#ty lum

I'm adding a bending AU into this, but for those who want to keep the Ty Sisters all non-benders, feel free to ignore the bending thing if someone actually wants to use these character descriptions for something.

Also a backstory AU which gives a more definitive reason as to why the Ty Sisters are all obsessed with individuality to some degree. One based on the tragic exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets.

Where in the government paraded them around as a tourist attraction their entire childhood, after making a literal law that remanded their care to the government. Along with being studied like science experiments by doctors to the point where they were literally medically examined every day for years at one point.

They were considered medical curiosities due to being genetically identical quintuplets. Something never recorded happening up to that point.

Except for the Ty Sister's it's not so much the general public who gets to see them, and it's not really that they're considered medical miracles. Instead they're considered a sign that The Spirits favor the Fire Nation.

Because how else would it be possible for a woman to carry, and birth, seven identical healthy daughters, while similarly going through the birth and coming out the other end alive and well.

Their family already being nobility prevented the sisters from just getting remanded to the care of the Fire Temples, if they hadn't been then they would have just fully ended up in the custody of the Temple (and the royal family by proxy) due to the fact that a non-noble wouldn't have had the resources to care for seven newborn infants, but didn't prevent them all from becoming something similar to a shrine maiden.

They're often referred to as the Blessed Seven Sisters, or the Seven Signs of Favor.

With all of them being raised having roles in temple rituals for important holidays and rights for the highest temple, and a float in the big parade that would go through the capital during the major religious holidays.

Anyways after Ty Lee's sisters are sent out to go look for her by their parents/the sages (who still believed they have some kind of spiritual connection to one another. Which is not true).

While they stick together for a while, and even travel along with the circus, with some becoming performers in it. They nearly all split off to do their own thing when the war ends.

Fire Lord Zuko abolished their parents contract with the Temple that was forcing them to participate in rituals and parades. Heck they eventually got word that Ty Lee had joined the Kyoshi Warriors when the war ended, so it's not like they needed to find her. She was back at the capital guarding the new Fire Lord.

So they all decided that they should do what Ty Lee did and go take journeys of personal discovery to find out who they really are when not forced to be even more similar than they would be naturally.

I've decided I'm color coding the sisters, each has a color that they've claimed, but while living in the Fire Nation as nobles all were forced to wear shades of red. So they only really had the chance to start wearing clothing of their favorite color after leaving the Fire Nation.

Without further ado;

Ty Lee:

Ty Lee's character design is changed the least from what is in canon, because canonically her design is the original.

Her color is green, which is great for her while being in an Earth Kingdom circus. While her stage outfit is yellow & orange, she's free to wear as much green as she likes while off the clock.

Not to mention is helps her blend in with the other people of Earth Kingdom. Along with eventually foreshadowing her eventually joining the Kyoshi Warriors after the war is over.

Ty Lee's Thing, her unique skill that she's claimed for herself and therefore her sisters are not allowed to do, is Chi Blocking. Chi Blocking requires a lot of body control and strength in order to be effective, so being a trained Chi Blocker allowed her to easily pick up acrobatics when she joined the circus.

Ty Lee's hair was shorter when she first ran away and joined the circus, she hasn't cut it at all since running away in fact (which I'm going to put at more than a year, seventeen months I'll say, she ran away not long after her 13th birthday). So her hair (bangs included) has grown out from the identical hair cut her parents (and the sages) always insisted she and her sisters have.

[You know how her hair & bangs are shorter in the flashback. How the longest part of her bangs are level with her ear lobes.

That's basically the Fire Temple mandated hair cut her and her sisters have had since their hair got that long.

The only difference is that by the time Ty Lee ran away, her and her sisters were permitted to grow their hair to the bottom of their shoulder blades. (Remember hair is connected to honor in the Fire Nation, so I imagine it's also connected to status. Like the people with really long hair that we meet in the Fire Nation are the Royal family and really high up nobility.)

Ty Lee's always wanted to grow her hair out more, but the sages and her parents wouldn't let her.]

She continues to wear her hair in the same high braid she always has, simply because it feels weird to wear it any other way, and she's already technically rebelling by having her hair grow out so much without permission.

[This does indeed mean, Ty Lee has the longest hair out of her sisters, bangs and all.]

Ty Lee is an Airbender, and her bending developing to the point where she couldn't really hide it any longer is a large part of why she ran away to join a circus in Earth Kingdom. A nation that has been at war with her home country for a near literal century.

