#like if we fix it we can use the roku (i think we have one in there still... idk) but we never hang out in there lile

[bunnyb34r]

Idk why I like doing these mini doll room/houses so much considering how much I hate measuring and how badly instructions fuck me up 😭 I guess it being pictures more than words and being able to guesstimate the measurements on some parts is why but 😭😭 idk

[thedynamicworm]

Okay, so I just saw a post by @ozais-lobotomist about how lightning bending is sexy to firebenders, and while I liked the original post (I can’t find it at the moment) I want to take this theory a little to the left.

Let’s say there was a fire lord a couple centuries ago, who was such a huge lesbian that she basically became synonymous with the word. I’m bad at naming things without research so I’ll just call her fire!sappho for now.

Anyways, she could bend lightning extremely well, so that also became kind of a euphemism for being a lesbian, both because of fire!sapphos relationships and because the most proper lightning bending form is using two fingers, of course. So there’s a lot of “She’s more of a female lightning master, if you catch my drift”.

Fast forward back to the present and Azula is here, being a prodigy who can produce lightning. Now, since Sozin made homosexuality illegal (it’s because Roku rejected him. Cmon we were all thinking it), queer people have had to become a lot more discreet with euphemisms and such. Fire nation officials know what fire!sapphos name means, so that is off the table. However, female lightning master has not been caught onto yet.

When Mai, Ty Lee and Azula meet up, they’re about fourteen. For the sake of this, let’s say that Azula hasn’t seen them since before she learned how to lightning bend. Ty Lee only realized she’s lesbian a few months ago, and has been secretly researching queer people of history, so she ended up finding out about this particular euphemism.

When she meets back up with Azula, she is almost immediately taken again with the crush (she didn’t know it was a crush before) she has always had on Azula. So imagine her surprise when she sees azula lightning bend for the first time.

Ty Lee finds her ability incredibly funny, and for the life of her Azula cant figure out why. Ty Lee made it clear she wasn’t laughing at Azula’s skill, but it’s still confusing to her. Imagine at least one time when Ty Lee asks Azula if she considers herself a female lightning master, to which Azula responds yes, of course, because she is nothing if not perfect.

Eventually, after the war and after Azula recovers, (or during the war if you want a slight fix it) Ty Lee and her get into a relationship. Azula finally asks her what she had been laughing about back then, and Ty Lee tells her about fire!sappho and the female lightning master euphemism, which is the inspiration Azula needs to get back into lightning bending once again.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I mean to be fair the writers in the latter half of the show were fully aware of all this fanon madness and threw them some bones. Katara and Zuko were trolled 2 times at being together, Toph hinted at katara having a secret thing with haru (whatever that means) amd she herself seemee very needy and jealous being the only one without a zuko field trip,suki and sokka did it.

When people watch the show without any social media or fanon influence after netflix aired atla all the canon pairings make total sense but when i think bryke indeed did some fanservice (the way zuko jumped in slowmo into the lightning) so the writers definitely knew what they were doing.

I really liked kataang in the first 2.5 seasons but the fact that tsr and eip are both 2 episodes in a row and we never see katara apologizing to either sokka or aang even had me like wtf (tsr is a good episode but still.) Then aang disappears on the lion turtle and katara is pretty chill compared to all the times before. It would be prob better to have a book 4 where they grew apart for a few years and saw how important they were to each other to give them the proper development but it is what it is.

While I'm all for a book 4, splitting the Gaang up would be a HUGE mistake. "This could ruin the whole show" kind of mistake. They all are at their best and grow the most when they are TOGETHER. Hell, that's the whole point of the life-changing field trips with Zuko. Let's not "fix" what isn't broken.

I wouldn't really say that Katara was "chill" after Aang disappeared. They were on the edge of the biggest battle of their lives so they had a LOT to focus on, and even Sokka just immediately thinks "He's probably in the spirit world doing Avatar stuff that will help save the day." Mysterious bullshit making Aang be away for a little while, be it physically or just spiritually/mentally, is a Tuesday for them at this point. They spent an entire episode waiting for Roku to be done telling his backstory with Sozin to him. Katara not losing her mind with concern because of something that happens regularly is not the same them growing apart.

And while an apology to Katara for the Ember Island thing or her apologizing to Aang and SPECIALLY Sokka after how she acted on Southern Raiders would be great, Avatar has a tendency of just skipping apologies that are kind of taken as a given - see Aang not apologizing to Toph after how he acted when Appa was kidnaped, or her and Katara not apologizing to each other after the events of The Chase. They tend to focus on apologies for bad behavior that lasted a whole arc (see Zuko apologizing to the Gaang and to Iroh).

And about the writers throwing shippers a bone with stuff like Katara and Zuko being mistaken for a couple - yeah, I can see how fan would like that. I also remember the characters getting visibly uncomfortable with it and that the show basically mocked the very concept of the ship through the Ember Island Players.

More importantly: fanservice is not foreshadowing, set up and/or development. For exemple: I LOVE Tokka as a ship, and I find Toph's crush on Sokka really cute. But it was always VERY CLEAR that it was one-sided and that the writers decided to make him end up with Suki. The fanservice made me happy, but it was not meant to be taken seriously, so I didn't.

Meanwhile Zutarians use five minutes of bait to argue that there was a whole conspiracy in which their OTP was meant to be endgame but evil Bryke ruined it at the last second. They've argued that Ember Island!Katara saying she likes Zuko and thinks of Aang as her little brother was a reflection of the REAL Katara's feelings, even though she explicitly said it was not the case and the show itself made it obvious that it is simply an INNACCURATE fanon take on the show.

No one would have an issue with Zutara shippers enjoying the little treats the writers gave them if they weren't so hellbent on claiming that those little moments somehow invalidate three seasons of Kataang, and one season (plus a few book 2 episodes) of Maiko. Not to mention the constant "If you dislike the ship/say it's not canon, then you're sexist/racist and I get to harass you."

You can't be "fair" to people that are asking to be allowed to be unfair to everyone else. They need to grow the fuck up first and realize that, if they want to be left alone, they shouldn't go around picking up petty fights with people then complaining when they get punched.

[adozentothedawn]

Okay so the Atla timeline for the Fire Nation is a bit knotted up huh

We have Fire Lord Sozin starting the 100 year war when he’s this old: (technically even older cause this was when Roku died, but it's close enough for this purpose. He old is the point.)

The wiki tells me he was 82 at that point,yeah, makes sense. He rules for 20 years longer according to the wiki, which sure, I can deal with that, strong benders live long, whatever. However. We then have Azulon which is where it gets weird, because the show explicitely states he rules for 23 years. That is a direct citation from the funeral flashback in Zuko Alone. 23 years. We definitely know when he died though, namely 5 years before Zuko was banished, so in the year 95 (techincally 94? The wiki says 95 and it doesn’t matter for this discussion so I’ll just roll with it). That means he started his reign in the year 72 a whole 52 years after his father died. I have questions. Now, the wiki completely ignores the 23 years line and I cannot blame them for it cause it doesn’t make sense. It also claims that Azulon was 95 when he died, which. That would make his father 82 when he was born. Guy must have had some real virility, damn. Now we don’t have a birth year for Ozai, but Ursa was born in 63, and they seem to be around the same age so if we roll with that Azulon would have also been old when Ozai was born but it would be at least slightly less insane. Now, having a child at 82 is not technically impossible for a guy, so the only thing that is just plain wrong is the 23 years line, but it is unlikely. I guess that family just has a thing for getting children when they’re old. 

However, to my amusement, that 23 years line isn’t the only thing they kinda tried to retcon. Here we have a young Azulon training as his father watches: (Although I am unable to cite from where that picture originates, the wiki doesn’t source its pictures very well and I don’t recognize the watermark. I am assuming its from one of the lore books but if the wiki is just lying and this isn’t official feel free to correct me)

So this is probably like year 12 to 15, right? It seems Mr Sozin Fire Lord is Benjamin Button aging up there. xD Either that or in his old age he got vain and started dying his hair.

Yeah so anyway, the only actually impossible thing is the 23 years line, the other stuff I just think is funny. We have two options to fix the inconsistencies: 

Option #1: We add another Fire Lord before Azulon. It’s smoother but quite a bit of work to justify in canon if you’re not already ham for rewriting a bunch of lore. 

Option #2: We just yeet out the 23 years line as the fire sage got high off herbs or something and was talking bullshit. Definitely the easier option and it’s not unreasonable that Azulon ruled for 75 years. Also I think that option opens up a lot of interesting lore debates, because while Sozin started the war, Azulon kept it going for 75 years. That’s almost 4 times the length Sozin ruled in the war. It’s basically just that guy’s war at this point. Sozin is interesting as a character and I liked that episode about him, don’t get me wrong but Azulon ruled for 3/4s of the whole war and we get basically nothing about him, which I find a little disappointing. Although since that was a bit of retcon I suppose it makes sense. 

Alright, rant over, summary: the show had a line that makes no sense and also Zuko better keep using protection if he still has hookups in Legend of Korra. 

Edit: actually this is even wilder cause I calculated wrong. The war started 12 years after Roku died, so Sozin only ruled for 8 years during the war and Azulon for 86.

[fancoloredglasses]

The saga of Al’s leap (The hologram has turned!)

  [All images are owned by Universal. Please don’t sue me or alter my past...though if you did, how would I know?]

One of the great things about Quantum Leap is the various stories that can be told and the various roles that can be done centered on a single actor (or should I say a single actor playing a character being an actor)

This review is about an episode (the finale for Season 3) where Sam Beckett revisits a number of his former roles...just before the script gets flipped to start Season 4!

If you would like to watch the episode, it’s available on Roku TV.

We open to Sam leaping into...

(Thanks to Quantum Leap Clips)

Roll the opening credits!

We open to Butch bringing “Sam Bedderman” (AKA Sam Beckett) back to the main psych ward after Sam (normally I would put quotes around whomever Sam has leaped into, but given he has the same name as Sam, there’s no point) has been recovering for 4 hours! Butch the orderly gives a not-so-veiled threat that he’ll do the same to anyone else.

One of the other patients, a man named Tibby, comes over to accuse Butch of trying to kill Sam. Butch (the sadistic bastard) says he could if he wanted to, and if he does it would be because of Tibby. After Butch leaves, Tibby takes a close look at “Sam” and sees Sam!

Then Al shows up, happy that Sam gets to use his own name (where was he four hours ago?)

Then Sam wakes up, scared out of his gourd (especially toward Nurse Chatam and Butch) due to his shock therapy. What’s more, he doesn’t recognize Al and thinks he’s in the room, which isn’t helping his case with Nurse Chatam, who is trying to calm him down. Fortunately, Al manages to calm him down and sorta-kinda explain things before the attending physician, Dr. Masters, enters the ward.

Eventually, Sam says he’s not “Sam”, but “Samantha”!

No, Sam isn’t going questioning his gender (though given how many times he’s been a woman...) The shock treatment scrambled his memories more than normal and he thinks he’s...

...Samantha Stormer, a woman he Leaped into in the episode What Price Gloria?

That’s when Tibby starts talking with Al. So now it’s dogs, kids, and crazy people who can see him! Al tells Tibby not to say a thing or they’ll throw him in a rubber room. Fortunately for Tibby, he believes Al.

Dr. Masters things “Sam” is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder (he’s not completely wrong) and puts him under observation. Al manages to talk “Samantha” into telling Dr. Masters enough to make him go away.

Once Sam is able to send Dr. Masters away, Al does his best to explain to “Samantha” (and apparently Tibby) what’s going on at tells his team to get Dr. Beeks (the team’s psychiatrist...and believe me, Sam’s gonna need a LOT of therapy if he ever gets home) to help him sort out how to fix Sam’s brain.

Tibby asks Al about his future, to which Al promised to do so...

...as soon as he gets back from finding Dr. Beeks. In the meantime, Al asks Tibby to keep an eye on Sam.

Meanwhile, Dr. Masters is fascinated by Sam Beederman’s new condition. He’s considering drugging Sam to learn more.

Thankfully, there’s at least one person on the staff who’s actually trying to help the patients. Unfortunately, Dr. Masters brushes off Nurse Chatam.

