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herearedragons · 8 months

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A few more things about the Redcliffe/Kinloch arc before I’m moving on to the Sacred Ashes:

after the Sloth thing, Kyana will be having trouble falling asleep for a while. She does realize, however, that sleep deprivation is not a luxury she can afford (when something’s always out to kill you, you need to be as awake as possible), so I think she goes to Morrigan for some sleep-inducing herbs. Not to Wynne, the healer. Technically a correct decision, because in my game Morrigan’s just a better herbalist, but I also think that maybe Kyana also wants to keep a good impression on Wynne. Wynne has been really good to her out of basically nowhere (at least that’s how Kyana sees it), and she doesn’t want to ruin it with a sudden display of weakness. On the bright side of things, it’s a reason for Kyana and Morrigan to finally spend more time together, since, like with Sten, their relationship has been at a standstill. Kyana’s gift of Flemeth’s grimoire (and her being immediately down to kill Flemeth) also probably doesn’t hurt.

I decided that before Connor’s ritual, Irving does tell Kyana that she underwent the exact same ritual as a child, maybe to try and convince her to not go into the Fade herself. It’s obviously a shock to her, but also, having survived both her Harrowing and Sloth, she thinks that it’s a little too late to worry about her getting possessed again(and she’s right). She goes into the Fade, frightens the heck out of Desire and extorts it for some extra arcane knowledge(not blood magic) before allowing it to flee.

But, as we remember, she has already consumed a lot of weird Stuff while imprisoned by Sloth (I’m treating the fonts of [insert attribute here] and grinding Fade enemies for xp as the Warden literally absorbing spirits/pieces of the Fade, because it’s cool and kind of makes sense), and the additional bit she gets from Desire tips the scales. Connor is free, Isolde thanks them, Kyana has a talk with Alistair about his amulet, and then collapses in the castle’s courtyard as they’re about to leave. Apparently, undergoing that much stress and absorbing weird magic takes a toll on your body, so she develops a weird instant fever and the party has to stay in the castle for an extra couple of days, with Wynne tending to Kyana. If I choose to not have her magic “scars” come from her first possession, that’s when she gets them, as she’s fighting to… not become an abomination, basically? There’s not a demon currently trying to possess her, but there’s just a lot of weird ambient magic that she needs to make a permanent part of herself in order to survive. And she basically has a Prince Zuko moment of catching Inner Conflict Fever and waking up with some kind of character development, except Zuko wakes up nicer and Kyana wakes up more unhinged.

Alistair has to stand guard outside Kyana’s room while she’s going through that because he’s the only available templar around. I’m sure it’s fine. I’m sure the prospect of the person who saved him from a demon becoming an abomination herself because of the lengths she went to to save him from a demon isn’t weighing on him or anything.

Zevran is in this weird place where he’s waiting for Kyana to recover like everyone else, but he also doesn’t know anyone or have anything to do do occupy himself. There’s a nice moment where Wynne comes by to check on him. She doesn’t know about the whole assassination thing, she just assumes he’s a friend of Kyana and Alistair’s, and even tries to remember whether she’s seen him in Ostagar. Zevran corrects her and explains that he’s only met the Wardens recently, but the moment doesn’t really feel right for that, so he doesn’t elaborate further. I also think Zevran ends up keeping Alistair company for a while, poking fun at him during their conversations, but that light annoyance does help keep Alistair’s mind off more grim topics.

Eventually Kyana comes to and they leave Redcliffe for good. Her sleep problem is still there, but she has Morrigan’s potion to deal with it. She does develop a habit of staying up late from time to time, taking notes in her journal or going outside to be an extra pair of eyes keeping watch while the others sleep. I also think that sometimes she has little moments of fear where she suddenly begins to wonder if what’s happening right now is real, or if she never left the Fade. Dog turns out to be extremely helpful when that happens; he senses her anxiety and starts licking her hand or snuggling closer to her, giving her something solid to hold on to.

One of the in-game conversations Kyana had with Wynne in the camp after Redcliffe was about how a mage isn’t an abomination as long as they hold on to their humanity, and coming from these two mages in particular, it’s… a lot of feels. Also, in the same conversation Kyana admitted to Wynne that the idea of becoming an abomination does scare her.

