Okay I just needed one person to indulge me in my bloodymary Avatar the Last Airbender au, so thanks @maadskittlez29 !
Here’s an in-depth synopsis cause I’m not sure I’ll ever write this fic:
“Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the spirits attacked. Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.”
Basically, the spirits have escaped the Spirit World and have been attacking people around the world for seemingly no reason. This obviously is a problem that the avatar would solve, but none came forth in the years after the previous (air) avatar* died. So the world is left to wonder what happened and defend themselves.
It’s really difficult to fight back against the spirits, much less kill them, so a lot of people die. Population hubs become much more militarized and isolated from one another, since travel is much more dangerous.
In response to this global catastrophe, the Consolidation of Iron forms. This group is comprised of people from all four nations, hoping that their combined forces will make a difference. The COI is probably mostly based out of the Fire Nation, since they have been making strides in technology and military equipment—one of the few things that seem to be effective in the fight. (Thus the “iron” in the name.)
Ava is one of the naval captains that travels the world and tries to fight/kill spirits before they wipe out less equipped villages. In her mind, the avatar is dead or abandoned them long ago, so the COI is the only hope for humanity.
On the other side is Eva Stratt, who is part of the White Lotus. The group still puts their faith in the avatar returning, but their numbers are dwindling. They also believe that there is some imbalance that is causing this problem, and the spirits should not be killed. After all, the spirits’ connection to nature means that destroying them could cause untold damage on the environment. However, this opinion is not popular since people are dying.
I’m currently thinking Carl, Yao, and Ilyukhina (pretty much anyone from Project Hail Mary) are also members of the White Lotus, though I don’t want all of them to be air nomads; each probably lives in a different nation.
The White Lotus needs to take drastic measures to fulfill their goals, and so Stratt essentially banishes Ryland Grace from the Northern Air Temple, saying he cannot return until he’s found the avatar.
Grace is a nonbender who grew up among airbenders.** Maybe because of this difference, or maybe he’d always have an interest, Grace becomes a scientist with a focus in spirit powers (since airbenders are naturally more connected to their spiritual side). However, he used to spend his adult years just giving young airbenders a basic education. Now that he’s out in the real world, he’s a bit unprepared.
After some time traveling alone, Grace meets Rocky. Rocky is a spirit. He traveled from the Spirit World to this world in the same way that all the bad spirits did, but he’s not corrupted like they are. He explains that something is happening that he and the other spirits do not understand, so Rocky is on a similar mission to figure out the problem. Now they can work together for the same cause—though Rocky has to go into hiding if Grace needs to stock up on supplies. Everyone would assume he’s an evil spirit without listening to an explanation.
After a long time (years?) of traveling together, Grace and Rocky go to the South Pole. Grace hears folklore of a certain area, called the “blood ocean,” where no one dares to travel through. Accounts vary as to why: cursed waters, ghosts, cannibals. But it seems like a place with a lot of potential spirit energy that they should look into.
Before they get that far, they see a weird iceberg, and decide to check it out. Somehow, they crack it open, and a beam of light shoots into the sky.
Inside is a man with one arm.
Simon grew up on Eden, an island near the South Pole. The population is made up of a fringe group of waterbenders who learned how to bloodbend. Their obsession and abuse of this power led people to fear them—for good reason. It had become a cult. The whole group decided to live on an island away from the rest of society. Their poor reputation meant that no one wanted to trade with them, avoiding that area entirely, for decades (centuries?) until people no longer remembered why they avoided the island or that there were even people living there. Instead, the blood ocean myth kept everyone away.
Eden is not the most agriculturally rich area, and so food and supplies are scarce. Their culture is all about two things: survival and their fanatical view of bloodbending. All waterbenders are taught bloodbending. All bloodbenders are taught to fight. Everyone is taught that the outside world is out to get them, and any day might be the day they need to defend their homes against invaders.
Because Eden is so far removed from the rest of the world, memory of the avatar has been forgotten. So when the previous avatar died, and Simon showed signs of being the next one, no one recognized it or understood what that meant. He was just told he was weird and to suppress anything that went against the status quo. He grew into adulthood without really thinking about the strange things that sometimes occurred around him.
