JBB: An Artblog!
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almost home
Today's Document
Not today Justin
Kaledo Art
todays bird
Misplaced Lens Cap
Game of Thrones Daily
oozey mess
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
dirt enthusiast
occasionally subtle
🪼
blake kathryn
ellievsbear
i don't do bad sauce passes
RMH
if i look back, i am lost
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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@idonthaveacleverquip
New Account & Name~!
So if anybody's noticed, I've been reblogging a lot from a certain @ponderingprinces~ this is my NEW account! And I'm quite active there daily!
It's also the name I'll be using online in general from now on X3
Please follow me if you like what I do!
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The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 140: Step Dad Zuko
When Tenzin is 2, Aang dies from complications from his lightning strike. Having become Aang's best friend through the years, Zuko is the first by Katara's side to offer any help and comfort.
Zuko and Mai have Izumi, but they are only in a political relationship, and thus allow each other to pursue actual romance elsewhere.
Eventually Katara and Zuko get together, especially since he is so good with her kids, especially during this trying time. Zuko is a much better dad than canon Aang ended up being, because he knows the agony of being the weaker older brother so he keeps all the kids mostly even keeled and not fighting each other for a father's attention.
Having spent so long studying the avatar and airbenders in general plus getting one on one info from Aang directly, Zuko is just shy of an expert on air nomads, so when Tenzin ends up being an air bender he's able to help him out with mastering his bending, while Aang's air acolytes teach all the children (and even Izumi who has been absorbed into the family activities as well) the ways of the air nomads. Zuko won't hear of them teaching ONLY Tenzin out of all Aang's kids.
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 190: All Pets go to Heaven
Modern AU. Zuko and Sokka meet in the lobby waiting for vet appointments. Sokka is there waiting on his new dog's neutering, and Zuko is there because his cat isn't eating. They spend the waiting time chatting, much to Sokka's persistence, and Zuko ends up revealing his worry and stress about the situation. Sokka assures him it'll be fine. "Sometimes cats are just Like That, haha. They can be picky!"
Zuko tries to stay positive, but once it's his turn the vet has the task of telling him his cat is dying from a sudden onset condition. "It just happens sometimes, there's nothing you could have done about it."
He manages to stumble out of the exam room in shock and there's Sokka checking out his dog and waving excitedly at him. "So how'd it go!?"
Zuko immediately breaks down. Freaking out, Sokka panics and invites Zuko to this cool cafe he knows that's not far away and they can sit outside so don't worry about the pets! Zuko is distraught and doesn't want to be alone, so agrees to the impromptu date.
Turns out the place is the Jasmine Dragon, where he works and his uncle owns the shop. Sokka is thrilled about this! After a rather depressing tea date where Sokka lets Zuko talk about his cat and all the good times they've had and gives both pets little cream cups, Sokka makes a point of coming by every day to check in on Zuko. They build a rapport and then when Zuko's cat finally dies, Sokka invites him to hold a funeral for it in his family's back yard, since Zuko lives in an apartment.
After the little service between them, Zuko goes to go home and Sokka asks him to spend the night. He's clearly too upset right now and shouldn't be alone. They end up cuddled together sharing Sokka's bed that night. In the morning Sokka makes breakfast and kind of awkwardly asks if Zuko would like to be dating. "I know it's a weird time to ask but…"
Zuko is confused, he thought they already were. "Didn't you ask me out at the vets?"
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 218: Turtleduck Trouble
Sokka has been working painstakingly on the perfect poem to give to Zuko, and he thinks he's FINALLY completed it! The perfect verse! Eloquent, visual, expressing all his true feelings! He'll never write another poem this good in his life! He even took the time to illustrate it!
Of course, doing this outside probably wasn't the best idea in the first place, but he had to do it in secret and Zuko had the frustrating ability to always know where Sokka was when in the palace and show up unexpectedly anywhere! Stupid Ninja!
It was probably the palace staff giving him away, really, but all the MORE reason to do his work in outdoor seclusion!
So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that as he lifted his magnum opus of poetry and love confessions, the very paper he'd created upon was snatched from his hand by a no good dirty rotten poem stealing Turtleduck!
Sokka chases a turtleduck around the palace grounds in increasingly more comedic and cartoonish methods in order to get his poem back so he can give it to Zuko on the anniversary of their breakout from Boiling Rock. Eventually, Zuko gets the poem, dropped by a startled turtleduck, right before Sokka can finally grab it.
