When I started this AU almost 2 years ago, this was just a retelling of Hanzo's story. Now I want it to be its own story, Harumi's story! So, without further ado, the first chapter:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
By the way, you guys voted this rewrite to be a full on Ao3 fanfic and I spend literal months working on this so it would be great if you guys could read it🫣
Also, when they say you only realise how much you've evolved when you redraw your old stuff... Lmao, they ain't lying!
Boy, look at 2023 Harumi! :O
It's the head shape for me, lol! (And the fact that she's now got feet)😅🩷
What if kotal and jade are arranged to be married but have feelings for someone else?
Hehe, great question, Dragon! It does happen to be precisely what will happen to Kotal in my Umgadi Girls AU!👀
I know my Kotal × D'Vorah is a weird ship but I'll go down with it (they are my (and MK11's apparently) weird babies and I love them)!
Kotal doesn't want to marry some random Edenian, no matter how pretty she is, no matter what advantages it will bring, he already met the perfect girl (or rather, perfect bug, lol) and he wants to be hers!😤
I wrote more about their drama in here:
💬 2 🔁 1 ❤️ 2 · Send this to a blog that you enjoy seeing on your dash to let them know they're a STAR and very TALENTED ⭐⭐⭐ · Hello, I hav
And here's my design on D'vorah, in case you missed (I'm quite proud of it)🦋
💬 11 🔁 9 ❤️ 44 · 🐝D'Vorah Redesign!🦋 · Made to answer my own question of "What if D'Vorah had moth wings that folded around her like Big C
Jade's "someone else" was definitely Kitana, her best friend, but they will be more of a QPR as Jade is somewhere on the aroace spectrum, she's not quite sure where though! At the time, she was mostly upset she wouldn't get to be the powerful warrior who protects her best friend from evil the way she always dreamed to be!🥹
You heard it right, folks! I'm redesign my Umgadi Girls! I was quite unsatisfied with their previous designs so I'm remaking them all! Yay! :D
The idea is to make each of their outfits (and lore) heavily inspired by an specific culture, while still feeling like themselves! And our first subject is:
Mesoamerican Jade!🍃
Her first design was also supposed to be Mesoamerican inspired, but I did a terrible job then cause nothing there really says "Mesoamerican" "latina" "I hunt colonisers for sport!"
So, this time, I'm making it right and leaning HARD on her inspiration!
Oh, the challenge of making an accurate traditional clothing that nods to Jade's classic outfits but doesn't lean on the "sexy exotic woman" stereotype. . . I think I managed, but I wanna hear your thoughts! Is Mesoamerican Jade approved?👀💚
Lore updates:
The House of Joya:
Jade was born in the House of Joya and their lands border with Teka, the Osh-Tekk kingdom, which makes them very culturally similar (aka Mesoamerican inspired) and facilitated an alliance between Teka and Edenia.
Jade's parents:
Countess Jadesmin and Chriso arre ruthless nobles who offered Jade's hand to the Osh-Tekk without much of a thought.
And since I didn't want to ditch Jobashel:
Jobashel was once an Edenian noble from the House of Maktur, but he renounced the royal court for their corruption and moved to Teka!
He basically adopted Jade when she arrived in Teka! He also taught her new fighting techniques, including how to use a Razor-rang!
The Umgadi:
Since she was a kid, it was Jade's dream to become an Umgadi warrior and the arranged marriage almost ruined it.
She and Kotal smartly argued an non warrior would be an unfit partner for an Osh-Tekk, so they agreed to let her return to Edenia and become a proper warrior! (It also helped postpone the wedding none of them wanted to attend to)
I don't know if you guys remember, but a while ago I made Harumi indigenous, from her father's side!
And today I decided to finally stop procrastinating and develop on it! So naturally, the first thing I did was search about the indigenous peoples in Japan, and would you believe one of their peoples is called "Ryukyu"?
Ryukyu. The Ryukyuan people form the Ryukyu archipelago.
Y'all... walk with me...
If I make Haruki Ryukyuan. That means, his daughter, Harumi Shirai, will be a Shirai Ryukyuan. A SHIRAI RYUKYUAN!
Y'ALL! I can make that happen! It's my OC, my lore! I can do it! I feel like I must do it!
I'm in shock! I knew this movie was gonna be pretty, but DAMN!! Look at the second to last image!! WHO'S THIS DIVA??? (Don't actually answer it, I DON'T want spoilers)
I'm loving it so far!! I'M SO EXCITED AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
Okay, as it seems no one's gonna do it, then I'm gonna do it!
Let's talk about Ursa's relationship with Firebending...
... more specifically, her relationship with her Firebending children.
