I feel like it would be hard for the Zutara and Taang kids to grow up in the public eye (since Zuko and Katara are royalty, Aang is the Avatar, and Toph is basically a celebrity). What are your thoughts on this?
Yeah I think they'd probably struggle with this, probably like any celebrity and their kid kind of situation. I haven't read too many fics or headcanons that deal with this particular situation, but I can imagine that any ATLA next gen kid would struggle with this issue on some level, so it would be interesting to see this talked about more! This and multicultural families. That's something that intrigues me too.
For me, I kind of have the dunebabies pretty oblivious to their parent's spotlight and fame up until a certain age, and some of them like it because they can make more friends, and some of them are kind of indifferent if that makes sense...
Some people headcanon that the Beifongs travel a lot and don't stay in one place for too long, and I think in those instances, maybe they appreciate a bit of the fame so that they can make friends quickly wherever they go. In my AU, they primarily stay in Republic City, but they do travel from time to time. I can imagine the kids having trouble establishing friendships and relationships where they can trust the people without feeling like they're being taken advantaged of or something similar. I would say in my AU, Lin and Kenji are more skeptical of people and keep themselves closed off to most, while Gyatso and Suyin talk to everyone and try to make friends everywhere (and in Suyin's case, she's the persuasive friend. She gets what she wants almost all the time lol).
Steambabies might feel the added pressure, especially because even though they don't care about image or the reputation of their parents, others do and it could directly affect how they are as leaders when they're older. It's something that's always on their mind, and since their parents are the first to really bring positive change to the Fire Nation and the world, there's additional pressure of maintaining or improving upon that. So I can see them at an early age thinking about how they interact with others, what they say, and just being guarded with their emotions. My oldest steambaby, Kya, would probably suffer the most from this pressure, I imagine she talks about her issues a lot with her mother and father since they had to deal with some scrutiny for their relationship. Izumi is a bit of a wildcard, but her indifference doesn't mean she's ignorant. She knows what the public sees of her, and she's pretty calculating with what they do see if she can help it. Iroh is pretty quiet and introverted and he doesn't make a lot of noise in the media (his sisters do enough of that), so he probably doesn't feel the effects of the 'celebrity spotlight' as much as other members of the Fire Nation family do, which he's perfectly happy with.
here I fucking come with the asks. Anger #12 "I don't care" Toph @ Katara
This took me so long to write. And for what? smh lol
......
Toph & Katara - Anger - #12 - “I don’t care.”
Katara was out shopping with Toph, and she was just about on her last nerve. Her anniversary with Zuko was approaching, and she needed help deciding on some of the details. Normally, she’d ask Suki or Aang or Spirits, even Sokka loved buying stuff, but Aang was busy and Sokka and Suki were at Kyoshi Island. So that left her with Toph Beifong.
And normally she loved hanging out with Toph!
But she didn’t help answer any of her questions. If anything, she was a nuisance.
“Hey Toph, where do you think Zuko and I should go tonight?”
“Wherever you want, Sugar Queen.”
“Should I bring a jacket? I don’t want to be cold, but also, I don’t want to have to carry it around.”
“Up to you.”
“What do you think Zuko would like for an anniversary gift?”
“No idea. Hey, are we almost done?”
Katara huffed. The one time she needed help, Toph had nothing. The waterbender lost it when she asked her last question.
“Which dress do you think Zuko will like more?”
Toph sighed. “I really don’t know and I don’t care.”
“Toph,” Katara snapped. That was it. She could put up with the indifference for only so long. “You’ve been no help so far, and I brought you along for your opinions. All I ask is that you answer this one question for me! Just pick one. Which dress would match my jacket??”
A bemused smirk grew on Toph’s face, much to Katara’s annoyance. “Gee, I’d love to tell you which dress matches your jacket Katara, but I can’t. You know. See.”
Katara froze. She forgot Toph was blind. Again. Katara let out something between a whine and a cry and leaned her head on Toph’s shoulder, apologizing profusely.
“Toph, I’m so sorry I forgot again. Ugh, this stupid date has got me on edge and I took it out on you and then I forgot!”
The earthbender chuckled and patted Katara’s shoulder. “There, there. It’ll be alright, Sweetness. Let’s go find Aang and bother him; I’m sure he’ll give you suggestions for all your answers and then some!”
Katara nodded and stood upright again. “But I thought he was busy today.”
“Technically, yes. But we have the power to drag him away and no one will think twice about it.”