Kyana also talks to Zevran some more. I’m considering making a separate post about their interactions (I have multiple thoughts), so I’ll elaborate there.

Back to the Fade thing for a second: I wrote about her losing her composure after being imprisoned in Fort Drakon, and, yeah, now part of the reason is definitely because it reminds her of being trapped in the Fade. Except her magic and willpower are useless this time, so breaking out really seems impossible.

#herearedragons meta #oc: kyana amell #tw: trauma #tw: ptsd #kind of? like I’m not an expert but I think it might apply here #tw: dissociating #the amount of tws on this one post is really telling huh #also I’ll probably make a masterpost for these posts. for my own reference and also bc I keep referencing previous posts in these #Kyana is doing this thing where on one hand she’s like #‘now that I made it through this horrible experience nothing scares me anymore’#but also she’s not over that experience

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incorrecthomosexuals · 3 years

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Sokka: I want to wake up with you every day for the rest of our lives

Zuko: I wake up at 4:30 AM

Sokka:

Sokka: I want to see you at some point every day for the rest of our lives

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xy-is-i · 3 years

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So like I had an (atla) idea....

So the old herbalist has her cat and just the entire Pohuai stronghold knows you don't mess with the cat. New recruits have an entire part of their induction where they are told not to anger this cat

It starts simple, like the soldier's respect the herbalist. Like yeah she may be Earth kingdom but her remedies are surprisingly effective and it beats waiting weeks for medicine to come in and just hoping for the best. And everyone who goes there knows she's got a cat and that you do not mess with the cat unless you wanna get banned from the healing hut.

And of course being a cat, Miyuki cares not for the rules of us mortals and just breaks into the stronghold for a snack. Like they have a legit problem of this cat ransacking their storage and they try to catch her each time but she's too quick. What are they suppose to do? Send the archers? No. They're best at range and nobody is gonna shoot the old women's cat. Their superiors of course are all huffy and like "what you can't handle one lousy feline? Your slacking in training blah blah" so ye going to them is a no go.

The old lady learns of this when one of them goes to get some ointment or something and she's like I'm so sorry Miyuki is causing you all trouble, but its nice she's made some new friends.

And just oftentimes gaurds on patrol will swear that they see glowing eyes in the darkness but the other guys who knows whats up are just like "shh, don't talk about it if you know what's good for ya." So rumors start about the stronghold being haunted.

Those who know better will be like its probably that cat, but then they're like when have we not seen that cat? It's been around for years. How long do normal cats live? And next thing you know there's a rumor that Miyuki is a spirit that has been around before the stronghold was even built, who's probably contracted to the herbalist.

So you don't mess with spirits, everyone knows that but surely it's just a rumor. That is until they capture the literal bridge between words (aka the avatar) and like one of the gaurd's notice there's fur on him. White fur. Like the cat. Oh no. And then a fricken spirit with a blue face and an eery grin breaks into the stronghold and rescues the Avatar and so naturally the logical conclusion is Miyuki straight up summoned it. So some guys end up building a makeshift shrine and place offerings to please the cat spirit and most of the stronghold just ends up laughing it off though until they hear that Miyuki spares no on

So back at the ship Iroh notices Zuko is acting strange and has a bruise obviously forming on his head and like probably a concussion. But good news, he knows of this super effective herbalist not far and he takes his nephew there because Zuko; who insists he's fine, refuses to be left at the ship in an attempt to prove otherwise even though he can hardly go a few feet without stumbling a bit. So they get there and the lady gets to work on some medicine for the angsty teen and like in the back is a couple gaurds from the stronghold waiting for their own concoction to take back (considering the scuffle from last night with the whole avatar thing) and the old lady offers the princes to sit but of course before Zuko sits down Miyuki just straight up steals his spot and well Zuko loves animals he is too confused and sleep deprived for this shit and starts to get worked up because the cat looks so smug like Azula when she takes his things and then he just passes out from the concussion but like the gaurds don't know thats why. All they know is the prince isn't even safe from the spirit Miyuki. And of course they go back and tell everyone how the banished prince tried to pick a fight with, and was instantly knocked out by Miyuki.

And suddenly a lot more people start placing offerings and everyone just accepts that yup, spirits infest the stronghold.

