#they asked sita for help with the ideas/designs <3

[tragedykery]

you wanna ramble about some of your visions of the little guys? because i would Love to hear <333 (also feel free to ignore this if you don't want to, haha!!!)

thank you so so much for sending this ask ily <333 and I am. so so so sorry this started out as just a short stating of facts but then it began to lead a life of its own (uh cw for animal death)

ok for background info I’ve got this post here with a character list doc etc but it’s not really necessary to understand this

anyway I’ll be talking about sita (tag) bc I love her <3

in the kyoshi novels it’s said that all air nomads are benders but I think that’s stupid. there definitely are air nomad non-benders but they’re uncommon and generally don’t live in the temples.

sita is one of those non-benders. as she grows up in the eastern air temple, she practices the katas and fighting style just as hard as the other kids—maybe even harder—but no matter how hard she tries, she cannot get the air to move as it does for her peers. she feels like an outsider. there’s one other non-bender girl there, but she’s a few years older. they play together a lot, and it helps, but when the girl leaves to travel the world, sita is left behind, and she feels more alone than she ever has before.

she knows it’s not the fault of the her friend or other nuns, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. so one day, when she just can’t take it anymore, she stuffs her bag with food and all the airbending scrolls she can find (she cannot kill the hope inside her that maybe if she practices hard enough…). she gets her bison and flies away.

(she’s sixteen.)

she tries to find her old friend, but she could be anywhere. so she explores the world, and she’s happier than she’s been in a long time.

however, one day, her bison gets sick. she’s camping somewhere on an island in the fire nation, but no one there knows how to help her. she sets out toward the eastern air temple, but as they’re flying over the sea, they get caught in a storm. she worries they’re not going to survive, but by some stroke of luck, they get rescued by a bunch of seafarers on a ship called the ziyou. they’re friendly, and the captain promises to take care of them for as long as they need, but sita was right about one thing. her bison doesn’t survive.

taituk, the captain, promises they’ll drop her off at the nearest port, but.

she has no reason to go to the air temples now. it would only stir up painful memories. and her chances of finding her old friend, alone in the earth kingdom, on foot, are practically zero. she thinks about it.

she knows the crew she had initially thought to be regular seafarers are pirates. but they’re not like what she has heard about pirates. when she experiences a raid (she isn’t expected to participate and can just hide in the room she’s been staying in) she listens anxiously. she can hear taituk give the crew a sort of pep talk, and hears them tell the crew, with the practised ease of someone who has given a speech a thousand times before, to not hurt anyone unless absolutely necessary. “surrender and no harm will come to you,” she hears taituk call out to people on the other ship. and when the merchant ship’s captain surrenders, they follow through on their word.

she gets to know the crew. she learns about their motives, how they’re all outcasts, how they only attack the ships of rich merchants or other pirates, how most of them turned to piracy because there was no other option, to feed themselves and in some cases their families too.

maybe, sita thinks, she can figure out how to make this work.

—

sita’s been on the ziyou for almost two years. she’s gotten good at incorporating the fighting skills she’s learned on the ship into the air nomad fighting style she has such extensive knowledge of. she learns she has a talent for using projectile weapons—though nisha remains the best with throwing knives, she’s easily the second best, and her handiness with a bow and arrows more than makes up for it. she’s decent with a spear too, though she’s more defensive with it than the girl who teaches her, aki, would like.

(the cook, chusak, offers to teach her his weird fighting style of throwing pans at people, but she turns him down. that’s just weird and impractical and more often than not leaves people with bruises, concussions, or broken bones. well, she doesn’t need to learn to use every possible projectile weapon.)

she might not be able to bend air like she had always wished (and still wishes) she could, but as she pins an enemy to the mast with nothing more than a flick of her wrist or the release of a taut bowstring, or feels the salty wind ruffle her hair as she stands in the crow’s nest, she finds she doesn’t mind her lack of bending as much as she used to. she’s made peace with it.

she’s still shocked, though, when one day during a raid (the captain refused to surrender, proud as the beifongs he works for), she looks over her shoulder and sees a woman floating several feet above the deck. her eyes are closed and her long hair whips in the wind, and while she’s wearing earth kingdom clothing and doesn’t have any tattoos, there’s no way she’s not an airbender.