Let me know if you write it~!
so you know how one of the usually ignored aspects of vampires is the obsessive counting thing right?
so the thought was.. a vampire gets into this guys house and he panics and flings a bunch of cereal or something on the floor and the vampire has to start counting. but the vampire is INSIDE the house, so the sun cant hit him to kill him while he's trapped counting. so he just keeps counting. any time he finishes the dude living there flings some more stuff for the vampire to count. and eventually he's just like "Oh hey, still counting the cheerios today?" "Stfu! you're gonna make me lose count!"
any visitors get confused by the dude counting in the corner but guy just shrugs. "Eh, ya get used to him." [notices vampire's almost done, sprinkles some more stuff down] "SONUVA!!" [vampire temper tantrum before huffing and sitting down to count some more]
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 161: Doctor Zulittle
Zuko was born with the ability to talk to animals. This does not make things easier for him in any way. As awkward as his communication skills with people are, somehow he manages to be even more awkward speaking to animals who have their own cultures and slang.
After being banished, Zuko asks every human and animal about the avatar and still gets nowhere.
Appa is actually terrifying. The few times he's around, Zuko can hear him plotting violent promises to him if he hurts Aang. Maybe he should reconsider messing with the Avatar while the Bison is around… It's not until after Zuko rescues Appa from Lake Laogai that Appa starts speaking better about him, even offering to "add him to the herd" like the rest of the Gaang. Sweet and all, but uh… no thanks?
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 125: Combustion Bender Zuko
Zuko is born a combustion bender and trained his whole life as an assassin. When word gets out that the Avatar is on Kyoshi Island, Zuko is sent by the Fire Lord to end him.
Thanks to Aang's luck, Zuko fails repeatedly to the point he is fired and banished, told he can no longer return to the fire nation after such failures.
He decides to set up shop in the Earth kingdom as an assassin, and ends up encountering the Gaang again while on a different job. Seeing potential in a hireable firebender, they try to pay him to teach Aang. He laughs and nopes out of there. As if he could teach normal fire bending.
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 160: Not All Past Lives are the Avatar's
After beating Ozai, Aang gets sent back to before he was frozen and at first he's excited. All he once knew was returned to him! But then he realizes he has none of his new friends to share it with…
After dealing with Sozin and preventing the war, Aang turns to Gyatso for advice. The monk thinks about the conundrum a bit before suggesting that, well Aang has past lives, what's to say his friends don't too?
Aang is excited by the idea but also worried. How would he know if he found them? "Sometimes you must trust your heart over your mind." With Gyatso's wisdom, Aang looks for his friend's past lives to hopefully be friends with them again.
First reconnecting with Bumi, that mad genius he is, and then tracking down Kuzon. Bumi had made a good point that fit with what Aang remembered from Roku about friendships transcending lifetimes, so maybe, just maybe, Kuzon was one of his other friends in a past life! Zuko had always reminded him of his old friend. And while he couldn't ever be certain, after meeting up with Kuzon again, Aang couldn't help laughing at the blatant similarities. Maybe there was still hope to find his other friends too!
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 038: Get In, Looser; We're Founding Your Family!
While searching for the Avatar, Prince Zuko of the fire nation stumbles into a spirit portal and comes out the other side in Modern era where he meets modern day versions of the Gaang who wont leave him alone??
So WHAT if he got hit by Hakoda's car? He's FINE! Zuko trauma dumps without meaning to and he is Theirs now. They take him to therapy & get him medicated and basically adopt him into their family and he has a warm home and parents NOT on a ship! He's never felt so in control of his life and that alone is freaking him out but maybe he could stay here?
Meanwhile Iroh is trying to get him back by any means necessary. This includes actually finding the Avatar of the time and stopping the war. Iroh as firelord, Azula's future kid takes over after him. the spirits reward him for fixing shit himself so while still searching, he gets shown that Zuko is happy and safe in a new world and just has to accept that.
Modern world was actually the future and Zuko finds out, in a museum of all places, that Iroh helped end the war and restructured the fire nation in the name of his beloved Nephew. Zuko is still the crown prince of the fire nation once they realize who he is (Iroh probably set up some white lotus method to find him one day since he was allowed to see him. Wrote Zuko a letter and everything saying how much he loves him and is proud of him). The royals are more like figureheads these days and not needed for day to day issues, so even after being crowned as the new heir, he can stay with his new family, only needed for appearances and events until he's at least 'legally an adult', which is apparently 18 now!
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 225: The Haunting of Lake Laogai
Teenage besties, Zuko and Sokka, take a dare to visit the ancient haunted asylum located at the center of Lake Laogai.
