#they don't know what taxes are and if they did they wouldn't pay them anyways

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Characters Do Their Taxes

It was just Tax Day in the US! Let's say that Cosmere characters had to pay taxes. How would that go for them?

Sigzil: Knows the tax code inside and out. Saves his receipts. Is basically the IRS's dream guy.

Hoid: Does not pay taxes. This is canon.

Kelsier: Does not pay taxes. This feels canon.

Marasi: Always pays her taxes.

Vivenna: Always pays her taxes.

Denth: Sure talks a lot about how complicated mercenary taxes are but if you listen carefully, he never actually says he did them...

Nale: Rigorously follows the tax code of whatever country he is in.

Wyndle: Claims Lift as a dependent. Reports all illegally acquired income at fair market value, as the tax code requires.

Lightsong: Does not pay taxes because he's, like, a god. But it's always bothered him, somewhere in the back of his mind, for some reason...

Adolin: Cheerfully hires someone else to do his taxes, at least so long as he's single.

Shallan: Does her own taxes, Sebarial's taxes, and Adolin's taxes post-marriage.

Steris & Wax: Do their taxes together. Romantically.

Wayne: Gives so much money to charity that he never owes any taxes. Orders his accountants to find a way for him to pay taxes anyway.

Straff: Does not pay taxes in the way rich people don't pay taxes--through, like, legal loopholes and off-shore accounts and shit

Elend: Rewrites the tax code to pay more taxes.

Lirin: Committed tax fraud. But only once.

Taravangian: Is not allowed to file his taxes when he is too stupid--because he cries about how confusing it is--or when he's too smart--because he's too good at finding all of the super obvious tax loopholes and anyway he's obviously way better than the government at knowing how to spend his own money!

Painter: Got in trouble once for not filing taxes because he knew he didn't make enough to owe any taxes. Seemed kinda stupid to him.

Moash: Makes an ethical argument against taxes, since the tax laws are written to benefit the rich and screw over the poor and he has no control over what the government uses his taxes for.

Kaladin: Is torn between paying his taxes like Dalinar ordered or not paying his taxes since he promised Moash he wouldn't until he finally files his taxes at, like, midnight on tax day

It's a whole thing.

[whimsicalwritingsandmore]

Marigold | ateez x reader

Pairing: college!ateez x college!reader

Genre: college, slice of life, romance, poly

Word Count: 1251 words

Summary: After your friend ditches you to become roommates with a rich group of kids in order to live in the Magnolia Apartments, you find yourself alone for your master's program. Never fear though, a long-lost friend has a room available and eight new faces might just make it much more memorable. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You weren't mad, just disappointed.

Your friend sat across from you, looking around everywhere but at you while you stared at her with an unamused expression as you took a long sip of your drink.

To be frank, you were a very understanding person. If she didn't want to be roommates then all she had to do was say so. Instead, she tiptoed around with another group of individuals who for some reason, did not like the best bone in your body. In your mind, you could only imagine the conversations she may have taken part in about you. 

The group was none other than an obnoxious bunch of former acquaintances who belonged to a particular tax bracket which afforded them the luxury of being able to live in the Magnolia apartment complex — the most prestigious residence near your university.

The property was a newly constructed, high-rise towering skyscraper with a shiny contemporary design. It was modelled out of excessive but opulent marble and ostentatious gold-plated fixtures, and was sprawled across a large-scale acreage with towering columns and numerous balconies overlooking the city. The entrance was beautifully decorated with a manicured garden and had an imposing entryway that was the epitome of an exclusive lifestyle that only some could afford. 

And you had a little secret…you were part of the some that could afford to live there. But you preferred not to and so, you never told your friend and hoped you would never have to.

But now here you are. You were going to end your friendship with her because you knew there was no way they would let her in if she only said nice things about you. And your friend wasn’t the most loyal person when it came to friendships.

"You should've just told me," you remarked, "It's not a big deal if you don't want to share a space."

"Well…” she answered, “I didn't know how you would react. After all, you lied about being able to afford staying there anyway." 

You grimaced and shook your head. There it was. 

"I admit I did lie, but what's the big deal staying there anyway? Does it matter where we stay? The master’s program is just two-years long."

"Yes! We had an opportunity to stay in the Magnolia apartments! Why wouldn't you want that??" 

"It's just an apartment building - luxurious and beautiful, sure, but it's not the end of the world if we don't."

"It is to me. I always wanted to stay there ever since they finished it and you knew that. And yet, you never decided to tell me that we could stay there."

"For good reason. I'm sorry for not telling you but it's not something I wanted to talk about."

"Am I not your friend?? Literally, how could you be so selfish?"

You scrutinised her with a blank expression. Selfish, a very interesting word choice coming from her. It was quite ironic that the embodiment of selfishness was calling you selfish. You planned on walking away from this calmly but that was no longer possible.

"Here's the thing," you vocalised, sipping your drink, "You could afford to stay there, can't you? But your parents refused because you selfishly and greedily usurped your trust fund to ridiculously splurge and waste it on unnecessary things. And then, you took, no, stole your brother's rainy day savings, to pay back the credit card debt you owed because your parents refused to pay for it. So now, you expect someone to pick up the pieces and help you out in maintaining your rich image, and you expect it to be me because I'm your friend?"

Your friend stayed quiet as you hit her with the harsh truth.

"That's all you ever expected from me. And the only reason why I agreed for us to be roommates was because your parents begged my mom since they can't trust you to not do stupid things."

"What are you trying—"

"What I'm trying to say is,” you interrupted, “You messed up your own opportunity at staying in the Magnolia on your own. You’re lucky your parents even considered paying your tuition. I have no interest in staying there and I won't be, and since you decided to become buddy-buddy with the most annoying group in this whole university, go along and join them, just remember don't come to me when they toss you to the side of the curb."

You got up from your seat and paid only for your drinks. 

"Have a nice life." You announced dryly before walking away.

-

It had been a few days since the confrontation and you spent most of the time touring apartments. Your mom mentioned that your friend had already moved into the Magnolia with the group the day after you two had it out.

You weren't surprised to say the least.

But you were surprised by the lack of apartment complexes near university. Some were...concerning to say the least, and any promising ones were about a 15-20 minute walk to campus. You weighed your options and considered the good cardio you could get out of it. But the idea of walking during the blistering sunny days and the colder months made it unappealing very quickly.

However, just when you thought all hope was lost, your saving grace in the form of an old school friend walked through the café door one Friday afternoon.

While mindlessly circling possible apartments at the back of the café, you didn't notice a tall figure approaching you.

"Y/N?"

You jumped in surprise at the voice.

"Song?"

Lucas Song was a longtime friend from high school who shared the same computer period as you and was your partner in every assignment. He is trustworthy and dependable, and moved cities to pursue a course in Computer Studies which the university didn’t offer.

“It’s been a long time! How are you?”

As you engaged in small-talk, you happened to mention your current situation on a whim, not thinking much of it as you conversed. Immediately, Lucas happily jumped at the idea of showing you a room in his parents' apartment complex the Marigold.

The Marigold didn't compete with the Magnolia, it was an older complex that had been around for the last 15 years and was once known as the cosy, homely safe haven near campus. You completely forgot about its existence because its structure was compact and slightly-worn down, with the paint peeling slightly and the bleak garden of wilting roses and hydrangeas making it easy to pass straight. Not to mention, it always looked like it was under construction with huge piles of sand and gravel, and numerous bags of cement scattered nearby the entrance.

But you trusted Lucas and agreed to a viewing. And it was probably the best decision you made because you were mesmerised by the beautiful interior. The rooms were cosy, quaint and efficient with a communal living room area. Lucas conveyed that you would have to share the kitchen and living room with a few others. You weren’t opposed to it so promptly, you signed the lease. 

But maybe you should have asked about your other roommates and how many of them there were. 

Because on moving day, as you strolled in with your luggage into the living room, you were abruptly greeted by eight persons - all boys, some of them with their hair dishevelled and only in their underwear...while the others were covered in flour gaping at you with a shocked expression.

[zahri-melitor]

Still speculating on 'where did the $50,000 go' as far as Jack's debts. Because.

We know Bruce is quite willing to give Dick and Tim, in particular, access to money in a manner that doesn't offend them (selling the Redbird for $50,000? Dick's famous 'inheritance' from John and Mary that just happened to be worth far more than his parents likely had unless there were serious life insurance policies?).

$50,000 was more than the median US household income for 2002 (which was $42,409), and it was tax-free. In terms of a cash injection into the household budget, it presumably was more than enough money for Jack to be meeting his regular debt payments for the loans for months or potentially even years. It would have covered Tim's school fees for at least a year, so he wouldn't have had to be pulled out. It was 'your debt issues don't need to affect your son's lifestyle outside of moving house' sort of money.

And what happens to that money? They give some of it to Mrs Mac to pay for her flight back to Ireland, and then the rest of it just...goes, but doesn't seem to change the situation in terms of how much of a financial hole Jack feels that he's in. (And again, if the Bristol house was owned outright, that was a far bigger contributor to fixing this problem).

That was the sort of money that Jack should have had as a savings nest-egg for emergencies, given their family situation.

Is that $50,000 doing what Bruce clearly intended it to do, and servicing Jack's debts for the next 6 months or so until War Games and Identity Crisis hit and he dies anyway, and anything further ends up being sorted out by his deceased estate? So Jack's supporting his family on the money brought in from Tim's car? (Plus Dana's salary, but it's Jack's lack of income that has caused this situation).

Did Jack throw it all onto the principal of the loans or into an offset? So while it was bringing down his loan repayments it wasn't actually helping with the problem of the family getting by until Jack found work?

And even after Tim has just contributed FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS to the household bottom line (plus the savings on not paying insurance premiums for a 15 year old's vehicle, plus whatever he's sold online for Jack, because Jack just wanted to have a garage sale and would have lost even more money that way), Jack has the hide to go 'and Tim can get a job' about their finances.

Why don't you get a job, actually, Jack. Not your 15 year old who you just pulled out of school before the end of the school year. He's already contributed more than he could earn in multiple years as a kid, by selling his beloved car.

[jacksprostate]

It happens in Paper Street. Tyler is still gone. The building is oozing with monkeys, but on the upper floors where Tyler and I sleep, I am alone.

I am not alone.

There is two of me. I don't have a twin.

If there's two of me, then there might be two of Tyler.

Tyler would probably think killing myself to monopolize him and his clone is a step closer to bottom.

If there's not two Tylers, I have to kill him anyway.

All of this becomes clear to me in the time it takes for my clone to stare at me and shake his head and get his shit together.

I play it cool. I am so ZEN, he will not realize when I reach over to crush his windpipe.

I say, hey. This is weird.

"Yeah," he says, and my voice is way too loud coming from him. I don't like it. He needs to shut the fuck up. "Is Tyler here?"

I ask him, do you think Tyler would know why the universe broke? I ask him like he's asked me if Tyler would like to take a nice little shopping trip through the local designer stores and pay off the companies' tax breaks by giving hundreds to their check out charity.

I think Tyler would know why the universe broke, of course. He'd be the one to break it. Maybe this is another one of Tyler's little tests. This new version of me seems less certain of that fact, more like he's looking for his daddy's coattails, and now I really can't wait to punch his teeth out of his skull. He doesn't have the hole in his cheek, and I can see him watching it wink when I talk. He looks like a jealous rat.

We must both be Joe's Clenching Bowels.

I ask him, do you think we're different? Maybe there's a butterfly effect. Parallel universes. There has to be a reason he's so pathetic.

"I'm sure we are," he says, like he's telling his boss about sawing cross tips into bullets. Touching.

How'd you meet Tyler?

"On the plane. He gave me his number. Called him after my condo blew up."

I smile. I met him on a nude beach. He gave me his number. I called him after my condo blew up. Every word after nude turns my copy's face a bit ruddy, little tectonic nudges to the ring of fire.

"What were you doing on a nude beach?" he spits. "Gargling your boss's balls?"

Watching Tyler. Naked and sweaty, muscles flexing as he pulled around driftwood and pilings to sit in his own hand of perfection. I know I sound like a priest that wants to keep God for himself. I am.

"You're a fag," he says.

I think of my birthmark on my foot. I think of Tyler. I think of Marla. I think of how stupid this version of me is, to pretend he wouldn't get on his knees just for the chance of a taste of Tyler. Is that not how he got the kiss I can see on his hand? His Tyler must have had to lower his standards.

Best not to accuse others of things you're guilty of, I say. I'm willing to face any number of uncomfortable truths if it will get rid of him, I realize.

He's flustered. "No, no, it's not —" he waves his hands. "It's not like that with me and him. No."

Yes it is. It's not love as in caring, sure.

I step closer.

It's property as in ownership.

This must be why Tyler likes it. I see myself wither like a guy kicked in the balls on the first night he attends fight club.

I could be over that table every night for Tyler, I say. You would just be jealous. Just like you're jealous of Marla. Of that one pretty kid you probably pummeled into the ground too. Or did you not even have the balls for that?

Eliminate the competition. Face the truth only to drive it deeper into this jammed copy of myself. Win Tyler's affections. I have already seen the bones in my yard, I can tell, he has not.

One of us is committed. I pull my human sacrifices out of my pocket, throw them at him. One of us wants this. I get in his stupid face.

It's not you.

He swings at me, I'm fighting to the death.

"Tyler isn't here, is he?" he taunts me.

"Tyler left you."

"He doesn't want you anymore."

All things true, but maybe not once I kill you.

I am the abandoned dog, performing tricks so its owner will come home. I am myself, calling my father and telling him about graduating college, like it means fuck all to him. I am myself, pushing onto that next step on his list, anyway. Tyler's my new list, and he wants murder. I've known it. I'll face it.

He gets me in a headlock, hits me over and over, opening up that hole in my cheek. I go limp, drag him down, flip him over myself and grab his throat. I slam his head into the ground. It's soft, moldy wood, not concrete, so I have to start squeezing, instead.

Death will commence in five.

Five, four.

He's gasping, slamming his palm into my nose, breaking it over and over.

Four, three.

Three, two.

His body is shaking under mine. Seizing. He has the primordial strength of a man about to die, and I have the primordial strength of a man about to live.

Death will commence in two.

His eyes are rolling back. I can feel his throat giving in.

No more chance for breaths. It crumbles beneath my hands like the ribcage of a hummingbird.

No chances for evacuation.

Death commences.

Now.

On the upper floors of Paper Street, I am alone.

[wack-ashimself]

John Oliver taught me new things on student loans debt.

1-last summer, biden did try a small bail out for student debt. The supreme court OVER TURNED IT. I hate our supreme court. Entirely. Hope they all retire, by choice or force. They work 100% EXCLUSIVELY for the rich.

2-Old people are going into debt. So...when I was a kid going into college, I was furious my parents refused to cosign on my college loans. At 38, I AM SO GLAD they didn't. They were rigged! It would have FUCKED THEM out of retirement, and THEY DESERVED TO RETIRE; they're so happy. In the show, he shows a guy who paid his kid's loans from 2004....and they wouldn't be paid off till 2040!!!!

3-I guess there's low income payments. See, I knew of the 10 year program: make regular, consistent, semi large payments for 10 years, NEVER MISSING A ONE, and whatever your debt was is forgiven (however, if you missed ONE PAYMENT, I am not exaggerating, you're fucked forever). But I guess there's another one, same premise, but for 20+ years (show hinted 25 years!), where you get a TINY payment and, after 2 decades, all is forgiven. Here's the problem: of the 2 MILLION people who qualified recently, only 32 (literally 32) actually got it forgiven. What the ever loving fuck!?

4-We all knew these federal loan programs were garbage, but, intentional or not, debt services 'forgot' or were late on mailing out bills, and over 800,000 people were late on payments due to it. THAT IS MALICIOUS!

5-So the last summer biden dismissal of student loan forgiveness had ads against it. It was ironic. Cuz first it said don't forgive rich people's loans, when, logically, historically, rich people don't HAVE loans for college cuz their parents pay for it. DUH. Secondly, it was mocking theater degrees....with actors paid to play 'regular' people hating on theater degrees. Like, irony squared.

5-He pointed out how we can have tax payers pay for stadiums not everyone uses, but we can't forgive student loans?

6-Oliver, like normal, jerked off the government anyways at the end. He does this EVERY FUCKING SHOW. 'The government/the rich/the media are to blame for everything, but I promise they will get it right THIS time if we just give them patience and power.' I fucking hate his sell out ass in that regard. He never demands immediate action from us; trust those who originally cause the problems to fix them. Dumbass. I watch cuz he is informative, but he is a sell out too.

7-As I said on other posts, forgiving ALL major debt (public/personal) would ONLY fuck the banks who WE BAILED OUT, so they owe us anyways. PERIOD.

8-I know this is me watching too much of this show, but I could tell, by his tone alone, he was going to say they were off next week. Serious.

[istarveforplatonicptnstuff]

Commiting tax evasion with Bai yi as your ceo...

Girl... I don't even know how you got here but... You were very likely HIGHKEY scammed by miss gurl... 🦗🦗🦗 Yeah... Why did you apply in a shady company anyways...? But you probably was LOOKING 👀 for a job that can PAY the bills 💵💵💵 but spoilers, you were UNDERPAID, OVERWORKED, and most esp. Not even paid anyways... 🙄🙄🙄 So forget what I said about being paid little because girl you are not paid even once while you were working with this stink... 😑

You decided to apply for a job position as her assistant... In Syndicate. Pooks... This should've been your first red flag, but NOPE! You were DESPERATE. For what though? 🤨 And the flyer wasn't... That great like sis... Again, another red flag... Couldn't you just... 🏃‍♀️💨 away from the moment you saw the flyer? (/j I'm holding you in 😰🔫 point so, you didn't have a choice anyway 💅) But who even reads nowadays as long as, we get PAID 🤑🤑🤑 right? So, fast forward to you clutching your pearls and barely making it out alive to meet with the interviewer... Maam. Major red flag, the building looked run-down.

Pookie... 🤧 You didn't almost get stabbed, kidnapped, mugged, and possibly even get robbed for your kidney for this... 😭😭😭 Finally, your employer shows up in this DRIP 💧, what you doing???

Remember when I said that you have the option to say no? I didn't say anything 😇 The thing is, you can't. You just CANT. Look me in the eye and tell me that this girl wouldn't do SHIT to you rn... Be serious, because I don't even think you're gonna walk out of the interview scot free sis... Nah uh, not at all... Sis looks like she is about to beat the SHIT out of you, and will most likely sell your organs after that... 🥺🥺🥺 Luckily, she spoke up and had that mom vibe that you almost instantaneously calm down...

