#and then proceeding to quote Zuko

[worstloki]

Loki: you know what? I've been King of Asgard for a month now

Loki: and I think I definitely preferred working with Thanos

[cluelesslesbian]

Zuko x teashop shenanigans (Part 5)

Zuko: I'm taking this conflict management class this term and our first assignment is to detail a conflict we've had-

but it's extremely bold of my prof to assume I solcialize enough to get into conflicts

Katara: I can make a conflict for you

Zuko:

Zuko: Is that a threat-

Sokka: No no, she has a point. You've gotta make it authentic

Bonus~

Zuko: Ok I appreciate your enthusiasm but the class defines conflict as being stuck in opposing positions due to aggression and hatred-

Katara: Do you think my actions aren't already fueled by hatred?

Zuko: 🤠

_

[bisexuallsokka]

If you're still in your mood -- “I thought you said no more dangerous stunts?” or “Poetry isn’t supposed to be good, it’s supposed to make you feel things!” from the prompt list for Zukka please?

83. “Poetry isn’t supposed to be good, it’s supposed to make you feel things!”

Zuko isn’t sure if Sokka is always like this, or if he just enjoys irritating Zuko in particular, but sometimes the things he says in the one class they have together make Zuko infuriated. Zuko had met him once or twice, Aang had been convinced they would immediately become best friends, but they must have not talked for very long if Zuko didn’t know Sokka was the kind of guy to be taking a 300 level literature course. Nevertheless, he saw a familiar face and decided to take the seat right next to his.

Worst mistake ever, Zuko thinks as the back of his thighs run into something behind him, and then he stops thinking for a moment when strong hands on his hips lift him up to sit on the desk.

It took a few lectures for him to get on Zuko’s nerves, then at that point, Zuko didn’t dare move and break the sacred system that is unassigned assigned seats. No, he’s stuck with Sokka’s commentary both under his breath and the things he chooses to share with the class. It’s maddening.

Because Sokka makes some really good points.

(Not that he’ll ever admit it.)

(His mouth is a bit occupied anyway.)

Zuko tries to keep an open mind with everything they discuss in that class, but then they got to talking about Imagism, and Zuko absolutely refused to consider the side of someone as strongly opinionated against Ezra Pound and H.D. as Sokka is.

“Poetry isn’t supposed to be good, it’s supposed to make you feel things!” Sokka had insisted during the class discussion, and then proceeded to quote Amy Lowell to Zuko in front of the whole class.

Zuko grabs a fistful of Sokka’s hair and tugs. Amy fucking Lowell.

The professor had cut them off before things could escalate, but Sokka had insisted on walking with Zuko after class to continue the debate, and then they were in the library and Zuko hissed at him to shut up and Sokka had said something like “make me” so Zuko had dragged him to one of the many alcoves in the basement where he had caught far too many couples during his time as a library aide last year and…well, now they’ve stopped arguing and Sokka’s hand is under Zuko’s shirt and how can he even breathe…

Zuko pulls away to gasp for air and Sokka immediately takes this as an opportunity to trail kisses down to Zuko’s neck. Zuko lets out an embarrassingly loud gasp and when Sokka doesn’t move, waiting for Zuko’s reaction, Zuko just tightens his hold in Sokka’s hair and that’s all the invitation he needs before Sokka is biting down, and shit, Zuko is going to have to find a way to cover that before—

“Shit,” Zuko says, eyes trained on the clock on the wall and trying to calculate how late he is going to be because the alternative is focusing on the movement of Sokka’s tongue over the brand-new hickey on his neck and that way madness lies. “Sokka, I’m…I’m going to be late for work.”

“If you’re already late, no point in showing up at all,” Sokka reasons, his voice low and his breath hot against the spot below Zuko’s ear and damn it, Zuko shivers. “I’ll make it worth your time.”

Zuko closes his eyes because fuck, if he thought Sokka running his mouth was going to be the death of him before, it’s nothing compared to the way it’s making him feel now. But no, he has to be strong, because this job is almost certainly going to help him get an internship, but not if he starts ditching it in favor of making out with infuriating classmates in the library basement like some freshman – god, that’s probably the worst thing about this entire situation.

Sokka seems to be under the impression that Zuko is trying to make up his mind and he needs help being convinced to miss work, because he is using his hands and his mouth to try and persuade him but fuck, Zuko needs to be strong, plus he can’t let Sokka win…

It takes every ounce of willpower to put his hands on Sokka’s chest and push him away, and then Sokka is giving him a look and Zuko has to roll his eyes to give him an excuse to break the eye contact, and they’re both catching their breath. Zuko is about to break the silence, but then Sokka is reaching for the pen in the pocket of his flannel, and Zuko watches as he uncaps it and starts to write on Zuko’s palm.

“There,” Sokka says, grinning at the number now scribbled on Zuko’s skin. “Now you can send me those poems you were talking about.”

Zuko blinks at him for a moment, then against his will his hand is reaching out to grab the front of Sokka’s shirt and pull him back in, Sokka smiling against his lips.

[linnoya-writes]

“The Headband”: How Performance and a Clash of Dynamics Undermines a Ship.

A lot of people talk about the famous dance scene in “The Headband” as a big, romantic, pivotal moment for KA, but let me tell you why I disagree.

(Not sure why this post is getting tagged as anti-Zutara, as I don’t mention Zuko at all...? Anyway, this content might make Kat*angers Kat*angry.  Proceed with caution):

1) The iconic dance scene was, at its very core, a performance.  

What does this mean, exactly?

Well, this wasn’t an unscripted, unrehearsed private moment between the characters we’ve known since the beginning of the show.  This wasn’t Aang nervously asking Katara to get out of her comfort zone with him for some “alone time” and express their feelings to each other.  This dance was an opportunity to let go of their inhibitions out in the open.  This was “Kuzon Fire” whispering something into an older girl’s ear, them promptly bowing and proceeding to perform some dance moves together.

Based on the formality of these moves, they weren’t decided at the drop of a hat.  They looked like parts of a routine Katara and Aang had been working on previously-unseen occasions (perhaps during Aang’s training?), and it was Aang’s idea to get Katara to have fun and perform with him as “Kuzon Fire” in front of Fire Nation kids in a secret cave.  From Katara’s hesitancy, it’s clear that she isn’t one for impromptu dancing, but Aang persistently encourages fun by whispering in her ear to perform bending moves she already knows (moves she probably taught him).  It’s a routine that puts Katara in her comfort zone, and while she begins to have fun just doing that, the routine turns into an official performance as the crowd begins to admire them as a pair.

