moonsugar-and-spice - Tumblr blog

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Good afternoon, Captain Ta Ming!

-What is your favorite invention or technological marvel to date? Have you ever had the pleasure of tinkering with it?

-If you could create any gadget or contraption, what would it be and what would it do?

-Confidentially, what would you say is the most irritating habit of your fellow soldiers?

The soldier blinks, and the barest fraction of tension leaves her body as she clearly enters a state of consideration.

"Since Fire Lord Zuko's ascension there has been a great deal of trade and growth across the nations. One hears tell of various... inventions and advancements, but whether these are matters of truth or imagination can be hard to tell, sometimes. I suppose if I were to have a preference for such things, it would be the artificial onsens that have been made available in some of the cities. A combination of plumbing and furnace systems and enginery that allows for a large body of water to stay heated, and in a state of perpetual motion, mimicking the thermal springs and pools that occur naturally throughout much of the Fire Nation. It's not terribly advanced technology, given that many of those same systems of pipes have been part of our war machines for years, but the application of it is novel. And most pleasant, I imagine. I have yet to visit one." Her mouth quirks, and it is unclear from her expression whether she is flattered or confused or quite likely a combination of the two.

"Ah, my apologies, but you have me at a loss. Certainly I have found machinery to be... comforting, in its design and reliability, the way that it can be taken apart and examined and improved upon, but I have no mind for such pursuits as... creation. I need a thing to exist before I can understand it."

Ta Ming is older here, has lived through the Hundred Year War and the various programs set forth by her newest Fire Lord to encourage an unlearning of a century's worth of propaganda. Her eyes are tired, and even still, there is no mistaking the flicker of them left to right as she considers who else might be within earshot.

"I imagine we all have... habits. Barrack-mates whose boots always smell, senior officers who confuse the loyalty of their charges with something to be taken advantage of, the sneering competition between divisions. It's hard to care about any of that when you're all collectively dodging boulders or fending off monsters from the deep, when at the core you and the men and women beside you -- no matter how irritating -- are all fighting for the same glory and preservation of your nation.

"But, whether by intent or accident, I can say that our differences in the definition of honour ran far deeper than semantics. And there were... consequences."

[moonsugar-and-spice]

If ever there was a song for Pirate King.

I don't know what you've been told But time is running out, no need to take it slow I'm stepping to you toe-to-toe I should be scared, honey, maybe so // I'm at my best when I got something I'm wanting to steal Way too busy for them problems and problems to feel No stressing, just obsessin' with sealin' the deal I'll take it in and let it go

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Jhu Lin, shouting down at Bao from where she hangs over the railing of Ta Ming’s tiny airship:

“Hey, steambun! Do you miss having hair?”

Bao’s steps slow. His green eyes cut skyward with a glint of steel then lock onto hers as a slow, sly smile spreads across his face. Amusement and something darker, more predatory. He barks a caustic laugh, harsh and guttural.

Hair is a mere ornament, doll, a glorified decoration. I’ve got more important matters to focus on. Less to burn in a fight besides, and it’s a lack I more than make up for in other ways.

Scars, now they tell a real story, and they’re a damn sight more interesting than any silken tresses. Though, I suppose yours wouldn’t be entirely useless in the right… circumstances. Come down, firebird, and I’ll show you just how little I need hair to make an impression.

[moonsugar-and-spice]

a thousand shards of heaven

It's been 84 years since I've updated Storms so please accept this Ozara doodle

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Lu Da what challenges have you faced as an Earth Kingdom pirate/privateer working for the Fire Nation?

Well, for one thing, the whole “Earth Kingdom blood” business throws a tiny wrench into the welcome wagon, as you can imagine, with plenty of offers for a complimentary dirt nap.

Lu Da flashes a sharp grin, one tattooed cheek claiming more of the feral than the other, as a scowling lout shoves past him, hard, with a sneer. He glances over his shoulder, not at the lout or the stool where his empty drink sits, but for the soldier who’d yet to return with their second round.

Lotta folks here eyeing me as a traitorous outcast, to say nothing of what my own’ll think once word catches. It’s an awkward sorta limbo, yeah, but that’s a worry for another day. A guy’s gotta live, and in my line of work, the only fealty sworn is to the coin. Till my contract runs out, that coin is Fire Lord Ozai’s, whether they like it or not.