Ty Lee is the sister who was the most well known among the general nobility, beyond being part of the Blessed Seven Sisters. Due to her close friendship with Azula, and Mai

Her close friendship with Azula is also what permitted her to learn Chi Blocking at all. As it's a martial art restricted to being taught either to the royal family itself, or the personal guards of the royal family. With Azula having to pull some strings to get permission for Ty Lee to be allowed to learn it, and receive a teacher for it.

Ty Lee is ambidextrous due to being a born lefty, but taught to primarily use her right hand. This comes in handy when learning to fight. Ty Lee is the most athletic, and has the most combat training and experience of all of her sisters.

Ty Lee is the 4th in the birth order of her sisters placing her as the direct middle child of them all.

Ty Lee is the definitive most athletic of all her sisters, and the most muscular. Ty Lee's hourglass figure is partially an illusion, in part due to her shoulders being broader than they would be otherwise due to how muscular they are. Which when paired with her naturally wide hips, makes her waist look tiny by comparison.

Ty Lee and Ty Lao are the only sisters who are the exact same height. The two of them shared an amniotic sac.

Ty Lee's sisters (except for Ty Lat who swims, so she also has broad muscled shoulders) all have bodies that are more pair shaped rather than hourglass shaped, though none of them are exactly the same in build (especially after the war when they're no longer bound by forced conformity, and develop different lifestyles which affect their individual weights and muscle to fat ratios).

Ty Lin:

Ty Lin is the sister who has playing the flute as her Thing. Her color is cyan (light blue/green).

Ty Lin is the best at music in general, and even writes her own. Her personal dream is to someday perform her own pieces in a concert hall, possibly accompanied by an entire orchestra who's music she writes herself.

While at the circus she played the flute as part of the band who performed the music that went along with the performances. When the war ended and word came about what Zuko had done for them, and that Ty Lee had gone out and found what she wanted to do with her life (at least for now).

She eventually ended up in Ba Sing Se, working up from playing at small venues until eventually being scouted by a theater to perform in their orchestra.

Ty Lin's hair is shorter than Ty Lee's, the longest part only reaching just past her shoulder blades. Though she wears it in a completely different style. A low chignon, with her curly bangs pinned down while performing, but left loose when not.

After gaining stable employment in Ba Sing Se, Ty Lin finally had the ability to get her eyes checked over. Things that are far away had started to become blurry when she was around twelve, but as a complete non-combatant, who's favorite past time involved seeing things at close range. She was entirely unconcerned with being unable to see things that are far away.

Until the maximum distance she was able to see things clearly got shorter and shorter, and she started to become concerned that she'd eventually be unable to read her sheet music.

So she also gets glasses while in Ba Sing Se, and is also scolded by the doctor examining her for letting her eyes get that bad before going to get them checked.

Ty Lin is right handed exclusively, and has no ability to fight. She's 3rd tallest, and the chubbiest of the sisters when the war is over and her life in Ba Sing Se is stabilized.

She weighs as much as Ty Lee & Ty Lao (who are a couple cm shorter than her, but weigh close the same (Ty Lee weighs a bit more, Ty Lao a bit less) due to being athletic), but while for them it is muscle, on her it is not. She's on the higher side of average when it comes to weight for a woman her height.

So she doesn't have the insanely small looking waist that Ty Lee (though none of her sister's do, as none are as athletic & lean as Ty Lee) is shown to have, and her limbs just a bit thicker over all, with her having one of the most clearly pair shaped bodies of all her sisters. Also her face looks a little rounder than her sisters.

She's 2nd in the birth order.

Ty Lat:

Ty Lat is the sister who has swimming as her Thing. Her color is orange.

Ty Lat is the only sister who comes close to being as flexible as Ty Lee, while at the circus she takes up performing a water bowl style act.

Ty Lat ends up cutting all her hair off into a bob when the war ends, and she gets word that she and her sisters no longer belong to the Temple as pseudo religious idols.

She grows out her bangs so her hair is all the same chin length, though she has her hair pushed up out of her face with a hair band, rather than having her bangs hang and frame her face. But even when it's all down she parts her hair in the middle instead of having a side part like Ty Lee.

Ty Lat remains with the circus even after the war officially ends. She enjoys being a performer in this way, and she doesn't really know what else she'd like to do with her life other than this at the moment.

Ty Lat is right handed exclusively, she could hold her own in a brawl against equally untrained people, she's the second most athletic of the Ty Sister's after Ty Lee.

Ty Lat is the second tallest of the sisters, and not quite as muscular as Ty Lee. She's the only other Ty sister with an hour glass figure. Though it's less defined than Ty Lee's, as it's caused primarily by muscle mass in addition to their height. And being taller and not quite as muscular as Ty Lee, the illusion isn't quite as strong, so her waist doesn't look as tiny as Ty Lee's.