We as viewers know this more than just a “dance routine” for Aang.  We as viewers know Aang wants to find any excuse to hold Katara’s hand.  And he does this in the guise of “Kuzon Fire,” because for some reason this disguise and all of this attention he’s getting from the kids gives him the confidence to be that vulnerable in front of his crush.  To have Aang just be his sweet, awkward, lovestruck self to Katara just isn’t enough, but in a healthy relationship, it should be.  

True, this dance was a great reason for Aang to remind Katara to still be a kid (remember the penguin sledding he encouraged in Season 1, ep 1? This is a total step up!).  It reminded us that the characters we know and love know how to have fun together and can play off of each other in any given situation.

True, it showed how sweet KA looked to a crowd, and to us as viewers.  To even quote Sokka from earlier in the episode, the dance showed how “they look pretty good together.”

The problem here was that this dance didn’t address Katara and Aang’s actual dynamic... how they truly act towards each other when the “curtain falls”, when all eyes turn away, when their rehearsed routine is over and there’s no adrenaline rush to haze their actual selves.

Because it’s a performance, “The Headband” episode encourages a completely different kind of one-on-one interaction from what we’ve always seen between Katara and Aang whenever they have moments of privacy.  Just compare the dance to the awkward exchange they have in private during the “Cave of Two Lovers” that ultimately leads to nothing in terms of their relationship progress.

...or the sad farewell exchange they have during “The Invasion” (just a few more episodes after “The Headband”) that ends with a desperate, one-sided kiss.

...or when they finally try to talk about their feelings during the “Ember Island Players” which ends in another desperate, very much one-sided kiss.

(Small note on the EIP moment-- Notice how in that scene, Aang is upset about a performance, specifically how it’s not syncing perfectly with what he wants to believe is happening in real life.  Hmm.)

The dance shows that Katara and Aang can naturally be good team together when the situation calls for it - be it for a performance, or a dangerous task/obstacle/sea monster - but when the pressure is off, and no dangers are abound... when it’s just the two of them, standing face to face... things look quite different.

What you have is a young idealistic kid who, up until a year ago, never had to deal with horrors bigger than cleaning his own room, and a traumatized teenaged girl who grew up in a war-torn village, delivering babies by the time she was Aang’s age.  

Their differences in maturity and world views ultimately limit the deep level of understanding they can actually have as people.

...which brings me to my second point:

2) The dynamic between Katara and Aang in “The Headband” was... weird.

Seriously.  It was characteristically a hot mess.

On one hand, you have Katara completely fine dressing up as Aang’s very-pregnant, very-doting mother to get him out of detention.  On the other hand, you have Katara being girlishly shy and upset from the attention Aang is getting from random girls (something that echoed her sentiments from way back in Season 1 ep 4 “Warriors of Kyoshi” but haven’t seemed to amount to anything.)

We see Katara’s inherently-mature self suddenly get eclipsed by her girlish  feelings for the kid she is always nurturing.  A kid who is very much still a kid.

How much of a kid is he, you ask?

Well... when Katara dances with Aang, they dance with the same synchronization and sweet energy of an “it” couple at Prom.  The issue here is... even if Aang was technically thirteen, in this scene, he is “Kuzon Fire”... elementary-school kid who makes FL Ozai portraits out of noodles and happily shows them to his fake-parents as refrigerator-worthy.

So, at least in this episode, Aang is actually twelve going on seven.  

He’s a kid, and kids don’t go to Prom.  They go to highly-chaperoned elementary-school mixers.  

In the crowd’s eyes, sparks are flying between Katara and Aang as they dance, they have this unspoken chemistry, and their final pose inspires romance.  Great!  In my mind, I’m thinking “aw, so this is like the mature eighth-grader showing deep feelings for the fun-loving sixth-grader, age gap be damned... and they’re too shy to kiss.  It’s not Prom or Elementary School mixer.  It’s typical middle-school cuteness.”  Cool.

However...

After the whole cave dance scene is over, and they escape from the Fire Nation school principal, Katara tells Sokka that they’re safe and he can take off the mustache now.

...and that’s when it hit me.

Sokka was dressed as a chaperone, and acted like a chaperone for this dance.

Never was it implied that Katara wouldn’t be a chaperone for this dance, and it made the whole scene be as if Aang really was the only “kid”.   Sure, her pregnant belly is gone.  But in one scene, she’s water-bending Fire Nation punch for the dance.  I’m not saying she’s supposed to be that adult we always see in school dances that’s on “punch duty,” but neither she nor Toph nor Sokka joined in with the dance party on their own.  

It made me believe they were all supposed to watch the party like formal adult chaperones, keeping watch to make sure no FN authorities showed up.

But...

Aang extends a hand out to Katara, and the adult/kid dynamic they have (both in that cave scene and in real life) is supposed to magically change gracefully into two middle-schoolers with a crush.

For me, it was like looking at a typical “middle-school dance” scene, and witnessing the charming, golden-boy new kid walk across the gymnasium floor to extend a hand to the pretty but very-much-adult teacher who’s chaperoning the dance.  And she takes it.  No gasps, no gossip.  Everyone just goes with it, like it’s not a big deal.

If you look at it like that, it’s really hard to not see it as weird.

And then... an “ATLA writer’s room” thought occurred to me:

Sokka keeps his beard after that one gag with the FN principal, sure, but perhaps Katara’s pregnant belly disappeared was to make it less “weird” of a dynamic when KA would actually dance.  It would make a cute moment between them more valid, pretending that Katara’s motherly nature wasn’t inherently part of her character, that Aang could be seen more grown-up in their relationship.  It would add to the potential of a KA ending.  Right?

Except... 

Their whole mother/son dynamic returns the moment the cave scene ends!

Katara returns to her motherly ways, tells Sokka to quit pretending with a fake mustache, and Toph even encourages maturity in Aang by complimenting him about the deep foresight in teaching FN kids about freedom.  And how does Aang respond?  Not “yeah! that was my plan all along” but rather... “haha, I dunno I just wanted to dance.”

And so Aang remains the oblivious, innocent fun kid... and Katara continues to be his doting mom, affectionately kissing him on the cheek as usual, as if to thank her son for reminding her adult self to have fun once in a while.

For me, it made the romantic subtext of that entire dance scene completely fall through.

If one of the goals in "The Headband” was to show a progressive romantic development between KA, wouldn’t the writers want Katara to see Aang as more age-appropriate for her?

Knowing that Katara is light-years more mature than the average teenager, much less kid, she wouldn’t want to see Aang as a kid she constantly needs to take care of, either in real life or in pretend scenarios.

If Katara did have a crush on Aang by the point of “The Headband,” the idea of playing his mom (especially a pregnant mom) would come off as awkward and strange.  

It would’ve been more credible to have Toph jump in and play Kuzon’s mom in that principal’s office, to have Toph play the tough-love disciplinarian to Aang along with Sokka, and have Toph enjoy pretending to be married to her crush.

