembled the first hang glider.

Suddenly, Georgiana was hooked up to the wings and the instructor and two final safety checks were performed. Then, off they went. Running down the ramp and off into the sky, straight into the clouds. It was nuts.

At first, they immediately disappeared below, as if they plunged straight off the ramp. But after ten seconds, they re-appeared in the mist, soaring upwards along the edge of the mountains. And so her Rio de Janeiro hang gliding adventure began.

Ten minutes later, it was my turn. Henato, another instructor, showed up and we went through the same routine. Harness, instructions, safety checks…and before I had a chance to really soak it all up, I was also running down the ramp, attached to this huge green triangular wing.

And then the ground was gone and we were flying through the sky.

I’ll let this photo and video explain it all…

In brief, we loved it. Every minute of it. The sensation of flying really is something special…when you’re maneuvering with the wind, turning and twisting, rising up and floating down. At first it feels bizarre, but it doesn’t take long to become soothing and almost meditative.

Depending on where you do it, the scenery certainly helps too.

While flying, I actually asked Henato about his favorite places to hang glide (yes, we were having normal conversation up there!). He said the Swiss Alps was probably his favorite but this particular Rio de Janeiro location was second. And he has over 800 hang gliding flights under his belt, all over the world.

It’s hard to argue really. This Rio de Janeiro hang gliding experience takes off from a mountaintop above the dense jungle of the Tijuca National Park. You then fly through the clouds towards the white sands of Sao Conrado Beach, passing over neighborhoods tucked into lush green valleys, with views out over the rocky islands off the coast. And you actually land on the beach itself.

It’s beyond remarkable.

If you’re in Rio de Janeiro and want to fly, it’s worth looking into. I can’t imagine a better spot and as soon as you’re up there in the clouds above this gorgeous city, you’ll see why I’m so enthusiastic!

Here’s the company we used:

Just Fly Rio Hang Gliding Just Fly Rio Facebook Page Email: info@justfly.com.br Cost: $134 per person

*The flight lasts between 7 – 20 minutes, depending on wind and weight. For a very reasonable rate you can receive photos ($15 USD) and videos ($20 USD) of your flight as well.

The owner, Paulo Celani (he was the main instructor as well), was thorough, very thorough, in terms of safety. Completely professional in every way. Whichever company you use, just make sure to read the reviews and see how others felt about the safety standards.

Have you been hang gliding?

The post Incredible Rio de Janeiro Hang Gliding Experience appeared first on Wandering Earl.

[jesusvasser]

Prototype Drive: Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo

Just three months after the Mission E Cross Turismo wowed the press at the 2018 Geneva auto show, Porsche rolled out the concept car for its first test on real roads, in real traffic—even if only as silent meat in a highway patrol car sandwich.

In contrast to other design exercises, which can be moved but are rarely properly driven, the Mission E Cross Turismo is a real runner. In fact, there are already over 100 Cross Turismo prototypes racking up test miles on all five continents—one of which, a crowd-stopper with matte blue alloys, neo off-road livery, and a semi-transparent roof was put aside for our use.

Despite promising stats that it’s intended to be a proper Tesla Model X rival, we go easy on the hand-built multi-million-dollar one-off. That’s easy as in under five seconds from 0-60 mph—no full-throttle hooliganism—and cornering at three-fifths as a tribute to the soft-compound 275/40 R20 General Grabber off-road tires.

The man in the passenger seat introduces himself as Stefan Weckbach, head of Porsche’s global electrification efforts. “One motor up front, one motor in the back, all-wheel drive, underfloor battery pack—all that is already quite close to the final configuration. Still missing are the air suspension and rear-wheel steering. Also conspicuous by its absence is the sound generator that mimics a switchable exhaust. Don’t laugh—listen to it! At this early stage in the development process, we’re of course not yet running on maximum power and torque,” he explains.

To protect the pre-production componentry, first gear is bypassed, so we’re in second at all times, including take-off. Instead of the promised 590 hp, only about 450 hp can be used. There is torque vectoring is by all-wheel drive, brake actuation, and an optional electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential. In combination with the low center of gravity, which beats any 911, and near-perfect weight distribution, this car is as firmly planted as a rare-earth magnet on steel, even at speed.

“Yes, we are indeed working on the E Cross with volume production in mind,” admits the wiry project leader. “But so far, there has not been an official go-ahead.” According to the supplier community, the Cross Turismo will go on sale in late 2021, though the design was allegedly frozen in 2017, together with that of the Taycan—the car formerly known as the Mission E—with which it shares much of its hardware.

