#basically i liked to put blue in a bunch of excruciating situations just to see him tough it out

[reshoravian]

recently have rummaged through a bunch of four swords writing i made in middle school 10 years ago and it's honestly better than whatever ideas that swim in my head today wtf

[roaringheat]

Wait so what happened to barrett, pleasE, i want to know more!

Im so happy you asked holy shit

Under a read more cause it’s just as long as the last one lmao

I really should have done this before talking about Morgan but im doing it now i guess!! So, starting over again, Barrett goes into the woods to experiment with plant photography cause Morgan likes the outdoors and Barrett wanted to gift him those plant photos as a kinda thank you for the camera thing. I also want to mention that both Barrett and Morgan are in their early to mid 20s rn. He’s wandering and taking pics along the way when suddenly he spots a big bush of pink marigolds. The kind of marigolds that are bigger and have a bunch of smaller ruffled looking petals. He’s immediately intrigued and he doesn’t know exactly why but he starts walking towards it. He’s never seen pink marigolds before and there seemed to be some kind of glow about them so because of that, he crouches down to get some close up pics. The bush suddenly lashes out, immediately grabbing hold of him and dragging him in and thorns that weren’t there before are now suddenly digging into his skin. At this point, he’s thrashing around and being pretty loud which catches the attention of someone named Muriel as she steps into view. She’s a black woman in her late 30s who could be described as a “witch” kind of but i dont really think that term suits her. She’s brandishing an axe covered in charms, got this iridescent cloak sort of outfit, has some gold lines on her face, and both her eyes are this solid dark blue. No pupils or anything. But yea she happens upon this scene cause she was out on a routine check to find and destroy things that have gotten mutated due to the “magic” she does in her house nearby. This plant in particular had basically mutated pretty far to the point where it became basically a carnivore. The reason Barrett was attracted to it so quickly was,because of the mutation, the plant could attract/lure humans and some animals within reaching distance so it could attack and eat them. Everything caused by the mutation is the “glow” Barrett saw which was actually a faint pink aura, the ability to move, and the thorns which were used kinda like venom in the way that with enough of it its supposed to kill the victim quickly so that the attacker can eat with ease. So Muriel is feeling pretty responsible for Barrett being in this position so she goes over and gets him out of there and kills the bush with her axe. The plant managed to get a bit of the venom stuff in Barrett’s system so he’s weak and kinda just passes out after getting saved. Muriel hoists him over her shoulder and takes him back to her house a little further into the woods. She genuinely feels like shit for indirectly being responsible for this so she decides to keep an eye on him til he’s ok again. Barret wakes up in a spare shitty bed in Muriel’s place in the most excruciating pain he’s ever felt all over him as if his whole body was on fire. He launches himself out of bed but just drops to the ground again basically screaming. and Muriel bursts into the room and doesn’t know what to do but she sees him on the ground in pain and then notices he now has this pink aura around him and it starts clicking into place for her. Basically with the venom from the plant, its kinda like a zombie bite. The intent is to kill but if bitten and then left alive, the person would turn into a zombie. In this situation with the plant, the venom was never meant to turn others but yet since Barrett got the venom in his bloodstream and wasnt killed, the plant has basically grown in his body and given him all it’s abilities including some extra stuff. But yea back to the scene, he’s basically begging her to stop the pain in any way possible and so she knocks him out. When he wakes up the 2nd time, the pain is a lot more dull but now he’s freaking out cause he’s now noticing the pink aura and like he almost fuckin died and now he’s in some stranger’s house. Muriel explains to him all of what happened and Barrett is kinda a dick to her cause he absolutely doesnt trust her and i mean like he’s a white man in the 1920s. Ofc Muriel doesn’t take too kindly to that but she’s convinced if she lets him leave while he has no control over the shit that he got into, he’ll get killed. So he stays with her for about a year and eventually they warm up to eachother. That whole year, they both learn most of what exactly Barrett can do now. As far as appearance, his eyes have changed into this shimmery pastel pink and he’s gained that same pink aura that the plant had so his whole body looks tinted pink. They make him look pretty fuckin inhuman so Muriel teaches him how to suppress it so he look normal. It’s easy for him to do (just a bit uncomfortable) as long as he’s in a stable mental state and as soon as he stops holding it back, it’ll come right back out again. As for abilities, He can grow and control those marigolds branches/vines from his skin, heal quicker and more efficiently so he’s a lot harder to kill (although serious wounds can still take him a couple days to heal), and he’s gained the same attraction ability that the plant used to lure victims. This mainly makes people immediately trust him and easier for him to manipulate which comes into play a lot later on. Then they find another ability of his thats completely different than anything the plant had and this one is 100% my favorite. If Barrett is making physical contact with