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odyssean-flower · 4 months

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The Winding Path of Fate Bonus Chapter - The Kingdom of Sunflowers

Masterpost

Pairing: Neuvillette x Female Reader Summary: There once was a realm split in two. One was the domain of the sea, and the other was a kingdom of sunflowers. Tags: Voyeurism but it's wholesome (?), fluff, one-sied Note: This is set between Chapter 7 and 8 of The Winding Path of Fate. I've been working on this for so long that I don't know if it's good or not anymore haha Note 2: If you want to be on the taglist for this fic, please make a reply to this post, send a message or send a private ask

Have a pic of Neuvillette as some sort of byronic hero

The small, green sprouts. They were lined up neatly in three rows. You had tried to make them as evenly spaced as you could.

Their shiny, smooth leaves. You liked to rub them between your fingers and feel their fuzziness. The texture was pleasant to the touch.

The white pages of your notebook. They were filled with tables and daily measurements. Just scanning your eyes over them gave you a satisfied feeling.

Your worn pencil and ruler. They were trusty implements that had been with you for such a long time that you don’t even remember when you got them. You hoped they would continue to accompany you in the future.

The—

A prickle on the back of your neck. It was a bump in the train track of your thoughts. A train track you tried very hard to follow since you came out here half an hour ago.

The prickle was not the sting of an insect or a small stray object blown against your nape by the wind.

No, the cause was far more terrifying than both of those things.

You turned your head to the house, looking up at the second-floor window that faced the front yard. You had never been in that room before, and for good reason.

It was haunted.

A flash of white. The curtains fluttered shut.

The prickle on your neck came from a ghost’s lilac gaze.

The dining room of the house with a lovely view of the sea was, for most of its existence, quiet. Every once in a while, that quietness would be broken by the lively chatter of small creatures with bright eyes, but otherwise it was only used by the master of the house.

Recently, a change occurred. If the tranquility of the dining room was a perfectly still body of water that was broken by occasional loud splashes, then now there was a series of gentle ripples regularly making their way across the surface.

On this day, one such ripple formed. It looked to be a particularly large one.

“Monsieur Neuvillette, I’m afraid I have some troubling news.”

The ripple—in the form of a young woman’s voice—made its way to the other side of the table, where the master was sitting.

The cutlery he was holding dropped into his plate. “What is it, Madame? Has something happened? I will do everything in my power to help you.”

“On the contrary, sir, I think you are the one in need of help. Your study is haunted by a ghost.”

“...Pardon?”

“I saw a glimpse of it in the window today. I think it was staring at me when I was out making my sunflower observations. It almost gave me a heart attack when I saw it.”

“...”

The young woman carefully sliced a piece of steak and brought it to her mouth. The master was as still as a statue. For a few seconds, the water was as smooth as glass.

“I think you should do something about it. It’s quite troubling. Creepy, even.”

“...I-I’ll...see what I can do.”

“I’m very glad to hear that.”

The young woman finished her dinner, nodded to the master, and went to put her dishes away in the kitchen. The master didn’t stir. An outsider might mistake him for a flawless statue, if not for the gradually reddening tips of his ears.

The ghost did not disappear. In fact, it seemed to have grown bolder. It moved to the dining room now, which had a nice view of the front yard.

Perhaps there were some things that even the Chief Justice couldn’t do.

If even he couldn’t get rid of it, then you supposed there was nothing you could do except put up with it.

It wasn’t so scary. It was more amusing than anything, really.

The ghost wasn’t always there. It was missing from its usual post whenever there was a court case or a hectic day at the Palais Mermonia. It wasn’t as though it was missing much, though, considering how you just did the same thing in the garden every day: examine the sprouts, measure and record their heights, feel the moisture of the soil, make some sketches, and repeat the same thing in the back garden. Very thrilling entertainment, you were sure.

Maybe it wants to keep an eye on me to make sure I’m not ruining its garden, you mused as you lay on your side, studying the underside of a leaf. It makes sense. This garden belongs to it, after all.

Well, if the ghost wanted to bore itself to death (or whatever counts as death for a ghost) by watching you, then it might as well. You were a mere human with no power over it. But you had no intention of changing your routine for it either.

As for you, you decided to focus all your attention on what turned out to be a surprisingly engrossing project. You weren’t exactly an avid gardener, but you had fond memories of doing similar activities when you were a child and with the young students back in your hometown, which was where the sunflower seeds came from. It gave you a certain sense of pride to watch over them as they grew, slowly but surely, under your care.

Of course, it wasn’t all thanks to you. These sunflowers were of a specific breed, one that required plenty of water—about three weeks of constant watering—to ensure the seeds could germinate properly. In your region, sunflowers were usually planted just before the rainy season in order to take advantage of all the precipitation, but it was summer now—the rainy season had long passed.

You mentioned the matter to Neuvillette, who said he would see what he could do. You imagined that he would have sprinklers installed or something.

What you did not expect was the daily rains that came after you planted the seeds.

Each day, there would be two rounds of showers. One in the middle of the morning, when most people were at work or school, and one in the afternoon (strangely, it always ended around the time that Neuvillette came home). It was more like a faint drizzle than a shower, a light curtain of mist over the world. You didn’t even need an umbrella.

You were no expert on rain, but you couldn’t help but feel a sense of calculated deliberateness in the weather. The housekeeper remarked that it was quite out of season, more fitting for spring than summer.

Whatever the case, you were very thankful for it.

After the rain, the sun would come out brighter than ever, as though to make up for lost time. That was your favorite time to go into the garden. The heat of the sun’s rays shining down upon your back felt pleasant, and you swore that the scent of the grass and flowers after the rain had some sort of addictive quality to it.

Neuvillette never said anything about these suspiciously timely rains, so you didn’t either. But this mystery was something you turned over in your mind quite often.

You looked at the dining room window. The ghost was sitting at the table, reading a newspaper. You weren’t fooled of course. You could feel its gaze burning into the side of your head just a few seconds ago.

The ghost was staying within the dim shadows cast by the afternoon sunlight that streamed into the dining room. That was good. After all, you knew that it would fade away if it stepped outside. The ghost should really learn to leave things to other people and relax. You had already made it clear to him that the sunflowers were your responsibility, and that he should just wait patiently until they bloom in two months, so—

The ghost, seeming to sense your gaze, turned his head to you. Driven by a sudden vindictive urge, you gave a little wave and saw the ghost jerk a little in his chair. You stifled a laugh.

Who knew ghosts could be adorable?

The dining room continued to be full of ripples at dinner.

“Monsieur Neuvillette, the ghost has not gone away. In fact, it is now haunting the dining room.”

The young woman calmly took a sip of her stew and met the lilac eyes across from her.

“I’m very sorry to hear that, Madame. It troubles me greatly as well. I do know of one way to rid us of this ghost, though.”

“Oh, what is it? Why haven’t you done it yet?”

“That is because it requires your assistance.”

“What do I need to do?”

“Allow me to accompany you in the garden, of course.”

The young woman blinked. It was evident that she had not expected that direct appeal. “Why?”

“To make the ghost disappear.”

“But you know how long I spend outside in the sun. I can’t ask you to accompany me for so long, especially after a long day at work.”

“I’m not so fragile that I can’t withstand a bit of sunlight.”

“I can’t forget that expression on your face when you joined me in the back garden the last time. It was heartbreaking.”

“...Was it that terrible?”

“Yes,” the young woman nodded vigorously. “There’s nothing about what I’m doing that would necessitate you needing to accompany me, anyways. It’s incredibly dull work. You would have a far better time staying inside.”

There was a brief, weighted silence. The young woman shuffled her feet anxiously.

“I would not make such assumptions.” The master’s voice sounded more solemn than usual, a contrast to the lighter tone he normally used at home. “For one thing, you seemed to be enjoying yourself with this so-called dull work.”

“That’s because I—” She was cut off before she could finish her sentence.

“I won’t argue with you anymore, Madame. You need not worry. The ghost will disappear in due time.”

The rest of the dinner was spent in silence. But as they say, still waters run deep.

This is probably payback for how I was acting before, you mused to yourself as you rubbed one of the leaves between your fingers. I think I just have a really warped personality.

When you first moved in, you had been curious about him. But out of a desire to not disturb his life any more than you already did, you opted to watch him discreetly (or so you thought). It was an embarrassing time that you still blushed to remember even now.

But afterwards, you told him that you would like to be friends with him, and he agreed. Yet here you were...

Though the curtains were drawn now, you didn’t even need to turn your head to know that the ghost—no need for this pretense anymore, it was Neuvillette—was sitting in his usual spot behind the window. It was as though he was a cursed spirit, unable to move on from this world.

I thought we were somewhat alike...but I guess not. I just can’t tell what he’s thinking.

You sighed. You genuinely didn’t want him to force himself and to take it easy, but there was another aspect to it. The idea of someone wanting to accompany you in such a monotonous activity simply never occurred to you in the first place, so you automatically rejected it. You enjoyed solitude and doing things on your own. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that it was your natural state of being that you couldn’t quite break out of. If you had the choice to do something on your own or with someone else, you would go with the first option most of the time. It had become second nature for you to brush people off.

You assumed that Neuvillette was like you in that way, that he also felt more comfortable being in his own company.

But being comfortable with something...isn’t the same as liking it all the time.

Your throat felt a bit parched. “I need water...” you muttered to yourself. But just as you were getting up to go back into the house, the housekeeper Marie came out of the door with a cup of water.

“Monsieur Neuvillette thought you might be thirsty. He said that this was your favorite,” Marie said.

You stared at the clear liquid in the cup. It looked just like the water you’d get from the tap. Neuvillette had you taste a lot of samples from his collection—you probably said one of them was your favorite at some point. He remembered it, because of course he did.

You still didn’t really understand this whole water tasting business, but he always seemed so pleased when you asked him questions and wanted him to elaborate on the mouthfeel (or whatever it was). The way his eyes would light up, the way his voice would soften, made you want to keep going along with him.

Neuvillette, you were slowly learning, was a terribly sincere person. So sincere that it was a little embarrassing for someone as jaded and awkward as you.

He said it looked like you were enjoying yourself. What kind of expression did you make when you were outside with the sunflowers? Did Neuvillette see it?

What did it say about you that you liked that he saw it?

There’s probably something wrong with me...

You emptied the cup in one big swig. It tasted like regular water, but the taste lingered in your mouth long after you finished it.

You told him that you weren’t going to let the Chief Justice dig around in the dirt and that he should leave it to you. He didn’t understand why it was okay for you to get dirt on your clothes. He wanted to tell you that he had no qualms about getting stains on his clothes or even his hair if it was for your sake.

You told him to stay inside where it was cool and shady instead of keeping you company in the sun, where it was bright and hot. He disliked summer, though he always kept this opinion to himself because it was the favorite season of the citizens of Fontaine. It appeared that you were no exception. He thought he could put up with it a little. Maybe with regular breaks under the porch.

You told him that he should look forward to seeing the sunflowers when they bloom in a couple of months and that there was no need to be concerned about them right now. You would take care of them until then. Time had always been a trivial thing to a long-lived being like him, but now, it felt irritatingly omnipresent. Rather than being in the thrall of something so oppressive, he would rather while away the hours with you until that time came.

You were kind and considerate in your refusals. You shared your notes with him in the parlor. But you made it very clear to him.

This was your domain. Your kingdom for you alone to reign over and no one else.

Very well. If that was your wish, so be it.

But still, might I be allowed a small glimpse into it?

He supposed that he had no right to ask that. There were many things about his work, duties, and identity that he could never divulge to you or anyone else.

The window glass only refracted the bothersome sunlight in awkward angles. It irritated his eyes. He had to learn to position himself so that he could stay in the shadows and look at the garden at the same time.

If he had but one selfish wish, it would be that you might perform this work later in the day, when the sun was not quite so glaring and the air cooler. Maybe then, you would permit him to be by your side. But one thing he found both endearing and frustrating about you—you were stubbornly set in your ways when it came to the things you cared deeply about.

You wore a large straw hat with a floppy brim when you worked. He himself had no strong opinion on them, except for the knowledge that most of the ones he tried made him look faintly ridiculous. He was aware that they were popular among the fashionable ladies and gentlemen in the Court of Fontaine, popularized by Furina’s well-publicized love for them. He was familiar with the ordinance passed a few years ago that limited the heights of the hats in the opera house, on account of the complaints that they obstructed the view greatly. He liked the one you wore for your wedding.

But he couldn’t say that he was terribly fond of hats at the moment.

They really do obstruct the view...he thought as you pulled down the brim, hiding your eyes.

He saw your mouth scrunch in concentration as you stuck your ruler in the soil, carefully lining up the notches with the top of the plant. After you confirmed the height, you dutifully jotted down the number in your notebook. The corners of your mouth turned up a little, or was that just a trick of the light? Did the sunflower grow taller than you expected? Ah, how he wished he could see what gave you that look on your face.

Sometimes, you would lie down on your stomach. You brought a blanket outside for that reason. He was glad for that, since the grass was usually damp after the rain. It would distress him greatly if you caught a cold.

You seemed to enjoy feeling the leaves between your fingers. It feels really nice, you told him. He also started to rub the leaves when he left for work in the morning and found that he agreed with you.

The wind sometimes blew your hair into your face, and you would tuck your hair behind your ear, only to have the effort be in vain when the wind came again. His fingers would twitch on these occasions. He didn’t know why.

Once, he had almost leapt out of his seat when he heard you yelp and jump away from the sunflower plot. A bee had flown past your cheek.

Once, you went out to look at the garden when it was raining. It was when the first of the strange rains had begun. He directed his gaze to his house and saw you walking back and forth in front of the tiny seedlings like a general in front of rows of soldiers. The tiny raindrops looked like pearls in your hair. He had felt somewhat guilty about manipulating the elements to this extent and ruining a great many Fontainians’ day, but that guilt had mysteriously disappeared after he saw your sparkling eyes.

Neuvillette knew very well how pathetic and unnerving his actions were right now.

He understood that according to human etiquette, staring at people without reason was considered terribly offensive. He himself preferred to avoid the public gaze when he was off work.

In the early days of his interactions with humans, watching and observing was how he learned to fit into society. Humans had always fascinated him, but the nature of that fascination changed throughout the years.

Perhaps this is just the next stage of it, he mused.

From observing many humans from above to a single one in close proximity.

But he didn’t think he was learning anything. In fact, he found himself more confounded and self-conscious than ever.

Why do you sometimes smile and sometimes not? Why do you draw me closer sometimes and sometimes push me away? What should I be doing? What is this restlessness whenever I see you on the other side of the window...?

Perhaps this was what it was to form a bond with another person. Fumbling around in the dark, trying to figure out how each other worked, what was off-limits and what wasn’t.

The rays of sunlight momentarily disappeared. A passing cloud blocked the sun. Then another. Then another.

Ah...how troublesome...

Neuvillette anxiously glanced out the window. You seemed to have noticed the clouds as well, for you were frowning up at the sky.

He closed his eyes, trying to calm his roiling emotions. But the worry that he would ruin your day only added to them. He could almost taste the first raindrop that would make its way to the ground.

A knock on the window glass startled him out of his concentration. He opened his eyes and saw you standing in front of it, staring at him. “Monsieur Neuvillette,” you said.

Neuvillette got up from his chair and moved to the window. It was the only thing separating the two of you. As ever, he was unable to read the emotions in your eyes.

“What is it, Madame?” He could see droplets scattering onto the ground. How he longed to be outside right now. Perhaps that would calm his disturbed heart.

“Let’s sit together in the back garden. I want to take a break.”

“In this weather, Madame?”

“It’s only a little bit of rain. I’ll be sitting under the canopy, anyways, so I'll be fine. But you don’t have to join me if you don’t want to...” you looked away, as if a bit embarrassed. “It’ll be well within your right to refuse me.”

“No, I’ll happily accept your invitation.” The speed at which the words came out of his mouth surprised even himself.

You nodded. There was no smile on your face. “I’ll see you there, then, sir.”

You proceeded to go to the back of the house. Neuvillette turned around and found Marie standing there, holding a bowl of watermelon diced into cubes and a pack of toothpicks.

“Share these with Madame, sir,” she said, holding them out to him.

He thanked her and accepted them, then walked swiftly to the patio doors. However, on his way there, his hair seemed to have chosen the worst moment to take on a life of its own. It seemed determined to get caught in every crack and crevice. By the time he emerged onto the veranda, the rain was steadily pattering onto the canopy.

Thankfully, you were already there and seemed to have escaped the rain. You were staring out at the white sky, lost in thought. You looked up when you heard the doors open.