Starting with a question: What does being a Firebender means to Zuko and Azula?
In The Search, Ozai says this:
Had Zuko not become a Firebender, Ozai would've got rid of him, perhaps have him banished, since he was a fan of doing that back then, but he could also have him killed, we all know Ozai has no qualms when it comes to kill children.
For Zuko, Firebending means survival.
So when Ursa shows him support, when she encourages him, when she pushes him into keep trying, even when it's hard, specially when it's hard. That's not her "playing favourites." That's Ursa assuring his survival!
Ursa needed Zuko to be a Firebender, because she knew, from the day he was born, what it would mean for him not to be one!
Then we have Azula. She was "born lucky" she had the said "spark in her eyes." Ozai was sure she would be a Firebender from the moment she was born and she would be able to fulfill his plans for her, unlike Zuko, who at that point was older and had grown to possess that "odd affinity for the weak" he mentions in The Promise:
Ozai had no interest in Zuko anymore, Firebender or not, he knew Zuko could not be shaped into what he wanted. Which automatically means all his attention now shifted towards Azula. If Zuko couldn't be Ozai's weapon than Azula would.
For Azula, Firebending means to become a weapon.
When Ursa saw Azula Firebending, she saw the exact moment she lost her daughter. When she reacted with fear and disappointment, it wasn't because she "didn't love Azula." It was only that her hopes were crushed.
Ursa hoped Azula wouldn't become a Firebender, because then she would be save from Ozai, because then Ursa wouldn't have to watch her own daughter be turned into her abuser, the actual person she fears!
That's just how complicated Ursa's relationship with Firebending is. Its presence in her life is always rooted in fear. Fear Zuko won't Firebent, fear Azula will, fear of what Ozai will do in any scenario!
The way her son's life depends on it, just as much as her daughter's life will be entirely destroyed by it.
Fire to Ursa is nothing but fear! So how was she supposed to react any other way?
Ursa is not proud. She's not happy. She's terrified. She's mourning the daughter she could've had. She's coming to terms with the fact that no matter how hard she tries, her influence will never be as strong as Ozai's. Because if even her own life is under Ozai's total control, what can be said about Azula's?
Okay so you know in my movie au Madame bo exists and kuai liang lives with Madame bo along side hatsune amd suchin.
So imagine if liu kang and kung lao found that resturaunt all because they were looking for champions and got hungry.
They looked around and found tge best resturaunt in the city. It was Madame bo's resturaunt.
They meet Madame bo and got surprised Madame bo k ew about them. They even got lessons from her and kung lao kept getting humbled a lot also she would make sure liu kang gets more buff he was too skinny.
But here is the thing kuai liang lives there to. Kuai liang was lin kuei. So imagine if they see kuai liang acting like a perfect bug brother to hatsune and suchin.
Like just imagine. The man they thought was from the clan connected to Outworld who wants to take over Earth realm is a big brother to hatsune and suchin.
I could already see this happening.
Hi Dragon!!💕
Oooh, I love your inclusion of Madame Bo and her restaurant!
The idea of Liu and Lao looking for champions and casually bumping into a restaurant full of them is actually so funny! You could say they are...
serving champions :D
:D
I'll see myself out. . .
Also, I'm all in for the champions meeting Kuai Liang and specially connecting the dots that Kuai and Bi-Han are related, like "How are you related to THAT??"
Oh, and they ought to ask the most important questions: "are you also 400+ years old??" And "have you seen what your brother's been up to??"
Also, also, loved Kung Lao being humbled by Madame Bo and Liu being fed by her!🤭 I'm now picturing her asking Raiden if he doesn't feed those boys of his, lol!
Okay so you know in my movie au Madame bo exists and kuai liang lives with Madame bo along side hatsune amd suchin.
So imagine if liu kang and kung lao found that resturaunt all because they were looking for champions and got hungry.
They looked around and found tge best resturaunt in the city. It was Madame bo's resturaunt.
They meet Madame bo and got surprised Madame bo k ew about them. They even got lessons from her and kung lao kept getting humbled a lot also she would make sure liu kang gets more buff he was too skinny.
But here is the thing kuai liang lives there to. Kuai liang was lin kuei. So imagine if they see kuai liang acting like a perfect bug brother to hatsune and suchin.
Like just imagine. The man they thought was from the clan connected to Outworld who wants to take over Earth realm is a big brother to hatsune and suchin.
I could already see this happening.
Hi Dragon!!💕
Oooh, I love your inclusion of Madame Bo and her restaurant!
The idea of Liu and Lao looking for champions and casually bumping into a restaurant full of them is actually so funny! You could say they are...
serving champions :D
:D
I'll see myself out. . .