Porsche’s second BEV is a good looking car—one-third Macan, one-third Panamera Sport Turismo, one-third all-new. Having said that, the mixed response to the design exercise, especially from North-America, suggests that the number one market would prefer a more rugged, SUV-like appearance. This is going to be difficult to achieve. At 55.9 inches high, the Mission E Cross Turismo is as low as a Panamera; at 78.3 inches, its width shouts overtaking prestige rather than off-road ability; and even the increased ride height and loud go-anywhere body kit don’t do much to change the proportions.

Up in the hills above Malibu, on the winding backroads that connect one canyon to the next, other traits are more important. Take for instance the electrically assisted steering, which is true to Porsche’s reputation in terms of weight, damping, precision, speed, and turning circle. Praise is also due to the complex deceleration apparatus, which blends conventional (or, for a price, carbon ceramic) brakes with a single-speed recuperation device. Why not install a three-step system to warrant that one-pedal driving style everyone is talking about? “Because one pedal is not our philosophy,” quips Weckbach. “This is a proper sports car, and as such its mission is untamed acceleration and instant torque, not lift-off braking.”

Flooring the throttle in this car flattens any hill. Give it stick, and the Mission E Cross Turismo feels like a winch-powered glider before letting go of the tow hook, a videogame racer in full attack mode, a monorail thundering through the esses. Physical, immediate, awe-inspiring—and somewhat unsettling to novices who tend to flinch when the electric motors deliver their mighty shove in full force. There is no doubt about it: we are still a long way from fully recalibrating to electric cars, their mind-boggling on-ramp performance (one rocket per green light, please), their coasting efficiency, their super-physical overtaking ability. True, you can still hear the wind, the squealing tires, the movement of the suspension, and the occasionally grating brakes. The batteries, the transmissions, and the motors, on the other hand, are all but noiseless—it’s like touchscreen versus keyboard, clean air versus smog. For one precious moment, high-end BEVs like this seem to harbor only assets and virtues, no downsides and drawbacks. Is that what enthusiasm does to one’s judgment?

At 194.8 inches long, the Mission E Cross Turismo is anything but a small vehicle. Inside, however, it’s a tight fit. Despite the “foot garages”—transverse troughs in the front and rear floorpan intended to make room for those inconvenient bits at the ends of your legs—this four-seater feels more Panamera Junior than Macan. There is just about enough front legroom, and while headroom is compromised by the low flying roof, shoulder-room is trimmed by the tapered greenhouse.

Due to the 911-inspired coupe shape, it takes a shorter adult or teenager to fully appreciate the accommodation in the back. The seats are a bit like those designer chairs installed in certain first class airline lounges: stylish, beautifully trimmed, and nicely made, but the backrests are too short, the padding is economy-class thin, and lateral support is more in the eye than in the back of the beholder. The three-quarter visibility from the driver’s seat triggers the usual guessing game, the boot is long and wide but not very deep, and access to the second row would have been so much easier through the rear suicide doors of the Mission E concept that were shot down by management for the production-intent vehicle.

While the latest Cayenne and Panamera pushed ergonomic complexity to new extremes with the new touch-centric interface, the Mission E Cross Turismo partially pursues a less-is-more philosophy. Why only partially? Because the center stack is again a distracting touch-zoom-push-slide affair, the center display above it continues to be filled with a bunch of swipe-away graphical tiles, and the very same layout is duplicated on the passenger side.

The neatest part of the new instrument panel is without a doubt the lozenge-shaped main readout, which has obviously been inspired by the set of dials in the very first 911. Together with the optional head-up display, it tells you everything you need to know, even though the digital speedometer should be about three times bigger. Instead of the trademark rev counter, the center of attention is now a combined state-of-charge and range readout. Riding the steering wheel are numerous buttons and thumbwheels, as well as a contrasting, race-inspired center marker.

Looking for the ignition or starter button? Don’t bother, they’re not there. Instead, there is now a small touch-sensitive area to the left of the steering column that sets things in motion while adhering to Porsche’s Le Mans-inspired tradition. Since the shift lever was moved to the two o’clock position behind the steering-wheel, the center console is now big enough for six cupholders or two smartphone chargers.