“Madame--”

“Oh, watermelon!” you exclaimed when you saw the bowl. You stood up and took the bowl and toothpicks from him, then stuck a pick into a watermelon cube and brought it to your mouth. He watched you as you savored the refreshing fruit.

You looked up in surprise when you saw him still standing. “Why aren’t you sitting down?”

Neuvillette cleared his throat. “Madame, I must apologize to you for my disgraceful behavior over the past few weeks. It is no way for a lady like you to be treated. I swear to you, I will never do it again. I shall leave you be.”

You were silent as you ate several more watermelon cubes. Your face was closed tightly, like the doors of a tomb. Neuvillette’s heart sank a little. The rain intensified a little.

“You really should sit down, sir,” you said after a while. “I don’t like having you stand while I sit.”

You patted the chair next to you, and he obliged. He crossed his legs almost automatically before deciding against it. It felt too casual.

There was more silence. The moist air usually calmed him down, but his brain was occupied by the horrifying possibility that you might not forgive him, that you might not speak to him ever again, that...

“Monsieur Neuvillette, I forgive you.”

The words struck him like a lightning bolt. “...You do?”

“Yes,” you said. You still weren’t smiling, but something in your eyes changed. They looked lighter, like storm clouds had receded. “I mean, it certainly was off-putting at first, and I definitely don’t recommend that you do this to any other ladies. You’re very lucky that I'm so merciful.”

You smiled a little bit there. It reminded him of the sun peeking over gray clouds. He always felt a sense of disappointment at that sight, but right now all he wanted to do was to carve the image into his memory.

“I would never,” He was so elated that he almost missed the first part of what you said. “Wait, did you say, ‘at first’?”

Now you looked embarrassed. “I got used to it at some point, but then I started thinking about how you must feel, and that made me realize...I haven’t been fulfilling our promise to be friends at all.”

After you said that, you proceeded to eat three more watermelon cubes in succession. He noticed that your cheeks were dusted with red.

“How did you think I felt?” What a novel thing to have someone try to guess his emotions. He unconsciously leaned forward a little, curious to hear what you were going to say.

You seemed a bit taken aback and lowered your eyes. “Well...I thought you might have been feeling a little hurt and confused about why I kept pushing you away, and probably quite disgruntled about being treated like a child who doesn’t know his limits. I’m guessing it’s that mix of emotions that made you behave in such an uncharacteristic manner.”

“Uncharacteristic manner? I’m curious to know just what you think is in character for me.”

“A gentleman who knows well enough to stare at young ladies so intently.”

Neuvillette cannot deny that he felt a jab in his heart at your words, but he knew that he deserved it. It felt like he was back in his early days, stumbling blindly through the basic tenets of human etiquette. He was about to apologize once again, but then you continued.

“But I think...you probably also felt lonely,” your voice was softer now, like the gentle whisper of the rain. Despite that, it reached his ears clearly and distinctly. “And I don’t want you to feel that way. Especially in your own home. So if you want...you can accompany me when I’m out in the garden. Or continue to watch me from the window. Although, this is your house, so you don’t really need my permission to do anything...”

“Ah, but how can I do that, Madame? I can’t possibly intrude into your kingdom without your express permission.”

“...Huh?” You stared at him quizzically.

“Never mind that,” he shook his head. The watermelon looked vibrantly red and juicy, even more so than before. He used a toothpick to bring one to his mouth. The sweetness filled his mouth and quenched the dryness he hadn’t even realized was there.

“Was I right?” you asked, putting your chin in your hands. “Did I guess your feelings correctly? I’m not very good at this kind of thing.”

Neuvillette thought your question over in his mind. Hurt, confusion, disgruntlement...those emotions might have flitted through his heart like minnows at one point.

But loneliness...that was far more than an emotion to him. It was his natural state of being, one that he had chosen to take on. It had been with him so long that when it was pointed out to him, it became a revelation all over again.

You looked at him expectantly. Your eyes were like mirrors. Lying to them would be lying to himself, and that was something the Iudex didn’t do.

“You’re right,” he said, gazing straight into those mirrors. “I was feeling somewhat lonely.”

You blinked. Then you closed your eyes and nodded. “Okay then,” you said and stood up. “Let’s go look at the sunflowers together.”

The rain had stopped a short time ago. The sky was blue again, and the remaining rain clouds were quickly dissipating.

Neuvillette also stood up and winced. His hair got caught in the gaps of his chair and he had to untangle it. You didn’t appear to notice.

The two of you went to stand at the sunflower plot side by side. The sprouts were small and weighed down by the raindrops, but they continued to aim upwards all the same.

Taglist:@just-simping-over-genshin, @xalphafox, @jqnehr, @favficdump, @thetwinkims, @cielclassy, @the-mxs-of-many, @mxyarylla, @lynettezz, @rosedpetal

#genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #neuvillette x reader #neuvillette x female reader #genshin fluff #the winding path of fate

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animeomegas · 1 year

Note

hello!! may i request naruto omegas reacting to their alpha calling them by their full name? i think it would be quite funny ^⁠_^

(Lol, you're right, this was fun to write XD I went for a load of different reasons why the alpha might say their full name haha. I just did a couple of the boys <3)

Naruto:

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto froze where he was, both hands poised to open an instant cup ramen. As his eyes met yours, he started to laugh nervously.

"Er...yes?" he asked sheepishly.

"What part of 'I'm making dinner tonight' did you not understand?" you asked, hands on your hips.

"Um, I'm hungry?"

"Put it back, or so help me."

Sasuke:

"Sasuke Uchiha," you started, steeling yourself with a deep breath. Than hand holding the paper was shaking. "Even back during our academy days, I knew that I was going to marry you. From the moment I declared you prettiest boy in class in front of my parents and asked for money to court you."

Sasuke was watching you intensely, and you were suddenly glad that he'd insisted on so few guests, because the vulnerability was massive.

You continued your speech, and you finally hit the last part.

"And I know that I'm making the best decision of my life today, because a life without you wouldn't be a life worth living. I love you so much sometimes it scares me, so much it burns, but it's still the best feeling I've ever felt."

Sasuke's face screwed up like he was going to cry, but at the last minute he turned his head away from you and the crowd and clearly used every self control mechanism he had to stop himself from shedding any tears.

Kakashi:

"Kakashi Hatake."

Kakashi looked down at you laying on his chest, eyebrow raised in a silent question.

"And Y/N Hatake," you added, smirking up at him. "Don't those names sound great together, 'kashi?"

Kakashi slowly turned red, every muscle tensing underneath you. You found great amusement in dropping marriage hints and watching him panic.

You let it hang for a few moments before laughing and breaking the tension.

"I'm only teasing you," you smiled, feeling him relax a little. "But I wasn't joking."

Itachi - (non-massacre)

"Itachi Uchiha."

He startled from his position reading a book on your bed.

"Yes?" he asked, looking baffled.

"If you don't do something about your brother, I am going to lock him in one of the kitchen cupboards, this is your one warning."

His baffled looked melted into one of amusement.

"What did he do this time?"

You held up the paper sign that you were holding. It read 'kick me, I deserve it'.

"He pinned this to my back this morning."

Itachi started to smile.

"If you laugh I'm putting you in the kitchen cupboard with him."

Shikamaru:

"Shikamaru Nara."

Shikamaru immediately froze, halfway through taking off his shoes in the doorway.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it," he said, holding up his hands.

You raised an eyebrow but didn't give a response. You could see Shikamaru's brain working overtime to figure out what he'd done, but nothing seemed to come to mind.

You watched him suffer for a bit before bursting out laughing.

"Sorry," you laughed. "I just wanted to see what you'd do if I did that."

Shino:

"Shino Aburame."

"Yes...?" he answered hesitantly, seeming unsure of what you were doing.

"That's the best idea ever, you're a genuis!"

Shino blushed a little.

"I am not a genius," he denied. "Why? The solution was quite simple and I was happy to provide it."

"Genius," you reiterated, grabbing his face and pressing your lips against his. "Thank you so much!"

You ran off, leaving Shino standing there, in crisis from the kiss.

#naruto #shikamaru #kakashi #sasuke #shino #itachi #a/b/o #omegaverse #hcs #headcanons #x reader

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maiko1 · 4 months

Text

I would still be holding you like this..

"im sorry but I'm not into you."

kazuha hand your confession paper back politely. "wait! Can we atleast be friends?" he looked at you and nodded. "I'm glad we can still be friend.. And here I thought u were gonna hate me for this..would you like me to company you back home? Its getting quite late.. " of course, kazuha wouldn't let you walk home alone in this time. What kind of man would he be if he didn't?

"haha.. Sure, I don't see any harm on it. Also no way, I'm not gonna hate someone who's not into me, rejections is a normal things. Everyone experiences it, though you may not experience it now, soon you will. That's just how this world works." you smiled brightly as he smile at you.

He's an extrovert while you were introvert. Though, your not that highly introvert type he still think you as a shy friends. He helps you order foods and even help you talking when there's too many crowded people.

He understands what you have been go through. Both of you had gone through alot yet he's comforting you as if his situation is not that big. So you comfort him whenever you notice his weird behaviour.

Alot of people find it hard to find when he's sad but not you, you can notice his voice a little bit low when he's sad. You aren't a good comforter so you treat him the most.

After the rejection you acted as if it's nothing while you're literally embarrassed and... Sad. You knew you shouldn't confess to him. He seem like the type who's not interested in relationships yet you still confess. It's embarrassing to talk to him after getting rejected but you buckle up your emotions and put it aside.

You wouldn't want him to comfort you for this, you think it's rather embarrassing and childish.

"hey, hold on my hand. I wouldn't want to lose you.." kazuha said as you turned to him. "excuse me you think I will get lost??"

You did once. "well uh the last time--" you hold his hand and start walking. "alright alright! Let's just go" you laughed. While he was busy looking at the other shop you happen to see someone staring at you. You blinked once and he's already gone.

You turned around to find him once again but he's just... Not here. "something caught ur interest?" you came back to reality and shake your head. "n.. No. I was just, surprised that there's so many people here.."

"i guess.. Every shop was on sale, who would wana miss the chance?" he laughed as you did. The guy who eyed you was still on your mind. He was wearing a hat...

"thank you again for company me to go shopping.. The place was really crowded.." you bow down. "i feel like something isn't right. You wana tell me about it?" kazuha said with a crossing arm.

"what do you mean?" he holds your hands and sigh. "something tell me that you saw something until now you can't seem to get that person out of ur head." he really are a weird person sometimes. Atleast he care..

"it's probably no one. Let's go home. I'm tired" you said as he nodded. Maybe sleep could get that person out of ur head.

"thank you kazuha once again for everything. I wouldn't know what to do without you." you laughed. "it's no problem at all, call me when you need me"

Getting ready to bed you went to close the door before sleeping.

"you saw me didn't you?"

What?

"you were still thinking about me."

What the hell is going on..

"aren't you curious about me?"

I... I guess but who are you?

"come meet me mingyun village. Come alone"

You woke up to your cat jumping on your stomach. "oh rika..! You scared me to death." you turn around to look at the clock. "it has only been 5 am.." the cat purred as you pet her. "should I..?"

"what the hell am I saying.. Its a dream, its not real (name). None of these dream were real." you took a deep breathe before getting to bed again.

"what if the sky were actually fake? What if the 'dreams' you have been having is actually true? Aren't you curious?"

....

"Don't pretend like didn't hear me."

...

"you are the chosen one."

What the fuck are you talking about.

"i have the answer to your questions. The second you laid ur eyes on me, I knew you are worth something to me."

As if I'm gonna fall for that.

"cmon (name) aren't you curious on how these gods were so careless?"

How the hell did you know my name..

"come with me (name) you will know what I'm talking about soon."

Leave me alone, just because I accidentally see you doesn't mean I have to follow whatever u say..

"Give me a chance would ya?"

..... Will you leave me if I did..?

"depends on your answer."

Waking up once again you feeling ur body getting hot. "i don't feel well.. What the hell is going on?" you cursed to yourself. You got up and get ready to meet the guy who won't leave you alone in your dreams.

He will leave you alone if u meet him... Its 10..it should be good.. You went out to mingyun village alone. This is a stupid idea but if he ever tries to do anything dumb you have your pyro vision to attack him.

There was a figure standing from afar already looking at you. You slowly went over there. "you look horrible." he commented. "I know.. I suddenly got cold and now I'm sick. Anyway what do u want?"

He smirk and walk towards you slowly before you quickly draw your swords and point at his neck. "don't come any closer." you cough a little.

I have no idea if I should continue or not. This is from 2021(?) 💀

#scaramouche x reader #genshin impact #scaramouche #genshin scara #genshin x reader #genshin impact scaramouche #wanderer

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kokomyass · 5 months

Text

Gojo Satoru ☆ Camping trip

Gojo x Fem!Reader

Genre: ☁️

Word Count:1427

Trigger warnings⚠️: none, other than swearing

synopsis: in which you and gojo take the students out on a bonding camping trip, but gojo has other plans....

Second person POV

"C'mon Y/N it is gonna be great bonding for us!" you cocked an eyebrow up at your tall and overly expressive boyfriend. "...and the students....BUT that doesn't matter! It's all in the name of love~"

You were fortunate enough to be in a relationship with THE Gojo Satoru even though you found yourself forgetting why you were in a relationship with him at times... such as now...

As part of his responsibility as a teacher, he was meant to take out the first and second years on a camping bonding trip, however to make up for the lost bonding time you and him had lost due to one thing or another he was suggesting you tag along.

"Gojo...I don't know, I feel like a lot could go wrong, plus we don't want to be acting all in love around the students."

Although you did believe it would certainly...be an experience... you weren't sure if Principal Yaga would agree to such a request. He would probably think you and Gojo were planning on doing unholy deeds in a tent.

"Y/N THAT DOES NOT MATTER." Gojo exclaimed, gripping your hands firmly.

"I have spoken to Principal Yaga, and he says it's fine. The students probably know we are together already because i don't know about you, but I think it's quite obvious, and-"

"FINE!! I'LL GO!!" You cave in and decide to go because no matter what, it seems like Gojo won't back down.

"Your amazing Y/N!! You won't regret it!" Gojo laughs as he picks you up and spins you before giving a tender, soft kiss on your lips.

"Okay...okay...let me go and get ready, alright Satoru?" you tell him whilst still grinning from his cuteness. He nods and hugs you before parting ways as he needs to go and get the students in check.

Time skip

You had finished packing everything that you would need and you were now stood in front of the students with Gojo whilst he briefed them on everything that was going to happen on the trip.

"Last but most definitely not least...your sensei, Y/N will be joining us!!" Gojo said as he wrapped a firm arm around your shoulders and you smiled at the students and the first years all cheered.

"I bet the only reason she is coming is because they wanna get down and dirty in a tent.." Maki mumbled as there was a chorus of 'Yeah's as they watched you and Gojo happily talking together.

"Well I love Y/N so I'm so glad she's coming!" Nobara adds and her and Itadori fangirl over you and Megumi silently agrees.

You all got in the minibus driven by Ijichi and of course you and Gojo sat at the front as you sighed in tiredness, laying your head on his shoulder.

"Feeling sleepy, princess?" Gojo wraps at arm around you moving you closer to him and pressing a soft kiss on your head.

You sigh once more after inhaling Gojo's comforting and warm scent that immediately made you feel relaxed and fatigued.

"Yeah...mind if I take a nap? Lemme know once we get there, okay?" you peck Gojo's cheek before getting all cosy in Gojo's arms.

Time Skip

You stir awake to shuffling as you had reached your destination.

"Morning sleeping beauty! Did you have a good nap?" Gojo said with his signature smile which was enough to make someone's day.

"I sure did...thanks for being such an amazing cushion haha" you both chuckle together as you start telling to students to get off the bus.

You had all gotten off the bus, and the first activity for the day was some sort of trail that Gojo had planned whilst you stayed back setting up camp.

"Alright kids!! Who is ready to witness the power of mother nature!" Gojo said with energy and enthusiasm (something that the students very much lacked)

You couldn't help but chuckle at your cute boyfriends efforts to make everyone happy.

You waved them all goodbye before setting up the camp with a bit of Ichiji's help before he went back.

You feel asleep whilst reading a book sat in your transportable chair that Gojo remembered to bring for you.

Sadly, awoken from your slumber by someone cupping your cheeks and breathing softly.

"Wake up honey we are back~" a creepy voice said as you felt kinda like you were on crack

"Wha...What's going on..?"

Once you fully opened your eyes you were greeted with a hilarious sight.

All the first year were covered in mud and dirt and you were pretty sure Megumi had a rat in his hair and Yujii had a leech on his arm.