After hyperventilating and K.K giving you odd looks as well... Finally you were in the "company" Yay? 🧍‍♀️ You stood there staring at the dusty ass couch and a man who looked VERY sleep-deprived. You learned that Che was their name. But why is he dressed up like he about to go for a hike...? Sighs, i don't think you'll ever get the fashion of Syndicate... You and the two held a mini staring contest like you two were Communicating, that K.K was confused at the random moment she had to snap ya'll out of it and discuss the job details... The job being, you doing all the paperwork... For 50 discoins per hour. Stink, you're screwed 😃

Obviously, you were about to decline... Until finally, the CEO showed up. Sighs. You ask to yourself, was this really worth the trip and the STRUGGLE you went through? Stink cannot even bribe you with her face card because you still had to pay the billssssss 😞

Bai yi shows up, you hear the sound of sirens and cops speaking through the megaphone. 🤡 You really thought this was going to be the las time you'll be seeing daylight, like sis you were going to JAIL. ⛓⛓⛓ For existing. The three of them noticed and explains casually that this is their hideout, and no one's breached here before. You raised a brow at the statement, skeptical at how relaxed they were acting 🤨🤨🤨 Like who you fooling??? Though you can't speak for yourself when, you waltzed into Syndicate knowing DAMN well that this place was bad news... So you kept it to yourself 🥰

Of course, Bai yi bribes you to stay and become Whitestone Industries assistant with a sob story that can make you cry... Except you weren't gullible enough and walked out of the door, preferring to get arrested instead, lmao 🤭🤭🤭 Sis chased you down the stairs like it was a kdrama scene, grabbing your arm and acting like this was the last time ya'll seeing each other 💀 girl, you can never escape her because she's all over and like, she's a criminal, what else? 🤓 You ended up accepting in the end, because you wasted your time for this... Making K.K sigh in relief since she finally isn't alone with two idiots... Unless you add up to the equation then... 😶

Timeskip to a month, you and sis was WORKING. Helping them out with ✨Graphic design is my passion✨ motto since you wanted to get rid off the... Terrible... Designs that they come up with when they release an ad, flyer, or promotion post. You kinda got used to the usual, illegal work they do because why not? 😎 You already gave up in paying the bills, so why not commit tax evasion as well, right? You asked Bai yi tips on how to tax evade 🏃‍♀️ K.K was beyond mortified at the sudden camaraderie that came after the event, making you and Bai yi besties 🤝 Friendship ended with the government 💔 Tax evasion is my pookie now 🥰

You are being hunt down by the police as well, causing you to move to Syndicate, living with K.K, Che, and Bai yi currently. Life was good, until Bai yi kept bringing more problems than solutions everyday, causing you to become one of the MOTHER 👩‍🦰 alongside with K.K, making sure the other two stay out of trouble because they're a magnet for chaos, apparently. K.K's words, not mine 🤷‍♀️ More on that when I think of part two! An: My exam in a major subject FLOPPED. 👎📉 /j, I'm overthinking so I cope with writing unserious shit to think less of it, and hopefully make the redemption in finalsssss HISSSS 🐍 RAH❗❗❗ 🦅 But anyways, to more UNSERIOUS, and UNHINGED shit to come!!! But also some serious ptn stuff (Like the nursing intern one)

[spurgie-cousin]

I was listening to a podcast with Jill Dillard and something about that situation bugs me. Obviously it was wrong for JB to not pay them for their time on the show, but they always "forget" to mention that Derick had a good paying job that he quit to become a fake missionary. Yes the job he had sucked, but it was a job and it would have paid the bills, especially since they were living in that first house for free. It's an unfortunate fact of life that in the US if you want money you have to work at least a little bit. I wish they would take a little responsibility for their own financial issues that were not a direct result of JB being a stingy bastard.

I kind of get what you're saying, but in the interviews I've heard it's less about their financial situation and more about just the principal of the thing. Maybe the interview you heard was different, but the impression I got was that it was more about exposing Jim Bob's control over the kids and how he used his belief system for his own financial gain.

I mean Jill didn't even know she was supposed to be getting regular compensation for being on an internationally aired tv show for a long time, so it's not like they were just sitting around not making money bc they were waiting on a check. They had income, but they were also cutting into their earning potential by filming for hours a day for free, something that was insisted upon by JB and that Jill was afraid to question bc of her upbringing. Jim Bob was also falsifying his tax documents and lying about paying them too, so.....

Also I don't think Derick's choice to be a missionary has much to do with anything really. It's a really, really respected position in that corner of evangelicism that he would've seen as an investment in his and his family's future. and it's not like he wasn't getting paid for it, he would've gone into it expecting to be supported financially by a church or missionary organization, as would Jill when she eventually traveled with him.

Also just to reiterate, JB wasn't just being stingy, he was stealing money from his kids because he was greedy and literally lying to the US government about it. They weren't not getting paid for their thousands of hours of work because he wanted to save money or something, he was making them sign contracts he didn't give them time to read because he knew under the belief system he raised them in they wouldn't question him. And he did this with the express purpose of hoarding the money that was meant to be paid to his adult children for his own financial gain, and I don't think Jill and Derick are wrong for exposing that behavior from a guy that acts morally superior to everyone. Even if it was just to get a paycheck, because they were owed it anyway (to my knowledge they haven't gotten even like 1/4 of what they're owed though, and it sounds like they expected that to happen).

[heliosthegriffin]

Shadow Knight, and the Magical Girls

Chapter III

------

It occurred to Jaune, that if he ever got found out about his night-time activities, he'd be thrown into a padded room and drugged out of his mind.

Not because it wasn't real, but because it would challenge normalcy, or the conspiracy, or whatever. It wasn't a matter of keeping people safe, so much as it was of keeping the illusion of control. If, whoever is actually in charge, suddenly admitted that monsters are real and killing people, it would change everything.

It would make the populace challenge everything from that point on. If monsters are real, why wait for the police to protect you, if they can protect you. Why listen to anything the government, what else might they be hiding? Why pay taxes, if you don't know where your money goes.

He suspected that was the most important one to the higher ups.

Jaune shook his head, he walking to his workshop and got lost in thought, probably due to his poor sleep, maybe he should look into something about that.

Regardless, he didn't have any proof that the Authorities had any more information than he did, and if they did, no proof that they were a cause.

At best they were a lead, and nothing more.

For all he knew, the Shadow Monsters might have only first appeared the night he met one.

Anyway, his workshop, wasn't really anything that could be called a legit workshop.

It was barely a building, and if he had to estimate it net-worth ... In-between a crack-den and a moonshiners still, and looked half as good.

Still it served his purposes. It was secluded deep in the woods, because it used to make drugs probably, and had plenty of space for him to work, and he could sleep and workout here if he needed too.

It also functioned as his meal-ticket, as Jaune was not a rich, he did not come from a rich family, either. So in order to fund his one-man crusade, he had taking to finding junk, repairing, and then selling it off.

He also did it entirely under the table, so he did not pay his taxes either, but considering what he did was a public service, it probably could count as charity or a write-off, or whatever.

If the authorities ever found out about this place, and his notebooks, he was fairly sure he'd be labelled a domestic terrorist.

That is if they didn't just unperson him, burn him, his notes, and the workshop down to pile of ashes.

Only happy thought here, Jaune thought to himself. He mused for a moment, when did he become so paranoid? Vale had never done anything to him, at least directly, even then it wasn't evil, just amoral.

He had no proof that any higher-ups knew anything, so why did he keep coming back to worrying about them? Was it because they were a easy target, all the leads he followed telling him about black-sites and Vale's own dark history, or was he on to something?

Jaune looked at the white-board, he had drawn a very detailed diagram of a shadow-monster, and they're possible anatomy.

He could always say that he was a character-author. That for him to write that he needed to be the character. That might work.

He went to the white-board, writing 'Fire not as effective as hoped, no nerve-endings to burn.' No more molotovs ... for now. Jaune wasn't above collapsing a building on one of these creatures, though he'd like to not get to that point.

That was his main pain with this monsters, no vitals really, beside the eyes, and even those, he was considering were just for show, due to the lack of response from the bear-mace he tried on them a couple nights ago, but further testing wouldn't hurt.

Pure and raw destruction seemed to be his best option when fighting them. Unfortunately, strong as Jaune knew he was, he didn't have the strength to cleave through they're bodies, especially the larger ones. Even if he were to start bringing bigger, heavier weapons, they'd start to weigh him down, and his biggest advantage over them was mobility, and if he lost that, he'd be dead.

Well, good thing he had the saw-ed off, things had been very, very difficult before that. So much damn cardio, running around luring shadow-monsters into kill zone, he felt like some kind of a cartoon with some of those traps.

Hell, the first night, he discovered how much a natural he was for long-distance running, and beating things to death with a lead-pipe.

You never knew what life has in-store for you until your back is against the wall. To be honest, most of the first night was a blur of running, then frantic slamming and beating a small shadow-wolf to death with a pipe.

Everything had hurt the next day, he remembered. In fact he hadn't just hurt, he was terrified, he refused to leave his room for week. His family didn't understand, he couldn't tell anyone, and he was sure he had imagine it, until ...

The bodies started adding up. People being mauled, torn apart, left as stains of blood on the ground, and pieces of people being found around the city.

Nobody had any clue, except for Jaune. He had survived. Survived, and with it came knowledge, power. Responsibility, he had to do something.

Jaune was terrified. He was still terrified. But, he was even more terrified of what would happen if he didn't act. Those Girls might be killing Shadow-Monster too, but they had failed and where they failed, he had to succeed, or ...

More blood would be on his hands.

Jaune went to his work desk, and got to work, he was making preparations for another night.

----

Ruby was thrilled to fly. It was a freedom that you couldn't find on the ground. She didn't get her ability to fly from magic like the others, it came from her semblance and aura. But ... she did have her own magic.

Flying above the sky could see the aura of darkness of The Grimm, a flock of Nevermores flying above and ready to do evil!

"Halt, monsters! Face the silver eyes of judgement!" Ruby stopped mid-air and posed at the monster-birds, who fired razor-sharp feathers at her, which she dodge easily, before firing a ray of silver light at them, utterly destroying them.

Holding up a v-sign. "Victory for Ruby!" She cheered, before covering her mouth, looking around for anyone else, and then sighed. "Stupid, can't blow my cover."

"Not like they're is anyone up here beside us." Came a voice from the darkness.

"Eep!" Ruby, or in other-words, Magical Girl Red, (which was totally different from Crimson!) shrieked.

"Calm down," Black, or in other words, Blake said floating not far from Ruby.

"Don't scare me like that! How long have you been there?!" Ruby accused.

Blake shrugged. "Not long," She smirks, though only her fellow magical girls could see through the veil of magic on her face to see any expression. "Just enough to know, Victory for Ruby."

Red pouts. "Please, don't tell the others!" She shakes her head like a puppy. "You know I can't take anymore teasing, I'll do anything!"

"Anything?" Black asks with malice. "Then, you'll have no probelm going to pick up a certain book for me at a certain date at a certain place, right?"

Red's blushes like her namesake. "Oh, you mean," She looks around for the other, and then whispers. "Ninja's of Love 8: Lord of Kunoichi's? I didn't know it was out yet..."

Black smirks like a cat. "I have my connections, but you'll have to got a kinda of shady part of town to get it." She thought for a moment. "I'll let you borrow it when I'm done!"

"Deal!" Ruby said with cheer, she saw no downsides in this exchange. "Wait, a shady part of town? Doesn't that have you know bad people in it?"

"I didn't take you for the kind to stereotype people, Miss Red. I guess, I'll just have to ask Yang do it?"

"No, I'm not like that, I pinky swear!" Red says holding out her petite finger. "I"ll just have someone come along with me so that my cover doesn't get blown if I need to fight."

"Good, hmm, you could take your Knight in Grimy Armor with you, though, looking at him, he might cause more trouble than you can handle. They're a difference from looking tough to avoiding trouble, and attracting trouble by looking tough."

Red stared at Blake deifiantly. "Jaune's a softie, he'll protect me like a true good-guy."

"Not that you would actually need it," Black added.

"Yeah, but ... It would be nice to play pretend for a while. It's nice to have some fight for you, instead of the other way around, for once. It makes me remember why we're out here fighting every night, to protect the good people, Blake."

"Ru-, I mean Red..." Blake said softly.

"Yes?" Red asked sweetly.

"If anyone had been here, you would have blown my cover."

"Aaccck!"

Black gave her a evil grin. "So, they're is another book that I need, but, it's a bit out of my price range, but seeing as your such a good friend, who wouldn't go around name-dropping my identity, that just got her allowance, you wouldn't mind going out and picking it up for me, would you?"

Under her magic veil of magic, Ruby shed a single tear over her lack of sweets and tinkering she'd be experience soon. "N-no, not at all, Bla-- aah-ah-ack, Black," She said managing to save at the last second.

"Hmm, alright. You have my silence." Black's ear's then twitched, and turned her head. "That way. It's coming out of the east end, near the junkyard."

"Yeah! Lets beat its butt back to it's ugly home and family!"

"Wow, no need to be mean, Red." Black said flatly.

"Oops." Red did not process sarcasm.

"Whatever, lets get rid of it, it's just a Beowolf pack, or two, hardly even worth our time."

Said Beowolves were 12ft tall standing up and 800lbs of Dark Matter, minimum, with claws that could cut through steel and limbs that could smash through concrete, to say they were dangerous was an understatement.

Regular side-arms wouldn't cut it, a dozen men mobbing it with sticks and stone, or knives and spears might not do it, and if they did, they were almost guaranteed to die. To have a chance, this type of fight power was needed, or a exceptionally skilled fighter armed with wits and good firepower could do it.

Ruby and Blake tore through the pack in less than a minute. It was not even a fight, it was culling, the Beowolves being hit with enough firepower thrown around to level a city-block to rubble. They didn't fall to piece or have a chance to fade away, they merely erased off this planet, along with a millions of Lien worth of damages to the streets, cars, and nearby buildings.

It was the most successful attempt at directing they're powers this far!

------

Jaune had fucked up, he realized, clutching his side where his stitch had reopened. Blood was coating his entire side down to his thigh in a sticky red paint.

His back was a mess, he also noted distantly, it felt like someone had taken it through a meat grinder, and likely looked like a ground beef.

The girl behind him was shivering with fear, and he smelt urine. Two dog-sized scorpion-monsters circled them, with stingers glowing in the darkness.

He had been doing his patrol tonight, everything going well, which he should have known was a bad sign. It had been nothing but slow, clumsy, or young Shadow-Monsters.

Then everything went silent. He could find feel a strong concentration of Shadow-Monsters near by, and then, well, the Junkyard exploded, well the street in front of it did, that would have been bad enough, but... well. There was a girl.

There was always a girl. She had been out jogging for whatever damn reason she had, but froze up as silver and purple light tore the street open like some sort of scalpel from heaven. It was something that boggled his mind to see, how was something like that even possible?

He made a decision, and found himself covering her as the explosion launched debris over them, and something sharp, well a lot something, sharp hit his back, as the shock-wave hit him, knocking and rolling the both of them for several feet.

Jaune was sure he had some broken bones, maybe worse. But, he had covered her the entire way, and hadn't let her get hurt.

That would have been bad enough, and then he heard chittering, and had the most unfortunate discovery of the night, but not a unexpected one.

The Shadow-monsters, they lived underground. When the street broke, it gave several of them a exit out.

Like these two here.

Getting up had hurt like hell, but he managed it, practically forcing his body back together, as he got off of her, dragging the brown-skinned girl to her feet.

Then more or less dragging her to an alleyway, which thinking about it, Jaune realized sounded horrible.

Which had turned out to be a horrible idea. As more than one hole underground had opened, and another Shadow-Scorpion had been at the other end.

Leading back to where they were now.

Looking around for any advantages, Jaune saw very few, besides a fire escape.

"Sorry," He dared mumbled to the amber-eyed girl.

"What?" She had a moment to say, before Jaune grabbed her by the collar of her jersey, as he tossed her up onto the fire-escape, the woman managing a squeak of fear.

Jaune then put her out of mind, holding Ferrum Vis in one hand and Spite in the other.

"Not tonight," He muttered, a mantra of sorts. "Not tonight," He continued.

A stinger struck, he parried it to the side. Another from behind him struck, he side stepped, putting him side to side against the wall.

The two scorpion struck at once, stingers stabbing deep into the brick wall, as Jaune jumped forward, leaving the scorpions briefly stuck.

Seizing the moment, Jaune rounded on the closest, and brought down Spite in a slashing arc down from over his shoulder like a machete, cutting through the arm-thick tail in one moment, leaving the glowing stinger in the brick-work.

Then reversing his grip, brought it up, severing the tail of the other shadow-scorpion.

Tailless or not, that did not deter them in the slightest, as they turned to him with pinching claws, that glinted off the alley-lights.

Jaune analyzed them, and attached Spite to Ferrum, to create a spear. Over the course of a minute, he took turns stepping out of range of they're claws, before stepping back in to deal a deep stab with his make-shift spear, again and again, until he managed to stab them in the eyes.

The ugly red light disappeared, and with it so did any cohesion the Shadow-monsters had over they're bodies, quickly falling apart, to be like they were never there to begin with.

Jaune looked up, seeing the girl was no longer there, and smiled, she had escaped.

Then he took two steps forward, before he fell down onto his knees, Jaune was panting now, he felt hot and cold at the same time. He was sweaty all over, and he felt tired.

Taking a nap on the alley-road started sounding like a good idea to him.

If only for a moment, taking a deep breath, he forced himself back up, and then promptly threw up bile and stomach acid, hastily lifting his helmet.

Water, he needed water.

Using his spear as a walking stick, steadying himself as he hobbled his way out.

Only to turn around violently, as he pulled out Dragon's Breath at whoever had crept up behind him.

"What the Dust, Man!" Came a feminine voice, though Jaune was having trouble focusing on her face as his vision wouldn't stop blurring. Jaune said nothing, then lowered his shotgun, feeling he had made his point clear, continuing to hobble away.

"Stop! Stop! You're making your wounds worse!"

Why was she bothering him, the longer she bothered him, the longer it'd be before he could stitching himself back up, uhgh, he hated having back wounds. He'd have to use a mirror and a back-scratcher again, wouldn't he?

"Look, I'm a medical professional, let me call you an ambulance, and I'll take care of you till it gets here. It's the least I can do, seeing as you saved my life."

Jaune squinted under his helmet, ok, that's nice, but he has a secret identity.

He continued to hobble away, shaking his head.

"What!? Are you in shock or something, man! Do you hate hospitals, or something, come on, you're bleeding out, and I don't need that weight on me!"

Jaune feel over, and saw her shadow over him, he managed to see her clearly.

Oh, it was the jogger, with the pretty brown hair.

He waved a apology. "Sorry." Was all he could rasp out.

"Oh no, oh no, this is bad!" The dusky-skinned girl made a decision. "Come on, get up, I got a first aid kit in my car!"

Jaune oblige, pushing himself up, and felt arms supporting him. This was nice, but he really needed to get home. "Home."

"What? Home? Do you want to go home? I don't know where you live... Wait, I'll take you home after we get you to the hospital."

Jaune shook his head. He hated hospitals, that's were people went to die. "No." He said firmly, pulling himself away from her, or trying.

The girl looked at him, tightening her grip. "Wait ... You're the Shadow Knight!"

Is that what people called him? Wicked. Not that he'd call himself that, he probably die of embarrassment.

"Fine, I'll figure something out, just don't die on me, please!" She said sincerely.