Bonus: somebody knocks over the makeshift shrine right when the moon disappears and everyone just panics. Afterwards a more permanent one and statue is made to honor the great spirit Miyuki.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #Miyuki #cat #herbalist #Pohuai stronghold #random idea I had #hope this doesnt offend anyone #my posts

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tysukis · 3 years

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Hi, first(?) AU anon here. I will absolutely dive down this rabbit hole with you. I went a little overboard (sorry?). I absolutely agree with you on your Zuko take. I think we all kind of land there naturally. But I also think that Zuko would latch onto stability the moment he realized he had it. So this is kind of how I see it going down:

I think the band Sokka is part of would be solid. Just a local hit, right? But Sokka is the plans guy, and the aspirations guy, and they can do *so much better*. I 100% do not know how real life musicians work so add a pinch of salt here, but he would absolutely land them a gig as openers to a mediocre niche headliner just by sheer power of phone calls and charm. (He scripted it as much as possible, we all remember how that canon speech went when he winged it, but he knows how to put words together when he has time).

And yeah I love the idea of Zuko being an academic. I'm assuming Ozai is out of the picture for this, and the boy gets to pursue his passions instead of an expectation. Unfortunately, you mix in passion and the general anxiety of a kid who lived under intense scrutiny and you get an adult who gets tunnel vision during spring finals/prep for a conference/etc. So he doesn't quite rise to the occasion when his boyfriend drops this life changing news, he's proud but distracted, and he's already so bad at words in comparison to Sokka that it's just. Lackluster. And he probably meant to meet them at the bar/house party to celebrate after he got home but he's sleep deprived and his phone is dead because he's a disaster sometimes.

So now you've got Sokka stewing on immediate events, and being a little heartbroken because he went all out every time Zuko accomplished *anything*, even if it wasn't super impressive to Zuko himself. And maybe there's a bit of Zuko assuming Sokka doesn't need that reciprocated. He just doesn't vocalize his important needs, so Zuko assumes they're being met, you know? I like the drama of a blown up confrontation but also the idea that Sokka just confronts him sounding hurt and so damn tired of being the emotional one for that long.

But on the other side you have Zuko with his internalized plan that this is his forever person, and he does go to almost every performance even if they don't play his preferred music. And he assumes Sokka is satisfied with this. Maybe because Zuko can't imagine being happier than near his family - the good ones anyway - or because he genuinely thinks Sokka and the band are happy with being local celebrities and leaving it at that. So he plans for permanence. Because he is still a disaster, Zuko probably never vocalized this beyond doing window shopping for apartments or something. Vague jokes about a wedding that Sokka laughs at/agrees with and Zuko interprets as, "Yes I am also thinking about being here with you forever." He's not the wordsmith, he's the pragmatist and love means house shopping and snuggling over takeout and planning trips to visit their distant family together, right? Sokka's confrontation blindsided him, because he thought they were on the same page, and Sokka didn't have to leave to keep playing music, why is that even a thing??

They're both justified in being jaded because they're dumb as hell (affectionate). This isn't an AU for two grown ass men who have put in therapy time, they're both young and full of their own understanding with poor communication skills.

musician au anon!!! hello welcome back thank you so much for this incredible ask, let’s GO

(I’m gonna pop this one under a read more because otherwise this post will be eight miles long lmao)

Honestly I’m wracking my brain with what I can possibly add to this because you’ve got like. A fully fledged outline here my dude and it’s a good one. Do you write? Because you should, if you don’t. I still love the alternative take of Sokka being the one to leave and honestly this pretty much cements how much potential it has. I absolutely adore how you’ve thought about just how the communication would break down between them - and you’re completely bang on the money with it as well. Zuko is fully a hot disaster and would completely just assume Sokka’s needs are being met if he isn’t vocalising them, and we know Sokka, he’s a complainer but when it really comes down to those he loves - he’s known for being pretty selfless and for putting up brave faces. I can totally see Sokka perhaps almost feeling a bit self conscious about how hurt he is by Zuko’s lack of enthusiasm. Because Zuko loves him, right? And it’s just one show, right? So maybe he’s just overreacting, right? Or maybe he’s actually not even that good. Oh no, maybe Zuko hates his music and is just waiting for the right time to break it to him gently. Oh no, oh no, oh no. I think I might have already said it at some point tonight but Sokka would absolutely spiral until he convinces himself that him leaving would be nothing more than simply just leaving before he gets left. And like you said: Zuko is out here planning a whole future assuming that they’re on the same page, meanwhile he has no idea.