Whilst the second years...had(everything the first years had) along with scratches and bee stings.

"Y/N tell your boyfriend that if he wanted to fucking kill us then he could've done so in a heartbeat. After all there is a bounty on his head. I don't even know why anyone would want this useless hunk of a man." Maki was fuming, which was very reasonable looking at the state she was in.

Gojo chuckled nervously, sweat dropping from his forehead as he brought his hands up in defense.

"Heyyy Maki!! Calm down!! Maybe you need some s'mores cause-"

"I don't need any mother fucking s'mores. What I need is for a white haired bitch to stop pissing me off."

At this point Panda and Inumaki were holding onto Maki for dear life.

You decided to chip in to maybe calm everyone down.

"Okay guys clearly you been through some tough shit...but good thing is your back here with me!"

"What about m-" Gojo chipped you before stopping as you shot him a death glare. "ˢᵒʳʳʸ."

"Anyway let me make you some food and s'mores and let us all relax"

Everyone calmed down after hearing your words and all the students went to wash up.

Time Skip

Everyone was now huddled around the campfire, feeling sleepy(aka asleep on one another) after the days activities.

"Hey Y/N, my love, I have something to show you." you cocked an eyebrow up wondering what your boyfriend could have in store

Gojo took off his blindfold and put it on you to cover your eyes up from his surprise.

"You didn't even give me time to see your lovely eyes, Satoru.." you joked as he let out a soft chuckle

"Soon you will be able to stare at this beautiful face all you want." you giggled as he held your hand firmly.

He guided you quite far into the forest making you feel a bit worried. He seemed to notice this and decided to wrap his arm around you instead.

"Don't worry Y/N your with me you've got nothing to worry about."

You had finally reached your destination and Gojo carefully took of your blindfold revealing the most romantic, beautiful and euphoric scene right in front of you.

Gojo had set up a picnic with fireflies lighting up the area, a soft scent of cinnamon and spice, delicious delicacies that you always enjoyed...it was the perfect date.

You were dumbfounded as Gojo guided you to sit down on the picnic blanket.

"So..do you like it?"

"Like it? Oh Satoru, I love it!! I love you so so much, I could never ask for a better boyfriend"

You leaped into Gojo's arms and kiss him deeply with nothing but genuine love.

He engulfed you in his arms for a while smiling like he had everything he could ever ask for (which he did)

"I love you more, my love...it was worth leaving the students behind earlier..."

"Say what?!" you shouted realising what may have caused the atrocities to happen to the kids.

"Nothing at all!! Now lets enjoy this before we have to go back to being responsible adults."

"Umm sweetheart, your not usually responsi-"

He shut you up by shoving a cake in your mouth as you both laughed together and enjoyed each others company.

A lil add on for yall:

The next day Gojo got reprimanded my Yaga after the students submitted their reports of what happened and he received a particularly hateful on towards Gojo from an anonymous student.

Gojo still thought it was worth it for the night of his life with you though...

A/N

I hope you guys enjoyed that and love you lots 💜🔮

#gojo satoru #jjk gojo #jjk x reader #jjk #gojo fluff #gojo #anime fluff #anime x reader #gojo x reader #gojo x y/n

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exaltedfuzz · 1 month

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HI I LOVEEEEE your Art I LOVEEEE your ema! I wanted to ask if you've played aa6 and your thoughts on aa6 ema! I really like that they brought her back and i really think they balanced her personality well by making her more upbeat because of her job, but shes not wholly optimistic either. I really like her relationship with prosecutor sadmadhi throughout the game too! I feel like there's a scale in emas mind from Most to least acceptable prosecutor men and on one end is Miles edgeworth, the other is Klavier gavin, and sadmadhi is in the middle. if that makes sense lol. I just think she talks like she doesn't like him, but she goes along with him way more than she would if Klavier ever asked her to do half the things he asks of her. Also I think it's really interesting that aa6 had ema and mayas first canon interaction! that was interesting to me because ema was sort of designed with Maya in mind and lana and mia obviously have some history, I think it was time for their sisters to meet too. sorry for the Long ask but I just treasure your interpretation of these characters so much!

Hi! I recognize your username from my notifs. Thanks for the support, and for your ask! 🫡 Glad you like the Emas!

I have mixed feelings on SoJ, but Ema is my favorite part of it. I like her a lot in it. She's still got a bit of the edge from AJ, which is nice to see. I like some of her new sprites too, like the swaying thinking one and the 🥺 one. Much prefer her munching sprite from AJ though. The shovelling snacks into her mouth is much more Ema. I also really don't like her official full body art for SoJ.

Unfortunately, Nahyuta doesn't really interest me... His design is too complex to do silly drawings of, for one. I feel like their dynamic was a little underdeveloped, a bit shoehorned in. It's a shame, because their backstories set up a possible dynamic that could be quite interesting, since Lana and Nahyuta kind of have the same motivations - writing team missed a trick. Also, I think Ema would have realistically been grumpier about having to fly halfway across the world every few days. It didn't reeeeaaally feel organic to me. But I do like the idea of their dynamic.

I like the way Maya and Ema interact, even if it's brief. Implies that they have met before, and they're friends, which is cute, though I wish it was a little more delved into. I feel like Maya's characterisation in SoJ is kind of boring. Not as bad as Pearl got it, but still nowhere near as good as she was in the trilogy. Honestly, the whole game falls flat for me when you compare it to the emotional weight the trilogy and AJ have. I really like some of the cases though. And Ema's mini games are great as always. Except the bit with the suitcase which lagged out my 3DS and made me restart it twice, haha. (Though, again! Her mini games were kind of better in the other games!!!)

So, to answer your question, I do like Ema in SoJ. And, despite my criticism, I do like SoJ! Just not as much as the other games in the series. When you play them all in a row, it feels kind of disappointing. I think it's because it's not on the intimate, domestic scale of the trilogy, which is where I think Ace Attorney really shines. (Case in point: Bridge to the Turnabout)

Super happy to see her in another game though, she's really fun, exactly what SoJ needed, and I'm really glad she was the detective they went for. Also, the outfit they put her in for the DLC cutscenes at the wedding is really really good. They were cooking with that one.

I'm really happy to hear you're interested in my interpretations, it means a lot. They're characters I've grown quite fond of.

This turned out quite long. Haha

Here's Ema and Nahyuta for you:

#art #my art #ace attorney #ema skye #nahyuta sahdmadhi #spirit of justice #aa6 #exaltedfuzz

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jazzyblusnowflake · 9 days

Text

mini update yay-

so lets see, ill start off apologizing for being dead- exam season is around the corner and the only good thing about that will be that i will no longer have to teach or design papers- so i can probably draw a bit again, hopefully at least- so i WILL get back to the requests yall have sent me i promise uwu💕

tho bad news comes in the form of my school principles and viceprinciples bullying me because im a newbie, saying im not good at my job and putting their shortcomings as my fault because who wouldnt like to blame someone else for something they werent able to do- and i feel like the abuse im taking in this toxic environment is convincing me slowly to quit my job and start risking less stable jobs even if it means being my daddies little house girl again for a while. 🙄 at the very least even if im leaching off my parents i still actually HAVE somewhat decent parents and thats not something alot of people could say and im greatful for that.

the audacity was well shown when the principle went on the teachers meeting and was like "some of the teachers here who i will not name dont know how to do their job-" and then told me that i only got my job cuz my dad is rich [which yeah sure my daddy studied 4 years of uni and then credited me sure mmhmm makes sense.] and honestly i feel like im surrounded by 50 year old toddlers-

overall, learning to adult is difficult and im glad some people are helping me figure out how to put together a resume and apply for jobs and all that.... but i guess the next bad news comes in the form of us leaving for russia. i dont hate seeing other countries but having my life uprooted immediately after work ends and summer starts and selling off the car and putting stuff in boxes and yeeting ourselves via plane to live somewhere else for the next 4 years in pure isolation is not something my mental health is gonna be haha about. esp since im gonna have to talk to my therapist and doctor to give me enough meds for me to be able to search for another doctor while im there to give me similar treatment. ughhhhhhh.

overall i feel like i have reached a lovely level of ✨️no longer giving a shit about existance✨️ and thanks to some friends i was convinced juuuuust enough to reconsider ending myself :) in my defense, google was getting annoying for only bringing up hotlines =_=

my eyes cant see well anymore due to constant crying and emotional numbness has taken over me, so i apologize if i may seem out of it or a lil blunt at times when im talking lol i no longer have the energy to PRETEND and hold a mask to seem SOCIALLY appropriate and in this last month of school im gonna be making it everyone elses problem at school.

but other than that im looking forward for school ending so i could just sleep for a while without waking up BEFORE my alarms at 5am.

ok lets see what else uhh... my bday is on 19th and i pray to lord nobody makes a surprise party for me here, the anxiety of being in crowds is already kicking me in the ass im not ready to pretend to have a social battery ugh.

okay thats it mostly, i think.

i actually made this update MINI get it? :D

...ill show myself out...

#snow rambles

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the-deadly-donut · 7 days

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I'm not gonna lie, at first I didn't really like Catnap Says very much, because the idea of a dog whistle made me a bit uncomfortable- (I'm fact I kinda thought it was setting up to be a sort of horror comic) but I choose to stick around, and I'm kinda really glad I did. It turned out to be really adorable (I love me some embarrassment), and really sweet.

I still don't really know how I feel about the dog whistle, because the way you portrayed it made it seem like it was legitimately *Really* hurting Dogday, but I think that's just me overthinking it a bit-

As it went on, the comic was quite the treat, and I really did enjoy it in hindsight. (Not to mention, the comic itself is just really great, you did pretty amazingly, the art and dialogue everything is amazing) Thank you for making it. =3

Yeah I've had a few people say something about the whistle. It's just a prop really, has no significance other then to scare Dogday a little. But I understand what you're saying.

I like to think he reacted that way cuz he'd never heard one before, plus the close proximity. (Usually, you use them when your dog is at a far enough distance). And Catnap surely wouldn't know that cuz he's a cat.

But thankyou ♡ I really appreciate you liking my little comic ^^ I hope to make more in the future. I'm working on an epilogue to Catnap Says to finally send this comic off. I hope you and everyone stick around for it. It's gonna get emotional haha 🥺

#asks #catnap says #thankyou for your support

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deathbxnny · 11 months

Note

Hi there! I want to say tysm again for doing my Hsr MC x Genshin Impact MC s/o request. So i was rereading that post for the fourth time i think (i cant help but imagine cute and dorky stuff they would do together whenever i reread your post) and a thought popped up on what would it be like if the traveler are with the others. So can i request hcs of the rest of the Astral Express crew (Himeko, Welt, March, and Dan heng) x s/o like traveler from genshin impact

(Btw TYSM FOR YOUR SONG SUGGESTIONS, i went and play all the songs you suggest and DAMN YOU HAVE GREAT TASTE, i can honestly see myself listening to it on loop. Melanie Martinez hasnt lost her touch but then again there is no way she would, she’s too amazing. Rn im currently listening to the entire album after listening to your suggestions. I still prefer her older albums like Cry baby and k-12 but that may change with me listening to PORTALS, its too early to say but i might update on you about it

Also HI THERE FELLOW MARETU FAN! Its so nice to know there’s someone else who likes their songs as well (none of my friends like their songs T.T) What’s your favourite song from MARETU? Mine is Mind Brand, ITS SO GOOD AND IM PROUD TO SAY I LOVE IT) Hope you have a great day/night btw!

- Flower Anon 🌸

-----♡

A/N: Hello Flower Anon! Thank you so much for your request and I'm glad you liked my song suggestions! I'm also so happy to meet another MARETU fan! My favourite song of theirs is DEFINITELY "Magical doctor"! I listen to it all the time and am obsessed with it haha!<33

Content: Traveler reader, tiny bit of angst if you squint hard enough, confessions, mutual pinning(kinda), friends to lovers, fluff, sfw

Reader has no set pronouns!

((Not fully proofread))

-----♡

》March 7th

She instantly did her best to become your friend at first, when you arrived on the Astral Express. She was determined to be your guide and show you the ropes, so everyone let her do it, as you also seemed to trust her fairly quickly.

You two became inseparable quite fast and always spent time together on the Express or on missions. She comforted you, whenever you were sad about your twin and promised to help you find them eventually. Surely you could, if you did it together! Yeah... her crush was very obvious for absolutely everyone and it was honestly adorable. But it was alright, as you felt the same.

She's fiercely protective of you on the battlefield and always shields you first out of everyone. She doesn't let you get hurt no matter what, even if you can handle yourself. You two still need to find your twin together after all, so just let her help you.

-----♡

》Dan Heng

He didn't think much of you at first, until he read up more on you and your situation. And after also talking to you, he started sympathising with your situation deep down, which made him warm up to you alot over time.

Once he does, he let's you hang out with him alot in his room, where he tries finding something on your twin in the archives. Is his way of comforting you, as he indirectly promises you that he'll help you find your twin this way. He doesn't notice his growing feelings for you either, so you might have to confess first eventually.

He's very protective of you and always keeps his eyes on you one way or another. He doesn't let anything hurt you and has your back during any battles you may have. You can count on him to keep you safe that's for sure.

-----♡

》Himeko

Himeko was the one to allow you to stay and therefore quickly became the person you relied on the most. You were quite grateful, even if she didn't see it as a big deal. She always comforts you and reassures you that she'll help you find your twin with all the resources she has.

You spend most of your days with her in the Astral Express watching the stars and drinking tea. She's always so interested in everything you talk about and takes time off work you whenever you need it. It was no surprise therefore, when feelings eventually just flourished between you two.

She doesn't let you on missions without her and she rarely does them as is, so you won't ever be in harms way. She wants you to live a comfortable and peaceful life on the Express, free of any stress or worries.

-----♡

》Welt Yang

Welt understood how you felt and therefore offered to help you out with anything you may need. That also included comforting you, when you were devastated about your lost twin. He promised, to help you find them and actually has a high chance of achieving that.

You spend alot of time with him on the Express and missions, as he is very dependable and comforting to you. Any questions you may have are answered by him with ease, you could practically listen to him talk all day and you do, whenever he explains something to you. He'll be painfully aware of his feelings for you, but will only admit them to you, once he knows you feel the same.

You can rely on him during any battle to protect you. It doesn't matter if you can defend yourself or not, he'll keep an eye on you at all times. You definitely don't have to worry about anything, when he's around.

-----♡

A/N: I hope this was okay, Flower Anon! And I'm so sorry for the wait!<33

#honkai star rail #honkai star rail fanfic #honkai star rail x reader #honkai star rail x you #hsr x reader #hsr welt #hsr welt x reader #hsr march 7th #hsr march 7th x reader #hsr himeko x reader #hsr himeko #hsr dan heng #hsr dan heng x reader #hsr

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ithinkabouttzu · 16 days

Note

Hey! I really enjoy your Band of Brothers and The Pacific writings so much! I wanted to ask if you could write something on Burgin (he’s my absolute fav and I feel he is greatly underrated)!!! I wanted to request something as well about him returning back home to Texas after the war and trying to impress a girl from his hometown that he comes across someday (whom he knew of before he left to go to the war but never really spoke to he before). She’s a bit hard to impress and is rather introverted but nothing I don’t think Burgin can’t handle haha. Thanks so much 💖

Cinnamon and Chocolate

Word count: 6.2k

Warnings: Swearing, kissing, mentions of war, mentions of burn injuries, jealousy, and drinking.

a/n: Hey friend, I hope you enjoy!! This is probably the longest thing i’ve wrote in a while, so please excuse any mistakes!! I honestly got so carried up with this oneshot lol but I love it so much! Hope you all enjoy!! (Also, please note that there are a lot of historical inaccuracies and this story is in no way disrespect to any real life veterans, this one-shot is solely based off the character in the show! Everything else is fictional! :))

(R.v. Burgin x fem reader)

Today was arguably the calmest day he’s had in years. Just him, and his best friend from back home, Chris, on the back of his pickup truck drinking two cold Coca-Colas. (which he had dearly missed the taste of.) They were downtown on a nice Saturday afternoon enjoying the nice weather. It was the most relaxed he’s felt in a while, the nice breeze patting his back made him feel at peace. A feeling he deserved after a long time from home, there weren’t any bombs blasting behind him, or heavy gunfire going off right beside his ear, instead it was quiet. He was glad to be back home.

It was only his second day back in Texas and there she was. She and a couple of her friends were walking out of a clothing store when his eyes caught a glimpse of hers. She was laughing and giggling about something that R.V. couldn’t quite catch, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her even if he wanted to. He could have sworn she was an angel.