Eventually, Jaune ended up shoved into the passenger seat of a car, and mumbled. "Sorry, bleeding." "It's cool, it's cool, don't worry, I know how to get blood out." She paused. "Ok, I know that sounds bad, but it's not. I'm Amber, by the way, sorry for the late introduction, Amber Autumn, and I'm going to get you fixed up Mr. Knight."

Jaune nodded, feeling tired, eyes shutting slowly like curtains. "Cool." He muttered, starting to nod off.

Time blurred for him. He heard Amber shout and snap her fingers at him to do .. . something, he wasn't suppose to fall asleep, or something.

He ended up getting up pulled out of the car, and heard screaming, with another girls voice, this one deeper and meaner sounding, asking questions.

Two sets of arms taking him out of the car, grunting and cursing.

"Heavy bastard!"

"How much does he weigh?!"

"Agh! Got him, got him! Don't drop him!"

Before, setting him on a table.

Time seemed to speed up, he felt his clothes be taken off, which was followed by gasps and more curses.

"How is he alive, he looks like he's been stitched together by a dozen different bodies?!"

"I don't know, hero stuff! Just focus on keeping the wounds clean!"

"Some of these scars look like they wend down to the bone, why hasn't he gone to a hospital about these, how is he even able to walk?!"

"Look, shut up, Vernal! We can figure that out later!"

He felt a hand touch his helmet, and Jaune shot up, eye's alert, turning to the offender, as he clutched her hand in a death-grip.

It was a unknown woman with short brown hair, she looked pissed off.

"Take the helmet off, we need to check for concussion."

Jaune frowned. "No." He said firmly.

"This isn't a debate, take the damn thing off, idiot."

"No." Jaune repeated, his grip weakening as darkness took him, and felt his head grow lighter and hands touching his hair.

[seyaryminamoto]

The Shadows in her Reflection: Sokkla Saturdays 2023

Chapter 2: Spring

Rated M

On FF.net//On AO3

She was restrained, trapped in a dark web of tendrils that weaved through her arms, and legs, and…

She cried. Tears spilled down her cheeks.

Smoke and darkness swallowed her, and the pale glow she released dimmed, and dimmed, and…

Yue's desperate eyes locked onto hers, wordlessly pleading to be saved.

Azula gasped and sat up, chest heaving: again, one of those nightmares. Again, Yue haunted her in dreams in a way she couldn't understand.

"You okay?"

Over the past months, no one had been around to ask that question to her. Truth be told, no one had dared ask it for much longer than that. Her allies, the false Kemurikage, had never bothered asking that question… perhaps because none of them were okay. It might have been redundant to ask at all.

But it wasn't something redundant for him, her sudden, new companion who piloted the hot-air balloon in her stead. He was helpful, at least, in providing her time to rest better than she had in a long time… but she wasn't sure she felt all that comfortable near him, anyways.

"I'm fine. Just… a dream," Azula said, shaking her head. Sokka nodded.

"Well, now that you're up, we can have breakfast," he said. Azula grimaced.

"I'm not going to cook for you," she said. "And you'd better be grateful that I won't. I'd likely make us both sick."

"In all these years, you haven't learned how to cook?" Sokka asked, with a slight smirk. Azula scoffed.

"I may have lost my titles and my position in society, but deep inside, I will always be a Princess," Azula said, stubbornly.

"Which means you've been stuck eating whatever scraps you could find, steal, maybe buy on occasion if you had any money on you?" Sokka concluded. Azula shrugged.

"You know, people happen to drop money in the weirdest of places. Did you know commoners enjoy tossing coins into fountains?"

"You… you fished out coins from fountains and used them for…?" Sokka blinked blankly. Azula smirked.

"It was quite helpful. I for one welcome their generosity. It was like collecting a tax, only, everyone paid it willingly. Strange, wouldn't you say?"

"People usually do that because they're making wishes and they think they'll come true," Sokka said. Azula snorted and laughed.

"Fools that they are. Did they expect spirits to fulfill wishes by paying them actual money? Spirits are a lot more irksome than that. They don't fulfill wishes, they demand that you fulfill theirs, going by my experience... though it's worth noting, too, that Yue actually assisted me at collecting the coins ever since she took to invading my head."

"She assisted you?" Sokka asked, perplex.

"Indeed. She was reflected off every one of those coins, so she took to calling me, guiding me to the next one, and the next… and the next thing I knew, I was eating the best bowl of spicy ramen I'd had in years," Azula snickered. "I suppose that was a rare case where she was surprisingly helpful… even if she kept showing up in the bowl's broth later, too."

"It has to be so surreal… seeing someone that way," Sokka said, frowning. Azula shrugged.

"It's unnerving and stressful. But it makes no matter, my entire life has been exactly that for the past years and I'm still alive and kicking," she said, with a dry grin. "At any rate, enough about my strange experiences. What's this breakfast you're setting up, exactly?"

Azula was surprised to find Sokka had actually packed some food from the Northern Water Tribe upon his venture into the Palace to gather his things. She hummed appreciatively as he offered her what he described as mooncakes, and he handed her a cup of water to down the food, too…

Azula glanced into it with a pang of nervousness: never before had the dreams meant anything deeper. Every time she glanced into her reflection, Yue was there. She always felt the uncertainty of whether she would be or not when she had those unsettling dreams, where Yue appeared to be suffering terrible hardships…

But just as ever, Yue smiled and waved at her when Azula glanced into the water's reflection.

"I didn't poison it, you don't have to look at it like… oh. Oh, wait. Yue?"

Azula raised an eyebrow skeptically at Sokka, as though it was a given that she'd see the Northern Water Tribe Princess in the liquid. It had become such a natural matter to her that she could barely fathom Sokka forgetting about it. He seemed nervous now, swallowing hard and running a hand over his hair.

"You don't need to be so self-aware. She can't see you from that angle," Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka scoffed.

"You try feeling less self-aware when the person you loved and lost is… potentially looking at you?" he said. "Also, when they're attached to someone who had nothing to do with them, instead of you…"

"I'd hand her over to you in a heartbeat if I knew how," Azula said. Sokka grimaced.

"I know, I know. But spirit mumbo-jumbo makes no sense," he sighed. Azula nodded.

"Truer words," she said, before downing half her drink.

"Oh, uh… good morning, Azula."

"Oops. Nearly swallowed you there, now, did I?" Azula said, pulling the drink back with a mocking grin. "Did you sleep well too? Any happier now that you're traveling with someone you actually like, for whatever reason you do?"

"Heeeey…"

"Well, I was doing that already. It's… well, interesting traveling with you, Azula."

"Interesting. That's a fine choice of words, Princess Yue," Azula sneered. "Admit it, my lifestyle is utterly nerve-wracking for you. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat constantly, wondering if I'm going to get myself killed one way or another, sooner than later…"

"If she does worry about that, she shouldn't be that scared. Nobody's ever going to catch you, now, are they?" Sokka cut in. Azula smirked at him.

"And if they do, I'll make them regret it," she said. "You're only allowed to exist around us because… well, I'm sure Yue would throw a tantrum perpetually if I dared hurt you. It would be terribly irritating not being able to drink anything or look at myself in any manner of reflective surface without hearing her whine about whatever I did to you… sometimes I'm not even looking and she still so very kindly starts rambling to me anyhow."

"You know, as much as I'd love talking to her… I can't deny it would be a little distressing to see someone everywhere with water or reflective surfaces," Sokka said, with an awkward grin. "Can't imagine how it must be to take a leak and, uh… uh. Ew."

"You really have a worrisome imagination," Azula blinked blankly. "I, uh… shall endeavor to never look at any reflective surfaces whenever I need a bathroom."

"… Well, I don't talk whenever you're in the bathroom because I know you…"

Azula most certainly didn't need to hear whatever Yue would say next: she swallowed her drink fully, and with that, Yue's voice was extinguished. Despite himself, Sokka snorted and raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"Was she revealing something, uh…?"

"Something I most likely didn't want to hear? Yes," Azula said, with a dry grin. Sokka chortled. "She is shockingly naïve in some ways. I suspect she merely wants to be friendly and doesn't understand that doesn't work with someone like me."

"Or maybe that's just the way she is," Sokka said. Azula crooked an eyebrow. "What?"

"You actually think she's not covering up that she hates being stuck with me?" she asked. Sokka frowned. "Don't look at me like that. You're no happier about it than she must be…"

"Wait," Sokka said, raising an eyebrow. "You think Yue… doesn't want to be with you?"

"Why would she be, if she could be with someone she actually cherishes? Like you?" Azula said, simply. Sokka scratched the back of his neck. "I'm under no delusions that anyone would choose to be stuck with me. As far as I know, Zirin couldn't wait to see the back of me by the time she did her mutiny."

"I'm not going to pretend you're talking out of your ass because I know people have been hounding you and chasing you and you haven't had the nicest life…" Sokka said, crooking an eyebrow. "But do you really think nobody would ever willingly choose to be near you?"

"You're not exactly an example to the opposite, are you?" Azula asked, skeptical. "You're here because of her. If Yue weren't around, you'd only want to be near me to shackle me yourself. Much like Zuko would love to."

"I…" Sokka said, frowning.

She wasn't entirely wrong: he had never given a second thought to Azula on a level that didn't relate to how dangerous she was. His first impression of her, back in Omashu, was nothing but confusion over facing a group of girls around their age, in charge of such a delicate operation like trading a child for a king. Then, she had broken out the blue firebending and from that point onwards, she was someone to fear, avoid, or fight should there be no other option. She always seemed wary of him in battlefields, no doubt aware of how dangerous his weapons could be… but ever since the war ended, she had fallen from grace and lost her way. No one had ever regarded her or treated her as anything but a problem to be dealt with since then… and it was clear now that such behavior had taken a real toll on the firebending prodigy.

"Lie to me about this and I will throw you overboard," Azula said, curtly. Sokka sighed, raising his hands.

"I won't lie. I wasn't exactly going to the North Pole with the idea of sitting down for tea and cookies with you," Sokka said. Azula smiled dryly.

"That's progress. A little honesty goes a long way," she said. Sokka snorted.

"Zuko says you always lie, though. Honesty is what you want now?"

"Zuko liked to say that whenever I was telling him truths he didn't want to hear, is more like it," Azula said, giving Sokka pause. "Such as when I told him our father was going to kill him under our grandfather's orders. Funnily enough, now he knows for certain that it was true and he still goes around telling his friends that I always lie. How about that?"

"Well… Zuko's not the sharpest tool in the shed, I'll admit that much," Sokka said. Azula smirked.

"If you're not just saying that to amuse me…"

"I'm not! I've always bickered with him over weird choices he makes, believe it or not," Sokka said. "It's honestly not that hard to see that he could've approached you the wrong way. But you also have to admit, you don't exactly make it easy for people to see who you really are, do you?"

"Why am I expected to do that?" Azula asked, amused. "You're always acting like a fool to mislead other fools into underestimating you. How is it fine when you do that, but when I…?"

"When you act like you would kill people willy-nilly, like you don't care about anything but a throne, when you manipulate your brother into making unhinged decisions with no regard for how that might just bite you in the ass later?" Sokka asked. Azula frowned. "I… I don't want him to reach a point where he stupidly chooses to do something he regrets to you, Azula."

"Why?" Azula asked. "What is it to you if he, I don't know, chooses to execute me alongside my group? Would make your life easier… ah, but I wouldn't be able to communicate with Yue for you. That's right."

"Not like you're doing much of that so far," Sokka said, raising an eyebrow. "You never tell me what she's saying, and when you do, it sounds like you're…"

"Lying? Only once in a while," Azula smirked. Sokka scowled.

"She didn't think I'm not as handsome anymore. You can't convince me of that," he pouted. Azula snickered deviously. "See? You were pulling my hair! Anyone can tell I've actually gotten better with age, Azula! I'm buffer, I've got some facial hair…!"

"What makes you think women like facial hair? Or teenage girls, in her case?" Azula asked. Sokka winced. "Also, heavily muscular men. If Princess Yue liked you lanky and beardless, why would you be any more appealing to her now?"

"You… stop making me second-guess myself!" Sokka squeaked. Azula couldn't hold back another cackle of devious laughter. "Seriously, you…"

She laughed in a rather wicked way… but somehow, it brought a smile to his face too. It was contagious, slightly amusing. She had a mean sense of humor… but even if she was mocking him, Sokka couldn't help but find it slightly funny, too.

"Anyway," he said, trying to stifle his smile. "If you give me reasons beyond Yue to think you're not a hazard to the world…"

"I am one, though. Proudly."

"Then… give me reasons to want to keep you safe so you can continue tormenting your brother?" Sokka asked, with a dry grin. Azula raised an eyebrow.

"Why… why would you want me to do that, exactly?" she asked.

"Because I want to prove a point here," Sokka said. Azula scoffed.

"Well, then… I ought to continue tormenting him because it's funny. That's the main reason for it," she said. "Someone with the temper and lack of restraint of my brother simply cannot have an easygoing, calm and quiet life. It would be terribly unfulfilling. He would always know he's lacking something… and that something is being teased mercilessly by his sibling. Simple as that."

"Okay… let me translate that," Sokka said, blinking blankly before rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. Azula eyed him skeptically as he seemed to work harder and harder on processing her words… until he finally delivered his grand epiphany: "Zuko is too much of a stubborn idiot and he's set in his ways, stuck on reading and interpreting you in one set way, and the only way you can be part of his life is to continue acting exactly as he expects you to. Thus, you continue to torment him as you have because you can take advantage of such situations to give him trouble that deters other people from stirring trouble too… you're protecting him in a rather twisted way. With you as the bad guy, the rebel against his righteousness, the Fire Nation indeed grows stronger because they're banding against you, rallied by Zuko. On a more basic level… you're just the annoying little sister because you don't know what else to be. But ultimately… you care about him, don't you?"

"How dare you…?!" Azula gasped, her face a mask of utter affront and outrage…

Her cheeks flushed slightly. Sokka smirked.

"You…! Shut up!" Azula snapped, the weakest possible comeback she could have offered him. Sokka's smile couldn't have been wider. "That's not what…! Ugh, you're impossible! Your mad interpretations about me are entirely out of place! I have a purpose! I have a right to do everything I have! It has nothing to do with Zuko being my brother or…! Just shut up!"

Sokka shrugged, saying nothing else indeed. Azula glared at him until she couldn't look at him anymore…

Five minutes later, she exploded, and Sokka had to hide his amusement behind a hand.

"Whatever mad fantasies older brothers may have, the truth is you're all pains that we have to bear with! You're our burdens, not the other way around!" she lashed out. Sokka shrugged.

"Maybe so."

"Don't just condescendingly say I'm right! Prove me wrong, damn you!"

"Right, right. That's what you do with Zuko, right? Say things to piss him off and…"

"Quit analyzing me! What do you think you are, damn you?!" Azula scoffed.

"Sometimes I'm, uh, Wang Fire, actually. I helped Aang talk through his problems once!" Sokka declared, proudly, though the grin waned before long. "Or, uh, I thought I had. Maybe I'm doing a better job with you, though!"

"A better job at pissing me off. Unreal. You have no business peering into my business," Azula snapped. "Whatever I do, however I handle Zuko, is not your problem. Or anyone else's."

"Thing is… he has the power to fuck up your life if he ever catches up to you. And he got kind of close this time," Sokka said.

"And I ask again: why would that be of any concern to you? Just because of Yue?" Azula asked, arms folded over her chest.

"Well…" Sokka frowned. "Maybe it really isn't just about her after all."

"Right. It's because you're worried about Zuzu…"

"Azula… this is the first time I've actually talked to you."

Azula frowned, glancing at him in confusion. There was no sign of mirth in his face anymore.

"You mean… the first time you've talked to me with no overt aggressiveness on either side?" Azula asked. "We've exchanged plenty of barbs and jabs at each other. I mocked you over your girlfriend in the underground tunnels, remember? What a fun day that was…"

"It sure was," Sokka said, eyebrow twitching… but he was quick to recognize her intent just as she smirked slightly. "You're trying to take back control. Trying to trigger an emotional reaction out of me. If I recognize it, then…"

"Could you stop?! What's the matter with you?" Azula lashed out. Sokka laughed, hands behind his head.

"This… this is actually way more fun than it has any right to be," he said. Azula snarled. "You're a challenge."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Azula said.

"I mean… it's like we're dueling when we talk. You know?" Sokka smiled eagerly. "Like everything you do or say could be a fake-out, and then you'll attack me through another front once I leave an opening for you to exploit. If I recognize the bluff, you back down and look for another angle. It's… interesting."

"Interesting?" Azula said: her heart felt slightly strange upon hearing that word again, this time from Sokka rather than Yue.

"You have to take some pity on me here, can you?" Sokka sighed, looking at her helplessly. "Do you think I ever have complex conversations with Zuko? Conversations with multiple layers that actually challenge me on an intellectual level?"

"Well… no," Azula admitted, with a cruel smirk. Sokka shrugged.

"The best I can get is Toph, basically, because she's always ready to give as good as she gets and she's got a damn good mind for insults. So at least that's kind of funny. But any bigger ideas, anything less material and corporeal and I lose her just as well, she tells me to shove it, and so on. My sister? Well, there's not much point in trying to get any productive results there because no matter if I'm right, in the end I'm somehow wrong, she wins and I lose. Simple as that."

"And your girlfriend?" Azula asked. Sokka froze. "What, no fun banter there for you either?"

"Heh. Not really," Sokka said. Azula frowned.

"That's an opening, you know? And you're doing nothing to cover it up. I'm being nice right now and giving you a chance to cover it up indeed… do it or I'm going for the kill, Sokka," she said, with a dry grin now. Sokka sighed.

"She gets mad at me, is all," he said. Azula's smile waned. "If I push any banter further, she doesn't know how to respond and… just gets mad at me. Conversation sputters and dies just like that."

"Huh," Azula raised an eyebrow. "Sounds… boring."

That Sokka smiled at her remark should have been an alarming sign, but Azula didn't read it as such right away. He shook his head though, looking at her eagerly.

"You, though… I have the feeling you could go for hours. And somehow, that sounds like fun to me," he said.

"You won't say the same things if I indeed go out of my way to bicker you for hours and you end up losing," Azula said.

"Might be worth it even if I do," Sokka smiled, leaning back on his seat and sighing.

"I suppose you didn't bring up the Avatar because arguing with him is akin to kicking a puppy…" Azula said. Sokka chortled and shrugged.

"That's probably a good way to put it. Though, make no mistake, he has a temper of his own. But he's very much an emotional, spiritual guy. He listens to anything I question and gets filled with wonderment over it but that's about it. Can't get much out of it either."

"Sad. You must be terribly lonely," Azula said. Sokka's smile waned.

"Guess… a bit."

She frowned, glancing at him in confusion. His eyes flickered towards hers too, a smidge of guilt in his eyes… did he feel bad for saying that, when she had been acquainted with far worse loneliness for far longer? Or…?

It struck Azula suddenly that he was choosing to travel with her, someone who wasn't a total stranger simply because they had been enemies for too long for that to be the case. As much as he might pry into her business, he had done very little of opening up, himself. Why hadn't his girlfriend joined him on this journey? Why wasn't she part of his investigations? Why hadn't he tried to argue with his friends, reason with them, so that they could be part of this confusing journey over Yue, too?