The tormented spirit of a former inmate, Jet, decides to take his frustrations out on them. Sokka escapes and rows back to safety, but Zuko is left behind. Sokka would have stayed but Zuko uses his bending to give him no other choice since Jet seemed to be targeting Zuko exclusively.
Turns out the asylum had once been a prison where the Dai Li experimented on people during the 100 year war. Jet had been captured for disturbing the peace when a firebender had snuck into the city of Ba Sing Se. Jet only found out afterwards that the Dai Li had been working for the Fire Nation all along.
So he has many regrets and is unable to leave the building. He doesn't even realize the war is over and has been for over a century!
Zuko feels really bad for him and tries to make nice and explain the progression of the world.
Meanwhile, Sokka has gone back to their friend group which just so happens to contain the Avatar of this generation, another teen named Aang. Together the Gaang sneak back into the Laogai Asylum to rescue Zuko and put the angry spirit to rest.
In doing so, they discover that the reason Jet couldn't leave the building was because his body was being kept in stasis as part of an experiment all this time, and he wasn't aware of it. He'd never died!
Jet is revived after over a century of spiritual imprisonment and is brought out of the asylum to see the new world, free of the war. He nearly breaks down entirely from the change. The world is so beautiful… He never thought he would live to see this…
Sokka pats him on the shoulder and says there's a whole new world to reacquaint him with!
Jet looks to Zuko who only smiles and offers him a hand. Jet still hates firebenders but… hesitantly he takes the hand that's offered. He has no choice for now, right? Right.
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 251: Twice in a Million Million
Sequel to Zuko Plot 239: Once in a Million Million
Selkie Aang returns home to his pod, he is ecstatic and buries himself in the joy of being home after being lost for several years. He has SO MUCH to share with his family, and he's so excited to catch up with them again!
But as the weeks go by, he starts to grow somber and listless. Sure he's happy to be home… but home wasn't the same anymore. All his friends had grown up without him, and so many new pups had been born, and while he knows his family missed him, it had been so long… they'd already mourned his death and started moving on.
Aang knows his family is glad he's alive, but he can't help feeling left out now. And so often he finds himself thinking about Zuko. What would Zuko be up to? Had he gone back to his isolated little cabin and continued his routine? Would he be walking the beach right now picking up driftwood and pretty rocks? Was he missing Aang as much as Aang missed him?
It's during one of his stewing sessions that Aang is approached by his adopted father Gyatso. Gyatso had noticed Aang's dwindling mood after his return and can't help but ask what has him so upset. Aang hesitates because he doesn't want to risk hurting his dad's feelings or making him think Aang didn't want to be there, he DID but… He really missed Zuko.
Aang had held off telling TOO much about Zuko to the rest of the pod because of their knee jerk reaction to the mention of him meeting a human. He didn't want to hear them say mean things about the human who had been so kind to him, so he'd held back telling about what they got up to together. He doesn't hold back now.
Gyatso listens to him go on for hours about meeting Zuko and Aang's initial fear that was almost immediately cured when the human just gave him his coat back when asked. He'd even WASHED it and then was wearing it, and once Aang had it back, how it had smelled like Zuko and the warmth of a fire. Their days hanging out in Zuko's cabin and strolling the beach. Eating meals together and playing at the water's edge since Zuko had a fear of entering the water. Aang tells of the stories Zuko shared with him, and endless nights spent curled up together in his awkwardly small, lumpy bed.
And then Zuko had taken him home. And Aang had been so HAPPY to show Zuko everything he'd remembered thus making them shared memories now, and– and–
Aang doesn't realize he's crying until Gyatso brushes the tears away. "It sounds like he was a very special human."
"He is…" Aang agrees, wiping at his own tears.
Gyatso sighs and has a heart to heart with Aang about his feelings he so clearly has for Zuko. Eventually he implies that Aang needs to decide what he wants from his life. He had grown up while away and was no longer Gyatso's little pup. It was time he made his own choice for his life. Did he want to stay with the pod? Or did he want to find Zuko again?
Aang struggles, not wanting to just abandon everyone after so long trying to get back. Gyatso assures him that no one would be upset if he decided to move on, they were all so happy that he was simply alive. In fact! Gyatso says it would make him immeasurably happy to know that Aang was not only alive, but living his best life and being happy. No matter where that happiness might take him.
Reassured, Aang admits he wants to go back to Zuko. So packing him a bag this time, Aang leaves his family with intention and returns to the Southern Air Isles to start tracking Zuko down.
