Tips To Get Your Life Back On Track After A Breakdown™

i literally procrastinate talking to my friends like it hits me “oh shit i havent talked to that friend in a while” and im like “yeah ill have to do that later” and then i dont

This hc has been gnawing at my mind all night)) in the Fire Nation they propose with knives. we know that the NWT (and maybe SWT) propose w necklaces. I’m imagining Zuko giving Sokka this gorgeous knife but sokka doesn’t know it’s a proposal thing. So he’s like “thanks babe :)” and Zuko is just waiting for a yes or no. But sokka is oblivious. And so Zuko is like “he prolly just has to think abt it and talk to his fam”. Like a month passes and sokka mentions it to iroh and finds out the truth

Yes. Yes. YES!!!!

Okay, so

Zuko has been meticulously hand-carving the handle of this knife or weeks wanting to make sure it is absolutely perfect for when he proposes

and he’s so goddamn nervous and second guessing himself

like they might’ve been dating since the war ended but what if Sokka still thinks he’s moving too fast?

Or what if Sokka never actually intended for this to end in marriage?

(that’s crazy and Zuko knows it’s crazy but anxiety doesn’t have to make sense)

He’s so nervous he doesn’t even tell anyone his plans to propose because he’s so scared of failure and doesn’t want to deal with the ‘how’d it go?’ if the answer is ‘bad’

Zuko just decides it’s better if he kept this decision to himself until after he asks

Because then, if Sokka says ‘no’ well... Zuko won’t have to relive that every five minutes with everyone impatiently asking what happened

So he finally finishes the knife right before joining Sokka on a trip back to the South Pole

That’s where they met, after all (tho their meeting was definitely less than romantic lmao)

But it’s also where Zuko confessed his feelings for Sokka after the war

Where they had their first kiss

And where Sokka first said ‘I love you’ to Zuko

It only seems natural that he propose here, too

And it’s Sokka’s home

Like yeah, he might primarily live in the Fire Nation now but that doesn’t change anything

Their first day there is filled with catching up with Hakoda and Bato and Katara and Aang

So Zuko waits until the next day to give it to Sokka

It’s after dinner when everything calms down and the sun is setting that Zuko pulls Sokka outside over by the pier where he first confessed to him

And Zuko has this little speech that he’s planned out in his head which gets mangled together and bits and pieces thrown out until just the bare bones of it remain in a somewhat coherent form for him to say

Which essentially ends up being him rambling about how happy he’s been with Sokka and how much he loves him and recounting their first kiss that happened nearby several years ago

And he pulls out the knife and carefully presents it to Sokka while saying something hopelessly vague like

‘I wanted to give this to you. Please accept it.’ or ‘I hope you like this’ or even just nothing at all because this is Zuko we’re talking about lmao

And Sokka is like ‘wow - Did you make this?’

Zuko is just kinda like ‘yes?? it’s... tradition. Do you... like it?’

Sokka’s answer to that one is ‘it’s beautiful, Zuko’ and a kiss on the cheek

And Zuko is very confused because Sokka did not react at all like he expected

Like any of the worst or best case scenarios that Zuko’s run through in his mind (and there were a LOT of them) were so completely different

But Sokka didn’t really say ‘yes’ or ‘no’

(It doesn’t cross his mind that maybe Sokka doesn’t know what the knife was for)

But he doesn’t want to pressure Sokka for an answer because he knows that marriage is a big deal and all

He tries not to be hurt by the lack of an immediate answer, though because well maybe Sokka just wanted to talk things over with his family

and that’s fine, Zuko can wait

so he waits

and waits

....and waits

and his hopes are slowly dwindling but Sokka also hasn’t returned the knife or even... said anything about it.

He knows Sokka still has it, he’s seen it with him

Meanwhile, Sokka is trying to plan his own proposal and figuring out if he should make Zuko a betrothal necklace or maybe go with the Fire Nation tradition which...

he realizes he doesn’t actually know what that is

But he wants to find out and weigh his options or maybe he can combine the two traditions together somehow to make it really special

So he goes to talk to Iroh to 1. get his approval since he is essentially Zuko’s dad since Ozai is less than trash and 2. ask what the Fire Nation tradition is as far as marriage proposals go

So he takes a secret trip to Ba Sing Se and drops in just as Iroh’s closing up shop and they sit and drink tea

Iroh is THRILLED when Sokka tells him his plans to propose which takes a big weight off of Sokka’s shoulders already

...and then he asks what the Fire Nation tradition is

Iroh starts talking about it but Sokka doesn’t hear anything past ‘hand carved decorative knife’

bc ohFUCK

and Iroh like stops talking when he notices Sokka’s not listening anymore and is like ‘are you alright?’

And, shaking, Sokka pulls out the knife and holds it up and is like ‘would - is... does this look like a uh - a proposal knife, maybe?’

and Iroh looks at it and is like ‘Yes! That’s an excellent example. Where did you get that?’

