#these patterns are actually a combination of its old and current patterns. so think of it like a patched up sweater maybe lol
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milo trying out a new look! wearing its past patterns like an old sweater pulled out for the season
#its a shapeshifter but i hardly ever change its design so#some floppy ears and a new 'do to mix it up#these patterns are actually a combination of its old and current patterns. so think of it like a patched up sweater maybe lol#my art#furry#fursona#anthro#furry fandom#oc#clean furry#sfw furry#furry art#dragon#fluffy dragon#pear#toon#oc: milo#cow#hybrid
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One More
Genshin makes my imagination vibrate pleasantly. I just want to give Kaeya a reason to make me go “Oh?” cause he’s not even my one of my favs. But the sheer sex appeal coming from that man is dangerous.
Characters: Kaeya Alberich (Genshin Impact) x Reader
Warnings: Yandere, Groping, Innuendos, Alcohol, Aphrodisiacs, Insults
»»———————— ♡ ————————««
“Hey there, Sweetheart. What’s bringing you to the tavern so late at night?”
You had barely entered Angel’s Share and sat down at the bar before hearing the ever-so chipper voice of the cavalry captain drawing closer. There was nothing strange about meeting Kaeya here after a long day of work, but you and Charles exchanged a glance, the bartender sighing deeply. “I’ve only served him two drinks so far,” he explained, and you couldn’t help but think that was already one too many.
But who were you to say no to the Kaeya?
Perhaps better than anyone, Kaeya knew about the little game you two were playing. The always so icy shoulder you gave him as he continued to pressure you with his flirts was only making him want you so much more. You couldn’t count the number of times he had stopped you in the headquarters, pinned you between him and the wall - in broad daylight nonetheless - asking how you’re doing and if you need help with anything. You. Were. Sick of it! If he wanted a child to play father for, he could ask Klee to hang out with him! You, on the other hand, were a remarkable knight, trusted enough with complicated orders that - luckily! - kept you out of the city for a prolonged time so you could avoid him.
It only was hard when you weren’t on duty. Or in the city. Or close to him.
That’s when he became frisky, rather needy too.
Kaeya brushed his face from the left side of your head to the right, taking a deep breath. If it wasn’t known that you two reached back all the way to your training days, anyone would have raised an eyebrow. But most of the other guards were able to brush off his weirdness for affectionate friendship. It was almost like only you could see behind the farce, and perhaps his estranged brother. Not like Diluc had been any help to you, though, aside from breaking Kaeya off you once or twice when he was around and noticing your discomfort.
Taking up the stool beside you, there was no prior question if the seat was taken. A rather empty keg arrived with Kaeya at the bar, and he briefly tapped the rim until Charles fished for another bottle of alcohol to fill it up with. One could say Kaeya and a drink were a good mix, but to you, they were a terrible combination. Drinking made him bold. Unrestrained even.
Even though he offered his keg to you, you merely looked away, sipping at your own glass, one you much rather preferred to the brew he drank his night away with. Grinning, he instead took a hearty sip, leaning against the counter leisurely as he watched the bards perform near the entrance, but you didn’t miss even a single glance he sent your way every few seconds.
It was very unfortunate that you liked Angel’s Share for its drinks best; otherwise, you’d have had a good reason to avoid the establishment. But at the same time, you couldn’t let Kaeya direct all of your life. It was no state that you shouldn’t do what you enjoyed just because he could be there, and yet, you considered it.
“So, how was your mission? I’ve been missing your skills at training.”
“It was fine,” you answered curtly, uninterested in the conversation he initiated. There weren’t many people you talked to when you came back to Mondstadt. Somehow… it had always been hard for you to make friends with the other knights. Part of you suspected Kaeya being a reason why no one seemed to want to hang around, forcing you to spend most of your training with him since no one was willing to spar with you. Then again, you never had any evidence to confirm your suspicion, just like with many other phenomena you experienced over the years.
More than once had there been instances where your orders had been withdrawn just when you came close to solving the problems, often with the excuses that you were still too inexperienced or needed somewhere else. It had been so hard to raise in the ranks while Kaeya seemed to make leaps forward without a worry, but at least, you managed to secure your place now--one far away from the cavalry captain.
Sighing, Kaeya turned around to face the counter again, plopping his arm around your shoulders. Uncomfortably, you rolled your joints, but he instead pulled you closer to him, the smell of alcohol drafting off his lips as he spoke. “No need to play coy. You know you can tell me the truth. Didn’t you miss being home? I’m sure cleaning up those camps must have been exhausting!”
Missed being with me? seemed to be the words he wanted to say, but he packaged them in a way he knew they’d actually affect you. Kaeya had always been clever enough to poke the places that hurt. Of course, you missed home. You’d miss it more if not for him, but you had your family here, your siblings and parents that you’d like to see more often. But there was no chance with how much Kaeya liked to interfere in it. As if he was already part of your family, inviting himself and always showing up unannounced to hang out.
“‘Twas okay,” you replied after a moment of thought.
“Well, I missed you,” he chuckled before taking another sip of his keg. “I missed you sooo much!”
That was enough for you, brushing his arm off roughly before turning on your stool to leave. You knew even finding another space to sit wouldn’t spare you from him, and if you ended up in a less crowded area, you didn’t want to imagine what he’d do. “Aw, come on,” you heard behind you as he gripped your arm, making you stop. “I get it, I get it, you’re tired. But you can’t be tired enough not to drink one more with your old pal, right?”
With his voice rising in volume, you two finally gained some attention, and you instantly felt a rush of embarrassment as you stared into quite a few pairs of perplex eyes. Kaeya might have been eccentric, but he was well-liked nonetheless. Causing a scene had never worked well for you, and since you were already deemed an outsider, you’d only catapult yourself more into the shadows if any rumors spread after you left.
Clicking your tongue, you tore yourself out of his grip before sitting back on your chair again, holding up your finger. “One more. Only one more.”
“Of course,” Kaeya grinned, getting his will once again. “Only one.”
»»————— ♡
Hot lips brushing against each other, you had no better way to describe your state of being other than burning. For someone so cool and with an icy skill, Kaeya was not even close to being cold and reserved when it came to touching you. With a smile displayed on his mouth whenever he wasn’t using it to tease you, you could barely remember how you two ended up making out in one of the backstreets of Mondstadt. His hands were seemingly everywhere, and at the same time, lingered at the spots that created an audible cue from you when he squeezed them.
“You’re so sensitive,” he noted as you hung in his arms, hands currently squeezing your ass from your thighs upwards. “That’s good, I like that.”
“Fucker,” you merely cursed back. “You only said one more drink! I feel like shit! What the hell was that?”
“On the contrary, you feel amazing,” he ignored your questions, pushing his leg between yours as he pressed you closer to the cold stone wall behind you. A welcome sensation, giving you back some of your senses as the chill helped to calm your heated body. “I fucking hate you, Kaeya,” you confessed drunkenly, but the time was as good as any to say it.
“Ouch,” he brushed it off with a chuckle. “Are you sure? Your body grinding against mine is giving me very different vibes, Darling.”
Next thing, he was back in your mouth, his tongue roaming and keeping yours busy as you slung your arms around him. “You’re so stupid and mean, always testing everyone. You’re probably the reason everyone is avoiding me too, and you don’t let off no matter how much I tell you to leave me alone!”
“Mhm,” he hummed as his lips wandered down your neck, making you stretch it out for him so he could reach better. “And now... I don’t even know! You drugged me?!”
A soft laugh escaped him before you felt a suck at your collarbone, followed by the wet sensation of a tongue tasting your skin. “Bingo, Baby. Lisa really wanted to know what would happen if someone drank this potion and you were all too eager to get it down your throat-”
“To get away from you!” you interrupted him.
“Whatever.”
Finally, Kaeya came up on eye level again, the two of you staring at each other for a moment in silence.
“Whatever?” you questioned, confused by his reaction.
“Yeah, whatever. I think kissing you made me swallow at least, hm... half of it too. Even if we wanted to, we wouldn’t be able to stop now, don’t you think?”
One of the most disgusting grins you had ever seen on the face of a person played around his lips as he pressed up to you, uniting you two in another kiss. Of course, you could stop it! You could, and you would right now. After all, you had allowed it to go on for far too long now! Pressing your hands into his shoulders, Kaeya let out a soft sigh against your lips, his uncovered eye closed as he enjoyed the affection. “One more,” he mumbled as he kissed you again and again, feverishly and impatiently. “I’ve been waiting forever to do this.”
With the excitement of a teenage boy, his hands roamed your body, pulling out the shirt from your trousers to lodge themselves beneath it. Skillful fingertips drew patterns over your skin, up your spine, and down your sides until you were gasping and shivering in his grasp. “Good,” he sighed against your lips, unbothered by you still trying to push him away, only ever flinching as he groped you. “Don’t you already know it? How much you drive me crazy? It’s only fair I drive you crazy too.”
“What the fuck are you even talking about--” you tried to contradict him. But Kaeya was quick to muffle your voice with another deep kiss. Intentionally or not, he met one of your sensitive spots as he explored you, causing a hitched moan to escape you, followed by a satisfied grunt from him. “I’ve been waiting for so long, I can’t have you take it from me now,” he breathed out huskily.
“I’ll scream!” you threatened him. “Let me go now, Kaeya!”
“Ah-ah,” he rebuked you, one of his hands being freed of groping-duty to cover your mouth. “No one’s going to take you away from me now either. Come one, be good, okay?”
Waiting for the right moment, Kaeya couldn’t endure your angry stare for very long before falling into soft laughter. “All right, all right,” he chuckled before leaning forward brushing his lips against his hand. “One more kiss, okay? I will leave you alone after that.”
Furrowing your brows even more, he interpreted you shaking your head as a ‘no’, letting out a long, “Aww…”
“Only one more, pretty please?”
You had to give it to him: persistency was something he didn’t lack. It felt like shooting into your own foot, but part of you just wanted it to be over. You two had kissed so much up till now; how much worse would one more be? And if he let you go afterwards, you could definitely endure it. Lifting up your hand to yank his from your mouth, Kaeya didn’t expect you to take the initiative, looking at you perplexed as you leaned forward to kiss him. No one ever taught you how to kiss, and without his directions, you weren’t actually sure on how any of it worked, but he didn’t seem to mind, humming a pleased tune before returning your awkward smooches.
When was a kiss one kiss? When the lips parted? After the first initial touch? Kaeya’s definition was two minutes of continuous connection between you two, only briefly drawing back for air but never without upholding the contact by biting and pulling on your lip or having your tongue following his out of your mouth into the cold night. He gripped your head tightly in his palms, not allowing you to get away. Only when he let go did you fall back hard against the wall as you two finally broke apart, and you hadn’t noticed how much he had held you up.
The rich flavor of alcohol on your tongue and his scent in your nose didn’t help with getting a clear mind, but nothing about you made sense anymore. Now that he had let you fall back and away from him, you felt even hotter than before, your body clearly bothered by the lack of stimulation. What part of ‘I wanted none of this’ did you not understand yourself? At least by the throbbing in your abdomen, you could tell that whatever kind of potion he had given to you definitely wasn’t a fun experience, but all the more potent.
“Hurts, huh?” he laughed across from you. “Oh, fuck off,” you mustered to say, but the pain was obvious by your expression. You were barely able to keep yourself up properly.
“I’d offer my help, but you made it clear you didn’t want it.” The situation must have been really funny to him, only agitating you more. If it at least hadn’t been Kaeya, you might have accepted help, but you knew you’d have to get yourself home now all by yourself in a state of constant heat with no way to resolve it.
“You caused all of this! You should at least take responsibility without taking advantage of the situation!”
Pushing yourself away from the wall, you decided it was time to step away. There was no use in talking with Kaeya, but the moment your support dwindled, you noticed how wobbly your legs felt, barely capable of holding you up. What had you trained all these years for if a mere potion could make you so incredibly weak? Before you could get back to the wall, one knee gave away, making you sink to the ground where you could barely catch yourself with your hands.
“It’s really working you hard, isn’t it?” you heard him speak down from above. Squatting to your level, you felt his hand slide through your hair before gripping and lifting your head to face him. “Tell you what: If you ask nicely, I’ll help you. Can’t promise you’ll wake up in your bed tomorrow morning, but a bed nonetheless, wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Fuck you,” you hissed back, and he shook his head, disappointed.
“Try again.”
What choices did you have? Risk the little bit of reputation you still had by being found in the morning, disheveled and drunk from the night before? The knights absolutely hated anything that would ruin their pristine prestige, so much even you knew. You had worked so hard to get where you were, could you really risk all of it? “... please,” escaped you before you could think it through further.
“What was that?” he teased you, and you wondered why he could still be so clear even after drinking much more than you did and having had a taste of the potion from your lips. “Please help me get home.”
This time, he laughed out loud, obviously amused by how pitiful you had to behave to please him. “One more time. Say it one more time, and say it nice.”
Frustrated, you wished you could have punched him in the face, but you only bit your lip, taking a deep breath before complying. “Please, Kaeya. I need your help to get home. Please help me home!”
Embarrassment was all you could think about as he conditioned you to do as he wanted, but finally, after you did what Kaeya demanded, he petted your head, leaning forward to kiss your forehead before reaching under your arms to pull you up. “Look at you, all cute and begging me for help.”
Quickly being lifted from the ground, you found your new halt by gripping into his shoulders tightly and wrapping your legs around his waist as he held you in front of him. “You’re so adorable!” he chuckled as you clung to him much more in fear of him letting you fall than because you wanted it. He seemed to have similar thoughts, giving you a bit of a scare as he let go of you, having you hang from him by only your own strength, which you didn’t trust anymore. But just as quickly, your horrified expression made him laugh, and he gave your rear a teasing slap. Lucky for you, Kaeya didn’t make you fear any longer, embracing you back and allowing you to sink against him more as he started to make his way through the streets of Mondstadt. From an onlooker’s point of view, it might have seemed like you jumped him out of joy, but really, you clung on as if your life depended on it while Kaeya seemingly enjoyed the hug.
“Just get me home, you Asshole,” you grumbled, but your insults didn’t do any damage to his good mood. “Sure, I’ll get you home,” he replied chipper, but you already had bad thoughts as you heard that.
“At least, the place I call ‘home’,” he confirmed your suspicion, and inwardly, you already admitted defeat even as you punched your fist into his shoulder.
“You know how it is,” he brushed it off lightly, patting your backside while he climbed the stairs towards the headquarters with seemingly no effort.
“I can never refuse you or leave you be. I adore you way too much.”
#Kaeya#Kaeya Alberich#Kaeya genshin#yandere!kaeya#yandere kaeya#genshin#genshin impact#yandere genshin#yandere genshin impact#yandere!genshin#yandere!genshin impact#yandere#yandere imagines#yandere headcanons#yandere scenarios#yandere fanfiction#yandere writing#yandere stories#yandere oneshots#yandere oneshot#yandere drabble#yandere x reader#yandere x darling#Yandere TW
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hi riley! read this recently and would love to get ur perspective on this as a YA author https://tinyletter.com/misshelved/letters/did-twitter-break-ya-misshelved-6
hi anon! yeah, i read this the day it was posted. thoughts/supplementary essay below.
firstly, i'd put a big "I AGREE" stamp across this essay. i think it's well-cited and thoughtful, and i agree with pretty much everything in it. i especially appreciate it for introducing me to the terms "context collapse" and "morally motivated networked harassment" - seeing internet sociology studied and labeled is ... odd, but useful.
i left twitter in 2017, but i keep an eye on things, which seem similar now to the way they were four years ago. the essay describes the never-ending scrutiny, the need to seem perfect, and the pressure on writers to out themselves. all of that is spot-on. twitter is an outing machine. there is so much harassment and anger on the platform that in serious conversations, good-faith engagement becomes something that must be earned, rather than something that's expected. and in order to earn good faith, strangers expect you to offer up an all-access pass to who you are. otherwise, things might take a swift left turn into verbal abuse.
obviously twitter is a cesspit of harassment from racist, homophobic, and transphobic people, but i think the most painful harassment comes from within the community. i, and most people i know, wouldn't give a single minuscule little fuck if ben shapiro's entire army of ghouls came after us and told us we were destroying the sacred values of Old America or whatever. but the community at large does care about issues of racial justice and queer liberation and economic justice. which is why it's painful to see this supposed "community" eating its own over and over again.
how cruel can we be to people and pretend that we are their friends? that's the emotional crux of the essay to me. what we're doing to ourselves - people who do share our values and want to achieve the same goals - because this one platform is built on rewarding the quickest, most brutal, and most public response.
god forbid you don't have your identity figured out. god forbid you have an invisible disability, or are writing a story about something sensitive you've personally experienced but had an off-consensus reaction to. on twitter, if you are not a paragon of absolute and immediate clarity, you may as well be lower than dirt morally, because you're unable to do what the platform requires of you: air every private corner of your identity, up to and including your trauma, to justify not only your everyday actions and opinions but also your art.
(this is all honestly incompatible with interesting art, but i'll get to that in a bit.)
it doesn't take a genius to see how troubling this environment is when combined with twitter as a marketing tool. i remember that around the time of my debut, i'd tweet out threads of private, painful, personal stuff, which felt terrible to recount, but i'd watch the like count increase with this sense of catholic, confessional satisfaction. all of this was tied to the idea of my potential salability as a writer.
i was around 21 at the time. i felt a lot of pressure as a debut. i wanted people to like me and think i was exceptionally mature and confident. i wanted to do my job and build buzz for my book. i saw that all these publishing professionals and authors spent day in, day out angry and exhausted on twitter. every few days, a new person fifteen years older than me would say, "i can't take this anymore, i'm so fucking tired of this, i'm logging off for a while." i thought, well, this must be how online activism feels: like running on a sprained ankle.
i can still remember book after book after book that inspired blow-ups, big explanations, and simmering resentment: carve the mark (whose author was forced to admit that she suffered chronic pain after relentless criticism of that element), the black witch (a book explicitly about unlearning racism that was criticized for depicting ... racism), ramona blue (a book about a bi girl who thinks she's a lesbian but winds up in an m/f relationship, because she's still discovering her identity) ... etc
each book, each incident, followed the same pattern. firestorms of anger, a decision of where to place blame, the desperate need for a single consensus opinion in the community. i think a lot of people on book twitter see these as bugs inherent to the platform, but really, in twitter's eyes, they're features. the angrier and more upset twitter's userbase is, the more reliant they are on the platform.
i wound up leaving around the time i realized that not only was twitter making me anxious - NOT being on twitter was beginning to make me anxious, because of vaguely dread-infused tweets all around like "i'm seeing an awful lot of people who are staying silent about X. ... why are so many people who are so loud about X so silent about Y?" etc.
that shit is beyond poisonous. people will not always be logged on. the absence of someone's agreement does not mean disagreement. actually, someone's absence is not inherently meaningful, because it is the internet and silence is everyone's default position; internet silence in all likelihood means that that person is out in the universe doing other things.
this is already a ridiculously long response, so i'll try to wrap up. firstly, i think that progressive writers and readers have GOT to stop thinking that a correct consensus opinion can exist on every piece of fiction, and on every issue in general, and that if someone diverges from that consensus, they're incorrectly progressive.
secondly, i think that progressive writers and readers have got to uncouple the idea of a "book with good politics" from a good book, because 1) there are books about morally grimy, despicable subjects that help us process the landscape of human behavior, and
2) if, in your fiction, there is only one set of allowed responses for your protagonist, you will write the same person over and over and over again. you see this a lot in religious fiction. the person is not a human being but an expression of the creator's moral alignment. (not entirely surprising that this similarity to religious correctness might crop up with the current state of the movement. i read this piece around the time i left twitter and it shook me really, really deeply.)
i understand that in YA, there's a sensation of immense pressure because people want to model good politics and correct behavior for kids. this is a noble idea - and maybe twitter is great for people who want to be role models. but i've become more and more staunchly against the idea of artist as role model. the role of the writer is not to be emulated but to write fiction. and the role of fiction is not to read like something delivered from a soapbox, or to display some scrubbed-clean universe where each wrong is immediately identified as a wrong, and where total morality is always glowing in the backdrop. it's to put something human on paper, and as human beings, we might aspire to total morality, but we fall short again and again. honestly, that's what being on twitter showed me more clearly than anything.
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Underneath Starlit Skies: Sokkla Saturdays 2021
Day One: Happy Family
On FF.net // On AO3
"Well, goodness. I can't believe he actually pulled it off."
The building awaiting them inland had never seen more beautiful days, Azula had no doubts about that. Few people had seen the Ember Island villa in its previous prime, and only two people out of the many who would spend the week there had any notion of what it had looked like in the past. Yet the decaying estate that had seemed moments away from becoming uninhabitable had been part of yet another of many renewal efforts following the end of the Hundred Years' War: all the weed growing on the roofs had been removed, the rooftiles themselves had been replaced, the gold finish of the crests had been cleansed and renewed, the paint on the walls was vivid again, and the blocked out, old window frames had been replaced by elegantly patterned woodwork that crisscrossed over the glass.
Beyond that, however, Azula found the building itself had been expanded. Her childhood's vacation villa had seemed large when she was but a little girl, but it certainly was much larger now: the grounds around it had been terraformed in current times, allowing the villa to spread wider and larger, with a brand-new annex area that had been build to provide visitors far more rooms to choose from… a necessary luxury, Azula knew, for the countless guests the villa would soon host.
"Huh, so that's the place?" Sokka asked, stepping closer to where she stood, by the ferry's railing, and wrapping an arm around her waist. "Looks… cozy."
"Cozy?" Azula smirked at Sokka's deliberately arrogant declaration. He snickered as she elbowed him gently in the ribs. "Come on, it's practically a palace of its own."
"Maybe, but it's not that fancy once you get used to fancier…" he smirked: he pressed a kiss to the top of his wife's head, and Azula instinctively leaned into him. "You've spoiled me rotten over the years and you know it. I used to be so much humbler…"
"So, I ruined you, is it?" Azula asked, turning in his arms, eyebrows raised skeptically. Sokka snickered and nodded, prompting her to laugh again and shake her head. "You've never known any shame, and I love that about you far more than I should."
"Who says you shouldn't?" Sokka grinned: Azula took his bait, leaning in to press her lips against his…
"Mom, Dad! Ew!"
Their kiss broke off as Azula sighed, glancing hopelessly at Shun: the boy squirmed and stuck his tongue out at their blatant display of affection, as he always did.
"Guess now we know who says I shouldn't," Azula smirked, shaking her head at her son, who pouted stubbornly. Sokka, however, scoffed and waved a hand in Shun's direction.
"Never mind Shun, he's just grumpy I've got your attention for now," Sokka said, proudly. Azula laughed as Shun gasped in outrage. "You'd think he'd be used to it, he sees us doing this all the time, seriously, ALL the time…!"
"He's a stubborn one. Wait until he finds someone to kiss too, we'll return the favor tenfold," Azula taunted Shun, who blushed furiously while Sokka laughed proudly.
"Sounds like a plan," he said
"No! No kissing! I won't kiss anyone!" Shun determined, stubbornly.
"See? That's why your mom comes to me: if you won't even kiss her cheek, I have to make up for it," Sokka declared proudly: Shun was still far too young to learn how to navigate the waters of verbal fencing with his father and Sokka, unlike him, had countless years of training in the arts of how to turn someone's words against them. He had done it thousands of times to Azula… just as she had done it thousands of times to him. Shun, however…
"Ugh!" was the little boy's final, eloquent declaration before he stormed off, pouting irritably, on his way to the side of the ferry where his sisters were.
"Ah, sweet victory…" Sokka smirked, tightening his embrace around Azula.
She couldn't hold back her smile, comfortably nestled in his arms, as her eyes raked their ferry all the way to where the children sat: Hotaru had kept Yuuna distracted with wild tales of hybrid animals, an effective way of ensuring the young waterbender wouldn't do anything chaotic with her powers, such as accidentally building up waves that could disturb the progress of their vessel, or even breaking the hull by practicing her ability to freeze water. She had much to learn yet, but their youngest had a knack for choosing to learn it all at the worst possible timing: Sokka and Azula had taken turns keeping her busy so far, but Hotaru had graciously relieved them from the job at the last leg of their journey. Shun joined the two girls now, sitting on the floor before them, much more interested in listening to his older sister's stories than in watching his parents' relentless displays of affection.
"It feels like we set out barely a few minutes ago…" Sokka smiled, glancing back at the house with amazement. "I really hope our little vacation doesn't go by in a blur. It's been a while since we took any breaks…"
"It has. But now that things have calmed down a bit, I think we could afford doing this sort of thing more often," Azula said, with a weak smile. "Zuko did say he wanted to make this a yearly event, at the very least… he might have to make it more frequently than that, though. Some of our expected guests would surely appreciate taking breaks from the harshness of winter once in a while…"
"For that matter, he ought to rent the house to them in winter so they can flee from the nasty weather," Sokka suggested, with a smirk. "Which could mean we would get two vacations a year… that's a pretty good deal, I think."
"I think so too," Azula said, relaxing comfortably against his chest.
The sea's salty scent, the sun's bright glow, the beauty in the colorful scenery before them… all of it heralded good things, even if Azula suspected it painted a prospect far too good to be true. Even if the years had mellowed them out, she was quite likely to butt heads with her brother over anything and everything… and Sokka was bound to do the same with his own sister, whenever she arrived. Then, there was also the matter of having far too many children, of variable ages, running around within a single house… it was difficult enough keeping track of Yuuna and Shun most days, Azula hardly wanted to imagine how much more difficult it would be to handle their childish antics when combined with those of her brother's children, too… as well as all the kids that might just be part of their grand revelry. At this point, Azula wasn't sure who had confirmed attendance and who hadn't: for once, she had nothing to do with the organization of an event. Zuko had handled everything himself, therefore, she would have nothing to do but kick back and enjoy whatever madness this week had in store for them.
Even the dock, rundown and unusable as it had been the last time Azula had so much as glanced this way in Ember Island, had been rebuilt and strengthened by solid, beautiful workmanship into a magnificent pier: the manatee-whales carrying forward their ferry slowed right beside it, and the activity of the ferry's workers signaled to the children that the journey was finally at an end. As tame as she always was, even Hotaru couldn't hold back the bright smile and enthusiasm that rushed over her upon realizing they had reached their destination.
"Alright, time to reel in our three little storms," Azula smiled, clasping Sokka's hand and yanking him towards the kids, who had already leapt to their feet, beaming brightly.
"That's the house, Mom?" Hotaru asked, gold eyes bright with illusion. "It's amazing!"
"Well, it certainly is now," Azula smiled, nodding as she cast another glance at their destination. "Your uncle's done a surprisingly great job at making it better than it ever was."
"Do I get to pick my room?!" Shun asked, beaming brightly. Azula raised an eyebrow.
"I wonder about that. I mean, there should be enough room for everyone in there, if all repairs and construction were finished on time…" Azula said, tapping her chin. "But I wonder if Zuko has already decided on our sleeping arrangements, beforehand…"
"Like… a room for each family?" Hotaru asked. Sokka winced visibly at the notion.
"No… more like rooms for each set of parents, and the kids can all sleep in the same tiny room," he decided, smirking. Azula rolled her eyes and elbowed his ribs again, prompting him to chuckle… yet it didn't seem the kids were all that displeased by the idea.
"Maybe girls would share, and boys too…?" Hotaru said, smiling.
"Me and Hotaru!" Yuuna exclaimed, wrapping her little arms around her sister's leg. Shun pouted upon realizing he wouldn't be with his oldest sister too, but he crossed his arms over his chest and smiled shortly afterwards:
"That's fine, then! I'll be with Renshu and Iroh!" he declared.
"And Yuudai," said Hotaru, smiling weakly. "I guess he'll have to be in charge of making sure all of you behave yourselves?"
"Heh, I was just kidding around. Who'd have thought they'd actually like that idea…?" Sokka spoke quietly to Azula, who chuckled and shook her head.
"We'll see about all this once we're at the house, kids. Now, then…" she withdrew from Sokka's embrace most unwillingly, yet as disappointed as he was to let her walk away, he knew she meant to speak with the ferry's sailors, ensuring they would bring their luggage safely to the house.
Azula thought they hadn't brought excessive amounts of luggage but, considering the potential chaos that never failed to swirl around children – someone might spill juice over their clothes, any accidents could result in scraped knees or elbows, their possessions could be mixed up with those of their cousins, among countless possibilities –, they never could be too prepared. Each child had a small bag to carry themselves, as Sokka had taught them to pack essentials and carry them in a personal bag for any trip they might take, in case anything unpleasant happened. The two of them had bags of their own… though Sokka, as ever, was carrying his wife's. At this point, Azula was well past the point of trying to reason with him about the futility of letting him carry her emergency supplies, he'd make up any goofy excuse to continue doing it… and in the end, it was rather gallant of him to do so, anyway.
Once she had settled everything with the sailors, Azula finally returned to her family: the ramp that led to the dock had already been set down, and it seemed Shun and Yuuna were ready to race down to solid ground, eager smiles on their faces as Sokka held them back, by the scruff of their respective outfits.
"Ah, Mommy's back now, see?" Sokka smiled at Azula, and the kids grinned brightly too. "We're all stepping down this big ship together, alright?"
"As it should be," Azula determined, stepping up and wrapping an arm around Hotaru's shoulders. Her oldest daughter smiled at the gesture, watching fondly as her younger siblings put on an act of trying to run down the ramp, despite their father still held them back. "Though I have the feeling you three ought to climb down first, not sure Hotaru and I care to compete over who touches land first."
Her words wound up offering her children an idea she hadn't truly planned on giving them: Yuuna and Shun smiled viciously at each other, a telltale sign that chaos was about to begin, and Sokka only had time to yelp before the young waterbender raised a burst of water, hoisted from the sea around them, right into her brother's fistful of flames.
"Ack! No crazy bending, you…! Hey! Hey, now!" Sokka squealed: the resulting steam from his children's joint attack had seen him releasing them from his hold… and now the two kids ran down the ramp, laughing happily, while he pouted at them. "How dare you…?! I should have you grounded! Azula, can I ground them?"
"Asking me for permission to ground them isn't exactly productive when it comes to enforcing your authority, Sokka…" Azula smirked, as Hotaru laughed beside her. Sokka pouted before rising to his feet, hands fisted on his hips.
"Unacceptable! I am going to ground you, yes I will!" he declared, his voice cracking in the typical way it did whenever he was joking.
He strode down the ramp in an awkward gait, and the two kids, already standing on solid ground, only giggled guiltily as he approached them.
"Who'd have thought…? You two, little troublemaking rascals… you're always at each other's throats, but you're the best of friends whenever it's convenient, huh?!" he huffed, stepping down onto the solid ground at the end of the dock. "How shameless. Is this behavior acceptable for the children of Sokka, the great warrior of the Southern Water Tribe?!"
"Yeah!" Yuuna declared, shamelessly, as Shun laughed carelessly beside her. Sokka's eyebrow twitched.
"The fact that you're impossibly cute just… makes it so damn difficult to discipline you. Curse it," Sokka lamented himself, sighing and surrendering by dropping on his knees. "Azula! Make them behave themselves! I am hopeless!"
"What makes you think I'll do any better than you today?" Azula laughed, climbing down the ramp alongside Hotaru. "I have to save up my energies for arguing with my own brother, mind you…"
"And I have to save mine for my sister too," Sokka pouted. "No idea when Katara will get here, though, but still…"
"Aunt Katara!" Yuuna smiled, throwing her hands in the air: a light burst of water burst from the shore, accompanying her movement.
"Uncle Zuko is better!" Shun decided, grinning proudly. Immediately, Yuuna pouted and scowled at her brother.
"Aunt Katara!"
"Uncle Zuko!"
"Aunt Katara!"
"Uncle Zuko!"
Azula rolled her eyes over the pointless argument between the children, even if she did so affectionately, as Sokka rose to his feet again. Hotaru smiled awkwardly, stepping forward between her siblings.
"Now, now, no need to argue about that, you can both love Uncle Zuko and Aunt Katara, you don't need to pick either one…" her attempt to mediate, Azula suspected, wouldn't be all that successful, but the good-natured Hotaru had to try anyway.
"Uncle Zuko is in the house already, right, Mom?" asked Shun, beaming brightly before shooting Yuuna a mischievous smirk. "Race you there!"
"Oh! I'll win!"
"Hey, I didn't say you could get started yet…!"
Yuuna took off in a hurry and Shun wasted very little time following and catching up to her. As he was two years older than his little sister, his legs carried him forward much faster, no matter how short they both were.
"Hey! Slow down, you…! Oh, hell, who do they take after?" Sokka groaned, rubbing his forehead and shaking his head.
"Must be their uncle Zuko," Azula responded, matter-of-factly. Her husband smirked.
"And their aunt Katara," he agreed: both laughed at their devious shirking of any responsibility over the typical arguing between their youngest children. Hotaru smiled and shook her head as well, used to her parents' mischief, a much more contained form of mischief, yet still as entertaining as that of Shun and Yuuna.
As much as their youngest were as wild as ever, Sokka and Azula intended to enjoy this summer escapade as best they could, and that included basking in the mischief their children could weave. They walked the trail Yuuna and Shun had taken off on, with Hotaru in front of them, calling out at her siblings to be careful and sighing hopelessly upon realizing they weren't listening to her at all.
"Now, now, Hotaru… you're not responsible for your siblings' recklessness, we've told you so many times already," Azula said, and Hotaru smiled somewhat shyly at her. Sokka nodded sagely.
"Azula's right, as usual," he said. "Have fun and relax, kiddo. Your mom and I will prevent those two from setting the house on fire…"
"Or flooding it," Azula pointed out, at which Sokka grimaced.
"Zuko would lose his shit if they did, wouldn't he?"
"Now, don't say that or I'll actually want to see it happen…" Azula said, unable to convey her thoughts without breaking over a mischievous snort of laughter. Sokka gasped, though his outrage, as always, was a poor mask for his genuine amusement.
"Come on, now, Azula: play nice or it'll be obvious those two aren't taking after our siblings. Who're we going to fool if you keep laughing at that idea…?" Sokka scolded her playfully, leaning into her ear to speak through an awkward grin… fully aware, of course, that his laughing daughter could hear him, too.
"See why I have to keep tabs on them?" Hotaru laughed. Azula shrugged guiltily, and Sokka's attempt to play the straight-laced father crumbled into dust as he laughed against his wife's cheek. "If only I were half as good at it as Rei is, though… I wish she were here today."
"Hopefully she'll make her schedule work for it the next time," Azula said, with a fond smile. "There's a lot of people who should be here, really…"
"But they have to hold up the fort, right?" Hotaru asked. Azula nodded.
"We'll have to give them some downtime of their own, once we go back home," Azula said. Hotaru grinned and nodded.