Gonna big a biiig heartfelt reunion when they find each other again.
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 131: Tiny Zuko Salvage AU
Based on Plot 130: Tiny Zuko TL;DR: Thumbellina origin and sized Zuko gets sent to the Earth kingdom by Ursa on the back of a messenger hawk to protect him from Ozai.
After leaving on the messenger hawk, the bird is shot down by the southern water tribe fleet in order to collect the "urgent message" it was carrying. Only to find no message and an assortment of tiny doll clothes and some pieces of food in the message tube.
Zuko managed to survive the fall and sneaks around on board the ship to stay alive. He's later found and thought to be a spirit because of his tiny stature, but he starts getting bigger as the crew begins caring for him, until suddenly they find themselves with not a palm sized spirit, but a full grown teenager. And a firebender at that!
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 238: Sky and Sea and Sokka
Yue wasn't just saved by the Moon Spirit as a baby, the moon became her. While the Koi fish continue to circle in the oasis symbolically, the actual Moon and Ocean spirits took human forms to explore the world they lived in. Both taking the offered bodies of recently dead newborns.
Yue, by the Moon in the North, and Zuko by the Sea in the Fire Nation.
Yue was offered with a prayer at the Oasis, and Zuko was thrown into the sea by his father, a begging prayer followed from his mother.
They have the memories of their spirit selves, and notions of the destinies their new vessels would've had, all constrained to human memory. They can also pass each other their emotions and desires despite the long distance between them, as they are soulmates in many ways. Neither of them are benders.
Yue sits waiting patiently like the moon at the North Pole as she ages, while Zuko travels like an ocean storm, always in motion and stirring up trouble reacting to her moods and reaching for her orbit.
When Sokka starts flirting with Yue, she responds positively to it, unintentionally sending Zuko her desire to keep and love Sokka. Zuko gets so jealous that he encourages Zhao to invade the North in hopes of killing her very mortal beloved.
When instead of targeting the humans, Zhao turns his sights on Yue herself, killing her Koi and putting her in extreme duress, Zuko panics and immediately kills Zhao and (with the help of the Avatar's powers) drags his soul to Koh's lair.
Yue knows what he did though, and turns away from him. She declares he has betrayed her trust and her love by thinking she would ever put a human about him, and orders him away. Zuko joins the Gaang angrily, when they insist Yue not let him run around unsupervised.
Zuko haaates Sokka with a burning passion akin to Agni themselves, but as they travel together he starts picking up what Yue saw in the human. It takes Zuko jumping between Sokka and Wan Shi Tong to realize he'd started to favor the jerk who was hitting on his soulmate. He gets bitter about this and pulls back again for a while, but it doesn't last.
Zuko helps end the war and Yue finally accepts his apology. Eventual Tui!Yue/La!Zuko with their favorite human Sokka sandwiched between them with no idea how he got so lucky.
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 250: Help! I'm a Fish
After taking the face of the Blue Spirit top rescue Aang, Zuko thinks the worst that could happen is getting found out by Zhao. Unfortunately, the Dark Water Spirit was very real. And while it found Zuko's rescue of the avatar quite fun to watch, it DID have a reputation to uphold, so boom! You're cursed kid! Sorry, them 's the rules! Can't let other humans think they can go around using my face without permission for anything under Tui and Agni, right?
Zuko is left baffled and not given the chance to argue his right to NOT be cursed before it's too late and he is turned into a fish. A fish at sea wouldn't be so bad, except he is not a fish trapped ON A BOAT, and tangled up in his own clothes.
Iroh happens to take that moment to check on him and seems surprised there is a fish left in Zuko's room. Iroh can sense spirit interference here and figures his Nephew must be under some sort of test, so light teasing would be allowed but he's gotta keep a good eye on the kid.
Unfortunately, Zuko doesn't realize Iroh is only teasing him nor that Iroh even realizes the fish is Zuko. Zuko 100% believes that Uncle is going to cook and eat him, so he flails and gasps and slips out of Iroh's hands and begins flopping around the ship.
Shenanigans ensure as everyone tries to catch the slippery flopping fish that keeps kung fu kicking them with its tail when they manage to grab it. Zuko is scolding the crew for being so bad at catching a simple fish! No wonder he could never keep the Avatar on board! But also, oh right, Fish need WATER to BREATHE!