Also, I'm all in for the champions meeting Kuai Liang and specially connecting the dots that Kuai and Bi-Han are related, like "How are you related to THAT??"
Oh, and they ought to ask the most important questions: "are you also 400+ years old??" And "have you seen what your brother's been up to??"
Also, also, loved Kung Lao being humbled by Madame Bo and Liu being fed by her!🤭 I'm now picturing her asking Raiden if he doesn't feed those boys of his, lol!
Ok so, that's gonna be my first attempt at writing stuff about TADC... hi, folks! Please be gentle!
Also, I'm using she/her pronouns for Jax!
Ever since I watched the finale, I've been thinking back to Ep6 and the things Jax said there and trying to link them to what we saw on the finale, and I think the line that intrigued me the most was:
"Are you really going to blame me for something everyone else did too?"
When I first heard that, I felt that Jax was feeling like she was being unjustly held accountable for Ribbit abstracting, like, because they were best friends everyone kinda dub her responsible for taking care of Ribbit and that she "failed" to accomplish that.
But then we get to ep9 and we find out Jax was ACTIVELY responsible for what happened to Ribbit and that line stopped holding the same meaning. Jax KNOWS she's the reason Ribbit abstracted, she did it on purpose and she doesn't pretend she didn't. So why that line? What could the others have done that she would also consider part of Ribbit's downfall?
And it hit me! They did nothing! Literally!
Jax was NOT being subtle in her attempts to isolate Ribbit, she was being painfully clear that something happened between them and they were not friends anymore. Especially towards the end. And no one. Not Kaufmo, nor Ragatha, no one tried to reach out to Ribbit!
Kaufmo? Yeah, Jax and Ribbit became besties but he was her friend long before Jax had even arrived at the circus! And he was just chill pairing up with Jax and leaving Ribbit behind? Wasn't it the three of them, but specially Ribbit and Jax? Did he not think it was weird that Jax suddenly replaced Ribbit with him? Didn't he notice the tension between them? Didn't he notice Ribbit spiraling??
Same with Ragatha. She was Ribbit's friend too, also before Jax, didn't she notice anything? And if Jax was now hanging out with Kaufmo, why didn't she go back teaming up with Ribbit?
And make no mistake, I'm not saying this is "bad writing" or anything, au contraire! I think that was an intentional character flaw and still in line with my initial interpretation of that line. Jax and Ribbit were best friends and therefore everyone, subconsciously probably, put them in charge of each other's safety and emotions! Like "Ribbit is fine, and if she's not Jax can handle it, (s)he's her best friend after all!" And vice versa!
No one bothered looking after Ribbit cause they all kinda just made that Jax's job!
And that checks out cause Ribbit made taking care of Jax her job, it would be only fair to assume it was a mutual thing!
But the problem is Jax never wanted that job for either of them! Jax didn't want Ribbit to be her keeper (or at least that's what she told herself) and Ribbit's attempts to keep "prying" were what made Jax snap and push her away in the first place!
And despite Jax clearly not doing "her job" to check on Ribbit, the others still did nothing, they didn't check on her either. So it would make sense for Jax to accuse the others of also isolating Ribbit because, even if unintentionally, that's exactly what they did!
It also adds some weight to what Jax says to Pomni towards the end:
"You weren't supposed to care, you weren't supposed to miss me, you weren't supposed to love me"
Jax made herself the most despicable person ever, she did so no one would mourn her, sure, but I also think she believed that regardless of how she acted the other's wouldn't bother reaching out to her, because they never did it for Ribbit or even Kaufmo. Pomni's insistente really caught her off guard!
It would explain why she resents the funerals so much, like "oh, now you care to say nice things to them? Where were you before??"
Would also explain why she resents Ragatha so much, "you say you care so much and that you'll always be there when needed. Well, where were you when they needed??"
And yeah, that's hypocritical coming from the person who's actively tormenting everyone else and straight up led one of them towards abstraction, BUT Jax is "a bad person" that's how she's perceived by everyone else and she's "fine" with it, but if everyone else is "so much better than her" if everyone else holds themselves in such a higher moral ground, them why don't they do something? Why didn't they confront her? Why no one fought her? Why did no one check on Ribbit? Why didn't anyone SAVE Ribbit?
She's getting blamed for her actions but what about everyone else's inaction?
Just for the record, I didn't write this to hate on the other circus members and much less to excuse Jax's actions, I'm merely trying to put her words into context and make sense to them!