“what’s an airbender doing on a ship like that?” she muses to taituk as they’re hauling boxes of loot onto their own ship. “she must be powerful. to lift yourself into the air and create a storm like that takes a lot of strength.” (no one knows, of course, that was the avatar state, and they don’t realise it for a long time.)

“well, whatever the case, we’re lucky chusak knocked her out,” nisha grumbles. she turns to show the two of them a nasty-looking gash on her shoulder. “she almost got me with one of her own knives.”

taituk pulls a face. “ouch. well, better go see mallik, then.” nisha rolls her eyes and grumbles something sarcastic before walking off, but before sita can tease taituk about being “romantic” (she doesn’t have proof yet, but she knows!), taituk says, frowning, “iraluq said they seemed scared, though. the airbender I mean. scared and confused, as they threw up their arms and knocked her ice daggers away. as if they didn’t know what they had what they done or how.”

sita’s still pondering that over a few hours later, when she hears shouting on the other side of the ship. she rushes there to investigate. she makes her way through the crowd that has gathered on the deck. “what’s happen–”

she falls silent as she sees the airbender standing pressed against the wall, terrified.

“everyone give us some space!” taituk calls. “go on with what you were previously doing. nothing to see here.”

“what happened?” sita whispers to nuvuja, who’s, for some reason, is opening all the crates they had gotten from the raid and checking their contents.

nuvuja’s reply is brisk. “xuan managed to accidentally kidnap a person.”

“how?!”

nuvuja slams the crate she’d been rummaging through shut and opens the next one. “he was supposed to help check the loot but got lazy. just carried crates onto the ship without checking if their contents were the same as the labels. and apparently the airbender fell into a crate of rice when she got knocked out by chusak. lid slammed shut. we just found out while getting stuff for dinner.”

she grimaces as she looks over at the airbender. taituk is speaking to her softly, and while she looks less scared than before, her eyes are full of tears. “poor girl,” nuvuja murmurs. “we’ve got no clue where her ship is now. stranded on a ship in the middle of the sea with a bunch of pirates. she must be terrified.”

sita thanks nuvuja, and walks off to join taituk. maybe she can help.

—

apparently the airbender—hira—does not, in fact, know she is one. or she didn’t, until now. she and sita become fast friends. sita’s a friendly presence, a reassuring constant in the scary period waiting hira’s caught in until they reach land.

“I guess I should go to one of the temples, huh?” hira says a few days after her arrival on the ship. she tries for humour, but sounds breathless. scared. “if I want to learn”—she hesitates for a moment—“bending.”

she’d been both scared and elated to learn she was a bender. apparently she’s grown up as an orphan with no knowledge of her heritage.

“I can try to teach you some stuff, if you want,” sita offers.

hira’s eyes widen. ��you’re an airbender too?!”

sita tries to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “no.” she tries for a smile. “but I grew up in the temples, so I know a few things.”

(she knows more than a few things.)

—

it’s weird, teaching someone to bend when sita can’t herself, but they make it work. hira’s a prodigy, easily executing techniques sita remembers took the other girls at the temple months to master. (techniques sita will never be able to do.) sita can help her, teach her, in a way hira will never be able to do for her. you can’t give someone bending, after all.

they meditate together, and cook air nomad recipes with chusak’s help. she teaches hira to read, write and speak the most common air nomad languages, and hira teaches her her earth kingdom town’s language in return.

it would be so easy to be jealous of hira. and maybe she is jealous, just a little. but she doesn’t let that jealousy fester, doesn’t let it turn into resentment. she won’t ever be able to bend, but she can be proud of hira, can be happy for her. can laugh with her as they mess up the recipe for fruit pies and smile at her when she masters yet another kata. she can participate in her culture with another air nomad, one who she knows won’t judge her for being a non-bender. (she spent the first twenty-seven years of her life as one, after all.)

and it will be enough.