Later, Al returns and Tibby once again asks about his future. Al says he’s the reason Sam’s here. Unfortunately, Sam’s not exactly himself right now, so Al decides to take up the slack.

With a bit of questioning, Al finds out Tibby was brought (and left) by his parents due to him having chronic headaches that he still gets. Al reveals that when he’s released (in 7 years) he winds up homeless. Hopefully that can be changed!

Then Sam wakes up as an orderly comes to move him to an observation room. Fortunately, he longer thinks he’s Samantha (that’s good) Unfortunately, he now thinks he’s...

...Jesse Tyler, a black man he Leaped into in the episode The Color of Truth. (that’s bad) What’s more...

...whatever the shock therapy did to Sam’s brain weakened his connection with Quantum Leap, making it harder for Al to stay in touch. If Sam doesn’t Leap soon, he may be trapped in 1954 forever!

Later, once “Sam” “Jesse” Sam (this is gonna get confusing) is moved to observation, Dr. Masters runs him though a Rorschach test and Sam has a flashback to that leap...

...where “Jesse” knew how to treat “his” granddaughter who was dying after a hit-and-run. Dr. Masters asks how “Jesse” could know that (of course it’s because, in addition to the six PhDs Sam Beckett has, he also has an MD. Did Sam ever have a social life...or sleep?) and of course “Jesse” has no idea.

Sam asks for water, and an orderly brings it in. Three guesses which one.

The trauma of seeing Butch triggers yet another of his earlier Leaps to manifest.

This time he becomes Vietnam combatant Herbert Williams from The Leap Home. [Quick note: following Sam’s Leap, Williams earned the nickname “Magic”, worked his way to Admiral, became the head of the restarted Project Quantum Leap, and was played by Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame in the 2022 series]

“Herbert” freaks out, seeing Butch as part of a Viet Cong ambush! Even after Dr. Masters sends Butch away, Sam is still in fight-or-flight mode. Al manages to talk him down and convince Dr. Masters to send him back to the general population.

That night, Al tells Sam that, in order to help Tibby, Tibby needs to learn how to read. Problem is, Sam is no condition to do that, so...

(Thanks to My Music)

This is enough to change history in Tibby’s favor, but Sam hasn’t Leaped.

The music wakes Sam up. The good news is that he’s not reliving Magic’s memories any more. The bad news is he now thinks he’s...

...Air Force test pilot Capt. Tom Stratton, who was Sam’s very first Leap in the pilot (heh) episode.

What’s more, Sam’s connection is getting worse with every new personality.

That night, Sam’s dreams are filled with visions of previous Leaps until he wakes as...

...prize fighter Clarence “Kid” Cody from the episode The Right Hand of God.

Al has brought Dr. Beeks with him (He has to maintain physical contact to Sam can see her)...

...and she theorizes that Sam needs another round of shock therapy to reset his brain so he can Leap. Needless to say, Sam is not happy about this. However, Al call upon his years as a Naval officer to get Sam to agree to this plan.

The next morning, yet another of Sam’s former leaps comes to the fore. This time...

...Jimmy LaMotta, a man with Down’s Syndrome from the episode Jimmy.

The doctors on the outside of the observation room speculate why Sam Beederman would be acting this way when Al shows up and says it’s time.

Al goads Sam into getting violent to the point that he needs to be restrained and they prepare him for shock therapy.

Needless to say, Al is heartbroken by this. However, this is Sam’s only chance to get out of this Leap.

In the shock therapy room, Al tells Sam he needs the same power levels as before. That’s when Nurse Chatam reveals that Butch gave an unauthorized treatment. As the doctors verbally berate Butch for doing so, Sam begs Nurse Chatam to light him up...

(Thanks to Back21978)

...which brings us to the second half of our saga. For whatever reason, Roku does not have this one episode available out of the entire series, so you will need to breach the paywall at Amazon if you would like to watch it.

Following the cold open (which replayed the above clip after the Leap) and the opening credits, Al is screaming for Gushie (the head programmer, played by comedian Dennis Wolfberg, who died shortly after the series ended)

Meanwhile, Sam is enjoying life as a hologram. Al is trying to beat his handlink into submission, but to no avail.

Sam theorized that, since they switched places, the Leaps would occur within Al’s lifetime. Sam asks Al when he was born so he can get a baseline for when they might be, but Al can’t remember (meaning Al’s memories are as screwed up as Sam’s usually are) Sam asks Al what his last name is.

Uhhhh...yeah, your memories are screw up, Al.

Al keeps screaming for Gushie, but since he’s not the hologram he can’t access Quantum Leap through the handlink.

Oh boy...

Without the handlink, Sam has no way to communicate with Gushie. He’s effectively as trapped in the imaging chamber as Al is in the past!

Unfortunately, Al’s constantly screaming for Gushie to open the door to the Imaging Chamber has attracted the attention of one of the locals.

The local milkman calls Al “Tom” and starts filling in a few of the gaps. Apparently “Tom” was released from a German POW camp after 3 years (so at least they know it’s in the mid-1940s. Yes, you can see the date by scrolling up a bit, but Sam can’t)

A bit more awkward questioning reveals that Tom’s girlfriend Suzanne thought he was dead and moved on, and the wedding is in two days (damn, she moves fast!)

Sam is becoming increasingly concerned because (1) he can’t figure out what Al’s supposed to do without Ziggy (which he can’t without a handlink) and (b) Gushie should’ve figured out something was wrong and opened the Imaging Chamber door by now. Al says there was a lightning strike about the time of the last Leap, which might be why they switched. San guesses the lightning strike caused an error, causing Ziggy to seal the Imaging Chamber. It’s possible to override the error...using the handlink (it always comes back to that, doesn’t it?)

Thanks to the magic of calendars, Sam figures out the date Al has Leaped into, but he’s no closer to figuring a way out of the Imaging Chamber.

Then Suzanne shows up, making things even more awkward. Of course, things go downhill since Sam seems to have gotten Al’s lecherousness when they switched places and is encouraging Al...until “Tom” accidentally proposes to his ex and she says yes! There’s just the little problem that she’s already engaged.

Speaking of the fiancé (Clifford)...

...he shows up to see the woman he’s about to marry playing tonsil hockey with her ex! Eventually, Al challenges Clifford to take their disagreement outside.

Well, that didn’t take long!

Later, “Tom” is driven to his old house...

...and Sam is not getting tired of scaring the crap out of Al for a change.

Sam tells Al he knows how to get out of the Imaging Chamber: all Al has to do mail a letter to the address for Project Quantum Leap to be delivered on the actual date (which Al conveniently remembers) with instruction on how to override the Imaging Chamber lockdown!

[Quick note: I know “mailing a letter to yourself in the future” is a common time travel trope, but according to the USPS, it’s not possible at least in modern times. No clue about in the past before machines did most of the sorting]

When Al gets ready to mail the letter, Sam’s memory returns. As soon as Al drops the letter in the mailbox...

Sam rushes through the door to...

...his wife, Donna!

Once the tearful reunion is over, Gushie congratulates Sam in escaping the Imaging Chamber. Sam then asks Ziggy for information about Al’s Leap, but Ziggy doesn’t have that information, as Sam wasn’t born in 1945. Sam has Ziggy start downloading news files from that year so he can figure out what Al needs to do.

Meanwhile, I don’t think Al’s too worried about what he’s supposed to do.

And back in the present, I’m not sure Sam is either. Sam is mad at Al for not telling him that he was married. Donna says it would’ve made it harder for him to do what he had to in his Leaps (given how many times he fell for a woman in a Leap, I can’t argue)

Just as things start getting too hot for the network censors, Ziggy chimes is and says that Tom and Suzanne...

Oh boy...

Sam rushes back to the Imaging Chamber to find...

Sam has Al excuse himself so he can brief Al on the original history. Al says that the last thing Suzanne wants to do right now is kill herself, which means it must’ve been murder

About that time, they hear Suzanne scream! Al rushes off to find Suzanne unconscious as...

CLIFFORD, YOU RAT BASTARD!

In a flash of desperate inspiration, Sam rushes back to the Project hub...

...and Leaps back to 1945...

...replacing Al as “Tom” (sending Al back to 1999)...

...and gives Clifford what for, sending him hurtling down Lovers’ Leap.

Fortunately, while Sam was in 1999 he updated the retrieval program, giving him a chance to return home.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, meaning Sam is once again trapped in the past.

Back in 1999, Donna tells Al not to mention her to Sam until he’s able to come home as we return to the status quo and the credits roll.

[blorboazula]

Hey, I saw your post that you consider Roku stronger than Kyoshi? Not that I doubt you, but in ATLA we were not really shown the extent of their powers. Could you explain your rationale?

Ok, I'll try to explain.

A TL:DR is: Avatars have knowledge from their past lives and access to new techniques and skills, that impacts how an Avatar can and will use their raw strength. A stronger avatar doesn't necessarily means a better avatar.

First: they have the past avatars knowledge. That's canon, we see avatars talking to past lives and gaining information that way. Biggest example being Roku telling Aang about Sozin's Comet. A possible example of inherently knowing something can be Aang putting Kyoshi's makeup, the woman painted her face like that for decades, Raava herself probably can do it.

A more concrete proof of "knowing something from a past life without noticing" is in Rise of Kyoshi. Spoiler alert. Even before people are suspicious that Kyoshi is the avatar, she recites/sings a poem Kuruk wrote. A poem only Kuruk and Kelsang knew of. This kind of knowledge is relevant enough that Kelsang starts to think there's a chance Kyoshi's the avatar after that.

It's a speculation, but knowledge can be translated into skill.

Second: bending evolves, techniques are spread. Sure, maybe some are lost (I'm looking at you, dust/mist/jet-stepping), some are too advanced (looking at you, lowering body temperature as a healing technique that can be lethal too)p, some are dubious (glass bending? was that glass bending?). An example of technique being spread is lightningbending. It's like a myth in Kyoshi's era, we have the total grand of three benders in Aang's (as in ATLA original show) era, and it's a fairly common thing for decent/good Firebenders by the time we get to Korra's era.

Sure, technique isn't raw strength. We only see two Firebenders with fire that isn't red/yellow/orange and one of them is a quick thing, momentary thing (I do headcanons it turns permanently white later). But using lightning as an example, it's not that unbelievable that the avatar after Korra might learn it. Just like Korra learned metalbending when Aang couldn't, even if he was friends with who literally invented/discovered it.

The more skills and techniques an avatar can learn, the stronger they can be.

Third: stronger ≠ better. Now this is more about how I can think Roku is stronger than Kyoshi but not a better avatar than Kyoshi. This dude is down in my rank alongside Szeto.

See, Szeto is stronger than whoever came before him, but he's also kind of a shitty avatar. He focused on the Fire Nation, which was good for the Fire Nation and bad for the rest of the world. Yangchen came along and had to fix it, being great for the physical world by neglecting the spiritual world. That was quite the problem when Kuruk came around.

So Roku being stronger still didn't mean he could stop the war. Now, there are discourses and discussions about it, but in here we're gonna say that Roku could have stopped the war if he killed Sozin. It's not like he was an Air Nomad who refused to kill people. "Not killing people" is not something avatars have to follow (we'll not use Kyoshi as an example. We have, like, three actual confirmed kills).

Maybe the Fire Nation would find a way to start a war (they're a very, very militaristic nation and not the most friendly people), but they probably would be a little busy without a Firelord by the time the Sozin's comet came around.

I think Szeto and Roku are the examples I can think of avatars that did a worse job than their predecessors. All avatars are extremely powerful, even in base (spoiler, again, Kyoshi lifts earth from the ocean floor when she's on top of an iceberg thing, again, she's a shitty earthbender). They're also physically quite strong if you think about it (I'm looking at Korra, lifting full grown men with a hand and Kyoshi slamming a guy against ice so hard it broke – 16-year old Kyoshi btw).

I could use comparisons between Aang and Korra, since we know a bunch of feats, but then this could turn into discourse.

I hope it makes sense at all.

