Au Idea Where Zuko Comes Across Lieutenant Jee At Boiling Rock Because Once Jee Found Out About Zhao

 the southern water tribe ambassador AU that we all love and adore so much.

(a little zutara for you guys just because i felt like it ♥)

Hunter would be the perfect guard dog on Christmas Eve though. No one is getting into that room before they‘re authorized to unpack their presents. No. One.

You get up to try and sneak downstairs early in the morning when Camila is still asleep and you just see glowing magenta eyes staring at you from the bottom of the stairs. I'd go back to bed.

silly little comic 

Autistic Hunter Week Day 1: Special Interest/Infodump

@spinaroos-47

“Whatcha got there?” Luz tapped the table in front of Hunter to get his attention. “One of Eda’s?”

He lifted the book to show her the title without answering. Why Won’t My Palisman Eat? And Other Problems You May Encounter with Your Lifelong Partner.

“Is Flapjack okay?!”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t they be?”

“Because you’re… reading a book about how palisman get sick?”

“Sure. Did you know that they heal like regular animals if they get hurt? Even though they’re made of wood? But that would mean they’re generating palistrom wood by eating regular food! So hypothetically speaking, you could generate an infinite amount of palistrom wood by cutting off pieces of a palisman and then feeding it so it could heal!” he reached up to the palisman nestled in his hair and scratched its head. “Not that I would. Anymore.”

“Found a game hack,” Luz joked, “Infinite palistrom wood glitch. Why are you reading the book if there’s nothing wrong with Flapjack?”

“The books at the emperor’s coven weren’t really about how to take care of a palisman. There were a couple, but, well, you know. Not much need to take care of them when your plan is to…” Hunter shook his head. “Anyway, there are a ton of weird things palisman can do.” He held up a different book, this one called The Legend of the Palistrom. “Not sure how accurate this is, it’s a mythic folklore kind of story about the first palisman, but there’s bound to be some truth in it, right? Because legends are usually based on fact. It was a nice story, though.”

Luz sat down at the table as he flipped the cover of a book back and forth.

“Supposedly, palisman can hold memories from the perspective of their witch, but no one’s said how to activate and view it yet, not in any of the books I’ve read. Is it like a memory in the mindscape where you can enter it? Or is it more like an echo mouse eating a book and being able to project it as something to watch? And—okay, get this, this is weird, a palisman can not only recognize descendants of its owner, BUT will also recognize palisman carved by its owner’s family as a kind of blood relative! But it DOESN’T recognize a palisman carved from its own tree as a sibling. That being SAID, there’s an old legend that if you carve your palisman from the same tree as the tree of your betrothed, you’ll be partnered for life. The explanation behind it is that your palisman is your lifelong partner, so if you carve yours from the same wood… but that doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? I mean, if they don’t recognize each other as siblings regularly, why would partners matter? Unless it’s a combination of the family recognition AND being carved from the same tree? I don’t know, it’s probably just a romance legend that doesn’t have any fact built into it. Just sentiment, you know?”

“Probably,” Luz agreed, “It sounds sweet, though.”

“If you’re into that kind of thing. You know, all of the books mention that palisman all speak the same language, but I’ve DEFINITELY heard different sounds coming from them, and Gus and Willow’s don’t really make sounds at all—wait, hey, how do Gus and Willow know what they’re saying?!” He stood up abruptly, pushing his chair back and holding his hand out for Flapjack to turn into a staff.

“Where are you going?”

“To ask them. Duh.”

And in a flash of gold, he was gone.

New Zutara fanfic trope: Zuko is so worried about how deeply Katara sleeps that he starts constantly preparing for the worst.

- He stays up/wakes up a lot in the night to check on her and/or their surroundings.

- If there's Only One Bed? Zuko insists he'll sleep on the floor between her and the door. Katara thinks he's offering her privacy but in reality Zuko is just terrified that Katara will sleep through an ambush/robbery and he needs to be ready to defend her 🤣

- Katara is staying/going somewhere alone overnight? Zuko panics and insists on providing her a guard. (Bonus points if the guard falls asleep too and Zuko loses his shit at the guard, and then guards her himself 🤣)

- Zuko (trying to be) super quiet - maybe something has made him upset and he is crying softly to himself. Katara wakes up from the other side of the room and asks him what's wrong. Zuko is torn between feeling touched and feeling flabbergasted - "What do you mean you heard me?? Where was this "hearing" of yours when Azula exploded the temple you were sleeping in!??!?!"

