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muffinlance · 1 year

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Zuko, banished, no crew, no uncle, no quest for the avatar. Says "fuck this" aka, if I can get back to caldera maybe I can convince my dad to take me back. Horribly wounded thirteen year old finds dragons, starts a civil war by accident

Zuko didn’t think he was still delirious. The Sun Warrior’s healer hadn’t wanted him to leave yet, but—

But he’s standing here, back in the throne room, and the room is set up again for another war meeting so maybe he should have waited before coming in. But the guards hadn’t even asked him—or anyone inside—before they’d thrown the double doors open, so. He’d thought father wasn’t busy.

The general he thought he was going to fight at the Agni Kai is here, and so are all the others, even uncle. And father, at the head of the table, standing.

Father is the only one standing. Everyone else is... They’re kneeling.

When he’d come back to the palace, the servants in the courtyard he’d landed in had hurried to open the doors for him, all the way here. And the guards had let him in. And now the whole room is kneeling except for father who—

He doesn’t look like he did on the Agni Kai field. Father had been… he’d been so calm, then. He’d been doing what he had to do, to instruct Zuko, to correct him.

Now he just looks angry.

So. So Zuko is screwing this up, too. He practiced his speech the whole way home, it was a good speech, he’d based it on the one the Stone Prince made to his father the Mountain Emperor when he’d come home to beg forgiveness, bringing the treasures of the Ice Spirit with him as tribute. But Zuko doesn’t remember how he was going to start. And the flames behind father are getting higher, and hotter, and Zuko is okay now with flames that flicker with purples and golds and greens, but red flame is—

It’s so hot against his face—

“Father,” he croaks. “Father, I’ve returned. With dragons.”

He is so, so stupid. Ran and Shaw have flanked him from the courtyard, have wound through hallways paralleling his path, are snaking between the pillars of the room until coils of red and blue dwarf everything here. Ran breathes her own flames out, and the fires before the throne shift from Ozai’s reds to the shimmering rainbow-sparks of dragonfire.

“A sign from Agni,” Uncle Iroh says. He’s bowed like the rest, but Zuko can see his eyes, and there’s the same glimmer there that father and Azula get before they do something Zuko should have seen coming.

“You dare,” father says, and Zuko isn’t sure if it’s him or uncle he’s talking to. But when he takes a step forward it’s towards Zuko and when he raises a fist it’s towards Zuko and when he makes the fire it’s towards Zuko and—

(And Zuko cowered the first time the dragons tried to show him their flames. It was all around him, swirling, and he hit his knees and shoved his face against his arms because he’d learned better than to look up.

The fire stopped, and a whiskered nose nudged him, and then there was a huge scaly coil loosely wound around him until he was done crying, so at least the Sun Warriors below hadn’t seen how pathetic he was.

After that, it was… they made it a game. Little puffs of flames, the kind of sparks he used to make to keep Azula from getting fussy in her crib, until she was old enough to climb out and go exploring with him instead.

He flinched at first, a lot, but they didn’t hurt. Didn’t even hit him. And then it really was a game, where he would spin their colors in with his own flames, and send them back, and they’d keep playing as the flames got bigger and bigger but somehow they never got scary again.

When he’d stopped flinching at all, when he wasn’t a coward around his own element, he knew he was ready to return home. Grandfather had once welcomed uncle home with honors for killing dragons. So father would accept his apologies if he brought home two live dragons, right? Making friends with dragons had to be harder than killing them.)

Father’s flames were… they were just red. Zuko didn’t realize what he was doing until the war ministers were gasping. By then he was already spinning father’s flames with his own, mixing in all the colors father’s had lacked, and.

And sending them back.

(Batting fire around with dragons had not given Zuko a realistic grasp on the heat tolerance of the average abusive father.)

Uncle was not the first to bow, when Zuko had first entered. This time, he is.

“Fire Lord Zuko,” he says.

The war ministers are not prepared to countermand the Dragon of the West. Or literal dragons. They never left their knees, and they don’t start now. Foreheads touch the ground.

Zuko… Fire Lord Zuko’s first order is to take his father to the healers. He’ll let him stay there, longer than Ozai let Zuko.

(You can read this and other prompts at AO3. And longer stories, too. <3)

#his second order of business is to let Azula ride a dragon #because he is not interested in assassination attempts #and he did bring back TWO dragons #Azula: hmm. I get to be the crown princess AND have a dragon?#you’ve successfully one-upped father’s offer #continue to do so Zuzu #and we won’t have any problems #Avatar The Last Airbender #atla #Zuko #Ozai #Dragons #Ran and Shaw #ficlet #Hello Dragons Here

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stardust948 · 1 month

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Dragon AU headcanons

I came up with instead of paying attention in the staff meeting.