Was he as lonely as she was?

"Anyway, uh… sorry if I'm too annoying," Sokka said, with a tight-lipped smile. "I'm not trying to piss you off, believe it or not, I just… was having fun. At your expenses, yes."

"Which would certainly justify me pushing you off the balloon if I cared to," Azula said. Sokka chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, it'd be fair. But anyway, uh… we're in this balloon indeed."

"Yes."

"Where are we going?"

Azula frowned: they were evidently floating south, but they hadn't chosen any destinations just yet. She frowned as she raised the cup she had emptied earlier, urging Sokka wordlessly to fill it again: she needed to talk to Yue.

The Moon Spirit was quick to smile brightly once she realized Azula had as good as summoned her anew. The utterly ridiculous situation didn't go lost on Azula, even now. She most likely would never grow used to this, truth be told…

"Where are we going?" Azula asked, bluntly. Yue's smile froze on her face. "You said you want to see the world? Well, tell me what you want to see and we'll figure out how to make it happen. But without any directions we're just going to float aimlessly and burn through our fuel, so… care to make matters clear now, Yue?"

"Right, right. I'm sorry. I didn't really tell you what my idea was, and you're on your way nowhere because of that…"

"I don't need rambling apologies, I just need an answer: where are we going? What exactly do you want to see?"

"Oh. Well. I actually… I've thought about it a little bit, while you weren't around, and I realized there's two things I'd like to do. First… well, I want to see a lot of the world, the cities and nations I never could visit while I was alive. But more than that… I want to see the other seasons. Spring, summer, fall… I've only ever known winter. So… that. That's what I want."

"You want to see… the spring," Azula recited, blinking blankly and glancing at Sokka, who frowned at the words. "That's the directive. What do you think we should do to fulfill it? It's not going to be spring up here for another six months…"

"Not in the northern hemisphere… but it is spring in the southern one right now," Sokka said. Azula raised her eyebrows.

"Huh. That's true," she said. "Then… somewhere in the southern hemisphere, but not your home. That's basically winter too, isn't it?"

"Yeah, the Southern Water Tribe isn't exactly what she'll want to see," Sokka said, with a weak grin. "A place with more… flowers, I guess. That's probably the main thing she'd like, right?"

"Is it?" Azula said, glancing at the cup. Yue smiled and shrugged.

"In the south… that would be, well, anywhere below Omashu? I remember the maps, I saw many growing up…"

"Good to know you remember your geography. But yes, that's basically it," said Azula. Yue bit her lip.

"Say… there's one person I don't know much about, but I'd like to. And maybe a good place to start would be by seeing her hometown."

"Uh… who are we talking about, exactly? And where is that hometown?" Azula asked, crooking an eyebrow.

"I mean… Suki. Sokka's girlfriend."

"Huh?!" Azula winced. "Are you… are you a masochist? Yue, why would you…?"

"If she's someone Sokka loves, then… I would like to get to know what kind of person she is. He's going to spend his life with her, isn't he? I… I want to be sure she's a good person. Someone kind, someone good, someone worthy of him…"

"I'm not entirely sure he needs or deserves any of that… but I can assure you that, in all my cruelty, I would never inflict that kind of punishment on him," Azula said, with a grimace.

"What's going on now? I can't hear any of it, Azula," Sokka pouted. Azula grimaced, glancing at him with uncertainty. "Why is she a masochist? What is she asking for?"

"She…" Azula said, breathing deeply and shaking her head. "Well, she wants to meet your girlfriend, apparently."

Sokka's wide eyes spoke for themselves. Azula shrugged, gesturing at the cup in her hand.

"I'm simply saying it's absurd, right? She's your ex, that one's your new girlfriend, why would you want to bring them together at all…?"

"W-well, it's not like you'd scream to Suki that Yue is in a mirror or a water pool or…" Sokka said, running a hand over his hair nervously. "But… wait, she really did say that? You're not just pulling my hair and saying something just to find a weakness to exploit, are you?"

"Oh. So that's what you think I'm doing?" Azula asked, with a sardonic grin. Sokka huffed.

"Well, it's not like you haven't lied about whatever she was saying before, or were you always completely truthful?"

"He's right, you did lie about how I thought he was more handsome before…"

"You… quiet down," Azula snapped at Yue, who huffed and pouted. "Whether I lied before or not, I am telling the truth now and you don't believe me. Who does that remind me of…? Right, that person you called an idiot just a while ago! What does that make you, I wonder?"

Sokka winced: indeed, every conversation with Azula was as good as a minefield… and he refused to step on mines. Even if he set them off, he wouldn't lose his way. He breathed deeply and nodded.

"I… guess I did say that. And it's still true. But come on, cut me some slack here," Sokka said, looking at Azula helplessly. "Why would she ever want to meet Suki, of all people? She can't even meet her properly, to begin with…"

"She said something about getting to know the person you're going to spend your life with," Azula said. Sokka's eyes widened. "And frankly, while I can understand not wanting to take me to Kyoshi Island out of fear that they'll come chasing after us and try to kill me, it's rather odd that you would be so apprehensive about visiting your girlfriend, isn't it?"

"It's… w-well… it's just not the best time, I guess," Sokka said. Azula hummed.

"If this isn't the best time, then when will it be better?" she asked. "Yue wants to see the spring, and she wants to see it in Kyoshi Island. Not doing it now means delaying it a whole year, doesn't it? And who knows if you'll have sorted out your problems by then."

"Yeah, I… yeah," Sokka admitted, grimacing.

"So?" Azula said, raising her eyebrows.

"Wait… problems? What does that mean? Azula… is Sokka okay?"

"I have no idea. He's trying to be mysterious, is my guess," Azula answered Yue, who gazed through the water in anguish.

"Is she worried about me?" Sokka asked. Azula shrugged.

"I suppose she is, but she's been worried about you for years as it is, as far as I understand. Nothing new under the sun."

Her words gave Sokka pause. Azula frowned upon acknowledging as much, reading in his expression that he was distressed over potentially causing Yue's distress, too…

"I'm sorry. There's no real problem, I just… I wasn't expecting this, Yue," he said, with a weak grin. "We can go. I'm sure… I'm sure Suki will understand. I'll make her understand."

The way he spoke carried over none of the confidence his words would have warranted. Yue, however, didn't seem to pick up on that: she smiled brightly, giddily, at a skeptical Azula. The Fire Nation Princess raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing Sokka, wordlessly asking if he truly was fine with this course of action. A new, pained smile suggested he had already made up his mind… and so, the firebender sighed and shrugged.

"Very well, then. We shall set our course for Kyoshi Island."

...

"I don't understand. She should be here by now! We've been in the city for almost a month already!"

"Zuko, maybe they deceived you. Those girls could have done that…" Katara said, with a grimace. Zuko scoffed.

"You're not about to say I should've brought Toph along to interrogate them, are you?"

"Wouldn't have hurt," Katara said, with a shrug.

"She's busy recruiting metalbenders all across the Earth Kingdom, isn't she?"

"Well, I think she's in Ba Sing Se right now? Last thing I knew, at least," Katara said.

"And she was only just returning from Omashu when I told you guys about Azula. And for that matter, you're all busy too! I can't just… pluck you out of your lives for months to no avail, can I?" Zuko groaned, burying his face in his hands.

He sat with Katara, Aang and Bumi in a room within the Northern Water Tribe's Palace. The Avatar played happily with his son, and he shrugged at Zuko's mournful groans.

"I'm having a good time. So is Bumi," Aang grinned.

"Sokka had to go, sure, but he left without a hitch," Katara said, with a sigh. "And with just that weird letter. And he hasn't answered the one I set to him in Republic City yet…"

"See? This is not sustainable! What if Azula is gearing up to attack the Fire Nation while I'm gone?!" Zuko exclaimed.

"You don't have to raise your voice just because you're worried, Zuko," Aang pouted. "Calm down. Katara… do you want to go find Sokka? Would that make you feel better?"

"Would make me feel better to find my sister, too," Zuko growled at him.

"You're not my wife, I'm more worried about her, sorry to say," Aang said, grinning at Zuko. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head and dropping it on his hand as Katara smiled warmly, if with a hint of mischief, at the Avatar.

"I don't know. We could try to go and come back, though? I feel like we can't leave Zuko alone or he's going to lose whatever sanity he's holding onto," Katara pointed out.

"Am I holding onto any?" Zuko asked, shaking his head. "Here I thought it was all gone."

"Huh. That would explain staying here forever, on a single lead with no evidence, across a full month, wouldn't it?" Katara said. "Guess you really did lose your marbles."

"If he did, I could lend him these…" Aang grinned, raising his trick marbles: Bumi squealed happily at the sight of them.

"Da! I want! Da!"

"Here we go! Marble trick, just for you, Bumi!"

Zuko groaned, watching them play, careless about Aang and Katara's playfulness with the child. He couldn't stop thinking about his terrible decision-making… about how Azula never failed to teach him the wrong lessons. He fell into every trap, every pitfall, every…

"Fire Lord Zuko, sir? Fire Lord Zuko!"

Zuko jumped up from the cushion he had been sitting on, as though something had bitten him in the ass. The Fire Nation soldier that barged into the room, pushing past the curtain that hung on its threshold, looked considerably upset about whatever he had to inform him of.

"Did you find something? Did you find her?!"

"My Lord… there are tracks. We just found them, they're most definitely old, but… a hot-air balloon was left outside the city, in a cavern, and then it seems to have been taken away again. It looks like…!"

"Like the one she stole?" Zuko gasped. "The proportions of the tracks you found, they match…?"

"They do, sir. We believe it was her."

"She… she did come here. She came here…!" Zuko exclaimed – Aang and Katara were no longer quite as calm and easygoing as before, rising to their feet too. "And she left again. She… b-but why? What did she…?"

"Wait," Katara frowned. "Wait, Zuko…"

"What is it?" Aang asked her, as the Fire Lord turned towards the waterbender. Katara's eyes shifted from side to side, a hand slipping through her hair.

"A month ago… Sokka left us almost as soon as we arrived, right? And he… he took a bunch of things with him. His luggage, it looked like, but also food, from what the kitchens reported?"

"You think he's chasing after her?" Aang asked.

"Well, it's either that, which I doubt, considering he just wanted to find out what's up with the moon, or…" Katara said. Zuko's eyes widened.

"She… she did not. She could not! She wouldn't…!" Zuko gasped, shivering. The possibility only struck Aang moments later.

"You think… Azula kidnapped Sokka?" Aang gasped.

"She wouldn't have. She couldn't have, though, right?!" Katara asked, with a nervous laugh. "I mean, he picked up his stuff, so… so he had to be leaving deliberately."

"He did leave deliberately, but maybe she intercepted him halfway there," Aang reasoned, frowning. "Which means that Sokka isn't answering your letters because… he's not home. Wherever he is…"

"He's… where she is," Katara said, staring at Aang in horror. "Aang… my brother is Azula's captive? My brother is…!"

"That's… that's it. That's enough!" Zuko snarled, rage swirling inside him. "If this is truly what she's done, she's gone so far out of line that there's no line to speak of anymore! Forget it! We're going to find her, track her down now!"

"Y-yes, Fire Lord! We'll send word…!"

"To every corner of this planet. Every single nation!" Zuko bellowed. "Tell them she's a wanted criminal! Tell them she's traveling with the Avatar's brother-in-law! Send descriptions of them both… and tell them the Fire Nation will pay a massive reward to anyone who retrieves her, dead or alive!"

"D-dead?! Zuko…!" Aang gasped.

"I said… I've had it," Zuko snarled, shaking his head. "I'm done playing her games! I set the rules now! I'm Fire Lord, and she's not getting away with this for another second!"

Katara grimaced – she understood Zuko's anguish and fury… she couldn't, however, imagine ever giving out an order of the sort if her brother went off the rails somehow.

Which he might just have. It looked likely that Sokka's sudden vanishment might be connected to Azula's quick visit to the Northern Water Tribe, somehow… but a wretched, unwanted, guilty thought crossed her mind, and as much as she wanted to swat it away, it didn't go anywhere: what if he hadn't left in duress? What if her reckless, crazy brother had chosen to, somehow, hitch a ride with the Fire Nation Princess…?

There was no way he'd done that. He was busy investigating the moon. He couldn't have been so foolish, no matter if he was angry over how nobody took his problems seriously. He couldn't have joined up with Azula somehow just to get back at everyone for disregarding his concerns over Yue… or could he?

...

A journey on a hot-air balloon sounded far easier said than done. While the vessel was not exactly slow, it wasn't all that fast, either. They ran out of coal eventually, and they spent a fair few days looking for more supplies in the Earth Kingdom – Sokka knew a guy, it seemed he had friends everywhere, even earthbending friends in coal mines in the Earth Kingdom – before setting out anew, aiming to reach Kyoshi Island just as the springtime blossoms bloomed.

Sokka seemed to grow more nervous as they approached, but he held his own as they finally landed by the shore, in a grand cove where, as he explained, they might just witness some gruesome spectacles if the unagi decided to eat an elephant koi or two.

"Fascinating. The fishy princess shall be in the water to witness the carnage, too. Just the way she likes it," Azula mocked Yue as she stepped closer to the shore. Yue pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Maybe the fishy princess can communicate with the fish and tell them not to eat each other," she suggested. Azula snorted.

"Go on, then. I'd like to see how that goes," she said.

"What was that…?" Sokka asked.

"She's biting back when I'm an asshole. Nothing much other than that," Azula said. Sokka chuckled.

"You know, it's weird but the two of you kind of make a fun team," he said. Azula scoffed.

"You take that back."

"I will not," Sokka declared, proudly. "You have about the most pointless things in common and you're completely opposites in just about everything else…"

"Wait. But I'm smart, aren't I? Are you saying Yue is stupid?" Azula smirked: in the water, Yue gasped, and Azula actually cackled at her reaction. Sokka scoffed, bumping her hip with his.

"Jerk. I didn't say that!" he said. "But the obvious points in common between you two is that you're both princesses and…! Uh, that's about it."

"Exactly, and if we're opposites in just about everything else…"

"She's smart too! Just, not in the way you are!" Sokka exclaimed, flustered, as he stalked out of the balloon's basket and approached the shore. "She's kind, and pure, and sweet, and you're mean, rude and… and…!"

"Spicy," Azula decided, smirking. Sokka's cheeks flushed. "What? It's the opposite to sweet, or isn't it? Maybe you wanted to call me salty instead? Acid?"

"You're impossible," Sokka groaned.

"Ah! That means you're possible, Yue! Congratulations!"

To Azula's utter confusion and surprise, though… Yue covered her mouth with a hand and laughed. Azula raised an eyebrow, not suspecting the girl would be amused by her bad joke.

"Well, I… I'm glad that amused you," Azula said. Sokka raised his head, glancing at her in surprise.

"You made her laugh?" he asked. Azula shrugged.

"She has a terrible sense of humor. Like mine, I guess. Or maybe ours. Yours is worse than mine, as far as I understand…" Azula said. Sokka smiled a little, glancing at the water again.

"Well, I'm glad she's happy to be possible. Guess we could go on playing that game later, but… for now, Yue, this is Kyoshi Island. As you can see, there are lots of trees with cherry blossoms this time of the year…"

Azula turned around to look too, just as Sokka was explaining. Yue seemed to struggle to see, but she smiled at every glimpse she got of the flourishing trees at either side of the shore they stood at right now. As much as Azula had expected Kyoshi Island to be nothing noteworthy – and the infrastructure of the towns she had seen as they flew over, towards the southern shore of the island, certainly wasn't –, the natural beauty of the place could not be denied.

"The first time I came here, it was, uh, fall? Maybe late fall," Sokka reasoned, brushing his stubble with a thumb. "And you really couldn't see how pretty it could be just yet. There was a fair bit of snow all over the place too, but most of the trees were pretty dry. I only got to see it like this when I visited later."

"Can you ask him… if he lives here?"

"Yue wants to know if you live in this place," Azula said. Sokka raised his eyebrows.

"Uh, no. I'm living in Republic City right now. Suki… well, she is here, or is supposed to be," Sokka said.

"Won't we go say hi?"

"Oh, this is burdensome," Azula rolled her eyes. "She asks if we won't say hi."

"Well, I thought… maybe later?" Sokka grinned awkwardly. "I figured we'd stay out here for a little longer and enjoy the view! I bet the unagi will show up soon and Yue can show you just how strong her control over fish is by then, right?"

"Right…" Azula said, glancing at the water again: Yue grimaced, and Azula smirked. "Or maybe she was just bluffing."

"I'm not! I… I was completely honest. I can… try?"

"Go on ahead, then, I dare you to…"

Azula couldn't finish the sentence when she heard a whistling sound in the distance.

Before she knew it, though, before she could so much as react, Sokka had tackled her to the ground.

She would have raged at him for it – she fell over a few rocks, and her knee had crashed against a particularly sharp one that had ripped her outfit, perhaps even drawn blood… but a glance to her left revealed around eight arrows, firmly sunken on the ground. They would have pierced their bodies if Sokka hadn't jumped when he did.

"What the…?!" Azula gasped: Sokka, atop her, pushed himself away from her while retaining a protective stance before her…

Turning to face a group of armed women in face paint, bearing dark armor upon their green uniforms.

Sokka snarled as Azula pushed herself up awkwardly: Yue, in the water, appeared to panic over the sudden attack, too.

"Are you okay? Azula…!"

"I'm fine. I'm fine…" Azula as good as mouthed at her, disregarding the pain of her knee.

"Brave of you to show your face around here," one of the Kyoshi Warriors said, startling both Azula and Yue: was she talking about her? Did Kyoshi Island issue a warrant for her arrest too? Or was she talking about…?

Sokka sighed, raising his arms defensively: the Kyoshi Warriors didn't lower their weapons.

"Where's Suki?" he asked. Azula raised an eyebrow: she recalled all too well when he had asked the same question to her, years ago… now, though, the tone with which he spoke couldn't have been more distant from what it had been on that day.

The apparent leader of this group of Kyoshi Warriors lowered her bow, though her hostile demeanor didn't shift yet. The others followed her example.

"She sent us to find out what kind of brigand had snuck into the island on a hot-air balloon. Guess we know now," the warrior said.

"Am I actually a criminal around these parts now?" Sokka asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Maybe you should be," the warrior growled.

"What the hell is going on?" Azula asked, pushing herself up. Sokka gritted his teeth, glancing back at her.

"Don't… just keep your head down. If they notice who you are…"

"Why does it look like they're ready to kill us, even though they haven't?" Azula growled.

"Well…" Sokka said, grimacing…

The answer to that question would be granted sooner than later, Azula supposed.

"Keep your hands up. You too," the warrior said. Azula scoffed.

"Please, do it," Sokka said. Azula rolled her eyes.

"I could set the whole lot of them on fire, just saying. I nearly did once."

"You don't need to do it again. Trust me."

"That's a tall order. I have no idea what's happening here, and I'm not sure I even want to know anymore."

