Carlos is still talking. 

Ben can't listen. There's too much blood in his ears, bounding there like the drumbeats that they'd marched to that whole long, boring summer. Military training doesn't mean a lot when you're ten, eleven, twelve. Even as thirteen year old boys, Ben and Chad were still princes of the realm, and they hadn't been allowed to do anything more than duel with each other and a few of the other junior officers. They'd spent most of their time doing marching drills with their units, attending strategy lectures, and sneaking off to hit each other with their shiny new practice swords. 

They'd broken a lot of swords. 

The broken pieces went in a bin. 

Recycling. That's what was supposed to happen. Their scraps melted down and reforged into more practice swords for more careless, stupid princes. 

But he scraps go to the isle. 

They wouldn't arm the villains. Not on purpose. They wouldn't give them weapons, wouldn't give them another reason to feel like they should turn on their guards and make a push for freedom. His father-- the King is too afraid for that. 

But children's swords aren't really weapons. They're lightweight. Barely sharpened. They break when they're hit too hard, and the pieces can be sharp, but they're small. Nobody in their right mind would think of a broken practice sword as a weapon, not when there's knives and glass and gunpowder to watch out for. It's not so far-fetched to think that a bin of broken metal scraps might have made it into the standard recycling tubs, and from there, out to the isle of leftovers. 

".....he grabbed most of them, but there were enough to go around. I got stabbed through the back by Harriet Hook," Carlos is saying. He taps a spot on his chest, where a sword might have come out. "It sucked, cause dying always sucks. We never knew where the kiddy sized swords came from, though." 

Ben cringes away from the words without thinking. The icy-hot shame is covering him top-to-bottom, from the sweaty slide of his toes, secure in the clean, bright sneakers that he's always had replaced before they start to wear out, to his head, which feels horribly disconnected from his body. "Me. It's my fault." 

Carlos looks up at him. Really looks, turning his whole body into it. "Nah." 

"My sword killed you," Ben whispers. He feels-- 

His stomach is churning worse than it did on the first day of his official rule as king. 

"You didn't stab me." Carlos says, and his hands are warm and dry on Ben's arm. They don't make the nausea disappear, but it's harder to feel like his body is disconnected when there's a firm hand squeezing him back together. "Hey. Look at me. You're not the one who stabbed me in the back." 

"I let it happen." 

Carlos's face is entirely blank. "Right, sorry. I forgot that you were there, and watched Harriet and her dad and their crews grab the little kiddie swords and go on a murder spree. You were totally responsible for not stopping them, because you totally knew about it. How could you do this to me. I'm so devastated." 

Princes have no shortage of education. Ben's known since he was a child that the scraps and broken pieces that the good people of Auradon can't use anymore get sent to the Isle, and if he'd thought, for just a moment, about what the bin for broken swords looked like, he might have realized that they weren't being melted down. He might've thought about the consequences of his actions, and spared his friend a little bit of pain. 

Ben heaves in a breath that doesn't come quite as easily as it should. "I know. But I'm still sorry you went through that, and I'm sorry I didn't think about where the broken parts would go." 

Carlos shrugs, and starts walking again. "We got literal trash most of the time. It was something different to do. And hey, I learned how to rip out a floating rib because of those swords, so it wasn't all bad." 

They're almost to their backpacks now. "I think you and I have different ideas of bad," Ben says, steering the two of them carefully towards their things. "Where I come from, dying is considered pretty bad." 

"It's like, a little bad," Carlos drawls, flashing his stupid little half-smile up at Ben like he's trying to be funny. "I've had worse. And hey, now that I'm here--" 

His eyes are sparkling now, and Ben just knows the joke that's coming is going to be terrible. "No--" 

"You can sheathe your sword in--" 

"NO--" 

Carlos hops back from the hand Ben's trying to slap over his mouth. "This is oppression! My freedom of speech is being violated!" 

"You can't make jokes about dying on school grounds!" 