"Maybe me, Shun and Yuuna could join them on their vacation too, while you and dad, uh…"
"Work?" Azula asked, amused. Hotaru blushed and shrugged.
"Guess that wouldn't be fair…"
"Oh, it'd be fine, totally fine," Sokka said, squeezing Azula's shoulder. "We'll just pretend we're working while they're gone, Azula, totally. Maybe we can redecorate everything in the silliest of ways, change everyone's belongings from room to room…"
"Well, that sounds hilarious, admittedly, and yet it's still too much work," Azula pointed out. Sokka huffed.
"Then we'll set up pranks! That should be more fun, even if it still takes some effort…"
"Now that does sound appealing…"
"Oh, Mom, Dad…!" Hotaru laughed, looking at them in disbelief as Sokka grinned shamelessly.
"Never underestimate your parents, Hotaru: we're dangerous in ways you cannot even begin to imagine!" Sokka said, menacing. Azula scoffed, shaking her head.
"She'll never believe that about her dork of a father, so you'll have to try a bit harder to sound convincing."
"Oh, but she'd believe it about you, then?" he asked, amused.
"Of course! I'm completely respectable, imposing. Everyone cowers when I amp up my authoritarian side…"
"Heh, I sure as heck don't cower before you."
"Because you lack common sense, obviously, but everyone who doesn't…"
"No, it's actually because, unlike everyone else, I can see right through every last bit of you…!"
"Hey, now. No naughty talk."
"Naughty why? I didn't mean that! Though, uh, now that you mention it…"
"Sokka!"
He laughed deviously again, though he knew better than to press their playful argument any further in that direction: while he and Azula weren't half as careful about their intimate time together as they definitely should be, it seemed they had safely preserved their children's innocence so far. Hotaru shot them a confused glance now, and Azula offered her a tight-lipped, guilty smile as the three of them continued walking in new silence: their eldest had yet to receive the famous 'talk', and Azula wasn't sure whether it was wise to continue putting it off or not. Hotaru stood on the verge of her teenage years as it was, and even if she hadn't developed much of an interest in anything to do with relationships, it was entirely possible her friends and acquaintances might talk about it far more often as she grew older. They'd have to do it sooner or later… but for now, Hotaru and her siblings were better off enjoying their childhood innocence as best as possible.
Yuuna and Shun had reached the building at last, but it was Shun who had climbed the steps faster and reached the front doors first. Yuuna pouted and stomped on the wooden floor in a typical childish tantrum, while her brother stuck his tongue out with a smug smirk.
"Got you!"
"No fair!"
"Gotta run faster next time," Shun shrugged carelessly, and Yuuna huffed, little fists tight: even at a distance, Sokka recognized the vengeful mood of his youngest daughter and rushed faster to the building to, hopefully, deflate the situation.
"Wow, wow, wow, you guys! We're all happy here, all friends, no need to give each other the stinkeye…!" he said, grinning awkwardly as he leapt over the steps that led to the front door. Yuuna huffed, folding her arms over her chest and turning away from Shun. "Oh, Yuuna…"
"I won, Dad!" Shun declared, proudly. Sokka grimaced.
"Yeah, and you're older and bigger than your little sister, so don't make fun of her or else, when she grows up too…"
"I will freeze your boogers!" Yuuna declared. Shun flinched, and Sokka snorted.
"Well, that's creative, but Yuuna, please don't do that," Sokka said: Shun instinctively covered his nose with his hands… then he huffed and lowered them again.
"Joke's on you, because I have no boogers today!" he said: drawing in a deep breath and enjoying the lack of friction between the air and his nose.
"Then I'll take out mine and…!"
"Yuuna…!" Sokka exclaimed, grimacing as he grasped his daughter's shoulders. The stubborn waterbender pouted at him – the hairdo she'd sported hours ago, a perfectly smooth top-knot, had already come undone and frizzed out in every possible direction. "You can beat your brother at something else later, I bet you can! But… wait, that's not even it! You shouldn't be beating him at anything, and he shouldn't beat you at anything either, because we're all family and we're all on the same side! Right, Azula?"
His wife had finally reached them, and to Shun and Yuuna's immediate horror, there was a humorless frown on their mother's face. They both winced, hands behind their backs, and Sokka raised an eyebrow upon realizing Azula had drawn her strongest hand already. Well, so be it…
"Aha. Looks like you're in trouble now, you two," he said to his youngest, with a proud smile. "So… what do we say when we do something out of bounds, or fight over silly things?"
"Sorry, Mom," the two kids chorused. Sokka's eyebrows twitched.
"W-what about me…?" he asked, softly.
Hotaru, behind him, snorted with poorly stifled amusement. Azula, however, stepped forward, still the pristine and perfect image of authority that often was the only thing that could get Shun and Yuuna in line whenever their sibling bickering seemed to reach dangerous heights.
"You are already aware of the terms and conditions for any arguments and conflicts that may arise in this family," Azula said, with her terrifying business voice. Her children winced, and even Sokka gazed at her warily upon hearing it. "Unless I expressly authorize you to resolve your conflicts by your own hand…"
"We must defer to Mom or Dad," Hotaru recited, smiling proudly. Azula nodded.
"Thank you, Hotaru. So… what do you have to say for yourselves?" she asked.
"Shun made fun of me because he won…" Yuuna pouted. Shun huffed.
"Yuuna tried to cheat!" Shun growled.
"If she tried to cheat and you still won, is that really a problem anymore, Shun?" Azula asked. Shun blinked blankly and lowered his gaze. "As for you, Yuuna… as tempting as it can be to pull tricks and pranks on others to get ahead, a victory gained through breaking rules will always be questioned. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Mom…" Yuuna pouted still. Azula breathed deeply.
"If you have anything else to say, this is the time for it," she said, ceremoniously. Sokka smiled, watching as Shun and Yuuna squirmed in front of her.
"Shun… doesn't have any boogers," Yuuna pouted. Shun huffed.
"She said she'd freeze them if I did," he mumbled. "She shouldn't threaten me, right, Mom?"
"Indeed, and you shouldn't goad her into threatening you either," Azula said. Shun pouted but nodded. "If that is all, then it is time I say my piece: as we're all aware, we'll be dealing with actual rivals and enemies once we cross that house's threshold next. It's a whole different world in there than the one we know, dangers of the sort we can't even fathom: our family must stand together if we're to face these threats. If we play pranks, it's on our rivals! If we make fun of someone, it's not of our family, but theirs! If we threaten them…!"
"We shouldn't threaten them!" Sokka scoffed. Azula blinked blankly and tapped her chin.
"Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be acceptable under most circumstances, huh…?"
Her last playful statements had finally broken the very strange tension in the air: both Shun and Yuuna laughed together at their parents' banter, and Azula smirked at them both as they gazed at her with hopeful eyes.
"Either way, just behave yourselves, you two," Azula said, leaning down to pull them in for a hug, one in each arm. Yuuna and Shun let their mother reel them into her arms, comforted and eased immediately by her embrace. "We're here to have fun, after all. We can do that without fighting too much, can't we?"
"Yes, Mom," they said in unison. Azula smiled and pulled back, caressing their soft hair gently… though she focused more on Yuuna's head than Shun's.
"And what did you do to your hair tie this time…?" she asked, with a sigh. Yuuna grinned widely.
"The manatee-whale took it!"
"The manatee-whale…" Azula repeated… then she sighed and shook her head as Sokka laughed, stepping around them on his way to the door. "And why did it take it? It didn't have any hair to tie up, did it?"
"For his daughter!"
"Ah, that makes sense! So very generous of you to share with the manatee-whale! Guess it's a good thing I brought a spare hair tie, then!"
"No! Mommy, no!" the child laughed as Azula snarled playfully and reeled her into her arms.
"Not just one spare, actually: I have about ten, hidden in each bag we brought on this journey! So, no matter what happens, you won't escape from me!" she declared, causing Yuuna to laugh and squirm, reaching for Shun in hopes he'd help her out in this difficult ordeal.
"She's just going to take them off, Mom," Shun said, grinning complicitly at Yuuna, whose wild smile matched her brother's.
"No, no, no! This reckless hair must be tamed! I will accept no other answer!" Azula growled playfully: Yuuna's legs wiggled as Azula held her and, at last, Shun reached out to grab his sister's hands, as though to help her out of their mother's grasp. If her duty as a mother was to become the common enemy for her children to join forces against in order to teach them how to get along, Azula would be all too happy to fulfill it.
Sokka smiled fondly at the silly battle waged between Azula and the two kids: Hotaru stood by quietly, no doubt relieved her siblings had set aside their latest conflict as quickly as they had. Azula typically left the more light-hearted side of parenting to Sokka, who never failed to make fun of himself if that was how he'd make his children laugh and forget their grievances, but whenever her playful side came to light, Sokka's heart could only ache with intense, heartfelt love for the woman he'd married.
Still, they weren't here to play around at the front door: Sokka turned to the twin crimson-and-gold door and reached for one of the knockers… then he smirked and reached for the other one, too. With a mischievous smirk, he swung one forward, pulling the other back and starting a wild, knocking rhythm that immediately cut across Azula's silly spat with Yuuna.
"What…?! Sokka!" Azula scoffed, as he continued to slam the knockers into the door with unnecessary power. "Cut that out!"
"Sorry! What did you say? Can't hear you with how loud this is!" he called back, still slamming the door wildly.
Azula rolled her eyes, setting down Yuuna at last – allowing the child to bask in her victory, with her hair still wild and loose – before marching towards Sokka. The two younger kids laughed loudly at their father's antics, as they always did, while Hotaru covered her face with her hands, giggling into her palms: Azula grabbed Sokka's shoulder upon reaching him, forcing him to spin around and wind up facing her, directly. The guiltiest, yet proudest of grins graced his handsome face.
"Really, now? You just can't see any doors like these without doing that, can you?" she asked, with her eyebrows raised. Sokka let out a goofy laugh before shrugging. "You do realize Zuko fixed this door recently? I don't even know if it's the same one, but whether it is or not, you could've done serious damage…!"
"Eh, I would've paid for the damages if I had to, but this is too much fun not to do, Azula," he said.
"I wanna try it!" Yuuna squealed, rushing up at her father. Shun, tailing her grinned just as madly as his sister did.
"Me too!" he exclaimed, and Azula raised her eyebrows meaningfully at her guilty husband.
"Look at what you've done now. Look at it and regret it for as long as you may live," Azula said, in a dramatic, threatening voice that, naturally, Sokka only took as a joke: he laughed with abandon as his wife shook her head, smiling weakly… and her eyes fell upon her flustered oldest daughter, who stepped closer while eyeing them with light amusement, and with evident bashfulness. "We're all embarrassing Hotaru, see?"
"Oh, come on, Hotaru could never be embarrassed because of me. I'm the coolest dad there is," Sokka declared, proudly.
"Really, now?" Azula asked, smirking.
"Of course! I'd win every belching competition, that's cool as heck!"
Shun and Yuuna laughed harder after that, while Hotaru shook her head and gazed at Azula hopelessly. Azula smiled, reaching out to clasp her shoulder.
"The only one of us with a shred of common sense. What have we burdened you with, my poor child?" she said, reeling Hotaru in for a one-armed hug the girl accepted gladly.
"With laughing myself to tears, apparently," she admitted, hugging her mother back. "It'll be great to see everyone, but I'd never get bored even if it's just the five of us."
"That's great to hear! Means we can start a comedy troupe if we're ever short on money, Azula," Sokka declared, beaming. Azula snorted and shook her head, squeezing his forearm gently…
Just then, the front door swung inwards: the two younger children gasped in delight when a dark-haired girl, close to Hotaru's age, poked her head out the door with curiosity.
"Ah! Uncle Sokka, Aunt Azula!" she exclaimed after an instant, beaming. "I thought, w-well…!"
"That it was a battering ram? Yeah, well, that's what your uncle is like, as you already know," Azula answered: her niece couldn't help but laugh at her explanation regarding the wild knocking, as she pulled the doors fully open, welcoming them inside. "You look lovely, Zi."
"So do you, Aunt Azula!" the girl exclaimed, reaching to embrace her visiting relatives quickly: she started with Azula and moved to Sokka next.
"Look at you, little Zi! Though you're so tall by now that I'm not sure I'll be able to call you that forever," Sokka smiled, embracing his niece tightly. Zi chuckled as she pulled away.
"I doubt I'll ever be taller than you or my dad, though," she said, turning her gaze to her cousins next. "It's so good to see you guys!"
"Hi there, Zi," Hotaru smiled warmly, accepting her own embrace gladly.
"Hey! Hey! Is Uncle Zuko inside?!" Shun exclaimed, jumping excitedly in front of his cousin. Zi let go of Hotaru and smiled at him next, leaning in to hug him far more briefly than she'd hugged the others so far.
"Of course! He's working in the kitchen right now, and he'll be thrilled to know you've arrived!" she said. "He did say you'd likely be impossibly punctual, and he was right to say so."
"I would not stand for anything else. My family keeps its every appointment and sticks to schedule…" Azula declared in a playful, haughty tone. Sokka chuckled, as Zi moved to hug Yuuna next.
"I wonder if Zuko has a whole itinerary planned out for this week, actually…" Sokka said, stroking his stubble thoughtfully.
"It's likely he does. The real question is if it won't get derailed at some point through the week…" Azula pointed out, to her husband's amusement.
"You're so cute, Yuuna, adorable as always!" Zi said, beaming as she smoothed her youngest cousin's hair: Yuuna offered her a toothy grin, and Zi gasped in delight. "Look at that! You have so many teeth now!"
"They grow out! Like trees!" she declared, and Zi laughed at the comparison.
"Well, your smile definitely is the prettiest I've seen," she said, beaming as she rose to her feet… and turned to Hotaru, brimming with excitement. "Mari's been waiting for you, though! She said you have to join her at playing fire kuai ball! Come, come!"
"Oh, fire kuai ball? Uh, sure?!" Hotaru grimaced, glancing at her parents with uncertainty as Zi grabbed her wrist and yanked her inside the house.
Azula's placid mood froze over at that sudden shift in the conversation, and Sokka raised his eyebrows. It was Shun who spoke first, though, yanking at his mother's hand.
"What's 'fire kuai ball'?" he asked.
"Probably something I invented and patented…" she admitted, prompting Sokka to look at her questioningly – though with amusement. "Though I have no idea if that's what they're trying to do, and even if it is, I'm not sure they should be doing it at all. Hell, and here I thought our kids were the wild and crazy ones…"
"Well, just you wait: Mari's totally going to be crushed by Hotaru at this game, you'll see!" Sokka declared proudly, to his children's delight. "We should go in now though, shouldn't we? Bet Zuko will want to know who brought a battering ram on his perfectly refurbished door…?"
"And I bet the battering ram in question is so very pleased with himself over what he did, isn't he?" Azula said. Sokka only smirked proudly, prompting her to smile and bump his flank gently with her shoulder as they entered the house: Shun clung to Azula's hand, while Yuuna held onto Sokka's. "You're incorrigible."
"And you're beautiful."
"That's neither here nor there, but thank you."
"Huh, and here I thought we were just flinging compliments at each other."
"Incorrigible isn't meant to be a… oh, never mind, you're just happily proving it further," Azula finally surrendered, and Sokka grinned most proudly anew upon defeating her at their careless argument.
The inside of the house, Azula found, was simultaneously familiar and utterly unrecognizable: Zuko had supervised the work during his downtime, whenever his duties allowed him to visit the beautiful island. While Azula hadn't been completely sure of what to make of his determination to renovate their family's old, rundown villa initially, now she found herself smiling at the finished result: the polished wood on the floor, the luxurious carpets, the beautiful, new décor, replacing the old, sober – or perhaps, somber – paintings…
"So, what's the verdict?" Sokka asked her teasingly. Azula smiled and shrugged.
"Surprisingly good, I'd say. I'd thought there would be too many unpleasant memories in this place, but… if anything, it looks like it's ready to see new memories made in it, instead."
"Sounds ideal, then," Sokka grinned, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "If you don't think it's bad, we can come here all the time, from now on! Not like Zuko can stop us anyway, he's not moving here permanently, after all…"
"He's not," Azula laughed. "But we do have enough things to deal with that I doubt we can have too many escapades to Ember Island, anyway."
"Do we have a playroom?" Yuuna asked. Sokka turned his smile to her.
"Pretty sure you'll have something bigger than that: there's a whole beach waiting for us to have the time of our lives in it! You can build sandcastles, you can bury your cousins in the sand…!"
"Swim all you want, sunbathe if you think you can handle the heat…" Azula continued, and Shun grinned brightly.
"And chase turtle-crabs too, if you dare," Sokka said, eyeing Yuuna meaningfully: the young girl gasped with excitement over the prospect of seeing hybrid animals she had never encountered before.
"Yes! Let's go now!" she said, pulling at her father's hand: Sokka laughed as Azula smiled too.
"We have to greet the rest of your uncle's family first, Yuuna. And we can take you all to play after everyone's here, alright? Shouldn't be long before everyone arrives," Azula said, gesturing at a long, open corridor ahead.
The kitchen was at the other end of the corridor, which ran along a large, beautiful stone courtyard with a functioning fountain at its center. Where it would have been, however, a beautiful location to admire in any other circumstances, it was difficult to focus on the architecture of the courtyard when it seemed to be the place where Mari's odd fire kuai ball game was being developed.
"Look, look!" Mari was telling Hotaru: she held a strange ball, crafted out of what appeared to be some form of metallic thread: there was a second ball within the first, made of flammable material, and the four newcomers happened to enter the corridor by the courtyard just in time to see Zuko's oldest daughter setting the inner ball on fire.
Hotaru gasped in amazement: Zi had clearly seen the trick before, and she giggled at her cousin's reaction. Their two younger siblings, Iroh and Kerra, had launched into full-blown celebration over the lighting of their ball, as Mari tossed it in the air and took to bouncing it off her body.
"Gotta see how long you can handle the heat before it's too much!"
"Oh, wow: they really are about as crazy as ours. Good to know," Sokka said, as Azula's jaw dropped.
"Mari! I told not to play that way: you could get hurt!"
Suki's voice seemed to thunder across the building: Yuuna, Shun and even Hotaru seemed to freeze upon hearing their aunt's fierce scolding… yet while Zi flinched, and Iroh grimaced, Kerra and Mari only seemed perfectly content to continue testing their mother's patience.
"Oh, relax, Mom! I've got this!" Mari laughed recklessly: Azula ran her fingers over her hair, watching the scene before her in utmost astonishment.
"Well, safe to say that's NOT the kind of fire kuai ball I would play, but…"
"What did you do, then?" Sokka smirked.
"Set a regular ball on fire, of course…"
"That's still crazy dangerous!"
"Oh, don't fret, I only did it to finish off the opposing team and nobody got hurt," Azula said, waving a hand dismissively at her disbelieving husband. "I mean, yes, they probably had to buy another net, and another ball, but still…"
"I love all the stories of your childhood dearly, you know that?" Sokka said, prompting Azula to laugh and shake her head. "A powerhouse since before you learned to walk and talk, as far as I can tell…"
The sounds of their conversation served to alert the two adults in the kitchen that their newly arriving guests – whom Zi had checked on – had been exactly who they had been expecting: Suki stepped outside the kitchen with a fearsome scowl, and it seemed that was far scarier than her earlier shout: Mari caught the ball and snuffed out the fire quickly, smiling awkwardly at her mother.
"I know, I know! I'll play the nice and boring way! It's okay!" Mari laughed nervously: Suki rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Play with your cousins and don't cause trouble with your wild firebending ideas, you hear me?" she said, shaking her head before glancing at Sokka and Azula, her stern scowl morphed into an apologetic grimace. "Goodness, I swear they're not trying to hurt your kids, I do…"
"We believe you," Sokka laughed, as he and Azula stepped forward to greet Suki.
"I suppose that's what we have to look forward to, in the future?" Azula smiled, casting a glance at Mari: the oldest among the children so far, she always seemed to take a role of leadership with her siblings and cousins, all of whom flocked to her naturally. "The teenage rebellion stage…?"
"Oh, Mari's been there from the moment she was born, as far as I can tell," Suki smiled, finally reaching her sister-in-law and offering her a warm embrace. "So good to see you both, Azula, Sokka."
"Same here!" Sokka grinned, hugging Suki next. "I'd compliment you and Zuko for all your work with this place, but I actually have no idea what it used to look like before…"
"Oh, you don't want to know," Suki laughed, shaking her head as she pulled away from him. "All manner of leaks in the roofs, weeds sprouting EVERYWHERE: it was madness. But, admittedly, the house was still less rebellious than Mari… I sure hope you two aren't causing your parents any trouble, Yuuna, Shun!"
They smiled guiltily and shook their heads: Suki shot them a knowing grin and rose to her full height after leaning down to address the children.
"I have the feeling you two have your hands full with these two as it is, though," she said. Azula laughed and shook her head, as Shun tugged at her hand.
"Can we go see the game too?" he asked, beaming. Azula let go of his hand and caressed his hair gently.
"Be careful," she warned him. "And don't be too competitive, alright? I know winning's fun and all…"
"But I should enjoy the game and not just focus on winning, yeah…" Shun sighed, marching off towards the others without another word: his nonchalance upon reciting those words suggested, quite strongly, that he had no intentions of abiding by them.
Unlike him, Yuuna didn't even wait or ask for permission to take off: she released Sokka's hand, yanking hers from out of his, and raced her brother – this time without even issuing the challenge verbally, though he took it up without needing her to do so – all the way to where the other children had been playing. Iroh, Zuko's only son, smiled brightly and ran up to Shun, while Yuuna and Kerra were quick to reach each other as well, the two youngest, and the most mischievous of the two sets of children – albeit sometimes it seemed Mari might outdo the two young, unexpected benders with her inventive, wild ideas.
"Zuko will probably be surprised to learn you're trying to teach Shun not to be so competitive…" Suki smiled. Azula sighed and shook her head.
"He and I are a lost case, everyone knows that," she said, with a shrug: Suki laughed at her direct, blunt delivery. "But if I can keep those two little rascals from being as prone to fighting each other as Zuko and I were, I'll certainly try… though they're quite adamant to become exactly like that, somedays."
"Oh, come on, now: you've literally come up with a thousand strategies to make them stop going after each other and redirect their energy to something more productive. You're doing great," Sokka smiled, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders.
"Literally, a thousand? No, it's only been about nine hundred, don't exaggerate…"
Suki laughed at their silly exchange, unsurprised to see the camaraderie between the two spouses only ever seemed stronger whenever she saw them again. Whatever they might worry about, the truth was that they, and their children, were one very happy family.
"Well, if you really have cooked up all those strategies, we could certainly use the advice: Kerra and Iroh are taking after you and Zuko a bit too much lately too…"
"Oh, of course," Azula sighed: Suki had turned to the kitchen again, and the two of them followed her. "It's like a curse in this family, isn't it?"
"Oh, come on now, Katara and I weren't much better," Sokka laughed: Azula offered him a worried grimace. "What, you think that makes it worse? You really think this sort of stuff is hereditary?"
"Two generations, four sets of siblings, boy and girl, only with a small age gap between them, all of them butting heads over ridiculous and genuine matters alike: do you really think there isn't a pattern here?" Azula asked. Sokka bit his lip and shrugged.
"Well… maybe we're all just prone to bonding through bickering."
"And through threatening to freeze each other's boogers in their nose, too…"
"Oh, spirits: Yuuna said that?" Suki gasped, once they reached the threshold of the kitchen. Azula smiled awkwardly.
"I'm pretty sure she must have found out they could be frozen the last time she caught a cold, and… well, you know how she is. Everything weird, everything unexpected, everything anyone else wouldn't think of, all of it is just second nature to her…"
"Sounds like she's the perfect blend of her parents to me."
Azula's smile gained a dangerous glint upon hearing her brother's voice, once they entered the kitchen: he smirked right back at her, hard at work with the meal he and Suki had been preparing for the first day of their week in Ember Island.
"Who was trying to tear down the door earlier? Bet it was Sokka," Zuko said, sharply: his brother-in law only smiled proudly.
"You're smarter than you look, after all!"
"And you're not," Zuko retorted, prompting Sokka to gasp in outrage as their wives laughed at their typical banter.
"Why, you…! Huh, that was a pretty solid exchange, Zuko: you should join us, then! Azula and I, we're totally going to start a comedy troupe to make some more money on the side, it was all Hotaru's idea…!"
"It was your idea, don't pin this madness on her," Azula said, smiling and shaking her head. "And besides, you said we'd do it if we were short on money, which we aren't, so…"
"Now, now, Azula, I know you need some convincing, but think about it! The audience will laugh plenty at our jabs at each other, but they'll laugh even more when Zuko takes everything seriously and plays the humorless guy to all our funny banter! It's perfect, just like it was right now, see?"
Azula smiled dryly before glancing at Suki.
"Just out of curiosity: where did you stash the lychee wine?"
"Azula!" Sokka gasped, as Suki chortled and laughed too: even Zuko was unable to hold back a chuckle at his sister's bold question. "You're the most ambitious person I know, how can you close your mind to the possibilities?!"
"You're impossible," Azula smiled, shaking her head and burying her face in her hands.
"Guess he's already practicing for the comedy act?" Suki smiled. Sokka huffed proudly.
"And I'll get lots of practice for the rest of the week, you betcha!"
"What have we signed on for?" Zuko groaned.
"Well, now, you did decide to invite us: you knew exactly what you were signing on for," Azula smirked, stepping forward. "Want help with any of this?"
"Woah. Can either of you be any help with cooking?" Zuko asked, puzzled, stopping on his motions while molding a rice ball.
"I don't see a top-of-the-line cook around here… guess you forgot to hire one," Azula said, gazing across the kitchen with a knowing grin. "Thus, I expect we'll have to work together to keep all our children stuffed with healthy food and taking enough naps so that we, in turn, can actually relax at some point or another in this trip…"
"Heh, well… you do have a point," Zuko smiled, shaking his head. "They're already a handful on their own, but putting all seven together… playing with fire is the simplest thing they would be likely to do."
"And they already did that on the first day of these vacations. Hell knows what else they're bound to do while we're not paying attention," Suki sighed, gazing wistfully at the courtyard from the kitchen's door.
The children seemed perfectly happy to meet again, for the first time in many months. As usual, the youngest four seemed to flock together as the older three did the same: Mari smiled as she handed Zi the ball before hugging Hotaru, who returned the embrace gladly.
"It's so good to see you!" Mari exclaimed. "Hope you've been doing well! Well, you and all of your family, of course…"
"Everything's okay," Hotaru confirmed, with a gentle smile. "Well, other than Yuuna and Shun butting heads all the time, but…"
"Oh, I say let them: same thing I say about Iroh and Kerra," Mari smirked: Zi sighed beside her and shook her head. "Maybe we should have the four of them in an all-out bending brawl! Don't you think that would be cool?"
"Why don't you ever have a perfectly peaceful idea…?" Zi asked her sister, with an awkward smile. Mari scoffed, taking the ball from Zi's hands.
"Because that wouldn't be as much fun! Come on, live a little, Zi!" she snickered, tossing the ball in the air and bumping it higher when it bounded on her head. "We should just practice for the real kuai ball games later, we're totally going to do some sort of family brawl after lunch, Hotaru!"
"We are?" Hotaru asked, puzzled. "But I've never played…"
"Oh, no need to worry! All you have to do is make sure the ball won't hit the ground!" Mari grinned, doing exactly that: she passed the ball to Hotaru, who caught it quickly. "Well, not by catching it, exactly…"
"You have to keep it rolling," Zi explained. Hotaru hummed, raising the ball gently and tossing it at her, "W-wait, not at me…!"
Zi raised her hands defensively, and the ball bounded in the wrong direction, falling on the ground.
"Zi! You shouldn't be such a scaredy-cat!" Mari laughed, grabbing her sister's shoulders. Zi pouted.
"I don't like that ball! It's cool for your tricks, but it hurts! Right, Hotaru?" Zi asked, looking at Hotaru's hands, hoping to confirm she, as well, had been hurt by the metal string that composed their ball. Hotaru, however, smiled awkwardly and shrugged.
"Must be because I hit it myself and nobody flung it at me… sorry," she said. Zi sighed, and Mari rolled her eyes.
"Oh, fine, then! We'll get the regular soft ball for now, but we're totally doing at least one round of fire kuai ball later by the beach, alright?!"
"But I'm not a firebender, I can't do that!" Zi grimaced: her sister smirked deviously as she turned to Hotaru again.
"Come, we have a normal ball upstairs! It's in our… oh wait! You guys don't have rooms yet, right? We should help you pick them!"
"Ah, we were talking about that earlier," Hotaru smiled. "How many rooms are there…? And how many people will come?"
"Dad invited lots of people, but one of them already said he can't make it. He can't travel down here from the Northern Water Tribe all that fast," Mari said, with a shrug. Hotaru raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Kat-Kat and Aang should be here, though… guess they might be running a little late."
"I think some of my mom's friends are coming too," Hotaru said, smiling a little.
"Then it really is a lot of people," Zi said, eyes wide.
"Do you think that means we'll have to share rooms?" Hotaru asked, glancing between both her cousins.
It surprised her to see that both Mari's golden eyes and Hotaru's violet ones would gleam brightly at that notion: the sisters exchanged a joyful smile before Mari clasped Hotaru's shoulders.
"You have to share with us!" she said.
"I wanna be with Hotaru!" Yuuna suddenly blurted out, running up to her sister and wrapping her arms around her leg.
"I gotta be there too," Kerra decided, stomping hard on the stone floor, and a light tremor shook the courtyard. Zi flinched.
"Hey, Kerra, Dad said no bending indoors, okay…?"
"This isn't indoors," Kerra said, smugly. "You can see the sky here!"
"It's still part of the house!" Zi grimaced, urgently.
"You don't even need to bend in protest at all, though: of course you can stay with us! We'll have a slumber party, all five of us!" Mari declared, proudly, and the other four girls smiled brightly at her.
"Yeah!" Kerra exclaimed: Yuuna danced happily in place, still clinging to her older sister's leg.
Naturally, the two boys in the courtyard couldn't join in on the enthusiasm of their siblings. Iroh pouted, glancing at Shun with uncertainty.
"Do you want to share rooms too…?" he asked. Shun shrugged.
"If you want," he replied, smiling. "Would be fun, I think…"
"Yeah!" Iroh responded, his mood immediately improved. "We should tell Dad, then…!"
"He should join us," Shun laughed, though Iroh smiled and shook his head.
"He'd bring Mom if he does, and then it wouldn't be a boys' room," Iroh said, yanking Shun to the kitchen area with him. "Come on, let's ask if it's okay…!"
"Sure! I haven't even said hi to him yet," Shun smiled, tagging along with his cousin as they made for the kitchen, where the four grown-ups had huddled up while the kids talked in the courtyard.
It seemed Sokka and Azula intended to help, yet Zuko and Suki had a tight system in process already, and most the work was well and truly done: Azula slapped Sokka's hand away from the finished tart pie intended for dessert, and he giggled guiltily at her when the kids stormed in.
"I'll be good, Azula, I'll be… oh, hey! Good to see you, Iroh!"
"Hi, Uncle Sokka," Iroh said, smiling reverentially at him: Shun's own admiration, however, was reserved for his own uncle, elbow deep into washing dishes in the sink.
"Ah, Shun," Zuko smiled upon catching sight of the young boy. "It's good to see you, kid."
"It's good to see you too, Uncle Zuko!" he exclaimed, smiling. "Iroh and I, we want to share rooms!"
"You… you do? Why?" Zuko asked, puzzled: his eyes shifted towards his son, who smiled and shrugged in his direction.
"The girls want to share, too," Iroh said. Zuko's eyebrow twitched.
"Which girls? All the girls?" he asked, puzzled. Iroh shrugged again. "Are they nuts? There's like twenty rooms now after all the expansion, and renovations…! And they just want to share?"
"Guess it's because it's a special occasion," Suki smiled at him. "Just remember what they were like back in the day, when Mari and Zi had to share a single room…"
"They were so thrilled to have rooms of their own when they finally did, and now they're all bunking up together?" Zuko sighed, shaking his head. "Well, I guess we'll have to think on how they could do it, not sure there's any rooms big enough for five beds. You two should be fine, though…"
"Yeah!" Shun grinned, throwing a triumphant fist in the air when Zuko addressed his final sentence at him and Iroh. "Thanks, Uncle Zuko!"
"Such a nice, obedient boy, so respectful with his uncle…" Sokka recited with a small voice, a skeptical smile on his face. Azula smirked, nudging him with her elbow.
"You love to make a fool of yourself for his amusement, don't pretend otherwise now," she said softly: Sokka could only laugh guiltily at her assessment.
The knocking sound by the front door resounded in the large house once more, though it wasn't quite as wild and reckless as Sokka's previous knocking. Zuko glanced at him meaningfully, gesturing in the door's direction with his chin.
"Heard that? That's how normal people do it."
"Boring people, you mean," Sokka declared, proudly. Azula laughed and shook her head, reminded of Hotaru's previous claim that she'd never be bored with their family.
"I guess someone else is here, though…?" Suki said, fiddling with her apron's fastening to take it off.
"Or it could be our ship's sailors bringing our luggage, heh…" Azula smiled awkwardly. "We can check on the door if you want, you guys should stay here."
"You would? Oh, thank you," Suki smiled: she stopped attempting to unfasten the apron, only to struggle fastening it in place all over again, an awkward smile on her face.
"Heh, sure thing," Sokka smiled as Azula pulled him with her through the door. "Oi, Shun! Don't cause any trouble for your aunt and uncle, alright?"
"I won't!" Shun stated, proudly: his eagerness to gain Zuko's approval seemed to ensure he'd stay on his very best behavior, so both Azula and Sokka could trust he'd obey whatever orders Zuko might give him.
Once again, Sokka and Azula walked hand in hand, with Sokka swinging their arms carelessly: his wife smiled fondly at him, slipping her fingers between his as they marched to the door, the sounds of their daughters' upbeat conversation with their cousins following them all the way across the corridor.
"It does seem to be a much nicer place than it ever was," Azula admitted, smiling as she gazed about herself. "Though I am curious about these expansions Zuko did. This place should have been big enough for at least our two families, though with however many guests we might have, I wonder if it will be big enough, in the end…"
"Well, with the kids being so eager to share rooms, I don't think we'll have to worry about having proper privacy at night, huh?" Sokka said, smirking at her and wiggling his eyebrows. Azula smiled, squeezing his hand gently.
"Is that the main thing you're thinking about, really?"
"Well, it's always at the top of my priorities, if you must know…"
"How utterly shameless of you," Azula said, playfully. Sokka sighed and shook his head in fake penance. "And here I thought it was at the very top of them, at all times…"
"Ah, I disappoint, then?" he asked, amused. Azula laughed and yanked him close, pecking his lips quickly before they finally reached the door anew.