Ozai taught Ursa how to cook. Dragons are pure carnivores and usually eat their meat raw so Ursa never need a reason to cook before she met Ozai.

Also, Ozai pretty much taught himself how to cook. His mother died when he was still young and he was left home alone a lot (at an age he really shouldn't have been) so he basically raised himself.

One of the few memories Ozai has of his mother is making honey biscuits with her. He's glad his children love them, and Ursa enjoys making them even if she doesn't eat them.

The dragon pups were pure carnivores like their mother when they were very young. They slowly transitioned to plants and other non-meats. But their diet is still very meat heavy (which fits in perfectly with Water Tribe food).

Ursa tried a vegetable once and nearly threw up. She can handle tea but only if it's drowned in honey much to Ozai's horror.

Adult fire dragons are as big as Ran and Shaw in the show. Ursa's actually very small for her age due to the trauma she suffered when she was young. Zuko is the only one to reach Ran and Shaw's size when he becomes an adult.

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woodlaflababab · 2 months

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Thinking abt how Azula is associated with the blue dragon in Zuko's mind. Azula, who represented his ticket to home/desire for home. Who, in his fever dream, is advocating for rest and a break from all his pain and struggle.

And how later the blue dragon is now connected to Aang while Zuko is connected to the red dragon as part of their ever-present yin and yang.

The dragon symbolism goes from Zuko's struggle with the people around him, his family, to the cosmic connection he has with Aang. From a struggle within himself, to finding himself balanced with Aang.

Does this lowkey make Aang represent home/an end to the pain and internal fight while Zuko, now able to rely on that, finally gets to fully embrace the part of him Iroh believed in, giving Zuko everything he wanted in his dream?

Idk, but it sure is interesting.

Aang and Azula, the two tempting blue dragons in Zuko's life. Iroh, the red dragon Zuko aspires to be and eventually becomes thanks to Aang, the true guide to Home and Peace.

I really like the dragons.

#zukaang #a little less platonic than last time #atla #zukaang talks #atla talks #talks #woodlaflababab #the way it took me three tries to spell associate #ran and shaw #zuko #dragons

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thebeedleboat · 2 years

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I was thinking about dragons again (wow, nothing's changed since I was six) and why the Fire Nation started killing them. I do feel like there should be a good reason for why Sozin (or any person, I can't 100% remember if it is Sozin who starts it.) would look at his lifelong companion, and decide that the glory of slaying it was worth losing a fast and efficient method of transport, and super weapon. Okay, I know Zhao is part of the navy and still kills the moon, but let's assume not everyone has their priorities so supremely skewed.

So maybe the dragons became less cooperative after the initial attack on the airbenders? I'm not going to argue that ATLA dragons have a morality or at least the same morality as our heroes, because Ran and Shaw do give Iroh the thumbs up after looking into his soul and he immediately went on a 600 day siege. But. Dragons are ancient and powerful creatures that were used to being revered and studied for their firebending abilities. Then there were the few people determined and driven (and crazy) enough to try and ride them. There had to be respect from the dragon's side to let them, and trust on the rider's side that they wouldn't be thrown off at ten thousand feet. And we know in Sozin's era that Fire Nation culture shifts. Respect is demanded by the strong and trust is for the weak. All it would take is for a commander to teach respect the Ozai way on what was supposed to be their best friend and suddenly their magical dragon connection is getting severed. Probably while flying over a volcano.

Basically, the change in Fire Nation culture during Sozin's era and onward was incompatible with the qualities needed to work with dragons, so they were hunted instead.

#atla #dragons #ran and shaw

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herciawillstealyourgender · 9 months

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I tried my hand with digital art, just finished rewatching Avatar the Last Airbender!

#original art #artwork #art #dragon art #dragons #drawing #Ran and Shaw #avatar the last airbender #atla #fire bending

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witchzoe · 2 years

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Iroh is known in the Earth Kingdom as The Dragon of the West. Dragon is a title you get for slaying a dragon, with Zuko stating that Iroh killed the last dragon long before he was born (meaning this happened before Iroh's redemption arc.)

In the same episode we also learn that, instead of killing the last dragons, Iroh learned the true meaning of Firebending.

So if i interprete this correctly, Iroh learned that fire was life and then used that knowledge to wage war against the Earth Kingdom, culminating with the siege of Ba Sing Se?

Because if he did that, that is honestly very fucked up.