If anyone has thoughts to add, please, be my guest, I'd love to chat!💜
I have remembered that in your last Lisa post you offered people the chance to ask to know more about the Umgadi Girls' adventures, so I wanted to take that chance. 🫡
What was the adventure which made Lisa become their ally? Is there any other adventure planned in which Lisa takes part? And, well, in general, feel free to tell us about any of the Girls' adventures, I am sure it will be awesome to read!
Also, I must say that there's no rush and you may take all the time you need to answer this, and that I wish you have fun answering it 🥳
Apep!! Hiii!!💕 it's been a while since we last chatted, hope you're doing fine!
Heck yeah, I did! And the offer is still up (if you're willing to be just as patient, lmao!😅)
Now, you gave me unlimited time, and it's much appreciated! But it's especially when I take the most time that I feel like delivering something special!
Sooooo, since I had the beginning of this story all planned out, I decided to straight up write it!
Right here!✨️
(I made it with extra bits of lore cause I know you like it!👀)
Under the cut is a summary of the rest of the story! It's not as fleshed out, but it's heavily spoilery, so be sure to read the chapter first (in your own time, of course)!
With her mind set, Lisa heads to Edenia to search for Harumi!
She bumps into Kollector and convinces him to lead her to the girls' training grounds, which looks similar to this:
Once there, Lisa starts planning on her approach in the best "Hello, Zuko here✨️" fashion, but Orin notices her first and asks her intentions,
Lisa goes straight to the point: she needs Harumi's healing skills to save a life,
Harumi agrees without putting much thought into it. Her friends, on the other hand are more cautious and say she'll only go if they go too,
Lisa reluctantly accepts,
After an inspection on the queen, Harumi concluded 3 things:
Zhi has been poisoned and would need a one week treatment to be fully healed;
The poison had to be given to her by someone she trusted, so likely a dragon was behind this;
The poison was a Shirai recipe, someone had stolen from them!
The girls then opted to divide and conquer!
Harumi and Lisa focused on healing Zhi.
Orin took Li Mei and Jade back to Edenia to find the potion stealer.
And Suchin and Tanya stayed in the Mixed Forests and joined forces with Sheeva to find the dragon traitor!
From here, I'm still working on the details:
The dragon traitor was the not-at-all-suspicious general Peron (wow, who woulda thunk it?? :O)
With Zhi out of commission she wouldn't be able to perform the Unravelling Ritual and that would force the Dragonborn into war against the Edenians!
Whether or not they could win is uncertain, but Peron was sure they could, and was willing to sacrifice some serious numbers to prove it! (Overall a terrible plan)
The potion stealer was an Edenian named Dionis! I've got her name from this intro:
Canonically, she was one of the corrupt Matrons Superior who used Li Mei as a scapegoat! In here she's also the OG Umgadi Girls' former mentor!
And that's how she's got access to the Shirai recipes, she stole them from her former pupil, Amaya Shirai (tan tan taaaan)
Dionis sold the potion to Peron to trick the Dragonborn into marching into a war she believed they had no way to win!
While all that happened, Harumi's treatment was making progress! Zhi was conscious, and visibly healthier, but still extremely tired, she would still need much rest, which means she wouldn't recover in time to perform the ritual,
So, it was up to the only remaining royal to perform it: Lisa herself!
But as she's not yet powerful enough yet, they would rely on to do it a Power Enhancer!
You may or may not remember Harumi has a family power, the Shirai Gift, but it's weakened and flawed, so she hopes to get it back to normal with an enhancer!
Harumi has the perfect recipe, but it needs a final ingredient, one that, due to her age, she was not allowed to get her hands on: a life-force source!
And here's Lisa's ultimate trust exercise: trust her people's life-force to a non dragon!
Of course Harumi won't let her down! Her enhancer turns out to be a success!
I'm still working on the climax, but imagine Edenia's troops on one side, Dragonborn on the other everyone readying themselves to war when suddenly the ground starts glowing like it never has before!
Picture Kida saving Atlantis with the force fields!
The enhancer turned out to be so powerful that Lisa could light up ALL of the Shēnghuó Rivers, leaving the Dragonborn territory fully demarcated for everyone to see!
After:
Peron and Dionis were both held responsible for the almost war and were properly arrested by for their crimes.
Harumi and Lisa started an official alliance between the Dragonborn and the Shirai with both leading the negotiations (and spending quite some time together *wink wink*)!
The Umgadi Girls became heroes in the Mixed Forests and are now welcomed to come back at any moment!
But when they returned to Edenia they were scolded for interfering with their military affairs and now the court has their eyes on them (it can't be only joy)
Lisa gave Harumi access to the Shēnghuó Rivers again so she could redo her enhancer and use it on herself.
It worked wonders and Harumi was more powerful than any other past Shirai!