"As if you could ever let me down," she said, offering him a much more earnest answer than Sokka had expected. He smiled warmly at her as Azula pushed open the door they'd closed earlier… to find, as predicted, the sailors with all their belongings. "Ah, I'm sorry the door was closed…"
"Oh, no matter!" said the sailor in charge, smiling broadly at her. "We've brought everything as requested! We'll be taking off now, and we'll return in a week, as agreed?"
"Please do," Azula nodded graciously.
"Another ferry's coming in now, too," said another sailor, already picking up his bags. "We're going to try to get out before they dock in, give 'em more room to maneuver."
"A good call," Sokka smiled, stepping among them and hoisting some of the bags himself. "I'll give you a hand, then, we should be done faster this way."
Azula relinquished her hold on Sokka's hand most unwillingly, despite knowing his help would certainly speed up this process. She watched and directed the sailors, ensuring they stashed the bags inside without obstructing either the way upstairs or the corridors that led deeper into the first floor of the large building. Within five minutes, everything had been set down on the vestibule's corner and the sailors had returned to their manatee-whale-led ferry: Azula and Sokka watched them from the front door, with Sokka waving in the sailors' direction. Azula cocked her head to the side, studying the creatures as they turned around and took the ferry into the sea again.
"Looking for Yuuna's hair tie, even now?" Sokka asked, amused.
"Just wondering where it's keeping it, you know? Since it has to bring it back to its daughter and all…" Azula said, smiling and shaking her head. Sokka laughed, reeling her in for another hug.
"The other ship's over there, though," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Think it's the last one to arrive?"
"Possibly. I think the other guests would come here with your sister and Aang," Azula said: her arms snaked around Sokka's waist, and she pressed a kiss to his bare skin, left exposed by his sleeveless, wide-necked shirt.
"Well, now…" Sokka smiled, looking at her with a devious smirk "I know we're alone for the first time in what feels like forever, but are you really looking to have some fun right now?"
"Are you opposed to it?" Azula asked innocently, her eyelashes fluttering exaggeratedly, bringing Sokka to laugh as he cradled her face in his hands.
"You could ask me to conquer the world with you and I'd just ask when do we start, Princess," he said: Azula's eyes narrowed at his familiar taunt, but his lips were on hers before she could rebuff it.
Which, come to think of it, was exactly what she'd wanted, so, as much as the urge to retaliate had surged, she set it aside quickly enough, wrapping her arms around his neck, letting him pin her to the frame of the open door as his tongue slithered past their lips, seeking hers.
It wasn't as though they never were free to act on their passion, their three kids would always fall asleep soundly, so the depths of night were always theirs for the taking. Yet the more they worked together to ensure their children grew up as healthy and happy as possible, the more their mutual passion would surge and rise… and the less chances they'd have to let it unwind, as even in their downtime they had to deal with Shun's typical complaints whenever their parents were far too affectionate in his presence. Their respective duties also kept them too busy on most days, so unless they took a break casually at the exact same time, they'd seldom be free to kiss at will, to hold each other, even to make love wherever it suited them… though they certainly didn't intend to go that far right now. This was just a quick release of joyful passion, that was all it was…
Or all it should be, anyway.
"We… have to keep our heads level, now…" Azula managed to say, between frantic kisses she pressed upon Sokka's face. He laughed at her request, as his hands carelessly traveled over her light outfit – she didn't expose much skin yet, but she'd likely change into a bathing suit later and… oh, the mere thought made his heart race wildly.
"Kinda tricky… you're making it tricky," he chuckled, kissing her voraciously again. Azula moaned heartily, embracing him tightly.
"My fault? It's totally… not my fault…" she whimpered: her hands slipped down his back, to his rear, squeezing it gently…
Sokka groaned in a throaty way, and Azula leaned into his ravenous devouring of her neck, head thrown back, a blissful smile across her features: her eyes opened, though, and she noticed, with remorse, that the next guests were just docking in.
"They're going to catch us doing this… and then they'll never stop teasing us for it, right?" she sighed remorsefully. Sokka hummed, raising his head: his face was covered in her shade of lipstick, and Azula laughed as she took notice of it. "Well, even if we stop now, this makes matters obvious enough, doesn't it?"
"So, why stop at all?" Sokka asked, with a mischievous smirk. "Why should we hide from anyone anymore, Princess?"
"Keep that up, Sokka, and you're really going to get it…"
"Am I?" he smirked. Azula laughed, pulling him closer: her golden eyes bore into his, but her desire was abloom, much as his own was, goading them both into succumbing further into their passion.
"You asked for it, then: come and get it," she hissed, her lips hovering a breath away from his: he cut the distance in an instant, following fit with her challenge.
Finding them in the midst of such heated exchanges was no surprise for most the newcomers, though it was fortunate that the youngest people in the group had lagged behind: Haru laughed at the shameless display of their friends while Ty Lee hooted in the distance.
"You guys sure are in the mood to party! This vacation's going to be a blast!"
The sound of her voice broke off their wildest kiss yet, though Azula groaned as she broke off the contact most unwillingly. Sokka chuckled, pressing his lips to her forehead one more time:
"We'll continue later, don't you worry," he said. Azula smiled, raising a hand to wipe off the many stains of lipstick on Sokka's face.
"I'm not worried at all. Just looking forward to it, as I always am," she said. Sokka grinned, venturing one more devious kiss to her lips before turning to greet their friends.
"Hey, guys! Been a while since… WOAH!"
Sokka was always one for exaggerated reactions, Azula knew as much… but when she turned her head to the side, she was tempted to let out an exclamation as loud as his:
Ty Lee, clinging to Haru's arm with the most enthusiastic grin possible, sported a prominent pregnancy belly, starkly noticeable, as she was already clad in her beach attire, unlike most everyone who intended to change after lunch.
"Are you… are you for real?!" Azula gasped, looking at Ty Lee in amazed disbelief. Her friend giggled guiltily, leaning into Haru, who smiled widely at their friends.
"Remember that the last time we met she'd had some strange cramps, and food didn't seem all that tasty to her…?" Haru said, with an innocently soft voice.
"I told you. Oh, I told you what it was, Mai told you what it was, and you didn't listen!" Azula laughed, stepping forward as Ty Lee squealed, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Azula once her friend reached her.
"Okay, okay, I know I should've had it checked out, you guys said so, but then I didn't, and I thought I was just sick and then I started to put on weight, and…! Well, here we are. I can't believe we're joining your group now," Ty Lee sighed, with a wistful smile. "I so enjoyed being the free-spirited, childless aunt…"
"Well, you enjoyed it because you loved the children in question, and you're going to love this one too," Sokka smiled, stepping up to hug her too. "Congratulations, you guys!"
"Thank you," Ty Lee said, with a high-pitched voice. "Oh, I really don't know if I'm excited or horrified, even now…"
"How far along are you?" Azula asked: Haru and Sokka had shaken hands by now – or forearms, rather –, and the earthbender stepped forward next to hug the royal.
"About four or five months, it seems… oh, it's been a whirlwind, but I'll wrap my head around it eventually, I will," Ty Lee said, with a sincere laugh.
Azula smiled fondly as Haru stepped back anew, placing a loving hand on his wife's belly. It was no secret Haru was open to having children, but he had never pressured Ty Lee on the matter. They had been married for a fairly long time, with a rhythm of their own, and it didn't seem likely that they'd try to have children… but Azula highly doubted they'd tried this time, either. This was, in all likelihood, the consequence of a short period of carelessness, and while it seemed Ty Lee might be deeply uncertain of how to raise a child, she'd have more than enough people to offer her plenty of support and help when she needed it.
The person with the most experience on the subject had hiked up the road after Ty Lee, followed by her own husband and her two sons: it was hard to believe Yuudai was already a proper teenager, yet time hadn't passed them by in vain. The young man looked much like his father had, back when Azula, Mai and Ty Lee had first met him in Ember Island: Ruon Jian no longer sported the same luxuriously stylish hair from his youth, but it seemed his son had taken after him fairly well in that department.
Their second child, however, was the odd-one out in a family as restrained, proper and ideal as Mai and Ruon Jian's was: Renshu was a chubby boy of Shun's age, with short brown hair and large eyes. His main similarity with his mother was the blank, unreadable expression on his face. But where Mai always seemed to be observing her surroundings, judging situations and weighing her choices with perfectly subtlety, Renshu simply watched for the sake of it, and was perfectly happy to convey his thoughts with absolutely no restraint or consideration of the circumstances. Out of so many chaotic children in the villa right now, Renshu was a particularly odd one, yet he seemed perfectly content exactly as he was.
"You seem very surprised, all things considered, Azula…" Mai pointed out, with a smirk, upon reaching the front door. "Here I thought you'd just laugh in Ty Lee's face for not listening to either of us."
"Maybe I still will, though probably after we have a couple of drinks," Azula smiled. Ty Lee pouted at those words. "Uh… yeah, we'll drink your share, too."
"That's the part that sucks the most about being pregnant. Got to forsake so many fun things…" Ty Lee sighed. Haru chuckled and shook his head.
"You'll go all out with everything again right after this is over, okay?" he said. Ty Lee grinned and nodded.
The new arrivals greeted each other gladly, and many friendly hugs were exchanged. Sokka compared Yuudai's height with his own, finding he already reached the level of his shoulder, and the shy but proud teenager smiled for it.
"Dad thinks I might outgrow him, but I don't know…" he chuckled. Sokka patted his shoulder firmly.
"Keep on eating the right way, and having a healthy life, and you might do just that!" he told him: Yuudai smiled and nodded proudly…
And then a small hand reached out to tug at Sokka's trousers.
Renshu's clear amber eyes met his mere instants before the boy blurted out:
"How many rooms are there in this house?"
Sokka blinked blankly before crouching down and smiling awkwardly.
"Not entirely sure, but probably about twenty? I guess?" Sokka said. Renshu cocked his head sideways.
"There are fifty-seven in the Palace," Renshu said, matter-of-factly. "That I know of. Maybe there are secret rooms that I don't know of. Do you know if there are hidden rooms here?"
"Not particularly. Looking to build one, are you?" Sokka asked, amused. Renshu shook his head.
"I don't have a shovel," he said. Sokka heaved out a disappointed breath, punching the air before him.
"Well, damn. I bet there's some sand shovels in the house, but they're probably not good enough to build a big secret room, sorry to say."
"I don't need to build one. I was just curious," Renshu said, bluntly and simply. He still didn't show any sign of amusement, remaining as inexpressive as ever. Sokka smiled and patted his head.
"Well, good then. Keep being curious, I guess…?"
"I would say 'don't encourage him' but I doubt it'll make a difference," Mai sighed, leaning down near Renshu. "Did you greet your Aunt Azula and Uncle Sokka properly?"
"No," he said, simply. Mai's eyebrow twitched.
"Didn't I ask you to do so earlier?"
"You did. But I didn't do it," Renshu responded, matter-of-factly, as always. Sokka couldn't hold back a chortle as the boy turned his attention to Azula next. "Is Shun here?"
"He's inside, yes. In the kitchen, the last I knew…" Azula said. Renshu glanced at his mother.
"I will go see Shun," he declared: without even waiting for Mai to give him permission to do so, Renshu slipped between Azula and Sokka and entered the house, as though he knew it by heart despite it was his first visit.
"I… want to get mad. I do. I want to discipline him, so he actually learns to greet people the right way, at least," Mai said, eyebrow still twitching. "But… I just can't do it. He just asks me why he has to do the things I ask him to, and it's exactly what crossed my mind when I was his age, and then I end up with an existential crisis while he goes back to drawing on the walls, or whatever he's up to…"
"Well, fortunately Yuuna's easier to reel into control than that," Azula smiled awkwardly. "Though she has a knack for questioning things very similarly."
"I think he sees her as a kindred spirit because of that, actually," Ruon Jian laughed. "He says he spends more time with Shun because Yuuna doesn't like him, though."
"What, really?" Sokka's eyes widened. Azula smiled awkwardly.
"Bet she told him so, blunt and clear, to his face," she said, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips.
"And Renshu apparently wasn't bothered by it one bit," Ruon Jian laughed. "But I guess I'll keep an eye on him as best I can, so he doesn't end up angering her somehow…"
"A wise call," Azula smiled, gesturing at the house. "Well, now, you have more people to greet inside, right? And Ty Lee probably ought to sit down, or maybe go to the bathroom…"
"Joke around all you want, I do have to go…" Ty Lee whimpered: Haru wrapped his arms around her and ferried her inside, only slowing down to ask Azula for directions to the nearest bathroom.
The house had been empty for years, vacant of all brightness and enthusiasm… but Azula, who had seen it in its previous glory, was sure it had never been quite as bright and beautiful as it was now. The chatter of cheerful voices, the laughter, the sounds of children playing… back in the day, it had been her, Zuko and their parents, with a handful of servants to provide for them. Today, it was a gathering of friends and family, of many people she valued dearly, and her heart could barely keep up with the delightful feelings this new atmosphere elicited inside her.
Countless greetings were exchanged, so many it was hard to keep up with them: upon poking their heads in the kitchen again, Azula and Sokka were delightfully amused to find Zuko had the three young boys, Iroh, Renshu and Shun, working together making rice balls with unusual discipline and determination, while most the girls had taken to practicing bouncing the kuai ball between themselves – they were deliberately lighter on Yuuna and Kerra, but the two spirited young girls would strike the ball as powerfully as their arms and legs allowed them to, anyway.
Merely ten minutes before the meal was finished and served, the last arrival finally flew in through the stone courtyard itself, causing the girls to stop playing and start cheering at the sight of the massive sky bison. Appa roared a greeting at the whole group, and Aang waved at everyone, as spirited as ever, beaming while Katara nestled comfortably on the saddle – she held the twins in her arms, each one glancing outside the saddle from over their mother's shoulders.
"Hey, guys!" Aang grinned: Mari rushed towards him quickly, though she leapt to hug Appa's horn first.
"Appa! It's been forever since we last met!" she exclaimed, dramatically. Aang, of course, laughed at her emotional greeting.
"We literally visited you guys a month ago!" he said. Mari stuck her tongue out at him, unable to stifle a grin.
"That feels like forever to me!" she declared: Aang airbent himself off his seat on Appa's neck before hugging the young firebender.
"You're still as feisty and fun as ever, aren't you? Hope you're keeping your dad on his toes still!" he grinned. Mari smiled broadly and nodded. "Great!"
"If this were about anyone else, I'd tell you not to encourage her… but yeah, keep messing with your silly dad, Mari," Katara laughed from the saddle.
Aang smiled and stepped closer to the bison's body, creating small gusts of air with which he brought the two toddlers down to his level. Katara was free to climb safely by herself then, leaving it to Aang to hold their children, and his smile couldn't have been brighter as he regarded the sizable crowd around them.
"Hey, everyone!" he exclaimed: Katara stepped forward, greeting each child happily, smiling at the cluster of people who remained inside the house's corridor. "Hope we're not too late for lunch!"
"Just on time, if anything!" Sokka called back, grinning at them and waving. "Hope the journey was okay for your little clouds!"
The children in question, mostly identical, glanced at Sokka from a distance: he couldn't quite tell apart Tashi, the boy, from Tallah, the girl, while they were so far away. As much as Aang had a duty to see to the recovery of the Air Nomads, he and Katara had taken their time before starting their own family: as ready as they had hoped to be, however, Katara had been taken by surprise upon sensing two new heartbeats inside her, two sources of new chi, rather than one. Their two babies weren't as much trouble as many others could be… at least, so far. Tashi did have a penchant for crying for attention, but he was easily soothed by either of his parents.
Katara greeted Sokka with a tight hug, as ever, once she reached him. Sokka squeezed her tightly, causing Katara to protest by smacking his arm gently.
"I know, I know, nobody likes an annoying older brother," Sokka grinned shamelessly, to his sister's amusement.
"Well, I do know someone who likes my annoying older brother, somehow," Katara smirked teasingly, turning her attention to Azula: she sighed dramatically, with a leisurely shrug.
"What can I say? A goofball like him has his charms," she said: Sokka snickered, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively in her direction, and Azula laughed as Katara stepped forward to embrace her too.
"Well, being a nasty younger sister usually makes you immune to those charms, as you well know," Katara laughed. Azula nodded sagely.
"Indeed, someone likes my annoying older brother too. Utterly inexplicable," she rebuffed playfully as Katara pulled away, smiling. "How are you faring? The twins still keeping you up at night?"
"Oh, yeah," Katara grimaced, though she smiled soon enough again. "They're adorable, of course, but I can't remember the last time I got any sleep."
"And you won't remember it anytime soon, guaranteed," Sokka declared, at which Katara only sighed in defeat.
"This just makes me feel bad about our parents. Were we all this much trouble all along, really?" Katara asked. Sokka offered her a tight-lipped smile and a nod.
"Probably worse, even," he determined. Katara shook her head, laughing as she covered her face with her hands.
"Then the next time I see Dad I'm going to apologize for all the hardships I gave him… as should you, Sokka," she said: he scoffed, waving a hand in her direction.
"You're still trying to win more points with him, after all these years…? I'm onto you, see? I'm so onto you," he said, making a gesture with his hand to ensure Katara knew he was watching her. The waterbender rolled her eyes, glancing at her sister-in-law in disbelief.
"Those are the charms you fell for, huh?"
"Irresistible like no one else I've ever known," Azula said, gesturing at Sokka dramatically: by then, Sokka's playfulness broke at last with laughter, and his wife and sister followed him into it shortly.
The playful banter would have continued on, even if Sokka's goofier side seemed to have receded slightly by then: Katara was just explaining Toph had been unable to join them, for she was too busy these days – she had claimed she needed to know about this big vacation six months in advance to find any room in her schedule for it –, when Suki's voice echoed through the courtyard, calling their many guests for lunch at last.
Once again, Azula was reminded of how much emptier the house used to be once everyone gathered at the large dining room to enjoy the meal: in the past, she, Zuko and her parents had eaten in that same room, and while those days had been far less unpleasant than the many years that followed, Azula had only realized how large the room truly was, and how empty it had felt, now that it was anything but: everyone crowded boisterously around the long table, the smaller children propped up on many cushions so they could reach their plates without much struggle. Dishes would be passed from one end of the table to the other, laughter bounced on every wall and smiles seemed to decorate every face… unless they were busy eating, of course.
Azula and Sokka made sure to help Yuuna with her meal, ensuring she took small bites rather than chomping down on everything on her plate, as she intended to. Then, Azula also had to reel in Sokka by dropping a fair share of vegetables on his meat-exclusive plate – he had done it to mess with her, she knew, but her retaliation saw them bickering playfully, picking each other's meal while Yuuna, sitting between them, watched their apparent fight with absolute delight. Hotaru and Shun, at the other side of the table, could only laugh between bites of their own, though they were easily distracted by their cousins and friends, too.
Once the food was almost fully spent and everyone was satisfied, however, Mari leapt to her feet, with a wicked smile on her face.
"And where are you going?" Zuko asked, following his oldest daughter with his gaze.
"To the beach!" she responded gladly: she didn't wait for her father to finish his next sentence before sprinting through the corridors, headed to her chosen room.
"You have to wait at least ten minutes after you…! Ugh, she's unreal," Zuko sighed, shaking his head. Suki smiled and squeezed his hand.
"With how long it ought to take us all to get ready, it should take her longer than ten minutes to get into the water. Hopefully our reckless girl will be fine, Zuko" she told him. He smiled back, though the sight of Kerra rushing off after her sister didn't reassure him much.
"Our reckless girls, you'll mean… plural," he raised his eyebrow, and Suki laughed and nodded.
"You did plenty of hard work as it is, dear. Don't fret much more than you already have. Your big meal was a success, your plans for the vacation have worked wonders… we're doing great."
"We are… but I'm exhausted, and it's only just started," he admitted, with a weak grin.
"Well, maybe we all can take turns cooking!" Aang suggested, surprising Zuko. "You know, each family can have a turn or so? How about it?"
"Huh… that sounds like a plan," Zuko smiled, glancing at the rest of the group… though his eyes slowed at Azula and Sokka, and his grin soured. "Though someone will have to be there for backup when it's their turn, huh?"
"Oh, they might just wind up doing something other than cooking if left alone in the kitchen," Ty Lee snickered, a hand over her mouth as though to block her words from being heard by the happily bickering couple. "We were on our way up the path to the house, you know, and those two? They were seriously DEVOURING each other against the door, just like that…!"
"Alright, you've convinced me: anyone can cook… except those two," Zuko decided, prompting those sitting near him to laugh at his decision.
He wasn't completely uncomfortable these days over his sister's blatant displays of affection with her husband, but he certainly didn't want to witness them at their most romantic… or their most passionate. Yet it was exactly what Zuko had unintentionally signed on for upon inviting them to his freshly refurbished beach house: even if Azula and Sokka had their kids to look after and think of, it didn't seem anyone could pry either of them off each other. They went everywhere together, either holding hands or embracing each other's waist, even as they checked on the rooms Zuko and Suki had assigned for them and their children. They carried the family's luggage upstairs with their children's help – Hotaru assisted them far more than the other two, who had to settle for either carrying smaller bags or carrying large ones together, which turned out to be a rather catastrophic choice since both wanted to outrun the other, again, even while making their way over a flight of stairs. In the end, though, once everyone's goods were properly distributed in their rooms, it was time to get ready for what the children looked forward to the most:
"Be careful when you go out to swim, alright?" Sokka told Yuuna, after Azula helped the child change into her one-piece swimsuit. "Remember what I've taught you… and try not to bend too much while you're there, don't freeze people even if they annoy you, all our usual rules…"
"Can Aunt Katara bend on the beach…?" Yuuna asked, raising an eyebrow. Sokka grimaced.
"Yeah, well, she's all grown-up so if she wants to do it, I can't stop her. I've tried to stop her from bending in awkward situations since I was littler than you are, right now, and she never pays me any attention," Sokka said, with a resigned sigh. "But that's neither here nor there… you are a good girl, right? So, you'll be good and do as you're told. Okay?"
"No!" Yuuna grinned: she ran out the door, hands in the air, laughing carelessly on her way downstairs again.
Her father, of course, was left frozen on the spot, an eyebrow twitching. Azula behind him, placed her hands on his shoulders before slipping them around his neck, offering him a gentle hug.
"We'll make sure nothing happens. Don't fret," she said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.
"Sometimes I think we're the best parents ever, and then sometimes I wonder if we're getting everything wrong," Sokka confessed, glancing at her from his kneeling position, where Yuuna had left him. Azula leaned over him, smiling warmly.
"Well, you told me that your father said to you that there was more worth in growth than in perfection, right?" Azula asked, pressing her lips to his brow. "True wisdom right there. We may never be the perfect parents, but…"
"But we'll grow along with our kids and do it better every time?" Sokka finished. Azula nodded proudly, and Sokka grinned, leaning in to kiss her, no matter how awkward their position might be. "I love you, Azula."
"And I love you, Sokka… though I wish we could love each other quite a bit more freely than we can, right now," she said, with a lop-sided smile. "We have to change too, and, well…"
"We can't afford to do anything naughty because our kids might just freeze the beach while we're not paying attention?" Sokka asked, with a sad smile of his own. Azula laughed and nodded, helping him stand up.
"We'll have to save it for later, I suppose. If we still have any energy by then, that is," she pointed out. Sokka cupped her face between his hands, kissing her lips softly.
"I'll make sure to save my very best just for you and our nice and cozy little room," Sokka said, smirking deviously. "Though I guess, if the kids aren't much trouble, we can at least indulge in, well, enjoying each other's scenery, if nothing else?"
"Don't we always?" Azula smiled, pinching his asscheek and guiding him towards their room, out of Yuuna's shared one with Hotaru, by the two girls' design. It was entirely possible they'd go forward with Mari's wild plans for a sleepover in her large room, but their two daughters would keep their belongings here, at the very least.
While knowing they had very little time for privacy, Sokka and Azula still locked their room's door, helping each other into their respective swimsuits while trading no end of mischievous kisses and caresses. It seemed impossible that the two of them would truly make their way to the beach instead of surrendering to their urges, but against their instincts and impulses, they finally made up their minds, gathered their beach bags and ventured out of the house, hand in hand… or hand-on-rear, when they decided to tease each other, halfway down the beach.
The children were already playing loudly by the sand: Kerra, in particular, seemed thrilled to fling bursts of sand at her brother, while Yuuna splashed by the shore, laughing with her cousin at Iroh and Shun's protests over how their two younger siblings had joined forces against them. Hotaru and Zi stood with Mari, as usual, though her mischievous streak had been interrupted, it seemed, by Yuudai: the taller teenager stood with the three girls, talking animatedly despite it was quite clear, even at a distance, that the one who did the most talking was Mari, who frequently smiled, unusually bashfully, at Yuudai.
"Hmm… that's either Zuko's worst nightmare or his dream combination, isn't it?" Sokka asked Azula, as they walked together down the sand. "He did love Yuudai quite a bit, but…"
"He couldn't be more protective of his kids if he tried? Yeah," Azula agreed, nodding. "Well, they're all kids anyway. I say let them have their fun, as long as they don't get hurt or do anything all that stupid… though of course, if it's Hotaru who's involved in something stupid I'm definitely going to stop being as calm and collected, but she's not likely to be…"
"Mari's a wild one, but I hope both Zi and Hotaru can restrain her, to a fault," Sokka smiled. He and Azula had finally reached the playing grounds, and he raised a hand, placing it by his cheek in order to call for his children. "Yuuna! Shun! Hotaru! Did you put on your sunscreen before you ran out to play?!"
The three kids, each busy with their own groups, flinched and filed towards their parents, guilty grimaces on all their faces. Azula couldn't muffle a smile as they approached, beelining towards Sokka.
"Sorry, Dad…" Shun mumbled. Sokka harrumphed dramatically, setting down his bag and pulling out the sunscreen.
"Alright, those of you brave enough to try doing it yourselves, put out your hands!" Sokka said. Shun and Hotaru both did, while Yuuna showed plenty of sense, surprisingly, by not following suit with their example. "Oh, really, now? You're ready to apply your own sunscreen, Shun?"
"Yeah, I am!" he decided, beaming brightly. Sokka scoffed.
"Well, then, let's see how it goes," he said: he opened the flask with their best sunscreen lotion, pouring a small amount upon each extended hand… and upon Azula's too, as she leaned down right in front of Yuuna, ready to cover her body with it. The little girl raised her head proudly, eyes tightly closed as her mother ensured to cover every exposed bit of her daughter's body until the sunscreen blended perfectly with her skin.
Hotaru only missed a few bits, and Sokka instructed her about which ones, so she could cover everything properly too. Shun, however…
"You… think that's okay?" Sokka asked, with an awkward grin. Shun pouted.
"Well, I didn't get it wrong, did I…?" he asked.
"You have handprints all over your arms, your face is all covered in lotion, your back is mostly exposed…?" Sokka pointed out, rounding the little boy. Shun winced, cheeks reddening. "See? You're already getting sunburnt!"
"I'm not!" Shun cried out, the intensity of his blush strengthening, to Sokka's amusement.
"Come on, I'll handle your back. Spread the bits on your face more evenly, down to your neck too…"
Shun obeyed without much protest, still flustered: Azula smiled at him, and the boy withdrew his gaze from hers.
"Come on, Shun… no need to be so embarrassed," Azula said, reaching out to caress his long hair gently. "Is it you don't want your cousins to think you're being babied or something?"
"I-…! T-that's…! W-well…!" Shun couldn't seem to gather his thoughts, let alone when his mother laughed softly.
"Don't worry about it: look at them, they're an even bigger mess than we are," Azula said, smirking before gesturing at her brother's family.
Zuko and Suki had only just arrived too, and Suki had rushed to collect Kerra, who insisted she didn't need any sunscreen whatsoever: Zi apparently had applied hers all the way back in the house, and Mari kept claiming she had done the same thing, but Suki seemed to believe otherwise – Azula immediately suspected Mari had no interest in letting Yuudai see her applying sunscreen awkwardly, going by how disheartened she had been when the older boy had stepped away from their group, rallying with his family underneath an umbrella: Mai would never visit a beach without guaranteeing she'd have some form of shade, after all.
"Me next! Me, Mom!" Iroh called out as Suki covered a groaning Kerra with sunscreen.
"Yes, yes, you're next, Iroh…"
"I already applied it, Dad, you don't have to make me do it again, do you?"
"Well, if you already did it, a second coating can only do you good…!"
"Dad!"
Although his previous concerns had weighed heavily on Shun's mind, he now had no choice but to laugh at his relatives. Azula smiled fondly at him, pressing a quick kiss to the top of his head once Sokka was done patching up his uneven sunscreen work.
"Have fun in a reasonable way, alright? All of you. No crazy attempts to race with tiger sharks underwater or anything like that, Yuuna," Azula said, pressing a kiss to her daughter's hair too: Yuuna's eyes brightened.
"Are there tiger sharks in Ember Island?!"
"There aren't supposed to be, no," Azula smiled, shaking her head. Yuuna blew a raspberry and shook her head.
"Boring!"
"Oh, now, you have a whole beach to have fun in!" Sokka told Yuuna, leaning down and resting his weight on his knees. "Bet you can find something other than tiger-sharks, maybe a turtle crab, and…"
"And I'll bend it at Shun!"
"Wait, no! You shouldn't…!" Sokka gasped: Shun winced as his sister took off in a mad race towards the shoreline, laughing happily as she looked for any animals to toss at her older brother.
"Okay, I'm going to go hang out with Mari and Zi now…" Hotaru smiled awkwardly… only for Shun to grab onto her leg, still glancing in Yuuna's direction worriedly.
"Take me with you! She wouldn't dare attack you!" Shun whimpered. Hotaru laughed and shook her head.
"Oh, Shun…" she smiled, wrapping an arm around her brother's shoulders before glancing at her parents. "Is it okay, then…?"
"Sure, but if you go into the water try not to go too deep, alright?" Sokka advised her. "And take breaks if you do, once in a while. No need to go too crazy swimming all day long. And…!"
"Go, Hotaru," Azula cut him off, with a smirk: their daughter laughed at Sokka's heartfelt pout, as Azula wrapped an arm around his waist. "I'll keep your protective father in check, alright?"
"Sure thing," Hotaru chuckled: she guided Shun towards the others again, and the boy kept shooting wary glances at where his youngest sister now played with something or another that she'd found in the water. In all likelihood, Yuuna had already forgotten her previous intentions to mess with Shun, distracted by whatever unusual discovery she'd made, as ever happened with the innately curious girl.
Sokka released a deep breath, running a hand over his hair as he took in the good weather and the beautiful horizon. He turned a smile to Azula, whose eyes were set on him.
"Well, we can relax now. If just for a bit?" he said. Azula shrugged, dropping her head on his shoulder.
"Until we decide we have to join in the wild games just as well, I bet," Azula said. Sokka chuckled. "We could wind up racing each other in the water, you know we could…"
"I bet, but it might be better if we wait until the kids have had their fun first. Gotta keep an eye on them, even if we're giving them some space to go wild…" Sokka said, with an awkward smile. "Sometimes I think we worry too much…"
"Then Yuuna wants to play with tiger-sharks and, if anything, you start thinking you don't worry enough?" Azula guessed. Sokka laughed and nodded. "Same here, really. I suppose it won't be all that relaxing to watch them running wild, but at least we can sit down, talk, enjoy the sea air and the sunlight until we feel all dry and drained…"
"What a beautiful picture you paint, wife of mine," Sokka smirked. Azula chuckled against his chest, but he proceeded to do exactly what she'd told him they could.
Sokka pulled out a large towel and set it down on the sand: he meant to help Azula sit first, but she made him take his seat only to nestle on his lap, shameless and comfortably. Sokka groaned as he dropped fully on the towel, bringing her with him as he did.
"This is getting dangerous, Azula," he pointed out: she simply smirked, enjoying the feeling of his naked chest against her cheek. "We're too exposed for any naughty shenanigans, you know we are."
"I do, but you can't hope I'll simply sit away from you when I can be far more comfortable on your lap, Sokka," she said, sighing happily. "Though… come to think of it, isn't it our turn to apply the sunscreen?"
"That… will only make things worse," Sokka said, looking at her warily. Azula laughed, urging him to sit up with her. "Azula…?"
"We totally should have done this indoors, but what the heck. May we end up so sticky with lotion we won't want to touch each other at all later…"
"That is literally impossible: you could be covered in the contents of a swamp bog, and I'd still want to touch you."
"Aw, so romantic…" Azula's eyes fluttered in his direction in the most mocking manner possible, as Sokka smirked knowingly.
"You wouldn't return the favor, though, I know as much. Prude, prissy Princess…"
"How dare you!" Azula scoffed, feigning offense as Sokka laughed. "I absolutely would return the favor… while complaining the whole time about how disgusting it is, how bad it smells, how wrong it is for me to do it, all perfectly normal things…"
"Suits you just fine, yeah," Sokka smiled, leaning quickly to kiss her laughing lips. "You're too clever for me…"
"As you are for me. Sneaky Sokka," she said, narrowing her eyes. His own grin widened further. "You know I'm making you pay for all that teasing tonight…"
"And you know I'm looking forward to it, Princess."
She couldn't help but shake her head in disbelief as he grinned proudly: the first bit of lotion she poured on her hands landed smack on his chest as she chided him for his misdemeanors, and Sokka laughed even harder as their attempts to help protect each other with the sunscreen became a playful struggle they enjoyed delightfully.
Their playfight was mostly ignored by the children, and dismissed by the other adults, who each seemed to have found distinct, safe spots in the beach to set up their stations at. Everyone seemed ready to relax gladly… everyone except for the children, who were already playing in the water, laughing loudly, splashing everywhere, racing each other and coming up with whatever mischief might come to mind.
The natural ringleader of most mischief, Mari, rallied Hotaru, Zi and Yuudai with her, after some initial fun in the water. Her dreams of a kuai ball match only seemed closer at hand, now that all necessary preparations were properly finished.
"Do we have a net, though…?" Hotaru asked Mari, who shot her a clever grin.
"I made sure Dad bought one before we came here! I'll go fetch it, we'll set up the court and then…!"
"Then we'll play… against who?" Zi asked, raising her eyebrows. "I think Dad said it's usually four against four…"
"Oh, it can be less than that," Mari decided, grinning. "I have it all figured out, Zi! Just follow me!"
Zi sighed but did as her sister told her: the two sprinted back to the house while Yuudai and Hotaru lagged a few paces behind, uncertain of whatever Mari had in mind.
"Is she always like this?" Yuudai asked Hotaru, amused.
"Well, we don't get to spend that much time together, but… yeah, for as long as I can remember," Hotaru answered, grinning. Yuudai chuckled and shrugged.