Labelled PRND, the gear selector is operated by the driver´s right index finger. Sounds boring, but the menu can be spiced up by selecting one of five modes, labeled Normal, Range, Sport, Sport Plus, and Individual. Waiting in the wings but not yet confirmed modes are Eco, Wet, and Off-road. Normal is all about lift-off coasting; Sport and Sport Plus are relatively close together; Range does its best to squash anxiety; Individual lets you tweak suspension, steering, stability control, drivetrain, and soundtrack to your personal preferences.

“With the new infotainment system, we have digitally remastered Porsche´s genetic code,” states a proud Stefan Weckbach. “When the driver switches mentally to autopilot, only the bare essentials are on display. As soon as he is back in sports car mode, however, the environment will automatically switch to dynamic.”

Find an 800-volt charge station (good luck—there aren’t any yet), and it only takes 15 minutes to refill the Cross Turismo’s energy cells to the brim. Settle for 400 volts (difficult enough to find outside of the Tesla ecosystem), and don´t forget to order a nice steak frite to kill the next 40 minutes. Hook the car up to any old 220-volt (110 volts in the U.S.) socket, and be prepared to take a 30-hour sabbatical. Although cordless inductive charging is on the table as a possible option, most will probably be topped-up at home by a Porsche wallbox. Extrovert trendsetters are invited to order the power-operated charge door, which puts on a show by quietly disappearing beneath the front wing.

“A plug-in Porsche must drive and perform like a Porsche fitted with a combustion engine,” says Weckbach. “It must sustain long flat-out autobahn stints without overheating. Repeatability is key when it comes to full-throttle acceleration. The main dynamic parameters have to remain intact through the entire battery charge span. Only when the warning light comes on, under certain conditions performance may be compromised for range.”

It seems safe to expect at least 250 miles between recharging stops in European WLTP-spec terms, which might translate to about 230 miles in EPA testing. Even though it is theoretically possible to free an extra 20 miles of range via an over-the-air command, eventually the moment will come when empty simply means no more go. While electricity is at this point notably cheaper than fossil fuels, the asking price for the Cross Turismo won’t differ much from the Panamera Sport Turismo: The base Cross Turismo should come in just under $100,000 while the range-topping Turbo is expected to cost well over $150,000. Early adopters better be rich.

IFTTT

[eddiejpoplar]

Prototype Drive: Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo

Just three months after the Mission E Cross Turismo wowed the press at the 2018 Geneva auto show, Porsche rolled out the concept car for its first test on real roads, in real traffic—even if only as silent meat in a highway patrol car sandwich.

In contrast to other design exercises, which can be moved but are rarely properly driven, the Mission E Cross Turismo is a real runner. In fact, there are already over 100 Cross Turismo prototypes racking up test miles on all five continents—one of which, a crowd-stopper with matte blue alloys, neo off-road livery, and a semi-transparent roof was put aside for our use.

Despite promising stats that it’s intended to be a proper Tesla Model X rival, we go easy on the hand-built multi-million-dollar one-off. That’s easy as in under five seconds from 0-60 mph—no full-throttle hooliganism—and cornering at three-fifths as a tribute to the soft-compound 275/40 R20 General Grabber off-road tires.

The man in the passenger seat introduces himself as Stefan Weckbach, head of Porsche’s global electrification efforts. “One motor up front, one motor in the back, all-wheel drive, underfloor battery pack—all that is already quite close to the final configuration. Still missing are the air suspension and rear-wheel steering. Also conspicuous by its absence is the sound generator that mimics a switchable exhaust. Don’t laugh—listen to it! At this early stage in the development process, we’re of course not yet running on maximum power and torque,” he explains.

To protect the pre-production componentry, first gear is bypassed, so we’re in second at all times, including take-off. Instead of the promised 590 hp, only about 450 hp can be used. There is torque vectoring is by all-wheel drive, brake actuation, and an optional electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential. In combination with the low center of gravity, which beats any 911, and near-perfect weight distribution, this car is as firmly planted as a rare-earth magnet on steel, even at speed.

“Yes, we are indeed working on the E Cross with volume production in mind,” admits the wiry project leader. “But so far, there has not been an official go-ahead.” According to the supplier community, the Cross Turismo will go on sale in late 2021, though the design was allegedly frozen in 2017, together with that of the Taycan—the car formerly known as the Mission E—with which it shares much of its hardware.

Porsche’s second BEV is a good looking car—one-third Macan, one-third Panamera Sport Turismo, one-third all-new. Having said that, the mixed response to the design exercise, especially from North-America, suggests that the number one market would prefer a more rugged, SUV-like appearance. This is going to be difficult to achieve. At 55.9 inches high, the Mission E Cross Turismo is as low as a Panamera; at 78.3 inches, its width shouts overtaking prestige rather than off-road ability; and even the increased ride height and loud go-anywhere body kit don’t do much to change the proportions.