someone else’s skin, he can bring out the most recent emotion that person is feeling towards the person theyre looking at and like amplify it to the extreme. So like for example, if person A is mildy frustrated at that moment with person B and theyre looking person B, when Barrett uses that ability on person A, itll amplify that frustration and make person A suddenly extremely hostile towards person B even if they would never hurt person B normally. It always depends on the most recent feeling towards someone so a lot of the time Barrett has no way of knowing what he��s amplifying and which emotion will come out. Depending on how much effort he puts into using this ability, this effect can last from 15 minutes - an hour. Its harder for him to use it on anyone who isnt human so he has to put significantly more effort and usually wont last as long as it would on a human which i absolutely did on purpose cause i introduce more nonhuman characters later and its really cool. The way to tell if someone is under that effect (other than the abnormal behavior ofc) is that theyre eyes will turn the same shade of pink as Barrett’s are when he’s not holding everything back. The draw backs to using this though is that the more effort he puts, the harder it is for him to keep himself looking normal. So if he were to use that ability with like full force, he wouldnt be able to hold back the aura, eye color, or any branches growing from him. So basically he has to be real careful. Its really useful for fights/ self defense tho which i have a lot of scenes like that planned out. But yea Barrett and Muriel find this out cause he accidentally does it on Muriel during an arguement. Muriel is looking at Barrett at that moment and was currently feeling immense guilt for everything that happened to him so when Barrett accidently amplified that she just starts sobbing. It doesnt last long cause although Muriel is technically human, she has some powers herself due to “worshipping” this beetle god which is a whole nother story lmao. But yea anyway, Barrett learns how to control all his shit over that whole year staying with Muriel and once they both think he’s gotten a decent amount of control, Barrett goes back to normal society and brings Muriel with him since theyve gotten really close in that period of time. Muriel tells him not to tell anyone in fear that he’ll be hurt but he doesn’t really listen. And like you guys already know he goes to Morgan and then Virginia and tells them all about everything that happened. Virginia takes it a lot better than Morgan obviously. For a short period of time before Morgan starts going crazy, Barrett, Muriel, Virginia, and Morgan all become like a kind of friend group. Once Morgan starts getting paranoid and reclusive, it gradually falls apart. Muriel has been staying with Virginia since coming with Barrett back to society which is why she was there when the hitman Morgan hires is threatening Virginia. You guys know the basics of all of what happens next pretty much. There’s more scenes with Virgina in between this and Morgan’s death but they aren’t really major scenes. She does try a few times to fix everything with Barrett and Morgan but obviously it doesn’t work out. So skipping to after Barrett and Muriel flee, like i said Barrett is never caught cause ya know 1920s crime investigations were shit lmao. The murder does cause uproar for a while cause of how weird it is what with all the flowers and Morgan’s weird behavior before his death. and cause Morgan was almost famous. Barrett becomes pretty untrusting towards humans after this and as the years pass with Muriel he gets to the point of just straight up hating them and hating being referred to as one. I have ideas for events that happen in between the 1920s and modern times for Barrett and Muriel but don’t have anything set in stone yet. Around late 1920s early 1930s they discover that Barrett’s aging has also been affected. At this point they dont know how much but its obvious hes gonna have a longer life span than most humans. Barrett gets really upset thinking about out living Muriel and basically begs her to work some “magic” so she’ll live longer cause she’s pretty much the only person he trusts completely. Muriel says no cause tampering with the natural cycle of things rubbed her the wrong way. They get into an argument where Barrett is mainly just pleading with her and she storms out. While she’s out tho she decides to do it for him and arranges some stuff to pause her aging until she decides to let it keep going again. There’s drawbacks to this kinda magic of course but i still havent decided what exactly. So basically after this point her body stays aged in her early 40s. Years past and its modern times and Barrett and Muriel are now a little over 100 years old. Barrett’s only aged about 15 years since now he looks to be in his early 40s as well. He’s definitely adapted with the current life style a little bit but still really keeps an old timey way of speech and clothing style. He’s changed a bit personality wise due to being alive so long tho. Him and Muriel have become very nihilistic. Barrett still really resents humans especially with how his attraction ability makes them all so trusting of him and predictable which has gotten boring for him. He’s kinda gotten a bit of a superiority complex due to believing he’s above humans in every way but learns to be charming and fake nice around them to not raise suspicion. Then they meet those 2 nonhuman ocs i briefly mentioned earlier! I got a lot of plot stuff for modern times as well as currently working on figuring out more stuff for Muriel and Barrett back in the 1930s and 40s but this has gotten insanely long and probably more than you even wanted to know so ill leave it at that!