"Can so!" Carlos cries, hopping backwards again. "I can say anything I wa--ow." 

Ben drops his hands. "Wow." 

"It's a new expression," Carlos shoots back, even though the way he's gone stone-still says otherwise. He's still in pain, and Ben let the murder talk distract him from the painkiller argument, and now he's gone and done something extra stupid while trying to hide whatever's wrong. "Anything I wow. It's like. Whatever I can bullshit you into believing?' 

"Nice try." 

Carlos sighs. "There's no chance you'll drop it, huh." 

The boy is young and Sokka hasn't been a big brother for a while now, but it turns out that it's like riding a penguin - you never really forget. So when Aang gets kidnapped by some ponytailed jerk, of course he goes after him.

That he only manages to ruin Aang's escape and get them both captured is beside the point, okay? The Fire Jerk cheated.

(Appa follows them, if you're wondering. Aang doesn't seem to be in any real danger. Zuko isn't an especially merciless captor, no matter how he tries.)

Sokka finally gets some news. The Frost Wolf is believed to be a Northern raider (to protect his tribe from reprisals) and he is feared. He leaves only one survivor in each of his raids. He tasks them to deliver a simple message: the seas are no longer safe for the Fire Nation. He replenishes his crew with convicts and pirates. They say he has a crazy mechanist working for him. They say that an icy fog follows where he goes, blocking out the sun and chilling Firebenders to the core. They say he can't be killed.

-

"So, these guys of yours -" Sokka began and paused to let the answering "they're not my guys!" wash over him, "do they say anything about a girl?"

The Prince's ears reddened. "I don't listen to that kind of filth."

Which means you have listened, Sokka might have said if he felt like teasing. He didn't.

"Not like that! A girl, a little younger than me. Have you heard anything about that?"

Sokka held his breath. This was it. Of course, it didn't mean anything if Zuko hadn't heard...

"No." The Prince's voice was unusually quiet. Zuko's good eye glinted in the orange light of the torches.

Sokka couldn't help that his exhale caught in his throat on the way out, it wasn't - it was just a shock, he reasoned, it didn't mean anything that Zuko hadn't heard...

Zuko stood up and made to walk out. He stopped at the door.

"I'm sorry," the Prince said. "I have a sister, too."

The door closed and Sokka was left alone and with questions. Questions like:

How did he know?

-

The trip to the Fire Nation is long. Any experienced commander could have told Zuko to limit his interactions with the prisoners. To rotate out their guards and never have their meals brought by the same person if he could avoid it. Any experienced military commander would have seen the risk of two child prisoners, one of who is particularly genial and charming while the other is funny and sarcastic.

Iroh, one of the most experienced military commanders alive, encourages Zuko to learn all he can about his enemy. It's an advantage, you see.

(And if the watch lists are edited to put crewmembers with children into frequent and close contact with the prisoners - well, that's Iroh's prerogative. He is a General. And if there are a few minor navigational errors that lenghten their journey, well, that he knows nothing about. He's a General, not an Admiral.)

Meanwhile, Princess Azula is tasked with putting an end to the Frost Wolf's provocations. It would be terribly inconvenient if she were to have frequent encounters with another bending prodigy, about her age and wearing blue robes and a mask. They should make out about it.

- The ice fortress is surrounded by a minefield of roving icebergs and ice spikes that are just under the surface, to deter invaders. Also by Katara, though designed by Hakoda

- The Fire Nation homeland is growing poorer thanks to Hakoda. The colonies and the forces in the Earth Kingdom are doing just fine, because they can loot and tax and steal all they want - but even a few ships being lost means that those goods never reach the homeland, not to mention the cost of building new ships. Ozai is SO pissed

- Chief Arnook is not having a good time. Hakoda keeps telling everyone that he represents the North which means Fire Nation raids on their shore, which only makes Hakoda more popular since he's the only one fighting the Fire Nation. Every time Hakoda visits, he recruits people which means he's bleeding men. And he can't stop Hakoda from visiting because Hakoda also brings in trade and generously gives away his spoils, and he's popular, and also Hakoda would probably kill him if he tried. The NWT is enjoying a resurgence. Chief Arnook is suffering