The sunlight was bouncing off of her skin during midday, making her bright and bubbly laughter feel radiant. It’s like he could see no one else but her, or at least until he felt his friend, Chris elbow his side hard, it was the kind of force only a friend of many years could give him.

“Like whatcha’ see, pal?” Chris said with a slight smirk that R.V. could hear in his voice. “Oh shut up. I’ve just never seen her around before.” R.V. remarked looking back at Chris. He had to know more about this girl. “Oh R.V., you’ve missed a lot while you’ve been gone”, Christopher laughed, his voice honing in on R.V. as if he told an inside joke that Burgin had no clue of. “What’s that supposed to mean?” R.V. turned back to his friend to give him a questioning glance before taking a big sip of his Coca-Cola. “Man, that’s y/n, we all went to school together?” Chris chirped enthusiastically as if he’d been waiting for Burgin to ask.

A smile now appeared on his face, one that he hadn’t shown in a while. He started to see the resemblance now, remembering your sweet smile from years ago. “She’s really grown into her looks, hasn’t she?” Chris said happily, still staring at you. R.V. rolled his eyes in response. Sure you had grown up, if that’s what Chris meant. All three of you had, but to Burgin, you hadn’t changed a bit.

He had always thought of you as beautiful, even when you yelled at him in front of the whole first grade after putting a small toad that he had found in the woods, in the classroom's dollhouse during recess. He knew how reserved and quiet you were, and to get such a heated reaction from you.. Well he was shocked, but he also felt a new feeling that he couldn’t quite grasp, one that made his heart race whenever you were near. “Do you know what she’s up to these days?” He asked Chris and quickly scolded himself for not recognizing you at first. In his defense, he had really forgotten everyone from home other than his family and Chris after a while.

Chris was an Anchor-Clanker during the war, one hell of a sailor before coming back home. It seemed like Chris had found adjusting back to civilian lifestyle very easy. It's something that R.V. couldn’t quite agree with. He knew that it would take time of course, but coming back home has been like a whole new world for him, very different from the lifestyle he’s had for these past few years.

Chris took a swig of his cola as if it were beer before replying. “I think she still lives with her ma and pa, she left to Houston to become a Gray Lady a little after you left for basic. Hell, I think she came back home only a week ago.” R.V. thought to himself after what Chris had said. Only a couple days back home, just like him.

He studied her face as she walked down the street with her friends, noticing how she used her hands exaggeratedly to explain something to the other girls with her. It was only a matter of time until she got swept up by some other soldier coming back home, or at least that’s what he thought. He didn’t realize how much he felt the void of female presence until he saw you. His heart fluttered when you glanced his way, your smile sent him butterflies all over his body. This was his chance to make a move before it was too late. He couldn’t think about anything else other than getting closer to you.

Before he could announce to Chris what he was going to do, his body was already off of the truck, setting his cola aside and walking across the street towards you and your friends, not taking the time to wait until the cars near the crosswalk were gone. It’s like his body worked faster than his mind, like he was doing only what felt right in the moment. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to say or do when he got to you, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to talk to you either way.

“Where are you going?!” He could hear Chris in the background, but he didn’t have time to answer. His heart was racing, and his pulse was getting quicker with each step closer towards you. A smile appeared on his face once he made it to you and your friends, and with a long breath and a questioning stare from the girls you had with you, he finally spoke up. “Can I ask you a question?” He felt nervous waiting for your response. The silence was almost deafening. All of your friends looked at you waiting for a reply. “Yes, R.V, it is, right?” You gave him a response that he was hoping for, your sweet voice filling his ears making his cheeks a small shade of red.

He felt even more nervous being this close to you, now he had gotten to see all of the little features on your face that he couldn’t while he was on the truck. He was too focused looking at you to think of anything else, a common reoccurrence. “I,-“ He paused, thinking about what he should say, before coming to a conclusion. “How are you so beautiful?” He said breathlessly. He felt embarrassment almost immediately. He put his hand over his mouth in regret and moved his hand down to his chin smoothly to make him look in shock. His inside thoughts had finally come out and spoke for themself. Before he knew it, there was an eruption of laughter between you and your friends. He took his hand and rubbed behind his neck in an attempt to cover his embarrassment. What came over him suddenly to make him say that? “That was a good one, R.V.!” You said with a giggle.

If making a fool out of himself made you smile, then he was more than happy to be foolish. He laughed along with you very awkwardly in an attempt to seem unfazed, like it was a joke in the first place. “I’ll see you around” You smiled softly before heading off with your friends, leaving him. He waved you a goodbye, one that you couldn’t see because your back facing him, before walking back to Chris. Who was now sitting at the end of the truck and dangling his feet off of the end, looking amused.

When R.V. made it to the truck, Chris started clapping. “I think you’re a real ace at talking to broads, pal!” Chris started breaking out into laughter before Burgin could admit to his defeat. “It’s okay, I’ll find a chance to talk to her again. Alone hopefully.” He said to Chris with confidence, although his inner feelings were quite different. He grabbed his cola and scooted himself back onto the truck so he was sitting next to Chris. He huffed in disappointment and slumped down slightly, drinking the last bit of his cola. “You’ll get ‘em next time” Chris replied a little more seriously after seeing a somber look take over R.V’s face. “Yeah, next time for sure.”

2 weeks later

“Are you ready, boys?!” R.V. heard his mother shout from downstairs, still waiting for R.V. and his father. The urgency in her voice was making him button up his coat even faster than his previous speed.

Of course his father’s workplace would have their huge yearly party right around the time that he came back home, and to be completely honest, he was dreading it. The empty conversations with little to no life in them, the awkward stares after being gone for so long, and it didn’t help that his parents were making him wear his dress blues, although it was a social cocktail party with high formality, he was worried he would stick out like a sore thumb.

He could already see his future. Having to answer questions upon questions from women and men, overwhelming him to find the right and appropriate answers. He let out a big sigh, calming his brain for the events ahead. The thought alone overwhelmed him. He already wanted this party to be over before it had even begun.

Just a slip on of his white gloves and he was done getting ready. He couldn’t delay going downstairs any longer. R.V’s father opened his door slowly, right on cue as if he somehow felt R.V.’s hesitance. “Are ya’ ready, son?” R.V. 's dad said as peered through the door. He was in his Sunday best, with a black suit and tie of course. “Yeah, I'm ready.” R.V. replied with a shake of his head. His father could tell his nervousness just by the expression on R.V.’s face. “You got this son, it’ll be nothing” His father replied, giving him a sweet smile and a pat on the back that gave him somewhat of a relief. They both walked out of his room and started down the steps. “Hey, you might even find someone there.” He said going down the steps quicker than R.V. did, putting him behind his father. He thought about what his dad said for a second, stopping right at the last step. What if you happened to be there by some chance?

“You look great, honey. I’m so proud.” His mother said, causing him to break out of his thoughts. Both his ma and pa were waiting for him by the door so that they could be on their way to the party. “Thanks ma, glad to be back.” He replied with a close lipped smile as he got stepped down from the last step. His mother hugged him tightly before he could say anything else. He quickly accepted the hug and hugged her back softly.