Sokka sighed as the Kyoshi Warriors approached them: without further fanfare, they pushed Sokka and Azula to walk into a small road that eventually led to a humble fishing village, as far as Azula could tell… was that truly the backwater, rundown place Suki had been born to? Kyoshi's great home? It was laughable. Clearly, the Earth Kingdom had no idea how to properly honor its heroes…

They were embarrassingly paraded across the town, and as much as Azula did as Sokka had told her by keeping her head down, the unfortunate truth was that more than one person seemed to grow to suspect her identity rather quickly. None would do so faster than Suki herself, though…

Though the same was true, of course, to someone standing right inside the dojo she and Sokka were dragged to, where the older warriors had been instructing a new group of recruits.

"What…? No!" Ty Lee gasped at the sight of her, losing track of her mission at once. Azula cursed inwardly, rolling her eyes.

"Yue's already dead, but I think I'm going to kill her all over again for putting me through this…" Azula hissed. Sokka growled threateningly at her, and she responded by stomping on his foot.

"Ow! I…! Ugh, behave yourself! And… hey, Ty Lee! Nice seeing you again," Sokka said, with an awkward grimace as he inched away from Azula.

"What are you…?" Ty Lee gasped, hands over her hair. "Sokka, what are you doing here? And with Azula? That's even more messed up than just…! Goodness, we have to send word to Zuko at once, we…!"

"No!" both Sokka and Azula shouted at unison, startling the Fire Nation-born warrior.

"Look, I get how this looks, but this really isn't the time to overreact, Ty Lee," Sokka grimaced. "I know you don't understand what's going on, and I could explain if you let me, but…"

He trailed off when a dojo door, probably the one that led to the leader's office, swung open violently. Both Sokka and Azula watched with apprehension… as a shocked, confused, and ultimately furious Suki stepped into view.

"Sokka," she said. He swallowed hard.

"Hey," was his eloquent response.

"You… you showed up with…?" Suki said, glancing at Azula next. Her face shifted from confusion to disdain and disgust. Azula glared at her with no shortage of both things, too. "Well, isn't that rich."

"You certainly aren't, true," Azula said, with a dry grin. "This place could use a makeover or two. Might want to make a better first impression to first-time visitors such as myself…"

"Azula, stop being rude!" Ty Lee said, frowning. Azula responded with an eyeroll, making an ungodly effort not to raise her middle finger in the woman's direction.

"Don't worry… we sure will be rich, after Zuko pays us for capturing you," Suki said.

"Don't," Sokka said: to Azula's surprise, he stepped in front of her, and he breathed heavily as he gazed at Suki pleadingly.

He was… protecting her. Or rather, he was protecting Yue. Yes, that made far more sense… but he was still standing between her and a hostile party. That, in itself, was odd. A rather unusual experience Azula couldn't quite remember having lived through before. Usually, she was the threat others were protecting their allies from…

"Look… I know this is messy and I know you don't like it, but we need to talk. This is a lot more complicated than it sounds like, Suki," Sokka said. Suki offered him an unamused smile.

"I bet it is. As usual," she said, rolling her eyes.

"What would you rather do?" Ty Lee asked her, worriedly.

"I'll hear him out. Why not?" Suki said, with a dismissive smirk. "Might even help me be sure I've made the right choice all along and everything."

"Make any wrong moves and we will have no mercy," the warrior who caught them by the shore said. Azula scoffed, smirking at her.

"I'm all too aware of what Kyoshi Warrior mercilessness looks like… I can't say I'm scared," she smirked.

"You should be," the girl growled, her bravado failing to find its mark.

Sokka grimaced as he entered Suki's office: as much as they had been together for a long time, he hadn't actually visited this place all that often. Suki had been living in the Fire Nation, on the most part… then, she went to Republic City with him. A little over a year ago, she had returned home, permanently. He had merely visited her once since then… and it hadn't turned out quite as well as he would have liked.

So now, he marched into the room feeling the weight of a lost decade dragging him down to take his seat before Suki's desk. The Kyoshi Warrior Azula seemed to defy so much pushed her to take her seat by Sokka's side, and she didn't bother leaving afterwards, either. Azula scowled, glancing back at the door to find it closed… but there were at least seven Kyoshi Warriors inside the office. Most of them were looking at her, no doubt expecting they would need to subdue her… she wondered if Sokka would even try to help her, if it came to that. He might just back off and roll over, trying to make up for whatever he'd done to piss off Suki so much…

But that, in itself, was a whole other matter. Azula had sensed he wasn't being truthful about everything whenever the subject of Suki came up, but she hadn't anticipated anything quite like this. Had he cheated on her? Not that she'd blame him much, if he had. As averse as she was to betrayals, she had no love for the Kyoshi Warrior. Someone who treated her own boyfriend as a criminal probably didn't deserve much pity, anyway.

"Explain yourself," Suki growled, standing on the other side of the desk, refusing to take her seat. Moreover, one of her hands rested on her sword's hilt. Sokka gritted his teeth. "The last I knew, you were her prisoner. A campaign to hunt her down is underway, did you know that?"

"You… what? I was her prisoner?" Sokka frowned, glancing at Azula in confusion. She hummed, reclining carelessly on her chair.

"Let me guess… my dear brother picked up on the fact that I was, indeed, in the Northern Water Tribe. Your departure, by just leaving a suspicious letter, brought him and his friends to assume that I took you against your will," Azula said, with a wild grin. "Funny that he'd be so shortsighted. If I had wanted to take you that way, there would have been no letter to begin with."

"The wanted poster reached us barely yesterday," Suki said, spreading it before their eyes: Azula scowled at the sight of the unpleasant depiction of her facial features, which appeared to emphasize her mental instability with marks under her eyes and disorderly hair.

"Could've given me a smidge of dignity, the bastard," she hissed.

"I'm not entirely sure you deserve any, but frankly? You're not much of my concern right now," Suki said, surprising Azula. "You didn't take him against his will?"

"Nope," Azula said. Suki smiled unpleasantly… and then turned her attention to Sokka.

"Then I have no real qualms with her. If anything, maybe I should thank her," Suki said, dropping the poster and glaring at Sokka intently. "Otherwise, I guess I might have seen you again in, what, a decade? How long before you finally wrapped your head around the embarrassment you left in your wake, Sokka?"

"I…!" Sokka grimaced, covering his face with his hands. "Look, Suki, I'm sorry! I've told you so in every letter I sent you, but…!"

"You could have said it to my face. You should have said it to my face. And yet… even that isn't something you deigned to give me, is it?" Suki said: her voice gave away just how badly hurt she was. Azula blinked blankly, folding her arms over her chest and eyeing her uncomfortable traveling companion.

In doing so, her eyesight traveled a little further: a small mirror hung by the wall, an ornament, perhaps connected to superstition of some sort. Naturally, Yue's face peeked out of it, and she looked as confused and troubled by this sudden upset as Azula was. Sokka breathed out slowly and gazed at Suki with remorse.

"You're right. I fucked up, and I've been doing exactly that, constantly, for months," he said.

"For years, I'd rather say," Suki said. Sokka nodded.

"True. More accurate that way," he said. "But if you want to talk about this, don't you think maybe we ought to…?"

"Sokka, if I'm alone with you I might just end up beating you to a pulp. So no, I don't think so."

"Suki…"

"Let's go back in time for a minute and think about what brought us here, can we?" Suki said, arms folded over her chest. "You urged me to leave my job as Zuko's bodyguard so that I could move with you and live in Republic City. After many years of insisting on it, and by insisting, I mean basically every conversation we had, which weren't actually that many, suggested that we were only growing so distant because we weren't around each other constantly…!"

"Well, that's what I thought then! But…!"

"But what? By the time you finally had me to yourself, you realized you didn't actually want me at all?" Suki asked. Sokka grimaced.

"I got busy! A lot! It's not like being a council member in growing a city is easy, and honestly, I thought you'd want to involve yourself in…!"

"In the political side of things? Why, I didn't. I was ready to retire as a Kyoshi Warrior and start a life with you… and you weren't ready to do the same."

"Well, come on, now! How do you expect we would've gotten by if I had done the same thing? I would've had no job, no income, no way to buy a house or afford basic food…!"

"As if you couldn't have gotten a less demanding job: you don't even like politics!" Suki exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "You were miserable, grumpy, constantly in the shittiest mood and I got sick of it! More so once you started rambling about how the moon was acting up! Oh, the moon, everything's about the moon, we sure have time for the moon but not for the girl you actually were with…!"

"Suki, don't…" Sokka snarled: Azula glanced at Yue, who covered her face in apparent horror.

"And when I left because I was sick of it… you come to Kyoshi Island!" Suki smiled. "Just as I'm getting my life together, you decide you have to try to win me back somehow… and you sure tried, for two weeks you were the best you ever had been with me! You pushed yourself, you forced yourself to be the perfect boyfriend, of course you did! And then… and then, after the biggest festival, in which you even involved yourself, you organized a bunch of things, you helped make it the liveliest the island ever saw, you went down on one knee…!"

Azula's jaw dropped, glancing at Sokka in confusion: he was engaged? He had proposed to Suki? Why had he never…

"And said nothing."

Oh. Then he hadn't proposed after all.

"Suki, I'm…! You have no idea how bad I feel about it, you really don't, but…!"

"Don't give me your bullshit now," Suki said, shaking her head. "It was your chance to prove you wanted to be with me. That the moon wasn't the core and center of your entire existence, that you could love me for who I was and not just use me as some sort of rebound…!"

"How could you be a rebound after ten years of relationship? Suki, I loved you!"

"You did, now, did you? So why didn't you ask me to marry you? Why, Sokka, did you stop short of doing exactly that when you had the chance?"

Azula grimaced: it was hard to believe that Sokka had a problem of this magnitude… and that Suki apparently was completely correct to say that she had nothing to do with it. If the situation had any less importance, she might have joked around and asked for snacks with which to enjoy the argument… but even Azula knew better than to do that right now. Yue's anguish in the mirror actually moved a fiber in Azula's heart… the girl was anguished. She was terrified. When she had lost her way over that comet's appearance, when she had connected with Azula as she had… Sokka had seemingly lost his willingness to spend his life with Suki. Her problems, whatever they were, had caused his…

"Suki… no answer I give you will help," he said. Suki gasped, looking at him in disbelief. "I thought I was ready. I chickened out. And you know why I ran away?"

"Why, probably because the entire island would have hunted you down otherwise?"

"Because I would have done it again!"

Suki froze. Azula grimaced as Sokka rose to his feet, gritting his teeth, fists tight.

"I wasn't ready. I might never be ready. I wanted to be the man you deserved, I tried! But I failed. No man would chicken out at that stage when he's sure of what he wants in life. And I thought I was sure… but I wasn't. I hesitated. You don't deserve to be with someone who hesitates. Someone who doubts they're making the right choice when it should be the best choice they ever made."

"You… you were questioning that you wanted to marry me, then, right as you were on your knees?" Suki asked, with a dry grin. "Well, why didn't you think about that before going down on one knee indeed? Why couldn't you spare me the humiliation, the fury, and just say to my face that you were done with me?!"

"I… I was stupid," Sokka said.

"Understatement of the century," Suki growled.

"I never wanted to break your heart," he said. "But I… I didn't know I could walk away until I did it. I didn't think you'd want me in your life again after that."

"No kidding, I don't. I frankly don't," Suki said. Sokka gritted his teeth. "And you're here now with… the most absurd kind of company, hoping that I'll forgive you, maybe? Whatever you came here to do…"

"That's not why I'm here."

Azula winced: she glanced at him almost pleadingly, trying to get through to him. Sokka ignored her, and Azula shook her head: if he was hellbent on digging deeper once he was in a hole, she sure wasn't going to stop him…

"I… may have learned something about what was going on," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "With… with the moon."

"Ha! Fascinating. And you thought I'd want to know that?" Suki smirked, derisively. "How very nice of you to drop by in person to do that. You could've written a letter to say whatever you found out instead…"

"This is… difficult to explain," Sokka said, gritting his teeth.

"No doubt. Because I can't see how it involves Azula in the least," Suki said, harshly.

"Would you feel better if I explained that part myself…?" Azula offered. Sokka shook his head.

"Thanks, but no thanks," he said.

Azula shrugged: that was about all the generosity she would offer him… no doubt, he expected her to tell the story in such a way as to make matters look worse than they were. She might have done that out of sheer amusement over chaos… but she wasn't quite sure she wanted to stir the pot of Sokka's estranged relationship with Suki any further. Her personal inexperience with relationships made these waters particularly awkward to navigate…

"Something's actually happened to the Moon Spirit. We don't know what," Sokka said, firmly. "But Azula… somehow has become the host of Yue's spirit? To a fault?"

"She… what?" Suki said, glancing down at Azula in confusion. Azula blinked blankly, offering her a dry grin and a small wave.

"That doesn't make any sense," Ty Lee said, stepping closer and staring at Azula intently. Her intervention soured Azula's smile all over again. "That can't be true, Sokka, she only has her usual awful aura, no one else's…!"

"Maybe Yue's aura is as awful as mine and that's why you can't see it," Azula said, with a dry grin.

"Is it, really?"

The reflection of Yue in the mirror might have spoken… but Azula saw her silhouette awkwardly reflected on Ty Lee's dark breastplate, instead. She huffed, shaking her head – of course Ty Lee would decide everything was a lie. Someone as dishonest as her, judging others over dishonesty, was certainly a dark joke...

"It's not as simple as what you think. I don't mean that Yue is like… inside Azula as literally as that," Sokka said. "She sees her in mirrors or reflective surfaces. Like metal, or water, or…"

"She's in your armor right now, actually," Azula said, grinning in a most unpleasant way at Ty Lee, who winced and looked down at her breastplate. Yue swallowed hard and waved, even, but nobody could see it besides Azula, as always.

"You… you're joking," Suki said, looking at Sokka skeptically. "You're not seriously trying to tell me you believe that…!"

"Azula knows things she can't possibly know otherwise," Sokka said, looking at Suki helplessly. "Things I… never told anyone."

"Ah. Of course," Suki said, with a dry grin. "I bet it's got to be real fun, sharing stories about your first love with Azula. No doubt she's very understanding and empathetic and… and everything I never was, apparently, huh?"

"Suki, you didn't exactly make it easy for me to open up to you either, so as much as I'll own up to my shit, please own up to yours," Sokka snapped. Suki scoffed. "I can't get over what happened with Yue just because it'd be more convenient if I did. It's something I'm bound to feel guilty over until the day I die…!"

"Then tell Azula to convey all those concerns to Yue, why don't you?" Suki said, sarcastically. "I'm sure Yue will tell you it's all fine, she forgives you! She has no trouble accepting you again after you spent ten years with me, surely! But me, I'm the jealous fiend who can't even fathom her boyfriend having a first love that wasn't her… because, you know what, maybe that really is what I am! Because you were mine! Because I met you first, and somehow you latched onto her in a way that you never did over me!"

"Suki, if I'd just broken things off with Yue, this wouldn't be the mess it is," Sokka said, fiercely. "I didn't just end a relationship: she died in my arms! How do you expect me to just get over something like that?!"

"I don't know, but clearly, I'm out of line. And I'd like to extend that to being out of your life, next," Suki said. Sokka closed his eyes, shaking his head too. "It's a damn formality to say it at this point… but it's over. I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I'm sick and I'm tired of this nonsense… and I can't stand another second of being second place to a goddamn orb in the sky. I'm done."

"Fine," Sokka said. Suki scowled at him. "It's over. Find someone who can give you everything you want, Suki. You deserve that much."

"I'd say so do you… but you don't know what you want to begin with. You're bound to just take Azula on some ridiculous journey that will break her so she'll end up fully possessed by Yue and then… then you'll get to be with her again! Is that what your plan was, by any chance? Because considering how obsessed you are with her…!"

"Could you stop talking about her, about me, that way?!" Sokka exclaimed. "I'm not a monster, Suki!"

"Hard to tell lately," Suki snapped. Azula winced upon hearing those words. "You've done enough breaking my heart as it is. Might be it was about time I did it right back. Honestly, I'm glad you came. I'm glad I could say all of this to your face. Goodbye, and good riddance."

"That's… that's it?" Sokka asked, with a dry grin. "You're letting us leave, just like that?"

"Ah, right. She's a wanted criminal. I'll let Zuko know she was here, if that's what you…"

"No! That's exactly the opposite of what I… Suki!"

"Why shouldn't I tell him? In fact, why shouldn't I restrain her so Zuko can collect her, and then I could feed you to the unagi? That might actually make me feel better," Suki said, with a dry grin.

"Well, goodness… someone's trying to give me a run for my money," Azula said, staring at Suki with wide eyes. Her words actually gave her pause. "Feeding your boyfriend to the unagi? Or ex-boyfriend, as the case might be… that's something else entirely."

"I'm sure you'd relate if you'd ever had a relationship like this. But that would require finding someone who could stand to be in close proximity to you for longer than five minutes," Suki said. Azula smirked.

"Well, Sokka and I have been on this journey for well over a month now. Sounds like I've had more intimacy with him than you in recent times, huh?"

Suki's glare was fierce… but this time, Sokka didn't step in to stop Azula from saying outrageous things. Instead, he stood in place, brow furrowed, clearly displeased and disappointed.

"We're not here because we want to mock you or ridicule you. In fact, now I realize why it looked like Sokka never wanted to come here in the first place," Azula said, with a dry grin. "We came here… because Yue wanted to see the spring. To see the world she never had a chance to when she was alive. And she can't just pass over from me to someone else, because trust me, I've tried to make it happen and it hasn't. So, if Sokka wants to fulfill Yue's last will, he has to do it with me, like it or not."

"If any of this is true, and I sincerely struggle to believe it could be…" Suki said, glaring at Azula. "Why here? It's spring in a lot of other places in the world. You didn't have to bring her here, if she's even there at all and you're not just conning Sokka somehow…"

"Frankly, if I wanted to con someone, I'd pick someone a lot easier to deceive than this annoyance," Azula said. Sokka grimaced: was that a compliment or an insult? Was it both? "It'd be too much work, don't you think? But at any rate… we're not here because Sokka missed Kyoshi Island's spring: it's because Yue wanted to know what this place was like. She wanted to know… what Sokka's girlfriend was like."

Suki froze in place: she didn't believe any of it… but Azula's words gave her pause, even so.

"One hell of a first impression you've made, I dare say," Azula smirked. "Guess she'll be happy to know there's no more competition over Sokka's heart anymore, if nothing else. And of course, having the unagi eat him means she'll meet him in the Spirit World that much sooner and they'll get away with being together forever while you're…"

"Shut up!" Suki snapped.

"Azula…" Sokka said, eyeing her pleadingly now. She shrugged, raising her hands innocently.

"I'm just saying…"

"What is any of this to you, though?" Ty Lee asked: Azula's mood darkened again as she glared at Ty Lee.

"I could very well ask you the same thing. Doesn't even make sense to me that you're here at all, in Kyoshi Island, but it's even less logical that you'd be in this room right now… nobody called you in, so you can very well leave so neither of us has to bear with being in each other's presence for longer than necessary. That's about as civilized as I'll be with you."