(she doesn’t know that hira is jealous of her in the same way, for growing up in the temples. (hira’s spent her whole life wanting nothing more than connection with her culture.) but much in the same way, hira doesn’t allow her jealousy to lead her. she and sita are both air nomads who will always be a little bit of an outsider, and they’ll have to stick together. it’s not just that, though. she likes being around this chatty, lively kid (“I’m eighteen!” sita always protests). she likes to gossip with her and sit in the crow’s nest together and play silly games and have competitions who have climb the masts the fastest. sita is one of the main reasons hira decides to stay when the ziyou reaches the port taituk had promised they’d drop her off at.)

(the rest of the crew notices, that since hira’s arrival, sita seems happier than she’s ever been.)

#they are sososo dear to me <33333 #elli replies #corey tag #ask #again thank you SO much for sending this ask and I am SO sorry #oc tag #the birates #wind in the sails #sita #hira #oc rambles #hira & sita #that said. there’s a certain hilarity in the avatar’s airbending master (and later spiritual master) being a 18-19 yo kid who is not in fact #a bender #another random scene is taituk (who’s like a love interest for hira but in a decidedly polyam & also aspec way) making hira beaded earrings #the way they learned from their mother (who’s an artist/crafts…woman?) #they’re air nomad symbols but in both earth kingdom and air nomad colours #and maybe also simple mandalas? #they made them during their stay at the south pole for hira’s waterbending training #they asked sita for help with the ideas/designs <3 #the reason for the earth kingdom colours is that taituk wants to help her realise that the culture of the earth kingdom town is just as much #*her* culture as the air nomad one if she wants it to be #I have another scene in my head about that which is that taituk’s sitting on the floor in the qasgiq trying to carve something for hira #a cousin of theirs sees and teases her like ‘oooh are you gonna propose?’ ‘you know damn well engagement necklaces aren’t a thing in our #tribe.’ (grinning) ‘yeah but /she/ doesn’t. and you never know what she might have heard about water tribe marriage customs. where did you #say she grew up again?’ ‘…the northwestern earth kingdom.’ ‘ha! I knew it you’re in love with the new girl! oh [other cousin] owes me five #strips of seal jerky!’ (runs off) (taituk rubbing their temples wondering why they had to be both the eldest sibling AND eldest cousin) #(but they’re also smiling)

[creativebusstop]

5 Family Events not to miss this summer

Did I mention that you I offer a chirpy, cheeky and (sometimes) cheap concierge services at mycultureclub? Don't miss out and subscribe here.

Well, forgive me if you are already in the gang, and let me take this opportunity to remind you  that I can book all of your events, birthday parties, family trips, holiday summer camps, and treat you by being your very own concierge.

Here's a quick pick of some fun family activities you can do with your Culture Club kids this Summer. Some are free, and the others just a plain old bargain. Enjoy. 

STAX MUSIC ACADEMY PERFORMANCE at Kings Place, Kings Cross

You'd be in the soul gang for sure, if you booked tickets to see the  Stax Music Academy: 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Stax/Volt European Tour. I can promise you these tickets will not be around for long.

VENUE : CONTEMPORARY AT KINGS PLACE : Saturday, 15 July 2017 - 8:00pm /  Hall One

Imagine you are a teenager living at or below the poverty line in Memphis, Tennessee, where approximately one-fourth of all students drop out of high school before graduation and where nearly 50 percent of all children under 18 years old live in poverty.

Located in one of the most economically depressed zip codes in the United States, Stax Music Academy (SMA) has for more than 16 years had tremendous success with preparing students like these for college and success as adults by mentoring them with intensive music education as the primary tool. And not just any music, but the music of Stax Records, which once stood on the very site SMA stands today. Stax gave hope and opportunity to young people like Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MGs, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, and dozens of others to succeed in life.

In 1967, Stax Records sent its top artists on the label’s first-ever Stax/Volt European tour and those artists’ lives and the lives of the audiences were changed forever. As 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of that tour, the Stax Music Academy will celebrate by sending its top students on a tour of the UK, France and Ireland, performing the same set list of the original tour with Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, Arthur Conley, and Booker T. & the MGs.