Thankfully, Zuko had made it on deck and with a final fin kick, he gets tossed over the side of the boat and into the sea. Iroh is left gaping in concern. He orders the men to get to work catching that fish, insisting it was a.. rare specimen? With.. uhh… great importance for capturing the Avatar. Yes! That would do! Then excuses himself to go have a soothing cup of tea and pray to the spirits that his nephew doesn't get eaten.
Zuko has no plan of sticking around once the crew start fishing for him, and he darts away along the coast. This was so stupid! How could he capture the Avatar as a FISH–! wait… Uncle always said something about the Avatar talking to Spirits or something, right? Maybe finding the Avatar could get him back to normal!
Ugh, but first he had to FIND the stupid monk! And there were definitely no leads in the middle of the ocean! Deciding to see if he can learn something from passing travelers, Zuko darts into a river and up stream away from the salty and brackish water and into a pool of clear fresh water.
He passes a few weirdly happy airheaded people, including a guy who was blissfully walking way to close to a platypus bear… and then, lo and behold! There was the Avatar and his friends camping at the waterside.
Zuko fish decides to get their attention and Sokka immediately falls for the taught and tries to kill him for dinner. The Peasant is… very bad at fishing, thankfully.
Zuko is the Fish that's taunting Sokka at the start of the Fortuneteller. He stalks them to Makapu and Aunt Wu suggests they take the seemingly random ass Fish with them on their journey. Sokka refuses because he's anti Fortunetelling, and after the Volcano, Katara doesn't push it.
Fish Zuko has to follow the Gaang from the water and somehow is having significantly more luck tracking them this way than he had as a human. Sokka is the only one who notices the same fish keeps showing up and nobody believes him about it.
Zuko is also somehow rescuing the Gaang during their shenanigans and many other travelers on multiple occasions. Often he encounters the Dark Water Spirit who gives odd advice akin to Uncle's proverbs then laughs at the shenanigans and mentions that Zuko's fish antics have become its new favorite entertainment. As Zuko journeys and is forced through fish related character development, the Dark Water Spirit slowly starts showing up less often, until by the time he reaches the North he hasn't seen it at all in a while.
Angry Zuko Fish makes it to the North Pole and swims into the Oasis, leaping into the warm pool when the water is too cold for him to stay out of it. Fish Zuko hides deeper in the water when Zhao arrives. Then he gets in the way of Zhao's fire blast after learning of the plan to kill the moon. Tui and La fish had been quite considerate hosts for the duration of his time trapped in their pond, and he wasn't going to get ANOTHER Spirit mad at him, thanks!
Everyone is baffled by this NEW fish in the pond. Sokka recognizes it as the SAME FISH that had mocked them and then proceeded to STALK THEM halfway across the world! Iroh hears this and puts two and two together, oh dear this fish is his nephew, isn't it.
Zhao is extremely pissed off that he was thwarted by a seemingly normal RANDOM ASS FISH! And starts targeting Zuko exclusively. Zuko is a smart fish though, and keeps flipping out of the pond and slapping his tail in Zhao's face, keeping the admiral distracted enough that he is captured by the Gaang and Uncle.
Afterwards, Zuko flops back into the pond and Aang thanks him for his help "Whatever spirit you are."
Zuko wants to deny being a spirit at all, but Tui and La interject. Of course he is a Spirit.
Turns out that Zuko's actions while wearing the mask had really pleased the Spirit, and the "curse" was a test of Zuko's fortitude and the first step in taking on the mantle of the Blue Spirit in full. The Dark Water Spirit hadn't been seen in centuries, so the fact it appeared again to pass on its legacy to a newborn spirit was quite an exciting development indeed. Especially being that the new Spirit had escorted the Avatar to the north pole AND rescued the Moon spirit.
Zuko is aghast at the irony. And then he learns the only thing keeping him as a Fish was himself the whole time!?
Zuko turns himself back to human form and gets forcefully adopted by Aang to be his firebending teacher. Tui and La encourage this and Zuko doesn't think he has the option to say no anymore. What has become of his life? Could he ever even go home now that he was a spirit?
Sokka is endlessly smug about the fact he was RIGHT about the stalker fish!!
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 249: The 13th Year
Ursa is struggling to conceive her first child with Ozai, and he is getting very frustrated and impatient with her. When the doctors can find nothing physically wrong with her that could cause her to not get pregnant, Ozai punishes them for the 'implication' that he is failing to perform.
The nurse, seeing what has happened to the doctor, rushes to offer a solution that perhaps she is simply stressed. After all, she was not used to such a fanciful life of that of the Fire Nation Royal family. Perhaps she should take a time of rest at the family home on Ember Island.