Ty Lat is 1st in the birth order.

Ty Lao:

Ty Lao is the sister who has dancing as her Thing, her color is pink.

Ty Lao is the most anxious and shy of her sisters, in spite of her Thing being dancing, which is a hobby that typically requires an audience if you want to make it a career.

While she did perform a few times as a danger while with the circus, she eventually moved away from performing on stage and instead moved more towards helping choreograph the various dances and performances.

When the war ends she actually ends up joining a dance company as a beginner dance teacher. As she's found that the one thing she enjoys dancing more herself, is teaching other people to dance.

Ty Lao is one of the sisters who dyes her hair when the war is over and the Ty Sisters are free from the Fire Temple and their parents control. Using pure henna, turning her hair from a light brown, to an auburn color. Along with styling it in two high buns.

Ty Lao is partially ambidextrous, being naturally right handed, but having learned to do a lot of things with her left specifically due to learning dances that involve props that use both hands.

Ty Lao is the third most athletic of her sisters, but would be completely useless in a fight as her default fear response would be to run.

Ty Lao is still pair shaped due to her athleticism not being focused in her arms & shoulders needing to lift/move all that much weight. The kind of dance she focuses on has most of her muscles built in her legs and torso, as it doesn't involve things like lifts, flips, or anything that involves supporting her body weight with her arms.

So she actually has one of the more defined pair shaped bodies of the family. As her dancing has built muscles more in the lower half of her body than it has the top.

Ty Lao is the same height as Ty Lee, the two of them shared an amniotic sac.

Ty Lao is 5th in the birth order.

Ty Liu:

Ty Liu is the sister who's Thing is playing the harp, her color is yellow.

Ty Liu is the second most confrontational of the sisters, her temper not typically apparent to people on first meeting due to her Thing seeming incredibly serene.

Though Ty Liu's Thing is playing an instrument much like Ty Lin, how they play instruments and enjoy music in general is different. Ty Lin is very rigid and by the books, reading and writing sheet music, carefully keeping track of tempo and so on.

Ty Liu generally just plays things either by memory, by ear, or by improvising if she's familiar with a song and thinks whatever she's planning will sound better than what's actually written in said song for her part.

Not to mention, Ty Liu likes experimenting with making her own string instruments. A hobby she discovered upon them leaving the Fire Nation to look for Ty Lee.

So I suppose it'd be more honest to say her Thing is putting strings on things and then seeing if she can play a tune on said thing.

Ty Liu may or may-not go a tiny bit off the rails in her celebration of the war ending and being free to peruse her own destiny beyond the Fire Temple's desires.

She shaves her head and gets both earlobes and her left nostril pierced, after passing through a place in Earth Kingdom where getting a nose piercing was a sign of becoming a woman, when the war was declared officially over.

When Ty Lee eventually sees her again, she doesn't recognize Ty Liu for a second, because she's rocking a wild barely grown in pixie cut. That, while adorably messy with how much the curls spring up when not weighed down by length, was nothing Ty Lee would have ever pictured paired with a face so similar to her own.

Ty Liu, just like Ty Lee, is ambidextrous due to being a born lefty taught to do things right handed. Though she's asymmetric ambidextrous, doing some things exclusively left handed (things she taught herself to do), and some things exclusively right handed (things she had a teacher specifically instruct her how to do). With there only being a small list of things she's able to do equally well with both hands.

Ty Liu has no ability to fight, but also she fears very little so she'd probably join a fight anyways. Ty Liu is also a firebender, something she only figures out after the war is over however. She had some kind of mental block going on that was preventing her from bending.

She sneaks back into Fire Nation not long after the war ends, as her bending has come in, and she has no idea how to stop setting things on fire. Settling on one of the outer islands but in one of the bigger port towns, where she starts learning how to control her bending, and taking an apprenticeship with an instrument maker/repair person... once she stops setting things on fire without meaning to that is.

Ty Liu is the second shortest of the girls and basically the middle of the pack when it comes to athleticism.

Ty Liu is one of the thinnest of the girls over all, due to firebender metabolism neither she nor her guardians growing up knew to feed. So her asking for more food as a kid was regarded as her essentially being gluttonous.

After being told that she was just gluttonous her whole childhood, she came to accept that she couldn't really need all that food her body insisted it did, after all, all of her sisters are just fine and don't seem hungry... Which as you might imagine caused problems.

As in stunted growth problems. As in Ty Liu was the last to hit puberty of her sisters, and also probably should have been at least a couple centimeters taller problems. As in Ty Liu struggles to identify feelings of hunger, and maintain a healthy weight on her own, because she was told her whole childhood she couldn't actually still be hungry.