“You guys ready?” His pa said, opening the front door of their home. He unwrapped his arm from her before walking out of the door, his mother following quickly after with his father. It was going to be one interesting night for the Burgins indeed.

~~~

When they arrived he could see the gate wide open for its guests, revealing the house to his eyes where he could finally see how big it was. He didn’t think his father had that many co-workers. It was a great large venue in the middle of nowhere. Cars were parked out front in no specific order, in the grass or what small areas of gravel they could find.

The party was hosted at the old vineyard house that everyone in town loved because of its extravagant beauty. It was now used as some sort of banquet hall for the town's use. The sun was setting making the view look picturesque. Some people were outside, with the finest dresses and long glasses of champagne in their hands. Probably some sort of small talk about the weather, or about the party, And some were inside, most likely doing the same exact thing.

Their car was finally parked as they walked closer towards the house, the closer he got to the building, he could tell how big it really was. As they had finally made it onto the porch, He heard a somewhat familiar voice call out to him, “Romus, oh how nice you look! I’m glad to see you here!” He turned his head to his left to see who the commenter was. He smiled when he saw who it was. One of his old school teachers from primary school. If he had to pick, she would have been his favorite teacher out of all the years he’d ever learned. He shook his head to himself slightly at the use of his first name, no one ever really called him that except for his mother when she was mad at him, but he didn’t pay much mind to it. It was nice to see someone familiar to him in this unknown place.

“It’s nice to see you, Miss. How have you been?” he replied softly as she came closer to him. He could tell she had aged from the last time he had seen her, but she still kept her sweet smile that he remembered from when he was a little boy. It seemed as if R.V. hadn’t changed that much to her either, “You’re still sweet as apple pie! It is surely nice to see you!” She replied in her nice southern accent. He could smell a strong scent of liquor coming from her mouth as she got closer.

“It’s nice seeing you too ma’am” He chuckled slightly to himself when he saw the small amount of drink she had left in her cocktail. It was more than obvious she had gotten a little too happy at the bar before the party barely even started. "Now you have yourself a time, alright?” She said, loudly walking back to her friends and not giving him a chance to reply.

When he looked around for his parents, he could see that they had already left him and made their way inside of the big ballroom. It looked like he would have to find his way around here tonight alone. As he walked into the venue he looked around attentively, to look for his parents, (who were most likely swept away by other coworkers and friends), but to also take in the extravagance of the building first hand.

Old floral wallpapers adorned the wall, and there were big windows all around the huge room that overlooked the vineyard. He could tell that the place had been renovated heavily, as it once was a house and now had become one big ballroom. The ceiling stood high with multiple big crystal chandeliers that lit up the space. It was open and spacious for all, with the room mainly used for dancing and talking. There were poseur tables and chairs on the sides of the floor, where people ate and drank whatever the party had to offer. The catering service had a little station in the corner of the grand room that had canapes of all sorts. And there was no way he could have missed the built-in bar with stored glassware and drinks of all kinds.

R.V. could have imagined that this same room was used for similar parties years ago under different circumstances. Maybe large debutante balls that had groups playing loud classical music instead of the sweet jazz they had tonight, or maybe even a mysterious masquerade ball that had unique masks with people that talked very differently then what they do now. As his thoughts swarmed, he wasted no time taking himself to the bar.

As the time went by, the events of the party were what R.V. expected. Overwhelming. Boring. Small talk with people he barely remembered or didn’t even know, was the norm at this event for him. He didn’t expect anything different tonight. He found himself back at the bar table over and over again, hoping that there would be a new conversation each time he wandered back over there. Yet, after an hour and a half of walking around in circles and bar visits, just a small buzz later, he figured he had met just about everyone in the whole damn building.

He found himself getting more bored by the minute. That is, until his favorite song, “Pennsylvania 6-5000” Started to erupt through the room played by the lovely band.

He got up almost immediately, as if there was some magnetic force pulling him to the dance floor. Maybe it was the same force that pulled him to you on that sunny day two weeks ago.

As R.V. descended to the dance floor, he quickly noticed a familiar figure in a striking red dress across the room. His heart started to pick up speed almost immediately and he could feel his stomach jump with excitement. All he could see in that moment was you as your gaze met him in the crowd. He didn’t expect to see you here, but it changed his night almost instantaneously. You were by yourself, watching the groups of dancers in joy and swaying your body along softly with the music. He felt such a relief knowing that you were here. This was his chance to talk to you formally one-on-one and apologize for what had happened two weeks ago.

The feeling in his chest started to quicken much more when he took in detail of your dress’s design, and he would be lying if he said that looking at you in such a magnificent dress didn’t leave him a little breathless. Like the previous encounter between you two before, he didn’t waste his time making his way towards you. That is until R.V. saw him.

Him as in the guy who brought you a glass of lemonade with your coat draped over his arm, the guy who whispered something in your ear that made you giggle. He stopped his way to you abruptly. Making him accidentally displace a young couple who was dancing with quick speed. “Watch it, pal!” He heard the guy he bumped into say sharply. R.V. had heard him, but everything had started to sound distant. He looked over at you with his jaw clenched in an attempt to hide his emotions, but his eyes told no lie.

The look he gave to you was forlorn. It all made sense to him now, when you had been short with him that day. It was all because you had someone else the entire time. That feeling in his chest turned from good to sour. He needed to get away for a second, the feeling of fresh air was now becoming a need for him.

He quickly moved his way off of the dance floor and charged toward the big entry doors. Once he felt the outside air hit his face he felt relieved. R.V. hadn’t realized how much you really meant to him until he saw you swept away by someone else. He looked around and finally settled for a seat on the outside steps.

It was now dark out, and no one was outside at this point. Just him, the parked cars, and the occasional chirp of a bird. Other than that he was completely alone with his thoughts. He had made his mind up then and there. He would excuse himself from the party with a “sick stomach” and just walk home. That seemed like the best thing to do at the moment.

He wasn’t up for dancing, getting drunk at the bar, or having to act like he cared about any of the stupid stuff this party provided. He sat up from the stairs and thought about leaving without saying a word for a second. Sure his parents would worry, but if anything he could handle himself. He walked down the stairs and planted his feet on the gravel. Other thoughts rushed through his head too. They were thoughts of you, like how he felt when he heard your sweet laugh after so long, or that one time in junior high when you gave him the last answer on a science test he hadn’t studied for, even with the chance that you would have gotten in trouble too. The sound of your voice whenever you spoke, and those gentle eyes of yours…

He was now contemplating back and forth. All of these thoughts of you suddenly came rushing through his head and swamped him with the realization that he can’t let you go. His mind had made a new decision now. Instead of going home, he was going to go back inside and just try to talk to you.

R.V. took a nice long breath, making sure to steady himself before walking back into the party. The laughter and music from inside started to get closer as he walked up the small stairs to the porch and took a couple big steps towards the door. But before he could make it inside, someone bumped into him hard, making him take a step back.

He looked up to quickly realize it was you. Time seemed to stand still at that moment. It was now silent. His eyes met yours once again. Locking and not letting go. No words were spoken, just the mutual look at one another. You stared at him for what felt like an eternity. Neither of you had begun to speak or move. It’s like everything stopped for a second. R.V. 's brain started to short circuit after staring into your eyes for so long. He didn’t want to break eye contact and waited for the right time to speak up, but before he even opened his mouth, you beat him to it.

“Hey, R.V.” You sounded almost surprised to see him, especially after the way he vanished moments ago. It was obvious, you could tell he was nervous. He didn’t reply, but was silent. Maybe it was because he was waiting for you to say something else, or he just couldn’t find the right words to say. You continued before giving him a chance to speak, just as he figured out what to say. “I saw that you were walking out and just wanted to tell you that you looked nice, I also want to apologize if I hurt your feelings the last time we spoke, I meant no harm.”

He looked at you with a deep guise on his face when you apologized. He stared at you while you said it. He found it hard to read the look on your face. He spoke up, “Please don’t apologize, I didn’t mean to trouble you and your friends, but please know that I did mean what I said.” He paused before taking a leap of faith. “You’re beautiful, y/n” He could see a dark crimson creep up on your face lightly. He didn’t feel the need to take back his words like last time. His compliment to you wasn’t forced or awkward, it was soft and warm, like a hug.

“Thank you, really” You said, breaking out into a small giggle, one that he adored most. He could feel the awkward tension ease after your laughter. He now felt the time was right to take yet another leap of faith tonight. “It’s alright if you don’t want to, knowin’ you have a date and all, but would you like to dance with me?” He felt his heart pound in his chest, almost worried it would break free out of his sweaty dress blues.

He hoped that you couldn’t hear the sound of his heart beating so quickly, he didn’t want you to feel his nervousness. “I would love to.” you looked up at him with a warm smile, one that made him feel at ease. His heart slowly pumped back to its original, calmer pace.

“Just a warning though, I'm not the best dancer.” You winced, thinking of the countless times you’ve danced before. He laughed at your expression before replying, “I'm not the best dancer either.” He could remember the first time he had ever danced with a girl. He tripped over his shoe strings and felt embarrassed the entire night.

He put his left hand out as an offering, which you gladly accepted. You and him stepped back into the big room hand-in-hand. He took the lead in front of you, making way towards the dance floor. He felt butterflies in his stomach when he realized how soft your hand was, so delicate and smooth. He felt excitement take over him when he realized that you and him were finally going to share this moment together.

You and him quickly made it onto the dance floor just in time for the band to start playing a tune that R.V. recognized almost immediately, the classic, “Undecided” by Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald. Now this is a song he could definitely dance to.

It seemed as if R.V. couldn’t hold back his feet any longer. He took you by the hand and spun you out, only for you to dance back to him in a twist, in tune with the lively beat of the music. Look at that! You were a natural! Your footwork mixed with his almost perfectly, like cinnamon and chocolate, while you and him danced around the room. A smile erupted from his face as he watched the nervousness melt off of your body. You moved your body around at a quick pace, looking back up at him with a smile. If he wasn’t in such a groove, he probably would have tripped over his feet and made a fool of himself. He watched you dance attentively, while also still making sure to keep up with you. If only Chris had been here to watch all of this.

—

R.V. clapped with you as the music stopped. It was the third song you and him danced to of the night. With all of the excess movement you and him both felt tired. Good thing the band was taking a break right when the third song ended. “You were being humble when you commented on your dancing earlier” R.V. said with a laugh.

It was true that you could swing like no other. He was mesmerized watching you move. He felt a knot in his stomach when he realized how close he was to you the entire time that you and him danced. “I could say the same for you! You’re one good dancer” You exchanged a giggle in return.

Both of you moved off of the dance floor and found a poseur table with two barstools, a perfect seat for you two after a long time of dancing. “I’ll go get us something to drink, want anything?” He said to you as you placed a seat on one of the barstools. He felt content being the one to offer you a drink instead of someone else. “Just a Coke please!” You replied to his question softly.

He made his way to the bar, and upon his arrival asked for two Colas, which was a shock to the bartender considering that he had drank only beers up until now. “Hiya son! Having fun? I saw you dancing with a pretty gal!” R.V.’s father popped up behind him, patting his shoulder. He chuckled at what his father said. “Pretty indeed. Where’s ma?” R.V. replied back as the bartender handed him two cold sodas.

“Oh you know her, talking to some friends of hers. I just wanted to check up on you and see how you were doing. Me and your mother might leave soon, we’ve had one heck of a night” His father said with a smile. R.V. smiled too. He could already see his mom 50 feet away talking with some of the other moms there, she always enjoyed chirping to her friends, even if it was about nothing at all. “What’s her name?” His pa said, not really giving R.V. a chance to say anything else, even though he probably wouldn’t have said much at all. “Y/n”, As R.V. said that, he looked towards you. You were looking around the room and swinging your legs on the stool. He thought you looked adorable. “She looks like a nice girl. You be good to her.” “I will” R.V. replied to his father, still holding the two sodas in his hand. “See ya, pa!” R.V. got up from his seat and progressed towards you carefully. Making sure not to drop your drink or his.

Once he got to the table he handed you your drink before sitting on the other stool. You and him sipped your drinks in silence for a moment. The band had finally picked back up, and as expected, more couples piled onto the dancefloor. It was later into the night so the band had slowed to more softer, slow paced music compared to before, but it was still more than enjoyable. “Where is he? Your date?” R.V. asked you, taking his straw and swirling it around his drink.

You looked up at him before speaking. “Oh, Arthur? I wasn’t really his date” You shook your head in explanation. “We’re friends. Him and I met during the war. He had no one else to bring and he thought I could use a change of scenery.” You explained to him. It sort of made sense to R.V. now. He waited to say something until he was sure she was finished talking. “He’s already spoken for. As you can see over there” You pointed your finger to Arthur. Who was at the moment slow dancing with a pretty blonde on his chest. “He needed some extra encouragement.” You laughed, waving at Arthur, who also gave a wave back. Ohhh. R.V. finally understood now, just friends. She was here to help him talk to the girl he was dancing with now. He scolded himself for thinking otherwise earlier, even though they seemed pretty exclusive moments before.

“Oh, that’s real’ nice of you. R.V. said, taking a big sip of his drink, feeling the carbonation sizzle down his throat. “Is that why you left earlier?” You said, looking at him with an accusatory smirk. He had now been caught. R.V. felt like you could read right through him. He didn’t have to explain himself, because you already knew. “No way.” He said sarcastically, still holding a playful manner in hopes of sparking up a conversation full of banter between you two. The night had started slow, but became swift in the end. You and him, dancing, talking and laughing together, it felt perfect.

The moment felt right, so you spoke up. “R.V., do you maybe want to walk me home? It’s getting awful late and I would love to talk with you more.” You looked at him waiting for an answer. “Of course.” He replied with a toothy grin. You and him both finished your drinks and said goodbyes to the company that brought you and him here. “Pa, I’m walking my gal home. I’ll see you at the house” R.V. said to his Father who was most likely about to leave himself. “Alright, kiddo. You two be safe!”

His father smiled at you and R.V. before going back to his conversation with R.V.’s mother. He took your hand, making you feel butterflies when he did, and led you out of the big ballroom with him.

It was quiet outside other than the sound of crickets chirping and cars buzzing as they left the huge building. “My house isn’t far. I live practically next door.” You said walking down the steps with him. You and R.V. were now side by side, with your arm wrapped around his. “Really? I bet you got a pretty view from your place then.” R.V replied back with a chuckle. He could only imagine how the nice pastures out here looked from your home. “Well not really my house, it’s my parents. I used to come out here when I was a little girl, walk my way through the fields to the abandoned vineyard. I danced on the creaky wooden floors and dreamed of having a party here, in real life.” He could imagine, younger you dancing lively in the big building, behind you and him. “Well you got your dream tonight, didn’t you?” He turned his head to you to give you a big grin. You and him had now made it out of the gravel area and towards the fields, away from the old road. “I did. Thank you for having such a fun time with me.” You spoke softly. R.V. could hear the sleepiness in your voice. He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a little tired himself. Before he knew it your head was tilted on his shoulder, taking refuge in the comforting warmth. It was quiet for a moment. Not an awkward silence, but a calm one. Neither of you felt the need to talk, just listening to the breath of one another was just as fine. “How’d you meet Arthur?” R.V. was the first one to break the silence, the random question had suddenly popped up into his head and made him wonder. “I met him at the hospital I volunteered at. He was injured badly during Pearl Harbor.” You continued, “ He was hospitalized for months and months, First at the Naval Hospital in Hawaii, and then sent to Houston. He had severe burns all over his body. When I first volunteered, I didn’t know what I was doing half the time, I was overwhelmed to say the least. He was always nice to me, like a big brother. He had already been there for so long, it seemed like he knew more than I did.” You exhaled when you finished. R.V. cleared his throat before speaking. “Oh…” R.V. trailed off, “that must have been real hard for him.” He grimaced to himself when he thought of how bad some of the burns must have been. He had witnessed it before, with some of his friends, he wouldn’t wish that type of pain on anyone. “It was. But he made it out alright after all. And now he’s dancing with a girl he could only dream of.” The way you said it, in such a positive way, gave him hope. Hope for lots of new beginnings, a fresh start. That the things he saw or did, couldn’t define him anymore. He wasn’t in the Pacific. He was home, with you, and he sensed that this was the best he had felt in forever. As you and him were talking, neither of you noticed how close your house was, finally in clear view, maybe 50 yards away. “R.V. Can I ask you a question?” You took your head off of his shoulder, only to look up at him. “How do you feel, after coming home?” R.V. thought about it for a moment. He hadn’t really had anyone ask him a question like that. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he gave a comical answer. “Better, now that I'm sleeping on a soft bed.” He said with a beam on his face. Once he gave his answer, you and him had both finally made it to your house. To R.V. It looked like a warm place. A cozy home that made you feel relaxed whenever you spent time in it. “Well, I guess this is it. Thank you for walking me home. “You said, taking him up the steps of your porch. He was now facing you with your hands holding his. R.V. didn’t want this night to end between you two. He wanted to keep talking to you. To ask you more questions, but he could tell you were already so tired, so he kept it short, “When will I be able to see you again?”

You gave him a grin that showed your teeth. “Soon, hopefully.” It was just you and him now, again facing one another in complete silence. It seemed like R.V. ran out of words, and all he could do was look at those soft lips of yours, how nice they looked… R.V. brought his hands up to you, cupping your face. He wanted to kiss you so badly, but felt hesitance. “Can I?” He said in a soft whisper. “Yes”, you replied. If he hadn’t been listening, he wouldn’t have heard you. Before you knew it, you felt his lips melt into yours slowly. He felt goosebumps as he closed the gap between you two. He wanted to savor the moment with you as best as he could. When your lips parted his, his lips moved up to your forehead, giving you a soft kiss there. The gentle gesture made you visibly blush, which made his heart beat even fast. “Goodnight.” He said, retracting his hands from your face, and placing them by his side. “Goodnight” You replied quietly, before opening the door of your home, and walking inside. When he heard the door shut fully, he started to make his way down your steps in victory. He had one hell of a night. A night he wouldn’t forget, because it was a night brought him, you.

Hope you enjoyed this again!! If you enjoyed, please like or reblog! 💗💗

#ithinkabouttzu #the pacific #band of brothers #the pacific headcannons #the pacific imagines #r.v burgin #hbo war #rv burgin #rv burgin x reader #the pacific reactions #the pacific ships

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your-queer-dad · 26 days

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A lot of people complain about their kids learning about lgbt stuff and about it being talked about in school. But I wish we had that kind of discussion in school or something when i was a kid. I'm 27 and it wasn't until a few years ago (during lockdown) that I started thinking about who I am. Realized I also like girls and am transmasc (sadly closeted because no ones on board with this kinda stuff).