Ty Lee gritted her teeth, tearing her gaze away from Azula. The fallen Princess scowled before turning her attention to the irate Suki again.

The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors let out a cry of frustration, kicking at her desk in irritation as she covered her face in her hands: she had too much information to process, too much anguish to work through. Clearly, she didn't want to do it right now, in front of them.

"I… I'll let you go. Both of you," she said. Sokka's eyes widened. "I don't… don't care how true your damn stories about Yue may be. I don't. I'm done with this, done with you, and you're going to get lost and not return until I finally feel like I can exist anywhere near you again, Sokka. And I will tell Zuko…"

"Suki, please don't. I beg you, as much as you may hate me…!"

"You have one day before I send word," Suki said. Sokka froze. "Nobody… nobody will bother you until then. Get out of this island, go wherever you care to, and stay away from me. That's all you need to do. Am I clear?"

"You… yeah. Loud and clear," Sokka said, frowning: it hardly felt like generosity… but that certainly was as good as he'd ever get from Suki by now. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry it came to this."

"No, you're not."

Azula's chest tightened: she'd heard those same words once before, just after she offered an apology of that nature. It had been false, when she spoke it… it wasn't, in Sokka's case. In neither case, however, it changed that the person they spoke to had refused to believe them by principle alone.

"Get out. And for your sake, leave before I regain my senses and have you chained and locked down for Zuko to take you to face his justice," Suki said, glaring at Azula.

"Very well," Azula said, raising her hands defensively and standing next to Sokka. "Let's walk back-to-back, shall we? I'm not sure I trust them not to try to stuff us full of arrows again. Though, do tell, what exactly would you have told Zuko if your troops had killed me by accident?"

"What makes you think that would have been a problem?" Suki said, raising an eyebrow. "I suppose I'd have to answer to Katara if I killed her brother, but you?"

She handed Azula the wanted poster. Azula's heart pounded with anxiety as she pulled it open, not focusing on the picture this time…

Wanted: dead or alive.

Her eyes widened. A burst of fear, one she had experienced sparsely, bloomed a lot more powerfully than before. Sokka clasped the poster, gasping upon reading its contents.

"Feel free to take it," Suki said, dismissively. "I don't particularly care to collect paintings of Azula. Just get out now, I… I can't look at either of your faces anymore."

Sokka gritted his teeth. He urged Azula to get going, placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her away. He reached the doorway, knowing all the Kyoshi Warriors were watching him, and he cast a final glance at Suki.

She held his gaze for one moment. Regrets, pain, confusion poured between them… things had soured beyond belief, beyond repair. One day, perhaps, they might be friends again. One day, perhaps, they might build bridges, if just small ones. But as far as their relationship was concerned, there would never be another chance for them. Unlike Zuko and Mai, and their countless breakups and returns to each other, this was it for Suki and Sokka.

"Goodbye," Sokka said, finally.

Suki might have expected something else. Something more vindictive, something more cruel… but that was cruel enough to make her snarl, covering her face with her hands as she wept at the loss of the one man she had truly loved. He walked away without offering her any comfort. Not that she would have taken it, if he had offered any at all. He had a destiny that didn't involve her, Suki had suspected and feared as much for a long time… but now she was entirely certain of it. Their relationship would never recover from a blow as harsh as this one had been… and that would be for the best. She had already known they were over… it was as good as a formality to confirm as much.

But to think he had been with Azula for over a month… to think he could stand to be with someone as dangerous, as unhinged, as wild as her, but not Suki? When he finally had tried, he had wound up running away. Why? What had she done wrong? Why had she lost him? Why…?

She glanced at the mirror Azula had constantly glanced at. Fear reared its head again… as she wondered if, perhaps, Yue had wanted to find out whether Sokka's girlfriend was worthy of him or not. If their twisted story was true at all… then she would likely conclude the opposite, instead. Suki had envied Sokka's bond with Yue, resented it… she had never been able to understand or accept it. She had wanted to be his first love… she had wanted to be his only love. Her failure to accept Yue, to show Sokka that he could trust her, that he could talk to her about the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe, that he could open up to her and she'd embrace it… was that why they had failed? Was that why their love had crumbled? Was it her fault? Or was it his?

Was it simply that they just weren't meant to be?

The town wasn't much to look at, Azula thought so again as they marched through it and out into the wilderness anew. It was already growing darker by the time they returned to the same shore where they had nearly been shot full of arrows: Kyoshi Warriors watched them from afar, as though to ensure they would indeed leave, as they were supposed to. Azula glared at them before focusing on Sokka again. He sighed, approaching the water anew… and dropping on his knees in the sand. A heavy frown decorated his face as Azula sat beside him, legs crossed.

"I… didn't quite expect that to turn out so poorly," Azula said. "But I did read from your behavior all along that you didn't really want to come here."

"I didn't. I also didn't think failing to propose to your girlfriend was a capital offense in this island, but what do I know?" Sokka said, dropping heavily on the sand, falling on his back. "I didn't tell you because… well, who wants to admit something that embarrassing in the first place? But I honestly didn't know for sure that it was over, simply because we never made it official that it was…"

"Running away from your lover for about a year sounds a little official to me," Azula said. Sokka sighed.

"It's complicated, okay?" he said. "There's… a lot more baggage here than you think. For one thing, well… the truth is I wasn't ready for a relationship when I got together with Suki. Yes, it started as a rebound, without a doubt, and I thought it'd be good for me. But then you captured her and I kind of took for granted that you'd have killed her, so…"

"You did?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is that why you started crying when I told you she wasn't dead?"

"Well… it meant I had failed her. I hadn't tried to save her, had I?" Sokka sighed. "I never even thought about doing it. And then? After Zuko joined us, I… I asked him where important prisoners would be taken. Which is how I wound up at the Boiling Rock."

"Ah, yes. Fun times," Azula said, bitterly.

"I know that place has to be a nightmare to think about, for you," Sokka said. "But on my end, the truth is that I… I didn't go to the Boiling Rock to find Suki, Azula. I was looking for my dad."

Azula froze. She blinked blankly, glancing at Sokka in confusion. He covered his face with his hands, groaning in irritation.

"I wanted… to find him and make up for how I'd failed him. He got captured in the invasion, and I felt so guilty and… and when we got there? I didn't find him, but I found Suki, at first. I rolled with the punches, you know, but… a part of me always wondered if she'd have wanted me back at all, if I ever told her the truth."

"Did you never tell her…?" Azula asked. Sokka shook his head. "Huh. My, my…"

"It sounded like a bad idea at every point in time. Things were never going as well between us as they might have looked like," Sokka said. "At first, because I basically never really needed to be with her, and it was just fun to come across her whenever our paths converged, you know? Like… like your picking coins out of fountains, maybe."

"Pfft. So Suki was a lucky coin lying on the pool before you?" Azula asked, amused. Sokka groaned.

"Sounds like an awful metaphor but most of all because it still… feels true," he sighed, pushing himself back up to a sitting position. "I decided we could do better than that eventually, right? That's why I spent so long trying to convince her to come join me in Republic City. But… things weren't exactly great after she moved in, you know? She had her way of doing things, and I had mine. And the conflicts we got into weren't exactly fun. She always had her way in the end, but always got so upset when we clashed to begin with and… it felt awful. Like I couldn't do anything right. And maybe I couldn't, but maybe I just stopped trying… because I was sick of working for something that never made sense. I constantly found myself thinking… is this what I was looking for? Is this what love is supposed to be like? And… and I guess after she got sick of it and left, I convinced myself that it had to be. That I had to prove I would be there for her. So, I came here, and I tried my damn best. I did everything her way. I never questioned anything again. I agreed with everything she said, and I…"

"You were killing your own spirit just to ensure hers would thrive?" Azula concluded. Sokka gritted his teeth, closing his eyes tightly too.

"And when it came down to it… marrying her meant doing that for the rest of my life," Sokka said, glaring at the horizon. "I thought… it wasn't fair, was it? And on top of that, the moon had started acting up. The real reason why she left Republic City exactly when she did? It's because I was worried about it. Instead of offering to help somehow, or providing comfort, or… anything? She just… got jealous, I guess. I don't know why she never could wrap her head around my relationship with Yue. It might be my fault because I never opened up about it in the first place… but she didn't exactly make it easy either."

"Why?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The first time I nearly kissed her, well… I had told her I lost someone I loved. I meant Yue," Sokka said. "She said she could relate because she liked someone who 'went away'. She was obviously flirting and talking about me and… and it felt like all she wanted was to be with me, which, you know, that's flattering! But she never really stopped to understand why I wasn't ready. It… it didn't seem to matter much that I wasn't. And I forced myself to go for it because… I thought it'd help. I thought that I might learn how to move on if I was with someone else. But I didn't."

"You've been with her for all this time while feeling… like you can't truly be yourself with her, then?" Azula asked, folding her arms over her chest. "Well, that almost makes it sound like I'm far better off staying single as I have been all this time. Beats having to deal with that kind of nonsense. I have enough problems in my life as it is."

"I'd tell you you're missing out, but unless you actually can bond with someone who's ready to go the distance for you, and for whom you'd do the same? Yeah, maybe it's not," Sokka sighed.

"Is… is that what you and Yue were like, then?" Azula asked. She glanced at the water, and she saw Yue's refracted reflection in it. It was hard to judge her reactions from this angle, so close to the water…

"Honestly? I don't know," Sokka admitted, with a sad smile. Azula raised an eyebrow. "I know I was ready to do anything for Yue, far faster than I was for Suki. I didn't need to talk myself into doing it, it came out naturally. But… I don't know if she felt the same way. I don't know if she ever really loved me to the point where she'd do anything for me. Maybe… maybe I wouldn't have loved her as much, if she had."

"Wait, what?" Azula blinked blankly.

"She loved her people, Azula. She loved her city, her hometown, her family… I wasn't the only one who lost Yue when she became the Moon Spirit," Sokka said, gazing at the darkened moon again: it hovered before them, in the twilight sky. "And if she had not made that sacrifice just because she wanted to be with me, well… the world as we know it would have been ravaged by the Ocean Spirit and we'd all be dead, likely. So… she made the right choice. I wasn't the right choice for her… just as I'm not for Suki. I probably never was. She's better off without me."

"Well… I'd rather say you're better off without her," Azula told him. Sokka smiled a little, looking at her in disbelief. "Truly, though… someone who stifles you to that extent should not be your partner. I would never stand for it."

"You're too headstrong for that. I ought to learn a thing or two from you," Sokka chuckled.

"Finally, someone realizes that. You're certainly smarter than most, Sokka. Congratulations," Azula smirked, and he laughed even louder.

That he could laugh at all after a break-up was quite surprising. Perhaps ending that relationship was more akin to loosening a heavy weight upon his shoulders… Azula bit her lip, nudging him lightly with her foot by swaying it to the side, bumping it into his boot.

"Are you alright with this?" she asked. "All of it? It almost feels like… you were ready for the break-up to happen by now. But if you're not feeling up for this weird journey of ours anymore…"

"I thought you'd be more upset to know we're being hunted now. Especially on those terms," Sokka said, glancing at her with unease. Azula scoffed.

"Well, Zuzu has decided to come out and play, I suppose," she said. "Not that I'm all that worried or scared. He's about as threatening as a tadpole. At worst he'll spread some disgusting disease on me, but…"

"You're sure you want to underestimate him to that extent?" Sokka asked. Azula scoffed.

"Underestimate?" she said.

"He has the power of his entire nation behind him," Sokka said. "And he's in good terms with the other nations' leadership too. He has a terrible temper. And I don't know if his patience has really run its course by now."

Azula frowned. She glanced at the wanted poster she was still holding: the art was outrageous, the threat of death was preposterous… but was it that genuine? Did Zuko truly not care whether she was alive or dead anymore?

"Do you really think he… he's reached that point now?" Azula asked. Sokka gritted his teeth upon hearing genuine fear in her voice. "I mean… I could fight him. I know I could. I'm stronger than him, always have been, but… I suppose, if he catches me off guard? Or, of course, if he reaches out to you in secret and convinces you to turn on me…"

"He would fail," Sokka said, simply. Azula huffed.

"So confident and certain, are you?" she said. "Why should I trust that you'll never turn against me?"

"Well… for starters, I don't want to," Sokka said. Azula raised her eyebrows. "Like I said, our conversations are about the best ones I've had in… well, maybe ever. Might be the only thing that rivals this is when me and my dad discuss anything we're both really interested in, but that's different anyway…"

"So, I have to live on for you to talk to me. I could do that from the inside of a jail cell, now, couldn't I?" Azula said, skeptically. Sokka smiled.

"You could. But then you wouldn't be able to take Yue on this crazy trip and we'd all be poorer for it," he said. Azula huffed.

"Of course. Well, I suppose I owe you something after all, fishy princess," Azula said: Yue grinned from the water, as good as clapping enthusiastically, and Azula smiled before shaking her head. "Be as cheerful as you want to be… the truth is you're sorry for how things turned out here, aren't you?"

Yue's enthusiasm reeled back, and she sighed.

"I… I didn't know Sokka was going through something so difficult. I guess neither did you, so… we had no warning. We really didn't. Say… you should scold him for me."

"Scold him?" Azula repeated. Sokka raised his eyebrows as Yue pouted.

"We deserve his honesty. We're all in this together, aren't we? If… if he's troubled, or in pain, or anguished, he should tell us about it. It's only right. If we can help him sort it out, we will. If we can't, well… we'll just sit in silence with him and let him know he's not alone."

"Huh," Azula said. "Well, Sokka, it appears you pissed her off."

"I… what?" Sokka said. Azula chuckled as Yue scrambled to contradict her.

"Fine, it's not quite as bad as that… but she says you need to come clean about complicated, difficult, troubling things," Azula said. Sokka gazed at her in confusion. "She says we'll help you sort it out. Now, I don't know who exactly told her she could make that kind of decision for me, but she appears to be making it anyway…"

"Oh, please! You're sitting with him by the beach, talking out his problems, talking about yours! Even if I hadn't said anything about helping Sokka from now on, you'd already have done it without my prompting you!"

Azula had no answer for that. Yue didn't often lash out, but it was even rarer when she could leave her speechless too. Sokka blinked blankly, recognizing Azula was reacting to something… not realizing what it was, however.

"What happened now?" he asked. Azula grimaced.

"She's, uh, accusing me of being dishonest about that last thing, I suppose," Azula said. "Didn't really notice I was being quite so nice to you. No worries, Sokka, it won't happen again…"

"I wouldn't mind if it did."

"Hence why it won't."

Sokka chuckled, shaking his head and relaxing on his forearms again. Azula glanced at him wistfully, somehow uncertain about their silence now, even if it shouldn't have bothered her.

"I… never realized things between you and Suki weren't all perfection, even though it makes enough sense that they weren't," Azula said. Sokka shrugged.

"Eh… happens at times. Not everyone can be like my sister and Aang, clearly," he said. Azula sighed.

"Clearly," she repeated. "You've had worse luck with these things than I have, feels like."

"Why? Never had a boyfriend who turned into the moon? Or one you dated liberally and weirdly for ten years only to realize you actually made no sense together, leading you to run away right before a marriage proposal?" Sokka asked, with a bright, sarcastic grin. Azula snorted.

"Never had a boyfriend at all, rather," she said. Sokka's eyebrows rose. "I've never really… had anything of the sort. So it's difficult to fathom your point of view, I'd say. It doesn't make a lot of sense for you to be this devoted to Yue after she died, as far as I can tell. You get nothing out of it. You cut things off with Suki and you seem to think it'll be for the best for her, too… I would dare say she's not entirely certain of that, considering her last-minute leniency. Apparently, you're a better catch than you appear to be."

"Why, thank you. That's about the nicest thing you've ever said about me," Sokka said, with a dry grin. Azula bowed her head towards him.

"I do try," she said, mockingly. He laughed, shaking his head. "My point is, though… judging by what you've been through, it feels like it's not worth it. You're putting in efforts that will yield no results… Yue can't come back, can she? Even if you help her experience and see everything she couldn't… there's no true reward for what you're doing, is there?"

"Love isn't about rewards," Sokka said. Azula frowned. "At least, not for me. When I love someone, I want what's best for them. I want them safe, happy, healthy… at peace. If Yue has been anguished over my life, over how I've handled my romantic partners, over how I've been suffering over what's going on with the moon? I'd definitely like to appease her and help cheer her up. I don't know if I can get my life together… but if it'll help her find peace of her own, I'd love to do it."

"You want a decent life… for other people's sake, rather than your own?" Azula asked, skeptical. Sokka smiled awkwardly.

"Guess you're about to call me an idiot for that, are you?"

Azula grimaced, though she didn't say anything this time. Sokka raised an eyebrow. Her gaze drifted towards the water… then she shook her head abruptly.

"I was told… that what you've described is not love. So perhaps you've deceived yourself all along… or those who said that to me were mistaken, but that seems unlikely."

"What?" Sokka said, pushing himself up fully. "What does that mean?"

"It means… that kind of devotion is something I'm familiar with," Azula said, with a shrug. "You give and you give, you do everything for the other person with absolutely no concern as to whether your efforts are reciprocated or not. And if it kills you, if it destroys you? That's the least of your concerns. It's worth it, you think… and then some smug know-it-all pretending to be a medical expert shows up to tell you that all those things are terribly unhealthy and that that's not love at all, that you are not loved, that you were never loved, and that what you were doing wasn't love either. So… I'm sorry to say that you might be as lost in life as I am. A sad place to be in, isn't it?"

Sokka frowned, sitting upright properly again. He seemed to mull her words over for a moment, and Azula eyed him skeptically as he did.

"You're talking about your father, aren't you?" he asked. Azula winced, tearing her eyes from him again.

"It's not just him," she said. "My… my nation, altogether. I… I did everything I could to fulfill my duty. None of it went against our code, our belief system. But in comes Zuzu, breaking every precept, every doctrine, allied with our long-time enemies, pretending to be the answer, the beacon that the nation should follow… and they do exactly that, without questioning it just because he has a crown on his head. No one… no one fought for me. No one protested my treatment. No one demanded that I, the truly loyal child of the Fire Lord, was given any dignity. I was stuck in a damnable straight jacket, fated to rot in that damn place until Zuko… until he needed me for his own ends. And to hell with what I wanted, what was good for me, what I deserved, what I was owed…! None of it mattered. None if it has ever mattered. I'm just… the annoyance to be rid of. The pest that assails and burdens the poor innocent people with her antics and her madness. Why… why did I do any of what I did during the war? Why did I follow my father's beliefs and constantly fulfilled his expectations when he discarded me just as well? He must be brimming with pride over Zuko right now… the son he made stronger by treating him like a pebble in his shoe, a problem to be rid of. And Zuko came back, over and over again, to prove him wrong. Which is exactly what he wanted, worth noting… he just expected Zuko wouldn't go as far as to betray him, but even so, he must be thrilled that his firstborn would claw for power by any means necessary. Just as he did."

"Any means necessary?" Sokka asked.