#atla #iroh #iroh critical #iroh meta #sun warriors #ran and shaw

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prodogg · 1 year

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I think it’s cool that the dragons in atla are also hybrids between Asian and European Dragon, Asian dragons are more affiliated with water and have no wings while European Dragons are more affiliated with fire and do have wings. Atla combined these concepts very nicely giving us awesome dragon’s.

Btw interesting is that the dragons in Zuko’s fever dream seem to not possess wings. I think it has more to do with them having to represent a serpents in the dream that whisper is Zuko’s eye, especially Azula here.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #the legend of aang #dragons #atla dragons #ran and shaw #zuko #pd talks #fire nation #atla culture #azula

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nighttimepatrons · 10 months

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how can in convey that Ran and Shaw are some of the the most beautiful animated dragons I have ever seen! They heads and face designs are so solid. That is what I want for an animated Temeraire

#it is not big brain time #I'm just thinking about my beloveds okay #ran and shaw #dragons

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 1 year

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Skin & Scale (Part 33)

Three days in and no one has brought the incident up and Azula certainly doesn’t want to either but it lingers in the back of her mind. Lingers there and haunts her, knowing that she has proven to mother that she had been right.

She is plenty aware that it would do her well to talk to someone, spirits know that they have been trying to reach out to her. But right now she doesn’t really want to talk to anyone. Truthfully she doesn’t know why they want to talk to her right now.

A lapse in control like that…

If mother and father hadn’t been there…

She stares at her hands. She isn’t a killer, not by nature. She hadn’t thought that she was anyways. But ground down to nothing but instinct, apparently bloodying her hands is the first thing on her mind.

Logic, reasoning, a sense of morality; these are what separate humans from monsters. And when broken down to her very essence, it would seem that she has none of these things. Two of which she likes to pride herself on.

Azula shivers, her body still hurts so relentlessly. In shutting Katara out, she has allowed it to go stiff and under cared for. Mother and father can only sit with her, stroke her hair, and try to coax her into seeing the waterbender.

Azula doesn’t want to see anyone.

Rather, she doesn’t want anyone to see her.

She rolls over to reach for the glass of water on the nightstand, whimpering when the stretching of her arm tugs at something in her side. She lets her arm fall limp and resigns to letting her throat run dry until mother and father return. She brushes her fingers over the large knot on her side. She is broken inside and out.

Part of her wishes that one of those idiots would come to check on her. But they respect her wishes to be left alone with her shame and her pain.

.oOo.

He can’t look at her the same way anymore. This woman who is so gentle and loving with him but can’t even bother to go check on his sister. “I’m sorry that we had to reunite under these circumstances.” Ursa apologizes.

“But we didn’t have to.” Zuko frowns. “You didn’t even give her a chance.”

“I didn’t give her a chance? The first thing she did was accuse me of…”

“She didn’t accuse you, she reminded you. You did take her away from her family. Unless we can turn into dragons too and I just didn’t know about it.” He frowns. “You took her away from her family and brought her into one that didn’t even love her.”

“I…”

“You said that to her. You told her that you didn’t love her. I thought that…I thought that she was just jealous of me or that she misunderstood stuff that happened when we were kids but…but she was right, you hate her. You hate her and she sensed that all along.”

Ursa’s lips press into a thin line. “Zuko, every time I look at that creature I’m reminded…”

“Of your mistakes, just like Iroh is?”

“Of what your father forced me to do. I can’t see her without seeing the years of abuse and manipulation that led to her creation.”

“You mean, ‘that led to her being taken to the palace.’ Her ‘creation’ was probably more loving than mine was.” He grimaces. “You didn’t want me either, did you?”

“Zuko…”

“You didn’t! Just be honest with me!” Sitting is no longer enough, it is an outburst that requires him to abruptly rise from his chair. Or maybe his abrupt rising is the natural byproduct of an outburst. His chair clatters to the floor. “You abandoned me and you didn’t come back when it was safe, you can at least be honest with me.”

Ursa stares at her hands. “You’re right, Zuko. I didn’t want you either. Not at first. But I love you, I do. I saw the lovely, caring boy that you turned out to be–how you would rescue turtle-crabs and help the gardener pull weeds–and I knew that something good had come out of being with your father.”

Zuko picks the chair up and sits himself back in it.

“Azula, she was just…your father used her to torment me. I would wake up with that…that…” finally she spits out the word ‘child’. “Staring at me, tugging on my sleeve, and making demands. ‘Mother, I’m hungry’, ‘mother, I want this’, ‘mother, I want that’. She never wanted to share, she was always snooping around where she shouldn’t have been. She liked to set things on fire just to watch them burn.”