I totally buy Sokka winging his way into a supporting act spot using his charm and charisma, and yeah his speech in canon didn’t go too well but this could likely be over the phone to only one person which would probably make it easier. I was thinking about how Sokka performing would work in conjuncture with his canon almost stage fright/fear of public speaking - and I’m leaning towards the hc that he embodies a sort of persona in front of large crowds and he’s able to let that take over and act casually and confidently no matter the audience. (source: I am someone who studied acting and excelled in public speaking most of her life despite having a chronic anxiety disorder - playing parts and speaking on stage didn’t feel like ‘me’ because I was always channeling a character either fictional or an alternative version of myself. It works, folks.)

Are we thinking he broke away from the band and went on to succeed in a solo career? As in, he felt being local heroes was a limited pathway? Or did they all go together? Who else would be in it I wonder.

I LOVE your interpretation of Zuko and how the factors under which he was raised would shape him, especially in a modern setting. He would absolutely go into tunnel vision and that perfectionist mindset he was essentially forced into as a kid would probably be alive and well into adulthood. (And yeah, these aren’t men who have been to therapy - yet! - so we’re probably gonna assume that Zuko views this as a Perfectly Normal And Healthy Way To Live And Not At All A Trauma/Survival Response.)

I’m assuming this confrontation is what leads to their break up and then Sokka going off to pursue music further? I wonder, even all their other issues aside, what Zuko thinks about him travelling so far? As you said, we’re operating under the assumption that he doesn’t understand why Sokka couldn’t continue music and stay local. Even if things were perfect between the two, I imagine they still might not see eye to eye on that, which of course would just be another breaking point for them to tack onto the list.

As for their eventual reconciliation, Kaleigh @zukkau with her gigantic brain, said earlier that Sokka being the one to leave could also tie into a whole ‘I couldn’t ask you to uproot your whole life for me’ anxiety (especially if we’re painting zuko as a bit of a homebody here; hates change, likes routine) and that sets up perfectly for a “I would go anywhere for/with you” moment. All this to say that I think that would slot into this (^) narrative nicely.

If you have (or anyone has) anything more to add or touch on I would absolutely love to hear it, I am now fully in love with this AU and all messages and mentions of it are permanently welcome in my inbox and DMs <3

#I love this au so much. so much.#all of u with ur big brains #amazing #answered #musician au

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didntaskforyourwholelifestory · 5 years

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Darling it’s Late | Closed RP

thcbluespirit:

[x]

“The people of the Budo province down south may disagree with you.” He laughed remorsefully, pushing away the paperwork. Another summer’s end, another series of island-wrecking typhoons. And this year’s had been particularly bad.

Enough of that. Zuko peered up at the slender figure in his doorway, smiling. It seemed he wore a permanent frown these days, though he could never keep his face straight around Mai. He trusted her to do enough of that for the both of them, anyway.

“Come in, Mai. I’m sorry-” irritated, sleep deprived eyes met the ticking clock upon his desk. “Gods, when did it get to be so late?”

@thcbluespirit

Zuko was absorbed, as of late, in the mountains of paperwork which passed across his desk on the day to day. Mai didn’t really need to make her way through the mostly deserted halls to her husband’s study to know that he would be huddled over his desk, squinting his sore eyes at the surface of some scroll or other.

His joke elicited a twitch out of the corner of her mouth, and the Fire Lady pushed herself away from the dark wood of the door frame, wandering further into the quiet candle light of the room. She came behind Zuko’s hunched back, lowering herself to her knees next to him, a hand bracing gently against the curve of Zuko’s spine.

She gathered in close, her shawl pulled a little tighter around her shoulders.

“What are you reading,” she inquired, resting her chin on Zuko’s shoulder, blinking sleepily herself. She had grown unused to having the bed next to her being empty. She wouldn’t get any more sleep than Zuko without him beside her for the night.

“Maybe I could help you speed things along?” She’d been hoping to have Zuko at dinner, truth be told. Her tongue pushed at the backs of her teeth, willing her to say what she had meant to at the evening meal.

Right then, in his study, in the middle of the night, was not the time.

#Darling it's Late #thcbluespirit

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