Look.  All I’m saying is... imagine what the FN Principal must’ve thought if he had walked in on Kuzon Fire dipping someone who looks a lot like his mom Sapphire minus-pregnant-belly down on the dance floor like that.

Ew.

[ilikepjo24]

Why do Azula antis randomly bring up the Agni Kai when someone's is talking about Azula's achievements?

"Yea, but she knew she would lose against Zuko since she cheated in the Agni Kai so she's weak"

No. Just... No. Azula created lightning to throw at Zuko and then Katara stole her attention by running in the arena and Azula proceeded to eliminate an enemy before they had the chance to make themselves a problem. There's no need to assume there's more to it unless you're just looking for a reason to hate Azula.

Another thing that annoys me is that toxic Zuko fans (who are also abut of Azula haters) tend to bring up the very same Agni Kai when someone's has something negative to say about the way he ruled.

"Yes, he was pro-colonization but it's his choice cause he's the Fire Lord. He earned that title, you know, after Azula lost the Agni Kai by cheating."

.....so what? Being a ruler and having the power to make bad decisions doesn't mean you have to? And no amount of Azula cheating excuses Zuko trying to bring back FN's imperialistic ideals? Especially if it's a whole year after the cheating happened?

And yes, for anyone wondering, both the things that are quoted are quite literally copy-pasted from arguments I had recently.

[burningupp-replies]

You were nervous. Of course you saw your friends all the time, and you were particularly excited to see Suki (let's face it who wouldn't be) and everyone had picked 3 kickass movies to watch - and yet, the thing you were focusing on most? Some emo boy with a scar.

Even thinking of him that way felt so wrong. First of all, he deserved to be recognized as a person, and a sweet one at that. Second, his scar was not a defining feature. Maybe at first glance, yes, but for some reason his scar seemed... Endearing. It suited him, in a weird way.

But also, yes; you definitely had some type of feelings towards your coworker. That was definitely the reason for your nerves, as much as you hated to admit it. And Sokka's constant "subtle hints" (read: blatant matchmaking) were making your nerves ramp up even more.

At 7:15 you started freaking out - everyone was there except for him. Did he change his mind? Did he decide that you weren't worth his time? Did his girlfriend-which-he-probably-had convince him to go out on a date instead?

You were going to throw up.

"I am pathetic," you told Suki, who snorted in response.

"Yeah, pretty much." when you groaned at your friend's general unhelpfulness, she sighed and turned her full attention on you. "He has never been here before, right?"

"No..."

"Uh huh. He's probably stuck looking for parking or lost or something. Stop worrying, y/n, he will be here and he will enjoy himself."

With that, Suki turned her full attention to her dumbass of a boyfriend, and you got up to go into the kitchen for a soda. Once you got one, you were headed back to the living room when the doorbell rang. Your blood turned to ice in your veins, and you suddenly forgot how to breathe.

In that moment, you felt as stupid as ever. He was just some dumb guy who just so happened to capture your attention a little. So what? People had stupid crushes all the time - sometimes it went somewhere, sometimes it didn't. You put on your big girl panties, and went to answer the door.

Only to be struck dumb once more.

Shit.

He was wearing gray sweatpants and a fitted dark red sweater. He was holding a grocery bag and a takeaway tray with a bunch of cups from the JD. He looked good, mouthwateringly so.

"Hi, y/n," he greeted.

You blinked once before scolding yourself mentally. He's a freaking person, y/n, say something!

"Hi, Zuzu!"

Nailed it.

You grinned widely and stepped aside, allowing him into yours and Sokka's apartment.

"Sorry I'm late, parking was... Difficult," he smiled, and you looked at him apologetically.

"I should have warned you. And it's fine, you're here now, so we can get started! The others are in the living room."

You guided Zuko into the living room, where greetings and hugs were shared throughout the group. He gave everyone a cup of tea - apparently Iroh had a soft spot for the gaang.

"I have some drinks and snacks with me, mind if I go into the kitchen and borrow a bowl and a glass?" he asked politely after a while.

"No problem," Sokka piped up. "y/n can show you." He then proceeded to wink very animatedly at you, and you could feel your cheeks heating up.

"That I can," you agreed with an eye roll at your roommate. "Sorry about that idiot," you sighed once you and Zuko were in the kitchen.

"No worries," he smiled as he dug around in his grocery bag. "I've known him since high school; trust me when I say I know him."

You laughed a bit at that, handing him a bowl which he accepted without a pause. It gave you a weird feeling of domesticity, and you pushed down the butterflies that were battling their way out. Instead of swooning, you grabbed a glass and poured one of his drinks for him, while he put the other ones he brought into the fridge. You couldn't help but smile to yourself.

"Alright, movie time!" you said, clapping your hands together before leading him out of the room.

In the living room, everyone were spread out everywhere. Katara and Aang were sharing a love seat, Sokka and Suki were taking up a whole-ass couch and Toph was sitting on the floor, leaving Zuko and you the other love seat as your only option. The small one, might you add. You glowered at everyone, but they all just smirked back (except for Toph, who was oblivious).

"Oh," Zuko murmured, his cheeks tinged a light pink that might just be your new favorite color.

"It's fine," you started, "I can sit on the floor."

"No, you don't have to - there's enough room for both of us," Zuko protested, and you smiled, unsure.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable," you mumbled, your cheeks heating up again.

"Oh my god, just share the damn seat. I want to listen to a movie," Toph groaned. Yep, definitely blushing now.

Everyone laughed, and you glared at them as you and Zuko sat down on the couch. Sokka started the movie - Aladdin, the remake from 2019.

~*~

"That was a good movie," Aang praised happily as the movie ended.

"It was alright," Zuko agreed as everyone began to stretch. "So, what happens now?"

You gazed at him, not that you had much choice since your brain hadn't been able to focus on anything but him throughout the entire movie. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, you had repositioned to stretch out your legs. You hadn't thought about where you put them, though, and had ended up with them partially over his lap. You started to pull away immediately, but Zuko had just grabbed your legs like it was the most natural thing in the world and draped them over his lap. Needless to say, Sokka had been smirking. Bastard.

"Now we take a fifteen minute break, talk some shit, get some drinks, go to the bathroom, and then we watch another movie. Frozen is up next, right?" Suki answered, to which you ripped your eyes away from Zuko to nod.

Zuko looked over at you and smiled, saying, "I think I'm good here."

You practically died.