As a kid I felt like I was different from the other girls and I didn't really know why. I remember telling people I wasn't a girl I was a tomboy and that's why I liked the things I did. I was worried about graduation for a few years before because I didn't want to wear a dress and I'd tell my mom that. I'd say "why can't I just wear pants and a shirt" (I wanted a suit). My mom would just say something like thats just how it is or you just have to. The same thing happened with my sisters wedding, all I wanted was a suit. But I was a bridesmaid so I had to wear a dress and get my makeup done (I think I was about 13-14).

I got older and then went to high school and started dressing more feminine and acting like my friends because they're girls and that's what girls are supposed to be like. I bought dresses and heels and tried makeup but it all looked weird on me (never wore them lol). Others said it looked good but it always felt wrong to me (same with other more feminine clothing items). Probably about halfway through high school, I was worried about graduation again. And again I told my mom but still had to wear a dress.

Same thing happened with college too but I wore a skirt that time. Through college I started wearing clothes I liked more but still not quite there yet.

Within the last 2 years I think, I decided to cut my hair short then a few times after I got a more masculine cut and wow do I love it. I also buy men's clothes now because they "fit better" and "have big pockets". I still don't feel like myself but I think im slowly getting there. I don't even really know who I am but I do know what I'm not.

Wow this is longer than I expected it to be and I think I lost the point of all this but it feels good to tell someone all of this even if it's a short messy version of it haha. I started typing and it all just kinda came out so i hope it makes some kind of sense. I've always been alone with this stuff so it's nice to get it out of my head I guess. I don't know lol thanks for reading✨️

Hey kiddo! Thank you so much for sharing your experience- I'm really glad you're in a place where you feel more comfortable in your body and your identity and I'm really proud of you.

- dad x

#lgbt #finch rambles #lgbtq #lgbtqia #queer positivity #trans #transgender #trans joy #ask a finch!

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seyaryminamoto · 5 months

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hello! I really like your meta about Zuko, and I'm so glad that I finally found a person who also thinks that Zuko in book 3 is a much worse person than he was in the book 1. I always thought that something was wrong with me, since literally no one sees this obvious fact for me! But I would like to ask you: What do you think about Katara in book 3? the fact is that she was my favorite character in books 1 and 2, and the way she was written in book 3 upset me a lot. it seems to me that they spoiled her character, but I can't explain why. Please share your thoughts!

Glad you've enjoyed my extensive meta on the fandom's fave, haha. I did write a lot about him, always nice to know my thoughts on the subject are still deemed relevant.

As for Katara... well, I have thoughts on her, too. My experience with her character is quite similar to yours, I'd say, because I too felt a lot better about her character in the first two seasons of the show compared with the third. I don't usually give this a ton of thought, but after your ask, I figured I'd try and figure out what exactly went down with her that made people like us feel so uncomfortable with Katara's portrayal at multiple points of Book 3...

For starters, I'll say I vibed with Katara a lot when I started the show for reasons beyond her being a great character or being written wonderfully: she could very well have been written mediocrely and I would have loved her anyway simply because I ran away from anime to ATLA in an era where anime kept shoehorning incest undertones into every sibling relationship, even in shows that didn't have that as a core subject. It happened at least twice that I can remember, I kept seeing people raving about shows where it WAS the core of it (I still do not understand the Oreimo deal, like, the minute I read that show's title I puked in my mouth and knew I'd never watch it), and I just needed... safety from that concept, I guess?

So when I went into ATLA, and the first sibling relationship you're exposed to is Sokka and Katara, two siblings who very much act like siblings? I was thriving. It was thrilling. I felt so refreshed that I think I didn't care much about the flaws of Book 1, despite my inability to sense direction for most of it, because thank the universe, it was a sibling relationship that made sense to me!

With that as an opening, I'd say that, initially, I thought Katara was fine for most of Book 1. In Book 2? She fell off the radar for me a bit simply because other characters are introduced that just appeal to me so much more than she does. I vibe better with characters like Azula, who tend to be the type of female character I just LOVE, and with characters like Toph, she's a tomboy, I was a tomboy (... was? x'D maybe I shouldn't use past tense...), so I gravitated much more towards those two by no real fault of Katara's core personality traits. Back in Book 1, there aren't as many main characters, so you don't have a lot of variety to choose faves from. It's not that strange, I think, that once the cast broadens, people's interest in certain characters can scatter too.

But then Book 3 happened, and I just couldn't enjoy Katara outside of episodes where she wasn't that important. The Katara-centric episode of Book 3 stand among my least favorite episodes of ATLA altogether, and among the least likely episodes I'd ever want to rewatch. I literally skipped over The Painted Lady in my first rewatches of the show, every bit as much as I skipped The Great Divide or Avatar Day, both of which annoy me a lot in the first two seasons. The Puppetmaster? Not even close to being an episode I could enjoy. Even the Runaway, that's supposed to be Toph-centric, ends up making me count down the minutes for it to end and I'm not even going to get started on The Southern Raiders and the absolute can of worms that episode is...

So, with all this being said, if we peel this particular cabbage open little by little...

After mulling it over, I've grown to suspect that Katara has major inconsistency issues since day one that most people don't particularly like to acknowledge, and that flew over most of our heads from the beginning of the show. She's pretty much portrayed to us as an empath, someone who has so much heart that she can't help but feel everyone's pain and suffer with them all the time. The fandom 100% acts like that's who she is (while also obsessively adultifying her unnecessarily, and forcing her into the mom!friend role, which... we'll talk about that later)

But this is also the same character who, when her brother banished Aang from the Southern Water Tribe as early as in episode 2, protested in a very particular way once Aang was gone. Which one of these statements sound more accurate to Katara's character, and a suitable protest for her to proclaim upon witnessing this injustice against Aang?

"Aang is alone! How could you send him away on his own? He could be in danger, Sokka! He's just a kid!"

"The Air Nomads are gone, Sokka! Where do you think he'll go? He doesn't have a home to go back to and you just sent him away!"

"You happy now? There goes my one chance at becoming a waterbender!"

If you ask the fandom? They'll most likely think that her reaction was either #1 or #2.

Surprise surprise: it was actually #3

I'm not saying she didn't show empathy towards Aang while Sokka was ranting at him, because she did. I'm not saying she wasn't willing to be banished along with Aang until Sokka asks if she'd choose pretty much a total stranger over their family and tribe, because she was. She absolutely did all those things.

... So why would she focus only on how he represented her one chance at becoming a waterbender once Aang is gone?

This feels off to me. I've never particularly liked that line. And you could absolutely say that Katara has every right to be mad at losing her chance to reclaim an aspect of her culture that she cannot connect to, but the way it was framed here? It absolutely makes Katara look more selfish than she actually was. The wording is not good. The show doesn't emphasize, at this point, that bending is such a core and crucial part of their culture and that Katara feels a major responsibility in being the ONLY person in the South Pole that can keep it alive. So it just comes off as a child's tantrum. Sokka's concerns were 100% valid too, even if he went about them while being a jerk (he is, indeed, an older brother...). He wasn't even wrong in the end about how dangerous Aang was to their tribe, since Aang's mishap with Katara on the ship gives away his position to Zuko, and it results in Zuko ramming a huge ship into their home and nearly killing people in the process. But you DON'T see the show fully framing it as though Katara and Aang did something wrong -- it was an honest mistake. We know it was. Sokka is framed as unreasonable for being so paranoid even though later events in the very episode prove he wasn't.

And that's... the crux of the issue with Katara's writing. If you ask me.

There are far too many instances where Katara makes mistakes that she's not held accountable for, that she doesn't apologize for, that run against the core logic and principles of her character and they either get shrugged off or overlooked. There are far too many situations where she acts out, and is a jerk at her jerk of a brother, even unprompted on occasion, and it's supposed to just be funny. One particularly stood out to me when I revisited it a few years ago, I can't really remember what for (maybe when I was writing Jeong Jeong's arc in Gladiator and I had a look at the fishing village...?), but it's the famous flashback episode in Book 1: The Storm.

The scene in question is... humorous. Supposedly. Katara is trying to buy fruit in the market but then realizes they have no money to pay for it. Not only does Katara piss off the vendor, but the vendor actually takes her rage out on Sokka once she realizes these kids won't give her any business: he gets kicked in the rear, as the transcript's description says. No one protests the woman's violent reaction, not even Sokka. Katara most certainly doesn't do it. But that's not all there is to it: Sokka doesn't hold what happened with the fruit vendor against Katara, they have a conversation on how they have no money and no food... and Katara offers him the golden ticket solution to their problems:

"You could get a job, smart guy."

Am I too feminist for thinking it's insane that Katara expects her brother alone to get the job? That she's not saying the THREE of them should get jobs? She and Aang are BENDERS! That's an asset most people aren't likely to find in any would-be employees in the central Earth Kingdom! So... wouldn't it be logical for all of them to do it? But no, instead, Sokka alone has to get the job?

And yes, I know, Sokka is the provider, Sokka is the protector, Sokka would do ANYTHING for his sister and the people he loves: you ask the fandom, though, and that's Katara instead of him. Moments like these simply do not exist in the fandom's eyes and, if they do, they're just excusable because Sokka is boring/weird/annoying/insert-demeaning-nonsense-here and Katara is a queen who can do whatever she wants.

Then, the consequences arrive once Sokka gets a dangerous job on a fishing boat and nearly gets killed in a storm. Aang is the one who shows concern about the potential storm when the fisherman's wife brings it up: from all I can see in the transcript, there's nothing from Katara. Sokka says they told him to get a job, so that's what he's doing, and there's no manifestation of concern from either of them about maybe joining him on this fishing trip to ensure he's safe. Instead, Aang is haunted by his past and Katara goes with him when he leaves, which, yes, is very important for context on the Air Nomads and Aang's life... and yet we don't really NEED for this scene to be Katara and Aang only. It could've included Sokka too. The plot of the second half of the episode would change? Likely. They could've come up with another idea, and not shown us a Katara who doesn't show concern for her brother's safety or any remorse when her unfair demands or expectations from him could result in catastrophic outcomes :') yes, she worries about Sokka's safety once the storm hits, but there's no sign of her feeling responsible for Sokka being out in the storm at all. No apology. Which is ironic, because Zuko apologizes to Iroh in that very same episode, hence, an apology from Katara to her brother could have mirrored that side of the story well, and they REALLY loved doing Zuko-Gaang parallel scenes like that, so it would have fit perfectly! Didn't happen, though.

Point being... Katara's compassion and empathy are not absolute. It's important to keep in mind is that they don't need to be! But precisely because she falters with them in moments where she REALLY shouldn't, with people as important to her as her own brother? It becomes very difficult to believe that she's the empath the fandom is convinced she is, and that the show's narrative tries to push her as.

The real reason why her failure to show compassion to Sokka in "humorous" situations feels so unnerving isn't because she's a typical little sister who takes her brother for granted (which is a perfectly logical/believable behavior!): it's because there are no consequences for it. Maybe at some point or another there were? But I for one can't remember many instances where Katara failed Sokka and it was framed as her fault and her responsibility. Let's look at other Book 1 instances that exemplify what I mean:

She freezes him to the deck of Zuko's ship, which puts Sokka in MAJOR danger, and she just tells him to hurry up as if it weren't her fault that he's frozen in the first place. We don't even see her making efforts to thaw him out of there when she IS the waterbender so it seems logical that she should be able to help with that (and if she's too inexperienced to do it? The least she can do to help her brother out of a dangerous situation is to TRY???). But apparently it's funny that she doesn't help him when it's her fault! So this is fine!

She endangers the entire group over the waterbending scroll, which, of course, the pirates had no right to have anyway and it's reasonable that she'd want it for herself... but she antagonized a group of fully adult, dangerous, potential murderous pirates, against Sokka's constant warnings that they shouldn't pick that particular fight. As far as I can remember? Her apologies on that episode are exclusively about how she hurt Aang's feelings by being jealous over his greater talents as a bender. Basically, nothing for Sokka, no apology for not listening to him about danger, making it worse when the very final moment features Katara proudly telling her brother that she won't steal things... unless it's from pirates. So lesson not learned because it's funny, again, to never acknowledge that Sokka has a point.

She actually cares about Sokka's fate in Jet! But the thing is... the narrative doesn't frame that as Katara's fault. Because it's not. Jet made his choices and he did awful things and he captured Sokka, lied and gaslit everyone, because he had a goal to fulfill and he used Katara to make that happen. As angry and upset as Katara is, it's not exactly shown that Katara is sorry for having trusted Jet when Sokka could have ended up paying a deadly price for it. She's angry at the betrayal, even in Book 2 it's constantly framed as though Katara is upset at him as an ex-girlfriend would be upset at her ex-boyfriend for lying to her rather than, you know, being pissed at him for nearly killing her brother + an entire village. My point is, the narrative framing never holds her responsible for Jet's choices. Which, again, she's not. But she IS responsible for her own choices... and one of those choices was disregarding Sokka's warnings about Jet. THAT was her fault, and her responsibility. She jumped to conclusions and assumed that Sokka was bitter and jealous that Jet was the charming cool leader Sokka could never be. There were no apologies to Sokka over that, either.

I could go on, and on, and on. The truth is, I bring all this up to show with solid evidence that Katara's writing was always a little... unstable. Weird. Disconnected from logic in many regards, I'd say. It's not logical/compatible to tell us that this character has the BIGGEST heart of the entire cast when she fails to show that heart to none other than her own brother, who is inarguably the person who she knows best and with whom she should share the closest relationship, even as her friendship with Aang grows and thrives. That makes no sense, thematically speaking.

Is it meant to be comedic? Yes, every bit as much as Iroh sexually harassing June was done for comedy's sake. That's not an excuse for characters behaving in ways that are thematically contrary to what they're supposed to be portraying... and along with that? No excuse for them facing zero consequences for that behavior. Which is, in fact, my main issue with these flaws from Katara: I have no issue with the writing choices in the scenes I listed just now! I take issue, however, with the lack of follow-up and consequences that you can BET, 100%, would have befallen Sokka if it had been him instead of Katara acting that way. He faced consequences even for things he didn't do, for comedy's sake: he wouldn't have gotten away with disregarding Katara's safety as often as Katara did with him, no chance at all.

Ultimately, these scenes in Book 1 are kind of ignorable in the larger scheme of things (or at least, that's how the fandom has always acted). Not a lot of people take any of this as major proof of characterization for Katara. You won't see a lot of fic writers showing her acting like this. Canon, though, often would go down this route for funsies, and the comics certainly did it plenty too, that I can remember. Part of the issue here is that, as funny as it is, it also makes Katara feel stale as a character, as does the Sokka-Katara dynamic, at large, because there's no progression for it. That's probably my greatest gripe with the Great Divide, believe it or not: it fakes being an episode where Sokka and Katara are going to be confronted over their conflictive tendencies, and the ONLY potential development in that basically-filler episode SHOULD HAVE BEEN Sokka and Katara learning to be a bit more harmonious and respectful of each other? ... And that's just not what happened at all. The status quo remains exactly the same after that episode, and it continues to be like that until the end of the show.

The real reason why Sokka and Katara are deemed the healthy siblings is because, of course, compared with the other main set of siblings in the show, these two appear to get along wonderfully. But the truth is, their relationship is not as dynamic as it deserved to be. And that's part of why Book 3 ends up failing in ways Book 1 might not have, while having similar flaws: Book 1 is when you're still getting to know these kids, and that's why I find its flaws far more forgivable than anything that comes later. When there's basically no development for that connection at all, Book 3 winds up falling flat with characters like Sokka and Katara and the bond between them.

All this being said... I'm not saying that Katara is terrible in Book 1. I still stand by the fact that I really enjoyed her character in many instances of this season, there absolutely are situations where she sasses Sokka that still make me crack a smile, and genuinely humorous situations that don't paint her in a questionable light over her lack of concern for her brother's safety. Her fight to earn the right to be trained as a waterbender is deeeeeply flawed but it's not her fault, it's more the misogyny of the writers/creators that decided that a betrothal necklace from his past would make Pakku unlearn all his sexism and get over his bullshit right after beating up a girl who was fighting tooth and nail to make him acknowledge her. That he only acknowledges her because he wanted to marry her grandmother is... uh... fuckboi behavior even when he's well over 70 years of age? XD

So, yeah, Book 1 still has my favorite Katara of the entire show even though I REALLY wish she wouldn't get away with things that other characters wouldn't get a pass for (... well... other than Zuko...). I can't enjoy her as much as I enjoy other characters because I really don't like it when characters aren't held accountable for serious mistakes they made.

Moving on to Book 2, though, and leaving behind my greatest gripe with Katara's Book 1 writing (lack of direct consequences/self-reflection on her part), Book 2's biggest sin when it comes to Katara is the beginning of the "mothering" trope. I honestly did not feel motherly vibes from Katara towards anyone in Book 1. Sokka is very often the one playing the responsible role, while Aang and Katara are seeing the world, practicing their bending, doing reckless and fun things. The entire thing about Katara being the mom friend started in Book 2 when she suddenly becomes the epitome of responsibility (well... kinda) when Toph joins the group. She still does sketchy stuff with zero consequences (I'll forever complain about how ice is not cold in this show, the kids she froze to the wall may have been dicks, but freezing someone alive that way should have resulted in serious health repercussions, just as ANY case of freezing someone alive should have, ffs, be it Zuko in Book 1's finale or Azula + Katara in Book 3's...), but once Toph is part of the group, she becomes the cool girl who's "one of the boys", and now Katara is "the mom". This dynamic gets forced into the story pretty much right after Toph joins the group. And after that? It doesn't really change for the better often. There are only a handful of instances where Katara wasn't acting wholesome and comforting and kind and compassionate in Book 2 (... particularly with Sokka, ofc), but the point where her dynamics, even with Aang, start to feel motherly is definitely Book 2.

And this adds to the issue, in the end: Katara's appeal as the main girl in the show is suddenly gone because Toph is here, and she's a way more unique character that the writers definitely were having fun working with, probably more fun than they had with Katara. So they had to find a new niche for her, I'd dare guess. Thus, instead of actually building up an awesome and solid friendship between Katara and Toph, they mostly just clash and collide. Toph is basically the ONLY character who gives Katara grief and isn't framed as in the wrong for it, which is its own set of issues (namely, Toph not being challenged enough by the narrative, which stunts her character growth), but among many things, we suddenly get shown that Katara is a girly girl who likes makeup and she ropes Toph into this when nothing we've seen so far suggests that Toph would be comfortable with that. Katara pushes her into doing things because they're the "girls of the group"... and it doesn't often look like Toph's feelings on anything are important when Katara is pushing her around for whatever purpose. I'm not saying Toph hated the spa day, she certainly had fun eventually, but even when the comics made a "Katara and Toph's day out" story, where Toph got to choose what to do for once, the story devolved into Katara's show anyway, and things concluded with Toph deciding they're better off doing girly things together when they want to hang out because Katara is just too intense for the things Toph would like to do.