To top it off, then there’s the pirate business. Hard for some to stomach their lord consorting with a man of my occupation. Thing is, Ozai’s an opportunist. He’s in this to win it. He saw a way to skirt the red rope and fancy rules and a guy who gets shit done with the track record to prove it. Mercenary of my notoriety is a perfect weapon in the right hands.

So yeah, safe to say these first weeks since getting my official papers’ve been like hauling a treasure chest through a pit of blasting jelly. Part of why I got this soldier up my ass all the time now. Courtesy of the Fire Lord, for my protection. ‘Course I know damn well it’s as much a leash, keeping me in line, making sure I’m good for my word. And who better than a duty-drunk buzzkill who can cut a man down in two paces?

There is a cheeky tug at the edge of his voice, and his lips curl with it.

Can’t even take a shit without her sense of honor breathing down my neck. I’ve tried shaking her off a few times—dove headfirst into the mob at a Fire Festival, started a tavern brawl with some oafs twice my size—but dammit if she's not there again like a stubborn itch. If an itch were also useful, and deadly. Almost can’t help but admire the grind. Small price to pay for a lucrative gig, I s’pose. 

To boil it down, it’s a precarious balance that keeps me sharp, but the gossip and stink-eyes and death threats are just noise in the end. The results’ll speak for themselves in time. Never been one to shy away from a challenge, ‘specially when there’s good coin to be made and a reputation to uphold. What matters is the job at hand, and right now, that job is doing any and all dirty work Fire Lord Ozai wants done.

He casts another glance over the throngs, pausing to wink at a large man who spits a slur in his direction.

“Now where are our drinks?”

Ask my OC anything

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Lake-Side Gallery

[moonsugar-and-spice]

i love you ambiguity i love you fucked-up relationships that don’t fit in a box or make sense to anyone but the two people in them i love friendships where it’s too intimate to be a friendship and romantic relationships where it’s so unintimate it makes you wonder if they’re really in love (they are) i love you weirdness i love you weird love

[moonsugar-and-spice]

do you think your pet would send anon hate?

yes

no

i dont have a pet

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Since days ago was the eclipse,,,,Agni and Yue ☀️🌑

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Jhu Lin have your every had sex in public? what is your favourite sex position and are you a top, bottom, or switch

Jhu Lin idly twirls a strand of hair around her finger as she leans against one arm, listening to you with a languid and utterly amused smile.

"Define 'public', darling.

"Here's the thing -- once we complete our contract and accept the terms, most of us girls don't leave the premises. Maybe they do it differently in the Earth Kingdom, but here in Agni's blessed nation we've got a sense of ritual and restriction, even for this."

She frees her hand from the thick strands of hair, gesturing dismissively with both shoulder and wrist.

"Personally, I don't think it much matters where the fucking happens so long as it happens right. If a client wants me out on the balcony, where anyone passing by might see..." she adopts an expression of exaggerated scandalization before dissolving into a smirk "...that is easily something that can be -- and has been -- accommodated.

"There's a certain thrill to it, perhaps, but someone willing to set a scene can have you feeling even more exposed in total privacy."

A raucous cheer from the far corner of the brothel foyer momentarily distracts you, and when you return to the next topic, the look in Jhu Lin's eyes is positively predatory.

"I'll bet you're thinking about it right now, aren't you? Me... positions..." there is no way that the slow slide of silk down her shoulder is accidental. "But the truth is that I like it best when there's more than one. Not in a cock-on-either-end way, but more of an embrace. It's warm, there's a totality in the level of contact and touch, and generally it's just less work for me."

"As for that last bit... well. What do you want me to be?"

[moonsugar-and-spice]

@walkingonaflashlightbeam

It was in this "five-sentence" fic.

Lu Da, what is your favorite swear and why?

Agni’s tits and every variant of it you can imagine is the one I’m likely known for. Might be a strange habit for an Earth Kingdom boy, but the Fire Nation has some of the best swears and a coin’s a coin no matter where it’s minted. But it's not my all-time favorite.