TEAMWORK | part 5

A/N: Since you guys asked me to, I wrote out the whole movie night! Hope you guys enjoy it, even though my writing is kinda shit lol. This is also the last one I will post before Christmas, HOWEVER I am from Sweden, so I celebrate with family and stuff the 24th, so I will probably have the next part up on the 25th (don't quote me on that tho). I really hope you guys enjoy it! Lmk if you want to be on the taglist :) love youuuuuuu <3

Taglist:

@theblueslytherin @bakugouswh0r3 @slutforsalvatore @charlenasaxen

[wait-atla-isnt-just-zukka]

I could not get this out of my head, so here you go

Sokka, telling Katara about meeting Zuko’s uncle: Zuko and I were sitting in the tea shop. It had been raining. Iroh walked into the shop, and he said, and I'm quoting, “Ah! One feels like a turtleduck splashing around in all this wet! And when one feels like a turtleduck, one is happy.” And then Zuko replied, “Ooh, turtleducklings.” To which Iroh replied, “Too old to be a turtleduckling. Quack, quack.” And then proceeded to ask what tea he should get. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I mean, imagine you're me. You're 22 years old, with your boyfriend, excited to meet his uncle. And then this happens, and I don't know, gives you hope?

Katara: ...

Sokka: I did that a little fast. Let me break that conversation down for you. Iroh walked in, and he began a conversation the way anyone would. “Ah!” “One feels like a turtleduck splashing around in all this wet!” The rain. “And when one feels like a turtleduck, one is happy!” Now, that's debatable. But rather than debate that point, Zuko brought up a new, separate, but interesting point… which was, “Turtleducklings!” But Iroh, ever the realist about his own age and mortality… said, “Ah, too old to be a turtleduckling!” As if to say, “My turtleduckling days are behind me. Zuko, don’t you see? I’m a turtleduck now. And to prove it… Well, I'll say just about the most famous catchphrase a turtleduck has… ‘Quack, quack.’” And I knew right at that moment, by the way, that it meant nothing to Iroh, what he had said. Like, if I had gone up to him a couple weeks later and been like, “Hey, Iroh, you remember that time you were like, ‘Too old to be a turtleduckling. Quack, quack'?” He would just be like, “Ah, perhaps I did quack! But such is life for an old knickerbocker like me.”

once again inspired by @owlsantuary ‘s John mulaney x atla posts

[ourimpavidheroine]

I've been reading through your blog and based on some things you said, would you be willing to share with us some of the weirdest things people have commented on your fic?

Anon, are you a stalker?  👀

No, I’m kidding!

Hmmm. Let me think.

I did get a fair amount of people pissed at me when Qi started to become more than the driver, for SURE. Like, that’s a line in the sand for a lot of readers, although most of them just disappear into the nether without commenting. I did have one particular reader ask me twice - and not all at once, we’re talking with at least a year in between - why it was I was writing that. I’m not sure why they asked the second time. I guess to see if my answer changed? I wasn’t offended or anything, I mean, readers are going to like what they like, but I still don’t get why they thought my answer was going to change.

Sometimes people would yell at me and tell me that I ruined the story for them over that. I get it - it sucks when a story doesn’t go the way you want it to in your head, especially when you have gotten invested into it - but bless their hearts, I have no idea if they really understood how insulting it is to say that kind of thing to a writer, even if you do preface it by saying how much you like their work.

There have been some pretty sketchy comments about Qi’s gender. For the record, I don’t mind comments about Qi’s gender, but transphobic ones are going into the immediate trash. (I’m not going to repeat them.)

I had someone get SUPER MAD at me for calling Mai a cold fish. The fact that a)Zuko’s empress is never actually named, we assume she’s Mai but I never use her name because she’s not actually important to my fic, and b)the fact that it was Toph calling her a cold fish in order to demonstrate how rude Toph was being was obviously not important. That commenter told me I was a bad feminist. 

Unsurprisingly, I have had people come for me over Ikki having sex. Oh yes, the purity patrol attempted to come for my ass. It was pointed out to me that Ikki was eleven in the show. I pointed out that I was writing about her as an adult, not a child and that technically speaking every single adult who has ever had sex was also, at one time, eleven years old. And then I just deleted the rest of those, which were the usual about protecting THE CHILDREN, wahwahwah. I don’t engage with those readers. (So we are clear, my comment that all sex-having adults were also eleven at some point in their lives was not, as it happened, well-received.)

Oh! Once someone told me that there was no way Toph would have laughed in the face of someone who asked her to marry him, that it was completely out of character for her to do that. Apparently this reader never actually watched ATLA. I’m still laughing over that one.

Fairly recently I was informed that by not shipping Lin with Kya I was homophobic. People, you know I didn’t even bother to answer that one, that got an insta-delete.

Someone did tell me I was a racist pro-colonizer for writing Wu and Mako’s first sex scene at the hotel. (Or something along those lines, I can’t remember the exact quote.) I would actually take that kind of comment seriously - that’s why people have sensitivity readers - except that the source was a white American teenager who had in their byline that “All Cis People Should Die” and at that point I just walked away.

I have had people ask me for my opinions about their headcanons which is...just weird to me. Like, I acknowledge that there are headcanon blogs but this is clearly a writing blog, so why would you ask me what I think about your headcanon? I don’t consider those asks rude or anything, I just don’t get it. I did answer one a few years ago in good faith and the end result was a troll who didn’t like my answer and proceeded to sink their teeth into me and wouldn’t let go for nearly two years, just pouring nastiness into my asks here and comments on AO3. So I don’t answer those any longer.

I’ve had some people spend a great deal of time trying to convince me that Mako is not gay (for various reasons, including Makorra or Masami, or dislike of Wu, or who knows). I mean, you do you, you are entirely welcome to your own opinion but I have no idea what would possess someone to actively look up a specific Wuko fic and then tell me why I am wrong. I wish I had that much free time, I really do. No really. I do.

I will say that my ultimate favorite, so far, was the reader who informed me that I had way too many OCs in my fic (and went on to tell me why that was a Bad Thing) and asked me why I couldn’t just stick to the canon characters, like Korra and Asami and Amon and Nuo.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Jason Voorhees x Freddy’sDaughter!Reader || Oneshot

Title: They Cuddles; Him, Her, and her Bottle of Hypnocil. 

Notes:

‘-There was something in her, something that was… pure horror. Everything you were supposed to watch out for. Heights, fire, shards of glass, snakes. Everything that his mom tried so hard to keep him safe from.’ - John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Inspired by the above quote.

Quick Background of Reader: You’re Maggies younger (Only a little) half-sister. (You were conceived and born shortly after he killed Loretta and your mother didn’t want you so you were pawned off to him so you were living with him until he was burnt by the Springwood Parents, whereas Maggie was of course taken away) (Pretend it was years between the time he was caught and the time he was killed)

Tried to write in Jasons POV, not sure how good it is, hah. 