"Guess I'll have to get used to it, then. Nobody in my family is that energetic…"
"Guess not," Hotaru smiled, glancing in the direction of Mai and Ruon Jian.
The pair seemed perfectly content to nestle together under their umbrella while their youngest son dug a hole in the sand, not far from where they sat. As strange as Renshu could be, their family, it seemed to Hotaru, was by far the calmest of the group… though Katara and Aang, the former of whom sat with her twin children near Ty Lee and Haru, weren't all that chaotic either, at least not so far. Once their children were older, though…
"Well… we could have even bigger games when everyone's old enough, come to think of it," Hotaru laughed quietly. Yuudai smiled and shrugged.
"Maybe, though if your little sister and your little brother get to play this game, I may be too scared to join in," he confessed. Hotaru chuckled, though she couldn't fault Yuudai for thinking so.
Fortunately, Shun and Yuuna were having too much fun, swimming in the shallow area of the shore while under Aang's supervision – the Avatar was a magnet for the younger kids of the group, and even Kerra was swimming with him right now, listening to his instructions on how to swim backstroke without sinking – she wasn't particularly proficient at staying afloat compared to the other three, though.
By the time Kerra finally started getting the hang of the swimming style, soaring between waves that Yuuna relished in, Hotaru, Yuudai, Mari and Zi had returned from their venture into the house: Mari and Yuudai shared the weight of the two tall poles upon which the net, carried between Zi and Hotaru, would be hoisted.
Every set of eyes turned towards them as they started setting up the game: Mari drew a large circle in the sand around the poles – when they seemed to be unstable in the sand, Haru gave the group a hand by strengthening the sand near the poles they were setting in place, ensuring they would remain steady in their spot. Once the net had been set up, the four oldest children in the group were finally ready to play, and Mari's grand scheme would finally unfold…
"Wait, what?! B-but I can barely play! I should be teamed with you!" Zi whimpered, reaching for her sister, who huffed and shook her head.
"Hotaru's going to be a great teammate for you! Come on, Zi…!" Mari said, nudging her sister, who pouted and grabbed onto her arm.
"But you two are the tallest in the group, we're going to be crushed…!" Zi grimaced. Yuudai smiled and stepped forward.
"She does have a point," he said to Mari, whose plans were suddenly derailed by Yuudai's words. "Don't worry: I can play with your sister, and Hotaru can be on your team. Makes sense, right?"
"B-but…" Mari's eyebrow twitched: Hotaru smiled happily at her, and she couldn't seem to protest against that. "Fine, then, fine… but I'll choose teams for the next game!"
Most eyes were drawn to their kuai ball court by then: even the children by the shore seemed to slow down on their swimming training – though Renshu continued to build his hole, with absolute determination. Azula and Sokka, happily cradled in each other's arms once more, watched with amusement as their daughter took her position with her cousin.
"Two firebenders against two non-benders…?" Sokka asked, raising his eyebrows.
"You're not about to say that's an unfair deal, are you?" Azula smirked.
"It wouldn't be, if the two non-benders weren't… Zi and Yuudai?" Sokka smiled, poking her ribcage lightly: Azula squirmed against him, drawing closer to his bare chest. "You know I can keep up with any bender I bump into, but Zi barely could handle her mom's Kyoshi Warrior training, if she even did…"
"Well, when you put it that way, I suppose we're about to witness… a bit of a massacre?" Azula asked, amused.
"Let's see if they surprise us," Sokka bit his lip: Mari had already raised the ball, flinging it into the air and slamming it hard with her hand.
Yuudai wasn't particularly athletic, but he kept up fairly well with his opponents. Zi, however, fell to shambles with every strong spike by either Hotaru or Mari. Yuudai attempted to receive their attacks, to pass the ball to Zi so she could hit it back to the other court… but by the time she seemed to get the hang of the game, she and Yuudai were down to a mere two points just before Mari kicked the ball powerfully for her final tenth point.
Another round saw only a mild improvement on the opposing team – though they kept the ball rolling for longer on each point. Still, Hotaru and Mari triumphed again, ten to six, and Zi appeared too disheartened to try playing any further. Yuudai took his loss more gracefully… but he still requested for a break, to Mari's utter chagrin.
"B-but… this was when we switched teams," Mari groaned, pressing her face to the ball. Hotaru sighed, patting her cousin's shoulder.
"It was very intense. Maybe we all can use a break now," she said, with a carefree grin. Mari pouted in her direction, but it seemed pointless to her to play against Hotaru alone…
So, she let her cousin go, and so she stood, alone on the kuai ball court she had been so determined to set up. She let out a groan, wondering if she should go for a swim for now, or if she should just wait until the others were ready for another round…
"Well, now… that's just rude. They ditched her? Unacceptable!" Sokka declared, brow furrowed playfully. Azula shrugged.
"It is a shame… but sadly most the other kids are way too young to play with her," she said: Yuuna and Kerra ran up to Mari, no doubt asking if they could play with her, but Mari only smiled and shook her head, responsibly declining to play so intensely with two kids who were about half her age.
"Well, who said only kids get to play?"
Sokka's words seemed to set off a strange switch inside Azula's head. She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, and he smirked right back at her: her lips shifted into a smile, and Sokka knew she'd understood his intent right away.
"Besides… as far as I know, Mari thinks you and I are about the coolest parents there are. We can't let her change her mind, now, can we?" he snickered, nudging Azula again. She laughed, shaking her head… and making to rise to her feet.
"We really can't let her down. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we did," she decided. Sokka snickered, pushing himself up to his feet as well.
Mari had successfully convinced the two younger girls to go back to Aang when she heard the footsteps on the sand behind her: she turned quickly to find her favorite set of aunt and uncle were approaching her kuai ball court… and her eyes gleamed when they stepped inside the circle she'd drawn earlier.
"Well, well… I can't pretend I know exactly how this game goes, but I think I caught the gist of it earlier," Sokka smirked: Mari's smile couldn't have been broader as she glanced between both Azula and Sokka. "What do you say about teaming up with us, then?"
"I…! T-that would be a dream come true, but…! Are you guys sure?" she asked, smiling nervously. Azula laughed and nodded, reaching for the ball her niece was still holding.
"I was known to tear kuai ball courts to pieces, in my youth…" she said, dramatically: Mari snorted and laughed, handing the ball to Azula. "Of course, I will try to be civilized today and not wreck your nice net. Looks brand-new and everything…"
"It is!" Mari exclaimed, beaming. "You guys sure, then? Though… I don't know who we'd play. Seems like everyone else wants to take a break…"
"Oh, pfft, there's no need to worry about that," Sokka smirked, glancing over Mari's head: he didn't doubt, not for a second, that their attempt to join Mari would go answered by other fully adult players… and he wasn't surprised to see exactly who would step up to the challenge.
"Hey, now… you guys are playing with Mari?" Zuko's voice reached them: he and Suki had stepped up to the edge of the kuai ball court, and Zuko stared at his sister skeptically. Azula simply answered him with a nonchalant shrug.
"Why, I don't see a problem with that," she said, wrapping an arm around Mari's shoulders: the girl smiled wildly upon finding her aunt was on her side, in every sense that counted. "You'll need one more team member to make things even, though… or, well, as even as can be."
Sokka snickered at Azula's very obvious taunt… the funniest part about it was that he knew, of course, that it would pay off perfectly: Zuko seemed to see red at Azula's insinuation that an even number of team players couldn't possibly suffice to defeat her, Sokka and Mari…
"Mari should be playing with us, if anything!" Zuko huffed: Mari chuckled and shook her head. "Y-you… hey! I taught you how to play!"
"I want to be on Aunt Azula and Uncle Sokka's team!" she said, proudly. Sokka laughed, throwing his own arm over Azula's, his free fist into the air.
"The girl knows two champions when she sees them. Can't blame her for that, now, can you, Zuzu?" he snickered: Azula couldn't ever help but laugh upon hearing her husband addressing Zuko with his despised nickname, and it was clear Zuko's patience was now at an end.
"Well, then, if that's how you three want it…!" he said, turning around quickly. Suki, beside him, sighed.
"You're sure about this? It is Mari…" she asked. Zuko scoffed.
"I'm fighting those two. I'll keep Mari out of it," he assured her, before his eyes fell upon his ideal final member for the three-member team. "Katara! Want to kick your brother's ass?"
"Woah!" Katara gasped at Zuko's sudden proposal. She had been talking with Ty Lee about her pregnancy, sharing stories about her own process, enjoying the previous kuai ball games just fine while they chatted, Tashi and Tallah nestled comfortably on her lap. The chi-blocker snickered, nudging her with her knee to join in.
"You can leave your two lovely kiddos to me and Haru, go on now!" Ty Lee said. "I'd join them myself, but as you can tell…"
"Are you sure?" Katara asked, with a weak smile. Both Haru and Ty Lee nodded, reaching out to hold one child each. Katara laughed and bowed her head in their direction. "Well… great. I guess I'm off to a new iteration of sibling wars, here…"
"Have fun!" Ty Lee called after her.
"Good luck!" Haru said, too. Katara smiled at the two of them, waving in their direction.
Aang, still in the water, watched as his wife approached the kuai ball court, slack jawed. Katara waved in his direction, so he shook his head and smiled brightly before cheering her on.
"You can do it! You can beat them, Katara!" he called out.
By then, though, the kids around him had rushed out of the water, delighted by the notion of the all-out brawl about to take place in the kuai ball court: the teams were assembled now, and the six players were ready to get going. By now, the three who had retired earlier seemed most eager to return to the game soon… but for the time being, Yuudai, Hotaru and Zi would sit with their younger siblings, watching the game from the sidelines – surprisingly, even Renshu seemed to stop digging his hole, and he sat on his brother's lap while watching the court intently, waiting for the match to start.
Each team had huddled up, and Mari's eyes brightened upon knowing she'd be a first-hand witness to her aunt and uncle's impeccable strategizing abilities today. Yet, when it came down to it…
"Well, team captain Mari… what do you think we should do?" Sokka asked: the youngest team member gasped, glancing between them in utmost confusion.
"I, uh… I'm the captain?"
"You're the one who came up with this idea. So… yes, I'd say you are," Azula smiled, nudging her gently. Mari giggled, biting her lip.
"Then, uh… I want to hear what you guys have in mind, first?" she said, too bashful to try and think of any strategies herself – she doubted she'd come up with anything on par with what either of these two could think of.
"Hmm, well… Katara and Suki are bound to be a problem," Azula pointed out, casting a glance in their direction. "As much as you're her daughter…"
"Yeah, Mom's not going to hold back with me. Not at all," said Mari, shaking her head.
"But your dad's another story," Sokka smirked: Azula mirrored the expression immediately.
"Therefore, I think the proper strategy as good as speaks for itself," she said. Sokka nodded "You should take a center-back position, Sokka…"
"I'll receive every ball I can," he said, with certainty. "And then I'll pass it forward, to either of you guys…"
"Oh, no. Not to either of us," Azula's smile gained an even more dangerous edge. "There's one sure-proof way for us to score, Sokka… and we're going to make the most of it."
"You sure?" Sokka asked. "Might be he'll catch on eventually… or the other two will."
"If they do, we'll still be so far ahead that we'll be practically guaranteed to reach the ten points before they do," Azula determined. Mari, beside them, chuckled.
"You guys are incredible. You take even this so seriously… uh, I take it seriously too, don't get me wrong! It's just, well… uh, never mind. So! What's the rest of the plan, exactly?"
Both Azula and Sokka shared another complicit smirk before conveying their ideas to Mari. The young firebender's eyes widened, as the most ironclad plan came together right then and there…
A mere minute later, everyone was ready for the game to start. Mari stood outside the court's line: she tossed the ball high in the air and kicked it powerfully towards the other side of the court.
Katara received the ball, impressed by the power it had packed: Zuko kneed it, giving the ball plenty of altitude for Suki to slam it hard with her hand…
But Sokka leapt forward just in time, stopping the ball from dropping in the sand. It hovered right above him, and Azula dashed forth, passing the ball to Mari, who was already mid-jump…
In the middle of the air, as she was, Mari smirked upon finding the exact place to slam the ball towards:
It wasn't as fast as the spike Suki had pulled off earlier, but this one landed on the ground, right in front of Zuko's unmoving form.
Both Suki and Katara gasped, finding Zuko hadn't made the slightest effort to receive the ball: meanwhile, the other team celebrated their first point quite rowdily.
"O-okay, sorry about that," Zuko swallowed hard. "I'll do better next time."
"You'd better," Katara retorted: Zuko scoffed at her. "You didn't call me here just so I'd wind up on a losing team, now, did you?"
"We're not going to lose, that's exactly why you're here! Just make the most of your chance to mess with your brother, as you always do!" Zuko grunted. Katara, despite herself, smiled at Zuko's words.
"Well, you can never go wrong with messing with your annoying older brother, that much is true…" she said, knowing Sokka, already in position again, heard her loud and clear: he stuck his tongue out in her direction, and Katara smirked as she readied herself to respond to this next service by Mari.
Again, they managed to keep the ball in play: it was Katara who dealt the spike this time, but while it was too fast for Sokka to react and receive it with his hands or feet, it bounced against his head and didn't hit the ground. Azula gasped as he rolled back on the sand, but she rushed to get the ball anyway, as it seemed to be about to fall out of the court.
With a powerful kick, Azula returned the ball to her last teammate: once again, Mari hit the ball powerfully, and this time it landed two paces next to Zuko.
"Zuko!" both Suki and Katara cried out: he flinched, knowing exactly why he was messing up… and suspecting why it was happening, too. He shot a wary glare at his sister, who had rushed up to her husband. Sokka had a groggy expression on his face, but he, of course, asked the one question Zuko expected him to ask…
"Did we pull it off?" he said, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips.
"Yup. Two to nil," Azula smiled, pressing a quick kiss to his brow. "You're impossibly heroic, even in friendly kuai ball matches."
"No idea how friendly it is: we're at war with our siblings, feels to me…" Sokka smiled, as Azula helped him to his feet.
"No need to worry… we've got this, Sokka," Azula said, smirking in the direction of the opposing team.
"Come on, Zuko. Get it together," Katara hissed again. He huffed, frowning.
"I will, I will. I know what to expect now…" he said.
But he was wrong, again: this time, when he prepared himself for Mari's spike, Azula spun in a circle and kicked the ball Sokka had sent her way, right into the sand. Katara lunged for it, but she couldn't stop the powerful kick before it landed.
"You guys are AMAZING!" Mari laughed, rushing in to hug her aunt and uncle, whose smirks couldn't have been more irritating for their siblings. Suki sighed at the obvious, rising competitive spirit of both Katara and Zuko, running a hand over her hair.
"Come on, come on, take it easy, you two," she said, patting their shoulders. "We can do this. Just… don't send it at Sokka this time."
"Sure thing," Zuko huffed. Katara didn't appear to enjoy that particular order, but she nodded in Suki's direction.
Upon the next of Mari's serves, Suki passed the ball to Katara, who slammed it hard close to the net. Azula's attempt to dig the ball failed, but she only laughed off her first lost point as the others basked in their success.
"Guess they were onto us much faster than expected," she smiled, as Sokka helped her up.
"I'll be more careful, then," Sokka said, eyeing his opponents warily. "I'll be ready to jump forward whenever I have to…"
"Be ready to do more than that, if need be," Azula said, patting his chest affectionately. "No one here's bound to have a more powerful arm than you. If you don't receive it, you might just be able to spike it…"
"Huh… you sure about that?" Sokka smiled. Azula winked at him.
"Trust me."
"Always," he responded: Azula smiled brightly at his answer.
Zuko served this time: he shot the ball powerfully at Sokka, unable to make the ball land anywhere else: Mari attempted to spike it at Zuko again, but Suki leapt in the way of it, flinging the ball upwards for Katara to set it properly and for Zuko to slam it again…
But this time, Azula and Sokka had changed positions.
She received the ball, rolling on the sand as a result: Mari watched in sheer awe as Sokka seemed to levitate, gearing up with an attack that none of the other team's members were prepared for.
The ball slammed powerfully into the sand, still spinning in place as Sokka dropped on the ground again, a proud smirk on his face.
"You guys just…!" Mari gasped, her hands over her mouth as she gazed at them in amazement.
A cheer broke from their many onlookers. Hotaru, Shun and Yuuna cheered for their parents' teamwork, while many of the others clapped at the way they'd obliterated the defense of their opposing team. Most of the audience wasn't surprised in the least to see Azula and Sokka gaining such an advantage over their opponents, though the opponents in question weren't all that pleased about it.
"Guess they're taking us seriously now, huh?" Zuko said, with a proud smile that waned quickly. "Though that may not be a good thing for us anyway."
"We're NOT letting them get a win so easily. We're fighting this, to the end!" Katara declared: it would be Azula's serve next, and they were ready quickly to receive the ball.
They did fight, and quite bravely: they managed a couple more points later on, though only after Azula's serve scored two more for their side. By the time it was Sokka's turn to serve, everyone was ready to receive a powerhouse of an attack… that wound up going too far, landing outside the court and leading his three opponents to sigh in relief.
"Ugh, damn it. Should control my power better…" Sokka pouted: Azula eased him by kissing his cheek.
"Being so strong and fierce may lose us a few points in the game, but it wins you quite a few of them with me, just the same," she declared, wiggling her eyebrows: his previous irritation was eased quickly by her teasing. "Come on, then. We're not that far from crushing them completely."
Katara's serve wasn't as powerful as her brother's, but strong enough to cause Mari to roll in the sand after digging the ball right on time. Azula passed it, Sokka smacked it… but Zuko dug it too, much as his daughter had. Suki was the next to spike, though Azula received it, handing it to Sokka, and Sokka set it for Mari…
Another spike, and another out-of-bounds blast.
"Oh, damn it!" Mari huffed: her parents cheered on the other side, and their little audience seemed to cheer for them as well.
"Calm down, calm down. We're still ahead, and we'll stay ahead," Azula smiled. "If things take a bad turn, well… we'll just have to take extreme measures."
"I wonder what that means," Mari glanced at her aunt, who smirked deviously.
"I have no choice but to hold back so far, is all… I'd rather not go the extra mile unless we really have to," she said. Mari gulped but smiled. "Sokka's holding back too, so…"
"You guys are terrifying… and you're also the coolest people ever," she laughed. Azula smiled, winking at her niece before Katara served again.
This time, Mari's showdown with her mother kept them stalled in a point for almost three minutes: Sokka swept in eventually, slapping the ball right past Suki, at such speed neither Zuko nor Katara could reach it.
"Yeah! One last point and we're done!" Mari cheered: it was her serve again, and she hoped to do it right…
Her father grimaced when she took her position: he loved his daughter dearly and wanted her to be happy… but he didn't want his sister and her husband to thwart his team. It was a troubling conflict of interests… but it was one that caused him to do his best, even when the ball his daughter served went flying right in his direction.
He managed to dig it, handing it to Katara, who passed it over the net immediately: Azula struck it, making it hover just long enough for Sokka to knee it higher yet… and then Mari swept in, kicking the ball towards her father anew…
Suki leapt in front of the ball, passing it to Katara. Zuko jumped over Suki, shooting her a complicit smile before spiking the ball… and Azula received it, hard enough and in such an angle that it bounced right into Zuko's face.
Suki gasped, but Katara rushed after the ball anyway. Azula grimaced as her brother found his bearings… and glared at her for making the ball rebound that way. She shrugged apologetically, but she had little time to repent: Katara had managed to save the ball, Suki was in position to spike it…
Mari dug it this time, falling face-first in the sand to save a ball that would have almost certainly left a sizable hole in the sand if it had touched the ground. Azula turned quickly, ready to set the ball… and Sokka leapt powerfully, right above her.
Azula smirked, passing him the ball just in time for him to smirk knowingly at her. With a blow as strong as that of his failed serve earlier, but from a much better vantage point, Sokka dunked the ball in the sand, just before the other three could jump quickly enough to reach it.
"We won! We… YES!" Mari screamed, leaping to her feet: Sokka had stumbled on the sand, dropping atop his wife as the two of them laughed over their victory, rolling under the net.
"Ugh! This is exactly why I didn't want them to win!" Zuko groaned, covering his eyes from the sight of his sister kissing her husband in the most shameless manner possible – Shun did the same thing among the public, while everyone else just laughed at their reactions.
"If that was how it was, you should've been smarter about receiving your dear daughter's powerful spikes," Katara smiled, patting his shoulder sympathetically. "We lost, but I'd say we were a pretty good team, though!"
"Better than expected, considering you'd never played with us before," Suki laughed, hugging Katara to thank her for the game.
"You guys are crazy!" Hotaru laughed, entering the court and approaching her parents. They were still locked in each other's embrace, laughing carelessly at their latest successful venture.
"What do you want us to say? We're just naturals at kuai ball!" Sokka grinned, raising his head to glance at his daughter. "Or, well, I am."
"It's just the first time you play, and you crushed the competition so thoroughly," Azula smiled fondly as she cupped his face. "We were always meant to be, Sokka, I knew we were…"
"Was there ever any doubt?" Sokka snickered, prompting Azula to kiss him one more time before sitting up, utterly proud of her victory.
"Thank you, guys," Mari smiled, stepping closer to her two teammates. "That was… the best kuai ball game, EVER!"
"Woah, really? We can't try to outdo it, then?"
Yuudai's voice startled Mari: she turned quickly towards him, her cheeks flushed. He smiled at her and nodded in acknowledgement.
"You're really good at this game, keeping up with two grown-ups in your team and three in the other one… maybe you should try to make some sort of professional career out of it," Yuudai suggested. Mari snorted and shook her head.
"Is there such a thing? I doubt it… though, if there is, I definitely have to think about it," she smirked, to everyone's amusement.
"Well, then… you up for another round?" Yuudai asked, with a shrug. "Pretty sure a lot of people want to join in now…"
He wasn't wrong: Zi was back on board too, inspired by the showdown between her parents and her sister. Hotaru seemed perfectly enthusiastic as well, so their previous group was ready… while Aang had rushed in to ask to be part of the game as well, delighted to test his ability to handle a game so different from the ones he used to play with his fellow airbenders. Ty Lee had spurred Haru to take part in the game too, in her place, and Ruon Jian had stepped up as well, despite admitting he hadn't tried his hand at kuai ball since a very long time ago. Out of those playing the last game, only Suki and Mari remained in the court: Azula and Sokka stepped out and joined their youngest children, who seemed all too thrilled for their victory in the last game.
"I want to play!" Yuuna insisted, once Shun darted off to watch the start of the next game. Azula smiled, smoothing the girl's disorderly hair.
"You're not quite ready to play against your big cousin just yet…" Azula said, but she smirked soon enough. "But we could start preparing you for that, someday."
"Yeah!" Yuuna grinned, clasping her mother's hands: Azula smiled at Sokka, who nodded approvingly.
"We've got a smaller ball in our bags. Want to practice with that one?"
"Yeah, bring it over," Azula said.
Yuuna couldn't have been more excited, though her enthusiasm dwindled when a boyish voice spoke up to Azula suddenly.
"I want to learn to play too."
Azula glanced down at Renshu: he stared at her with the same straightforward bluntness he ever exhibited, and Yuuna grimaced over his presence immediately. Azula smiled, though, and nodded at Mai's second son.
"If you want, sure thing. Might be the next time we come here, the four of us will be a great team," Azula said. Yuuna stuck her tongue out at the notion, just as Sokka returned to them, the new ball in hand.
They started in the sand, simply passing the ball from one to the other… but as Yuuna seemed unamused about having to pass the ball to Renshu, Azula and Sokka decided the child needed a new variant added to the game, to distract her from being cross with the little boy: they entered the water, making it so they stood in a square, with Yuuna and Renshu closer to shore, while the two grown-ups stood deeper in the water.
"Alright, then! Remember: there's no bending in kuai ball…" Sokka said to Yuuna, though Azula snorted.
"Well, now, I never heard of that rule…"
"Hey, now," Sokka eyed her meaningfully: Azula offered him a guilty grin before he tossed the ball at her. "Come on, start passing!"
The water slowed their movements, thus, it forced them to make bigger efforts to reach the ball. Even though the kids weren't all that deep in the water, the ball slipped out of their small hands a few times… though when it happened to Yuuna once, she bent some nearby water quickly to ensure the ball would return to her hands, hoping no one would notice she had broken the passing pattern. Yet, of course, everyone did… and one of them would never fail to point out whatever he'd noticed:
"You used your bending," Renshu said. Yuuna pouted. "It's not allowed."
"… Tattletale," Yuuna pouted. Renshu blinked blankly.
"I just told the truth," he said, simply.
Flustered and irritated, Yuuna responded to Renshu's accusation by tossing the ball at him when he didn't expect it. It bounced cleanly off his head, and both Sokka and Azula gasped at her choice: Renshu, however, didn't seem bothered by it at all.
"Yuuna! There's no need to do that, Renshu's a friend…!" Sokka said. Yuuna bit her lower lip, glancing at her parents apologetically.
"Sorry…"
"It didn't hurt. It's a light ball," Renshu said: it seemed as though he had no idea what was there to be worried about, altogether. Yuuna glanced at him with uncertainty…
Then, she used her bending again to have the ball float into Renshu's hands again. The young boy seemed puzzled when the ball returned to him… and then he smiled.
"Woah. W-woah…!" Sokka gasped, reaching for Azula's arm: his wife actually laughed at the sight of the boy smiling, for neither of them had seen it before.
"Thank you," Renshu said, still grinning at Yuuna before tossing the ball at Azula again.
Azula and Sokka remained amused and amazed by the boy's unusual display of emotion as the ball came back into circulation between them. They'd definitely have to ask Mai later if he'd ever reacted this way to anyone else… but for now, they cherished having witnessed such a rare sight with Yuuna, who had relaxed a little upon realizing that perhaps Renshu wasn't bad company after all. As awkward as she was around the boy before, now she seemed much quicker to smile in his direction whenever she passed him the ball.
In the meantime, two more games passed by in the kuai ball court: at first, it was a game with Mari and Yuudai, finally on the same team, paired with Haru and Suki. On the other team, Hotaru, Zi, Ruon Jian and Aang had done their best to win, but the Avatar's frequent, instinctive airbending had caused the game to stop, and for points to be annulled, because of the evident unfairness that Aang himself acknowledged as such between awkward, apologetic smiles. In the end, Mari was happily triumphant anew, though her streak ended when the next game saw the young players teaming up against the adult ones: even without airbending, Aang's height offered him quite an advantage over his opponents, much as Suki's agility did. Haru's quick digs saw him receiving even the most complicated balls, more often than not, and as much as Ruon Jian seemed to have no special skill of his own, he passed the ball to everyone who did, always ensuring they could take the points when the opportunity came up.
The defeated teenagers weren't all that discouraged, though: the grown-ups they'd been playing seemed too tired to continue, but Mari knowingly glanced at her previous partners, finding they were finally getting out of the water with the two children they had been playing with:
"Hey, Aunt Azula, Uncle Sokka! Want another round?" she asked, with a mischievous grin. Sokka scoffed.
"Aren't you exhausted yet, Mari? Goodness, what do your parents feed you that you still can go for another game…?" Sokka asked, running his hand over his wet hair. Mari snickered and shook her head.
"Oh, come on! You totally can take another game! Though I guess you'll need two more teammates… oh, I know! Dad, Kat-Kat!"
"Woah. Did she just…?" Sokka froze: Azula grimaced too as both Zuko and Katara, who had sat out the last two games, glanced at Mari in confusion.
"You can have your rematch: join Aunt Azula and Uncle Sokka to beat me!" Mari said, with a vicious smirk.
"Wait a minute…!" Zuko gasped. Katara scoffed.
"I wanted to beat them, not you, Mari!" Katara said, bluntly: her earnest answer amused Sokka and Azula, as Mari smiled and shook her head.
"Now you guys can try to work together to beat me and my team, then! Should be lots of fun!"
"Well, now… playing against Hotaru? That sounds so wrong…" Sokka said, glancing at Azula with uncertainty. His wife scoffed.
"You're not going to be as silly about that as Zuko was, now, are you? It's a game, not a battlefield…"
"As far as I can tell, every game is a battlefield of its own," Sokka smiled, as they entered the court. "But anyway, she's definitely trying to coax those two to join in because she assumes we're going to fail if we work together with them, right?"
"Right… and we can't give her the satisfaction, can we?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. Sokka snickered and shook his head, glancing at Katara.
"Come on, Katara!" he called for her. "I promise I won't kiss Azula every point we score…"
"That's something you ought to be promising this guy, not me," Katara smirked, pointing at Zuko, whose eyebrow twitched at her words. "You guys are for real? Us against them?"
"Well, why not? We're always at odds, the fun siblings and the boring ones…" Sokka said, with a melodramatic sigh.
"And after calling us that, you still think we're going to join in?" Zuko growled, rising to his feet.
"Well, now! I didn't say which was which, you jumped to conclusions all on your own!" Sokka grinned. Zuko huffed, kicking sand in his direction and shaking his head as he and Katara joined their siblings on their side of the court.
"I'm joining in, alright… but only because Mari wants me to," he said, proudly. "And we're going to lose, deliberately, so that she and Zi can be happy."
"Wait, wait, wait, that defeats the whole point of playing…" Sokka said, grimacing.
"Your daughter is on the other team too, how are you even questioning this?" Zuko asked, eyeing Sokka with uncertainty.
"Oh, our daughter will be fine if she loses," Azula smirked, glancing at Hotaru, who grinned and waved in her direction. "It'll just toughen her up, if anything…"
"Toughen her up…?" Zuko grimaced, glancing at Mari. "Not sure I want mine to be toughen-…"
His words seemed to die out in a sputter, his brow drawn together upon noticing Mari wasn't as attentive to him as Hotaru was with Azula and Sokka: instead, Mari's attention was completely enraptured by Yuudai, who seemed to laugh happily at whatever his unusually bashful daughter was saying to him…
"W-what is… w-what is…?" he asked, blinking rapidly as he raised a hand towards what was happening on the other side of the court. "Hey now, that's not… t-that's not allowed…"
Azula, Sokka and Katara glanced back at Mari: it only took an instant for all three of them to understand what was bothering Zuko so greatly all of sudden… and it only took another instant for a clever idea to transmit between all three of them, wordlessly.
"Well, well… maybe Mari had a reason to want to play with that particular team, huh?" Azula said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. Zuko's face seemed to spasm now, and Sokka could barely hold back the laughter that threatened to break him. Katara stepped up next:
"That's definitely flirty body language, yes," she said, supporting her weight by setting an elbow on Zuko's shoulder. "Oh, my, what a mess…"
"He's not… what the hell does he think he's doing?" Zuko asked, with a dangerous smile.
"Well, now… Mari's not bound to take it very well if you snap at her right now," Azula said, smiling at Zuko. "She's just being a teenager, after all. But the one you're definitely worried about is…"
"Him," Zuko finished. Katara smirked.
"And there's no better way to deal with this apparent threat… than by playing at your very best, isn't that right?"
"I…! I…!" Zuko huffed, releasing a small puff of fire with a hard breath through his nose. He turned quickly, his back towards the net as he snarled viciously. "I'm taking him down."
Azula punched the air triumphantly as Katara giggled to herself, just as bad at containing her amusement as Sokka was. Within moments, they'd huddled up, and their strategy meeting began.
There wasn't much to instruct Zuko over: his eyes shifted in every direction with concerned fury, and it was clear he'd do a much better job this game than he had in the previous one he'd played. They would take a different formation now, with Azula and Katara at either side of the court, Sokka taking the back, and Zuko standing closest to the net.
"Alright… brace yourselves!" Sokka called, as Mari readied herself to serve. Azula winked at Hotaru, opposite to her on the court, and her daughter grinned happily at her mother.
The ball flew powerfully, right into Sokka's ready arms: it bounced off Azula's palms next, in Zuko's direction…
The firebender leapt in the air, readying a spinning kick that he aimed flawlessly at Yuudai.
The young man stretched his hands out, trying to receive the ball, but it bounced wildly off his hands, slamming unevenly and bouncing out of the court. Yuudai winced, and Mari gasped, rushing towards him.
"You okay, Yuudai?! Dad! Take it easy!" she huffed: Zuko's eyes seemed to glower, and Mari flinched at the sight of it. "D-Dad…?"
"Oookay, Zuko! Nicely done! Good job!" Sokka smiled, yanking the firebender towards them: he still was seeing red, evidently. "Hey now, buddy, it's cool that you're taking it seriously but…"
"She… she just ran off to check on him, she…" Zuko huffed. Azula hummed.
"If you aim so that the ball doesn't touch him, she'll have no reason to worry about him, you know…?" she said. Katara and Sokka glanced at her in disbelief. "What? We should redirect his rage, not make him lose it. Not until we're at least five points ahead…"
"You're so competitive, you guys…" Katara smiled, shaking her head.
"Well, you can always let the rest of us do most the work and just be here to even our playing numbers, if you really don't care for victory that much…" Sokka said, nonchalantly. Katara's placid smile shifted into an irate scowl. "Or maybe not?"
"You… you're such a pain," she hissed, bumping him as they took positions again: Azula and Sokka exchanged a wicked smile before Shun came rushing back towards them, carrying the ball that had fallen out of the court earlier.
Azula served, Hotaru received it: Zi had very little confidence with spiking properly, so she set the ball for her older sister. Mari attempted her previous technique, hopeful that her father wouldn't be able to handle receiving this time…
Zuko leapt, arms extended in front of the ball. It bounced right back into her side of the court, and Mari gazed in shock at her father's disgruntled expression as Yuudai dove in to save the ball before their team lost another point. Zi hoisted the ball again, and this time it was Hotaru jumping, to spike…
Her father received it, grinning wildly at his proud daughter.
"Nice power there, Hotaru! That's my girl!" he roared: she blushed but smiled proudly as she returned to a defensive position.
The ball was Katara's to spike this time: sharp and eager to prove she was as fierce as the rest of her team's members, Katara mercilessly aimed her spike towards Zi's vicinity. The young girl squealed and shifted out of the way of the ball, and Katara's viciousness faded into remorse.
"Zi! I didn't mean to freak you out, I…!"
"Zi! Don't fear the ball, you should know better than that after all these games!" Mari stepped in, blocking Katara from view as she scolded her younger sister. Katara blinked a couple of times but sighed, guessing she'd apologize properly later.
"That's it, much better!" Sokka grinned at Katara, with a thumbs-up gesture. Katara sighed shaking her head.
"I'm letting you guys drive me crazy, aren't I? I really am…" she sighed, returning to position.
The next point lasted just two back-and-forth exchanges before the ball fell right into Zuko's hands: he slammed the ball powerfully at a corner near Yuudai, and he failed to reach the ball. Azula congratulated him for a better result now, but Zuko, clearly, wasn't satisfied… let alone was he when Yuudai himself blocked his next spike successfully, and Azula failed to dig the ball just before it fell within fair grounds.