[dango-daikazoku]

:(

i hate spending time with my mom, maybe it's just because our personalities are so completely different but i cannot enjoy being around her, she frustrates me so much

but she loves spending time with her kids, it's who she is, and even though i absolutely hate it i have to keep sacrificing my personal time and days off to keep her happy :(

i keep thinking i'm gonna look back and be grateful that i was able to spend time with her because she genuinely is a loving mom but we just... do not mesh well

she tries and gets things for me that she thinks i might like but i don't like a single thing because she doesn't know my interests

i tell her over and over "i don't watch TV" but what does she do every single time she comes over? she puts the TV on and gives me the control and tells me to put on something i want to watch

i didn't buy this TV! i said multiple times "i do not want a TV, i do not want this Roku, i do not want this DVD player, i do not want any of this"

and i don't use it! i do hook up my laptop to the TV to watch my workouts but don't actually watch TV at all, and i haven't since i moved in a couple years ago

at most i use my laptop to watch anime or occasional movies and don't touch the TV at all

she gave me that big bluetooth stereo for my birthday because she said she liked the one my brother had

i already have a hello kitty stereo and a google home and a coca cola can bluetooth speaker, i do not need, never asked for, never wanted a huge loud speaker that doesn't fit anywhere in my apartment

she tries to be attentive but fails so miserably that it irritates me so much!

we don't talk that much because none of our interests align, our sense of humor is completely different, the scary movie i loved she views as a silly comedy, we don't view things the same

when i try to complain about work she gives me "advice" and i so badly just want to cut off her rant and say "yes i'm a full grown adult that has worked for years, i know what could improve but i can't fix understaffing myself, i can't fix lazy coworkers, i can't fix incompetent management, just let me complain! let me voice my frustrations without trying to offer advice as if i could solve anything! just shut up and let me talk, just Listen"

she tries and gets me to be interested in something that i couldn't care less about

"look at these houses you could buy, just have them build it on a property you like!"

dearest mother, what in gods name are you talking about? what property do i own? what do you own? nothing

i'm not going to buy a tiny amish house so i could not live in it until it's finished on a property somewhere out there that i don't own yet

please just use your brain for 5 seconds and realize that i can't afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars and go broke on something that will take months if not years to set up

i want to save now, buy a real house later, i say it every time, i'm not interested, so why

after Years

gotdang YEARS, are you still trying to convince me

i don't know if you're just missing your brain, if you're just you know not thinking at all, or you don't have any foresight or planning skills whatsoever, but it's not going to work!!!

jeeeesssuuuuuussss

let me live my own life please

PLEASE

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 691: Sakamich's third year, start!!

Pag 0

4: This is bad... teh

5: Kei-chan and the others....

I'm supposed to climb the wide slope the bus follows, and meet the at the “main gate” but....

Pag 1

1: Where am I, teh....

Pag 2

1: The road is narrow.... and the trees gare growing thick.....

2: There's such a terrific climb before me....

3: Waaaaa, and I have no time, teh

4: I have to climb like this? This steep slope!?

Do I go back? The way I came

Ahh, I really can't read a map

5: What do I do, I'll be late for the entrance ceremony, teh

Kei-chan and the others are surely waiting for me, and they'll tell me I still haven't fixed my bedhair, teh

Pag 3

1: Good morning

Congratulations for getting into school

'morning

2: Alright, smile!

Ah, my bangs

Next!

3: Is the gymnasium this way?

There's a guide

I wonder how many class there will be...

I'd like to be in the first class

Yeah

4: Woah, they're huge

Pag 4

1: I wonder if they're first years too

Right?The uniforms are new

They're both huge

2: Roku-chan is late

Yeah, Kei-chan. And he said “I want to show you my new bike and shoes, so wait for me before the school gate”...

3: We got that excited text yestarday....

Again... maybe he went the wrong way...

Yeah, that could be

With his bed hair

Pag 6

1: Kakaka!!

2: Look, look, Hotshot!! Manager!!

One after another!! In swarms!! One by one!! New first years are coming!!

First years sure are sparkling

3: And among them a great number of people will joing our club!!

4: Anyhow

5: We're the two times champions of the Inter High!! Our special strong team will be the most talked about!!

Kakaka

Pag 7

1: Yeah!!

2: Ahhhh

What's wrong, Hotshot!!

4: Looking at your hairstyle, I can't help it.... I wanna mess it up!!

Ow- oiii, hey!!

Stop it!! My hyper super new third year style!!

Sorry!! I'm thinking of controlling myself, really... here's a little me inside of my body....

What's wrong with your personality's tap!?

Pag 8

1: Don't just think it, try to control yourself!! You did the same hing last year!!

Huh!?

2: …. ah

Oi, what are you doin!

3: Anyway, let's look for new first year with a good physique and scout them

Don't ignore me with such a straight face, oi

Stupid Hotshot, you even forgot

4: Hmph

I'm not worried about that, we have a plan

5: This year's first years' “visit to the clubs' activities”!!

6: Where we show some of the club activities to the first years who came to us

Pag 9

1: There's about 15 minutes to show the club activities... it's not much, but it's enough!!

2: The menu is mine and Hotshot's serious roller battle!!

3: We'll show our serious roller battle and grab the first years' hearts!!

And then

4: They'll be impressed by my victory and join the club!! …. it's a super plan!!

5: Alright, I didn't ask, but it sounds interesting

6: Let's do it!! But

Victory will be mine!!

Pag 10

1: Let's bet a bottle of juice!?

2: Let's bet two!!

3: Ah, anyway, where's Onoda-kun?

Three!!

No, four!!

He's late

Four and a half!!

How do we do that half!?

He always comes way earlier

4: You drink the....

Ah!!

6: You're right

7: I don't know, maybe he found something that caught his attention on the roadside

Pag 11

1: Princess, princess

Pag 12

1: You're the princess~ You're the princess!!

2: White~ fufufun~

3: As expected, nothing beats going to school using on my city bike using the back gate slope

4: Like this I can ride and no one will hear me singing!!

5: Alright, I'm pumped up! Now, another song...

6: There's.... someone

Pag 13

1: Huh... ah...

What do I do, teh.... go back!?

But there's no time....

2: Is he having troubles...?

A new.... first year?

3: Should I call someone?

A teacher?

I'll call Naruko-kun....

Pag 14

1: I'll have to help him myself, somehow

2: I'll... call out to him....

4: After all, I'm already

6: Uhm

Teh!?

Are you maybe

Pag 15/16

1: Are you.... having troubles?

I'm already a third year!!

Pag 18

1: Ah, teh, yes

Uhm

2: The map, teh...

Huh!? A person!? He suddenly appeared

The entrance ceremony... my friends are waiting for me

Where are we, teh...

3: He arrived just at the right time, teh... this person

A “god”!?

4: Ah, uhm, this slope...

Can you climb it... with a bike?

5: Yes

Pag 19

1: Yes!!

Switch to one gear lighter

That's a relief, if he has trouble with his bike

2: Even I could be able to help him!!

Huh? Gear!?

Uhm...

Push your body forward and sit a little up on the saddle

3: This back gate slope is quite steep, but if you can even just clear the long slope in the middle, then after that... uhm

Teh!? Saddle.... handles?

4: If I tell you with words you won't understand, I guess

Pag 20

1: I'll just show you how to do it

2: Follow me

Yes.... teh

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

If you had to ask, what would Kyoshi's flaws be? We all know that every Avatar (hell, every human) has one, and as Yangchen/Kuruk shows, she will inevitably leave some sort of fallout that Roku has to deal with. But what kind of problems would she have realistically left for her successor, given that she lived 230 years and wasnt able to fix or solve? ( The Dai Li I think is a non issue given they were still kicking around in aangs time, so Roku probably didn't have to deal with that)

Thanks for the ask @guyinmink!

I would say Nyahitha describes her flaws pretty well: she has no control over her emotions, she’s incredibly stubborn about what she wants, and she idolises Yangchen to a fault.

I would also add:

* Her tendency to go to (often violent and dirty) extremes to get what she wants.

* Her lack of a strong internal moral compass, forcing her to rely on other people such as Rangi to stop her from going too far.

* Her letting her personal feelings influence her thoughts and actions. Her anger toward her parents leads her to being a jerk to Kirima, Wong and Lek whenever they bring up Jesa and Hark, and she treats Lek badly just because she’s resentful and hurt that her parents abandoned her and “replaced” her with Lek. Her attitude and feelings of resentment toward Kuruk block her from communicating with him, which for a long time prevents him from giving her knowledge about Yun and Father Glowworm that she really needs to know.

* Her recklessness and lack of care about her own safety and well-being, which probably stem from her low opinion of herself and her low self-worth.

She also has some deep-seated biases, especially about her parents and Kuruk, that she has to grow out of. She is so fixated on how she thinks and feels about Kuruk and her parents that it’s difficult for anyone to give her a different perspective, because she just won’t listen due to her anger bubbling up. It’s only when she sees Kuruk’s story for herself and learns how Lek met her parents that she finally starts realising that she may have been wrong about them. Her bias against the daofei is also something she has to grow out of.

Her resentment and personal feelings also end up blinding her to the reality in front of her (eg. that she is the Avatar, that Yun isn’t who he used to be and that she won’t be able to bring him back), and are an obstacle she needs to overcome if she is to defeat Yun.

As for the fallout she would leave for Roku, I think her relying on threatening/scaring the political leaders of the Four Nations to keep them in check would cause them to fear and dislike the Avatar and made it harder for Roku to work with them at first.

I can also imagine that her living for over 200 years made the people so used to her and her method of dealing with things that it’s even harder for them to adjust to a new Avatar, so Roku has to really prove himself more than previous Avatars did.

Some conflicts might also break out after her death that Roku has to deal with, directly or indirectly caused by how she dealt with political leaders and criminals while she was alive. Maybe also some spirit-related conflicts break out as well, since it doesn’t look like she really focused much on the spirit world during her lifetime.

[sokkastyles]

Let’s Read ATLA: The Search pp1-30

We open on a quaint little sepia-toned town.

Guys, I'm sorry, but Ikem is adorable why do y'all hate him so much?

Also, I like how Love Amongst the Dragons mirrors the plot of this comic on a meta level. Might compose another post on it when I’ve read the whole comic because I have Thoughts.

This comic wants me to think that Katara is a killjoy and Zuko has family issues. What I actually think: zutara zutara zutara zutara zu-

In case you forgot, it's blaming Zuko for his family's abuse of him hours! Seriously, fuck this guy. I mean, I guess I can see how someone from the Earth Kingdom might feel especially negatively towards the teenage son of the tyrant of the nation that terrorized yours for a hundred years, but the problem is that the comic seems to agree with this sentiment. I can also see how Zuko would blame himself, but again, the problem is that the comic seems to agree.

Something I noticed about Aang's characterization in the Promise that also continues here is that while in the series he was whimsical and cheerful, he wasn't really clueless - even in the moments when the writers were using him to promote their nice guy narrative - but in the comics he often is, to the point of insensitivity, and it seems very out of character.

Also like, I cannot express how much I hate this plot line. No, Zuko, your family's dysfunction is not a reflection of you, as a person or as a ruler or of your nation. Zuko isn't even the one who made the decision about putting Ozai in prison. Even if it had been his decision, he is not wrong for doing something to protect himself as well as the world (and that goes for Azula as well), but he wasn't the one who made that decision, about Ozai OR Azula. What to do about Ozai and Azula was out of his hands because Aang and Katara were the ones who won those battles, and now Zuko is left to deal with the fallout. Which isn't their fault, either, but Zuko is left dealing with making the decision about what to do about family who would have not hesitated to kill him if they were in the opposite position, and he's still beating himself up over it, and it’s just sad, and not in the cathartic kind of way, either.

And Ursa, while I do want Zuko to find her, this shouldn't be the reason. And Zuko certainly isn't responsible for what happened to her.

The message here should not be that Zuko needs to somehow fix his family, especially when it comes to Ozai and Azula, who are not his responsibility and who are the ones who rejected him. Aang should have said "Zuko, we're your family and your family is from all over the world, not just the Fire Nation" and that would have fit with the theme of harmony between the nations and the idea of creating a new world.

Ursa's mother tearfully telling her to remember that she loves her as she says goodbye to her forever, and Ursa's father telling Ursa to "show respect” mirror her children’s relationship with their parents as well.

"It's almost as if Roku tried to hide you from us!" Ohohoho!