Up in the hills above Malibu, on the winding backroads that connect one canyon to the next, other traits are more important. Take for instance the electrically assisted steering, which is true to Porsche’s reputation in terms of weight, damping, precision, speed, and turning circle. Praise is also due to the complex deceleration apparatus, which blends conventional (or, for a price, carbon ceramic) brakes with a single-speed recuperation device. Why not install a three-step system to warrant that one-pedal driving style everyone is talking about? “Because one pedal is not our philosophy,” quips Weckbach. “This is a proper sports car, and as such its mission is untamed acceleration and instant torque, not lift-off braking.”

Flooring the throttle in this car flattens any hill. Give it stick, and the Mission E Cross Turismo feels like a winch-powered glider before letting go of the tow hook, a videogame racer in full attack mode, a monorail thundering through the esses. Physical, immediate, awe-inspiring—and somewhat unsettling to novices who tend to flinch when the electric motors deliver their mighty shove in full force. There is no doubt about it: we are still a long way from fully recalibrating to electric cars, their mind-boggling on-ramp performance (one rocket per green light, please), their coasting efficiency, their super-physical overtaking ability. True, you can still hear the wind, the squealing tires, the movement of the suspension, and the occasionally grating brakes. The batteries, the transmissions, and the motors, on the other hand, are all but noiseless—it’s like touchscreen versus keyboard, clean air versus smog. For one precious moment, high-end BEVs like this seem to harbor only assets and virtues, no downsides and drawbacks. Is that what enthusiasm does to one’s judgment?

At 194.8 inches long, the Mission E Cross Turismo is anything but a small vehicle. Inside, however, it’s a tight fit. Despite the “foot garages”—transverse troughs in the front and rear floorpan intended to make room for those inconvenient bits at the ends of your legs—this four-seater feels more Panamera Junior than Macan. There is just about enough front legroom, and while headroom is compromised by the low flying roof, shoulder-room is trimmed by the tapered greenhouse.

Due to the 911-inspired coupe shape, it takes a shorter adult or teenager to fully appreciate the accommodation in the back. The seats are a bit like those designer chairs installed in certain first class airline lounges: stylish, beautifully trimmed, and nicely made, but the backrests are too short, the padding is economy-class thin, and lateral support is more in the eye than in the back of the beholder. The three-quarter visibility from the driver’s seat triggers the usual guessing game, the boot is long and wide but not very deep, and access to the second row would have been so much easier through the rear suicide doors of the Mission E concept that were shot down by management for the production-intent vehicle.

While the latest Cayenne and Panamera pushed ergonomic complexity to new extremes with the new touch-centric interface, the Mission E Cross Turismo partially pursues a less-is-more philosophy. Why only partially? Because the center stack is again a distracting touch-zoom-push-slide affair, the center display above it continues to be filled with a bunch of swipe-away graphical tiles, and the very same layout is duplicated on the passenger side.

The neatest part of the new instrument panel is without a doubt the lozenge-shaped main readout, which has obviously been inspired by the set of dials in the very first 911. Together with the optional head-up display, it tells you everything you need to know, even though the digital speedometer should be about three times bigger. Instead of the trademark rev counter, the center of attention is now a combined state-of-charge and range readout. Riding the steering wheel are numerous buttons and thumbwheels, as well as a contrasting, race-inspired center marker.

Looking for the ignition or starter button? Don’t bother, they’re not there. Instead, there is now a small touch-sensitive area to the left of the steering column that sets things in motion while adhering to Porsche’s Le Mans-inspired tradition. Since the shift lever was moved to the two o’clock position behind the steering-wheel, the center console is now big enough for six cupholders or two smartphone chargers.

Labelled PRND, the gear selector is operated by the driver´s right index finger. Sounds boring, but the menu can be spiced up by selecting one of five modes, labeled Normal, Range, Sport, Sport Plus, and Individual. Waiting in the wings but not yet confirmed modes are Eco, Wet, and Off-road. Normal is all about lift-off coasting; Sport and Sport Plus are relatively close together; Range does its best to squash anxiety; Individual lets you tweak suspension, steering, stability control, drivetrain, and soundtrack to your personal preferences.