I miiiiiiight have some ideas for future parts of this, this was adorable and sweet.

Plot: 

Just, Jason falling in so love with the enemies daughter who is so like her father - she’s loud, she’s hurt, she makes s t u p i d jokes and then laughs way too hard at them, she’s dangerous, - but who is gentle with him and kind. (She’s basically the type of girl Pam wouldn’t approve of at first but is so honest and kind that Pam cant help but begrudgingly like her eventually XD )

Warnings: Age gap? I mean it’s not a main plot point so you could ignore it but Jason and Freddy are similar in age so you’re young enough to be Jason’s kid too- but you’re in your 30’s-40’s so its okie. Fatherly trauma (Is that the right phrase?? Hah. You know what I mean) / Nightmare on elm Street survivor trauma also. Panic attack I think? Ends in fluff ^^ 

~~~

When you stayed a night in your van at that old, abandoned camp, you certainly didn’t expect to meet Jason. I mean, you weren’t surprised by his… abnormalities -referring to the fact that he’s dead. Not his deformities, - as much as you were how cute and sweet he was. And how well you two got on, after he tried to kill you.

And you don’t blame him for that! You trespassed; you get it. If you had known he was there and he had taken ownership of the area, then you would have asked before parking there.

When Jason had found a girl hidden away, sleeping in the back of a yellow van, he certainly didn’t expect that she would soon become so important to him. She was just another trespasser acting like a hoodlum -living! In! A! Van?! – in his general vicinity and of course, he didn’t like that.

Boring chase story short; He pushed your van over and there was a chase through the forest (You’ve never run that fast in your life, jesus christ. You can still feel the wind burn on your cheeks, that one rock under your bare feet that cut you and the energy rushing through your body pushing you forward anyway) and you leapt into the lake- waiting until he came in after you. And then when he did, you just screamed random nonsense, splashing around spastically at him until you hit a nerve that sobered him (Something about his mother). This is a technique you developed after you were given up to various foster homes after your father was burnt to death (And then also when he found you again) when stinky foster parents, foster siblings, bullies at school rando’s off the street wanted to put their hands on you, and that you mastered since. It works, evidently, with asexual zombie monsters too.

After that, you went back to your van and rap up your foot, thinking that at least the lake water cleaned up the cut on your foot, and then grumpily set up your bed on your window now since the van (Poor, dear Mandy) is now on its side thanks to the local undead jerk!

You hadn’t slept a wink the rest of that night, not because of the hulking mass of rotten flesh and a hockey mask that you knew was lurking somewhere close by, watching you, but because you weren’t about to waste an extra Hypnocil pill in one night. You just laid there, pillows propping you up and being bored. Staring at the ceiling, smearing various ugly pastel shades onto a page in your sketchbook, listening to the woods and imagining getting rawed by Danny Zuko were highlights. Then, when daylight finally broke out, you were finally, unhappily wondering how you were going to get Mandy back on her wheels, zipping up your jacket and looking at your beautiful pale-yellow Volkswagen.

You thinking what pain this would be to correct… and then having turned on your heel and went on a trek to the closest town to get some kind of breakfast. Procrastinating the inevitable.

When you had returned, a bag of groceries in your arms -drink propped on top of everything else so you could sip through the straw as you walked,- , your van was back on her wheels.

You don’t know what it was about you that made him do that, that made him stop and not kill you, and its likely you’ll never find out since he doesn’t talk, after that you had gone directly to find the - cute, now, -behemoth you knew fixed it for you, to make and give him fairy bread to say thank you and sorry for what happened last night- and honestly you’ve been friendly ever since. More then friendly, after a while, but never less then.

___TIME SKIP: Current time now. Months and months after you met___

~ POV Change~

Oh my god.

The second I see that the familiar bottle, the one from Typo with the Coca Cola logo on it that reminds me absolutely zero percent of my father that I keep Hypnocil pills in is not where I left it, a deep sense of dread and anxiety fills me up to the brim- only proceeding to grow outwards to the air around me as I search in an increasingly more panicked fashion for the thing. Where is it!? Where is it, where is it, where is it. “Where, where, where, where, where, where- “

I fling a pillow out the back of the van and am just bundling up the blankets, not caring what else goes with it to push out as well so I can find that fucking bottle when I notice Jason standing there at the back doors watching me, head tilted. I immediately stop what I’m doing, heart stopping for a second. “Lost something.” Is all I can squeak out.

He leans forward and I watch as I bends down so his head and upper body are in here with me and looks around, then up at me again as if to ask what I’m looking for so he can help me. “I-Its, um… “ My voice trembles. I need to find that bottle- the fact that Jason is being so sweet and offering to help me look just makes me feel even less together. I could cry. “A r-red bottle with umm, curly writing on it?” He probably doesn’t remember what coke is, much less the logo…

He nods, and starts looking around, eyes focused and slow as the graze along everything in the van so studiously that I stay extra still instead of helping- so he doesn’t miss anything with that super-vision he’s acting like he must have. The vans a mess and I’m just kneeling in the corner, against the driver’s seat with the blankets all bundles up in my lap, worrying my bottom lip and waiting for this man to save me. Please, jesus- help me. Save me.

A moment later and I’m about to slowly move from my place and Jason suddenly moves. His heavy arm shoots forward and pulls the bottle, a tubular shock of red, out of a nook between my portable DVD player/screen and some books and I was showing him earlier, offering it to me.

Dropping the blankets and sitting on them instead, feeling the softness on my bare legs and taking the bottle from him before hugging it to my chest and covering my face with my hands, silently.

Oh my god.

~POV Change~

Y/N curls up on herself, hiding her face and the bottle between her legs and her tummy and doesn’t make much noise except a quick, quiet whimper. She’s acting different, in a bad way. Why isn’t she talking to him, Jason wonders? Why isn’t she being loud? Is she okay?

Looking around the van, because he has to go in there and see if she’s okay- get her out of that body-cocoon, Jason crawls into the vehicle that he’s never dared to touch since the first night they met, and it breathes under his weight a little bit. He sits down next to her, crossing his legs and watching her for a while. What… to do… now… hmm…

Finally, he decides putting his hand on her shoulder might work to get her attention at least, and she does relax her shoulders quickly at the contact. Then looks up, face red, at him before wiping her face again and crawling suddenly into his lap. She takes a deep breath, regaining some of her usual colour and composure as Jason just sits solid and c o m p l e t e l y still beneath her, flashing him a quick, toothless smile. “Thank you for finding this Jason, it’s important to me.” She looks at the bottle in her hands, not wanting to put it down and risk losing it again even as she knows its irrational that she would do it twice in a row. “Its… how I keep him away… “