"He didn't win our Agni Kai," Azula said, with a dry grin. "He would have, make no mistake… but he became Fire Lord because I got locked up in an asylum, not because he defeated me lawfully. The one time he had a chance to do it, I… I attacked your sister, as I'm sure you know. I knew I was losing, I shouldn't have been. Sozin's Comet was powering me, so… it was infuriating that Zuko would have control while I was losing mine. So, I tried to reclaim control. When your sister, for whatever reason, walked into the battlefield… I knew I could throw him off by attacking her instead. So I did that. He got burned when he jumped between my attack and your sister. The Agni Kai's winner is the one who burns the opponent. That's the basic rule. That's why my father defeated him, and he didn't even fight back that time. And… I burned him too, with lightning. And then your sister defeated me. And even then…"

"By that logic, Katara should be Fire Lord," Sokka concluded. Azula scoffed.

"What?"

"Well, you burned Zuko, she beat you, she wins the Agni Kai in the end. How about that, I'm the brother of the real Fire Lord," Sokka said. Azula's lips curled into a disbelieving smile.

"That's not what I… what?" she said. Sokka snickered.

"We should definitely bring it up to Katara. She'd demand her dues, you know she would. Fire Lord Katara, married to Avatar Aang… and Zuko deposed. Does it sound funny, at least?"

"Funny… and entirely unreasonable," Azula admitted, with a chuckle. Sokka smiled sadly at her.

"I'm sorry," he said, startling her. "No one… no one ever really bothered hearing your side, did they?"

"Well… why would anyone?" Azula asked. "I'm just… a nutcase who needs to be diagnosed, tossed into a cage and left to rot there. I'm a threat, a menace, a problem to be rid of. If given so much as a foothold of power, I will evidently use it to take revenge on everyone who ever wronged me, see? So… you should stop being so nice to me. It'll only backfire on you. You'll wind up regretting it…"

She said the last words with a mocking, sing-song voice that did nothing to hide the gravity of what she was talking about. Sokka grimaced, gazing at her with remorse.

"Guess… guess I'll try to brace myself for it, in case you do decide to do that," he said. Azula frowned, eyeing him skeptically. "But considering you haven't thrown me overboard off the balloon so far, and we've been traveling together for quite a while now…"

"Your terrible cooking sometimes tempts me to do it, just so you know," Azula pointed out. Sokka scoffed.

"Like yours is much better," he said. "Maybe, out of the three of us, Yue is the one who would have cooking skills, wouldn't you say?"

"Her?" Azula smirked, glancing at the water. Yue grimaced, flustered and uncertain. "She begs to differ, looks like. Besides, she and I are royal. You're the commoner. You're the one who should know how to…"

"Look, I can roast whatever I hunt or fish, but that's as far as my culinary talents extend," Sokka said, though a spark of an idea came to mind over Azula's previous words. "Though… just so you know? Back home, I'm kind of like a prince, myself."

Azula scoffed: in the water, Yue's eyes brightened upon hearing words she had first heard from him, so long ago. The Fire Nation Princess glanced at the Water Tribe one, finding her giggling sweetly over what Sokka had said. Azula blinked blankly before turning towards the smug non-bender…

"You're not," she said, curtly. Sokka scoffed.

"Am too! I'm the Chief's son, I'm privileged over everyone else, and that means I didn't need to cook to save my life because someone else was doing it for me for most of my childhood," Sokka grinned, proudly. Azula's jaw dropped. "So, see? For all that matters, I'm as royal as either one of you."

"Fancy that: we're the royal losers," Azula said: Sokka yelped, and Yue gasped. "No, but, really! I'm an actual Princess, and I lost my title, the throne that was granted to me, my nation, and I'm now a hunted criminal, aren't I? You… you're not really a prince and you're pretending to be one over weird motives, but even if you were somehow, you're on the run with me now and you most likely have nowhere better to go or nothing better to do if you're here… and Yue is seemingly a stowaway in my head, stuck in every reflective surface I ever see. Instead of living it up in golden palaces and gilded cages… we're on the weirdest trip I've ever been on, instead, and living like anything but royalty."

"The Royal Exiles…" Sokka said, with a slow smirk. Azula's eyes widened. "I like the sound of that!"

"You don't have to give us a name! Besides, I'm the only exile. You're just… weird. And Yue is, uh, gone," Azula said. "Figure out a better one that properly represents all our experiences or don't do it at all."

"Ugh, I'll have to think it over, but this is tricky, damn! You help me!" Sokka said, poking her ribs with a finger: Azula winced, hands instinctively in a defensive kata, and Sokka only smirked at her reaction. "Oooh… someone's ticklish."

"And someone's got a death wish. Don't you dare do that again, or you're going to pay for it," Azula said: as usual, the infuriating man with her only seemed to take her threats as challenges, going by the proud smile on his face.

"We'll see about that," he smirked, teasingly. Azula huffed.

"The Forsaken Royals," she growled. Sokka raised his eyebrows. "Why not?"

"That sounds very depressing," he said. "I want something more uplifting than that! Exiles at least sounds like we're on our way to have adventures and…"

"Misadventures, rather. The Royal Misadventurers?" Azula smirked. Sokka scoffed.

"I think we're a work-in-progress. Maybe that's what we ought to call ourselves," he said, with a slight smile. "I don't really know if there's something that binds us all together… but I guess it would be Yue, huh? She's the one who got attached to you, for whatever reason, and I joined this ride because of that."

"And for some reason you still haven't decided you've had enough of me and my malice… you're certainly an odd one, Sokka," Azula decided. "The Odd Royals…"

"Huh. That's a valid name, because we'd need one more member to be the Even Royals, after all…"

"You…!"

She snorted and burst out laughing. Sokka smirked proudly at the sound, watching as she rolled to the side, trying to keep him from seeing how embarrassingly she was laughing at his simple, foolish joke…

"T-that was… not funny. Not at all…" she said, returning to herself, a hand still over her mouth. Sokka smirked, nudging her foot with his this time.

"I think that is one thing we have in common, actually," he said. "All three of us. We laugh at bad jokes, even when we don't want to. Well, you don't want to, I don't mind laughing no matter who made the joke…"

"Because you're unrefined. I have some dignity to preserve," Azula said, smirking.

"Do you, now?" Sokka smirked.

"Well… maybe I'm not doing a great job of it right now, but I do," Azula said, her smile waning as she glanced at him. "You… are feeling better now?"

"Oh…" Sokka blinked blankly, frowning upon hearing the question. "Weirdly enough, yeah. I… heh. It felt pretty awful when it happened, and don't worry, I'm scared enough of Suki's wrath to know we'd better get going soon. But… maybe I should've just called it quits forever ago instead of letting it drag out. Strange, though, that just sitting here with you for a little while was… well, that helpful. Thank you."

"I… well, I won't make a habit of talking you out of your bad funks. So don't expect it to happen again," Azula said. Sokka smiled.

"That you did it now was enough, I think. You don't owe me anything," Sokka said. "If anything, I'm the one indebted to you. All the unresolved feelings and conflicts I had over Yue… you're helping me sort through them even if just by telling me about how she's doing. And you ended up helping me with Suki too, even if you didn't deserve getting dragged into it. I'm sorry that you did."

"Well, I'm not sorry to see the last of her, if I just did," Azula said, with a dry grin. "She'll always hold a grudge on me for defeating her back during the war. Which, yes, I'm sure you resent me for because we were enemies back then, but…"

"You know what?" Sokka said, with a slight smirk. "Since we're sharing terrible truths about how awful we are…"

"You… huh?" Azula blinked blankly. "You're not about to say you're glad I…"

"No, but I will say… one time she made fun of me and the others for losing fights as many times as we did, and I may or may not have shut her down by bringing up that she lost against you," Sokka said, with a guilty grin. Azula gasped, covering her mouth with a hand. "Yeeeeah… not my finest moment, true. Maybe that's when our problems really started, huh? Well, no, never mind, that was after the Boiling Rock after all…"

"You… used me to win an argument against your girlfriend?" Azula asked, with a devious smirk. "Careful, now. You're going to start growing on me, Sokka, and I don't think either of us wants that…"

"Azula, we've been stuck with each other for the better part of a month: we've grown on each other like weeds by now. Too late to worry about that at this point," he said, with a careless shrug.

"And you… don't mind that?" Azula asked. "Do I need to remind you of who I am? The scary criminal Princess who would set the world on fire if her mental state allowed her to…?"

"Honestly?" Sokka said, looking at her earnestly. "I get the feeling I'm only just getting to know who you really are."

Azula frowned. There was no hint of mirth in his voice, or his countenance…

"Those things you said… they're elements of you, but not the full picture," Sokka said, with a shrug. "And I barely even know how genuine any of it is anymore. For someone who apparently is a terribly dangerous criminal with no restraint, you sure have showed plenty for all this time."

"Just because Yue would be all too upset if I did anything that might hurt you," Azula said, rolling her eyes. Sokka smiled.

"Then may she protect me long enough to grow even more on you, to the point where you won't want to hurt me anymore by your own volition," Sokka grinned. Azula winced.

Did he understand what those words meant? She doubted it. He was a normal person, ultimately, regardless of his attempts to establish that he was like her, like Yue…

Azula sighed, shrugging in defeat. Sokka chuckled, reaching out to clap her shoulder gently.

"Come on, then. Let's get out of here before Suki changes her mind and starts hunting us right now," he said. Azula huffed.

"It sure is terribly inconvenient, traveling with a wanted criminal. Wanted for crimes of heartbreak and emotional distress on a Kyoshi Warrior… and somehow that makes you a far more serious menace than someone who's kidnapped children, stolen over half the assets in the Palace's safe chambers, torn the hulls of battleships just before they set out on important missions, among many other ordeals that cost the Fire Nation far more money and expenses than anyone ever could quantify…"

"What can I say? I'm truly that dangerous," Sokka said, lowering his voice menacingly, teasingly. Azula laughed, despite herself, shaking her head.

"What a pair we make. Uh, trio, rather," she said, glancing at the water. Yue, of course, giggled at Sokka's teasing words.

Azula couldn't quite help but smile, even if she feared she shouldn't have reasons to do so. There were more than enough reasons why Yue should have attached herself to anyone but her… but maybe after this conversation, after picking up on the main thing Sokka didn't have in common with them, Azula had started to suspect just why the Princess had chosen her, if she had chosen her at all.

Azula's people, her nation, had forsaken her. In their own way, Yue's had done the same thing. Whether they loved them or hated them, ultimately, they were Princesses who had given their everything to a cause that had destroyed them. They had become sacrifices, pawns in someone else's game, ready to die if that was what it took to keep their campaigns alive, strong, thriving. If Azula's father had asked her to sacrifice herself fully for him, she would have hated herself for hesitating. She would have hated herself for thinking it wasn't fair. She would have forced herself to go through with it… no matter the cost to her person.

Yue had made the sacrifice by herself, for no one else could do it in her place. Just so, the world had moved on without her, just as it had without Azula. Sokka was the strange, single person who hadn't given up on either of them. Maybe he hadn't cared one bit about Azula until this ordeal had begun… but now, there was a sincerity in his words, his attempts to understand her, that Azula simply couldn't overlook.

But could she be right to suspect the true source of that connection between herself and Yue? Could she be right to believe that Sokka should not look to bond any further with her… for neither she nor Yue were fated for anything but loneliness?

Maybe that was why they were stuck with each other. Maybe they were walking in each other's shoes, in a twisted way. Maybe their only chance at humanity, at reclaiming the possibility of a mundane, simple life, was the tall, kind, humorous and thoughtful man who opened the balloon's basket door for her to step on it, first. Azula nodded in acknowledgement, and he followed her aboard before beginning the work to take to the skies anew.

She might never find peace. Yue most likely wouldn't, either, regardless of her attempts to do so through this strange journey. But if this was the closest either of them would ever get to friendship, companionship, to staving away loneliness and experiencing so many of the blissful things they had been deprived from? Azula intended to take it. She wasn't a good enough person to spare Sokka from the anguish and suffering that would most likely follow after trying to help someone like her, to no avail. She would cling to him, make the most of him… and once she was ready, she'd simply have teach herself how to let go, just like everyone had let go of her, so long ago. Just like everyone but Sokka had let go of Yue.

[darlingkara]

So, I haven't written here since December of 2022

I am finally reorganizing my everything! Well, that's the play, anyway.

Sorry for any typos-- I will be careful. I am working with a new but old laptop and I am not used to the keyboard. But, it works for my vanilla IT job and camming. I have not broadcasted publicly with it, but ran a password protected show and saw it from a phone, a TV, another PC screen. It looked okay at 720/60fps. I have not tried to hook the Cannon up to it yet.

I wish I were a desk person. I am just not. I have never been, haha. Chairs are uncomfortable, the desk height is usually off, and they are hard and uncomfy! I cannot study, or read, or work at a desk. I have always been a bed, couch, floor person.

My classes start in exactly 2 weeks from now... September 5. Now I can finally take the philosophy class I have wanted to take! I don't dislike economics, but the program degree is Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). I like socio-economics and more so ethics and behavioral strategy. So one Philosophy class and one Politics class. I won't be too too specific, as it wouldn't be too hard to find me. But I am excited-- I love both studies.

Btw, not like I care if people find ''out''. My family knows I am a cam girl... I think they mostly support it. My mother thinks it is like Twitch with boobies. Hahaha. Kinda, but I don't play games when I broadcast. Or really never or rarely.

Speaking of the devil, 2 outta 3 siblings are blocked on FB and I will never talk to them again, I assume. My sister said something about having to pay taxes on a parking lot that her church rented out to sell vegetables. She is umm... a Libertarian. I said, ''Well, at least the concrete was taxed''.

She told me to eat concrete... Like, wtf, I know. And then a slew of recent things she has said to me just hit me. Like, some stupid hypothetical boat story she was discussing a few weeks back. A person is on a boat and has to get to an island. They see a person drowning, and have space in the boat. I said, well, of course I would help them and pick them up. I am going there anyways, and it is not like I can watch someone drown. She said she wouldn't help them, but ''it's not like it was her hand drowning them''. I am sure I said something about how humans need each other and her thinking was a bit.... antisocial, shall we say.

After the EAT CONCRETE weirdness, she sent me a link with pre-made cookie dough being recalled for having woods chips in it, and told me I should eat that, too.

That was it. That was my breaking point. I told her... WOW... What a lovely Christian you are being. You are selfish and ill-willed, and you are dipping your toes into alt-tight territory. And that is the last thing she saw before I blocked her. And I feel so much lighter. She was not like this before. She's 5 years older than I am, and she is not stupid. She has 2 Master's degrees Philosophy and Psychology. Thank fuck she isn't someone's therapist. She did have a patient kill themselves when she first started... and she found them. She was distraught for awhile, which is understandable, but I repeatedly told her that she had nothing to do with it-- The person would have committed suicide anyways, at some point. She obviously wasn't allowed to talk about the specifics (HIPAA). But I felt for her.

Anyways, it is weird to mentally lose two siblings. Albeit, they were older than I am by 5 and 9 years, but we were still close. I was the youngest-- I am not quite Gen X, but due to their ages and influences, I am half Gen X, half Millennial, whatever that means. Of course they are both Anti-Vax (but just recently). It is just so odd. We were not raised this way. They have both become fairly religious. I am almost certain my brother has been celebite for a decade, if not more.

His daughter, who is 18, started college in a kinda southern and eastern state. For some reason, he decided to follower her, move there and I was thinking like, man, get a life. I loved my dad, but that's the last thing I would want him to do-- follow me states away at 18. Bejesus.

....Enough whining from me. Sorry, I don't have an outlet for my feelings.

...8 hours later... I worked way too much. I did my IT job for 4 hours and I re-did the floor (again) for another 4 hours. It's getting there! If only I realized I probably only needed stronger acetone to remove the damn spots and tar, it would have been much easier. It is like, half wood, and half I don't know. There are pics on Twitter. I think I will eventually have to buy some oak stain for some spots I over-sanded. But, not so ba+d or expensive thus far. Nail files, acetone, mineral spirit alcohol and a stove scraper I already had, haha.

My weight loss had plateaued for a bit. I was stuck at 90 kgs/190 lbs for almost a month, and now I am 86.7kgs or 191 lbs. I really only want to get to about 160-170 pounds, Anything less than that, I look kinda weird, imo. Start weight was a very shocking 247 lbs or 124 kgs. Yikes. You don't realize how slow you pack in on. I am sticking with 1100 calories a day. But I am so bad. All I want are these little chocolate doughnuts, veggies and meat. It could be worse. :)

I will try to update more than every 6 months, haha. Lately all I have been doing is being snarky on Twitter, working, and reading.

This Trump et al thing is craaaaazy. But I am not surprised. I cannot believe people are so gullible and believe in such bizarre lies. I have been obsessed with Erik Prince and Mike Flynn fir awhile, as well as the Wagner group, before they were all on most people's radar. And Musk/Twitter-- that was not by accident. None of this is.

Until next time... Keep yourself sane, content and safe!

[concoctionboy]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: You should probably get out, maybe re-explore the skull room and beyond?

(Given that this update involves a lot of drawing including a new room (well, a room I've been to before, but that was before I started including drawings of everything), it's going to be a two-parter; I'll post the first half tonight and then I'll try to get the rest up tomorrow morning.)

Okay, well, first of all, we've spent a long time in this room, so now that we're finally leaving it, I may as well show the map again:

So there are only two places on this level I haven't been (that I know of): behind the secret door in the symbol (northern) room, and in the room to the southeast where something's making an electronic crackling noise. Well, I guess technically there's also the small hole in the wall in the southern room, but while I could easily get through that hole myself, the shapeshifting powers that Xil got when he, uh, ingested part of me have worn off by now, so he wouldn't be able to get through there, and I don't think Flocsle could either.

I've only been in one room in the level above this, though, and I haven't been in the level below this one at all, and I have no idea how many levels this place has, so even if I've explored most of this level it doesn't mean there's not a lot of the tower I haven't seen.

But anyway, yeah, I guess my exploration of the skull room was kind of interrupted when the skeleton woke up and chased me out, so I may as well start by going back there and see what else is there that I missed.

Since we're leaving this room now, I guess it's time to give the man-eating plant my other arm like I promised. The plant argues that we ended up staying there and demanding its services a lot longer than it had initially expected, and demands to eat part of Xil and Flocsle too. That's not an option, because I don't think they can grow their parts back, but I eventually talk the plant into settling for getting one of my legs thrown in.

(And because somebody's bound to make this joke, yes, I guess that means paying off the man-eating plant is going to cost me an arm and a leg. Sure.)

So fine, I remove my left leg and I throw it to the man-eating plant and then… I can't really throw it my arm if I don't have any arms to throw it with. I mean, yes, I can grow more arms, but I don't want the plant to know that. I guess maybe it already knows that from reading my mind—I'm not really sure how powerful its telepathic powers are now—but in case it doesn't know about my abilities, I'd rather keep it that way. Xil offers to throw my arm for me, but the plant says if I walk up to it it'll just bite my arm off and leave the rest of me, so okay, I guess that works.