THE BRITISH LIBRARY | FREE Family Programme: Runs from July - September, 2017

South Asian Stories ; Friday 28 July, 2017 | 12.00 – 13.30 ; Free | Drop in | Suitable for ages 5 – 11

VENUE : Location: Harry M Weinrebe Learning Centre at The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB

Discover stories from South Asia in this fun and creative workshop with Sita Thomas. From sheikhs to suffragettes, explore lives and stories from South Asia using drama games, movement and sound in this fun and creative workshop.  This workshop is run in partnership with The Place and coincides with a free dance performance, 14.00 – 15.00, taking place outside on the Piazza. Everyone is welcome to watch.

 National Maritime Museum, Ahoy! Children's gallery (Free) Ideal for ages 0-7 & The All Hands children's gallery for 6-12s at National Maritime Museum is free and open daily.

10.00-17.00 weekends, holidays & Tuesdays | 14.00-17.00 on other weekdays |  Ahoy gallery is closed 3 July - 27 September

Your little one's imagination will be fired up as they stoke the boiler of a steamship, see them will beam with delight as they land a fish and new friendships will be forged as kids work together in the interactive boatyard. Polar exploration, pirates and a host of other maritime themes are brought to life in this playful and immersive gallery – look out for the eight metre high mast of SS Rawalpindi by the entrance. There’s a buggy park and easy access to all the facilities you need to have a stress-free visit. AHOY! is also a quick lift-ride away from the Neptune cafe on the first floor of the museum where you can re-fuel with coffee and cake after playtime. 

*Please note that AHOY! is sometimes pre-booked for schools groups.

Book tickets for family shows at the Underbelly Festival 2017, Southbank.

For theatre and dance lovers, The Tap Dancing Mermaid (10 June) blends puppetry and dance to fantastical effect, and Metta Theatre’s Jungle Book (1-24 August) melds hip-hop dancing, spoken word and creative design to create a contemporary, urban, politically aware reinterpretation of Kipling’s classic.

 Jungle Book, 1st - 24th August 2017, Tickets from £11.50 (includes £1.50 in fees per ticket)

Spectacular street-dance and breathtaking circus combine to bring Kipling’s classic tale crashing into the 21st Century. Fresh from its international tour, award winning Metta Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Jungle Book returns to the Underbelly Festival by popular demand to delight the whole family.

Mowgli is finding her way in the urban jungle. With a beat-loving bin man Baloo, graffiti artist Bagheera and a skateboarding Wolf crew, this heart-warming coming of age story will astonish and amaze.

Choreographed by Kendra J Horsburgh (BirdGang Dance Company, Into the Hoods, Sadler’s Wells and Blaze, International Tour) and featuring jaw-dropping tricks from an extraordinary cast of international performers including Let It Shine's Matt Knight as Akela, this is a show for everyone from 8 to 108.

HOW ABOUT SOME HOME SCIENCE FUN FROM THE ROYAL INSTITUTE ?

ExpeRimental is a series of short films that make it fun, easy and cheap to do science at home with children aged 4 to 10. Our films give you lots of ideas for kids’ activities that will help you explore the world around you, question and experiment together. We’ll show you how to do the activity and how to make sure adults and children get the most out of it. Tell us how you get on and share your photos and any funny things your kids say!

Each activity is designed to be easy to do using only common household objects. Simply playing, watching closely, and asking questions is enough to light a spark of science learning at home with young children. All the experiments are about encouraging natural curiosity and investigating the wonders of science while you play.

We think doing hands-on activities with children is the best way to get them exploring the world around them and thinking like future scientists and engineers. You won’tneed any existing science knowledge to be able carry out and enjoy ExpeRimental activities. Alongside each film is an info sheet with all the extra information you might need, including a clear explanation of the science at work and some ideas of questions to ask while playing. With badges and certificates to print out, and no limit to how far the activities could extend, we hope these films will be just the starting point for fun adventures in science.

#Family Theatre London #Family Theatre London 2017 #London Kids #My Culture Club Events #My Culture Club #London Concierge Services #London Concierge