This raises a whole bunch of questions, though. Why would Azulon want to marry his second son to Roku's bloodline when Iroh is still in line for the throne? My headcanon is that Iroh married for love and was able to defy Azulon due to being the favored son, but usually I like to imagine that Iroh didn't marry at all and had Lu Ten out of wedlock. Or maybe they just couldn’t find Roku’s descendents before now and it’s too late for Iroh to get married (because his wife died and he refuses to remarry, or whatever reason. I still like the idea that Iroh is just an adamant bachelor.)

1. The dialogue is so bad it physically hurts me.

2. Why are they having this conversation while watching Ozai and Azula stare each other down?

3. Wait, Republic City is Aang's idea, now, and Zuko is saying it's too idealistic, when last time it was Aang saying that the four nations had to be separate while Zuko was the one trying to protect the people of Yu Dao?

4. "My usual dour self."

Azula could have been chi-blocked to begin with. There are like, a million things they could come up with to solve the problem of her firebending, but instead they go for the straight jacket and the Girl, Interrupted look. Thanks, I hate it.

Azula and Ozai both know they can manipulate Zuko exactly because of his compassion. I still don't buy that this is the best chance of finding Ursa, though.

What Azula doesn’t understand about controlling people through fear is that it is never going to get you more than shallow loyalty at best. Ty Lee didn’t defy Azula because she stopped fearing her, but because her love for Ty Lee was stronger. You don’t stop being afraid, you decide that there are things more important than fear.

Meanwhile, in sepia flashback land, Ursa is being taken away to marry Ozai and Ikem tries to um, fight the carriage?

"Whatever it is they're offering, it isn't worth the pain of never again belonging." Who wrote this dialogue I just want to talk. I don't think I like you anymore, Ikem.

Cut to Zuko, who is escorting Azula from the prison to the palace. Suki warns that the chi block will wear off soon, and Zuko is like, lol no it's fine I got this. This comic is really just a series of people saying nothing could possibly go wrong before things inevitably go wrong.

I don’t think that’s quite how it works, Azula, but that’s some nice, ahem, bending there,

In the flashback, Ikem is sad and decides to become a hermit or something idk, and then he meets a spooky wolf spirit voiced by Gillian Anderson.

Back at the palace, Zuko is chasing after the newly escaped Azula.

What is this, a videogame?

It’s interesting that Azula doesn’t say that Ozai showed her the secret chamber or she found it but didn’t know who it belonged to, she says that it’s one of Ozai’s many secret chambers and said Zuko should have come exploring with her but his fear held him back. Because Azula didn’t fear Ozai the way Zuko did. Which, of course, does not mean that Azula wasn’t also abused, but Azula didn’t have to think that she’d be punished for something like going where she wasn’t allowed or eavesdropping on their father’s conversations. And the fact that Azula was able to get this information out of Ozai whereas Zuko didn’t even know that this part of the palace existed shows how purposefully Zuko was kept out of the loop, how they were raised differently, and Azula’s rubbing that in his face, too, because it’s power she has over Zuko even when she’s his prisoner.

She hid one of the letters while making Zuko think she destroyed them all.

Yeah, still don’t like this “Azula is hallucinating Ursa” plot. It denies Azula agency as a sympathetic character and as a villain. The Azula of the series is tragic but also extremely intelligent and Machiavellian. 

It is kind of interesting that she says Ozai “overcame her control” though, because if Azula believes that Ursa is somehow controlling things, she doesn’t have to acknowledge that her father is to blame for the way her life went. Which is also why she believed Ursa hated her in the series, because then she doesn’t have to acknowledge that her father denied her a relationship with her mother. There are ways to get this across without a “crazy woman” plot, though.

Also, this raises other questions if Azula really is supposed to be hallucinating Ursa. Azula alternates very quickly between acknowledging that Ursa is not there - talking about finding her - and talking about her as if she is there in the room. I know this is because she is supposed to be “crazy,” but people who have psychotic delusions usually experience them as if they are real. They can learn to hide their delusions from other people if they realize that other people react negatively to them, but they still experience them as if they are real. Since Azula’s been in an institution she would probably be trying to hide the fact that Ursa was “there” in front of Zuko, especially since Zuko wants Azula to help him find Ursa, and especially after Zuko has a negative reaction to her behavior, “what’s wrong with you?” But I don’t think this comic is too concerned with accurate portrayals of mental illness.

What was the condition? We will have to find out next time, because there’s another time jump. And that’s for another post.

[lalahbug]

Guidance - Zuko x Reader Chapter 6

Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender Word Count: 3,232 My Masterlist

Warnings/disclaim: General 18+ Angst

Author’s Note: under story ___ is a blank for your name/oc/whatever you prefer Written in 3rd person Line/header is to separate paragraphs to indicate time skips, as Tumblr hates my formatting.

Story under cut, 6 of 8, Guidance Masterlist

        A few weeks had passed, ___ was healed and quickly became the new mother figure of the group. Teaching about survival, chi blocking, and helping with most of the chores. Of course, she also played with the group and lectured them like a mother as well.

        ___ and Aang were meditating together, during a sunrise, which Aang wasn’t too happy about after being up most of the night traveling. Aang peaked at her as she exhaled deeply, relaxing further, still keeping her posture. 

        “Staring at me isn’t going to help your mediating, Avatar.”

        “You didn’t even open your eyes; how did you know?” He pouted but started meditating again.

        “Your breathing went normal instead of trained.”

        “How do you do that?”

        “Do what?”

        “Hear so well, know when I’m doing something I’m not supposed to do.”

        “I’ve had heightened senses for a long time. But as for knowing when you’re doing something, we’ll chalk it up to Mother Instinct.” She chuckled softly. “You’re really not in the mood to meditate, are you?”

        “No!” Aang groaned before falling backward.

        “Okay, practice your breathing with me for a bit then I’ll let you go.”

        “Okay!” Aang agreed with a smile while sitting up. 

        Aang and Katara were practicing some waterbending, while ___ watched their movements.

        “Why don’t you come join us? Aang could use the opportunity to fend off two waterbending foes.” Katara smiled and splashed some water at Aang.

        “Thank you, but I don’t know many waterbending moves, I’d be an easy target. I can only whip water and create waves.”

        “That’s right, being from the North Pole, they never taught you. But didn’t you learn on your own?”

        “I only got the water whip and the wave, that’s all I learned on my own.”

        “Why didn’t you say anything? We could have taught you.” Aang urged.

        “I’ve never been a good waterbender, there’s no point in teaching me. I’m an average healer and I can do pretty movements with a full moon, but that’s it. My strength is chi blocking and fast reflexes.”

        “Well, I think you could be a good waterbender. Why don’t you practice with us? You can learn some new moves and there is no pressure if you can’t do it well. Because like you said, your strength is chi blocking.” Katara urged, ___ shrugged before disrobing a bit, and getting into the water with the two masters.

        One day before the invasion, The Day of Black Sun, and Aang wasn’t able to sleep. ___ was up with him, just after sunset.

        “You can’t stay awake before the invasion. You need to be rested. But I think if you’re alone, it’ll be worse. So, would you like to go over the chakras to help you with the Avatar State?”

        “I think I know them; I just can’t do the last one.”

        “Ah, you mean the Thought Chakra? Is it because of Katara?”

        Aang blushed a bit before sighing. “Yes, but also, I don’t know how to let go of Earthly attachments when I have to protect them.”

        “The Avatar is bound to this earth to protect it. You must learn to balance these or they will be your downfall. You let Katara go completely at Ba Sing Se, you were then attached to cosmic, too attached to cosmic energy. As the Avatar, you must find balance with your cosmic energy and your Earthly attachments. You can open the Thought Chakra, by learning to balance your attachments. Earthly, Avatar, cosmic, love, spirit, and even your nomad teachings.”

        “What about my nomad teachings?”

        “There will be a day where you might have to sacrifice your beliefs for the greater good, to keep balance in the world. But because of your teachings, I know you’ll find a way to balance the good with your morals.”

        “You’re talking about the Fire Lord, aren’t you?” Aang curled up and placed his weary head on his knees.

        ___ smiled at him gently, examining the bags under his eyes. “You can face him, you can beat him, we all believe in you, especially as he is powerless during the eclipse. But, what if, you can’t get to him in time. Don’t get me wrong, Sokka’s plan is amazing. Things don’t always go as planned. If you can’t get to him in time, you will have to fight him someday. How will you restrain him? Or will you have to take his life? I worry about the outcome of this plan a lot. From my talks with Roku to how devious the Fire Nation is. I just hope you know, if this fails. It’s not your fault. There will be some other factor that makes it so you can’t get to him in time. I have no doubt about you facing him, just our timing.”

        “It’s terrifying to even think of facing Ozai, but hearing the faith you have in me helps. Hearing that you don’t expect me to defeat him tomorrow, really helps. But your question haunts me. How will I restrain him?”

        She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, “I believe in you Aang, the world does. But in the end, you are just one kid, and you will need to listen to words of wisdom from your past lives. From ancient sources, and learn to bend life and energy itself if you are to defeat Ozai without taking his life.”

        “Bend life and energy? How do I do that?”

        “I’m not sure, I only read about it in the spirit library. You will have to hope that an ancient source shows you.”

        “Well, with you and the Spirit World to access, I think I’ll be able to find it if needed.”

        She smiled at him before meditating with him. She knew of the group's plan to make a bed for Aang so he could finally sleep, she was just keeping him company in the meantime.

        “___?” She hummed softly in reply, still meditating. “What if we see Zuko during the invasion? What will you do?” She opened her eyes, a sorrowful smile formed as their eyes met.

        “Depending on where he is in his journey, I’ll either have to disable him or listen to him.”

        “What do you mean?”

        “My first night in the Spirit World with Roku. He let me know of my future, to help me mentally prepare for it. He told me a beautiful tale of me falling in love, with his great-grandson. But he warned me, his great-grandson has the ability to be good or bad. As Roku and Sozin are both his great grandfathers.”

        Aang gasped, “Zuko’s mom is the granddaughter of Roku?”

        “Yes, that’s why he is at war within himself. Between his two natures. He also didn’t have the healthiest of families to help him cope with it either. His uncle, although wonderful, found his path in life a bit late. I hope Zuko will find that path one day too, but I can no longer be the one to guide him, he must find it himself. But only time will tell if he will find it soon or if he will live a long life trying to find it.”

        “Do you still love him?”

        Her eyes fell to her stomach and the bump there. “I do, but when he took another woman because I was unconscious for weeks, I feel as though maybe my love might have been blinded by the fairy tale Ruko told me. For he never mentioned a child. He only mentioned I would have to choose to forgive Zuko or not, and that it would be very difficult for me. I love him, but I'm not sure if I can forgive him just yet."

        "It must be hard, not knowing if he loves you or not, yet still having this child."

        "It hurts not knowing, but it's not too hard. I'm not worried for some reason, not when it comes to this baby."

        Aang had a flash of the small baby named Hope that Katara had helped deliver a few months back. "Babies are a beautiful thing, especially when you have someone to share it with."

        "Katara asked me to stay until the baby is born at the very minimum, so in a way I will, you guys are the closest thing I have to family right now. So, I'll share that experience with you."

        "So, I get to be an uncle?" He smiled.

        "You'll be the best uncle!" They giggled softly and she smiled at him fondly as the group approached them, ready to help Aang finally sleep. 

        After the invasion, Aang wanted nothing to do with the planning for the next steps, next attack. ___ shut herself away from the group and the others with them now. She should have been left behind with the other adults, but they wouldn’t hear her protest, since she was pregnant. 

        Walking along one of the many corridors of the Western Air Temple, she hummed softly to herself, enjoying her solitude, wanting to fix her mental state before joining everyone. No one needed a pouty pregnant woman around, all because they didn’t listen to her. They had her and the baby’s health in mind, they weren’t trying to make her feel more useless or weak. So; she needed to be alone to fix the brewing thoughts before they burnt anyone needlessly.

        She walked until she felt lost and sighed and started to head back to the group, for dinner. But when she arrived everyone was sulking and arguing about something.

        “What’s wrong?” ___ asked while getting some food after Sokka said something about not adding animal cruelty to the list.

        “I’ll tell you-” Katara started, ready to vent to someone else.

        “Wait,” Toph cut off Katara. "___ how would you feel, if Zuko came here asking for forgiveness and to teach Aang firebending?”