Y/N looks up at Jason, eyebrows risen up her forehead to watch him cautiously, worriedly, looking for signs. Did he understand what you were talking about? And if so, is he okay at the mention of your father?

He’s just completely unmoving still. Y/N blinks at the utter lack of responce. “Jason?”

When she still doesn’t receive a response, she taps his mask gently. “Jaaaason?”

That gets his attention, as he looks down at her face… and nods. A wonky smile that makes his somehow-still-beating heart flutter weirdly appears on her face and she looks outside instead. “So, what did you come to see me for? Ya just missed me? Hah, I missed you too cutie. How about we go for a walk? Its pretty today- ah.” When Jason’s big arms suddenly, slowly take action and wrap heavily around her, she’s pleasantly surprised. Her anxieties and panic from earlier all but slip from their knot in her chest and disappear at the action, and she responds by turning properly to her side in his lap so she can lean into his chest. “Oor we could cuddle. That sounds better anyway!~”

She taps the side of his face affectionately before closing her eyes, and he lets his own half lid themselves at the feeling of her so close to him. She’s so cute and warm. Its weird, but he thinks- if someone were to come right now in this moment, and not be loud and not do anything to Y/N or him… he would probably let them go.

(Well at least until he let her go.)

[allbrows04]

I forced my Hindu/Desi mom to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender- A Saga

I think this is one of the funniest things that have ever happened to me and I have to record this experience somewhere bc I got a real kick out of it

first of all, I need to explain how I got her to watch in the first place:

so I was sitting in my room, and planning a Zuko animatic and doodling him in my sketchbook (I wanted to make an animation based on The Love Club by Lorde) and I realized that, unfortunately, I was going to have to draw Book one Zuko as well. So I’m sitting there, with my ipad propped up on the wall, with a HUGE image of this bald kid covering the entire screen for everyone to see. Right then my mom walked in the room and just,,,, she just froze. I swear she spent an entire minute looking from me to the screen. The first thing she manages when she regains the ability to speak was “what is t h a t?”

me: um- I was drawing him

my mom: you were DRAWING that?

then she just walks out in stunned silence. Whenever she passed by my in the house the next few days, she would just scrunch up the side of her face in mockery of his scar and I absolutely lost it every time. Eventually I mentioned that he happened to be from a really good show but obviously she didn’t want to watch anything that involved a boy who in her opinion, looked like an alien. I now present to you this meme I made at the time when I was telling my friend about the situation:

So eventually, I catch her when she’s SUPER bored and finally convince her to watch the first episode with me. Needless to say, we both cackled like madwomen when Zuko first came onscreen.

a few days later, we ended up staying pretty late watching. When we were about to go to sleep, she turns to me and goes: “so that boy Shikunzli(she pronounces it “shy-koon-zlee”) ... he’s a ... fire bender, right?

me: who?

my mom: you know who! Shikunzli! *scrunches up her face* that one

me: the angry bald one?

my mom: yes the weird one

So after five minutes of me absolutely losing my shit at like one am because my mom called my comfort character “Shikunzli“ I tell her that no, that is in fact not his name, and i try and get her to guess what he was actually called. I can’t really remember her guesses, but some honorable mentions are “Zuzu” and “Li”

so that’s how book one basically went.

Here’s how my mom referred to the characters throughout the show bc she can’t be bothered to remember names:

Katara: “the sister”

Sokka: “the brother”

Aang: “Avatar” but in the desi accent so it’s pronounced “Uhvathar” like how it’s supposed to be

Toph: “Thothulu” which translates roughly to “baby voice” I’m actually not sure if its an actual word or just something we made up. With my family it’s hard to tell

Zuko: “Shikunzli“ because I still don’t think she remembers his actual name

some memorable quotes from when we were watching the show(most of this wasn’t said in English so unfortunately a lot of snarky humor has been lost in translation):

--

my mom when King Bumi was introduced: *excited gasp while pointing at the TV screen* LIKE BHOOMI!!! BECAUSE ITS EARTH!!!

--

so “Appa” also means “father” in telugu so whenever he comes on screen we call my actual appa into the room and go “look!!!! its you!!!!”  he was very confused

--

Sokka, during the North Pole arc: Yue has an ARRANGED MARRIAGE??😨😱

my mom, who is literally married to my dad through an arranged marriage: oH nO hOw hOrRibLe

my mom, later on: oh so she’s going to run away from her arranged marriage. Like a wimp.

--

- she straight up started laughing in the middle of the episode where we learn where Zuko got his scar

- like I know he’s ugly but,,, have you no emotion?

--

iroh: Zuko, I have always loved you like a son

me, tearing up bc I’m a sucker for found family:

my mom: 😑😐

--

*during the blind bandit*

me: ok so this is my favorite one in the show

my mom: oh really? Why is that?

me: idk

--

Toph’s father: She’s just a little baby girl!

my mom, nodding: that’s exactly how i feel about you

my mom sitting there while Toph’s parents are portrayed as overbearing and restrictive: 👁👄👁

- but seriously I just like toph bc shes adorable and badass and I want to adopt her as my little sister even though she could beat the shit out of me

--

Iroh: You must not give in to despair. hope is something you give yourself-

my mom: *nodding sagely* in life, you-

me: do we have to do this right now

--

- both of us witnessed our boy Shikunzli yelling at the sky

- my mom called him dramatic and then we proceeded to sit there in absolute shock

- I literally started wheezing it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen

- we still make fun of that scene of his to this day

--

*Zuko passes out after making a good decision*

my mom: woah is he ok???

me: oh you thought he was dramatic before??? Just you wait

my mom: *offended gasp* don’t say that! He’s sick!

*several Zuko cutscenes later*

my mom: isnt this stupid guy‘s fever OVER YET???

--

*after Zuko wakes up in the morning and starts being nice to Iroh*

my mom: see why can’t you be more like that?

me, remembering how he’s going to betray everyone in a couple of episodes: you’ll see why

--

me, watching Toph beating the living shit out of some guards: she’s beating them with her tiny little hands 🥺

my mom: tiny little round hands 🥺💗

--

- my mom hated the ember island episode so much that she got up and started putting up our wallpaper while it was playing

- I don’t blame her I bet no adult can sit through an entire episode of melodramatic teenage angsting

--

my mom while watching Iroh give his nephew the silent treatment: ouch 😬

--

my mom seeing sparky sparky boom boom man: ITS S H I V A N

me: I know

my mom: why are they?? Taking our things???

--

My mom at some point during Zuko’s redemption arc: oh he’s just like a typical Hindi movie protagonist

--