But eventually, she will understand the Shirai Gift had been weakened for a reason, and bring it back would cause dire consequences!
But that's for another story :)
Aaaaaand that's what I have for now!! It was fun to write it so I hope you also have fun reading!! 🩵❄️🩵❄️
Oh yeah, Lisa does make other appearances, but so far just a few cameos for adventures far less developed, but I'll let you know as soon as I'll get something cooking!👀👀🩵
Only in Earthrealm can one have green eyes naturally. No one in Edenia or Outworld naturally has green eyes. Soul magik had to be involved at some point for the mutation to happen.
Your Li Mei is so cute!! She looks so young! How old is she? I loved the tooth gap! Gives personality! Also, dunno if it's accurate, but she makes me think of the word, spitfire! Like, if I were to describe her in a word, it would be this one! Loved her!!💜
And for Jade, woah, she's stunning! I loved the hairstyle! Tati Gabrielle inspired, you said? This one?
And the face too! Does that mean you approve her as Jade now? (I remember you being skeptical) If you reply to this, please, keep it spoilers free, I haven't seen the movie yet😭 but so far it seems she's being well received! Which makes me happy! I was rooting for her!!🥹💚
Also, loved what you're cooking with Soul Magik here!👀💚
Also, also!
Not to be ATLA obsessed on main (though I know that's impossible, I AM ATLA obsessed on main) but this gives me such Princess Yue vibes!
Only in Earthrealm can one have green eyes naturally. No one in Edenia or Outworld naturally has green eyes. Soul magik had to be involved at some point for the mutation to happen.
Your Li Mei is so cute!! She looks so young! How old is she? I loved the tooth gap! Gives personality! Also, dunno if it's accurate, but she makes me think of the word, spitfire! Like, if I were to describe her in a word, it would be this one! Loved her!!💜
And for Jade, woah, she's stunning! I loved the hairstyle! Tati Gabrielle inspired, you said? This one?
And the face too! Does that mean you approve her as Jade now? (I remember you being skeptical) If you reply to this, please, keep it spoilers free, I haven't seen the movie yet😭 but so far it seems she's being well received! Which makes me happy! I was rooting for her!!🥹💚
Also, loved what you're cooking with Soul Magik here!👀💚
Also, also!
Not to be ATLA obsessed on main (though I know that's impossible, I AM ATLA obsessed on main) but this gives me such Princess Yue vibes!
This is such a cute moment from The Search, probably my favourite between Zuko and Azula, the middle panel is so sweet, they look so genuinely happy!🥹❤️
But it also had me wondering, since Zuko always played the Dark Water Spirit aka the Blue Spirit, if that wasn't a defining factor for him to choose him as his masked identity!
Surely it could be because the Blue Spirit is the antagonist of the play, and freeing Aang would make him an antagonist to the Fire Nation, but I really love the idea of him choosing the Blue Spirit because he's familiar and associated him with happy moments!
°.✦🔥
Also, this came to me cause I'm brainstorming more stuff to my Blue Spirit!Ursa AU and I keep imagining Zuko and Azula arguing on who gets to be the Dragon Emperor and Ursa helps them settle by hyping up the Blue Spirit enough for Zuko to take him!
I can see Azula not wanting him because he's on "the loser side" while Zuko doesn't want him because he's "the bad guy" and Ursa would use this as a teaching moment!
Ursa would argue that being the antagonist doesn't necessarily make someone evil and the way they challenge you may help you grow as a person (or dragon, lol)! She would also argue there will be people in our lives who will antagonise and challenge us, and it's important to be humble and allow yourself to learn from these experiences!
Oh well, let's see how these teachings will come back for these two!
And for our Grand Finale of 2025's historical mermaids, the much requested: Iara, of Brazil.
In Tupi mythology there is a mermaid-like myth. A young woman named Iara is drowned, but returns as a half-fish maid known for drowning river-goers in retribution.????
THIS MERMAID IS NOT IN THE mermaid colouring book! She's brand-new in comparison to the other mermaids in this series.
There are also PDF copies available!
LINKTREE TO EVERYTHING
(I am the artist, do not download or save these images for re-posting or AI. No AI was used in the making of this image, all the mistakes are human.)
Iara was actually the best warrior of her tribe and her brothers were jealous of her for it and tried to have her killed! But as Iara was more skilled, she fought back and ended up killing them!
Her father was angry at her for killing them, not caring if it was self-defence and drowned her as an act of revenge!
She rescued by the fish and was turned into a mermaid by Jaci, the Moon Goddess!
Iara then became the protector of the Amazon rivers, drowning fishermen and others who dare harm her home!🩷