Ty Liu is the least curvy of her sisters, being almost completely flat chested. Meaning that yes indeed, she did in fact have to do the ATLA equivalent of bra stuffing in order to maintain the illusion of the Ty Sisters being perfectly identical.

Ty Liu is 3rd in the birth order, being just before Ty Lee.

Ty Lum:

Ty Lum's Thing is origami, her color is purple.

Ty Lum is the least social of the sisters, even more so than the anxious Ty Lao, or the openly antagonistic Ty Woo. She has selective mutism, and has for most of her life only been able to speak to her direct family, and the staff that was partially responsible for helping raise her and her sisters.

Ty Lum ends up sticking with Ty Liu and heading back to Fire Nation with her when the war ends. She missed home (but not the Temple or their parents really).

...And she felt bad about the fact that she was actively hiding that she was a firebender this whole time when Ty Liu is struggling with it now. And being actively harmed because of it back then, to the point that it's left Ty Liu with a complicated relationship with food she's still struggling with.

[Ty Lum would simply steal food from the servant's pantry if she was still hungry after a meal. They never kept an exact enough record of their food to notice what Ty Lum was taking from it.

Which is how she got enough to eat to thrive in spite of her firebender metabolism, and that her and her sisters were all fed the same things, with the same portions.]

Ty Lum was too worried about what their parents and the sages would think if they found out that they weren't all perfectly identical. They all, already made the various left handed sisters do things with their right hand, and wear the same hair styles and have the same hair cuts, and dress the exact same. And everything else.

Who's to say they wouldn't force them all into training under the assumption that they all had to be firebenders because they're all exactly identical, to try to force out the fire how they tried to do to princess Zeisan back in the reign of Fire Lord Taiso.

She helps her sister figure out the basics of firebending, and puts out any accidental fires that start, and eventually ends up doing the book keeping at the instrument repair shop Ty Liu gets an apprenticeship at.

And of course makes sure Ty Liu actually eats, and eats enough for her firebender metabolism, especially now that she's actually learning firebending.

Ty Lum's hair is nothing to write home about. She doesn't really have a personal style she wants to stick with yet, so she mostly just let's Ty Liu style it into random hair-dos as she pleases. And if Ty Lum isn't in the mood for that she just puts it in a plain low braid.

Ty Lum is one of the least athletic of her sisters, but is also the tallest.

While not noticeable when they're not standing directly next to each other, only two of the girls are the exact same height (Ty Lee and Ty Lao), while the rest of them are either taller or shorter than the others by a number of centimeters.

All of the other sisters had some manner of lift in their shoes to make them seem the same height as Ty Lum.

Ty Lum is 6th in the birth order.

Ty Woo:

Ty Woo is the sister who's Thing is insulting people, her color is black.

Ty Woo has been the smallest and weakest of the sisters her entire life, also being the last one to hit all the milestones (other than talking that was Ty Lum).

Her being the worst of her sisters when it came to anything physical that required athletic ability or coordination, is specifically why her Thing became insulting people. For a lot of her early life she couldn't really do much else other than verbally snap at people who annoyed her.

While her health and general constitutions did improve as she got older, she'll never be able to do the more athletic pursuits of Ty Lee or Ty Lat. She's just got weak lungs as her lot in life, and there isn't all that much anyone can do about it, considering she was born with them like that.

Ty Woo dyed her hair black with henna and indigo dye when the war was over. Along with cutting her hair off short to where the longest point would just brush the tops of her shoulders, and started wearing it in a half top knot (think similar to Ursa's hair style, but with curly bangs, and shorter in over all length).

Ty Woo decides to stick with Ty Lao, with the two of them sharing an apartment in the same village. She considers it her job to stick up for Ty Lao, who as far as Ty Woo is concerned has never had a backbone.

Ty Woo would never admit it, but Ty Lao was one of the sisters she worried about going off on her own when the war ended and they decided to split up.

Ty Lum and Ty Liu had paired off together, and they balanced each other out, and while Ty Lin might be useless in a physical fight, so were most of them, she could advocate for herself just fine on her own.

With both of their hair dyed, and their differences in height and build, while most people who see them together clock them as sisters quite easily at a glance, especially ones who have very similar faces, no one's first thought is that they're identical.

With both of their hair dyed, Ty Woo's stained pure black, and Ty Lao's leaning auburn, there's never an instance where they're mistaken for one another at a glance. It's a first for both of them, it's nice.

Ty Woo is still figuring out what she wants to do with her life beyond be her shier sister's advocate.