I was thinking about Lin (like one is oft to do), and it led me to this fun childhood headcanon.
To compensate for the fact their granddaughters would be the first Beifongs in decades to be raised away from Gaoling, Toph agreed to send her daughters to spend a month a year with their grandparents. Since Lao and Poppy knew Toph wasn't concerned in the slightest in keeping with a proper education for young ladies of the house of the winged boar, they made it their mission to ensure they were provided with the best instruction in manners and ladylike skills while they were in Gaoling under their tutelage.
As part of their curriculum to become proper ladies and one that actually took (because Poppy had to accept defeat in her effort to reign the girls' enthusiasm in physical pursuits like sparring wirh the household guards), Lin and Suyin learned to play musical instruments. While Lin favored the guqin*, Su ended up with the suona** because her first choice, drums, was unavailable. Grandpa Lao was adamant that percussion was "unbecoming of a noble lady of Beifong," but Su, like the little shit she was, proceeded to make her lessons hell on Earth for anyone with ears playing as strident and off key as humanly possible, making Lao regret his decision many times over.
Despite Su's antics, they both became good enough for Lao and Poppy's to organize recitals with the girls for their guests. Once Lin learned to play, she was inspired by a metalbending giqao player from a traveling opera troupe who used his bending to play and Lin took it as a challenge to become more proficient and to master her control.
Bonus Linvira headcanon:
Once Lin and Kuvira's relationship was made public, and after Lin retired (well, sort of because she would still accept cases as a part time Private Detective) they would occasionally host dinnera for their closest friends and family. Sometimes on Kuvira's insistence (because she loved coming up any justification to get Lin to play and despite Lin's repeteated reticence, Kuvira would win her over with a healthy dose of persuasion), they would end up putting on a little show featuring Lin playing while Kuvira displayed her proficiency in the metal wire dancing arts, which coincidentally was the persuasion that would win Lin over every time to play. 🤭
*Giqao
**Suona