Bla bla bla, you get the gist. Go on grab some tropes don't be shy, it's free real estate let's gooo

AU in which Zuko is painfully aware that his dad is an asshole and decides to vibe on his ship rather than chasing Aang-

rewatching ALTA rn (cough quarantine really do be like that) and- I cant help but laugh when watching Zuko act like a spoiled brat with heavy daddy-issues throughout the first season, knowing how awkward he’ll become later on (”Zuko here” is all I’m gonna say rip-)

now, instead of waiting for uncle Iroh to spill the tea (no pun intended) about his scar and chasing the avatar without telling his crew a word about wHY he’s so hellbent on steering his ship all over the fucking world to chase a ghost… Zuko’s just aware of why exactly he was put on this ship and decides “well, might as well enjoy the ride”

One of the first things he does after boarding the ship (after waiting for his injury to heal rip) is ask Iroh or Lieutenant Jee to cut his hair for him, since,,,, well he’s a banished prince that was sent out to chase a ghost,,, no real reason to cling onto the illusion of royality any longer, is there? so off with the hair-knot

*cue tiny, 13 year old Zuko with a bandaged eye and freshly shorn head walking up to the ship-railing and chucking his hair overboard. he waves the severed hair-knot goodbye, Uncle Iroh just brews himself another cup of calming tea-*

He knows his dad’s not expecting him to come back, or… even wants him back, for that matter.

“Sir, where is our next course leading?”

“Idk, you decide.”

Either spends his time holed up in his private quarters or fucks around on the ports whenever the ship needs to stop for supplies. Instead of spending his ‘pocket money’ on anything that could help him find the avatar he just buys whatever crap would unnerve the crew the most. (last time they let him run off on his own he came back with 67 tiny, wooden sky-bison figurines and has hidden them all over the ship. It’s been 3 years and the crew is still finding bisons hidden in their belongings.)

If it weren’t for the nasty scar you’d just assume he’s the bastard-child of one of his crew-members they’re letting tag along, not, y’know, the crown-prince of the fire-nation.

He still trains a lot- just not to capture the avatar. Just because there’s literally nothing else to do on the ship-

Because he doesn’t have such a nasty temper, the crew doesn’t wanna throw him overboard all the fucking time. Instead they just all collectively decided that they’re adopting the brat- no one’s sure how Iroh feels about suddenly having to share his nephew with 20-something sailors, but no one caught him complaining so far.

Zuko can and will take advantage of that. Watch him yell “Uncle!” on the main bridge and grin like a demon as he sees 5 old sailors’ head snap around and give him a concerned look.

His dad may be an asshole but at the very least he got 20 new uncles-

People tend to recognoze him, because… uh. Well. When he was freshly banished he easily took offense when he was recognized as the banished prince of the firenation, even in the middle of bumfuck-nowhere…. as he grew older Zuko just came up with creative ways to change the topic.

“Nah, his scar’s on the other side.”

“Oh, no, I was just seeing a firenation-girl for a while and learned the hard way why you shouldn’t get them too excited in bed.”

“A scar? What scar- OH MY GOD UNCLE WHY CAN’T I SEE???”

When he eventually stumbles into team avatar, he *could* technically capture the avatar and bring him to the firelord to restore his honor and reclaim his throne… but he’d rather fuck with his old man for a bit.

Cue him inviting them onboard to play Pai sho with uncle. Zuko and Sokka going around, terrorizing the locals with Sokka’s terrible humor and Zuko’s scar. Toph and Zuko befriending each other, using the excuse “We only have one eye between the two of us.” whenever they end up in deadly situations together-

He sleeps in the rhino-pen. No real reason behind it, it just terrifies Lieutenant Jee and if anything brings Zuko joy, it’s terrorizing his crew by endangering himself in the most creative ways

can’t stop thinking about an iroh-and-zuko-never-leave-ba sing se au where zuko, having no other outlet for all his internalized perfectionism and single-minded drive to succeed at something, has no choice but to get really, really intense about the jasmine dragon.   and, perhaps inevitably, ends up mutating into the shouty, hypercritical, detail-oriented manager of every restaurant worker’s nightmares, who is a menace to iroh’s employees and potentially even more passionate about the right way to serve tea than even iroh himself.  

zuko runs the tea shop in the exact same way that he once ran a fire nation navy warship.  he WILL stand there and time you to make sure you’re brewing the oolong EXACTLY the right amount of time and won’t let you strain the chamomile a second too soon.  he insists that the tea blends are all stored according to his current pet organizational system and woe to the poor stock boy who mixes them up.  the store room is organized alphabetically one week and the next the teas are lined up from weakest to to strongest flavor and the week after THAT all the containers are shelved based on brewing time and zuko never bothers to tell the workers when the system is changed.  

the dishes MUST be cleaned according to his scrupulous standards of perfection and he stands over the dishwasher and points out every single smudge left unscrubbed.  zuko has posted a chart with detailed directions for exactly the right way to mop the floors and he WILL fire you for going off course.  the turnover rate at the jasmine dragon is incredible because zuko goes through tea servers faster than emily gilmore goes through maids.  

iroh has created a tea monster and he has NO idea how to stop him.  zuko has shattered a tea pot for no other reason than “it poured too loudly, uncle!!!”  no customer dares send their tea back even if they end up with the wrong order; they’ve all seen zuko take his dao swords out on a tea wholesaler who tried to cheat him.  when zuko says the jasmine dragon is going to be the best tea shop in ba sing se, it’s not a promise, it’s a THREAT.

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: “?!?!?!????!??!???!”

Somebody asks zuko why ty Lee and she says “because I was the prettiest.”

good morning camp camp nation (it’s almost 2pm)