"U-uh… I'm sorry?" Yuudai whimpered, face to face with Zuko's fearsome glare: Katara had to reel him back in, while Sokka took care to check that Azula was alright after lunging for the ball and failing to retrieve it.
"Don't mind him, don't mind him…" Mari huffed, hands on her hips. "I have no idea what's wrong with Dad right now, but… we did it! First point we've scored so far, you guys! Let's keep it rolling!"
And so they did: another mistake by Zuko resulted in a spike that collided with the topmost border of the net. Hotaru leapt in the air powerfully, kicking the ball with plenty of power, right beside Katara.
"Woah! You go, Hotaru!" Sokka roared, clapping as Azula nodded in her direction.
"Magnificent form, too. Nicely done," she said: Hotaru blushed, scratching the back of her head as she smiled shyly. Mari, beside her, huffed and shook her head.
"If only my parents were as cool as that…" she said: Zuko overheard her, and he gazed at her, stricken and distraught once again.
"Calm down, Zuko…" Katara warned him: he glanced at her in distress, though.
"Am I… losing her?! Am I losing them?! Is he going to…?!"
"To do what? He's sixteen!" Katara laughed, hands on her hips. "Come on, quit being such a dumbass about this, whatever it is. I know we thought it'd get you to do a better job, but you're actually doing worse now…"
"M-Mari hates me…" he whimpered. Katara groaned, shoving him towards the net before glancing at the other two.
"No more Zuko spikes or kicks. I think you guys broke him by accident," she said. Azula and Sokka raised an eyebrow, puzzled, but willing to abide by Katara's counsel.
Thus, the game became, by all effects, three-against-four. Zuko only seemed to pass the ball, leaving the other three to receive, set and spike together – even so, their physical superiority saw the opposing team, inexperienced and much too young, trailing behind by four points when they'd reached their eighth.
"Awesome work, Yuudai!" Mari exclaimed, rushing in to hug him quickly after he spiked and scored: Zuko's protectiveness reared its ugly head again at the sight, and he growled under his breath, waiting for the ball to reach him soon. Maybe Mari would hate him, but he couldn't let her throw her whole life away over some… some summer romance? Was that what this was? It couldn't be…!
The mere idea seemed to break what little sense he still had left: when Azula set for Katara, Zuko rushed in instead and kicked the ball powerfully, again at Yuudai… and this time it slammed right into his face.
"Yuudai!" Mari gasped: the ball dropped right in front of the net, and the young man flopped on the sand, a groggy smile on his face. Zuko scoffed.
"That's as far as this goes, Mar-…!"
"ZUKO!"
A sudden, thunderous, unexpectedly loud voice seemed to freeze the whole game. Zuko, naturally, was the most terrified one as Mari helped the still-groggy Yuudai up to a sitting position. The wounded teenager smiled awkwardly at his teammate… and then he glanced at his mother, who stood at the edge of the court, glaring fiercely at the fully-grown firebender responsible for Yuudai's many difficulties over the course of this game.
Zuko swallowed hard, eyeing Mai with utmost terror: he couldn't remember having angered her to that extent ever before… though it suddenly dawned on him that Yuudai was no common, random teenage boy. He was Mai's son, much as Mari was his daughter… and Mai would want his head on a platter after what he'd done.
"I… I… l-lost control…?" Zuko acknowledged. Mai's eyes glowered in the sunset, brighter than the last slivers of sunlight.
"You'd better not lose control again. You hear me?" she hissed. Zuko swallowed hard and nodded. "And even if you don't… this is not over."
Zuko gritted his teeth, watching as Mai stepped into the court, marching to check on her son – he seemed to be mostly fine, though he continued to smile awkwardly as his teammates talked to him. Yet, after convincing him of leaving the court to treat the unsurprising nosebleed that poured down his upper lip after a moment, Mai herself took his position. The three teenage girls watched her in sheer astonishment, and Mari gulped before bowing her head in their only adult teammate's direction.
"T-thank you for… filling in? Didn't expect that…" she admitted.
"I have to fill in for him. And I have a score to settle with your father," Mai hissed. Zuko gritted his teeth, shrinking in place: only one point remained, so perhaps Mai's motherly fury wouldn't reach him…
His hopes were unfounded: as soon as the ball was on her side of the court, Mai was merciless.
It hadn't really surprised Azula to find her friend could be quite so efficient and powerful upon setting her mind on something, but she couldn't remember Mai ever being a particularly impressive kuai ball player… and yet, all of sudden, she was the best one on the court. Her millimetric precision, her powerful attacks, her quick assessments on where to block, her leadership with the other girls… and her vengefulness at Zuko, too, saw the score slowly closing in until it stood nine-to-eight, even if still in favor of the team with the two sets of siblings.
"This is bad," Katara said, smiling awkwardly at her teammates. "They're going to kill us if we keep this up, so… you two? Got any big ideas in mind?"
Azula and Sokka glanced at each other: so far, the games had been nothing but entertainment. Taking them seriously would likely kill part of the fun – and admittedly, it had been fun for Zuko to cower under Mai's fury after his earlier outbursts. Yet neither of them liked losing, and they had no intentions of doing it now.
"Zuko," Azula said, glancing at her brother: his face, shoulders and chest sported a few circular red marks, where Mai's powerful spikes had struck him in retaliation for his cruelty with her son. "I'm going to need you to be ready to receive the next ball."
"But Mai's serving…"
"Exactly," Azula said, eyes narrow. "If we move fast enough, if Katara can toss it our way…"
"One of us can do it?" Sokka asked. Azula nodded.
"We can try to, anyway. We'll keep the ball rolling until the right chance comes, at least. But stick to receiving properly now, alright? No more blocking attempts, or spiking. Got it?"
Zuko nodded meekly, willing to do whatever was necessary to end his current torment: Azula clasped Sokka's hand firmly, and he smiled proudly at his wife.
"I have no idea what we're going to do to get this last point… so I guess we're going to wing it, huh?"
"Well, on some measure, yes," Azula smirked, shrugging. "We're going all out, though…"
"You sure? Won't set the net or the ball on fire if you do?" Sokka asked, amused. Azula shrugged.
"It's been known to happen…" she admitted, twirling a lock of hair between her fingers. Sokka chuckled and shook his head.
"Oh, I love you."
"I love you too," Azula retorted with a complicit grin, squeezing his hand before taking her position.
Mai served: as predicted, the ball soared powerfully towards Zuko, not intended to find purchase in the sand, but to smack the firebender's face. Zuko kicked the ball upon receiving it, and as much as it was a reckless move that saw the ball floating far too high in the sky, Katara still rushed towards it.
"Got it, got it…!"
Her eyes flickered down to Sokka and Azula, who exchanged a knowing look. To her utter confusion, Sokka gathered Azula in his arms, leaning down with her…
Katara tossed a high set in their direction, and just so, Sokka tossed Azula into the air.
She soared, startling everyone else in the court, even Mai, whose focus so far had been exclusively on Zuko: nobody was prepared for Azula to turn around in midair, packing a powerful kick of her own that saw the ball shooting at lightning speed, right back to the sand…
It sank in the middle of the opposite team's side with a burst of sand, as good as leaving a crater in its wake.
Katara gasped in amazement. Zuko blinked blankly, relieved, the four at the opposing team simply stared at the crater in shock, and the public froze entirely as Azula fell back again… right into her husband's waiting arms.
"And that's ten!" Sokka roared, hugging Azula tightly as they spun in circles. "We did it! You did it, Azula!"
"You're the one who threw me up there, you're the one who did it!" Azula laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck: by then, their public had launched into a loud celebration, the children squealing with joy – or simply clapping, in Renshu's case –, the grown-ups laughing at the typically unpredictable antics of the impossibly competitive couple who embraced willfully in the middle of the kuai ball court, with Sokka still holding Azula across his arms as he smiled proudly.
Hotaru watched them with amusement, letting a few chuckles tumble past her lips as she glanced at the sand crater near her, where the ball had been buried a good meter underground. Mari's own reaction was laughter, though she turned to Mai soon enough, thanking her for filling in for Yuudai, who now sat with Ruon Jian by the courtside, waving at them and letting them know they'd played brilliantly, a damp cloth under his nostrils.
"Mom! Mom, you flew like a bird!" Yuuna rushed into the court, jumping happily at Sokka's feet. "Like a dragon!"
"Oh, that's because we're a family of dragons, Yuuna, I always tell you as much," Sokka chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to Azula's cheek. "And your mommy is the best dragon of all!"
"Well, now, I wouldn't be half the dragon I am if you weren't the amazing wolf that flings me six feet into the air… or however many they were," Azula laughed, pressing a kiss to his lips. "We really are the best team there is, aren't we?"
"Always have been," Sokka grinned brightly, burying his face in her neck: Shun had joined them by then, but he grimaced at the displays of affection between his parents, sticking his tongue out at the sight of them, cuddled up together that way.
All wild tempers had flared at their worst during the games: a mere few moments after it ended, Zuko went over to apologize to Yuudai, who smiled awkwardly but accepted the apology graciously.
"I know I shouldn't have played so roughly, I just… got carried away. I was completely out of place," Zuko sighed, lowering his head in a heartfelt reverence.
"It's okay, really. It was just a game," Yuudai said, with a kind smile. Zuko grinned back and nodded.
"That's right, it was just a-… wait, what?" Zuko's brain seemed to short-circuit over the possible interpretations of Yuudai's words, but this time, Suki slipped nearby quickly and yanked him away from the teenager.
"Good job apologizing, don't mess it up now," she said, with a dry grin. Zuko scoffed.
"But he just said it was a game: what was a game? The kuai ball, o-or whatever he's up to, with Mari…?" Zuko whimpered. Suki rolled her eyes.
"Probably just the kuai ball game? Come on, Zuko, we raised Mari right, didn't we? That's what matters most. And Mai must have raised Yuudai right too, but, beyond that, picking a fight with him means picking a fight with her, and you don't want to do that again, now, do you?"
Zuko grimaced over the question: Mai's good-mannered smile at Yuudai shifted into a merciless glare upon realizing Zuko had glanced in her direction: yes, perhaps Suki was right.
"I'll… shut up now," he decided.
Suki smiled, nodding at her husband before turning to the rest of the group, all of whom were finally calming down after the intense game:
"So…! Dinnertime?"
Their last meal of the day wasn't served within the house: instead, they ate around a large fire, roasting food together, enjoying leftovers from lunch, as well as a few desserts that had been ready for the meal. The sky darkened gradually, and the stars were a beautiful spectacle to behold for everyone: laughter rang across the beach as stories of all sorts were shared, great anecdotes from the old days, tales that most everyone either held dear or found intriguing, as was the case for most the children who hadn't witnessed them directly.
By the time the last of the food was spent, several of the families retired to the house again: Ty Lee and Haru took off with Zuko and Suki's family, and Katara and Aang followed shortly afterwards, carrying both their kids. Mai slowed down next to Azula and Sokka before taking off with her own family, however, finding the five members of the self-proclaimed dragon-and-wolf family were quite comfortable lying on the sand, facing the sky, not too far from where the fire still burned.
"You'll take care of that?" she asked Azula, gesturing at the burning wood. Azula nodded reassuringly.
"Have a good night, Mai. Sorry we beat you," she smiled. Mai scoffed.
"You're not sorry at all, but I don't mind. At least you two were the ones who scored the final point," she smiled despite herself, raising a hand in farewell before taking off after her husband and two sons.
Azula closed her eyes, sighing happily against Sokka's chest: he had taken to sitting against a tall rock, and Azula had joined him there. Then Hotaru had taken her seat by Azula's free side and Shun by Sokka's: Yuuna had climbed their laps, sitting with one small leg over each of their thighs… and by now, the three children, so energetic as they had been through the day, were exhausted and drained after so much fun on their first day of beach vacation. They had fallen asleep gradually, but by now it seemed they were so deeply unconscious that their parents would likely have to carry them into the house later… but only later. For now, they basked in the peaceful feeling of sitting together near that fire, with a dark but beautiful horizon spreading before them, with countless bright stars gleaming above them.
"Well… that was quite the start for this vacation, wasn't it?" Sokka smiled, glancing at Azula with a heartfelt smile. She grinned back, pressing a quick kiss to his shoulder. "Think we can keep up the momentum if there's more games later? We should never lose at kuai ball, you and me…"
"Won't be long before they realize what the true challenge will be, for us…" Azula said, softly. Sokka gasped, in feigned outrage.
"What… making us play in opposing teams?! Now, that's forbidden. Absolutely," he scoffed: Azula only laughed, pressing another kiss to his shoulder.
"If you get away with that, then yes, we'd definitely destroy anyone who plays against us. It goes without saying," she declared, raising her head towards him. Sokka offered her a wild grin before kissing her lips quickly.
"You're my every dream come true, Azula. You know that, right?" he asked, smiling fondly at his wife. She raised her head to kiss him again, prodding his nose with hers.
"You're my every dream come true too, Sokka, though… right now, one particular dream comes to mind," she admitted, raising her eyebrows. Sokka hummed.
"What's that?"
"Well…" Azula started, glancing about herself with uncertainty.
She had been in this beach, in this place, so many years ago. She had played with her brother, she had tried to gain more approval and attention from her parents here… yet even though time had colored the memories into much fonder recollections than they used to be, back when she'd lived them directly, she'd known no peace, no true happiness, in those days. Right now, gazing at her sleeping children, and then at the man she had raised them with, a spark of very familiar, overwhelming joy danced inside her chest, filling her with the certainty of having experienced, for as many years as they had been together, exactly what she had dreamt of, if subconsciously, since she was a child…
"I guess I always wanted to know what it felt like, being part of a happy family," Azula said, with a small smile. "Been ages since the question's been answered, of course… but in moments like these, it's like all the happiness is renewed and strengthened all over again. Doesn't matter how tired we are, doesn't matter how much trouble these three can get into… all of it is part of our happiness, just as well. I… I'm seriously proud of us. Of everything we've built, Sokka."
His affectionate smile melted her heart all the more, no matter how many times she'd seen it before: he pressed his brow to hers, and she released a breath, as though hoping to let out some of the overwhelming, blissful emotions that surged inside her chest that way…
"So am I, love," he said, softly. "I did know what it felt like, myself… being in a happy family, I mean. But this feels… it feels even better than anything ever did, in the past. Not just because of how much has changed, all over the world… but because I got to build this happy family of our own with you: there's no greater honor or happiness to be found in this world than that."
Azula smiled warmly, leaning in for another kiss that Sokka relinquished gladly. They'd head indoors soon, they couldn't stay out in this beach forever, before the flickering embers, underneath a starlit sky… even so, that moment they shared, the comfort of their embrace, in the company of their children, nestled in the ever-surging love that only strengthened further between them all, was but a crystallized instant of bliss that encompassed eternity.
#sokkla#sokka#azula#sokkla saturdays 2021#sokkla saturdays#it begins!#my very common side ships are here#so I think it's more or less intuitive that if you read my other things#you should be fine with this one too :'D#... and yes like I say in the author's notes#I won't confirm or deny anything#this is a story#about a happy family :>#that is that :>#*evil cackling*#and about some very crazy kuai ball games too#oh honestly I know handling too many characters is difficult boy do I know it#BUT IT'S SO MUCH FUN ;_;#when your ensemble actually works well together man it's just bliss writing stories like these#(... as evidenced by the RIDICULOUS word count :'D)
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Leave It In The Sun: Chapter One
(a Disco Elysium fanfic)
Warnings: Full game spoilers, eventual spicy scenes, basically the level of adult content in the game itself.
General summary: A slow(ish) burn exploration of life at Precinct 41 after Harry and Kim wrap up the case and Kim makes the move to Jamrock. Mainly just about how Harry and Kim's relationship might develop, and a sort of character study of some of the employees of Precinct 41 in general.
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Chapter one summary: Two difficult weeks after leaving Martinaise, Harry finally reaches out to Kim.
Chapter length: Approx. 4.3k words
The sun is only just setting over the streets of Jamrock, drenched in rain and neon. The city stops to catch its breath in the intermission between day and night.
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT: And so do you. You could’ve sworn the nearest payphone was, y’know, nearer than this. Maybe that bone-shattering gunshot wound also isn’t quite as far along in the healing process as you thought either.
PAIN THRESHOLD: Brilliant claws of pain rake down your thigh as you lean against the payphone and try to center yourself.
You glance at the phone resting in its cradle, with some trepidation. Phone calls are always a bit… difficult for you. Especially these days.
SUGGESTION: You can still change your mind.
VOLITION: No. You came here for a reason.
SUGGESTION: Or… you could always just call her instead.
VOLITION: *Focus.*
You take a deep breath. The late spring air is turning chilly in the slowly setting sun. The rain drizzles lazily as it has all day, showing no sign of stopping. A handful of people are still--or already--out wandering downtown Jamrock, laughing and talking and hurrying home and running errands and entirely focused on just about anything in the world *besides* a washed up middle-aged man having a minor anxiety attack and moderate-to-severe hip pain next to a public phone at 6:04pm in the rain.
INLAND EMPIRE: The loneliness knocks the wind out of you. You thought you were used to it by now. It’s worse outside, around people.
DRAMA: The threadbare costume you created for yourself in the privacy of your dark, trash-strewn apartment doesn’t seem quite as convincing with an audience.
VOLITION: Stop the goddamn pity party and pick up the phone already.
The receiver is light in your hand as you fumble for change and the crumpled slip of paper you’ve had in your jeans pocket for the last two weeks or so. You slowly, deliberately dial the phone number written on it, as if some part of you is afraid that your fingers might just automatically fall into the patterns of *her* number instead.
VOLITION: They might. But you’re done hurting yourself.
CONCEPTUALIZATION: Well, maybe not entirely. Yet. But you’re done hurting yourself *with her* for sure.
INLAND EMPIRE: You still feel like you deserve that pain. But it’s wrong to keep using her as the knife you gut yourself with. She deserves better, even if you might not.
LOGIC: In any case, this isn’t about her. It’s about you, and it’s about--
“Hello?” Kim’s voice is muffled and tinny through the old, worn copper wiring. He sounds tired, but you guess that’s not particularly surprising. You’ve been pretty damn tired too.
“Kim, hey, it’s uh, it’s me,” you reply awkwardly.
“Harry? Do you need something?”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: This is the first time you’ve called him since leaving Martinaise, despite carrying that little piece of paper around for the last two weeks. He’s thinking, why now?
“Yeah, no, I just happened to be downtown this evening,” you ramble, “and I thought--”
“You’re drunk,” he says. It is completely without judgment. A stated fact. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and Harry Du Bois is drunk. “Where are you exactly? I’ll--”
“Wait, no!” you exclaim, a little too loudly. A nearby pigeon makes a mad dash in the opposite direction at the sound. “That’s not it! I swear I’m basically sober right now. Mostly.”
A long pause on the other end. “Alright,” he says plainly. “So what can I do for you?”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: Make no mistake, he’s picking his battles here and gingerly stepping *around* that “mostly.”
EMPATHY: He’s just relieved it’s even that much.
COMPOSURE: How embarrassing.
VOLITION: Just start over. Your first sentence was garbage, but you know you’re under no obligation to continue it, right?
You take a deep breath, then try again.
“Well, it’s really more about what *I* can do for *you*,” you say as smoothly as possible. “You know that big motor carriage exhibition in town? It just so happens I’ve got *two tickets* to it.”
Another long pause. “You mean the one that ends today?”
“Yes,” you confirm.
“And are you aware that it is currently around six o’clock in the evening?”
“Is it? I mean, yes. Yes it is,” you say confidently. “I am aware of the passage of time.”
“And you waited until now to do this?” he asks.
EMPATHY: He sounds more amused than annoyed, though you definitely detect a bit of both.
“Uh,” you falter. “Look, it’s open until 8:00, so do you want to fucking go or not?”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: About half a kilometer away, Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi is sitting in the kitchen of his new apartment, already in his pajamas and winding down for the evening. It’s a bit early for that, but he figures he should take the opportunity to rest before he tackles that mountain of backlogged cases he was promised upon making the move to precinct 41.
Two weeks ago, he said goodbye to the strangest man he’d ever met. A man he found himself inexplicably drawn to in the week they spent together, and whom he thought about every day since. Wondering if he would take the lifeline Kim tried to throw to him, or if that little slip of paper would just end up forgotten at the bottom of a vomit-soaked trash can in some shitty bar. Wondering if the dawning trauma of everything that happened in Martinaise and the restlessness from sitting at home recovering from its aftermath would combine to pull him down into a dark place beyond Kim’s reach for good. Wondering and wondering to fill the silence. And now finally the silence is broken, but whatever this cry for help is, it is not the one Kim ever expected to receive.
But he knows one thing for sure: it *is* a cry for help.
“Alright,” Kim says finally. He takes a sharp breath. “Sounds good.”
The walk to his apartment takes a bit longer than you expected. It’s not that far from the downtown payphone, but you still wasted a good 20 minutes on the journey.
ENDURANCE: You are expecting too much of yourself too soon.
INLAND EMPIRE: It’s always one or the other with you, isn’t it? Too much or not enough.
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT: Twenty minutes to walk a few blocks? Fucking pathetic. What kind of cop are you? Hell, what kind of *gym teacher* are you? Man up.
ENDURANCE: No. It’s a miracle that you’re still standing at all.
PERCEPTION: Beyond the apartment door, you can hear footsteps and soft humming.
You knock, and the door opens almost immediately.
CONCEPTUALIZATION: Shit. You were hoping you’d have a few spare seconds to think of something really cool to say.
REACTION SPEED: C’mon, say something fun and upbeat to prove you’re not a depressed sack of shit who’s been spending the past two weeks drinking alone in the dark.
DRAMA: Showtime!
“Howdy, pardner,” you hear yourself say.
SAVOIR FAIRE: Finger guns! For god’s sake, don’t forget the finger guns. Without them, you just look like a goddamn lunatic.
You do the finger guns.
Kim does not seem particularly impressed as he slowly looks from your outstretched gun fingers to the twisted grimace that now wracks your face.
“Please, holster those things before coming inside,” he says humorlessly.
You blow the pretend, metaphorical smoke from each of your hot weapons before stuffing your hands in your pockets. As you do this, he watches with an appraising look.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: He’s wondering if this is *regular* weird or *drunken breakdown* weird. However, he is intimately familiar with your brand of stupid bullshit at this point and it doesn’t take long for him to place it in the former category.
“We should hit the road soon,” you comment as you peek curiously into his apartment.
“Hit the road,” Kim repeats with mild amusement, “in what?”
LOGIC: Oh. Right. The Kineema is property of Precinct 57. Not Kim Kitsuragi personally.
“Shit, yeah,” you concede. “But hey, if we call a taxi now--”
LOGIC: You’ll arrive just in time to immediately turn around and go home.
HALF LIGHT: You fucked up. You’re a fuck-up. Great job, idiot.
VOLITION: Try not drinking and blacking out all day next time.
LOGIC: Yes, but then…
“Fuck,” you inhale. “Fuckady-fuck-fuck. Shit. Goddammit.”
Kim waits patiently for you to catch up. You’re almost there.
“I should’ve called earlier, sorry,” you apologize. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
LOGIC: What is wrong with you is that you drank all last night, slept off a hangover most of the day today, and woke up in a daze about 45 minutes ago. But what’s done is done. No point in bringing that up now, right?
“Nor do I,” says the lieutenant with a small smile. “But whatever it is, I am no longer surprised by it, I assure you.”
“Sorry. I’m sorry,” you repeat, leaning on the door frame pathetically, a congealed ooze of mental illness and embarrassment. “Sorry for bothering you in the first place. You’re always so nice to me, even when I’m a pain in the ass.”
CONCEPTUALIZATION: Which is to say *constantly.*
Kim says nothing. Just sighs almost imperceptibly.
EMPATHY: Your self deprecation is frustrating for him, and he does not know how to respond to it constructively and compassionately.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: He *does* think you’re a pain in the ass sometimes, but a pain worth dealing with.
INLAND EMPIRE: For reasons beyond your understanding.
“Why did you agree to go in the first place?” you sigh. “You’ve got a brain that actually works, you knew it wasn’t gonna happen. If you’re trying to make fun of me, then, well…”
You pause.
“That’s just fine, I guess. Good job, carry on.”
He adjusts his glasses and looks away. “I appreciated the intention,” he says finally, in a measured voice. “And since I hadn’t heard from you the past couple weeks…”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: ...He was afraid you wouldn’t bother trying again.
“Sorry,” you mumble. “I’ve been kind of busy. You know how it goes after cases like that.”
“I do,” he says. He hesitates for a moment, then adds, “you’re welcome to come in if you like.”
You hobble into Kim’s sparse kitchen and collapse on a dining room chair. It creaks ominously under the velocity of the assault.
“I’m glad we have an opportunity to catch up,” he says politely, pulling up the other chair and gazing at your pained expression from across the table. “Your injury is healing well, I assume?”
EMPATHY: It is obvious that he does not in fact assume this at all.
You shrug, still trying to get a hold of yourself and push back the ache swirling at the edges of your mind.
He watches you struggle for a moment, then gently says, “it will take time to heal, but it *will* heal.”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: *So please be patient and kind to yourself,* is the silent plea left unsaid. It hangs in the air pitifully. You both know it’s there.
“Time hasn’t exactly been a good salve for me in general,” you mumble.
He’s silent for a while. Opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again.
“Harry,” he says finally. “What happened in Martinaise is not your burden to carry alone.”
“I thought you didn’t like *personal issues*, lieutenant,” you say.
“I don’t,” he says with a frown, “but this…”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: This is about me too, he thinks. As much as he hates to admit it. He doesn’t particularly like his *own* personal issues either. But the past two weeks were hard for him, and you didn’t make them any easier.
EMPATHY: He was worried about you, and--although he will never admit it to himself, let alone you--there’s a part of him that selfishly hoped you were worried about him too. At least a little.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: He’s used to this line of work, and so are you despite the holes in your memory, but it never gets any easier to deal with some things.
EMPATHY: There was so much death that day. It haunts you. And now as you sit in Kim’s kitchen, the alcohol slowly filtering from your blood and leaving behind the dregs of a headache, you realize it still haunts him too. You both added perforations you never wanted to make.
ENDURANCE: It’s too much. Your head swims and your entire body aches in the throes of repressed grief fighting its way to the surface of a sea of quickly evaporating Commodore Red.
INLAND EMPIRE: Warning! Trauma containment center has been breached! Evacuate the area immediately!
HALF LIGHT: You’re going to cry, aren’t you? You’re going to fucking cry. Right here in his kitchen. Why can’t you keep your shit together for more than five minutes straight?
You are entirely unable to keep the tears from rolling silently down your cheeks, unbidden.
INLAND EMPIRE: You don’t have it in you to really cry properly, like a normal fucking person. Not anymore. Something has disconnected the wire from your “press here to begin sobbing during your emotional breakdown” button, and you’re not sure what or when.
ENDURANCE: But human beings *cry.* And despite everything inside you that’s broken and rotting, you *are* a human being. You can’t not be.
Kim’s standing next to you now, his hand resting comfortingly on your shoulder. He doesn’t say anything.
EMPATHY: That’s the point of this whole shoulder-touching business in the first place--your disconcertingly unhinged behavior has left him at a loss for words, yet compelled to offer *something.*
This goes on for the longest five minutes or so the world has ever seen. But finally, you’ve wrung it all out of yourself and the tears stop almost as abruptly as they began. His hand gives your shoulder a squeeze, then he sits back down in the chair opposite you, avoiding your eyes. He rummages in his pocket for something, then hands you a blue handkerchief.
“Where the hell do you keep all these?” you mumble as you reach for it. “Fuckin’... infinite handkerchiefs around here.”
“What can I say? I like to be prepared,” he says.
“For drunk idiots who throw up all over crime scenes and have mental breakdowns in your home?”
“Usually to clean my glasses,” he says flatly. “But at this point, I suppose it *is* fair to say that it’s also for your various crises as well.”
“Well, thank God one of us is prepared,” you say. “What would I do without you, Kim?”
He hesitates, a strange wistful expression tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I don’t know. What *did* you do the past two weeks?”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: As soon as the words leave his mouth, he regrets them.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t… That’s none of my concern,” he says quickly.
AUTHORITY: Who the hell does he think he is? You’re not a child who needs to be minded. You’re a grown-ass man who can sit alone in his apartment and get wasted if he fucking wants to. Assert yourself!
“Honestly? Drink, mostly,” you say with a self-conscious chuckle.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: He just stares at you with the bleakest expression you’ve ever seen cross his face.
EMPATHY: He’s so tired. So frustrated. So disappointed.
INLAND EMPIRE: Oh God! He’s *disappointed* in you? This is terrible. Anything but that, please!
“I thought I was doing better,” you say quietly. “Guess not.”
“You were,” Kim says kindly.
INLAND EMPIRE: Tequila Sunset hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it still will. Maybe it’s inevitable. Maybe when you took up that mantle, it was like some sort of alcoholic event horizon. Tequila Sunset is the only way it was ever going to end. What other force in the universe could begin to exert as much gravitational pull over you?
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: From the void we came, to the void we must return.
“Listen,” Kim tells you, “this is not surprising. It’s got to be harder now that you’re back in Jamrock.”
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: It’s *easy,* baby. All your old favorite haunts are here. You know all the cheapest bars, the sketchiest parts of town with the purest amphetamines… You can’t remember the names of half of them anymore, but the muscles in your legs can trace the steps there perfectly. That shit’s burned into your body forever.
“Yeah.” You swallow hard. “Anyway, what about you? How’s Jamrock treating you?”
EMPATHY: The darkness clouding his expression lightens a bit.
“Good so far,” he says. “I’ve actually only been here for a few days. G.R.I.H. wrap-up took longer than I expected.” He pauses and looks out the window. “But I’m glad to be here now.”
“Really,” you say with a laugh. “In this shithole?”
“It has its perks,” he says. “I’m looking forward to beginning work at Precinct 41.”
“You’re not working solo, are you?”
“For right now, yes I am,” he replies. “I’m fine with that. I’ve done it before.”
INLAND EMPIRE: The idea of sharing a workplace with him and yet not being at his side when he needs you… it makes you feel cold, lonely, somehow.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: You have a duty to Jean. Jean is your partner.
SUGGESTION: Fuck it, just say it. You know what you want to say. Say it and get it over with.
“You should work with me,” you blurt out. “We were such a good team in Martinaise. We could keep those good times rolling!”
“I’m flattered, but,” he says, turning his head. “Satellite-Officer Vicquemare…”
“Doesn’t give a shit about me,” you say. “Fuck him.”
EMPATHY: That’s not exactly true. You know it’s not.
INLAND EMPIRE: But the truth is complicated. It’s easier to just boil it down to *fuck that guy.*
LOGIC: Jean is bad for you, and you’re bad for him. Or, you used to be. And has anything really changed? Are you really any different? Maybe it was just the change of scenery that fooled you into thinking otherwise.
INLAND EMPIRE: Same old Jamrock. Same old coworkers. Same old bad habits. Same old *you.*
“I’m not so sure about that,” Kim says delicately.
“Forget about him,” you push, suddenly more serious about this than you intended to be. “I can arrange this shit with Captain Pryce, and I can deal with Jean.”
“I… uh,” he coughs. “I don’t know what to say.”
DRAMA: You’re in control of this show now. Pull an honest answer out of him.
You point at him and narrow your eyes. “I know what you should say: what you *feel* in your *heart*!” You pound one fist against your chest over your heart to drive home the point, then wince.
PAIN THRESHOLD: Please don’t do that.
You break the dramatic pose and lean back in your chair again with a shrug. “Or just tell me to fuck off. None of this wishy-washy noncommittal shit, though.”
He’s silent for a long time, watching and listening to the rain as it picks up outside. Then finally he gives you an apologetic smile and speaks.
“Harry,” he says kindly. “Fuck off.”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: Translation: maybe. But not now.
EMPATHY: He’s not angry, he’s deflecting. This is by far the nicest way you’ve ever been told to fuck off. Don’t take it too hard.
“Alright, alright,” you say. “Forget I said anything.”
You spend a while just making smalltalk at Kim’s kitchen table. None of it means anything, but it’s nice. It’s a nice, good, human thing to do, sitting and chatting with him. Makes your “regular well-adjusted person” costume fit a little better. The rain begins to let up a little in the fading sunset.
“You know, we could do something else if you like,” he says brightly. “Here in Jamrock, I mean.”
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: Yeah. Lots of stuff to do in Jamrock. Like speed and hard liquor. Or crying in the bathroom of a dive bar because you’re too fucked up on speed and liquor.
SUGGESTION: He probably wouldn’t go for that.
CONCEPTUALIZATION: There’s got to be somewhere else to go. Something else to do with him. Think. What do you want to do with him?
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: Oh buddy, are you sure you’re ready to open that can of worms?
The lieutenant watches you as you rub your temples in an effort to massage the awkward thoughts out of your terrible brain. Then he says, “you know what, don’t worry about it. It’s fine, we can just stay here.”
“Yeah, okay,” you say. “Sounds good.”
“I’m going out on the balcony for a cigarette,” he informs you. “You can--”
“I’ll come with you,” you interrupt.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: He pauses, wondering how many you might’ve had already. Then again cigarettes are, shockingly, by far the *least* detrimental of your *many* vices.
The two of you step out onto the lieutenant’s rather small balcony. It’s still raining very lightly, but this is probably as good as the weather is going to get tonight. Good enough. There’s really not quite enough space for two adult men to comfortably lounge around out here, though. You try to make yourself as small as possible as you fumble in your pockets for a cigarette and lighter.
PERCEPTION: You hear the soft click of a lighter and smell smoke on the gentle evening breeze drifting over from your left.
“Fuck,” you grumble. “I forgot my light--”
You realize Kim is holding out his own lighter wordlessly, still gazing out at the city sprawling out below.
“Thanks,” you say.
He nods. He pockets the lighter again once you’re done with it, then leans on the railing and exhales smoke with a sigh.
ESPRIT DE CORPS: Outwardly, he is silent and pensive. He almost seems anxious in a way. But in truth, he likes this. He’s enjoying standing out here in the rain and the dark and smoking his nightly cigarette by your side once more, just like that first night in Martinaise.
You rest your arms on the railing as well and try to map his sightline. Your arm presses against his in the cramped space, but he does not react.
“Pretty bitchin’ view here,” you comment. “Comparatively.”
“Mhm,” hums the lieutenant. “By Jamrock standards, quite bitchin’.”
PERCEPTION: His hand dangles loosely over the edge of the railing. It’s a bit smaller than yours and much thinner, bonier. Sharp and angled like a marble sculpture.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: A work of art. Just like the rest of him.