- Yue is Not on Hakoda's side. She is quietly being radicalized, and she's also not even a little afraid of Katara, since she saw Katara way back when Katara was a scared 10-year-old who'd just lost her mother and been taken by her father on a vengeance quest, while Yue was a mature, poised 12-year-old already. Everybody else is terrified of Katara, and Yue constantly calling her and Hakoda out is actually giving her quite a bit of political clout and following

- Aang, Sokka and Zuko do eventually become buddies (and Iroh manages the crew). They're joined by Suki, Toph and Ty Lee. Since Ty Lee is never recruited by Azula, the rest end up running into her at the circus, and she's happy to see Zuko but also TOTALLY vibes with Aang

- So team Avatar is Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Suki, Toph and Ty Lee.

- Team Frost Wolf is Hakoda, Katara, the Mechanist, OC's such as Katara's master... I'm thinking Jet but. Would that get too messy?

- Team Fire Nation is Ozai, Zhao, War Minister Qin (presumably hard at work creating an underwater superdrill sorry I promised my therapist I wouldn't talk about the drill anymore) and of course Azula.

- Azula and Katara are. they. They want to kill each other but it's becoming apparent to both that they both have a monster for a father who wants to make a monster out of them, and has maybe already succeeded. They have so much in common. Every moment is like looking into a mirror & they HATE that.

- Azula and Katara WILL get stranded together in a situation where they have to work together to survive. They spend a good amount of time calculating if it would be better to die, just to make sure the other one dies as well. Or if they should cling to each other and hate each other and claw at each other until the pain feels good.

- Zuko and Sokka slowly realize that they are, in fact, the healthy, well-adjusted members of their respective families. This distresses both of them a normal amount.

- Sokka has the heartbreaking moment when he realizes that Aang is more his little sibling than Katara.

full body sketch - $30 | hips up sketch - $25 | torso up sketch - $20

full body lineart - $45 | hips up lineart -$40  | torso up lineart - $35

Color; base price + Flats= $20 or +full shading/rendering= +$30.

+ Per extra character + $15

+Background + $30

From scratch character design; +$30 and + $10 per extra design/outfit

INFO

I keep the right to decline a commission if I don’t feel comfortable doing it.

I keep the right to post your commission on my social medias(If you post it please credit me)

You’re not allowed to modify(without permission) and/or resell your commission.

What can I draw?

Armor, weapons, people, half humans, mostly people, magic, getting better at backgrounds, blood and injury or just horror themed.

What will I not draw?

Nsfw(still practicing, ill let yall know when nsfw commissions are open lol) Mecha style stuff, i have no clue how to draw that, Animals are a big if/maybe for me, im not good at drawing animals. furries, no hate, just no clue how to draw in that particular style lol

How to commission me?

Just hit me up on here, Discord(under; rosesparrow)(prefreble), and or on my email at [email protected] and i'll get to you as soon as possible.

Tell me what you want, with references and key info about your character and or whatever you want drawn, and ill get started as soon as i can.

After that I’ll tell you if it’s okay with me and I’ll make some concepts. I show you the concept sketches, you choose one and I’ll wait until I get your payment. Then I’ll go back to your commission. When the flat colors will be set on your drawing, I’ll send it to you so you can check if it’s okay. If it is, I’ll go back to it and I’ll finish it!

!IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THE PAYMENT!

Payments are done through Paypal, Cashapp, and Venmo. However, don’t send me the payment as a gift. Wait until I send you a bill. That way, Paypal can’t be a bitch to you nor me. Paypal takes taxes but i wont include any extra billing in my invoices, so dont worry about it.

If you have other questions regarding my commissions, you can send me a DM or an e-mail at [email protected] .