        She understood what had happened just from Toph’s question, her heart sped up, the broken pieces throbbing, she took a breath to reply. “Aang needs a firebending teacher, and Zuko, well he’s a good firebender. I don’t know how I feel about him asking for forgiveness, but if you thought he was sincere, Toph, I would let him stay. Because if you think he was sincere the whole time, it hopefully means he’s finally found the correct path.” She looked to Aang with a sad smile, reminding him of their conversation when he was so sleep-deprived.

        “How?” Katara asked softly. “How can you just allow him here? Forgive him and trust him? Especially after what he’s done to you?”

        “I don’t forgive him; I don’t trust him. But the options of firebending teachers are pretty limited to Aang. Only time can tell if he can earn trust and forgiveness from any of us. We have to look past ourselves. The world needs the Avatar, the world needs Aang to learn firebending. If we still can’t trust him after he’s with us and he’s taught Aang, then you can give him the boot and send him packing.”

        “I hate when mother is right,” Sokka grumbled.

        “I am not your mother,” ___ snapped. “I’m a friend. I’m tired of being treated like some soft pregnant woman with motherly love. I’m a fighter. My pregnancy doesn’t change that. I will only let motherly change take me when the world is no longer at war. I can’t soften and hold everyone’s hand through this. You’re all kids to me, but the world can’t have the Avatar, a master of waterbending, master of earthbending, and a sword master, be kids. You have to keep the goal in your mind.”

        “You’re still mad at us for making you come with us? Instead of letting you stay with the other adults, aren’t you?” Aang asked softly.

        “Yes.” She exhaled sharply before taking a deep breath. “But I know you did it because you care about me,” she rested a hand on her stomach. “About the baby. But you wanted me here, so I’m here. And I think you should listen to what Zuko has to say without emotion.”

        “All I know is that while he was talking to us, he was sincere. Maybe you’re all just letting your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly.” Toph said in agreement with ___.

        “Easy for you to say, you weren’t there when he had us attacked by pirates.” Katara spat.

        “Or when he burned down Kyoshi Island,” Sokka added.

        “Or when he tried to capture me at the fire temple.” Aang finished.

        “Why would you two even try to defend him?” Katara said so frustratedly she was shaking.

        “Because, Katara, you’re all ignoring one crucial fact. One ___ has already told you!” Toph stomped up to Aang and poked him in the chest. “Aang needs a firebending teacher! We can’t think of a single person in the world to do the job. Now one shows up on a silver platter and you won’t even think about it?” She shook the ground with a couple more stomps.

        “I’m not having Zuko as my teacher!” Aang walked away from ___ and Toph.

        “Aang-” ___ started before Sokka cut her off.

        “You’re darn right, you’re not buddy.” Sokka stood tall, finalizing his backup with Aang.

        “Well, I guess that’s settled,” Katara said smugly. ___ sighed before looking at Toph.

        “I’m beginning to wonder who’s really the blind one around here.” Toph stormed off, ___ followed behind her.

        Toph and ___ were walking through the forest, to find Zuko.

        “You didn’t have to come with me,” Toph sighed.

        “I know, but I would like to talk to Zuko too. I think I know him well enough to tell when he’s lying, whether you can detect it or not.”

        Toph giggled pointing to ___’s stomach, “I would hope you knew him well enough.”

        “Oh shush,” she pushed Toph playfully, but it was clear she was a bit exasperated by the comment.

        “Do you think Zuko would try to trick us all; like he did to you and Katara?”

        “Zuko didn’t trick me. I don’t think he meant to trick Katara either. I think he loved me in his own way. He was good in Ba Sing Se. But the allure of home was stronger than the good.”

        “But now that he’s here, you think the good called him back?”

        “I’m hoping that. I’m hoping he found his true destiny.”

        “I’m hoping you’re right,” Toph said with a sigh.

        While moving through the brush the women alerted Zuko.

        “Who’s there?” His voice was groggy, the sound of it stung ___’s heart. As they got closer, he yelled. “Stay back.”

        “It’s me!” Toph shouted back, but it was too late, Zuko had already lashed out fire in his fear, Toph even tried to make herself an earth shield. She fell as the flames licked the soles of her feet “Ow! You burned my feet!”

        Zuko was up and running towards her as she started to crawl away. “I’m sorry, it was a mistake!” He cried while chasing after Toph, but sudden strikes to his body made him collapse.

        “Get away, Zuko!” ___ shouted while scooping up Toph.

        “___?” He gasped, trying to sit up, she only chi blocked his right side. As she started to walk away, he called out to them. “No, please, come back! I’m sorry!” He tried to get up, but the weight of his right side would not shift and he fell back. He groaned along with his heart ache seeing ___ walk away and ignore his plea, his apology. “Why am I so bad at being good!” He cried to the sky, wishing to be able to rewind time.

        He’d go back so far if he could, but he pleaded now silently inside his head. “Please let me go back, even just 5 minutes.” He exhaled in defeat, wondering what the girls had wanted to say, but now he’d never know.

          Days passed and the threat of Combustion Man was gone, Hokada and Suki back. While sitting around the fire with everyone, Zuko served tea again, while he did so, he noticed ___ left the group. Excusing herself to go lie down. And the night where he burned Toph’s feet came to mind. She came with Toph, what did she want to say?

        After his failed joke and everyone had settled their laughter. “Does ___ leave the group often after dinner or is that because of me?” Zuko asked softly, silence rang afterward. Katara and Aang shared a soft look.

        “Before the invasion, I was restless, ___ was meditating with me. I asked how she would react if we were to run into you since, at the time, you were still an enemy, a threat.” Aang sipped his tea before continuing. “She simply said she'd either disable you or listen to you. She believed in you even then, she just wasn’t sure when you'd find your correct path in life.”

        “But when she thinks about you, hears your name, or even just briefly has a polite encounter with you. Her heart beats sickeningly. Like the broken pieces are trying to pull together.” Toph added since she was able to hear and feel ___’s heartbeat.

        “I want to explain myself, talk to her. But I want to do it alone.”

        “You should be thankful she even acknowledges you exist,” Katara spat, still angry.

        “I am, she’s always been forgiving. But I don’t know how forgiving she’ll be with me.”

        “___ still loves you,” Toph encouraged him.

        “But before we allowed you in the group, she did say only time would show if you deserved trust and forgiveness,” Sokka added, Suki elbowed him. “What? He should know the truth, the good and the bad.”

        “Thank you, that helps. Maybe she’s not ready to hear my apology, because she doesn’t forgive me or trust me yet.”

        “Make sense, you engaged her, impregnated her, broke your promise then left her for another woman because she was basically in a coma,” Katara stated with venom.

        “I never left her, but I was too cowardly to tell my father no to the arranged marriage. Scared to not be his perfect son again.”

        “Mai still seems to love you, since she helped with the prison break,” Sokka said.

        “Another heart I broke, by being a misleading person. She loves someone within me that I’m not. She doesn’t understand that I’m trying to save my country, my kingdom. The world fears and hates the Fire Nation. I need to try and heal that and help the Avatar bring balance back into the world.”

        “I think ___ just needs a little time, she was for having you here from the get-go with me,” Toph popped some more food in her mouth. “She’s just not ready to deal with you. Since she’s been having some health issues with the baby, every time we have stress, she gets sick.” Toph said sadly.

        “Well with the invasion being over, Combustion Man gone. Hopefully, things will calm down.” Katara said before standing up. “I should go check on her and the baby before we sleep.” She stood and left towards the way ___ had left earlier.

        Zuko sighed and sipped his tea. He would need to be patient a bit, wait for some alone time with his love, and keep an eye on her troubled health with the baby.

Author’s Note:

Hello, I know I’ve been gone for awhile, but I’m getting better mentally and personally. I can’t promise when the next chapter will come out, but I’m hoping by the end of May. 

I’d like to thank everyone that’s liked previous chapters and stayed with me on this. This is still my indulgence, anime fanfics, but after this series. I might go into show/movie fanfics (like Marvel and Supernatural), make a list of who I’d be willing to write for and open a for request for a bit. 

Also, for the one lovely who wanted to be added/tagged for new chapters, here you go; thank you for your love on this <3

@eridanuswave​

[bloodbenderz]

humaniterations (dot) net/2014/10/13/an-anarchist-perspective-on-the-red-lotus/ this article from oct 2014 is very dense — truly, a lot to unpack here, but I feel like you would find this piece interesting. I would love it if you shared your thoughts on the points that stood out to you, whether you agree or disagree. you obv don’t have to respond to it tho, but I’m sending it as an ask jic you feel like penning (and sharing) a magnificent essay, as is your wont 💕

article

i know this took me forever 2 answer SORRY but i just checked off all the things on my to do list for the first time in days today so. Essay incoming ladies!

ok im SO glad u sent me this bc it’s so so good. it’s a genuinely thoughtful criticism of the politics in legend of korra (altho i think its sometimes a little mean to korra unnecessarily like there’s no reason to call her a “petulant brat” or say that she throws tantrums but i do understand their point about her being an immature and reactionary hero, which i’ll get back to) and i think the author has a good balance between acknowledging like Yeah the lok writers were american liberals and wrote their show accordingly and Also writing a thorough analysis of lok’s politics that felt relevant and interesting without throwing their hands up and saying this is all useless liberal bullshit (which i will admit that i tend to do).

this article essentially argues that the red lotus antagonists of s3 were right. And that’s not an uncommon opinion i think but this gives it serious weight. Like, everything that zaheer’s gang did was, in context, fully understandable. of course the red lotus would be invested in making sure that the physically and spiritually and politically most powerful person in the world ISNT raised by world leaders and a secret society of elites that’s completely unaccountable to the people! of course the red lotus wants to bring down tyrannical governments and allow communities to form and self govern organically! and the writers dismiss all of that out of hand by 1. consistently framing the red lotus as insane and murderous (korra never actually gives zaheer’s ideas a chance or truly considers integrating them into her own approach) 2. representing the death of the earth queen as not just something that’s not necessarily popular (what was with mako’s bootlicker grandma, i’d love to know) but as something that causes unbelievable violence and chaos in ba sing se (which, like, a lot of history and research will tell you that people in disasters tend towards prosocial behaviors). so the way the story frames each of these characters and ideologies is fascinating because like. if you wanted to write season 3 of legend of korra with zaheer as the protagonist and korra as the antagonist, you wouldn’t actually have to change the sequence of events at all, really. these writers in particular and liberal writers in general LOVE writing morally-gray-but-ultimately-sympathetic characters (like, almost EVERY SINGLE fire nation character in the first series, who were full on violent colonizers but all to a degree were rehabilitated in the eyes of the viewer) but instead of framing the red lotus as good people who are devoted to justice and freedom and sometimes behave cruelly to get where theyre trying to go, they frame them as psychopaths and murderers who have good intentions don’t really understand how to make the world a better place.

and the interesting thing about all this, about the fact that the red lotus acted in most cases exactly as it should have in context and the only reason its relegated to villain status is bc the show is written by liberals, is that the red lotus actually points out really glaring sociopolitical issues in universe! like, watching the show, u think well why the fuck HASN’T korra done anything about the earth queen oppressing her subjects? why DOESN’T korra do anything about the worse than useless republic president? why the hell are so many people living in poverty while our mains live cushy well fed lives? how come earth kingdom land only seems to belong to various monarchs and settler colonists, instead of the people who are actually indigenous to it? the show does not want to answer these questions, because american liberal capitalism literally survives on the reality of oppressive governments and worse than useless presidents and people living in poverty while the middle/upper class eats and indigenous land being stolen. if the show were to answer these questions honestly, the answer would be that the status quo in real life (and the one on the show that mirrors real life) Has To Change.

