beautiful in rage

choi yewon (arin). female. she/her. presenting lady tai haena, twenty three year-old firebender loyal to house ryu and tai. charming yet unforgiving, they find themself apprehensive of fire lord chaesan’s reign. will this be their salvation or their undoing ? - penned by lily. 21+. she/her.

because i believe in tldr’s before the huge chunk of text: 

tldr: your local grief stricken teenager grows up to become a maybe murderess! good luck with that fellas! 

background:

the youngest child of house tai, the beloved and doted upon little lady of dragonstone. dragonstone may have been in the cold northern regions, but it was still a major port city. haena grew up surrounded by bustling port workers and foreign workers, absorbing every story and detail with gleaming, curious eyes. she was always a lover of stories, and the best storytellers always came off the ships in her family’s harbor. 

she’s a bright and vivacious young girl, an adventurer in the making. while she loved to spend her free time climbing up trees and exploring every nook and cranny dragonstone had to offer, she always found her way back home. she used to follow her brother around all the time, playfully called his little shadow whenever he was home. he always had the best stories, and treats hidden for her in his sleeves.

but this wouldn’t be an interesting story if it was all happiness, would it? no, because at eleven years old, the house of tai is shaken by the execution of its second child, then the death of its head of house.

when her brother died, it was like something inside her died too. a break in her body, fractured by grief that was too big for her chest. there was no outlet, no way to process the pain she was carrying around. for the weeks after his execution, she could hardly be comforted. a shell of her former self, she became a ghost in her own home. curled up in tears in his old bedroom, until her muffled sobs turned into screams. 

she learns to live with it. somehow. its a constant weight in her chest that she carries around, a burden she has learned to breathe with. her grief lends to rage, a drive to never feel so helpless again. 

she made a monster of her grief, until it consumed her whole. 

maybe it would have been fine, if her rage wasn’t targeted at the crown. at the royalty their house is sworn to serve. at the whole structure that allowed a king to learn an art from his loyal vassals, only to ban them from the very thing they lovingly shared with him, and years later, sentenced her brother to death. 

yeah, that wasn’t really gonna fly in the fire nation even if she kept it more or less under wraps enough not to be setting off alarms about an unhinged teenage girl who daydreamed about killing the fire lord in various gruesome and creative ways! 

basically, her mom sees all the gasoline she’s filled herself with and was like oh i have a good idea, let’s deal with this is by shipping her off to a foreign nation and marrying her off to a random man she’s never met!

spoiler: it was not a good idea

lord lee kihyun embodied his element. he was steadfast and unwavering, as consistent as the stone he worked. these were admirable traits, ones that lended well to his career and loyalty to the earth kingdom’s royal family. they may have been good ones in a husband, at least, one that wasn’t such a traditionalist. he had a specific idea of what his new fire nation wife should be like. pretty as a picture, quiet, obedient. and submissive. that last one was very important.

and guess which one haena will literally never be!

the long story short is: kihyun and haena did not get along. during the long and lonely days and weeks and months she was there for a ‘courtship,’ he would spend his days either ignoring her existence or micromanaging and criticizing her every move. there was no winning in his eyes, only her sins.

one day after their marriage, kihyun tragically ( and mysteriously hoho ) dies late at night. he was a bit of a lightweight, you know? it was a point of teasing amongst his friends, how the ever stoic and steady lee kihyun would become hazy and easily flustered with just a few drinks. poor haena tried to get him back to their room, but when she left to find someone to help her ( he was just so much bigger than her, nearly twice her size it seemed like some days, she had to have someone help her carry around this massive man who was so much stronger and larger than her!!! ), they returned to find him on the ground outside, fallen from a balcony in his drunken stupor.

people love to gossip, and there was no hotter gossip than the newly widowed lady haena and the lack of witnesses to her husband’s death. everyone knew she wasn’t happy in the earth kingdom. some people thought “poor haena, lost her husband a day after they were married. a widow at twenty three. most of her peers aren’t even wed yet at that age.” most were more cynical, cycling rumors and theories as to what happened. 

between court ladies, they whisper “i heard lady haena murdered him for love. isn’t it just so tragic and romantic? she killed for her lover back home, the one ripped away from her through this marriage. now she returns home to him, hands stained bloody. will the embrace be as sweet as she imagined it?”

soldiers training in the courtyards say otherwise between parries. “she’s fire nation, isn’t she? all that hunger for power, i heard her parents basically let the first person who expressed interest have her because she was so much trouble back home. now they’re getting her back, hungry for more than she’s ever been destined for and cocky enough to get away with murder.”

a palace maid says to another, passing plates of food between bustling hands. “i heard she did it just because. just to know she could do it.”

came back to the fire nation two weeks ago, after three months of “mourning” aka investigation into his death. results? inconclusive. there was nothing to prove she did it. nothing to prove that she didn’t. 

the rumors follow her home, every action another piece of evidence for someone’s personal theory. maybe she didn’t cry enough at the funeral. maybe she wasn’t dressed appropriately. maybe she was too wracked by her grief and shock she couldn’t do anything but be moved across seas. everything was proof for a crime no one could solve.

still. don’t you want to know if she did it?

wanted connections ( these are scant, please dm on discord or tumblr...i guess...to plot and brainstorm! ):

ya girl is back in town just in time to celebrate the new fire lord! would love to plot her previous relationships that she left behind when she left for the earth kingdom and see how they have changed now that she’s back home and has ( maybe ) gotten away with murder!

people from the earth kingdom or were in the earth kingdom for any long period of time in the last year while haena was there. maybe you felt bad for haena, who you could tell her lovely dead husband didn’t really care for! maybe you believed everything he said about her! maybe you think she’s an innocent widow framed by court gossip! maybe you think she’s a murderess who got away with the worst of crimes! let’s play around with it!

someone who was close to her dead brother who maybe has a soft spot for her because of who she is and maybe yall bonded over that grief!

would love for someone to realize girl is unhinged. she’s doing a pretty good job at Not Being Unhinged or Concerning In Public but someone has gotta be able to see her and be like wow look at that ticking time bomb!