“With the new infotainment system, we have digitally remastered Porsche´s genetic code,” states a proud Stefan Weckbach. “When the driver switches mentally to autopilot, only the bare essentials are on display. As soon as he is back in sports car mode, however, the environment will automatically switch to dynamic.”

Find an 800-volt charge station (good luck—there aren’t any yet), and it only takes 15 minutes to refill the Cross Turismo’s energy cells to the brim. Settle for 400 volts (difficult enough to find outside of the Tesla ecosystem), and don´t forget to order a nice steak frite to kill the next 40 minutes. Hook the car up to any old 220-volt (110 volts in the U.S.) socket, and be prepared to take a 30-hour sabbatical. Although cordless inductive charging is on the table as a possible option, most will probably be topped-up at home by a Porsche wallbox. Extrovert trendsetters are invited to order the power-operated charge door, which puts on a show by quietly disappearing beneath the front wing.

“A plug-in Porsche must drive and perform like a Porsche fitted with a combustion engine,” says Weckbach. “It must sustain long flat-out autobahn stints without overheating. Repeatability is key when it comes to full-throttle acceleration. The main dynamic parameters have to remain intact through the entire battery charge span. Only when the warning light comes on, under certain conditions performance may be compromised for range.”

It seems safe to expect at least 250 miles between recharging stops in European WLTP-spec terms, which might translate to about 230 miles in EPA testing. Even though it is theoretically possible to free an extra 20 miles of range via an over-the-air command, eventually the moment will come when empty simply means no more go. While electricity is at this point notably cheaper than fossil fuels, the asking price for the Cross Turismo won’t differ much from the Panamera Sport Turismo: The base Cross Turismo should come in just under $100,000 while the range-topping Turbo is expected to cost well over $150,000. Early adopters better be rich.

IFTTT

[bellatrixobsessed1]

The Gliding Dragon

Day 1 of @avatarworldweek‘s summer love event: Unconditional love.

I haven’t seen any fics at all for Azula/Teo so I wrote one. Because why not?

She was there strictly on business, or she was supposed to be anyhow. The Fire Nation needed new machines, but creativity wasn’t exactly an area of expertise among Azula’s people. Not in an era where dancing had been banned. The Fire Nation needed an inventor. Apparently, it was her job to find one, as Zuko busied himself with other matters. Frankly she believed that she should be the one fussing with foreign affairs back at the palace as opposed to making another journey to the Earth Kingdom. A place where she left empty handed, with only a small lead. None of the machinists in the Earth Kingdom impressed her well enough for her to request an alliance. But she heard tell of a machinist who dwelled in the Northern Air Temple after being displaced by a flood of sorts.

This tip had her on her way back to the Fire Nation to retrieve an airship, and then right back in the direction she had just come from. It had been so tedious. But she would only accept the finest for the Fire Nation, for her nation. Azula sighed, the things she did for it.

 She supposed that the hassle of the trip was all well enough in the end. The mechanist was highly skilled, almost beyond what she had hoped. And with the offer of a place to stay for he and what remained of the others in his village, he would put his skills to use.

Azula had accomplished her mission, with seemingly no personal gain—something Zuko was annoyingly proud of; “finally you did something out of the kindness of your heart!” She vowed that if he kept it up, it would be the last selfless thing she did.

 Azula fell onto her bed, she was exhausted. Travel was losing its appeals, she felt as though she was spending more of her life in the Earth Kingdom than in her own home these days. She didn’t know how she let herself be drawn into it. She had a strong feeling it had to do with something, something along the lines of, “a change of scenery will be good for you.”

Right.

 In the days to follow she began to see more of the mechanist’s son. She would see him in the halls, observing the Fire Lord portraits. She would run into him while on walks in the town. She would find him dining in the same restaurant as she, and never with any plans to meet up there. Beforehand she didn’t pay him much attention, her goal was to strike a deal with his father and that was it. In her time at the air temple the man had been absent most of the time, whizzing about on his glider. She had been meaning to ask him about that. Perhaps, that’s what compelled her to finally strike up a conversation with him. If she was going to be seeing him around so often, she may as well make him less of a stranger. Naturally this is when she stopped seeing him around so frequently.

 She didn’t see him again, in fact, until a week or so later when she found herself sitting on the rim of a fountain in the center of the Capital’s shopping ring. Azula wasn’t much of an artist, it was a hobby she had just taken up. It was something that seemed to be coming naturally to her. In current the princess was sketching one of the dragon statues that rested before a weapons vendor. Though it was hard to work with someone eyeballing her unfinished work. She turned the sheet over with a purpose.