So they avoid answering these questions honestly in order for the thesis statement to be that the status quo is good. and the only way for the show to escape answering these questions is for them to individualize all these broad social problems down into Good people and Bad people. so while we have obvious bad ones like the earth queen we also have all these capitalists and monarchs and politicians who are actually very nice and lovely people who would never hurt anyone! which is just such an absurd take and it’s liberal propaganda at its best. holding a position of incredible political/economic power in an unjust society is inherently unethical and maintaining that position of power requires violence against the people you have power over. which is literally social justice 101. but there’s literally no normal, average, not-politically-powerful person on the show. so when leftist anarchism is presented and says that destroying systems that enforce extreme power differentials is the only way to bring peace and freedom to all, the show has already set us up to think, hey, fuck you, top cop lin beifong and ford motor ceo asami sato are good people and good people like them exist! and all we have to do to move forward and progress as a society is to make sure we have enough good individuals in enough powerful positions (like zuko as the fire lord ending the war, or wu as the earth king ending the monarchy)! which is of course complete fiction. liberal reform doesn’t work. but by pretending that it could work by saying that the SYSTEM isnt rotten it’s just that the people running it suck and we just need to replace those people, it automatically delegitimizes any radical movements that actually seek to change things.

and that’s the most interesting thing about this article to me is that it posits that the avatar...might actually be a negative presence in the world. the avatar is the exact same thing: it’s a position of immense political and physical power bestowed completely randomly, and depending on the moral character and various actions of who fills that position at any given time, millions of people will or won’t suffer. like kyoshi, who created the fascist dai li, like roku, who refused to remove a genocidal dictator from power, like aang, who facilitated the establishment of a settler colonial state on earth kingdom land. like korra! she’s an incredibly immature avatar and a generally reactionary lead. i’ve talked about this at length before but she never actually gets in touch with the needs of the people. she’s constantly running in elite circles, exposed only to the needs and squabbles of the upper class! how the hell is she supposed to understand the complexities of oppression and privilege when she was raised by a chess club with inordinate amounts of power and associates almost exclusively with politicians and billionaires?? from day 1 we see that she tends to see things in very black and white ways which is FINE if you’re a privileged 17 yr old girl seeing the world for the first time but NOT FINE if you’re the single most powerful person in the world! Yeah, korra thinks the world is probably mostly fine and just needs a little whipping into shape every couple years, because all she has ever known is a mostly fine world! in s1 when mako mentions that he as a homeless impoverished teenager worked for a gang (which is. Not weird. Impoverished people of every background are ALWAYS more likely to resort to socially unacceptable ways of making money) korra is like “you guys are criminals?????!!!!!” she was raised in perfect luxury by a conservative institution and just never developed beyond that. So sure, if the red lotus raised her anarchist, probably a lot would’ve been different/better, but....they didn’t. and korra ended up being a reactionary and conservative avatar who protected monarchs and colonialist politicians. The avatar as a position is completely subject to the whims of whoever is currently the avatar. and not only does that suck for everyone who is not the avatar, not only is it totally unfair to whatever kid who grows up knowing the fate of the world is squarely on their shoulders, but it as a concept is a highly individualist product of the authors’ own western liberal ideas of progress! the idea that one good leader can fix the world (or should even try) based on their own inherent superiority to everyone else is unbelievably flawed and ignores the fact that all real progress is brought about as a result of COMMUNITY work, as a result of normal people working for themselves and their neighbors!

the broader analysis of bending was really interesting to me too, but im honestly not sure i Totally agree with it. the article pretty much accepts the show’s assertion that bending is a privilege (and frankly backs it up much better than the original show did, but whatever), and i don’t think that’s NECESSARILY untrue since it is, like, a physical advantage (the author compares it to, for example, the fact that some people are born athletically gifted and others are born with extreme physical limitations), but i DO think that it discounts the in universe racialization of bending. in any sequel to atla that made sense, bending as a race making fact would have been explored ALONGSIDE the physical advantages it bestows on people. colonialism and its aftermath is generally ignored in this article which is its major weakness i think, especially in conjunction with bending. you can bring up the ideas the author did about individual vs community oriented progress in the avatar universe while safely ignoring the colonialism, but you can’t not bring up race and colonialism when you discuss bending. especially once you get to thinking about how water/earth/airbenders were imprisoned and killed specifically because bending was a physical advantage, and that physical advantage was something that would have given colonized populations a means of resistance and that the fire nation wanted to keep to itself.

i think that’s the best lens thru which to analyze bending tbh! like in the avatar universe bending is a tool that different ethnic groups tend to use in different ways. at its best, bending actually doesn’t represent social power differences (despite representing a physical power difference) because it’s used to represent/maintain community solidarity. like, take the water tribe. katara being the last waterbender, in some way, makes her the last of a part of swt CULTURE. the implication is that when there were a lot of waterbenders in the south, they dedicated their talents to building community and helping their neighbors, because this was something incredibly culturally important and important to the water tribe as a community. the swt as a COLLECTIVE values bending for what it can do for the entire tribe, which counts for basically every other talent a person can have (strength, creativity, etc). the fire nation, by contrast, distorts the community value of bending by racializing it: anyone who bends an element that isn’t fire is inherently NOT fire nation (and therefore inherently inferior) and, because of the physical power that bending confers, anyone who bends an element that isn’t fire is a threat to fire nation hegemony. and in THAT framework of bending, it’s something that intrinsically assigns worth and reifies race in a way that’s conveniently beneficial to the oppressor.

it IS worth talking about how using Element as a way to categorize people reifies nations, borders, and race in a way that is VERY characteristic of white american liberals. i tried to be conscious of that (and the way that elements/bending can act in DIFFERENT ways, depending on cultural context) but i think it’s pretty clear that the writers did intend for element to unequivocally signify nation (and, by extension, race), which is part of why they screwed up mixed families so bad in lok. when they’ve locked themselves into this idea that element=nation=race, they end up with sets of siblings like mako and bolin or kya tenzin and bumi, who all “take” after only one parent based on the element that they bend. which is just completely stupid but very indicative of how the writers actually INTENDED element/bending to be a race making process. and its both fucked up and interesting that the writers display the same framework of race analysis that the canonical antagonists of atla do.

anyway that’s a few thoughts! thank u again for sending the article i really loved it and i had a lot of fun writing this <3

[loopy777]

RE: WIPs game: Actress Mai. what is she acting in? besides her ongoing starring role as Repressed Perfect Child?

Ah, "Actress Mai." This is a headcanon I keep chipping away at in the hopes that I'll eventually have something I want to publish. I have a whole host of little ideas and scene concepts, but only one actual WIP.

It started with the idea that Zuko and Ursa are theater snobs. Sure, Ursa apparently attended Ember Island Player performances, which Zuko disdained, but my thought is that she took what she could get in terms of live theater with her family even if she agreed with his criticisms. However, I like to headcanon that Mai loves the Ember Island Players, hates classical theater, and generally is the type of person who thinks that Michael Bay movies are great and more people should just turn off their brains and allow themselves to be entertained.

Why?

Well, because character conflict is what makes stories interesting. Zuko gritting his teeth through Mai's praise of how the EIPs finally made "Love Amongst the Dragons" interesting? Gold! Ursa and Mai getting into heated drunken arguments about theater styles? Gold! Mai convincing Kiyi of the good points of the controversial 'Love Amongst the Dragons II: Love Harder' (which is canon to at least two of my Maiko fics) while Zuko and Ursa grit their teeth? Solid gold!

This fun little conflict turned into something more, though. If Ursa and Mai are dark mirrors of each other in terms of theater tastes, then it felt like Mai needed a little acting history to parallel Ursa's own. But Ursa could be a publicly known actress because she was a peasant; such a profession was okay for her. Mai is a noble, though, and an acting job would be seen as beneath her, especially as a woman, as Polite Fire Society knows (or thinks it knows) that 'actress' is really just a polite term for prostitute. This is a takeoff from some real-life history stuff that I first learned of through Sherlock Holmes stories. Apparently, Irene Adler being an 'opera singer' was a thing British readers would recognize as being of a sordid nature.

So I decided that Mai did some secret, illicit acting anonymously during her childhood and teenage years. She stumbled across an opportunity, gave it a try, and found it fulfilling despite the social stigma. She liked being able to project emotions of all kinds in public, while at the same time shielded by masks or makeup or costumes or whatever. She liked being other people, people who find love with their heroes or die tragically to teach everyone a point or villainously ruin everything around them as a force of vengeful nature. It was the only opportunity for expression that she had, as well as a quiet form of rebellion. So for years she snuck out of the capital, down to Harbor City, and acted in all kinds of plays for a troupe that accepted not paying her as a fair trade for keeping her anonymous.

Naturally, moving to Omashu put a crimp on that, and so it ended.

So the idea is that Ursa eventually learns this about Mai after years of their butting heads over theater opinions, sees the parallels and perpendiculars in their lives, and grudgingly comes to respect Mai's completely wrong opinions about theater as at least being informed. And Mai, who is good at acting and does know the classics and would be wasted in the Ember Island Players, helps Ursa out with some plays she writes (still anonymous, although Zuko and Ursa know) even though Mai privately thinks the dialogue is too stilted and the stories kind of cliched.

But I have had trouble beating all of this into a proper story. I want to do flashbacks to Mai on stage, I want to show her conflict with Ursa, I want to reveal how Ty Lee found out and used that to get Mai to accept running away to the circus, I want Zuko's reaction to finding that his wife can recite soliloquies from all the major classics, I want Kiyi becoming an Ember Island Players groupie, etc. It's just missing a plot to hang it all on.

So here's a snippet of one of my attempts to construct something:

Noren grimaced. "Honestly, I was impressed we got enough people to fill out all the parts, never mind understudies. This play-"

"-is important," Ursa finished for him.

He hesitated just a moment before nodding. "And it's important for the same reasons that it was tough to get actors. I'm sure once Zuko sees it and can give it his official approval-"

"But he can't see anything without a Rinzen." Ursa thought about her son out there in the audience, anonymous amidst the 'peasants' of Hira'a. Zuko didn't mind mixing with his people, despite being their Lord, but the only reason he was here, tonight, was because Ursa herself had written the play, and he was a good son who would always support his mother.

Zuko had even brought his friends, including the Avatar. Aang was a delightful young man, and always very nice to Ursa, but she couldn't help but feel trepidation at his presence. After all, Avatar Roku, Ursa's grandfather and Aang's previous life, was a major character in this play, and while the story was based on real events, it was Ursa's hand that had shaped his dialogue and actions. She was putting her thoughts and philosophies, her very heart, out on the stage for public assessment, and this was tricky material. Would it do right by history?

Plus the lead actress was sick, and going by her complaints and the smell of the privy, perhaps dying.

Ursa had to tell herself that her audience, her friends and family and neighbors, wouldn't enjoy this play becoming a disaster. None of them were that bad. This wasn't the Capital. And she wasn't a princess. Not anymore.

So why had she taken it on herself to write this play, to positively dramatize a story of an ancestor who a few years ago was considered a heretic and traitor, to will into being a performance right here in the Fire Nation of a play that featured a heroic Air Nomad character whose actress was currently trapped in the privy?

Because her nation had hurt the world, and she wouldn't leave it to her son alone to do all the work of helping to fix that. That's why.

"Maybe," she ventured, "I could play the part."

Noren frowned. "You? But you're playing the Lady of Glass, and the characters share several scenes."

But Ursa was already analyzing the copy of the script that existed in her mind. "Rinzen has a lot more lines than the glass spirit, and I'm the only one who knows them. And playing a spirit is a lot easier than playing an Air Nomad. A spirit is just a voice, a costume, and some special effects. An Air Nomad character is a performance, and we're fresh out of actresses."

Noren's head tilted from side to side. "We could ask Kiyi. She knows the play by heart. She's a bit young for the part, yes, but-"

"No," Ursa cut him off. "She'd say yes if we asked her, but she hates being on stage. I'm not going to do that to her. I'd rather call off the play and see if our Rinzen is feeling better tomorrow."

Noren blanched at the very thought and made a gesture of good luck. "Well, maybe we can find a new Lady of Glass. And adjust the Rinzen costume. So are you thinking we'll just go on stage and ask the crowd who wants to join the cast, or maybe-"

And then there was a shift behind Noren, the red curtain over the office's doorway being pulled aside to reveal a living shadow. It seemed to Ursa that a chill had entered the room.

Lady Mai, Intended to Fire Lord Zuko, had arrived.

Ursa stiffened as Mai stepped into the office and let the curtain fall back into place. Time and familiarity had not made it any easier to be in a room with her son's lover. She had no real doubts about Mai, no resentment over the early difficulties Zuko that had apparently been overcome, but it was hard to reconcile Azula's shy and dour childhood companion with what existed now. Mai walked around covered with knives, watching everything; she never spoke unless there was an explicit need, but her gaze was always focused and her eyes missed nothing.