[begrudgingly-i-care]

Chapter Nine: Secrets

    “What. Is. Your. Name?” The Fire Nation woman is back, looking and sounding aggrieved. Good. Sokka remains stubbornly silent, tied to a chair and staring at the metal floors of the ship. This cell sucks . She sighs. “Look, kid.” She pulls a chair out in front of him, sitting down. “I can appreciate your silence; it’s kinda commendable, if misguided. But do you really think that keeping silent about something like your name is gonna work out well for you? Commander Zhao can and will torture you for information if you don’t give it freely. The only reason he hasn’t already is because you’re a woman.” Right, still wearing the Kyoshi warrior gear. Maybe he should keep it on foreseeable future-- he’s not big on pain. “Choose your battles, kid.”

    Sokka is surprised to find the compassion in her frown lines, to see the hesitance in her brown eyes. He remembers his father, telling him to always keep quiet in situations like these, saying that speaking is traitorous. He remembers his mother, who was sly and cunning and told him that a good strategy is the way to win any battle. He remembers, and he makes a decision.

    He feels sick as he does it, he feels disgusted with himself. He feels proud.

    He always has been more like his mother, hasn’t he?

    “Sakura.” There’s an Earth Kingdom tradition of naming nonbending children after plants, something about bringing them closer to the earth. There was also a tradition like this among airbenders that he’d read about--

    (Not many books make it to the Southern Water Tribe, but Sokka and Katara eat them up. Sokka wants to know the world, wants to see how things work and create something beautiful with that. Katara reads and loves sappy things, but she always gets so angry. “Look!” she screams. “Look at this! They’re STILL hurting people!”)

    (A veil trickles down to her feet, surrounding the girl-child. A mist drifts in the wind, wafting and dancing around the Spirit and the girl. “Keep that anger,” the Spirit bides, “it will serve you well.” And it walks off, fizzling into the cold sea.)

    --but Sokka shoves the thoughts of young airbenders away, because there’s only one now and he has to do this for him. For the whole world.

    “And your last name?”

    Shit. Sokka hadn’t thought that far. He barely managed to stop himself from saying “Earth” but it’s a close thing. By close thing he means, “Kun. My name is Sakura Kun.” Kun, which basically just means earth . He wants the ground to swallow him whole.

    “Sakura Kun, huh?” The woman scoffs. “Well, at least your name is in the Fire Nation arrangement.” Sokka nearly choked on his next breath. The Water Tribe didn’t really do last names. You were the child of parents , and that was that. He’d forgotten that the Earth Kingdom usually arranged their names by family name and then the given name.

    It’s an effort to keep his voice even and to pitch it slightly higher without quite reaching a falsetto to sound a bit more feminine, but it’s energy he’s willing to expend if it means getting information. He thinks he can work with this woman, somehow. She doesn’t seem as malicious as the others, and Sokka is more than willing to manipulate that to save his own hide from dirty Fire Nation soldiers. “And yours?” 

    The woman tilted her head. “My what?”

    “Your name, lady. Jeez. What else would I be asking in this context?”

    The woman looked surprised, but Sokka had to refrain from breaking out of the ropes and throttling himself. Don’t antagonize your captors, you idiot! The Katara in his head is wailing in agony at his stupidity. He scowls. He can’t escape her even when she isn’t there.

    “My parents were hoping for a boy, so my name is Huojin Rong, I’m the Chief Engineer aboard this ship, but you may call me Chief Huo if you must shorten my given name.” She heaved a sigh, which drew Sokka’s attention to her armor: more leather than metal, far more flexible. He eyed the calluses on her hands. Yes, he’d been lucky fighting her once, he doubted the path of blunt force would treat him so well a second time. “ But ,” Sokka’s attention snapped right back to her eyes. (“Always look the enemy in the eyes, Sokka.” his father cautioned. A lone wolf-- a terrible tragedy, his tribe knew-- cried to the night sky, its howl ripping through the swaths of stars and begging to be found. White as snow and grey as an ash stain, eyes black as the void that sucked all things in, the Spirit of the wolf towered behind him, reminding him of his smallness, of his power, as he looked at the moon that sung through him the way its blue light sang through the waves.)