That is, until one day when he lost his temper. Simon goes into the avatar state and accidentally kills a significant number of people. As punishment, his limbs are tied to prevent him from bending, and he is cast out on a makeshift raft into the ocean for a slow, torturous death.
Simon probably goes a bit crazy, drifting in and out of consciousness, in and out of the avatar state, possibly in and out of the Spirit World. Something about this combination calls a malicious spirit to him. The Eel has been scheming about ways to escape and uses this opportunity to somehow open a rift between the worlds. But it also probably tortures Simon a bit too, just for the fun of it.
At some point, Simon manages to get free of his bindings and immediately goes into the avatar state to escape. The Eel chases, biting off his arm, and so it’s only when Simon gets to shore that he’s able to form a protective barrier. And just like Aang, he then gets frozen on ice for 100 years.
When he wakes up, Simon doesn’t have a clear memory of what he went through. Instead, he remembers pain and teeth and cold. Cue a meet ugly with Grace, who’s pulling him out of the ice.
Grace is pretty sure Simon is the avatar, but since the man clearly is going through a lot and doesn’t know what’s going on, Grace focuses on just getting them to somewhere safe. However, it slowly dawns on him that this man is the hope for humanity, the goal for his mission, and the ultimate subject for all his scientific studies. So it’s hard for him to balance his desire to study the Simon and help someone in need.
Also, this means that Grace’s job just got a whole lot more complicated. He was just looking for the avatar—he wasn’t prepared to actually find him. Simon needs to master all four elements. So Grace and Rocky are now along for the ride.
For his part, Simon is just having trouble adjusting to the basics: he’s missing an arm, meaning he can’t waterbend like he used to; there’s talk of rogue spirits, which he knows nothing about; he’s in a world beyond Eden, which is so much bigger than he ever would have imagined; he’s saddled with this weird guy and his singing rock, who he can kind of understand maybe? Nothing makes sense. But he also has no desire to return to Eden for the life he once knew. Instead, Simon just wants to start over and live a quiet life.
The first time he’s accused of being the avatar, it doesn’t go well.
When the COI eventually learn that the avatar has returned, they see him as a weapon they can use to eliminate the spirits. And Grace has Simon mostly convinced of his perspective—so they are constantly trying to outrun their COI pursuers—Simon still has to grapple with the moral conundrum of his actions, of how much responsibility he wants to take, and whether he cares if he’s a good person or a monster.
A few additional plot bunnies that didn’t fit into the summary:
Simon slowly understanding Rocky’s language, even if it’s the intention and not the actual words, due to his growing connection to his avatar side. Meanwhile, Rocky has just chosen to let Grace understand him, but did not do the same for Simon.
Rocky gets captured by the COI, and Ava tries to get Simon to either “cleanse” or destroy the spirit using his avatar powers. This allows Simon to see that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, even a spirit, so he would rescue Rocky and join him and Grace in avoiding the COI.
Simon and Grace traveling to the Spirit World together.
Eden taught that bloodbending was a special gift that kept their people safe, so Simon instinctively keeps the power a secret. It only gets revealed in dramatic fashion when he betrays Grace in some way, whether it’s to join the COI or abandon the White Lotus or another event.
Grace struggling with being on “team avatar,” since he doesn’t see himself as being brave or helpful. He believes he’s only stuck around because Simon has no one else, and Grace would quickly duck out as soon as someone else took over the mentorship role—just get Simon to an earthbending master and his job is done.
Simon learning how to waterbend (and then other element bend) with only one arm.
*In my fic, this does not mean Aang. This would take place vaguely in the world of atla but wouldn’t have the characters of the show or direct connections for simplicity. If anything, this avatar would probably be Yangchen?
**The atla wiki says all air nomads are airbenders, but I’ve seen fandom posts discussing this (can’t find any—please link me if you do!) and I’m convinced this can’t be true. But even if Grace is just a 1/1,000,000 anomaly, making the spaceman an air nomad is too perfect, so I’m doing it lol
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