And it was in Mai's kind of silent, watchful abyss that Judgement grew. Ursa did not have a good feeling about how Mai likely judged her. How could a child of the Fire Nation's capital, someone who had become strong alongside Azula, a world-class warrior whose last stand for the life of her lover was already the subject of at least one popular poem, have any empathy for Ursa's life or the mistakes she had made?

Mai looked at her with dull eyes. "Is everything okay? The crowd is getting restless, and Zuko was worried. I told him I'd check on things so that he wouldn't miss the beginning of the play."

Ursa hesitated against that flat, low voice, and Noren stepped in to answer, "Our lead actress is sick. Ursa and I were just discussing options. There- uh, there aren't a lot of them."

Mai might as well have been told that dinner was planned to include green sprouts, but they were all out and so the yellow ones would be substituted. "Which part?"

Ursa swallowed. "The Air Nomad girl, Rinzen."

Mai quirked an eyebrow. "The heroine." She was still and silent for a long moment, and then sighed. "Zuko's really been looking forward to this. I guess I can help out. All right, I'll be your Rinzen."

Ursa wasn't quite sure she had heard that right. "You- you want to take the part? But-" Her voice faltered, as all the possible objections swirled through her mind. Mai was, to put it simply, completely lacking in charisma and non-threatening presence. She spoke without emotion. She moved so efficiently that no one in the back of the audience would even notice her. And she was so disinterested in everything that she'd probably nod off in the middle of the performance.

Noren offered a troubled smile. "Thank you for the offer, but acting is harder than it looks. It's not just about going on stage and reciting lines. An actress needs-"

"It's Nomad part, right?" Mai shrugged. "So we want a high, bright voice. Circular gestures. A bounce in all the movements. Here, like this." She stretched out her arms, shook her head, and then-

-and then-

-and then Mai was no longer there. The woman in red and black looked like her, but there was a wide mischievous smile on her face, and her eyes were big and bright. She stepped towards Ursa- no, they weren't mere steps. She kicked her heels high with each one, and the way she shifted her weight flirted with almost being a dance. She held her arms up at her side as she moved, and then when she reached Ursa, swung them dramatically to bring her hands together into a sign of respect.

She bowed, and in a voice that positively rang and filled the room, said, "Are you not the Firebender Avatar, Roku? What a fortunate wind blows to lay my path upon your own!" She rose again, and trotted in a circle around Ursa. "I say, you are taller than I expected, and must be quite heavy. Are you sure you're keeping up with your Airbending, young Avatar?" She raised a hand and held it out to the side.

Noren recovered before Ursa did, realizing what was going on, and quickly found a rag and placed in the waiting hand.

Mai's eyes never left Ursa the whole time, and as soon as the rag was in her grip, she moved again, taking a stance that had clearly been modeled on Avatar Aang's own style, and held the rag out in front of her, dangling it from her fingers and bouncing it in the air.

Mai gave a laugh that was echoed through the little room. "Your beard flutters in my breeze! Come, young Avatar, let's have a spar!"

There was a beat, and Ursa was tempted to deliver Roku's next line in response, but then all at once the younger woman slumped, letting the grandness leak out of her limbs. When she straightened, Mai was back, standing like a blade made of shadow, her face blank and her eyes dull.

Ursa blinked. What had she just witnessed? So many questions swirled in her mind, and she decided to ask the most important of them: "You know all the lines?"

[jaxsteamblog]

Mend

Click here to read the entire fic on AO3

Zuko’s hands shook as they stood in front of the door and Katara rubbed his back. The Fire Sages with them looked away, allowing Zuko this moment of weakness.

“Does the Fire Lord wish to assist?” One sage asked.

Zuko’s face went blank and he held up his hands.

“I wouldn’t want to overstep.” He said.

Thuy shook her head and chuckled.

“Come on Zuko, he is your great-grandfather.” She said.

“Mmm.” Zuko intoned but stepped forward nonetheless.

Thuy, not yet a fully realized Avatar, stood next to Katara as Zuko and four Fire Sages lined up in front of the temple door. All five men took the same stance and, at the same moment, began the same set. Five fire blasts hit the door, triggering the unlocking sequence.

Stepping lightly, Thuy, Mister Whiskers, and Druk entered the room first, while Katara took Zuko’s hand.

“We will wait here, Fire Lord.” A Fire Sage said and Zuko nodded. He and Katara followed Thuy and the doors shut after them.

Zuko jumped at the heavy thud and Katara squeezed his hand.

“Did we really need to do this here?” She asked Thuy. Thuy shrugged and plopped down at the base of Roku’s statue.

Druk, now double the size of the catgator in height and length, still skittered when Mister Whiskers hissed at him for getting too close to Thuy. Druk ran back to Katara, flapping his wings so she could hold him. Which was certainly not getting any easier.

“You are such a crybaby.” Katara cooed as Druk began to chirp in annoyance.

“I definitely could do this anywhere, but I want to make a stronger projection. I can only do those at anchor points with the spirit world.” Thuy said and gestured.

Zuko knelt in front of Thuy while Katara sat off to the side, forcing Druk down.

“So what now?” Zuko asked.

“I go into the Avatar state.” Thuy said.

“Is that easy to do?” Zuko questioned.

“I grew up in the swamp. It’s easier than spittin’.” Thuy said. “Now close your eyes.”

Katara watched the two, seeing a world of difference. They were both sitting up straight, but Zuko held himself in trained discipline. Thuy was more relaxed, allowing her weight to fall comfortably on her various joints and pressure points. Her legs crossed, her upturned wrists relaxing on her knees, and her shoulders fell. She was fluid and in the act of falling.

Zuko was one shape and as he breathed, there was only the slightest flutter. He would be a flame that burned still as long as something fed him.

And after nine breaths, there was a third.

Roku matched his statue almost perfectly. His long beard came to the same point as many older Fire Nation men.

In his hair was the crown Zuko used to wear. The one his cousin had worn. And his uncle, for a time.

“Ah, so it’s you.” Roku said.

All Fire Nation men looked surly to Katara, but she worried about the tone. Zuko opened his eyes and frowned.

“Hello, Avatar Roku.” Zuko greeted and bowed, pressing his forehead to the floor.

“I see nothing of Sozin in you, nor Rina.” Roku said.

“I look a lot like...my father. He takes after Azulon.” Zuko said, sitting up.

“You’ve been dishonored yet I see you are Fire Lord, and the Avatar calls you a friend. Explain.” Roku said.

“Hey.” Katara snapped, forcing both of them to look at her. “That’s not why we wanted to talk to you.”

Roku’s eyes narrowed.

“You are the Fire Lady?” He asked.

“I am Queen of the Water Tribes and Zuko’s wife.” Katara huffed, then paused. “And also Fire Lady, yes.”

“How is this possible?” Roku asked, looking back at Zuko.

“What do you mean?” Zuko asked, genuinely confused.

“They would never allow…” Roku turned back to Katara. “Queen of the Water Tribes?”

“Oh yeah, a lot of people aren’t happy about me. Druk helps.” Katara said, scratching Druk’s head.

“Is that a dragon?” Roku demanded.

Indignant, Druk hopped up and started spouting small blasts of fire until Mister Whiskers hissed at him again.

“What did you want to talk about, young Fire Lord?” Roku asked, sounding much gentler now.

“Please, call me Zuko.” He said and Roku nodded.

“How may I help you, Zuko?” Roku asked.

“I need to understand my family. My uncle is a good man, though he wasn’t always. And I know I’ve changed. But my father and my sister won’t listen to me, or anyone. I refuse to think we’re supposed to be this way, this polarizing. And my mother…” Zuko shook his head. “Tell me what Sozin was like, what happened with your daughter. Tell me how this all happened so maybe I can understand how to reach them.”

“It is a long story, Zuko, and will be a strain on Thuy. She is a good child, and I do not wish to burden her. This may take many meetings between you and I.” Roku said.

“Please, great-grandfather, I will do anything. I will come as many times as I need.” Zuko said, bowing again.

“I didn’t mean to give the impression I was unwilling, only that I cannot give you all the answers today.” Roku sat and stroked his beard, looking at Katara.

“I would like to ask a favor in return.” He said.

“What?” Katara asked, her voice low. Thuy could vouch for him all she wanted, Katara didn’t trust Roku in the slightest.

“I would like to hear how this came to be.” Roku looked at Zuko as he sat up. “This union between you two. Was it diplomacy?”

Zuko huffed an amused breath.

“More like I had to make her mine from the moment I saw her.” He said.

“That sounds like Sozin.” Roku replied, equally amused.

“I’m not ashamed of it.” Zuko replied.

“That sounds like me.” Roku said, smiling.

“Katara has to be a part of this.” Zuko said.

“Katara? You are the Katara?” Roku questioned her.

“The?” Katara asked.

“I have heard of you.” Roku said.

“From Thuy?”

“Not at first.”

“What?”

Roku chuckled, stroking his beard again.

“Through Thuy, I am still connected to the spirit world. It’s how I can be here with you both. I learned of you before Thuy did, when I met with a river spirit.” He said.

Katara pulled her lips together and looked away.

“Roku, could you tell us about how the war began? I think even that will help me fix things here.” Zuko said.

“Of course, of course.” Roku nodded and tilted his head. “Your grandmother was always a good hand at mending things. Perhaps I was wrong about not seeing my line in you.”

Katara settled in, waiting for the story.

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[amylillian22]

Quarantine (Part 2) - Chris Evans Imagine

Summary: Chris notices there’s something wrong with Y/N when she comes home from work. When he looks at the calendar, he realizes it’s that time of the month. He decides to do everything and anything that will comfort her. 

Word Count: 1,604

Warnings: FLUFF!!!!

Author’s Note: I hope y’all enjoy all the cuteness in this imagine!

[Part 1] [Chris Evans Master List]

