𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓃

[vampireapologist]

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❝ 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝓁𝓊𝑒-𝓁𝒾𝒹𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝒹𝒶𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝒮𝓊𝓃𝓈𝑒𝓉;
𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝒶𝓀𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒾𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓋𝑜𝓁𝓊𝓅𝓉𝓊𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉-𝓈𝓀𝓎. ❞

𝐀 𝐑 𝐉 𝐀 𝐋 𝐈 𝐍 𝐄 𝐑 𝐊 • 𝐓 𝐙 𝐄 𝐍 𝐆

• So there is the entwined history of Arjalinerk { "Arja" or "Nerk" } Tzeng and her not-actually-related older sister, Elisapie { "Lis" }.
• Parents of Lis are both from conservative families. Emuni, mother, was from a family of fire benders who stayed in the colonies even after they became the republic of nations. Toklo, father, was from a southern water tribe family that had emigrated for work. She got pregnant at 16. Yikes!! Pressured to marry one another. Very tumultuous relationship. Almost gave the baby up for adoption to a couple who was, at the time, Emuni's boss. However, ended up lowkey being pressured to keep the baby as well. Tried to make it work for years. { Divorce was not approved of at all by their families. } Financially, emotionally, etc . . . just a mess. Emuni ended up taking her own life. Toklo tried to raise the child, but Lis' grandparents were fighting over who would take better care of her. He secretly went to Emuni's old boss and begged her and her husband to adopt Elisapie.
• And thus we meet Dazu and Osoro. They had been trying to have their own child for as long as they had been married, to no avail. Almost adopting Elisapie as a baby was as close as they thought they would get. Though it was a surprise to take her in when she was seven, it was also a blessing. Everyone was quite shocked when, a year later, Osoro became pregnant. It seemed like a miracle. { And, you know, it was, since the Earth Avatar was absolutely not supposed to die so young. }
• They were worried that Elisapie would hate her younger sibling, but that couldn't be more wrong. In fact, if there was anything in this world she loved, it was her sister. Osoro and Dazu decided to also give their daughter a water tribe name, to match Elisapie. From the moment Arjalinerk was born, the two girls were inseparable.
• Lis was haunted by a lot of what she had seen and endured in her first seven years of life. Very rebellious teenager, always lashing out, getting into trouble, etc., but shielded it from Arja. Secretly jealous of the easy life her little sister always had. Lis built a wall between them the older they got, kinda of like an Elsa / Anna thing even though they both have cool powers and lowkey Arja is the more powerful one lol. Anyway!
• Arja has a normal-ish childhood. Is upset by her sister pulling away from her and also never knows the full truth of just how wild and dark some of her antics were
• Also, sidenote, Arja has almost always used airbending to aid in her firebending, since breath / emotions is such a huge part of it. She just has never noticed because she's never used airbending without firebending. Or, if she has, she has been able to justify it to herself that, duh, that was definitely just firebending or her head messing with her because she's sleepy.
• Lis ends up being like that super sexy bounty hunter lady and is gone all the time.
• This kills Arja, who can also see the toll it takes on their parents. Which, btw, oops . . . no one has ever explained the fact that Lis was adopted to her because her parents never wanted Lis to feel less like a member of their family. And somehow "telling Arja later" kept slipping through the cracks. Yikes!
• My last Arja was hella into painting, and idk if this one will be too. I do kind of like the idea of it, but I'm not sold yet. However, yeah, maybe she tries to channel all of her emotions into painting because (1) she's not trying to get into the drugs and partying scene like her sister but (2) she has a lot going on inside that she doesn't understand.
• Had an imaginary friend when she was younger who is, surprise!!! Still haunting her dreams a lot. Lately this little girl or boy { idk yet } has even been making appearances when she's awake. That's not fucking good. But it do be that wee little earth avatar that came before her.
• At some point, Lis just straight up disappears. A lot of people dismiss it as her being on a mission or a case or whatever, but!!! She left behind her shirshu!!!! So no way!!! says Arja.
• Ever since { and it's probably been a few years }, Arja has wanted to go after her sister and find her. Could very well be an issue of money / resources / her being absolutely useless with life skills. So maybe she didn't think she would do that many interesting things with her life and she was somewhat content with, like idk, taking over her parents business or something. The part of me that loves Uncle Iroh wants it to be a tea shop. Another part of me is thinking of choosing something else. Whatever, that's less important. But when Lis went missing, Arja's whole mindset changed. That's probably around the time she would've started doing bending matches. Not pro-bending, but like the underground one-on-one illegal things. You know, learning how to kick ass { yikes, getting your own kicked } while also making some money. Then she would progress into pro-bending from there. Rather than be in it for the glory or whatever, she just wants to either (1) get famous enough that Lis hears Arja lowkey begging for her to come back, (2) she has enough money to hire someone to find her, (3) she can kick ass enough to go search for her herself.
• Depending on where your guy's characters are from, we have soooooo many options!!!!
  • Like they all three meet at the same time and become a reluctant team
  • Someone is childhood friends with Arja / you guys are childhood friends
    • Or just childhood acquaintances or enemies or you know lol
  • Meeting in that illegal underground fighting world
  • Meeting while one or both of them were on vacation one time and staying in touch, idk
  • One of them was on another team that kinda fell apart, and then there was an opening on the hellhounds as well so they used to be bitter rivals but now they're all realizing it might be in their best interests to team up
  • Jess if you pick the street rat route I could totally see Arja trying to take her in like a lost puppy lmfao
  • Yeah, idk, really anything regarding how they all met and started being pro-benders works for me!
• Oh yeah btw the shirshu was Lis' bounty hunting pet that she left behind. It is, however, Arja's avatar animal guide. She clearly doesn't know this and thinks the two are just incredibly close because they loved and miss Lis. But you know. They be spiritually bonded and shit. Hypothetically, unnamed shirshu should be able to catch the scent of Lis and follow it. Despite trying many times, this hasn't work. Probably for a spooky magical reason. Plus, as it has now been years, any trail is probably cold / useless. Arja def still uses those magical tracking abilities in other ways though.

𝐓 𝐇 𝐄 • 𝐒 𝐀 𝐆 𝐀