Ozai relents and allows this to occur, but not before bedding his wife several times to ensure she spent her rest time forming his heir. Despite Ozai's determination, Ursa still does not fall pregnant, and she begs the healers with her to lie and say she had so Ozai would not do something worse upon her return. Ozai is thrilled and agrees Ursa should stay at the Island until she gives birth. While maintaining the lie will work for a while, there is still the issue of her not having a baby. So her plan is to claim a miscarriage before her return.
Still dreading what Ozai will do when she fails to bring him an heir yet again, Ursa begins spending her last days secluded on the beach watching the waves. It's during this time she notices another woman swimming in the waters near the beach house. She tries to get the woman's attention to warn her off. If a guard had spotted her she would have been in big trouble for imposing on the Fire Lord's grounds, after all.
Instead the woman catches sight of her and looks relieved. Ursa is stunned to find the woman swim closer to her, beckoning with one arm, while holding something cradled in the other. It's a baby… and the woman, as Ursa gets a closer look, is definitely not human. A mermaid…And she's injured!
Ursa rushes to her side and attempts to help, but the mermaid simply offers her the baby, which looks entirely human. Ursa cradled the little boy, clearly only days old at most. "Take care of him for me," the mermaid asks with her last breath before slipping below the waves and being washed out to sea before Ursa can grasp her.
Ursa returns to the Caldera with a newborn baby named Zuko, the healers she had on ember island are quietly let go before her return. No one is any the wiser about Zuko's origins.
Years later, a 13 year old Zuko is burned and banished from the Fire Nation for speaking out of turn.
As he recovers from his injury, he fails to notice other odd things starting to happen around him, assuming it is simply the new location and wound causing his sense to frazzle. He's so thirsty all the time, no amount of tea seems to quench it. His hands start catching at random surfaces as if he had something sticky on his palms. And he finds himself significantly more clumsy than he used to be.
All of which is waved off as changes due to his new situation. But they only progress from there. He begins hearing things no one else can, calls and song coming from the water. (Hallucinations he insists to himself.) And begins to get strange scaly rashes when exposed to sea water. His teeth grow sharper, sharp enough to pierce his own tongue if he doesn't speak carefully. Breathing gets harder and harder as he climbs mountains searching for Air Nomads or word of the avatar, and every time he looks out to the sea he feels the instinctive need to just dive in.
He mentions some changes to Uncle once, and Iroh tries to give him the sex talk and he flees the situation and swears never to bring it up again. Clearly he was over reacting, this was just a puberty thing.
Some of the scaled rashes stop fading, he covers them with makeup. His fingers and toes grow longer and his nails grow sharp. He trims them relentlessly, but all he can do for the strange webbing that begins forming between each finger and toe is hide them. He's gotten a series of strange cuts on his side somehow, he swears they were just little bumps at one point but now they are open gaps in his skin, and something fleshy can be seen inside them. They hurt to mess with and he finds breathing harder every day from when they formed. His firebending is greatly suffering.
Zuko finds he begins sleep walking only because the night crew catch him trying to throw himself overboard. It keeps happening and Uncle is so concerned he finally brings up when Zuko mentioned changes at least a year by now before. Zuko tries to brush him off, but he's getting weaker. His legs feel like jelly, and he's starting to realize he can't pull them apart at the hips any more?
Now he's panicking. What's happening to him!? Was this some sort of curse from Agni for refusing to fight? He was turning into some kind of– of FISH thing!
Uncle is witness to Zuko breaking down in his room after Zuko could no longer get his legs to support him enough to get out of bed. Iroh insists on see all the changes and gasps at what is happening to his boy. It truly is unlike anything he'd ever seen before and yet… something about Zuko's changing appearance reminds him of old sea tales.
Now call him crazy, but Iroh usually has rather good instincts. After holding his Nephew close while Zuko gasped and cried himself to unconsciousness. Iroh, thanking the spirits they were docked at the moment, ordered a shore boat be prepared, and at night, he carried Zuko into it and rowed them towards an empty cove away from the dock town and the ship's crew. Once at the rocky shore, he shook Zuko awake and urged him to not struggle as Iroh hefted him into the water. If Iroh was right, Zuko would be fine… if not? Well… he'd rather be right.
Zuko gives an instinctive deep gasp once the cuts on his sides slipped into the water and suddenly he felt like he was getting his first fresh breath of air in months. Fuck, they were gills. Zuko holds tightly to Iroh as his body relaxes in the cool surf as if this was where he was meant to be. He'd always been a strong swimmer, but this– "Uncle, what's happened to me?"