This isn't even in the show, but it's basically a response to Tales of Ba Sing Se to try and even out Katara and Toph's one-sided dynamic, where Katara calls the shots of their entertainment... and even then, Toph doesn't really get what she's looking for. But Katara does get that out of Toph because all she wants is a girl to do girly things with and Toph provides that in the end, no matter how much of a tomboy she may be. Toph might just want a friend who loves the things she loves, and who knows, Katara could be that person! But the story never leads her in that direction so we never see that happen. And that's why that particular friendship never really... clicked for me. Their dynamics don't really feel enjoyable to me as they were written in the show, even though they very much could have been.

That's one thing I'll always give ATLA: the character potential and synergy they captured with that cast could be absolutely incredible. Team Avatar is so iconic because they really could work well off each other. A lot of teams in other media just aren't this good (... one of my main reasons to not enjoy Voltron and drop it in season 1 was my absolute failure to find any synergy between those characters, it felt like they all hated each other and I honestly did not enjoy their dynamics in the least), but Aang, Katara and Sokka have great synergy due to their different personalities in Book 1. Same when Toph joins them in Book 2. Zuko ABSOLUTELY could have been better in the group than he was if Book 3 hadn't devolved into the Zuko Woobifying Show by the second half, where the only writing priority was making him friends with everyone, and making them all feel sorry for him and have compassion towards him. But, broken down to his core traits, Zuko's personality would have resulted in solid chemistry with everyone else's if they'd gotten off that agenda anyway! So ultimately, ATLA has a big win in this respect that a lot of TV shows would LOVE to recreate but they simply haven't struck the right kind of balance in character traits.

Hence why the way they wrote Toph and Katara's dynamics kind of feels like a betrayal to me. Those two could have been a lot of fun, they have EVERYTHING it takes to be entertaining characters with not a ton of things in common and yet building a solid friendship that hinges on their differences. I've seen a fair few examples of that kind of dynamic in other media, and it absolutely would be possible with Toph and Katara. It's really unfair that they couldn't capture their dynamics in such a way that both characters would SHINE, rather than constantly resorting to conflicts between them that never seemed to truly be resolved.

So: Toph should not be a problem for Katara. She should enhance her character and doesn't because of writing failures. One of the core failures is "mom friend Katara", of course: there's nothing inherently wrong with Katara stepping up and taking care of people she loves, but there's something very wrong with it when she's suddenly portrayed as this motherly figure when she's doing things that Sokka had been doing just fine in Book 1. Main reason why this is the case? Sokka got dumbed down to full-time class clown for whatever reason in Book 2. While he has good moments, a lot of times they went WAY overboard with making him a source of comedy this season and that, too, contributes to mom friend Katara. Since Sokka is being so meh? We even feel relieved that Katara is there to keep things together because nobody can expect the other three to do it, right? But... Sokka was doing it in Book 1. And there's no real development to explain him NOT doing it anymore once Toph joins in besides "Katara is now the mom friend and Sokka is just here to be funny". It's not organic development: it's forcing tropes that just don't fit. And while Katara's mothering doesn't feel as unpleasant as it could here, it ultimately forces a new interpretation and portrayal of her character that honestly isn't all that interesting, most of all when the other characters are constantly portrayed as "more fun" while she's just here to keep them in line.

It just isn't the same Katara we met in Book 1, and it shows in spades. Book 1 Katara would have been hyped to join Aang and Toph in chaos while Sokka screams at them to behave themselves. Book 2 Katara is the one trying to keep the other three in line, and there's genuinely zero development that led things to that stage. It's not organic storytelling. There's no growth that leads to that, and so, it feels off.

But the core problem of all these flaws in Book 1 and Book 2 is that they roll together and snowball into something far greater that then proceeds to just... disrupt everything we thought we knew or understood about Katara. We've been told she's a kind person above all else, someone who cares about people close to her, someone who embodies hope and strength and love...!

... And then Book 3 starts, and we're actually facing a Katara who shifts into a wholly different person with the speed of a whiplash that we're left not knowing who tf this is anymore.

"Mom friend Katara" absolutely comes back in Book 3, why lie? She takes care of people, she tries to provide, she tries to be nice and sweet and then also enforces discipline on Toph (particularly) when she's being irresponsible!

But the reason why The Runaway is such an unpleasant episode is because Katara's behavior is dialed up to a thousand, and the conflict between her and Toph feels WAY too similar to what it was when they were barely getting to know each other in The Chase. Why are they STILL clashing over such things? There are occasional glimpses of friendliness there in The Runaway, sure! But they're not so strong that you actually feel like that friendship supersedes their conflicts and their propensity to bicker and argue and hurt each other. Toph blatantly calls her out on her mothering and fully canonically confirms that Katara is The Mom Friend™. Where Toph is annoyed but eventually complies with doing what Katara wants to do in Tales of Ba Sing Se, this time Katara makes a huuuuuge fuss over Toph's misbehavior and her scamming Fire Nation people. And you could argue that Toph has every right to do it, or that Katara is right to be worried, just like Sokka used to worry about such things in Book 1...

But what we get is a stale dynamic that repeats the same problems we saw in Book 2, as well as Katara coming off as rather hypocritical because she, too, did dangerous shit and picked dangerous fights where she shouldn't have, and ignored everyone who told her not to do it: she gave Toph that kind of grief over things Katara was willing to do back when Toph wasn't in the group (see the pirates thing), and she will try to stop Toph from having fun on her own terms when nobody has ever tried to stop Katara from doing that in hers. Of course, any Katara advocate would read this and go "you're missing the point: Katara was sad and upset that she was being LEFT OUT! That's why she was so mad about this!" Then the irony of the matter is that this argument STILL reflects poorly on Katara. She gave her friend a tough time, called her a wild child and a crazy person, went through her personal belongings because "she could tell Toph was hiding something from her", so she fully disregarded Toph's privacy... all because she couldn't say "Wait, you guys went scamming Fire Nation people? Damn, why didn't you wait for me! I would've gone too!", and there you go, problem solved! Katara's not left out anymore!

Yes, of course, that's not how it WORKS, people can struggle to identify what they feel...!

... And now it's my turn to say that that's not the point.

The point is that Katara said and did hurtful things to her friend. Things she eventually regrets, yes, but that she didn't have to do at all. This is the same person who fed Appa a bunch of food that made it look like he was sick, all be it to keep the group from leaving the Jang Hui river village so she could go out of her way to heal the injured and sick without telling anyone what she was doing. That, too, was a choice she made with no concern regarding how the rest of her team might feel about it: was she doing something nice? Sure! But it's not fundamentally different from Toph doing whatever she wants with zero regard as to Katara's feelings on the matter. Katara KNEW she was stalling their journey and that Sokka wanted them to move on: she didn't care about his feelings or priorities, and the story eventually frames Katara as being in the right for feeling that way. Here, she's in the inverse scenario, only it's with Toph rather than Sokka, and instead of realizing that she, too, has made choices that were irresponsible/dangerous/risky and STILL went all out with them, down to fighting whoever opposed her choices? Katara just doubles down until she, again, breaches boundaries and overhears Toph and Sokka's conversation, WHICH IS ANOTHER CAN OF WORMS DUE TO THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS FOLLOW-UP...

The thing is, Katara as a mom friend is not even a good thing. It's not conducive to fun or interesting storytelling, not in Book 2, not now. It doesn't make Katara a more interesting and dynamic character. The way she's portrayed isn't so she looks tragic for taking this role, it's all about forcing these kids into tropes that don't necessarily add up to who they have been so far. Katara's mom friend status is NOT treated with any compassion. It's not handled as a sore, difficult subject outside of the ONE conversation Sokka has with Toph that Katara overhears. And it's not centered on Katara's tragedy, on how she overcompensates for her mother's absence, it's centered on Sokka accepting her as a motherly person and encouraging Toph to do the same thing. The people who saw further depth in it probably haven't looked at the script itself in a long time: you CAN see more to it, but that's not the point of the scene. That's not where it's going. And the fact that such a tragic situation is what conduces Katara to take up the mom friend role actively makes it look like... she shouldn't have it. Why would she be the mom friend if she's just overcompensating for Kya's death? If she's taking up responsibility by thinking that no one else will (a blatant lie because, again, in Book 1 there's NO SIGN of this behavior and it's Sokka who's in a role of responsibility compared to her), it suggests that EVERYONE ELSE ought to step up and stop "relying" (and Sokka very much uses that word) on Katara being the mom friend. It's not a healthy thing. It's a coping mechanism that seems to be actively damaging Katara: and the story doesn't acknowledge it that way.

So... "mom friend Katara", dialed up to a thousand in Book 3, absolutely has a connection with why her character loses its sheen by this point in the story. There's no attempt to deconstruct this coping mechanism by Katara. No indication from the rest of the team that maybe Katara should get to be a kid just like them and stop being so uptight (even though VERY often she's not that uptight but the show very much tries to pretend she is). It's Katara's initiative to do a scam, it's not Toph or Sokka or Aang who think she needs to join in on the fun, she basically inserts herself in it. So basically, those three take the route of saying "that's what she's like, we just gotta bear with it", instead of actually helping her. If we'd seen that? Mom friend Katara would actually be a fun element to witness deconstructed by the story. And I'm not blaming either Katara or the other three for this:

This is EMINENTLY a writing problem.

Mom friend Katara is not a good trope. It could be if the point was to help her break free from it. It's not. It's simply weak writing that can't handle two girls with proactive, aggressive personalities and a ton of agency, a lack of creativity in realizing how much potential there could be in making Toph and Katara the absolute best of friends. It's seriously a disservice to the two of them that this trope literally blooms over Toph joining the show and then NEVER gets resolved or chased away. And when you have characters like Sokka or Aang kind of joining the bandwagon of "yeah, Katara's a mom!" when the two of them traveled with her in Book 1 and she WASN'T that at all? It makes matters infinitely worse.

So, if you ask me? This is the first thing that makes Katara feel more unpleasant than ever before in Book 3.

The second thing is even worse.

We return to accountability, as well as to illogical flow of thought when it comes to the writing of Katara: in Book 1, we see a hopeful girl who never speaks ill of her father or betrays any manner of displeasure or distrust towards him. No sign of her being conflicted by what Hakoda is doing: the focus is entirely on Sokka's feelings on the matter once it finally comes up in Bato of the Water Tribe, and Katara is a secondary matter, if even that.

This would be fine if Hakoda hadn't come up at all as a subject throughout Books 1 and 2. If Katara had never had the potential opportunity to see her father in any of these instances and had backed out from them for bigger reasons than... plot reasons.

For reference: she's excited, just as Sokka is, when Bato says he can bring the kids to meet their dad again. They're HYPED. We see no sign of Katara being upset at Hakoda for leaving at this point. The only portrayed reason why she and Sokka decide not to go see Hakoda is because they think Aang needs them more and they decide to forgive him for hiding the map. Katara, from the get-go, is not as angry at Aang for hiding the map as Sokka is. Clearly, Sokka wants to see Hakoda far more intensely than Katara does: even so, there's no sign anywhere here that implies that Katara harbors resentment or dissatisfaction towards Hakoda.

Book 2 gives us a similar situation: Katara declines going to see Hakoda and offers to be the one who stays in Ba Sing Se so Sokka can go see Hakoda himself. Sokka is soooo thrilled and thanks her and calls her the best sister ever and Katara very much says she is, indeed, the best. Which she's allowed to, worth noting, I'm not saying her reaction to Sokka's praises was bad, it's actually funny: but what I AM saying is that she knows how much this matters to Sokka and that's why she makes the offer she does. It's also VERY convenient! Because logic dictates that, if Sokka stays behind, he realizes the Kyoshi Warriors aren't themselves far faster than Katara does (even though, to be fair, Katara didn't really have much time to realize it at all), and we wouldn't have Aang suffering over Katara's imprisonment because the one in chains would be Sokka and then Aang might just go "oh okay it's just Sokka, I can go cosmic if it's not Katara"

... yeah I'm being sarcastic I actually don't think Aang wouldn't have saved Sokka, but they very clearly had Katara stay behind first and foremost for this specific purpose...

But Katara's acknowledgement that this is a good thing for her brother makes you REALLY wonder how much of a secret grudge she was supposed to feel towards her father at this stage of the story. The truth, in my opinion? She wasn't actually supposed to resent Hakoda as she did, let alone quite so harshly.

My sister personally told me that she thought Katara's anger at Hakoda was a fine storytelling choice when I told her I didn't like it. She told me Katara herself most likely didn't realize how hurt she had been by her father's leaving, that it wasn't until she was around Hakoda again that she understood she resented him at all, and that she had a lot more pent-up rage and frustrations than she had EVER acknowledged, and they burst out frequently in Book 3. Which, you know, is one possible explanation that tries to make this whole thing more palatable. From a human standpoint? This is valid.

... From a writing point? Not so much.

A Katara who struggles to understand her heart (which... is odd, tbh. As far as they portray her, Katara tends to know exactly what she's feeling, why she's feeling it, and she acts on her emotions rather than brains more often than not) would be portrayed as confused over her own rage at Hakoda. She would not have been written as a snappy teenager who hates her dad. She would have snapped at him and then apologized by reflex, unsure of what's come over her. We would see Sokka trying to mediate between them too, probably asking Katara what's her deal, and she would have no idea how to explain it. Katara would be avoiding Hakoda, knowing she loves him, not knowing why she seems to hate him now, afraid of saying things she shouldn't. Every time she snaps at him, she should worry about what she did, she should fear for Hakoda's feelings, she should reflect on what's going on inside her heart...!

... But that doesn't happen. And that knocks SO HARD on the concept of empath/compassionate Katara that it basically turns her into a whole different person.

As I've said countless times so far: it's not about Katara being perfect. I don't WANT her to be perfect. But I DO want the show to acknowledge that she's not. I want the flaws to REALLY read as flaws. I want other characters to react to those mishaps on Katara's part, and I want HER to reflect on what she's doing and realize she's messing up, just as she does when she hurts Aang's feelings in the Waterbending Scroll, which is most likely the best situation where Katara actually owns up to the exact mistake she made and feels genuine, palpable, obvious remorse for it. But when you feature Katara lashing out at Hakoda, and everyone just staying quiet because "uuuuh, awkwaaaard...", it feels off. Aang asks Katara, outright, what's her problem with her dad! And Katara goes "What? What problem?" She's acting like she's not even aware of the fact that her behavior is out of place, basically gaslighting Aang into pretending that she didn't do anything rude or mean to Hakoda. Aang literally saw it with his own eyes and is the ONLY person to bring it up.

To make matters worse? Katara has been with Hakoda for WEEKS. It's not like they just crossed paths two seconds before Aang opened his eyes. The implication is that she's been behaving like this, or her behavior has been deteriorating towards Hakoda with no one worrying about it or trying to make her reason with it. for that long. Sokka didn't do anything. Hakoda just took the teenage rants and left her alone because that's what she wants. And when the one person brings up that she's not acting like herself? Katara pretends nothing's wrong and acts like everything's fine and she's not acting any differently from herself. Whether she actually is just lying to Aang or ALSO lying to herself is a matter of debate... but what it suggests is she's unwilling to confront the gravity of her choices and how she can be hurting her father with them.

This is NOT to say that Katara has no right to be angry about Hakoda abandoning her in the Tribe. She has every right to be upset and feel forsaken. Their mother died, and Hakoda left with all the men of the tribe, and Sokka was left behind, tasked to protect everyone, and Katara apparently felt responsible for the whole village too: as valid as Hakoda's quest to fight in the war might be, it's not out of this world for Katara to harbor frustrations and resentment over what happened.

What IS out of this world, and particularly, not appropriate to her character, is that her way to convey those feelings was something she gave herself to, completely, only to reason with it once Aang was missing so that the episode would conflagrate her problems with Aang and Hakoda into the same thing.

This is basically a dark expansion of what we've seen in Katara's treatment of Sokka since Book 1: where it was typically "humorous" when she was a jerk to him and paid no price for it, this time it's not humorous. This time, you're supposed to see her being a jerk and then go "aaaaw, poor dear," even if you're not supposed to get mad at Hakoda because he is very much a decent dad. The show was trying to have its cake and eat it too with this situation, because Katara DOESN'T apologize to Hakoda for being unfair to him: HAKODA APOLOGIZES TO HER. Hakoda acknowledges the pain he caused Katara and the damage his leaving has wrought upon his children by apologizing and explaining how much he missed them... but Katara does not acknowledge the pain she inflicted on her father by acting out when he wasn't doing anything wrong. Is this teenager behavior? You could chalk it down to that, but that's precisely why teenagers can be a pain in the ass! And that's very much how Katara is being portrayed if she's unwilling to acknowledge she acted out and hurt someone she loves!

Her problems and resentment towards Hakoda magically go away after that single conversation. After this? She loves him. No hard feelings left. If her problems with Hakoda were this deep and difficult to navigate and work through, either she bottled them up in the rest of the show and stopped them from affecting her father... or she just got over it that quickly. Which would be very unrealistic because Hakoda apologizing for leaving doesn't change the damage Katara suffered through because he was gone. A single apology doesn't fix everything that people read into Katara's deep anguish in this scene and episode. And yet that's very much how the show portrays it: Katara is 100% fine in every single other interaction with Hakoda she gets past the first episode of Book 3. Does that make sense? Is that good writing? No, actually: it's literally digging up a problem, making it up last minute with zero lead-up to it, where the ONLY way to read "lead-up" is to pretend that Katara always had ulterior motives to avoid going to see Hakoda, even though we NEVER were shown that she was hiding anything, something that could be VERY easily shown in the story if they'd always had this in mind. The truth is that they didn't. They made it up for this episode, forced it in there, didn't even write it right because nobody reacts to Katara's behavior reasonably except Aang, and she gets away with it without even having to apologize. That's... not good form for any character, let alone Miss Responsibility and Empathy, is it?

This is why it's such a problem that Katara acted as she did towards her father. It's not because this is an unthinkable flaw: it's because there's very much no lead-up to it, kind of like there's none with Korrasami's big reveal in LOK's finale. It's because there's no follow-up to it either. It's because we don't see Katara living up to her supposed core character traits, where she should have a realization that her choices and actions and behavior have hurt someone else, someone she cares about. None of that happens.

And I will say: it's different when it comes to her clashes with Zuko and her reactions to him in the second half of Book 3. This is basically the MAIN thing the fandom gives her grief for and I hate them for it: she has every right and reason and justification to show no empathy or compassion towards a person who, as far as she could tell, took advantage of her compassion in Ba Sing Se, of Aang's compassion frequently across Book 1, and paid them back for all of it by joining forces with Azula and showing no concern to help Aang when Azula almost killed him. I am no fan of Iroh's... but Iroh jumped in to help Katara and Aang escape, at risk of being captured. Zuko stood beside Azula and did NOTHING to help those two leave. He showed zero concern for Aang's survival. He saw his sister potentially murder someone and had ZERO REACTION. So, no offense but full offense: Katara's unwillingness to trust Zuko is JUSTIFIED. Not only is it justified? It's CORRECT. It's the only writing choice that makes sense. Sokka getting over it relatively quickly feels off to me, no matter if the Boiling Rock adventure isn't as bad as others might be. Aang not holding a grudge for too long kind of fits because it is Aang... but Katara being that mad at Zuko? That's 100% fine. It fits. It works. And anyone pretending that what I said about Hakoda applies to how she treated Zuko is just completely biased in Zuko's favor.