And Sokka goes quiet and sheepishly is like ‘...Zuko gave it to me. Like. Three weeks ago.’

And Iroh’s just like deadpans ‘You are an excellent match for my nephew’

Sokka’s not sure if that’s supposed to be a compliment or not but, hey, the Uncle approves!

Now Sokka has to figure out how to un-fuck this situation, though

He travels back to the Fire Nation as quickly as possible and like sprints through the palace until he finds Zuko and like drops down in front of him, knife in hand and already rambling a million words per minute

About how he didn’t know Zuko was proposing marriage to him when he presented the knife

and essentially his whole journey realizing this including the parts where he was trying to figure out how to propose to Zuko

and ends it with ‘So YES, of course I want to marry you I just... didn’t know you were asking me to marry you when you gave me this bc i’m a dumbass’

Zuko is like shocked and has no idea what to do but also hella relieved bc omg he seriously thought Sokka was just trying to figure out how to turn him down this whole time and ahhh

and then Sokka is just like ‘so... so um... Is that offer still on the table? Are - Does this mean we’re engaged?’

and Zuko realizes he hasn’t said anything and breaks into a grin as he pulls Sokka into his arms to kiss him

only breaks the kiss to say something sappy or - actually, no, he’d be snarky af about it now that he knows it was a misunderstanding

prolly something like ‘No - I really want to see how you were planning on proposing, actually’ 

And like he’s teasing, of course, but Sokka still surprises him a week later with a betrothal necklace right before they make the official announcement of their engagement

(which there’s been a LOT of talk and rumors about with Sokka walking around with that damn knife not knowing what it was for lmao so no one’s really surprised in the slightest) 

Iroh’s speech at their wedding consists of him recounting the moment when Sokka realized that his now-husband had just proposed to him... three weeks later sitting in the Jasmine Dragon lmao

It’s a good day to be a lemur.

An idea I would be exploring further if I wasn’t doing two other comics already.

He has a gun

There’s a reason a sewing kit includes scissors, a wood shop has a saw, and a kitchen is full of knives. In order to build something, to create something on purpose, you have to be prepared to cut away what’s extra. A bolt of cloth does not a blanket make, a piece of wood a shelf, nor a loaf of bread a sandwich. When you snip off frayed bits of string, cut the wood into shape, or slice the end off a loaf of bread you are creating, with the act of removal, something closer to what you desire. 

Now let’s say you’re not sewing a blanket, you’re not building a shelf, not making a sandwich. Let’s say you’re crafting a life in which you are happy. You will end up removing things. You’ll leave partners, stop talking to family members, let go of friends. You’ll move apartments, lose jobs, change wardrobes. And you will feel their absence. You’ll look at the scraps of cloth, the odd angles of wood, the stale end of the loaf. But that cloth couldn’t keep you warm and that tiny corner of wood can’t store books. You wouldn’t be full from that little bit of bread or happy with that person. In the art of creating there is the act of removal and it is essential. 

when the system that makes you a hero is also the system that can jail its political opposition

idk if this has been noted yet, but a small detail I noticed in 297 is that the two Tartarus guards posed to shield the prison from all intruders sport eerly similar outfits to someone we know really well, who recently (in this same arc, in fact) had a full costume reveal:

notice the stripes. The logo placed at the center of the shoulder. The slanted “S” of the sleeves and gloves edges. And compare it to this:

The oddly symmetrical way his gloves burned seems to suggest that they were originally slanted in that same S shape as the guy above. The logo on the sleeve doesn’t look the same (different programs, perhaps?) but I’m willing to bet that those special security guards that were k’o’d pretty early on were indeed fellow Special Training Kiddos, or at the very least Gifted People on the HPSC’s payroll. Especially considering this:

the phrasing here has got to be deliberate. What better people to trust with “public safety and security” than the Hero Public Safety Commission? You thought they were just a harmless institution that handed out hero licenses and supervised agency and publicity or rankings related stuff? Well, think again! The guys in charge of choosing which people are lucky enough to use their quirks freely with no legal consequences are also the ones in charge of dumping everyone they don’t like,

regardless of crime, without even a trial,

in jail and throw away the key! Forever!

Welcome to my dystopia academia, where the HPSC has as much power as AFO once did, holding hero society by the balls without anyone! fucking! noticing anything! wrong!

cause at the end of the day, people are only worth human decency and compassion if they have powerful quirks!

Not because they are human beings or anything!

and it’s not like you have to avoid talking about human rights violations because it’s abhorrent to talk about people (some of which might just be purse snatchers, considering there’s no fucking ethics to how they all get dumped in Tartarus) like they’re objects without human dignity, but because you are being recorded! It would be too bad if you ended up in the same pigsty as the pigs you were just dunking on, right?

i spent $32 on this fucking bowl at the moma and at first i felt bad buying it bc it was so expensive but ive had a terrible day today and every time i look at my lil bowl im like :o) you know what. i can get through anything with this bowl by my side

Hawks'Moving Castle pt 1