Iroh doesn't know, but he's so glad Zuko seems to be relatively okay now. They remove the robe Zuko had worn to bed, glad his pants were already gone due to his legs acting up (turning into a tail) on the ship. They linger at the island for several days as Zuko's tail finishes forming significantly faster now that he's in the safety of the water. Zuko even lets go of the boat long enough to test it out and finds the instinct to swim this way had been waiting for him. He darts around the cove and into a surrounding reef, catching a fish and eating it whole. It's disgusting, but also the best thing he'd ever eaten.
And then he hears the songs again. Now in the water, as far from his humanity as he'd ever been, Zuko can't resist the call and follows the sound deeper and deeper into the sea. The call says Home, the call says Family. It's everything Zuko's ever wanted…
Back on shore, Iroh grows ever more worried that Zuko hasn't returned, and begins to fear he never will. The crew begin to get restless staying on this island for so long, but Iroh refuses to leave without Zuko. He is so worried about his nephew. Eventually, he lets the ship and crew leave but he stays behind ever waiting. He knows Zuko didn't drown, how could a being so clearly made for the sea sink, after all?
Iroh makes himself a regular staple of the dock town and gradually begins hearing old fish tales until one catches his ear. A story of mermaids, and this children, and the dread of the 13th year. How a mermaid child couldn't survive the sea, appearing as human as they come. How mermaids would give their newborns to grieving mothers, or newly weds, any who struck them as being trustworthy for their brood. How the babies grew up like humans but on the 13th year of life, their true mothers would return for them to help them through the changes into their true form.
Iroh is struck speechless by what he learns. it is too perfect to be a story, but– That would mean Ursa's only child was Azula. That Zuko was never meant for the Fire Nation, or Iroh. And that breaks his heart as if he were loosing the boy all over again.
It had been a year since Zuko vanished. He would be 15 if he were still on land, and only months away from turning 16. Iroh had remained on the island, setting up a small teashop for himself, and spending his afternoons at the cove where Zuko had slipped away.
It's on a day like this that he sees something in the water… A head of long black hair, and a face half burned– Iroh drops his afternoon tea in shock. Zuko looks up at him, older, but still so young. Looking like he expected to be reprimanded to an inch of his life. Iroh had half a mind to give Zuko the scolding of the century for leaving as he had, but that could wait for later. Right now, his Nephew was here and alive and hugging him like he might disappear.
"I'm so sorry uncle, I didn't mean to leave you, I didn't know what was happening. I just– I know you probably can't forgive me but–"
"Foolish boy," Iroh chided gently holding Zuko ever closer. "You came back. I already have."
Zuko and Iroh have a crying reunion, and then Zuko shows off that he learned how to control his new body and could have legs again for a limited time. It got far too uncomfortable to do so for long and he dried out very easily. Iroh learned his birth mother had died and that actually yes, mermaid could be benders, but Firebending was rare since it couldn't really be used underwater, so he was really behind on his training.
Iroh and Zuko get a little boat and begin sailing together, teaching Zuko Fire Bending and exploring the world while Zuko made up his mind what to do with his life. That is until a certain bald monk and two water tribe teens crash into their path. But that's a story for another time.
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 246: Iron Lung AU
Jet instead of Simon. No mutant blood eel, instead there is a mutated Zuko mer eel monster that has lived down here since the first expedition and craves social interaction, but cannot leave the blood and fears others seeing what he has become.
When Jet starts talking back to him, Zuko latches on to this human who is actually responding to what he has to say instead of freaking out and acting like he's going insane like all the others had. Zuko forms a very possessive attachment to Jet and keeps the blood circulating around Jet's ship so his oxygen remains high. When someone tries to save Jet directly, Zuko eats them, he refuses to let Jet be taken away from him.
Unfortunately, Jet attempts to rescue the person and his ship is greatly damaged in the process.
Zuko is worried he will loose Jet when the ship breaks, but thrilled when Jet's body begins to mutate like his own had. Now he'll never be alone again!
Let me know if you write it~!
The Plot for the day is...
Zuko Plot 244: Ember Island Selkies
Ursa was a Selkie living with her family around Ember Island. One day, a younger Ozai, caught sight of her and deeming her the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, he requested to marry her. She turned him down.