“I was a needier kid than she was.” Zuko frowns. “You never seemed to mind when I tugged on your sleeve and I did it all the time.”

“You weren’t demanding. You didn’t set things on fire.”

“If you didn’t want to have to worry about a kid who liked setting things on fire then maybe you shouldn’t have stolen one from a dragon. You took a dragon hatchling and got mad when she didn’t act like a human kid! Of course she liked setting things on fire, dragons tend to do that. Of course she didn’t like sharing her toys, dragons hoard treasure. She was a baby dragon doing baby dragon things but with human hands. And she was…” his brows furrowed it hadn’t occurred to him until now. “She was confused, she was trying to fit in with human expectations and she didn’t even know why it was so hard.” Of course she had outbursts and tantrums now and then.

“It’s a lot more complex than that.”

“You chose to take her and then you got mad at her because you didn’t know how to raise her.”

“You can’t raise a monster, Zuko.” Ursa insists. “Humans aren’t meant to raise dragons.”

“Exactly!” He throws his hands up. “Ran and Shaw are doing just fine.” He points out. “She listens to them. She bonded with them right away. They body slammed her into the ground to end her outburst the other day, and she still knows that they love her.” He pauses. “They seem to blame themselves for letting it get that far.”

He rubs his hands over his face. “You and uncle like to blame her for everything.”

“Are you saying that she can’t control her actions at all? Dragon or not, she has to have some sense of right and wrong.”

Zuko sniffs. “Why do you think she hasn’t been talking to anyone? She thinks that she’s dangerous and that she shouldn’t be around people. She did the same thing a few years ago when we were dealing with spirits.”

Ursa inhales sharply.

“She knows what she did wrong. Do you?”

Ursa closes her eyes.

Slowly, bit by bit, that pristine and idyllic image of his mother is crumbling and it brings a grit to his teeth and tears to his eyes. This isn’t the woman he remembers. He loathes that Ozai had been right.

“I did a lot of things wrong.” She murmurs. “I let your father goad me into doing awful things. I can’t look at your sister without…” She massages her temples. “I feel sick when I look at her because it all comes back and I see blood on my hands and a dead man. I can’t love her, Zuko. I don’t want to. The best thing that I can do is tell her that it’s not her fault that I can’t.”

“Then do it!” He doesn’t mean to shout but at this point he has his own dragon inside. “You go over there and you tell her that…” that there’s nothing she could have done. That she could do no right no matter what. “That it isn’t her fault that you didn’t know how to raise her and that it isn’t her fault that you don’t love her. Until you left her alone with Ozai, she was just a kid. She wanted you to love her but she didn’t know how to ask.” He pauses for a breath. “I don’t think that she even realized that she could be loved until she met her real parents.”

Suddenly she is able to rekindle old friendships. Suddenly she has a romantic partner.

“I’ll tell her, Zuko.”

“I’ll tell her and then if she says that she wants to hear it from you, you can.” The last thing that they need is another impending dragon rampage. He rises from his seat once more and heads for the door.

“Do you hate me, Zuko.”

He grimaces and his stomach drops. “I wish I could.” But she still took care of him. She still sacrificed her comfort and safety to keep him alive. The same woman who killed a man, kidnapped and neglected a dragon, is the same woman who kept him protected and loved in a world that seemed to want him boiled alive. “But I don’t. I just… I see you differently now.”

He doesn’t look back because he knows that the look on her face will tell him that that’s worse.

.oOo.

The corner of Azula’s mouth is still swollen, he is careful not to brush up against it when bringing the waterskin to her lips. “It’s time to talk to people again.” Sokka says gently after putting the waterskin aside. “Normally I would just carry you out of the bed but…” he gestures to her purple-yellow side.

She tugs her shirt down to cover her exposed torso.

“You don’t have to do that if it’s more comfortable to let those wounds breathe.”

“Loose clothes are fine.” With her attempt to sit up she grimaces. He helps her finish the process. Her breathing is notably labored and shuddering.

“We should really get you to Katara, she hasn’t learned to fix fractured bones yet but she can bring some of that swelling down.” He touches her mouth. “It’ll be nice for you to be able to talk and eat and smile without having to worry about that big bruise.”

Azula shrugs.

“It’s going to take a lot longer for it to go away if you keep hiding your pain from people.” He pauses. “And I mean that physically and emotionally.”

“I think that I’ve had enough emotions for the month.”

“You have a monthly emotions quota?” He chuckles. “TyLee wants to see you, she’s worried about you. Ran and Shaw can only say so much…”

“Hey.” Zuko interrupts. “I need to talk to Azula.”