SUGGESTION: Wonder what that hand would feel like in yours…?
“Everything alright, detective?” Kim asks, smoke escaping from his lips as he speaks. You realize that you’ve been staring at his hand for longer than is generally considered acceptable by polite society.
“Just spacing out a little I guess,” you mumble, averting your gaze.
“Par for the course with you,” the lieutenant chuckles.
VOLITION: Don’t make this too weird. Don’t think about that cigarette dangling loosely from his beautiful hands, or how soft his lips must be, or how nice it would be to just give up all pretense and embarrass yourself and hug him tightly right here on the balcony. Whatever you do, don’t think of any of those things.
CONCEPTUALIZATION: Shit.
“Well, it’s getting late,” you say, stubbing out your half-finished cigarette in the nearby ashtray. “I should probably go.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. We’ve got work in the morning after all.”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: You do?
VOLITION: Just play it cool.
“Yes,” you say, nodding stoically. “Tomorrow is Monday. I am aware of this, and that is why I said that in the first place, and not for any other reason.”
SAVOIR FAIRE: Nailed it.
“Tomorrow is Tuesday,” Kim says flatly, his face expressionless.
“I know that!” you say defensively. “I was just testing you. Come on, Kim, you don’t think I’m really that stupid, do you?”
He starts to say something, then thinks better of it and instead takes a long drag of his cigarette before trying again. “No, detective. I don’t think that.” Then he puts it out on the bottom of his boot and drops it in the ashtray.
The two of you head back into the apartment as the rain starts up again. You pull on your tarpaulin cloak in preparation for the long walk back home. But as you reach the front door, the lieutenant stops you.
“You know, you could just stay here if that would be easier,” he says abruptly, looking tense. “It’s late, and it’s raining, and…”
ESPRIT DE CORPS: ...And the route from here to your home features at least a dozen bars along the way.
EMPATHY: He’s worried you might not be able to resist the siren song of their garish neon signs and blaring dance music spilling out onto the streets like a red carpet unfurling.
“And your injury,” he adds quickly. “It was causing you some pain earlier, wasn’t it?”
HALF LIGHT: You don’t need his *pity.*
INLAND EMPIRE: Maybe you *do.* He knows you too well already.
EMPATHY: And, for whatever reason, cares about you a little too much. A terrible decision on his part, really.
“Yeah, good point. Plus your place is closer anyway,” you reply. “Thanks. Sorry to impose.”
He gives you a little nod. “It’s no trouble at all.”
Soon, you’re settled in on Kim’s couch under a small pile of blankets that still smell like artificial flowers, cloying and too sweet, freshly laundered.
He says good night and disappears into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him. It’s strange somehow, lying here in his living room alone in the dark. Like you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be. Like sneaking into a museum after it closes.
PERCEPTION: In the hazy twilight of impending sleep, you notice a calendar on the wall across from you. You can just barely make it out in the dim light, and you realize something.
“Son of a bitch,” you shout, “tomorrow *is* Monday!”
Just before you retreat into the blanket nest you could swear you hear a muffled apology from the next room.
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Hi there! As a newbie to kny and currently getting my heart and soul ripped to pieces and stomped on, I was wondering if there was anything in canon that *might* say that Giyu and Tanjiro actually have lived past 25? (These kids went through way too much to drop dead like that D:)
First things first, thank you for submitting an ask
Ah yes, the Demon Slayer Mark. There are two known cases where a slayer manifesting The Mark has survived past the standard age. Those being Michikatsu/Kokushibo and Yoriichi.
Gotouge never really makes it clear if the mark existed before Yoriichi's time, although I think it couldn't have, given it seems pretty inextricably linked the Breathing Techniques which Yoriichi introduced to the Corps. So, what is it about manifesting the mark that reduces the lifespan so dramatically in the first place?
When Muichiro describes how he was able to manifest the mark to the other Hashira, he makes note of reaching a very specific internal temperature: 102 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as a heart rate of over 200 beats per minute. I'm no doctor, but I think maintaining that condition for long enough for the mark to manifest would probably have adverse affects on the body, naturally causing the lifespan to lessen after purposely keeping it in such a feverish state.
So what about our two exceptions, the Tsugikuni brothers?
Michikatsu is fairly easy to explain. We know part of the reason he became a demon was that he feared that with the little time he had left, he would never surpass Yoriichi as he had wanted to. Whether or not the flame pattern on his face and neck is still the Slayer mark, or whether it has become his natural Demon Mark, I don't know. In Akaza's case we know that his criminal brandings became the source for his demon marks, as they proliferated, but Kokushibo seems to only have the mark that matches the Slayer Mark he had. With that in mind, I'm going to say that my personal headcanon regarding this is that it is still his Demon Slayer Mark, since he remains able to use Breathing, but lacks the humanity to have keeping a high body temperature cause him a problem. But, since neither Tanjiro or Giyu are likely to become demons any time soon, I doubt that really narrows us down much.
Yoriichi is the weird exception, like always. What is it about this man that allowed him to live to the ripe old age of 85 before dying a natural death? There is a lot going on with this man to pick apart. Yoriichi was born with the mark, the ability to see the transparent world, and a nigh unto prodigious talent with the sword, and the breathing techniques. So which one is it? Which thing allows him to 'conquer' the mark's curse? I think it is a combination of many things, but primarily the breathing techniques, namely Sun Breathing, the grandfather of all the different breathing forms that no one but Yoriichi could master. This puts Tanjiro at least in a good place. He is the only person in the centuries since Yoriichi to come even close to mastery of Sun Breathing in its original form. It is also highly likely that because the Mark can 'spread', Tanjiro was also born with the Demon Slayer Mark because of Yoriichi's connection to the Kamado family. I personally believe that Tanjiro has a long life to live, regardless of the mark.
What about Giyu though? Giyu did not master Sun Breathing, nor is there even a slight chance he was born with the mark. So is Giyu doomed to die? What about Sanemi as well? Fortunately, I think there is hope. None of the current era Hashira manifested the mark for much longer than that single night. It may have shortened their lifespans, but not to the degree that Michikatsu experienced. My personal belief is that the Mark's 'Curse' is more like an after-effect of keeping the human body in such an unhealthy condition for long periods of time. And since none of the living Hashira manifested the Mark for more than a night, they must not have strained themselves as much as the Marked Ones in Yoriichi and Michikatsu's time, who all perished.
So basically, I think that the Mark's curse likely did not take it's toll on the remaining Slayers who manifested it. We may never know for certain, but I think given the sources we have, Tanjiro's chances of survival are high, and there's definitely hope for Giyu and Sanemi, at least with my headcanon about what the Mark's curse actually is
#kimetsu no yaiba#kny spoilers#yoriichi tsugikuni#kokushibou#The Demon Slayer Mark#kamado tanjirō#sanemi shinazugawa#giyuu tomioka
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The Les Miserables Changelog Part 1: Barbican Previews
Hello everyone! I'm starting out a blog which will look at my favorite musical, Les Miserables, and will discuss the various changes it has gone through over time (musically and lyrically). As it turns out, a LOT of edits have been made over the years so this will doubtless be a series with several parts.
This first part may well be the most difficult and will almost certainly be the most incomplete, as previews can be a time of extensive editing and experimentation. At least for the first few weeks or so, it's perfectly possible any one day of previews will be slightly different than any other day. However, I only have access to two audios from the Barbican Theatre previews of Les Miserables, meaning it's likely that lyrical variants exist which I have no way of hearing.
I am aware of the existence of a third audio which is fairly early in the run of previews, as the tape's master has told me that Gavroche's death scene is in its original form (I'll clarify that later). However, that tape has never been traded, and has sadly only been listened to by its master. I am also aware of a video proshot of the Barbican era that exists in the Royal Shakespeare Company library, but currently have no access to it. I plan to inquire about whether I can look at it sometime (though I'm not sure a blog like this is "official" enough to warrant it for research purposes). As such, this comparison only entails the two widely circulated audios from the Barbican run.
Now that we've gotten that cleared up, let's get started!
First, let's look at the opening "Work Song". In the earlier recording I have (let's call it R1), the beginning music (the same tune used, for instance, at the opening of "At the End of the Day" and "One Day More" and for Marius and Cosette's meeting in "The Robbery") stops. Then, a few moments later, the more familiar opening that leads directly into the prologue begins. By the time of the later recording I have (let's call it R2), the scores have been combined so that the first tune directly transitions into the second one.
Meanwhile, in R1 there is a sequence of lines that goes as follows:
I've done no wrong
Sweet Jesus, hear my prayer
Look down, look down
Sweet Jesus doesn't care
I killed a man
He tried to steal my wife
Look down, look down
She wasn't worth your life
I know she'll wait
I know that she'll be true
Look down, look down
She's long forgotten you
Most fans of the musical recognize the middle sequence of lines ("I killed a man" through "She wasn't worth your life") as no longer being lines in the show (for good reason, as we'll get into in a later edition of this blog). However, R2 keeps the lines. Instead, it deletes the third sequence ("I know she'll wait" through "She's long forgotten you"). I have no idea if this lasted only a few performances or made it all the way to the end of the Barbican run, or somewhere in between.
During "On Parole", specifically after Valjean is underpaid for his labor and sings about his frustration, R1 uses a variation of the "Work Song" theme which, to my recollection, is heard nowhere else in the musical. It can be heard here. By R2, it was switched to an in-tune version of the number with a unique opening. The musical retains that version to this day, but in case you can't recall it you can hear it here.
Minus an unintentional line flub in "At the End of the Day" in R2, the two Barbican recordings seem to use the same libretto and score from this point until "The Runaway Cart". At this point, R1 has a rather extensive scene leading up to Valjean saving Fauchelevent, which goes approximately as follows (the dialog is difficult to make out):
(VALJEAN)
Is there anyone here who will rescue the man?
Who will help me to shoulder the weight of the cart?
I will pay any man thirty louis d’or more
I will do it myself if there’s no one who will
We can’t let him die like that down in the street
Can you all watch him die and do nothing at all?
(FAUCHELEVENT)
Don’t approach me, Monsieur Mayor
The cart’s not gonna be holding
Not my poor mother would care if I should die
(TOWNSPEOPLE)
Don't go near him, Monsieur Mayor
There's nothing at all you can do
The old man's a goner for sure
Leave him alone
Most of that dialog is deleted in R2, so that it goes directly from "Who will help me to shoulder the weight of the cart" to "Don't go near him, Monsieur Mayor". I really like the idea of the original version; it seems reasonable that Valjean, having become a more trusted man, would expect the townspeople to help him. It's more meaningful that Valjean is good enough to do what's right when there's more time to establish that no one else is. Having said that, the original version did take quite a while and didn't really contain any relevant information that wasn't in the final version. I think the cut version as heard in R2 is a good compromise and retains the general mood and pacing to make Valjean's ultimate action satisfying (something that can't be said of later cuts, as will be discussed in a future edition of this blog).
Additionally, at the end of the number Javert refers to "the mark upon his skin" in R1 and "the brand upon his skin in R2 (as well as literally every subsequent performance since then to my knowledge). I have no idea if the "mark" line was a minor flub or was actually the original lyric.
"Who Am I?" is an interesting one. The musical content is identical in R1 and R2, but in R1 after his high note, Valjean shouts "You know where to find me!" with emotion so dramatic it sits right on the border between awesome and campy. By contrast, Valjean is totally silent after his high note in R2. Neither version would see its final day just yet, although the latter certainly has become more traditional over time. More on that in future editions.
From this point until "Master of the House" everything is the same between the two recordings. Roger Allam even comes in slightly late in both "Confrontation" scenes (making his line "-jean, at last...")! However, in the opening to "Master of the House" the following lines occur in R1:
(THENARDIER)
My band of soaks, my den of dissolutes
My dirty jokes, my always pissed as newts
My sons of whores
Spend their lives in my inn
Homing pigeons flying in
They fly through my doors
And their money's good as yours
(CUSTOMERS)
Ain't got a clue what he put into his stew
Must've scraped it off the street
Hell, what a wine
Châteauneuf de Turpentine
Must've pressed it with his feet
Landlord over here
Where's the bloody man
One more for the road
One more slug of gin
Just one more or my old man is gonna do me in
All of those lines would be scrapped in R2. Personally I prefer this shortened variant than the one that would occur much later. Sure, some fun moments get lost, but nothing that actually adds any substance or characterization to the musical (unlike the later cut, which I'll discuss in a later edition of this blog). Some have speculated that this is simply lost dialog due to a tape flip of degrading, given that future performances would retain those lines. However, there is firsthand confirmation that the cuts were in fact part of the performance. To quote Trevor Nunn on page 87 of 1990's The Complete Book of Les Miserables (a page which elaborates that "the cost of overtime incurred after three hours could be crippling at a time when Les Miserables was still trying to find an audience"):
"Cameron wanted major cuts, which would have reduced its length to two and a half hours. I resisted, refusing to discuss things on those terms... Some of the other proposed cuts - like the removal of the "Master of the House" scene-setting preamble - were tried out in previews and then restored as the scenes would not work without them."
From a historical perspective that quote is invaluable. As will be brought up in a later blog post (notice a pattern today?) the musical would in fact be cut much later to avoid overtime charges. When people like myself have expressed the opinion that these cuts come at the expense of artistic integrity, I've seen others defend them by claiming that the overtime costs never were relevant to Cameron and the gang until Broadway sales began to go down, and that if they were taken into account the musical may well be in its shortened form from the beginning. However, this quote proves that argument to be false. Right from day one, the crew was aware that retaining a >3 hour runtime would come with severe financial costs, but this was deemed a worthy sacrifice in order to tell the story they wanted told. Indeed, it sounds like Cameron Mackintosh was waiting quite some time to enact his infamous cuts! (Cameron Mackintosh valuing profit above art?! Crazy, right??)
But I digress. Going back to the musical, the "Waltz of Treachery" number is mostly the same. However, after Valjean's "It won't take you too long to forget" line, R1 has over a minute of wordless vamping which leads right into the rather awkwardly-placed "Stars" song. By contrast, in R2 this vamping (which is still a minute long, mind you) leads into a humming duet between Little Cosette and Valjean, similar to the duet right before the number. A nice little bookend that makes the scene feel all the more resolved. (Much later this duet reprise would ironically be scrapped again, though!) The remaining segment of R1's vamping now plays after this sequence in R2.
Minus some unintentional missed lines at the beginning of "Stars" in R1, the recordings seem to follow the same libretto right up until "One Day More". Here, R1 uses the following lines:
(EPONINE)
One more day with him not caring
(MARIUS and COSETTE)
Was there ever love so true?
(EPONINE)
What a life I might have known
(MARIUS and COSETTE)
I was born to be with you
However, by R2 this scene is in its current form:
(EPONINE)
One more day with him not caring
(MARIUS and COSETTE)
I was born to be with you
(EPONINE)
What a life I might have known
(MARIUS and COSETTE)
And I swear I will be true
And that closes act one! Going on to the second act, the opening barricade scene has a few changes. First off, following the opening notes, R1 features a rather odd tune bearing resemblance to "Do You Hear the People Sing" (which can be heard here) before transitioning to a more true-to-form instrumental reprise of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" By contrast, R2 goes straight from the opening notes to the true-to-form reprise.
Next, Enjolras proclaims "Have faith in yourself and do not be afraid" in R1, while in R2 he instead states "Every man to his duty and don't be afraid". It's unknown if this was an intentional libretto change or if it simply reflects a flub during R1. A later sequence uses the "Have faith in yourself" line, meaning he may have just sung the wrong line for that particular scene.
Finally, R1 includes the following sequence (at least I think this is how it goes, since the lyrics are a little hard to hear):
(PROUVAIRE)
And the people will fight
(GRANTAIRE)
And join with you
Who gives a speech in the square
Fortunately, R2 uses a much less clunky (though still somewhat so) sequence:
(PROUVAIRE)
And the people will fight
(GRANTAIRE)
And so they might
Some will bark, some will bite
This isn't quite its current form ("dogs" and "fleas" will soon respectively replace the two usages of "some"), but it's pretty darn close.
I've heard that the very first Barbican preview(s?) didn't have a finalized opening to "On My Own". Sadly there is no known audio record of this, so I cannot comment on what exactly it began as. As such, the next major change takes place during Gavroche's death scene. This honestly is probably the biggest of all the changes between the two recordings. R1 uses the following death scene (in the tune of "Look Down" right up until the "So never kick a dog" verse, which is in the tune of "Little People"):
How do you do, my name’s Gavroche
These are my people, here’s my patch
Not much to look at, nothing posh
Nothing that you’d call up to scratch
Some fool, I bet, whose brains are made of fat
Picks up a gun and shoots me down
Nobody told him who he’s shooting at
He doesn’t know who runs this town
Life’s like that
There’s some folk
Missed the joke
That’s three, that’s three
That one has done for me
Too fast, too fast
They’ve got Gavroche at last
So never kick a dog
Because he’s just a pup
You better run for cover when the pup grows...
By contrast, R2 uses a much shorter variant which is set entirely to the tune of "Little People":
And little people know
When little people fight
We may look easy picking but we've got some bite
So never kick a dog
Because he's just a pup
You'd better run for cover when the pup grows up
And we'll fight like twenty armies and we won't give...
This is much closer to its current form, although the last two lines are inverted (we'll get to that in a later edition).
We now fast-forward to "Dog Eats Dog", which while recognizable is very different from the number we know today. The chorus of R1 claims that "It's a dirty great sewer that's crawling with rats", which R2 changes it to "stinking great sewer" instead. I'd definitely say the revised lyric better captures Thenardier's and the sewer's grossness.
Additionally, regarding Marius' ring, Thenardier originally exclaims that he "didn't mean to waste it, that would really be a crime". By R2, the line changes to "wouldn't want to waste it", which I'd say makes a lot more sense.
"Javert's Suicide" has changed a lot. R1 features the following remarks following "Vengeance was his and he gave me back my life":
Damned if I live in this caper of grace
Damned if I live in the debt of Valjean
I'll spit his pity right back in his face
Is this the law or has sanity gone?
(I'm a little unsure as to how accurate the final line is.)
By R2, the lines have been replaced with the current ones:
Damned if I live in the debt of a thief
Damned if I yield at the end of the chase
I am the law and the law is not mocked
I'll spit his pity right back in his face
In R1, the "Where's the new world, now the fighting's done" line is absent, and there is nothing but instrumentals in the segment where it is usually sung. By contrast, it is sung as usual in R2. My guess is that an actress simply forgot her line in R1 and it was always supposed to be there, though I can't say for sure.
The final change occurs at the wedding scene. The singing which opens the number is repeated in R1. By contrast, R2 has it sung once and then done with, as it currently is (and as it should be in my opinion, since the music isn't particularly pretty and contributes nothing to the plot).
Later in the same scene, R1 includes approximately this exchange (again, it's quite hard to make out the exact lyrics):
(THENARDIER)
I was there
Never fear
Even got me this fine souvenir
He was there
Her old dad
*indecipherable* and fleecing this lad
Robbed the dead
That's his way
(MME. THENARDIER)
That's worth five hundred any old day
(MARIUS)
I know this...
By R2, everything between "He was there" and "Any old day" were removed, which makes sense given that they essentially just rehash what was already said.
Finally, there's a subtle difference in the epilogue, specifically during the "Do You Hear the People Sing?" reprise. In R1, the ensemble sings "They will live again in glory in the garden of the Lord". R2 replaces the word "glory" with "freedom", and that word remains the one used to this day. I suppose "freedom" is more appropriate for the context of peace and prosperity. To many, I'd guess that "glory" conjures imagery of knights, battles, and the like; just the kind of violence that the characters wish to move away from! I have no idea if this was why the writers changed the lyric, but it's my hypothesis.
Towards the end of the show, the chorus in R1 sings "Even the darkest moon will end and the sun will rise". By R2, this is changed to "the darkest night". Makes more sense to me, since moons aren't known for being particularly dark!
And that just about sums this part up! If I missed anything feel free to let me know, as my goal is to create a changelog as thorough and complete as possible. I plan on making more parts in the near future covering all the changes that have been made in the show up until this day (discounting concerts). Any feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated.
As a side note, both for this project and my own enjoyment, I want as complete a collection of Les Miserables audios as possible. I already have most of what's commonly circulated, but if you have any audios or videos you know are rare, I'd love it if you DMed me!
Until the turntable puts me at the forefront again, good-bye...
#les miserables#barbican#libretto#musical#history#les mis#grantaire#jean valjean#jvj#enjolras#marius#cosette#gavroche#javert#eponine#thenardier#madame thenardier#valjean#mme. thenardier#marius pontmercy#comparison#les miserables changelog#changelog#1985#changes#theatre#the les miserables changelog
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Standards of Performance, Chapter 12: What Happens in Alleyways
From the Beginning, Previous Chapter
AO3 Link
Sorry it's a lil short, it's more of a transition chapter to actually jumping into this case and Reader's now even more confusing "relationship" with Hotch. Things get kinkier and angrier and more explicit from here, but I'll do my best to tag stuff. Thanks for your patience as always, guys, especially amidst the dumpster fire that is current events right now <3 Your reblogs and tags slay me and I love it.
Summary: You’re the BAU’s newest intern, desperate to prove yourself amongst an established team of much more experienced profilers. Agent Hotchner, the seemingly infallible team leader, sets strict expectations for your performance. He commands your respect without even trying, but is there something more to your relationship than a simple desire to impress your stony-faced boss?
Chapter Summary: Turns out, the world doesn't stop on its axis just because you had sex with your boss. You’re unsure whether or not that’s a good thing.
Words: 1,882
Rating: Explicit, 18+. Violence, dark themes, explicit sexual content. More specific warnings on AO3.
Pairings: Hotch x Reader, Hotch x You
You awoke to the dim light of the dawn, rain gently pattering on the windows, and the blaring sound of Hotch’s ringtone three feet from your face.
“Jesus christ, old man,” you groaned, blinking your eyes open, “turn your hearing aids up.”
Already sitting up in bed, he paused with the phone halfway to his ear.
Shit. You were being too casual - waking up in his bed, joking with him. Acting like you belonged there. You didn’t know how he felt about what happened, for all you knew he regretted every second and-
“You’re paying for that later,” he smiled before answering the call.
The playful threat filled you with relief before it made your stomach flip, and the memories of last night came flooding back. His body, his eyes, his hands all burned inside your eyelids as if you’d been staring directly at the sun. You’d never been in this situation before - waking up next to someone you’d spent the night with and desperately hoping it was the first time rather than the last. But you’d also never felt your body sing with the white-hot pleasure it did when it was touched by the seemingly unattainable man who did so last night, so. There was that.
The low rumble of his voice brought you back to the present, and you looked up at his face to find it was twisted up in concentration, resignation, and something else.
“I’ll be right down,” he said, standing up swiftly and pulling his work clothes on with practiced speed. “Don’t let anyone touch anything.”
He shoved his phone in his suit pocket and looked at you, still tangled up in his sheets.
“Get dressed and meet me downstairs,” he said, terse. “There’s a body in the alley outside the building.”
“Outside this building?”
“Yes,” he responded, “and there’s a note.”
As he swept out the door, leaving you reeling, you realized what the other expression on his face was. Fear.
***
Hotch had gotten ready and exited the apartment before you had even processed the situation, and your mind was racing a mile a minute as you flung yourself out of bed and scrambled to get dressed. The logical assumption, of course, was that the stalker had left the body. People didn’t just end up dead in alleyways in this part of town, and certainly not in the middle of a rainstorm mere floors from where the BAU Unit Chief slept - not without a reason.
You threw on your coat and boots, forgoing contacts and makeup in favor of your glasses and a hat to cover the tangled mess last night’s tryst had made of your hair. Without even pausing to look in a mirror, you scurried down the stairwell and exited the lobby into the cold October wind.
It was easy to tell which alley the body occupied - there were an excess of thirty people milling in and out of the space to the right of the building. Crime scene investigators, policemen, and other personnel talked in hushed voices. You spotted a clearing in the sea of people and knew that’s where the victim would be, given a wide berth per Hotch’s instruction.
The team hung out at the edge of the circle watching Reid, who was kneeling in front of the body slumped against the side of the apartment building. Moving closer, you could tell he was in the middle of one of his spiels, gesturing wildly while the everyone nodded along. You joined the group that had formed around him and caught the middle of what seemed to be a hypothesis about victimology.
“ -no patterns, obviously, but if we assume similar characteristics would be present in all his victims, it’s hard to discern what statement he could be making. Positing a male in his mid-to-late twenties is statistically most likely, but stalkers of this age group also frequently have some sort of sexual motivation, and if the autopsy is consistent with what we can observe now,” he gestured to the body, “I don’t think that’s the case here.”
Throughout his speech, you’d been scrutinizing the victim - a brunette women who looked to be no older than 20, arranged in a half-sitting position against the wall behind her. There was no blood anywhere you could see, in fact, she barely looked dead at all, likely thanks to the below-freezing temperatures last night that had put a pause on the early stages of decomposition. Pinned to her shirt was a white envelope that bore an ominous message in bold, black ink:
“For my friends at the BAU.”
Not hard to guess who had killed this woman.
“Can you determine cause of death, Spence?” Prentiss asked, her arms folded.
“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess…” he used his pen to push the victim’s hair to the side, exposing a neck mottled with stark blue bruises.
“Anger, then,” you offered, speaking to the psychological drivers behind strangulation, “but I doubt we’ll find any sign of sexual assault. The unsub made it clear that his disdain is directed towards us; it’s not likely that would extend to his victim.”
The rest of the team nodded in thought, but Hotch looked at you in surprise, as if just noticing your presence. As his eyes glued on yours, his face changed, and he grabbed your arm in an unpleasantly tight grip.
“Open the note. I’ll just be a moment.”
Unaware of his boss’ sudden change in demeanor and the vice on your elbow, Morgan gloved up and reached for the envelope. Hotch, meanwhile, unceremoniously dragged you down the alleyway and around to the deserted back side of the building.
“What the hell?” you hissed, yanking your arm out of his grip.
“Did you fail to look in a mirror before you came down here?” Hotch’s narrowed stare betrayed nothing but contempt, and you scrambled to determine the implication of his question.
“I’m sorry, did you want me to take a shower before looking at the dead body? I did the best I could, it seemed urgent -”
“No,” he snapped, “I’m referring to the fact that your neck looks worse off than our victim’s does.”
You processed his words for a moment before the implication hit you.
“Are you talking about the hickies?! Christ, Hotch, I’ll get a scarf then. Just give me a second!”
“Please do. I’d like my agents to appear professional, not like they’re college kids coming off a one night stand.”
His words halted your stomp back into the building, and you turned back, furious.
“You put them there! How is this my fault?”
“I didn’t think I would have to be this explicit about the fact that I don’t want the fact that we had sex last night broadcast to everyone at the crime scene.”
You gaped at him in disbelief.
“Are you embarrassed or something? I’m sorry if you regret what happened, but you don’t need to lash out at me like this -”
“I’m not lashing out,” he interrupted, “I’m informing you of my expectations for my agents. Is there a problem?”
You wanted to scream at him. You wanted to smack that perfectly raised eyebrow and controlled expression right off his face. But he was boxing you in - speaking to you as your boss and not the man you slept with last night, and as much as you hated him for it, your sense of self-preservation won out.
“There’s no problem,” you mumbled, unable to make eye contact as you slipped past him and around the building.
You made it halfway up the stairwell before the tears started flowing. Had you really thought sleeping with him was going to change something? That he was going to ask you to be his fucking girlfriend, like he wasn’t the chief of your unit and you weren’t a twenty-something intern? For all you knew, he did this all the time. His level of skill in the area certainly made it seem like he did.
That wasn’t true, though, you knew it. He may not reveal much, but you could tell it had been a fraught decision to let your relationship develop the way it had. Perhaps even a decision he regretted now - and it certainly seemed so, given his behavior.
Wiping tears on your sleeve, you fumbled with the spare key he’d given you to his apartment and walked in. You glanced in the mirror by the entrance and your eyes nearly bugged out of your head. Hotch wasn’t exaggerating when he likened the marks to strangulation - indigo smudges, still peppered with the angry red of burst capillaries, circled your throat.
It was a juvenile, possessive, ridiculous display, and Hotch was absolutely right to label it unprofessional. And yet, the thought that you’d walked onto the scene bearing the marks he’d given you filled you with a thrill so intense you had to brace yourself against the entryway table and clamp your legs together.
Breathe. There’s still a fucking murder scene downstairs.
You steadied yourself and headed for your duffel bag, where you’d thankfully packed a scarf in preparation for the cold snap that was predicted to hit the state this week. Midway through unzipping your bag, though, your eyes landed on his dresser and the devil sitting on your shoulder, buzzing with a deadly combination of anger and arousal, whispered a terrible, reckless idea in your ear.
***
You practically skipped downstairs to rejoin the team, who appeared to be engaged in a lively debate about the contents of the envelope Morgan was holding. After gloving up, you reached out a hand towards him.
“Can I read it?”
He handed it over, distracted by another stream of consciousness from Reid. Hotch took note of your return and glanced in your direction before turning back to the conversation.
You pretended to read the note and waited for him to notice.
You waited all of three seconds.
He whipped his head back so comically fast you struggled to suppress a snort, and you knew exactly what he was looking at. A midnight blue cashmere scarf, nicked from his dresser and wrapped artfully around your neck to cover the bruises, just like he’d asked. The first compliment you’d ever paid him was in regards to this scarf; tentatively whispered when he’d worn it to a chilly 2 am crime scene. He’d accepted the compliment passively, but the optimistic part of you had noted that he seemed to wear it much more frequently after that.
You weren’t entirely sure what statement you were intending to make by wearing it, but his reaction told you you’d certainly succeeded at provoking something.
Morgan reached back out for the note you were still pretending to read and dropped it in an evidence bag. If he noticed Hotch steaming from the ears next to you, he didn’t say so.
“They’re ready to pack everything up and head back to the lab. Let’s meet ‘em there?”
Everyone nodded in the affirmative and headed back to the SUVs.
“You riding with me?” Morgan asked, nudging your ribs with an elbow.
“No,” Hotch answered for you, an unseen hand suddenly gripping the back of your neck. “She’s not.”
Taglist (message me to be added!): @klinenovakwinchester @stop-drop-and-drumroll @cevanswhre @addie5264 @honeyshores @violentvulgarvolatile @masumiyetimziyanoldu @violetclifford @pipersaccomplice @itsmytimetoodream @groovygoob @captainhyenafan @thebadassbitchqueen @softboystyles @witchcraftandwit @call-me-mrsreid @ssahoodrathotchner @fanficscuziranout @rintheemolion @scrumptiousroadponymoney @iconicc @thelux47 @bellaswanismysoulmate @possum-pancakes @sweatydiplomatshepherdzine @spencers-hoodrat @totalmess191 @sunshine-and-riverwater @sunflowersandotherthings @chelseyjoyce @helloladyvanilla @mac99martin
#aaron hotchner x reader#aaron hotchner x y/n#criminal minds fanfiction#aaron hotchner#criminal minds#hotch x you#standards of performance#criminal minds smut#aaron hotchner imagine#thomas gibson#hotch fanfiction#spencer reid#derek morgan#david rossi#jj#penelope garcia#emily prentiss#fanfiction#writing#ao3#hotch
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MLQC Season 2 Chapter 12 (Kiro) Part 8 [Lighthouse] & [Gaze of Time] Translation [CN]
***SPOILERS*** THIS POST CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR CONTENT NOT YET RELEASED ON EN SERVER!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!***
For previous translations of Season 2 Chapter 12: Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5/ Part 6/ Part 7
I combined two parts for this post. Enjoy~
[Lighthouse]
As we stood on the last step, we were only able to see some faint pictures.
The run-down walls looked extremely gloomy and terrible in the endless darkness.
It seems to be much bigger than we thought.
MC: Did we uncover a tomb that hasn’t been dug up? Those tomb raider novels are written like this… ***I’m getting Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider vibes***
Helios: Stay here.
With those few words, Helios walked towards the visible wall in the distance.
MC: Be careful.
I looked around cautiously, walked down the steps carefully and stepped on the ground where Helios was before.
At the same time, a thin golden thread lit up between the floor tiles. It stretched outward like an electric current.
Helios: What are you doing?!
MC: …Taking a step forward?
Helios came back to me in an instant, dragging me onto the transparent steps and looking around with cold eyes.
As the lines of light gradually brighten the building like a pulse, the mysterious symbols on the walls appeared like the eyes of a giant beast slowly opening in the dark.
??: We have been waiting for you for a long time.
??: Welcome to the lighthouse.
Lighthouse? Hearing this unfamiliar word, I froze.
The long synthetic sound came from far away. All the lines began to converge into a certain pattern and rearranged themselves. At the same time, some of the text on the wall gradually disappeared.
In this space constructed entirely of golden light, all the shadows connected with the outline of the sliding lines, forming a peculiar shadow on the dark background—
As if—there is an invisible person standing there.
Helios: It’s a trick.
??: This is a misunderstanding.
The lines swayed slightly with the sound. It looked like…it was politely bowing and I couldn���t help leaning against Helios’ back.
MC: ….Is there someone over there?
Helios: Visual dislocation.
MC: What do you mean?
Helios: It’s just a projection made up of lines of electric currents and light.
Helios: Nothing is there.
He even took out the knife in his hand, approached the “shadow figure”, arrogantly positioned the knife where the neck would be, and swiped vigorously.
However, the blade didn’t touch anything and the “human figure” flickered and transported onto another wall.
??: Signal upload, information has been updated.
??: Enable smart trigger mechanism to ensure information synchronization.
??: Data is uploading….update complete.
The mechanical language doesn’t carry any emotion and there was a “didi” sound at the end of the conversation.
??: Human beings will be full of hostility towards the unknown. This is understandable.
??: Don’t worry, there is nothing in the lighthouse that can hurt you.
??: Of course we will not hurt you, special people. ***It knows about Evolvers but its not referring to them as that term. So were they called something else?***
The amiable electronic voice reverberated in the entire space. At the end of the sentence, there was a completely unintelligible language. ***Like the same unintelligible language that was heard in part 6 of Behind the Curtain?***
The light continues to flow and reorganize, making the “human figure” look like it’s stretching out its hands, signaling to us that there is no threat.
Its outline slowly became bright and thick and the entire “shadow” became clearer.
The accentuated light dispersed into light patterns and text around the area, illuminating the interior of the whole lighthouse.***Changed the wording***
??: It seems that you wandered into the lighthouse by accident but it does not matter.
??: Once again, I welcome you and your companion. I am the lighthouse’s legacy—
??: 19.
I cautiously ran to Helios’ side and pulled his shoulders slightly to reach his ears.