    “But if you dare leave off my title, if you disrespect me…” She scowled and the heat in the room surged, and Sokka began to sweat not only from the humidity but also the raw fear . He felt like he was nine and his sister was screaming and there was blood and death and fire all around him . “I will show you what happens to those who dishonor me.”

    “Of course I won’t disrespect you uh, Chief Huojin.” He cleared his throat because no he had not squeaked, damnit, and then paused. Okay, he still had to build a rapport, gain some trust. Maybe a more original nickname would be endearing? He didn’t understand this whole espionage thing. Was this espionage? He was trying to make a soldier defect, so probably? Okay, focus, Sokka. Focus Sakura. “Would calling you Chief Jin be alright?”

    There was a long period of silence where the woman just stared and Sokka tried desperately not to sweat. 

“Very well.” Chief Jin stood up, placing the chair back in the corner. “I will be back to ask more questions later.”

“Wait, that was it?” He was expecting something more, like maybe how he had ended up with the Avatar. But. Well. What?

She smirked and her eyebrows quirked up, “As I said, more questions later. I think the General is trying to find out if you are related to anybody wealthy. With a last name like Kun and considering you lived on Kyoshi, probably not.”    

  ㊌Hours of Being Tied Up And Bored Later㊏

  “Ah, Miss Sakura. Lovely to see you again.” Zhao opens the metal door to Sokka’s cell. Okay, fine. It’s more of a really sparse room, but he’s trapped in it all the same.

It takes far too much effort for Sokka not to snap wish I could say the same . Instead, he chokes out, “What do you want, Zhao.”

“Ah, ah, ah.” The man tsks , walking forward with slow, heavy steps. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. His right hand snaps out to grab Sokka by his chin. “That’s Commander Zhao to you. Though, I suppose a traitor like yourself wouldn’t have been taught many manners, would you?” The tone he uses is almost pitying, but there’s a malicious tilt to his smile and the grip of his fingers on Sokka’s chin becomes bruising.

Sokka averts his eyes, but he notices that Zhao’s left hand is heavily bandaged. He shoves down his smug expression. Pride can wait for safety. And then he’s gonna gloat.

“Now, here I heard you were back to talking.” He pushed Sokka’s face away, standing back. He put his arms on either side of Sokka’s chair, making sure they were both eye-to-eye and that he was above Sokka. Looming. “We speak when spoken to, clear.”

Sokka’s expression was flat. He wouldn’t be overly pushy with Zhao, would hold back the sarcasm. But he refused to be cowed. “Crystal.” 

“Was that so hard?”

Excruciating.

“See,” the man straightened up, pacing idly a few feet in front of him. “I think a few things in your story don’t add up.”

You think? I’m surprised to hear that you’re capable of something so complex.

“For example,” he strutted closer, right hand hovering over Sokka’s face. “You have such exotic blue eyes. Dark skin, too. That doesn’t sound very Earthbender , does it. Sounds almost… water tribe. Care to explain.”

“My mother.” It all comes back to his mother. He channels her as best he can as he speaks. “I never got to meet her, or her side of the family. Dad refused to speak of her. And then…” He trails off. He makes sure to pull his brows in, to bite his lip, to curl his shoulders as much as he can while tied up. He looks confused. Lost. Pitiable. If Zhao is only refraining from outright torture because he believes Sokka is some fragile doll of a woman than Sokka figures it can’t hurt to play up to that.

“And then?” And oh, there is the interest Sokka wanted to get. Hook, line, sinker.

“Well, dad died when I was about eight. I was orphaned. I don’t remember much of the how, but a ship took me to Kyoshi because a bunch of other orphans were being taken there.”

“I’ve heard of something like that, but I didn’t realize the extent…” Sokka didn’t trust that gleam in his eyes. “You’re saying you might have water tribe blood in you?”

“I might.” He needed to spin this, needed to leave some sort of question. Something that would keep Zhao looking, but not looking too hard. “My last name wasn’t always Kun. It was never used when I was young, so I didn’t have an answer to give when the governor asked…”

“Interesting.” The man had sat down, directly across from him. His head was tilted and his right hand was grazing his jaw. Sokka hoped interesting was good for Sakura’s cover. Sokka hoped this pose was a type of curiosity that would save him until he could escape.

“Commander Zhao!” 

“What is it?” And Sokka hated how poised the man sounded, how he lounged in the chair that looked like it was made to be uncomfortable. How at ease he was, like Sokka wasn’t a threat.

He weakly pulled against the bindings. He wasn’t a threat. At the moment. (The Wolf strikes under the cover of night, with only the Moon as guidance. Around him, his pack growls. Soon. They will strike soon.)