- I started tearing up during the scene where he apologizes to Iroh while she just sits there and goes “pshhh i expected that”

--

- while Azula was cutting her hair during her mental breakdown she runs a hand through her diy quarantine haircut and goes “yeah that’s exactly what i did to my hair”

--

*during the very last scene*

my mom: *obnoxious fake kissing noises* close your eyes

me: aren’t I a little too old for that?

my mom:

*Katara and Aang continue smooching as I look away*

my mom: aren’t they done yet?

my mom:

my mom: why- why is it so intense?

[ncfan-1]

K, M, and P for the meme please :)

This got long.

K - What character has your favoritedevelopment arc/the best development arc?

Ibelieve that one of the last few times I played this meme, I answered LondoMollari from Babylon 5. I still standby believing he has a fantastic character arc (And if you’re curious about Babylon 5, it’s a fantastic show, and he’sone of the best parts of it). A lot of people, I know, would put Zuko down forthis one. But having replayed KOTOR 2 recently, I think the Exile (when youplay Light Side) has a great character arc throughout the course of the game.Granted, this is kind of dependent on player choices even beyond being LightSide, and is kind of dependent on my head canon, but me, I play that game andwatch a broken-down, apathetic woman regain her sense of purpose, refuse to letgo of it again, and save the galaxy in the process. The whole game is heremotional journey, and it’s incredible to watch.

M - Name a character that you’d like to havefor a friend.

IdrilCelebrindal, and also her husband, Tuor, from the Silmarillion would both make very good friends, I think. Idril iswise and perceptive, and Tuor is optimistic and determined.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (wealways need more ideas).

(Thisactually happens to be a fic—or fics—idea I’m planning on writing eventually.)

Okay,after the events of KOTOR 2, the Exile—Kalani—goes looking for Revan. Atton’salong for the ride, because no matter what TOR or that novel have to say on the matter, the trajectory of the game wasdefinitely pointing towards him going with her. So it’s them in the Ebon Hawk, with T3-M4 and HK-47.

Theystop at Citadel Station to drop off everybody else, since as it happens,everybody else has other plans (Asides from rebuilding the Jedi Order, that is;it’s an important goal for them all—asides from Mandalore, and maybe Atton andMira—but secondary to their concerns right now). Bao-Dur’s getting back in withthe Telos Restoration Project. Mira’s heading back to Nar Shaddaa to settle oldaffairs there, and for other reasons that she doesn’t want to share with therest of them. Visas has hitched a ride with Mandalore and the Mandalorians backto Dxun; why, no one but her and Canderous really seem to understand. Mical isresuming his search of various Jedi Academies across the Outer Rim, and he’sbeen given clearance to enter the Temple on Coruscant, so he’s going to gothere and see if anything can be salvaged (He’s also planning on readying it asa base of operations for what admittedly is going to wind up being an extremely decentralized new Jedi Order).They’re also dropping off the HK-51 droids that showed up out of nowhere on theship after they were done on Malachor V, much to everyone (sans HK-47’s)relief.

Kalaniinsists on taking Atris with them in the EbonHawk. Atris isn’t really good to be left to her own devices right now—thoughKalani is more worried about Atris doing harm to herself than others—and needssupervision. There’s also the matter of getting her away from all of those Sithholocrons, and figuring out what to do with them (Kalani is seriouslycontemplating putting them in a box and letting them drift into the neareststar; it seems the safest way of disposing of them). Brianna is coming alongfor the ride, too. Atris had sent the other Handmaidens home to Eshan, buttheir family wouldn’t take Brianna, thanks to the stigma against children bornout of wedlock in their culture, and the fact that Yusanis is no longer aliveto shelter his youngest child. Brianna doesn’t really have anywhere else to go,so the Ebon Hawk and the search forRevan is her only real option.

Somebodyelse hitches a ride on the Ebon Hawk atTelos: Bastila. Carth can’t join the search, as much as he would like to.Revanasi is not part of my fic head canon, though I don’t mind the ship itself.Instead, I imagine their relationship as being rather like Marlin and Dory’s inFinding Nemo and Finding Dory, and a good quote for it would be Guinan’s from TNG’s ‘TheBest of Both Worlds’: “closer than friends, closer than family.” Carth ishorribly, intensely worried about Revan—whose post-brainwashing name is Jìngyī Yuen—buthis duties in the Republic fleet don’t allow him to leave to go looking forher. Bastila is also horribly, intensely worried about Jìngyī; she wants to findher, bring her home, and she feels that the bond the two of them share mightallow her to help Kalani in the search.

It’s…not a fun trip.

Atton,as you can imagine, is extremely tense with Bastila and especially Atris on board, worried of one or both of them digginghis past out of his head. He and Kalani have an understanding that what theyspoke of was between them, and Kalani agrees that it would be bad, really bad, if Atris found out, even asshe is now. Atton is okay with Kalani; he’s okay with Bao-Dur, with Visas andMira, even somewhat okay with Mical nowadays. But he is not okay with Atris and Bastila, especially as, to him, they’reboth the embodiment of the Jedi who could not give less of a fuck as the OuterRim burned during the Mandalorian Wars, but were more than happy to try to tearthe galaxy apart during the Jedi Civil War. He avoids Atris and tends to becool, bordering on hostile, towards Bastila.

(Thefact that Atris is his girlfriend’s ex doesn’t help matters. He knows thatrelationship is stone dead, but the fact that the two women still have suchstrong reactions towards each other, pretty clearly still have feelings for oneanother, well… Atton is both more than a little insecure, and more than alittle worried for Kalani’s well-being.)

Kalaniis still recovering from everything that happened with Kreia, and the idea thatshe is a Wound in the Force and may or may not be unconsciously psychicallydominating her companions is weighing heavily on her mind, even with Micaltrying to reassure her that the Council was full of shit and were so ready tochalk up every success of hers to her being a Wound in the Force that they didn’teven take into account that she is genuinely a very inspiring person withouttaking the Force into account. Her history with Atris complicates mattersfurther; all the old wounds there, the scar tissue slowly pulling open.

Andthere’s the fact that she’s dreading having to meet with Revan again. She knewRevan the legend much better than she knew Revan the person. They didn’t getalong very well, and there’s the fact that Revan basically set Kalani up to beeither killed or turned to the Dark Side at Malachor V; I feel like evenwithout HK-47’s comment about Revan ‘cleaning house’ at Malachor V, she couldprobably have extrapolated that. Kalani isn’t like Bastila. Kalani doesn’t knowJìngyī Yuen, redeemed; she only knows Revan, whom she once idolized, and whonow inspires mingled fear and loathing in Kalani. Kalani is trying to trackdown Revan because she believes that that’s what’s best for the Republic, butthat doesn’t mean she has to like it.She and Bastila, who was close to Jìngyī, after all, get into arguments aboutit from time to time.