 Shamelessly the man inquired, “whacha drawing?”

 “Mind your own business.” Azula muttered, before looking up to see who was addressing her. Just like that she realized her chances of finding out more about the man’s glider had just diminished some. She turned to him and mumbled something akin to, “your father’s inventions are quite innovative.”

 “Yeah, he comes up with some neat stuff.” The man wheeled himself up next to her.

 “Did he make that wheelchair glider for you?”

 The man smirked, “mind your own business.” She had half the mind to push him into the fountain. “Yeah, he made it for me a long time ago. I was always kind of stuck, ya know, watching the other kids chase each other around. I was invited but never had much fun.” He motioned to the wheelchair. “I couldn’t go as fast so I always lost tag. So my father gave me a way to see the world. I kind of think that it’s better than walking.”

 “What happened? Where you always like that.” She asked, pointing to his legs. She turned away abruptly with the faint feeling that it was rude to have asked so bluntly and in the manner that she had. Why was she so dreadful with words when she wasn’t speaking politically? If she could smooth talk into getting the better end of a deal than she ought to be able to hold up a more simplicity conversation. She muttered a quick apology for the ignorant wording of her question.

 But the man didn’t seem phased. “I’ve heard worse.” He waved it off. “But no, when I was a really young child I was able to walk. I lost the ability during the flood that destroyed my village.”

 “I promise we, here in the Fire Nation, don’t condone flooding.”

 The man laughed, “I’ll hold you to that next time it rains hard enough.”

 “I’d like to see you try.”

 “I’m Teo.” He held his hand out.

 Azula took it. She assumed that her name was more or less common knowledge and she couldn’t imagine that he didn’t recognize her, but she returned the introduction anyhow. Better to be formal in forming relationships. It would be her first friendship since Mai and TyLee. She didn’t have any enemies at this point, but she didn’t allow anyone to get particularly close either. No, the princess liked to keep to herself. It felt safer, more comfortable.

But Teo had an air about him, a laidback air. She couldn’t see him offering her any sort of drama and she had no prior connection to him. No abundant and questionable history, only a very vague memory of seeing him among those at the Western Air Temple when she’d attacked it. It hadn’t been personal, not in the way it was with Zuko. She wondered if she should bring it up at all.  

 Instead she turned her page up again and handed him the sketch.

 He held it up to the actual dragon statue. “Not bad.” He noted.

 “Not finished.” She reminded. He handed it back. Rather he tried to. “It’s yours.” She didn’t know why she had given it to him, he hadn’t requested it. But if felt like a good thing to do at the time.

 “Thanks.” He grinned. “I don’t think anyone has given me a drawing before, especially not a lady. I’m not exactly a hit with the ladies.”

 “I’m not exactly a… ‘hit’ with anyone.” Azula muttered.

 “I don’t know, I like you.” He replied. “You’re…eccentric.”

 Azula concluded that, that was rather well as far as first encounters went. It hadn’t been as smooth or seamless as she wanted it to be, but she hadn’t ruined anything yet. The truth was she wanted a friend again. She needed a friend, especially one that didn’t come with a messy history.

 She spoke with him many times after that. Each time he treated her very well, better than perhaps most people treated her. She came to know his habits and those little quirks he had; such as pushing on his aviation goggles when he was bored or trying to distract himself. She wondered if he had picked up any of her habits. He enjoyed sightseeing, Azula came to find. Teo constantly requested to see new places, and so she began showing him lesser known spots. Sections of the Fire Nation that she’d come to know because she had lived there for so long and explored it so passionately.

 One day Teo asked her if she had ever flown before.

 “Many times.” She replied. “On warships and on the back of a bison.”

 “How about with a glider?” He asked.

 “Once.” Azula replied thinking of the mishap where she’d thrown herself off of Appa in a poorly planned escape attempt. “Well it wasn’t exactly flying.”

 “A while ago I dated this village girl named Li-Roa.” Teo started. “Before we broke up she wanted to fly on my glider with me, so my father invented a glider big enough for me and my chair and for Li as well.” He explained. “I haven’t used it since…”

 “And you want to use it with me?” Azula filled it.

 “If you’re interested.”

 Somehow Azula felt honored, which wasn’t an easy thing to make her feel. But she was conflicted; she’d seen Teo on his own glider and it never looked stable. He boasted that he’d been using the same glider wheelchair since he was a boy, only changing it when he out grew it. Azula was no aviator, in fact being so high up with nothing to hold onto made her somewhat queasy, but she would never admit it. Yet there Teo was, vowing to teach her to fly. The princess didn’t know if she wanted to fly.