“True. No one will question the Avatar’s girlfriend pulling him away from business.” She smirked.
Toph frowned and punched Katara. “That’s enough from you, Sugar Queen. You forgot I was blind.”
Katara flinched a bit. “Again, sorry about that.”
Toph just playfully waved off Katara’s apology and the two made their way to Aang, master of all elements, and master of helping match dresses with jackets.
......
Too many prompts to choose from, but here they are:
“I think you are wise to choose happiness and love.” – Iroh
[Before reading this, please know that this is incredibly rough and at some points a little weird and mainly dialogue and cuts off very abruptly. It’s a very first, only almost finished draft of an OS, a dump of my thoughts on the matter, that I will almost certainly come back to in the future. Probably next month, when I’m done with all these prompts, because I like the premise, but this isn’t really it.
Toph also isn’t in it, this is a talk between Aang and his youngest kid, so the Taang is somewhat implied in that Kavi is Toph’s son as well.
Then, I just have to say that I really hate that quote. I hate that Iroh says it. I hate that Aang gets to live by it. I love that boy so much, but his character developement in Book 3? Shitty. Don’t like it. Writing AU-Fanfic, because they botched it.
Also, slight criticism of Kata*ng (specifically of Aang’s treatment, for lack of a better word, of her), because it’s one of my NOTPs and I couldn’t help myself. I almost could see it working, but, like Aang’s developement, they ruined it. Sunk their own ship. (In my opinion. Everybody’s entitled to their own. I’m just tired and therefore cranky.)
Draft under the cut.]
Aang lifted his gaze from the letters he'd began sorting through hours ago, and still the pile didn't appear to have shrunk at all – all enthusiasm to deal with his mail had left him quite a while ago, as it always did, and he mused once again that maybe, just maybe, a secretary wasn't such a bad idea, now that they didn't travel all the time anymore.
Now that they had chosen a home that wasn't Appa's back.
Kavi, leaning on the wall next to his desk, peaked at him from behind the book – The Extensive History of the Dai Li – he hadn't set down since Bumi had sent it to him last week, always scribbling in it and marking passages and making notes, a brush in hands, his fingers inky, and Aang quirked a brow.
"I can feel you staring. What is it, Kavi?"
The brush turned between the boy's nimble fingers.
"I don't wanna keep you from your ... correspondence", he said slowly.
"Keep me from my correspondence, please. I've had enough of it today; it's mostly just people telling me that it hasn't rained in too long or that it's been raining too much. Which I can do nothing about, anyway. What're you thinking about?"
He turned in his chair.
Kavi tilted his head, as if thinking it over again , before he asked: "What's the worst mistake you ever made? Like ... really the worst. I've been thinking about mistakes and regrets and all that a lot lately, 'cause, y'know, Avatar Kyoshi founded the Dai Li and that certainly wasn't a good decision. Obviously, they're not as bad anymore, but that's because they're back to what they were supposed to be. They're protectors again, instead of ... a weird, brainwash-y secret organisation."
He painted a wet, black line on his face while gesticulating and ignored it in favour of drawing his brows together and adding: "Though I think I already know what you think your biggest mistake is."
"Do you."
"Yeah. You ran away. When you were a kid. I know you regret that. I would. Even though I think I would've run, too, if someone threatened to take me away from you guys. I'd rather leave on my own terms."
The brush twirled around, around, around.
Aang fiddled with one of the letters.
"That was ... is ... indeed my greatest mistake. And I will never not regret that I ran, but ... I have come to accept it as a part of my past that I can't ever change. I will never quite make up for what my absence ... the Avatar's absence ... did to the world, but ... I can try, you know? Try to make this world better place, a more peaceful place, not because that's my job or because I feel guilty, but because that's what's right. Try to be a good friend and husband and father. So that's what I've been doing, every day for the past fourty years ... Well, I haven't been a dad or married for quite so long, but I think you get what I'm trying to say."
Kavi nodded pensively, brows still furrowed.
"I think I do."
He lifted his free hand and rubbed over the ink on his cheek, smudging it.
"Kinda. I don't know if I'll ever really ... understand understand. But I ... understand."
"Hmm", hummed Aang. "My journey to becoming a fully realized Avatar was ... a rather rocky one, I suppose. I was stubborn. And I couldn't've possibly comprehended what fighting a war would mean before I woke up at the South Pole and ... fought a war. So I wouldn't expect you to fully understand. I don't want you to. It's bad enough Bumi's joined the Air Force."