“You have a mouth and vocal cords, what’s stopping you?” Azula mutters. “Aside from that door that you didn’t knock on.”

“Azula this is–”

“Go back out and try again.”

“Azula, are you really going to make me…” He groans but steps back outside. Sokka hears two quick knocks.

“Who is it!?” Sokka asks.

“You know who it is, Sokka!”

“Mmmm…you do sound familiar but I can’t quite place your voice.”

Azula snickers and nudges him with her foot. “Stop it, smiling hurts.”

“Which is why, after Zuko talks to you about this thing, we’re going to talk to Katara.”

“I can hear you, Sokka. You just said my name, I know that you know who I am!”

Azula rolls her eyes. “Just get in here, Zuzu.”

He makes himself comfortable at the edge of the bed. “I was talking to mother. And…it was. It was hard, Azula. I just remember her a lot differently. I was…disappointed.”

Sokka can see it in his eyes that he thinks that Azula will begin a good round of, ‘I told you so’. But her bruised lips remain firmly together.

“She wanted to tell you that it isn’t your fault that she doesn’t love you.”

Azula’s brows scrunch. “And telling me this is supposed to accomplish what?”

He shrugs. “It’s supposed to accomplish letting you know that you don’t have to blame yourself. For a long time I thought that it was my fault that Ozai didn’t love me. It got a lot easier after I realized that he’s just a selfish, angry, hateful person. I thought that it would help you to know that mother is scared…”

“Oh I know, I can see it in her eyes when she looks at me.”

“She’s scared of herself and what she did. You’re not a monster. You weren’t even a difficult kid, she just didn’t know how to raise you and she wanted you to know that she is aware.”

“Then why are you here and not her?” Azula scoffs.

“Because I didn’t know if you wanted her here, I can tell her to drop by…”

“I don’t want her here.” Azula confirms. “I’m not in the mood for excuses and justification. And I don’t have the energy to waste on a relationship that was horrid from the start. I know that you wanted this cute, happy family, Zuzu. But…”

“I get it, Azula. Mother and uncle aren’t your mother and uncle. You have your real family. I’d still like you to be my sister though.”

“Sokka, he’s talking to and about me so why are you the one getting emotional.”

“These aren’t tears they’re…”

“Early signs of becoming a really late blooming waterbender?”

“Yeah! That!” He declares. His smile wavers. “I’m just a sensitive guy, okay. I see sappy family stuff and…”

“And an irresistible desire to ruin the moment takes over?” She quirks a brow. Her usual exaggerated sigh turns into a wince that she powers through. “I suppose…” her voice is strained. “That I will permit you to address me as your sister every now and again.”

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head, “gee, thanks.”

Her smile reaches as far as her pain tolerance.

“Okay, I’m getting Katara.” Sokka stands up.

Zuko takes his place on the bed and pulls her into a careful hug.

“You aren’t hurting me but I am going to say ‘ow’ anyways with the hope that you will let go of me before I start to smell like irresponsibility and dishonor.”

“You’re the worst.” Zuko grumbles.

“Thank you.”

.oOo.

She doesn’t think that she should be moving around this much. It hurts, sometimes, to breathe. But she also can’t stand to be confined to a bed for one more minute. She can’t stray to far from the spa with her rib causing her so much hassle so she isn’t as ready as Sokka is to call this a date–mostly because she very much doesn’t want this to be what her very first date ever looks like; bandaged up and pathetic.

But she supposes that there is a particular, rather special sort of romance in having someone who is willing to have their first date in a rather unremarkable hot spring. A particular sort of care and attentiveness and intimacy in the way that he peels the bandages away and helps her into the spring.

She also supposes that he has done some pretty crafty work with the petals and the water candles. It sets an ambiance that the spring would have otherwise lacked. He slips into the spring with her and reaches for her hand.

“Are you feeling any better?”

Azula nods, it is rather nice to have lips that aren’t so obstructively swollen. And nicer still to be out and about again. Mother and father promise to have a little nest constructed for her when she gets home. A special arrangement of pillows and blankets that will accommodate the comfort of her ribs and the way that she likes to sleep.

She stares at her rippling reflection in the water and Sokka’s next to it. She lifts her hand out of the water and coaxes the scales over it. Right now she can only manage a small spatter of them. Just enough to put a shimmer into her palm.

Sokka furrows his brows. “Why are we taking the claws out?”

Azula shrugs. “I’ve never seen how they look in the water.” Maybe she just wants a reminder that they are pretty.

