#zhaang

And a little epiphany would go off in his peabrain. No, not I found my husband (well that too) but damn. the fog is making me a hufflepuff? … guess there’s worse things to be.

worse people to share them with.

Nose is back to the Zhaang grindstone! @theboyfrommakapu let me borrow their tough little nut Mizuki, and as 2021 can and should be the year of Dad!Zhao (and Flame was instrumental in the effort ✨)... 

—

Aang bent the cord around his finger, waiting, in much moroseness, for the line to answer.

“Chief Beifong speaking.” A soft chuckle peppered the other end. “Did you know I’ve started tapping into the wires? Copper, silver - they run all over the place, tingle a little when someone flips a switch. I can almost tell you’re nervous, Twinkle Toes. Quit fiddling with the cord.”

How did she...?

Nevermind. Toph’s abnormally dense interconnection with the world would prove useful another time.

“I...” Aang cut to brass tacks. “I lost him.”

“What?” -a creaking desk, then a stern officer folding over the cheeky old- “When? His bending’s diddly-squat in the surface world. Isn’t that what you told me?”

“I know, I know. It was-”

“Don’t expect my men to find your prized fossil and return it to the Zei Museum. You’re the one who begged me to keep this under wraps.”

He squeezed in a smile, hoping to feign confidence. “I wouldn’t pain you with the paperwork, Toph. Besides, it’s out of our hands. Bumi’s handling it. Well, he worded it differently, but... he promised the search would be short. In the meantime, just - keep an eye out, will you?”

“Aang.” The voice turned from scratchy to uncomfortably firm, clear as if she were right behind him. “You said he wasn’t dangerous. Now you’ve got top-notch eel hounds on his scent.”

You had better expect a visit, were her last regards. The line snapped shut, leaving him with a limp cord and heavier phone than when he’d dailed.

Aang shifted, lips tightly pursed before the air was sucked out of him in a groan. “Monkey feathers...”

—

Trees.

For a handful of miles offshore where he’d dragged his weight off a humble boat, lower half caked, gritty, and buried to the soles in sand - trees.

It was a relief.

The city was a noose. Like he could sense its tailspin out of trajectory as the safe haven of the world risen from the four nations… now a reeking, hot swamp.

Not of smell - of lost souls. The indebted, distressed, heartbroken, restless. Even a switch sent ripples. He heard enough from his own mind.

Climbing over a rock as the wind rustled and sun warmed his hands (oh, how the sun felt on his skin) Zhao found his urgency suddenly depleted. He was well inland, well surrounded to muffle the thick of civilization.

The sun’s touch grew cooler by the time he sorted out the dissonance; someone had been weeping - the lights were too bright - traffic had blared and their shrieking carried over. It was a noise he expected to see printed in the… called the… newspaper, if Zhao could be so bothered.

He finally stirred when a faint ringing sharpened to a painful, yet balanced point - smoothed to exude an artful control. In the whirlwind settled one thought:

Fire.

He fumbled out of the way (apparently so inert that a mistaken frog squirrel scampered off his chest) just as an arrow planted in his sleeve.

Bumi tells ZANY stories but there’s one time when he mentions a passing thought in Zhao’s presence like

Aang used to tell the kids about him and how he nearly brought down the balance of the world with a FISH (“Yes siree, that was one of my favorites growing up! UH, not the end of the world part… no one believed me when I said I rescued my first squad with the help of a badger frog!”)

And Zhao just, straightens a little and his eyes go a bit wide

“He told stories… about me?”

“A story, Chops. As far as I recall- oh, oh, wait! There was the one where you set your own riverboats on fire, HA…” (Zhao is staring, he is very much staring and his mouth is open)

“-or that time you tried smashing through the doors at Roku’s temple! Or when you found an underground library that told you where to get your fish?” (His throat is catching, his lips waver into a smile and he wants to weep… this is normal, right?)

“… Though I think Dad found out that one from Iroh. Either way, he was never short on a gripping tale. You’re all kinds of kooky, aren’t you?”

Zhao repeats the same thing, at least not wordlessly before fresh tears bubble in his eyes: in a world where no one remembers my name…

“He told my story.”

“… Oh, man… I didn’t bring up old wounds, did I?” Bumi scratches his head. Zhao gets up.

“On the contrary. I could kiss your father full on the mouth!” give it a couple months and that’s exactly what Zhao finds himself doing

—and he DASHES out of the room with a teary grin that he just. can’t. seem to wipe off.

