What If Zuko Has Body Dysmorphia. Like Along With The Hearing And Sight Loss He Just Hates The Scar So

Fic Snippet!

“Are you out of your mind?” Zuko rushed across the courtyard and bore down on Aang with an intense, almost palpable fury. “Do you know how badly you could’ve hurt her?”

“I was just…I didn’t mean to-“ Aang stammered.

“Fire is not a toy!” Zuko bellowed at him. He turned to Katara, examining her for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she assured him, her voice shaking. “I’m fine.” She was trembling visibly, and there were singe marks on her clothes, but she otherwise seemed unharmed. Zuko turned back to Aang, how was looking down at his feet in shame.

“What were you thinking?” Zuko demanded.

“I don’t know,” Aang mumbled, kicking at the ground. “I was…mad.”

“About what?” Zuko was absolutely bewildered. “What could Katara possibly have done that you thought it was a good idea to do that?”

“Nothing,” Aang admitted sullenly. He didn’t say anything after that. Zuko glowered at him, took a few deep breaths to quell his own anger.

“You’re going to clean this mess up,” he said gesturing to the torn up stones, dirt and cooling lava. “Then you’re going to do 100 fire squats. Then you’re going to work on your forms for an hour. And I don’t want to see so much as a curl of smoke out of you. You’re not responsible enough for fire. Understood?” 

“What? That’s not-“ Aang’s protests died on his lips when he saw Zuko’s expression.  He huffed, kicked at stone, and finally nodded.

“Get started,” Zuko ordered through clenched teeth. He turned back to Katara, who was watching the exchange. She was still shaking a bit. Zuko draped his arm protectively around her back and guided her away. He glanced back once more at Aang, and almost rolled his eyes when he saw the younger boy still moping at the ground. It was hard sometimes to reconcile the awesome might and eminence of the Avatar with the reality of Aang, the child.

“I’ll be back,” he warned Aang. “Have this mess cleaned up. And don’t even think about asking Toph to help.” 

I know canonically, the Lava Fissure Incident takes place while Zuko and Sokka are rescuing Hakoda, but I wanted to have Zuko see and react to it. Personally, I think it was another accidentally accurate depiction of how unready Aang is to be the Avatar. And it is also another incident that the narrative decides not to call Aang out for, so the chances of him growing from it are...well, we all know how things turned out in LoK.

[ID: two owl house drawings based on memes. The first one shows Lilith in her season 2B design sketched over the big bang theory "love is in the air? Wrong! Gad leak" meme. She's staring at the viewer with one eyebrow raised and her glasses are opaque.

The second meme is a redraw of a king of the hill scene, split into two panels. The first panel shows Belos holding up a sack of coins with magic, saying "here's 300 snails to break up with hunter". The second panel shows willow in her s2B design pointing at him and saying "save that money for our wedding". End ID]

I did two things today, and that was really beef it while making a sandwich, and draw shitty owl house memes, and baby I'm all out of sandwiches to post (@toh-described)

Mai: What are you two doing out in the rain?

Ty Lee: I'm splashing in the puddles, it's so much fun!

Zuko: I'm trying to get hit by lightning

[Context is Aang's death from being struck by Azula's lightning]

Roku: He's not waking up, it's not working!

Kuruk: Yangchen, get over here!

Yangchen: I can't!

Kuruk: FOR AANG!

[Kuruk pushes Yangchen forward. She's holding a fruit pie, which she offers to Aang].

Yangchen: ...Oh, look, I have what appears to be... a delicious fruit pie! I sincerely hoped... nothing happens to... [her voice breaks and she drops the pie] OH AANG! [starts crying]

Kuruk: ... ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL HIM FASTER?

[Yangchen runs to hug Kuruk so tightly he can't breathe].

Kuruk: Yangchen!

[Kyoshi pushes both of them out of the way and walks towards an unconscious Aang. She grabs him by the robes and pulls him up off the floor, then frantically begins shaking him to wake him up].

Roku, Yangchen, Kuruk: KYOSHI!

Yangchen: WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Roku: KYOSHI, STOP!

[All of them manage to stop Kyoshi by grabbing her arms and legs. She puts Aang back down slowly].

Kyoshi: I thought... violence... would be the answer.

Camp Camp au where everything’s the same but every time Preston gets scared/frightened he jumps into Max’s arms

matching icons for you and your worstie ✨ (+ miscellaneous enemies –> reluctant allies –> ??? doodles)

Princess with an empathic link to her sworn protector but she has severe anxiety so her door keeps getting thrown open and someone in full armor runs in yelling I'LL PROTECT YOU MY LADY, WHERE'S THE DANGER? and she's just got outlook open and there's two (2) emails she needs to reply to

Aang, surrounded by baffled councilmen, interrupted mid meeting: "ZUKO I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’D DO SOMETHING SO RECKLESS!”

Zuko, half burnt after fistfighting his latest assasin: “It’s not that bad. Besides, you’re like twelve, you don't have to worry about this”

Aang: “only tw—I was the one who—! No, you know what? I’m calling your grandpa!”

The councilmen, thinking of Azulon: “?!”

Zuko: “WAIT NO AANG I’M SORRY!”

Aang, meditating aggressively: “TOO LATE.”

Roku, taking Aang’s place: “ZUKO I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’D DO SOMETHING SO RECKLESS!”

The councilmen, losing their fucking minds: “?!?!?!????!??!???!”

some Ty Lukos for the soul

there’s a little detail that i didn’t notice about “the blue spirit” when i first watched it.  when zuko returns to his ship after his misadventures at ponhuai, avatar-less and honorless and still puzzling over aang’s speech and having made an enemy of zhao and probably severely concussed, iroh is there on deck.  

music night happened the previous night.  and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.  

iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.  

it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship.  iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.  

as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited.  iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him - 

- but iroh can wait up for him.  

iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.  

and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.  

iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.  

and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.  

zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire.  zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.

and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang.  zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission.  zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.  

and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko.  after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.

and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.  

it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion.   i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.  

one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.