Sokka brushes his fingers over them. “They look really glittery.” He twists her hand slightly this way and slightly that. “Have you considered walking around with, like, just the scales or something?”

“I’m not sure that the world is ready for that.” Azula shrugs, she presses her lips firmly together. “Speaking of…”

“Oh no.”

“I think that I am going to remain in the Sun Warrior City for a while.” Or maybe forever.

“But…”

She holds up her shimmering hand. “I am a dragon, I have wings. It isn’t too hard to take myself back and forth. I think that I’ll be more comfortable residing in the Sun Warrior City. Unlike Ursa, they know how to raise a dragon.”

“I think that you’re old enough to raise yourself.”

“But I’m a–I believe that you and TyLee said–wittle baby dwagon.”

Sokka lifts a pointer and silently blunders for a counter.

“I still have a lot of catching up to do in regards to how to function as a dragon. I don’t want just the basics, I would like mastery.” She drops her hand back into the water. “Remaining with the Sun Warriors can provide that. I also don’t have an interest in dealing with all of the attention that I will get once word gets out.”

“I don’t think that people are going to be scared…”

“I never said that the attention would be bad.” She leans back and stares at the stars. “But I still don’t want it. I like to keep to myself, you know that. My life has been a spectacle for almost its entirety. I would like a break from that.”

“What about us?” He flinches.

“You can come with me.” She offers. “Or you can wait for me to visit. I plan on stopping by Caldera City at least once a week to remind Zuko that he is, in fact, still not safe.”

Sokka laughs.

It is one of those ridiculous head back, loud sort of laughs.

She supposes that she has grown fond of it.

“You can stay with me when I go to the Sun Warrior City and accompany me on those visits or you can meet me there.”

“I’ll go with you, Azula.”

“Y-you will?” She furrows her brows.

“You were expecting me to say no?”

She nods. “You have your own life and your own goals, yes.”

“I’m a simple man. I crave meat and adventure. If I go with you, I’ll get the adventure, will you provide the meat.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t really know where I was going with that. The point is, I just want to see new things and places. I’ve gone everywhere with Aang, it feels weird to not be on some sort of adventure. So why not go on one with dragons and a gorgeous princess?”

Azula’s cheeks color. Agni, she is going to have to get used to this whole romance thing. “Alright, Sokka. I will let mother and father know that you intend to join us so that father can suspiciously side eye you the whole time.”

“Grrreat…looking forward to that…” he trails off.

Azula smiles, if only slightly, to herself.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Sokka #Sokkla #Dragon Azula #Ran And Shaw #Zuko #Fanfiction

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riversaremeanttobefollowed · 2 years

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The Sun Warriors were able to maintain the ancient teaching of the Masters, Ran and Shaw, under the rules of Fire Lord Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai. Their teachings that were based on the life-giving and creative aspects of firebending weren't as accepted as the more destructive aspects when the Fire Nation entered the 100 year war.

One of their main teachings that has differed from the norm is their ability to draw their power from the sun.

The Sun Warriors are careful observers of astrological movement. Back before the start of the war the Sun Warriors were advisors to the Fire Lord. They had a very important place with in the Fire Nation. Many of the people would go to their City to consult the Sun Warriors and make pilgrimage to the Masters.

#Ran and Shaw #the dragons #the sun warriors #fire nation #Atla #Atla au #world building

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linusbenjamin · 5 months

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We're perfect for each other. You're gonna figure that out someday.

#person of interest #poiedit #poi spoilers #tvedit #root #samantha groves #sameen shaw #scifiedit #nikolatexla #LAST EPISODE WAS TOTALLY INSANE #i was truly shocked like i paused the video and just looked at the screen for a while because what the fuck #BTW THE FACT THAT THIS WAS HOW THE MACHINE IMAGINED THEY WOULD BE??? SIMULATED THEM AS LOVERS?? WTF #no way this show aired in 2014 #i enjoyed every second of this episode especially the scene where the machine realized time ran out so she had to simplify the dialogues 💀#pure genius

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muffinlance · 1 year

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Hello Dragons Here: Gaang Meeting Outtakes

Alternates to part four. Or read part one here.

Take 2: Hallway Meet & Greet

So they tried his office, but that was empty too, and there was only so long they could wander the palace before they were caught.

“I think it’s tactical retreat time,” Sokka whispered, as they huddled in an empty corner of the halls. “As long as they don’t know we were here, we can try again another night. We’ll just park Appa up in the mountains and… dragon?”

“What?” asked Katara.

“Baby dragon,” Sokka said, pointing down. The ferret-cat sized dragon blinked up at him, its snakey tongue flickering from its mouth. Aang resisted the urge to squeal.