Not taking no for an answer and the entitled prince he was, Ozai orders his guards to stalk her to learn more about her and find a way to force her to agree to marrying him. The guards do their jobs and discover her secret. Now knowing how to trap her, Ozai distracts her while she is on shore the next time he sees her and has his guards steal her cloak.
When she tries to return to the sea, ozai is there holding it out of her reach with a smarmy grin. Ursa can no longer escape him and Ozai orders them to be married at once.
Ozai keeps her secret from the rest of the royal family. They have two children that end up both inheriting her 'curse', and Ozai continues to keep their transformations secret by hiding their pelts. Zuko at least got some time to use his as a child thanks to Ursa insisting it was bad for his health to be separated too long at such a young age, but by the time Azula throws her first sparks, Ozai could care less about selkie issues, clearly Zuko was a lost cause anyway, and Azula was far superior, never needing her coat at all!
Ursa agrees to kill Azulon if she can take her coat and Zuko (since his life was the only one in danger) with her when she leaves. Ozai agrees. She can take HER coat, and Zuko… but not ZUKO'S coat. Ozai refuses to let go of that piece of leverage. Ursa, distraught knowing Zuko NEEDED his coat, gives in and allows Ozai to keep both children. He threatens to burn both the kids blasted coats if she tries any funny business. So she returns to the sea around Ember Island in hopes of seeing her children again, but Ozai hadn't let them go to the beach since he took away the children's coats.
When Zuko is banished his coat is left behind and half of his driving force for his mission is the chance to regain his cloak after all these years and maybe find his mother. Iroh doesn't know the selkie secret, and doesn't understand Zuko's entire drive or why he can't convince Zuko to just give up.
When Zuko finally finds the Avatar, it seems like a dream come true, until he learns that both of the water tribe children helping him are also Selkies. Zuko feels nothing but envy and hurt watching them be able to have their coats and be themselves and swim through the seas at leisure. He hated them. They had everything he wanted. Family, friends, their coats, the Avatar and just loved to rub it in his face!
Canon continues, the lack of connection with her coat for most of her life has left Azula mentally and emotionally off kilter from the get go. So she is even more eager to cut down her enemies and raise the earth kingdom.
When Zuko returns to the palace, he is allowed to see his coat, in a form of taunting by his father. Zuko knows if he runs his coat will be destroyed and him along with it, but he has to do SOMETHING, so he tries to rescue Iroh so he can teach Aang, but Iroh is already gone.
Zuko arrives at the western air temple expecting to die at any moment and determined to teach Aang all he can before that happens. Ozai is cocky however, and doesn't burn Zuko's coat, he decides he'll keep it as a trophy and wants Zuko to suffer instead, so puts Azula on the job to get rid of him. So Zuko doesn't die while with the Gaang, though is on edge the entire time, still expecting it until after boiling rock when Azula tells him Ozai's plan to torment him and keep his coat as a trophy.
Sokka is confused about the comment, since by this point everyone still thinks Zuko is a normal human, not a selkie like Katara and Sokka are.
It isn't until they setup on Ember Island that the truth comes to light. For after Zuko has finally broken through to Katara, and they are having a brief reprieve on the beach, someone appears in the water.
Zuko gasps in shock as his mother, who he hasn't seen in years has appeared looking like she's seen a ghost and calling his name in wonder and fear. The mother son reunion leads to a lot of confusion with the Gaang as they all suddenly learn they had a LOT more in common with Zuko than they once thought and that Ozai is an even bigger monster than they realized.
Ursa goes with Zuko to stop Azula. Ursa sneaks through the palace during the fight to find her children's coats and succeeds. She returns to the arena to find a chained up Azula having a meltdown and an injured Zuko being healed. She is glad she missed seeing her children trying to kill each other.
Ursa gives Zuko his coat back and he starts to cry silently as he holds it tight. Katara offering comforting pats while she tries to keep him from moving too much after his injury.
Then, Ursa goes to Azula who has a bigger meltdown thinking Ursa wasn't really there, and then her coat is pulled over her shoulders by her mother, and Azula begins to opening ugly cry and sob at the sudden warmth and comfort she had been denied her whole life.
Azula still has to go to a mental hospital for her abuse, but Ursa goes with her to ensure she is well taken care of and knows she is loved. Ursa regrets not having tried to bargain for Azula when she left too, and is determined to make up for her shitty parenting.
Zuko, meanwhile, puts his coat back on for the first time in almost a decade, terrified the transformation won't work anymore. Sokka and Katara are by his side when he changes and finally gets to swim through the sea once again, now knowing everything was going to be alright from here on out.
Let me know if you write it~!