Katara and Zuko do not have a secret magical powerful soulmates bond in canon. Their one instance of bonding comes after multiple instances of the exact opposite thing. Katara and Sokka were 100% down for leaving Zuko to freeze to death in the North Pole, and the ONLY reason why Zuko survives is because Aang can't let that happen to him. It's AANG'S compassion that saved Zuko. Katara felt none, AND SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO FEEL ANY. Let's not forget that!

Moving on to Book 2, Katara actually makes her first offer of kindness to Zuko and Iroh in the Chase when she offers to heal Iroh after Azula's attack. Zuko's reaction is to lash out violently and yell at her to leave: who, exactly, would feel inclined to think this poor beautiful sad boy just needs love when you OFFER HIM kindness and his reaction is, in a manner of speaking "go fuck yourself I'll handle this on my own"? And it's worth bringing it up because it feels like the fandom is hilariously misled into thinking the Gaang magically knows what Zuko is up to and how he's growing and evolving, as if they were part of the audience: they're not. The last time Katara saw Zuko before Ba Sing Se is literally when Zuko refuses her help. We're also talking about Fire Nation people: Katara has every right and every reason to believe that Zuko is refusing her help, not out of personal, internal strife he's dealing with and has no idea how to handle... she very much can read this as "inferior Water Tribe peasant, you will not heal my uncle with your wretched waterbending!" Because... let's be real, that's what Zuko looked like to Katara across Book 1. She has no real reason to think he's any better or different from that until their catacombs scene...

... And he stabs her in the back and joins Azula there. Right after "bonding" with her.

So let's be VERY clear on that respect: Katara has no real reason to forgive Zuko. She has no real reason to feel empathy outside of the show constantly trying to push that she's kind and compassionate with no boundaries, even if she forsakes that kindness and compassion at random whenever the plot requires it. But her death threats to Zuko? They're completely fine by me. I'd be pissed if she had acted any differently, and if anything I hate how easy Zuko had it to befriend everyone but Katara.

... Not to say I'm happy with how he befriended Katara either, but anyway...

As this isn't Zuko meta, we're not going to get into the true core glaring issues in The Southern Raiders, because ultimately, that episode paints Zuko in a disgusting light that his fans are constantly gaslighting themselves about. He was not beinga heroic good dude helping someone he connected profoundly with. His behavior leaves so much to be desired and proves he hasn't unlearned a lot of toxic things he had internalized. He didn't unlearn them in this episode, either. But the GREATEST sin Zuko commits in this episode, without a doubt, is bringing Katara on a journey that ultimately did NOTHING for her. The only person benefitting from it was Zuko himself. I've seen people pretend that Katara finally found closure: she did not do such thing. She learned what kind of scum killed her mother, but she did not forgive him nor did she kill him. Closure would mean peace. Katara did not find peace with the situation. She's shown troubled, sitting at that pier, miserable, when Aang talks with her, she's STILL angry. That's not closure. It never was.

What it was, however, was the journey where Katara thanked Zuko and forgave him because..! Uh... because...

... Why, exactly, did Katara forgive Zuko here?

He brought her to her mother's killer: she found no closure from it. In fact, she learned the VERY disturbing truth that she hadn't realized so far: HER MOTHER DIED SPECIFICALLY TO SAVE HER. Her mother sacrificed herself for Katara's sake. She CANNOT find peace with this reality in a single afternoon because holy shit, who would? Katara KNEW her mother had died. It's not until Yon Rha tells her what happened that she understands what happened in the igloo. Katara herself, her waterbending skills, and the target she painted on her own back because of something 100% out of her control, something that is NOT evil and that the Fire Nation was hellbent on destroying, are the reasons why Kya was murdered. This is DISTURBING SHIT to deal with. And the show completely sidelines this revelation and the dark impact it could have on Katara, which, seriously, is HUGE, way worse than what happened with Hakoda, because it very much could have triggered a profound self-hatred by Katara towards her own skills because how tf could her bending cause her mother's death?! Not to mention the obvious: who was that source? Who told the Southern Raiders that there was a waterbender? Who the hell is responsible, beyond the Fire Nation, for her mother's death?

There's A LOT to unpack here.

And none of it matters because Katara is just supposed to forgive Zuko for exacerbating and worsening her trauma regarding her mother's death :') funny how that works.

This IS the point where Katara should make a display of darker sides of herself that she didn't know or understand. THIS is where Katara turning dark like Aang did after Appa vanished would make PERFECT sense. With this revelation about Kya that's beyond disturbing: not with Hakoda... and certainly not with Sokka.

The cusp of Katara's worst is, by far, her behavior with her brother in the Southern Raiders. I know a million excuses have been made for this moment: my problem is NOT the fact that she lashed out at him as she did and said something DEEPLY hurtful. It's the fact that KNOWING, SEEING HE'S IN PAIN...

... does not matter to her one bit.

Instead of a trite scene with Zuko spouting shit he does NOT mean (aka "violence wasn't the answer... but lol go kill my father okay??"), we deserved a scene with Katara and Sokka talking this out. People pretend it's fine as it is: it's not. Katara has spent the ENTIRE show disregarding her brother's feelings in a myriad of ways: this time, it was way more painful and way more hurtful and SHE KNOWS IT. It's not funny. She's not amused. She's not being a shithead little sister. She's ANGRY. She's UPSET. She has every right to be! What she DOESN'T have a right to do is hurt her brother DELIBERATELY and then escape every consequence from doing that.

There's very much no way to spin that moment into making Katara a decent sister. There's no way she remains true to her core values of being empathetic, kind and wholesome when she will insidiously, vindictively hurt her brother this way. And what I said earlier about her overhearing Toph and Sokka in the Runaway? It actually gets a follow-up in this scene: Katara telling Sokka that he didn't love Kya as she did is basically her WEAPONIZING the information that was NOT meant for her as her alleged evidence that Sokka didn't care about Kya as much as she did. As if his inability to retrieve Kya's memory was NOT a manifestation of trauma, as if it were something he's FINE with! He's not! How guilty must he feel for that? Does that matter to Katara at all? Why... nope. Because all that matters at that point is her own rage, her own feelings, her own fury. Which is, then, entirely against the character we've been told she is.

The lack of apology or follow-up to this horrible moment will never stop being one of the absolute biggest misfires in one of the WORST written episodes of this show. Yes, I said it. The more I ponder The Southern Raiders, the more I realize it's an immensely flawed speedrun to establish a friendship that simply doesn't add up. Katara and Zuko becoming friends after this journey requires some wild, absurd leaps of imagination that, boiled down to basics, don't make any sense. There's no reason for Katara to decide she'll forgive Zuko after she regains enough clarity. Why does she forgive him? Because he proved he'd rather make her happy than defend his nation anymore? Ironically, at no point does Katara show any appreciation of the fact that Zuko is setting aside his firebending supremacist attitude completely for her sake. So maybe that's not it.

Ah... is it because of how he, and he alone, was ready to help her go on this journey of revenge...?! Why, ironically, the only reason why ONLY Zuko goes on this journey is incredibly artificial and fake: this IS intended as Katara's "field trip" with Zuko. None of the field trips make sense, from a logical standpoint, as duo journeys. I've mentioned it to a few people: Sokka and Zuko could have brought Toph with them to the Boiling Rock, a metal location where her abilities would be VERY useful, used her as a false prisoner and turned her in as a captured ally of the Avatar's, who 100% will bait him into coming here to rescue her so that the Fire Nation can get him next! A cover as strong as that one might actually get them further along on that rescue attempt than what they did in canon. But this CANNOT BE... because it was Sokka's field trip with Zuko so nobody else is invited, even if they're very much not doing anything else (as is the case with Toph). Aang? Why didn't everyone join the firebending discovery with Zuko and Aang? They weren't doing ANYTHING in the Western Air Temple at the time. They very much could have gone with them too. But they don't. And that's exactly why Katara's trip works exactly as it does: it's the solo journey with Katara and Zuko, and the ONLY way to make it work is to show Sokka and Aang completely opposed to the concept of finding Yon Rha. I'm not saying I think Sokka and Aang would have been on board if they're allowed to remain IC... but they could have wanted to go on this trip with Katara regardless of not agreeing with what she wanted to do. Hell, as is OBVIOUS: Kya is Sokka's mom too. His opinions, his feelings on this subject, should matter just as much as Katara's do, and fuck anyone who pretends otherwise. These two are NOT supposed to be the well-known unhealthy siblings Zuko and Azula, who each got one parent in their corner and therefore the other parent treated them like they were worthless or a monster. Hakoda and Kya were parents to BOTH their children, and any narrative or interpretation that attempts to say that ONLY Katara's opinion on Kya matters is immediately ruled out, for me, as absolute bullshit spouted by someone not worth listening to. Point blank.

Also, the fact that Zuko USES Sokka to gain this information about the southern raiders, and then doesn't even extend the chance to Sokka to join them? When Sokka is basically his new best buddy? That... does not make sense. It basically portrays Zuko as a disloyal asshole who takes advantage of his friends for his purposes and tosses them aside, disregarding their feelings whenever it suits him.

So Sokka's treatment at the hands of this episode is just deplorable. Both Zuko and Katara are HORRIBLE to him... but Katara is our focus here, she's actively hurts Sokka and then proceeds to not care. Because that's how she has operated so far, and that's how she always will.

Hence: we have a long, long tradition of Katara not treating Sokka fairly all across the show. The reasons why it's not a fair or balanced relationship at all is because Sokka typically pays the price for being a dick to Katara: either she inflicts the punishment herself, such as when he's disrespectful in the Drill and she smacks him with the slurry, or the narrative inflicts some magical punishment instead that CONSTANTLY proves that Sokka is not allowed to be a dick without facing consequences for it. Does he ALWAYS learn the lesson? Sure he doesn't! But the consequences for it NEVER stop. He doesn't get away with being a jerk to his sister. That's forbidden. But Katara? She's allowed to get away with it every single time! And the reason why it gets worse and worse is because we went from relatively silly/comedic things, in which Katara did not apologize because "it's funny that she didn't apologize", to NOT funny things at all, such as this scene in Southern Raiders. Even just a troubled glance at Sokka, or a slight hesitation after seeing how hurt he is, would be enough for me: there's NOTHING. She doubles down and keeps charging ahead. Zero thoughts or concerns given to her brother.

If this isn't why you have issues with Katara, well, I don't know why it might be the case in your case x'D But I absolutely attest that the combination of "mom friend", "selective compassion particularly when it comes to her brother" and "absolute imperviousness to consequences for her mistakes" are the things that fully caused my initial appreciation of her character to shift into ambivalence and then into full blown dislike once I reached Book 3.

Worth noting: THIS IS A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SHOW'S WRITING. Boiled down to basics, written by any more competent hands, I don't think Katara would have acted the way she did often, ESPECIALLY in episodes like The Awakening or The Southern Raiders. I categorically refuse to write Katara in my stories as someone who gets free passes for EVERYTHING she does. I also refuse to portray her as the mom friend, particularly in Gladiator. There's a lot of depth you can give this character! So much you can do, so much worth exploring... and canon just settled for stunting her and then only bringing her out to play in ways that make her unpleasant, not particularly bright and extremely resistant to character development even after allegedly learning lessons (see how her initial behavior around Hama, who shows red flags often, isn't all that different from how it was with Jet? There's only a handful of moments where it looks like Katara MIGHT be wary, and yet they're quickly overcome by her excitement, which Hama manipulates in her favor until she does the bloodbending reveal). So I'm NOT saying Katara had no potential... but I am saying the show itself failed her, big time, because of how she was written. A quick glance through the transcript of the Puppetmaster to confirm my memories that Katara shows no sign of concern over Hama when Sokka finds her suspicious reveals that, after Hama shows them her comb and that she's from the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka, and Sokka alone, apologizes for suspecting her of being sketchy. Nothing from Aang, even though he was part of it too. Nothing from Toph, either. And certainly nothing from Katara. Only Sokka apologizes. As usual.

So... what does this tell you? What does this tell any of us? That Katara's development is... erratic, at best. That it's not linear isn't a bad thing, but that it contradicts itself non-stop, that her core traits come and go willy-nilly as the plot demands it, that her motivations to do things (like forgiving Zuko) don't add up to her experiences or to any lead-up we've witnessed, is most certainly not good.

If I were to rewrite ATLA, the main characters I'd want to rewrite into making a lot more sense than they do, and making their arcs actually logical, are Zuko and Katara. I'd definitely add a few rewrites for Iroh, particularly to make him WAY more accountable for shit than he ever was, and to show he's not universally loved and shouldn't be, since people would have very reasonable grievances with him. I'd also rewrite a handful of things with Aang, too. Toph, full-stop, deserves a growth arc of her own beyond getting stronger and getting used to having friends. Girl has the range. They just never let her explore it. And of course, I'd change a fair few elements of Azula's writing as well. But I feel like no characters would warrant a deeper intervention than Zuko and Katara, precisely because they constantly fail to live up to all the stuff people keep pretending they're flawless exhibits of.

And this is one more issue we've got going on with Katara:

The fandom ABSOLUTELY has been unfair to Katara. A lot of people hate her for no reason. A lot of people who potentially have unexamined racism making their hearts' choices for them and they despise her just because she dared not have fully-white skin. A lot of people pick completely ridiculous things to get angry at her, such as people who HATE HER because she's "rude to Zuko". Just, fuck off. That's about the stupidest reason to hate this character and stupid reasons for that have been heard plenty.

But Katara's fans have become... reactionary. They appear think that any criticism to her character NEEDS to be fought off with "she was right tho" or "she has every reason to act this way" or "she's HUMAN she's allowed to make mistakes you heathen!! That's what a flawed character is like!"

Here's the kicker, though: if you have justifications and excuses for every little unpleasant thing Katara EVER does? You're basically taking a dump on her character yourself and saying she IS flawless.

Flaws in characters are bad things that cannot be justified. They can be funny! They can be annoying. They can be infuriating. But they're things that inconvenience other characters, that hurt them, that show they're not above or beyond doing harmful things! All of what I listed in this crazy long post are Katara's flaws. The reason why I don't like the way these flaws were handled are all the things I already have talked about: no accountability for flaws is basically saying that these flaws don't matter. No follow-up, no lead-up, means Katara is allowed to be as much of an ass as she wants to be and nobody cares: THIS IS NOT FAIR. This is not how ANY character should be written. This is the core reason why I've spent years feuding with Zuko and Iroh: they get away with shit they should NOT get away with, EVER. They're not held accountable for so much they should be. This happens to Katara too. particularly in her dynamcis with her brother. And when people see those flaws and just start listing reasons why it's actually okay? All you're doing is dehumanizing these characters to pretend everything they EVER do is fine.

Also worth noting... character flaws are the way characters grow. If a character is DEEPLY flawed, you know what kind of work you have cut out for you as a writer. If you're writing a story heavily steeped on character development? Then those flaws are VITAL to the work you have to do in order to develop these characters!

But when Zuko is unnecessarily violent and you're told "it's because his culture and family are!", you rightfully assume that as he drifts away from Fire Nation ideology, Zuko WILL grow less violent. Then, you watch how he picks an unnecessary fight with Aang in the finale because everyone's being lazy, an EXTREMELY violent fight at that, and you contrast his earlier behavior with it and... where's the difference, exactly? How did he grow or learn better if violence is STILL his immediate reaction to anything he doesn't like?

Thus, when Katara's flaws get overlooked, ignored, disregarded? What kind of development does Katara get, if none of her flaws are addressed in a way that makes it look like she's genuinely learned any lessons? At least, none of the worst, biggest, glaring flaws were addressed. None of the things that she SHOULD be troubled by and that she shouldn't be happy with herself over, especially after seeing how she hurts people with her actions. This isn't cool. This isn't a fun way to write a character. And it's so glaringly unpleasant when you can so very easily contrast this with the well-known terrible flaw Sokka displays early on: sexism! And then he gets his ass kicked by Suki and he learns to respect the Kyoshi Warriors... and we never see him displaying that particular flaw again. THAT is what growth looks like! What can we point to with Katara that remotely compares to this? That she accepted Zuko? Yeah, no, that sincerely could not count any less. Her personal arc CANNOT be about Zuko. That she got over her mom's death? She didn't. So that's not it either. That she helped Aang save the world? So her personal arc was about Aang and not herself? Was her whole role in the story to play Aang's cheerleader, then? Because if that's it... she was doing that just fine at it since day one. She's the only person who faithfully believed the Avatar would return well before Aang turned up in her life, if the first episode's introduction is to be believed.

So... what, exactly, was Katara's arc? If it's just her waterbending skills, then she's as stunted as Toph, unexplored and underdeveloped and left to just strengthen her fighting skills while Aang and Zuko and Sokka are getting full character arcs, even if very lowkey but very much effective in Sokka's case, where they develop and grow (or they should) into the men they're supposed to be to end the war! Why don't Katara and Toph get similar arcs? Why aren't they challenged on a level that actually provides them with lasting, solid, provable growth, where you can look at them where they started out and see how they ended up and conclude their journey was beautiful?

I insist... writing. Weak writing. Failures to understand/develop characters properly. And of course, lack of accountability in storytelling. I wrote that one focusing mostly on Zuko... but it's very much applicable to every character who fails to own up to the things they should and deserve to face consequences for.

Anyway... this is what I'd say about Katara atm. I'm not 100% sure this is everything because I might have overlooked some stuff that also made Katara's character kind of backfire (while I'm no Kataang hater, I 100% agree that the ship should have been written better too, and after writing them whenever I have, it's honestly kind of ridiculous how such an easy ship could get fucked over so badly by weird writing choices...). Whether you agree with these assessments or not, ultimately, there are valid reasons to feel offput by Katara and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Most of all when you DID appreciate and cherish the character once before, but her fans just jump to the conclusion that you must be a mindless hater to think she's anything but flawless (this, while claiming they love that she's flawed, then they proceed to reveal they have no idea what a flaw is...).

(final note: SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO ANSWER! Super lengthy answer to make up for it, I hope :((( sorry)

#anon #I am not tagging the character directly but I bet this is gonna show up in her tag anyway because Tumblr gonna Tumbl #look #if you're the kind of katara fan who cannot stand a single word against her #just don't read this for your sanity of mind #... but if you go ahead and do it anyway?#don't come back at me with a million arguments to prove your fave is indeed flawless #because you're basically just spitting upwards at that point #and further proving that you do not understand character growth or development in the least #she's not a goddamn religious figure she's a fictional character #every fictional character that's worth something is flawed #and flaws are not always going to be cutesy pretty things #such is the case with Katara #the writing of this show is a mess in many regards #but they fucked up in particular with some characters the fandom adores #and I hate how the fandom acts like that's not the case at all #just to take trips into delululand and absolve them of every single thing they did wrong #and all the very deserved consequences for their worst actions #because the show itself dropped the ball hard enough in that respect for the fandom to do the same #you do you #but no argument will change my mind #and if none will change yours?#... skip past this post :')#it's a free world

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