(left: jima, 33. right: asahi, 34. they first appear here)
jima: aki’s gutted hoe of a mom. non bender. from a wealthy earth kingdom family that settled in a fire nation colony. was kicked out of her family home after getting pregnant with a “colony peasant” at age 17. she wasn’t completely cut off, but her family refused to claim her daughter (aki).
asahi: aki’s good enough dad. fire bender. from a family of laborers that survived by keeping their heads down. they were moved to this colony for welding. he was 18 when jima got pregnant. he was forced by his family to move in with and provide for her and the child. even though the money from her family was more than he made
they were in love as teenagers, but stayed together solely because of the baby. as aki grew, she became harder to handle, and her bending more out of control. jima withdrew, and was nasty to aki for being “embarrassing”, and “too much”. asahi was there for aki, and would give her “secret lessons” about avatar roku.
one day in class, aki mouths off and mentions something that her dad taught her about avatar roku. as a result, jima was contacted first, to see if she had any additional information on her husband’s access to forbidden texts. she completely threw asahi under the bus, and offered up aki as collateral. for this, her life was spared.
the academy called in aki and asahi for their punishment. aki was sent to the palace grounds as a disciplinary addition to their bending forces. she was only 15. jima worked out something so aki would not know of her father’s fate: he was publicly executed at age 34.
presently, and to aki’s dismay, jima is still alive. she rejoined her family, remarried into wealth, and moved to the upper ring of ba sing se. presently, jima is 44; aki 27.