I headcanon Bastila as having once been a student of Atris’s. I’ve noticed as I playthrough KOTOR I that she has some mannerisms in common with Atris—the way she gesticulateswhen she talks, for instance. Her tendency towards dogmatism, her (stronglyimplied) isolation from her peers, going far beyond what I would expect fromeven a Jedi, and the fact that Bastila is frankly the most tightly-wound personI have ever come across in a piece ofStar Wars media, have Atris’sfingerprints all over them. I imagine Bastila as having come under Atris’s careafter the Mandalorian Wars broke out and Kalani left to fight. Atris would havebeen a stern teacher even at the best of times, but after this happened, yeah,Atris was not the sort of person who should have ever been put in charge of a child, especially not a naturallyhigh-strung child like Bastila probably was to start with.

MyBastila actually left the Jedi Order a few months after the events of KOTOR I.She had a strong desire to proactively go good that she had no outlet for nowthat the Jedi Civil war was over and the Jedi were expected to file back totheir surviving Enclaves and Academies, withdrawing from the affairs of the galaxyat large. She had questions for the Council that they had no answers that theywere willing to give her, like why they’d been treating Bastila more like aweapon than a person over the last several years. And Bastila had noticed adifference in the way she was treated post fall and redemption, a differencethat made her feel even more isolated and alone than she already had.

Soyeah, Bastila left the Jedi Order, and proceeded to become the second personthat year to have a nervous breakdown/existential crisis in Carth Onasi’sliving room (I head canon Jìngyī and Bastila both as having crashed with Carthafter they, independently of one another, left the Jedi Order after the eventsof KOTOR I). Bastila’s feelings towards the Order are extremely complicated.She wouldn’t have left if she had felt like she had any real choice, if she hadeven the slightest chance for a life she felt like she could actually live with them. She has no lightsaber,and is no longer part of the Order, but verymuch still considers herself a Jedi. After a while of trying, to no avail,to find a job (life in the Order left her extremely ill-equipped for lifeoutside of it), she, with Carth’s help, gets involved with the planetaryrestoration efforts, and being able to do real, active good helps her come toterms, somewhat.

As forher relationship with Atris, Atris came down on Bastila pretty hard after herfall and redemption, but when Bastila actually left the Order for good? Then,the two of them had a truly horrific falling-out, nearly as bad as Kalani’sfalling-out with Atris was, minus the added complication of a previousromantic/sexual relationship. So for the two of them to have to be on the sameship at the same time is, umm, not pleasant for anyone.

Atrisis not murderous, and understands that what she did, regarding the Order,Katarr and Kalani, was wrong, but she is extremely brittle, extremelyshort-tempered, and just kind of broken. She rarely ventures out of the starboarddormitories, and just tends to sit on one of the beds, staring at the wall. Shecan be coaxed into speech, can be coaxed into ‘life,’ but something’s justsnapped inside of her—or, rather, something snapped in her a long time ago, andshe’s just now realizing it, just now feeling it. She’s not sure how to makeamends for everything she’s done, not sure if she even can, and this uncertainty leaves her paralyzed. She gets intobitter arguments with Bastila, into screaming matches with Kalani that leaveone or both of them in tears.

Briannais just sort of left to cope with her surrogate mother having completely fallenapart, and with her surrogate mother’s ex-girlfriend and ex-student being onboard and all of the messy baggage that comes with that. There’s also heremerging Force Sensitivity, and her desire to explore that clashing with thevows she swore.

Juhanimay or may not join the crew at some point. Yuthura Ban, too. This is really, really not a fun trip, and it’s only thedroids who aren’t dealing with baggage.

That’snot to say it’s unrelenting fear, tension and misery. There are a few softerspots.

Kalaniand Atton, with the events of their game taken care of, actually have time todevelop a romantic relationship. PDA freaks Bastila out like nothing else can,which is annoying, but it freaks her out in such an amusing way that they almost don’t care. Kalani and Bastila, whenthey aren’t arguing about Revan/Jìngyī, find common ground commiserating overtheir miserable relationships with Atris. Brianna gets kind of starry-eyedwhenever she speaks to Bastila and especially Kalani, and when the matter isbrought up, Atris is surprisingly okay with the two of them teaching Briannathe ways of the Force; Kalani and Bastila find further common ground inteaching Brianna. If Juhani’s on board, she and Bastila are of course friendlywith one another, and they support each other emotionally. If Yuthura is onboard, she actually gets on fairly well with Kalani and Atton both. Atriscan occasionally be persuaded to come out of the starboard dormitory and spendnon-miserable time with Kalani, Brianna, and/or Bastila.

Whenthey actually find Jìngyī, well… It’s a mess. Partially because Jìngyī is,herself, a complete, fucking mess of a person. Her memories are fractured; sheremembers that Revan found evidence of a Sith Empire beyond the Rim, but solittle beyond that that she’s just stuck searching worlds in Unknown Space fortraces of it. Her sense of identity is fractured. She remembers only bits andpieces of her life before being brainwashed and having the false memoriesimplanted; there are huge, gaping holes in memory. My Jìngyī basically fellapart after the events of KOTOR I, because with the Star Forge destroyed, therewas nothing to distract her from her crawling fears regarding Revan and her ownidentity. Her mental state can be best summed up by the phrase “afraid to sleepbecause every time she does she fears that she will never wake up again, butthat the shadow in the back of her mind will wake up and walk away wearing herskin.” ‘Revan’ feels more like a shadow to her than something, someone she actually was, once. It wouldhelp if her implanted memories had more substance to them, but they’re onlybare bones; they were designed that way, the better to avoid inconsistenciesshe might pick up on (And thinking about a life she never really lived ispainful and confusing anyways). She’s desperately trying to find traces of the SithEmpire almost more because she needs a distraction from her crawling fears thanbecause she’s trying to protect the Republic.

Kalaniwants to hate her. She is, when she finds her, genuinely extremely frustratedwith her, and loses her temper with her easily (Atton is genuinely surprised,but this is easily the angriest he’s ever seen her get). But she can’t hate Jìngyī, because she’s not theterrible, towering figure she remembers. She’s just a frightened, miserablewreck of a person who’s trying in her own fumbling way to do good. She can’tremember Kalani at all. She can’t remember using and using Kalani, and thenbreaking and throwing her away once she wasn’t useful anymore. Bastila has toexplain to Jìngyī who Kalani is and why she should know her. And it’s not goodbecause, oh, look, here’s yet anotherpiece of closure permanently denied to Kalani, but she just can’t bring herselfto hate someone so genuinely pitiable,and that’s just the story of Kalani’s life, having to find a way to move onwhen closure is denied her. Jìngyī is eventually wrangled onto the Ebon Hawk and carted back off toRepublic space. It’s easier than Kalani thought it would be.