~ ocean/moon parallels ✨ ~

while not nearly as potent as Yue’s connection (*waves to Zhayu schooner*) Aang does the very Mood thing of noping out of responsibility and trapping himself in ice for a hundred years ~ where the ocean almost….. guards him? that’s how i see it ¿

it’s a scary place in the deep deep blue :) i like to imagine Aang with a friendly ocean spirit re: Moana thwacking away shark squids and piranha dolphins — when they try gnawing away at the ice for the hooman food and BIG furry food.. ofc, he returns the favor at the siege.

YES! OCEAN 🤝 AANG covered.

so what about Zhao 🤝 moon?

(this is him setting my wee zhaang riverboat on fire - YES HE HATES THAT REFERENCE)

AH right. it’s Zhao 🔪 moon

Ever have three simultaneous epiphanies about the new rarepair you’ve latched onto? Fun, right?!!

(Please disregard if Zhao/Aang “Zhaang” isn’t in your circles of interest, this isn’t really intended for an audience… ya Ray trying to blow off steam by writing.. rough day 😮‍💨)

ephifancy 1. The moment Korra’s airbending kicks in

Why this one? Well, Tenzin establishes her weak point as a lack of spiritual understanding ~ making airbending her weakest element. So it’s curious that it should come sweeping in as a blow of brute force all the same, knocking Amon off his feet and freeing Mako from his grip.

The slow-mo toss of her arm is something, but the way she shouts “No!” as if she’s about to lose someone very important to her…? Maybe a similar moment was what defined Aang’s airbending in a form stripped of all grace and subtlety ~

Probably not out of worry for anyone in the Gaang, since they’re more than capable of fending off the enemy… but a hapless, blundering idiot dragged out of the Fog of Lost Souls? Aang’s job is to worry. That shared instant of don’t take him from me could be what finally bridges Korra’s airbending with that of the last airbender. (yes, him. played the pronoun card 😏)

epfefenee 2. Aang’s kids… are kinda messed up

RIP. Sacrificing (let’s say.. slightly altering) the tale of a hardworking father trying his best to balance the world along with his family for Aangst ✨

First you have Tenzin, whose memory of spending quality time with his siblings is sorely inaccurate, specifically called “foggy” (hint hint wink wink winkity hint hinty wiNK WINK—) by Kya.

Now, Tenzin may be getting on in years, but before that instance he’s never shown less than a timely, well-oiled aptitude… which can only mean this stemmed from someplace offscreen, and the answer is even rounded to his early childhood. In Aang’s (deserved, yet harmful, as the show tells us) devotion to teaching his only inclined son the ways of a lost culture… could he have thought ‘oh, two birds with one stone’ and taken Tenzin with him on premature journeys into the less idyllic spirit world? Prisons and vicious cycles of punishment, AKA Zhao’s casa - leaving him the high-strung, overbearing, questionably retentive man seen in Book One. Foggy memory indeed… and poor guy :( Aang bby the bad decision-making is rubbing off on you

*Tenzin also does exceptionally well in the Fog of Lost Souls compared to the others. A sign of some classic Mithridatism behind the scenes?

- Then you have Bumi, the man of Wild Stories with questionable credibility… but how unlikely are these stories, really, seeing the sort of happenings and creatures that inhabit the spirit world?

Could Aang have lugged two children along while he was seeing Zhao, giving Bumi that teensy spiritual push to receiving airbending later on? From his arch nemesis the shark-squid to his traumatizing brush with cannibals, not to mention the impossible escapes with silly means ~ they come off as the result of an overactive imagination, real plight bearing visible scars, or a disturbing mix of both.

- Kya… Good news! I’ll leave her alone. I guess she got away - the gays win! Likewise to Aang’s passion for raising an airbending child after a hundred-year upset, Katara would delight in teaching a spunky water girl after growing up alone in her tribe. Not as much time with Daddy; safer with Mommy! (Unless I come back to this tyke later… :3)

efishinthesea 3. Korra’s personality

This one is purely my baby… but Aang resonating so closely with Zhao that his reincarnation adopts most, if not all, of his traits and character?

🥺

Oh, how could I even begin to elaborate without melting into an incoherent puddle of rainbows?

You get it, don’t you guys? Spirit-y logic that I can’t physically synthesize when the keys are blurring with my happy tears? Two men connecting in the afterlife, navigating tough roadblocks, finding each other over and over again as their emptiness is fulfilled in ways they could have never imagined? When they finally pass on, finding rest as simple as each other’s company?