Not until she allowed him to slip in and convince her.

He took her hand and helped her into the chair.

 “We won’t go too high at first, not until you get the hang of it.”

 “The hang of it?” Azula frowned. “You’re steering.”

 “Yes, but you have to do some peddling also.”

 “Wonderful.” Azula grumbled. But she wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge, even if her belly was fluttering and tied in all sorts of knots. Teo walked her thought the basics; as it would turn out he neglected to tell her that she would be in charge of steering the rear glider. He explained it much like sailing, all she had to do position the glider-piece so that it would catch the most wind. As long as she did that and distributed her weight evenly the flight would go smoothly.  “If you can beat us during an eclipse where we have the disadvantage, you can do this.” Teo declared.

 “Well I suppose you’re right.” Azula agreed. Rather she pretended to. She still had her doubts.

 She had expected him to reassure her, to tell her that she’d do just fine on more time. And he did. What she didn’t expect was a hug. She could remember the last time someone had initiated one with her. But it was probably a time when she and TyLee wee close. She let him hold her for a moment before she finally returned the gesture. The nervousness that, that ignited within her pushed out the fluttery feeling brought by the anticipation of flight. She hoped that her cheeks weren’t any shade pink. He let her go and with a smile asked, “are you ready?”

 Actually, being in the air was a different matter altogether. It was exhilarating. To have her hair tossed about and her robes fluttering so wildly. She felt like a real dragon. Flying with Teo was much different than the airships and much different than the bison. This time she had some navigational control and it was fantastic. She felt so free. On top of that, she’d never had such a splendid view of her nation. Once or twice Teo called back to her to tell her that she was doing great or to ask her which way she’d like to go next. That was the thing though, in that one moment, she wanted to go everywhere.

 In time, wanting to go everywhere became wanting to go anywhere. Teo had a sense of adventure that she didn’t, not until she talked to him more. Teo kindled within her, the ability to express herself, to truly decide what she wanted to do. And she found that she was rather fond of the notion of seeing the hidden corners of the world.  She took him to Ember Island and to Hira’a. Hira’a where she revealed things about herself that she kept concealed from most others. Things that concerned her poor relationship with her mother. She didn’t ask for it and she didn’t think that she had displayed any particular signs of distress, but he took her hand anyways and he held it for a long time. That night she had sketched a picture of a bamboo mask; one of the many things that adorned the town stage. She found herself answering Teo’s inquiries more than actually watching the play.

In return he took her to the place where his village used to stand. That had been a very raw moment. One where he rubbed at tearful eyes and told her about how he’d lost his mother there and how that was the moment he’d become a freak. The princess wasn’t good with words of comfort and gestures of it came hard as well. But she had assured him that he was no more of a freak than someone who heard things that weren’t there. She noted that he probably wouldn’t be Teo without the hardships and lessons that the loss of feeling in his legs had given him.  Anyways, she was slowly learning that the perfection that she had once coveted was overrated anyhow. It was odd to admit it and if felt wrong coming from her lips. But apparently, she had done something right. Because that day was first time he kissed her. She wasn’t a graceful kisser to begin with and trying to find the right position around the wheelchair was a bit of a task, she felt a tad flustered for it. Eventually he coaxed her into sitting on his lap, from there pressing her lips against his came naturally. For some time he held her with her head against his chest and his hand over brushing over her hair, watching a few stars begin pop up over one of the many ruined houses.

A quick sketch of the ruins and the stars above, found a place among her other drawings.

 Eventually, spending so much time with her, Teo would see sides of her; the darker, rougher ones. The wilder ones that most people feared. The ones she went out of her way to bury deep and hide from him. He was the only person who didn’t seem to fear her nor to be weary of her and she wanted to keep that. Teo had been spontaneous from the start so she shouldn’t have been surprised at how readily he accepted and worked with the more dangerous of her moods. He was patient and somehow unphased by the worst of her threats, until her temper dulled again.

 Azula found it very well to know that at least one person seemed to love her in spite of her worst self. To know that at least one person was accepting of that part and didn’t demand that she make any abrupt changes. For the first time she felt at ease with someone. For the first time she felt as though she had someone who didn’t expect anything of her. Someone who didn’t love her power nor her brains, but loved the person shaped by these qualities. The person who possessed them. She just hoped that he felt as comfortable around her. That she conveyed just as much care.

She must have if he was still traveling with her.