MC: ….Why do I find this scary…
Helios: If you know, don’t mess around.
Helios’ fixed his eyes on the figure. His whole body is tense as if he didn’t believe it.
Helios: There is no value in trusting things that are so cryptic.
??: It does not matter. I have a lot of patience to prove to you that we are not malicious.
??: After all, compared to the time of waiting, this kind of time is nothing.
The “figure” stayed in place quietly. The lines on its body trembling slightly. It gave off the impression of a kind, old man.
I poked my head out from behind Helios.
Helios: You just said this is a lighthouse?
??: Yes.
??: Actually, I want to chat with that girl. Your attitude does not look very good.
MC: ….Pfft.
Seeing the swaying lines, I couldn’t help laughing.
MC: How should I address you as? Is 19 all right?
19: You are so polite and cute, of course you can. Where we are from, you will surely be liked by many people.
Helios: Do people there like to talk so much nonsense?
19: That won’t do.
The originally tense air immediately became alive, wafting with the laughter I tried to restrain.
MC: 19, what is a lighthouse? And you just said that you are the legacy here. What....are you again?
19: I am the residual intelligence waiting to meet you.
MC: ?!
19: As for the lighthouse….
19 slowly raised its hand and the floating patterns of light began to surge, turning into indistinguishable graphics and textures.
On the huge wall behind us, a magnificent and unfamiliar picture formed.
19: These are our remnants.
The pattern of light is constantly changing and evolving with different characters and designs that are completely incomprehensible.
It seems to be showing something but it’s so obscure.
As the lines jumped around, huge and unfamiliar buildings were built high and collapsed into nothingness.
A crowd of people gathered and scattered about as if they were roaring and struggling. Finally the images on the wall disappeared one by one.
MC: ….What was that?
19: That was our world.
19: Before your world came, the last civilization.
My brain stopped working for a while and I was stunned. I pinched myself hard and thought that everything in front of me was just a dream.
Residual intelligence? The last civilization?
I turned my head to look Helios. He also seemed to frown deeply at 19’s words.
I thought the restart of time was absurd enough, but I didn’t expect that the world seemed to prefer the moment when people were caught by surprise.
MC: ….Are you also “human beings”?
As soon as I asked, the question sounded a bit absurd even to me.
19: If you use your language and judgment criteria, yes. ***What, so they’re not human beings? Extra-terrestrials? Space aliens??? Istg, if the game introduces aliens into the story, I will lose it...in a good way.***
Helios: Can you prove it?
19: Nothing can be proved.
As it spoke, the sound of gears turned again and the stone slabs on the wall made a loose sound.
Helios immediately held me in his arms, took a step back, and carefully looked in 19’s direction.
While the wall vibrated, the stone slab was slowly opened.
The undisturbed dust rises in the long-lost light, as if waiting has exhausted all their once glory and splendor.
Now, it can only use this last touch of floating dust to meet this world again after a long absence.
Then, it fell silently, mixing with the ash that was already covering it.
Its appearance was hardly recognizable.
19: Can you see anything?
Neither Helios nor I spoke, but looked at 19 quietly.
19: Nothing at all, right?
19: We also know.
19 gently stretched out its hand. The line was deformed as if its palm stopped in the air.
In fact, it touched nothing. At that moment, its hollow shadow looked tired and relieved.
The lines are constantly deforming and flowing, as if with incomparable nostalgia, touching the most cherished traces that have been here.
19: Nothing can escape the erosion of time. The lighthouse is something we can keep in this world….***Their technology must be quite advanced to be able to make this lighthouse and survive all this time for it to be discovered. Something like this is definitely right up Kiro’s expertise.***
19: The greatest miracle.
Helios: If that’s the case…
Helios: With your technical ability, why would it disappear?
A long laugh echoed in the lighthouse with a hint of weariness.
19: We are not the first civilization to disappear in this world.
19: Likewise, it will not be the last one.
[Gaze of Time]
My brain went blank.
I don’t know whether I should believe in such a strange and ridiculous voice and to believe that this world was as prosperous as it was hundreds of millions of years ago.
There may be people who are similar to us, have landscapes, and have the same or different world. They have existed in a real and vivid way.
And there was more than one such world.
Helios: What was the reason for your destruction?
19: It was because we lacked the necessary conditions. ***CORE, the QUEEN gene perhaps....?***
Helios: What do you mean?
19’s body leaned towards me and in that shadow, I seemed to feel a certain kind of gaze coming from the ancient years.
19: It is not up to “me” to answer your question. But other than that, I have a gift for you.
The lines flickered, skipped along the wall, and turned into a passageway.
I subconsciously stepped forward, trying to follow it, but Helios held me back.
Helios: What are you doing?
MC: It seems it wants us to follow.
Helios: Are you so easily fooled?
MC: ….
I met Helios’ mocking gaze, looked back at the flickering symbols on the wall, pursed my lips together, and kept my gaze firm.
MC: Although I don’t quite believe what it says, I think it is very sincere.
Helios: Insincere disguise is only a joke.
MC: Are you talking about yourself?
Helios: ….
He squinted his eyes and raised his head arrogantly, as if he wanted to conceal the emotions.
MC: And I would love to see what the gift is.
Helios: Be careful that you don’t get killed by ignorant curiosity.
His hands weren’t actually too stiff. I stared at him and stretched out my fingers toward the electric light that ran between the two of us.
MC: Helios, do you know what will happen if you cross this line?
He didn’t say a word. He only glanced at the ground and then his gaze returned to my face.
I smiled, and then gently pulled his hand with some force. Helios unexpectedly didn’t resist so I stepped towards the line with my strength.
MC: It seems that nothing happened.
Helios: It’s just a line.
MC: Maybe many things are just a line. Only to be crossed over. ***Changed some wording***
Helios: And if it can’t?
MC: Then think of a way. Two people will always have a way. ***Can’t help but get Light Pursuit date vibes from this scene***
There seemed to be a tremor in Helios’ eyes, holding my hand. His fingertips slowly turning white from his grip.
At last, he laughed softly, with a bit of self-deprecation and helplessness.
Helios: (chuckles lightly) You really don’t know how to give up.
Helios: Then don’t let go.
Before I could reply, he took my hand and walked forward in front of me.
Turning around, we found that the figure had been waiting silently.
19: She is brave.
Helios: Just useless courage.
19: It is precisely because human beings are born with courage that we have to learn to avoid all unknowns and risks.
19 slowly moved along the wall. The mechanisms opened by the rotation of gears paved the way for us.
Looking at its figure, I felt like someone was walking beside me, telling me some age-old stories.
19: It allows you to greet the unknown even if you feel scared and to overcome all the pain for the sake of hope. ***Changed some wording***
19: It allows us to meet you at the end of departure. ***This line reminds me a lot of one of Kiro’s karma bylines from his karma “Stranger”: “I await you at the end of the opposite path.”***
As 19 talked, I found myself arriving in a wider space.
We seem to have come to a place closer to the ground, surrounded by ruins. It seems that someone has been here and there have been signs of explosions.
Unknowingly, it was nighttime. The faint moonlight came in, making me a little startled for a moment.
19’s hand “gracefully” raised, and the patterns of light crossed every fragment of the ruins along the ground and merged together.
Only this time, it’s better than the magnificent picture from before, more refined and more….real.
The entire ruins turned into a theater in a blink of an eye and it seemed to be identical to our current theater.
In the center of the empty stage, there are some small but peculiar instruments that looked like microphones.
19: People of the future, there are not many things in this world that have escaped time.
19: There are many more lighthouses like this one.
19: We try to keep all of civilization in the lighthouse, hoping to leave behind the stories, voices, predictions, and music we hear.
19: We want to fight against time and prove to the world….
19: We have existed.
19: However, only one in ten million can be left behind.
19 opened its hands gently, as if embracing something.
19: But even if one person believes it, we will be successful.
19: Thank you all.
A faint melody came from the empty stage, making me freeze for a moment.
MC: This is….
Helios: It’s a song.
Helios’ voice was soft, with some unnoticeable bewilderment and doubt in his words. His always-alert expression finally began to loosen.
I listened to this song quietly. I couldn’t tell what instruments were and the rhythm itself was very strange. The obscure language and timbre are so distant that I can’t figure out the pronunciation or the content.
I don’t know what is being sung, and I can’t even understand its sustenance or calling.
But I seem to be able to tell from this song that the remote and mysterious world is very real and alive at this moment.
This song is so desperate as if gathering all the hatred. Even if the world collapses, it will leave the last trace of unwilling cry.
But it is full of hope. Even if everything is dead, it still firmly believes that it can be done again.
It carries countless eyes, straddling the endless dark night, and breaking free from hundreds and millions of years.
Finally, reaching to us.
19: Thank you all.
The melody ended. Softly, 19 repeated the phrase again.
19: This is the last song we left in this world. Now it has completed its mission and it shall disappear with me.
Helios: Play it again.
Amidst the emotion of 19, on the empty ruins, Helios suddenly spoke up in a voice that seemed particularly indifferent.
19: I do not quite understand what you mean.
Helios: The song just now, play it again.
19 shook its head, not knowing what he was thinking.
After a period of silence, the same melody and singing was played again. I stared in confusion at Helios with his eyes closed, not knowing what he was going to do.
When the music ended, Helios slowly opened his eyes. He quietly looked at the empty stage like a frozen statue for a long time.
At last, he started walking towards the stage in the middle of the ruins, with some hesitation full of contradictions and some resoluteness that I didn’t understand.
When he stood on the stage, he glanced around, kneeling down reverently and touching the stage with his fingers gently.
Clearly, it was just a projection but at that moment, I suddenly felt as if he really touched the unreachable world.
Helios stood in front of the transparent microphone, his fingers trembling slightly. He lowered his head to watch the transparent phantom and gently covered his fingers.
The cold moonlight was shining down upon his head, as if the spotlight from this world was leaning on him without any cover.
The night sky was full of stars. The theater and stage reflected by the patterns of light flickered with specks of light, which merged into a sea of stars.
Helios closed his eyes and sang softly. The melody that had just circulated in the theater now became his sonata piece.
19: This is….
He almost perfectly restored all the pronunciation and inflection. The arcane and unfamiliar language seemed to be surging with fresh vitality.
All the hatred and love, hope and despair are deeply condensed in his singing.
Helios stands in the brightest place in the world.
His entire being is glowing.
At that moment, I knew that the person standing on the stage was Helios and even Kiro.
I’ve heard that when human beings create language, they make a voice of their own to the world.
As a result, human civilization emerged and it began to expand and pass on the basis of language.
This foreign language is so mysterious and difficult to understand that even now, it cannot be explained. It seems so fragile and meaningless.
But Kiro wrote it down completely. In endless silent times, the world once again heard the voice from that distant civilization.
He is in this world, using his voice to leave a song that only belongs to that era.
He used his method to let that far-off voice pass through the long and ancient night. For the first time, it reverberated.
Helios slowly opened his eyes and stood in front of 19.
Helios: All of you still exist.
The lines on 19’s body trembled and some rustling mechanical noises broke and rang, seeming to be on the verge of losing control.
It seemed to be shock beyond understanding and calculation. It seemed to be joy.
19: Th…thank, thank you. Thank you all.
In the distance, there seemed to be light patterns stretching out and spreading towards the darkness, slowly drawing the outline of a ship, as if it was setting sail.
19: We have always believed that there is one person who is the last piece of the puzzle to break the cycle. The future we cannot push towards, maybe you can reach it.
19: Go. Go to other lighthouses. There are countless people’s research, countless people’s attempts, and countless people’s hopes.
19: After you leave, everything will automatically be destroyed.
19: We…no, the civilization of generations will always bless you.
19: May our failure be a lighthouse to guide you to the future path.
19: Until the next lighthouse, farewell for now.
As the voice of 19 gradually faded into the air, there seemed to be some mechanical clicking sound echoing leisurely in the dark.
-End of Part 8-
***The introduction of the lighthouse has to be the most fascinating and interesting thing that has happened in the entirety of the MLQC story. Actually, I think it’s the ONLY interesting thing that has happened yet. So much info dump and my mind spinning. It took a whole season and 12 chapters of season 2 to finally get to the nitty-gritty stuff. There was definitely some references to Kiro’s R&S: Lonely like the sound of gears turning, countless civilizations, destruction. Plus the “roaring/crying” was mentioned before, vaguely, in season 1 chapter 17. Also, that infinity symbol (8) with all the thorns on it must represent this endless cycle of fate where these previous civilizations always seem to meet their end/destruction after reaching a certain high point and a new one is created in its place and the old one is forgotten or never existed. Hence the existence of the lighthouse- to preserve the civilization in some way and pass on its legacy to the next one. It begs the question of “why”. If anything, the world of season 2 might just suffer the same fate just like season 1. Does that mean MC will have to go back in time to save it and the guys will have to lose their memories once again? How many times will the world restart in order to prevent destruction? I don’t think I can deal with another round of that. The cycle has to end but how exactly? I’m very excited and anxious to find out more about what happens next. When is the next lighthouse?***
#spoilers#mlqc#mlqc spoilers#mlqc season 2#mlqc season 2 spoilers#translations#mlqc translations#mlqc season 2 translations#kiro#kiro spoilers#helios#helios spoilers#love and producer#koi to producer#mr love queen's choice#mr love game#mr love dream date#mldd
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Lots of people don't know this, but Quebec has its own separate legal system from the rest of Canada. I don't mean that it ignores the Federal laws (although it likes to tell the other provinces that it does) but that it is patterned on French common law rather than English. What this means is that, sometimes, a case settled in the rest of Canada can take on an eerie second life in la belle province.
Liars, cheats, and flim-flam men abound, vying for their chance to get back into the legal spotlight. In my case, I was tapped to serve as an expert witness to establish, once and for all, that self-driving cars are kind of shitty. This autonomous combine harvester decided it was going to merge onto the highway near Longueil and ran over a family of four who had the unfortunate luck to be driving a black Civic with one dicky headlight at night. Every lawyer in the province wanted to get a piece of this, but only one - my old friend Max, who had recently moved to Montreal in order to get away from a group of loan sharks back home - got a superstar like me.
Over the course of a few breathless hours, I explained in exacting detail how this all happened. When self-driving cars were first developed, the code kind of sucked, and so they didn’t recommend that you actually operate them with other human beings nearby. Eventually, the sales teams kind of ran with this, and legal was okay with it as long as there was a big warning about “please make sure the robot is not currently ramming a daycare” that you had to click through before you could continue getting your daily gacha spins out of the way on your phone. And you know what? Not that many people died. So the sales types fired the engineers who knew what they were doing (they cost too much, and kept complaining) and hired looser (some would say “sluttier”) engineers to keep bolting on features. This thing should be able to go through the McDonalds drivethrough and pick up your morning coffee, and it better do that in six weeks because that’s what I promised the customer!
Fast forward a few years and virtually every car on the roads is operated nearly exclusively by what amounts to a random number generator that keeps spitting out “fuck that guy.” As long as the accident-evasion logic is still working, then it should sort of even itself out. Hey, it’s worked for humanity so far, and the robots think way faster than humans, right?
Max and I didn’t win that case, for two major reasons. The first one being that my giant presentation was available exclusively in English (my phone was too full to install Duolingo) and the judges and jurors took this very poorly. By far the biggest problem with our attempt, however, is that Max had not even passed the bar back home, much less in Quebec, and didn’t bother to pack the right wigs. They caught onto his shit tout suite (that’s French for “fuck this guy.”) We were on an Air Canada flight back home the next day, where the bilingual flight attendants spit in our faces. That didn’t have anything to do with the case, it’s just what happens when you’re in coach.
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i discuss the classification of igneous petrology as you fall asleep during my lecture (PART 1) (ASMR)
Childe/Zhongli, Alternate Universe (read part 2 here)
When Childe's younger sister tells him about the volunteer at the library, he does not make the connection between that and his new favorite ASMR YouTuber, Rex Lapis.
Childe has a very effective method of getting through college. His little sister, who’s caught him making coffee at three in the morning on more than one occasion the past week alone, would beg to differ.
“You’re the best older brother,” she starts off, and he’s sure she’s trying to convince herself more than him at this point, “but you need to fix your sleeping habits.” Then, because she’s his little sister, she’d flash him a smile and pat his shoulder reassuringly.
(The comment is not lost on him though. He understands his sleeping situation will eventually wear him down if it hadn’t already, but he believes if he’ll drink a coffee every morning and a Monster every night, he’ll get through three days. By the third day, he’ll hardly be coherent but that doesn’t matter because he’ll conk out for the next twelve hours and then repeat.)
“Don’t worry, Tonia,” he says, trying to sound as reassuring as possible as he contemplates whether it’s worth it or not to swallow a pill of 5-hour energy with his morning coffee. “Once break ends, I’ll get back to normal.”
“You said that six seasons ago.”
Childe frowns, trying to remember if his sleeping schedule was this dysfunctional last year. “Huh?”
“The Walking Dead seasons,” Tonia clarifies, as if she’s not twelve years old and the show is for grown adults. He thinks. He hasn’t checked Commonsensemedia ever since La Signora labeled him as a “helicopter parent” and his Netflix tab has been playing How to Get Away with Murder as background noise for the past few weeks.
Isn’t it a show about zombies though? Tonia’s sheepish smile tells it all, because it’s the same exact guilty look he had when he got caught red-handed as a kid.
(Once he remembers later, Childe promises himself, he’ll check out The Walking Dead.)
“Oh. Well. I have a lot of shows to catch up on, you know. Not to mention a ton of my professors gave me reading for over the break.”
A half lie. They did give him a lot of reading because each professor assumed that their classes were his only one, and with seven days left, he still has a textbook worth of reading to go through. But there are no shows that Childe would sacrifice his precious sleep for. As a matter of fact, he would love to sleep. He’s spent the majority of his classes back in high school sleeping and faking attention, saving his grade at the last minute — it was quite the extreme sport really, if he says so himself.
Whenever he tries to sleep recently, his thoughts run at several hundred miles per hour, and he spends several hours staring at the ceiling before succumbing to the computer at his desk and watching trashy movies. At this point, he must have gone through the entire romance comedy list on Netflix. (Not a proud point in his life but if anybody ever wanted him to give a list of best to worst romance comedy movies, he now has one.)
Tonia, on the other hand, isn’t incredibly convinced.
Admittedly, the excuse was lame. Also, he can’t easily lie to his little sister, who’s far shrewder than he takes her for at times.
“You never start your reading in advance. You like to speed read it right before your class or watch a five-minute video on the chapters while your teachers take attendance. But that’s… uh, ‘a bad work ethic.’” Tonia looks immensely proud of herself as she says this, finishing it off with, “Zhongli told me that.”
“Zhongli?” he repeats, trying to remember if that’s one of her classmates or some stranger that’s hoping to kidnap his sister.
“The guy that volunteers at the library sometimes. He recommended me a loot of good books to read, but he talks like an old man.”
“How old?” Childe can tell she’s enjoying this — talking about her new friend at the library that he’ll probably have to run a background check on.
“Like he’s in his sixties or something. But he looks… actually, he looks your age! And he’s a student too. I told him all about you.”
Well, that doesn’t sound very reassuring coming from the mouth of a twelve-year-old. He’s not sure if that translates to his social security number, his current dilemma, or just that he’s her older brother.
“Like all of the stories you told me when I was a kid. And then when Lumine came to pick me up, she stayed to show him pictures of you too.”
“Of course she did,” he mumbles, ruffling her hair. One of these days he’s going to move without telling his classmates and the twins won’t enter his apartment unannounced. (But Tonia adores their company and the stories they tell her far too much for him to actually do it. But that doesn’t mean he’s above making threats when they tell his little sister about the bet he made about white-out and how it could dye hair. The jury is still out on this one.) “She’s just mad because I get away with it and she doesn’t. But don’t do it yourself. It’s a bad habit,” he adds, remembering that he should at least try to be a good influence on his younger sister when he can.
“Okaaay,” she says unconvincingly, before shaking her hair and running off to her room with lunch he prepared for her.
Watching her close the door and no doubt continue her binge of The Walking Dead, he takes out his phone and texts Lumine.
Childe
12:35
ur a horrible influence on tonia
Childe
12:35
and whos this ZHONGLI
Childe
12:35
also is twd appropriate for 12 y/os
Twin 1
12:37
a normal person would say hi
Twin 1
12:37
also 1. me n aether watched it when we were 12 so probably and 2. some guy at the library that also goes to our school
Well. At least he’s somebody they know. But The Walking Dead?
Childe
12:38
thats not very convincing
Childe
12:38
also dont ppl DIE? get BITTEN???? what if she gets nightmares
Twin 1
12:39
isnt she 12 r u telling me u weren’t watching R rated movies at 12
Childe
12:42
thats very different from a 10 season long show that is hailed as “one of the greatest horror shows in history” and “paved the way for post-apocalyptic horror”
Twin 1
12:42
well if she has trouble sleeping she could always watch asmr. that helps me during midterms idk
Childe
12:42
whats asmr
Childe
12:43
asking for my sister btw
Twin 1
12:44
A feeling of well-being combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck, as experienced by some people in response to a specific gentle stimulus, often a particular sound.
Childe
12:45
wtf?
Twin 1
12:45
people on the internet make random sounds or just talk into a mic n its supposed to be very relaxing. how have u never found out abt this?????
Childe
12:45
idk the only thing on my youtube recommended r greatest stunts and chapter review videos
Twin 1
12:47
… makes sense
Twin 1
12:47
check out rex lapis’ channel he looks like ur type
Childe
12:48
i thought we were talking about my sister????
Twin 1
12:50
[message screenshots.jpg]
Twin 1
12:50
ya she told me everything
Twin 1
12:50
have fun i need to convince aether to not commit arson bc of his TA
Childe
12:51
hope he does it
He opens his Youtube app, typing in Rex Lapis and expecting Lumine’s suggestion to be a joke. Despite them being friends for nearly two years now, she’s never made any indication of knowing his type. And he’s sure he’s never been that vocal about it either, only shooting appreciative looks at history majors and paying more attention than necessary to the TA for ‘Tradition of Justice and Law.’ (It’s unfortunate that those short-term crushes never led to anything, but maybe that’s for the better seeing that Childe has never understood the appeal of relationships.)
It is an ASMR channel, judging by the ASMR playlist he finds as he scrolls through the account. The icon shows no face — only a microphone — which leaves him skeptical. Most of the video titles belong in a petrology lecture as well, which makes him even more convinced that it’s a joke. He finds a few readings of ancient literature and decides to pick ‘I discuss the classification of igneous petrology as you fall asleep during my lecture (PART 1) (ASMR)’ because that’s exactly what he needs. (Not the very moment — but ten hours later when he’s in the bed memorizing the pattern of his ceiling wondering why he stole from his fifth grade teacher’s candy jar during lunch.)
When Childe opens the video, he damn near gasps.
The man in the video is exactly his type. His eyes are a soft amber color, framed with long lashes, and it’s almost enough for him to lose his dignity and message Lumine a long thank you text about how she is always right and he’ll pay for her coffee for the following week. He smiles at the screen, albeit a little sheepishly, dark hair framing his face with a long ponytail that Childe can’t see the end of. On his right ear, there are a pair of earrings with a single feather that brush against his neck when he moves his head.
Even before he speaks, Childe is mesmerized, sure he’ll already memorize his features from the curve of his nose to the way he tilts his head, displaying the expanse of his neck.
Really — he reminds him of actors in historical dramas, the way he sits regally, and how he speaks. His voice is low and slow as he adopts a careful manner of speaking, leaning into the mic.
“I’m Rex Lapis, and I’ll be discussing igneous petrology today, which is part one in a three-part petrology series. I apologize in advance, seeing that my knowledge is limited compared to many petrologists out there but my friend Venti said that many of my viewers are here for my voice, so I’m very excited to start today’s video.”
Holy shit.
For the following week, Childe learns less about petrology, the philosophy of economics, and historical revisionism concerning matters of war and more about Rex Lapis, who is not in love with his voice but often finds himself in the middle of long tangents without explanations. His favorite book series is the Legend of the Lone Sword, which he says he’ll look forward to reading out loud for the channel. (Childe replays that part of the video again and again, captivated by his excitement as he mindlessly taps the mic while he speaks, his tangent cutting off mid-word — as it usually does, much to his dismay.)
His guilty obsession is not lost on Tonia, who realizes that instead of drinking Monster every night he’s been engrossed in his phone completely, often not noticing her or when the water starts bubbling. But because his sleeping schedule has been alleviated, she says nothing until Lumine comes over as she always does, not forgetting their weekly schedule of watching trashy movies while leeching off of Childe’s food.
Because he doesn’t trust the twins with the kitchen — even if they can cook — she instead spends her time sitting next to Tonia and spreading more of her anti-Childe propaganda while they wait. This usually involves Tonia occasionally calling out Childe’s name and asking, “Is that true?” or “Did you really do that?”
This time is different though.
Worried that Lumine finally decided to show Tonia a video of last semester’s presentation, he leans over, looking at the computer screen.
And he’s wrong. Unfortunately. Maybe it should’ve been his presentation because even if he botched it and accidentally projected his work process — screaming notes and all — to the class instead of his actual presentation, it would’ve been better than the two of them watching one of Rex Lapis’ videos together.
The ‘I read Erosion: Essays of Undoing to you as it rains outside’ video, to be specific, which is where Rex Lapis is embarrassed by Venti mid video when asked if this was his idea of a date with a lover. (And then it ends with Rex Lapis asking for video suggestions from the commentors, his face still flushed from the previous comments.)
Oh God — oh fuck.
“So he is your type,” Lumine says, her expression a bit too smug for his liking. Tonia looks half awake, scrolling through articles as the video plays, more interested in ‘Top 10 Glenn Rhee Moments’ than Childe’s crush. Her expression is a bit guilty as she does so — she’s biting her lip and avoiding his gaze, but he assumes that it’s just because they went through his YouTube history.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement,” he retorts, but the YouTube history she pulls up once Tonia hands the computer over to her says it all. (It’s quite mortifying, really — even Tonia is giving him a look, but it’s not as bad as Lumine’s shit eating grin.)
“Well… he does have a nice voice,” Childe finally says, thinking that perfectly encompasses his most recent obsession. Because he does have a nice voice — it’s soothing and speaks to him without really speaking to him directly. (The good looks are a bonus, he assures himself. A fantastic bonus, but a bonus nonetheless.)
“He does,” Tonia confirms, smiling toothily up at him, and he resists the urge to ruffle her hair with Lumine staring at him so skeptically. “But I don’t understand much of what he’s saying. He — heh — talks like an old man.”
“Don’t worry, Tonia, your brother likes him because he’s attractive,” Lumine informs her, now fast forwarding on one of Rex Lapis’ videos. “Did you know that he lives nearby?”
“Huh?”
The knife he’s holding clatters to the floor, and the two look down and back up at him with— hold on, why does it feel like they’re in on a secret he doesn’t know about?
“Yeah, he’s working on his grad thesis I think… Aether told me it was about something on history,” she muses. “That’s why I recommended his channel to you. He’s a bit of a celebrity in his department.”
Childe’s sure his jaw dropped now, trying to maintain his facial expression as he takes out a new knife to chop up the onions.
“Really,” he tries to say as calmly as possible, wondering how he should accompany Aether to his lectures without trying to seem as obvious as possible. His voice is a bit shaky he realizes but he can’t quite make the connection between Rex Lapis and actual graduate student that goes to his university.
“Yeah, actually…” Lumine is definitely pretending to think now, enjoying this far too much. “He—”
“It’s Zhongli!” his little sister yells excitedly, practically jumping up and down at this point as if she won the lottery. “Zhongli runs an ASMR channel and he talks just like that in real life! Right, Lumine?”
“Yeah.”
Childe sighs, holding a hand up to his face. The realization that he’s been obsessed with the same guy that hears about every stupid thing he did secondhand is way too much — and the fact that he’s been listening to his voice every night before he went to bed the past week is way too much. He’s sure his face is redder than before judging by the amused expressions on Lumine’s and Tonia’s faces — really, they’re mirror images of each other right now.
Not for the first time, Childe swears to himself that he’ll never let her into his apartment without signing a contract ever again.
#Genshin Impact#Childe/Zhongli#Childe & Tonia#Childe & Lumine#asmr fic p1#fuck ao3 (holds head in hands)#asmr fic
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Pc Games With Character Creation Offline
Games With Character Customization Pc
Steam Games With Character Creation
One of the things I love most in a RPG (Role-Playing Game) is the possibility of creating my own character with tons of different options and add-ons. I made a research yesterday and found some interesting PC Games I already knew about, adding them to the titles I have or plan to get with the best Character Customization. I’m going to list them here for you guys also attaching a few videos so that you can see directly how they work and what kind of possibilities they offer.
It’s the main reason I enjoy games like Skyrim and Fallout. But there seem to be so few good (single player) games with decent character creation - and not just picking from a few presets. The character creation in Dragon Age: inquisition was amazing (although I struggled to enjoy the game) as well as Saints Row (which I really enjoyed). Addicting Offline Co-op Games For PC You’ll Want To Play. Dennis Patrick / Features / Best Co-op PC Games, Co-op, Cooperative. Sonic the Hedgehog is a staple video game character. Best MMORPG with Character Creation. Final Fantasy 14 has one of the most complex and sophisticated character editors. In this game, you can change the smallest details using different sliders, pick a unique voice, or add unique tattoos, accessories and facial paint. What Are Best RPGs With Character Creation? Role-playing games let us live out some of our greatest fantasies like slaying dragons, saving the world and owning a house. Whether your main character is dead, alive, or somewhere in between, these games will let you adjust your appearance and abilities to however you see fit. I've always loved games that give you the option to create your character before you start in the world. I enjoy the game even more when it has role playing or social aspects added to it, allowing you interact with NPCs, or other players if the game has a multiplayer feature. Just character creation would interest me enough to check any game out.
Follow me under the cut if you’re curious!
I’ve been introduced to this type of creation with a game I still keep in my heart and consider one of the best of all times; The Sims 2. Seriously, I’ve created so many 3D characters that if I could win an award I’d have 200 on my shelf by now.
With that said, here you are my personal list of PC games with their awesome customization in no particular order:
I tried this game myself (the free beta that is) a few times in the past and I swear the CC included in it is currently one of my favorite. Without the complete pack I probably didn’t have a lot of additional options available in terms of clothes, makeup and hair, but what truly mesmerized me at the time was the shaping tool, not yet common in games when they released EVE. You can grab and drag different parts of the head and body, modeling unique characters every time.
2. Black Desert Online
This game has been released recently with two different packages and it seems to be quite a popular MMORPG (Massive(ly) Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) in Russia and Korea. I’m not surprised considering the quality this game seems to have and its customization is clearly no less. Just like EVE Online, Black Desert offers a good sculpt instrument to shape faces and bodies as much as you like, plus a beautiful variety of colors and combinations.
UPDATE: The game is also available on Steam!
This patch lets you play Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks with mostly non-touch based controls. The new control bindings are Control Bindings: D-Pad=Run Y+Dpad=Walk B=Wide slash B+Dpad=Long slash Y+B=Spin Attack A=Interact A+Dpad=Roll. Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks D-Pad Patch This patch implements non-touchscreen controls for essential actions in Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. Legend of zelda spirit tracks xenophobia patched rom.
3. Blade&Soul
This is another Asian MMORPG with the classical ‘Anime’ style, you cannot freely reshape the character’s structure, only pick one of the available presets and play around with the sliders to modify the whole body. Andy mckinney molly hatchet. Still, I honestly like the bright colors, the races/classes and the fact that you can actually recreate other existing characters using additional content (just like this guy did with Cloud from Final Fantasy VII).
4. BLESS Online
Yes, another Asian online title. Hey, it’s not my fault if they look so pretty! Bless is quite recent and not yet released in its final stage, but judging by how the CC works you have as much freedom as in EVE or Black Desert and the same unmistakable Fantasy touch.
5. The Sims 4
Didn’t I mention The Sims 2? Well, looks like the latest title in the series has improved quite a lot in this area. The shaping/sculpting method is here as well, considering that we finally have more possibilities I certainly won’t complain!
Note: In this video I can see the woman has a few mods installed. If you decide to get this game (or even the previous chapters) I definitely suggest you to do the same if you don’t like the default character design.
6. Fallout 4
Another recent (and quite famous) game. Apparently you can only work on the face here, but once again we see the sculpt tool in action. Even if the hair options are a bit limited you can still customize your character and create unique features playing around with your cursor.
7. Dragon Age: Inquisition
Who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am completely OBSESSED with this game, thus I couldn’t really leave it out. The hair options are definitely questionable and just like in Fallout 4 you do not have any body morph nor slider to alter, but as you can see from this video example you are still able to personalize your Inquisitor in a good way, also using real people or other characters as reference. To be honest I like some of the default presets too, if you don’t like spending two hours working on a face (I do that all the time, but I am a basket case so please ignore my madness :P), you can pick those and get a good result nonetheless.
And don’t forget about mods! 😉
8. Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls V)
This one has been around for a very long time and it remains probably the top 1 Fantasy game out there. If you’re not into mods at all and want to keep your game vanilla be sure that the overall quality is not as improved as the current generation, you can see that from the low-res hair and general textures. The reason why I’m including this CC in the list anyway is because even if old, Skyrim looks quite good compared to other games where you only get 3/4 slider options.
9. APB Reloaded
The last game I’d like to mention (and I literally just discovered it) is this not so new title which has a kick-ass Character Creator. Not only it shows some quality graphics there, but the level of customization is unbelievable! You can make hair shorter, beards longer, create beautiful tattoos (and place or rotate them wherever you want!), add patterns to clothes and even get your personal car! 😀
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There are of course many other games with a Character Creator, but they all seem pretty similar or not good enough to be mentioned in my list.
What do you think about these? Let me know with a comment if you like!
Those late-night multiplayer sessions can be really fun sometimes. Surely, everything is better with friends, they say and you’ll agree with that at some point. However, after a long day of work and studying, I like to relax with offline games. Sometimes, it’s satisfying to let yourself indulge in a great single-player story and forget about any problems bothering you. So, if you are like me, then welcome to the club! Below is my list of 20 best offline games for PC and I hope you’ll enjoy them.
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
W2k16 pc download. Well, you’ve guessed it! The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt takes first place on the list with its epic setting, characters, gameplay, and those breathtaking visuals! It’s a compelling game that will offer you more than a hundred hours of non-filler gameplay, and there’s always something to explore. The game looks amazing, and the combat system is great. This open-world title is everything you need on your free days! Combine that with the great RPG elements and fun dialogues with NPCs, and you got yourself a pretty good offline game! Go and play it now, it’s a must-play.
2. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
Wolfenstein series has been once again revived with Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. The positive reviews flashed all around the globe, and this game quickly became one of the best shooting games of 2017. B.J Blazkowicz is such a badass protagonist and the characters surrounding the game are interesting. You’ll quickly start to care about each and every one of them, making this game a worthy offline title. Bethesda said that they won’t be focusing on multiplayer, so they can bring an immersive single-player experience. Well, you nailed it, Bethesda; great job!
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Bethesda is one of my favorite companies when it comes to gaming, at least they were a few years back. A few years back, this masterpiece called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released and it took the Earth by storm! This offline open-world title offers hundreds of hours of exploration and you’ll probably never get bored of it! The combat system might be dated, but it’s damn fun to play and explore every corner of the game. After six years since its release, I’m still eager to give Skyrim another go. It’s that great!
4. Fallout 4
Games With Character Customization Pc
Fallout 4 is one of those top offline games that you either like or dislike. It’s a great single-player experience, as you explore a huge world of fictional city Commonwealth. I mean, the story here is scattered here and there, and our protagonist is in search of his abducted son. However, the game often steers away from that and let you have some freedom and exploration. It’s a fantastic reboot of the series, and it’s surely the best game in the franchise. If you are up for that Stalker-ish feeling, then give this a try!
5. Hitman (2016)
Hitman isn’t a strictly offline game, but I included it because it has a great single-player campaign. While the previous entry in the series Hitman: Absolution relied more on linear, claustrophobic, and confined experience, Hitman (2016) went in a different direction. Here, you’ll experience a vast, open-world with lots of stuff to do. The levels are not that numerous, but they are as big as hell! You can complete your missions in various ways and earn certain rewards and points for doing so. Hitman is a challenging stealth experience, but once Agent 47crawls under your skin, there’s no going back!
Steam Games With Character Creation
6. Nioh
Nioh is a less-known offline game released this year, and I feel like this game is very underrated. It’s a child of Dark Souls and Bloodborne series, which can tell you much about this game. It has a single, crushing, and unforgiving difficulty that will leave you begging for mercy. It’s hard, and you’ll need some blazing fast reflexes and huge gaming skills to finish it. There are more than twenty bosses in the game, and every single boss will kick your ass! Don’t expect to finish this game in a few days; you’ll need weeks to finish it and it will be painfully slow as the bosses shame you every little time… you helpless gamer!
7. Nier: Automata
Another underrated game – Nier: Automata. How could the gaming community overlook this game? Are you blind, or what? This game offers thirty hours of a pure, refined, and amazing experience! It’s a hack-and-slash title that mergers several genres with it. The open world in this game is huge, and the post-apocalyptic environment looks depressing and feels like a void. Nier also introduces RPG elements so you can now level yourself up, upgrade weapons, buy stuff, etc. On top of that, there are some 2D sections that feel like a great platformer, and that’ very unique! Nier: Automata is better than most AAA titles and costs double the less of that price, which is one more reason to get it.
8. Dark Souls 3
Dark Souls series got a fantastic reboot with Dark Souls 3. Just if it wasn’t enough for the previous games in the series, and now we got this punishing game. What can I say? Prepare to die a LOT in this game, as it’s created to kill you. I’m not joking, the whole game is against you, and you can’t do anything about that except fight like a lunatic. Even when you die, the enemies around you respawn and you must fight again and again, which is really frustrating. However, if you have the balls to play it, and manage to finish it, then you deserve a medal, Sir!
9. Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite is the newest installment in the Bioshock series. This cheap game can give you a huge value for your buck, especially when the Holidays come. I mean, for just a couple of bucks, you can get a fantastic FPS game, which campaign isn’t short and definitely isn’t boring! Bioshock Infinite continues its tradition with great shooting mechanics, various powerups, and that fast-paced shooting in a beautiful environment of the game. Get ready to cause mayhem!
10. Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation is that PC offline game that will haunt your dreams every time you try to sleep. It’s a horror game in which you try to stay in one piece and escape that damn space station called Sevastopol. Sounds similar? Well, that’s because the game is based on Alien (1979) movie, which was a very disturbing experience at the time. It’s an intense game that makes your palms sweat and your heart beating so fast that you’ll think it’s gonna come out of your chest! Try this horror if you dare, and watch yourself getting swallowed by the Alien, in a single bite!
11. Far Cry Primal
Elephants are cool, but mammoths are so badass! In Far Cry Primal, you can hunt mammoths and even ride them when you get to higher levels! How cool are you from zero to riding a mammoth? This beautiful-looking game is set 10,000 years BC and no, you aren’t going to shoot guns, but bash the hell out of your enemies. The arsenal of weapons might not be that huge, but the combat is great and requires more thinking, as the enemies are sometimes overwhelming and can easily kill you. If you have the luck to tame a sabertooth tiger, you may survive in this harsh world!
12. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
There is something special about that claustrophobic feeling, especially when it comes to horror games that you can play without internet. That sense of dread and despair when you don’t have much space to move is priceless. Don’t think of me as a psycho, but I LOVE the horror genre! RE7: Biohazard is a game that caught my attention as soon as it was released. This bad boy will provide you with a horrific experience that will leave you scared to death! As the game plays from the first-person perspective, it’s much easier to get yourself immersed, but also scared.
13. Outlast 2
Outlast 2 is yet another offline horror experience, where the developers decided to leave your powerless. There aren’t weapons for you to use, and surely no means to defend yourself. So, what are you left with? Well, a camera and a journal should do the trick! The game does a damn fine job of melding the horror and the dread with stealth and great storytelling. In the end, you may feel a little let down by the ending, but I know you’ll enjoy it until the very end.
14. Dead Space 3
Cat et 2015a factory password generator. While the past games in the series focused more on that horror experience, Dead Space 3 is more of an action-horror game. Sure, there are Necromorphs and they are vicious and all, but the action part is more prominent. Needless to say that Dead Space 3 is an amazing game and I’m very sad that Visceral Games is closed by EA in October. This survival horror game is hugely underrated, but it’s awesome and I recommend you to play it. It’s just a couple of bucks for this experience, don’t be a niggard!
15. Portal 2
There’s something awesome when it comes to Source Engine. The games made with this engine looks amazing, yet they run smoothly. How did Valve manage to do that? Well, as I am not a game developer, don’t ask me! But ask me about Portal 2, which is Valve’s magnum opus, and a compelling puzzle game. The whole point of the game is to use a Portal gun in order to create portals and pass through them. However, the game isn’t that simple and requires some brain skill to finish it. Grab your Portal Gun, and let’s go on a venture!
16. Limbo
This 2D game is straight-up terrifying, dark, and misanthropic from the start to finish! In Limbo, you are a little boy that needs to survive this colorless world of the game as he overcomes various obstacles and escape scary monsters. I like the game’s artwork and the atmosphere is simply top-notch here if you like the dark ambient in the games. It’s a must-play for every offline Indie games lover!
17. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Speaking of the atmosphere, very few great offline games can replicate the atmosphere as it is in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. That post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Pripyat looks great, and the game isn’t colorful, which is the whole point. Everything has that grey-ish tint, as this town suffered greatly when the Nuclear Powerplant in that area exploded. It’s based on a real-life event that occurred around 1989, which gives the game a certain weight and meaning.
18. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
With MGSV: The Phantom Pain, Hideo Kojima proved that he still has what it takes to create such immersive PC games without internet. This stealth game is challenging and full of stuff to do, due to its open-world nature. The characters are badass and the game feels somewhat dark, with a very serious tone. Oh, and not to forget that plot twist at the end that’s worth those thirty hours I’ve spent on this game!
19. SOMA
Horror fans will be pleased that I mentioned another horror title here. SOMA is an absolutely spooky and nerve-wracking experience! It creates that atmosphere that’s very unique, and with the story being told in the shape of various documents scattered through the game, it’s even more badass! You are all alone here and you’ll fight for your life, only to find out that you aren’t actually alive! A truly wonderful offline game for Windows.
20. Superhot
Superhot is a cartoonish-looking offline game that revolves around time. To make it simple, the time in the game moves when you move, so if you are standing still, nothing will happen. Vice Versa, if you are moving and shooting, then the enemies will do the same. It’s a lot of fun, but a lot of challenges too. I played it with some of my favorite death metal albums, just to ensure that I’m hardcore enough to beat it!
As we are approaching near the end of our journey through the offline PC games, I’m here to ask you a question. What is your favorite offline game for PC? I tried my best to count some of my favorite offline games, and although I’m maybe going to start a war for not including some of the games, I stand behind my words. Oh, and why don’t you tell me what game did I miss? Do you have any favorites besides these 20 games? Please, let me know, and don’t forget to do some gaming today!
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Chapter 2 - Two New Friends
Alex’s last memory was having Tasha ask why they were watching a window, then suddenly blackness and cold. They couldn’t see anything around them, their chest felt full and it was hard to breathe. All around them was darkness and silence. Silence. Something Alex had not experienced in years. There was always some noise; a thought, a voice, a noise. But here, it was almost like before, when he was still innocent.
“You find comfort in this place? Most mortals panic almost instantly, they feel trapped and go insane in moments.” Resonated a voice, deep and smooth, like a professional conman’s. Sounding both distant and close, like both a memory and person. “Strangely enough, you are able to listen, but not respond. You’re meek, not confident enough in who.. no.. what you are.” Alex was most definitely not confident when it felt like a planar entity was casually conversing with them.
Suddenly a dull purple haze crept into the nothingness in front of them, seemingly clinging to a figure. Almost humanoid, it looked like something out of a badly rendered game. The figure was tall, close to Alex’s height, with what seemed like four legs in an X pattern, a very spindly torso that couldn’t have been more than a foot across which slowly rose to a broad chest that held a single set of muscular arms and something that vaguely resembled wings. However, they were fluid, and seemed more like a collection of squid tentacles that simply held the shape of wings. The head, or what Alex could only assume was its head, was far larger than a humans, being close to thirty inches in circumference with extremely high set features, similar to how elves are described in fantasy. The only facial feature that Alex could clearly make out was a brightly glowing pair of violet eyes.
“Interesting indeed, you don’t seem afraid of my form.” It resounded, not visibly moving any mouth. “You could prove helpful, maybe even perfect to bridge the gap again.”
“Where the hell am I and what the hell are you?” Alex’s voice boomed, startling even themself, the creatures “wings” stopped their movement at the sound. “Why are you looking at me like a dog?” It felt draining to speak, and the two sentences left them feeling like they had just finished a mile sprint.
“Very interesting indeed, strong force of personality with low confidence.” It mumbled as its wings started up again, but in a slower cycle, “I will answer one question for now. We’re currently in the Abyss, the deepest part in Zentharia.” The eyes narrowed slightly, “Zentharia used to be a twin to your realm, what you refer to as Earth, but is Pateteria to my people. However, Zentharia was long forgotten by humans after the connection was severed thousands of years ago.”
Alex immediately felt like his head was swimming, he had to be on a bad trip as none of that made sense, realms? An abyss? A weird squid wing, creeper, wrestler cosplayer? Their vision began to go fuzzy and their head felt both heavy and light.
“You had better wake up now, Alex. If you stay too long, you’ll forget how to. But don’t worry, our conversation isn’t over quite yet. We can talk more when you’re stronger.” It said, beginning to dissipate.
“Alex!” cried a familiar voice.
“Tasha?” Alex croaked out. They blinked and suddenly they were in the apartment complex. They could breathe again, their vision was clear, all the noise was back. The only feeling left was a cold spot near their heart and their eyes.
“What the hell just happened to you? You had purple eyes and you were wheezing!” Tasha seemed ready to cry, which on its own would have scared Alex, but combining that with everything that had just happened, Alex was ready to either take a nice long nap or have a mental breakdown. Or both.
After about five minutes of them both freaking out, they managed to get into their apartment and lie on the couch. “Are we going crazy?” Tasha whispered.
“I don’t think so, this seems too real, plus we both are going through it.” Alex replied, still trying to figure out how to explain the weird purple squid thing.
“Well, what are we going to do about this? We can’t tell anyone, we’ll get kicked out of college, probably put in some institution.” She sounded as hopeless as Alex felt, it seemed like nothing would make any of this better.
“Well, there’s more to my side of this. I kinda talked to a, a something? An alien?” Alex began to explain the weird, vaguely humanoid looking creature and what it had said to them. Focusing heavily on the fact that there are apparently different realms, made up of things that knew of and once co-existed with humans. And they apparently knew English on top of everything.
“Dude. Maybe we should go see a psychologist. You saw a mist alien and I'm believing you.” Tasha said with a dull look in her eyes. Clearly she was trying to comprehend everything, and failing miserably.
“‘I’ve studied it for four years, unless we have some sort of combined schizophrenia, they’ll just put us in some hospital for being crazy. Or they’ll experiment on us. Or maybe even both.” Alex responded hopelessly. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, “Never happened.”
“Never happened.” Tasha agreed. “I have to get to campus, the math final is in thirty minutes. Maybe try to take a nap.” She stood and began to collect her notes.
“Unlikely, but I’ll try my best.” Alex stood and hugged Tasha for a minute, such being uncommon as Alex didn’t like physical contact very much. They often made an exception for Tasha, however, she was probably the only person they could touch on a regular basis.
“It’ll be okay my little raven.” Tasha said, taking a motherly tone. She was the oldest of six siblings and was used to the idea of comforting others. “When I get back, why don’t we order Chinese food and watch movies?”
Alex felt another shift in their balance, but different than before, “Or watch old cartoons?”
5:00pm came faster than Alex expected, they spent the time relaxing on the couch. Idly playing on their phone, the door opened and Tasha slunk through. “That was awful, but I made it back alive. Mostly at least.” Tasha said as she collapsed on the chair next to Alex.
“Did you do good on it?” Alex asked, looking at her admiringly, “I wasn’t ever really that great at math, you’re seriously good at it.”
“I think I did alright. Some parts of it were actually difficult, but my professor said that I would easily get my degree this year.” Tasha rambled on for a few minutes. Alex just watched her talk and waited for her to finish, “Jan was actually useless in finishing her part, I’ve been talking too long, what did you do while I was gone?”
“Just layed here on my phone, waiting for you to get back. I took a nap and watched tv.” Alex had actually taken a quick nap on the couch after watching cartoons, but was feeling a bit embarrassed by it, “You said we could get food and watch movies, is that still okay?”
“Of course it is. I’ll get the menu pulled up on my phone and you can pick out what we watch tonight. Do you want me to just get your favorite or do you want something different?” Tasha said, looking up from her phone, her tone very soothing.
“I’ll just take my normal, what kind of movie do you want?” As they were scrolling through the movies available. No response came, “Tasha?” Alex said as they looked over and choked back a scream, as Tasha’s had turned a pale color and her eyes had turned a bright golden color.
Tasha was extremely warm, like her lungs were filled with a cool fire. Her breathing was harsh and hot, her eyes were watering. All around her, she saw gold and orange. No one was around, but there was a distant sound of music and laughter. It seemed like she was going to explode in a flash of heat, but it was also comforting in a strange way.
“Terribly sorry it took so long to get here my dear, I was held up with some other matters.” A feminine voice said from behind her. Turning around, Tasha saw something both perfect and disgusting.
This creature that stood in front of her was at least a foot taller than, nearly the same size as Alex. Alex! She realized that he had partially switched out, and that they shouldn’t be alone for too long.
“Relax darling, they will be okay. You’ll be back soon to be with them again.” The figure said, its mouth open but not moving with the words. As it stood there, it looked mostly human; two arms, two legs and one head. However, it clearly had far too many eyes. It also had something that seemed like a set of wings, almost birdlike covered in feathers but with strange patches of skin-like material, almost like scar tissue.
“Where am I and who are you?” Tasha questioned through gritted teeth, feeling like she was talking through a campfire’s heat, her voice very warbled and unsteady.
“Well, my dear, I am Vesril, and we’re in a realm called Zentharia. Specifically, we’re at the top of what you would call a mountain, close to the peak where my family resides. This place is called Summoner’s Perch.”
Thankfully, Tasha was great at storing information quickly. Mentally rotating everything Vesril was saying, trying to decode and comprehend it. “How did I get here? How do I get back?” Tasha questioned, starting to get her voice to obey her again, “I want to leave, now.”
“You can leave whenever you would like to, child. All you have to do is ask and I will send you back. But you may want to hear what I have to say about your friend, Alex.”
Tasha was taken aback, anger and fear starting to bubble inside her, “What about them? Don’t you dare lay even a finger on my little Raven.” Her voice was instantly like steel, her eyes narrowed and burned at the thought of Alex being hurt. Just like any other time she began to get angry, it felt like her hands were set on a stove, burning hot.
“Ah, you’re further along than they are, that can be a good thing.” Vesril mumbled to themself. It made a sound like it cleared its throat before it spoke again. “Alex, as I’m sure you know, was contacted by another entity from Zentharia. I want you to make sure they stay far away from them. Alex is far too valuable to be in the hands of someone like him.”
“What do you mean ‘too valuable’.” Tasha was furious at this point, the idea of Alex being used by whatever this creature was was pushing her past her limit. Her fingers felt like they were wreathed in white-hot flames, but it wasn’t painful. “I swear, you had better stay away from Alex!”
Darling, I’m only trying to help the both of you. You both have extreme potential that would be wasted with those creatures.” The creature started to sound worried and angry.
“What are they then, if they’re so awful?”
“I can’t tell you that yet dear.”
Tasha snapped, she lunged at Vesril, faster than she had ever thought was possible, grabbing Vesril by the throat. “You stay away from me and Alex! We dont need some freak of a creature talking nonsense to us!” Her grip tightened even further, the burning feeling was gone, but her hands were still warm. Stealing a quick glance down, she was terrified, as her hand was cloaked in a dark blue flame. She looked back up, forgetting her panic, “Take me home. Now!”
“Very well.” Vesril choked out with a gasp, and suddenly Tasha had Alex’s neck in her hand.
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Tiebreaker - Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest vs Polukranos, Unchained
Hi folks! Yesterday, these two cards both got 177 votes in Batch 2.3, leading to a tie. I don’t vote in the polls so that I can be the tiebreaking vote when it’s needed. So here I am doing that.
I am going to be using the same format as I did for the ties in the original Magic Bracket - see this old post for an example. Essentially I will provide a written analysis on each card over five categories, and then finish with scores. If the scores also tie then my personal favourite gets the nod. The categories are:
- Quality of design, scored out of 10
- Power level, scored out of 5 (overpowered cards will score lower)
- Flavour, scored out of 5
- Art, scored out of 5 (combined across multiple arts if there are any)
- Place in Magic history, scored out of 5
Let’s get stuck in.
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Design
Fittingly for a death priest, Mazirek cares about death - specifically, he’s one of the relatively few cards that care about sacrificing. While we’re more used to seeing this on black-red cards in recent years, Mazirek was printed in Commander 2015 and the sacrifice-matters element is perfectly at home in black. While it doesn’t feel green, the reward you get - +1/+1 counters on all your creatures - certainly does, and Mazirek has a solidly black-green feel as a result. And by both caring about death and growth/life, he also feels specifically Golgari - which matters as the Kraul are a Golgari insect group. Sacrifice-matters probably does play better in black-red (where red’s ability to sacrifice its own stuff lines up nicely), but it’s not massively out of place here.
Having flying (which makes sense for an Insect) but a measly 2/2 body for 5 also guides the player to imagining growing him into a massive threat through adding lots of sacrifice effects. The design is also kept light by not having Mazirek provide any inherent way of sacrificing things or making sacrifices happen - the player has to provide their own. This is pretty common for these kinds of designs, but is good because it means the rewards can be a bit juicier, as the player has to provide a sacrifice payoff, an enabler, and likely some fodder - although making your opponent sacrifice things also works!
One ding against the sacrifice trigger is that it does require players to handle a small bit of rules knowledge - specifically, identifying the “sacrifice” keyword action and understand which things are and aren’t sacrifices. And effects that make temporary tokens are annoyingly inconsistent about whether the tokens are exiled or sacrificed, which sets up a bit of a reading debt.
Power level
Fittingly for a card from a Commander precon, Mazirek is pretty potent. He can grow your team quite substantially with a few triggers, even if he doesn’t provide you an in-built way of getting them, and promises unbounded payoff. Combined with a sacrifice outlet and something with Persist can even make infinite combos, which is pretty compelling as a power option. Mazirek is technically legal in Eternal formats, but isn’t up to grade there - but that’s not a mark down on him as few cards are.
Mazirek ranks #278 on EDHREC, as the Commander of 424 decks, and as a card appears in 4% of decks on the platform. This indicates a potent and popular Commander card.
Flavour
Mazirek, as mentioned above, is the leader of the Kraul, the Golgari insect race. His card name certainly conjures up a lot of what’s going on with him - “Death Priest” is quite a title, and gets across both the death-focused aspect of the Golgari as well as the Kraul’s society - Mazirek was the leader of the Kraul race until his death in the War of the Spark storyline. His name is also fun to say - and feels quite insectile. It’s a shame that the “priest” title, which feels more like a Cleric, is not matched with his typeline, where he is a Shaman. There are plenty of green and even black-green Clerics, so this does feel like a minor ding.
Mazirek’s flavour text reinforces the “insect” thing nicely, with talks of clicks and buzz, and the very Metal “incarnation of decay”. Overall the picture of a rotten, death-feeding entity is well sold. Being empowered by death is a flavourful concept, but “sacrificing” specifically is hard to convey as a flavourful concept - it’s a bit too mechanical.
Art
Mathias Kollros’s piece revels in the black-green colour palette we’d expect from a Golgari legend, and shows the central figure suggestively in dark greens and yellow highlights, but with the details hidden by strong green-white backlighting. The posing emphasises the many additional limbs that Mazirek has over a humanoid figure, with his wings and extra legs, as well as his elevated position. Some drippy, slimy looking moss decorates his podium and the darker edges of the piece give us the sense that we’re in the Kraul’s tunnels. After adjusting to the main image we also see the eggs at the edges of the image, adding to the insect / creepy vibe for an overall very effective piece.
Note that the colour palette appears to have been significantly darkened from the original printing for the later Double Masters version for no clear reason. I think the original printing is the superior.
Place in Magic history
Other than a supporting role in the Ravnica / War of the Spark storyline, Mazirek doesn’t have much to write home about here - no particularly unique or interesting things about him.
Polukranos, Unchained
Design
From this year’s Theros: Beyond Death, we have the zombified version of Polukranos. Originally gaining infamy as Polukranos, World Eater, this hydra is now presented in a black-tinged version - our second black-green card. He starts out with square stats as a very undercosted-seeming 4-mana 6/6, before later promising to escape as a 6-mana 12/12. The “permanent damage” drawback here is something originally seen on Judgment’s Phantom creatures, which only ever lost one counter per instance of damage; the counters-per-damage version was premiered on M11′s Protean Hydra as a “heads” metaphor, and was also seen on Ugin’s Conjurant. Conjurant and Polukranos share an important improvement - they only apply the replacement effect while they actually have a +1/+1 counter, which stops them becoming invincible if you raise their toughness some other way.
As well as being a big reservoir of power and toughness, this newer version of Polukranos connects mechanically to the original by including a fight ability - and a very rare repeatable one at that. This opens up some interesting options whereby if Polukranos has shrunk too much, you can fight him off in order to have him die and then be able to escape and reset him with his final Escape ability. Polukranos has the highest card-cost for any Escape card, needing six other cards to come back - justified by his massive size upgrade when you do so.
The design overall hits some of the right notes for the established Polukranos power set - beefy and activated-ability-fighting - while adding some interesting play patterns with the Escape mechanic. It doesn’t do a great job of feeling green-black to me instead of just green however - monogreen has Escape cards and that’s all that black is really bringing to this package other than a generic multicolour power injection and the Zombie creature type. And the design is very busy, with a lot of text and moving parts that is a bit confusing to play.
Power level
While being a Limited powerhouse, Polukranos hasn’t managed to get anywhere in general constructed thanks to competing for resources with the far superior Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, which is commonly played with black.
In Commander, EDHREC shows Polukranos, Unchained at rank #494 as a Commander of 170 decks, and appearing in 3% of decks. The combo with Vigor is particularly nice - you can choose to apply Vigor’s replacement effect instead of Polukranos’s own one and have him grow every time he fights instead of shrinking!
Flavour
The name is straightforward enough - and connects with the art - but not inspired. The lengthy rules text doesn’t even leave room for Escape reminder text, let alone flavour text. The character of Polukranos is of a dangerous monster that Elspeth had to defeat in the original Theros storyline as the champion of Heliod, but the new version is just “that same guy from before, only he escaped from the Underworld”.
Art
Chris Rahn is one of Magic’s most notable current artists, with a great ability to render detailed fantasy images with beautiful details. The purple-and-grayish hues of the underworld are used here to show the location, and nicely we see the upper purple head of Polukranos blending with the beautiful night sky.
And those purple heads are shown coming from the same root - I believe they are actually regrowing at the time of the art! There are a lot of nice visual indicators of this - a pinkish glow showing where the stump was, the purplish colour of the two new heads, and the fact that those are a little smaller than the other four. The new heads both have collars on so I imagine these are magical collars designed for a hydra - but the art also shows that the chains weren’t strong enough, as the name tells us. A close look shows a loose chain breaking a statue in the foreground - and the other foreground figures help sell the size of the monstrous creature in front of us. The overall mood is “Oh s***, the monster has got loose!”.
Place in Magic history
We have a minor storyline character here and the card has no particular resonance or important part to play, so not looking at a whole lot here.
Final verdict
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
Design - 7/10
Power level - 4/5
Flavour - 3/5
Art - 5/5
Place in Magic history - 2/5
TOTAL - 21/30
Polukranos, Unchained
Design - 6/10
Power level - 3/5
Flavour - 2/5
Art - 4/5
Place in Magic history - 2/5
TOTAL - 17/30
Good luck to Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest in Round 3!
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How we got duped into cooking with gas
Gas stove actually unleash indoor air pollutants like soot, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Beyond that, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels like natural gas drive climate change. That’s why there’s a push now to electrify homes; electric stoves can run on clean energy.
The history of how “cooking with gas” campaigns have made a source of fossil fuel combustion in our homes seem completely innocuous gets pretty ridiculous. Leber dug up a rap video from 1988 that spends an entire four minutes hyping up gas stoves in rhyme. “Gas is so hot, it’s not on when it’s off / it’s the only way to cook, that’s what I was taught,” the rap starts off.
Fast forward to about two minutes into the video, however, and there’s a disclaimer in the lyrics that my colleague Sean O’Kane noticed: “Safe cooking begins with range location / avoid main traffic paths and also isolation.”
Today, gas groups pay social media influencers to advertise the supposed benefits of cooking with the fossil fuel, Leber reports. A public relations representative even posed as a resident in a neighborhood to stir up backlash against building codes that would discourage natural gas hookups in new construction, she writes.
You have to read the truly bizarre and alarming history of gas that Leber traces in her article. With many of us spending more time working and hanging out at home during the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to be aware of what we’re exposed to inside the place that’s supposed to be our refuge.
How to Deep Clean Your Gas Stove Burners Using Natural Cleaners
No library of kitchen cleaning tips would be complete without an article on deep cleaning gas and electric burners! Dirty, greasy gas burner grates and drip pans not only age the appliance, but they also can affect your cooking and present a fire hazard. Cleaning stove burners is simple when you use these tips from the pros. Read on to see how you can get your stove sparkling clean with gas stove cleaner made from natural ingredients.
How Often To Clean Gas Stove Burners
Tempered glass gas stove is easy to maintain. However, when the flow of gas gets blocked, the burner heads can’t burn efficiently. Check the gas burners for irregular flame patterns and yellow flames. These are the best indicators that it’s time to grab your gas stove cleaner and get to work. Other than that, cleaning your gas stove monthly should keep it working at its best.
Here’s what you’ll need to get your gas burners clean:
Dishwashing detergent
Baking soda
Non-abrasive scrub pad
Cleaning cloths
Old toothbrush
Paper clip
Cleaning Gas Stove Burners and Caps
If you have a cooktop with a pilot light, you’ll need to shut off the gas valve first. Gas burners have a removable ceramic cap that diffuses the flames. Beneath the caps, the burner head sits atop the gas tube. Remove the caps and the burner heads by carefully lifting them straight up. Avoid damaging the ignition electrode if you have one.
Soak the burner heads and caps in soap and warm water for 30 minutes. Scrub buildup from the burner heads and caps using a non-abrasive scrub pad and an old toothbrush. If the port openings are clogged, use a paper clip to clear them. Be careful not to damage the metal.
How To Clean Electric Stove Burners
Here’s what you’ll need to get your burner stand clean:
Dishwashing detergent
Baking soda
Non-abrasive scrub pad
Microfiber towel
Cleaning cloths
If your coils and drip pans have caked-on grime, turn the burners on for a few minutes to burn off residue. After they cool, wash the drip pans with warm soapy water and cover them completely with a mixture of 2 parts baking soda and 1 part water. Let the drip pans sit for 15 minutes.
While the drip pans are soaking, wipe down the stove coils with a damp cloth to remove stains and residue. Scrub the drip pans and rinse the baking soda mixture. Use fresh soapy water to wash off the residue, then rinse and dry. Buff them to a nice shiny finish with a microfiber towel. Now, on to your stovetop.
How to Clean Your Stovetop
For gas stovetops, use caution and avoid getting the electric starter wet. Degrease the stovetop by wiping it down with a damp cloth to loosen up the top layer of residue. Use a sponge and soapy water to cut through the grease and wipe down your stovetop with a damp cloth to remove the cleaning solution.
For tough buildup, turn to your homemade baking soda mixture. Spread your cleaning paste over the entire stovetop and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Scrub the stovetop and wipe off the baking soda cleaner with a clean, damp cloth.
If you are intimidated by cleaning your gas or electric stove, or any other place in your kitchen, don’t fret. Call The Maids for a free estimate and get that good-as-new, clean home feeling you love.
Gas stove tops offer quick temperature control and are more affordable to use than electric stove tops.
The best material for a gas stove is one that can conduct and distribute heat evenly, and respond quickly to temperature changes.
For the best cookware for gas stoves, look for ones that are made of stainless steel with aluminum or copper layers.
The average household gas stove looks like it can handle quite a bit. Its sizable build, durable fabrication, rugged cast iron grates, all signify a hard-wearing kitchen appliance.
Still, as with any appliance, especially one used practically every day to prepare food, it’s important to handle gas stoves with care. This means making sure the stove is well-maintained, properly cleaned, and used with the right cookware.
While technically any pot or pan can be used on a gas stove, there are certain materials that are better suited for its open-flame style of cooking. We recommend our own stainless steel cookware for gas stoves. In this article, we’ll share what those materials are, explain why they work so well, and round up some of the best cookware for gas stoves available today.
The Features of a Gas Stove
Iron gas stove may be older than electric stoves, but they’re still the preferred option for a number of reasons.
First and most important is how easy it is to adjust the heat of a gas stove. A burner can be turned on and off in an instant. And every twist of the control knob creates an immediate corresponding change in the burner’s flame level — a lightning quick heat response that’s crucial in cooking.
Many cooks also like how the flames provide a convenient visual cue about the stove’s current heat setting. This can be a bit trickier to gauge with the dark glass tops of electric or induction cooktops.
An added bonus of the open flame is that it lends itself well to quickly roasting a few small items, like corn tortillas, bell peppers, or marshmallows.
Cooking with gas is also comparatively cheaper than cooking with electricity. Gas stoves generally run on propane, butane, petroleum, or natural gas, all of which are quite affordable. This gives gas stoves an advantage, not only for the cost-conscious home cook, but for anyone who finds themselves in the middle of a power outage.
As for cookware, gas stovetops easily accommodate a wide range. They can be used with just about any type of cookware material and shape — from small skillets to tall stockpots. Woks in particular were designed to be used over an open flame.
Flames, however, don't naturally distribute heat in a uniform manner. Some parts of a pan will have more contact with stronger flames than other parts, and the heat can be very concentrated, especially on a low setting.
Add this to a gas stove’s ability to change temperatures in an instant, and it's easy to see why it's so important to use cookware that can ably withstand these variations.
Choosing the Best Portable Gas Stove
Portable gas stoves are crucial gear for the gourmet on the go. These stoves usually come with a burner and a cooking surface, and they let you boil, simmer, sauté, and fry. If you can do it on a stovetop at home, you can do it on a portable stove.
Folding gas stove is different than a portable gas grills. Portable grills are similar to the grills you use at home. If you want to grill up hot dogs, chicken, or vegetables, you’re good to go with a portable grill. But sometimes you want more than your standard backyard barbecue menu, and that’s where a portable gas stove comes in. These have burners more like a traditional stove. They often come with containers to cook in, but many can also be used with other types of pots, pans, and skillets like a regular stovetop.
What Kind of Portable Gas Stove Do You Need?
The adventures you have on the trail aren’t like anyone else’s. Your needs and your priorities are unique. That’s why there are stoves for every type of outdoor explorer, from long-distance backpackers to car campers.
As you think about your needs, there are some specific features you may want to think about:
Size – If you’re hiking, you’ll want to save as much space and weight in your pack as possible. If you’re getting to base camp and setting up quickly, you might be more willing to haul a little more gear in the name of having the perfect home away from home.
Fuel type – There are three main liquid fuels. Each have their own considerations and limitations. Then there’s our Jetpower fuel, which combines the benefits of both.
Propane is the most common camp stove fuel. It’s high-performance, and you can find it just about everywhere. Propane is what powers the Genesis base camp system, and Jetlink technology lets you build a high-efficiency network of burners from one propane tank.
Isobutane has a lower boiling point, and it’s lighter. That means it’s easier to carry, and it’s more efficient in colder environments. However, it’s also more expensive.
Butane is the cheapest fuel for a portable gas stove, but it’s also the least efficient and reliable. It has the highest boiling point and the lowest vapor pressure of the three gases.
Jetpower is Jetboil’s engineered blend of propane and isobutane. It’s a unique mix that combines the best aspects of both, and it’s what we trust to power most of our stoves. Jetpower delivers high vapor pressure in all four seasons.
Cost – Cost is certainly a factor in choosing a portable gas stove, and there are options at every price point. However, it’s worth noting that sometimes paying more up front can save money in the long run. A high-efficiency stove means you’ll spend less on fuel over time, and durable equipment means you won’t have to buy a replacement for a long time.
Durability – Most people want a stove that holds up outdoors as well as they do. Knowing that you’ve got a well-engineered stove means knowing you’ve got a reliable one.
Number of burners – How big is the group that you’re feeding? If you’re solo, or just out with a partner, you can probably get away with one. But if you’re feeding a group, you may want a setup like the Genesis, which starts with two burners and can expand as your group dose.
Utility – What are you cooking? Are you boiling soup? Are you making a three-course meal? The meals you plan to cook may be the biggest factor of all in choosing the stove that suits your needs.
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