That distinction has to go to the one spawned in frustration with a young fumbling felon who, bless his heart, “Could fall into a barrel of tits and come out sucking his thumb.” I’m not just talking missing the mark; I’m talking missing the mark so spectacularly it made me question whether he could find his ass with both hands and a map.

Mercifully not a phrase I’ve found myself needing often, but it’s a favorite for its combination of ‘What the hell did he just say’ and ‘It’s true, swearing can be an art.’

Fuck me if the kid wasn’t trying his best, but there just wasn’t any hope for him in our line of work. Never woulda said it out loud though, least not to Bao, if I’d known what he’d do to him.

Ask my OC anything

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Sending queries for Bao ‘The Bloody’ Zirrik via a very nervous courier.

- Favourite person, and why?

- Has anyone, or anything, ever made you think maybe you were in the wrong line of work? Whether that be an unexpected joy in doing something else, not wanting to end up like someone, or perhaps, witnessing something so awful it liquified even your bowels.

- Is there anything you regret?

Bao leans back in his chair as he looks up from the letter to study the poor courier, his mouth crooking with an amused scoff.

Sentimentality has no place in the world I've carved. ‘Favorites’ can shift like sand in a desert storm. Sure, there’re those who’ve earned a measure of my respect, a few I’ve called friend, but it’s a currency easily devalued by incompetence, by betrayal. The ones at my side today are well familiar with the price. Though sometimes, in the dead of night… I think of my mother. Her laugh, her honeyed tea. I don’t linger on such things long.

There is a flicker in his skewering green eyes, there and gone too fast to name, before he grins. It is cold and dark and mocking.

Wrong line of work? The past is a graveyard of tittyfuckers who’ve doubted and dithered. Now I walk on them as I tend my garden, do my whittling out there too. Every man’s got his pastimes. Always had a knack for shaping things, maybe I missed my calling to be a sculptor, eh? But people are more interesting, and more malleable, than wood. And only fools and the weak can indulge the luxury of doubt, it’s not one you can afford in the chaos of forging an empire, a legacy.

Bao's smile shifts, and he shrugs one beefy shoulder.

Seen plenty. It can be a messy business, violence, and sometimes it's a damn spectacle. One standout was just the other week, some waterbender charged up on this new black market drug. Spiked a guy’s blood pressure so high it turned him into a human geyser, blood spraying out every hole and making new ones like juice bursting from a hot, overripe melon. Terrifying, sure, in an exhilarating kind of way. If anything, it hammered home the point that there’s only two sides to this coin. And if you’re not on one, you’re on the other.

As for regret, every choice has consequences, some foreseen, some not. I underestimated an upstart once. Saw their ambition, their hunger, and mistook it for recklessness. Shame, too, could've used them to my advantage.

Ask my OC anything

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Lu Da, what is your favorite swear and why?

Agni’s tits and every variant of it you can imagine is the one I’m likely known for. Might be a strange habit for an Earth Kingdom boy, but the Fire Nation has some of the best swears and a coin’s a coin no matter where it’s minted. But it's not my all-time favorite.

That distinction has to go to the one spawned in frustration with a young fumbling felon who, bless his heart, “Could fall into a barrel of tits and come out sucking his thumb.” I’m not just talking missing the mark; I’m talking missing the mark so spectacularly it made me question whether he could find his ass with both hands and a map.

Mercifully not a phrase I’ve found myself needing often, but it’s a favorite for its combination of ‘What the hell did he just say’ and ‘It’s true, swearing can be an art.’

Fuck me if the kid wasn’t trying his best, but there just wasn’t any hope for him in our line of work. Never woulda said it out loud though, least not to Bao, if I’d known what he’d do to him.

Ask my OC anything

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Ask My OC Anything

Ask my OC any question you want! Any question at all, and they will answer it. I can even promise they’ll probably answer honestly. 

Go ahead - ask my OC!

[moonsugar-and-spice]

a thousand shards of heaven

It's been 84 years since I've updated Storms so please accept this Ozara doodle

[moonsugar-and-spice]

Self care isn’t always washing your hair and wearing nice clothes. Sometimes, it’s doing more difficult tasks like summoning an ancient entity to help around the house or finding the right number of bones and the right drink to appease the old gods that hang around you.

[moonsugar-and-spice]

more people need to give lil izumi the attention she deserves