If he still unfolded the drawing she’d given him when they first talked.

 “You still have that?” She asked one day as the sat at the edge of a dock. Jang Hui was a gem so close to home she wondered how she had never been. Last she heard, the place was a sludgy mess. The river looked rather pristine to her.

 “Of course I still have it.” Teo replied.

 “It’s a terrible drawing.” She muttered.

 “I don’t know, I think that it’s better than that lion-moose you tried to draw.” He shrugged.

 She gave his arm a swift punch. “My lion-moose looked better than you ever will.” She folded her arms across her chest.

 “Ouch.” He muttered.

 “Here.” She said suddenly, handing him an assortment of pages. She and Teo found themselves on one of the Fire Islands. It was close enough to home for Azula to know their trip was coming to a close. It seemed like it had been such a short time, had it really been over a year? It must have been; each drawing in that collection had been dated. And there were hundreds of different sketches, one from each day—a little something that meant something to her. Some were quite dismal, the ones that she had painted in some Earth Kingdom bayou for one. That part of their trip had been a mistake, it was a part that had thrown her terribly off and sent her right back into a place where she couldn’t decipher the real from the false. On those days she had drawn her hallucinations, horrifying swamp beasts and the taunting face of her father as it molded in with the scenery. The only thing that kept her from going completely under was Teo admitting that he’d been having visions of his own. The swamp had been alive with spirit energy and it had, had them both on edge.

 “What’s this?” He asked.

 “Sketches, from each day since we started this journey.” Azula replied. “I wanted to make something for you.”

 Teo flipped through the pages. Many of them were adorned with flora, trees, and other plant life—most of which were the ones he’d pointed out to her. She also had a few buildings, artifacts, and people. The one that stood out to him was her rendition of the elaborate door to the Southern Air-Temple. There was something very Fire Nation to her version of it, he thought that this was how the door would look if made by Fire Nation hands. Her latest drawing was of a very old man named Doc…or was it Shoo? He seemed to use them interchangeably. Each and every one seemed better than the next, her skill was flourishing fast, not that he expected anything else. “They’re gorgeous.”  He sighed, “but I didn’t make anything for you.”

 Azula shrugged. “I didn’t ask you to.”

 “I should have thought of it though.” He pointed out.

 “You gave me the opportunity to draw them at all.” She replied. He watched her kick her feet at the water. If he could draw, that would have been an image to capture. She looked peaceful, her hair let loose and rippling over her shoulders.

 “I guess that that’s true.” He agreed. “I wish I could do that.”

 “Draw?” Azula asked.

 “No,” he pointed to her swinging feet. “I’ve never dangled my feet in the water before.”

 Azula looked at him for a moment, contemplating something. Without so much as a warning, she lifted him from his wheelchair. The woman was stronger than he had anticipated. Carefully she set him down, took his shoes off, and turned him so that his feet finally met the water. He was overtaken by a sense of glee, it was such a simple and stupid thing to be delighted over. And yet…

 “Well? Is it everything you hoped for.”

 “Yeah, I think I can see some fish under there too!” He exclaimed.

 “A few have brushed by, yes.”

 He wished that he could actually feel them rushing by. Feel the sensations of the water. But it was enough for him, to be able to have his feet in the water at all.

 “Thanks.” He beamed up at the princess.

 She shrugged, “you act like it was hard to do.”

 “It still means a lot. People don’t realize that I like this kind of small stuff…” he trailed off. “It’s always Teo the bold and adventurous. Teo the independent and daring. No one seems to think that sometimes Teo could use some help.”

 No one seemed to think that of Azula either so she nodded in understanding. “I take it you don’t like to ask for it either.”

 He rubbed the back of his head with a goofy smile. “Not particularly.” And then he added, “I don’t want to bother anyone.”

 “You didn’t bother me.” She rather liked having someone to help, actually.

 “Would you mind helping me back into my wheelchair?” He asked.

 “Now that’s asking too much.” Azula smirked. She gave a small pause before scooping him into her arms. She was going to fufill his request, but decided that she liked holding him more than she fancied helping he right back into the chair. Anyways, he didn’t seem to mind it any. With him in her arms and the late summer sun dazzling her skin, Azula decided that she liked this much more than she would have enjoyed the throne. There was a sense of imprisonment that came with the throne, Zuko couldn’t very well just leave on a year-long sabbatical as she had just done. She rested her chin on the top of his head.

 To think, it began with one irritating political quest and one ridiculous moment at a fountain.