Y/N turned off the car in Chris' two car garage. She grabbed her purse and grunted as she walked to the door that would lead to the washroom. She stripped her clothes and dumped them in the open washer. She had noticed Chris had already put in his clothes. She turned on the washer and put some laundry detergent before closing the washer. She grabbed the bottle of Lysol and sprayed the bottom of her shoes before slipping them into the shoe rack by the door. She sprayed the inside of her purse, her car keys, and her work lanyard with her ID. Placing the Lysol back in place, she grabbed a disinfectant wipe and wiped down her watch and phone. She mentally double checked everything off she was supposed to get rid of and disinfectant before entering Chris' house. Although it wasn't her house, it was a system they both came up with when they both returned to work still in the middle of a pandemic. She closed the washroom door behind her and made her way across the kitchen, where Chris was in his underwear fixing up dinner. His hair was wet and his chest was glistening with a thin layer of sweat. "I just got out of the shower and thought I would get started on dinner," he said as he turned on the stove. "Any special request?" "Whatever you want. I don't really care," she said slightly annoyed without looking at him. "I'm getting in the shower." Chris furrowed his eyebrows as he saw her walk away. Since their first sexual encounter a couple of months ago, the two couldn't keep their hands off each other, making up for lost time not having sex throughout the pandemic. They had become used to flirting and teasing. So, he was a bit surprised when she didn't even so much look at him half naked in the kitchen. He turned around to his fridge to get the chicken out, only to see the calendar right in front of him. He saw the date and immediately knew why she was annoyed today. "Good thing I went to the store today," he mumbled to himself as he decided to change the dinner menu to her favorite comfort food, Mac and Cheese. Back in her room, Y/N walked to her bathroom and saw the empty box of tampons on the countertop. She let out a frustrating groan knowing she forgot to go to the store after work to pick some up. She opened the cabinet underneath her sink for an overnight pad, thinking that'll have to do for the evening until she can go to the store tomorrow morning before work. She gasped as she saw two bulk boxes of tampons in two different sizes. She grabbed one of the boxes and opened it. She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember when she bought them. "Could he have?" She whispered to herself. "No," she shook the silly idea out of her head. She quickly got in the shower and let the warm water relax her muscles. A few minutes later, she dried herself and got dressed. She walked to the kitchen to see Chris dressed in sweats and a long sleeve. "Perfect timing!" He beamed. "The Mac and Cheese is ready. I went to the store earlier today and also got you a few things-" "Like tampons?" She asked, now that he mentioned he did go shopping. "Yes. I wasn't sure on the sizes, so I got you both. I hope that's okay," he looked at her, scanning for any facial expression that might say he screwed up. She nodded with a small smile, "both sizes are fine. As Amy Schumer says, 'your flow changes and so should the size of your Tampax!'" They both laughed as they had seen that commercial a million times while staying home. "And to think, I was so close to book that commercial. They said I was great, but didn't quite fit the character they were looking for," he joked. Y/N chuckled. "In all seriousness though, thank you," She said sincerely. "You're very welcome. I was a little nervous I might have bought the wrong ones. Glad to know I didn't," he smiled back at her. "Anyways, I also got a box of your favorite candies. The popcorn is in the microwave as we speak. I figured we would watch a Disney movie and eat dinner in the living room tonight." Y/N eyes welled up at the sweet gesture he had done for her. "How did you know?" "Well," he walked towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "We've been quarantining together for almost the entire year. I think I've picked up on certain things. Like when Aunt Flo comes to visit and what comfort foods you like when she's in town for her monthly visit." Chris pulled her in for a hug as he noticed more tears filled her eyes. "What's wrong? Did I do something wrong? Did I miss something?" "No," she mumbled against his chest, hugging him back. "It's perfect. These are happy tears." Chris let out a soft chuckle before he kissed her forehead. "Did you really just say Aunt Flo?" Y/N pulled back. Chris let out a hearty laugh, rolling his head back. "Yes, clearly I regret it now. Let's eat." Chris grabbed their bowls of Mac and Cheese while Y/N grabbed two water bottles from the fridge. Chris gave her the Roku remote, letting her decide which Disney movie she wanted to watch on Disney+ as he went back to get the candies and popcorn. They both sat cross legged on the couch and ate their Mac and Cheese as Oliver and Company started playing. Once they finished their dinner, they munched on popcorn and chocolates. Halfway through the movie, Y/N turned around and faced Chris. "Can I ask for a small favor?" "Anything," he said, his eyes still on the movie. "Can we cuddle?" Chris' head turned to her, double checking if he heard right. "I know it's a silly question, but I'm just in a mood for some cuddling. If you don't want to, I can ask Dodger." Chris' lips formed a small, sincere smile as he repositioned himself. Y/N got up as Chris laid down. She hoovered over him before she fit herself between him and the couch. Chris wrapped his arms around her after Y/N pulled a blanket over them. "Is this okay?" He asked. She snuggled closer to him, resting her cheek on his chest. "Better than okay," she mumbled. "Thanks." "Anytime," he kissed the top of her head. Chris' phone rang on top of the coffee table. He grabbed it and saw his brother's picture on the screen. It was an incoming FaceTime from Scott. Y/N saw it and said he should take the call as she paused the movie. "Sup bro?" Scott immediately asked once Chris accepted the call. "Watching a movie," Chris kind of held the phone at an angle to where Scott couldn't see he was cuddling with Y/N. "What? No hot sexy date with your girlfriend?" "Scott-" Chris started but couldn't get a word in as Scott continued. "I'm surprised. It seems like you're always busy with her almost every night. Although if you say she's the best you've ever had, maybe I can see why you never answer when we call you in the evenings-" "For the love of God, Scott, shut up!" Chris' cheeks grew hot as small beads of sweat started forming on his forehead. "What?" He asked, confused. Chris sighed as he moved the phone for Scott to see. Y/N smiled widely as she rested her chin on Chris' chest. She gave Scott a small wave. "Shit," Scott mumbled to himself, realizing he let a secret out as he saw Y/N was with Chris. "Ok, I'm gonna go hide because I feel like Chris is gonna go on a man hunt for me. Bye!" Chris groaned as he dropped his phone on the rug, unable to look at Y/N. She smiled as she trailed two fingers up his chest, "I have two questions for you. One: why does your brother think I'm your girlfriend?" "Because I may or may not have mentioned you..." he trailed before his lips formed a smile that gave away his lie. "Okay, maybe all the time." "Uh, interesting," she nodded, his smile made her smile as well. "And, two..." she cupped Chris' cheek and moved him to face her. She looked deep into his ocean blue eyes and whispered, "Am I really the best you've ever had?" Chris swallowed hard, his Adam's Apple bobbing up and down slowly, before he nodded once. "I know it was only supposed to be a friends with benefits kind of thing, but I don't know. I kind of caught feelings in the midst of things." She stood on her hands and leaned down to kiss him. Chris was taken back but quickly kissed her back. His hand slid to the back of her neck as she slowly lowered herself on top of him. The kiss was sweet and tender, perfect for their first real kiss. She cupped his cheek as the kiss deepened, ignoring the tickling sensation his beard gave her palm. Her toes curled as Chris ignited the buttleries in the pit of her stomach. Chirs slowly pulled back and pecked her lips once more before she rested her forehead against his. Their chest heaved against each others' as they tried to catch their breath. "Not that I didn't like it, because I loved it, but what was that for?" Chris whispered against her lips. She smiled at him as her thumb traced his cheekbone. "Because somewhere along the way, I also caught feelings for my boyfriend." Chris chuckled before he leaned in and kissed her once more.

[lightdancer1]

Avatar Flash-Fic, Azula's House of Wonders Part II

As Azula sat at the chair in front of the device, she looked at her brother and gave him an explanation that made his eyes glaze over. She'd developed the caged lightning into something that revolutionized energy, offering houses the kind of artificial lightning she'd developed that replaced the need for candles and the dangers even to Firebenders of potential smoke inhalation. She explained the wires, nexuses, alternating currents and direct currents and it was all words, in sequence, that would have made sense to other people he was sure.

All he could do was nod and pretend he understood it, the way he had when he was a kid and Azula had fixated on whatever topic had drawn her interest. First the not-quite-dead dragons, then lightning (which had abruptly changed one day and she had not gone near it even when she could generate that power herself for a long time, and he wondered if that was at least a part in her taming it here). Then weather, then other things besides.

"So, with all of that, that's what this can do. I can tap this," Azula pointed to the device "and send a signal over the wires."

Zuko blinked.

"That...."

Azula nodded, that same bright smile on her face.

"Something, Zuzu, that will make it impossible to recreate the old days. Ozai, Long Feng, Azulon, they all relied on secrecy to do what they do. In autocracy information is more precious than gold. If people want a better world, and a freer one, then there must be a way to break that monopoly."

She kept pointing to the signal.

"Aang's forty leagues away with the other device, and-" she heard a gust of wind near the window and nodded. "And he's ready."

Zuko watched his sister tapping at the device, hearing a strange, almost musical rhythm. A set of beeping sounds that he didn't understand, and didn't need to understand.

-------

Forty leagues away, Aang bounced with a bit of nervousness as his kids paused. The boredom of just *waiting* on this latest device from Azula had ended, and they listened with some awe and even chills at the constant beep-beep-beep from the device.

"Roku," breathed Bumi, the eldest. "It really does work."

Aang nodded, as he listened to the message, and then sent one back.

------

In her house Azula's fist pumped with joy when she got the response, her smile even wider.

"It works," she shouted. "It WORKS!"

Zuko blinked.

"Son of a bitch, it does." His voice was much smaller.

He looked at his sister with keen eyes as she turned to him.

------

"As I said, I've been thinking about what you said when you wrote your last letter. You're not wrong, the world that made the war was broken. But we can't fix it by trying to leap back into the world before the war. That might have been more likely if the Air Nomad Genocide had failed. But since it succeeded enough that if not for Aang and Tenzin there'd be no Airbenders at all, that was never going to happen. But this-"

She pointed at the light around her and the device she'd just used.

"We can change the world beyond Republic City with this. Light, in houses, that is safer than candles. Communication transmitted over those wires that's instantaneous. I'm working on expanding this to sound but so far those experiments..." She waved her hand dismissively. "I mean there's promise there but there's a lot of bugs in it."

Zuko nodded as if he understood anything of what that meant.

Azula then turned to one of her other blueprints.

"I've been keeping up on some of the recent work with physics."

Zuko laughed at that one. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Azula glared.

"Sokka's ideas work, Zuko. Other people aren't convinced yet, but they do. Relativity.....it would change things as much as my own ideas. If physics is not as orderly, Spirit World shenanigans aside, as it seems?"

He went over to the concept and saw a strange device, a round metal semi-sphere with a set of strange spheres within it and edges like fins around it.

"The Earth Kingdom's love of those radioactive metals and Sokka's theories led me to that. I'm going to burn that, incidentally, after you've seen it because I want to make this point to you." He paused then and looked at it more closely.

His sister went over to him and formed a fist.

"With those discoveries, I could take that metal, find a means with some help from someone like Beifong, and have this much" she showed him the fist, "and build a bomb to destroy cities. And that's not the design you're looking at, by the way. I already burned that one. This one?"

Her face became haunted.

"It's an extension of Sokka's theory. And it takes one of the fundamental aspects of artificial fire, the kind made by fire-rocks, and extends it. I'm not sure how many hurdles people would have to cross for it, or how easy it would be to make this fusion bomb into what it is, but that design could be built on a scale to wipe out entire islands of the twenty-nine islands. Or to make Father's old pipe dream from the end of the war real."

Zuko turned back in horror to the design.

"See, the reason I did that was because I could put these designs together. These wonders I've built? I was the first person in the right place, in the right time, with the right things to do it. if I hadn't someone else would. Future Industries has the world's smartest people here. The thing you're looking at is a reminder that it doesn't take spiritual power, or Bending of any kind, to develop something that could be more destructive than anything short of an Avatar as powerful as Kyoshi."

Zuko dropped the blueprints like they were poisonous and Azula conjured some of her flames that reduced them to ashes.

"When we grew up, Father and Uncle both believed that Bending was always superior to everything else." An affectionate tone crept into her voice. "Mai and Ty Lee taught me otherwise earlier. And that...." He looked at the ashes.

"Someone, some day, might see the same things and come up with the design. Others, with a sufficiently determined mentality and goal, might make it into an actual weapon. No matter how powerful or smart any one person is, an idea is an idea. It grows, and it arises, independent of the people who created it."

Zuko nodded, understanding the point.

"When we were kids, I think people might have believed you'dve designed that thing just to use it."

Azula shook her head. "And that's why I wanted to show you that. There are some things too horrible to use. Creation is always a two-edged sword, Zuzu."

She pointed to the lighting above him.

"My lightbulbs can bring light out of darkness. That fusion weapon would do....something. I'm not entirely sure what it would do. If possible, I'd like a world where it's those things" as her finger pointed to the lightbulb, to the various electrical devices that hummed, "and not the other as much as you do."

Zuko nodded, gulping.

"So...." he said quietly, "I understand that lesson. Would you like to show me some of the other things you've built?"

Azula nodded, and the memory of the terrible device faded, or more precisely was repressed, as she showed him different aspects of how her caged lightning could remake the world.

-------

Ten years later, Azula made her first return to the Fire Nation with her wife at her side, her older children with her. Her youngest was still in school and had, in Azula's view, entirely the right idea in apathy to the idea of returning to the place that had done such harm.

When she stepped off the boat, her mother, hair entirely grey as Azula's hair had its first strands of grey in it, hugged her tightly.

"I want to show you something," Ursa said quietly, as her daughter followed her into the Palace where Azula paused. Now she understood why there'd been the specific requests, and at the volumes they made.

The old smoke and candle-lit Palace with its fearsome shadows now had new shadows, traces of Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation influence shaping chandeliers that took her ideas in places she hadn't expected they could be taken but which she admired.

Her jaw dropped, slightly. Ursa's hand was on her shoulder, affectionately.

"Zuko couldn't make meeting you himself because he had a meeting."

Azula nodded. "Well he is the Fire Lord."

Ursa nodded.

"He'll be here soon. You were right in what you told him all those years ago. People can bring light to the world, without the light being a village set on fire."

Azula smiled and shook her head slightly.

She put her hand on her mother's and couldn't resist an amused smile at her wife and kids gawking at the place she'd once called home and would be just as glad to leave when Zuko no doubt intended to avenge her enjoying showing off everything she'd done with his own tour.

For the first time in her life, it was a potential sibling competition she found she might enjoy.