“Please come back,” came a very tired voice, right before a teenager who walked really quietly rounded the corner and straight into them. Kind of literally. Sokka reached out to steady him, as he wobbled post-impact. And then they had a Fire Nation servant that they really couldn’t let leave blinking at them.

“...You’re very short assassins,” said the teenager. Whose long hair was partially tied up in a frazzled bun, but mostly down his back. And whose sleep robe was really rumpled. And who was blinking at them through a pair of glasses that were almost an exact match for the ones in fashion at King Kuei’s court, like he’d gotten them from the same artisan. And also there were some ink stains on his face, like maybe he’d fallen asleep on some still-drying documents. So… maybe a scribe? The stains were on the scared side of his face, which was where the Fire Lord was supposed to have one, but his was smaller on his face than the portraits Ozai had commissioned, especially with the way the hair fell over it. And Aang also knew from Ozai how much the Fire Lord liked sharing his facial scars with the people around him.

“We’re, ah. New hires?” Sokka said.

“I,” the teenager said, “am not dealing with this. I am taking Druk back to the hatchery, and then I’m finishing my work, and then I’m going to bed. If you’re assassins, make an appointment.”

“Is that… something assassins usually do?” Aang asked.

“They should,” the teenager said.

Take 1: In a Happier World

Did I write an entire prompt reply only to scrap it and replace it with Sifu Ozai? Yes. Yes I did. The original:

Aang is escorted between bending teachers, kept away from exploring. Kept away from the Fire Nation, and most of the coastlines of the Earth Kingdom, which are called the colonies now.

The first thing he was told, when he woke up, was There was a war. It lasted for ninety-eight years.

The second thing was, It’s over now.

No one tells him, but by the time he’s studying earthbending, he knows the third: It’s over because the Fire Lord said so.

“But… it’s good he ended it, right?” Aang asks that night, in the safety of his room with Sokka and Katara, who started as his escorts from the Southern Tribe but ended up as friends. He thinks they’re friends.

“It’s good he’s not marching new armies into places,” Sokka says, staring up at the ceiling. “Less good, that he hasn’t marched the old armies back out.”

“If he’d ended it a year earlier, our mother would be alive,” says Katara, her face to the wall.

Fire Lord Zuko celebrated his sixteenth birthday just before the winter solstice, when Aang was still in the south pole. The Avatar was sent a formal invitation to attend. But Aang had… he’d been awake for only a few weeks. All he’d wanted to do was go home. He’d tried, and—

And going into the Avatar state had apparently alerted sages the world over to his existence. So. That was great. The Fire Lord’s hawk carried another message, as unsaid as so many other things: I know exactly where you are, Avatar.

Chief Hakoda politely declined on his behalf.

He trained under the same master as Katara; one of the women who’d come south, when the blockades between the poles had been lifted. He wasn’t a natural healer like the Chief’s daughter, but it… it was good, healing. Healing was what he needed. Waterbending had a fighting branch, too, and he could go to the north pole if he wanted to learn it, but they’d already turned Katara away and. And he didn’t see what learning how to drown someone, or cut them with ice, would help. They sent an offer, to send one of their best masters south.

Gran-Gran declined on his behalf. He didn’t read what she’d written, so he could pretend it was polite.

The Earth Kingdom was… it was fracturing. Ba Sing Se had been the cultural and political center in Aang’s time, and it was still supposed to be a great city, but it was great because it had expanded its walls to ring in enough farmland for itself and then… sort of ignored what was going on outside them, for the next few decades. The generals living there still plotted tactics, still lead the armies, but the nobility lived like there wasn’t even a war. And then the news came out that the Earth King really hadn’t known about the war, and.

Aang was in Gaoling when the news hit. The Beifong family had invited him to stay during his travels, and Sokka had a firm always-accept-free-stuff-from-rich-people policy, so. So he got to look out over their estate walls as people rioted. When he finally made it to Omashu, Bumi took one look at the girl who’d kidnapped herself into his saddle and snorkel-snorted. And then they’d had an arm-wrestling contest over who got to teach him. Toph cheated, but so did Bumi, so it was fair?

“Two cheats make a right,” Sifu Toph told him.

“No they don’t,” said Katara.

Toph declared him a passable earthbender. Within the week, another hawk from the Fire Lord arrived: an invitation to be tutored by Crown Princess Azula herself.

I know exactly how much you’ve learned, the letter didn’t say. It didn’t have to.

“So,” said Toph, “we’re coming with to see how creepy this guy is in person, right?”

Aang was so, so glad for his friends.