"I don't really remember him not being in the Air Force. How old was I when joined up? Five?"
"Just about, yes."
"He's a Captain now. Aren't you proud of him?"
Aang sighed deeply.
"I am. I'm incredibly proud of all of you. Tenzin's about to become a father, Asha's teaching with your mother, Norbu's an architect, which I know nothing about, but I'm glad he's enjoying doing what he does. You're on your best way to achieve mastery. And Bumi is a Captain. Of course I'm proud of him. I just wish he would've chosen a different career. Something safer, that wouldn't result in him being on the frontlines of a war, should there ever be another one."
He shook his head.
Kavi pulled his knees closer.
"I lived through barely the last year of one, and it was terrible. I don't want any of you to experience what I did. The same goes for your mother. But you're your own people, you make your own decisions. We can't stop you from doing that and we wouldn't want to, either. I can just ... try to lead you a bit as long as you'll let me. Give you some advice, if you ask for it. You want to know about the worst advice I ever got, if we're already talking about mistakes and regret?"
"Oh. Sure", Kavi said, hesitant for just a moment.
"I met Guru Pathik – I've told you about him?"
"Yeah. The guy who helped you master the Avatar State. An old friend of Monk Gyatso. He must've been ancient when you met."
"He was ... a very, very wise man. A mentor when I was in desperate need of someone to look up to and guide me. Unfortunately, when I first met him, I wasn't very ... accepting of everything he tried to teach me. In order to control the Avatar State, I needed to open my chakras. And there were some ... minor ... hiccups, I had to confront myself, my mistakes, my shame, the ... the guilt I felt, ... like I'd ... never had before. And I did it. The problem ... was the seventh chakra."
"The Thought Chakra", Kavi mumbled.
Aang brightened a little.
"That's right. Do you remember how to unlock it?"
"By ... letting go of ... of earthly attachments."
The boy's frown deepened and his hand closed tightly around the brush that had stopped wandering over his fingers when he'd tried to remove the ink from his face – it was still blotchily staining his pale skin.
"I never really thought about that. That's terrible. And you still have attachments. You've got Mom and us. So, ... you haven't mastered the Avatar State?"
"I have full control over the Avatar State, don't worry. Letting go of attachments ... that's not about not loving. It's not about detaching yourself completly from everything. It would be, if you tried to reach true enlightenment, but that wasn't my goal. My goal was to not be controlled by my emotions. You need to be the master of your emotions, not the other way around. With something like the Avatar State at your expense, you can't afford that. Rage can end in a massacre. Grief could as well. No."
He looked at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about how to best continue, then said: "In this case, letting go of attachments meant to learn to not depend. To stand on my own. My friendships with Mom and Sokka weren't a problem; my crush on Katara absolutely was, because I depended on her too much. I relied on her to pull me out of the Avatar State when I couldn't control myself. I wanted her to be my forever girl, because ... well, she was the first girl. She became my everything much too quickly when she should've never been that at all. And that just wasn't fair to her. I placed her on pedestal when I barely even knew her name, and wouldn't let her step down. And when it came to make the decision between her and controlling this ... great power, ... I chose her. And she wouldn't have wanted that, but I didn't understand that, then."
Kavi chewed on his lip.
"So, who gave you bad advice, then?"
"General Iroh."
"Uncle Zuko's Uncle? The guy Iroh's named after? He's supposed to have given the best advice, though! Mom always talks about that and his tea and how he was the original owner of the Jasmine Dragon and stuff. He's supposed to be this super wise guy", he said. "I don't understand."
"Nobody's infallible. Not even Uncle. When I told him of my dilemma – we were on our way to safe Katara and Zuko, right under Ba Sing Se, he told me ... he said that power was overrated. And that I was wise to chose happiness and love instead. And I'm sure he meant well ... and I don't remember how well I explained what I was trying to master. We were also on a rescue mission, and I wouldn't have listened had he told me to go back to the Guru anyway. But this wasn't about taking power, choosing it over love. It was about controlling something dangerous that I already possessed ... His advice was quite dangerous, in retrospect ..."
For some reason, I have a very hard time drawing older Aang and Toph.
(Their made up kids are fine, though, look at them.)
(Look at how cute Kavi is.)
(Still need to work on Asha [all of them, technically, they don’t have bodies yet, Bumi doesn’t even have a neck], but even she’s much better than their parents.)
(Aang’s face is merely a hole in the paper now, I will need to redraw all these faces ... or trace them. Depending on how lazy I am.)