“We’ve arrived at port.”

The man grinned, malice in his dark eyes. His armor clink ed as he stood up. “Excellent. Now untie the prisoner. She comes with us. We must begin preparations at once.” He left the room, all smirks and arrogance that Sokka desperately wanted to throttle.

“Uh, hey. Guy.” The man untying him did not pause, nor make any other acknowledgement of his presence. “Um. Where are we? I just think it’d be neat to know and all and it’s not like I can use this information for nefarious purposes for anything considering the circumstances and--”

“Omashu. We’re stopped at Omashu.”

Sokka had no idea where that was or why they would be stopped here. “Neat,” Sokka said. Neat, neat, neat. Great. Well, new place, new escape attempts-- isn’t that how the saying goes?

  ㊋

  Zuko was holding Kryo so that they were back-to-chest, the boy’s legs dangled over his arms, and he stood by the edge of the ship. The sun was just rising and the sky was painted muzzy purples and pinks. Kryo was too weak to walk or stand for long, although physical therapy would help him recover from his muscle atrophy. Unfortunately, no full recovery could be met until he saw a proper Healer.

“Dad, set me down please? I can’t brood properly if you’re holding me like a baby.” Kryo might have been complaining, but he relaxed deeper into Zuko’s hold, facing his caretaker with a smile.

“It’s not brooding.”

“Right, right. It’s contemplative posturing , right?”

Zuko huffed. “Correct. I said what I meant and I meant what I said. You know that.” Cyrtanthus, in his uncle’s arms, flapped her unblemished left hand as she giggled. He scowled. “Anyway, what even am I?”

“Well, I don’t know if you’d like the answer I would give…”

“Oh, shut up, you small creature.” His lips twitched up and he forced them down at the laughter of his family. Family , and a warmth spread through him. “I meant you all keep switching up the terms. Am I your dad, your brother?”

“You’re our Zuko.” 

Zuko clutched the boy just a bit tighter, breathing steady. 

“And what am I to you, little spark?” His uncle’s voice was soothing, like the soft flickers of a candle flame. (And there was something monstrous flickering inside of him, wasn’t there? Iroh was not UnTouched by his travels. Flickers of autumn scales hissed along his consonants, cajoling his listeners. In his very Inner Flame, three legs with sharp talons flexed and black feathers ruffled, charcoal just waiting to burst. Iroh tamped these things down and smiled, but one set of the wings behind him stretched wide while the other wrapped around him, possessive.)

“You’re Uncle Iroh!”

Cyrtanthus burbled and cooed her agreement, smiling and nodding and flapping.

“I was, how did Kairos put it? The one about being born into something?”

“You were assigned uncle at birth!” The boy grinned, eyes crinkling. He was gold, gold, gold; the burnished kind, not the bronzed gaze of Zuko’s scarred eye or the guilty one that festered within his uncle’s laughter. “She’s right, you know. You’re the perfect uncle!” Sweet as honey, he continued, “You’re actually just perfect.”

“Oh, stop it.” Zuko’s uncle laughed, his cheeks stained a bashful red. He reached into Zuko’s arms to mercilessly tickle him, delighting in the shrieks of laughter and ignoring his pleas to stop, stop, I’m gonna bust a gut laughing! Cyrtanthus clicked her teeth twice in warning and, when no response was given, gave a final, decisive click of her teeth before yanking on her uncle’s beard. He yowled in pain, instantly halting his tickling assault. He looked at her frown, so obviously an expression borrowed from Zuko’s own repertoire, and was at a loss.

“Now why would you do something like that to poor old me, my precious Lily?”

“Can’t you tell? You’re the one who taught her manners.” Zuko was the one laughing now, shoulders shaking at the force it took to repress the uproarious sounds. When Iroh still clearly didn’t get it, he gave mercy. He owed his uncle that much, at least. “No means no, Uncle. Kryo said stop and you didn’t.”

“I did do that, didn’t I?” He ran his hand through the girl’s hair. “Thank you for correcting my behavior, dearest niece.”

“Prince Zuko, we’ve arrived.” It was Glim, her face set in determined lines. Suki was the one who pointed out the other Fire Nation ship already anchored by the harbor. 

“Omashu… You remembered what I said about unexpected allies, yes, Prince Zuko?” It was not a question. (Scales and feathers and teeth and beak and claws. Coiling, curling, ready to spring. Not yet , Iroh cautioned , Not yet. )

(The gold burned into each step, and the blue prepared to wither and take.) “Of course.”