And now they were in a suite of rooms in the palace, graciously being allowed the night to recover from their travels, before their meeting with the Fire Lord and his heir in the morning.

“On the bright side,” said Sokka, which was never a phrase that ended well from him, “if he wanted to assassinate you, he’s known where you are for months.”

“Thanks, Sokka,” Aang said. And went for a walk, in the palace halls, because… Because.

Because he was the Avatar. And no one was saying it outright, but every time they said The war is over what they meant was Because the Fire Lord forced the terms. Because he offered to stop killing our people if we signed. Because he has dragons, dragons big enough to scorch armies to ashes without ever getting in range of benders or archers, and no one can fight against that.

No one but the Avatar. Master of all four elements, if he did what every nation in the world had done, and accepted the Fire Lord’s generous offer.

“He’s not even offering to teach you himself,” Sokka had snorted, when he’d first read the letter. “What, is he too busy counting his war spoils?”

The halls were quiet. Aang was looking for one of those courtyard gardens they’d seen from the air, but what he found instead was—

“No, come back, why can’t you stay in the hatchery—”

A very frazzled young man, and a very noodly baby dragon, who both slid around a corner with the same scrabbling-over-polished-floors grace and crashed right into him.

“Umm,” said Aang. “Oww?”

“Catch him,” ordered the young man, as the dragon wormed its way between them and bolted again.

And then Aang was on a baby dragon chase which was... probably exactly what he needed. At least, he was out of breath and laughing by the end of it, and his new friend was grumpily down an outer robe, which had been sacrificed to the cause of bundling the baby into a sort of squirmy burrito-pretzel. Also it kept trying to light the robe on fire with its dragonbreath, and the teenager kept blowing his own sparks which somehow swirled with the fire and put it out, and Aang absolutely had to know—

“Can you teach me to do that?”

“Uh,” said the teenager, leaning back from Aang’s face, which was maybe a little closer to his own than most people found comfortable. But they were dragon buddies, like he and Kuzon had been, so it was totally justified. “I’m, uh. Not really that good? I barely have any time to practice real forms, the dragons just have me play games and creatively roast their meat—”

“But you’re breathing rainbows.”

“...Please don’t say it like that in front of my sister.”

“I won’t,” Aang said, smile broadening, “if you teach me. And come meet my friends!”

The teenager didn’t say no, and Aang recognized this hallway, so he hooked their arms together and dragged him off.

“Guys!” Aang said, sliding open their door. “I met the palace dragonsitter!”

“...Please don’t say that in front of my sister, either,” the teenager sighed.

“That’s nice, Aang,” said Sokka. “Hello, dragonsitter. How does it feel, to be kidnapped?”

“Familiar,” said the teenager, in a kind of worrying deadpan. “I really need to get Druk back to the hatchery. I’ll… see you tomorrow?”

“Nuh-uh,” said Toph. “This is my first team kidnapping. No leaving until we get a ransom.”

“...I can order snacks?” offered the teen.

“We’re keeping you,” Toph said. “Now get us more of those fire flakes. Snozzles keeps trying not to cry while eating them, it’s hilarious.”

“It is not my fault they are both delicious and trying to kill me,” Sokka said.

“...I’ll send tea, too,” the teenager said. “But, uh. I really should… not be here?”

“Relax,” Sokka said, slinging an arm over his shoulders. “It’s not like we’re going to snitch on you to the Fire Lord.”

The dragonsitter mumbled something Aang couldn’t quite catch, but it sounded a lot like I can see the family resemblance. But he got a passing servant to send for their snacks, and he let the little dragon down for some supervised exploration that ended in all of Sokka’s emergency seal jerky being gulped down its throat as it ran circles around the room, and the teenager finally sat down and leaned back and laughed, which Aang wasn’t sure was a thing he did a lot of.

And then he met them the next morning, in formal robes, on his throne.

“...Hello, Sifu Rainbows!” Aang said, and the girl next to His Majesty cackled.

#Azula: This is the best casual roasting

#since you came back home to father

#Zuko: can you please not use that comparison every time

#Azula: absolutely not <3

#All Adults: terrified of the Fire Lord

#Team Avatar: terrorizing the Fire Lord

#and then they broke it to him that people had signed his peace treaties under pain of dragon eating

#Zuko: THEY DON’T EVEN EAT PEOPLE

#Sokka: thank you for that information Fire Lord Dragonsitter

(Read more prompts || Longer ATLA fics || Original works)

#Hello Dragons Here #Avatar The Last Airbender #atla #Zuko #Sokka #Katara #Aang #Ran and Shaw #outtakes #ficlet

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