Yes, I know, I absolutely should have seen this coming. I think I may be too trusting.

Okay, I guess I can't totally blame the man-eating plant for this. We did kind of end up using its services a lot longer than initially agreed, and besides I'm not sure it was sentient until recently so maybe it hasn't really had a chance to develop a sense of morality. Oh well.

Xil says if it's getting too taxing to keep changing my shape, I can just stay like this for a while and he'll carry me. Honestly, it doesn't really take a lot of energy to change shape, but I've lost enough material by now that if I did form back into a humanoid shape I'd be a much smaller version of me and would probably have to be carried anyway to not slow everyone else down, and I kind of get the impression Xil sort of wants me to stay like this, so whatever, I guess I'll just be a leg and a… bottom for now.

Okay, so, back to the skull room.

(Like I said, the rest of this update coming tomorrow morning, since I have to draw the skull room, although if anyone has any ideas in advance for what I should do when I get there you can go ahead and suggest them now.)

[dragondroid]

Have you ever thought, "man, I have too many doctor's appointments every year!" Want to inject some extra uncertainty into moving to a new city? Are you sick of having all of that medication just lying around for you to take?

Try the American Healthcare System™!

In just a few easy steps, you too can experience the thrills and chills of not knowing whether you get medication this month:

- Move to a new city!

- Wait 4 months for your benefits to kick in, and get the privilege of paying a tenth of your paycheck after taxes for the company health insurance plan!

- Hope your med refills won't run out, because your doctor from your hometown 3 hours away won't prescribe refills unless you see him in person, for some reason!

- Go through a list of doctors from the company's insurance that they decide they'll cover... Partially, of course. What, you didn't think the people you're paying to cover your health expenses would cover all of them, did you? Better hope that they cover a doctor that doesn't tell you to go outside instead of prescribing antidepressants!

- Call the local hospital and ask for an appointment. The closest one is two weeks out, but you should be able to make it that long if you underdose your medication. You'll feel like shit, but at least it'll stave off SSRI withdrawal.

- The insurance info your employer gave you wasn't enough for the hospital to confirm you have it. You can't book the appointment.

- Go to HR the next day. They email you more info. Call the hospital again, give them every bit of info from your insurance, and it still won't show up in their system. The insurance company must have not updated their records. The hospital says they'll call you back tomorrow after they contact the insurance company. You smile and say it's no problem. you have twenty-one days of medication left.

- you have twenty days of medication left.

- You get a call back from the hospital. They say the appointment you were booked for before is taken now. The closest appointment is 27 days away. You check that the doctor it's with is covered by your insurance and take it. you have nineteen days of medication left.

- you have eighteen days of medication left. You don't need to take your meds on the weekend, right? You can tough it out. You got good at fighting off the suicidal thoughts when you were a teenager. You hope you've still got it.

- you have seventeen days of medication left. you've felt more tired since you started underdosing. you feel awake. you just can't bring yourself to do anything. why bother.

- you have seventeen days of medication left. it's the weekend. no meds today. you lay in bed and try to ignore the nausea and aches. nothing got done today. you wonder if anything will ever get done in your life. you wonder what the point is if you'll never get anything done.

- you have seventeen days of medication left. still the weekend. no meds. you eat to try and give some feeling to your stomach besides nausea. you keep eating. it's free serotonin, as long as you don't mind the fact that it's making you fatter and uglier with every bite. you mind. you play video games until 1 in the morning to try and distract yourself. you have to get up at 7 tomorrow.

- it's monday. you're tired, but at least you got to take your meds that day. your boss asks if you've been doing okay. you force a smile and say you're fine. you're pretty sure he doesn't care about you anyway, just like everyone else. you have sixteen days of medication left.

- you wonder if the doctor will believe you have adhd. you hope he does. you have a diagnosis, but it wouldn't be the first time someone has denied you treatment because you look "too normal." you have fifteen days of medication left.

- you forgot to turn off the lights when you left the house today. your roommate asked you politely to remember to turn them off to keep the electric bill down. you're positive he hates you. you have fourteen days of medication left.

- you have thirteen days of medication left.

- you have twelve days of medication left

[the-firebird69]

We're trying to figure out. why they don't understand what's going on. and We are tracing you and sending. assassins after you. and you're gonna be dead soon. Lots of times there are demons. and you don't see them at all Or in the form of your friends and family. We're sick of you idiots here. We're telling you to stop what you're doing and you make it worse. So we definitely are going after you. Today is a big day for it. A lot of you are making really stupid noises and you're going to pay with your lives shortly..

.-- We have a couple brief announcements Stan Wazinsky is going to court. He is told to pay back taxes. And the county might take over the house. And therefore. repair the sewer. And our son is considered low income. and you should not raise the rent on him. especially without notice, is illegal practice. And they might sue you for him. because you're at war with them. and it would cause you to be a **** here and others. Stuff they need. And we're going to go after you. for what you're saying. And you're a liar. And he has a copy of the agreement. And you put right on their Social Security. And if you don't know how to read, that's your problem. You should know, but you don't. And you're in contracts, you say Yeah, you sucked at your job and we're going to penalize you for that stuff. No, we're going to sue the living **** out of you. What you're doing to him at work. Sue the living **** out of you fairly soon too. And yeah, we have to use the name, but it's going to be a different lawyer. And we're going to have him do it because he's a troublemaker.. It's coming up pretty quick and you should be ready to you should be ready to fall because you're going to and you're going in there today. and some of the back taxes applied to this place is not true But you're going to start losing more of your apartments and you'll bother our son more. And we're going to coming down on you harder And we're going to sue you for what you're doing here. shortly too. You are a huge **** and you people here are very stupid. And And we're going to take it out on you. And you announced that he saw under some sort of house arrest for your crimes. And we're going to have you arrested. You don't do that in the United States to anyone And we're going after you now. globally.. And we are interested in Oregon and Washington state and BC and the other areas. But thank you very much. We do appreciate you announcing that they're going to know we're there, that's for they're going to know we're there, that's for sure. They won't be able to go there. and you're the one who's making it happen. And we're the ones telling you so you wouldn't know that, right? Probably not, but you are the one doing it. Stan Wassinski, you and your big mouth **** You're horribly stupid. And you got your hand out and the Macs are no longer doing the work for you..

we are initializing these lawsuits now and many more here in charlotte and in massachusetts and calli and other. now too and buffalow we sue the living shit out of them. and john r the biggest no tommy f no. it is the housing people he stated who he is and what he does warned her she did not listenandd goth it and hit during. held him therre hard and said stuff. and he said so you get shot you dont care and him too. they died a lot. are idiots. and will pay for it trump and iwfe no cheesmean and wife. and they diedok and he says hwy let me out or die. and he said and you conditio it you die. and then he sid this cant say it will and mostly secretly a lot and you die a lot. and he got scared left nd did not come back no was an ass. winning yet..nad he said n wiill nope you all lose now we deiced takee your arreas and stuff mine anyways due to you. shithead nd he was abahshed now sorry for it yes. dies now. good. and we use it on them now

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[lushsynths]

This week has been so emotionally taxing for me.

I'm waiting for confirmation of graduation from my university and they're taking their sweet fucking time. I'm supposed to know by tomorrow, but I've been done with summer classes almost two weeks now.

And I feel nervous that I won't be cleared to graduate, but I'm also nervous to find a real job. I'm comfortable at my job and the pay is decent and I'm scared that my new job will suck, or I'll hate it. I don't like interviews, and I HATE talking about myself so I'd have to really up the bullshit in order to come off as someone who they should hire. I'm as hard ass worker and good one but it's hard for me to brag about myself. Plus, change is scary, but I really do want to get a new job at the same time.

An old high school acquaintance came to my workplace, and I wasn't in a particularly good mood to reminisce about life. I planned on playing it cool and just ignoring him, so I didn't have to make small talk. (I sound like a douche when I write this out oh my god, but I promise I'm pretty nice irl, we haven't seen each other in 10 years) Well he went out of his way to say hi and was really happy to see me and I was like surprised because it's not like we were great friends back in high school. We had mutual friends, so we ran into each other throughout the years. But I can't recall a time where we just talked to each other without any other people there. We had a little chat and as I was running around doing stuff we smiled at each other here and there. Anyways, I felt really bad because I could tell he wanted to talk to me, but it was genuinely busy at the time, and I was in charge, so I didn't' have time to chat. Later when I was off work, I messaged him on Instagram and said it was nice to see him and if we run into each other again we should catch up. Well since you can donate plasma twice a week, he came back two days later and then I felt awkward because I really wanted to show him that I appreciated his attention and time. I really did want to say hi, but I worry that I came of as ingenuine.

The next day at work I was working with one of my coworkers who's autistic and an acquired taste to talk to. I personally don't mind him now that I've figured out how to talk to him and keep things chill. But he found out I had cancer at one point in my life and kept bringing it up in front of the donors and I realllyyy don't like having a conversation about myself in front of strangers like whenever my coworkers try to do that I lowkey change the subject bc like...it's my business. Ofc when I can chat with them alone, I'm an open book but like not an open book for random people. So anyways I knew he wouldn't drop it, so I answered his questions about cancer and what not. And that made me uncomfortable to a degree, but what really sent me into a spiral was his comment about my appearance. I have a LOT of self-image issues like a LOOOOT. I haven't gotten on any apps to date or tried to put myself out there because of them. I also don't have any pictures of myself aside from a few my family has taken. My biggest insecurity is my hair loss and I'm not sure if it was genetics or the chemotherapy because my hair didn't grow back the same way as it was before. I think it's a combination of both but anyways it's a huge insecurity of mine and one of MANY. Well, this coworker looked at me dead in the eyes while we were working and was like 'can I make a bald joke?' And I was shocked because OBVIOUSLY I know people can tell I've lost hair for my age (29) but no one has ever mentioned it because I'm sure they're just being nice. And to hear it acknowledged by someone really really hurt my self-esteem and there's not a lot of that within me. Like I already feel ugly and unwanted it really hurt to hear. Plus that day one of my other coworkers came to me because she thought I was in charge and was like "Hey handsome can I go to break later rather than sooner?" and I was like "well I'm not in charge today but I'm sure it would be fine with X" and she was like "well I take back calling you handsome" and it was obviously joking but goddamn that hurt my feelings too.

I actually think I need to see a therapist about my self image issues. I just feel so fucking ugly all the time. I've started to workout semi consistently, but I'm so depressed the past couple of days. I take care of my appearance and practice self-care to like to try and keep my self-esteem normal but it's so fragile it's sad. This is delusion talking but when I went to message my old classmate, I saw he came out as bisexual a while back and thinking about how happy he was to see me and talk to me made me feel good like maybe a man can find me attractive the way I am now, but I just can't bring myself to believe that. Not fully, and I fear that if I ever get into a serious relationship that I won't ever be able to believe my partner actually likes me genuinely so that's another reason I don't pursue dating. God.

[nightcall99]

Dreams from 2.8.24

Dream 1: I was riding a unicycle around in in the street, going around the block over and over. It was night. Idk what I was doing, maybe passing time? There was something happening, I don't know what but there were crowds of people around even though it was late. Then I went to a skatepark where people were watching something, but no one was actually 'there'. I spun around in a circle on my unicycle and started to get dizzy. I stopped. I thought to myself, I need to figure out a way to do that without getting dizzy. I'd like to know how to do tricks. Then I rode around a bit more but wobbling around everywhere. Again, Idk what I was doing. I felt lonely I guess like I wanted someone to notice me or to have friends or something.

Dream 2: I was at my ex's house. I was here with my siblings and there was this feeling like my ex and his family had tricked us into coming here by preying on our sensibilities. Something low-vibe had just happened and my sibling and I were going to leave. But before we could, the father asked us to pay GST/tax (idk) because they had entertained us for the night, like for the dinner and stuff. I was flabbergasted. I had been a guest in their house and I hadn't even had a good time and now I was expected to pay for it? The father wouldn't let me put on my shoes in the house because he considered it dirty to do so. He said "I can't let you". But when I got here, I had been wearing the shoes in the house and had only taken them off in the first place to be comfortable. It didn't make any sense. He was having trouble loading up the fee on to the card machine so that I could pay.

I did not enjoy hanging out with my ex. He just seemed so far away, I found him so cold and distant. His energy was very repellent. Anyway whatever happened that was the reason for my wanting to leave, it seemed to inconvenience the family. Like it was my fault? I was still sorting out the payment with the father, when I heard the mother from the next room say to my ex sounding all exasperated, "Right, this is the last time you're going to see her". He agreed. I don't know why I had even come. I don't know the specifics but the vibe is this whole family had pretended to appeal to our better natures, that instinct to want to help people and be good. They exploited it to capitalise off us. There were scenes of us all at the dinner table and we had agreed to certain things in conversation without realising the insidious intent behind what it meant, which was something they all coordinated. I remember some chick was there stringing the conversation along making sure it progressed to a particular point to meet their needs. At the same time, my siblings and I weren't any better. We wanted to be good people but we weren't. It's like when rich white girls go to India to have a 'spiritual experience'. It's just a game.

Then I saw in the foyer of their house that they had all my trash from years past. It was all my school backpacks. I don't know why it was there in the first place but I knew they were gonna get rid of it soon. Before leaving, I rummaged around through all my old things, trying to find something to keep. It was all stuff I used to use but don't anymore. School stuff like old exercise books, diaries, text books and spare paper. There were so many backpacks, like dozens. I never had so many irl, probably only 1-2. I continued trying to find something to keep. Then I gave up. There's nothing I wanted. Then I overheard my ex talking to his parents or some other people in the other room. I wondered if he would come out and say goodbye to me properly for the last time. I mean he said before it was the last time right? The vibe was that we had been broken up for a little while (like a continuation from the last dream where I had ended it) but had continued seeing each other. Just like meeting up. God knows why. I didn't really hold out much hope that he would say any words of goodwill. In the end, he didn't see me out. I knew he wasn't the sentimental type anyway. So I left.

Then out of nowhere while we were still inside the house but were 2 seconds from exiting the door, my brother became evil. He took out a gun as if to shoot my sister and I and we had to make a run for it if we wanted to keep our lives. We had to get to the car ASAP. I felt panic. When I reached the car, I got in as fast as I could and got the car running even though my sister wasn't safely inside yet. She was trailing just a little bit behind. I started driving. Slowly. I wasn't going to leave her although she must have feared it. I just wanted a head start on leaving and I was going slow enough that she could jump on board easily enough. My brother appeared from out the door with a backpack on. I was terrified of him. My sister finally was able to get in the car but we weren't going fast enough. It was so slow. I slammed my foot on the accelerator and it didn't do much of anything. The last thing I wanted was my brother to catch up to us. I didn't want to die. Finally, we managed to get on the road and the car gained enough momentum to drive normally, and we got ourselves a few km's away. Then somehow, we were inside the car but hitching a ride on a huge tow truck with a bunch of other empty cars. We were so high up that surely my brother wouldn't be able to get to us from up here. I felt that we were disguised from view, since he would never think to look closely at a tow truck. He wouldn't have been able to make it this far on foot anyway.

Dream 3: There used to be this online game I played in my teens called Habbo Hotel. It was a virtual world and massively multi-player. From what I remember, you kind of just walked around not doing much but it was fun because you could talk to anyone. Anyway, in the dream I was playing Habbo Hotel on my phone at home but it was different to how I remember it. The graphics were weird and it felt like I was inside the world all alone. I didn't know anyone. I wanted to get back to the 'past' world from my teenage years where I knew people, but I couldn't. It's like everyone was back there but I was here and I couldn't go back. It felt so artificial and not fun. There was this 'block' feeling. All interactions within this virtual world were nothing, just emptiness. I wasn't talking to real people, I felt trapped.

Dream 4: I was at work and he bumped into me. My body felt all tingly from the touch and I felt energy course all over. The vibe from him in the dream was one of confidence and even smugness. Also I think it is trying to get me to admit that in the dream from 21/7 where we also bumped into each other, I left out something because I was resisting. In that dream, after we bumped into each other, the next scene was of an older couple telling me this: "We bumped into each other too when we met... and now we're married".

[inkofamethyst]

March 21, 2024

WE DID IT LADS. I've been putting off a conversation with my advisor about going for a minor in data science/computer science because.. well I mean I guess I was afraid he would hesitate or say no or ask me to think about it more even though I had already thought about it for nine months. Anyway my PI is fully an enabler (and I knew this) and he was like "ya I don't know much about it but as long as you pass your quals, go for it" so uh. Yeah. I had prepared ten minutes' worth of reasons why going for this would be advantageous to me and I couldn't even get to share all of them lol.

I had also thought about asking about doing an internship one summer, but I think one "hard" conversation was enough bravery for one day :)

I think the ultimate goal for the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure project is going to be an original DnD-style adventure (apparently in replit you can combine different coding languages into one product, so I could even make a website-esque interface for interaction), but I don't want to spend tons of time writing narrative when I could beef up or streamline the mechanics instead in a story that already has a familiar narrative. So, I will work on the Hunger Games version, likely submit it, and maybe this summer reskin it into something original. I think I'm going to try to have a "secret" rebellion ending.. we'll see, we'll see...

I need to start doing cardio and weights. Especially since I'm going to have to lug around an amp in just over a year.

Next year, my involvement is going to be a bit heftier, I think. I'm glad I took the time this year to be more chill, but I want to try so many things. That museum collections volunteer thing, the ballroom dancing club, the jazz club.. I've even considered being an assistant stage manager in the area. And then maybe in a couple years' time, I could join a band, audition for a play in the community. I do want to be wary of running myself ragged, so that will mean regular self-check-ins. And I definitely won't pile on everything at once.

found out today that wilbur is apparently not a great guy in the slightest. it really makes some of those 2020 entries feel even cringier than they already were. UGH. :(

Also,,, slightly less negative but that macaroni and cheese was nasty. Ugh and I was looking forward to it for weeks. Kind of reminds me of that time I made the "gigi hadid pasta" that was floating around all over pinterest and it was flavorless.

Today I'm thankful that my taxes ended up being WAYYY less than what I'd budgeted for last year. I'm only paying the government like 40% of what I'd saved up to give them. (Found out that this is in part because academic stipends aren't taxed on social security which is fine by me because even though ss payouts are kinda based on how much you paid in, I was never planning to receive ss and also I was hoping to invest enough that I wouldn't need it.) Anyway, knowing this, I feel even more comfortable with the idea of living single hehe.

Though~~ I have to say that knowing what my taxes are going toward these days does make me feel a little sick to my stomach sometimes. I mean of course I'm going to contribute to my savings goals (as a matter of fact, if I dumped my whole "return" into my savings goals, I would complete all of my current goals and have a bit left over which is WILD to me (but I'm not going to do that, I don't think, as I could put some of the cash toward trips home and such, or make others a touch more elaborate (thinking of upping my bass fund))) and to my beloved house <3, but I also think I want to be charitable and give to causes that are important to me.

My last "spiritual experience" song was The City Must Survive. As of this week, it is Full Moon by Avi Kaplan. I want to wring every last neurotransmitter from that song.

[edit, way past my bed time: this was a really great day, actually.]